Commentary: Regional countries must guard against U.S. ploy to destabilize Asia-Pacific

Xinhua) 11:04, April 13, 2024

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Though hyped as a forum for fostering "peace and security" in the Asia-Pacific region, the just concluded U.S.-Japan-Philippines summit on Thursday actually served as a sharp reminder of Washington's divisive policy of inciting conflict and strife in Asia.

The trilateral summit, the first of its kind, followed a four-way military drill with Australia in the South China Sea. During the summit on Thursday, the three countries also announced joint patrols later this year near the South China Sea.

Washington has a long history of leveraging its military and economic power to sway the policies and decisions of its allies, including the Philippines.

Since Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. took office as president of the Philippines, Manila, incited by Washington, has adopted an increasingly confrontational stance against China.

Imee Marcos, Marcos' sister and chair of the Philippine Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, recently warned against the government's latest measures to counter China in the South China Sea, saying that such actions are leading the country down a "dangerous path."

Amid flaring tensions in the South China Sea, the White House on Thursday escalated its provocative stance by claiming its "ironclad" defense commitment to the Philippines.

By asserting that "any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels, or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defense treaty," Washington not only tries to legitimize the Philippines' confrontational approach but also emboldens further provocations by Manila.

Such reckless endorsements only encourage countries like the Philippines to take even more dangerous actions when what is actually needed is diplomacy.

The United States, by forming exclusive cliques with its allies in the region, is also sabotaging the efforts and commitment of China and ASEAN to properly manage and resolve disputes through dialogue and consultation between the states directly involved.

Washington has a long track record of disruptive meddling. Following its blood-soaked interventions in the Middle East, it has been pivoting to Asia.

This pivot is motivated by Washington's relentless pursuit of domination in the Asia-Pacific, the world's most economically dynamic region, and its strategic choice to contain China, which it views as a long-term strategic competitor and "most consequential geopolitical challenge."

For that hegemonic end, Washington has been seeking to sideline established political, economic, and security cooperation mechanisms in the Asia-Pacific. It has effectively undermined the ASEAN-centered regional cooperation framework, a meticulously crafted and time-honored structure developed over past decades.

And in recent years, Washington has been tirelessly spinning a regional security and military web against China. It has reinforced the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance, strengthened the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, commonly known as the Quad, and bolstered the AUKUS nuclear partnership by trying to strengthen cooperation with Japan.

The overarching goal is clear: By fomenting bloc confrontation and cultivating an atmosphere of insecurity in the Asia-Pacific, Washington aims to consolidate its hegemonic position in the Asia-Pacific, dictating the security agenda and exerting control over its allies and partners.

Many countries in the region have refused to be coerced into taking sides, knowing that such moves risk increasing tensions in the region, undermining the notion of "indivisible security" and fuelling mistrust. Malaysia, Singapore, and other regional states have expressed similar views.

China, a member of the Asia-Pacific family, has always advocated for the building of open, non-exclusive circles of friends with an inclusive mind, while rejecting exclusive small blocs. China and the majority of ASEAN countries have also been committed to properly managing their differences and disputes through peaceful means.

Beijing's aspiration and endeavors have won the hearts of people in the Asia Pacific. According to a recent report titled "The State of Southeast Asia 2024" by the Yusof Ishak Institute, a Singapore-based think tank, more than half of people in Southeast Asia favor China over the United States.

Moreover, the survey showed that over 60 percent of the Southeast Asian population endorses the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, indicating the resonance of the Chinese vision.

Though facing strong headwinds, the Asia-Pacific remains the world's most dynamic engine for economic growth. Its remarkable development over recent decades has been fueled by the principles of openness, cooperation, and inclusiveness.

Washington's attempts to undermine this progress by imposing a beggar-thy-neighbor policy and inciting bloc confrontation pose a serious threat to the region's cooperative framework. Countries in the region must remain vigilant against following the United States' destructive agenda.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
California issued a mandatory recall for two products from former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson's cannabis company after mold was detected.

The Department of Cannabis Control sent out the alert on Tuesday for two batches of Tyson Undisputed Cannabis Flower products sold under the name "Toad" and "Tadpoles," SFGate and other media reported.

They were sold in 20 locations in California, including San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and packaged in August 2023.

The pot contained Aspergillus, a fungal mold that can cause allergic reactions and lung infections, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The cannabis regulatory agency urged consumers to dispose of the product or return it to the retailer.

For people experiencing symptoms or reactions, the agency recommended contacting a physician.

The batch number is HT-9668-1.

Tyson has credited his marijuana use over the past decade for helping him overcome an addiction to cocaine.

He launched his Tyson 2.0 cannabis brand in 2021 and has expanded it across the U.S. and 16 other countries, the company's website says.

"In every endeavor, the brand undertakes Mike Tyson's legendary mindset of being the greatest of all time," it says on the site.


A Washington state elementary school teacher was found brutally murdered inside her home, and police say her husband's body is likely to turn up next.



Caitlin Follstad, 41, was found Tuesday afternoon inside her home with multiple stab wounds, according to the Anacortes Police Department, adding that her father-in-law, who was not named, made the 911 call.



The father in law also told authorities that his son and Caitlin's husband, also 41, was suicidal and driving towards the Deception Pass Bridge.



Washington State Troopers located the husband's car at the center of that bridge later that day, according to police. APD named the husband as a person of interest in the case Tuesday evening.



Earlier that day, police had responded to a call for a body in the water in the vicinity of the bridge, and while no body has yet to be discovered, police believe that the husband, identified as Kevin Follstad by Law & Crime, committed suicide on that bridge.

"Based on the circumstances surrounding the case, what has happened, where the vehicle was discovered, and the unknown nature of his whereabouts, we do believe that's what happened," Brent Lindquist with the APD told KOMO.



Caitlin Follstad taught fifth grade in Anacortes School District, which said that Caitlin Follstad was beloved and will be missed.

"It is with heavy hearts that we announce the tragic loss of Caitlin Follstad, a cherished member of the Island View Elementary community," the district said. "Her passion for education led her to Island View Elementary, where she served as a teacher, mentor, and friend. The Anacortes School District extends its sympathies to Caitlin's family, friends, students, and colleagues during this difficult time."

"The Anacortes School District extends its sympathies to Caitlin's family, friends, students, and colleagues during this difficult time," the school district continued.
A large crowd gathered at the Twin Trees Hotel in Ballina, Co Mayo this evening for a public assembly over the announcement that 120 International Protection Applicants are to be accommodated at the hotel.

According to the Western People, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has agreed to use 33 of the hotels bedrooms to accommodate 120 asylum seekers.

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The assembly heard from local residents and townspeople who shared their concerns about the Department's decision and its potential impact on Ballina.

A number of speakers spoke of their concern over the makeup of the asylum seekers that are to be moved into the hotel and the number of asylum seekers already situated in the Ballina area.

"We want to know who is coming in and we want to know if we are going to be safe," said Bernie O'Donnell, one speaker.

"We're here to let you know we're not going to accept any refugees at the Twin Trees. We all have to stand together and not accept this," said Declan Howley.

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"This is about people power, its the only way to do it. Concerned people of Ballina, let's join up once and for all and say we're not accepting this," said Marie Graham.

Fine Gael local election candidate Hugh Rouse said the people of Ballina need to come together and stop this from happening.

"We're all neighbours, we're all from the town. We need to go though the right channels and not let this get out of control and do it peacefully for the people of Ballina," he said.

Fianna Fail TD Minister Dara Calleary, who was among the speakers, told the crowd he is planning to engage further with the Department and Minister Roderic O'Gorman in relation to this.

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Fianna Fail councillor Annie May Reape told the assembly that Ballina is "over capacity."

"I think we've had enough, enough is enough for Ballina. We certainly gave over capacity and we do not have the facilities. We don't have the infrastructure, we don't have the medical centres or the schools," she said.

Fine Gael Cllr John O'Hara said there was no consultation with him or other elected members about this.

"We're here tonight to back you all up and pass on your message. Ballina has taken its fair share already," he said.

Independent Cllr Mark Duffy said councillors were only informed of this yesterday.

"The first official communication we got on this was yesterday afternoon."

"I find it difficult that we can't look after our people in difficult situations related to housing and we can accommodate people from far away."
Tanaiste Micheal Martin has appealed to Iran to step back from an escalation, after it pledged to retaliate against Israel over the attack on its consulate in Damascus.

The Fianna Fail leader said there have been very worrying developments between Iran and Israel in recent days.

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Iran has vowed to retaliate after two of its top generals were killed in an air strike on its consulate in Syria earlier this month, which the US military believes was carried out by Israel.

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Mr Martin used his keynote address to Fianna Fails Ard Fheis on Saturday to appeal for calm.

Speaking in Dublin on Saturday, he said: This weekend there are very worrying developments in tensions between Iran and Israel.

We join with others in appealing to Iran to step back from an escalation which threatens millions more people in the region with conflict.

And events internationally remind us again of the urgency of working for lasting peace and reconciliation on this island.

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Turning to events in Gaza, he said that tireless work has been carried out over the past six months to try to bring an end to the war.

Let there be no doubt, the brutal savagery of Hamas on October 7th should be condemned by anyone with basic decency. Nothing could ever justify their objectives and actions, Mr Martin added.

Wonderful to see so many Fianna Fail members and friends gathered at the 82u Ard Fheis.



This is an opportunity to reflect on our achievements in Government and look forward to the future. #FFArdFheis24 pic.twitter.com/azoWjqmICV Advertisement  Micheal Martin (@MichealMartinTD) April 13, 2024

They should release all hostages and stop their activities, which have brought great misery to the Palestinian people.

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But as I have said repeatedly, including in direct discussions with the Israeli government, its war in Gaza is causing a shocking humanitarian catastrophe and cannot be justified.

The evidence shows that war crimes have been committed and the bombardment of the population must be utterly condemned.

He called for a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages and mass humanitarian relief.

The only possible route to peace is for a stable, democratic state for the Palestinian people, Mr Martin added.

I will soon bring to Government a formal proposal, in coordination with other governments we have worked with throughout this conflict to recognise a Palestinian state.

Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern with Micheal Martin as he arrives at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis (Damien Storan/PA)

He also pledged to clamp down on social media companies who fail to comply with safety regulations.

Mr Martin said that every school in Ireland will receive funding to support the banning of smartphones during school time.

Wherever I go in the country, I meet parents who are worried about what is becoming the new public health crisis of our time  the impact on children of social media and being constantly online, he added.

And to the social media companies our message is clear. Take concrete steps to get underage children off your apps, or we will impose those steps on you.

Online safety  getting children off their screens and back talking to each other  these are objectives we should all share.

He said there is also a need to tackle the rising cost of living, which he said is being experienced by every family.

Now and always, Fianna Fail is at its best when it takes on the hardest work.



When it puts serving the people ahead of politics.



When it is willing to take hard decisions today in order to deliver sustained progress for Ireland.



There is much more to be done. #FFArdFheis24 pic.twitter.com/eG87w6iKmT  Micheal Martin (@MichealMartinTD) April 12, 2024

The Fianna Fail leader said the States largest reserve funds will guarantee investments.

Called the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, they will mean that the needs of our citizens are provided for, today and well into the future, he added.

He said the Infrastructure Fund will see that new school buildings, new hospital facilities, roads and public transport will have secured funding.

Mr Martin also used the speech to address climate issues, saying the extreme weather changes are the direct impact of climate change.

No community is being hit harder by climate change than our farmers and the wider agri-food industry, he said.

They are not only our largest indigenous industry, they are also custodians of our nature and our food security.

Micheal Martin at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre (Brian Lawless/PA)

We need our farming community. We need sustainable food production.

Fianna Fail understands that reconciling both food security and action on climate change is a defining challenge of our time  and we have to support farmers in this.

We are putting in place urgent assistance, but more importantly, we will deliver longer-term support.

New technologies, direct aid to farmers and real partnership for change  this is Fianna Fails commitment to secure the future for Irish farming and food production.

He also said that childcare fees will be reduced by 50 per cent from September, pledging to increase funding to create affordable childcare places nationwide.

And when it comes to changes in personal taxes, the priority must be families on low and average incomes who are feeling the most pressure from rising prices, he added.

Thats what weve done this year, and this is our priority for future budgets.

Every cost adds up, and thats why we are also cutting charges for many public services.

Free schoolbooks have been introduced up to the Junior Certificate and will be expanded to all remaining years  permanently lifting a major cost from parents.

On housing, Mr Martin said the Government is reforming planning laws to stop delays to housing projects.

He added: In the last four years more houses have been built than in the previous nine years combined. There is more to be done, but that is real momentum.

Last year alone saw the delivery of 12,000 social homes, and we will go much further. Thousands more are already in the pipeline.

He said the Government will also increase and expand the 750 tax credit for renters.

At a time of real crisis for renters, an unacceptable number of homes have been diverted to short-term letting and lie idle through much of the year, he added.

This year we are going to take much stronger action to return homes to the rental market, and well fund a major expansion in dedicated student housing.
Belgian prosecutors are looking into possible Russian interference in the upcoming European Parliament election following findings provided by intelligence services, the country's prime minister Alexander De Croo has said.

He said investigators found that Russian groups are meddling in the European election to push forward pro-Russia candidates and thus weaken European support for Ukraine against Russia's two-year-old invasion.

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"The objective is to help elect more pro-Russian candidates to the European Parliament and reinforce a certain pro-Russian narrative in that institution," De Croo told reporters.

"Weakened European support for Ukraine serves Russia on the battlefield," he said.

De Croo said the Belgian investigation was launched after Czech authorities found pro-Russian agents active in Brussels seeking to influence, and even pay, European lawmakers to promote a pro-Russian agenda.

It appeared that cash payments were not made in Belgium though interference had occurred there, he said.

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Western nations have repeatedly accused Russian operatives of using social media and the internet to spread false or misleading information to undermine them, promote Russia, or attempt to sway public opinion in election campaigns.

Russian authorities have repeatedly denied the accusations.

Ahead of the European elections in June, parties that have criticised EU support for Ukraine, such as France's far-right Rassemblement National, Austria's Freedom Party and Germany's AfD, are set to gain more votes than five years ago.

De Croo has said he had asked for an urgent meeting of the European Union's Agency for Criminal and Justice Cooperation (EuroJust) to discuss this matter, and suggested that OLAF, the EU anti-fraud office, should prosecute the case.

"We have a responsibility and our responsibility is to uphold that every citizen's right to a free and safe vote can be maintained," he said.

-Reuters
A Texas lorry driver has rammed a stolen truck into a building after his request to renew his commercial drivers licence was rejected, killing one person and injuring 13 others.

The driver identified as Clenard Parker, 42, was pulled out of the truck by authorities after smashing into the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) office in the rural town of Brenham, outside Houston.

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Its unfortunate that we are here gathered for a really senseless tragedy, Brenham Mayor Atwood Kenjura said.

After crashing into the building the first time, he had backed up with the intention of doing it again before he was detained, Mr Kenjura said.

This deliberate, heinous act is a reminder of the dangerous work done by our law enforcement and licensing agencies that work to provide public safety and services, Republican state senator Lois Kolkhorst said.



Police are investigating the incident in Brenham (Meredith Seaver /College Station Eagle via AP)

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Of those injured, two people were flown to CHI St Josephs Hospital in Bryan, one was flown to Memorial Hermann in Houston and three people were taken to Baylor Scott and White in Brenham but have since been released.

Eight people were treated on the scene. Ms Kolkhorst said in the statement that no DPS staff suffered serious injuries and one staff member was trapped for a period of time in the building.

Texas DPS officials said in a social media post on X that the crash happened at the agencys office in Brenham, about 75 miles west of Houston and requested people avoid the area to clear the way for responding medical personnel.

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One person was killed and 13 injured (Meredith Seaver /College Station Eagle via AP)

The Texas Rangers are investigating the incident and there is no further threat, DPS officials said.

Images from the scene showed a large, red lorry hauling material on a flatbed in the car park of the building.

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The front end of the 18-wheeler was damaged and covered with debris from the front doors of the office. Debris was also scattered near a gaping hole in the entrance.

The Texas DPS is a sprawling agency and one of the largest state law enforcement operations in the country.

It includes troopers who are a central part of a massive border security operation on the US-Mexico border as well as the Texas Rangers, the states top criminal investigators but the department also has offices across the state that issue drivers licences.
The remains of a baby in the UK have been found at a house by police.

Greater Manchester Police said five people, aged between 20 and 70, had been arrested and bailed on suspicion of concealing a death and unlawful burial.

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The remains were discovered overnight on Friday into Saturday in the Marsh Green area of Wigan.

It is understood that some of those arrested have special needs and all are known to the child.

It is thought police responded after being contacted by social services.

Chief Superintendent Clare Jenkins from our Wigan district said: This is a truly heart-breaking discovery, and I do not underestimate the impact that this news will have on the local community.

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I would like to reassure you that we have several teams of officers and specialist resources working diligently to find answers.

You will likely notice an increased presence of our officers throughout the next week, if you have any concerns or want to share any confidential information, please do not hesitate to speak to them.

In the coming days we will know more about the circumstances surrounding this incident, but we are confident that this is isolated, and there is no threat to the wider public.

At this stage we are keeping an open mind, and we will provide updates as soon as we can.

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No-one else is being sought in connection with the death.
Seeking to woo business from San Francisco travelers, Oakland is adding "San Francisico" to the name of its airport  which is bound to get a rise out of its sister city.

Oakland's facility will be called San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport following unanimous approval Thursday by Port of Oakland commissioners. The airport's three-letter aviation code, OAK, will remain the same. But that's not satisfying San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu vowed early this week that he would sue to block the Oakland airport name change.

He argued in a letter to the Board of Port Commissioners that it would infringe on the trademark of San Francisco International Airport and confuse travelers  especially those traveling from abroad.

Mayor London Breed also criticized Oakland's move, saying the city should try to improve its airport instead of lifting San Francisco's name.

Though the change could be confusing for travelers from other countries, many San Franciscans sometimes use the Oakland airport because it may offer cheaper or more convenient schedules, based on travel plans

"This is to boost Oakland," Danny Wan, executive director of the port of Oakland, said at Thursday's meeting, reported the San Francisco Standard. "This is to bring more business to Oakland."

The name change must go through a second reading before the commissioners before it's officially implemented, which is expected to happen.
Updated: 5pm

An attacker who fatally knifed six people in a Sydney mall was shot dead by police in the beachside suburb of Bondi on Saturday, police said, as hundreds fled the scene.

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The assailant was shot by a police officer after he attacked shoppers in the busy Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre, a police statement said.

Five of the six victims killed were women, while eight people, including a nine-month-old baby, were taken to hospital with stab wounds, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb told a press conference.

Police at this stage do not believe the attack was terrorism-related, Webb said.

An Irish man who is living and working Bondi told Newstalk he was inside the shopping centre when the attack happened.

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Niall Naughton, from Boston-Tubber in Co Clare, said: "I went downstairs after getting my haircut just before everything happened.

"I went into Zara, and I was in the dressing room when I heard what sounded like a herd of cattle.

"They were screaming, stabbing or shooting, we need to leave. I heard one woman saying 'terrorist, terrorist, terrorist'."

He said Zara staff took them downstairs to a basement and barricaded the door.

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He added that all that was running through his mind was if he was going to die and who was the first person he should contact.

I have been briefed by the AFP on the devastating events at Bondi Junction.



Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones.  Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) April 13, 2024

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Australiam prime minister Anthony Albanese said there was no indication yet of the man's motive.

"This was a horrific act of violence, indiscriminately targeting innocent people going about an ordinary Saturday doing their shopping," he told a press conference.

"Tonight the first thoughts of all Australians are with the victims of these terrible acts."

Australia, a country of about 26 million people, has some of the world's toughest gun and knife laws, and attacks such as the one on Saturday are rare.

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Emergency services were called to the mall, about three kilometres (1.9 miles) from Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach and popular with children and families, just before 4pm (7am Irish time) after the stabbing reports, police said.

Ayush Singh, 25, was working in a cafe in the mall when he saw the attack and then heard gunshots as police responded.

"I saw the guy with the knife running and chasing people. As he walked just past beside me I heard two or three gunshots and the guy was neutralised," he told Reuters.

"People around me were terrified. There were some old ladies I helped to get them inside a safe place inside the cafe."

Two other witnesses told Reuters they heard shots.

He was on the rampage

"Even 20 minutes after people were rushed out of the mall, I saw SWAT teams of people sweeping the surrounding streets," one witness said.

The other witness said they saw a woman lying on the ground and took shelter in a jewellery store.

An eyewitness described the police officer shooting the attacker to state broadcaster ABC.

"If she did not shoot him, he would have kept going, he was on the rampage," said the man, who did not give his name. "She went over and was giving him CPR. He had a nice big blade on him. He looked like he was on a killing spree."

Other witnesses said the man was wearing shorts and an Australian national rugby league jersey, and looked confused and appeared to attack randomly.

"He was not looking for anyone personally," one witness said on TV. "He was just running around with his knife."

Several posts on social media showed crowds fleeing the mall and police cars and emergency services rushing to the area.

One video showed a man confronting the attacker with a bollard from the top of an escalator. Others showed people trying to move the injured to safety and help others hide in shops.

I am horrified by the attack in Sydney on innocent people, including children. I will reach out to PM @AlboMP personally but for now the thoughts and prayers of everyone in Ireland are with our Australian friends  Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) April 13, 2024

"I just saw the footage of the guy with the bollard, I reckon hes the real hero here, Bondi Rescue lifeguard Andy Reid, who was also shopping at the mall, told the Sydney Morning Herald. Reid also attended to a woman who was bleeding on the fourth floor.

The mall will remain closed on Sunday while an investigation continues, police said.

Both Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tanaiste Micheal Martin have expressed their shock upon learning of the attack.

Mr Harris said "the thoughts and prayers of everyone in Ireland are with our Australian friends", while Mr Martin said the incident underlines the threat posed across the globe by such unprovoked acts.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it is ready to provide consular assistance if required.

-Reuters
Authorities in the Russian city of Orenburg have ordered a mass evacuation after water levels in the Ural river rose further, threatening the area with more flooding.

Orenburg mayor Sergei Salmin called on residents to urgently evacuate as sirens rang out in the city near the border with Kazakhstan.

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This is not a drill, Mr Salmin wrote. The flood situation in Orenburg is extremely dangerous. Over the past 10 hours, the water level in the Ural (River) has risen by 40cm and is now at 11.43 (metres). These values are dangerous.



Two men ride a boat delivering food in a flooded area in Orenburg, Russia (AP)

Images from the city showed entire districts submerged by water.

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The deluge hit the region, located 745 miles south east of the capital, Moscow, after a dam on the Ural River burst last week in the city of Orsk under the pressure of surging waters.

The authorities have designated the situation in the region as an emergency of federal importance.

Over 11,700 houses remained flooded in the region on Friday, a decrease from nearly 12,000 reported the day before, as water levels fell slightly in Orsk, state news agency Tass reported.



A woman carries her cat while getting off a boat in a flooded part of Orenburg(AP)

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Some 10,700 people have already been evacuated from flooded areas, according to Tass.

The Ural River, runs about 1,509 miles from the southern section of the Ural Mountains, through Russia and Kazakhstan, before flowing into the north end of the Caspian Sea.
Saturday's front pages focus on a range of stories from Simon Harris focusing on a number of core issues as Taoiseach to Ireland and Spain recognising Palestine as a state this summer.

The Irish Times reports news Taoiseach Simon Harris has moved to scrap some potential political liabilities as he finalises the agenda for his first weeks in office, with new childcare supports and initiatives for farming and business to come.

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The Irish Examiner reports that Ireland is set to recognise the Palestinian state this summer, with Taoiseach Simon Harris saying that the point at which it can be done is "coming much closer".

The Echo lead on a piece about gardai saying mandatory road policing could lead to longer response times.

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The Irish Independent on Saturday pic.twitter.com/DnZBMo0d9l  Irish Independent (@Independent_ie) April 13, 2024

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Morning, readers. Here's a look at today's front page of the Belfast Telegraph.



Stay with us for all your breaking news today. https://t.co/DIMewPjFtEhttps://t.co/DIMewPjFtE pic.twitter.com/uPSCkS2nrq  Belfast Telegraph (@BelTel) April 13, 2024

In the UK, a police investigation into Labours deputy leader Angela Rayner features among a variety of stories in Saturdays newspapers.

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The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mirror say Ms Rayner will step down as deputy leader if she is found to have committed a criminal offence.

The front page of tomorrow's Daily Telegraph:



Rayner: I will quit if guilty over house row#TomorrowsPapersToday



Sign up for the Front Page newsletterhttps://t.co/x8AV4Oomry pic.twitter.com/jPNiWqKG74  The Telegraph (@Telegraph) April 12, 2024 Advertisement

The Times reports that there is pressure on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer as police look into his deputys tax affairs.

THE TIMES: Pressure on Starmer as police look into deputy #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/z1rHIl1DOv  Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) April 12, 2024

The Daily Express leads with an article from Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who said he will cut taxes and bet on growth.

Front Page - Hunt: We've done the hard yards ... Now I will cut taxes and bet on growth @Jeremy_Hunt#TomorrowsPapersToday https://t.co/YiFDQjxD9z pic.twitter.com/jGa0D6oZMd  Daily Express (@Daily_Express) April 12, 2024

The Independent splashes with words from the boss of the NHS, who has hit out at the unacceptable levels of abuse that doctors and nurses face.

British intelligence officers are being targeted in blackmail attempts by Chinese spies, the i weekend reports.

Weekend front page: UK intelligence officials targeted in honeytrap sex plots by Chinese spies #TomorrowsPapersToday



Latest by: @Richard_AHolmes https://t.co/krwDq1Ly9V pic.twitter.com/ajdQgI5KSV  i newspaper (@theipaper) April 12, 2024

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been urged to end the cruel prosecution of carers, according to the The Guardian.

THE GUARDIAN: End cruel prosecution of carers, Sunak urged #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/12YV6KuQov  Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) April 12, 2024

The FT Weekend relays words from a former US Federal Reserve chairman who said the Bank of Englands forecasting model needs to change due to significant shortcomings.

Just published: front page of the Financial Times, UK edition, Saturday 13 April https://t.co/K5uE1hYGnj pic.twitter.com/rPMCTSdQKY  Financial Times (@FT) April 12, 2024

The Sun says a gang of squatters have taken up home in Gordon Ramseys 13 million pub near Regents Park in London.

On tomorrow's front page: Gordon Ramsays 13m pub taken over by squatters with brazen gang even threatening to take legal action against TV chefhttps://t.co/esisyDpr8B pic.twitter.com/EQozVJRX7C  The Sun (@TheSun) April 12, 2024

And the Daily Star focuses on naturalist Chris Packham who said Britain needs to learn to love Asian hornets.
Waverley Council has provided Bondi locals with a community update, including details for the retrieval of the cars of shoppers who fled on foot during the attacks.

The council confirmed that Westfield Bondi Junction would remain closed until further notice, with the area surrounding the shopping centre still barricaded.

The bus stops between the Westfield towers also remain closed.

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As for vehicle collection, those who left their cars in the centres underground parking were told to come to the corner of Grosvenor and Grafton Street, where they would find information and staff who would help them retrieve their cars.

Bondi Beach lifesaver Andy Reid was one such shopper whose car was stuck inside the Westfield.

After risking his life to provide first aid to multiple victims, Reid left the site on foot and covered in blood.

I walked down Bondi Road because obviously I couldnt get my car out of there, Reid told the Herald.
What happened in Bondi Junction?

A man murdered at least six people by stabbing them with a knife inside Bondi Junction Westfield on Saturday afternoon. Numerous others have been taken to hospital with critical injuries. The attacker was shot dead by police at the scene.

An image circulated on social media showed the police inspector attending to the attacker after shooting him.

How did it start?

Police say CCTV footage shows the attacker first walked into Bondi Junction Westfield at 3.10pm, and left shortly after. He returned about 3.20pm.

He then engaged with nine people as he moved through the shopping centre, police said.
Queensland man Joel Cauchi has been named as the killer who went on a stabbing spree at Bondi Junction Westfield, slaughtering six people and injuring at least a dozen more before police shot him dead.

The 40-year-old fatally stabbed five women and one man as he rampaged through the busy shopping centre brandishing a large knife in Sydneys east on Saturday.

Bondi Junction killer Joel Cauchi. Credit: Facebook

The dead include Dawn Singleton, 25, who is the daughter of prominent Australian businessman John Singleton, Bellevue Hill architect and mother-of-two Jade Young, 47, and 38-year-old Ashlee Good, whose baby daughter was also stabbed.

The man who was killed was Pakistani security guard Faraz Tahir, 30, who moved to Australia a year ago. Saturday was his first day shift at Bondi Junction Westfield.
Let me assure you that we are confident there is no ongoing risk, and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased. Webb said the man was known to law enforcement. The man killed five women and one man, while eight other people are being treated in hospitals across Sydney for a range of injuries. It could have been so much worse, Webb said. Acting NSW Premier Penny Sharpe said medical staff were working around the clock to try to save the lives of the eight people injured in the stabbing spree. She said a crisis cabinet meeting had received briefings from the police and NSW Health.

We hold in our hearts, the families and the friends and those who have lost loved ones with those who are waiting to hear for those that have been injured, and we stand by all the medical staff who are fighting to save their lives, she said. The horror unfolded on the first day of the school holidays. Police say CCTV footage shows the attacker first walked into Bondi Junction Westfield at 3.10pm, and left shortly after. He then returned at about 3.20pm. Word began to spread among shoppers that a man was stabbing people with a weapon that onlookers described as a 30-centimetre-long hunting knife. Panic spread; people locked themselves in store rooms, hid in change rooms  some for hours  or fled to exits. Shop windows clapped down, emergency warnings blared across the centre and people were screaming. Witnesses said the man, wearing an Australian national rugby league jersey, was scattered, chaotic and appeared to attack randomly. He wasnt looking for anyone personally, one witness told Nine News. He was just running around with his knife.

Video taken by a shopper showed a man confronting the attacker with a bollard from the top of an escalator. He was hailed as a hero by onlookers. The video did not show how the confrontation ended. Loading Two victims were stabbed in Myer; fellow shoppers grabbed clothes to stem the bleeding. There were two bodies and just a huge pool of blood, said one witness, who did not want to be named. Another witness, Bill, saw two stab victims near the Chanel store on level four. You could see the blood trail, he said. Shoppers rushed to help a screaming mother, who was attacked alongside her baby.

The first-time mum who was bleeding heavily handed her injured baby to strangers, begging them to help. They tried to stem the bleeding. Just holding the baby, trying to compress the baby, and the same with a mother, one told Nine News. Theres a lot of blood on the floor. Hope the babys all right. Huma Hussainy and Mohamad Naveed were shopping in lululemon when they heard screaming and saw the attacker. He was walking confidently and cool, Hussainy said, and was swiping at people indiscriminately. The couple saw two girls lying in a large pool of blood outside Cotton On about two metres apart. One looked to be about 17 years old, they said. Geoff Young arrived at the centre at 3.30pm with his toddler in a pram. He stumbled onto a horrendous scene near Country Road, where a woman lay on the ground bleeding, another was being resuscitated, and a third was lying in a pool of blood.

A lady is lying on the ground and a guy is saying, stay with me, stay with me and she is white, Young said. Multiple gunshots were also heard on level five, although those shots appear to have been fired by police. The centre was locked down and surrounded by police cars and ambulances from across Sydney. The female inspector from Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command went into the shopping centre by herself, was directed to the attacker by other shoppers, and approached him, Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said. He turned on her with the knife, and she fatally shot him. She then applied CPR. Cooke said she saved lives. Webb said the officer showed enormous courage and bravery.

She will process this. Shes OK, her family is OK, she has everything she needs for the time being. An alterations shop owner, Rakesh Sanga, 33 said he heard shouting outside his store then saw a knife-wielding man confronted by police. Loading He said the attacker threw the knife towards a mobile store and was shot by a policewoman. I think she shot like two times or three times, he said. Albanese was briefed on Saturday afternoon. He said his heart went out to the injured, and paid tribute to the first responders.
People arent happy, he said. People feel like the countrys going in the wrong direction. They are worried about the cost of living. Energy prices theyre worried about. Morrison, who also handed out how-to-vote cards on Saturday, said Kennedy would do a terrific job in federal parliament. Its been a great pleasure to serve the shire and southern Sydney for so long. But I can tell you, if you support Simon today, youre putting our electorate of Cook in very, very safe hands, Morrison said in a video posted to social media. In January, Morrison announced he would leave politics for the corporate world, and used his final speech in parliament in February to extol Western values and religion and warn of the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party.

Morrison retained the seat in the 2022 election with a safe 12.4 per cent margin, and Labor decided not to contest the byelection, which meant Kennedy faced five minor party and independent opponents, including representatives from the Greens and the Animal Justice Party. Kennedy declined to comment on Labors decision not to run a candidate, but said he was focused on showing all voters that Ill work my guts out to listen to them and work for them. Ive been out there listening  listening to people and I think thats what people want, he said. They want their local MP to listen to them and advocate hard. Speaking ahead of Saturdays poll, Kennedy said he was focused on getting to the heart of the pressures  cost of living or otherwise  in the electorate. For me, the focus right now is on Cook and the people of Cook and understanding their issues, he said, listing road congestion, restoring the water quality at Gymea Bay baths, and changing the availability of MRI machines at St George hospital.

Alice Tiller said she planned to vote for the Greens candidate when she could take a break from selling cakes and slices at Burraneer Bays cake stall. Describing herself as a bit of a swing voter, Tiller said she was surprised and disappointed that Labor did not contest the byelection. Asked if she would have voted for a Labor candidate, she said: Yes, I would have as the first choice. Greg Rhodes supported Kennedy on the basis of his family values, but would have contemplated voting for Labor if it had run a candidate. Rhodes said local issues such as traffic congestion, population growth and overdevelopment were important issues to him.

Rhodes said the former prime minister came across as a decent bloke, but he was not sure if he would vote for him. I think its a shame that guys that seem to do well in their local area, when they go into federal politics, all of a sudden they appear to look like nuff nuffs, he said. Ben Williams voted for independent candidate Roger Woodward but would have voted differently had there been the option to vote Labor. Williams said having kids had changed the issues that he regarded as important. Im traditionally a Liberal voter, however Ive changed my perspective in the last couple of years, he said. I definitely came into this looking for a Labor candidate and not seeing one there did change my priorities. Williams said his move away from the Liberal party was also influenced by his low regard for the former Cook MP and prime minister. I dont have a high opinion of Scott Morrison, he said. I think his decisions in some of the crises over the past number of years were poor ones and it definitely influenced my opinion of the party as a whole.
We grieve for the five people who have been killed. We pray for those who have been rushed to hospital with injuries, he said, speaking before the death of the sixth victim was confirmed. We are thinking of all those families whose loved ones have been caught up in this attack. In the horror of this afternoon, there was also heroism. We thank the police officers and first responders who acted so quickly, put themselves in harms way, and saved others. In particular, the bravery of one female officer who neutralised the assailant. Concern about a terrorist attack spread quickly after news alerts about the incident because of the high proportion of Jewish Australians living in the area around the Westfield shopping centre in Bondi Junction in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. Loading

Federal authorities made no assumption about the nature of the attack, however, until the assailant could be identified and his background investigated. We should allow this investigation to take place. It would appear that this person has acted alone, Albanese said at a press conference shortly after 7pm on Saturday. The motives are not known yet. And the speculation on that would not be helpful at this time. Standing alongside the prime minister, the AFP commissioner said federal police had been sent to the crime scene and were helping with specialist capabilities such as digital forensics. It is too early to determine a motive and it would be unhelpful to speculate, Kershaw said.

NSW Police commissioner Karen Webb, speaking about 90 minutes after Albanese and Kershaw, said the initial work to identify the offender suggested terrorism was not the motive. Were waiting to confirm his identification, she said. And, if in fact it is the person that we believe it is, then we dont have fears for that person holding an ideation  in other words, that its not a terrorism incident. She said the man was known to law enforcement. Albanese singled out the senior NSW police officer who was near the shopping centre when the attack began and entered the mall, confronted the attacker and shot him. She entered the proceedings that were taking place  obviously very dangerous  by herself. She is certainly a hero, he said. Theres no doubt that she saved lives through her action. And it is a reminder that those people who wear uniform are people who rush to danger, not away from it.

I give thanks to every one of them for the actions that theyve taken up to now and the actions that they will take over the coming days, which will be a difficult period as well. Independent MP Allegra Spender, whose electorate of Wentworth includes the Bondi Junction shopping district, said she was deeply shocked and saddened by the horrific incident. It is clear that individuals in the centre helped and just comforted each other at the most terrifying moment in their lives, she said. Thank you to everyone who looked after others, and especially to NSW Police, the store managers and assistants who tried to provide shelter, and the Westfield team as well.

Other political leaders voiced their concern about the attacks while news emerged about the fatalities. These are shocking reports of horrific violence at Bondi Junction. My thoughts are with the victims, their families and loved ones, as well as all those checking in on those close to them, said Greens leader Adam Bandt. South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas expressed his dismay at the news and his support for the people of Sydney, as did Queensland premier Steven Miles and Victorian premier Jacinta Allan. Awful, heartbreaking scenes coming out of Bondi Junction this afternoon. It doesnt matter where you live, these are images you never want to see, Allan said.Tonight, Victorians are sending strength to everyone north of the border. And holding our loved ones a little bit tighter. New Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon said Australia is family and this meant he and his fellow citizens were thinking of those affected by the tragic events in Bondi.
There may be more to learn about the death of University of Missouri student Riley Strain, whose body was pulled from a Nashville river in March, according to a report.

In what is being called a "huge" development by Strain's family, the last known person to have seen Strain alive has officially given a statement to the police.

Chris Dingman, a friend of the family's who is also acting as their de facto spokesperson said the witness in question spoke with the family first and then went to the police.

"That was huge. That was something we were looking for," Dingman said Tuesday on NewsNation's "Elizabeth Vargas Reports." "He told the detective his account of the story of what happened to Riley."

The witness in question was not named by Dingman and it was not disclosed precisely what the witness revealed about Strain regarding his disappearance and untimely death.

It was March 22 when the body of Riley Strain, 22, was found at the Cumberland River, two weeks after he was thrown out of a Nashville bar belonging to country star Luke Bryan.

While a preliminary autopsy report found that Strain died of accidental causes, the family themselves have expressed doubts.

When asked if they were looking for new evidence in the case because they don't believe that Strain just fell and drowned in the river, Dingman answered directly, "Correct. One hundred percent."

The Strain family ordered a second, private autopsy after it was found that the University of Missouri student showed no signs of water in his lungs, which is typically expected in drowning incidents.

Additionally, Dingman disclosed that they were also seeking to acquire further surveillance footage from the local jail, which is in the area where Strain was last seen. While only one camera has been made available to the public, others remain to be viewed.

"We would love to see the footage," Dingman verified. "We now do have confirmation that there were cameras pointing back toward the bridge where Riley went missing at."
The Queensland government has announced more than $50 million to be invested in domestic and family violence initiatives, including primary prevention, DFV training and a new peak body for the sector.

Speaking at a press conference in Brisbane, Queensland Attorney-General Yvette DAth said support for individuals, overwhelmingly women and children, escaping domestic and family violence is important, but its not enough to address the issue.

Queensland attorney-general Yvette DAth has announced more than $50 million in domestic and family violence initiatives. Credit: Getty

If we are going to shift the dial on the number of predominantly women who are being injured and killed at the hands of an intimate partner, we need to be dealing with the causes of harm [and] preventing violence from occurring in the first place, DAth said.

The Miles government will invest $16 million into the Plan for the Primary Prevention of Violence Against Women, a five-year framework with the aim of addressing the systems, structures, norms, attitudes, practices and power imbalances that drive violence.
Washington: US President Joe Biden has cancelled $US7.4 billion ($11.4 billion) in student loan debt as he tries to shore up support with young voters who are disproportionately affected by soaring education costs, but who may be drifting away over his policy on Israel and the war in the Gaza Strip.

The latest round of relief is part of a strategy by the White House to take smaller, targeted actions for certain subsets of borrowers after the Supreme Court struck down a far more ambitious plan to wipe out $US400 billion in debt last year.

President Joe Biden arrives at Dane County Regional Airport for an event on student loan debt in Madison, Wisconsin. Credit: AP

Biden said this week that he would make another attempt at large-scale debt forgiveness for about 30 million people, despite Republican opposition and legal challenges. But in the meantime, he has been chipping away at student debt by fixing and streamlining existing programs that have been plagued by bureaucratic and other problems for years.

Saturdays announcement was the latest such move, affecting about 277,000 people. White House officials said those borrowers would be notified by email.
The U.S. is moving extra defense "assets" into place in the Mideast before an expected attack on Israel by Iran, according to officials.

"We are moving additional assets to the region to bolster regional deterrence efforts and increase force protection for U.S. forces," said a U.S.defense official in Washington, Barron's and other media reported.

The U.S. embassy said earlier that staff had been told not to travel outside the greater Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Beersheba areas "out of an abundance of caution."

Iran is expected to launch an attack on Israel as soon as Friday night or Saturday in retaliation for an attack on Syria 11 days ago that killed 13 people. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the assault on Syria.

President Biden noted on Wednesday that Iran was threatening to launch a "significant attack," and he vowed to offer "ironclad" support to Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was ready to meet any challenge, and warned that Israel would harm any country that caused it harm.
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A celebrity doctor who frequently appeared on British talk shows exchanged Botox for sex, according to a medical tribunal.

Dr. Oluwafemi "Tijion" Esho "engaged in an improper emotional relationship with Patient A, behaved inappropriately toward her," and was motivated by sex while treating her at his clinic in Newcastle, England, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service determined, earlier this week

The tribunal will determine his fitness to practice at a later date.

During the investigation, Esho, 42, confessed he exchanged "inappropriate" and sexually explicit messages with the victim  an OnlyFans and webcam model  on Instagram, but denied any physical contact, according to the BBC. However, the tribunal determined Esho had several sexual encounters with her at his clinic in 2021 in exchange for free Botox, the outlet reported.

The founder of the Esho Clinic said he was "disappointed" with the tribunal's decision.

In response to the ruling, Esho issued a statement on Facebook.

"Throughout the hearing and investigation, with which I have cooperated fully, I stressed that I deeply regretted the mistakes which I made in engaging in communications with Patient A, and I admitted to the charges which related to those serious errors of judgment."

"I am truly sorry for those actions, and apologize to everyone I let down as a result," he said.

"However, I have always been clear that whilst my conduct in communicating with Patient A was wrong, I repeat categorically that it never crossed over into any physical sexual contact."

He added, "My life's work has been and will remain focused on helping people. I remain dedicated fully to this purpose."

Esho frequently provided his medical opinion regarding cosmetic surgery on BBC's Morning Live, ITV's This Morning, and E4's Body Fixers, and previously treated several celebrity clients.

He also has clinics in Wimbledon and Liverpool.
Hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed a village in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Friday, firing weapons and setting a number of homes on fire in a rampage that left at least one Palestinian dead and about 25 wounded, according to reports.

The Palestinian man was killed in the village of Al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah, CNN reported, citing Amin Abu-Alia, the head of the village council.

An Israeli rights group, Yesh Din, said the settlers were searching for a missing 14-year-old boy, the Associated Press reported.

Israeli troops continued the search for the teen after the frenzy.

Abu-Alia told CNN that as many as 2,000 settlers surrounded the village on Friday afternoon and about 500 of them stormed the village.

They raided homes, set some ablaze, tossed rocks, blocked roads and fired at residents.

Smoke could be seen billowing into the sky as gunfire crackled, CNN reported.

Israeli soldiers arrived a few hours later, but Abu-Alia said they did not stop the settlers from plundering the village.

"Violent riots were instigated in multiple locations in the area" following a search for the missing boy, and that Israeli forces tried to remove the settlers," Israel Defense Forces told CNN.

"Security forces operated to disperse the violent riots. During the incident, rocks were hurled at IDF soldiers, who responded with fire. Hits were identified. Furthermore, IDF and Israel Border Police forces operated to withdraw Israeli civilians who entered the town of Al Mughayyir," the IDF said.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said one dead man was brought to the hospital and 25 people were treated for wounds, the Associated Press said.

The father of the dead man, Jehad Abu Alia, 26, said it's unclear whether his son was killed by a bullet fired by a settler or an Israeli soldier.

"My son went with others to defend our land and honor, and this is what happened," Afif Abu Alia told the AP from a hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where his son's body had been taken.
Unfortunately, in school, I wasnt taught much about powerful and famous Indigenous people in history beyond Sacagawea and Squanto.

There are so many important Native American figures we can and should learn about today to give us more insight into Americas past and the lives of those who came before us.

For instance, do you know the story of Chipeta?

Chipeta, also known as White Singing Bird, was a fascinating female Native American leader and advocate who dedicated her adult life to meditating between white settlers and Native Americans.

Chipeta was born around 1843 into the Kiowa Apache tribe but was adopted as a child by people of the Uncompahgre Utes tribe, located in Colorado after her parents were killed.

She was a talented and skilled young woman, growing up to excel in beadwork, tanning hides, making clothes, and speaking several languages. She was known by her community for being beautiful, well-spoken, and dignified.

In 1859, Chipeta married Uncompahgres Chief Ouray and became his advisor and confidant. She defied the normal expectations for women in her tribe, as she would attend and sit beside her husband during council meetings and help him work to improve the lives of the Ute people.

Chipeta is well known in history for her efforts to mediate and promote peace between the Ute tribes of Colorado and white settlers. She and Chief Ouray would negotiate treaties with the settlers and show them kindness and ways to navigate their land.

When tensions rose between the Ute people and the settlers, the Ute had plans to attack and raid a nearby group of settlers. Chipeta bravely rode on horseback and warned the white settlers to save their lives.

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Home News Chuck Swindoll stepping down as senior pastor of Stonebriar Community Church

Notable Evangelical pastor, author and radio personality Chuck Swindoll is stepping down as senior pastor of Stonebriar Community Church, a Texas megachurch based in Frisco, but he will continue to preach on Sundays.

The 89-year-old pastor, who has held the position since 1998, will take on the role of founding pastor effective May 1, according to a statement from the elders of Stonebriar. Jonathan Murphy, the chair and professor of Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary, will become the church's new senior pastor.

"Pastor Chuck will continue to preach God's Word at the pulpit on Sundays, while Jonathan will shepherd our day-to-day ministries and fill in at the pulpit when requested," stated the church.

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"Pastor Chuck will continue to serve as mentor and advisor to Jonathan, and at the appropriate time in the future, Jonathan will then assume primary pulpit duties."

According to the church, the decision to have Murphy join the staff as senior pastor was the product of two years of discernment, with Swindoll believing that "Jonathan would be a great fit for the position."

"We are excited to welcome Jonathan as our Senior Pastor, and we're grateful that God has provided this servant-hearted leader who aligns with our commitment to teaching biblical truth," the elders added.

A native of El Campo, Texas, Swindoll graduated magna cum laude from Dallas Theological Seminary in 1963, earning honors like the Harry A. Ironside Award for Expository Preaching.

He has served multiple churches as a pastor, including Grace Bible Church of Dallas, Texas, Waltham Evangelical Free Church of Waltham, Massachusetts, and Irving Bible Church of Irving, Texas, during the 1960s, and First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton, California, from 19711994. He founded Stonebriar in October 1998.

In July 1979, Swindoll, along with his wife Cynthia, started Insight for Living Ministries, a Bible study radio program that eventually spread to all 50 states and over 2,100 outlets worldwide by April 2020.

Swindoll was honored by the National Religious Broadcasters by being inducted into the Christian media organization's Hall of Fame in 2000.

Swindoll has authored several books and devotionals, including Abraham: One Nomad's Amazing Journey of Faith, Clinging to Hope, Day by Day with Charles Swindoll, Encourage Me: Caring Words for Heavy Hearts, The Grace Awakening, A Healthy Body: Characteristics of a Contagious Church, What If ... God Has Other Plans?, and Hand Me Another Brick: Timeless Lessons on Leadership.

Murphy, a native of Northern Ireland who serves on the board of Insight for Living Ministries, has been a frequent guest preacher for Swindoll at Stonebriar Community Church.

According to a biography page, Murphy is a child of missionary parents raised in the Canary Islands and Spain. Before joining the seminary, Murphy served as a pastor in Northern Ireland.

In a video discussion, Swindoll and Murphy said their friendship and mentorship go back years, even before Murphy was considered to take over as senior pastor.

"It is a blessing for me to be able to minister alongside of you," Murphy told Swindoll. "God was at work long before we knew He was at work in our relationship and had plans in mind that were not revealed to us when we were walking together. ... What we came to found out was that also was what God was doing in the hearts of elders in church unbeknown to me and to you. God was at work with them. Then they came to let you know of their interest not knowing that you and I were walking so intimately."
Home News Hamas says it doesn't have 40 living Israeli hostages necessary for ceasefire deal

Hamas has told international mediators it can't identify 40 living hostages who meet the requirements for a U.S.-backed ceasefire deal as American and Israeli officials increasingly fear most of the people still held captive may already be dead.

The proposal for a six-week ceasefire consisted of Hamas releasing 40 hostages, including women, children, elderly men and those in poor health, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The terrorist group, however, told international mediators that it does not have 40 living hostages who meet that criteria.

Officials familiar with negotiations told The Wall Street Journal this week that estimates from the U.S. indicate most of the hostages are already dead. However, the U.S. has limited information on the hostages and is dependent on Israeli intelligence.

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Both Israeli and American officials estimate that the number of deceased hostages is higher than they previously believed.

U.S. officials told the outlet that the hostages may have died due to health reasons, including injuries they sustained when they were taken captive. Some U.S. officials said that a few hostages could have been killed during Israeli strikes on Gaza.

A Hamas official has reportedly said the terror group won't commit to releasing 40 living hostages but could commit to 40 hostages total, which would suggest some would be dead. The Israeli military and the prime minister's office wouldn't state publicly their estimates on how many hostages remain alive.

There are believed to be 130 hostages remaining in Gaza. In February, an Israeli intelligence report confirmed the deaths of 34 of the hostages taken by Hamas. According to The New York Times, the report stated that some of the captives were killed on Oct. 7, the day the terrorist group launched its assault against Israel.

After Hamas militants broke through the border on Oct. 7, the terrorists slaughtered at least 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and they abducted over 240 others.

In response, Israel launched an offensive In Gaza to eradicate Hamas and secure the release of the hostages. The Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry claims at least 33,000 people have been killed since the war began. However, these numbers don't distinguish between civilians and combatants.

During a temporary ceasefire last year, over 100 hostages were released as part of a deal that included Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners convicted of violent crimes, such as stabbing Israeli soldiers.

Last weekend, Israeli authorities confirmed the death of Elad Katzir, a 47-year-old farmer abducted by Hamas during the group's Oct. 7 attack. The terror group took Katzir from Nir Oz kibbutz and held him captive in Khan Yunis, a city in Gaza.

The Israel Defence Forces and Israeli Security Agency said that the farmer died while he was held prisoner by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization. The IDF and ISA announced that they had retrieved the man's body after an overnight raid.

"The body of the abductee Elad Katzir, who according to intelligence was murdered in captivity by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, was rescued overnight from Khan Yunis and returned to Israeli territory," the Israeli agencies announced in a statement.

In a statement on social media, Katzir's sister, Carmit Palty Katzir, said that one "consolation" is that her brother "will have a grave in Nir Oz." Carmit was critical of the Israeli government, asserting that it could have done more to prevent her brother's death.

"Elad was kidnapped from his home in Nir Oz alive and well and filmed twice from captivity," the sister wrote. "He could have been saved if a deal would have happened on time. Our leadership is cowardly and devoid of political considerations, and therefore, it didn't happen."

"Eladi, may the memory of you be of laughter, hugs and joy, fields and soil," she added. "That is not how your story ought to have ended. Please forgive us for failing to save you. I will love you forever."
Home News Naked man claiming to be trans at Planet Fitness arrested for indecent exposure

A man who claimed to identify as a woman was arrested for indecent exposure to a minor after he walked around naked in the womens locker room at a Planet Fitness location and asked a woman to rub lotion on him and take a shower together.

Christopher Allan Miller, 38, was reported to police as harassing women at the Gastonia Planet Fitness in North Carolina prior to entering the locker room.

A woman who called 911 told the dispatcher that the man who entered the locker room was completely naked. Miller allegedly asked a woman to shower with him and rub lotion on his body, WSOC-TV reported.

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Yeah, he is still in the bathroom, the woman told a 911 dispatcher. Its a man but he says he identifies as a woman, and he wont leave the restroom. But he is just walking around showing us his  and he wont leave.

Miller was subsequently arrested and charged with indecent exposure to a minor, WSOC-TV added.

On its website, Planet Fitness outlines its Non-Discrimination Policy, which states that all gym members will have access to restroom and locker room facilities that correspond to their self-reported gender identity to the extent permitted by applicable law.

At Planet Fitness, the safety of our employees and members is our top priority, and we have zero tolerance for harassment of any kind in our clubs, McCall Gosselin, chief corporate affairs officer at Planet Fitness, told The Christian Post Friday in response to the incident in Gastonia.

We took immediate action to ensure the safety of club members, including notifying and working with law enforcement.

The incident involving the naked man in the womens locker room comes at a time when Planet Fitness trans policy has been the focus of media headlines.

Late last month, Planet Fitness Co-Founder Michael Grondahl criticized the gym franchise's policy of allowing men in women's locker rooms during an interview with Libs of TikTok founder Chaya Raichik.

"Planet Fitness was like another child for me. And I put my heart and soul into building that company, and it's been pretty much destroyed in, you know, it's lost all respect within the country within the last couple of weeks," Grondahl said. "There's no common sense standing behind this."

The interview took place after Alaska Planet Fitness revoked Patricia Silva's membership. Silva went viral after she posted several videos online about her encounter with a trans-identifying man shaving his face in the womens locker room.

The woman claimed that a 12-year-old girl covered only by a towel was inside the locker room while the man was present. However, Planet Fitness claimed that Silva violated its policies by taking a photograph of the man in the locker room and sharing it on social media.

After revoking Silva's membership, reports surfaced last month that a staffer has since accompanied the man while he uses the women's facilities.

An unnamed friend of Silva's alleged that she saw the same man Silva encountered in the women's locker room. The friend claimed that the Planet Fitness staffer accompanying the man told her that she could go into the stall if she was uncomfortable having a man in the locker room.

The Planet Fitness co-founder questioned the gym's decision to make the man more comfortable instead of women, stating that it's an "extremely dangerous situation." During his interview with Raichik, Grondahl said it's devastating to witness what the company has become.

Michael and Mark Grondahl started Planet Fitness in 1992 after they purchased a gym in Dover, New Hampshire. According to Mike Grondahl, the pair started Planet Fitness for people who were "intimidated" by fitness centers, and that was the original intention behind the concept of a judgment-free zone.

"And now, you fast forward to what's happening today, and 'judgement-free zone' means that, if you're a man, you can use the women's locker room," Grondahl lamented. "Just insane."
Home News Texas authorities discover suspected smuggling 'stash house' with altar to cartel patron saint

Texas officials discovered five illegal immigrants and an altar to the cartel patron saint Santa Muerte inside of a stash house" near Fort Worth, a place that authorities say traffickers use to hide migrants that they plan to smuggle into the country.

Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland announced this week that authorities received an anonymous tip about a house in River Oaks located just outside of Forth Worth.

In a statement to The Christian Post, Sheriff Cleveland said that the tip came from a confidential source. According to the sheriff, the owner of the house where the authorities found the migrants has denied any knowledge of illegal activity.

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But I can tell you after almost 30 years in law enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico Border, I find that hard to believe, Cleveland stated.

The sheriff told The Daily Mail earlier this week authorities found four men and one woman who entered the country illegally, as well as a tunnel they believe could have been used to hide drugs.

All five of the migrants have been turned over to federal immigration authorities.

The sheriff told CP that the migrants had been returned to Mexico and that the group was part of a smuggling organization called Mendoza-Nandho. The organization is known for smuggling illegal immigrants from Hidalgo, Texas, into other parts of the country.

They have historically smuggled illegal aliens to Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, Cleveland said about the group. The Terrell County Sheriff's Office has interdicted five smuggling loads in recent months associated to this organization.

As The Daily Mail reported, another discovery inside the house included what appeared to be an altar to the cartel patron saint, Santa Muerte, with tequila and cigarettes laid in front of her as offerings. The saint is the personification of death, and law enforcement agencies say it is a commonly used symbol in organized crime.

Last month, Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador agreed during a news briefing to help limit the flow of drugs into the United States, but he refused to confront drug cartels on U.S. orders. In addition to illegal immigration, another issue related to the border concerns deadly drugs like fentanyl entering the U.S. through the southern border.

"We are not going to act as policemen for any foreign government," Lopez Obrador said. "Mexico First. Our home comes first."

As the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month, nearly 108,000 Americans died of drug overdose deaths in 2022. The CDC noted that between 2021 and 2022, the rate of overdose deaths for synthetic opioids other than methadone increased 4.1%.

The discovery of the River Oaks safe house comes amid increasing concerns about the U.S. Border Patrols ability to handle the massive flow of migrants attempting to enter the country illegally.

According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, border patrol agents have encountered a total of 1.7 million migrants so far in the first few months of fiscal year 2024. Last year, agents encountered a total of 3.2 million migrants.

Data released by the Pew Research Center last month surveyed 5,140 adults from all 50 U.S. states between Jan. 16 and 21. The study asked Americans for their opinions on the current state of U.S. immigration policy.

When asked for their views on "the large number of migrants attempting to enter the U.S. at the border," a plurality of respondents (45%) identified the situation as a "crisis," while an additional 32% characterized the border surge as a "major problem." Seventeen percent of people said that the number of migrants attempting to enter the country is "a minor problem," while the remaining 4% thought it was "not a problem."
Home News Alabama Supreme Court sides with megachurch over property dispute with UMC

The Alabama Supreme Court has rejected a request from a United Methodist Church conference to kill a lawsuit filed by a megachurch trying to secure the rights to its church property as it disaffiliates from the denomination.

In a decision Friday, Alabama's highest court rejected a petition to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Harvest Church of Dothan in 2022 against the UMC Alabama-West Florida Conference in hopes of legally securing the rights to its property.

Associate Justice Greg Cook authored the decision, arguing that, despite the UMC's claim that a secular court should not tackle the church dispute, "it is undisputed that civil courts do have jurisdiction to resolve church-property disputes."

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"Under this Court's well-established precedent, then, civil courts can properly exercise jurisdiction to adjudicate church-related disputes as long as those disputes can be resolved (1) based on 'neutral principles of law' and (2) without resolving a religious controversy," wrote Cook.

"The AWFC and the [UMC General Council on Finance and Administration] have not cited a single Alabama case holding that the First Amendment bars a trial court from adjudicating a church-related dispute over real property."

Harvest Lead Pastor Ralph Sigler, who helped to found the congregation, said in a video posted to Facebook on Friday that it was "really exciting" and that "we give God praise for that."

"We'll see how the long the conference, bishop and trustees want to carry on the legal proceedings or if they're ready to drop it," Sigler said. "We're thankful to the Lord for an exciting win."

In November 2022, Harvest filed the lawsuit against the UMC out of concern that the congregation would lose control of its Fortner Street campus if they sought to leave the denomination.

"UMC purports all property owned or acquired by Harvest Church is actually subject to a legal trust in favor of the UMC denomination," stated the lawsuit, according to WTVY. "Unless restrained by an [court] injunction, there is accordingly a significant risk that UMC will improperly confiscate or interfere with Harvest Church's property."

The AWF Conference took exception to the characterization of the relationship between the regional body and the congregation, saying in a statement that it was "an unfair representation of the conference's actions and intentions."

"Harvest has given no official indication to the conference that they plan to disaffiliate from the UMC, nor have they begun the discernment process as laid out in our conference policy. The conference has taken no action or indicated it would take any action towards Harvest Church," said the conference at the time, as quoted by WTVY.

Two months after the lawsuit was filed, the congregation voted overwhelmingly in January 2023 to seek dismissal from the UMC. A few months later, Houston County Circuit Judge Chris Richardson rejected the UMC's request to dismiss the departing church's lawsuit.

Over the past few years, more than 7,000 congregations have left the UMC over the denomination's decadeslong debate over whether to remove language from the UMC Book of Discipline that bans same-sex marriage and prohibits the ordination of noncelibate gay clergy.

In May 2023, the AWF Conference held a special session in which it voted to approve the disaffiliations of 193 congregations that decided to leave the denomination over the debate. That left the conference with 318 churches, 13 of which have memberships of over 1,000.

"We grieve in saying farewell to the 193 churches disaffiliating from the United Methodist Church and wish them the best in ministry," AWF Bishop David Graves said in a statement at the time. "Many of these churches have dedicated clergy and laity who truly desire to serve God and their communities."

"I especially want to thank those churches who have decided to remain United Methodist and those who heard my call to refrain from holding discussions around leaving the denomination until we have more information."
Home News Archbishop of Canterbury expresses concern over Christian womans arrest in West Bank

Anglican leaders have voiced alarm following the arrest of a Christian woman by Israeli forces in the West Bank, about three years after she was previously detained for her association with a student group Israel deems illegal.

Layan Nasir, a 23-year-old member of St. Peter's Anglican Church in Birzeit, was taken into custody from her home in the early morning hours on Sunday, drawing criticism from her family.

Archbishop Justin Welby, the senior bishop of the Church of England, expressed his deep concern over Nasir's arrest on social media, urging his followers to pray for her safety and prompt release.

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"I'm shocked and deeply concerned by this news," Welby wrote on X. "Together with our Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters, I pray for Layan and her family  and for the congregation of St Peter's Anglican Church in the Occupied West Bank. Please pray for Layan's safety and swift release."

Im shocked and deeply concerned by this news. Together with our Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters, I pray for Layan and her family - and for the congregation of St Peters Anglican Church in the Occupied West Bank. Please pray for Layans safety and swift release. https://t.co/y78JutP55U  Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) April 9, 2024

Bishop Christopher Chessun echoed this sentiment, as reported by Church Times.

Richard Sewell, the dean of St. George's College in Jerusalem, said on social media he is "Deeply disturbed and shocked that a member of our church in Birzeit in occupied West Bank has been arrested by Israeli forces."

Nasir's ordeal began when Israeli troops detained her at her family home at 4 a.m., with the family saying they didn't provide a warrant or reason for the arrest. The family remained unaware of her whereabouts until Wednesday, when they learned she was being held at Damon Prison in Israel.

According to a Change.org petition, Nasir recently graduated with a nutrition degree from Birzeit University and is employed by a Palestinian NGO near Ramallah.

In 2021, she was detained along with over 20 other students in a sweep by the Israeli military and held without trial for months, during which she reportedly faced ill-treatment.

Her family told The Guardian that she was detained at the time on accusations of being part of a leftist student group, the Progressive Democratic Student Pole, an organization criminalized by Israel in 2020.

According to Middle East Eye, the PDSP is linked to the Popular Front of Liberation of Palestine, a secular Palestinian MarxistLeninist and revolutionary socialist organization. This association was declared illegal under Israeli military orders that date back to British mandate regulations.

While some of her friends, including 10 other women, were sentenced to 14 months in jail, she was released after two months after paying bail. She has been in legal limbo since, Nasir's family told The Guardian.

"[Israel claims] that student unions are affiliated with organizations outside the campus, but that doesn't mean it is true," Nasir's cousin, Tala Nasir, a Palestinian rights lawyer, was quoted as saying.

Layan Nasir has been living with her two brothers and parents at their home in Birzeit.

Last Thursday, following the deaths of several aid workers amid the war in Gaza, Archbishop Welby reiterated calls for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Israel launched the offensive last October after Hamas, a terror group that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, carried out an Oct. 7 surprise attack in southern Israel that killed 1,200, mostly civilians. Over 240 people were abducted. Israel's aim has been to secure the release of hostages and eradicate Hamas.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says that over 33,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, a figure that doesn't differentiate between combatants and survivors.

Many international actors and faith leaders have called for a ceasefire, while others have called on Israel to eradicate Hamas.
Commandos from Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rappelled from helicopters Saturday in a dramatic raid and seizure of a British container ship near the Strait of Hormuz.

The action was launched as Israel and its allies are preparing for an expected attack on Israel by Iran.

Iran's state-run IRNA said a special forces unit of the Iranian Guard's navy carried out the attack. The ship was identified as the MSC Aries, a Portuguese-flagged container that's associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime, the Associated Press reported. Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer's Zodiac Group.

The brazen raid comes amid increasingly fraught tensions as Israel and its Western allies gear up for an expected Iranian attack on Israel. Iran has vowed retaliation for an attack on Syria nearly two weeks ago days ago that killed 13 people. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the assault on Syria.

Sources said Friday that an attack on Israel could occur by Saturday. A U.S. Defense Department official said that additional assets were being moved to the Mideast to "bolster regional deterrence efforts and increase protection for U.S. forces."

It was unclear whether the seizure of the ship may have been the expected military action.

President Biden noted earlier this week that Iran was threateninga "significant attack," and he vowed to offer "ironclad" support to Israel.

On Friday he warned Iran simply: "Don't."
Home News 'Dont Mess With Our Kids': Parental rights activists gather for prayer rallies nationwide

Parental rights activists nationwide are holding prayer rallies at each of the 50 state capitols and in Washington this weekend as part of an ongoing effort to turn individual states and the United States as a whole "back to God."

#DontMessWithOurKids rallies, spearheaded by the Her Voice Movement, will take place at capitol buildings nationwide Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. local time in each respective time zone.

The gatherings aim to "pray, fast, and stand for the turning of their state and America back to God." The rally is a collaboration between the Her Voice Movement and additional "individuals and organizations."

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The Her Voice Movement is encouraging the formation of prayer hubs of two to 10 concerned women and mothers who "pray once a month to bring change to every sphere of culture" as "our nation is in a crisis."

The group's website states that the nation is in crisis, saying that one in five youngsters in Generation Z self-identify as LGBT and that "there are still states where abortion remains legal, some even up to full-term."

Jessica Gentry, the executive director of the Her Voice Movement, told The Christian Post that the event should be considered a "prayer rally or a prayer gathering" rather than a "political rally."

"#DontMessWithOurKids is biblical," she said.

"We're talking God made  male, God made female, and so we're not getting into a lot of  things that could be questionable. Like, we're just on biblical principle, which is male, female and family units," Gentry said.

She hopes that rallies will send a message that "enough is enough" when it comes to the "gender ideologies" being promoted in public school systems.

The prayer rallies, Gentry said, are a way to push back against "parents not knowing what's going on and not being informed of what's happening in the schools when their kids want to change their pronouns and change their names and it's hidden."

The rally comes as hundreds of school districts across the U.S. have reportedly adopted policies that permit or advise personnel to withhold information from parents about their child's desire to identify as trans or nonbinary.

Gentry also expressed dismay at reported cases of children being "taken away from their parents" who oppose social transitions and refuse to acknowledge their children by their preferred gender identity.

The prayer rallies encourage the Church to take a more active role in speaking out against what Genry views as problematic ideology.

"We've realized the Church has not been out in the public square; the Church has not come out of the building," she said. "So that's what we're really trying to encourage and promote. Let's get fired up at church, and then let's go out and get out of the locker room and go into the  streets, go into the public places."

She contends that if Christians want to influence the culture, they "can't just stay hidden and inside a building."

Organizers have been planning the rallies since last July and hope 100,000 attend nationwide.

The Her Voice Movement is "an empowerment of citizens to engage in reformation strategies to turn their state back to God." The movement encourages Christian participation in school board meetings and urges them to "run for local offices."

Gentry lamented that "we're not getting enough people voting locally" or running for office.

"We aren't getting enough people going and actually running for office, running for school boards, running for  councils, city council, just all the different ways to get involved," she asserted. "People just need to start getting informed and getting out there."

The rallies will consist of an optional 10 to 20-minute opening that may include worship and 20 to 30 minutes of prayers, enabling participants to engage in repentance, forgiveness, and communion. There will also be 10 to 20 minutes of offering specific prayer points for each state and the nation and a 10 to 20-minute call to action.

The organizers hope the event will be a "catalyst to build momentum to a historic gathering in Washington, D.C."

Participants were asked to fast for three days before the events. However, the type of sacrifice one intends to undertake is up to the individual.

Gentry expects counterprotests to occur alongside the #DontMessWithOurKids rallies, noting that "we know other people are also promoting their own rallies on that day." She recalled seeing "flyers for pride and transgender rallies that happen to coincide on the same day and time as ours."

"We hope that people not only pray and fast, but they start to  stand for righteousness, go get involved at the local level, and for people to get their voices back," she concluded.
Home Opinion A call for Christian leaders to (finally) challenge the regime

Whats it going to take for Christian pastors and leaders in America to step up with a backbone and call out the pagan practices being promoted at the highest level of government?

Taking a leaf out of WORLD Opinions editor Andrew Walkers book, if liberalisms latest act hasnt crossed your moral line, youve probably got it stretched out in the backyard, drying out your coexist banners in preparation for the next pro-Hamas protest.

Walker, of course, is referencing the White Houses audacious move to elbow the Transgender Day of Visibility into the Easter spotlight  a day that, lets be real, wasnt exactly circling in red on historical calendars. This isnt just any old Sunday were talking about. Its the day millions of Christians mark Jesus chucking his tombstone aside, which is, to put it mildly, kind of a big deal in Christian quarters.

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This juxtaposition was not just unfortunate timing or an innocuous overlap, as some in the media have suggested. It is a calculated move by this regime, signaling a deliberate shift towards rapacious secularism that is increasingly eclipsing the traditionally religious posture of Americas public square.

Now, any pastor or leader worth their salt should see this proclamation for the provocation it is, but if theres still any fuzziness, a quick read-through of the document itself should make it crystal clear: The White House is dead set on fast-tracking Americas youth to the station of transformation.

Whats more, its a dedication underscored by action, as the Department of Justice has been mobilized not merely as a bystander but as an active participant in ensuring access to transgender therapies, with little debate about the potential long-term health implications of which there are many.

You dont need to pore over the whole proclamation, where President Biden takes a victory lap for placing transgender individuals in influential government roles, or his assuming the role of spokesperson for the LGBTQ movement, or giving himself a round of applause for enshrining same-sex marriages into law.

But what you need to understand is that this latest manifesto challenges the created order itself, with a specific bullseye on the backs of children.

Heres a snippet from the President:

Extremists are proposing hundreds of hateful laws that target and terrify transgender kids and their families  silencing teachers; banning books; and even threatening parents, doctors, and nurses with prison for providing care to their children. These bills attack our most basic American values: the freedom to be yourself, the freedom to make your own healthcare decisions, and even the right to raise your own child.

That passage is emblematic of the moral rot ingrained in progressive thought. Laws that place guardrails on irreversible surgeries, push back against sexualized propaganda in the classroom, and call for age-appropriate material in school libraries are, according to the White House, a siege on Americas foundational freedoms.

President Biden went on to label the resistance to this leftist orthodoxy as bullying, and he announced that the Department of Justice is actively countering what he terms extreme and un-American State laws targeting the trans community.

The message from the Biden administration is unambiguous: The government is not just preaching a godless sermon from its own White House pulpit but is also using the levers of the law to pursue anyone who dares to question its narrative on gender identity.

For those clergy with ears to the ground, its worth noting a fascinating reversal across the pond concerning this trans trend with minors. While the Biden administration doubles down on what they call gender-affirming care  a phrase that sugarcoats the nature of what they propose  some European nations are pumping the brakes on the procedures.

UKs National Health Service, for instance, recently determined that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of puberty suppressing hormones to make the treatment routinely available at this time.

This decision comes after the same NHS recognized that gender dysphoria often travels with a host of other factors, like personal trauma, neuro-developmental issues, and other mental health conditions, and thus should be evaluated within that context.

In addition to the U.K.s cautious approach, Forbes noted that Nordic countries like Finland, Sweden, and Norway are tightening the reins on transgender coverage for adolescents. This includes a critical look at puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transition-related surgeries.

The reason?

The longitudinal data collected and analyzed by public health authorities have concluded that the risk-benefit ratio of youth gender transition ranges from unknown to unfavorable.

Take it from British native Ritchie Herron, who, as we previously reported, had his genitals surgically removed because he was assured that the key to his happiness was a female body  a goalpost he could never reach realistically.

As a result of numerous operations, debilitating pain, and tissue made to mimic the female organ, Mr. Herron says, I feel mostly nothing, aside from occasional stabs of pain. I cant use the toilet properly.

This is so-called gender-affirming care.

And this is what progressives today are eager to impose on Americas young people  all warnings and evidence to the contrary.

So, what will it take for pastors and leaders in the Church to realize that LGBTQ agitators are on the warpath to devour everything in their way, including our youth?

The Alphabet Army currently has two months and dozens of additional days of recognition on the calendar  and they want more.

Theyve taken over Christian symbols like the rainbow, and theyve now used the holiest day on the Christian calendar to reinforce their radical commitment to impose gender ideology on a cohort that cant even legally rent a car.

When will we finally draw the line and say enough?

Originally published at the Standing for Freedom Center.
Home Opinion Will your death be precious to God?

Gods Word declares: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (Psalm 116:15). Does that passage apply to you? Will your death be precious to God? It sure can be, but first you must become a saint.

The Apostle Paul addressed his Epistle to the Romans to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints (Romans 1:7). You see, everyone in Gods family is a saint. The word saint comes from the Greek word hagios, which means consecrated to God, holy, sacred.

When you were brought into Gods family by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ, you were instantly made a saint. You were immediately forgiven of all your sins and granted the free gift of everlasting life in Heaven. And you were set apart for the holy purposes of God.

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In writing to the saints in Ephesus, (Ephesians 1:1) Paul expressed his prayer that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17-19).

This is the calling of every believer in Jesus. Knowing and growing in Gods love is a large part of what it means to be a follower of Christ. And the more you and I are filled with the love of Christ, the better equipped we are to fulfill our calling. One day the Lord will bring us home to Heaven. In the meantime, we are called to keep our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2) as we seek to do God's will during our few years on Earth.

The life and the death of every child of God is precious in His sight. Paul wrote, If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord (Romans 14:8). We simply cannot comprehend the glory and majesty of Heaven, but one day, we will experience it firsthand.

As a Christian, your death will be precious to God because He loves you dearly. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1). And if you do not yet know the Lord, you can meet Christ today. To be forgiven and become a saint in Gods eyes, it is necessary to receive the love of God by receiving Jesus as your Savior.

Jesus said, Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12). You and I do not deserve to be in Gods family because of our sin, and yet the Lord loves us so much that He laid down His life for our sins on the cross. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10).

No one looks forward to the process of dying. But thankfully for the Christian, death has been swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54). Believers have the promise of eternal life with God in Heaven. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26).

That, my friend, is the big question. Do you believe in Jesus as your Savior from sin? If not, today can be your day to enter the family of God through faith in Christ. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) pastored Westminster Chapel in London for 30 years. He said, If a man is saved, it is because God has saved him. But if a man is lost, that is to be attributed to his own rejection of the Gospel and his own rebellion against Gods way of salvation.

We are all rebels by nature. We do things our own way rather than Gods way. Paul wrote, There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one (Romans 3:10-12).

Are you going to turn away from the Lord today and reject His gracious offer to forgive your sins and save your soul? The alternative is to humbly accept Gods free gift of salvation as you bring your sins to Jesus in repentance and faith. Your acceptance or rejection of Christ will determine whether or not your death will be precious to God.

The Bible informs us: God wants everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). That includes you my friend!

Jesus said, I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me (John 10:14). Knowing Jesus and then walking closely with your Lord and Savior on Earth will culminate on your homecoming day. And on that day, your death will be precious to God. You see, you wont really die because your soul will be immediately ushered to Heaven.

This is what Jesus meant when He said, Whoever lives and believes in me will never die (John 11:26).

But just remember: Your final day on Earth could come much sooner than you think. After all, What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes (James 4:14).

When your body expires, your soul will either be welcomed into Heaven, or dragged away to Hell (see Matthew 7:13-14). There is not a third option. And so, the sooner your name gets written in Heavens reservation book, the better.
Pakistan told to address forced marriages, conversions of girls

UN human rights experts on Thursday called on Pakistan to make legal changes in light of continued vulnerability of women and girls of minority faiths to forced marriages and religious conversions.

The UN special rapporteurs demanded Pakistan raise the legal age for girls to marry to 18 as a deterrent against exploitation in the 96-percent Muslim country.

"The exposure of young women and girls belonging to religious minority communities to such heinous human rights violations, and the impunity of such crimes, can no longer be tolerated or justified," they said in a statement issued in Geneva.

They expressed concern that forced marriages and religious conversions of girls from minority faiths, including Christianity, were "validated by the courts, often invoking religious law to justify keeping victims with their abductors rather than allowing them to return them to their parents."

"Perpetrators often escape accountability, with police dismissing crimes under the guise of 'love marriages,'" they said.

The experts stressed that child, early and forced marriages could not be justified on religious or cultural grounds. They underscored that, under international law, consent was irrelevant when the victim was a child under the age of 18. At present Sindh is the only province in Pakistan where the legal marriage age for both girls and boys is 18 years, while in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, the minimum for girls is still 16 years.

"A woman's right to choose a spouse and freely enter into marriage is central to her life, dignity and equality as a human being and must be protected and upheld by law," the experts said.

They stressed the need for provisions to invalidate, annul or dissolve marriages contracted under duress, with due consideration for the women and girls concerned, and to ensure access to justice, remedy, protection and adequate assistance for victims.

Notwithstanding the right of children to freedom of thought, conscience and religion in accordance with Article 14 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, change of religion or belief in all circumstances must be free, without coercion and undue inducements, they said.

"The Pakistani authorities must enact and rigorously enforce laws to ensure that marriages are contracted only with the free and full consent of the intended spouses, and that the minimum age for marriage is raised to 18, including for girls," the experts stated. "Women and girls must be treated without discrimination, including those belonging to the Christian and Hindu communities."

They highlighted cases of forced religious conversions, including that of Mishal Rasheed, who was abducted at gunpoint from her home in Punjab Province while preparing for school in 2022. Mishal was sexually assaulted, forcibly converted to Islam and forced to marry her abductor. They also noted that last month, on March 13, a 13-year-old Christian girl was allegedly abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and married to her kidnapper after her age was recorded as 18 on a marriage certificate.

The UN experts said that Christian and Hindu girls remained particularly vulnerable to forced religious conversion, abduction, trafficking, child, early and forced marriage, domestic servitude and sexual violence.

The group included Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief Nazila Ghanea; Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Nicolas Levrat; Special Rapporteur on Human Trafficking Siobhan Mullally, and Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery Tomoya Obokata. The chair of the working group on discrimination against women and girls, Dorothy Estrada Tanck, and members of the working group  Claudia Flores, Ivana Krstic, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi  also joined the experts.

The special rapporteurs are part of the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council. Special procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the council's independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world.

The UN experts urged Pakistan to bring perpetrators to justice, enforce existing legal protections against child, early and forced marriage, abduction and trafficking of minority girls, and uphold the country's international human rights obligations.

A report published in November 2021 by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Freedom of Religion and Belief claimed that approximately 1,000 girls from other religious groups in Pakistan had been abducted and forcibly converted.

Tehmina Arora, Asia advocacy director for Alliace Defending Freedom International, said a uniform age for marriage across Pakistan coupled with a watchful judiciary will protect the rights and freedoms of young girls across the country, particularly those belonging to the vulnerable Christian community.

"Every year in Pakistan, thousands of minor girls are forcibly converted by and married to their abductors," Arora said. "Nobody should suffer the horrors of abduction, forced marriage and forced conversion."

Pakistan has faced global opprobrium for its shaky commitments to safeguarding religious minorities, and the unwillingness of the Pakistani government to denounce extremism without equivocation. But that has not slowed the momentum of oppression targeting Christians, Hindus, and Ahmadis, who are among the most marginalized and persecuted groups in the country.

Despite attempts to do so, especially in provincial assemblies, liberal Pakistani legislators have been unable to pass legislation against forced conversions and further amending Pakistan's child marriage laws. These two issues have a deep correlation and further complicate attempts to enact any such laws.

Pakistan ranked seventh on Open Doors' 2024 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian, as it was the previous year.

 2024 Christian Daily International-Morning Star News
What progressive Christians get wrong

Progressive Christians, intent on enforcing equality in the church, instead sow division. In their desire for absolute equality they remake God as a cosmic Henry Ford who famously told his customers that they could have any colour of Model T 'as long as it's black'. But God does not go in for mass production: He is a craftsman and each one of us is unique.

Injustice based on skin colour, sex, age or any of the other discriminations common in our day should be opposed, especially when it appears in the church. But Christians should also be clear on the grounds on which they oppose injustice.

Subordinating theology

In attempting to undo what they see as injustice, progressive Christians abandon theology and adopt secular woke hermeneutics, particularly Critical Race Theory (CRT). This is the route chosen by the Church of England, teaching it in their schools and preaching it from their pulpits. So entrenched is CRT that a social justice unit being set up in the diocese of Birmingham announced that it would be hiring a 'deconstructing whiteness' officer. In attempting to create equality, they end up emphasising difference.

Recently the Ven Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, Archdeacon of Liverpool, called for 'anti-whiteness' in the church; she also wants Christians to 'smash the patriarchy'. Giving the reason for her views, Dr Threlfall-Holmes did not say they were the result of intensive study and reflection on Scripture; instead she said she had attended a one-day conference on racial justice organised by the charity Reconciliation Initiatives. This resulted in her waking up to the harmful whiteness of the Anglican church.

Far from helping Christians to grasp the value of loving our neighbours, a command Jesus considered of greatest importance, progressive Christianity begins by emphasising divisions between Christians on the basis of skin colour. It encourages the majority of Christians in the UK to view themselves morally flawed due to their inherited skin colour.

Starting point

Critics of progressivism within the CofE point to its divisive and demoralising effects. Valid as these criticism are, they miss the main failure. Dr Threlfall-Holmes and the other progressive Christians make a fundamental error in their starting point by adopting a secular ideology which subordinates the Bible. Where you start influences where you end up. If you are seeking racial harmony through CRT, 'you can't get there from here'.

Progressive Christians take human concepts, varnish them with biblical terminology and imagine they are being true to God's will. It doesn't matter how much of a coating you give these ideologies, they remain human and ignore the sovereignty of God. Nowhere in Scripture do we find the concept of 'intersectionality'.

In the church the Word of God must always be our starting point and supreme rule in faith and life. In Scripture we find a very different approach to reconciling people and helping us live together. The apostles, in a very unjust society, did not operate on a framework of oppressor and oppressed. The Romans who ruled Paul's world certainly oppressed the people they conquered and considered themselves above all others, yet nowhere do we find Paul railing against 'Roman privilege'.

If Paul had used progressive categories the early church would have fractured and died an early death. We find him doing something very different. Paul defends equality not by filling quotas and comparing percentages but by focussing on the person of Christ.

The same in Christ

Instead of demanding visible racial equality between Christians, Paul insists that outward differences are immaterial due to what Christ has done within us. He tells us that in Christ, 'There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus' (Galatians 3:28). Our differences are recognised, but Paul ignores them because we have something far better and more important which binds us together. This is where true equality is found, in Christ and especially when we come to His table.

We are taught that we all, whatever our background, are in the same condition, need the same Saviour, receive His grace in the same way and travel together to the same end. Christians 'have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all' (Colossians 3:10,11).

No division within the gospel and its outworking was permitted. At the Lord's Supper every believer came to the same table. Nationality, language, colour, social class, these were all immaterial. In a hierarchical society based on difference and oppression, the gospel created a place of genuine equality, the church. This scandalised the Romans and provoked opposition to Christians because of their dangerously radical ideas and practices which threatened to undermine their stratified society.

Follow the Gospel fully

The church has not always lived up to its foundational principles: it consists of fallen people who screw things up. There are things in the church's history of which we should be proud and other things of which we should be ashamed. But the things of which we are ashamed should inspire us to redouble our efforts to follow the gospel more fully rather than abandon it for secular ideology.

There is only one place where there is true equality between people, in Christ. Resisting the encroachment of progressive ideology and especially CRT in the church is much more than resisting a political stance: it is a vital defence of the gospel.

Campbell Campbell-Jack is a retired Church of Scotland minister. He blogs at A Grain of Sand.
An 85-year-old Idaho woman is being hailed as a "hero" for killing a man who broke into her home in the early morning hours to protect herself and her disabled son, authorities said.

Christine Jenneiah was asleep in her Bingham County home last month when she was awakened around 2 a.m. by a man later identified as Derek Condon, Bingham County Prosecuting Attorney Ryan Jolley said in a statement posted Wednesday on Facebook.

The only other person at the home at the time was Jenneiah's disabled son, David Jenneiah.

Condon placed the elderly woman in handcuffs, struck her in the head, and demanded she tell him where any valuables were in the house, placing a pistol at her head.

Condon left Jenneiah handcuffed to a chair as he went downstairs to search.

While he was gone, Jenneiah managed to move her chair so that she could retrieve her revolver from under her pillow.

When Condon came back into the room, he threatened to kill Jenneiah. "She ultimately made the decision that it was 'now or never' and drew her concealed 357 magnum and engaged Condon, striking him twice with both shots," the prosecuting attorney wrote.

Jolly determined that Jenneiah was "justified" in taking her actions against Condon.

"Her grit, determination and will to live appeared to be what saved her that night," Jolly said.
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American officials are condemning China for what they say is a concerted effort to boost Russia's military assaults on Ukraine.

The boosted support comes as Ukraine is flailing and its power plants pounded as the U.S. Congress debates continued funding for the beleaguered nation.

China, meanwhile, is providing Russia with drone and missile technology, satellite imagery and machine tools, according to senior U.S. officials, Reuters reported.

The Chinese Embassy in the U.S., however, insisted it has not provided weaponry to any party, Reuters noted. It emphasized that is "not a producer of or party involved in the Ukraine crisis."

Sources told Reuters that President Biden raised the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping in their recent phone call, and that other Ukraine allies have also complained.

Ukraine is increasingly struggling for its existence. Russian airstrikes on Friday destroyed Kyiv's largest power plant.
Chinese premier meets Surinamese president

Xinhua) 11:05, April 13, 2024

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with President of the Republic of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, April 12, 2024. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with President of the Republic of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi in Beijing on Friday.

Li said that since the establishment of diplomatic ties more than 40 years ago, bilateral relations have maintained sound and steady development, with fruitful cooperation in various fields.

China is ready to work with Suriname to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, carry forward the traditional friendship, deepen strategic mutual trust and promote practical cooperation, constantly enrich the connotation of the China-Suriname strategic cooperative partnership and bring more tangible benefits to the two peoples, he said.

China will, as always, support Suriname in safeguarding national sovereignty and independence, and following a development path suited to its national conditions, Li said, pointing out that China stands ready to work with Suriname to strengthen cooperation in traditional areas such as infrastructure, agriculture, forestry and fishery, expand cooperation in emerging areas such as digital economy, blue economy and green economy, and deepen cultural and tourism, education and training exchanges guided by the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

China is ready to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Suriname in the United Nations and other multilateral mechanisms, actively implement the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative, better respond to climate change and other global challenges, and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, Li said.

The Surinamese side thanks China for its strong support in fighting COVID-19 and promoting economic and social development, and appreciates China's active efforts to build a community with a shared future for mankind by practicing multilateralism, Santokhi said.

Suriname firmly adheres to the one-China principle and supports China's efforts to promote national reunification, he said, expressing hopes of working with China to implement the global initiatives, stick to multilateralism, strengthen cooperation in agriculture, economy and trade, infrastructure construction, medical care, education, culture and tourism under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, deepen inter-party exchanges, and jointly tackle climate change. 

Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with President of the Republic of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, April 12, 2024. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
In an increasingly muddled message on where he stands on abortion, former President Donald Trump boasted on Friday: "We broke Roe v Wade."

He made the comment at a news conference in Arizona with House Speaker Mike Johnson.

"Nobody thought it was possible. We gave it back to the states and the states are working very brilliantly, in some cases conservative, in some cases not conservative, but they're working. And it's working the way it's supposed to," said the former president.

Trump has made some attempts to waffle on the issue after the historic Supreme Court ruling and as Republican oppostion to abortion threatens to drive millions of female voters from the GOP in the presidential election. Earlier this month Trump said he would not sign a national abortion ban if he makes it to the White House.

The Supreme Court, stacked with three justices nominated by Trump, overturned the landmark 1973 ruling legalizing abortion in June 2022. Trump has called the decision a "miracle."

"Every ... real legal scholar wanted to have it go back to the states," Trump said at the news conference, without offering any evidence. "Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative. And we were able to do that ... and now the states are working their way through it."

The issue took on new importance this week when the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a statute, dating back to 1864 before Arizona became a state, allows for abortion to be banned, except in cases of incest or when a mother's life is in jeopardy.
As more employees seek 'green' perks and more companies return to pre-pandemic office work, commuting is a likely place to focus efforts to embed climate change within workplace benefits culture.

With Walmart saying "multi-modal and alternative transportation is a big part of the future of commuting," it has facilitated bikes as a green lifestyle perk for employees, investing in chargers for e-bikes and e-scooters, bike racks, and showers for cyclists arriving to work, while it has deliberately reduced design space allocated for parking lots.

Walmart , the nation's largest employer, has been factoring the environmental impact of employees' daily commutes into the company's carbon footprint in an example of a shifting corporate culture, while in recent years the retailer has been promoting alternative forms of commuting that were integral to design of its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.

But for most rank-and-file employees, benefit packages in recent decades have had essentially two main categories  health and retirement. Now there are indications that green benefit packages may become more common. One potential spearhead for the nascent movement is commuter benefits, particularly benefits that facilitate healthier, eco-friendly modes of transportation, allowing employers to facilitate and promote lifestyles that appeal to an increasingly environmentally-conscious workforce, while lowering the company's own net carbon footprint.

Environmental commitments from major companies have tended to focus on major operational efficiency targets, such as Google's carbon-free data centers , and from the supply chain to the consumer end market, such as Apple's carbon-neutral smartwatch . There are some companies all-in, as a brand, in fighting climate change , such as Patagonia. And at the C-suite level, it's already a norm on the compensation side of the equation, with executive bonuses at companies, such as Apple, tied to ESG performance metrics .

More workers in today's labor market want to take action on climate change in some way as part of their jobs, yet many encounter a major stumbling block: lack of understanding when it comes to their employer's own commitment to the issue. So-called green perks, also referred to as climate change benefits, could help to bridge that gap. A rising, though still marginal trend in the job market, employee enticement and compensation packages tied to climate change can help to make these abstractions clearer and more actionable in the workplace.

Walmart has a stated a goal of having 10% of its workforce biking to work in Bentonville  but the goal has been difficult to reach, and has been pushed back from 2023 to 2025 when the corporate headquarters are set for completion. Still, similar to the challenges of wider adoption of electric vehicles, infrastructure plays a major role in getting employees on bikes, and Walmart has gone all-in on this in Bentonville.

Across the 500 employers representing over 8 million workers that respond to an annual survey from management consultant WTW , the topic of green benefits is beginning to register, says Caroline Mangiardi, associate director, health & benefits at the firm. While its annual best practices survey focuses on health-care benefits, it began to include a section on climate-related benefits in 2022 and she says employer attitudes are shifting. Increasing priority is to be given to climate-related benefits in the years ahead, according to the survey. Half of employers had considered this concept a low priority over the past three years, but only a third now see climate benefits as a low priority.

Employer-funded home upgrades, EV purchase perks

The trend is not limited to the bikes for commuting to work. "What is exciting are innovative benefits such as reimbursements specifically deemed for sustainable home upgrades, providing leave for weather-related events, and bike programs," said Mangiardi.

Bank of America pledged to more than double the availability of EV-charging stations at its financial centers. As part of this plan, it has provided eligible employees with up to $4,000 for a purchase or $2,000 for a lease of a qualified new all-electric passenger car or truck.

Younger workers from the Gen Z demographic may be front-and-center when it comes to including social and environmental consciousness in corporate benefit programs, but Mangiardi said, "It's important to note that employees of all generations support sustainability."

Some niche benefits firms are embedding the green perks concept into their business model. Lauren Schneider, a spokeswoman for Compt, which provides employee expense management that replaces or consolidates existing perks with stipends designed around employee lifestyle spending, says these incentives can be green focused. Though she also said it's still early days for the idea. "There's a nascent but growing interest in climate change benefits," Schneider said, pointing out that Google searches for commuter benefits, as an example, are trending up.

Early adopters among employers could benefit. "From our more direct experience in the benefits space, the lack of widespread implementation suggests a significant opportunity for companies to innovate and lead in this space," Schneider said. "By aligning employee benefits with environmental sustainability, companies not only address a talent demand (more people want CSR focused and environmentally conscious employers) but also more holistically support that talent," she said.

Recent data from benefits consultant Mercer indicates that facilitating green and healthy commutes continues to rise as a benefits priority. Nearly one-third of companies aim to promote and facilitate eco-friendly modes of commuting for their employees, according to its 2023 Mercer Transportation Trends report.

A 'carbon savings account' for work

Lizzy Kolar, co-founder & CEO of Scope Zero, which offers a carbon savings account (CSA) as a method for distributing green perks to employees, likened it to a health savings account. "But for home technology and personal transportation upgrades that drive corporate ESG efforts," she said. Stipends for commuter benefits, biking, and EV discounts, as well as work-from-home expenses, are key components to the program.

Employer financial contribution to each employee's CSA and the discounts from its vendor marketplace significantly reduce the upfront costs of home tech and personal transportation upgrades, Kolar said. Providing a platform designed for this type of perk also allows for customized upgrade recommendations, direction of employees to top products and vendors, and identification of relevant utility and government rebates.

With green perks, the headlines are smaller than the operational and supply chain commitments from major corporations, and the impact is not yet sufficiently studied. But as back-to-work mandates continue to gain momentum, there is the opportunity to incorporate the concept into a new work-life balance. Green perks are a benefits arena where the demand would seem to outstrip supply, and green commuter benefits may be the first indication of a wider adoption wave.

That's Kolar's bet. "This demand stems from growing individual interest in sustainability and from the priorities within the 70% of Fortune 500s that have already made formal climate commitments," she said. "Our prediction is that within the next few years the standard benefits will no longer only include healthcare and retirement, but also sustainability," she said.
Third Point has formed a group in this investment with Saddle Point. This group has a collective economic ownership to 4,781,557 shares (8.04%) of AAP stock, which is a combination of common stock and derivatives, a vast majority of which is owned by Third Point. Saddle Point is an investment firm run by Roy Katzovicz, the former chief legal officer of Pershing Square Capital Management.

Activist Commentary: Third Point is a multi-strategy hedge fund founded by Dan Loeb, that will selectively take activist positions. Loeb is one of the true pioneers in the field of shareholder activism and one of a handful of activists who shaped what has become modern-day shareholder activism. He invented the poison-pen letter in a time when a poison pen was often necessary. As times have changed, he has transitioned from the poison pen to the power of the argument. Third Point has amicably gotten board representation at companies like Baxter and Disney, but the firm also will not hesitate to launch a proxy fight if it is being ignored.

On March 11 , Third Point and Saddle Point entered into an agreement with Advance Auto Parts, pursuant to which the following three directors were appointed to the board of directors: (i) Tom Seboldt, president of Seboldt Consulting Services and a former executive at O'Reilly Automotive; (ii) Gregory Smith, EVP, global operation and supply chain of Medtronic and former EVP, supply chain of Walmart; and (iii) Brent Windom, former president and CEO of Uni-Select.

Third Point and Saddle Point are not the first activists in this stock. Starboard Value had an activist campaign at Advance Auto Parts from September 2015 through May 2020 and exited their investment in the first quarter of 2021 when the stock was trading at approximately $185 per share. In late 2021, the stock peaked around $240 a share, but fell over time to about $120 a share by May 2023. After reporting a significant Q1 of 2023 earnings miss of 72 cents per share, 68% lower than the same quarter in 2022, compared to a consensus estimate of $2.57 per share, the stock price plummeted to $72.89 on May 31, 2023. This is when it really got interesting as an entry point for investors who have been watching the stock.

Advance Auto Parts effectively has two businesses: its core retail auto parts business and Worldpac, the company's wholesale auto parts distribution business. Worldpac is in a similar line of industry  it distributes automotive parts  but it's a completely different business with its own supply chain and own distribution network. The first opportunity to create value here is by selling Worldpac. Advance Auto Parts does not separately report Worldpac's financials, but it is considered by many to be the company's crown jewel and the sell side estimates its value at approximately $1.5 billion. But with approximately $2 billion in revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margins estimated to be at least high-single digits, Worldpac could fetch at least $2 billion at a conservative 10x multiple. A sale would enable management to sell down debt, immediately stabilize the company's balance sheet and upgrade its S&P rating of junk debt.

Just as importantly, this would allow management to focus on the core retail business, which trades at a value significantly below its peers. After backing out the Worldpac business at $2 billion, Advance Auto Parts' 4,770 stores are valued at approximately $1.25 million per store, whereas peers O'Reilly and AutoZone have per store valuations of $11 million and $8 million respectively. While part of this valuation discrepancy is the estimated value of Worldpac and part is the balance sheet issues, the real problem is sales and margins. O'Reilly generates sales of approximately $2.5 million per store versus AAP at $1.8 million. This is not a marketing issue, a pricing issue or a sales personnel issue. Rather, it is a supply chain and stocking issue. There is little, if any, brand loyalty in the auto parts business. Customers go to stores that have the part they need. AAP's biggest problem has been keeping parts in stock for sale, so customers go elsewhere. Solving this problem would not only increase their revenue closer in line with peers, but it will significantly improve their EBITDA margins. With a 50% gross profit margin, virtually half of every incremental sales dollar goes to the bottom line just by having the parts in stock.

The good news is that Advance Auto Parts has a relatively new CEO who is extremely competent and up for the job. Shane O'Kelly became CEO in September 2023. He has a solid retail background and is a West Point grad with the leadership abilities to manage a team and the discipline to manage costs. The one thing he needs is industry expertise and support at the board level. That is what Third Point and Saddle Point is providing with the recent settlement. On March 11, the two activists settled for board seats for Thomas Seboldt, Gregory Smith, and Brent Windom, all industry executives with a mix of automotive industry and supply chain experience. Seboldt spent most of his career with O'Reilly Automotive. Windom is an experienced automotive industry executive who most recently served as president and CEO of Uni-Select. Smith, is a proven supply chain expert with experience at Medtronic, Walmart and Goodyear. Finding the right directors to support a good CEO is a way many activists, including Third Point, create value for portfolio companies. In fact, when Third Point has received three or more board seats in activist campaigns, it has averaged a return of 49.79% versus 37.77% the S&P 500 over the same periods.

Ken Squire is the founder and president of 13D Monitor, an institutional research service on shareholder activism, and the founder and portfolio manager of the 13D Activist Fund, a mutual fund that invests in a portfolio of activist 13D investments.
Demonstrators wave Iran's flag and a Palestinian flag as they gather at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 14, 2024, after Iran launched a drone and missile attack on Israel. Atta Kenare | Afp | Getty Images

Iran on Saturday launched attacks against Israel, according to U.S. officials, escalating long-standing tensions between the two nations that have the potential to trigger a regional war. "Iran has begun an airborne attack against Israel," National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a Saturday statement. "The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran." Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Saturday that Israel would work "in close coordination" with the U.S. and regional partners to intercept the launches. "We are monitoring the threat in the airspace. It is a threat that takes several hours to reach the territory of the State of Israel," he added.

The Israel's war cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (3rd L), holds a meeting to discuss the drone attack launched by Iran in Tel Aviv, Israel on April 14, 2024. Israeli Government Press Office | Anadolu | Getty Images

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his war cabinet in Tel Aviv, following the announcement of the missile and drone launches, according to the Prime Minister's Office. International leaders including European Council President Charles Michel, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and France's foreign ministry publicly condemned Iran's attack on Saturday. The Biden administration is expecting Iran to target Israeli government sites, not civilian or religious sites and not U.S. assets in the area, U.S. officials told NBC News. The administration is anticipating the attack to involve 100 drones, dozens of cruise missiles and dozens of ballistic missiles, one of the officials added. Ahead of the attacks on Saturday, President Joe Biden was en route back to the White House, earlier than initially scheduled, to meet with his national security team, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, amid the growing prospect of an Iranian strike.

US President Joe Biden walks on the South Lawn of the White House after arriving in Washington, DC, US, on Saturday, April 13, 2024. Shawn Thew | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Earlier on Saturday, Iran's Revolutionary Guard seized a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship with links to Israel in the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route. The White House condemned the move shortly after. In anticipation of the attacks, airspaces in Israel and throughout the region were being temporarily shut down. Israel also announced that beginning on Sunday, it would close schools and limit gatherings to 1,000 people in certain areas. Strains between Iran and Israel have been heating up since the start of the war in Gaza in October, and especially over the past several weeks after Iran accused Israel of perpetrating an attack on its consulate in Damascus on April 1.

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei looks at the coffins of members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were killed in the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in the Syrian capital Damascus, during a funeral ceremony in Tehran, Iran April 4, 2024. Office of the Iranian Supreme WANA News Agency | Via Reuters
Australia's prime minister on Saturday hailed the "hero" police officer who stopped a vicious knife attack at a Sydney shopping mall that claimed at least six lives.

"She is certainly a hero. There is no doubt that she saved lives through her action," said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who called the murderous attack a "horrific act of violence indiscriminately targeting innocent people going about an ordinary Saturday."

New South Wales Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke also praised the officer at the same press conference who "took action, saving a range of people's lives."

He said the officer pursued the attacker, then fatally shot him when he turned to confront her.

Albanese did not immediately identify the officer, nor did he or the police commissioner discuss a possible motive for the attacker. Albanese said speculation at this point would be "unhelpful."

The cop who shot dead the Bondi knife murderer is a true hero



Give this woman the highest bravery award in the land & the freedom of Sydney  https://t.co/hSLzwkM8gw  Martin Daubney  (@MartinDaubney) April 13, 2024

The unnamed attacker entered the Westfield Bondi Junction mall late afternoon and began slashing at people. Those not killed were seriously or critically injured, said police. A baby was among those slashed.

The Australian Federal Police and Australian Security Intelligence Organization are continuing to investigate.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, saying the vessel was linked to Israel, which went on high alert over a possible direct Iranian attack that would ramp up a decades-old standoff between the regional foes. The Gaza war between Israel and Hamas, now in its seventh month, has driven up tensions in the region, spreading to fronts with Lebanon and Syria and drawing long-range fire at Israeli targets from as far away as Yemen and Iraq.

Emergency and security personnel gather at the site of strikes which hit a building next to the Iranian embassy in Syria's capital Damascus, on April 1, 2024. Syrian state media said Israeli strikes hit an Iranian consulate annex in the capital on April 1, while a war monitor reported eight people were killed and Iranian state media said a senior commander of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was among the dead, amid rising regional tensions due to the Gaza war. Maher Al Mounes | Afp | Getty Images

While those hostilities have been carried out by Tehran-backed militias, an April 1 strike that killed senior Iranian military officers in Damascus changed the equation. Blaming Israel  which has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility  Iran vowed retaliation. That threat has been taken seriously by world powers, several of which have advised their citizens against travel to the region. Israel, meanwhile, has pledged to respond in kind for any Iranian attack on its turf. Jordan on Saturday declared its airspace closed, in a possible precautionary move given the likelihood of its territory being overflown by any missiles exchanged by Iran and Israel. Earlier on Saturday, Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported that a Guards helicopter had boarded and taken into Iranian waters the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries. MSC, which operates the Aries, confirmed that Iran had seized the ship and said it was working "with the relevant authorities" for its safe return and the wellbeing of its 25 crew.

In this Monday, Oct. 18, 2021, photo the MSC Aries, right, is seen moored at the Port of Los Angeles. Damian Dovarganes | AP
Flightradar24 over the Middle East on April 14th, 2024 after Iran launched drone strikes towards Israel. Source: Flightradar24

Airspace reopened allowing flights throughout the Middle East to resume on Sunday, but dozens of others were canceled after Iran attacked Israel with drones and missiles overnight after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria earlier this month that killed several top Iranian officials. Israel's El Al canceled more than 20 Sunday flights, though some were still operating. Two El Al flights headed for Israel from Thailand on Saturday had diverted to Bangkok. The carrier told passengers not to come to the Tel Aviv airport until notified. Emirates Airline canceled one of its Dubai-Amman flights which was scheduled for Sunday, but flew two others. Air France and British Airways canceled Tel Aviv flights on Sunday. British Airways also scrubbed a flight to Amman.

A flight information board displaying cancellations in the arrival terminal of Ben Gurion airport on the morning after a drone and missile attack from Iran, near Tel Aviv, Israel on Sunday, April 14, 2024. Kobi Wolf | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Lufthansa canceled its service to and from Tel Aviv, Erbil, Iraq and Amman through Monday and plans to resume service on Tuesday, though its Beruit and Tehran flights are suspended until at least Thursday, it said. Some flights avoided large swaths of airspace in the Middle East, reroutes that delayed some planes, Swiss International Airlines said. The reroutes are the latest challenge for airlines that in recent years have had to change flight plans in the wake of Russia's attack on Ukraine, which can add to flight time and fuel costs. United Airlines , which resumed service to Tel Aviv early last month after suspending Israel flights after the Hamas attacks in October, called off its Newark to Tel Aviv flights on Saturday and Sunday after Israel briefly closed its airspace. Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq had also closed their airspace. "We are closely monitoring the situation and will make decisions on upcoming flights with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews," United said in a statement. The carrier is the only U.S. airline to have resumed service to Israel since October. United's Monday departure from Newark to Tel Aviv was listed as scheduled as of Sunday afternoon.

Passengers in the departure terminal in Ben Gurion airport on the morning after a drone and missile attack from Iran, near Tel Aviv, Israel on Sunday, April 14, 2024. Kobi Wolf | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Ukraine's top military general warned Saturday that the battlefield situation in the east of the country, which continues to be the epicenter of the fiercest fighting in Ukraine, has deteriorated sharply.

"The situation on the eastern front has significantly worsened in recent days," Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, said on Telegram.

"This is primarily due to the significant intensification of enemy offensive actions following the presidential elections in the Russian Federation," he added, in comments translated by NBC News.

Syrskyi said warm, dry weather had facilitated Russian forces' attacks on Ukrainian positions in the Lyman and Bakhmut areas of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, with Russian "assault groups supported by armored vehicles," including dozens of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

"Despite significant losses, the enemy is increasing efforts by deploying new units with armored vehicles, occasionally achieving tactical success," Syrsyki said.

Russia's military objectives, at least in the near term, are to capture the rest of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in eastern Ukraine, areas that they currently only partially occupy despite Russia claiming them as part of the Russian Federation, having illegally annexed them in Sept. 2022.

Nonetheless, Russian forces have made some notable advances in Luhansk and Donetsk in recent months, aided by their advantage in terms of manpower and supplies of artillery shells. On Saturday, Russia's defense ministry claimed its forces had captured another village, Pervomaisk, in Donetsk. CNBC was unable to verify the claim and Ukraine has not yet commented.
In this courtroom sketch, Michael Cohen looks toward former U.S. President Donald Trump as he is questioned by a lawyer for the attorney general's office, during the Trump Organization civil fraud trial in New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York City on Oct. 24, 2023.

Donald Trump on Saturday took aim at two likely witnesses in his upcoming New York hush money trial, testing the boundaries of a gag order that prohibits such public statements.

"Has Mark POMERANTZ been prosecuted for his terrible acts in and out of the D.A.'s Office. Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for LYING?" the former president posted on Truth Social.

The social media post is the latest challenge to the limits of a gag order that forbids Trump from making public statements about likely witnesses and jurors.

Cohen previously worked as Trump's personal lawyer and is likely to be a key witness in the trial. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to charges related to hush money payments to two women in 2016, which he said were made "at the direction" of an unnamed 2016 presidential candidate. He is expected to name Trump at the upcoming trial.

Pomerantz is a former prosecutor who once led the Manhattan District Attorney Office's investigation into Trump's hush money payments before he resigned from the case in 2022.

The trial is scheduled to kick off jury selection on Monday, where Trump will face 34 counts related to falsifying business records, allegedly to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. That start date was delayed from March 25 to give Trump's legal team time to review new documents.
Customers admire a Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle at a Tesla store in Honolulu, Hawaii. Alex Tai | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

U.S. consumers have been making the move to all-electric vehicles more slowly than many expected  but a growing leader in EV adoption is Hawaii. The tropical island state this year ranks fifth in overall EV adoption at 11.9% of new retail vehicles sold through February, according to J.D. Power. Hawaii also ranks third  behind only California (46.1) and Washington (37)  in J.D. Power's "EV Adoption Score," which is weighted based on market, consumer preference and EV availability, among other conditions, with a score of 33.8.

"We measure adoption relative to availability, meaning shoppers need availability of EVs that meet their needs  before they can even consider adopting," said Elizabeth Krear, vice president of the electric vehicle practice at J.D. Power. "In California, the quantity of EVs is much higher than in Hawaii. But when consumers are given a viable option, 33% are choosing to buy the EV." Hawaii also is the top state for EV adoption that hasn't agreed to the California Air Resources Board's Zero-Emission Vehicle program, according to J.D. Power. Those rules promote EVs and include stricter vehicle emissions and miles per gallon standards for traditional vehicles in places that have adopted the measure, including the other top five states: California, Washington, Oregon and Colorado.

Why Hawaii?

What's going on in Hawaii that's leading to more consumers opting for EVs? It's a mix of things but mainly high fuel costs, the availability of renewable energy for charging and culture, according to Ivan Drury, director of insights at auto research firm Edmunds, who lives in Waikiki on Hawaii's Oahu Island. "There is a higher sense of responsibility towards stewarding the land versus most mainland states. If you look up 'Aina' in Hawaiian, you see what I mean, lots of pride for the land," he said. Drury also said the popularity of hybrid models in the state (at 19% in 2023) has helped in the switch to EVs, and road trip concerns  a hurdle for some buyers in the U.S.  aren't really a problem in Hawaii. "We're on an island. No one is really worried about road trips unless they live on the Big Island," he said. (For reference, the "Hawaii Belt" around the Big Island, or Hawaii Island, is only about 260 miles.) Gasoline prices also play a factor, as they do in other states, such as California. The average price for a gallon of gas in Hawaii is about $4.72, according to AAA. That's the highest in the U.S. other than California and $1.10 higher than the national average of $3.62 a gallon. J.D. Power reports the top-selling EVs in the state are the Tesla Model Y, Tesla Model 3 and Ford F-150 Lightning. "I'm really happy. I like the car. I like not buying gas," said Scott Sageman, a 2021 Tesla Model 3 owner who has lived on Hawaii's Big Island since moving from California in 2020.

Aloha Kia Leeward in Waipahu, Hawaii Aloha Kia

Russell Wong, regional vice president of Aloha Kia's seven stores in Hawaii, said customer interest in EVs continues to grow but the vehicles still remain only about 8% of the stores' sales. "While it is a significant percentage of our current sales compared to other dealers or other markets, it's still a very, very small percentage," he said. "We do see that continuing to climb." Wong said there's been a lot of interest in Kia's new EV9 SUV that's just arriving to dealerships. The current top-selling EV at the Kia dealerships is the Niro, which also is Kia's least expensive all-electric vehicle, and Aloha Kia has priced it starting at about $36,000.

EV concerns

Although Hawaii is embracing electric vehicles more than some of its peers, it still has many of the same problems with EV adoption that the U.S. mainland does, including lack of charging infrastructure, affordability and a dearth of vehicle choices. A Gallup poll released Monday found less than half of U.S. adults, 44%, say they are either "seriously considering or might consider" buying an EV, which is down from 55% in 2023. The proportion not intending to buy an EV has increased from 41% to 48%. Sageman, who lives on the slope of a volcano, said he has not experienced problems charging, as he does so at home, but the estimated range of his Model 3 can be less than expected due to the state's hilly terrain. "The one thing that I've noticed is you do not pay too much attention to the estimated range," he said. "You're not going to get the same amount if you're doing a lot of uphill driving." The average cost to a consumer buying an EV from a franchised dealer (excluding Tesla, Rivian and other direst-to-consumer brands) in Hawaii this year is more than $62,600, according to Edmunds. That's down from more than $68,500 last year and roughly $12,700 over the average price of a vehicle in Hawaii.
India has moved to amend its Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with Mauritius by including a Principal Purpose Test or PPT in the bilateral treaty. The PPT will determine if third-country resident investors based out of Mauritius have a genuine case to get capital gains tax benefits on the investments they are making in India.While the move is in sync with standard global taxation protocols, the wording of the amendment, which is yet to be notified, has the tax world worried. Thats because the language of the new protocol seems to suggest that this amendment can invoke the PPT retrospectively.That means the amendment may even apply to investments that were made before March 31, 2017  the cut-off date that grandfathered all investments made from Mauritius into India, before it.CNBC-TV18s Surabhi Upadhyay caught up with Ashok Wadhwa, Group CEO of Ambit Pvt. Ltd. to get his take on the interpretation of the latest amendment and the potential impact if it applies tax changes retrospectively.Its Deja vu. In some ways, India is an interesting place because we don't let anything sleep forever. We have the ability to wake up issues. The changes that are being suggested through this preamble that the government of India is signing with Mauritius is actually an age-old accepted global principle.When treaties were first signed, which are bilateral in nature, there was a clear understanding that treaties would be created for the benefit of residents and permanent residents of respective countries. Over a period of time, we've heard different terms called treaty abuse, and treaty shopping, and governments across the globe have tried to introduce legislation to ensure that the treaty benefits are actually available to those for whom they were genuinely meant to begin with. We've seen an evolution of that in India. We've seen Mauritius being accepted and then Mauritius being not accepted.My own view is this particular legislation is nothing else, other than kind of creating a level field between the OECD model, and the historical OECD model, which always has a clause called limitation of benefits, limitation of benefits is exactly what our current PPT says, which is basically what is the principal reason for which you have created a company in Mauritius.My own view is that it's par for the course, the only challenge which I heard, as a debate on your own television was on whether it has the ability to be retroactive in nature. Again, my bid on that is that when Mr. Jaitley (the Late former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley) introduced the 2016 budget, and changed the Mauritius tax benefit, particularly on capital gains, I believe, and this is only my recollection at this point of time, I don't have the print in front of me. But I believe there was a clause or a clarification that was provided with the budget, which suggested that the 2017 and the 2019 amendments bringing down the Tax Concession to 50% and then to zero, literally, were related to investments made after that date. And should that be true? Should there be that clarification somewhere in the budget books, I think it should provide adequate evidence to say that even the preamble cannot be retroactive in nature, and that it should really only apply to investment made from the day the two countries have exchanged the notes and agreed to implement the new treaty.If you look at the definition of retrospective which has been tested in India on several tax occasions, Vodafone being perhaps the most widely known one. It is always related to what was the legislation when I made the first principal decision. In this case, the first principal decision of making the investment if the law on that day permitted by a particular concession, any withdrawal of that, by subsequent legislation is deemed to be retrospective in nature. So yes, I am sure the revenue authorities will want to maximize tax collection and say that the Transaction Date becomes the date on which we have to read the legislation, whereas those who have suffered are those who made the investment prior to 2017 or before this change came in, will always argue to say that anything which applies differently from the date I made the principal decision is retroactive in nature.It would certainly be damaging from a credibility perspective because that is the one voice which has been very loud in global commercial markets to say that is India going to change its legislation retroactively to her decisions made it up in this time. So, I think it will only give further emphasis to the fact that retroactive changes can be made, which is not great for confidence when people are making these investments and at a time when we are seeing so much interest and so much economic activity coming to India, perhaps not worthwhile.
Former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has presented legislation aiming to prevent noncitizens from voting in federal elections.

Voting in federal elections, however, is already illegal for noncitizens in the United States.

Johnson outlined a forthcoming bill from House Republicans that would introduce new citizenship documentation requirements for voter registration.

Experts say this could make it harder for many eligible voters, such as naturalized citizens and young voters, to vote.

"We cannot wait for widespread fraud to occur especially when the threat of fraud is growing with every single illegal immigrant that crosses that [southern U.S.] border," Johnson said at a press conference at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

The belief that immigrants are affecting American elections has been around in U.S. politics for over a century.

Both Trump and Johnson have promoted the baseless claim that the Biden administration is letting migrants cross the southern border in order to vote.

"We believe one of the reasons for this open border is because they want to turn these people into voters," Johnson suggested.

Since 2020 nine states have passed new laws to identify and remove non-citizens from their voter rolls.

Election officials verify citizenship differently across states.

Federal law requires voters to provide a unique ID number, usually a driver's license or Social Security number, allowing officials to work with those agencies to verify citizenship status, said NPR.

A recent study in Arizona found that less than 1% of noncitizens try to register to vote, most of which are believed to be errors.

Complicating things, some local jurisdictions permit noncitizens to vote in local elections, such as San Francisco, which allows noncitizen parents and guardians to vote in school board elections.

Several cities in Maryland and Vermont also enable noncitizens to vote in municipal elections.

Ron Hayduk, an expert on noncitizen voting at San Francisco State University, told NPR that even in places where noncitizens can legally vote, they normally don't.

Most of the individuals Hayduk interviewed about their experience don't want to risk their status in the U.S. just to cast a single vote.
What separates a good Saturday Night Live host from a bad one? There are several factors (being funny likely tops the list), but the authors of Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live argue that one of the cardinal sins is for guests to arrive with their own entourages and their own writers.

Tina Fey agrees: My advice to anyone that hosts: Dont bring your own writers if you want people to love you.

On the one hand, why shouldnt comics bring their own writers along? Pros who regularly write gags for, say, Jon Stewart or Seth Meyers would best know what kinds of jokes work for them. But Stewart is a good example of a host who knew better. I didnt bring any of my writers with me. Theyve got plenty. Theyre very, very talented people over there who already know their thing, and hopefully I went into it thinking Id bring a little something to the process, he explained. We had a great time doing all that stuff. Its a very collaborative environment.

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When hosts insist on bringing their own teams, said longtime SNL writer James Downey, it rarely goes well. It was ironic when Jerry Seinfeld came because some of the people he brought used to work here. I can tell you that approach has a terrible track record, he said. Almost without exception, when they bring writers along their stuff doesnt get on.

Is that because SNL is biased against material written by outsiders? Not according to Downey. We will have the read-through without there being any kind of prejudice against them, he claimed. Its just that often they write stuff that eats it.

Tom Green brought in a few of his own writers and was kind of more preoccupied with his image as a guy who doesnt give a fuck, relayed Horatio Sanz. And the show I think suffered.

One example of a comedians own writers improving the show? How about when Richard Pryor brought Paul Mooney with him in 1975? Mooney penned Word Association, still one of the shows landmark sketches and one that SNLs original staff was unlikely to write on its own. Mooney said the sketch was inspired by similarly frustrating exchanges with white NBC executives who questioned his comedy credentials, according to The Washington Post.

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But Pryor/Mooney seems to be the exception that proves the rule. Fey remembered Conan OBrien as a host smart enough to leave SNL writing to SNL writers. He has a staff of writers downstairs but he didnt bring anybody, she explained. He came up here and put himself in our hands, which was a good move.

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She also appreciated when celebrity guests leave the entourage at home: Its difficult when a host will have a publicist in their ear telling them whats funny. That always seems like bad news when you go down to talk to the host in their dressing room and youre talking through a publicist.

Ironically, comedy people can be the most challenging, said Fey, because they have their own kind of comedy that they do and they can be very resistant to what they will and wont do. I think theyre usually my least favorite. A host who actually writes on the script and hands it back to the writer is usually bad news.
A Texas high school teacher faces charges for allegedly preying on "troubled" teenagers to recruit them for prostitution, according to authorities.

Keidra Grigsby, 42, was arrested on Monday and charged with three counts of trafficking and three counts of compelling prostitution of juveniles, the Harris County Sheriff's Department said.

"It appears Grigsby recruited troubled juveniles from local high schools by offering them a place to stay, which would be a hotel," Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a statement on Facebook.

"Additional teen victims have come forward stating that Grigsby was also attempting to recruit them while attending school," he said.

The three students were 15, 16 and 17, and reported runaways, Gonzalez said.

Officials believe Grigsby, a teacher in Klein, Texas, helped her son, Roger Magee, 21, who was arrested last November for trafficking of children and compelling prostitution.

Magee is being held in the Harris County Jail, as is Grigsby.
From a lookout on the north side of the Vischer Ferry dam, Colleen Macaulay can hear the ice.

The Stockade Association president says in winter, she regularly travels to the perch less than 10 miles downriver from her 1775 apartment building to serve as a sentinel scouting the risk.

Macaulay knows firsthand how rapid thawing can free car-sized blocks of ice that grind down the Mohawk River and emanate an eerie creak. The retired pharmaceutical chemist has seen what happens when those large chunks of frozen river catch and cause pooling behind them, leading to significant flooding in the historic Schenectady neighborhood shes called home since the 1970s.

During a 2018 ice jamming event that officials said was the biggest the Mohawk Valley has seen in decades, Macaulay could do little more than place bricks in the Stockades Riverside Park to designate the increasingly unsettling high water mark as the Mohawk lapped toward homes on North Ferry Street.

Theres a good deal at stake here, Macaulay says of ice jamming. Here in the Stockade, we are most concerned about flooding and all possible means of mitigation.

The problem is, residents like Macaulay are feeling helpless these days. Its one thing to be at a loss during an active ice-jam event, when were all powerless to do anything beyond hoping for improving conditions that promote a gradual melt rather than a gush.

But when it comes to preventing or minimizing ice jamming in the Stockade and points west, there is an opportunity to be proactive, specifically by making certain changes to the Vischer Ferry site. In fact, an expert-led Ice Jam Mitigation Task Force, which was convened in 2019 as part of former Gov. Andrew Cuomos larger Reimagine the Canals Task Force, studied ice jamming along the Mohawk, including in the area known as the Schenectady pool between the state canal systems Lock 7 site at Vischer Ferry and Lock 8 site across from Maalwyck Park in Glenville. That task force issued a report in 2020 recommending modifications to the Vischer Ferry dam to lower the risk of ice jamming.

Specifically, the advocates call for moving ice through the dams main channel rather than a narrower northern lane and keeping current winter water levels static.

Unfortunately, no matter how many meetings Macaulay and others have attended or how many emails they have sent to state officials as public watchdogs on the process to ensure the right plans are put forth, they believe their advocacy on behalf of the experts recommendations has been significantly jammed.

Ahead of a key deadline, the New York Power Authority, which is licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to operate a hydroelectric power plant at the Vischer Ferry site, appears to be poised to move ahead with a plan that experts say not only fails to mitigate ice jamming in the area but could actually make ice jamming worse.

Despite all our work, we are certain that ice jams will continue to be a major hazard on the lower Mohawk, John Garver, a Union College geology professor and ice jam task force member between 2019 and 2022, wrote in a letter to the federal commission in November after hearing plans about the Vischer Ferry dam presented by the New York Power Authority.

For its part, the New York Power Authority says changes to the site are still a work in progress.

This effort includes actively exploring potential modifications to the Vischer Ferry dam that aim to reduce the risk of flooding, which may occur during a high water or ice jam event, Shane Mahar, spokesperson for the New York Power Authority and New York State Canal Corporation, wrote in an emailed statement. The engineering solutions being researched will make the dam safer and more efficient to operate when we may need to utilize it as one tool to help safeguard communities during weather events.

Still, Garver, Macaulay and others are worried about plans that have been presented thus far.

As an aside, Schenectadys flood-mitigation plan in the Stockade, which includes raising and moving several homes to take them out of the flood plain, stalled in 2021. But thats a story for a different day.

Heres whats happening right now with the dam:

The deal with the dam

On May 31, the New York Power Authoritys 40-year license to operate the 11.8 megawatt Vischer Ferry dam hydroelectric project is set to expire.

To renew the license administered by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the state power agency has been engaged in a methodical five-year process that involves studies, engineering plans and public hearings about what to do with the site, located on the Mohawk River, approximately 14 miles upstream from its confluence with the Hudson River.

The most recent public gathering occurred Nov. 8, when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission held a technical meeting during which the New York Power Authority outlined planned changes to the dam as a part of its relicensing application.

Garver, the Union geologist who served on the Ice Jam Mitigation Task Force, attended that meeting.

And he was alarmed because plans presented diverged from the task forces recommendations.

A key point is that the modeling and recommendations of the Ice Jam Mitigation Task Force, on which I served for over three years, was different from this proposal in the 11-8 meeting  very different, Garver, who declined to comment on the record for this piece, wrote in a Nov. 13 letter to the federal commission.

Task force recommendations

The Ice Jam Mitigation Task Force included Garver, Clarkson University engineers, as well as representatives from the New York Power Authority and the United States Geological Survey. While the task forces work was not directly part of the New York Power Authoritys dam-relicensing process, Garvers letter makes it plain he was stunned the task forces recommendations seem to have been overlooked during the relicensing process.

Garvers letter notes that if Federal Emergency Management Association funding is used to pay for modifications to the dam, ice jamming consideration should be a priority, since ice jamming causes flooding, which is the kind of natural disaster FEMA money is supposed to be used to address.

The Vischer Ferry Dam Modification and Ice Jam Mitigation Project is currently estimated to cost between $35 million and $40 million to complete, according to the New York Power Authority. In 2022, the power authority applied for $26.28 million in FEMA funding under two programs: Hazard Grant Mitigation Grant Program and Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities. The power authority anticipates receiving a decision from FEMA soon.

While the power authority maintains it is taking ice jamming seriously, Garvers letter says plans presented on Nov. 8 indicate the expert task force was ignored.

During its study, the Ice Jam Mitigation Task Force determined the most efficient way to limit ice jamming in the Schenectady pool is to flush ice through the widest section of the dam, known as dam D, according to Garver. To do this, the task forces research found that a new 72-inch-high gate near dam D on the south side of the river would ensure that ice  either freed naturally by thawing or freed by a tug boat tasked with breaking ice apart  would flow through the correct location and therefore minimize jamming and subsequent flooding.

Instead, plans revealed by the New York Power Authority on Nov. 8 called for a shorter 27-inch gate at dam D and dam E, with a taller 48-inch gate near dam F on the north side of the river. Such a proposal would push ice toward the narrower opening on the north side of the river, nearest to the New York Power Authoritys hydroelectric operations, rather than toward the main channel on the south side of the river.

The plan simply isnt the best way to prevent ice jamming, Garver noted.

The proposal revealed at the 11-8 meeting is, frankly, the least efficient method of flushing ice, according to numerical modeling, wrote Garver, who not only participated in the task force but who has been studying ice jamming in the Schenectady pool since the late 1990s. He also served on Cuomos Reimagine the Canals Task Force.

The ice-flushing plan wasnt the only problem Garver found with the New York Power Authoritys proposal. The geologist was also concerned by plans to maintain a winter water level thats 27 inches higher than the current winter water level.

With the current dam, the power authority uses what are essentially wooden planks to raise water levels during the warmer months to accommodate greater boat traffic. But the redone dam would have 27-inch inflatable crest gates that would keep the water level higher during the winter, while also giving the New York Power Authority the new ability to raise and lower water levels year round.

The power authority says the purpose for the new gates would be to impound additional water during the winter, allowing ice to be periodically passed over the dam when the gates are opened. The need for ice-breaking vessels in combination with the new crest gates would be evaluated after installation, according to the power authority.

But Garvers letter says the proposed higher winter water level only elevates the risk of flooding as a result of ice jamming.

Residents, consultants, task forces, and others have spent over a decade considering the effect of lowering the crest of the VFD, not raising it. Increasing full pool winter elevation by 27 will cause additional flooding of the Stockade and endanger residents unless crest gate operations are perfectly timed, Garver wrote. Elevation of the Schenectady pool in the winter will not only complicate that planning, but it will also endanger residents.

Allayed concerns?

The power authority is hoping to allay concerns: The New York Power Authority and the New York State Canal Corporation are committed to ensuring the canal and its infrastructure is safe, operable, and resilient for its next century of operation, Mahar wrote.

But Stockade residents like Macaulay are troubled by the raised water level and by the possibility that tugs wont necessarily be used to break up ice  a strategy that has been effective over the past several winters. Macaulay knows the recent milder winters dont remediate future ice-jamming risk. Mostly, shes frustrated that the concerns shes expressed on behalf of the expert panels recommendations havent been embraced by the power authority.

I understand where NYPA is coming from, and I understand where FERC is coming from. But they have to understand where the Stockade is coming from, Macaulay told me last week as she watched a steady spring flow spill over the southern side of the Vischer Ferry dam, across the river from her typical winter lookout. What's the use of five years worth of participation and studies and community meetings and voting on which thing we think is the best solution? she asked.

Macaulay said shes feeling about as helpless right now as she feels during an active ice jam, when large masses creak down the river.

Shes worried her advocacy and the opinions of experts will fall permanently on deaf ears.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY  Building on the accomplishments of the last 10 years will be a priority for Montgomery County Executive Matthew Ossenfort as he passes the halfway point on his final term.

When you look at the results, and what has happened over the last 10 years, [they] show that we've made some big steps forward, Ossenfort said Thursday during the annual State of the County address and celebration of the 10th anniversary of the shift to a charter form of government. The special occasion was marked at Julian's in Amsterdam.

Ossenfort was the first elected executive when the county formally shifted to a charter form of government in 2014. The county charter limits the office to three consecutive terms and he is now in his final four-year term expiring at the end of 2025.

While resources were initially limited, Ossenfort said the change in government brought stability and then advancement to the county, as a well-equipped team was formed that is prepared to continue moving forward when his time in office concludes.

This has allowed us to really change culture, change who we are, put our best foot forward, and be the people that we know we are, Ossenfort said. I'm just so proud of this team we have put in place  I feel truly like we have a team of All-Americans.

Recounting achievements of the last decade, Ossenfort is looking to expand upon several recent projects and initiatives during his remaining tenure.

Moving essential services out of the floodplain, modernizing county facilities and addressing overcrowding have been longstanding priorities that began coming to fruition with the relocation of the Emergency Management Office and construction of the Shared Services Facility.

The second phase of renovations to the former Recorder newspaper building at 1 Venner Road for conversion into the Health and Human Services building will further that goal. Department of Social Services staff moved into the facility after the first phase wrapped up at the end of last year.

The eventual relocation of the Departments of Public Health and Mental Health to that building will free up space in other county buildings for further renovations for the eventual relocation of the offices of the district attorney and county clerk and the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Especially cramped quarters at the DMV have employees sitting back-to-back and maneuvering around one another to simply open doors, Ossenfort said.

We're not going to solve everything overnight, but these are the goals and these are the things that we need to strive for and try to do down the line, Ossenfort said. We're starting to look at the plans and the space and the needs and the improvements that need to be made.

Extending public transit to the western half of the county will be another long-range goal, building from the introduction of Capital District Transportation Authority bus service in the Amsterdam area in August 2022. The county previously did not have any public transit.

It's had a tremendously positive impact, Ossenfort said. Transportation is a challenge in all rural communities, and Montgomery County is no exception. And so when you can bring in the state resources  with a very minimal match locally  to provide transportation, you have to do it.

Although attention is presently on building ridership on the initial routes, Ossenfort said a second phase expanding services has always been eyed by local and state officials. He expects related discussions will start over the next two years.

After years of legwork, Ossenfort believes the redevelopment of the former Beech-Nut plant at Thruway Exit 29 in Canajoharie is drawing near in order to transform the languishing site into an asset for the community and the broader county.

Demolition of the western half of the plant is nearing completion. Pennrose Properties, LLC is buying that end of the property from the county for $450,000 in order to develop a mixed-use space. The previously demolished eastern half is under contract by cannabis producer E29 Labs which is awaiting state licensing.

Acknowledging frustration with the slow and uncertain licensing process by the state Office of Cannabis Management, Ossenfort is confident its only a matter of time before the site is redeveloped.

Regardless of how that works out, there's still opportunity on the horizon, you still have a clean site that is a highly attractive site with all the infrastructure, and should [E29] not work out, then I think we still have a lot of good ways to go to move forward in a positive way, Ossenfort said.

Another priority will be the continuation of the countys recently created tourism program to draw visitors and new residents to the region through community events and initiatives highlighting local businesses and attractions.

We have an aging population. We need people. We need to get people here to see what it's like, Ossenfort said. We need to showcase this county, show off the assets and give people a reason to move here. Because if we don't, we're going to be in for some real challenges down the road.

While those are among the present priorities, Ossenfort acknowledged the county is going to continue to grow and reinvent itself over time after he eventually leaves office.

Weve got this great team. It's going to continue to move things forward and someone else will be able to put their stamp on it. That's exciting. That's a good thing. Where I get choked up is the relationships, Ossenfort said. Im just incredibly proud  to know that we left this place better than the way we found it.
Victor Torres holds up signs that read TCEQ, enforce the permit and When will TPC explode? during a TCEQ hearing where residents protested the renewal of a federal operating permit for the TPC plant in East Houston at Raul Yzaguirre Schools for Success on Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Houston. Karen Warren/Staff photographer Stacks at the TPC facility are seen from a backyard of a home on Gober Street before a TCEQ hearing where residents protested the renewal of a federal operating permit for the TPC plant in East Houston at Raul Yzaguirre Schools for Success on Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Houston. Karen Warren/Staff photographer Nick Gill, TPC plant manager speaks during a TCEQ hearing where residents protested the renewal of a federal operating permit for the TPC plant in East Houston at Raul Yzaguirre Schools for Success on Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Houston. Karen Warren/Staff photographer Carmen Ivonne speaks during a TCEQ hearing where residents protested the renewal of a federal operating permit for the TPC plant in East Houston at Raul Yzaguirre Schools for Success on Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Houston. Karen Warren/Staff photographer Victor Torres holds up a sign in Spanish that reads We say no to environmental and health damage caused by TPC Group during a TCEQ hearing where residents protested the renewal of a federal operating permit for the TPC plant in East Houston at Raul Yzaguirre Schools for Success on Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Houston. Karen Warren/Staff photographer Norma Sierra-Garza speaks during a TCEQ hearing where residents protested the renewal of a federal operating permit for the TPC plant in East Houston at Raul Yzaguirre Schools for Success on Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Houston. Karen Warren/Staff photographer TCEQ held a hearing where residents protested the renewal of a federal operating permit for the TPC plant in East Houston at Raul Yzaguirre Schools for Success on Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Houston. Karen Warren/Staff photographer Activist Shiv Srivastava with Fenceline Watch speaks during a TCEQ hearing where residents protested the renewal of a federal operating permit for the TPC plant in East Houston at Raul Yzaguirre Schools for Success on Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Houston. Karen Warren/Staff photographer Stacks at the TPC facility are seen from a backyard of a home on Gober Street before a TCEQ hearing where residents protested the renewal of a federal operating permit for the TPC plant in East Houston at Raul Yzaguirre Schools for Success on Thursday, April 11, 2024, in Houston. Karen Warren/Staff photographer TPC Group petrochemical plant flares in east Houston neighborhood Ken Ellis/Staff

At the southeast end of Houstons inner loop, a forest of stacks from TPC Groups 80-year-old petrochemical facility breaks the sunken skyline, burning its excess gas  including cancer-causing 1,3-butadiene  in billows within a mile of more than 2,000 homes.

The smoke it emits is close enough to blacken the sky on the doorbell camera of some of the dozens of residents who joined a schoolhouse hearing Thursday, asking the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to deny the companys request for a permit to continue emitting federally controlled pollutants into the air.

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Local advocates for environmental health also joined the throng, taking advantage of a final chance for the public to comment on TPCs ongoing operations. Some, including Nalleli Hidalgo of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services, pleaded with agency staff to extend the permit approval process and review operations again to adjust them to new chemical plant emissions standards passed by the U.S. EPA on Tuesday.

Were tired of this, said Norma Sierra-Garza, a 30-year resident of the area who said she was frustrated with the smells, the flares and the fumes she has breathed in. Other attendees had fresher fears: Natalie Uranga, who recently moved just blocks away from the plant, is scared of what the fumes could be doing to her health.

Its been a lot, actually, Uranga said. Yall decided to put (the stack) pretty close to the neighborhood, and we can feel it shake our house and the windows rattle every time it bursts.

John Evans, TPC Groups director of Environmental Health and Safety, said the company did fenceline air quality monitoring and found chemical levels would not be harmful to nearby neighborhoods.

We also hired a firm to go out into the community and take monitoring samples both for butadiene and volatile organic compounds, and  they were all 'non-detect' from the sampling we did in the local community, he said. Multiple attendees pushed back, saying the monitoring methods and data had not yet been made public, casting doubt on their conclusions.

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Eyeing the expansion of TPC Groups chemical output in Houston and its pending air permit renewals, the Houston Health Department was granted half a million dollars in EPA funds in July to kick off a mobile air monitoring project in neighboring Meadowbrook/Allendale, Pecan Park and Park Place. Local organizers said the program funds were delayed, so the work is still not off the ground.

Publicly accessible fenceline monitoring is among the requirements of the EPAs new rule for chemical facilities including TPC, designed to keep communities safer and get more than 6,200 tons of air toxics out of the air each year, according to the agency. Plants whose permits are approved when the rules take effect in the coming months will have longer to adjust.

The TPC Group plant has broken air emissions standards before. It is flagged by the EPA as one of the facilities with 12 successive quarters of high priority violations and non-compliance with Clean Air Act standards.

The TPC property is also filled with a web of underground pipelines carrying liquefied petroleum gas, butadiene, raffinate, dry gas and petroleum. Within its plant, TPC Group turns petroleum into substances like cancer-causing 1,3-Butadiene, which is sold to companies making synthetic rubber.

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Those pipes lace through the plant itself. Their aging nooks and crannies created a ticking time bomb, according to an assessment by the EPA that led to an Order on Consent with the company in 2022.

The review stemmed from the explosion of a similar TPC Group facility in Port Neches in 2019, which caused multiple injuries, forced a 4-mile evacuation radius and burned for a month. A Chemical Safety Board investigation found the company did not have a safety management system in place to know when portions of those pipes were dangerously close to bursting.

After the EPAs 2022 assessment of the Houston plant, Regional Administrator Earthea Nance said, investigators found similar conditions in TPCs Houston facility that led to a dangerous, costly explosion in their Port Neches facility in 2019.

TPC representatives said they had since thoroughly upgraded their piping and closed out the process with the EPA, though they declined to share documents showing which actions were taken.

The company submitted its completion report in August 2023, said Sara Cronin, a spokeswoman for TPC Group. In the more than four years since the incident at our Port Neches facility, which now operates as a terminal, TPC Group has invested millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours in risk reduction initiatives.

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An EPA spokesperson declined to comment citing potential or ongoing litigation.

Port Neches was still an open topic for many community speakers at the hearing, all but one of whom asked the TCEQ to deny the companys air emissions permit. At the back of the room, listening intently to the hearings Spanish translation, one man held a sign scrawled in red: When will TPC explode?
Some 150,000 have attended over the course of three days since Thursday

Warmer weather has blessed Aintree this year, and spectators have dressed for the April sunshine during the three-day Merseyside race meet... with many determined to show off their pins.

Thigh splits, plunging necklines and barely there skirts were the sartorial choice for the thousands of ladies who attended, with many hoping on Friday that their bold fashion choices would bag them the 5,000 Best Dressed prize traditionally given out on the penultimate day of the Grand National Festival.

And as the champagne has flowed since Thursday, it's been a case of 'if you've got it, flaunt it' for many, as they enjoyed one of the biggest events in the horse-racing calendar.

Unlike Royal Ascot, which adopts stricter rules on what to wear, Aintree takes a more relaxed approach and tells attendees to simply come 'dressed to feel your best'.

Go bold or go home! The Grand National Festival 2024 ends today and, horse-racing aside, it's been quite the catwalk this year, with dare to bare seemingly the biggest trend

Perfect in pink! Revellers opted for skimming skirts for the day out in Liverpool

Legs 11! One reveller poses for the cameras in a short pleated mint-hued frock. She wore the look with pearl shoes and a matching bag

Thigh split dresses were a common sight at Aintree: this racegoer poses for the cameras, showing off her all-red ensemble

The gowns at Aintree have been particularly daring in 2024, with many racegoers embracing summerwear

If you've got it flaunt it! Plunging necklines and dresses that split on the hip were the order of the day

Betting on a high hem line: These revellers showed off their immaculate pins - and some wide-brimmed hats

In the pink: This racegoer wore a cerise fringed frock with spaghetti straps

Aintree winds up today, with the Grand National of course the big ticket - but it's been a fascinating sartorial spectacle from the moment the doors opened on Thursday morning.

While there were plenty of longer gowns this year, it seems the fashion memo was very much dare to bare, with dozens of racegoers wearing revealing outfits for the glamorous occasion.

Backless and strapless gowns also featured heavily, with Victoria Beckham-esque mini dresses also on this year's fashion menu.

The colours on display were both blocked and bright, with wide-brimmed hats and extravagant fascinators in the same hues finishing the looks.

And the hair? A bouncy blow-dry or sleekly stroked under show-stealing hats was the order of the day.

While Cheltenham is all about the tweedy country looks, Aintree is its more glamorous cousin - and the outfits did not disappoint, with many opting for Barbie-inspired looks for the big day out.

While many revellers opted for bright colours and pastels, this racegoer broke from the pack in a vampy black look

Gorgeous in green! One reveller looked perfect for spring in a forest-hued ensemble with strappy white heels

Yellow there! Another reveller looked bold in a sunshine-inspired number

Chandelier chic! This golden girl opted for strappy heels and a flapper-inspired feathery dress to the race meet

Making the most of the 15C sunshine, guests forewent coats and jackets for the day out

Three revellers put on a very leggy display as they attended the festival dressed in short patterned dresses, large floppy hats and heels

A 5,000 prize is awarded on Ladies Day to the best dressed racegoer

Pretty in pink: A peplum dress in pink with a matching bag and silver heels was worn by this spectator. Meanwhile, her friend opted for a Victoria Beckham-inspired black mini dress

Temperatures of nearly 20 degrees meant there were no jackets required at the Grand National Festival

Black Pink: These friends wore short dresses and heels for the glamourous occasion as they strode the pink carpet on Ladies Day

The Grand National on Saturday, known as the People's Race, draws national attention in a way that perhaps no other horse race is able to do.

Every year, millions of people gather at Aintree for the steeplechases, which spans 4 miles, 7 furlongs and 74 yards, making it the longest horse race in Britain even though it used to be around one and a half furlongs longer.

The decision to shorten the race slightly was done to move the start line away from the grandstands in order to help prevent false starts and make the first jump safer as jockeys and horses would reach it slower.

Unlike Royal Ascot which adopts stricter rules on what to wear, Aintree takes a more relaxed approach and tells attendees to simply come 'dressed to feel your best'.

Fancy dress for revellers is also allowed, as long as the costume isn't offensive or derogatory.

Around 150,000 people are expected to attend the three-day festival, making it one of the largest of its kind in the world.

As well as enjoying the racing, revellers will no doubt get into the party spirit with plenty of champagne to go around.

The Grand National today, known as the People's Race, drawing national attention in a way that perhaps no other horse race is able to do.

Getting the party started: spectators - who all got the short hem memo - arrive at the Liverpool racecourse on Friday

One racegoer showed off their back tattoo with their cut-out dress, while another sported knee-high boots to complete her outfit

Like a feather! One person opted for a blue feather number while another went pastel

Bridal looks appeared to be the look of the day as they partied between the bets

Kicking back, two revellers cuddled a bottle of champagne beteween races

Bottoms up! Punters put their feet up as they sipped on champagne in the sunshine

Every year, millions of people gather at Aintree for the steeplechases, which spans 4 miles, 7 furlongs and 74 yards, making it the longest horse race in Britain even though it used to be around one and a half furlongs longer .

The decision to shorten the race slightly was done to move the start line away from the grandstands in order to help prevent false starts and make the first jump safer as jockeys and horses would reach it slower.

Getting glam for the yearly event is a costly affair, with hair salons and tanning shops full to the brim since the early hours of this morning.

A hair extensions technician who works during the Grand National revealed that fashion fans will spend upwards of 500 on their hair - and 'thousands' on finding the perfect outfit.

Michelle, who works at Dianne Marshall Hair Extensions in Liverpool, told LBC News that demand is 'very, very high' and the preparation often begins months in advance.

Guidance for what to wear on the course website reads: 'At Aintree Racecourse we believe racing should be enjoyed by anyone and everyone .

'And one thing is certainly true, the more relaxed and comfortable we feel, the more likely we are to have a great time. So thats why weve created one very simple piece of guidance, to come dressed to feel your best.

'Were all unique, and no more so than in our sense of style and comfort. For some, wearing a nice sweatshirt, pair of jeans and clean trainers is what makes them feel confident and at-ease.
It's the biggest horse race of the year.

So it's no wonder thousands of reveller cheered and commiserated as they watched the Grand National in Aintree today.

Women in six-inch stilettos joined men in slick suits as they posed up a storm at the Merseyside racecourse, queuing up to get in before 10am.

By midday, racegoers overtook the Merseyside golf course with a sea of pinks and reds, with thousands cashing their winnings and downing champagne in the early afternoon.

At 4pm, revellers watched as I Am Maximus, the 7/1 Joint Favourite, won the race - to the delight of many adoring fans.

Win or lose, dressed up revellers - many in plunging necklines and even fancy dress - were sure to quaff Moet, beer and spirits before getting the party spirit.

Many looked delighted to watch their favourites win the race

Cheering on the races! Many looked delighted from the balcony as they screamed for the horses

Here we go! Racegoers enjoy the racing and cheer on the hores at Aintree Racecourse

Cheers and beers! Revellers were keen to scream and shout for the winners

Tense crowds await the race on the busiest day of the racing year

Clutching onto drinks, thousands of revellers cheered on the winners - and losers

Revellers heading for the biggest day in the racing calendar got started early today as they tippled into Aintree racecourse in the early hours ahead of the Steeple Chase at 4pm

Revellers were happy to cheer on the horses as they cashed in on their bets

Win or lose the champagne flowed as revellers made the most of the day out

Extravagant curls and bright dresses were popular with many of the guests

Bottoms up! Moet was the drink of the day - with racegoers sipping from the bottle

Three cheers for Aintree! Racegoers were sure to celebrate as they watched the Handicap chase

Crowds of people gathered to make the most of the spring sunsine and races

Come on! Fans were on the edge of their seat as they watched horses come in

By midday, racegoers overtook the Merseyside golf course with a sea of pinks and reds, with them cashing their winnings and downing champagne in the early afternoon

Monochrome memo! One group opted for all black and white looks for the big day out

And they're off! Another racegoer cheers her drink as she watched her horse come in

Revellers celebrates, cheered and commiserated the outcomes of their bets

Come on! Racegoers looked delighted as the events kicked off

Fascinating! Revellers opted for head pieces from the bozes

Pretty in pink! Scouse women made sure they were ready to impress for the night out

Orange you glad to see me! Amber and pink hues were also popular

Gwennie May Boy ridden by Charlie Todd after winning the William Hill Handicap Hurdle

Florals for spring! These pals went for contrasting looks for the evening out

Bottoms up! Many guests stared on the booze early making the most of the day

Irish jockey Paul Townend after winning the Randox Grand National Handicap

Stan Sheppard aboard Cruz Control after winning the William Hill Handicap Chase on day three

Today is the final-day of the three-day festival which has seen thousands of racegoers dressed to impress in full-Scouse glamour, including bright colours, hair extension and very short dresses.

While many racegoers wait until later in the day to let their hair down and take their shoes off, one reveller slipped off her heels and carried them on entry, with her feet not fairing well for the day head.

Many opted for white tones with bridal inspired looks popular with those watching the meet, a jewel in the crown of the racing calendar.

While Cheltenham is all about the tweedy country looks, Aintree is its more glamorous cousin.

Unlike Royal Ascot which adopts stricter rules on what to wear, Aintree takes a more relaxed approach and tells attendees to simply come 'dressed to feel your best'.

Fancy dress for revellers is also allowed, as long as the costume isn't offensive or derogatory.

Around 150,000 people attended the three-day festival, making it one of the largest of its kind in the world.

As well as enjoying the racing, revellers got into the party spirit with plenty of champagne to go around.

Rainbow! One group of pals expertly coordinated for a colour blocked look

Former Love Island star Hannah Elizabeth was among the revellers treating the celebration like a white party

Bottoms up! Moet was the drink of choice for many of the racegoers

Here comes the bride! Many stag and hen dos are celebrated at the Grand National, with one person wearing a 'bride to be' batch and veil

Bit of all white! One reveller went for a bridal inspired look in an ivory gown, while her pal opted for a ninities girl ban look with a baby pink chiffon corset and maxi skirt

Gorgeous in green! One reveller looked perfect for spring in a forest-hued ensemble with strappy white heels

Move over Margot Robbie! One reveller picked last summer's hottest trend in a bright pink number

While many revellers opted for bright colours and pastels, this racegoer broke from the pack in a vampy black look

Pulling out their finery, one reveller wore a Dior necklace and a plunging black gown

Bridal chic was a popular look among racegoers who looked smart in ivory looks

She got the monochrome memo! Black and white stripes were a stunning look on this reveller, who added orange heels and a handbag

Revellers tried their hand at racing as themselves as they tried out VR machines

Sarah Jayne Dunn and husband Jonathan Smith looked stunning in white

Sarah Jayne Dunn and husband Jonathan Smith wowed

Can't rain on my parade! A racegoer shelters from the rain, and clutches a Louis Vuitton bag, as they arrive to attend the final day of the Grand National Festival

Sharing tips? A charity fundraiser dressed as a Stormtrooper shows off their fake gun to the real polic

Groovy baby! One group of men matched in psychedelic suits, hats and trainers

Dressing up is not just for the girls! Men quite literally peacocked their way into the meet today

A little rain never sopped the party! Guests stylishly covered their heads in scarves and blankets ahead of the race

A bit off all white! Pink and white was a popular choice for guests

Chandelier chic! This golden girl opted for strappy heels and a flapper-inspired feathery dress to the race meet

Making the most of the 15C sunshine, guests forewent coats and jackets for the day out

Swinging sixties! Orange and white was another popular combo

First, let me take a selfie! Glammed up guests made sure to document their expensive looks

Brollies up! As is wise at a British race meet, guests were sure to bring protection from drizzle

Real men wear pink! The men made sure the looks weren't only for women as they wowed in garish suits

Best of British! One man showed off his national prides in a Union Jack suit

Nude and nice! Pink and pastels were another popular look among revellers

Mighty in mint! Cool greens and blues were also well liked by many dressing up for the occasion

One reveller looked happy to be frisked as she headed into the grounds

One reveller kicked off their shoes early as they headed into the racecourse

Yellow there! Another reveller looked bold in a sunshine-inspired number

Many famous faces are attracted to the event, including Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish

One bearded man and a his partner were certain to turn heads in this impeccably dressed look

Protesters also took the grounds to hold up signs about horses that died

Some protesters asked for and end to racing

Protesters hold cardboard placards outside the entrance Racegoers are enjoying a day out at Aintree despite criticism of the Grand National from animal rights protesters who delayed last year's race. About 80,000 people are expected at the Liverpool racecourse to see the world-famous steeplechase on the final day of the Randox Grand National Festival. Group Animal Rising has said it will not disrupt this year's race, after the last National was delayed when protesters got onto the course, leading to more than 100 arrests. Five protesters from Animal Aid held cardboard placards outside the entrance to the racecourse on Saturday, but their presence did not seem to impact the atmosphere. Bill Taylor, 77, who was at the racecourse on his great-nephew's stag do, said: 'It's iconic isn't it? It's on my bucket list and here I am. I can't believe it, what an occasion. 'I've been to Wembley, I've been to San Siro, I've been everywhere but I've never been to Aintree. It is buzzing.' Accountant Brad Okopsyj, 26, from Grimsby, Lincolnshire, was dressed as Elvis for his stag do. He said: 'It's a great atmosphere and I love racing. I'm looking forward to it, it's a big day.' Famous faces at the course included former Liverpool footballers Ian Rush and Sir Kenny Dalglish, ex-Hollyoaks actress Sarah Jayne Dunn and Olympians Sam Quek and Kelly Sotherton. Rush said: 'The Grand National has a big place in people's hearts, it's been going for years and years. 'Aintree is something special. Liverpool are playing on Sunday, Everton are playing on Monday, so this is all concentrated on Aintree today.' Georgia Ratcliffe, 27, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, who was at the racecourse with friend Laura Williams, 24, said: 'Everybody's just literally here for a good time. 'The sun was shining last year so hopefully it's going to come out later.' Bill Gowers, 61, from Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire, said he was at the racecourse for the ninth time. 'He said: 'Cheltenham is for the posh set, if you will, but Aintree is the people's race and it is the people's place. 'If the protesters really cared about the welfare of the horses they would have thought about what they were doing (last year). 'Some of the horses got more worked up and stressed than they needed to so you can't tell me they actually thought about the welfare of the horses.' The Grand National is due to be held at the earlier time of 4pm, which organisers hope will 'ensure optimal conditions' on the track. Other changes include a reduced field of 34 horses, down from 40, a standing start, a reduction in height to one of the fences and added foam and rubber toe boards on every fence. The Jockey Club has previously said changes to the race were not made as a consequence of the protests. A spokesman for Aintree Racecourse said: 'We conduct an evidence-based review process after every Grand National which looks at all aspects of the race. 'The changes that we announced last year are data-driven and the result of a detailed assessment of recent Grand Nationals and the analysis of trends and statistics relating to the race over many years.' In an email said to have been sent to Jockey Club chief executive Nevin Truesdale, Animal Rising co-founder Dan Kidby wrote: 'Animal Rising's actions last year shone a spotlight on the deaths that happen during the Grand National Festival. 'This light continues to shine and we don't believe disruption is needed to draw attention to this again. 'Horses have died almost every single year at the Grand National; the safest bet one could make is that a horse would die. 'This continues to be the case in spite of rule changes, which are nothing more than a PR exercise to try to win back public opinion.' At Ladies Day on Friday the first race of the day saw horse Giovinco fall at the final fence and suffer a fatal injury, while in the last race of the day Pikar suffered a heavy fall and organisers confirmed the injuries were fatal. Advertisement

The Grand National today, known as the People's Race, draws international attention in a way that perhaps no other horse race is able to do.

Every year, millions of people gather at Aintree for the steeplechases, which spans 4 miles, 7 furlongs and 74 yards, making it the longest horse race in Britain even though it used to be around one and a half furlongs longer .

The decision to shorten the race slightly was done to move the start line away from the grandstands in order to help prevent false starts and make the first jump safer as jockeys and horses would reach it slower.

Getting glam for the yearly event is a costly affair, with hair salons and tanning shops full to the brim since the early hours of this morning.

A hair extensions technician who works during the Grand National revealed that fashion fans will spend upwards of 500 on their hair - and 'thousands' on finding the perfect outfit.

Michelle, who works at Dianne Marshall Hair Extensions in Liverpool, told LBC News that demand is 'very, very high' and the preparation often begins months in advance.

Guidance for what to wear on the course website reads: 'At Aintree Racecourse we believe racing should be enjoyed by anyone and everyone .

'And one thing is certainly true, the more relaxed and comfortable we feel, the more likely we are to have a great time. So that's why we've created one very simple piece of guidance, to come 'dressed to feel your best'.

'We're all unique, and no more so than in our sense of style and comfort. For some, wearing a nice sweatshirt, pair of jeans and clean trainers is what makes them feel confident and at-ease.

Unlike other race days, fancy dress is encouraged at Aintree with one guest dressed up as Elvis

Security forces chat between races

Others opted for themed fancy dress, with one coming as the Queen's guard

Body con was a popular look among the revellers who opted for skintight dresses

Here come the girls! One group looked chic as they effortlessly colourblocked and coordianated

Nautical but nice! Hockey player Sam Quek opted for a sea-themed look in navy tones

One group looked comfortable and stylist in colourful ensemble as they got ready for the day ahead

Ready in red! Racegoers wore their brightest colours as they headed into the racecourse on Saturday

Orange you glad to see me! Block colours were in vogue for the early arrivals in Merseyside

Beautiful in blue! One racegoer turned up early in an electric number

Ready for it! Fans queued up to get into the grounds bright and early on Satuday

Pink and perfect! One couple were sure to coordinate a pleated asymmetric dress and fuchsia tie

Here comes the girls! Racegoers strutted into the closure in blue and floral numbers

And they're off! Revellers wait until the races kicked off to horse around

Silver surfer! One bride-to-be celebrated her upcoming nupitals in a sparkling sequin dress

Attention to detail! Another reveller opted for a black dress looking effortlessly stylish with red embellishments, including a red polish on her toes and hands and the inside lining of her dress

Like a feather! One racegoer wowed in a floral summer dresses - and effervescent heels

How fascinator! Up dos were one of the looks du jour with Merseyside locals putting on their best looks

That's not a horse! One racegoer arrived with a Irish wolfhound in tow

Stallion do! One group on a stag do opted for fancy dress - with the groom-to-be in a horse mask

Family fun! While some head for the boozy antics, others enjoyed a spot of wholesome fun for all ages

Never to young to dress to impress! One young reveller looked adorable in a suit

Little red rising coat! Black hats and red coats were among the vampish daring looks

Perfect in pink! Two friends were sure to coordinate when they arrived in Aintree

Bookies set up their stalls early in what is set to be one of the busiest betting days of the year

One group of men opted for matching ties

Irish jockey Rachael Blackmore was on site early to prepare for the race

Horses were out in number as they got ready for the biggest day in the racing calendar

A horse from Henry de Bromhead's stable rolls on the grass ahead of day three

Bookmakers are gearing up for the biggest betting day of the year this Saturday, as The Grand National takes centre stage.

'For others, they might prefer to turn heads with a sharp suit or glamorous dress and high heels, particularly for one of our big race meetings.

'But whatever your tastes, the most important thing when choosing your outfit is, of course, comfort and confidence. So wear what feels right for you and will keep you feeling your best from start to finish, whatever the weather.'

She revealed that the lead-up involves: 'Making sure that the girls are in, ready for the day so they can go back, get their makeup done and then start the day on Ladies Day.'

The extensionist explained: 'Depending on what they go for, extensions can start anywhere from 300 up to 500, and that's just the hair.

'Then obviously there's the outfits. People will spend anything from 200 up to the thousands for outfits.'

Meanwhile, Hannah, the owner of House of Darlins, Liverpool's largest beauty salon, told the radio station: 'You are getting everything done - your nails, your hair, your tan, your makeup, and your new dress.

'I just think it's Liverpool's one day of the year where you can go as extra as you want to go and you can push the boat out as much as you want to - and it's fine, no one can say anything because it's the races!'

The beauty expert revealed to her Instagram followers that she had set her alarm for 3:50am, writing: 'Aintree races but you work in the beauty industry'.

And it's not just makeup and hair - Madison, who owns The Tanning Girl salon, said: 'I do my clients one layer. I'm not all about the orange. I think that is a big stereotype.

'No one is orange anymore. The tans have come into fashion again and the formulas are different. Everyone just loves a nice, natural, golden brown colour.'

With millions of punters went to the bookies to place their Grand National bets, with Ladbrokes saying it is their busiest day of the year.

I Am Maximus, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Paul Townend won.

Nicola McGeady of Ladbrokes said: 'Grand National day is the day the nation goes to the bookies, with millions expected to have a flutter on their favourite horse.

I Am Maximus added the Grand National to his Irish National win last year to give trainer Willie Mullins his second victory in the world's greatest steeplechase at Aintree on Saturday.

Paul Townend termed himself 'a lucky boy' after he steered the co-favourite to an ultimately easy win in an Irish 1-2-3 with Delta World second and Minella Indo third.

Whilst Mullins won with Hedgehunter in 2005 it was Townend's first taste of victory in the historic race.

'What an unbelievable race and an unbelievable horse,' said Townend.

'It is a bit surreal, to be honest. I ended up being first to the first and got to the Melling Road and he backed back.

'He got careful on the second circuit but I was trying to conserve energy. I didn't get the clearest run between the second-last and last.'

He added: 'I had the ones in front of me in my sights and he responded like I thought he would.'

Townend and Mullins add the Grand National to their Cheltenham Gold Cup success with Galopin des Champs in March but for the jockey this was vastly different.

'Gold Cups and Grade Ones are special but Grand Nationals are different. You need so much luck. I am a lucky boy.'
Dear Bel,

I was abused physically by my wife. In the 1980s, we had a six-year relationship but I left her for the third time because of it. Two years later we met by accident and got together again. When family and friends protested I told them she'd changed.

Married, she reverted . . . nevertheless we had two children. The pattern continued (including embarrassing scenes in front of family) until I decided I didn't want the boys growing up in that aggressive environment.

I quickly sorted legal access to the boys every other weekend. This continued for 12 years, apart from times when she refused. Often when collecting or returning the boys she would be abusive towards me in front of them.

My older son told me he'd like to go to a boarding school close to me. Within a month of him starting I received a phone call from my other son saying his mother had been hitting him. I collected him from school that afternoon, informed my solicitor and we arranged immediate schooling, telling the court why.

I didn't hear from my ex for over six months. This was acceptable to the court. Both boys told me of abuse from their mother and her new husband.

For four years the boys lived with me when not at boarding school. We had holidays together  a happy time. I was self-employed which allowed me to earn a healthy salary and be available for school events. But unfortunately this was over the financial crisis period of 2008  and by 2010 I had a mental breakdown.

Now 15 and 17, they decided they could cope with their mother, so returned to her. Initially they came to stay with me on occasions, but after about two or three years their visits stopped. They turned against me.

I worried about this daily but a stroke made me concentrate on my health. Now my attitude is: what will be, will be. I'm in my early 70s, still working and living in a beautiful part of Britain.

My door is for ever open to the boys but I don't know how to break down the barriers. They are both successful in finance and politics. Most nights I dream of them but in those dreams they are still children and not the men they have become.

My older son married last July but I only learned that through the internet. I wonder about the decisions I've made. I still think I had to leave my wife and do right by the boys and know that it's now pointless to fret. But how I long for a relationship with my adult sons.

Simon

Bel writes: It surprises me that your ex-wife should have had the power so comprehensively to turn your sons against you, so I must ask what you actually did when their visits stopped

Bel Mooney replies: I've chosen to publish your letter, even though you don't end with any specific question or request for help, because it's important people understand that men can be victims of female bullying in the home  yes, and specific violence, too.

What's more, your last sentence  so full of wistful longing  is a reminder that fathers who lose contact (for whatever reason) with their children often live with a profound sense of loss.

The latest statistics show that one in three victims of domestic abuse are male, and it is often the case that male victims find their situation acutely embarrassing, and therefore stay quiet about it.

Yet in your case family and friends suspected (or knew) what was going on. You'll understand why readers probably wonder why you married and had two sons, when your first six-year relationship in the 1980s proved what sort of person your wife was  so much so that you left her three times.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

There was also enough light, Mma Ramotswe reflected, to see that the world was not always a place of pain and loss, but a place where our simple human affairs  those matters that for all their pettiness still sometimes confounded us  were not insoluble, were not without the possibility of resolution. from The Handsome Mans De Luxe Cafe by Alexander McCall Smith (Scottish novelist and poet, b 1948) Advertisement

It suggests to me either that you believed you could change her, or that you were easily dominated by her much stronger personality.

I suspect it's the latter case  yet when the welfare of your sons was at stake you acted decisively and did everything in your power to give them a stable home and a good education. Fate intervened, in the shape of your mental breakdown.

It surprises me that your ex-wife should have had the power so comprehensively to turn your sons against you (when you say she'd been abusive to them), so I must ask what you actually did when their visits stopped.

Did you try to see them? Did you write to them? Go and knock on the door? To live your life according to a philosophy of 'what will be, will be' is all very well, but is it useful?

You seem to show a pattern of being passive as far as your own welfare is concerned, even though you were proactive concerning the boys. You re-started your relationship with your ex-wife by accident, and it almost seems as though you allowed her to call the shots after your breakdown.

The crucial question is whether you tried to find out why your sons 'turned against' you. Is any of this your own fault?

I'm leaving you with that thought  and the suggestion that it is never too late to mend relationships. You can live a life of acceptance  or rebel, just as you did all those years ago.

The first step towards 'breaking down barriers' has to be a belief that a relationship with your sons is an absolute priority.

Surely, 'what will be, will be' isn't good enough?

I need to tell my pal her fiance is dull

Dear Bel,

I have a lifelong friend known since school. Were now in our mid-40s. I was a terribly timid child and always the odd one out, while she didnt care what anyone thought of her, and was so witty and vivacious she sucked everyone into her orbit. She took me under her wing, and weve been the closest of confidants ever since.

Ive always looked up to her as my glamorous and exciting friend. While most of our circle married solid and dependable men and had children (me included), shes had a string of boyfriends. Shes very good-looking, and the life and soul of the party. Men have never been able resist.

Throughout the time Ive known her shes had a number of boyfriends, all of whom have been as equally charming as she is, but despite how fun and interesting their love affairs seem, they have never lasted. The last man before her current partner was a successful artist whom shed been seeing for two years and who lavished her with romantic gestures, but who broke her heart when he left her for another woman.

Her new boyfriend, whom she started dating just a few months after this heartbreak, breaks the mould. While kind, he is very boring, not that good-looking and appears to have no sense of humour.

I thought hed be temporary, so imagine my shock when she announced she had got engaged to him after just a year together.

I cant help but feel her heartbreak has led to her settling for her incredibly dull new husband-to-be. Should I say something? I think she is making a terrible mistake and it will end in tears.

Kirsten

Bel Mooney replies: Let me tell you a cautionary tale. Many years ago a good friend, a highly successful publisher (lets call him Max) was phoned by a very close friend from school.

Deeply angry and upset, the chum revealed hed finally left his wife. The marriage was over. Sympathetically Max suggested they make a night of it, and over the whole evening the friend poured out his troubles and Max listened sympathetically. But many glasses of wine loosened his tongue.

As his friend listed all the wifes faults and wrongdoings, Max confessed what hed always kept hidden  he couldnt stand the woman. Youre better off without her he said, and revealed that even at the wedding hed wanted to shout, Dont do it.

WRITE TO BEL MOONEY Bel answers readers questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. Write to Bel Mooney, Daily Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY, or email bel.mooney@dailymail.co.uk. Names are changed to protect identities. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence. Advertisement

Big mistake  and this intelligent man ought to have known better. Because after a week or so, he heard that his chum had gone back to his wife. Then came a curt note from the friend (this was before emails!) saying that since Max had made his views clear it was obvious their friendship had to end. And Max never heard from him again.

Many people witness their friends (or family members) start relationships with people who seem all wrong, but it is never wise to interfere. Obviously, should you discover something serious (like a history of gambling or infidelity) about a loved ones partner, then the impulse to reveal all will be understandably strong. But in your case you just judge the man as dull, plain and unworthy of your brilliant friend.

Is that fair? No, its not. It would be wise for you to try to make the imaginative leap and see that at this stage of her life she is probably longing for stability and decency. What if she feels that within the heart of this quiet man she has found a new home?

Her heart was broken by a man full of charisma; lets hope she can now recognise that romantic gestures often add up to a great big Nothing. Is it for you to tell her shes wrong?

Heres this weeks homework. Read Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, or (if youve no time) watch the classic film starring Julie Christie, Alan Bates and sexy Terence Stamp.

At the beginning of the novel, Bathsheba Everdene turns Farmer Oak down, because . . . well . . . hes just too ordinary. By the end she realises there can be nobody else to heal her bruised heart.

Next weeks homework will be to read or watch Thackerays Vanity Fair, and to understand exactly why the dull, dependable Captain Dobbin got his (rather silly) love, Amelia, in the end. Then I hope youll realise that criticising this man you hardly know might lose you a friend.
Prince Andrew broke cover today as he headed for a horse ride in Windsor, a week after a Netflix drama Scoop - abut his disastrous Newsnight interview - aired.

The Duke of York, 64, was accompanied by a groom as he headed for a jaunt near his Royal Lodge home.

Ditching his usual warm coats as the spring air takes the south, the King's brother opted for a maroon jumper, navy jodhpurs and riding boots.

He added a helmet for extra safety.

Seemingly ignoring any rumblings of royal drama, the eighth-in-line to the throne continued business as normal today.

Prince Andrew broke cover today as he headed for a horse ride in Windsor, a week after a Netflix drama Scoop - abut his disastrous Newsnight interview - aired

It comes a week after Netflix's film, Scoop, was released.

The show centres around his Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis - something that was widely considered to be disastrous.

The new Netflix film, based on the book by ex-BBC producer Sam McAlister, presents the fateful interview in which Ms Maitlis grilled the Duke on the sex allegations made against him by Mrs Giuffre.

Scoop shows the moment the Queen's son naively declared 'that went well didn't it' after the interview and how he joked about meeting paedophile Epstein in New York.

Andrew was pilloried for his TV performance because of a lack of contrition for his friendship with the paedophile and his failure to express sympathy for the dozens of women Epstein trafficked and abused over three decades.

His alibis for not having sex with Virginia Roberts three times, including being in Woking's Pizza Express, have also been widely ridiculed by the public.

The Duke of York, 64, was accompanied by a groom as he headed for a jaunt near his Royal Lodge home

Mr Sewell as the Duke of York and Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis in Scoop, left, which retells the story of his 2019 BBC Newsnight interview - widely considered the most disastrous in royal history

The new Netflix film has re-hashed what is widely considered the most disastrous interview in royal history, in which Emily Maitlis grilled the Duke on the sex allegations made against him by Mrs Giuffre.

The film is set to bring yet another headache to King Charles as continues his battle with cancer.

It will also bring Andrew's bombshell interview, where he failed to apologise for his friendship with Epstein, to a new audience of millions of people around the world.

Scoop shows the moment the Queen's son naively declared 'that went well didn't it' after the interview and how he joked about meeting paedophile Epstein in New York.

Meanwhile, Andrew's children have carried on as normal.

Scoop (starring Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew) will be released on Friday bringing his shocking interview back to the royal spotlight

Princess Eugenie looked gorgeous in grey this week as she met with the US ambassador to the UK at Winfield House to discuss green fashion.

The daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York wore a Gabriela Hearst Amor Knit Cashmere Silk Dress in Heather Grey and Gianvito Rossi's 105 Pumps.

It's Eugenie's first public appearance since Scoop aired on Netflix. The Gillian Anderson show is a dramatisation of her father's disastrous Newsnight interview.

Joining Eugenie was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Jane Hartley.

Ms Hartley hosted a reception and panel discussion on the fashion industrys commitment to sustainability at her Regent's Park residence Winfield House.

It's been a tricky start to the year for the royal family.

Prince Andrew's ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, is battling cancer.

His brother King Charles, and nephew's wife Kate Middleton, are all also being treated for cancer.
Whats the story?

It may not be the first brand that springs to mind when considering sustainability, but Chanel is working to reduce its environmental footprint.

Why should I buy?

The No 1 range focuses on ingredients that are renewable and have a low impact on the environment. One of the brands most famous ingredients, camellia, draws on the petals, seeds, yeasts and oils of the flower, meaning minimal waste.

The weight of jars and bottles has been streamlined, paper leaflets have been removed, and the inks used on packaging are now organic. The iconic double C-engraved lid is composed of 90 per cent bio-sourced materials from renewable elements, including camellia-seed shells and FSC-certified wood shavings.

Why shouldnt I buy?

Its not the cheapest sustainable skincare option.

The extra mile

The brands Open Sky Laboratories aim to improve biodiversity and increased income for local communities. The newest OSL is in Bhutan, where Chanel has worked with the government to plant and harvest swertia, a wild mountain flower, for use in its formulas.

This collaboration will provide isolated Himalayan farmers with a source of income for the next three years.

Made in

Compiegne, France.

Made from

Hydrating red camellia oil, hibiscus flower acids and camellia-seed packaging.

Journey

By train or sea.

Our rating


Buildings associated with Memorial Hermann Hospital and medical complex are visible Friday, April 12, 2024 in the Medical Center district of Houston. Kirk Sides/Staff photographer Buildings associated with Memorial Hermann Hospital and medical complex are visible Friday, April 12, 2024 in the Medical Center district of Houston. Kirk Sides/Staff photographer

Dr. J. Steve Bynon emerged as a vocal leader in the transplant community throughout the early part of his career at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He became director of liver transplantation in 1993, at a time when the number of such procedures exploded in the United States.

In news stories, he appeared eager to offer his patients cutting-edge treatments, like living donor transplants. He focused on improving patient outcomes and expressed concern for families who were forced to endure the difficult process of qualifying for and waiting for a new liver.

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''I don't know how some of them do it,'' Bynon told the Birmingham News in 2004. ''A lot of families fall apart.''

Bynon, now the chief of abdominal transplantation at UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann, has come under intense scrutiny after a New York Times report identified him as the physician who prevented some of his patients from obtaining life-saving organs. In a statement Thursday, Memorial Hermann said an internal investigation found evidence that a physician, whom they have declined to identify, tampered with information in a national organ-matching database, effectively making it impossible for them to receive a donor organ.

The report sent shockwaves throughout the Texas Medical Center and the transplant community, in which Bynon is a decorated surgeon who served in regional advisory and oversight roles for organ transplantation. Bynon has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Becoming a transplant surgeon was not Bynon's lifelong dream. When he was growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, he wanted to be an astronaut until his father enrolled him in a pre-med program at the University of Tennessee. "I had no choice, but it was something I wanted as well," he said in a bio on the UTHealth Houston website. Bynon added that a PBS show about James 'Red' Duke, a renowned Texas trauma surgeon, inspired him.

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Bynon built his career at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he worked for nearly 20 years and quickly became an authority on liver transplantation. Within five years of becoming liver transplant director, he earned recognition for his work from the American Liver Foundation and appealed to Congress to stop an overhaul of the transplant system that he felt would be ineffective, according to newspaper archives.

From 1997 to 1998 and again from 2000 to 2001, Bynon chaired a regional liver review board for the Organ Procurement Transplantation Network, the nation's transplant system, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. As part of his duties, he assessed urgent registrations to the liver transplant waiting list and helped determine whether those listings were appropriate. He served in other roles on review boards and the OPTN Liver and Intestinal Organ Transplantation Committee throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

Among those who became close with Bynon in Alabama was Dr. Mark Phillips, a professor of anesthesiology at UAB who said he's been friends with Bynon for 39 years.

"He is an exceptional surgeon and an exceptional human being," Phillips told the Chronicle. "I would let him operate on me or any family member without hesitation, and if I needed a liver transplant, he is the first person who I would ever want to do it."

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Another UAB colleague, Dr. Brendan McGuire, the medical director of liver transplants at that program, also praised Bynon in an interview with the Times. "In my experience, everything he did was about the patient, McGuire said, according to the Times.

Indeed, Bynon has been thanked by patients in obituaries and patient testimonies. His employer, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, also came to his defense Friday, describing him in a statement as "exceptionally talented," "caring" and "a pioneer in abdominal organ transplantation." Bynon has appeared on billboard advertisements for the university, which say he "gives new life to transplant patients."

CATCH UP: Everything we know so far about Memorial Hermann's liver and kidney transplant scandal

When Bynon took over the abdominal transplant program at UTHealth and Memorial Hermann in 2011, he worked hard to improve patient outcomes, but he hesitated to hand over surgical responsibilities to other physicians, according to a physician who previously worked under Bynon. The physician asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about a sensitive matter.

According to national data, patients who received a liver transplant at Memorial Hermann from July 2021 to June 2023 had a higher probability of survival at the one- and three-year marks compared with national estimates. However, more patients died on the waiting list than would be expected of similar patient populations, the data shows, and the hospital performed fewer transplants than expected.

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Bynon remains a paid employee of UTHealth. Memorial Hermann said it's in the early stages of its investigation into the "inappropriate changes" with donor acceptance criteria. The hospital did not respond to questions about potential discipline for the doctor.
When it comes to make-up, Im a fan of the-less-is-more approach, which confirms my belief that style tastes and beauty regimes are closely aligned.

Im fascinated by  and applaud  the growing number of women who go about their day make-up-free. These include several famous faces, all ageing in the spotlight, who are pushing back against the beauty industry norms that prevent women from feeling completely comfortable in their own skin. And the ridiculous attitude that sees wrinkles as a sign of unattractiveness.

Take Pamela Anderson. Once all peroxide locks, miniskirts and big boobs, she now attends glitzy dos in white tailoring and without a swipe of make-up her pared-back outfits mirroring her new beauty regime.

Im not into the make-up look right now, the actress has said. You kind of have to challenge beauty sometimes Im not trying to be the prettiest girl in the room. The 56-year-old concluded: I feel like its just freedom. Its a relief.

Trench and sunglasses, Toteme; Top, Edeline Lee; Trousers, Reiss and Bag, Celine

And 55-year-old Gillian Anderson often addresses her three million Instagram followers having barely run a brush through her hair, pointing out that the version of her you see on the red carpet is just that  a version. Tilda Swinton also famously favours a bare face.

Personally, while I like the au naturel look, I dont have the confidence to wear zero make-up in public. Instead, I opt for a sheer foundation (Etherealist by Kevyn Aucoin is a favourite). And it would take a lot to get me to part with my under-eye concealer by Laura Mercier.

Occasionally Ill accessorise my outfit with a bright lip and Im a lover of Hermes moisturising lipsticks (its Corail Flamingo is my go-to summer shade). But I do know people my age who wear no make-up at all.

For example, stylist and owner of the preloved store Re-Collection Therese Bassler, 46, says shes never really worn make-up and credits her natural skincare regime  shes been using Dr Hauschka products since she was 16  for this. It is about creating a foundation for good skin and I have to say my skin is pretty good for my age.

For me, beauty is about keeping things natural and working with what Ive got. Ive never experimented with make-up. Other than the odd blusher in winter months, it just doesnt interest me. Instead I feel beautiful when I wear clothes that make me feel good, so I put more thought and effort into this.

Challenging beauty norms in my opinion is very important for us and future generations of women who deserve to be happy in just their own skin.

Runway smash

My new style crush is 55-year-old Kelly Rutherford, AKA Lily vander Woodsen in Gossip Girl. Shes now a serious style influencer attending fashion shows and posting regular outfit updates that are very xoxo!

Repair stop

Sarah Chapman is my go-to for skin products and Ive been using her Age-Repair Concentrate for the past few years. Ive tried other products, but I always revert to this.

Age-Repair Concentrate, 98, sarahchapman.com

Stash and grab

When Im travelling I love a stylish toiletry bag. This on-trend suede one by Zara Home can also double up as a clutch. Win-win.

Toiletry bag, 49.99, zarahome.com

@thestylistandthewardrobe

@youmagazine
Back in 2015, Charli Howard decided to set fire to her modelling career.

After six years working as a professional model  and a decade suffering with eating disorders  she was told by her agency that she was too big to meet fashion industry standards.

She was a size six at the time, spending five hours a day in the gym to lose weight and eating cotton wool for lunch. I just didnt want to do any of it any more, she says.

So she poured her feelings into a Facebook post: The more you force us to lose weight and be small, the more designers have to make clothes to fit our sizes, and the more young girls are being made ill, she wrote. Its no longer an image I choose to represent. She ended with: Im off to Nandos.

Her friends told her she would never work again. But Howard was immediately snapped up by an American agency, spent five years in New York, and has posed for everyone from Agent Provocateur to Spanx.

I actually enjoy modelling now, because I can do it at the size Im at and be the person I am, she says. At 33, she has also written two highly acclaimed books including a memoir about growing up with obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, bulimia and anorexia; hosted a BBC podcast, and launched sustainable beauty brand Squish.

She is also the fashion worlds pre-eminent truth-teller. Her Instagram posts include close-up images of her cellulite and unfiltered takes on all aspects of the fashion industry, from sustainability to the body positivity movement. She prefers the term body neutrality, arguing that it is unnatural to feel positive about your body all the time.

Its more about the idea that your body isnt at the forefront of everything  youre more than just the way that you look.

I enjoy modelling now because I can do it at the size I am and be the person I am

Thats what I tend to focus on now.

Were talking in the upstairs bar of Langans in Mayfair following the YOU photoshoot. Shes dressed down in a simple sweatshirt but still has on the vampish eye make-up from the shoot (she loves a lash lift) and so resembles a creature caught between two worlds: I either look like an absolute hobo in my hoodies or Im dolled up to the nines, she laughs.

Its immediately clear why Howard has won the trust of so many women, with 357k followers on Instagram. Shes warm, funny and gets straight to the point on any given subject  such as the unwelcome return of size zero models to catwalks.

A lot of people view fashion as this dream world but its not. Its an influential trillion-dollar industry. And were regressing when it comes to the size thing.

Ill admit I picked up her 2019 memoir, Misfit, purely for research purposes  but then I couldnt put it down. Its a terrific insight into both the cruelties of noughties culture (this was the era of extreme makeover shows and magazines highlighting the cellulite on female celebrities) and how mental-health complexes take hold.

Howards childhood was unusual: her father was in the Royal Navy and the family moved from country to country every couple of years, making it hard for her to form secure friendships.

After spells in Germany and Belgium, the family eventually found the money to send her to a boarding school in Wales (she cant say which one for legal reasons). Deeply lonely, she internalised the messages of the wider culture: if she could be thin, she reasoned, she would be accepted. The idea of my book was to show how eating disorders develop, because they dont just come out of nowhere, she says. Its not a vanity thing.

Its usually because youve got a lot of unhealed trauma, or feelings that you dont want to feel, or emotions you dont want to deal with.

When she looked in the mirror during her teenage years, she didnt just see fat; she saw failure. Modelling sounds like the absolute last career for someone with those feelings. Yet, somewhere in her mind, she was convinced that if she became a model, she would be accepted.

It is, she has since realised, an incredibly common experience. I was speaking to a girl yesterday, actually, whose agency had sent her to weight-loss camp. I was, like, what? I mean this girl is a size 6-8, which is below the national average size. Its messed up. I do think there needs to be some sort of investigation as [this industry has] messed up so many people. Not just models but girls and women in general who tried to emulate that.

If anything, the landscape for teenage girls has worsened since she was that age. She was recently invited to Parliament to discuss deepfake porn. We heard from all these women who are having their faces taken without their consent and put on naked bodies in porn. So its like digital rape. Its terrifying that this is even a thing.

Howard reckons that it was social media that saved her and allowed her to take control of her own story. Still, there are many moments in Misfit in which she says how thankful she is that smartphones werent around when she was a teenager.

God, it must be so hard now to be a girl, she says. We hear so many stories of girls sending nudes to boys that are then put up on the internet.

Theres this need to constantly look good and to put filters on yourself, to have a very Kardashian-like body shape.

For all that she has taken command of her own career, Howard stresses that complex mental-health issues dont simply disappear. In February, she posted about the return of her eating disorders during an incredibly stressful period of her life two years ago.

This was triggered by the self-disgust she felt after a painful episode in which she claims an ex-partner siphoned off tens of thousands of pounds from her bank account over the course of their relationship. He lived in an expensive flat and gave every appearance of being financially independent. It only later emerged that he couldnt afford the lifestyle he projected.

Happiness is knowing when you've got enough. The problem with social media is you never have enough

He was very clever, very manipulative, she says. I try to tell women: just be really careful about how youre spending your money. Have a separate bank account if you can. I think its essential that women have their own money. Its really important to me because it can be a form of abuse  financial abuse.

She feels now that she learned a valuable lesson from it. I struggled for a while, but Ive turned it into something positive. I do believe things happen for a reason, whatever that reason is, and Im now in a much better place because of it. It has made her all the more proud that she has earned her own way in life.

She plans to sell her beauty brand Squish (although she doesnt know who to yet) and says she wont start another one as the world doesnt need any more beauty brands. She is also taking an acting course  she wants to be on British TV or a Netflix show.

Dress and ring bimbaylola.com

There is also a third book in the works, inspired by her experiences with relationships  which sounds like the only thing in her life that isnt going so well. When I ask if shes signed up to dating apps, she makes a noise of extreme pain. Urrgh! I just want to meet someone in the street. Honestly, I wish people would simply come over and talk to me.

She is single and on the apps, she confirms, and is finding the experience demoralising and oversexualised. Ive had guys literally on the first date try to guess my boob size or ask me what my kinks are. Its like: I havent had f***ing dessert yet! she laughs. Weve lost that ability to flirt or build connections. Its crazy. So thats what Im struggling with at the moment.

I've had guys on the first date try to guess my boob size or ask what my kinks are

It is not that she objects to the idea of casual hook-ups. Its the lack of romance. She hates the way dating apps reduce the complex business of human attraction to a transaction. Were fed this Sex and the City idea that women can have casual relationships and its fine, you can sleep with whoever you want and it doesnt have to mean anything.

But dating nowadays is very geared towards men. Why? Youve got all these people who arent communicating. Men? The minute that they get bored of someone, they can just jump to another one.

If you look at the studies into happiness, the key is knowing when youve got enough. The problem with dating apps, social media, consumerism  everything!  is that you never have enough. Theres always something better round the corner.

This is the impossible question. When should you be content with what you have? And when should you go for more. My strong sense is that Charli Howard is a go-for-more person. I always make things happen. Im very tenacious, she says. I dont want to wake up one day and think: I wish Id worn that, I wish Id done that, I wish Id said that. Lifes for living now. Youve got to just do it!

Get the look: Heres how make-up artist Caroline Barnes created Charlis sophisticated modern glamour

Monika Blunder Beauty Cover, 45, spacenk.com

Flawless skin

I used Monika Blunder Beauty Cover, which is a concealer and foundation in one. I buffed it in to give the perfect demi-matt coverage.

Bold brows

Charlis brows are naturally strong looking, so to avoid overpowering her eyes by adding more density to them I used, very sparingly, Blink Brow Bar Eyebrow Pen (23, bbb-london.com). It has three ultra-fine tips and each stroke mimics a hair to create a natural finish. Then I set her brows with Got2be 2 in 1 Gel for Brows & Edges (5.50, boots.com).

Lisa Eldridge Kitten Lash Mascara, 29, libertylondon.com

Luxurious lashes

To counter Charlis bold eyebrows and red lips I kept the lashes looking fluffy and soft with Lisa Eldridge Kitten Lash Mascara, which is lovely and light. It defines the lashes without overloading them, so they still look feminine.

Lashify The Control Kit, 110, lashify.com

For extra oomph, I added Lashify false lashes on the outer corners. They sit underneath your own lashes, rather than on top of them, so your eyes are kept wide and open.

Armani Beauty Lip Power Matte in 603, 36, boots.com

Power lips

I wanted a creamy red lipstick that wasnt too shiny  as these can bleed  and opted for Armani Beauty Lip Power Matte in 603, which has a beautiful texture that stains the lips, but keeps them hydrated.

Hourglass Shape & Sculpt Lip Liner in Incite, 30, cultbeauty.co.uk

I then perfected her lip shape, making it slightly fuller, using the Hourglass Shape & Sculpt Lip Liner in Incite.

Palette London Nail Paint in Vermillion Poppy, 8, palettelondon.com

Glamour nails

Manicurist Georgia Hart updated the classic French look with a scarlet tip (for a bold red see right) against a neutral nail varnish for a modern take on vampy nails.

Shot at Upstairs at Langans, Mayfair, London. Charli Howard is the face of GHD Chronos.

Fashion director: Sophie Dearden.

Picture director: Ester Malloy.

Fashion Assistant: Jessica Carroll.

Make-up: Caroline Barnes at The Wall Group.

Hair: Abigail Constanza using GHD.

Manicurist: Georgia Hart at Stella Creative Artists
Growing up in the West Country, I was a wholesome-looking 12-year-old, with a rangy physique, sun-streaked hair and a gap between my front teeth  but I so wanted to be decadent, like the Biba models in Honey magazine.

If Id dyed my hair dark, my mum wouldve had a fit, and I was already getting far too much attention from strange men in the street to want to wear lipstick with my school uniform. So kohl was my first rebellion; just a swipe of Miners best black stuff and my innocent green eyes were transformed into something knowing and Not Quite Nice.

How I loved my kohl! To someone who had never been further than the Isle of Wight, it seemed incredibly exotic, though I was such a little hick that Gold Blend instant coffee seemed exotic to me.

According to Wikipedia, kohl is an ancient eye cosmetic widely used in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia to contour and/or darken the eyelids, and as mascara for the eyelashes; Arab women drew a line from the bottom lip to the chin and along the nose to show whether they were married or not. By the time it got to Blighty, it was used mainly inside the eye, on the waterline. Viewing the world through a smudgy line of black, Ive never looked back.

Ive lost count of the men Ive known who have squealed at some point Ooh  why would you put something in your eye? And though Im not advocating the introduction of foreign objects into ones vulnerable sweet spots, its typical of kohls slightly shady rep that its the one item of make-up (with the exception of red lipstick) that screams bad girl  or even badder boy.

In my early teens, glam rock ruled the roost, and the likes of David Bowie and Marc Bolan applied their kohl with a heavy hand; in my late teens, when I went to work at the New Musical Express, my adored Chrissie Hyndes piercing eyes were made even more so by it.

Its synonymous with the glorious unwholesomeness of the rock chick to the point that foreign kohl is illegal to import or sell in the USA. Ive seen so many eye trends come and go over the decades and Ive raised a darkened eyebrow at them all.

Burchill with her trademark kohl make-up in 1990 (left), and still rocking the look today

Frosted eyeshadow, red eyeshadow, 50 shades of beige eyeshadow that takes half an hour to perfect  why bother? A few swipes of black and my eyes are good to go out and have a good time, as they have been since I was 13  and Im 64 now.

Is there anything wrong with children wearing make-up, seen from an adult feminist perspective? Should a 13-year-old desire come-hither eyes in the first place? Teenage girls need to be rebellious if theyre to grab a life of their own choosing.

Anyway, there was something distinctly unseductive about the way we daubed random pigments on our dirty, angelic faces; we imagined we were artists turning ourselves into our own masterpieces, whereas the likes of the Miners highlighter/shader combo more likely made us look like the circus was in town.

I dont envy teenage girls these days, who, due to social media, seem to worry so much more about everything, including their looks. The Daily Mail reported earlier this year that children as young as ten are using anti-ageing creams because of social-media pressure, adopting complicated and expensive skincare regimes that can cause redness, flaking and rashes. Im so glad I was young in the 20th century.

When I look in the mirror, its funny to see an old ladys face, as I feel so young  especially because I was rewarded for being a teenager and built a career upon it.

But with a swipe of kohl, the short-sighted eyes of a senior still transform into something unusual. Kohl saw me through my schooldays and through fame and fortune; Ive cried it away and applied it with a shaky hand on many mornings after. No matter how tired or uninspired I feel, there is something about the act of putting on kohl that makes me believe that the show must go on, and that it will be rather fun yet again.

When I first put on kohl, I dreamed of leaving my respectable home and living a life less ordinary  and I did.
If you were to consider how big-name beauty brands come up with innovations, you might assume that it amounts to little more than marketing executives wittering on about lipstick colours.

In reality, the big players now spend billions each year on research. The most exciting developments are happening in the fields of AI (artificial intelligence) and AR (augmented reality  technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a users view of the real world). If you have a beauty problem then chances are itll be solved by one of these advances.

Back in 2008  a time before anyone was talking about AI or AR  a young American scientist called Guive Balooch joined LOreal. In those days, he recalls, beauty tech was something of a tumbleweed zone, populated mostly by lacklustre foot spas and a few hopeless apps.

Asked why the company hired him, he says (modestly) it must have been because I came from California and was the nearest thing to Silicon Valley. However, his PhD in biomechanics, and a previous research career at the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford, could also have had something to do with it.

What Balooch does know is that, 16 years ago, beauty tech was an also-ran rather than a leading light, but that he could also see ways to bring it to the fore. The previous year had marked the launch of the first iPhone. Little did anyone realise it also marked the beginning of a tech explosion with endless possibilities for his industry.

A further leap forward in this arena was the arrival of the iPhone 4 in 2010. The first phone with a front-facing camera, it supercharged the selfie and proved a game-changer for the beauty world.

The secret for Balooch (who has risen to become global vice president of LOreals Technology Incubator) has always been collaboration. LOreal has a vast global data resource and deep knowledge of skin and hair. It knows exactly what its customers want and need.

It's a trap to think about tech first. Consumer need should lead

So when they him they have a problem, he takes it out to the cutting-edge technology divisions, asking, How do we solve this one?

Many of the beauty dilemmas AI and AR are working on solving right now centre on making it more accessible: to people with restricted resources, restricted mobility or restricted ability to travel. As Balooch puts it succinctly: Its a trap to think about tech first. Consumers needs should lead.

Some of these innovations are already available in the UK  others are coming soon.

Fail-safe foundation

Around 50 per cent of women say theyre not confident about picking a foundation shade. Its a global problem: The fundamental reason is that you never have [as many] shades of foundation as you have skin tones of people, says Balooch.

To begin with, therefore, the company flirted with personalised mixing devices in stores. These proved impractical. But their research revealed that if there were around 40 shades available, 98 per cent of people would be covered, provided that there was accurate diagnosis of skin tone.

Makeup Genius (launched in 2014) was Baloochs groundbreaking technological debut. Launched in the US by LOreal Paris, it was the first virtual mirror app and enabled people to try make-up looks on their smartphone.

The app came about after a collaboration with a company specialising in visual effects for movies. Within minutes of launching, it was downloaded 25 million times. This huge success paved the way for much greater investment, and the same technology is now available in 80 per cent of larger retail stores.

Print-out make-up

Ninety per cent of women in Korea and Japan say they have problems doing their brows well. A new device (for the moment available only in Asia) incorporates LOreals ModiFace AR technology as well as an ink printer. It scans the customers face, recommends eyebrow shapes and then prints the exact eyebrow shape required on to the customers skin with a single sweep. The printed brows can be taken off with ordinary make-up remover. This means everyone can now have perfect brows, every time.

Elsewhere, available online now (and in-store in France) is a device from YSL Rouge sur Mesure that uses patented colour-recognition technology combined with cartridges to allow you to create, using an app, any one of up to 4,000 shades of lipstick, personalised to your face or matched to a piece of clothing or an accessory. From yslbeauty.co.uk, 269; cartridges, 95 each.

The eco hairwash

AI isnt the only tech in town. Advanced engineering has addressed water usage in salons affected by water shortages as well as those seeking to improve sustainability.

Restricted pressure affects flow, which results in a miserable hair-washing experience for customers. The LOreal Professionnel Water Saver, developed with Swiss startup Gjosa, uses fragmented water technology (teeny tiny drops) through a showerhead to reduce usage by 69 per cent in salons while still giving good flow.

This is already in use globally, including at renowned colourist Jo Hansfords London salons.

Non-drying hairdryers

In January, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas  the worlds leading technology exhibition  the opening address was given by LOreal CEO Nicolas Hieronimus (a first for the beauty sector), which tells you everything you need to know about how key the industry has become to technological advancement.

The company also unveiled the AirLight Pro (available this summer), a hairdryer that requires 30 per cent less energy.

Conventional dryers are a bit like handheld toasters, heating up air through coils then blasting it out. Its very damaging to hair. The new AirLight uses infrared light supplied by halogen bulbs plus high-speed flow to dry the hairs surface, allowing moisture to be retained within the strands, keeping everything smooth and shiny.

Theres a linked app which customises settings to individual requirements.

A steady hand

About 50 million people globally have problems applying make-up because of conditions such as arthritis, tremor or stroke. Hapta is an ultra-precise, handheld smart make-up implement to help such people to apply lipstick flawlessly, by themselves.

A computerised motion-stabilising device , it contains advanced sensors. Currently available only in the US, it is coming to Europe soon. Balooch is particularly proud of this innovation: When I see people with paraplegia smile, happy to be part of the beauty world, we feel that were working on things that matter.
Tagline

A picturesque ancient beach town (population: 13,510) in Montenegro that sits on the Bay of Kotor. The 28km-long inlet off the Adriatic Sea has spectacular limestone cliffs and quiet stony beaches.

Feline

Kotor is to cat lovers what London is to tea drinkers, as its famous for the hordes of stray kitties milling about the streets. Theres even a museum dedicated to all things feline and the entrance fee is less than 1. Local folklore considers cats to be a charm against evil spirits. The animals are so popular they even have their own hashtag, #CatsOfKotor on Instagram.

Skyline

Only 29 places in the world have double Unesco World Heritage status  and the region of Kotor is one of them. Its no wonder. The old town is packed with historic buildings  such as the pink-stone St Tryphon Cathedral, consecrated in 1166  and surrounded by impressive city-wall fortifications, which were built by the Venetians in the 16th century.

Kotor old town  the region is a Unesco World Heritage site

Recline

Check in to the boutique Hotel Hippocampus in the old town (doubles from 147, hotelhippocampus.me). Further out, there are lots of Airbnbs to choose from (prices start at around 61 a night). I stayed in Dobrota, a residential part of Kotor within walking distance of everything you need: ten minutes to the beach and 20 minutes to the old town.

Incline

The old city walls, dating from the ninth century, are a set of 1,350 steps winding up part of a mountain known as St Johns Hill. They start in the old town and climb 260m above sea level. For more intrepid ramblers, there are plenty of longer hikes to choose from. I did the Ladder of Kotor trail, which begins just outside the old town, zigzagging up an old mule trail connecting Kotor to the Krstac pass. It took around two hours.

Waistline

After all that hiking, you need to eat. Good news  food here is a hearty, garlicky delight. Konoba Scala Santa, a restaurant in the old town, does an excellent seafood buzara: a fish stew cooked with onions and tomatoes (14). Meat lovers should try njeguski, a pork schnitzel topped with cream cheese and local prosciutto, or cevapi  minced meat sausages served with thick bread and white onion.

If youve got room for pudding, try bajadera, a nougat made from crushed nuts and biscuits sandwiched between layers of chocolate.

Here, Kotor kitty: its a Haven for cats

Hotline

Sun-seekers rejoice! Temperatures can reach 31C in July and August. If that sounds too sizzling, visit in the shoulder season  May and October  instead. Its 20C, warm but not too warm.

Coastline

In the summer months, the water temperature can get up to 26C ideal for swimming, unless youre Wim Hof. And make sure to visit the Blue Cave by boat (it may be similar to the famous one in Croatia but its less tourist-packed). The sun reflects through the crystal-clear waters and lights up the inside of the cave. There is no better place to swim.

Down the line

Our Lady of the Rocks is a man-made islet 14km from Kotor. Its accessible by boat and trips run regularly from Kotors harbour (from 21 per person with Montenegro Speedboat and Semi-Submarine). Its worth it just to see the white-stone, domed church, which was built in the 15th century and renovated in 1722.

It contains 68 baroque paintings by local 17th-century artist Tripo Kokolja. Theres also a famous tapestry by Jacinta Kunic-Mijovic, a local woman who spent 25 years working on it while she waited for her sailor husband to come home from sea. A serious passion project.

Airline

You can fly direct from Gatwick, Luton, Bristol and Manchester to Tivat, a 12-minute drive from Kotor. Return flights from around 100 with Easyjet.
How time flies. Last week, I met Tim and Tracey Clarke, a delightful couple I first came across just short of ten years ago for an article I wrote on income protection cover.

This insurance provides financial protection  a regular monthly income  in the case of long-term illness preventing someone from working. It's something that's both underbought and undersold.

In August, the Clarkes will have been married for 37 years and say they have never rowed. Maybe it's their strong faith that has stopped them falling out, but I imagine it's more to do with their fierce love.

However, life for the Clarkes is not easy. Tim, who turns 65 in August, has hearing issues, while Tracey, seven years younger, has optic nerve atrophy, which leaves her with restricted vision.

She has two per cent of field vision, compared to the normal 180 degrees. 'It's like looking through a pinhole,' says Tracey. 'I have good eye days, but they are obliterated by the bad when I battle thudding pain behind my eyes.'

Survivors: Income protection cover helped Tim and Tracey Clarke steer back to a steady course

Tracey has labrador guide dog Loki to help when she is out. Sadly, Oakley, the dog they had when I first met them, died two years ago. Tim is also Tracey's designated carer.

'She's an adorable rogue,' says Tracey of five-year-old Loki. The labrador's companion is Ossie, a Chinese Crested dog from a rescue home in Wolverhampton. Ossie is a trained hearing assistant for Tim, alerting him to potential dangers that his ears can't pick up on  for example, cyclists ringing their bells on the canal footpaths.

The Clarkes live on a narrowboat and spend their time quietly cruising the country's canals. Sounds idyllic, but the reason they ended up living on a boat was because they had to sell the family home. They hit the financial buffers 13 years ago after Tracey's eye condition prevented her working as a pharmacy technician.

Since I last met them nine years ago, the Clarkes have swapped their 58ft Sola Gratia boat for one that's 6ft longer. 'We needed the extra space,' says Tracey. The upgrade was funded by an inheritance left by Tim's parents.

I originally met the Clarkes when they became part of a project called Seven Families to raise the profile of income protection cover. Seven families, all hit by long-term health issues, were provided with the funds they would have received if they had had cover in place.

The monthly income would be paid for a maximum of one year, with the organisers of the project (the Income Protection Task Force) confident that it would show the transformational impact of income protection on each of the family's finances. And, it would highlight the cover's worth. Tracey says the 600 a month they received from being part of Seven Families was an enormous help. It enabled them to buy solar panels for the boat, saving on heating costs. They were also able to purchase waterproofs  vital for a life on the canals.

'It got us out of the tyranny of poverty,' she adds. Tracey also benefited from medical support from ancillary service Best Doctors. The extra money also bred confidence. Tracey wrote a blog about Oakley's exploits and she is doing a degree in theology. The couple also formed the Accessible Waterways Association to ensure the canals cater for the disabled.

Nine years on, did the experience change their lives for the better? Tracey and Tim are not sure. Although Tracey's wish to write a book about Oakley did not work out, the couple have launched a small business selling dog treats, toys and poo bags. Called The Doggie Boat (doggieboat.co.uk), it trades online and they also set up shop whenever they moor the boat in a suitable location. 'It's a bit of pocket money,' says Tracey.

Yet, the couple would not be able to get by without various benefits  personal independence payment, employment and support allowance and carer's allowance.

Tim says: 'The Seven Families experience was also an eye-opener in terms of what we missed out on by not having cover in place when Tracey's eyesight began to fail.' But he adds: 'I'm still not sure that the public is aware of the cover's existence. The insurance industry needs to do more to convince people income protection cover can be a financial life-saver if a household is impacted by long-term illness. It needs to shout it from the hilltops.'

The data suggests that sales of income protection plans are on an upward curve  16 per cent more policies (249,000) were sold last year than in 2022. But the numbers are hardly eye-catching and inferior to those for sales of similar financial protection products such as critical illness cover and life insurance.

It's WHY the Independent Protection Task Force  funded by some of our biggest insurers  wants to raise the awareness of the product among both the public and advisers who could sell it, but don't.

Its campaign kicks off next month to coincide with the tenth anniversary marking the hatching of the Seven Families project. Jo Miller, the task force's co-chair, says that 'raising awareness of the ways in which people can improve their financial resilience in case the unexpected happens' will be the campaign's key focus.

Independent research indicates that financial resilience among households remains frighteningly low  one in ten adults has no savings at all. Financial protection should form part of most households' financial armoury.

This is too late for the Clarkes. Their big consolation is that Seven Families gave them a media profile. They, along with other narrowboat owners, star in a new TV series called Narrow Escapes, which airs on Channel 4 soon.

For many, living on the country's waterways is a life choice. For Tim and Tracey, it was a financial necessity. Only a mix of love and ingenuity makes it work for them.

Forget Isas this weekend. Just think financial protection. Do you have enough of it? If the answer is no, do something about it ASAP.

Neil Woodford pain goes on

No one involved in the demise of fund Woodford Equity Income has come out of this lingering financial sore well  reputationally or in the case of investors financially.

The 300,000 who had money in the fund when it was suspended in June 2019 are receiving up to 230 million of redress  under a scheme agreed between the Financial Conduct Authority and Link Fund Solutions, the fund's overseer. Some believe they have been short-changed.

As the regulator spelt out last Thursday, Link failed to protect investors by not ensuring the fund had sufficient cash to meet redemptions. It was this that triggered the fund's demise. Only by agreeing to pay redress did Link escape a multi-million pound fine.

As for Neil Woodford, the brains behind Woodford Equity Income, the regulator has now confirmed that he and his firm, Woodford Investment Management, were issued nearly two months ago with a warning notice of possible enforcement action against them. As with Link, it revolves around management of the fund's liquidity.

We don't know what action is being considered  a fine, ban or slap on the wrist. But Woodford's lawyers say they will fight the regulator all the way, claiming its findings are 'fundamentally misconceived'. The Woodford sore continues to weep.
It is all change at UK fund manager Tellworth. The business, set up seven years ago by Paul Marriage and John Warren with the backing of investment boutique BennBridge, has just been bought by rival Premier Miton.

As part of the deal, Marriage and Warren, both fund managers, will stay on while BennBridge will exit. Over the summer, Tellworth will vacate its London offices and move into Premier Miton's offices in the shadows of St Paul's.

'It's a good move for us,' says Marriage. 'We are now part of a bigger business with a strong balance sheet and a big salesforce prepared to market and sell our funds.

'Yet we haven't just been absorbed into the Premier Miton investment machine. Our five funds will remain as they are. For fund investors, nothing will change.'

In terms of assets under management, Premier Miton's 10 billion dwarfs Tellworth's more modest 550 million.

Marriage is manager of investment fund Tellworth UK Smaller Companies, alongside Warren and James Gerlis. Launched in late 2018, it has assets of 125 million and invests in companies in the bottom 10 per cent of the stock market by market size.

'We hold 46 stocks at the moment,' he says. 'The average market capitalisation is around 300 million and the idea is to buy companies when they are toddlers  and then sell them when they are teenagers, hopefully at a profit.

'When a stock represents more than 3 per cent of the portfolio, we tend to start selling it down. It is unusual for us to have more than 4 per cent of the fund in any one individual stock.'

Using a rugby analogy, Marriage says the fund's portfolio splits into three teams. 'At the top, we have the first XV, our best-performing stocks, but with some coming to the end of their purposefulness,' he says. 'Then we have the second XV, some of which will make it into the first team while the academy XV is made up of future first-teamers and those that go nowhere.'

Among its current first XV is training and education company Wilmington. The fund took a stake in it 18 months ago and has so far made a profit on the holding in excess of 30 per cent  against the backdrop of a 'dreary stock market.'

'I feel there is a lot more to come from this stock,' says Marriage. 'It's a high-quality business. It could get bought by private equity at a big premium to its share price, which would be good for the fund, but we would prefer to keep holding it.'

Marriage and Warren adopt a six-month rule with regards to holdings. In simple terms, if it does not perform well in its first six months, it is jettisoned. 'When you are investing in UK smaller companies,' says Marriage, 'you want to avoid those stocks that fall in value by 80 per cent or more.

'Our rule reduces the chances of this happening by cutting losses early.' Companies that have either respectively survived or fallen foul of this rule are chainmaker Renold and publisher Future.

The fund manager is cautious about an imminent renaissance in the stock-market fortunes of UK small companies. But he is encouraged that there are plenty of buyers looking to purchase the companies his fund invests in.

'It's not a bad time to get some exposure to UK smaller companies,' he says. Over the past one and five years, the fund has delivered respective returns of 10 and 19 per cent. Over three years, it has recorded losses of 15 per cent. Annual charges are just over 1 per cent.
Boeing's torrid start to 2024 has been well publicised.

Its troubles include  but sadly are not limited to  part of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max blowing off mid-flight in January and allegations from a whistleblower about flawed manufacturing processes for its 787 Dreamliner planes.

Boeing denies these allegations and says its aircraft are safe.

But the news stream appears to be making nervous fliers even antsier.

On social media, some users say they find out what type of plane they are flying on in advance.

Turbulence: Boeing's torrid start to 2024 has been well publicised

In the past, that was a good thing, as the saying was 'if it ain't Boeing, I ain't going'.

Now an alternative phrase has started to appear from safety sceptics: 'If it's Boeing, I ain't going.'

Influencers on TikTok and its peers are not to be sniffed at  they have that title for a reason.

Boeing will be hoping this new phrase doesn't take off.

Future robot overlords' skills always appreciated

Mentions of artificial intelligence have become so common that it's hard to believe it has still not been taken up by businesses en masse.

In late December just one in ten firms were using AI in some form, according to the Office for National Statistics, though one in seven are using it now, including a quarter of big firms.

Whispers would like our future robot overlords to know we have always appreciated your skills and influence.

Accrol bid 'rolling' on

The recent takeover frenzy fizzled out when bids for Currys and Direct Line fell flat.

But there is still one deal that is, er, rolling along in the background.

The board of toilet paper and kitchen roll maker Accrol accepted a 128million, or 38p a share, takeover from its rival Navigator Paper last month.

This was only 12 per cent higher than the pre-bid price  leaving Accrol investor Momentum Global Investment scratching its head.

But Momentum may not be the only one wanting a higher offer.

Accrol shares are trading above the offer price at 40p, which usually indicates the market thinks a higher bid could come.

One to watch.

City AM boost for owner THG

MyProtein owner THG posted another mixed set of results last week.

Scan the headlines and you might have seen that there have been job cuts, the share price fell and one description that THG 'shows signs of improvement but doesn't impress'.

Over at one publication, however, there was a slightly different story.

City AM's online headline read: 'THG making 'material progress' as tech firm's boss hails 2023 Ebitda growth' (Ebitda is a measure of earnings, by the way).

Instead we got that founder and boss Matt Moulding found a return to revenue growth 'pleasing'  but not much else the other publications picked up on.

A reminder that City AM is owned by none other than . . . THG.
Graffiti can be ugly, irritating and destructive. Street art is supposed to be different  and D*Face is one of its most prolific proponents.

Known for outsized murals, the London-born artist is celebrated for work in cities from Los Angeles to Tokyo.

That makes him the ideal partner for hotel group PPHE's latest offering, the art'otel in Hoxton, London's hipster hotspot.

One to watch: The gallery at hotel group PPHEs new artotel in trendy Hoxton, London

Replete with a rooftop bar, co-working space and a dedicated art gallery, the 26-storey space opens its doors in less than a fortnight, stylised with pieces from D*Face.

Art'otel is just one of PPHE's brands, a collection of trendy sites dotted across Europe, each with their own signature artist and other hip accoutrements.

The group is no fashion-focused start-up, however. Founded in 1987 with one small hotel in Holland, it now has 52 properties under its belt, ranging from campsites in Croatia to the 1,000-room Park Plaza opposite Big Ben in London.

The stock halved in value to 9.83 during the pandemic, as the group was forced to close almost every venue (though some were kept open for medical staff).

There has been some recovery in the price, but at 14.35 PPHE shares remain well below their pre-lockdown high. That seems unjustified. Co-founder Boris Ivesha recently posted record results for 2023, revealed 2024 had started well and suggested further growth was on the cards.

Most firms in this sector either build hotels or run them. PPHE does both  and this has several advantages.

First, it is much cheaper to buy land or a vacant property and turn it into a hotel than to buy somewhere that is already up-and-running. The Park Plaza near London's Waterloo station is a case in point.

Originally an office block, PPHE spent 125million turning it into a 500-bedroom hotel. On completion, the venue was independently valued at 250million  a tidy 125million uplift.

PPHE can also build hotels exactly as they want them. The lifts are in the right place, rooms are easy to clean, restaurants are neither too big nor too small, even the corridors are properly thought through.

Importantly, Ivesha and his team can choose locations based on where they think hotels would thrive rather than where they happen to be already.

The strategy has been refined over many years, starting out when an American entrepreneur was looking for a partner to develop Park Plaza hotels in Europe.

Ivesha stepped in and has been building and operating Park Plazas ever since. The brand still accounts for almost half the PPHE portfolio but other names have joined the mix, including art'otel and Radisson Red, another upscale option for the trendy traveller.

Campsites in Croatia are different again. Popular in summer, accommodation available includes fully fitted wooden cabins and empty pitches.

The range serves PPHE well. Suites at the Park Plaza in Westminster go for 4,000 or more on New Year's Eve, when guests have a bird's-eye view of the fireworks.

Off-season camping in Croatia can be had for as little as 40 a night. The breadth of options appeals to both tourists and business travellers, from young to old, wealthy to cash-strapped.

Fortunately, demand is growing across the board. Revenue rose 26 per cent to 415million last year, underlying profits were 35 per cent ahead at 128million, and the dividend soared from 15p to 36p.

A strong pipeline of new openings are in store over the coming months, bookings are in good shape and City analysts are optimistic about prospects for this year, forecasting sales of 457million, profits of 151million and a 41.7p payout to shareholders.

Ivesha is now 76  and his co-founder Eli Papouchado ten years older  but both are still on the board, as chief executive and chairman respectively. Some observers have criticised the duo for excessive involvement. Others believe the company has benefited from their careful stewardship. Either way, succession plans are in place.

A joint chief executive has been chosen to work with Ivesha. Greg Hegarty, who joined the team in 2009, understands the business inside and out. A deputy chairman has been appointed too. Ken Bradley is tasked with providing an independent voice on the board.

Shareholders can also take comfort in the founders' continued support for the business: with 43 per cent of the stock between them, they are highly motivated to see PPHE succeed.

Midas verdict: PPHE trades on the stock market at 14.80 but independent experts say the group's portfolio is worth 26.72 a share. This suggests the shares are significantly undervalued and should rebound, making PPHE an attractive long-term buy.

Traded on: Main stock market Ticker: PPH Contact: pphe.com
Persuading staff back to the office on Fridays is a 'lost cause', according to the chairman of Lloyd's of London.

The insurance market is one of a number of businesses that have been trying to lure employees back into the workplace.

The rise of remote working since Covid has sparked a culture war in the City as many bosses have said skills and productivity are being lost by the lack of face-to-face contact.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said the default place for workers should be in the office.

But while companies have made progress persuading staff  known as Twats because they will return on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays only  the latest comments from Lloyd's leader Bruce Carnegie-Brown suggest that going back to a full Monday to Friday working week in the office may never be achieved.

Home comforts: Bruce Carnegie-Brown suggests that going back to a full Monday to Friday working week in the office may never be achieved

Lloyd's said last year that it wanted to 'get Monday back' and is starting to see that happen at its City of London headquarters.

But Carnegie-Brown said Fridays had already been a 'pretty low attendance' day before Covid lockdowns. 'I'd love to recover a bit more of Friday but I think it's a lost cause,' he said.

Carnegie-Brown said he did not 'mind too much' if the situation does not entirely return to pre-pandemic norms, partly because some work can be done digitally and remotely. On some occasions, the work involves simply renewing 'pretty standard' insurance cover, Carnegie-Brown said.

'But there's also a complex aspect to insurance and a big part of what we do are hurricanes and earthquakes, large energy projects and shipping,' he added. These require 'bespoke' solutions that are better hammered out in person, he said.

Transport for London data obtained by the Centre for Cities, a think-tank, bears out the Lloyd's chairman's observations about the Square Mile emptying at the end of the week  with notably fewer journeys through stations in the district on Fridays.

In the middle of the week, journeys are at around 80 per cent of pre-Covid levels, but barely half as many make it in on Fridays.
The Memorial Hermann Heart and Vascular Institute in the Texas Medical Center complex Friday, Jul. 3, 2020 in Houston, TX. Michael Wyke / Contributor

Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center said Friday that it is working toward a quick reactivation of its kidney transplant program, which was halted amid an investigation that found a doctor was manipulating records for liver transplant candidates.

The hospital said it is working with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston to make the necessary changes that will allow for the quick reactivation of the kidney transplant program under a different physician leadership structure. Memorial Hermann is a teaching hospital that is affiliated with UTHealth Houston.

Memorial Hermann did not specify when the kidney transplant program could be reactivated, and the hospitals statement did not address when its liver transplant program could resume.

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The health system halted liver transplants one week ago and kidney transplants three days ago. Both stoppages were due to a pattern of irregularities with liver donor acceptance criteria, Memorial Hermann said at the time. The irregularities were limited to the liver transplant program, but the hospital opted to stop kidney transplants as well because the programs share the same leadership, the hospital said.

Memorial Hermann said Thursday that it found evidence a doctor manipulated records for liver transplant candidates, potentially preventing some of them from receiving the lifesaving care they needed. The hospital declined to name the doctor, but the New York Times reported he is Dr. J. Steve Bynon, a prominent surgeon who took over the hospitals abdominal transplant program in 2011. Bynon could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Memorial Hermann performed 132 kidney transplants last year, according to federal data, and had 346 patients on its waiting list, the hospital said on Thursday. Its liver transplant program is relatively small; federal data shows the hospital performed 30 liver transplants last year and had 38 liver candidates on its waiting list when it inactivated the program.

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TRANSPLANT SCANDAL: UTHealth Houston defends physician accused of manipulating transplant database

In the statement Friday, Memorial Hermann said it has been working with affected patients, families and caregivers since it inactivated both programs. Transplant care coordinators are contacting each patient to review ongoing care options, including a transition to another transplant program where necessary.

Houston Methodist, Baylor St. Lukes Medical Center and the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center also offer transplant programs in Houston.

A Houston Methodist spokesperson said that it had received calls from several liver transplant candidates and was actively working to get them into the hospitals transplant program.
Britain's flagship nuclear plant could face greater dependence on foreign cash after a string of big-name City firms snubbed a chance to fund the project.

Phoenix, Abrdn and Aviva had said they would consider supporting new nuclear plants and were thought to be in the running to back Sizewell C in Suffolk.

But all have now said they are not in negotiations to take an equity stake in the power station, according to emails sent to campaign group Stop Sizewell C and seen by The Mail on Sunday.

This is a bitter blow for Ministers, who spent years changing the funding model for giant infrastructure works to entice City investors such as Phoenix and Aviva. The model, known as the regulated asset base, enables investors to receive dividends on projects still being built.

Sizewell C has been dogged by delays for years, and the Government has still to finally decide whether it will go ahead.

Snub: Phoenix, Abrdn and Aviva had said they would consider supporting new nuclear plants and were thought to be in the running to back Sizewell C

A series of pension funds, including BT, NatWest, and Nest, have ruled out backing the plant, which will cost at least 20billion.

Alison Downes of Stop Sizewell C said: 'The Government has spent years planning and legislating to allow the funding model for Sizewell C, with the objective of attracting UK pension funds. The strategy has not succeeded, which is hardly a surprise considering the many uncertainties, including what the project will actually cost.'

In January, the Government committed a further 1.3billion of funding to Sizewell C, which will go on early building work.

Six groups are in talks with the Government over funding the project, with at least one understood to be from the Emirates.

British Gas owner Centrica is also thought to be in the frame.

Pressure is mounting after EDF this year began pressing the Government to help fund cost overruns on Hinkley Point C in Somerset. The French utility group said the price tag for that plant  which is the same type planned for Sizewell C  could hit 46billion from an initial estimate of 18billion. The Suffolk plant could power six million homes for 60 years, but would take nine to 12 years to build.

Ministers have also backed programmes to set up small nuclear reactors, especially a Rolls-Royce-led firm designing these easy-to-assemble plants.

Industry sources say these are likely to be more attractive to investors as they are quicker and cheaper to build.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said: 'Sizewell C will mean cleaner, cheaper and more secure energy in the long-term.

'We are in constructive negotiations with a range of potential investors as part of the equity raise process, and are targeting a final investment decision for Sizewell C later this year.

'As recognised by the National Audit Office, the Regulated Asset Base model can deliver greater value for money for consumers by lowering the cost of financing construction and we anticipate charges for large-scale nuclear projects to be around 1 a month on average of a typical household bill.'
Under pressure: Billionaire Patrick Drahi

Billionaire telecoms mogul and Sotheby's owner Patrick Drahi is under pressure to carve up his vast empire.

The French businessman's children want the tycoon, who is the biggest shareholder in BT, to scale back his mobile and broadband investments so they can put their money into other industries, according to reports.

More urgently, he is facing a stand-off with the creditors of Altice, his telecoms and media company, which is struggling under a crippling debt mountain of around 48billion.

Selling assets could be a way to raise funds quickly. This is already underway, with Altice France's media arm disposed of for 1.3billion in March. But there is one investment that Drahi, 60, has steadfastly ringfenced despite it losing him money, and that is BT.

The Mail on Sunday understands that a sale of his 25 per cent stake in the British telecoms group is not on the cards. This is likely to raise eyebrows, as the Moroccan-born tycoon has lost huge sums since he initially bought a 12 per cent stake in 2021.

He raised this to 18 per cent a few months later and then, in May 2023, hiked it to 24.5 per cent.

Drahi  through Altice  has lost more than 200million on his 2023 share purchase alone after BT's share price tanked.

BT, now worth 10.5billion, has dropped in value by 44 per cent since his first buy-in.

He insists he does not wish to take over BT, though the Mail on Sunday reported last year that he was considering increasing his holding to 29 per cent. His long-term goal is uncertain.

BT is under new leadership after Allison Kirkby joined as chief executive from Swedish group Telia in February, replacing Philip Jansen. Telecoms analyst Paolo Pescatore said: 'BT's strategy has not changed since Drahi began building his stake.

'Under Philip Jansen, some tough decisions were made, and it is now in a better position.'

While BT ticks along in the UK, Drahi's focus will be trained on the Continent for the foreseeable future.

He is said to be using his hardball tactics on Altice's creditors, who are stunned by his insistence that they cut the company's debt when many thought he would be paying it down through selling off parts of the business.

Alleged corruption at Altice's Portuguese arm is also piling pressure on Drahi and French prosecutors in March began investigating the allegations.

Altice declined to comment.
A savage religious war is being waged in Britain's toughest prisons with two major white gangs fighting mobs led by Islamic extremists, insiders say.

Two gangs made up of white inmates - called Death Before Dishonour (DBD) and the Piranhas - have been clashing with Muslim crews since the 2000s.

The number of Islamic extremists behind bars has skyrocketed in recent years, with gangs such as the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) recruiting vulnerable inmates.

Gang war between prisoners have seen reports of inmates having hot cooking oil poured over them, forced readings of the Quran and even sharia law being imposed.

The DBD have been said to have an 'attack on sight' policy towards Muslims in certain prisons as well as using intimidation and violence to force prison staff to transfer Muslim prisoners from their wings.

The Piranhas were said to have been formed by gang members from Liverpool and Manchester who became enraged by the influence of Muslim gangs.

A source told MailOnline: 'All this has been going on for years in the big prisons like Frankland and Long Lartin.

'The Scousers tend to get on with the lads from Manchester. They try and form a block to resist the Muslims.'

Convicted murderer Chris Ashton was linked to the Piranhas prison gang

Richard Caswell, who was sentenced to 17 years in 2005 after he was linked to a number of car bombs, has also been linked to the Piranha faction

Ashton was said to have been handing out postcards with a piranha motif to inmates at HMP Long Lartin, who had been converted to Islam

Gangsters Richard Caswell and Chris Ashton, both from Liverpool, have been linked to the Piranha faction which emerged in the mid-2000s.

Ashton was sentenced to a 32-year minimum term in 2006 for killing 21-year-old Leon Small after a row broke out between the pair over a gold chain.

Caswell was sentenced to 17 years in 2005 after he was linked to a number of car bombs.

A Liverpool man who spent time in prison during this period said: 'The Muslim gangs had their own soldiers to carry out violence.

'The Piranhas would retaliate, targeting Muslim gang members. In the end they were all slashing each other up.

'When you run out of soldiers the gangs just pay drug addicts to do their dirty work.

'The druggies only care about their next score, so they will do anything.

'All this has been going on for years in the big prisons like Frankland and Long Lartin.

'The Scousers tend to get on with the lads from Manchester. They try and form a block to resist the Muslims.

'You have to remember both factions are mixed up in the drug economy too, so it can get very messy. You could say the gangs want to control the wings so they can control the drugs.'

Ashton was said to have been handing out postcards with a piranha motif to inmates at HMP Long Lartin, who had been converted to Islam, which urged them to fight back, according to a 2016 report by the Mirror.

Sources said the cards had the Ezekiel 25.17 'vengeance' Bible verse recited by Samuel L. Jackson's hitman character in cult movie Pulp Fiction.

The verse reads: 'And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.

'And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.'

Ashton was understood to have been moved to another prison after Muslim inmates threatened to harm him.

Meanwhile, the DBD are said to recruit members from the Close Supervision Centres (CSC) of prisons - where the most dangerous convicts are kept.

In a warning to prison bosses about a potential race war breaking out in 2016, the group was linked to three convicted murderers.

One Muslim prisoner, who was held in a CSC the DBD operated in, told Vice that he was subjected to constant threats and intimidation, which he suggested was part of an organised attempt to force prison staff to transfer him to another unit.

'Their strategy was to cause so much chaos and do so many disruptive things that pressure would be placed on the guards to get the non-gang-members on the unit moved elsewhere,' he says.

The inmate also claimed that the DBD have an 'attack on sight' policy towards Muslims in lower-security prisons, which is aimed at getting members in these systems transferred to Category-A prisons, where their fellow gang members are housed.

A former prison officer told MailOnline that Muslim gangs are now the dominant faction in the prison system and pose a threat 'people don't want to talk about'.

The man, who served in the UK's toughest prisons and spent a decade at Manchester's notorious Strangeways jail, said: 'It's definitely a taboo subject, but the Muslims are very strong now in the prison system. They are a growing force.'

Picture shows Steven Gallant (left) and Jack Merritt (right), who died in the London Bridge knife attack

Usman Khan carried out a terror attack at Fishmongers' Hall in November 2019

Jack Merrit, 25, and Sasia Jones, 23, were both tragically killed in the London Bridge terror attack

The veteran officer, who asked not to be named, said that the justice system was not equipped to deal with the challenge posed by Muslim gangs.

He said: 'It's an issue at the big dispersal prisons like HMP Frankland. From what I hear they are just not equipped to deal with the challenge posed by gangs of this type.

'There are a lot of very young inexperienced officers who have to deal with challenging situations. I think they are encouraged to look the other way.'

The ex officer also claimed prison authorities were concerned about any accusations of racism or prejudice toward Muslim associations in the system.

He said: 'It's a no-win situation for the authorities. If they try and clamp down on the Muslim they will be called out for racism.

'You might have concerns about what is going on at Friday prayers, but if you flag with your boss or manager they will tell you to drop it. That is the way it is unfortunately.'

Steve Gallant, who became a hero after the 2019 London Bridge terror attack, recently spoke about the issue.

Convicted murderer Mr Gallant was on day release when he fought with terrorist Usman Khan after the jihadi stabbed Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, to death on November 29, 2019.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Mr Gallant warned that some gangs were promoting Islamic extremism within the prison system.

He said that he witnessed a battle rage for control of a wing at HMP Frankland after a batch of convicted terrorists arrived at the high security prison.

Tensions soon flared between this group and white prisoners, leading to an incident when Al-Qaeda terrorist Dhiren Barot was doused in cooking oil.

In retaliation convicted terrorist Omar Khyam attacked a white criminal with hot oil during a turf war on the wing.

And recent Ministry of Justice figures show that the number of Muslims behind bars in Britain have skyrocketed over the last 30 years and that a disproportionate number of white inmates have converted.

There were 15,584 Muslim prisoners in England and Wales last September compared to just 3,681 in 1997, the Justice Ministry figures reveal.

The increase of 323 per cent presents a large pool of potential recruits to Muslim gangs in jails.

The figures disclose that 18 per cent of all inmates now identify as Muslim, nearly three times the 6.5 per cent in the general UK population.

Last month it was revealed that 3,096 Muslim inmates, nearly one in five, were white, compared to just 7.8 per cent of Muslims being white in the wider community.

In 2019 a report commissioned by the Ministry of Justice revealed more about the hierarchy and activities of Muslim prison gangs in the UK.

Al-Qaeda terrorist Dhiren Barot was doused in cooking oil at HMP Frankland after tensions between white gangs and Muslim groups soared

Omar Khyam was found guilty of plotting to cause an explosion likely to endanger life using a chemical fertiliser

Muslim and white gangs began fighting in HMP Frankland after a number of convicted terrorists were moved into the prison

The authors, who spoke to scores of prisoners and staff in high security prisons, found that the Muslim Brotherhood was the dominant gang in the system.

The report found that the MB had its own hierarchy, with leaders who were often Arabic speaking and claimed to be scholars of Islam.

Convicted terrorist were also rewarded with senior roles in the MB.

One prisoner summarised the gang leaders with the following: 'The gang has known leaders. This will be someone whose offence has validity.

'It could be for high profile terrorism They will either be born to the religion or converted a long time ago, before they came into prison.

'Prison converts wouldn't have the legitimacy to become leaders. Nothing will happen without the say so of the leader. If you can speak Arabic or learn passages of the Koran, this will allow you to get up the ranks.

'The leaders will be very polite to the faces of staff and won't do anything to get into trouble with the authorities themselves

'It's all done though their foot-soldiers.'

The report found that the gang employed recruiters, who played a key role in the MB.

It read: 'There is an underlying pressure for people to convert and join the gang. The tactic they use is to befriend someone when they come in. If they don't convert they will then start spreading rumours about them, that the person is a snitch, so that they will be ostracised.

Then the beatings will follow.'

The MB also recruited foot soldiers who were tasked with carrying out acts of violence on behalf of the gang.

One prisoner said: 'They get black prisoners to join as they can push their buttons to do things.

'Blacks don't get the same invitations Asians do. If you're Asian they'd be cooking for you.'

And the MB employed enforcers who used violence and intimidation to ensure adherence to rules laid down by the leaders.

It read: 'Rules were implemented, which included strict adherence to the teachings of Islam and, for all prisoners regardless of faith, rules included wearing underpants while showering and no cooking of bacon.

'The justification for these rules was ostensibly to respect their religion, but they were enforced through violence and intimidation.'

The report found that the MB earned money by selling drugs and taxing other prisoners. The MB used younger members to

bully and intimidate other prisoners and members of staff.

The report found that the MB was mainly an issue at Cat A prisons, and diluted in lower security establishments.

One prisoner said to the authors: 'Once I go to a cat B prison, I'll say goodbye to Islam. If I said I didn't want to be a Muslim, I'd need to watch out in case someone stabbed me. It's very dangerous to denounce Islam. It'll be nice to be true to myself.'

One prison officer said: 'They are criminal offenders who want power and influence and to be disruptive, and they happen to be Muslim. Have there been incidents by Muslim prisoners? Yes, but this is about power, status, criminality, not faith.'

The report also found that many Muslims within the prison system were not affiliated with the MB, which was seen to be a purely criminal organisation.
On August 9, 2017, on a sunny summer day in Italy's southern Apulia region, gunshots broke the peace of the small town of San Marco in Lamis.

Four bodies were found lying near a railway crossing and a small disused train station, riddled with Kalashnikov rounds.

Two of the men - the targets of the 'massacre of San Marco in Lamis', as the incident is now known in Italian media - were local mafia boss Mario Luciano Romito and his nephew Matteo De Palma.

They had been driving in a black VW Beetle near the station when they were ambushed by a car with four or five people inside, who opened fire.

The other two men - Aurelio and Luigi Luciani - were local farmers, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, having arrived at the scene shortly after the assassination in their own vehicle. There were to be no witnesses to the killing.

In 2017, Four bodies were found lying near a small disused train station, riddled with Kalashnikov rounds. The targets of the 'massacre of San Marco in Lamis', as the incident is now known in Italian media - were local mafia boss Mario Luciano Romito and his nephew Matteo De Palma. They were shot inside a black VW Beetle (pictured)

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Suspicion quickly fell on the Apulian mafia, also known as Sacra Corona Unita (United Sacred Crown), or Italy's ruthless 'Fourth Mafia' - named 'fourth' after the feared trio of Sicily's Cosa Nostra (whose fame was amplified by 'The Godfather' films), the Naples-area Camorra and the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta.

The killings were by no means the first in the region, which has been gripped by mob violence for several years. Victims have been shot in the face with shotguns, bodies have been dumped in caves, and farms have been burned down to intimidate locals.

But the quadruple murder set alarm bells ringing about the possible emergence of a new group of criminals - an offshoot of Sacra Corona Unita - doling out violence in and around Apulia, specifically in its Foggia province.

This new group, a collection of different clans all vying for control in the southern province, has over time become to be recognised as Italy's 'fifth mafia' - also known as Societa Foggiana (or Foggian Mafia).

A few days before the four killings, the city of Bari's anti-mafia prosecutor Biuseppe Volpe had written a letter to officials in the highest echelons of Italy's government, warning them of the 'long trail of blood' in Foggia. He said he felt abandoned - with criminal clans ruling the vast southeastern province with impunity.

Figures reported by The Guardian show that in 2017 and 2018, Foggia saw an average of one murder per week, one robbery per day, and one extortion attempt every 48 hours - alarming rates of crime in a region home to just 150,000 people.

Since then, attempts have been made to crack down on the mobs that make up the Fourth and Fifth Mafias operating in Apulia.

In November 2018, Italian police launched a sweep against the Fourth Mafia, arresting 30 suspected mobsters.

At the time, Italy's national anti-Mafia prosecutor - Federico Cafiero de Raho - said Foggia-based mob figures operated extortion rackets and used violence to control their 'territory' near the 'spur' of Italy's boot-shaped peninsula.

De Raho warned that - unlike Italy's better-known mafias which had reduced their number of killings - the Foggia mafiosi were resorting to violence to bolster their influence, killing with impunity and without hesitation.

A Carabinieri Italian police officer looks at the body of a man who was among 4 people killed by gunmen in an apparent Mafia hit, near Foggia, Wednesday, August 9, 2017

The SCU earned its name as the 'Fourth Mafia' because of its late emergence when compared to its three more notorious counterparts, some of which can trace their roots all the way back to the 19th century.

Due to its relatively recent inception, those who are either working to combat or study the SCU call it a 'primitive mafia' - one that is less organised and established than the Cosa Nostra, Camorra or the 'Ndrangheta.

Formed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the group was formally established in a prison in 1983 - according to a document found by investigators in the cell of its official founder, Pino Rogoli, who is still in prison to this day.

However, its roots can be traced back further, to a man named Raffaele Cutolo - also known as 'the Professor' - a Neapolitan crime boss who founded Nuova Camorra Organizzata (New Organized Camorra) which quickly became one of Italy's most powerful mafias in the second half of the 20th century.

Nuova Camorra Organizzata set out to take control of swathes of Apulia, but the crime bosses in the region soon wanted independence of their own - leading to the informal birth of Sacra Corona Unita.

It is understood that the group was formed to counter the power in the prisons and in Apulian territory wielded by the more established criminal mobs at the time.

While in prison, Rogoli came into contact with the leader of the Bellocco 'ndrina (a clan within the 'Ndrangheta), as well as figures linked to Sicily's Cosa Nostra.

Rogoli formed the Sacra Corona Unita, whose structure is similar to that of the 'Ndrangheta (a loose confederation of organised groups, or families) - and was officially declared the supreme head of the new group.

Under his leadership, the SCU spread its influence throughout Apulia while adhering to traditions similar to that of the other three groups while exhibiting the same barbaric tendencies of the past - thus becoming known as Italy's 'fourth mafia'.

The group originally preyed on Apulia's vast wine and olive oil industries, but later moved into smuggling and the trafficking of drugs, arms and people, as well as money laundering, extortion and political corruption.

According to research published in 2012 by the Italian institute Eurispes, SCU's criminal enterprises were bringing in around 2.5 billion euros of income at the time.

SCU's drug trafficking accounted for 878 million per year, prostitution accounted for 775 million per year, arms trafficking accounted for 516 million per year and extortion accounted for 351 million per year, the study found.

The SCU is believed to consist of about 50 clans with approximately 2,000 core members, although other reports suggest it is more a loose association of some 10 to 15 criminal groups which are far inferior to the organisation exhibited by the 'Ndrangheta - said to be the world's largest criminal group.

Mafia boss Mario Luciano Romito is believed to have been the main target in the 2017 assassination, linked to Italy's fearsome 'Fourth Mafia'

Raffaele Cutolo - also known as 'the Professor' - a Neapolitan crime boss who founded Nuova Camorra Organizzata (New Organized Camorra) which quickly became one of Italy's most powerful mafias in the second half of the 20th century

While there is some school of thought that the SCU's power and influence peaked in the 1990s and has since been beaten back, there is evidence to suggest otherwise.

Speaking to Le Monde last year, Michele Miulli - the commander of Foggia province's carabinieri, said the group's behaviour 'is reminiscent to what was seen in Calabria in the 1980s and Sicily in the 1970s, with many blood crimes.'

Some crimes, she says, 'are even committed in broad daylight'.

She adds: 'The mafia here value powerful weapons; they disfigure and dismember bodies. It's not about subtle intimidation but about actions with impact.'

While the Cosa Nostra, Camorra and the 'Ndrangheta are reported to have reduced the number of killings - coinciding with their international growth - the SCU eliminate enemies without a second thought.

'Today the mafias have evolved, so they shoot less, seeking a strategy of silence to stay unnoticed,' Foggia's head prosecutor Ludovico Vaccaro said last year. 'Whereas this is still a mafia that, to show its power over the territory, shoots and kills.'

In a report issued by Italy's Anti-Mafia Directorate in 2021, the Fourth Mafia in Foggia was singled out for its 'unscrupulous use of violence and the ready availability of large quantities of weapons and explosives.'

But unlike Italy's more famous mafias, the SCU is not thought to be as 'organised'. In other words, it does not have international financial structures, tax advisers - and has not become a 'mafia company' with a complex web of international arrangements.

Paolo Iannucci, head of the Foggia branch of the Anti-Mafia Investigation Directorate (DIA), told Le Monde in 2022 that the SCU has no 'crown', and that it has a federal-like structure, with different groups under the same umbrella.

Despite the growing fear around the SCU, some questions have been raised over just how powerful the group actually is today.

According to some sources, several of its leaders defected in the early 2000s, and most of its members at the time that didn't were rounded up and arrested.

It is understood that the group no longer exists as a single organisation, which tallies with Iannucci's assessment.

It has been suggested that the more recent crimewave in and around Puglia actually points to the emergence of a 'fifth' Italian mafia - the Societa Foggiana - and that the various groups in Foggia are actually now separate from the SCU.

This suggestion was reported in 2020 during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic when - on April 1 - a man wearing a mask - blew the doors off a care home for vulnerable people in Foggia.

It was the second bomb attack on the home that year, after an earlier one in January.

The owner of the home, it transpired, was a man named Luca Vigilante - who along with his brother was a key witness in a trial involving a criminal organisation authorities had dubbed Italy's 'fifth mafia'.

Matteo Messina Denaro - Italy's most wanted mafia boss - is seen being escorted out of a Carabinieri police station after he was arrested in Palermo, Italy, January 16, 2023. He was one of the leaders of the Sicilian mob - or Cosa Nostra

Matteo Messina Denaro is seen left after being arrested and right in his younger years

Alongside Cosa Nostra, the 'Ndrangheta, the Camorra and SCU, investigators said at the time they had uncovered an emerging Puglia-based crime organisation that had gone under the radar for years, not connected to the 'Fourth Mafia'.

A series of car bombs in January 2020 - as well as a murder, which saw a 50-year-old man shot dead in his car - led officials to confirm their suspicion about the emergence of this so-called 'Fifth Mafia' operating in Foggia.

'The Foggia mafia is relatively young,' head prosecutor Ludovico Vaccaro, said at the time, according to The Guardian.

'The clans that make up this organisation have been embedded in this territory for at least 30 years. We cannot compare them to the historical Italian mafia groups like Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta, but it is a mafia characterised by a high degree of aggression and violence.

'It is what I call a primitive mafia, one that feeds cadavers to pigs so as not to leave a trace,' he added. 'An unrefined mafia in its actions, and for this reason dangerous.'

Therefore, there is some uncertainty over where the Fourth Mafia ends and the Fifth Mafia begins, with many crimes that were initially thought to be the work of the SCU later revised to be attributed to Societa foggiana.

As with the SCU, the Fifth Mafia also traces its roots back to Raffaele Cutolo, the leader of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata.

He is understood to have met Apulian criminals in 1979, at Hotel Florio, in the province, while he was waging a bloody war with leaders within the Camorra.

Cutolo and the Apulians struck a deal, founding an Apulian branch of Nuova Camorra Organizzata - a predecessor to Societa foggiana.

Although the Fifth Mafia's founding is still mysterious, the 1989 murder of Giuseppe Laviano, a lieutenant of the SCU, marked a turning point in the mafia war in the region - and the rise of Rocco Moretti, known as il porco (the pig).

As gory details emerged in the wake of the murder - including that Laviano's head had been severed, with a picture of it later shown in a trial of several suspected mobsters - Moretti became the leader of Societa foggiana.

A special courtroom is seen on January 13, 2021 prior to the opening of the 'Rinascita-Scott' maxi-trial in which more than 350 alleged members of Calabria's 'Ndrangheta mafia group and their associates go on trial in Lamezia Terme, Calabria

Two Italian Carabinieri stand near a poster that shows 32 people who were arrested in an operation against the feared Camorra clan

Different splinter groups from the SCU - believed to be part of Societa Foggiana - control four well-defined criminal zones in the Foggia region, each specialising in a different form of crime.

The French newspaper says that in the town of Cerignola, mobsters there specialise in explosive attacks on armoured vehicles carrying cash.

In Gargano Massif, drug trafficking is the group's main source of income, with cannabis grown on-site to be sold on to the market.

In San Severo and Foggia, extortion experts and loan sharks have infiltrated the local economy and recruit from low-level criminals.

San Giovanni Rotondo, a pilgrimage city that is visited by worshippers of Italy's most venerated saint - Padre Pio - was for a long time used as a place to store cocaine.

According to Iannucci, each clan 'tries to gain influence and additional income', and the violence can be extreme.

Investigators have found the sawn-off shotgun to be a favourite weapon among the ranks of the Foggia mafiosos, particularly of the Gargano mafia - which operates in a region that welcomes both tourists and Albanian drug shipments from the east.

The shotgun, reports say, is used to disfigure a victim - blowing their face off at close range in what is known as the 'ritual of death'.

Bodies vanishing without a trace is also a common feature of investigations. They are likely dissolved in acid, fed to pigs or dumped in caves never to be found.

In one case, a human skull was left outside of a municipal building, home to the offices of the mayor of Monte Sant'Angelo.

The skinned head of a goat - with a dagger stabbed through the skull - was left the same year for a lawyer representing a suspected mafia victim's mother.

Prosecutors have also been left concerned with a trend of young people being behind gangland killings. In November 2022, a 21-year-old was shot dead in a public park. His 17-year-old killer later turned himself in.

In fact, three murders in 2022 were carried out by minors.

Investigators have found the sawn-off shotgun to be a favourite weapon among the ranks of the Foggia mafiosos, particularly of the Gargano mafia. Pictured: Gargano, Italy

Prosecutors in Foggia working to crack down on the SCU's criminal enterprise - and that of its splinter groups - are fighting an uphill battle.

Quoting public prosecutor Vaccaro, Le Monde reported last year there were '13,000 trials awaiting a hearing, more than 6,000 cases under investigation and 40,000 offences per year.'

Prisons are also full, Vaccaro said, and the re-offending rate is 70 percent.

What's more, Foggia court's jurisdiction covers a territory of 7,200 square kilometres, the largest in Italy, diluting the power of prosecutors and emboldening the SCU.

There have been several examples of intimidation reported which the mafia is believed to have been behind.

Arcangela Petrucci, the widow of Luigi - one of the two witnesses gunned down in 2017 - told Le Monde last year that she received death threats in the wake of her husband's death. She was too afraid to identify who sent them.

In the summer of 2022, 24 acres of tomato fields she inherited from her husband were set on fire in the middle of the night. No one came forward.

'This land was left to the mercy of criminals for 40 years,' she told Le Monde. 'The government was a mere 'visitor' here. The people got used to living in fear. But my husband's death was useful in that it brought to light an unbearable situation.

'Overnight, we went from talking about delinquents killing each other to [discussing] a new mafia,' she said of how the situation has developed in recent years.

Another farmer, Lazzaro D'Auria, told the French newspaper he was visited by a mafia chief who wanted to collect an annual 'sovereignty tax' of 150,000.

D'Auria refused, so he was beaten and threatened with a gun to the head.

He pretended to accept the terms, but went on to report his attacker.

This, he told the publication, made him a 'dead man walking' who banks and insurers are now too afraid to do business with.

In April last year, his 70,000 tractor was also stolen from. He said he'd be able to 'buy it back' from the mafia. One of his sheds full of goods was also burned down.

People take part in a demonstration against the mafia in the city of Foggia, 10 January 2020

Authorities have taken some steps to combat the mafias in Apulia.

One of Foggia magistrates' key objectives is to convince criminals to collaborate and turn on their former partners - a tactic that has historically yielded results in crackdowns against the likes of the Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta clans.

Meanwhile in Rome, the violence being meted out in the region has been declared a national emergency, leading to the creation of a special operations group in Foggia tasked with hunting down the hideouts frequented by criminal clans.

With the groups said to be using Apulia's canyons, forests, caves and abandoned quarries to hide weapons, drugs and corpses, the landscape is being scoured by the special carabinieri unit.

In 2022, the unit made 63 arrests and searched more than 1,500 houses, shelters and bunkers suspected of being used by the Fourth Mafia.

'There are no quiet arrests here,' one of the officers told Le Monde last year.

'They are waiting for us with weapons in hand. Recently, a guy was behind the door with a Molotov cocktail.'

The officers have detailed arrests made after dramatic rooftop chases, with one fugitive reported to have jumped out of a window only to be found crouching on the edge of a nearby cliff with nowhere else to run.

The difficulty of capturing and holding powerful crime bosses desperate to avoid justice was demonstrated earlier last year when a Fourth Mafia chief was able to escape a maximum security prison in Sardinia.

Marco Raduano, 40, had been serving a 24-year prison sentence for membership of a criminal organisation, drug trafficking, holding illegal weapons and other crimes, according to Europol.

The mobster, who had been described as 'dangerous' on Europol's list of Europe's most wanted criminals, was jailed for being the boss of the rural Gargano clan operating within a young and little-known organised crime syndicate in Foggia.

Marco Raduano, 40, was captured on the French island of Corsica on Friday, having escaped from prison in Nuoro, Sardinia, in February 2023

Raduano - described as 'dangerous' on Europol's list of Europe's most wanted criminals - was seen on CCTV footage escaping a prison in Sardinia. He was jailed for being the boss of the rural Gargano clan operating within a young and little-known organised crime syndicate in Foggia, known as Fourth Mafia

This handout photograph released by the Italian Carabinieri press office on February 2, 2024 shows the arrest of Italian mafia boss Marco Raduano, in Bastia, Corsica

He was able to escape Nuoro prison by using bedsheets to scale down the side of the building in February 2023.

CCTV footage showed him abseiling down the perimeter walls using the sheets - which had been tied together. When he reached the street outside, he disappeared off screen. It is believed he was picked up in a car.

Raduano was eventually caught up with on the French island of Corsica, and was re-arrested in February this year.

Nevertheless, the footage suggested he had help from the outside - making it a hugely embarrassing incident for Italian authorities which underscored the power of the Fourth Mafia: Not even the Cosa Nostra, Camorra or the 'Ndrangheta have been able to orchestrate and escape from a maximum security prison.
A new sci-fi series has taken Netflix storm and left viewers on the edge of their seats - as fans demand a second season after an 'unexpected' open ending.

Parasyte: The Grey was released on the streaming platform on April 5, and the creepy thriller has already earned a cult following, with many fans having binged the series in one go.

The six-part series is based on the original manga Kiseiju, which was created by Hitoshi Iwaaki and is also six episodes long.

The action-packed Korean drama is set months after mysterious spores fall from the sky and begin infecting a number of citizens.

Jeong Su-in is a shop assistant who is infected by one of the unidentified parasites - but doesn't appear to be affected by their power.

A new sci-fi series has taken Netflix storm and left viewers on the edge of their seats - as fans demand a second season after an 'unexpected' open ending.

Parasyte: The Grey was released on the streaming platform on April 5, and the creepy thriller has already earned a cult following, with many fans having binged the series in one go

Once the human mind has been inhabited and infected, the parasites are able to take control of it and sprout horrifying powers such as razor sharp tentacles from the host's head.

However, in Su-in's case, she's still in control of her mind, which makes her a valuable asset to a special task force, known as The Grey.

Su-in is enlisted by the authorities who utilise her so-called resistance to help combat the threat - so, will the parasites achieve their one main goal to infect and take over humanity?

Well, it appears the answer lies in a potential second season, according to eager fans.

Taking to X, many viewers expressed their excitement over the 'amazing' new series, and their hopes for a subsequent season.

One person wrote: 'Finished Parasyte: The Grey. The very last scene was unexpected. A second season would definitely be interesting.'

Another said, 'Finished Parasyte: The Grey and I loved it! I hope they make a second season,' while a third wrote, 'Amazing adaption! Writers and directors took creative liberties and still nailed it! Can't wait for a possible second season!'

A fourth viewer said, '9/10. Thanks for serving me so many girlboss. Open ending I'll wait for the second season' while another fan exclaimed, 'THEY CAN'T JUST STOP PARASYTE THERE, RELEASE THAT SEASON 2 RIGHT NOW.'

The action-packed Korean drama is set months after mysterious spores fall from the sky and begin infecting a number of citizens

Jeong Su-in is a shop assistant who is infected by one of the unidentified parasites - but doesn't appear to be affected by their power

Once the human mind has been inhabited and infected, the parasites are able to take control of it and sprout horrifying powers such as razor sharp tentacles from the host's head

In Su-in's case, she's still in control of her mind, which makes her a valuable asset to a special task force, known as The Grey

The six-part series is based on the original manga Kiseiju, which was created by Hitoshi Iwaaki and is also six episodes long

Taking to X, many viewers expressed their excitement over the 'amazing' new series, and their hopes for a subsequent season

One impressed anime fan wrote: 'Well done to especially those who've watched the anime. There is a build-up for a second season especially with a very familiar character showing up at the end.'

A final viewer commented: 'As a fan of the maxim, the last minute of the show thoooo[sic].. don't be showing us that and not giving us season 2 Netflix.'

It comes as Netflix fans have recently become 'hooked' on a new foreign language crime drama.

Wrong Side of the Tracks follows an army veteran as he tries to exact revenge on the Madrid gang which kidnapped his adopted granddaughter.

All 32 episodes of the show - named Entrivas in Spanish, after the neighbourhood where it is set - are available with subtitles on Netflix.
Nobody can resist a yellow sticker bargain but for many the best way to get your hands on the lowest-priced goodies from stores such as Marks & Spencers remains a mystery.

But one man claims he has cracked the secret to finding the very best bargains after he 'stalked' the 'yellow sticker ladies' in his local M&S store for weeks.

Charlie Webber, who posts as freeloading_chaz on TikTok, has gone viral since starting his account - which is dedicated to finding supermarket discounts - just six weeks ago.

He says he can take the guesswork out of finding the yellow sticker items  which are often selling for just a fraction of the normal price.

Now Charlie has shared the tips he has learnt from the 'yellow sticker ladies' at stores across South London with MailOnline.

Charlie Webber, who posts as freeloading_chaz on TikTok , has gone viral since starting his account - which is dedicated to finding supermarket discounts - just six weeks ago

He says he can take the guesswork out of finding the yellow sticker items  which are often selling for just a fraction of the normal price

Charlie explained that the store workers tend to start putting yellow stickers on items at around 3pm or 4pm

He said: 'It's important to point out that it does depend on the store but if you get there for opening there will almost always be some stuff that has been stickered the night before.

'However, for the best deals you should count back to around an hour before the store closes.

'But this is more high-risk as it's later in the day so they may have gone.'

Charlie explained that the store workers tend to start putting yellow stickers on items at around 3pm or 4pm.

'If you go around two hours before the store closes then you are likely to find what I call a double-yellow sticker  which are the best deals,' he continued.

'My general rule is that if anything is under a pound I'll get it. I think that might be a sign of addiction  even if I don't like the food I can't just leave it in the shop and I'll give it to a friend.'

Charlie, who now has over 15,000 followers on TikTok, said his account started as bit of tongue and cheek but it has now developed a wider meaning behind it.

He said: 'There is a big debate underneath it  people who work in supermarkets have told me in the comments 'look, sometimes it is really annoying having these people hang around you in the stores'.

'But there is a cost-of-living crisis going on and we need a better deal.

Now Charlie has shared the tips he has learnt from the 'yellow sticker ladies' at stores across South London with MailOnline

Charlie, who now has over 15,000 followers on TikTok, said his account started as bit of tongue and cheek but it has now developed a wider meaning behind it

Charlie said he first developed his 'yellow sticker obsession' as M&S was always his 'mother's favourite' supermarket

His account on TikTok is dedicated to finding supermarket discounts

'People are struggling at the moment and that is the more serious side to it.'

Charlie said one of the best things that has come out of his videos is the relationships that he has formed with the staff in his local M&S stores.

He said: 'Some were sceptical of me to begin with  thought I was odd and didn't want to be in the videos but as the account's grown and their kids have seen their mums on TikTok it's encouraged more staff to want to feature in the vids and even give me content ideas etc.

'Now some of them even give me style tips  I tend to wear the same outfit, a cap and a green coat in most of my videos.

'So yes, they've got real like opinions on the content. Now, which is quite fun.'

Charlie said he first developed his 'yellow sticker obsession' as M&S was always his 'mother's favourite' supermarket.

He said: 'I've always loved M&S food as somewhere to go for a treat but then with the cost-of-living crisis everything is more expensive.

'So for me, the yellow stickers are a way for me and I'm sure they are for lots of people a way to make getting those higher value items at a more appealing or appetizing.

'At first it was not a total obsession but a kind of a joke with my friends and if I was walking past open, I'd be like oh I'll just pop in and have a look.

'Then this trend came up on TikTok which inspired me to post my first video and it just went from there.'
Located three miles off the South Wales coast, the shimmering island of Caldey is in many ways every child's dream holiday destination.

With rolling green countryside, imposing cliffs and white sandy beaches, the island's physical beauty leaves little to the imagination and routinely welcomes thousands of excitable children onto its shores every year.

However, many are unaware that the island's chocolate box aesthetics hide a chilling secret: a dark history of sexual abuse against infants 'as young as three' stretching back over 50 years and irrevocably tied to the secretive community of Catholic monks that inhabit the rock.

In the decades that have passed since the island's hay day as a popular summer resort for families, alleged victims of the abuse have pooled together to set up the Caldey Island Survivors Campaign and have fought for a public enquiry for years.

This week, the island announced that former Assistant Police & Crime Commissioner for South Wales, Jan Pickles OBE would lead a 'thorough review' into historic claims of child abuse.

MailOnline has spoken to three victims of abuse on the island who have shared for the first time how their abuse at the hands of men on the island changed their lives forever.

Located three miles off the South Wales coast, the shimmering island of Caldey is in many ways every child's dream holiday destination

However, it hides a dark history of sexual abuse against infants as young as three stretching back over 50 years and irrevocably tied to the secretive community of Catholic monks that inhabit the rock (The Monastery on Caldey Island, Wales, circa 1935)

Kevin O'Connell was just six when he first stayed on Caldey Island. His experience would change his life forever

Kevin (pictured aged 8) had been given a free holiday on the island arranged by the Catholic Church in rural Carmarthenshire where he grew up

Whilst on the island, Kevin met Father Thaddeus Kotik (pictured on the island with a child) who he says raped him

'It was a safe haven for them to abuse and rape children'

Kevin O'Connell was just six when he first stayed on Caldey Island for a family holiday with his parents and siblings.

It was a free holiday arranged by the Catholic Church in rural Carmarthenshire where he grew up.

By the time he was nine he had been selected as an altar boy and returned to the island for a week as part of his training. This time alone.

Father Thaddeus Kotik: The demon priest of Caldey Island Father Thaddeus Kotik is one of Caldey Island's most infamous monsters and allegedly molested and abused children in the 1970s and 80s. Hiding behind his cloth, Kotik would at first befriend the children and gift them sweets before committing his abuses. Many of his victims claim Kotik would lure his victims an altar stone in the island's ruins where he would commit his atrocities. The twisted priest arrived on the island in 1947 after fighting in the Free Polish army during WW2. He was ordained in 1956. He died in 1992 without facing any criminal charges into claims he abused children on the holy island. Six girl victims were paid compensation after a civil court case found Father Thaddeus Kotik had sexually abused them between 1972 and 1987. It is unknown how many children Kotik abused. Advertisement

He said: 'When I first saw Caldey from the boat it looked like paradise, the long beach loads of children playing and having fun.

'A monk came over and said to me he was a friend of my parents, and I recognised him as Father Thaddeus Kotik.

'He started taking me away from my group of children and spending time sitting in the sand dunes, eating chocolate. He would stroke my hair and kiss the top of my head.'

Young Kevin returned to the island for a holiday the next year with this site Rebecca and this time he claims Father Thaddeus and other monks sexually abused him.

He claims he would be dragged to an altar stone in the ruins of a previous abbey where the abuse would take place.

Mr O'Connell said: 'There was nowhere to run and hide, I felt trapped and often thought I would try to swim back to Tenby but I would have not survived the crossing.

'My sister would run up to me on the beach and we would hug - she had also been raped by Father Thaddeus.

'I knew then what this so-called holy island really was.

'I witnessed the industrial abuse of children, dragged away into dark damp caves to be raped, not only by monks and priest but men coming onto the island.

'It was a safe haven for them to abuse and rape children as young as three years old.

'When we left Caldey I never wanted to go back there. I hated everything about it.'

At home in his parish church, young Kevin 'confessed' to his priest about what had happened to him and his sister on Caldey.

Kevin claims during the abuse he had contemplated trying to swim back to Tenby to escape

Kevin's sister Rebecca was also raped by Kotik. Tragically, she died at the age of 49 after a troubled life

In 2022 Kevin returned to the island for the first time in 44 years to confront the demons of his past

When he was 11, Kevin was sent to the island for a third visit, this time with his younger brother who he watched over in fear that Father Thaddeus (pictured) would start abusing him

It is unknown how many children Kotik abused during his time on the island

He says he was told if he ever spoke about the monks, God would turn his back on him and the devil would take him.

The priest told the terrified schoolboy that a severed hand would come through his letter box at night and strangled him in his bed.

To this day Mr O'Connell has never lived in a house with a front door letter box.

Against his wishes Kevin, now 11, was sent to the island for a third visit, this time with his younger brother who he watched over in fear that Father Thaddeus would start abusing him.

During that stay young Kevin was found in the grounds of the abbey with a fractured skull and was taken to hospital on the mainland.

He said: 'I still have the scar but to this day I still don't know how I suffered that head injury. All I was told was that a carer found me on the ground with Father Thaddeus leaning over me.

'My parents were told that I was running away and I fell and hit my head - I believe it was something far more sinister.'

Mr O'Connell says he and his siblings were let down by social services who they were in the care of at the time of their trips to the island.

He became a loner and confessed everything that happened to him to his plastic Action Man which he later buried 'in a secret place'.

In 2018, after years of torment, Kevin set up the Caldey Island Survivors Campaign and collected 5,000 signatures on a petition calling for a Public Inquiry

Kevin and his wife Carol (pictured together) are working to achieve justice for the victims of Caldey

Mr O'Connell met his wife Carol in 1983 but it wasn't until years later that he told her about the abuse he'd suffered at the hands of Father Thaddeus and other monks.

Then in 2018, after years of torment, he set up the Caldey Island Survivors Campaign and collected 5,000 signatures on a petition calling for a Public Inquiry.

In 2022 Mr O'Connell returned to the island for the first time in 44 years. He set up a banner on the quayside saying: 'To protect the children of the future we must first discover the truth of the dark past of Caldey Island. Victims need answers.'

He said: 'Fifty people have come forward to say they were sexually abused on Caldey. They have never received the justice they deserve.

'I will continue to fight for them, for me and for my sister.

'Caldey Island was never a safe place for children, it wasn't then and it isn't now.'

'He would call children his "little angels" - he molested me and I got just 9,500 compensation'

A woman who was paid compensation for being molested by a monk on Caldey Island says she was 'one to thousands' abused by evil Father Thaddeus.

The victim, now in her early forties, said Thaddeus called the children his 'little angels' and plied them with chocolates, sweets and toys.

She was just three when the perverted monk led her into the island's dairy where he sexually assaulted children while their parents were nearby.

The woman, who doesn't want to be named, received 9,500 in compensation from Caldey Abbey in an out-of-court settlement, a figure which she described as 'pathetic'.

The victim lived on Caldey in the 1970s when her father worked on the island's farm.

She said: 'I don't know when it started because I was too young to remember but I can recall things that happened when I was about three.

'He would take me into a garage next to the dairy where there was a chest full of sweets. He even got some kittens that he used to lure children into the garage.

'He was manipulative, he knew what children liked. We would play and make dens. He would call us his little angels.

'It was mostly little girls he wanted - I think he had a thing about abusing two sisters at the same time.'

The victim pictured at the time she was abused by Caldey Island monk Father Thaddeus

The woman claims it was an 'open secret' on the holy island which she describes as a 'haven for paedophiles' (Pictured next to Father Thaddeus as a child)

Father Thaddeus even wrote to the woman's mother saying: 'How much I owe you for your children's love for me?' The letter is signed Thad

The woman claims it was an 'open secret' on the holy island which she describes as a 'haven for paedophiles'.

She said: 'It was only Father Thaddeus who abused me but there were other monks and trainee priests there. We were looked after by a lot of strangers.

'The Abbott must have known what was happening but I believe he turned a blind eye to it. If the police had been brought in that would have threatened their whole way of life on the island.

'Father Thaddeus was a prolific paedophile and when I was older and in school on the mainland I told my headmaster what had happened to me on Caldey.

'He wrote a letter to the Abbott at the time but nothing happened, I remember they said father Thaddeus was ill and to 'leave it alone'.

'I've been angry all my life that he never got reported to the police and never stood trial. He got away with it.

'He was responsible for sexually abusing thousands of children, not just us who were living on the island.

'Children would come over on day trips, he would be the guide and would use that position to touch children during the short time they were there.

'He was blatant about it because he knew he could get away with it.'

The woman, who still lives in Wales, said her parents and others living on the island refused to believe that a monk could be grooming children for his sexual pleasure.

The victim said: 'My mother was very religious, we were all Roman Catholics. She believed that priests and monks could do no wrong.

'She thought Father Thaddeus was a holy man and that he children were safe with him.'

Father Thaddeus even wrote to the woman's mother saying: 'How much I owe you for your children's love for me?' The letter is signed Thad.

After leaving the island the girl had a troubled life, drank heavily and was diagnosed with PTSD from her early years on Caldey.

She was one of six women who were compensated and received just 9,500 from the Cistercian abbey a mile away from the seaside resort of Tenby.

She said: 'It was a pathetic amount for a life full of misery and after effects. I took the money because I felt I wanted closure. But the monks never apologised, they have always been arrogant about what happened to children on the island.'

The woman is married but has no children of her own and has never worked because of her deep distrust of people, especially men.

She is suspicious of the inquiry announced this week by the island's new Abbott.

She told Mai Online: 'It's a step in the right direction but it's being paid for and managed by the Abbey so it's not really independent.

'They have brought in a new Abbott but that looks like a ply to me to once more sweep it under the carpet.

'They will have wiped away all the records of the m ones who have lived on the island over the years, they just want to wipe the slate clean.'

Despite dying before he could answer for his crimes, some of Kotik's victims did receive some form of compensation for the abuses he had wrought on them.

'He was always trying to cuddle us, and we would squirm because he stank of body odour'

In 2016, six girl victims were paid compensation after a civil court case found Father Thaddeus Kotik had sexually abused them between 1972 and 1987.

Speaking to MailOnline under the condition of anonymity, one of these victims, who was sexually assaulted from the age of six, revealed that his shocking abuse had coloured her entire life.

The woman, who is now middle aged, said she and her family would frequently holiday on the island throughout the 1970s as her parents had a second home there.

She said: 'My grandparents did voluntary work for the monks and my mother had my two younger brothers to look after, so she was grateful my sister and I were out of the house.'

It was whilst they wandered the island that they encountered Kotik. That's where the nightmare began.

Another of Kotik's victims claimed the priest would sexually assault her in front of her mother

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, claims she and her sister were abused

The abuse occured on the island from 1972 to 1976, at which point she says they started puberty, and Kotik lost interest

She continued: 'We put up with this awful side of things. He had these rough, rusty hands.

'He was always trying to cuddle us, and we would squirm because he stank of body odour.

'He also abused the farmer's daughters, and they were babies. It was just gross.

'My mother would be washing up at the kitchen sink, and one of us would be on his lap. And he would be putting his hands up our skirts while my mother was at the kitchen sink.'

The woman claims Kotik's shocking abuse lasted from 1972-1976 and only ended as she and her sister started puberty.

'He obviously only likes children', she explained.

In the years that have followed the abuse, the woman says she has become close with Kevin, who like her has been left 'damaged' by the sorry affair.

She explained: 'Me and Kevin were quite vulnerable so we were badly abused.

'I had children and then again I think that the trouble with this legacy is that you tend to pick people that aren't that sort of wholesome.

'My ex was quite a bit of a bully really, and after a while i just wanted to be away from there.

'I haven't had a relationship since then.

'It's too loaded - it's too heavy loaded - it's too tense when the person wants to get all sexual.

'It comes flooding back and I don't want to deal with all these feelings, so it's just easier to be busy and lonely.'

What is happening on the island now?

In recent weeks, the island has appointed safeguarding officer Maria Battle, former chair of the Howell Dda University Health Board in Wales.

She is a director of the Caldey island Estate Company Ltd and since her appointment a page has appeared on the island's website saying Caldey operates under the Catholic Safeguarding Standard Agency.

This week, she announced that the Abbey has appointed Independent Safeguarding Consultant and former Assistant Police & Crime Commissioner for South Wales, Jan Pickles OBE to lead a 'thorough review' into historical claims of child abuse

According to Battle, Mrs Pickles' review will be entirely independent to the CICS - but will consider the allegations of Kevin O'Connell.

The abbey is now under new leadership in the form of Fr Jan Rossey, who says he is committed to fostering openness and transparency within the monastery.

Many of today's visitors are completely unaware of the island's dark history

Victims of the scandal claim the idyllic island has never been a safe place for children

The Abbey has appointed Jan Pickles OBE to lead a 'thorough review' into historical claims of child abuse

The abbey is now under new leadership in the form of Fr Jan Rossey who has supported the full inquiry

Father Jan said: 'In common with many other organisations, Caldey Abbey has, in the past, received disclosures and allegations involving members of the monastic community about their behaviour towards children.

'We take these allegations very seriously and, in order to uphold our commitment to safeguarding, we have commissioned a leading Independent Safeguarding Consultant, Jan Pickles OBE, to conduct a thorough review.'

'This review is about taking responsibility, learning from the past, and building a safe environment for everyone.'

A Dyfed-Powys police spokeswoman said: 'All investigations have been concluded. There are currently no police investigations ongoing.

'While we cannot prosecute persons who are deceased, all victims were asked to provide an account to police in order that any other persons linked to the offence could be investigated fully.

'Each victim was offered a referral to appropriate support agencies and alongside the criminal investigation a safeguarding review was also undertaken.

'Given the overall circumstances, Dyfed-Powys Police is satisfied that appropriate inquiries have been conducted.

'All reports of sexual abuse are taken extremely seriously, and specially trained officers are appointed to investigate and support victims of non-recent abuse.'
An Australian man who was named Donald Trump at birth and now spends his life impersonating the former US president says he plans on eventually running the country.

The 33-year-old became an overnight celebrity after appearing at Sydney Downing Centre Court wearing a blond wig, navy suit, signature red tie and bright orange tan. He was also flanked by bodyguards.

He faced an assault charge after allegedly grabbing his licence from a woman outside a nightclub in the inner-Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst when she refused to give it back.

However Mr Trump's appearance in court this week was fleeting when the prosecutor withdrew the assault charge.

'I do not consider myself an impersonator, just a guy trying to live with his beautiful, amazing name,' he told Daily Mail Australia from his home in the Newcastle suburb of Jesmond.

The Aussie Donald Trump says he plans on running for Prime Minister

'Everywhere I go, people line up for a photo with me.

'People invite me into their home, they invite me into shopping centres and even car yards.'

Speaking to A Current Affair last year, Mr Trump told the program his name was Jay Morgan, however, court documents and the Australian Electoral Commission have his name listed as Donald Jay Trump.

'It's the name I was born with,' he said, adding that his parents weren't aware of America's Donald Trump at the time and it was just a coincidence.

Trump, who studied business at Sydney University, began dressing and talking like the 45th US president three years ago and 'hasn't looked back'.

And just like the more famous Trump, this one also enjoys dabbling in real estate.

'A typical day for me is negotiating with the Newcastle real estate industry,' he said.

'I'm looking at building and renovating apartments. There are so many that need demolishing and rebuilding - I'm thinking of calling it Trump Apartments.'

An Australian man who shares a name with former US president Donald Trump now impersonates him

Mr Trump seen out of character in an online clip

Mr Trump alongside a 'fan' at a Newcastle shopping centre

Trump also has another lofty plan - to become Australia's Prime Minister within the next 10 years.

'I don't like the way politics is done in this country and have actually avoided politics my entire life,' he said.

'This country needs a leader who can help the Australian people and Albanese is not that guy.'

Mr Trump said his policies would include 'giving a voice to the Australian public'.

'I would give every single Australian citizen a voice and freedom of choice on what it is they should do,' he said.

'I want to make America, Australia, and the world, great again.'
The remains of a black sailor who died during Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor have finally been identified more than 80 years later.

David Walker was 19 when he dropped out of his African American high school in Norfolk, Virginia, to serve as a mess attendant in the segregated navy.

He was on the battleship USS California, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the vessel was hit by two Japanese torpedoes and sank in the early minutes of the infamous attack on December 7, 1941.

Walker was one of 103 casualties who died on the USS California that day - more than 50 of which were African American mess attendants, cooks, and stewards.

Last month, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced they had finally found and identified Walker's remains.

Walker's closest surviving relative, his cousin Cheryle Stone who was born 30 years after the Pearl Harbor attack, told DailyMail.com it was 'heartbreaking' his mother was not alive to witness this moment after never giving up the search for him.

The remains of David Walker, a 19-year old black sailor who died during Pearl Harbor, have finally been identified more than 80 years later.

He was on the battleship USS California during the raid on Pearl Harbor. The vessel was hit by two Japanese torpedoes and sank

The remains of those on board USS California were recovered between December 1941 and April 1942 and buried in the Halawa and Nu'uanu Cemeteries.

During the first round of identification after the attack, 42 casualties were named.

In September 1947, the American Graves Registration Service disinterred the remains of the casualties and transferred them to the Central Identification laboratory at Schofield Barracks.

But the laboratory staff were only able to confirm the identifications of 39 men from the USS California at that time.

The unidentified remains were subsequently buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.

And in 1949 a military board determined the remains of the unresolved crew members, including Walker, to be non-recoverable.

But then in 2018, the DPAA exhumed the remains of 25 unidentified sailors from the Punchbowl.

Through anthropological, dental analysis, and mitochondrial DNA analysis, forensic scientists from the DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System were able to identify Walker's remains in November 2023.

Walker's name is among the many missing soldiers engraved on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl in Hawaii. Now he has been accounted for, a rosette will be placed next to his name.

Walker will be buried on September 5, 2024 in Arlington National Cemetery.

His mother, Edna Lee Ward, who died in 1951 from heart problems, had tirelessly searched for her son after the attack on the USS. She walked into a newspaper office in 1942, carrying a picture of her son, and asked if they could put his picture in the newspaper

His mother, Edna Lee Ward, who died in 1951 from heart problems, had tirelessly searched for her son after the attack on the USS.

In 1942 she had even walked into a newspaper office carrying a picture of her son and asked if they would print it in the newspaper - which they did.

His father had died of typhoid in 1923 when Walker was aged just one, according to government records.

While Edna, who worked as a seamstress, later remarried, she did not have anymore children.

Walker's cousin Cheryle Stone, from Pittsburgh, told DailyMail.com she felt sorry for his mother.

'His mom had been looking for him all that time, it was heartbreaking,' she said.

Stone said Edna had called and talked to her son for the last time just a few days before Pearl Harbor.

'I feel for the families. So many of their loved ones have never been identified,' she added.

'The war is over, but people don't think about whose left afterwards. There are so many families that continue to suffer.'

Walker had grown up in Norfolk, Virginia, which was segregated at the time. He attended Portsmouth's I.C. Norcom High School, founded as an early high school for Black students, but dropped out to join the navy.

As an African American, Walker was only permitted to work as a mess attendant.

Matthew F. Delmont, a professor of history at Dartmouth College and author of 'Half American,' a study of African Americans during World War II, told the Washington Post: 'Mess attendants were the lowest rank on the ship.

'They did the cooking and cleaning, essentially at the service of white officers. It was an important role for the overall functioning of the ship. They're the ones who managed the galleys and made sure everyone got fed.'

'It was the only role, at least initially at the start of World War II, that Black men could take  in the Navy,' he added.

Delmont said finding Walker's remains serves as an important reminder that there are still dozens of Black mess attendants who died and have not been identified, and so many more families that still don't have answers.

Through anthropological, dental analysis, and mitochondrial DNA analysis, forensic scientists from the DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System were able to identify Walker's remains in November 2023

'They were mourned by their communities, in the same way that white Americans mourned those who were lost at Pearl Harbor,' he told the Washington Post. 'But I think it also is a window  into the segregation and discrimination that those Black Americans faced in the service of their country.'

'David Walker and most of the Black men  from Southern states attended segregated high schools,' he added. 'They were in segregated communities. And then they entered into a segregated military, where they encountered racism and discrimination pretty much every day of their lives.'

The Navy remained racially segregated in training and service units until 1942 when the enlisted rates opened to all qualified persons, per the U.S. Navy's History and Heritage Command website page.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 U.S. personnel, including 68 civilians, according to the Census Bureau. Nineteen U.S. Navy ships, including eight battleships, were destroyed or damaged during the raid.
Wealthy neighbours of a Lotto heiress say they are 'glad' she has sold her three-bed bungalow and abandoned her 'ridiculous' plans to transform the property.

Lisa, 34, and Craig Charters, 35, bought the hilltop home which overlooks Edinburgh Castle in 2021 before they were given the green light to transform it into a 5million 'Beverley Hills' mansion.

The couple had been planning to settle down in the renovated property they bought for 875,21, after travelling the world on the back of Ms Charters parents' 33million National Lottery win in 2016.

If it was built, the mansion - which was designed by award-winning architect Richard Murphy - would have had zinc cladding, white brick and a sweeping paved driveway with views towards Edinburgh Castle.

However, the couple have since decided to scrap their plans and instead sell the 1950s house, which they have made a 5,000 profit on.

Planning permission was given to the Lotto heiress to transform the humble three-bedroom bungalow into a 5million 'Beverly Hills' mansion

Lisa Charters, 34, and her husband Craig, 35, planned to settle down in the mansion after they finished travelling the world

If it was built, the mansion would have had zinc cladding, white brick and a sweeping paved driveway with views towards Edinburgh Castle

The couple drafted in the award-winning architect Richard Murphy to design the new home

The sale has been welcomed by many local residents, with one telling MailOnline it would have 'looked ridiculous'.

They added: 'It would have been a real shame to see the bungalow go, the views from it are just wonderful, especially on a clear sunny day.

'Had they actually gone ahead with the plans, the house would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

'I speak for the majority of people in the area when I say this, but I'm glad they've decided to take their Beverly Hills design elsewhere.

'I just hope whoever buys it next doesn't come in with some ridiculous design plan like theirs'.

Another local said: 'Everyone was baffled as to why the city council even granted them the permission in the first place. It was all very odd if I'm honest and nobody was happy about it at all.

'A lot of these houses have been here for years, and I think that in particular bungalow was first built in the 50s - so why on earth would you want to be so mindless and demolish it just to build something to take pictures of and post on social media.

'Let's face it, that's all you see on social media these days, people with money posting pictures of big houses they have built.

'Nobody actually knows why they have decided to sell the property, but I'm certainly not complaining about it.'

Despite the controversial plans being approved by Edinburgh City Council last year, the couple put the home back on the market for offers over 775,000.

After the couple put the property back on the market, it sold for up for 880,000

The Charters bought the bungalow in 2021 for 875,214 which was 200,00 more than the original asking price

Official records show the property has now been snapped up for 880,000 after being unoccupied for a year.

It had been bought by the Charters in 2021 for 875,214 which was 200,000 more than the original asking price.

Their initial plans for the house were redrawn after a planning furore in 2022, agreeing to reduce the height of the building by 1.5 metres and moving it slightly away from a neighbour's property.

Planning officials from Edinburgh Council recommended the new scheme for approval despite over 60 objections being received.
Surgical tools are laid out on a table during a kidney transplant surgery at Houston Methodist Hospital in 2020 in Houston. Brett Coomer/Staff photographer Medical staff preps for a kidney transplant surgery at Houston Methodist Hospital in 2020 in Houston. Brett Coomer/Staff photographer

The hospital said Friday that it is working toward a quick reactivation of its kidney transplant program, though it did not specify when operations could resume. Memorial Hermann has not provided an update on liver transplants.

TRANSPLANT SCANDAL: Everything we know so far about Memorial Hermann's liver and kidney transplant scandal

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Memorial Hermann has said it has 346 patients on its waiting list for kidney transplants and 38 patients on its waiting list for liver transplants. In a statement Friday, Memorial Hermann said transplant care coordinators are working with those patients to review ongoing care options, including a transition to another transplant program where necessary.

The patients on the waiting list are among more than 103,000 people in the United States who are on waiting lists for organ transplants, according to data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Surgeons performed more than 46,000 organ transplants in 2023.

Heres what you need to know about organ transplants.

Which organs can be transplanted?

Organs that can be transplanted include the heart, liver, kidney, lungs, pancreas and intestines. Surgeons can also transplant vascularized composite allografts, such as the face, hands or uterus, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

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Living donors can donate one kidney or part of the liver. They can also donate one lobe of the lung, part of the pancreas or part of the intestine, although those donations are rare, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.

All other organs must come from deceased donors.

Which patients need an organ transplant?

Transplants are generally needed when a patient is suffering from end-stage organ failure. That failure can happen suddenly or over time.

Organ failure can be caused by chronic disease, a traumatic injury or a toxic injury like chronic drug or alcohol use. It can also be caused by a loss of blood flow to an organ, such as during a major cardiac event like a heart attack or stroke, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

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The timing of when a patient is placed on the waiting list for a transplant depends on the organ.

With kidneys, doctors use a blood test known as an estimated glomerular filtration rate to test a patients kidney function to determine when they should be listed, said Dr. Silas Norman, the chair of the American Kidney Funds Board of Trustees and medical director of the Transplant Multidisciplinary Ambulatory Care Units at the University of Michigan.

Patients with normal kidney function have a eGFR over 90. Doctors will typically want to evaluate a patient for a kidney transplant when their eGFR falls to around 25, because they can be placed on the waiting list when it drops to 20 or lower, Norman said.

The goal in kidney transplant in particular is to transplant people before dialysis, if at all possible, he said. You can place people on the transplant waiting list, and they can start to accumulate waiting time.

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How many patients are on the waiting list for organ transplants?

As of March 2024, there were 103,223 adults and children on the waiting list for a transplant in the United States, according to OPTN data.

The vast majority of those people  89,101  are waiting for kidneys. Another 9,862 need livers, 3,436 need hearts and 2,054 need a combined kidney and pancreas transplant.

Additionally, there are 943 people waiting for lungs, 832 waiting for a pancreas and 213 waiting for other transplants, such as a VCA transplant.

The average waiting time for a transplant varies by organ. For kidneys its roughly three to five years at most transplant centers, according to the American Kidney Fund.

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How many organ transplants are performed in the United States?

U.S. surgeons performed more than 46,000 organ transplants in 2023, according to OPTN data.

They included 27,332 kidneys, 10,660 livers, 4,545 hearts, 3,026 lungs, 812 combined kidney and pancreas transplants, 102 pancreas transplants and 99 other transplants, such as VCA transplants.

How is a patient listed for an organ transplant?

Anyone can reach out to a transplant center to be evaluated for an organ transplant, but only the transplant center can actually put them on the waiting list, Norman said.

Patients must undergo a full work-up of tests before being listed. Those tests may include blood tests, CT scans, stress tests for the heart and health screenings for infections or cancer, he said.

The evaluation also includes a psychological and social evaluation to make sure the patient is ready to go through with a major surgery, and that they will have adequate support as they recover, Norman said.

What disqualifies a patient from being eligible for a transplant?

Each transplant program is different and may have specific criteria that would disqualify someone from being eligible for an organ transplant.

Some programs may put an age limit on transplant patients, though others will take patients of any age, as long as theyre otherwise healthy. Former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes was 85 years old when he received a kidney transplant at Memorial Hermann last year, becoming the fourth-oldest kidney transplant recipient in the states history.

READ MORE: UTHealth Houston defends physician accused of manipulating transplant database

Certain health issues, such as a recent cancer diagnosis or obesity, could also prevent someone from getting a transplant. A program could reconsider if the patients condition improves  such as a patient with obesity losing weight, according to UNOS.

Transplant programs may also disqualify someone who is determined to be too frail to survive the surgery and the subsequent recovery.

You want to do your best to make sure the patient is going to get a net benefit  ideally in survival  from transplant, Norman said. Or at bare minimum that theyre going to have a reasonable quality of life improvement compared to other therapies.

Who is given priority for a transplant?

Various factors that affect how long a candidate will wait for a transplant. They include how sick the patient is; how long theyve been on the waiting list; how many donor organs are available in the area; and how well they match with a donor, according to UNOS.

For certain organs, other factors are considered. The kidney transplant waiting list is largely driven by the time on the waiting list, but priority is also given to children, Norman said.

We give priority to kids in a couple different ways, purposefully to try to get kids transplanted before anyone else, he said.

The kidney transplant waiting list also gives priority to candidates who previously were living kidney donors and later developed chronic kidney disease, Norman said.

Can you be listed for a transplant at multiple hospitals?

Yes. Patients may list at more than one hospital, although theres no guarantee that will shorten their waiting time, according to UNOS.

Patients who want to be listed at more than one location should contact their current transplant program, as well as the additional program they want to be listed with, according to UNOS.

Patients will generally be able to expedite the process of being worked up for a transplant at the additional location, Norman said. Theyll still be evaluated, but most of the testing is the same wouldnt need to be repeated, he said.
After a professional lifetime of watching the British Royal Family, first as a professional photographer and now as a historian, I've got a pretty good grasp of how the media coverage works, the incessant nature of it, and so on.

That, at least, is what I thought - until the health struggles of King Charles and, more particularly, Catherine, the Princess of Wales.

The world-wide attention is on a scale I've never seen before, with the possible exception of the coverage devoted to Diana amid the dramatic collapse of her marriage to Charles.

In the wake of Kates moving video message, in which she revealed her cancer diagnosis, I looked at the coverage in overseas newspapers - and the results surprised even me.

An image from Catherine's powerful video address, in which she told the world of her cancer diagnosis

King Charles is undergoing cancer treatment. Here, he is pictured with Queen Camilla at Sandringham last month

It was not the first time we have seen the Princess of Wales alone on a bench. Here Diana poses outside the Taj Mahal on a 1992 visit to India as her marriage was collapsing

The video was given front-page billing in Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, and Uruguay.

It also appeared further north in Mexico, Costa Rico, and Honduras.

In the Middle East it was reported in Israel, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates and in the Far East in Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

And that is quite aside from the big headlines it attracted in Commonwealth countries, as you might expect, and in most of Western Europe including France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Switzerland.

Why? Undoubtedly the drama of the video announcement, a bolt from the blue, made a difference.

There has also been a determination on the part of the royals to appear 'relatable', more open, less stuffy.

Even so, the scale of the interest in Catherine must surely have gone beyond what even their advisers would have expected.

These are uncharted waters - and it is no wonder the Waleses are concerned

Previous generations of royalty went to enormous lengths to protect their privacy, of course.

The true extent of George VIs battle with cancer was kept, not just from the public, but from his family and even the king himself.

The unusual good health of Elizabeth II throughout most of her life meant such revelations were unnecessary in her case. For many decades, the Windsors' luck was in.

Traditionally it has been royal births, marriages, deaths and the pageantry of jubilees or coronations that gets such global coverage.

Kates health battle has in a sense replaced those traditional stories, allowing us to connect with the royals on a personal level.

The princess did right to speak from the heart in my view. It would be interesting to know how she was advised, and by whom.

But I sense she had little choice, and not just because the broadcast was a good chance to put absurd conspiracy theories to rest. But because the world has changed - and continues to change.

Public expectations are different.

Both and Charles and William will be very much aware of the dangers posed by failing to speak out.

The Monarchy is still haunted by its mishandling the public reaction to the death of Diana died in 1997.

The late Queen fell back on protocol and tradition, failing respond as the people wished.

There is now a demand for 'authenticity', for displays of feeling, which has only increased since then, thanks in no small measure to the power social media.

The princess's moving broadcast met such expectations to perfection.

If a cancer diagnosis is distressing to any family, it was all the more of a shock in the case of a relatively young woman, still only 42, with what has always seemed a strong constitution.

Looking pale and tired, her video was a study in vulnerability - of a sort with which millions around the world can sympathise.

Catherine's cancer diagnosis leads the news in Portugal

King Charles, too, has received prominent foreign coverage, including here in Spanish daily newspaper ABC

Commonwealth countries showed the interest you might expect. Here The Australian Sunday Times features the video on its front page

There is another Diana link, no doubt coincidental, in how Kate was pictured sitting alone on a bench.

It brought to mind that famous image of Diana in front of the Taj Mahal during the Waleses ill-fated visit to India in 1992 as their marriage was collapsing.

Two princess alone amid very personal crises.

King Charles, too, is harnessing the power of empathy.

His unexpected walkabout at Windsor on Easter Sunday made a positive visual statement, the more so as he was among his subjects rather than in a more formal setting.

This too appeared in newspapers across the globe with coverage in Spain, Peru, Argentina, Sweden, and the UAE as well as in most Commonwealth countries.

There's an enduring fascination with royalty, as the coverage of both King and Princess show.

This Croatian front page used an image of the princess looking tired and drawn

Theirs is also a family story, another important point of connection with the nation and beyond.

But in the decision to share some details of their health battles, the King and his daughter-in-law are showing a more human side to the monarchy, one in tune with the emotionally expressive times we live in.

But if, as I believe, they have little choice in this, just what sort of monster has been unleashed - and how much more will it expect?

These are hard questions for the Waleses and their advisers in the coming weeks and months.

Ian Lloyd @IanLloydRoyal
Owning a townhouse in Manhattan was once deemed the ultimate status symbol.

But soaring crime rates, the migrant crisis and the scourge of squatters have seen the top one percent begin to abandon their domestic dreamhouses in favor of the guaranteed security that comes with doorman buildings.

Between the last three months of 2022 and Q4 2023, townhouse sales fell 25 percent percent - with the average discount 18 percent, according to residential listing service REBNY RLS.

Phillip Salem, 37, is a bi-coastal luxury real estate agent with Compass focusing on new developments, condos and co-ops, told DailyMail.com: 'People know West Village, Upper East Side, Upper West Side town homes are where people with money live, so they're easy targets.

'It's a lot harder to break into a doorman building with secured elevator entry than a window in the middle of the street.'

Some townhouse residents, meanwhile, are so concerned they are paying a small fortune for round-the-clock security and even installing panic rooms, New York Post reported. Another New Yorker told DailyMail.com she was so fearful she once slept with a hammer next to her bed.

Owning a townhouse in Manhattan was once deemed the ultimate status symbol

Phillip Salem, a luxury real estate agent with Compass, said that new developments allow for privacy and a better quality of life

Alejandra Sanchez (pictured), 36, said she used to have severe anxiety throughout the night because of her building's lack of security. She began sleeping with a hammer next to her bed because she was so scared about break-ins

The migrant crisis and the onset of squatters have caused concern among the wealthy

A recent poll from Citizens Budget Commission found that only 37 percent of New Yorkers rated public safety in their neighborhood as excellent or good, a 50 percent drop from six years ago.

Salem said: 'With new developments you don't have to worry about people sitting on your doorstep, you don't have to worry about people looking into your window and it's just a better way of life regarding security with crime on the rise in New York.

'They also have amenities from dog spas to movie theaters that make it a much easier way of life than dealing with the town house.'

Herman Weisberg, a former NYPD detective who now heads the security consulting firm Sage Intelligence Group, told the New York Post that his clients living in townhouses have spent upwards of $50,000 on security upgrades.

On top of installing reinforced doors and windows, Weisberg said the uber-rich will pay $100 an hour for round-the-clock security, or split the costs with their neighbors.

'Let's say there are 12 families on a block and each one of them has a driver. All they need to do is leave one of the drivers on around the clock for one night and rotate,' he said.

'That way you split it up. The driver can call 911 in real time, instead of waiting for a security camera guy that's probably got up to go get coffee when the guy dressed all in black snuck in through the basement window.'

Weisberg said some wealthy townhouse owners have gone the extra mile and requested for high-end panic rooms with a price tag of $30,000.

'Weve done a bunch of panic rooms in townhouses since COVID,' said Weisberg.

They dont look like panic rooms, they look like offices complete with walls of books, beautiful desks and mahogany walls. We reinforce everything and add all the flashy things like secondary communication and battery packs that are almost like a Tesla battery.

'And its funny, half of my clients love to show off their panic room to their friends and the other half want it to be so that no one will ever know that its a panic room. Those are my smarter clients.'

Jaclyn Bellini (pictured), 26, moved from a doorman building in Columbus Circle to a walk up in the West Village, but misses the extra security she had

The wealthy are moving away from townhouses and into doorman buildings amid concerns about crime

'It's a lot harder to break into a doorman building with secured elevator entry than a window in the middle of the street,' said Salem

Patricia Heller, 73, bought a penthouse in Midtown East in 2004. She said didn't even consider a townhouse when looking to buy real estate in Manhattan because of the guaranteed security

Some long-time residents of New York City have always preferred to live in a doorman building - that is, if they could afford to.

Doormen are considered a luxury, with tenants often charged a higher rent to offset the cost of having someone patrol the building's entrance.

On average, residents in doorman buildings pay 12 percent more in fees than those living in walk-ups, according to City Realty.

Patricia Heller, 73, bought a penthouse in Midtown East in 2004, years before the city's crime resurgence. She said didn't even consider a townhouse when looking to buy real estate in Manhattan.

'Doormen are the only way to go. Once you have a doorman, you can never go back,' she said.

She doesn't find it unreasonable that the ultra wealthy are paying for round-the-clock security.

'If I lived in a well-to-do townhouse, I would pay anything to know that my safety was ensured,' she said. 'Unless someone is watching the cameras 24/7, your security isn't guaranteed.'

Jaclyn Bellini, 26, a global equity finance sales associate at a major bank, moved from a doorman building in Columbus Circle to a walk up in the West Village.

While she chose to move for the sake of location, she said: 'My building has cameras, but if someone followed me home now, I don't have the same protection that I did have.'

Alejandra Sanchez, 36, is a professional chef who had lived in three different walk ups between Astoria and East Village throughout her ten years in New York. She said she used to have severe anxiety throughout the night because of her building's lack of security.

'When I moved into my second Astoria apartment, the fire escape was on street level and led right into our bedrooms,' she said. 'Even though Astoria is a relatively safe area, I still couldn't fall asleep unless my roommate was home.'

Sanchez said her neighbor once used the fire escape to climb through the building's window when they were locked out. That's when she realized that strangers had the capability of doing just that.

And as crime began to surge, Sanchez began taking drastic measures to ensure her safety.

'I used to sleep with a hammer next to my bed,' she said. 'That experience really freaked me out.'

When the opportunity came for her to move into a reasonably priced doorman building, she didn't think twice about signing the lease.

'What you're paying for is a peace of mind,' she said. 'The perception of safety is there, even if I'm not.'

Joe Giovengo, 48, senior vice president of ad-sales at Sony, said he believes security problems are cyclical, and that the recent crime surge in New York City is a direct result of the economy, city politics, and the mental health crisis.

'There is a large gap between the rich and he poor, and those that are rich have to take extra measures to make sure they feel safe.'

Joe Giovengo (pictured), 48, said he believes security problems are cyclical, and that the recent crime surge in New York City is a direct result of the economy, city politics, and the mental health crisis.

Alexis Ancel (pictured), 27, said she would have loved to live in a doorman building but cannot afford to, but has not had issues living in a walk up

However, Kevin Wilemski, 26, a social media coordinator for Barstool Sports, said he recently moved out of his doorman building to cut costs.

'It's way cheaper to live in a building without a doorman,' he said. 'Doorman may be great at preventing theft of packages but if someone wanted to commit a violent crime against me, is a doorman really going to stop them?'

Alexis Ancel, 27, an operations manager for a startup, added that while she would love to live in a doorman building if she could afford it, she does not feel uneasy despite the panic among Manhattan's wealthiest.

'The only reason I don't live in a doorman building is that this is what I can afford,' said Ancel. 'We get packages stolen sometimes, but otherwise I love my building and don't ever feel unsafe.'
Midnight: Moscow launches an intercontinental ballistic missile bearing a nuclear warhead at the UK. Twenty minutes to impact.

12.05am: Nato becomes aware of the threat and alerts national governments.

12.10am: News channels and radio stations start broadcasting an emergency warning to the public to seek shelter.

12.13am: Britain's Ministry of Defence restricts citizens' access to 'base transceiver stations', stopping phones from sending messages. This affords the Government, via a secure network, a clear line of communication to every UK-registered device.

12.15am: The Home Office sends a signal to every British mobile phone, warning of the threat.

12.18am: Perhaps half the UK population knows what is coming. The time it takes to boil a kettle, if that, is all most of us have to prepare for a nuclear bomb.

So what should you do with your two minutes? And the 24 hours after that? And the weeks and months of 'nuclear winter' that would likely follow, in which radioactive fallout will have decimated the food chain, contaminated the water supply and caused the total breakdown of civil order?

A nuclear attack on Britain from a hostile state such as Russia is most likely to involve one or more 'atom bombs' with an explosive yield equivalent to one megaton of dynamite

The first thing to make clear: you can't outrun a nuclear bomb. As newsreader Peter Donaldson warned in his Cold War-era message on behalf of the BBC in the event of a nuclear attack: 'Remember, there is nothing to be gained by trying to get away.'

A nuclear attack on Britain from a hostile state such as Russia is most likely to involve one or more 'atom bombs' with an explosive yield equivalent to one megaton of dynamite. This is 80 times the strength of the Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which had a yield equivalent to just 15 kilotons of dynamite and killed up to 140,000 people.

According to modelling by the website NukeMap, a single bomb on this scale would likely kill everyone and destroy all buildings within a 1.4 mile 'heavy blast radius.

As far as seven miles from the impact zone, anyone outdoors can expect third-degree burns, with exposed limbs requiring amputation.

If the bomb were to hit Parliament Square in Central London, for example, immediate fatalities would be recorded as far away as Wembley, Wimbledon and Woolwich, with a northerly breeze taking lethal radioactive fallout as far as Newcastle within an hour.

You have two minutes, then. And you need to find suitable shelter. Your best option is the basement of a large, multi-storey concrete building with as few windows as possible  these will shatter within seconds of impact.

If you have no access to a basement or underground car park, head for the most structurally integral point in a building, such as the central staircase in a block of flats, away from exterior walls.

The greater the density of material you can put between yourself and the blast, the better your chance of survival.

A lead-lined bunker is the ideal  but not possible for most. In the 1980 Government pamphlet Protect And Survive, families were urged to bundle themselves into kitchen cupboards in their homes. This theory remains sound.

Avoid hunkering down in a timber structure such as a shed. This would be like seeking safety in a bonfire. Stay away from long corridors and hallways, too, which will only serve as wind tunnels for the imminent 'pressure wave'.

Keep away from tall furniture such as wardrobes, as these will likely topple. Lie face down, with your arms and hands tucked under your body. The United States Centre for Disease and Control Prevention advises this as the best position to shield exposed skin from the oncoming 'thermal pulse' (a blast of heat energy).

When the bomb hits, the first thing you'll notice from your position on the floor is a dazzling burst of light. In clear weather, this 'atomic flash' can permanently blind someone 10 miles away, burning through their retinas.

At night, when our pupils are dilated, the 'blinding radius' is even greater. Do not look up. Shortly after the first flash, a second one will appear as light previously trapped behind the bomb's 'shockwave' escapes.

Within ten seconds of impact, a fireball 5,700ft across, with a temperature five times hotter than the sun's core (which is 15 million degrees Celsius) will roar across the landscape. As it rises rapidly, it forms into a terrifying mushroom cloud. Then you can expect the pressure wave  an unstoppable battering ram of highly compressed air travelling at 784mph, faster than the speed of sound. Irwin Redlener, an American expert in public health and disaster response, advises keeping your mouth open 'so your eardrums don't burst' as a result of the sudden increase in pressure.

The thermal pulse will ignite any flammable materials within several miles of Ground Zero, including dry leaves, curtains, newspapers and clothes.

Wearing pale colours will reduce the risk of your own clothes catching fire, as they will reflect rather than absorb this heat.

Within ten to 12 minutes, lethal radioactive debris known as 'fallout' will begin to rain down from the sky like a sandstorm.

It's time to make a decision: stay put and trust in the integrity of your shelter, or make a break for it, hoping to escape the fallout zone  which could stretch as far as 250 miles from the blast.

In all but the most extreme circumstances, it's best, as the Government recommends in its current official slogan, to: 'Go in. Stay in. Tune in.'

After a nuclear attack shampoo should be used to clean hair, but under no circumstances use conditioner, which contains compounds that trap and bind radioactive particles to the scalp

If you have an electric car, this will be useless due to the electromagnetic pulses (EMP)  sharp bursts of electricity  emitted by the bomb, which have caused voltage surges and destroyed components. In any case, few roads will be passable and cars for several miles from Ground Zero are just scraps of charred metal.

But if you do decide to flee, travel upwind to avoid being chased by the fallout cloud.

If your upwind course takes you towards Ground Zero, travel cross-wind instead.

High doses of radiation melt the body from the inside. Vomiting begins within 30 minutes of exposure and is followed by diarrhoea and loss of consciousness. Death can take just hours.

At lower doses, symptoms of radiation poisoning include severe weight loss, internal bleeding, hair loss, hypotension (low blood pressure) and total loss of bowel control. Terminal cancers such as leukaemia may develop.

You must therefore try to prevent radioactive material from entering your lungs.

Cover your nose and mouth with a cloth or ideally a P2-grade face mask. Breathe through your nose: mucus-covered nasal hairs are capable of filtering 95 per cent of foreign particles exceeding five micrometers in diameter (0.005mm). Wear glasses or goggles. Stick cotton wool in your ears and cover any open wounds.

If you remain in your shelter, try to ensure it is as secure as possible. Seal off any units  such as air conditioning and fireplaces  that let in air from the outside. This is your home now. Place mattresses against shattered windows and cover door frame gaps with gaffer tape.

Do not go looking for loved ones or pets. Buildings have been destroyed, corpses litter the roads. Going outside will inevitably end in panic, disorientation and death.

Anyone who hopes to join you in your shelter must decontaminate. Nobody can touch them or their clothes until they've washed, ideally with warm water and soap.

The Prime Minister is relatively safe in a network of nuclear tunnels beneath Whitehall. As he prepares to mount Britain's response, civil disorder is a risk.

Check their body for third-degree burns: the nerves beneath their skin may have been destroyed, rendering the wounds painless. Shampoo should be used to clean hair, but under no circumstances use conditioner. According to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, conditioner contains compounds known as 'cationic surfactants' that trap and bind radioactive particles to the scalp. For the same reason, do not use any body lotions, creams or moisturisers.

Use a damp cloth to wipe inside your ears and across your eyelids, where radioactive dust can settle. Scrub under your fingernails, making sure not to break or damage the skin. Gently blow your nose. Place any used towels, cloths and clothes into a bin bag: seal this and place it out of reach.

Burns should be covered with a dry dressing and left unchanged for at least a week. Remember to breathe: adrenaline is your friend, but panic at this time could be fatal. The Prime Minister is relatively safe in a network of nuclear tunnels beneath Whitehall. As he prepares to mount Britain's response  launching a nuclear attack on Moscow, perhaps  civil disorder is a risk.

You may want to arm yourself with knives, machetes and bludgeons for protection if you venture out  and a gun if you have one. Do not rely on the police or army to maintain order: the only currency from now on is likely to be brute strength.

Although the Whitehall bunker has an access hatch within Buckingham Palace, the King has been evacuated to a separate bunker beneath the state rooms.

Power lines, phone masts and internet cables will likely be useless. If you have access to a battery-powered radio, tune it to any frequency with signal.

Survivalist Cresson H. Kearny's 1986 guide to surviving a nuclear war urged people to 'listen only periodically' and preserve battery life by ensuring the radio is played 'at reduced volume'.

If you do get a signal, it is likely to be coming from the BBC's Wood Norton nuclear bunker in Worcestershire, which has access to a super-high frequency satellite station on a nearby hill.

Although the Beeb claims the site is now only used for 'technical training,' one insider has said that the bunker remains the Corporation's 'point of final stand'. A healthy person can survive without food for up to three weeks provided they drink about three pints of water per day.

What sort of a world will you find? The worst-case scenario is that global nuclear war has created a dense sheet of fog, formed of dust and smoke, which has settled so high in the atmosphere it does not come down

Begin by carefully rationing any reserves of bottled water available to you. Many buildings and homes have dedicated water tanks: these will be safe to drink from. So is water held in the flush mechanism of a lavatory, but do not drink directly from the bowl.

You might also find water in tinned foods such as beans and soft fruits.

The Government advises drinking mains water only as a last resort  it is likely to be contaminated. Please note: water that contains radioactive particles is not made safe by boiling. However, it can be safely filtered through clay soil, which you might find in some indoor pot plants.

If you possibly can, take iodine tablets to protect against thyroid cancer caused by radiation exposure. As Dr David Brownstein, a specialist in thyroid conditions, explains: 'If there is enough inorganic, non-radioactive iodine in our bodies, the radioactive fallout has nowhere to bind. It will pass through us, leaving our bodies unharmed.'

If you can't source supplements, iodine-rich foods include seaweed and potato peel.

As the days drag on, your mind can become as much of a prison as your shelter. If you have a battery-powered light such as a torch, use it sparingly to aid your circadian rhythms. Try to stay awake during the day and sleep through the night to avoid becoming disorientated.

Two weeks after impact, the radioactive fallout will have declined to just one per cent of its original strength. It is now safe to come out.

But what sort of a world will you find? The worst-case scenario is that global nuclear war has created a dense sheet of fog, formed of dust and smoke, which has settled so high in the atmosphere it does not come down.

This sheet prevents sunlight from reaching earth. Temperatures in Britain will drop to as low as -25c, even in July.

This is the 'nuclear winter', a theory established by academics  including the late Carl Sagan  in a 1983 paper, in which they concluded: 'The possibility of the extinction of Homo Sapiens cannot be excluded.'

With crops destroyed, citizens will turn to the Millennium Seed Bank in Sussex, which preserves 2.4 billion seeds in deep underground caverns.

With no sunlight and limited electricity, crops that grow in shade will be prioritised, such as spinach and chard, as well as root vegetables such as carrots, leeks and parsnips.

In the short term, with contamination rendering most farmland barren, crops that can be grown without soil, such as micro-greens, will be important.

Any animals with radiation sickness will die and should not be consumed.

Any animal that appears healthy can be slaughtered for food  but do not eat the thyroid, kidneys or liver, as they will certainly be contaminated.

A study published two years ago in the Nature Food academic journal estimates that in the event of a nuclear winter, five billion of the world's eight billion population would die from famine.

The first few weeks, therefore, are only the beginning. A nuclear winter will likely see the breakdown of civilisation as we know it. Seeds will be worth more than gold. Sunlight will be a memory.

But if our species does survive, then eventually  years down the line  the deadly smog will lift, the light will break through and humanity will have a chance to begin again.
One of the leaders of the UK's most notorious sex grooming gang that targeted doxens of girls as young as 13 has a parole hearing and hopes to be freed after less than 12-years in jail.

Mubarek Ali, then 29 and his brother Ahdel 'Eddie' Ali, 24, led the gang of seven men, which operated in Telford, Shropshire, that preyed on 100 young girls between 2006 and 2009.

The town was a hub of abuse which saw up to 1,000 girls, some as young as 11, fall victim to various sex gangs over a four-decade period.

Over three years, the Ali brothers' gang targeted schoolgirls who they controlled as child prostitutes by giving them alcohol, food and money.

The Ali brothers were found guilty in 2012 of numerous offences against four girls aged from 13 to 17, including rape, sexual activity with a child, inciting and controlling child prostitution and trafficking children for sex.

Ahdel Ali, 35, led a sex gang that targeted 100 girls as young as 13. He is hoping to be freed from jail after getting a parole hearing just 12 years into his sentence

Mubarek Ali, Ahdel's brother, was also a leader of the gang. In 2012 they were both found guilty of numerous offences against four girls aged from 13 to 17

Mubarek Ali was jailed for 14 years and Ahdel Ali was sentenced to an 18-year jail term after an eight week trial at Stafford Crown Court.

Mubarek was released automatically part way through his sentence in 2017, but was sent back to prison just under a year later after breaking his licence conditions.

His brother Ahdel was first released in late 2020 when halfway through his 18-year jail term. But he was recalled to jail just seven months later for breaching his licence conditions, believed to be around the use of a mobile phone.

MailOnline can reveal that Ahdel, now aged 35, had a parole hearing in December 2023 based on prison documents and the decision was to keep him in jail. He will be eligible for another appeal in two-years time.

In respect of Mubarek, now 40, his new appeal will be his third since being recalled. The panel at his second in May 2022 found it 'could find no evidence to suggest that his level of risk towards others had reduced.

They were 'not satisfied' that Mubarek Ali was suitable for release, according to a to document setting out the decision.

A spokesperson for the Parole Board said: 'We can confirm the parole review of Mubarek Ali has been referred to the Parole Board by the Secretary of State for Justice and is following standard processes.

'Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.

'A panel will carefully examine a huge range of evidence, including details of the original crime, and any evidence of behaviour change, as well as explore the harm done and impact the crime has had on the victims.

'Members read and digest hundreds of pages of evidence and reports in the lead up to an oral hearing.

'Evidence from witnesses such as probation officers, psychiatrists and psychologists, officials supervising the offender in prison as well as victim personal statements may be given at the hearing.

'It is standard for the prisoner and witnesses to be questioned at length during the hearing which often lasts a full day or more. Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care. Protecting the public is our number one priority.'

Ahdel Ali (left) was sentenced to an 18-year jail term after an eight week trial at Stafford Crown Court while his brother Mubarek Ali (right) was jailed for 14 years

Mubarek's hearing is expected to be heard in the early summer when it will be listed. After the appeal, he will be told within 14 days if he is to be freed.

During the brothers' trial the court heard that the two men systematically groomed young girls in such a way that eventually they could exploit them sexually for their own gain and gratification.

The Ali brothers, both of Wellington, Telford, denied a total of 24 offences alleged to have been committed against four girls between March 2008 and December 2009.

The court was told that the men, who were married, had described their victims as 'w****s', 's***s' and 's**ts'.

Speaking after seeing the men sentenced, detective chief inspector Neil Jamieson, senior investigating officer for West Mercia Police said: 'We are satisfied with the sentences handed down at court today and are pleased these two men will now serve significant custodial sentences.

'This is one of a number of high profile trials which have taken place recently across the UK and we are satisfied with the convictions in this case.

'Ahdel Ali and Mubarek Ali targeted these girls because of their vulnerability and then systematically groomed them in such a way that eventually they could exploit them sexually for their own gain and gratification.'

Five other men from the Telford area pleaded guilty to charges they faced prior to the start of their trials and were jailed for between two-and-a-half and seven years.

The operation to snare the sex abusers, 'Operation Chalice', was one of the largest in West Mercia Police history.

A team of up to 50 officers worked on the inquiry to bring the men to justice.

In 2018, one of the victims of abusers in Telford spoke anonymously on Good Morning Britain to Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid about their ordeal.

Telford has the third highest number of child sexual offences recorded in the UK, just behind Blackpool and Rotherham, according to the Home Office.

The woman, going by the name of 'Holly', described how she was sold 'countless times' for sex.

One female victim of gangs in the town, speaking on Good Morning Britain in 2018, described the abuse she suffered as a 'whirlwind of rape'

She said: 'I was abused from the ages of 14-18, my abuse started with boys my own age, who went on to sell my phone number to older men.

'And from there it was just a whirlwind of rape every day basically. I was going into the doctors and the youth sexual health clinic to get the morning after pill, probably twice a week, and nobody even questioned anything.

'I had two abortions, still nothing was said to me. I was in cars that were stopped by the police and they asked me no questions of why I was there with a much older man... it got to the point where I tried to commit suicide, and still nobody asked me any questions about what was going on in my life and why I was reacting the way I was reacting.'

Holly added: 'The way I got out of it was by actually leaving Telford and isolating myself from my friends and family and everybody else that I knew.

'The reason why it went on for so long was because the men were blackmailing me saying that they were going to rape my family members or burn my house down.'

Asked by Susanna Reid how many men she thinks were responsible for the abuse she suffered, 'Holly' said: 'I couldn't even put a figure on it, it's that many.

'The main abusers, I'd say seven, but I was being sold every day, countless times, for four years.'

The authority in charge of the town, Telford and Wrekin Council, acted on just half of the warnings they received, it emerged at the time 'Holly' spoke out.

They were given 715 child sexual exploitation referrals in three years, but just 324 of the cases were referred.

Authorities had been warned of abuse a decade before Operation Chalice.

But authorities were warned of the abuse a decade before Operation Chalice.

Only 303 were passed to its Children Abused Through Exploitation team, according to the figures released under freedom of information laws.
The daughter of the woman whose real-life killing inspired Channel 4's gripping drama The Jury: Murder Trial has told how her mother was 'failed by the justice system'.

Last month TV viewers were gripped by the social experiment in which two juries of 12 men and women  each completely unaware of the other's existence  were asked to watch the same criminal trial and reach a conclusion.

Although names and locations were changed, the evidence presented in court followed exactly the murder trial of Thomas Crompton who half strangled, then bludgeoned his 34-year-old wife of only a few months, Angela Phillips, to death with a hammer in a brutal attack at the cottage they shared in Arminghall, Norwich, in 2012.

Crompton, now 50, succeeded in convincing the jury to find him guilty of manslaughter, rather than murder, on the controversial grounds of 'loss of control', for which he was jailed for seven and a half years, serving half that time.

Angela's daughter Hollie, 28, told MailOnline that the programme, which she and her family welcomed, nevertheless opened up old wounds.

'The problem wasn't the jury, but the justice system itself,' she said.

Angela Phillips, was bludgeoned to death by her husband in a brutal attack at the cottage they shared in Arminghall, Norwich, in 2012

Thomas Crompton, now 50, succeeded in convincing the jury to find him guilty of manslaughter, rather than murder

Angela's daughter Hollie, 28, told MailOnline that her mother was failed by the justice system

Hollie was a schoolgirl of just 16 when the killing took place. She and her two younger siblings were living a few miles away in Norwich with their father, who split from Angela several years earlier.

The manslaughter verdict left Angela's family devastated.

'Thomas Crompton painted himself as a victim when he gave evidence and sobbed before the jury while at the same time blackening my mother's name, making her out to be the one responsible,' said Hollie.

'He was allowed character witnesses and gave evidence himself, but was no-one speaking up for her; she didn't have anyone fighting her corner.'

Hollie and her relatives thought long and hard about giving their blessing to the Channel 4 programme, but co-operated because they welcomed the chance to air their frustration with the way the real trial went.

Hollie was a schoolgirl of just 16 when the killing took place. Baby Hollie and Angela pictured together

Hollie and her relatives thought long and hard about giving their blessing to the Channel 4 programme. Hollie pictured as a child with her mother

Hollie pictured as a child with her mother. Now 28, Hollie said the depiction of her mother in the programme was one-sided

Interestingly the TV experiment showed the vagaries of the jury system as the two separate juries returned opposing verdicts on the same evidence  one finding the fictional defendant guilty of murder, the other only of manslaughter.

In Crompton's case, he testified that when a furious row about decorating escalated, he put both hands around Angela's throat and recalled her lips turning blue.

Then he stopped, picked up a heavy industrial hammer and proceeded to cave in her skull, striking her at least three times.

Crompton initially claimed he couldn't remember where he found the hammer from.

Channel 4's The Jury: Murder Trial saw two juries of 12 men and women  each completely unaware of the other's existence  asked to watch the same criminal trial and reach a conclusion

Interestingly the TV experiment showed the vagaries of the jury system as the two separate juries returned opposing verdicts on the same evidence

But crucially, under cross-examination, he accepted that the prosecution could be correct that he left the house, walked a few minutes to the foundry, picked up the hammer and returned, as they put it, to 'bash her brains in'.

She died a few days later in Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.

Angela's family were shocked when they heard the 'loss of control' defence.

'This wasn't a split second thing,' said Hollie. 'How long does it take for someone to pass out when you're strangling them  a couple of minutes?

'Then he goes and picks up a hammer and comes back  it's a conscious decision, how is that 'loss of control'?'

Hollie said that back in 2012 when Crompton's manslaughter plea was explained to her and other family members by police and prosecution lawyers, they were assured the case for murder was 'very strong'.

But the depiction of Angela Phillips in the trials (real and televised) was nothing short of scathing. She was painted as violent, manipulative and deeply troubled, taunting her husband about former lovers, and insulting him about his appearance and his weight.

A psychiatrist suggested she had borderline personality disorder. The comments from inside the TV jury room were even more extreme, and included 'monster', 'nut-nut' and 'what a bitch'.

Hollie said: 'This negative slant on my mother's mental health painted an awful picture of her when in fact she was no more 'unstable' than anyone else.

'Women are often portrayed as 'unstable' or 'crazy' in cases like this, where this kind of language is used against the victim.

'I think that back then in 2012, mental health was viewed so much less seriously and less sympathetically than in today's society.'

Hollie said back in 2012 when Crompton's manslaughter plea was explained to her they were assured the case for murder was 'very strong'

Hollie couldn't bring herself to watch the programme and relive the horrific experience

One TV juror even suggested the victim had been 'asking for it' and another, having heard Crompton's evidence from the dock spoken by an actor, told fellow jurors in tears that she 'wanted to hug him' because she, too had been taunted about her weight.

Hollie couldn't bring herself to watch the programme and relive the horrific experience of losing her mother aged only 16, and then watching her killer receive a 'derisory' sentence after shredding her reputation from the witness box, but she has read reports about it.

'The knock-on effect on me and my family of him receiving such a short sentence has been massive  and we're supposed to accept that verdict because someone felt bad when he cried in court?

'When the real trial was going on, we kept asking the lawyers when our family would be able to give evidence to set the record straight,' recalled Hollie.

'We were fobbed off by being told it was a strong murder case, and not to worry, but for whatever reason we never got that chance.

'There were people who had given witness statements including her mother and her friends, but they were never called.

'It's made me think that this kind of victim-blaming happens a lot in murder trials, particularly where it's a woman killed by a man. How is that allowed to happen?

'The defence 'game plan', for want of a better word, was clearly character assassination, to paint my mother in the worst light possible, which obviously massively influenced the jury.

'The jury wouldn't be able to tell, as they didn't know her character at all, so they got a completely distorted version. But she wasn't the person described to them  she was a brilliant, fun mother, she was lovely and lively. She was a sister, she was a daughter, but none of that was said.

'She was born to be a mother and always told me the thing she did best in life was being a parent.'

But none of that came out in the evidence and instead Crompton was allowed to paint himself as the victim.

'The trial was a perfect like case of victim blaming and the unfair systemic gender bias discrimination in the justice system just always the unfair representation of women especially when they are victims.'

Hollie said that the depiction of Crompton in the court case was also one-sided.

'There was another side to him also,' she said. 'It wasn't all rainbows and sunshine, and if her friends' statements had been heard in court, that was there.'

Hollie lost her mother when she was aged only 16

Though she's reluctant to comment fully on Crompton, who has now rebased to Suffolk, where he is working again as a sculptor, Hollie said: 'There was unhappiness, and there was possessiveness on his side. To me the relationship never felt like it was authentic  there was always just something off about him.

When he was released after just four years, which was crazy, I was still only 20 or 21, and I remember being constantly on edge, living in a small town as we did, that I might run into him. Thankfully I never did.

'It hugely affected my mental health with anxiety and depression for a long time and I moved to London and find it hard to return to Norwich as sometimes the bad memories outshine the good ones.'

Now a successful beauty therapist in London, Hollie and her family hope some good can come from the tragic loss of her mother.

Ironically, 'loss of control', introduced in 2010, was partly aimed at allowing female victims of domestic violence more access to justice,

The defence of 'provocation', which it replaced, was considered to have a gender bias towards male defendants who sought to use it when they had killed as a result of simply losing their temper whereas women who killed out of a fear of serious violence could not use it because it required the provocation to be 'sudden' and 'temporary'.

Angela's trial may have worsened her family's anguish, but one enduring legacy from her death has been the worldwide 'Ask for Angela' initiative which sprang from her death.

The idea was the brainchild of a campaigner against sexual violence in neighbouring Lincolnshire, who knew of Angela's death through a mutual friend.

It has since been taken up all over Britain and as far afield as the United States, New Zealand and Argentina, means that women (and men) who feel unsafe or threatened in bars and clubs can ask bar staff 'for Angela', a fictitious colleague and will then help them get home safely by calling a cab.

Hollie said she took some comfort from that: 'It means that anyone who's vulnerable can easily ask for help and I'm glad that's a good thing that came from my mother's death. Now I'd like to see the justice system take a look at itself and come up with a way to address the problem of victim-blaming and gender bias.'
What started out as a trip to the local park to walk her dog left motorist Julie Sansom 733 out of pocket and with her credit rating trashed.

Now the 52-year-old is speaking out against the profiteering enforcement company that have left her astonished at the problems she's since faced.

Back in January 2021, she went to Bestwood Country Park in Nottingham only to discover that the formerly free car park was now taking payments of 1 for parking.

It did not take cash or card so she tried to download the app required for payment, only to be told that she already had it.

Unable to remember her log in details, she rang the number provided to make payment but after four failed attempts to receive a reply, she gave up and drove to a different car park.

Back in January 2021, Julie Sansom went to Bestwood Country Park in Nottingham only to discover that the formerly free car park was now taking payments of 1 for parking

In November 2022, a letter arrived from Civil Enforcement, the parking company, saying they had successful obtained a County Court Judgement (CCJ) against her in the County Court Business Centre

The 52-year-old is speaking out against the profiteering enforcement company that have left her astonished at the problems she's since faced

'A few days later I was sent a parking fine which I challenged and sent them screenshots of all the calls I had made to their number to make payment.

'They rejected my appeal saying I had not paid to park my car. I wrote back and went through it again. They again replied saying my appeal was rejected but they clearly hadn't read it.

'I told them I was not going to pay and if they pursued it, I would take it up with my MP.'

In emails seen by MailOnline, Julie, a care worker and dog walker, states: 'I am not paying anything until I have had an acknowledgment of my appeal and its contents and an explanation of what I should have done in the circumstances..to prevent me receiving a fine.'

She thought no more of it, until, 16 months later, in November 2022, a letter arrived from Civil Enforcement, the parking company, saying they had successful obtained a County Court Judgement (CCJ) against her in the County Court Business Centre.

'I had no idea this had happened,' she said. 'I was not told there would be a hearing, and was just sent a letter saying I now owed 299 but they'd accept 224.33.'

After being sent a letter from bailiffs, Julie was forced to pay up but worse was to follow.

'I had split up from my partner and wanted to remortgage the property we jointly owned to buy him out and then add my grown up daughter to the mortgage but all of this was impossible because of the CCJ,' she said.

'This one trip to the park has put my whole life on hold and cost me a fortune.

'The five year fixed term deal came to an end in January and the payments went up by 300-a-month and with the CCJ judgement, there was nothing I could do to mitigate it.'

Desperate to restore her credit rating and remove the CCJ from her record, Julie contacted CCJ Removal Services

Desperate to restore her credit rating and remove the CCJ from her record, she contacted CCJ Removal Services.

'When I told them I had not even been informed of a CCJ hearing against me they didn't sound in the least bit surprised.

'They made it all sound like standard practice but it would cost me 399 plus 108 in court fees.

'They told me it would take 10 to 12 weeks but now I have been waiting for over seven months.

'I was told that all my paperwork had been lost and needed to be resubmitted.

'It is completely unfair. The parking company are just trying it on with motorists and the courts are backing them up.

'How can it possibly be right to hold such serious and impactful hearings without letting the person affected know it's happening?

'The comments I've seen about Civil Enforcement are appalling. People are given parking tickets while they look for somewhere to park. It's an utter scam.'

Julie is not the only one to face similar problems in that car park.

In a review of the Bestwood Lodge Hotel car park, from October 2019, user Delboy4455 wrote: 'I went for a walk at Bestwood Park with my friend who was drivingCar parking signage stated it was 1 to park & only way to pay was via the phone.

'My friend went through the instructions carefully & as far as we were concerned the payment had been paid.

Julie is not the only one to face similar problems in the Bestwood Lodge Hotel car park

'Two weeks later my friend got a letter stating she had not paid & must pay 100. We appealed. For some reason Bestwood Lodge have hired a company from Liverpool.

'Appeal failed & letter with menaces stated 100 within 28 days'

Trust Pilot has many reviews criticising Civil Enforcement Ltd.

One from last week said: 'Legalised rip off. 60 fine for parking in a KFC car park while eating inside. We had no awareness that the car park was monitored or timed. This is a legalised scam.'

Another from March said: 'I didn't even park in car park they said. There (sic) photos show I'm in a different place.'

The 'Parking Cowboys' website describes Civil Enforcement as, 'a very litigious company, issuing hundreds if not thousands of claims per year. They are known to issue claims for historical parking tickets (up to six years in the past) when many people were generally ignoring them.

'CEL have found this to be an extremely profitable operation since many people pay up when faced with stamped court papers.'

Civil Enforcement is a private company, set up in 2005, to provide 'support services' to other businesses.

Accounts show the Liverpool-based business turned over 25.98 million in 2022-23.

They have been contacted for comment.
A 'brutal' house extension has caused outrage on social media and left locals wondering just what has to be proposed for planners to say No.

The property is part of a small estate, built in the 1930s, of detached and semi-detached houses close to Darley Park in Derby.

But it was owned by an Instagram 'influencer' who decided it needed a makeover.

The upshot certainly stood out. It was described by one local as a 'game of Jenga' with a mass of square wood panels where once stood a garage and bay windows.

The influencer then sold the property for 748,000 and moved to Guernsey leaving former neighbours of the quaint estate wondering just how it had all happened.

The property is part of a small estate, built in the 1930s, of detached and semi-detached houses close to Darley Park in Derby. Pictured before the extension

The extension (pictured) was described by one local as a 'game of Jenga' with a mass of square wood panels where once stood a garage and bay windows

The influencer Kate (pictured) then sold the property for 748,000 and moved to Guernsey leaving former neighbours of the quaint estate wondering just how it had all happened

The influencer posted about her property on her Instagram page

Retired cameraman Chris Hull, 70, said: 'It is indescribably bad. It is just completely out of keeping with everything else and I don't think it will age well. I am amazed it got through planning.'

Also amazed was Roger Bate, 78, a former house builder, who lives opposite.

'We were all left gobsmacked,' he said. 'We were fuming really. Twelve of us wrote to the local planners objecting strongly to what was proposed, saying they should scrap it, but we were out voted and told it was acceptable.

'They actually changed their plans half way through. Originally it did not feature the wood cladding but around here if you make changes to your plans you only have to notify adjacent properties.'

'The woman who did it, Kate, was very well connected and was an influencer. Everyone was telling her how wonderful it was. That's not how we felt.'

Mr Bate said the one success he and his fellow objectors had was in blocking plans for a roof terrace.

'This is an area of retired professional people,' he said. 'The terrace would have overlooked several houses.

Pictures from the inside the house show a dark grey storage wall

The kitchen has also been decorated in a dark grey colour tone

'They rejected it, but the property was still built with a door leading onto the roof. Luckily for us, those who have now bought it are very reasonable people.'

Jean Whittaker, 75, also looks out at the angular house.

'I think it looks cheap,' she said. 'A lovely couple have bought it and maybe they will improve it, by staining the wood or something.

'Look, you can't build 1930s houses all the time and there are some new developments where houses like that look very nice but here?

'I can't say I'm surprised the Council passed it because I am not surprised by anything they do these days.'

Jackie Spencer, visiting the park from nearby Belper, was also incensed with what she saw.

'They are taking the character out of everything,' she said. 'In Belper they are letting the great old buildings like the Mill collapse and then they'll say it's dangerous and it will be replaced.

'The cladding, the plastic, grey wood, it is just passing fashion. I don't particularly like it.

The bathroom has a similar style of dark grey with several plants

'The houses around here still look gorgeous 100 years on and then there is that. It's an eyesore.'

Retired tree surgeon Richard Collins, 73, said: 'I prefer it the old way. I don't know why they'd build it like that. Perhaps it was a cheaper way to build their extension.

'I guess the Council just thought of who it would effect and passed it, but it looks weird.'

Anna Power, 65, a retired occupational therapist, said: 'What was wrong with it as it was? It is just totally out of context with every other house you can see.

'I know that people around here are very proud of their smart looking houses so I am not surprised there were complaints.'

But others were prepared to forgive the makeover.

Landscaper Alec Stubbs, 48, said: 'It doesn't offend me at all. There is a heavy push at the moment towards that type of architecture whether it is white render or timber cladding.

'It is a statement house. I can understand some people wouldn't like it but they'd also complain if the house was left unkempt with scrap cars at the front.'

And apprentice engineer, Jamie Sillito, 18, was a positive fan.

He said: 'I would say it looks 100 per cent better than the rest of the houses. If I had the money to buy any of the houses around here I would choose that one over the rest.

'I think it looks modern, it's quite nice to me and it stands out more than the rest of them.'

As for the family who now live in the property  they were delighted with what they had bought.

The home owner, a father of two, who asked not to be named, said: 'We just wanted a good, family house in a nice area with nice neighbours and this was the one for sale.

Look, there are always new developments that are not to everyone's tastes but there was a planning process which is there for people to voice their opinions and it went through.

'The kids love it, the dogs love it. The living space is great and we won't be using any roof terrace because we don't want to annoy anyone. We're happy as we are.'
A slew of high-profile retirement announcements and early resignations has prompted a power shakeup among House Republicans.

Members in highly sought-after chairmanships are giving up their coveted roles, making room for a new era of leaders to pull the legislative strings, at least in this GOP-led Congress.

The party in power typically gets more seats on committees, and their Steering Committee chooses who gets what spot and who gets to lead each committee.

Speaker Mike Johnson gets four votes on the steering committee, Majority Leader Steve Scalise has two. The rest of leadership and members who are on the committee each get one.

Appropriations Committee gets a new chairman from another influential committee

The powerful Appropriations Committee - the one that draws up funding levels for 12 agencies of government - found a new chairman in former Rules Chair Tom Cole after Rep. Kay Granger stepped down

The powerful Appropriations Committee - the one that draws up funding levels for 12 agencies of government - found a new chairman in former Rules Chair Tom Cole after Rep. Kay Granger stepped down.

Granger, R-Texas, will retire at the end of her term. She took heat from the right flank of the party over a pair of 'minibuses,' or spending bills that each funded six agencies of government, that ultra-conservatives thought had too high a price tag.

The spending bills amounted to $1.2 trillion and $460 million each.

Granger has served on the committee for 25 years and was a big advocate of defense spending.

The shakeup comes as Republicans are racing against time to draw up and pass next year's spending bills before the next election, when they could lose control of the House.

Speaker Mike Johnson has insisted the House will pass 12 separate appropriations bills this time around, after blowing through deadlines for spending legislation this time around.

The Appropriations Committee has 12 subcommittees, one for each agency of government, each with their own chairmen. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., is the top Democrat on the committee.

In a committee-wide shakeup Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., will lead the subcommittee that determines funds for Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., will lead determination of funding for the legislative branch and Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, will lead Financial Services funding.

China competition select committee gets new chairman after Gallagher's shock departure

With the shock departure of Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., coming April 19, Rep. John Moolenar, R-Mich., will now lead the China select committee.

Gallagher, known as a policy-focused pragmatist, is leaving after taking heat for voting against impeachment of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas.

With the shock departure of Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., coming April 19, Rep. John Moolenar, R-Mich., will now lead the China select committee

The select committee started under Republicans in January 23 and has offered policy recommendations to strengthen U.S. competitiveness under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Its signature bill to force Chinese-controlled ByteDance to divest TikTok or else face a ban in the U.S. blew through the House floor with a large majority and is now waiting to be taken up by the Senate.

This committee is led on the Democratic side by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Calif. Krishnamoorthi and Gallagher had a more collaborative bipartisan relationship than most committees.

Rules Committee has new leader tasked with shaping bills after they come out of their own committees

After Cole left his top spot on Rules for Appropriations, the key committee will be led by Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas.

The committee determines the rule process for legislation, including what and how many amendments will get a vote on the House floor. A bill typically passes out of its committee of jurisdiction, then is marked up and passed out of the Rules Committee before it is debated and voted on on the House floor.

Burgess has been on the Rules Committee since 2013 and has been in Congress since 2003.

After Cole left his top spot on Rules for Appropriations, the key committee will be led by Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas

Four-way race to take top GOP spot on Financial Services after one-time Speaker Patrick McHenry announces retirement

With former interim Speaker Patrick McHenry's departure at the end of this Congress, the top Republican spot on the Financial Services Committee will be up for grabs.

The race to replace him already pits four Republicans against each other: Rep. Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, Bill Huizenga of Michigan, Andy Barr of Kentucky and French Hill of Arkansas.

Whoever leads the commitee will head the GOP's strategy in pushing back on environmental, social and governance investing and on how financial regulators are addressing climate change.

The committee oversees the nation's housing and financial services sectors including banking, insurance, real estate, public and assisted housing, and securities.

Lucas currently chairs the Science, Space and Technology Committee and has been on the Financial Services Committee since 1995. Barr is the leader of the subcommittee on Digital assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion and Huizenga chairs the subcommittee of Oversight and Investigations.

Two Republicans vying to lead wide-ranging Energy and Commerce Committee

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers, R-Wash., will retire at the end of her term, opening up the top GOP spot on this committee that has broadest jurisdiction of any in Congress.

Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky and Bob Latta of Ohio are both vying for that role next term.

Energy and Commerce presides over policy on telecommunications, consumer protection, food and drug safety, public health and research, environmental quality, energy policy, and interstate and foreign commerce among others.
A writer for Vanity Fair was kicked off the jury of a Brooklyn murder trial because she was caught posting to social media about a 'hot FBI agent' who had been assigned to the case.

Delia Cai, a senior correspondent for the magazine and published author, was assigned to the case of Antony Abreu, one of four men charged with plotting and carrying out a hit against a business rival who was shot in the back of the head while leaving a New York City karaoke bar in 2019.

Cai posted to X about the case of Abreu - a convicted drug trafficker who has already seen one of his cohorts convicted of murder-for-hire - Monday, writing: 'didn't get to see the eclipse bc I'm on federal jury duty but I did get to look at a hot fbi agent.'

She wasn't done discussing the agent, admitting that she was probably skirting the rules in a follow-up post.

'We're literally not allowed to talk to each other outside the courtroom  if I say hi he legally has to ignore me don't they know this is how I fall in love.'

Delia Cai, a writer for Vanity Fair was kicked off the jury of a Brooklyn murder trial because she was caught posting to social media about a 'hot FBI agent' who had been assigned to the case

By Tuesday, Cai had been thrown off the jury and naturally, documented that on X as well.

'Anyway so i got kicked out of jury duty for posting about it .... learn from this what you will,' she said.

She was reportedly chastened by Judge Carol Bagley Amon and dismissed from the trial after the court had discovered her posts, according to the New York Daily News.

Cai apologized and in an interview following her ejection, said she was simply trying to be funny before being sent to what she termed 'horny jail.'

'I've never served jury duty before. I never interacted with the criminal justice system. I think I went in pretty naively,' she said.

'It was not my intention to make light of something as serious as a murder trial.'

Cai covers pop culture and writes long-form celebrity profiles for the magazine and published her debut book, Central Places, in 2023.

Ultimately, she admitted she posts so much about the details of her life that she has 'posting disease.'

Cai, a senior correspondent for the magazine and published author , was assigned to the case of Antony Abreu, one of four men charged with plotting and carrying out a hit against a business rival who was shot in the back of the head while leaving a New York City karaoke bar in 2019

Cai posted to X about the case of Abreu - a convicted drug trafficker who has already seen one of his cohorts convicted of murder-for-hire - Monday, writing: 'didn't get to see the eclipse bc I'm on federal jury duty but I did get to look at a hot fbi agent.'

'I'm sure if I thought about it for five more minutes, I would have understood that that was hugely inappropriate,' she added.

She described herself as feeling 'dead in the brain' at the time and 'just trying to be funny' during the murder-for-hire case.

'In this case I made a really bad internet joke, and there were consequences,' Cai said, adding that ultimately, she's 'horrified' about what happened.

'That's just like the mode I am with life in general. I'll tweet about getting dumped. I did not understand the stakes. I did not take the gravity of the situation into account.'

DailyMail.com has reached out to Cai for further comment.

Abreu was charged in 2022 alongside Qing Ming Yu, also known as 'Allen Yu,' You You known as 'Eddie,' and Zhe Zhang for the death of Xin Gu, 31, a business rival of Yu.

Prosecutors said Yu, the former CEO of Amaco Management & Consulting Inc., had ordered his nephew, Eddie, to kill Gu, who was once Yu's apprentice but had broken out on his own and won over several contracts allegedly promised to Yu's firm.

U.S. Prosecutor Breon Peace condemned the hit job, saying in a statement: 'As alleged, the defendants callously used gun violence to resolve a business dispute, reducing the value of a man's life to a dollar figure, and bringing trauma and mourning to the community.'

Four men - including Abreu - were arrested and charged in 2022 for the murder of Xin Gu, 31, who was shot in the back of the head while leaving a Queens karaoke bar in 2019 (pictured)

Prosecutors said Abreu was the masked gunman who was captured on video stalking Gu. Abreu allegedly worked for Zhe Zhang on the request of You You, the nephew of Qing Ming Yu, who prosecutors said put out the hit on Gu, a business rival

'Prosecuting killers will always be a top priority for this officewhether the defendant pulls the trigger, or pays someone else to do his dirty work for him.'

According to court filing on the FBI's investigation into the case, Gu began working for Yu in 2015 at Amaco, a Manhattan-based development company which managed the renovation of retail projects.

Investigators said that Gu worked at the firm for three years but ultimately felt undercompensated by Yu, so the upstart went on to form his own company where many of Yu's clients followed.

Investigators said that Yu had attempted to cancel building permits, block lines of supply and lure subcontractors away from Yu to hinder the success of the 'Project,' but the efforts failed and Amaco shut down by 2018.

Prosecutors said that Yu then reached out to his nephew, who enlisted the help of Zhang and Abreu to tail Gu on February 12, 2019, as the successful developer was celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year with more than 100 people.

Gu went on to attend an after party at a karaoke bar in Flushing, and when he decided to head home and called for an Uber to pick him up, Abreu allegedly ran up behind him and shot Gu in the back of the head.

The horrifying scene was captured on a surveillance camera, which showed a masked man who was walking on the sidewalk suddenly run towards Gu and shoot him just as he was about to get into the Uber.

When Gu hit the ground, the man stood over him shot him multiple times as the Uber driver sped off.

Qing Ming Yu was convicted in connection with the killing in 2023.
The city of Baltimore is selling vacant homes for a dollar apiece to revive struggling neighborhoods.

Currently, more than 13,000 homes in the city sit vacant, often abandoned due to high rates of violent crime.

The city now owns close to 1,000 of them, in what's amounted to an unsuccessful bid to address the decades-old problem.

However, with the new program passed by Mayor Brandon Scott, individual buyers and community land trusts will now be eligible to buy the city-owned vacant homes for as low as $1.

Small nonprofits can also purchase the homes, however for $1,000 apiece. Developers and larger nonprofits can also get a piece of the pie, but would need to pay $3,000. Officials explained the sales program in an official statement.

The city of Baltimore is selling vacant homes for a dollar apiece to revive struggling neighborhoods

Currently, more than 13,000 homes in the city sit vacant, often abandoned due to rates of violent crime. The city owns close to 1,000 of them, in what's amounted to an unsuccessful bid to address the decades-old problem.

'Baltimore City Housing Department's Development Division strategically acquires and manages vacant or abandoned properties, ultimately enabling these properties to be returned to productive use and improving Baltimore's neighborhoods.

'The Fixed Pricing Program will allow for certain City-owned vacant building and lots in specific housing market typologies to be sold for a fixed price.

'Fixed pricing will increase transparence and streamline our disposition process in the City's stressed neighborhoods, which are the most impacted by vacant properties.'

The bulletin goes on to lay out which of the 1,000 city-owned buildings are actually for sale - revealing it's roughly 200 of them.

Prospective tenant were pointed to the DHCD's BuyIntoBmore website, where opportunities are posted and can be claimed. There's a limit of 12 properties per application.

Some have side and back yards, and all are boarded up.

All building sales must be us for residential redevelopment, organizers reiterated - adding that applicants must produce proof of funding for each property rehabilitation.

A minimum of $90,000 in prospective assets is required, as the majority of the shuttered homes are not up to code.

Applicant experience and readiness for the prospective projects will also be subject to scrutiny, as well as their criminal history. Pictured, one of the for sale properties, on 534N Brice Street

A minimum of $90,000 in prospective assets is required, as the majority of the shuttered homes are not up to code. Picutred, another property for sale on 1 Willard Street

Applicants must pass these stipulations within 12 months of applying, or lose out on the opportunity permanently, officials said. Seen here is 1 S Abington Ave, also for sale as part of the program

The program is meant to prioritize buyers over developers, with the hope being that those who buy the vacant homes or lots will fix them up and live in them, though the soundness of that logic has been debated. Seen here is a vacant on N Pulaski Street

Lots like this one on S Calverton Road are also up for sale, though they will cost more than $1

The program is meant to prioritize buyers over developers, with the hope being that those who buy the vacant homes or lots will fix them up and live in them, though the soundness of that logic has been debated

Passed by Mayor Brandon Scott, the program will allow both individual buyers and community land trusts to buy the city-owned vacants for as low as $1

Small nonprofits can also purchase the homes, however for $1,000 apiece. Developers and larger nonprofits can also get a piece of the pie, but would need to pay $3,000

About 200 of the abandoned buildings are up for sale, and there's a limit of 12 properties per application.

Some have side and back yards, and all are boarded up - and all building sales must be us for residential redevelopment

Applicant experience and readiness for the prospective projects will also be subject to scrutiny, as well as their criminal history.

Applicants must pass these stipulations within 12 months of applying, or lose out on the opportunity permanently.

For properties sold as residences, city officials ask that buyers pay a pro-rated portion of $3,000 calculated based on the year it is sold.

To qualify for the $1 opportunity, homeowners must maintain the building as a primary residence for a minimum of five years, after they obtain their occupancy permit, which itself is obtained within 12 months of purchase.

Community land trusts centered around affordable housing will also have access to the $1 fixed pricing, while other opportunities range from $500 to $3,000.

These include a litany vacant lots and homes to be bought by developers, who will be required to pass the same criteria as homeowners.

That said, the program is meant to prioritize buyers over developers, with the hope being that those who buy the vacant homes or lots will fix them up and live in them, though the soundness of that logic has been debated.

To qualify for the $1 opportunity, homeowners must maintain the building as a primary residence for a minimum of five years, after they obtain their occupancy permit, which itself is obtained within 12 months of purchase. Other criteria for applicants are seen here

Local figures like City Council President Nick Mosby have argued that without specific written protections, residents won't be given priority in buying the properties, being pushed aside by more moneyed developers.

He and others claim that there's nothing protecting tenants from being pushed out when neighborhoods improve, which is the city's hope.

'This is a bad policy because it doesnt protect or prioritize the rights of folks in these communities,' he told the Baltimore Sun.

But city board approved the measure on on March 20 in a 4-1 vote, paving the way for $1 sales.

As incentive for buyers, the city is offering home repair grants of $50,000 to individuals who are pre-approved for a construction loan, Bloomberg reported - though they will still need to meet the $90,000 mark when proving funding.

Meanwhile, Charm City continues to make headlines for its crime rate, which ranks well above the national average.

However, in a ray of sunshine earlier this year, the city recorded less than 300 homicides last year for the first time in nearly a decade, ending a surge that began in 2015 following the death of Freddie Gray, which sparked civil unrest and violence.

However, in a ray of sunshine earlier this year, the city recorded less than 300 homicides last year for the first time in nearly a decade. Pictured, A July 2023 crime scene following a shooting that left 28 injured and two dead

That ended a surge that began in 2015 following the death of Freddie Gray, which sparked civil unrest and violence. Police in riot gear block a street during a march in honor of Gray, who was killed by police officer on April 25, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland

The riots were seen as part of a larger backlash to other recent police killings such as that of Michael Brown in 2014, and saw ugly scenes of protestors clashing with officers

The 20 percent annual decrease, which city leaders called the largest ever, suggests Baltimores ongoing anti-violence efforts are working, if not slowly.

'Were finally seeing those efforts paying off and saving lives,' Mayor Brandon Scott said at a news conference in July.

Meanwhile, several other cities have also reported declines over the past several months following a pandemic peak, and gun violence, particularly in vacant overrun neighborhoods like Broadway East, Franklin Square, Gay Street, Penn-North, Rosemont and Shipley Hill, continues.
Gary Clark is the weekly nature columnist for the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News. He also publishes feature articles in state and national magazines and has written four books: "Texas Wildlife Portfolio," "Texas Gulf Coast Impressions," "Backroads of the Texas Hill Country" and "Enjoying Big Bend National Park." Gary is also a contributing author in the book, "Pride of Place: A Contemporary Anthology of Texas Nature Writing."

He has won eight Lone Star College writing awards and is the recipient of the Houston Audubon Society 2004 Excellence in Media Award and the Citizens' Environmental Coalition 2010 Synergy Media Award for Environmental Reporting.

Gary is professor of business and developmental studies at Lone Star College--North Harris. In 32 years at the college, Gary has served as vice president of instruction; dean of Business, Social and Behavioral Sciences; associate dean of Natural Sciences; professor of marketing; professor of developmental writing; and Faculty Senate president. He is a recipient of the Teacher Excellence Award.

Gary has been active in the birding community for more than 30 years. He founded the Piney Woods Wildlife Society in 1982 and the Texas Coast Rare Bird Alert in 1983. He served as president of the Houston Audubon Society 1989-1991 and purchased the North American Rare Bird Alert for Houston Audubon in 1990. He was vice president of the Board of Directors for the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory 2001-2008. He currently sits on the Board of Advisors for the Houston Audubon Society and Gulf Coast Bird Observatory. He is also a member of the American Mensa Society.
Walt Disney World has announced a crackdown on sneaky guests who claim fake medical conditions to skip the park's notoriously long lines.

Both Disney resorts in California and Florida will issue lifetime bans on parkgoers who lie about disabilities, as the park updated its Disability Access Service (DAS) program on Tuesday.

On its official website, one of the frequently asked questions reads: 'What happens if any of the statements made by a Guest in the process of registering for DAS are found to be not true?'

If it is determined that any of the statements a guest made in the process of obtaining DAS are not true, the guest will be permanently barred from entering the Walt Disney World Resort and the Disneyland Resort,' the answer reads.

Those guests will also be permanently banned from using previously purchased Annual Passes, Magic Key passes, tickets, and other park products, officials said, adding that services will be forfeited and not refunded.

Walt Disney World has announced a crackdown on sneaky guests who claim fake medical conditions to skip the park's notoriously long lines

Both Disney resorts in California and Florida will issue lifetime bans on parkgoers who lie about disabilities, as the park updated its Disability Access Service (DAS) program on Tuesday

The new rule is part of the policy change announced on Tuesday for Disney's DAS program, which aims to assist guests who have difficulty tolerating extended waits in a conventional queue environment due to a disability.

The changes will go into effect on June 18 at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and May 20 at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, according to KTLA.

Under the updated DAS program, guests with developmental disabilities like autism would not be able to cut in lines.

Instead, guests will be assigned a spot in the queue and instructed to return at a designated time for an experience comparable to the current standby wait.

DAS usage in the parks has tripled over the past five years, according to Scott Gustin with Nexstar.

Gustin wrote after the updated policy announcement: 'I hope these changes will help reduce misuse of the system that has negatively impacted the experience for guests who truly need the service.'

But park officials did not specify how Disneyland would detect disability fraud, as reported by the Orange County Register.

According to Disney's website, guests are required to communicate with a cast member either through a live video chat or in person at the park before registration for DSA.

The DSA registration is valid for the length of the ticket or up to 120 days, and the existing DAS pass holders will be required to re-apply.

The new rule is part of the policy change announced on Tuesday for Disney's DAS program, which aims to assist guests who have difficulty tolerating extended waits in a conventional queue environment due to a disability

Under the updated DAS program, guests with developmental disability like autism or similar would not be able to cut in lines. Instead, guests will be assigned a spot in the queue and instructed to return at a designated time for an experience comparable to the current standby wait

According to Disney officials, DAS usage in the parks has tripled over the past 5 years. I hope these changes will help reduce misuse of the system that has negatively impacted the experience for guests who truly need the service. pic.twitter.com/GLJdDht7tP  Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) April 9, 2024

Tips for exploiting and cheating the DAS program have been rampant on social media in recent years, with some users sharing their experiences of claiming false medical conditions to acquire the DAS pass.

An X user wrote: 'Obviously not a large sample size, but of the four people I know who have a DAS pass, 3 of them claim it's because they have IBS  which they told me personally they don't, they just don't want to wait in line. '

Another user chimed in as they wrote: 'I wont pretend to be an expert on this and whats right or wrong but the abuse of this service at WDW is off the charts.

The added: 'I was told a ridiculously high proportion of LL scans are DAS; way higher than any national trends would lead you to expect.'

Disney fans and parkgoers have applauded the policy since its announcement, expressing the hope that it will assist guests who truly need the service.

'The abuse is honestly really, really disrespectful to the folks who actually need it,' a user wrote.

They added:' There are children in our families with disabilities whose doctors say they qualify for it and the parents refuse to do it because despite the disabilities, they can wait in line just fine. I wish the rest of society conducted themselves this way.'
Revealed this week to have been the lover of Labour prime minister Harold Wilson, Janet Hewlett-Davies took another secret to the grave.

I can disclose that the Downing Street aide was the owner of a tiara which she considered to be of such historical importance that it belonged in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Hewlett-Davies, who died last October last year aged 85, specified in her last will and testament that the jewelled coronet, of the kind worn by female guests at Buckingham Palace banquets, be offered to the V&A in South Kensington, London.

It's not yet known who gave her the tiara or if she wore it to a royal event.

A deputy Press Secretary at No.10, Hewlett-Davies grew up in Shirley, Solihull, and attended a grammar school in the West Midlands.

Revealed this week to have been the lover of Labour prime minister Harold Wilson (pictured), Janet Hewlett-Davies took another secret to the grave

Probate documents show that in her will, written in 2021, she stated: 'I wish for my tiara to be offered to the Victoria and Albert Museum and would wish Geoffrey Munn, of Wartski Jewellers in London, to manage the gift, but if the V&A do not wish to take the tiara, then he should find another museum that may wish to take it, failing which he should consult my executor about its ultimate destination.'

Munn is a jewellery expert who often appears on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow. In fact, he parted company with Wartski in 2018. He had been the company's managing director.

It's not clear how Hewlett-Davies knew Munn. Yesterday, he declined to comment when I visited his 1.5million Thames-side flat overlooking the Houses of Parliament.

A V&A spokesman tells me that its curators 'have no gifts or bequests in that name [Janet Hewlett-Davies]'.

Her husband, Barry Davies, a journalist six years her senior, died in 2016. They had no children.

A deputy Press Secretary at No.10, Hewlett-Davies (pictured) grew up in Shirley, Solihull, and attended a grammar school in the West Midlands

At No10, she was deputy to Press Secretary Joe Haines, 96, who revealed the affair in a newspaper this week.

He said he did so because he is 'the last person alive to be told of the affair by its two participants, and because I think her importance to Wilson's morale during his last months should be realised by historians.'

Haines said Hewlett-Davies was once spotted talking to Wilson, who was 22 years her senior, at a Paris summit by US President Richard Nixon.

'Hello Harold, is this the blonde that you're in trouble with?' he asked him. 'No,' Wilson replied. 'This is another one.'

The woman referred to by Nixon was Marcia Williams, whom the PM ennobled as Baroness Falkender and who drafted his notorious 'lavender list' of dissolution honours.
The mother of the Jewish teen who was allegedly murdered in Southern California by his closeted neo-Nazi ex-classmate took the stand Thursday, to recall the moment she discovered her son was missing.

Jeanne Pepper, the mom of 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein, offered the account to jurors at the Santa Ana court where 26-year-old Samuel Woodward is being tried.

He's accused of stabbing Bernstein to death because he was gay, sparking a search that ended a week later with the young man's body being found in a makeshift grave.

Joined by her husband Gideon, Pepper spoke about her son's disappearance the day of January 2, 2018, and how the family had gathered for a belated 'Thanksgiving' meal to make up for the gathering their son had missed while off at college.

Blaze, sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, served as the chef, his mother, recalled, before the boy's dad too testified.

The father and mother of Blaze Bernstein (center), the Jewish teen who was allegedly murdered in Southern California by his closeted neo-Nazi ex-classmate in 2018, took the stand Thursday to recall the moment they realized their son was missing.

Both offered the accounts to jurors at the Santa Ana court where 26-year-old Samuel Woodward (pictured)is being tried. Woodward, 26, is charged with murdering Blaze Bernstein, 19, in Southern California in January 2018

'He cooked an amazing dinner for the family, like a feast,' Pepper remembered, recalling how Bernstein was staying at the familys Lake Forest home while on winter break.

'I was really blown away.'

Simultaneously, Woodward dropped out of the college to spend time in Texas with a neo-Nazi group - returning to live at his familys home in Newport Beach 30 minutes away.

Back in Lake Forest, Bernstein was still awake when his parents went to sleep, his mother recalled - but later that night, he secretly met up with Woodward for a date.

'He normally would tell us if he was going out,' Pepper testified, five years after he son became acquainted with his old classmate on Tinder.

'But he didn't have to tell us. He was over 18. It was a courtesy,' she continued, as prosecutors allege Woodward went on to kill her son in a hate crime at nearby Borrego Park.

'We didn't have any rules about that, unfortunately.'

She recalled how both she and Bernstein's father were thus not concerned when they didn't see their son the following morning, assuming he was sleeping in.

Testimony from the man's father recalled how he rushed home from work after receiving a frantic phone call from his spouse

But that changed when Bernstein didn't respond to phone calls and texts, and failed to show at dentist's appointment in Huntington Beach.

Following the missed appointment, Pepper recalled how she called her housekeeper to ask if she had seen Blaze during her visit to the home earlier in the day.

'I said "Did you see Blaze this morning?"' she told the court, three days after attorneys said the state will argue Woodward killed Bernstein because he was gay, not because he was Jewish.

'She said, "He wasn't in his room, the bed was made when I went in there this morning," Pepper continued.

'I screamed at the top of my lungs when I heard that.'

Testimony from Bernstein's father filled in the rest, describing how he rushed home from work after receiving a frantic phone call from his spouse.

'It was the beginning of hell,' Gideon recalled.

The parents proceeded to perform a sweep of their son's room, spotting items they said he would normally always have on his person.

'His car keys were there, His glasses were on his desk, his wallet was there,' Gideon said, growing visibly emotional at several points.

'His suitcase was opened up on the floor with all his clothes folded neatly, ready for him to fly back to school in a few days,' he added.

Both testified how they reached out to friends for advice. They called the cops, after which a deputy briefly stopped by.

However, the parents said he discouraged them from immediately reporting him missing.

'The defining moment was when someone asked if we had checked any of his social media,' the father recalled - detailing Snapchat messages they found from the night before from Woodward, who they said they did not know and weren't aware was an old classmate.

The father said of the Snapchat messages: 'It was some questions [to] Blaze [saying] "where did you go?", some expletives, and... a narrative that went on for a bunch of unanswered messages.'

The parents both said they subsequently reached out to Woodward via their son's Snapchat, after which the aspiring Neo-Nazi spoke to them by phone.

The father put the call on speaker while his daughter recorded on another phone - footage that was shown for the first time in court on Thursday, allowing jurors to hear a now-silent Woodward speak at length.

'The defining moment was when someone asked if we had checked any of his social media,' the father recalled - detailing Snapchat messages they found from the night before from Woodward, who they said they did not know and weren't aware was an old classmate. Pictured: Woodward with a markedly different appearance at a court hearing in January 2018

In an ensuing investigation, forensic officials tested blood from a knife found in Woodwards room, and found that it matched DNA taken from Bernstein. A photo of it is seen here from Tuesday, the first day of proceedings

'We were trying to solve a mystery of what happened to Blaze, and I thought it was important to document every part of it until we found out who did it,' the dad said of the rationale behind recording the call.

During the call, Woodward could be heard telling the couple how Blaze had told him he was meeting another person at Borrego Park, but then walked away from his car to never return.

He reportedly insisted to the two: 'Im sorry, I thought Blaze was just pulling a prank on me or some sh*t like that.

'Im scared now,' he added at the time.

The parents went on to grill Woodward, urging him to provide as many details as he can.

He maintained he did not know the third party he said Woodward had left to meet - an account that prosecutors have since slammed as phony.

'You are the first real clue to the puzzle here,' Gideon was heard saying as he begged Woodward for help.

'I want to find Blaze as much as you do,' Woodward at one point responded, allegedly playing dumb.

Woodward, who looked disheveled and disturbed for his first day in court Tuesday, has cycled through a handful of defense attorneys in the six years since his arrest

Orange County Deputy Sheriffs escort Samuel Lincoln Woodward into Orange County Superior Court for Opening Statements of his murder trial

Judge Kimberly Menninger is presiding. In February, Woodward threw a cup of water at her, which led to the process of jury selection beginning over again

The parents recalled how they were immediately suspicious of Woodward, citing his behavior on the phone. They also testified that they knew Borrego Park well, and some of the things Woodward was saying did not add up..

'I was concerned, because he sounded like he was lying - very anxious and nervous on the phone - and some of the things [he said] didn't make sense to me,' Pepper said.

She added: 'It was gnawing at me, all these inconsistencies.'

Then, both recounted the ensuing six day search for the missing man, during which an 'army' of friends helped comb the park and surrounding areas.

'I walked every square meter of that park,' the father recalled, holding back tears. 'I was all over... Yelling Blaze's name.'

The search, sadly, ended unceremoniously - with participants coming across Bernsteins savaged body in a grave at the edge of the park.

He had been stabbed more than 20 times, authorities wrote in a subsequent incident report

Woodward, then 20, was promptly arrested.

Blaze Bernstein's parents Jeanne Pepper and Gideon Bernstein read a statement at a press conference in front of the Orange County Sheriff's department after their son's body was found a week after he had disappeared from their family home

Woodward, who was 20 at the time of the murder, has also been linked to a white supremacist group and kept troves of anti-gay and anti-Semitic material on his cell phone, which investigators were able to hack

Deputy DA Jennifer Walker alleges that Woodward had anti-gay, antisemitic beliefs that led him to join the Atomwaffen Division, an armed fascist organization based in Texas

Samuel Lincoln Woodward, 20, of Newport Beach, right, a suspect in the murder of 19-year-old Blaze Bernstein, consults with his attorney in January, 2018

In an ensuing investigation, forensic officials tested blood from a knife found in Woodwards room, and found that it matched DNA taken from Bernstein.

Blood stains found in Woodwards car, meanwhile, matched DNA from both men.

The case, currently on Day Four of proceedings, has taken years to come to trial because of questions surrounding Woodward's mental state and ability to stand trial.

In February, when the jury selection process began, a courtroom outburst from the suspect who who grew up in a conservative, religious family forced the process to begin again.

The defendant threw a cup of water at presiding Judge Kimberly Menninger.

Deputy DA Jennifer Walker, meanwhile, alleges that Woodward had anti-gay, antisemitic beliefs that led him to join the Atomwaffen Division, an armed fascist organization based in Texas

The prosecutor further claims that investigators have proof that Woodward had a 'hate diary' in which he wrote -in-depth entries that recounted how he would match with gay men on dating websites before 'ghosting' or scaring them.

Week two of the bombshell trial, during which prosecutors will look to prove that Woodward not only killed Bernstein but sought to murder him because he was gay, is set to begin Monday

Assistant Public Defender Ken Morrison, however, has argued that Woodward was more conflicted about his sexuality at the time of the murder, and is on the Autism spectrum.

During proceeding Thursday, Walked produced messages between Woodward and Bernstein on Tinder from the day of the killing, in which Woodward appeared to be interested in him romantically.

She also said that despite assuring Woodward he was keeping their correspondences a secret, Bernstein was relaying details of their exploits to some of his friends.

Week two of the bombshell trial, during which prosecutors will look to prove that Woodward not only killed Bernstein but sought to murder him because he was gay, is set to begin Monday.
A massive missile blitz has destroyed one of Ukraine's largest power plants and left others critically damaged, officials have said.

The Trypilska plant, which was the biggest energy supplier for the Kyiv, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions, was left ablaze after the transformer, turbines and generators were wiped out.

Workers were able to save themselves by running for cover after the first drone hit, said Andrii Gota, of Centrenergo, the state company that runs the plant.

He told the BBC: 'The scale of the destruction is horrifying. It cannot be assessed in monetary terms. This is the biggest challenge for us in the entire history of the enterprise. But I am convinced we will cope with it.'

The Trypilska plant was the biggest energy supplier for the Kyiv, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions. Emergency workers extinguish a fire after a Russian attack

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said more than 200,000 people in the region. Smoke and fire rise from the site of a missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine

He said the plant could be rebuilt, but that it would be vulnerable to attack without powerful air defences from Ukraine's allies.

He said: 'We can repair. We can do the impossible. But we need protection.'

Russian President Vladimir Putin cast the attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities as a response to Ukrainian strikes that targeted Russian oil refineries.

Russia has recently renewed strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities, and attacks last month blacked out large parts of the country

Russian President Vladimir Putin cast the attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities as a response to Ukrainian strikes that targeted Russian oil refineries.

The Trypilska plant supplied electricity to three million customers - but none lost power because the grid was able to compensate since demands are low at this time of year.

Still, the consequences of the strikes could be felt in the coming months, as air conditioning use ramps up during the summer.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said more than 200,000 people in the region, which has been struck repeatedly, were without power.

Russia has recently renewed strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities, and attacks last month blacked out large parts of the country - a level of darkness not seen since the first days of the full-scale invasion in 2022.
A prison librarian alleged to be a 'flirtatious predator' wept in the dock yesterday as she was cleared of sex attacks on two inmates.

Sharon Mawdsley,46, had been accused of five sexual assaults on two prisoners in the library at Kirkham prison in Lancashire in 2018.

The mother of two admitted that she had had a sexual relationship with a third prisoner called Stephen Morrell but denied she had assaulted the other two inmates, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Sharon Mawdsley,46, had been accused of five sexual assaults on two prisoners in the library at Kirkham prison in Lancashire in 2018

The mother of two admitted that she had had a sexual relationship with a third prisoner called Stephen Morrell but denied she had assaulted the other two inmates, who cannot be named for legal reasons

Kirkham prison in Lancashire where Mawdsley had been accused of five sexual assaults on two prisoners

A jury at Preston Crown Court found her not guilty after a five day trial in which the prosecution claimed she had touched the private parts of the two prisoners in the library.

It had also been claimed that Mawdsley, from Blackpool, Lancashire had engaged in 'highly sexualised' conversations and had boasted about her own sex life and sexual preferences.

Prosecutor David Bentley said that Mawdsley had told of attending swingers' parties and of having lesbian sex in front of her husband.

Stephen Parkinson, defending, said the allegations were 'complete and utter nonsense'.

A jury at Preston Crown Court found her not guilty after a five day trial in which the prosecution claimed she had touched the private parts of the two prisoners in the library

Prosecutor David Bentley said that Mawdsley had told of attending swingers' parties and of having lesbian sex in front of her husband

She denied in the witness box that she had talked about her sex life and had 'definitely not' made any of the remarks which her accusers had alleged

The two convicts, one jailed for assault and the other for burglary, claimed that Mawdsley had made remarks like 'how big is your dick' and 'show us your dick'.

Mawdsley was dismissed from her job as a part time librarian after admitting having sex with Stephen Morrell in the back office of the library at the end of an evening shift.

She denied in the witness box that she had talked about her sex life and had 'definitely not' made any of the remarks which her accusers had alleged.

Mawdsley said that she had only joined in 'sex talk' with other prisoners to 'fit in with the conversation' and thought 'we were having a laugh'.

The jury found her not guilty by a majority on three assaults on one prisoners and not guilty unanimously on two assaults by the second prisoner.

Mawdsley had admitted mis conduct in a public office over her affair with Morrell at an earlier hearing and will be sentenced on May 24.

Judge Phillip Parry ordered a pre sentence report and told her that all sentencing options were open.
For the first time in the Star Treks 59-year history, dour engineer Scotty in the sci-fi show is to be played by a Scot.

And actor Martin Quinn is to coin a new catchphrase for the popular character when he uses the Scots slang word bawheid for the first time on the sci-fi show.

The term, which appears in the Oxford English Dictionary, often refers to a stupid person or as a term of mild abuse.

Quinn is the first Scot to play the part that was previously filled by Canadian star James Doohan and English actor Simon Pegg.

Montgomery Scotty Scott has been a character in the science fiction franchise since it first began in 1966.

Star Trek's Scotty is to be played by a Scot, actor Martin Quinn

Simon Pegg as Scotty in Star Trek Beyond, 2016. (Photo Credit: Paramount, Everett, REX, Shutterstock)

Actor James Doohan as Lt. Commander Montgomery Scotty Scott in 1967

Doohan played Scotty in the original series and seven Star Trek films before Pegg took on the role for director JJ Abrams reboots from 2009.

Now Quinn is portraying a younger version of the character in the prequel series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Quinns young Scotty appeared as a surprise cameo at the end of the shows second season and he returns in season three.

Quinn, from, of Paisley, said he has been allowed to add some personal touches to the original character.

He said: They let me put in the word baw-heid instead of turnip-heid.

Maybe they think all Scottish people are farmers? But they were very gracious about it.

And the writers are wanting to be authentic to Scotland as well, and thats really nice, not everyones like that.

Quinn said he is also trying to bring elements of his hometown to the Star Trek role.

He told the BBC: We are rebranding him. Hes from Paisley now.

I was always into Star Wars because Ewan McGregor was there. Its because there was a Scottish guy in Star Wars.

Even though he was doing an English accent, I was like thats so cool, hes from here and hes in Hollywood.

He added: I think James Doohan based the character off some Aberdonian he had heard, and even Linlithgow has claimed him, but Im not sure what thats from.
Israeli forces shot and killed the son of a leader of Hamas in the West Bank in an early-morning raid on Friday.

Muhammad Rasoul Daraghmeh was killed in the city of Tubas during a shootout with Israeli soldiers after they allegedly discovered automatic weapons in his car.

A second man also travelling in the car was also reportedly killed in the clashes.

The Israeli army claimed Daraghmeh had been planning attacks on Israeli targets but provided no evidence. It also said assailants hurled explosives at soldiers.

Hamas confirmed the death of Daraghmeh and his affiliation with its Al Qassam Brigades.

Daraghmeh, a local commander in his own right, was the son of Omar Daraghmeh, a West Bank leader who died in an Israeli prison following his detention after the October 7 attacks.

Muhammad Rasoul Daraghmeh was shot dead in Tubas, West Bank on April 12, 2024

Pictures from the scene ostensibly showed the aftermath of an intense shootout

Two Palestinians were killed in fighting in Tubas, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry

Photos from Tubas showed a white car with blown out tyres and windows, allegedly after an intense confrontation between Daraghmeh and Israeli forces.

In a statement, the IDF said: 'The IDF, Shin Bet and MGB forces killed Muhammad Omar Daraema [sic], the head of Hamas's terrorist infrastructure in Tubas, in a divisional operation in the Valley and the Valleys tonight.

'Muhammad is a central Hamas operative in the area and has been engaged in the promotion of significant terrorist operations against Israel in recent months.

'During the operation, Daraama shot at the forces who returned fire and killed him, the fighters confiscated many weapons found in his vehicle, including weapons and other military equipment.

'During the brigade operation, terrorists threw explosives and fired at the force who responded by firing, hits were detected.

'The forces eliminated another terrorist after he tried to attack them, arrested two wanted persons and confiscated weapons. During the operation, the forces uncovered charges planted under the axles with the aim of harming our forces.'

It followed news earlier this week three sons of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, according to his family.

The Israeli military confirmed carrying out the attack, describing the three sons as operatives in the Hamas armed wing.

The three sons - Hazem, Amir and Mohammad - were killed when the car they were driving in was bombed in Gaza's Al-Shati camp, Hamas said.

Four of Haniyeh's grandchildren, three girls and a boy, were also killed in the attack on Wednesday, Hamas said.

'I am grateful to God for the honor he has given me in the deaths of three of my children and a few of my grandchildren,' Haniyeh said, from Qatar.

'My sons were awarded this honor. They remained with our Palestinian people in Gaza, did not leave and did not run,' he added.

Also on Friday, after the raid in Tubas, dozens of Israeli settlers stormed into a Palestinian village in the West Bank, shooting and setting houses and cars on fire.

The rampage killed a Palestinian man and wounded 25 others, Palestinian health officials said.

The violence was the latest in an escalation in the West Bank that has accompanied the war in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said that settlers stormed into the village of al-Mughayyir late Friday, searching for a missing 14-year-old boy from their settlement.

After the rampage, Israeli troops said they were still searching for the teen.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that one man was brought dead to a hospital and 25 were treated for wounds.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said eight of the injured were hit by live fire from settlers.

The deceased man was later identified by his family as 26-year-old Jehad Abu Alia.

His father, Afif Abu Alia, said he was shot and killed but was unsure whether the fatal bullet was fired by an armed settler or an Israeli soldier.

'My son went with others to defend our land and honor, and this is what happened,' Afif Abu Alia said from a hospital in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where his son's corpse had been transported.

The attack was condemned by Mohamed Mustafa, the new Palestinian prime minister.

The Israeli army said it was searching for the 14-year-old boy, and that forces had opened fire when stones were hurled at soldiers by Palestinians.

It said 'hits were identified,' and soldiers also cleared out Israeli settlers from the village.

'As of this moment, the violent riots have been dispersed and there are no Israeli civilians present within the town,' it said.

U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden, have repeatedly raised concerns about a surge in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank since Israel's war with the militant Hamas group in the Gaza Strip began.

Rights groups have long accused the military of failing to halt settler violence or punish soldiers for wrongdoing.

The body of Palestinian Muhammad Rasoul Daraghmeh is brought to the morgue in Tubas, West Bank on April 12, 2024

A second man also travelling in the car was also reportedly killed in the clashes

View of the site where a militant named Mohammed-Rasoul Daraghmeh was killed by Israeli forces during a raid, in Tubas, in the West Bank April 12, 2024

The Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7, when Hamas killed 1,170 Israelis, mostly civilians, in a surprise attack and incursion into southern Israel.

Around 250 people were seized as hostages by the militants and taken to Gaza.

Israel responded with a sustained bombardment of Gaza Strip, displacing more than 90 per cent of its 2.3million population, listing the objectives of returning the hostages and eliminating Hamas.

Israel faces mounting pressure from its allies to relent, as rights groups warn civilians in the Strip face famine under the current conditions.

Some 26 per cent of the population - around 577,000 people - were said to be starving by the start of the year, according to Arif Husain, chief economist of the World Food Program.

Even before October, around two-thirds of the population were reliant on food aid, the organisation says.

To the East, NGOs warn of rising tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank since the October 7 attacks.

Since Hamas' assault on Israel there has been an 'unmatched surge in settlement activity', escalating animosity between factions, according to a report released in January by Israeli NGO Peace Now.

A record number of nine new Israeli outposts were reported to have been built in a span of about three months, and some 18 roads illegally paved through Palestinian territories.

Responding to plans to include the Ahiya outpost within the jurisdiction of the Shilo settlement in the northern West Bank in March, the NGO said in a statement: 'Establishing another settlement is the last thing Israel needs.

'Deepening Israeli presence in the West Bank serves only a small and extremist group in Israel and harms the entire Israeli public.

'The Israeli government, under Minister Smotrich's leadership, continues to evade a political solution and imposes facts on the ground that will escalate violence and deepen the dispossession and oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank.'

In December, the UK joined other European nations, the EU, Canada and Australia in calling on Israel to 'take immediate and concrete steps to tackle record high settler violence in the occupied West Bank'.

The signatories 'express their grave concern about the record number of attacks by extremist settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank,' a statement read.

'Since the start of October, settlers have committed more than 343 violent attacks, killing 8 Palestinian civilians, injuring more than 83, and forcing 1026 Palestinians from their homes...

'We reiterate our position that Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law and remind Israel of its obligations under international law, in particular Article 49 of Geneva Convention IV.

'This rise in extremist settler violence committed against Palestinians is unacceptable. Israel, as the occupying power, must protect the Palestinian civilian population in the West Bank. Those responsible for the violence must be brought to justice.'

A view of damaged houses and burning vehicles after a raid by Jewish settlers on the Mughir town near Ramallah, West Bank on April 12, 2024

Violence continues to spiral in the West Bank since Hamas' deadly attack on October 7

A Palestinian wounded in a settler rampage at the Palestine Medical Complex in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Friday, April 12, 2024

Three zones - A, B and C - were set up in the West Bank during the Oslo Accords (1993-95) amid an attempt to bring about a solution to the conflict.

The Accords began a peace process aimed at fulfilling the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and led to the creation of the Palestinian National Authority - a new body tasked with helping govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Negotiators came close to creating a deal that would create two separate states and appease both the Palestinians and the Israelis - but issues over land and the right of refugees who fled Palestine to return became sticking points.

PLO chief and Fatah founder Yasser Arafat had accepted the premise of a two state solution in 1988 but pulled out of a deal in 2000.

That year, Palestinians expelled all Israelis from the Gaza Strip in the Second Intifada - but Fatah steadily lost support with accusations of corruption.

As talks broke down, the three zones intended as temporary fixes to the problem became more permanent settlements, creating obstacles for future Palestinian statehood in the region.
The family of a heiress who died on holiday have pledged to 'never give up' as they prepare to sue her husband who was accused of killing her as part of a 3.5million life insurance plot.

Paula Leeson, 47, from Sale, died in a swimming pool at a villa in a remote village in Denmark, on June 6, 2017, while on holiday with her husband Donald McPherson.

He was charged with her murder in 2020, but a trial at Manchester Crown Court collapsed after the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to reach a verdict.

McPherson stood to gain 3.3million in insurance payouts as a result of her death, but Paula's family, who remain convinced McPherson was responsible, have since launched a civil case against him for unlawful killing.

With the case set to begin next week at the Manchester Civil Justice Centre, Paula's brother, Neville, has said 'new evidence' will be heard.

Paula Leeson (left), 47, from Sale, died in a swimming pool at a villa in a remote village in Denmark, on June 6, 2017, while on holiday with her husband Donald McPherson (right)

Paula's father, William Leeson (right), and brother Neville, have vowed to continue their fight to sue her husband

'We want to hear a ruling from a judge that he [McPherson] did unlawfully kill Paula  that's the most important thing,' he told The Times.

'That will stop him deriving any financial benefit from Paula's death.'

Last year, the family won a separate High Court challenge over the scope of the inquest into her death.

Discussing the challenges this has had on the family, Neville told the publication: 'We've had to deal with Paula's loss, then my mum dying, and then amongst all that, we've got to manage this case  and then we've still got the inquest to pursue later on in the year.

McPherson, who has since moved to New Zealand, was acquitted of murder after a judge directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict.

Ms Leeson was the daughter of Willy, a successful businessman who ran his own civil engineering firm in Greater Manchester.

McPherson was charged with Paula's murder in 2020, but a trial at Manchester Crown Court collapsed after the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to reach a verdict

The couple had wed at Peckforton Castle in Cheshire, in June 2014, a 'grand affair and no expense was spared'.

Alison Rocca, Partner at Glaisyers ETL, said back in January, 2022: 'The Leeson family are pleased that Donald McPherson's efforts to delay and frustrate the claim over the last six months have been overcome.

'His recent move to New Zealand will not allow him to escape the consequences of his actions.

'The family are now one step closer toward securing justice for the untimely death of their beloved daughter and ensuring Donald McPherson does not benefit from his acts.'
At long last, Greater Manchester Police deign to investigate allegations that Angela Rayner breached electoral law.

It's now seven weeks since The Mail on Sunday first broke this story but, until now, the police have seemed desperate not to get involved. However, after a formal complaint from Tory MP James Daly, they had little option but to act.

They must now establish why the deputy Labour leader was still registered to vote at the ex-council house she owned in Vicarage Road, Stockport, years after apparently moving in with her children and husband at his house in nearby Lowndes Lane.

This may seem a rather technical point, but it leads on to other questions. When she sold Vicarage Road in 2015, Ms Rayner made 48,500 profit. If it was not her main residence, she would have been liable to pay capital gains tax.

Also, she is alleged to have received single person's council tax discount, to which she was not entitled if living elsewhere.

Deputy leader of the labour party Angela Rayner is under investigation for breaking electoral law

Ms Rayner claims Vicarage Road was her 'principal property' but in family social media posts described Lowndes Lane as 'home'. Neighbours at Vicarage Road say she was rarely seen there, and she told one she was the 'landlady'.

There a distinct whiff of arrogance about Labour's attempts to make excuses. Poor Angie is being smeared because she's working class, they say, and a woman, and a Northerner. All utter claptrap, of course.

True, the sums involved are relatively modest, but this is about integrity and accountability. Ms Rayner is forever demanding senior Tories publish their tax affairs, yet when it comes to her own, she pleads privacy. Sheer hypocrisy.

The police must now get to the bottom of this grubby affair. She may be a big noise in Labour, but she is not above the law.

Unfit for purpose

The term 'fit note' has always been a misnomer. It is supposedly an assessment by a health professional of a person's fitness for work after they have been off for seven days or more.

However, as 93 per cent of applicants are designated unfit, they are just old-fashioned sick notes by another name. And boy, are they on the rise.

The annual total doubled between 2016 and 2023 to a staggering 11million, with one in three involving mental or behavioural disorders. Over 70 per cent of these contained no diagnosis of the supposed illness, suggesting GPs are signing them off by rote so applicants can access benefits.

Is it really possible that twice as many people are unfit for work as seven years ago? Or has the system just become a shirkers' charter?

The answer probably lies somewhere in between, but it is surely time for a reset. Languishing on the sick for months, even years is hugely debilitating, especially for the young.

There is also a huge economic imperative to get them back into the workforce. Some 186million working days were lost to sickness and injury last year at a cost of 150billion  almost equivalent to the entire NHS budget.

If Britain is to return to growth and prosperity, this sicknote epidemic must be addressed. Assessments must be more rigorous, with a plan of action to get people back to work quickly and penalties for non-compliance. This is not being cruel, but compassionate.

For many with mental health issues, holding down a fulfilling job could be part of the solution. Sitting idly at home will only compound their problems.
Angela Rayner was still facing questions last night about her property dealings and whether any required tax was paid.

As the police began probing possible electoral fraud by Labour's deputy leader, the separate issue surrounding the sale of her property continues to dog her.

The mother of three has insisted that for many years her 'principal property' was the house in Vicarage Road, Stockport, where she claims to have lived separately from her husband and children for the first five years of her marriage.

But under complicated tax rules, married couples and civil couples can only count one property as their main home at any one time.

The rules state married couples who own more than one home are free to choose which is their 'principal residence'  for capital gains tax purposes  by sending a nomination to HMRC within two years of the situation arising.

Angela Rayner was still facing questions last night about her property dealings and whether any required tax was paid

A general view of the home in Lowndes Lane, Stockport, Greater Manchester (Ms Rayner's ex-partner's property)

The mother of three has insisted that for many years her 'principal property' was the house in Vicarage Road, Stockport (pictured)

The sale of any second property they had during that time may then be subject to capital gains tax.

The Independent's chief political commentator John Rentoul, a Blairite, said Ms Rayner 'should explain in more detail why she was not liable for tax on the sale of her house'.

He wrote: 'It may be, for example, that, having nominated her house as her primary residence, as she was entitled to do, her former husband was liable for tax on the sale of his house.'

Ms Rayner, since The Mail on Sunday first questioned her living arrangements, has admitted not knowing HMRC's complex rules, leaving open the possibility the couple failed to nominate a primary residence.

HMRC says in such circumstances, for tax reasons, the principal residence is determined as a 'matter of fact'  the one were they actually living in.

That raised the question of whether, if CGT was not, as Ms Rayner asserts, due on Vicarage Road, was it that her now ex-husband, Mark, may have been liable for tax when he later sold his Lowndes Lane property, a mile away.

But Ms Rayner has refused to publish tax advice she claims exonerates her  and has not shown it to party leader Sir Keir Starmer.

It is not known whether Mr Rayner was liable for or indeed paid capital gains tax on the 2016 sale, a year after Ms Rayner sold her former council house, by which point she had become an MP.

There is no suggestion he has done anything wrong. Mr Rayner could not be contacted for comment

Angela Rayner last night promised to resign if a police probe into her past living arrangements finds she broke the law.

Labour's deputy leader found herself under pressure yesterday when Greater Manchester Police launched an investigation into claims she may have broken electoral law.

Angela Rayner last night promised to resign if a police probe into her past living arrangements finds she broke the law

Ms Rayner, since The Mail on Sunday first questioned her living arrangements, has admitted not knowing HMRC's complex rules, leaving open the possibility the couple failed to nominate a primary residence

The former union shop steward was accused of 'double standards' for failing to relinquish her shadow cabinet duties despite having called for Conservatives to resign before due process took place.

Angela Rayner may have broken three laws in the saga concerning her ex-council house. 1. ELECTORAL REGISTER The central question is where she was living after marrying Mark Rayner in 2010. She was registered to vote at the ex-council house she bought under right to buy in Vicarage Road, Stockport, between 2009 and 2015. And she has said: I owned my own home, lived there, paid the bills there and was registered to vote there, prior to selling the house in 2015. But neighbours say she and her children were really based at her husbands property in nearby Lowndes Lane, and The Mail on Sunday last week uncovered social media posts she made about their life there. Giving false registration information on the electoral register is an offence under the Representation of the People Act 1983. 2. BIRTH CERTIFICATES A related issue is whether or not Ms Rayner recorded the correct address for her children. In 2010, while on the electoral register at her own house in Vicarage Road, she re-registered the births of her two younger children  and wrote on the certificates that she lived in Lowndes Lane. It is an offence under the Perjury Act 1911 to make any false statement with intent to have the same inserted in any register of births or deaths. 3. COUNCIL HOUSE Ms Rayner bought her home in 2007 at a 25 per cent discount and sold it for a 48,500 profit in 2015. But many councils state that in order to benefit from the discount, homeowners cannot vacate the property for several years after purchasing it  including by renting it out. If Ms Rayner was found to have lived at her husbands property she could possibly face charges under the Fraud Act 2006 regarding false representations. It may also have been an offence if she claimed a 25 per cent single occupancy discount on council tax bills. Ms Rayner is facing separate allegations that she may have avoided paying capital gains tax. Advertisement

But after Sir Keir Starmer three times refused to say whether she should quit if found guilty, Ms Rayner vowed she would go if criminality is uncovered.

In a statement, she said: 'I've repeatedly said I would welcome the chance to sit down with the appropriate authorities, including the police and HMRC, to set out the facts and draw a line under this matter. I am completely confident I've followed the rules at all times.

'I have always said that integrity and accountability are important in politics. That's why it's important that this is urgently looked at, independently and without political interference.

'I make no apologies for having held Conservative ministers to account in the past. Indeed, the public would rightly expect me to do so as a deputy leader of the Opposition. We have seen the Tory Party use this playbook before  reporting political opponents to the police during election campaigns to distract from their record.

'I will say as I did before  if I committed a criminal offence, I would of course do the right thing and step down. The British public deserves politicians who know the rules apply to them.

'The questions raised relate to a time before I was an MP and I have set out my family's circumstances and taken expert tax and legal advice. I look forward to setting out the facts with the relevant authorities at the earliest opportunity.'

After initially dismissing a complaint made by Tory Bury MP James Daly, Greater Manchester Police yesterday confirmed its officers were re-examining allegations Ms Rayner supplied false information about where she lived before becoming an MP.

Since the question was first raised in The Mail on Sunday in February, the former carer has insisted that her house in Vicarage Road, Stockport, was her 'principal property' for the first five years of her marriage, with her living separately from her husband and their two children. It was at this property that she registered on the electoral roll. But a string of neighbours have accused her of lying about living there.

Last weekend a Mail on Sunday investigation unearthed social media postings during that period showing her life with her children and cats at her husband's address, a mile away in Lowndes Lane.

Ms Rayner faces jail for up to six months or an unlimited fine if police find that she knowingly provided false information on council electoral registration forms.

Before his deputy's statement, Sir Keir yesterday dodged questions about whether she should step down from frontbench duties while under investigation. Sir Keir told ITV: 'I have full confidence in Angela Rayner and that she hasn't broken the rules. She will cooperate with the investigation, as you would expect. It is now a matter for the police. We need to let them get on with their job.'

But Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said: 'The double standards have been extraordinary. Angela Rayner herself has spent her political career calling people out for exactly the thing that she seems to be doing now.

Ms Rayner faces jail for up to six months or an unlimited fine if police find that she knowingly provided false information on council electoral registration forms

'It's not acceptable to ignore it and it's not acceptable for Keir Starmer to say he won't even read reports into it. This is a serious matter.'

And former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: 'With politicians like Angela Rayner who constantly call for others to resign or step down, the old rule is people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.'

In January 2022, while Mr Johnson faced accusations that lockdown rules had been broken in Downing Street, Ms Rayner tweeted: 'Boris Johnson's Downing Street is under police investigation, how on earth can he think he can stay on as Prime Minister?...Disgraceful.'

This week it also emerged that during a by-election in 2021 she wrote to then Tory party chairman Dame Amanda Milling, asking her to publish Conservative candidate Jill Mortimer's tax return. This was due to the Hartlepool candidate's husband spending time in the Cayman Islands.

She has also demanded that Rishi Sunak's wife, Akshata Murty, answer detailed questions about her tax affairs.

Ms Rayner insists she has received independent tax advice clearing her of any wrongdoing over the sale of the Stockport house. A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: 'We're investigating whether any offences have been committed.'
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 14: U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks at a press conference on student loans at the U.S. Capitol on June 14, 2023 in Washington, DC. The Senator spoke on legislation that would curb the increasing cost of higher education and would attempt to lower the amount of debt students take on. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Almost 26,000 Texans will receive $612 million in student loan debt relief through a new round of forgiveness programs, the Biden-Harris administration announced Friday.

The relief  extending to 277,000 Americans for a total of $7.4 billion  is the latest in a piecemeal effort taken since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a broader plan last summer. All combined, 1 out of every 10 federal student loan borrowers are now approved for some kind of relief, according to the administration.

Todays announcement shows  once again  that the Biden-Harris Administration is not letting up its efforts to give hardworking Americans some breathing room, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a news release. As long as there are people with overwhelming student loan debt competing with basic needs such as food and healthcare, we will remain relentless in our pursuit to bring relief to millions across the country.

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Forgiveness will apply to subsets of borrowers under the newest efforts. The first category contains people who signed up for Bidens plan called Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, and have made more than 10 years of payments for smaller original loan amounts. The second comes from administrative adjustments to income-driven repayment plans, and the third comes from fixes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

Borrowers will begin receiving emails Friday informing them of approvals, and relief will be processed in the following weeks, according to the Biden-Harris administration.

The relief through SAVE amounts to $3.6 billion in canceled debt, for 206,800 borrowers who have made more than 10 years of payments on loans originally totaling $12,000 or less. Each additional $1,000 in borrowing adds 12 more months until forgiveness, and all borrowers on SAVE receive forgiveness after 20 years for undergraduate borrowers or 25 years for graduate school borrowers, according to the administration.

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An estimated 20,540 of those borrowers are from Texas, qualifying for more than $340 million in combined relief.

The administrative adjustments to income-driven repayment plans will bring $3.5 million in forgiveness for 65,800 borrowers. Of those, an estimated 5,260 are from Texas, receiving a total of almost $272 million.

The fixes to Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs will bring $300 million in relief to 4,600 borrowers nationwide.

STRESS TO SUCCESS: A Houston Chronicle special project following local students as they apply and prepare for college

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READ MORE: Nang addict huffed two boxes of laughing gas before he stabbed girlfriend to death and fell from hotel balcony

Text messages sent by the terrified girlfriend of a controlling drug addict minutes before he killed her in cold blood have been revealed.

Liquan Pan was in the Wolli Creek apartment she shared with her partner, Weijie 'Jack' He, on the night of June 27, 2020.

The 19-year-old texted a friend to ask whether they could book her a ticket back to China. Minutes later, police estimate she was brutally attacked and killed by He.

'He's home... he's been like another person since he got back,' she messaged a friend, after she had not seen or heard from him since the night before.

Liqun Pan (pictured), a 19-year-old student, was brutally murdered by her boyfriend Weijie 'Jack' He, in their Wolli Creek apartment on the night of June 27, 2020

'He wants to be left alone.'

The court heard Ms Pan asked a different friend if they knew anyone who could buy her a 'flight ticket back home' at 2.01pm on that fateful day.

It is alleged between 2.04pm, when Ms Pan last used her phone, and 3.23pm, He killed the young girl by attacking her with two knives and a hammer.

Her last act on her phone was a Google search for 'people are brainwashed', news.com reported.

Ms Pan was found in the Brodie Spark Dr unit a day later, stabbed 39 times.

The final heartbreaking moments of the teenager were revealed in text messages revealed to the court where she is seen asking a friend if there is anyone who can buy her a flight to China (pictured, mockups)

After a preliminary hearing that found him fit to stand trial, He pleaded guilty to murder in 2022.

The heartbreaking final moments of the teenager were revealed in agreed facts tendered to the NSW Supreme Court as He faces sentencing.

He inhaled hundreds of canisters of nitrous oxide  known as 'laughing gas' or 'nangs'  in the days before he ended his girlfriend's life, the court heard.

Documents also detail his erratic behaviour which spiralled out of control due to his drug abuse, his lawyers argued, including beating Ms Pan and making her sign a contract which restricted her activities while on a four-week holiday to China.

Conditions of the contract ranged from not changing her phone background from a picture of the couple, not drinking and not doing anything with men - 'especially in their cars'.

She was also ordered to book driving tests and get rid of her acne.

He told friends the night before the murder about the 'stress' he was experiencing, declaring that 'when I destroy everything I will be reborn'.

'Someone deserves to die,' he said.

The drug addict threw himself off the fourth floor of the apartment block after the shocking altercation but survived.

Justice Julia Lonergan will hand down her judgment on Friday.
A federal judge has refused to throw out a federal gun case against Hunter Biden, rejecting the president's son's claim that he is being prosecuted for political purposes as well as other arguments.

District Judge Maryellen Noreika's ruling increases the prospect that Biden could face trial in the case as early as June, during his father's reelection campaign.

His efforts to scuttle the other criminal case he faces in California involving tax allegations have also failed.

Norieka denied several defense requests to dismiss the case charging Biden with lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days.

His lawyers had argued the case was politically motivated and asserted that an immunity provision from an original plea deal that fell apart still holds.

Hunter Biden attends the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S., April 1, 2024

Biden became the first child of a sitting president to be indicted. He faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted on the gun charges

District Judge Maryellen Noreika's ruling increases the prospect that Biden could face trial in the case as early as June

They had also challenged the appointment of Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel to lead the prosecution.

Noreika, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump, has not yet ruled on a challenge to the constitutionality of the gun charges. Biden has pleaded not guilty.

The president's son has acknowledged struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine during that period in 2018, but his lawyers have said he didn't break the law.

The investigation had looked ready to wrap up with a plea deal last year, but the agreement imploded after a judge raised questions about it.

Under the deal, he would have gotten a plea deal in which he would have gotten two years probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor tax charges.

He also would have avoided prosecution on the gun charge if he stayed out of trouble. He was subsequently indicted.

Biden's attorneys have argued that prosecutors bowed to political pressure to indict the him amid heavy criticism of the plea deal from Trump and other Republicans.

Prosecutors countered the evidence against him was 'overwhelming,' including cocaine residue found in the pouch where he stored his gun.

The president's son has acknowledged struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine during that period in 2018, but his lawyers have said he didn't break the law

The above form shows Hunter Biden checked 'no' when asked if he is 'an unlawful user of, or addicted to' a controlled substance. But the president's son detailed in his own book that he relapsed in 2018  the same year he purchased the firearm

A picture from Hunter Biden's laptop showed the now 53-year-old first son posing nude with a firearm

Norieka said in her ruling that Biden's team provided 'nothing concrete' to support a conclusion that anyone actually influenced the special counsel's team.

The judge wrote: 'The pressure campaign from Congressional Republicans may have occurred around the time that Special Counsel decided to move forward with indictment instead of pretrial diversion, but the Court has been given nothing credible to suggest that the conduct of those lawmakers (or anyone else) had any impact on Special Counsel. It is all speculation.'

Special Counsel David Weiss brought the gun charges in September, when Biden became the first child of a sitting president to be indicted. He faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted on the gun charges.

Biden's attorneys argued the gun charges should be dismissed for a variety of reasons including that the law under which he was charged was likely unconstitutional after the U.S. Supreme Court expanded gun rights in a 2022 ruling.

His legal team also had argued that Weiss was not appropriately appointed, that Biden was being selectively prosecuted and that he had a binding agreement that shielded him from prosecution.

Biden also has pleaded not guilty to federal tax crimes in a separate case brought by Weiss in California, facing up to 17 years in prison if convicted. That trial is scheduled to start on June 20.

The special counsel accused Biden of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019 while spending millions of dollars on drugs, escorts, exotic cars and other high-ticket items.

U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi in Los Angeles on April 1 rejected Biden's motions to dismiss the tax indictment.

The Justice Department says Hunter faces up to 17 years in prison for the tax charges.
A former US ambassador who pleaded guilty to spying for Cuba for over four decades has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in December in Miami and accused of gathering intelligence for the rogue communist state since 1981.

This came to light after an undercover sting operation where he detailed his clandestine activities for Havana and praised Fidel Castro.

Rocha bragged to an FBI agent posing as a Cuban intelligence officer that the U.S. was 'the enemy' and described his decades-long assignment as a 'grand slam' that 'strengthened the revolution'.

Judge Beth Bloom told Rocha on Friday: 'You turned your back on this country over and over again,' and said she would impose 'the maximum penalty permitted by law,' after a three-and-a-half-hour hearing in Miami.

Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, who pleaded guilty to spying for Cuba for over four decades, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison

Rocha, 73, was arrested in December in Miami and accused of gathering intelligence for the rogue communist state since 1981. Pictured: Rocha with his graphic designer wife Karla Wittkop Rocha

Members of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance were seen holding placards and flags during a rally demanding the 'maximum sentence' for Rocha

People protested demanding the 'maximum sentence' for the former US Ambassador to Bolivia, Rocha, who admitted to spying for Cuba

Numerous protesters were seen outside the courthouse in Miami on Friday, demanding the 'maximum sentence' for Rocha.

'For most of his life, Mr. Rocha lived a lie,' David Newman, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said at a news conference after the sentencing.

'While holding various senior positions in the U.S. government, he was secretly acting as the Cuban government's agent. That is a staggering betrayal of the American people,' he added.

Rocha was sentenced to five years for conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and ten years for acting as a foreign agent to be served consecutively.

Rocha was arrested in December for what US officials called 'one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent.'

The father-of-two diplomat appointed by Bill Clinton was living in the open in Florida with his graphic designer wife Karla Wittkop Rocha when he was charged.

He initially pleaded not guilty in February to charges of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government, but later accepted a plea deal with federal prosecutors in March.

'For most of his life, Mr. Rocha lived a lie,' David Newman, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said at a news conference after the sentencing

He initially pleaded not guilty in February to charges of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government, but later accepted a plea deal with federal prosecutors in March

Rocha was arrested in December in Miami and accused of collecting intelligence for the rogue communist state since 1981 after an undercover sting where he detailed his clandestine work and praised Fidel Castro

Rocha was born in Colombia and became a naturalized US citizen in 1978. His family moved to New York City in his youth where he was raised in Morningside Heights. Rocha attained degrees from Yale, Harvard and Georgetown.

He began aiding Havana as a covert agent of Cuba's General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI) in 1981, and his secret activities continued until his arrest.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, announcing Rocha's arrest in December, said he had 'repeatedly referred to the United States as 'the enemy'' and 'repeatedly bragged about the significance of his efforts.'

'Rocha always kept his status as a Cuban agent secret in order to protect himself and others and to allow himself the opportunity to engage in additional clandestine activity,' a criminal complaint reads.

Rocha joined the State Department in 1981 and rose through the ranks as a career diplomat, also serving in posts in Havana, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, the Dominican Republic and Washington.

Rocha served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 in the administration of president Bill Clinton and was the ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002 under Clinton and George W. Bush.

He also served as an advisor to the US military command responsible for Cuba.

Rocha left national service in 2006 and later served as an advisor to the US Southern Command, which oversees Cuba, until 2012.

As ambassador to Bolivia, Rocha (right) intervened directly into the 2002 presidential race

The father-of-two diplomat appointed by Bill Clinton was living in the open in Florida with his graphic designer wife Karla Wittkop Rocha when he was charged

The agent contacted Rocha via WhatsApp claiming to be a representative of 'your friends in Havana.'

The pair met multiple times, including once at a food court, where he was asked if he was still 'with' Cuba.

His response was 'angry,' and he replied: 'It's like questioning my manhood.'

He admitted traveling to Havana in 2016 or 2017 to meet with his handlers and asked the undercover agent to send 'my warmest regards to the Direccion,' referring to the DGI, the secret intelligence agency of Cuba.

Rocha told an undercover agent that the rules for Cuban spies included referring to Havana as 'the island' and to adopt the personality as political conservative in the US.

At the time of his initial arrest, it was reported that Republican Maria Elvira Salazar returned Rocha's $750 donation to her campaign.

In December, a former colleague of Rocha's, John Feeley, told The Washington Post that the spy was 'charming' and 'ambitious.' Feeley described him as an expert in Latin American affairs.

Around the time of his arrest, Feeley said that Rocha had 'gone full-on Donald Trump.' 'It was the perfect cover,' Feeley said.

Manuel Rocha stands for a portrait at Steel Hector & Davis in Miami in January 2003, joining the firm to help open doors in Latin America

Bolivian President Hugo Banzer shakes hands with Rocha

During one interaction with an undercover FBI agent, Rocha called his activities as 'grand slam' and that he had 'strengthened the revolution.'

The criminal complaint against Rocha details how, over multiple meetings with an undercover FBI agent beginning in November 2022, he 'behaved as a Cuban agent.'

He was seen praising the communist-ruled island's late leader Fidel Castro and 'using the term 'we' to describe himself and Cuba.'

'Despite swearing an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, Rocha betrayed the US by secretly working as a Cuban agent for decades,' said Larissa Knapp, executive assistant director of the FBI's National Security Branch.

'After years of lying and endangering national security and US citizens, he finally accepted responsibility for his actions and received the maximum prison sentence.'

Numerous espionage cases have marred relations between the two countries, which have been enemies since Cuba's Communist revolution in 1959, at the height of the Cold War.

Cuba has been under a US embargo since 1962, and is on a State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The biological father of murdered Florida girl Madeline Soto is speaking out and says 'every father knows what I'm thinking' about his ex-wife's boyfriend, who is charged with child porn and sex abuse.

Soto, 13 was found in woods close to where she disappeared a week ago, four days after she was reported missing by Osceola County Sheriff's Office search teams at 4:30pm on March 1.

Investigators say her body found was wearing clothing similar to what Maddie was last seen wearing - a green sweatshirt, black shorts and white Crocs.

The grim discovery came hours after police revealed Madeline's mother's boyfriend, Stephan Sterns, 37, is the 'prime suspect' in her murder. He supposedly drove Soto to school the morning of February 26, and said he dropped her at a nearby church.

Tyler Wallace, Madeline's biological father, gave his first interview on Friday and talked about his grief for his daughter, as well as his desire for answers as to who killed her.

The biological father of murdered Florida girl Madeline Soto is speaking out and says 'every father knows what I'm thinking' about his ex-wife's boyfriend, who is charged with child porn and sex abuse

Madeline 'Maddie'' Soto went missing on February 26, four days after she celebrated her 13th birthday

'I loved what I had of her but we were supposed to have so much more,' said Wallace, who lives in Texas separate from his daughter but frequently communicated with her via social media, according to WFTV.

Wallace drove 14 hours from Texas to Florida the day after Madeline was declared missing after she never showed up for class on the 26th. He had last spoken to her on her birthday four days earlier.

'Maddie was just the most important person to my wife and I, she was just full of joy,' Wallace added.

When asked about Sterns, Soto's stepfather who has been charged with sixty child porn and sex abuse crimes and is the prime suspect in the murder - he didn't know much, only interacting with him via Instagram.

'As far as I was interpreting his demeanor, he seemed like a warm, interested but not responsive person.'

When asked what he thinks of Sterns now, Wallace said: 'I don't want to say that on camera. I can't communicate to you. Every father knows what I'm thinking right now.'

The charges against Sterns include sexual battery on a child under 12; five counts of sexual battery of a child aged 12 to 8; seven counts of lewd and lascivious molestation.

Additionally, 40 counts of unlawful possession of 10 or more images depicting a sexual performance by a child, according to Andrew Bain State Attorney in the Ninth Judicial Circuit.

Tyler Wallace (pictured right) with his daughter, Madeline Soto. Wallace said he had last spoken with Madeline on her 13th birthday

Madeline's mother's boyfriend, Stephan Sterns, 37, is the 'prime suspect' in her murder. Wallace said he didn't know much about the man, only interacting with him via Instagram

When asked what he thinks of Sterns now, Wallace said: 'I don't want to say that on camera. I can't communicate to you. Every father knows what I'm thinking right now'

Sterns was already facing charges of sexual battery of a child under 12, and was being held without bond at the Osceola County Jail. Officials said he has not been charged in connection with Soto's death.

Wallace was asked what he thought Madeline's mother Jennifer Soto may have known about her boyfriend and their daughter's disappearance.

'I don't know and I am interested in knowing but I don't have reason to believe one way or the other right now. These are the things that the investigators are looking into.'

While he waits to learn more about what led to his daughter's shocking death, he is simply a grieving father.

'She meant everything to us,' Wallace said. 'I was just waiting to see her more.'

According to a February 29 arrest affidavit, during the investigation into Soto's disappearance, Kissimmee Police found several images and videos on Sterns' phone.

During an interview with investigators, he gave them permission to search his phone, and reportedly told them he had 'accidentally performed a factory reset on his phone on February 26, 2024.'

Despite it being reset, officers were able to access the phone and allegedly found several explicit photos and videos of a young girl that appeared to have been recorded in the Kissimmee home he shared with Soto and her mother, according to My13News Orlando.

Jennifer Soto (left) pictured alongside her 13-year-old daughter Maddie. Tyler Wallace, Maddie's father, says he doesn't know what Jennifer knew about Sterns or their daugther's disappearance

'She meant everything to us,' Wallace said of Maddie. 'I was just waiting to see her more'

Sterns was already facing charges of sexual battery of a child under 12, and was being held without bond at the Osceola County Jail. Officials said he has not been charged in connection with Soto's death

In Sterns; sexual battery case, the victim's identity was not revealed in the arrest affidavit, only that it was a female born on February 22, 2011: Madeline's birthdate.

Sterns was accused of abusing the young girl at least twice  in August of 2022 when she was 11, and again when she was 12.

The affidavit resulted in the first three charges filed against him. State Attorney Bain said: 'The State Attorney's Office has been working closely with KPD and received evidence that gave us cause to file formal charges against Sterns.

'We appreciate the thoroughness and detailed attention of their investigation and will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to build a strong case against the defendant.' Sterns will eventually be arraigned on the charges.

Stearns supposedly drove his stepdaughter to school on the morning of February 26, and claimed that he dropped her off at a nearby church.

When Soto's mother went to pick her daughter up at Hunter's Creek Middle School later that day, she discovered that her daughter never showed up at school.

The frantic mother called police, and the Orange County Sheriff's Office deputies searched extensively for the teen using bloodhounds as they canvassed the area near the school.

Missing posters of the light brown-haired, blue-eyed Maddie Soto were also distributed, and a press conference was held by the Orange County Sheriff John Mina.

According to a February 29 arrest affidavit , during the investigation into Soto's disappearance, Kissimmee Police found several images and videos on Sterns' phone

Police found messages on Madeline's phone that said once she was 13, she wanted 'to go live in the woods.' The girl is seen in a picture with her mother Jenn and her boyfriend Sterns

Police found the teenager's body a short distance away from where she lived

On February 28, three days after Soto went missing, Stearns was arrested on unrelated charges and named 'prime suspect' in the case.

On March 1, Stearns was moved by police from Orange County to Osceola County.

Soto's body was found in the woods during a coordinated search in the area off Hickory Tree Road around 4.30pm that same day. She was found in the clothes she was last wearing - a green sweatshirt, black shorts and white Crocs.

According to reports, Sterns was seen driving his silver 2010 Lincoln MK car with the teenager's lifeless body still in the vehicle after dumping her backpack and laptop in the trash.

The area where Soto's body was discovered is where Sterns had been seen driving and seen at the side of the road changing his tire.

Surveillance footage captures Sterns throwing items into a dumpster at an apartment complex in Kissimmee at 7:45am on Monday morning.

The objects were later recovered and found to be Madeline Soto's backpack and school-issued laptop.

Sterns was then captured for a second time on video as he returned back to his neighborhood with Madeline's body said to be visible.

Orange County Sheriff John Mina and Kissimmee Police Chief Betty Holland announces that their investigation has led them to believe that 13-year-old Madeline Soto was killed by primary suspect Stephan Sterns

Soto's body was found in a wooded area of Osceola County on March 1

Police say they believe the teenager was never dropped off at Hunter's Creek Middle School on the morning she went missing, having been killed hours earlier in Kissimmee.

Investigators discovered 'disturbing images' when they looked through Sterns' phone, along with proof that he attempted to delete evidence of the related material.

After his arrest, Sterns invoked his right to an attorney and declined to speak during his interview. Investigators said he was also the last person to see the girl.

According to the State Attorney's office, sexual Battery on a Child Under 12 is a capital felony, punishable by life in prison if a defendant is convicted.

Charges of Sexual Battery with a Child 12-18 and Lewd or Lascivious Molestation are first-degree felonies that carry sentences of up to life in prison if a person is convicted.

If convicted, a defendant can receive up to five years in prison for each count of Unlawful Possession of Materials Depicting Sexual Performance by a Child.
Surveillance stills show the moment an inmate escaped a Colorado hospital despite being handcuffed.

The photo shows 38-year-old Ronald Collier dashing through the halls of Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center in La Junta Thursday, 150 miles southeast of Denver.

It was snapped seconds after he overpowered a deputy and a security officer at the facility, before fleeing into the night - all while still in his restraints.

He was being held on local charges of burglary and assault, authorities in the area said Friday - as officials from a neighboring sheriff's office revealed he allegedly made off in a stolen 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan.

Both advised the suspect, last seen cuffed, should be considered 'armed and dangerous,' issuing an alert that warned he is still at-large. A search in underway, as officials revealed the car had a full tank of gas and a 9mm under the driver's seat.

Scroll down for video:

Surveillance stills show the moment 38-year-old Ronald Collier escaped Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center in Colorado Thursday - despite being handcuffed

It was snapped seconds after he overpowered a deputy and a security officer at the facility, before fleeing into the night - all while still in his restraints. He was being held on local charges of burglary and assault, authorities in the area said as a search continues

'On April 11, 2024, at approximately 2337 hours, Ronald Caillier, aged 38, of Gillette, WY, escaped from the Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center following an altercation with a Transport Deputy,' officials from the Bent County Sheriff's Office said Friday.

'Caillier fled the scene from the emergency room wearing black and white striped pants and an orange t-shirt, despite being handcuffed with his hands in the front of his body.

'Caillier, who has ties to Colorado Springs, Greeley, and Gillette, Wyoming, is believed to be in possession of a white 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan bearing Colorado license plate BFMW09.

'The vehicle has damage to the passenger side door and a cracked passenger side rear-view window,' officials revealed.

'Authorities suspect the vehicle was stolen, as the keys were left inside it.

'Furthermore, a 9mm handgun was underneath the driver's seat,' the statement revealed.

'The public is advised that Caillier is considered armed and extremely dangerous. It is strongly advised not to confront him if spotted. Instead, individuals are urged to contact local law enforcement immediately.'

The alert from the department headquartered just over ten miles from the facility, and revealed Caillier was being held on local charges of First Degree Burglary and Assault in the third degree.

Seen here is the hospital in La Junta, 150 miles southeast of Denver, from which he escaped

In it, officials thanked staff at the Otero County Sheriff's Office and La Junta Police Department - the two forces that oversee where Valley Regional resides.

Investigators also thanked the Bent County Sheriff's Posse and Bent County Deputies, thanking them for assistance 'in the initial search efforts', which ultimately came up empty.

In an accompanying update aired shortly before, the Baca County Sheriff's Office - stationed some two hours away - was the first to reveal that Collier had allegedly stole a white minivan with the Colorado license plate BFMW09, while not providing much more detail.

The department did, however, reveal the alleged theft either occurred on April 11 - the day of the escape - or in the early morning hours of April 12.

According to the sheriff's office - which is set near the small town of Springfield - the van had a full tank of gas, as well as a 9mm firearm hidden underneath the driver's seat.

Other details - such as the location of the theft of the stolen car's owner - were not provided, but investigators did say the van has damage on the passenger's side door, as well as a rear view mirror on its passenger side.

Otero Sheriff's Office Deputy Shawn Mobley told KKTV that the escape occurred at about 11:39 p.m. Thursday, and officers from his force were 'on scene within minutes'

A deputy from the Otero Sheriffs Office, meanwhile, told KKTV that the escape occurred at 11:39pm Thursday, and that officers from his force were 'on scene within minutes.'

Since then, they've used a combination of dogs, drones, thermal scanners and other tracking technology to find the accused burglar, Deputy Shawn Mobley told the station - adding that he and others are 'following up on a couple of leads from the community, as well.'

The deputy and security guard attacked during the escape, he said, were treated for minor injuries and have since been released.

This incident is currently under investigation, with authorities from the aforementioned forces' asking any information Ronald Caillier's whereabouts be reported to local law enforcement agencies promptly.

As of writing, he remains at large.
A council has scrapped plans to name a new park after Licorice Allsorts lollies due to concerns the branding would be 'racially offensive'.

The City of Sydney was planning to call the new amenity on Rothschild Ave in the inner city suburb of Rosebery Allsorts Park in recognition of the confectionery factory that had occupied the site but the idea was met with substantial disapproval.

Local residents voiced their opposition along with the council's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Panel, which pointed out the brand name was a historical derogatory term for people of mixed race.

A Sydney council has backtracked on plans to name a new park after the Licorice Allsorts that were previously made on the site

Panel member and local councillor Yvonne Weldon said the insensitive name had caused concern and distress.

Public feedback also stated the name could be 'interpreted in different ways'.

The council is now proposing the name 'Butterscotch Park' to recognise the Sweetacres factory that produced lollies at the site from 1918 until the late 1960s.

Other local features named after the area's confectionery manufacturing past include Confectioners Way, Honeykiss Park, Sweetacres Park, Stedman Street and Sweet Street.

Local greens councillor Sylvie Ellsmore said council had made the right decision ditching the 'racially offensive name'

Local greens councillor Sylvie Ellsmore said while it was appropriate not to use the racially offensive Allsorts name, the park should be named after its pre-colonial inhabitants.

'This is the sixth thing in the local area that will be named after the one sweet factory  it's a cute name but why bother?' she asked.

'It's such a wasted opportunity when we could be recognising the voices that are all too invisible in the city  most often Aboriginal names, and also women.'

City of Sydney councillor Linda Scott also backed an Indigenous name using the 'abundance of words' from the local Indigenous Gadigal language.

Despite the opposition the name 'Butterscotch Park' was supported by a 6-4 majority vote of councillors.

It will be referred to the Geographical Names Board of NSW for assessment.
Tourists warned to look out for mozzies

Aussie tourists are being warned to take precautions when travelling to Bali after a drastic uptick in dengue fever cases was recorded.

One unlucky Queensland woman shared her diagnosis whilst connected to an IV drip in an Ubud hospital room on the popular Indonesian island.

During her 10-day trip she wrote she didn't see a single mosquito or get bitten, but still tested positive for dengue fever - adding she has been struggling to keep her temperature down.

'Go to Bali, they said. It will be fun, they said,' she wrote in a Facebook group for Bali travellers.

There has been a drastic uptick in dengue fever cases, with one region in Bali reporting an increase of 65 percent

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'Thank goodness for insurance.'

Many travellers have been flooding social media with their own stories of intense pain, uncontrollable vomiting and temperatures above 39 degrees.

There has been a drastic increase in reported cases, with Bali's Bangli Regency region up 65 percent compared with this time last year.

'I went in March and got it on my 30th birthday,' a Sydney woman shared.

'It was horrific, don't wish it upon anybody. The worst part is the fever and body aches.'

Another said: 'Got home to Darwin, same day the fever and full body rash started.'

'Off the plane, straight to hospital infectious disease isolation ward until they worked it out.'

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne viral infection that infects 100-400 million people ever year in tropical and subtropical areas.

According to the World Health Organisation, most people recover in one or two weeks but in severe cases it can be fatal.

The mosquitoes that spread dengue are active during the day, so travellers are urged to protect themselves however possible from being bitten.

Travellers are being urged to exercise caution around affected areas, including dressing in clothes that cover as much of your body as possible and wearing mosquito repellents

This includes warning tourists to dress in clothes that cover as much of their bodies as possible, and using DEET or picaridin-based mosquito repellents, coils and vaporisers.

Mosquito nets are recommended for those who like to sleep during the day, with the nets sprayed with insect repellent for added protection.

Local media public health measures are now in place across the region including widespread spraying in an attempt to kill adult mosquitoes, Bangli Health Service boss I Nyoman Arsana said.

About 120 people have been diagnosed with dengue fever in the region last month but none have died.

'In the first three months of 2024, [we have] seen an average of 322 such claims per month,' Insurer Cover-More Australia CEO Todd Nelson said.

'This indicates a monthly increase in these claim types of about 21 per cent.'

The most common health-related claims have been for 'Bali belly', respiratory infections and injuries such as surfing accidents, he told the Daily Telegraph.

Anyone who shows symptoms of dengue fever is recommended to get medical advice.
Two missing Kansas women whose car was mysteriously found abandoned on the side of the road in Oklahoma were reportedly shot and puddles of blood discovered outside the vehicle.

Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, were traveling together to pick up Butler's children, ages 6 and 8, on March 30. New details have emerged about both women.

Butler is going through a nasty divorce and custody battle with her husband, Wrangler Cole Rickman, and the children were staying with her ex-husband's mother.

Kelley, described as more an acquaintance than a friend of Butler's, is a pastor's wife who allegedly supervises Butler's visitations with her children.

On March 20, ten days before they went missing, Butler filed a petition in court that would grant her more time with her children, with her goal being full custody, according to News Nation.

Veronica Butler (pictured left), 27, and Jilian Kelley (pictured right), 39, were traveling together to pick up Kelley's children on March 30

Multiple puddles of blood were found near the vehicle in the desolate Oklahoma panhandle, which was found 1,000 feet off of Oklahoma State Highway 95, near a school Butler attended and graduated from in 2015

Court filings claimed that Butler and the children's grandmother were not getting along amid the nasty battle.

Butler has weekly, court-mandated visits every Saturday with the kids, with Kelley one of four people listed as supervisors of those visits.

ABC 7 reported that the visit was also meant to celebrate Butler's 6-year-old daughter's birthday.

They had made the 45-minute drive from Hugoton to a gas station in Eva, located near the Four Corners section of Oklahoma, but disappeared, with the car found just three miles from where they were supposed to meet.

Multiple puddles of blood were found near the vehicle in the desolate Oklahoma panhandle, which was found 1,000 feet off of Oklahoma State Highway 95, near a school Butler attended and graduated from in 2015.

Kelley is the wife of Pastor Heath Kelley, who serves at two churches in Kansas and Nebraska.

On April 3, Kelley's Willow Christian Church in Nebraska posted to Facebook: 'We ask that you continue to pray for Jilian and Veronica and their families as the search and investigation continue.'

'Pray for strength, wisdom and faith for everyone involved. We appreciate everyone who has shared the prayer requests. We are getting messages from all over the country of people praying for these two women and their families.'

Kelley is the wife of Pastor Heath Kelley, who serves at two churches in Kansas and Nebraska

Hugoton First Christian Church has also offered prayers on Facebook, while friends and family have started a Meal Train page for Kelley's family.

Authorities are continuing to look for clues of foul play but have not conducted a large scale search and hope is running out.

'It's been over a week,' Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation's Public Information Manager Hunter McKee said Tuesday, according to Fox News.

'We are hopeful that we can find them alive, but obviously it's becoming more and more challenging.'

Butler is described as 5 feet, 4 inches tall with red hair and green eyes. She has several tattoos including, a Chinese symbol on her left forearm, and a sunflower on her left shoulder.

She was dressed in a blue short sleeve shirt, denim shorts and lightweight shoes by the brand, Hey Dudes.

Kelley, who also from Hugoton, Kansas was last seen on Saturday, with Butler.

The blue-eyed woman is pictured in the Missing person flyer with blonde hair, but her hair color is now brown, and has a butterfly tattoo on her left forearm.

Court filings claimed that Butler and the children's grandmother were not getting along amid the nasty battle

Butler has weekly, court-mandated visits every Saturday with the kids, with Kelley one of four people listed as supervisors of those visits

The endangered missing person flyer that lists details about the women's disappearance

She is believed to be wearing a long sleeve shirt, white washed blue jeans, and tan beige shoes.

The case remains under investigation by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the FBI.

OSBI has previously said that there is evidence of foul play, previously calling it a 'suspicious disappearance.'
A coronial report is being prepared into the death of a 29-year-old man who was being held in police custody.

The man was arrested around 1.55am on Saturday morning after police received reports of him acting 'in a suspicious and erratic manner' in the northern Hobart suburb of Moonah.

A 29-year-old man has died in Hobart Reception Prison after being taken into custody in the early hours of Saturday

He was taken to the Hobart Reception Prison where he was held on remand.

The man was found unresponsive at 2.30am and despite police and later paramedic attempts to revive him, he died a short time later.

Assistant Commissioner Adrian Bodnar said the man had been arrested for 'a simple offence' under the Police Offences Act.

'Certainly people aren't arrested just because they're looking suspicious, there are other elements  police need to be satisfied about,' he said.

Assistant Commissioner Bodnar said he could not comment on what caused the man to become unresponsive.

'As the matter is now before the coroner I'm very limited in what I can say. That will obviously form part of the coronial investigation for the Coroner to consider,' Assistant Commissioner Bodnar said.

Assistant Commissioner Adrian Bodnar said the man's death is being investigated by the coroner

Police are preparing the report for the coroner, who will investigate all aspects of the man's death, including the circumstances of his arrest.

Tasmania Police's professional standards command is also investigating the death and the Integrity Commission has also been notified.
Police have backed an officer shooting an alleged knife-wielding man on a property central Queensland saying the experienced Senior Constable 'had no choice'.

A single officer was called to a home on Running Creek Rd in Kilkivan, near Gympie, on Friday afternoon after reports of a 'disturbance' and located a 52-year-old man with fatal stab wounds who was later pronounced dead at the scene.

A second man, aged 42, was shot once in the chest after allegedly threatening the responding officer with a knife, a Queensland Police spokesman said.

A small community in central Queensland has been rocked by a fatal stabbing with an officer shooting the alleged knifeman

The man remained in the Sunshine Coast University Hospital on Saturday in a critical condition

Detective Acting Superintendent Paul Algie said the officer from Kilkivan station had attempted to defuse the situation.

'The police officer attempted to retreat and negotiate with the man and did that for an extended period of time  unfortunately he was left with no further action but to fire his service pistol,' Det Algie said in a press conference on Saturday.

'He shot him once in the chest and then went to his aid immediately to provide first aid as per his training.

'Upon arrival from back up police, his colleagues and friends from Goomeri, assisted in first aid for not only the suspect but the man who had been stabbed initially.'

The officer involved had 10 years experience in policing and has a young family.

Det Algie described the incident as shocking and said it was an 'unusual set of circumstances' for the quiet law-abiding district where he has been stationed since 2017.

'I can confirm that nothing like this has occurred in that community in the time that I've been in the area,' Det Algie said.

While the family was known to police it was only in the context of being a small community where everybody knew everybody.

Police had never been called out to the property previously for a complaint or emergency.

'Kilkivan is a very small country community and our officers in that community are obviously very concerned about what occurred,' Det Algie said.

'As the district officer this is the worst phone call that you can receive.

'Preliminary investigations do reveal the alleged offender was holding a knife and that knife was being held when he was shot.

'There is generally no crime in the community and so this is a very shocking thing.'

Police say the two men had a 'familial relationship' and both lived at the property with healthcare workers supporting the residents.

A crime scene has been declared at the address and police investigations are continuing

Responding to a question about whether the deceased man had a physical disability and was wheelchair bound, Acting Superintendent Algie said investigators were still piecing together his physical condition.

He told media the sole-responding officer had attended as back-up for paramedics who had been called to the property.

A Queensland Police Service spokesman said the alleged homicide and subsequent shooting was being investigated by the Ethical Standards Command, with oversight by the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC).

'A crime scene has been declared at the address and police investigations are continuing,' the spokesman said.

Police have also launched a separate homicide probe into the alleged stabbing.
Spokesperson calls for China-U.S. joint efforts to promote military ties

Xinhua) 11:06, April 13, 2024

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese military spokesperson on Friday expressed the hope that the United States will work with China toward the same goal of promoting the steady development of ties between the two militaries and reinforcing the positive outlook of the relationship.

Wu Qian, a spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, also expressed hopes that the U.S. side will strengthen dialogue with China in a mutually respectful way, manage differences prudently, and advance cooperation in the spirit of mutual benefit.

Noting that Chinese President Xi Jinping recently spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden on the phone at the request of the latter, Wu said the call had charted the course for the development of relations between the two militaries.

According to Wu, the efforts by the two sides to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state included holding the 17th China-U.S. Defense Policy Coordination Talks and the working team meeting for China-U.S. Military Maritime Consultative Agreement Meeting.

Wu said the two defense authorities have been maintaining communication and coordination on other exchange programs.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
Renderings show the proposed Houston Public Library's Hispanic History Research Center, set to open at 5807 Navigation in 2026. Renderings are by architecture and design firm NADAAA. NADAAA

In a milestone moment for the citys long-awaited Hispanic History Research Center, more than 200 Houston residents packed into a dilapidated warehouse Saturday in the East End for a community forum to discuss the future of the promised Latino-focused archival library.

Hosted by Council Members Mario Castillo, Joaquin Martinez and Julian Ramirez, the self-coined Three Amigos and the citys Latino council members, the forum was the first opportunity for community input on a project that has been in the works for years but has, until now, made little progress.

Renderings show the proposed Houston Public Library's Hispanic History Research Center, set to open at 5807 Navigation in 2026. Renderings are by architecture and design firm NADAAA. NADAAA Renderings show the proposed Houston Public Library's Hispanic History Research Center, set to open at 5807 Navigation in 2026. Renderings are by architecture and design firm NADAAA. NADAAA Renderings show the proposed Houston Public Library's Hispanic History Research Center, set to open at 5807 Navigation in 2026. Renderings are by architecture and design firm NADAAA. NADAAA A rendering shows the Hispanic History Research Center, denoted with the No. 1, and other amenities along Navigation Boulevard proposed in the Buffalo Bayou East master plan. Buffalo Bayou Partnership

The planned Houston Public Library facility was first added to the citys projects list during former Mayor Sylvester Turners administration after voters approved funding in a 2017 bond issue, but library representatives said natural disasters like hurricanes and the pandemic delayed the project.

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For several years, we got no (updates) from the leadership of the library, from the mayor and city council, said activist and historian David Contreras, who has long been vocal on issues concerning Latino communities and the citys Hispanic archives. I think this is going to be absolutely beautiful.

The Hispanic History Research Center is meant to house the librarys embattled Latino archives, a trove of local history that sat at the Julia Ideson Building downtown for decades as other archives, such as the African American, genealogical and local history collections, thrived.

Renderings show the proposed Houston Public Library's Hispanic History Research Center, set to open at 5807 Navigation in 2026. Renderings are by architecture and design firm NADAAA. NADAAA

A 2023 Houston Chronicle investigation found some Latino collections have sat untouched for more than 20 years without being digitized or otherwise displayed, and critics said the Hispanic archives were languishing. A library spokesperson told the Chronicle at the time that the Hispanic collections are not neglected, and the archive continues to be a proud cornerstone of Houston History Research Center.

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Saturday mornings community forum offered many a first look at the center's future facility, a once-abandoned warehouse at 5807 Navigation Boulevard along Buffalo Bayous Turkey Bend that is set to be transformed as part of the Buffalo Bayou East master plan.

Although the 50,000-square-foot brick warehouse has obvious signs of wear and tear, like cracked concrete floors and some broken windows, seeing the site gave Contreras, a historian with the League of United Latin American Citizens, hope that Houstons Latino archives will get the facility they deserve.

Other Houston Public Library collections have long had their own archive centers, such as the African American History Research Center at the Gregory School in Fourth Ward and the genealogy-focused Family History Research Center in the Museum District.

In four months, we have made incredible progress, said Contreras, who added that the addition of three new Latino council members helped propel his efforts for more community input on the project.

The research center project is expected to cost upwards of $19 million, according to city records. More than half of those funds were used to buy the property late last year.

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Along with offering a facility to store and display the Latino archives, the center is meant to be a community hub in Houstons historically Hispanic East End. Much of the large warehouse floor will be transformed into gallery space to display Latino art and study areas for those who want to research the archives.

HOUSTON LIBRARIES: Mayor John Whitmire appoints new library director

Many residents expressed gratitude that the project, expected to be completed in 2026, is moving along after years without any updates from the city, but some were already thinking about the environmental and safety factors that could affect the center.

Contreras, who has pushed for a resident-led advisory committee to oversee the project and Houston Public Librarys Hispanic archives, said he hopes the city will take potential bayou flooding into account when renovating the space to ensure the safety of the invaluable archives that will be housed inside.

One resident, during a question-and-answer portion of the event, expressed concern that the research center could be hobbled by lack of parking, and Saturdays forum offered a preview of those potential challenges. Many residents who attended Saturday parked across Navigation and had to cross six lanes of traffic to get to the warehouse with the help of a police officer directing cars.

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The council members reassured the resident that the issue would be addressed during the design phase of the project and at future forums.

The event also drew support from other Houston-area politicians. In attendance along with Martinez, Castillo and Ramirez were U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, state Rep. Christina Morales and fellow council member Willie Davis.

Former Council Member Robert Gallegos, once the lone Latino on the City Council, urged the Houston Public Library leadership to explore partnerships with organizations like Arte Publico Press of the University of Houston to help expand the Latino archives.

For longtime East End resident and activist Jessica Castillo Hulsey, who thanked the hosts and others who showed up, the forum signified an investment in Houstons Latino community that she said is long deserved.

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She said its important for other Latino residents to continue pressuring elected officials to keep the community as their top priority during the project.
A critically-injured baby's mother is among six shoppers killed, and eight others stabbed, by a man armed with a knife at a major Sydney shopping centre.

Witnesses say the dark-haired, bearded man, wearing a Kangaroos ARL jersey, chased and slashed at shoppers as he went on a wild rampage through Westfield Bondi Junction before he was shot dead by police.

Among the dead is a mother, 38, who threw her stabbed nine-month-old to a bystander in a bid to save his life.

It is understood the baby is undergoing surgery, but the mother has since died from her injuries in hospital.

Six people have killed in an assault on Bondi's Westfield shopping centre in Sydney by a man armed with a knife who was shot dead by police

Shoppers run though Bondi Junction as police lock down the centre following reports of a major incident

A witness told Nine News: 'The baby got stabbed and the mum got stabbed.

'The mum came over with the baby and threw it at me. I just helped by holding the baby and trying to compress the baby.

'(It was) very bad... a lot of the blood on the floor ... hope the baby's alright'.

It is believed that the mother and her baby were the first to be targeted by the alleged attacker.

Details later emerged of the heroics of bystanders and a female police inspector who single-handedly tackled the knifeman and shot him dead, before she then started giving CPR to one of his victims.

NSW Police said the officer was attached to Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command attended and that she was allegedly confronted by a man with a knife.

'The man allegedly lunged at the officer, before he was fatally shot,' a spokesperson said.

'The officer conducted CPR until the arrival of NSW Ambulance paramedics, who worked on the man; however, he could not be revived.'

Reports indicate that the first stabbings took place in Myer as shoppers used clothes to quell their bleeding.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said that the alleged attacker was confronted by a lone female officer on the fifth level of the complex.

The officer entered the scene alone as it was happening before the rest of the force arrived.

'She confronted the offender who had moved by this stage to level five. As she continued to walk quickly behind him to catch up with him,' Commissioner Cooke said.

'He turned, faced her, raised a knife. She discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased.'

Commissioner Cooke said it was clear that the alleged attack meant to hurt as many people as possible.

'As he moved to the centre, he engaged with about nine people, and its clear that during that engagement he caused harm to those people, we believe by stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying.'

The alleged attacker was shot dead by a lone policewoman who confronted him on the fifth level

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said that the policewoman shot the alleged offender after he raised his weapon in her direction

Commissioner Cooke (pictured) said that officers are now working to identify the alleged attacker and figure out a motive

Police  including the Tactical Operations Unit  and ambulances have attended the scene, with people seen screaming and crying out the front of the complex.

Officers were seen entering the complex through the entrance on the corner of Oxford and Adelaide streets with guns drawn.

Of the injured two were taken to St Vincents Hospital, two to Royal Prince Alfred, one to St George, one to Royal North Shore.

The baby was taken to Sydney Childrens Hospital.

Police say the offender initially entered the shopping complex at 3pm before leaving and returning at 3:20pm with a weapon.

Pictures and videos from the incident have been uploaded on X including one photo showing the alleged attacker casually riding an escalator while holding a large knife.

Bondi Rescue lifeguard Andy Reid was among those pictured at the scene helping victims.

Mr Reid was in Myer buying a bed at the time of the incident before rushing over to hep victims who were bleeding heavily.

'I looked down and there were just multiple victims sort of, like, 50 metres apart,' he told Nine.

'The lady next to us, she was in a really bad way, there was a couple of police working on her.

'I went to help the next victim and as I went down  I just saw this empty pram ... I just thought, "Oh my God"  then I saw on the news about the [injured] baby.'

Bondi Rescue lifeguard Andy Reid was seen performing CPR on victims inside the shopping complex (Mr Reid centre in black shirt)

Multiple pictures and videos have emerged online from taken by those who were in the shopping centre at the time

Blood and paramedics gear littered several stores as victims were rushed out of Westfield and transported to hospital

The man was wearing a green and gold ARL Australia Jersey while casually holding the large knife at his side before witnesses claim he started chasing them.

Another shot showed one of the victims of the attack lying in a pool of blood behind a glass door.

Rakesh Sanga, 33, who was working at the time of the attack told Sydney Morning Herald that he saw the knifeman shot dead outside of his store.

'I went to see what was happening, he said. Police coming from the other side. The man coming with the knife  everyone running, Mr Sanga said.

'I think she shoot like two times or three times.'

Victims of the attack were left lying in the mall while police worked to stop the attack

Among the first attacked were allegedly a woman and her baby (not pictured)

Police are attending the scene in numbers and the Australian Federal Police are now liaising with NSW Police in case the the joint counter terrorism team is needed

Witnesses recalled hearing 'bloodcurdling screams' coming from within the shopping centre

A NSW Ambulance spokesperson said that 40 resources were sent to assist at the scene.

'NSW ambulance assisted in transporting eight patients to various hospital facilities across Sydney, and assessed a total of six patients who had been deemed injured on the scene,' they said.

A young witness who was locked inside a store - said she heard gunshots and 'blood-curdling' screams while the attack was underway.

'We are absolutely terrified,' she said.

Earlier panicked people were seen running across the pedestrian bridge outside the centre in video posted to social media.

Others said they were being evacuated from the centre's car park.

Police are attending the scene in numbers and Australian Federal Police are liaising with NSW officials in case the joint counter terrorism team is needed.

AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw said that he was working with NSW police with their investigation into the attack.

'I want to reassure the community that the AFP is proven providing New South Wales Police with whatever support is required,' he said.

'It is too early to determine a motive and it would be unhelpful to speculate.'

Police are now working to try and identified the alleged attacker.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that he has been briefed on the attack by federal police

Police are still working to evacuate shoppers from the Westfield complex as officers swarm the scene

Police from NSW's riot squad were seen entering the shopping complex with guns drawn

Prime minister Anthony Albanese called the attack 'a horrific act of violence' at a press conference alongside Mr Kershaw in Canberra.

'The nation offers our deepest condolences and sympathies to all those who are grieving for someone they have lost and we send our strength to those who have been injured,' Mr Albanese said.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said that he was thinking of the families of those whose loved one were caught in Westfield at the time.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese called the attack in Bondi Junction 'a horrific act of violence'

Acting NSW premier Penny Sharpe said that she was also shocked by the attack.

'My thoughts and those of the NSW Government are with the victims, their families and first responders at this time, as well as those who may have witnessed these horrific events,' Ms Sharpe said.

Local MP Allegra Spender, whose electorate of Wentworth includes Bondi Junction, also released a statement stating that the incident had 'deeply shocked and saddened' her.

'Like everyone else in the east, I have been contacting friends and family, checking that everyone is ok,' she said.

'While details are still emerging, it is clear that individuals in the centre helped and just comforted each other at the most terrifying moment of their lives. Those stories will humble us, as we contemplate what has happened.'

Witnesses say a man was chasing and slashing people with a knife inside Bondi Junction's Westfield shopping centre on Saturday

Its understood at least four people people have been stabbed with one reported dead

Bystanders have reported seeing multiple people outside the shopping centre with blood on their clothes

Footage of the incident showed the attacker running after large crowds of people as others watched on from the floor above.

As the attacker closes in one hero dad turns around to stop the man's and protect his wife and two children.

Another video captured one man armed with a bollard trying to fend off the attacker.

The shopper was standing at the top of an escalator threatening to throw the bollard at the attacker who was on his way up as the two held their ground.

Terrified Dior shop workers told Daily Mail Australia they heard screaming and running and then gunshots.

'We locked the doors and them we saw some guys running towards the escalator and throwing things on it to stop [the knifeman] going up the escalator,' one said.

Terrified Dior store workers told Daily Mail Australia that they watched on as other shoppers attempted to stop the alleged attacker (left to right: Chelsea, Swan, Sabrina and DeeJay)

A video shared online captured one man armed with a bollard trying to fend off the attacker who was on his way up as the two held their ground

Huma Hussainy and Mohamed Naveed from Parramatta said that the man looked to be 35-years-old and carrying a hunting knife.

The couple heard screaming and everyone running while Mr Naveed was paying for a t-shirt and pants inside a Lululemon store.

They then saw the bodies of two young women in their 20s lying in a large pool of blood outside Cotton On.

'Then I saw him coming back still golding the knife and I thought he was coming for us,' he said.

Instead the alleged attacker reversed his steps and headed for an escalator insted the couple said.

Huma Hussainy (right) and Mohamed Naveed (left) from Parramatta told Daily Mail Australia that the man looked to be 35-years-old and carrying a hunting knife

A video shared by one bystander showed the alleged attacker chasing a group of shoppers before one man turned around to face him

A Westfield worker said that she saw the screaming mother trying to escape with her baby on the level above her as they were both stabbed.

'She's screaming really, really loudly. She's running back and forth not knowing what to do,' the worker said.

'Then she comes back to the pram and picks up her baby and there's just blood all over her back.

'The scream was unforgettable, it was the scariest thing I've ever seen.'

Eastern suburbs local Ted Helliar posted to X: 'Something just went down at Westfields Bondi junction.'

'We were up there and all of a sudden all these people running towards us. Next thing dozens and dozens of people all running a screaming some bloke yells "someone is stabbing everyone get out of here".'

Another person whose friend had a daughter in the complex at the time of the alleged stabbing shared screenshots of her messages online.

'We just heard gunshots,' the daughter texted.

'Get to cover,' her parent replied.

'Please, please be safe.'

Five people are dead after a mass-stabbing at Westfield in Bondi Junction, Sydney, on Saturday afternoon

Westfield Bondi Junction is in lockdown after the incident on Saturday afternoon

Shoppers trapped inside the complex were desperately messaging their loved ones to let them know they were alright

Another X user said hundreds of shoppers were hiding in the back of the David Jones department store, which had pulled down its shutters with reports a man had been seen running with a gun in the centre.

A police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday afternoon that a major police operation is under way and officers were gathering details at the scene.

Brianna Skinner warned her friends not to come near the shopping centre while the incident was still active.

Ms Skinner said that she had seen 'police with machine guns' walking around the halls of the shopping centre and that she had seen 'multiple victims'.
There have been reports of a man with a gun forcing panicked bystanders to flee in a major shopping centre.

A post to X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday afternoon stated 'there is a guy running around westfield Bondi Junction with a gun'.

'My partner is locked in back room of a shop,' the tweet stated.

Another post on X claimed multiple people had been stabbed on level 4 of the centre in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

A NSW police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday that there was a 'major police operation' at the centre.

He said police are ollecting further information at the scene.

More to come
The knifeman who killed five women and one man during a rampage in Sydney today was 'known to police'.

Six people were killed and three more stabbed during the horrific attack in that left multiple people critically injured including a mother and her baby on the start of the Australian school holidays.

Four women and one man died at the scene and another woman died in hospital. Other victims critically injured in the attack at Bondi Junction Westfield mall at around 3.30pm local time included a mother and her nine-month-old baby.

The attacker was in the mall at 3pm but left and returned at 3.20pm with a knife. He attacked the mother and child at 3.30pm before police arrived at 3.45pm and the mall was placed under lockdown at 4pm.

The baby is undergoing surgery in hospital. The motive was not immediately clear and police have not ruled out terrorism.

He was shot and killed by a hero female police officer, who apprehended the knifeman alone after being on patrol nearby.

The Sydney knifeman was a 40-year-old and his attack is not thought to be terror-related, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said.

The knifeman who killed five women and one man during a rampage in Sydney today was 'known to police'

The knifeman was reportedly shot dead by a female police officer

The attacker was seen running in the mall with a knife in his hand

The attacker was in the mall at 3pm but left and returned at 3.20pm with a knife. He attacked the mother and child at 3.30pm before police arrived at 3.45pm and the mall was placed under lockdown at 4pm

Ms Webb told a press conference: 'Later this evening we became aware of who we believe the offender is and we believe that he is a 40-year-old man.

'However, we are waiting to formally identify him and we cannot speculate yet on his identification.

'But let me assure you that we are confident that there is no ongoing risk and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased.'

She added: 'If in fact it is the person that we believe it is, then we don't have fears for that person holding an ideation - in other words, that it's not a terrorism incident.

'He is known to law enforcement but we are waiting to identify him formally.'

Speaking about the heroic cop, Commissioner Webb said she was 'doing well under the circumstances'.

Webb added: 'She showed enormous courage and bravery we just talked [and] she's OK, her family is OK. She's got everything she needs for the time being.'

The officer will be interviewed formally tomorrow about what happened.

Multiple other shoppers have been injured in the attack and taken to hospitals across the city.

The baby is being treated at Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick. Another victim was rushed to St George Hospital and someone else to Royal North Shore Hospital.

Three were taken to St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst and two more to the Royal Prince Alfred in Camperdown.

Bystanders said they had seen multiple people outside the shopping centre in the city's eastern suburbs with blood on their clothes.

Shoppers run though Bondi Junction as police lock down the centre following reports of a major incident

Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police, said: 'A man walked into Westfield at Bondi Junction, he left the centre very shortly after and returned... as he moved through the centre he engaged with about nine people.

'It is clear that during that engagement he caused harm to those people, we believe by stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying.

'Very clearly a range of reports were made on the incident, police attended promptly - a single unit officer, inspector of police, was nearby, attended, [and] went into the centre directed by a range of people.

'She confronted the offender who had moved, by this stage, to level five.

'As she continued to walk quickly behind to catch up with him he turned to face her, raised a knife, she discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased.'

He added: 'I'm advised that there are five victims who are now deceased as a result of the actions of this offender.

'There are more than several other people who have been conveyed to hospital - a number of those are in serious and or critical conditions at this stage and I do not have further information in relation to descriptions of those people.

'I know one of them is a small child.'

It was later confirmed that six people died in the attack.

Mr Cooke said: 'I am content that there is no continuing threat; our police, as I said, have commenced investigations into the matter which will continue through the evening.

'I do not have details of victims who have been killed by this individual, nor those who have been conveyed to hospital for treatment - so I cannot provide you further information into relation to them, only to say very clearly our hearts go out to all of them, as they do (to) anyone touched by this incident this afternoon.

READ MORE: Revealed: How hero female police officer risked her own life confronting knifeman alone before he raised his knife and she shot him dead Advertisement

'I do not have information in relation to the offender - I do not know, at this stage, who he is, you would understand this is quite raw.

'Inquiries are very new and we continue to make attempts to identify the offender in this matter.

'That is it for the moment, in terms of information that I have for you.'

Commissioner Reece Kershaw said Australia's Federal Police would support New South Wales Police as they investigated the attack.

He said: 'The AFP has deployed AFP members to the crime scene and we've offered our full specialist capabilities such as digital forensics,' he said.

'It is too early to determine a motive and it would be unhelpful to speculate.'

An eyewitness described the police officer shooting the attacker to state broadcaster ABC.

'If she did not shoot him, he would have kept going, he was on the rampage,' said the man, who did not give his name. 'She went over and was giving him CPR. He had a nice big blade on him. He looked like he was on a killing spree.'

A spokesman for New South Wales Ambulance told a press conference: 'Shortly after 3pm today, New South Wales Ambulance received multiple calls for persons stabbed within Westfield Bondi Junction.

'We've responded a total of 40 resources to the scene who remain on scene still. That included a total of four medical teams.

'New South Wales Ambulance assessed and transported eight patients to various hospital facilities across Sydney and assessed a total of six patients who have been deemed deceased on scene.'

The stabbing happened at Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre, which went into lockdown just before 4pm on Saturday

Multiple other shoppers have been injured in the attack, it has been reported

Paramedics have taken two people to hospital in ambulances so far, while bystanders have seen multiple people outside the shopping centre with blood on their clothes

Police have cordoned off the shopping centre in Sydney

Shoppers enjoying a day out today were evacuated from the mall

State broadcaster ABC reported some people remained trapped inside. Two witnesses told Reuters they heard shots fired

One witness said: 'Even 20 minutes after people were rushed out of the mall, I saw SWAT teams of people sweeping the surrounding streets'

After the stabbings, The Prince and Princess of Wales said they were 'shocked and saddened', adding that their thoughts are with those affected and the 'heroic emergency responders who risked their own lives to save others'

After the stabbings, King Charles and Queen Camilla said they were 'utterly shocked and horrified' by the 'senseless attack' in Sydney and their 'hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who have been so brutally killed'.

The Prince and Princess of Wales said they were 'shocked and saddened', adding that their thoughts are with those affected and the 'heroic emergency responders who risked their own lives to save others'.

People at the scene said there was panic, with shoppers running to safety and police trying to secure the area.

Several people took shelter in a supermarket, where they remained for about an hour.

The sound of police sirens and helicopters filled the air.

Security camera footage broadcast by local media showed a man running around the shopping centre with a large knife and injured people lying on the floor.

A tearful witness told Sky News: 'Who does that to people? I saw a woman lying on the floor.

'I didn't see him properly, I was running. It was insane. I thought I was going to die.'

Police and ambulance staff rushed to the scene earlier today

Specialist police officers with rifles were seen in the shopping centre

The two brothers used clothing and shirts from a shop to try and stop the baby's bleeding

Masked an armed police officers also rushed to the scene

Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police, said: 'A man walked into Westfield at Bondi Junction, he left the centre very shortly after and returned... as he moved through the centre he engaged with about nine people'

He added: 'It is clear that during that engagement he caused harm to those people, we believe by stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying'

Mr Cooke said: 'Very clearly a range of reports were made on the incident, police attended promptly - a single unit officer, inspector of police, was nearby, attended, [and] went into the centre directed by a range of people'

He said: 'She confronted the offender who had moved, by this stage, to level five. 'As she continued to walk quickly behind to catch up with him he turned to face her, raised a knife, she discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased'

He added: 'I'm advised that there are five victims who are now deceased as a result of the actions of this offender.' It was later confirmed that six people died in the attack

A large police presence has remained at the scene of the fatal stabbing

Witnesses said the dark-haired man, wearing a Kangaroos NRL jersey, slashed at least eight shoppers before he was shot by a female police officer. No-one else is being sought by police.

A hero who rushed to help a mother and nine-month-old baby after they were stabbed by a knifeman at Westfield Bondi Junction has told how he desperately worked to keep the infant alive using store clothes.

A witness interrupted a Nine News reporter performing a live cross in Bondi Junction and pointed to his brother, saying: 'He's a hero - he saved the baby'.

The clearly shaken hero said he used clothes from a store to try and stem the baby's bleeding.

'The baby got stabbed and, yeah, the mum got stabbed,' he said.

'The mum came over with the baby and threw it at me.

'I just helped by holding the baby... and trying to compress the baby.'

The brothers stayed with the mother and called emergency services.

'(It was) very bad... a lot of the blood on the floor ... hope the baby's alright,' the other brother said.

The injured mum had blood coming out of her mouth, he said.

It is understood the baby is undergoing surgery and the mother is in a critical condition in hospital.

Another witness, a worker at the shopping centre, recalled seeing a mother screaming on the level above.

'I see a mother and maybe her partner with a baby in a pram,' she told Nine News.

Police  including the Tactical Operations Unit  and ambulances have attended the scene, with people seen screaming and crying out the front of the complex

Pictures and videos from the incident have been uploaded on X including one photo showing the alleged attacker casually riding an escalator while holding a large knife

A young witness currently locked inside a store - said she has heard gunshots and 'blood-curdling' screams

Earlier panicked people were seen running across the pedestrian bridge outside the centre in video posted to social media

'She's screaming really, really loudly. She's running back and forth not knowing what to do.

'Then she comes back to the pram and picks up her baby and there's just blood all over her back.

'The scream was unforgettable, it was the scariest thing I've ever seen.

'My co-worker took me, we locked all the doors, had to turn off all the lights and doors'.

Police  including the Tactical Operations Unit  and ambulances have attended the scene, with people seen screaming and crying out the front of the complex.

Pictures and videos from the incident have been uploaded on X including one photo showing the alleged attacker casually riding an escalator while holding a large knife.

A young witness currently locked inside a store - said she has heard gunshots and 'blood-curdling' screams.

'We are absolutely terrified,' she said.

Earlier panicked people were seen running across the pedestrian bridge outside the centre in video posted to social media.

Others said they were being evacuated from the centre's car park.

Police are attending the scene in numbers and Australian Federal Police are liaising with NSW officials in case the joint counter terrorism team is needed.

Authorities are investigating possible motives for the attack and have warned people not to jump to conclusions.

Footage of the incident showed the attacker running after large crowds of people as others watched on from the floor above.

As the attacker closes in one hero dad turns around to stop the man's and protect his wife and two children.

Another video captured one man armed with a small metal pole trying to fend off the attacker.

The shopper was standing at the top of an escalator threatening to throw the pole at the attacker who was on his way up as the two held their ground.

Eastern suburbs local Ted Helliar posted to X: 'Something just went down at Westfields Bondi junction.'

'We were up there and all of a sudden all these people running towards us. Next thing dozens and dozens of people all running a screaming some bloke yells 'someone is stabbing everyone get out of here'.'

Another person whose friend had a daughter in the complex at the time of the alleged stabbing shared screenshots of her messages online.

'We just heard gunshots,' the daughter texted.

'Get to cover,' her parent replied.

'Please, please be safe.'

Westfield Bondi Junction is in lockdown after the incident on Saturday afternoon

Shoppers trapped inside the complex were desperately messaging their loved ones to let them know they were alright

Another X user said hundreds of shoppers were hiding in the back of the David Jones department store, which had pulled down its shutters with reports a man had been seen running with a gun in the centre.

A police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday afternoon that a major police operation is under way and officers were gathering details at the scene.

State broadcaster ABC reported some people remained trapped inside. Two witnesses told Reuters they heard shots fired.

Witness Roi Huberman, an ABC sound engineer, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident.

People at the scene said there was panic, with shoppers running to safety and police trying to secure the area

Several people took shelter in a supermarket, where they remained for about an hour. The sound of police sirens and helicopters filled the air

State broadcaster ABC reported some people remained trapped inside. Two witnesses told Reuters they heard shots fired

Witness Roi Huberman, an ABC sound engineer, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident

'And suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didn't know what to do,' he said.

'Then the very capable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked.

'She then locked the store and then she then let us through the back and now we are out.'

One witness said: 'Even 20 minutes after people were rushed out of the mall, I saw SWAT teams of people sweeping the surrounding streets.'

Another said they saw a woman lying on the ground and took shelter in a jewellery store.

SWAT teams with rifles were seen accompanying police after the attack

Another witness said they saw a woman lying on the ground and took shelter in a jewellery store

Several posts on social media showed crowds fleeing the mall and police cars and emergency services rushing to the area.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese posted on X just after 6pm on Saturday following the stabbing attack.

'I have been briefed by the AFP on the devastating events at Bondi Junction. Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones,' he said.

'Our hearts go out to those injured and we offer our thanks to those caring for them as well as our brave police and first responders.'

Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, said he is is making 'immediate arrangements' to return to Sydney following the shopping centre stabbings.

He said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter: 'I am horrified to hear about the events at Bondi Junction this afternoon.

'I am making immediate arrangements to return to Sydney.

'I want to thank NSW Police, emergency services and first responders and the community for their bravery in the face of this shocking incident.'
This video is no longer available

This video is no longer available

READ MORE: Mum and baby injured in Bondi Junction stabbing

A hero who rushed to help a mother and nine-month-old baby after they were stabbed by a knifeman at Westfield Bondi Junction has told how he desperately worked to keep the infant alive using store clothes.

A major incident unfolded at the shopping centre in Sydney's eastern suburbs just before 4pm on Saturday afternoon when a knifeman went on a rampage, stabbing nine people - including a child.

Six innocent shoppers were murdered before the killer - who wore a Kangaroos Australian Rugby League jersey - was shot dead by a female police inspector who went in alone to confront him.

The killer is believed to have been acting alone.

Just before 5pm, a witness interrupted a Nine News reporter performing a live cross on the streets and pointed to his brother, saying: 'He's a hero - he saved the baby'.

WATCH VIDEO ABOVE

The two brothers used clothing and shirts from a shop to try and stop the baby's bleeding

The clearly shaken man said he used clothes from a store to try and stem the baby's bleeding.

'The baby got stabbed and, yeah, the mum got stabbed,' he said.

'The mum came over with the baby and threw it at me.

'I just helped by holding the baby ... and trying to compress the baby.'

The brothers stayed with the mother and called emergency services.

'(It was) very bad... a lot of the blood on the floor ... hope the baby's alright,' the other brother said.

The baby's 38-year-old mother, Ash Good, later died in hospital.

Follow Daily Mail Australia's live coverage of the Bondi Junction incident here

Another witness, a worker at the shopping centre, recalled seeing a mother screaming on the level above.

'I see the mother and maybe her partner with a baby in a pram,' she told Nine News.

'She's screaming really, really loudly. She's running back and forth not knowing what to do.

'Then she comes back to the pram and picks up her baby and there's just blood all over her back.

'The scream was unforgettable, it was the scariest thing I've ever seen.

'My co-worker took me, we locked all the doors, had to turn off all the lights and doors'.

Do you know these men? Email tips@dailymail.com
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Six innocent bystanders are dead after they were stabbed in a frenzy by a knifeman at a Sydney shopping centre.

Thousands of shoppers were locked down in shops as the killer ran through Westfield Bondi Junction slashing victims, including a baby, at random on Saturday.

The horror incident unfolded at about 3.30pm when a man dressed in a Kangaroos rugby league jersey stabbed up to nine people before being gunned down by a heroic female police officer.

It is understood at least two people were attacked inside the Chanel boutique, near the make-up and fragrance counter.

The rampage continued with horror footage showing terrified shoppers running for their lives as one brave father jumped into action to defend his family as the deranged killer approached.

Within minutes, social media exploded with terrifying accounts from witnesses, as police including the public order and riot squad, swarmed the eastern suburbs shopping centre, evacuating and locking down the facility.

A video shared by one bystander showed the alleged attacker chasing a group of shoppers before one man turned around to face him

Shoppers trapped inside the complex were desperately messaging their loved ones to let them know they were alright

Shoppers run though Bondi Junction as police lock down the centre following reports of a major incident

Shoppers were evacuated into shop store rooms to escape the killer

Grisly images of the knifeman's aftermath show victims lying in pools of blood.

Shoppers and retail workers caught up in the chaos provided first aid before police and paramedics arrived and whisked victims away to hospital.

All available ambulances were called to the scene.

Heartstopping footage shows the moment a shopper at the top of an escalator armed with a bollard tried to hold off the knifeman.

Victims of the attack were left lying in the mall while police worked to stop the attack

Bloodstains are seen inside a store at the shopping centre

Six shoppers were killed in the stabbing horror at Westfield shopping centre in Bondi Junction

Tactical police prepare to storm the shopping centre

Tactical police are pictured with long-arm weapons

Paramedics are pictured rushing a victim to an ambulance

A victims is seen being placed into an ambulance

Traumatised shoppers, many young families, recounted the horror attack.

One young woman was visibly distraught by what had unfolded.

'It was just like the worst thing ever,' she told reporters.

'Who does that to people?'

She said she saw a woman lying in Chanel, who was understood to have been killed.

'I thought I was going to die,' she said.

During a dramatic live cross on 9News, a witness interrupted and pointed to his brother, saying: 'He's a hero - he saved the baby'.

The clearly shaken hero said he used clothes from a store to try and stem the baby's bleeding.

'The baby got stabbed and, yeah, the mum got stabbed,' he said.

'The mum came over with the baby and threw it at me.

'I just helped by holding the baby... and trying to compress the baby.'

The brothers stayed with the mother and called emergency services.

'(It was) very bad... a lot of the blood on the floor ... hope the baby's alright,' the other brother said.

The injured baby's 38-year-old mother, Ash Good, later died on in hospital.

Among the first attacked were allegedly a woman and her baby (not pictured)

Police are attending the scene in numbers and the Australian Federal Police are now liaising with NSW Police in case the the joint counter terrorism team is needed

Witnesses recalled hearing 'bloodcurdling screams' coming from within the shopping centre

The ordeal eventually came to an end when a heroic female cop leaped into action.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said that as the knifeman moved through the centre, witnesses pointed an inspector in his direction.

'She confronted the offender who had moved by this stage to level five. As she continued to walk quickly behind him to catch up with him,' he said.

'He turned, faced her, raised a knife. She discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased.'

It is understood that after she shot the knifeman dead, she then rushed to provide CPR to one of his victims.

The ordeal eventually came to an end when a heroic female cop leaped into action and shot the knifeman dead (scene pictured)

The female cop who brought down the killer is being hailed a hero

Terrified shoppers are evacuated from the shopping centre

Shoppers are pictured after being evacuated from the scene

An officer is pictured putting up police tape

A stunning video of a father illustrates just how traumatic the scene was.

He was seen escorting his two children away from Bondi Junction Westfield with his son and daughter wearing eye masks to shield them from the horror.

He held both children close to him as he walked calmly away from carnage.

The shopping centre is expected to be locked down for days, with even cars in the carpark set to remain for that time as forensic investigators painstakingly comb the scene for evidence.

A woman cries as she comes out of the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre with her family
Dramatic footage has emerged of a female police inspector racing through a busy shopping centre to single-handedly confront and shoot dead a knifeman who stabbed bystanders in a frenzied attack.

The unnamed officer, who then performed CPR on both injured victims and the killer as she waited for back up to arrive at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney's east, has since been hailed a hero.

Her bravery - and the bravery of other first responders - was even noted by the Prince and Princess of Wales, who issued a statement at about 10pm Sydney time.

'We are shocked and saddened by the terrible events in Sydney earlier today. Our thoughts are with all those affected, including the loved ones of those lost, and the heroic emergency responders who risked their own lives to save others,' they said.

Six shoppers are dead while several others, including a nine-month-old baby, were rushed to hospital following the terrifying rampage on Saturday afternoon.

The senior female police inspector who arrived at the scene within minutes risked her own life by confronting the knifeman alone on the top level of the shopping centre.

Footage shows the officer sprinting through Westfield to the scene to confront the knifeman. Evacuation sirens can be heard blaring in the background.

Two bystanders, one holding a plastic chair, are seen running behind her.

She shot the attacker when he turned towards her and raised his knife.

The hero police officer sprinted through Westfield Bondi Junction to single-handedly confront the knifeman

The female police inspector rushed to the aid of injured victims after she confronted and shot the knifeman dead

Her bravery - and the bravery of other first responders - was even noted by the Prince and Princess of Wales, who issued a statement at about 10pm Sydney time

Posting on their official X account, the couple said: 'We are shocked and saddened by the terrible events in Sydney earlier today'

The officer performed CPR on the man but was unable to revive him.

She then rushed to aid of injured and bloodied bystanders lying inside the nearby Chanel store, where she performed more CPR.

She has since been hailed by a hero by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has since spoken to the officer who is 'doing well under the circumstances'.

'She showed enormous courage and bravery, and she will process obviously that,' Commissioner Webb said.

'She will need to be interviewed formally and so we just talked about that she's OK and that her family's OK.

'She's got everything she needs for the time being, and she will be formally interviewed tomorrow.'

Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke earlier said that the officer engaged immediately on her arrival to the scene.

'The officer was guided to the location of the offender by people who are in the centre, and she took the actions that she did, saving a range of people's lives.'

The police officer (pictured holding down the knifeman) has been hailed a hero by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

Shocked bystanders recalled the officer's heroic actions.

'All she said was "Put it down". Just once,' Jason Dixon said.

'Then she shot him in the chest and he went down.

'When he fell on the ground she was giving him CPR.'

READ MORE: Timeline of how the Westfield Bondi Junction tragedy unfolded The rampage unfolded in front of hundreds of shoppers, including young families Advertisement

Hussein Osseili described how he was in Westfield with his six-year-old sister and grandmother when he heard gunshots and immediately knew what they were.

'I just thought I have to get my family to safety. I told them to leave,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'Then I saw a man with a big hunting knife - about 30cm long on the escalator in front of Woolies.

'He went past Zara and Kmart, he was waving the knife around and stabbing people. He went to level 5 and then I heard more gunshots of the police. My family is all safe luckily.'

Cafe owner Michael Dunkley witnessed the moment the hero cop shot the knifeman.

He recalled the officer telling the man 'drop the knife' before he lunged at her.

'She was put in a situation where she had to do it. She did it so calmly. She was amazing,' Mr Dunkley said.

Mr Albanese held a snap press conference in Canberra to address the tragedy on Saturday night, where he singled out the bravery of the police officer who shot dead the knifeman

'She entered the proceedings that were taking place, obviously very dangerous, by herself,' he said.

'She is certainly a hero.

'There is no doubt that she saved lives through her actions.

'Today is a reminder that those people who wear a uniform are people who rushed to danger, not away from it.

The female inspector confronted the knifeman alone on the top level of the shopping centre and shot him dead

'Today at Bondi Junction was the scene of shocking violence, but it was also witness to the humanity and the heroism of our fellow Australians, our brave police, our first responders and of course, everyday people who could never have imagined that they would face such a moment.'

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission has launched a critical incident has been launched into the police officer's brave actions.

'The NSWPF are investigating the circumstances of the incident and this investigation will be reviewed by the Professional Standards Command,' a statement read.
Tearful shoppers have told how they fled a Sydney knifeman who killed six people and stabbed three others in a horrific shopping centre rampage on the start of the Australian school holidays today.

Four women and one man died at the scene and another woman died in hospital. Other victims critically injured in the attack at Bondi Junction Westfield mall at around 3.30pm local time included a mother and her nine-month-old baby.

The Sydney knifeman was a 40-year-old and his attack is not thought to be terror-related, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said.

The attacker was in the mall at 3pm but left and returned at 3.20pm with a knife. He attacked the mother and child at 3.30pm before police arrived at 3.45pm and the mall was placed under lockdown at 4pm.

Shoppers praised the heroic female police inspector who confronted the knifeman and shot him dead when he lunged at her at the mall in the city's eastern suburbs.

Others told how a brave member of the public helped save the wounded baby whose mother is now fighting for her life.

The knifeman was reportedly shot dead by a female police inspector

The two brothers used clothing and shirts from a shop to try and stop the baby's bleeding

The attacker was seen running in the mall with a knife in his hand

A tearful witness told Sky News: 'I thought I was going to die. Who does that to people?

'I saw a woman lying on the floor. I didn't see [the attacker] properly, I was running. It was insane.'

Meanwhile, the hero who rushed to help a mother and nine-month-old baby after they were stabbed by a knifeman at Westfield Bondi Junction told how he desperately worked to keep the infant alive using store clothes.

A witness interrupted a Nine News reporter performing a live cross in Bondi Junction and pointed to his brother, saying: 'He's a hero - he saved the baby'.

The clearly shaken hero said he used clothes from a store to try and stem the baby's bleeding.

'The baby got stabbed and the mum got stabbed,' he said.

'The mum came over with the baby and threw it at me.

'I just helped by holding the baby... and trying to compress the baby.'

The brothers stayed with the mother and called emergency services.

He was later seen walking up an escalator with a knife in his hand

Shoppers run though Bondi Junction as police lock down the centre following reports of a major incident

The attacker was in the mall at 3pm but left and returned at 3.20pm with a knife. He attacked the mother and child at 3.30pm before police arrived at 3.45pm and the mall was placed under lockdown at 4pm

'(It was) very bad... a lot of the blood on the floor... hope the baby's alright,' the other brother said.

The injured mum had blood coming out of her mouth, he said.

It is understood the baby underwent surgery.

Witnesses said the dark-haired man, wearing a Kangaroos NRL jersey, slashed at least eight shoppers before he was shot by a female police officer. No-one else is being sought by police.

READ MORE: Revealed: How hero female police officer risked her own life confronting knifeman alone before he raised his knife and she shot him dead Advertisement

Another witness, a worker at the shopping centre, recalled seeing a mother screaming on the level above.

'I see a mother and maybe her partner with a baby in a pram,' she told Nine News.

'She's screaming really, really loudly. She's running back and forth not knowing what to do.

'Then she comes back to the pram and picks up her baby and there's just blood all over her back.

'The scream was unforgettable, it was the scariest thing I've ever seen.

'My co-worker took me, we locked all the doors, had to turn off all the lights and doors'.

The Bondi Junction Westfield mall, which was packed with shoppers, went into lockdown just before 4pm local time on Saturday.

The motive was not immediately clear and police have not ruled out terrorism.

Officers have not identified the attacker but believe he acted alone. He was shot and killed by a hero female police officer, who apprehended the knifeman alone after being on patrol nearby.

Multiple other shoppers have been injured in the attack and taken to hospitals across the city.

Bystanders said they had seen multiple people outside the shopping centre with blood on their clothes.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from the shopping centre but some still remain inside, a NSW Ambulance spokesperson said.

The stabbing happened at Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre, which went into lockdown just before 4pm on Saturday

Multiple other shoppers have been injured in the attack, it has been reported

Paramedics have taken two people to hospital in ambulances so far, while bystanders have seen multiple people outside the shopping centre with blood on their clothes

Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police, said: 'A man walked into Westfield at Bondi Junction, he left the centre very shortly after and returned... as he moved through the centre he engaged with about nine people.

'It is clear that during that engagement he caused harm to those people, we believe by stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying.

'Very clearly a range of reports were made on the incident, police attended promptly - a single unit officer, inspector of police, was nearby, attended, [and] went into the centre directed by a range of people.

'She confronted the offender who had moved, by this stage, to level five.

'As she continued to walk quickly behind to catch up with him he turned to face her, raised a knife, she discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased.'

He added: 'I'm advised that there are five victims who are now deceased as a result of the actions of this offender.

'There are more than several other people who have been conveyed to hospital - a number of those are in serious and or critical conditions at this stage and I do not have further information in relation to descriptions of those people.

'I know one of them is a small child.'

It was later confirmed that six people were killed by the knifeman.

Mr Cooke said: 'I am content that there is no continuing threat; our police, as I said, have commenced investigations into the matter which will continue through the evening.

'I do not have details of victims who have been killed by this individual, nor those who have been conveyed to hospital for treatment - so I cannot provide you further information into relation to them, only to say very clearly our hearts go out to all of them, as they do (to) anyone touched by this incident this afternoon.

'I do not have information in relation to the offender - I do not know, at this stage, who he is, you would understand this is quite raw.

'Inquiries are very new and we continue to make attempts to identify the offender in this matter.

'That is it for the moment, in terms of information that I have for you.'

An eyewitness described the police officer shooting the attacker to state broadcaster ABC.

'If she did not shoot him, he would have kept going, he was on the rampage,' said the man, who did not give his name. 'She went over and was giving him CPR. He had a nice big blade on him. He looked like he was on a killing spree.'

A spokesman for New South Wales Ambulance told a press conference: 'Shortly after 3pm today, New South Wales Ambulance received multiple calls for persons stabbed within Westfield Bondi Junction.

'We've responded a total of 40 resources to the scene who remain on scene still. That included a total of four medical teams.

'New South Wales Ambulance assessed and transported eight patients to various hospital facilities across Sydney and assessed a total of six patients who have been deemed deceased on scene.'

Police have cordoned off the shopping centre in Sydney

Shoppers enjoying a day out today were evacuated from the mall

State broadcaster ABC reported some people remained trapped inside. Two witnesses told Reuters they heard shots fired

One witness said: 'Even 20 minutes after people were rushed out of the mall, I saw SWAT teams of people sweeping the surrounding streets'

People at the scene said there was panic, with shoppers running to safety and police trying to secure the area.

Several people took shelter in a supermarket, where they remained for about an hour.

The sound of police sirens and helicopters filled the air.

Security camera footage broadcast by local media showed a man running around the shopping centre with a large knife and injured people lying on the floor.

A tearful witness told Sky News:'Who does that to people? I saw a woman lying on the floor.

'I didn't see him properly, I was running. It was insane. I thought I was going to die.'

Police and ambulance staff rushed to the scene earlier today

Specialist police officers with rifles were seen in the shopping centre

Masked an armed police officers also rushed to the scene

Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police, said: 'A man walked into Westfield at Bondi Junction, he left the centre very shortly after and returned... as he moved through the centre he engaged with about nine people'

He added: 'It is clear that during that engagement he caused harm to those people, we believe by stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying'

Mr Cooke said: 'Very clearly a range of reports were made on the incident, police attended promptly - a single unit officer, inspector of police, was nearby, attended, [and] went into the centre directed by a range of people'

He said: 'She confronted the offender who had moved, by this stage, to level five. 'As she continued to walk quickly behind to catch up with him he turned to face her, raised a knife, she discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased'

He added: 'I'm advised that there are five victims who are now deceased as a result of the actions of this offender.' It was later confirmed that six people were killed by the knifeman

A large police presence has remained at the scene of the fatal stabbing

Police  including the Tactical Operations Unit  and ambulances have attended the scene, with people seen screaming and crying out the front of the complex

Pictures and videos from the incident have been uploaded on X including one photo showing the alleged attacker casually riding an escalator while holding a large knife

A young witness currently locked inside a store - said she has heard gunshots and 'blood-curdling' screams

Earlier panicked people were seen running across the pedestrian bridge outside the centre in video posted to social media

Police  including the Tactical Operations Unit  and ambulances have attended the scene, with people seen screaming and crying out the front of the complex.

Pictures and videos from the incident have been uploaded on X including one photo showing the alleged attacker casually riding an escalator while holding a large knife.

A young witness currently locked inside a store - said she has heard gunshots and 'blood-curdling' screams.

'We are absolutely terrified,' she said.

Earlier panicked people were seen running across the pedestrian bridge outside the centre in video posted to social media.

Others said they were being evacuated from the centre's car park.

Police are attending the scene in numbers and Australian Federal Police are liaising with NSW officials in case the joint counter terrorism team is needed.

Authorities are investigating possible motives for the attack and have warned people not to jump to conclusions.

Footage of the incident showed the attacker running after large crowds of people as others watched on from the floor above.

As the attacker closes in one hero dad turns around to stop the man's and protect his wife and two children.

Another video captured one man armed with a small metal pole trying to fend off the attacker.

The shopper was standing at the top of an escalator threatening to throw the pole at the attacker who was on his way up as the two held their ground.

Eastern suburbs local Ted Helliar posted to X: 'Something just went down at Westfields Bondi junction.'

'We were up there and all of a sudden all these people running towards us. Next thing dozens and dozens of people all running a screaming some bloke yells 'someone is stabbing everyone get out of here'.'

Another person whose friend had a daughter in the complex at the time of the alleged stabbing shared screenshots of her messages online.

'We just heard gunshots,' the daughter texted.

'Get to cover,' her parent replied.

'Please, please be safe.'

Westfield Bondi Junction is in lockdown after the incident on Saturday afternoon

Shoppers trapped inside the complex were desperately messaging their loved ones to let them know they were alright

Another X user said hundreds of shoppers were hiding in the back of the David Jones department store, which had pulled down its shutters with reports a man had been seen running with a gun in the centre.

A police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday afternoon that a major police operation is under way and officers were gathering details at the scene.

State broadcaster ABC reported some people remained trapped inside. Two witnesses told Reuters they heard shots fired.

Witness Roi Huberman, an ABC sound engineer, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident.

People at the scene said there was panic, with shoppers running to safety and police trying to secure the area

Several people took shelter in a supermarket, where they remained for about an hour. The sound of police sirens and helicopters filled the air

State broadcaster ABC reported some people remained trapped inside. Two witnesses told Reuters they heard shots fired

Witness Roi Huberman, an ABC sound engineer, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident

'And suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didn't know what to do,' he said.

'Then the very capable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked.

'She then locked the store and then she then let us through the back and now we are out.'

One witness said: 'Even 20 minutes after people were rushed out of the mall, I saw SWAT teams of people sweeping the surrounding streets.'

Another said they saw a woman lying on the ground and took shelter in a jewellery store.

SWAT teams with rifles were seen accompanying police after the attack

Another witness said they saw a woman lying on the ground and took shelter in a jewellery store

Several posts on social media showed crowds fleeing the mall and police cars and emergency services rushing to the area.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese posted on X just after 6pm on Saturday following the stabbing attack.

'I have been briefed by the AFP on the devastating events at Bondi Junction. Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones,' he said.

'Our hearts go out to those injured and we offer our thanks to those caring for them as well as our brave police and first responders.'

Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, said he is is making 'immediate arrangements' to return to Sydney following the shopping centre stabbings.

He said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter: 'I am horrified to hear about the events at Bondi Junction this afternoon.

'I am making immediate arrangements to return to Sydney.

'I want to thank NSW Police, emergency services and first responders and the community for their bravery in the face of this shocking incident.'
The police officer who confronted and shot dead a knifeman who killed five bystanders at a busy shopping centre and then performed CPR on injured victims has been hailed as a hero by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Five shoppers are dead while four others, including a nine-month-old baby were rushed to hospital following the terrifying rampage at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney's east on Saturday afternoon. A fifth victim has since died in hospital.

A female senior police inspector who arrived at the scene within minutes risked her own life by confronting the knifeman alone on the top level of the shopping centre.

She fatally shot the attacker when he turned towards her and raised his knife.

New South Wales Police Force Commissioner Karen Webb said about the officer: 'She's doing well under the circumstances. She will need to be interviewed formally. She's got everything she needs. She was the first officer on the scene.

'She's a very senior officer.'

The police officer (pictured holding down the knifeman) has been hailed a hero by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

The attacker was seen running in the mall with a knife in his hand

Map showing the location of the attack in Sydney

The officer then performed CPR on the man and when she was unable to revive him rushed to aid of injured bystanders lying outside a nearby store where she performed more CPR.

The hero officer is an inspector in the NSW Police force

'She engaged immediately on her arrival to the scene,' Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters.

'The officer was guided to the location of the offender by people who are in the centre, and she took the actions that she did, saving a range of people's lives.'

Shocked bystanders recalled the officer's heroic actions.

'All she said was 'Put it down'. Just once,' Jason Dixon told reporters.

'Then she shot him in the chest and he went down.

'Then when he fell on the ground she was giving him CPR.'

Hussein Osseili described how he was in Westfield with his six-year-old sister and grandmother when he heard gunshots and immediately knew what they were.

'I just thought I have to get my family to safety. I told them to leave,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'Then I saw a man with a big hunting knife - about 30cm long on the escalator in front of Woolies.

'He went PST Zara and KMart, he was waving the knife around and stabbing people. He went to level 5 and then I heard more gunshots of the police. My family is all safe luckily.'

The stabbing happened at Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre, which went into lockdown just before 4pm on Saturday

Police and ambulance staff rushed to the scene earlier today

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission has launched a critical incident has been launched into the police officer's brave actions.

'The NSWPF are investigating the circumstances of the incident and this investigation will be reviewed by the Professional Standards Command,' a statement read.

Mr Albanese held a snap press conference in Canberra to address the tragedy on Saturday night, where he singled out the bravery of the police officer who shot dead the knifeman

'She entered the proceedings that were taking place, obviously very dangerous, by herself,' she said.

'She is certainly a hero. There is no doubt that she saved lives through her actions.

'Today is a reminder that those people who wear a uniform are people who rushed to danger, not away from it.'

Police have not identified the attacker but believe he acted alone. They have not ruled out terrorism.
This is the shocking moment a brazen car thief stole a luxury vehicle - with a blind and disabled 89-year-old woman still inside.

David Stephenson, 51, sped off in the black SUV with the OAP passenger after her daughter left the car's engine running while she visited some shops.

She had earlier driven her mum, who also had dementia, into Ashton-under-Lyme, Greater Manchester, to run some errands for her on January 6 this year.

The woman left the engine running to keep the heating on in the car so her elderly mother would stay warm for 10 minutes while she popped into the local stores.

But after she left the car briefly with the key in the ignition, Stephenson got behind the wheel and drove off - unphased that he was still carrying a 'terrified' OAP.

David Stephenson of no fixed abode was jailed this week for eight years and six months after being found guilty of kidnap, theft of a motor vehicle, dangerous driving and driving without a license

The footage of Stephenson was taken by Greater Manchester Police who were pursuing him in Aston-Under-Lyme

Police officers pursued Stephenson in a chase through Ashton-under-Lyme, Greater Manchester

Footage revealed how Stephenson took off through Ashton-Under-Lyme town centre at speed and swerved in and out of cars

The video clip also revealed the car owner's frantic call to the police where she told them her elderly mum had been kidnapped.

She said: 'I've gone to the shop to pick some covers up for my mum, and I've come back and my car's gone with my mum.

'Someone's took her. Someone's took my car and my mum. She's disabled and she's blind and she's got dementia.

'My mum in the car - what will they do with her? What will they do with her? What will they do with my mum? Oh my god, what will they do with my mum?'

The footage revealed how Stephenson took off through Ashton town centre at speed and swerved in and out of cars while being chased by multiple police vehicles.

And at one point he even did a U-turn by driving over pavement as he tried to evade the cops - before later going onto the wrong side of the road.

Stephenson got behind the wheel and drove off and appeared to be unphased that he was still carrying a 'terrified' OAP (Pictured: Police chasing him)

He sped off in the black SUV with the passenger after the woman left the car's engine running (Pictured: Stephenson driving the vehicle)

But eventually, he gave up the chase and brought the car to a halt, which allowed police to arrest him.

Thankfully, police confirmed that the elderly woman was then reunited with her daughter.

Stephenson of no fixed abode was jailed this week for 8 years and 6 months after being found guilty of kidnap, theft of motor vehicle, dangerous driving and driving without a license.

And following his sentencing, Chief Inspector Matt Jackson, from Greater Manchester Police, said he was pleased that the elderly woman was left unscathed.

He said: 'This must have been really terrifying for the woman who was in the passenger seat when the car got stolen.

Police confirmed that the elderly woman was then reunited with her daughter after the incident (Pictured: Stephenson driving the car around Aston-under-Lyme)

Eventually, Stephenson gave up the chase and brought the car to a halt, which allowed police to arrest him (Pictured: Officers arresting Stephenson)

'She is blind and has dementia, she wouldn't have known what was going on - I can't even begin to imagine what was going through her mind.

'I am proud of my officers, whose fast thinking and ability to remain calm in any given situation, meant we were able to bring the vehicle to a safe stop, and swiftly arrest Stephenson.

'Their response meant that the woman was safety reunited with her daughter, it could have ended very differently if we didn't work the way we did to get her back safe.'
The odds of Angela Rayner becoming the next leader of the Labour party have drifted amid the tax row over her council house.

The deputy leader was once a 3/1 favourite to succeed Sir Keir Starmer but her odds have dramatically dropped to 41/1 on Saturday morning  down from 29/1 overnight, according to Betfair Exchange.

Eight of her Shadow Cabinet colleagues are now placed more favourably following the police's announcement yesterday it will begin an investigation into whether she broke electoral law over the sale of her council house.

However Starmer welcomed the probe by Greater Manchester Police into how his deputy dealt with the 2015 sale of her council house, saying he was 'fully confident' in his number two.

But Betfair punters appeared less confident in her position in the party.

Angela Rayner's odds of becoming the next leader of the Labour party have dramatically dropped to just 41/1 amid the tax row over her council house

The deputy leader was once 3/1 favourite to succeed Sir Keir Starmer but the fallout over her tax affairs have slashed the odds. Pictured: A general view of the home in Lowndes Lane, Stockport, Greater Manchester (Ms Rayner's ex-partner's property) which is at the centre of the row

The mother of three has insisted that for many years her 'principal property' was the house in Vicarage Road, Stockport (pictured) Ms Rayner sold the house for 127,500 in March 2015, according to property website Zoopla

Andy Burnham is now viewed as Starmer's most-likely successor, with the Mayor of Greater Manchester placed at 7/1.

Who will be the next Labour Leader? Andy Burnham  7/1 Rachel Reeves  9/1 Yvette Cooper  10/1 West Streeting  12/1 Lisa Nandy  14/1 Bridget Phillipson  17/1 Darren Jones  33/1 David Lammy  35/1 Sarah Jones  41/1 Angela Raynor  41/1 Source: Betfair Exchange Advertisement

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves is second with 9/1. Yvette Cooper (10/1), Wes Streeting (12/1), and Lisa Nandy (14/1) are all placed ahead of Rayner.

However despite the grim outlook of public confidence, Labour shadow ministers have suggested the row is overblown.

Jim McMahon defended the mother of three on Saturday after Conservative Party deputy chairman James Daly suggested she may have given false information about her main residence.

He called the investigation a 'storm in a teacup' and rejected suggestions of 'double standards' over her tax affairs.

The former union shop steward was accused of 'double standards' for failing to relinquish her shadow cabinet duties despite having called for Conservatives to resign before due process took place.

The shadow minister for English Devolution & Local Government said it was unfair to compare Ms Rayner's situation to the pandemic-era scandal involving former prime minister Boris Johnson, whom she called on to resign while Scotland Yard probed claims of Covid rule-breaking in Downing Street.

But the Tories have accused her of 'double standards' as she remains in post after Greater Manchester Police (GMP) confirmed it would investigate claims that she may have broken electoral law.

Appearing on Saturday's morning broadcast round, Mr McMahon said 'we can't compare the two situations at all' when asked about parallels being drawn between Ms Rayner's position and Mr Johnson's.

Labour shadow minister Jim McMahon called the investigation a 'storm in a teacup' and rejected suggestions of 'double standards'

Angela Rayner is still facing questions about her property dealings and whether any required tax was paid

Angela Rayner promised to resign if a police probe into her past living arrangements finds she broke the law

'What is frankly quite a minor matter before somebody even became an MP is quite different than the Prime Minister of the country, who's told the country to observe the rules during a global pandemic, where people were dying in vast numbers every single day, where the photo evidence was there, where witness testimony was there, where he misled parliament,' the shadow local government minister told Sky News.

'That is not a comparable situation whatsoever. And so we need to be clear about that.'

READ MORE: The three unanswered questions Angela Rayner faces over her tax affairs as Labour deputy leader says she will QUIT if police find she broke the law over sale of her old council house Advertisement

Speaking to GB News, he said: 'I think a lot of people will see this as a storm in a teacup.'

But after Sir Keir Starmer three times refused to say whether she should quit if found guilty, Ms Rayner vowed she would go if criminality is uncovered.

It comes as Ms Rayner has said she will 'do the right thing and step down' if she is found to have committed a crime in relation to her living situation a decade ago but remains confident she has followed the law at all times.

She has faced scrutiny about whether she paid the right amount of tax on the 2015 sale of her Stockport council house because of confusion over whether it was her principal residence.

Ms Rayner has rejected suggestions in an unauthorised biography by former Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft that she failed to properly declare her main home after buying the property with a 25 per cent discount under the right-to-buy scheme in 2007.

She faces pressure over claims she may have owed capital gains tax on property made from the sale of her home on Vicarage Road in Stockport in March 2015 - and that she may have broken electoral law by registering at the wrong address.

Ms Rayner, since The Mail on Sunday first questioned her living arrangements, has admitted not knowing HMRC's complex rules, leaving open the possibility the couple failed to nominate a primary residence

On Wednesday Ms Rayner was targeted by a Tory-sponsored 'tax dodger' protest as she broke cover on the election campaign trail in the North East

Former party leader Ed Miliband said she was an inspiration and 'exactly the kind of person we need in politics', at an event alongside London mayor Sadiq Khan today.

She said that the house was her main residence when she sold it for 127,500, which would exempt her from paying around 1,500 in tax on the 48,500 she made after buying the building for 79,000 in January 2007.

Conservative Party deputy chairman James Daly is understood to have informed police of neighbours allegedly contradicting Ms Rayner's statement that her property on Vicarage Road, Stockport, was her main home and not her husband's separate address, as some have claimed.

Angela Rayner may have broken three laws in the saga concerning her ex-council house. 1. ELECTORAL REGISTER The central question is where she was living after marrying Mark Rayner in 2010. She was registered to vote at the ex-council house she bought under right to buy in Vicarage Road, Stockport, between 2009 and 2015. And she has said: I owned my own home, lived there, paid the bills there and was registered to vote there, prior to selling the house in 2015. But neighbours say she and her children were really based at her husbands property in nearby Lowndes Lane, and The Mail on Sunday last week uncovered social media posts she made about their life there. Giving false registration information on the electoral register is an offence under the Representation of the People Act 1983. 2. BIRTH CERTIFICATES A related issue is whether or not Ms Rayner recorded the correct address for her children. In 2010, while on the electoral register at her own house in Vicarage Road, she re-registered the births of her two younger children  and wrote on the certificates that she lived in Lowndes Lane. It is an offence under the Perjury Act 1911 to make any false statement with intent to have the same inserted in any register of births or deaths. 3. COUNCIL HOUSE Ms Rayner bought her home in 2007 at a 25 per cent discount and sold it for a 48,500 profit in 2015. But many councils state that in order to benefit from the discount, homeowners cannot vacate the property for several years after purchasing it  including by renting it out. If Ms Rayner was found to have lived at her husbands property she could possibly face charges under the Fraud Act 2006 regarding false representations. It may also have been an offence if she claimed a 25 per cent single occupancy discount on council tax bills. Ms Rayner is facing separate allegations that she may have avoided paying capital gains tax. Advertisement

Ms Rayner, since The Mail on Sunday first questioned her living arrangements, has admitted not knowing HMRC's complex rules, leaving open the possibility the couple failed to nominate a primary residence.

GMP had previously said it would not be investigating the allegations, but following the Bury North MP's complaint, the force confirmed it had reassessed information and launched a probe.

Ms Rayner's husband was listed at another address in Lowndes Lane, about a mile away, which had also been bought under the right-to-buy scheme.

She has denied the accusations and described them as a political smear by the Tories during an election year in which the ruling party is languishing behind Labour in the polls.

But Ms Rayner has refused to publish tax advice she claims exonerates her  and has not shown it to party leader Sir Keir Starmer.

Asked about pressure on the deputy leader to publish tax advice which she says shows she followed the rules, Mr McMahon said: 'My personal view is that we are talking about in this situation matter was before somebody became a Member of Parliament, let alone before somebody becomes potentially the Deputy Prime Minister of the country.'

He added: 'You don't get many Conservative MPs, in fact, I can't think of anyone who welcome a police investigation because we want to draw a line under it and move on we don't get many Tory MPs who say if there is wrongdoing found, then they will take the appropriate action and to step aside, you don't hear Conservatives saying that, and that's why this is chalk and cheese.'

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed the police investigation into Ms Rayner's living arrangements and said he had 'full confidence' that she had not broken the rules.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer yesterday declined to say three times whether Ms Rayner should resign if police find that she did break the law.

In a stony-faced interview with broadcasters he said: 'I am fully confident that Angela Rayner has not broken the rules.

'She will cooperate with the investigation as you would expect and it is really a matter for the police.'

Meanwhile other senior Labour frontbenchers rallied around her. Former party leader Ed Miliband said she was an inspiration and 'exactly the kind of person we need in politics'.

But Defence Secretary Grant Shapps accused her of 'double standards' and insisted it was 'not acceptable to ignore it'.

He told reporters: 'I think the double standards have been extraordinary, Angela Rayner herself has spent her political career calling people out for exactly the thing she seems to be doing now.

Angela Rayner with Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer. The confusion over Ms Rayner's home address is significant because under electoral rules, voters are expected to register at their permanent home address

Angela Rayner speaking at the Labour Party deputy leadership hustings on the stage at SEC in Glasgow on February 15, 2020 in Glasgow, Scotland

'It's not acceptable to ignore it and it's not acceptable for Keir Starmer to say he won't even read reports into it.'

And former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: 'With politicians like Angela Rayner who constantly call for others to resign or step down, the old rule is people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.'

READ MORE: Pressure grows on Angela Rayner to quit as Labour deputy leader over housing row police probe - as Keir Starmer refuses three times to say if she should step down if found to have broken election laws Advertisement

In January 2022, while Mr Johnson faced accusations that lockdown rules had been broken in Downing Street, Ms Rayner tweeted: 'Boris Johnson's Downing Street is under police investigation, how on earth can he think he can stay on as Prime Minister?...Disgraceful.'

This week it also emerged that during a by-election in 2021 she wrote to then Tory party chairman Dame Amanda Milling, asking her to publish Conservative candidate Jill Mortimer's tax return. This was due to the Hartlepool candidate's husband spending time in the Cayman Islands.

She has also demanded that Rishi Sunak's wife, Akshata Murty, answer detailed questions about her tax affairs.

Sam Rosbottom, Betfair spokesperson, said: 'The dramatic drop in Angela Rayner's odds on becoming the next Labour leader shows a real change of faith in Labour's outspoken deputy.

'Betfair Exchange punters are clearly having their doubts about her position in the party, and the role she may play in its future.'

Ms Rayner insists she has received independent tax advice clearing her of any wrongdoing over the sale of the Stockport house. A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: 'We're investigating whether any offences have been committed.'
Internal Revenue Service's taxpayer assistance center is seen off of South Gessner Drive, Saturday, April 13, 2024, in Houston. Peter Warren/Staff reporter FILE - A sign outside the Internal Revenue Service building is seen, May 4, 2021, in Washington. The IRS has announced Jan. 29 as the official start date of the 2024 tax season, and expects more than 128.7 million tax returns to be filed by the April 15 tax deadline. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File) Patrick Semansky/Associated Press

Hundreds of people who had lined up outside the Houston IRS office for tax help Saturday were told the office had closed unexpectedly because of a fight between two people in line, leaving little recourse for those who'd made significant investments of time and money unable to interact with IRS employees.

Houston police were called to Alliance Tower, 8701 S. Gessner Road, about 9:20 a.m. Saturday to assist with dispersing an unruly crowd and to investigate a report of people fighting in line, which prompted the office to close unexpectedly, leaving people from as far away as Louisiana unable to receive tax help.

"Everybody got to suffer for them two that had the fight," said Kanika Allen, who was among those who lined up only to be turned away. "That's not right."

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Fox 26 reported there had been disgruntled taxpayers assaulting IRS employees, but a police spokesman said those claims could not be substantiated. The police representative said he did not know the origin of reports that federal employees had been attacked. People who witnessed the incident told the Houston Chronicle the fight occurred between people waiting to enter the IRS office and no employees were targeted.

The line of taxpayers had formed as early as 4 a.m. for the IRS' last face-to-face event before Tax Day, Monday. The occasional Saturday events, held once a month in February, March, April and May, are meant to help taxpayers address any problems or concerns they may have and to do so without an appointment. As such, long lines can quickly form as hopefuls to try to snag a spot.

One person in line who was counting on some assistance was a woman who told the Houston Chronicle she had taken a bus more than 200 miles, specifically to talk to an IRS employee in person. Shanita Alexander from Lafayette, La., took a bus that left after midnight, allowing her to get in line about 7 a.m. but she was ultimately unable to speak with anyone.

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"Everyone saw it was people fighting," said Laura Weishiemer, who didn't witness the fight but talked with people about what happened after she arrived. "No employees were touched."

The office on S. Gessner Road was the lone IRS office in the area open Saturday for the walk-in service. The next closest location was in Austin.

The IRS said in a statement that it is "committed" to helping the people who were turned away Saturday.

"For people we couldnt serve in person, we are collecting names and numbers when possible so an IRS representative can call them back," the IRS said. "To further assist taxpayers in the Houston area, we will be taking special steps to help on Monday and throughout the week. We will be working to fully staff our offices next week and adding more people to help on our phone lines."

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A father seen escorting his two kids away from the scene of a mass stabbing has been hailed for his quick thinking which made sure his children didn't witness the carnage.

Police were called to Westfield shopping centre in Sydney's Bondi Junction after reports that a man with a knife was stabbing shoppers at 3.30pm on Saturday.

Witnesses say the dark-haired, bearded man chased and slashed at shoppers as he went on a wild rampage killing six and injuring seven before he was shot dead by police.

Camera crews at the scene showed the father and his two young children wearing eye masks.

The small detail was noticed by a woman on X who called the move 'bloody amazing'.

A dad has been hailed a hero for putting eyemasks on his children so that they did not see NSW police responding to a mass-stabbing

Police were called to Westfield in Sydney's Bondi Junction at 3:30pm on Saturday after reports of a man stabbing shoppers

Six shoppers were killed in the attack and seven others, including a baby, were injured

'That man covered their eyes so they wouldnt see the horrors of what has just happened,' she wrote.

The man held both children close to him as he walked calmly away from the shopping centre.

Many shoppers have been left traumatised after seeing victims lying in pools of blood.

Among the dead is Sydney mother Ash Good, 38, who threw her injured infant o a bystander in a bid to save her life.

The baby is undergoing surgery and it is believed that the the two were the first to be targeted by the alleged attacker.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said that the alleged attacker was confronted by a lone female officer on the fifth level of the complex.

'She confronted the offender who had moved by this stage to level five. As she continued to walk quickly behind him to catch up with him,' Commissioner Cooke said.

'He turned, faced her, raised a knife. She discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased.'

The alleged attacker was shot dead by a lone policewoman as the injured were rushed to hospitals

Shoppers inside the complex at the time of the incident said they feared for their lives while the knifeman was on the lose

Police  including the Tactical Operations Unit  and ambulances attended the scene, with people seen screaming and crying out the front of the shopping centre.

The alleged attacker was wearing a green and gold ARL Australia Jersey while casually holding a knife at his side when witnesses claim he started chasing them.

Pictures and videos from the incident have been uploaded on X including one photo showing the alleged attacker casually riding an escalator while holding a large knife.

One photo showed one of the victims of the attack lying in a pool of blood behind a glass door.

A NSW Ambulance spokesperson said that 40 resources were sent to assist at the scene.

'NSW ambulance assisted in transporting eight patients to various hospital facilities across Sydney, and assessed a total of six patients who had been deemed injured on the scene,' they said.

A young witness who was locked inside a store said she heard gunshots and 'blood-curdling' screams while the attack was underway.

'We are absolutely terrified,' she said.

Pictures and videos of the incident have been shared online showing the bearded man wearing an ARL jersey running around the shopping complex allegedly slashing innocent bystanders
The man who fatally stabbed six shoppers before he was shot dead by a hero officer officer in a busy shopping centre was known to police.

Five women and a man were killed in the terrifying rampage at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney's east on Saturday by the man who acted alone in what appears to be a random attack.

Eight others were rushed to hospital with stab wounds including a nine-month-old baby.

A female police inspector single-handedly confronted and shot dead the knifeman, who was wearing an Australian Kangaroos rugby league jersey, dark shorts, black ankle socks and trainers.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb revealed on Saturday night that the bearded dark-haired man, 40, was known to law enforcement.

Police are yet to formally identify the 40-year-old man who stabbed six people to death before he was shot dead

The incident has been ruled out as terrorism related. Pictured is NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb addressing media

READ MORE: Timeline of how the Westfield Bondi Junction tragedy unfolded The rampage unfolded in front of hundreds of shoppers, including young families Advertisement

'We are waiting to formally identify him and we cannot speculate yet on his identification,' she said.

'But let me assure you that we are confident that there's no ongoing risk and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased.'

Police are yet to determine a motive but it has been ruled out as terrorism incident.

'We know a little bit about this person, but we're waiting to confirm his identification,' Commissioner Webb said.

'And if in fact it is the person that we believe it is, then we don't have fears for that person holding an ideation.

'In other words, that it's not a terrorism incident.'

Six shoppers were stabbed to death, including 38-year-old mother Dr Ash Good, whose nine-month-old baby daughter was also injured.

Eight others remain in hospital in various conditions.

The shopping centre has been closed and will remain shut on Sunday.

Witnesses say the frenzied attacker slashed at shoppers with his 30cm hunting knife as he went on a wild rampage throughout the centre.

He died in a hail of gunfire after he was shot by the lone female police inspector who ran through the shopping centre to confront him and stop his murderous rampage.

Shocked bystanders recalled the officer's heroic actions.

'All she said was "put it down". Just once,' witness Jason Dixon said.

'Then she shot him in the chest and he went down.

'Then when he fell on the ground she was giving him CPR.'

Hussein Osseili described how he was in the shopping centre with his six-year-old sister and grandmother when he heard gunshots and immediately knew what they were.

'I just thought I have to get my family to safety. I told them to leave,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'Then I saw a man with a big hunting knife - about 30cm long on the escalator in front of Woolies.

'He went past Zara and Kmart, he was waving the knife around and stabbing people. He went to level five and then I heard more gunshots of the police. My family is all safe luckily.'

Bondi Rescue star Andrew Reid was also among bystanders who raced to help the injured.

'There was a lady and there was just blood everywhere,' Reid told Nine News.

'I realised I had to go and help because that's what we're trained to do as lifeguards.'

He and two other members of the public gave the woman first aid, along with police officers.

'I have never seen so much blood... We were just looking for wounds, trying to stem the bleeding,' Reid said.

'As I looked up, there were just multiple victims, about 50m apart. The lady next to us was in a really bad way - there were others working on her.'
A Broadmoor nurse who had sex with a gangster patient who shot a man in the neck, has been spared jail after a judge heard of her 'isolated social life.'

Katie Stinchcombe was caught having an improper relationship with a patient at the top security hospital in 2020 after she seen on CCTV waiting in a corridor before joining the patient in a cupboard.

A prosecutor told how the 38-year-old had relations with the psychotic detainee and regularly broke regulations by speaking to him on a mobile phone.

Stinchcombe was ordered to complete 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and will be on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.

The court heard that since the accusation against her, life at home became difficult with her coercive partne, who has since left her and their two children.

Katie Stinchcombe was caught having an improper relationship with a patient at the top security hospital in 2020 after she seen on CCTV waiting in a corridor before joining the patient in a cupboard

A prosecutor told how the 38-year-old had relations with the psychotic detainee and regularly broke regulations by speaking to him on a mobile phone

Judge Amjad Nawaz, sitting at Reading Crown Court on Friday, said that Stinchcombe, a health care facilitator at Broadmoor was 'effectively a nurse' at the high security hospital.

He heard that Stinchcombe began an intimate relationship with a mentally-ill patient - communicating with the victim by telephone and disclosing to the victim confidential information concerning other patients.

The defendant sat crying in the dock in court as the judge was told that on September 19, 2020, she had sexual relations with the patient victim.

The court heard that Stinchcombe began working at Broadmoor Hospital when she was around 21 years old.

Prosecutor Charles Ward-Jackson told the court that the patient involved had been transferred from HMP Belmarsh and was serving a sentence for attempted murder - having shot someone in the neck.

He told the judge that Stinchcombe had begun an inappropriate relationship with the schizophrenic man who had gangland affiliations. She communicated by telephone with the patient and discussed restricted patient information from the hospital with him. Stinchcombe broke rules by telling the patient which prisons eight patients were being transferred to.

Mr Ward-Jackson said that telephone tracking was the key to discovering the illicit relationship.

Judge Amjad Nawaz, sitting at Reading Crown Court (pictured) on Friday, said that Stinchcombe, a health care facilitator at Broadmoor was 'effectively a nurse' at the high security hospital

The prosecutor told the judge that Stinchcombe, who has since found alternative employment in care, was working as a healthcare facilitator - on a ward specifically set aside for patients transferred from prisons for psychiatric assessment.

He said: 'Whilst on the ward the man developed a friendship with Stinchcombe. Another staff member noticed the inappropriate friendship and she alerted management at the top security hospital.'

Once the victim had transferred back to HMP Belmarsh, he tracked Stinchcombe down on Facebook and contacted her. The court heard that according to the defendant, she was initially reluctant to communicate but the prisoner persuaded her to do so over the phone.

Between November 10 and November 22 2020, they spoke a total of 42 times on the phone, with the conversations often being sexual. They also spoke regularly online via Skype.

Mr Ward-Jackson told of the sexual relations between the defendant and the victim, referring to CCTV on the ward.

He said: 'On September 19, 2020 at about 7:30pm, Stinchcombe can be seen on her own in a corridor heading towards room 110 - a patient property room where it is assumed the defendant was waiting.

'Some two minutes later she reappeared. I think it is accepted by the defendant that that is the occasion of that activity.'

Kate Chidgey, defence counsel representing Stinchcombe, asked the judge to suspend any custodial sentence he might impose.

Referring to the phone conversations, Ms Chidgey said: 'In my submission the harm caused, or intended to be caused, was in this case low - so far as anything that may have happened with the information that was exchanged.

'There is no evidence that anything nefarious came of it.'

The court heard that at the time of the offences, the defendant, of Merryman Drive, Crowthorne, Berkshire, was working night shifts and overtime whilst her partner at the time, was not working. She was also home-schooling her two children, who were aged nine years and 12 years at the time.

The judge also heard that the relationship with her partner at the time had elements of 'control and coercion.'

Ms Chidgey added: 'She was completely socially isolated, trying to support her family socially and financially.

The judge heard that Stinchcombe, who suffers from depression, now lives alone with her two children - who are now aged 12 and 15 years.

'All of these factors make this a case that is truly exceptional,' submitted the defence barrister.

'She is very, very sorry... since then she has done absolutely everything she could to prepare her family for this and to support her family.'

The barrister said that these factors were 'an explanation, not an excuse.'

Judge Nawaz said: 'She was in the position of effectively a nurse - a healthcare facilitator at Broadmoor Hospital particularly in the Sandown ward of that institution.

He added: 'I have not seen any evidence that there has been any trouble with her from working in that institution for that many number of years. She is somebody who is of exemplary good character.

'She has expressed her remorse, which I find to be genuine, because when she was spoken to by the authorities (at the hospital) she more or less admitted what she had done.

'Her partner had taken on debts and was not working. She was saddled with being the breadwinner and was looking after two children.

'Her personal life was impacted by the controlling and coercive behaviour of her partner... witnessed by others.

'In my judgement, those factors do amount to exceptional circumstances.'

He concluded that the offences were short-lived. There was no evidence of Stinchcombe gaining anything from the offending and no evidence of damage to the institution or prison system itself in her offending.

For one count of misconduct in a judicial or public office, contrary to common law between September 18, 2020 and November 23, 2020, Stinchcombe received 12 months custody.

For one count of sexual activity with a person with a mental-disorder by a care worker on September 19, 2020, the defendant received nine months custody - to run concurrently.

The sentence was suspended for 18 months.

Stinchcombe will have to complete 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and will be on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.
Baby undergoing surgery as a man is hailed a hero for guarding the tiny girl

Ash Good, 38, was among the six shoppers killed at Sydney's Bondi Westfield

A new mother stabbed to death in the Sydney shopping centre knife rampage has been pictured for the first time.

Ash Good, 38, was among the six shoppers at Sydney's Bondi Junction Westfield who were killed today, when a man, 40, dressed in a rugby league jersey, went on a stabbing rampage about 3.20pm before a female police officer shot him dead.

A total of nine people, including Ms Good's nine-month-old baby Harriet, suffered knife wounds. The infant is fighting for her life after being rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.

Just hours before the horror unfolded, Ms Good posted a photo to Instagram with her daughter in her arms.

'Only because I was walking past and happened to be wearing the same thing 9 months out vs 9 months in etc etc,' the caption read.

A first-time mother stabbed to death in the Sydney shopping centre knife rampage has been pictured for the first time. Just hours before the horror unfolded, Ms Good posted a photo to Instagram with her daughter Harriet in her arms

The attacker was seen running in the mall with a knife in his hand - moments before he was shot dead by a patrolling police officer

The two brothers used clothing and shirts from a shop to try and stop the baby's bleeding

The King and Queen have issued a statement condemning the attacks in Australia - saying they were 'utterly shocked and horrified'

She also posted a short video of her daughter sitting in a car seat with the Temptations song My Girl overlayed.

The knifeman, who killed five women and one man during a rampage in Sydney today, was 'known to police'.

Six people were killed and three more stabbed during the horrific attack in that left multiple people critically injured.

But one man was hailed a hero for rushing to aid Ms Good and her baby as he told how he desperately worked to keep the infant alive using store clothes.

A witness interrupted a Nine News reporter at the scene in Bondi Junction and pointed to his brother, saying: 'He's a hero - he saved the baby'.

The clearly shaken man said he used clothes from a store to try and stem the baby's bleeding.

'The baby got stabbed and, yeah, the mum got stabbed,' he said.

'The mum came over with the baby and threw it at me. I just helped by holding the baby... and trying to compress the baby('s wounds).'

The brothers stayed with the mother and called emergency services.

'(It was) very bad... a lot of the blood on the floor ... hope the baby's alright,' the other brother said.

The injured mum had blood coming out of her mouth, he said.

Another witness, a worker at the shopping centre, recalled seeing a mother screaming on the level above.

'I see a mother and maybe her partner with a baby in a pram,' she told Nine News.

'She's screaming really, really loudly. She's running back and forth not knowing what to do.

'Then she comes back to the pram and picks up her baby and there's just blood all over her back.

'The scream was unforgettable, it was the scariest thing I've ever seen.

'My co-worker took me, we locked all the doors, had to turn off all the lights and doors'.

Four women and one man died at the scene and another woman died in hospital.

New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb told a press conference: 'Later this evening we became aware of who we believe the offender is and we believe that he is a 40-year-old man.

'However, we are waiting to formally identify him and we cannot speculate yet on his identification.

'But let me assure you that we are confident that there is no ongoing risk and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased.'

She added: 'If in fact it is the person that we believe it is, then we don't have fears for that person holding an ideation - in other words, that it's not a terrorism incident.

'He is known to law enforcement but we are waiting to identify him formally.'

The knifeman who killed five women and one man during a rampage in Sydney today was 'known to police'

The knifeman was reportedly shot dead by a female police officer who was on patrol nearby

The attacker was in the mall at 3pm but left and returned at 3.20pm with a knife. He attacked the mother and child at 3.30pm before police arrived at 3.45pm and the mall was placed under lockdown at 4pm

Speaking about the heroic cop, Commissioner Webb said she was 'doing well under the circumstances'.

Webb added: 'She showed enormous courage and bravery we just talked [and] she's OK, her family is OK. She's got everything she needs for the time being.'

The officer will be interviewed formally tomorrow about what happened.

READ MORE: How hero female cop risked her own life by confronting knifeman before she shot him dead Advertisement

The baby is being treated at Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick. Another victim was rushed to St George Hospital and someone else to Royal North Shore Hospital.

Three were taken to St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst and two more to the Royal Prince Alfred in Camperdown.

Bystanders said they had seen multiple people outside the shopping centre in the city's eastern suburbs with blood on their clothes.

Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police, said: 'A man walked into Westfield at Bondi Junction, he left the centre very shortly after and returned... as he moved through the centre he engaged with about nine people.

'It is clear that during that engagement he caused harm to those people, we believe by stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying.

'Very clearly a range of reports were made on the incident, police attended promptly - a single unit officer, inspector of police, was nearby, attended, [and] went into the centre directed by a range of people.

'She confronted the offender who had moved, by this stage, to level five.

'As she continued to walk quickly behind to catch up with him he turned to face her, raised a knife, she discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased.'

He added: 'I'm advised that there are five victims who are now deceased as a result of the actions of this offender.

'There are more than several other people who have been conveyed to hospital - a number of those are in serious and or critical conditions at this stage and I do not have further information in relation to descriptions of those people.

'I know one of them is a small child.'

It was later confirmed that six people died in the attack.

Mr Cooke said: 'I am content that there is no continuing threat; our police, as I said, have commenced investigations into the matter which will continue through the evening.

'I do not have details of victims who have been killed by this individual, nor those who have been conveyed to hospital for treatment - so I cannot provide you further information into relation to them, only to say very clearly our hearts go out to all of them, as they do (to) anyone touched by this incident this afternoon.

'I do not have information in relation to the offender - I do not know, at this stage, who he is, you would understand this is quite raw.

'Inquiries are very new and we continue to make attempts to identify the offender in this matter.

'That is it for the moment, in terms of information that I have for you.'

The shopping centre has been locked down following the attack, which killed six people

Streets in Sydney's Bondi Junction area remain cordoned off as local police make enquiries

Shoppers run though Bondi Junction as police lock down the centre after the attack unfolded

The Prince and Princess of Wales said they were 'shocked and saddened', adding that their thoughts are with those affected and the 'heroic emergency responders who risked their own lives to save others'

The stabbing happened at Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre, which went into lockdown just before 4pm on Saturday

A man who witnessed the attacker stab a woman in her stomach as he ran out of the shopping centre with his girlfriend said he felt 'powerless' as he saw the knifeman 'taking the life of someone else and wasn't able to do anything'.

Carlos Ferras, 32, told the PA news agency: 'I was in the shopping mall with my girlfriend when, very near the entrance, suddenly a crowd came in running.

'I started looking into the crowd trying to understand the commotion and very soon realised there was a guy following them with a quite long knife.

READ MORE: Tearful shoppers tell how they fled Sydney knifeman - and praise hero who helped save wounded baby Advertisement

'At that point my girl pulled me to run into the mall, but I noticed we would be running in parallel to the attacker, as at that point he was literally next to us on the other side of the corridor.

'The guy seemed focused on going forward so he didn't notice us.'

Mr Ferras, a software engineer based in Sydney, continued: 'I took my girl and led her towards the mall entrance while keeping an eye on the guy and it was at that moment that I saw him stabbing a lady  he pretty much stuck the full knife into her stomach.

'We made it out but outside was as crazy as inside, people running in all directions.

'In the moment we didn't know how many attackers (there were) or anything else so we stayed vigilant and went to one of the parking exits hoping to get inside and get our car.

'Feelings are hard to describe during a situation like that. I would say I was definitely in alert, scared and worried of course, mostly about the uncertainty of not knowing how many attackers or if it was finishedI felt powerless, I had the guy in front me, alone, saw him taking the life of someone else, and wasn't able to do anything.'

A supervisor of a luggage store in the shopping centre said he witnessed the attacker stab a woman and saw the bodies of four people on the ground, including two security guards.

Yohan Francois Philip, 29, told PA he stayed inside the store with several colleagues and customers as 'a growing movement of around 50-ish' ran past, before a woman approaching the shop, 'banged on the door and said "let me in".

'As I was letting her in, the perpetrator fell behind her with a knife and I saw him and so did the other customers in the store locked in with us and so we quickly pulled her in, locked the door, he got up and we realised he just stabbed two security guards.

'Then he ran across, to the corner part of the luggage store, to the premium section, and he stabbed a woman which I saw happen right in front of me.'

Mr Philips, who also works as a lawyer, continued: 'There was a nurse in the store who was adamant she wanted to leave and helpshe wanted to go help the security guard and I said "I don't know what's going to happen if I open this door" but on her decision I let her out.

'We were still locked in the store at that point... so we waited and waited until we had further instruction. The sirens are going off at that point.

'We've got a view of the back of our store onto the public street and we saw people running out of the store and then later on we saw ambulances and cops and bodies, people being wheeled out.'

Multiple other shoppers have been injured in the attack, it has been reported

Paramedics have taken two people to hospital in ambulances so far, while bystanders have seen multiple people outside the shopping centre with blood on their clothes

Police have cordoned off the shopping centre in Sydney

Shoppers enjoying a day out today were evacuated from the mall

State broadcaster ABC reported some people remained trapped inside. Two witnesses told Reuters they heard shots fired

One witness said: 'Even 20 minutes after people were rushed out of the mall, I saw SWAT teams of people sweeping the surrounding streets'

As he was eventually escorted outside by police officers, he 'counted four bodies' on the ground in the shopping centre and witnessed the baby that was attacked during the stabbing spree being wheeled out of the building, he said.

Commissioner Reece Kershaw said Australia's Federal Police would support New South Wales Police as they investigated the attack.

He said: 'The AFP has deployed AFP members to the crime scene and we've offered our full specialist capabilities such as digital forensics,' he said.

'It is too early to determine a motive and it would be unhelpful to speculate.'

An eyewitness described the police officer shooting the attacker to state broadcaster ABC.

'If she did not shoot him, he would have kept going, he was on the rampage,' said the man, who did not give his name. 'She went over and was giving him CPR. He had a nice big blade on him. He looked like he was on a killing spree.'

A spokesman for New South Wales Ambulance told a press conference: 'Shortly after 3pm today, New South Wales Ambulance received multiple calls for persons stabbed within Westfield Bondi Junction.

'We've responded a total of 40 resources to the scene who remain on scene still. That included a total of four medical teams.

'New South Wales Ambulance assessed and transported eight patients to various hospital facilities across Sydney and assessed a total of six patients who have been deemed deceased on scene.'

After the stabbings, King Charles and Queen Camilla said they were 'utterly shocked and horrified' by the 'senseless attack' in Sydney and their 'hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who have been so brutally killed'.

The Prince and Princess of Wales said they were 'shocked and saddened', adding that their thoughts are with those affected and the 'heroic emergency responders who risked their own lives to save others'.

People at the scene said there was panic, with shoppers running to safety and police trying to secure the area.

Police and ambulance staff rushed to the scene earlier today

Specialist police officers with rifles were seen in the shopping centre

Masked an armed police officers also rushed to the scene

Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police, said: 'A man walked into Westfield at Bondi Junction, he left the centre very shortly after and returned... as he moved through the centre he engaged with about nine people'

He added: 'It is clear that during that engagement he caused harm to those people, we believe by stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying'

Mr Cooke said: 'Very clearly a range of reports were made on the incident, police attended promptly - a single unit officer, inspector of police, was nearby, attended, [and] went into the centre directed by a range of people'

A large police presence has remained at the scene of the fatal stabbing

Several people took shelter in a supermarket, where they remained for about an hour.

The sound of police sirens and helicopters filled the air.

Security camera footage broadcast by local media showed a man running around the shopping centre with a large knife and injured people lying on the floor.

A tearful witness told Sky News: 'Who does that to people? I saw a woman lying on the floor.

'I didn't see him properly, I was running. It was insane. I thought I was going to die.'

Witnesses said the dark-haired man, wearing a Kangaroos NRL jersey, slashed at least eight shoppers before he was shot by a female police officer. No-one else is being sought by police.

Police  including the Tactical Operations Unit  and ambulances have attended the scene, with people seen screaming and crying out the front of the complex.

Pictures and videos from the incident have been uploaded on X including one photo showing the alleged attacker casually riding an escalator while holding a large knife.

A young witness currently locked inside a store - said she has heard gunshots and 'blood-curdling' screams.

'We are absolutely terrified,' she said.

Earlier panicked people were seen running across the pedestrian bridge outside the centre in video posted to social media.

Others said they were being evacuated from the centre's car park.

Police  including the Tactical Operations Unit  and ambulances have attended the scene, with people seen screaming and crying out the front of the complex

Pictures and videos from the incident have been uploaded on X including one photo showing the alleged attacker casually riding an escalator while holding a large knife

A young witness currently locked inside a store - said she has heard gunshots and 'blood-curdling' screams

Earlier panicked people were seen running across the pedestrian bridge outside the centre in video posted to social media

Police are attending the scene in numbers and Australian Federal Police are liaising with NSW officials in case the joint counter terrorism team is needed.

Authorities are investigating possible motives for the attack and have warned people not to jump to conclusions.

Footage of the incident showed the attacker running after large crowds of people as others watched on from the floor above.

As the attacker closes in one hero dad turns around to stop the man's and protect his wife and two children.

Another video captured one man armed with a small metal pole trying to fend off the attacker.

The shopper was standing at the top of an escalator threatening to throw the pole at the attacker who was on his way up as the two held their ground.

Eastern suburbs local Ted Helliar posted to X: 'Something just went down at Westfields Bondi junction.'

'We were up there and all of a sudden all these people running towards us. Next thing dozens and dozens of people all running a screaming some bloke yells 'someone is stabbing everyone get out of here'.'

Another person whose friend had a daughter in the complex at the time of the alleged stabbing shared screenshots of her messages online.

'We just heard gunshots,' the daughter texted.

'Get to cover,' her parent replied. 'Please, please be safe.'

Westfield Bondi Junction is in lockdown after the incident on Saturday afternoon

Shoppers trapped inside the complex were desperately messaging their loved ones to let them know they were alright

Another X user said hundreds of shoppers were hiding in the back of the David Jones department store, which had pulled down its shutters with reports a man had been seen running with a gun in the centre.

A police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday afternoon that a major police operation is under way and officers were gathering details at the scene.

State broadcaster ABC reported some people remained trapped inside. Two witnesses told Reuters they heard shots fired.

Witness Roi Huberman, an ABC sound engineer, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident.

'And suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didn't know what to do,' he said.

'Then the very capable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked.

'She then locked the store and then she then let us through the back and now we are out.'

One witness said: 'Even 20 minutes after people were rushed out of the mall, I saw SWAT teams of people sweeping the surrounding streets.'

Another said they saw a woman lying on the ground and took shelter in a jewellery store.

People at the scene said there was panic, with shoppers running to safety and police trying to secure the area

Several people took shelter in a supermarket, where they remained for about an hour. The sound of police sirens and helicopters filled the air

Witness Roi Huberman, an ABC sound engineer, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident

SWAT teams with rifles were seen accompanying police after the attack

Another witness said they saw a woman lying on the ground and took shelter in a jewellery store

Several posts on social media showed crowds fleeing the mall and police cars and emergency services rushing to the area.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese posted on X just after 6pm on Saturday following the stabbing attack.

'I have been briefed by the AFP on the devastating events at Bondi Junction. Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones,' he said.

'Our hearts go out to those injured and we offer our thanks to those caring for them as well as our brave police and first responders.'

Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, said he is is making 'immediate arrangements' to return to Sydney following the shopping centre stabbings.

He said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter: 'I am horrified to hear about the events at Bondi Junction this afternoon.

'I am making immediate arrangements to return to Sydney.

'I want to thank NSW Police, emergency services and first responders and the community for their bravery in the face of this shocking incident.'
Horrified neighbours living in the street where the remains of a dead baby were discovered at a house in Wigan have spoken of their shock.

Investigations are underway at a home on Marsh Green following the grim find after officers were called to the address over reports of a 'concern for welfare' at the property.

Greater Manchester Police had reportedly been on the scene for a number of days before they announced the discovery of the human remains.

All five arrested people - aged between 20 and 70 - have been released on bail pending further enquires.

Neighbours described the news as 'horrible'. Speaking from the scene on Saturday afternoon, one person said: 'I've lived here for seven years and I've never seen anything like this happen. We've got kids. It's horrible.'

Human remains of a baby have been found at a house in Wigan - with police arresting five people over the 'truly heart-breaking discovery'

Greater Manchester Police had reportedly been on the scene for a number of days before they announced the discovery

Police and forensic officers seen entering the house on Marsh Green road in Wigan

One resident said police had been on the scene on Marsh Green since Wednesday. Crime scene investigators have reportedly been on the scene every day since.

This afternoon, forensic officers have been spotted going in and out of the home. Items are being collected from inside and from bins and are being thrown into a skip.

A police scene is also in place on Valley Road in Pemberton, a Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said.

Another neighbour said: 'Of all the places for this to happen, you don't expect it right on your doorstep.'

One resident said police had been on the scene on Marsh Green since Wednesday. Crime scene investigators have reportedly been on the scene every day since.

This afternoon, forensic officers have been spotted going in and out of the home. Items are being collected from inside and from bins and are being thrown into a skip.

A police scene is also in place on Valley Road in Pemberton, a Greater Manchester Police spokesperson said.

In a statement, a GMP spokesperson said: 'Additional officers in place as police find human remains in Wigan.

'Tragically, this weekend, we have found what we believe to be human remains of a young baby.

Greater Manchester Police had reportedly been on the scene for a number of days before they announced the discovery of the human remains

All five arrested people - aged between 20 and 70 - have been released on bail pending further enquires

The force has put up a scene at the address which is expected to remain in place for a number of days. Another scene is also in place on Valley Road in Pemberton

Officers were called to an address on Marsh Green in Wigan over reports of a 'concern for welfare' at the property

'In response to information shared with us by a partner agency, we are currently investigating reports of concern for welfare at an address in Marsh Green in Wigan.

'A scene is in place and is likely to remain over the following days as officers conduct extensive enquiries. An additional scene is also in place on Valley Road in Pemberton.

'At this time, we've arrested five people, aged between 20-70, on suspicion of concealing a death and unlawful burial. They have all bailed pending further enquiries. We are confident that this is isolated.'

Chief Superintendent Clare Jenkins from GMP's Wigan district said: 'This is a truly heart-breaking discovery, and I do not underestimate the impact that this news will have on the local community.

'I would like to reassure you that we have several teams of officers and specialist resources working diligently to find answers.

'You will likely notice an increased presence of our officers throughout the next week, if you have any concerns or want to share any confidential information, please do not hesitate to speak to them.

'In the coming days we will know more about the circumstances surrounding this incident, but we are confident that this is isolated, and there is no threat to the wider public.

'At this stage we are keeping an open mind, and we will provide updates as soon as we can.'
A Sky News reporter has fought back tears while remembering a mother who was stabbed to death along with five other shoppers in a horrific and random attack.

Laura Jayes, 40, was visibly distraught during her live cross from Bondi Junction's Westfield, in Sydney's east, while reporting on the death of beloved osteopath Ash Good, 38.

Dr Good was among the five women and one man who were fatally stabbed by a knifeman, 40, at the busy shopping centre on Saturday afternoon in an attack that has rocked the nation.

Dr Good and her nine-month-old baby girl, who was also stabbed, were both rushed to hospital.

Tragically, Dr Good died in hospital on Saturday evening while her baby reportedly remains in a critical condition after undergoing surgery.

Jayes said while she didn't know the five other victims, she did know Dr Good, who was a 'beautiful woman' in the prime of her life.

Laura Jayes, 40, broke down during her live cross from Bondi Junction's Westfield, in Sydney 's east, while reporting on the death of beloved osteopath Ash Good , 38

Ash Good, 38, and her daughter were stabbed by the knifeman at Bondi Junction on Saturday. Dr Good was unable to be saved while her baby remains in hospital

'She has a beautiful circle of friends, she was an incredible athlete and she had the world at her feet,' an emotional Jayes told host Peter Stefanovic.

'Her family are on their way rushing here now, so many family and friends wanted to be at the hospital this afternoon, they had to take turns going in and out of the waiting room.

'They both (Dr Good and her child) went into surgery, her husband not knowing if either had survived and now the worst possible news.

'I just can't really get my head around it. It's just so cruel.'

Jayes, who is a mother-of-two, added that Dr Good was an 'incredibly smart' woman whose life was 'ripped away' in a matter of seconds.

Dr Good and her baby were reportedly among the first victims of the attack, prompting others to immediately come to her aid.

The nightmare came to an end when a lone policewoman tracked the attacker down and shot him dead on the fifth level of the complex.

Dr Good desperately threw her baby towards a stranger in an attempt to save her, who then used clothes from a nearby store to stem her bleeding.

Jayes struggled to comprehend the horror of a new mum having to hand over her newborn to somebody she did not know.

'If you have a new baby... you're with that baby all the time and for her to... I can't imagine her needing to hand over the most precious thing in her life,' Jayes said.

'It's hard to know what to say in these circumstances because you want to convey it and do her life justice and you want her baby to know one day what an incredible mother she was, but at the same time I don't want to betray the trust and the privacy of her family right now but I can't even imagine what they're going through.'

A bystander who took hold of Dr Good's baby girl said he saw both the mother and infant had been stabbed.

'The mum came over with the baby and threw it at me,' the man told Nine News.

'I just helped by holding the baby... and trying to compress the baby.'

The man and his brother stayed with the mother and called emergency services.

'(It was) very bad... a lot of the blood on the floor... I hope the baby's alright,' the other brother said.

The attacker, 40, was shot dead by a lone policewoman on the fifth level of the shopping complex

Just hours before the horror unfolded, Dr Good posted a photo to Instagram with her daughter in her arms.

The photo was compared to another image of when she was pregnant.

'Only because I was walking past and happened to be wearing the same thing 9 months out vs 9 months in etc etc,' the caption read.

Eight people remain in hospital following the attack.

NSW Police believe the man was acting alone and was known to police.

There is no ongoing risk to the community.
A road rage killer who shot dead a six-year-old boy on a California freeway after the child's mother gave him the middle finger was sentenced to 40 years to life on Friday.

Marcus Eriz, 27, was sentenced in the Orange County Superior Court for murdering Aiden Leos in May 2021, when the boy was being taken to kindergarten on Freeway 55 in Orange County.

In January, Eriz was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder and shooting at an occupied motor vehicle.

In a tearful apology, the killer addressed Aiden's family and the rest of the court before being led away in handcuffs.

'I would like to start by saying that Aiden looked like a beautiful, precious, sweet, and happy little boy,' Eriz said.

Aiden Leos (pictured) was killed while being taken by his mother to kindergarten

Marcus Eriz (seen here reading his apology statement to the courtroom) fired his Glock in a fit of anger. His girlfriend, Wynne Lee, was driving and had cut off Aiden's mother, who then gave them the middle finger. Eriz responded by firing his gun. His bullet travelled through the trunk of the car before striking Aiden in the chest

Aiden's mother testified that she heard something hit her car (pictured) before Aiden cried out. When she turned around, the little boy was slumped over

He continued: 'He was a son, a brother, and a friend to others. He looked as if he brightened up the world everywhere he went, and truly one of God's little angels'.

At this point Eriz's voice began to crack and he adjusted his glasses.

'I am so sorry for ever hurting him and for the pain that he went through because of me. He never deserved it and neither did his family'.

On May 21, 2021, Joanna Cloonan was taking her son Aiden Leos to kindergarten, when a white Volkswagen SportWagen cut her off in the carpool lane.

According to Cloonan's testimony, after cutting her off, Eriz's girlfriend, Wynne Lee, who was driving the vehicle, flashed a 'peace sign' at her.

'I didn't want to be near these people,' Cloonan recounted. 'I left the carpool lane. We were next to each other. I made a gesture. And I started to merge away from them'.

That 'gesture' was the middle finger, and it was a gesture that Cloonan 'would regret beyond comprehension,' as one prosecutor put it.

Cloonan further testified that after she gave Eriz and Lee the middle finger, she made eye contact with Eriz, who was sitting in the front passenger seat.

'He looked at me and smiled after the gesture,' Cloonan said.

Mere moments later, she heard an impact, followed by her son Aiden crying out. She turned around and saw the six-year-old boy slumped over in his seat.

The distressed mother swerved over to the side of the road and dialed 911 as she cradled her bleeding child.

An off-duty police officer and paramedics desperately tried to save the boy, but he was later pronounced dead at the hospital, just ten days after his sixth birthday.

The kindergartener (pictured with Cloonan, left, and sister Alexis, right) was pronounced dead at the hospital after a bullet tore through his liver, lung and heart

Wynne Lee, who was driving the car and cut off Aiden's mother, is being tried separately. She has pled not guilty to being an accessory after the fact

Investigators determined that Eriz's bullet crashed through the trunk of the Chevrolet Sonic before entering Aiden's body, piercing his liver, lung, and heart.

A two week manhunt followed, over the course of which Eriz and his girlfriend refused to turn themselves in. They hid the white Volkswagen in a relative's garage. Eriz altered his appearance, shaving his beard and changing his hairstyle.

Ultimately, authorities were able to enhance a blurry image of the vehicle's license plate, and they received many tips from the community.

This helped them track the culprits down, and they surveilled the couple at their Costa Mesa home prior to arresting them.

Once arrested, Eriz, an autoworker, whose social media accounts are littered with pictures of him shooting guns, readily admitted to the crime.

He claimed not to have known of the murder until a week later, when a co-worker remarked that Eriz's girlfriend's car resembled the one authorities were looking for.

The autoworker told investigators: 'We went in front of that lady, the lady came up to us and started acting hostile toward us'.

'I dont know why, I have no answer why, but I pulled out my Glock and pulled the trigger and it was gone'.

Pressed by police for a motive, Eriz said with candor: 'I don't have an answer. Because I'm stupid? I didn't think of the consequences or anyone'.

The 27-year-old told investigators he had decided not to turn himself in because he thought that his girlfriend, Wynne Lee, had done nothing wrong.

Lee, whose online presence is scant, is the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants. She was raised in the San Gabriel Valley and is thought to be unemployed.

She is being tried separately and has pled not guilty to being an accessory after the fact.

Neither Eriz nor Lee are thought to have any previous felony convictions.

On Friday, Eriz was sentenced to 40 years to life for the murder of Aiden Leos.

Judge Richard King did not mince his words, describing Aiden, a boy being taken to kindergarten by his mom, as 'the most vulnerable victim you can even imagine'.

Of Eriz's subsequent fit of rage, Judge King said: 'In that particular moment, you had the power and the power was that handgun'.

Eriz is seen in a social media photo holding a rifle. The 27-year-old autoworker's social media accounts are rife with pictures of him with guns

Judge Richard King wasn't softened by the defendant's arguments. He said that when Eriz fired the gun, he had wanted to 'get back' at the victim's mother. Jude King sentenced Eriz to 40 years to life on Friday

The judge continued: 'Whether it was to impress your girlfriend to release your anger, you fired and that little boy died. When all is said and done, that's what happened'.

Judge King went on to say that he did not think there was any 'justification' for Eriz responding in such a matter. He said that the autoworker merely wanted to 'get back' at Aiden's mother.

Before announcing the 40 years to life sentence, the judge said gravely: 'I don't think the English language can even attempt for anybody to even describe what Aiden's mother went through'.

'She pulls over and her little boy dies in her arms. I don't think anybody can even comprehend what the rest of her life is going to be'.
EXCLUSIVE

The heroic senior female police officer who single-handedly confronted and shot dead a crazed knifeman has previously been recognised for her courage.

NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott has been hailed a hero and praised for her bravery at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney's east on Saturday afternoon when six people were tragically stabbed to death.

The inspector attached to the eastern suburbs police command was near the busy shopping centre as the terrifying rampage unfolded.

As the first police officer on scene, Inspector Scott sprinted through the top level of the shopping complex and risked her life when she confronted the knifeman, 40, who also injured eight others.

The man lunged at Inspector Scott, who shot him dead.

The senior police officer performed CPR on the killer, along with other victims lying on the ground in nearby stores as she waited for back-up to arrive.

Inspector Scott is 'doing well under the circumstances,' NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said on Saturday evening.

She will be formally interviewed as part of the investigation into the deadly stabbings.

It's not the first time Inspector Scott has been recognised for her acts of courage.

The hero cop who confronted and shot down the knifeman in Bondi Junction Westfield has been named as Inspector Amy Scott

Insp Amy Scott (second from the left) was recognised for her courage while stationed as a sergeant in Kings Cross in 2019

Inspector Scott's bravery has been lauded by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Prince and Princess of Wales

In 2019, she was a sergeant stationed at nearby Kings Cross when she was recognised at the Rotary Club Police Officer of the Year award ceremony.

She received the Demonstrated Courage and Devotion to Duty award.

Commissioner Webb, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, NSW Premier Chris Minns, and even the Prince and Princess of Wales have led the flood of tributes commending Inspector Scott's brave actions.

While NSW Police was tight-lipped about the cop's identity on Saturday night, Inspector Scott was unmasked online, where she was hailed as a national hero.

'She was utterly fearless, brave and amazing. How many lives did she save today? Brave,' one person posted on X.

Another added: 'Absolute legend. Just happened to be in the vicinity and the first on scene. Didn't even hesitate.'

A third wrote: 'She did what she had to do in that situation. No f******g around or pandering to a murderer. We need more police like that.'

A fourth touted her as a possible Australian of the Year contender while other called for her to receive a bravery award.

Some pointed out she was wearing little protection.

'No vest, no protective gear, no backup? No problems,' one wrote.

Inspector Amy Scott (pictured) has been hailed as national hero and legend

Inspector Amy Scott (pictured) is 'doing well under the circumstances'

Others showed concern for the officer's wellbeing.

'While throwing words like 'hero' around, remember, the taking of a life will change hers as well. Heroes can be victims too, let's hope she gets every bit of support needed,' one commented.

Commissioner Webb revealed that she has spoken to Inspector Scott following the tragedy.

'She showed enormous courage and bravery, and she will obviously process that,' Commissioner Webb said.

'She will need to be interviewed formally and so we just talked about that she's OK and that her family's OK.

'She's got everything she needs for the time being, and she will be formally interviewed tomorrow.'

Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke earlier said that the police officer engaged immediately on her arrival to the scene.

'The officer was guided to the location of the offender by people who are in the centre, and she took the actions that she did, saving a range of people's lives,' he said.

Inspector Scott sprinted through Westfield Bondi Junction to single-handedly confront the knifeman

She confronted the knifeman alone on the top level of the shopping centre and shot him dead

She rushed to the aid of injured victims after she confronted and shot the knifeman dead

Waverley Mayor Paula Masselos also commended Inspector Scott's courage while paying tribute to the 'everyday heroes' involved, including a bystander who confronted the knifeman on the escalators.

'She (the police officer) was there on her own and she went towards the danger,' she told Sky News UK.

'Even [after she shot the attacker], she immediately began applying CPR  that just shows you the dedication of the person and her incredible act of heroism  even then her main concern was for someone who had fallen.

'I will be reaching out to the various service providers and to the police to see what practical support we can offer as a council.'

Mr Albanese held a snap press conference in Canberra to address the tragedy on Saturday night, where he also praised Inspector Scott.

'She entered the proceedings that were taking place, obviously very dangerous, by herself,' he said.

'She is certainly a hero. There is no doubt that she saved lives through her actions.

'Today is a reminder that those people who wear a uniform are people who rushed to danger, not away from it.'

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission has launched a critical incident into the her brave actions.

'The NSWPF are investigating the circumstances of the incident and this investigation will be reviewed by the Professional Standards Command,' a statement read.

Westfield Bondi Junction is expected to remain closed for several days.
Boris Johnsons favourite film scene is the multiple retribution at the end of The Godfather, when Mafia boss Michael Corleone eliminates his enemies in an orgy of bullets and bloodshed.

But for the former Prime Minister, who is once again at the centre of speculation about his political intentions, life appears to have imitated art, as one by one his allies have been picked off in often mysterious circumstances.

Allies of Mr Johnson have long believed that this series of mishaps amounts to more than coincidence. Their suspicions have been heightened by the revelation in last weeks Mail on Sunday that William Wragg  the Tory MP at the centre of a honeytrap sexting scandal  was allegedly linked to a suspected sting operation which contributed to Mr Johnsons downfall.

It was claimed Mr Wragg helped to bring allegations of sexual misconduct against key Johnson ally Chris Pincher in June 2022, which led to his resignation as Deputy Chief Whip and an eight-week Commons suspension, before he quit as an MP in September last year.

Mr Pincher had been in charge of so-called Operation Save Big Dog to stop rebel MPs from ousting Mr Johnson, and his downfall catalysed Mr Johnsons departure.

Johnson allies argue that Mr Pinchers demise was merely the most dramatic of a number of political hit jobs on friends of Boris.

Former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has spoken about the sinister forces which vetoed her nomination for a peerage. Mr Wragg was also implicated when he used his role as chairman of the Commons public administration and constitutional affairs committee to ask Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, during an evidence session, whether he was aware of any rather forceful communications sent by Ms Dorries to senior civil servants over the veto.

Boris Johnson s favourite film scene is the multiple retribution at the end of The Godfather

Mr Case appeared to be prepared for the question, embroiling Ms Dorries in controversy by replying that he was aware of those communications and have flagged them to both the Chief Whip and Speaker of the House.

Ms Dorries admits to sending trenchant messages  but only to Mr Case.

Former Prime Minister Liz Truss was also a Boris ally before she followed him into No 10. Ms Truss was the victim of a dirty dossier which circulated in Whitehall when she was Mr Johnsons Foreign Secretary, containing lurid and false allegations about her personal life.

Another Boris stalwart, Dominic Raab, had his political career truncated by bullying allegations in April last year  eight months after Mr Johnson quit Downing Street.

In vain, Mr Raab, who served as Mr Johnsons Foreign Secretary and Deputy PM, protested that the conclusions of an investigation into his behaviour were both flawed and set a dangerous precedent for the conduct of good government. And in January last year Nadhim Zahawi, whose political profile soared after he was made Covid Vaccines Minister by Mr Johnson, was sacked by Rishi Sunak for failing to disclose that HMRC had been investigating his tax affairs.

Another ally, who we are not identifying, has left politics after facing claims of sexual assault which they say are trumped-up, while former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, a long-standing member of Mr Johnsons inner circle, is leaving politics because of the personal toll on him and his family.

Even if many of his loyal lieutenants have been cashiered, Mr Johnson himself remains undaunted, teasingly failing to rule out a return to frontline British politics last week.

The former PM told students at Georgetown University in Washington that while his return was unlikely in the short term, it was possible at some point in the future when and if he felt he was needed once more.

I think the only circumstances in which anybody should stand for election is if they have something to contribute, he said.

Commenting last night, Ms Dorries said: In Mein Kampf, Hitler described how people could be induced to believe a colossal lie because they would not believe that someone could possess the audacity required to distort the truth so infamously.

To be successful, the lie just had to be repeated, over and over again.

Boris Johnson was removed from office for receiving a fixed penalty notice for not eating a piece of birthday cake which had been brought to his desk.

That is the only substantial and truthful fact in relation to his removal as Prime Minister. The rest was often repeated lies, stings and duplicitous manoeuvrings.

She added: Writing my book, The Plot: The Political Assassination Of Boris Johnson, I was given repeated warnings about what would happen to myself and other spear-carriers loyal to Boris and one by one, those warnings came to pass.

It was claimed Mr Wragg (pictured) helped to bring allegations of sexual misconduct against key Johnson ally Chris Pincher in June 2022

Almost everyone I interviewed mentioned William Wragg as a key figure who used his connections to influence events: often to be found in a subsidised Westminster bar, the Carlton Club or in front of a camera calling for someone to resign  most viciously and forcefully, Boris Johnson himself.

Friends of Mr Wragg, who has now given up both the Tory Whip and his coveted Commons committee chairmanship in the wake of the honeytrap affair, are dismissive of any suggestion that he played a part in Mr Pinchers downfall.

Sir Charles Walker, a Tory MP and select committee chairman, said that he found all the score-settling being directed at Mr Wragg so unpleasant  as is the childlike what abouterism justification of those responsible for this nastiness.

He added: I am cross Will got himself so deep into this terrible fix but did not ask me for help.

One critic of Mr Wragg doubted that the Hazel Grove MP was Machiavelli reborn.

He told this newspaper: Wills not so much Godfather as House of Cards, and a pretty hammed-up, amateur production at that.

Other senior Tories see Mr Wragg as someone who craves attention but then struggles with the heat.

Just a few weeks ago, Mr Wragg led the charge to sack Sir Lindsay Hoyle over the Speaker allegedly bowing to pressure put on him by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer concerning arrangements for a Commons vote on the Gaza crisis.

However, Mr Wraggs loss is Sir Lindsays gain. Friends say he will not now be pursuing his campaign against the Speaker.

Long before the honeytrap sting emerged, Mr Wragg  who is still only 36  had announced that he would quit the Commons at the next Election.

Beyond that, his longer-term future is unclear, although one post-Commons career option appears to be a casualty of the honeytrap controversy.

Mr Wragg had been planning to go into business with friend Sir Charles  who is also standing down at the Election  advising people on how to give evidence to Commons committees.

However, that plan is understood to have been shelved.

Despite that, another Tory colleague mischievously suggested that a future consultancy career for Mr Wragg was still not out of the question  on one condition.

Namely, that Will tells his clients how not to do things  that would appear to be his forte, he said.




The boss of Timpson has slammed UK retail parks after claiming they are contributing to the demise of British high streets - as he praised Germany for its 'thriving' town centres.

Timpson Group CEO James Timpson claimed commercial shopping malls are a 'big problem' across the country and blamed them for taking footfall away from once bustling town centres.

The 52 year old said there are some 'terrible' high streets in the UK where 'everyone's just given up', admitting Timpson stores were 'partly to blame' due to their presence at the developments.

He compared the UK's high streets to those in Germany 'where they don't have many retail parks' and as a result town centres there are 'thriving.'

It comes just days after Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud also highlighted Germany's superiority over the UK by claiming the eastern European country had a 'healthier' housing market.

Timpson Group CEO James Timpson has slammed UK retail parks after claiming they are contributing to the demise of British high streets

The 52 year old admitted Timpsons stores were 'partly to blame' due to their presence at the developments which take footfall away from town centres. Pictured: A Timpson shop in Nottignham, England

Grand Designs star Kevin McCloud who has told first time buyers if they can't afford to buy a house 'move to Germany'

However, Mr Timpson said he is 'quite confident' about the future of high streets - but suggested councils across the country follow the leads of those in Slough and Maidenhead.

He added that the future depended on 'long term, brave decisions' from councils to turn things around.

Speaking on the Full Disclosure podcast, he said: 'The high streets that I see are a massive variety of some where we can't even open up a shop because there's no vacancies and everyone's there and it's thriving and it's busy.

'And other places where it's terrible and everyone's just given up, they might as well just close up.

'So, the future of the high street, I'm quite confident about but you can't see them as shops you have to see them as buildings.

'And actually, it needs long term, brave decisions with the councils really.

'So, if you go to Slough and Maidenhead, they're changing the town centres dramatically by basically reducing the number of shops and instead putting cinemas and libraries and senior living and that kind of thing.

'Whereas others, it needs serious investment - but not to make more shops, but to make them into something else.'

Mr Timpson said he is 'quite confident' about the future of high streets

A bustling Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, after re-opening following the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020

Empty shops pictured along a high street in Lowestoft in March 2024

Houses in Germany costs just 232,941 on average. Meanwhile, a pint of beer costs just 2.14 in Germany, while on average in England a pint is 4.21

He continued: 'The big problem is retail parks. We're in a lot of retail parks, so we're sort of partly to blame.

'But if you go to Germany where they don't have many retail parks, the town centres are thriving.'

Young Brits living in Germany have spoken of how much they enjoy living abroad after Grand Designs star Kevin McCloud told first time buyers if they can't afford to buy a house they should 'move to Germany'.

The TV presenter advised young people looking to get on the property ladder to abandon their hopes of buying a house in the UK and instead 'move to another country where the housing market is healthy'.

He told the news website JOE that almost every other North European country and Canada have got 'really healthy markets, lots of diverse opportunities, lots of diverse offers and it isn't hugely expensive'.

The 64-year-old said: 'My advice is move to Germany, maybe that's the way forward.'

Elle, a British woman living in Germany, said one of the best things about the country was the price of alcohol.

She said: 'You can get a good bottle of wine for 2-3. It's super cheap.'

Another expat, Berveleen, said: 'It's just an hour's flight from the UK. It's very easy to drive to other countries. I find it so easy to make friends in Germany.

Expat Jason Parmar said there was 'good value for food and drinks' and praised the country's parks, as well as the nightclubs.

First-time buyers purchased 33% of homes sold in the UK so far this year, marking an all-time high

Elle, a British woman living in Germany, said one of the best things about the country was the price of alcohol

Expat, Berveleen, said: 'It's just an hour's flight from the UK. It's very easy to drive to other countries. I find it so easy to make friends in Germany

McCloud also took aim at 'immoral' housing developers, who he claims now make on average 68,000 profit per house or per flat, compared to 2009, when the figure was ten times less.

McCloud added: 'They've shifted their focus from volume and meeting government targets to the profit they deliver to their shareholders.

'Persimmon, the year before last made 1.1 billion of profit for their shareholders, 25 per cent of their turnover.

'I've only got one word for it and I think it's immoral.'

Speaking about the state of the UK housing market, McCloud said: 'I look at the UK market and I see nothing good here.

'I look at what's happening in Germany, Holland, Netherlands, Denmark, Scandinavia, I look at other, almost every other North European country and Canada  they've got really healthy markets, lots of diverse opportunities, lots of diverse offers and it isn't hugely expensive.'

Foreigners can buy properties in Germany with relative ease.

Even since Brexit, people from non-EU countries can borrow up to 60 per cent mortgages.

Not all banks offer expats mortgages. DKB and Santander are two that do but having even a temporary residence may improve a person's chances.

House prices in Germany have historically been far more stable than those in Britain

England's trend of ownership is in stark contrast to Germany, where many more people rent

In Germany, the professional sector of people and companies that own property to let it out, is much more invested in the market (37 per cent) than in the UK (18 per cent)

Traditionally, Germany has a much higher rate of housebuilding compared to the UK

An extensive report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) concluded that Britain's development sector is 'warped by decades of housing market volatility, the departure of local authorities from the housebuilding sphere, and cuts to capital grant that collectively could have insulated the development market from significant shocks'.

The report claims that 'the UK has both a pro-cyclical housing and development marke'.

It added: 'By contrast, Germany is in a stronger position: its mortgage market has been more tightly regulated and consequently its market (and economy) is less vulnerable to economic downturns; and housing construction is undertaken by a far greater number of actors, including large housebuilders but also, crucially, many smaller, regionally based actors and a significant not-for-profit sector (both within and outside public ownership).

'The two countries utilise the powers of government in quite different ways. In Germany, although private enterprise is crucial in housing finance, housing development and management of stock, the state, locally and nationally, plays a far more 'interventionist' role  in regulation (for instance, of rents and of the mortgage market), in land assembly, and in housing development itself (albeit often through locally owned companies).

'However, in the UK, although the parameters of policy are set by government, the trend is towards stepping back the role of the state in housing provision, and then becoming active when markets cannot achieve satisfactory outcomes (for instance by providing mortgage guarantees, or through the provision of housing benefit to households unable to afford their rent).'

The latest Nationwide house price index showed house prices fell slightly in March, with a 0.2 per cent decline in the average property value.

The monthly decline was down to seasonal adjustment - which aims to smooth out months that are typically more and less active - whereas the non-adjusted average house price actually rose slightly from 260,420 in February to 261,14 in March.

It means the typical home, according to Nationwide's data, has edged up 1.6 per cent annually, with headline figures dragged back by southern England's stuttering property market.

A graph showing the average percentage growth in in house prices across the UK

This map of annual house price changes across the UK shows the North-South divide. House prices are rising in the north and falling in the south

On the same day, Halifax also reported property prices fell in March, reflecting the first monthly fall since September 2023.

The major mortgage lender revealed the average home price fell 1 per cent last month, following five consecutive months of rises.

Despite reports' focus on headline house price figures, the UK housing market doesn't just move as one.

It is made up of thousands of local markets that will all be performing differently from one another.

These differences can even be seen at a regional level where there is evidence of a North-South divide opening up. Prices are generally rising in the North and falling in the South.

The average house price during the first three months of 2024 in Northern Ireland, for example, is up 4.6 per cent year-on-year, according to Nationwide.

Prices in Scotland are 3.7 per cent higher over the past three months than they were during the same period in 2023.

And in the North of England the average home is up 4 per cent in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year.

Prices in the South West are down 1.7 per cent compared to this time last year and prices in East Anglia are 1.3 per cent lower.
Peter Warren is a general assignment reporter for the Houston Chronicle. He can be reached at peter.warren@houstonchronicle.com.

Peter previously lived in Dallas, where he covered the sports as a freelancer for the Dallas Morning News and other outlets. He has been published in Texas Highways Magazine, DMagazine.com, the Star Tribune and Bowlers Journal International. Peter graduated from Northwestern University in 2021.
A pedophile registered sex offender allegedly forced a pregnant woman to have sex with a dog at gunpoint and filmed in on his phone.

Dennis Allen Carter, 58, was charged with bestiality and three counts of aggravated sexual assault after he was arrested in Houston last week.

He was out on parole for another aggravated sexual assault in 1997, and was convicted of sexually abusing a child in 1981.

Carter put a gun to the woman's head and demanded she perform oral sex on both him and his brown and white pet dog or he would kill her, police alleged.

Dennis Allen Carter, 58, was charged with bestiality and three counts of aggravated sexual assault after he was arrested in Houston last week

The brown and white dog Carter allegedly forced the woman to have sex with

He 'kept telling her to "quit screaming" and slapped her multiple times' during the ordeal on August 7 last year, according to court documents.

The woman told detectives Carter picked her up from a petrol station on Crosstimbers and Hirsch and took her to his house in Kittridge.

The alleged abuse began that day and was filmed and photographed on Carter's phone, which was later recovered by police.

Carter fell asleep afterwards, but the woman was locked in the house and unable to leave until she was taken to another petrol station in the morning.

Police received a tip off from the woman's friend and she was able to escape long enough for officers to rescue her.

Carter's house in Kittridge where he allegedly kept the woman prisoner and sexually abused

After months of investigation, police charged him and filed a motion to revoke his parole to keep him behind bars after he was given a $350,000 bond

Darter was hauled in for questioning the next day and showed police the photos and three videos on his phone, which he claimed were consensual.

After months of investigation, police charged him and filed a motion to revoke his parole to keep him behind bars after he was given a $350,000 bond.

'The facts in this case frankly sound like something out of a horror show,' the prosecutor told the court, according to ABC.

Carter was required to register as a sex offender for life after his previous sex crimes.
Former subpostmaster and campaigner Alan Bates has said he will pursue private prosecutions against those responsible for the Horizon IT scandal if the inquiry does not pass a file to prosecuting authorities.

The inquiry resumed this week with Mr Bates giving evidence and on Friday he told the Times he would be willing to crowdfund criminal action against those responsible at the Post Office.

On BBC Radio 4's Today programme he asked the inquiry to clarify if a file would be passed to prosecutors and police, and said members of Parliament should 'change the remit of the inquiry' to ensure it is.

Mr Bates said prosecutions should be looked into immediately as an additional element to the inquiry which is due to finish in September, adding that a delay could mean 'we have to start all over again'.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told LBC in January that fraud offences may have been committed but an investigation could run until at least 2026.

Former post office subpostmaster Alan Bates, pictured right, along with his wife Suzanne Sercombe outside Aldwich House in London has said he is considering launching a private prosecution against the Post Office

The campaigner was famously played by Toby Jones, centre, in an ITV TV drama

On Saturday Mr Bates told the BBC: 'If we find that the authorities, whoever it is, are not prepared to take this forward, I think it's pretty certain that we're going to have to look at private prosecutions.

'It was fine when Post Office brought private prosecutions so if we've got to do it in return then so be it.'

He added: 'What is going to be the extent of (the Met's) investigation? Is it just the fraud cases or is it going to look at all issues that might have affected the whole of this?'

Asked if he was calling for private prosecutions to 'put pressure on police and the inquiry', he said: 'I'm hoping to bring clarity to the issue.

'We heard from many, many lawyers along the way that there does seem to be quite a number of cases for people to answer.'

He said people want to see 'accountability' as well as financial redress.

The campaigner said he was glad he gave evidence first and 'got it out of the way' to allow the inquiry to 'find the real villains in all of this'.

'I think we've now got to the stage that those who actually were making decisions, and were responsible for decisions being made, are now being heard at long last.

'We're hoping to see the truth. I'm not sure we will, but what we've always campaigning for is to expose the truth of the whole matter.

'They are testifying on oath, and for whatever reason there does seem to be some gaps in memories - and I know quite a lot of it does go back some time.

'Also I think also quite a lot of documentation might well have disappeared over the years as well, but all we can do is keep our fingers crossed.

'In fairness there has also been quite a lot of build-up over the past couple of years with the inquiry, so hopefully there is enough evidence to put to them.'

Mr Bates had his contract terminated by the Post Office in 2003 after refusing to accept liability for shortfalls in the accounts at his branch in Llandudno, North Wales.

The ITV drama highlighted the Horizon IT scandal causing significant public outrage

The inquiry heard he first raised issues with the Horizon system in 2000, and on one day in December of that year he called the Post Office helpline seven times, with one call lasting around an hour.

Giving evidence in front of Post Office chief executive Nick Read on Tuesday, Mr Bates said it was 'an atrocious organisation' that was 'beyond saving' and needed 'disbanding'.

The Post Office has come under fire since the airing of the ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, which put the Horizon IT scandal under the spotlight.

More than 700 subpostmasters were prosecuted by the Government-owned organisation and handed criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015 as Fujitsu's faulty Horizon system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.
Jones is also suspected of knocking another woman unconscious an hour later

A Los Angeles woman was left with horrific injuries after being ambushed walking near her Venice Beach home.

Mary Klein, 54, said she barely remembers the vicious assault on April 6, which left her with a fractured jaw, missing teeth and extensive bruising across her face and chest.

'It was like being hit by a truck,' she told KTLA. 'My teeth got knocked out. My jaw is wired shut. He bashed my face in... I think he was trying to kill me.'

Mary Klein, 54, was brutally attacked on April 6 while walking near her home, leaving her with a fractured jaw, missing teeth and extensive bruising across her face and chest

A caregiver for an elderly woman with ALS and a soon-to-be grandmother, Klein said she feels she is lucky to have survived the attack

On Thursday, cops arrested homeless man Anthony Jones, 29, after he allegedly attacked Klein and another woman within an hour of each other

Cops arrested homeless suspect Anthony Jones, 29, on late Thursday night in San Diego under suspicion of carrying out the attack, and he is alleged to have also knocked another woman unconscious around an hour after the assault on Klein.

Police say they believe both attacks were random and had a 'sexual element' to them.

Klein, a single mother, said she was knocked down out of the blue while walking home at around 10:30pm.

'All of a sudden, I just get knocked out,' she said from her hospital bed.

The 54-year-old said she thought her attacker was 'trying to kill' her, as she was ruthlessly beaten across her head and torso.

She has been recovering in hospital ever since, and her myriad injuries include a fractured jaw, broken teeth, multiple contusions and a large gash on the back of her head.

A professional home healthcare nurse for an elderly woman with ALS and soon-to-be grandmother, Klein faces a lengthy road to recovery that will require multiple surgeries.

A GoFundMe set up after the attack also notes that Klein's health insurance dropped her on March 31, just a week before the attack, and she was in the middle of getting California Coverage when the assault took place.

Following her attack, police say the same suspect assaulted another woman, who has not been identified, around an hour later while she was walking near the Sherman Canal.

Investigators say Jones, described as transient, was captured on surveillance footage stalking the canals that night.

He was charged on two counts of attempted murder, and is being held on a $3.25 million bail.

Klein (seen before the attack left) suffered extensive injuries, which will see her jaw wired shut for at least a month

The single mother had several of her teeth knocked out during the attack

'It was like being hit by a truck,' Klein said from her hospital bed. 'My teeth got knocked out. My jaw is wired shut. He bashed my face in... I think he was trying to kill me'

Police say Jones was seen on surveillance video stalking the area of both attacks

Following his arrest, Klein said she was glad to see that a suspect was apprehended, and felt she was thankful to have survived her ordeal.

'I was crying because I was so worried about the other girl [victim] and I hope she makes it,' she told KTLA.

'Im lucky I survived, and I feel so sad for her and I hope shes okay.'

Klein's son Robert added that while he was glad to see an arrest was made, he questioned why such a 'predator' was able to walk the streets freely.

'I want predators and violent attackers to be held accountable, have longer sentences and just not be out on the streets with our family members.'

Klein said she hopes her attacker is sentenced to prison for life, and hoped local officials would prioritize tackling homelessness and drug abuse in Southern California.

Klein was attacked while walking near her home, as her son said: 'I want predators and violent attackers to be held accountable, have longer sentences and just not be out on the streets'

Pictured is the area where Klein was attacked, just an hour before another unidentified woman was assaulted, allegedly by the same homeless suspect

In the GoFundMe to help Klein with her medical costs, it notes that the fundraising goal was increased to cover 'additional facial reconstruction' and a home security system.

'Its doubtful she will be able to return to work for at least 6-8 weeks and shes so worried about losing her small rental in Venice where she and her cat have resided for years,' the fundraiser states.

'Many may know her for the wonderful sand art she builds in Venice for all the events.'
A pro-Palestine protester told California lawmakers she'd murder them at a council meeting - then sobbed like a baby after being arrested and hauled before a court.

Riddhi Patel, 28, was all tough-talk at the Bakersfield meeting Wednesday, as including Mayor Karen Goh discussed calls back a motion calling on Israel to declare a ceasefire. They later rejected the motion.

Standing at a microphone during public comments, Patel said: 'I hope one day somebody brings the guillotine and kills all of you mother******.

'You guys want to criminalize us with metal detectors, well see you at your house, well murder you.'

But Patel's snarling bravado vanished in court two days later, when she was seen sobbing uncontrollably after being charged over her threats.

Riddhi Patel, 28, wept in court after she was accused of 18 felony counts over threats to murder city councilors, including Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh, unless they voted to endorse a ceasefire in Gaza

Patel made the threat to Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh, pictured, and was promptly arrested

Having spent two days in the slammer, a disturbed-looking Patel sobbed and sniveled as she appeared before a judge in brown jail garb.

She faces 18 felony counts including terror charges - and now likely has even more to cry about, as she was ordered back to jail after her hearing, in lieu of $2 million bond.

During Wednesday's meeting, Patel raged before the vote: 'I don't have faith that you'll do this. You're all horrible human beings, and Jesus would have probably killed you himself.'

'And none of you care because you guys don't care about anything happening in Palestine or any other country where oppression occurs.'

Patel, who is Indian-American, then mentioned Mahatma Gandhi and claimed the Hindu holiday called Chaitra Navaratri encourages 'violent revolution against their oppressors.'

'You guys, those who votes to win in Bakersfield, parade Gandhi around and a Hindu holiday called Chaitra Navaratri that starts off this week,' she said.

'I remind you that these holidays that we practice, that other people in the global south practice, believe in violent revolution against their oppressors.'

Patel faces 18 felony charges following her arrest - with 10 counts of threatening with intent to terrorize and eight counts of threatening certain state officials including the city council members and the Mayor, according to the criminal report

WILD: Unhinged Pro-Palestine protestor Riddhi Patel threatens to M*RDER Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh (R) in a psychotic rant during a city council meeting.



Patel is being charged with 16 felonies and is being held on a $1 million bail. pic.twitter.com/09PeBCWoNz  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 12, 2024

Patel criticized city council for implementing heightened security measures such as metal detectors in the building, which she perceived as an attempt to 'criminalize' protesters.

'In the last five years I've attended city council meetings there's never been metal detectors, there's never been more cops,' she said.

'The only reason you're doing it is because people actually don't care if you guys don't like them and they're actually resisting so you're trying to criminalize them.'

Patel concluded her speech with a violent threat to city council, stating that they should be guillotines and adding: 'You guys want to criminalize us with metal detectors.

'We'll see you at your house. We'll murder you.'

Patel then mentioned Mahatma Gandhi and claimed the Hindu holiday called Chaitra Navaratri encourages 'violent revolution against their oppressors'

Patel is seen being arrested for her murder threats at Wednesday's meeting. A public defender entered a not guilty plea on Patel's behalf on Friday

Following her violent call to action, Mayor Goh motioned to officers and then addressed Patel directly.

'Ms. Patel, that was a threat, what you said at the end, so officers are going to escort you out and take care of that,' Mayor Goh said.

She was subsequently arrested and faced felony counts for her threats to the council and mayor.

Patel faces 18 felony charges following her arrest - with 10 counts of threatening with intent to terrorize and eight counts of threatening certain state officials including the city council members and the Mayor, according to the criminal report.

A public defender entered a not guilty plea on Patel's behalf.

She will remain in police custody on $2 million bond. She is expected to appear in court next on April 24.

Following Patel's outburst going viral and garnering thousands of negative comments, other protesters present at the meeting who shared similar criticism's publicly distanced themselves from Patel.

Other pro-Palestine protesters who attended the same meeting have since distanced themselves from Patel's desire to kill.

The pro-Palestine group called United Liberation Front, said the threats ran 'counter to our values' in an Instagram post.

'It does not represent those of us in the community who continue to show up and exercise our civic duty by engaging directly with our elected representatives,' the group added.

City officials have confirmed the extra security measures were not prompted by the protesters, which by Wednesday had entered their eighth week at meetings.

Officials told Bakersfield.com that the measures were part of a five-year process to implement enhanced security - a standard for similarly populated cities across California.
The father of school shooter Ethan Crumbley insists he is a 'martyr' who feels like he 'joined the military' to prevent other parents from being jailed like him.

James Crumbley was sentenced alongside his estranged wife Jennifer to 10 to 15 years behind bars on Tuesday for failing to prevent their son's massacre.

Ethan, 15, gunned down staff and students at Oxford High School in Michigan on November 30, 2021, killing three teens and wounding seven people.

He was jailed for life without parole and his parents were convicted of involuntary manslaughter for failing to secure the gun he used in his rampage.

James Crumbley was sentenced alongside his estranged wife Jennifer to 10 to 15 years behind bars on Tuesday for failing to prevent their son's massacre

Ethan, 15, gunned down staff and students at Oxford High School in Michigan on November 30, 2021, killing three teens and wounding seven people

James Crumbley maintained his innocence and played the victim in numerous recorded calls he made from inside jail from December 2022 to earlier this year.

'I kind of feel like a martyr. We're martyrs, you know, without the whole dying aspect of it. Because I don't know a better word to use. So I use the word martyr,' he said in one call.

'But we're martyrs to make sure that this doesn't happen to anybody else in America again. To make sure that nobody like (sic) that dumb, stupid b***h [Oakland County Prosecutor] Karen McDonald.'

Crumbley claimed he was 'going to fight the good battle' for other parents who could be charged if their children committed a mass murder.

'I feel like I'm joined the military and going to fight for my country, you know? I kind of am. I'm fighting for everyone else's freedom,' he said.

'I kind of feel like a martyr or martra, however you want to pronounce it. If they allow this stupid b***h to do to us what she's trying to do based on nothing.

'Here's the thing, she never did any type of investigation before they charged us.

'They're trying to blame it all on us, they're trying to say none of this should have happened because you.

'It's so **king ridiculous. It wasn't us! It wasn't us! It was the fking school!'

James Crumbley was sentenced earlier this week, seen here, alongside his estranged wife Jennifer to 10 to 15 years behind bars for their part in their son's massacre

Authorities have since released audio recordings of calls in which Crumbley threatens Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, seen here

Elsewhere in the audio that was publicly released by prosecutors on Wednesday, Crumbley threatened McDonald.

'Karen McDonald, you are going down. Yeah you stupid b***hes at the f**king jail, go ahead record this call, send it to Karen McDonald,' he said on October 9, 2023.

'Tell her how James Crumbley is going to f**king take her down. She will not have a law license when I get done with her.

'Karen McDonald will be working at f**king McDonalds, cause she ain't gonna be able to get a job anywhere else.'

In another call on December 6, 2022, he said: 'Well, she's going to be f**king sucking on a f**king hot rock down in hell soon.'

Another call on December 20, 2023, was more pointed: 'Yeah, f**king Karen McDonald. You're f**ked when I get out.'

Crumbley's rage had not subsided by earlier this year, as the threats continued in another call on January 4.

'You know what, three months from now it is going down, when I get out of here. I am on a rampage, Karen,' he said.

'Yes Karen McDonald your ass is going down and you better be f**king scared.'

It remains unclear who Crumbley was on the phone to during his calls.

James Crumbley is seen crying in court Monday as he and wife Jennifer received a landmark 10 to 15 year sentence for their son Ethan's 2021 school massacre that murdered four

Prosecutors released the calls on Wednesday along with a pre-sentencing report after the Detroit Free Press obtained some of the audio.

'Defendant's jail calls showed that he blamed everyone but himself for what happened and that he repeatedly referred to himself as being persecuted and considered himself a "martyr",' persecutors wrote in the report.

An investigator at the Oakland County Sheriff's Office told the outlet: 'Most of the contents of the messages I have reviewed appear to be Mr Crumbley complaining about court proceedings and courtroom tactics and Mr Crumbley making comments about winning the matter in court and making Karen McDonald look bad to the public '

The outlet obtained the recordings via Freedom of Information laws, which also uncovered a police report filed by the prosecutor's office into the calls.

The report asked sheriff's office to investigate what they deemed 'harassment and threatening' phone calls.

James and Jennifer Crumbley sat at the same table ahead of their sentencing, where they received the maximum possible sentence of 10 to 15 years

The calls were mentioned in the first day of Crumbley's trial, which caused a spat in the courtroom and for the jury to be sent home for the day.

Prosecutors raised an issue with Crumbley's jailhouse communications, which his lawyer objected to the issue of being made public.

Crumbley's lawyer Mariell Lehman maintained that Crumbley was not threatening to physically harm McDonald but venting frustrations.

During sentence the phone calls were again brought up, with prosecutors arguing they warranted a stiffer punishment.

Judge Cheryl Matthews agreed and told Crumbley that he 'threatened the wellbeing of the prosecutor.'

His son Ethan opened fire at the school in Oxford, Michigan, and murdered Hana St Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, and Justin Shilling.

Ethan was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murders, after being convicted of 24 felonies including terrorism.

Justin Shilling, 17, (left) and Tate Myre, 16, (right) were two of four students killed in the senseless shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan

Madisyn Baldwin, 17, (left) and Hana St Juliana, 14, (right) died in the 2021 shooting rampage at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit

Crumbley and his wife Jennifer were convicted at separate trials earlier this year, with juries finding they ignored Ethan's pleas for help and bought him a firearm.

Their sentences will be served minus the near-two-and-a-half years they have already served, and they will be barred from contacting to their son's victims' families.

The two are the first parents in the US to be held responsible for a child carrying out a mass school attack.

McDonald said Crumbley ignored signs that his son was deeply disturbed, did not get him the help he needed, and did not safely store the firearm in the family home.

McDonald also presented the jury with texts that Ethan Crumbley had sent to a friend and journal entries he had written in the months leading up to the shooting.

In those, he talked about wanting medical attention and hearing voices, but he was worried his parent would be 'pissed.'

On one occasion, according to a text message to a friend, Ethan asked Crumbley to take him to the doctor, but his dad 'gave me some pills and told me to suck it up.'

Defense attorney Mariell Lehman argued that James Crumbley could not have possibly foreseen that his son would carry out a mass shooting.

Crumbley, accompanied by Ethan, bought a Sig Sauer 9 mm handgun over Thanksgiving weekend in 2021.

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald holds the murder weapon at James' trial, as jurors heard how he purchased the firearm for his son despite his disturbing behavior

The boy called it his 'new beauty' on social media. His mother described the gun as a Christmas gift and took him to a shooting range.

Four days after the purchase, the parents went to Oxford High to discuss a violent image their son had drawn on a math assignment.

Alongside the drawing including phrases that said: 'The thoughts wont stop. Help me.' There was a gun on the paper that looked similar to the Sig Sauer.

The Crumbleys didn't take him home, and school staff - believing he might be suicidal - also didn't demand it.

But no one checked the boy's backpack for a gun, and the shooting happened that afternoon.

Before his sentencing, James read a statement where he said his 'heart is broken for all involved', and he stressed that claims he had no remorse for his son's actions were not true.

'I know the pain and loss will never go away.'
This video is no longer available

This video is no longer available

Ash Good, 38, was among the six shoppers killed at Sydney's Bondi Westfield

A Sky News reporter was seen breaking down in tears as she remembered a mother whose life was tragically cut short along with five other shoppers during the horrific mass stabbing in a Sydney shopping centre.

Laura Jayes, 40, was visibly distraught during her live cross from Bondi Junction's Westfield, in Sydney's east, while reporting on the death of beloved osteopath Ash Good, 38.

Good, a first time mother, was among the five women and one man who were fatally stabbed by a knifeman, 40, at the busy shopping centre on Saturday afternoon in an attack that has rocked the nation.

The osteopath and her nine-month-old baby girl, who was also stabbed, were both rushed to hospital.

Tragically, the mother died in hospital on Saturday evening while her baby reportedly remains in a critical condition after undergoing surgery.

Jayes said Dr Good was a 'beautiful woman' in the prime of her life.

Dr Good, a first time mother, (pictured) was among the five women and one man who were fatally stabbed by a knifeman

Laura Jayes, 40, broke down during her live cross from Bondi Junction's Westfield, in Sydney 's east, while reporting on the death of beloved osteopath Ash Good , 38

Australian cop Inspector Amy Scott (pictured) confronted the knifeman alone on the top level of the shopping centre and shot him dead

'She has a beautiful circle of friends, she was an incredible athlete and she had the world at her feet,' an emotional Jayes told host Peter Stefanovic.

'Her family are on their way rushing here now, so many family and friends wanted to be at the hospital this afternoon, they had to take turns going in and out of the waiting room.

'They both (Dr Good and her child) went into surgery, her husband not knowing if either had survived and now the worst possible news.

'I just can't really get my head around it. It's just so cruel.'

Jayes, who is herself a mother-of-two, added that Dr Good was an 'incredibly smart' woman whose life was 'ripped away' in a matter of seconds.

Good was among the six shoppers at Sydney's Bondi Junction Westfield who were killed today, when a man, 40, dressed in a rugby league jersey, went on a stabbing rampage about 3.20pm before a female police officer shot him dead.

A total of nine people, including Ms Good's nine-month-old baby Harriet, suffered knife wounds. The infant is fighting for her life after being rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.

Just hours before the horror unfolded, Ms Good posted a photo to Instagram with her daughter in her arms.

'Only because I was walking past and happened to be wearing the same thing 9 months out vs 9 months in etc etc,' the caption read.

She also posted a short video of her daughter sitting in a car seat with the Temptations song My Girl overlayed.

The knifeman, who killed five women and one man during a rampage in Sydney today, was 'known to police'.

One man was hailed a hero for rushing to aid Ms Good and her baby as he told how he desperately worked to keep the infant alive using store clothes.

A witness interrupted a Nine News reporter at the scene in Bondi Junction and pointed to his brother, saying: 'He's a hero - he saved the baby'.

The clearly shaken man said he used clothes from a store to try and stem the baby's bleeding.

'The baby got stabbed and, yeah, the mum got stabbed,' he said.

'The mum came over with the baby and threw it at me. I just helped by holding the baby... and trying to compress the baby('s wounds).'

The brothers stayed with the mother and called emergency services.

'(It was) very bad... a lot of the blood on the floor ... hope the baby's alright,' the other brother said.

The injured mum had blood coming out of her mouth, he said.

The BBC reported a man called Johnny, 33, was shopping when he turned to see a woman and her baby being attacked.

He said: 'She was getting stabbed. Everyone was in shock (and) didn't know what to do.'

The injured woman ran towards the Tommy Hilfiger store and staff locked the doors once she was inside, he added.

The attacker was seen running in the mall with a knife in his hand - moments before he was shot dead by a patrolling police officer

The two brothers used clothing and shirts from a shop to try and stop the baby's bleeding

The King and Queen have issued a statement condemning the attacks in Australia - saying they were 'utterly shocked and horrified'

He said people tried to stop the bleeding using clothes: 'The baby only had a minor wound, but the lady was pretty bad - there was a lot of blood and she was panicking.'

An employee at the COS shop, Rashdan Aqashah, 19, said he watched a man confront the attacker on an escalator using a pole, the BBC reported.

He said: 'I saw this one guy fighting with the killer. He was holding the pole, trying to throw a pole at the escalator.

'I grabbed my manager to shut the store door. It was just in front of our store.'

Footage posted to X, formerly Twitter, shows a man pointing a security pole at the attacker standing beneath him on the escalator.

One woman said she saw two dead bodies before she hid in the Lululemon sportswear shop.

She told ABC News: 'At the counter while I was as paying I heard this screaming of kids, women and men outside the shop - as soon as I turned my face to look I saw a guy who was wearing this green outfit, jersey materials, with shorts and a t-shirt with a very massive knife on hand.

Amy Scott shot the attacker with her service weapon

Inspector Scott sprinted through Westfield Bondi Junction to single-handedly confront the knifeman

'Then I saw a dead body right in front.

'There was massive (amounts of) blood around that body, a few metres after there was another dead body as well on the floor which was pretty scary.

'He had already stabbed two and they were on the floor and he was trying to turn back, like a U-turn, back to Lululemon shop, then I just screamed 'where is the safest changing room in which I can go and lock myself'.

'I was really in fear, I was thinking if they couldn't shut Lululemon door then I would maybe get stabbed - we locked down inside Lululemon for 45 (minutes) to one hour as the police came.'

Workers at a hair salon near the shopping centre ushered in 'traumatised' older women.

A woman who works at the salon told the same news outlet: 'We've had the older women coming into the salon who were in Westfield, traumatised, we had to sit them down because they were running and they weren't fit enough to run.'

People were still sheltered in the salon hours after the attack because their cars were parked in the shopping centre, she added.

Another witness, a worker at the shopping centre, recalled seeing a mother screaming on the level above.

'I see a mother and maybe her partner with a baby in a pram,' she told Nine News.

The knifeman who killed five women and one man during a rampage in Sydney today was 'known to police'

The knifeman was reportedly shot dead by a female police officer who was on patrol nearby

The attacker was in the mall at 3pm but left and returned at 3.20pm with a knife. He attacked the mother and child at 3.30pm before police arrived at 3.45pm and the mall was placed under lockdown at 4pm

'She's screaming really, really loudly. She's running back and forth not knowing what to do.

'Then she comes back to the pram and picks up her baby and there's just blood all over her back.

'The scream was unforgettable, it was the scariest thing I've ever seen.

'My co-worker took me, we locked all the doors, had to turn off all the lights and doors'.

READ MORE: How hero female cop risked her own life by confronting knifeman before she shot him dead Advertisement

New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb told a press conference: 'Later this evening we became aware of who we believe the offender is and we believe that he is a 40-year-old man.

'However, we are waiting to formally identify him and we cannot speculate yet on his identification.

'But let me assure you that we are confident that there is no ongoing risk and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased.'

She added: 'If in fact it is the person that we believe it is, then we don't have fears for that person holding an ideation - in other words, that it's not a terrorism incident.

'He is known to law enforcement but we are waiting to identify him formally.'

Speaking about the heroic cop, Commissioner Webb said she was 'doing well under the circumstances'.

Webb added: 'She showed enormous courage and bravery we just talked [and] she's OK, her family is OK. She's got everything she needs for the time being.'

The officer will be interviewed formally tomorrow about what happened.

The baby is being treated at Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick. Another victim was rushed to St George Hospital and someone else to Royal North Shore Hospital.

Three were taken to St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst and two more to the Royal Prince Alfred in Camperdown.

Bystanders said they had seen multiple people outside the shopping centre in the city's eastern suburbs with blood on their clothes.

Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police, said: 'A man walked into Westfield at Bondi Junction, he left the centre very shortly after and returned... as he moved through the centre he engaged with about nine people.

'It is clear that during that engagement he caused harm to those people, we believe by stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying.

Earlier panicked people were seen running across the pedestrian bridge outside the centre in video posted to social media

Several people took shelter in a supermarket, where they remained for about an hour. The sound of police sirens and helicopters filled the air

'Very clearly a range of reports were made on the incident, police attended promptly - a single unit officer, inspector of police, was nearby, attended, [and] went into the centre directed by a range of people.

'She confronted the offender who had moved, by this stage, to level five.

'As she continued to walk quickly behind to catch up with him he turned to face her, raised a knife, she discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased.'

He added: 'I'm advised that there are five victims who are now deceased as a result of the actions of this offender.

'There are more than several other people who have been conveyed to hospital - a number of those are in serious and or critical conditions at this stage and I do not have further information in relation to descriptions of those people.

'I know one of them is a small child.'

It was later confirmed that six people died in the attack.

Mr Cooke said: 'I am content that there is no continuing threat; our police, as I said, have commenced investigations into the matter which will continue through the evening.

'I do not have details of victims who have been killed by this individual, nor those who have been conveyed to hospital for treatment - so I cannot provide you further information into relation to them, only to say very clearly our hearts go out to all of them, as they do (to) anyone touched by this incident this afternoon.

'I do not have information in relation to the offender - I do not know, at this stage, who he is, you would understand this is quite raw.

'Inquiries are very new and we continue to make attempts to identify the offender in this matter.

'That is it for the moment, in terms of information that I have for you.'

The shopping centre has been locked down following the attack, which killed six people

Streets in Sydney's Bondi Junction area remain cordoned off as local police make enquiries

Shoppers run though Bondi Junction as police lock down the centre after the attack unfolded

The Prince and Princess of Wales said they were 'shocked and saddened', adding that their thoughts are with those affected and the 'heroic emergency responders who risked their own lives to save others'

The stabbing happened at Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre, which went into lockdown just before 4pm on Saturday

A man who witnessed the attacker stab a woman in her stomach as he ran out of the shopping centre with his girlfriend said he felt 'powerless' as he saw the knifeman 'taking the life of someone else and wasn't able to do anything'.

READ MORE: Tearful shoppers tell how they fled Sydney knifeman - and praise hero who helped save wounded baby Advertisement

Carlos Ferras, 32, told the PA news agency: 'I was in the shopping mall with my girlfriend when, very near the entrance, suddenly a crowd came in running.

'I started looking into the crowd trying to understand the commotion and very soon realised there was a guy following them with a quite long knife.

'At that point my girl pulled me to run into the mall, but I noticed we would be running in parallel to the attacker, as at that point he was literally next to us on the other side of the corridor.

'The guy seemed focused on going forward so he didn't notice us.'

Mr Ferras, a software engineer based in Sydney, continued: 'I took my girl and led her towards the mall entrance while keeping an eye on the guy and it was at that moment that I saw him stabbing a lady  he pretty much stuck the full knife into her stomach.

Multiple other shoppers have been injured in the attack, it has been reported

Paramedics have taken two people to hospital in ambulances so far, while bystanders have seen multiple people outside the shopping centre with blood on their clothes

'We made it out but outside was as crazy as inside, people running in all directions.

'In the moment we didn't know how many attackers (there were) or anything else so we stayed vigilant and went to one of the parking exits hoping to get inside and get our car.

'Feelings are hard to describe during a situation like that. I would say I was definitely in alert, scared and worried of course, mostly about the uncertainty of not knowing how many attackers or if it was finishedI felt powerless, I had the guy in front me, alone, saw him taking the life of someone else, and wasn't able to do anything.'

A supervisor of a luggage store in the shopping centre said he witnessed the attacker stab a woman and saw the bodies of four people on the ground, including two security guards.

Yohan Francois Philip, 29, told PA he stayed inside the store with several colleagues and customers as 'a growing movement of around 50-ish' ran past, before a woman approaching the shop, 'banged on the door and said 'let me in'.

A large police presence has remained at the scene of the fatal stabbing

Specialist police officers with rifles were seen in the shopping centre

'As I was letting her in, the perpetrator fell behind her with a knife and I saw him and so did the other customers in the store locked in with us and so we quickly pulled her in, locked the door, he got up and we realised he just stabbed two security guards.

'Then he ran across, to the corner part of the luggage store, to the premium section, and he stabbed a woman which I saw happen right in front of me.'

Mr Philips, who also works as a lawyer, continued: 'There was a nurse in the store who was adamant she wanted to leave and helpshe wanted to go help the security guard and I said 'I don't know what's going to happen if I open this door' but on her decision I let her out.

'We were still locked in the store at that point... so we waited and waited until we had further instruction. The sirens are going off at that point.

'We've got a view of the back of our store onto the public street and we saw people running out of the store and then later on we saw ambulances and cops and bodies, people being wheeled out.'

Police have cordoned off the shopping centre in Sydney

Shoppers enjoying a day out today were evacuated from the mall

State broadcaster ABC reported some people remained trapped inside. Two witnesses told Reuters they heard shots fired

One witness said: 'Even 20 minutes after people were rushed out of the mall, I saw SWAT teams of people sweeping the surrounding streets'

As he was eventually escorted outside by police officers, he 'counted four bodies' on the ground in the shopping centre and witnessed the baby that was attacked during the stabbing spree being wheeled out of the building, he said.

Commissioner Reece Kershaw said Australia's Federal Police would support New South Wales Police as they investigated the attack.

He said: 'The AFP has deployed AFP members to the crime scene and we've offered our full specialist capabilities such as digital forensics,' he said.

'It is too early to determine a motive and it would be unhelpful to speculate.'

An eyewitness described the police officer shooting the attacker to state broadcaster ABC.

People at the scene said there was panic, with shoppers running to safety and police trying to secure the area

Police and ambulance staff rushed to the scene earlier today

'If she did not shoot him, he would have kept going, he was on the rampage,' said the man, who did not give his name. 'She went over and was giving him CPR. He had a nice big blade on him. He looked like he was on a killing spree.'

A spokesman for New South Wales Ambulance told a press conference: 'Shortly after 3pm today, New South Wales Ambulance received multiple calls for persons stabbed within Westfield Bondi Junction.

'We've responded a total of 40 resources to the scene who remain on scene still. That included a total of four medical teams.

'New South Wales Ambulance assessed and transported eight patients to various hospital facilities across Sydney and assessed a total of six patients who have been deemed deceased on scene.'

After the stabbings, King Charles and Queen Camilla said they were 'utterly shocked and horrified' by the 'senseless attack' in Sydney and their 'hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who have been so brutally killed'.

The Prince and Princess of Wales said they were 'shocked and saddened', adding that their thoughts are with those affected and the 'heroic emergency responders who risked their own lives to save others'.

People at the scene said there was panic, with shoppers running to safety and police trying to secure the area.

Masked an armed police officers also rushed to the scene

Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police, said: 'A man walked into Westfield at Bondi Junction, he left the centre very shortly after and returned... as he moved through the centre he engaged with about nine people'

He added: 'It is clear that during that engagement he caused harm to those people, we believe by stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying'

Mr Cooke said: 'Very clearly a range of reports were made on the incident, police attended promptly - a single unit officer, inspector of police, was nearby, attended, [and] went into the centre directed by a range of people'

Several people took shelter in a supermarket, where they remained for about an hour.

The sound of police sirens and helicopters filled the air.

Security camera footage broadcast by local media showed a man running around the shopping centre with a large knife and injured people lying on the floor.

A tearful witness told Sky News: 'Who does that to people? I saw a woman lying on the floor.

'I didn't see him properly, I was running. It was insane. I thought I was going to die.'

Witnesses said the dark-haired man, wearing a Kangaroos NRL jersey, slashed at least eight shoppers before he was shot by a female police officer. No-one else is being sought by police.

Police  including the Tactical Operations Unit  and ambulances have attended the scene, with people seen screaming and crying out the front of the complex.

Pictures and videos from the incident have been uploaded on X including one photo showing the alleged attacker casually riding an escalator while holding a large knife.

Police  including the Tactical Operations Unit  and ambulances have attended the scene, with people seen screaming and crying out the front of the complex

Pictures and videos from the incident have been uploaded on X including one photo showing the alleged attacker casually riding an escalator while holding a large knife

A young witness currently locked inside a store - said she has heard gunshots and 'blood-curdling' screams

A young witness currently locked inside a store - said she has heard gunshots and 'blood-curdling' screams.

'We are absolutely terrified,' she said.

Earlier panicked people were seen running across the pedestrian bridge outside the centre in video posted to social media.

Others said they were being evacuated from the centre's car park.

Police are attending the scene in numbers and Australian Federal Police are liaising with NSW officials in case the joint counter terrorism team is needed.

Authorities are investigating possible motives for the attack and have warned people not to jump to conclusions.

Footage of the incident showed the attacker running after large crowds of people as others watched on from the floor above.

As the attacker closes in one hero dad turns around to stop the man's and protect his wife and two children.

Another video captured one man armed with a small metal pole trying to fend off the attacker.

The shopper was standing at the top of an escalator threatening to throw the pole at the attacker who was on his way up as the two held their ground.

Eastern suburbs local Ted Helliar posted to X: 'Something just went down at Westfields Bondi junction.'

'We were up there and all of a sudden all these people running towards us. Next thing dozens and dozens of people all running a screaming some bloke yells 'someone is stabbing everyone get out of here'.'

Another person whose friend had a daughter in the complex at the time of the alleged stabbing shared screenshots of her messages online.

'We just heard gunshots,' the daughter texted.

'Get to cover,' her parent replied. 'Please, please be safe.'

Westfield Bondi Junction is in lockdown after the incident on Saturday afternoon

Shoppers trapped inside the complex were desperately messaging their loved ones to let them know they were alright

Another X user said hundreds of shoppers were hiding in the back of the David Jones department store, which had pulled down its shutters with reports a man had been seen running with a gun in the centre.

Witness Roi Huberman, an ABC sound engineer, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident.

'And suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didn't know what to do,' he said.

'Then the very capable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked.

'She then locked the store and then she then let us through the back and now we are out.'

One witness said: 'Even 20 minutes after people were rushed out of the mall, I saw SWAT teams of people sweeping the surrounding streets.'

Another said they saw a woman lying on the ground and took shelter in a jewellery store.

Witness Roi Huberman, an ABC sound engineer, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident

SWAT teams with rifles were seen accompanying police after the attack

Another witness said they saw a woman lying on the ground and took shelter in a jewellery store

Several posts on social media showed crowds fleeing the mall and police cars and emergency services rushing to the area.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese posted on X just after 6pm on Saturday following the stabbing attack.

'I have been briefed by the AFP on the devastating events at Bondi Junction. Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones,' he said.

'Our hearts go out to those injured and we offer our thanks to those caring for them as well as our brave police and first responders.'

Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, said he is is making 'immediate arrangements' to return to Sydney following the shopping centre stabbings.

He said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter: 'I am horrified to hear about the events at Bondi Junction this afternoon.

'I am making immediate arrangements to return to Sydney.

'I want to thank NSW Police, emergency services and first responders and the community for their bravery in the face of this shocking incident.'

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said his 'heart goes out' to those affected by the 'truly devastating' attack in Sydney that killed six people.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he said: 'The horrific attacks at Bondi Junction are truly devastating.

'My heart goes out to those affected by this abhorrent act of violence, and I pray for the recovery of those left injured and traumatised today.

'You are in the thoughts and prayers of the British people.'
Glasgow University is under growing pressure to censure its new rector after a video emerged showing him weeping over the death of a Palestinian terror group leader  whose organisation is accused of participating in the October 7 massacre in Israel.

Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian surgeon, was installed in the role after receiving 80 per cent of the student vote.

During a speech delivered to mark his appointment on Thursday, he claimed the institution actively colludes in the murder of innocent civilians in Gaza because it has shares in arms companies that supply Israel. He also quoted IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, who said: Our revenge will be the laughter of our children.

Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, left, joined mourners at a memorial service for Palestinian terror group leader, Maher Al-Yamani in Beirut in 2020

Jewish leaders condemned the 55-year-olds instalment and said he seeks to make the university a less safe place to be Jewish.

Now, shocking footage shows the doctor speaking at an anniversary ceremony of the death of Maher Al-Yamani, a co-founder of the proscribed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

The Marxist-Leninist organisation, banned in the UK since 2014, has carried out a number of aircraft hijackings, including the capture of an Air France plane in 1976.

Israel has accused it of taking part in the deadly Hamas-led attacks on October 7. The video of Dr Abu-Sittah  obtained by the Jewish Chronicle newspaper  shows him deliver a tearful speech in Beirut in 2020 in remembrance of Al-Yamani, who he praised for his campaign in the West Bank and for continuing to scare the enemy  Israel  from the grave.

Maher al-Yamani

Dr Abu-Sittah was installed on Thursday

Last night Conservative MSP for Glasgow Annie Wells said: I am deeply concerned with the language used by the new Glasgow University rector. Many people will rightfully be outraged at his glorification of convicted terrorists and eulogy of an antisemitic terrorist leader.

She added: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah should apologise for his deeply offensive comments.

Al-Yamani was born in Lebanon in 1949 and had been a member of the PFLP since it was started in 1967. He is said to have helped plan the 1968 hijacking of an Israeli El Al plane, for which he was initially sentenced to 31 years in prison.

The film comes after Dr Abu-Sittah had already been pictured sitting next to plane hijacker and member of the PFLP, Leila Khaled, at a memorial service in 2019. Khaled blew up a passenger jet on the runway in 1969.

Hamass attack Israel on October 7 last year

The exposure of the doctors concerning links comes as he ran his campaign to become Glasgow University rector as an opportunity for students to declare their opposition to Israels genocidal war in Gaza and to stand in solidarity with Palestine.

Dorothy Sheratt, co-president of Glasgows Jewish Society, has previously said: Someone who eulogises proscribed terrorists  as defined in the US and EU  cannot lead the university or fulfil the rectors obligation to provide pastoral care to all students, equally.

Timothy Lovat, president of the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, said: Students have endorsed someone who claims to understand antisemitism better than the Jewish community and seeks to make the university a less safe place to be Jewish.

Last night a university spokesman said Dr Abu-Sittah had been elected by students, adding: The rectors views clearly do not represent those of the university.

Dr Abu-Sittah said: While I may in the past have used emotive language at the funeral of a friend or following an extra-judicial killing, I vehemently oppose terrorism, and civilian casualties on all sides. As a surgeon my vocation is preserving life and I repeat my calls for a sustainable ceasefire and lasting peace.

His lawyers said Dr Abu-Sittah knew Maher Al-Yamani as a patient and later a friend. He was asked to speak at the memorial on Al-Yamanis widows request. He said he was not aware Al-Yamani was accused of involvement in terror. He had no political affiliation with Al-Yamani or the PFLP, they said.
The heroic female police officer who single-handedly confronted and shot dead a knifeman who killed six people in a shopping centre had already been decorated for her exemplary service, MailOnline can reveal.

New South Wales (NSW) Police Inspector Amy Scott has been hailed a hero and praised for her bravery after she stopped the terrifying rampage at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney's east on Saturday afternoon.

As the first officer on scene, Inspector Scott sprinted through the top level of the shopping complex and risked her life when she confronted the knifeman who also injured eight others.

She shot the attacker - who was wearing a green rugby top - dead when he turned towards her and raised his knife.

The senior police officer then performed CPR on the killer and the other victims lying on the ground as she waited for back-up to arrive.

Insp Amy Scott (second from the left) was recognised for her courage while stationed as a sergeant in 2019

She has been hailed a hero and praised for her bravery after she stopped the terrifying rampage at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney's east on Saturday afternoon

As the first officer on scene, Inspector Scott sprinted through the top level of the shopping complex and risked her life when she confronted the knifeman who also injured eight others

But this is not the first time Inspector Scott has been decorated for her policing efforts.

In 2019, she was recognised at the Rotary Club Police Officer of the Year award ceremony and received the prize for Demonstrated Courage and Devotion to Duty.

Pictures show her smiling alongside other police officers as she holds up her award.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has said that Inspector Scott is 'doing well under the circumstances'.

She will be formally interviewed as part of the investigation into the deadly stabbings.

It was revealed earlier today that the 40-year-old knifeman that Inspector Scott shot dead was 'known to police'.

Among the victims was 38-year-old new mother Ash Good who was attacked alongside her nine-month-old baby Harriet.

The infant - who suffered stab wounds- is fighting for her life after being rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.

Inspector Scott sprinted through Westfield Bondi Junction to single-handedly confront the knifeman

She confronted the knifeman alone on the top level of the shopping centre and shot him dead

Ash Good, 38, was among the six shoppers at Sydney's Bondi Junction Westfield who were killed today, when a man, 40, dressed in a rugby league jersey, went on a stabbing rampage about 3.20pm before a female police officer shot him dead

Just hours before the horror unfolded, Ms Good posted a photo to Instagram with her daughter in her arms.

'Only because I was walking past and happened to be wearing the same thing 9 months out vs 9 months in etc etc,' the caption read.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Prince and Princess of Wales have led the flood of commendations for Inspector Scott's actions.

Rishi Sunak has said his 'heart goes out' to those affected by the 'truly devastating' attack in Sydney that killed six people.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he said: 'The horrific attacks at Bondi Junction are truly devastating.

'My heart goes out to those affected by this abhorrent act of violence, and I pray for the recovery of those left injured and traumatised today.

'You are in the thoughts and prayers of the British people.'

She has also been hailed as a national hero online with one person posting on X: 'She was utterly fearless, brave and amazing. How many lives did she save today? Brave'.

Another added: 'Absolute legend. Just happened to be in the vicinity and the first on scene. Didn't even hesitate.'

A third wrote: 'She did what she had to do in that situation. No f******g around or pandering to a murderer. We need more police like that.'

A fourth touted her as a possible Australian of the Year contender while other called for her to receive a bravery award.

Some also pointed out she was wearing little protection.

The attacker was seen running in the mall with a knife in his hand - moments before he was shot dead by a patrolling police officer

The knifeman who killed five women and one man during a rampage in Sydney today was 'known to police'

The attacker was in the mall at 3pm but left and returned at 3.20pm with a knife. He attacked the mother and child at 3.30pm before police arrived at 3.45pm and the mall was placed under lockdown at 4pm

'No vest, no protective gear, no backup? No problems,' one wrote.

Others showed concern for the officer's wellbeing.

'While throwing words like 'hero' around, remember, the taking of a life will change hers as well. Heroes can be victims too, let's hope she gets every bit of support needed,' one commented.

Commissioner Webb revealed that she has spoken to Inspector Scott following the tragedy.

'She showed enormous courage and bravery, and she will obviously process that,' Commissioner Webb said.

'She will need to be interviewed formally and so we just talked about that she's OK and that her family's OK.

'She's got everything she needs for the time being, and she will be formally interviewed tomorrow.'

Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke earlier said that the police officer engaged immediately on her arrival to the scene.

'The officer was guided to the location of the offender by people who are in the centre, and she took the actions that she did, saving a range of people's lives,' he said.

Waverley Mayor Paula Masselos also commended Inspector Scott's courage while paying tribute to the 'everyday heroes' involved, including a bystander who confronted the knifeman on the escalators.

'She (the police officer) was there on her own and she went towards the danger,' she told Sky News UK.

'Even [after she shot the attacker], she immediately began applying CPR  that just shows you the dedication of the person and her incredible act of heroism  even then her main concern was for someone who had fallen.

'I will be reaching out to the various service providers and to the police to see what practical support we can offer as a council.'

Mr Albanese held a snap press conference in Canberra to address the tragedy on Saturday night, where he also praised Inspector Scott.

'She entered the proceedings that were taking place, obviously very dangerous, by herself,' he said.

'She is certainly a hero. There is no doubt that she saved lives through her actions.

'Today is a reminder that those people who wear a uniform are people who rushed to danger, not away from it.'

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission has launched a critical incident into the her brave actions.

'The NSWPF are investigating the circumstances of the incident and this investigation will be reviewed by the Professional Standards Command,' a statement read.

Westfield Bondi Junction is expected to remain closed for several days.
As she sat in the court watching her rapist finally being led away in handcuffs, Ellie Wilson should have been consumed with feelings of relief and vindication after her brave three-year battle for justice.

Yet at the exact moment she watched her tormentor Daniel McFarlane disappear down the court stairs to begin his five-year prison term, her thoughts immediately turned to the next battle she knew she would have to face.

For Ms Wilson had been subjected to brutal treatment at the hands of McFarlanes defence lawyer who questioned whether she had a personality disorder and suggested his client had fallen in love with the wrong person.

She knew, as she sat in the austere surroundings of the High Court in Glasgow, his public attack on her meant she had to stand up for herself all over again. Incredibly, after her fight to get her rapist into court, she would, yet again, have to seek justice for herself.

Ellie Wilson says she has finally been vindicated and now wants to help other rape victims

She complained that advocate Lorenzo Alonzi broke rules designed to protect women in rape trials from inappropriate questioning about their sexual history and character. Last week the Faculty of Advocates complaints committee found him guilty of five counts of unsatisfactory professional conduct.

Ms Wilsons success  after a 3,000 crowdfunding campaign to secure vital court transcripts  drew a crucial legal line in the sand. More importantly, it marked a powerful victory for every rape victim whose character is called into question during the ordeal of bringing their attacker to justice.

Ms Wilson, who has waived her anonymity, said she hoped the finding would show that advocates cant act with impunity.

Last night the 26-year-old said: It feels like a victory now, it has been so hard fought and it has taken so much effort to get here.

Im not a lawyer but I had to essentially learn about the law, so Im very proud of myself for being successful.

I was suicidal after that court case after what I experienced, but my case is not unusual  we need to act urgently.

We cannot be retraumatising people when they are at their most vulnerable and gambling with their lives and mental health. Its absolutely not acceptable.

McFarlane, from Inverness, was jailed in July 2022 after being convicted of raping Ms Wilson between December 2017 and February 2018 when he was a medical student at the University of Glasgow.

He was also found guilty of attempting to defeat the ends of justice when he asked a friend to delete messages after he admitted carrying out despicable things. A secret recording made by Ms Wilson helped convict him after she found the courage to report McFarlane to the police.

However, after her attacker was convicted and jailed, far from being relieved, she felt humiliated and powerless.

Ellie Wilson, centre, meets First Minister Humza Yousaf and Tory MSP Pam Gosal

Such was the treatment dished out by Mr Alonzi, Ms Wilson felt she was the one on trial and accused of being an abuser. She said: I had no idea what to expect going to court.

When I was led from the witness room to the court, it felt like I was being led to my own execution.

The experience was made even more traumatic when Mr Alonzi repeatedly crossed the line with his questions.

This included him asking her if she had heard of narcissistic personality disorder and whether she had it, which the lawyer told the judge was not based on any medical report or diagnosis but his own assessment based on messages he had seen.

The court experience did not just force her to relive the trauma she faced during her relationship with McFarlane but actually created a new one.

She said: I felt I was being abused publicly in court by this lawyer and unable to do anything.

The Faculty of Advocates ruled that asking the questions he did without having seen such a report or diagnosis by a medical professional was discourteous to the court and abused the privileged position held by the member.

Even after the jury was discharged, Mr Alonzi continued on his crusade to attack her character.

Ms Wilson had the courage to attend McFarlanes sentencing hearing, to watch him be sent to prison for what he had done to her.

It was then, as he spoke in mitigation for his client, that Mr Alonzi took further aim at Ms Wilson.

Advocate Lorenzo Alonzi

He said McFarlane fell in love with the wrong person, that he didnt belong in court and that it was difficult not to imagine some sense of injustice in it all.

Ms Wilson said: Daniel had brought his entire family to the hearing. Just seeing the huge army of supporters was really intimidating and to hear all that horrible stuff being said was humiliating and disempowering. I expected what Mr Alonzi said that day to be focused on his client, not on me.

Sentencing was worse than being cross-examined because I couldnt say anything. So thats what this complaint is about, finding my voice and reclaiming my power.

I decided then I was going to do something about that. It was ruled that at the sentencing hearing Mr Alonzi appears to make complimentary statements about the accuseds morals and upbringing and then imply that the complainer is the exact opposite by describing them as chalk and cheese.

The Faculty added: The member states the accused doesnt belong here which again can be taken as suggesting the jury made an error and convicted an innocent man.

The implication of that is that the complainer has unfairly done well in life, despite lying about the accuseds behaviour, whereas the accused is innocent and has been wrongly convicted on the basis of the complainers false testimony.

Leaving court, Ms Wilson should have had a sense of closure and been ready to try to rebuild her life, but was left feeling suicidal.

Somehow she found the strength to take the matter further and crowdfunded 3,000 to pay for the trial transcripts. This landmark moment has led to other victims of sexual assault being given access to such transcripts for free, as part of a pilot scheme.

Using her transcript, Ms Wilson channelled her pain and trauma and lodged a complaint challenging the behaviour of the advocate.

Daniel McFarlane heads to court before being convicted of rape

She said: The battles have been endless. After the sentencing people expected me to be happy and move on but I was deeply depressed and that was largely down to Mr Alonzi.

Reading the transcripts, piecing her complaint together and learning the law, Ms Wilson has been empowered to continue in her quest to help other women.

She said: There will be more cases like this and thats why I will keep campaigning.

Theres this secrecy surrounding the courts and advocates say things knowing nobody can really prove what has been said.

Thats part of this culture of impunity so having free transcripts will serve as a warning.

The news her complaint had been upheld last week finally gave her a sense of justice. She said: The language in the report is quite strong saying he had abused his position.

I have been vindicated and the hard work has paid off, everything I suspected has been proven to be true. He violated the laws put in place to protect victims.

The final wait now is to find out how Mr Alonzi will be sanctioned.

The Faculty of Advocates said: The process remains ongoing. Therefore it would not be appropriate to comment. Mr Alonzi was contacted for comment.

Ms Wilson said: I expect an apology. If I dont get one Ill be protesting outside the Faculty of Advocates chambers. The least I deserve is an apology but I want compensation as well. I came out of the court feeling suicidal and needing time off work, it has had an enormous impact on my life.

Ms Wilson said she wont stop now. She wants more to be done to prevent this happening for victims still to give evidence at court.

She added: I am going to extend invites to the people in power to meet with me and talk about this.

The sad reality is my case is not unique, there are probably thousands of women across Scotland in a similar situation. The most heartwarming moment Ive had is hearing that other women had cited me as the reason for reporting abusers and having the courage to talk about what happened to them.

By them doing that, other women will do the same and it is like this chain effect, which is so beautiful.
They were envisaged as a simple, yet effective way of letting drivers know when they were speeding.

However, radar speed signs  famous for their alternating happy or angry faces  are being rendered useless in Scotland due to budgetary constraints and the countrys cloudy skies.

A Mail on Sunday investigation shows some cash-strapped councils have abandoned the network of signs, with many left broken and others unchecked for as long as five years.

In the Borders, the local council admits it has been forced to replace solar-powered units which have failed due to a lack of sunlight and the gloomy conditions in Scotland.

Many of Scotland's solar powered speed cameras are inoperative due to a lack of sunlight

In another local authority area, East Renfrewshire, 65 per cent of speed signs are no longer working and there is no budget to replace them. In North Ayrshire, 75 per cent of the signs are not in operation.

The disclosure is a major embarrassment for the Scottish Government, which says it hopes to have the best road safety performance in the world in six years time.

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy at the AA, said the signs have a part to play in creating safer streets. He added: In the effort to eliminate road deaths, we need to use all the tools available to help reach that goal. It is disappointing the upkeep of these cameras has fallen foul of council budgets.

Smiley face speed cameras play a clever role in nudging driving behaviour in the right way. Speeding drivers tend to slow down to turn the angry red face and numbers into a happy green grin.

When working, local residents can see the difference the cameras play in keeping speed down.

The signs were introduced in Scotland around 20 years ago, usually located where rural roads run into 30mph built-up areas.

Officials in Glasgow now report a failure rate of 50 per cent but admit they cant be sure this is accurate as units have not been checked for five years.

There is no inspection or maintenance regime in place in Highland or East Ayrshire, while Perth and Kinross Council confirmed one of its signs has been broken for five years  with no plans to replace it. Moray Council said it has six portable signs but only one is currently working.

The revelation comes after Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop recently insisted road safety was an absolute priority for the SNP-led administration at Holyrood.

Living Streets Scotland acting co-director Anne Docherty said: Being kept safe on our streets is not a nice to have, it is a right that many of us are being denied.

She added: We need political will and crucially investment in measures to increase road safety if we are to reduce the number of lives lost on our roads each year.

East Renfrewshire Council, where 37 out of 57 cameras are broken, said: We take our road safety duties extremely seriously.

The condition of each Speed Information Display sign will be assessed and they will be reinstated, if economically viable.

However, some are considered likely to be beyond repair and will be decommissioned.

Transport Scotland said: It is not for Ministers to intervene in a local authoritys performance of these particular duties.
A post office is seen Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, on North Shepherd Drive in Houston. Jon Shapley/Staff photographer

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is scheduled to appear Tuesday at a hearing called by the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

DeJoy is one of four witnesses confirmed for the hearing, which is titled Oversight of the United States Postal Service."

"The hearing will examine the U.S. Postal Services current service, operations, and finances, including oversight of changes to the Postal Services network and their potential impacts on mail delivery. The hearing will also examine the implementation of the Postal Service Reform Act," reads a press release.

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The other witnesses announced by the committee are USPS Board of Governors Chairman Roman Martinez IV, Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Michael Kubayanda and USPS Inspector General Tammy Hull.

The Postal Regulatory Commission and the USPS Office of Inspector General are both independent oversight agencies.

LOOKING AT DATA: USPS data reveals Houston-area performance dropped below previous standards for months starting in November

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Sen. Rand Paul is the committee's ranking member.

Peters, the junior senator from Michigan, has sent multiple letters to DeJoy in recent months about USPS, including one in the middle of March. He notes in that letter the Postal Service has not sufficiently answered questions regarding the impact of the current and forthcoming changes to the system.

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"USPS continues to move forward with facility changes, despite unanswered questions about the impacts on communities  and despite USPSs initial promises that it would study the impacts of early changes before moving forward with its plan," Peters wrote.

The post office is currently in the middle of its 10-year Delivering for America plan with the hopes of modernizing the system. Congress passed the Postal Service Reform Act, which was meant to help stabilize the service through financial and operational changes, in 2022.

AUDIT RELEASED: Audit uncovers 384K pieces of delayed mail during January inspection of USPS Missouri City facility

The hearing will come less than a week after the USPS Office of Inspector General released its audit on the South Houston Local Processing Center in Missouri City.

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The audit, which was conducted over three days in January, estimated that there was approximately 384,000 pieces of delayed mail at the facility during their visit.
Women's rights campaigners have demanded that medics in Scotland stop prescribing puberty blockers to children  or risk future legal action.

For Women Scotland (FWS) has warned patients could take health boards to court if youngsters as young as nine continue to be prescribed the drugs despite concerns raised in a landmark report.

Paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass found gender medicine had been based on shaky foundations and that under-18s had received unevidenced treatment.

Her review was announced after whistle-blowers raised fears over the Gender Identity and Development Services (Gids) for children at the Tavistock clinic in London.

For Women Scotland says there is no justification for medics prescribing puberty blockers for youngsters

NHS England has already announced the medication will no longer be routinely prescribed outwith clinical trials. However, in Scotland children can continue to receive puberty blockers.

FWSs warning came as it emerged some NHS boards are still referring young patients to the Sandyford clinic in Glasgow  dubbed the tartan Tavistock.

An FWS spokeswoman said it supports Nationalist MP Joanna Cherrys call for the prescribing of puberty blockers to end.

It is clear there is no medical evidence for their use and the Scottish NHS is entirely culpable for the harm done to any child given puberty blockers from this moment on, the spokeswoman said. Court cases will inevitably follow otherwise.

There has never been a good reason to halt the puberty of physically healthy children and the figures show too many children, many of them autistic and most of them girls, have wrongly been put on a pathway to cross-sex hormones, infertility, increased health risks and lifelong medication.

The Sandyford Clinic in Glasgow is sometimes referred to as the 'tartan Tavistock'

Its scandalous that any medic thought it appropriate to do so to nine-year-olds when all the evidence points to the vast majority of kids coming to terms with their bodies as they grow up. We hope the NHS, if not the Scottish Government, will quickly realise the folly of allowing trans activist groups to ideologically influence the treatment of children who are distressed about gender, and redesign care along clinically evidenced therapeutic lines as opposed to one-way medical affirmation.

Critics say the Sandyford is run on a similar model to the Tavistock, something NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde disputes.

The Scottish Mail on Sunday asked all Scottish NHS boards if they were continuing referrals to the Sandyford. NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Tayside confirmed they are.

NHS Fife said it does not refer patients directly, but they can self-refer.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: We are working with the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland to consider the findings of this review.

Other boards failed to respond.
A 29-year-old motorcycle fanatic who was tragically killed in a four-vehicle collision has been pictured, as her family pay tribute to the 'amazing daughter, sister and mother'.

Heidi Visser, 29, from Battle, is believed to have been with others at a car park in Eastbourne, Sussex, when the incident happened.

Police were called to Shooters Bottom Car Park at around 4.25pm on April 1 after reports of a crash involving Ms Visser's red Honda motorbike, as well as a silver Mazda, a black Audi and a red Mazda.

Sadly, the 29-year-old mother of two was pronounced dead at the scene while a 19-year-old youth was arrested on suspicion of causing her death by careless driving.

Heidi Visser, 29, (pictured) was a motorbike enthusiast, hairdresser, personal trainer and mother of two

Police were called to Shooters Bottom Car Park (pictured) at around 4.25pm on April 1

Today the family of Ms Visser described her as an 'amazing daughter, sister and mother-of-two'.

In a statement, they said: 'Heidi was a personal trainer and hairdresser and was very well known and loved in Heathfield, Uckfield and the surrounding areas.

'Her passions included bodybuilding and motorbikes, but most importantly, she had a passion for her children.

'Heidi loved horse riding in her younger years and grew up on the farm with a love for animals.

'She was a partner to Kieran who she absolutely adored. Heidi was taken far too soon but will be loved forever.'

A spokesman for Sussex Police said: 'Tragically, the rider of a red Honda motorbike, Heidi Visser, aged 29 years and from Battle, died at the scene, despite the best efforts of paramedics.

'A 19-year-old man from Eastbourne was arrested on suspicion of causing death by careless driving. He has been released on conditional bail, pending further inquiries.'

Police are appealing for anyone who witnessed the collision or captured any relevant CCTV or dashcam footage to contact collision.appeal@sussex.police.uk, quoting Operation Chisel.
Iranian commandos stormed a container ship linked to Israel as it travelled through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important marine passages.

Special forces from the naval branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) boarded the MSC Aries roughly 50 miles off the coast of the United Arab Emirates early on Saturday.

Footage of the mission taken by a member of the crew shows at least three commandos rappelling down a rope from a helicopter onto the vessel, a container ship sailing under the flag of Portugal and linked to Israeli maritime magnate Eyal Ofer.

This came before Iran launched drone and missile strikes against Israel this evening that are set to hit within hours, after Israel announced it was closing all schools amid fears of an upcoming attack from the rogue state.

Dozens of drones were seen flying from Iran over neighbouring Iraq's Sulaymaniya province, according to three security sources. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said via state media that it had 'launched extensive drone strikes against targets in occupied territories.'

The 1,201ft long and 168ft wide ship left the UAE port of Khalifa and was due to arrive in the Indian city of Nhava Sheva before the attack, the latest escalation in tensions between that many fear may lead to Tehran launching a military offensive against Israel.

Tracking data last placed the MSC Aries near the coast of Dubai just over a day ago. The ship appears to have turned off its tracking data around then.

Footage of the mission taken by a member of the crew shows at least three commandos rappelling down a rope from a helicopter onto the vessel

The MSC Aries (pictured) is being hauled over to Iranian waters

A missile is launched during a military drill in southern Iran

Iranian attend the funeral procession for seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members killed in a strike in Syria, which Iran blamed on Israel

The UK's Maritime Trade Operations agency confirmed the boarding, though made no mention of Iran, instead saying that the vessel was 'reported to have been seized by regional authorities.'

It later said that 'authorities' were investigating the incident, but did not provide any further details.

Iran's state news agency said that Iranian commandos were involved in the boarding, and said the vessel was being transported to Iranian waters, though Iranian officials are yet to comment on the seizure.

This was also confirmed by the ship's parent company, which said that the ship has 'since been diverted from her itinerary towards Iran.'

The company added: 'We are working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their wellbeing, and safe return of the vessel.'

The White House said the crew of the vessel comprised of Indian, Filipino, Pakistani, Russian and Estonian nationals, and an official in the Indian government adding that 17 Indian nationals were onboard the Aries.

At least three commandos were seen exiting the Guards shopper

A handout photo made available by the Iranian supreme leader office shows Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praying over the coffins of members of the Iranian revolutionary guards corps (IRGC) who were killed in Syria

White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said: 'We call on Iran to release the vessel and its international crew immediately.

'Seizing a civilian vessel without provocation is a blatant violation of international law, and an act of piracy by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

'It must be condemned unequivocally, and we will work with our partners to hold Iran to account for its actions.'

The Indian official told the FT: 'We are in touch with the Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and in Delhi, to ensure [the] security, welfare and early release of Indian nationals.'

MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, Zodiac said in a statement, adding that MSC is responsible for all the vessel's activities. Zodiac is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.

In response to Iran's attack against the container ship, Israel's foreign minister Israel Katz took to X to say: 'The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have seized a Portuguese civilian cargo ship, belonging to an EU member, claiming Israeli ownership.

'The Ayatollah regime is a criminal regime that supports Hamas' crimes and is now conducting a pirate operation in violation of international law.

'I call on the European Union and the free world to immediately declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guards corps as a terrorist organization and to sanction Iran now.'

 Slide me  A before and after of the Iranian embassy strike

Rescue workers search in the rubble of a building annexed to the Iranian embassy

Britain's secretary of defence Grant Shapps, meanwhile, said: 'The seizure of the cargo ship MSC Aries by Iran is unacceptable and a blatant violation of international law.

'We call for the unconditional release of the ship and its crew without delay. We are working with partners to prevent escalation in the Middle East. Iran must cease their destabilising behaviour immediately.'

On Tuesday the naval head of the Revolutionary Guards, Alireza Tangsiri, said it could close the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, if deemed necessary.

He said Iran viewed as a threat Israel's presence in the UAE, with which Israel established diplomatic relations in 2020 as part of the 'Abraham Accords' mediated by the United States.

Analyst Hasan Alhasan of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said if the seizure of the MSC Aries was in retaliation for Israel's strike on Iran's Damascus consulate, it showed a desire to save face without a wider escalation.

Houthi supporters shout slogans during a rally marking the Al-Quds Day, in Sana'a, Yemen

An Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the Shahed-136, is being displayed at the Azadi (Freedom) Square in western Tehran, Iran

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leads Eid al-Fitr prayer marking the end of the Muslims holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Tehran

'Iran may be trying to play on fears that it could obstruct shipping through the strait, a passageway of greater significance to global oil and gas supplies than the Red Sea,' he said.

'If Iran were to limit itself to seizing commercial vessels linked to Israel then it would minimise the risk of an all-out conflict but damage its own credibility,' he added.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi group has disrupted global trade with attacks on shipping in the Red Sea for months, saying it is aiming at vessels linked to Israel in retaliation for Israel's campaign in Gaza.

The United States and Britain have previously carried out strikes against Houthi targets in response to the attacks on shipping.

The Joint Maritime Information Center, run by a Western-led naval coalition, said vessels intending to navigate the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important energy routes, should exercise caution and not loiter.

Iran has previously promised to take revenge on Israel after its military conducted a missile strike against its embassy in Syria's capital, Damascus, which left 12 people including two top generals.

Israel has still not publicly commented on the attack, but its allies have warned Iran that support for Israel is 'ironclad.'

US president Joe Biden said at a press conference on Thursday: 'As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad. Let me say it again: ironclad. We're going to do all we can to protect Israel security.'

Biden's top diplomat, Anthony Blinken, affirmed his words and told Israel's defence minister Yoav Gallant on a phone call that the US would stand behind Israel if Iran decides to attack.

Last week, Major General Rahim Safavi, who served as the chief commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that none of Israel's embassies were safe following the missile strike.

US officials told the New York Times that Iran will likely strike multiple targets in Israel in the next few days.

Little is known about the potential attacks, including what form they may take, what kinds of targets will be involved and exactly when they will take place.
President Joe Biden is cutting his weekend at the beach short and racing back to the White House to deal with spiraling tensions in the Middle East that could lead to a full-scale war.

Biden, 81, is set to leave Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home on Saturday afternoon so he can meet his national security team just 24 hours after he said an Iranian strike on Israel would happen 'sooner rather than later'.

He was due to stay until Sunday, but will now return to Washington D.C. after less than 20 hours following reports Tehran was moving more than 100 cruise missiles and drones to prepare for an assault.

The White House said Biden is set to 'consult with his national security team about events in the Middle East' - the day after he delivered a one-word warning to Tehran over possible strikes: 'Don't.'

He is also set to be briefed in the White House Situation Room as the drama unfolds.

President Joe Biden is cutting his weekend at the beach short and heading back to the White House to deal with the spiraling tensions in the Middle East that could lead to a full-scale war

President Joe Biden is seen boarding Marine One at Gordons Pond in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Saturday, April 13, 2024, to return to the White House

He was due to stay until Sunday, but will now return to Washington D.C. following reports Tehran was moving more than 100 cruise missiles and drones to prepare for an assault

It is unclear if Biden received new information that forced him to quickly cut his trip short, as he had previously indicated belief that an Iranian attack was being readied before he departed on Friday evening.

The Pentagon has already moved aircraft carriers into the Red Sea amid fears of a full-scale war, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant today to tell him he has 'unwavering' backing from the U.S.

Austin reiterated 'that Israel could count on full U.S. support to defend Israel against any attacks by Iran and its regional proxies', in a statement made shortly after Biden returned from his beach trip.

In response, Gallant said the nation is closely following 'a planned attack' from Iran.

After issuing his one-word message to Iran not to strike Israel, Biden affirmed that the US was committed to supporting one of its oldest allies despite simmering tensions with Benjamin Netanyahu's government over the war in Gaza.

Iran has publicly threatened to hit back at Israel over an attack in Syria last week, which Tehran say was an Israeli airstrike on an Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus.

The strike in Syria led to the deaths of seven members of the Revolutionary Guard, including two generals.

Amid fears over a retaliatory attack from Tehran, reports indicated Iran was preparing its offensive as officials conceded that such a strike may be inevitable.

Israeli army battle tanks move in an area along the border with the Gaza Strip and southern Israel on April 2, 2024

Iran has reportedly readied more than 100 cruise missiles as part of an 'imminent' strike on Israel: Picture are long-range air defense system called Arman displayed during an unveiling ceremony in Tehran, Iran, on February 17, 2024

Rescue workers search in the rubble of a building annexed to the Iranian embassy a day after an air strike in Damascus on April 2, 2024

In response to the anticipated strikes, Israeli officials updated their guidelines to prohibit all educational activities in the nation, and to limit all gatherings to 1,000 people.

Beaches are also set to be closed to the public, and some areas in the Gaza Envelope and near the border will see limits on all outdoor gatherings to between 30 and 100 people respectively.

Military officials briefed on the matter told both ABC News and CNN that the US has observed Iran readying at least 100 cruise missiles, indicating they could be prepared to attack.

ABC also reported that a large number of drones that could be used in an attack on Israel have also been readied by the nation.

Two US officials, granted anonymity, told Politico that the Biden administration anticipates that if an attack comes, it will feature a mix of missiles and drone strikes.

Neither official said they were confident Iran's strikes wouldn't result in a response from the US, but it is also believed that Iran would not seek to expand the crisis past its capabilities, they said.

Pentagon officials said the US would beef up its presence in the region and the USS Dwight Eisenhower would be sent into the Red Sea in a warning to Tehran.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vowed retribution in the wake of the Damascus attack, for which Tel-Aviv has yet to take responsibility, as he declared that Israel 'must and shall be punished.'

In response to the anticipated strikes, Israeli officials updated their guidelines to prohibit all educational activities in the nation, limit all gatherings, and close all beaches

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vowed retribution in the wake of the Damascus attack, as he declared that Israel 'must and shall be punished'

Biden cut his weekend beach trip short to convene with his national security team. Pictured (L-R) Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan

Despite US efforts to show strength, White House national security spokesman John Kirby warned this week that an Iranian attack on Israel remained 'viable.'

The escalation comes as Iran and Iranian-backed proxies have increased their presence in the Middle East in recent days.

On Saturday, Iranian naval forces captured an Israeli-affiliated container ship in the strait of Hormuz, around 50 miles off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.

The day prior, Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group in Lebanon, fired dozens of rockets at Israeli military positions, which it said was in retaliation to Israeli strikes on the border between the two nations.

Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, US officials say they have recorded over 150 attacks from Iran-backed proxies in Iraq and Syria on American forces in those countries.

Following a strike in Jordan in January that killed three US servicemembers, the US military destroyed at least 85 targets in Iraq and Syria in a huge air bombardment.
A former police sergeant convicted of possessing indecent images of children is one of four more election candidates dropped by the Reform Party following a Mail on Sunday investigation.

Jack Denny, 26, had been selected as a Reform UK parliamentary candidate three years after his jail sentence for separate fraud charges had ended but while he was still on the Sex Offenders Register.

Until yesterday, Denny  a former prison officer and police special sergeant in Leicestershire  was running for the Leeds Central and Headingley seat, declaring in his campaign literature that he had 'a background in policing and prisons'.

Denny was found guilty in February 2019 of having two images, one of a boy aged 15-17, and a girl aged 10-12, on a USB memory stick at his home in Hinckley. He was given a 12-month community order and placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years.

Jack Denny (pictured)  a former prison officer and police special sergeant in Leicestershire  was running for the Leeds Central and Headingley seat

Richard Tice, the leader of Reform UK, last week warned his candidates not to use social media after drinking alcohol

In October 2019 he was also convicted of two counts of fraud after falsely claiming 17,008 in overtime and expenses from HM Prison Service and 700 worth of mileage expenses from Leicestershire Police. He was sentenced to two years in prison. Denny is now studying for a PhD in criminology.

The MoS has also unearthed offensive comments made by three other Reform candidates, including construction company owner Ian Broadbent, 50, who was running for the Kingston upon Hull East seat.

In posts on Twitter, Broadbent has called for Vladimir Putin to 'take out' Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and Ukraine's President Zelensky  as well as saying that Sunak and Suella Braverman were 'all foreigners running the government'.

He has also claimed that London is a 'third world s***hole' because there are 'no whites running' the city and that mayor Sadiq Khan is 'busy building his Muslim army'.

Guy Lachlan, 58, who was standing for the St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire seat, has also shared offensive material, including liking a tweet by the far-Right Britain First party campaigning against Muslims and a tweet saying that the anti-Islam campaigner Tommy Robinson 'isn't entirely wrong'.

In one bizarre post, the car lubricant company owner claimed that there were 'too many people' on the planet, described humanity as 'bacteria' and said that 'policies would have to include one-child limits, sterilisation and euthanasia'.

Richard Hainsworth, 62, who was standing for Bradford South, has likened NHS nurses who worked during Covid to Jimmy Savile, called for the health service to be 'defunded' and said that the Covid booster jab was a 'con'.

The MoS has also unearthed offensive comments made by three other Reform candidates

Richard Tice, the leader of Reform UK, last week warned his candidates not to use social media after drinking alcohol.

After Denny, Broadbent, Lachlan and Hainsworth were removed from the candidates list, a Reform UK spokesman said: 'Reform takes responsibility for its candidates. Come the election we will have a full slate of candidates who will consign this venal and irrelevant Conservative Party to history.'

Mr Denny said last night: 'I have maintained my innocence and my claims around how I was targeted by authorities remains unchanged. I have been awarded money back, initially confiscated from me by the Court, news articles have been removed and officers involved have also been subjected to disciplinary action.

'The convictions were all part of the same investigation by the same officers and their vendetta continued until a Judge ruled the police to be in abuse of process.

'My mandate includes raising police standards and reforming prisons. I should be allowed to draw on this lived experience trauma.

'People want to control me because of malice, jealousy and corruption, but I will not submit to these actions by people that do not like my priorities and ambitions.

'I have received commendation for my plans on working to eradicate the toxic culture in both policing and prisons. I challenge our justice system at policy level through my PhD research, work with the NHS in detained estates and wider justice work. Now qualified in prison law, this alongside my operational work in prisons and lived experience means I bring a lot to shaping the future of criminal justice.'

Mr Broadbent said: 'I categorically deny any responsibility for these abhorrent statements.'

Mr Hainsworth was contacted for comment.
Vladimir Putin issued a new warning to the West with the suspected test of an experimental nuclear-capable missile.

Footage shows the mystery intercontinental ballistic launch from the Kapustin Yar test range in the Astrakhan region.

The Russian defence ministry refused to disclose the type of missile but it was launched from a mobile ground-based missile system.

Russians living in Orenburg, Astrakhan and Volgograd described seeing a 'strange object' moving through the sky with some describing it as a 'space jellyfish'.

Bemused locals captured videos of the missile which were then widely shared on social media.

Vladimir Putin issued a new warning to the West with the suspected test of an experimental nuclear-capable missile

Footage shows the mystery intercontinental ballistic launch from the Kapustin Yar test range in the Astrakhan region

The launch was carried out as part of a state testing programme of future missile systems, and those in service, at a time of high tension between Russia and the West over Ukraine.

'The launch objectives were completed in full,' said the ministry, without giving more detail.

A launch on the same day one year ago was believed to be a test of a new version of Putin's Topol range - known for now as Topol-ME.

Residents of Astrakhan, Dagestan and Volgograd regions noticed unusual white traces in the sky.

The Russian defence ministry refused to disclose the type of missile but it was launched from a mobile ground-based missile system

Bemused locals captured videos of the missile which were then widely shared on social media

Russians living in Orenburg, Astrakhan and Volgograd described seeing a 'strange object' moving through the sky with some describing it as a 'space jellyfish'

The launch came late on 12 April - which Russia marks as Cosmonautics Day, commemorating the day in 1961 when Yury Gagarin made the world's first-ever space flight.

The mystery missile in the new launch is not believed to be the Sarmat - or Satan-2 - which appears to be dogged by testing delays.

This is destined to be the largest missile in Putin's nuclear arsenal, described as an 'unstoppable' apocalypse 208-ton intercontinental silo-launched 15,880mph weapon, the size of a 14-storey tower block.

Before properly going into service it is expected to be tested over the South Pole.

Russian Telegram channel VChK-OGPU reported last month: 'The Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant is experiencing a serious shortage of electronic components.for production of strategic missiles.

'The electronics of the new RS 28 [Sarmat] missile system are largely of foreign origin and, due to sanctions, [they] are experiencing a serious shortage.

'Now all efforts are being made to somehow correct the situation with the supply of sanctioned electronics.'
A 14-year-old girl from Amarillo, Texas, who mysteriously vanished over 13 years ago has been found alive and safe.

Jessica Delgadillo disappeared without a trace in October, 2010, after leaving her house on the 1300 block of North Bolton.

She was supposed to walk to Palo Duro high school, where she was a student, but failed to turn up. Her family reported the teen missing the next day.

Amarillo Police Department opened an investigation but the case went cold, and six months later Sgt. Brent Barbee told the Amarillo Globe-News 'we don't know what happened to her'.

Jessica Delgadillo (pictured) vanished in 2010 at the age of 14. Her disappearance was inscrutable - there was no evidence of foul play and she had no history of running away from home. Her case quickly went cold

The Amarillo Police Department searched for Delgadillo but the case went cold. Pictured: an age-progressed photo investigators used to try to find Delgadillo

Sgt. Barbee told the outlet that there was no evidence of foul play. No money had been stolen and none of Jessica's clothes were missing.

Making the case even more mystifying, he added, was the fact that Delgadillo had no history of running away or leaving the house without permission.

In the majority of instances involving runaways, the absconded person normally returns home or is found within a few days or a few hours.

'The main difference (in Delgadillo's situation) is she's been gone for six months, and we haven't received any new information on her,' Sgt. Barbee said.

One relative suggested Jessica could be in Dalhart, Lubbock, or Port St. Lucie, Florida. Authorities also noted that Delgadillo had family in Mexico, which further complicated the situation.

Amarillo police officers enlisted the help of federal investigators, who monitored the traffic at the border, hoping to find the girl.

Jessica's relatives also ventured across the border to search for her.

But she was not found and a year after her disappearance police ran out of leads.

In 2023, the Amarillo Police Department established the Cold Case Unit and enlisted the services of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Together, they examined three cold cases including Jessica's. Pictured: A tweet from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children celebrating Delgadillo's being found

After going missing for thirteen years, a woman claiming to be Jessica Delgadillo contacted the Amarillo Homicide Unit; pictured: a missing-person poster for Delgadillo. The image on the right is age progressed

In 2023, the Amarillo Police Department established a Cold Case Unit.

They started by examining three cases, hoping to breathe new life into them and lend the investigations new energy.

They solicited the help of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, who quickly dispatched two agents to Amarillo to assist with the investigations.

The investigators pored over the details of each case. They updated old information and disseminated details of the disappearances on social media. They also circulated age-progressed pictures of the missing individuals.

Then on Thursday, November 2, 2023, after thirteen years of searching, the Amarillo Police Department Homicide Unit received a call.

The woman on the other end said she was Jessica Delgadillo.

She said she knew she had been reported missing. Authorities collected DNA swabs from the caller and sent them to the University of North Texas, where they were compared with the DNA of a known family member.

Months passed, and then it was confirmed: the caller was Jessica Delgadillo.

Delgadillo is currently living on the East Coast. She requested that the details of her disappearance not be released.

Jessica Delgadillo's case has been closed, giving investigators the time and latitude to focus their efforts on the two remaining cold cases.

Amarillo's other two cold cases involve the disappearances of Brandy Noble and Dorien Thomas.

Noble went missing in 2002 at the age of 16. She was listed as a missing person/endangered runaway. She had been gone for six months before a missing person report was filed.

In 2008, Thomas disappeared from his neighborhood near 9th Avenue and North Lipscomb. He was nine-yearsold.

Brandy Noble (pictured) is one of the three cases the Amarillo Police Department's Cold Case Unit is examining. Noble went missing in 2002 at the age of 16

The third case Amarillo's Cold Case Unit is scrutinizing is that of Dorien Thomas, who went missing in 2008 at the age of nine. In late December, investigators acted on a tip and exhumed some bones from a field. The bones were later determined to have belonged to an animal, but Dorien's family has vowed not to give up hope

In late December, Amarillo investigators acted on a tip and dug up pieces of bone in a field at Hastings and Smelter.

Investigators and Thomas' family hoped that the bones were Dorien's and that they would get some closure, however tragic.

But in January it was reported that the bones belonged to an animal.

In an official statement, Brandon Thomas, Dorien's older brother, said: 'We're not going to give up'.
With its weathered brick facade and plastic window frames, it's a far cry from the grace-and-favour cottage she enjoyed for years as the Queen's dresser.

But this 465,000 three-bedroom bungalow is a place Angela Kelly, 66, one of Queen Elizabeth's closest confidantes, can finally call home thanks to the generosity of the King.

As reported by the MoS last year, Ms Kelly was asked to leave her Grade II-listed cottage on the Windsor estate within months of Her Majesty's death in 2022.

However, Charles decided to honour his mother's promise of lifelong accommodation for her dedicated employee by discreetly having a house purchased.

Angela Kelly, 66, was one of the late Queen Elizabeth's closest confidantes

The house in Yorkshire than King Charles purchased for Ms Kelly who was the late Queen's dresser and personal assistant

Believed to be part of a deal banning Ms Kelly from ever sharing royal secrets, the 80s-style property is 160 miles from Berkshire in the Peak District, and enjoys stunning views of the rolling hills.

Paid for outright from the Royal Family's Coutts bank account, it is thought the property will revert to the Crown when Ms Kelly dies.

While it may be a downgrade from her historic Windsor home, the bungalow boasts a spacious lounge with gas fire, a cosy dining room and open-plan kitchen.

Ms Kelly was asked to leave her Grade II-listed cottage on the Windsor estate (pictured) within months of Her Majesty's death in 2022

Queen Elizabeth sits front row at a runway show with Anna Wintour (third right), Caroline Rush chief executive of the British Fashion Council (left) and royal dressmaker Ms Kelly (second right) in 2018

Ms Kelly has published two books about working with Her Majesty, and it is understood she had the Queen's permission to write a third.

But while providing her a home, a senior Palace aide acting for the King presented a non-disclosure agreement as part of the deal.

A well-placed source dubbed the NDA a 'gagging order' that banned the dresser from using the words 'King' and 'Palace' for commercial purposes.

Ms Kelly was adored by the late Queen and in 2018 even joined her and Vogue editor Dame Anna Wintour at London Fashion Week.

Appointed to the Royal Victorian Order in 2012, she was among a handful of personal staff at the Queen's side during her final days. But Ms Kelly often ruffled colleagues' feathers and was nicknamed 'AK-47' due to her temper.

When she returned to Windsor after the Queen's death, carrying bags of Her Majesty's belongings, the locks to the castle's royal apartments had been changed, ending her unfettered access.

In May last year, Ms Kelly was photographed packing up her quaint cottage for a new life in the North, appearing overcome with emotion.
Disgraced former BHS boss Dominic Chappell was thrown back in jail after being caught secretly running a restaurant chain with the son of celebrity chef Marco Pierre White, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Chappell, 56, who bought BHS from Sir Philip Green for 1 before it collapsed with the loss of 11,000 jobs, was released from prison last year after serving half his six-year sentence for tax fraud.

Despite being barred from running companies, the shamed entrepreneur teamed up with his close friend Marco Pierre White and his son Luciano Pierre White, 34, also a chef, to help launch three Italian restaurants  only for the chain to fold with huge debts.

Disgraced former BHS boss Dominic Chappell was thrown back in jail after being caught secretly running a restaurant chain with the son of celebrity chef Marco Pierre White

Chappell ran it as a 'consultant' while out on parole, appointing associates as directors.

Following a tip-off, he was recalled to HMP Guys Marsh in Dorset last month for breaking his licence conditions.

An investigation by this newspaper has found that he brazenly defied the rules in a disastrous attempt to rebuild his career.

Sources said Dorset Police Fraud and Economic Crime Investigation Unit interviewed directors and staff about Chappell's activities.

Police say they are not investigating the restaurant chain itself.

One director, Jeremy Gower, said: 'Dominic had complete control as the consultant on behalf of the holding company.'

During a showdown at one of the restaurants, Luciano's in Dorchester, Dorset, Mr Gower recalled telling Chappell: 'You are running amok... you are taking money out of the company, you don't have a single successful business to your name... you're reneging on all of your parole.'

Chappell teamed up with his close friend Marco Pierre White and his son Luciano Pierre White, 34, also a chef, to help launch three Italian restaurants

Chappell was nicknamed 'The Consultant' by some staff as an 'in-house joke'.

A source said: 'He pulled all the strings. There was no one else.'

The former racing driver, who has been declared bankrupt three times, bought high street chain BHS from Sir Philip in March 2015.

After he drained millions out of the company  he blew a fortune on personal luxuries such as a 200,000 racing yacht, a 1million speedboat, and a Bentley  it crashed in April 2016 leaving a pensions black hole of more than 500 million.

Sources say the Luciano's restaurant business is now insolvent, owing at least 100,000 in rent and 30,000 in service charges.

A source said Marco asked Chappell to buy the restaurants on behalf of Luciano and get them up and running. But the business soon hit trouble.

By the time Mr Gower joined the operating company's board in February all the other directors had left.

Of the three restaurants  in Dorchester, Woking and Exeter  the latter two closed last year.

Marco and Luciano Pierre White were contacted for comment.
Deluded supporters of evil nurse Lucy Letby have parked fury with the latest step in their bid to try and free the evil murderer.

Campaigners who back 34-year-old Letby - Britain's most prolific baby killer - are plotting to hold a sick rally during her appeal hearing in less than a fortnight on Thursday, April 25 outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

Letby's supporters plan to hold placards which claim that she is in fact a victim of a miscarriage of justice - and are reportedly hoping to get inside the court by booking spectator seats.

'It is hard to think of anything more grotesque and offensive than this planned protest,' a source connected with the case told the Mirror.

Deluded supporters of evil nurse Lucy Letby (pictured) have parked fury with the latest step in their bid to try and free the evil murderer

Campaigners who back 34-year-old Letby - Britain's most prolific baby killer - are plotting to hold a sick rally during her appeal hearing in less than a fortnight on Thursday, April 25 outside the Royal Courts of Justice (file photo)

They said that even though everyone has the right the challenge decisions made by the courts, the possibility the protests could dredge up 'what happened in this most public way is abhorrent'.

The source told the Mirror that they hoped protesters would 'come to their senses' and let the courts play their role.

Pro-Letby protesters are planning a protest as she is expected to appear via video link to the court.

The killer nurse's supporters made their plans in a closed Facebook group, seen by the Mirror.

One member of the group said they should take placards to the appeal hearing and reassured others that nothing prevents them from protesting outside the court.

Another fan of Letby's said the plan was a 'brilliant idea' in the campaign to 'free Lucy'.

One of the serial killer's supporters urged the others to apply for spaces in the court which are open to the public in advance 'ASAP'.

Letby, of Hereford, launched her appeal shortly after High Court Judge Mr Justice Goss in August last year sentenced her to 14 whole life orders for the seven murders of seven babies and seven attempted murders, relating to six more.

She committed the horrific atrocities while employed as a nurse on the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital - where she worked between June 2015 and June 2016.

A general view of the Women and Children's Building at the Countess of Chester Hospital

Letby, of Hereford, launched her appeal shortly after High Court Judge Mr Justice Goss in August last year sentenced her to 14 whole life orders for the seven murders of seven babies and seven attempted murders, relating to six more

The jury failed to reach verdicts on six attempted murder charges, relating to four infants, and last month prosecutors confirmed they were pursuing a retrial in June on one of the counts, relating to a premature baby girl, Baby K.

The former nurse had an initial bid to challenge her convictions refused by a judge without a hearing in January.

Letby is appealing against all of her convictions. The appeal will be heard in April.

If judges decline to give permission in April, it will mark the end of the appeal process for Letby. If she does receive permission, then the appeal will be heard at a separate hearing at a later date.
An inmate's hands are shown during an interview about solitary confinement at the Ellis I Unit Wednesday, March 5, 2014, in Huntsville, Texas. Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle

No prison sentence begins the same, but they all become the same relentless struggle against disappearing. Almost 20 years after my release, prison still has not let me go. I return to prisons now with the organization I founded, Freedom Reads, to let people inside know that they havent disappeared. But as a friend wrote: Nobody should want to go back to prison to feel better about themselves.

At 16, I tried to carjack two women walking to their car in a dark parking lot and also carjacked a man asleep in his car. For the pain I caused those people, I was tried as an adult and sent to state prison in Virginia. Once inside, without a pistol, I was as vulnerable as any child would be in such a place. And so the hole was the safest spot for me.

Every facility has its own slang for solitary confinement. The hole. The box. The SHU. Jail. All evoke terror. But I found solace in the hole. Every minute my eyes were open, a book was in my hands. Because the world of literature was the only thing that kept me imagining a future for myself beyond the vagaries of state custody. It sustained me when everything else, even the voices of the men and boys around me, made me feel so terribly lonely.

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There is a paradox about prison. The most foreign world that anyone can experience, it becomes the way that we recognize the worlds suffering. In February, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was found dead in his prison cell. Reports of how he lived out his final days were a reminder of two things: Prison is the worlds most universal method of torture, and books are central to the fight against the disappearing that follows a prison sentence.

Navalny spent some 300 days in solitary confinement. I spent nearly twice as many confined within 7-by-10-foot cells in the hole. There were times when beans were my only food. Times when the air was cold and the blankets thin. And always books were scarce.

I spend most of my day with a book in my hand, Navalny wrote. My first knowledge of Russian prisons came from a novel I salvaged from the prison recreation yard. Locked in nearly soundproof cages, the men in the novel created a code of knocks and taps. Around me, the men called handwritten notes kites. To get word to a friend, they used dental floss and fingernail clippers to sling them hundreds of feet from cell to cell.

If anything connects us in this world  and sometimes Im not sure anything does  it might be suffering. If that is true, then prison is the symbol of all the hurt in the world. And books are a symbol of letting go of the hurt and being free.

There is a particular kind of madness that comes from knowing that prison is trying to kill you, and wanting it to kill you, and insisting still with your entire being that you will live. There is a particular kind of beauty in the belief that freedom might begin with a book.

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When I was in the hole, men devised an ingenious pulley system employing a line made from a torn sheet to pass books back and forth between solitary and the general population. A veritable library was conveyed along this system. One of those books introduced me to poetry, and later poetry introduced me to the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.

In Requiem, Akhmatova wrote of waiting 17 months at the gates of the Leningrad prison for her sons release. A woman noticing the famous poet asks: Can you describe this? Mogu, Akhmatova wrote. I can. Those women waiting before Leningrad share the story of every woman who walked into visiting rooms at Red Onion State Prison and Sussex 1 State Prison in Virginia, the story of every woman standing before prisons all over this world. These women, our conscience, tell us that we deserve better than a system that puts Franz Kafkas wildest tortures to shame.

In the days after her sons death, Lyudmila Navalnaya stood vigil before the Polar Wolf colony. She demanded the body of her son, so that she could bury him. My mother trooped to prison for me, too. This is a shock of a thing that connects me to Navalny.

Books also connect me to Navalny. I discovered Mount Vesuvius  the Italian mountain Ill climb with my mother this summer, as an apology to her for prison  between the pages of an encyclopedia. Books could not carry Navalny to freedom, but they carried me there. Can you describe this? Women who love sons in prison are on an island, waiting. Those inside, strung up by a sentence, wonder, too. Can you describe this? Like Akhmatova, I want to say: I can. Such is the radical possibility of language in the face of human suffering.
A senior professor at Britain's most prestigious music school has resigned after complaints of gross misconduct against him were upheld.

Mark Messenger, 59, an acclaimed violinist and conductor, resigned as Head of Strings at the Royal College of Music (RCM) during his disciplinary hearing.

He had been suspended since last year following allegations about his behaviour. The college has refused to give details about the complaints.

Mark Messenger, 59, an acclaimed violinist and conductor, resigned as Head of Strings at the Royal College of Music (RCM) during his disciplinary hearing

Last night Mr Messenger said: 'I decided to resign due to health issues that were a direct consequence of how the RCM had pursued this case against me.

'I had no confidence in a process that did not afford me my basic rights of being able to defend myself, nor in the outcome of a meeting that was not in possession of all the facts.

'Any implication that I resigned because of the outcome of the disciplinary process or that the college terminated my employment is entirely erroneous.'

His suspension last year sent shockwaves through the classical music world.

Cellist Julian Webber, brother of impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber and who studied at the college, called on classical academies and conservatoires to end one-to-one music teaching.

He said: 'There is no need for one-to-one teaching. Groups of three are the best size for any lesson. It would mean there was much more openness and accountability.'

The Royal College of Music in South Kensington, London, where Mr Messenger worked as Head of Strings

But violinist Lara St John said: 'The idea of no one-to-one teaching is putting the policing of wayward teachers on the shoulders of the students. It is not a solution.'

RCM director Colin Lawson revealed Mr Messenger's departure in an email to staff and students.

He said that after an independent investigation, 'the disciplinary process upheld the complaints which constituted gross misconduct'.

He added: 'Mark Messenger, Head of Strings, who resigned with immediate effect during his disciplinary hearing, is no longer employed by the RCM.'

Mr Messenger won a scholarship to study at the RCM. Aged just 17 he was appointed violin professor at Goldsmiths College in London.

In 1997 he was made Head of String studies at Colchester Institute of Music before taking his RCM post in 2002.

His website says he 'travels the globe as performer, teacher, consultant and examiner'.

RCM alumni include Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten and it has some 900 students from 50 countries.

It has announced changes to internal processes so that future complaints are dealt with 'as simply and safely as possible'.
Courtroom footage captured the moment a sick predator, who murdered a six-year-old girl, launched an unhinged rant as he was sentenced to life in jail.

Christopher Clements, 42, was convicted of murdering Isabel Celis in 2012 after snatching her from her parents' bedroom.

He had previously been convicted of murdering 13-year-old Maribel Gonzalez, whose remains were found in the same Arizona desert as Celis.

At Pima County Superior Court on Wednesday he read a rambling and confused statement, branding his conviction a 'Stalin show trial of the Soviet era' and 'Hitler's fascist government'.

'I still maintain my innocence,' he said. 'It's inconceivable how any person with even a semblance of pragmatism or objectivity could call what just happened a fair trial.'

Isabel Celis, 6, vanished from her parents' home in 2012, before her remains were later found in the Arizona desert

Christopher Clements was convicted of murder in February. He was already serving a life sentence for a separate killing

At his sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Clements launched into a rambling rant where he compared his conviction to a 'Stalin show trial of the Soviet era' and 'Hitler's fascist government'

Celis' father told the court: 'Until the day I die, I will feel responsible for not doing my job and protecting my little girl from the evil that lurked outside her window.'

Clements became a suspect in the case five years after Celis vanished when he told FBI agents he could lead them to her remains in exchange for charges in another case being dropped.

He was arrested in 2018 over the deaths of Celis and Gonzalez, and sentenced to serve the remainder of his life behind bars for the latter murder in 2022.

Using long-winded and often nonsensical phrases in his five-minute-long sentencing statement on Wednesday, Clements slammed his trial as unjust, particularly taking aim at Pima County Superior Court Judge James Marner.

'Using Joseph Stalin's show trials of the Soviet era to try and illustrate that the trials of the United States nomenclature as being diametric of the iniquitous nature of those carried out at the behest of the late Russian dictator,' he said.

Directing his remarks at the judge, he continued: 'I'm not sure if you were simply repeating some platitude that you gleaned from law school or the History Channel in an effort to embellish the very (unintelligible) of your court.

'Or if you were operating a passive acknowledgement of the proceedings overseen by your predecessor, and from that point the jury deliberations overseen by yourself could be seen as anything but fair.'

Speaking in an emotionless manner, he added that the prosecuting case against him would make Russian dictator Joseph Stalin 'proud'.

Clements was already serving a life sentence for the 2014 murder of Maribel Gonzalez, 13 (pictured), whose remains were found in the same desert as Celis

Clements became a suspect in the case in 2017 when he told FBI agents that he could lead them to Celis' remains in exchange for charges in another case being dropped. He maintained that he did not commit the murder

Celis' remains were found in the Arizona desert (seen in police bodycam footage), in the same area where another of Clements' victims had been found

Isabel's father told the court at Clements' sentencing: 'Until the day I die, I will feel responsible for not doing my job and protecting my little girl from the evil that lurked outside her window'

'It's inconceivable how any person with even a semblance of pragmatism or objectivity could call what just happened a fair trial,' he said.

Clements previously faced trial in 2023, which resulted in a hung jury. He argued that the judge ensured his guilty verdict the second time around.

'You assured those jurors that I would not be getting out of prison, and your sentiment and bias went from your own mouth' to jurors, he said.

'Your actions helped ensure a guilty verdict was all but certain.'

Continuing his bizarre references, Clements compared his trial to 'village hangings carried out by the crown in the Middle Ages, Hitler's fascist government, Pol Pot and his ruthless Khmer Rouge regime, and yes, Joseph Stalin's purges and show trials.'

'I still maintain my innocence, even if such innocence has never been presumed by anybody in this court or the community in which it operates.'

The judge had allowed Celis' family to exit the courtroom to avoid hearing Clements' sentencing statement.

Following the conclusion of the trial, the killer's attorney said of the case: 'I cannot think of a sadder, more depressing case than this'

Clements previously faced trial in 2023, which resulted in a hung jury. He argued that the judge ensured his guilty verdict the second time around

Clements own lawyer, Eric Kessler, added at the hearing that in his 41-year career he 'cannot think of a sadder, more depressing case than this.'

He added: 'Im so sorry for the Celis family and the ripple effect through the Celis family. I wish that I could do something about that, but there isnt. But, its that emotion, I fear, that doomed Mr. Clements, regardless of what the evidence was.'

Following the verdict, Celis' father Sergio said: 'We are all going to serve a life sentence... of this inescapable nightmare.'

Her mother, Rebecca, added that their home never felt like one again, because Isabel's 'favorite place in the world was home, and he ruined that.'

She said she was glad to see Clements serve the rest of his life behind bars, which was needed for him to 'process God's wrath, which is inescapable.'
A shocking video shows the horrific moment a beautician plunged 170ft to her death while taking a photograph of a man from a clifftop panoramic viewing platform overlooking the Black Sea.

Earlier it was reported Russian beautician Inessa Polenko, 39, tragically fell to the beach below while taking a selfie.

In fact, the footage indicates she was taking a photograph of a man against the background of a spectacular sea view.

She stepped backwards and lost her footing, causing her to fall over the edge with no barriers to save her.

The horrified man - not named by police - rushed towards her, but it was too late.

New video footage has captured the moment Russian beautician Inessa Polenko, 39, tragically fell to the beach below while taking a selfie from a panoramic clifftop viewing point

Seconds after the tragedy, the man she was taking a photograph of approaches the edge of the platform before shouting out for help

Earlier reports suggested Inessa had tragically fallen to the beach below while taking a selfie

New footage reveals Inessa stepped backwards and lost her footing, causing her to fall over the edge with no barriers to save her

People are seen in the video emerging seconds later running towards her motionless body on the seashore 170ft below.

She was rushed to hospital in scenic Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia now under Russia's sway.

Reports said doctors fought for her life but she died in intensive care the same day.

Her funeral took place on Tuesday.

The video shows the tragic woman - a keen Instagrammer with 9,000 followers - was not on the official viewing platform, which has safety railings, at the Gagry viewing point.

Instead she was on a structure from a disused building construction adjacent to the viewing platform, which juts out over the cliff edge, and has become an unofficial vantage point for photo-enthusiasts.

Many have risked their lives taking pictures here despite the appalling danger.

Commenter Amirkhan Karikh posted: 'How much talk there has been about this place. So many warnings.

'Useless. Fifteen years ago, a woman also almost fell, she was lucky.

'This building has been around since Soviet times. It needs to be dismantled.'

Another Irina Shahova explained: 'This is a protruding beam, something that has been unfinished for a long time.

'It is fenced off, and there is a sign that going onto it is prohibited.

'It is dangerous to life.

'But people climb over the fence to take a beautiful photo over the cliff and risk their lives!

'It's high up there and your head can start spinning...

'The poor woman has stumbled...You just don't need to climb where you don't need to climb.'

Inessa had posted pictures from Dubai, Egypt and Russian-occupied Crimea, legally part of Ukraine.

People are seen in the video emerging seconds after the tragic accident running towards Inessa's motionless body on the seashore 170ft below

Inessa had recently posted pictures from her travels, including to Dubai, Egypt and Russian-occupied Crimea, legally part of Ukraine

An investigation is underway in Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia, into the circumstances of her death

The popular beautician had clients mainly in Moscow and major Russian resort Sochi, where she lived.

An investigation is underway in the breakaway region into the circumstances of her death.
JK Rowling has launched a furious attack on politicians who have 'snuggled up' to trans groups, as the Harry Potter author insists she is 'ready to die on this hill'.

The 58-year-old called for there to be an investigation into why political parties are embracing the opinions of 'privileged' pro-trans groups such as Stonewall and Mermaids.

Her comments come just days after a review, written by leading paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, found that teenagers in Britain have been allowed to change their gender based on 'remarkably weak evidence'.

In her report Dr Cass warned that there was a 'lack of high-quality research' on the effects of giving children puberty blockers and hormones and said that the toxicity in the debate over the issue has become 'exceptional'.

Tweeting her response to the report, Rowling said: 'In 2018, Stonewall literally told schools to shred a research pack saying there were risks to puberty blockers. We, in the strongest possible terms, denounce and condemn this publication. If it lands on your desk, do the right thing: shred it.

JK Rowling has launched a furious attack on politicians who have 'snuggled up' to trans groups

Rowling's crusade for women's rights has led to the former stars of her hugely successful brainchild, the Harry Potter series, distance themselves from the author

The Harry Potter author called for there to be an investigation into why political parties are embracing the opinions of 'privileged' pro-trans groups

'In 2022 Stonewall told the world that 'research' suggests two year olds can be trans. It advocated for nurseries - NURSERIES - to start teaching kids that there are more genders than boy and girl.

'Politicians have snuggled up to Stonewall and Mermaids, given them privileged places at the table and adopted their talking points, to the detriment of very vulnerable children, young people and women. When are we going to see this fully investigated? When will this end?'

A fellow X user replied to Rowling's thread of tweets, asking: 'I love your books, and I think you mean well, but I can't for the life of me understand why you are dying on this hill.'

The author responded: 'Leo, are you sure they were my books that you read? Because if you'd read them, and understood them, you'd absolutely understand why I'm ready to die on this hill.'

Earlier this week, Rowling said that she won't forgive Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson after slamming celebrities who 'cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women's hard-won rights'.

The multi-millionaire author hit out at stars who use their 'platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors' after the release of the long-awaited Cass report into gender treatment in the UK.

The vocal women's rights campaigner said people who supported gender transitioning in children should apologise to 'traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces'.

Rowling has been vocal in her opposition of allowing children to change their gender, while Radcliffe and Watson have been outspoken in their support of the trans community.

Asked what she thought of Radcliffe and Watson, the writer wrote on X: 'Celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women's hard-won rights and who used their platforms to cheer on the transitioning of minors can save their apologies for traumatised detransitioners and vulnerable women reliant on single sex spaces.' #

Discussing Dr Cass' report, she also added: 'Over the last four years, Hilary Cass has conducted the most robust review of the medical evidence for transitioning children that's ever been conducted. Mere hours after it was released to the press and public, committed ideologues are doubling down.

Daniel Radcliffe has previously called adults 'condescending' for expressing concerns over children transitioning. Pictured: The Harry Potter actor in New York on March 28, this year

Emma Watson has also spoke out in the past in opposition to JK Rowling's views on trans people. Pictured: Watson at the Soho House Awards in New York in September last year

'These are people who've deemed opponents "far-right" for wanting to know there are proper checks and balances in place before autistic, gay and abused kids - groups that are all overrepresented at gender clinics - are left sterilised, inorgasmic, lifelong patients.

'I understand that the review's conclusions will have come as a seismic shock to those who've hounded and demonised whistleblowers and smeared opponents as bigots and transphobes, but trying to discredit Hilary Cass's work isn't merely misguided. It's actively malign.

'Even if you don't feel ashamed of cheerleading for what now looks like severe medical malpractice, even if you don't want to accept that you might have been wrong, where's your sense of self-preservation? The bandwagon you hopped on so gladly is hurtling towards a cliff.

'And if I sound angry, it's because I'm bloody angry. I read Cass this morning and my anger's been mounting all day. Kids have been irreversibly harmed, and thousands are complicit, not just medics, but the celebrity mouthpieces, unquestioning media and cynical corporations.

'The consequences of this scandal will play out for decades. You cheered it on. You did all you could to impede and misrepresent research. You tried to bully people out of their jobs for opposing you. Young people have been experimented on, left infertile and in pain.

'I thought the last tweet was going to be my last, but I just burst into tears. The #CassReview may be a watershed moment, but it comes too late for detransitioners who've written me heartbreaking letters of regret. Today's not a triumph, it's the laying bare of a tragedy.'

The report by Dr Cass, which was commissioned nearly four years ago, made a series of recommendations to overhaul NHS trans services to improve the care that children receive.

Retired consultant paediatrician Dr Cass speaking about the publication of the Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People, April 9

She found that there is a 'lack of high-quality research' on the effects of giving children puberty blockers and hormones, and recommended that NHS England establish its own research programme.

The report also called for the creation a separate service for those wanting to 'de-transition', where a gender transition is stopped or reversed, and recommended a 'follow-through service' for 17 to 25-year-olds to protect teenagers 'falling off a cliff edge' in care when they hit 17.

Dr Cass warned that her review had been hampered by how polarised the debate on trans care for children has become. She said medical professionals had been left '[too] afraid to openly discuss their views'.

The report found those who socially transition at an earlier age or before seeing a medical professional were 'more likely to proceed to a medical pathway'.

She said 'the importance of what happens in school' cannot be over-estimated and said parents must not be excluded from conversations over their children's welfare.

Unregulated private clinics were singled out for some of Dr Cass's toughest criticism as she echoed GPs' warnings over prescriptions issued by services based abroad.

The review said family doctors had 'expressed concern about being pressurised to prescribe hormones after these have been initiated by private providers'.
The night sky above Jerusalem is being lit up by the more than 150 drones and missile sent by Iran in response to a drone strike at the beginning of April in Syria that killed 12 Iranians, including two top generals.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said via state media: 'The aerospace unit of the Revolutionary Guards has attacked targets in Israel with dozens of drones and missiles in reaction to the Zionist regime's crimes, including the attack on the consulate section of Iran's embassy in Damascus and martyring our commanders and military advisers in Syria.'

Missiles have begun to enter Israeli airspace, with video shared with MailOnline showing them being intercepted by the Iron Dome system above Jerusalem, in Israel's east.

Blasts were also heard in Jericho in the occupied West Bank, while the Israeli army said it had sounded sirens in the southern Negev region. Iran claims to have dealt 'heavy blows' to an airbase in Negev.

Iranian media reported that Tehran's barrage of ballistic missiles has concluded. The drones and cruise missiles are still yet to enter Israeli airspace. Iran has vowed to take further 'defensive measures' if Israel chooses to respond to the salvo.

Yemen-based Houthis have also claimed to have shot 'dozens' of rockets towards an IDF base in the north-east of Israel. it is not currently known if the Houthi attacks are linked to Iran's salvo.

The UK, among Israel's closest allies, and other nations have reportedly begun to support Israel by sending fighter jets to shoot down the drones and missiles. US officials added that their military also intercepted drones and missiles heading to Israel.

Britain has sent jets to support Israel as it is attacked by Iran

The US is sending a naval task force with over 2,500 marines

But many of Iran's Middle East allies, including Qatar and Kuwait, are rallying around it

Around a hundred drones and missiles were fired at Israel

One video shared with MailOnline showed the Iron Dome intercepting a missile

Iranians were seen celebrating as news of the attack broke

Iranians celebrate on a street, after the IRGC attack on Israel, in Tehran, Iran

Israel's cabinet is currently meeting to discuss how to deal with the attack from Iran

The IDF's spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said that the Iranian attack was 'a severe and dangerous escalation' in tensions, adding: 'Our defensive and offensive capabilities are at the highest level of readiness ahead of this large-scale attack from Iran.'

The IDF said: 'The air defense array is on high alert at the same time as the Air Force planes and Navy ships that are on a mission to protect the country's skies. The IDF is monitoring all targets.

'We ask the public to adhere to and follow the instructions of the Home Front Command and the official IDF announcements regarding the matter.'

Israel's allies have begun to send in military assets in to help Israel.

US Congressional sources say the amphibious war ship Bataan is leading a US naval task force in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Bataan has two support ships and together they have about 2,500 Marines onboard. The US also has several guided missile destroyers including the Carney in the area.

US bases in Iraq have been placed on full alert and will also attempt to shoot down missiles and drones aimed at Israel. In addition, the US has two destroyers and a Cruiser in the Red Sea that are fully armed with anti-missile weapons and they too are under orders to shoot down any Israeli bound missiles or drones.

But Iran has threatened the US if it gets involved in the spat, claiming that it is a conflict between Iran and Israel alone.

Iran's mission to the UN wrote on X: 'Conducted on the strength of Article 51 of the UN Charter pertaining to legitimate defense, Iran's military action was in response to the Zionist regime's aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus.

'The matter can be deemed concluded. However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran's response will be considerably more severe. It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!'

Iran's foreign ministry, meanwhile, said in statement to local media: 'Iran, if necessary, will not hesitate to take further defensive measures to safeguard its legitimate interests against any military aggressions and unlawful use of force while reaffirming its commitment to the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law.'

Objects are seen in the sky above Jerusalem after Iran launched drones and missiles towards Israel

Missiles have begun to enter Israeli airspace, with images from international media revealing missiles being intercepted by the Iron Dome system above Jerusalem

Iranian media reported that Tehran has also launched its first round of ballistic missiles towards Israel

The salvo of missiles and drones have begun to enter Israel airspace

The night sky above Jerusalem was lit up by missiles

Inside Iran, many were seen joyously celebrating as news of the attack broke.

Iranians were seen taking to the streets of Tehran with flares and Iranian flags, whooping and cheering as the missiles and drones entered Israeli airspace.

Surrounding countries appear to have begun preparations for an escalation in hostilities.

Jordan, Israel's eastern neighbour, temporarily closed its airspace to all incoming, departing and internal flights. Its government refuted reported that it had ordered its armed forces to shoot down any drones that flew through its airspace.

Syria is also on high alert, setting up its ground-to-air defence systems around the capital Damascus and major bases in the event of an Israeli strike, army sources said.

Sources told Reuters they expected Israel would retaliate against army bases and installations where pro-Iranian militia were based after Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said they launched dozens of drones and missiles against specific targets in Israel.

Lebanon, which lies to Israel's north, is also closing its airspace at 1am local time.

Qatar and Kuwait have both issued directives against the US prohibiting the use of their airspace for any potential military action against Iran.

US military aircraft are stationed at the Ali Al Salem Air Base and the Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait, as well as the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the largest US airbase in the Middle East.

But Egypt's foreign ministry urged both sides to exercise restraint, saying in a statement: 'Egypt expresses its deep concern about the indicators of Iranian/Israeli escalation and demands the exercise of the utmost restraint

'The Arab Republic of Egypt expresses its deep concern regarding the announced launch of Iranian offensive marches against Israel, and the indicators of dangerous escalation between the two countries during the recent period, calling for the exercise of the utmost restraint to spare the region.

'And its people are more factors for instability and tension.

'Egypt considers that the dangerous escalation that the Iranian/Israeli arena is currently witnessing is nothing but a direct result of what Egypt has repeatedly warned about, about the dangers of expanding the conflict in the region as a result of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, and the provocative military actions being practiced in the region.

'Egypt stresses that it is in constant contact with all concerned parties to try to contain the situation, stop the escalation, and spare the region the risk of sliding into a dangerous turn of instability and threat to the interests of its people.'

   . pic.twitter.com/rBJoVTqjo8    Nir Hasson   (@nirhasson) April 13, 2024

Demonstrators wave Iran's flag and Palestinian flags as they gather at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 14, 2024

Iranians were seen celebrating as the missiles and drones began to hit Israel

People wave Iranian and Palestinian flags during an anti-Israel rally after Iran launched drone attacks against Israel at Palestine Square in Tehran, Iran

The rest of the world has begun to react to Iran's strikes.

UK prime minister Rishi Sunak said in a statement: 'I condemn in the strongest terms the Iranian regime's reckless attack against Israel. These strikes risk inflaming tensions and destabilising the region. Iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard.

'The UK will continue to stand up for Israel's security and that of all our regional partners, including Jordan and Iraq.

'Alongside our allies, we are urgently working to stabilise the situation and prevent further escalation. No one wants to see more bloodshed.'

The UK's Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron took to X to say: 'Iran's reckless attacks on Israel will only further inflame tensions in the Middle East. The UK calls on the Iranian regime to stop this serious escalation, which is in no one's interest.'

President Joe Biden, third from right, meets with members of the National Security team regarding the unfolding missile attacks on Israel from Iran

A battery of Israel's Iron Dome defense missile system, deployed to intercept rockets, sits in Ashkelon

Grant Shapps, the UK's defence minister added: 'I strongly condemn the senseless airborne attack that Iran has launched on Israel. It serves no benefit other than to further undermine regional security.

'We continue to work with Israel and partners in the region to prevent further escalation. Peace and stability are in everyone's interest, and I urge Iran to immediately end all forms of destabilising behaviour.

'In response to escalation in the region and in partnership with our allies, the Prime Minister and I have authorised the deployment of additional Royal Air Force assets. The RAF jets and air refuelling tankers will bolster our existing Operation Shader - the UK's existing counter-Daesh operation in Iraq and Syria. In addition, these jets will intercept any airborne attacks within range of our existing missions, as required.'

A spokesperson for the US' National Security Council, meanwhile, said: 'President Biden has been clear: Our support for Israel's security is ironclad. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defence against these threats from Iran.'

US president Joe Biden said: 'I just met with my national security team for an update on Irans attacks against Israel. Our commitment to Israels security against threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad.'

Former president Donald Trump took to his own social media platform, Truth Social, to say: 'ISRAEL IS UNDER ATTACK! This should never have been allowed to happen  This would NEVER have happened if I were President!

'AMERICA SUPPORTS ISRAEL!'

Inside Iran, many were seen joyously celebrating as news of the attack broke

Iranians were seen taking to the streets of Tehran with flares and Iranian flags, whooping and cheering as the missiles and drones entered Israeli airspace

Many lit up flares and sparklers in celebration of the attack

France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Stephane Sejourne said via X: 'France condemns in the strongest terms the attack launched by Iran against Israel. By deciding on such an unprecedented action, Iran is taking a new step in its destabilizing actions and taking the risk of a military escalation.

'France reaffirms its attachment to Israel's security and assures it of its solidarity.'

Germany's foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said on X: 'Iran has fired drones and missiles at Israel. We strongly condemn the ongoing attack, which could plunge an entire region into chaos. Iran and its proxies must stop this immediately. Israel offers our full solidarity at this time.'

It was reported today that Iran has more than 100 cruise missiles ready to be launched as part of an 'imminent' strike against Israel in retaliation for an airstrike against Iran's embassy in Damascus, Syria.

Announcing increased security measures in Israel during a televised briefing, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said dozens of combat planes were airborne as part of the state of readiness.

Starting from 11pm tonight, the strict measures, which include the ban of all 'educational activities' across the country, the restriction of working in offices without 'standard protected spaces' and limits on the number of people at gatherings', will be implemented.

Educational activities have been banned across the country, while restrictions on working have been put in place on areas directly next to the Gaza Strip, and other areas in the Gaza Envelope.

Israelis living on the areas next to the Gaza Strip have been banned from meeting outside in groups of more than 30, and are allowed to meet up to 300 people inside buildings. Beaches in the Gaza Envelope have also been closed to the public.

Hagari said in the televised address that the directive will be reassessed at 6am local time, and urged Israelis to remain vigilant and to head to bomb shelters if they hear warnings.

The long-range air defence system called Arman is displayed during an unveiling ceremony in Tehran, Iran

A missile is launched during a military exercise in an undisclosed location in the south of Iran, in this handout image obtained on January 19, 2024

'We are taking all steps possible to ensure your safety.

'Since the start of the war, we have faced a variety of threats sent here by Iran's proxies and adapted our defense and attack systems accordingly,' Hagari said, adding that the IDF was 'fully prepared' for Iranian attacks.

'The air force's defense and attack formations are on alert and dozens of planes are in the sky. We are conducting a situational assessment with our strategic partners, led by the USA, and we are maintaining close coordination with them,' he added.

Hagari's televised message came as Israel's defence minister Yoav Gallant held a meeting with top-level defence officials, including the IDF's chief Herzi Halevi.

Gallant said the IDF was 'closely monitoring a planned attack by Iran and its proxies against the State of Israel.'

'We have added new capabilities - on land, in the air, at sea, in our intelligence directorate, within the State of Israel, and together with our partners, led by the United States.

'Iran is a terrorist state - the world is seeing this now more than ever.'

Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in central Israel, November 5, 2023

Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from Lebanon towards Israel over the Israeli Lebanese border, as seen from northern Israel, April 12, 2024

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a prepared televised statement: 'Our defense systems are deployed, and we are prepared for any scenario, both in defense and offense. The State of Israel is strong, the IDF is strong, the public is strong.'

'We appreciate the US for standing by Israel's side as well as the support of the UK, France and many other countries.'

'I established a clear principle  whoever hurts us, we will hurt them. We will defend ourselves from any threat and we will do so calmly and with determination.'

'I know that you, the citizens of Israel, are also keeping calm. I urge you to listen to the directives of the Home Front Command.'

'Together we stand, and with God's help, together we will overcome all of our enemies.'

The increased security measures were announced hours after Iranian commandos took control of an Israel-linked container ship as it travelled in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important shipping chokepoints.

Tensions between Iran and Israel have been massively escalating after the IDF killed 12 people, including two top military figures, in an airstrike against Iran's embassy in Syria's capital, Damascus, on April 1.

More to follow.
A married teacher has been arrested over an alleged sexual relationship with a student after they were caught in 'states of undress' in a nature preserve.

Jessica Sawicki, 37, from Point Pleasant, New Jersey, taught English at Hamilton High School West in Trenton, which is about a 20-minute drive from the preserve.

She is accused of sexually assaulting the student - who has been described as 'at least 16 but not yet 18' - at the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area in Upper Freehold.

The Monmouth County Prosecutors said in a statement: 'On several occasions, Sawicki allegedly engaged in sexual acts with the victim at the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area'.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, acquired by The Post, Sawicki allegedly confessed to authorities that she and the teenager had met at least five times to have 'unprotected sex' since December.

Jessica Sawicki (pictured), 37, an English teacher at a New Jersey high school has been accused of having a sexual relationship with a student

Sawicki and the student are alleged to have had several trysts in the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area, a nature preserve

Hamilton High School West, where Sawicki taught English, put the teacher on administrative leave after they learned of the investigation

The document further states that the 37-year-old married teacher and the student had sex in the back of the teen's car.

On Sunday, officers from New Jersey Fish and Wildlife found Sawicki and the student in 'states of undress'.

In a since-deleted school profile, Sawicki raved about her teaching position at Hamilton High School West.

She wrote: 'This is my 7th year working at Hamilton West teaching English...I truly enjoy getting to know the students here and helping them become the best versions of themselves while they strive for their futures'.

After the school learned of the investigation involving Sawicki, they placed her on administrative leave.

In a statement posted on the school's website, the principal, Brian Smith, and the Superintendent, Scott Rocco, said: 'Our school district was made aware of a police investigation involving a teacher who works at Hamilton High West. As a result of the information gathered, the school district took immediate action to place the individual on administrative leave'.

Sawicki (pictured) and the teenaged student are alleged to have had sex in the teenager's car

Brian Smith and Scott Rocco, the respective principal and superintendent at Hamilton High School West, put out a statement that said that the school 'took immediate action' after learning of the investigation. The statement noted that there was 'no indication' that any of the alleged incidents took place on school property

The statement observed that there was no 'indication that any of the alleged actions took place on school property'.

Smith and Rocco assured members of the community that 'our district fully cooperated with the prosecutor's office during their investigation and will continue to do so, as needed'.

They condemned the alleged incident, saying it 'goes against our professional standards as a school district and is far removed from the expectations we have for the personal conduct of an employee'.

The statement continued: 'We have no tolerance for any actions that harm or could potentially harm our students'.

Seeking to distinguish the school from Sawicki's alleged unsavory behavior, Smith and Rocco said: 'The actions of one staff member do not represent the hard work and dedication of our entire community'.

After being arrested 'without incident' on Monday, Sawicki was placed in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, where she will remain pending a detention hearing scheduled for next week.

In a statement, the Monmouth County Prosecutors office said that Sawicki that the investigation had been conducted by members of the MCPO Special Victims Bureau, the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office, and the New Jersey State Police.

Jessica Sawicki has been charged with five counts of second-degree sexual assault and five counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
Rishi Sunak is facing his 'moment of maximum danger' ahead of a series of key Commons votes, Tory rebels claimed last night.

They warned him to ditch his controversial smoking ban plan and other 'fundamentally un-Conservative' policies or face the consequences.

MPs loyal to the Prime Minister hit back by pointing out that the Government's flagship Safety of Rwanda Bill should become law by Friday and at last provide a solution to the small boats crisis.

However, Mr Sunak is facing a rebellion this week over controversial plans to raise the minimum age for buying tobacco every year to phase out smoking.

It would effectively mean that anyone currently aged 14 or younger will never be able to buy cigarettes.

Rishi Sunak is facing his 'moment of maximum danger' ahead of a series of key Commons votes, Tory rebels claimed last night

Last week, Boris Johnson branded the plan 'absolutely nuts' and The Mail on Sunday understands fellow ex-PM Liz Truss will speak against the plans in this week's Commons debate.

MPs are being given a free vote on the issue  meaning there can be no formal revolt against the Government even though reports yesterday said at least three Cabinet ministers will vote against the plan.

And one senior Tory branded the decision not to impose a three-line Whip as a 'sign of weakness by Rishi, not strength'.

Some Tory MPs are also venting their anger that a Labour MP's proposal to decriminalise abortion could become part of the wider Criminal Justice Bill  forcing some of them to vote against the entire legislation.

Former Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has made no clear he does support any plans to remove Mr Sunak, said: 'A Bill that decriminalises abortion is not something I would feel able to support at Third Reading.

'That is the view of many of my colleagues who are concerned about the consequences of decriminalisation.'

Last night, one Tory rebel said: 'With the local elections around the corner, Rishi is facing his moment of maximum danger.

'The fact that he's electing to pursue the unConservative smoking ban and fail to see down extreme proposals on abortion and conversion therapy show how little he gets it.

'He either grips these Bills now, or he'll go down wishing he had.'

'Absolutely nuts': Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has poured scorn over plans to increase the minimum age to buy cigarettes every year in a bid to phase out smoking altogether

However, sources close to Home Secretary James Cleverly said that they expected the Rwanda Bill  which would pave the way for illegal migrants' flights to the African country  to receive Royal Assent by the end of the week.

They said that would then expose that unlike the Tory Government, Sir Keir Starmer's Labour had no answer to the migrant crisis.

One source said: 'We have a deterrent  they [Labour] do not.'
President Biden is to hold an emergency national security meeting after Iran launched a drone attack on Israel.

A National Security Council spokesperson said the White House meeting will take place Saturday afternoon, hours after Biden canceled his weekend break in Delaware and rushed back to Washington DC.

The spokesperson said: 'Iran has begun an airborne attack against Israel. President Biden is being regularly updated on the situation by his national security team and will meet with them this afternoon at the White House.

'His team is in constant communication with Israeli officials as well as other partners and allies. This attack is likely to unfold over a number of hours.

'President Biden has been clear: our support for Israels security is ironclad. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran.'

Shortly after news broke of the attacks on Israel by Iranian forces, President Biden was rushed back to the White House from Delaware for a national security meeting, seen here

Biden is seen here walking to the Oval Office after returning from Delaware to consult his national security team

A National Security Council spokesperson said the White House meeting will take place Saturday afternoon

President Biden is seen arriving at Gordons Pond in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on Saturday after canceling his break over Iran's attack on Israel

The president is seen boarding his Marine One helicopter. A national security meeting is being held at the White House

Iran launched the drones Saturday afternoon Eastern Standard Time, and they are expected to take hours to reach their target.

US Congressional sources say the amphibious war ship Bataan is leading a US naval task force in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Bataan has two support ships and together they have about 2,500 Marines onboard.

The US also has several guided missile destroyers including the Carney in the area. A US security source told CNN that the bombardment could last for hours.

Israel has an 'iron dome' security system which can shoot down enemy missiles, although it is unclear if it will be able to fend off the full force of Iran's attack.

Dozens of drones were seen flying from Iran over neighboring Iraq's Sulaymaniya province, according to three security sources.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said via state media that it had 'launched extensive drone strikes against targets in occupied territories.'

Iranian media reported that a second wave of drones has been launched, though details on their current location are not yet known.

The IDF's spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said it would take several hours for the drones to arrive in Israel, adding that sirens would be sounded in threatened areas.

The IDF said: 'The air defense array is on high alert at the same time as the Air Force planes and Navy ships that are on a mission to protect the countrys skies. The IDF is monitoring all targets.

'We ask the public to adhere to and follow the instructions of the Home Front Command and the official IDF announcements regarding the matter.'

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said via state media that it had 'launched extensive drone strikes against targets in occupied territories', seen here

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Wednesday that Israel 'must be punished and will be punished'

Tensions between Israel and Iran have been escalating massively in the past few weeks

Iran has threatened to take revenge against Israel for levelling its embassy in Damascus, Syria. In this picture a missile is launched during a military drill in southern Iran in January

Surrounding countries appear to have begun preparations for an escalation in hostilities.

Jordan, Israel's eastern neighbor, temporarily closed its airspace to all incoming, departing and internal flights.

The nation's air defense system is also ready to intercept and shoot down any drones or aircraft that violate its airspace, security sources said.

The army is also on a state of high alert, and radar systems are monitoring drone activity.

Iran had threatened to hit back at Israel over an attack in Syria, which Tehran say was an Israeli airstrike on a Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vowed retribution in the wake of the Damascus attack, for which Tel-Aviv has yet to take responsibility.

The April 1 attack destroyed Iran's consulate building in the city and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, including the two generals.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Wednesday that Israel 'must be punished and will be punished', days after one of his advisers said Israeli embassies are 'no longer safe'.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz swiftly replied on social media site X that 'if Iran attacks from its territory, Israel will respond and attack Iran'.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to respond with force to any assault by Iran, leaving tensions in the Middle East on a knife-edge.
King Charles was cynically duped by a senior courtier into signing a document appointing a colleague to a job at the Palace  while the monarch was recovering after a bout of his cancer treatment, it has been claimed.

The incident has sparked a furious row in Charles's court  with one of his closest aides said to have 'gone ballistic'.

Meanwhile the King's private secretary has been forced to order an embarrassing U-turn on the appointment.

The courtier at the centre of the extraordinary bust-up is Garter King Of Arms David White, who is understood to have been on the receiving end of a severe dressing-down.

The King's private secretary has been forced to order an embarrassing U-turn on the appointment

The courtier at the centre of the extraordinary bust-up is Garter King Of Arms David White (pictured)

Mr White is accused of ignoring long-established court procedure and instead using 'back channels' to secure the King's signature on his preferred choice for a senior appointment at his department, the College of Arms.

This happened when the King was in London for his ongoing cancer treatment, when staff are under instructions not to burden him.

A source told The Mail on Sunday: 'It's like a trick from the Middle Ages. There's been a huge row behind the scenes.

'Some people believe that David White deliberately tried to get to Charles behind their backs so that he could get his preferred candidate into the role.

'What David may not have realised was that the King was tired. In other words, he was at his most vulnerable, which is why proper procedure exists.

'When the King is in London he is here to receive treatment and therefore that can often be a challenging time for him. The aides closest to Charles knew him well enough to know he should have been left in peace at that time.'

Mr White's role as Garter King of Arms is to advise the monarch on matters of heraldry and on how to conduct royal ceremonies. He stood on the balcony at St James's Palace to proclaim Charles as King on September 10, 2022.

However, he does not have responsibility for recommending candidates for Royal Household roles to the King.

When the senior post of Secretary of the Order of the Garter came up at the College of Arms  a Royal Household department that creates and maintains coats of arms  Mr White hoped to appoint a colleague, Peter O'Donoghue, already a herald at the college.

More senior Buckingham Palace aides had been formally advised to put forward another candidate, and were planning on recommending him to the King for the job. Normal procedure would see such paperwork go through official channels  being included in the King's red boxes and vetted by his private secretaries.

But instead Mr White had one of his assistants pass his letter of recommendation directly to her husband, who works at the Palace, to place in front of the King.

Insiders described Mr White's move as a deliberate ambush to circumnavigate the King's comptroller and his private secretary, Colonel Michael Vernon and Sir Clive Alderton.

More senior Buckingham Palace aides had been formally advised to put forward another candidate

When contacted by The Mail on Sunday by telephone, Mr White declined to comment.

At the end of the conversation it was apparent that he thought he had hung up, but he can be heard telling a colleague: 'S***. She has got wind. She's got wind of the fact that I nominated Peter O'Donoghue, that he had been put forward.'

A Royal Household source said: 'That direct approach to the King should never happen. It should always go to the private secretary. Michael Vernon went ballistic that David decided to circumvent the whole system. I think Clive Alderton is equally irritated by it.'

The Mail on Sunday understands Mr O'Donoghue has now been passed over for Stephen Segrave, the Secretary of the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood.

Mr White was appointed to his role in 2021 and has become a controversial figure. He was left off the honours list after he forgot to say 'God Save the King' during the Queen's funeral  a mistake said to have irritated King Charles.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
One woman was killed, and ten others were injured after a shuttle bus transporting passengers from the Carnival Miracle cruise ship slammed into a Honolulu cruise terminal in Hawaii.

The 68-year-old woman succumbed to her injuries, while her husband, who was also injured, is expected to recover, according to Matt Lupoli, senior manager of Carnival Cruise Line.

The shuttle bus driver, a 57-year-old male, had just dropped off a group of customers at Honolulu's Pier 2 terminal on Friday morning and exited his vehicle.

He mistakenly pressed the gas pedal instead of the brakes and collided with two concrete barriers before plowing into eleven pedestrians, Honolulu police said in a statement.

The Friday crash follows a series of harrowing incidents involving cruise ships lately, including the death of a 20-year-old Florida man who jumped from a Royal Caribbean Cruise ship and the mysterious disappearance of a South Carolina man last week.

One woman was killed, and ten others were injured after a shuttle bus transporting passengers from the Carnival Miracle cruise ship(pictured in January, 2024) slammed into a Honolulu cruise terminal in Hawaii

'It just kept going, and my daughter yells out 'There's nobody there driving the bus.' Then it hits the wall. I was...shook up, pretty shaken,' said Linda Reck, who was visiting from Florida

The shuttle bus driver, a 57-year-old male, had just dropped off a group of customers at Honolulu's Pier 2 terminal on Friday morning and exited his vehicle. He mistakenly pressed the gas pedal instead of the brakes. Pictured: passengers and law enforcement authorities on scene

The Carnival Miracle embarked on a 15-day excursion, departing from Los Angeles, California, on April 6 and scheduled to complete its round trip on April 21, according to records on Cruise Mapper.

On Friday morning, the driver had just dropped off his passengers at pier 2 when a bystander told him that the vehicle was moving forward, Honolulu police said.

The 57-year-old driver jumped in the driver's seat and attempted to stop the vehicle. But he mistakenly pressed the gas pedal instead of the brakes.

The bus slammed into two concrete barriers and eleven pedestrians, authorities said. Nine of the people hit by the vehicle were cruise ship passengers.

The 68-year-old woman, who has not been identified was taken to a hospital in critical condition, and later died. She was traveling with her husband.

Four others, including two men and two women, all in their 50s and 60s, sustained serious injuries, Hawaii News Now reported.

Another visitor, who said she works in an emergency room, told the outlet: 'It definitely puts a damper on my vacation. I deal with this everyday... but this is just different'

The bus slammed into two concrete barriers and eleven pedestrians, authorities said. Nine of the people hit by the vehicle were cruise ship passengers

'It just kept going, and my daughter yells out 'There's nobody there driving the bus.' Then it hits the wall. I was...shook up, pretty shaken,' Linda Reck, who was visiting from Florida, told NBC News.

Another visitor, who said she works in an emergency room, told the outlet: 'It definitely puts a damper on my vacation. I deal with this everyday... but this is just different.'

Five pedestrians were transported from the scene to hospitals for treatment, and six pedestrians refused treatment on scene, Honolulu police said.

Authorities said speed does not appear to be a contributing factor in the collision, and it is unknown if drugs or alcohol were contributing factors.

'Members of the Carnival Care Team are assisting the guests. Our thoughts are with the guests affected and their loved ones,' Lupoli said.

The harrowing crash happened less than two weeks after Levion Parker, 20, jumped to death from a Caribbean cruise ship while intoxicated.

The boat had docked in the Dominican Republic the previous day and was 57 miles off the coast of the Bahamas Grand Inagua when the alarm was raised.

Levion had been with his brother Seth and chatting to other guests in a hot tub on the 11th deck until 3.30am on the final night of the four-day cruise

A week later, Edmond Bradley Solomon III, who suffers from the degenerative disorder, was reported missing when a Royal Caribbean cruise made a stop at Cozumel, Mexico

Passenger Deborah Morrison said the crew were 'alerted immediately' by the 'yelling' which erupted, and the man's family appeared 'beside themselves'.

The 1,100 foot ship was brought to a halt after Levion jumped nearly 200 feet from the 11th deck of the 15-deck ship while it was 57 miles off Grand Inagua at 4am on April 4.

But most of the 4,000 passengers on board only became aware of the tragedy when the captain broke the news the following morning.

A week later, Edmond Bradley Solomon III, who suffers from the degenerative disorder, was reported missing when a Royal Caribbean cruise made a stop at Cozumel, Mexico.

Solomon and his wife went to the terminal's restroom after the ship, the Icon of the Seas, was docked, but since then, Solomon has not been seen or heard from by his family.

The only reported sighting of him came from a cab driver who said he was hailed by the missing American on the Isla de la Pasion road.

A GoFundMe page has also been set up to help with the search after the family contacted the Mexico City's U.S. Embassy and the consulate.
A pair of puppies peer out from their kennel at BARC Houston on Wednesday, June 28, 2023, in Houston. Brett Coomer/Staff photographer

The numbers of animals that Houstons shelter was able to place in foster homes decreased last year, even as the number of cats and dogs it took in reached record highs.

Fostering is a crucial tool in ensuring the animals in the citys care survive, along with adoptions and transfers to other rescue organizations. The Houston Bureau of Animal Regulation and Cares live release rate  the number of animals it secures live outcomes for  dropped slightly last year to 83.2%, down from 85.8% in 2022.

BARCs intake of animals grew 10% last year, reaching nearly 20,000 animals. At the same time, fosters fell slightly, from 1,329 to 1,176. Adoptions grew to about 4,400 and transfers fell to around 8,850.

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Any positive outcome is helpful, as those animals are not slowing down in terms of coming, said Cory Stottlemyer, deputy shelter director at BARC. Fostering is a great way for the animal to acclimate to an environment thats not as stressful.

Heres what you should know about fostering pets.

Who qualifies for BARC fosters?

Potential foster parents have to be at least 18 years old and live within 15 miles of Houstons city limits. You can search your address here to see if you fall within those boundaries.

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If you have another pet, you have to be able to separate the animals for the first 72 hours and whenever they are unsupervised. And you cannot have more than three dogs and three cats in a home at a time, per the citys code of ordinances.

How can you foster at BARC?

You can fill out an application on BARCs website. The application asks for basic biographical information, including your drivers license number and date of birth, along with information about how many children and pets you may have, and which animals or species you would prefer.

The application goes directly to the foster team, which can usually process it within an hour, said Viridiana Sanchez, BARCs adoption coordinator and marketing specialist. BARC staff may send links to animals available for fostering that day, or invite the applicant to come in and meet the animals in person.

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The shelter does not conduct home checks.

Does BARC provide foster supplies?

BARC will give fosters most supplies needed to care for the animal, including food, a crate or kennel, collars, leashes and litter, as long as supplies last.

And BARC covers most medical care for the animal, though the foster parent must make an appointment and drop it off at the shelter. If the animal requires a type of care that BARC cannot provide  such as blood work or specialized surgery  the foster parent would have to decide whether to pursue that care at their own cost.

How long can you foster for BARC?

Fosters can vary from a few days to a few months, depending on the animal and the person caring for it. There is no firm cap on a fosters duration.

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Stottlemyer and Sanchez said those stays are a much-needed reprieve from shelter life, where animals are more susceptible to stress and contagious diseases.

And, of course, if you do not want to give the dog or cat back, youre welcome to turn the foster into an adoption.

The goal is for an animal to stay in foster until it finds an adoption, so it doesnt have to come back to the shelter, said Stottlemyer, whose own dog is a foster failure from the shelter.

You can browse available animals here, including animals at risk of euthanasia within 24 hours.
British jets have been moved into the Middle East to 'encourage de-escalation' following Iran's launch of drones and missiles at Israel, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

Tonight, Iran launched a terrifying assault against Israel by sending some 100 drones following the bombing of one of its embassies in Syria earlier this week in what has been described as a 'dangerous escalation' of conflict in the region.

And as the mayhem began, British and American warplanes reportedly shot down Iranian drones over the Iraq-Syria border area, Israel's top-rated Channel 12 TV reported early on Sunday without citing sources.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence told MailOnline: 'In response to increased Iranian threats and the growing risk of escalation in the Middle East, the UK Government has been working with partners across the region to encourage de-escalation and prevent further attacks.

'We have moved several additional Royal Air Force jets and air refuelling tankers to the region. In addition, these UK jets will intercept any airborne attacks within range of our existing missions, as required.

British jets have reportedly 'shot down' Iranian drones over the Syrian border, according to unconfirmed reports. Pictured: an RAF Typhoon jet

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned the attack on Saturday

Iran launched a terrifying assault against Israel by sending some 100 drones. Pictured: Iranian drones during a military training excercise

'We will continue to cooperate closely with our regional partners in the interest of de-escalation.'

It comes as Rishi Sunak tonight condemned 'in the strongest terms' Iran's 'reckless attack' against Israel - and said Tehran was now intent on 'sowing chaos in its own backyard'.

In a statement on Saturday night, Mr Sunak said: 'I condemn in the strongest terms the Iranian regime's reckless attack against Israel. These strikes risk inflaming tensions and destabilising the region.

'Iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard.

'Alongside our allies, we are urgently working to stabilise the situation and prevent further escalation. No-one wants to see more bloodshed.

'The UK will continue to stand up for Israel's security and that of all our regional partners, including Jordan and Iraq.'

The PM's comment comes as after Iran launched more than 100 drones and missiles to attack Israel - which are set to hit within hours.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said: 'Iran's reckless attacks on Israel will only further inflame tensions in the Middle East. The UK calls on the Iranian regime to stop this serious escalation, which is in no ones interest.'

Dozens of drones were seen flying from Iran over neighbouring Iraq's Sulaymaniya province, according to three security sources. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said via state media that it had 'launched extensive drone strikes against targets in occupied territories.'

The IRGC added via state media: 'The aerospace unit of the Revolutionary Guards has attacked targets in Israel with dozens of drones and missiles in reaction to the Zionist regime's crimes, including the attack on the consulate section of Iran's embassy in Damascus and martyring our commanders and military advisers in Syria.'

Israeli schools have been shut down in response to threats made by Iran

Tensions between Israel and Iran have been escalating massively in the past few weeks

Iran has threatened to take revenge against Israel for levelling its embassy in Damascus, Syria

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said: 'The State of Israel is strong, the IDF is strong, the people of Israel are strong'

Around a hundred drones and missiles were fired at Israel

It added that it was ordered to launch the drones and missiles by Iran's Supreme National Security Council, and was under the guidance of the General Staff of the Armed forces, which coordinated military activity.

Israel said tonight that its airspace was shutting down at 12.30am local time. Iraq also announced it was shutting down its airspace and suspending all air traffic on Saturday from 11:30pm local time to 5:30am tomorrow.

Iranian media reported that a second wave of drones has been launched, though details of where they currently are aren't yet known. It is not known if a second wave of cruise missile has been launched.

The IDF's spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said it would take several hours for the drones to arrive in Israel, adding that sirens would be sounded in threatened areas.

He said that the Iranian attack was a 'a severe and dangerous escalation' in tensions, adding: 'Our defensive and offensive capabilities are at the highest level of readiness ahead of this large-scale attack from Iran.'

The IDF said: 'The air defense array is on high alert at the same time as the Air Force planes and Navy ships that are on a mission to protect the country's skies. The IDF is monitoring all targets.

'We ask the public to adhere to and follow the instructions of the Home Front Command and the official IDF announcements regarding the matter.'

Details about the drones have not been officially confirmed, but a retired IDF general told Israeli media that the Iranian drones had the capacity to carry up to 44lbs (20kg) of explosives each.

Surrounding countries appear to have begun preparations for an escalation in hostilities.

Jordan, Israel's eastern neighbour, temporarily closed its airspace to all incoming, departing and internal flights. The nation's air defence system is also ready to intercept and shoot down any drones or aircraft that violate its airspace, security sources said.

The Jordanian army is also on a state of high alert, and radar systems are monitoring drone activity.

Syria is also on high alert, setting up its ground-to-air defence systems around the capital Damascus and major bases in the event of an Israeli strike, army sources said.

Sources told Reuters they expected Israel would retaliate against army bases and installations where pro-Iranian militia were based after Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said they launched dozens of drones and missiles against specific targets in Israel.

Lebanon, which lies to Israel's north, is also closing its airspace at 1am local time.

The rest of the world has begun to react to Iran's strikes.
The majority of children who are unhappy with their gender will grow out of the feeling, according to a major study.

It found that one in ten 11-year-olds was not content with their birth sex, but for most this uncertainty had vanished by the time they reached their mid-20s.

Scientists from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands followed the lives of 2,772 young people, assessing them at the ages of 11, 13, 16, 19, 22 and 25.

The study found that one in ten 11-year-olds was not content with their birth sex, but for most this uncertainty had vanished by the time they reached their mid-20s

Retired consultant paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass author of The Cass Review report into NHS child gender services published last week

They were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with the statement: 'I wish to be of the opposite sex.'

At the age of 11, the start of the study, 11 per cent of participants were unhappy with their birth sex.

This number dropped at each assessment until, by the age of 25, it was just 4 per cent.

The Tavistock Centre where children were placed on hormone medication that should not have been given to them

The findings, published in the Archives of Sexual Behaviour journal, raise serious questions about the approach advocated by trans activists to simply 'affirm' children who identify as the opposite sex and allow them to take puberty-blocking drugs.

They also back the conclusions of the scathing Cass report into NHS child gender services published last week  that for most young people 'a medical pathway will not be the best way to manage gender-related distress'.

Stephanie Davies-Arai, of gender-critical charity Transgender Trend, said last night that the findings were a 'victory for common sense'.
A disturbing theory has emerged about the killer who went on a stabbing spree in Sydney yesterday as police investigate a potential history of him targeting woman.

The mass stabbing on Saturday afternoon by Joel Cauchi at the Westfield shopping centre in Bondi Junction has shocked the nation as a massive police investigation unfolds.

Six people, five women and one man, were killed in the attack and several others were injured.

A nine-month-old baby girl was among those stabbed and underwent surgery on Saturday night, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb told reporters on Saturday.

The child's mother Ash Good was one of those who died, passing her baby onto strangers and begging them to help before she lost consciousness.

A disturbing theory has emerged that the killer (pictured) who went on a stabbing spree in Sydney yesterday may have targeted women

Six people, five women and one man, were killed in the attack and several others were injured (pictured, forensic teams at the scene on Sunday)

The knifeman was shot dead by a lone female police, Amy Scott, at the scene.

Cauchi, 40, who is from the Brisbane area, had mental health issues and moved to Sydney from Queensland a month ago. He lived with schizophrenia.

There is no suggestion that Cauchi was part of any particular ideology, with police treating the horrific attack as a mental-health related incident.

Today Show host Karl Stefanovic this morning said he had 'no words' for his thoughts about the incident but expressed his disgust at the number of female victims.

'I don't care what the excuses are, and I hope there's a special place in hell reserved for him, given the fact that he walked past men, and didn't do anything about it and attacked women,' he said.

'This offender, may you rot in hell. Forgive me for saying, but for what he's done, I don't care.

'A woman with a baby.'

Many others shared similar words online.

'Can it be true the Bondi attack was aimed at women? Five women, dead?' she wrote.

'I am grieving male violence today. I cannot say oh my god, because I have refused gods. But the anger, is rising.'

Another said: 'This Bondi Junction stabber appears to have targeted WOMEN.'

On Nine's Today Show on Sunday, terror expert Greg Barton said the death of several women was 'one of the ugliest aspects' of the 'incredible tragedy'.

'I think it is important that police say they're going to take their time, do the investigative work, and let us know what they understand about motivation,' he said.

'Of course, the biggest threat we face in Australia from violence day to day is domestic violence. Whether that's involved here or not is a question.

'But yes, the callous attacking of a mother and a child and other women is awful.'

The knifeman has been identified as Joel Cauchi (pictured), who is from the Brisbane area and moved to Sydney from Queensland a month ago

The attacks have been widely condemned with Today Show host Karl Stefanovic telling the knifeman to 'rot in hell' (pictured, flowers left at the scene on Sunday)

Lifeguard Andrew Reid from Bondi Rescue was present at the shopping centre and assisted in administering first aid to several of the victims.

'She just wanted to be a mum, you know? She just wanted to be. And she was a beautiful person. And she would have been an amazing mum,' he said.

'I don't know how that father, deals with what he's got on his plate, this morning, losing his wife, and having a nine month old fighting for life.'

Mr Reid also recalled and the devastating scene he came upon.

'So the first victim was a young woman, sort of 30 to 40. And then the next victim I looked over, she was probably a little bit older, 40 to 50, maybe, but she was she was in a bad way,' he said.

'She and the police were trying to, like, work on her, but oh my God, I've never  I've never seen that much blood.'

Mr Reid said that he and the other first responders were simply acting based on their training and experience

'But, you know, for me, some of the real heroes are the Police officer woman that brought him down, the guy with the bollard.

'Like, are you kidding me? Like he kept him at bay. You know, that would have given time for more Police to get there, for more people to get out of there.

'Like he's an absolute legend.'

Police commissioner Karen Webb said there is no ongoing threat to the public.

Police do not believe there is an no ongoing threat and the incident was not terror related (pictured emergency crews at the scene)

'Let me assure you that we are confident that there is no ongoing risk and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased,' Ms Webb said.

'The investigation will be ongoing for many, many days but there are elements that we understand at this point in time that don't indicate (a terrorist attack), but as we move into the investigation, and background this person, his home, vehicle, associates, we will only know at that time.'
Aussies have called for the heroic female police officer who confronted and shot dead a knifeman who killed six people in a shopping centre to receive the Order of Australia medal.

NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott has been hailed a hero and praised for her bravery after she stopped the terrifying rampage at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney's east on Saturday afternoon.

As the first officer on scene, Inspector Scott sprinted through the top level of the shopping complex and risked her life when she confronted the knifeman who also injured eight others.

She shot the attacker - who was wearing a green rugby top - dead when he turned towards her and raised his knife.

The senior police officer then performed CPR on the killer and the other victims lying on the ground as she waited for back-up to arrive.

Insp Amy Scott (second from the left) was recognised for her courage while stationed as a sergeant in 2019

She has been hailed a hero and praised for her bravery after she stopped the terrifying rampage at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney's east on Saturday afternoon

As the first officer on scene, Inspector Scott sprinted through the top level of the shopping complex and risked her life when she confronted the knifeman who also injured eight others

In 2019, she was recognised at the Rotary Club Police Officer of the Year award ceremony and received the prize for Demonstrated Courage and Devotion to Duty.

Pictures show her smiling alongside other police officers as she holds up her award.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has said that Inspector Scott is 'doing well under the circumstances'.

She will be formally interviewed as part of the investigation into the deadly stabbings.

It was revealed earlier today that the 40-year-old knifeman that Inspector Scott shot dead was 'known to police'.

Among the victims was 38-year-old new mother Ash Good who was attacked alongside her nine-month-old baby Harriet.

The infant - who suffered stab wounds- is fighting for her life after being rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.

Inspector Scott sprinted through Westfield Bondi Junction to single-handedly confront the knifeman

She confronted the knifeman alone on the top level of the shopping centre and shot him dead

Ash Good, 38, was among the six shoppers at Sydney's Bondi Junction Westfield who were killed today, when a man, 40, dressed in a rugby league jersey, went on a stabbing rampage about 3.20pm before a female police officer shot him dead

A first-time mother stabbed to death in the Sydney shopping centre knife rampage has been pictured for the first time. Just hours before the horror unfolded, Ms Good posted a photo to Instagram with her daughter Harriet in her arms

Just hours before the horror unfolded, Ms Good posted a photo to Instagram with her daughter in her arms.

'Only because I was walking past and happened to be wearing the same thing 9 months out vs 9 months in etc etc,' the caption read.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Prince and Princess of Wales have led the flood of commendations for Inspector Scott's actions.

She has also been hailed as a national hero online: 'She was utterly fearless, brave and amazing. How many lives did she save today? Brave'.

Another added: 'Absolute legend. Just happened to be in the vicinity and the first on scene. Didn't even hesitate.'

A third wrote: 'She did what she had to do in that situation. No f******g around or pandering to a murderer. We need more police like that.'

A fourth touted her as a possible Australian of the Year contender while other called for her to receive a bravery award.

Some also pointed out she was wearing little protection.

The attacker was seen running in the mall with a knife in his hand - moments before he was shot dead by a patrolling police officer

The knifeman who killed five women and one man during a rampage in Sydney today was 'known to police'

'No vest, no protective gear, no backup? No problems,' one wrote.

Others showed concern for the officer's wellbeing.

'While throwing words like 'hero' around, remember, the taking of a life will change hers as well. Heroes can be victims too, let's hope she gets every bit of support needed,' one commented.

Commissioner Webb revealed that she has spoken to Inspector Scott following the tragedy.

'She showed enormous courage and bravery, and she will obviously process that,' Commissioner Webb said.

'She will need to be interviewed formally and so we just talked about that she's OK and that her family's OK.

'She's got everything she needs for the time being, and she will be formally interviewed tomorrow.'

Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke earlier said that the police officer engaged immediately on her arrival to the scene.

'The officer was guided to the location of the offender by people who are in the centre, and she took the actions that she did, saving a range of people's lives,' he said.

Waverley Mayor Paula Masselos also commended Inspector Scott's courage while paying tribute to the 'everyday heroes' involved, including a bystander who confronted the knifeman on the escalators.

'She (the police officer) was there on her own and she went towards the danger,' she told Sky News UK.

'Even [after she shot the attacker], she immediately began applying CPR  that just shows you the dedication of the person and her incredible act of heroism  even then her main concern was for someone who had fallen.

'I will be reaching out to the various service providers and to the police to see what practical support we can offer as a council.'

Mr Albanese held a snap press conference in Canberra to address the tragedy on Saturday night, where he also praised Inspector Scott.

'She entered the proceedings that were taking place, obviously very dangerous, by herself,' he said.

'She is certainly a hero. There is no doubt that she saved lives through her actions.

'Today is a reminder that those people who wear a uniform are people who rushed to danger, not away from it.'

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission has launched a critical incident into the her brave actions.

'The NSWPF are investigating the circumstances of the incident and this investigation will be reviewed by the Professional Standards Command,' a statement read.

Westfield Bondi Junction is expected to remain closed for several days.
The US has sent the war ship Bataan as well as two support ships with 2,500 Marines onboard into the Eastern Mediterranean after Iran launched a drone attack on Israel.

US Congressional sources say the amphibious war ship Bataan is leading a US naval task force in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Bataan has two support ships and together they have about 2,500 Marines onboard. The US also has several guided missile destroyers including the Carney in the area.

US bases in Iraq have been placed on full alert and will also attempt to shoot down missiles and drones aimed at Israel.

In addition, the US has two destroyers and a Cruiser in the Red Sea that are fully armed with anti-missile weapons and they too are under orders to shoot down any Israeli bound missiles or drones.

US Congressional sources say the amphibious war ship Bataan, seen here in December of last year, is leading a US naval task force in the Eastern Mediterranean

US bases in Iraq have been placed on full alert and will also attempt to shoot down missiles and drones aimed at Israel

Biden is seen here walking to the Oval Office after returning from Delaware to consult his national security team

Iran launched the drones Saturday afternoon Eastern Standard Time, and they are expected to take hours to reach their target.

On Saturday afternoon, President Biden rushed back from Delaware for an emergency national security meeting on the matter.

Israel has an 'iron dome' security system which can shoot down enemy missiles, although it is unclear if it will be able to fend off the full force of Iran's attack.

Dozens of drones were seen flying from Iran over neighboring Iraq's Sulaymaniya province, according to three security sources.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said via state media that it had 'launched extensive drone strikes against targets in occupied territories.'

Iranian media reported that a second wave of drones has been launched, though details on their current location are not yet known.

The IDF's spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said it would take several hours for the drones to arrive in Israel, adding that sirens would be sounded in threatened areas.

The IDF said: 'The air defense array is on high alert at the same time as the Air Force planes and Navy ships that are on a mission to protect the countrys skies. The IDF is monitoring all targets.

The US also has several guided missile destroyers including the Carney, pictured here, in the area

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said via state media that it had 'launched extensive drone strikes against targets in occupied territories', seen here

'We ask the public to adhere to and follow the instructions of the Home Front Command and the official IDF announcements regarding the matter.'

Iran had threatened to hit back at Israel over an attack in Syria, which Tehran say was an Israeli airstrike on a Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vowed retribution in the wake of the Damascus attack, for which Tel-Aviv has yet to take responsibility.

The April 1 attack destroyed Iran's consulate building in the city and killed seven Revolutionary Guards, including the two generals.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Wednesday that Israel 'must be punished and will be punished', days after one of his advisers said Israeli embassies are 'no longer safe'.
An SAS veteran is set to be jailed for six months for refusing to appear at the inquest of an IRA death squad if an appeal fails this week.

The soldier, who suffers severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of his undercover anti-terror operations, has been found to be in contempt of court for refusing to attend a Belfast Coroner's Court in person.

He would be the first member of the British military to be imprisoned for declining to co-operate with a so-called legacy inquest.

His appeal will be heard by a court in Edinburgh on Wednesday.

The case has re-ignited claims of a politically driven witch hunt against military personnel who served in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.

'Soldier F' was part of a special forces unit which killed three IRA men who were on their way to assassinate a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment. Pictured: Scene of the SAS shooting of three IRA men in Coagh Co Tyrone

Solicitor Padraig O Muirigh (centre) with members of the families of Peter Ryan (known as Michael) and Tony Doris, two of the three men killed by the SAS during an incident at Coagh, Co Tyrone, which is now the subject of a legacy inquest

File photo. The veteran, known as Soldier F to protect his identity, offered written testimony and agreed to be cross examined in writing about his role in the operation

One of the dead men, Tony Doris, 21, was a cousin of Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill.

Republican Ms O'Neill, vice president of Sinn Fein, has previously demanded 'justice' for the families of those killed in clashes with security forces.

Now in his sixties, and in failing physical health, the father and grandfather was part of a special forces unit which killed three IRA men who were on their way to assassinate a member of the Ulster Defence Regiment.

The two men killed alongside Doris in their village of Coagh, Co Tyrone in June 1991, were Peter Ryan, 37, one of the IRA's top hitmen, and Lawrence McNally, 38.

The veteran, known as Soldier F to protect his identity, offered written testimony and agreed to be cross examined in writing about his role in the operation.

On the advice of two of Britain's most eminent forensic psychiatrists, he had asked to be excused from appearing in person on medical grounds.

The soldier - decorated for bravery - has suffered PTSD since 2002 and has other related mental health issues.

Mr Justice Humphreys, Northern Ireland's top Coroner, disagreed and requested that he be pursued by a court in Scotland where he now lives.

But in an unexpected development the judge concluded the Coagh inquest last week, ruling the SAS's use of lethal force against the IRA men had been justified.

His provisional findings, expected to be made final later this month, indicate that Soldier F's appearance in person was not critical to the proceedings.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who served with the Scots Guards in the province, branded the prospect of a prison term or the old soldier 'appalling'.

He has previously told the Mail on Sunday: 'This is a very political move, which we have seen already many times with British soldiers.

'What is actually being planned is some kind of personal humiliation. I am concerned that what is going on now isn't about evidence but it's about persecution.'

Colonel Richard Kemp who also served in Northern Ireland added the potential jailing of Soldier F 'seems unjust and excessive'.

It is not clear whether the veteran will be obliged to attend court on Wednesday - but a source close to the case revealed he has his prison bag already packed and waiting by his front door.

Supporters in the military community remain horrified by the prospect of his imprisonment and claim he is being singled out for harsh treatment.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who served with the Scots Guards in the province, branded the prospect of a prison term or the old soldier 'appalling'

Pictured, IRA's (Irish Republican Army) masked provisionals

They have highlighted other cases where, they say, different standards seem to apply.

One is the legacy inquest into the death of 14-year-old Desmond Healey during rioting in west Belfast in 1971. Soldiers from D Company of the Parachute Regiment were involved.

Last December Coroner Maria Dougan fined a retired paratrooper 250 for refusing to tell the court who had fired the fatal shot.

Counsel for the Healey family described his refusal to answer as 'a contempt of the most serious kind'.

The paratrooper, known as M66, was black, and had faced significant racial prejudice in the military.

He told the court he feared other black and ethnic minority solders serving today might suffer if he identified the shooter.

Another case being examined by Soldier F's supporters is the legacy inquest into four IRA deaths in the Clonoe Ambush in 1992.

An active service unit attacked an RUC base in Coalisland, County Tyrone, and was then ambushed by the SAS.

Last month Mr Justice Humphrey excused the SAS captain, Captain A, who planned the ambush, from giving either oral or written evidence on medical grounds.

One gunman, Tony Doris, 21, was the cousin of Michelle O'Neill (pictured), now Northern Ireland's First Minister

The Coroner decided the threat to his mental health, because of his PTSD and recurrent depression and panic attacks, should see him released from the obligation to participate.

Finally, Soldier F's backers cite the legacy inquest into the death of Belfast watchman Thomas Mills in July 1972.

Coroner Joe McCrisken found that a soldier known as M4 from the 1st Battalion, the King's Regiment opened fire in breach of the Rules of Engagement in force at the time.

In March 2022 the case was referred to the High Court after M4 failed to appear at the inquest.

However, no further action appears to have yet been taken against him.
The man who killed six people in the Bondi Junction stabbing spree has been identified as Joel Cauchi.

Police say Cauchi, 40, who is from the Brisbane area and is understood to have suffered from schizophrenia, moved to Sydney from Queensland a month ago.

There is no suggestion that Cauchi was part of any particular ideology, with police treating the horrific attack as a mental-health related incident.

Police are currently searching through a 'very small storage facility' in Sydney that Cauchi rented out shortly after the move.

He was reportedly sleeping rough and had no fixed address.

He listed himself on several male escort websites, including Australia Cracker, Empire Escorts and Escorts Australia.

All websites allow users to upload their own pictures and solicit their own sexual services.

In his bio, Cauchi described himself as an 'athletic good-looking 39-year-old' based in Sydney who was looking for a 'fun time'.

He offered dozens of 'closed door services' which are too graphic to publish.

Joel Cauchi, 40, has been identified as the mass killer in the Bondi Westfield stabbing spree on Saturday

Cauchi killed six people and critically injured nine others, including a nine-month-old baby

Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said detectives have spoken to his family who have been helping police with their investigation.

'There is still, to this point  no information we have received, no evidence we have recovered, no intelligence that we have gathered that would suggest that this was driven by any particular motivation - ideology or otherwise,' Assistant Commissioner Cooke told reporters on Sunday.

'We are continuing to work through the profiling of the offender but very clearly to us at this stage it would appear that this is related to the mental health of the individual involved.'

According to his social media profiles, Cauchi grew up in Toowoomba and claimed he worked as an English tutor.

He was a surfing enthusiast and just last week posted in a Sydney Facebook group asking if anyone would like to meet him for a surf in Bondi.

In an profile for seeking shared accommodation, Cauchi said he was looking for a place to live in Sydney's western's suburbs in 'Liverpool, Blacktown, Pendle Hill or Parramatta'.

'I love meeting new people and seeing new interesting places!' he wrote about himself.

Pictured: Joel Cauchi in the shopping centre with a knife

In another post, shared in December 2020 to an outdoor adventure Facebook group for Brisbane residents, Cauchi explained he wanted to meet with people who shoot guns.

'Hi I am looking for groups of people who shoot guns, including handguns, to meet up with, chat with and get to know. Please send me DM if you can help me out! I live in Brisbane by the way,' Cauchi wrote.

He also recently posted in various astronomy groups asking for advice on how to further his knowledge on astrophotography.

Assistant Commissioner Cooke said police are still working to determine how Cauchi came into possession of the weapon, which has been described by witnesses as a 30-cm hunting knife.

Police said Cauchi recently moved to Sydney from Queensland and had mental health issues

Bondi Junction Westfield killer Joel Cauchi had profiles on various escort websites, where he offered services for both men and women.

Pictured: Cauchi's listing on one of the escort websites

Police were called to Bondi Junction Westfield at 3.20pm on Saturday as horrific stabbing spree unfolded in the busy shopping centre on the first day of school holidays.

Footage posted online shows terrified shoppers running through the centre and taking shelter in shops as Cauchi chased after men, women and children brandishing the blade.

Inspector Amy Scott was patrolling nearby and was first on the scene. She entered the shopping centre by herself and bravely ran towards the offender, before shooting him dead when he lunged towards her with the knife.

Five other people  including four women believed to be aged between 20 and 55 and a man, aged in his 30s - who were in the centre, died at the scene. They are yet to be formally identified.

Twelve others  including nine women, two men and a 9-month-old child  suffering stab wounds, were treated by paramedics and taken to various Sydney hospitals.

The 38-year-old mother of the 9-month-old child, osteopath Ashlee Good, was taken to St Vincent's hospital, where she later died from her injuries.

Ashlee Good (pictured with her husband and child) was a new mother

John Singleton's daughter Dawnie, 25, (pictured) has been named among six people murdered

Her baby daughter underwent emergency surgery last night at Sydney's Children Hospital in Randwick and is now in a serious but stable condition.

Dawn Singleton, the 25-year-old daughter of multi-millionaire advertising guru John Singleton, has been identified as the second person killed in the attack.

Assistant Commissioner Cooke said there were several other people who were injured in the attack who left Westfield and later presented to medical centres.

Inspector Scott has been hailed as a hero for her actions, with many Australians flocking online to praise her incredible bravery.

Assistant Commissioner Cooke said he had spoken to her last night, and she was 'doing well'.

'Can I just say how proud we are of the actions of the officer involved,' he said.

'She is receiving all of the support that she requires.'

The shopping centre and surrounding streets remain closed on Sunday, while police continue to scour the crime scene for forensic evidence.

Police have launched a critical incident team comprised of homicide detectives and set up Strike Force Mcauley to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.

The investigation will also be subject to an independent review.

As investigations continue, any witnesses, anyone with information or mobile phone vision who has not yet spoken to police, is urged to call police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
This terrifying map shows the route Iran's strike force of 100 drones will take to hit Israel as the Middle East teeters on the edge of full-scale war.

Following the bombing of one of its embassies in Syria earlier this month, Iran has launched an assault against Israel by sending drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles towards Israeli targets.

Iran's army has said the drones will 'reach the occupied territories soon', having flown for nearly an hour.

Dramatic footage shows the moment Israel fires missiles to intercept the aerial bombardment, with explosions seen lighting up the sky.

It comes as the Ministry of Defence confirmed RAF jets have been moved to the Middle East to 'encourage de-escalation'.

This is a look at the route Iran's strike force of 100 kamikaze drones will take to hit Israel

Iran has threatened to take revenge against Israel for levelling its embassy in Damascus, Syria

Around a hundred drones and missiles were fired at Israel

The salvo of missiles and drones have begun to enter Israel airspace

Iranians were seen celebrating as the missiles and drones began to hit Israel

Yemen-based Houthis have also claimed to have shot 'dozens' of rockets towards an IDF base in the north-east of Israel. It is not currently known if the Houthi attacks are linked to Iran's salvo.

The UK, among Israel's closest allies, and other nations have reportedly begun to support Israel by sending fighter jets to shoot down the drones and missiles. US officials added that their military also intercepted drones and missiles heading to Israel.

The IDF's spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said that the Iranian attack was 'a severe and dangerous escalation' in tensions, adding: 'Our defensive and offensive capabilities are at the highest level of readiness ahead of this large-scale attack from Iran.'

The IDF said: 'The air defense array is on high alert at the same time as the Air Force planes and Navy ships that are on a mission to protect the country's skies. The IDF is monitoring all targets.

'We ask the public to adhere to and follow the instructions of the Home Front Command and the official IDF announcements regarding the matter.'

Israel's allies have begun to send in military assets in to help Israel.

British jets have reportedly 'shot down' Iranian drones over the Syrian border, according to unconfirmed reports. Pictured: an RAF Typhoon jet

Iran launched a terrifying assault against Israel by sending some 100 drones. Pictured: Iranian drones during a military training excercise

Israeli schools have been shut down in response to threats made by Iran

Tensions between Israel and Iran have been escalating massively in the past few weeks

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said: 'The State of Israel is strong, the IDF is strong, the people of Israel are strong'

US Congressional sources say the amphibious war ship Bataan is leading a US naval task force in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Bataan has two support ships and together they have about 2,500 Marines onboard. The US also has several guided missile destroyers including the Carney in the area.

US bases in Iraq have been placed on full alert and will also attempt to shoot down missiles and drones aimed at Israel. In addition, the US has two destroyers and a Cruiser in the Red Sea that are fully armed with anti-missile weapons and they too are under orders to shoot down any Israeli bound missiles or drones.

But Iran has threatened the US if it gets involved in the spat, claiming that it is a conflict between Iran and Israel alone.

Iran's mission to the UN wrote on X: 'Conducted on the strength of Article 51 of the UN Charter pertaining to legitimate defense, Irans military action was in response to the Zionist regimes aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus.

'The matter can be deemed concluded. However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Irans response will be considerably more severe. It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!'
Police have provided an update on the nine-month-old baby who was stabbed in the Bondi Junction knife attack.

Her mother, Ashlee Good, 38, was among six innocent shoppers who were killed in the horrific random attack in Sydney's Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday.

A 40-year-old man went on a terrifying stabbing rampage at about 3.20pm before he was shot dead by a lone female police officer.

A total of nine people, including Dr Good's nine-month old daughter, suffered knife wounds.

The infant was rushed to hospital in a critical condition last night for emergency surgery.

Police provided an update on her condition this morning

'We understand baby Harriet is stabilising this morning. We understand that she underwent surgery and she remains in a serious but stable condition.

Her family also issued a statement on Sunday morning.

'Today we are reeling from the terrible loss of Ashlee, a beautiful mother, daughter, sister, partner, friend, all round outstanding human and so much more,' it read.

'We appreciate the well-wishes and thoughts of members of the Australian public who have expressed an outpouring of love for Ashlee and our baby girl.'

'We are so grateful for the expert care and attention of the medical team at Sydney Childrens Hospital.

'We would also like to thank the New South Wales Police for their kindness and diligence in this tragedy and emergency services for getting our baby the care she needed as quickly as possible.

'To the two men who held and cared for our baby when Ashlee could not - words cannot express our gratitude.'

The baby's mother, Ashlee Good, 38, was among six innocent shoppers who were killed in the horrific random attack in Sydney 's Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday

The dying mother threw her injured baby into the arms of two strangers and selflessly begged them to help the infant.

The hero who took the baby was identified on Nine News shortly after tragedy.

'The baby got stabbed and, yeah, the mum got stabbed,' he said. 'The mum came over with the baby and threw it at me.

The man said he used clothes from a store to try to stem the baby's bleeding.

'I just helped by holding the baby... and trying to compress the baby.'

The two brothers stayed with the mother as they waited for emergency services.

'(It was) very bad... a lot of the blood on the floor... hope the baby's alright,' the other brother said.

Police are attending the scene in numbers and the Australian Federal Police are now liaising with NSW Police

Another witness, a worker at the shopping centre, recalled seeing a mother screaming on the level above.

'I see a mother and maybe her partner with a baby in a pram,' she told Nine News.

'She's screaming really, really loudly. She's running back and forth not knowing what to do.

'Then she comes back to the pram and picks up her baby and there's just blood all over her back.

'The scream was unforgettable, it was the scariest thing I've ever seen.

'My co-worker took me, we locked all the doors, had to turn off all the lights and doors'.

Heartbreaking images at the scene showed the baby being taken away in an ambulance.

Just 12 weeks after her little girl was born, Dr Good posted a heartfelt message to social media about being a mother.

'It's almost too much to put into words,' she posted.

'The love. The happiness. The fears. The new world. The new me; one that I'm still discovering as I enter motherhood and complete the so-called fourth trimester.

'It's like experiencing your heart swell with love whilst navigating anxiety for the first time.

'Feeling so proud, and then so overwhelmed. The dichotomy of it all.

'Pure joy and extraordinary exhaustion blended with emotions you've never felt before.'

She went on to say that it's a parent is 'the most outstandingly beautiful gift one can ever receive'.

She added: 'Sitting here feeling so deeply thankful, and still pinching myself she's ours.

'I love her so much.'
Multi-millionaire advertising guru John Singleton's daughter Dawn is among the six people murdered by a knife-wielding attacker at Westfield shopping centre in Bondi Junction on Saturday.

Affectionately known as Dawnie, the 25-year-old who is one of Singleton's three daughters from his marriage to Julie Martin, died in the rampage by Queensland man, Joel Cauchi, on Saturday afternoon.

John Singleton's daughter Dawnie, 25, has been named among six people murdered by knife wielding attacker Joel Cauchi at Bondi Junction Westfield on Saturday

Joel Cauchi from Queensland is pictured carrying a 30cm hunting knife on the escalator inside Westfield shopping centre at Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon

Five women and one man were killed and others wounded before a female police officer Amy Scott shot 40-year-old Cauchi dead.

One of the other victims identified is Sydney woman Ash Good, who handed her nine-month-old-daughter to a stranger to save while she was being attacked.

Police have said two of the six people who died in the attack were from overseas and had no family in Australia.

Police have confirmed the man was a security guard but could provide no further details.

Dawn is the oldest of three daughters to John Singleton and his former wife Julie Martin (the couple pictured above)

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said it might take some time before all victims could be formally identified due to their loved ones being overseas.

Part of the investigation would involve looking at the possibility Cauchi was specifically targeting women in his attack, she told reporters on Sunday.

The 40-year-old, who had recently moved to Sydney from Queensland, had a history of mental health issues and had previously come to the attention of police in both NSW and his home state.

Premier Chris Minns said all of NSW would need to get behind the families of those affected by the tragedy as they went through "the inevitable grief associated with such a horrifying, horrifying event".
Sony introduced a new series called the ULT Power Sound which boasts a front-row concert-like experience on its four new devices.

The Ult Power Sound series consists of the ULT Tower 10, ULT Field 7, ULT Field 1 speakers, and Ult Wear headphones.

Read Also : The PS5 Pro Can Offer Constant 60 FPS for Optimized Games

Sony Introduces Ult Power Sound Series Devices

All of the ULT Power Sound devices have a ULT button that can be customized between different sound modes based on the bass emphasis users want. For instance, the ULT1 offers a deeper, lower frequency bass, while the ULT2 gives a powerful, punchy bass.

The ULT Tower 10 Party Speaker promises 360-degree party lights and sounds that can bring life to every corner of the room. The speaker includes a wireless microphone in the package, making it a good karaoke item for parties. The ULT Tower 10 is available for $1,199.99.

The ULT Field 7 Bluetooth Wireless Portable Speaker which retails at $499.99 is an X-Balanced speaker unit that can last up to 30 hours. Meanwhile, the ULT Field 1 Bluetooth Speaker is a cheaper option for only $129.99 offers a sound diffusion processor, and can last for up to 12 hours of battery.

Sony Announces Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones

Among its new speaker lineup for the ULT Power Sound Series, Sony launched one headphone that is capable of noise canceling. The ULT Wear boasts quality noise-canceling technology with a V1 processor.

The device features a folding design, making it a good travel companion for avid listeners. It can last up to 30 hours and can be charged for 10 minutes for up to five hours of listening.

The ULT Wear headphones are also now available for only $199.99 and come with a compact carry case for portable packing. All the Sony ULT Power Sound devices will start shipping in spring except the ULT Field 1 which is expected to come sometime in summer.
New photos of Samantha Murphy sharing happy moments with her husband Michael have emerged as he was joined in grieving the loss of the missing mother at an emotional rally last night.

The photos show the pair lovingly arm-in-arm as they smile warmly for the camera in a heart-breaking reminder of the times before mother-of-three Ms Murphy, 51, went for a morning run from their Ballarat home on February 4 and never returned.

The release of the photos come as Mr Murphy revealed the pair would have celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary on February 21.

Mr Murphy showed his bravery by addressing Friday night's rally in the central south Victorian town of Ballarat, held to honour Ms Murphy and two other women, Hannah McGuire and Rebecca Young, who were all killed in the space of just two months.

New photos of Samantha Murphy sharing happy moments with her husband Michael have emerged as he was joined in grieving the loss of the missing mother at an emotional rally last night

Mr Murphy (pictured left) revealed that he and Samantha would have celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary on February 21

Despite saying he had not planned on speaking, Mr Murphy said he felt compelled by the size and sorrowful determination of the crowd with many people bringing hand-made signs calling for an end to violence towards women.

'I'd like to thank you all for coming and supporting the families of the three women,' he said.

'If you see something that's not right, speak up. Let the authorities know.

'On a positive note, the support here behind the women and the violence is incredible.'

A 'Bring Sam home' chant echoed loud from the crowd.

The Enough is Enough - Snap Rally Against Men's Violence in Ballarat was organised by former Greens Senate candidate Sissy Austin and was attended by local councillors.

Mr Murphy spoke at a rally calling for an end to violence against women on Friday night

The rally honoured the lives of Ms Murphy (pIctured, right) and Hannah McGuire (pictured, left and Rebecca Young (pictured, centre)

The family of Ms Young are seen leading the rally in an act of tribute at Ballarat on Friday night

More than 1,000 people rallied in Ballarat after the deaths of three women, many bearing hand-made signs calling for an end to violence towards women

Ballarat councillors were also seen at the march along with local residents brandishing homemade signs (pictured)

In March, detectives charged 22-year-old tradesman Patrick Orren Stephenson with Ms Murphy's alleged murder.

However, search efforts for her remains have so far proved futile with the latest effort on bush tracks near the Murphy family home in east Ballarat being abandoned early Friday afternoon.

'If we'd found anything you would have all heard about it,' one officer told Daily Mail Australia as police packed up their dirt bikes and indicated they would not be resuming the search on Saturday.

A tearful Mr Murphy revealed on Friday that he still searches for his missing wife every day.

'Sometimes I go for a drive and it might not be anywhere particular, or I go for a walk for two hours. It varies every day,' he told Nine News.

'It's very good for my mind and if I sat at home, I wouldn't do myself any favours.'

Mr Murphy fondly recalled his wife being an 'incredibly smart and wonderful woman'.

The pair met at a pub in Gordon near the Victorian city of Geelong and ran a smash repairs business together in Ballarat.

'You know, for someone so good to be gone out of the community, it's pretty hard - she was always good to us and a good mum,' Mr Murphy said.

'You won't hear a bad word about her, she was a good mother, caring and always providing for everybody.

Mick Murphy broke down while talking about his missing wife Samantha, who vanished from Ballarat on February 4

Samantha Murphy (left) and Michael Murphy (right) are pictured in Indonesia in 2017

'She was always smiling and happy and we want people to remember Sam for who she was. Anyone who knows her knows what she's like.'

He said Friday night's rally for Ms Murphy, Ms McGuire, 23, and Ms Young, 42, was a demonstration of the devastation being felt in Ballarat over the compounded tragedies.

'The march for her today, the respect that the community has not only for Sam but the other women that have lost their lives in the last few weeks, the support will be great and I think it'll be a pretty emotional time,' Mr Murphy said.

'I wouldn't wish this on anybody.'

Mr Murphy said his wife operated like 'clockwork' so when she didn't return from her run as expected, alarm bells started to ring.

'On that particular day, I was outside and thought she'll be coming up the road pretty soon,' he said.

'Then she didn't.

'I just thought, 'Ah well, she might've gone a bit longer'. I went outside and said to the kids, 'Has mum come home yet?' and they said no. I thought that was a bit odd.'

Shockingly the devoted husband also revealed he has been subjected to 'verbal abuse' and trolling on social media in the first few weeks after his wife's disappearance.

'You start second guessing yourself,' he said.

'You know you've done nothing wrong.'

Samantha Murphy was allegedly murdered while out for a Sunday morning jog

Police pack away their dirt bikes after another unsuccessful search on Friday

An officer prepares to pull out of the area after another unsuccessful search on Friday

Police entered thick bush in an area about 25 kilometres from where Samantha Murphy vanished on February 4

Search crews have been looking down mine shafts and navigating treacherous conditions in the hunt for clues

Specialist dogs capable of finding bodies have been brought in to assist the search

Detectives from the missing persons squad and other specialist crews have been combing the region to find Ms Murphy.

'Over the past two months, police have also regularly undertaken a range of enquiries and small-scale searches as part of the current investigation,' the spokesperson said on Friday.

On Thursday, Victoria Police brought in specialist cadaver dogs from New South Wales to scour the bush at multiple locations in dense scrub spanning a vast stretch of countryside.

Teams of officers focused their search within Enfield State Park, 30km south of Ballarat - but another search team was also working 25km away in thick scrub in the Durham Lead Nature Conservation Reserve.

The nature reserve is just south of Buninyong where Ms Murphy's phone was last detected by mobile phone towers at 5pm on the day she vanished.

Ms Murphy was last seen leaving her home on Eureka Street, Ballarat East, to go for a run in the Canadian State Forest on the morning of February 4.

Police were believed to be looking in bush about 20km south of the Murphy family home.

Ms Murphy's husband Mick Murphy was informed about this week's search. He had been previously kept in the dark about similar search efforts

A helicopter was seen flying overhead the dense woodland just before 2pm on Thursday, with search crews making their way deeper into the thick scrub.

By 4pm, the search was suspended for the day.

Thursday was the first time search crews have used the highly-trained cadaver dogs, brought in from NSW Police, since the investigation was launched.

They are specially trained to be able to sniff out human remains and corpses, even under extreme conditions.

Police on trail bikes have also been used to help cover the wide area of the increasingly desperate hunt for Ms Murphy's remains, more than eight weeks after she vanished.

Officers had previously made unsuccessful search efforts at Buninyong Bushland Reserve in March.

It remains unclear what new information triggered the fresh search locations for police on Thursday.

Samantha Murphy in the last haunting image of her captured before she took off on her run on February 4

Patrick Orren Stephenson has been charged with murder

It is alleged Stephenson killed Ms Murphy at Mount Clear on the day she went missing.

Stephenson is the son of Orren Stephenson, who played 15 AFL games for Geelong and Richmond between 2012 and 2014.

It is understood Stephenson has refused to cooperate with police.

Detective Acting Superintendent Mark Hatt described Thursday's effort as an 'extensive' large scale search that built on targeted searches in other areas.

'I want to assure those in the Ballarat community that police remain focused on doing everything we can to return Samantha to her family,' he said.

Anyone with any information about Ms Murphy's disappearance is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

It comes after the death of Ms McGuire, who was allegedly murdered by her ex-partner Lachlan Young a week ago.

The McGuire family are expected to be at the rally handing out t-shirts sporting Hannah's face.

'Tomorrow we will march and stand in solidarity for Hannah McGuire and every other female who has lost their life to violence,' a post on the family pub's Facebook page stated.

'We have had T-shirts made for Hannah and would be honoured if you wore one.'

In another tragedy in Ballarat, Ms Young was found dead inside the property on the edge of the city in February, alongside her partner Ian Butler, who has ties to the Bandidos bikie gang, in a suspected murder suicide.

Fellow Ballarat woman, Hannah McGuire, was allegedly murdered
She's reportedly the highest-paid divorce lawyer in the UK, once nicknamed the 'steel magnolia' - a combination of feminine demeanour and unbreakable will.

With an impressive list of celebrity clients to her name, including Prince Charles, Paul McCartney, Stephen Hawking and Liam Gallagher, Baroness Fiona Shackleton, 67, has returned to the spotlight, reportedly advising Australian actress Isla Fisher in her separation from husband Sacha Baron Cohen.

Yet even today, it is her royal clients with whom she is most closely associated - most notably King Charles when he was negotiating his messy divorce from Diana in 1996.

Charles and Diana during a photo-call on the Balmoral Estate before their wedding in 1981

The process was understandably hard for both parties, but particularly for Diana, according to royal biographer Ingrid Seward.

In December 1992, Prime Minister John Major read a statement from Buckingham Palace in the House of Commons, stating that Charles and Diana would be separating.

'This decision has been reached amicably and they will both continue to participate fully in the upbringing of their children,' the statement said.

The palace claimed that no third party was involved, despite constant reports of marital scandals in the media.

By the beginning of 1996, however, things were getting nasty.

Baroness Fiona Shackleton is a divorce specialist. Her most notable clients were King Charles in 1996 and Prince Andrew in 1996

Charles and Fiona Shackleton appear in high spirits while attending an exhibition in London, 2000

Prince William and Prince Harry both continue to use Shackleton as their Personal Solicitor

The royal solicitor who started as a chef...

Fiona Shackleton was born to Jonathan Charkham, an economist and adviser to The Bank of England, and Moira Elizabeth Frances Salmon, in 1956. She was educated at Benenden School in Kent, before studying law at Exeter University. Shackleton qualified as a solicitor in 1980. Before embarking on a legal career, she trained as a chef and worked as an executive caterer. In 1984, she joined Farrar & Co, the firm that advises the Royal Family. Within three years, she was promoted to the position of partner. Recognised for advising Prince Andrew and Prince Charles during their divorces, Shackleton subsequently represented Paul McCartney in his divorce proceedings with Heather Mills. Fiona and her husband Ian attend the wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle In a courtroom altercation in 2008, Heather Mills famously doused the lawyer with a jug full of water. Currently, Fiona Shackleton is a partner at Payne Hicks Beach, specialising in family and private client work, a role she assumed in 2001. Advertisement

Royal author Ingrid Seward says:

'What Diana was really concerned about was losing her influence over her boys. So the whole thing was very, very delicate,' the royal biographer said.

'Diana blamed everything on Charles - and Charles kept blaming Fiona Shackleton, presumably on her advice.'

The couple came to an agreement in July 1996 and their divorce was publicly announced in August that year.

The same month, Queen Elizabeth II issued Letters Patent, declaring that any woman divorced from a prince would no longer hold the title 'Royal Highness'.

Diana was subsequently styled 'Diana, Princess of Wales'.

Fiona Shackleton negotiated a 17 million settlement for Diana and the Princess agreed to cover the legal costs of her divorce.

It was also agreed that Diana would see William and Harry every five weekends.

Her successful handling of the case earned Shackleton praise and Charles continued to utilise her services until 2005.

'The terms of the divorce were severe,' says Seward, whose new book, My Mother and I, based on the relationship between King Charles and his late mother, is published by Simon and Schuster.

'If Diana wanted to leave the country on anything that could be described as official business, she had to get special permission.

'Her movements were restricted and she wasnt allowed to take an ordinary job to earn money.'

Shackleton also represented Prince Andrew during his divorce from Sarah, Duchess of York that same year.

Andrew paid out 3 million in a divorce settlement in May 1996.

Shackleton attended the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018 with her husband, fellow Exeter alumnus, Ian Shackleton.

In 2010, the Queen made Shackleton a life peer, giving her the title, Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia.

She sits as a Conservative member in the House of Lords.
The royals have paid tribute to victims of the horrific knife attack in Sydney today with King Charles III and Queen Camilla saying they are 'shocked and horrified' by the incident, while Kate and William sent thoughts to the families of those involved.

In a statement this afternoon, the King said: 'My wife and I were utterly shocked and horrified to hear of the tragic stabbing incident in Bondi.

'Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who have been so brutally killed during such a senseless attack.

'While details of these shocking circumstances are still emerging, our thoughts are also with those who were involved in the response, and we give thanks for the bravery of the first responders and emergency services.'

The King signed off his message: 'Charles R.'

The Prince and Princess of Wales echoed the King's sentiments in what was Kate's first public statement since telling the world she has cancer.

The Prince and Princess of Wales (pictured at Horse Guards Parade in November 2023) have sent an emotional message to Sydney attack victims in what is Kate's first public statement since telling the world she has cancer

Posting on their official X account, the couple said: 'We are shocked and saddened by the terrible events in Sydney earlier today'

The royal couple's statement sees Princess Kate (pictured with William in Vancouver in 2016) break her silence for the first time since she revealed in March that she was undergoing 'preventative' chemotherapy after a period of absence from public life

The Princess of Wales announced her shock cancer diagnosis in a video in a video message

King Charles III also made a statement following the horrific attack in Australia

King Charles III was seen waving to royal fans as he left Clarence House in London on Wednesday

Posting on their official X account, the couple said: 'We are shocked and saddened by the terrible events in Sydney earlier today.

'Our thoughts are with all those affected, including the loved ones of those lost and the heroic emergency responders who risked their own lives to save others.'

The pair signed off the statement with 'W & C'.

Six people were killed and three more stabbed during the horrific attack in Sydney that left multiple people critically injured including a mother and her baby on the start of the Australian school holidays.

Four women and one man died at the scene and another woman died in hospital.

Other victims critically injured in the attack at Bondi Junction Westfield mall at around 3.30pm local time included a mother and her nine-month-old baby.

The attacker was in the mall at 3pm but left and returned at 3.20pm with a knife.

He attacked the mother and child at 3.30pm before police arrived at 3.45pm and the mall was placed under lockdown at 4pm.

The baby is undergoing surgery in hospital. The motive was not immediately clear and police have not ruled out terrorism.

The knifeman who killed five women and one man during a rampage in Sydney today was 'known to police'

The knifeman was reportedly shot dead by a female police officer

The attacker was seen running in the mall with a knife in his hand

The attacker was in the mall at 3pm but left and returned at 3.20pm with a knife. He attacked the mother and child at 3.30pm before police arrived at 3.45pm and the mall was placed under lockdown at 4pm

Shoppers run though Bondi Junction as police lock down the centre following reports of a major incident

The stabbing happened at Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre, which went into lockdown just before 4pm on Saturday

Multiple other shoppers have been injured in the attack, it has been reported

Paramedics have taken people to hospital in ambulances, while bystanders have seen multiple people outside the shopping centre with blood on their clothes

Police have cordoned off the shopping centre in Sydney

The royal couple's statement sees Princess Kate break her silence for the first time since she revealed in March that she was undergoing 'preventative' chemotherapy after a period of absence from public life.

The family have kept a low profile in recent weeks while the Princess of Wales takes time to recover and on Wednesday Prince William spoke for the first time since the shock news.

The royal took to Instagram to thank England Lionesses hero Rachel Daly for her service to the national team.

In a pithy statement shared on the Instagram account ran by the Prince and Princess of Wales, he said: 'Thank you for so many unforgettable performances with Lionesses, Rachel Daly'.

READ MORE: Prince William breaks his social media silence for the first time since Kate announced her cancer diagnosis Advertisement

'Plenty more goals for Villa now,' he quipped, with Daly now focused exclusively on her role as Aston Villa number 9.

Prince William, who has not been seen publicly since his wife's announcement, is not expected to pick back up his public duties until his children return to school after the holidays.

In an emotional video message at the end of March announcing the news, the Princess said it had been an 'incredibly tough couple of months' for her family but she was 'well and getting stronger every day'.

She added: 'My work has always brought me a deep sense of joy and I look forward to being back when I am able, but for now I must focus on making a full recovery.'

It comes after Prince William was allegedly spotted on a 'low key' pub outing in Norfolk with his mother-in-law, as his wife apparently stayed at home.

The Prince of Wales was seen over the weekend stopping off at an unnamed bar with Carole Middleton, who is said to have been staying with the couple over Easter.

Carole, 69, has reportedly been supporting her daughter through her recovery at her home in Windsor, with the Princess retiring from royal duties until to return by her medical team.

William's first public appearance since Kate Middleton's cancer diagnosis saw him enjoying some father-son bonding time with George at Aston Villa's Conference League match up on Thursday.

The Prince of Wales was seen applauding in the Villa Park stands with his eldest son, Prince George, as forward Ollie Watkins' header saw Villa take an early lead over French side Lille in the 14th minute.

William - an avid Aston Villa fan - was seen mouthing a few words to his smiling son, dressed in a claret and blue supporters' scarf.

The family are currently understood to be spending the Easter Holiday in Norfolk, before the children return to their private school in Berkshire.

The royal couple last visited Australia in 2014 when Prince George was just nine months old.

Prince William, 41, shared a personal message this week to the official Instagram account he shares with the Princess of Wales

William and Kate pictured arriving at St David's Cathedral in Haverfordwest in Wales last September 8 for a service commemorating the life of the late Queen Elizabeth II

William and Kate were seen leaving Windsor together as they were driven in a car on March 11

Prince William, who has not been seen publicly since his wife's announcement, is not expected to pick back up his public duties until his children (pictured in 2020) return to school after the holidays

During the three-week trip, the royal couple - who were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the time - visited Sydney, where a horrific knife attack in a shopping mall shocked the country today.

The knifeman, whose rampage saw six people killed earlier today, was shot dead by a hero female police officer, who apprehended the knifeman alone after being on patrol nearby.

The Sydney knifeman was a 40-year-old and was 'known to police'.

His attack is not thought to be terror-related, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said.

READ MORE: King Charles waves to royal fans as well-wishers cheer for the monarch amid his cancer treatment Advertisement

Ms Webb told a press conference: 'Later this evening we became aware of who we believe the offender is and we believe that he is a 40-year-old man.

'However, we are waiting to formally identify him and we cannot speculate yet on his identification.

'But let me assure you that we are confident that there is no ongoing risk and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased.'

She added: 'If in fact it is the person that we believe it is, then we don't have fears for that person holding an ideation - in other words, that it's not a terrorism incident.

Prince William and Prince George were seen celebrating Aston Villa's opening goal vs Lille in footage coverage of the Conference League fixture aired by TNT Sports

William, who is an avid Aston Villa fan turned and appeared to say a few words to his son

'He is known to law enforcement but we are waiting to identify him formally.'

Speaking about the heroic cop, Commissioner Webb said she was 'doing well under the circumstances'.

Webb added: 'She showed enormous courage and bravery we just talked [and] she's OK, her family is OK. She's got everything she needs for the time being.'
The most profitable locations in Britain for holiday lets has been revealed - and the majority are not located anywhere near a beach.

Staycation favourite Cornwall is top of the rankings, with an average price per night of 84 for a room and 117 for a whole house.

A total of 476,910 bookings were made via popular holiday rental companies in the area last summer, according to analysis of Office for National Statistics data by the money website Wealth of Geeks.

The figures suggest that holiday lets in Cornwall took bookings worth 40million between the beginning of July and the end of September last year.

However, most of the top 10 are located in inner London, the research showed.

> SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE ARTICLE FOR THE FULL LIST

The most profitable locations for buy-to-let have been revealed, with staycation favourite Cornwall at the top of the rankings

The list of top ten places also includes several areas in London, including Westminster in second place.

The average price of renting a holiday let in Westminster is 133 a night for a room and 435 for a house.

With 304,790 holiday let bookings, it produces a revenue for the area in the heart of London's west end of 34,441,270 for the summer period last year.

The calculations were based on bookings on Airbnb, Booking.com and the Expedia Group, with data taken from the Office for National Statistics.

The rental prices, meanwhile, were taken from Airbnb across 388 British towns, and the total revenue was calculated by multiplying the number of nights with the nightly cost of a room on Airbnb.

The revenue did not take into account any costs of running a holiday let, such as repairs and maintenance, nor did it factor in property prices.

All of the remaining locations in the top ten were in London except for one on the south coast.

This was Brighton and Hove, where average rental prices per night were 100 for a room.

In total, the data suggested that the British holiday rental market made 739,211,390, during the summer of 2023.

Michael Dinich, of Wealth of Geeks, said: 'Holiday rentals play a vital role in the UK's tourism industry by supporting local economies, providing accommodation to enhance visitor experience, and promoting tourism in diverse regions across the country.

'Tourism also helps to promote awareness of lesser-known areas, helping to distribute tourist spending more evenly across the country.

'While some destinations may experience seasonal fluctuations in tourism often in the summer months, holiday rentals attract visit year-round, helping to sustain economies and businesses during off-peak seasons.'

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced in this year's Budget that the tax relief available for furnished holiday lets would be scrapped

The findings show that those looking to invest in the holiday lets market need to do their sums carefully before taking the plunge and committing to a particular area.

North London estate agent Jeremy Leaf, explained: 'This data shows that it's not just the prospect of beaches and more reliable weather which drives profitability.

'It's not just traditionally popular holiday destinations which produce the best returns so it's vital that would-be landlords do their research carefully before investing.

'The ability to make money depends on supply and demand, not just the attributes of an area.

'At what level a landlord can rent their property for, after taking into account all expenses, is key and explains why areas such as Westminster and Camden are proving profitable, where they may lack the charm of a traditional UK holiday destination such as Cornwall.'

The British holiday rental market made 739,211,390, during the summer of 2023, according to the latest data

Tax crackdown

The data on the most profitable holiday lets follows a crackdown on the sector by the Chancellor.

Jeremy Hunt announced in this year's Budget that the tax relief available for furnished holiday lets would be scrapped to help improve the availability of long-term rentals.

The move is due to come into force at the beginning of April next year and is widely seen as a way of bringing the tax regime of shorter-term lets more in line with longer term rentals.

Experts operating in the sector insisted that holiday rentals remained in demand ahead of the changes.

Graham Donoghue, of Sykes Holiday Cottages, said: 'Staycations have been growing in popularity over the past decade and right now demand for our UK holiday cottages is higher than ever, with the average annual income of a holiday let owner up as a result.

'Hotspot locations like Yorkshire, Cumbria, and Cornwall continue to see considerable demand and bookings across the UK for our holiday cottages have been up 11 per cent during the current Easter school holidays.

'The demand we're witnessing is particularly good news for our holiday let owners who have faced their own set of challenges recently. Despite changes, which we are carefully guiding our owners through, it's clear that holiday letting remains a profitable and rewarding long-term business model.'
If you've been having trouble getting onto Facebook and Instagram lately, you're not alone.

Since the start of the year, Meta's services have already experienced 33 outages - including two of the biggest ones since 2022.

While it is easy to imagine that Facebook could be under siege by malicious hackers, the truth might actually be worse for the company.

Speaking to MailOnline, tech experts have revealed that Meta may have created a system that is now too complex to keep running - particularly as the company continues to cut staff.

Worryingly, one expert has warned that the problems are only going to get worse, describing the outages as 'existential' for Meta.

Cybersecurity experts told MailOnline that Meta's service outages are due to the company creating a system so complex that it can no longer be properly maintained

Meta's biggest service outages December 2020 Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram went down for two hours due to an unexplained technical issue. October 2021 Meta's biggest service outage in recent years in which Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp went down for five to seven hours. July 2022 Some Meta services were down for around two hours. October 2022 A 'configuration change' caused Facebook and Instagram to become inaccessible for about two hours. March 2024 Global outage left users unable to log onto Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads, and even Meta Quest VR services for two hours. April 2024 Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook went down for users across the globe for two hours. Advertisement

Meta's issue, as cybersecurity expert Dr Junade Ali told MailOnline, is something called 'technical debt'.

This, essentially, refers to the fact that big tech companies like Meta have built very complex pieces of the internet on the back of old-fashioned systems that don't quite work.

Dr Ali says: 'What happens is that there are these 'legacy systems' which people don't have the time to fix.'

As Meta has grown and swallowed up services like Instagram and Whatsapp it has had to make more things work on the back of this technical debt.

Each of these thousands of different systems and services speak to each other using something called an API, or Application Programming Interface.

These let the complex system work as a whole, but if something goes wrong in one API, the consequences can quickly spread to lots of different services.

This means that issues with routine updates and new features can trigger cascading effects that lead to outages big enough for users to notice.

Dr Ali says: 'When you work on a computer system like Meta you're always releasing new features and doing maintenance...the key thing is to be able to recover quickly.

'But when you aren't able to keep on top of that housekeeping, then things start to become a lot more noticeable.'

On March 5 and April 3 this year, Meta services including Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram all went down for about two hours.

The issue appeared to be spread widely across Meta's services with Threads and even Meta Quest VR-headset users being affected.

At the time, Meta acknowledged that services were down and attributed the outages to a 'technical issue'.

However, closer analysis can narrow down exactly what this 'technical error' might have been.

Although these disruptions were branded as 'server outages', Meta's servers never actually went down and the site remained live the entire time.

Your browser does not support iframes.

On April 5 users were unable to log into Meta services including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads due to an authentication error

On April 3, another service outage led to 714 people reporting they were unable to access Facebook on Down Detector

Neither is it very likely that Meta's servers had been targeted by cybercriminals, although this can't be ruled out entirely.

In the immediate aftermath of the service outage on March 5, the hacker group Anonymous appeared to claim responsibility for a cyberattack against the company.

However, Angelique Medina, head of internet intelligence at Cisco Thousand Eyes, told MailOnline that human error was a more likely cause.

A cyberattack such as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack in which a company's systems are overwhelmed by vast numbers of requests, would leave a clear trace.

Ms Medina explains: 'If it's something like a DDoS attack where you're seeing lots of traffic that is flooding a particular service, you're going to see the ripple effects across lots of different ISPs [internet service providers].'

In her analysis of network traffic around Meta services Ms Medina didn't find any evidence of these ripple effects.

Hacktivist group Anonymous seemed to claim responsibility for the outage, but it is common for hackers to falsely claim attacks in order to sow disinformation and bolster their credibility

These diagrams show connections to Meta's servers during the April 3 service outage. As the green colours indicate, all of the servers remained active, indicating the issue was on Meta's backend

What is a DDoS attack? A DDoS attack stands for Distributed Denial of Service. In this attack, individuals bombard a website with so much traffic that its intended users can't access it. Some hackers will use hijacked computers called bot-nets to generate even more traffic. The biggest attacks can be so strong they take whole sections offline. They are a common tool of 'hacktivists' and less sophisticated cybercriminals. Advertisement

This makes it far more likely that Meta's developers released an update which interacted poorly with the rest of the infrastructure.

Ms Medina explains: 'Typically, what we see with these kinds of outages is there might have been some kind of update that was being done to the application or underlying infrastructure.

'The types of outages are, for lack of a better word, self-inflicted,' she said.

While these two outages were the most noticeable, they are far from the only times Meta has seen service disruption this year.

In fact, Meta's service disruptions appear to be getting worse over time

There were 33 instances of 'performance degradation' between January 1 and April 5 - a 154 per cent increase on the same time period the year before.

Because total outages are so expensive for the company, they are usually fixed quickly.

When they are not, the results can be nearly catastrophic as seen in October 2021 when Meta's services disappeared for between five and seven hours.

The resulting loss in ad revenue was estimated to cost the company $100 million (80m) and wiped five per cent of the company's share price.

This makes the fact that Meta has just seen two global outages, each lasting over two hours, all the more troubling.

Dr Ali says: 'Normally you would try to get mean recovery time down into the minutes.

'Going into a few hours is quite concerning because it means something has gone wrong with the detection process or there's been something going wrong in the recovery.'

If service outages for Meta's products like Facebook and Instagram continue to get worse, this could cost the company millions in lost advertising revenue and harm the share price

More worryingly, some experts are not optimistic that these systems will improve in the future.

Cybersecurity expert James Bore told MailOnline he expects these problems to become 'existential' for Meta.

He says: 'They're not going to improve, it's never going to be better than it is now.

'It's going to keep on growing out of control and keep on decaying and becoming more fragile with more failures...people will lose faith and, eventually, I suspect it will just vanish.'

Speaking to Mr Bore, a Meta insider allegedly said: 'They've got no control internally.

'They're keeping it running mostly, and that's about all they can do.'

The biggest problem, Mr Bore claims, is that the system has grown too large and does too many things for Meta to keep everything working.

'We get these systems which become more and more complex, with more and more shoddy code so they're harder to work with and, as time goes on, you have to throw more and more resources at it,' he says.

This also appears to be an issue Meta has been aware of for some time.

In a 2019 internal Facebook meeting that was later leaked to The Verge, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook's outages were becoming more severe.

In a leaked audio recording Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) told employees as far back as 2019 that the complexity of the company's system meant that small issues were causing 'systems to fall over'

Mr Zuckerberg told employees: 'It's not that there's one technical being, except that just the complexity of the systems is growing.

'So things that previously would have just been a blip are now things that are causing systems to fall over.'

Things are now getting worse, Mr Bore and Dr Ali both told MailOnline, because companies like Meta are trying to cut back on costs like staffing.

In May last year, Meta fired more than 10,000 staff on top of a prior 11,000 in November 2022, losing about 10 per cent of total staff each time.

Mr Bore says: 'We know from experience that if you take people away from a system, it rarely gets more stable.

'Even if they weren't particularly good you've just lost 10 per cent of your hands on keyboards trying to keep this system running.'
While Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates remains optimistic about the social benefits of artificial intelligence, now even the billionaire mogul fears that AI could take his job.

The candid quip came during a recent podcast conversation with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose company is responsible for the AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT.

Over the years, Gates has maintained that the three best career paths for recent graduates are those in alternative energy, health biosciences, and advancing artificial intelligence itself  but notably 'billionaire philanthropist' is not on that list.

'I could even lose my job,' Gates said on his podcast, 'Unconfuse Me with Bill Gates.'

'When the machine says to me, "Bill, go play pickleball, I've got malaria eradication. You're just a slow thinker,"' he worried, 'then it is a philosophically confusing thing.'

Over the years, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has maintained that the three best career paths for recent graduates are those in alternative energy, health biosciences, and advancing artificial intelligence (AI) itself  but notably 'billionaire philanthropist' is not on that list

While Gates remains optimistic about the social benefits of AI, now even the billionaire mogul fears that it could take his job. 'When the machine says to me, 'Bill, go play pickleball, I've got malaria eradication. You're just a slow thinker [...] it is a philosophically confusing thing'

'I was very skeptical,' Gates said about AI, in this conversation with Altman on the January 11, 2024 edition of his podcast. 'I didn't expect ChatGPT to get so good.'

He expressed his own bewilderment with how 'large language model' AIs like ChatGPT can process and imitate intricate textual information, like the works of William Shakespeare, with Altman chiming in that his team shared that confusion.

'When OpenAI built GPT-1, they had no deep understanding of how it worked or why it worked,' Altman confessed.

According to Altman, the company is now pursuing 'interpretability research' in order to more fully unpack all the intricacies and complexities that machine-learning and AI-training has done alone, away from the eyes of its initial coders.

READ MORE: Bill Gates-founded energy firm is set to construct $3 billion nuclear power plant in Wyoming The Bill Gates-founded nuclear power company TerraPower announced plans to begin building a sodium-cooled reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming, this June, and said it could be functioning by 2030. Sodium-cooled reactors can be operated more cheaply than water-cooled ones, but they also present a few unique safety hazards. Advertisement

Gates has increasingly focused both his podcast and his blog, 'Gates Notes,' on the future promise and ethical dimensions of AI.

'We now have a better sense of what types of jobs AI will be able to do by itself and which ones it will serve as a copilot for,' Gates said in a post on his 2024 predictions.

'2023 marked the first time I used artificial intelligence for work and other serious reasons, not just to mess around and create parody song lyrics for my friends.'

'And it's clearer than ever how AI can be used to improve access to education, mental health, and more,' Gates continued. 'It motivates me to make sure this technology helps reduce  and doesn't contribute to  the awful inequities we see around the world.'

One healthcare example Gates cited was that AI chatbots could make it easier for patients to learn about and better weigh their personal risks for HIV, noting that 'for many people, talking to a doctor or nurse about their sexual history can be uncomfortable.'

Gates has put his money where his mouth is on the notion that health care, alternative energy-sector jobs and AI are the most important and viable sectors for the future of work.

This summer, the billionaire's power company, TerraPower, will be building a novel nuclear power plant in Wyoming.

'Making it clean, affordable and reliable will be essential for fighting poverty and climate change,' as Gates put it to a graduating class of college students.

'Biosciences,' he said to those same college graduates, will remain a viable and worthwhile career path, because it is 'ripe with opportunities to help people live longer, healthier lives,' a set of skills and products that will always be in demand.

Today, Gates said, he still feels similarly about the promise of AI, although he admits we must 'make smart investments now' to ensure that 'AI can make the world a more equitable place.'

'Whether AI can help us, you know, go to war less, be less polarized  you'd think it should drive [human] intelligence,' as Gates told Altman on his recent podcast.

'So, I'd love to have people working on the hardest human problems, like whether we get along with each other,' Gates added. 'I think that would be an extremely positive if we thought the AI could contribute to humans getting along with each other.'
A flight attendant has revealed the 'punishment' she metes out to passengers who refuse to swap seats to help families with young children - and says 80 percent of her trips are now plagued by similar requests.

Mitra Amirzadeh, a flight attendant based in Orlando, said seat-swap requests have become so frequent they occur during eight out of her ten monthly shifts.

While she rarely intervenes, Amirzadeh, 38, said she will step in as a meditator when a child is involved.

If no willing volunteer steps up, she resorts to a more aggressive approach - assigning the passenger who won't swap the role of babysitter to the separated child.

'I have said before, "OK, so you're going to watch the toddler?" ' she told the Wall Street Journal. 'You'll want their snacks and their coloring books then, because they're going to need that.'

Mitra Amirzadeh, a flight attendant based in Orlando, said seat-swap requests have become so frequent that they occur during eight out of her ten monthly shifts

A former flight attendant has taken to TikTok to offer insights into the likelihood of successfully swapping seats

Want to exchange an aisle or window seat for a similar one nearby? You're almost guaranteed a yes,' she said in the video. But attempting to trade a middle seat for a coveted aisle or window? Your odds plummet to a mere 10 to 15 percent

Amirzadeh highlighted the growing trend, with an increasing number of requests coming from couples who have been seated separately.

The flight attendant, who serves as a union representative for an airline that implements fees for advance seat selection, believes passengers who expect a specific seat should pay in advance for it.

'The next time you feel yourself getting angry or getting frustrated that you're not getting the seat you want (...) you need to remind yourself you didn't pay to pick your seat. Otherwise, you'd be in it,' she told the Wall Street Journal.

Another former flight attendant has even taken to TikTok to offer insights into the likelihood of successfully swapping seats.

'Have you ever wanted to change seats on a plane to sit next to your friend or partner? Here are seat change success rates, couples edition,' TikTok user Jeenie Weenie said in a video with over 300,000 likes.

If you are a couple who wants to change seats with a solo passenger in the same area, she said the likelihood is near 100 percent.

'I have never had anyone say no,' she said.

But if the seat change involves one passenger moving to the back of the plane, that decreases your chances to about 20 percent.

And if the seat is near a bathroom or crying baby, the success rate plummets to about 40 percent.

Meanwhile, if you ask a passenger to give up their window or aisle seat for a middle seat, the likelihood of them agreeing is even lower at about 10 percent.

But the other way around - offering up a window or aisle seat to a middle seat - that brings up your chances all the way back up to 99.9 percent.

'Want to exchange an aisle or window seat for a similar one nearby? You're almost guaranteed a yes,' she said in the video.

'But attempting to trade a middle seat for a coveted aisle or window? Your odds plummet to a mere 10 to 15 percent.'

To change seats with other classes - she laughs and says please 'don't even try.'

While she rarely intervenes, Amirzadeh, 38, said she will step in as a meditator when a child is involved in the seat-swapping requests

Airline seat fees and basic economy restrictions have turned simple seat-swap requests into a potential problem - sometimes a dramatic spectacle or controversial debate - both on planes and online.

Passengers asking to switch seats are often accused of being stingy or self-important while those declining are called selfish and unkind. Flight attendants then get stuck in the middle when tensions rise.

Many seat-switching dramas have gone viral in recent years - with one incident garnering 6.6 million views and a f of comments with various opposing opinions.

It became so argumentative that the original poster had to provide a detailed diagram of the seat-switching request before shutting down further discussion.

Last year, a frequently flyer issued a PSA to fellow travelers about seat swapping after he found himself in a nightmare experience that saw him forced to move five times when he begrudgingly gave up his spot to another passenger.

The unknown man took to Reddit to recount his seat swap story that 'permanently changed [his] mind on ever being nice and trading seats with someone.'

He reignited the heated conversation surrounding travel etiquette after a frequent flyer was applauded for refusing to switch seats so a woman could sit by the window.

He shared his experience in a thread dedicated to 'Delta Air Lines' - adding that the disastrous incident took place eight years ago while he was on a flight from New York City to Utah.

Last year, a frequently flyer issued a PSA to fellow travelers about seat swapping after he found himself in a nightmare experience that saw him forced to move five times when he begrudgingly gave up his spot to another passenger (stock image)

He shared his experience in a thread dedicated to Delta Air Lines - adding that the disastrous incident took place eight years ago on a flight from New York City to Utah

He wrote: 'This was about eight years ago. I'm dead tired. Working and Tinder-ing in NYC for the last week, my first trip ever there. I'm completely exhausted from working long hours and lack of sleep from going out at night.

Flying direct back to SLC in the evening. I'm looking forward to crashing in my seat; I've prepped by taking some Nyquil sleeping pills. The seats to know are in row 12. ABC DEF.'

He clenched his ticket, which read 12F, in his hand as he walked through the aircraft.

Once he arrived to his aisle, he saw that a woman was sitting in his assigned seat.

'When walking down the aisle to my row. Seats CDEF are all taken. I'm holding my ticket for 12F. Of course I mention to the woman in my seat that she has my seat.

'She claims it's hers and I must be mistaken. (See one sentence before holding my ticket in my hand).

'She has to dig through her bag forever to find her ticket to see she has 12A and asks if I'll just take her seat so she won't have to move as she's 'settled'. Fine. Same seat. It doesn't matter to me. I sit in 12A and fall asleep,' he said.

However, his nap was interrupted when the woman who took his seat approached him and demanded her spot back.

'Some moments later the woman from 12F is standing in the aisle tapping my shoulder saying she needs her seat. She is holding her ticket and says she has claustrophobia and needs her seat (12B is empty so now 12A looks better than 12F),' he explained.

Despite being sure she was 'full of s***' and just wanted the middle seat to herself, he swaps with her once again because it is officially her seat.

Nearby passengers take notice and tell the man he is 'nice' for putting up with the constant changing of seats.

'I agree, but f*** it, I want to sleep so bad, so I fall back asleep,' he added.

However, his snooze is once again disrupted when the same woman approaches him again.

'Some moments later the woman is waking me up again. She is offering 12A back to me again as she is suffering from a panic attack and has decided to exit the plane. (The door still hadn't closed due to a delay waiting for a pilot).

'I nod to 12E saying he should take 12A. He'd have a better seat than the middle seat but he's 'settled' so f*** it I move back over to 12A, 12E ends up sliding over to 12F, of course and I fall asleep again,' he said.

And yet again the passenger is awoken - but this time by another traveler who is now demanding he move so that he can sit in 12A.

'Some moments later I'm awoken by a man standing in the aisle saying I'm in his seat. He's holding a freshly printed ticket for 12A as the plane door is still open and he was issued this seat after the claustrophobic woman left the plane.

'What can I do? He doesn't know everything that's happened, it's certainly officially his seat.

'I'm exhausted and look to 12C and say, 'I'm sorry I'm just going to slide over to 12B, I'm not going to go take my seat back from 12E who is now in my seat 12F. I fall back to sleep,' he added.

Of course, his slumber doesn't last long. The man from seat 12A now offers him the seat back because he has decided to move to the back of the plane.

He explained: 'Some moments later I'm awoken by the man in 12A who said I can take his seat as he's going to go to the back where there are more open seats.

Etiquette expert Diane Gottsman has revealed the best ways to persuade someone to swap seats with you on a flight

'The plane has only now just closed the door after sitting at the gate for three hours and is prepping for take off as I settle back in to seat 12A once again to fall asleep.'

At the end of the post, he advised travelers to stay in their seats no matter what.

'Never give up your seat people,' he said.

People flooded the comments section and agreed with the man as many social media users shared their own experiences.

One person said: 'Agreed a million times over.'

How do you go about framing the seat-swapping question? Speaking to MailOnline Travel last year, etiquette expert Diane Gottsman has revealed the best ways to persuade someone to give up their seat on a flight.

Diane Gottsman, the founder of The Protocol School of Texas

Gottsman, who is the founder of The Protocol School of Texas, said: When it comes to switching seats on a plane, its always best to plan ahead so you can sit next to each other when you book your flight. If that is not possible, its a delicate situation to ask someone who has selected their seat in advance to switch.

First and foremost, Gottsman recommends exchanging an equal seat with the passenger.

She said: For example, an aisle for an aisle seat, or a window for a window. Its inappropriate to ask a person in an aisle seat to switch to a middle seat so you can sit next to a friend or loved one.

Most airlines will prioritize seating families together.

British Airways, for instance, ensures each child under 12 years sits next to a guardian from the same booking. Whats more, if you're flying British Airways with an infant under two, you can choose a seat for you and everyone in your booking, free of charge. Ryanair, meanwhile, allows a free allocated seat to a maximum of four children per adult that purchases a seat.

With this in mind, cabin crew might be able to lend a helping hand if you're travelling with family, Gottsman reveals.

She said: If the situation is that you would like to sit next to a younger child, [or] family member, of course, its understandable, and you might even ask the flight attendant for assistance.
Skins followed the hedonistic lives of a group of Bristol-based sixth formers in the mid noughties and captivated its audience with gritty and realistic storylines.

Moving away from glossy American teen dramas, the E4 series shone a spotlight on the antics of adolescents as they experimented with drugs, sex and partying.

The seven series run was hailed for its approach to real life issues, as its characters dealt with wide-ranging problems from mental health struggles to addiction.

It was dubbed the first of its kind, casting real teenagers to play college students of the same age in a bid to achieve an edgy and raw finished product.

Viewers watched as carnage ensued in each episode, where drug-fuelled house parties and raves were the norm, as were the crashing come downs the next day.

However, since the show aired between 2006 and 2013, many of its cast members have admitted they were living the same life off-screen, with little support.

The show garnered controversy for its glamorous portrayal of sex and drugs, especially with regard to its young actors, who later said they felt 'unprotected'.

Skins followed the lives of a group of Bristol-based sixth formers in the mid noughties and captivated its audience with gritty and realistic storylines (pictured April Pearson)

Moving away from glossy American teen dramas, the E4 series shone a spotlight on the antics of adolescents as they experimented with drugs, sex and partying (pictured April and Mike Bailey)

KAYA SCODELARIO - LACK OF SAFEGUARDING

Most recently, Kaya Scodelario, who played Effy Stonem, claimed there was no safeguarding for her as teen while filming Skins and there was nobody to 'check they [the cast] were okay'.

Speaking on the Dish podcast with Nick Grimshaw and Angela Harnett, Kaya said: 'Back then there wasn't the same amount of safeguarding with young actors, there wasn't anyone checking if we were okay.'

It follows a long line of claims from her Skins alumni, including April Pearson, Jack O'Connell, Laya Lewis and Nicholas Hoult.

A darker side of the popular show was revealed and the claims even forced its creators to apologise to anyone who felt uncomfortable while filming.

The cast have spoken out about the downside to filming the show, with some admitting they struggled without the support seen on sets nowadays.

Series one of the programme followed Tony Stonem (Nicholas Hoult), Chris Miles (Joe Dempsie), Sid Jenkins (Mike Bailey), Michelle Richardson (April Pearson), Cassie Ainsworth (Hannah Murray) and Anwar Kharral (Dev Patel) among others.

While the local cast were able to travel home after filming, those from further afield were put up in a hotel which they 'smashed up' while staying unaccompanied.

Most recently, Kaya Scodelario, who played Effy Stonem, claimed there was no safeguarding for her as teen while filming Skins and there was nobody to 'check they [the cast] were okay' (pictured on the show)

It follows a long line of claims from her Skins alumni, including April Pearson, Jack O'Connell, Laya Lewis and Nicholas Hoult (pictured Kaya and Jack O'Connell)

APRIL PEARSON - 'I WASN'T PROTECTED'

April, who played Michelle, spoke about their off-camera antics on her podcast Are You Michelle From Skins?, where she detailed the chaos that would ensue.

Speaking about her experience, Michelle said: 'We thought we were anarchic crazy teenagers. We knew how to have fun.'

The hotel, which sounded something like student halls where 18-year-olds run riot with the first taste of freedom, was apparently unsupervised.

It links to cast claims that they were left feeling vulnerable and unsupported while filming the drama, with the duty of care lacking in all areas.

April said: 'There's a difference between being officially old enough and mentally old enough. I was having this conversation with my husband and I was saying I do feel like I was too young, I feel like I wasn't protected.'

'A conversation I'm having a lot with [Skins] alumni is, at the time you're young, you don't know any better, you don't really know what to say and speak out. As with a lot of victims of trauma, you look back at it and go, 'Yeah that was f***ed up.'

This is particularly problematic for Skins, which was filled with sex scenes and raunchy moments between characters.

The cast, who had been plucked from their classrooms, also had no prior experience of what it was like to film these vulnerable moments.

The cast, who had been plucked from their classrooms, also had no prior experience of what it was like to film these vulnerable moments

Laya also alleged that show bosses told female cast members to 'skip breakfast' so they'd slim down ahead of filming scenes in their bikinis (pictured Laya)

Sex scenes were filmed without intimacy coordinators and there was no such thing as aftercare.

LAYA LEWIS - 'I HAD A SEX SCENE ON MY FIRST DAY'

Speaking on the podcast, Laya Lewis, who played Liv in series five and six, revealed she had to do a sex scene on her first day after just recently turning 18.

She said: 'I turned 18 right at the beginning of filming, so I just had so many more sex scenes than everyone else. My first day was a sex scene.'

Laya also alleged that show bosses told female cast members to 'skip breakfast' so they'd slim down ahead of filming scenes in their bikinis.

She said: 'I definitely felt a lot of pressure to be smaller or slimmer. From the actual creators or people behind the scenes.

'There was one point where we were told to skip breakfast, and for dinner we should just have a jacket potato.'

The two actresses continued to claim that other cast members have 'felt the same' following the show ending and said that things have changed since Skins aired.

April told her fellow Skins alum: 'Laya, you're not the first person to have said you've carried some negativity from that experience.

'We're talking seven series of the same show and everyone feeling the same, certainly the women and some of the men I have spoken to feel the same.

'Nowadays you have an intimacy co-ordinator as a standard for nude, intimate scenes and that just simply wasn't a thing.'

TV and film made in the noughties came years before actor's mental health and wellbeing were taken into serious consideration.

Sex scenes were filmed without intimacy coordinators and there was no such thing as aftercare.

April, who played Michelle, spoke about their off-camera antics on her podcast Are You Michelle From Skins?, where she detailed the chaos that would ensue (pictured April)

JACK O'CONNELL - 'UNCOMFORTABLE' SEX SCENES

Similar remarks were made by Jack O'Connell, who played anti-hero James Cook and previously admitted he was 'very naive' when he started filming sex scenes.

Jack, who was only 17 when he was cast as Cook, said it's hard to ever feel comfortable in that environment and that often you feel 'compromised'.

Speaking to the Independent, Jack said: 'It's hard to say that you're ever totally comfortable [filming sex scenes].

'Listen, I admit I was very naive at the time, enough so as to not check in with myself and question myself if I was feeling comfortable or not. It just felt like part and parcel of the programme in a very different time than the one we're in now.'

But Jack says the industry has gotten a lot better when it comes to these scenes.

'I think what's important is that them discussions are being had to make sure that whatever was happening [on] that wasn't right, it seems, is addressed and doesn't repeat itself', he said.

'You feel very compromised and if you don't feel that you're protected in that environment, it can be very unnecessarily daunting.'

Last year, series one and two star Nicholas admitted he's never an episode of his cult hit show Skins, and he doesn't plan to anytime soon

NICHOLAS HOULT - 'IT'S TOO PAINFUL TO WATCH'

Last year, series one and two star Nicholas admitted he's never seen an episode of his cult hit show Skins, and he doesn't plan to anytime soon.

The actor played Tony Stonem, the central character to series one and two, and he claimed that he believes it would be 'too painful' for him to watch the show.

Speaking on Hits Radio Breakfast, told Tom Green: 'I've never watched it. Maybe at some point, I think it would be too painful for me to watch.

'I don't enjoy watching myself. I feel like, I don't know, I shrink away from this. Maybe when I'm like 80? If I make it to 80...'

Since cast members have spoken out, the writers issued a statement, which read: 'We're deeply and unambiguously sorry that any cast member was made to feel uncomfortable or inadequately respected in their work during their time on Skins. We're committed to continually evolving safe, trustworthy and enjoyable working conditions for everyone who works in the TV industry.'

Nicholas appeared on the show alongside other actors who have gone on to reach equal levels of super stardom, including Dev Patel and Daniel Kaluuya.

The raunchy teen drama was a huge critical success in its initial run, with the show changing focus in season 3 and 4 to centre on Tony's sister Effy (Kaya Scodelario) and her cohort when they began sixth form.

Season 5 and 6 once again saw the cast change as it moved onto the stories of a third generation of sixth form students, led by Dakota Blue Richards who portrayed Franky Fitzgerald.

The show also spawned a seventh season titled Skins Redux, which aired in 2013 and focused on the lives of characters Effy, Cassie (Hannah Murray), and Cook (Jack O'Connell) who appeared in seasons 1 to 4, respectively.

The cast have gone on to have impressive careers since saying goodbye to the E4 drama with Nicholas - who previously found fame as a child star in About A Boy - having the biggest success story as he's now a fully-fledged Hollywood actor.

He went onto star in X Men, Mad Max and Kill Your Friends, and his most recent film Renfield sees him star opposite Nicholas Cage in a modern take on Dracula.

A Channel 4 spokesperson said: 'The welfare of all those involved in our programmes is our highest priority. We have a confidential Speak Up facility and encourage those with concerns - past or present - to contact us.'
Rebecca Judd turned up the heat on Friday when she posted a series of jaw-dropping photos to social media which showcased her very slender frame.

The AFL WAG, 41, shared the pictures to Instagram which captured her rocking her best angles in a Jacquemus white cut off top which highlighted her genetically blessed midriff.

Pairing the top with designer jeans and white heels, the stunning model showcased her taste in luxury fashion with a brown Fendi bag.

Her luscious brunette locks were styled perfectly straight and worn around her shoulders and she sported a grin as she posed for the selfie.

The WA-born star also posted a photo of herself in the same outfit enjoying her hotel suite at Crown Perth as she reclined with her husband Chris, 40, on the balcony.

Bec Judd (pictured) turned up the heat on Friday when she posted a gallery of jaw-dropping photos to social media which showcased her very slender frame

Judd captioned the gallery with some hilarious words: 'Fave jeans of all time. Sooooo long.'

It comes after Judd was caught in an awkward moment on Tuesday when she tagged the wrong fashion label in her latest brand deal.

The stunner appeared to get her brands mixed up on Instagram as she spruiked her latest paid sponsorship with Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne.

The AFL WAG, 41, shared the pictures to Instagram which captured her rocking her best angles in a Jacquemus white cut off top which highlighted her genetically blessed midriff

She modelled all-denim outfits as she pranced about The Fashion Capital for a photoshoot, but made an embarrassing blunder when she later uploaded the snaps and tagged the incorrect brands.

The socialite made her first mistake when she shared a picture of herself in a cropped denim jacket ($615) and beaded cutaway jeans ($535).

She paired the very chic look with a luxury bag worth up to $520, but failed to credit the right designer which was Maje.

The stunning model paired the top with designer jeans and white heels and showcased her taste in luxury fashion with a brown Fendi bag

Instead, Bec tagged Sandro Paris, pointing followers who wanted to shop her entire look to the completely wrong store.

The gaffe didn't end there, with Bec's next photo showing yet another denim look with high waisted jeans ($365) and a striped 'coatigan' ($595).

Bec has carved out a hugely successful career as a social media star, nabbing a whole string of lucrative paid partnerships.

The wife of AFL star Chris Judd has collaborated with an array of top brands as well as launching her very own activewear line during her rise to fame.
Jackie O Henderson has recently undergone an incredible weight loss journey and on Friday she flaunted her newly svelte figure as she stepped out in Sydney.

The radio queen, 49, turned up the heat in a figure-hugging patterned $600 dress by London designer KNWLS as she was spotted exiting her luxury home in Clovelly.

The bombshell completed her look with black Cassandra sandals and rocked her age-defying looks as she strutted her stuff down the sidewalk.

She showcased her taste in upmarket fashion by accessorising with $520 Prada sunglasses and a Prada handbag.

The blonde beauty allowed her freshly permed hair to hang in loose waves around her shoulders and a light layer of foundation brought out her striking facial features.

Jackie O Henderson (pictured) has recently undergone an incredible weight loss journey and on Friday she flaunted her newly svelte figure as she stepped out in Sydney

Jackie's slimmed-down appearance turned heads as she made her way down the street of her upmarket suburb and showed off her incredible figure.

Last year, she was forced to deny that Ozempic is behind her spectacular slim down.

Ozempic, an appetite suppressant previously used to treat Diabetes type II, has seen an increase in prescriptions for obesity in recent years and is now used by many celebrities to keep a trim figure.

The radio queen, 49, turned up the heat in a figure-hugging patterned $600 dress by London designer KNWLS as she was spotted exiting her luxury home in Clovelly

The bombshell completed her look with black Cassandra sandals and rocked her age-defying looks as she strutted her stuff down the sidewalk

She showcased her taste in upmarket fashion by accessorising with $520 Prada sunglasses and a Prada handbag

The blonde beauty allowed her freshly permed hair to hang in loose waves around her shoulders and a light layer of foundation brought out her striking facial features

Jackie has always insisted she achieved her weight loss by going on WW (Weight Watchers), which she was an official ambassador for.

But speculation kicked off again after WW, under the leadership of CEO Sima Sistani, has started to embrace semaglutide drugs like Ozempic.

Reacting to the news on the The Kyle and Jackie O Show, Jackie exclaimed, 'That makes it look like I was definitely on Ozempic!'

Jackie turned heads as she made her way down the street of her upmarket suburb and showed off her incredible figure

Last year, she was forced to deny that Ozempic is behind her spectacular slim down

She jokingly added, 'I was like a guinea pig in that experiment.'

Newsreader Brooklyn Ross then asked Jackie if she was 'annoyed' she had to lose weight 'the hard way' instead of just using a semaglutide for a quick fix.

'I mean, they make a good point and I'm really impressed that they're with the times,' she said.

'You see so many people doing it and being successful and it not really being that hard for them.'

Jackie has always insisted she achieved her weight loss by going on WW (Weight Watchers), which she was an official ambassador for
Apple is now allowing customers to use old "genuine Apple parts" for its self-repair program for iPhones.

The iPhone and iPad maker announced on Thursday that it is expanding its repair options in an effort in "reducing the impact we have on the planet, and a key part of that means designing products that last."

Among the used parts included in the new self-repair policy would be Face ID and Touch ID biometric sensors and hardware for calibration.

Apple previously only allowed new parts to fix iPhones, making all components from older models totally obsolete and contributing to the growing electronics pollution.

Apple Expands iPhone Anti-Theft Features Ahead of New Self-Repair Policies

To deter thieves from stealing iPhones for their parts, Apple will also extend its Activation Lock feature to its hardware to block stolen components and parts from being reactivated.

The new feature extension will remove the need for a repair process, and customers, and service providers to no longer require a device's serial number to order replacement parts.

As of writing, the repair options are limited to select iPhone devices but Apple promised to include more models soon.

The new self-repair policies will roll out this Fall, possibly at the same time as the release of the iPhone 16.

Also Read : iOS 18 to Allow More Customization on Home Screen

Apple Under Regulatory Scrutiny for Alleged Electronics Monopoly

Apple's announcement to expand its repair program policies came in time as the US and the European Union tightened their regulations on the tech giant over its supposed monopoly with the "Apple Ecosystem."

The US Department of Justice, last March, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple for allegedly blocking other "super" apps, such as third-party digital wallets and cloud services, from its devices and software.

The DOJ touts that Apple's excuse of prioritizing security and privacy for its users was merely a pretext to "justify its anti-competitive behavior."

This means Apple has the power to raise its prices and limit its services with impunity knowing that its core customers will not leave as most features are locked behind its "ecosystem."

DOJ Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter asserted such a decision has only made the Apple ecosystem "less private and less secure."
Kylie Jenner was active on Instagram Friday, sharing two sultry new snaps with her 400 million followers.

The 26-year-old media sensation  whose niece True Thompson just turned six  posed wearing an orange dress from her new clothing brand Khy.

She showed off her famous curves in the clinging number, which was asymmetric and sleeveless.

The mother-of-two, who shares Stormi, six, and Aire, two, with ex Travis Scott, rocked slicked, wet hair styled in a side part.

In the caption of the post, Kylie simply used eyes and an orange heart emoji.

Kylie Jenner was active on Instagram Friday, sharing two sultry new snaps with her 400 million followers

She posed wearing an orange dress from her new clothing brand Khy

It comes after Jenner and her family all enjoyed a trip to Turks and Caicos together for spring break.

While there, they had an early birthday celebration for True, whose birthday is April 12.

Khloe, 39, shares True with ex-boyfriend Tristan Thompson, 33. They also have a son named Tatum, who will turn two in July.

Taking to Instagram on True's special day, Kardashian uploaded multiple photos with her daughter.

The pair kissed while wearing matching brown SKIMS sets in one picture.

Khloe wrote in the heartfelt post, 'My baby girl is six today. My sweet, silly but serious, sensitive but strong, kind, beautiful, loving little Tutu.'

Sharing another photo in Instagram Stories, she wrote, 'True, my happy, fun, beautiful birthday girl.

'I will love the little ones you were before, the perfect girl you are today, and every version of you you will be in the future.

Kylie's niece True Thompson, her sister Khloe Kardashian's daughter, just turned six

Taking to Instagram on True's special day, Kardashian uploaded multiple photos with her daughter

Khloe continued her stroll down memory lane as she shared an old picture from when True was a baby. And as she shared a smiling image of True wearing a pink bow headband, she said: 'You changed my life forever and I love every part of who you are'

'You are my heartbeat, my happiness, my soul, my truth. My Tutu forever. Love Mommy x.'

Khloe continued her stroll down memory lane as she shared an old picture from when True was a baby.

She wrote, 'It's a strange feeling as your child grows older. You love the amazing little person they are becoming. But at the same time you miss all the little versions of them. The little ones they used to be.'

And as she shared a smiling image of True wearing a pink bow headband, she said: 'You changed my life forever and I love every part of who you are.'
Theresa Nist was seen for the first time since announcing her shock split from Gerry Turner as she arrived to her New Jersey home on Friday with a police escort.

Nist, 70, and Turner, 72 - who met on the first season of ABC's The Golden Bachelor in 2023 - revealed they were headed for divorce after tying the knot earlier this year in January during a televised wedding.

The pair made an appearance together on Good Morning America on Friday where the stars explained that they came to the decision to 'dissolve' their marriage.

As she arrived to her home in New Jersey later on Friday, Theresa was seen stepping out of a parked vehicle and was accompanied by a police escort who assisted her.

The securities professional donned a pair of fitted, dark gray pants as well as a tan-colored, leather jacket that was draped over her shoulders.

Theresa Nist, 70, was seen for the first time since announcing her shock split from Gerry Turner, 72, as she arrived to her New Jersey home on Friday with a police escort

The pair made an appearance together on Good Morning America on Friday where the stars explained that they came to the decision to 'dissolve' their marriage

Theresa also wore a pair or chic, closed-toed pumps and allowed her brunette locks to flow down naturally past her shoulders.

After stepping out of the car that was parked in the driveway, Nist was seen strolling towards the entrance of her home. A police escort walked by her side and was also spotted entering the house.

She officially filed for divorce from Gerry on Friday - the same day that the former couple revealed their separation.

According to documents obtained by TMZ, she had cited the reason for their split as an 'irretrievable breakdown' of their marriage.

Sources later told TMZ on Friday that one of the issues that arose during their marriage was Theresa's job, which is located in the state of New Jersey.

After saying, 'I do,' the insiders informed the outlet that Nist had difficulty deciding whether to move to South Carolina or Indiana with Turner.

Gerry had suggested that the two split their time in both Indiana and New Jersey, but Theresa was concerned she wouldn't be able to keep her job being out of the state for long periods of time.

Sources added to TMZ that Nist was also worried about trying to find a new job at 70-years-old in a new state.

As she arrived to her home in New Jersey later on Friday, Theresa was seen stepping out of a parked vehicle and was accompanied by a police escort who assisted her

Theresa also wore a pair or chic, closed-toed pumps and allowed her brunette locks to flow down naturally past her shoulders

After stepping out of the car that was parked in the driveway, Nist was seen strolling towards the entrance of her home

She officially filed for divorce from Gerry on Friday - the same day that the former couple revealed their separation

According to documents obtained by TMZ, she had cited the reason for their split as an 'irretrievable breakdown' of their marriage

The insiders continued that despite the split, both Theresa and Gerry are still close and have 'mutual love' for each other.

On Friday morning, the pair announced the news of their divorce during an interview on Good Morning America and opened up about the reasons for their shock separation.

'Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and we've looked closely at our situation, our living situation, so forth and - and we've kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it's probably time for us to - dissolve our marriage,' Gerry told host Juju Chang.

He admitted that their decision to separate was motivated in large part by their 'dedication' to their respective families - hinting that this has made it incredibly difficult for them to decide on a place to settle down together.

Both Gerry, a retired restauranteur from Indiana, and Theresa, have kids from past relationships; he has two daughters and two granddaughters, while she has a son, daughter, and six grandsons.

'The thing that strikes me the most in our conversations, its been how dedicated both of us are to our families,' Gerry explained.

'So we look at these situations and I think we just feel like its best for the happiness of each of us to live apart.'

However, Theresa insisted that the former couple tried their utmost to reach a compromise that would work for both of their families, revealing that they had looked at different locations across the country in the hopes of finding a ideal home to start their new lives together.

Sources later told TMZ on Friday that one of the issues that arose during their marriage was Theresa's job, which is located in the state of New Jersey

Gerry had suggested that the two split their time in both Indiana and New Jersey, but Theresa was concerned she wouldn't be able to keep her job being out of the state for long periods of time

On Friday morning, the pair announced the news of their divorce during an interview on Good Morning America and opened up about the reasons for their shock separation

'We looked at homes in South Carolina, we considered New Jersey, and we just looked at home after home, but we never got to the point where we made that decision,' she said.

'We have received so much love and support from so many people who watched The Golden Bachelor, and I don't think we can tell you how many people told us that it gave them so much hope,' Theresa added. 'We want none of that to change for anybody.'

When asked if they 'fell out of love,' Gerry insisted, 'No. I still love this person. There's no doubt in my mind, I am still in love with her and still root for her every day.'

They added that they were going to have to 'give their rings back,' but that they were happy they could keep 'the memories' that they shared.

The couple met on the first season of the Golden Bachelor, which premiered late last year, and Gerry proposed during the show's finale.

They then tied the knot in January during a televised wedding, with Theresa gushing in her vows, 'I promise to be your calm in a storm, to comfort you when you're sad, to laugh with you when you're happy, and just stick with you throughout it all.'

In an interview with GMA after the wedding, they insisted that they had 'found their person.'

Gerry and Theresa's shock announcement comes just days after it was revealed the pair were still living in separate homes three months after their nuptials.

He admitted that their decision to separate was motivated in large part by their 'dedication' to their respective families - hinting that this has made it incredibly difficult for them to decide on a place to settle down together

Both Gerry, a retired restauranteur from Indiana, and Theresa, have kids from past relationships; he has two daughters and two granddaughters, while she has a son, daughter, and six grandsons; seen earlier this month in L.A.

Furthermore, TMZ reported that the married couple were actually residing in separate states - with Gerry living at his $637,000 lake house in Northern Indiana, while Theresa remained in her house in her $568,000 New Jersey home, where she'd been living with her family.

Back in December 2023, Gerry admitted that finding a place to live was 'a big problem' for them.

At the time, he told People that they were planning to buy a house in Charleston, South Carolina, together - but it seems that never happened.

Gerry pulled on the hearts of millions when he appeared on the show, as he was presented as a loving retired restaurateur who had not had a single date since his wife of 45 years, Toni, suddenly passed away from an infection in 2017.

But an investigation by The Hollywood Reporter released after the finale quickly shattered that reputation.

The publication reported that he had a professional and personal history that did not match with the persona of a grieving man who hadn't gone on a first date in decades.

Instead, it claimed that he had a secret past that included a three-year relationship after the death of his wife and various blue-collar jobs.

He reportedly dated a woman named Carolyn, who is 14 years his junior and claimed he dumped her because she gained 10 pounds.

They then tied the knot in January during a televised wedding, with Theresa gushing in her vows, 'I promise to be your calm in a storm, to comfort you when you're sad, to laugh with you when you're happy, and just stick with you throughout it all'; (seen above)

People quickly rushed to social media to share their thoughts on the divorce - and many admitted that they were 'not surprised'; seen earlier this month in L.A.

When asked if the scandal 'played in' to their split, Theresa insisted, 'No. Gerry had already discussed that with me and explained it before the report was ever released. So we were good with that.'

People quickly rushed to social media to share their thoughts on the divorce - and many admitted that they were 'not surprised.'

'Oh no surprise there,' one person wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Another agreed, 'Hate to say it but not really... Told ya so.'

Others said they 'understood' their situation, with a fifth tweet reading, 'Most women in her 70s would tell you, "My grandkids and kids are everything." I wouldn't move away from my family for anything. Especially a man. Nope.'
Olivia Molly Rogers' ex-boyfriend Morgan Waterhouse has been spotted living it up with her ex-husband Justin McKeone in Melbourne.

Waterhouse, 30, shared a photo to Instagram on Friday capturing him posing up a storm with Justin McKeone, 34, at Bar Bambi in Melbourne.

Morgan looked to be having the time of his life at the trendy venue and was all smiles as he posed alongside Justin and bar owner Nick Russian.

This is the first time the pair have been publicly photographed together and it is not clear how they know each other.

Rogers confirmed her split with Justin in October 2022, after eight months of marriage.

Olivia Molly Rogers' (pictured) ex-boyfriend Morgan Waterhouse has been spotted living it up with her ex-husband Justin McKeone in Melbourne

Following their break she began dating model Morgan Waterhouse in May last year, and the pair parted ways in December.

The former Miss Universe Australia, 31, told photographers at the Melbourne Cup that the pair broke off their relationship and they have already gone their separate ways, Daily Mail Australia can reveal.

'We're not together anymore, not many people know that,' she said when asked if he would be joining her at the Penfolds marquee in The Birdcage.

Morgan Waterhouse (left), 30, shared a photo to Instagram on Saturday capturing him posing up a storm with Justin McKeone (right), 34, at Bar Bambi in Melbourne. Morgan looks to be having the time of his life at the trendy venue and is all smiles as he posed alongside Justin

Instead, Morgan enjoyed the luxury offerings of the G.H.Mumm marquee just 100metres away from her.

Olivia and Morgan went public with their romance back in March, just weeks after splitting with husband Justin McKeone after eight months of marriage.

Morgan and Olivia were first linked together when they posted identical photos of the view from Rogers' apartment.

Rogers confirmed her split with Justin in October 2022 , after eight months of being married

Following their break she began dating model Morgan Waterhouse in May last year, and the pair split in December

They also enjoyed a holiday together in Paris for Fashion Week.

Rogers told the Herald Sun that she met Morgan through her best friend and stylist Paul Versace.

Olivia confirmed her split from husband Justin after just eight months of marriage in October last year.

Break-up rumours began swirling in September after fans noticed she'd reverted to her maiden name on Instagram and unpinned all photos from her February 2022 wedding.
Mama June was issued a dramatic ultimatum by her new husband Justin Stroud on the new episode of Mama June: Family Crisis.

Her daughter Alana aka Honey Boo Boo has been asking for June's assistance with college fees, and June has been resolutely refusing to help her.

June previously pointed out Honey Boo Boo had money set aside for herself in a Coogan account from her child star days.

However it has since emerged that June, who struggled with crack addiction in the past, at one point spent $35,000 of Honey Boo Boo's earnings.

In order to get an unwilling June to give the money back, Justin told her he would walk out of the marriage unless she paid Honey Boo Boo $30,000.

Mama June was issued a dramatic ultimatum by her new husband Justin Stroud on the new episode of Mama June: Family Crisis

Her daughter Alana aka Honey Boo Boo has been asking for June's assistance with college fees, and June has been resolutely refusing to help her

June previously pointed out Honey Boo Boo had money set aside for herself in a Coogan account from her child star days

However it has since emerged that June, who struggled with crack addiction in the past, at one point spent $35,000 of Honey Boo Boo's earnings

Honey Boo Boo's sister Lauryn 'Pumpkin' Efird, 24, and brother-in-law Josh Efird, took on the task of caring for the teen while Mama June fought her addiction.

At the time of the latest episode, Honey Boo Boo was preparing to go to college but could not meet the requisite tuition payment to enroll.

Mama June previously pointed to Honey Boo Boo's Coogan account - a special trust created for child stars to protect their money from potentially unscrupulous parents.

The accounts were named after Old Hollywood child star Jackie Coogan, who grew up and shatteringly found out that the fortune he earned in his youth had been squandered by his mother and stepfather.

A law was passed requiring that 15% of a child star's pay be placed in a Coogan account that only the child could access, and only upon reaching his majority.

At the age of 18, Honey Boo Boo has reached her majority both in Georgia, where she lives, and in California, where she made much of her showbiz money.

However $35,000 from Honey Boo Boo's old reality TV money is gone - and Justin has demanded that Mama June give it back.

Mama June refused, saying: 'Money doesn't grow on trees. At some point, you'd have to stand up and say: "Hey, there's just what's there." There's nothing that I can do to change that. What more do you want me to do?'

Honey Boo Boo's sister Lauryn 'Pumpkin' Efird, 24, and brother-in-law Josh Efird, took on the task of caring for the teen while Mama June fought her addiction

At the time of the latest episode, Honey Boo Boo was preparing to go to college but could not meet the requisite tuition payment to enroll

Mama June previously pointed to Honey Boo Boo's Coogan account - a special trust created for child stars to protect their money from potentially unscrupulous parents

At the age of 18, Honey Boo Boo has reached her majority both in Georgia, where she lives, and in California, where she made much of her showbiz money

However $35,000 from Honey Boo Boo's reality TV earnings is gone - and Justin has demanded that Mama June give it back

A fiery confrontation occurred in which Justin, Honey Boo Boo and Pumpkin all rounded on Mama June in order to insist she pay up.

Pumpkin accused June of having spent a staggering half a million dollars on crack cocaine - a pittance next to what Honey Boo Boo needed.

Mama June's method of obtaining the money was within the law, but Pumpkin argued that 'legally you've done everything right, but morally you're a piece of s***.'

'This is what's gonna happen,' Justin told his wife. 'You're gonna go to the bank in the morning, you're gonna take $30,000 or I'm leaving.'

Much to her husband's incredulity, Mama June refused to cave even then, telling Justin that she would accept his decision if he walked out on her.

Justin doubled down that he was 'done' with her unless she found it within herself to 'make it right' with Honey Boo Boo, to no avail.

A fiery confrontation occurred in which Justin, Honey Boo Boo and Pumpkin all rounded on Mama June in order to insist she pay up

Pumpkin accused June of having spent a staggering half a million dollars on crack cocaine - a pittance next to what Honey Boo Boo needed

Mama June's method of obtaining the money was within the law, but Pumpkin argued that 'legally you've done everything right, but morally you're a piece of s***'

'This is what's gonna happen,' Justin told his wife: 'You're gonna go to the bank in the morning, you're gonna take $30,000 or I'm leaving'

Much to her husband's incredulity, Mama June refused to cave even then, telling Justin that she would accept his decision if he walked out on her

Justin doubled down that he was 'done' with her unless she found it within herself to 'make it right' with Honey Boo Boo, to no avail

In a confessional, he said: 'June's out of her freakin mind if she thinks I'm just gonna stand here and let her get away with this'

In a confessional, he said: 'June's out of her freakin mind if she thinks I'm just gonna stand here and let her get away with this.'

Justin, who met June while she was in recovery, said: 'For some reason she just doesn't understand that what she does affects me.'

He dramatically resolved: 'I'm going to do whatever it takes to make this right, even if that means I have to break up my marriage in the process.'

Pumpkin, whose explosive relationship with her mother has unfolded across several seasons of reality TV, was even more withering in her confessional.

'I know we've been through a lot with this family, but like this is just where I draw the line,' Pumpkin declared. 'The fact that mom was willing to literally throw her entire marriage down the toilet, over the fact that she doesn't want to sign a check for money she took is freaking insane to me.'
Day one of 2024 PaleyFest LA, which marks the 41st edition of the television festival, kicked off at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Friday.

One of the highlights of the opener: Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon taking part in a special screening and conversation with some of the cast and crew of their hit Apple TV+ drama The Morning Show.

Not only were the two leading ladies able to speak from an actor's perspective, they also provided a behind-the-scenes angle as executive producers of the series.

They were joined on stage by co-stars Mark Duplass (Charlie 'Chip' Black), Karen Pittman (Mia Jordan), Nicole Beharie (Christina Hunter), Tig Notaro (Amanda Mandel) and Nestor Carbonell (Yanko Flores), as well as Charlotte Stoudt (showrunner & executive producer), Michael Ellenberg (executive producer) and Mimi Leder (executive producer & director).

The Morning Show, which examines the characters and culture behind a network morning news broadcast through the eyes of the fictional UBA, is now heading into season four.

Jennifer Aniston and her The Morning Show co-star Reese Witherspoon both looked chic at 2024 PaleyFest LA on Friday, where they discussed the upcoming fourth season

Before sitting down to discuss the journey the show has taken since premiering on Apple TV+ in November 2019, many of the cast and crew posed on the red carpet.

Aniston, 55, showed off her fab figure and top notch fashion sense in black slacks, a matching sleeveless turtleneck top and open-toe heels.

Known for many hairstyles over the years, especially 'The Rachel', which was made famous during her run as Rachel Green on the hit sitcom Friends, the actress appeared to show case yet another look.

On this day the actress, who plays Alex Levy, had her locks newly dyed blonde with a blunt cut about shoulder length with a part slightly on the left.

Witherspoon was also the picture of chic in a simple but stylish black pencil skirt with a matching long-sleeve top that flattered her curves.

The star, 48, also wore a pair of black pointed pump that had straps that secured each ankle, and had her blonde tresses styled long and flowing.

The mother of three, who portrays plays Bradley Jackson, flashed her infectious smile while dropping various poses in front of the adoring photographers.

Aniston, 55, showed off her fab figure and top notch fashion sense in black slacks, a matching sleeveless turtleneck top and open-toe heels

The former Friends star showed of yet another stylish hairstyle at the annual event

Before sitting down to discuss the journey the show has taken since premiering on Apple TV+ in November 2019, many of the cast and crew posed on the red carpet

Aniston looked ultra fit as she showed off her toned arms in the sleeveless top

PaleyFest, which markets itself as the nation's premier TV festival, brings audiences together with some of TV's brightest stars to watch exclusive screenings that led to cast conversations during a Q-and-A panel.

Journalist Kara Swisher, 61, who has been working as an contributing editor at New York Magazine and host of host of the podcast On With Kara Swisher, served as the moderator for the event.

Duplass,, 47, plays the role of Charlie 'Chip' Black, the executive producer of TMS, also attended the so-called Screening & Conversation with the Stars in a blue suit with a white dress shirt and brown leather shoes.

Karen Pittman, 37, highlighted her figure in a black-and-white dress and black heels, all while carrying a pink purse.

Witherspoon was also the picture of chic in a simple but stylish black pencil skirt with a matching long-sleeve top that flattered her curves

The star, 48, also wore a pair of black pointed pump that had straps that secured each ankle, and had her blonde tresses styled long and flowing

The mother of three, who portrays plays Bradley Jackson, flashed her infectious smile while dropping various poses in front of the adoring photographers

PaleyFest, which markets itself as the nation's premier TV festival, brings audiences together with some of TV's brightest stars to watch exclusive screenings that led to cast conversations during a Q-and-A panel

Witherspoon and Aniston have been playing morning news anchors in The Morning Show for three seasons, with season four already greenlit to follow

The actress who plays Mia Jordan also sported a shoulder-length blunt bob cut with a part in the middle.

Nestor Carbonell, 56, the man who plays TMS meteorologist Yanko Flores, also attended the event in black slacks and dress shirt with a green blazer and black dress shoes.

Tig Notaro, 53, who plays Amanda Robinson in season three, opted for casual-cool in blue pants with a light blue dress shirt buttoned all the way to the top and light brown shoes.

Nicole Beharie's character Christine Hunter was also a newcomer to the last season as a new TMS co-host.

Mark Duplass,, 47, who plays the role of Charlie 'Chip' Black, the executive producer of TMS, stepped out in a blue suit with a white dress shirt and brown leather shoes

Karen Pittman, 37, who portray Mia Jordan, highlighted her figure in a black-and-white dress and black heels, all while carrying a pink purse

Nestor Carbonell, 56, the man who plays TMS meteorologist Yanko Flores, attended the event in black slacks, a dress shirt, green blazer and black dress shoes

The actress, 39, looked showed off her unique fashion sense in baggy black pants, a black sleeveless top with plunging neckline and orange fabric along the bottom.

Mimi Leder, 72, has served as an executive producer and director for the show.

She looked fashionable in a black velvet ensemble consisting of long top and long skirt that came down to just above her open-toe shoes.

While on stage The Morning Show's showrunner Charlotte Stoudt gave a hint at when season four could make its premiere by revealing it will come after the 2024 presidential election, which is being held in November.

'The show will be out after the election,' Stoudt announced, as reported by People, '[The next challenge will be] how do you go at [the election] in an interesting way without being predictive.'

Tig Notaro, 53, who plays Amanda Robinson in season three, opted for casual-cool in blue pants with a light blue dress shirt buttoned all the way to the top and light brown shoes

Nicole Beharie, 39, showed off her unique fashion sense in baggy black pants, a black sleeveless top with plunging neckline and orange fabric along the bottom

Series EP and director Mimi Leder, 72, looked fashionable in a black velvet ensemble consisting of long top and long skirt that came down to just above her open-toe shoes

While on stage The Morning Show's showrunner Charlotte Stoudt gave a hint at when season four could make its premiere by revealing it will come after the 2024 presidential election, which is being held in November

But still, viewers will be awaiting an exact premiere date for the shows fourth season that's still pending.

In the past each of the previous three seasons came every other year, starting after the debut, which came on November 2019, followed by season two in September 2021, which led to a season three drop in September 2023, according to People.

If those same intervals were used again for the new season would drop somewhere between September-November 2025.

The first three seasons of The Morning Show are available to stream on Apple TV+
Sharon Osbourne has hit back in a savage response to Amanda Holden after the Britain's Got Talent judge branded her 'bitter and pathetic'.

Speaking in an interview with the Daily Mail's Weekend Magazine, Amanda, 53, waded into the row between Simon Cowell and Sharon and Louis Walsh after the pair's appearance on Celebrity Big Brother.

Amanda said: 'I hated seeing certain people in a reality show dissing Simon - he's the person who's given them all the chances, given them a lot of money and a lifestyle they probably wouldn't have had.

'It's bitter and pathetic. It was like Cinderella with her two sisters in the background - just stabby, stabby, stabby.'

You can read the interview in Weekend magazine in full by clicking here.

And Sharon, 71, hasn't taken the remarks lying down, as she took to Twitter to issue the presenter with a full statement and accused her of being an 'ill informed sycophantic,' blasting her statement as 'factually incorrect'.

Sharon Osbourne has hit back at Amanda Holden with a lengthy savage post after the BGT judge branded her 'bitter and pathetic' in an interview with the Daily Mail on Friday

Amanda, 53, waded into the row between Simon and Sharon and Louis Walsh, as she said: 'I hated seeing certain people in a reality show dissing Simon - he's the person who's given them all the chances, given them a lot of money and a lifestyle they probably wouldn't have had'

Composing the post as you would a letter, Sharon, 71, began: 'Amanda, I am responding to your interview with the Daily Mail on April 12th, I respect the fact that you feel the need to defend your good friend and employer, Simon Cowell, who is also your husband's employer, or so I've read.

'However, a couple of your statements regarding myself are factually incorrect.'

You can read the interview in Weekend magazine in full by clicking here.

Sharon went on to list her incredible repertoire of achievements, as she savagely pointed out: 'Amanda, I think you're missing the point here, no disrespect to Simon Cowell, but he NEEDED ME for musical credibility on X Factor and I delivered for him and together all of us made a great team.'

Sharon insisted: 'The truth is, you don't know me, Amanda or any of my close friends. You know nothing about my family history in the music industry, my achievements, the artists I have worked with, the shows that I've produced and my global celebrity.

'Unlike you, the brand of Sharon Osbourne is known worldwide. There are many countries that I could work in if I choose to, however, I don't have the ambition or time to do so.'

Sharon went on to flaunt her wealth and luxurious lifestyle as she quipped: 'Our worlds are totally different. I have been blessed with an amazing lifestyle throughout my entire life.

'Before you were born, I was living in a mansion in Beverly Hills and continue to do so today and continue to have my country estate in England as well.

'But there is something you should know. I never discuss money, lifestyle or positions of power. I find it to be classless and crude.

And Sharon hasn't taken the remarks lying down, as she took to Twitter to issue the presenter with a full statement and accused her of being an 'ill informed sycophantic,' and blasted her statement as 'factually incorrect'

Sharon went on to list her career accolades and those of her husband as she made a case as to why she didn't need Simon Cowell

Sharon savagely pointed out: 'Amanda, I think you're missing the point here, no disrespect to Simon Cowell, but he NEEDED ME for musical credibility on X Factor and I delivered for him and together all of us made a great team' (pictured on X Factor in 2004)

Not afraid to speak her mind and spill behind the scenes secrets about the showbiz industry, Sharon and Louis didn't hold back during their time on Celebrity Big Brother last month

'However you've now forced my hand to divulge these things to you and I honestly don't want to seem like I'm bragging, but the truth is my money and success were not due to doing a couple of Simon Cowell talent shows.

'Don't get me wrong I enjoyed doing them at the time as they were great fun. Yes, Simon paid me very well. Probably more than what you're receiving today, but all of that my darling went on a few handbags.'

Listing her career accolades, Sharon continued: 'At the time that I worked on X Factor, I was the only judge who had global accomplishments with multiple million-selling artists, Grammy Award winner and arena and stadium headliners.

'I was also a very successful festival producer with Ozfest which ran for 24 years, as well as a best-selling author and producer of the hit show 'The Osbournes' for which I received an Emmy Award.

'Amanda, I think you're missing the point here, no disrespect to Simon Cowell, but he NEEDED ME for musical credibility on X Factor and I delivered for him and together all of us made a great team.'

A spokesperson for Amanda said: 'Amanda is aware of Sharons incredible career but, just like her, Amanda will always defend those close to her.'

Not afraid to speak her mind and spill behind the scenes secrets about the showbiz industry, Sharon and Louis didn't hold back during their time on Celebrity Big Brother last month.

During on episode, Sharon said she was 'furious' with Simon because she claimed he didn't renew her contract when she expected he would which meant she lost out on another major TV gig.

Sharon went on to flaunt her wealth and luxurious lifestyle as she bragged she has a 'country estate in England' as well as her home in Beverly Hills (pictured the couples historic Grade II listed home in Buckinghamshire)

Sharon and Ozzy's $13million mansion in Los Angeles boasts seven bedrooms and six bathrooms

Speaking about Ozzy, Sharon wrote: 'We have been together for 44 years and he has spoiled me from the first day we met, he has given me more than any man could, all of this before I ever knew who Simon Cowell was' (pictured 2017)

Meanwhile, Louis revealed he no longer spoke to his former partner in crime despite once sharing the most talked about bromance in Britain.

Speaking about the interaction, Amanda told the Daily Mail: 'I thought, "Oh my God, it's like watching a pantomime." I just think they look so nasty and awful.

'There was a friendship there and an opportunity. So however the business ends, you should have respect for the opportunity that was given to you and the pay cheque that was given to you. Just be gracious. There was none of that and I can't bear it.'

Snapping back Sharon explained that none of her success was down to Simon Cowell, and instead due to her own work and that of her husbands.

She continued: 'It was only after several seasons of X Factor that Simon started to build his music empire and I give him much kudos for what he built. When I met my husband I was already very well established in the music industry.

'Having worked with bands like Electric Light Orchestra, Motorhead, Smashing Pumpkins, Gary Moore, The Move , Roy Woods, Wizzard, Linsey de Paul, Breitt Ekland and Black Sabbath to name a few.

'I think you must have forgotten my husband is a music icon who has sold 170million albums, won multiple Grammy Awards, and is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

Speaking about the interaction between Sharon and Louis on the show, Amanda said: 'I thought, "Oh my God, it's like watching a pantomime." I just think they look so nasty and awful'

The Heart Radio host has been friends with Simon since she joined the first series of BGT as a judge and they have remained close - and she defended him in the interview

'We have been together for 44 years and he has spoiled me from the first day we met, he has given me more than any man could, all of this before I ever knew who Simon Cowell was.'

Signing off, Sharon concluded: 'In closing I must say whenever I have seen you on TV I always thought you were very beautiful and talented. However, never make comments about my lifestyle given to me by Simon Cowell.

'It's demeaning to me and my husband and all the achievements I have made in my life as you're making yourself look like an ill informed sycophantic.

'Sincerely, Sharon Osbourne'.

Sharon was paid nearly 7,000 for every minute she appeared on screen during her stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house last month.

The star was a fan favourite on the show, however viewers were left disappointed after it was revealed she would only be living in the house temporarily as a 'lodger,' and would be given her own private room.

It was previously reported that ITV bosses were unable to match the huge fee Sharon requested to take part in the show, with sources claiming that she would still be paid a huge 100,000 per day.

After nine days of living in the house, Sharon finally said farewell during a live eviction episode on Tuesday, and it seems that ITV really had to splash out for every minute Sharon appeared on screen.

You can read the interview in Weekend magazine in full by clicking here.
Georgia Steel kept it simple and stylish as she arrived at the Grace Jacobs new collection party in Manchester on Friday night.

The Love Island star, 26, opted for an understated look for the evening as she showcased her ample cleavage in a low cut black vest top.

Completing the look with some wide legged black jeans, black heels and a simple black handbag, the star was joined by fellow Love Island co-star Leah Taylor.

Leah, who appeared on last summer's series of the ITV reality show, flashed plenty of skin in a black halterneck wrap top.

Flaunting her toned abs, the star paired the racy top with some low rise faded grey jeans and black heels.

Georgia Steel puts on a VERY busty display in low-cut vest top at the Grace Jacobs new collection party in Manchester on Friday night

The Love Island star, 26, opted for an understated look for the evening as she showcased her ample cleavage in the top and some black jeans

It has been a busy week for Georgia after she made a surprising appearance at the PrettyLittleThing one year anniversary party on Thursday - where she risked an awkward run-in with her estranged Love Island: All Stars co-stars.

Georgia, who is newly-single after her split from Toby Aromolaran, has been open about the fact she is not in communication with the rest of the cast.

Luckily, she had best friend Cally Jane Beech with her to ease the tension and the two stuck close together at the event which also saw Jess and Eve Gale and Demi Jones attend.

A fan on Snapchat asked Georgia this week: 'Do you not go out with or see the rest of the Love Island girls? I see on their snaps that they all go out quite frequently together but you are never with them' and ended her question with two sad emojis.

Georgia replied: 'I wasn't invited x'

But Georgia brushed it off as she put on a stylish display in a double denim look, while twins Jess and Eve showed off their surgically enhanced assets in their skimpy tops.

She was also absent when seemingly every Love Island star past and present arrived at Molly Smith's Manchester bash to celebrate her new Boohoo collab last month.

It does not come as a surprise that the group do not get on as Georgia fell out with them during Love Island.

The star was joined by fellow Love Island co-star Leah Taylor, after being open about the fact she is not in communication with her Love Island: All Star cast

Leah, who appeared on last summer's series of the ITV reality show, flashed plenty of skin in a black halterneck wrap top

Georgia made a surprising appearance at the PrettyLittleThing one year anniversary party on Thursday - where she risked an awkward run-in with her estranged Love Island: All Stars co-stars

Twins Jess and Eve Gale made an appearance at the same event

As did their pal Demi Jones, who also starred in the All Stars series

A fan on Snapchat asked Georgia why she is never seen with the Love Island girls - and she had a three-word reply

Georgia is newly single after Toby Aromolaran called an end to their relationship after the pair came in fourth place on the show

The fourth-placed finalist took exception to the other Islanders' votes for herself and and Toby as the biggest game players.

The couple had a rocky road on the show, coupling up initially before having an almighty falling out.

It's been a hard few weeks for Georgia, after she was left completely shocked after Toby called it quits on the pair's relationship.

Taking to Instagram to confirm the split, Georgia wrote: 'After seeing the reports regarding my relationship with Toby I feel it's only right for me to be transparent and truthful with you all.

Georgia added: 'It is true Toby has called things off. It has taken me by complete surprise and I'm still trying to process it and come to terms with it all.

'They say some people are in your life for a lifetime and some just for a chapter.'
Red Wiggle Caterina Mete has opened about her IVF journey.

Fans of the 43-year-old children's entertainer were overjoyed when she took to her social media in February to announce she was expecting identical girls.

And now Caterina, who is single, has discussed why she decided to share intimate details about her pregnancy.

Appearing on the Something to Talk About podcast on Saturday the dancer and performer was asked about why she decided to reveal she used an anonymous donor.

'I'm a pretty open and honest person,' Carterina explained during the podcast.

Single mother-to-be Red Wiggle Caterina Mete has opened up about why she decided to share her dramatic IVF journey with fans (pictured)

She continued: 'So it was something that I was never ashamed about. I was quite happy to tell people this is how I did it and, by being honest, you realise a lot of people have done it this way, too.'

Caterina added that there were times she struggled with the process.

'It was tough. You [have] moments when you cry. You're like, I don't have a partner, it's just me, how am I going to do it?' she said.

'And then you just go, Stop. Just do it. What are you waiting for? I'm older. I can't be waiting any longer because that's just unfortunately how the body is'

Appearing on the Something to Talk About podcast on Saturday the dancer and performer was said was an open and honest person and had nothing to be ashamed about

She added that since sharing her news online many fans have come forward to share what they haver gone through to get pregnant. Pictured: Caterina shows off ultra photos of her twin girls

In an emotional admission, Caterina opened up about how she miscarried during an earlier pregnancy after taking IVF treatment.

'That was hard to deal with, but it's amazing how many women go through it and obviously they don't like to talk about it because it's so hard and horrible,' she said.

After being left with a single embryo Caterina had the treatment once again and is now expecting twin girls.

It comes after Caterina took to Instagram in February to announce the joyous news she was expecting telling fans she 'could not wait to be a mum'.

In the clip, a beaming Caterina debuted her bump while dressed in her red skivvy.

In an emotional admission during the podcast, Caterina opened up about how she miscarried during an earlier pregnancy after taking IVF treatment

After announcing the news the children's entertainer said she always dreamed of being a mum

'Hey, everyone. I've got some exciting news to share with you all. I'm pregnant with twin girls!' the professional dancer beamed, holding up two child-sized Red Wiggle costumes.

'I'm due later in the year, but I wanted to share this news with you now now, as I'll be seeing many of you at the upcoming Wiggles shows... and as you can see, my girls are already starting to make an appearance,' she joked, cradling her blossoming bump.

Reflecting on her exciting news in a press release, Caterina said: 'Becoming a mother has always been a dream of mine. I feel overwhelmingly blessed to share that I am expecting two beautiful little miracles.'

Caterina has been part of the Wiggles show for two decades, originally joining the crew as a dancer before moving into roles such as head of wardrobe, dance captain and choreographer

'This journey has been challenging, but filled with so much love and support. I am immensely grateful for the incredible team at my fertility clinic and the technology that has made this possible.'

Caterina went on to say she can't wait to meet her bundles of joy and begin this new chapter of her life.

She concluded by thanking her Wiggles colleagues for their 'unwavering support' during her pregnancy journey.

Caterina has been part of the Wiggles show for two decades, originally joining the crew as a dancer before moving into roles such as head of wardrobe, dance captain and choreographer.
Doctor Who has officially confirmed Varada Sethu as Ncuti Gatwa's new companion for his second instalment as the Time Lord.

In first look photos for series 15, the actress and the lead actor, both 31, smiled alongside Millie Gibson, 19, who currently stars as Ruby Sunday.

It was previously reported Varada would be replacing Millie as Ncuti's companion, although details about her character are still under wraps.

Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies told BBC: 'Right now in the studio, shooting for 2025, we've got Ncuti, Millie and Varada fighting side by side - we need all three, because the stakes are higher than ever!'

Millie starred as the 15th Doctor's companion Ruby and was first seen on screen for the 2023 Christmas special returning for an eight episode run in May.

Doctor Who has officially confirmed Varada Sethu (R) as Ncuti Gatwa's new companion for his second instalment as the Time Lord

However, it has then been suggested Millie's character Ruby will be replaced by Varada for Ncuti's second series.

It has been claimed that the former Coronation Street actress will be finishing up on the show in the coming weeks to 'tie up loose ends' and will not appear in the 2024 Christmas special.

Varda started filming at the show's Cardiff studios in January where she was seen on set with Ncuti.

On the set, Penarth Pier was transported back to the 1950s with American cars, including a 1954 Cadillac sat outside the Palazzo theatre.

She is best known for playing DS Mishal Ali in the BBC apocalyptic TV series Hard Sun, but that was far from her first role.

The actress made her debut in a short film named Impressions in 2010 before starring in 2011's Sket.

She had a small role in Doctor's in 2015 as PC Kylie Green and featured in two episodes of Doctor Foster.

In 2016 Varda starred in the film lm adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream.

In first look photos for series 15, the actress and the lead actor, both 31, smiled alongside Millie Gibson (R), 19, who currently stars as Ruby Sunday

It was previously reported that Varada would be replacing Millie as Ncuti's companion, although details about her character are still under wraps

That same year she played the assistant to Michael Caines character in Now You See Me 2.

In 2019, she starred as Lance Corporal Manisha Chetri in Strike Back: Revolution and its sequel series Strike Back: Vendetta.

She went on to feature in Netflix original film I Came By in 2022 and Jurassic World Dominion as Shira.

Millie could be seen doing a 360 turn after Doctor Who showrunner hinted the actress is returning to Coronation Street.

It has been rumoured that she could be returning to her Corrie role as Kelly Neelan, a part she played from 2019 to 2022.

Sitting alongside Millie and the episode's producer Chris May, during a commentary of the Christmas Day 2023 episode, Russell joked about Millie's name being broadcast across the screen in big letters.

He suggested that was what was missing from her time in Coronation Street.

'Should've had that cat and the cobbles and Millie Gibson,' he said, before assuring her that he'd have a word with the team over at the ITV soap.

Millie has so far remained silent on reports she has left the show.

Doctor Who is famous for its dramatic regenerations, when a new actor takes on the title role every few years  but the hit BBC show also has the power to transform careers.

Millie starred as the 15th Doctor's companion Ruby and was first seen on screen for the 2023 Christmas special returning for an eight episode run in May

However, it has then been suggested Millie's character Ruby will be replaced by Varada for Ncuti's second series (pictured in February 2023)

It has been rumoured that Millie could be returning to her Corrie role as Kelly Neelan, a part she played from 2019 to 2022 (Millie pictured on the soap in 2022)

Having already displayed her acting skills on a gritty soap, Brand and culture expert Nick Ede predicted that Millie's appearance on Doctor Who will make her 'one to watch in 2024.'

He told The Sun: 'Millie tackled some really heavy storylines in Corrie, which will show Hollywood producers she's adept at lots of roles and is a very believable actress.

'Paired with her good looks and terrific personality, I can see her being cast in a blockbuster quicker than you can say Tardis.'

Previously, Jenna Coleman went from Emmerdale to become one of Britains most sought-after stars after playing Matt Smiths companion Clara.
Love Island's Anton Danyluk took a savage swipe at his All-Stars ex-Georgia Harrison on Saturday just a day after their break-up was revealed.

It was reported the Love Island All-Stars finalists, both 29, split on Friday amid weeks of rumours surrounding their relationship.

According to insiders have said distance was a major factor in the breakdown of their relationship - however, Anton seems to have hit out at his ex Georgia for not making the relationship work.

He shared the cryptic quote on Instagram 'If someone truly loves you distance is not a problem. It's just the power of making love grow each day'.

Georgia resides in Essex, while Anton lives and runs his own business in Scotland.

Love Island's Anton Danyluk took a savage swipe at his All-Stars ex-Georgia Harrison on Saturday just a day after their break-up was revealed

It was reported the Love Island All-Stars finalists, both 29, split on Friday amid weeks of rumours surrounding their relationship (Anton pictured this week)

In comes after a source told The Sun the two could not make it work and eventually their romance became 'too much to manage'.

The source said: 'Georgia and Anton have split. They really tried hard to make the relationship work but ultimately the distance proved too much to manage.'

The source added: 'Anton and Georgia are sad they couldn't make things work, but they broke up on good terms and will definitely stay friends.'

MailOnline has contacted Georgia's and Anton's representatives for comment.

But their split may not surprise fans as Anton fuelled rumours of their split for the past week as he has spent many hours being supported by 'bestie' Hannah Elizabeth.

And the two 'best friends' just can't seem to keep their hands off each other.

Hannah posted very close snaps of the two of them getting ready for a night out to Instagram on Thursday in London.

Hannah posted an album of the two of them cuddling up to one another, looking incredible for PrettyLittleThing's one-year party.

She looked happier than ever as she flaunted her curly blonde extensions and glam makeup.

The split comes after TV buffs cast doubt over their romance ever since Georgia claimed Anton gave her the 'ick' and after spending two weeks convincing the British public that their love was real, the two have already gone their separate ways, according to The Sun

But their split may not surprise fans as Anton fuelled rumours of their split for the past week as he spent many hours being supported by 'bestie' Hannah Elizabeth

The two 'best friends' couldn't seem to keep their hands off each other as Hannah posted on Instagram some very close snaps of the pair of them getting ready for a night out in London

Anton looked classically handsome as he stepped out in an olive green two-piece suit and a crisp white shirt.

Hannah captioned her supportive post: 'Bestie Behaviour @anton_danyluk @prettylittlething party LN.'

The two have not been hiding their close friendship in recent days, as Hannah has appeared to be Anton's pillar of support.

Anton linked arms with the Liverpool native as they headed for dinner at Sheesh in Mayfair on Wednesday.

The pair were in good spirits as Anton was pictured departing a London hotel with the model for a 'date night'.

The pair, who grew close in the Love Island All-Stars South African villa, was joined for the outing by Anton's mum.

Taking to Instagram, Hannah also shared a playful video in which Anton said: 'Reunited with the wifey! The wife, it's date night tonight you know, I can't wait.'

In another picture, Hannah snapped a photo of Anton sitting opposite her at the dinner table and wrote: 'Date night @anton_danyluk'.

Although nothing romantic ever came of the pair, Anton and Hannah vowed to support one another throughout their time on the show after finding each other in a friendship couple more than once.

Despite Anton and Georgia enjoying public dates since landing back in the UK, some ITV viewers have been left unconvinced they are the real deal.

Georgia and Anton finished in fifth place during the Love Island All Stars final last month, but viewers were left questioning whether they were genuine.

The pair had several ups and downs in the South African villa, which caused fans to think she would 'dump him' soon after leaving.
An internet price hike may soon be felt as early as May across low-income families in the US as broadband subsidies from the Affordable Connectivity Program dry out.

In a public announcement on Tuesday, the Federal Communication Commission said that it would be cutting back reimbursements for ACP beneficiaries from $100 per device down to $47.

Other beneficiaries will have a much bigger discount cut, going from $30 per month reimbursement to just $14.

An average monthly broadband service fee in the US costs around $54, meaning low-income households will have to soon shoulder $40 per month, rather than just $24, to stay connected.

Further decreases in incentives are expected in the following months as the FCC slowly closes down the program after several pushbacks for a budget extension.

As of writing, Congress has yet to approve the White House's $7 billion extended funding for the program.

Over 23 million households, including seniors, children, and people with disability, are estimated to be affected by the subsidy program shutting down.

The commission urged internet service providers to help affected customers "stay connected and mitigate their financial burden by offering to move consumers to low-cost internet service plans."

Affordability to High-Speed Internet Remains a Problem in the US

Despite the administration's supposed achievements of bringing much faster internet service across the country, access to affordable internet connection remains a challenge for many Americans.

A recent ranking in 2023 placed the US in thirty-second in the world for affordable internet access, surpassed by several European countries, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

This is in contrast to its sixth ranking for the fastest internet speed in the world at 30.68 Mbps upload speed and a latency of 13 ms.

Prices for internet services in rural places are far higher as access to signal towers and service connections are limited to only a few areas.

It did not help that only a limited number of internet service providers are operating in most parts of the US, limiting Americans' options for cheaper alternatives to stay connected.

Biden Admin Blames Republicans for Slow Approval of Internet Subsidies

As more Americans are put at risk of losing access to the internet, US President Joe Biden put the blame on Republicans for slowing down the passing of the proposed additional funding.

The Senate bill to pass the budget extension currently has only five sponsors, far from the 223 votes backing the version from the House of Representatives.

It is worth noting that wider access to internet connection has been among the highlights of Biden's reelection campaign against impeached President Donald Trump in the upcoming 2024 US Elections.
Hannah Elizabeth made sure all eyes were on her as she attended the Aintree Grand National Festival in Liverpool on Saturday.

The Love Island star, 34, flaunted her surgically enhanced assets in a plunging white tweed jacket and matching trousers.

Back in her home city, Hannah accessorised the look with a pale pink hat, nude heels and a white handbag.

The star was joined by her friend for the race day, after she has been spotted cosying up to best friend Anton Danyluk at various outings this past week.

Meanwhile Olympian Sam Quek and former Hollyoaks actress Sarah Jayne Dunn were also among the stylish celebrities spotted during the day.

Hannah Elizabeth put on a VERY busty display in a white tweed co-ord as she joined Sarah Jayne Dunn and Sam Quek at Aintree Racecourse on Saturday

The Love Island star, 34, flaunted her surgically enhanced assets in a plunging white tweed jacket and matching trousers

Sam looked incredibly smart as she cut a sophisticated figure in a navy waistcoat style midi dress.

Cinching in her waist with a matching belt, the sportswoman, 35, tied the outfit together with a matching navy and cream hat.

She completed the look with some silver strappy sandals as she changed up her look after the bright pink dress she wore on Ladies Day on Friday.

Sarah Jayne was joined by her husband Jonathan Smith as she showcased her effortlessly chic style in a simple white midi dress with spaghetti straps.

The star, 42, added a black fascinator adorned with pearls, while she added a pop of colour with a bold red lip.

Hannah's outing comes after she shared a snap cuddling up to fellow islander Anton at the PrettyLittleThing's one-year anniversary party on Thursday.

Wearing a green jump suit, the blonde beauty looked sensational as she showcased her gorgeous figure and ample assets.

She looked happier than ever as she flaunted her curly blonde extensions and glam makeup.

Back in her home city, Hannah accessorised the look with a pale pink hat, nude heels and a white handbag

The star was joined by her friend for the race day, after she has been spotted cosying up to best friend Anton Danyluk at various outings this past week

Cinching in her waist with a matching belt, the sportswoman, 35, tied the outfit together with a matching navy and cream hat

Sarah Jayne was joined by her husband Jonathan Smith who kept it casual in a patterned shirt and grey tweed coat

The star, 42, added a black fascinator adorned with pearls, while she added a pop of colour with a bold red lip

Anton looked classically handsome as he stepped out in an olive green two-piece suit and a crisp white shirt.

Hannah captioned her supportive post: 'Bestie Behaviour @anton_danyluk @prettylittlething party LN.'

Their cosy friendship comes amid reports that Anton and Georgia Harrison have split amid weeks of rumours surrounding the decline of their relationship.

An insider told The Sun that the two could not make it work and eventually became 'too much to manage'.

They said: 'Georgia and Anton have split. They really tried hard to make the relationship work but ultimately the distance proved to much to manage.'

Hannah's outing comes after she shared a snap cuddling up to fellow islander Anton at the PrettyLittleThing's one-year anniversary party on Thursday
Amanda Holden has broken her silence on Sharon Osbourne branding her an 'ill-informed sycophantic' in round two of their feud over Simon Cowell.

The Britain's Got Talent judge, 53, who has been friends with Simon for over two decades defended him on Friday, calling Sharon, 71, and Louis Walsh, 71, 'bitter and pathetic' after they tore into the music mogul on Celebrity Big Brother.

In an acid-tongue letter posted on X, Sharon blasted Amanda after she said Simon had 'given them a lot of money and a lifestyle they probably wouldn't have had'.

Taking a defiant stance against Sharon's fiery statement, Amanda says she stands by what she said, while acknowledging the X Factor judge's 'incredible' career.

A spokesperson for the actress told MailOnline: 'Amanda is aware of Sharons incredible career but, just like her, Amanda will always defend those close to her.'

Amanda Holden has broken her silence on Sharon Osbourne branding her an 'ill-informed sycophantic' in round two of their feud over Simon Cowell(pictured 2014)

The BGT judge, 53, who has been friends with Simon for over two decades defended him on Friday, calling Sharon, 71, and Louis Walsh , 71, 'bitter' over their comments on Simon

Amanda had told the Daily Mail's Weekend Magazine: 'I hated seeing certain people in a reality show dissing Simon - he's the person who's given them all the chances, given them a lot of money and a lifestyle they probably wouldn't have had.

'It's bitter and pathetic. It was like Cinderella with her two sisters in the background - just stabby, stabby, stabby.'

You can read the interview in Weekend magazine in full by clicking here.

12 hours later, Sharon took to Twitter to issue the presenter with a full statement and accused her of being an 'ill informed sycophantic'.

Sharon's daughter Kelly also weighed in on the feud as she jumped to her mother's defence.

Taking to her Instagram Story, the TV personality, 39, shared a cryptic clip by author Daniel Chidiac which discussed not letting people disrespect you.

In the clip, Daniel said: 'Some people are really so delusional that they think it's disrespectful when you don't just sit back and allow them to disrespect you anymore.'

X Factor duo Jedward also weighed in on the row, as they took to Twitter to share their opinion writing: 'Think @SimonCowell needs to fight his own battles and settle this drama!'

Comedian Kathy Burke also shared her response writing: 'Saturday morning Twitter is better than Saturday night telly.'

Amanda had previously called Sharon and Louis 'bitter and pathetic' after Simon (pictured last week) had 'given them a lot of money and a lifestyle they probably wouldn't have had'

Kelly Osbourne has also taken a swipe at Amanda Holden as she jumped to her mother's defence amid the feud

Taking to her Instagram Story, Kelly, 39, shared a cryptic clip by author Daniel Chidiac which discussed not letting people disrespect you

X Factor duo Jedward and comedian Kathy Burke also weighed in on the row, as they took to Twitter to share their opinion

Jedward found themselves in the firing line during last series of the ITV reality show as Louis Walsh boasted he scooped 5 million from the duo- 25 times more than the twins made themselves

Composing the post as you would a letter, Sharon's post began: 'Amanda, I am responding to your interview with the Daily Mail on April 12th, I respect the fact that you feel the need to defend your good friend and employer, Simon Cowell, who is also your husband's employer, or so I've read.

'However, a couple of your statements regarding myself are factually incorrect.'

Sharon went on to list her incredible repertoire of achievements, as she savagely pointed out: 'Amanda, I think you're missing the point here, no disrespect to Simon Cowell, but he NEEDED ME for musical credibility on X Factor and I delivered for him and together all of us made a great team.'

Sharon insisted: 'The truth is, you don't know me, Amanda or any of my close friends. You know nothing about my family history in the music industry, my achievements, the artists I have worked with, the shows that I've produced and my global celebrity.

'Unlike you, the brand of Sharon Osbourne is known worldwide. There are many countries that I could work in if I choose to, however, I don't have the ambition or time to do so.'

Sharon went on to flaunt her wealth and luxurious lifestyle as she quipped: 'Our worlds are totally different. I have been blessed with an amazing lifestyle throughout my entire life.

'Before you were born, I was living in a mansion in Beverly Hills and continue to do so today and continue to have my country estate in England as well.

'But there is something you should know. I never discuss money, lifestyle or positions of power. I find it to be classless and crude.

On Saturday morning, Sharon hit back in a savage response to Amanda after the Britain's Got Talent judge branded her 'bitter and pathetic'

Sharon took to Twitter to issue the presenter with a full statement and accused her of being an 'ill informed sycophantic'

Sharon went on to list her career accolades and those of her husband as she made a case as to why she didn't need Simon Cowell

Sharon savagely pointed out: 'Amanda, I think you're missing the point here, no disrespect to Simon Cowell, but he NEEDED ME for musical credibility on X Factor' (pictured in 2004)

Not afraid to speak her mind and spill behind the scenes secrets about the showbiz industry, Sharon and Louis didn't hold back during their time on Celebrity Big Brother last month

'However you've now forced my hand to divulge these things to you and I honestly don't want to seem like I'm bragging, but the truth is my money and success were not due to doing a couple of Simon Cowell talent shows.

'Don't get me wrong I enjoyed doing them at the time as they were great fun. Yes, Simon paid me very well. Probably more than what you're receiving today, but all of that my darling went on a few handbags.'

Listing her career accolades, Sharon continued: 'At the time that I worked on X Factor, I was the only judge who had global accomplishments with multiple million-selling artists, Grammy Award winner and arena and stadium headliners.

'I was also a very successful festival producer with Ozfest which ran for 24 years, as well as a best-selling author and producer of the hit show 'The Osbournes' for which I received an Emmy Award.

'Amanda, I think you're missing the point here, no disrespect to Simon Cowell, but he NEEDED ME for musical credibility on X Factor and I delivered for him and together all of us made a great team.'

Not afraid to speak her mind and spill behind the scenes secrets about the showbiz industry, Sharon and Louis didn't hold back during their time on Celebrity Big Brother last month.

During on episode, Sharon said she was 'furious' with Simon because she claimed he didn't renew her contract when she expected he would which meant she lost out on another major TV gig.

Sharon went on to flaunt her wealth as she bragged she has a 'country estate in England' as well as her home in Beverly Hills (pictured the couple's home in Buckinghamshire)

Sharon and Ozzy's $13million mansion in Los Angeles boasts seven bedrooms and six bathrooms

Speaking about Ozzy, Sharon wrote: 'We have been together for 44 years and he has spoiled me from the first day we met, he has given me more than any man could' (pictured 2017)

Meanwhile, Louis revealed he no longer spoke to his former partner in crime despite once sharing the most talked about bromance in Britain.

Speaking about the interaction, Amanda told the Daily Mail: 'I thought, "Oh my God, it's like watching a pantomime." I just think they look so nasty and awful.

'There was a friendship there and an opportunity. So however the business ends, you should have respect for the opportunity that was given to you and the pay cheque that was given to you. Just be gracious. There was none of that and I can't bear it.'

Snapping back, Sharon explained that none of her success was down to Simon and instead due to her own work and that of her husbands.

She continued: 'It was only after several seasons of X Factor that Simon started to build his music empire and I give him much kudos for what he built. When I met my husband I was already very well established in the music industry.

'Having worked with bands like Electric Light Orchestra, Motorhead, Smashing Pumpkins, Gary Moore, The Move , Roy Woods, Wizzard, Linsey de Paul, Breitt Ekland and Black Sabbath to name a few.

'I think you must have forgotten my husband is a music icon who has sold 170million albums, won multiple Grammy Awards, and is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

Speaking about the interaction between Sharon and Louis on the show, Amanda said: 'I thought, "Oh my God, it's like watching a pantomime." I just think they look so nasty and awful'

The Heart Radio host has been friends with Simon since she joined the first series of BGT as a judge and they have remained close - and she defended him in the interview

'We have been together for 44 years and he has spoiled me from the first day we met, he has given me more than any man could, all of this before I ever knew who Simon Cowell was.'

Signing off, Sharon concluded: 'In closing I must say whenever I have seen you on TV I always thought you were very beautiful and talented. However, never make comments about my lifestyle given to me by Simon Cowell.

'It's demeaning to me and my husband and all the achievements I have made in my life as you're making yourself look like an ill informed sycophantic.

'Sincerely, Sharon Osbourne'.

Sharon was paid nearly 7,000 for every minute she appeared on screen during her stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house last month.

The star was a fan favourite on the show, however viewers were left disappointed after it was revealed she would only be living in the house temporarily as a 'lodger,' and would be given her own private room.

It was previously reported that ITV bosses were unable to match the huge fee Sharon requested to take part in the show, with sources claiming that she would still be paid a huge 100,000 per day.

After nine days of living in the house, Sharon finally said farewell during a live eviction episode on Tuesday, and it seems that ITV really had to splash out for every minute Sharon appeared on screen.

You can read the interview in Weekend magazine in full by clicking here.
Kelly Osbourne has jumped to her mother's defence as she weighed in on the feud between Sharon and Amanda Holden.

The former X Factor judge, 71, sent Amanda a savage response after the Britain's Got Talent judge branded her 'bitter and pathetic' for her comments about Simon Cowell during her time on Celebrity Big Brother last month.

While Sharon accused Amanda of being an 'ill informed sycophantic,' blasting her statement as 'factually incorrect', Kelly has now taken a swipe at the star.

Taking to her Instagram Story, the TV personality, 39, shared a cryptic clip by author Daniel Chidiac which discussed not letting people disrespect you.

In the clip Daniel said: 'Some people are really so delusional that they think it's disrespectful when you don't just sit back and allow them to disrespect you anymore.'

Kelly Osbourne has taken a swipe at Amanda Holden as she jumped to her mother's defence after Sharon ignited a feud with the BGT judge

The former X Factor judge, 71, sent Amanda a savage response after the Britain's Got Talent judge branded her 'bitter and pathetic' for her comments about Simon Cowell during her time on Celebrity Big Brother last month

X Factor duo Jedward also weighed in on the row, as they took to Twitter to share their opinion writing: 'Think @SimonCowell needs to fight his own battles and settle this drama!'

Comedian Kathy Burke also shared her response writing: 'Saturday morning Twitter is better than Saturday night telly.'

Sharon's lengthy post stemmed from Amanda's interview with the Daily Mail's Weekend Magazine.

Amanda said: 'I hated seeing certain people in a reality show dissing Simon - he's the person who's given them all the chances, given them a lot of money and a lifestyle they probably wouldn't have had.

'It's bitter and pathetic. It was like Cinderella with her two sisters in the background - just stabby, stabby, stabby.'

You can read the interview in Weekend magazine in full by clicking here.

And Sharon hasn't taken the remarks lying down, as she took to Twitter to issue the presenter with a full statement.

Composing the post as you would a letter, Sharon began: 'Amanda, I am responding to your interview with the Daily Mail on April 12th, I respect the fact that you feel the need to defend your good friend and employer, Simon Cowell, who is also your husband's employer, or so I've read.

Taking to her Instagram Story, Kelly, 39, shared a cryptic clip by author Daniel Chidiac which discussed not letting people disrespect you

X Factor duo Jedward and comedian Kathy Burke also weighed in on the row, as they took to Twitter to share their opinion

Jedward found themselves in the firing line during last series of the ITV reality show as Louis Walsh boasted he scooped 5 million from the duo- 25 times more than the twins made themselves

Sharon savagely pointed out in her response: 'Amanda, I think you're missing the point here, no disrespect to Simon Cowell, but he NEEDED ME for musical credibility on X Factor and I delivered for him and together all of us made a great team' (pictured on X Factor in 2004)

Kelly and Sharon are incredibly close with her daughter coming to greet her after she left the Celebrity Big Brother house last month

'However, a couple of your statements regarding myself are factually incorrect.'

Sharon went on to list her incredible repertoire of achievements, as she savagely pointed out: 'Amanda, I think you're missing the point here, no disrespect to Simon Cowell, but he NEEDED ME for musical credibility on X Factor and I delivered for him and together all of us made a great team.'

She insisted: 'The truth is, you don't know me, Amanda or any of my close friends. You know nothing about my family history in the music industry, my achievements, the artists I have worked with, the shows that I've produced and my global celebrity.

'Unlike you, the brand of Sharon Osbourne is known worldwide. There are many countries that I could work in if I choose to, however, I don't have the ambition or time to do so.'

Sharon went on to flaunt her wealth and luxurious lifestyle as she quipped: 'Our worlds are totally different. I have been blessed with an amazing lifestyle throughout my entire life.

'Before you were born, I was living in a mansion in Beverly Hills and continue to do so today and continue to have my country estate in England as well.

'But there is something you should know. I never discuss money, lifestyle or positions of power. I find it to be classless and crude.

And Sharon hasn't taken the remarks lying down, as she took to Twitter to issue the presenter with a full statement and accused her of being an 'ill informed sycophantic,' and blasted her statement as 'factually incorrect'

Sharon went on to list her career accolades and those of her husband as she made a case as to why she didn't need Simon Cowell

Not afraid to speak her mind and spill behind the scenes secrets about the showbiz industry, Sharon and Louis didn't hold back during their time on Celebrity Big Brother last month

'However you've now forced my hand to divulge these things to you and I honestly don't want to seem like I'm bragging, but the truth is my money and success were not due to doing a couple of Simon Cowell talent shows.

'Don't get me wrong I enjoyed doing them at the time as they were great fun. Yes, Simon paid me very well. Probably more than what you're receiving today, but all of that my darling went on a few handbags.'

Listing her career accolades, Sharon continued: 'At the time that I worked on X Factor, I was the only judge who had global accomplishments with multiple million-selling artists, Grammy Award winner and arena and stadium headliners.

'I was also a very successful festival producer with Ozfest which ran for 24 years, as well as a best-selling author and producer of the hit show 'The Osbournes' for which I received an Emmy Award.

'Amanda, I think you're missing the point here, no disrespect to Simon Cowell, but he NEEDED ME for musical credibility on X Factor and I delivered for him and together all of us made a great team.'

A spokesperson for Amanda said: 'Amanda is aware of Sharons incredible career but, just like her, Amanda will always defend those close to her.'

Not afraid to speak her mind and spill behind the scenes secrets about the showbiz industry, Sharon and Louis didn't hold back during their time on Celebrity Big Brother last month.

During on episode, Sharon said she was 'furious' with Simon because she claimed he didn't renew her contract when she expected he would which meant she lost out on another major TV gig.

Sharon went on to flaunt her wealth and luxurious lifestyle as she bragged she has a 'country estate in England' as well as her home in Beverly Hills (pictured the couples historic Grade II listed home in Buckinghamshire)

Sharon and Ozzy's $13million mansion in Los Angeles boasts seven bedrooms and six bathrooms

Speaking about Ozzy, Sharon wrote: 'We have been together for 44 years and he has spoiled me from the first day we met, he has given me more than any man could, all of this before I ever knew who Simon Cowell was' (pictured 2017)

Meanwhile, Louis revealed he no longer spoke to his former partner in crime despite once sharing the most talked about bromance in Britain.

Speaking about the interaction, Amanda told the Daily Mail: 'I thought, "Oh my God, it's like watching a pantomime." I just think they look so nasty and awful.

'There was a friendship there and an opportunity. So however the business ends, you should have respect for the opportunity that was given to you and the pay cheque that was given to you. Just be gracious. There was none of that and I can't bear it.'

Snapping back Sharon explained that none of her success was down to Simon Cowell, and instead due to her own work and that of her husbands.

She continued: 'It was only after several seasons of X Factor that Simon started to build his music empire and I give him much kudos for what he built. When I met my husband I was already very well established in the music industry.

'Having worked with bands like Electric Light Orchestra, Motorhead, Smashing Pumpkins, Gary Moore, The Move , Roy Woods, Wizzard, Linsey de Paul, Breitt Ekland and Black Sabbath to name a few.

'I think you must have forgotten my husband is a music icon who has sold 170million albums, won multiple Grammy Awards, and is a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

Speaking about the interaction between Sharon and Louis on the show, Amanda said: 'I thought, "Oh my God, it's like watching a pantomime." I just think they look so nasty and awful'

The Heart Radio host has been friends with Simon since she joined the first series of BGT as a judge and they have remained close - and she defended him in the interview

'We have been together for 44 years and he has spoiled me from the first day we met, he has given me more than any man could, all of this before I ever knew who Simon Cowell was.'

Signing off, Sharon concluded: 'In closing I must say whenever I have seen you on TV I always thought you were very beautiful and talented. However, never make comments about my lifestyle given to me by Simon Cowell.

'It's demeaning to me and my husband and all the achievements I have made in my life as you're making yourself look like an ill informed sycophantic.

'Sincerely, Sharon Osbourne'.

Sharon was paid nearly 7,000 for every minute she appeared on screen during her stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house last month.

The star was a fan favourite on the show, however viewers were left disappointed after it was revealed she would only be living in the house temporarily as a 'lodger,' and would be given her own private room.

It was previously reported that ITV bosses were unable to match the huge fee Sharon requested to take part in the show, with sources claiming that she would still be paid a huge 100,000 per day.

After nine days of living in the house, Sharon finally said farewell during a live eviction episode on Tuesday, and it seems that ITV really had to splash out for every minute Sharon appeared on screen.

You can read the interview in Weekend magazine in full by clicking here.
Bachelor host Jesse Palmer has reacted to the news of Golden Bachelor stars Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist's shock divorce news after just three months of marriage.

Hours after The Golden Bachelor's inaugural couple announced their split on Good Morning America, the Canadian TV personality, 45, shared a supportive Instagram post, in which he wished 'them and their families both nothing but happiness.'

'My heart is forever with these two beautiful souls ,' Palmer captioned his post. 'I am eternally grateful to have gotten to know Gerry and Theresa and to have been a small part of their journey.'

He continued, 'I learned a lot about life, love and family watching and talking with them.'

Bachelor host Jesse Palmer has reacted to the news of Golden Bachelor stars Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist's shock divorce news after just three months of marriage

Turner officially filed for divorce from his estranged wife.

Gerry, 72, and Theresa, 70, revealed they were parting ways on Friday's episode of Good Morning America as well as the reasons for their shock separation.

'Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations, and weve looked closely at our situation, our living situation, so forth and - and weve kind of come to the conclusion mutually that its probably time for us to - dissolve our marriage,' Gerry told host Juju Chang.

In divorce papers obtained by TMZ and filed by Turner on Friday morning in his hometown of Petersburg, Indiana, the star cites an 'irretrievable breakdown' of the marriage as the reason for the split.

In their interview Turner admitted that their decision to separate was motivated in large part by their 'dedication' to their respective families - hinting that this has made it incredibly difficult for them to decide on a place to settle down together.

Both Gerry, a retired restauranteur from Indiana, and Theresa, a securities professional from New Jersey, have kids from past relationships; he has two daughters and two granddaughters, while she has a son, daughter, and six grandsons.

'The thing that strikes me the most in our conversations, its been how dedicated both of us are to our families,' Gerry explained.

'So we look at these situations and I think we just feel like its best for the happiness of each of us to live apart.'

'My heart is forever with these two beautiful souls ,' Palmer captioned his post. 'I am eternally grateful to have gotten to know Gerry and Theresa and to have been a small part of their journey'

However, Theresa insisted that the former couple tried their utmost to reach a compromise that would work for both of their families, revealing that they had looked at different locations across the country in the hopes of finding a ideal home to start their new lives together.

'We looked at homes in South Carolina, we considered New Jersey, and we just looked at home after home, but we never got to the point where we made that decision,' she said.

'We have received so much love and support from so many people who watched The Golden Bachelor, and I dont think we can tell you how many people told us that it gave them so much hope,' Theresa added. 'We want none of that to change for anybody.'

When asked if they 'fell out of love,' Gerry insisted, 'No. I still love this person. There's no doubt in my mind, I am still in love with her and still root for her every day.'

They added that they were going to have to 'give their rings back,' but that they were happy they could keep 'the memories' that they shared.

In divorce papers obtained by TMZ and filed by Turner on Friday morning in his hometown of Petersburg, Indiana, the star cites an 'irretrievable breakdown' of the marriage as the reason for the split

'We've kind of come to the conclusion mutually that its probably time for us to - dissolve our marriage,' Gerry said during an interview with GMA today

It seems as though the couple struggled to decide on a place to settle down together, as they were still living in separate homes three months after their nuptials. Gerry's home is seen

Gerry was living at his lake house in Northern Indiana, while Theresa remained in her house in New Jersey (seen), where she'd been living with her family

On Good Morning America, Gerry admitted that their decision to separate was motivated in large part by their 'dedication' to their respective families

Gerry has two daughters and two granddaughters, while Theresa has a son, daughter, and six grandsons. They're seen with some of their adult kids

The couple met on the first season of the Golden Bachelor, which premiered late last year, and Gerry proposed during the show's finale.

They then tied the knot in January during a televised wedding, with Theresa gushing in her vows, 'I promise to be your calm in a storm, to comfort you when you're sad, to laugh with you when you're happy, and just stick with you throughout it all.'

In an interview with GMA after the wedding, they insisted that they had 'found their person.'

Gerry and Theresa's shock announcement comes just days after it was revealed the pair were still living in separate homes three months after their nuptials.

Furthermore, TMZ reported that the married couple were actually residing in separate states - with Gerry living at his $637,000 lake house in Northern Indiana, while Theresa remained in her house in her $568,000 New Jersey home, where she'd been living with her family.

Theresa insisted that the former couple tried their utmost to reach a compromise that would work for both of their families, revealing that they had looked at different locations across the country in the hopes of finding a ideal home to start their new lives together

'The problem is, Theresa cant just pick up and leave her job, and she has family in New Jersey,' a source told Life & Style recently. 'Initially, they thought Gerry could move in with her but that didnt happen.'

Back in December 2023, Gerry admitted that finding a place to live was 'a big problem' for them.

At the time, he told People that they were planning to buy a house in Charleston, South Carolina, together - but it seems that never happened.

'All of a sudden its like, theres a big problem that is gone,' he said at the time. 'The issue of compromising on where to live and how to reconcile families and all of that is, its no longer an issue.'

Gerry pulled on the hearts of millions when he appeared on the show, as he was presented as a loving retired restaurateur who had not had a single date since his wife of 45 years, Toni, suddenly passed away from an infection in 2017.

But an investigation by The Hollywood Reporter released after the finale quickly shattered that reputation.

The publication reported that he had a professional and personal history that did not match with the persona of a grieving man who hadn't gone on a first date in decades.

Instead, it claimed that he had a secret past that included a three-year relationship after the death of his wife and various blue-collar jobs.

He reportedly dated a woman named Carolyn, who is 14 years his junior and claimed he dumped her because she gained 10 pounds.

In addition, his LinkedIn profile showed that he had not owned a restaurant since 1985, when he sold his Mr Quick hamburger franchise in Iowa, where had worked his way up since high school.

Gerry was presented as a loving retired restaurateur on the show, who had not had a single date since his wife of 45 years, Toni, suddenly passed away from an infection in 2017

But an investigation released after the finale quickly shattered that reputation, claiming he dated a woman for three years after his wife died. He's seen with his late wife

In addition, his LinkedIn profile showed that he had not owned a restaurant since 1985, when he sold his Mr Quick hamburger franchise in Iowa (seen)

Since then, he worked various sales and management jobs in the meat industry, per his resume on the website. He's seen in front of his lake house

Since then, he worked various sales and management jobs in the meat industry, per his resume on the website - despite the show claiming he had been retired for decades. He also worked installing hot tubs and as a maintenance man in Iowa.

It was during his time as a maintenance man at the Vera French Mental Health Center in Davenport that he met Carolyn, but the two did not get together until two months after his wife died.

Carolyn told The Hollywood Reporter the two began dating after Gerry called her following his wife's death to ask for help donating some clothes to charity.

She claimed she quit her job to move in with him in July 2018, but things soon went south, as his demands began to emerge.

For example, she alleged that he he soon informed Carolyn she would have to pay about $1,000 a month for her share of expenses, which she managed to negotiate down to $850.

Gerry was reportedly so concerned with dividing costs that Carolyn would pay for her meals at restaurants beforehand so when the check came, he could pretend he was paying the whole tab.

The reality star was also allegedly obsessed with cleanliness and demanded Carolyn make the bed every morning before they had breakfast.

The romance ended in late 2019, when, according to Carolyn, Gerry said he would not be taking her to his high school reunion because of her weight.

The Golden Bachelor then allegedly told Carolyn she had to be out of the house by January 1, 2020, according to THR, which reviewed emails and texts between the former couple and spoke to people who witnessed the relationship.

Carolyn fell down the stairs while she packed and required emergency surgery - but said Gerry accused her of using the fall as an excuse to extend her stay at his home and claimed she was planning on suing him over it.

He reportedly wouldn't even let her stay at the home while she finished the two weeks of notice she had to give at her new job in Indiana, forcing her to stay at a hotel, she claimed.

When asked if the scandal 'played in' to their split, Theresa insisted, 'No. Gerry had already discussed that with me and explained it before the report was ever released. So we were good with that.'

People quickly rushed to social media to share their thoughts on the divorce - and many admitted that they were 'not surprised.'

'Oh no surprise there,' one person wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Another agreed, 'Hate to say it but not really... Told ya so.'

'Are we surprised?' someone else asked, while a fourth person simply stated, 'Called this one.'

Others said they 'understood' their situation, with a fifth tweet reading, 'Most women in her 70s would tell you, "My grandkids and kids are everything." I wouldn't move away from my family for anything. Especially a man. Nope.'

A sixth said, 'At that age, who wants to give up their life and family to go and live with some stranger that just came into your life? You dont have much time left. Spend it with family.'
Coronation Street fans were incensed as Roy Cropper was jailed after being charged with the murder of missing teen Lauren Bolton during Friday's episode of the ITV soap.

Cafe owner Roy, played by David Neilson, 75, has spent weeks as Detective Sergeant Lisa Swains (Vicky Myers) prime suspect since he foolishly deep cleaned Laurens (Cait Fitton) flat after she mysteriously disappeared.

The situation got more complicated for Roy when a woman pretending to be Lauren's mother visited the cafe and ended up in a tussle with him, before falling and hitting her head.

When the hunt for Lauren became a murder inquiry, Roy was taken in for questioning and found himself a victim of internet trolling, and at the centre of much lurid speculation from armchair sleuths.

On Friday, DS Swain questioned Roy about the incident and delved deep into his history, with solicitor Dee Dee at his side.

Coronation Street fans were incensed as Roy Cropper was jailed after being charged with the murder of missing teen Lauren Bolton during Friday's episode of the ITV soap

Roy, played by David Neilson, 75, has spent weeks as Detective Sergeant Lisa Swains prime suspect since he deep cleaned Laurens (Cait Fitton, right) flat after she disappeared

Dee Dee then returned to Roy's cafe - Roy's Rolls - where she broke the news that he had been charged with Lauren's murder and was being held in police custody.

Back at the police station a terrified and confused Roy sat alone in a dark cell, dreading his pending court hearing.

Viewers of the episode were left seething, branding the storyline 'ridiculous' while threatening to abandon the soap altogether.

One person wrote on Twitter: 'Catching up with #Corrie, the Roy Cropper storyline is their most ridiculous yet.'

Someone else wrote: 'Oh wow Coronation Street are RUINING a show thats been on decades. What is going on with the writers of this show!? Arresting ROY CROPPER for murder!? Why not arrest Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy while youre at it?'

While someone else posted: 'This Roy Cropper storyline is ridiculous, how can he be charged with murder without a shred of evidence presented! I am sorry, but it really is a horrid story, out of all the men in the street and you choose the least likely man!'

Another viewer commented: 'Gone right off #corrie & stopping watching. Why go down this track ? #RoyCropper didn't do it ...Lauren is probably down in London as that's where most of them go!'

'Free Roy Cropper, he is innocent. Shame on @itvcorrie for thinking that this is a good storyline, its not. #FreeRoyCropper,' demanded another audience member at home.

Viewers of the episode were left seething, branding the storyline 'ridiculous' while threatening to abandon the soap altogether

While someone else remarked: 'This @itvcorrie storyline with Roy is so weak. Why are the police so dumb and so against Roy in the first place? Its just so unbelievable. #corrie #itv #roycropper.'

Another former fan protested: 'My wife and I have decided to cease watching what is probably the worst storyline ever based around Roy Cropper. Proper scraping the barrel, irritating and unrealistic are only two words of many I could choose.'

And someone else wrote: 'An all-time low for the show I fear.'

With no information on Lauren's whereabouts and no other real suspects for the crime, Roy's family need to get to the bottom of what really happened to Lauren.

Actor David, said: 'Roy is innocent in every respect, he is innocent of the crime, but he is also an innocent soul.

'He never thought for one minute it would come to this, he truly felt that if he simply answered everything honestly it would all be okay and he was naive to assume that being innocent meant that he would be seen to be innocent.

'What I like about this storyline is the way it has gone back 29 years to 1995 when Roy first arrived.

The situation got more complicated for Roy when a woman pretending to be Lauren's mother visited the cafe and ended up in a tussle with him, before falling and hitting her head

'It is reminiscent of that early Roy Cropper when people were suspicious of his behaviour and thought he was creepy.

'And all this history will be used against him, things that have happened in the past like abducting their foster child.

'All that makes this storyline interesting to play and to watch it unfold.'

Coronation Street continues on Monday 15 April on ITV1 at 8pm.
Sources have rubbished claimed that Netflix bosses are upset after Holly Willoughby's huge salary for reality show Bear Hunt was leaked.

Last month MailOnline revealed that the presenter, 43, would co-host the new jungle themed show alongside Bear Grylls, followed by claims the streaming service had splashed out 10M on a star-studded line up.

It was also reported that Holly had negotiated herself a 'very attractive package' bagging a 1M payday for her first show away from terrestrial television.

But sources have dismissed the claims ahead of the former This Morning host jetting off to Costa Rica to begin filming.

The Mirror previously reported that Netflix bosses, who are very protective of their financial figures, were 'very upset' with the media coverage and issued fresh warnings to all their stars over confidentiality.

Sources have rubbished claimed that Netflix bosses are upset after Holly Willoughby's huge salary for reality show Bear Hunt was leaked

Last month MailOnline revealed that the presenter, 43, would co-host the new jungle themed show alongside Bear Grylls , followed by claims the streaming service had splashed out 10M on a star-studded line up

A source told the publication: 'Netflix is really strict about leaks and anything ahead of schedule. They had a meeting and brought up Holly's new series, and said they were really upset about how it was leaked and there were so many varying reports about how much she had been paid to do the show'.

Adding: 'It just isn't its style. Netflix recruits credible talent  and to have potential earnings in the public domain wasn't what it had expected.'

MailOnline have contacted Holly's reps and Netflix for comment.

Netflix have said to have forked out on the line-up in order to keep up with major competitors such as I'm A Celeb and Strictly Come Dancing.

A source told The Sun: 'Netflix are determined their collection will be largely killer, with very little filler. They're not scrimping on paying six-figure fees and aren't afraid to cough up more for the biggest names.

'They'll be shelling out an eight-figure sum in all, so the cast will be one of the most expensive in reality TV history.'

Bear Hunt will show Grylls hunting down the contestants and when he finds them they will be eliminated from the programme.

It is set to be filmed in May in the Costa Rican jungle, however won't be aired until 2025.

Holly, who quit ITV's This Morning last October following a plot to kidnap and murder her emerged, has been the face of daytime TV in the UK for over a decade and made herself a household name.

But sources have dismissed the claims ahead of the former This Morning host jetting off to Costa Rica to film the series

It was also claimed that Holly had negotiated herself a 'very attractive package' bagging a 1M payday for her first show away from terrestrial television (co-host Bear Grylls pictured)

The star quit This Morning last October after 14 years after an alleged plot to kidnap and murder her emerged, leaving her terrified

A show insider told MailOnline: 'It's a great and such an exciting fresh series and of course a great challenge for Holly.

'It's a great opportunity for her.'

'There is a lot riding on this show but Holly and her team already think they could be on to a winner.

Netflix bosses are said to be 'ecstatic' that they have been able to hire her. One said: 'Holly was their woman for this project from the word go.

Holly will be familiar with the jungle surroundings.

In 2018 she hosted I'm A Celeb alongside Declan Donnelly - the highest rated series ever.

Standing in for Ant McPartlin who was in rehab for alcohol and painkiller addictions, she was hailed a huge success.
Atlanta rap legend Rico Wade, known for his work with Outkast, Goodie Mob, Killer Mike, has died at age 52.

His family confirmed the devastating news in a statement on Saturday morning as they revealed they were 'deeply saddened by the sudden and unexpected passing of' their 'son, father, husband and brother.'

'Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of a talented individual who touched the lives of so many. We ask that you respect the legacy of our loved one and our privacy at this time,' his loved ones wrote.

They did not provide a cause of death, or any further details on his death.

Atlanta rap legend Rico Wade, known for his work with Outkast, Goodie Mob, Killer Mike, has died at age 52; seen in 2019

Wade is survived by his mom, two sons, wife Debbie Wade, and siblings.

Wade founded the Dungeon Family collective in the early 1990s, alongside Ray Murray and Sleepy Brown.

The Hip hop group consisted of Big Boi, Andre 3000, CeeLo Green, Big Rube, Big Gipp, Khujo as well as his younger cousin, Future.

Many of Wade's collaborators flocked to social media to express their condolences to his family and reflect on his legacy.

'I don't have the words to express my deep and profound sense of loss. I am Praying for your wife and Children. I am praying for the Wade family. I am praying for us all,' Killer Mike captioned a black and white photos of his late pal in the studio.

He continued: 'I deeply appreciate your acceptance into The Dungeon Family, mentorship, Friendship and Brotherhood. Idk where I would be without ya'll.'

Under the 48-year-old Atlanta native (born Michael Santiago Render)'s post, CeeLo Green commented a sobbing emoji.

His family confirmed the devastating news in a statement on Saturday morning as they revealed they were 'deeply saddened by the sudden and unexpected passing of' their 'son, father, husband and brother'

'Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of a talented individual who touched the lives of so many. We ask that you respect the legacy of our loved one and our privacy at this time,' his loved ones wrote (Wade pictured with Jamal Anderson and Goodie Mob in 2000)

Wade's cause of death has not been confirmed; Wade (R) seen with Ray Murray (L); the hip-hop stars seen in 2002

'Yooo this is crazy... wow,' Kid Cudi wrote under the slideshow.

Damn, another legend gone! Weve lost 5 people that I know in the last 4 days. Rest well l @ricowadedf.'

Cudi, 40, proceeded to post his own tribute on Instagram, in which he wrote: '

Producer Jack Antonoff took to X to react to the news

Fans also remembered his legacy, with one writing: 'We talk a lot about doing things "for the culture"... then there are the people who CREATED culture. That goes beyond being talented, beyond having vision. It's something that's in the entirety of your being. That was Rico Wade'

'Huge loss to the world of music. But a MONUMENTAL loss to Atlanta!,' Johnta Austin wrote. 'If it true that Atlanta influences everything, then Rico Wade influenced Atlanta! RIP Rico! Thank you for the music, the culture, and the influence!!'

Producer Jack Antonoff took to X to react to the news.

'Had the honor to work with rico wade and organized noize on gone now. those few days in atlanta forever changed bleachers and me as a producer. rico was a lovely genius to be around - flying around the room looking for something wild. rico wade forever,' he wrote.

'Huge loss to the world of music. But a MONUMENTAL loss to Atlanta!,' Johnta Austin wrote. 'If it true that Atlanta influences everything, then Rico Wade influenced Atlanta! RIP Rico! Thank you for the music, the culture, and the influence!!'

Fans also remembered his legacy, with one writing: 'We talk a lot about doing things "for the culture"... then there are the people who CREATED culture. That goes beyond being talented, beyond having vision. It's something that's in the entirety of your being. That was Rico Wade.'
Sofia Vergara is on the mend following a recent surgery.

Just days after stunning at a benefit for the Women's Cancer Research Fund, the 51-year-old revealed she underwent medical procedure.

'If u ever get a mayor (sic) knee surgery make sure u Get a handsome doctor who will sleep with u that night!!!!' the America's Got Talent judge wrote in an Instagram story with a picture of her boyfriend, Dr. Justin Saliman standing by her bed.

'Luv u Dr @jdsaliman,' she said, completing the posting with a red heart.

The snap shows the Modern Family star's knee wrapped up in a bandage between a splint on the bed and the good doctor, who is wearing navy blue scrubs, is smiling down on her with his hand on her leg.

Sofia Vergara, 51, is on the mend following knee surgery and thanked boyfriend Dr. Justin Saliman for taking care of her after the procedure via a post in her Instagram Stories Saturday

It's unclear how the Griselda star hurt her knee of if the orthopedic surgeon is the one who performed the undisclosed procedure.

According to his website, Saliman is the inventor of the Novo Stitch Pro Meniscal Repair system, which allows a surgeon to repair meniscus tears rather than remove the damaged area.

The couple have been dating since October 2023, but they have mostly steered clear of talking about the other on social media.

Saturday's post gave an indicator of how far the relationship has come in the last six months.

Vergara finalized her divorce from ex-husband Joe Manganiello, 47, earlier this month.

Court papers obtained by Page Six, indicate the dissolution of the Vergara-Manganiello marriage was made in accordance with the pre-nuptial agreement the couple made prior to their November 2015 marriage.

The documents indicated he received all of his 'earnings and accumulations' from the date of their separation, July 2, 2023 in addition to his clothing, jewelry and 'miscellaneous personal effects.'

The pair noted they never had 'any community property' between them.

The couple began dating in October 2023, but have have mostly steered clear of talking about the other on social media (Pictured in Santa Monica, CA in March)

The Modern Family star did not reveal what kind of knee surgery she had, or if Dr. Saliman performed the procedure

Last Wednesday she was wearing heels while attending An Unforgettable Evening, a benefit for the Women's Cancer Research Fund

Vergara finalized her divorce from ex-husband Joe Manganiello, 47, earlier this month; the two seen in an Instagram snap

Vergara's settlement was similar, providing her with her own belonging, jewelry and earnings since the separation.

The original reason for the divorce was 'irreconcilable differences' but Vergara later revealed in an interview with El Pais the fracture was over whether or not to have children.

'My marriage broke up because my husband was younger; he wanted to have kids and I didnt want to be an old mom.'

She explained to the outlet, 'I feel its not fair to the baby. I respect whoever does it, but thats not for me anymore. Im almost in menopause; its the natural way of things,' she stated.
John Travolta honored his late son Jett Travolta in a touching tribute posted to Instagram on Friday.

On April 12, a day before what would have been Jett's 32nd birthday, the actor shared a throwback photo with his late wife Kelly Preston and their son.

Alongside the sweet snap, Travolta wrote in his caption: 'Happy birthday my Jetty  not a day goes by where you're not with me!'

His daughter Ella  who celebrated her 24th birthday just a week ago  also left a comment under the post and wrote alongside five red heart emojis: 'Happy Birthday Jetty.'

The Pulp Fiction star, 70, and their son, who was aged four in the photo, were visiting her on set while she was filming Addicted to Love in 1997.

John Travolta honored his late son Jett Travolta in a touching tribute posted to Instagram on Friday. On April 12, a day before what would have been Jett's 32nd birthday, the actor shared a throwback photo with his late wife Kelly Preston and their son. The Pulp Fiction star, 70, and their son, who was aged four in the photo, were visiting her on set while she was filming Addicted to Love in 1997

Alongside the sweet snap, Travolta wrote in his caption: 'Happy birthday my Jetty  not a day goes by where you're not with me!'

In the picture, Jett was wrapped in the actress' arms and had a big smile on his face.

His beloved first child passed away in January 2009 at the age of 16 while the family were vacationing in the Bahamas.

He suffered a seizure and hit his head on the bathtub at the Old Bahama Bay Hotel.

Preston passed away at the age of 57 in July 2020 after a battle with breast cancer.

Travolta previously told Us Weekly in 2014 that his son's death was 'the worst thing that's ever happened in my life.'

'The truth is, I didn't know if I was going to make it,' he told the outlet at the time. 'Life was no longer interesting to me, so it took a lot to get me better.'

Travolta and his late wife  who were married for nearly 60 years  welcomed three children together before her tragic passing.

He and the Mischief actress also had daughter Ella in April 2000 and Benjamin, now 13, in November 2010.

His beloved first child passed away in January 2009 at the age of 16 while the family were vacationing in the Bahamas. He suffered a seizure and hit his head on the bathtub at the Old Bahama Bay Hotel

Preston passed away at the age of 57 in July 2020 after a battle with breast cancer

Travolta recently shared a post celebrating his daughter's birthday one week ago. In a montage clip, the father-daughter duo enjoyed a joy ride together in a vintage car

She was also seen decorating her birthday cake as her proud father filmed her

Travolta also welcomed their youngest child, son Benjamin, now 13, in November 2010

Travolta recently shared a post celebrating his daughter's birthday one week ago.

In a montage clip, the father-daughter duo enjoyed a joy ride together in a vintage car.

She was also seen decorating her birthday cake as her proud father filmed her.

'Happy birthday Ella,' he said to her. She looked up with a bright smile and replied: 'Thank you!'

'What are you doing?' Travolta asked her as she replied she was 'baking a cake.'

'Oh, that looks beautiful. Very good. Happy birthday hun,' he responded.

In his caption, he gushed: 'Happy birthday Ella. I love you. Your dad!'
The idea that using 'incognito' mode while browsing the internet to buy flights will prevent airlines from gathering data and charging extra is just a myth, experts say.

The misconception is that cookies are used by airlines to track the internet activity of potential buyers. Once they identify that somebody is looking for a specific ticket they can then start increasing prices.

But economists, travel experts and bookings platforms all insist this is simply not how plane tickets are priced, and totally false.

'It's the travel hacking tip that will never die. It's total rubbish,' said Clint Henderson, managing editor of The Points Guy.

'I've tried it myself for two decades and have never, ever, found a cheaper deal using an incognito browser.'

The theory that blocking cookies while browsing for airline tickets will result in cheaper prices is false, experts say

'Incognito mode' in browser Google Chrome allows users to prevent websites from using cookies to track them

Henderson also pointed to a 2016 study by Consumer Reports which made 372 separate queries for a host of flights over two weeks on browsers with cookies activated and deactivated.

While the same prices were generated for almost all of them, in 42 cases there were discrepancies.

In 25 of those cases, the browser in private mode did yield cheaper results, but in 17 it was more expensive.

Henderson explained how airlines actually establish fares. In almost all cases they up the aircraft cabin into different 'buckets' of seats. Seats in those buckets will be sold for different prices.

The more expensive buckets contain the last seats that will be allocated. Cheaper buckets on the other hand will fill sooner.

'Booking last minute trips leads to the highest price tickets because they've sold out all those cheaper fare classes,' said Henderson.

If tickets are selling fast, airlines will close the cheaper buckets and start directing buyers to more expensive seats. If tickets are selling slower than expected, instead cheaper buckets will be opened to sell more seats.

Certain buckets, or seats within buckets, will only be made available within a certain window before the date of the flight.

Prices are therefore determined by current demand, the number of seats that are still available and the timing of booking.

In fact, a recent study by economists from the University of Chicago, University of Texas, Berkeley and Yale found that the prices of other similar flights offered by other airlines are not even considered.

Pictured is a display of fares. Column 13 is the booking class. The more expensive buckets contain the last seats that will be allocated

According to Henderson, the best thing consumers can do is set a Google Flight alert and monitor the price over a couple of weeks.

The optimum window is three to four months before a domestic flight and six to eight months before an international flight, he said.

Fueling the myth that fares are being adjusted dynamically based on browsing history and interest is likely that they generally jump around a lot - and can tend to go up.

'When the internet took off, all of a sudden consumers were able to see various prices for the same ticket on sites like Expedia, or Kayak. And so ever since people have thought, "If they're showing me different prices, then the airline must be able to somehow track me."'

Another phenomenon driving the myth is that when using a comparison site like Skyscanner or Google Flights, prices sometimes, but rarely, jump after the user is redirected to a new webpage to actually buy the ticket.

Experts say that is because the data they are reading when browsing is 'cached' data. That means it can lag by up to a few hours and only when proceeding to buy the flight is the live price provided.
Google started to remove California news websites from select people's search results as a pending state legislature might fine tech giants once approved.

The California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA) requires that search giants like Google should pay media companies for linking their content.

Google Tests California Website Removal Ahead of CJPA Approval

In a blog post, Google announced that it will conduct a "short-term test for a small percentage of users" by removing links to California news websites. According to the company, the experiment will measure the impact of the legislation on their product experience.

In addition, the company also shared that it would pause new investments in the California news industry. This includes partnership initiatives with news organizations, along with its licensing program.

"It would favor media conglomerates and hedge funds-who've been lobbying for this bill-and could use funds from CJPA to continue to buy up local California newspapers, strip them of journalists, and create more ghost papers that operate with a skeleton crew to produce only low-cost, and often low-quality, content," said Jaffer Zadi, VP for global news partnerships.

CJPA's Implication to Tech Giants, Journalism

According to the CJPA, the bill will require big tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook to give a percentage of their advertising revenue to media companies for linking their content. As of writing, there are no specific percentages on how much money companies would have to pay.

On the other hand, the bill seeks to stop the disappearing industry of journalism. Since the surge of the digital age, several legacy media companies have struggled to remain profitable today.

Democratic Assemblymember Buff Wicks, the bill's author, detailed that more than 100 news organizations in California were shut down in the past decade.

"This is a bill about basic fairness - it's about ensuring that platforms pay for the content they repurpose," Wicks stated. He also shared that they are committed to negotiating with Google and other companies to secure the future of California journalists.
DailyMail.com asked readers to share their honest opinions about their eco-cars

Tesla sales are plunging while other automakers row back investment in EVs

Biden's EV push has been plunged into chaos amid backlash from US motorists

For years they have been sold to motorists as a glimpse into the future. But is the EV revolution over before it ever really began?

The headlines certainly aren't promising. Tesla shocked analysts last month when it announced sales had dropped for the first time since the height of the pandemic in 2020.

So far this year Apple has killed its decade-long project to create its own EV while Ford is slashing production of its electric pickup. Meanwhile General Motors wants to bring back its plug-in hybrid rather than go fully electric.

Yet amid all the gloomy sales reports, there is a growing army of die-hard EV enthusiasts who insist they will never return to their old gas-guzzling ways.

DailyMail.com asked its readers to give their honest, unfiltered opinions about their experience with their electric cars - and were inundated with strong opinions on both sides of the debate.

David and Lisa Brundage (both pictured) say their Tesla saves them around $400 a month on gas

Tesla shocked analysts last month when it announced sales had dropped for the first time since the height of the pandemic in 2020

While EV-converts insist the cars are fun to drive and cost-effective, skeptics said the upfront prices were too high while America's lack of charging infrastructure made long trips impossible.

David Brundage, 55, has had his Tesla Model Y for just eight weeks but already he knows he will never go back to his gas car.

The travel agent, who lives just outside Orlando, FL, paid $38,000 for the car - when factoring in the $7,500 federal electric vehicle tax credit he received on the purchase.

But he estimates it saves him and his wife Lisa, 55, $400 per month on gas as he charges the car at home using energy from the solar panels he had installed around a year ago.

Poll Would YOU buy an electric car? Yes, I've already got one Yes, I plan to buy one No, I would never Would YOU buy an electric car? Yes, I've already got one 48 votes

Yes, I plan to buy one 41 votes

No, I would never 830 votes Now share your opinion





David, a father-of-three, told DailyMail.com: 'We will never go back to a gasoline car now - it just doesn't make economic sense.

'We have already taken our Tesla on a 1,000-mile road trip and the charging infrastructure was excellent. We averaged a stop every two and a half miles and our longest stop was just 17 minutes.

He added the car was 'fun to drive' and even out-accelerates his old Ford Mustang.

His opinion is at-odds with fellow motorist Michael Woods who was forced to sell his Audi e-tron four months after buying it - at around a $20,000 loss.

Woods runs his own oil and gas exploration company but is always looking for ways to reduce his energy consumption, having completed a master's degree in environmental science.

But long trips between his offices in Dallas and Shreveport left him with 'range anxiety' - a term EV drivers use to describe the worry they will feel their battery will run out before they reach a charging point.

He said: 'It's a 220-mile roundtrip and there are no charging stations on that journey.

'The charging infrastructure just isn't good enough. I think in areas like California it's better but most of America doesn't have enough chargers.

'If you're just using it to run around town, it's a fine car but if you're using it as you're only vehicle - and don't have another gas car to rely on - it doesn't work.

'You can see in the car dealerships that EVs are piling up because nobody wants them. It's a shame because I really wanted to love mine.'

Michael Woods (pictured) was forced to sell his Audi e-tron four months after buying it - at around a $20,000 loss

Matt Spease bought a grey Tesla Model Y Long Range for around $54,000 back in 2022 with a plan to flip it and make a profit. Pictured: Spease (bottom right) with his brother and two nephews

For Matt Spease, buying an electric car was only ever supposed to be about making money.

Spease, 52, bought a grey Tesla Model Y Long Range for around $54,000 back in 2022 with a plan to flip it and make a profit.

However, to his surprise, he found he enjoyed driving the car too much to part ways.

The business owner, who lives just outside Detroit, MI, told DailyMail.com: 'The car has some quirks, the automatic wiper blades are a joke and the autopilot has some odd reactions from time to time.

'But in my 36 years of being a driver, it's the best car I've ever driven. I drive 120 miles a day, I did some basic math and I realized it's cheaper to keep it.

'Somebody needs to counter all the negative campaigns about EVs, it's not just about the environment, it's about giving people a choice and making them realize they're better cars that do a great job of getting from point A to B.'
Burmese army troops have completely withdrawn from Myawaddy, a strategic border town for trade with Thailand; This is another significant defeat for the military, which has been in difficulty for several months in the north and west of the country. The location is important to the Burmese junta because trade through Myawaddy over the past 12 months amounted to $1.1 billion, a vital source of revenue for the countrys cash-strapped military. money  according to the Burmese Ministry of Commerce.

We took [Burma Military Battalion] 275 at 10 p.m. last night, Padoh Saw Taw Nee, spokesperson for the Karen National Union (KNU), one of the main rebel movements in the country, said on Thursday (April 11). junta, to Agence France-Presse (AFP), adding that some two hundred soldiers had taken refuge on a bridge linking Myawaddy to the Thai border town of Mae Sot.

A Thai immigration official told AFP that the city had fallen overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. AFP journalists present at the border post heard a loud noise coming from the Burmese side after a plane flew over around 10:30 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. in Paris) on Thursday.

According to residents, fighting began around Myawaddy on Tuesday and no sound of clashes was heard during the night from Wednesday to Thursday. The fighting has stopped since around 8 p.m. last night, a Myawaddy resident told AFP, which is unable to independently verify the KNUs claims as journalists do not have access to Myawaddy. .

Series of defeats for the junta

On Wednesday, hundreds of frightened people lined up at the border to flee the fighting that lasted several days around Myawaddy. Thailand shares a 2,400-kilometre-long border with Myanmar, where a 2021 military coup against the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi reignited conflict between the junta and its ethnic and political opponents.

For several months, the junta has suffered a series of defeats in the north and west of the country. The number of people passing through the Thai immigration post from Burma daily has increased to around four thousand in recent days, compared to the usual 1900, an immigration official told AFP.

He added that the authorities were increasing the number of immigration agents to cope with a possible increase in the flow of arrivals. Late Wednesday, Thai 3rd Army Commander Lt. Gen. Prasarn Saengsirirak told local media that the military was intensifying its patrols along the border.

We will provide humanitarian aid, but if stray bullets cross the Thai border, we will respond with light or heavy measures, he said. On Tuesday, Thailands foreign minister said the kingdom was ready to welcome 100,000 people fleeing the ongoing conflict. Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin spoke with her ministers about the situation at the border earlier this week.
Delhi is heading for a crisis like situation with Delhi Minister and senior AAP leader Atishi hinting on Friday about the possibility of imposition of Presidents rule. However, the BJP has rubbished Atishis claim pointing out that after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals arrest in the money-laundering case and internal developments in the party, the AAP is nervous.

Delhi BJP said the AAP is scared of losing majority in Delhi following some MLAs leaving the party and said it was therefore alleging that Presidents rule may be imposed.

Atishi claimed that in recent times, several events have taken place that indicate the possibility of the imposition of Presidents rule in Delhi. In the last few months, no senior IAS officer has been posted in Delhi. Posts are lying vacant in departments but no postings have taken place. Bureaucrats have stopped attending meetings called by Ministers, citing the Model Code of Conduct. The Lieutenant Governor has been writing letters to the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) over the functioning of the Delhi Government, she said.

After Delhi Social Welfare Department Minister Raaj Kumar Anands resignation, there is no clarity on how about a half a dozen -odd departments he was handling would function as Kejriwal is in Tihar jail and he has not made it clear whether he would either like to induct a new Minister to replace Anand or would allocate his portfolios to any Minister.

Atishi said the BJP already knows that it cannot come to power in Delhi. The AAP defeated the BJP in the Delhi Assembly elections in 2015 and 2020. That is why they want to topple the Delhi Government. However, the imposition of Presidents rule would be illegal since the Delhi Government enjoys a majority. We proved our majority through a floor test on February 17 this year, she said.

AAP has 62 MLAs in the 70-member Delhi Assembly.

After the Enforcement Directorate objected to Kejriwal issuing instructions while in custody, questions are being raised: To whom Anands portfolio will be reassigned now.

The Chief Minister himself can look after Anands departments. So far Kejriwal has not kept any department under his direct command. A big question arises if Kejriwal tells Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Vinai Kumar Saxena not to accept Anands resignation, in such a situation it will be a difficult situation for the LG to take a call on the contentious matter.

However, there is a view from some experts that the LG being the head of the Government can take a call on the matter

There is a strong view in the bureaucratic circle that a mechanism needs to be put in place by the LG whereby orders issued by the Chief Minister from Tihar are routed through him to the concerned Ministers.

The bureaucratic circle however, is unsure how Cabinet meetings can be held by the Chief Minister with his Ministers from Tihar.

There are issues related to confidentiality of certain notes as anything which goes or comes out of the prison will have to be scanned, a senior official said.

Lets see how such issues will be sorted out in the near future if Kejriwal continues to function as the CM from Tihar, said the sources. The LG has already sent two reports regarding governance to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Amid soaring tensions in West Asia due to the Iran and Israel conflict, Air India flights have started taking a detour as they are now avoiding operations in the Iranian airspace. According to sources, now, all Air India flights bound for Europe could take up to two hours longer to reach the destinations.

This comes a day after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) advised Indian nationals to not travel till further notice to Iran and Israel - the two countries teetering on the brink of a major military escalation.

According to Flightradar24 website, Air India flight that took off from Delhi at 4.30 am on Saturday did not overfly Iran and took an alternate route to London. Instead of the usual India-Pakistan-Iran-Turkey-Black Sea route to Europe, Air India took a northern route.

Air India flights to the Middle East, however, will not be impacted as they fly South of Iranian airspace. Besides, Air India, Germanys Lufthansa have already started avoiding Iranian air space since Thursday while Australian airline Qantas said on Saturday it would redirect its long-haul flights between Perth and London to avoid Irans airspace amid soaring Middle East tensions.

On Friday, Lufthansa flight to Mumbai took the Greece- Mediterranean Sea-Saudi Arabia-Persian Gulf-Arabian Sea route to Mumbai. Earlier it used to take the Black Sea-Iran-Pakistan route to Mumbai.

Lufthansa on Thursday said it had suspended flights to and from Tehran until probably April 13, extending its suspension by two days.

Notably, the increased geopolitical tensions have added more routes to the no fly zones for airlines. Commercial airliners avoid Afghanistan ever since the country was taken over by the Taliban; Russias war in Ukraine has made both the countries no overflying zones for most western airlines; US carriers have been avoiding Iran for some time now. Now airliners would have to avoid the airspace of Iran.

Meanwhile, India, France, and Russia among other countries have advised their citizens against traveling to the region, which is already tense due to the ongoing seven-month war in Gaza.

India on Friday asked its citizens not to travel to Iran and Israel amid increasing fears that Tehran may launch an attack on Israeli soil in retaliation to a strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria 11 days ago.

People familiar with the latest developments said no more Indians will be allowed to go to Israel to work in the construction sector. The first batch of 64 Indian workers had left for Israel earlier this month and over 6,000 construction workers from India were to leave for Israel in April and May.

In an advisory, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also urged the Indians residing in Iran and Israel to exercise utmost precautions about their safety and restrict their movements to minimum. In view of the prevailing situation in the region, all Indians are advised not to travel to Iran or Israel till further notice, it said.

All those who are currently residing in Iran or Israel are requested to get in touch with Indian Embassies there and register themselves, the MEA said.

As the US remains on high alert in response to the Israeli attack on Iranian consulate Syria, President Joe Biden stated on Friday that he was expecting Tehran to attack Israel ``sooner than later. However, he warned the Islamic state against attacking, stressing that the United States will defend Israel. Gulf nations are pressing the United States not to respond to any possible Iranian attack on Israel by using US military bases located on their soil.
The BJP is set to unveil its Sankalp Patra (manifesto) for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Sunday at its party headquarters in Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior party leaders will be present at the event, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Baba Saheb Ambedkar, a towering leader from the Dalit community and an architect of the Indian Constitution.

The manifesto will focus on Garib (poor), Kisan (farmer), Yuva (youth), and Nari Shakti (women power) under a politically coined acronym of GAYN, in addition to Swasthya (health), Shiksha (education), and Sashaktikaran (empowerment) as the 3S, are among the prominent resolutions likely to feature in the BJPs manifesto.

The theme of the manifesto will be Modis Guarantee: Developed India 2047, with a focus on cultural nationalism. According to party sources, the party pledges to fulfil only those promises that are achievable.

As the BJP Government has fulfilled most of its core ideological promises, including the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the repeal of Article 370, all eyes will be on how the ruling partys larger cultural and Hindutva agenda figures in the manifesto. Sources hinted that the BJP may include some special resolutions on Garib Kalyan (poor welfare) and Bharashtachar-mukt (corruption-free), citing what Modi had outlined in the 2019 manifesto.

The BJP had appointed a manifesto committee headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh that met twice to deliberate on its contents after the party had launched multiple exercises, including vans sent across the country and social media campaigns, to seek peoples suggestions.

The BJP has received over 1.5 million suggestions for its manifesto, including more than 400,000 through the NaMo app and over 1.1 million through videos.

An election manifesto is a comprehensive declaration of a partys policies, objectives, and proposed actions if they come into power that serves as a roadmap for voters to understand the partys stance on various issues.

Political parties release manifestos to communicate their agenda, priorities, and proposed solutions to societal challenges. Manifestos also hold parties accountable post-election. Voters can refer back to the promises made and assess if the party fulfills its commitments, promoting transparency in governance.

Meanwhile, the Opposition party, the Indian National Congress, has already released its manifesto titled Nyay Patra. Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi have highlighted 25 guarantees to the public, with a key promise to provide annual financial assistance of Rs100,000 to the poorest women in families.

The upcoming general elections in India are scheduled to take place from April 19, 2024, to June 1, 2024, to choose the 543 representatives for the 18th Lok Sabha.

Around 970 million individuals, out of a total population of 1.44 billion are eligible to take part in the elections. The legislative Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, and Sikkim will coincide with the general election. Additionally, there will be by-elections for 35 seats across 16 States.

In 2014, BJP stormed to power by winning 282 seats in the Lok Sabha. Its coalition NDA secured 353 seats. The Congress was reduced to just 44 seats in the Lok Sabha, its lowest ever tally in history. In terms of vote share, BJP managed to secure 31 per cent of the total votes while Congress won 19.3 per cent of the total votes cast.

In 2019, the BJP improved its tally even further, winning 303 seats in the lower House. It was the first time in over three and a half decades that a party managed to cross the 300-seat mark in the Lok Sabha elections.

With the census and delimitation exercise likely to be held on the watch of the next government, political watchers are keeping an eye on whether the BJP will touch on issues like concerns of southern states over the delimitation exercise. The party is likely to underline its support for the "one-nation one-election" idea, sources said.
Bengaluru blast accused held from Bengal

Kolkata: In a major success, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested two key accused, including the mastermind, in Bengalurus Rameshwaram Cafe blast case from West Bengal. The accused, Adbul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa and Mussavir Hussain Shazib, were staying in a lodge near Kolkata under assumed identities, a statement issued by the NIA said. Taahaa was the mastermind behind the planning and execution of the blast while Shazib placed the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at the cafe, they said. The two accused were on the run since the explosion rocked the IT city of Bengaluru on March 1. Taahaa and Shazib were produced before a special NIA court in Kolkata after their arrest. The court granted three-day transit remand of the accused to the agency. Several customers and hotel staff members were injured, some of them grievously, in the blast that caused extensive damage to the property.

India issues travel warnings over Israel, Iran tensions

New Delhi: India on Friday advised its citizens not to travel till further notice to Iran or Israel in view of prevailing situation. This caution comes amid reports that Iran is likely to launch direct attack on Israel within the next 48 hours. Issuing note of caution, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also urged all Indians currently residing in Iran or Israel to get in touch with Indian Embassies there and register themselves.
India on Saturday said it is in touch with Iran after it seized a cargo ship MSC Aries with 17 Indians nationals onboard. The Israel-linked ship was seized by Irans commandos near the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further, Israel military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a statement.

As for Indians, official sources said India is in touch with Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and in Delhi, to ensure the welfare and early release of the Indian nationals.

The Iranian action came amid increasing fears that Tehran may launch an attack on Israeli soil in retaliation to a strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria 12 days ago.

We are aware that a cargo ship MSC Aries has been taken control by Iran. We have learnt that there are 17 Indian nationals onboard, said a source.

We are in touch with the Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and in Delhi, to ensure security, welfare and early release of Indian nationals, it said.

Reports said Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards seized MSC Aries on Saturday morning when it was sailing through the Strait of Hormuz. Reports indicated MSC Aries is a Portuguese-flagged container ship.

According to news agency AP, commandos from Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rappelled down from a helicopter onto an Israeli-affiliated container ship near the Strait of Hormuz and seized the vessel, the latest in a series of attacks between the two countries.

West Asia had braced for potential Iranian retaliation over a suspected Israeli strike earlier this month on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed 12 people, including a senior Guard general who once commanded its expeditionary Quds Force there.

Irans State-run IRNA said a special forces unit of the Guards navy carried out the attack on the vessel, which other media in the country widely identified as the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime.

Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofers Zodiac Group. Zodiac declined to comment and referred questions to MSC, which did not immediately respond.

Earlier, a West Asia defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, shared a video of the attack with AP. In it, the Iranian commandos are seen rappelling down onto a stack of containers sitting on the deck of the vessel.

A crew member on the ship can be heard saying, Dont come out. He then tells his colleagues to go to the ships bridge as more commandos come down on the deck.

One commando can be seen kneeling above the others to provide them potential cover fire.

The video corresponded with known details of the MSC Aries. The helicopter used also appeared to be a Soviet-era Mil Mi-17 helicopter, which both the Guard and the Iranian-backed Houthis of Yemen have used in the past to conduct commando raids on ships.

The British militarys United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations described the vessel as being seized by regional authorities in the Gulf of Oman off the Emirati port city of Fujairah, without elaborating.

The MSC Aries had been last located off Dubai heading toward the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. The ship had turned off its tracking data, which has been common for Israeli-affiliated ships moving through the region.

Iran since 2019 has engaged in a series of ship seizures and attacks on vessels have been attributed to it amid ongoing tensions with the West over its rapidly advancing nuclear programme.

In previous seizures, Iran has offered initial explanations about their operations to make it seem like the attacks had nothing to do with the wider geopolitical tensions - though later acknowledging as much. In Saturdays attack, however, Iran telling offered no explanation for the seizure other than to say the MSC Aries had links to Israel.

For days, Iranian officials up to and including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been threatening to slap Israel for the Syria strike. Western Governments have issued warnings to their citizens in the region to be prepared for attack
AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh claimed on Saturday that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is being tortured inside the Tihar jail at the behest of the Central Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

However Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena rejected Singhs claim and said a false narrative is being created by a person occupying Membership of Parliament.

Singh alleged the jail administration, which officially falls under the purview of the Delhi Government, has refused to allow Kejriwals wife Sunita to meet him in person.

The AAP leader said, according to jail rules 602 and 605, jail administration has the right to let an implicated person conduct any meeting face-to-face, Reacting on his remark, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said Singh should have knowledge about the jail manual as he came out recently after spending months there.

Sachdeva said the Kejriwal Government had made the Delhi Jail Manual in 2018, which clearly states in Rule 602 that meetings with inmates will be conducted through the glass wall and intercom for the safety of the inmates.

Saxena took serious note of patently false and deliberately misleading statements issued by not only members of a particular political party, but also Ministers sworn to the constitutional oath of office.

Inside the jail, Kejriwal is being tortured at the behest of the Government of India and Modi.

Action is being taken to break his morale. As per the rule and as mentioned in the jail manual, the jail administration has been granted the right to let the people in jail meet the visitors face-to-face. In the case of Kejriwal, his wife is not allowed to meet him face-to-face, Singh said, addressing a Press conference.

When the wife of Kejriwal applied to meet him, she was told that you cannot meet him face-to-face but through a window. I am saying with full responsibility that even the dreaded criminals are allowed to meet in the barrack, but a three-time CM of Delhi is allowed to meet his wife through a window having a glass in between, he added.

The AAP leader claimed that Kejriwals rights were being snatched away.

Singh said, In the same Tihar jail, many meetings take place but Kejriwal, a three-time elected Chief Minister, is being humiliated and made to meet his family through the jangla. This is happening at the behest of the BJP-led Central Government.

The mulakat jangla is an iron mesh which separates the inmate from the visitor in a room inside the jail. A visitor and an inmate can talk to each other by sitting on different sides of the mesh.

Look at the history of Tihar Jail, people are allowed to have face-to-face meetings. In this same jail, Subrata Roy of Sahara used to have meetings via the internet, phone, office facilities, etc. In this same jail, Chandra Brothers used to have regular meetings and sign many documents. Those they wanted to meet were allowed to meet them. But in Tihar Jail, efforts are being made to break Kejriwals morale, he said.

There was no immediate reaction from the Tihar administration. Today, the fight is to save democracy and the Constitution. I would request Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah not to take away the rights of Kejriwal, which are guaranteed constitutionally, democratically, legally and under the prison rules. Dont try to be a dictator, he added.

Kejriwal has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case stemming from the alleged excise policy scam. He is in judicial custody till April 15 and is currently lodged in Tihar jail.

On Friday, the jail authorities scheduled Kejriwals meeting with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann for April 15, saying that he can meet the AAP convener, but as a normal visitor in the mulakat jangla. The Chief Minister met his wife Sunita Kejriwal and personal secretary Bibhav Kumar inside Tihar Jail on Tuesday.

The LG also took note of the AAPs propagation that the scheme and subsidies pertaining to free electricity, water and bus rides for women will be stopped, since Kejriwal is in jail under judicial custody. The purported imaginary stoppage of these schemes in future is being attributed to the Central Government and Saxena has assured the people of Delhi that none of the subsidy schemes benefiting the poor will be discontinued and appealed to them to not pay heed to the statements and rumours being spread by political vested interests. The people should reject any attempts at misleading them, the LG appealed on Saturday.
Maharashtra tops the list of 85+ voters followed by Uttar Pradesh and then Bihar while Union Territory Lakshadweep is left with only 109 eligible 85 beyond voters in the list of Election Commission of India (ECI).

Maharashtra has over 13.07 lakh voters, Uttar Pradesh has over 10.38 lakh, and Bihar has 6.65 lakh such voters. Similarly, with 12.60 lakh persons with disabilities (PwD) electors, UP tops the list, followed by Karnataka (6.19 lakh) and Maharashtra (6.09 lakh).

As per the ECs data, there are over 81 lakh 85+ aged voters ( 33.84 lakh male and 47.27lakh female) including 2,18,442 electors above 100 years and 90 lakh + PwD voters registered across the country who will cast their vote from home voting facility for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. In Maharashtra, of the 13.07 lakh voters, 5.72 lakh are male and 7.34 lakh female aged 85 and above. There are 4.14 lakh male electors and 6.24 female electors in this category in UP. Bihar has 2.90 lakh male and 3.75 lake female electors in this category.

The Election Commissions data shows, 85+ voters in Tamil Nadu has 6.14 lakh electors including 2.95 lakh male and 3.18 lakh female, Rajasthan 5.71 lakh including 1.88 lakh male and 3.83 lakh female, Karnataka 5.70 lakh including 2. 47 lakh male and 3. 22 lakh female, West Bengal 4.78 lakh including 1 .95 lakh male and 2.83 lakh female , Gujarat 4.19 lakh including 1.56 lakh male and 2.63 lakh female.

As the first and second phase of polling for the Lok Sabha is approaching, the process for voting from home facilities for such voters have already begun.

In Churu, Rajasthan eight PwD voters, all from the same family, exercised home voting facilities underlining the strength of Indias electoral democracy. In Chhattisgarh, 87- year-old Indumati Pandey and 86-year-old Sonmati Baghel, from Bastar and Sukma tribal districts, exercised their franchise using the postal ballot at home and expressed their gratitude to the Election Commission for the facility. In Maharashtra, ECI polling teams travelled 107 kms to provide home voting facility to two elderly voters in Sironcha town in Gadchiroli district, Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected area.

BR Mishra from Jaysingh Nagar, Madhya Pradesh, after availing home voting conveyed joy and appreciation. He said, The duty you have done is commendable, you have done a very good job, I can say the way you discharge your duties is extraordinary, if all of us work like this then we will make our country proud.

The provision of home voting is a progressive measure aimed at empowering voters who encounter barriers to participate in the electoral process at the polling stations. Specifically, this facility is extended to two key demographic groups: PwDs meeting the 40 per cent benchmark disability criteria and senior citizens. As India gears up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the introduction of home voting stands as a testament to the ECs unwavering commitment to upholding participative, inclusive and accessible elections, the EC said.

The procedure to avail this facility is simple yet thorough. Within five days of the election notification, eligible voters must complete Form 12D and submit it to the returning officer. PwD voters submit a baseline disability certificate with their applications. Booth Level Officer (BLO) is responsible for retrieving Form 12D from the electors place of residence when the required documentation has been completed. Candidates receive a list of these electors in order to maintain accountability and transparency; if they wish, they can choose a representative to supervise the process. Following this, a dedicated team of polling officials along with security officials visits the voters residence to collect their votes.
PM says his Government will work to realise dream of Viksit Bharat 2047

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday promised early Assembly polls and restoration of Statehood to the people of Jammu and Kashmir at an election rally in Udhampur.

The rally was organised to garner support for BJP candidates, Dr Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore, seeking reelection for the third consecutive term from the Udhampur-Doda and Jammu-Reasi Lok Sabha seats respectively.

Continuing his tirade against the Congress, Modi also roasted the INDIA Bloc partners for allegedly eating mutton during the holy month of Sawan last year. Modi claimed the intentions of these people were to tease the people of the country, just like the Mughals.

Seeking blessings of Maa Vaishno Devi from a distance, Modi, sporting a Dogra turban, said the time is not far when the Assembly polls will be held in Jammu and Kashmir and the Statehood will also be restored.

You have seen the worst, so this looks like a lot to you. You feel good to see development. But Modi thinks bigger. Modi has a great vision. Whatever has happened till now is just a trailer.

I have to get busy creating a new and wonderful picture of the new Jammu and Kashmir. The time is not far when Assembly elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir and it will get the status of Statehood. You will be able to share your dreams with your MLA and your Ministers, Modi asserted.

He said Jammu and Kashmir has completely changed and the biggest thing is that there has been a change of heart as people have moved from disappointments towards hope.

I have been coming to Jammu and Kashmir for the last five decades. I remember the Ekta Yatra in 1992 to unfurl the tricolour at the Lal Chowk (in Srinagar). We received a grand welcome. In 2014, after offering prayers at the Vaishno Devi temple, I addressed a gathering at this very venue and gave a guarantee of freeing the people who have suffered for generations (due to terrorism), the Prime Minister said.

He slammed the Congress for delaying the Shahpur-Kandi dams completion in Jammu and Kashmir and said the water of our Ravi river was flowing to Pakistan while our farmers in Samba and Kathua were suffering. Modi fulfilled the guarantee to farmers as thousands of them are going to benefit from the completion of the dam, which will also illuminate the houses here.

The Prime Minister asserted that all the issues of every section of society in Jammu and Kashmir will be resolved.

He said his Government will work round the clock to realise the dream of Viksit Bharat 2047.

This is the guarantee of Modi. In the last 10 years, we have cracked down on terrorism and corruption in the region. In the next five years, we will take this region to new heights of development and progress, the Prime Minister said.

After decades, this election is taking place without the fear of terrorism, separatism, stone-pelting, strikes, and cross-border terrorism, which are no more election issues. There used to be a concern regarding the security of the Vaishno Devi and Amarnath pilgrimages, but the situation has changed altogether. Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing development and the peoples faith in the Government is getting strengthened, Modi said.

He said he has fulfilled his promise of putting an end to the long sufferings of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and challenged the Congress and other Opposition parties to bring back Article 370 of the Constitution, which was revoked by the BJP-led Centre in August 2019.

Buoyed by the enthusiastic response of the BJP supporters present at the rally, Modi trained his guns towards the dynastic parties. Families with a dynastic set-up have harmed Jammu and Kashmir more than anyone else. These parties are of the family, by the family and for the family and they are the ones who created the wall of Article 370. They created an illusion that only Article 370 can safeguard the lives of the people here.

With your blessings, Modi has not only demolished this wall but even buried its debris. I challenge the Opposition parties, especially the Congress, to announce that they will get Article 370 back. The country will not even look at their faces, he said.

Modi said some political parties thought that revoking Article 370 would engulf the region in a fire and Jammu and Kashmir would get separated from the country.

The youngsters of the region showed them the mirror. When the people came to know about their reality and rejected them, these parties started spreading this impression to the rest of the country. Ask my sisters and daughters in Jammu and Kashmir who were craving for their rights? They know that their brother and their son gave them their rights, he said.

The Prime Minister asserted that the revocation of Article 370 ensured justice for various sections of society, who got their constitutional rights for the first time after independence.

The mothers of our soldiers are no more concerned about stone-pelting. The mothers in the valley are showering me with blessings because they are no longer concerned that their sons would fall into the wrong hands. They are sleeping with ease. Bridges are not burnt anymore while new AIIMS, IITs and IIMs are coming up along with modern tunnels, wide roads and railway travel, which are becoming the destiny of Jammu and Kashmir, he said.

Tourists and pilgrims are coming in large numbers to both regions of Jammu and Kashmir, which was a dream of the people here, he said, adding, Your dream is Modis resolve. Modi has dedicated every minute of his life to you and the country and is working 24x7 to fulfill the guarantee of Viksit Bharat by 2047.

Referring to the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Modi said, The Congress says Ram Mandir is an election issue for BJP. I want to say Ram Mandir was never an election issue, nor will it ever become an election issue. The struggle for Ram temple was going on even before the birth of the BJP... When foreign invaders destroyed our temples, the people of India fought to save their religious places. The leaders of the Congress and its allies lived in big bungalows but when it came to changing the tent of Ram Lalla, they used to turn their backs, he said.
Top legislators of China, DPRK launch "Friendship Year"

Xinhua) 11:10, April 13, 2024

Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, addresses the opening ceremony of the "China-DPRK Friendship Year" at the East Pyongyang Grand Theater in Pyongyang, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), April 12, 2024. Zhao Leji and Choe Ryong Hae, a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, held talks and attended the opening ceremony of the "China-DPRK Friendship Year" from April 11 to 12. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

PYONGYANG, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Zhao Leji, chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, and Choe Ryong Hae, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), jointly attended the opening ceremony of the "China-DPRK Friendship Year" on Friday.

Zhao, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and Choe, a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), attended the event at the East Pyongyang Grand Theater.

China and the DPRK are socialist and friendly neighbors linked by mountains and rivers, and as close as lips and teeth, Zhao said.

Calling General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping and WPK General Secretary Kim Jong Un helmsmen steering the boat, drawing the blueprint and charting the course of the development of China-DPRK relations, Zhao said the top leaders set the fundamental guidance and inject inexhaustible impetus into bilateral ties.

China is ready to work with the DPRK to implement the important consensus reached by the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries, promote traditional friendship, deepen strategic mutual trust and enhance exchanges and cooperation, so as to jointly write a new chapter of the China-DPRK friendship, Zhao said.

Choe said that as the top leaders of both parties and both countries have put the DPRK-China relations of the new era on a new strategic height, the friendship bonds between the two countries have remained unshakable and become even firmer.

By taking the opportunity of the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties and the "DPRK-China Friendship Year," the DPRK is willing to join hands with China to strengthen and develop the DPRK-China friendly cooperation, thus embarking on a new journey of vigorous development of the friendship between the two countries, he said.

After the event, Zhao and Choe watched together a performance by art troupes from the two countries.

On Friday morning, Zhao presented a floral basket to the China-DPRK Friendship Tower in tribute to the tremendous feats of the martyrs of the Chinese People's Volunteers. He also paid a visit to the Kangdong General Greenhouse Farm.

During their talks on Thursday, Zhao told Choe that the China-DPRK traditional friendship was forged and cultivated by the elder generations of leaders of both parties and both countries.

General Secretary Xi has repeatedly said that the CPC and the Chinese government attach great importance to the traditional friendly cooperation between the two countries, and that it is China's unwavering strategy to safeguard, solidify and develop bilateral relations, Zhao said.

Noting that this year marks the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and the DPRK, he said General Secretary Xi and WPK General Secretary Kim have exchanged New Year congratulatory messages, and jointly designated 2024 as the "China-DPRK Friendship Year" and launched a series of activities.

China is ready to work with the DPRK to implement the important consensus reached by the top leaders of both parties and both countries, and take the "China-DPRK Friendship Year" as an opportunity to intensify high-level exchanges, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, promote people-to-people exchanges and strengthen strategic coordination, so as to move forward China-DPRK relations, Zhao said.

Exchanges between legislative bodies have been an important part of China-DPRK relations and long played a positive role in deepening bilateral ties, Zhao said.

China is ready to intensify legislative exchanges and cooperation with the DPRK to lift China-DPRK traditional friendly cooperation to a higher level, he said.

Choe said the blood-cemented friendship between the two countries has a long history and profound foundation, and is the common precious heritage and wealth of the two countries.

Under the strategic guidance of General Secretary Kim and General Secretary Xi, DPRK-China friendly relations have entered a new era, which strongly demonstrates the vitality and unbreakability of bilateral ties, he said.

The DPRK is willing to work with China to follow the guidance of the top leaders of the two parties and two countries, and take the opportunity of the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties and the "Friendship Year" to develop the DPRK-China traditional friendship, deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and push for further development of DPRK-China friendly cooperation, he said.

After the talks, they witnessed the signing of cooperation documents in the fields including reciprocal exemption of diplomatic and service visas, translation and publication of classical literatures, customs quarantine, radio and television, and postal delivery.

Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, and Choe Ryong Hae, a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), pose for a group photo with artists of art troupes from both countries after watching their performance in Pyongyang, the DPRK, April 12, 2024. Zhao Leji and Choe Ryong Hae held talks and attended the opening ceremony of the "China-DPRK Friendship Year" from April 11 to 12. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling)

Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, visits the Kangdong General Greenhouse Farm in Pyongyang, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), April 12, 2024. Zhao Leji and Choe Ryong Hae, a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, held talks and attended the opening ceremony of the "China-DPRK Friendship Year" from April 11 to 12. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, presents a floral basket to the China-DPRK Friendship Tower in Pyongyang, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), April 12, 2024. Zhao Leji and Choe Ryong Hae, a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, held talks and attended the opening ceremony of the "China-DPRK Friendship Year" from April 11 to 12. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
(Photo : Unsplash/Solen Feyissa)

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met with hundreds of Fortune 500 company executives in San Francisco, New York, and London this month to pitch AI services for corporate use, directly competing in some cases with Microsoft, their financial backer, according to attendees who spoke to Reuters.

The OpenAI Roadshow

The roadshow-style events demonstrate how the company, credited with catalyzing the growth of generative artificial intelligence through its consumer offering, seeks to expand revenue streams from corporations worldwide, potentially encroaching on the home territory of its largest partner.

READ ALSO: NVIDIA's Blackwell: A Higher Performing Chip to Power Industrial Revolution

Altman Pitching ChatGPT Enterprise

Altman personally addressed over 100 executives in each city during the events, as reported by attendees who requested anonymity. At each event, Altman and Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap provided product demonstrations, showcasing offerings such as ChatGPT Enterprise, the enterprise-grade version of their renowned chatbot that generates text from basic prompts, software for connecting customer applications to their AI services via APIs, and their new text-to-video models.

OpenAI has assured that data from ChatGPT Enterprise customers will not be utilized to train its models. Engaging potential customers from various sectors like finance, healthcare, and energy, OpenAI executives emphasized multiple applications, such as call center management and translation. They pointed out that over 92% of Fortune 500 companies already utilize the consumer version of their chatbot.

Microsoft, OpenAI's largest investor, provides access to OpenAI's technology via its Azure cloud platform and offers Microsoft 365 Copilot, a productivity tool for enterprises powered by OpenAI's models.

Microsoft Customers' Questions

Attendees reported that Some executives at the events questioned why they should invest in ChatGPT Enterprise if they are already Microsoft customers. Altman and Lightcap countered that subscribing to the enterprise service enabled direct collaboration with the OpenAI team, access to the latest models, and more significant opportunities for customized AI products, as recounted by attendees. OpenAI and Microsoft declined to comment further.

OpenAI Expanding AI Offerings

OpenAI, valued at $86 billion in a recent secondary sale, has been striving to diversify its revenue streams since the rapid rise in popularity of its chatbot ChatGPT in late 2022. Sources indicate it is progressing towards its projected $1 billion revenue target for 2024.

While expanding its offerings with new consumer products like the marketplace ChatGPT stores, OpenAI anticipates that selling to enterprises will become a more significant revenue stream. Lightcap informed Bloomberg last week that over 600,000 people have signed up to use ChatGPT Enterprise and Team, a notable increase from around 150,000 in January.

Lightcap, the primary OpenAI executive dedicated to enterprise adoption, has additionally engaged with Hollywood studio executives to endorse the company's Sora video creation tool. This tool generates and refines videos based on a user's text description, sparking enthusiasm and concern within the creative industry.

Two prominent Hollywood studios informed Reuters that they are pursuing early access to begin exploring Sora's applications, although they harbor concerns regarding the source of the video used to train Sora, the reliability of the output, and its capability to safeguard copyrighted works.

Fox and News Corp hosted Altman at a leadership retreat last October, during which he participated in a question-and-answer session, as per a source familiar with the session.

RELATED ARTICLE: OpenAI Deleted Ban on Military Use of GPT, Swamped with Protesters Opposing AI and Military Involvement

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The Indian National Congress on Saturday made a public genuflection in front of the Muslim League by openly declaring that the grand old party would not use its flag during the election campaign in Wayanad from where Rahul Gandhi is seeking reelection in the Lok Sabha poll.

This has been one of the preconditions set by the Muslim League for its support to the Nehru-Gandhi scion.

The announcement that the Congress would not be using the party flag at Wayanad was made by M M Hassan, the president-in-charge of the KPCC on Saturday. We will not use the party flag during election campaigning at Wayanad but we will use the emblem of the party. I am not able to explain more than this, said Hassan.

When Rahul visited Wayanad to file his nomination papers, the absence of Congress flags was conspicuous during both the roadshow and the campaign rally. Wayanad is a Muslim-dominated area where the influence of the Islamist party permeates throughout the constituency.

When Jawaharlal Nehru, the great-grandfather of Rahul, visited Kerala during the early 1950s, he described the Muslim League as a dead horse.

By preventing the Congress from waving its flags at election rallies, the Muslim League is chuckling at the embarrassment it has caused the Congress.

Political commentators are of the view that this is a major setback to the Congress party. During the 2011-2016 tenure of the UDF Government, the Muslim League had made the Congress to dance to its tunes and made the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandi to appoint a League nominee as fifth Minister though the initial agreement was to give four Ministries to the party, said the commentator who did not want his name to be quoted.

Though the Congress is numerically stronger in the Legislative Assembly, it is the Muslim League which calls the shots in UDF. The League had demanded that it be given three seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the Congress had to do a lot to pacify and mollify the Islamic outfit. The Congress had assured the League that it would be allocated the next Rajya Sabha seat from the State.

To cover up the loss of face suffered by accepting the condition of the Muslim League, Hassan cursed Anil Antony, son of Congress veteran AK Antony, who is contesting from Pathanamthitta as BJP candidate. He is the one who is ungrateful to his father and he can be described as the modern day Judas, said Hassan.
In a possible upsetting development for Indians wishing to secure a visa and sponsor their families to migrate to the UK, it has substantially hiked the minimum income threshold by nearly 55 per cent. It means those who earn less than 29,000 pounds, will not be able to sponsor a family members visa in the country.

Part of Prime Minister Rishi Sunaks plans to cut down immigration levels, the order was passed on Thursday and became effective immediately. Income benchmark has been increased from 18,600 pounds to 29,000 pounds  an increase of more than 55 per cent  with a subsequent increase to 38,700 pounds slated for early next year.

Todays change comes as the Home Secretary meets his commitment to implement his major package of reforms to the immigration system within weeks of announcing them  which came following the unveiling of measures to tighten the student visa route in May 2023, the UK Government said in a statement. Immigration is one of the key poll issues ahead of general elections in the UK this year, with surveys indicating that Sunaks party, the Conservatives, is heading for a heavy defeat. The new regulations are part of Sunaks plan to cut unsustainable and unfair levels of migration, and ensure those arriving here do not burden the taxpayer.

UKs Interior Minister James Cleverly, explaining the rationale behind the latest policy change, said it is important to mitigate the strains posed by mass migration. We have reached a tipping point with mass migration. There is no simple solution or easy decision which cuts numbers to levels acceptable to the British people, he said.

Cleverly stressed the UK Governments commitment to safeguarding British workers and wages while ensuring that those relocating to the UK do not become reliant on public funds.

The revised income requirement seeks to ensure that families seeking to reunite in the UK show self-sufficiency, with provisions allowing for various means of meeting the threshold, including savings and income from employment.

I promised action and we have delivered at remarkable speed. Weve acted to cut unsustainable numbers, to protect British workers and their wages, to ensure those bringing families to the UK do not burden taxpayers, and to build an immigration system fit for the future  and one the public can rightly have confidence in, Cleverly added.

In addition to the alterations in income thresholds, the UK Government also implemented stringent regulations on student visas, alongside a substantial 66 per cent escalation in the health surcharge for foreign nationals accessing the National Health Service (NHS). With current immigration figures hovering at 745,000, the UK Government aims to cut it down to 300,000.

The annual earnings of nearly 50 per cent of people who migrated to the UK from India was less than 39,000 pounds in 2022, according to a report by the migration observatory at the University of Oxford.

Notably, Indians represent a significant portion of non-EU immigration into the UK, with substantial numbers arriving for study-related purposes. The surge in visas granted to dependents from India and Nigeria underscores the growing trend of family migration within these communities.

Indians have also consistently ranked among the top beneficiaries of skilled work visas, with a notable increase observed in the Skilled Worker - Health and Care category. The number of such visas issued to Indians saw a 63 per cent hike from 13,380 in 2021-22 to 21,837 in 2022-23.

UK Home Office data show that Indian nationals represented 38 per cent of all dependants issued a work visa alongside main applicants, followed by Nigerian and Zimbabwean nationals (17 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively). However, the recent changes in the family visa rules will make it difficult for many Indian workers to meet the new criteria.

This move to increase the income threshold to sponsor a family members visa, initiated by Sunak and Home Secretary James Cleverly, aims to curb legal migration and alleviate taxpayer burdens, according to the UK Home Office.

Cleverly emphasised the necessity of reducing migration levels, acknowledging the complexities and challenges inherent in achieving a balance acceptable to the British populace.
Swift action by IAF in coordination with the Army managed to save the severed hand of a soldier as he was airlifted from Ladakh to New Delhi for the critical surgery. The injured soldier was brought to the Capital after a dark night airlift by a C-130J aircraft as the crew used night vision goggles. The entire rescue operation was undertaken within a span of four hours thereby saving the soldier.

Giving details here on Friday, officials said the soldiers hand was severed while operating a machine at a unit located in a forward area on Wednesday. He was first evacuated to Lej air base and from there the C-130J plane brought him to Palam air force base in Delhi.

The jawan underwent an emergency surgery at the Armys Research Referral (R&R) Hospital here, and his severed hand was stitched back, they said.

From the time he was brought to the Leh air base to the time he was brought to Delhi, the span was about four hours, and this superior coordination between the Army and the IAF ensured the injured jawans critical surgery could be performed in time to stitch back his severed hand.

On Friday morning, the Indian Air Force posted on X about the emergency airlift and also shared a photo of the patient recuperating at the hospital.

An Indian Army personnel severed his hand while operating a machine, at a unit located in the forward area. Given a window of 6 to 8 hours for emergency surgery to save his appendage, an IAF C-130J aircraft was launched within an hour to move the jawan for surgery at the R & R hospital in Delhi, it posted. The IAF official said it was a dark night airlift and NVGs (night vision goggles) were used.

The injured personnel received medical attention promptly due to the dark night airlift on NVGs from Ladakh sector by #IAF. A dedicated team of medical personnel carried out a successful surgery and the jawan is now on his path to recovery, the IAF wrote in its post.

In April 2023, the IAF, as part of an operation to rescue a batch of people from strife-torn Sudan, had carried out landing and takeoff of a C-130J aircraft from a degraded airstrip there, with its air crew using night vision goggles on a practically dark night.
A joint forum of various organisations has demanded that political parties should include creating Bhubaneswar a separate revenue district in their manifestos for the upcoming elections.



The forum under the leadership of its convenor Dr Lingaraj Sahoo collected the signatures of the heads of 980 puja committees, Bhubaneswar Bali Jatra Committee, villagers of Bhubaneswar outskirts, Balipatna, Balianta and Nakhara in this regard.



"The capital city of Odisha deserves its due place to be declared as a new district because it is not only the State Capital of Odisha but it has its own historical and geographical reasons. Historical in the sense that it was famous in ancient history of Odisha as Sishupala Garh in the 1st Century BC which was the then capital city of Great Emperor Kharavela. Also, it was known as Chudanga Garh near Barang for the seat of different Ganga rulers of Kalinga in 11th Century AD. And we are fortunate that the existing Bhubaneswar City lies in between these two Garhs and its population is ever rising. Not only that, culturally speaking, Bhubaneswar is the only capital city of the world which has had continuous temple building activities for at least a thousand of years, which is one of the distinctive characteristics of this ancient city," said the forum.



The demand for revenue district status to Bhubaneswar dates back to the period of creation of 13 districts, as at that time Justice Das Commission in its report had recommended for creation of Bhubaneswar as a revenue district. But, till date it has not been done though the entire Government machinery is functioning at Bhubaneswar and the Collectorate is functioning at Khordha. Hence, it causes administrative inconvenience for the millions of our populace who are inhabitants of this great city, it said further.



The forum argued that all over India, the capital cities of the country are basically separate revenue districts for not only convenience or better administration but has its own political significance and importance also. Giving details, it said the then Minister late Satyapriya Mohanty first proposed to make Bhubaneswar a district and set up many district level offices here. Later, the then Chief Minister late Nandini Satpathy also formed a committee under the chairmanship of a retired High Court Judge to accord Bhubaneswar the status of a district and the committee also recommended the Government to give Bhubaneswar the status of a district. Similarly, one of the senior administrators and former Chief Secretary Dr Ajit Kumar Tripathy and former Revenue Minister Surendra Kumar Nayak also proposed to Chief Minister late Biju Patnaik to accord Bhubaneswar the status of a district, it said.


Even though the Commissionerate police have busted some gangs involved in burglaries in the apartment in the capital city, the miscreants are striking again at will, spreading fear among the residents.

In the latest incident, in the wee hours of Friday, burglars broke into an apartment in the Raghunathpur area and looted gold ornaments worth around Rs 10 lakh.

In another incident reported from the Pahala area on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, robbers also looted gold ornaments, cash and other valuables from the house of one Sarat Mohanty by locking him in one of the rooms from outside.

Mohanty also expressed concern that had it been an armed dacoity, his entire family would have been at risk.

Earlier on April 9, a gang of burglars allegedly looted valuables worth lakhs of rupees from as many as four flats in a single apartment at Metro Satellite City under the Pahala police station.
Delhi police have arrested 5 youths from the capital Bhopal, the accused called from Delhi and threatened to fabricate victim's son in a rape case and extorted Rs 70000 online from the boy's father by showing fear of arrest; 41 SIM cards, four phones and 18 bank passbooks have been recovered from the possession of the accused.

According to Delhi Police, Deepak Kumar, resident of Rohini Sector-4, had said in his complaint given on March 7 that he received a call from an unknown number. The caller introduced himself as a police officer and said that his son was in police custody in a rape case. He promised to release the son if he paid Rs 70,000 and threatened to send him to jail if the money was not paid.

When Deepak asked to talk to his son, the thugs made him talk to someone in a tearful voice. On this, the victim deposited Rs 70000 in the mentioned bank account. After this he called his son and came to know that he was roaming with his friends. On the complaint of the victim, a case was registered in the cyber police station.

Delhi Police started investigating the bank accounts and arrested Vishwajeet Giri from Bhopal on Thursday.

On his information, Sudhir Pal, Ravi, Kujilal and Maya Singh were also arrested. Interrogation of these people revealed that the arrested accused used to provide SIM cards and bank accounts to the gang members. At present, search is on for other members.
Delhi BJP on Friday claimed the AAP is scared of losing majority in Delhi following some MLAs leaving the party and said it was therefore alleging that Presidents rule may be imposed.

Making this assertion, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said Arvind Kejriwal has started feeling the impact of the Delhi High Courts rebuke, and minister Atishi has started feeling the impact of the defamation notice from Delhi BJP.

On Friday, she left aside her old fabricated story of operation lotus on the AAP and has woven a new story of President Rule imposition in Delhi, he charged.

Atishi has said that President Rule is likely to be imposed in Delhi and Sachdeva said it is surprising how the fear of President Rule is haunting the 62 MLA party.

Delhi BJP President said Atishi should explain whether majority of her party MLAs are leaving the party because of which government fears loosing majority.

Sachdeva said it is true that after 2013, Arvind Kejriwals government has been formed twice in Delhi, but during this time, the people of Delhi have given BJP a big lead in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2017 municipal elections.

It would not be an exaggeration to say the same people of Delhi who elected Arvind Kejriwals government with a huge majority twice in the Delhi government also gave full support to Narendra Modi for the central government, he said.

Delhi BJP President said Atishi is raising the issue of Presidents rule at the behest of Kejriwal and it is just an attempt to intimidate her MLAs and keep them united.

It would be better if Kejriwal resigns - hand over the government to a new Chief Minister and let the administration of Delhi run, Sachdeva said.
AAP leader and Delhi minister Gopal Rai on Saturday said the party will observe Samvidhan Bachao, Tanashahi Hatao Divas across the country on the birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar on April 14. The party workers will read the preamble of the Constitution and an oath to save the founding document of the country, Rai said at a press conference on Saturday. While the Delhi BJP has slammed the AAP, saying the Arvind Kejriwals party has now dragging the names of the nations dignitaries into their political disputes. This shows how desperate this party after the arrest of the Kejriwal linked to the money laundering case in the liquorgate scam policy. It is very sad and condemnable to announce a political campaign under the name of Save Constitution on the day of Dr. Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkars Jayanti, as done by Minister Gopal Rai today, Sachdeva said.

Earlier, Rai said that the BJP-led central government is attacking our democracy and constitution. To counter that, we need to be united, Rai said.

On Sunday, we will be holding a one-day programme -- Samvidhan Bachao, Tanashahi Hatao Divas -- where the AAP workers will gather at party offices in their states and take an oath to save our democracy and constitution, he said.

The event will be held at the party offices in the state capitals across the country, the AAP leader said. The programme is being held on the advice of Kejriwal. In another message from the jail, Kejriwal had asked AAP MLAs and volunteers to work to ensure that the people of Delhi face no problems, Rai told reporters on Wednesday.

Rai had said that on April 14, all AAP workers across the country will gather in front of posters or photographs of Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution, and take a pledge to save the Constitution.

Arvind Kejriwal and his associates are swearing by the Constitution today, why did they not pay attention to the respect of the Constitution when they were arbitrarily changing government policies by neglecting constitutional provisions, making arbitrary appointments to government positions, and disrupting Republic Day by neglecting the Constitution?, said Sachdeva while reacting on the AAP.

The AAPs national convener Arvind Kejriwal is lodged in Tihar jail in connection with a money-laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy. Terming the act as misuse of agencies by the central government, the AAP has carried out protests and agitation in Delhi and other parts of the country.
Aam Aadmi Party workers on Friday held a protest outside Raaj Kumar Anands Patel Nagar residence after he resigned from the Delhi Cabinet and the party. For the last four years, Anand has been working for the AAP. He had promised several development projects to those who voted for him.

People of his constituency are feeling cheated, Ankush Narang, AAP worker said.

Anand is an MLA from the Patel Nagar Vidhan Sabha constituency who won the 2020 Delhi Assembly Election by defeating Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) Pravesh Ratn. Today several workers of AAP and even residents of Patel Nagar protested against him.

Some of our workers were also detained by the police, he said.

In a jolt to the AAP, Anand, who was holding various portfolios, including Social Welfare, in the Delhi Government, on Wednesday tendered his resignation from the Cabinet and also quit the AAP, alleging corruption and that Dalits were not given representation in the party.

A senior police officer said, We have detained a few AAP workers, who were protesting outside Anands house without any permission.

The detained protestors were taken to a nearby police station and will be released soon, the officer said.

Narang further said that Anand decided to leave the party fearing Enforcement Directorate raids.

Earlier in the day, the party workers held a protest in ITO against the arrest of party supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 in a money laundering case stemming from the alleged excise policy scam. He is in judicial custody till April 15 and is currently lodged in Tihar jail.
Haryana Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Agarwal on Friday said about 1500 complaints through the Election Commission (ECs) cVigil app regarding violations of the Model Code of Conduct have been received since the announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the State. cVIGIL is a mobile application that allows citizens to report incidents of political misconduct. Most of the received complaints are related to illegal hoardings, banners; distribution of money, gifts and liquor as well as the defacement of property.

Additionally, around 75 written complaints have been received at the State Election Commission office. Most of the complaints are related to the transfer of government officers and employees. The officers of concerned departments have been asked to take action immediately. Moreover, as per the ECIs guidelines, administrative authorities have been asked to ensure that officials transferred out of a district after serving three years are not posted in another district within the same parliamentary constituency. The rule applies to all officials involved in electoral work, either directly or in a supervisory role, he added.

Talking to The Pioneer, the Chief Electoral officer said that the Union Home Ministry has been requested to deploy 200 more companies of central armed police forces in the run-up to Lok Sabha election in the State. A total of 19,812 polling stations have been set up, out of which, 6,224 are in urban areas and 13,588 are rural polling stations. At least 2,289 polling stations are vulnerable and 63 critical polling stations. Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used for voting and adequate EVMs are available. Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines will also be placed at all polling stations, he added.

The CEO said that the law and order situation in the state is under control. Security is being reviewed from time to time. No politicians in the state have sought for additional security so far. No complaints from any politicians have been received at the Election Commission office that they were stopped by farmers while entering villages during the election campaign, he added.

Agarwal further said that as per the available reports, the local administrative authorities have confiscated or seized about 40-50 per cent of the total licenced guns/weapons in the State so far. Authorities have been directed to keep a close watch on licensed gun holders. Seized weapons would be kept in police custody till the elections are over or till the local authorities think its necessary, he added.

The CEO further said, About 70% voter turnout was recorded in the state, which was higher than the national average. This time our target is to achieve a more than 80% voter turnout in the State. The Election Department is making strenuous efforts at the war footing level to ensure maximum participation of citizens in the voting for the Lok Sabha General Elections scheduled for May 25, 2024.

He further said that the Election Department is running a continuous campaign to educate voters and to increase voter turnout. In this series, the Deputy Commissioner cum District Election Officer of Faridabad took a unique initiative and administered the oath to more than 8.5 lakh people to vote together. Similarly, awareness campaigns are being conducted in other districts as well. Many districts have also created election icons at the district level, conveying the message of voting importance and democracy to citizens. Every eligible voter must exercise their voting rights, and citizens are being sensitized for this purpose, he added.

Furthermore, Agarwal said that to increase voter turnout this time, the Election Commission of India has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Postal Department and the Indian Banks Association to raise awareness among voters. The main objective is to convey to voters that the participation of the public is crucial in a democracy, therefore, every citizen must exercise their franchise. Haryana has a large network of over 5600 branches of 62 banks. With the cooperation of banks, maximum awareness will be ensured at ATMs and branches to motivate citizens to come to banks to vote, he added.


High-ranking officials from North Korea and China attended the opening ceremony of the "Year of DPRK-China Friendship" in Pyongyang, to bolster ongoing relations, Pyongyang's state media said Saturday.

Choe Ryong-hae, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, and Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress of China, attended the ceremony at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre, Friday to mark the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

In a speech, Choe reaffirmed the "unshakable will to further develop the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation with socialism as the core," the KCNA said.

Choe stressed that bilateral relations were valuable and precious not only because the two countries are geographically close but also because they have been forged in the struggle for a common cause.

Zhao was quoted as saying "the traditional China-DPRK friendship ... has taken deeper root and become more durable and precious no matter the ever-changing international situation."

He also stressed it is "the consistent strategic policy of the Chinese party and government to successfully defend, consolidate and develop the traditional China-DPRK friendly relations," according to the KCNA.

The two officials enjoyed celebratory performances and later met the artists on stage and took photos together, the report said.

Zhao, who arrived in Pyongyang, Thursday, for a three-day visit, is the first high-ranking Chinese official to visit North Korea since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

North Korea began resuming exchanges with China, its longtime ally and largest economic benefactor, in a limited manner after partially opening its borders in August last year following its tight COVID-19 border shutdown.

During his visit, Zhao is expected to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. (Yonhap)
A special Anti-Corruption Bureau/Economic Offences Wing (ACB/EOW) court in Raipur on Friday sent the former liquor corporation chief to the ACB/EOW custody in the alleged liquor scam in Chhattisgarh, a government lawyer said.

ACB/EOW special judge Nidhi Sharma Tiwari granted Tripathis custodial remand till April 18, Special Prosecution Officer (ACB/EOW) Saurabh Pandey told The Pioneer.

Arun Pati Tripathi, former Special Secretary at the Excise Department and Ex-Managing Director of Chhattisgarh State Marketing Corporation Limited (CSMCL) was nabbed from Bihar and brought here for his role in the multi-crore liquor scam in the state.

Also, the special court extended the custodial remand of Anwar Dhebar and another accused Arvind Singh for the third time till April 18 in the alleged liquor scam.

The two were presented before the special court on Friday after the expiry of their remands.

Tripathi is the third accused arrested, after Singh and Dhebar were held last week by the ACB/EOW.

The ACB/EOW have named 70 persons, including several leaders of the Congress and companies, in a FIR registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Indian Penal Code in January 2024 in the alleged liquor scam following the report submitted by the Enforcement Directorate which has been also probing the case.
Medical Social Welfare Unit (MSW), AIIMS Bhopal, organized a comprehensive health awareness program at Rajkiya Naveen Uchchatar Madhyamik Vidyalaya Bagsewaniya, Bhopal, on April 12, 2024. This community outreach initiative was conducted as part of the Swachhta Pakhwada, under the esteemed leadership of Prof. Dr. Ajai Singh, Executive Director & CEO of AIIMS Bhopal.

The event focused on educating students and staff about crucial health issues, including sanitation, personal hygiene, and heat stroke prevention, particularly relevant during the summer season. With the guidance of Prof. Dr. Ajai Singh, the AIIMS Bhopal team emphasized the importance of hand washing, personal hygiene practices, and measures to prevent heat stroke.

During the session, the MSWU staff provided valuable insights into symptoms of heat stroke, the importance of staying hydrated, and methods to prevent common waterborne diseases. Additionally, attendees were informed about recent developments in digital health initiatives, such as the Aushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) and schemes like Aushman Bharat Health scheme (AB-PMJAY).

The program also highlighted welfare health schemes like Aushman Bharat and demonstrated methods to check beneficiary status. As part of the initiative, personal hygiene kits containing masks, sanitary pads, ORS, and soap were distributed to students, accompanied by demonstrations of proper hand washing techniques.

The overarching goal of this initiative is to empower students to adopt healthy hygiene habits not only within the school environment but also to propagate awareness among their families, friends, and communities. By providing them with knowledge and resources, we aim to enable them to make informed choices about their well-being.

The school administration expressed gratitude towards Prof. Ajai Singh and the entire AIIMS Bhopal team for organizing this impactful session, contributing to the objectives of a cleaner and healthier Bharat.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha General Secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya today said that the people of the country and the State, especially those from the tribal communities are furious with the policies of the incumbent government. He said that the anger is such that it is coming out on the streets.

Addressing media persons here on Friday JMM Spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya said that this time Sarhul had come forward in a special way. The anger of the people of the tribal community against the capitalists was seen on the streets of Ranchi, people celebrated the festival of Sarhul against the amendment of the forest law. Trees are being cut in the country. Forests are being destroyed. There are water and forests only when there are tribals.

He said that the Tribal/Sarna Dharma Code was passed in the Assembly and sent to Raj Bhavan. But the Governor sent it back. BJP should tell what the intention of the Central Government is, first the forests of Maharashtra were destroyed and now the Saranda of our state is being monitored. Now people are asking who this donation thief is. It takes half an hour for a common man to withdraw money. But the work of donation thieves gets done immediately.

The JMM leader said that in Sarhul, it was seen through the tableaux how the message of saving the forest is being given. BJP will have to answer on this. The real Sarna people are coming on 21st, these are Sanatani. Now the time has come that people will tell what a guarantee is. We are guaranteeing to save water, forests and animals.

A case has been registered against 26 people for taking out an objectionable tableau during the procession of Nature Parv Sarhul. A case of violation of code of conduct has been registered by the district administration in the Kotwali police station of Ranchi in connection with the tableau taken out by the Central Sarna Committee.

On the statement of Magistrate Vinay Kumar, an FIR has been registered against many people including the Chairman of Central Sarna Committee in Kotwali police station.
BJP today launched a major attack on INDI alliance and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, calling the April 21 rally a corruption mobilization rally instead of Ulgulan rally.

State spokesperson Pratul Shahdev said that on April 21, corrupt people, anti-Sanatan people, Tukde Tukde gang members and family-oriented princes will be seen on the same stage. Pratul said that naming the rally Ulgulan is an insult to the immortal martyrs of Jharkhand including Lord Birsa Munda. He called for Ulgulan against the atrocities of the British. The word Ulgulan is associated with tribal identity and tribal respect. By naming such a corrupt organization Ulgulan, they have insulted the tribals of the entire country.

Pratul said that the elder daughter-in-law of the Soren family, Sita Soren, has also announced a protest against the injustice done to her within the family. She has said how she was left alone within the family to raise her daughters. She brought up the girls in adverse circumstances. She was despised in the family. Sita Soren called the mysterious death of her activist husband late Durga Soren a conspiracy and demanded an investigation, but the government put her in cold storage. Why is Jharkhand Mukti Morcha silent on this issue of rebellion?

Pratul said that Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has also kept silent on the resolution made by Lobin Hembram against corruption and implementing the local policy of 1932. On the contrary, he is being continuously targeted by JMM leaders to raise questions on him.

Pratul said that the opposition alliance seems completely fractured in Jharkhand. There is talk of friendly fights in Chatra, Palamu. Now what is a friendly fight in elections? Their rebel candidates are also beating in Lohardaga, Rajmahal and Koderma.

Pratul said that on April 21, big leaders of Congress will also come on the stage, whose MP DK Shivakumar was demanding to make South India a separate country. In the upcoming elections, the public will use EVMs to protest against these anti-national and anti-Sanatan people.
With the Lok Sabha polls looming on June 1 in Punjab, authorities are rolling out creative campaigns to invigorate voter participation across the State. From traditional beats to modern mascots, a colorful array of strategies aimed to empower citizens and strengthen democracy.



In the heart of Hoshiarpur, a dedicated nodal officer is taking to the streets with a rhythmic twist. Armed with a dafli (tambourine), a traditional drum, he traverses the town, his beats echoing through bustling markets and quiet alleyways alike. Whether on foot, aboard buses, or even amidst the rhythmic sway of train carriages, his mission remained singular: to stir the civic spirit and urge voters to mark their ballots on polling day.



Not to be outdone, the ancient city of Malerkotla has unveiled its own electoral emissary: Samajhdaar Begum, a vibrant mascot, to educate and empower voters, especially the youth and women, ensuring that every voice is heard and every vote counts.



But the innovation doesnt stop there. In the digital realm, the office of states Chief Electoral Officer is harnessing the power of social media to amplify its message. Its online campaign is making significant strides in connecting with every corner of Punjab. Through real-time updates and engaging podcasts, it is inspiring citizens to embrace their civic responsibility and actively participate in the democratic process. This concerted effort has earned it the second position nationwide for active engagement on social media platforms and the effective dissemination of crucial electoral information to voters.



Punjab CEO Sibin C revealed that Punjab claimed the second spot in the Social Media Index, with Maharashtra leading the chart, followed by Karnataka, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. The CEO offices social media handles regularly update voters on Lok Sabha Elections, elector-related details, political party guidelines, and directives from the Election Commission of India.



Furthermore, real-time updates on complaints received via the C-Vigil application are shared, ensuring transparency. Additionally, the office has launched a podcast from Friday aimed at enhancing voter awareness by providing insights into electoral processes, polling procedures, and the significance of civic participation. Through expert analysis and informative discussions, the podcast aims to empower voters as informed participants in the democratic process, he added.



In 2019, Punjab recorded a voting percentage of 65.96 per cent during the parliamentary polls, slightly below the national average of 67.11 per cent; while 2022 state assembly polls saw a higher turnout of 71.95 per cent  prompting the state authorities to set ambitious goals for the upcoming elections on June 1. Chief Electoral Officer has emphasized the importance of surpassing the 70 per cent mark this time.



In a concerted effort to revitalize regions where voter participation lagged behind national and state averages, particularly in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the state election authorities are rolling out initiatives aimed at boosting voter turnout. The Commission's focus is on approximately 12,000 polling stations, nearly half of the total 24,433 stations across 12 districts where participation was below par in the previous polls.



Malerkotla's New Mascot Samajhdar Begum to Lead Voter Awareness Drive

In an innovative move to boost voter awareness and engagement, Malerkotla Administration on Friday unveiled its newest ally in the mission for a stronger democracy, Samajhdar Begum  the voter awareness mascot. Introduced by Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer Dr Palavi, Samajhdar Begum aimed to educate citizens about the importance of voting and making ethical choices during elections.



Explaining the significance of the mascot, Dr Palavi highlighted that Samajhdar Begum embodies the cultural richness and harmony of Malerkotla. Her arrival coincides with the auspicious occasion of Eid-ul-Fitrand Begum is here to assist the voters, clearing doubts and offering guidance throughout the election season, said Dr Palavi, emphasizing that Begum would remain an integral part of the district's election activities, issuing timely messages to promote informed voting decisions and recognize exemplary practices.



With the goal of achieving a voter turnout exceeding 70 per cent, the administration is prioritizing voter registration, reaching out to IELTS centers and educational institutions to identify eligible voters.



To encourage voter participation, Dr Palavi also announced the establishment of Model Polling Stations, Pink Polling Stations, PWD Polling Stations, and Youth Managed Polling Stations across both assembly constituencies. Additionally, various outreach efforts, including engaging labourers from brick kilns, factories, and commercial complexes, are underway to motivate voters.



Dafli Beats, Jaago Rallies to Improve Voter Turnout

Through innovative initiatives and grassroots engagement, Hoshiarpur is setting the stage for a historic turnout on June 1, proving that democracy thrives when every voice is heard.



To drum up enthusiasm for June 1 polls, the SVEEP (Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation) officer Preet Kohli in Hoshiarpur has embarked on a musical mission like no other. Playing dafli and a spirited slogan  iss vaar, 70 paar (this time, cross 70 per cent), Kohli is on a mission to ensure a higher voter turnout than ever before.



Dafli holds a special place in Punjab's cultural fabric, often accompanying rural festivities and religious ceremonies. Seeking to tap into this cultural connection, Kohlis is engaging citizens in a dialogue about the power of democracy.



I am not here to sell anything, Kohli reassured the passengers in Punjabi aboard a train bound for Jalandhar. We're here with a simple request: vote on June 1. Don't treat it as a holiday. Bring along your family members and make your voices heard, he appealed to the passengers.



In addition to his musical outreach, Hoshiarpur District Administration had also organized a traditional Jago ceremony at Rupowal village, drawing inspiration from Punjab's rich wedding customs. Around 400 villagers gathered to celebrate the festival of democracy, pledging to cast their votes with pride on the election day.



As part of the broader awareness campaign, college students have also been enlisted to spread the word about the importance of voting.














Hundreds of people took membership of Bharatiya Janata Party under the leadership of Aam Aadmi Party State Vice President Dr. Rajeev Ranjan, RJD State General Secretary Hardev Sahu and Anju Devi today in the state BJP office auditorium. In the meeting organized at the state BJP office auditorium, State BJP President Babulal Marandi, State Vice President Balmukund Sahay and Ranchi MP Sanjay Seth included everyone in the party by wearing party belts, garlands and doing online membership.



Addressing the meeting, State BJP President Babulal Marandi said that the INDI alliance does politics for money and family; they have nothing to do with the people. He said that Sanatan opponents are coming together on one platform across the country but the people of the country have faith in their Prime Minister Narendra Modi and they believe in Modi's guarantee for a developed India. Marandi said that in the last 10 years, the development work of the Modi government has fulfilled the aspirations of the people, due to which people are joining the Bharatiya Janata Party in large numbers every day. He also said that with Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas we will fulfill the pledge of more than 400 crores.



On this occasion, State Vice President Balmukund Sahay made everyone take online membership and asked everyone to once again contribute in achieving the goal of the Modi government in the interest of the organization and in the interest of the nation.



Ranchi MP Sanjay Seth said that the people of the country have faith in Modi's guarantees and his schemes have brought prosperity in the lives of people in every village and the public is enthusiastic about making him the Prime Minister for the third time.



State Vice President of Aam Aadmi Party, Dr. Rajeev Ranjan, after taking membership of BJP, said that Aam Aadmi Party had come on the basis of opposition to Congress but today it is licking its feet.

Meanwhile, RJD State General Secretary and Deputy Chief Hardev Sahu and Anju Devi, after accepting the membership of the party, said that impressed by the development work of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have accepted the membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party and for the third time under the leadership of Modi, we have joined the Central Government. We will all join our efforts to ensure that the NDA government is formed.



The program was conducted by Shivpujan Pathak and vote of thanks was given by Amardeep Yadav.

....


Justice (retired) Zora Singh, who was AAPs candidate from Jalandhar in 2019, has announced his decision to contest as an independent candidate from Faridkot Lok Sabha constituency.



Justice Zora Singh, who previously headed Bargari sacrilege cases commission, declared his intention to run as an independent candidate from the Faridkot parliamentary seat. Notably, Justice Zora Singh's candidature represents a setback for AAP, given his previous affiliation with the party.



The announcement comes amidst heightened political activity in Punjab, with AAP fielding Punjabi actor Karamjit Anmol as its candidate for Faridkot  a constituency that gained considerable attention, with various political players vying for electoral supremacy.



Speaking about his decision, Justice Zora Singh emphasized that AAP, much like the Akali Dal and Congress, has failed to deliver on its promises. He highlighted the discrepancy between electoral assurances and actual governance, expressing his disillusionment with traditional political parties.



Furthermore, Justice Zora Singh underscored the importance of fulfilling electoral commitments, asserting that voters favour parties that demonstrate a genuine commitment to their stated objectives.


Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, on Thursday, said that her party does not release election manifestos as the party believes in action and not just in making statements.

Our party believes in demonstrating actions rather than just making statements. That is why we never issue election manifestos. The strongest evidence of this approach lies in our track record in Uttar Pradesh, where we formed the government four times without releasing any election manifesto. We worked for the welfare of the extremely poor, marginalised and Dalit communities in Uttar Pradesh without relying on mere promises, Mayawati said at a public rally in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

She urged people to vote for her party and not be swayed by the Bharatiya Janata Partys persuasive tactics. She added, Just as we formed a government in Uttar Pradesh without issuing election manifestos, we will work similarly if we come to power at the national level.

As the opposition parties release their election manifestos, especially the BJP, it is crucial for you to distance yourself from their persuasive tactics. In the interest of the nation and the state, you should cast your vote for our party, the BSP, rather than giving it to the BJP, Congress, or any other ruling or opposition party. Just as we formed a government in Uttar Pradesh without issuing election manifestos, we will work similarly if we come to power at the national level, she said.

Meanwhile, Mayawati accused the BJP of helping capitalists, the rich and taking financial assistance from them through electoral bonds. Mayawati said that her party did not take a single penny through this scheme. The BSP chief asserted that no jumla or guarantee will work for the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as the people have realised that not even one-fourth of the promises made by the ruling party have been fulfilled and they are yet to see achhe din.

She also questioned the reliability of electronic voting machines (EVMs). She said the BJP would not come to power easily at the Centre this time because of its casteist, capitalist, narrow-minded and hate-filled policies if free and fair elections were held and the EVMs were not tampered with. She alleged that the BJP has put most of its efforts in making capitalists richer.

The BSP chief said the BJP and most other political parties run organisations and contest elections with the financial support of capitalists and rich people and this had been revealed by the electoral bond data released by the State Bank of India.

They took money from the rich, but the BSP has not taken a single penny from any capitalist or rich people through electoral bonds, Mayawati said.

She said the poor, Dalits, adivasis, backward communities, Muslims and other minorities had not made much progress in the country because of the casteist, communal and pro-capitalist policies of the BJP and the Congress.

Mayawati alleged that the vacant government posts reserved for Dalits, tribals and Other Backward Classes (OBC) have not been filled for many years. The former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh said that the condition of Dalits as well as Muslims and other religious minorities in the country was very bad and this was also revealed in the Sachar Committee Report 2006.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said here on Saturday meeting between a State Chief Minister with a jailed prisoner is not a common practice. Moreover, nor do ordinary or high-security leaders insist on meeting prisoners in jail in this way as Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann is doing, BJP leader claimed. Mann will meet Arvind Kejriwal in Tihar jail on Monday.

Despite problems, officials of Tihar Jail, wh ich is Delhi governments jail, have arranged a meeting between jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Bhagwant Singh Mann, Sachdeva claimed.

He said Arvind Kejriwals government itself made the Delhi Jail Manual in 2018, which clearly states in Rule 602 that meetings with inmates will be conducted through the glass wall and intercom for the safety of the inmates.

It is written in the Delhi Jail Manual made by the Arvind Kejriwal government in 2018 that face-to-face meetings will only be between inmates and registered lawyers and Chief Minister Kejriwal too is availing this facility.

The Delhi BJP President said when Kejriwal entered the jail, he had not listed the names of Sanjay Singh and Bhagwant Singh Mann among the 10 expected visitors, so it took time for these meetings to be scheduled, and now they will be conducted according to the Jail Manual.Sachdeva said Sanjay Singh is only trying to spread misinformation. He himself has spent a long time in jail, can he tell whether his meetings with visitors used to happen face-to-face daily or through the glass wall.

The Delhi BJP President said prisoners in jail are kept according to the manual made by the government, and only the court can grant them any concession, and Kejriwal has already been given many facilities, including home-cooked food, by the court.

Sachdeva said it seems Kejriwal wants certain privileges and facilities in jail, similar to the ones his minister Satyendra Jain was caught availing in 2022.

Delhi BJP President claimed some of their sources indicate that Kejriwal does not even want to meet Sanjay Singh anymore because he wants to break legislators and become the Chief Minister, while Kejriwal wants to keep the Chief Ministers post within his family.
A video of a youngwoman beating a mischievous man surfaced on Friday, accused used to molest the girl; accused has been externed twice from Bhopal district.

The accused is a watch list criminal of TT Nagar police station area of the state capital and was beaten with sandals on Thursday by the girl.

The video of the beating of the miscreant went viral on social media on Friday. Bhopal police had arrested the criminal twice in district to control crime in the capital.

Police station in-charge (TI) Ashok Gautam said that the video of beating of hooligan Gaurav Gond on Friday has gone viral on social media. No complaint has been made in the police station in this matter. The accused is a resident of Katsi area. Action of externment from the district has been taken against him twice in the past. No complaint has been made in the past by the girl.

According to the information, the girl who declared herself a victim of molestation is a resident of Kamla Nagar area. She reached Katsi area and beat up the miscreant Gaurav.
The top U.S. envoy to the U.N. will reaffirm America's "ironclad" security partnership with South Korea and its openness to "unconditional" dialogue with North Korea during her visit to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas next week, a senior U.S. official said Friday.

On Tuesday, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield plans to pay a visit to the DMZ, after which she will have a roundtable with North Korean defectors. She is set to arrive in South Korea, Sunday, as part of her East Asia swing that will also take her to Japan.

"The message that Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield will send by visiting the DMZ is that the security partnership with the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan is ironclad. She wants to obviously go to the DMZ to get a firsthand look at the situation there," the official said in an online press briefing. ROK is the abbreviation for South Korea's official name.

"I think the message that she will repeat is that the U.S. is open to unconditional dialogue with the DPRK. We have offered this dialogue, we've opened it with an open hand, and what we've received back from the DPRK is a clenched fist," he added.

The official underscored that Washington hopes that "at some point," Pyongyang will reciprocate its overtures.

"But as of now, our offers to meet have been rejected," he said.

Asked if there has been any request for a summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the official said that the North has been rejecting "any kind of outreach or dialogue with the U.S. frankly at any level."

"That's unfortunate, but that's where we are. I have not heard of any suggestions about President Biden reaching out to or having any engagement with his counterpart," he said.

"There is a lot that would have to happen for that, and we are nowhere in that vicinity ... That's just not on the table at this moment in terms of the president's involvement."

In Seoul, Thomas-Greenfield plans to meet senior officials and speak with students at Ewha Womans University, according to her office. In Tokyo , she will also meet senior officials, local students and family members of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang decades ago, according to the office.

In both countries, the ambassador plans to discuss the next steps to ensure the "continuation of independent and accurate reporting" of the North's weapons proliferation and sanctions evasion activities following Russia's veto of a U.N. resolution on the annual renewal of an expert panel monitoring sanctions enforcement.

Absent the resolution's passage, the panel's mandate is set to expire April 30, a termination that observers say could chip away at international efforts to curb evolving North Korean nuclear and missile threats. (Yonhap)
The 4th edition of the three-day prestigious Dr. NN Jain National Moot Court Competition, organized by the Department of Law of Prestige Institute of Management and Research (PIMR), commenced today. The event was graced by David Holt, Mayor of Oklahoma City, USA and Dean, School of Law, Oklahoma City, Pushyamitra Bhargava, Mayor of Indore, Belldona, Dean of Meinders School of Business Oklahoma City University, Dipin Jain, Vice Chairman, Prestige Education Foundation, faculties, and law students and faculties from across India.

In his inaugural address, Mayor Holt emphasized the importance of the rule of law in ensuring certainty, predictability, and fairness. He stated that the rule of law has enabled unprecedented progress in various fields, from global communication to space exploration. He stressed that the written word based on the rule of law is paramount in any system.

City Mayor Pushya Mitra Bhargav urged the law students to adopt a social perspective in addition to focusing on legal issues.

He encouraged them to participate in the 'Internship with the Mayor' programme to gain insights into the intricacies of thousands of pending cases of the Indore municipal corporation in the District and High Courts. He highlighted that the National Moot Court Competition is a significant platform not only for becoming a good lawyer but also a great lawyer.

Education industry is more innovative than ever

Dr. Belldona, Dean of Meinders School of Business at Oklahoma City University, spoke about the transformative changes in the education industry. He emphasized the need for education to be relevant and skill-based, citing the skepticism surrounding master's degrees in the US. He advocated for curriculum revisions every two years to keep pace with rapid technological advancements and encouraged students to develop an inquisitive mindset.

Dipin Jain, Vice Chairman of the Prestige Education Foundation, stated that moot court competitions are a means of enhancing the judicial system. He explained that they provide a platform for students to engage with the real world beyond textbooks. He highlighted that the principles of advocacy and the quest for justice regularly transform the law, and moot court competitions carry forward that tradition.

Raja Roy Chowdhury, Director of PIMR Department of Law, while welcoming the guests and participants from 54 law institutes across the country, emphasized that the national moot court competition focuses not only on research but also on teamwork, hard work, leadership, and a practical approach. He announced that the Padma Shri Dr. N. N. Jain National Moot Court Competition will become international from next year, allowing law college teams from other countries to participate.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the School of Law, Oklahoma City, and the PIMR Department of Law during the inaugural session.
The amount of work that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done in the last ten years of his tenure is more than any other Prime Minister has been able to do since the country's independence, nor will any Prime Minister other than Modi be able to do it. In the last ten years, historic work has been done for the development of the country and the welfare of the poor, including the interests of every section of the society, said Bharatiya Janata Party State President and MP Vishnudutt Sharma while addressing various public meetings on Saturday in more than a dozen villages of Rajnagar assembly of Khajuraho Lok Sabha constituency.

After independence, the work of removal of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and construction of Lord Shri Ram's temple in Ayodhya could not be completed for the last 70 years, that work was also completed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the double engine government of BJP is working to make the entire Bundelkhand region along with Khajuraho Lok Sabha constituency prosperous.

BJP State President Vishnudatt Sharma said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gifted the Ken-Betwa Link Project worth more than Rs. 44000 crores to liberate Bundelkhand from drought. The process regarding the Ken-Betwa link project is going on very fast, work on the ground will start soon.

State President Sharma said that after Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014, a determined effort was started to liberate Bundelkhand from the terrible problem of drought.

No one took care of Bundelkhand in the previous governments. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP government has done the work of providing water to every village through roads and tap water to every house. Has given the gift of Ken-Betwa link project worth more than Rs. 44000 crores. This project will work to change the fate and picture of Bundelkhand region. This project will irrigate about 10 lakh hectares of land in the entire Bundelkhand region. With irrigation facilities, farming will flourish and farmers will be happy. Through this project, water will be supplied to every village.

State President Sharma said that there was corruption worth lakhs of crores during the Congress rule, but there was not even a single rupee of corruption during the ten years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Congress leader Late. Rajiv Gandhi, when he was the Prime Minister, had said that if I send one rupee from Delhi to the poor, only 15 paise reaches the poor, the remaining 85 paise is eaten by the middlemen.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is continuously taking action against the corrupt, hence the corrupt are getting worried. The scheme started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide free food grains to 80 crore people of the country during the Corona period, is still running and has been extended for the next five years. The Congress Party ruled the country for 60 years, but did not do any work except giving slogans to remove poverty.

Prime Minister Modi is running many such schemes for poor welfare, due to which 25 crore people of the country have become free from poverty. Every village and every house in the country is a beneficiary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheme. These crores of beneficiaries of the country are going to give a historic victory to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha elections. The beneficiaries have made up their mind to make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister once again. All you voters, Narendra Modi should give victory to the Bharatiya Janata Party with historic votes to become the Prime Minister for the third time.

BJP State President Vishnudutt Sharma on Saturday conducted intensive public relations in more than a dozen villages of Rajnagar assembly of Khajuraho Lok Sabha constituency.
The Odisha Government and the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) hosted a consultative meeting here on Friday to discuss strategies to mitigate the negative effects of linear infrastructure on elephants and other wildlife.

The discussions primarily focussed on strengthening the policy guidelines for avoiding, reducing and mitigating the adverse impacts of linear infrastructure such as power lines, canals, pipelines and railways on wildlife.

One of the major concerns of linear intrusions is the alarming mortality rate of elephants, with approximately 45 to 50 elephants dying due to electrocution annually in India, and over 367 elephants falling victim due to train accidents since 1987 alone. Deliberations on finding solutions to mitigate elephant deaths from electrocution were central to the discussion.

Notably, Odisha is home to over 1,900 elephants spanning three elephant reserves and having 12 identified elephant corridors. While these majestic animals roam freely across the countrys vast landscapes, they face challenges in their right to move across their natural habitats.

In the meeting presided over by Manoj Nair, APCCF Wildlife, Odisha Forest Department, stakeholders from the Forest Department, East Coast Railway, Electricity Board and Irrigation Department were present.


Kolar police have nabbed a bootlegger who was also involved in around a dozen burglary cases; 54 liters of country made liquor was seized from the accused.

In view of the Lok Sabha, to curb illegal liquor smuggling, drug smuggling senior officials have directed to take action through a campaign.

On April 5 based on the information Kolar police arrested a person having a vehicle without registration number. He was caught selling bottles of illegal country liquor, who was identified as Bhim Gond (26) of Abbas Nagar, Kolar Road, Bhopal.

A total of 54 liters of illicit country liquor worth Rs 21000 and a motorcycle without registration number were seized from the possession of the accused and the police took possession and registered a case under section 34(2) of the Excise Act.

It was found that Bhim Gond was involved in burglary in the past he was enquired regarding illegal liquor and the motorcycle was reported stolen from Kolar area, on verification of which it was found to be stolen from Kolar and a case was registered under section 457,380 of the IPC.

During the investigation Kolar police checked footage obtained in some of the theft cases, after matching the suspect's appearance, on interrogating accused Bhim Gond, he revealed committing other thefts, due to which, after obtaining police remand on interrogating the accused he admitted to commit theft in the Kolar area during November 2023 to March 2024.

As informed by the accused, crime numbers 970/23, 951/23, 10/24, 40/24, 48/24, 83/24, 119/24, 122/24, 210/24, 267/ of Police Station Kolar Road, Bhopal were registered. In 24 Section 457,380 IPC cases, stolen gold and silver jewellery, 3 motorcycles and 1 scooter were recovered.

Accused Bhim Gond has been accused of committing theft under crime number 970/23, 10/24, 40/24 section 457,380 of Indian Penal Code along with his partner Sonu Jatav, the search for accused Sonu Jatav is going on. In the remaining other crimes, accused Bhim Gond is said to have committed theft alone.

During interrogation, the accused Bhim Gond revealed that he had sold the Mashrooka of crime number 97/24 and 83/24 to his friends Nilesh Parte and Rohit Uike. Nilesh was caught and the stolen Mashrooka was recovered and he was sent to jail and the interrogation of fellow accused Rohit Uike is going on.

Total seized mashruka-

Sl. No. Up.Sl. Section Mashruqa

1. 951/23 380 INR 1900

2. 970/23 457,380 Bhadvi 02 gold rings and one pair of gold earrings and Rs 1200/-

3. 10/24 457,380 INR 850

4. 48/24 457,380 Rs 900

5. 83/24 457, 380,411 Bhadvi, a pair of silver anklets and Honda Activa number MP04SH2058.

6. 97/24 457, 380,411 Bhadvi 01 Mangal Sutra and Hunk motor cycle of gold whose number is MP 04 MY 7134.

7. 119/24 457,380 INR 1800

8. 122/24 457,320 Bhadvi Mohs. Honda CB Hornet Serial Number MP04 QQ8515

9. 210/24 379 Bhadvi Mohd.Sr. Honda Shine Serial Number MP-04 VD-6983

10. 269/24 457,380 Bhadvi tap tap 09 nos.

11. 278/24 34(2) Excise Act 54 liters of country plain liquor worth Rs 21000 and UP serial number 97/24 Section 457,380, MoSA was stolen.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath campaigned for the Kairana and Saharanpur Lok Sabha seats on Friday, addressing public gatherings in favour of National Democratic Alliance candidates contesting from both these constituencies.

Chief Minister Yogi lamented that Saharanpur, which had the potential to become the Kashi of the West, had been turned into a hotbed of religious fanaticism by previous administrations. He also said that the work of spreading chaos and anarchy was done here through fatwas.

The chief minister urged the public to be wary of individuals who, despite denying the existence of Lord Ram in the Supreme Court, were now chanting his name for electoral gains.

The chief minister said that work was being done to confiscate the property of the ancestors of those who were playing with the future of the youth and distribute it among the poor.

He emphasised the progress made in rooting out the influence of mafia in Uttar Pradesh, remarking, Kuchh mafia jail mein hain, kuchh jahannum chale gaye hain. (Some mafia are behind bars, while others have gone to hell).

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath first addressed a public meeting in Kairana. He said, Our government has given riot and curfew-free Uttar Pradesh. We have fostered a peaceful and harmonious environment by suppressing those who incite riots and enforce curfews. Let us not allow them to thrive again, as they will only provoke further disturbances through caste-based politics.

He further remarked, This poses a threat to the safety of our daughters and the prosperity of our businessmen, constituting a conspiracy to hinder development. We must transcend this and take action. To achieve this, we must not allow rioters, corrupt individuals, anarchists, and those who endanger the lives of our daughters, mothers, farmers, and youth to thrive again, regardless of their status.

The chief minister said that playing with the future of the youth was intolerable. He warned that anyone attempting such actions would face the confiscation of their ancestral property, which would then be distributed among the underprivileged.

The vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is our mission. We will work together with his vision and mission to build a new India, he said.

He urged the public to vote in support of Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Lok Dals joint Lok Sabha candidate Pradeep Chaudhary.

Addressing a public gathering in the Saharanpur Lok Sabha constituency, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath likened the mafia to the mythical demon Raktbeej, stressing that they must not be allowed to thrive again under any circumstances.

He remarked, Congress and Samajwadi Party used to capitulate to them, but today kuchh mafia jail mein hain, kuchh jahannum chale gaye (some mafia are behind bars, while others have gone to hell). Their influence has been completely neutralised.

He highlighted the clear division in this election between two opposing ideologies. On one side are those driven by caste divisions, while on the other are individuals dedicated to nationalism, he pointed out.

On one hand, there are those who are intent on tearing apart the social fabric, while on the other hand, under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, there are people who believe in upholding Indias dignity, he said.

We have removed the mikes and loudspeakers from which they used to shout and cause disturbances. Our country and our religion are our national pride. If they are secure, so are we, Chief Minister Yogi declared.

He remarked that Deoband had become a centre of religious fanaticism, with fatwas issued on trivial matters, including how vaccines should be administered. From here, attempts were made to spread chaos and anarchy, with little attention paid to development, he added.

Chief Minister Yogi was addressing an election rally in Deoband on Friday in support of BJP candidate Raghav Lakhanpal Sharma from Saharanpur Lok Sabha seat.
A day after senior SAD leader Sikander Singh Malukas IAS daughter-in-law Parampal Kaur Sidhu joined the BJP along with her husband Gurpreet Singh Maluka, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal held a meeting with the party workers from Rampura and Maur assembly segments in Bathinda district and appointed senior party leader and former Cabinet Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon as the in-charge of the Maur assembly segment, replacing Maluka.



Since April 10, Maluka was seen actively campaigning alongside Harsimrat Kaur Badal in Maur. However, the political landscape took a turn when his son and daughter-in-law made headlines by joining the BJP on Thursday. Sidhus potential candidacy from Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency as the BJP candidate added another layer of intrigue to the situation.



Notably, Maluka had been appointed as in-charge of this constituency the previous year. During the 2022 state elections, the party had fielded Jagmeet Singh Brar in this constituency, ignoring Malukas claims on ticket for his son.



Maluka, responding to his family members decision to join the BJP, expressed his reservations, stating that he had discouraged them from taking this step. However, he emphasized that their choice was personal. Regarding the appointment of the new halqa in-charge, Maluka deferred to Sukhbirs authority as the party president, acknowledging that he has the prerogative to appoint individuals as he deems fit.


Rallying for Bharatiya Janata Partys Abki Baar 400 Paar, Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said that the victory of the BJP in western Uttar Pradesh would ensure that the party wins all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP and over 370 seats across India.

Shah addressed a public meeting in Moradabad where he emphasised the BJPs developmental efforts.

He highlighted the contrast with the Congress alleged failures in driving development and its entanglement in corruption during its tenure.

Shah urged the electorate to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third term, rallying for the BJPs Abki Baar 400 Paar campaign.

Shah asserted the certainty of BJPs victory in Moradabad, aiming for a sweep of all 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh. He stressed the pivotal role of western UP in securing BJPs success across the state and urged all sections of society to support the party, highlighting the importance of voting for BJP candidates.

The Union home minister touted Prime Minister Modis leadership in elevating Indias economy and achieving significant milestones such as the Ram mandirs inauguration in Ayodhya and the revitalisation of various religious sites.

Shah commended Modis efforts in preserving Indias cultural values, contrasting BJPs stance with the Congress neglect of Kashmir during its rule. He praised the decision to abrogate Article 370 and lauded the prime ministers actions against terrorism and Naxalism.

Addressing concerns of infiltration and terrorism, Shah highlighted the shift in the governments response under Modis leadership, citing surgical strikes and airstrikes as examples.

He outlined various developmental initiatives under Modis governance, including provisions for food grains, sanitation, housing and healthcare, particularly in Uttar Pradesh.

Shah credited Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for improvements in law and order and significant infrastructure projects undertaken in the state.

Shah warned against the return of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, pointing to their divisive agendas, and urged the public to vote for Bharatiya Janata Party candidates to ensure inclusive development under Modis leadership.

Highlighting Modis initiatives benefiting sugarcane farmers, Shah appealed for continued support to secure a third term for the prime minister.

At the event, several BJP leaders, including party state president Bhupendra Chaudhary, Moradabad candidate Thakur Sarvesh Singh, Sambhal candidate Parmeshwar Lal Saini, Ramesh Bidhuri, and others were present.
The State Capital Bhubaneswar is celebrating its 76th Foundation Day today. It was on April 13, 1948 that the then Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, had laid the foundation stone for the city. Since then, Bhubaneswar remains a celebrated model of modern architecture and city planning with the prehistoric past as a temple city.

Before Independence, Bhubaneswar was best known as a Hindu pilgrimage centre. The Old Bhubaneswar is the original temple city which developed around the Lingaraj Temple. This zone is characterized by the presence of innumerable temple precincts and complexes and is an important zone from the aspect of religious tourism. The Lingaraj Temple is the focus of the historic town and is symbolically related with other temple complexes of the old town.

German architect and urban planner Dr Otto H Koenigsberger designed the New Capital, Bhubaneswar. Koenigsbergers design laid the city in a linear pattern with a central artery forming the main spine to which neighbourhood units were attached. It was decided by the planners in the beginning that the new town will be grouped in self-contained neighbourhood units. This enables the town to grow without losing its community and neighbourly character. Six units were designed namely Units  I (Bapuji Nagar), II (Ashok Nagar), III (Kharavela Nagar), IV(Bhauma Nagar), V(Keshari Nagar) and VI(Ganga Nagar).

The plan envisaged horizontal development rather than vertical growth, for a population of 40,000 over an area of 16.48 km2 with a density of 10 to 12 families per acre. The town centre consisted of the market building, weekly market, daily market and bus station with a central vista leading up to Raj Bhawan and a commercial zone along Janpath and Bapuji Nagar up to Railway Station. Although the city was planned for administrative and other services as the primary functions, light industries and manufacturing activities were added after 1980. Besides, the city offers a number of advantages and employment opportunities for which there has been an influx of population. In 1951 the population of Bhubaneswar was only 16,512. In 2001 Bhubaneswar population increased to 6,48,032. The density of population per square kilometer in 1951 was only 633. This has gone up to 5,272 in 2001. The population of Bhubaneswar reached 8,37,737 as per 2011 census and the density increased to 6,228. In the present day, the city is experiencing the problems associated with high population growth, rapid urbanisation, growth of slums, urban flooding and deterioration of the physical environment.

Odisha has two cities, including State Capital Bhubaneswar and Rourkela under the Smart City Mission. The mission is operated as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme. The Central Government gives financial support to the extent of Rs 48,000 crore over 5 years i.e. on an average Rs100 crore per city per year. An equal amount on a matching basis is being provided by the State/ULB. Additional resources are raised through convergence, from ULBs own funds, grants under Finance Commission, innovative finance mechanisms such as Municipal Bonds, other Government programmes and borrowings. Emphasis has been given on the participation of the private sector through Public Private Partnerships (PPP). Citizens aspirations were captured in the Smart City Proposals (SCPs) prepared by the selected cities.

After selection of the cities, the process of implementation starts with the setting up of the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) created for the purpose. The SPV plans, appraises, approves and releases funds, besides implementing, managing, operating, monitoring and evaluating the smart city development projects. In the smart city proposal (2015-2016), Bhubaneswar stood number one among the best cities of India with a score of 78.83 points. Scoring 78.83 marks, the Capital City Bhubaneswar not only projected itself to the top position but also set huge challenges to meet over the next five years during which it will have to come up with smart solutions for improving urban mobility and infrastructure. The Smart Cities Mission puts a significant emphasis on stakeholder consultation, particularly involving citizens. The smart city proposal (SCP) mandates citizen engagement in three rounds - visioning the smart city, identifying area-based development and pan-city solutions and during implementation of the area- based development proposal and pan-city solution. The process of making a city smart should be people centric. Besides, it would require smart thinking to improve the access to water, sanitation and other dwelling characteristics. As 100 cities have been selected at different timelines during three years from 2015 to 2018, the timeline of five years for completion of the projects was set between 2019 and 2023. However, the Mission is now extended to June 2024. The time-line for all 100 cities is over and they are in the extended time-line phase.

There are smart city rankings for a number of projects under implementation. As per data (2023-24) of the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Surat city from Gujarat has topped the rank in terms of number of projects under implementation, while Bhubaneswar has ranked at 26. It is expected to complete the remaining projects well within the extended period. The success of a smart city lies in its timely completion of the projects. Care needs to be taken for the preparation and implementation of smart city projects. This will help manage sustainable urban development in the smart city.

(Dr Praharaj is Technical Officer, Department of Architecture, School of Infrastructure and Planning, OUTR, Bhubaneswar)
Two sisters died due to drowning in the pond built in the field of village Amla located in Ratibad area of Bhopal. The incident occured place on Friday morning around 10:30 am.

Police have recovered both the bodies. The police have established a case and started an investigation. Both the bodies have been sent to the mortuary of Hamidia Hospital for PM.

According to the information, both Deepti Verma (13) and Tanushree Verma (9) are real sisters, and lived in village Badjhiri. His father Raja Ram Verma works as a fertilizer seller in the village itself. His shop is near his house.

At around 9 in the morning, both the sisters along with their mother Chinta Bai had gone to their own farm in village Amla. Mother had to work to extract onions from here. There is a pond in the field itself. Mother got busy with work, meanwhile both the sisters went into the pond to take bath.

The mother did not even know when both of them drowned together. At around 10:30 the mother remembered her daughters. When he looked around his daughters were nowhere to be seen. Despite calling out, no response was received. After this she went near the pond and saw the bodies of her daughters in the water. She alerted and called the people nearby. The villagers took the body out of the water. After this the police were informed. The police took the body into custody and sent it to the PM.

The girls' father Raja Ram said that both Deepti and Tanushree studied in a school in the village. Deepti studied in fifth class and Tanushree studied in third class. I have four daughters, the eldest was Payal, the second was Ridima, the third was Deepti and the fourth was Tanushree.

The only son is Madhusudan, and he is the youngest. The daughters had gone to the fields with their mother, where while playing they went to take a bath in the pond and both of them died due to drowning.

ASI KP Mishra, who is investigating the case, said that in the preliminary investigation, it is suspected that one person died due to drowning while trying to save one. When the girls' mother reached the pond, she saw the body of one daughter floating in the water, while the other body came up from the water after some time. The matter has been resolved. The matter is being investigated from all angles.
For the residents of Ayodhya, as much as for Hindus across the globe , Ram Navami symbolises the fulfillment of a long-cherished dream and the reaffirmation of their unwavering faith in Lord Ram, says BISWAJEET BANERJEE

Ayodhya, the ancient city steeped in the rich tapestry of Hindu mythology and history, is poised to witness an unparalleled spectacle as it gears up to celebrate its first Ram Navami following the consecration of the majestic Ram Mandir. The air is filled with anticipation and reverence as devotees from all corners of India flock to this sacred land to partake in the festivities honoring Lord Ram, the epitome of righteousness and virtue.

Months of meticulous planning and fervent preparations have culminated in the grandeur that envelops Ayodhya today. The city, adorned with vibrant colors and resounding chants of "Jai Shri Ram," exudes an aura of spirituality and devotion that is palpable in every nook and cranny.

The consecration of the Ram Mandir, a momentous event that resonated deeply with millions of devotees across the globe, has added an extra layer of significance to this year's Ram Navami celebrations. For the residents of Ayodhya, it symbolizes the fulfillment of a long-cherished dream and the reaffirmation of their unwavering faith in Lord Ram.

Radha Sharma, a local resident, encapsulated the sentiments of many when she said, "This Ram Navami holds a special place in our hearts. It's not just about celebrating the birth of Lord Ram; it's about witnessing the fruition of our faith and devotion."

As the countdown to Ram Navami begins, devotees throng the Ram Mandir, eager to offer their prayers and seek the blessings of the divine. The atmosphere is electric with fervent devotion as chants of "Jai Shri Ram" reverberate through the streets, transcending linguistic and cultural barriers.

Ramesh Singh, a pilgrim from Bihar, echoed the sentiments of countless others as he remarked, "Ram Navami is not just a festival; it's a spiritual journey. Being here in Ayodhya, amidst the sacred surroundings, fills my heart with joy and peace."

At the heart of the celebrations lies the Ram Mandir, believed to be situated at the very spot where Lord Rama, the seventh avatar of Lord Vishnu, was born. For devotees, it is not merely a structure but a sacred sanctum that serves as a beacon of hope and divine connection.

Administration Strategy

As Ayodhya braces itself for the influx of around 50 lakh devotees in all nine days of Ram Navami, the administration has meticulously crafted a comprehensive crowd management strategy to ensure the safety and convenience of all participants. The maximum rush of 25 lakh-30 lakh devotees is expected on the Ram Navami day of April 17  when people take a dip at river Saryu.

In anticipation of the monumental crowds expected to throng the city, a strategic deployment of magistrates and police personnel has been planned. Heightened security measures will be implemented at sensitive areas and major temples, including the Ram Janmabhoomi temple, to prevent any untoward incidents.

Efforts are underway to facilitate smooth entry and exit at the Ram Janmabhoomi temple, with the Trust exploring multiple entries and exits to avoid potential stampede-like situations. Additionally, arrangements have been made to provide water and mats on open floors, considering the approaching hot weather conditions, ensuring the comfort of devotees.

To address any medical emergencies, round-the-clock medical facilities with extra beds will be available in both government health institutions and private hospitals. Traffic management will be streamlined, and vigilant monitoring will be conducted to identify and segregate any criminal elements.

The administration is leaving no stone unturned to enhance safety and convenience for devotees taking a dip in the sacred Sarayu River during Ram Navami. Additional fiber motorboats have been deployed, and barricades will be set up in the river to regulate the flow of people, facilitating secure access for devotees.

Moreover, elaborate arrangements are being made for public toilets and regular cleaning, with over 2,000 sanitation workers mobilized for this purpose. Chief Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra affirmed, "We have taken all necessary precautions to ensure the safety of pilgrims and residents alike. Our priority is to facilitate a peaceful and joyous celebration of Ram Navami."

Economic Stimulus Through Festivities

The festivities have not only kindled the flames of spirituality but have also breathed new life into Ayodhya's economy. Local businesses have witnessed a surge in sales of religious artifacts, sweets, and traditional attire, as tourists and pilgrims alike immerse themselves in the spiritual ambiance of the city.

Ram Gupta, a local businessman, remarked, "The consecration of the Ram Mandir has brought prosperity to Ayodhya. We've seen a significant increase in sales, and tourists are eager to experience the cultural heritage of our city."

Behind the scenes, skilled artisans have toiled tirelessly to craft intricate idols and decorations for the celebrations. From colorful rangolis adorning the streets to ornate idols of Lord Ram, Sita, and Lakshman, their craftsmanship adds a touch of elegance to the festivities, showcasing Ayodhya's rich cultural heritage to the world.

Ram Das, one such artisan, shared his sentiments, "For us, this Ram Navami is not just about business; it's about contributing to something larger than ourselves. Crafting these idols is a way of expressing our devotion to Lord Ram and our love for our heritage."

Footfall in these days is tremendous bringing smiles on the faces of hoteliers. Sharad Kapoor, Director, Shaane Awadh Hotel told this reporter that not a single room is available till Ram Navami. All the hotels, home stays and dharmashalas are booked, and the hospitality sector is doing very well since January 22, he said.

Ram Navami is not merely a commemoration; it is a transformative journey, a celebration of faith, virtue, and the eternal triumph of good over evil. As the devotees unite in reverence and devotion, Ayodhya reverberates with the timeless chants of "Jai Shri Ram," echoing the enduring legacy of Lord Rama's divine grace and benevolence.

Bring SatTu to Stay Cool

As temperatures soar in anticipation of Ram Navami, the Ram Mandir Trust has issued a special plea to devotees: bring along Sattu. Recognized for its cooling properties, Sattu, a traditional flour, promises respite from the scorching heat, ensuring the well-being and comfort of pilgrims during their visit to Ayodhya.

Champat Rai, the Convener of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, underscored the significance of hydration and maintaining a cool demeanor amidst the festivities. He urged devotees to embrace Sattu as a means to combat the sweltering temperatures, emphasizing its effectiveness in beating the heat.

With the welfare of devotees at the forefront, the Trust's initiative aims to ensure a pleasant and comfortable experience for all pilgrims as they partake in the sacred celebrations of Ram Navami in Ayodhya.

(Additional reporting done by BP Singh from Ayodhya).
China's top legislator Zhao Leji met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang on Saturday as they move to further strengthen bilateral ties, according to foreign news media.

Zhao is the first high-ranking Chinese official to visit the North since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

In his meeting with the No. 3 official in the Chinese Communist Party, Kim said Pyongyang is "unwaveringly" committed to cementing and further developing its cooperative ties with Beijing.

This year, the two countries mark the 75th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations. And they will write a "new chapter" for the relationship, he said.

Zhao said China is also adamant about maintaining its traditional friendship with the North and boosting cooperation with its ally.

Zhao arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday for his three-day trip in a bid to attend the opening ceremony of the China-DPRK Friendship Year held Friday.

North Korea appears to be ramping up high-level exchanges with Beijing, as much as it has been expanding its relationship with Russia, including military cooperation.

South Korea said Thursday that Zhao's trip to Pyongyang may lead to a full-fledged recovery in bilateral relations between the two nations. Observers see the possibility of the North Korean leader Kim visiting China later this year for a possible summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

North Korea began resuming exchanges with China, its longtime ally and largest economic benefactor, in a limited manner after partially reopening its border in August last year following its tight COVID-19 border shutdown. (Yonhap)
Army did not want Agniveer scheme, we will scrap it as soon as we come to power: Rahul Gandhi at rally in Maharashtra's Bhandara.

(This is a developing story)
Rejecting BJP Hyderabad Lok Sabha candidate K Madhavi Latha's allegation of about six lakh bogus votes in the constituency, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said the Election Commission takes care of the issue of voters' lists.

Owaisi, who is seeking re-election from Hyderabad constituency, wondered what his role was in the matter. The AIMIM leader said the process of addition of names and publication of final voters' list is carried out every year by the Election Commission which he does not head. He was responding to a query from reporters about Madhavi Latha's charge that Owaisi wins with the help of the six lakh bogus votes The allegation amounts to "abusing" the Election Commission, he added.

"By speaking like this, you are insulting Hyderabad electorate, which includes brothers from backward class and Dalits, minority Muslims, Christians who are going out to vote. Because of their votes, every party is getting votes and AIMIM is successful," he told reporters. Asked about the reported comments of a Congress leader in Hyderabad that he has to be friends with the AIMIM, Owaisi said his party does not have any alliance with any party in Telangana for the Lok Sabha elections.

His party has formed PDM in Uttar Pradesh and his colleague MP in Maharashtra Imtiaz Jaleel is holding talks on the issue in the western state. Owaisi launched his campaign on Friday and undertook door-to-door canvassing in the Bahadurpur assembly segment.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said this year's Lok Sabha election is for saving the Constitution and democracy.

Farmers protested for almost two years against the now-scrapped farm laws and the BJP will bring them back if it wins 400 Lok Sabha seats, he claimed.

Yadav was speaking at a rally here in support of SP Lok Sabha candidate from Bijnor Deepak Sahni.

"This is the election to save the Constitution and democracy. At one point in time, 'samudra manthan' (churning of the sea) had taken place. This is the time for 'samvidhan manthan'," the SP chief said.

"On one hand, there are people who want to defend the Constitution and on the other hand are people who want to end the Constitution," he added.

On the 2020-21 farmers protest, Yadav said, "Our farmers protested for almost two years and the government did everything to stop them. But when the 2022 (Uttar Pradesh) assembly elections were approaching, they got scared and scrapped the farm laws."

"If these people win 400 (Lok Sabha seats), then they will bring back the farm laws, take away farmers' produce and sell it to industrialists," he said.

The SP leader also hit out at the BJP for calling the opposition INDIA bloc "INDI alliance".

"These people cannot even read the name of INDIA, who is going to vote for them," he said.

Bijnor Lok Sabha constituency will witness a triangular contest with SP's Saini pitted against Chandan Chauhan of the RLD, a BJP ally, and BSP's Chaudhary Vijendra Singh.

Bijnor will go to polls in the first round of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections on April 19.
The Israeli army says the body of missing Israeli boy has been found in the occupied West Bank after he was killed in a terrorist attack.

The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair sparked a large settler attack on a Palestinian village on Friday and Saturday.

The killing of the teen and the settler rampages marked the latest in an escalation of violence in the territory, at a time when Israel is waging war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip

Security forces are continuing the pursuit after those suspected of carrying out the attack, the army said Saturday.
By Jon Dunbar

This is the first part in a three-part series intended to raise awareness of Korea's elusive live music scene and help more people find it.

It seems like more people are asking online how to find shows in Korea this year. Notorious for mega-pop acts, the country does a good job of keeping its live music scene hidden underground.

It has become harder in recent years to find upcoming shows. Gone are the days when resources like Korea Gig Guide or DoIndie or the Korean Punk and Hardcore page on Facebook or MySpace would release exhaustive lists of upcoming shows. Even Platform Magazine gave up on weekly show listings years ago.

Nowadays, in order to find upcoming shows, you have to be on Instagram, where you'll need to follow every band you like, every venue they might play at and every relevant promoter. And then you have to trust the algorithm to show you what you want to see  and you might forget later which account you saw share it, so you'll have to remember all the bands on the lineup, the venue and possibly the promoter, in order to find it again.

In order to help anyone start their search, I asked an online community of scenesters for their favorite music venues. We came up with a list of 10 recommendations for anyone looking for live music in the capital in early 2024.

There are certainly more venues out there, but the community members chose these. As per usual, this list might not age well, due to the fast turnover rate as old venues close, new venues close and even newer venues open.

These are not ranked in any particular order.

10. SoundDog Jazz

If you're looking for live jazz, one of the most unique places in the city for that is SoundDog, a small pub right inside central Seoul's Huam Market. They have live music almost every night of the week, every week. When I first started attending years ago, before the pandemic, a lot of the acts were younger jazz students, enthusiastic but inexperienced  but on returning more recently, I discovered that many of the same kids still play here, and they've since honed their craft. Shows are usually about two hours long with an intermission. One cool feature I noticed is they placed a mirror over the piano, so you can appreciate it being played from an interesting perspective. The performers used to set up outside the venue in the market corridor, infusing the whole structure (and surrounding neighborhood) with live jazz, but regrettably they no longer do that.

There are full proper public bathrooms next door, and they're modern but sometimes can get a little messy.

Follow @sounddog_jazz on Instagram.

9. Pet Sounds

A landmark of Itaewon's Gyeongnidan neighborhood, Pet Sounds is sometimes a live music venue, and on nights when there's not a band setting up, there's usually a DJ spinning classic rock, indie or juggalo music. It's kind of a funny space because it's long and thin, so when you enter, the band's at the far side of the room, and you might have to push through a lot of people to get there.

From what I understand, the place has a lovely women's room, but the men's room is "built for half a person."

Follow @petsoundsmusicpub on Instagram.

8. Youkillbong

Enter an innocuous building on a street in downtown Seoul's Euljiro, take the stairs up and keep going up, and you'll step through a door into...what seems like somebody's living room? The surprisingly homely environment in the middle of such a bleak industrial area makes it feel extra special. You can even go up onto the rooftop, where they used to hold shows. Unfortunately, last year the police showed up to shut down a performance by electronic duo Kang New and Fat Hamster, so as a result it's unlikely they'll have as much freedom to be loud in as many parts of the venue as before. But keep an eye on it, because you never know what it might host.

The washroom is one floor down in the building, sort of shattering the illusion that this is a cozy residential space.

Visit @youkillbong on Instagram.

7. Channel1969

This basement venue has been pretty consistent despite having been located in three different spaces by my count. It started in the northwestern tip of Hapjeong-dong, and now resides in a quiet alley of Yeonnam-dong. I've seen some amazing shows here, although the venue has a wide variety of programming and won't be consistent from one weekend to the next. That just means you have to do your homework.

Oh, and I hear the bathroom is up a few flights of stairs, so don't wait until the last minute.

Follow @channel1969.seoul on Instagram.

6. The Studio HBC

As the name implies, this one's in central Seoul's Haebangchon neighborhood. It's owned by Ryan Goessl of Camarata Music, but earlier this year it made some changes and started collaborating with Wind & Flow Society as part of a drive to "Keep HBC Weird." They've been bringing in more-established acts, while also raising prices and having fewer opening bands, although sometimes there are still shows like before, when they would give a home for the night to a music act that couldn't afford to play anywhere else.

The place has a single unisex toilet that clogs easily, as warns a sign placed above.

Follow @thestudiohbc on Instagram.

5. ACS

This one's an unfinished concrete basement decorated with spraypaint in the middle of an aging industrial section of downtown Seoul's Euljiro. In other words, cool. Go here and you might see electronic music, or a funk show, or hardcore punk.

I remember the bathroom here being a little primitive, but it's one of those buildings where if there's a mess or a lineup, you can often go up the stairs and find a completely unused bathroom one floor above.

Follow @acs.kr on Instagram.

4. Club Steel Face

Occupying the top floors of a building along Hongdae's Jandari-ro (AKA "Hunting Street" for its nightclubs), Steel Face is sort of unique, in that it is aboveground. Run by Jo Su-min of the punk band Patients, it's mainly a punk venue, but its interior feels nicer and cleaner than others. And the roof is usually open, letting people go up to smoke and get a good view of the area from above. They seem to have given up on having rooftop shows, because you can't have live music disrupting the vibe in this street of nightclubs blasting mainstream canned music outside their doors to attract more customers. It doesn't seem to have shows often enough, but when it does they're always fun.

Be forewarned, while it's usually clean, there's one unisex toilet in the whole place, and that means sometimes a line can form.

Follow @clubsteelface on Instagram.

3. Club FF

This Hongdae club, founded way back in 2004, doesn't appear on the top of everybody's list, but it always appear somewhere on it. It has a reputation for favoring bands that can bring in customers, rather than giving chances to new acts, so you're usually guaranteed to see a good show there. It's a little less niche than a lot of other clubs, so if you keep going back you're likely to see a lot of interesting bands, rather than the same acts over and over again. It's a great starting point for newcomers, for people who want to get a wider sample of what Korea's live music scene has to offer, and for people looking to socialize and make friends.

The men's and women's bathrooms are, unlike several other venues, separate. Full disclosure, I once was trapped in the men's room for five to 10 minutes when the inside doorknob fell off, but I'm glad to report that they have since changed doorknobs.

Follow @hongdaeff on Instagram.

2. Club SHARP

Opened in 2016, this venue belongs to Ryu Jin-suk, best known for the ska-punk band Skasucks. By the way, it's not Sharp the music symbol, but SHARP the movement, standing for Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice. SHARP has always been home to the punk, ska and hardcore scene  or, these days, I suppose, scenes  but since the closing of GBN Live House during the pandemic, it seems like it's become a little more of a home for the hardcore scene. It is located right outside the influence of the Hongdae area, in the considerably more local Mangwon-dong neighborhood.

Be warned, the bathrooms, located in a parking garage, are rustic: just a urinal for the boys and a squatter for the girls.

Follow @club_sharp on Instagram.

1. Club Victim

Newly opened just last year, Victim is run by the punk and hardcore label Victim Records. Its location near Sangsu Station on Line 6 makes it officially part of Hongdae, and it's good to feel at home in the area again, even if most of the musicians I see there seem to be in their 40s. I suspect its newness is the reason for its popularity, as people haven't gotten sick of it yet. I hope it stays like that for a long time.

Plus, probably as a result of being new, the bathroom is pretty clean.

Follow @club_victim on Instagram.

Honorable mentions to Hongdae's Strange Fruit, Sangsu-dong's Jebidabang and Euljiro's Seendosi  not sure why the surveyed people didn't think of them. And condolences to Skunk Sindang, which had to stop putting on shows after an older customer made a mess in the stairs, but still serves as a punk bar.

Next time we'll look at some of the best music venues outside of Seoul.
President Yoon Suk Yeol is expected to name a new presidential chief of staff, Sunday at the earliest, in what would be his first move to overhaul state affairs after a resounding defeat in last week's General Election, sources at the presidential office said Saturday.

After his party's crushing defeat in Wednesday's National Assembly elections, Yoon has delivered a message through his chief of staff that he will "humbly uphold the people's will" shown in the opposition's landslide victory.

The opposition bloc, led by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, won 192 seats in the 300-member Assembly, while the ruling bloc led by Yoon's People Power Party (PPP) secured only 108.

Senior government and presidential officials are likely to be replaced, after Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, presidential chief of staff Lee Kwan-sup and all senior presidential secretaries offered to resign Thursday.

Yoon's staff members have been praised for their job performance but partially blamed for the controversy surrounding the appointment of former Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup as ambassador to Australia.

The Presidential Office's poor handling of the controversy, which centered on allegations Lee was essentially given an excuse to flee the country while under investigation over a Marine's death, was widely cited as one of the factors that contributed to the ruling party's election defeat.

Potential candidates for presidential chief of staff include PPP Rep. Chang Je-won and Kim Han-gil, chief of the Presidential Committee of National Cohesion.

Some of the names being mentioned as the next prime minister nominee include Reps. Joo Ho-young and Kwon Young-se of the PPP.

Yoon is also expected to replace several ministers and reorganize the Presidential Office as part of efforts to overhaul government operations. (Yonhap)
Ukraine's army chief said on Saturday the situation on the eastern front had deteriorated in recent days with Russia intensifying its armored assaults and battles raging for control of a village west of the devastated city of Bakhmut.

The statement by Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi more than two years since Russia's invasion evoked the increasingly grim mood in Kyiv as vital U.S. military aid that Kyiv expected to receive months ago remains stuck in Congress.

Syrskyi said he travelled to the embattled area to stabilize the front as Russian assault groups using tanks and armored personnel carriers took advantage of a period of dry, warm weather that was making it easier for them to maneuver.

"The situation on the eastern front in recent days has grown considerably more tense. This is linked primarily to the significant activation of offensive action by the enemy after the presidential elections in Russia," he wrote on the Telegram app.

Since President Vladimir Putin won a new term in a stage-managed mid-March election, Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine and unleashed three massive aerial strikes on its energy system, pounding power stations and substations.

The slowdown in military assistance from the West has left Ukraine more exposed to aerial attacks and more outgunned on the battlefield. Kyiv has made increasingly desperate appeals for supplies of air defense missiles in recent weeks.

Moscow's forces, Syrskyi said, were taking significant losses during their attacks in the east, but were also sometimes making tactical gains.

Social media channels reported the fall of Ukraine's eastern village of Bohdanivka to the west of Bakhmut, prompting Kyiv's defense ministry to deny them on Saturday, while acknowledging fierce fighting in the area.

"Enemy assault groups reached outside the outskirts of the place at night. Bohdanivka is now under the control of the defense forces," it said.

The village lies to the northeast of the town of Chasiv Yar, a Kyiv-controlled stronghold that Russia has been trying to reach after seizing the town of Avdiivka in February to the south.

Syrskyi said Russian armored assault groups were attacking Kyiv's positions on the fronts of Lyman and Bakhmut, while using dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers to try to break through lines on Pokrovsk front.

The Ukrainian military chief said only a technological advantage over Russia in sophisticated weapons would allow Kyiv "to seize the strategic initiative" from a better equipped and larger foe.

He called for better training for soldiers and in particular infantry, a clear reference to Ukraine's manpower challenges.

Ukraine's parliament passed a bill on Thursday to overhaul how the armed forces draft civilians into the ranks. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also signed legislation last week lowering the draft age from 27 to 25. (Reuters)
A vessel has been seized by "regional authorities" between the United Arab Emirates and Iran, maritime security agencies said on Saturday, days after Iran warned it could close the area to sea traffic.

U.K. Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said the vessel had been seized 50 nautical miles (92 km) northeast of the Fujairah, an area close to the Strait of Hormuz that forms the entrance to the Gulf.

A British maritime security company, Ambrey, reported a "boarding" incident at the same location but without giving further details.

Marine tracking sites said the vessel was the MSC Aries of Zodiac Maritime, an

international shipping company partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.

Reuters could not immediately confirm that and UKMTO said it could not provide more information when asked if the regional authorities were Iran and if the seized vessel was MSC Aries.

Zodiac Maritime did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Iranian authorities did not immediately issue any public statement on the incident.

A U.S. defense official said "we are aware of the situation reported by UKMTO and we are monitoring it" but would not confirm or deny the name of the vessel when asked if it was the MSC Aries.

On Tuesday the naval head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Alireza Tangsiri said it could close the Strait of Hormuz if deemed necessary.

He said Iran viewed as a threat Israel's presence in the UAE, with which Israel established diplomatic relations in 2020 as part of the 'Abraham Accords' mediated by the United States.

Regional tensions have risen since the start of Israel's campaign in Gaza in October, with Israel and its ally the United States clashing repeatedly with Iranian-aligned groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Iran has threatened to retaliate for suspected Israeli airstrikes on its consulate in Syria's capital Damascus on April 1 that killed seven Revolutionary Guards officers including two senior commanders.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday he expected Iran to attack Israel "sooner, rather than later" and warned Tehran not to proceed.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi group has disrupted global trade with attacks on shipping in the Red Sea for months, saying it is aiming at Israel-linked vessels in retaliation for Israel's campaign in Gaza.

The United States and Britain have carried out strikes against Houthi targets in response to the attacks on shipping. (Reuters)
Sinead Creighan has recently joined the McCay Legal team as a Director and will head up the Commercial Property, Real Estate and Private Client Department within this fast growing and evolving law firm.

Sinead has gained a wealth of invaluable experience over the past twenty years in practice and has an excellent reputation having worked as a Senior Associate in a niche cross border commercial law firm, before becoming a Director in a leading top tier corporate/commercial firm in Belfast.

Her expertise working as a tri-qualified Solicitor in N.Ireland, R.O.I and England and Wales has given her extensive exposure to various aspects of property law from industrial, commercial and residential conveyancing to commercial leases, probate and licensing.

She has successfully handled many large-scale industrial acquisitions, commercial and residential estates, extensive property portfolio refinances and restructures and highly complex cross-jurisdictional and multi-disciplinary transactions.

Sinead has a very strong and proven track record in acting for high net worth clients on major commercial acquisitions and disposals, commercial leases and financing both in N. Ireland and R.O.I.

She has advised in both large-scale housing developments and the more bespoke smaller developments to include purchase of the site, planning stages and right through to the sale of final housing units.

Sinead has worked with all sizes of companies and has particular experience in haulage, wholesale and other business providers establishing bases and distribution networks across the island of Ireland.

Sinead relishes this new challenge within the McCay Legal team and will use her experience and expertise to enhance the firms continuous business development throughout the island of Ireland.

The McCay Legal team look forward to engaging with both business and personal clients old and new with our multi jurisditional offering.

McCay Legal Managing Director Gareth McCay commented: I am delighted to welcome someone of Sineads calibre to the firm.

McCay Legal have offices in Derry, Strabane and Omagh.

She has exceptional experience and ambition and provides a range of skills which I believe are unrivaled in the North West. We are building a firm which can provide legal services to anyone from an individual up to a multinational company operating in different jurisdictions.

Long gone are the days that such services were only available in Belfast or Dublin.

Sineads skills and background compliment our already thriving commercial services department making McCay Legal the go-to firm for commercial legal services.

The North-West is open for business and our firm is here to support you on your journey.
Derry City and Strabane District Council is inviting private sector representatives within the Tourism industry to help inform the delivery of the district-wide Tourism Strategy.

Representatives will act on behalf of the sector to oversee the implementation of the strategy and support the development of any new emerging strategies, in partnership with other strategic stakeholders including Tourism NI.

The current strategy, Derry City & Strabane District Council Tourism Strategy  A New Level of Ambition 2018-2025, sets out priorities and activities with the aim of increasing visitor spend to 100 million and create 1000 additional jobs in the sector by 2025.

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Cllr Patricia Logue, encouraged members of the local private sector with an expertise in tourism to consider putting themselves forward for the role.

The knowledge and experience that private sector members can bring to the group is invaluable. This expertise is what we will use to help us deliver on the existing strategy and as we plan our future strategic approach to Tourism development across the city & district, and I would encourage anyone who feels they fit this profile to get in touch.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank the outgoing private sector representatives of the group for their contribution and commitment to the development and implementation of the strategy to date.

The development of the strategy was an action identified within the overall Strategic Growth Plan which highlights tourism as a key sector for economic growth and job creation and was developed following extensive consultation with tourism partners and stakeholders across the city and district. You can download the strategy here: https://bit.ly/3VOaV3h

To sign up or nominate someone for the position, please complete the nomination form here: www.derrystrabane.com/tourism

The closing date for nominations is Friday 19th April 2024.

For further information or clarification, please contact Jennifer ODonnell, DCSDC Tourism Manager, by emailing Jennifer.odonnell@derrystrabane.com or alternatively telephone 028 7125 3253.
Local nurse Marie Donnelly is to become one of the first Advanced Nurse Practitioners to work in palliative care in Northern Ireland.

Leading end of life charity Marie Curie welcomed the partnership initiative, saying that it was the way forward for palliative care nursing.

Experienced palliative care nurse, Marie Donnelly, is currently employed by the Western Health and Social Care Trust and is sponsored by Marie Curie to undertake a Masters in Advanced Nursing Practice.

On completing the Advanced Nurse Practitioner course, Marie will be qualified to work with patients who are nearing the end of life across both hospital and community settings.

The Advanced Nurse Practitioner role will allow Marie to work autonomously, taking patient histories, carrying out physical examinations, prescribing and using her expert knowledge and clinical judgment to treat patients.

Marie, a mother of five from Beragh, has 31 years experience in nursing and has worked as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in palliative care within the Western Trust.

She said: This is the first trainee ANP role within Specialist Palliative Care in the Western Trust, I saw it as an opportunity which was too good to pass.

I now find myself back at university as three of my children graduate, one currently a student at UU, and the other hoping to go down that path in September. I must admit, doing assignments and studying for exams is challenging, but having the necessary skills and knowledge to support patients and their families makes it all worthwhile.

I believe as time evolves there will be more and more ANPs in specialist palliative care, demonstrating their ability to work autonomously and make complex decisions.

Paula Heneghan, (from left) Marie Curie, Richard Rodgers, Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, Emma King, Western Trust and student ANP Marie Donnelly

Paula Heneghan, Associate Director at Marie Curie in Northern Ireland, expressed her gratitude to all the partners and in particular the Community Foundation of Northern Ireland, which manages the Cancer Charities fund, for its support in bringing the vision to reality. She explained that palliative care provides physical, emotional and practical support to anyone with any life-limiting condition and includes end of life nursing care.

Marie is already making a difference to patients and will continue to do so once she qualifies and beyond that, she said.

We are very excited to work in partnership with the Trust to support the opportunity to fund a Trainee Advanced Nurse Practitioner role and believe its the way forward for palliative care nursing.

Emma King, Palliative Care Manager with Western Trust, said: This is a great step for palliative care and we are delighted to have the opportunity to partner with Marie Curie and the Community Foundation of Northern Ireland to develop Marie in her role of trainee Advanced Nurse Practitioner. Its an exciting time for palliative care nursing and we as a Trust are delighted that patients, carers and staff will benefit from the role.

Orla Black, Grants Director at the Community Foundation, added: "We're delighted to have been able to support the development of an Advanced Nurse Practitioner role with Marie Curie through the Cancer Charities Support Fund, and it's great to see Marie take up the trainee post. We hope that it will prove really beneficial to cancer patients and their families within the Western Trust area.
Louth County Council is working to resolve a shortage of school traffic wardens in the county, and along with trying to recruit more, is training up general operatives to provide cover, councillors were told at the Dundalk Municipal District April meeting.

Cllr John Reilly raised the matter at the April meeting, seeking an update on a traffic warden for Mullholland Avenue at the St Malachy's National School, saying that at the entrance there was mayhem when schools get out and that he understood that there was a vacancy for a traffic warden there that was not being filled.

Senior Engineer Mark Johnston responded to say that there is a problem with getting enough school warden's at the minute, and that Louth County Council does not have enough wardens to cover what is required at present.

Mr Johnston went on to say that the Council is trying to recruit school wardens at present as we're short of wardens generally. He said that they are trying to train up some general operatives to fill in but they have to be garda vetted, and by the time they appoint school wardens, it will be for next season.

Cllr Conor Keelan put forward that he had raised previously that in some cases, school children are used to act as traffic wardens, with similar schemes being used in Copenhagen, and put forward that they be used here to address the problem.

Cllr Tomas Sharkey agreed that there are programmes were students act as traffic wardens in teams of six, with three on each side of the road and a lolipop on each side also.

Mr Johnston said, following a query from Cllr Robert Nash in relation to the appointment of a traffic warden at the Avenue Road/Inner Relief Road roundabout, that once they install pedestrian crossings they usually remove the school wardens, who are then moved somewhere else.

He added that it does free up more people, but with more retiring since Covid they are still a bit short. Mr Johnston further added that the six student team of traffic wardens is a good idea and he would raise it with the road safety officer who deals with the schools.
Dundalk headquartered Uniquely says it is delighted to be officially differentiated in the sectors it supports as one of the Best Workplaces in Ireland in 2024.

The sales and service outsourcing partner was recently recognised at the 22nd annual Great Place to Work Awards. This recognition showcases organisations setting their ambition to build a great workplace culture and employee experience.

This is also the first year that Uniquely has been named as a top Irish workplace following direct feedback from its staff, provided as part of an extensive and anonymous survey about the overall workplace experience.

Simon Brown, Chief Operating Officer at Uniquely said: In an indisputable competitive talent market, we are delighted to be recognised by our people as an employer of choice.

Experience is central to what we do; we deliver exceptional experiences for our customers, putting them at the heart of every action. This is why it is great to be recognised for our commitment to creating a high-trust work experience for our staff where they can thrive.

Established in 2006, Uniquely boasts a wealth of experience in diverse markets, collaborating with various organisations to enhance customer engagement and satisfaction. Its expertise, rooted in knowledge and practical experience, spans service solutions in sectors such as Energy, Financial Services, Medical Technology, Telecoms, Media, and Retail.

Uniquely has Customer Engagement Centres in Dundalk and Galway, field sales teams operating nationwide, as well as offices in Manchester. The company partners with large Irish and International businesses such as AIB, Bord Gais Energy, Sky, Pinergy, SSE Airtricity and the Irish Red Cross.

Commenting about all the exceptional companies recognised as a Best Workplace in Ireland 2024, Cathal Divilly, CEO of Great Place to Work Ireland said:

These organisations' dedication to fostering an environment where all employees can thrive is inspiring, and this recognition is a testament to their unwavering commitment to maintaining this. They have exceeded expectations in their dedication to their employees and cultivated a great workplace culture where everyone can be themselves and thrive at work.

This achievement is not just a milestone but a reflection of their tireless efforts at crafting workplaces where talent not only flourishes but also feels valued and empowered." He added, I'd like to congratulate these organisations once again on this outstanding achievement, and may this recognition fuel their continued journey towards excellence and innovation.
A group of ten of their Computing students from Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) recently took part in an EU funded project, called Start-IT in Belgium.

The DkIT students joined a total of 50 students from all over Europe which included participants from Ireland, Finland, Germany, Poland and Portugal in this recent project.

The aim of the Start-IT Antwerp project was to teach students soft skills and future skills in a multidisciplinary setting.

The non-DkIT students were mainly from Computer Science and Business Studies undergraduate degree courses, however, some students from other disciplines also participated in the project.

The DkIT students were from the BSc (Honours) in Computing in Software Development and the BSc (Honours) in Mathematics and Data Science.

The students from the various undergraduate degree courses and colleges were formed into inter-college, diverse, international and multidisciplinary teams. The student teams were tasked with producing a mobile app prototype along with a suitable business and marketing plan. The teams got to choose the focus of their mobile app.

However, all mobile apps had to relate to sustainability within an eco-friendly city. The teams were also required to give three presentations during the projects ten days.

The DkIT students really enjoyed both the experience and learnings of participating in an international project of this type, feedback from the students included, "I loved working in a multicultural real-world environment. It opened my imagination to the opportunities I might have as a software developer in the future."

Another said "Participating in this project was a transformative experience, allowing me to develop confidence in public speaking, embrace open idea-sharing, and gain invaluable insights into diverse cultures. It was a journey of personal and professional growth that I'll always cherish.

Being part of the Start-IT project was a great experience where I made great friends who came from different parts of Europe. It improved my design, business as well as communication skills. It also made me more dedicated towards protecting the environment."

Another student further added "In Start IT, it's not just about projects but it's more of a personal growth journey. It pushes you beyond your comfort zone, exposing you to diverse experiences. It's about learning new skills and finding joy in connecting with others."
An award winning film which explores the musical links between the Oriel area and southwest Donegal will screen in Newry next week.

The screening of the award-winning documentary television programme, The Life and Times of Johnny Doherty at Gaelaras Mhic Ardghail next Wednesday 17th April offers an opportunity to examine and celebrate the extraordinary links between Oriel and southwest Donegal, which reach back many generations.

Since Peadar O Dubdha moved his Irish speaking college from Omeath to Rannafast in 1924, generations of families from this area have made annual pilgrimages to Rannafast and other areas of the Donegal Gaeltacht to improve their Irish, and immerse themselves in the rich traditions of music, songs and poetry.

The musical talents of the famed Donegal travelling family, the Dohertys, dates back as far as the flight of the Earls in 1607.

The Hardee's left Doe Castle on the shores of Sheep Haven and since then continued the family business of travelling tinsmiths, musicians, storytellers and men of literature.

More recently, John claims that he was descended from Turloch Mac Suibhne, An Piobaireach Mor, whose ancestral home was south west Donegal in the 18th century.

The documentary will be presented by Bronagh McAtasney on behalf of NIScreen and she is keen to encourage questions and discussions on the material.

Volunteers from OTMA will also be on hand to locate the documentary in the context of the Oriel Traditional Music Archive.

Every young traditional musician, and certainly every fiddle player should attend this very important presentation. The intergenerational dimension of learning and assimilating Irish traditional music is a key component of our tradition says Tommy Fegan, piper and co-author of the book Free Spirits - Irish Travellers and Irish Traditional Music, and he adds that without understanding the past, we cant hope to fulfil our musical ambitions for the future.

In addition to the documentary, OTMA is presenting a fascinating story on a recent surprise find of a song written over 40 years ago, and thought to have been lost. It has a political, cultural and a humorous twist.

The event is organised by the Oriel Traditional Music Archive and will take place on Wednesday 17th April, 7pm-9pm in the Gaelaras Mhic Ardghail, Newry. Everybody is welcome. Admission is free.

The Oriel Traditional Music Archive is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Tanaiste Micheal Martin did not refute suggestions that a referendum to approve Irelands participation in an EU patent court will not be held in June as planned.

The Unified Patent Court aims to make it easier for businesses and inventors to copyright their ideas and inventions across the EU  meaning they would only need to make one patent application instead of several.

The court opened in June last year and has 17 EU countries as members.

The Irish Government said in January it had approved the drafting of a bill that would allow Ireland to take part in the patent court.

But following a report in the Irish Independent on Thursday that suggested the referendum in June was in doubt, Mr Martin said they were running out of time to hold the referendum on the same date as the local and European elections, June 7.

He denied the suggestion that the government was afraid to run another plebiscite after a double rejection of two referenda in March.

The new Enterprise Minister, Peter Burke, is to bring a memorandum to government on Tuesday on whether to run the referendum in June as planned.

Speaking on Friday, Mr Martin said: My view is that time is running short between now and the local elections.

Ive always had a view myself that referendums ideally should be held on their own, and not in the context of other elections.

Others have different views, others felt that with local elections, European elections, you get a reasonable turnout to vote on a given referendum.

The problem is getting the focus and time to focus on important issues. To amend the constitution is a very serious issue and it needs proper time, proper preparation and explanation to the public, in this case the Electoral Commission needs adequate time.

So my view is were running out of time in respect of the local elections and European on that date to hold the patent referendum.

Its an important referendum in its own right, very important in terms of the industrial base of Ireland, life sciences, technology, and the research that underpins a lot of jobs in Ireland so we have to work on getting it done, and I think we need to do more work in terms of explaining to the public what is involved.

He said a final decision would be made on Monday evening when the three coalition party leaders will meet to discuss it.

Asked whether the government was afraid it would get another resounding defeat in the referendum as they did in the care and family referendums in March this year, he said no and cited his belief that referendums should run separately and on their own.

Mr Martin, who directed what he called the Lisbon Two referendum, added that he learned a lot from that and has long-believed that referendums should be held on their own.

He added: I have a very healthy respect around putting amendments to the constitution to the people, you cant do it in a rushed manner or in a manner that can leave it open for confused debate.
Chinese military ready to boost ties with Indonesian counterpart: defense spokesperson

Xinhua) 11:11, April 13, 2024

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese military is willing to work with its Indonesian counterpart to further consolidate strategic mutual trust, enhance pragmatic cooperation, and elevate the relationship between the two militaries to new heights, a defense ministry spokesperson said on Friday.

Wu Qian, a spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to a media query regarding the visit of Prabowo Subianto -- president-elect of Indonesia, general chairman of the Great Indonesia Movement Party and defense minister of Indonesia -- to China as well as the mil-to-mil relations between China and Indonesia.

Prabowo's visit to China was the first leg of his first overseas visit as Indonesian President-elect. This demonstrates the great importance he attaches to China-Indonesia friendship and his earnest desire to advance the relations between the militaries of the two countries, Wu said.

The Chinese and Indonesian militaries have maintained high-level interactions over the recent years, with a strong momentum of development in areas such as joint exercise and training and reciprocal ship visits, Wu said.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
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The Springfield, Vt., Senior Center believes that all senior members of the community can participate in the center activities. There is no membership fees.

The center is located at 139 Main Street in Springfield.

Activities

Hand and Foot card games will be at 1 p.m., Feb. 16. Drop in Corn Hole/Shuffleboard will be at 1 p.m., Tuesday. Nickel Bingo will be at 1 p.m., Friday. The Knit Wits will meet at 1 p.m., Feb. 15.

AARP Tax Aid will be starting on Monday. They will be here on Mondays, Tuesdays and half day on Thursdays. Appointments are needed.

 The centers seniors are headed to the MGM Casino in Springfield, Mass., on Monday, April 15. The cost of the trip is $50. We base our price on 40 people, so if more people sign up you will receive money back. Deadline to sign up is March 29.

At 1 p.m., Feb. 7, seniors will be making Valentines for the nursing homes and veterans in our area.

At 1 p.m., Feb. 14, the center will have the Green Mountain Express Band playing for it.

The Songsters are looking for more people who would like to join the group, they meet every Friday morning at 9 a.m.

 The center has its 60th Anniversary booklet for sale at the center for a $2 donation.

 With winter weather here, the Senior Center will follow the Springfield Schools for delays and closings. If school is delayed 2 hours the center will open at 10 a.m. If school is canceled the center will also be closed.

 The center is still collecting food items for the local food shelves.

 Appointments are needed for foot clinics. You can call the center to schedule one. The price is $25.

If you have any questions about anything above, please reach out to Lori Johnson, Executive Director, at either 802-885-3933 or [email protected].
By LUCAS WOODS

Eagle Times Correspondent

NEW LONDON, N.H.  Gregory Rusnica, senior landscape Architect at Bonin Architects & Associates (BA&A) in New London, will receive an award for Outdoor Design: Landscape Without Pool at the New Hampshire Home 2024 Design Awards gala on Thursday, April 18 in Manchester, New Hampshire.

At the gala, New Hampshire Home will award 25 projects that display excellence and creativity in home design in residences throughout the state.

Rusnica, who has been with BA&A since 2011, said that he works primarily with residential architecture. He noted the uniqueness of his work in the Lakes Region and how he considers the greater environment when creating designs.

I think having that environmental focus is one of the big differences between residential lakefront design, as opposed to commercially designed shopping centers or something like that, Rusnica said. In New Hampshire, and the Lakes Region in particular, the lakes are probably the greatest resources of the state. They drive our economy, they drive tourism, and they drive property value. Protecting those resources is critical, which is why theres so many levels of regulation. Its an important job.

Rusnica also appreciates being able to work in his own community. He noted how good it feels to be known locally for his work, and that locals respect his opinions, knowledge, craft and feel comfortable asking for his opinions and expertise.

I think its definitely a sense of pride to live here and work here. This is a beautiful area, and I feel very fortunate to be able to do a good job not only for our clients, but I think its beneficial to the community on a on a larger level, Rusnica said.

Rusnica emphasized his passion for landscape architecture, noting that the profession combines engineering, architecture and artistic expression. He added that he enjoys the creative outlet his work gives, as well as the technical aspects.

He explained how impactful it is to not only do this work for the community and state as a whole, but to be commended for his accomplishments.

I think when youre recognized by a professional jury of other designers, of your peers, its gratifying that people that do the same thing you do hold your work in high regard. I think theres the sense of pride that that comes with that. Rusnica said.

Rusnica also acknowledged the significance of teamwork in his profession, and how that sets his residential work apart.

Its great to be recognized for your design, but theres a lot of other people that help you through, right? Theres our firm leadership, our project managers, our network of contractors. Nothing comes out good unless all those people get together and deliver a final product. Im grateful for all those people as well, Rusnica said.

The Design Awards gala will take place at The Venues at the Factory in Manchester from 5 to 8 p.m. on April 18. Tickets can be purchased at tinyurl.com/49wzz395.
Eagle Times Staff

CONCORD, N.H.  The Granite States spring turkey season opens on May 1 and runs through May 31. The youth turkey hunt takes place the preceding weekend, Saturday April 27 and Sunday April 28. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department urges hunters to take advantage of the states weather, woodlands and natural resources this year with hunting safety in mind.

To participate in the youth weekend, hunters must be age 15 or younger and be accompanied by a properly licensed adult aged 18 or older. The mentoring adult may not carry a firearm or bow. Youth hunters do not need a hunting license, but they must have a valid turkey permit, which is $16 for residents and $31 for nonresidents. Accompanying adults must hold either a current New Hampshire hunting or archery license and a turkey permit.

We have had record turkey harvests the past five spring seasons, said Allison Keating, Fish and Games Turkey Project Leader. While its great to see so many hunters have a successful spring season, it is more important than ever to know your target and what lies beyond before taking a shot, Keating said. Hunters are strongly encouraged to maximize pre-season scouting and be prepared with back-up locations if their desired spot is busy with other hunters or outdoor enthusiasts.

Hunters should be aware of and continue to take precaution to safeguard against the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) detected in avian species in New Hampshire and across the country since last year. Hunters are encouraged to take extra precautions. Learn more at tinyurl.com/ycy5b4bd.

Turkey hunters will continue to have the option to register their harvested birds online or in person at a local registration station. All harvested birds must be affixed with the tag that is issued with the hunters turkey license immediately after take, and all birds must be registered within 24 hours. Hunters choosing to harvest two birds in the spring (where permitted) must register their first bird prior to taking a second bird. Learn more at tinyurl.com/4f3kkyvy.

Spring turkey hunters interested in harvesting two male or bearded birds may take one bird statewide and the other may only be taken in Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) H1, H2, I1, J2, K, L, or M. The first bird must be legally registered before another bird can be harvested.

Turkey hunters who harvest a second bird during the spring season forfeit their chance to take a bird during the statewide fall archery and shotgun seasons. The fall shotgun season is restricted to designated WMUs. Read about all regulations in the NH Hunting Digest, wildlife.nh.gov/hunting-nh.

People who would like to try hunting turkeys this spring and were unable to complete Hunter Education should consider the Apprentice Hunting License. This license allows those age 16 and older interested in trying hunting to do so under the guidance of an experienced hunter without first taking Hunter Education. Learn more at tinyurl.com/52zfz6sz.

Licenses are available online at nhfishandgame.com or from license agents that are open at this time.
NEW community responder groups are to be established in Cork, Limerick, and other locations by the emergency response charity Critical, which confirmed the appointment of its new CEO this week.

The new chief executive, David Tighe, volunteered with the British Red Cross Fire and Emergency Support Service for four years and received the Dunant Award for attending the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017.

He has also served as a volunteer emergency responder with the Irish Coast Guard.

A former CEO and programme director at Limericks Live 95, Mr Tighe described his appointment as an honour.

He said that he is committed to expanding the services network of emergency responders to even more communities across Ireland.

It is most effective when the emergency services, critical care doctors, and first responders work closely together, he said.

The care a person receives in the minutes after they fall ill or get seriously injured can ultimately be the difference between life and death.

Its incredible to see the impact that volunteer responders can have in an emergency.

I saw it in Grenfell, and we witnessed it in Creeslough when our volunteer doctors raced to the scene.

Every day, our volunteers are responding to cardiac arrests, collisions, and other life-threatening emergencies.

Their equipment is entirely funded by donations and fundraisers carried out by the public.

The charity is now based in Croom, Limerick, having been based in Rathcoole, North Cork, since 2009. It had been operating the helicopter emergency response service and such was its success that the service is funded by the State.

The charity has established a Community First Responder group in Limerick and plans to add additional groups this year.
A FILM telling the topical tale of two teenage boys from Senegal as they try to get into Europe, which was shortlisted for the best international feature Academy Award, has been chosen to open the Cork leg of a 10-day Italian Film Festival which takes place at the end of this month.

Io Capitano is the opening course of a three-day film feast in the Cork cinema, which sees the festival screen six Italian films, all subtitled in English.

Other films to be shown during the N.I.C.E. Italian Film Festival include Il Primo Giorno Della Mia Via, directed by Paolo Genovese, which tells the story of having the strength to start again in life when everything seems to be falling apart.

Felicita, directed by Micaela Ramazzotti, is the story of a broken family, of selfish and manipulative parents who devour every hope of freedom for their children.

Dieci Minuti, directed by Maria Sole Tognazzi, shows how, in the middle of an existential crisis, doing something new for 10 minutes can change the course of a life, while Palazzina LAF, directed by Michele Riondino, is set in the Ilva Steel Plant in Taranto in southern Italy.

The festival closes on Sunday, April 28, with Lultima Notte Di Amore, directed by acclaimed Italian actor, writer and director Andrea Di Stefano. It is about a police lieutenant who, on the eve of his retirement, is asked to investigate a crime scene where his best friend has been killed during a diamond heist.

This years edition of the N.I.C.E. Italian Film Festival marks its third time in Cork. Screenings will also be hosted in Dublin and Galway during the festival, which is organised by the Embassy of Italy in Ireland, the Italian Institute of Culture, and the Italian Irish Chamber of Commerce.

The Cork leg is organised in collaboration with the Department of Italian in UCC and the Cork International Film Festival. Screenings in Dublin (starting April 25) are in the Light House Cinema while Galways Palas Cinema will host three days between May 3-5.
A 25-YEAR-OLD man who allegedly said to a garda at the scene of a house fire, where a petrol can was found in one of the bedrooms: I did it, I set fire to the room, was remanded in custody last Wednesday until May 1.

Judge Mary Dorgan previously refused a bail application by 25-year-old Shane Hendricks, of 12 Kilmore Heights, Knocknaheeny, Cork, when he appeared before Cork District Court charged with arson of his own family home.

Garda Cillian OConnell said gardai were opposed to bail because of the seriousness of the alleged offence: Arson.

Garda OConnell testified: Gardai attended a report of a house fire at 12 Kilmore Heights. On arrival, gardai were met by Cork city firefighters, who informed gardai there had been a fire set in the rear bedroom.

A petrol can had been recovered from the bedroom and there was extensive damage to the bedroom. Gardai were also made aware that there were two occupants in the house when the fire was set, but were out of it when the gardai arrived.

While gardai were in attendance, Shane Hendricks, of 12 Kilmore Heights, approached them and said to Garda David ODonoghue: I did it, I set fire to the room.

On being searched at the scene, he was found to have a burnt lighter in his pocket.

He said in interview that he had consumed a number of cans of alcohol, prior to setting the fire while at home, and that he is currently off his medication, which he is prescribed.
TRANSPORT Minister Eamon Ryan has refused to fund an audit of Cork city and suburbs footpaths, which representatives hoped would paint a clearer picture on the dangerous status of footpaths right around the city.

Labour candidate for the South East Ward Peter Horgan received a response to a Parliamentary Question which stated: Local authorities are required to carry out road safety audits and road user audits for certain State funded regional and local road works.

Mr Horgan said: This is raised at every door I knock on, adding: Basic transport is walking, but so many people  be they young, old, require wheelchairs or are pushing buggies  find that the footpaths in Cork are simply crumbling away.

The city council has indicated they could not fund an audit, and now the minister for transport has said he will not fund one either.

Its simply not good enough that funding cannot be allocated to conduct an independent audit so we have a clear, objective picture on the scale and cost of the repairs needed.

It comes as Mondays meeting of Cork City Council was the scene of a 45-minute debate about the state of footpaths, with councillors suggesting that borrowing money to fix them and expanding the active travel scheme to also include footpaths, as walking is a form of active travel.

Ten different councillors had written motions related to footpaths, and many more spoke about footpaths in need of investment in their local area, including Workers Party councillor for Cork City North East Ted Tynan.

Mr Tynan shared that he knows of two people who have been knocked from their wheelchairs due to dangerous footpaths, and that he himself had taken a fall at a section of uneven pavement, a fall which left him winded and bleeding.

Sinn Fein councillor for Cork City North West Mick Nugent proposed that Cork City Council write to the relevant Government department proposing that Active Travel Funding would also allow repairs to existing footpaths.

He told The Echo:

Its a kind of a continuing debate at city council, the issue of repairs to footpaths, accessibility problems, and the cost to the council in terms of cases taken is considerable.

Mr Nugent discussed the idea of taking out a loan that had been proposed, saying: We did it for housing, but we were able to service that loan with the rental income, so taking out a loan for footpaths could be an issue.

I just thought, were debating it long enough, why not just write to the minister and ask: Can you look at this?. Active travel funding is great, but it would be great if we could adjust it.

Following the debate, Social Democrats local election candidate Padraig Rice said: Cork City Councils debate on footpath repair is too little, too late  the council has completely

neglected to look after the footpaths in the city over the last five years.

The 200,000 allocated by current sitting councillors to footpath repairs in Cork city is woefully inadequate.
Latest:

The Sydney knifeman was a 40-year-old and his attack is not thought to be terror-related, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said.

Ms Webb told a press conference: Later this evening we became aware of who we believe the offender is and we believe that he is a 40-year-old man.

However, we are waiting to formally identify him and we cannot speculate yet on his identification.

But let me assure you that we are confident that there is no ongoing risk and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased.

She added: If in fact it is the person that we believe it is, then we dont have fears for that person holding an ideation  in other words, that its not a terrorism incident.

He is known to law enforcement but we are waiting to identify him formally.

Meanwhile, five women and a man were killed in the Sydney shopping centre stabbing, New South Wales Police has said.

In a press conference the force said four women and a man died in the shopping centre and another woman passed away in hospital.

The offender has also died.

A nine-month-old infant has undergone surgery and about eight people, including the child, are in hospitals around Sydney receiving treatment for different injuries as a result of the attack.

11:30am

The death toll from the Sydney stabbings has risen to seven, including the lone knife attacker, New South Wales Police said.

A knife attacker killed six people and injured several others in a stabbing spree at a Sydney shopping centre before being shot dead by police.

The lone knifeman attacked shoppers on Saturday afternoon at the Westfield shopping centre in the suburb of Bondi Junction in eastern Sydney.

A New South Wales Police officer confronted the attacker and shot him dead as he raised a knife and reportedly lunged at her.

New South Wales Ambulance service said it had taken eight patients to hospital.

Police have not identified the attacker but believe he acted alone and have not ruled out terrorism as a motive.

One of his victims is a small child, reported to be nine months old, who is being treated in hospital.

10:15am

Six people died at a Sydney shopping centre where a stabbing attack took place and eight patients were transported to hospital, New South Wales Ambulance said.

A spokesman for New South Wales Ambulance told a press conference: Shortly after 3pm today, New South Wales Ambulance received multiple calls for persons stabbed within Westfield Bondi Junction.

Weve responded a total of 40 resources to the scene who remain on scene still. That included a total of four medical teams.

New South Wales Ambulance assessed and transported eight patients to various hospital facilities across Sydney and assessed a total of six patients who have been deemed deceased on scene.

Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, said he is is making immediate arrangements to return to Sydney following the shopping centre stabbings.

He said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter: I am horrified to hear about the events at Bondi Junction this afternoon.

I am making immediate arrangements to return to Sydney.

I want to thank NSW Police, emergency services and first responders and the community for their bravery in the face of this shocking incident.

NSW police said they do not know of any motive or any ideology at this stage.

Asked by reporters if he would rule out terrorism, Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of the force, said were not ruling anything out.

He said: This all happened very, very quickly  the officer that was in the vicinity attended on her own, was guided to the location of the offender by people who were in the centre.

She took the actions that she did saving a range of peoples lives; (she was) an inspector, a senior police officer  she was on her own. She engaged immediately on her arrival to the scene.

I dont have any indication of any motivation coming from the scene at all.

A small child has been taken to hospital and Mr Cooke said he did not know if any other children have been injured.

Mr Cooke said he had not seen anything like the incident at Sydney before and that this is a very difficult circumstance.

He said the investigation will be lengthy and precise.

He said: We are working through the crime scene to retain control.

First and foremost this is about dealing with this terrible situation making sure that people safe, and then working through and returning to normalcy. He apologised for not being able to give more information at this stage and said he would be briefing his executive shortly.

Earlier:

Five people have died and a small child has been taken to hospital after a stabbing attack in a Sydney shopping centre, New South Wales Police said.

Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police, told a press conference: Im advised that there are five victims who are now deceased as a result of the actions of this offender.

There are more than several other people who have been conveyed to hospital  a number of those are in serious and or critical conditions at this stage and I do not have further information in relation to descriptions of those people.

I know one of them is a small child.

He added: A man walked into Westfield at Bondi Junction, he left the centre very shortly after and returned at about 20 past three; as he moved through the centre he engaged with about nine people.

It is clear that during that engagement he caused harm to those people, we believe by stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying.

Very clearly a range of reports were made on the incident, police attended promptly  a single unit officer, inspector of police, was nearby, attended, (and) went into the centre directed by a range of people.

She confronted the offender who had moved, by this stage, to level five.

As she continued to walk quickly behind to catch up with him he turned to face her, raised a knife, she discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased.

NSW police said it believes the offender in the Sydney attack acted alone.

Mr Cooke said: I am content that there is no continuing threat; our police, as I said, have commenced investigations into the matter which will continue through the evening.

I do not have details of victims who have been killed by this individual, nor those who have been conveyed to hospital for treatment  so I cannot provide you further information into relation to them, only to say very clearly our hearts go out to all of them, as they do (to) anyone touched by this incident this afternoon.

I do not have information in relation to the offender  I do not know, at this stage, who he is, you would understand this is quite raw.

Inquiries are very new and we continue to make attempts to identify the offender in this matter.

That is it for the moment, in terms of information that I have for you.

A shopper at the centre near Australias Bondi beach where several people were stabbed said the attacker was on a killing spree.

The shopper, who was not named, told ABC News: He just started floating towards us and all I heard was put it down and then she shot him.

But we were in no doubt, if she didnt shoot him, he would have kept going. He was on the rampage.

Then she walked over and gave him CPR. He had a big blade on him  she chucked the knife away.

He looked like he was on a killing spree.

An eyewitness of the Sydney attack said he was near in a cafe with his two small children when he saw a man stabbing people indiscriminately.

ABC News Australia spoke to the witness, who did not want to be identified, and reported: He saw a bloke in a green shirt start stabbing people indiscriminately, he handed off his kids to his wife who escaped before he started trying to help a woman who had been stabbed outside.

He said he saw screaming, screaming and it didnt seem that long before we heard the boom, boom, boom of the gunshot and we thought and hoped that it was the police. The security guard, he said, was dying 10 metres away.

He grabbed towels there, and there were three people dying right around him (the eyewitness).

It was just carnage, was how he described the situation as it unfolded, he was very much there after he sent his children and his wife to safety.

The first responders didnt realise they were coming in to see multiple critical people, and added the cops were just unreal.
CORK continues its journey and commitment to commemorate those who made sacrifices during the War of Independence.

Two projects, which I engaged with in recent weeks show the continued need to engage with its War of Independence to keep researching for lost objects and to keep evolving the presentation of the stories to the public.

Leo Murphys Shaving Kit, 1921:

Recently Cork Public Museum marked the return to Cork of a small shaving kit used by Commandant Leo Murphy who died at the hands of Crown Forces during the War of Independence in 1921.

Leo Murphy had been targeted by Crown Forces for his role as Commander of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Cork Brigade and his involvement in numerous notable IRA activities in the area, including the killing of British intelligence officer Captain Joseph Thompson in November 1920.

He was shot and killed by soldiers from the Manchester Regiment during a surprise raid on a secret IRA meeting at ODonovans Pub (now OSheas) in Waterfall, on the outskirts of the city, on 27 June 1921. As Leo lay dead at the side of the road, his pockets were searched, and the contents kept as souvenirs of war.

One of the items removed was a small personal shaving kit used by Leo Murphy while on the run. It ended up in display in the Manchester Regiment Museum in the town hall of Ashton-under-Lyne, in Tameside, Greater Manchester.

The museum recently closed, and the Manchester Regiment Collection passed to the care of the Portland Basin Museum in Tameside.

Last year, Cork Public Museum Curator Dan Breen contacted his counterpart in the Portland Basin Museum, Rachel Crnes to enquire about the possibility of arranging the loan of the shaving kit for display in Cork.

The descendants of Walter Leo Murphy came to the museum for a private viewing of the shaving kit before it went on public display.

The shaving kit will be displayed in the museums War of Independence exhibition, By Every Means at Our Command, alongside one of Leo Murphys hats, which was previously donated to Cork Public Museum.

In mid-January this year, as Lord Mayor, I travelled with Dan Breen to Tameside to officially receive the shaving kit taken by Captain Vinning and the Manchester Regiment and to bring it home to Cork.

I visited Dukinfield Town Hall and was greeted by Dublin-born Deputy Mayor of Tameside, Cllr. Betty Affleck, and executive leader, Cllr. Gerald Cooney (also of Irish descent).

Cork Public Museum Curator, Dan Breen on the occasion noted: Cork City Council and Cork Public Museum would like to acknowledge the help and support given to the handover by their colleagues in Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council and the Portland Basin Museum.

The return of the shaving kit to Cork brings closure to one chapter of Irish War of Independence but it highlights the complex history shared by the cities of Cork and Manchester and acknowledges the potential for future collaborations to better understand it.

From his early days in Fianna Eireann, Leo Murphys story was one of courage and resilience. His promotion to quarter master of the 3rd Battalion by the age of nineteen in 1920, is an indication of his leadership qualities and the high esteem in which he was held by all within the Cork IRA.

The commemoration of his life and times in our time shines a spotlight on his leadership and sacrifice. It also, through the Tameside Museum side, showcases why we need to keep searching for objects and documents associated with our War of Independence to make sure the full story is told.

Ballycannon Boys Memorial Park:

In recent weeks the Ballycannon Boys Memorial Park, created by local community group of Clogheen/ Kerry Pike Community Association, has been unveiled.

The park complements the nearby memorial (1945) and honours the memory of six young IRA men that were killed by Black and Tans on 23 March 1921.

The six men killed were Daniel Crowley of Blarney Street (aged 22), William Deasy of Mount Desert, Blarney Road (aged 20 years), Thomas Dennehy of Blarney Street (aged 21 years), Daniel Murphy of Orrey Hill (aged 24 years), Jeremiah OMullane of Blarney Street (aged 23), and Michael OSullivan of Blarney Street (aged 20 years).

The new and detailed information panels in the park highlight that early in the morning of the 23 March 1921, a number of lorries left police barracks in Cork loaded with Black and Tans, British born recruits to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) who wore khaki uniforms & the black belts and caps of the RIC.

The Black and Tans were feared for their ruthlessness and lack of discipline.

The lorries drove out to Kerry Pike where the Tans dismounted and made their way silently over the road, crossing the fields, approaching and surrounding the OKeeffe farmyard. They banged on the front door demanding admittance, and having woken the terrified household began searching the house, then spread out to search the outbuildings, catching the six young men asleep and unarmed in the tack room next to the stables.

What happened next is contested, but it appears that some of the six young men were dragged outside and mistreated as the police demanded to know where they had hidden their arms. There was an attempted break-out as they tried to escape through the surrounding fields.

But a cordon had been posted and one by one the young men were picked off in a hail of high velocity rifle fire and revolver bullets. Some of the bodies were horribly mutilated, some showed marks of having been shot at close range.

The Ballycannon tragedy must also be viewed in the broader context of what was happening elsewhere. During the eight months leading up until the Truce of July 1921, there was a spiralling of the death toll in the conflict, with 1,000 people including the RIC police, British military, IRA volunteers and civilians, being killed in the months between January and July 1921 alone.

This represents about 70% of the total casualties for the entire three-year conflict.

In addition, 4,500 IRA personnel (or suspected sympathisers) were interned in this time. In the middle of this violence, the Dail formally declared war on Britain in March 1921. Between 1 November 1920 and 7 June 1921 twenty four men were executed by the British.

My thanks to all our community groups in our city, who champion our War of Independence past and indeed other local history stories. All such stories underpin Corks rich sense of place and identity.
A 41-year-old Cork woman was jailed for two months for having heroin for her own use two years ago.

Niamh OSullivan of 21 Bride Valley View, Upper Fairhill, Cork, pleaded guilty to the offence at Cork District Court.

The apartment she was present in at Cois Coille, Woodside, Cork, was searched on March 24 2022.

She was searched and found to have five wraps of heroin with a total value of 350 at that time.

The defendant had 139 previous convictions, including seven counts for possession of drugs and as many more convictions for having drugs for sale or supply to others.

Judge Mary Dorgan imposed the sentence on Ms OSullivan and expressed the hope that she would be able to start a new life when she completes her time in prison.
Virgin Media Ireland have apologised to customers in Cork online, as a localised fault has impacted broadband connectivity in the Cork area.

Customers have vented their frustrations on X, formerly known as Twitter, with representatives from Virgin Media Ireland saying the estimated repair time is 7pm.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused. We have a localised fault impacting connectivity in the Cork area. Our team are working to get you back on line as soon as possible. You can check for any fault updates here https://t.co/TlNyqY4aOP  Virgin Media Ireland (@VirginMediaIE) April 13, 2024

People affected have been advised to check here for updates.

In a statement to The Echo, a spokesperson for Virgin Media Ireland said: "We are aware of a localised fault impacting connectivity in the Cork area caused by a vehicle collision overnight.

"Engineers are on site and services are in the process of being restored."
A Gazan woman who managed to escape the embattled enclave because she was married to an Irish man experienced the deaths of multiple members of her family during the Israeli offensive in her former home, she told the several hundred people who attended Saturdays Cork city centre rally.

Abla Shaladan was speaking at the Grand Parade starting point for the rally and march which has been organised weekly since the October 7 massacre by Hamas of over 1,200 attendees at a rock concert which led to a massive Israeli offensive causing more than 33,000 deaths to date.

Ms Shaladan told those attending the 27th weekly march that she had been prevented from leaving Gaza when her Irish husband in October and only managed to escape eventually at the end of February.

She said that during the time she was in Gaza under Israeli bombardment, she was forced to flee six different houses where she had been staying with family members because of Israeli attack and she had suffered extreme hunger during that time.

A number of her relatives had been killed, she told protesters, and this number included her uncle who was killed while out looking for bread.

The rally was also addressed by Gary Baus of Community Actions Tenants Union of Ireland who called for the boycott and divestment from corporations which he said were complicit in Israels military operation against the Palestinian people.

Cork Palestine Soliditarity Campaign chairman Martin Shiel also addressed crowd, estimated by organisers to number 900 people.

We continue to call for immediate action from Ireland  sanctions now!
MAYBE its because we have just come through a Decade of Centenaries; or maybe we are all just too darn busy these days to reflect on our nations landmark anniversaries...

Even so, I find it surprising that the 75th anniversary of the founding of our Republic is due to fall next week with very little in the way of fanfare.

It certainly didnt pass the people of Cork by at the time.

On Easter Monday, April 18, 1949, an estimated 20,000 citizens lined Patrick Street in what the Echo described as the most memorable scene ever witnessed by the citys main thoroughfare.

There had been 21-gun salutes in Cork and Dublin at midnight to mark the severing of the new Republic from the UKs dominions, and a parade of troops were cheered through Cork city, before an open-air mass at Collins Barracks.

The celebrations paid tribute to the new Republic in a manner that reflected in the fullest possible terms the pride of the citizens in their new status, said the Echo. It was fully in accord with the age-long nationalist traditions of Munsters capital.

There cant be many of those 20,000 citizens left standing 75 years on, and it can be hard for us now to imagine the pride and excitement Irish people felt that day.

But, clearly, this was a big deal.

Although the Free State had been founded a couple of decades earlier, and that Easter Monday marked the 33rd anniversary of the Rising, the day the Republic was formed was a hugely significant moment in the psyche of the Irish people.

This country and its people were telling Britain, after centuries of rule and misrule, that His Majesty, George V was now their Majesty. That we didnt do monarchs and all those trimmings here. Furthermore, we didnt want to belong to their Commonwealth of nations either, thank-you very much.

It was a pivotal day; a young nation distancing itself from the binding ties of Britain and its empire, and joining the ranks of countries likes the U.S and France, which similarly forged their republics in blood, sweat, and tears. Ireland was now a republic too; viva la republic.

If outgoing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had had his way, next Thursday could have been a bank holiday to mark the occasion.

Back in 2018, he suggested the Decade of Centenaries should end on April 18, 2024, with parties in all the cities to mark the 75th anniversary of the Republic of Ireland.

Varadkar felt a newly-formed annual Republic Day would be a fitting end to the Decade of Centenaries, fearing they would otherwise end on a downbeat note with the Civil War commemorations.

His call seems to have fallen on deaf ears. What a shame we cant agree to celebrate a truly historic, bloodless moment in Irish history.

******

It wont surprise you one jot to hear that, on that day of days in 1949, there was a split. In Ireland, there is always a split. It may not surprise you either to hear Eamon de Valera was behind it. Dev; the great unifier, the great divider.

He had lost power for the first time in 16 years in 1948, and decided his Fianna Fail party would boycott all celebrations around the declaration of the republic a year later.

Eamon de Valera (pictured) in his time as Fianna Fail leader.

For Dev, there could be no republic until all 32 counties were in on it.

But the events of April 18, 1949, went ahead regardless, and the Echo reported that rumours that some young extremists might put up a counter-demonstration to mark disapproval of partition proved groundless; the only anti-British slogans to be seen are chalked up in Irish on the walls... they call for an end to the use of the English language.

You may be surprised to hear there was also a rump of people opposed to cutting ties with the Commonwealth. This feeling is strong but not organised, stated the Echo.

The Taoiseach of the day was Fine Gael leader John A. Costello, and it is noticeable how keen he was to stress his opposition to Partition and his desire for a united Ireland - in a far more outspoken way than most current political leaders.

He also moved to assuage any fears that Ireland had somehow been cut adrift in those days before the European community of nations had been established

We have put ourselves apart but not cut ourselves adrift from our former association with the great nations of the Commonwealth, said Costello. We have severed the formal links but have not sundered the intangible bonds between us.

The Taoiseach was asked by one reporter: Are we to take it that the use of the word Eire will now be incorrect?

His answer spelt out his belief that Eire could only be used once Ireland was united: It was always incorrect as used. Eire is the Irish for Ireland just as Deutschland is the German for Germany. Eire was confined in its signification to the 26 counties. That was never correct and it will continue to be incorrect.

This perhaps explains the negative attitude of Irish people when well-meaning types, particularly from the UK, think they are using Eire as a courtesy, when it should only be used when the island is one nation.

Of course, to many ordinary people then, all of this was high-brow stuff at a time when most were struggling to put food on the table and coals on the fire. The post-war years were desperately hard and poverty and emigration were rife.

The Echos rather curmudgeonly columnist Eden tapped into this mood when he wrote of those Bank Holiday celebrations in 1949: Though we have been living in a republic since midnight, there hasnt been much change in our affairs. Those who have been free to make holiday have discovered by now that the horses run as slow under a republic as under any other system.

Eden referred to a citizen he saw impatiently awaiting a bus in the city rain that morning. For going on seven and a half centuries, the man growled, we have been waiting for this day, and now its here the buses are running as late as ever!

However, Eden then got serious.

Nevertheless, history has been made. To ensure the coming of this day, men have suffered, fought, bled, and died through generations. Some have suffered, fought, bled, and lived to see its dawn. The day at least calls for a lifting of hats in their memories, and a grateful prayer of thanksgiving from those who have inherited what they fought for.

******

It is interesting to observe how much this country has changed since those words were written three-quarters of a century ago - and, when it comes to public transport, how much has stayed the same!

Would it be fair of me to suggest - especially in light of the recent study about the cost of a united Ireland - that there is less of a yearning now, from most of our politicians and our citizens, for a united Ireland than there was then?

It is certainly becoming more commonplace for commentators to state that they would not vote for a united Ireland if they felt it would negatively affect their livelihoods.

All of this at a time when Sinn Fein stands on the threshold of power, and despite the best efforts of the most repellant British Government in history to make Ireland - north and south - yearn to give it a kicking.

Interesting times lay ahead...

There has been speculation that this island rejoining the British Commonwealth could be part of a compromise offered to Unionists in order to seal a united Ireland. This isnt an unpalatable as it may sound.

It wouldnt mean us losing our republican ethos, as the majority of the Commonwealth members, including all those from Africa, are republics or have their own native monarch.
THE urge to travel can be strong  but if money is tight, are those getaways really possible? Especially if youre young and broke, a phrase thats been popping up on TikTok.

The cost-of-living crisis, rising housing and university costs have all hit young people hard, leading to increased debt, job losses and lack of savings. Plus, when youre starting out on the job market, salaries dont tend to be great.

Yet, despite these challenges, many want to find ways to enjoy travelling abroad, hitting the beach and exploring new destinations.

TikTok content creators crafting videos outlining the best budget-friendly destinations for young and broke travellers  naming places such as Turkey, Austria and the Czech Republic, for example  are a handy place to look for inspiration. So, what tips can travel experts share?

What are the easiest ways to travel if you are young and broke?

Experts are big advocates for second-city travel, encouraging exploration of lesser-known destinations outside the typical tourist hotspots. For instance, opting for Valencia over Barcelona, or Porto over Lisbon, can offer unique and memorable experiences, while being budget-friendly.

Cat Jordan, communications director for travel club Travelzoo, says: Not only will you get to experience something a little more off the beaten track, but it also means youll likely get to enjoy a quieter holiday, away from the hustle and bustle of too many tourists.

A young couple taking a selfie on a ship

Jordan also advises travellers to remain flexible when booking flight and hotel dates, saying that shifting plans by a day or two earlier can lead to significant savings.

When it comes to searching for flights or hotels, always choose the flexible search option if you arent fussy on dates, Jordan says.

That way youll know if youre able to save a few pounds by travelling a day or two earlier.

For cheaper hotel rates over a weekend, we recommend travelling on a Sunday to Monday, when room rates are less expensive and there are bargains to be had.

For beachside breaks, if youre not looking to lie around in a bikini all week, then Cyprus and Greece are great in the shoulder-season months of April and October. Look at dates outside of school holidays and youll likely bag yourself a great deal.

Kelly Duhigg.

Travel expert and founder of Girl With The Passport, Kelly Duhigg, says flexibility is key for finding flight deals.

She says: Use Google Flights to track airfares and set price alerts  youll often find the best bargains on off-peak travel dates. Earning miles with a travel rewards credit card is another option, just be sure to pay it off each month.

Hostels are a total game-changer for affordable stays, too. Not only do they have dorm beds and private rooms at a fraction of hotel prices, but you bond with other travellers and often get breakfast included.

Duhigg also suggests that young people should consider taking advantage of house-sitting opportunities.

She explains: Through TrustedHousesitters, you can stay in homes around the world for free in exchange for caring for pets while the owners are away. Its a fantastic way to save on accommodation.

Couch-surfing is also great  you meet locals who let you crash on their couch or spare room, and they usually show you around too.

A group of young people enjoying a night out on a rooftop.

Are there easy ways to limit spending and stick to a budget during a low-cost break?

Trimming food costs can help young travellers save cash, as relying on grocery stores, restaurants and market stalls can heavily decrease expenditure.

Sara Rodriguez, founder of Madrid Traveling, says: To trim food costs, I rely heavily on grocery stores, mini-marts, and market stalls. Affordable staples let me picnic in parks and prepare light meals in guest kitchens. I also learned that blending in means adopting local customs  so joining locals for an afternoon coffee or beer is often wallet-friendly, while gaining cultural insights. Street food, too, offers snacks on the go at budget-perfect prices.

Pre-planning transportation while you are on holiday is another great budgeting tip, as Rodriguez recommends: With a little pre-planning, public transportation, ride-shares, and bicycle rentals also open up less expensive transit options beyond high taxi fares between areas. Travel guidebooks map out journeys by combining walking segments with affordable modes. Staying a zone or two out from the city centre also finds cheaper, residential neighbourhoods.

Rosalind Cuthbertson.

On travelling while being young and broke, co-owner of website Frequent Traveller, Rosalind Cuthbertson, says: The key is knowing when to spend money versus going for the cheapest option. We would splurge for must-see sights and adventures. Everything else was an opportunity to save as much as possible. It felt so empowering and made us even more passionate about travel! I believe being young and broke taught us to be resourceful in ways that still help us run Frequent Traveller today.

Theres something special about spontaneously exploring the world through youthful energy and clever budget tricks. It builds your sense of adventure!
Cate McCurry, PA

Tanaiste Micheal Martin has appealed to Iran to step back from an escalation, after it pledged to retaliate against Israel over the attack on its consulate in Damascus.

The Fianna Fail leader said there have been very worrying developments between Iran and Israel in recent days.

Iran has vowed to retaliate after two of its top generals were killed in an air strike on its consulate in Syria earlier this month, which the US military believes was carried out by Israel.

Mr Martin used his keynote address to Fianna Fails Ard Fheis on Saturday to appeal for calm.

Speaking in Dublin on Saturday, he said: This weekend there are very worrying developments in tensions between Iran and Israel.

We join with others in appealing to Iran to step back from an escalation which threatens millions more people in the region with conflict.

And events internationally remind us again of the urgency of working for lasting peace and reconciliation on this island.

Turning to events in Gaza, he said that tireless work has been carried out over the past six months to try to bring an end to the war.

Let there be no doubt, the brutal savagery of Hamas on October 7th should be condemned by anyone with basic decency. Nothing could ever justify their objectives and actions, Mr Martin added.

Wonderful to see so many Fianna Fail members and friends gathered at the 82u Ard Fheis.



This is an opportunity to reflect on our achievements in Government and look forward to the future. #FFArdFheis24 pic.twitter.com/azoWjqmICV  Micheal Martin (@MichealMartinTD) April 13, 2024

They should release all hostages and stop their activities, which have brought great misery to the Palestinian people.

But as I have said repeatedly, including in direct discussions with the Israeli government, its war in Gaza is causing a shocking humanitarian catastrophe and cannot be justified.

The evidence shows that war crimes have been committed and the bombardment of the population must be utterly condemned.

He called for a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages and mass humanitarian relief.

The only possible route to peace is for a stable, democratic state for the Palestinian people, Mr Martin added.

I will soon bring to Government a formal proposal, in coordination with other governments we have worked with throughout this conflict to recognise a Palestinian state.

Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern with Micheal Martin as he arrives at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis (Damien Storan/PA)

He also pledged to clamp down on social media companies who fail to comply with safety regulations.

Mr Martin said that every school in Ireland will receive funding to support the banning of smartphones during school time.

Wherever I go in the country, I meet parents who are worried about what is becoming the new public health crisis of our time  the impact on children of social media and being constantly online, he added.

And to the social media companies our message is clear. Take concrete steps to get underage children off your apps, or we will impose those steps on you.

Online safety  getting children off their screens and back talking to each other  these are objectives we should all share.

He said there is also a need to tackle the rising cost of living, which he said is being experienced by every family.

Now and always, Fianna Fail is at its best when it takes on the hardest work.



When it puts serving the people ahead of politics.



When it is willing to take hard decisions today in order to deliver sustained progress for Ireland.



There is much more to be done. #FFArdFheis24 pic.twitter.com/eG87w6iKmT  Micheal Martin (@MichealMartinTD) April 12, 2024

The Fianna Fail leader said the States largest reserve funds will guarantee investments.

Called the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, they will mean that the needs of our citizens are provided for, today and well into the future, he added.

He said the Infrastructure Fund will see that new school buildings, new hospital facilities, roads and public transport will have secured funding.

Mr Martin also used the speech to address climate issues, saying the extreme weather changes are the direct impact of climate change.

No community is being hit harder by climate change than our farmers and the wider agri-food industry, he said.

They are not only our largest indigenous industry, they are also custodians of our nature and our food security.

Micheal Martin at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre (Brian Lawless/PA)

We need our farming community. We need sustainable food production.

Fianna Fail understands that reconciling both food security and action on climate change is a defining challenge of our time  and we have to support farmers in this.

We are putting in place urgent assistance, but more importantly, we will deliver longer-term support.

New technologies, direct aid to farmers and real partnership for change  this is Fianna Fails commitment to secure the future for Irish farming and food production.

He also said that childcare fees will be reduced by 50 per cent from September, pledging to increase funding to create affordable childcare places nationwide.

And when it comes to changes in personal taxes, the priority must be families on low and average incomes who are feeling the most pressure from rising prices, he added.

Thats what weve done this year, and this is our priority for future budgets.

Every cost adds up, and thats why we are also cutting charges for many public services.

Free schoolbooks have been introduced up to the Junior Certificate and will be expanded to all remaining years  permanently lifting a major cost from parents.

On housing, Mr Martin said the Government is reforming planning laws to stop delays to housing projects.

He added: In the last four years more houses have been built than in the previous nine years combined. There is more to be done, but that is real momentum.

Last year alone saw the delivery of 12,000 social homes, and we will go much further. Thousands more are already in the pipeline.

He said the Government will also increase and expand the 750 tax credit for renters.

At a time of real crisis for renters, an unacceptable number of homes have been diverted to short-term letting and lie idle through much of the year, he added.

This year we are going to take much stronger action to return homes to the rental market, and well fund a major expansion in dedicated student housing.
(Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC)

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Jerry Pillay says the WCC cannot reconcile the Decree of the XXV World Russian People's Council, whose head is the Orthodox Patriarch, and which described the conflict in Ukraine as a "Holy War."

The World Russian People's Council is the largest Russian public forum, and according to its Statutes, the head of the council is the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, under whose presidency the annual council meetings are held, said the WCC

According to Newsweek, on March 28, the Russian Orthodox Church approved a document that deems President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine a "Holy War."

MOSCOW CATHEDRAL

"The declaration came during a congress of the World Russian People's Council in which religious, political, and cultural figures in the country met at the site of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a focal point for the Orthodox faith in Russia," said Newsweek.

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-war-holy-1884577

The declaration came during a congress of the World Russian People's Council in which religious, political, and cultural figures in the country met at the site of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a focal point for the Orthodox faith in Russia

On March 27, with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, in the chair, the Decree of the XXV World Russian People's Council "The Present and Future of the Russian World" was approved, the WCC reported.

The decree was addressed to Russia's legislative and executive authorities, and Pillay said it raised grave concerns among WCC member churches.

The Russian Orthodox Church is believed to be the most numerically strong of the 352 member churches of the WCC, which includes most of the world's Orthodox churches (Eastern and Oriental).

It also includes African Instituted, Anglican, Assyrian, Baptist, Evangelical, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist, Moravian, Old-Catholic, Pentecostal, Reformed, United/Uniting and Free/Independent churches, Disciples of Christ and Friends (Quakers).

"Among other concerns arising from the recent decree," said Pillay, "the World Council of Churches cannot reconcile the statement that 'the special military operation [in Ukraine] is a Holy War,'"

He said the world church body could also not align "with what we have heard directly from Patriarch Kirill himself, nor with relevant WCC governing body policy pronouncements, nor indeed with the biblical calling for Christians to be peacemakers in the midst of conflict."

In a meeting with the WCC general secretary in Moscow in May 2023, Patriarch Kirill said that any references he had made to "Holy War" in the current context were related to the metaphysical realm, not the physical armed conflict in Ukraine.

He had agreed with the WCC general secretary that no war of armed violence can be "holy."

"The decree contradicts this position," Pillay noted.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, WCC's highest governing bodies  the central committee in June 2022 and the WCC 11th Assembly in September 2022  have strongly affirmed the position that "war is incompatible with God's very nature and will for humanity and against our fundamental Christian and ecumenical principles."

They explicitly denounced the invasion of Ukraine as "illegal and unjustifiable," says the WCC.

In addition, they rejected "any misuse of religious language and authority to justify armed aggression and hatred."

The WCC noted that the Russian Orthodox Church was represented in key governing body meetings of the church body and the processes leading to adopting these statements.

"In light of the established positions of WCC's highest governing bodies, the WCC cannot accept the decree's presentation of Russia's illegal and unjustifiable invasion of its sovereign neighbor Ukraine as a new stage of the national liberation struggle of the Russian people against the criminal Kyiv regime and the collective West behind it, conducted in the lands of South-Western Russia since 2014,' or the perspective that 'all territory of modern Ukraine should enter into a zone of exclusive influence of Russia,'" said Pillay.

LETTER TO THE PATRIARCH

The WCC general secretary has written to Patriarch Kirill to clarify whether this decree should be understood as expressing the Russian Orthodox Church's position.

He wants to know how such positions can be held by a member church of the World Council of Churches and how they compare with what he has heard directly from the Patriarch himself.

"An urgent meeting has been requested to discuss this matter and to find ways in which the concerns raised within the fellowship can be addressed," said Pillay.

In February 2022, Patriarch Kirill said that Ukraine and Belarus were part of "Russian lands" and called the Ukrainians who were defending themselves against Russian aggression as "forces of evil," pitching the war as a battle for the future of Christianity, Newsweek reported.
Biden says US is 'devoted' to defending Israel and 'Iran will not succeed'

President Joe Biden says he expects an attack on Israel by Iran "sooner rather than later," in answer to reporter questions on Friday.
A Russian guided bomb exploded in a courtyard outside a five-story Soviet-era building, killing a postman and injuring one other in Kharkiv. Kharkiv has always been especially vulnerable to missile attacks due to its proximity to the Russian border
A major beef sector campaign seeking to put a spotlight on the meat is set to return on St George's Day, with an emphasis on the work that farmers do.

The iconic Great British Beef Week (GBBW) returns for its 14th year on 23 April 2024, coinciding with England's patron day.

Launched by a group of female farmers, it celebrates the versatility of British beef while highlighting the commitment of the sector's sustainable practices.

The event is the brainchild of Ladies in Beef, a voluntary organisation founded by Devon producer Jilly Greed and former NFU President Minette Batters.

The group was formed to help drive awareness of the quality of British beef to consumers using a country-wide network of beef producers.

This year, the public will be inspired to experiment with 'naturally delicious' British beef, from traditional UK recipes to global ones.

Ahead of the week-long festivities, farmer and Ladies in Beef member, Anna Blumfield, is hosting an event called British Beef Re-imagined' at Deersbrook Farm in Essex.

She said attendees will embark on a field-to-fork journey, experiencing first-hand the processes involved in British beef production.

AHDB, which backs the initiative, is also collaborating with several well-known food influencers who will lend their expertise to create their own 'British beef re-imagined' dishes.

Karl Pendlebury, from AHDB, said: Beef farmers work hard to produce a quality product to world-class food and farming standards that can give consumers confidence in the food on their plate.

"Along with the animal welfare systems in place around the country, farmers are working with the environment and nature in mind to reduce inorganic inputs and create wildlife corridors

Beef farmer and LiB member, Anna Blumfield added: GBBW is not just about enjoying delicious meals, it also raises awareness about the importance of supporting the British farming community with the challenges they face.

The campaign is supported by AHDB, Hybu Cig Cymru  Meat Promotion Wales, Livestock and Meat Commission, NFU, Red Tractor and charity RABI.
Victoria Beckham has paid tribute to Roberto Cavalli following his death.

Victoria Beckham pays tribute to Roberto Cavalli

The flamboyant fashion designer - who is best known for creating his eponymous fashion house in the 70s - has passed away at the age of 83 and Victoria took to Instagram to share her sadness at the news.

She wrote: "So sorry to hear the sad news of Roberto's passing. He'll forever be an icon."

Brazilian model Adriana Lima wrote on X: "Unapologetic in style spirit. We lost a legend today. Rest in Peace, @Roberto-Cavalli."

And, Giorgio Armani also paid a glowing tribute to the designer.

Armani, 89, said in a statement: "I cannot imagine a vision of fashion more distant from mine than that of Roberto Cavalli, yet I have always had enormous respect for him: Roberto was a true artist, wild and wonderful in his use of prints, capable of transforming fantasy into seductive clothes.

"I have learnt with great sadness of his passing: his Tuscan verve will be greatly missed."

Cavalli was well-known for his glamorous designs and prints. His brand rose to international prominence in the 90s, when his designs were worn by the likes of Beckham, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez.

Fausto Puglisi, who has been the creative director at Roberto Cavalli since October 2020, said in a statement posted on Instagram: "Dear Roberto, you may not be physically here with us anymore but I know I will feel your spirit with me always. It is the greatest honour of my career to work under your legacy and to create for the brand you founded with such vision and style. Rest in peace you will be missed and you are loved by so many that your name will continue on, a beacon of inspiration for others, and especially for me. (sic)"

Sergio Azzolari, the CEO at Roberto Cavalli, insisted that the designer's legacy will always be a "source of inspiration".

He said: "The Roberto Cavalli company shares condolences with Mr. Cavallis family loss. His legacy remains a constant source of inspiration."
A teacher who quit her job to participate in a reality cooking show and became India's first MasterChef. A skydiver who performed a parachute jump in a sari. A doctor who began empowering couples to become parents via IVF years before it was a thing. Bollywood's first stunt woman who began her career at the age of 12. The pages ahead bring you stories of women who dared to step out of their comfort zones to do something for the love of it -- and did it very well! Be inspired!



CHEF PANKAJ BHADOURIA

Indias First Masterchef





Pankaj Bhadouria, Indias first MasterChef, expanded her culinary influence globally post the show. Invitations from prestigious platforms such as Cambridge University, the Varli Food Festival in New York, and a BBC series showcased her expertise overseas. With workshops, masterclasses, and food festivals worldwide, she continues to redefine Indian cuisine with finesse and flavour.



Food is what I do, what I have always wanted to do.

Even as a kid, when I did not know what a chef was or that there was a career in food, I always wanted to do something with food. The inspiration behind it, I guess, was an admiration for good food. Both my parents were excellent cooks. In fact, my mother learned cooking from my father and my grandmother after she got married! People waited to come to parties at our home because they knew the food and its presentation would be excellent. That is what inspired me. I learned from watching both of them cook together and, later, assisting Mom in the kitchen. I could not take it up as a profession but, years later, MasterChef India happened and that changed the course of my life.



After winning MasterChef India in 2010, I set up the Pankaj Bhadouria Culinary Academy in August 2012,

in my hometown Lucknow. I wanted to train budding chefs and help them jump start their dream career. This was also my way of giving back to the industry that had welcomed me so beautifully.



My husband gave up his own job in order to fulfil my dream;

I could not have done all this without his support. I had 16 years of teaching experience, but none as an entrepreneur, and he was the one with the MBA! So the onus of planning, executing and running the academy fell on his shoulders. While I was the one planning the academic structure, he was the one planning and executing all the other details that went into the creation of my dream project.



After winning MasterChef India, I decided to become an entrepreneur

rather than join any hotel as a chef. Soon I was hosting television cookery shows and authoring books (seven so far), devoting time to my academy, travelling the world, getting invited as a speaker so innumerable events, seminars, TEDx sessions, and then, when social media became a huge thing, I began running my own studio and producing content to share on various platforms as well.



To some, I was just the winner of a show,

and that did bother me, but Ive taken it in my stride. I didnt have to prove anything to them, but, later, my work spoke for itself, and they, too, acknowledged that I was a woman who knew her business. There have been many surprises  some pleasant, some not so pleasant. Gender bias does bother me, but I am usually able to rise above it.



My heart is warmed by the amount of love, affection and recognition I have received 

I never expected it to be so wonderful and long-lasting.



My happiness  my entire existence, my entire work, my entire joy  is all related to my children.

Their beautiful faces never fail to pep me up. When work bothers me, I am reminded of a few lines from my favourite poet, Robert Frost  Miles to go before I sleep. These often-quoted famous lines of his have always urged me to move on.



FROM PANKAJ TO YOU. . .

Dream! Please dream! Dreams give us a reason to live, to aspire and achieve! And, whatever dreams you see with your eyes closed, work hard with your eyes open to achieve them!



Also Read: Out Of The Ordinary: Indias First Female Airport Firefighter, Disha Naik
In a week that saw the Australian wool market resume after a one-week hiatus, traders and producers were met with a blend of challenges and opportunities. The week kicked off with the US dollar showcasing a notable 1.5 per cent increase against the Australian dollar in the first two days of trading, casting a softer tone over the wool auctions across Australia. This shift led to widespread declines in wool prices across all types and descriptions, setting a cautious mood among traders.

Despite the initial hesitancy in the market, Chinese top makers quickly adapted to the changing landscape, seizing the opportunity to dominate the purchasing lists on the opening day. Their strategic moves paid off as the market started to show signs of recovery on the second day of selling. A slight uptick in traders' confidence was observed, translating into a more robust purchasing intent and contributing to a steadier market, the Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) said in its commentary for week 41 of the current wool marketing season.

The positive momentum gained further traction by Thursday, especially at the Melbourne wool auction, where a notable surge in market activity was recorded. Prices for wool, particularly the 18 to 21 micron Merino types, saw significant gains, with increases of up to 20ac being reported. This surge was largely attributed to the abrupt decrease in the AUD value against the USD, which fuelled increased buying activity, predominantly from traders, AWI commentary added.

This week, the Australian wool market encountered a mix of challenges and opportunities. The week began with the US dollar appreciating by 1.5 per cent against the Australian dollar, affecting wool prices negatively. However, Chinese buyers swiftly adapted, boosting the market, especially in the Melbourne wool auction where Merino wool prices rose notably.

Amidst these market fluctuations, concerns over Australian wool production persist. The latest key test data from the Australian Wool Testing Authority (AWTA) indicates a concerning trend, with a substantial 22.4 per cent decline recorded for March. This downturn has contributed to an overall seasonal reduction in volume, with figures pointing towards a 3 per cent decrease in tested wool.

Looking ahead, the wool market is gearing up for a busy week, coinciding with the International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO) congress being held in Australia. Despite the significant event, wool sales are set to proceed, with over 46,000 bales scheduled for auction on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)
Congratulations are in order as actress-producer Taapsee Pannu recently tied the knot with her long-time boyfriend Danish badminton player Mathias Boe. The couple are said to have a private Sikh-Christian destination wedding in Udaipur. Even though the newlyweds have not given us a glimpse into their big day, some pictures from the wedding and a video of the couple dancing on a Bruno Mars song did surface on the internet.



While the couple enjoys married bliss, we believe it would be perfect to review the timeline of their 10-year-long relationship.





The first encounter



They met at a time when Taapsee was a leading actress in the Telugu film industry and was just making a place for herself in Bollywood. The actress and the badminton star hit it off when they met at the inaugural of the Indian Badminton League in 2013. Mathias Boe was part of the Lucknow team-Awadhe Warriors while Taapsee Pannu was the brand ambassador of champions Hyderabad Hotshots.

Soon rumours about the couple dating started doing the rounds as Taapsee was often seen cheering on the stands for Mathias who was competing in the India open. This is not only it, Mathias never left a chance to celebrate the talented actress achievements and always showed his support through social media.





Celebrating together





Even though the couple kept their relationship low-key, they did not deny the fact that they were dating each other. Over the years, they have made several appearances on each others social media handles and Mathias was even seen celebrating Holi with Taapsee, her sister and friends.

The years leading up to the big day





Taapsee recently on a podcast was asked about finding love in the film industry, she said I don't know because I have been with the same person for the past 10 years. I started acting 13 years ago and I met him the year I was making my debut in Bollywood, and I have been with the same person since then. I have no thoughts of leaving him or being with anyone else because I am way too happy in the relationship. I feel you are in a good relationship when you do not feel the baggage of the relationship. I always knew that you have to be 'a man' to be in a relationship with me and not a 'boy'"

Other than this she has always dodged questions about her marriage by giving quirky answers to the media.

Currently, everyone is eagerly waiting for photographs and details of the wedding from the couple.
PUNE, India, April 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The report titled "Remote Towers Market by Type (Contingency, Multiple, Single), System Type (Airport Equipment, Network Solutions, Remote Tower Modules), Application - Global Forecast 2024-2030" is now available on 360iResearch.com's offering, presents an analysis indicating that the market projected to grow from a size of $387.87 million in 2023 to reach $1,488.06 million by 2030, at a CAGR of 21.17% over the forecast period.

" Transforming Global Air Traffic Management With The Rise of Remote Towers "

The global aviation industry is witnessing a significant transformation by adopting remote towers, representing a major shift from traditional control towers to digitally operated command centers. These advanced systems, using state-of-the-art cameras and sensors dispersed across airfields, provide air traffic controllers located miles away with a comprehensive suite of visual and data inputs. This shift is due to cost efficiency, the ability to handle air traffic skillfully through cutting-edge technology, and the aim to streamline operations at airports with lesser volumes. Challenges include cybersecurity threats, potential technical glitches, and the dependency on robust data transmission infrastructures, which pose hurdles that must be addressed through stringent security measures and continuous technological innovation. The U.S. and Canada are at the forefront of trialing and adopting these systems in the Americas. In the Asia-Pacific region, vast territories and a willingness to enhance aerospace capabilities drive adoption, and in Europe, established firms are adopting remote tower technology. Even in the Middle East, nations use this technology to expand their aviation capabilities, signaling a universal trend toward more efficient, scalable, and technologically advanced air traffic management solutions.

Download Sample Report @ https://www.360iresearch.com/library/intelligence/remote-towers

" Remote Tower Technology Transforms Airport Operations Amidst Soaring Air Traffic "

As global air traffic continues to witness an unprecedented increase, with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reporting a 41.6% rise in international flights in 2023 and a 30.4% increase in domestic air traffic compared to 2022, airports worldwide are turning to remote tower technology to manage this surge efficiently and safely. This innovative approach enhances safety by improving air traffic controllers' situational awareness through advanced viewing tools and ensures operational resilience. Remote towers present a reliable alternative to traditional control towers, particularly in handling seasonal flight variations and locations requiring costly tower upgrades with centralized management, data backup, and robust disaster recovery mechanisms. Remote towers play a pivotal role in maintaining smooth airport operations, thus catering to the growing demand for air travel while ensuring the highest levels of security and efficiency by facilitating seamless monitoring of aircraft movements.

" The Strategic Implementation of Remote Towers for Enhanced Safety and Cost Efficiency "

Airport authorities are increasingly adopting remote tower technology, a futuristic approach to air traffic management to enhance operational safety and efficiency. Contingency remote towers, serving as reliable backup options, seamlessly adopt control during critical situations such as emergencies, failures, or maintenance downtimes, ensuring uninterrupted airport operations. Multiple remote towers have emerged as a game-changer for regions dotted with low-traffic airports, permitting centralized control over several facilities to optimize resource allocation and reduce staffing requirements without offering safety or operational capabilities. Moreover, single remote towers present an efficient solution for individual airports experiencing moderate to low air traffic, delivering vital airspace management at a fraction of the cost associated with traditional towers. This adaptive technology heralds a new era in air traffic control, blending cost-effectiveness with unwavering safety standards, ideal for present diverse and evolving airport needs.

Request Analyst Support @ https://www.360iresearch.com/library/intelligence/remote-towers

" Thales Group at the Forefront of Remote Towers Market with a Strong 15.59% Market Share "

The key players in the Remote Towers Market include Lockheed Martin Corporation, L3Harris Technologies, Inc., Thales Group, Indra Sistemas, S.A., Frequentis AG, and others. These prominent players focus on strategies such as expansions, acquisitions, joint ventures, and developing new products to strengthen their market positions.

" Introducing ThinkMi: Revolutionizing Market Intelligence with AI-Powered Insights for the Remote Towers Market "

We proudly unveil ThinkMi, a cutting-edge AI product designed to transform how businesses interact with the Remote Towers Market. ThinkMi stands out as your premier market intelligence partner, delivering unparalleled insights with the power of artificial intelligence. Whether deciphering market trends or offering actionable intelligence, ThinkMi is engineered to provide precise, relevant answers to your most critical business questions. This revolutionary tool is more than just an information source; it's a strategic asset that empowers your decision-making with up-to-the-minute data, ensuring you stay ahead in the fiercely competitive Remote Towers Market. Embrace the future of market analysis with ThinkMi, where informed decisions lead to remarkable growth.

Ask Question to ThinkMi @ https://app.360iresearch.com/library/intelligence/remote-towers

" Dive into the Remote Towers Market Landscape: Explore 185 Pages of Insights, 378 Tables, and 22 Figures "

Preface Research Methodology Executive Summary Market Overview Market Insights Remote Towers Market, by Type Remote Towers Market, by System Type Remote Towers Market, by Application Americas Remote Towers Market Asia-Pacific Remote Towers Market Europe, Middle East & Africa Remote Towers Market Competitive Landscape Competitive Portfolio

Inquire Before Buying @ https://www.360iresearch.com/library/intelligence/remote-towers

Related Reports:

ATC Equipment Market - Global Forecast 2024-2030 Flight Management Systems Market - Global Forecast 2024-2030 UAS Traffic Management System Market - Global Forecast 2024-2030

About 360iResearch

Founded in 2017, 360iResearch is a market research and business consulting company headquartered in India, with clients and focus markets spanning the globe.

We are a dynamic, nimble company that believes in carving ambitious, purposeful goals and achieving them with the backing of our greatest asset - our people.

Quick on our feet, we have our ear to the ground when it comes to market intelligence and volatility. Our market intelligence is diligent, real-time and tailored to your needs, and arms you with all the insight that empowers strategic decision-making.

Our clientele encompasses about 80% of the Fortune Global 500, and leading consulting and research companies and academic institutions that rely on our expertise in compiling data in niche markets. Our meta-insights are intelligent, impactful and infinite, and translate into actionable data that support your quest for enhanced profitability, tapping into niche markets, and exploring new revenue opportunities.

Contact 360iResearch

Mr. Ketan Rohom

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/remote-towers-market-projected-to-reach-1-488-06-million-by-2030---exclusive-report-by-360iresearch-302114380.html
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia and CASABLANCA, Morocco and DUBAI, UAE, April 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Kansas Modification Center, LLC (KMC), STRATOS Industries, S.A. (STRATOS), and Integrated Aerospace Alliance, LLC (IAA), announced a ground-breaking collaboration set to redefine the 777-300ER passenger to freighter (P2F) conversion industry. This formal collaboration seeks to unite the unique strengths and capabilities of the rapidly expanding aviation industry in Morocco with the 777-300ER P2F engineering and certification capabilities of KMC and the aerospace engineering, certification, and program management skills of IAA. The project will encompass the development of a 777-300ER P2F production facility at Mohammed V International Airport in Casablanca, Morocco.

With the construction of three wide-body aircraft hangars in Morocco by STRATOS, KMC will be in a position to increase its 777-300ER P2F production output up to eight additional aircraft per year. The Morocco project will allow KMC, STRATOS, and IAA to meet the growing global demand for 777-300ER freighters and of its clients in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The 777-300ER P2F project in Morocco will be further enhanced with the construction and operations of a wide-body aircraft paint hangar by another STRATOS strategic partner.

More information about this collaboration and the specifics of the project will be made available in due course and can be obtained by reaching out to the individuals listed below. KMC, Stratos and IAA are enthusiastic about the prospects that this joint venture presents for each of the partners and the aviation industry in Morocco. We look forward to keeping our stakeholders and customers informed about our progress as we navigate this exciting chapter together.

About KMC:

KMC has partnered with Aerospace industry leader NIAR/WERX and Wichita State University to obtain a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for the 777-300ER P2F. NIAR/WERX currently employs in excess of 800 Engineers (25 years average experience) and a total staff of approximately 1,500. KMC has targeted the first quarter of 2025 for FAA approval of its 777-300ER P2F STC. KMC has already received Project Specific Certification Plan (PSCP) approval from the FAA in May 2023. KMC works in coordination with the FAA to facilitate the STC approval process.

KMC's 777-300ER P2F conversion program has received FAA approval of its Certification Plan, Conformity Inspection Plan, Exemptions, and 6 of 6 FAA Issue Papers. This provides KMC with a clear path to certification of its 777-300ER P2F conversion program.

About STRATOS:

STRATOS primary mission is to become the prominent aerospace and defense company in Morocco and Africa that contributes to the Kingdom of Morocco's aerospace and defense industry development strategy by investing in key aerospace and defense technologies and services. STRATOS has become a leading aviation and aerospace technical solution and services provider in the region, adopting a one-stop approach, offering innovative solutions, engineering, manufacturing and MRO services to airlines, lessors and government special mission aircraft. The diversified STRATOS portfolio of aviation companies and partners includes a broad range of portfolio companies and strategic partners comprised of aviation and defense industry manufacturers and service providers, as well international airlines.

About IAA:

IAA specializes in the provision of aviation industry engineering, certification and project management services. IAA provides these services for airport management projects, VVIP/VIP aircraft interior completions, and aircraft interior STC design and certifications. The IAA management team has been engaged in aircraft and airport engineering, certification and development projects ranging from $10 million to $400 million around the globe including North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Further Information:

Additional joint venture and project information can be obtained by contacting the following individuals:

Mustapha Al Gadoum at Stratos (+212-662-627034 or algadoum@stratos-industries.com);

Eric Kivett (+1-316-841-9088 or eric.kivett@kansasmod.com); and

Aviation Law Partners, PLLC (202-880-5230 or mebert@AviationLawPartners.com).

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/announcing-joint-venture-between-kansas-modification-center-and-stratos-industries-302115880.html
Q2 Fiscal 2024 Highlights

Cash position of $6.6 million as of February 29, 2024

Gross profit of $0.5 million, a 22.7% decline over Q1 2024

Revenue of $5.0 million, a 15.4% decline over Q1 2024

Enrolment in Numinus training programs doubled to over 1,400 learners, compared to over 700 in Q1 2024

Managed 15 clinical trials at Cedar Clinical Research

Provided 17,661 client appointments in Numinus Wellness Clinics

Subsequent to Quarter End

On March 20, 2024, the Company announced that it had submitted a Clinical Trial Application to Health Canada to examine the feasibility of a group model in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, enrolling trainee practitioners as participants

All financial results are reported in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated.

VANCOUVER, BC, April 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - Numinus Wellness Inc. ("Numinus" or the "Company") (TSX: NUMI) (OTCQX: NUMIF), a mental health care company advancing traditional and innovative behavioral health treatments with a focus on safe, evidence-based psychedelic-assisted therapies, today announced its financial results for the three months ended February 29, 2024 ("Q2 2024").

"Over the past two quarters, Numinus has steadfastly focused on fortifying our operations to ensure we are well-positioned for sustainable growth and profitability in the quarters to come," said Payton Nyquvest, Numinus Founder and CEO. "This included reducing headcount across the organization, concentrating on higher margin procedures at our clinics and eliminating our unproductive location in Arizona. While these initiatives have generated one-time impacts in the quarter, they are also enabling us to optimize our patient experience and care model, improve efficiencies, and establish best practices."

"We are also pleased with the success of our Numinus training program. As well as a doubling of the learners enrolled in the program, our Introduction to Psychedelics course is proving to be a pathway to our paid courses, and we recently introduced training for practitioners working with drug developers to facilitate clinical trial research." added Mr. Nyquvest.

Revenue

Revenues declined 15.4% from the prior quarter to $5.0 million in Q2 2024 due to the Company's further optimization of operations to focus on profitability and seasonality effects.

Gross Margin

Sequentially, gross margin declined 310 basis points in Q2 2024 to 33.0% from 36.1% in Q1 2024, reflecting the decrease in revenue compared to the previous quarter.

Operating expenditures

Operating expenditures were $6.4 million in Q2 2024, compared to $6.3 million the previous quarter, a 1.5% increase after excluding a one-time non-cash charge of $0.3M during Q2 2024 relating to the recognition of deferred financing costs from the ATM program. Included in operating expenditures in Q2 2024 were $0.5 million in non-recurring consulting fees related to our cost containment measures. Operating expenses decreased 27.0% during Q2 2024 compared to $9.2 million during Q2 2023. In the quarter, the Company continued its cost containment initiatives to refocus support on revenue-producing activities and profitability.

Operational Highlights

Numinus Wellness Clinic Network

Wellness clinics generated revenue of $4.3 million during Q2 2024, a 9.5% decrease compared to $4.7 million during Q2 2023. The decline in clinic network revenues during Q2 2024 is due to the winding down of operations at the Company's Phoenix, Arizona, location and the contraction of the number of appointments scheduled during the same comparative periods from cost containment procedures while focusing on appointment profitability across wellness clinics.

17,661 clinical appointments in Q2 2024, compared to 19,961 in Q1 2024

Average of 299.3 appointments per operating day in Q2 2024, compared to 316.8 in Q1 2024

5.8% of appointments during Q2 2024 were made by new clients

18.3% of appointments during Q2 2024 were KAT or Ketamine/Spravato medicine-related

6.4% of appointments during Q2 2024 were for TMS services

Numinus Clinical Research

Revenues from CCR during Q2 2024 were $0.7 million, a decrease of 27.1% from $1.0 million during Q1 2024 and a 21.0% increase compared to Q2 2023. The sequential quarter decrease is due to a reduction in high-value clinical trials being completed and the winding down of its research center in Phoenix, AZ. CCR is currently conducting two psychedelic drug candidate clinical trials, with four further expected to commence in Q3 2024, as well as other non-psychedelic studies. Since Q3 2023, CCR has facilitated 26 clinical trials.

Numinus Clinical Training

The Company has built a fulsome certification program to train practitioners in ketamine, 3,4-Methyl enedioxy methamphetamine ("MDMA"), and psilocybin-assisted therapy ("Numinus Training Program") that leverages its expertise in clinic-based treatment and clinical research. The program is accredited by major regulatory bodies in Canada and the U.S. and provided in a blended learning format to optimize adult learning.

As of March 2024, over 1,400 learners have enrolled in Numinus Training Programs

Since the introduction of its free Introduction to Psychedelics training course, over 30 learners have gone on to take more advanced training with Numinus

Numinus Training has diversified its offering to support leading research institutions to train research providers in evidence-based practices for supporting clients in psychedelic clinical trials

Numinus Training has been working diligently on the Oregon Health Authority audit to meet the legislative and competency requirements for psychedelic facilitators in that state

Corporate Updates

On February 14, 2024, Rick Doblin, PhD, the Founder and President of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies ("MAPS"), was appointed as an unpaid, non-exclusive strategic adviser of Numinus

On March 12, 2024, the Company announced Edwin Garner's retirement from its Board of Directors and the appointment of Donna Wilson and Donna Wong as directors. Both directors bring decades of experience in corporate strategy, corporate finance, corporate governance, and people management.

On March 12, 2024, the Company announced the appointment of Melony Valleau as its interim CFO, effective March 28, 2024, upon the resignation of Nikhil Handa. Ms. Valleau brings U.S. corporate finance and capital markets experience to Numinus, which aligns with the Company's plans to increase its presence with U.S.-based patients and investors.

On April 11, 2024, the Company announced that Dr. Reid Robison, the Company's Chief Clinical Officer, will leave his position to focus on his role as lead principal investigator at Numinus and return to private practice. Dr. Paul Thielking, Numinus' Chief Science Officer overseeing the company's research activities, has also assumed the leadership of the Company's clinical function as Chief Medical Officer.

The Company's annual general meeting will be held on May 31, 2024.

Balance Sheet and Liquidity

Numinus ended the quarter with a total cash balance of $6.6 million and working capital of $6.4 million.

Numinus' unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements for the three months ended February 29, 2024, and related management's discussion and analysis are available on Numinus' Investor Relations website at www.investors.numinus.com and under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. These documents were prepared in accordance with IFRS.

Outlook

As an integrated mental healthcare provider, Numinus is building the critical infrastructure of clinical research support, practitioner training, and patient therapy to serve the expected demand for psychedelic-assisted therapy ("PAT"). To take advantage of what it sees as a significant growth opportunity, the Company has focused on optimizing its operations and controlling costs since the third quarter of fiscal 2023.

The Company expects significant growth from the sector as acceptance of PAT as an effective treatment for serious mental health conditions increases and psychedelic drug candidates advance through the drug approval process. According to the newsletter Psychedelic Alpha1, there are currently over 90 potential psychedelic drugs in the preclinical to phase 3 clinical trial stages of drug development. This includes the FDA's acceptance of MDMA as a new drug application with a Prescription Drug User Fee Act ("PDUFA") target action date of August 11, 2024.

It is the Company's view that these trends indicate the beginning of a period when psychedelic treatments for serious mental health conditions may become increasingly available to the public and provide opportunities for continued growth across the three areas of its sector focus.

As a leading provider of clinical research support, Numinus' Cedar Clinical Research (CCR) anticipates that it will continue working directly with drug developers to provide research sites for drug candidates in phase 2 and 3 trial stages. In the last 12 months, CCR has facilitated 26 clinical trials and has established relationships with both psychedelic and non-psychedelic drug developers, which positions it to secure further contracts. A component of many psychedelic drug treatments is therapy to guide patients through their transformation. Numinus hopes to leverage its clinic footprint, treatment expertise in multiple psychedelics and first-mover advantage in PAT to become the provider of choice. To meet the demand for trained practitioners to administer therapies for approved treatments, Numinus has established a comprehensive program. Accreditation is available through major regulatory bodies in Canada and the U.S. after completing the course, which has proven to attract learners and serve as validation for their future clients. The program has demonstrated scalability, doubling enrollment over the past six months. The Company is also in the early stages of launching therapist training programs for drug developers to facilitate clinical research trials.

To prepare the Company for the growth expected from the psychedelic sector, Numinus launched two critical initiatives: cost containment and strategic realignment.

A focus on profitable operations in the U.S.: With psychedelic therapy treatment expected to be approved in the U.S. before other jurisdictions, the Company chose to discontinue its unprofitable clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. With the consolidation of operations at its successful Utah clinics, Numinus is optimizing its patient experience and care model, improving efficiencies, and establishing best practices to be deployed in future expansion.





With psychedelic therapy treatment expected to be approved in the U.S. before other jurisdictions, the Company chose to discontinue its unprofitable clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. With the consolidation of operations at its successful Utah clinics, Numinus is optimizing its patient experience and care model, improving efficiencies, and establishing best practices to be deployed in future expansion. Reducing headcount: Since Q2 2023, Numinus has reduced its headcount by 60% by eliminating non-revenue roles and aligned all remaining employees on growth-oriented initiatives and activities. The resulting leaner and more efficient organization will drive profitable growth.

With the initiatives in place and positive trends in the psychedelic sector, the Company believes it is well-positioned for growth in the quarters to come.

___________________________________ 1 Psychedelic Alpha. Psychedelics Drug Development Tracker, https://psychedelicalpha.com/data/psychedelic-drug-development-tracker. Accessed April 11, 2024

Strategic Review

To best position the Company for continued growth, Numinus' Board of Directors (the "Board") initiated a review process to explore, review and evaluate a broad range of strategic alternatives that may be available to the Company to unlock shareholder value. The Board retained Stifel Canada as its financial and strategic advisor.

Conference Call and Webcast Details

Interested parties are invited to participate in the Company's Q2 2024 results conference call and webcast occurring on April 15 at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time / 2:30 p.m. Pacific time. During the call, Numinus executives will review the Company's performance and recent initiatives and answer questions from analysts and previously provided investor questions.

To listen to the live webcast, please register at:

https://events.q4inc.com/attendee/472052579

The webcast will also be archived on the Events and Presentations page of Numinus' Investor Relations website: www.investors.numinus.com/events-and-presentations.

To participate in the live conference call, please use the following dial-in information:

1 (888) 330-3632 (Toll-free North America)

1 (646) 960-0837 (International)

Please ask to participate in Numinus' Q2 2024 Results Call.

To avoid any delays in joining the call, please dial in at least five minutes prior to the call start time. If prompted, please provide the conference passcode 3547386.

About Numinus

Numinus Wellness Inc. (TSX: NUMI) (OTCQX: NUMIF) helps people to heal and be well through the development and delivery of innovative mental health care and access to safe, evidence-based psychedelic-assisted therapies. The Numinus model - including psychedelic research and clinic care - is at the forefront of a transformation aimed at healing rather than managing symptoms for depression, anxiety, trauma, pain and substance use. At Numinus, we are leading the integration of psychedelic-assisted therapies into mainstream clinical practice and building the foundation for a healthier society.

Learn more at www.numinus.com and follow us on LinkedIn , Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs regarding future performance are "forward-looking statements". Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "expects", "does not expect", "is expected", "believes", "intends", "anticipates", "does not anticipate", "believes" or variations of these words, expressions or statements, that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be" taken, will occur or will be realized. Such forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other known and unknown factors that could cause actual results, events or developments to differ materially from the results, events or developments expected and expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, ability of Numinus to maintain or increase earnings; ability of Numinus to achieve or maintain profitability; results of changes to operations from a financial or business perspective; the effect of cost containment measures on Numinus business and financial position; changes to cash burn rate, expenses, corporate programs or priorities, or unanticipated costs affecting cash runway or the pathway to positive cashflow or profitability, the effect of any transaction or other activity undertaken by the company in connection with the strategic review; interest in, uptake of and the ability to commercialize the Numinus Training; receipt of and/or continued approval of the clinical trial application by Health Canada for experiential opportunities for practitioners training to offer MDMA-assisted therapy; availability of subjects and trainers for experiential opportunities in practitioners training, if approved; dependence on obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals, including the acquisition and renewal of federal, provincial, municipal, local or other licenses, and any inability to obtain all necessary government authorizations, licenses and permits to operate the Company's facilities; regulatory or policy changes such as changes in applicable laws and regulations, including federal, state and provincial legalization, if any, due to fluctuations in public opinion, industry perception of integrative mental health, including the use of psychedelic-assisted therapy, delays or inefficiencies or any other reason; any other factor or development likely to hamper the growth of the market; the Company's need for additional financing and the effects of financial market conditions and other factors on the availability of capital; competition, including that of more established and better funded competitors; the need to build and maintain alliances and partnerships, including with research and development companies, customers and suppliers; the effect, if any, that the Consolidation may have on the liquidity and price of the Company's common shares and its ability to maintain its listing on the TSX and OTCQB; and other risk factors set forth in our annual information form dated November 29, 2023 and available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. These factors should be carefully considered, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Despite the Company's efforts to identify the main risk factors that could cause actual measures, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, other risk factors may cause measures, events or developments to materially differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to revise forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available as a result of future events, new facts or any other reason, except as required by applicable laws.

SOURCE Numinus Wellness Inc.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- American Shared Hospital Services (NYSE American: AMS) (the "Company"), a leading provider of turnkey technology solutions for stereotactic radiosurgery and advanced radiation therapy equipment and services, today announces the sudden passing of its Chief Executive Officer, Peter Gaccione.



Ray Stachowiak, Executive Chairman of American Shared Hospital Services, said, "On behalf of my colleagues at AMS, we are deeply saddened by the unexpected passing of Peter Gaccione and we extend our sincere sympathies to his family. Peter's enthusiasm, integrity, and empowering leadership style have shaped the organization over the past 18 months, and his tremendous contribution to AMS will not be forgotten."

Mr. Gaccione was appointed CEO at AMS in March 2023 after serving briefly as the company's Chief Operating Officer. He brought 40 years of experience in the global Radiation Oncology and Imaging business to the role, including time spent as President and a Member of the Executive Management Board of Myocardial Solutions Inc., a medical technology company in the cardiology and cardio-oncology field, where he led the product commercialization, sales, marketing development, and clinical teams.

Mr. Gaccione also served at Elekta AB, a provider of precision radiation oncology treatment systems, brachytherapy, neuroscience, and software solutions, from 1997 to 2020, culminating in his promotion to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of Elekta Inc. and Elekta Medical S.A. de C.V. (Mexico), as well as Executive Vice President of Elekta North and Latin America Regions and a Member of the Elekta AB Global Executive Management team from June 2017 to February 2020.

About American Shared Hospital Services (NYSE American: AMS)

American Shared Hospital Services (ASHS) is a leading provider of creative financial and turnkey solutions to Cancer Treatment Centers, hospitals, and large cancer networks worldwide. The company works closely with all major global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) that provide leading edge clinical treatment systems and software to treat cancer using Radiation Therapy and Radiosurgery. The company is vendor agnostic and provides financial support for a wide range of products including MR Guided Radiation Therapy Linacs, Advanced Digital Linear Accelerators, Proton Beam Therapy Systems, Brachytherapy systems and suites, and through the Company's subsidiary, GK Financing LLC., the Leksell Gamma Knife product and services. For more information, please visit www.ashs.com .

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release may be deemed to contain certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and future plans of American Shared Hospital Services (including statements regarding the expected continued growth of the Company and the expansion of the Company's Gamma Knife, proton therapy and MR/LINAC business, which involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the risks of economic and market conditions, the risks of variability of financial results between quarters, the risks of the Gamma Knife and proton therapy businesses, the risks of changes to CMS reimbursement rates or reimbursement methodology, the risks of the timing, financing, and operations of the Company's Gamma Knife, proton therapy, and MR/LINAC businesses, the risk of expanding within or into new markets, the risk that the integration or continued operation of acquired businesses could adversely affect financial results and the risk that current and future acquisitions may negatively affect the Company's financial position. Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial condition, results of operations and future plans of American Shared Hospital Services is included in the filings of the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, and the definitive Proxy Statement for the Annual Meeting of Shareholders that was held on June 20, 2023.

Contacts:

American Shared Hospital Services

Ray Stachowiak

Executive Chairman

rstachowiak@ashs.com

Investor Relations

PCG Advisory

Jeff Ramson

jramson@pcgadvisory.com
A recent IMF report has sounded the alarm on rising cyber threats which are posing serious concerns to financial stability amid digitalisation and heightened geopolitical tensions read more

An IMF report has revealed that cyberattacks across the globe have more than doubled since the pandemic | Source: Unsplash/Representative

A groundbreaking report has revealed that cyber attacks have more than doubled since the pandemic, putting the digitally-transforming global financial sector in the spotlight. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) report titled Cyber Risk: A Growing Concern for Macrofinancial Stability paints a concerning picture of the increasing threats posed by cyber incidents to the financial sector.

The report highlights how the rise of digitisation, evolving technologies, and growing geopolitical tensions are creating a breeding ground for cyberattacks, potentially jeopardising global financial stability.

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The report emphasises a surge in cyber incidents, particularly those with malicious intent, over the past two decades. This surge is significantly linked to the financial sectors growing dependence on digital technologies.

NEW RELEASE: Chapter 3 of our Global Financial Stability Report looks at the increasing risks posed by cyber incidents and their impact on financial stability.



Read Cyber Risk: A Growing Concern for Macrofinancial Stability:https://t.co/JRcZRDQ0Pg pic.twitter.com/L23jsfeRtF  IMF (@IMFNews) April 13, 2024

According to Major Vineet Kumar, Founder of CyberPeace, a Delhi-based think tank focused on policy-making around cybersecurity, the rise of financial technology (fintech) and digital banking services has significantly increased the attack surface for cybercriminals.

While speaking to Firstpost, Kumar points to a recent Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report indicating a surge in card and internet fraud cases in the first quarter of FY24, with total damages reaching a staggering Rs. 630 crore.

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These digital vulnerabilities are being exploited by cybercriminals to steal sensitive financial information, leading to substantial financial losses.

The report warns that severe incidents at major financial institutions could pose a systemic threat, causing a loss of confidence, disruption of critical services, and even spillovers to other institutions due to interconnectedness.

The report finds that while cyber incidents have not yet been systemic, the risk of extreme losses for firms  estimated to be at least $2.5 billion  has grown considerably. Moreover, indirect losses tend to be substantially larger than reported direct losses, further amplifying the financial impact.

The report also highlights that digitalisation and geopolitical tensions significantly heighten the risk of cyber incidents. Conversely, the analysis suggests that more developed cyber legislation and better cyber governance at firms can help mitigate such risks.

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International threats demand international cooperation

The report underscores the importance of international cooperation in combating cyber threats in the financial sector. Financial crimes like cyberattacks often transcend national borders, making coordinated efforts crucial.

A global risk management survey focused on India by financial services firm Aon found that the threat of cyber attacks and data breach were the top risks in the global financial market as well as in India (accounting for 18.3% of the losses incurred). They also found out that this was unlikely to change in the future.

Industry experts like Advocate Siddharth Chandrashekhar, who is Standing Counsel for Income Tax at the Central Board of Direct Taxes at the Ministry of Finance, emphasise the need for information sharing, best practices, and resource collaboration to strengthen global cybersecurity defenses.

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Coordinated responses to cyber incidents involving multiple countries enhance the effectiveness of mitigation efforts and contribute to the development of international norms and regulations governing cybersecurity, Chandrashekhar told Firstpost.

International cooperation can be particularly effective in responding to cyber incidents involving multiple countries. Collaborative efforts can enhance mitigation strategies and contribute to the development of international norms and regulations governing cybersecurity.

India, for instance, participates in various forums like the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) to foster such collaboration.

Countries remain largely unprepared

Despite the growing threat, the report finds that many countries, especially emerging economies, are inadequately prepared to tackle cyber risks.

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The IMF survey of 51 countries revealed that many financial supervisors still lack robust cybersecurity regulations or resources for enforcement. A significant portion of these central banks and supervisory authorities lack:

A national cyber strategy for the financial sector.

Dedicated cybersecurity or technology risk management regulations.

Specialised risk units within their supervision departments.

Mandates for testing and exercising cybersecurity measures.

Dedicated cyber incident reporting regimes.

Cybercrime regulations.

The report avers that many financial supervisors still need cyber security regulations or resources for enforcement.

The report finds that of these central banks or supervisory authorities, 56% do not have a national cyber strategy for the financial sector, 42% do not have dedicated cyber security or technology risk management regulations, 68% lack a specialized risk unit as part of their supervision department, 64% do not mandate testing and exercising cyber security measures or provide further guidance, 54% lack a dedicated cyber incident reporting regime, and 48% do not have cybercrime regulations.

These findings paint a concerning picture of the global financial sectors overall preparedness for cyberattacks.

Indias financial sector: A work in progress

Indias financial sector, while experiencing rapid growth, faces significant challenges in dealing with cyber threats. Kumar acknowledges this, pointing out that smaller financial entities may lack the resources and expertise to effectively combat sophisticated cyberattacks.

A December 2023 report by the RBI revealed that the Indian financial sector was confronted with more than 13 lakh cyber-attacks between January and October last year.

It is imperative that developing nations like India must establish a more robust mechanism for cyber security than is currently in place, Kumar told Firstpost.

The government, along with relevant agencies like the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), have taken several measures, including:

A meeting in November 2023 by the Department of Financial Services (DFS) under the Ministry of Finance to examine the rising threat of digital financial fraud, attended by representatives from public and private banking institutions.

Bringing all financial institutions under the ambit of the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System (CFCFRMS).

Renewed focus on facilitating seamless coordination between law enforcement agencies and financial institutions for real-time tracking and blocking of defrauded money.

Considering new legislation like the Banning of Unregulated Lending Activities (BULA) Act.

Indias policy landscape: Emerging but evolving

Indias policy framework to address cybersecurity challenges in the financial sector is gradually taking shape. Experts highlight initiatives like the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and the RBIs cybersecurity framework, which outlines requirements for banks and other financial institutions to establish robust cybersecurity practices.

These practices include risk assessment, incident response, and information sharing mechanisms. Additionally, the RBI has introduced initiatives such as the Cyber Security Operations Center (C-SOC) and the Cyber Crisis Management Plan (CCMP) to enhance the resilience of the financial sector against cyber threats.

While speaking to Firstpost, Chandrashekhar highlights the importance of the C-SOC as a centralised hub for monitoring and responding to cyber incidents. The CCMP provides a structured approach for managing cybersecurity crises and coordinating response efforts among stakeholders.

Indias financial sector, is still considered to be in its nascent stage as compared to its international counterparts, added Chandrashekhar.

However, the report also cautions that continual adaptation and enforcement of these policies are necessary to effectively mitigate cyber risks and ensure the security and stability of the countrys financial sector.

Third-party IT service providers: Strengthening the chain

The report emphasises the growing reliance of financial institutions on third-party IT service providers. These dependencies introduce additional vulnerabilities, as a cyberattack on a single service provider could potentially impact multiple financial institutions.

The report recommends that third-party IT service providers prioritise robust cybersecurity measures. This includes implementing strong encryption protocols, conducting regular security audits, and adhering to best practices for data security.

Financial institutions, in turn, should conduct thorough due diligence when selecting third-party vendors and ensure contractual obligations regarding cybersecurity are clearly defined and enforced.

Report calls for global action

The IMF report concludes with a call for global action to address the rising threat of cyberattacks on the financial sector. Here are some key recommendations highlighted in the report:

Strengthening National Cybersecurity Frameworks: Countries need to develop robust national cybersecurity strategies specifically tailored to the financial sector. These strategies should include clear roles and responsibilities for government agencies, financial institutions, and other stakeholders.

Enhancing Regulatory Frameworks: Regulatory frameworks for cybersecurity in the financial sector need to be strengthened and consistently enforced. This includes mandating minimum cybersecurity standards for financial institutions and service providers.

Building a Capable Workforce: Theres a pressing need to invest in building a skilled cybersecurity workforce. This includes training and education programs to equip professionals with the necessary expertise to identify, prevent, and respond to cyber threats.

Fostering International Cooperation: As highlighted earlier, international cooperation is crucial for effectively combating cyber threats. Countries should collaborate on information sharing, best practices, and joint investigations to disrupt cybercriminal activities.

Promoting a Culture of Cybersecurity Awareness: A strong cybersecurity culture within financial institutions is essential. This involves raising awareness among employees about cyber threats and best practices for protecting sensitive information.

The report serves as a stark reminder of the growing cyber threats facing the financial sector in an increasingly digital world.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has directed all e-commerce companies to remove all drinks and beverages, including Bournvita, from the category of health drinks on their platforms. Heres why read more

Bournvita and other beverages cannot be classified under 'health drinks' category on e-commerce sites, the Centre has said. Image Courtesy: X/@BournvitaIndia

Cadburys Bournvita has remained in the spotlight since last year. After being called out for its harmful ingredients by a health and nutrition influencer in April 2023 and getting a legal notice from the Centre, Bournvita is back in the news.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has asked all e-commerce companies to remove all drinks and beverages, including Bournvita, from the category of health drinks on their platforms.

But why has the Centre directed this?

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Lets take a closer look.

Centres advisory for e-commerce sites

In a notification issued on 10 April, the ministry said that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has that there is no health drink defined under Indias food laws or any regulations.

NCPCR, which is a statutory body constituted under Section (3) of the Commission of Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005 after its inquiry under Section 14 of CRPC Act 2005 concluded that there is no health drink defined under FSS Act 2006, rules and regulations submitted by FSSAI and Mondelez India Food Pvt Ltd, the notification read, according to IANS.

The commerce ministry then went on to direct all e-commerce websites to stop listing beverages as health drinks on their platforms.

Earlier in April, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), a statutory body under the administration of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, asked e-commerce sites not to place dairy, cereal, or malt-based beverages under the health drink or energy drink categories, as per a Moneycontrol report.

The body explained that there is no definition of health drink in Indias food laws, adding that energy drinks are just flavored water-based drinks.

Therefore, FSSAI has advised all e-commerce companies to promptly rectify this misclassification by removing or de-linking such drinks or beverages from the category of health drinks/energy drinks on their websites and placing such products in the appropriate category as provided under the extant law, the body had said in a statement on 2 April, as per India Today.

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It said this is being done to ensure consumers make well-informed choices without facing misleading information.

NCPCRs inquiry

The order comes about a month after the NCPCR wrote to the commerce ministry, recommending it ask all e-commerce companies to delist drinks and beverages from the category of health drinks from their sites.

As per a Times of India (TOI) report, NCPCR chief Priyank Kanoongo had also written to the Department of Consumer Affairs of all states and Union Territories suggesting that no drink, beverages including Bournvita and other similar products should be sold under the category of health drink in stores/shops.

He had said that he took notice of the media reports regarding some health  powder drinks claiming to be energy drinks containing high percentage of sugar and other harmful content for health of children i.e.  Bournvita an energy drink for children.

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The NCPCR had carried out an inquiry where it was told by the FSSAI that the term health drink is not defined under the countrys laws. Mondelez India Food Private Limited, the manufacturer of Bournvita, had told the commission that Bournvita is not a health drink, TOI reported.

As per IANS, the NCPCR had also called upon the FSSAI to take action against companies that did not meet safety standards and guidelines and were exhibiting power supplements as health drinks.

How Bournvita came to the limelight

Bournvita was thrown into the spotlight last April when influencer Revant Himatsingka, who runs an Instagram page called foodpharmer, posted a video claiming that every 100 g of Bournvita contains 50 g of sugar. He said the brand claims its drink has several health benefits but contains high sugar levels.

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After his video went viral, Cadbury slapped him with a legal notice, saying his video was unscientific, reported Indian Express. Himatsingka took down the video and explained his reasons on Instagram after this.

Bournvita released a statement, saying its product is a scientifically designed formula made with ingredients that are approved for use, and all our ingredients are declared on the pack.

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The Centre sent a legal notice to Cadbury the same month asking the company to withdraw misleading information on Bournvita packaging, as per Indian Express.

Himatsingka released another video last December saying that Bournvita had slashed its added sugar content by nearly 15 per cent.

This is probably the first time in history that a social media video has led to a food giant reducing their sugar content! If one video can result in a 15 per cent reduction in added sugar, imagine what we can achieve if all of us start reading food labels before we buy anything! he wrote in his caption at the time.

With inputs from agencies
US president Joe Biden has warned Iran against attacking Israel while also claiming that an attack is coming sooner than later. As fear of Tehrans retaliation grows, heres a look at its military prowess read more

A missile is launched during a military exercise in an undisclosed location in the south of Iran, in this handout image obtained on 19 January 2024. Reuters File Photo

Irans attack on Israel seems imminent, with United States president Joe Biden warning that it could come sooner than later. The fears of retaliation by Iran come after Israel struck an Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing seven of Irans senior commanders and military personnel earlier this month.

While Israel has not admitted to the attack, it is widely believed to be responsible. Iran has threatened to avenge the killings. According to a US intelligence assessment, Tehran could carry out a strike on military and government targets inside Israel, reported Bloomberg.

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As per the report, Iran is likely to use ballistic missiles or drones to hit targets inside Israel. A source quoted by Bloomberg said that it was a matter of when, not if, Tehran launches high-precision strikes. However, it remains unclear if Iran would take direct action or rely on its proxy network.

The US has vowed to help Israel defend itself, warning Iran against the expected attack. We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed, Biden said, as per BBC.

Israeli officials have said they will respond to any attack by Iran, which could result in further retaliation by Tehran and might lead to a wider conflict in West Asia.

As the concerns of a potential major escalation between Iran and Israel grow, lets take a look at Tehrans military prowess.

A look at Irans military

Iran has one of the largest armed forces in West Asia. It has at least 580,000 active-duty personnel and about 200,000 trained reserve personnel split into the conventional army (Artesh) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), NYT reported citing the annual evaluation by the International Institute for Strategic Studies last year.

The IRGC is charged with maintaining Irans border security. It also operates the Quds Force, an elite unit that reportedly arms, trains and supports Irans network of proxy militias.

Irans proxies include Lebanese group Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, militia groups in Syria and Iraq and Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, as per NYT.

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Both the Guard and Irans traditional army have their ground, air and naval forces.

Irans weapons

Iran has continued to improve its missile arsenal over the years.

According to Afshon Ostovar, an associate professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and an expert on Irans military, Iran has one of the largest arsenals of ballistic missiles and drones in West Asia, NYT reported.

Most of Irans long-range missile capabilities come from its Fateh, Kheibar and Dezful models, all of which have a range of 1,000 kilometres or more, according to The Telegraph.

Iranian news outlet ISNA has displayed the countrys weaponry, including nine types of missiles that can reach Israel. Some of them even have a speed of up to 560mph and a range of 1242 miles (roughly 1998 km).

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A missile is launched during a military exercise in Isfahan, Iran, 28 October 2023. Reuters File Photo

The direct distance from southwestern Iran to Israel is about 1,700 kilometres, as per The Telegraph. Irans Kheibar and Sejjil missiles reportedly have a range of up to 2,000 km, meaning they are theoretically capable of striking Israel.

Iran has also assembled a trove of drones in the past years. These drones can travel around 1,200 miles (1,931 km) to 1,550 miles (2,494 km) and can fly low to avoid radar, NYT reported citing experts and Iranian commanders interviews to state media.

In fact, Tehran has allegedly developed Shahed-131 and Shahed-136, dubbed suicide drones, for Russia for its war in Ukraine.

Tehran recently unveiled a new long-range drone model, the Mohajer 10, which it claims can strike Israel.

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Tanks and more

Tehran has long relied on irregular and asymmetric warfare on land and at sea, as per Business Insider. It has a larger Navy and more armoured vehicles and tanks than Israel.

Although Iran has quantity, Israels tanks and armoured vehicles are more advanced.

David Roberts, the then deputy director at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), had told Al Jazeera in 2012, Many Iranian tanks and planes use older technology with varying levels of maintenance and modernity.

Due to international sanctions, Iran has been prevented from buying high-tech arms and military equipment like fighter jets and tanks from abroad.

Irans tanks and armoured vehicles are old and it has only a few large naval vessels, NYT reported citing experts.

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Its tanks include mostly T-72s and Iranian versions of the T-54 and T-55, which are mostly seen as inferior to Israels highly considered Merkava Mark IV, as per a Business Insider report.

Tehrans domestically developed tanks like the Zulfiqar series and the Karrar MBT are also not quite up to the mark compared to Israeli tanks.

Tanks take part in a military exercise in Isfahan, Iran, 28 October 2023. Reuters File Photo

Irans air force is also a weak link. It has ageing 63 F-4 fighter planes and 26 F-14s, which are not upgraded due to lack of spare parts. Iran also has 19 MiG-29s and 23 Su-24s from Russia and 17 China-made F-7 fighter aircraft, reported Business Insider.

Iran, which has long maintained it is not seeking nuclear weapons, now has a supply of highly enriched uranium that could be converted to weapons-grade fuel for at least three bombs in a time frame ranging from a few days to a few weeks, according to The Washington Post report.

Iran is capable of building a crude nuclear device in six months, while it is likely to take two years or more to develop a nuclear warhead deliverable by a missile, the report added.

What will Israel do if Iran attacks?

If Iran directly strikes Israel from its territory that would amount to an act of war.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to respond in kind if Tehran targets Israels government or military sites such as Kirya, the Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

As per The Telegraph report, Israel could strike IRGC headquarters in Tehran or the Guards new bases in the Sistan and Baluchistan provinces.

Whoever harms us, we will harm them. We are prepared to meet all of the security needs of the state of Israel, both defensively and offensively, Netanyahu said on Thursday.

However, an all-out war is unlikely as both sides have their own pressures and considerations. In case any potential war breaks out between Iran and Israel, it would be in the air and not on land as Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia separate the two countries, as per The Telegraph.

With inputs from agencies
Meta is being criticised for reducing the minimum age for WhatsApp users in Europe from 16 to 13. Childrens rights advocates in the UK have raised objections and urged the social media giant to reverse its decision. Heres why read more

WhatsApp is facing flak for reducing the minimum age for users from 16 to 13 in Europe. Reuters (Representational Image)

Social media giant Meta is facing criticism for lowering the minimum age for WhatsApp users in Europe from 16 to 13. The move has been condemned by childrens rights advocates who have urged Meta to reverse the decision.

According to The Guardian, the change was announced in February and was implemented in the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) on Wednesday (10 April). This comes amid an ongoing debate over the use of smartphones by school-going children and how harmful it can be.

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Lets take a closer look.

WhatsApp reduces minimum age for users

To bring the messaging platform in line with the EUs new online safety laws, WhatsApp updated its terms of service and privacy policies, including lowering the minimum age to 13, reported Mirror.

Meta-owned WhatsApp says on its website that the change in Europe is to ensure a consistent minimum age requirement for WhatsApp globally.

In most countries, including India, the minimum age to use WhatsApp is 13.

WhatsApp under fire

Campaign groups in the UK have slammed WhatsApp for the change.

UK-based campaign group Smartphone Free Childhood said that the move flies in the face of the growing national demand for big tech to do more to protect our children, reported The Guardian.

Officially allowing anyone over the age of 12 to use their platform sends a message that its safe for children. But teachers, parents and experts tell a very different story. As a community were fed up with the tech giants putting their shareholder profits before protecting our children, the group added.

WhatsApp has said the age policy change in Europe is in line with other countries. Reuters (Representational Image)

Daisy Greenwell, the groups co-founder, said in a statement that WhatsApp was putting shareholder profits first and childrens safety second.

She called reducing the age limit completely tone-deaf, adding that it ignores the increasingly loud alarm bells being rung by scientists, doctors, teachers, child safety experts, parents and mental health experts alike over the dangers of social media use for children, reported CNN.

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UK Conservative MP Vicky Ford said Metas decision to change the age limit without consulting parents was highly irresponsible.

However, WhatsApp has defended its decision. A spokesperson for the messaging platform told CNN, We give all users options to control who can add them to groups and, the first time you receive a message from an unknown number, we give you the option to block and report the account.

WhatsApp also gives accessibility only to those who have the users phone number. Users can also restrict their visibility through Privacy Settings.

However, questioning the efficacy of WhatsApps safety features, Smartphone Free Childhood said the app could be disruptive for teens at schools like other social media platforms. The group warned about young people having unrestricted internet access in their pockets and its wider impact on their development, mental health and social lives, reported Sky News.

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Is WhatsApp alone?

No.

Other famous social media and messaging platforms, including Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) list 13 as their minimum age requirement for users.

ALSO READ: Meta introduces AI tool to blur images with nudity on Instagram in bid to protect children

Then, why the uproar?

WhatsApps recent change has sparked criticism amid the ongoing debate in the UK over age limits for young people using mobile phones and social media.

As per a blog by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), children are exposed to many risks on WhatsApp such as getting unwanted messages or calls, feeling pressure to respond, and cyberbullying among others.

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According to a recent poll from the charity Parentkind, over four in five, or 83 per cent, parents believed smartphones were harmful to children and young people. Moreover, 58 per cent of parents said the UK government should ban smartphones for children under 16 years, reported Sky News.

Speaking to inews.co.uk, Dr Emma L Briant, Associate Professor of News and Political Communication at Melbournes Monash University in Australia, reacted to the age policy change in Europe and said, Kids already find ways to get around age restrictions but this sends a deeply unhealthy message that the app is okay for a younger audience.

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She also flagged that WhatsApps features like disappearing messages and end-to-end encryption evoke a sense of privacy and encourage over-sharing of intimate photos.

While Meta encourages parental controls and for parents to talk to and educate their kids, kids of that age experience extreme social pressures already, and even if your kid is emotionally mature enough not to do this, they may be added to groups with other who are not, Dr Briant added.

The UK is debating age limits for young people using smartphones and social media. Pixabay (Representational Image)

Esther Ghey, whose teenage daughter Brianna Ghey was killed, has been campaigning for age restrictions on the usage of smartphones and stricter control on access to social media platforms.

The UK government is mulling proposals to ban the sale of mobile phones to people under 16, as per The Evening Standard.

Last year, Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram, caused an uproar when it tried to lower the minimum age for its virtual reality app from 13 to 10 years old in the United States despite pushback from lawmakers.

With inputs from agencies
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) of Iran seized a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship owned by an Israeli businessman read more

This image from a video provided by a Middle East-based defence official shows a helicopter raid targeting a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday. It shows commandos raiding the ship in an attack the official attributed to Iran. (Source: AP)

There are 17 Indians onboard an Israel-linked ship that Iran seized on Saturday in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) of Iran seized Portuguese-flagged ship MSC Aries which belongs to London-based company Zodiac Maritime, said Irans Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC. The company is reported to be owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.

The Irans seizure of the ship comes amid rising tensions in the Middle East and fears of the widening of the ongoing conflict in the region. Iran has vowed to punish Israel for the killing of a top general in an airstrike on the countrys diplomatic mission in Syrian capital Damascus on April 1. The United States and Israel believe that an Iranian attack is imminent and is expected over the weekend or early next week.

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Govt in touch with Iran regarding Indians onboard: Sources

The Narendra Modi government is in touch with the Iranian government through diplomatic channels regarding the Indian nationals onboard the seized ship, according to official sources.

Sources told News 18 that the government is engaged to ensure the security, welfare, and early release of Indian nationals.

We are aware that a cargo ship MSC Aries has been taken control by Iran. We have learnt that there are 17 Indian nationals onboard. We are in touch with the Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and in Delhi, to ensure security, welfare and early release of Indian nationals, said sources.

Iran seized ship near UAEs port

The seizure of the Israel-linked ship, MSC Aries, around 50 nautical miles from the northeast of United Arab Emirates (UAE) Fujairah, according to the UK Navys Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

The Strait of Hormuz, where Iran seized the ship, is a narrow water body that connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman. Around 20% of the worlds oil passes through the strait and Fujairah is the main port in the region where ships pick supplies, trade crew, or load oil shipments.

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The UKMTO, however, did not specify who took over the ship and only said that regional authorities had seized the ship. Following UKMTOs report, Irans Tasnim news agency had reported the seizure by the IRGC.
In a major development on Thursday, the Indian government has appointed defence attaches to over half a dozen countries, including Armenia. Earlier, the hectic diplomatic parleys between India and Armenia in the last few years, especially since Indias External Affairs Minister S Jaishankars visit to Yerevan in October 2021, the first of its kind by a high-profile Indian leader in the last three decades, show Indias keen interest in Armenia.

For the first time in the three decades, since the independence of Armenia in 1991 following the disintegration of the erstwhile Soviet Union, a high-profile minister of Prime Minister Narendra Modis government visited Armenia. Similarly, the last four years have seen many diplomatic waters flown between New Delhi and Yerevan. For example, the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ararat Mirzoyan, took part in the Raisina Dialogue, 2023 organised by Indias External Affairs Ministry, and subsequently in February-March 2024, an Armenian delegation comprising academicians, think tanks and cultural ambassadors visited various institutes, think tanks and organisations in New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, besides taking part in the Raisina Dialogue 2024. Many analysts, strategists, and diplomatic honchos, both in Yerevan and New Delhi, believe that the recent rise in India-Armenia relations is the need of the hour amidst the crucial geopolitical ballgame in the South Caucasus region.

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Armenia fervently desires India to balance the fractured geopolitical situation in the South Caucasus that has witnessed regional power rivalry, conflict over territory, and war as well. While, Russia, which has been the main support system of Armenia in the post-Soviet space, is now embroiled in several issues, especially the Western sanctions, following its war with Ukraine and thus taking scant interest in the issues related to Armenia and Azerbaijan. Further, the dubious silence of Russian leadership during the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2023 for whatever reason casts doubt on Armenias dependence on Russia in the coming times. It is, therefore, ironically felt that amidst the weakening of Russian support to Armenia, India is the only country that can play a sheet anchor role in the South Caucasus both because of her strategic and economic interests in the region. And perhaps Russia will have no inhibition for India playing its part in the South Caucasus.

Hence, Indias intervention in the South Caucasus is veritable as understood from this authors recent interaction with several Armenian scholars, academics, strategists, media persons, common people, etc. in Yerevan in the last week of March 2024. They firmly believe that a person of Prime Minister Modis international stature can balance the situation in the South Caucuses. They also believe that since India has strong strategic bonds with three of the important powers (Russia, Israel, and Iran) who have stakes in the South Caucasus, it can persuade these three countries not to antagonize Armenia and provide direct or indirect support to Azerbaijan that has tormented Armenia left and right in the last few decades. Besides, Armenia wants India to use its good office to influence Azerbaijan leadership to end hostility along its border with Armenia.

Furthermore, Armenia seriously wants India to ink the Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) to take the present bilateral defence partnership to a new high. It is important to highlight here that Indias defence exports to Armenia constitute some 90 per cent of Armenias total arms imports including drones, radar etc. From the Indian point of view, it coincides with the economic and strategic interests of both countries. For example, Indian intervention in the South Caucasus will not only send a strong signal to Azerbaijan to stop tinkering with Indias INSTC initiative under Turkiyes influence but also will give a fillip to Indias significant defence production from nearly $3 billion now to over $10 billion under the Make in India project by 2028-2029.

It is important to underline here that the critical geopolitics in the South Caucasus over strategic resources poses a serious challenge to Indias bid to reach Russia and beyond to Europe by realising its strategic signature initiative, the International North South Trade and Transit Corridor (INSTC), a multi-modal network of land (roads, railways, etc.) and sea routes that connects India with Russia and beyond. The main route of the INSTC is through Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia, which will ultimately link India to Europe. However, the shortest and safest route from India to Europe could be through Iran, Armenia, Georgia, and Russia, bypassing Azerbaijan which has been under the influence of Turkiye.

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India perhaps understands why Armenia wants India to divert the INSTC through Armenia, instead of Azerbaijan, a) the strategic and economic benefits of INSTC will go to Armenia, and b) to stem the Turkiye-Azerbaijan rot. With Turkiyes active support (financial, defence equipment, etc.), Azerbaijan wrested the Nagorno-Karabakh territory, which has been the bone of contention between Armenia and Azerbaijan for decades. Furthermore, Azerbaijans belligerent bid to construct the Zangezur corridor connecting its mainland to the Nakchivan district is a cause of grave concern, both for Armenia and India. For example, once the corridor is constructed, it will have sway over the Iran-Armenia border thereby closing the shortest alternative route of the INSTC.

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For India, what is a matter of great and grave concern is the growing nexus between Armenias adversary Azerbaijan and Indias inveterate enemies (Pakistan and Turkey). It may lead to an unholy nexus and also a peculiar security situation, which will jeopardise Indias far greater interests in the region. Azerbaijan is the fulcrum of Turkiyes pan-Turkic agenda that aims at uniting all Turkic people in and around the region to spread Turkiyes influence from the Adriatic Sea to the Great Wall of China. Further, it is a well-known fact that Pakistan has been aiding and abetting terrorists from across the border for decades against India. Its active involvement in the South Caucasus will add insult to Indias injury.

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Last but not least, one more factor that may sound non-descript to many is the China factor in the South Caucasus, which cannot or should not be ignored. It is worthwhile to mention here that China has a considerable capital investment in the main regional players in the South Caucasus such as Azerbaijan, Armenia, Iran, and Turkiye. However, one thing in this context that India agrees with is Armenias non-endorsement of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Whereas Baku fits the Chinese bill to be part of BRI because of its infrastructure and has been part of the BRI since its inception, Yerevan has not yet shown any interest or commitment. No high-profile leader (President or Premier) from Armenia has attended any of the four Belt and Road Forum since 2017.

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At this critical juncture, both India and Armenia should translate their newfound bonhomie into a new-age partnership. It is well understood that as a votary of peace and stability across the globe, India will be an important player in the Armenian Crossroads of Peace project. India must consider Armenia as her extended neighbourhood, which includes the region from the Suez Canal to the South China Sea, at par with Indias partnership with Southeast and Central Asia. Furthermore, it could be a stepping stone to a much-needed mutual SPA between New Delhi and Yerevan, which has a solid foundation of centuries-long civilisation linkage. Many in India and Armenia strongly believe that Yerevan may be the first in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis bucket list after winning the third term as Prime Minster of India in June 2024. The appointment of defence attache in Yerevan could be a pointer in this regard.

The author teaches at the Centre for Inner Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.
The Canadian PM accused India of eliminating Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani terrorist, after his government was criticised over media reports that China interfered in the 2019 and 2021 elections read more

As the moon eclipsed the sun on 8 April, a usually excited Justin Trudeau waved at a few Canadians after taking off his safety glasses atop his office. Hey, good to see ya! he says in the video with the caption Sunny ways.

It is not sunny indeed for Canada-India relations considering the immaturity and stupidity that have eclipsed Trudeau. His sudden backlash at India last September accusing its agents of murdering Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF) chief and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a wanted terrorist in India, at the parking lot of Surreys Guru Nanak Gurdwara Sahib in June 2023 was intriguing.

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What made Nijjars murder and the accusation more mysterious was with Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) officers since February 2023. His son Balraj Singh Nijjar told Canadas CTV News that his father met CSIS officers once or twice a week, including one or two days before his murder. The CSIS also alleged Indias role without providing substantial evidence and demanded accountability.

In the second case of Canadas anti-India stance and ranting, the CSIS alleged that India and Pakistan attempted to interfere in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian federal elections.

Trudeaus Liberal Party of Canada, the countrys longest-serving and the oldest federal political party dominating politics for almost seven decades, has had a proclivity for sheltering Khalistani terrorists. Besides, the party has a history of ignoring Chinas human rights abuses for better bilateral trade. These factors have had a direct bearing on its relations with India and are the reasons for the recent accusations against New Delhi.

Canadas Sikh appeasement

Canadas mollycoddling of the Sikh community and allowing anti-India activities by Khalistanis on its soil have a strong reason.

Of Canadas 3.70 crore population, Sikhs number around 7,70,000, or 2.1 per cent, according to the 2021 census. Manitoba province has the highest number of Sikhs at 2.7 per cent, followed by Alberta at 2.5 per cent and Ontario 2.1 per cent. Canadas Sikh population, which started increasing since 1991, has doubled in the last 20 years with the community becoming the fourth largest religious group after Christians, Muslims and Hindus.

Trudeaus first Cabinet had four Sikhs and more politicians from the community were elected in the 2019 federal election compared to Indias Lok Sabha election the same year.

In what then-Opposition Conservative Party leader Candice Bergen described as Canadians being hoodwinked and deceived in a power grab, Trudeau struck a surprise deal with Jagmeet Singhs opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) in March 2022 to keep his minority government in power till 2025.

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Talwinder Singh Parmar, the mastermind of the bombing of Air India Flight 182 (Emperor Kanishka) on 23 June, 1985, is revered at several Canadian gurdwaras. At a pro-Khalistan rally in June 2023, as attacks were reported on Indian High Commissions in Canada, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom, Parmars posters referring to the terrorist as Shaheed Bhai Talwinder Parmar were displayed.

When Trudeaus coalition partner Jagmeet Singh was repeatedly asked by Terry Milewski, then-CBC correspondent and author of Blood for Blood - Fifty Years of the Global Khalistan Project, in October 2017, if he thought some Canadian Sikhs go too far when they honour Talwinder Singh Parmar as a martyr of the Sikh nation?, he refused to reply and instead mentioned the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

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To remain in power, Trudeau conveniently teamed up with a politician who supports Parmars veneration by Canadas pro-Khalistanis.

The Liberal Partys backing and allowing the hero worship of Parmar, who fled to Canada after murdering two cops in Punjab in 1981, is not new. Even the Canadian prime ministers father, Pierre Trudeau, refused to extradite Parmar in 1982. According to Milewskis book, he denied the extradition request on the ground that India was insufficiently deferential to the Queen. Three years later, Parmar masterminded the Kanishka bombing.

Moreover, Parmer and his accomplice Inderjit Singh Reyat were under the CSIS radar, according to Milewski, yet Canada didnt act to foil the plot. It wasnt a mere coincidence that Reyat, the only one to get convicted of the bombing, was released in 2016 soon after Trudeau Sr was elected prime minister.

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From Parmar to Nijjar, Canadian politicians have been placating Sikh terrorists to get the communitys votes. Despite an Interpol Red Corner Notice (RCN) issued against Nijjar in 2014, Canada didnt arrest and deport him to India. According to Indian officials, Ottawa has ignored several dossiers handed over by New Delhi requesting the deportation of wanted terrorists and gangsters.

Nine pro-Khalistani organisations, including the KTF, Sikhs for Justice and Babbar Khalsa International, are based in Canada. Ottawa also shelters terrorists like Gurpreet Singh, Gurwant Singh, who faces an RCN, Gurwant Singh Bath, Bhagat Singh Brar, Moninder Singh Bual and Satinder Pal Singh Gill.

To appease Canadian Sikhs, Trudeau poked his nose into the farmers protest as well in December 2020 saying that Canada will always defend the right of peaceful protest and expressed concern. Three months later, six Canadian MPs, including three Sikhs, wrote a letter to foreign minister Marc Garneau urging him to talk to his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar over the protests.

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Any anti-India ranting or criticism gets the backing of the Liberals or other parties, who dont want to irk Sikhs due to their electoral weight. The situation has worsened after the Liberal-NDP coalition with Jagmeet Singh often targeting India.

Canadas Chinese connection

The viral video of Xi Jinpings infamous dressing-down of a nodding Trudeau at the G20 Leaders Summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022 showed Chinas scant respect for Canada.

Everything we discussed has been leaked to the paper, a smiling but firm Xi told a sheepish Trudeau about their earlier discussion on alleged Chinese interference in the 2019 election. Thats not appropriate. And thats not the way the conversation was conducted, he said accusing him of leaking the discussion to the media.

Everything we discussed has been leaked to the paper. Thats not appropriate."



Video catches Xi Jinping scolding Justin Trudeau over media leak at G20 Summit. https://t.co/hDUXRvYF2c  National Review (@NRO) November 17, 2022

Xis public scolding of Trudeau has its roots in the Liberal Partys hypocrisy on Chinese rights abuses, which dates back to PM Jean Chretiens two terms (1993-2003).

After the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, Canada joined the US in condemning China and froze trade and diplomatic ties. The Chretien government even signed a series of resolutions at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights criticising Beijings rights record in the mid-1990s.

However, sensing the potential of the worlds biggest market, Canada started changing its stance. During his first trade mission to China in 1994, Chretien said hes not allowed to tell the Premier of Saskatchewan or Quebec what to do. Am I supposed to tell the President of China what to do?

By 1997, the US, the UK, Canada and Australia started discussing rights abuses with Chinese officials behind closed doors instead of the United Nations.

Before his 2001 visit to China, Chretien said that Canada always raises the problem [of human rights], but the problem is, it is their decision to implement the policies. We raise the problem and we engage in dialogue, but were not running China. They are running China.

Canada led from the front in facilitating Chinas rights abuses while maintaining the charade of bilateral human rights dialogues and focussing on trade. Consequently, China succeeded in preventing criticism of its rights record on public forums and preferring one-to-one dialogue behind closed doors.

Even the Conservative Party of Canada was equally responsible for the sudden change in stance with PM Stephen Harper (2006-15) signing the controversial Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement with China in Russia in September 2012.

Obviously, China doesnt take Canada seriously at such closed-door meetings and is against the public knowing about their contents as evident during Xis scolding of Trudeau.

Khalistan, China angle in Indian interference

Despite acknowledging Chinese attempts to interfere in the federal elections, Trudeau resisted a public enquiry last year. However, the government had to form an investigation commission on September 7 under sustained Opposition pressure.

The initial focus on Chinese interference suddenly expanded to India and Pakistan. There are two reasons for including India as one of the countries that interfered in the elections.

The first reason is kingmaker Jagmeet Singh, whose opposition NDP is the fourth-biggest party in Canada. In the 2019 and 2021 elections, Singh was the NDPs prime ministerial candidate against Trudeau, who was worried about him eating into his Sikh votes.

The NDP won 25 seats in the 2021 snap elections with Singh becoming the powerbroker as the Liberals could manage only 160 seats, 10 short of the 170-majority mark in the 338-member House of Commons.

Under the Faustian agreement, Trudeau agreed to zip up his mouth as Singh and pro-Khalistan Canadian Sikhs started targeting India, especially last year.

The CSIS alleged election interference by India under Singhs pressure. At his mercy for survival, Trudeau gave the nod. After he accused India of eliminating Nijjar, Singh said, Today, we learned of allegations that agents of the Indian government murdered Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

As soon as I got to know after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shared it [Indias alleged involvement in Nijjars murder], I prepared a letter to express the hope that he will include the Indian government in the enquiry, Singh told Sikhs at Surreys Guru Nanak Gurdwara Sahib last September.

The Indian government has attacked Canadian sovereignty and we should focus on condemning that. Say it clearly once again that we have intelligence that they killed a Canadian citizen, he added.

The CSIS report accused India of using proxy agents to interfere in a small number of electoral districts supporting Khalistan in the elections.

Proxies liaise and work with Indian intelligence officials in India and Canada, taking both explicit and implicit direction from them.

The Indian agents, the report further alleged, wanted to align Canadas positions with Indias interests on key issues, particularly with respect to how the Gol [government of India] perceives Canada-based supporters of an independent Sikh homeland that they refer to as Khalistan.

India clandestinely provided illicit financial support to various Canadian politicians as a means of attempting to secure the election of pro-Gol candidates or gaining influence over candidates who take office, the report reads. In some instances, the candidates may never know their campaigns received illicit funds.

If India wanted to stop the Liberals from returning to power, it would have supported the opposition Conservatives, who are not extremely pro-Sikh like Trudeaus party. But the Conservative Party doesnt want to antagonise the community either. The party termed Nijjars murder an outrageous affront to Canadian sovereignty and demanded Indias utmost transparency in the probe.

Conservative MP and Opposition deputy leader Tim S Uppal said last September, We call on India for utmost transparency in this investigation because these allegations represent an outrageous affront to Canadas sovereignty. Canadians must be kept safe from extrajudicial killings of all kindsmost of all from foreign governments.

We must work together to protect Canadians from foreign interference and assure that Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjars killers are brought to justice, he added.

The Conservative Party reacted after Jagmeet Singh said, Conservatives are not showing maturity and unity. They are backtracking. Uppals reaction clearly shows why the party is trying to appease Sikhs.

However, the enquiry commission, which had asked the Trudeau government to provide papers about alleged Indian interference, has ruled out election meddling by India. This a slap in the faces of Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh and other pro-Khalistan politicians.

The second reason is the confirmed Chinese election interference, which Trudeau wanted to deflect to India to save his skin because he won both elections.

In its report, the CSIS said: We know that the PRC clandestinely and deceptively interfered in both the 2019 and 2021 elections. In both cases, these FI [foreign interference] activities were pragmatic in nature and focused primarily on supporting those viewed to be either pro-PRC or neutral on issues of interest to the PRC government.

The CSIS assessed, State actors are able to conduct foreign interference successfully in Canada because there are few legal or political consequences. FI is therefore low-risk and high-reward.

In a pathetic display of pandering to China and doubting his intel agencys findings, Trudeau said that Beijings interference was improbable. Testifying before the commission, he said, Despite attempts by foreign states to interfere, those elections were held in their integrity. They were decided by Canadians.

However, Canadian media outlet Global News reported in November 2022 that the CSIS had warned Trudeau that of around 11 federal candidates in the 2019 election besides other kinds of interference to subvert Canadas democratic process.

In a classified briefing provided to some Liberal Party members in September 2019, the CSIS had said that China provided fake papers to Chinese international students and forced them to participate in a nomination vote for Liberal candidate Han Dong for Don Valley North in 2019, The Globe and Mail reported this month. Dong, who won the election, quit the party after reports of his dealing with China.

Unsurprisingly, Trudeau had contested the CSIS findings about Dong. After the testimony, he told the media that no government, no leader should simply be a passive receiver of information and intelligence.

After Trudeau doubted the intelligence findings about China, CSIS director David Vigneault was ordered to reappear before the commission. Trudeau claimed before the panel to have never seen the CSIS February 2023 briefing note about Chinese interference.

While individual [Chinese] officials may well have expressed a preference or another, the impression we got and consistently would get is that  it just would seem very improbable that the Chinese government itself would have a preference in the election, Trudeau said.

During the 2021 campaign, the Conservatives, who usually have a hard line on China, criticised Beijings treatment of Uyghurs and pledged to ban Huawei from the 5G network. Former Conservatives chief Erin OToole said that the party lost nine seats due to Chinese interference in 2021.

Trudeaus tacit support to China is like former US President Donald Trump siding with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and rejecting the US intelligence communitys report in January 2017 concluding that Moscow interfered in the 2016 American presidential election.

The big question is why Trudeau doubts the CSIS report. Accepting the report would mean the Liberals won both elections due to Chinese meddling.

Accusing India of killing Nijjar and interfering in the elections are connected to China. Before accusing India of killing Nijjar, Trudeaus government was criticised for inaction over media reports alleging Chinese election meddling. The Nijjar accusation caused a sensation and eclipsed the Chinese interference controversy. Similarly, accusing India of election interference was meant to deflect the heat caused by the Chinese meddling.

A public opinion survey conducted by Canadian non-profit Angus Reid Institute in February 2023 showed that around 66 per cent of Canadians believe China tried to meddle in the elections with 53 per cent saying such interference represents a serious threat to democracy. Besides, 42 per cent of Conservative voters said that the 2021 election was stolen.

The writer is a freelance journalist with more than two decades of experience and comments primarily on foreign affairs. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.
A party that believes it can shoulder the responsibilities of nation-building at an epochal moment in Indias rise must be more clear-headed in approach and firm in conviction read more

As the worlds fastest-growing large economy, India is on the rise. It is poised to become the worlds third-largest economy. As more and more Indians are pulled out of poverty, as the middle class expands, we are seeing a commensurate increase in Indias aspirations, national composite power and interests. And in accord with Indias growing aggregate power, the necessity to safeguard those interests and the need to project power is also on the rise.

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When countries grow in wealth  provided they have adequate human resources and stability  they quickly convert economic heft into military power. This is certainly true of India, which has the worlds fourth-biggest defence budget and is the worlds most populous nation with a young demography to boot.

India is not just perceived as a major power, it is starting to think of itself as one. The country is emerging from a reflexive post-colonial insularity, becoming more interested in the world and willing to understand how the world is interested in India. More and more Indians are travelling abroad, consuming global news, taking part in animated discussions on foreign policy, shaping Indias perspectives and perspectives on India.

With the expansion of Indias global role, Indias ambitions are growing and with it, mass interest in international relations. Foreign policy is no longer the esoteric preserve of boring bureaucrats and empowered elites but an animated talking point for people at large who are convinced that India is rapidly gaining global influence.

As professor Rohan Mukherjee has pointed out in Foreign Affairs, led by Narendra Modi, the BJP has infused diplomacy with a sense of national purpose and transformed it into one of the key dimensions on which citizens evaluate their government.

It is disappointing to note that the Opposition has completely bypassed any debate on foreign policy in the campaign season for the upcoming general elections. It is true that be it the G20 presidency, Voice of Global South Summit, promotion of millets, yoga, or deft navigation of the tricky geopolitical terrain amid twin wars and a once-in-a-century pandemic, Modi has given an impressive account of his handling of foreign policy. That doesnt mean, however, that the Opposition will give the government a walkover in an issue that is perceived as increasingly vital to Indias interests.

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To C Raja Mohan in Indian Express, The lack of a foreign policy debate today is less about a genuine consensus than declining interest in world affairs within the demoralised Opposition.

Thankfully, the Congress has dedicated an entire page on foreign policy in its recently published Nyay Patra, the manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections. It allows us to take a glance into the policy prescriptions and plans of the grand old party and also its views on national security.

Straight off the bat, it is encouraging to see Congress pledging to significantly increase the size of the Indian Foreign Service and open more missions abroad. India urgently needs to widen its diplomatic cadre to secure its widening interests, ambitions and influence, given the fact that its diplomatic workforce is lesser than many smaller economies.

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The BJP government is taking much-needed steps in this direction. India has the fastest-growing diplomatic network admittedly from a low base and is restructuring the Indian Foreign Service to add more than 200 additional posts over a span of five years.

Minister-level visits to countries around the world, many of these for the first time, have seen a significant uptick with the prime minister leading the way. Africa has been in special focus with 16 of the 21 new missions opened in the continent. In a new development, New Delhi is posting defence attaches to several new countries and the majority of them in African nations such as Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Djibouti.

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Still, Congresss focus in this area is welcome.

Overall, however, Congresss manifesto reflects inherent confusion, lack of focus, virtue-signalling and worringly, planned reversal of strategic postures that have served India well. The foreign policy chapter of the manifesto seems more of an afterthought than a measured document.

For example, Congress has declared that it will issue a comprehensive National Security Strategy (NSS), which is a welcome move, but that declaration sits at odds with its renewed pledge to affirm strategic autonomy in thought and action. This is intrinsically contradictory. Let me explain.

The BJP government at long last has embarked on an exhaustive process to issue Indias first NSS document, a move that was reported last year but it needs to be understood why Indian strategy planners had refrained from doing so despite years of debates and deliberations within the policy, military and strategic communities, and also why India feels that it is finally ready to put together its first definitive security document.

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Though Indias policymaking is shaped by internal guidelines, not publishing a definitive paper had its advantages for an emerging power in a tough neighbourhood. It maximized Indias strategic nimbleness and allowed for a greater manoeuvring space for Indias diplomacy that is incumbent on a policy of keeping relationships well-oiled with all major power nodes for abundant policy space and options.

For a diplomatic culture ingrained with ambiguity of strategic, calibrated, tactical or deliberate kind, a dogmatic approach to diplomacy may serve to tie Indias hands in identifying adversaries and red lines and force the government to act in a specific way in case these are breached. In other words, the absence of an NSS was a defensive strategy. Which suited a middle power struggling to maintain its growth and a stable geopolitical environment.

However, as Indias aggregate power has grown, so has its ambitions and the need to define the traditional, non-traditional threats and opportunities that present themselves. Hierarchical gains in the international system come with its own set of duties and responsibilities. For reference, observe Indias naval proactiveness in tackling piracy and providing net security in securing the sea lanes and providing public goods as a first responder by deploying 21 ships to address threats in the maritime domain.

If India perceives itself increasingly as a great power-in-waiting, its role in maintaining the global order that best secures its interests will grow, and that will need a clear defining of threats and strategies to deal with those threats. This will explain why an increasingly confident India has finally kickstarted the process of formulating a national security document.

Conversely, however, that signals a shift away from the defensive, post-colonial mindset towards the role of rule-shaper than a rule-taker. That obviates the need for reflexive ambiguity in policies and actions. Evidently, a major power that sees a greater role for itself in the global comity of nations and wants a seat at the UN high table cannot remain tied to the apron strings of strategic autonomy.

Raja Mohan describes this contradiction well in Indian Express where he writes, Strategic autonomy was never about setting goals; it was about abstract claims on retaining freedom of action. Once you are a power of reasonable size with assured autonomy, you must set concrete goals and objectives. For too long, the pursuit of strategic autonomy seemed to become an end in itself. That prevented the Indian political classes from articulating specific external goals.

It is my contention that Congresss simultaneous declaration of publishing a national security strategy and a doctrinaire approach towards strategic autonomy is incongruous and indicative of a thematic confusion that runs through the manifesto document.

Take, for instance, Congresss claim that foreign policy under the BJP/NDA government has witnessed marked departures from this (foreign policy since Independence) consensus, notably on the ongoing Gaza conflict. This is inexplicable. Since the Hamas atrocities on 7 October, 2023, and the subsequent war in West Asia, India has been very clear on two points. One, that Hamass attack against Israel was a big act of terrorism. Two, while any act of terrorism is unacceptable, a solution to the problems faced by the Palestinian people must be found and that answer lies in a two-state solution.

As a fellow sufferer for decades from radical Islamist terror, India has expressed its solidarity with Israel, but Prime Minister Modi also rang up Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and reiterated support for a two-state solution, indicating a nuanced and balanced approach. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in a recent visit to Malaysia, stated that On one hand, what happened on October 7 was terrorism. On the other hand, nobody would countenance the death of innocent civilians.

It is unclear, therefore, what Congress means by Indias departure on the Gaza issue. Should India not condemn terrorism, or abandon its position that there can be no double standards on terrorism? And since India has already reaffirmed support for a two-state solution, should that be reversed?

The more obvious explanation is that ahead of elections, Congress found in Gaza yet another chance to dog whistle on Muslim votes without adequately thinking through its statement.

Congress doesnt name Pakistan, but states in the manifesto that it will work with other countries to eliminate terrorist groups, terrorist acts and cross-border terrorism. The reference to Pakistan is clear. What isnt clear is the ambiguity in the policy that suggests that it wants to reopen talks with Pakistan. This would be a self-defeating reversal of strategy. The BJP government has successfully isolated Pakistan diplomatically and made it an international pariah.

Pakistans agency in fomenting trouble in Kashmir has been drastically reduced, and as the neighbouring country sinks deeper into an economic and socio-political morass, India sees no reason why it should consider Pakistan as a stakeholder in internal matters such as Kashmir or give it any opening at all.

Pakistan is not a normal, rational state. To expect it to behave rationally is to be delusional. India has suffered enough under that delusion, and there is no need to repeat past mistakes.

Foreign media outlets are claiming that Indian intelligence agency sleeper cells are reportedly eliminating Indias most wanted terrorist on Pakistani soil, and though India has formally denied such policies, defence minister Rajnath Singh has told News18 that If he [terrorist] flees to Pakistan, we will follow him and take him down on Pakistani soil. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken the truth India has the capability and Pakistan has also started understanding that.

New Delhi has Pakistan exactly where it wants to be, and any reversal of this policy would be counterproductive.

Another mystifying statement is made with reference to Maldives and Myanmar where the manifesto says, We will repair relations with the Maldives and work with Myanmar to protect the political and human rights of the people of Myanmar.

India has hardly anything to do with the turn of events in Maldives where a pro-China government has risen to power. It can be said, however, that New Delhi has acted with maturity and prudence despite provocations from the Mohamed Muizzu government. That strategic patience seems to be paying off.

India has lifted the curb on essential commodities despite escalating tensions, earning goodwill and thanks from an adversarial government and support from ordinary Maldivians who have criticised their own government for antagonising India.

One Maldivian ex-minister, a repeat offender, has recently apologized after facing massive backlash at home for disrespecting the Indian Tricolour. In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, Mariya Didi, the former defence minister of Maldives called President Muizzu immature who cannot harm the India-Maldives bond. It is once again not clear, therefore, what Congress means by repairing relations.

Pragmatism and realism are the core ideological moorings of Indias foreign policy under the Modi government. Nothing less would serve Indias interests, certainly not woolly-headed virtue-signalling on human rights or dissent. A party that believes it can shoulder the responsibilities of nation-building at an epochal moment in Indias rise must be more clear-headed in approach and firm in conviction. Congresss manifesto indicates that it is unprepared for such a role.

Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.
The world order takes decades to form and no single country can shape it in full. Trump has to respond to events abroad and actions of other powerful and influential countries read more

There are numerous reports about anxiety and apprehension in some parts of the world about the possibility of return of Donald Trump to the White House post 2024 presidential election in the United States. Many countries fear that the world order under the Trump 2.0 is going to drastically change and preparations should begin to confront the coming challenges before it is too late. Is the world order going to be radically different, if Donald Trump becomes the 47th President of the United States?

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Most of such apprehensions come from the trans-Atlantic allies of the United States. During his presidency, Donald Trumps language and tone regarding the relevance and viability of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation were harsh and unsettling. But the main message from the Trump White House for the alliance partners was to follow the norm of defence burden sharing and make contributions of 2 per cent of their respective GDP for collective defence. Trumps communication was downright clear; it had an effect on the members and today about two-thirds of NATO members spend 2 per cent of their GDP for defence.

Donald Trump during his current campaign for the presidential position has yet again sought to frighten the NATO members who are yet to comply with the requirement by saying that he would allow Russia to do anything it wants with such NATO members. This statement has sparked anger, fear and disenchantment in Europe because of its timing. First, Trumps remark was made amidst Russias continuing war in Ukraine. Second, Trump is against spending billions of dollars to back Ukraine defend itself against Russia. Third, it is largely because of him that the US Congress has not yet been able to authorise more than $60 billion of additional aid to Ukraine. Fourth, he has bragged that he would end the war in one day, if he is elected. This has created a perception that he may allow Russia to annex the areas it has occupied in Ukraine as part of the deal to end the war.

However, Trump has clarified that he will not withdraw from NATO. There are talks about defence capability building in Europe and Trumps statements have energised the countries that have for long supported a militarily stronger Europe. Trump 2.0 administration would certainly accept the idea of a stronger Europe, which will actually be effective defence burden sharing. Thus not much change in trans-Atlantic ties is likely to an extent that would affect the global strategic order.

It is important to note that it was Donald Trump who sought to shape the Indo-Pacific order by issuing a strategy report in 2017; by reviving the dormant Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, by adopting a tougher stance on unfair trade practices of China and engaging in a tariff war with Beijing and further strengthening defence and security partnership with India for maintaining peace, stability and freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific.

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Significantly, his successor President Joe Biden did not alter Trumps strategic initiatives in the Indo-Pacific and rather built upon them by elevating Quad to summit level meetings and operationalising it with working groups, by launching AUKUS defence pact with United Kingdom and Australia, which may be expanded to include Japan in the near future and standing behind Taiwan and the Philippines in the face of Chinese aggressive postures and grey zone offensive moves.

As far as the hydrocarbon resource rich West Asia is concerned, Donald Trump during his presidency successfully engineered the Abraham Accords as a positive step towards promoting peace in the region and enhancing Arab-Israeli constructive interactions. Under American inspiration and encouragement the UAE and Bahrain signed agreements with Israel. Trump was dead against the nuclear deal with Iran, but Biden has not been able to do much to revive the deal and Washingtons relationship with Iran is anything but friendly.

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Both Trump and Biden are pro-Israel and no matter who wins the election, US-Israel strategic cooperation will endure. While Trump is credited with signing of the Abraham Accords, Biden encouraged a new quadrilateral cooperation mechanism consisting of India, Israel, UAE and the US (I2U2). Biden did not oppose the Abraham Accord and Trump 2.0 is unlikely to dispute I2U2. Thus no discernible transformation in the broader strategic order in West Asia is likely to come about post 2024 US election.

The world has lived with Trump Administration 1.0. The transition period after Trumps victory in 2016 presidential election was a little chaotic. None expected a business tycoon and a political outsider like Trump to win the election. The Trump team was not ready with any blueprint for the administration to lead the global affairs. But Trump 2.0 administration, if it comes about, will not be as muddled. Think tanks and several advisors and experts supporting Trump are quietly working on projects, schemes and missions to make the transition orderly and peaceful.

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What worries and confuses the international community is the artless language and raw rhetoric used by Donald Trump during the campaigns. His statements can hurt or bring delight, embolden the adversarial nations and frighten friendly countries, but a little dissection and reading between the lines make it clear that Trump will do whatever he thinks to be good for America and, of course, for his party.

The world order takes decades to form and no single country can shape it in full. Trump has to respond to events abroad and actions of other powerful and influential countries. And the international community likewise will have to respond to Trumpean approach to global affairs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government has had deep experience in dealing with President Trump. If the current trend continues in Indian politics, NDA under the leadership of Modi will form the next government after the national elections. There is little to be concerned about Trump 2.0 administration in the US.

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There will be certain bilateral differences over trade and investment issues between India and the US. The strategic convergences between India and the US will be durable and effective. India will remain a strong partner of the US in shaping events in the Indo-Pacific and West Asia that will contribute to global peace and stability. What India needs to cogitate upon is the ways and means of coordinating with the US to work on the existing mechanisms, such as QUAD in the Indo-Pacific, I2U2 in West Asia; Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. Trump 2.0 administration will most likely try to modify a bit to suit its vision and mission and India has to remain prepared in advance.

No great changes are thus likely to take place in the global order. There will be no Trump 3.0 administration ever. Hence Donald Trump will most likely seek to leave his positive imprints in history of global affairs that will be long lasting.

The writer is founder chairperson, Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies, and formerly Professor at JNU. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.
Former Ukrainian security officer wounded in Moscow, accuses Kiev of assassination attempt

Xinhua) 11:22, April 13, 2024

MOSCOW, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Former Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) employee Vasily Prozorov, who had been injured in a car explosion in the north of Moscow, accused Kiev of plotting the attack, local media reported on Friday.

Kiev is behind the assassination attempt, Prozorov was quoted by Russia's TASS news agency as saying.

"But it didn't work out. I am alive and well and will continue to expose the crimes of the Ukrainian authorities," he said.

Prozorov was injured following the explosion of his vehicle, which occurred on Friday morning on Korovinskoye Highway. The blast did not result in a fire, but several nearby cars were also damaged.

From 1999 to 2018, Prozorov was an employee of the SBU, once working in the central office of the SBU at the headquarters of the anti-terrorist center. He gained fame in March 2019 on the eve of the presidential elections in Ukraine, when he gave a press conference in Russia exposing the activities of the SBU in Ukraine in 2014-2018.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
Air India flights are taking up a longer north route to reach destinations in Europe and the West, which could prolong the flight duration. Air India is among other foreign airlines who are opting to avoid the Iranian airspace as Tehran soon plans to significantly attack Israel read more

Air India flights have begun taking a de-tour as they are now avoiding operations in the Iranian airspace amid risks of escalating tensions between in the middle east.

All Air India flights bound for Europe from New Delhi could now take upto two hours longer to reach the destination. So far, no major fare hike has been announced by the airline, an NDTV report quoted sources as saying.

Tehran is expected to attack Israel in the next 24 to 48 hours, as per a report quoting US officials, for an alleged airstrike earlier this month on its Damascus consulate in Syria that killed top Iranian military officials, including a senior member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps elite Quds Force.

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India, France, and Russia among other countries have advised their citizens against traveling to the region, which is already tense due to the ongoing seven-month war in Gaza.

This week, Germanys Lufthansa airlines had announced suspension of flights to and from the capital Tehran and said that they would no longer use Iranian airspace.

Longer than usual routes

As per The Times of India report, Air India flights are considering different routes to connect with West and European countries. On Saturday morning, a London-bound Air India flight flew on an alternative route than the usual India-Pakistan-Iran-Turkey-Black Sea route to avoid the Iranian airspace, tracking website Flightradar24 showed.

Air India flight took the longer north route via Russian airspace, which did not significantly alter the nine-hour flight duration.

On the other hand, Air India is actively watching the Israeli station to decide in real-time whether it would want to continue their four weekly flights to Tel Aviv. Following the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Air India had suspended the New Delhi-Tel Aviv route. However, it resumed operations on March 3, 2024, after a nearly five-month hiatus.

Depending on the ongoing developments in the region, Air India will determine the fate of this route, according to sources.
A total of 543 first responders and seven helicopters are involved in the rescue operations, including teams from AFAD, the Coast Guard, firefighting teams and mountaineering teams from different parts of Turkiye, officials said read more

Members of Turkey's Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) take part in a rescue operation after a cable car cabin collided with a broken pole, in Antalya, Turkey, April 12, 2024. Ihlas News Agency via REUTERS

More than 40 people are still reportedly trapped in cable cars suspended above a mountain in southern Turkiye, a day after the accident in which one pod collided with a pole, resulting in one casualty and seven injuries.

The incident unfolded around 5:30 p.m. Friday at the Tunektepe cable car near the Mediterranean city of Antalya, coinciding with the bustling Eid al-Fitr holiday. Despite ongoing efforts, rescue operations persisted throughout the night and into the morning.

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According to Okay Memis, director of the Turkish search and rescue agency AFAD, 128 individuals across 16 pods have been successfully rescued under challenging circumstances. However, the effort to evacuate the remaining 43 individuals in eight pods is still underway, with rescuers aiming to complete the operation before nightfall.

Officials disclosed that the casualties occurred when a pod collided with a pole, rupturing and causing its occupants to plunge to the mountainside below.

State-run Anadolu Agency identified the deceased as a 54-year-old Turkish man. The injured were six Turkish citizens and one Kyrgyz national, including two children. They were rescued by Coast Guard helicopters.

Images in Turkish media showed the battered car swaying from dislodged cables on the side of the rocky mountain as medics tended the wounded.

A total of 543 first responders and seven helicopters are involved in the rescue operations, including teams from AFAD, the Coast Guard, firefighting teams and mountaineering teams from different parts of Turkiye, officials said.

Friday was the final day of a three-day public holiday in Turkiye marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which sees families flock to coastal resorts.

The cable car carries tourists from Konyaalti beach to a restaurant and viewing platform at the summit of the 618-metre Tunektepe peak. It is run by Antalya Metropolitan Municipality. The cable car line was completed in 2017 and receives a major inspection around the beginning of the year, as well as routine inspections throughout the year.

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Antalya Chief Public Prosecutors Office has launched an investigation. An expert commission including mechanical and electrical engineers and health and safety experts was assigned to determine the cause of the incident.

With inputs from The Associated Press
The Friendship Year marks 75 years of diplomatic relations between China and North Korea. Chinese top official Zhao Lejis visit to Pyongyang is happening amid rising regional security concerns for Beijing, especially from South Korea, Japan, and US read more

Chinese top official Zhao Leji met his North Korean counterpart in Pyongyang and announced the beginning of the "Friendship Year". Source: AP

China has kicked off a friendship year with North Korea to mark 75 years of diplomatic relations with the country. The beginning of the friendship year was marked by the highest-level Chinese visit to North Korea in nearly five years, highlighting the importance both nations place on their partnership.

Zhao Leji, understood to be Chinas third-highest ranked official, is leading a delegation on a goodwill visit to North Korea, at the invitation of Pyongyang. This three-day visit underscores the great importance China attaches to its relations with North Korea, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced. Meanwhile, North Koreas state media agency, KCNA, has confirmed the visit, noting the significance of the event, CNN reported.

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The geopolitical context

This diplomatic engagement occurs against a backdrop of increasing regional security concerns, particularly with the United States enhancing its security ties with Japan and South Korea. These alliances are perceived by Beijing and Pyongyang as a strategic counter to their own regional influences.

The delegations arrival also coincides with heightened global apprehensions concerning North Korea, which has escalated its aggressive rhetoric and continued its weapons tests in recent months. Additionally, North Korea has been forging closer connections with Moscow and has reportedly begun supplying arms for the conflict in Ukraine, according to US and allied reports.

These geopolitical dynamics are further highlighted by a week of intense Asia-focused diplomacy in Washington. US President Joe Biden is hosting a trilateral summit with the leaders of the Philippines and Japan, emphasising a unified approach to the challenges posed by China and North Korea.

What the visit means for China

The visit provides a rare opportunity for a top Chinese official to engage directly with North Koreas secretive government. Zhao, who leads Chinas rubber-stamp national legislature and is a member of its powerful seven-man Politburo Standing Committee, is the highest-ranking visitor since Chinese leader Xi Jinpings state visit in 2019.

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While the visit is unlikely to lead to immediate diplomatic breakthroughs, it represents a significant gesture by China to affirm its complex and deep-rooted ties with North Korea, CNN reported. It also serves to signal to the United States and other regional actors that China maintains substantial influence over Pyongyang.

Significance of the Friendship Year for North Korea

For North Korea, the visit and the announcement of the Friendship Year from Chinas top officials not only strengthens its most crucial international alliance but also offers support against the perceived threats from ongoing US and South Korean military collaborations. This development could prove pivotal for North Korea as it navigates its international relations amidst increasing isolation and scrutiny.
Judge Juan M Merchan said that former President Donald Trump was, at least in part, responsible for the media coverage around his trial read more

A judge has rejected former President Donald Trumps request to postpone his upcoming hush money criminal trial, dismissing concerns over extensive pre-trial publicity. The decision comes as Trump prepares to face charges in a case that has captivated national attention, marking the first criminal trial of a former US president.

Judge Juan M Merchan, presiding over the case in Manhattan, addressed the defences plea to delay the trial due to what they termed exceptionally prejudicial news coverage. The defence argued that the extensive media attention had biased the potential jury pool, making a fair trial in Manhattan impossible. They cited over 1,200 articles published about the case, which they claimed had unfairly demonised Trump.

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Judge points to Trumps role in publicity

Judge Merchan dismissed these concerns, noting that Trump appears to take the position that his situation and this case are unique and that the pre-trial publicity will never subside. However, this view does not align with reality.

The judge emphasised that similar publicity had surrounded Trumps previous legal battles, including two federal defamation trials and a state civil fraud trial. He wrote that the former president himself had contributed significantly to the media coverage through his public statements and social media activities.

The situation Defendant finds himself in now is not new to him and at least in part, of his own doing, Judge Merchan stated. He affirmed that the jury selection process would include thorough questioning to ensure all jurors remain fair and impartial.

The Manhattan District Attorneys office, prosecuting the case, has argued that despite the publicity, it is feasible to assemble an impartial jury from Manhattans population of over one million. The prosecution also noted that Trumps own comments had contributed to the heightened media coverage.

Several other attempts to delay trial

Trumps lawyers have made multiple attempts to delay the trial, including appeals arguing for a change in trial location due to prejudicial media coverage and potential bias in a predominantly Democratic Manhattan. These appeals were denied by individual appellate judges, with the matters now headed for further consideration by a panel of appellate judges.

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In addition to pre-trial publicity concerns, Trumps legal team has criticised the prosecution tactics in the case against former Trump Organisation finance chief Allen Weisselberg, accusing the Manhattan DAs office of unethical practices. Judge Merchan responded to these allegations with concern, urging Trumps lawyers to refrain from making unfounded accusations.

With inputs from agencies
It came with tensions high in Syrias capital after Iran vowed retaliation for a strike on a building in the Iranian embassy compound in the Syrian capital of Damascus, which killed several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, including two generals. read more

An explosive device exploded in a car in a posh area of Damascus, according to Syrian state media, citing a police source. Security incidents, including explosions targeting military or civilian vehicles, happen sporadically in Damascus. It remains unclear who was behind the blast or its intended target.

The incident occurred amid heightened tensions in Syrias capital following Irans pledge of retaliation for a strike on a building within the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus. The attack resulted in the deaths of several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, including two generals.

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The explosion heard a short while ago in the Mazzeh area resulted from an explosive device detonating in a car in al-Huda square, Syrias official SANA news agency says, quoting a Damascus police command source.

It adds that there were no injuries. The incident happened in the Mazzeh area, where Irans embassy and other foreign missions are located.

With inputs from AFP.
Scheduled to commence on April 22nd for a duration of two weeks, all components of the mission will operate under the oversight of Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO, headquartered in Oeiras, Portugal read more

In a historic move, the Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier will be deployed under NATO command for the first time, embarking on a mission in the Mediterranean aimed at demonstrating Frances commitment to the alliance, particularly in light of Russias actions in Ukraine.

The mission, named Akila, will bring together vessels from multiple countries, including the United States, Spain, Greece, Italy, and Portugal, according to Commander Jacques Mallard of the French carrier strike.

Scheduled to commence on April 22nd for a duration of two weeks, all components of the mission will operate under the oversight of Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO, headquartered in Oeiras, Portugal.

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Vice Admiral Didier Maleterre, NATOs maritime second-in-command, highlighted the significance of this deployment, stating that it marks the first time the Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier and its escort, including a nuclear-powered attack submarine, will operate under NATOs operational control for a vigilant mission, transcending the realm of mere exercises.

While French aircraft and vessels have previously operated under NATO command, the carrier, equipped with Rafale jets, has always remained under French authority. However, Maleterre noted that France retains the ability to reassume control of the operation if necessary.

Against the backdrop of Russias invasion of Ukraine, France has strengthened its ties with the NATO alliance, and by entrusting its navys flagship to NATO command, it aims to underscore its commitment and engagement within the alliance.
The German Foreign Office has advised its citizens to depart Iran due to the heightened risk of a sudden escalation amid the threat of war with Israel. They also cautioned that air, land, and sea routes to the region could be impacted read more

An Iranian flag hangs as smoke rises after what the Iranian media said was an Israeli strike on a building close to the Iranian embassy in Damascus on Monday. Source: Reuters

Germany has advised citizens to depart Iran citing risks of sudden escalation and said those with dual citizenship of both countries are especially at risk of getting arbitrarily arrested and interrogated.

In the current tensions, especially between Israel and Iran, there is a risk of a sudden escalation, Germanys Foreign Office wrote in a renewed travel warning.

It cannot be excluded that air, land and sea transport routes could be affected, it adds.

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German airline Lufthansa, on Friday, announced that it would no longer use Iranian airspace as it extended a suspension on flights to and from the capital Tehran amid rising tensions in the Middle East.

Due to the current situation, Lufthansa is suspending its flights to and from Tehran up to and including Thursday, 18 April, a company spokesperson said Friday.

The German advisory comes after a report citing US intelligence officials forewarned that Iran could attack Israeli soil in the next 24 to 48 hours. Earlier, US President Joe Biden warned Tehran might attack Israel sooner than later.

German citizens are at concrete risk of being arbitrarily arrested and interrogated and being given long prison sentences. Dual citizens with Iranian and German nationality are especially at risk, the Foreign Office said. India, Russia & European nations issue advisories

Several other nations, including India, France, Poland, UK and Russia issued travel advisories against travelling to Israel and Iran. The French foreign ministry advised its citizens to refrain from travelling to Iran, Lebanon, Israel, and the Palestinian territories.

The Ministry of External Affairs urged Indians to avoid travelling to Iran and Israel until further notice and asked citizens residing there to get in touch with respective embassies and register themselves given the security situation in the region.

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Multiple reports citing US officials suggested that Iran has prepared over 100 cruise missiles and an equal number of drones for a potential strike on military sites within Israel. The assault on Israel may involve Iranian military units as well as allied groups supported by Iran.

The war threat looms in the region as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel must be punished and it shall be for an alleged airstrike on a consulate in Damascus, Syria on April 2 that killed top Iranian military officials, including a senior member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps elite Quds Force.

The Jewish state has neither confirmed nor denied being behind the attack.
Kenyas disaster management agency issued a flood warning to residents of Lamu, Tana River and Garissa counties that are downstream of Tana River after flooding breached dams upstream. Residents have been urged to move to higher grounds. read more

Passengers of a bus that was swept away by floodwaters are rescued by boat, near Garissa, northern Kenya, Tuesday, April 9, 2024. - AP

Heavy rains have wreaked havoc in various parts of Kenya, resulting in the deaths of at least 13 individuals and displacing approximately 15,000 people, according to the United Nations.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, citing the Kenya Red Cross Society, reported on Thursday that nearly 20,000 individuals have been affected. This figure includes an estimated 15,000 people who have been displaced by heavy rains and flash floods since the onset of the wet season in mid-March.

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Kenya, located in East Africa, has historically experienced significant casualties due to flooding during previous rainy seasons, particularly in regions surrounding lakes and downstream areas of major rivers. The Kenya Red Cross Society informed The Associated Press that five major roads have been rendered impassable by the floods. Among them is Garissa Road in northern Kenya, where a bus carrying 51 passengers was swept away on Tuesday. Fortunately, all passengers were rescued.

Kenyas disaster management agency issued a flood warning to residents of Lamu, Tana River and Garissa counties that are downstream of Tana River after flooding breached dams upstream. Residents have been urged to move to higher grounds.

So far, nine out of 47 counties in the country have reported flooding incidents

Mudslides have been reported in the central regions. On Tuesday four people were killed in Narok county, in the western part of the country.

The Kenya Red Cross Societys secretary general, Ahmed Idris, told Citizen TV that lifesaving assistance including shelter and clean drinking water was being offered to those displaced and are living in camps to avert outbreaks of waterborne diseases.

The rainy season is expected to reach its peak towards the end of April and subside in June, according to the meteorology department.

With inputs from agencies.
Jaishankar shared the update on social media platform X, stating, Spoke to UK Foreign Secretary Lord @David_Cameron today. Discussed the emerging situation in West Asia as also our bilateral ties read more

Indias external Affairs Minister S Jaishankar engaged in a telephonic discussion with his British counterpart, David Cameron, on Saturday, focusing on the emerging situation in West Asia amidst escalating tensions between Israel and Iran.

The conversation between Jaishankar and Cameron coincided with the day when the Iranian military seized a cargo ship with Israeli connections near the Strait of Hormuz. The ship, carrying 17 Indian crew members, was intercepted.

Jaishankar shared the update on social media platform X, stating, Spoke to UK Foreign Secretary Lord @David_Cameron today. Discussed the emerging situation in West Asia as also our bilateral ties.

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There are growing concerns that Tehran might retaliate against Israel following an attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria twelve days ago, for which Iran has held Israel responsible.

In the midst of escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari warned, Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further.

On Friday, US President Joe Biden cautioned Iran against an attack on Israel.

We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will defend  help defend Israel. And Iran will not succeed, he told reporters.

India on Friday asked its citizens not to travel to Iran and Israel.

With inputs from PTI
The first wave of Iranian drones is expected to arrive in Israel in the next few hours and the Israeli military said it is monitoring the drones read more

The United States and Israel have for days considered an Iranian attack by drones or missiles on Israel imminent. (Representative Photo. Source: AP)

Iran on Saturday evening launched drone attacks at Israel, according to the Israeli military.

The Israeli military said that these drones are expected to arrive in Israel in the next few hours and the Israeli military is tracking them.

While initial reports said dozens of drones were launched, Axios quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that the Iranian attack included hundreds of attack drones.

An Iranian attack on Israel had been considered imminent for days. Iran had vowed to punish Israel for the killing of a top general in an airstrike on the countrys diplomatic mission in Syrian capital Damascus on April 1.

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In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in Hebrew: A short time ago, Iran launched an unmanned aerial vehicle from its territory towards the territory of the State of Israel. The IDF is on high alert and forms a situational picture at all times. The air defense system is on high alert at the same time as the Air Force planes and Navy ships that are on a mission to protect the countrys skies. The IDF is monitoring all targets.

             .



"        .                   .

"    >>     (@idfonline) April 13, 2024

Separately, IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari confirmed the Iranian launches and said that the global positioning system (GPS) in Israel will be disrupted across the country as part of a strategy to intercept the drones, according to The Times of Israel.

Shortly before the first wave of Iranian attack was confirmed by the Israeli military, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message that whoever harms us, we will harm them, as per The Jerusalem Post.

The report further quoted him as saying that Israel had been preparing for years for an attack from Iran and such preparation had only increased in recent weeks.

We will protect ourselves from any threat and we will do so with steadfastness and determination. Together we will overcome all our enemiesOur defense systems are deployed. We are prepared for any scenario, both in defense and attack, said Netanyahu and urged Israelis to listen to the government directives and thanked Israels allies such as the United States, France, and the United Kingdom for their support, as per the report.

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In the wake of the Iranian attack considered imminent, US President Joe Biden had assured Israel of ironclad support. Reports have also said that the US would provide military and intelligence support to any confrontation and is also expected to help Israel take down any missiles or drones.

Earlier, Netanyahu had also said that any attack on Israeli soil will be met with a retaliatory strike on the attackers soil.

Any attack by Iran on Israel will be a first and will the biggest escalation since the Middle East crisis began in October 2023 when Hamas mounted an all-out attack on Israel and the country went to war against Hamas in Gaza.

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After the first wave of Iranian drones were launched, reports surfaced that a second wave of drones was also on its way. The Times of Israel cited Iranian media reports as saying that a second wave had been launched as well.

Earlier in the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, Iraq and Jordan shuttered their airspace and Israel is also expected to shortly close its airspace.
US President Biden said that he will not let any Iranian attack on Israel be successful and that he is devoted to defending Jerusalem after a report quoting US intelligence suggested that Tehran plans to attack in next 24 to 48 hours read more

US President Joe Biden warned that he predicts Iran to attack Israeli soil sooner rather than later and renewed his warning against Tehran to not proceed.

Bidens caution comes after reports citing US officials suggested that Iran has prepared over 100 cruise missiles and an equal number of drones for a potential strike on military sites within Israel. The assault on Israel may involve Iranian military units as well as allied groups supported by Iran.

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Biden has a message for Iran

While speaking to reporters on Friday, Biden emphasised Washingtons commitment to protecting Israel and sent a simple message to IranDont.

We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed, he said.

Earlier, the US president vowed ironclad support for Israel after Iran threatened to launch a significant attack following an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Syrian embassy on April 2 that killed top Iranian military officials, including a senior member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps elite Quds Force.

The US is trying to knock on every possible door to prevent an Iranian attack, Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, China and European countries to use their influence to dissuade Iran from striking Israel. He also nudged them to convince Tehran that such escalation is not in anyones interest, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

India, France, Russia issue advisory for citizens

Amid global jitters over a possible escalation, India along with France, Russia, Poland, Germany, and the United Kingdom have issued advisories for its citizens, warning them to avoid travelling to Iran and Israel.

In view of the prevailing situation in the region, all Indians are advised not to travel to Iran or Israel till further notice. All those who are currently residing in Iran or Israel are requested to get in touch with Indian Embassies there and register themselves, Indias Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Friday.

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With input from agencies
Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) seized the cargo ship owned by an Israeli businessman in the Strait of Hormuz off the UAEs coast, according to Iranian media affiliated with the IRGC read more

This image from a video provided by a Middle East-based defence official shows a helicopter raid targeting a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday. It shows commandos raiding the ship in an attack the official attributed to Iran. (Source: AP)

Amid fears of the widening of the conflict in the Middle East, Iran on Saturday seized an Israel-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has vowed to punish Israel for the killing of a top general in an airstrike on the countrys diplomatic mission in Syrian capital Damascus on April 1. The United States and Israel believe that an Iranian attack on Israel is imminent and is likely to occur over the weekend or early next week.

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Irans Tasnim news agency, associated with the countrys vastly powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reported that IRGCs naval personnel on Saturday seized the ship MSC Aries. It said that the ship flies the flag of Portugal but belongs to London-based company Zodiac Maritime which is owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Tasnim also shared a photo that appears to be taken from the ship. The photograph, which is identical to the one also published by the Associated Press, appears to show commandoes onboarding the ship from a military helicopter hovering above the ship.

Iran's IRGC Seizes Cargo Ship Tied to Israel#Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) naval forces have seized a cargo ship associated with the #Israeli regime. The #IRGC navy detained the vessel in the Persian Gulf region earlier on Saturday.

According to some reports, pic.twitter.com/yphphCCPA8  Tasnim News Agency (@Tasnimnews_EN) April 13, 2024

The AP separately reported a defence official based in the Middle East as saying that the seizure of the ship was indeed carried out by Iran.

Separately, the UK Navys Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said that a ship had been seized by regional authorities 50 nautical miles northeast of United Arab Emirates (UAE) Fujairah. The UKMTO said the seizure took place around 8:20 am (India time).

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In the video accessed by the AP, the agency reported a crew member could be heard saying: Dont come out. The report further says that the crew member then tells his colleagues to go to the ships bridge as more commandos rappelled onto the ship from the helicopter. The video with the AP showed one commando kneeling above the others to apparently provide the group cover fire.

While the agency did not immediately verify the video, it noted that the helicopter in the video which was shared by the Middle East-based defence official appeared to be one used by Irans IRGC, which has similarly raided ships in the past.

The IRGC is the vastly influential Iranian armed force thats separate from the countrys regular military and reports directly to the Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Khamenei. The top general killed in the April 1 airstrike, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, was the top IRGC commander in Syria who looked after the Quds Forces operations in Syria and Lebanon. The Quds Force is the IRGCs military and intelligence wing that looks after Irans covert operation abroad.

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The Strait of Hormuz, where the seizure took place, is a narrow water body that connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman. Around 20% of the worlds oil passes through the strait and UAEs Fujairah, near which the ship was seized, is the main port in the region where ships pick supplies, trade crew, or load oil cargo.

In the wake of the Iranian threat, US President Joe Biden has assured Israel of ironclad support. Israel has also declared that any attack on Israeli soil would be met with a strike on the attackers soil. In remarks on Friday, Biden said that the Iranian attack is expected sooner than later.
The United States and Israel believe that Iran may launch an attack on Israel on the weekend or early next week read more

Amid threat of an imminent Iranian attack, the Israeli military on Friday said Tehran will bear consequences for any escalation and that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are prepared to respond to any scenario.

The United States and Israel believe that Iran may launch an attack on Israel on the weekend or early next week. Iran has repeatedly vowed to punish Israel for the killing of a top general in an airstrike on the countrys diplomatic mission in Syrian capital Damascus on April 1. In the wake of the Iranian threat, US President Joe Biden has assured Israel of its ironclad support.

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In a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter), IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israel is on high alert and the military has increased its readiness against the expected Iranian aggression.

Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also declared that any attack on Israeli soil will be met with a retaliatory attack on the attackers soil.

Iran biggest state-sponsor of terror, will bear responsibility for escalation

Hagari in a video statement said that Iran is the biggest state-sponsor of terrorism in the world and will bear the responsibility for escalation in the region.

Hagari also said that Irans support to a host of armed groups in the Middle East has destabilised the region.

Since October 7, 2023, when Gaza-based Hamas along with allied terrorist groups like the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) mounted an all-out attack on Israel, other Iran-sponsored groups in the Middle East like the Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Yemen-based Houthis have also become belligerent. While Hezbollah has fought Israel on a nearly-daily basis, Houthis have mounted hundreds of attacks in the Red Sea and have disrupted global shipping.

Iran funds, trains, and arms terror proxies across the Middle East and beyond. Iran-backed Hamas started the war on October 7 and Iran-backed Hezbollah expanded this war on October 8 and, since then, Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria and Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have expanded this into a global conflict, said Hagari.

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Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further.



Watch IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagaris statement regarding Iranian involvement in the war and its effect on the Middle East: pic.twitter.com/AdaJB2WtJd  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 13, 2024

Stressing that Israel is not alone in facing the Iranian threats, Hagari said that that the Israeli military is prepared together with our allies to protect the people of Israel for all scenarios.

Israel is on high alert. We have increased our readiness to protect Israel from further Iranian aggression. We are also prepared to respond, said Hagari.

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If anyone hits us, we hit them: Netanyahu vows retaliation to Iranian attack

In a previous statement, Netanyahu vowed retaliation to any potential attack from Iran. He said that any attack on Israeli soil will be met with a response on the attackers soil.

During a visit to a military base housing F-15 warplanes, Netanyahu on Friday said that the country is preparing for challenges from other fronts even as its fights the war in Gaza with full force.

We set a simple principle: Anyone who hits us, we hit them. We are ready to fulfill our responsibilities to Israels security, in defense and attack. I, and the whole of Israel, trust you, said Netanyahu in his address to the fighter pilots at the base, according to The Times of Israel.
The law requiring women to wear hijab in public was implemented in Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 read more

Iranian authorities in the capital city of Tehran have launched a campaign named Noor to tighten the implementation of the hijab rule for women.

Women in Iran are required by law to wear hijab, Islamic head-coverings, in public places. They are also barred from wearing clothes that are either too form-fitting or reveal much skin. The dress code was implemented in the country after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 that overthrew the liberal, pro-West monarchy and replaced it with a conservative clergy.

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In 2022, the opposition to mandatory wearing of hijab triggered months of women-led, nationwide protests in Iran after a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, died in the custody of the countrys morality police. She had been detained over an alleged violation of the hijab law. In these protests across Iran, women often took to streets in large numbers and took off their hijabs, burnt them, and cut their hair in public in defiance of the Iranian regimes diktats.

Even though the Iranian regime clamped down on protests by the middle of 2023, the morality police had maintained a low profile since. That may change now as the authorities are back to implementing the law rigorously under the Noor campaign, according to AFP.

From today the police in Tehran, as in other provinces, will implement their measures against this sort of violation of the law regarding hijab, said Tehrans police chief Abbas Ali Mohammadian, as per the report.

Mohammadian further said, People who did not pay attention to previous police warnings will be specially warned in the city from today and legal action will be taken against them.

The announcement came days after Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, in a speech emphasised that women in Iran must obey the dress code regardless of their beliefs, according to the report.

Khamenei said, The hijab issue, which has now become an imposed challenge, did not exist before the intervention of foreigners.

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On Saturday, Irans Ham Mihan daily posted images of the presence of patrol vans from the morality police in central Tehrans Valiasr Square.

The AFP noted that there have been reports in the Iranian media over recent months that police have seized vehicles transporting women without veils and punished their owners.

In their bid to implement the hijab law, the Iranian authorities have also shut cafes and restaurants where the wearing of the hijab was not respected, according to the report.
The United States and Israel believe that an Iranian attack on Israel is imminent and is likely to occur over the weekend or early next week read more

Amid threat of an imminent attack from Iran, Israel on Saturday said it is closing schools across the country and is shutting down large gatherings.

Iran has vowed to punish Israel for the killing of a top general in an airstrike on the countrys diplomatic mission in Syrian capital Damascus on April 1. The United States and Israel believe that an Iranian attack on Israel is imminent and is likely to occur over the weekend or early next week.

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At the time of the writing of this story, unconfirmed reports from the Middle East said Iran had launched the first tranche of the attack. Axios reported that dozens of drones had been launched at Israel. The attack is expected to last hours.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the Israeli military said that the country has been divided in three zones: the green zone with minimal restrictions, the Gaza zone for areas along the border with the war-hit Gaza, and the confrontation line deemed to be most critical.

While schooling has been shut in all three zones, gatherings up to 30 people are allowed in confrontation line zone, up to 100 people in Gaza zone, and up to 1,000 in the green zone. The measures will be in place till Monday.

Following a situational assessment, it was determined that as of 23:00 (IST) tonight, changes will be made to the Home Front Commands defensive guidelines.



As part of the changes, it was decided to prohibit educational activities across Israel. In green areas, gatherings will pic.twitter.com/LhD8EDeMOt  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 13, 2024

In the wake of the Iranian attack deemed imminent on Israel, US President Joe Biden has assured the country of ironclad support. Earlier on Saturday, Biden cut short a weekend visit to Delaware considering the evolving situation in the Middle East.

An attack by Iran on Israel will be a first and will drag the two countries into a direct confrontation. It will be the most significant escalation since October 7 when Hamas mounted an all-out attack on Israel and Israel retaliated with a military campaign against the group in Gaza. An Iran-Israel conflict is also expected to drag the United Staes into the fighting as the country is the principal ally of Israel and the principal foe of Iran.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that any attack on Israeli soil will be met with a retaliation on the attackers soil. Speaking at a military base housing fighter planes on Thursday, Netanyahu in an apparent reference to Iran said that if anyone hits Israel, Israel will hit back.

Netanyahu said Israel is preparing for challenges from other fronts even as its fights the war in Gaza with full force.

We set a simple principle: Anyone who hits us, we hit them. We are ready to fulfill our responsibilities to Israels security, in defense and attack. I, and the whole of Israel, trust you, said Netanyahu, according to The Times of Israel.
The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair led to retaliatory attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages on both Friday and Saturday read more

Israeli settlers gather near burning properties of Palestinian villagers after they set on fire, in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir, Saturday, April 13, 2024. AP

Israels army confirmed on Saturday the discovery of the body of a missing Israeli teenager in the West Bank, attributing his death to a terrorist attack. The incident has fueled a surge in violence across the Israeli-occupied territory, where tensions have been simmering for months.

The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair led to retaliatory attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages on both Friday and Saturday.

On Friday, an attack on al-Mughayyir village resulted in the death of one Palestinian and injuries to 25 others, according to Palestinian health officials. Witnesses reported that on Saturday, Israeli troops delayed the ambulance carrying the 26-year-old mans body for burial.

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On Saturday, dozens of Israeli settlers returned to the outskirts of al-Mughayyir village, setting fire to 12 homes and several cars. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported three injuries from the village, one critical, as border police deployed tear gas to disperse the gathering villagers.

In the nearby village of Douma, Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to several homes. According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, six people were injured by gunfire, although the source of the shots was not specified.

Tensions in the West Bank have been particularly high since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war in nearby Gaza on Oct. 7, triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel. The conflict has claimed the lives of approximately 1,200 people in Gaza and resulted in 250 hostages being taken. Gaza health officials estimate that over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israels offensive.

Hamas since then has been trying to ignite other fronts, including in the West Bank, in hopes of exerting more pressure on Israel. Such efforts have largely failed, though more than 460 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since Oct. 7, most in clashes sparked by army raids but some by vigilante settlers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing of the Israeli teen.

According to Israeli media, the teen was last seen leaving the settler outpost of Malachei Shalom early Friday to tend to livestock nearby. The sheep returned to the outpost hours later without him, reports said.

Israels Channel 13 TV reported that Achimairs body was discovered by a drone. The broadcaster said he was not shot but did not elaborate.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the killing We will get to the murderers and their helpers as we do to anyone who harms the citizens of the state of Israel, he said in a statement issued by his office.

In 2014, the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank escalated tensions and eventually ignited a 50-day Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, at the time the deadliest round of fighting between the two sides.

Consecutive Israeli governments have expanded Israeli settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories the Palestinians seek for a future state, along with Gaza. Some are highly developed and resemble suburbs of Israeli cities, while smaller outposts often have only a few caravans.

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While Israel has established scores of settlements across the occupied West Bank, the outposts are not authorized, though the government gives them tacit support. The international community overwhelmingly considers all West Bank settlements illegal and obstacles to peace.

Over 700,000 Israelis now live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem  territories captured by Israel in 1967.

With inputs from The Associated Press
Housing supply has not kept pace with Canadas immigration-fueled population growth. Canada needs to construct approximately 3.1 million homes by 2030 to bridge the existing housing gap read more

In a bid to alleviate a severe housing shortage in Canada, Housing Minister Sean Fraser unveiled a new strategy on Friday that leverages federal public lands for the development of more affordable homes. This initiative, part of the broader Canadas Housing Plan, promises to build nearly 3.9 million homes by 2031, marking a significant scale-up from prior efforts to address the national housing crisis.

The housing crisis in Canada

Housing supply has not kept pace with Canadas immigration-fueled population growth. Affordability worsened during the pandemic as housing prices surged due to high demand and low borrowing costs.

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According to a recent report by the parliamentary budget officer, Canada needs to construct approximately 3.1 million homes by 2030 to bridge the existing housing gap. This stark number has pushed the Trudeau government to adopt unprecedented measures to boost housing availability and affordability, CBC reported.

Trudeaus ambitious plan

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking at a news conference in Vaughan, Ontario, described the strategy as the most comprehensive and ambitious housing plan ever seen in Canada. Trudeau highlighted that the new plan aims to extend beyond mere construction, addressing needs across renting and homeownership and supporting Canadians who struggle with housing costs.

Using public lands

A cornerstone of the new policy is the innovative use of underused public lands. Under the plan, these lands will be offered to developers through long-term leases, a move that Fraser insists will keep the lands under federal control while significantly boosting the development of affordable housing units. Details of these plans are expected to be more fully revealed in the upcoming 2024 budget, set for April 16.

In addition to land use, the strategy includes financial incentives such as the Canada Secondary Suite Loan Program, which offers homeowners low-interest loans up to $40,000 to create secondary suites in their residences. This is seen as a way to quickly expand the housing stock available to Canadians. Further measures to curb housing speculation include extending the ban on residential property ownership by foreign investors until 2027 and increasing tax incentives for apartment builders. Trudeaus administration is also making strategic moves in the rental market, extending GST exemptions to new student residences and promoting sustainable development across various demographics.

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Critics remain unimpressed

Critics, however, remain skeptical. New Democrat housing spokesperson Alexandre Boulerice voiced concerns that the governments actions were too delayed, pointing out Trudeaus eight years in office with insufficient progress on making housing more affordable. Despite such criticisms, the Canadian Home Builders Association has expressed support for the new measures, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive approach to solve the housing affordability crisis.

As the federal strategy unfolds, it seeks crucial cooperation from provinces and territories, some of which have previously contested Ottawas mandates as overreaching into provincial jurisdiction. Nonetheless, Fraser remains optimistic, asserting the necessity of overcoming jurisdictional challenges to meet the housing needs of Canadians effectively.
Several nations, including India, France, and Russia, have advised their citizens against traveling to the region which is already tense due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza and now entering its seventh month. read more

Iran accused Israel of carrying out the strike against its embassy in Syria, and there have been worries that the Iranian military and its proxies may shortly attack Israel Image Courtesy. AFP

The Netherlands will close its embassy in Tehran tomorrow as a precaution, the Dutch Foreign Ministry says in a statement, citing the rising tensions between Iran and Israel.

The ministry adds that it will decide tomorrow whether the embassy would reopen on Monday.

Several nations, including India, France, and Russia, have advised their citizens against traveling to the region which is already tense due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza and now entering its seventh month.

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Tensions in the region have escalated further following Irans threat of retaliation following an Israeli strike on Irans embassy in Damascus, resulting in the deaths of two Iranian generals earlier this month. Sources suggest that Iran perceives the embassy strike as tantamount to an attack on its own territory. Consequently, there are concerns that Iran may directly target Israeli soil, rather than through a proxy like Hezbollah in Lebanon, posing a significant possibility of escalation.

United States President Joe Biden expects Irans attack on Israel to come sooner rather than later, warning the Middle Eastern country dont, as per a Reuters report on April 13. Biden reiterated Washingtons commitment to defend Israel and warned Iran that it will not succeed.
The bodies were later discovered beneath a bridge in the area. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Separatist ethnic Baloch militant groups in the mineral-rich region have been fighting for decades against the state read more

Gunmen ambushed a bus in Pakistans Balochistan province Friday night, abducting nine men before shooting them dead. The incident occurred in Noshki district, with the victims targeted for being from the eastern province of Punjab.

The attackers intercepted the Iran-bound bus, identified the victims, and took them away before executing them at close range.

The bodies were later discovered beneath a bridge in the area. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

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Separatist ethnic Baloch militant groups in the mineral-rich region have been fighting for decades against the state, saying it denies them their share of regional resources.

Several gunmen intercepted the Iran-bound bus in Noshki district, taking the nine men with them after determining they were from the eastern province of Punjab, said police officer Abdullah Mengal. All of them were travelling to Taftan, he said.

Ethnic Baloch insurgents have previously claimed responsibility for similar killings in the region, which is home to deep-water Gwadar sea port being developed by neighbouring China. The insurgents have also targeted Chinese nationals and their interests.

Beijing has invested heavily in regional development projects as part of its $65 billion pledge under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

With inputs from Reuters
The six-party alliance, which includes Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, held a late-night meeting that extended into the early hours of Saturday. They decided to unite under the banner of Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP), a movement aimed at safeguarding the Constitution of Pakistan. read more

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans party under the banner of a grand opposition alliance announced on Saturday a nationwide movement against alleged rigging in the February 8 election and the perceived manipulation of the mandate by the government. The launch of this movement suggests that hopes for post-election peace and political stability may fade sooner than anticipated.

The six-party alliance, which includes Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, held a late-night meeting that extended into the early hours of Saturday. They decided to unite under the banner of Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP), a movement aimed at safeguarding the Constitution of Pakistan.

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Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai was nominated as president of the alliance at the hours-long meeting, which was presided over by Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal.

Sunni Ittehad Council chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza Khan, Majlis Wahdat Muslimeen Chairman Raja Nasir Abbas and Jamaat-i-Islami leader Liaquat Baloch also attended the meeting.

PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan told the media after the meeting that the movement aimed to restore the rule of law in the country and it would be launched with a public rally from the Pishin area of Balochistan from Saturday. All political parties have joined the opposition alliance of their own will given the deteriorating situation in all fields, he said.

Omer said that the movement was being launched against alleged massive rigging in the February 8 elections, as the alliance rejected the government established by tampering with the election result.

Achakzai addressing the press conference declared that the alliance was not against the Army but they were against its political role as given in the Constitution.

The Constitution is a social contract and we will start public meetings from Saturday for its protection, Achakzai said. He also opposed any extension in the service of any civil and military officers. The new opposition alliance may not pose any immediate threat to the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party but the group may unsettle it with a prolonged presence on the streets at a time when the country needs peace to address multiple economic and security challenges.

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The opposition has decided to use Balochistan as a launching pad which has been battling a homegrown insurgency led by Baloch nationalists.

The province has also suffered at the hands of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan as it shares a porous border with Afghanistan. Balochistan is also the most underdeveloped region of Pakistan and the opposition parties may try to exploit the sentiments of the people for political objectives.

With inputs from agencies.
Pandor said the Palestinian crisis has also presented an opportunity to reform the UN - to make it more representative and effective at the Security Council level. (We need to) empower it with practical capacity to protect the innocent from harm in any future conflicts," she said. read more

South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said that the Palestinian crisis offers a chance to revamp the UN, enhancing its representation and efficacy, particularly within the Security Council.

Pandor emphasised the need to shield innocent individuals from harm in future conflicts. Speaking as the chief guest at an Eid gathering in Brixton on Thursday, Pandor, who also serves as the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, condemned Israeli incursions into Gaza as arrogant breaches of international law committed by Israel and its allies.

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She said that a new low point has been reached with respect for human rights. The war, as well as the genocidal intent of Israel and the failure of the UN to stop the murder of thousands of Palestinians and to show respect for international humanitarian law, indicated to all of us that the world had reached a new low point in respect for justice and human rights, she said.

Pandor said the Palestinian crisis has also presented an opportunity to reform the UN - to make it more representative and effective at the Security Council level. (We need to) empower it with practical capacity to protect the innocent from harm in any future conflicts," she said.

The reason for establishing the UN was to ensure that as the globe, we would settle all conflicts in that body and should any violence ensue against innocent people, we made it the duty of the UN Security Council to ensure that the innocent are protected, she said.

But we have a fundamental flaw in the Security Council - the permanent five who decide what goes and what doesnt. That has to be changed, the minister said.

We also have a flaw in that despite the mandate for peace and security, when the people of Palestine were suffering the onslaught and continue to suffer it, we had no enforcement capability in the UN," she said.

As we discuss concrete reform, we must insist that there must be not just peace monitoring but peace enforcement capacity in the UN, Pandor said as she called for the people to make their views known and help influence the outcomes of the reform.

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Pandor said she had hope for global reform because of the new fora such as BRICS, which now has six additional members in addition to Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

For the first time, we have a body that consists of over 40 per cent of the worlds population and over 30 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of the world, she said.

BRICS is a very important forum, and we must encourage it to become stronger to promote progressive ideals and to be representative of the best in humanity, the minister said.

Pandor asserted that the world is at an inflexion point, where there will either be the fossilisation of the current world order and ideology or a decisive and progressive break with the orthodoxy and see the emergence of ideals and institutions that are more humane, principled and values-driven.

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With inputs from agencies.
One hand-written sign in English read USA rush out of Niger, expressing support for the juntas decision in mid-March to annul an agreement that permitted around 1,000 U.S. military personnel to operate on Nigerien territory from two bases read more

Nigeriens demonstrate to protest against the U.S. military presence in Niamey. AP

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Nigers capital Saturday, calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The protest comes after the ruling junta altered its strategy by terminating a military agreement with the United States and welcoming Russian military instructors.

Marching together through central Niamey, the demonstrators waved Nigerien flags, reminiscent of anti-French protests that led to the withdrawal of Frances forces from Niger last year following a coup by the military.

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One hand-written sign in English read USA rush out of Niger, expressing support for the juntas decision in mid-March to annul an agreement that permitted around 1,000 U.S. military personnel to operate on Nigerien territory from two bases.

Were here to say no to the American base; we dont want Americans on our soil, stated protester Maria Saley on the sidelines of the march.

Before the coup, Niger served as a significant security partner for France and the United States, hosting them as part of international efforts to combat a long-standing Islamist insurgency in West Africas Sahel region.

But the new authorities in Niger have joined juntas in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso in ending military deals with one-time Western allies, quitting the regional political and economic bloc ECOWAS and fostering closer ties with Russia.

The arrival on Wednesday of Russian military instructors and equipment was further evidence of the juntas openness to closer cooperation with Moscow, which is seeking to boost its influence in Africa.

A few Russian flags were visible at the protest, but some citizens told Reuters on Friday they did not want the welcome Russian defence assistance to lead to a permanent presence in Niger.

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We must not subsequently see the implementation of Russian foreign military bases, said Abdoulaye Seydou, the coordinator of the M62 coalition of civil society groups that led anti-French protests last year.

His concerns were echoed by student Souleymane Ousmane: This is how the French and the Americans and all the other countries settled in Niger  from military cooperation, they ended up occupying large parts of our country.

It is unclear, however, if or when the U.S. troops will leave.

In March, the top U.S. general appeared to suggest there was at least some support from within Nigers junta for a continued U.S. military presence despite its announced revocation of the accord.

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One of the U.S. programmes in Niger is a drone base known as Air Base 201, which cost more than $100 million.

Violence in the central Sahel hit a high in 2023, with conflict fatalities in the region rising by 38% compared with the previous year, according to U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED, citing reports of over 8,000 people killed in Burkina Faso alone last year.

With inputs from Reuters
China claims almost the entire South China Sea despite a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration found Beijings sweeping claims had no legal basis. Philippine and Chinese ships have had a series of run-ins in the past month that included the use of water cannon and heated verbal exchanges. read more

President Joe Biden, center, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., left, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pose before a trilateral meeting in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, April 11, 2024. - AP

A cooperation agreement among the Philippines, the United States and Japan will shift the dynamic in the South China Sea and the broader region while also seeking to reassure China that it was not being targeted said Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. However, Marcos emphasised that the summit was not against any country but rather focused on enhancing economic and security relations among Manila, Washington, and Tokyo.

Despite the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which found Beijings expansive claims in the South China Sea to have no legal basis, China continues to assert almost the entire area. Recent confrontations between Philippine and Chinese ships, involving the use of water cannons and heated verbal exchanges, highlight ongoing tensions in the region.

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I think the trilateral agreement is extremely important, Marcos told a press conference in Washington a day after meeting President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the nations first trilateral summit.It is going to change the dynamic, the dynamic that we see in the region, in ASEAN in Asia, around the South China Sea, Marcos said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The three leaders expressed serious concerns about Chinas dangerous and aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce with various maritime disputes among China and other countries.

The summit concluded with agreements to conduct more joint naval and coast guard exercises, as well as commitments to new infrastructure investments and technology collaboration. These developments build on a landmark defence agreement reached at Camp David last August between President Biden and the leaders of Japan and South Korea. They also align with the plans announced last year to collaborate with Australia and Britain in the development and deployment of nuclear-powered attack submarines.

Beijing on Thursday summoned Manilas ambassador to the country and a Japanese embassy official to oppose what its foreign ministry described as negative comments against China.

The deepening China-Philippines row coincides with an increase in security engagements with the United States under Marcos, including the expansion of U.S. access to Philippine bases, as well as with Japan, which is expected to sign a reciprocal troop pact with Manila.

Biden has asked Congress for an additional $128 million for infrastructure projects at the Philippine bases. Marcos also expressed confidence that around $100 billion in possible investment deals over the next five to 10 years from the summit will come into fruition. While in Washington, Marcos also met with Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, who assured him of continued U.S. support.

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This whole cooperation is critical to our collective security and continued prosperity across the region, Austin said, reiterating Bidens strong defence commitment.

With inputs from agencies.
The situation on the eastern front in recent days has significantly escalated. This is primarily due to the enemys intensified offensive actions following the presidential elections in Russia, he conveyed via the Telegram app read more

Commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Syrskyi attends an in interview with Reuters in Kharkiv region

Ukraines army chief sounded alarm Saturday, highlighting a deterioration in the situation on the eastern front as Russia escalates its armoured assaults and fierce battles erupt for control of a village west of the ravaged city of Bakhmut.

Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyis statement highlighted the growing sense of urgency in Kyiv, as crucial U.S. military aid, anticipated for months, remains mired in Congress.

Syrskyi personally ventured to the embattled area in a bid to stabilise the frontlines, where Russian assault groups, equipped with tanks and armoured personnel carriers, are taking advantage of favorable weather conditions to advance.

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The situation on the eastern front in recent days has significantly escalated. This is primarily due to the enemys intensified offensive actions following the presidential elections in Russia, he conveyed via the Telegram app.

Following President Vladimir Putins reelection in a tightly controlled mid-March election, Russia has ramped up its assaults on Ukraine, including three major aerial strikes on the countrys energy infrastructure, targeting power stations and substations.

The slowdown in military assistance from the West has left Ukraine more exposed to aerial attacks and more outgunned on the battlefield. Kyiv has made increasingly desperate appeals for supplies of air defence missiles in recent weeks.

Moscows forces, Syrskyi said, were taking significant losses during their attacks in the east, but were also sometimes making tactical gains.

Social media channels reported the fall of Ukraines eastern village of Bohdanivka to the west of Bakhmut, prompting Kyivs defence ministry to deny them on Saturday, while acknowledging fierce fighting in the area.

Enemy assault groups reached outside the outskirts of the place at night. Bohdanivka is now under the control of the defence forces, it said.

The village lies to the northeast of the town of Chasiv Yar, a Kyiv-controlled stronghold that Russia has been trying to reach after seizing the town of Avdiivka in February to the south.

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Syrskyi said Russian armoured assault groups were attacking Kyivs positions on the fronts of Lyman and Bakhmut, while using dozens of tanks and armoured personnel carriers to try to break through lines on Pokrovsk front.

The Ukrainian military chief said only a technological advantage over Russia in sophisticated weapons would allow Kyiv to seize the strategic initiative from a better equipped and larger foe.

He called for better training for soldiers and in particular infantry, a clear reference to Ukraines manpower challenges.

Ukraines parliament passed a bill on Thursday to overhaul how the armed forces draft civilians into the ranks. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also signed legislation last week lowering the draft age from 27 to 25.

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With inputs from Reuters
Since Russias invasion of Ukraine, the US and EU have levied sanctions on Russias biggest banks and its elite, frozen the assets of the countrys Central Bank located outside the country and excluded its financial institutions from the SWIFT bank messaging system. read more

With an aim to curb Moscows export earnings and impede its capacity to finance the conflict in Ukraine, the US and the UK have launched a crackdown on trades involving Russian metals.

The announcement is meant to follow up on the Group of Seven nations commitment in February to reduce Russias revenues from metals as its invasion into Ukraine has dragged on for more than two years.

Initially, the US and its allies hesitated to impose sanctions on Russias metals sector at the outset of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, concerned about potential disruptions to global commodity markets. However, following the G7s efforts to limit Moscows revenues from crude oil and petroleum exports, including implementing a price cap on seaborne oil trades facilitated by western shipping services, sanctions against Russian metals have been started.

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These measures involve a ban on importing Russian-origin metals into the US, prohibiting warranting services for the metals and banning services related to acquiring the metals as part of the physical settlement of derivative contracts.

Russia is a key exporter of metals like aluminum, steel and titanium but British and American officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the announcement, said the economic impact from the ban would be negligible for consumers and producers.

Our new prohibitions on key metals, in coordination with our partners in the United Kingdom, will continue to target the revenue Russia can earn to continue its brutal war against Ukraine, said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a news release.

By taking this action in a targeted and responsible manner, we will reduce Russias earnings while protecting our partners and allies from unwanted spillover effects," she said.

The officials said new Russian metals will not be allowed to be traded on the exchanges, including the London Metal Exchange and Chicago Mercantile Exchange. However, metals produced before midnight Saturday in London will be permitted.

Since Russias invasion of Ukraine, the US and EU have levied sanctions on Russias biggest banks and its elite, frozen the assets of the countrys Central Bank located outside the country and excluded its financial institutions from the SWIFT bank messaging system.

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The US and UK have also previously sanctioned Russian gold, gas and diamonds.

With inputs from agencies.
For much of the US presidential election cycle so far, Trump had maintained a good lead but Biden has closed the gap in recent months read more

US President Joe Biden has improved his support and has reduced the lead of his Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, to just 1 percentage point, according to the findings of a latest survey.

If the US presidential election were held today, 46% voters will vote for Trump and 45% will vote for Biden, according to the latest survey by The New York Times and Siena College.

For much of the election cycle so far, Trump had maintained a good lead but Biden has closed that gap in recent months. The closing of the gap in Times/Siena survey has been credited to the convergence of traditional Democratic voters around Biden.

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In February, the same pollsters found that 48% voters preferred Trump and 43% preferred Biden.

Bidens age, economic performance continue to be issues

Biden, the oldest serving US president, will be 82 at the time of his second term if he wins. He will be 86 at the end of his second term.

While Democratic Partys voters are rallying around him, voters in general are increasingly recognising that his increased age is an issue. The survey found that 69% voters found that Biden was too old to govern effectively.

Voters, however, did not have similar concerns about Trump, who is also not very young and turns 78 this year. If he wins the upcoming election, he would be the oldest president to be elected. Only 41% voters found him too old in the survey.

The economy also continues to be a sour point for Biden, particularly among young voters. More than 85% young voters part of the survey termed the economic performance under Biden as poor. Overall, 63% of those surveyed disapproved of Bidens economic performance. In a sharp contrast, 64% approved of economic performance during Trumps tenure.

Even though the Democrats are converging around Biden, he has faced a rebellion from progressives and younger segments of his voters who have revolted against him for his support of Israel in the Middle East conflict.

Legal troubles dont matter for Trump

The Times/Siena survey findings come just two days before Trumps trial in the hush money scandal is set to start in New York. The survey, however, found that Trumps legal troubles have not clicked with the voters.

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Only one in four voters said they were paying very close attention to Trumps legal cases, according to the survey findings.

While White Americans are largely a base for Trump, the survey found that Bidens support among Black and Latino voters has surged lately. The survey further found that he has been improving his standing among the suburbs and women generally.
Seizing a civilian vessel without provocation is a blatant violation of international law, and an act of piracy by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, White House statement read read more

The White House issued a statement Saturday, urging Iran to immediately release a British-owned ship that it seized near the Strait of Hormuz. Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East and concerns of a potential retaliatory attack on Israel, the White House called for the immediate release of the vessel and its international crew.

We call on Iran to release the vessel and its international crew immediately, said National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson. Seizing a civilian vessel without provocation is a blatant violation of international law, and an act of piracy by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

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The Irans seizure of the ship comes amid rising tensions in the Middle East and fears of the widening of the ongoing conflict in the region. Iran has vowed to punish Israel for the killing of a top general in an airstrike on the countrys diplomatic mission in Syrian capital Damascus on April 1.

The United States and Israel believe that an Iranian attack is imminent and is expected over the weekend or early next week.

With inputs from Agencies
The announcement of Germanys provision of a third Patriot air defense system arrives as the momentum on the battlefield has shifted in Russias favor, more than two years since the invasion launched in February 2022 read more

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed gratitude to Germanys Chancellor Olaf Scholz for approving the delivery of an extra Patriot missile system and providing additional air defense missiles, stating it comes at a critical time for Ukraine.

The announcement of Germanys provision of a third Patriot air defense system arrives as the momentum on the battlefield has shifted in Russias favor, more than two years since the invasion launched in February 2022.

Zelenskyy had previously emphasized the need for 25 U.S. Patriot systems to cover the entire country, citing the threat from Russian ballistic and hypersonic missiles capable of striking targets within minutes.

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In a message on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday, Zelenskyy described his conversation with Scholz as important and productive. He expressed appreciation for the chancellors decision to supply an additional Patriot system to Ukraine, along with missiles for existing air defense systems.

Zelenskyy also called on leaders of other partner states to follow Germanys example in supporting Ukraines defense efforts.

Zelenskyy added that he and Scholz also discussed preparations for a reconstruction conference in Berlin and a peace summit in Switzerland in June.

The German defence ministry said in a post on X that the new Patriot system would be handed over immediately and that it was in addition to air defence systems already delivered and planned.

An April 10 German government summary of arms and military equipment transfers to Ukraine included two Patriot systems on a list of air defence supplies already delivered.

With inputs from Reuters
Explore the rich history and architectural beauty of Trinity Episcopal Church in this captivating tour given by Reverend Jimmy Abbott. Join J.R., Lisa, Erika, and Reverend Jimmy in uncovering the layers of history, from its founding in 1841 to its role in wartime and natural disasters.
April 12, 2024

By Joseph Clark, DOD News

Defense Intelligence Officials Underscore Need for Key Authorities to Counter Evolving Threats

Defense intelligence officials underscored this week the critical role authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act serve in defending against foreign adversaries amid an increasingly challenging national security landscape.

A key provision in the act, Section 702, which allows for collection of electronic intelligence against non-U.S. persons abroad under federal court supervision, is set to expire this month unless reauthorized by Congress.

In testimony before the House Armed Services' Intelligence and Special Operations Subcommittee on Thursday, three senior defense officials told lawmakers that reauthorizing Section 702 is of utmost importance.

"FISA section 702 is absolutely critical to our foreign intelligence mission," said Air Force Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, director of the National Security Agency.

"There is no substitute for this authority," he said. "The timely, actionable information it provides cannot be replicated by other means."

Congress approved Section 702 in 2008 as part of the FISA Amendments Act. The original act was passed in 1978. The amendments passed in 2008 were aimed at addressing intelligence collections gaps that had emerged from the advancements in technology since FISA was first passed.

Information collected under Section 702 has been used to protect the U.S. from hostile foreign adversaries, including terrorists.

Authorities under Section 702 are set to expire on April 19.

Haugh, who also serves as the commander of U.S. Cyber Command, was joined by Milancy D. Harris, acting undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, and Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, in urging Congress to approve the reauthorization.



"One of the ways Congress can provide its most effective support and defense of the nation is to reauthorize Section 702 of ... [FISA]," Kruse said. "Although DIA does not operate under these specific authorities, our all-source analysis mission, our ability to operationalize intelligence, and our support to Congress is dependent on those who do."

The potential expiration of authorities under Title VII of FISA comes as the Defense Department faces rapidly evolving threats throughout the globe.

The trajectory and rate of change in the national security arena is perhaps the highest and most consequential we've seen in our lifetime."

Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director, Defense Intelligence Agency

The officials underscored the critical role DOD plays in managing competition with China.

"Our No. 1 priority remains addressing our pacing challenge: the People's Republic of China," Harris said. "Our network of regional allies and partners is deep, wide, strong and committed to a shared vision of peace, stability and deterrence."

Harris also noted DOD's continued engagement with allies and partners in supporting Ukraine's defense against Russia's ongoing invasion and in responding to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas and emerging threats posed by terrorism in the Middle East.

"The trajectory and rate of change in the national security arena is perhaps the highest and most consequential we've seen in our lifetime," Kruse said.

"How we respond matters," he said. "And our level of innovation, focus and integration must match [that of] our adversaries, stride for stride. We must position ourselves and our capabilities to meet threats we see now and on the horizon and not simply posture to repeat successes of the past."

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Belgium investigates alleged Russian interference in EU elections

By VOA News April 12, 2024

Belgium authorities are investigating suspected Russian interference in upcoming European parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Friday, after claims that lawmakers were paid to promote Kremlin propaganda.

De Croo added that Belgium's intelligence service has confirmed the existence of pro-Russian networks acting in several European countries, including Belgium, to undermine support for Ukraine.

"According to our intelligence service, the objectives of Moscow are very clear," he added. "The objective is to help elect more pro-Russian candidates to the European Parliament and to reinforce a certain pro-Russian narrative in that institution."

Moscow has previously denied similar allegations of attempting to sway Western elections.

The allegations come before polls on June 6-9 to elect a new EU Parliament. They also come as Ukraine's self-defense is at a critical juncture more than two years after Russia's invasion.

As promised aid has been held up in Western countries like the United States, Russia has maintained a slight advantage in the war.

"A weakened European support for Ukraine serves Russia on the battlefield," De Croo said.

According to De Croo, the probe was launched after Czech authorities found pro-Russian individuals in Brussels seeking to influence lawmakers on adopting a pro-Kremlin agenda.

De Croo said that cash payments seemed to have been made outside of Belgium, but interference has occurred in Brussels.

A similar event occurred last year, when European lawmakers were accused of being paid to promote Qatari and Moroccan interests, an allegation both countries denied.

De Croo said, "We have a responsibility, and our responsibility is to uphold that every citizen's right to a free and safe vote can be maintained."

The prime minister has requested an urgent meeting at the European Union's Agency for Criminal and Justice Cooperation to discuss the matter and advise the EU's anti-fraud office to prosecute the case.

Some information for this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.

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April 12, 2024

Release

Readout of Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III's Meeting With Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Pentagon Press Secretary Major General Pat Ryder provided the following readout:

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III hosted Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the Pentagon today.

Secretary Austin and President Marcos underscored the historic strength of the U.S.-Philippines Alliance, which both countries are expanding and modernizing in support of a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

The two leaders expressed support for growing Alliance initiatives to expand interoperability. Secretary Austin highlighted that the President's Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2025 seeks $128 million to execute 36 projects at Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites, which would more than double the amount that DoD has invested in EDCA infrastructure since the inception of the agreement.

Secretary Austin expressed his support for Philippine military modernization, highlighting the Department's strong commitment to the Armed Forces of the Philippines through this year's budget, as well as bilateral efforts to finalize a multi-year Security Sector Assistance Roadmap.

The two leaders discussed opportunities to deepen bilateral planning and operational cooperation, including increasing the frequency of combined maritime activities like joint patrols, to support the Philippines' lawful exercise of its rights in the South China Sea. They also agreed to accelerate a number of bilateral initiatives to enhance information-sharing, interoperability, and capability enhancements for the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The leaders applauded the April 7 maritime cooperative activity within the Philippine exclusive economic zone with Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and the United States  an example of the ways the two countries are working more closely with like-minded nations to strengthen shared principles, including the rule of law, freedom of the seas, and respect for territorial sovereignty.

Secretary Austin reaffirmed U.S. support of the Philippines in defending its sovereign rights and jurisdiction, and he reiterated that the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty extends to both countries' armed forces, public vessels, and aircraft  including those of its Coast Guard  anywhere in the Pacific, including the South China Sea.

The leaders' meeting  their second at the Pentagon in less than a year  reaffirmed the United States and the Philippines' enduring commitment to stand shoulder-to-shoulder as allies to bring greater security, prosperity, and stability to the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr., Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique A. Manalo, and Philippine National Security Advisor Eduardo M. Ano also participated in today's meeting between Secretary Austin and President Marcos. Earlier today, Secretary Austin joined Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and their Philippine counterparts at the State Department to reaffirm both countries' shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific and discuss ways to deepen coordination against shared challenges in the South China Sea. Today's engagements follow President Biden's bilateral meeting with President Marcos and the historic United States-Japan-Philippines trilateral leaders' summit on April 11.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3740308/

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April 12, 2024

By David Vergun, DOD News

Top Concern of Transcom Is Sealift and Air Refueling

The number one readiness concern of U.S. Transportation Command is sealift and air refueling, said Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost, Transcom's commander.

Van Ovost testified yesterday before the House Armed Services Committee regarding the posture of the Defense Department's mobility enterprise and funding.

"Sealift is the backbone of our ability to deliver a decisive joint force. However, the age of the fleet is dragging readiness rates to alarming levels," she said, noting that 17 of the 47 Ready Reserve Force ships are 50 years or older.

"To address readiness and the decreasing capacity due to the planned retirements of 27 ships in the next eight years, we must add younger ships to the fleet," Van Ovost said.

Transcom supports the Navy's strategy to acquire used sealift vessels from the commercial market and its request to provide the defense secretary with discretionary authority to purchase foreign-built, used ships under favorable market conditions without restrictions, she said.

"We acknowledge Congress' intent to include domestic, new-build sealift ships to recapitalize the Ready Reserve Force, and we're working with the Navy and the Maritime Administration to create an acquisition strategy for new construction," she said.

The general then turned to the topic of air refueling.

"Air refueling is foundational to our nation's power-projection advantage. It is our most stressed capability. We must ensure continuous modernization and recapitalization of the aging fleet to meet the operational requirements of the modern battlespace," Van Ovost said.

Transcom supports the Air Force's strategy for uninterrupted tanker recapitalization and accelerated fielding of the next generation air refueling systems, she said.

Over the past year, Transcom has made great strides diversifying its bulk fuel distribution and delivery system by having an increased forward presence with fuel afloat in contracted maritime tankers and increasing capacity and access to the U.S.-flagged maritime tanker fleet through the Tanker Security Program, she said.

Transcom fully supports the Maritime Security Program, the Jones Act and cargo preference laws that all work to ensure Transcom has the necessary U.S.-flagged capability and U.S. merchant mariners ready to move sensitive defense materials during a national emergency, she said.

Maritime stakeholders have been experiencing challenges with recruiting and retaining qualified mariners, she said.

Transcom supports MARAD and industry efforts to identify strategies that address the mariner shortage and ensure their readiness, she said.

The general also emphasized the importance of congressional reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to protect Transcom's logistics networks from adversaries. "The loss of this authority adds risk to my mission," she said.

Van Ovost also told lawmakers that passing the defense supplemental funding is vital to the health of the Transportation Working Capital Fund, which preserves defense readiness.

Ann Phillips, administrator of MARAD, testified that her agency's mission is to promote and develop the U.S. maritime industry to meet the nation's economic and security needs.

The president's fiscal year 2025 budget request of $859.7 million for Marad will enable the agency to continue to strengthen its sealift capability by advancing recapitalization of the Ready Reserve Force and vital commercial sealift programs that support U.S.-flagged vessels operating in foreign trade.

The 2025 budget requests $974 million from DOD budgetary authority for MARAD to acquire, upgrade and maintain vessels in the National Defense Reserve Fleet and Ready Reserve Force. "These funds will help MARAD to keep the fleet in a ready, reliable and responsive condition to ensure MARAD can meet the nation's strategic sealift needs," Phillips said.

The Ready Reserve Force consists of 48 vessels that are an average of over 45 years in age, and they are maintained in a reduced operating status as a result, she said.

This fleet will expand to 51 vessels by the end of the next fiscal year with the planned transfer of vessels from the Military Sealift Command. MARAD is responsible for maintaining these aging ships as part of the Navy's Sealift Recapitalization Plan, Phillips said.

"We are actively advancing urgent recapitalization of the RRF using congressional authority to purchase vessels through a contracted vessel acquisition manager," she said.

The 2025 budget also requests $318 million for the Maritime Security Program to support 60 commercially viable, militarily useful vessels, she said.

The budget also requests $60 million for the 10-vessel Tanker Security Program. These ships will provide DOD with reliable access to tankers, she said.

MARAD is collaborating with stakeholders to address the mariner shortage, she said.

The 2025 budget request includes $191 million to support U.S. Merchant Marine Academy operations and MARAD's Capital Asset Management Program for the academy. It also requests $87 million to support maritime academies in six states, she said.

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Nordic statement on the opening of the port of Ashdod and the Erez crossing 12 April 2024

Government of Norway

News story | Date: 12/04/2024

The Nordic countries welcome the Israeli government's announcement that life-saving humanitarian assistance to Gaza can be received in the port of Ashdod, that the Erez crossing will be reopened to facilitate entry to north Gaza, and that humanitarian assistance from Jordan entering through Kerem Shalom crossing in the south will be increased.

The positive announcement needs to be followed by tangible action. There is an urgent need to ensure that adequate volumes of aid reach civilians in all parts of Gaza in a predictable and continuous way. International humanitarian law requires both parties to conflict to ensure that affected populations receive the necessary humanitarian aid, as well as to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers. Humanitarian actors have the capacity to move the minimum requirement of 500 trucks needed each day. It will be crucial to deliver humanitarian assistance at this level. The establishment of a Humanitarian Coordination and Deconfliction Cell within the IDF is positive and reflects the need to better protect humanitarians in Gaza.

Administrative procedures, including screening processes, must be swift so that the volume needed can enter as quickly as possible. This includes allowing humanitarian aid now languishing in Amman and at various crossings to enter both through Erez, Kerem Shalom and additional crossings.

Israeli authorities must engage with humanitarian actors to allow and facilitate neutral, impartial and independent UN-led humanitarian action by UN agencies, including UNRWA, as well as ICRC and other relevant organisations.

Dan Jrgensen, Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy, Denmark

Ville Tavio Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, Finland

Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadottir, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Iceland

Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, Minister of International Development, Norway

Johan Forssell, Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Sweden



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Iceland hosts NATO's Cyber Threat Intelligence Conference in Reykjavik

Government of Iceland

12 April 2024

Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Over 200 cyber security experts from NATO member states took part in NATO's Cyber Threat Intelligence Conference in Reykjavik on 9-11 April. During the conference experts discussed the principal cyber security threats and challenges facing member states. The conference was co-hosted by NATO Joint Intelligence and Security Division and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs with the support of Iceland's national Computer Emergency Response Team, CERT-IS.

"The importance of cybersecurity has grown significantly both here at home and within the Alliance. It's crucial for Iceland to actively engage in discussions and collaboration in this field. Hosting this conference provides us with the opportunity to enhance our contributions to the Alliance while also bolstering our own defences and capabilities," says Foreign Minister Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadottir.

Conference participants included representatives from member states' armed forces, intelligence agencies, cyber security agencies and private industry. The primary focus of the conference was on hostile actions by states and groups that pose a threat to the security of NATO Allies. Cybersecurity issues have become increasingly important in the Alliance's preparedness efforts and cyber defence strategy. In recent years, Iceland has taken an increasingly active part in the alliance's cooperation in this field, including participation in cyber defence exercises, information sharing and preparedness planning.

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EU blacklists three Palestinian entities

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Apr 12, 2024

London, IRNA -- The European Union, in a statement continuing to support the criminal Zionist regime and ignore the killing of the defenseless and oppressed Palestinians in Gaza, blacklisted three military wings of Hamas as well as the Islamic Jihad Movement for their participation in the Al-Aqsa storm operation.

According to the EU statement, the listed entities are the Al-Quds Brigades, Palestinian Islamic Jihad; Nukhba Force and the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.

"With today's listings, restrictive measures under the EU's Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime now apply to 104 natural and legal persons and 26 entities from multiple countries," the statement reads.

"Those listed under the sanctions regime are subject to an asset freeze, and the provision of funds or economic resources, directly or indirectly, to them or for their benefit, is prohibited. Additionally, a travel ban to the EU applies to the natural persons listed," it added.

"In its conclusions of 21-22 March 2024, the European Council recalled its previous conclusions condemning Hamas in the strongest possible terms for its brutal and indiscriminate terrorist attacks across Israel on 7 October 2023, recognising Israel's right to defend itself in line with international law and international humanitarian law, and calling for the immediate release of all hostages without any precondition," the EU claimed without mentioning the Zionists' barbaric crimes in Gaza.

Since the onset of the Israeli regime's genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023 over 33,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in the strip. In response, the resistance movements in various countries, including Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, have taken measures against the Israeli regime in support of the people of Gaza.

9376**9417

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Israeli regime in "unprecedented isolation": Hamas

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Apr 12, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- Head of the Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh says that what is happening in the corridors of diplomacy indicates "an unprecedented isolation" for the Israeli occupation entity.

"Israel, the spoiled child of the West, is no longer as it once was, and its image has been shattered," Haniyeh told Al Mayadeen on Friday.

The Hamas chief indicated that the massacres and crimes committed by the Israeli occupation in Gaza reflect its strategic failure after not achieving its declared goals of the war.

He made it clear that the Israeli occupation has not eliminated Hamas and shall not eliminate it, pointing out that the Israeli government has not retrieved its captives held in Gaza and shall not retrieve them except through "an honorable deal."

The Palestinian Resistance group is adhering to its conditions in negotiations and will not engage in any deal with Israel without their fulfillment, he added.

Haniyeh emphasized the Resistance's insistence on the necessity of declaring a permanent and clear ceasefire in Gaza.

The official touched on Israeli media's speculations that the Israeli assassination of his sons and grandchildren is aimed at pressuring Hamas to ease its demands during ceasefire negotiations, underlining that "this will not happen."

Haniyeh has recently lost three sons and three grandchildren in an attack by the Israeli regime on northern Gaza.

7129**9417

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No consensus achieved on full UN membership for Palestine: Report

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Apr 12, 2024

Tehran, IRNA -- President of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for April Vanessa Frazier says that the members of the Council have failed to reach a consensus on Palestine's application for full UN membership.

Frazier, who is the permanent representative of Malta to the United Nations, made the remarks on Thursday on the admission of new members in the global body.

There was no consensus in this regard, Frazier commented on the request by the Palestine who is currently a non-member observer state at the UN.

The majority of the member states agree to full Palestinian membership, she underlined.

Last week, the Palestinian Authority asked for renewed consideration by the Security Council of its 2011 application to become a full member of the world body, Al Jazeera has reported.

For any country to become a full member of the UN, the international body's charter says the country's membership must first be approved by the UNSC.

Then it would need to get the support of two-thirds of the members of the UN General Assembly.

7129**9417

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L. Kasciunas discussed bilateral relations and security situation with Minister of Defence of Slovenia

Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of National Defence

2024-04-12

International cooperation | Minister's news | Security and defense policy

On April 12 Minister of National Defence Laurynas Kasciunas met with Minister of Defence of Slovenia Marjan Sarec. Ministers discussed bilateral relations in defence area and security situation.

Minister L. Kasciunas noted that Lithuania was monitoring closely the Russian attempts to influence the Western Balkan region and to sway the security challenges facing the South, Middle East and the Mediterranean.

"Despite the geographical distance between our countries, we have a shared perception of threats and face similar challenges. We as an Alliance need to quickly complete the collective defence adaptation, secure an unwavering multilateral military financial assistance to Ukraine and to develop capabilities of the national weapons industry," underscored L. Kasciunas.

Slovenia is a member of the Lithuanian-coordinated European Union PESCO Cyber Rapid Response Teams (CRRT) project and has been invited to join the Ukraine Demining Coalition. Minister L. Kasciunas thanked Slovenia for contribution to the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battalion Battle Groups in Latvia and Slovakia. According to him, NATO forces deployed in the regions are a demonstration of the steadfast unity of the Alliance.

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NATO releases first international strategy on biotechnology and human enhancement technologies

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

12 Apr. 2024

NATO Allies broke new ground by adopting the first international strategy to govern the responsible development and use of biotechnologies and human enhancement technologies at a meeting of Allied Defence Ministers in February. On Friday (12 April 2024), NATO released a public version of the strategy.

Faced with the exponential growth of biotech breakthroughs and their anticipated impact on defence and security, NATO has positioned itself as an ethical leader on biotech and human enhancement technologies by adopting an informed, value-based and gender-aware strategy.

The aim is to embrace these emerging solutions lawfully and responsibly, while developing a trusted relationship with innovators and the public and protecting the Alliance against misuse of these technologies by strategic competitors and potential adversaries. Implementation of the strategy will be carried out in full respect of international law and existing protocols and practices, especially for bioethics. Application of biotech-related solutions will be in line with NATO's defensive nature. It can range from the possible use of biosensors to enhance the detection of biological and chemical threats; to the development of health tech wearables; and other biomaterials that can help protect and heal servicemen and women.

Expert research on opportunities and challenges linked to such an application will start in the months to come.

Biotechnology and Human Enhancement technologies were identified as a priority emerging, disruptive technology in 2019.

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France, India, Russia, UK warn citizens to travel to Israel

Iran Press TV

Friday, 12 April 2024 11:21 PM

Several countries including France, India, Russia, Poland and the United Kingdom have warned their citizens against traveling to Israel, amid Iran's expected response to a terrorist strike by the regime on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital earlier this month.

During a speech in Tehran on Wednesday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the Israeli regime "must be punished and will be punished" for its deadly strike on the Iranian diplomatic premises on April 1.

Ayatollah Khamenei said, "The evil Zionist regime committed another mistake ... and that was the attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria."

The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs on Friday advised its citizens against traveling to Israel, Lebanon, the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Britain told its citizens to avoid all but essential travel to Israel and Palestine over the "possibility of an attack on Israeli territory from Iran."

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office warned against "all travel" to northern Israel, the Gaza Strip, areas near Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Poland's Foreign Ministry also advised against travel to Israel, Palestine and Lebanon.

"It cannot be ruled out that there will be a sudden escalation of military operations, which would cause significant difficulties in leaving these three countries," it said in a statement.

"Any escalation may lead to significant restrictions in air traffic and the inability to cross land border crossings."

Meanwhile, New Delhi called on Indians not to go to Iran and Israel until further notice given the "prevailing situation in the region".

The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi said Indian citizens should observe "utmost precautions about their safety and restrict their movements to the minimum."

Meanwhile, the Israeli military released a statement on Friday in which it warned that the coming days require the Israeli forces "to be alert and prepared."

US President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday, "We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel, and Iran will not succeed."

This comes as Iran has vowed to punish Israel for the April 1 airstrike on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus.

The Israeli attack killed two senior Iranian military personnel who were on an advisory mission to Syria as well as five of their accompanying officers.

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, and his deputy General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi were among the seven martyrs of the terrorist attack.

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Israel failed to eliminate Hamas, free its captives: Haniyeh

Iran Press TV

Friday, 12 April 2024 3:43 PM

The leader of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, says Israel has failed to achieve any of the declared goals of its war on Gaza, including eliminating the group and freeing its captives.

Israel "hasn't eliminated Hamas and won't eliminate it, and hasn't retrieved its captives and won't retrieve them except through an honorable deal," Haniyeh told al-Mayadeen television network on Thursday.

He also noted that Israel failed to force the defiant Gazans to leave the strip.

The head of the political bureau of Hamas said the massacres and crimes committed by Israel in Gaza reflect "its strategic failure."

Elsewhere in his remarks, Haniyeh stressed that Hamas is sticking to its conditions and will not engage in any ceasefire deal that will not be implemented.

He noted that the Israeli assassination of his sons and grandchildren won't change Hamas' stance on the negotiations aimed at reaching a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Haniyeh reiterated that the Palestinian resistance wants a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the strip, and an unconditioned return of the internally displaced people to their homes there.

He noted that Hamas' demands also include the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, the lifting of the siege imposed on the strip, and a serious prisoner exchange deal.

"The movement won't agree to any deal that lacks these demands," he emphasized.

Warning that Israel poses a danger to the entire "Arab and Muslim region," Haniyeh urged the regional countries to adopt "a different stance" on Israel's genocide in Gaza.

He noted that Israel's "image has been shattered" after its atrocities in Gaza and has become "unprecedentedly isolated."

"Israel, the spoiled child of the West, is no longer as it once was," he said.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli intensified violence against Palestinians.

Tel Aviv has also blocked water, food, and electricity to Gaza, plunging the coastal strip into a humanitarian crisis.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed 33,634 Palestinians and injured nearly 76,214 others.

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Dozens killed in Israeli bombing of Palestinian home in Gaza City

Iran Press TV

Friday, 12 April 2024 11:13 AM

Israeli warplanes have conducted fresh air raids on the besieged Gaza Strip, killing a total of 30 Palestinians and wounding dozens.

The Palestinian WAFA news agency reported on Friday that 29 people lost their lives in the aerial assaults that targeted the Tabatibi family home in Gaza City's Daraj neighborhood.

Also on Friday, the report added, Israeli warplanes bombed areas in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, including a primary school.

One civilian was killed and dozens more were injured in the Israeli strikes on the school housing displaced people.

The injured were transferred to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

Earlier, Palestinian media reports said Israeli forces had bombed several parts of northern Gaza.

The reports said some of the bombings occurred in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, while a mosque in central Gaza City was also targeted.

Israeli forces also bombed a vacated residence in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Earlier, Al Jazeera reported that six people were killed after Israeli forces bombed the Firas market in Gaza City.

The Israeli strikes come amid growing calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where more than six months of a brutal Israeli aggression has killed at least 33,634 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 76,214 others.

On Friday, Gaza's health ministry said that 89 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours. An additional 120 have been wounded, totaling 76,214 since the Israeli war began in early October.

Israel launched the onslaught on October 7 after the Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsas Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

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Afghan forces arrest 2 Daesh terrorists in province bordering Iran

Iran Press TV

Friday, 12 April 2024 9:36 AM

Afghan security forces have arrested two members of the Daesh terrorist group in Nimruz Province bordering Iran.

The al-Mirsad website, linked to the ruling Taliban administration, reported that the detained Daesh elements were Tajik nationals.

The terrorists, the report added, had been recruited by Daesh when they were living in Russia.

In their confession, the Daesh terrorists said they were arrested when they wanted to travel to the Pakistani city of Quetta for military and religious training.

In 2014, Daesh captured large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria in lightning attacks, declaring the areas it controlled as "caliphate."

However, Iraqi and Syrian forces, with the help of Iran, managed to reverse Daesh's gains and ultimately liberate their countries from the US-sponsored terror outfit some three years later.

Still, Daesh's remnants keep staging sporadic attacks in different countries.

The terrorist group claimed responsibility for January 3 terrorist bombings that were carried out near the burial site of Iran's late anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani during a ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of his assassination. The blasts left 89 people, including 76 Iranians and 13 Afghans, dead and 286 others wounded.

The terrorist group has also increased its activities in Afghanistan in the past years, especially since the United States' irresponsible withdrawal of its occupation forces from the war-torn country in 2021.

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New York, US (PANA) - The UN renewed its commitment to never forget the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda during a candle lighting ceremony on Friday to mark 30 years since the horrific events there unfolded
April 11: 'Axis of Resistance' operations against Israeli occupation

Iran Press TV

Friday, 12 April 2024 8:45 AM

By Press TV Website Staff

Amid Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed nearly 34,000 Palestinians so far, including nearly 16,000 children, resistance groups in Palestine and across the region continue their operations against the Tel Aviv regime and its Western backers.

The major operations carried out by the Palestinian and regional resistance groups on Thursday, April 11, are as follows:

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades' operations on April 11:

(Gaza Strip and West Bank)

Engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli forces and their military vehicles storming the city of Tulkarem in occupied West Bank from several axes, using machine guns and explosive devices.

Targeted a convoy of Israeli military vehicles with artillery shells south of Gaza City.

Al-Quds Brigades' operations on April 11:

(Gaza Strip)

Shot down an Israeli military quadcopter drone and seized control of it while it was carrying out spying missions in the central Gaza Strip



Sniped an Israeli regime soldier near the Al-Taqa area east of Gaza City.

Mujahideen Brigades' operations on April 11:

(Gaza Strip)

In coordination with the Martyr Jihad Jibril Brigades, bombed a gathering of Israeli forces penetrating north of the Nusseirat camp in Deir al-Balah with a barrage of 80-caliber mortar shells, achieving direct hits.

Al-Asifah Forces' operations on April 11:

(Gaza Strip)

Targeted an Israeli military warplane with a SAM-7 missile west of Gaza City.

Hezbollah's operations on April 11:

(Lebanon)

At around 17:00 local time, the Al-Sammaqa site in Lebanon's Kfar Shuba was targeted with a barrage of missiles

At around 17:05 local time, the Ramtha site in Lebanon's Kafr Shuba was targeted with a barrage of missiles.

At around 18:00 local time, the Bayad Blida site was targeted with a barrage of missiles.

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UN fails to accept Palestine statehood amid US opposition

Iran Press TV

Friday, 12 April 2024 7:52 AM

Members of the UN Security Council have failed to reach a consensus on the Palestinian bid to become a full member state of the United Nations.

Two-thirds of the council's members were in favor of full Palestinian membership, but "there was no consensus" during the closed-door meeting held on Thursday, said Maltese Ambassador Vanessa Frazier, who holds the council's rotating presidency for April.

The US is a staunch opponent of Palestinian statehood, arguing that the United Nations is not the place for hashing out the status, which it says should be the result of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Last week, Palestinians revived a 2011 application for a full UN membership, which would amount to recognition of Palestinian statehood in light of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.

This prompted the Security Council to launch a formal review process through the ad hoc committee, which was composed of the council's member states and met on Thursday.

The Biden administration, however, indicated that it opposes the renewed Palestinian bid to obtain full-member state status.

"We have always made clear that, while we support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state... that is something that should be done through direct negotiations through the parties  something we are pursuing at this time  and not at the United Nations," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a press briefing.

US opposition to the initiative in the UN Security Council would all but block it, given that Washington has veto power.

Palestine has been recognized as a "non-member observer state" of the UN since 2012

After the Thursday meeting, a more formal council vote is expected.

AFP quoted diplomatic sources as saying that a vote could be held on April 18, brought forth by Algeria which represents Arab nations on the Security Council.

Even if the bid were to receive the necessary nine of 15 votes, observers predict a veto from Israel's staunch ally, the United States.

"All we ask for is to take our rightful place among the community of nations," Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters earlier this week.

The Israeli atrocities in Gaza have increased sympathy towards Palestinians and international calls for the recognition of the State of Palestine.

Spain, Australia support Palestinian statehood

On Friday, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong defended her remarks that she made earlier this week that was seen as a hint that Australia could recognize the Palestinian statehood in the near-term.

She said that the Palestinian statehood is the "only pathway to enduring peace in the region."

On Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that Spain is "ready to recognize the Palestinian state."

"The international community can't help the Palestinian state if it doesn't recognize its existence," said Sanchez during a parliamentary debate. He added that recognizing Palestine is "what's just, what's demanded by the social majority" and is "in Europe's geopolitical interest."

'Ireland wishes to recognize state of Palestine'

Ireland is also pushing for recognition of the Palestinians' rights with Taoiseach Simon Harris advocating for the Palestinian State.

"I believe different member states will adopt different positions in relation to recognising the state of Palestine. But Ireland won't be waiting for that to be a European approach," he said in a meeting with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Thursday.

"Ireland wishes to recognise the state of Palestine, I'd like to do that with a number of other countries," he said.

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Mexico asks UN to expel Equador following embassy raid

Iran Press TV

Friday, 12 April 2024 7:44 AM

Mexico has lodged a formal complaint with United Nation's top court to expel Ecuador from the UN, in response to an armed raid on its embassy in Quito last week.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Mexico filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice on Thursday, calling Ecuador's actions a violation of international law.

"The court, in accordance with the United Nations Charter, should approve the expulsion, and there should be no veto," Lopez Obrador said at a news conference.

Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena reiterated the president's remarks, emphasizing that Ecuador must be held responsible for "flagrant violation of the inviolability of our embassy and attacks on our staff."

"The letter and spirit of international law is the guide for our steps," she wrote on X social media platform on Thursday.

Mexico's appeal to the top court comes days after security forces stormed the embassy in Quito late on April 5 to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, wanted on corruption charges. He had been granted asylum by Mexico.

Glas had been seeking refuge at the Mexican embassy since December. Obrador had offered him political asylum in Mexico just before his arrest on Friday.

Following his apprehension, Glas, 54, was transported to a high-security penitentiary located in Guayaquil, a prominent port city in Ecuador. This particular facility has gained notoriety due to its history of volatile prison uprisings and the prevalence of drug-related gang conflicts.

The raid incited a wave of global disapproval and censure towards Equador, subsequently causing a diplomatic rift between the two Latin American countries.

Embassies are recognized as secure areas. Despite not being classified as "foreign soil," international law designates them as areas that local law enforcement cannot enter.

"The premises of the (diplomatic) mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission," says the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

Meanwhile, Ecuador defended its decision to storm Mexico's embassy, and the administration of President Daniel Noboa has raised doubts regarding whether Glas fulfilled the criteria for obtaining political asylum, and it has restated its dedication to combating corruption domestically.

Honduras announced on Thursday that Latin American leaders are scheduled to convene a virtual conference in the upcoming week.

Honduran President Xiomara Castro said Monday the leaders would consider a proposal for the "firm condemnation" of Ecuador's actions and possible sanctions.

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Iran stresses need for greater pressure on Israel to stop 'genocide'

Iran Press TV

Friday, 12 April 2024 6:49 AM

Iran has underlined the need for greater pressure on Israel to stop the war and genocide in Gaza, and end the policy of starving Gazans and imposing famine on the residents of the coastal territory.

In a phone conversation with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong Thursday night, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also criticized the UN Security Council's failure to condemn the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

"Some Western governments do not condemn this terrorist act, which clearly violates international law and international conventions. Whilst they continue to support the crimes of Zionists, they are simply urging Iran to exercise restraint," he said.

He made the remarks as Wong also said Canberra was "deeply concerned" by the signs of Tehran's plan for a retaliatory military strike, calling on Iran to show restraint.

The top Australian diplomat also called on Iran to "use its influence in the region to promote stability."

'Legitimate defense with aim of punishing aggressor a necessity'

In a Thursday post on X, Amir-Abdollahian pointed to his conversations with his German, British, and Australian counterparts, pointing to the need for "punishing the aggressor."

"When the Zionist regime tramples on the international law and Vienna Conventions and violates the immunity of diplomatic agents and premises, and the UNSC is incapable of issuing a statement in condemnation of the terrorist attack on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, legitimate defense with the objective of punishing the aggressor becomes a necessity," he wrote.

He emphasized that he has demanded his counterparts to explicitly express their positions in condemnation of the Israeli strike on the Iranian diplomatic mission in Damascus.

"Iran is not seeking escalation of hostility; but the return of sustainable security to the sensitive West Asia region is tied to controlling warmongering and deranged leaders of the Zionist regime and the viable cessation of this regime's war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank," the Iranian foreign minister pointed out.

Amir-Abdollahian stated that he has received congratulatory messages from the three foreign ministers on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

On April 1, Israeli warplanes bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, located next to the embassy building in Damascus's Mezzeh district.

The attack killed two senior Iranian military personnel who were on an advisory mission to Syria as well as five of their accompanying officers.

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, and his deputy General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi were among the seven martyrs of the terrorist attack.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has vowed that Iran will "punish" Israel and make the evil regime "regret" its crime of assassinating the country's military advisors in Syria.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raeisi has also said Israel had resorted to indiscriminate assassinations after back-to-back failures in the face of the resistance, warning that the regime's latest crime against Iranian military advisers in Syria "will not go unanswered."



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UN Security Council voices 'grave concern' over killing of charity staff in Gaza

Iran Press TV

Friday, 12 April 2024 2:28 AM

The UN Security Council has expressed "grave concern" over an Israeli airstrike that killed seven members of the US-based charity, World Central Kitchen earlier this month in the Gaza Strip.

The 15-member body on Thursday called for a full transparent investigation into the incident.

The Security Council also said that Israel must do more to improve aid delivery into the besieged territory.

The statement called for the immediate lifting of all barriers to humanitarian aid delivery.

The council members underlined the need for accountability for all of these incidents and noted that Israel has announced the initial results of an investigation into the incident.

They stressed the need for a full, transparent and comprehensive investigation into the incident that is fully publicized.

The council members also demanded that all parties to the conflict fully respect the protected status of humanitarian workers, facilities, and operations under international law.

International aid groups say Gaza is progressively being made unfit for human life, and has passed the threshold of absolute horror.

They say a famine is imminent and nowhere in Gaza currently has access to sufficient assistance and services.

Gaza's entire population lacks necessities such as food, water, health care and shelter.

The World Central Kitchen said staff from Australia, Poland, the UK, and a US-Canada citizen were killed in the "targeted Israeli strike."

It said its team was traveling in two armored cars and a soft-skinned vehicle in a "deconflicted zone" when it was targeted by the Israeli regime forces.

"The convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route," the group said in its statement.

The group said before its movements it had coordinated with the Israeli regime forces.

Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged that the Israeli regime forces had carried out the brutal attack.

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With new trilateral partnership, Philippines eyes more foreign investment

Manila, Tokyo and Washington forged closer security and strategic ties at a White House summit.

By Jason Gutierrez for BenarNews 2024.04.12 -- The Philippines stands to reap an economic windfall through a new security partnership with the U.S. and Japan that their leaders unveiled at a Washington summit Thursday, in seeking to dull the edge of China's influence in the Asia-Pacific.

U.S. President Joe Biden hosted Philippine and Japanese leaders Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Fumio Kishida at the White House in what was billed as an inaugural tripartite summit. It came on the heels of surging Chinese assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea.

As part of a joint statement outlining their collective vision for regional security, the three leaders announced plans for collaborating on economic projects in the Philippines, including developing an infrastructure and high-tech connectivity corridor on the main island of Luzon.

The three allies were careful to describe their new partnership as a defense cooperation pact in nature.

"We meet today as friends and partners, bound by a shared vision and pursuit of a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific," President Marcos said.

"It is a partnership, borne not out of convenience nor of expediency, but as a natural progression of a deepening relations and robust cooperation amongst our three nations, linked by a profound respect for democracy, good governance, and the rule of law."

Marcos, the namesake son of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, has steered his country back to close relations with the United States, its traditional ally, after those ties had cooled under his predecessor, who drew the Philippines closer to China.

Marcos said the summit was the culmination of cooperation by the three nations that had started even before the historic one-day meeting took place.

Security officials of the three nations already had been meeting to lay the foundation for "trilateral maritime exercises," and the expansion of annual large-scale maritime exercises between the U.S. and the Philippines, he said.

The trilateral meeting, Marcos said, would likely evolve in the future, as the three partners all face increasingly complex challenges that require "an unwavering commitment to the rules-based international order."

That was an indirect reference to China. The three allies have often accused Beijing of ignoring international rules as it moves to expand its reach in the region.

More directly, the joint statement expressed the three nations' steadfast opposition to "the dangerous and coercive use" by China of its coast guard and maritime militia ships in the South China Sea "as well as efforts to disrupt other countries' offshore resource exploration."

"We reiterate serious concern over [China's] repeated obstruction of Philippine vessels' exercise of high seas freedom of navigation and the disruption of supply lines to Second Thomas Shoal," it said, referring to a reef also known as Ayungin Shoal, which lies in South China Sea waters within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone.

Japan, for its part, is locked in a territorial dispute with China in the East China Sea.

In their statement, the leaders reiterated their "strong opposition to any attempts by the PRC [People's Republic of China] to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion in the East China Sea."

This includes "actions that seek to undermine Japan's longstanding and peaceful administration of the Senkaku Islands."

On Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province, the leaders meanwhile affirmed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

"This is a meeting that looks ahead. As we deepen our ties and enhance our coordination, we seek to identify ways of growing our economies and making them more resilient, climate-proofing our cities and our societies, sustaining our development progress, and forging a peaceful world for the next generation," Marcos said.

Marcos' father was a staunch ally of the United States, which during the Cold War operated huge naval and air bases in areas where the hi-tech Luzon corridor is to be installed.

Last year, Marcos Jr.'s administration agreed to a controversial deal with Washington to grant the U.S. military greater access on a rotational basis to bases in the northern Philippines.

The agreement has angered anti-war activists in the Philippines, who warn it could provoke Beijing and that their country could be caught in the middle of fighting should a conflict break out between the U.S. and China over Taiwan. On Thursday, protesters gathered near the White House as well as outside the U.S. Embassy in Manila to denounce the bilateral pact.

'In lockstep'

On Thursday, Biden reiterated that his administration's support for Manila was "ironclad" and that the two countries were bound by a mutual treaty to defend each other in times of foreign aggression. This decades-old pact was updated recently to cover civilian vessels, as well as ships from the Philippine Coast Guard.

"Any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our Mutual Defense Treaty," Biden said in remarks at the White House.

On Friday, the national security advisers of the Philippines and the United States, together with their respective defense chiefs and top diplomats, took part in an unprecedented "3+3" meeting in Washington.

"Our alliance is stronger than ever," U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said before the meeting at the State Department. At the Pentagon, "we're working in lockstep with our colleagues at the [Philippine] Department of National Defense to strengthen interoperability between our forces, to expand our operational coordination, and to stand up to coercion in the South China Sea."

Last year, the two allies launched joint sea and air patrols in the contested waterway.

Meanwhile in Beijing, China's foreign ministry criticized the summit in Washington as "bloc politics."

"We firmly oppose any acts that stoke and drive up tensions and harm other countries' strategic security and interests," ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said during a regularly scheduled news conference on Friday.

"We are seriously against forming exclusive groupings in this region. Japan and the Philippines have every right to develop normal relations with other countries, but they should not introduce bloc confrontation into this region," she said.

Economic projects

During their meeting on Thursday, Marcos, Biden and Kishida also launched the "Luzon Corridor" - where they pledged to accelerate coordinated investments in high-impact projects including Subic Bay and Clark north of Manila.

Those were the sites of two of America's largest overseas bases until a nationalist Philippine senate voted to end their lease in the early 1990s.

The corridor, they said, symbolized their "enhanced economic cooperation."

"Japan, the Philippines and the United States are also partnering to expand cooperation and investments in other areas of the Philippines," they said.

The U.S. State Department said that the Luzon Corridor was expected to have an "outsized impact" on critical industries, including semiconductors. As part of the plan, the U.S. government would seek to partner with multilateral development institutions as well as the private sector to deploy capital and spur economic activity across the corridor.

'Windfall'

Defense analyst Chester Cabalza, the founding president of International Development and Security Cooperation, a Philippines think-tank, said both Washington and Tokyo were rewarding Manila for its principled stand on the South China Sea.

Cabalza said it couldn't get any clearer than that, and the "windfall of economic pledges" was clearly a reward of sorts.

"These grew from the bravery of fighting for free and open trade in the Indo-Pacific and by supporting American and Japanese deterrence against a Chinese agenda of dominance in the contested waters," Cabalza told BenarNews on Friday, noting that both industrialized nations had to "prepare against China's increasing military might" including by way of forging alliances.

"This is an experimental forging of allegiance for a plausible shooting war in the region," he said.

The analyst noted that the three-nation partnership could boost business confidence, and added that any country could counter China without fear of losing out from Beijing's much-touted economic prowess.

The triumvirate has a combined gross domestic product output that "is far greater than China to counter China's affluence and influence in Southeast Asia," Cabalza said.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.

Copyright 1998-2024, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content April not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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EU Wants 'Substantial' Talks Between Armenia, Azerbaijan, Says Envoy

By RFE/RL April 12, 2024

A top EU diplomat on April 11 said he wants to see "genuine, substantial negotiations" between Armenia and Azerbaijan leading to a peace treaty, agreements on border delimitation, and opening of transport links.

Toivo Klaar, the EU's special representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, told RFE/RL that Armenia and Azerbaijan could move forward in the peace process faster if conditions are right.

"It should not take that long to arrive at a positive outcome if the political will is there, if the commitment is there. And that is what we want to work for together with Armenia, together with Azerbaijan, that indeed we get from the point where we are to a positive outcome," Klaar said.

Klaar added that Brussels supports the Turkey-Armenia normalization process, and he hopes the special envoys for normalization talks designated by Yerevan and Ankara will meet soon.

"My hope would be that in the near future this process would indeed move forward and show results for the sake of Armenia, for the sake of Turkey, for the sake of the region," he said.

As for Armenia's possible membership in the EU in the future, Klaar said it depends on political decisions made in Yerevan, Brussels, and the member states.

"There are so many elements related to this. Certainly what we are seeing right now is a strengthening of relations between the European Union and Armenia, which corresponds to the interests of the European Union, which corresponds to the interests of Armenia. How this relationship will evolve, we will have to see," he said.

Compared to only a few years ago, the relationship between the EU and Armenia has evolved significantly, he added, but it's too early to say where things will end up.

Armenia is only starting to catch up on some elements of the process that it could have achieved 10 years ago, he said.

"We are catching up on maybe lost time that we have had in our relationship," the diplomat said.

Armenia has long been a close ally of Russia but in recent months has taken steps to distance itself from that alliance, apparently angered by what it saw as a lack of support from Moscow during the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Armenian government has also criticized Russian peacekeepers deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh of failing to stop Azerbaijan's lightning offensive in September last year that ended with Baku regaining control over the breakaway region that for three decades had been under ethnic Armenians' control.

In other signs of Armenia's move to distance itself from Russia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said last month that his country had frozen its membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and the Armenian Foreign Ministry said on April 10 that Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan will not attend a meeting on April 12 of his counterparts from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a Moscow-led grouping of former Soviet republics that was set up immediately after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The CSTO has been at the heart of Armenia's turn away from Moscow. The Pashinian government has long criticized the CSTO for its "failure to respond to the security challenges" facing Armenia.

Asked whether Armenia's membership in organizations like the Russian-led CSTO was an obstacle to the country's further integration with the EU, Klaar said: "Right now we have to look at what the Armenian government and what the Armenian people want to do, where they want to go, and how they see best the development of our relations."

A meeting last week in Brussels between Pashinian, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell represented "a real strengthening of EU-Armenia relations," Klaar said, adding that the United States is there to help support the resilience of Armenia.

At the meeting the EU unveiled an aid package for Armenia in the amount of 270 million euros (about $290 million) to be made available over the next four years, with the United States pledging $65 million in additional "development assistance" to Armenia this year.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/eu-wants-talks-armenia- azerbaijan/32902224.html

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Military Wing of Palestinian Group Islamic Jihad Announces Attack on Israel's Sderot

Sputnik News

20240412

TUNIS, (Sputnik) - Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, announced a rocket attack on Israel's Sderot.

The Lebanese movement Hezbollah said on Friday that it has fired dozens of missiles at Israeli artillery positions.

"Al-Quds Brigades: Together with the forces of Omar al-Qassem, we carried out rocket strikes on Sderot and the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip in response to the crimes of the Zionist enemy against our people," the military wing of Islamic Jihad said in a statement on Telegram.



The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Friday about 40 launches were identified crossing from Lebanese territory, some of which were intercepted. No injuries were reported. The shelling occurred amid reports that Tehran could respond to Israel's recent air strike on Iran's consulate in Damascus that left several Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members killed.

 Sputnik

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US Moving More Assets to Mideast to Bolster Deterrence Ahead of Iran Retaliation

Sputnik News

20240412

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US military is moving additional assets into the Middle East to bolster deterrence and force protection ahead of an anticipated Iranian retaliatory strike against Israel, a US defense official told Sputnik on Friday.

"We are moving additional assets to the region to bolster regional deterrence efforts and increase force protection for US forces. We have no other information to add at this time," the official said when asked about reports the USS Dwight Eisenhower aircraft carrier is sailing north through the Red Sea in a show of deterrence. Israeli media reported that the US aircraft carrier's movement toward Israel is meant to be a show of deterrence against Iran.

According to an earlier Axios report, Tehran warned Washington that it will attack US forces in the Middle East if the US gets involved in a military confrontation between Iran and Israel.

However, a US official told Axios that it's unclear if Iran is threatening to attack US forces in the region if they help Israel intercept Iranian missiles or only if they participate in an Israeli counteroffensive.

Last week, Israel carried out an airstrike on the consular annex of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, destroying the building. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said seven of its members had been killed in the attack, including two commanders. Iran is expected to conduct retaliatory strikes against Israel in the coming hours or days.

 Sputnik

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Lebanese Hezbollah Fires Dozens of Missiles at Israeli Positions - Statement

Sputnik News

20240412

TUNIS (Sputnik) - The Lebanese movement Hezbollah said on Friday that it has fired dozens of missiles at Israeli artillery positions.

Earlier in the day, Israeli broadcaster Channel 13 reported that about 50 rockets were launched from Lebanon and air raid sirens were heard in several settlements in the north of the Golan Heights.

"In support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and worthy resistance ... the soldiers of the Islamic Resistance struck enemy artillery positions ... with dozens of Katyusha rockets at 8:00 p.m. [local time, 5:00 p.m. GMT] on Friday," the statement said.

Last week, Israel carried out an airstrike on the consular annex of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, destroying the building. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said seven of its members had been killed in the attack, including two commanders. Iran is expected to conduct retaliatory strikes against Israel in the coming hours or days.

The Israeli military is closely monitoring the situation in Iran and prepares to repel threats in coordination with the US military, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff LTG Herzi Halevi said on Friday.

On October 7, 2023, Palestinian movement Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel and breached the border, attacking both civilian neighborhoods and military bases. Nearly 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted during the attack. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza, and started a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages. Over 33,000 people have been killed so far in the Gaza Strip, according to local authorities.

Israeli Air Defense Successfully Intercepts Two UAVs With Explosives From Lebanon

The Israeli air defense system has successfully intercepted two UAVs carrying explosives that crossed the border from the territory of Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Friday.

"Earlier this evening, the IDF Aerial Defense Array successfully intercepted two Hezbollah explosive UAVs that had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory," the IDF said on Telegram.



 Sputnik

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Secretary Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo, Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro, and Philippine National Security Advisor Eduardo M. Ano Before Their Meeting

US Department of State

Remarks

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

Benjamin Franklin Room

Washington, D.C.

April 12, 2024

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good morning, everyone. Secretary Manalo, Secretary Teodoro, Advisor Ano, wonderful to welcome you here to the State Department. Today's meeting follows the meeting between our presidents yesterday and the historic trilateral meeting with President Marcos, Prime Minister Kishida, and President Biden.

And I think today's meeting - an unprecedented 3+3 - reflects the growing and deepening cooperation between our countries on a broad array of issues, and of course our shared commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, including in the South China Seas. We very much welcome this opportunity to pursue that cooperation, collaboration, and of course we stand with the Philippines in our ironclad defense commitments, including the Mutual Defense Treaty.

Ricky, with that, let me welcome you and give you the microphone.

FOREIGN SECRETARY MANALO: Thank you very much, Tony. Good morning, Secretary Blinken, Secretary Austin, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. A great pleasure to be here with my colleagues. As you mentioned, in a way today's meeting of the 3+3 is also a historic meeting, as it follows on the heels of the even more historic trilateral summit yesterday.

I just wanted to mention that we attach a lot of importance to this meeting, especially in the light of recent developments in the South China Sea, especially China's escalation of its harassment resulting most recently in the injury of four Filipino seamen. But more importantly is we are determined to assert our sovereign rights, especially within our economic - Exclusive Economic Zone, and in accordance with the UNCLOS and the arbitral ruling.

I think our meeting today will enable us to hopefully be in a better position to coordinate our responses, both diplomatic and on the defense and security fronts in relation to any actions in the South China Sea, whether they're positive or negative, including in the Ayungin Shoal.

So we also hope that this 3+3 meeting will be a regular event, and also reinforce our regular Bilateral Strategic Dialogue, as well as our ongoing maritime dialogue. And finally, we do underscore the need to continue further clarificatory discussions on the MDT, as we think this would also help in deterring further escalation by China. Thank you.

SECRETARY AUSTIN: Thanks, Tony. Good morning, and it's great to be here with everyone. It's a - this is a historic meeting. It's the first time that all six of us have gathered to discuss the diplomatic and defense priorities at the heart of our alliance. Under the leadership of President Biden and President Marcos, our alliance is stronger than ever. And today, we'll discuss a whole-of-government vision for this alliance.

We all know that our shared security relies on strong military bonds, shared economic opportunities, and robust people-to-people ties. And at the Department of Defense, we're working in lockstep with our colleagues at the Department of National Defense, to strengthen interoperability between our forces, to expand our operational coordination, and to stand up to coercion in the South China Sea. And our commitment - as Secretary of State said just a couple of seconds ago, our commitment to our Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines remains ironclad.

And later today, I'll be hosting President Marcos at the Pentagon, and I'll share with you what I'm going to tell him, and that is that the United States and the Philippines are more than allies - we're family. And thanks again, and I look forward to a great discussion.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you very much. Mr. Secretary.

DEFENSE SECRETARY TEODORO: Thank you, Secretary Blinken and Secretary Austin, our honorable counterparts and colleagues. Following from what Secretary Austin had already said, it's indeed an honor to represent the Department of National Defense of the Philippines in this historic meeting today.

And it will be an opportunity to have a fresh, open, and candid discussion of our departments' objectives in line of the broader strategy of a free and open Indo-Pacific, because this is the area where our interests converge. And in doing so, we hope that the family becomes a stronger family with bonds of a shared vision, not only for today but for the future generations. Thank you very much.

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SULLIVAN: Well, I want to thank my Philippines counterparts for being here. I want to say I'm honored to be at this unprecedented 3+3 meeting. And our presidents, each of our presidents, tasked us to work across our governments and then to work across this alliance to make sure that we not only reaffirm the alliance between the U.S. and the Philippines, but we put the alliance commitments at the heart of it into practice, that we operationalize it, that we execute it, and that we do so entirely in lockstep. So I look forward to the discussion today.

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR ANO: Secretary Blinken, Secretary Austin, NSA Sullivan, first allow me to thank the United States Government for hosting the historic inaugural trilateral leaders summit yesterday. I'm honored for the opportunity to be part of the whole process that began during the inaugural trilateral national security advisors meeting in Tokyo last June.

Seizing this momentum, we are now here for another milestone - the first bilateral 3+3 ministers meeting. So thank you also for hosting this occasion, and I look forward to our insightful and fruitful discussions. This will further concretize our deepening security partnership and enduring alliance, grounded on shared democratic values and aspirations of our peoples, with activities carefully curated to achieve our collective goals.

Thank you, and magandang umaga.

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thanks, everyone.

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Treasury Targets Hamas UAV Unit Officials and Cyber Actor

U.S. Department of the Treasury

April 12, 2024

WASHINGTON -- Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is taking action against Hamas, targeting Gaza- and Lebanon-based leaders of the terrorist group's offensive cyber and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations. Concurrent with this action, the European Union is imposing sanctions targeting Hamas.

"Today's joint action reinforces our continued, collective focus on disrupting Hamas's ability to conduct further attacks, including through cyber warfare and the production of UAVs," said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. "Treasury, in coordination with our allies and partners, will continue to target Hamas's facilitation networks wherever they operate, including in the cyber domain."

This action builds on OFAC's recent joint designations with Australia and the United Kingdom on January 22, 2024 that targeted key Hamas financial facilitators, actions with the United Kingdom on March 27, 2024, and December 13, 2023 and November 14, 2023, targeting Hamas leaders and financiers; as well as U.S. actions on October 27, 2023, targeting sources of Hamas support and financing; October 18, 2023, targeting Hamas operatives and financial facilitators; and May 2022, designating officials and companies involved in managing Hamas's secret international investment portfolio. Individuals and entities targeted today are being designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, which targets terrorist groups and their supporters.

HAMAS INFORMATION WARFARE CHIEF AND UAV CELL OFFICIALS

Hudhayfa Samir 'Abdallah al-Kahlut (al-Kahlut) also known as "Abu Ubaida" has been the spokesman for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (al-Qassam Brigades), the military wing of Hamas in Gaza, since at least 2007. He publicly threatened to execute civilian hostages held by Hamas following the terrorist group's October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. Al-Kahlut leads the cyber influence department of al-Qassam Brigades. He was involved in procuring servers and domains in Iran to host the official al-Qassam Brigades website in cooperation with Iranian institutions.

William Abu Shanab (Abu Shanab) is the commander of the Lebanon-based al-Shimali unit, which is supported by Hamas's Construction Bureau in Lebanon and has operations across Lebanon. The unit manages projects for the development and production of automatic 120mm mortars, mobile launchers for Grad rockets, development and production of flight simulators, UAVs for intelligence gathering and suicide UAVs. The unit's hundreds of operatives are trained on a range of skill sets to support Hamas terrorist operations, including urban warfare, UAV pilot training, aeronautics, naval diving, and intelligence gathering, among others. Abu Shanab previously served as an operative in the unit's UAV cell after undergoing training in Iran and Southeast Asia. He is believed to be heavily involved in the manufacture of the UAVs used by Hamas to conduct operations.

Bara'a Hasan Farhat (Farhat) is the assistant to Abu Shanab, the commander of the al-Shimali unit where Khalil Muhammad 'Azzam ('Azzam) is an intelligence official.

OFAC is designating al-Kahlut, Abu Shanab, Farhat, and 'Azzam pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Hamas, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13224.

SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS

As a result of today's action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC's regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons.

In addition, non-U.S. financial institutions and other persons that engage in certain transactions or activities with sanctioned entities and individuals may expose themselves to sanctions risk or be subject to an enforcement action. The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person, or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.

The power and integrity of OFAC sanctions derive not only from OFAC's ability to designate and add persons to the SDN List, but also from its willingness to remove persons from the SDN List consistent with the law. The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior. For information concerning the process for seeking removal from an OFAC list, including the SDN List, please refer to OFAC's Frequently Asked Question 897 here. For detailed information on the process to submit a request for removal from an OFAC sanctions list, please click here.

Click here for more information on the individuals designated today.

Additional Treasury resources on countering the financing of terrorism:

###

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UN pays tribute to victims and survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda

12 April 2024 - The UN renewed its commitment to never forget the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda during a candle lighting ceremony on Friday to mark 30 years since the horrific events there unfolded.

The commemoration in the General Assembly Hall was held to remember the victims and honour the survivors and those who tried to stop the genocide.

Focus was also on young people who have grown up in its shadow, and on countering hate speech which fuelled the killing and has become a growing global concern today.

100 days of terror

"The genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda 30 years ago is a stain on our collective consciousness and a brutal reminder of the legacy of colonialism, and the consequences of hate speech," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his opening remarks.

More than a million people - overwhelmingly Tutsi, but also Hutu and others who opposed the genocide - were slaughtered over 100 days, starting on 7 April 1994. Many were hacked to death with machetes.

It was a period when "neighbours turned on neighbours, friends became murderous foes, and entire families were wiped out," Mr. Guterres recalled.

"The carnage was driven by an explicit intent to destroy members of a group simply because of their ethnic identity," he said.

Never again

The President of the UN General Assembly, Dennis Francis, said the "horror born of a virulent and senseless level of hatred" that engulfed Rwanda three decades ago "should never be allowed to rear its venomous head again in the human conscience and heart."

He urged people everywhere to learn about the dangerous consequences of hate speech, especially in the era of social media "where unguarded words we utter can spread like wildfire", as well as the ramification of international inaction in the face of conflict.

"The genocide against the Tutsis had warning signs which were not fully heeded and it unfolded in full view of the global community - which dismally failed Rwanda by not taking swift action to prevent or stop it," he said.

"Let us always remember that peace requires an active effort - and most importantly, prevention."

Carrying the memories

Rwandan song writer and author Claver Irakoze was just a child when the unspeakable violence began. His father taught at a secondary school in Kapagyi, located roughly 40 kilometres southwest of the capital, Kigali, and the family sought shelter there.

Early on the morning of 28 April, soldiers came to the school and took away 61 men, including his father, loading them "like cargo" onto a truck.

"That was my last time I saw my father," he said. "I remember him faintly waving good-bye at me, so powerlessly. It is an image that still comes to my mind whenever I think about him."

Mr. Irakoze has since written two children's books to teach lessons of hope and healing. He is also a husband and the father of a boy, 9, and a girl, 11 - the same age he was when the genocide began.

"Our killers wanted us wiped out, but we are here," he said. "And through us and our children, we carry the memory of those we lost."

Lighting the way forward

Rwanda has risen from the ashes "becoming an outstanding example of what is possible when a nation chooses the path of reconciliation and renewal," said Ernest Rwamucyo, the country's Ambassador to the UN.

He paid tribute to Mr. Irakoze and other survivors who illuminate the path to healing and reconciliation.

"In acknowledging the sacrifices made by survivors, we reaffirm our collective resolve that the lessons of history are never forgotten. Their narratives compel us to redouble our efforts in the pursuits of justice, accountability and peace."

Remember. Unite. Renew.

As part of the commemorative events, the UN Department of Global Communications has mounted an exhibit in the Secretariat lobby - Remember. Unite. Renew. - that highlights the power of post-genocide reconciliation, the potentially deadly impact of hate speech and what visitors can do to say #NoToHate.

At the heart of the exhibit is the story of Laurence Niyonangira, who fled the killings in her community, led by former neighbours following targeted hate speech. She lost 37 family members in the genocide.

"As survivors, we can only heal our wounds with the people who created them," she said on the reconciliation process with Xavier Nemeye, one of the men who killed her mother and sister.

The exhibit includes an interactive panel where visitors can voice their support for tolerance and pledge to speak out against hate speech.

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Secretary-General's remarks for the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda

United Nations Secretary-General

12 April 2024

Mr. President of the General Assembly,

Honorable Ministers,

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

The genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda 30 years ago is a stain on our collective consciousness and a brutal reminder of the legacy of colonialism, and the consequences of hate speech.



Over the course of 100 days, one million people were killed.

The vast majority were Tutsi, but also Hutu and others who opposed the genocide.

Neighbours turned on neighbours.

Friends became murderous foes.

Entire families were wiped out.

The carnage was driven by an explicit intent to destroy members of a group simply because of their ethnic identity.

These 100 days reflected the worst of humanity.

But the aftermath revealed the best of the human spirit: resilience, reconciliation, courage and strength.

The survivors' stories stand as a testament to the power of hope and forgiveness.

People like Laurence Niyonangira, a survivor of the genocide who lost 37 relatives in 1994.

She chose to forgive one of those responsible for the slaughter of her family after he confessed and served time in prison for his crimes.

"As survivors," Laurence said, "we can only heal our wounds with the people who created them."



Her powerful story, and others like it, are part of the exhibits on display for this event reminding us of the imperative of forgiveness, reconciliation, and justice.

Excellencies,

This year, we focus on the rancid root of all genocides  hatred.

Genocides culminate in mass violence and death.

But they start with the weapon of words.

The genocide in Rwanda was fuelled by decades of hate speech targeting the Tutsi.

Three decades later, the verbal violence of hate speech is still all around us.

Nowadays, divisive and dangerous ideologies are delivered through the global megaphone of social media.

But the vile messages remain all-too-familiar.

Racism, misogyny, lies, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, stigmatization, discrimination and the outright denial  or even glorification  of past genocides, including the Holocaust and genocide against the Tutsis.

The global community must stand as one against this torrent of hate speech, and denounce it wherever it's found.

We must also stand together in a renewed global push to ratify and fully implement the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, while strengthening prevention mechanisms, educating new generations about past genocides, and countering the mis- and disinformation that fuels hate speech and genocidal intent and action.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

I want to convey a special message to the young people from Rwanda joining us today here and online.

Dear friends,

We will never forget the horrors of those terrible 100 days.

But we need your help.

We need your voice and your activism to keep alive the memory of those who were killed.

And to call out hatred wherever you hear or see it.

In your cities, towns, and neighbourhoods. In your schools. Online. Anywhere and everywhere.

Let's all push back against hatred and intolerance, wherever we find it.

May the memory of the victims spur our actions, and inspire our commitment to ensure a better, safer world for all people.

The United Nations will always stand with you in this important effort.

Thank you.

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NPS President Explores Links Between Additive Manufacturing, Warfighting Readiness With Panelists at Sea-Air-Space

US Navy

12 April 2024

From Lt. Cmdr. Ed Early, Naval Postgraduate School Office of University Communications

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- One of the key measures of effectiveness for any warfighting organization is materiel readiness - the ability to maintain ships, aircraft, vehicles and weapons systems, keeping them in the fight. Ensuring materiel readiness has posed a challenge for military forces since the dawn of warfare, particularly in expeditionary environments where logistics chains are difficult and often contested.

In recent years, the Department of Defense (DOD) has embraced the promise of additive manufacturing (AM) to help address materiel readiness and resiliency, especially for deployed forces. This potential - for AM to serve as a logistics and readiness multiplier - was discussed by an expert panel of U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and industry representatives on April 10 during the final day of the Sea-Air-Space Conference in National Harbor, Md.

Retired Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau, president of the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), served as moderator for the panel, titled "Additive Manufacturing: Creating a Warfighting Advantage through Materiel Readiness."

As Rondeau pointed out, while AM is a relatively new technology, the underlying concept - creating or modifying parts at the point of need to remain mission ready - is a familiar one for Sailors and Marines.

"This is not a culture that we do not understand," Rondeau said. "This is not a topic new to the United States Navy or the Marine Corps. Manufacturing while you're on the go is what we do."

She also noted that the thought of using AM in an operational or contested logistics environment isn't new to NPS students or faculty. In 2019, the NPS Warfare Innovation Continuum did an entire year of study on logistics in contested environments, called "Resurrecting War Plan Blue," and the idea of innovating and manufacturing at sea and AM came up frequently.

"We look at these things for a number of reasons," said Rondeau. "Concepts lead to capabilities, which lead to adoption. And it all does lead to developing leaders who are educated to employ them, in this case, additive manufacturing efficiently and effectively."

Rondeau was joined by U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Forrest Poole, Assistant Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics (Logistics Division), and Matthew Sermon, executive director of Program Executive Office (PEO) Strategic Submarines for Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).

Also participating in the panel were Jesse Boyer, an Additive Manufacturing Fellow at Pratt & Whitney who shared his perspective about the defense industry, and U.S. Navy Lt. Zachary Vrtis, an NPS Ph.D. student and member of the school's Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research and Education (CAMRE).

The DOD Additive Manufacturing Strategy aims to modernize national defense systems to improve performance using AM-designed equipment; increase materiel readiness to rapidly prototype and produce direct parts, reducing the risk of obsolete hardware; and enabling warfighters to employ innovative solutions on the battlefield through AM capabilities.

While the hour-long conversation did touch upon the DOD's efforts, panelists also addressed how their specific organizations are employing AM for naval forces.

Poole first talked about how the Marines are constantly exploring how to improve operational logistics.

"The Marine Corps is laser-focused on getting after that expeditionary aspect of how we sustain forces forward," said Poole. "We think of Okinawa, we think of what we refer to now as the Stand-In Force, the SIF, and how we're able to not only project, but sustain those forces. AM happens to be one way that we do that."

As examples, Poole cited two deployable AM systems - the XFAB (Expeditionary Fabrication) system and the Tactical Fabrication (TACFAB) kit, both developed in coordination with the Navy - that Marines can use to carry out needed maintenance in a forward environment.

While Poole expressed his eagerness to see how AM best supports the Corps, he also added that his most important expeditionary logistics resources are his Marines - and empowering them to pursue innovative solutions to any problem that may arise in the field.

"I don't necessarily need a lot of Marines, or Sailors serving with Marines, who have the same capabilities as these gentlemen up here," said Poole, referring to his fellow panelists. "I just want them to think about different problems. And if we can do that - and we are, I think we've been very successful with that - if we can do that, then the sky's the limit.

"If the Marines are empowered and enabled to be able to do those things downrange, then there's nothing we can't do."

Like the Marine Corps, the Navy's submarine community deals with its own unique deployed logistics requirements. Submarines are underway for extended periods, with few or no port calls and limited replenishment opportunities. Additionally, most critical parts required by submarines must meet stringent manufacturing requirements and safety regulations.

Sermon, who is responsible for revitalizing the Submarine Industrial Base, has identified areas where AM can help support submarine construction, shorten the logistics chain and reduce wait times for parts - all while preserving the submarine community's high safety standards.

"We are not the manufacturing nation that we were 40 years ago," said Sermon. "We must have advanced manufacturing of all types, and additive is at the fore of that for us."

Specifically, Sermon cited the need to 3D print a large number of submarine parts made from six different metals, with the goal of expediting delivery of critically needed components.

"We're focused on these six materials that cover almost 30,000 parts on submarines. They cover parts where we have significant late issues. They cover parts of our industrial base - how we make parts today where we have significantly less capacity than we did when we built Ohios from 1979 to 1997," he added, referring to the Ohio-class SSBN.

Sermon did offer the caveat that parts required under the Submarine Safety Program (SUBSAFE) are not yet ready to be 3D printed at scale. However, for certain submarine components - those not exposed to sea pressure or reactor temperatures - Sermon said that AM could be used to produce parts faster and with a greater capacity. And he added that testing is ongoing for materials which will allow for printing of parts which meet SUBSAFE standards.

"We've had incredible work with the technical community, SEA-05, Naval Reactors, working together," Sermon said. "I'm not worried about us getting there from a manufacturing readiness and a technology readiness perspective. We will get there. We have the right team, we have the right partnerships, we're going to drive to material maturity."

The defense industry is responding and working with the Navy, Marine Corps and other services to evaluate specific AM needs and requirements, and how they can be met with existing AM technology. Given the wide range of AM methods and materials, Boyer emphasized the need for providers to meet with customers and the end user to determine which AM modality works best.

"We do need to review those applications, be able to review them with that customer, and provide the right solution for you," said Boyer, who has worked in the AM field for more than a decade. "AM is not a one-size-fits-all in many aspects."

Boyer recommended that the AM process should be "de-convoluted" to allow providers and customers with the best overall picture of how AM methods and requirements can mesh. He also urged AM consumers to become better educated on how AM processes can work.

"I would encourage everyone to get involved in, you know, standards committees, such as ASTM, ASME, ISO, initiatives like AM Forward, America Makes," Boyer said. "I'm not expecting anyone to be an AM expert at the end of the panel, but really just informed AM users."

Vrtis spoke about his work with CAMRE, which recently opened a new Advanced Manufacturing Center at NPS to explore and expand AM education and research in support of the Navy and DOD. A doctoral student whose research focuses on applications of AM technology, Vrtis also cited the value of education at NPS, and encouraged expanding student participation and learning on AM technologies and applications and their potential throughout the logistics chain.

"Students like myself, when they come to NPS, they can learn the processes, the types of techniques that Mr. Boyer and Mr. Sermon touched on - where AM is appropriate and where it's not," said Vrtis. "And that's a lot of what we talked about at the AM Summit that followed the ribbon-cutting, with our partners from NAVAIR, NAVSEA, and the other TYCOMs there as well.

"With that education piece, it's crucial that students that go to NPS learn as much as they can about AM, to be proponents for it when they go back out to the fleet, and to the rest of the Department of the of the Navy, and where else they may go, and to be the champions for it, but to understand where it can be used and where it cannot be used."

In addition to his research, Vrtis is involved with CAMRE's efforts to test AM technology in the operating environment, at sea and ashore, including the upcoming SALVEX, Trident Warrior and RIMPAC exercises, as well as concurrent training of Sailors and Marines in the operation of AM hardware.

"We're going to be training Marines, we're going to be training Sailors, we're going to be training Naval Reservists. They're going to be operating them under our expertise, making sure that we print parts that are applicable and creating some great new success stories," Vrtis said.

Poole expressed his appreciation to Vrtis, CAMRE and NPS for helping to facilitate opportunities for Marines to learn more about AM technology - and to all his fellow panelists for how it can benefit the Corps as a whole.

"I think what you'll see is the Marines come up with ideas, just all kinds of ideas of how we could implement something like this," said Poole. "And some of it might work, and some of it might not work. But, you know, as long as we can fail fast and fail often and fail now so we can get better later on, I think it's just tremendous."

The Naval Postgraduate School provides defense-focused graduate education, including classified studies and interdisciplinary research, to advance the operational effectiveness, technological leadership and warfighting advantage of the Naval service. For additional information, visit NPS online at https://nps.edu.



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Japan, Republic of Korea, U.S. Navies Partner in Trilateral Maritime Exercise

US Navy

12 April 2024

From Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group Public Affairs

The U.S. Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) and Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN), conducted a trilateral maritime exercise, reaffirming their commitment to bolstering regional security and stability in the Indo-Pacific, April 11-12.

Participating ships include USS Theodore Roosevelt, Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers USS Russell (DDG 59), USS Daniel Inouye (DDG 118), and USS Howard (DDG 83); Murasame-class destroyer JS Ariake (DD-109) of the JMSDF; Sejong the Great-class guided missile destroyer ROKS Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong (DDG 993) of the ROKN.

During the 2-day event, the three maritime forces sailed together, conducted advanced maritime communication operations, maritime interdiction operations training, air warfare exercises, staff exchanges and integration. The allied forces last trained together in January 2024.

"Trilateral exercises such as this demonstrate our ability to integrate and operate with our allies. Together, the U.S. Navy, ROK, and JMSDF are ready to respond to any contingency," said Rear Adm. Christopher Alexander, commander, CSG-9. "We are all committed to shared maritime security and a free and open Indo-Pacific."

The U.S. Navy regularly conducts exercises like these to strengthen ties among allied and partner countries.

"This exercise was a great opportunity to increase our abilities to respond to DPRK's advancing nuclear and WMD threats and to provide humanitarian support to ships in distress through close cooperation between the participating forces of the three nations." said Captain Baek Jun-cheol, Commanding Officer of ROKS Seoae Ryu Seong-ryong.

In August 2023, at the Camp David Summit, the three nations agreed to multi-domain trilateral exercises on a regular basis to enhance our coordinated capabilities and cooperation, a commitment to pursuing enhanced ballistic missile defense cooperation to counter DPRK nuclear and missile threats and deepening our security partnership. These exercises also enhance combined readiness and capabilities and support peace and stability in the region. The event was conducted in accordance with international law in international waters.

"Through this trilateral exercise, we were able to strengthen our cooperation with the U.S. Navy and ROK Navy. The exercise also promoted cooperation among the three countries to address security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, and demonstrated the three countries' commitment to safeguarding common security and prosperity as well as maintaining a rule-based international order," said Commander, Escort Division 5, Capt. GOTO Masahiro.

This year marks over 70 years of U.S partnership with the Republic of Korea marked by their Mutual Defense Treaty of 1953, as well as the U.S. partnership with Japan since the 1951 Security Treaty between the U.S. and Japan.

"Everything we do is about maintaining deterrence and ensuring that seas remain free and open." said Capt. Brian Shrum. "All of this is achieved through cooperation and the strength of our combined allied forces."

CSG-9 departed San Diego for a regularly scheduled deployment to the Western Pacific, Jan. 12. Since entering U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations, the strike group participated in Multi-Large Deck Event with the Carl Vinson Strike Group and JMSDF and conducted port calls in Guam and the Republic of Singapore.

CSG-9 is a multiplatform team of ships and aircraft, capable of carrying out a wide variety of missions around the globe from combat missions to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief response. The strike group is comprised of CSG-9 staff, Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 23 staff, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN) 71, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11, and DESRON 23 ships; Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Russell (DDG 59) and USS Daniel K. Inouye (DDG118).

U.S. 7th Fleet is the U.S. Navy's largest forward-deployed numbered fleet and routinely interacts and operates with allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific region.





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USS Gunston Hall Returns Home After NATO Exercise Steadfast Defender 2024

US Navy

12 April 2024

From USS Gunston Hall Public Affairs

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44) returned home to Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, April 11, following Steadfast Defender 2024, NATO's largest exercise in decades.

Gunston Hall is one of the 50 NATO naval assets, 80 air platforms, 1,100 combat vehicles and 90,000 forces that participated in Steadfast Defender 2024. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the NATO Alliance, and this exercise being the largest NATO exercise in decades, showcased the alliance's sheer strength and dominance.

Steadfast Defender 2024 demonstrated NATO's ability to deploy forces rapidly from North America and other parts of the Alliance to reinforce the defense of Europe. The exercise also showed that NATO can conduct and sustain complex multi-domain operations over several months in any conditions, across thousands of kilometers, from the High North to Central and Eastern Europe.

"Our participation in Steadfast Defender demonstrated our Navy's ability to work alongside and defend our allies," said Cmdr. Christopher W. Van Loenen, commanding officer, USS Gunston Hall. "The Gunston Hall crew pushed the ship to her full capabilities in order to achieve the exercise objectives, and we did just that. I couldn't be more proud of what we accomplished together."

Gunston Hall departed Virginia late January this year. She sailed straight to Portsmouth, United Kingdom to embark part of the landing force, a platoon of French marines and six combat rigid raiding craft. Once embarked, Gunston Hall and her troops accomplished several amphibious training exercises in the English Channel to build proficiency and familiarity before the more complicated next phase. Subsequently, Gunston Hall sailed directly north into the harsh climate of the Arctic Circle to work alongside Italian Landing Assault Helicopter Ship Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian amphibious transport dock San Giorgio, and French Navy Aquitaine-class frigate Normandie.

Once moored in Harstad, Norway, Gunston Hall embarked Swedish and Finnish marines along with two CB-90 fast assault crafts to complete the landing force. For the following two weeks, she operated in the High North carrying out five amphibious exercises and 19 well deck operations.

The U.S. Navy continues to build integration and relationships with its Allies and partners by participating in exercises like Steadfast Defender in order to preserve a free and prosperous maritime domain.

U.S. 2nd Fleet, reestablished in 2018 in response to the changing global security environment, develops and employs maritime forces ready to fight across multiple domains in the Atlantic and Arctic to ensure access, deter aggression, and defend U.S., allied, and partner interests.





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SECNAV Del Toro Delivers Remarks at the USS Constellation (FFG 62) Keel Laying

US Navy

Marinette, Wis.

Speech by Carlos Del Toro

Presented on 12 April 2024

Date Published 12 April 2024

Good morning, everyone! It is wonderful to be here with you at Fincantieri's Marinette Marine Shipyard in Wisconsin.

Today is a special day for our Fleet, and indeed our Nation, as we take the next step in the construction of the future USS Constellation (FFG 62) with this keel laying ceremony.

Governor Evers, thank you for your leadership of this great state. I deeply value our enduring partnership with you and Secretary Pechacek as the citizens of Wisconsin build the warships our Navy needs to execute its missions around the globe.

I would also like to welcome the leaders from the great state of Michigan who are here with us this morningthe Adjutant General of Michigan, Major General Rogers; the CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Mr. Messer; and the Director of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, Ms. Corbin.

Michigan and Wisconsin share more than a borderthey share a workforce. As we think regionally about how to grow a shipbuilding talent pipeline, I look forward to working with the leaders of both states to find innovative ways in developing the shipbuilding workforce and resilient supply chains that will provide critical support to our Fleet in the decades to come.

Admiral Franchetti, thank you for joining us this morning, for your leadership of our Navy, and for sharing your insights into the pivotal role USS Constellation will play in America's Warfighting Navy throughout her time in service.

I would also like to extend a warm welcome to my predecessor, the 77th Secretary of the Navy Kenneth Braithwaite, who is with us this morning. Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for your thoughtful approach to naming this class of warships and for choosing to honor the former USS Constellations that have served our nation with honor and distinction over the past 248 years.

And I would like to recognize Secretary Braithwaite's wife, Melissa, who is the ship's sponsor for USS Constellation. A ship's sponsor is an important role in our naval heritage, and I have no doubt you will do an incredible job serving as the bond between this ship, her crew, and the nation they serve.

Finally, to our industry partners, led by Fincantieri, and to our Sailors here at the shipyard, thank you. Thank you for the work you are about to embark on to bring this ship to life, adding another capable, lethal platform to our Fleet.

USS Constellation and the Constellation-class frigates are a critical next step in the modernization of our surface ship inventory, increasing the number of "players on the field" available globally for our Fleet and Combatant Commanders.

As recent events in the Red Sea and Indo-Pacific have shown, our ships, submarines, aircraft, Sailors, and Marines are in high-demand by our national decision makers.

Every day, nearly a third of our Fleet is deployed, with another fifth underway conducting training and operations to prepare for deployment.

Our Sailors and Marines operate around the globe in austere environments, oftentimes alongside our international allies and partners, deterring adversaries, and standing ready to prevail in combat if called upon to do so.

At the heart of it, our people are our greatest strength. And when I say "our people," that doesn't just mean our Sailors and Marines in uniform.

It includes our Department of the Navy civilians who work tirelessly alongside their uniformed counterparts, often in the same deployed or forward-stationed environments.

It includes the talented scientists, engineers, and researchers at our Nation's universities and colleges developing the transformational technologies of tomorrow which have dual-use cases to provide our Fleet and our Force with warfighting advantages.

And here in Wisconsin, it includes our skilled tradesmen and women who have chosen to make shipbuilding their profession.

Providing for and maintaining a ready, capable, and lethal Navy and Marine Corps is not just a Department of the Navy effortit is indeed a whole-of-country effort.

When I called for a re-imagining of our national approach to maritime statecraft, centered around rebuilding our commercial and naval power, I highlighted the need for men and women across our country to become more involved in our shipbuilding industry.

Today's ceremony is reflective of that. This yard is teeming with activityAmericans from all walks of life coming together to build warships in a demonstration of our industrial might and showcasing the talents of the skilled workforce that our nation must expand during this critical period in our world's history.

It takes a nation to build a Navy, and the collaboration between industry and our Department that is on display at this shipyard symbolizes the teamwork required to do so.

I am committed to restoring the shipbuilding might our nation once hadboth commercial and navaland to ensuring that we get our major shipbuilding programs back on trackon-time and on-budget.

I look forward to working with all of our stakeholders across industry, government, and academia to increase our nation's capacity and capability to build, maintain, and modernize the Fleet our nation requires to confront the challenges of today and, if called upon, prevail in combat.

Again, it is an honor to be with you this morning as we mark this special milestone in the construction of the future USS Constellation.

May God continue to grace our Nation with fair winds and following seas.





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SECNAV Del Toro Celebrates the Keel Laying of the Future USS Constellation (FFG 62)

US Navy - Press Release

12 April 2024

Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro traveled to Marinette, Wisconsin, to celebrate the keel laying for the future USS Constellation (FFG 62), April 12.

The Constellation is the first ship of the Constellation-class frigates awarded to Fincantieri Marinette Marine in 2020.

"USS Constellation and the Constellation-class frigates are a critical next step in the modernization of our surface ship inventory, increasing the number of players on the field available globally for our fleet and combatant commanders," said Secretary Del Toro.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti joined Secretary Del Toro during the historic occasion.

"This ship will be critical in putting more players on the field," said Franchetti. "The Constellation-class frigate, named after the USS Constellation - the first of six frigates authorized by the Naval Act of 1794 and the first in-class designed and built by American workers - will ensure the free flow of American commerce by sea."

The ship's sponsor is Melissa Braithwaite, the spouse of former Secretary of the Navy Kenneth Braithwaite, who named the ship in 2020.

"I am truly honored to be here as the USS Constellation sponsor. It is one of the greatest honors of my life," said Melissa Braithwaite. "Being a Navy wife and Ken's long service in the Navy, today, I had the honor of truly belonging to the Navy myself."

During his remarks, Secretary Del Toro thanked Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers for his leadership, pointing out that the state's shipbuilding industry was integral to the national maritime statecraft efforts to rebuild commercial and naval power.

"This yard is teeming with activityAmericans from all walks of life coming together to build warships in a demonstration of our industrial might, and showcasing the talents of the skilled workforce that our nation must expand during this critical period in our world's history, said Secretary Del Toro.

"After having helped support some of the efforts to update and expand Fincantieri's facilities to meet the needs of an effort of this size, it is great to be here now to celebrate these projects and see how this hard work is paying off," said Gov. Evers. "This contract to build these frigates is a great opportunity for Wisconsin to showcase our rich shipbuilding and maritime history and cement our role as leaders in this industry."

The Constellation-Class Guided-Missile Frigate (FFG 62) represents the Navy's next-generation small surface combatant. This ship class will be an agile, multi-mission warship capable of operations in both blue-water and littoral environments, providing increased combat-credible forward presence that provides a military advantage at sea.

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Hezbollah launches rockets, drones into Israel as US warns Iran

By Jeff Seldin April 12, 2024

U.S. President Joe Biden delivered a stern, one-word warning to Iran on Friday as the world braced for Tehran to exact revenge for a deadly Israeli airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus, Syria.

"Don't," Biden said to reporters following a speech on domestic policy at an event in New York City.

"We are devoted to the defense of Israel," the president said in response to questions from reporters. "We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel, and Iran will not succeed."

Biden's comments followed similar expressions of support from top U.S. defense and diplomatic officials over the past several days and come as the U.S. military takes steps to ensure growing hostilities between Israel and Iran do not engulf the Middle East in a wider war.

"We are moving additional assets to the region to bolster regional deterrence efforts and increase protection for U.S. forces," a U.S. defense official told VOA Friday. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, declined to share additional details.

Even as U.S. officials warned Iran against seeking revenge, a key Iranian proxy sprang into action.

Lebanese Hezbollah late Friday fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces said it detected about 40 rockets crossing from Lebanon into Israel, some of which were intercepted by air defense systems.

The IDF also said it was able to intercept two explosive drones that Hezbollah militants had used to target Israel earlier Friday.

It is unclear whether the rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah were part of an effort by Iran to retaliate for the Israeli strike on Iran's diplomatic compound earlier this month, which killed three senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, including General Ali Reza Zahdi, who led Iran's elite Quds force.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned Wednesday that Israel "must be punished and will be punished" for the April 1 attack, days after one of his advisers said Israeli embassies are "no longer safe."

U.S. diplomatic officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have been reaching out to counterparts in Turkey, China and Saudi Arabia, urging them to make clear to Tehran "that escalation is not in anyone's interest," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters Thursday.

But the U.S. push for de-escalation has been accompanied by expressions of strong support for Israel in the face of potential Iranian aggression.

"We are in constant communication with our Israeli counterparts about making sure that they can defend themselves," White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters early Friday, describing Iran's threat to retaliate as "very credible."

"We take our commitment to helping Israel with their self-defense very seriously," Kirby said. "It is an ironclad commitment."

During a call Thursday with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also offered Washington's backing to Israel.

"Secretary Austin assured Minister Gallant that Israel could count on full U.S. support to defend Israel against Iranian attacks," according to a Pentagon readout of the conversation.

The U.S. statements and the movement of additional resources to deter Iranian aggression, however, have done little so far to ease growing concerns.

"We are very worried about potential escalation in a situation that seems to be escalating on a daily basis," said United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

"Our message, which has been sent publicly and privately, is to avoid any escalation and work toward de-escalation of the tensions," Dujarric told reporters Friday.

VOA's Patsy Widakuswara and Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.

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UN: Massive aid must enter Gaza to avoid catastrophic outcome

By Lisa Schlein April 12, 2024

A senior U.N. official warned of a catastrophic outcome for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living precariously in war-torn Gaza if humanitarian aid delivery into the territory is not massively expanded in the coming days.

"We have to have a system that allows us to be safe and protected when we deliver aid, and that is the responsibility of Israel as we operate in the territory that they occupy," said Jamie McGoldrick, outgoing U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories.

Speaking Friday from Jerusalem, McGoldrick told journalists in Geneva that it was difficult and dangerous for aid workers to move around and deliver aid in Gaza, noting that a UNICEF vehicle was hit Tuesday by live ammunition while waiting to enter northern Gaza.

That incident followed the April 1 killing by Israel of seven World Central Kitchen workers who were delivering aid to Gaza, and the attack upon and looting of a 14-truck World Food Program convoy destined for northern Gaza last month.

Such developments illustrate that "the system that we use for our own protection and safety is not working," he said.

Referring to the convoys that were attacked, McGoldrick said, "I think the humanitarian workers there then feared for their own safety. And as far as we know, the deconfliction and notifications system has got flaws.

"We do not have communications equipment inside Gaza to operate properly as you would have in another situation, and secondly, we do not have a hotline or an emergency number to call in case of an emergency incident that arrives, and so it is important that we get that addressed."

McGoldrick said he met with Major General Yaron Finkelman, head of the Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), this week and presented him with a list of requests that would enable the delivery of humanitarian aid "safely, effectively and at the necessary scale throughout Gaza."

He said he told the Israeli major general that "we are working in a very hostile area, without the possibility of contacting each other. We do not have radios. We do not have mobile networks.

"If we have a serious security incident, we do not have a hotline. We have no way of communicating with the IDF that we are facing problems at a checkpoint or facing problems en route."

McGoldrick said the major general told him that he would move things forward and that a member of the IDF would be part of a new humanitarian coordination and deconfliction cell to improve the situation of Palestinians in Gaza.

"We have the commitment from the major general, and we are going to keep him to that commitment and make sure we get that set up and running as soon as possible," he said.

McGoldrick noted that not enough aid was entering northern Gaza to satisfy the enormous needs of tens of thousands of people who have been deprived of food, medical care and other lifesaving essentials.

"We can see by the health situation. We can see by the nutritional situation," he said. "Children are showing serious signs of malnutrition, and the fact that the IPC [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification] highlights that 70% of the population is in danger of slipping into famine, we need to see a change in that, but that is not happening."

Another area of great concern, one that is uppermost in the minds of humanitarians, is a potential incursion by Israel into Rafah. McGoldrick said people he met on a visit to Gaza a few days ago were extremely worried about a possible offensive, concerns he shared with Finkelman.

"We have been insisting since day one that we would require time to prepare and pre-position supplies to places where people might move," he said. "We cannot do that right now because we do not have enough supplies coming in on a regular basis.

"We are barely able to feed the people and support the people currently. And if we were to add on another dimension of that contingency planning process for a Rafah incursion, we are nowhere ready for that," he said.

To counter a health system that no longer is functioning, he said, WHO is setting up emergency medical field hospitals all the way up north and in the middle part of Gaza, to try to provide services "if Rafah gets locked into some sort of military incursion and we cannot operate from there."

"We face a real dramatic situation ahead of us," he said.

"And if there were to be a Rafah incursion, figures being mentioned are that of evacuating some 800,000 people from Rafah. There is no space as we see it right now where you can accommodate that number of people," he said.

"We are ringing the alarm bells that we are nowhere near ready to address the needs. We will not be part of helping any people move or be part of any evacuation, but we have to be ready to support them if they arrive at another destination," he said. "Some people have been displaced five or six times already."

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Israel releases video of aid truck entering Gaza

By VOA News April 12, 2024

The Israeli government Friday released video it said showed the first humanitarian aid trucks entering northern Gaza through a newly opened aid corridor.

In posts on the agency's official X account, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, the Israeli agency for the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories  COGAT  displayed video it said showed trucks entering Gaza both late Thursday and Friday.

In its post, COGAT, which oversees supplies moving into Gaza, reported 213 aid trucks had been inspected and moved into Gaza through the crossing.

The statement said the trucks had undergone rigorous checks by security authorities with the Israeli Ministry of Defense Land Crossings Authority at the Kerem Shalom crossing and were accompanied by Israel Defense Forces.

Both the Reuters news agency and the French news agency AFP said they could not confirm the authenticity of the video or the exact location of the newly-opened crossing.

Meanwhile, a team of medical personnel from the World Health Organization, or WHO, reported Friday no building or road had been left intact in Khan Younis, following a tour of the southern Gaza strip this week.

At a briefing in Geneva, WHO released video of three medical facilities the team visited this week  the Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Aqsa and Al-Khair hospitals  following the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

They reported all facilities were found to be completely non-functional, with no oxygen supply, no water, no electricity and no working sewage systems. The Nasser Medical Complex, which WHO officials said had been "the backbone" of the south Gaza health system, is now mostly rubble.

In north Gaza, the Al-Shifa Hospital also revealed a grim scenario. "It was shocking to realize that the hospital's open spaces were filled with makeshift graves for people that lost their lives there."

No letup in hostilities

Israeli media reported that Hezbollah militants fired dozens of Katyusha rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel on Friday. No injuries were reported.

Earlier, Palestinian and Israeli media sources reported Israel's military shot two Palestinians dead early Friday near the West Bank city of Tubas.

Media reports said one man was killed when Israeli soldiers opened fire on his vehicle in Tubas. Another Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli gunfire during a military raid in the al-Fara refugee camp, south of Tubas.

Israel's military did not immediately comment on the reports.

The latest violence followed the announcement Thursday of what the military called "new and improved measures" to bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, including construction of a new land crossing in northern Gaza.

Military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video statement that the new crossing would "enable more aid to flow directly to civilians in the areas that have been challenging for the trucks to access."

International humanitarian groups have complained for months about obstacles to bringing aid by truck into Gaza, citing delays imposed by the Israeli military and a lack of safe access to areas such as northern Gaza due to the fighting.

Hagari said Israel expects 50 trucks per day to pass through the new crossing and that the total number of trucks reaching the Gaza Strip each day will gradually rise from 350 to about 500.

The United Nations says about 500 trucks per day were bringing aid to Gaza before the Israel-Hamas war began in October.

In a phone call Wednesday with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States expects Israel to quickly act on its commitments to facilitate more humanitarian aid and to coordinate with aid groups to ensure there is no repeat of the strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven aid workers earlier this month.

As of Thursday, more than 250 humanitarian and human rights groups have called for an end to arms transfers to Israel and Palestinian armed groups.

The State Department said Blinken and Gallant also discussed the ongoing talks about a cease-fire agreement that would include the release of hostages held by the Hamas terror group in Gaza.

The United States said Thursday it has restricted its employees in Israel and their family members from personal travel outside the greater areas of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Be'er Sheva due to threats from Iran to retaliate against Israel for the April 1 airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus.

Some information for this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.

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Will donors help prevent famine at Sudan support conference?

By Margaret Besheer April 12, 2024

Humanitarians said an international support conference next week for Sudan must be a success, as 18 million Sudanese face crisis levels of hunger while funding for lifesaving programs is running out.

"It is essential that we get the levels of funding that will allow us to scale [up] to the extent required," Michael Dunford, World Food Program regional director for East Africa, told reporters from Nairobi.

On Monday, ministers will gather in Paris for a two-part conference co-hosted by the European Commission, France and Germany. There will be discussions on how to move toward a political solution to the conflict, and a separate meeting of humanitarians and international donors for a humanitarian conference for Sudan and its neighbors.

This will take place on the one-year anniversary of the outbreak of the civil war, which has seen food insecurity surge and millions displaced.

"As intense fighting continues, the humanitarian tragedy grows worse by the day," Justin Brady, head of the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs in Sudan, told reporters from Port Sudan.

"Already, nearly 5 million people are one step away from famine," he said. "Recent analysis indicates that famine is expected in parts of Khartoum and Greater Darfur - especially in hard-to-reach areas."

Children are particularly affected, with an estimated 730,000 suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Brady said more than 200,000 children could die in the coming weeks and months if they do not receive urgent assistance.

Humanitarians are especially worried because these are record-high numbers during the harvest season, when food should be available and affordable. But because of the yearlong war between rival Sudanese generals, farmers and pastoralists have fled and their crops and cattle have withered, died or been destroyed.

The lean season will be upon Sudan in June, and then the number of people who are acutely food insecure will likely grow from the current 18 million people.

"This is why we are desperately concerned that the 5 million population in emergency levels of food insecurity are likely to move into catastrophic levels in the coming months," said WFP's Dunford. "This is really a very real risk of becoming the largest hunger crisis anywhere in the world  if not already."

Despite dangers, bureaucratic difficulties, funding shortages and other constraints, Brady says humanitarians have reached more than 8 million people with aid since the war started.

That assistance is in jeopardy, though, as the U.N. humanitarian appeal for $2.7 billion is just under 6% funded. About $400 million is needed immediately so aid workers can pre-position supplies ahead of the lean season, and an additional $700 million to sustain the response in the coming months as humanitarians launch a famine prevention plan.

Neither of the warring parties is expected to be represented at the Paris conference, but members of Sudanese civil society have been invited to participate.

Sudan is now home to the world's largest internal displacement crisis, with 6.3 million people forced from their homes in search of safety. Another 1.7 million have fled to neighboring countries. More than 70% of health facilities in conflict areas have stopped functioning.

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Botswana objects to G7-EU diamond-tracking system

By Mqondisi Dube April 12, 2024

African diamond producers, led by Botswana, are demanding a review of the tracking and verification system that European Union and G7 nations introduced March 1.

Under the arrangement, diamonds entering EU and G7 countries - which represent 70% of the global diamond market - have to be sent to Antwerp, Belgium, for certification, in an effort to prevent the importation of sanctioned Russian diamonds.

The traceability initiative has resulted in clearance delays and disruption to the supply chain. African diamond producers argue that has resulted in added costs.

But Belgium and the EU say steps are being taken to minimize delays.

A Belgian official told VOA the turnaround time for the certifications has improved, with all shipments processed within 24 hours.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said delays resulted from importers not providing the necessary documentary evidence. He said African countries were bearing no increase in production costs, because expenses were borne by the mining companies.

"From the onset, we have taken the concerns raised by African diamond producers about the introduction of G7-EU sanctions against Russian diamonds seriously," the official said. "This is the reason why we have taken those concerns into account from the very beginning of our discussions and have tried to fully address them.

"Belgian authorities have also reached out to a number of African producers between September 2023 and February 2024 to listen, explain and adjust the ongoing work on the implementation of sanctions against diamonds from the Russian Federation."

An EU official responding to VOA inquiries also said African producers' concerns were considered from the onset. She said meetings were held among the EU bloc's representatives, the United States and Botswana's government.

Botswana's president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, recently said the EU and G7 countries had not officially responded to a letter from African producers regarding concerns about the new tracking system.

The EU representative said the response had been delayed because it was being drawn up as a collective G7 reply.

On Thursday, Masisi told France's minister of state for development and international partnerships, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, that G7 countries should reconsider the traceability initiative.

"Tell them that will be a regression in terms of our own development and an ominous threat to our own existence, and everything that we base our growth on," Masisi said. "We just think that because they did not engage sufficiently, they haven't come to appreciate what the threats are to industry and to livelihoods and the economies."

Botswana is the world's second-largest producer of diamonds after Russia. Its diamond exports last year were worth $7 billion.

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Mali junta bans media from covering politics

By VOA News April 12, 2024

Mali's junta has issued an order that bans media from reporting on activities of political parties and associations.

Issued by Mali's high authority for communication on Thursday, the order was distributed on social media. It applies to all forms of media including television, radio, online and print newspapers.

The ban came one day after the junta suspended all activities by political parties until further notice. The military pointed to a need to maintain public order as the reason behind that ban.

Media outlets that defy the ban could receive warnings, or even closure, the communications authority told one press freedom organization.

Local and international media groups have condemned the development.

The Mali media association Maison de la Presse, or Press House, encouraged journalists to "stand tall, remain unified and to mobilize to defend the right of citizens to have access to information." It also encouraged reporters to continue covering politics in the country.

And the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, called on the junta to immediately lift the ban.

"Malian citizens have the right to be informed about developments at this crucial moment in the country's political life and the press must not be prevented from doing their work, especially on subjects of such significant public interest," Angela Quintal, head of CPJ's Africa program, said in a statement.

Mali's national commission for human rights, which serves in an advisory role to the government, also expressed concern about the move.

"Instead of calming the social climate, these restrictions on fundamental rights and freedoms could potentially stir up trouble and tension, which the country does not need," it said in a statement.

The crackdown in Mali takes place at a time of broader instability in the West African country. Mali has experienced two military coups since 2020 and is struggling to respond to threats posed by militant groups tied to al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

Conditions for media reporting there are already dangerous, with a risk of being targeted by militant groups for those on assignment outside the capital, Bamako.

French reporter Olivier Dubois was held hostage for nearly two years by a group affiliated with al-Qaida that abducted him in the northeastern city of Gao in 2021.

He was freed in March last year, along with an American aid worker who had also been kidnapped.

Out of 180 countries on the world press freedom index, where 1 shows the best environment, Mali ranks 113, says Reporters Without Borders.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.

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National ID card issue hangs over planned South Sudanese elections

By Sheila Ponnie April 12, 2024

Since gaining independence in 2011, South Sudanese residents have been working to build their country, the world's youngest nation.

However, many citizens fear a technicality  the lack of a required National Identification Card  may block them from participating in the country's first planned democratic elections in December.

Registration for the polls begins in less than two months.

"I don't think they will allow those without an ID to vote," said a young man, who asked to be identified only as Alex for safety reasons.

Alex, who is a resident of Magwi in the state of Eastern Equatoria, told VOA he has made repeated trips to the immigration offices in the capital, Juba, to get a National Identification Card.

After three failed attempts, Alex became worried he would be locked out of the upcoming election.

"The first challenge I face is the distance," he said. "Secondly is the finance, because traveling from this end to Juba is a bit costly."

Leaders will identify voters

Ter Manyang Gatwech, the executive director of the Center for Peace in Juba, said getting an ID card should be a routine matter.

"Every citizen should have access to a national ID," said Gatwech. "This is a concern because getting an ID in this country is quite expensive. For you to vote, you must have ID."

Gatwech said the government should give citizens national IDs free of charge.

But South Sudan has no plans to issue ID cards to everyone. A spokesperson for the country's elections commission, George Lemi, said that during voter registration, the commission may hire local administrators to confirm people's identities.

"To be eligible to vote, you must be 18 years and above," said Lemi. "You must be a national  which is having a national ID or passport."

Lemi said that if one doesn't have an ID card and is South Sudanese, local leaders can "come and prove and identify you, to give you [a] way or to approve you."

Elections set for December

South Sudan's elections were originally scheduled for 2015, four years after it separated from Sudan. However, the country's civil war and delay in creating a constitution forced the election to be deferred several times.

Now, according to the South Sudan 2023 National Elections Act, voter registration will begin six months before elections, in June.

The elections are scheduled for December 22. For the first time, South Sudanese will get the chance to vote for a president, members of parliament, and several state and local offices.

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Abu Ubaida Al-Qassam

Abu Ubaida, also spelled Abu Abaida, Abu Obayda, Abu Ubayda and Abu Ubaydah, is the nom de guerre of a Palestinian militant who is the spokeperson for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) . Abu Ubaida is considered one of the most wanted people on Israeli hit lists due to him being considered the main artery of the psychological and media warfare imposed by Hamas.

The US Treasury Department said that the United States issued sanctions on Friday 12 April 2024 against Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the military wing of Hamas, and leaders of the Palestinian movements drone unit, which Washington lists as terrorists. The Department added in a statement that the European Union is simultaneously imposing sanctions targeting Hamas. The sanctions targeted Hudhayfah Samir Abdullah Al-Kahlot, known as Abu Ubaida, who has been the spokesman for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas in Gaza, since at least 2007. The Department statement said that Abu Ubaida publicly threatened to execute civilian hostages held by Hamas following the movement's attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Abu Ubaida leads the Cyber Influence Department in the Al-Qassam Brigades. He participated in purchasing servers and domains in Iran to host the official website of the Qassam Brigades in cooperation with Iranian institutions, according to the Treasury Department. The sanctions also affected William Abu Shanab, commander of the Northern unit stationed in Lebanon, Baraa Hassan Farhat, Abu Shanabs assistant, and Khalil Muhammad Azzam, an intelligence official.

Abu Ubaida does not lie to the Arab citizen as leaders speeches are accustomed to. In recent decades, Arabs have long been accustomed to their leaders' long speeches, which are often filled with propaganda that is not supported by facts. As for Abu Ubaida, he has another way of addressing his Arab viewers. He is completely realistic in his speech and does not tend to exaggerate. For example, in an interview in 2012, Abu Ubaida spoke clearly about the weakness of the military resistances capabilities compared to the capabilities of the occupation army, but he also spoke about the great difficulty imposed by the nature of the geographical environment of Gaza, as an environment that constitutes a challenge to the occupation army, which aims to subjugate the resistance militarily. On the other hand, Abu Ubaidahs speeches are brief and do not exceed ten minutes.

His words are also not devoid of messages of a sarcastic nature, the most famous of which is when he said: To the leaders and rulers of our Arab nation. We say to you from the heart of the battle, the details of which you are undoubtedly watching on your screens, that we are not asking you to take action to defend the children of Arabism and Islam in Gaza by moving your armies and tanks, God forbid, nor to defend your most sacred sanctities, in which sanctities are being violated by outliers. Until the word God forbid became widespread across social media sites and became a proverb in contexts of failure.

The Palestinian young man wearing the red keffiyeh with the insignia of the Al-Qassam Brigades chose the name Abu Ubaida in imitation of the name of Abu Ubaida bin Al-Jarrah, the great companion who conquered Palestine and attended the arrival of the Muslim Caliph Omar bin Al-Khattab to the city of Jerusalem, received the keys to its doors, and included Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Islamic world.

In an era where everyone is chasing fame, full stardom came to a masked man who did not ask for it and only his eyes were visible from his face. A man whose popularity throughout the Arab world today cannot be rivaled by anyone, even though no one knows his true face and perhaps we will never know him at all, except for a very few members of the resistance leaders in Gaza. Perhaps the man actually passes among the people in the Strip with his face without anyone recognizing him, just like the superheroes in the movies who in the evening wear suits and masks that hide their identities and fight the citys villains, without people seeing their true faces, but only seeing their traces.

He is the masked Abu Ubaida, the official media spokesman for the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, in whom large sectors of the Arab people have come to see as their spokesman as well, as the mans star has skyrocketed and waiting for his speeches has become a ritual. Essential in the Arab countries, with a clear emotional connection to him, he turned into the most famous icon of the ongoing war that began with Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023.

In Egypt, popular songs were made for Abu Ubaida, and in Amman, young people in gyms stopped exercising to follow his speeches, and mosques broadcast what he said over loudspeakers, and in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, exam questions in schools included his name, and a picture spread in the streets of Beirut with the words The Speaker written on it. In the name of the nation, while children in Algeria compete to play his role in their plays and games, and even in Turkey, imitating Abu Ubaidah has become a childrens game, in addition to hanging his pictures in some cafes. Pictures have spread on social networking sites of young children from various Arab countries watching his speeches or imitating him, as well as other pictures of elderly people standing in reverence despite their illness as they watch his speech out of respect for him.

The name Abu Ubaida comes after the Conqueror of Jerusalem, the companion Abu Ubaida bin Al-Jarrah, may God be pleased with him, during the reign of Caliph Omar bin Al-Khattab. Abu Ubaidah bin Al-Jarrah is one of the ten promised Paradise , as the Prophet said: Abu Bakr is in Paradise, Omar is in Paradise, Ali is in Paradise, Othman is in Paradise, Talha is in Paradise, Al-Zubayr is in Paradise, Abd al-Rahman bin Awf is in Paradise, and Saad bin Abi Waqqas is in Paradise, Saeed bin Zaid bin Amr bin Nufayl is in Paradise, and Abu Ubaidah bin Al-Jarrah is in Paradise. Abu Ubaidah bin Al-Jarrah pledged to the Prophet that he would spend his life for the sake of God, and he fulfilled his pledge and fulfilled his promise. He was one of the people of two migrations, as he immigrated to Abyssinia in the second migration, and he migrated from Mecca to Medina.

In the Battle of Badr, Abu Ubaida saw his father among the ranks of the polytheists and moved away from him, while his father insisted on killing him. The son found no escape from confronting his father, and the two swords met, so the polytheist father fell. He was killed, by the hand of his son, who preferred the love of God and His Messenger to the love of his father.

Since 2005, the Palestinian resistance has given increasing importance to the media role, and Al-Qassam has been interested from an early stage in establishing the Military Information Department and has made great strides in this regard, whether by developing and formulating content, or by technical development and filming military operations, and so on. From the beginning, Al-Qassam military media chose to be characterized by accuracy, directness, and brevity. This is what made the appearance of military spokesman Abu Ubaida something expected by the Arab masses, because they do not feel that he comes out except when the need arises.

Abu Ubaida's fame has increased in light of the Palestinian resistance operations, but his appearance is not new. He appeared on screen for the first time in 2006, announcing the news of the capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by the Qassam Brigades, and since that time his identity remains unknown.

Many believe that Abu Ubaida appeared for the first time on screen in 2006, when he announced to the Arab public the news of the Al-Qassam Brigades capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, but the reality is that the man was appointed to the position of Al-Qassam spokesman following the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Gaza in 2005. At that time, Abu Ubaida appeared in an old film filmed by Al Jazeera in 2005, but its broadcast was delayed until 2014, entitled  Al-Qassam Brigades hosted by Venice for the First Time . He appeared with his mask at the beginning of his career before it became a well-known flag for all Arab audiences. The features of Abu Ubaidahs speech appeared in the film, which accompanied him for many years after that and contributed to his overwhelming popularity today, the most important of which is accuracy. The first goal of his speech was to accurately chronicle the operations carried out by the brigades using the tunnels, mentioning the numbers and dates with great accuracy.

Abu Ubaidas resolute voice, announcing the success of the resistance operation to respond to the occupation, was like a consoling embrace and a clear declaration that Arab dignity had not died, as if his speech was saying: The house has a master and the child has a father, as stated by the Egyptian poet Amal Dunqul.

Abu Ubaida became a symbol in the Arab street, which sees in him the image of the hero who humiliated the occupation and spread terror in the hearts of its settlers. Millions of people gathered around the screens are waiting for him with passion, eagerness and anticipation, waiting for a speech from him that will infuse their morale and enthusiasm, announcing the bombing of Tel Aviv or the occupation settlements.

The video clips in which Abu Ubaida appears are similar, most of them contain a threatening background, and sometimes he is accompanied by a number of fighters with their faces also masked. He always begins his statement with In the Name of God, and ends it with the sentence And it is a jihad of victory or martyrdom, which is the sentence of the martyr Ezz . Al-Din Al-Qassam when the British surrounded him and asked him to surrender in the Yabad forests near Jenin. He remained steadfast for six hours before he was martyred with his comrades in 1935.

Great mystery surrounds the identity of Abu Ubaida, who always appears masked, alone or surrounded by armed men from the Qassam Brigades. His voice became familiar to Palestinians and Israelis alike after he appeared on screen for the first time in 2006 announcing the news of the Qassam Brigades capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and since that time he has been the official and main spokesman for the Brigades.

Palestinian reports say that "Abu Ubaida's face is known only to a few. It has not and will not appear to the media. For years, the occupation army has been trying in various ways to reach him, after they were unable throughout the past period to determine his identity." Abu Ubaida's real name and appearance are not known, and details or personal information about him or his life are non-existent. He appears in his media outlets or the visual statements that he publishes, with his face and head completely covered by the keffiyeh, except for his eyes . Abu Ubaida appears in press conferences inside the Gaza Strip, although they are rare, and he also appears in the video statements that are usually published on the official accounts of the Al-Qassam Brigades and may sometimes be broadcast on the Al-Aqsa satellite channel affiliated with Hamas, and to a lesser extent on Al-Jazeera and other satellite channels. Leadership sources in Hamas confirmed that Abu Ubaida's face is known only to a few, and he has never appeared publicly in any media outlet.

In 2014, shortly after the Devouring Storm operation, which Israel called Operation Protective Edge. Israeli reports reported that Abu Ubaida was the same person as Hudhayfah Samir Abdullah Al-Kahlot, and a picture of him with his face exposed was published at the behest of the Shin Bet. Hebrew media published a picture that it claimed was of Abu Ubaida and said it was taken from the screen of Al-Aqsa TV, where the masked face of Abu Ubaida appears, and at the bottom is another picture of a person with a beard, and opposite his name is written Hudhaifa Samir Abdullah Al-Kahlot. The Al-Kahlot family returns to the displaced town of Na'aliya since 1948 after the Nakba, where they settled in the Jabalia area northeast of Gaza. Their home was bombed twice in the 2008 and 2012 wars on the Gaza Strip.

Hamas denied these Israeli allegations, stressing that the photo was a composite and indicating that its aim was to attempt to obtain any real information about the identity of the Phalange spokesman, who is actually one of the prominent leaders in the armed wing of the Hamas movement.

Abu Ubaida, in addition to being the official spokesman for the Brgades, represents the lifeline of the psychological war waged by Hamas against Israel. His outbursts, despite their small number, have a great influence in the Palestinian and Israeli circles and usually receive significant media coverage. The masked mans fame increased in June of 2020 when Israel decided to annex the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, so he appeared in a recorded video coinciding with the anniversary of Operation Shattered Illusion to confirm that the resistance will make the enemy bite his fingers of regret over this sinful decision, God willing, describing the Israeli plans as a declaration of war.

During the Battle of Saif al-Quds in May 2021, mentioning Abu Ubaidas name in the media became an indication of the occurrence of a major event, especially in terms of achieving a military achievement for the resistance. Abu Ubaida, the official spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, was considered the undisputed star of the confrontation, whether through his precise military statements or his short and eloquent television appearances, until it became The international and Israeli media, before the local ones, latch on to what he says, given the trust he has gained.

Abu Ubaida gave Al Jazeera Net priority in conducting an exclusive dialogue to answer a number of questions on the minds of many readers and different circles. He stated " perhaps the most important of which is the focus on credibility to a very large extent when we announce military missions and guerrilla operations in terms of time and place, the extent of the direct impact, and the injuries that occurred among the ranks of the occupation forces, as well as credibility when there are losses and martyrs among them. Resistance, then clarification is done with all honesty and responsibility.

"We have no doubt that the occupation armys operations room at its military command is closely following, and even translating, the media speech issued by us in the name of the Qassam Brigades, immediately and immediately, which has had a clear impact on the occupation leadership and its decisions, and this is considered an advanced and important stage of Stages of psychological and field influence by the military media. In addition, it has become clear to us that the occupation public follows what we publish, and even considers it the true source of information during the war, and does not trust the Israeli media, and this is a strength of our honest war media compared to the enemy media, which is a master of lying....

"It is our custom, in the office of the military spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, to prepare every position and statement in a way that suits the military reality and the combat field on the ground. Every statement, sentence, and word is subject to the assessment of an operational, field, political, and media position from the various agencies and departments of the military wing, and this mechanism has now been followed. It is an essential part of our work, and it is ultimately what gives our work as a military spokesman for Al-Qassam credibility and transparency with all parties."

A number of those interested in Palestinian/Israeli affairs believe that Abu Ubaidas speeches and statements are relevant. He is considered one of the first wanted persons whose names were included in the Israeli assassination lists.

Once an Al Jazeera journalist asked him about the number of those who participated in the operations. Abu Ubaida paused for a moment and then said, Let me not count the number. When the journalist asked again whether they were dozens or hundreds, Abu Ubaida replied that they were dozens, preferring accuracy to exaggeration in inflating the number. Participants. This quickly became the key to Abu Ubaidas communication with the Arab masses. His keenness to respect the Arab public and provide accurate and concise information as much as possible had a great impact in building credibility between him and the Arab street.

Dr. Enas Mahrous Pops, university professor at the Faculty of Arts/University of Damascus and currently at universities in Turkey, observed 08 December 2023 "Wearing his red popular mask, green headband, and military uniform, he appears as the crowds, young and old, look forward to seeing him. His face was absent and his voice was present. People did not know his features, but they sang when they heard him speak. The masked Abu Ubaida, the military spokesman for the resistance in Gaza, today became a symbol of the youth in his presence, positions, and speech.

"I do not think that anyone ever thought that in this era we would listen to political or war speeches in the manner in which Muslims were addressed at the beginning of Islam, the Umayyad era, and the eras that followed them?

"It is a great feeling to see yourself, your family, and all the loyal people who yearn for freedom and peace among your people and your clan. Motivated to listen to the speech of one man, to catch the true news, the certain news, and the bird of happiness on a tablet of Arabic words and a clear tongue.

"Especially after what we saw of the strange and suspicious duality in the way Arab politicians and rulers deal with the Arabic language, with speeches declaring the importance of the Arabic language and the necessity of learning, teaching and mastering it, and a tongue unable to complete a sentence in a speech in front of the masses or peers.....

"[Abu Ubaidas speeches] see the Arabic language dancing happily with the crowds glued to the screens. Here we are today, watching Abu Ubaidas speeches, old and young, so we hear, listen, understand, realize, are happy, proud, and exalted. ...

"When he addresses us, the masked person intends to apply the Sunnahs of the ancients in speech, and he pays attention to the principles of the art of public speaking, so he does not neglect what it contains in terms of preparing for the presence of thoughts and attracting the recipients. He begins by saying the basmalah, praising God, thanking Him, and praising Him, then moving on to prayers and peace upon the Noble Messenger and upon all Muslims, using verses from the dhikr. Al-Hakim in the context of jihad, as a reminder of the reward of the mujahideen, the stationed, and the patient people who persevere in the path of God, before entering into the heart of the topic and presenting the ideas that the speech carries....

"After his attractive introduction, Abu Ubaida moves to the speech of the patient, brave, and brave sons of Palestine, the sons of the entire Islamic nation, and every free and honorable human being on the face of the globe, the comprehensive speech of the absorbed person by using (ya) as a tool to appeal to the near and far, and describing it to all those concerned with the speech....

"We notice in Abu Ubaidahs speeches that he is keen to diversify between the declarative style and the construction style. The presence of construction styles in their various forms, from appeals to questions, exclamations, etc., in speech and speech has a significant impact in attracting the attention of the recipients, mobilizing their emotions, and confirming their interaction with the information that is thrown at them.....

"But the matter became different with Abu Ubaidah, whose speech became the preoccupation of those near and far, and the prospective enemy and friend, as eloquent Arabic flowed on his tongue with fluency, without affectation, and smoothness that was not flawless in its delivery. Old and young, educated, and common people heard him and realized the goals and consequences of the conversation, and felt the sincerity of the logic. Statement and such are sufficient to make Arabic more beloved and closer. Indeed, if the leaders possess fluency of tongue and eloquence, it is true that they will defeat the allegations that have been made overnight about the dryness of classical Arabic, its harshness, and its distance from the soul....

"When you listen to a speaker you are familiar with and love, it is as if you are watching and contemplating a work of art that you like. This leads to a feeling of sympathy and admiration for the conversation and its speaker before deeply understanding its meaning. It also includes critical listening, and this type is practiced by political analysts from allies and enemies, and some audiences from the general public who are interested in what is behind the words and the outcome of matters."

There are not even old photos of the man at the beginning of his life. When Abu Ubaida first appeared and his popularity began to expand, Israel ignored him, but over the years he became one of the most important topics covered by Israeli television programs, and all his speeches began to be translated quickly in the Israeli occupation media, with increasing interest in his rising personality as he is one of the most wanted persons on the lists. The assassinations are due to the media and psychological war that he is leading. Tel Aviv began to weave its own narrative about him and claimed that it knew his name and picture, just as it said more than once in the years 2008, 2012, and 2014 that it had bombed his house.

On March 6, 2008 Ala Hisham Abu Dheim, a 26-year-old Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operative, entered the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Eight boys, mostly high school students, were killed. An anonymous Hamas official immediately contacted Reuters, acknowledging that Hamas was responsible. Following that announcement, Abu Ubeida, the spokesman of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, suspended the organizations claim of responsibility, but neither affirmed nor denied responsibility. He stated, instead, that [t]he time has not yet come for claiming responsibility. The official claim for responsibility by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades came two years after the attack, in a December 25, 2010 press conference with Abu Ubeida. The delay is consistent with Hamass policy of delaying a claim of responsibility out of consideration for the security of other Hamas operatives and accomplices.

The Israeli accounts mention that Abu Ubaida comes from the village of NAliya, which Israel occupied in 1948, and that his family was displaced after the Nakba to the Jabalia region, northeast of Gaza. The Israeli press said in 2014 that the man, in addition to his leadership work in Al-Qassam, is continuing his academic studies at the University of Gaza, where he is writing his doctoral thesis after defending his masters thesis at the Faculty of Fundamentals of Religion at the Islamic University under the title The Holy Land between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All of these details have not been proven true or accurate by any reliable Palestinian party, and may be part of the Israeli medias attempt to weave narratives that they know his identity without proof of that.

The overwhelming popularity that Abu Ubaida achieved in 2023 cannot be explained by his communication skills alone. Where the Al-Aqsa Flood army mobilized the feelings of the Arab street until they overflowed and wanted an outlet for them, and so the masses waited for a messenger who would convey their longings to the resistors and convey to them their news and victories on the ground. When they found Abu Ubaida conveying news to the resistors of the occupiers, they considered him a symbol of resistance without knowing his person directly, and they considered his love and honor to be love and honor for the resistors.

Abu Ubaida was able to play an active role at the media level that goes beyond simply conveying Al-Qassams messages. If bad news about the crimes of the occupation in Gaza continues, many on social media describe Abu Ubaida as a nervous tranquilizer, as he is able to absorb anxiety and instill hope in people without claiming fake or fabricated news. Despite the difficult situation under the fire of occupation, Abu Ubaida always takes into account how to deal psychologically with his words with Arab listeners, mixing emotional charge with sober language. Perhaps this is one of the important keys to understanding the exceptional relationship that was formed between the masked person and the street. It is respect consisting of two parts, the first of which is concern for feelings, and the second of which is honesty.

One of the most prominent words of Abu Ubaida is No red lines in reference to the response to the crimes of the occupation, when Abu Ubaida warned Israel against continuing its aggression against the Gaza Strip, stressing that there are no red lines when it comes to responding to the aggression, and he was also distinguished by making sincere promises.

Abu Ubaida used the word God forbid, which became the talk of the new media in the context of mocking Arab regimes, where he said: We are not asking you to take action to defend the children of Arabism and Islam in Gaza by moving your armies and tanks, God forbid. It was circulated by pioneers. Social networking sites are widespread, topping the rankings of the most popular on the X platform in more than one Arab country.

He usually concludes his speech with the phrase Al-Qassam Brigades, taken from the martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam before his martyrdom in the Battle of the Yabad Jungles in 1935, which ends with the famous phrase, And it is a jihad of victory or martyrdom.

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Abu Jamal

Abu Jamal, spokesman for the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, needs fashion advice. His better known competitors - Abu Ubaida, the spokeperson for the HAMAS Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and Abu Hamza, the spokesperson for Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement (PIJ) - have a consistent video appearance, and area instantly recognizable.

The Arab Scarf, also known as the Keffiyeh, Kerchief. Shemagh, ghutrah, or masa dah, is popularly used as a military scarf around the world. The keffiyeh is a traditional scarf native to the Southern Arabian Peninsula. It holds particular significance in the Arab world, where it is associated with Palestinian nationalism. The black-and-white checkered keffiyeh represents the Palestinian liberation movement and is also worn to convey political sentiments.

Abu Ubaida or the man with the red keffiyeh had occupied the conversations of the Palestinians who were glued to the television screens to follow his statements. The black-scarfed young man, Abu Hamza, was able to steal the spotlight at other times. Dunya Al Watan reported "Between the black and the red, the hearts of the Palestinians yearn and beat for the statement of liberation that will one day bring down the graves so that the sun of freedom will shine on the faces of their companions."

Abu Ubaida and Abu Hamza always looked the same, and were istantlly recognizable on TV. Not so the far less famous Abu Jamal, who wasnot able to maintain a consistent appearance from one apparition to the next. At one point he does a decent rendition of his comepetitors, with emphatic hand jestures. In another apparition, no hands are visible and there is a complete absence of body motion, suggesting either a mannequin or even a still photograph. And a third time, a simple ski mask covers the face, with a head topped with a fatigue cap / patrol cap. Such sartorial variety does not contribute to strong brand identitry.

William Arruda, a personal branding guru and author of "Ditch. Dare. Do!"", said "it is also great to have a trademark look. It makes you memorable and distinctive. Albert Einstein was reported to have several versions of the same grey suit, because he didnt want to waste effort in choosing an outfit each morning. Decades later President Obama was said to follow a similar regimen. Famous business people and politicians are known to be consistent with their wardrobe because it's their brand identity, says Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding and author of Me 2.0. It's who they are, how they want to represent themselves and make a statement."

Author and journalist Tom Wolfe began wearing his trademark white suits in 1962, while Johnny Cashs all-black dress earned him the nickname The Man In Black, around the same time. More recently, Dan Brown wears black tutleneck sweaters under his jacket. Consistency of all kinds is what builds brands, Schawbel says. People who wear the same thing, have a catch phrase or two, and associate with the same people are more memorable than those who don't."

Richard Schickel suggests that the history of celebrity in western culture is closely linked to the history of communication technology. Schickel sees the information explosion in modern society, as nformation is spread wider and faster, it necessarily become smore simplified, relying more heavily on simple symbols "that crystallize and personify an issue, an ideal, a longing". According to Schickel, the celebrity image is a useful ideological symbol for constructing meaning within the modern western capitalist system. Schickel suggests that the "fascination with celebrities, as well as power as cultural symbols, is rooted in the "illusion of intimacy" constructed between the audience and the celebrity figure..."

Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, argue the celebrity image is the center of false value that works to deceive audiences into equating real life with the movies or other culture industry fabrications. The celebrity is not a real person, but merely a commodity, an image without substance, used to control the consciousnesses of a malleable public.

The level of admiration is linked to a celebrity's ability to capture the attention of their fans. This may include willingness to commit acts of violence on behalf of the celebrity. Despite the fact that many people treat celebrities as ideals, they are not always perfect. Celebrities must consistently keep up with their looks, and change whatever is necessary based on the media and societies approval. Ordinary people on the other hand are allowed to dress however they please without the constant criticism from the mass media. Ordinary people can be comfortable. They dont have to constantly keep up an appearance.

Erin Meyer suggests that "the celebrity persona is more than false value, rather it is a site of tension and ambiguity in which an active audience has the space to make meaning of their world by accepting or rejecting the social values embodied by a celebrity image.... The celebrity, therefore, is an intertextual sign informed by multiple sources in multiple ways."

Abu Jamal stated 30 March 2023 that the "Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades" are present in the West Bank at all times, and "the occupation's claims of dismantling our cells in the West Bank indicate that we are present."

He explained that there were many operations carried out by the brigades in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and some of them were announced under other names due to the nature of the security situation, and because we are not looking for media show. He stated that the "Ain Boubin operation" was for the Phalange and they did not announce it, pointing out that one of their comrades was harshly interrogated and did not confess, and it is one of the operations that can be revealed.

He stressed that they are the military arm of a struggling and fighting party, and they do not have any interests other than fighting the enemy, adding that the recent operations in the West Bank have made the Israeli security establishment question a lot about its role in preventing resistance.

The Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades claimed responsibility for the two recent operations in Huwwara, south of Nablus in the West Bank. Abu Jamal vowed to carry out more operations, saying, "Let the occupation do whatever it wants, and we challenge it." He added in a video statement published on the account of the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades via Telegram, Not a week goes by without us throwing fire or explosive devices, but declaring our responsibility for them is left to the circumstances and the assessments of our comrades in the leadership of the brigades. He continued, saying, "The Phalange will not delay, will not retreat, and will not hesitate to announce any operation that it feels the Palestinian people need." He stated that "the intensity of the guerrilla operations in the West Bank increased as a result of a long, bloody, arduous and costly effort by the comrades in the resistance factions, including the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades."

The military spokesman for the Martyr Brigades, Abu Ali Mustafa Abu Jamal, said 13 May 2023 : In the midst of the Battle of Revenge of the Free People, which was launched by the Joint Chamber to confront the Israeli aggression against our resistance and our people, our victorious brigades and our valiant resistance continue to demolish the fortresses and cities of the occupier with mortar shells and successive missile barrages, reaching deep into their being. Ephemeral.

He added: "In this battle in which the leaders and soldiers sacrificed their blood in sacrifice for Palestine, including a number of our heroic comrades, we emphasize that the blood of the martyrs will be paid dearly by the occupier and will not be wasted. And here are our brigades and our valiant resistance, hurting the occupiers with their strikes; and what is coming is stronger and greater."

The spokesman for the Martyrs Brigades, Abu Ali Mustafa Abu Jamal, said 11 December 2023, The Popular Front has defined itself since its inception as a militant political party, whose primary mission is to fight the Zionist enemy until it is defeated from our land, in addition to social, democratic, and human rights work.

Abu Jamal added, in an interview with Voice of the People radio on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the launch of the Popular Front, that the experience of the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades did not begin with the Red Eagle groups; the Arab Nationalist Movement was raising the slogan of fighting the Zionist enemy and the Arab reactionaries that had colluded with it since its inception, and thus formed wings. Military forces carried out guerrilla operations and provided martyrs, noting that the first martyr from the Popular Front, Comrade Khaled Abu Aisha, rose to fame in 1967, while carrying out military action in the name of the Arab Nationalists Movement and its military wings.

He continued: After the June setback and the sound analysis of the Arab Nationalist Movement by defeating the regimes of the Arab national bourgeoisie and not the peoples, the movement took the decision to transform its Palestinian branch into the Popular Front and create a fighting arm for it, stressing that the Popular Front raised the slogan of political effort since its launch to serve the battle and that all A politician in it is a fighter in its military arm and vice versa.

Abu Jamal also said, The Popular Front is the natural extension, the legitimate heir, and the true crossing point in the most powerful forms of revolutionary expression for the experience of the Arab Redemption Brigades, the Youth of Revenge, and the fighting apparatus of the Front in Jordan, the Jordan Valley, Lebanon, and its foreign arena, which was led by the martyr Wadih Haddad, and other groups and forces that were working within the framework of Its military wings, and we are a continuous extension from the establishment of the first military apparatus in the Arab Nationalist Movement until the present moment, and our journey is long and continuous.

He pointed out that "the Brigades of the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa is a revolutionary military institution that operates under a political framework whose goals are to sweep the Zionist entity from the entire territory of the Palestinian homeland, liquidate the presence of the Zionists from the land of Palestine in the political, military and economic sense, and establish a unified socialist Arab society to be part of the Arab unity state."

He said, The series of operations by our military arm that were carried out and shocked the world and shook the thrones of the imperialists and reactionaries internally and externally, and everyone who struggled in the ranks of the Popular Front, including us and those of our comrades who will follow us. We serve the political goal of the Popular Front, which expresses the goal of our people and the free people of our nation and the world, to sweep away the occupation and establish The State of Palestine, whose residents live in justice without discrimination or separation on the basis of race, religion, or political and societal beliefs, adding, The stage that our people are living through with their resistance is a stage of national liberation, and all that is being talked about is the authority of self-rule and the state project on the 1967 borders. Economic facilities are illusions that have evaporated and are not worth the paper they are written on.

He added: If we follow the Hebrew media, we will see the pictures and incitement being published against the Popular Front and its military arm in the occupied West Bank, and we say that the mysteries that the enemy claims that he was able to solve in the West Bank are much less than those that he was unable to uncover and claims that he knows them and their information, and the evidence is The Front presents martyrs every month in the West Bank as they carry out guerrilla military operations, and with what we have we have passed the stage of cover, and we call on media professionals to direct their cameras towards the center area of ??the occupation in the next confrontation, and the Hebrew media must feel the areas of the occupations private parts well, as we know them and are able to We can set fire to it whenever we want.

Abu Jamal stressed that the head of the Popular Front will remain raised as long as the guns are in our hands, and all the operations carried out by the Front were not carried out randomly. When we carried out shocking operations around the world, the Front was raising the slogan of announcing the Palestinian cause and making it known to the world, because it was influenced by the imperialist and Zionist narrative and denounced it. for the rights of our people, noting that after the foreign operations had exhausted their mission and fulfilled their mission, the Front took the decision to stop them, and this is what the Fronts history records.

The spokesman for the Martyrs Brigades, Abu Ali Mustafa, said: We now live in a world in which the camp that was our back and our support has collapsed due to the imperialist role, and the talk is about the collapse of the Soviet Union, and therefore we live in a unipolar world, and we fight within the Palestinian territories from one end to the other to combat the enemy. Zionist, in the belief and implementation of the general political directives of our party that the foreign operations achieved their goals and mission by informing the world of our cause.

He pointed out that "the Popular Front, with all its comrades, old and young, reject normalization in all its political, economic, and even psychological meanings. Meaning, we are against even one of our nation's sons understanding the presence of the Zionist entity on the land of Palestine, and we consider that treason."

Abu Jamal explained, The Arab reactionary regimes have invaded, because we are in a changing world, and geopolitics and the power of money play a major role in it. Therefore, the reactionaries have invaded, relying on the capital they own and on the declared alliance with the global imperialist regimes, despite the fact that these regimes are enemies of the Arab peoples, and on The basis is that the Zionist presence means its continued existence and vice versa, and the Arab regimes and the Zionist entity play a functional role in serving global imperialism, and many countries that are hostile to the Palestinian resistance place the Popular Front on the terrorist list from its Secretary General to the last comrade who belonged to it, and the Front is the most classified Arab Palestinian organization. He is a terrorist around the world, stressing that pursuing the Popular Front and describing it as terrorism is evidence that it still poses a threat to reactionary Arab regimes, and that it is a thorn in the eyes of all normalizers.

Abu Jamal sent his greetings to the martyrs Tamer Kilani and Omar Manna and to our persecuted comrades in the West Bank, and to our prisoners whose bones were crushed in the interrogation cellars, and who are being investigated by the occupation on grounds of carrying out commando operations in the name of the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, and to the souls of the heroes of the Talmudic synagogue operation in Telnov, the martyrs Uday and Ghassan. Abu Jamal, Nahya, and the heroes clashing on the axes of the Dheisheh camp, in Hebron, and everywhere.

He added: "The enemy says that it destroyed military cells of the Popular Front and that it is carrying out remote bombing operations in various areas of the West Bank. We say that what the enemy says and knows is nothing more than a drop in our sea," stressing that "the numbers of our fighters are sufficient to defend our people and deter The Zionist enemy, and the numbers are increasing daily, and many of our people are asking to join our ranks, and if we want to open the door wide, neither our sites nor all the military facilities of all the resistance factions can accommodate the numbers that come forward to join the ranks of the resistance.

At the conclusion of his speech, Abu Jamal said, Our people want to join the ranks of the resistance, not because we are a people who love to fight, but because our souls yearn to liberate our country and return to our lands that the enemy occupied with blood and violence, and for the enemy to pay the price for his crimes against Palestinians of all ages, even children. And this is what the international media is unfair to us as Palestinians. Every Palestinian is fighting to preserve the national and societal project. Everyone is exposed to a Zionist target that will take their lives and the lives of their families and children. Therefore, we fight for our lives, our freedom, our dignity, our humanity, our children, our fathers and mothers, and our land. And if we all as Palestinians want to become fighters, then this is the case. Because we fall under Zionist oppression, and when the Zionists are removed from our land, we will return to our normal life regardless of our work as civilian Palestinians and practice our civil life.





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Operation Iron Swords - Day 189 - 12 April 2024

At any point, Hamas could have ended this burgeoning tragedy to

surrender and release every hostage.

Hamas instigated and owns this humanitarian catastrophe.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA)

Hordes of Israeli settlers attack villages in the West Bank hurling stones, firing their guns, and setting ablaze homes and cars. Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli occupation forces, attacked the homes of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank town of al-Mughayyir to the northeast of Ramallah, on Friday. Then, Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported that after withdrawing, the occupation forces re-stormed the West Bank village. Calls were broadcast via loudspeakers of mosques in the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, urging people to stay on high alert to defend the village against an ongoing IDF-backed settler attack on the village.

Multiple illegal settlers ransacked Palestinian property in al-Mughayyir, destroying and setting ablaze several cars, while opening fire from their rifles and guns on the homes of Palestinians in the village. At least one Palestinian man has been killed in the ongoing attack after he was shot by settlers in al-Mughayyir. Meanwhile, the people of the town of al-Mughayyir in the West Bank made appeals for help in extinguishing the raging fires in vehicles and residences following the brutal settlers' attack.

Palestinians called upon each other, via megaphones, to defend their town, which has come under a brutal attack. The Israeli Army Radio said that three Israeli soldiers were injured in confrontations with unarmed Palestinians who hurdles stones at them. Israeli occupation forces also raided a number of towns surrounding Nablus and Ramallah, in a surprise arbitrary detention campaign. Concurrently, illegal Israeli settlers also attacked the Palestinian Burqa town, near Ramallah, injuring at least three people who were physically assaulted and stoned.

War Termination

Members of the UN Security Council were unable to agree on the Palestinian bid for full membership in the United Nations, despite a majority of council members supporting the move. Maltese Ambassador Vanessa Frazier, who currently presides over the council, stated that there was no consensus during Thursdays closed-door meeting. The United States, a steadfast opponent of Palestinian statehood, reiterated its stance, emphasizing that the United Nations is not the appropriate forum for determining such matters. According to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, the US believes statehood should result from direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Last week, Palestinians revived their 2011 application for full UN membership, sparking a formal review process by the Security Councils ad hoc committee, which convened on Thursday. Despite this, the Biden administration made clear its opposition to the renewed bid.

We have always made clear that, while we support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that is something that should be done through direct negotiations through the parties  something we are pursuing at this time  and not at the United Nations, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a press briefing. The US opposition carries significant weight, given its veto power in the Security Council. Palestine has held the status of a "non-member observer state at the UN since 2012.

Following the Thursday meeting, a formal vote by the council is anticipated. Diplomatic sources suggested a vote could occur on April 18, at the behest of Algeria, representing Arab nations on the council. However, even if the bid garners the required nine of 15 votes, observers anticipate a US veto. Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour reiterated his plea for recognition, stating, All we ask for is to take our rightful place among the community of nations.

On March 22, Spain, Ireland, Malta, and Slovenia released a declaration on the margins of an EU leader's conference, indicating they were "ready to recognize Palestine" when "the circumstances are right". Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stated Friday 12 April 2024 that there were "clear signs" in Europe that regional nations were willing to recognize a Palestinian state. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, who met with Sanchez, said that Norway is prepared to recognize a Palestinian state with other nations. Store told reporters during a joint press conference that "Norway stands ready to recognize the state of Palestine," adding that such a choice would need tight consultation with "like-minded countries".

"We have not set a firm timetable," the Norwegian leader stated. On his part, Sanchez explained that Spain was "committed to recognizing Palestine as a state, as soon as possible, when the conditions are appropriate, and in a way that can have the most positive impact to the peace process."

Sanchez emphasized that Europe's geopolitical interests are served by acknowledging a Palestinian state, a move that has faced resistance from "Israel" and its main allies. During a recent trip to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, Sanchez broached the topic of statehood, suggesting that Spain might formally recognize Palestine as a nation by the conclusion of June. Store said on Friday that he supported Sanchez's attempt to speak with other nations to "strengthen coordination".

The new Irish Taoiseach, Simon Harris, is set to meet with Sanchez, to discuss their joint plan to recognize Palestine as a nation state and their plans to force the European Union (RU) to assess "Israel's" human rights obligations.

The Israeli government's violation of human rights should cost the occupation its association agreement with the EU, which is an all-encompassing trade agreement between the bloc and the Israeli regime. Harris and Sanchez will look to enforce a clause that obliges the EU to suspend the agreement with entities that violate human rights law, which "Israel" has been blatantly doing since it launched its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Spain and Ireland have worked toward pro-Palestine issues since the outbreak of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, focussing on the rights of the Palestinian people to an independent state and criticizing Israeli violation of international law.

Operational Update

Iran could launch strikes against Israel within the next 24 to 48 hours in response to the April 1 attack on the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on April 11. At least 13 people were killed in the attack on the embassy, which Tehran and Damascus both said was carried out by Israel. Seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members were among the victims, including two senior commanders of the Quds Force, Brigadier Generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi.

Citing United States intelligence reports, an American official told The Wall Street Journal that Iran could launch retaliatory strikes within days, possibly on Israeli soil as opposed to Israeli interests elsewhere. The strike could come within the next 24 to 48 hours, the unnamed official said, adding that the Israeli military was preparing for a possible attack on either southern or northern Israel. However, the same report also quoted a person briefed by the Iranian leadership as saying that no final decision has been taken by Tehran.

Quoting an IRGC advisor, earlier in the week, the Guards provided Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with several options to strike Israeli interests. One of the options was a direct attack on Israel with sophisticated medium-range missiles, the advisor said. Khamenei has yet to decide on the plans. According to The Wall Street Journal, he is concerned a direct attack could backfire with the projectiles being intercepted and Israel responding with a massive retaliation on Irans strategic infrastructure.

The strike plans are in front of the Supreme Leader and he is still weighing the political risk, the adviser told the WSJ. Another report published by CBS News on April 12 said that a major retaliatory attack by Iran on Israel could come as soon as today. Citing two unnamed U.S. officials, the news network said that the attack could possibly include more than 100 drones and dozens of missiles aimed at military targets inside Israel. Tehran might opt for a smaller-scale strike in order to avoid a dramatic escalation.

Israel has been on high alert amid multiple threats and intelligence assessments that Iran is planning to retaliate against the attack on its embassy in Damascus. Senior Israeli officials, including the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense, have already warned Tehran that Iran will hit back. Despite efforts by some the United Kingdom and some European countries to calm down Iran and contain the situation, Tehran will likely retaliate in order to re-establish deterrence with Israel. If the attack on the embassy goes unpunished, the next Israel strike could target Iranian territory.

"Besides the defense - we are also prepared for an attack with a variety of capabilities," declared the IDF spokesman, Brigadier General Daniel Hagari, "we have one of the best defense capabilities in the world." The IDF's preparations and preparations for the possibility of an Iranian response to the assassination of a senior Revolutionary Guards officer in Damascus have been completed. As part of the preparations for an attack on Israel, the IDF is taking a series of actions to try to detect Iranian launches and intercept them, including patrols of fighter jets in the air , the air defense system which is on high alert, as well as the intelligence collection.

The Chief of Staff, Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi, completed a comprehensive situational assessment of the IDF's preparedness for all scenarios, together with the Deputy Chief of Staff, R. Amatz, R. Aman, the commander of the HA, the commander of the PAKAR and other commanders. The heads of the wings and arms reviewed the preparation and readiness in defense and attack, referring to possible scenarios and adjusting the operational response.

"The IDF is very strongly prepared to attack and defend against any threat," the Chief of Staff stated, "We have been at war and have been at a high level of readiness for about six months. The IDF continues to closely monitor what is happening in Iran and in the various arenas, while constantly preparing to deal with existing and potential threats in coordination with the United States Army. Our forces are prepared and ready at any time and against any scenario."

A situation assessment is now taking place together with the commander of the US Central Command, General (****) Michael Eric Kurilla.

Israel struck the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria on April 1  killing seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members, including two generals. Iran has since threatened a response to the deadly Israeli attack, prompting several countries to issue travel warnings to its citizens.

France: The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs advised its citizens against travelling to Iran, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

UK: The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office was more specific in warning against all travel to northern Israel, the Gaza Strip, areas near Gaza and the occupied West Bank  excluding occupied East Jerusalem and Route 1 between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Russia: The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommended its citizens refrain from travelling to the region, emphasising security risks in Israel, Lebanon and occupied Palestinian territory.

India: The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi called on Indians not to go to Iran or Israel until further notice in view of the prevailing situation in the region.

US: State employees in Israel and their family members are prohibited from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Beersheba areas.

A senior official told News 12 that "the American support and its close cooperation with Israel is an additional layer of protection for the citizens of Israel." Israel does not wish to start a regional war against Iran, but understands that its response to a possible attack on Israel should send a message that it will not agree to a violation of its sovereignty. On the other hand, there are discussions on how to prevent this incident from igniting into a much larger campaign. There is an understanding that if the tensions with Iran flare up into a regional campaign, the US will intervene. Senior officials in the security establishment said that there is no doubt that the Iranian official who was killed was a "son of death", and in the list of assassinations, both of Israel and of the Americans, but added that "reaction scenarios were not taken into account This is probably due to the location where the official was killed in Damascus, which is considered the territory of the Revolutionary Guards.

US President Joe Biden warned Iran on Friday evening against launching any attack targeting Israel, stressing at the same time that he expected an Iranian attack to be imminent. Biden added: Tehran will not succeed if it decides to use force in response to the Israeli raid on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, and US President Biden stressed that the United States is committed to supporting and defending Israel. He said: "We will support Israel and help defend it. Iran will not succeed." He also called on Tehran not to use force in the current situation. When asked what message he would like to send to Iran now, Biden replied: Dont do it.

A spokesman for the US Department of Defense said on Friday that his country will send additional forces to the Middle East, to provide additional protection for its forces stationed in the region, and said: We are deploying additional forces in the region, to support regional deterrence efforts, and to enhance the security of American forces. We have no information. Others we offer at the moment.

The Axios website reported, citing three sources, that Iran conveyed a message to the Biden administration, via several Arab countries, earlier this week, stating that if the United States intervenes in the fighting between Israel and Iran, American forces in the region will be attacked . CBS News quoted two unnamed American officials as saying, A major Iranian attack on Israel is expected late today, Friday, with the possibility of using more than 100 drones and dozens of missiles against military targets inside the country. .

Against the backdrop of potential escalation, the United States assures Israel in every possible way that it will support its allies in confronting any threats emanating from Iran and its followers.

Operational Update - Gaza

In accordance with the decision of the political level, in coordination with the IDF and the Israel Defense Forces, a number of first aid trucks including food were brought in yesterday for the first time through the northern crossing to the Gaza Strip as part of the efforts to increase the humanitarian aid routes to the Gaza Strip, and to the north of the Gaza Strip in particular. The trucks underwent a strict security check by the security officials of the land crossings authority of the Ministry of Defense at the Kerem Shalom crossing and accompanied by IDF forces.

A total of 147 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were inspected and transferred to the Gaza Strip yesterday (Apr. 11). 208 aid trucks were distributed within Gaza, 112 of which contained food. The content of 300 trucks is currently still waiting to be picked up by UN aid agencies on the Gazan side of Kerem Shalom. 206 aid packages containing hundreds of thousands of meals were airdropped over Gaza yesterday, in conjunction with Egypt, the UAE and Jordan (Apr. 11). In accordance with the decision of the government of Israel, the first food aid trucks entered through the new Northern Crossing from Israel into Gaza yesterday, as part of efforts to enhance the humanitarian aid corridors to Gaza in general, and to the north in particular. 44 aid trucks from the private sector were coordinated to northern Gaza. 4 tankers of fuel and 4 tankers of cooking gas designated for the operation of essential infrastructure in Gaza, entered the Gaza Strip yesterday (Apr. 11).

The battle team of the Nahal Brigade, Brigade 401 and other units under the command of Division 162, continue the raid aimed at eliminating terrorists and destroying terrorist infrastructure in the center of the Gaza Strip. As part of the operation, the Nahal Brigade's combat team raided several buildings of the terrorist organizations Hamas and GAP and located terrorist infrastructures.

In one of the operations, the forces raided the Abraham Elmakadema school in the center of the Gaza Strip. The forces located and neutralized a number of heavy charges that were ready for use and were hidden in the classrooms and school yard. In addition, they located an observation post that was used by the organization for terrorist purposes and a threat to Israeli forces.

"We are here in the heart of a seemingly innocent school, a special school," said Maj. Gen. 931, Lt. Col. Oz, "and in the heart of this school we have here a Hamas combat simulator, facilities that were waiting for our forces, who were already ready. During Today we managed to destroy and kill."

"You can see here a school, next to the school, a charge under the bin that was already ready," continued Maj. Gen. 931, "Further inside the school is a residence compound for Hamas, which you can see is a fresh residence compound where they slept, here you can see the two charges ready to our forces, under the staircase, and here the terrorists stayed with their water, and tried for their lives as soon as we got here."

Aircraft of the Air Force in cooperation with the Gaza Division and the Shin Bet attacked and killed yesterday (Thursday), Radwan Muhammad Abdullah Radwan, the head of internal security in the Jabaliya region of the terrorist organization Hamas, who also served as an operative in the organization's military arm. Radwan was involved in giving orders to the operatives of the terrorist organization and directed several takeovers by armed terrorists of humanitarian aid trucks in the northern Gaza Strip. His elimination harms Hamas' ability to attack and take over humanitarian aid in the Jabaliya region.

In addition, Hamed Muhammad Ali Ahmed, a commander in the military wing of the terrorist organization Hamas who simultaneously served as the head of the organization's internal security operations in Jabaliya, and another Hamas operative from the Jabaliya Battalion were eliminated.

The combat team fighters of the 401st Brigade and the Nahal Military Police, along with other units in the 162nd Division, continue the operation aimed at eliminating terrorists and the destruction of terrorist infrastructure in the center of the Gaza Strip. As part of the activity, the fighters eliminated a number of terrorists in the last day in face-to-face battles and air force aircraft attacks. The forces located and destroyed underground launch sites in the area, along with a number of ready-to-launch launchers used by the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip. At the same time, the fighters raided terrorist infrastructures, where they located military equipment of the GAP terrorist organization.

During the last day, Air Force fighter jets attacked more than 60 terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip, including underground launch sites, terrorist infrastructures and military buildings where armed terrorists from the terrorist organizations operated. At the same time, the forces of the 215th Fire Brigade attacked many terrorist infrastructures with artillery fire as part of the forces' activities in the center of the Gaza Strip.

Egyptian strategic expert Major General Muhammad Abdel Wahed said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government team insist on storming Rafah, hoping to achieve military gain. He explained in an interview with RT, commenting on whether Netanyahu would storm Rafah despite Egyptian and regional warnings, that the decision-making circle around Netanyahu wants the aggression against Gaza to continue for many reasons. He added that there is another scenario that says that there is insistence on the part of Netanyahu and another group around him who owns the decision-making industry in Israel, and not Netanyahu personally, but rather from a group around him that represents the political and security elites and narrow decision-making circles, and this is a very important part, and by it we mean how to make decisions. The decision in Israel.

He added that all evidence confirms that an operation is supposed to be carried out in Rafah, and if this operation occurs, perhaps the Israeli side will be able to achieve some military successes from it, indicating that if the operation is stopped without entering Rafah, it is not possible to talk about any victory achieved for Israel, neither militarily nor politically, and it will be Hamas is the one who won this war and imposed its will, and therefore it is important for Netanyahu and his group to enter Rafah to achieve what they called complete victory or overwhelming victory. This sentence is always used by Prime Minister Netanyahu, as there is a paramount importance that Netanyahu and the extreme right see in entering Rafah.

He said that those who bet on the entry of the Israeli army into Rafah say that the Israeli army will be able to completely maintain security control over the Gaza Strip from the south, and will even be able to control the Rafah crossing with Egypt and close it as long as there is another alternative crossing, which is the sea crossing or an air port, which will help it work. The security arrangements that the Israeli army is working on are separating the north of the Gaza Strip from its south and creating a dividing line in the middle of the strip, and security arrangements by creating a buffer zone on the border and controlling the Philadelphia axis, thus completely tightening security control. This will achieve victory for Israel. The third part is that entering the Rafah crossing will make the region completely isolated and thus it will be easy to achieve the big goals of the Israeli government from the war, which were not announced, which are re-occupying the Gaza Strip again, taking security control of the Strip, implementing economic projects in the Strip, and displacing the Palestinians. This will be called voluntary displacement. They will provide facilities for this displacement by sea and through Cyprus, and there are countries with which it has been agreed to receive groups of Palestinians.

He added that any gains from a military operation in Rafah will enable Netanyahu to achieve political and economic gains, and the entry of the Israeli army into Rafah will achieve Israeli gains for him inside Israel, and Netanyahu can confront his rivals from the extreme right or from the opposition, such as Yair Lapid, whether the opposition is outside the government or from the opposition. Those within the mini-government, such as Benny Gantz, Eisenkot, and others. Therefore, Netanyahu will have achieved a great victory, as he justifies all of this by saying that he is the only prime minister in the history of Israel who was able to achieve this victory, and thus he will be able to liquidate the Palestinian cause.

The Egyptian strategic expert noted that with regard to the Rafah operation, it is important to know the American-Israeli differences, noting that the dispute is not strategic but a purely tactical dispute, a dispute over the details: The United States of America does not oppose a military operation in Rafah, but it wants some guarantees, that is, it wants a systematic targeting operation. Simple through aerial bombardment and specific operations on the ground to destroy Hamas and its combat capabilities.

He said that the Rafah operation has been going on for more than a month and a half, that is, there are specific operations taking place in Rafah on a daily basis. There is air bombardment, there are drones for reconnaissance, there are intelligence operations operating in full swing in Rafah, there is targeting of homes, hospitals and shops... All of this is to strike. Resistance men and completely beat their prisoners. There is an already ongoing process, and Netanyahu's political future is closely linked to the length of the military operation. The longer the military operation lasts, the more gains will be made for Netanyahu and the extreme right in power. They know full well that if the military operation ends or stops without achieving comprehensive victory, they will be put on trial, because there are major disasters that have not been revealed in Gaza and there are major errors in the management of the military operation, and therefore it is in the interest of the extreme right to prolong the conflict in Gaza. Thus, the above can be summarized, according to the Egyptian strategic expert. He said that if Netanyahu is able to achieve significant gains through negotiations that he can promote as if he had achieved victory over the Palestinian resistance, the Gaza operation will not be completed. But if he feels that the negotiations did not achieve the victory he was satisfied with, then a ground operation in Rafah will inevitably come. So the Rafah process depends on how the negotiations proceed.

Operational Update - Judea-Samaria

The IDF, Shin Bet and MGB forces killed Muhammad Omar Daraema, the head of Hamas's terrorist infrastructure in Tubas, in a divisional operation in the Valley and the Valleys tonight. Muhammad was a central Hamas operative in the area and had been engaged in the promotion of significant terrorist operations against Israel in recent months. During the operation, Daraama shot at the forces who returned fire and killed him, the fighters confiscated many weapons found in his vehicle, including weapons and other military equipment.

During the brigade operation, terrorists threw explosives and fired at the force who responded by firing, hits were detected. The forces eliminated another terrorist after he tried to attack them, arrested two wanted persons and confiscated weapons. During the operation, the forces uncovered charges planted under the axles with the aim of harming our forces.

At the same time, the forces acted tonight to arrest five wanted persons throughout Judea and Samaria. In Tulkarm in the Menashe Brigade, the forces arrested a wanted man and confiscated two M-4 type weapons. In the village of Anta in Benjamin, two wanted persons were arrested and weapons were confiscated, in the village of Pendakumia in the Samaria Division and in the village of Beit Awa in the Yehuda Division, the forces arrested two more wanted persons. The wanted persons who were arrested and the means of warfare that were confiscated were transferred to the security forces for further treatment, there are no casualties to Israeli forces.

Since 7 October 2023, OCHA has recorded 727 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians that resulted in Palestinian casualties (72 incidents), damage to Palestinian-owned property (578 incidents), or both casualties and damage to property (77 incidents). The most affected governorates being Nablus (175 incidents), followed by Hebron (155) and Ramallah (145). Since 7 October 2023, at least 206 Palestinian households comprising 1,244 people, most of whom are herding families, including 603 children, have been displaced amid settler violence and access restrictions.

Initial results of a new OCHA closure survey show that some 114 new closures have been erected throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the escalation of hostilities in October 2023. These closures, which include checkpoints, earth mounds, roadblocks and road gates, have further disrupted Palestinians access to basic services, workplaces, and markets, as well as movement by aid workers to carry out assessments or deliver assistance. This brings to 759 the total number of movement obstacles in the West Bank. Intensified checks and more stringent access measures have also been reported since 7 October 2023, particularly at the entrances to Nablus and Tulkarm cities, and 29 permanent military checkpoints in H2 area of Hebron where non-registered civilians remain barred from accessing the area, except on Fridays during the month of Ramadan, and checkpoints only allow the movement of residents on foot between 7:00 and 19:00. Moreover, since 7 October, at least 81 Palestinians, including eight children, have been detained in or at checkpoints leading to H2 area and three Palestinian schools have remained closed, impacting at least 350 boys and girls.

Humanitarian organizations and local sources estimate that 12,000 Palestinians holding West Bank IDs crossed via checkpoints into East Jerusalem on the last Friday of Ramadan, which coincided with the night of destiny (5 April), compared with about 98,000 last year. Measures announced by the Israeli authorities stipulated that access of Palestinians holding West Bank IDs to Friday prayers at Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem was limited to children under 10 years of age, women over 50, and men over 55, with a valid one-day permit and magnetic card. In 2023, men over 55, women of all ages and children under 12 were allowed entry without a permit on Fridays during Ramadan. According to the Islamic Waqf, some 120,000 worshippers performed Friday noon prayers at Al Aqsa Mosque on the last Friday of Ramadan and about 200,000 performed the night and Taraweeh prayers.

Operational Update - Lebanon

The Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah announced that it fired dozens of Katyusha rockets at Israeli artillery positions on Friday, in an attack that it said was a response to Israeli attacks on towns in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has been exchanging fire on an almost daily basis across the border with the Israeli army since Hamas launched its attack on southern Israel on October 7, which led to the outbreak of war in Gaza.

Following the alerts that were activated in the north of the country, about 40 missiles were detected that crossed the territory of Lebanon, some of them were intercepted and the rest fell in open areas, there were no casualties. The Israeli army announced, on Friday, that it "detected about 40 missiles fired from Lebanese territory, and some of them were intercepted." Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraee said on the X platform that some of the missiles fell in open areas without causing any casualties. Adraee added that earlier on Friday evening, the air defenses intercepted two Hezbollah bomb drones that infiltrated from the direction of Lebanon, where warnings were activated for fear of falling fragments of the interception. Adraee pointed out that the Israeli army "detected the firing of several shells from Lebanon towards the area of ??the town of Ramot Naftali, without causing any casualties."

Earlier this evening, the air defense fighters successfully intercepted two explosive drones of the Hezbollah terrorist organization that crossed over Lebanese territory. A warning of missile and rocket fire in Ramat Naftali was activated for fear of interception fragments falling. In addition, a number of launches were detected that crossed from Lebanese territory to the Ramot Naftali region, there were no casualties. In the last few hours, IDF forces fired to remove a threat in several areas in southern Lebanon.

Fighter jets attacked military buildings of Hezbollah where terrorists were staying in the area of ??Aita al-Sha'ab. In addition, another Hizbollah military structure was attacked in the A-Taiba area in southern Lebanon. During the day, a number of launches were detected that crossed the territory of Lebanon into the Upper Galilee, there were no casualties. IDF forces attacked the sources of the shooting. Further to the alerts that were activated in the Upper Galilee for fear of the infiltration of a hostile aircraft, it is apparently a false identification.

Israeli media revealed data related to the scale of confrontations in the northern front of occupied Palestine. Emphasizing that the battle in the North is an integral part of the multi-front confrontation, Yedioth Ahronoth considered Hezbollah far from defeat, noting that Hezbollah has launched 3,100 rockets and mortars, and 33 explosive drones since October 7. Additionally, it pointed out that Hezbollah has fired about 240 heavy rockets, ranging from 100 to 500 kg, causing severe damage. These bombs destroyed the headquarters of the al-Jalil Division in "Biranit".

Furthermore, Hezbollah has launched at least 700 anti-armor missiles, some of them advanced, which not only hit settlements and frontline positions of the Israeli occupation forces across the withdrawal line, otherwise known as the Blue Line, but also in strategic bases like the air traffic control unit in "Meron". Similarly, other locations were also targeted with the aim of destruction.

The website observed that seeing the destruction inflicted on "Kiryat Shmona" and other settlements is infuriating for the occupation government, adding that the strategic impasse does not seem to have a solution. Moreover, the Israeli newspaper affirmed that Hezbollah has not lost the confidence it gained over 20 years of growth. According to recent estimates, there are as many asa 200,000 rockets of various types, about 100,000 mortar shells of different sizes, and tens of thousands of Grad rockets capable of reaching Haifa, in addition to thousands of half-ton rocket shells with significant precision capabilities, constituting a threat not yet experienced by the Israeli occupation's homefront.

In a related context, Israel's Maariv indicated that the North is withering and collapsing, adding that Israel is currently abandoning the North. It further stated that the situation has largely stagnated amid internal battles, and a weakness in leadership, noting that settlers have been suffering from temporary housing solutions for six months now, and those who managed are now adapting to new places. The newspaper also pointed out that polls conducted on settlers from the "Kiryat Shmona" settlement showed that 40% of them do not intend to return, indicating that those who will return are those who have no choice, the elderly, the sick, the poor, and those in need of social care.

As Al Mayadeen's camera toured villages of South Lebanon near the border with occupied Palestine, it reported on the atmosphere of Eid al-Fitr there, showcasing how the Israeli occupation has failed to hinder the resilience of the Lebanese people in the south who remain attached to their land at all costs. Al Mayadeen Online's correspondent reported that in South Lebanon, many people from the villages on the front lines participated in the Eid prayer despite the dangers in the area due to the continuous Israeli violations and bombing. Amid her tour in Bent Jbeil, the correspondent emphasized that the movement flow there matches that of a typical Eid al-Fitr day in terms of the prayers and visits to the burial sites of their loved ones.

Even though the Israeli occupation's artillery targeted the outskirts of the towns of Alma al-Shaab and al-Naqoura, as well as al-Labbouneh and Wadi Hamoul in the western sector, Lebanese people have come to their villages on the borders to celebrate the first day of Eid al-Fitr and confirm their presence, she added. According to our correspondent, intermittent Israeli artillery shelling also targeted the outskirts of the towns of al-Odaisseh and Blida, preceded by the firing of machine gun shells from the Bayad Blida site.

Operational Update - Syria / Iraq

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al Sudani wrote an article for Foreign Affairs reiterating his intention to end the US-led international coalitions presence in Iraq and transition to a comprehensive bilateral relationship with the United States.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) warned on April 12 that it will directly respond to any foolish act by the United States and Israel in Iraq or any other country from the so-called Axis of Resistance American criminality is increasing day by day in its support for the Zionist entity, and we hold the Americans fully responsible if their forces or the entity commit any foolishness in Iraq or the Axis countries, the group said in a statement. Our response will be direct wherever our hands reach. The IRI, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed armed factions, began launching attacks against Israel as well as against U.S. forces in Iraq and neighboring Syria on October 17 in response to the Israeli war on the Palestinian Gaza Strip -which broke out just ten days earlier- and Washingtons unwavering support for it.

The group suspended attacks against U.S. forces last February after the death of three American troops in a drone strike on a base in Jordan, reportedly upon a request from Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Nevertheless, it escalated attacks against Israel starting from March. The latest warning by the group came amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran over the April 1 Israeli strike on the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus, which claimed the lives of 13 people, including senior commanders and members of the IRGC.

Since the strike, the IRI has carried out at least 17 attacks against targets in Israel, mostly bases of the IDF and infrastructure, using suicide drones and cruise missiles. Recent reports suggest that Iran will very soon launch retaliatory strikes against Israel. Tahran has already warned the U.S. against intervening. The IRI warnings make it clear that any further escalation against Iran by the U.S. or Israel will be met with a response not only by Tehran, but also by its allies.

Operational Update - Yemen

United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on April 12 that its forces intercepted an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) that was launched by the Houthis (Ansar Allah) from Yemen a day earlier. The missile was intercepted over the Red Sea, the command said in a statement, adding that there were no injuries or damage reported by U.S., coalition, or commercial ships. "It was determined the ASBM presented an imminent threat to U.S., coalition, and merchant vessels in the region. These actions are taken to protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S., coalition, and merchant vessels, the statement reads.

The operations of the Yemeni Armed Forces will continue as long as the Israeli occupation entity continues its war and siege on Gaza, a member of the Supreme Political Council in Yemen, Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, told Al Mayadeen on Friday. Speaking with the news channel from the resting place of the founder of Ansar Allah, martyr Sayyed Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi, in Saada Governorate, the Yemeni official said that the people of Yemen are not intimated by the United States nor fear its threats of war.

"They used to [question] the martyred [founding] leader: 'How will you face America when it has missiles?'" he recalled. "We say to them today, here are our missiles terrifying the Americans." Al-Houthi noted that the US forces in the Red Sea are under persistent Yemeni pressure and "are having no rest .. and the American aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower is planned to return to the US." The Yemeni official expressed confidence that "God willing, the remaining [US] battleships and frigates will also be compelled to retreat and head back home." "The Americans are aware of the sincerity of our fighters' presence and actions on all fronts, and they know that the Yemeni people have disregarded their threats," the Supreme Council member said. "Their terrorism, statements, media, political, and intelligence wars do not intimidate us."

Maps

All maps are lies. Not only is it easy to lie with maps, it is essential, wrote cartographer Mark Monmoneir in his book How to Lie with Maps. He showed that condensing complex, three-dimensional spaces onto a two-dimensional sheet of paper [in old days] is bound to be reductive. But it is impossible to comprehend the war in Gaza without reference to maps, otherwise the entire conflict is reduced to an endless series of meaningless acts of random violence and the suffering of civilians. The first characteristic of guerrilla warfare is the loss of a front line. Evidently, different mappers have different ideas of how to depict the war in Gaza, notably those that seek to depict Israeli progress in the ground campaign. Part of the problem is latency. The news that forms the basis of the maps takes time to filter out to mappers, and the cartographers take time in crafting their maps, and it takes time to curate them. These processes are uneven among mappers, so their maps may differ in detail. Probably there is some ideological bias, or at least thematic apperception, which is understandable in wartime. It may come as no surprise that al-Jazeera maps depict rather less Israeli territorial progress than other sources. Finally, there remains the epistemological question of just exactly what are the colored in areas depicting. Naively, this might be understood as areas of Israeli control, that are no longer contested by the HAMAS. Or possibly these are areas of Israeli presence, in many of which the possibility of an RPG-wielding HAMAS militant popping out of a tunnel unexpectedly remains a live possibility. With the "zero-range" combat characterized by small unit tactics on both sides, maps may be prey to a fallacy of misplaced concreteness.

Bystanders

Khan Younis has become marred by profound destruction to homes, schools, hospitals, medical centres, roads and other civilian infrastructure, according to a UN inter-agency assessment mission to the area on 10 April that followed the withdrawal of Israeli troops. A UN warehouse and Nasser Hospital warehouse were among the buildings found to be significantly damaged, including substantial amounts of medications and trauma supplies that had been provided as humanitarian assistance. The hostilities have also rendered Nasser, Al Amal and Al Khair hospital non-functional, with assessments necessary to evaluate if specialized medical devices, CT scanners, oxygen plants, generators and solar panels are able to function again, according to WHO staff who described the destruction as "disproportionate to anything one can imagine.

The UN team, comprised of representatives of OCHA, UNRWA, WHO, WFP, UNMAS and UNFPA, also reported that civilians who have returned to the area and those who stayed during the fighting are facing dire shortages of food, water and other critical supplies, collapsed services, and severe safety risks due to the presence of unexploded ordnance (UXOs), including 1,000-pound bombs found lying on main road intersections and inside schools. Among those at risk are thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who require a range of humanitarian support services, including health, water and sanitation, food, and specialized support for women and disabled people, reports the Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim, Jamie McGoldrick, during a visit on 9 April to an UNRWA school hosting tens of thousands of IDPs in Khan Younis.

Beyond crush injuries to the abdomen and chest, amputations to legs and arms and severe burns caused by bombardments on buildings and tents, and civilians being buried under the rubble, the MSF teams in Gaza have been witnessing cases of children with gunshot wounds caused by quadcopter drones and sniper fire. In a video posted on social media on 11 April, UNICEF spokesperson, Tess Ingram, described her encounter with a nine-year old girl, Juri, who was severely injured when the house of her grandparents was hit and has been at the European Hospital for 16 days with large, open wounds that cannot be treated in Gaza, hoping to be urgently evacuated outside of Gaza. Ingram stressed that all of this cannot be acceptable to the world. In a statement issued on 8 April, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) also highlighted the impact of the conflict on health workers, whose deaths have reportedly exceeded the total number of healthcare workers killed in conflicts globally in 2021 and 2022 combined. After six months of relentless conflict, there is no safe place left in Gaza  not for healthcare workers, not for children, not for civilians, not for aid workers, stressed MAP. According to MoH in Gaza, 489 health workers have been killed since the onset of hostilities.

Delays, access restrictions, and shootings are among the constraints aid providers face in Gaza, UNICEF said on 10 April when one of its humanitarian convoys was hit by live ammunition while delivering life-saving aid to northern Gaza, including therapeutic food for children at risk of malnutrition and preventable mortality. Between 6 and 12 April, 41 per cent (7 out of 17) of aid missions to northern Gaza were facilitated by the Israeli authorities (including one partially), 41 per cent (7) were denied or impeded including due to nearby hostilities, and 17 per cent (3) were cancelled by aid partners mainly due to logistical constraints. Facilitated missions involved rapid assessments, support to dignified burials at Al Shifa Hospital, and delivery of essential food supplies. Denied missions include two planned for 12 April, one of which planned to deliver about 24,000 litres of fuel to operate back-up generators at Al Ahli Arab Hospital.

Moreover, according to UNRWA, it continues to be disproportionately affected by access restrictions and was last able to deliver food to northern Gaza at the end of January. In southern Gaza, 91 per cent (31 out of 34) of aid mission requests to areas that require coordination were facilitated by the Israeli authorities (including one partially) and 9 per cent (3) were denied. On 11 April, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, underscored that the safety of aid workers and civilians in Gaza "remains paramount, welcoming all efforts to increase the amount and type of aid delivered for the people of Gaza, whether by air, sea or, most importantly, land. Since 7 October, more than 20,000 truckloads of goods entered Gaza, constituting about a quarter of the truckloads that could have entered if the pre-crisis daily average of 500 truckloads had been maintained.

Axis of Resistance

The Israeli airstrike on April 1 targeted the Iranian consulate in Damascus, resulting in casualties including two senior Iranian military figures and five accompanying officers. Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps identified Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi as among the seven martyrs of the attack. Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has vowed that Iran will punish Israel and make the evil regime regret its crime of assassinating the country's military advisors in Syria, while President Ebrahim Raeisi condemned Israel's pattern of targeted assassinations in Syria, promising that the regimes latest crime against Iranian military advisers in Syria will not go unanswered.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a telephone conversation with his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari said that domination-seeking countries are striving to sow seeds of discord between the two countries. President Raisi congratulated the reelection of Zardari as president of the Republic of Pakistan and expressed hope that the bilateral relations between the two countries will be further expanded for securing the benefits of the two nations. Iran and Pakistan have a lot of potentials and capabilities to expand interactions, he said, adding that the Islamic Republic of Iran hopes those potentials will be employed in the process of expanding ties. Raisi also hailed the faith and bravery of the youth of the Islamic Ummah (community) in rejecting various seditions, including ISIL sedition, emphasizing that the development of relations between the two countries is not welcome by the domination-seeking powers. Elsewhere in his remarks, Raisi pointed to the continuation of crimes and genocides of the Zionist regime against Palestinians in Gaza and noted that freedom-seeking and independent countries should cooperate jointly to stop the crimes of this child-killing regime.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian underlined retaliation as he conveyed to his German counterpart the necessity of "legitimate defense with the aim of punishing the aggressor" following Israel's recent airstrike on the Iranian consular section in Damascus. During a call between Amirabdollahian and Annalena Baerbock on Thursday, Iranian diplomat also expressed discontent over Germany's neutrality concerning the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

The airstrike, which claimed the lives of seven Iranian military advisors, prompted Iran to vow retaliation against Israel for the attack on its diplomatic facility in Syria's capital. "When the Israeli regime completely violates the immunity of individuals and diplomatic places in violation of international law and the Vienna Conventions, legitimate defense is a necessity," Amirabdollahian asserted, as stated by Iran's foreign ministry in Tehran.

During their conversation, the two ministers discussed regional developments and bilateral relations, highlighting the importance of maintaining dialogue. "The foreign policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is always based on avoiding tension," emphasized Amirabdollahian. Iran expects Germany to unequivocally condemn Israel's crime in killing its military advisors, drawing a parallel with potential reactions to similar attacks elsewhere. Amirabdollahian pointedly asked, "If a similar missile attack had taken place on one of the diplomatic places in the war zone in Ukraine, would the reaction of the United States and Europe have been the same?"

Addressing Baerbock's calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and the failure to halt Israeli incursions, Amirabdollahian attributed the lack of progress to Germany's non-neutrality in the matter. "Israel is an occupying regime and Palestine has the right to legitimate defense. In this regard, the only way to solve the current problems is to end the genocide and war crimes in Gaza," he asserted.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong called on Iran to exhibit more self-restraint in the aftermath of the Israeli airstrike targeting the consular section of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria. In a telephone conversation with her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian on Thursday night, Wong conveyed Canberra's deep concerns regarding indications suggesting Tehran's potential plans for a retaliatory military response against Israel. Wong emphasized the importance for Iran to utilize its influence in the region to foster stability, underscoring the necessity for de-escalation.

However, Amirabdollahian criticized the lack of condemnation from the UN Security Council regarding the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate, calling it as a violation of international law and conventions. He expressed frustration, stating, Some Western governments do not condemn this terrorist act, which clearly violates international law and international conventions. Whilst they continue to support the crimes of Zionists, they are simply urging Iran to exercise self-restraint.

Amirabdollahian further called for increased pressure on Israel to halt the ongoing genocidal war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, condemning the policies that perpetuate suffering among the residents of the region. In a social media post on Thursday, Amirabdollahian referenced discussions with counterparts from Germany, the United Kingdom, and Australia, highlighting the imperative for holding the aggressor accountable.

He asserted, When the Zionist regime tramples on international law and Vienna Conventions and violates the immunity of diplomatic agents and premises, and the UNSC is incapable of issuing a statement in condemnation of the terrorist attack on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, legitimate defense with the objective of punishing the aggressor becomes a necessity. he Iranian foreign minister stressed that Iran seeks sustainable security in the region, which is tied to controlling warmongering and deranged leaders of the Zionist regime and the viable cessation of this regimes war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank."

The head of the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) abroad, Khaled Meshaal, said that the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood may be the nations greatest battle in its contemporary history, stressing that Israels strength will soon be broken. This came in a speech delivered by Meshaal yesterday evening, Thursday, at the funeral home for the children and grandchildren of the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh , in Doha, where he stressed that the leaders and the people are one side, our destiny is one, and we pay the price together.

Mishal continued, saying, "Contemporary history has recorded great battles for our nation in its struggle against colonialism, but I believe that the Al-Aqsa Flood is the greatest battle in our contemporary history in terms of its length, firstly, 6 continuous months, and God knows how long it will last, and God willing, the enemy's power will be broken soon." The head of Hamas abroad saw that this is not the final round, "but rather it is an important round, God willing, on the path to liberating Palestine and defeating the Zionist project. History will record that the steepest decline in the demise of the criminal Zionist entity occurred since October 7, at the dawn of this battle."

Allied for Democracy

Two analysts who spoke to the program Gaza... What Next? agreed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to escape forward through escalation and creating crises that prolong the war on the Gaza Strip , in order to ensure that he remains in power for a longer period. According to the academic and expert in Israeli affairs, Dr. Mahmoud Yazbek, Netanyahu wants to expand the conflict with Iran in order to frighten Israeli society so that it remains under his control. He said that the Israelis are living in a state of real terror because of the strike that Iran threatens in response to the targeting of its consulate in Damascus, which resulted in the death of 8 Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers.

The Palestinian writer and political analyst, Ahmed Al-Haila, went in the same direction by saying that the Israeli Prime Minister creates crises that prolong his stay in power. He initiated the bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus and is now exploiting this incident to promote to the Israelis that their security is threatened in light of Tehrans threat to respond. Although neither Iran nor the United States of America want a regional war, Netanyahu is seeking this war, knowing that the Americans will participate in it to protect Israel, according to the trick.

Regarding the leaks revealed by the Israeli Channel 12 about Netanyahus obstruction of the exchange deal and negotiations with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza, the Palestinian writer and political analyst pointed out that Netanyahu is lying and deceiving, and this is something that is exposed to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which he said has not yet responded to the American paper. It adheres to its demands, the most prominent of which is stopping the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and bringing in aid before exchanging prisoners.

Al-Hila said that the Palestinian resistance was not defeated in the Gaza war, but rather the occupation was defeated, and Netanyahu failed militarily, in releasing those detained by the Palestinian resistance, and in providing security around Gaza. The leaks, transmitted by the Israeli Channel 12, came from members of the Israeli negotiating delegation, in which they confirmed that Netanyahu is obstructing the exchange deal and negotiations, and bypassing the heads of the negotiating delegation and the war council. Members of the negotiating delegation also accused Netanyahu of losing the opportunity to reach an agreement that would guarantee the release of Israeli prisoners in Gaza two months ago.

According to the academic and expert in Israeli affairs, these leaks were intentional by the members of the negotiating delegation, because they realized the impossibility of progress in the negotiations, because Netanyahus interest conflicts with the possibility of reaching a prisoner exchange agreement and stopping the war. He added that stopping the war means dragging Netanyahu into investigating the reasons for his failure to repel the attacks of last October 7, and then opening the prison doors to him.

The Israelis, their press, and the media are aware that Netanyahu is obstructing the process of reaching an agreement that allows the return of prisoners. The academic and expert expected that the number of demonstrators against the Prime Minister will increase during a demonstration organized tomorrow in Tel Aviv. In the same context, the expert revealed - in his speech to the episode (4/12/2024) of the program Gaza... What Next? - that an opinion poll conducted by Channel 12 showed that about 84% of Israelis consider Netanyahu a failed leader.

With the rising death toll in Gaza, US Democrats felt the squeeze, and the pro-Palestine movement grew in popularity as a driving force in the US, The New York Times reported. Support for Palestine has evolved into a defining issue for the Democratic left, mobilizing a diverse range of organizations into the most important protest movement of the Biden administration. A huge new incarnation of the pro-Palestine movement is now powered by veteran  and often hard-line  activists, as well as mainstream Democratic coalition components, thanks to daily Zoom organizing sessions and grass-roots campaigning in key states.

Climate, housing, and immigration organizations are frequently opposing "Israel's" onslaught in Gaza, which began following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 and killed over 33,634 people and injured over 76,214. Labor activists have called for a ceasefire and Black religious leaders have made direct appeals to the White House. Young Americans are utilizing the internet to rally votes and write millions of letters to Congress. A growing alliance of advocacy groups is debating how to present its case at the Democratic National Convention this summer.

Maurice Mitchell, the national director of the Working Families Party, a leftist organization that has historically been primarily concerned with domestic matters, told The New York Times that maybe there was an idea that over time, the movement would lose steam, or it was just like a campus thing or it was like a far-left sort of protest movement, adding that the opposite was now happening.

The NYT conducted interviews with more than 30 activists who are active in the ceasefire campaign, as well as their opponents, revealing an effort that is becoming increasingly strong yet also disorganized and difficult to describe since no primary leader or group is leading the initiative. The movement consists of hundreds of groups, ranging from national to local, all of which are loosely connected in their desire for a ceasefire but may not necessarily agree on how or what would happen next.

US President Joe Biden, in an unprecedented statement from his administration, called on the Israeli occupation on Wednesday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. While still sending arms to Israel which is besieging Gaza, Biden urged for the entry of aid, namely food and medicine, amid heightened Israeli aggression and increasing hunger and death due to the lack of medicine in Gaza. "What I'm calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks total access to all food and medicine going into the country," he said. He claimed that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan were all prepared to aid in delivering aid to war-stricken Gaza. "I've spoken with everyone from the Saudis to the Jordanians to the Egyptians. They're prepared to move in. They're prepared to move this food in. And I think there's no excuse to not provide for the medical and food needs of those people. It should be done now," Biden stressed after his administration spent six long months dehumanizing the Palestinian people.

Operation Iron Swords - By the Numbers

1,900,000 IDPs in Gaza

76,214 Gazans injured, 28% adult male

70,000 tons of explosives dropped on Gaza

70,000 housing units completely destroyed

70,000 Israeli IDPs from Lebanon border

45,000 bombs dropped in Gaza

43,000 Gazans killed, including buried under rubble

33,000 Gaza targets attacked

33,634 Gazans martyred

20,528 Palestinians in Israeli prisons [Haaretz, 20 Mar 2024]

15,140 Israelis injured [i24 TV]

15,000 rockets launched from Gaza

14,520 Gazan children martyred

13,000 HAMAS combatants killed [N12]

13,000 HAMAS combatants killed [IDF]

11,000 arrested by Israelis in the West Bank in 2023

10,000 Gazans missing under the rubble

9,920 Gazan women martyred

9,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons

9,000 IDF needing psychological assistance

8,365 arrested by Israelis in the West Bank since Oct.7th

6,800 IDF officers and soldiers injured [Channel 12]

6,000 HAMAS combatants killed [HAMAS]

5,500 IDF wounded [reports]

4,750 West Bank Palestinians wounded

4,700 sites targetted in Lebanon

3,484 administrative detainees

3,700 wanted persons arrested throughout Judea and Samaria

3,188 IDF wounded [IDF]

2,100 Gazan women are missing

1,609 terrorists killed on the first day

1,600 wanted persons arrested throughout Judea and Samaria affiliated with Hamas

1,160 Israelis killed on the first day

604 Israeli officers and soldiers killed since the start of the war

456 West Bank Palestinians martyred

363 people [including fighters] killed in Lebanon

260 Israeli officers and soldiers killed in Gaza

240 Hezbollah fighters killed in Lebanon

126 people recovered, including 91 Israelis, 11 bodies, and 24 foreign workers

116 living hostages in Palestinian custody

70 civilians killed in Lebanon

29 IDF deaths were caused by "friendly fire"

15 Israelis killed in the West Bank and Israel

Not every number is reported every day, so sudden jumps generally reflect reporting artifacts rather than actual upticks. Many of these numbers fluctate, up and down, with no apparent explanation. This list records the highest number reliably reported for each matter, under the theory that reality with catch up with reports, as is relentlessly the case.

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Operation Northern Shield

Starting in 2018 Israel waged an escalating low intensity conflict against Hezbollah and its sponsor, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. This has mainly entailed sporadic air strikes against Hizballah and IRGC targets in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Israel reportedly believed the bases, guarded by Irans Quds Force, are a major part of Tehrans effort to develop a so-called land bridge that would allow the Islamic Republic to easily move weapons and fighters from Iran through Syria and Iraq all the way to Lebanon. The named operation "Operation Northern Shield" is a subset of this larger campaign, which does not seem to have a separate name.

On 19 December 2018 Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon addresses the UN Security Council, describing the scenario Israel sought to forestall. " Suddenly, a force of 250 Hezbollah terrorists from the elite Radwan unit emerge from the end of a cross-border terror tunnel. This tunnel spans from Kfar Kela, Lebanon, directly into Metula, Israel. It was built to enable this large group of Hezbollah terrorists to move swiftly across the border underground. The tunnels are wide enough for Radwan terrorists to march two-by-two into Israel.

"Hezbollahs Radwan forces will use this tunnel to invade Israel and take over Metula. Its terrorists will kill civilians  children and the elderly. Then, it will close Road Ninety, the highway connecting Metula with the rest of the Galilee, holding Metula under siege. But now, imagine this tragic scenario multiplied five times over. Imagine Hezbollahs Radwan terrorists using five different tunnels to enter five other towns in Israel  Qiriat Shmona, Avivim, Zarit, Adamit, Manara; killing innocent Israeli civilians; kidnapping them and taking over parts of the Galilee.

"Hezbollah calls this strategic and operational plan, Conquering the Galilee. It is a ground attack. But Hezbollah does not stop there. Hezbollah shoots thousands of rockets and missiles into northern Israel. It launches anti-tank missiles that could easily hit a bus full of children. It seizes control of northern Israels major roads and highways. It uses Shiite militias, together with the Radwan forces, to cross the Blue Line into Israel, overcome obstacles Israel has set in their way, and launch terror attacks against Israel by sea....

"Hezbollahs severe violations of Resolution 1701 do not end with its terror tunnel project. Unfortunately, the terror tunnels reflect just a small part of Hezbollahs illegal activities in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is building military capabilities and infrastructure with the ultimate goal of using them to attack Israel....

"Hezbollah has placed at least three precision missile conversion sites directly beside Beiruts international airport. Hezbollah is building its own precision missile production capabilities. Hezbollah is now holding over 100,000 rockets and missiles across Lebanon.....

"Iran is the lifeblood of Hezbollah  ideologically, financially, military, and even culturally. Based on piling evidence and reports, Iran is not only transferring game-changing weapons to Lebanon through the border with Syria. But, in flagrant violation of numerous Security Council resolutions, Iran is now transporting these weapons on commercial planes landing in Beiruts international airport."

The Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Northern Shield on 04 December 2018 to expose and neutralize cross-border attack tunnels that Hezbollah dug from Lebanon into Israel. Just hours into the operation our troops exposed and neutralized a 600 foot Hezbollah attack tunnel, which began under a civilian building in southern Lebanon, was dug through solid rock, and extended into Israeli territory.

The goal was and remains to neutralize and destroy Hezbollahs terror tunnels. The IDF has reported the existence, so far, of four terror tunnels in four separate geographical locations that begin in Lebanon and infiltrate Israel. Israel has informed its partners about this extensive operation and has also provided UNIFIL with full information about the tunnels.

During the 2006 Second Lebanon War the IDF was first exposed to Hezbollahs extensive subterranean infrastructure. At the end of the war UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1701 was passed, forbidding armed groups other than the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL from going south of the Litani River and calling for the disarmament of all armed groups. Despite this, Hezbollah continued to arm itself and vastly develop their underground tunnel network in Southern Lebanon, preparing it for combat.

In 2012 Hezbollah began developing a plan against Israel. While monitoring Hezbollahs planning and preparation, the IDF passed concerns that Hezbollah is digging near the Blue Line. In 2014 the IDF exposed Hamas terror tunnels infiltrating Israel from the Gaza Strip. Knowing that Hamas and Hezbollah often shared knowledge, Israels suspicion of a tunnel threat on the northern border is reinforced. Based on this, the IDF forms a technological intelligence taskforce to focus on the underground threat posed by Hezbollah. In 2015 the IDF expanded its defensive efforts in northern Israel. Advanced technological instruments were deployed in 2016 along the Blue Line with the aim of locating and exposing Hezbollah tunnels.

The attack tunnels from Lebanon constituted a threat to Israeli civilians as well as a violation of Israeli sovereignty, even before they were operational. Additionally, the tunnels served as proof of Hezbollahs blatant violation of Israels sovereignty and UNSC Resolution 1701. These tunnels sent a clear message as to the true priorities of the terrorist organization Hezbollah. In doing this, Hezbollah has also put its goal of Israels destruction before the safety of Lebanese civilians.

A powerful bloc in Iraq's parliament called for the withdrawal of US troops from the country, following a series of air raids targeting Iran-backed Shia militias in the country that werec redited to Israel. The Fatah Coalition said on 26 August 2019 that it held the United States fully responsible for the alleged Israeli aggression, "which we consider to be a declaration of war on Iraq and its people". The coalition is a parliament bloc representing Iran-backed paramilitary militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces. Anger mounted in Iraq following a spate of mysterious air raids that have targeted military bases and a weapons depot suspected of belonging to Iran-backed militias. It added that US troops are no longer needed in Iraq. The coalition's statement came a day after a drone attack in the western Iraqi town of Qaim killed a commander with the Forces - the latest in attacks apparently conducted by Israel against the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.

Israeli also launched a similar attack against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Lebanon's president has said an Israeli drone attack on Beirut at the weekend was a "declaration of war" that justified a military response. "What happened is a declaration of war," Michel Aoun told Jan Kubis, the United Nations' special coordinator for Lebanon, in a meeting on 26 August 2019. "This allows us to resort to our right to defend our sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity," he added.

Israeli drones attacked a Palestinian base in eastern Lebanon near the border with Syria, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported. Three attacks which came minutes apart struck a base for a Syrian-backed group known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), an ally of Hezbollah.

Israels attack on Lebanon in late August 2019, both on Hezbollah itself in southern Beirut and also on Palestinian positions in the east of the country, were an important indicator as to the dimension of Israels war against its regional foes. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech that Israel "must pay a price" and that "the need for a response is decided". Nasrallah said that Israel had breached the terms of the rules of engagement that had been in effect since the end of the last conflict in 2006. "The time when Israeli aircraft come and bombard parts of Lebanon is over."

On 01 September 2019 Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire along the Lebanese border after a week of rising tensions. Israel's military said it fired into southern Lebanon on Sunday after a number of anti-tank missiles fired by Hezbollah targeted its army base and vehicles near the border. Hezbollah was responding to an earlier drone attack by Israel. The missiles hit several targets in Israel's border town of Avivim, the Israeli army said, adding it responded by shelling 100 targets inside Lebanon.

An airstrike in eastern Syria killed eight fighters from Iraqs Iran-backed militia Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces), a monitoring group said 20 January 2020. The Lebanese news outlet Al-Mayadeen wrote that the raid was carried out by Israeli aircraft, citing sources in the field. It said the raid targeted a weapons transport. Israel hasnt commented on the reports, rendering it impossible to verify the data. The US-led military coalition operating in Syria and Iraq denied carrying out the strike through a spokesman reached by AFP. Explosions were reported late Thursday at a base near the Iraqi-Syrian border believed to be occupied by Shiite militias, in what was a suspected airstrike. Per DeirEzzor24, a batch of weapons was targeted in the attack while on its way to Lebanese militia group Hezbollah. The shipment reportedly included ballistic missiles belonging to the Imam Ali Brigade, a Shiite militia controlled by the Iran-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces.

In a late night strikes on 00 February 2020 more than 20 servicemen were killed during a missile attack that Damascus blamed on Israel. Tel Aviv, which usually refrains from commenting on its military operations abroad, seemingly confirmed that the Israeli military was responsible for the strike. Defence Minister Naftali Bennett said days after the incident: "Foreign media reported this week that 23 Syrians and Iranians were killed there. Those are large numbers and we will do more and more."

Three Syrian soldiers were killed during a strike which occured on 13 February 2020. The Syrian government blamed the attack on Israel with PM Netanyahu refusing to comment on the incident. Maybe it was the Belgian Air Force, he said during an interview with Radio Haifa. The Israeli satellite analysis firm ImageSat Intl. released images saying they show the alleged aftermath of a recent airstrike on the airport in the Syrian capital Damascus. Pictures released by ImageSat, purportedly show that the strike completely destroyed a building used as headquarters and several warehouses, which were apparently used to store weapons. The stroke also reportedly partially damaged a shelter.

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on 28 April 2020 confirmed that Israel was behind airstrikes against pro-Iranian forces in Syria, saying the military was working to drive Tehran out of the country. We have moved from blocking Irans entrenchment in Syria to forcing it out of there, and we will not stop, Bennett said in a statement. We will not allow more strategic threats to grow just across our borders without taking action, he said. We will continue to take the fight to the enemys territory.

On 01 May 2020 an Israeli strike targeted a Hezbollah weapons warehouse. The rare daylight strike sparked a massive explosion, according to reports from Syria. The war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the arms cache bombed Israel located outside Homs contained missiles and ammunition belonging to Hezbollah. Damascus denied the blast caused by Israel, saying it was human error. According to Syrian media, the attack triggered huge secondary explosions, apparently as the munitions inside the warehouse detonated. SANA reported that at least 10 people were wounded in the blasts.

The attack was the fifth strike by Israel against Iran-linked forces in Syria in the previous two weeks, coming less than 12 hours after Israeli attack helicopters struck Iran-backed forces in the Syrian Golan Heights. Syria accused Israeli helicopters of firing at least five missiles at targets on the Syrian Golan Heights, just across the border from Israel. From the occupied Golan airspace, enemy Israeli helicopters attacked positions in the southern region with several missiles, Syrian state news agency SANA said. SANA said the missile strike in the area of Quneitra caused only material damage.

The Syrian army said in a statement that Israel hit military barracks in Safira in the eastern Aleppo countryside on 04 May 2020. Earlier, state television had said a research center was targeted in the fifth such strikes in two weeks on suspected Iranian targets. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported another late Monday strike in the eastern Deir el-Zour province, which targeted positions of Iranian and Iran-backed fighters and killed, according to the report, 14 Iranian and Iraqi fighers. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

By July 2020 Iran and its proxies in Syria and Lebanon did not have the maneuverability to respond to increasing Israeli attacks against them and are unlikely to carry out a large-scale retaliation. Israel has upped its attacks on Iranian targets in the region in recent months, striking Iranian and Hezbollah positions in Syria. But Iran and its proxies still seem to be following a strategy of non-escalation when it comes to Israel, said experts, pointing to Irans limited capabilities in Syria. A month after Israel last struck Iranian targets in Syria, fresh airstrikes attributed to Tel-Aviv targeted on July 20 several Iranian interests near the capital Damascus. The Israeli attacks came in two waves, destroying weapons and ammunition warehouses while killing five Iranian-backed non-Syrian and Syrian militiamen and wounding four others in south and southwest Damascus, according to the Syrian Human Rights Observatory. The Israeli strategy in Syria primarily seeks to target equipment and weapons, rather than military personnel and commanders, but the July attack appeared to have been different from a strategic standpoint. Seeing an opportunity to escalate strikes in Syria before the upcoming US elections, Israel has upped its war on Iran and its proxies in Syria.

The geographic targets Israel chose for this strike were similar to previous attacks, namely falling in the vicinity of Sayeda Zeynab, Qeswa, Mazzeh, Daraya, Quneitra regions, on a regular basis. Iran does not have the capability to move its equipment and fighters around freely, which means that its margin of maneuver is severely limited by the Russians, within the capital Damascus, which leaves it vulnerable to Israeli attacks. Russia has established the rules of engagement for Iran and Israel in Syria, turning a blind eye to Israeli strikes on Iranian interests in Syria while preventing any retaliation by Iran or Hezbollah.

Israel wants to stop Iran and Hezbollah from entrenching themselves in Syria. Iran is working on creating a line of confrontation similar to the one it created in Lebanon. Hezbollah also has several bases in Aleppo, Homs, Damascus and close to the Lebanese border that it will not abandon.

Syrias escalation cannot be dissociated from the covert war taking place in Iran in the form of mysterious explosions and fires, the most lethal of which being the recent blast at the Natanz enrichment site. It is difficult for Iran and Hezbollah to retaliate at this time given complex conditions at home and around the region.

Satellite imagery of the aftermath of reported Israeli airstrikes on Iran-linked sites in Syria indicated the attacks targeted Tehrans ability to bring in and store weapons in the country. According to the satellite imagery company ImageSat International, a strike on Monday night destroyed a command center and a warehouse at the Damascus International Airport and another two days later targeted an airstrip in the T-4 airbase in eastern Syria. Israel has long maintained that both airfields are used by Iran to bring munitions into Syria.

The Israel Defense Forces has not commented on the strikes, in accordance with a long-standing military policy of ambiguity around its alleged activities in Syria. According to ImageSat, the strikes intended to tactically undermine shipments of advanced weapons systems from Iran. In addition, the firm said it assessed that the attacks had a secondary goal. The bombings send a strategic message to Tehran and the [Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps] Quds Force, warning [against] their continued activity in Syria, it said.

According to a summary report released by the Israel Defense Forces on 31 December 2020, Israeli soldiers were tasked with thwarting repeated infiltration attempts by Hizbullah troops. Lebanon-based, Iran-backed organization, also designated a terrorist group by Israel, the US and the EU, launched 10 known operations trying to enter Israeli territory, and placed explosive devices along patrol routes on the Israeli side of the Lebanese and Syrian borders on four occasions, according to the IDFs report. In a rare occurrence, the end of year summary also noted that the Israel Air Force conducted 50 airstrikes on the Syrian front. The Israeli military said that most of the strikes targeted Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah or Iranian-backed military units in the war-ravaged country. In 2020, the IAF added four F-35 fifth-generation stealth combat aircraft to its arsenal, bringing the total to 24.

Israeli military aircraft launched an attack on eastern Syria 14 January 2020. As a result of the air strikes, 57 people were killed. The Syrian Human Rights Monitoring Center reported that the strikes were carried out along the border with Iraq in the cities of Deir al-Zur, Meyadin and Abu Kamal. A number of Shiite militias that are part of the Iraqi People's Mobilization Forces have redeployed to the border with Syria. The maneuver was carried out in coordination with Iraqi forces and the Western Operational Command of the Popular Mobilization Forces. The maneuver was carried out by the Kataib Hezbollah and Sayyid al-Shohad militias. The move followed the Israeli air attack near the city of Deir ez-Zor.

In February 2021, Syrias army said the countrys air defences intercepted Israeli aggression over Damascus. The attacks killed at least nine pro-government fighters, a Britain-based war monitor said at the time. Israel had escalated in recent months a so-called shadow war against Iranian-linked targets inside Syria, according to Western intelligence sources, who say the raids are mainly aimed at research centres for weapons development and military convoys moving missiles from Lebanon to Syria.

Russia refuses the use of Syria as an arena for an Iranian-Israeli confrontation and it does not want to use Syrian land against Israel, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said 20 January 2021. So, our dear Israeli colleagues, if you have facts that your state is facing threats from the Syrian territory, report the facts urgently and we will take every measure to neutralize the threat, Lavrov added. Lavrovs comments came after Israel, with US support, launched the heaviest raids on Iranian and Syrian sites in northeastern Syria. Observers and international affairs experts have been monitoring Russias work as a mediator between Syria and Israel in recent weeks. Sources have confirmed that Israeli army has been informing the Russians of airstrikes on Syria beforehand. Lavrov said that Russia refuses that Syrian territories be used as a battle zone to settle regional conflicts.

An Iranian cargo ship was lightly damaged in an apparent mine attack in the Red Sea 24 April 2021. Irans Armed Forces chief, Mohammad Bagheri, stopped short of directly blaming Israel for Saturdays attack on an Iranian oil tanker off Syria, but has threatened the Jewish state with an unspecified response. A fire erupted aboard an Iranian oil tanker off the Syrian coast, after what the Syrian Arab news agency described as a suspected attack by a drone from the direction of Lebanese waters. Some reports said three people were killed, but others insisted there were no fatalities and the blaze was swiftly extinguished. The New York Times reported Israel had told the United States that it was behind the blast. That same month, Iran reported an attack on its Natanz uranium enrichment plan, for which it blamed Israel.

Syrian air defences intercepted an Israeli attack on several areas in northwest Syria, including the port city of Latakia along the Mediterranean coast, killing one person and wounding six, Syrian state media said 05 May 2021. The Israeli dawn attack also hit the town of Hifa, east of Latakia, and Masyaf in Hama province. State media had reported explosions near Latakia, which were heard by residents across the city and its outskirts. According to state media reports, a civilian plastics factory was hit in Latakia city, causing material damage. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. Israel has launched hundreds of attacks against what it calls Iran-linked military targets in Syria over the years but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the Israeli attacks in Syria had already killed dozens of government and allied fighters in recent months.

It was the first Israeli attack on Syria since a missile fired by Damascus struck deep inside Israel two weeks ago. The missile landed in southern Israel on April 22, prompting Israel to respond with airstrikes on the missile launcher and other targets in Syria. Iran has been a key ally of al-Assads government throughout the civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and erupted after the brutal repression of anti-government protests. Al-Assads government has never publicly acknowledged there are Iranian forces operating on its behalf in Syrias civil war.

Irans largest navy ship sank in early June 2021 after catching fire in the Gulf of Oman. Officials had not yet said if the sinking of the Kharg was an act of sabotage or an accident.

On 04 July 2021, the Liberian-flagged container ship CSAV Tyndall suffered an unexplained explosion on board while in the northern Indian Ocean, according to the US Maritime Administration. The crew was not hurt and the ship, possibly hit by a missile, was not badly damaged and continued on its journey. Israeli media identified the container ship as the CSAV Tyndall and initially said it was owned by Zodiac Maritime Ltd, a London-based international ship management company owned by Israeli tycoon Eyal Ofer. The company, however, issued a statement saying it no longer operated or owned the CSAV Tyndall.

On 26 July 2021, Syrian air defenses were activated to respond to an alleged Israeli airstrike near Aleppo. The airstrike targeted a research center in the area. The Russian Defense Ministry announced later in the week that Syrian air defenses intercepted seven out of the eight missiles allegedly fired by Israeli aircraft, with one missile hitting a research center in al-Safirah. On 28 July 2021 an Israeli airstrike targeted the Dabaa military airport in the Homs governorate of northwestern Syria. The airstrike was carried out from over Lebanon. Material damage was reported by Syrian media. A Hezbollah commander and commander in the Iranian-backed Liwa Fatemiyoun militia were both killed. Hezbollah-affiliated media reported that the Hezbollah commander Imad al-Amin, from Deir Kifa in southern Lebanon, was killed while carrying out his jihad duty, without providing further details. Iranian media announced that Ahmed Qureshi, a commander in the Liwa Fatemiyoun militia, died due to wounds he suffered while fighting in Syria.

Two crew members, a Briton and a Romanian, were killed when a petroleum products tanker managed by Israeli-owned Zodiac Maritime came under attack on 29 July 2021 off Omans coast. The assault represented the worst-known maritime violence so far in regional attacks on shipping since 2019. London-based Zodiac Maritime, part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer's Zodiac Group, issued a statement saying the ship was the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Mercer Street and was Japanese owned. Zodiac said that the attack in the Arabian Sea was still being investigated. An unnamed senior Israeli official blamed Iran for the attack and said that the ship was hit with a drone, according to Israels Channel 13 TV. The attack on the Israeli ship came in response to the occupations attack on Dabaa airport, sources in the resistance axis told al Alam TV.

The US Navy rushed to the scene following the attack and was escorting the tanker to a safe harbor. US Navy personnel boarded the Israeli-managed ship that was allegedly attacked by Iranian forces earlier in the day, a Pentagon official told Al Arabiya. Members from the US Navys 5th Fleet responded to a distress call from a ship in international waters earlier in the day after being attacked. The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan other US ships were accompanying the ship.

An Israeli air strike outside the Syrian capital of Damascus 25 December 2023 killed Sayyed Razi Mousavi, one of the top IRGC commanders in Syria and a senior adviser in Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to reports from Iranian state media. Irans state television interrupted its regular news broadcast to announce that Mousavi had been killed, describing him as one of the most experienced IRGC advisers in Syria.

Mousavi is one of the oldest IRGC commanders in Syria and Lebanon, hes been functioning in this area since the 80s, Al Jazeera correspondent Ali Hashem reported from southern Lebanon. According to our sources, Mousavi was the target of several assassination attempts by Israel. However, this was the time when the assassination attempt succeeded. The Israelis accuse him of being an instrumental figure within the network of arms smuggling from Iran to Syria, to Iraq to Syria, and to end with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and also as very influential within what Iran calls the Axis of Resistance, Hashem added.

He was responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran, an important part of Irans regional network of allies and proxies known as the Axis of Resistance. Mousavi was killed during an attack by the Zionist regime a few hours ago in Zeinabiyah district in the suburbs of Damascus, Irans official IRNA news agency reported, using a different name for Sayyida Zeinab south of the Syrian capital. In a statement read on state TV, the IRGC said that the usurper and savage Zionist regime will pay for this crime. The strike came amid fears that Israels war with the Palestinian armed group Hamas in Gaza could expand into a wider regional conflict, pulling in Iran-backed groups such as Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

After the urgent tension in Tehrans relations with both Erbil and Islamabad following the Revolutionary Guards missile strike on what it called terrorist strongholds in Pakistan and the Mossad headquarters in northern Iraq, the Iranians received 20 Janury 2024 news of the killing of 5 senior military advisors, in an Israeli raid. In the Mezzeh neighborhood in the Syrian capital, among them were Youssef Amid Zadeh, head of the intelligence unit in the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard, and his deputy, Hajj Gholam. This came less than a month after the assassination of General Radhi Mousavi , responsible for the support unit of what is known as the Axis of Resistance in Syria, as a result of an Israeli missile strike on his house in the Sayyida Zeinab area of the Syrian capital, and about a month after the killing of two other advisors in a similar raid in the Damascus suburb.

The assassination brought back the old and new question about the reason for the security exposure of the Iranian presence on Syrian territory, as Israel had previously launched hundreds of air strikes on Iranian targets on Syrian territory over the past decade, in addition to the assassinations that targeted Iranian scientists and sabotage operations targeting its nuclear facilities. And the military inside Iran.

Tasnim News Agency's military affairs correspondent, Muhammad Mehdi Yazdi, revealed that at least 20 Iranian military advisors were killed in Israeli raids on Syria during the last decade. Other Iranian tweeters accused some foreign countries, which have good relations with the Syrian regime, of leaking security data to Israel about Iranian targets in Syria.

Iranian security affairs researcher Muhammad Qadri believed that most of the assassinations that Tel Aviv is carrying out against Iranians represent a reaction to strikes it receives from Tehran, especially since the latter has dismantled dozens of Israeli spy cells during the past months. Qadri says his country is fighting a comprehensive war at various levels, especially security and cyber, against the Zionist entity, describing the recent Israeli escalation against his countrys forces in Syria as the best evidence of the effectiveness of what those forces are doing on the borders of the occupied Palestinian territories.

Regarding whether Iranian goals have become exposed to Israel in Syria, Qadri believes that Tehran still has the upper hand in the security war with Israel, as it previously recruited an agent at the level of a minister in the Israeli government, and obtained very valuable information through him. In 2018 , the Israeli internal security service " Shin Bet " admitted that Iranian intelligence had succeeded in recruiting former Energy Minister Gonen Segev since 2012, and that he had visited Tehran twice and met intelligence officers, and had also met them in various places abroad, in hotels and apartments used according to the secret estimates of Iranian intelligence.

Qadri added, Assassinations and counter-assassinations between Israel and Iran continue in light of the latters success in perpetuating the confrontation with it outside its territories, adding that unlike Tehran, which does not impose a media blackout on such events, the Zionist entity conceals most of the strikes it receives, directly or indirectly from the Islamic Republic."

The security affairs researcher concluded that Syria turned into a theater for foreign security services after the events of 2011, adding that some of the friendly countries that have relations with Tehran and Damascus are in close cooperation with the Israeli entity, which opens the door wide to the possibility of those countries leaking data about Iranian targets in Syria to the Israeli enemy.

Iranians believe that Israel began adopting a policy of assassinations against the leaders of the Axis of Resistance after it absorbed the  Al-Aqsa Flood  operation, and that it found in Syria a suitable space to take revenge on the  Quds Force , the external arm of the Revolutionary Guard, which opens the way for the Iranian side and its allies to respond to the attack. Israeli interests throughout the region.

Conservative theorist Ali Akbar Rafipour considers the raid on the Mezzeh neighborhood in the Syrian capital evidence of the precision of the Iranian attack on Erbil, and its causing great pain to the Zionists, adding that after Saturdays assassinations, the ball has become in the Iranian court, and the axis of resistance must strike a more painful and precise blow. This time at Israel."

Mansour Haqiqatpour, former commander of the Revolutionary Guards and former assistant to General Qassem Soleimani , believes that the Israeli escalation in the assassination of Iranian advisors in Syria, and leaders of the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian resistance on Lebanese soil, comes in the context of the policy of the Israeli right-wing government to open a new front to save it from the Gaza trap. .

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Haqiqat Bur believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed to lure Iran into the Gaza battle, to bring it into confrontation with the United States, explaining that Netanyahu is dancing these days slaughtered on the Lebanese and Syrian fronts, in order to obtain a pretext to open a new front. New to Lebanon, it may require Tehran to direct direct strikes against the Zionist entity to support Hezbollah.

He continued, "The Iranian bombing of the Mossad headquarters in Erbil, northern Iraq, last week was a painful response to the Israeli entity's assassination of the leader of the Revolutionary Guard, Mousavi, last month in Syria, and that Tehran will respond with a more painful strike to the Israeli raid on the Syrian Mezzeh neighborhood."

The former Revolutionary Guard leader added that his country is the one that will determine the appropriate time and place to respond to the Israeli adventures, and will not set its watch according to Israeli time, stressing that Iran is not afraid to adopt a policy of blow for blow against Israel, and that the confrontation will continue until final revenge. from the Israeli occupation.

Between the continuing security war at its most intense between Iran and Israel, according to researcher Muhammad Qadri, and the blow-by-blow strategy, which Haqiqatpour believes will continue until Tehrans final revenge on Tel Aviv, a third segment of Iranian circles warns of the growth of the sprouts of war, and their transformation into a dragon that might devour the entire region.

From the point of view of political activist Ahmed Zeidabadi, the Mezzeh assassinations show that the war is on its way to penetrating the fabric of the Middle East, adding in a comment published on his channel on the Telegram platform that a comprehensive road map must be developed to resolve regional conflicts, and otherwise the war will... "It will eliminate all the potential of the West Asia region."

A Syrian military source said 06 February 2024 that at dawn the Israeli army launched air attacks from the direction north of Tripoli, targeting a number of points in the city of Homs and its countryside, killing and wounding a number of civilians. The source said: At approximately 00:30 a.m. today, the Israeli enemy launched an air attack from the direction north of Tripoli, targeting a number of points in the city of Homs and its countryside. Our air defenses intercepted the aggressions missiles and shot down some of them.

He added: "The Israeli aggression resulted in the martyrdom and injury of a number of civilians and some material losses to public and private property." According to media outlets, the Israeli bombing killed a woman and one child and injured 7 other people as a preliminary toll following the attacks in the city of Homs. The Syrian General Authority for Radio and Television reported at dawn on Wednesday that air defenses intercepted and shot down a number of missiles fired by Israeli aircraft in the central region of Homs Governorate.

It is noteworthy that, since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has carried out several strikes in Syria and Lebanon, targeting leaders of Hamas, the Lebanese Hezbollah, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

On 19 February 2024. Israeli Air Force bombed large weapons depots deep in Lebanon, near town of Sidon. Unconfirmed reports of multiple injuries. IDF attacks on Hezbollah sites will intensify as Gaza front winds down. Fires continued to rage at the 2 weapons depots bombed by Israel in Lebanon; it is estimated that the sites were used for production as well as storage of arms.

Damascus reported 28 February 2024 hearing the sounds of successive explosions as a result of the firing of anti-aircraft missiles and anti-air targets in the vicinity of the capital, Damascus. The sounds of explosions were heard throughout the capital, and successive explosions were seen in the southern and southwestern parts of the capital. Most sources reported that the attacks had affected some areas in Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of the Babila area and the outskirts of the Sayyida Zeinab area, where fires were seen rising from that area and ambulances were rushing to the place in order to transport those injured as a result of these attacks.

Confirmation of other sources that the missile barrages launched by the Israeli military were launched from above the occupied Syrian Golan, where the Syrian air defense units were able to confront some of the Israeli missiles and shoot them down before they reached their target, while some of the missiles succeeded in reaching the targets.

Life returned to normal in the capital, Damascus, after the capital witnessed the sounds of successive explosions. The people had spotted these missiles and anti-aircraft missiles in the sky of the capital, and the air defenses were able to shoot down some of those missiles, which were visible to the naked eye, while some of those missiles succeeded in reaching their targets, and these raids This period comes as a result of the aggression imposed on Gaza in addition to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, where the Israeli occupation entity escalates its attacks in several areas in Syria, the most prominent of which is the capital, Damascus, and its countryside.

Israeli media announced that Israeli raids targeted the Sayyida Zeinab (peace be upon him) area near the Syrian capital, Damascus. Syrian television reported that air defenses responded to enemy targets in the vicinity of the capital, Damascus, on Wednesday evening. Our correspondent in Damascus said that a large explosion was heard in the Sayyida Zeinab area, and air defenses responded to it.





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Queqiao-2 relay satellite mission a complete success, capable of providing service for future lunar exploration: CNSA

Global Times

By Global Times Published: Apr 12, 2024 11:36 AM

China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on Friday that Queqiao-2 relay satellite mission completed in-orbit communication tests and it has been a complete success. The satellite is capable of providing relay communication services for the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project and subsequent domestic and international lunar exploration missions.

After being launched into space on March 20, Queqiao-2 relay satellite underwent mid-course corrections, lunar braking, and circumlunar orbit maneuvers. It entered a 24-hour period elliptical mission orbit around the moon as planned on April 2, according to a release from the CNSA.

On April 6, Queqiao-2 successfully completed a communication test with Chang'e-4 probe, which is conducting an exploration mission on the far side of the moon. From April 8 to 9, Queqiao-2 also conducted communication tests with the Chang'e-6 probe.

The Tiandu-1 and Tiandu-2 communication and navigation technology experiment satellites, which were launched concurrently, entered circumlunar mission orbits on March 29 and successfully separated on April 3, beginning a series of communication and navigation technology verifications.

Queqiao-2 relay satellite and the Tiandu satellites use a circumlunar elliptical frozen orbit as their mission orbit. Since the moon's shape is irregular, spacecraft flying close to the moon are affected by lunar gravity and other factors, causing potential orbital deviations. The circumlunar elliptical frozen orbit is a stable orbit that minimizes deviations for the spacecraft flying in it.

The CNSA listed several favorable reasons for choosing a circumlunar elliptical frozen orbit for Queqiao-2's mission. Compared to Queqiao-1, Queqiao-2's mission orbit is closer to the moon, resulting in a significant boost in data transmission communication rates. Moreover, a circumlunar elliptical frozen orbit improves coverage of lunar south pole communications and help conserve satellite fuel, allowing Queqiao-2 to remain in its orbit for an extended period with minimal fuel usage.

Queqiao-2 relay satellite will provide relay communication services for the Chang'e-4 mission and the upcoming Chang'e-6 mission as planned, and will carry out corresponding scientific explorations when appropriate, the CNSA said in the release.

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Australian company integrates into US nuclear-powered submarine supply chain

The Hon Pat Conroy MP

Minister for Defence Industry

Minister for International Development and the Pacific

12 April 2024

The Albanese Government welcomes the initial purchase order of processed Australian steel by a major U.S. military shipbuilder, marking another important milestone in the AUKUS partnership and providing significant boost for the defence industry and local jobs.

Australian steel manufacturer Bisalloy Steel will process steel at its Port Kembla facility for Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of HII, the largest military shipbuilder in the U.S. and one of two U.S. companies that designs and builds US nuclear-powered submarines.

Importantly, the integration of Aussie steel into the Newport News Shipbuilding supply chain paves the way for further opportunities for local suppliers and potential to create more well paid and highly skilled jobs in Australia.

This follows the announcement in December 2023 of the Australian Submarine Agency (ASA) entering into a contract with Bisalloy Steel for the qualification of Australian steel for the use on Australia's SSN-AUKUS submarines, and to increase the resilience of the trilateral supply chains.

Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) will use the steel for training and testing with this order representing a critical step in strengthening the industrial supply base for the AUKUS program.

The Government is continuing collaboration with AUKUS partners and industry to develop the Australian supply chains and facilitate industry participation in the supply chains of the United Kingdom and United States.

A key initiative to support this objective is the Defence Industry Vendor Qualification (DIVQ) Program which was launched in January 2024.

DIVQ will help to accelerate the qualification of Australia products for entry into supply chains of our AUKUS partners.

The Australian Submarine Agency and our AUKUS partners will engage with and invite relevant industry sectors to participate, through the ASA's industry portal (www.asa.gov.au/business-industry). The portal is always open and new registrations for companies wishing to participate are being accepted daily.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy:

"This order of Aussie steel from a global leader in shipbuilding is not only testament to the efforts of the hard-working women and men at Bisalloy but also underscores the Albanese Government's commitment to supporting local industry.

"This is a wonderful early example of opportunities for Australian companies to be part of the supply chains for the much larger submarine programs of our AUKUS partners.

"The Australian Government is committed to developing Australia's industrial base to not just build and sustain our nuclear-powered submarine program, but to strengthen the AUKUS trilateral supply chains."

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China blasts US-Japan-Philippines summit, lodges representations

Global Times

'Anti-China gathering' a step closer to forming a mini-NATO in Asia Pacific

By GT staff reporters Published: Apr 12, 2024 11:46 PM Updated: Apr 12, 2024 11:55 PM

Chinese authorities on Friday expressed strong opposition to the US, Japan and Philippines' highly-targeted summit in Washington, as the group vowed to enhance military ties to cope with "China's threats," ignoring its deeds that undermine regional peace and stability.

Analysts termed the trilateral summit an "anti-China gathering," which moves a step closer to the US' goal of forming a mini-NATO in the Asia-Pacific. However, with disparate calculations between US allies and China's sufficient capability, the "ironclad" alliance commitment does not look as solid as China's resolve in safeguarding sovereignty and regional stability.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said during a regular press conference on Friday that "China strongly opposes the practice of bloc politics by relevant countries. We firmly oppose any acts that stoke and drive up tensions and harm other countries' strategic security and interests. We are seriously against forming exclusive groupings in this region."

"Certain countries keep seeking backing from non-regional countries as they infringe on China's sovereignty and rights and make provocations at sea. What they have done has escalated the tensions. Certain country outside the region keep fueling the flame and stoking confrontation," she added.

Responding to the US, Japan and Philippines' smearing and hypes, Mao reiterated that the Taiwan question is purely China's internal affair, and that China has indisputable sovereignty over Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands and Nanhai Zhudao.

Liu Jinsong, director general of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, summoned Chief Minister of the Embassy of Japan in China Yokochi Akira to lodge solemn representations and express serious concerns and strong dissatisfaction over Japan's negative moves during the Japan-US summit in Washington and the trilateral summit among the US, Japan and the Philippines. Liu also made solemn representations to the Philippine ambassador to China Jaime FlorCruz over the Southeast Asian country's "negative words and deeds" related to China during the summit. China's Embassy in the US also lodged a solemn representation to Washington.

Senior Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, said on Friday that China upholds that defense cooperation between countries should not target any specific country or undermine regional peace and stability. China's relevant activities in the South China Sea are justified, lawful and beyond reproach, he said.

In contrast, a certain non-regional country frequently sends military vessels and aircraft to the South China Sea to flex its muscles, gathers its allies to build up "small cliques" against China, and even threatens and coerces China with so-called mutual defense treaties. These acts are irresponsible and extremely dangerous, Wu said.

Undermining regional peace

The first-ever trilateral summit between the US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr was held in Washington on Thursday local time, with the three countries' leaders vowing to enhance defense ties, targeting China.

According to a joint statement released by the White House, the three countries expressed "serious concerns" over China's actions to safeguard its sovereignty, which it termed as "dangerous and aggressive behavior" in the South China Sea, and "attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion in the East China Sea."

It also mentioned the Taiwan question, which is China's internal affair, claiming that there is no change in their basic positions on Taiwan, and called for a "peaceful resolution of cross-Straits issues."

The statement also announced the establishment of a trilateral maritime dialogue to "enhance coordination and collective responses," adding that the US and Japan will continue to support Philippine Coast Guard capacity building.

The statement said the three countries plan to conduct a maritime training activity around Japan in 2025.

"Within the next year, our coast guards also plan to conduct an at-sea trilateral exercise and other maritime activities in the Indo-Pacific to improve interoperability," said the statement.

Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday that with words and deeds blatantly targeting China, the summit has made itself an "anti-China gathering."

According to the joint statement, the three countries said they "welcome efforts to support a peaceful and stable, rules-based Indo-Pacific region," including from the Quad, AUKUS, and the US-Japan-South Korea trilateral framework.

Kyodo News said on March 31 that the US is making arrangements for trilateral talks with Japanese and South Korean leaders in July when the NATO summit is held in Washington.

With the deepening of the trilateral military alliance between the US, Japan and the Philippines, and the aforementioned mini-multilateral framework among the US and its Asia-Pacific allies, Washington is moving one step closer to building a mini-Asia-Pacific NATO, Da said, "This is not only a serious provocation to China, but also a grave threat to regional peace and security."

"From the perspective of its strategic goals, the US does not want to see a united Asia. In the absence of its own strength, the Biden administration has tried to mobilize the sea power countries in Asia, such as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, to contain the land power countries such as China and Russia, which serves its goal of being the dominant power in the sea power game in the Asia-Pacific region," a Beijing-based expert told the Global Times, requesting anonymity.

The US wants to perpetuate the confrontation within Asia, just as it did in Europe, the expert noted, "Under the cloak of morality, provoking conflicts outside its territory to maintain Washington's hegemony is an important external environment for US policy elites to sleep well at night."

LA Xiang, research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday that a joint statement of this nature is actually telling China that the US and its allies may cross the red line in the future.

We will not take the initiative to launch the attack, but the Chinese side will be on high alert, and any small step across the red line will be met with a firm counterattack, said the experts.

The US is well aware of China's military capabilities in the Western Pacific, and it does not dare to carry out any substantive acts other than provocations, otherwise it will incur unbearable consequences, LA said.

Disparate calculations

In the joint statement, Biden reaffirmed the "ironclad" US alliance commitments to both Japan and the Philippines.

The White House also gave Kishida a grand reception during his visit, including a Congress speech, swanky state dinner, and as many as 70 new cooperation agreements to boost defense and intelligence ties, which Biden described as the "most significant upgrade in our alliance."

However, Kishida's acceptance of the warm hospitality in Washington means that Japan will share more costs and responsibilities for the geo-defense of the US, such as in the field of arms production and technology research and development, Da said.

In addition to actively participating in various mechanisms to maintain US hegemony and contain China, Japan may even be required to cooperate with the US in other ways, such as encouraging Japanese companies to invest in the US, Da added.

Biden also wants the summit to show off his diplomatic success and boost his popularity ahead of the US presidential elections. More importantly, Americans want Japan and the Philippines, which are on the front lines of containment of China in the Asia-Pacific region, to risk their own destruction at a critical moment, Da noted.

Analysts said Kishida also took his US visit as an opportunity to boost his popularity, but in reality, the effect seems to have been unsatisfactory. A Jiji Press poll shows that public support for Kishida's cabinet fell to 16.6 percent in April, a new record low since the administration came into power in October 2021.

Japan hopes to use the US as a backer to expand its military and gradually unleash militarism, and even export troops and security capabilities to areas with disputes in the future to further enhance its influence, Da said.

"But holding the country's fate and strategic interests hostage to the US comes at a price. It is not acceptable to all citizens, including the economic community," Da said.

With regard to the Philippines, analysts said Manila hopes to demand more non-military rewards, such as economic benefits, from Washington through a pro-US posture, such as a US transfer of investment and industrial chain to the Philippines. By provoking China in the South China Sea, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr could also gain more support from the Philippine military, which is regarded as pro-US, to secure his rule.

In the joint statement, the three countries expressed concern over and strongly opposed economic coercion, and announced the launch of the Luzon Corridor, the bloc's first global infrastructure partnership and investment corridor in the "Indo-Pacific."

The Philippines needs to be clear that once it is determined to become a country that pulls external risk factors into the Asia Pacific, then it will become an outlier in ASEAN, and that in any case, ASEAN-China ties are the most helpful to the Philippine economy, LA said.

"Marcos still has time to reflect, as China will exert maximum restraint and minimal actions to stop the Philippines from its harassing and provocative acts. But the Philippines will suffer huge losses if it crosses the red line," he noted.

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EU's 'market distortion' claim against China a serious mistake: commerce ministry

Global Times

By Global Times Published: Apr 12, 2024 12:24 AM

The EU's unilateral adoption of so-called "market distortion" criteria to evaluate China's economy is a serious mistake and severely undermines the authority of the WTO rules system, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said Thursday, while calling for an immediate halt to this wrong approach from the EU.

The European Commission (EC) updated a report on Wednesday alleging "significant state-induced distortions" in the Chinese economy, which will be noted in trade remedy investigations. This is the second time this claim has been made since 2017 when the report was first published.

Responding to media questions about the EU's move, a MOFCOM spokesperson said on Thursday the report was subjective, one-sided, and an erroneous assessment of China's socialist market economy, serving as a pretext for adopting discriminatory anti-dumping measures. China strongly opposes this, the spokesperson said.

The head of the Trade Remedy Bureau of MOFCOM immediately lodged solemn representations with the European side regarding this issue.

China has, based on its specific circumstances, explored and established a socialist market economy system, which has led to remarkable achievements, the spokesperson said.

The socialist market economy system in China continues to be improved and developed, with the market playing a decisive role in resource allocation. Meanwhile, government intervention helps to fully unleash the vitality of economic development, and promote the development of productive forces and the improvement of people's living standards, the spokesperson said.

There isn't just one model of a market economy; it's intertwined with the history, culture, and current national conditions of each country, the spokesperson said.

MOFCOM said that the EU's unilateral adoption of so-called "market distortion" criteria to evaluate China's market economy is a serious mistake.

Moreover, it seriously violates the WTO rules system.

The WTO rules do not have the concept or standards of "serious economic distortion." By breaking WTO rules and using the so-called "market distortion" claim, the EU has severely undermined the authority of the WTO rules system, concocting excuses for its continued use of the anti-dumping "substitute country approach," which is not allowed by WTO rules.

As an important member of the WTO, the EU should respect and uphold the authority of the multilateral trading system and immediately cease its erroneous practices that violate WTO rules, the spokesperson noted, adding that China will closely monitor the EU's subsequent actions and reserves the right to take all necessary measures.

The EU's report came just a day after its decision to probe Chinese wind turbines, the latest example of the intensified tendency toward protectionism in the EU. The move aroused concerns among Chinese companies doing business in the bloc, with the Chinese business group in the region expressing strong dissatisfaction at the lack of transparency in the EU's intervention.

The EU has recently ramped up its trade protection measures against China, including launching probes into Chinese-made electric vehicles. The bloc has also joined the US in criticizing China's production of affordable electric cars.

Experts said that there is a clear politically driven motivation behind the EU probe, with the US taking the lead.

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Former chairman of China Everbright Group indicted for embezzlement, bribery

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 13:05, April 12, 2024

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Tang Shuangning, former chairman of China Everbright Group, has been indicted on charges of embezzlement and taking bribes, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) Friday.

Following the completion of the National Commission of Supervision's investigations, a procuratorate in Tangshan, north China's Hebei Province, filed Tang's case with the city's intermediate people's court, the SPP said in a statement.

Prosecutors accused Tang of using his post at the People's Bank of China to illegally gain vast sums from public assets.

He was also accused of taking undue advantage of his various positions to seek profits for others in matters such as job promotions and obtaining loans, and accepting an especially large amount of money and valuables in return.

Prosecutors had informed the defendant of his legal rights and heard the opinions of the defense counsel, the SPP statement said.

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Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning's Regular Press Conference on April 12, 2024

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China

2024-04-12 20:47

At the invitation of Premier Li Qiang of the State Council, Federal Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz will pay an official visit to China from April 14 to 16.

At the invitation of Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Central African Republic Sylvie BaApo-TAmon will pay an official visit to China from April 14 to 16.

CCTV: The leaders of the US, Japan and the Philippines held their first trilateral summit in Washington on April 11, and issued a Joint Vision Statement after the summit. We noted that despite the US's previous claim that this summit and the US-Japan-Philippines cooperation "is not aimed at" China, the Statement discussed the South China Sea issue at length, blamed China on the East China Sea issue and contained irresponsible comments on the Taiwan question. What is China's comment?

Mao Ning: We noted this. I would like to make the following points:

First, China strongly opposes the practice of bloc politics by relevant countries. We firmly oppose any acts that stoke and drive up tensions and harm other countries' strategic security and interests. We are seriously against forming exclusive groupings in this region. Japan and the Philippines have every right to develop normal relations with other countries, but they should not introduce bloc confrontation into this region, still less engage in trilateral cooperation at the expense of other countries' interests. To know whether the trilateral summit and cooperation is truly not aimed at China, the answer is right there in the trilateral statement. What else could it be if it's not a smear and attack against China?

Second, the Taiwan question is purely China's internal affair. Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese ourselves that no one can interfere. The biggest threat to cross-Strait peace now is the separatist activities of "Taiwan independence" forces and external connivance and support for them. If relevant countries truly care about cross-Strait peace and stability and want the world to be safe and prosperous, they should uphold the one-China principle, unequivocally oppose "Taiwan independence" separatist activities, and support China's reunification. This is the right way to ensure peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. No one should underestimate the will and capability of the Chinese people to safeguard our sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Third, China has indisputable sovereignty over Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands and Nanhai Zhudao. Our activities in the East China Sea and South China Sea are lawful, justified and beyond reproach. China does not accept relevant countries' groundless accusation and deliberate smears against us on the East China Sea and South China Sea. China does not accept the illegal arbitral award on the South China Sea or any unilateral moves based on the award. The situation in the East China Sea and the South China Sea is generally stable. Certain countries keep seeking backing from non-regional countries as they infringe on China's sovereignty and rights and make provocations at sea. What they have done has escalated the tensions. Certain country outside the region keep fueling the flame and stoking confrontation. This is flagrant. Let me stress once again that China will firmly guard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests and we remain committed to properly settling bilateral maritime issues through dialogue and consultation with countries directly concerned. And we resolutely oppose non-regional countries meddling and sowing discords to escalate the situation.a

CCTV: I want to follow up on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's visit to China. Could you share with us the program of the visit? How does China view the current China-Germany relations? What's China's expectation for the visit?a

Mao Ning: During German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's visit to China, President Xi Jinping will meet with him and Premier Li Qiang will have talks with him. The two sides will exchange their views on bilateral relations and issues of mutual interest.

Over the past 50-plus years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, China and Germany have enjoyed robust bilateral relations, frequent high-level exchanges and deepening practical cooperation. China always views Germany as its important partner of mutually beneficial cooperation and supports Germany in playing a more important role in Europe and the wider world. China and Germany have benefited from each other's development which has contributed to the welfare of both peoples. The two countries have steered China-EU relations on a steady and sustained course and injected more stability to the world.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the China-Germany comprehensive strategic partnership. China stands ready to work with Germany and take this visit as an opportunity to enhance mutual understanding and trust and deepen practical cooperation in line with the principles of mutual respect, equality, mutual benefits and seeking common ground while shelving differences to further advance bilateral relations and jointly contribute more to global peace and prosperity.

Global Times: It's reported that the US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said yesterday that Secretary of State Blinken in telephone conversations with Director Wang Yi and high-level officials of other countries asked relevant countries to urge Iran not to escalate. Can you brief us on the telephone call? Will China take measures to put pressure on Iran?

Mao Ning: On the evening of April 11, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi spoke with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the phone at US request. Secretary Blinken shared the US views on the current situation in the Middle East. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China strongly condemns the attack on the Iranian Embassy in Syria. He stressed the inviolability of the security of diplomatic missions and that Iran and Syria's sovereignty must be respected. This round of escalation is the latest spillover of the Gaza conflict. The pressing need now is to bring an end to the conflict as soon as possible. China calls on parties to the conflict to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2728, put in place an immediate ceasefire and halt the humanitarian crisis. China will continue to view the issue based on its merits, play a constructive role in resolving the Middle East issue and help deescalate the situation. The US in particular needs to play a constructive role.

TASS: Today marks Russia's Cosmonautics Day, 12 days away from China's Space Day. In recent years, Russia and China have stepped up exchanges and cooperation on aerospace and signed agreements on several projects, including an MOU on the joint construction of a lunar station. How would the Foreign Ministry comment on the cooperation potential of the two countries in this area, and what is your view on the prospect of the two countries engaging in space exploration at bilateral and international level?

Mao Ning: China values its space cooperation with Russia. In recent years, our two sides have had good cooperation on projects such as the International Lunar Research Station which contributes to socioeconomic development and sci-tech innovation in both countries.

Space exploration is humanity's common endeavor. China is committed to the peaceful exploration and use of outer space. We are ready to have international space exchanges and cooperation with Russia and other countries on the basis of equality, mutual benefit, peaceful use and inclusive development.

Reuters: This is related to Japan Prime Minister Kishida's speech to US Congress yesterday. He said that Americans should not doubt the US's indispensable role in world affairs. He also said that the biggest challenge the world faces comes from China and that China's current external stands and military actions present an unprecedented and greatest strategic challenge. How does the Foreign Ministry respond to these remarks?

Mao Ning: China strongly deplores and firmly opposes Japan's remarks. We have lodged serious representations to Japan. I would like to stress that China is always a force for world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of international order. China is committed to peaceful development and a national defense policy that is defensive in nature. China has never initiated a war and does not pose a threat to any country. The US and Japan have been ganging up and stoking bloc confrontation. This is the real challenge facing peace and stability in the region.

Japan's militarist past, marked by devastating wars of aggression and brutal crimes against humanity, brought untold suffering on this region and beyond. Japan needs to seriously reflect on its history of aggression, respect the security concerns of its Asian neighbors and stop hyping up so-called security threats in the region to find pretext for making breakthroughs in its military strength, so as not to further lose the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community.

China News Service: Severe droughts induced by El NiAo have recently hit many countries in southern Africa with a relatively huge impact on their food production. Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia and some other countries declared a state of emergency or disaster, and called for international food assistance. What's China's comment? Is China planning to provide assistance?

Mao Ning: China has been closely following the recent severe droughts and food shortages in southern Africa. We are collecting and preparing emergency food assistance to over 20 African countries such as Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia. We will seek to provide more food aid to the best of our capabilities in the future in light of the developments on the ground and the need of relevant countries.

Agriculture and food security is an important part of China-Africa friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation. Last August, President Xi Jinping announced the Plan for China Supporting Africa's Agricultural Modernization at the China-Africa Leaders' Dialogue. He said China will help Africa expand grain plantation, encourage Chinese companies to increase agricultural investment in Africa, and enhance cooperation with Africa on seed and other areas of agro-technology, to support Africa in transforming and upgrading its agricultural sector. China will continue working closely with Africa to deliver the above mentioned plan and deepen agricultural cooperation, and will support Africa in capacity-building on food security. We also call for more international attention to the droughts and food shortages facing the African countries and we urge the global community to consider providing them with food assistance as soon as possible and help African countries develop agriculture and better ability to achieve food self-sufficiency.

Bloomberg: Can you tell us a little bit more about the call between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Antony Blinken?

Mao Ning: I have nothing more to add.

NHK: Some Chinese media reported that the Director General of the Asian Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs met with Chief Minister of the Japanese Embassy in China regarding US-Japan-Philippines leaders' summit. Would you give us some more details of this meeting today?

Mao Ning: As I have learned, China has lodged serious representations to Japan on the negative elements concerning China in the US-Japan leaders' talks and the US-Japan-Philippines leaders' summit. On the meeting you mentioned, let me check with my colleagues and get back to you.

CCTV: According to a report by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, China has mainly focused on fossil fuels instead of renewable energy in its energy investment in Africa over the past 20 years. China needs to stop writing off investment in Africa's green energy and advance Africa's energy transition. What's your comment?

Mao Ning: I noted the research report and hope the center will conduct a comparative study by releasing the data on how other countries galvanize Africa's energy transition and help its socioeconomic development. I want to stress that China has firmly supported Africa's sustainable development. Green development is not just a focus of the eight major initiatives and nine programs announced at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and implemented by both China and Africa. It's also an important area of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between China and Africa.

In fact, China has implemented hundreds of projects on clean energy and green development in Africa. The installed capacity of photovoltaic power plants built by Chinese companies and Africa totaled over 1.5 gigawatts. China has set the pace in international green cooperation with Africa. In Morocco, the Nooraand III solar-thermal power plants built by a Chinese company have provided clean energy to over one million Moroccan households and weaned the country off its long-standing dependence on electricity imports. In South Africa, the De Aar Wind Power Project invested and built by a Chinese company has provided local households with a steady supply of 760 million kWh of clean electricity per year. The project has met 300,000 households' electricity demands, and cut 619.9 thousand tonnes of carbon emissions. In Uganda, the last unit of the Karuma Hydroelectric Power Station built by a Chinese company has been connected to the grid and generated electricity not long ago. This biggest hydro-power station in Uganda will increase the country's installed capacity by close to 50 percent, save 1.31 million tonnes of raw coal and cut 3.48 million tonnes of carbon emissions every year which is equivalent to planting 1.5 million trees.

Green energy cooperation between China and Africa has lit up numerous homes in Africa at night and shone Africa's way to sustainable development. China will continue expanding cooperation with Africa on renewable energy, energy conservation and emissions reduction, and helping Africa accelerate energy transition and develop in a green, low-carbon and high-quality way.

Bloomberg: US President Biden has said that he is committed to deepening maritime and security ties with Japan and the Philippines. He has said that China has been behaving aggressively at least in the US's eyes, especially around the Second Thomas Shoal. Biden has said that the US will respond to Chinese attack on the Philippines should this occur. Can you give me some comments on US President Biden's commitment to deepening maritime and security ties with Japan and the Philippines?

Mao Ning: What the US said is a serious mischaracterization of China. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this vicious accusation. I would like to stress the following:

First, China has indisputable sovereignty over Nanhai Zhudao, including Ren'ai Jiao, and the adjacent waters. China also has indisputable sovereignty over Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands. China's actions in the South and East China Seas are consistent with international law, and they are justified, lawful and beyond reproach.

Second, there has never been any problem with regard to freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea. We firmly oppose relevant countries flexing muscles and acting like bullies in the South China Sea. And we are certainly opposed to relevant countries infringing on China's sovereignty, security and development interests under the pretext of freedom of navigation and overflight.

Third, the so-called arbitral award on the South China Sea is illegal, null and void. China's territorial sovereignty and rights and interests in the South China Sea shall under no circumstances be affected by the award.

Fourth, relevant countries, out of selfish interests, join countries outside the region and serve as their pawns to contain China. Our message to these countries: recent history tells us that eventually pawns will easily be abandoned.

Fifth, the US clings to the Cold War mentality and often threatens other countries with its bilateral alliance treaties. Such moves seriously violate the UN Charter and undermine regional stability. China will never waver in its commitment to upholding its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests and working with regional countries to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea.

Reuters: Major US airlines and aviation unions on Thursday urged the Biden administration to pause approvals of additional flights between China and the United States. They cited ongoing anti-competitive policies of the Chinese government. Multiple industry associations told the US government to pause these flights until American workers and businesses are "guaranteed equality of access in the marketplace". What is the Ministry's response to this?

Mao Ning: I'd refer you to competent authorities on the specific question. More broadly, to increase direct flights between China and the US was something agreed between the two presidents in San Francisco. It will help promote exchanges and mutual understanding between the two peoples.

AFP: First, it's reported that Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Zhao Leji had talks with member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Choe Ryong-Hae in Pyongyang. Zhao Leji said that China is willing to intensify exchanges and cooperation with the DPRK's legislative body to take the traditional friendship and cooperation between China and the DPRK to a higher level. What does "intensify exchanges and cooperation with the DPRK's legislative body" mean? Second, during the visit, will the two sides arrange a meeting between the leaders of the two countries to be held later this year?

Mao Ning: It means literally to intensify exchanges between legislative bodies. On your second question, I have no information to share.

Bloomberg: Did Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Secretary of State Blinken talk about the South China Sea on that call?

Mao Ning: The two foreign ministers may have exchanged views on other issues of mutual interest, but I do not have the specific information on that.

Reuters: The Environmental Justice Foundation said in a report that Chinese fishing fleet is responsible for systemic illegal fishing and human rights abuses in countries bordering the southwest Indian Ocean. How does the Ministry respond to these findings? Will there be any actions taken by the Chinese authorities to look into what was reported?

Mao Ning: China attaches great importance to the protection of ecological environment and workers' rights and interests. We follow a "zero tolerance" policy towards violations of laws and regulations, and make sure that crew members receive the working conditions and remuneration they deserve in accordance with the law. We oppose false allegations and smears which have no factual ground at all.

Shenzhen TV: We learned that 27 Chinese nationals have been safely evacuated from Haiti on April 11. Can you give us more details?

Mao Ning: After the security situation deteriorated in Haiti, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with relevant government agencies and local governments in China instructed our missions overseas to closely follow the situation, get timely updates on all Chinese nationals in Haiti, and do everything they can to protect their safety and organize orderly group evacuation. With concerted efforts, after 24 Chinese nationals were safely evacuated on March 22, another 27 Chinese nationals were safely evacuated to the Dominican Republic yesterday. So far, all Chinese nationals willing to leave Haiti have been safely evacuated. During that process, we also helped a Philippine national to safely evacuate from Haiti.

Bloomberg: A top US Treasury official called on the world's largest creditors to take coordinated and decisive action to address the generational challenge of poor nations. In particular, this criticism was aimed at China which is the largest lender to emerging markets. Does the Foreign Ministry have any comment on the US Treasury official's claims that the world's largest creditors including China should take coordinated and decisive action?

Mao Ning: On your specific question, I'd refer you to the competent Chinese authorities. Let me say broadly that China attaches great importance to the debt issues facing developing countries. We have followed the principle of equal-footed consultation and mutually beneficial cooperation to help developing countries ease their debt burden and grow sustainably.a

Bloomberg: Just to go back to a recent interview by India's Prime Minister Modi where he seemed to be calling for peaceful ties with China and said that the two countries need to urgently address the prolonged situation at their borders. How can we understand the recent comments made on both sides in terms of the border issue? Is there some kind of improvement in ties between India and China? What's the Chinese Foreign Ministry's view on Prime Minister Modi's recent comments?

Mao Ning: China and India are in close communication through diplomatic and military channels to address issues related to the border situation, and have achieved positive progress. China believes that a sound and stable relationship is in the interest of both China and India. We hope that India will work with China to place the boundary question appropriately in bilateral relations and manage it properly, and put the relationship on a sound and steady track.a

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Hong Kong jails Portuguese national for overseas social media posts

Court hands down 5-year sentence 'incitement to secession' for posts to Facebook, X, Instagram and Telegram.

By Edward Li for RFA Cantonese 2024.04.12 -- A court in Hong Kong has handed a five-year jail term to a dual Portuguese national for "incitement to secession" after he headed a political party to campaign for independence that was registered in the United Kingdom.

Joseph John, also known as Wong Kin-chung, was the first European dual national to be convicted under Hong Kong's 2020 National Security Law, which applies to anyone of any nationality, anywhere in the world.

John, a Portuguese citizen who also holds a Hong Kong permanent identity card and is a resident of the United Kingdom, was jailed for 60 months by Judge Ernest Lin after being found guilty of "incitement to secession" for managing the Hong Kong Independence Party's social media accounts between July 2020 and November 2022.

Rights groups said John's sentence underlines the fact that anyone can be arrested, prosecuted and jailed under Hong Kong's security laws, regardless of their nationality or place of residence, on the basis of words and actions carried out overseas.

The prosecution accused John of "publishing, making available and/or continuing to make available statements and photos on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Telegram."

Judge Lin told the court that, regardless of whether the 42 posts were written by the defendant personally, they included elements of "resistance to the Hong Kong and Chinese governments," and had continued over a period of 28 months, which suggests they were planned rather than a form of emotional "venting."

"The defendant did not hesitate to distort history, demonize the Chinese government, and encourage the destruction of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Chinese governments through political and even military means," Lin said.

"He also sought help from foreign governments, called on people who were prepared to sacrifice their lives to serve as righteous men, and to raise funds to hire mercenaries, seeking to overthrow the Hong Kong SAR and the Chinese government by force, and called for foreign coalition forces to march into Hong Kong," he said, accusing John's posts of "twisted logic and superficial slogans."

Lin said John's emigration from Hong Kong 10 years ago suggested he was loyal to other countries than China, and that his case was deemed "serious" under definitions given in the National Security Law.

'A dangerous precedent'

The London-based rights group Hong Kong Watch condemned the sentence, saying it "signals that dual and foreign nationals are at serious risk of imprisonment in Hong Kong under the National Security Law, and the new Safeguarding National Security Ordinance" passed last month.

With the passage of the new security law, known as Article 23, last month, convictions of dual and foreign nationals are an increasing risk, and likely to be more frequent and severe, the group warned, calling on European governments to condemn the sentence.

It said the case also carried implications for the case of British citizen Jimmy Lai, who is on day 58 of his national security trial for owning the now-defunct newspaper Apple Daily, the largest pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, and for participating in pro-democracy activities.

"There is now a dangerous precedent for a dual national being convicted under the Hong Kong National Security Law," the group's Chief Executive Benedict Rogers said in a statement, adding that journalists, politicians and human rights groups are particularly at risk.

The U.S.-based Hong Kong Democracy Council commented via X that John's crime "consisted of making social media posts for the obscure HK Independence Party."

It said 20 people have been sentenced so far under the National Security Law to a total of more than 67 years in prison, including nine sentenced to juvenile training centers.

Thousands more have been jailed or arrested on public order charges relating to recent protests, and under colonial-era sedition laws in an ongoing crackdown on public dissent and peaceful political opposition.

Former British colonial governor Chris Patten wrote in a recent op-ed that the latest national security law aims to "sever all contact between freedom advocates in the city and the outside world."

Writing in a March 29 commentary published to Project Syndicate, Patten said some of the offenses in the Safeguarding National Security Law are "so vaguely defined that they allow the authorities to detain virtually anyone they want on fabricated or absurd charges."

He said someone could be arrested "for keeping an old copy of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily ... and showing it to a friend in their own home."

Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.

Copyright 1998-2024, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content April not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Never mind the overcapacity, have some dim sum!

Why did China's state media focus so intently on what US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ate?

By Qian Lang and Liu Bangyu for RFA Mandarin 2024.04.12 -- China's state media appeared keen this week to portray U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as a relatable grandmother figure, showing her out and about at restaurants, quaffing beer and using chopsticks with a practiced hand, despite slow progress on intractable trade issues.

Yellen was in China at least in part to relay American concerns about industrial overcapacity in China "flooding" foreign markets with cheap exports, though she sought to reassure her Chinese counterparts that the United States "does not seek to decouple from China."

Yet while Yellen met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, a significantly high-level of contact between the world's two biggest - and rivaling - economies, Chinese media were busy portraying her as a down-to-earth figure on a "friendly" visit to the country to enjoy its foodie lifestyle.

Reading a breakout on her trip from state-backed media The Paper, you could be forgiven for wondering if she had any pressing mission to China at all other than sampling cuisine from its various culinary regions.

"White-haired U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen got off the plane at Guangzhou's Baiyun Airport, dressed simply ... carrying a particularly eye-catching crossbody bag ... and a black laptop bag," the article said, quoting social media comments as saying she looked "like a sightseeing grandma."

It said her "approachable" style had "softened" the tone of her hard-talking trade negotiations.

Then it launched into a list of meals eaten by "foodie" Yellen during her trip, including a famed Cantonese restaurant in Guangzhou on arrival, where she tucked into "Cantonese delicacies like fungus okra, roast goose, barbecued pork, shrimp dumplings, seafood red rice sausage and double skin milk."

In Beijing, Yellen went for Sichuanese, including "cold noodles and Dandan noodles," The Paper reported, while the nationalist Global Times commented on her "skillful" use of chopsticks, as shown in footage aired by state broadcaster CCTV.

"Each dumpling, intricately folded with 13 pleats and generously filled with succulent shrimp, bamboo shoots, and a blend of lean and fatty pork, showcased the culinary finesse synonymous with Cantonese dim sum culture," the paper rhapsodized about Yellen's meal in Guangzhou.

"Among the culinary highlights was chilled sweet and sour pork, an innovative reinterpretation of a classic dish. Beneath a translucent layer of ice, the pork glistened with freshness, boasting a delightful juxtaposition of textures and temperatures," it drooled.

The paper took a slightly more serious tone in an op-ed, noting that Yellen's visit was "high-stakes," and that "food diplomacy" would only get her so far, and taking issue with U.S. complaints of overcapacity in some sectors of Chinese manufacturing, which Chinese officials say are "groundless."

'Putting on a show'

But actual details about the ongoing negotiations were few and far between.

"The Chinese people welcome anyone from anywhere to come and enjoy our food, but that does not mean we won't push back against groundless accusations and outright crackdowns," the paper concluded.

A Guangzhou-based journalist who gave only the surname Chen for fear of reprisals said the media was focusing on Yellen's culinary progress because they weren't authorized to report on the trade talks independently of approved state media reports.

"They were kind of avoiding [those issues] and all of the conflicts during the negotiations, because there was nothing they were allowed to say publicly," Chen said.

"This kind of reporting is just putting on a show ... because around 70% of China's economic growth and technological development is dependent on the United States," he said. "So China wants good economic relations with the U.S."

He said the circumspect approach was also intended to shore up Yellen's reputation as a China hand, in the hope that she will come back for further negotiations and encourage more incoming investment.

Beijing-based journalist Wen Feng said the reports also convey the impression that Sino-U.S. relations are basically stable, and that Yellen has a good personal relationship with the Chinese government.

"Chinese officials want to show that when U.S. officials come for talks, we are a country of etiquette, and that we are hospitable," Wen said. "They also want to convey the message to Chinese people that they are doing a good job of handling Sino-U.S. ties."

New form of panda diplomacy?

U.S.-based current affairs commentator Ma Ju agreed, saying most Chinese media were deliberately avoiding the issue of overcapacity in the clean energy sector.

"It is actually very sad if a journalist can only report on what Yellen ate or drank or whatever," Ma said. "They can't talk about what ... kind of requests she made, what she said, or on any of the detailed discussions about the bilateral economic and financial relationship."

He said "food diplomacy" is a new form of "panda diplomacy" -- all symbolism and no substance.

"Chinese media ... are distorting the various remarks Yellen made during her visit to China, and everything she said after she left," Ma said. "It's been clearly demonstrated that the U.S. now has to build a dam to prevent China's excess production capacity from harming U.S. and global manufacturing."

According to international media reports, Yellen told Premier Li that bilateral relations are now more stable because the two sides can have "difficult" discussions.

"That doesn't mean ignoring our differences or avoiding difficult conversations," she said. "It means understanding that we can only make progress if we communicate with each other directly and openly."

Reuters quoted a senior U.S. Treasury Department official as saying after the meeting that the two sides discussed in detail China's industrial overcapacity problem and the government support that contributes to the problem.

Li has shown a willingness to let the U.S. and Chinese economic teams explore the issue further.

Translated with additional reporting by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

Copyright 1998-2024, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content April not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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China Castigates 'Dangerous' US Decision to Put Mid-Range Missiles in Asia-Pacific

Sputnik News

20240412

BEIJING (Sputnik) - The US decision to deploy intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region is a dangerous trend and China will resolutely oppose it, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Friday.

On Wednesday, a US Army Pacific spokesperson told Sputnik that the United States is on track to deploy a medium-range missile system in the Asia-Pacific by the end of this year.

"The US intention to deploy medium-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region is a dangerous trend that will seriously threaten the security of the countries in the region and cause serious damage to regional peace and stability. China resolutely opposes this and will resolutely oppose it," Wu told reporters.

The planned deployment of a mid-range missile system in the Asia-Pacific would be the first of its kind since the United States and Russia agreed to the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987. The INF Treaty previously prohibited the United States and Russia from possessing surface-launched medium-range ballistic and cruise missiles with a range between 500 and 5,500 kilometers.

However, both the United States and Russia withdrew from the INF Treaty in 2019.

It's still unclear what US ally in the Asia-Pacific will host the mid-range missile system, but the United States reportedly hopes it will serve as a deterrent to China.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington said the US plans to deploy the mid-range missile system in the Asia-Pacific will undermine regional stability.

"It's a dangerous move for the US to push for the deployment of intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific," Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told Sputnik. "It will pose a serious threat to regional countries and undermine regional peace and stability. China is firmly opposed to it."

The United States must refrain from introducing bloc confrontation, conflict and turmoil to the Asia-Pacific, Liu added.

A Sputnik

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China Blasts Kishida's Speech to US Congress

Sputnik News

20240412

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) -In response to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's comments during his address to the US Congress, the Chinese Embassy in Washington told Sputnik that it expressed opposition to any rhetoric that tarnishes China's international image.

Earlier in the day, during his speech to US lawmakers, Kishida said that China presents a strategic challenge to global peace and stability.

"China has all along been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a promoter of international order," Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told Sputnik. "We are committed to peace, stability and enduring prosperity of the Asia-Pacific. We oppose rhetoric that smears China's international image."

On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is on an official state visit in Washington this week, said during a speech to US lawmakers that China presents a strategic challenge to global stability.

Earlier this week, the Chinese Embassy highlighted that US plans to deploy a mid-range missile system in the Asia-Pacific by the end of this year will undermine regional stability.

This planned deployment of a mid-range missile system in the Asia-Pacific would be the first of its kind since the United States and Russia agreed to the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987, which is now defunct after both countries withdrew from the treaty in 2019.

A Sputnik

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German chancellor heads to Beijing amid efforts to balance trade, geopolitical concerns

By William Yang April 12, 2024

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will kick off a three-day visit to China Saturday, aiming to double down on Germany's deep economic ties with China amid rising trade tension between Beijing and the European Union.

Making his first trip to China since his government released its first China strategy in July, stressing the need to lower economic dependence on China, Scholz will be accompanied by executives from major German companies, such as Siemens, Volkswagen, and Bayer, and three Cabinet ministers.

Some analysts say bilateral economic relations will be the main focus of Scholz's trip.

"He will try to focus on the positive things in the German-China relationship and try to foster more partnership and cooperation in critical areas relevant to key German industries," Max Zenglein, chief economist at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin, told VOA in a video interview Wednesday.

The visit comes as some key German industries see falling revenues in China. According to automobile company data reported by Reuters Wednesday, several German premium carmakers have seen China sales fall significantly in the year's first quarter, with Mercedes-Benz and Porsche showing double-digit percentage falls in their sales in China.

In addition, a recent report by the New York-based research firm Rhodium Group found that Germany's automotive industry faces fierce Chinese competition, with German companies' market share in China falling 4% since 2018.

"The losses have come mainly from volume producer Volkswagen, which sold fewer cars in China in 2023 than it did in 2013," the report said, adding that the market share of Volkswagen's Chinese venture fell to the lowest point in a decade even though the overall passenger vehicle market in China grew by 5.6%.

Instead of reevaluating their approach to the Chinese market, Rhodium Group found that some of these companies have reinvested the profits they made in China in the country "in a push to remain competitive."

Zenglein said Scholz will likely focus on helping some German companies that rely heavily on China to maintain their economic interests in the country during his visit.

Scholz may feel the need to "signal to the corporate sector that he is willing to give the appropriate political flanking for their economic interests," he told VOA.

Other experts say some German companies are struggling to adapt to changes taking place in the Chinese market because they have become too reliant on the benefits the market offers.

"At a time when the German economy is facing pressure from multiple fronts, including the country's need to support Ukraine and the sluggish economic performance, the German government will try to maintain a close economic and trade relationship with China in the short term so German products can keep selling to the Chinese market," said Zhang Junhua, a senior associate at the European Institute for Asian Studies in Brussels.

However, he said he thinks these efforts will contradict the German government's call for companies to reduce economic dependence on China.

"Since Germany's economic performance remains sluggish, the government has to give in to pressure from the business sector and make compromises on executing the China Strategy, which urges German companies to de-risk from China," Zhang told VOA by phone.

German companies 'swim against the international trend'

Meanwhile, the EU has launched a series of antisubsidies investigations against green energy products imported from China, including electric vehicles and wind turbines.

EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the bloc needed a more systematic approach to handle the investigations. "We need to do it before it is too late, [and] we can't afford to see what happened on solar panels happening again on electric vehicles, wind or essential chips," she said Tuesday, referring to China's dominance in the European solar panel market.

In response, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said Thursday that it resolutely opposed the EU investigations, calling them "a protectionist act that harms the level playing field in the name of fair competition."

"China will closely monitor the European side's subsequent movements and reserves the right to take all necessary measures," the ministry said in a statement.

While Scholz's chief economic adviser, Joerg Kukies, said Berlin supports the EU's antisubsidy probe into Chinese electric vehicles at a think tank event in Berlin last September, Scholz told German business weekly Wirtschaftswoche in an interview the same month that he is "not convinced" about the need for the EU to impose tariffs on Chinese EVs.

"Our economic model should not be based or rely on protectionism - but on the attractiveness of our products," Scholz said in the interview.

In Zenglein's view, some German companies' growing investment in China is "swimming against the international trend. "The trend is driven by capital-intensive sectors like automotive and chemical," Zenglein said. According to the Rhodium Group report, major German carmakers such as Volkswagen and German chemical group BASF continue to increase their investments in China.

Russia, green energy industries

While bilateral economic relations will dominate the agenda of the trip, Zenglein and Zhang both said they think Scholz will still try to express German concern about China's close partnership with Russia and their uneasiness about Chinese overcapacity in the green energy industries.

"Germany's concern about China's partnership with Russia will be a main element of the discussion because Scholz has a strong opinion about this," Zhang told VOA. "But since Germany doesn't have effective measures to pressure Beijing, Scholz's warning won't have much influence on how China evaluates its partnership with Russia."

In Zenglein's view, Scholz will try to "brush over" concerns about geopolitical risks quickly. "He will try not to get too hung up on the negative aspects of bilateral relations that might be counterproductive to positive developments in the bilateral economic relations," he said.

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Int'l Security Analyst on U.S. Attempt to Deploy Intermediate-range Missiles in Asia-Pacific Region

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK

Pyongyang, April 12 (KCNA) -- Jong Min, an international security analyst of the DPRK, issued the following article "U.S. attempt to deploy intermediate-range missiles causes strategic instability in Asia-Pacific region" on Friday:

The U.S., immersed in realizing the military supremacy over the world, is trying to play a new military gambling in the Asia-Pacific region.

Shortly ago, the U.S. army Pacific commander said that the Chinese army is taking an irresponsible way in the use of military means, adding that the U.S. forces are planning to deploy new intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region late this year to restrain China.

Not content with persistently escalating the situation and inciting constant war fever through frequent dispatch of strategic assets to the Asia-Pacific region, the U.S. is scheming to deploy even ground-launched intermediate-range missiles capable of directly aiming at specific countries in the region and promptly striking them at any moment. This clearly shows what phase the U.S. ambition for military supremacy has reached.

The U.S. has possessed and deployed a large number of strategic means capable of dealing a fatal blow to any country on the globe. Nonetheless, it is planning to deploy intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region. This is prompted by its strategic intention to improve the efficiency of military pressure on China by additionally reinforcing tactical and operational strike means and deploying them in the forward area.

It is the ulterior calculation of the U.S. that it can check China's advance into the seas and secure the constant capability of rapidly striking the inland of China if intermediate-range missiles are forward-deployed in the Asia-Pacific region.

The U.S. started to develop and modernize intermediate-range missiles, as soon as it unilaterally withdraw from the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles between Russia and U.S. in August 2019, and completed the development of intermediate-range missile system by the end of 2022.

The typical weapon system is Typhon, a ground-launched intermediate-range missile launch system, manufactured and delivered to the U.S. military by Lockheed Martin of the U.S.

According to experts, the Typhon can launch existing Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles and SM-6 multi-purpose guided missiles.

Besides, the U.S. is stepping up the modernization of the intermediate-range missile forces while focusing on the development of various types of hypersonic weapons, including the long-range hypersonic weapon (LRHW) of the Army, air-launched rapid response weapon AGM-183 and hypersonic attack cruise missile (HACM).

This fact goes to prove that the U.S. attempt to deploy intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region is not a defensive step to cope with "threat" from someone but a product of the offensive and hegemonic military strategy which has been steadily pushed forward in a sequential and planned way for a long time.

The U.S. attempt to deploy intermediate-range missiles is dangerous enough to explosively aggravate the political and military situation in the Asia-Pacific region, trigger off strong rebuff and counteraction of China and other regional countries and spark off a fierce arms race in the region.

The U.S. dreams about deploying the missiles within this year, but the process will never go smoothly.

In view of the range of those missiles, their deployment in Guam, Hawaii and other territories of the U.S. has no military significance. Accordingly, they will have to be deployed in such allies of the U.S. in the Asia-Pacific region as Japan and the puppet Republic of Korea (ROK).

The U.S. arms buildup to check China's peaceful development and growth and restrain it militarily will inevitably invoke strong countermeasures. And Japan and the puppet ROK or any third country might be well aware of the fact that they would be the first target of military retaliation if the U.S. intermediate-range missiles were deployed in their territories.

After all, the U.S. deployment of intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region is not for protecting its junior allies. On the contrary, it will lead them to the fate of being victims and sacrifices of the U.S. strategy for hegemony.

The U.S. new military gambling in the Asia-Pacific region with "wager" called the deployment of intermediate-range missiles may be led to the nightmare-like result that even the security of its mainland should be mortgaged. -0-

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Talks Held between Choe Ryong Hae and Zhao Leji

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK

Pyongyang, April 12 (KCNA) -- Talks were held here on Thursday between Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the C.C., the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), first vice-president of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Zhao Leji, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the C.C., Communist Party of China (CPC) and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Present there were Kim Song Nam, director of the International Department of the Central Committee of the WPK, officials concerned, Liu Jianchao, head of the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, members of the party and government delegation of the PRC and Wang Yajun, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK.

The talks discussed the issues of positively promoting exchange and cooperation in all fields, including politics, economy and culture, true to the noble intentions of the top leaders of two parties and two countries who declared this significant year marking the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the DPRK and the PRC as the "year of DPRK-China friendship" and thus further developing the traditional DPRK-China friendly relations.

The talks exchanged views on the regional and international issues of mutual concern.

The talks were followed by a ceremony of signing the documents of agreement between the governments and agencies of the DPRK and the PRC. -0-

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WPK Central Committee and DPRK Government Host Banquet in Honor of Party and Government Delegation of PRC

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK

Pyongyang, April 12 (KCNA) -- The Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) hosted a banquet at the Mansudae Assembly Hall on Thursday evening in welcome of the party and government delegation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on an official goodwill visit to the DPRK.

Present there on invitation were members of the party and government delegation of the PRC led by Zhao Leji, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the C.C., the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the PRC, Wang Yajun, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK, and staff members of his embassy.

Present there were Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the C.C., the WPK, first vice-president of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, Ko Kil Son, secretary general of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, Sung Jong Gyu, minister of Culture, Mun Song Hyok, vice department director of the Central Committee of the WPK, Pak Myong Ho, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, Ryu Un Hae, vice-minister of External Economic Relations, and officials concerned.

Choe Ryong Hae made a speech at the banquet.

He said that the Chinese party and government delegation's visit to the DPRK is of great significance in splendidly marking the opening of the "year of the DPRK-China friendship," declared by the top leaders of the two parties and two countries when they exchanged messages of greeting at the beginning of this year, and in opening a new chapter in the history of DPRK-China friendship this year marking the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Noting that the invincibility and immutability of the DPRK-China friendship with a long history and traditions, forged in blood and consolidated in the protracted joint struggle for anti-imperialist independence and socialism, are unprecedented in the world, he expressed the belief that the two sides of the DPRK and China would substantially boost exchange and cooperation in all fields, including politics, economy and culture, this significant year so as to add new vitality to developing the DPRK-China friendly relations at a higher stage.

Then Zhao Leji made a speech.

Noting that upon authorization by General Secretary Xi Jinping and the Central Committee of the CPC, he would lead the Chinese party and government delegation to pay an official goodwill visit to the DPRK and attend an opening ceremony of the "year of China-DPRK friendship", he said that the China-DPRK friendship, personally provided and developed by the leaders of the elder generations of the two parties and two countries in the struggle for socialist revolution and construction for 75 years after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, has been strengthened generation after generation.

Wishing the Korean people fresh and bigger successes in various fields of state building, he stressed that the Chinese side, together with the DPRK side, would take the important common understanding by the top leaders of the two parties and two countries as guidelines, carry forward the traditional friendship and boost mutually beneficial cooperation to provide the peoples of the two countries with greater welfare and contribute to regional peace, stability, development and prosperity.

The participants in the banquet toasted the good health of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un and the respected Comrade Xi Jinping and the ceaseless development of the relations between the two countries.

The banquet proceeded in an amicable atmosphere overflowing with warm comradeship and friendship. -0-

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Chinese Party and Government Delegation Arrives in Pyongyang

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK

Pyongyang, April 12 (KCNA) -- A party and government delegation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) headed by Zhao Leji, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the C.C., the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the PRC, arrived here on April 11 to pay an official goodwill visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) at the invitation of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and the government of the DPRK.

Among the members of the delegation are Liu Jianchao, head of the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, Liu Qi, secretary general of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the PRC, Sun Yeli, minister of Culture and Tourism, Ma Zhaoxu, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, Li Fei, vice-minister of Commerce, Zhang Baoqun, deputy director of the International Military Cooperation Office of the Central Military Commission, and Yang Weiqun, deputy head of the State Office for International Development and Cooperation.

Pyongyang International Airport was in a welcoming atmosphere to greet the friendly mission from China.

The guards of honor of the Korean People's Army lined up at the stopping place before the terminal of the airport where the flags of the two countries were fluttering.

Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the C.C., the WPK, first vice-president of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, warmly greeted the party and government delegation of the PRC.

The delegation was also greeted by Ko Kil Son, secretary general of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, Sung Jong Gyu, minister of Culture, Mun Song Hyok, vice department director of the Central Committee of the WPK, Pak Myong Ho, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, and Ryu Un Hae, vice-minister of External Economic Relations.

Wang Yajun, Chinese ambassador to the DPRK, and his embassy members greeted the delegation.

A woman worker presented a bouquet to Zhao Leji.

Many citizens warmly welcomed the close Chinese friends, waving the flags of the two countries and bouquets.

At the Paekhwawon State Guest House a vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK and employees warmly greeted the delegation.

The visit to the DPRK by the party and government delegation of the PRC serves as a momentous occasion in significantly commemorating this year marking the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations as the year of DPRK-China friendship, true to the noble intentions of the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries, and in further consolidating the friendly and cooperative relations with socialism as the core, as required by the new era, and in strengthening the strategic and tactical cooperation to defend the common core interests. -0-

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President Macron Plans to Boost Military Production in France

Sputnik News

20240412

PARIS (Sputnik) - French defense companies need to further increase military production in the country, French President Emmanuel Macron said during a visit to explosives production plant Eurenco.

On Thursday, Macron laid the foundation stone for a new gunpowder factory in Bergerac in western France. The plant existed since 1915, but ceased production in 2007.

"We are ready to enter into long-term geopolitical and geostrategic changes in which the role of the defense industry will become increasingly important," Macron told reporters in a speech broadcast on the official Elysee Palace X account, adding that the world will not collapse tomorrow if hostilities were to cease tomorrow.

Citing Russia's rearmament efforts, he said France has already tripled the production rate of Caesar howitzers supplied to Ukraine, noting that it also sells them around the world. In terms of ammunition production, Eurenco has doubled its production since the start of the conflict in Ukraine.

"We will go even further. The new plant in Bergerac, which will add to the existing production in Sweden, should allow to double it again," Macron said.

Toward the end of February, after a conference on Ukraine in Paris, Macron suggested that Western leaders had explored the idea of deploying troops to Ukraine. While no unanimous decision was reached, Macron emphasized that all options remained on the table.

In response to Macron's remarks, several EU nations swiftly refuted the notion of troop deployment, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who stated that NATO had no plans to send troops to Ukraine. The Kremlin reacted to Macron's statements by asserting that NATO troop deployment in Ukraine would inevitably lead to direct conflict between the alliance and Russia.

A Sputnik

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April 12, 2024

Release

Readout of Deputy Secretary of Defense Hicks' Meeting with Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra

Pentagon Spokesman Eric Pahon provided the following readout:

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks hosted Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra at the Pentagon today to discuss priorities for strengthening the U.S.-India defense partnership, including the implementation of the Roadmap for U.S.-India Defense Industrial Cooperation.

The two officials underscored the historic momentum in the Major Defense Partnership in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific. They applauded efforts by both countries to advance the co-production of fighter jet engines and armored vehicles, as well as the continued success of the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) in promoting innovation and partnerships between U.S. and Indian researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors.

Deputy Secretary Hicks and Foreign Secretary Kwatra also spoke about the importance of expanding the scope of U.S.-India military engagements to strengthen cooperation across all domains while highlighting shared efforts to promote stability and security in the Indo-Pacific.

The two officials discussed a range of regional security issues and committed to collaborating closely in support of a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3740443/

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Transcript of Weekly Media Briefing by the Official Spokesperson (April 12, 2024)

India - Ministry of External Affairs

April 12, 2024

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Welcome once again. Let's begin this session. The floor is open.

Sidhant: Hi Sir, Sidhant from WION. How does India assess the current situation in Myanmar? We have seen the situation in a border town, where the rebels have been able to capture the town while the military has lost control.

Siddhant: Hi Sir, I am Siddhant from CNN News18. Sir, as per the reports, three of the boys from the state of Uttar Pradesh are allegedly abducted in Myanmar and are forced to work in a fake call centre from Myanmar. Their family has lodged complaint with the local police and we have been told that police has written to Ministry of External Affairs. Have we been able to locate them or what do we know about the three boys? Thank you Sir.

Umashankar: Switzerland mei jo peace initiative hone ja raha hai, uske liye kya Bharat ko koi formal invitation mila hai? Aur agar mila hai toh kya abhi kuch rukh tay hua hai ki Bharat participate karega ya nahi?

[Question in Hindi: Approximate translation] The peace initiative, which is going to take place in Switzerland, has India received any formal invitation for it? And if yes, has there been any decision made yet whether India will participate in it or not?

Yeshi: This is Yeshi Seli from the New Indian Express. It's reported that close to 100 Canadian diplomatic staffers have left India over the past couple of months, after 41 were asked to leave when they were to downsize. Does MEA have any comments to make because they say that we didn't have enough support staff, so we had to downsize and the visa services continue as normal. And secondly, what is the status of the 8th Indian naval veteran? When is he likely to return?

Srinjoy: Sir, Times Now. Sir, Jake Sullivan is coming on the 18th or so. At the same time, Kurt Campbell is coming, two very senior American government officials here at the same time. Can you tell us what the issues are, what the agenda is and what our points of view of concern or whatever we will convey to them?

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Okay. First, we come to Sidhant here, regarding Myanmar. You know, the security situation in Myanmar remains precarious and deteriorating. You heard about the fighting that is going on, specifically in Rakhine State and other areas. We had issued, some time back, an advisory for our nationals so that they can take due care and we want them to be safe; as also regarding Indians who are travelling to Myanmar so that they can observe proper safety protocols and take care of themselves, while we are there to take care of them, as in the Embassy is there to take care of them. We have also relocated our staff from Sittwe Consulate to Yangon. So that is where the situation lies.

Regarding your question Siddhant, regarding the three boys, our Embassy is seized of the matter. They are working on it and hopefully we will be able to get them out, repatriated and returned. They will come back home. In the past as well, as and when Indian nationals who have had problems in Myanmar, one way or the other, in one profession or the other, whenever they have reached out to the Embassy, we have acted proactively and we have got the help of local authorities and done our best so that our nationals can come back home; or their issue, whatever issue or problem that they have, is resolved. So that is where we are. We will keep you updated on the matter.

Umashankar ji aapka jo sawal Switzerland mei jo shanti varta hai usko lekar hai, iske baare mei pahle bhi maine kaha tha, jahan tak Russia-Ukraine ka sawal hai, usmai hum logon ka rawaiyya, hamara rukh, hamara jo position hai, usse bhali bhanti aap awgat hain. Switzerland mei jo peace varta ki baat hai uspe hum logon ne dekha hai ki ek, is prakar ka pahal kiya ja raha hai, aur is par aage kya nirnay hota hai, Bharat jitne bhi madhyam hain jisse shanti bahal ki ja sakti hai, us par amal karne ke liye, usko dekhrekh karne ke liye hamesha hum log open hain. Toh yahi sthiti bani hui hai is mudde par.

[Answer in Hindi: Approximate translation] Umashankar ji, regarding your question on the peace talks in Switzerland, as I've mentioned before, our stand, our stance, and our position on the Russia-Ukraine issue are well known to you. We have seen that such an initiative is being taken in the form of peace talks in Switzerland, and regarding what decision will be made going forward, India is always open to implement, or supervise any medium through which peace can be restored. So, this has been the position on this matter.

Yeshi, your question was regarding the staff. I understand that the reduction has happened on account of the local staff. It is an administrative matter which you must take to the Canadian side. They will explain as to what are the reasons behind it, etc. As we understand, their visa processing etc., is normal. The functioning is normal. More on that, maybe, possibly, Canadian side could guide you on. On the 8th naval veteran; time and again, from this forum, I have conveyed to you that he has certain requirements to fulfil. As and when those requirements get fulfilled, he will come back. So that is where the story is.

Srinjoy, regarding the two distinguished visitors that you mentioned, their visit will be announced as and when we learn of the visit and obviously we will give you a readout. We will also inform you what the agenda is and what exactly we have on offer as far as India-U.S. talks engaging these two distinguished visitors.

Ileana: Ileana, TASS News Agency. Can I ask you please to repeat the answer on Switzerland conference in English and can I clarify a bit? So, there were media reports that India has received the invitation for the conference. Is it so? And also, a week ago or maybe more, there was also some media report that New Delhi is skeptical over whether a peace summit without Russia's participation will be effective. So what is your position? Is it like this as there were these media reports? Thank you.

Abhishek: Sir, Abhishek this side from CNN News18. My question is regarding this latest situation that is getting tense between Iran and Israel and there are reports that both sides are preparing for some major conflict this time. Have you issued any advisory to Indians who have been living in that region because there are certain countries which are trying to discourage their citizens from travelling to that side?

Manas: This is Manas from PTI. Just a little clarification. You said the people working in Indian Consulate in Sittwe were relocated to Yangon. Is it because of the precarious situation, security situation? And what about our Consulate in Mandalay in fact? Are we also planning to just evacuate them to Yangon or back to India? Thank you.

Akhilesh: Sir, I am Akhilesh Suman, independent journalist. A new government is there in Pakistan and there has been no major terrorist incident, cross-border terrorism from that side since quite long time. So has there been any formal contact between India and Pakistan at diplomatic level and do you think that the relations should be normalized in coming days?

Livia: I am Livia Rodriguez from Prensa Latina. Last Friday, the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador was raided by Ecuadorian security forces to kidnap former Vice President Jorge Glas. As Mexico is a member country of the G20 and India belongs to the troika of the current Presidency led by Brazil, we would like to know the position of India on the incident in the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador. Thank you.

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: So Ileana, regarding your question on the Swiss peace proposal; in English, we have consistently maintained that we encourage negotiated settlement of Russia-Ukraine conflict through dialogue and diplomacy. That has been our consistent support for. In this spirit, we have also participated in several mechanisms under Ukraine's peace formula, including the Copenhagen format. As far as the Switzerland peace meeting that you referred to, we understand that it will be hosted in the near future, sometime soon, a high level global peace conference is being planned. We remain open to exploring all ideas that could help achieve early restoration of peace. So that is where we are on...

Ileana: What about the invitation, you have or not?

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: I don't have any information on that, but I will come back to you and update you in regard to the invitation.

Abhishek, regarding your question on the situation in the Middle-East, in Iran and Israel, etc, we have so far not issued any advisory, but we are seized of the matter. And hopefully, whatever action is required to be taken will be taken as per the situation. Earlier, you saw when one death happened, in Israel, of an Indian national who was working in a farming settlement. Thereafter, we had issued an advisory for all Indian nationals to take due caution while they are in the country.

Manas, your question regarding Sittwe; Sittwe, of course, we have relocated our staff to Yangon because the situation in Sittwe is precarious. As far as Mandalay is concerned, our Consulate is fully functional, I would say. There's absolutely no issue there. It remains open. It remains fully functional.

Akhilesh, your question was regarding Pakistan and the new government. In the last Presser and a week before, we had some discussion. There were questions on similar lines where we talked about the conflicting messages we were getting, one message from a particular dignitary, then another message from the Spokesperson. So it was in conflicting nature. Earlier to that, you saw our Prime Minister also sent some greetings when the Prime Minister assumed office. So we are looking at all these messages that are coming from Pakistan. And we saw there was some contradiction between the two. So we'll see how things unfold.

Regarding...Prensa Latina, we have very good relations both with Ecuador and with Mexico. And we hope that the two countries can come together and resolve their differences. Thank you.

Vishal: Sir, main Vishal hoon Zee News se. Mera sawal Elon Musk ke tweet ko lekar hai, unhone apne post mei likha hai ki Pradhan Mantri se Bharat mei woh mulakat karne wale hain. Koi sambhavit tarikh aur kya iski jankari aap logon ke paas hai?

[Question in Hindi: Approximate translation] Sir, I'm Vishal from Zee News. My question is regarding Elon Musk's tweet, wherein he mentioned that he will be meeting the Prime Minister in India. Do you have any expected date or what information you have on it?

Sudhi: Sir Sudhi Ranjan from Bloomberg, associating with the Musk's question; and also, we've seen some very conciliatory statements on China coming from the top leadership in India. And we have seen a similar statement also coming from the Chinese Foreign Office. Is there a movement in the discussions between India and China to resolve the border issue that has been ongoing for the last four years?

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Vishal aapka sawal, maine bhi media ke madhyam se dekha hai ki Elon Musk Bharat aa rahe hain. Uske aage ki jankari mere pass nahi hai, kya tithi hai, kab aayenge, yeh toh humne bhi media ke madhyam se dekha hai. Toh jaise hi humko pata chalega, toh hum aapko avgat karayenge, kis prakar ka unka program hai, kahan aane wale hain, kab aane wale hain.

[Answer in Hindi: Approximate translation] Vishal, on your question, I have also seen through the media that Elon Musk is coming to India. I don't have any further information about it, such as the date or when he will arrive. We have also seen this through the media. As soon as we have any information, we will inform you about the details of his program, where is he coming, and when is he coming.

Sudhi, Your question regarding Mr. Musk, I don't have any definite answer on his visit. We have also seen some reports in this regard. Hopefully, as and when we have more details and if we have any details to share, we will do that with you. In regard to China, I would like to convey to you that the Prime Minister has spoken on this subject. Similarly, the government on several occasions has made its position very clear. So that is where it remains as far as our relations with China is concerned.

Kallol: This is Kallol from the Hindu. My question is regarding certain developments that have been taking place in Afghanistan in the last few days. "The Taliban Justice Ministry" has come up with some solutions for the property problems that the minorities were facing and now they are saying that property rights are being restored to the Hindus and the Sikhs, and a few Sikhs have already gone back including a former Member of Parliament. So, how does India view this and is there an opinion that you may offer on this?

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Like you, Kallol, we have also seen some reports. If the Taliban administration has decided to restore property rights to Hindus and Sikhs from Afghanistan, I mean, who are their nationals, of course it is something which is a positive development. That is how we look at it.

Milan: Milan from India Today. Sir, we have been witnessing recent spate of attacks on Indian students in the US. Having said that you have spoken about it earlier also from this forum, but would like an update on what is or what are the likely actions that India is taking to send out a strong message that Indian students should not be attacked.

Siddhant: Sir, I also want you to, may be, give us a figure. How many of these are Indian nationals and how many are American citizens? That is something that if you can provide us some kind of a break up. Thank you.

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Regarding very unfortunate deaths of Indian students last week or two weeks back, two of them passed away. While the death of both our nationals, students is under investigation, we, the Consulate has reached out and they have extended all possible help. Both these cases, the investigation is on, so hopefully we will come to know more about the reasons for it. Since January, I think there are some 10 odd Indian students who have passed away. In two cases I had told you earlier, in one case it was a case of homicide which was registered against a person who was a vagrant. That was most unfortunate of Vivek Saini and thereafter there was a case in which a person was shot at. So these are two cases which are being investigated from the point of view of law and order and we are pushing very hard. Our Consulates and our Mission in United States, they have strengthened their student outreach so that they can convey to the students how they should take care of themselves, what should be done and what all help, the Consulate and the Embassy can provide, as and when required. But let me tell you that several of these deaths have happened, it has not happened because of one reason, they are multi-causal in nature. So I would urge you that there are several other issues beyond justice or law and order matter which also needs to be looked into. There are some community issues also. There are cases which have happened on account of suicide and other related, mental illness related issues. That is why we want to reach out to the student community and provide them comfort. We also have a large Indian student community, upwards of 3,00,000 in the United States.

Manish: Ji main Manish Jha hoon TV9 Bharatvarsh se. 4 April ko videsh mantralaya ne ek bayaan jaari kar ke Israel aur Iran mei shanti bahali ko lekar apni baat kahi hui thi, lekin dekhne mei aa raha hai ki bahot saare aise desh jo ki Iran ya Israel ke dost hai, woh shanti ke liye aapeal kar bhi rahain hain, toh kya kyuki Bharat ke sambandh Iran aur Israel donon se hain, toh kya Bharat sarkar ki taraf se bhi appeal ki jayegi phone karke ya contact kar ke unke videsh mantralaya ya videsh mantri ko?

[Question in Hindi: Approximate translation] Sir, I am Manish Jha from TV9 Bharatvarsh. On April 4, the Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement regarding restoration of peace between Israel and Iran. However, it is being seen that several countries that are friends with Iran or Israel are also appealing for peace. Since India has relations with both Iran and Israel, will the Indian government also make an appeal by calling or contacting their Foreign Ministries or Foreign Ministers?

Speaker: Sir this is [Inaudible]. A civic bilateral body from Vietnam recently visited India and MEA hosted it. Is there any outcome or any reciprocatory visit expected?

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: So, regarding your question on Iran and Israel, our position has been very clear. We have a certain position on Israel, on the ongoing developments there. In regard to Iran also, we had the visit of our External Affairs Minister to that country. We discussed all the issues that are involved in our relationship including connectivity, including several other aspects of our bilateral relations.

Regarding your question on Vietnam, we had this meeting here. Several issues that form part of India-Vietnam relationship were discussed and this would help to further strengthen our partnership which spans a wide range of areas including people to people partnership, trade, commerce.

Speaker: Any reciprocatory visit?

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: At this point in time, we had a visit. We welcome the visit. We will look into a reciprocal visit as and when that would be required.

Kadambini: Kadambini Sharma from NDTV. Sir, would there be any MEA comment on Justin Trudeau mentioning Hardeep Nijjar while testifying in front of Enquiry Commission?

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Prime Minister Trudeau's comment on whatever he had to before his Commission, that is his part. As far as the interference issue is concerned, on that, we had made our point very clear that the allegations then, sometime back we had said, are baseless. It has no value and it is not our policy to interfere in democratic processes anywhere.

Speaker 2: The protesters in Nepal have been demanding for this monarchy to come back and these protests are actually picking up in Nepal. Have you been taking note of this entire development that is happening because Nepal happens to be a very close neighbor to ours?

Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: We have very good relations, very strong relations with Nepal but what you are talking about is something that forms part of the internal landscape of Nepal. As far as the relationship is concerned, we are doing very well on each and every front. There are several new development projects, you would have seen, which have been recently inaugurated as well. So we are very optimistic about partnership and friendship with Nepal.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your participation.

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China raps attack on Iran consulate, urges US to play constructive role

Iran Press TV

Friday, 12 April 2024 2:03 PM

China has condemned the Israeli attack on Iran's diplomatic premises in Syria and called on the United States to play "a constructive role" in the West Asia region.

In a phone call with his US counterpart Antony Blinken on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi "expressed China's strong condemnation" of a terrorist attack by Israel on Iran's diplomatic premises in the Syrian capital of Damascus on April 1, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Friday.

The top Chinese diplomat emphasized the "inviolable" right to the security of diplomatic institutions and the need to respect the sovereignty of Iran and Syria, according to the spokesperson.

"China will continue to play a constructive role in resolving the Middle East issue and help deescalate the situation," Mao said.

"The US in particular needs to play a constructive role," she added.

Blinken asked his Chinese counterpart to use Beijing's influence to dissuade Tehran from striking Israel, the US State Department said.

A senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, and his deputy General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi were among the seven Iranian martyrs of Israel's missile attack on the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus on April 1.

During a speech in Tehran on Wednesday after leading the Eid al-Fitr prayers, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the Israeli regime "must be punished and will be punished" for its deadly strike on the Iranian diplomatic premises.

Ayatollah Khamenei added, "The evil Zionist regime committed another mistake ... and that was the attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria. The consulate and diplomatic missions in any country are considered to be the territory of that country. When they attack our consulate, it means they have attacked our soil."

In a post on the social media platform X on Thursday, Iran's mission to the UN said that the United Nations Security Council's condemnation of Israel's attack in Damascus could have prevented the need for retaliation.

"This round of escalation is the latest spillover of the Gaza conflict," the Chinese spokesperson said, adding, "The pressing need now is to bring an end to the conflict as soon as possible."

She reiterated Beijing's calls on parties to the conflict to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2728 and put in place an immediate ceasefire.

The growing calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip come as more than six months of brutal Israeli aggression has killed at least 33,634 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 76,214 others.

On Friday, Gaza's health ministry said that 89 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours. An additional 120 have been wounded, totaling 76,214 since the Israeli war began in early October.

Israel launched the onslaught on October 7 after the Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsas Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.



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Key Iranian Commanders Are Being Assassinated Abroad. How Will That Affect Tehran's Proxy Network?

By Kian Sharifi April 12, 2024

Israel appears to have ramped up an assassination campaign against key Iranian generals and commanders based abroad in recent months.

Suspected Israeli air strikes have killed at least 18 members of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the elite branch of Iran's armed forces, in Syria since December.

In the latest attack, seven IRGC members, including two generals, were killed in an air strike on the Iranian Embassy's compound in Damascus on April 1.

The targeted killings, experts say, are aimed at blunting Iran's so-called "axis of resistance," its network of regional proxies and militant groups against Israel and the West.

Observers say the strategy is likely to disrupt the network's activities in the short-term, although they warned that the tactic is risky and could backfire in the long-term.

"Iran's regional network is glued together through personal, not institutional, connections," said Ali Vaez, the director of the Iran Project at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

"Eliminating commanders with decades of experience in the region and a wide network of personal contacts certainly weakens Iran's regional deterrence," he added.

'Risky Strategy'

Israel's suspected targeting of IRGC members has intensified since the outbreak of the war in the Gaza Strip in October.

In response to Israel's deadly offensive, Iranian-backed militant groups have attacked Israeli and U.S. targets across the Middle East in a show of support for Palestinians.

The conflict was triggered by an unprecedented multi-pronged attack on Israel by Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.

Suspected Israeli Attacks On Iranian Military Officials In Syria During The Gaza War

Eighteen officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) have been killed in Syria by suspected Israeli strikes since the war in Gaza began, most of them in Damascus and the nearby town of Set Zaynab.

At least three key figures of the IRGC's overseas arm, the Quds Force, have been killed in suspected Israeli attacks in recent months.

Razi Mousavi, a top Quds Force commander, was killed in an air strike near Damascus on December 25. He was responsible for coordinating Iran's military activities in Syria and Lebanon.

Among those killed in the April 1 strike was General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the Quds Force's top commander in Syria and Lebanon. Zahedi's deputy, General Mohammad Hadi Haj Rahimi, was also slain in the attack.

"There's always doubt as to whether these targeted assassinations work," said Michael Horowitz, the head of intelligence at the Bahrain-based Le Beck International consultancy.

"These decapitation strikes, when done 'at scale,' can have an impact in the short- to medium-term on Iran's ability to coordinate with its proxies, smuggle weapons into Syria and Iraq, and threaten Israel."

The attack on the Iranian Embassy's compound in Damascus came just hours after a drone strike hit a naval base in the southern Israeli port of Eilat in the Red Sea. The strike damaged a building and nearly hit an Israeli warship.

The attack was claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group that includes Iran-backed militias.

"My take is that Israel wanted to show it has escalation dominance over Iran, and that Iran cannot escalate without paying a price," said Horowitz.

"Generally, when an actor wants to up the ante, they raise the stake not by one notch but by two," he added. "Of course, this is a risky strategy. The question is whether this will work, and Iran backs down in the longer term, or [if it] actually backfires."

'Not Safe Anywhere'

The recent spate of assassinations are not the first time that key Iranian military commanders have been targeted and killed abroad.

In 2020, Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. air strike in Iraq. He was seen as the architect of the "axis of resistance" and held great influence over its members, which includes Hamas, Lebanon's Hizballah, Iraqi Shi'ite militias, Yemen's Huthi rebels, and the Syria government.

Soleimani's death led to the axis becoming more decentralized and some groups, particularly Shi'ite militias in Iraq, gaining some autonomy. But it did not significantly disrupt the Quds Force or break up the axis.

Hours after Soleimani's death, his deputy, Esmail Qaani, was promoted.

Vaez said the death of Zahedi and his deputy, however, will likely be more disruptive.

"Unlike in the case of Soleimani's killing, there is no right-hand man to immediately step in and fill the void," Vaez said. "If Iran fails to restore deterrence against Israel, no Iranian military official will be safe anywhere in Syria or even Lebanon anymore."

Iranian Retaliation

Iran has described the strike on its embassy compound as an attack on Iranian territory. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on April 10 that Israel "must be punished and will be punished."

Iran's threat to retaliate against Israel has put the region, already tense from the Gaza war, on edge.

In the past, Iran has refrained from directly hitting Israel, instead opting to increase its support for the "axis of resistance" to take the fight to Israel. But the brazen attack in Damascus may compel Iran to take direct action, experts said.

Even so, Iran is likely to avoid a major escalation with Israel, a scenario that could trigger a full-blown war between the foes and likely drag in the United States, experts said.

Recent reports suggested Iran could strike the Golan Heights -- Syrian territory occupied by Israeli forces since 1967 -- because it believes it carries less risk of Israeli retaliation. But experts say there is no guarantee of that.

"Israel has responded to attacks from Syria, for instance, that landed in the Golan, so I wouldn't exclude an Israeli response regardless," Horowitz said.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/israel-iran- assassinations-commanders-abroad-strategy/32903048.html

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Tehran Police To Launch New Phase Of Hijab Enforcement

By RFE/RL's Radio Farda April 12, 2024

Tehran police said they will launch a new phase of enforcement of the mandatory hijab law from April 13 even though the new "hijab and chastity" bill has yet to be approved by the country's Guardians Council.

Police Chief Abbasali Mohammadian announced the new phase of tightened enforcement ahead of a similar declaration made by the police chief of the southern city of Bushehr. Both said a more "vigorous enforcement" of the law will begin in all public spaces starting April 13.

Even though the Guardians Council has yet to approve the law, a necessary step to it becoming official, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave a directive during the Eid al-Fitr prayer sermon for enforcement of measures against what he called "religious norm-breaking" within Iranian society.

Khamenei also emphasized the mandatory hijab law as a "definite religious decree," underscoring the obligation of all to adhere to this and other legal decrees.

The "hijab and chastity" bill, which passed in parliament last year without public discussion, came in reaction to a wave of protests and defiance by women against being forced to wear the head covering. However, the approval process is still ongoing after some objections by the Guardians Council, including questions over how the law will be enforced.

Mehdi Bagheri, a lawmaker involved in the bill's review, said there are plans to resubmit an amended bill to the Guardians Council next week.

Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, head of Iran's judiciary, said that given Khamenei's comments, existing legal frameworks could be leveraged to enhance compliance without waiting the bill's formal approval.

The renewed focus on the mandatory hijab enforcement arrives as numerous reports suggest a decline in adherence to the head scarf among Iranian women in Tehran and other cities following widespread protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini while in custody of the morality police in 2022 for an alleged hijab violation.

The hijab became compulsory for women and girls over the age of 9 in 1981, two years after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The move triggered protests that were swiftly crushed by the new authorities. Many women have flouted the rule over the years and pushed the boundaries of what officials say is acceptable clothing.

The death of Amini released a wave of anger that has presented the Islamic regime with its biggest challenge since the revolution.

The Women, Life, Freedom protests and civil disobedience against the compulsory hijab have swept the country, involving tens of thousands of Iranians, many of whom were already upset over the country's deteriorating living standards.

Campaigns were also launched against the discriminatory law, although many have been pressured by the state and forced to leave the country.

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-new- phase-women-hijab-law/32902398.html

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Argentine Court Finds Iran, Proxies To Blame For 1994 Jewish Center Bombing

By RFE/RL's Radio Farda April 12, 2024

A high court in Argentina has ruled that Iran, and its Lebanese proxy Hizballah, are responsible for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and injured some 300 others.

In a ruling made public on April 11, Argentina's Court of Cassation declared the attack a "crime against humanity," saying it was part of a series of attacks coordinated by Iran and carried out by its proxies.

The decision, close to the 30th anniversary of the attack, described the bombings as a retaliatory act by Iran following Argentina's cancellation of nuclear cooperation agreements in the mid-1980s. The Argentine judiciary found that Lebanon's Hizballah, acting under Iran's direction, executed the attack that devastated Latin America's largest Jewish community.

This ruling underscores accusations by Argentinian prosecutors who have long claimed Iranian officials orchestrated not only the community center attack but also the prior 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people.

The court decision represents "a significant victory for the victims, their families, and everyone who has contributed to documenting this crime in pursuit of justice," said the D.C.-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran (ABC), which actively documents extrajudicial killings orchestrated by the Islamic republic both inside Iran and globally.

The court's judgment, coinciding with comments from Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei regarding an alleged Israeli attack on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus, reaffirms the fraught relations between Argentina and Iran.

The ruling also opens a path for the families of the victims of the attack to seek compensation from Tehran, which has refused to turn over Iranians convicted in Argentina for the attacks, despite arrest warrants being issued by Interpol.

Israel's foreign minister, Israel Katz, applauded the decision and said that on the back of it, Argentina should designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

"Iran is the enemy of Israel as well as of Argentina and together with Hizballah leads terrorist activity in South America and throughout the world, and this decision against the Revolutionary Guards will be an important step in stopping Iranian aggression," he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. "Now is the time to stop Iran."

Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-argentina-court- blame-jewish-center-bombing-1994/32903039.html

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Mideast tensions loom ahead of Biden meeting with Iraqi PM al-Sudani

By Patsy Widakuswara April 12, 2024

President Joe Biden is set to welcome Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Monday, with the threat of a Gaza war spillover looming in the background. Security officials are on guard against expected Iranian retaliation for an attack on its consulate in Damascus earlier this month.

On Friday, Iran-backed group Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets and drones from southern Lebanon into northern Israel. While Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged frequent cross-border fire, the timing of the attacks may trigger a significant escalation of the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, another Iran proxy.

Washington has been pressing Baghdad and other partners in the region to urge Iran to show restraint following the killing of seven Iranian military officers in an April 1 strike attributed to Israel. Tehran has made it clear that it will respond.

Biden on Friday warned Iran against any attack, saying the United States is "devoted to the defense of Israel."

A potential escalation will be front of mind for Biden and al-Sudani, who are keen to prevent Israel's war from spreading into Syria and Lebanon.

In the earlier months of the Gaza war, Iran-backed groups such as Kataib Hezbollah repeatedly targeted American troops in the region, including in an attack on a U.S. base in Jordan near the border of Iraq and Syria in January that killed three American soldiers and wounded more than 40 others.

Under pressure from Baghdad, shortly after the attack, Kataib Hezbollah announced it was suspending all its military operations against American troops.

The suspension of hostilities from Kataib Hezbollah and other anti-U.S. groups was a condition placed by the U.S. for the Iraqi prime minister's visit, said Sajad Jiyad, a fellow from the Century Foundation think tank.

Troop withdrawal

A top goal in Washington for al-Sudani is progress toward an agreement on U.S. troop withdrawal from his country before a potential change in U.S. administration after the November election.

There are approximately 2,500 U.S. troops still deployed in Iraq, part of the global coalition formed in 2014 to defeat the Islamic State terror group, mostly focusing on counterterrorism roles.

On Monday, a U.S.-Iraq military committee launched in January met to hash out a troop withdrawal timeline.

Biden administration officials have declined to provide details. However, in a background briefing to reporters Thursday, a State Department official said the U.S. has been "very satisfied" with its partnership with the Iraqi Security Forces and has seen "steady improvements" in their capabilities.

Energy independence

Biden and al-Sudani will also discuss "ongoing Iraqi financial reforms to promote economic development and progress towards Iraq's energy independence and modernization," the White House said in a statement announcing the visit.

Washington wants Iraq to wean itself off Iranian energy despite routinely providing sanctions waivers to allow Baghdad to continue importing electricity from Iran.

The State Department official said Iraqi reliance on Iranian electricity has "significantly decreased," citing an Iraq-Jordan electricity project and ongoing talks for more electricity lines between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Baghdad is also set to ask Washington to ease restrictions on the flow of revenue from Iraq's oil sales.

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the funds have been held in an Iraqi government account at the U.S. Federal Reserve System and distributed upon Baghdad's request. Since late 2022, Washington has restricted its transfers to prevent money laundering benefiting Iran and Syria.

Baghdad will highlight its efforts on that front, focusing on "reform in the financial system, especially in the bank system," Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told VOA in a recent interview.

New phase of strategic partnership

Al-Sudani said he aims for a new phase of strategic partnership that "supports the sovereignty and independence of Iraq without forgoing fruitful cooperation between Baghdad and Washington."

"Our discussions will emphasize the continued importance of our economic relationship, cooperation on combating money laundering and terrorist financing, and using political and diplomatic tools to defuse regional tensions," the Iraqi prime minister wrote in a Foreign Affairs article ahead of his visit.

"The fight against terrorism will continue to be a central topic for both of our governments."

The leaders are also set to discuss cooperation on oil and gas, Hussein said. "We are talking about American companies coming there and helping the Iraqis in these fields, as well as health, agriculture, high education."

The State Department official confirmed that Biden would also raise the case of journalist Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian citizen kidnapped in Iraq in 2023 by Kataib Hezbollah.

Jeff Seldin, Hero Rahim and Farhad Pouladi contributed to this report.

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Germany detains Iraqi couple suspected of genocide against Yazidis

By Dakhil Shammo April 12, 2024

German officials are interrogating an Iraqi couple who are suspected of committing crimes that may amount to genocide while they were associated with the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria between October 2015 and December 2017.

The German federal public prosecutor general released a statement Wednesday saying "Twana H.S. and Asia R.A. are strongly suspected of genocide according to the German Code of Crime" against Yazidis, a religious minority that was targeted by the Islamic State militant group in 2014.

The two, who were not further identified, were arrested this week in Regensburg and Roth County, Germany.

In March, the investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice issued arrest warrants for them and ordered that "they be placed in pretrial detention." It has been reported that the couple are originally from the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

Prosecutors said the couple "held a then-5-year-old Yazidi girl; they enslaved a then-12-year-old Yazidi girl as well. Twana repeatedly raped both children. To this end, Asia prepared the room and put makeup on one of the girls."

Islamic State attacked Yazidis in the Sinjar region in Iraq on August 3, 2014, with a systematic plan to commit genocide against the Yazidis because it considered them to be religious infidels.

According to Yazidi sources, the extremist group killed thousands of people and enslaved approximately 6,500 people, mainly women and children. Mirza Dinnayi, a founder of the nongovernmental organization House of Coexistence in Sinjar, told VOA there are still about 2,650 women and children missing.

IS attacks in Sinjar displaced more than 375,000 people from their homes. After more than nine years, most of them still live in a dozen camps in Iraqi Kurdistan and northeastern Syria.

More than 80 mass graves of Yazidis from Sinjar were found in the region. Half of them have not been exhumed. So far, the remains of 200 of the victims have been identified using DNA technology.

The parliaments of several countries and international institutions, including the U.S., U.K., Belgium, Netherlands, Canada, Australia, Armenia and Germany, have labeled the atrocities as genocide.

It is not the first time a court in Germany will try IS members for genocide crimes against Yazidis. On November 30, 2021, a court in Frankfurt found 29-year-old Taha al-Jumailly, an Iraqi national, guilty "of involvement in the slaughter of more than 3,000 Yazidis and enslavement of 7,000 women and girls by IS jihadists in 2014-2015." The court ruling included the murder of a 5-year-old girl the defendant had enslaved and chained to a window, leaving her to die in scorching heat.

Irfan Ortach, chairman of the Central Council of the Yazidis in Germany, said after the German parliament recognized the "massacre of Yazidis by jihadists from the Islamic State in Iraq as genocide" in January 2023, the perspective of courts in Germany changed on the role of women in the atrocities committed in Iraq and Syria.

Ortach told VOA that "prior to that there was an understanding in German courts that women had no role in the radical organization and its acts. But now they are equally subject of investigations and trials."

The Regensburg case will likely be similar to the Frankfurt case in terms of the nature of crimes and the ages of the victims.

According to the German federal prosecutor's office, before leaving Syria in November 2017, Twana H.S. and Asia R.A. handed the girls over to other IS members. Yazidi activists say both girls are now under German authorities' protection.

This story originated in VOA's Kurdish Service.

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Israel Prepared to Defend Itself Against Looming Iranian Attack - Defense Minister

Sputnik News

20240412

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Israel is ready to defend itself against Iran's looming attack on the ground and in the air in close cooperation with partners, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Friday.

"The world sees the true face of Iran, which supports and funds terror proxies across the Middle East, and now threatens to attack Israel. We are prepared to defend ourselves on the ground and in the air, in close cooperation with our partners, and we will know how to respond," Gallant said on X, following a meeting with US Central Command (CENTCOM) head Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla at the Hatzor Airbase in central Israel.

In a separate post, Gallant called the US a "true friend of Israel," adding that the two countries "stand shoulder to shoulder" in the face of common threats.

Kurilla's visit comes amid threats from Tehran to retaliate against Israel for the April 1 airstrike on the consular annex building adjacent to the Iranian Embassy in Damascus. The attack destroyed the building and killed seven members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, including two generals.

Iran said it reserved the right to retaliate against Israel. A US State Department spokesperson said on Thursday that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had called his Chinese, Turkish and Saudi counterparts asking them to urge Tehran "not to escalate."

Meanwhile, CBS reported, citing two US officials, that a major Iranian retaliation against Israel was expected as soon as this Friday.

IDF Monitors Situation in Iran, Prepares to Repel Threats in Coordination With US

The Israeli military is closely monitoring the situation in Iran and prepares to repel threats in coordination with the US military, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff LTG Herzi Halevi said on Friday.

"The IDF is very strongly prepared, both offensively and defensively, against any threat. We are at war and have been in a state of high readiness for around half a year. The IDF continues to monitor closely what is happening in Iran and different arenas, constantly preparing to deal with existing and potential threats in coordination with the United States Armed Forces. Our forces are prepared and ready at all times and for any scenario," Halevi said in a statement on Telegram.

A Sputnik

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Israel Expects Iran's Direct Attack Within Next 24 to 48 Hours - Reports

Sputnik News

20240412

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Israel is expecting a direct attack from Iran on southern or northern Israel within the next 24 to 48 hours, The Wall Street Journal has reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The report said on Thursday, citing a person briefed by the Iranian leadership, that no final decision has been made yet, although plans for an attack are being discussed.

The report also cited a US official familiar with the situation as saying on Thursday that intelligence reports of the United States indicate an Iranian strike within days, "possibly on Israeli soil."

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said it "reserves the right" to respond to the Israeli attack and "punish the aggressor." Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi also vowed that Israel would pay a "heavy price" for the strike.

US media reported earlier, citing Iranian and US intelligence sources, that Iran plans to strike dozens of sensitive targets in Israel, including energy infrastructure and various other facilities, using ballistic missiles and drones carrying explosives.

A potential direct attack from Iran on the territory of Israel would require an appropriate response, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, according to a statement by the Israeli Defense Ministry.

"The defense minister [of Israel] expressed his commitment to the security of Israeli citizens, as a direct Iranian attack on Israeli territory would require an appropriate Israeli response against Iran," the ministry said on Thursday.

In a conversation, Gallant and Austin discussed preparedness for a possible Iranian attack, and Gallant told his American counterpart that Israel "will not tolerate an Iranian attack on its territory."

On April 1, Israel carried out an airstrike on the consular annex of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, destroying the building. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said seven of its members had been killed in the attack, including two commanders. The Syrian Health Ministry said the next day that the attack had also killed four Syrians and injured 13 more.

A Sputnik

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Myanmar democracy icon Suu Kyi believed held in solitary confinement in Naypyidaw Prison

The junta is keeping her hidden because they 'can't compete with her politically,' experts say.

By Soe San Aung for RFA Burmese 2024.04.12 -- For over a year, the whereabouts of Myanmar's jailed democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has been a mystery. But a source close to her legal team told Radio Free Asia they believe she is in solitary confinement in Naypyidaw Prison, in the capital.

Each week, her legal team receives a list of items she needs in detention, which they deliver every Monday.

"Last Monday, I delivered the requested materials to Naypyidaw Prison," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. "I had to send the materials there, so I assumed she was there."

The source said that each week, they inquire about Suu Kyi's health, and authorities say she is "doing well," despite earlier reports that she was suffering from dental issues.

Members of her legal team haven't seen her since Dec. 30, 2022, at Naypyidaw Prison, when the junta barred them from further visiting her. Multiple requests to meet with her have gone unanswered.

Suu Kyi's economic policy advisor, Australian economist Sean Turnell - who was imprisoned with her for a while but later released - and her son Kim Aris also believe she is in Naypyidaw Prison, but have no proof.

Granted freedom in 2010 after years of house arrest under the former junta, Suu Kyi, 78, was arrested in the aftermath of the February 2021 coup, which removed the democratically elected government from power.

As state counsellor, she served as Myanmar's de facto leader. After the coup, she was sentenced by the junta to 33 years on 19 charges, but that sentence was later reduced to 27 years.

Keeping her hidden

Given Suu Kyi's popularity among the public, the junta wants to keep her hidden from view, said political commentator Than Soe Naing.

"As long as she is in the political arena, they cannot compete with her politically," he said. "Therefore, Aung San Suu Kyi was removed from public view without disclosing her exact location."

Attempts to contact Deputy Director General Naing Win, spokesperson for the junta's Prison Department, to inquire about Suu Kyi have gone unanswered.

In January, her son Kim Aris, who lives in the United Kingdom, received a letter from her - the first communication from her since the ban on visits, and the first time he had heard from her since before the coup that removed the democratically elected government that she was de facto leader of.

The letter largely concerned family affairs, and little else, he said.

Aris recently told RFA that she is likely being held in Naypyidaw Prison in solitary confinement, but wasn't sure, and added that the junta had ignored his repeated requests for information on her status.

"I have no reason to believe she's been moved to any form of house arrest," he said. "The only house she has is the house in [Yangon], and I know she's not there."

Too hot or too cold

Aris said he doubts his mother has access to the medical treatment she needs for the "ongoing problems with her teeth," which would make eating difficult.

If she is being held in Naypyidaw Prison, he said, she is likely enduring difficult conditions.

"It's either too hot or it's too cold," he said. "There's mosquitoes, there's rats. It's not a very nice place."

It is now the hottest time of year in Myanmar, which has been sweltering in a heat wave with temperatures climbing as high as 40 Celsius (102 Fahrenheit).

U.S. and British Embassies in Yangon did not respond to questions about Suu Kyi's whereabouts, but directed RFA Burmese to earlier statements condemning her detention and calling for her immediate release.

Last month, the junta attempted to auction off her lakeside Yangon home for US$90 million, but no bidders emerged. At that residence, she had received U.S. President Barack Obama, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Suu Kyi has seen her reputation tarnish during her time as de facto leader of the country, when she defended the military against allegations of genocide against the Rohingya people at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands.

The military's alleged atrocities included indiscriminate killings, mass rape and village torchings as more than 740,000 fled across the border to Bangladesh.

'Worst of the lot'

Turnell, Suu Kyi's economic policy advisor, was arrested after the coup on charges of espionage and he spent one year and nine months in detention, mostly in deplorable conditions in Yangon's Insein Prison, but also in Naypyidaw Prison with Suu Kyi.

Turnell told RFA that, "to the best of my knowledge, she is where I left her back in November of 2022, which is inside the main Naypyidaw Prison." He said he'd seen no evidence to support rumors that she'd since been moved to house arrest.

During the time they were together, he said, Suu Kyi was being held in a "small structure [that] had been built for her ... right in the center of the prison compound with a wall around it so that other prisoners could not contact her."

He described it as a rudimentary, two-room building, "somewhere between a proper structure and a hut," that lacked air conditioning or curtains for the windows.

Turnell said that the physical conditions, treatment and food in all of the prisons he was held in were "awful," but he called Naypyidaw "the worst of the lot," adding that its proximity to the junta generals prompted prison guards "to be that little bit harsher."

"The climate in Naypyidaw is really horrible," he said. "It's in an area that used to be a mangrove swamp ... and that's why the jail was full of insects and rodents and all of that. And, of course, that adds to the discomfort of the place."

While such conditions would be difficult for any prisoner, they could be life-threatening for someone nearly 80 years of age with existing health problems.

Junta 'waiting game'

Turnell said Suu Kyi's solitary confinement in Naypyidaw Prison is just one example of how Myanmar's current junta is "so much worse than the others ... in every aspect."

"The savagery of it, the brutality, the almost bestial nature of the things that they do is just an order of magnitude worse, it seems to me, then previous military regimes," he said. "The treatment of Daw Suu just adds to that," he added, using an honorific.

Turnell said he doubts the military regime will set her free, given the way they have treated her in the three years since the coup.

"They seem to be playing some sort of waiting game," he said. "But if they are doing that, that may be the wrong strategy for them because the future does not look bright for them at all."

Translated by Kalyar Lwin and Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

Copyright 1998-2024, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content April not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Thailand ready for any scenario on Myanmar border, foreign minister says

Thousands of new civilians have been displaced following the rebel capture of Myawaddy, according to the Karen health department.

By Kiana Duncan for RFA 2024.04.12 -- Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has discouraged Myanmar's junta from further violence in the border region after the army lost a major border town, the Thai foreign minister said Friday.

Allied rebel forces, including the Karen National Liberation Army, or KNLA, captured a final junta battalion base in Kayin state's Myawaddy on Thursday morning, effectively gaining control of the city and causing thousands to flee into the border region.

"We have sent a message to the [Myanmar junta], as a matter of fact, that we do not want to see violence there," Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said at a press conference in Mae Sot on Friday afternoon. "We are also talking to ASEAN by way of statement, as well, but certainly to get everyone back on track to the five-point consensus," he said, referring to the 2021 plan which included a call for a ceasefire and dialogue between all parties in Myanmar.

The takeover has caused neighboring Thailand's armed forces to deploy soldiers alongside Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridges, which regulate both people and goods and connect Myanmar's Myawaddy to Thailand's Mae Sot. Thailand is prepared to accommodate four different affected groups, the foreign minister said.

This includes junta soldiers, 200 of which could be seen on Thursday and Friday, sheltering in northern Myawaddy near Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge No. 2.

"At this point, there is no indication yet that they want to cross over," Parnpree said. "For Thailand, we have no issue addressing any type of entry into the country on a strictly humanitarian basis."

Parnpree said that if the soldiers request entry, they must first disarm and don civilian clothing before they can cross the border.

"Then, they will be allowed to enter Thailand as ordinary citizens," he said. "In accordance with U.N. directives and humanitarian principles, we will not send them back to a dangerous place."

Thailand allowed 600 junta personnel, including soldiers and their families, to be sent back to Myanmar through Mae Sot by plane on Sunday.

Parnpree said that in the event further conflict erupts, Thai nationals living near the border would be given shelter and access to necessities, while preparations have been made and assistance provided to Myanmar nationals to escape to safety.

According to the Karen Department for Health and Welfare, fighting in Myawaddy district has displaced 2,000 new people into Thailand's Tak border province. These people are in need of food, shelter and medicine, a spokesperson said. About 30 people have been injured, but the number of casualties is still unknown.

New fighting

Despite Parnpree's call to end the violence, residents of Myawaddy told RFA Burmese that the KNLA and other rebel forces, including the anti-junta People's Defense Force, or PDF, carried out attacks on the soldiers, who had "dug in" at the bridge.

"At around 7 p.m., the PDF dropped two bombs into the area of Friendship Bridge No. 2 with a drone ... and both bombs exploded," said one resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns. "The junta soldiers trapped at the truck terminal near the bridge returned fire."

The resident said junta soldiers near the bridge fled to the bank of the Moei River, which separates the two countries, and tried to cross into Thailand, "but the Thai army was patrolling along the bank and wouldn't allow them in."

He said the junta later conducted two airstrikes on the base formerly occupied by its soldiers in Myawaddy.

RFA was not immediately able to independently confirm the drone attack or the airstrike, or whether there were any casualties resulting from the fighting.

A member of the PDF, who also declined to be named, told RFA that the junta has sent a convoy of armored vehicles from Hpa-an township to Myawaddy as part of a bid to retake the town.

The military regime has not released any statement regarding the situation in Myawaddy.

Attempts by RFA to reach Colonel Min Kyaw Thu, the junta's security and border affairs minister for Kayin state, and junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun for comment went unanswered Friday.

State of trade

Parnpree also said Friday that trade between the two countries has already been impacted by the conflict in Myanmar. Thailand closed the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge No. 2 on Thursday, stopping the flow of commodities across the border, and the foreign minister said it will not be reopened until "peace is restored."

According to the junta's ministry of commerce, the value of trade through Myawaddy between April 2023 and February 2024 amounted to US$1 billion, down by more than 40% from US$1.9 billion a year earlier.

Traders in Myawaddy told RFA that the Myanmar kyat had already lost value to the Thai baht and said they expect the price of goods imported from Thailand to soar.

While trade also flows across the border from Thailand via the Myanmar towns of Tachilek, Kawthaung, Htee Khee and Mawdaung, Myawaddy sees the largest volume by far, they said.

Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes, Mike Firn and Elaine Chan.

This story has been updated to include additional comments by Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara related to allowing junta soldiers to cross the border and the state of trade at the border, as well as details on the latest fighting between rebel forces and junta soldiers sheltering at Friendship Bridge No. 2.

Copyright 1998-2024, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content April not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Tajik Foreign Minister Speaks Out About Treatment Of Crocus City Hall Suspects

By RFE/RL's Tajik Service April 12, 2024

Tajikistan's foreign minister on April 12 condemned the treatment of the mostly Tajik suspects in last month's terrorist attack on a Moscow-area concert hall that killed more than 140 people.

Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, speaking in Minsk at a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), also criticized what he said was a media campaign to slander Tajiks.

After the attack on Crocus City Hall on March 22, several Tajiks were arrested and showed signs of abuse when they appeared in Basmanny District Court in Moscow. The four accused gunmen had bruised and swollen faces and showed other signs of having been severely beaten. There were unconfirmed reports that one of them had his ear cut off during his arrest.

"The use of torture in the form of bodily mutilation is unacceptable," Muhriddin was quoted as saying on April 12. "The price of confessions extracted in this way is well known to everyone."

Muhriddin said that Russian security authorities should respect the rights of the Tajik suspects and adhere to the principles and norms of international law in their investigations into the massacre, especially regarding the presumption of innocence, the prohibition of torture, and ill-treatment of detainees.

In addition, Muhriddin condemned the surge of xenophobia in Russia after the attack, saying that as a result of an "ill-conceived information campaign" a "negative perception is being formed toward citizens of Tajikistan and Tajiks."

Of the 11 men in custody, 10 are Tajik; one is reported to be a Kyrgyz-born Uzbek man who has Russian citizenship.

Some experts and Tajiks living in Russia had previously criticized Tajik authorities for not speaking out about the rights of Tajik citizens and choosing to remain silent in the face of torture of suspects and mistreatment of Tajiks.

The attack was Russia's worst terrorist attack in two decades. Responsibility was claimed by an offshoot of the Islamic State extremist group.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/tajikistan-treatment- criticized-crocus-suspects/32903182.html

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Defence Staff Chief of the Russian Armed Forces holds a meeting of CSTO Military Committee

12.04.2024

Chief of General Staff General of the Russian Armed Forces - First Deputy Defence Minister Valery Gerasimov chaired a teleconference of the CSTO Military Committee.

The meeting was also attended by delegations from the General Staffs of the armed forces of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, as well as representatives of the CSTO Joint Staff and the CSTO Secretariat.

During the meeting, the sides assessed the military and political situation in the area of responsibility of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, threats and security challenges faced by the CSTO member states, and outlined ways of further interaction in the military sphere.

'We agreed to continue work towards neutralising existing threats and improving the Organisation's military potential,' General of the Army Valery Gerasimov said.

In addition, the CSTO general staff delegations paid particular attention to the issues of conducting joint operational and combat training activities.

The main exercises this year will be the Unbreakable Brotherhood exercises in the Republic of Kazakhstan involving the CSTO Peacekeeping Forces. Also on the territory of the Kyrgyz Republic, there will be the Interaction joint exercises involving the Collective Rapid Reaction Force, the Echelon exercises involving combat service support forces, and the Search exercises involving reconnaissance units. The Rubezh 2024 exercises involving the Collective Rapid Reaction Force is to take place in the Central Asian Region.

'We have agreed on further work on developing the CSTO Collective Air Forces and establishing air defence in the Central Asian region of collective security', General of the Army Valery Gerasimov noted.

In addition, the session featured modern approaches to organise the use of unmanned aerial vehicles and counter them by electronic warfare based on the experience gained during the special military operation in Ukraine.

'We have arranged to introduce the combat experience into CSTO training,' the head of the Russian General Staff said.

Summing up the results of the CSTO Military Committee, Chief of General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces - First Deputy Defence Minister of the Russian Federation General of the Army Valery Gerasimov noted that it took place in a business and constructive manner, and its results will contribute to the continued development and strengthening of the military security of the Organisation's member states.

Department for Media Affairs and Information

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Assets worth Rs 411 cr seized by ED till now in PDS, cash-for-job rackets in Bengal The ED has so far seized assets to the tune of Rs 411 crore in the two cases pertaining to the cash-for-school job scam and the ration distribution racket in West Bengal. Sources said that at Rs 230.60 crore, the value of the assets seized in the cash-for-school-job case is higher than in the PDS case.



The seizures mainly pertain to the personal assets and properties of the former convener of the screening committee of the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC), Santi Prasad Sinha and arrested middleman Prasanna Roy.



In the PDS case the value of the total assets seized by the ED is around Rs 150 crore.



These assets belong to former West Bengal Food and Supplies Minister, Jyotipriya Mallick and three other arrested accused in the case, namely Shankar Adhya, Bakibur Rahman and Biswajit Das.



In both cases the assets confiscated were largely in the form of land or apartments, some of which were even located outside West Bengal.



Some fixed deposits and savings account deposits have also been confiscated by the ED.



Sources added the confiscated property by the ED included two apartments owned by Jyotipriya Mallick, one of which is in Kolkata and the other in Bolpur-Santiniketan in Birbhum District.



On Friday, the ED had submitted its third supplementary charge sheet at a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata in the PDS case, where the central agency mentioned that Rs 350 crore was diverted to Dubai through the hawala route via the foreign exchange entity owned by arrested businessman Biswajit Das.




Ma-Xi meeting outlet for de-escalating tensions: Academic

ROC Central News Agency

04/12/2024 03:58 PM

Taipei, April 12 (CNA) The meeting between Taiwan's former President Ma Ying-jeou () and Chinese leader Xi Jinping () in Beijing on Wednesday offered an outlet for de-escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait, an academic said Friday.

In particular, it helped soften radical calls within China to reunify Taiwan by force, argued Chang Wu-ueh (), an associate professor at Tamkang University's Graduate Institute of China Studies, at a forum in Taipei on the meeting and the United States-Japan-Philippines Leaders Summit.

Chang said the encounter gave Xi a chance to showcase his policy of peaceful exchanges and unification both internationally and within China, offering him a "face-saving exit," without which he would have to continue adopting a "tough" stance against Taiwan.

That could lead meetings between Ma and Xi to become the norm, as Xi needs a mechanism to tout his peaceful reunification goal and to alienate the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Chang argued.

Ma, who last year made an 11-day trip to China during which he met with numerous Chinese officials, was an ideal candidate for such a mechanism to work, Chang said, and with 2025 the 10th anniversary of their first meeting, the two were likely to meet again next year.

Their first meeting in Singapore in 2015 came while Ma was still president of the Republic of China, Taiwan's formal name.

Chang was also not worried about possible attempts by China to act disruptively before Taiwan's President-elect Lai Ching-te () takes office on May 20.

Although communication between Taiwan and China ground to a halt after the DPP returned to power in 2016, communication channels between China and the U.S. and between Taiwan and the U.S. are still open, Chang said.

With these "safety valves" in place, any risks that come with attempts by Beijing to ratchet up tensions in the Taiwan Strait before May 20 will be "manageable and without any surprises," he predicted.

The conference also touched on the summit between U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on April 11.

Su Tzu-yun (), a research fellow at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said it cemented the U.S.-Japan-Philippines joint security mechanism, which forms part of a larger defense network against China.

He cited discussions between Biden and Kishida about what is being called the greatest upgrade to the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan since 1960, which will see the two countries engage in more coordinated command between U.S. forces stationed in Japan and the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

This security network can operate in tandem with the existing U.S.-United Kingdom-Australia and U.S.-Japan-South Korea security mechanisms to form a comprehensive regional security network against China, Su said.

(By Sean Lin and Henry Wu)

Enditem/ls









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Commentary: Xi's meeting with Ma injects positive energy to relations across Taiwan Strait

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 08:01, April 12, 2024

BEIJING, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The recent meeting of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, with a Taiwan delegation led by Ma Ying-jeou has injected stability and positive energy into the relations across the Taiwan Strait.

Wednesday's meeting in Beijing marked the first time Xi had received Taiwan compatriots and delivered an important speech since the 20th CPC National Congress in late 2022.

The meeting took place amidst a complex and challenging situation in the Taiwan Strait. "Taiwan independence" separatists, in collusion with external forces, have made provocations to seek independence, further escalating tensions in the Strait.

Xi's speech, filled with deep affection and goodwill towards Taiwan compatriots, will surely further unite compatriots on both sides of the Strait to achieve national reunification.

Throughout its development journey, the Chinese nation has created a history demonstrating the inseparable connection between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Although the mainland and Taiwan are yet to be reunified, the fact that both belong to one China and one nation has never changed, and national reunification remains an irreversible trend.

Confronted with the activities of "Taiwan independence" separatists colluding with foreign forces to undermine the development of their shared homeland, every member of the Chinese nation must unite in resolve to oppose and crack down on such actions.

Compatriots across the Taiwan Strait should join hands to create a bright future of peaceful reunification, firmly holding the destiny of the Chinese nation in their own hands.

During the meeting, Xi emphasized that improving the well-being of people across the Strait is the driving force and objective behind efforts to advance cross-Strait relations.

He underscored the mainland's genuine sincerity and goodwill in benefiting Taiwan compatriots.

The mainland will continue enhancing systems and policies aimed at improving the well-being of Taiwan compatriots, maintaining its commitment to ensuring a better life for people on both sides of the Strait.

The mainland has always kept its doors open to Taiwan compatriots, actively fostering cross-Strait exchanges, interactions, and mutual understanding.

It also unites all sectors of Taiwan society for concerted efforts to eliminate political obstacles and facilitate normal and regular exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Recognizing the pivotal role of youth in advancing cross-Strait relations, the mainland will implement more vigorous policies and measures to facilitate the sound development and success of youth across the Taiwan Strait.

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PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan Apr. 12, 2024

ROC Ministry of National Defense

2024/04/12



PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan

1.Dateis



6 to 6 a.m. (UTC+8) Thursday to Friday, Apr. 11-12



2.PLA activitiesis

14 PLA aircraft and 8 PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 9 of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan's southwestern ADIZ. ROC Armed Forces have monitored the situation and employed CAP aircraft, Navy vessels, and coastal missile systems in response to the detected activities.



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New procurement rules help rapid fitting of military laser to Royal Navy ships

following defence procurement reforms, with DragonFire to be on Royal Navy warships from 2027.

12 April 2024

The cutting-edge DragonFire laser will be installed on Royal Navy warships for the first time from 2027 - far quicker than previously envisaged thanks to new defence procurement model which came into force this week.

Able to fire at any target visible in the air at around A10 a shot and with an accuracy equivalent to hitting a pound coin from a kilometre away, the powerful DragonFire weapon will provide highly effective defence against drone and missile threats.

Laser weapons were originally expected to be rolled out to UK armed forces in 2032.

But under a raft of reforms to defence procurement that came into effect this week and prioritisation within Defence, the weapon will now be operational around five years earlier than planned.

A key part of the new reforms is delivering a minimum deployable capability quickly to personnel and finalising development once in-service, ensuring that personnel can access the tools they need for an evolving threat.

Under contract from Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), on behalf of the UK MOD, DragonFire has been developed in collaboration with UK industry partners MBDA, Leonardo and QinetiQ.

Defence Secretary, Grant Shapps said:

In a more dangerous world, our approach to procurement is shifting with it. We need to be more urgent, more critical and more global. Our widespread reforms will deliver the latest kit and weaponry for our Armed Forces faster and help identify export opportunities that can boost the UK economy. DragonFire shows the best of the UK at the forefront of military technology, and we will not delay in getting it in the hands of our military to face down the threats we're facing.

The reforms will ensure more consistent delivery for the UK's Armed Forces, helping avoid previous challenges where programmes have been over-complex, over-budget, and over time.

In addition to the minimum deployable capability, the new reforms include:

New checks and balances such as the UK Strategic Command-based Integration Design Authority providing expert advice on integration. This will improve coherence and avoid some of the challenges faced in previous procurements.

Greater empowerment of defence scientists, government export leads, finance experts and industry partners to challenge and shape proposals before they receive the go-ahead.

The new model will set programmes up for success by consulting a wide range of experts early in the acquisition process. This will enable the MOD to take the right, expert-informed decisions from the start, saving time later on.

Increased focus on exportability at the start of a new programme, to prioritise developing kit that can be sold to allies globally.

Earlier engagement with the UK defence industry to ensure quicker delivery of kit into the hands of our Armed Forces.

Laser-directed energy weapons can engage targets at the speed of light and use an intense beam of light to cut through the target, leading to structural failure or more impactful results if the warhead is targeted.

DragonFire has the potential to be a long-term low-cost alternative to certain tasks missiles currently carry out, such as shooting down attack drones.Investing in this cutting edge laser technology puts the UK at the forefront of defence capabilities. Moreover, playing a significant part in reducing the challenges faced by traditional stockpiles.

Dstl's Chief Executive Paul Hollinshead said:

This is excellent news, and a real step forward in enabling operational advantage at pace for UK Defence. Dstl is all about preparing for the future and the DragonFire technology is a great example of that. Our scientists along with industry partners have worked tirelessly to bring laser technology to where it is today, one which I am proud to say is a UK sovereign capability.

The new procurement model approach is in addition to avoiding competition between the military Services for programmes to be approved and encouraging people to speak up in the face of emerging challenges for delivery - a key recommendation of Clive Sheldon KC's report into the AJAX programme.

DE&S, the MOD's procurement arm, has recently redesigned the way it operates so it can get equipment into the hands of our armed forces faster. Its new operating model features a single-entry point which will engage with the military earlier in the process, to help set up projects for success.

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Government proposes SEK 300 million to Swedfund to invest in Ukraine

Government Offices of Sweden

12 April 2024

Increased investment and a sustainable business sector are crucial to support the reconstruction of Ukraine. In the 2024 Spring Amending Budget, the Government therefore proposes a capital injection of SEK 300 million to Swedfund to increase investment in Ukraine.

Support to Ukraine is one of the most important priorities for the Government and the cooperating parties. There is a great need for investment to support the reconstruction of Ukraine, job creation and increased access to crucial goods and services. Swedfund has extensive experience of investment in difficult contexts, and well-established working methods to assess and manage risks linked to investments. In the light of Russia's full-scale invasion, the risk scenario in Ukraine remains complex and the financial risks are substantial

"The capital injection of SEK 300 million contributes to developing a strong and sustainable Ukrainian business sector. Swedfund is already an important actor in Swedish development cooperation. Through the capital injection, we will increase Swedfund's opportunities to invest in Ukraine, and strengthen both Ukraine's resilience and its reconstruction," says Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Johan Forssell.

Swedfund's assignment is to contribute to the objective of international development assistance - to create conditions to improve the lives of people living in poverty and oppression - by investing in the development of sustainable businesses in low- and middle-income countries. In addition to the capital injection, the Government and the Sweden Democrats have previously approved special funds to Swedfund for feasibility studies in Ukraine in 2024. These studies are key to developing sustainable projects and contribute to business opportunities for Swedish businesses that offer sustainable solutions.

The Government proposes that the Riksdag authorises the Government to approve a capital injection of a maximum of SEK 300 million to Swedfund for investment in Ukraine in 2024, using funds from Sweden's international development cooperation.

The Government intends to present this proposal to the Riksdag in the 2024 Spring Amending Budget. The proposal is based on an agreement between the Government and the Sweden Democrats.



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IAEA chief calls for "maximum restraint" over Zaporizhzhia attacks

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 09:31, April 12, 2024

VIENNA, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday called for "maximum restraint" after Sunday's drone attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which he said have significantly increased the risk of a nuclear accident.

"Direct attacks against the ZNPP marked a major escalation of the nuclear safety and security dangers in Ukraine," IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi told a special meeting of the agency's 35-nation Board of Governors.

The meeting was convened at the request of Russia and Ukraine to discuss the attacks on ZNPP, which hit the reactor dome of Unit 6 of the plant, and caused at least one casualty. They were the first attacks since November 2022 to directly target the ZNPP.

Although Grossi said that Sunday's attacks "fortunately did not compromise nuclear safety in a serious way", he noted that another drone attack on the ZNPP on Tuesday was "an ominous indication of an apparent readiness to continue these attacks."

The IAEA chief called on military decision-makers to abstain from any action violating the IAEA's principles, to prevent a nuclear accident and ensure the integrity of the ZNPP. He also urged the international community to work towards de-escalating the situation at the plant, and said he would brief the United Nations Security Council on the matter next week.

Russia and Ukraine have both accused the other of staging the attacks on the ZNPP. Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that the recent shelling of the plant was "a very dangerous provocation", with negative consequences. However, Ukraine has denied any involvement in the drone attacks.

The IAEA has not taken a position on who was to blame.

The ZNPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, with a total capacity of six gigawatts. At the end of February 2022, Russia took control of the facility.

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Ukraine's Three-Front War: Advancing Russians, Depleted Artillery, Exhausted Troops

By Mike Eckel April 12, 2024

The column of Russian armored vehicles carefully approached Chasiv Yar from the east, threading its way along dirt roads, skirting patches of forest, and avoiding Ukrainian-laid minefields while dodging incoming drones and artillery.

The April 4 assault on the Donetsk region city was repelled, according to Ukrainian commanders, open-source intelligence, and reports from soldiers on the ground. But more troublingly for Ukraine's beleaguered frontline troops was what the grainy black-and-white drone video released by Ukraine's 67th Separate Mechanized Brigade showed: a potential weakness in Ukraine's defense, hastily built in some cases, and smarter tactics by Russian forces than earlier in the invasion.

Chasiv Yar is slowly being wiped from the map as Russian jets drop heavy, guided bombs that flatten apartment blocks and elite airborne assault units edge into the city's eastern outskirts.

Ukrainian forces are exhausted, starved for artillery shells, desperate for reinforcements and rotations, struggling to hold back Russia's offensive in several locations across the 1,200-kilometer front line. After the loss of the bigger city of Avdiyivka in February, Chasiv Yar is the next crucible, for Ukraine's troops and for the West's will to arm and support them.

"The battle for Chasiv Yar...is a litmus test for both sides," according to Frontelligence Insight, a Ukrainian open-source research organization run by a Ukrainian reserve officer that analyzed the 64th Brigade drone video. "If Ukraine were to lose control of Chasiv Yar, it could have dire consequences as it would provide a direct route for the Russian Army to advance towards key cities in the Donbas, such as Kostyantynivka and Kramatorsk."

Chasiv Yar "is one of the hottest spots on the front line," said Oleksiy Melnyk, a retired Ukrainian Air Force officer and former pilot, as Russia moves closer to the goal of occupying the entirety of the two eastern Ukrainian regions that make up the Donbas: Donetsk and Luhansk.

"That's why it's where the most intensive fighting is nowadays, and I assume that in the next weeks, there will be even bigger-scale attempts to capture Chasiv Yar," Melnyk, now a researcher at the Razumkov Center, a Kyiv think tank, told RFE/RL.

A Faltered Counteroffensive

Last summer, Ukraine pinned its hopes for a decisive shift on the battlefield on a major counteroffensive, armed by Western weaponry and bolstered by nine newly formed, NATO-trained brigades.

The effort faltered by late fall, however. Ukrainian soldiers ran into  buzz saw of extensively prepared Russian defenses: trenches, tank traps, "dragon's teeth," and minefields, collectively known as Surovikin Lines, after the Russian general who ordered them. An ambitious effort to establish a bridgehead on the Dnieper's eastern bank, break though Russia's defenses in the south, and draw its troops away from other locations sputtered.

Russian commanders, meanwhile, redoubled their effort to capture Avdiyivka, an industrial city on the cusp of the regional administrative city of Donetsk. Despite heavy initial losses of tanks and armor, Russian forces utilized "meat grinder" assaults by prison-inmate infantry units, along with extensive use of glide bombs -- air-dropped, high-explosive munitions outfitted with satellite guidance systems and pop-out wings -- and captured the city on February 17.

The loss was a blow for Ukraine -- and highlighted problems with its tactics, equipment, and strategy for personnel.

Experts criticized civilian and military leaders for not prioritizing the construction of defenses, like the Russians had.

Grumbling from Ukrainian commanders about the need for more soldiers grew louder. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy replaced the country's commander in chief, General Valeriy Zaluzhniy, in early February, in part because of Zaluzhniy's public comments that the government needed to find more soldiers.

After months of wrangling, Ukraine's parliament this week passed legislation that formalized a new system for mobilizing personnel, aiming to replenish the country's exhausted forces.

Ukraine has disclosed little about the extent of its casualties since Russia launched its mass invasion in February 2022. This past February, Zelenskiy made his first official acknowledgment of the country's combat losses, saying 31,000 troops had been killed in the previous two years. U.S. officials said last August that the total number of dead and wounded on both sides was roughly 500,000 -- a figure that has climbed since.

Russia is estimated to have suffered as many as 350,000 dead and wounded, according to Western officials.

"I don't remember a day when we did not have work at our triage unit," Volodymyr, a senior lieutenant and medic with the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade, deployed in the Donetsk region, said by telephone. He asked not to give his surname.

"The situation is more controlled than in 2022, but people are dying every day," he said. "We lack the life-saving equipment to quickly and safely evacuate people from the front line, such as armored vehicles and unmanned platforms."

Undermanned, Outgunned

Located on higher ground relative to surrounding areas, Chasiv Yar is seen as a key stepping stone to Kostyantynivka, a town to the south where a major rail line is located. Russian capture of that site would put pressure on two bigger cities to the north: Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.

It's not just a lack of soldiers that Ukraine is struggling with. Commanders are grappling with a severe shortage of weaponry -- everything from rifle ammunition to artillery shells. The shortages are overwhelmingly due to the inability of Ukraine's largest supplier, the United States, to agree to fund and ship new tranches of weapons.

"Ammunition is our sore spot. We have constant shortages," one Ukrainian soldier deployed near Avdiyivka who asked to be identified by his call sign, Odin, said in an interview with Current Time. "For example, last spring in this area, the situation with ammunition was much better. We probably fired six or seven times more rounds then. We are very dependent on the political situation, and very dependent on aid."

Ukrainian troops report having to ration artillery shells, with Russian forces currently firing five times as many shells. U.S. Army General Chris Cavoli, the head of U.S. European Command, told lawmakers this week that that number would go up to 10-to-1 "in a matter of weeks."

"We're not talking about months. We're not talking hypothetically," he said.

Despite strong backing from the White House and both Democrats and most Republicans in Congress, a new $60 billion package of new weaponry has been bogged down by a small group of Republicans who are conditioning its passage on major reforms to U.S. immigration and border policies.

"There is never enough ammunition," said Lieutenant Serhiy Skibchyk, a press officer from the 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade, deployed near Robotyne, in the southern Zaporizhzhya region. "If our allies continue to delay the supply of ammunition, we will have to choose between holding territory and [saving] the lives of our soldiers."

Zelenskiy made another public appeal for U.S. elected officials to approve the aid package on April 7, arguing that a Ukrainian defeat would lead to threats, or outright attacks, on other European nations.

"It is necessary to specifically tell Congress that if Congress does not help Ukraine, Ukraine will lose the war," he said during a meeting of an international fund-raising campaign called United24.

"If Ukraine loses the war, other states will be attacked," he said.

'Critical Juncture'

Ukrainian officials have also pleaded for anti-aircraft missiles, in particular those used in the U.S.-manufactured Patriot system, which are seen as effective against Russia's hypersonic ballistic and cruise missiles. At least two systems have been deployed, limiting their ability to defend crucial targets; Zelenskiy has asked for 25 to be supplied.

"We are at a critical juncture on the ground that is beginning to be able to impact not only morale of the Ukrainians that are fighting, but also their ability to fight," Representative Mike Turner, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told CBS News. "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin knows this. This is obviously an area where we cannot allow Putin to win. Our European allies are saying that Putin's goal is a war beyond Ukraine with Europe. We need to stop him in Ukraine."

Ukraine may get a small reprieve, in the form of artillery shipments spearheaded by the Czech Republic, which rallied a group of nations to purchase shells from other countries. The current head of Ukraine's forces, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy, said the country was also ramping up its ability to repair howitzers within Ukraine.

"The only advantage that Ukrainian forces have, which helps to mitigate this significant disproportion, is the quality of the Western weapons; not just guns, or artillery itself, but other systems that allow Ukraine to reach the same effect using less in number," Melnyk, the former air force pilot, told RFE/RL.

Still, Ukrainian and Western officials warn that Russia may be gearing up for a new offensive in the coming months. Russian commanders have been able to continue recruiting men, relying on high wages and other lucrative compensation.

Last month, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces said Russia was prepared to deploy up to 100,000 troops by the summer, and fears have mounted that Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, could be a primary objective.

"It will not necessarily be an offensive; perhaps they will replenish their units that lost combat capability. But there is a possibility that at the beginning of the summer they may have certain forces to conduct offensive operations," Lieutenant General Oleksandr Pavlyuk said on Ukrainian television.

Aleksander Palikot contributed to this report from Kyiv.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-chasiv-yar- invasion-war/32902927.html

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Netherlands Pledges Additional 1 Billion Euros In Military Support For Ukraine

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service April 12, 2024

The Netherlands will provide Ukraine with an additional 1 billion euros ($1.06 billion) in military support this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced on April 12.

The extra support takes the total sum for this year to 3 billion euros, caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on X, formerly Twitter.

The Netherlands, which has been one of the leading donors of military support to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022, also decided to make 3 billion euros available for military support next year in addition to 400 million euros in economic aid that is also intended to help pay for vital repairs to energy infrastructure.

Rutte said the Netherlands will continue working with international partners to do everything possible to expedite the provision of more munitions and air-defense equipment, adding that Amsterdam is working on this closely with Denmark and the Czech Republic, among other countries.

"Ukraine must win this fight. For their security and ours," he said.

Rutte said he discussed the new aid in a phone call with Zelenskiy and promised to work on accelerating the supply of weapons and ammunition.

"Thank you, Mark, thank you, Dutch people! This is an exemplary case of support for Ukraine," Zelenskiy said on Telegram following the phone call.

Zelenskiy also said he and Rutte discussed working with partners to accelerate the supply of shells for artillery, ammunition, and air-defense systems to Ukraine.

Just last month, Zelenskiy and Rutte signed a package of aid during a visit Rutte made on March 1 to Kharkiv. Zelenskiy put the value of that arms pact at 2 billion euros.

Zelenskiy also noted at the time that the Netherlands belongs to a coalition of states supplying Kyiv with F-16 fighter jets and said then that he and Rutte agreed to speed up the process of supplying Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets. Zelenskiy has said F-16s are expected to be part of Ukraine's forces later this year.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/netherlands-ukraine- military-support-1-billion-euros/32903095.html

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Russia Strikes More Ukraine Energy Infrastructure

By RFE/RL April 12, 2024

Russia on April 12 kept up the pressure on Ukraine's energy infrastructure with a fresh series of drone and missile strikes that caused additional damage to an already battered electricity grid amid dwindling Ukrainian air-defense capabilities as critical Western military aid fails to materialize.

Russia in recent days has launched massive air and drone strikes on Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure, causing casualties and major damage.

The new strikes on April 12 targeted an energy facility in the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk, which sustained serious damage after catching fire following a Russian drone attack early on April 12, the Ukrainian military and a regional official said.

The energy facility was not identified in the military report, which only said debris from four downed Russian drones fell on the territory of a "critical" infrastructure facility in the Kryvorizka district, setting it on fire.

Ukrainian firefighters managed to put out the fire, but the extent of the damage could not be immediately assessed, regional head Serhiy Lysak said.

Meanwhile, Kherson regional administration head Oleksandr Prokudin said on April 12 that overnight Russian strikes on the southern Ukrainian region damaged a critical infrastructure facility, without identifying which one.

Prokudin said 15 settlements across the region were shelled, adding that residential areas were targeted in particular. He said that no casualties were immediately reported but that several houses had been destroyed.

Ukrainian air-defense systems shot down 16 out of the 17 drones launched by Russia at six regions on April 12, Ukraine's Air Force said in a message on social media.

"The Defense Forces of Ukraine shot down 16 Shahed-type attack UAVs within the Mykolayiv, Odesa, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsya, and Khmelnytskiy regions," the Facebook post said.

On April 11, the Trypilska power plant, a major electricity supplier for the Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Zhytomyr regions located some 50 kilometers south of the Ukrainian capital, was destroyed by Russian missiles.

The strike, which left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity, appeared to highlight Ukraine's waning capabilities to repel massive aerial barrages being launched by Moscow.

Ukraine has been pleading with its allies to speed up efforts to cover drastic shortfalls in ammunition and weaponry in recent weeks as a massive $60 billion aid package remains on hold in Washington as Republican lawmakers refuse to approve it without an agreement on deep domestic policy changes.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, during a visit to Lithuania on April 11, pleaded with Ukraine's allies to give the embattled country more air-defense systems.

"The main task for now is to make every effort to strengthen our air-defense system, to meet the urgent needs of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, and to consolidate international support so that we can overcome Russian terror," Zelenskiy wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-attack-ukraine-energy- facility/32902271.html

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Statement by Russian Defence Ministry

12.04.2024

At around 13:50, the Russian Armed Forces have foiled the Kiev regime's attempt to launch a terrorist attack using a fixed-wing UAV against the facilities in the Russian Federation.

One Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle was shot down by alerted air defence systems over Bryansk region.

Department for Media Affairs and Information

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US President Joe Biden US President Joe Biden has told reporters at the White House that he expects Iran will attack Israel "sooner than later," media reports said. "I don't want to get into secure information but my expectation is sooner than later," Biden said to reporters on Friday when asked how imminent an Iranian attack on Israel would be, CNN reported.



Asked what his message to Iran is right now, the President said, "Don't."



In response to more shouted questions from reporters in the room, asking if American troops were at risk -- Biden returned to the podium and said that the US is "devoted" to the defence of Israel.



"We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel, we will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed," Biden said.



The US has been on high alert for a significant Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel in recent days as fears grow of a wider regional war, CNN reported.



There remains a "real," "credible" and "viable" threat of Iran launching strikes, the White House said on Friday, following Israel's attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria last week that killed three Iranian generals.



Biden, who warned this week that Iran was threatening a "significant attack" on Israel, has been receiving constant updates on the situation from his national security team.



The US and several other countries, including Britain and France, issued new travel guidelines for government employees in Israel as the Iranian threat loomed.



"We're watching this very, very closely," said John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, who declined to provide information about the expected timing of the threat.



The US will attempt to intercept any weapons launched at Israel if it's feasible to do so, two US officials told CNN, an indication of the level of ongoing cooperation between the two militaries.



US Navy forces in the Red Sea have previously intercepted long-range missiles launched from the Houthis in Yemen towards Israel. US forces in Iraq and Syria could also potentially intercept drones and rockets targeting northern Israel, depending on the location from which they're launched, CNN reported.



The Defence Department is also moving additional assets to the Middle East region "to bolster regional deterrence efforts and increase force protection for US forces," a US Defence official told CNN, as Israel and the US brace for a potential Iranian attack.



The Pentagon has been working specifically to bolster air defences for the US troops stationed in Iraq and Syria who came under attack by Iran-backed proxy forces over 100 times between October and February. In January, three US service members were killed when a drone got through US air defences at the Tower 22 base in Jordan.



The US is not anticipating that Iran or its proxies will attack US forces as part of its retaliation but is moving the assets just in case.



"It would be imprudent if we didn't take a look at our own posture in the region to make sure that we're properly prepared," Kirby added.



CNN reported last week that the US was on high alert and actively preparing for an attack by Iran targeting Israeli or American assets in the region. Officials said such an attack could come within the week.



CNN reported earlier this week that an Iranian attack on Israel would likely be carried out by Iranian proxy forces in the region rather than by Iran directly, according to two people familiar with US intelligence on the matter.



Tehran is wary of a dramatic escalation in the fighting, the sources said, and does not want to give the US or its allies an excuse to attack Iran directly.



The sources said Iran and its proxy militia groups do not appear poised to attack US troops or other assets in the region, but they noted that Iran does not have perfect command and control over all its proxy forces, so the possibility of an attack on US assets cannot be completely ruled out, CNN reported.



The sources told CNN that US intelligence assesses that Iran has urged several of its proxy militia groups to simultaneously launch a large-scale attack against Israel, using drones and missiles, and that they could attack as soon as this week.



"The threat is very clear and credible," said one of the sources.



"They have put the pieces in place to conduct the attack now. Just waiting for the right time."



Biden spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, about the threat of an Iranian attack during a telephone call last week.



A direct strike on Israel by Iran is one of the worst-case scenarios the Biden administration is bracing for, as it would guarantee rapid escalation of an already tumultuous situation in the Middle East. Such a strike could lead to the Israel-Hamas war broadening into a wider, regional conflict -- something Biden has long sought to avoid, CNN reported.



Biden is receiving briefings multiple times a day on the situation, Kirby said.



He added on Friday that US officials were in "constant communication" with their Israeli counterparts about the matter and that steps were underway to ensure Israel is able to defend itself.



"We are certainly mindful of a very public and what we consider to be a very credible threat made by Iran in terms of potential attacks on Israel," Kirby said on Friday.



He pointed to a visit to Israel on Friday by US Central Command Chief General Erik Kurilla to have "those conversations directly with his IDF counterparts".



Kurilla's trip to Israel was moved up because of the expectation of an Iranian response to Israel's targeting of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, last week, CNN reported.



There have also been a number of conversations in which US officials have urged Israel not to escalate the situation in retaliating against Iran, according to one of the US officials said.



Separately, US officials were frustrated with their Israeli counterparts over the lack of information Israel shared prior to carrying out the strike in Damascus last week, sources told CNN.



Israel only informed a US official when its planes were already in the air en route to Syria, another US official said.



"We were not aware that Israel was going to carry out this airstrike in advance," the official added.



"Minutes before it happened and when Israeli planes were already in the air, Israel reached out to a US official to say they were in the process of conducting a strike in Syria. It did not include any details on who they were targeting or where it would be conducted, and the strike was already underway before word could be passed through the US government."



US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with the Foreign Ministers of Turkey, China and Saudi Arabia to urge them to press Iran not to escalate the conflict in the Middle East after threats made by Iran against Israel, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Thursday.



Miller added that the US has also "engaged with European allies and partners over the past few days" to deliver a similar message on Iran. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron have both spoken to the Iranian Foreign Minister in recent days.



Blinken "has been making clear to every country that has any semblance of a relationship with Iran that it is in their interest to use that relationship to send a message to Iran that they should not escalate this conflict. But I will let those countries speak for themselves about what action they may or may not take," Miller said.



The US State Department has restricted the travel of US government personnel in Israel in the wake of public threats against Israel by Iran, CNN reported.



"Out of an abundance of caution, US government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv (including Herzliya, Netanya, and Even Yehuda), Jerusalem, and Be'er Sheva areas until further notice," a security alert posted by the US Embassy on Thursday said, "US government personnel are authorised to transit between these three areas for personal travel."



"The security environment remains complex and can change quickly depending on the political situation and recent events," the alert noted.



France has advised its citizens to "absolutely refrain" from travelling to Iran, Lebanon, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories due to the risk of "military escalation," the French Foreign Ministry said on Friday.



The Ministry added that families of diplomatic staff in the Iranian capital Tehran will be returned to France and civil servants will be banned from work missions to those countries and territories.



The French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne issued the new recommendation following a crisis meeting on the region, the Ministry said in a post on X.




Ukraine Can Fulfill Russia's Requirements Without Compromising Own Statehood - Russian UN Envoy

Sputnik News

20240412

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) - Ukraine can reach a peace agreement with Russia and fulfill Moscow's security requirements without compromising its sovereignty and statehood, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said on Friday.

"Our justified and well-grounded demands to our neighbor ... are well known. Ukraine can achieve this and meet these demands without detriment to its sovereignty and statehood," Nebenzia said during a meeting of the UN Security Council.

The Russian ambassador said if Ukraine wanted peace, it would have reached a peace agreement long ago.

Nebenzia also said that Germany was able to end Nazism and Japan was able to end militarism, and these developments did not result in the disappearance of their states.

Regarding the current situation, Nebenzia said, given Ukraine's constant losses on the battlefield, it is being transformed into a terrorist state.

Russia called the meeting on Ukraine at the Security Council to discuss deliveries of weapons by the collective West to Ukraine - in response to yesterday's meeting called by the Western countries to discuss the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

A Sputnik

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Russian Forces Strike Ukrainian Military, Energy Facilities 48 Times - MoD

Sputnik News

20240412

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian armed forces conducted 48 strikes targeting Ukrainian military and energy facilities from April 6-12, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said on Friday.

"From April 6 to April 12, the Russian armed forces carried out one massive and 47 group strikes with air, sea and land-based precision weapons ... against Ukraine's fuel, energy and military facilities in response to the Kiev regime's attempts to damage Russian oil and gas and energy facilities," the ministry said in a statement, adding that all targets were hit.

Ukraine Loses Over 3,000 Soldiers in Donetsk Area in Past Week

Ukraine has lost more than 3,000 soldiers in the Donetsk region over the past week, the MoD added.

"The enemy lost more than 3,000 troops, three tanks, 11 armored combat vehicles, 51 vehicles, 47 field artillery guns, 17 of them Western-made, eight electronic warfare stations, and three US-made AN/TPQ-36 and AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar stations," the ministry said in a statement.

Over the given period, the Russian armed forces have repelled 65 Ukrainian counterattacks in the Avdeyevka area, 23 counterattacks around Donetsk, and three attacks south of Donetsk.

Ukraine has also lost about 2,130 soldiers and six tanks near Avdeyevka, more than 840 soldiers south of Donetsk, over 380 soldiers in the Kupyansk region, and over 335 soldiers around Kherson, the MoD reported.

A Sputnik

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Ukraine Asks France to Help Hold Positions in 2024 to Launch New Counteroffensive - Reports

Sputnik News

20240412

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Kiev has asked Paris to help the Ukrainian military hold the positions on the battlefield this year so that it can launch a new counteroffensive in 2025, a French official who took part in the talks with the Ukrainian authorities has told Le Figaro newspaper.

"The Ukrainians are telling us: help us make it through 2024, and we will be able to resume the counteroffensive in 2025," the official said.

Ukraine is in need of the SAMP/T air defense system, the official added. However, MBDA, which manufactures the Aster 30 missiles for the platform, will not be able to provide Kiev with more missiles in the near future, as the French military also needs them, Le Figaro reported.

On June 4, 2023, Ukraine attempted a counteroffensive against Russia. Kiev deployed brigades trained by NATO instructors and armed with Western equipment, including Leopard and Challenger tanks. Three months later, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that Kiev's push had failed, with Ukraine suffering heavy casualties. Several Western officials also admitted that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had not been successful.

Western countries have provided hundreds of billions of dollars worth of aid to Ukraine since the start of Russia's special military operation in February 2022. Aid shipments began in 2022 with artillery munitions and training and have escalated to include tanks, advanced air-defense systems, missiles and cluster munitions.

The Kremlin has consistently warned against the West's continued arms deliveries to Ukraine, saying that they only prolong the conflict, adding that Western military equipment will be eventually destroyed. Moscow also cautioned that NATO countries "are playing with fire" by providing Kiev with arms.

A Sputnik

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New Mobilization Law in Ukraine May Go Into Effect in Second Half of May - Lawmaker

Sputnik News

20240412

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The law tightening mobilization in Ukraine may go into effect in the second half of May, Yevheniya Kravchuk, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, said on Friday.

On Thursday, the country's parliament adopted a bill on mobilization aimed at replenishing Ukrainian forces depleted by two years of military conflict with Russia.

"I suppose the law will come into force in the second half of May. President [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky] will sign it, then it will be released, plus a month [will pass until it goes into effect]," Kravchuk said.

The new draft, among other measures, gives those liable for military service 60 days to appear at military registration and enlistment offices to clarify their registration data. Until now, draft offices had to rely on sometimes incomplete and outdated data. The summons now can be sent through the conscript's electronic account. Those who are evading conscription might have their driving license suspended,

Last week, Zelensky signed separate legislation into law to lower the minimum conscription age to 25 from 27.

A Sputnik

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Russia has violated UN resolutions by procuring weapons from North Korea and Iran to use in Ukraine: UK statement at the UN Security Council

Statement by Deputy Political Coordinator Thomas Phipps at the UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine.

12 April 2024

Russia requested this meeting to talk, yet again, about weapons proliferation to Ukraine. So let's be clear about who is doing what, and who is breaking international law and undermining the UN Charter.

President, as we are all aware, Russia has repeatedly violated resolutions of this Council by procuring weapons from North Korea and Iran to use in Ukraine.

Russia has bought several dozen ballistic missiles and millions of artillery shells from North Korea, which have been used in attacks on population centres across Ukraine. Russia has procured thousands of Iranian Shahed drones and has used them in a campaign against Ukraine's electricity infrastructure, which is intended to beat Ukraine into submission by depriving its civilians of power and heat.

Of course, Russia tries to hide its behaviour by vetoing the UN Panel of Experts, which has provided scrutiny of North Korea's attempts to evade sanctions and advance its weapons programme. As many of us said in the General Assembly yesterday, this veto undermined the global non-proliferation architecture, as well as this Security Council. Russia does not listen to this Council, nor to the General Assembly. So instead, I urge North Korea to stop supporting Russia's unprovoked, neo-imperial war of aggression against another sovereign state.

President, Russia does not care about arms control. As well as weapons from North Korea and Iran, it has used Kinzhal hypersonic cruise missiles, dual-capable ballistic missiles, cluster munitions, landmines, and countless more weapons from its arsenal.

While Russia might be stripping kitchenware to make its missiles, they nonetheless inflict suffering on civilians across Ukraine.

Over 40% of Ukraine's electricity infrastructure has been destroyed, and the ICC has issued new indictments against Russian military leaders for the campaign of strikes against numerous electric power plants and substations in Ukraine.

President, what Russia wants is complete freedom to intimidate, to coerce and to kill the people of Ukraine. We are talking here about unchecked aggression.

This Council was created because the world learnt the lessons from the first half of the 20th century; that countries cannot be allowed to invade their neighbours and subjugate their people.

In that same spirit, global support is helping Ukraine defend itself, by providing air defences to protect its cities and its people, and weapons to fight back against the Russian army; an army that has been responsible for summary executions, for torture, for rape, and the atrocities committed two years ago in Bucha.

President, any country that cares about the UN Charter, the sovereignty of states and sanctity of human life should support Ukraine.

The UK has given around $15 billion to date. The UK will remain by Ukraine's side as it fights Russia's aggression. We will continue to replenish Ukraine's air defences and provide the weapons needed to defend its territory. We will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to ensure that Ukraine wins.

Of course, Russia could stop this war tomorrow if it withdrew its forces from Ukrainian soil. Instead, it has begun another round of conscription; rounding up its young people and sending them to fight and die in a war of choice. Currently, around 1000 Russians are being killed or wounded in Ukraine every day. Russia has already suffered 350,000 casualties in Ukraine. This is a tragedy for Russia too.

President, the Russian delegation has told us countless lies about this war, but the truth is, today's meeting is perhaps a new low. If I've heard correctly, we've heard today from Russia's ambassador that Ukrainians are Nazis, acting under the cover of the Islamic State, whilst simultaneously headed by a democratically-elected Jewish president. Ambassador, that is quite the combination and, quite frankly, it is preposterous.

Thank you, President.

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Andriy Yermak: Global Support for the Ukrainian Peace Formula Can Facilitate the "All for All" Prisoner Exchange

President of Ukraine

12 April 2024 - 23:00

The Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak held a meeting in Chernivtsi with the former prisoners of war and the relatives of Ukrainians currently held in captivity by the aggressor state - the Russian Federation.

The Head of the Presidential Office informed the participants of the meeting about Volodymyr Zelenskyy's intention to hold the first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland.

"Of course, this forum will be held without Russia, but nevertheless, the support of a hundred countries will put a strong pressure on Russia. One of the main goals is to reach an agreement on an all-for-all exchange. I think that this will be a serious impetus for us to get to that point. Because, again, this is very important to us. We will not stop until we get all our people back," Andriy Yermak emphasized.

During the meeting, the parties discussed the challenges faced by the soldiers in captivity. The Head of the Presidential Office asked about the conditions of detention, whether the staff of institutions and international organizations, including the Red Cross, provided assistance, and whether it was possible to receive news from relatives.

Special attention was paid to post-release rehabilitation: what should be improved in this process, what should the state and professional specialists focus on.

"It is very important for me to hear from you about your life today, about your issues and problems. Whether you think the state is doing everything you deserve, based on your experience and the process of your return," he said.

The participants also discussed the return of Ukrainian children illegally deported by Russia. The Head of the Presidential Office noted that Ukraine is doing everything possible to bring them home: the issue is raised at every international meeting of the President, representatives of his Office and government officials.

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The Future of Ukraine and the Marshall Plan Analogy: the President Met with Students in Chernivtsi

President of Ukraine

12 April 2024 - 20:50

During his working visit to Chernivtsi, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with students of Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, Bukovinian State Medical University and Chernivtsi Institute of Trade and Economic of State University of Trade and Economics.

The Head of State spoke with Ukrainian youth about our country, its future, and the work on the analogy of the Marshall Plan for Ukraine. The President said that the main issue of this plan is the restoration of Ukraine: its energy, technology, and economy. According to preliminary estimates, this will require about $700 billion. However, the amount is not final.

"We do not know the real amounts because the war is not over yet. When it is over, we will analyze everything. Basically, the partners agree that everyone will help rebuild Ukraine, that the amounts are, let's say, understandable and affordable. Let's believe in the decency of our partners and hope that they will accept what they say and not just say it," he noted.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also confident that Ukraine will become a member of the EU and NATO in the coming years.

"NATO is our external defense and, of course, the best security commitment. But I am also convinced that we will strengthen our internal defense. We will strengthen our security at the borders, in the cities, in the communities. In the future, there will be a completely different approach to both security and construction," the President of Ukraine said.

The Head of State added that once the war is over, our country will also pursue the development of various areas of education: medicine, psychology, security, and construction.

Ukraine will need specialists in these fields.

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To Overcome Today's Challenges, Maximum Unity and Cooperation is Needed a The President at the Meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities

President of Ukraine

12 April 2024 - 17:25

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the meeting of the Congress of local and regional authorities in Chernivtsi.

The head of state emphasized that this meeting took place against the background of serious challenges and threats facing the country.

"The first is the situation regarding help from our partners. Unfortunately, some of the support is slowing down, and we have to do everything we can to increase our own capabilities. Do not waste time, strengthen Ukraine. At the same time, we must communicate as much as possible with our partners at all levels, in particular between communities, so that the world's attention to Ukraine remains," the President noted.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that now the greatest attention should be paid to the energy sector. The state is working to strengthen air defences and obtain the necessary power equipment, but a clear understanding of the needs must be in each community.

"Now, at all levels, we have to prepare for the next heating season: communities, government officials, and our respective energy companies," the President emphasized.

The head of state called for maximum attention in every community to soldiers undergoing treatment and rehabilitation, to support their families, as well as to promote the development of all defence industries and provide people with work.

The head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak noted that the most difficult situation is currently in the Kharkiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia regions. He called on other regions to show maximum solidarity with them.

"Victory is our absolute priority. It includes the support of our soldiers and the rehabilitation of veterans, the safety of the population and the protection of critical infrastructure, the stimulation of economic development, the improvement of management efficiency, and European integration," he noted.

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, informed in the online mode about the recent decisions of the parliament, in particular regarding mobilization, and the adoption in the first reading of the draft law on the Bureau of Economic Security.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that now all efforts are aimed at quick repair and restoration of generation facilities, decentralization of the energy system, and involvement of partners in helping the energy sector.

According to him, Ukraine already has more than 120 small cogeneration plants that produce electricity and heat at the same time. But such a number of systems is not enough for Ukraine.

In addition to that, the Cabinet of Ministers also decided to finance the purchase of EW equipment for critical infrastructure facilities. The government has additionally allocated UAH 3.9 billion for the construction of defence lines.

Representatives of the Security and Defence Forces reported on countering threats to security and statehood under martial law.

The event was also attended by members of the government and heads of regional military administrations, diplomatic representatives of Ukraine's neighbouring states and partners, and the president of the World Congress of Ukrainians Pavlo Grod. The President of the Bundesrat of the Federal Republic of Germany, Manuela Schwesig, addressed the participants in video format.

A total of 160 members of the Congress were present, including 78 heads of cities, villages, and towns. Another 1,500+ members joined online. This was announced by the deputy head of the Office of the President Oleksiy Kuleba.

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The President of Ukraine Met with the Delegation of the Ukrainian World Congress in Chernivtsi

President of Ukraine

12 April 2024 - 17:06

Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the delegation of the Ukrainian World Congress that arrived in Chernivtsi from Bucharest, where the UWC Summit is taking place. More than 200 leaders and representatives of Ukrainian communities from 55 countries are participating in the summit.

"Our meeting is a very important sign for our partners' communities. This is an important sign of support for Ukrainians who defend our country every day, and for civilians," the President said.

The Head of State emphasized the importance of active work of the Ukrainian World Congress with governments, parliaments and communities of foreign countries aimed at ensuring international support for Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy also noted that the Ukrainian World Congress supports educational programs for Ukrainian children.

"I know that you have many educational and cultural programs that you implement on different continents. It is extremely important that our children, who are now abroad, do not lose access to Ukrainian culture. The programs, the books, the language - this area is also of great significance. We would like to bring our children back to Ukraine and rebuild the country," he said.

The Head of State thanked the UWC and community organizations of Ukrainians abroad for supporting our country since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion.

UWC President Paul Grod, for his part, emphasized that the main goal today is the victory of Ukraine over the aggressor, and the UWC will always support our country on this path.

"We are all proud to be Ukrainians. And today Ukrainians have taken the first place as the bravest people in the world," Paul Grod noted.

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Security Council Hears Briefings on Ukraine

Meetings Coverage

Security Council

9601st Meeting (AM)

SC/15659

12 April 2024

(Note: The final summary of this meeting will be available at a later time.)

THREATS TO INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY

Briefings

IVOR FUNG, Chief of the Conventional Arms Branch at the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs , said that the provision of military assistance and transfers of arms and ammunition to the Ukrainian armed forces have continued in the context of the Russian Federation's full-scale invasion of its neighbouring State in violation of the Charter of the United Nations and international law. These transfers have reportedly included heavy conventional weapons, such as battle tanks, armoured combat vehicles, combat aircraft, helicopters, large-calibre artillery systems, missile systems and uncrewed combat aerial vehicles, as well as remotely operated munitions, small arms and light weapons and their ammunition. There have also been reports of States transferring, or planning to transfer, weapons such as uncrewed aerial vehicles, ballistic missiles and ammunition to the Russian armed forces and that these weapons have been used in Ukraine. "Any transfer of weapons and ammunition must take place within the applicable international legal framework, including of course, relevant Security Council resolutions," he emphasized.

Expressing concern about the reports on the use of anti-personnel landmines and the transfer and use of cluster munitions in Ukraine, he called on Member States to sign, ratify and fully implement the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, and the Convention on Cluster Munitions. He also called on all relevant parties to abide by their obligations under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, and not to transfer or use any mines prohibited by its amended Protocol II. "The influx of weapons and ammunition into any armed conflict can contribute to escalation and presents significant risks of diversion and proliferation even after the conflict has ended," he said, underscoring the need for measures to address the risk of diversion to unauthorized end-users.

Pointing to international arms control instruments such as the Arms Trade Treaty; the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, their Parts and Components and Ammunition; the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons and its International Tracing Instrument; and the Global Framework for Through-life Conventional Ammunition Management, he stressed: "Their universalization, as well as full and effective implementation, must remain a priority." Beyond addressing arms transfers, all parties to any armed conflict must protect civilians and refrain from attacks against critical civilian infrastructure, including energy infrastructure.

Since 24 February 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has verified 31,366 civilian casualties, including 10,810 killed and 20,556 injured in Ukraine, he noted. However, the actual figures are likely much higher. Most civilian casualties result from the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas, he said, urging States, if they have not done so, to endorse, at the upcoming first follow-up conference in Oslo, the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas adopted in November 2022. Regrettably, the use of armed uncrewed aerial vehicles and missiles has not ceased to cause civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure. "Deliberate, direct, as well as indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international humanitarian law," he said, declaring: "They are unacceptable and must end immediately."

KAREN KWIATKOWSKI, political commentator, said that a as a retired United States Air Force lieutenant colonel a she began to question her Government in 2002 when she witnessed her organization within the Pentagon manipulate information to sell the unjustified war in Iraq. Focusing her briefing on Western aid to Ukraine, she said it has enabled war and opposed peace. "It is not sent there for Ukrainians, but for a Government in Kyiv initially chosen via a [...] CIA-influenced coup in 2014," she said, adding that Western assistance in weapons, surveillance, and intelligence enabled eight years of Kyiv's assault on Donbas. "The Russian military response a no doubt violent, deadly, and in violation of international law a reminds me of several US military operations I supported when in uniform," she recalled.

Western arms shipments have turned the Ukrainian military into a massive "Rube Goldberg machine", she observed, pointing to reactive and chaotic defence operations, with major weapons systems lost due to improper deployment. "The aid-dependent and logistically impaired Ukrainian Army has become a slaughterhouse for Ukrainian men," she stressed, citing Kyiv's frantic demand for more troops to throw at the front as "a direct result of Western military assistance". The Western "investment" has reduced Washington, D.C.'s and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)'s stockpiles and Kyiv's ability to negotiate directly with Moscow. In this sense, Western leaders "do not wish to lose their deposit", she pointed out. As billions of dollars of weapons, munitions, supplies and money entered Ukraine, another "Rube Goldberg" problem arose a this time, with Government accountability. "Where does this equipment go, and which bank accounts are fattened?" she asked.

She further underscored that Western aid to Ukraine has accelerated poverty and devastation and widened the gap between rich and poor throughout the country. Massive new United States military bases built in Romania and Poland echo the base-building spree Washington, D.C., embarked upon in the Balkans in the late 1990s and later in the Middle East. "Does the US cash flow to Ukraine truly make sense to Poland, Romania and other NATO members?" she inquired, stressing that Western aid has caused NATO division, which has increased the risk of escalation and silenced peaceful voices. "Instead of what most Ukrainians want, they are getting more weapons," she stated, pointing to thousands of US-confiscated Iranian machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition that were sent to Ukraine last week. "Western war aid has ended Ukrainian democracy, divided the Ukrainian people physically and spiritually, impoverished them and warped their economy," she concluded.

Statements

The representative of the Russian Federation recalled that arming a State and encouraging an openly hostile policy against its neighbour was the customary practice of colonizers who, for decades, pitted neighbours against each other in Africa, Asia and Latin America and profited off the wars. "They did not invent anything new for the twenty-first century a today, the victim is Ukraine and the object is Russia, and therein lies the real subtext of the Ukrainian crisis which reached the 'hot phase' in February 2022," he said. Today, however, the West has other concerns, he emphasized a namely, to keep afloat the "Zelenskyy posse". Western sponsors of the Kyiv regime assured the Ukrainian President that, with their assistance, Ukraine would be able to vanquish the Russian Federation. Stating that this was "an illusion that the Kyiv leader clung to for a long time", he underscored: "If Ukraine had wanted peace, they would have long achieved peace there."

"Our justified and well-grounded demands to our neighbour are well-known," he emphasized, recalling that Germany was able to end Nazism and that Japan was able to end militarism without the disappearance of these States. Asking why Ukraine cannot do the same, he answered: "Because the Ukraine that would be friendly with Russia is not needed by Washington, London and Brussels." He went on to say that Ukraine, losing on the battlefield, is transforming into "an openly terrorist State", detailing the preliminary results of his Government's investigation into the 22 March attack at Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk. "At this juncture, there is no doubt whatsoever about the direct involvement of Ukraine in this vile, inhumane crime," he stressed. Addressing the collective West, he said that, by "allowing your child a the Kyiv regime a to do anything it wishes, you have given rise to a monster" whose "terrorist tentacles" are now visible. "Your Frankenstein may turn on you," he warned.

The representative of the Republic of Korea said that military cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea would be a more relevant topic for today's meeting than the issue of weapon transfers to Ukraine raised by Moscow, which began its brutal war against its neighbor. The Russian Federation cast a veto the Security Council's Panel of Experts which provided scrutiny of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's attempts to evade sanctions and advance its weapons programme because the Kremlin didn't want the body to shed light on its dark spot a the illegal supply of ammunition and ballistic missiles to Moscow from Pyongyang. The recent report by the Panel stated that it was investigating reports on the arms dealings between the two. Tolerating the erosion of international law and the UN Charter sets a dangerous precedent, promoting the rule of power over the rule of law. "These repercussions are compounded by the fact that it is a permanent member of the Security Council who violated the golden rules governing international relations for decades," he stated.

The representative of the United Kingdom said: "Let us be clear [...] about who is breaking international law." The Russian Federation has repeatedly violated Council resolutions by procuring weapons from Pyongyang and Tehran to use in Ukraine, trying to hide its behaviour by vetoing the extension of the mandate of the UN Panel of Experts monitoring the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's violations. Moscow does not care about arms control, he observed, noting that the country has used Kinzhal hypersonic cruise missiles, dual-capable ballistic missiles, cluster munitions and landmines. "What Russia wants is complete freedom to intimidate, coerce and kill the people of Ukraine; we are talking about unchecked aggression," he asserted. Against this backdrop, global support is helping Ukraine defend itself by providing air defences to protect its cities and people and weapons to fight back against the Russian Federation's army. London has given around $15 billion to date and will remain by Ukraine's side as it fights Moscow's aggression, he pledged, stating: "We will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to ensure Ukraine wins."

The representative of Guyana recalled the Council meeting on 11 April, during which members heard that the war has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 civilians. Underscoring that it is "equally alarming" that civilian infrastructure continues to be targeted in a manner that disregards the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution, she observed that, as a result, about 40 per cent of Ukraine's population requires multisectoral humanitarian assistance. Against this backdrop, she observed that any supply of weapons and ammunition into any armed conflict can further escalate or prolong the violence and risks diversion. She therefore called on all parties involved to ensure that such transfers are made in compliance with relevant disarmament instruments and Council resolutions. She also urged controls to prevent irregular transfer, adding that mines and explosive ordnance prevent civilians from accessing critical infrastructure and contribute to food insecurity by contaminating agricultural lands.

The representative of Switzerland said that the Russian Federation's military aggression against its neighbour violates fundamental principles of international law, rejecting any attempt to justify this act. Ukraine has the right to ensure its security and defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty. Respect for multilateral conventions and instruments for arms transfer control, including Council resolutions, is essential. Her delegation was dismayed by the apparent non-respect of applicable resolutions through past and current illegal arms transfers from Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the Russian Federation, she said, also expressing regret over Moscow's use of a veto two weeks ago to end the mandate of the Panel of Experts.

The representative of Japan condemned Moscow's repeated nuclear rhetoric, noting that a having suffered atomic bombings during the war a her country will never accept nuclear threats, let alone any use of nuclear weapons. "The catastrophes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki must never be repeated," she stated. Additionally, she condemned the transfer of weapons from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the Russian Federation, in violation of Council resolutions. She also drew attention to another clear violation of Council resolutions publicly announced by both sides: a transfer of the Russian-made automobile from the Russian Federation to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. She underscored that peace in Ukraine must be based on the UN Charter. "To allow Russia to remain in Ukraine's territories it temporarily occupies would be to allow the status quo to be changed by force," she cautioned, citing it as "an outright challenge to the international order based on the rule of law".

The representative of France recalled the Council's 11 April meeting, during which the organ heard about the overwhelming toll of Russian Federation strikes against civilians, residential neighbourhoods and energy infrastructure. "No one will be fooled, therefore, by this new attempt on the part of Russia to invert responsibility for this war," he emphasized. Today, because that country wished, once again, to discuss the issue of weapons supplies a "indeed, for the fourteenth time" a he underlined, once again, the need to recall the facts. The Russian Federation chose to start this war. Further, it chose to furnish itself with munitions from Pyongyang and, to conceal this, chose to cast its veto to block the mandate renewal for the relevant sanctions regime's Panel of Experts. "Allowing Russia to achieve its goals would send a catastrophic message out to all States attempting to redraw borders by force," he underscored, stressing that this is the reason France decided to provide political and military support to Ukraine.

The representative of Sierra Leone noted the differing perspectives presented on the supply of arms. Given the prevailing circumstances, his delegation believes it important to adhere to international legal frameworks in all weapon transfers. For any transfer of weapons in conflict situations to take place, it is necessary to conduct pre-transfer risk assessments and end-user verification to prevent the diversion of arms and ammunition, he said. In essence, any transfer of weapons must occur within the applicable international legal framework, including relevant Council resolutions.

...

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Rescue crews search for a missing teenager in the Russian River at Steelhead Beach in Forestville on Thursday. Brian Feulner/Special to The Chronicle Rescue crews search for a missing teenager in the Russian River at Steelhead Beach in Forestville on Thursday. Brian Feulner/Special to The Chronicle

The body of a teen who drowned after being swept into Sonoma Countys Russian River was recovered Friday morning, authorities said.

The teen, along with another teen, had gone missing in the river Thursday afternoon. At about 4:40 p.m. Thursday, a 911 caller told the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office that two teens were swept into the river near Steelhead Beach. When first responders arrived, one teen was able to get out of the water and was transported to a local hospital. That persons condition is not known. However, the other teen remained missing and authorities suspended their search at 11 a.m., according to the sheriffs office.

The search resumed Friday morning. Around 10:30 a.m., an underwater vehicle operated by the Napa County Sheriffs Office located the teens body and it was recovered. The sheriffs office said they are in the process of confirming the teens identity.

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Kremlin suggests 2022 proposal could be basis for peace talks

By VOA News April 12, 2024

A top Kremlin spokesperson said Friday a draft 2022 peace proposal could serve as a starting point for prospective talks between Russia and Ukraine to end their conflict, now in its third year.

During a telephone news briefing with journalists, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov referenced a peace proposal floated during talks brokered by Turkey in Istanbul in 2022. He said peace talks are usually based on something and that plan could provide a starting point.

The proposal reportedly included provisions calling for Ukraine to remain neutral and limit the size of its military. The peace plan was abandoned after the talks broke down.

Peskov on Friday was quick to add that any new peace talks would have to consider several "new realities" that now exist since those talks two years ago. But he said the peace plan could nonetheless provide a basis for discussion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made similar comments Thursday during a meeting in Moscow with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Russian media quoted Putin as saying any new peace talks between Ukraine and Russia should be based on the 2022 plan.

In that same meeting, Putin mocked an international peace conference planned by Switzerland in June, saying Russia was not invited to participate. Swiss officials this week insisted Russia was invited to participate but refused.

Putin said that he was always open to negotiations, but that they must be based on "reality."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said any peace talks must be based on a Ukrainian plan calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops, restoration of Ukraine's 1991 post-Soviet borders and a mechanism to bring Russia to account for its actions.A top Kremlin spokesperson said Friday a draft 2022 peace proposal could serve as a starting point for prospective talks between Russia and Ukraine to end their conflict, now in its third year.

During a telephone news briefing with journalists, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov referenced a peace proposal floated during talks brokered by Turkey in Istanbul in 2022. He said peace talks are usually based on something and that plan could provide a starting point.

The proposal reportedly included provisions calling for Ukraine to remain neutral and limit the size of its military. The peace plan was abandoned after the talks broke down.

Peskov on Friday was quick to add that any new peace talks would have to consider several "new realities" that now exist since those talks two years ago. But he said the peace plan could nonetheless provide a basis for discussion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made similar comments Thursday during a meeting in Moscow with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Russian media quoted Putin as saying any new peace talks between Ukraine and Russia should be based on the 2022 plan.

In that same meeting, Putin mocked an international peace conference planned by Switzerland in June, saying Russia was not invited to participate. Swiss officials this week insisted Russia was invited to participate but refused.

Putin said that he was always open to negotiations, but that they must be based on "reality."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said any peace talks must be based on a Ukrainian plan calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops, restoration of Ukraine's 1991 post-Soviet borders and a mechanism to bring Russia to account for its actions.

Energy facility damaged

Russia in recent days has launched massive air and drone strikes on Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure, causing casualties and major damage.

The newest strikes on Friday targeted an energy facility in the southern region of Dnipropetrovsk, which sustained serious damage after catching fire following a Russian drone attack earlier the same day, the Ukrainian military and a regional official said.

The energy facility was not identified in the military report, which only said debris from four downed Russian drones fell near a "critical" infrastructure facility in the Kryvorizka district, setting it on fire.

Ukrainian firefighters put out the fire, and the extent of the damage could not be immediately assessed, regional head Serhiy Lysak said.

More infrastructure damage

Meanwhile, Kherson regional administration head Oleksandr Prokudin said Friday that overnight Russian strikes on the southern Ukrainian region damaged a critical infrastructure facility a without identifying which one.

Prokudin said 15 settlements across the region were shelled, adding that residential areas were targeted in particular. He said no casualties were immediately reported but several houses had been destroyed.

Ukrainian air-defense systems downed 16 of 17 drones launched by Russia at six regions on April 12, Ukraine's air force said in a message on social media.

"The Defense Forces of Ukraine shot down 16 Shahed-type attack UAVs within the Mykolayiv, Odesa, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsya, and Khmelnytskyi regions," a Facebook post said.

On Thursday, the Trypilska power plant, a major electricity supplier for the Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Zhytomyr regions located some 50 kilometers (about 31 miles) south of the Ukrainian capital, was destroyed by Russian missiles.

Waning defensive ability

The strike, which left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity, appeared to highlight Ukraine's waning capabilities to repel massive aerial barrages being launched by Moscow.

Ukraine has been pleading with its allies to speed up efforts to cover drastic shortfalls in ammunition and weaponry in recent weeks as a $60 billion aid package remains on hold in Washington as Republican lawmakers refuse to approve it without an agreement on deep domestic policy changes.

During a visit to Lithuania on April 11, Zelenskyy pleaded with Ukraine's allies to give the embattled country more air-defense systems.

"The main task for now is to make every effort to strengthen our air-defense system, to meet the urgent needs of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, and to consolidate international support so that we can overcome Russian terror," Zelenskyy wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

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With House speaker at his side, Trump suggests Ukraine aid should be loan

By Steve Herman April 12, 2024

An inexperienced House speaker facing a brewing intraparty rebellion as he seeks bipartisan compromise to push through defense funding for Ukraine and Israel got a boost on Friday from the presumptive Republican party presidential nominee, Donald Trump.

"He's doing a really good job under very tough circumstances," Trump, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, said at the start of a news conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Trump suggested Republicans push for making additional U.S. military aid to Ukraine "in the form of a loan rather than a gift."

Johnson, a Republican congressman from the state of Louisiana who has been House speaker since October, made no statement about the aid. But Trump's stance is likely to hold sway over many House Republicans.

Johnson, according to Republican Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, has been negotiating with the White House about a package that would deviate from the Senate's $95 billion foreign security legislation.

The most contentious elements involve aid for Ukraine, locked in a defensive war against Russia, and for Israel, which has been on the offensive in Gaza against Hamas.

Johnson's job in jeopardy

Johnson, relatively unknown on the national stage when he emerged as a compromise candidate among Republicans to become House speaker, finds his job in jeopardy. Republicans are bitterly divided on further U.S. military aid for Ukraine.

"I'm not giving Ukraine any money, never have, never will," responded Representative Troy Nehls to a question from VOA's Ukrainian Service on Thursday. "Can anybody tell me what the strategy is for Ukraine?"

Nehls a who is among the Republican lawmakers who falsely assert the 2020 presidential election was "rigged" in favor of President Joe Biden a predicted if Trump is again elected president in November, Russian forces "will be out of Ukraine by April 1st."

Another Republican in the House, Keith Self of the state of Texas, wants any support for Ukraine tied to increased funding for security at the U.S. Southern border with Mexico.

Self told VOA that while Kyiv awaits further aid from Washington, it should turn to European countries for help.

"I think Europe is starting to realize that they need to take care of their own backyard," said Self, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

If Johnson is seen as acceding to the desires of Democrats, it would likely expand the number of Republican lawmakers dissatisfied with his leadership.

Johnson is compelled to work with the Democrats on major legislation because his party retains a thin majority in the House.

Democrats disagree about Israel

The Democratic Party leader in the House, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New Jersey, has suggested Democrats will help Johnson retain his position if the speaker helps push over the finish line the national security package sent by the Senate, where Democrats enjoy a majority, to the Republican-controlled House chamber.

The Democrats face their own disagreement over the bill, with some opposing sending offensive weaponry from the United States to Israel while it engages in its campaign in Gaza that, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry, has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians.

"I'm looking at the possibility of a Ukraine-only [funding] bill" to avoid further delays, Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from the state of Washington who is chair of the left-wing congressional progressive caucus, told VOA's Ukrainian Service.

Not aiding Ukraine "is malpractice on our part," according to Representative Madeleine Dean, who termed the hesitation among some lawmakers in both parties "literally un-American" and appeasing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I can't tell you how strongly I feel about it, how upset and angry I am," the Pennsylvania Democrat added as she became emotional on the steps of the Capitol.

The task of reaching consensus in the House rests primarily on the shoulders of Johnson, a hard-right litigator who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election. The Trump loyalist is the least experienced speaker in nearly a century and a half.

Johnson's visit on Friday to Trump's Florida resort home was seen as an attempt by the weakened House speaker to be shored up by the former president. Trump's backing has been pivotal for top Republicans to stay in their positions or gain them.

His lack of support for the previously elected House speaker, Kevin McCarthy of California, and Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel led to exits from their respective leadership jobs.

Kateryna Lisunova on Capitol Hill contributed to this report.

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London, England, April 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --





In the rapidly evolving world of cryptocurrency investments, StakingFarm is redefining the landscape of crypto staking by solidifying its place as one of the top three leading platforms in the industry. With a robust infrastructure that blends cutting-edge technology, user-focused services, and comprehensive security measures, StakingFarm offers an unparalleled staking experience aimed at optimizing passive income for its users.

"As the interest in crypto staking continues to grow, we at StakingFarm are committed to providing the most secure, efficient, and profitable staking solutions in the market," said Klajdi Toci, CEO of StakingFarm. "Our platform is designed to meet the needs of both novice and experienced investors, ensuring they can maximize their returns without compromising on security."

Innovative Staking Solutions

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User-Centric Platform Design

Understanding that user experience is key to successful investment, StakingFarm has developed a platform that is both intuitive and functional. The interface is designed for ease of use, allowing users to manage their investments effortlessly. Detailed analytics and real-time reporting tools are readily available, providing investors with the insights they need to make informed decisions about their staking strategies.

Robust Security Measures

Security is paramount at StakingFarm. The platform employs state-of-the-art security technologies to safeguard user assets and personal information. Advanced encryption, two-factor authentication, and continuous system monitoring are just a few of the stringent security measures that StakingFarm implements to ensure a safe staking environment for all users.

"Our focus on security is unmatched in the industry," Toci added. "We understand the importance of trust in managing investments, and we spare no effort to ensure that our users assets are protected against all forms of cyber threats."

Dedicated Support and Education

StakingFarm believes in empowering its users through education and support. The platform offers extensive resources designed to educate users about crypto staking and investment best practices. Additionally, a dedicated support team is available 24/7 to assist users with any questions or issues they may encounter, ensuring a smooth and rewarding staking experience.

"We pride ourselves on our customer service and educational initiatives," said Toci. "By educating our users and supporting them throughout their investment journey, we enhance their ability to generate significant passive income through our platform."

Future Outlook and Enhancements

Looking forward, StakingFarm is not content to rest on its laurels. The platform is continuously evolving, with plans to expand its cryptocurrency offerings and introduce new features that will further enhance user experience and profitability. StakingFarm is also exploring partnerships with other blockchain entities to broaden its ecosystem and provide even more value to its users.

"In the future, StakingFarm will continue to innovate and adapt to the changing landscape of the crypto market," Toci concluded. "We are excited about whats ahead and remain dedicated to maintaining our position as one of the top three staking platforms worldwide."

About StakingFarm

StakingFarm is a pioneering staking platform dedicated to maximizing passive income for cryptocurrency investors. Recognized as one of the top three platforms in the industry, StakingFarm provides secure, efficient, and profitable staking opportunities. With a focus on innovation, user experience, and comprehensive educational resources, StakingFarm is committed to empowering investors and revolutionizing the way they earn through crypto staking.

For more information, visit StakingFarm's website and start your staking journey today.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Name: Klajdi Toci

Position: CEO

Email: info@stakingfarm.com

Website: www.stakingfarm.com

Disclaimer: The information provided in this press release is not a solicitation for investment, nor is it intended as investment advice, financial advice, or trading advice. It is strongly recommended you practice due diligence, including consultation with a professional financial advisor, before investing in or trading cryptocurrency & securities.




SAN FRANCISCO, April 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman urges Sunnova Energy International Inc. (NYSE: NOVA) investors who suffered substantial losses to submit your losses now.



Class Period: Feb. 25, 2020  Dec. 7, 2023

Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Apr. 16, 2024

Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/NOVA

Contact An Attorney Now: NOVA@hbsslaw.com

844-916-0895

Sunnova Energy International Inc. (NOVA) Securities Fraud Class Action:

The litigation focuses on Sunnovas disclosures about its business practices and the recent award by the Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) of a $3 billion partial loan guarantee pursuant to a new solar loan channel named Project Hestia.

The complaint alleges that Sunnova made misleading statements and failed to disclose that: (1) it routinely engaged in predatory business practices against disadvantaged homeowners and communities, the same groups that Project Hestia was purportedly intended to benefit; and (2) the foregoing conduct subjected it to a heightened risk of regulatory and government scrutiny, as well as significant reputational and/or financial harm.

That loan guarantee and associated benefits to Sunnova were all placed at risk of not coming to fruition on Dec. 7, 2023, after the Chair of the US House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Ranking Member of the US Senate Energy and Resources Committee sent a letter to the LPO Director (Jigar Shah) regarding disturbing reports about Sunnova and demanding additional information and documents by no later than Dec. 21, 2023.

The Chair and Ranking Member wrote that they were alarmed about: (1) recent, credible reports that Sunnova has racked up numerous consumer complaints, including those alleging troubling sales practices, such as Sunnova pressing elderly homeowners in poor health to sign long-term contracts costing tens of thousands of dollars[;] (2) predatory sales strategies[;] and (3) [a]dditional reports suggest these troubling reports are not isolated incidents.

This news sent the price of Sunnova shares down $2, or about 16%, on Dec. 8, 2023.

If you invested in Sunnova and have substantial losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firms investigation, submit your losses now 

If youd like more information and answers to frequently asked questions about the Sunnova case and our investigation, read more 

Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Sunnova should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email NOVA@hbsslaw.com.

About Hagens Berman

Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs rights complex litigation law firm focusing on corporate accountability through class-action law. The firm is home to a robust securities litigation practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and fraud. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.

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Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Services may be performed by attorneys in any of our offices.
SRG Mining Inc. (TSXV: SRG) (SRG or the Company) today announced (i) the cancellation of all outstanding restricted share units of the Company (RSUs) (the Cancellation) which had been awarded to certain officers, employees, and consultants of the Company (collectively, the RSUs Holders) and (ii) the annual grant of stock options to certain officers (collectively, the Directors and Officers) (the Annual Grant).

Cancellation

As a result of the Cancellation, an aggregate of 1,750,000 RSUs granted to the RSUs Holders by the Company on March 1, 2022 (the Subject RSUs) were cancelled.

The Board believes that the Cancellation is in the Company's best interests. If the Subject RSU were to be settled in common shares of the Company (the Common Shares), the Company would be required to sell a portion of such newly issued Common Shares to cover its withholding tax obligations. In light of the relatively low trading volume and the degree of volatility of the Common Shares, the settlement of the Subject RSUs in this fashion could materially and negatively impact the market price of the Common Shares. Alternatively, if the Subject RSUs were to be settled in cash, the Company would be required to draw on cash resources which would be more usefully deployed to further develop its projects1. Neither of these alternatives is deemed desirable or acceptable by the Company or the RSUs Holders. In light of the foregoing, the Board has determined that it is more appropriate for the Company to revert to option grants to further align the interests of management with those of the shareholders taking into account the Company's financial situation and its stage of development.

Other than the Cancellation of the Subject RSUs currently held by the RSUs Holders as described above, no other securities of the Company would be affected and the Restricted Share Unit Plan would not be amended in any way by the Cancellation.



Annual Grant

The Company has granted to the Directors and Officers an aggregate of 4,096,713 stock options (Incentive Options), each exercisable to acquire one Common Share at an exercise price of $0.48 on or before April 12, 2034, being the date that is 10 years from their date of grant. The Incentive Options granted in connection with the Annual Grant will vest in four equal instalments over 18 months, with 25% of the Incentive Options vesting on the date hereof, and 25% of the Incentive Options vesting every 6 months afterward. All Incentive Options were granted in accordance with and subject to the Amended Stock Option Plan of the Company dated April 14, 2023.

After (i) the Cancellation and (ii) the Annual Grant, the maximum aggregate number of listed shares that are issuable pursuant to all of the Company's incentive plans to Insiders (as defined in the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) Corporate Finance Manual) as a group represents 7.36% of SRG's issued and outstanding shares. Furthermore, in the 12-month period starting 12 months before the date of (i) the Cancellation and (ii) the Annual Grant, the aggregate number of listed shares of SRG issuable to Insiders (as a group), any one consultant and any one person never exceeded the prescribed maximum number of Common Shares issuable under the TSXV Corporate Finance Manual Policy 4.4 - Security Based Compensation and under the Company's incentive plans.

About SRG Mining

SRG Mining is focused on developing the Lola Graphite Project located in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa. The Lola Graphite Project has Proven and Probable Reserves of 42Mt at a grade of 4.2% Cg. SRG aims to develop a fully integrated source of battery anode material to supply the European lithium-ion and fuel cell markets. With attractive operating costs, proximity to European end-markets and strong ESG credentials, the Company is poised to become a reliable supplier while promoting sustainability and supply chain transparency. SRG is committed to generating sustainable, long-term benefits that are shared with the host countries and communities where it operates.

For additional information, please visit SRG's website at www.srgmining.com.

Contact:

Matthieu Bos Matt Johnston

President & CEO Corporate Development Advisor

Email: m.bos@srgmining.com Email: m.johnston@srgmining.com

Telephone: +1(604) 443-3835

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are included to provide information about management's current expectations and plans that allows investors and others to have a better understanding of the Company's business plans and financial performance and condition.

All statements, other than statements of historical fact included in this press release, regarding the Company's strategy, future operations, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as plan, expect, estimate, intend, anticipate, believe, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved.

Forward-looking information is based upon certain assumptions and other important factors that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such information or statements.

Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors and assumptions which may have been used. Forward-looking statements are also subject to risks and uncertainties facing the Company's business, any of which could have a material adverse effect on the Company's business. Some of the risks the Company faces and the uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements include the environmental and safety regulations; the Company's reliance on key personnel; the Company's reliance on key business relationships; the Company's growth strategy; the Company's ability to obtain insurance; occupational health and safety risks; adverse publicity risks; third party risks; disruptions to the Company's business operations; the Company's reliance on technology and information systems; litigation risks; tax risks; unforeseen expenses; public health crises; climate change; general economic conditions; commodity prices and exchange rate risks; geopolitical matters; volatility of share price; public company obligations; competition risk; dividend policy; policies and legislation; force majeure; and changes in technology. In addition, readers are directed to carefully review the detailed risk discussion in the Company's MD&A for the year ended December 31, 2022 filed on SEDAR+, which discussion is incorporated by reference in this news release, for a fuller understanding of the risks and uncertainties that affect the Company's business and operations.

Although the Company believes its expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions and has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. As such, these risks are not exhaustive; however, they should be considered carefully. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements found herein. Due to the risks, uncertainties and assumptions inherent in forward-looking statements, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements contained herein are presented for the purpose of assisting investors in understanding the Company's rationale behind its strategy and business plans, including the Cancellation, and may not be appropriate for other purposes. The assumptions referred to above should be considered carefully by readers.

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 to the extent required by applicable law. The Company qualifies all of its forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

1 If all 1,750,000 Subject RSUs were to be settled in cash, the Company would be required to make an aggregate cash payment of approximately C$840,000 to settle those obligations.


VANCOUVER, April 12, 2024 - Sierra Grande Minerals Inc. (the "Company") (CSE: SGRO) is pleased to announce that it has appointed Buckley Dodds CPA, as independent auditor of the Company, effective as of April 12, 2024 (the "Successor Auditor").

The Successor Auditor is being appointed upon the Company requesting Dale Matheson Carr-Hilton Labonte LLP (the ""Former Auditor") resign as auditor effective April 11, 2024.

The board of directors of the Company appointed the Successor Auditor as the new auditor until the next Annual General Meeting of the Company.

There are no reportable events between the Company and the Former Auditors.

The Notice of Change of Auditors, together with the letter from the Former Auditors and the letter from the Successor Auditors, have been reviewed by the Company's Board of Directors.

The Company has sent a Notice of Change of Auditor (the "Notice") to the Former Auditor and to the Successor Auditor and has received a letter from each, addressed to the securities commissions in each of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario stating that they agree with the information contained in the Notice. The Notice, together with the letters from the Former Auditor and the Successor Auditor are available on www.SEDAR.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Sonny Janda"

Sonny Janda, CEO

info@sierragrowth.com




Toronto, April 12, 2024 - Aurania Resources Ltd. (TSXV: ARU) (OTCQB: AUIAF) (FSE: 20Q) ("Aurania" or the "Company") reports an update regarding a request to enter into an agreement for payment of its annual mineral concession fees in Ecuador as announced on March 27, 2024.

While this process is ongoing, the Company maintains its property in Ecuador in good standing and is able to further its exploration projects, dependent on funding availability. As previously reported, the Company filed the appropriate documentation to renew its 42 mineral exploration concessions in Ecuador prior to the March 31st deadline.

Aurania's request to enter into an agreement has been accepted and a further meeting is expected to commence in the coming weeks. This process may take a couple of months to complete.

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

carolyn.muir@aurania.com

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.

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 regarding Aurania's objectives, goals or future plans, statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, the corporation's portfolio, treasury, management team and enhanced capital markets profile, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration, 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, an inability to settle a schedule for the payment of annual concession fees on terms which are satisfactory or all with the result that the mineral concession renewals may be of no effect and the property interests are jeopardized, 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, a weakening of market and industry reliance on precious metals and copper and the additional risks identified in our filings with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR+ (available at www.sedarplus.ca). Aurania cautions the reader that the above list of risk factors is not exhaustive. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described, or intended. Investors are cautioned against undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required by applicable securities regulations, the Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update the forward-looking information.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/205376
Vancouver, April 12, 2024 - World Copper Ltd. (TSXV: WCU) (OTCQB: WCUFF) (FSE: 7LY0) ("World Copper" or the "Company") reports that pursuant to their news release dated February 27, 2024, the Company has closed a first tranche of their non-brokered financing issuing an aggregate 53,015,112 units for gross proceeds of $3,711,058. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (a "Share") and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one additional share of the Company for a period of two years from the date of issuance at a price of $0.17 per share. The expiry of the Warrants may be accelerated if the closing price of the Company's common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") is equal to or greater than $0.30 for a minimum of twenty consecutive trading days and a notice of acceleration is provided in accordance with the terms of the Warrants.

Insider participation included Gordon Neal, CEO & President (1,714,285 units), Timothy McCutcheon, Director (400,000 units), Sead Hamzagic, CFO (500,000 units), Robert C. Kopple through his corporation KF Business Ventures, LP (14,285,714 units). These transactions constitute "related party transactions" 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 the exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements under MI 61- 101. The Company is exempt from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements of MI 61-101 in reliance on sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of the transaction, insofar as it involves interested parties, is not more than the 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

Finders received 7% cash and 7% non-transferable broker warrants exercisable at $0.17 for two years and are subject to acceleration provisions. Finders are Canaccord Genuity Corp. ($11,907.00 cash and 170,100 warrants), Echelon Securities ($4,900 cash and 70,000 warrants), Haywood Securities Inc. ($7,000 cash and 100,000 warrants), RBC Dominion Securities Inc. ($10,780.00 cash only), Research Capital Corporation ($20,128.50 cash and 287,550 warrants), Richardson Wealth ($7,227.50 cash and 103,250 warrants) and Viking Infrastructure Systems Limited ($2,450.00 cash and 35,000 warrants).

All securities issued in the Offering have a four-month plus one day hold period, during which time the securities may not be traded. Closing of the Offering is subject to the final acceptance of the TSXV.

The net proceeds from the Offering are intended for general working capital and development costs.

This press release does not constitute an offer of sale of any of the foregoing securities in the United States. None of the foregoing securities have been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act") or any applicable state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) or persons in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor will there be any sale of the foregoing securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

ABOUT WORLD COPPER LTD.

World Copper Ltd., headquartered in Vancouver, BC, is a Canadian resource company focused on the exploration and development of its copper porphyry projects: Escalones and Cristal in Chile, and Zonia in Arizona. Two of these projects have estimated resources with significant soluble copper mineralization, and each has additional copper porphyry targets with exciting potential to expand the resource base.

Detailed information is available at World Copper's website at www.worldcopperltd.com, and for general Company updates you may follow us on our social media pages via Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

World Copper Ltd.

"Gordon Neal"

Gordon Neal

Chief Executive Officer and President

For further information, or to schedule a Zoom meeting with Management, please contact:

Gordon Neal or Michael Pound

Phone: 604-638-3287

E-mail: info@worldcopperltd.com

For all Public Relations inquiries, please contact:

Nancy Thompson

Vorticom, Inc.Office: 212-532-2208 | Mobile: 917-371-4053

Follow Us:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WorldCopperLtd

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorldCopperLtd

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/worldcopperltd

Neither TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements with respect to the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "may", "should", "would", "will", "potential", "scheduled" or variations of such words and phrases and similar expressions, which, by their nature, refer to future events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, that market fundamentals will result in sustained copper and precious metals demand and prices, the receipt of any necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in connection with the future development of the Company's projects in a timely manner, the availability of financing on suitable terms for the development, construction and continued operation of the Company's projects and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors include, among others, requirements for additional capital, actual results of exploration activities, including on the Escalones Project and the Cristal Project, the reasonability of the economic assumptions at the basis of the results of the PEA for the Zonia Project, the estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, future prices of copper, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, lack of investor interest in the Private Placement, accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals (including acceptance of the Private Placement by the TSXV), permits or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, risks relating to epidemics or pandemics, including the impact of an epidemic or pandemic on the Company's business, financial condition and results of operations, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, title disputes, the timing and possible outcome of any pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, as well as the risk factors described in the Company's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis and in other filings made by the Company with Canadian securities regulatory authorities under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this news release or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law.

**NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES**

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/205378
A parent looks through paperwork while taking part in a workshop aimed at helping families fill out the new federal FAFSA financial aid application form at Mission High School in February. In California, FAFSA applications are down 46%. Loren Elliott/Special to the Chronicle

This years FAFSA glitches are hitting students in California harder than in any other state, leading advocates to fear that university enrollment could plunge next fall.

Students often depend on financial aid, including federal Pell Grants and state Cal Grants, to attend college. But this year, the federal governments effort to improve the cumbersome Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, has led to glitches that are thwarting millions of students across the country from completing the form.

Students have just over a month to choose where they will attend college  and knowing what aid they will receive is a big factor in that decision.

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Its worst in California, where aid applications have dropped by nearly half compared to last year. One key reason is that the form prevents students who are citizens but whose parents lack a Social Security number from filling out the form. Students from states with fewer mixed status applicants dont often run into that glitch.

Policymakers, practitioners, and the public should be gravely concerned about the size of potential declines in fall enrollment, said Bill DeBaun, senior director of the National College Attainment Network, which tracks FAFSA completions.

Roughly 130,000 fewer California high school students were able to fill out the FAFSA this year than last year  a 46% drop, DeBaun said.

Last year, more than 52% of California high school seniors completed the FAFSA by the end of March. This year, just 27.5% have done so  yet slightly better than this years national average of 26.9%. Across the country, FAFSA applications have fallen by 39.6%.

We are concerned about the impact on enrollment, said Shelveen Ratnam, a spokesperson for the California Student Aid Commission. Without an understanding of their eligibility for financial aid, students and families may feel less confident confirming their enrollment.

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The student aid commission administers Cal Grants and uses the FAFSA to determine students eligibility for in-state aid. Amid the FAFSA crisis, the commission created a work-around with the University of California and California State University so that students can now use the Dream Act application  which is usually for undocumented students  in place of the FAFSA if theyve been blocked from completing it. The filing deadline is May 2.

CSU leaders are especially concerned because they already lost nearly 28,000 students, 6.5% of enrollment, since the pandemic and are desperate to recover.

With the biggest overhaul of the federal financial aid system in the last 40 years, this has been a year like no other, said Hazel Kelly, a CSU spokesperson. Like most universities, its sending out financial aid award letters later than in the past.

California State University East Bay expects to begin sending letters in two weeks, said Sonia Jethani, the financial aid director. But she said statements of intent to register are down, and aid applications are even lower than during the pandemic.

The campus has already lost a quarter of its enrollment, and Jethani said she fears that the FAFSA problems could lead more students to give up on submitting the application.

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San Francisco State has lost 1 in 5 students since the pandemic, and now FAFSA applications there are down 40%.

These stats are obviously concerning, said Kent Bravo, a spokesperson.

UC is facing similar concerns.

We know students need information about their potential financial aid to make their important college choice decision, said Cruz Grimaldo, head of financial aid at UC Berkeley, where at least 60% of undergraduates receive financial aid.

Rather than skip college, Grimaldo suggests that students estimate the cost to attend using the Net Price Calculator that colleges are required to post.

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Firm enrollment numbers wont be known until fall, so UC officials hesitate to speculate.

We believe it would be premature, said Ryan King, a spokesperson.

In fact, enrollment at UC has increased annually for at least a decade, with one exception: a drop of 353 students  0.1%  in 2022 during the pandemic. Enrollment across all 10 campuses has risen by an average of 5,687 students a year during 2013-23, to nearly 300,000.

And yet, there is concern. As FAFSA problems snowballed in February, UC and CSU each extended the deadline to May 15, for students to submit statements of intent to register.

More than 7 million FAFSAs had been successfully submitted across the country, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Tuesday.

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Yet errors persist, such as the glitch that bars mixed-immigration-status students from completing the form.

Some errors are just mysterious. Kaleia Ketcham of Hawaii, who wants to attend a California college next fall, said she has no idea why her FAFSA application showed repeated errors. It wasnt until she recently received emails from San Jose State University and San Diego State University that she knew it had succeeded. Shes still waiting to hear from her top choice, St. Marys College in Moraga, where she has committed without knowing the size of her Pell Grant.

Its been very nerve-racking, said Ketcham, whose mother is a single parent with a part-time job. Itll be devastating if the FAFSA comes back and its not what I anticipated.

In a twist, one college that has been devastated by enrollment loss could find itself benefiting from the FAFSA uncertainty.

City College of San Franciscos Free City program lets city residents attend for free.
LUXEMBOURG, April 12, 2024 - Nexa Resources S.A. ("Nexa Resources", "Nexa" or the "Company") (NYSE Symbol: "NEXA") announces today the early tender expiration and results of its previously announced offer to purchase for cash (the "2028 Tender Offer"). Pursuant to the offer to purchase dated April 1, 2024 (the "Offer to Purchase"), Nexa Resources offered to purchase for cash (i) any and all of its 5.375% senior unsecured guaranteed notes due 2027 (the "2027 Notes") and (ii) up to a Maximum Payment Amount (as defined in the Offer to Purchase) of its outstanding 6.500% Notes due 2028 unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by the Guarantors (the "2028 Notes"). On April 5, 2024, Nexa announced the results of the tender offer for its 2027 Notes and on April 10, 2024, Nexa purchased 69.2% of the outstanding principal amount of its 2027 Notes.

As of 5:00pm (New York City time) today (the "2028 Early Tender Date") according to information received from D.F. King & Co., Inc., the information and tender agent for the 2028 Tender Offer, (the "Tender and Information Agent"), US$247,185,000.00 of the principal amount outstanding of 2028 Notes were validly tendered, and not validly withdrawn. As of 5:00pm (New York City time), on April 12, 2024 (the "2028 Notes Withdrawal Deadline"), 2028 Notes validly tendered in the 2028 Tender Offer may no longer be withdrawn except in certain limited circumstances where additional withdrawal rights are required by law.

Because the aggregate purchase price of the 2028 Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn on or prior to the 2028 Early Tender Date (including Accrued Interest, as defined below) is expected to exceed the Maximum Payment Amount, Nexa Resources expects to accept the validly tendered 2028 Notes on a prorated basis according to the principal amount of such 2028 Notes, such that Nexa Resources spends no more than the Maximum Payment Amount (including Accrued Interest). The principal amount of 2028 Notes tendered by a holder of 2028 Notes will be multiplied by the proration rate indicated below and then rounded down to the nearest US$1,000.00 increment. The Maximum Payment Amount to be spent by Nexa in the purchase of the 2028 Notes (including principal, premium and accrued interest) is US$103,051,943.46, which is (1) US$600.00 million less (2) the aggregate amount that holders of the 2027 Notes received for the 2027 Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase pursuant to the 2027 Tender Offer, including the payment of any premiums, accrued interest and costs and expenses incurred in connection the tender offers.

The following table sets forth certain information relating to the 2028 Tender Offer, including the principal amount of 2028 Notes validly tendered and not validly withdrawn and accepted for purchase in the 2028 Tender Offer.

Title of

Security CUSIP ISIN Principal

Amount

Outstanding

Prior to the

2028 Tender

Offer Principal Amount

Validly Tendered

and Not Validly

Withdrawn at or

Prior to the 2028

Early Tender Date Principal

Amount

Accepted for

Purchase Proration

Factor 2028 Total

Consideration(1) 6.500%

Notes

due

2028 65290D

AA1 /

L67359

AA4 US65290DAA19/

USL67359AA48 US$500,000,000 US$247,185,000.00 US$99,499,000.00 32.3 % US$1,020.00















(1) The amount to be paid for each US$1,000.00 principal amount of 2028 Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase. The 2028 Total Consideration includes a 2028 Early Tender Payment of US$30.00 for each US$1,000.00 principal amount of 2028 Notes due to holders of 2028 Notes who validly tender 2028 Notes on or prior to the 2028 Early Tender Date.

Holders of 2028 Notes accepted for purchase in the 2028 Tender Offer will be eligible to receive the total consideration of US$1,020.00 per US$1,000.00 principal amount of 2028 Notes tendered (the "2028 Total Consideration"). 2028 Notes tendered and not accepted for purchase will be promptly returned to the tendering holders of 2028 Notes as described in the Offer to Purchase.

Although the 2028 Tender Offer is scheduled to expire at 5:00pm (New York City time), on April 29, 2024 (such date and time, as may be extended or earlier terminated by Nexa Resources), because the 2028 Tender Offer was fully subscribed as of the 2028 Early Tender Date, Nexa Resources does not expect to accept for purchase any 2028 Notes tendered after the 2028 Early Tender Date.

The settlement date of the 2028 Tender Offer will occur within one business day following the 2028 Early Expiration Date, on April 15, 2024, or as promptly as practicable thereafter (the "2028 Early Settlement Date").

The 2028 Total Consideration will be paid together with accrued and unpaid interest on the 2028 Notes from the last interest payment date preceding the applicable 2028 Early Settlement Date to, but not including such 2028 Early Settlement Date ("Accrued Interest"). All 2028 Notes accepted for purchase in the 2028 Tender Offer will cease to accrue interest on the applicable 2028 Early Settlement Date, unless Nexa Resources defaults in the payment of amounts payable pursuant to the 2028 Tender Offer. All 2028 Notes not tendered or accepted for purchase shall continue to accrue interest.

Nexa Resources has engaged BBVA Securities Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, MUFG Securities Americas Inc. and Mizuho Securities USA LLC to act as the dealer managers (the "Dealer Managers") in connection with the 2028 Tender Offer. The complete terms and conditions of the 2028 Tender Offer are described in the Offer to Purchase. Holders of 2028 Notes are strongly encouraged to carefully read the Offer to Purchase. Requests for copies of the Offer to Purchase should be directed to the Tender and Information Agent at www.dfking.com/nexa or +1 (800) 859-8509 (U.S. toll free) and +1 (212) 269-5550 (collect) or by email to nexa@dfking.com. Questions regarding the terms of the 2028 Tender Offer may be directed to BBVA Securities Inc. by telephone at +1 (800) 422-8692 (toll free) or +1 (212) 728-2303 (collect), Citigroup Global Markets Inc. at +1 (800) 558-3745 (toll free) or +1 (212) 723-6106 (collect), HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. at +1 (888) 4722-456 (toll free) or +1 (212) 525-5552 (collect), J.P. Morgan Securities LLC at +1 (866) 846-2874 (toll free) or +1 (212) 834-7279 (collect), MUFG Securities Americas Inc. at +1 (877) 744-4532 (toll free) or +1 (212) 405-7481 (collect) and Mizuho Securities USA LLC at +1 (866) 271-7406 (toll free) or +1 (212) 205-7736 (collect).

This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to purchase or the solicitation of acceptance of the Offer to Purchase. Neither the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, any U.S. state securities commission nor any regulatory authority of any other country has approved or disapproved of the 2028 Tender Offer, passed upon the merits or fairness of the 2028 Tender Offer or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of the disclosure in the Offer to Purchase.

About Nexa

Nexa is a large-scale, low-cost integrated zinc producer with over 65 years of experience developing and operating mining and smelting assets in Latin America. Nexa currently owns and operates four long-life mines, three of which are located in the Central Andes region of Peru, and one of which is located in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Nexa is ramping up Aripuana, its fifth mine, in the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil. Nexa also currently owns and operates three smelters, two of which are located in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil, and one of which is located in Cajamarquilla, Peru, which is the largest smelter in the Americas.

Nexa was among the top five producers of mined zinc globally in 2023 and one of the top five metallic zinc producers worldwide in 2023, according to Wood Mackenzie.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements as defined in applicable securities laws (collectively referred to in this news release as "forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements contained in this news release may include, but are not limited to, zinc and other metal prices and exchange rate assumptions, projected operating and capital costs, metal or mineral recoveries, head grades, mine life, production rates, and returns; the Company's potential plans; the estimation of the tonnage, grade and content of deposits and the extent of mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates; timing of commencement of production; exploration potential and results; and the timing and receipt of necessary permits for future operations.

These statements are based on information currently available to the Company and the Company provides no assurance that actual results and future performance and achievements will meet or not differ from the expectations of management or qualified persons. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. The words "believe," "will," "may," "may have," "would," "estimate," "continues," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "expects," "budget," "scheduled," "forecasts" and similar words are intended to identify estimates and forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees 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 the forward-looking statements. Actual results and developments may be substantially different from the expectations described in the forward-looking statements for a number of reasons, many of which are not under our control, among them, the activities of our competition, the future global economic situation, weather conditions, market prices and conditions, exchange rates, and operational and financial risks. The unexpected occurrence of one or more of the abovementioned events may significantly change the results of our operations on which we have based our estimates and forward-looking statements. Our estimates and forward-looking statements may also be influenced by, among others, legal, political, environmental, or other risks that could materially affect the potential development of the Project, including risks related to outbreaks of contagious diseases or health crises impacting overall economic activity regionally or globally, as well as risks relating to ongoing or future investigations by local authorities with respect to our business and operations and the conduct of our customers, including the impact to our financial statements regarding the resolution of any such matters.

These forward-looking statements related to future events or future performance and include current estimates, predictions, forecasts, beliefs and statements as to management's expectations with respect to, but not limited to, the business and operations of the Company and mining production, our growth strategy, the impact of applicable laws and regulations, future zinc and other metal prices, smelting sales, capex, expenses related to exploration and project evaluation, estimation of Mineral Reserves and/or Mineral Resources, mine life and our financial liquidity.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of factors and assumptions that, while considered reasonable and appropriate by management and qualified persons considering their experience are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies and may prove to be incorrect. Statements concerning future production costs or volumes are based on numerous assumptions of management regarding operating matters and on assumptions that demand for products develops as anticipated, that customers and other counterparties perform their contractual obligations, full integration of mining and smelting operations, that operating and capital plans will not be disrupted by issues such as mechanical failure, unavailability of parts and supplies, labor disturbances, interruption in transportation or utilities, adverse weather conditions, and that there are no material unanticipated variations in metal prices, exchange rates, or the cost of energy, supplies or transportation, among other assumptions.

Estimates and forward-looking statements refer only to the date when they were made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any estimate or forward-looking statement due to new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Estimates and forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and do not guarantee future performance, as actual results or developments may be substantially different from the expectations described in the forward-looking statements. Further information concerning risks and uncertainties associated with these forward-looking statements and our business can be found in our public disclosures filed under our profile on SEDAR (www.sedarplus.ca) and on EDGAR (www.sec.gov).

For further information, please contact:

Investor Relations Team

ir@nexaresouces.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nexa-resources-announces-early-tender-expiration-and-results-of-its-offer-to-purchase-a-portion-of-its-notes-due-in-2028-302115829.html

SOURCE Nexa Resources S.A.
Santa Cruz police said they will investigate officers actions during an arrest of a cyclist this week that sparked public concern about the use of force. Jacom Stephens/Getty Images

Santa Cruz police said they will investigate officers actions during an arrest of a cyclist this week that sparked public concern about the use of force.

The arrest occurred Wednesday, police said.

The 15-second video was posted to YouTube on Thursday by the Santa Cruz Sentinel, a local news outlet. In the video, the man appears to be screaming in pain while several officers surround and attempt to arrest him. What the f, the man says. I am sitting here. Why are you hurting me like this? In response, one of the officers says, Stop resisting us.

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The video did not show the interaction between the man and police before they arrested him.

Police said Friday that officers observed the man riding an electric bike and failing to yield for pedestrians in a crosswalk. Police stopped the man for a traffic violation, but when he failed to provide identification and instead gave officers false information, they decided to arrest him, according to police.

The suspect resisted arrest, authorities said. He was not injured and was ultimately booked into the Santa Cruz County jail.

In response to the incident, police said department leadership and an independent auditor were conducting an investigation into the incident. The investigation will include interviews with witnesses and officers, a review of video footage and a review of police body-worn camera footage, authorities said.

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vivo's X100 Pro is already an amazing cameraphone, one of the best launched in the past few months. But it's not enough for the Chinese company - it wants to push the envelope even further. And, in fact, according to its vice president of Product, Huang Tao, vivo is currently working on a new smartphone that will be "a professional camera that can make calls" (quote machine translated from Chinese).

This device will most likely be called X100 Ultra, and it's being talked about a lot on Weibo these days under the codename Thanos. The vivo exec took to the Chinese social network to thank people for their huge levels of interest in the upcoming smartphone, and announce that the X100 Ultra will be arriving at some point in the near future. Rumor has it that means next month.

If the idea behind this is indeed to create a "professional camera" with a smartphone attached to it, then color us intrigued and excited to see it in person and test it. vivo has already proven that it has the expertise to create outstanding cameraphones, and if this will be the pinnacle of what the company can achieve, then we're all for it.

The X100 Ultra has been rumored to sport a Quad HD+ E7 AMOLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset at the helm, a 50 MP main camera using Sony's Lytia LYT-900 sensor, as well as an ultrawide, telephoto, and an additional 200 MP periscope telephoto with 100mm equivalent focal length for 4.3x optical zoom, and 200x digital zoom. The handset should also sport satellite connectivity.

While we wait for the X100 Ultra, why not take a look at our in-depth review of the X100 Pro? Hint: there are a lot of nice camera samples to gawk at.

Via
The excitement was palpable at the Sinajana Community Arts Hall on Saturday.

Orientation was held for the 110-member Guam delegation to the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts. It was the first formal gathering of the group which will represent Guam at the festival scheduled for June 6-16 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

"We introduced everybody, all the members of the delegation, and then we also went through some of the details for Hawaii and some of the details that we have to cover in preparation for our travel to Hawaii," Council on Arts and Humanities Board Chairperson Monica Guzman said.

One of the highlights will be that for the very first time a majority of the events will be held indoors, she said.

"Most of the stuff will occur in the Honolulu Convention Center. What Hawaii has done is theyve taken the whole place, so all three floors including the rooftop will be available for use by FestPac," she said.

The cultural dancers will be one of the largest groups representing Guam, led by master of CHamoru dance Eileen Meno.

"(The audience) should expect a very powerful presentation in the history and language and tradition of our people, to be executed in the art form of dance," she said.

"The audience can expect to hear traditional style CHamoru chants and that includes a certain style of language, allegorical language that we use thats typical in the material that we use," master of CHamoru chant Leonard Iriarte added.

"For me personally its really important because it really brings out the cultural pride and cultural awareness. What was really refreshing and nice to see today is of the Guam delegates there were lots of young people. So all of them are participants and are cultural practitioners. Their experience at FestPac really opened up their eyes to how important our cultural language is and it opened up and increased the desire to become more aware of how unique the CHamoru culture is and how we really need to embrace it in every aspect of our lives," Guzman said.

The Guam delegation departs in two groups, June 4 and 5. There will be 27 countries participating.

The theme for the festival is Hooulu Lahui: Regenerating Oceania.

The festival was originally scheduled for 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic pushed back the date to this year. Guam hosted the last FestPac in 2016.

The 110-member delegation includes artisans representing the following:

59 for performing arts

8 for literary arts

39 for demonstrations and exhibits and special events and activities, or DESEA

4 programming chairs

The 2024 Guam delegation so far has some $400,000 to cover its expenses, from local and federal funding and private sector donations. The bulk of the funding was appropriated from the Percent for the Arts law.
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Mallory Harcourt and her family are suing Tesla for a 2018 accident in which she was pinned by her car, shattering her pelvis and leg. Courtesy of the Harcourt family

Tesla will face another test in Santa Clara County Superior Court this coming week over whether it is liable for a freak accident in which a toddler seemingly activated a parked vehicle, which accelerated toward the toddlers pregnant mother, shattering her pelvis and leg.

The trial will start just days after Tesla settled a lawsuit brought forth by the family of former Apple engineer Walter Huang, who was killed in a solo vehicle crash while using the companys autopilot software on a Silicon Valley freeway in 2018. This trial will differ from the Huang case, as it will not deal with Teslas driver assistance software.

Mallory Harcourt was 8 months pregnant when she was pinned in her garage by her new 2018 Tesla Model X.

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According to a trial brief and a spokesperson for the familys attorney, the accident occurred on Dec. 27, 2018, four days after the Harcourts purchased their Tesla. Harcourt and her 2-year-old son arrived at their Santa Barbara home and she parked her new Tesla outside of the garage and left the drivers door open. Harcourt decided to change her sons diaper in the open garage because she didnt have the keys to her home, but he somehow escaped her, according to the filing. He climbed into the Teslas drivers floor well (where the car pedals are located) and contacted the brake pedal, which automatically closed the drivers door and started the car, according to the filing. The toddler then made contact with the shift lever and the car began moving forward, the filing said.

Unable to exit the garage due to the Tesla obstructing her path, Harcourt placed herself in front of the vehicle, thinking it would recognize her and stop since she thought the vehicle had technology that would help it self-brake when something was in front of it, the filing said.

She started waving her hands to help the car realize she was there, the filing said.

Instead, the vehicle accelerated to over 8 mph, picked her up by her waist and crushed her against bicycles and other items located in the garage, pinning her there, the filing said. The impact fractured Mallorys pelvis in multiple places, fractured her fibula, and caused a deep puncture wound to her thigh.

After neighbors helped untrap Harcourt from her car, she was transported to a hospital, where she prematurely gave birth to her daughter almost a week later, despite the broken pelvis, according to the filing. As a result of the crash, Harcourt spent 11 days in the hospital and was unable to stand or walk without the assistance of a walker, according to the filing. She did not return to work for 42 days, the filing said. In total, her medical care for her injuries cost more than $73,000.

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Mallorys injuries healed over time, but her pain is permanent. She continues to have pain multiple times per week, the filing said. Further, as Mallory ages and menopause sets in, her pain will increase due to the changes in her bones.

The family is accusing Tesla of being liable for a defective product design.

Under California law, if the Plaintiff elects to try the case under the consumer expectations test, she need not show the Model X was unreasonably dangerous  only that it was defective, the filing said. The test for whether the vehicle was defective rests on whether it performed as safely as an ordinary consumer would expect when used in a reasonably foreseeable manner.

The Harcourt family is seeking compensation for trauma related to the crash. Harcourt is one of a slew of Tesla owners who have sued Tesla, alleging that its vehicles and technology led to severe injuries and even death.

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The filing says the vehicle should not have accelerated because according to its owners manual, the car would not accelerate under certain conditions, including the following:l

The drivers seat belt is unbuckled.

The occupancy sensor in the drivers seat does not detect an occupant.

The drivers door is opened.

Clearly the vehicle would be expected to remain in Park if at least two of these conditions are met, the filing said.

The Harcourts bought the Model X because it was advertised as the safest, quickest, most capable SUV ever, according to the filing.

Tesla claims its vehicles are manufactured to be the safest cars in the world, the filing said. No reasonable consumer would expect any vehicle to be able to be started, shifted out of park and moved by a two-year-old.

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Parts for the Guam Power Authoritys Yigo combustion turbine, a key component in plans to stave off extensive load shedding this summer, have arrived on Guam.

Repairs to the turbine are expected to be finished around the end of the month, adding another 20 megawatts of power capacity to the islands grid, GPA said in a press release on Friday.

Almost a year ago, the turbines rotor sustained heavy damage from Typhoon Mawar, which required it to be shipped off island for repairs.

The power authority put the return to service date for the Yigo unit at two to three months last August, but the delivery date for the rotor has been pushed back several times.

GPA on Friday announced the rotors return to the island.

Following meticulous repairs and a challenging transport process, the refurbished rotors arrival and imminent installation mark a significant step forward in GPAs mission to enhance energy reliability for its customers, a release from the utility stated.

GPA teams will work with the technicians that repaired the rotor to do final installation and testing, once the part arrives on site in Yigo.

Recognizing the concerns of our community, we are fully committed to addressing the current energy challenges on Guam. Our teams are dedicated to increasing capacity and stabilizing energy generation to ensure a reliable power supply for our residents. With focused efforts and technical expertise, we aim to restore power reliability through multiple fronts within the next few months and intend to keep our customers informed every step of the way, Jennifer Sablan, GPA assistant general manager of operations, said in a release.

The Yigo CTs restoration is just one aspect of GPAs multi-pronged approach to address the islands capacity shortfall, bridging the gap until the opening of the Ukudu power plant by Sept. 15, 2025, according to the release.

If customer demand for power exceeds GPA generation capacity, rolling blackouts, called load shedding, have to be implemented.

GPA data shows daily peak power demand has historically climbed to 250 MW and beyond around May.

Though the power authority usually has around 270 MW of generation capacity, it can dip to around 232 MW if one of the aging baseload generators goes offline for repairs, or around 189 MW if two go offline at the same time, GPA General Manager John Benavente has said.

Besides the 20 MW Yigo combustion turbine, GPA also plans to stand up another 20 MW of temporary, emergency power by mid-June or July.
From its vast nightlife and plentiful family attractions to its world famous beaches, Florida consistently ranks among the top destinations to settle in the U.S.

Yet, within its diverse landscape, a tale of two cities emerges  on one end, earning the title as Floridas safest city, lies Marco Island, a $7 million planned, barrier island community on Floridas Gulf Coast.

In contrast  about 450 miles to the north, Lake City stands as a stark counterpoint  labeled as the Sunshine States most dangerous city.

The safest city in Florida: Marco Island

As a state, Florida averages 19 property crimes and about 3 violent crimes for every 1,000 residents. But Marco Island boasts the lowest crime rate statewide, reporting just 5.2 property crimes and a mere 0.8 violent incidents per 1,000 of its residents, according to SafeWise.

With a full time population of 16,521, that balloons to around 40,000 during the winter months, fewer than 100 crimes are reported each year  and zero murders.

Marco Island features six miles of beach and over 100 miles of waterways within its 24 square miles. Its the biggest barrier island in Floridas Ten Thousand Islands area, located just south of Naples.

Some of the biggest issues residents of this city deal with include beach erosion, parking, infrastructure and water quality. The island was developed after being acquired by a trio of investors for $7 million, who designed for resort and leisure living.

The average listing price for a home in Marco Island, Florida is $689,000 and the median household income is $93,134.

The most dangerous city in Florida: Lake City

Juxtaposed against Marco Island, is Lake City  where, for every 1,000 people, approximately 128 will fall prey to property crimes, which typically include offenses such as burglary, theft, motor vehicle theft and arson,  while 78 will experience the impact of violent crime.

Thats the highest violent crime rate in the state  and one of the worst in the entire country, leading it to be named the most dangerous city in Florida.

Located about 60 miles west of Jacksonville, Lake City is named after its abundant springs, lakes and rivers  with a population of around 12,450.

Lake City started out in 1821 as the town of Alligator, and it wasnt until 1858 that it was incorporated and renamed Lake City.

The city also offers affordable housing and was recently chosen by Houzeo for the top spot in its list of the seven cheapest places to live in Florida for 2024. The average listing price for a home in Lake City is $133,400 and the median household income is $43,396.

Lake Citys Cult connections

In 1984, Lake City became the headquarters for End Time Ministries, a cult led by Charles Meade, who preached that Lake City was the only refuge from Armageddon.

Throughout the 1990s, approximately 2,000 devotees abandoned their former lives in other states to settle in Lake City. They established businesses, acquired homes, and collectively funded the construction of an opulent worship center boasting marble floors. Estimates suggest the center cost between $10 million and $14 million to erect.

Following Meades passing, the organization rebranded itself as Mountaintop Ministries Worldwide before evolving into Christian Fellowship Church. Today, a small contingent of Meades original adherents oversee its operations.

Gang activity in Lake City

Although most gang activity is concentrated in major urban areas, gangs are moving into suburban areas of the country to flee increasing pressure from law enforcement. And with gang activity  gun violence and drugs can become a serious issue within the community.

In 2017, Lake City Police investigators addressed students at Lake City Middle School, noting a rise in gang activity. By 2020, during a press conference following a shooting that claimed two lives and left another injured, Lake City Police Chief Kip Coker candidly acknowledged the citys gang problem, stating, We have a gang problem in Lake City.

He emphasized the gravity of the situation, revealing a tally of over 300 gang members within the city and pledging to confront the issue head-on.

Despite crackdowns, violence persists. In 2022, authorities arrested a Lake City man believed to hold a significant position in the Sex Money Murder gang. And tragedy struck in August when gunshots fired into a Lake City home claimed the life of a young girl sitting on her grandmothers couch. Subsequently, on December 15th, another shooting resulted in one fatality and two injuries, followed by an incident four days later where five teenagers were wounded in yet another shooting. The escalation prompted News4 in Jacksonville to declare that gun violence in Lake City reached a fever pitch.

As a state, Floridas crime rates are lower than nationwide averages, but recent data reveals that Floridians are still concerned about crime and safety  with four in 10 Floridians (39%) who say they feel safe in the state  the eighteenth lowest safety confidence in the nation.




Haiti - News : Zapping...





Market attacked, several victims

Thursday April 11, 2024 heavily armed individuals attacked the public market of Cabaret Archaie, (West Department). The toll would be around ten dead (unofficial toll).



CPT late for bargaining ?

Former Deputy Abel Descollines, spokesperson for the consultation group for a historic compromise, signatory of the Agreement of December 21, says he is scandalized by the attitude of the outgoing Government which is unjustifiably blocking the installation of the Presidential Council of Transition (CPT). According to Descollines, the Council of Ministers would have required positions to validate and publish the documents relating to the establishment of the CPT.



Police officers : Training in hostile environment intervention

The police services of the French Embassy in Haiti conduct training activities for the benefit of specialized units of the Haitian National Police - PNH. These training courses aim to optimize intervention techniques in hostile environments.



Business exploration with Colombia

The Consul General of Colombia in Haiti, Vilma Velasquez, met around ten Haitian entrepreneurs eager to explore the Colombian market. From April 22 to 26, around fifteen Haitian entrepreneurs will travel to Colombia to participate in the 100th edition of "Macro Ruedas-Pro 2024" to get to know the Colombian market and establish commercial relationships with participating Colombian entrepreneurs.



More than 6 million USD for the Mission

Brian Nichols, Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said : "We thank the United Kingdom for its contribution of 5 million ( US$6.3 million) to the Multinational Security Support Mission (MMSS) in Haiti. The rapid deployment of this mission to help the Haitian National Police restore security is essential. We urge other international partners to join us in increasing their support."



Contraction of 1.8% of GDP in 2024



The World Bank in the document "World Economic Outlook" published in March of this year, predicts that the economy of Haiti, because of the crisis, will contract by -1.8% in 2024, but with the possibility of a recovery of +1.9% in 2025. Apart from Haiti, no Latin American economy will see its gross domestic product (GDP) fall into negative territory this year.



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Haiti - FLASH : The MODIFIED decree creating the Presidential Council published (official)





Friday April 12, 2024, the Council of Ministers published in the official journal Le Moniteur special number 14, the decree creating the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT). All members of the resigned Government led by Ariel Henry signed this decree. The Government has made important changes, and numerous modifications, additions, clarifications and deletions in the draft decree sent to it by the future members of the CPT https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-42081-haiti-flash-the-presidential-transitional-council-has-given-itself-almost-an-absolute-power-decree.html which has now gone from 45 articles to 13 articles in the published version in the official journal.



In the important changes made, among others, in Article 2 on the conditions for being part of the CPT, contrary to the draft decree, the one published by the Council of Ministers requires total compliance with article 135 of the Constitution concerning the obtaining a "discharge for those who have been accountable for public funds".



Have been added in article 2

Paragraph 1 "if it is currently the subject of a criminal charge or prosecution, or if he has been convicted in any jurisdiction;"

Paragraphs 2 "if it is the subject of a sanction by the United Nations"

Paragraph 4 "if it opposes Resolution 2699/2023 of the United Nations Security Council authorizing the deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission".



Which is also linked to article 8 which stipulates "The members of the Presidential Transitional Council are subject to the formalities of declaration of assets provided for by the Constitution and the Law in this matter." Note that this aspect appeared in the agreement but was omitted in the draft decree.



In article 5 has been added (among others), paragraphs 6 "continue collaboration with all members of the international community for the accelerated deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission authorized by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2699/2023."



Article 17.1 of the draft decree allowing, among other things, the CPT to unilaterally modify paragraphs 1, 4 and 6 of article 157 of the Constitution has been removed.



However, if the CPT is now created, the designated members must still wait for the publication of the decree in the official journal to formalize their appointment, for this purpose "the personalities designated by the stakeholders to be part of the Presidential Transitional Council, are invited to submit to the general secretariat of the Council of Ministers the documents required in accordance with article 2 of the decree. The documents must be submitted in a sealed envelope, either to the National Palace or to the Prime Minister's Office, Villa d'Accueil, in Bourdon."specifies a press release from the Government published after the publication of the decree.



Article 12 states that the (resigning) Prime Minister takes the necessary measures for their installation. Remember that Prime Minister Henry will resign, as initially planned, when a new Prime Minister has been appointed.



Download the official decree (PDF in French) : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/Decret-portant-creation-du-Conseil-presidentiel-de-transition.pdf



Download the draft decree submitted by the members of the Presidential Transitional Council (PDF in French) : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/projet-decret-08-04-2024.pdf



Download the full text of the signed agreement (pending publication, PDF in French) : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/accord-politique-pour-une-transition-pacifique-et-ordonnee.pdf



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - FLASH : Biden releases 60 million USD for the mission led by Kenya





Following the publication of the decree in Haiti, creating The Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-42104-haiti-flash-the-modified-decree-creating-the-presidential-council-published-official.html President Biden has ordered the release of $60 million, most of which will be used to equip and train a multinational police force to be led by Kenya to assist the police Haitian to fight armed gangs.



Let's remember that the Republican leaders of the House and Senate refused to approve $40 million out of the $200 million promised by the State Department https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-41867-haiti-politic-antony-blinken-announces-an-additional-$100m-for-the-pnh-support-mission.html . Which is added to the 100 million USD from the Pentagon in kind (intelligence services, air transport, communications and medical support among others...)



Biden to circumvent congressional resistance to weapons funding

used the "Presidential Drawdown Authority" a little-known Executive power created under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961...



The equipment, which can come from the stockpiles of any U.S. government agency, and training from the Department of Defense, will help get the Multinational Security Support Mission (MMSS) off the ground, temporarily suspended since the announcement of the resignation of Prime Minister a.i. Henry, under pressure from Washington.



Should be noted that in March, Biden also authorized $10 million in aid including weapons and ammunition to help the Haitian National Police (PNH) in their fight against armed gangs https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-41987-haiti-flash-the-usa-will-provide-weapons-and-ammunition-to-the-pnh.html . Under this authorization, the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAdH) will receive bulletproof vests from the Biden administration for the first time.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-41987-haiti-flash-the-usa-will-provide-weapons-and-ammunition-to-the-pnh.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-41985-haiti-usa-biden-releases-10-million-us-to-strengthen-the-fight-against-gangs-in-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-41867-haiti-politic-antony-blinken-announces-an-additional-$100m-for-the-pnh-support-mission.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politic : The United States welcomes the creation of the Presidential Transitional Council





Friday April 12, 2024, The United States welcomed the creation of a Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) in Haiti https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-42104-haiti-flash-the-modified-decree-creating-the-presidential-council-published-official.html. The result of months of discussion among diverse Haitian stakeholders, this Council helps pave the way for free and fair elections and the expedited deployment of a Multinational Security Support mission. We applaud Haitians for their commitment to move forward in a spirit of reconciliation and national dialogue. We remain committed to working with CARICOM and international partners to support the TPCs mission to work for and improve the lives of all Haitians.



The security situation in Haiti remains untenable due to the violence caused by gangs that claim to represent the Haitian people but thrive on violence and misery. Gangs have shut down key infrastructure and economic sites that are lifelines for fuel, humanitarian aid, and other vital supplies, and continue to strip Haitians of their rights to food, education, and healthcare. The United States is surging support for the Haitian security forces to bolster their capabilities as they fight to defend their country.



We commend Haitian leaders for making tough compromises to move toward democratic governance via free and fair elections. Much work lies ahead, and the United States remains committed to supporting the people of Haiti.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-42104-haiti-flash-the-modified-decree-creating-the-presidential-council-published-official.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





South : Malaria outbreak

In response to an outbreak of malaria in 4 communes in the South department, the World Health Organization (WHO), via its PROMESS logistics platform, is supporting central health authorities for rapid distribution of essential anti-malarial products. In coordination with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP - Haiti) and the National Malaria Control Program, more than 4 tons of medical products were transported to the Great South and pre-positioned preventively in other departments.



Senator Rubio calls for an end to the arms embargo on the FAdH

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio argues in favor of reconsidering the arms embargo imposed by the United States on the Armed Force of Haiti (FAd'H) and declared "There are countries which, I think, are ready to intervene and provide them with some of the equipment that the Haitian army needs, but who are frightened by the American embargo."



Mexican Embassy closed

Due to the state of alert prevailing in the city of Port-au-Prince and its surroundings, it is informed that the Mexican Embassy in Haiti will remain closed until further notice.



22,500 displaced people, refugees in Les Cayes

Marie Claire Daphnee France, Acting Mayor of Les Cayes revealed that 22,500 displaced people were welcomed in the city due to insecurity in Port-au-Prince.



Nearly 3,000 containers of goods blocked at the port

Nearly 3,000 cargo containers are stuck at the port of Port-au-Prince because of the insecurity plaguing the Haitian capital.



Canada : creation of the CPT, a step in the right direction

Canada welcomes the publication of the decree which creates the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT) in Haiti hhttps://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-42104-haiti-flash-the-modified-decree-creating-the-presidential-council-published-official.html . This national unity council is a step in the right direction to restore security, public order and democracy in Haiti," Melanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















New book club is not for the gabby

Readers enjoy books without distractions at the Silent Book Club, which meets every other Wednesday at The Buzz on South Grove Street. [ERNEST MOWELL/Hendersonville Lightning]

Theres a new book club in town. Michelle Rosenberg brought her husband, Seth, who describes himself as not really a reader, to enjoy Hendersonvilles Silent Book Club. But this isnt a typical book club.

Its vastly different, reader Jason Christopher said.

On a recent Wednesday evening, about 40 readers joined Christopher and the Rosenbergs at The Buzz Sober Social Bar and Cafe with books, tablets or phones in hand. They met and talked over coffee, filling the space with the chatter of an active coffee shop. Then, at the direction of organizer Summer Stark, the group fell silent and began to read. No phones ringing, no talking  only the occasional hiss of steam from the espresso machine. Otherwise, focused silence.

In a traditional book club, members read the same book within a certain time period and meet regularly to discuss. At Silent Book Club, readers choose their own books. Theres no set schedule to follow. Discussion centers on why they chose a particular book and what they are getting out of it.

Thats part of why Silent Book Club has been a hit and I also really like it, because its the most low-maintenance book club you can possibly find, Stark said. You dont have to bring food, you dont have to bring a certain book. You just show up with what you want to read.

First organized in Hendersonville in January, Silent Book Club is a global group with chapters in 50 countries. North Carolina has more than two dozen chapters. Stark said she learned about Silent Book Club on a flight from Texas when she met an SBC member from Asheville. After attending and enjoying a few Asheville meetings, she knew she wanted to bring it to closer. Christopher found a flier for the club and thought, OK, something to do in Hendersonville.

The Buzz provides ample space while selling drinks and food for the readers. Manager Katy Shay said the club was a good fit for The Buzzs Wednesday night schedule.

The first night, Summer said we should expect 5-6 people, and then the place started filling up, Shay said.

While much of the Silent Book Club advertising seems aimed at self-professed introverts, there is a definite social aspect to the club. Stark encourages everyone to sit with people they havent met before and engage over their love of reading, an instant ice breaker.

Checking in with the Rosenbergs at the end of the hour, Michelle had made significant progress on her novel without the regular distractions that come from being home. Seth seemed to have enjoyed starting the biography he downloaded on his tablet.

SHIRTTAIL

The Silent Book Club meets every other Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at The Buzz, 225 S. Grove St. More information can be found on the clubs Facebook page. To join, Stark says, just show up with a book.
A GROUP of residents has bought the pub in Crazies Hill to safeguard the beating heart of the village.

The Horns has been closed for the last 18 months after tenants Owen Hardy and Jade Jeffries left in September 2022 after two years.

Numerous people have tried to make the Brakspear pub a success over the last 15 years but found trading a challenge.

Now the company has sold the pub to Horns Hospitality, a consortium comprising 37 investors, for 753,000.

The purchase negotiations were led by managing director Dave Smith and fellow directors Phil Davies, Angela Collis and Justin McKeegan.

Mr Smith, 70, who lives in Crazies Hill, said: As soon as the pub closed we were worried that it wouldnt reopen again as it had had 10 tenants in the last 15 years or so.

Even the most successful of those managed three years before they gave up. Every one lost money.

When the previous tenants left, Phil and I began working on a plan to secure the long-term future of what is the only remaining pub in our two hamlets, Crazies Hill and Cockpole Green.

By last summer there was increasing concern that Brakspear was not going to find a new tenant in the near future and possibly not at all.

Justin, an investment banker, then came to us with a business plan which showed that, with the right funding, the Horns could be run profitably if it could be wrested from its historic tie with Brakspear.

Pubs belonging to a pub company are known as tied houses and the tenants are contractually obliged to buy stock, such as beer and other drinks, from the company.

Mr Smith, a retired British Airways pilot, said: We thought that there had to be a way to get the pub out of Brakspears hands to buy it for the village and the surrounding villages.

The pub had been well patronised off and on and, when it was, the problem remained the tie.

You have to buy your stock at twice the price that you would find on the open market. Then, as soon as it starts making a success, the rent gets put up.

The group sounded out other villagers about whether they would support a bid to buy the pub.

Horns Hospitality was launched in September and Ms Collis was brought in as finance director.

Mr Smith said: We spoke to a few villagers and that gave us the confidence that we could raise enough money to buy the pub.

We made an offer in October but Brakspear said the pub wasnt for sale but in November, after some negotiating, they came up with a price that was considered acceptable. A public meeting was held at the village hall in December, which was attended by 60 people including residents of Cockpole Green, Warren Row and Upper Culham.

The directors gave a presentation of their vision and invited villagers to become shareholders to raise enough money to buy the pub.

Two weeks later they had more than enough money to complete the purchase.

Mr Smith, who also chairs Crazies Hill Residents Association, said: At the meeting we explained that we wanted a place where you can get good quality and consistent food.

We want to put accommodation upstairs, two or three double bedrooms with en-suites, and we wish to make it somewhere for residents to go as well as attracting people from the surrounds.

The restaurant currently has 80 covers but the plan would be to extend this. Part of the business plan requires us to take out a loan to pay for the refurbishment and now we wont need to take out as much due to having money spare from the buyout.

A full structural survey has been done and nothing major is needed but some work is necessary to get rid of the damp. We havent decided exactly what will be part of the refurbishment yet.

It is a Grade II listed building so we will need listed building consent even though most of the work will be internal. We are engaging with a consultant and meeting next week before putting plans into Wokingham Borough Council.

The investors had to pledge a minimum of 5,000 each and were warned that there would be no special privileges for shareholders.

Mr Smith said: We are not going to be a community pub in a sense that some pubs are. Although there are 37 shareholders, there are four directors who are in charge of running it and we have told everybody that there are no perks  everyone is still a customer.

As soon as the pub starts making a profit, money will be paid to the shareholders. Technically, if the pub does not do well, we can sell it but that wont happen.

Everybody is so pleased at the prospect of the Horns opening again. People really do miss it. The residents have been running a pop-up pub at the village hall that gets 60-odd people on a Friday night.

The pub is the beating heart of the community. For the last 18 months people have been coming up to me and asking, Dave, whats happening to the pub? but we couldnt tell them anything.

We are delighted to now be able to say we have finally taken over the ownership and secured the future of our pub for the village.

It will be some time before we can reopen the doors but it will be a wonderful day when that happens and we will have the biggest party that Crazies Hill and Cockpole Green has seen in a long time.
Palo Alto police arrested a prominent environmentalist after he allegedly solicited explicit photos from an undercover police officer posing as 12-year-old girl. Bill Hutchinson

Bob Wenzlau, a prominent Palo Alto environmental activist, was arrested Thursday after he solicited explicit images from a detective posing as a 12-year-old girl, Palo Alto police said in a press release.

The undercover online child exploitation investigation began when law enforcement in Georgia sent information to Palo Alto police about a suspect who sent photos of himself and child sexual abuse material to a Georgia police officer posing as a 12-year-old girl on an anonymous communications app. Palo Alto police identified the suspect, who provided his cell phone number to the undercover officer and used it to send the photos, as Wenzlau, 67.

In their own investigation, Palo Alto detectives also made an undercover account on the same app, also posing as a 12-year-old girl, according to the statement. Four days later, Wenzlau found the Palo Alto undercover account in the app and proactively messaged it, police said. He provided the same cell phone number to the undercover Palo Alto detective and sent photos of himself. Police are not sharing which app was used, citing an ongoing investigation.

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Over multiple days of communication, Wenzlau solicited the undercover detective for explicit images, sent child sexual abuse material multiple times and made arrangements to meet in person with the intent to perform sex acts, police said. The meeting never occurred.

After police presented the case, the Santa Clara County District Attorneys office filed four felony charges against Wenzlau, including contacting a minor with the intent to commit a sex offense, attempted lewd act on a child under 14, possession of child pornography and transmitting harmful matter to a person believed to be a minor, and signed a warrant for his arrest.

Police arrested Wenzlau at his Palo Alto home on Thursday morning without incident and searched his home for evidence of related criminal activity. Wenzlau was booked at the Santa Clara County Main Jail.

Wenzlau is the founder and CEO of the company Terradex, an environmental tech company, according to his LinkedIn profile. The companys website was down for maintenance Saturday, and representatives for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wenzlau was also a member of Palo Altos Stormwater Management Oversight Committee. A representative for the committee did not respond to a request for comment.

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Saturday April 13, 2024

Countries including France, India, Russia, Poland and the United Kingdom have warned their citizens against travelling to Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories and, in some cases, the wider region amid threats of an Iranian attack in response to a strike this month on its consulate in Damascus.



Iran has threatened reprisals against Israel over the strike in the Syrian capital on April 1, which killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members, including two generals, leading to fears of an escalation of violence in the Middle East.





In a statement on the social media platform X, the ministry added that relatives of Iran-based diplomats will return to France and French civil servants are now banned from conducting any missions in the countries and territories in question.The UK told its citizens to avoid all but essential travel to Israel and Palestine over the possibility of an attack on Israeli territory from Iran.In an update, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office warned against all travel to northern Israel, the Gaza Strip, areas near Gaza and the occupied West Bank  excluding occupied East Jerusalem and Route 1 between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.Russia strongly recommended its citizens refrain from travelling to the region, emphasising security risks in Israel, Lebanon and Palestine.The situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone as well as in the area of the Blue Line between Lebanon and Israel remains unstable, its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.Polands Foreign Ministry also advised against travel to Israel, Palestine and Lebanon.It cannot be ruled out that there will be a sudden escalation of military operations, which would cause significant difficulties in leaving these three countries, it said in a statement. Any escalation may lead to significant restrictions in air traffic and the inability to cross land border crossings.Indias statement covered Iran and Israel, calling on Indians not to go to the two countries until further notice in view of the prevailing situation in the region.The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi said Indian citizens who are in the two countries should observe utmost precautions about their safety and restrict their movements to the minimum.Germany meanwhile warned its citizens to leave Iran specifically, saying escalating tensions could affect exit routes.In the current tensions, especially between Israel and Iran, there is a risk of a sudden escalation, the Foreign Office said. German citizens are at concrete risk of being arbitrarily arrested and interrogated and being given long prison sentences. Dual citizens with Iranian and German nationality are especially at risk, it added.Separately, German flagship airline Lufthansa extended its suspension of flights to and from Tehran until Thursday and will not use Iranian airspace during that time.

The United States has restricted its employees in Israel and their family members from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beersheba areas.



An imminent attack by Iran on Israel is a real and viable threat, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told journalists on Friday, adding that Washington would make sure the Israelis have what they need and that theyre able to defend themselves.



Speaking to reporters on Friday, President Joe Biden said: We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel, and Iran will not succeed.



The top US commander for the Middle East, General Erik Kurilla, is also in Israel for talks with its military officials on security threats. His trip was moved up from a previously scheduled date due to recent developments, Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said on Thursday.



After Kurilla discussed the tensions with Iran with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Friday, Gallant said the US and Israel were shoulder to shoulder in facing possible threats.



We are prepared to defend ourselves on the ground and in the air, in close cooperation with our partners, and we will know how to respond, the defence chief added.



The Wall Street Journal, quoting a person familiar with the matter, reported on Thursday that Israel was preparing for an attack by Iran as soon as Friday or Saturday.



Al Jazeeras Hamdah Salhut, reporting from East Jerusalem, said the Israeli army announced that it was preparing on all fronts offensively and defensively.



A couple of weeks ago, the Israelis increased their alertness level, calling up reservists and bolstering air defence systems, she said, adding that Israeli officials said they were prepared for anything.



Israel has bombarded the Gaza Strip since October 7 and sent in ground forces, killing at least 33,600 Palestinians and injuring more than 76,000. Hamass October 7 attacks on southern Israel killed more than 1,100 people there.



Israel has also stepped up strikes against Iranian personnel and allies in Syria and Lebanon and has traded near daily cross-border fire with the Lebanese group Hezbollah since the start of the war.



SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES




Local leaders and community members protest the sentencing of Daniel Cauich to probation for stabbing 94-year-old Ahn Peng Taylor in June 2021 during a rally outside the Hall of Justice in San Francisco on March 22. Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled Friday that the controversial sentencing of Daniel Cauich, a man who stabbed then-94-year-old Anh Peng Taylor in 2021, to probation through a special mental health treatment program is essentially illegal and cannot take effect.

His decision further prolongs a case that has angered many in the Asian American community.

Judge Ksenia Kay Tsenin sentenced Cauich to five years of supervised probation on March 15, the result of a plea deal between Cauich and the court, to community outrage. Tsenin cited Cauichs mental health issues, drug and alcohol abuse, childhood traumas, and a brain injury stemming from when he was hit by a car in 2020 in her reasoning for giving him probation.

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The San Francisco District Attorneys Office objected and said the sentencing denied justice. Tsenin sentenced Cauich to complete an individualized treatment plan and participate in Intensive Supervision Court, which the court describes as a last chance program for high-risk, high-needs probationers to avoid state prison by receiving drug addiction or mental illness treatment.

In exchange, his 10-year prison sentence would be suspended, which means he doesnt have to serve it if he abides by the rules of his probation.

But on Friday, Judge Jeffrey Ross, who presides over Intensive Supervision Court, decided Cauich is legally ineligible for the program.

The California penal code prohibits probation being granted to anyone who was on probation for a felony at the time they committed a new violent or serious felony offense, he said. The San Francisco District Attorneys Office had made the same argument during the initial sentencing.

When Cauich stabbed Taylor, he had been on probation for two felony burglary convictions, making him ineligible for Intensive Supervision Court, Ross said.

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To reiterate, I understand the rationale for Judge Tsenins sentence, Ross said at the hearing. Im not in any way opining on her sentence. I am simply fulfilling my obligations as I understand under the policies and procedures of Intensive Supervision Court.

Cauichs attorney, Lisa DewBerry, said she disagreed with Ross ruling. Shes previously said Cauich did not have evil intent and was mentally ill. She told the Chronicle Friday that Cauich was out of his head when he stabbed Taylor and said that her race had nothing to do with the attack.

My client is beyond despair, DewBerry said. As he explained to my social worker, I have a mother. I have a grandmother. I cant believe I did that to that lady. I cant have a conversation about this, what happened, without him getting very emotional.

Marlene Tran, a longtime community activist in Visitacion Valley, attended Fridays hearing and welcomed Ross decision. Tran spoke at a rally in March, arguing that sentencing Cauich to probation threatened the safety of elderly residents.

She said she thinks the case has revealed that San Francisco courts are too lenient on violent crime.

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This is brewing a lot of distrust in the legal system, she said.

Anh Le, a 71-year-old Vietnamese American man, also attended Fridays hearing and commended Ross ruling. Le said he thought the probation sentence was a great mistake. Le is a violent-crime victim himself, having been brutally beaten with a bat in Chinatown in 2019.

We Asian Americans stand united, Le said. We are strong, and we will speak up and we will let the judicial system in San Francisco, namely all of the judges in San Francisco Superior Court as well as the San Francisco District Attorneys office, know where we stand on this particular case.

Ross said Cauich may be suitable for treatment in Intensive Supervision Court. If a sentence is reached that is consistent with the law, Ross said, he could be reconsidered for the program. Ross sent the case back to Tsenins court for her to decide the next steps. The next hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

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On April 10, 2024, the Supreme Court came down heavily on Patanjali Ayurvedas Acharya Balakrishna and Baba Ramdev, refusing to accept their apology. The duo had attempted to furnish a non-existent ticket to avoid an appearance in court, which the bench found akin to perjury. It called into question the complete disregard for rules and law by the company.

The court highlighted the complicity of the State Licensing Authority (SLA) as well as the Union Government in failing to act. The court also sternly reprimanded the Uttarakhand SLA for failing to prosecute Patanjali despite their continued violation of the Drugs and Other Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and threatened suspension of officers. The apex court refused to accept the defence of the SLA that they couldnt act because of a stay on the rules, calling it rubbish. The joint director SLA, who was present at the proceedings, stated that the proceedings pre-dated his appointment. However, the court was quick to point out that the correspondence of the SLA bore his signature and asked why it should not be considered that the SLA was hand in glove with Patanjali. The Court also questioned the issuance of mere warnings when the act provided clear procedures for prosecution for misleading ads and misleading claims based on which the public continued to buy the companys so-called drugs. The matter has been posted for further hearing on April 16, and the previous director has been summoned to explain the inaction.

Ongoing proceedings against Patanjali

KV Babu, an ophthalmologist from Kannur came upon an advertisement in 2019 by Patanjali which claimed that their eye drops could cure glaucoma. He also noticed that few of his patients chose to use the drops to self-medicate and returned to him in a year when the disease had worsened. Babu noted that the misleading advertisements continued especially regarding diseases specifically debarred in section 3 of the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act 1954.

On February 24, 2022, he wrote a complaint to the Drugs Controller General of India, which forwarded the complaint to the AYUSH ministry on March 16 that year. On April 15, the ministry wrote to the director of Ayurvedic and Unani Services, Uttarakhand, concerning the products Lipidom, Livogrit, Livamrit, Madhunashini and Madhugrit and instructed them to take appropriate action under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules, 1940.

The SLA wrote to Divya Pharmacy (the manufacturer of the drugs) regarding the five drugs being in violation of the law. Divya Pharmacy in its reply on May 7, 2022, said it would stop the publication of the impugned advertisements, however, it noted that no action could be taken under Rule 170 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 as the same had been stayed by the Bombay high court on February 2, 2019.

Rule 170 was introduced on December 24, 2018. According to a press release issued by the AYUSH ministry, the amendment was made specifically for controlling inappropriate advertisements of Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani medicines. The Rule prohibited manufacturers of Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani drugs from publishing advertisements of any drug for the use of diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any disease, disorder, syndrome or condition. It also mandated the manufacturers to secure a Unique Identification Number from the State Licensing Authority prior to the publication of any advertisement. However, within months, many alternate medicine companies moved the courts and were successful in securing a stay on the rule. A stay was granted both by the Delhi HC as well as the Bombay HC in 2019.

Not just the rule, but another law altogether

However, the Kerala doctor said that he had not complained against Patanjali under Rule 170, but had sought action under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act 1954. On November 9, 2022, the Uttarakhand Ayurvedic and Unani Services Licensing Authority (UAUSLA) asked Divya Pharmacy to stop the production of these five products and asked the company to submit its reply with amended formulation sheets and label claims in advertisements within a week. It also asked the company to remove all advertisements of these drugs from the media.

Both Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balakrishnan condemned this move, claiming it was an attempt to tarnish the tradition of Ayurvedic medicine by ignorant, insensitive, incompetent licensing officers. Patanjali threatened legal action against the state. Within 48 hours of the notice, the SLA relented and the licence officer noted that the ban was erroneous and the company may continue production.

Subsequently, all RTI replies cited action could not be taken as Rule 170 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules, had been stayed.

MPs take up the matter

Babu sought the assistance of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram who complained to the AYUSH ministry. The MP in his complaint noted that the Pharmacovigilance Centres for Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy Drugs set up in different parts of the country had reported 18,812 misleading advertisements between 2018 and 2021. The ministry in its response said, The State Licensing Authority (SLA) has been directed in light of the Drugs and Magical Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954, and rules thereunder.

Despite clear instructions no action was taken, in response to a question raised in the Parliament by Kannur MP V. Sivadasan, the Ayush ministry stated that the offending advertisements had been withdrawn but nothing further was done.

Further, on August 29, 2023, the ministry of AYUSH wrote to all state/UT licensing authorities and drug controllers of AYUSH informing them that a notification for the omission of Rule 170 was to be finalised and in the meantime, all the state authorities should refrain from taking any action under Rule 170.

On January 24, 2024, the Prime Ministers Office also directed the Ayush ministry to take appropriate action, following which the ministry directed the Uttarakhand SLA to examine the matter and take the necessary action as deemed appropriate 

However, as is evident from the Supreme Court exchange, no action was initiated against Patanjali.

Previous case against Patanjali

This is not the first time that Patanjali has run into trouble because of their misleading advertisements and claims belittling other manufacturers or streams of medicine. In 2019, the Delhi high court directed Patanjali to alter their advertisement for Chyawanprash, as the same was found to be disparaging the goodwill and reputation of Dabur Chayawanprash.

In a suit filed by the Resident Doctors Association of AIIMS, Rishikesh in 2021, Baba Ramdev and Patanjali were accused of not only disparaging allopathy but also preventing the Covid-19 vaccine drives. The suit also sought clarification from the company that Coronil was not a cure for Covid 19, as they claimed. Similar to the apology tendered before the Supreme Court in February, the clarification filed by the company in 2022 was also not accepted by the court, which noted that the clarification sounded more like a disclaimer. The bench remarked, You gave the public two impressions. One is that allopathic doctors don't have a cure, they are themselves dying of the disease. Two, that coronil itself is a treatment and cure.

Similar to their response to a ban by the SLA, the company claimed that the litigation was motivated to tarnish the reputation of Ayurveda. The court was quick to point out that the aim of the proceedings was not to undermine Ayurveda but to prevent misleading advertisements. The suit is pending adjudication.

Interestingly, the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act was challenged soon after it was passed in 1954 as being in violation of Article 19(1)(a), 19(1)(f)&(g), 14, 21 and 31 of the Constitution in the case, Hamdard Dawakhana (Wakf) Lal Kuan, Delhi v. Union of India. The Supreme Court however noted that commercial advertisements which have an element of trade or commerce and advertising an individuals personal business is not part of freedom of speech. The court noted that the act sought to prevent unethical advertisements and physical harm caused by self-medication and thus, was not unconstitutional.

In a country like India, where medicines are easily sold without prescriptions, there is a need for strict regulation of advertisements to prevent the harm of self-medication. The lack of action on the part of the Central government and the state authorities shows that public health is only taken seriously on the threat of action.

Parijata Bharadwaj, a lawyer and researcher based in New Delhi, co-founded the Jagdalpur Legal Aid Group that offered legal services to adivasis in Chhattisgarh. The views expressed are personal.
The Narendra Modi government has now asked all the e-commerce websites to remove drinks and beverages from the healthy drinks category, resulting in a big setback for Bournvita and other leading brands.



According to a Moneycontrol report, The order by the ministry of commerce and industry has been issued at a time when the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) said that there is no health drink defined under the FSS Act 2006, rules and regulations as submitted by FSSAl & Mondelez India.



The notification issued by the ministry cited an NCPCR inquiry under Section 14 of the CPCR Act, 2005, which concluded that there is no Health Drink defined under FSS Act 2006, Rules and regulations as submitted by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and Mondelez India Food Pvt Ltd.



The commerce ministry notification said that all the e-commerce websites have been advised to remove drink or beverages including Bournvita from health drinks category from their respective platforms.



The ministry's order comes days after the FSSAI asked the e-commerce websites not to include tdairy, cereal, or malt-based beverages under the health drink or energy drink categories.



The food safety body had said that health drink is not defined in the laws. The energy drinks happen to be just flavoured water-based drinks as per the laws.



It added that using wrong terms can mislead the consumer, thereby asking the websites to either remove or rectify those advertisements.



ALSO READ: Remove misleading ads: Child rights body directs Bournvita amid high sugar row

NCPCR chief Priyank Kanoongo said that beverage, including Bournvita should not be sold under the health drink category
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has expedited the process of allocating the licence to billionaire Elon Musk's Starlink satellite unit ahead of his visit to India later this month. The DoT may issue a letter of intent (LoI) and trial spectrum to Starlink for satellite communications services, Moneycontrol reported.



According to a government official, the department is carrying out inter-ministerial discussions due to a security issue. Starlink, the satellite internet service of Elon Musk's SpaceX, provides high speed internet connections. The SpaceX founder will be in India on April 21 and 22, and will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as high-ranking government officials.



With a global mobile personal communication by satellite services (GMPCS) and a trial spectrum, Starlink could carry out a pilot of its services in the retail consumer space. The company would also require permission from the ministry of home affairs (MHA), law enforcement and security agencies as the Modi government has some security concerns, the report added.



Earlier, Starlink had issued clarification on its shareholding pattern to the government's Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). The Elon Musk-helmed firm had cited US regulations behind its inability to disclose all the ownership details, while declaring that it does not have investors from countries with which India shares land borders. Elon Musk will be in India on April 21 and 22, and will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as high-ranking government officials(Reuters file)

Last November, Bharti Group-backed satellite internet service conglomerate Eutelsat-OneWeb received trial satellite spectrum in both `Ka and `Ku bands for 90 days and has begun using demo airwaves to run the advanced trials with key customers.

According to the European Space Agency, the Ku band downlink is used from 10.7 GHz to 12.75 GHz for the direct broadcast satellite services. On the other hand, the Ka band is used in communication satellites, uplinked in either the 27.5 GHz and 31 GHz bands.



ALSO READ: Starlink to be a formidable competition for Airtel-backed OneWeb, says Sunil Mittal

Eutelsat-OneWeb is the only satellite communication player with necessary authorisations from the India National Space Promotions and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe).

Companies like Eutelsat OneWeb, Starlink, Jio Satellite Communications Amazon are vying for a portion of the Indian market.

In November 2022, Starlink initiated the process of applying for the GMPCS licence after facing issues with the Centre for accepting pre-orders for its terminals.
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of attempting "Operation Lotus" in the state to topple his government ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah.

In an interview to India Today TV, Siddaramaiah claimed that the BJP offered 50 crore to Congress MLAs to switch sides. BJP has claimed that the Congress government in the state would collapse if the party performs poorly in the upcoming polls.

"They have been trying to break my government for the past year. 50 crore was offered to our MLAs. They tried and failed," Siddaramaiah told India Today TV.

ALSO READ- Amit Shah slams Cong after banned PFI's political wing SDPI extends support: Can people of Karnataka remain safe?'

Siddaramaiah dismissed the possibility of his Congress-led government falling after the elections, saying firmly, Not possible. Our MLAs will not leave. Not a single MLA will leave our party. He affirmed that his government would complete its full five-year term.

Siddaramaiah assumed office as chief minister on May 20, 2023, following the Congress's decisive win, dislodging the BJP from power.

ALSO READ- Slap youth who chant Modi slogans', says Karnataka minister. BJP hits back

Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and JD(S) formed an alliance to contest against the BJP but suffered a significant defeat. The BJP secured a record 25 seats, while the Congress and JD(S) managed to win only one seat each. Just a year before, the Congress and the JD(S) had formed the government in Karnataka after the assembly elections after the BJP failed to get majority despite emerging as the single largest party.



A month after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress-JD(S) alliance government fell and BJP came to power.

The upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2024 will take place in seven phases, commencing on April 19, with the counting of votes scheduled for June 4.
The damaged spring posts and absence of yellow lanes in old city areas near the railway station have thwarted efforts to regulate traffic flow effectively. Despite initial installation of traffic management measures, e-rickshaw and auto-rickshaw drivers flout the rules, leading to chaos, and traffic police failed to enforce proper regulations. Commuters stuck in a traffic jam outside the railway station in Ludhiana on Saturday. (Manish/HT Photo)

The yellow lanes and spring posts were introduced as part of comprehensive strategy to enhance traffic management around the railway station. However, they proved ineffective for the intended purpose. While traffic police had designated specific lanes for different vehicle types, including e-rickshaw and auto-rickshaw, the drivers consistently ignore the instructions, leading to congestion and disruptions on road.

A commuter, Ronak, emphasised the need for police presence in the area during peak hours to witness the traffic bottlenecks. He urged the authorities to take decisive action against violators, reinstall spring posts and yellow lanes to ensure compliance with the traffic norms.

The failure to enforce traffic rules has generated widespread discontent among residents, commuters, and local businesses, who endure the brunt of traffic congestion. The situation worsens during peak hours, causing significant delays and inconvenience for the road users.

The local shopkeepers advocated for acknowledgment of deficiencies in traffic management. They demanded remedial action including intensified enforcement measures, stricter penalties for violations, and enhanced public awareness campaigns to educate the drivers about importance of adhering to traffic regulations.

Assistant commissioner of police (traffic) Charanjiv Lamba said decisive action will be taken against the violators. Also, the spring posts and yellow lanes will be reinstalled to ensure compliance with traffic norms in old city areas near the railway station, he added.
The Assam Police in a special operation near the India-Bangladesh international border on Friday night seized 100,000 Yaba tablets from a vehicle. The officials said that they arrested two persons including a major supplier of drugs. Police said the at the vehicle carrying yaba tablets was coming from a neighbouring state and they received the information much before it entered Assam. (Image posted on X by Himanta Biswa Sarma)

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday night shared the information through a post on X. He wrote, In a major crackdown on the narcotics network, Karimganj Police, acting on a specific input, intercepted a vehicle in Srikrishna Nagar and seized 1,00,000 YABA tablets from its secret chambers.

The superintendent of police (SP), Karimganj district, Partha Pratim Das said that the vehicle was coming from a neighbouring state and they received the information much before it entered Assam.

The arrested persons have been identified as Abul Hasan and Saharul Islam. According to police, Abul Hasan stays in Nagalands Dimapur and he runs the trade of drugs in Assam.

Abul Hasan is a major supplier of drugs in Upper Assam and other parts of the state. He used to run the trade in Assam sitting in Nagaland. Our officials have been tracking his activities for the last six months. Finally, he has been nabbed, the SP said.

Das said that they are interrogating Abul Hasan and his companion. This is an important catch. In the interrogation, more information about inter-state trade of drugs will be revealed, Das said.

Police said that they have registered cases against Abul Hasan and Saharul Islam under several sections of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.

Last week, the Border Security Force (BSF) arrested two Tripura residents and one Manipur resident in Cachar district with 100,000 Yaba Tablets. Officials said that the consignment was coming from Manipur capital Imphal and was going towards West Bengal.

Officials on April 6 said, Acting on a specific input about a large number of illicit trafficking of Yaba tablets in a Tata truck coming from Imphal towards Silchar side, a joint team of BSF and one of the sister agencies launched an operation and recovered 100,000 Yaba tablets.

The arrested persons were identified as Naorem Singh (23), a resident of Torbung district of Manipur, Md Bahar Miah (34) and Uttam Sarkar, residents of Tripuras Sepahijala district, according to the BSF.
District authorities of Maharajganj and police personnel of Basti confiscated properties of former minister Amarmani Tripathi and seized two rooms of his office at his residence in Nautanva town of Maharajganj district on Saturday. Former minister Amarmani Tripathi (HT File Photo)

Hundreds of supporters of the former minister protested and entered into heated arguments with revenue officials carrying out measurement of properties.

Following the directive of Chief judicial Magistrate, Basti, Promod Giri, police officials have to produce a report regarding the confiscation of Amarmani Tripathis properties on April 15, during the hearing in a 23-year-old case of kidnapping of a schoolboy, Rahul Gupta, in Basti, in 2002. The abducted child was found at a house in Lucknow that belonged to the then minister.

The MP MLA court of Basti had issued a non-bailable warrant against Amarmani Tripathi on October 16, 2022, and later, the Allahabad high court had rejected his application to cancel the NBW and stop the confiscation process on March 22, 2023.

Earlier on March 20, this year, Basti police officers had sought more time to recover two properties of Amarmani: one in Nautanva town of Maharajganj district and another on in Vibhooti Khand, Lucknow, and CJM court had granted 10 days time and instructed DGP UP and home secretary to ensure that the properties are confiscated by April 15.

Abdur Rahman
One Asharam, 50, a resident of Pakariya village under Mitauli police limits, died allegedly while in police custody on Friday night. Angered family members and villagers staged a demonstration at the Kasta crossing on Saturday, demanding action in the matter. CDO Anil Singh talking to agitating villagers in Kasta on Saturday. (HT Photo)

In view of the agitation, along with the dead body, chief development officer (CDO) Anil Singh, ASP Nepal Singh, SDM Gola and others rushed the spot and talked to the agitating villagers.

Superintendent of police (SP), Kheri, Ganesh Prasad Saha, also rushed the spot and talked to aggrieved family members and assured them of appropriate action over their complaint.

On his assurance, the villagers called off their agitation and agreed to send the body for a post-mortem examination.

Talking to press persons, SP Saha said on the complaint of the family, an inquiry under his own supervision had been instituted and appropriate action would be taken against those found guilty.

Asharam was called to Mitauli police station on Friday evening in connection with an investigation into the murder of six-year-old girl, whose body was recovered from the roadside bushes a week back.

Asharams son, Rahul, in his complaint to the police, alleged that police from the Piparjhala outpost, under the Mitauli police station, had taken Asharam to police station on Friday evening.

Later, his father was reported to have been carried first to Mitauli health centre and later to the district hospital, where he was reported to have died.

However, police sources said that at the police station, Asharam complained of severe abdominal pain, and he was rushed to health centre and later to district hospital, where he succumbed to his ailment.

Heavy police force has been deployed to avert any further escalation.

DEO KANT PANDEY
Uttarakhand Board of School Education will declare UK Board Result 2024 on April 30, 2024. The confirmed date and time of release of UBSE Uttarakhand Board 10th and 12th results will be announced prior to the declaration of the results. UK Board Result 2024: UBSE Uttarakhand Board 10th, 12th results expected on April 30

While speaking to Hindustan Times, sources said that Class 10 and Class 12 results will likely be announced on April 30, 2024.

This year Uttarakhand Board Class 10, 12 examination was conducted in February- March 2024. Class 10 board exam was conducted from February 27 to March 16, 2024, and Class 12 board exam was conducted from February 27 to March 16, 2024. The examination on most of the days for Class 10, 12 was conducted from 9.45 pm to 1 pm. 15 minutes was given to read the question papers.

UK Board Result 2024: How to check

All the appeared candidates can check the results by following the steps given below.

Visit the official website of UBSE at ukresults.nic.in or ubse.uk.gov.in.

Click on UK Board Result 2024 for Class 10, Class 12 link available on the home page.

Enter the required details and click on submit.

Your result will be displayed on the screen.

Check the result and download the page.

Keep a hard copy of the same for further need.

In 2023, the UBSE results for 10th, 12th was announced on May 25. The overall pass percentage of UK Board 12th results was 85.58 percent. Tanu Chauhan had topped UK 12th with 97.60%. The overall pass percentage of Class 10 was 85.17%. The Class 10 topper was Sushant Chandravanshi. A total of 2,59,437 candidates had appeared for Class 10, 12 exams out of which 1,32,115 students appeared in the Class 10 final exam and 1,27,324 students appeared for the Class 12 final exam. For more related details candidates can check the official website of UBSE.
Alex Garland's latest film, Civil War, has ignited a firestorm of political debate. The visionary director, known for mind-bending films like Ex Machina and Annihilation, didn't hesitate to present a near-future America plunged into chaos. This time, however, the battleground isn't a dystopian future or a technological singularity; it's the terrifyingly familiar territory of the current political climate in the United States. Surely, it's the year's most controversial film so far  and whats more interesting is the polarised response. Alex Garland's film 'Civil War' sparks intense political debate as it portrays a near-future America in chaos, reflecting current social divisions. (Pic credit-A24 via X)

Civil War review

Garlands unflinching depiction of the nations deep-rooted social divisions leaves viewers gasping for air. Is Civil War simply an honest portrayal of reality, or does Garland use his signature style to reveal the true dangers of a nation on the brink?

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Before watching the film, please consider that it contains multiple deaths. The film is set in the future of the USA, in which a civil war has broken out, causing various states to be divided into factions. One of the most memorable scenes takes place in Washington DC, where rebellious states clash with the authoritarian government. Helicopters buzz overhead, explosions rock iconic landmarks, and everything is in turmoil. However, the real story lies within the role of journalists as witnesses to the conflict.

Alex Garlands Civil War story

Meet the main characters of the film: Lee (played by Kirsten Dunst), a renowned photojournalist navigating the war-torn country alongside Joel (played by Wagner Moura) in pursuit of an interview with the president. There is something in the film which is trying to be protective of [journalists], Says Garland to the Guardian. . I think serious journalism needs protecting because its under attack, so I wanted to make those people heroes to put them front and centre. He added.

The setting is a country where the FBI has been disbanded and the military targets civilians. Sammy (played by Stephen McKinley Henderson), a veteran journalist, and Jessie (played by Cailee Spaney), a newcomer, traverse the war-torn nation, encountering grim realities such as public hangings and ambiguous combatants.

Also read: How OJ Simpson cheated victim families out of millions with cash-only schemes

"It's a film about the product of polarisation and division," Garland told CBS. "Unless we come to our senses, our polarised, divisive, non-communicative state is going to continue." He added to one of the many statements.

Civil War public reactions

The film was released in the United States on April 12th, 2024, and we have to say that it has earned rave reviews and some pretty nasty jabs along the way. The films creators insist that its a non-judgmental film, but the reactions to it show the deep-rooted divisions in our society that Garland is trying to expose.

Alex Garlands #CivilWar is unnerving, intense and brutally honest. Its not the movie you probably think it is & it benefits from that. The world building is simple, but feels so effectively real. A user shared their experience on X. On the contrary, another wrote, It is absolutely bonkers watching a shit movie like civil war and reading positive reviews/tweets while the mainstream American news ignores the hundreds of journalists being killed in Gaza over the last six months.

While some think, it takes a horrifyingly visceral look through the lens of a war photojournalists camera in a dystopian world - neither picking a side, but simply relaying images for us to process. Its unsettling, haunting, and nerve-shredding, with Dunst and Spaeny the standouts. It's no shocker that we also have to go through comments such as, A torturous, overrated movie without a point. and CIVIL WAR takes little to no stance on our political atmosphere, what are we trying to get at with reviews like this? I am genuinely asking.
The intersection at Octavia Boulevard and Market Street in San Francisco is among the citys most dangerous, according to traffic collision data. Benjamin Fanjoy/The Chronicle

For 10 years, as San Francisco leaders touted an ambitious Vision Zero goal to end traffic fatalities, police eased back on ticketing drivers.

Citations plummeted, from 12,444 in March 2014  two months after the Police Department launched a crackdown to deter scofflaw drivers  to 336 in December 2023, according to city records.

The numbers are so stark that some frustrated observers wondered if officers had retreated from a fundamental part of their job, giving people the impression that road rage or speeding would go unpunished. Although citation data alone cannot reveal whether risky driving has increased, it points to a huge challenge for a city trying to make the roads safe for everyone, and stumbling in the effort.

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Were seeing driver behavior change, possibly in response to the lack of enforcement, said Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who has spent years pressing the Police Department for better results.

The Chronicle analyzed data on each type of infraction and found that some types dipped so strikingly that they were virtually nonexistent by 2023. Officers all but stopped penalizing bicycle offenses, which plunged from 1,583 in 2014 to seven in 2023. Similarly, pedestrians received 30 citations in 2023, down from 5,479 in 2014 as the department elevated a more urgent priority to stop cars from hitting people.

Certain categories of motorist citations, such as for violating the pedestrian right-of-way, also fell significantly, with 7,500 such tickets in 2015, and 72 in 2023. Police have pledged to reverse that trend, noting that right-of-way violations are a major contributor to injuries and deaths.

From the perspective of law enforcement, the reasons behind that drop are complicated. They range from purported staff shortages, to traffic thinning out during pandemic lockdowns, to a 2015 state law that requires officers to carefully document whom they stop to guard against racial profiling.

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While police cant control every factor, the department is trying to course-correct by leaning into a strategy that would send patrols multiple times a day to streets where crashes occur, in the vein of a fire crew putting out spot fires. These operations would focus on the most dangerous driving behaviors, such as speeding or running red lights. Department command staff will present the plan on April 25 at a Board of Supervisors committee hearing called by Mandelman. He said hes open to a variety of interventions  including lessening associated paperwork burdens if the state would permit it.

Besides calling for more aggressive and consistent policing, city officials have turned to a technological solution: automated speed cameras, to be installed next year on the citys most treacherous arteries. Supporters of the cameras  including Mayor London Breed  see them as a tool to supplement an overtaxed police force. In Mandelmans view, the cameras could become a centerpiece of street safety in San Francisco.

The city already relies heavily on red light cameras, which have yielded 56,065 tickets since 2019, according to Police Department spokesperson Evan Sernoffsky.

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These developments come amid a fierce battle between San Franciscos police union and its Police Commission over whether to fundamentally change traffic stops on city streets. In February, the commission passed a measure restricting officers ability to pull people over for minor infractions, prompting immediate threats of lawsuits from the union. Law enforcement officials have long treated low-level stops as an opportunity to uncover more serious crimes; critics say that theyve become a tool to harass and intimidate motorists of color.

Experts on policing and racial disparity, such as UC Berkeley public policy Professor Jack Glaser, said the new restrictions would narrowly apply to stops with little, if any, public safety benefit. Mandelman, however, raised concern that limitations on pretextual stops would become another encumbrance for officers, making their jobs so much more complicated, that theyre afraid to do anything.

Concurrent efforts to pull back on some stops and devote more resources toward others have brought the city to an inflection point. Pressure mounted after a catastrophic crash in West Portal last month, in which police said a woman drove her SUV onto a sidewalk and rammed into a bus stop, killing a family of four. She has not been charged with a crime.

That split-second tragedy really sobered people to the reality of how reckless driving has become, and how vulnerable people are, said Jodie Medeiros, executive director of the pedestrian safety group Walk SF.

Some safety advocates say that even before the West Portal collision, their outrage had reached a fever pitch. Data analyst Stephen Braitsch conducted his own audit of police citations in 2022 and determined that officers were averaging only about 10 a day. He publicized the results, but felt that few in City Hall were listening.

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Theres no pressure on SFPD to prioritize traffic safety, he said.

San Francisco could accomplish many of its goals, Medeiros and others say, if police target high-injury corridors and prioritize the five driving violations that SFPD and the Municipal Transportation Agency identified in 2012 as primary causes of collisions: speeding, running red lights, running stop signs, failing to yield and violating pedestrians right of way.

Until 2020, the five main public safety violations accounted for about half the citations that police issued in San Francisco. In recent years, however, those infractions comprised a larger share of traffic stops in the city  a sign that officers may be reducing other stops that dont promote public safety. Theres some good news in here, said Glaser, the Berkeley professor, as he scrutinized the citys citation data.

Police say they have aligned with the advocates vision, applying it to the data-driven plan they will roll out this month. It hinges on identifying the roads or intersections where crashes happen, and assigning patrols to those locations. A targeted, hot spot approach to traffic tickets, coupled with a highly visible police presence, should serve as a deterrent to bad driving, Sernoffsky said.

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In his view, a confluence of things contributed to the steady decline in traffic citations. He cited the 2015 racial justice law, which made each stop longer and more labor-intensive  though police acknowledge the importance of ending racial profiling, Sernoffsky said.

If added paperwork had a chilling effect, two events in 2020 caused a more dramatic shift. One was the pandemic, which shut down businesses and led fewer motorists to venture out, diminishing the number of interactions with police. The second was the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, which prompted a moment of societal reflection on policing  and inspired some officers to wind down enforcement, Glaser said.

Meanwhile, drivers seemed to lose their inhibitions during the pandemic, feeling suddenly emboldened to speed or careen through empty streets, Medeiros said. By the time traffic returned, she added, rash driving had become a new normal.

As the city reopened, San Francisco police had to contend with problems that have affected law enforcement nationally: workforce attrition and sluggish recruiting. All told, the department has 504 officer vacancies, Sernoffsky said, adding that the traffic unit was among the hardest hit. He believes the drop in traffic stops reflects the staffing problems. The city reached a nadir in June 2022, when officers issued just 192 tickets for moving violations.

Currently the department has a staff of 46 in its traffic division  half the units size a decade ago. Given those labor constraints, the division has tried to be selective, relying on public feedback and Vision Zero maps to decide where to deploy officers.

For a while, the results were difficult to measure. Speaking at a City Hall hearing last September, Mandelman observed, in a puzzled tone, that officers had veered away from writing tickets and were instead trying softer intervention.

At trouble spots like the Valencia Street center bike lanes, officers issued hundreds of warnings  a form of driver education that isnt captured in citation data. Glaser speculated that warnings might also serve as a release valve for gratuitous stops that are actually a pretext to search someones car; Sernoffsky countered that there is no evidence of a correlation between warnings and searches.

Despite staffing struggles and changes in focus, citation numbers began trending upward this year. Data published in the departments monthly Vision Zero progress reports shows 586 citations in January and 839 in February, the most recent month for which data was available.

Breed projects the city will hire 200 officers within the next year, a mix of new recruits and lateral hires from other departments, lured by competitive salaries negotiated in the latest contract with the police union. A new academy with 50 cadets will start in a month, a spokesperson for the mayor said.

To Medeiros, enforcement is absolutely part of the equation to end traffic injuries and deaths. But Walk SF has not taken a position on whether the city should hire more police. Medeiros and other Vision Zero proponents favor a methodical approach aimed to slow people down and get them to drive more carefully on the more treacherous corridors.

If the city can accomplish that with speed cameras, or re-engineered streets, or with a limited number of officers who mostly dole out warnings, advocates say they would have no objections.
In 2014, Anjali Menons Bangalore Days made waves when it was released, not just in Kerala, but also in other parts of south India. For migrant Keralites across the country, suddenly there was a film that understood them, especially through Nivin Paulys Kuttan, who often longs for home yet wants to make more out of his life. Nazriya Nazims Kunju was every girl looking to be independent, irrespective of her circumstances and Dulquer Salmaans Aju was the free-spirit everyone longed to be. (Also Read: OTT releases to watch this weekend: Amar Singh Chamkila, Premalu, Fallout and more) Premalu released a decade after Bangalore Days and yet, tells an equally compelling story.

A decade later, in February this year, Girish ADs Premalu, starring Naslen K Gafoor and Mamitha Baiju was released in theatres, and began streaming on Disney+ Hotstar and Aha from April 12. Yet again, a Malayalam film generated hype for being relatable, funny and all-around feel-good. More importantly, it also delves into the migrant Keralite experience, this time in Hyderabad. Theres no two ways about it. Premalu is this generations Bangalore Days.

What changed through the years

Naslens Sachin and Mamithas Reenu have it tough when it comes to their career and love life in Premalu, but they dont seem to have it as hard as Bangalore Days Kuttan, Kunju and Aju did.

For example, Reenu doesnt have to marry a stranger to move to Hyderabad from Pathanamthitta; she only needs a well-paying job. She might find a kindred soul in Parvathy Thiruvothus paraplegic RJ Sarah from Bangalore Days more than Kunju, who banks her life on the hope of love and a happy marriage to Shivadas Fahadh Faasil in Bengaluru. That is, till life throws a wrench in her plans.

Sachin wants to migrate to the UK for higher education but doesnt have the funds to do that. He moves to Hyderabad to escape his constantly bickering parents; in that sense, hes more like Aju, who comes from a broken family. Where Aju gets emotional and feels left out regarding his parents, Sachin seems to accept that the circumstances are out of his hands. Sachin breezes through life no matter what, and Aju struggles to gain confidence after a bike racing ban.

Even in terms of direction, Anjali seems to put her characters in situations that eventually demand maturity and seriousness. Girish on the other hand, opts for gags, even in a particular chase sequence involving Reenus boisterous colleague Aadhi, played by Shyam Mohan, who develops feelings for her. Aadhi might be the most annoying fictional character to ever exist, but you cant deny hes funny. And given the world's current state, maybe we need more humour than maturity.

Of love and friendship

Premalu excels because, like Bangalore Days, you walk out of the film with a smile. All the characters are relatable, with the dialogues specifically leaving a mark. When Kuttan, Kunju and Aju bemoan the concept of happily ever after while soothing each others heartbreak or when Sachin is being delusional about his one-sided love for Reenu with his hilarious friend Amal, aka Amul Baby, played by Sangeeth Prathap, you cant help but feel for these characters.

While love, in all its awkward glory, seems to be the driving factor for all these characters, even the silly Aadhi or the straight-faced Shivadas, Premalu and Bangalore Days excel at celebrating friendships. Where would Sachin be, if not for Amul and Althaf Salims Shobhi sir. Even his drunk friends at his engineering college in Chennai, seem to prop him up when he cant find the strength to, like in the scene where he musts up the courage to reveal his feelings for a classmate. Kuttan, Kunju and Aju might be cousins, but theyre more friends than anything. Aju doesnt care what society expects of Kunju; he just wants her to be happy, even if it means standing up to her unfeeling husband.

In conclusion

The new generation movement in Malayalam films developed in the early 2010s when fresh faces and relatable themes took precedence over conventional themes and the star system. Gone were the masala films, replaced by concept-backed cinema, which saw filmmakers experiment with the stories they told. When even stars like Mohanlal and Mammootty teamed up with these new directors, they let go of what was expected of them and gave in to the vision.

This generation of filmmakers and actors have also often been credited with keeping Mollywood afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic by making films like C U Soon - a screenlife film shot entirely on iPhone, The Great Indian Kitchen - which changed the way we look at women in our lives and Love - a psychological thriller shot in controlled locations.

Premalu is a great new addition to the new-gen movement, with the OTT release ensuring a wider reach. The perk? Premalu does to Hyderabad what Bangalore Days did to Bengaluru - makes it seem like the cool new city to be.

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Manchu Manoj and Bhuma Mounika have been blessed with a baby girl. Manojs sister, actor Lakshmi Manchu, made the happy announcement on her Instagram and X. The couple recently announced they were having a baby, whom they have now nicknamed MM Puli. (Also Read: Akshay Kumar to debut in Tollywood with Vishnu Manchus Kannappa) Lakshmi Manchu claims Manchu Manoj and Bhuma Mounika's baby looks like her(Instagram)

Lakshmis happy post

Lakshmi shared two pictures on her social media - one of a tigress and a baby, another of a happy family of four. She wrote, ANNOUNCEMENT. And just like that, they are four! Blessed by the Gods, a little Goddess has arrived! We are thrilled to announce that Manoj and Mounika have welcomed their much-awaited baby girl.

She added that Mounikas son from her previous marriage, whom Manoj adopted as his own is also excited to have a sister, writing, Dhairav is overjoyed as her big brother. Cherishing her nickname, we all lovingly call her 'MM Puli'. May Lord Shiva's blessings always be upon this complete family. Bless them with all your love! @HeroManoj1 @BhumaMounika #MMPuli #AthaGoals #celebratinglife #littleGoddess #babyannouncement #unlimitedjoy #MM.

On Instagram, an excited Lakshmi commented under the post that the baby looks just like her. She wrote, FYI she looks just like her Atha (aunt). Even if I say so myself.

Busting rumours

In March, there were rumours that the couple has been blessed with twins. Manoj put out a statement back then stating, My wife is doing well and is in her seventh month of pregnancy, and we eagerly await our newest addition in May. I need to set the record straight; reports of birth of twins is incorrect. Well share our news directly when the time comes. Incidentally, his brother Vishnu has twins, Ariaana and Viviana, apart from Ayra and Arvam.

Upcoming work

Manoj was last seen in the 2017 film Okkadu Migiladu, apart from playing cameos in the 2019 films Idi Naa Love Story and Operation 2019. He is gearing up for a comeback and will star in What The Fish, which also sees Niharika Konidela as the lead. A new project will be announced on his birthday on May 20, for which hes already shooting for.

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Scandoval wounds go deeper than any other hot mess on the Bravoverse. Last week, exes Katie Maloney and Tom Schwartz got tied into a love triangle, but now the action has moved on to a different scene, with credible grudges still dragging the conversation back. Ariana Madix, Rachel Leviss and Tom Sandoval were caught in Vanderpump Rules Season 10 'Scandoval'. Flushing his decade-long relationship with Madix down the drain, Tom engaged in a secret affair with their friend, Leviss.

Though Rachel Raquel Leviss pulled out of the reality show after the House of Cards fell apart in Season 10, new conversations around her podcast will again reopen old wounds. Ariana Madix, justifiably ever-exasperated by her former partner Tom Sandoval, will address how Rachel possibly didnt really think f***ing sh*t of (her). Where's Sandoval, you ask? He's off wooing his buddy to move in with him, concocting an unfavourable rent scheme for Schwartz.

Vanderpump Rules Season 11 Episode 12 release date and time

Ready to air on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, VPR Rules Season 11 Episode 12 will catch Scheana Shay enlisting Ariana, Lala and Katie's help for her new music video, until the discussion shifts to a new point of intrigue. The new episode, titled How'd You Like Them Apples, will premiere on Bravo at 8/7 c. Stream it on Peacock the next day.

Also read | 9-1-1 star Oliver Stark slams haters trolling Buck's bisexuality: I truly dont care'

What to expect from Vanderpump Rules Season 11 Episode 12?

Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix's shared house rules continue to bug the former party, as Sandoval is hung up on buying Ariana out and officially making the Valley Village his own property. However, beyond the technicalities, Sandoval has other plans for turning this place into a wholehearted Tom mansion.

Another sneak peek from Bravo dished Sandoval pushing a proposition to Tom Schwartz, as he divulges, I would consider keeping the house if I had a roommate.

But to no avail.

Schwartz swiftly shut the idea down, claiming the optics of that are horrible. Yet, he couldn't help but wonder what his rent payments would look like.

To answer his curious doubt, Sandoval showed him the $6,000 per month figure, which knocked over Schwartz, who currently plays $4,500 a month for his apartment.

Schwartz instantly asserted, "I can not in good conscience put [$6,000] toward something that I'm not going to get a return on. I'm not building equity in here." This brought Sandoval to ponder over a joint loan situation, which Schwartz wasn't feeling either.

Also read | The Apprentice: First look at Sebastian Stan as young Donald Trump unveiled as Cannes 2024 confirms lineup

The house battle has scared Ariana out of her wits and she addressed the case in the previous episode. I put so much of my life and my money and my time into making this my dream home, and it was my dream home, she added. Madix also called out Sandoval for gaslighting her and imposing as if he deserved to keep it.

Tom had his responses ready on the other side. He foregrounded that he paid for everything, which Ariana contradicted on VPR After Show.

On the flip side, as Shay invites the girl squad to help her out, Katie skips, presumably because of her former arguments with Lala. While they were focused on their misunderstandings, Shay was all about positive energy, especially as she shot the music video for Good As Gold, a song that originally came out over a decade ago.

Meanwhile, Lala Kent needs a place to host a sperm donor party. But before that discussion rolls into the picture, the cast members once again dipped their toes into the hot 'Scandoval' mess  a turning point in Season 10. The ladies (minus Katie) get into how Rachel Leviss retracted her friendship ties with Ariana, claiming they weren't that good of friends on her podcast.

Invoking Rachel's name doesn't sit right with Scheana either, who ultimately spills the tea about how much rent Leviss paid while living in her and Brock's LA apartment.
Those looking forward to watching season 3 of Bigg Boss OTT might have to wait a little longer. The digital version of Bigg Boss, which was launched in 2021, might not return for a third season this year. A report by Indian Express states that Colors TV and Jio Cinema will not bring back the show due to saturation. (Also Read: Elvish Yadav reacts to Munawar Faruqui egg pelting incident: 'Insaan akele padh jata hai aese situation mein'. Watch) Salman Khan hosted the second season of Bigg Boss OTT.

Bigg Boss OTT 3 postponed

There were rumours recently that Bigg Boss OTT 3 will stream from May 15 this year. However, a source told the publication thats far from the truth. A source claimed the makers dont want to get Bigg Boss OTT this year because the shows audience is facing saturation and to reduce over-exposure, they might skip the show this year completely. They also claim that while discussions are still in the premature stage Banijay Asia, Colors TV and Jio Cinema have not confirmed the same.

Previous seasons of Bigg Boss OTT

Bigg Boss has been popular ever since the TV version debuted in 2006. Salman Khan has been its host since 2010. In 2021, the show got its digital version, Bigg Boss OTT, with Karan Johar taking over the hosting duties. Actor Divya Agarwal lifted the trophy that year. Salman took over hosting for the second season, which saw YouTuber Elvish Yadav win the reality show. Apart from a daily one-hour episode on Voot, for Season 1, and Jio Cinema, for Season 2, the show was also streamed 24/7.

Bigg Boss OTT 2 saw a lot of its contestants gain fame. Pooja Bhatt, Jiya Shankar, Manisha Rani, Elvish Yadav, and Abhishek Malhan took part in the show. Names like Sheezan Khan, Arhaan Behll, Shehzada Dhami, Pratiksha Honmukhe, Dalljiet Kaur, Maxtern, Sriram Chandra and Dhanashree Verma, were doing rounds for the third season.

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This Navratri is being celebrated on campus with a filmi twist! Much like in the Anil Kapoor-starrer Nayak (2001), the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) is seeing one-day presidents for each day of the festival. The twist? They will only be female students. DUSU last had a female president (politician Nupur Sharma) in 2008-09, shares Tushar Dedha, current president, adding, So, we initiated this initiative to bring more female students in focus within the world of politics. DUSUs acting president Sakshi Patel in conversation with sitting president Tushar Dedha.(Photo: Dhruv Sethi/HT)

We spoke to seven of them and heres the one thing that they would want to change in the state of student affairs as one-day DUSU presidents.

Sakshi Patel is a final-year student of BA (Prog) at Satyawati College.(Photo: Dhruv Sethi/HT)

Sakshi Patel, a final-year student of BA (Prog) at Satyawati College, says, I want to start a book bank at every college, for students who cant afford books and other necessary study material. Its a shame there hasnt been a single female president since the 2008-09 session. Because I believe that if we, as women, dont step up to do our bit for our peers, we will not be handed the representation that we deserve.

Anshita Chauhan is a first year student of BSc (Hons) Botany at Daulat Ram College.(Photo: Dhruv Sethi/HT)

Anshita Chauhan, a first year student of BSc (Hons) Botany at Daulat Ram College, says, I want DUSU to ensure safety, security and better facilities for students in PGs. If these places are vetted and ranked by DUSU, they will have greater credibility for the outstation students... Im a hosteller, and knew that my parents wouldnt be comfortable with me studying in DU if I had to stay in a PG.

Preeti Singh Nain is second-year student of BSc (Hons) Zoology at Kirori Mal College.(Photo: Dhruv Sethi/HT)

Preeti Singh Nain, second-year student of BSc (Hons) Zoology at Kirori Mal College (KMC), wants exchange programmes for meritorious students. I want to bridge the gap between the north and south campuses, as well as off-campus colleges. For instance, KMC has a stellar Zoology department. So, if a student from Venky or Hansraj wishes to study here for a semester, they should be allowed to have that experience. This can help provide education in every college at the same wavelength.

Zainab Nigar is a first-year student of BSc (Hons) Anthropology at Hansraj College.(Photo: Dhruv Sethi/HT)

Zainab Nigar, a first-year student of BSc (Hons) Anthropology at Hansraj College, tells us, A girls hostel has been built in my college recently, but it doesnt have the same facilities as the boys hostel. Five students are forced to share one small room, which is extremely unfair! I want to address this issue as a one-day DUSU president. I want to spot the ground realities of random difficulties in colleges, and work towards eradicating them.

Isha Awana is a first-year student of MA Hindi at the Faculty of Arts.(Photo: Dhruv Sethi/HT)

Isha Awana, a first-year student of MA Hindi at the Faculty of Arts, says, New books in the library  this is my manifesto. From BA to PhD, students from almost every course face the challenge of libraries not having enough stock of books, and the ones available are usually ragged or torn. Its high time we upgraded our libraries. I feel if more female students become champions of change through student politics, then we can make a difference at the grassroots level.

Akshita Johar is a final-year student of BSc (Hons) Mathematics at Ramjas College.(Photo: Dhruv Sethi/HT)

Akshita Johar, a final-year student of BSc (Hons) Mathematics at Ramjas College, is all for the safety of women on campus and, hence, wants to bring back the U-special buses that once operated exclusively for students on campus. Shuttling between the Metro stations and college, we need to take rickshaws or walk for long distances. If we revive the U-special buses, we will surely see improvement in womens safety. The staffers on these buses could also be trained to take charge in case of any emergencies, or to prevent instances of mobile or bag snatching, she says.

Shyama Arunbhai Trivedi is a final-year student of BA (Prog) at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee College for Women.(Photo: Dhruv Sethi/HT)

Shyama Arunbhai Trivedi, a final-year student of BA (Prog) at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee College for Women, votes for better representation of women. There are cells working for the upliftment of disabled students, but most of them are dormant. As a DUSU president, even if just for one day, I want to ensure that disabled students are seen and heard. There must be stage functions and organised programs to celebrate their skills and achievements. This is my vision as DUSU prez: An inclusive future.

For more, follow @htcity.delhijunction
The seized by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the Gulf has 17 Indians on board and India is already in touch with the Iranian authorities to ensure security, welfare and the early release of the Indians, official sources said on Wednesday, as reported by news agencies. "We are aware that a cargo ship 'MSC Aries' has been taken control by Iran. We have learnt that there are 17 Indian nationals onboard," said a source. An official slides down a rope during a helicopter raid on MSC Aries ship.(via REUTERS)

"We are in touch with the Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and in Delhi, to ensure security, welfare and early release of Indian nationals," it said.

Iran-Israel tension: Tehran says it has seized Israel-linked container ship near Hormuz Strait | Latest updates

The development came amid escalating tension between Israel and Iran. Iran said the ship was related to the "zionist regime". The ship's operator, the Italian-Swiss group MSC, confirmed that Iranian authorities boarded the ship.

What we know about MSC Aries, its Israel connection: How has it been seized

The operation took place near the Strait of Hormuz and the ship was then directed towards the territorial waters of Iran, Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency reported. MSC group said the ship was boarded by Iranian authorities via helicopter when it was passing the Stait of Hormuz on Saturday morning. The Strait of Hormuz connects the Gulf with the Indian Ocean and, according to the US Energy Information Administration, more than a fifth of annual global oil consumption passes through it each year.

Vessel tracking websites, vesselfinder.com and marinetraffic.com, say MSC Aries is a Portuguese-flagged container ship and gave its last reported position as in the Gulf.

MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, Zodiac said in a statement, adding that MSC is responsible for all the vessel's activities. Zodiac is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.

India on Friday issued a travel advisory urging Indian nationals to not go to Iran or Israel. "All those who are currently residing in Iran or Israe are requested to get in touch with Indian Embassies there and register themselves," the MEA advisory said.

Israel-Iran tension stemmed from the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in which Iran supported the Hamas. Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels have carried out dozens of missile and drone attacks against shipping in the Red Sea, and in November seized an Israel-linked cargo vessel, the Galaxy Leader.

(With agency inputs)
A six-year-old boy fell into a borewell on Friday afternoon in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district and rescue operations are currently underway. According to the police, the incident took place around 3:30 pm when the boy, identified as Mayur, was playing with his friends in the fields on harvested wheat crops. The other children tried to help the boy get out of the open borewell, however, they were unsuccessful, the police said. 6-year-old boy falls into 70-feet borewell in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa; rescue ops underway(ANI/Representational image)

According to Additional Superintendent of Police Anil Sonkar, the borewell is about 70 feet deep, while the boy is stuck at a depth of around 40 feet.

A team of the State Disaster Emergency Response Force (SDERF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been pressed into service who are trying to save the boy.

As soon as we received information, the station in charge and SDM reached the spotAll senior officials are present on the spot and rescue work is going on. Two JCBs, a team of cameramen, and an SDRF team are carrying out the rescue. An NDRF team was also dispatched from Banaras, Sonkar said.

Unseasonal rains have also affected the rescue operationAll efforts are underway, he said.

The police further informed that the child is being supplied oxygen through a pipe.

A CCTV camera has also been lowered to monitor the boy's condition, however, they are not able to reach him due to some obstruction, the police said. A video posted by the Rewa collector Pratibha Pal on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows the officials trying to locate the boy with the CCTV camera.

In a similar incident earlier this month, a two-year-old boy was safely rescued after a 20-hour rescue operation after he fell into a borewell in Lachayan village of Indi taluk in Karnataka's Vijayapura on April 4. The incident took place when the child, identified as Satvik, stumbled into the uncovered borewell while playing nearby. According to the officials, the rescue operation involved the use of heavy machinery, including JCBs, Hitachi equipment, and tractors, to dig through approximately 20 feet to reach the trapped child. Specialised cameras were also deployed to monitor the boy's movements, while oxygen was supplied to sustain him during the ordeal.

(With inputs from ANI, PTI)
Delhi minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi on Friday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre is going to impose Presidents Rule, stressing that the Capitals ruling party has received several indications to this effect over the past few days. New Delhi, India - April 12, 2024: AAP leader Atishi addressing a press conference at AAP Party Office, DDU Marg in New Delhi, India, on Friday, April 12, 2024. (Photo by Vipin Kumar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

We have learned from reliable people that the BJP-ruled central government is going to impose Presidents Rule in Delhi. Many indications of this have emerged over the past few days, Atishi said during a press conference on Friday.

Delhi BJP leaders called the claims baseless.

To be sure, Delhi is in uncharted waters given that it is unprecedented for a chief minister to run the government from prison. Three pleas have been filed in the Delhi high court seeking Kejriwals removal as chief minister, and while the court has rejected all three petitions, saying that it could not act in the matter, it stressed that it was up to the President and Delhis lieutenant governor to act if they deemed fit. Everything cannot be done by the court... The LG and the President of India have to consider it, the bench had said during one of the hearing.

One of the indicators Atishi cited while stressing that a move to impose Presidents Rule was afoot was a raft of vacancies open across departments in the Delhi administration. IAS officers postings are controlled by the MHA (Union ministry of home affairs). Lieutenant governor (VK Saxena) has been writing back-to-back letters to the MHA regarding the Delhi government for the past week without any reason, she said.

An AAP official, seeking anonymity, said at least 10 important departments are being handled as additional charges by officers because new officers are not being posted in Delhi.

The LG says the (AAP) ministers are not attending the meetings where he wants to have discussions. The same LG (recently) said in the court that issues of pollution and water are transferred subjects and he has nothing to do with it. Then why are you writing to the MHA regarding these subjects, Atishi said, alluding to a letter Saxena wrote to the MHA, accusing Delhis cabinet ministers of ignoring his calls for meetings.

HT reached out to the LG office which did not respond to queries seeking comments.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwals personal secretary (Bibhav Kumar) has been sacked citing a nearly 20-year-old case, the minister added, referring to the vigilance department terminating Kumar late on Wednesday citing a pending criminal matter against him in 2007.

Senior AAP leaders have, since Kejriwal was arrested on March 21, accused the BJP of trying to topple the Delhi government. To this effect, the AAP has also alleged that the BJP has tried to buy MLAs and clamp Presidents Rule to throttle Delhis ruling party. The party and Kejriwal have maintained that the case against the chief minister is politically motivated and part of a bid to scythe the AAPs ambitions ahead of the general elections.

The AAP controls a major swathe of the House, with 62 of 70 MLAs. Delhi labour minister Raaj Kumar Anand on Wednesday said he had quit the AAP, accusing it of corruption and of ignoring Dalits.

The party has also insisted that Kejriwal will continue as chief minister despite being incarcerated, arguing that the BJP will look to destroy the AAP if he quits.

Kejriwal has an overwhelming majority in the Delhi assembly. The partys attempts to impose the Presidents Rule will be illegal, unconstitutional and against the mandate of the people, said Atishi.

Corruption vs conspiracy

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva hit back at Atishi.

She should explain whether a majority of her party MLAs are leaving the party and if the government fears losing its majority in the Delhi assembly. It would be better if Arvind Kejriwal resigns, hands over the government to a new chief minister and let Delhis administration run properly, he said in a statement.

In a separate press conference, Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said that Kejriwal proved his majority in the House two months ago, referring to a vote held on February 17 during the assemblys Budget session. Fifty-four of the 62 AAP MLAs were present and the AAP won the test by voice vote.

Arvind Kejriwal was also aware of their (BJP) conspiracies and he proved his majority in the Delhi assembly in February. According to the law, there is no need to prove majority for the next six months, but the BJP does not follow the Constitution, and BJP leaders do unconstitutional things. These people do not even follow the orders of the Supreme Court.

SK Sharma, a constitutional expert, said there is no legislative threat to the government. The parliamentary practice is that once the government wins floor test there is no need for the ruling party to prove its majority for the next six months, said Sharma.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP secretary Bansuri Swaraj claimed that Kejriwal had been running a government devoid of conscience for nine years.

When the scams of the Kejriwal government are being exposed, they want to keep their legislators together under the fear of Presidents Rule. Kejriwal has been running a conscienceless government for more than nine years, Swaraj said.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Saturday said that his party will support the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in the coming Lok Sabha elections and state Assembly elections later. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.(ANI)

In a post on X, Owaisi said that AIADMK has refused to ally with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and has committed to never allying with it in the future.

He also pointed out that the party has assured that it will oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act, National Population Register and National Register of Citizens.

AIADMK has refused to ally with BJP and has committed to never allying with it in the future. It has also assured that it will oppose CAA, NPR & NRC. Therefore, AIMIM extends its support to AIADMK in the coming Lok Sabha elections, Owaisi said.

He added: Our alliance will also continue for the Assembly elections.

In September, AIADMK, Tamil Nadus main opposition, exited the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and decided to contest next years Lok Sabha elections with other state-specific allies.

Also Read | Asaduddin Owaisis AIMIM will now contest 15 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar

The relationship between the AIADMK and the BJP had been frosty for some time with immediate provocation being the BJPs Tamil Nadu state present K Annamalais alleged comments on C N Annadurai, one of the pillars of the Dravidian movement after whom the AIADMK is named. The AIADMK alleged that the BJP leadership in the state has been insulting them for the past year.

The AIADMK and the BJP came together ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with the former leading the NDA alliance in Tamil Nadu with a coalition of parties- Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), Tamil Manila Congress (TMC) and smaller parties such as the Puthiya Tamizhagam (PT) and Puthiya Needhi Katchi. The DMDK exited the NDA ahead of the 2021 assembly elections unhappy over seat allocation.
Amid heightening tensions between Iran and Israel, Indian airlines on Saturday said they have opted to avoid Iranian airspace and utilise alternative routes to ensure the safety and security of their operations. The A350 is part of the 470 new aircraft order that Air India placed in February last year. (Reuters photo)(HT_PRINT)

Air India said it is closely monitoring the developing situation in the Middle East and that its aircraft will operate on alternate flight paths to and from India.

"We are closely monitoring the developing situation in the Middle East. Presently, our aircraft will operate on alternate flight paths to and from India- according to top priority to the safety of our passengers and crew," a spokesperson for the airlines said.

Besides Air India, Vistara Airlines also issued a statement regarding changing the flight path due to ongoing tensions between Iran and Israel.

Due to the current situation affecting parts of the Middle East, we are making changes to flight-paths of some of our flights. Contingency routes, which are kept available to ensure operational continuity during such eventualities, are being used instead.

The airlines also acknowledged that they will be taking longer routes as a precautionary measure, resulting in increased travel time to reach destinations.

"This may result in longer flight times on certain routes and associated delays. The situation is being monitored closely and further changes will be made if required," a Vistara spokesperson said.

India on Friday issued an advisory urging its citizens not to travel to Iran or Israel following the rise in tensions and asked all Indian nationals living in the two countries to observe utmost precautions.

The advisory was issued against the backdrop of a growing number of reports about an Iranian attack on Israel or Israeli interests in retaliation for the Israeli air strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria on April 1 that killed seven people, including a top general of the IRGC.

United States President Joe Biden has said that Iran will attack Israel sooner, rather than later, US President Joe Biden said on Friday. He also warned Tehran not to attack the country as the US was devoted to its defense.

"We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed," he said.
A barred owl fledgling soars through the Muir Woods in Mill Valley. The invasive species spread to the Bay Area is at an early stage. Michael Macor/The Chronicle 2011

In the dead of night, hunters armed with 12-gauge shotguns hit the woods of Northern California in search of barred owls. Pre-recorded bird calls lure the large predators from the treetops. As shots ring out, owls plummet from the sky.

From 2013 to 2019, 2,485 barred owls were killed like this on the West Coast. This wasnt poaching. The hunters had the blessing of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which greenlit efforts to eradicate the invasive owls.

Now, the federal government plans to expand this effort, aiming to slaughter 470,000 barred owls in California, Oregon and Washington. The projects primary goal is to protect spotted owls, a native species whose numbers have plummeted 75% over the past two decades. Their decline is partly due to logging in old-growth forests, but the arrival of barred owls over the past few decades hasnt helped.

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Barred owls are native to eastern North America, but in the early 1900s, they began to move west. Unlike wild boars or American bullfrogs, which were introduced by humans, barred owls have made their way across the country on their own.

One theory is that as European settlers planted trees in the Great Plains, the owls were able to migrate west. By the 1970s they reached the Pacific Northwest. Over the past few decades, their population has boomed. Theyre bigger, more aggressive and can eat a wider variety of food than their spotted relatives.

Killing these invaders seems to work; a study showed that spotted owl populations rebounded after barred owls were killed in their habitats.

As news of the governments proposal spreads, so has resistance to killing owls. Its divided wildlife experts and birders and raised larger questions about how to respond to the intractable problem of plants and animals thriving in places where humans say they dont belong.

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As a burgeoning birder myself, Ive felt conflicted. Where is the line when it comes to eradicating invasive species and does it shift depending on a creatures likability?

California has long been home to non-native species. Millions of dollars are spent each year on eradication, as experts hustle to keep abreast of existing invasive species, and the appearance of new creatures and plants.

Some species are nipped in the bud with little protest, such as the European grapevine moth. It was first discovered in Northern California in 2009 and declared eradicated just seven years later. The channeled apple snail didnt garner sympathetic champions armed with petitions, nor has the quagga mussel.

When Catalina Island Conservancy officials released a plan to shoot 2,000 invasive mule deer from helicopters, however, residents of the island revolted. Never mind that the deer have slowly been eating their way through native plants, allowing flammable, invasive weeds to thrive.

Similar outrage has arisen regarding the governments plan to kill barred owls. In a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland last month, 75 wildlife and animal welfare organizations slammed the plan, raising concerns that it could result in further deaths of spotted owls.

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The letter also questions whether migration patterns  spurred by nature or human interference  should even be penalized.

Climate change will trigger all sorts of species movements, and we cannot responsibly judge which species have strayed too much from the confines of their current range, the letter said.

Killing barred owls will help vulnerable spotted owls survive. And the feds plan doesnt propose eliminating barred owls  just culling their population to give their counterparts a better chance at survival.

But its still complicated, according to Alex Godbe, executive director of All About Owls, a Petaluma-based educational organization. Godbe said she doesnt believe barred owls are the villains here. She echoed the letters point about the fine line between a species invading a new area and broadening the scope of its territory.

Losing the spotted owl would be unthinkable, she told me. But the culling of another species of owl in the hundreds of thousands is still hard to come to terms with.

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With their penchant for survival, barred owls will likely continue to find new places to live.

We imagine the barred owls will keep expanding their range, so will the killing ever end? Godbe said. Could nature find a balance again, without the drastic measures to kill the barred owl and for the spotted owl to adapt somehow? Is there time? Its a horrible dilemma.

As I learn more about these owls, Im stuck on the fact that it appears they broadened their range on their own, shifting their territory along with the countrys human population. This reminds me of coyotes, which are so excellent at adapting to new environments that theyve expanded their range from the Southwest to San Francisco, where theyre beloved residents of Golden Gate Park. Theres a delineation in my mind between the human introduction of an invasive species and an animal simply taking advantage of a new, welcoming territory.

That doesnt resolve whether we should do something about animals entering new regions. In the Bay Area, time is of the essence to decide. The region is still in the early stages of barred owl invasion, with only a few individuals at most seen each year, which makes getting ahead of the problem even more urgent, according to Renee Cormier, senior avian ecologist with Point Blue Conservation Science, who has tracked spotted owl populations in Marin County since 2006.

Removal of barred owls in Marin and areas immediately to the north would be more effective than waiting until theyre more established in the county, she told me.

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I dove into this story about barred owls expecting to conclude whether the governments plan is sound. Instead, Im further from an opinion than when I started.

What responsibility do we have to protect vulnerable species?

About Opinion Guest opinions in Open Forum and Insight are produced by writers with expertise, personal experience or original insights on a subject of interest to our readers. Their views do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Chronicle editorial board, which is committed to providing a diversity of ideas to our readership. Read more about our transparency and ethics policies

I dont have an answer, but I understand why the barred owl plan was proposed. So much of the devastation of the planets natural resources feels intractable; preserving even a small portion of the worlds coral reefs, for instance, is a gargantuan and expensive undertaking.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the main opposition in Andhra Pradesh, on Friday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) stating that certain unknown agencies had tapped the mobile phone of party general secretary Nara Lokesh using suspected Pegasus software. The TDP complained to the ECI about the security e-mail received by Nara Lokesh. (ANI)

In a letter written to chief election commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, senior TDP leader and former Rajya Sabha member Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar said Lokesh, son of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu had received a security alert from mobile manufacturing company Apple through an e-mail in the morning.

Apple sent an e-mail alert to Lokesh stating that efforts are being made to hack and tap his phone with some unidentified software and alerted him to take some precautionary measures, he said.

Stating that Lokesh had received similar alerts in March as well, the former MP said the party suspected the involvement of director general of police KV Rajendranath Reddy and state intelligence chief PSR Anjaneyulu, in the telephone tapping.

Both the officers had been acting at the behest of the ruling YSR Congress Party resorting to highly unethical and unlawful activities only to jeopardise the prospects of the NDA alliance partners in the ongoing elections to the assembly and the Lok Sabha, Ravindra Kumar said.

He demanded that the CEC take immediate action against these officers and replace them with neutral and reputed officers to ensure free and fair elections.

Another senior TDP leader and former minister Devineni Umamaheshwar Rao said there were suspicions that even the phones of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president Daggubati Purandeshwar Rao and JanaSena Party president Pawan Kalyan by the state police officials.

The central government should order a probe into these reports and take appropriate action, he demanded.

Neither the YSRCP leaders nor the top police officers of the Andhra Pradesh government have responded yet to the allegations made by the TDP.
Forty-two days after they allegedly set off a bomb at the popular Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru, Mussavir Hussain Shazib and Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa, both 30 years old, were arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Kolkata on Friday. But investigators who have been looking into their antecedents for the last month-and-a-half, said that the names of the two men have popped up in their investigations into terror modules operational in southern India, particularly an ISIS module based out of Shivamogga. One Karnataka police officer said, In all the arrests made since the graffiti case to the Bengaluru blast case, we have found involvement of Shazib and Taahaa. (PTI)

Also Read | Bengaluru Rameswaram Cafe blast case: 2 absconders arrested from Bengal

Karnataka police officials said Shazib and Taahaa were prominent members of what they have identified as the Thirthahalli module, named after the town in Shivamogga from where they operated. They first emerged on the state polices radar in 2020, when graffiti was drawn on walls near a police station in Mangaluru, which warned that the group would be forced to invite Lashkar-e-Taiba and Taliban into the country. In the case, NIA arrested Arafath Ali, who fled from India to Dubai and then to Kenya, in September 2023, after he was deported from the African country.

The module was also responsible for a low-intensity IED blast in an auto-rickshaw in Mangaluru in November 20, which left Mohammad Shariq, the man who was transporting the explosive and a part of the module, injured. Senior NIA officials said they believe that the module had between 10 and 12 men, including Shazib and Taahaa, and subsequent inquiries by central agencies showed that they received funds through crypto-wallets from abroad.

One Karnataka police officer said, In all the arrests made since the graffiti case to the Bengaluru blast case, we have found involvement of Shazib and Taahaa.

He added that the two men, both belonging to Thirthahalli, have been implicated in three incidents of terror  the graffiti found in Mangaluru in October 2020, a trial detonation of an IED device along the banks of the Tunga river in Shivamogga in September 2022, and a pressure cooker bomb explosion in an auto-rickshaw in Mangaluruin November 2022. Across these three cases, four arrests have taken place, with Taahaa and Shazib accused in all of them.From the investigations, it was clear that the duo was running the group and there were concerns about them recruiting others. With the arrests, we hope this will be the end of the gang for good, the officer added.

Also Read | Rameshwaram Cafe blast: Who are the main accused held by NIA near Kolkata?

The officer quoted above said that the state government will seek custody of the suspects within the next few days, and over the next few days, will be in touch with central agencies to identify any further recruits that are part of their module. But Karnataka, officers said, wasnt the only southern state where the names of two men were under a cloud. In January 2020, A Wilson, a special sub-inspector in Kaliyakkavilai, Tamil Nadu, was shot and stabbed to death. A week later, Abdul Shameem and Thowfeek were arrested, and the charge sheet said that the officer was murdered with the intention to create terror... as part of waging violent jihad.

Also Read | Mamata attacks BJP for propaganda over arrest of Bengaluru Cafe blast suspects

The TN police traced the origin of the attack to the Al Hind terror module, inspired by the Islamic State  operating out of Bengalurus Suddaguntepalya. Shazib and Taahaa were also members of this group, Karnataka police officers said. In 2021, in a supplementary charge sheet in a case against the Al Hind module, NIA said the two men, Mehboob Pasha and Khaja Moideen, formed a terrorist gang by recruiting young Muslims in south India, saying that the group held several criminal conspiracy meetings since April 2019 in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Former deputy chief minister and rebel Bharatiya Janata Party leader KS Eshwarappa on Friday submitted his nomination papers as an independent candidate from Shivamogga. The development comes in the backdrop of the BJP objecting to Eshwarappa using Prime Minister Narendra Modis photos during the campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Even though the partys leadership had said it would initiate action against Eshwarappa if he filed the nomination, no statements were issued by the BJP on Friday. Independent candidate from Shivamogga constituency KS Eshwarappa files his nomination papers for Lok Sabha elections (PTI)

Expressing his rationale behind contesting the Lok Sabha polls independently, Eshwarappa criticised the presence of family dominance within the BJP. He said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is saying that a party should not be in the hands of a family, but in Karnataka, (former chief minister) BS Yediyurappas son is BJP president and the other one is an MP. I am contesting to protest against it.

The discord started after Eshwarappas son KE Kanthesh was denied a ticket from Haveri. Alleging betrayal by Yediyurappa, Eshwarappa contesting against his son and BJP candidate Raghavendra is being seen as the leaders way of retaliation, people familiar with the matter.

Eshwarappa also aims to oust BY Vijayendra, another son of Yediyurappa, from the post of Karnataka BJP chief.

Talking to the media on Friday, Eshwarappa said that around 25,000 to 30,000 people from all eight constituencies of Shivamogga came to support him as he filed his nomination. He added that during his campaign he would enlighten voters about the alleged injustices he faced and the purported stranglehold of the father-son duo over the party.

Our supporters will do a door-to-door campaign as to why a loyal supporter of BJP is hurt and what kind of injustice the father-son did. They will go to every single house and tell the injustice served to Hindutva, and why the party is under father-son. I have confidence that the party will get purified after the elections, said Eshwarappa.

Expressing his astonishment at the delay in the BJPs response to his defiance, Eshwarappa hinted at stronger actions if expelled, emphasising his readiness to voice concerns more forcefully. I dont know why the party has not expelled me yet. I have already made it clear hundreds of times that I will be contesting. I am also waiting for them to expel me so that I can speak in stronger words, he said.

The BJP on Wednesday had petitioned the Election Commission to bar Eshwarappa from employing PM Modis photographs in his campaign. A delegation of BJP leaders, led by MLC Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, submitted a petition highlighting the partys stance that only the BJP and its affiliated allies have the prerogative to utilise Modis photographs.

In its complaint, the BJP said, To our utter shock and surprise, an independent candidate from Shivamogga, KS Eshwarappa, has been misleading the public that he is contesting on behalf of Narendra Modi and BJP leaders. He portrays that he is a part of the BJP, which is incorrect.

Meanwhile, the financial disclosures in the affidavit reveal Eshwarappas substantial assets, totalling over 26.63 crore, marking a significant increase from 6.41 crore during the 2018 Karnataka assembly elections. Eshwarappa was forced to resign from his cabinet post in April 2022, after a contractor died by suicide alleging that the minister had demanded bribes for clearing bills.

As per the affidavit, in a joint venture with his son KE Kantesh, Eshwarappa acquired a 4,000 sqft commercial property in Jayanagar, Bengaluru, in 2019, with a current market valuation of 7.5 crore. Additionally, a commercial property in Kumara Park was purchased in 2021, with Eshwarappa owning a 25% share valued at 3.75 crore.

While disclosing no vehicle ownership, Eshwarappa declared an annual income of 98.92 lakh for the financial year 2022-23, up from 21.99 lakh in 201617, alongside liabilities amounting to 5.87 crore. His spouse, Jayalakshmi, boasts assets exceeding 6.87 crore, as per the affidavit submitted.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will on Sunday, release its manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections at the party headquarters in Delhi in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. BJP CEC meet(File)

The saffron party's manifesto called "sankalp patra"- is likely to include planks of welfare and development schemes besides a roadmap for 'viksit Bharat'. With Modi constantly highlighting his government's priority for the poor, the youth, women and farmers, the ruling BJP is likely to give prominence to the issues related to them. PM Modi and other senior leaders would attend the unveiling of the manifesto on the day coinciding with the birth anniversary of dalit leader B R Ambedkar.

The Narendra Modi-led central government has completed its core ideological promises including the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the repeal of Article 370, all eyes will be on how the BJP's larger cultural and Hindutva agenda figures in the manifesto.

The Narendra Modi-led central government has fulfilled its core ideological promises including the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the repeal of Article 370. Now all eyes will be on how the BJP's larger cultural and Hindutva agenda figures in the manifesto.

The BJP had last month announced the constitution of a 27-member committee under defence minister and former BJP president Rajnath Singh for preparation of its manifesto.

The committee has 11 ministers besides four chief ministers of the party-ruled states. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman was appointed the convener of the committee, with Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal being the co-convener. The manifesto committee has one BJP leader from each of the minority communities, including Sikhs, Muslims and Christians.

Congress' manifesto:

The grand old party had earlier released its manifesto which highlighted the commitment to conduct a nationwide socio-economic and caste census, a move aimed at gaining a comprehensive understanding of India's diverse population to tailor policies that address the needs of every segment of society.

Elections 2024:

The elections for the 543 parliamentary constituencies will be held in seven phases, starting on April 19 and culminating on June 1. The counting of votes will be held on June 4. The phase 1 polling will be held on April 19, the second phase on April 26, third phase on May 7, fourth phase on May 13, 5th phase on May 20, 6th phase on May 25 and the last and the 7th phase on June 1.

(With inputs from agencies)
New Delhi The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested the person who planted a bomb on March 1 at Bengalurus Rameshwaram Cafe and the mastermind behind the terror strike, both near Kolkata, ending a 42-day-long cross-country multi-agency manhunt. NIA produces one of the accused in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case at the city session court, in Kolkata on Friday. (ANI)

The low-intensity bomb injured nine people. Abdul Matheen Taha (30), the alleged mastermind, and Mussavir Hussain Shazib (30), who planted the bomb, were tracked down in the early hours on Friday and were arrested by an NIA team under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or UAPA.

Both are alleged to be associated with the IS Shivamogga module, and were on agencys radar since 2020, said an official at the agency who didnt want to be named.

In a significant development, the absconders in Rameswaram Cafe blast case, Adbul Matheen Taha and Mussavir Hussain Shazib, were traced out to their hideout near Kolkata and were apprehended by the NIA team, an NIA spokesperson said in a statement. Shazib is the accused who placed the IED (improvised explosive device) at the cafe and Taha is the mastermind behind the planning, execution of blast and subsequent evasion from the clutches of law, the spokesperson added. They were arrested early morning on Friday.

In the course of the manhunt, the federal agency on March 29 released photographs of the two after scanning footage from hundreds of CCTVs in Bengaluru, Chennai and other cities; it also announced a reward of 10 lakh for each of them. Investigators say that a cap left by Shazib at the cafe took them to a Chennai mall from where it was bought.

Apart from releasing their pictures, NIA carried out searches at 18 locations in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh last month, and even questioned several of their old acquaintances and friends from their college and school days.

The official cited in the first instance said that investigations have revealed that Taha and Shazib, both residents of Thirthahalli in Shivamogga (Karnataka), spent some time in January and February this year in Chennai before planing the bomb on March 1.

One of their associates, Muzammil Shareef, a resident of Chikkamagaluru, was arrested on March 27 for allegedly providing logistics support such as cell phones, fake SIM cards etc. used to plan and execute the attack. Another member of the Shivamogga IS module, Maaz Muneer Ahmed, was taken into custody by NIA from the Bengaluru central prison in the second week of March and was interrogated in the case.

According to officials, Maaz Ahmed, 25, was indoctrinated by another accused, Arafath Ali, on the instructions of Taha and Shabiz. Ahmed wrote graffiti in support of terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) at two places in Mangaluru in November 2020.

The same module was behind the November 19, 2022 pressure cooker blast in an auto-rickshaw  the bomb was meant for the Kadri Manjunatha Temple in Mangaluru but the bomber in that case, Mohammad Shariq, was himself injured in the blast as the IED accidentally exploded on the way. Shariq was taken into custody.

Other members in this module include Syed Yasin, Reeshan Tajuddin Sheikh, Huzair Farhan Baig, Mazin Abdul Rahman, Nadeem Ahmed, Mohammed Zabilulla and Mohammed Faizal, officials said.

The bomb went off at the busy Rameswaram Cafe and prompted a multi-agency probe. A preliminary investigation zeroed in on a man who left a bag near the cash counter. CCTV footage showed the suspect, now identified as Shazib, carrying a backpack, wearing a full-sleeved shirt, cap, facemask, and spectacles, travelling in a bus in Tumakuru after the blast.

Police recovered a battery and a timer from the blast site, indicating that the explosion was planned. Visuals from the immediate aftermath of the blast showed panicked people running away from the explosion site, sheltering themselves from shattered glass, strewn furniture, smoke, and fire.

A case was registered under the anti-terror law UAPA and the Explosives Act .

A second officer, who also asked not to be named, said Taha and Shazib, who had planned similar attacks in Mangaluru as well in 2022, were living near Kolkata under false identities.

The pursuit of the two accused was successfully and ably supported by energetic co-ordinated action and co-operation between NIA, central intelligence agencies, and state police agencies of West Bengal, Telangana, Karnataka, and Kerala police, the NIA spokesperson said Friday.

The agency, in a press statement, said it was Taha who worked on the escape plan and managed to evade arrest.

The duo, along with their co-accused Maaz Muneer Ahmed, were also involved in terror cases earlier, the spokesperson said.

It was coordinating with police departments of Karnataka, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the matter, the agency spokesperson added. After receiving information that the two suspects were staying in a lodge near Kolkata under assumed identities, NIA requested the West Bengal police to secure the accused and the latter responded promptly, leading to a successful culmination of the search operation and apprehension of both terrorists, he said

They were produced before a special court in Kolkata that granted a three-day transit remand.

The arrests set off a political firestorm in West Bengal with BJP leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari saying, It is being proved time and again that West Bengal is a safe haven for terrorists.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee, however, responded quickly and said at an election rally in Dinhata in Cooch Behar: I have heard a BJP leader saying that Bengal is not safe. The accused were arrested within two hours following a prompt response by the police. The blast took place in Bengaluru and the accused are from Karnataka...our police apprehended them.
At 12:55 pm on March 1, as the popular Rameshwaram Cafe in Whitefield was packed with customers, there was a low-intensity explosion, leaving people terrified, injuring nine, and prompting a multi-agency probe. 42 days later and a chase which involved the participation of security agencies across states later, the NIA on Friday arrested Mussavir Hussain Shazib (30) the man who allegedly planted the bomb, and Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa, the man that allegedly masterminded the explosion from a hotel in the West Bengals New Digha. Accused Shazib was next spotted at a bus stand in Ballari, speaking to two others (PTI)

Also Read | Bengaluru cafe blast: Accused on state police radar since 2020

The first clue that investigators found immediately after the blast was CCTV footage of Shazib leaving a bag that contained the IED device near the restaurants cash counter. As they traced his movements, they saw him boarding a Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation(BMTC) bus that took him outside of the city limits and then again in a Karnataka state government bus in Tumakuru.

Shazib was next spotted at a bus stand in Ballari, speaking to two others. Two unreserved seats were occupied by individuals who alighted at the Ram mandir circle and central bus stand in Kalaburgi late on March 1, an NIA officer said.

Simultaneously, a cap left behind by Shazib was another clue that investigators honed in on, discovering that it was bought in a mall in Chennai. This detail, NIA officers said, helped link Shazib and Taahaa. They found that the two had stayed in Tamil Nadu in January and February when preparing for the blast, one officer said.

Also Read | Rameshwaram Cafe blast: Who are Mussavir Hussain Shazib and Abdul Matheen Taha, accused held by NIA?

The officer said that the central agency was able to trace the movements of the two accused from Bengaluru to north Karnataka, to Mumbai and then to Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.It appears from there they went to Nellore in Andhra Pradesh and then to Chennai. After staying in Chennai for a few days, they went to Assam and finally reached West Bengal a few days ago, the officer said.

NIA officials said that a team led by inspector general of police, Santosh Rastogi, led the manhunt and coordinated with anti-terror units of Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and West Bengal.

Also Read | Mamata attacks BJP for propaganda over arrest of Bengaluru Cafe blast suspects

Investigations also revealed that the two men rented a room at Hotel Paradise in Lenin Sarani in central Kolkata on March 13, checking out the next day. The documents they used carried the named Y Shahnawaz and Anmol Kulkarni, which investigators believe are fake. On March 26, in raids across 18 locations across three states, the NIA arrested Muzammil Shareef, who has since been charged of helping with logistics. 17 days later, at 2 am, Shazib and Taha, in a joint operation with the West Bengal Police, Shazib and Taha were in police custody.

(With inputs from Arun Dev and Joydeep Thakur)
Ahead of April 19, when Manipur goes to polls (one of the two constituencies in the state will go to polls in two stages, on that day and also April 26), chief minister Biren Singh spoke to Hindustan Times about the current situation in the state, efforts to find a peaceful solution to the ethnic conflict that has raged for 11 months, the role of militant groups, and why the decision of the Union government to suspend the so-called Free Movement Regime (FMR) and erect a border fence along the India-Myanmar border will resonate with voters. Manipur is set to got to polls on April 19 (one of the two constituencies in the state will go to polls in two stages, on that day and also April 26). (ANI)

When will normalcy return to Manipur? What is the government doing to restore normalcy?

A Naga MLA, Dinganglung Gangmei ,who is the chairperson of the Hill Area Committee -- all 20 MLAs from hill districts are under HAC -- and under his leadership, MLAs from Naga and Kuki groups are meeting in Guwahati and have started talks to find a solution. Talks are also being held in Delhi, with help from central agencies. Both sides are working to find a peaceful solution. This is happening for the first time. This is also the reason why peace is returning to Manipur. The talks have started.

A lot has happened in Manipur over the past one year, so what is your partys poll promise?

People from both communities have suffered. The main reason they suffered is the involvement of outsiders (illegal residents) during the clashes and before it. The future of the indigenous residents is at stake because over 2.5 lakh(250,000) outsiders have come in illegally and settled here. This is why Prime Minister Narendra Modis government ordered border fencing and ended the free movement regime (FMR). The state government has already suspended FMR in Manipur since Covid-19 pandemic. We are telling people how villages have come up in forest areas. These people are taking away the rights of the indigenous people. Our government conducted a survey and has mapped such villages across Manipur. Only NRC (a national register of citizens) and border fencing will help us identify the existing illegal residents, and deport those who are staying illegally. People will vote for BJP because Congress Rahul Gandhi is against NRC, which is one of the most important issues.People will vote for the BJP because this is the main issue here.

There are allegations that the radical group Arambai Tenggol is supported by the state government?

The Arambai Tenggol is a group that was formed to protect the social heritage of the Meitei people. In the initial days of the clashes, there are many viral photos and videos of AT members carrying only lathis. When militants used guns and heavy fire power in the ethnic clashes, AT members also managed to get weapons for their protection. Though police and security forces are recovering stolen weapons every day, civilians are keeping the weapons for their safety. I can assure you that once normalcy returns, every weapon will be handed over by the group. Arambai Tenggol is not an anti-India group.

What about Kuki residents who do not have faith in your government?

There are indigenous people among Kukis too who have been recognised as tribes and residents of Manipur. All those who settled here before 1961 are Manipur residents. This is why we want a National Register of Citizens(NRC) from 1961. For the first time in Manipur, we have witnessed a Tangkhul Naga MLA moving a private member resolution in the assembly urging the state government to appeal to the central government to implement NRC . It was supported by a Liangmai Naga Minister, two Meitei Pangal (Muslims) MLAs and Meitei MLAs. It was passed by the house on the same day. We only have a problem with illegal residents living in the hills. In fact, the chairman of the screening committee to identify illegal immigrants was a Kuki MLA, Letpao Haokip. Even rights of Manipur citizens among Kukis are being taken away because there has been unnatural growth of villages in the forests in the hills. Our government has mapped every village that has been set up since 2012. The Naga MLAs are speaking to the Kuki civil society organisations on how illegal migrant is affecting everyone.

But there are no star campaigners coming to Manipur

Normalcy is just starting to return to the state so we may not have many star campaigners. But the Union home minister is visiting Manipur and will address a rally on Monday. He will directly talk to the people.

How will border fencing help? Many say thousands of families will be affected when a border fence comes up at the border?

It is true that the FMR led to cross border marriages and people have families on both sides of the border. I am sure that the Centre will come up with a system for such people to meet their relatives in India. Maybe they can show their passports and some form of documentation. Why should anyone have a problem with this? This will let us keep track of the people who have entered our country. This will ensure that we have a record. Nobody can enter India illegally, live as Indian citizens forever, make settlements and take away rights of the people. They will have to return. The FMR and open border led to foreigners entering India and indulging in crimes, chiefly smuggling.

What is the status if of the Suspension of Operations(SoO) with Kuki militant groups ?

At the moment, the Centre has yet to renew the SoO. Many groups indulged in violence. The Centre is identifying the groups and the people behind it. A call to extend or not to extend will be taken only after the verification process by the Centre.

Next month will be a year since ethnic clashes broke out in the state. Is there any clarity on how it started?

There are police logs and records which show how the violence started. The first rally happened in Moreh at around 9.40 am The second rally happened in Churachandpur at 11 am. About half an hour before rally in Churachandpur, militants burnt the forest office at 10.30 am. The forest office was burnt to destroy documents, which showed how illegal villages had come up there. Fortunately, barring a few documents lost in the arson, we have all and records at the headquarters. In Churachandpur alone, 129 illegal villages came up between 2016 and 2018, followed by 169 in Kangpokpi. The first target was the forest office. Valley people living in Churachandpur were next. The allegation that Meitei groups indulged in arson at the Churachandpur war cemetery came around 2.30 pm. By then violence had started in Churachandpur. The violence in Imphal started after 4.30 pm.

What about Outer Manipur seat where BJP is supporting Naga Peoples Front?

There are many Naga tribes across Manipur, who too are suffering from the problem of illegal migrants. Naga people too are under threat because if the refugees. We are on the same plank when it comes to stopping the influx and fighting for indigenous people. The BJP decision on FMR, border fencing and NRC is for the benefit of all including Nagas. This is the main issue in Outer Manipur too.
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a case against Hyderabad-headquartered infrastructure firm Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL), the second largest buyer of Electoral Bond (EB), on charges of paying bribes to officials of NMDC Limited and engineering consultancy firm MECON Limited under the steel ministry in connection with payments against invoices. CBI registered the FIR against Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL) on March 31 (Photo meil.in)

MEIL has been in the news after Electoral Bond data released by the State Bank of India on the Supreme Courts orders showed that it was the biggest donor of Electoral Bonds to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), contributing 584 crore to the party between April 2019 and October 2023. Overall, the firm bought bonds worth 966 crore (without including bonds bought by its wholly owned subsidiaries) between April 12, 2019 and February 2024.

MEIL did not immediately respond to a request over email for comment, outside regular business hours.

The firms name also figured in the Income Tax departments investigation of unaccounted income earned by the Congress in the assessment years from 2014-15 to 2020-21, which the Delhi high court order of March 22 said appeared to be unaccounted transfers by Hyderabad-based MEIL in three of these years.

The case was registered by the CBI on March 31, weeks after the EB data was first made public on March 14.

On March 18, CBI deputy superintendent of police at the agencys Chhattisgarh office wrote to his superiors about the preliminary enquiry - a precursor to the FIR - that was registered in August last year.

According to the FIR made public on Saturday, NMDC and MECON officials received over 78 lakh in bribes for payment of over 174 crore against 73 invoices till December 2018 in connection with work related to the Jagdalpur integrated steel plant,

The firm was awarded the project related to works of the intake well, pump house and cross-country pipeline at the integrated steel plant Jagdalpur.

Those named in the FIR include MEIL, its general manager Subhash Chandra Sangras and public servants - Prasant Dash (former executive director of NMDC Ltd, now retired), Dilip Kumar Mohanty (director production at NMDC Iron and Steel Plant or NISP), Pradeep Kumar Bhuyan (DGM NISP), Naresh Babu (deputy manager, Survey NISP), Suvro Banerjee (senior manager NISP), L Krishna Mohan (chief general manager, finance, NMDC, now retired), K Rajshekhar (general manager, finance NMDC), Somnath Ghosh (manager finance, NMDC), Sanjeev Sahay (AGM Contracts, MECON Ltd), and K Illavars (DGM Contracts, MECON Ltd, now retired).

The FIR, seen by HT, said alleges that the contract for building the intake well and pump house, DWTP and cross-country pipeline including 5-year operation and maintenance contract of NMDC Iron and Steel Plant (NISP Ltd) was awarded to Megha Engineering, with another company in consortium  Koya and Company Ltd (KCCL), Hyderabad for 3.0 MTPA integrated steel plant at Nagarnar, Jagdalpur on January 23, 2015 at a value of 314.57 crore.

MECON Ltd was appointed by NMDC as a consultant for project management and construction supervision (PMC) services.
The Central Assembly on April 8, 1947 passed a bill de-linking the Rupee from the Sterling, along with bills providing for production and marketing of rubber, and giving protection to several industries as recommended by the Tariff Board. Then finance minister Liaquat Ali Khan with former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Khan tabled the Bill amending the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act in 1947. (HT Archive)

The Bill amending the Reserve Bank of India Act (RBI) marks Indias achievement of financial independence even before political Independence. Moving consideration of the Bill, which has been brought forward as a result of constant pressure from the Congress benches, finance minister Liaquat Ali Khan described it as the most important measure because it signalizes the emergence of the rupee as independent currency de-linked from the Sterling and as an international standard.

The finance minister pointed out that the use of sections 40 and 41 of the Act to finance British and Allied war expenditure in India had resulted in accretion of Sterling balances and caused widespread agitation for the repeal of these sections. In future, the Reserve Bank would have the power not only to buy and sell Sterling but other currencies as well, Khan said.

The finance minister mentioned, however, that there was no intention of India to immediately go out of the Sterling area since the question of Sterling balances had yet to be settled.

Member of the assembly, Manu Subedar, declared that the country had been bled white by the misuse of powers under the Reserve Bank of India Act.

Commerce minister II Chundrigar nodded assent to this charge levelled against his predecessors. Subedar recalled that, for the past five years, he had been agitating for the repeal of these sections. He felt at the same time that it would not be all plain sailing for the Reserve Bank and enquired whether the bank was ready to assume responsibility that was being cast on it.

Chundrigar thought that hoarding of gold was indicative of the lack of confidence in the countrys currency. The finance minister contested this view and declared that the chief reason was not lack of confidence in the currency but political unrest and uncertainty about the future.

Ananthasayanam Ayyangar suggested that the country should go back to the gold standard. Ambegaonkar of the finance department, in his reply, stated that as the various currencies would be convertible multilaterally it would not be necessary to revert to the gold standard. The Bill was passed amidst general satisfaction because in the words of Ayyangar, it was a landmark in the history of the economic independence of India.

The following day HT reported on Khans motion for the second reading of the Bill to amend the Indian Coinage Act, removing the obligation on the government to mint silver coins.

In moving consideration of the Bill, the finance minister read out a carefully-prepared brief. Singing the praise of the new nickel coin, he said that it was in keeping with modern ideas and that the nickel rupee would retain its bright appearance almost indefinitely. His other arguments were that there would be no temptation to hoard the nickel rupee because it was not a precious metal and that counterfeiters would not be able to manufacture it since a huge plant was needed for the purpose.

But he explained the real reason for this drastic step at the end of his speech when he revealed that the silver saved from coinage would be used for repaying the silver lent to India by the USA during the war and that it was not wise to buy it from private individuals or from abroad.

Mourning the prospect of the 1000-year-old silver rupee disappearing from Indias coinage because of the Shylockian attitude of the USA, Subedar said the word rupee was derived from the Sanskrit name for silver. How could a nickel coin be called a rupee? he asked, and added amidst laughter: It will be more appropriate if we call the nickel rupee Nakli.
A five-year-old girl was raped and killed in the Vasco area of South Goa, said police on Saturday. Police have registered a case under relevant sections and rounded up 15-20 suspects who were allegedly present at the site where the crime occurred. A five-year-old girl was raped and killed in the Vasco area of South Goa, said police on Saturday. (File photo)

Sunita Sawant, superintendent of police (South Goa) shared details about the incident and revealed that post-mortem report confirmed sexual assault on the girl.

"The girl's dead body has been examined by the police surgeon, and a post-mortem has been conducted. The post-mortem has confirmed that the girl was sexually assaulted, after which she was murdered by strangling," Sawant was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

"We have rounded up nearly 15-20 labourers working in the building... Vasco Police has registered an offence on behalf of the state of sexual assault and murder under sections 376, 302 of the IPC, under the POCSO act, and also under the Goa Children Act... Rape and murder is confirmed due to strangulation," she added.

ALSO READ| Worli rape case accused gets pre-arrest bail in assault of 21-year-old woman



In a similar incident in February, a five-year-old girl was allegedly raped by two of her schoolmates in UP's Gonda. The accused boys, aged eight and 10 were apprehended and an FIR was lodged after a complaint from the girl's family.

The girl studied at a private school in a village under the Dhanepur police station. She was raped by two boys of her school on Friday during the lunch break, Superintendent of Police (SP) Vineet Jaiswal had said.

The SP said that the girl informed her family about the incident after reaching home. The girl's family members then lodged a complaint with police and the FIR was registered against the two minor boys.

Police claimed that the accused boys had confessed about committing the crime after watching obscene videos.

(With inputs from news agencies)
Earlier this week, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) extended the moratorium period on Go Firsts dues and leased aircraft by another 60 days giving the grounded airline a final chance to get new owners. Go First has two suitors  a consortium of SpiceJet chief Ajay Singh and Busy Bee Airways and Sharjah-based Sky One  who have shown interest in the airline.

Go First was grounded last May due to financial troubles. Shortly before the crisis hit the 18-year-old airline, it was operating a pared-down fleet of 26 aircraft (of the total 54 aircraft it owned), while the remaining 30 were grounded due to Pratt & Whitney (PW) engine issues. The airline had a market share of 6% on March 23 before it was grounded.

A look at the stages of Go Firsts insolvency

Q. When did Go First file for insolvency?

Go Firsts insolvency set a precedent in Indias Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), where the company itself filed for insolvency in May last year saying it was not able to operate due to lack of plane engines. Indias bankruptcy code does not have provisions for a company to file for insolvency but allows lenders and vendors who have not been paid by the company, to file for insolvency. The company had said that a large number of aircraft were grounded due to want of Pratt&Whitney engines, which were not available due to supply chain issues impacting the engines availability.

Q. What does this extension of moratorium mean?

Under the law, Go First was allowed a moratorium extension for 330 days, which the company completed on April 4. Another 60-day extension follows the Resolution Professional's update to the court that the company has received bids from two interested parties and the plans are under consideration and nearing conclusion. This is likely to be the final chance for the airline to be able to restart the airline.

Q. Who are the two bidders who have shown interest in Go First?

Go First has received two revival bids so far: one from SpiceJet chairman and managing director Ajay Singh jointly with Busy Bee Aviation Private Limited, which is promoted by Easemytrip.com co-founder Nishant Pitti. The other bid is from the Sharjah-based aviation company Sky One, which specialises in various aviation services, including Cargo Charters, Asset Trading, Pilot Training, Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO). The bids are yet to be opened.

Q. What will be the fate of Go First if it does not get bought?

Among the two bidders, Singh and Pitti have plans to leverage SpiceJets operational expertise to relaunch Go First. The company that makes a better offer in terms of repaying debt and vendor payments and an operational plan to the lenders is likely to get the rights to run the airline.

In case neither is selected, the airline will be liquidated and the assets available will be sold to repay debt and to other vendors. Among the assets, the banks have a parcel of prime land in Thane as collateral against loans, which may be sold to repay lenders.

Q. How successful has airline insolvency been in India?

Go First is the second airline in India that is going through an insolvency process  the first airline was Jet Airways, which is still stuck in various courts despite finding a suitor for the airline. Jets insolvency is stuck due to differences in some payments between banks and the selected owners, Jalan Kalrock Consortium.

Experts say insolvencies and buyouts have been far more successful before the NCLT and IBC were formed.

Airline mergers and buyouts in India have mostly been in the backdrop of an airline going into a distress sale. We have seen that with Deccan being sold to Kingfisher and Sahara moving into Jet Airways. One of the most successful airline buyouts in Indian aviation history was the court-led buyout and takeover of Damania Airways by NEPC-Khemka group back in 1996, said Mark Martin, CEO at Martin Consulting, an aviation consultancy firm.
Bharatiya Janata Party national president JP Nadda on Saturday took a dig at the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) over allegations of corruption against the opposition leaders, saying that half of their leaders are in jail, while the other half are out on bail. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President JP Nadda(JP Nadda-X)

On one hand PM Modi speaks of punishing the corrupt...On the other hand, the INDI alliance says that the corrupt should be saved. Now you have to choose whether the corrupt are to be saved or to be punishedSonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, P Chidambaram, Lalu Yadav, his two sons; aren't all these out only on bail? Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, and Satyender Jain aren't all these in jail? Half are on bail, half are in jail, JP Nadda said while addressing an election rally in Maharashtra's Gondia district.

Nadda highlighted the list of corruption allegations against the opposition leaders.

Congress did coal scam, Augusta Westland helicopter scam, submarine scam, corruption in rice, sugar, 2G/3G scam, Commonwealth scam. Akhilesh Yadav did a laptop scam, and corruption in the Gomti river front. Lalu Yadav did a fodder scam. Didn't he eat the fodder of the cattle? He committed corruption in coal tar, a land-for-job scam. Mamata Banerjee did teacher recruitment scam, cattle smuggling scam, sand scam, the BJP leader said.

Several opposition leaders have been jailed in the recent past with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal being the latest leader to be arrested. Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the alleged excise policy scam. BRS leader K Kavitha was also arrested in the case recently.

Corrupt will go to jail: PM Modi

Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that strict action was being taken against the corrupt across the country, prompting the opposition's alliance against him.

"On one side there is Modi, who says remove corruption. On the other side are those who say save the corrupt. All these people who have set out to save the corrupt listen carefully, no matter how many threats you give to Modi, the corrupt will have to go to jail. This is Modi's guarantee, he said at a rally in Rajasthan.

(With inputs from ANI)
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Saturday claimed Himanta Biswa Sarma betrayed the Congress party after it lost power. He said the Congress gave him "identity and position", and he would have been "nowhere" without the party's help. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma campaigns for Lok Sabha polls in Jorhat.(PTI file photo)

Jairam Ramesh said Himanta Biswa Sarma was one of the first leaders to jump ship and join the "washing machine of the BJP".

He accused Himanta Sarma of being an opportunist.

"The Congress gave him identity and position, along with authority and responsibility, during the tenure of former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, but he chose to betray the party when it was not in power. It is a matter of great sorrow that those given a responsible position turn out to be opportunists. But that has not shattered our self-confidence," he told PTI.

He, however, said opportunists leaving the party was in its favour as it makes way for ideologically committed youngsters.

Jairam Ramesh said all regional parties and local leaders will return to the Congress if it forms a government at the Centre.

"I can assure you that there will be a reverse migration  whether in Assam, Nagaland or Manipur. They will all return once the Congress-led INDIA government comes to power in Delhi," he claimed.

Also read: Himanta Biswa Sarma's sharp dining room jibe at Gandhi family: Sitting at same table

Citing Manipur violence, Jairam Ramesh warned against allowing BJP and RSS to expand in the northeast.

"It is important to recognise that what has been happening in Manipur in the last 11 months is only a trailer of what will happen in other parts of Northeast if the BJP and RSS are allowed to grow further in the region," the Rajya Sabha MP said.

Himanta Biswa Sarma quit the Congress and joined the BJP in 2015. Over the years, he has emerged as the tallest BJP leader in the northeast. He is often credited for establishing the party as a political force in the northeast.

The Assam chief minister is a foremost critic of the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, known for making scathing attacks.
NEW DELHI: India is in touch with Iranian authorities to ensure the security and early release of 17 Indian nationals who are among the 25-member crew of a cargo ship seized by Iranian troops, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday. An official slides down a rope during a helicopter raid on MSC Aries ship at sea in this screen grab obtained from a social media video released on April 13 (via REUTERS)

A special forces unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) carried out the operation to take control of the container ship MSC Aries in the Gulf of Hormuz, about 80 km off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to media reports.

We are aware that the cargo ship MSC Aries has been taken control of by Iran. We have learnt that there are 17 Indian nationals on board, one of the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.

The Indian side is in touch with Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and New Delhi, to ensure the security, welfare and early release of the Indian nationals, the people said.

The Italian-Swiss shipping group MSC said in a statement that there were 25 crew members on board the container ship. It said MSC Aries has been boarded by Iranian authorities via helicopter as she passed the Strait of Hormuz at approximately 0243 UTC this morning.

MSC said it is working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their wellbeing, and safe return of the vessel.

The 17 Indians on board the Portuguese-flagged and Israel-affiliated cargo vessel include the master. The crew also includes four Filipinos, two Pakistanis, one Russian and one Estonian.

The ship is associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime, which is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofers Zodiac Group.

Commandos from the IRGC rappelled down from a helicopter to the container ship near the Strait of Hormuz and seized the vessel, amid a sharp spike in tensions between Iran and Israel.

India on Friday issued an advisory urging its citizens not to travel to Iran or Israel following the rise in tensions between, and asked all Indian nationals living in the two countries to observe utmost precautions.

The advisory was issued against the backdrop of a growing number of reports about an Iranian attack on Israel or Israeli interests in retaliation for the Israeli air strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria on April 1 that killed seven people, including a top general of the IRGC.
Iran on Saturday seized an Israel-linked vessel reportedly carrying 17 Indian sailors, as tensions in West Asia came to a head on Saturday, with at least six international airlines, including Air India and Vistara, altering operations in the region amid a widely expected Iranian retaliation to Tel Avivs bombing of its embassy in Syria on April 1. India is in touch with Tehran to secure the early release of the sailors, people familiar with the matter said. An official slides down a rope during a helicopter raid on MSC Aries ship at sea in this screen grab obtained from a social media video released on April 13 (via REUTERS)

The escalation came hours after people familiar with western intelligence assessments, according to Bloomberg, said that Israel is bracing for a direct and unprecedented attack by Iran on government targets as soon as the weekend, a move that has the potential to trigger an all-out regional war.

I dont want to get into secure informatio,n but my expectation is sooner rather than later, US President Joe Biden said on Friday in response to a question about whether an Iranian strike was imminent. Asked what message hed give to Iran, Biden responded, Dont.

According to media reports, a special forces unit of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Saturday seized MSC Aries, whose beneficial owner is Zodiac Maritime Ltd, part of Israeli businessman Eyal Ofers Zodiac Group, near the Strait of Hormuz between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Iranian forces are directing the ship to Iranian waters, Irans official news agency IRNA said, without giving a reason for the seizure. The vessel, sailing under the Portuguese flag, had most recently stopped at Khalifa Port in the United Arab Emirates, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

India is in touch with Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and New Delhi, to ensure the security and early release of 17 Indian nationals who are among the 25-member crew of the ship, people familiar with the matter told HT. The 17 Indians on board the vessel include the master. The crew also includes four Filipinos, two Pakistanis, one Russian and one Estonian.

We are aware that the cargo ship MSC Aries has been taken control of by Iran. We have learnt that there are 17 Indian nationals on board, one of the people cited above told HT on condition of anonymity.

MSC confirmed the Aries had been boarded by Iranian authorities via helicopter as she passed the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday morning. It said that it was working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure the well-being of the crew, and safe return of the vessel.

A video shared on social media appeared to show people descending from a helicopter onto the deck of the Aries using a rope.

After the seizure, Israel warned that Iran would suffer the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further. Tehran has vowed to avenge a suspected Israeli strike on April 1 on an Iranian consular building in the Syrian capital of Damascus that killed 12 people, including a senior Guard general who once commanded its expeditionary Quds Force there.

Following Irans retaliation threats, Israel said it was strengthening air defences and paused leave for combat units. A US defence official in Washington said that we are moving additional assets to the region to bolster regional deterrence efforts and increase force protection for US forces.

The surging tensions come against the backdrop of Israels war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, now in its seventh month. Gaza truce talks which started on Sunday in Cairo have brought no breakthrough on a plan presented by US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, which Hamas has said it was studying.

One of the people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg its possible that the increasingly inflammatory rhetoric between Israel, Iran, and the US could be grandstanding, but said the working assumption for Israel and allies is that an attack is imminent. Diplomatic back-channels are in overdrive, Bloomberg reported.

Meanwhile, Air India and Vistara were among the airlines that adjusted their flights paths to avoid risky airspace in the region. It was not exactly clear what the new route modifications would be, but people aware of the development in both airlines said the tweaks would only add some extra minutes to journey durations for most sectors, without giving details.

We are closely monitoring the developing situation in the Middle East. Presently, our aircraft will operate on alternate flight paths to and from India  according to top priority to the safety of our passengers and crew, an Air India spokesperson said.

Due to the current situation affecting parts of the Middle East, we are making changes to flight-paths of some of our flights. Contingency routes, which are kept available to ensure operational continuity during such eventualities, are being used instead. This may result in longer flight times on certain routes and associated delays. The situation is being monitored closely and further changes will be made if required, a Vistara spokesperson said.

German airline Lufthansa said its planes would no longer use Iranian airspace, while its subsidiary Austrian Airlines made a similar move. Australian airline Qantas said its long-haul Perth-London flights would also avoid Iranian airspace. Dutch airline KLM will no longer fly over Israel and Iran.

France earlier warned its nationals against travelling to the region, while the US embassy in Israel said it was restricting the movements of its diplomats over security fears. Canada warned citizens to avoid all travel to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, upgrading its risk assessment of the region due to the increased threat of attacks on Israeli territory.

The Netherlands said that its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Arbil, Iraq, would remain closed on Sunday in connection with the rising tensions between Iran and Israel.

Saturdays seizure also widened concerns around commercial shipping in the West Asia since the outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group in Gaza thats backed by Tehran, on October 7.

Risks have so far been focused in the Red Sea, where Irans Yemeni allies the Houthis have repeatedly targeted ships in the Red Sea that they say are linked to Israel or its allies. But the seizure brought attention back to the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Gulf with the Indian Ocean and is a key choke point for energy shipments through which around a fifth of the worlds daily oil supply passes.

Oil jumped to the highest level since October on the news, rallying as much as 2.6% to top $92 a barrel.

The head of IRGCs naval forces, Alireza Tangsiri, said on Tuesday that Iran has the option of blocking the Strait of Hormuz amid rising tensions with Israel but has chosen not to.

An already bad situation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden has just got worse and could put ocean freight container imports and oil exports in the Middle East at risk, said Peter Sand, chief analyst at Oslo-based shipping-analytics company Xeneta. If ships are impacted from sailing into the Arabian Gulf then the disruption would be considerable.
New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is being tortured inside the Tihar jail at the behest of the Central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, AAP MP Sanjay Singh claimed on Saturday. He said the jail administration has refused to allow Kejriwal's wife Sunita Kejriwal meet him in person. AAP MP Sanjay Singh said Arvind Kejriwal is being tortured inside Tihar Jail.

"Inside the jail, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is being tortured at the behest of the Government of India and PM Modi. Action is being taken to break his morale. As per the rule and as mentioned in the jail manual, the jail administration has been granted the right to let the people in jail meet the visitors face-to-face. In the case of Arvind Kejriwal, his wife is not allowed to meet him face-to-face, he said.

He claimed Kejriwal's rights were being snatched away.

Also read: 'Hitler's gas chamber...': Sanjay Singh claims BJP wants to break Arvind Kejriwal emotionally

"Today, the fight is to save democracy and the Constitution. I would request PM Modi and home minister Amit Shah not to take away the rights of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, which are guaranteed constitutionally, democratically, legally and under the prison rules. Don't try to be a dictator, he added.

Arvind Kejriwal is currently in Tihar Jail under judicial custody. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate last month in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.

Sanjay Singh claimed Sunita Kejriwal was told by the jail authorities that she could only meet him through a window. He claimed it was done to humiliate Arvind Kejriwal.

"When the wife of Arvind Kejriwal applied to meet him, she was told that you cannot meet him face-to-face but through a window. Why such inhuman behaviour... This inhuman act has been done just to humiliate and discourage the CM. I am saying with full responsibility that even the dreaded criminals are allowed to meet in the barrack, but a three-time CM of Delhi is allowed to meet his wife through a window having a glass in between," he added.

Sanjay Singh, who was in jail in connection with the Delhi excise policy case since October last year, got out on bail earlier this month.

Earlier this week, he claimed Tihar authorities threatened to block his family's visits over passing a message to AAP MLAs through his lawyers.

The BJP has demanded Arvind Kejriwal's resignation as the Delhi chief minister on moral grounds. The AAP says he will continue to work for Delhi from inside jail because hasn't been convicted in any case.

With inputs from PTI, ANI
Andra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy received injuries on his forehead after some unidentified individuals pelted stones targeting him during his bus tour in Vijayawada. He was hurt near his left eyebrow and was immediately attended with first aid following which he continued his yatra. YSRCP blamed Telugu Desam and its chief Chandrababu Naidu for the attack on the chief minister and said it was an act of cowardice. Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy was injured on Saturday during his roadshow in Vijayawada.

"The stone struck the CM while he was acknowledging the crowds as part of his bus tour at Vivekananda School Centre in Singh Nagar, Vijayawada," said a statement from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO).

The stone hit Reddy at a very high velocity and officials suspect that it could have been launched from a catapult.

The chief minister was attacked when he was greeting people from the top of the bus. In March, Jagan started his bus tour Memantha Siddham (We are all ready) as part of his party's election campaign. The 21-day bus tour was aimed at covering all districts as the state will also go to the assembly polls this year -- apart from the Lok Sabha election for which the BJP has stitched an alliance with Telugu Desam and Janasena Party.
New Delhi: BRS leader K Kavitha, an accused in the Delhi excise policy case, allegedly threatened Aurobindo Pharma's promoter Sharath Chandra Reddy to cough up 25 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party in exchange for five retail zones in the national capital, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told a special court on Friday, while seeking her custody. The court later sent her to CBI custody till April 15. BRS leader K Kavitha leaves the Rouse Avenue Court in New Delhi, Friday, April 12.(PTI)

The CBI accused K Kavitha of threatening to harm Sharath Reddy's business if he didn't pay the money for alleged kickbacks to the Aam Aadmi Party.

Sharath Chandra Reddy, a co-accused being probed by the Enforcement Directorate in the liquor policy case, has turned approver.

The CBI told special judge Kaveri Baweja that Reddy participated in the liquor business in Delhi only on the "insistence and assurance" of K Kavitha, who is the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, reported PTI.

"K Kavitha further told Sharath Chandra Reddy that the payments of upfront money of 25 crores for wholesale business and 5 crores for each retail zone were to be made to the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi Government for getting liquor business and the same was to be paid to her associates Arun R. Pillai and Abhishek Boinpally, who would in turn coordinate with Vijay Nair, who was a representative of Arvind Kejriwal," the CBI has alleged.

Also read: CBI to court: K Kavitha threatened Sarath Reddy to harm his business if...

The Enforcement Directorate had arrested K Kavitha in March. The CBI arrested her on Thursday, days after questioning her.

The agency claimed she had not answered its queries even when confronted with evidence.

The agency has alleged that between March and May 2021, K Kavitha's associates -- Arun R Pillai, Abhishek Boinpally and Butchibabu Gorantla -- stayed at Hotel Oberoi in Delhi to insert provisions in the now-scrapped policy that favoured them.

It claimed that after receiving assurance of support from K Kavitha, Reddy's company Aurobindo Reality and Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd paid 80 lakh to her NGO Telangana Jagruthi.

CBI alleged that in June-July 2021, K Kavitha compelled Sharath Chandra Reddy to enter into a sale agreement with her for an agricultural land situated at Mahboob Nagar, Telangana.

Also read: K Kavitha, in ED custody, arrested by CBI from Tihar in Delhi excise policy case

The agency said Reddy wasn't willing to enter the deal and he was forced into entering the sale agreement. It said Kavitha insisted him to pay 14 crore.

She also allegedly asked Sharath Reddy to pay 25 crore to AAP at the rate of 5 crore per retail zone in Delhi.

"However, when Sarath Chandra Reddy showed his reluctance to pay the demanded money, K Kavitha threatened Sarath Chandra Reddy to harm his business in Telangana and in Delhi under the Excise Policy," the agency alleged.

K Kavitha is accused of being part of the South Group that allegedly paid kickbacks of 100 crore to AAP for licenses under the liquor policy.

The Aam Aadmi Party last month alleged that Reddy's firm had paid 59.5 crore to the BJP through electoral bonds.

"Reddy purchased electoral bonds worth 4.5 crore while the excise policy was being formulated and after his arrest, he purchased electoral bonds worth 55 crore and the money went to the BJP," AAP leader Atishi had claimed.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has been arrested over a money-laundering case linked to the excise policy case. Manish Sisodia has been in jail over similar charges since February 2023. AAP claims action against its leaders was part of the BJP's political vendetta and that no money trail had been established.

Earlier this week, defense minister Rajnath Singh dismissed the Opposition's charge of misuse of agencies over Arvind Kejriwal's arrest, wondering why the courts didn't provide him relief in the case.

With inputs from PTI
Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, under whose leadership the party contested the December assembly polls, has missed key events during his partys Lok Sabha campaign in the state, although party leaders said he is focussed on the election of his son and the Congresss only sitting MP in the state, Nakul Nath. Chhindwara, Mar 26 (ANI): Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress leader Kamal Nath with his son and party leader Nakul Nath at Badi Mata Temple (Nakul Nath-X)

Kamal Nath himself suggested that he could play a more active role in the campaign after April 19. Between June 2018 and December 2023, Kamal Nath held key positions  state party president and chief minister, then leader of the opposition. In the 2023 assembly elections fought under his leadership, the Congress won only 66 of the 230 seats in the state. After the elections, he was replaced with Jitu Patwari as state party president.

Kamal Nath did not attend Congress leader Rahul Gandhis two rallies in Shahdol and Seoni on April 8; he was also missing from Gandhis Bharat Jodo rally in Dhar on March 8. And on Wednesday, he missed the partys press conference on its manifesto in Bhopal.

Also Read | Kamal Nath claims 'game of deceit' after exit of Chhindwara aides; BJP reacts

A senior party leader, who asked not to be named, said Kamal Nath has not attended any party meetings in Bhopal in the past two months.

A second leader said Nath did not participate actively in the selection of candidates for the Lok Sabha seats in the state and merely sought a ticket for his son. And amidst all this, in February, rumours swirled that he was joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

A leader close to Kamal Nath said he is addressing four to five meetings in his sons Lok Sabha constituency, Chhindwara, every day; the BJP candidate there is Vivek Bunty Sahu.

Patwari confirmed that Kamal Nath is busy with programmes in Chhindwara. Kamal Nath himself said he will not travel anywhere till the election in Chhindwara (in first phase on April 19) is over. Chhindwara is my home and I have a 45-year-old relationship with the city and its people. I have said many times that I will serve the people of Chhindwara till my last breath. I am meeting my family members and will not go anywhere till the Lok Sabha election here is over, he added.

The leader close to Kamal Nath added the BJP has focused its efforts on the constituency and that some of the latters close aides such as tribal leader Kamlesh Shah have joined that party.

Chief minister Mohan Yadav has held at least four rallies in Chhindwara and state cabinet ministers, Prahlad Patel and Kailash Vijayvargiya, are based there for the polls. Former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also held a rally in the constituency focused on women voters.

Winning Chhindwara is a prestige issue for him, the leader close to Kamal Nath said. The BJP has won the seat only once since 1952. Congress MLA Vijay Chaure said Nakul Nath will win comfortably.

A third Congress leader claimed that as of now, Kamal Nath has not shown any willingness to attend any political rally after April 19. After he was removed from the post of state president on December 16, he started withdrawing himself from state politics, the leader said, seeking anonymity.

Vijayvargiya said in Chhindwara that Nakul Nath was losing ground and Kamal Nath is making all efforts to ensure his win. (PM Narendra) Modi jis storm is blowing. BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said after the Congresss loss in the assembly polls, the party sidelined Kamal Nath.
Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Pratibha Singh on Saturday said the Congress has finalised her son Vikramaditya Singh's name for the Mandi Lok Sabha election as the party was of the opinion that a young face should put up the fight this time. If his name is finalised, Vikramaditya will take on BJP's Kangana Ranaut. While the duo has already started a war of words, Vikramaditya recently put the Congress government in jeopardy as he announced his resignation followed by a crisis in Himachal Pradesh. He later withdrew his resignation and was apparently placated by the Congress leadership. Congress's reply to Kangana Ranaut is likely to be Vikramaditya Singh.

"We discussed the names that we shortlisted. Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi were also present. Some names are final and some names will be discussed again. From Mandi, Vikramaditya's name has been made final as everyone was in favour of a young face from Mandi," Pratibha Singh said to news agency ANI. The official announcement has not yet been made by the party.

On Kangana Ranaut's comments on Congress and Vikramaditya, Pratibha said, "We don't need to comment on what she (Kangana Ranaut) says. She can say what she has to say from her party side. We are here to speak about what we did in Mandi for years. It is a very safe seat for us. We won this in difficult times," Pratibha said.

Who is Vikramaditya Singh?

35-year-old Vikramaditya Singh is a cabinet minister in Himachal Pradesh.

Son of Pratibha Singh and former CM Virbhadra Singh, Vikramaditya became the titular kind of the erstwhile princely state of Bushahr (town in Shimla) after his father's death.

Vikramaditya Singh holds a master's degree in History from Delhi's St Stephen's College.

He joined politics in 2013 and won his first election in 2017 -- from Shimla Rural.

Vikramaditya was the only Congress MLA who attended the Ram Temple inauguration ceremony in Ayodhya defying the party line.

In February, Vikramaditya announced his resignation and speculations were rife that he was going to join the BJP along with a few rebel MLAs -- which could have brought down the Congress government. This happened after the Congress lost the Rajya Sabha elections owing to cross-voting.

Vikramaditya said chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was suppressing the MLAs.

The crisis was managed with the intervention of the top leadership and Vikramaditya withdrew his resignation and stayed with the party.
Karnataka home minister G Parameshwara said on Saturday that investigating agencies were trying to ascertain if the two accused arrested by NIA in Rameshwaram cafe blast had linked with other terror outfits. He also lauded the state police for providing certain inputs that led to their arrest. The accused, meanwhile, have been remanded to 10-day police custody. CCTV footage shows the Rameshwaram blast accused at a guest house in Kolkata.

Both the NIA and Karnataka police have done a wonderful job. Initially, we got all the CCTV footage and kept track of one of the accused, which helped in their arrest, he said.

The minister revealed how the police's tip to the NIA helped them nab the accused.

"Our police shared very good inputs with the NIA, like the cap the accused was wearing, which was purchased from Chennai, and the telephone number he has given in the shop," he pointed out.

G Parameshwara said the agencies were trying to find their links to other terror-linked crimes as well. He said they might be trying to escape to Bangladesh from West Bengal, where the NIA nabbed them.

"We are investigating the real motive behind the blast and their involvement with other terror outfits (ISIS), as these two (accused) are supposed to be involved in the earlier Shivamogga blast and kept running for three to four days ahead of getting arrested in this case," Parameshwara said.

"At this point, we don't have a specific input, but it is possible that they wanted to flee the country as they were caught in West Bengal, which is a border state with Bangladesh. Whether someone is helping from that side (Bangladesh) will be found out in due course," he added.

Also read: Bengaluru Rameswaram Cafe blast case: 2 absconders arrested from Bengal

He said that both of them are natives of Shivamogga and studied together.

"Unfortunately, this happened in Bengaluru, and both of them hail from Karnataka's Shivamogga and had studied together, as I was told," he said.

The suspects, identified as Adbul Matheen Taha and Mussavir Hussain Shazeb, were arrested by the NIA from Kolkata on Friday.

CCTV footage shows they rented a room in Kolkata's Dream Guest House between March 25 and March 28. They used fake identities.

"They came on 25th March and showed their Identity cards, and we provided them a room. They checked out from the Hotel on 28th March. When the officials from NIA arrived, they went through the entry register and started an investigation. We do not provide food inside the Hotel, so both of them used to go out to have food. They paid in cash and booked only one room. Both of them used their regional language to communicate with each other," an employee of the guest house said.

With inputs from ANI
The arrest of two key accused in the Bengaluru cafe blast case from West Bengal on Friday triggered a political slugfest in the eastern state, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) of providing a safe haven to terrorists, even as chief minister Mamata Banerjee claimed the men were held due to her administrations action. At least nine people were injured in the explosion that has led NIA, which took over the probe on March 3, to look into the possible role of terror outfits such as the Islamic State (IS) (PTI)

The TMC also claimed the two accused were nabbed from Contai in East Midnapore, which is considered to be the stronghold of leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari and his family.

According to people aware of the details, the two accused  Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa and Mussavir Hussain Shazib  were held from a hotel in New Digha in East Midnapore, around 180 km from Kolkata, in connection with the low-intensity blast at Rameshwaram Cafe at ITPL Road in Brookefield in Bengaluru on March 1. To be sure, New Digha is 35 km away from Contai.

At least nine people were injured in the explosion that has led NIA, which took over the probe on March 3, to look into the possible role of terror outfits such as the Islamic State (IS).

Speaking to reporters in Kolkata, Adhikari said: It is being proved time and again that West Bengal is a safe haven for terrorists.

BJP co-incharge of Bengal, Amit Malviya, also alleged the TMC has turned Bengal into a safe haven for terrorists.

NIA detains two chief suspects in the Rameshwaram Cafe blastfrom Kolkata. Both likely belong to ISIS cell in Shivamogga, Karnataka. West Bengal, unfortunately, under Mamata Banerjee, has become a safe haven for terrorists, he wrote on the micro-blogging site.

Banerjee, who is also the president of TMC, accused the opposition party of spreading canards against the state.

Heard a BJP leader saying that Bengal is not safe. The accused were arrested within two hours following a prompt response by police. What about the states where you are in power, she told a rally atDinhata in Cooch Behar.

The blast took place in Bengaluru. The accused are from Karnataka. They are not from Bengal but hid here for two hours and our police apprehended them, she added.

TMC leader Kunal Ghosh took a swipe at Adhikari, saying the accused were arrested from an area considered to be a bastion of the latters family.

Well done @WBPolice in connection with the Bengaluru-cafe blast arrest. Even @NIA_India has acknowledged it in their statements. Any anti-forces should be strictly dealt with. But let me ask to @BJP4India and their minions - where is this arrest made from? KANTHI (Contai). We all know which family and BJPs main leader runs illegal activities from Contai, he posted on X.

I urge the state agencies to investigate this matter to find out the FAMILYs links in providing shelter to ANTI-FORCES! he added.
The Jaipur Rural constituency located on the outskirts of capital city Jaipur, where Rajasthan shares its border with Haryana, is home to both century-old royal forts and a variety of modern industries. HT Image

The constituency, which was recognised as a separate district in 2023, came into existence following the 2008 delimitation of the parliamentary constituencies. The seat turned into a Bharatiya Janata Party stronghold after the party won the Lok Sabha elections here twice, in 2014 and 2019, while the Congress bagged it only in 2009  the first poll after the delimitation.

The BJP also managed to win five out of eight assembly segments of the constituency in the state assembly elections held in December. The party won in Kotputli, Viratnagar, Jhotwara, Jawaramgarh, and Bansur while the Congress bagged Amber, Shahpura, and Phulera.

The constituency comprises 2,180,156 voters, of whom 1,143,145 are men, 1,037,003 are women and eight are from the third gender community. A total of 69,283 fresh voters are also all set to caste their votes this time. The area also traditionally comprises a majority of members from the Jat and Yadav community followed by Brahmins, Rajputs, Gurjars, and many other Scheduled Caste communities.

The seat got vacant as the two-time MP Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore contested from Jhotwara assembly constituency in the last state elections in December and is serving as the minister in the cabinet of the chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma-led Rajasthan government.

Rathore who belongs to Jaisalmer joined the party in 2013 with a star profile of being an Olympic medallist shooter and a retired colonel in the Indian Army. He was the partys immediate choice against the senior Congress leader and then-Bhilwara MP CP Joshi from Jaipur Rural seat in the very next general election in 2014.

At that time, the seat was being served by the then Union rural development minister of the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government Lal Chand Kataria who in last March switched to BJP.

After a land-sliding victory against Joshi with over 32% margin in 2014, Rathore also won the seat against the former Congress MLA and another Olympian Krishna Poonia with a similar margin in 2019 as well. He also served as the central minister of information broadcasting and youth affairs during his first term in 2014 to 2019.

Rathores victory also revived hopes among the masses that he will bring significant development and changes. However, many parts of the constituency which are still plagued by multiple issues such as water scarcity, poor road connectivity, and lack of sufficient health facilities may pose challenges for the candidates ahead of the general election due in April 19.

Water shortage is a daily struggle for us, particularly the people who reside in extremely remote areas. Despite taking up the matter with the government, little response has been received over the years. A minimal effort has been seen for the development and maintenance of the roads in the last few years. We also need more hospitals and advanced infrastructures in the existing hospitals in the villages, said Kailash Saini, a long-time resident of the constituency.

Though Rathore could not be contacted for his comment despite several attempts through calls and text messages, a senior BJP leader familiar with the development said that the area witnessed massive developmental changes during his period.

The Har Ghar Nal Se Jal scheme got a massive boost in the area during his term resolving the water-shortage issue in many remote villages. Around 50,000 Amrit Sarovars were also set up with the central government funds. At least 800 crore has been invested for the development of the Jaipur-Delhi highway. Six inter-state trains have also been routed from parts of the constituency with Rathores effort inviting more economic and industrial development in the area, said the leader.

Amrit Sarovar is a central government scheme to conserve water.

However, after he took over the office of the minister in the Rajasthan government, the party has fielded three-time former MLA from Shahpura Rao Rajendra Singh who also contested the general election against Kataria in 2009 but lost by 52,000 votes.

Meanwhile, in a surprise pick, the Congress fielded prominent student leader 31-year-old Anil Chopra who will contest the election for the first time. Chopra, a member of the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee, had earlier remained the president of the Rajasthan University Students Union and the general secretary of the NSUI. As a leading Jat face of Jaipur, he was also the convener of the partys national OBC wing.

Underlining his popularity among the youth and good communication at the ground level, Chopra said, I have been working at the ground level in this constituency for a long time. People have faith in me. They are also disappointed with how the BJP has been misleading them in the name of development. There is no employment for the youth, no sufficient water and electricity for the people in Jaipur Rural. Rathore has failed to bring any changes in the area.

Assuring the partys victory he said regular supply of drinking water, development of roads, and the welfare of youth and farmers will be his priority if he wins.

Commenting on the development, political analyst Narayan Bareth meanwhile said, Chopra can be a game-changer in these elections. His Jat identity will play a big role this time in the Jaipur Rural constituency which is dominated by Jats and other OBC communities. On the other hand, the BJP has fielded Rao, a Rajput candidate. BJP might also face a huge challenge from this constituency as anti-incumbency is taking shape against Rathore in the area.
Poll campaigns are being held across India by various political parties in view of the Lok Sabha election 2024. The first phase of the seven-phase election will take place on April 19. In the Lok Sabha election 2024, voting will be held for electing representatives to the 543-member Lower House of the Indian Parliament. The results will be announced on June 4. Support of at least 272 MPs in the Lok Sabha is required to form the government at the Centre....Read More

All eyes are on two major political alliances namely, the INDIA bloc and the NDA- the major competitors in the Lok Sabha Election 2024. While the INDIA bloc comprises of political parties like the Congress, the AAP, the TMC etc. NDA has the BJP, the PMK, the JDU etc. as its member parties. Ruling NDA government is aiming to secure the mandate to form the government for a third consecutive term. The alliance is targeting to win more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha.

On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held election rallies in Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi campaigned for his party in Tamil Nadu.

Lok Sabha Election 2024: Phase-wise schedule

 Phase 1- April 19

 Phase 2- April 26

 Phase 3- May 7

 Phase 4 - May 13

 Phase 5 - May 20

 Phase 6 - May 25

 Phase 7 - June 1
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a chargesheet against two accused, including the main conspirator, in the June 2023 Kwatka vehicle borne bomb blast case in Manipur, in which three persons were injured and several public and private properties were damaged. NIA said further investigations are continuing to trace other absconding accused involved in the case. (File)

The agency said that a charge sheet naming Mohammad Noor Hussain alias Tomba and Seiminlun Gangte alias Minlun has been filed on Friday under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), Explosive Substances Act and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.

The duo was found involved in the blast that took place on a culvert/bridge, adjoining the area of Phougakchao Ikhai Awang Leikai and Kwakta, along Tiddim Road (NH-02), in Kwakta Ward No. 07 Bishnupur, Manipur. The explosion, triggered by a bomb-fitted Mahindra Scorpio SUV, took place at around 7.10 on June 21, 2023. The blast damaged the bridge, electric pole, electrical assets and surrounding houses.

During the probe, the agency arrested Noor Hussain on October 16. It was revealed that he had driven the IED borne Mahindra Scropio SUV and parked it over the targeted bridge at Kwakta, while his co-passenger initiated the detonating mechanism of the IED.

Seiminlun Gangte, who was arrested on November 2, was identified as the key conspirator.

As per NIA investigations, he had conspired, along with other accomplices, to blow off the bridge with the intent to strike terror and to cut off the movement of security forces, people and supply of commodities. To accomplish the conspiracy, Seiminlun Gangte had recruited his associates for reconnaissance of the targeted area and to execute the actual explosion, an NIA spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.

The spokesperson said further investigations are continuing to trace other absconding accused involved in the case.

Manipur has been roiled by ethnic clashes between Meiteis, who are dominant in Imphal Valley, and the tribal Kuki-Zo community, which is in majority in a few hill districts, since May last year. The violence has claimed at least 219 lives and displaced around 50,000.

The clashes broke out on May 3 in Churachandpur town after tribal Kuki groups called for protests against a court-proposed tweak to the states reservation matrix, granting scheduled tribe (ST) status to the majority Meitei community.

Also Read | HT interview: Both sides working to find peaceful solution, says Manipur CM

Violence quickly engulfed the state where ethnic fault lines run deep, displacing tens of thousands of people who fled burning homes and neighbourhoods into jungles, often across state borders. The authorities clamped a curfew and suspended internet services, pumping in additional security forces to force a break in the spiraling clashes.

However, for the past 47 days, no incidents of violence have been reported in the state.

To be sure, the state is still divided on ethnic lines with security forces continuing to guard the buffer zones to separate tribals and non-tribals from launching attacks against each other.

Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh told HT in an interview on Saturday that both sides are working to find a peaceful solution and that this is the reason peace is returning in the state.

Meanwhile, Union home minister Amit Shah is expected to visit Imphal on April 15 and address a rally there. This will be Shahs second visit to the state ahead of the general elections. The state goes to polls in two phases on April 19 and April 26.
India on Friday issued an advisory urging its citizens not to travel to Iran or Israel following a sharp rise in tensions between the two sides, and asking all Indian nationals living in the two countries to observe utmost precautions for their safety. People attend the funeral procession for seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members killed in an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria on April 1. (AFP)

Also Read: US moves more forces into Middle East as Iran may attack Israel within hours

The advisory was issued against the backdrop of a growing number of reports about an Iranian attack on Israel or Israeli interests in retaliation for the Israeli air strike on April 1 on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria that killed seven people, including three generals.

In view of the prevailing situation in the region, all Indians are advised not to travel to Iran or Israel till further notice, said the advisory issued by the external affairs ministry.

All those who are currently residing in Iran or Israel are requested to get in touch with Indian Embassies there and register themselves. They are also requested to observe utmost precautions about their safety and restrict their movements to the minimum, the advisory said.

Also Read: Biden issues one word message to Iran as Gulf nations warn US ahead of possible attack on Israel

There are about 18,000 Indian nationals in Israel, a majority of them are caregivers and professionals in sectors such as information technology. Iran is home to some 4,000 Indian nationals, including traders and academics.

People familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that the advisory meant no more Indian workers will be able to travel to Israel under a government-to-government (G2G) arrangement to work in the construction sector.

The first batch of 64 Indian workers travelled to Israel on April 2 and some 6,000 more were expected to be sent during April and May to help Israels construction sector overcome a labour shortage created by the withdrawal of work permits for Palestinian workers.

Also Read: Israel on edge for Iranian retaliation after official killed in embassy attack

Israeli authorities had plans to operate an air shuttle to bring in the Indian workers after the Prime Ministers Office, finance ministry and construction ministry decided to subsidise charter flights.

Another 900 Indian construction workers travelled to Israel in recent months under business-to-business arrangements. Last week, the Indian side had urged Israeli authorities to ensure the safety and well-being of Indian nationals being sent to work in the construction sector.

The people said Indian authorities are working for various contingencies, including the possible evacuation of Indian nationals from Iran and Israel.

Also Read: Top US general meets IDF leadership amid escalation in Israel-Iran tensions

Last week, India expressed concern at the Israeli air strike on a building in the Iranian embassy complex in Damascus on April 1 that killed seven people, including Brig Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who oversaw operations in Syria and Lebanon.

India is distressed at the escalating tensions in West Asia, and their potential to fuel further violence and instability. We urge all parties to avoid actions that go against commonly accepted principles and norms of international law, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said.

Iran has pledged a decisive response to the Israeli strike, with foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian describing the attack as a violation of all international obligations and conventions. The anticipated Iranian retaliation has raised fears of an all-out regional war in West Asia, which is home to some nine million Indian expatriates.

International pressure has grown on Israel following the recent killing of seven aid workers of the World Central Kitchen in Israeli air strikes, with US President Joe Biden describing the deaths as outrageous. Biden has also said he doesnt agree with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus approach to handling the situation in Gaza. Public opinion in countries such as Germany, the UK and the US has turned against military supplies to Israel amid calls by international leaders for Netanyahu to do more to let in humanitarian aid for the residents of Gaza.

The conflict in Gaza was triggered by the terror attacks by Hamas into southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people. Hamas also took about 250 hostages. More than 33,000 people, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israels offensive in Gaza. India has called for an end to hostilities and a return to dialogue aimed at a two-state solution.
BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain on Saturday said the party will look after Muslims, even though it fielded only a few from the community for the upcoming general election. BJP national spokesperson and former Union minister Shahnawaz Hussain

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is working with the motto of "Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas" which allows for no discrimination, he said.

Hussain made the remarks talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here after addressing a series of meetings in support of BJP candidates -- Union Minister Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore, who are seeking their re-election for a third term from Udhampur and Jammu parliamentary seats, respectively.

Hussain downplayed the lack of Muslim contenders in the party and said the post of prime minister or the chief minister is not decided on the basis of religion or caste.

"It is imperative that such post-holders work with sincerity and equality and we are happy with the leadership of Modi who is working for all without any discrimination.

"Yes, it is true that we have not given mandate to Muslim candidates in the north but our government will take care of the community as before under the motto 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas,'" the BJP national spokesperson said.

He said the party has given its mandate to M Abdul Salam, a Muslim, from Malappuram in south.

"The country saw the highest representation of Muslims in Lok Sabha and the Union cabinet when P V Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister. Do Muslims see him in high esteem? BJP is not discriminating between Hindus and Muslims. Our Constitution does not allow us to distribute tickets or announce reservations on the basis of religion," he said and accused the Congress of raising such issues unnecessarily.

He said Modi is loved by all Muslims, and Muslims also know that they cannot get a country like India, a friend like a Hindu, and a leader like Modi.

Responding to a question about Congress'es allegations that Modi is working like a dictator, he said, "the word 'tanashah' (dictator) does not exist in our dictionary. Congress has got a patent for it as it removed the word from the dictionary and moved it to its office during Emergency. The other name of dictatorship is Congress."

Expressing confidence that BJP candidates will win both Lok Sabha seats in Jammu, he said, the leaders from the Opposition are joining the saffron party because "nobody wants to be in a sinking boat."

"Everyone knows Modi's boat is the only one which is going to make it to the shore. I have been to Uttarakhand and Bihar before coming here and everyone is confident that BJP will return to power with 370-plus seats and cross 400-mark with the support of alliance partners," he said.

When asked why BJP was still to announce its candidates for three seats in Kashmir, Hussain said, "we keep suspense and make the right decision at the right time."

The former Union minister said nobody in the country is better than Modi to lead the government. "He gave corona vaccination, food, houses and health cards to the people, then why anyone else. A strong leader will take the country to new heights and make it a world leader."

Hussain said the change in the overall security situation in Jammu and Kashmir is being witnessed by the world and has paved the way for record-breaking tourist arrivals and ramped-up development.

"If Congress cannot see the development, they should come to BJP office and we will show it to them," he said.

The BJP leader also criticised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and said while Gandhi is only parroting "Modi-Adani," Yadav is giving statements beyond his stature as his party has zero member in parliament.
NEW DELHI: An inquiry by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) into the Sandeshkhali violence in West Bengal has revealed multiple human rights concerns over the last few years including sexual exploitation, land grabbing, denial of the right to vote and a kind of forced migration. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials take suspended Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman and Sandeshkhali incident accused Shahjahan Sheikh to Basirhat Court, in Kolkata. (ANI)

On Friday, NHRC decided to send the inquiry report to the state government and the state police, directing them to file their action-taken reports on the 12 recommendations within eight weeks.

The commission, which had taken suo motu cognisance of media reports on the violence in February, also decided to approach the Calcutta high court to intervene in the court proceedings since NHRC was also inquiring into the complaints of violation of human rights of the victims and its spot enquiry report reveals several instances of atrocities inflicted upon the victims which clearly demonstrate, prima facie, there was violation of human rights due to negligence in prevention of such violation or abatement thereof by the public servant.

Also Read: Sandeshkhali villagers get back their lands. But are they fit for farming?

The commissions decision comes after the high court on Wednesday ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe all allegations levelled by residents of Sandeshkhali since February, and said it will monitor the process.

NHRC has sent a copy of its report to the CBI as well.

The report also said when the residents complained to the police, they were told to approach the accused including the Trinamool Congress (TMC) strongman Sheikh Shahjahan, who was arrested by the state police on February 29 after being on the run for 55 days. and seek a compromise.

HT has reviewed the report.

The riverine island of Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district has been in the eye of the storm since January 5, when Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers arrived to search the home of Shahjahan, a close aide of former minister Jyoti Priya Mallick, who was arrested in October last year in connection with an alleged ration distribution scam. The ED team came under attack, leaving three officers injured.

But, on February 7, other violent protests began erupting in Sandeshkhali and other nearby villages, with groups of residents, led mostly by local women, alleging sexual harassment at the hands of local TMC leaders including Shahjahan, his brother Sirajuddin, and other associates Uttam Hazra and Shibu Sardar, who have since been arrested. Other villages said that Shahjahan and his associates also indulged in land-grab.

An NHRC investigation team led by its member, Vijaya Bharathi Sayani, visited Sandeshkhali from February 23 to 25.

In their report, the team observed that the atmosphere of intimidation, and terror created due to the atrocities had rendered the victims silent and reluctant to seek justice. The villagers/victims faced assault, threat, sexual exploitation, land grabbing, and forced unpaid labour, and under the given circumstances, they were compelled to seek livelihood outside the Sandeshkhali region or state, said the NHRC spot enquiry report.

As per villagers, a significant number of men from the Sandeshkhali area have chosen to seek livelihood in distant places, leaving behind the women, children, and elderly who continue to reside in the villages.

The decision to migrate is often driven by the pursuit of better economic opportunities and also staying in their hometown could potentially expose them to working for the alleged accused or political parties without wages. This is a kind of forced migration, the report said, adding that this bleak situation painted a vivid picture of economic hardship and exploitation.

The villagers also alleged they were not allowed to cast their votes and supporters of miscreants allegedly cast vote on their behalf. The report also highlighted cases of land grabbing.

On the role of the police, the report said every victim told the team that the police do not respond to their complaints against Hazra, Sardar and their associates. Shockingly, they (residents) were advised to approach the alleged accused or their alleged patron Sheikh Shahjahan and seek a compromise instead of receiving the support they sought from the police. The common people have lost faith in the local police, it said.

The report said the women narrated a series of distressing events including instances of harassment, physical torture, and sexual assault. According to the police stations data, three minor girls and 37 adult women were still untraced in the area between January 1, 2023 and February 25, 2024.

The state police told the team that 25 cases had been registered after the violence including seven sexual assault cases against Sheikh, Sardar and Hazra. The police have also arrested 24 persons so far.

The alleged offences committed in the island village of Sandeshkhali  around a dozen first information reports have been filed so far  are among the top poll issues in Bengal that sends 42 members to the Lok Sabha. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah have repeatedly referred to the allegations to attack the TMC, especially on the question of womens safety. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has said the state government took swift action against the perpetrators and accused the BJP of vendetta politics.

Shahjahan, a former TMC zila parishad leader, was arrested by the state police on the orders of the high court on February 29 after 55 days on the run. Although state CID took over the investigation Shahjahan was handed over to CBI under court orders.
Amid hectic campaigning ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday night took some time out to relish the famous South Indian sweet dish Mysore Pak at a shop in Tamil Nadu's Singanallur, before buying it for Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin. Rahul Gandhi buys Mysore Pak from sweet shop in Tamil Nadu

In a video shared by the Congress leader on Instagram, Rahul Gandhi can be seen walking into a sweets shop and trying the Mysore Pak along with other party workers. He can also be seen shaking hands, interacting, and posing for photographs with the staff of the shop.

At the end of the video, Gandhi also met MK Stalin in Coimbatore and gave him sweets. The bonhomie between the two leaders was evident as Gandhi addressed the DMK leader as his brother.

Adding a touch of sweetness to the campaign trail in Tamil Nadu - bought some Mysore Pak for my brother Thiru Stalin, Gandhi captioned the video.

Responding to Gandhi's gesture, Stalin on Saturday said that the INDI alliance will deliver a sweet victory on June 4.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5qwaseyf7B/?igsh=MWJtc2Q0bzMyYTRkag==

Meanwhile, the owner of the shop - Babu - said that he was pleasantly surprised at the sudden visit of the Congress leader.

He was probably visiting Coimbatore for a meeting. He bought Mysore Pak. He sampled the other sweets on display as well. I was happy that he came by. Our staff, too, were happy to see him. He was here for 25-30 minutes. We had no clue he would stop by and were all taken by surprise. We asked him not to pay but he insisted. He paid the whole amount, he told news agency ANI.

Rahul Gandhi began his first set of engagements with election rallies in Tamil Nadu on Friday. The polling for 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state is scheduled to be held in the first phase on April 19. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Congress-DMK-led alliance won 38 out of 39 seats in the state, while AIADMK could only win a lone seat.

Addressing a public meeting in Coimbatore on Friday, Gandhi accused the BJP government of "insulting" the Tamil language, history, and its traditions. The voice of the Tamil people is asking a few simple questions, it is asking Mr Modi, Mr Adani and the RSS these questions. The first question is why are you attacking our language, history, and traditions? the Wayanad MP questioned.

Taking a jibe at PM Modi, Gandhi said, You come here and you say you like dosa, and you go back to Delhi and say one nation, one leader, one language. Why one language? Why not space for Tamil, Bengali, Kannada, or Manipuri?

(With inputs from ANI)
Former Bihar deputy chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav released the party's manifesto for the Lok Sabha election on Saturday. Yadav, who released the Parivartan Patra in the presence of senior RJD leaders, said that his party has made 24 promises for the development of Bihar. Tejashwi Yadav releases RJD's manifesto for Lok Sabha election

One thing is clear that our only goal is to develop BiharWhatever we can do, we have put it in front of you with a pledge. The public is the master and whatever we are doing, we are getting the blessings of the public. We are fully confident that the INDIA alliance government is going to be formed in Bihar, Tejashwi said after releasing the manifesto.

Here is the list of key announcements

To liberate the youth of the country from unemployment starting August 15 and provide jobs to one crore youth of the country Discontinue the Agniveer scheme To provide  1 lakh every year to women belonging to the poor household on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan To build five new airports in Bihar to provide better connectivity to the people of the state. According to Tejashwi, the five airports will be built at Purnea, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj and Raxaul. Providing gas cylinders at  500 to every household To implement the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) in the state To provide a special status to Bihar.

The polling for the Lok Sabha election will be held in seven phases starting from April 19, followed by April 26, May 7, 13, 20, 25, and June 1. The counting of votes for all 543 Lok Sabha seats will take place on June 4.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led NDA won with a whopping 39 out of the total 40 seats.

Bihar will witness a tough fight between the NDA alliance and the RJD. The election in the state is considered to be crucial especially since Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar ditched Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD and the Mahagathbandhan alliance and rejoined the BJP-led NDA alliance earlier this year.
Every tree should be protected in some way, the Supreme Court has emphasised, seeking to examine whether the court-appointed central empowered committee (CEC) has taken the utmost care before permitting the removal of trees in the national capital for construction work or other projects. The bench asked senior advocates S Guru Krishna Kumar and Anitha Shenoy, who have been appointed as amicus curiae by the bench, to address the court on April 15 on the pertinent issues when the case is heard next. (HT Photo)

Expressing concerns over mechanical approvals of felling of trees that in some cases, a bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said that it would wish to ascertain the process followed by CEC while reviewing the applications to cut trees.

Attempts should be made to protect every single tree. Whenever trees are to be felled for public purposes, they (CEC) must scrutinise whether trees are required to be felled or not. Then, the other exercise to follow is about the kind of saplings that should be planted...But there are no guidelines we see here, remarked the bench earlier this week.

Underscoring the importance of tree protection measures, the court highlighted the need for thorough scrutiny by CEC, including the issues of translocation of trees and compensatory afforestation, before granting permission to remove trees.

There are several aspects that must be taken care of...there cannot be mechanical approach when applications for the felling of trees are examined, the bench told additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati, who represented the Union government in the matter.

Bhati, on her part, informed the court that some of the issues, including the composition of CEC, were already being dealt with by another bench in the Supreme Court in separate proceedings.

In response, the bench expressed a willingness to focus on ensuring the proper functioning of CEC rather than delving into its composition. We dont wish to go into the constitution of CEC if that is already pending before the other bench. But we want to make sure that they (CEC) do their job properly, it said.

The bench further remarked: CEC was formed to reduce our workload and as the first level of scrutiny. After so many years, we will examine if it has actually reduced or has increased our work.

It asked senior advocates S Guru Krishna Kumar and Anitha Shenoy, who have been appointed as amicus curiae by the bench, to address the court on April 15 on the pertinent issues when the case is heard next.

The bench was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL), which was brought before the court in 1985 by environmentalist MC Mehta and included a wide range of topics, from the felling of trees to the sealing of properties in Delhi. Some other petitions relating to sealing of properties in Delhi are also heard together with this PIL.

CEC, a body of experts, was constituted by the Supreme Court in 2002 to assist it in environmental matters. All applications for the felling of trees are first examined by the CEC that gives recommendations to the court for passing suitable orders.

Following a nudge from the top court, the ad hoc body was replaced with a statutory body in September 2023 and is currently headed by Siddhant Das, who is also serving as the chairperson of Odisha real estate regulatory authority. On March 31, a bench led by justice BR Gavai told the Centre that CEC must have a full-time chairperson.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Saturday accused Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of purportedly getting into a physical fight with a party worker amid the campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections. Screengrab of video shared by TMC showing Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury getting into an altercation.(X/ @AITCofficial)

In the video shared by the TMC on its official X platform, the Congress leader can be purportedly seen threatening to slap a person and indulging in an altercation on a busy road. He was also seen pushing the man in the presence of the security officials. The police later intervened to resolve the scuffle.

The party slammed the Congress candidate from West Bengal's Behrampore and said, "SHEER DISPLAY OF HOOLIGANISM BY ADHIR RANJAN CHOWDHURY. Your thuggery in Baharampur won't go unnoticed. Your fear of losing elections is pretty evident from your actions. But using muscle power to intimidate our workers won't help you in anyway! SHAME!"

However, Chowdhury reacted to the scuffle and said that a few people started sloganeering 'go back' against him while he was returning home after campaigning.

"While I was going home after campaigning, a few people came and started chanting 'go back' slogan. When I got out of the car, they said, I haven't done anything in the past 5 years," news agency ANI quoted him as saying.

Congress and TMC were initially part of the Oppositions INDIA alliance in West Bengal, however, TMC ditched the Congress to contest alone on all 42 seats of the state after seat-sharing talks failed to take off.

Chowdhury many times took jibes at West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee over the issue of seat sharing within the INDIA alliance. She had earlier said that the talks with the Congress failed after the latter refused an offer she made. She also pointed to delays in finalising a seat-sharing agreement.

Elections 2024:

The elections for the 543 parliamentary constituencies will be held in seven phases, starting on April 19 and culminating on June 1. The counting of votes will be held on June 4. The phase 1 polling will be held on April 19, the second phase on April 26, third phase on May 7, fourth phase on May 13, 5th phase on May 20, 6th phase on May 25 and the last and the 7th phase on June 1.
Seventy-two-year-old Rajan Patkar calls himself a kattar shiv sainik (a staunch supporter of Shiv Sena). Patkar, a resident of suburban Mumbai has supported the party since the age of 12. Having seen three generations of leadership within the party, Patkar has been a frequent visitor of his local shakha for decades. Over the last year, however, these visits have become infrequent. One Sunday afternoon, he called me and lamented, We have seen many ups and downs in the past, but we were all one family. Now it is just so difficult to keep everyone together. First, it was our top leaders but now the rift is evident even on the ground. As local leaders jump to the other side, their supporters follow. This is not our Shiv Sena, said Patkar who continues to be a Shiv Sena (UBT) loyalist.

Since Eknath Shindes rebellion from the Sena and the subsequent decision of the Election Commission of India to allot the official name and party symbol to the Shinde-led group, there have been instances of several skirmishes at the local level. Shakhas (branches) which form the backbone of the partys grassroots presence are also split down the middle in many places, as groups try to woo supporters. In the middle of the political rigmarole, claims and counterclaims, the ordinary Shiv Sainik is facing possibly the biggest crisis in identity and struggling to tide through one of the toughest times for the Sena kutumb (family).

The word kutumb holds a special significance for Shiv Sena, Shiv Sainiks and the Marathi manoos in Mumbai and Maharashtra. Since the initial days of its existence, party founder Bal Thackeray always said that it was one big family. To be a good sainik, one had to support each other in their joys and sorrows and Thackeray insisted on it. The sainiks I spoke to during my doctoral research on the party often underlined how the family aspect played a crucial role in their continued loyalty as the party went through several ups and downs. This is not the first time that the family has been challenged.

One of the earliest challenges was when senior leader Chagan Bhujbal left the party in 1991 with 17 MLAs. While Bhujbals rebellion was a major crisis in the Sena, a majority of supporters and party cadre strongly backed Bal Thackeray and his leadership. In fact, the sainiks united against Bhujbal and vowed to teach him a lesson by disrupting his sabhas and blocking his movement in many parts of Mumbai.

A similar crisis arose in 2005 when Narayan Rane left the party alleging that he was being sidelined. Uddhav Thackeray launched a tirade against Rane and tried to contain the rebellion to some extent. This time too, the cadre more or less remained with the Thackerays.

One of the biggest setbacks to the partys morale came after Raj Thackeray left the party in 2006. Raj commanded a huge influence among the cadre and his formation of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) subsequently threatened to divide the Shiv Senas voter base. Despite the dent that it caused in the partys local cadre, Bal Thackerays declaration of Uddhav as his heir apparent and subsequent appeals of supporting him and grandson Aaditya invoking the values of shraddha (faith) and nishtha (loyalty) helped the party overcome the damage to some extent. Eknath Shindes rebellion, however, has been the toughest crisis for the Shiv Sainiks, something that most of them are still unable to wrap their heads around.

When the party saw the biggest vertical split in its history, it was believed that despite the leaders jumping to the other side, the majority of the Sena cadre was going to remain loyal to Uddhav and Aaditya, as their loyalty rests with the Thackerays and the chair of the Shiv Sena pramukh (chief). Even as there was discontent among old-time sainiks about the party joining hands with old foes Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and a change in its once aggressive stance on Hindutva, many sainiks continued to back the Thackerays as they could not imagine Shiv Sena without the family. Nearly two years on, however, the situation is not as black and white as it seemed earlier.

The exit of prominent leaders to join the Shinde camp and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition subsequently led to a similar split across the Shiv Sena ecosystem, reflecting at the level of bodies such as the Bharatiya Kamgar Sena (Shiv Senas labour union) and right up to the local shakha. The traditional cohesion and discipline that characterised Shiv Sena's organisational structure seems to have eroded amid the scramble for power and influence.

Old timers in the Sena said that many factors are responsible for this. A primary reason for this is the political aspirations of the younger brigade.

Right now, the Shinde-led faction has huge financial and political might. We worked for Balasaheb and Uddhavji relentlessly but the new generation has political aspirations. They are eager to make hay while the sun shines. It is unfortunate but it is a fact, said a former shakha pramukh from the eastern suburbs. Shiv Senas local presence through its shakhas across various neighbourhoods in the city is a crucial aspect of its political influence. While the shakhas hold a reputation of being parallel problem-solving machinery, with the change of guard at various levels, it is increasingly becoming difficult for the loyalists to get work done.

Earlier, we could make a single call to an official in the civic body and get peoples work done. But now, the equation has become complex. They control the state government and effectively the BMC. We have no bargaining power left, said another local karyakarta. Decision-making in the Shiv Sena has always been centralised with the aadesh (diktat) being doled out at the top and the sainiks following it with no questions asked. But the current split has created so many power centres in the party that karyakartas are themselves confused about what route to take.

With elections looming, the question of which faction commands the loyalty of the Sainik base hangs in the balance. The outcome will not only shape Maharashtra's political future but also determine the fate of one of the states largest and most influential political cadres. The Shiv Senas transformation from a unified family to a divided entity reflects broader shifts in Indian politics, where personal ambitions often supersede collective ideologies. For Patkar and countless other loyalists, this existential crisis within the party is not just a political dilemmait's a profound test of their enduring faith and commitment.

As Maharashtra braces for the electoral battleground, the fissures within Shiv Sena's kutumb serve as a sobering reminder of the fragile nature of political loyalties. The outcome of the elections will not only decide the fate of parties but will also reveal the true allegiance of Shiv Sainiks torn between competing narratives of identity and opportunity.

Dr Sanjay Patil is a Mumbai-based researcher who works on Maharashtra politics and urban informality. His doctoral work looks at the journey of Shiv Sena between 1985 and 2022. The views expressed are personal.
Amid the sound and fury from campaign trails, with the contesting leaders of the ruling and Opposition coalitions going at each other ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravishankar urged people on Friday to come out in record numbers and exercise their franchise. Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravishankar (Mujeeb Faruqui/HT photo)

The spiritual guru, who heads the Art of Living Foundation, called on the people to enlist their participation in the elections in the spirit of celebration just as they would in a festival.

Speaking to ANI on Friday, Sri Sri Ravishankar said, "I urge the people to come forward and be a part of the country's journey towards development. They should consider the upcoming elections as a festival. We should not always regret or lament the flaws (in the country's electoral system). It is often seen that people with a positive and progressive frame of mind don't even vote. I earnestly appeal to everyone out there to come out in large numbers and vote. It is a (democratic) responsibility. The people, alone, decide the outcome of elections."

He added that while the people, in a democracy, reserve the right to decide whom to cast their vote for, the basic idea was for them to come out and enlist their participation and involvement in the elections.

"We cannot ask people who to vote for, all we can do is ask them to vote...for the future and welfare of the country and decide on an able leader for the country," he added.

The spiritual leader said 'freebies' and 'money' should not decide the outcome of elections.

"Let money or freebies not influence your vote. If we continue to move at the pace with which we are moving forward, our country will definitely become the third-largest economy in the world. However, if there is a break in the process, then it will be difficult," Sri Sri Ravishankar added.

The seven-phased general elections to 543 seats in the Lok Sabha are scheduled to take place from April 19 to June 1, this year. The polling across the country will be conducted over seven phases, with the counting of votes scheduled for June 4.

About 970 million people, out of a total population of 1.44 billion, are eligible to enlist their participation in the elections this year.

The legislative assembly elections for Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, and Sikkim will coincide with the general elections. Bye-elections to 35 assembly seats across 16 states will also be held at the same time.
The time is not far when assembly polls will be held in Jammu & Kashmir and its statehood will be restored, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday, daring the Opposition to restore Article 370 and saying he had not only abrogated the provision that bestowed special status to the region but also buried it deep in the ground. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public rally ahead of Lok Sabha Election in Udhampur, on Friday. (Waseem Andrabi /Hindustan Times)

Addressing his first election rally in Jammu & Kashmir, Modi also underlined how the region was advancing after the Article 370 move, and blamed Opposition parties for holding it back for years.

The time is not far when assembly polls will be held in Jammu & Kashmir, which will also get its statehood back. You will again raise your issues with your legislators and ministers, Modi told a rally in Udhampur, seeking support for Udhampur MP Jitendra Singh and Jammu MP Jugal Kishore Sharma.

Jammu & Kashmir lost its special status and statehood on August 5, 2019, when Article 370 was abrogated and the region bifurcated into two Union territories  J&K with a legislative assembly and Ladakh without one.

Since then, Opposition parties have repeatedly pressed for a restoration of statehood and assembly elections  the last polls were held in the erstwhile state a decade ago  even as the government has repeatedly assured that both will be done at an appropriate time.

The Lok Sabha polls in J&K will be held in the first five phases on April 19 (Udhampur), April 26 (Jammu), May 7 (Anantnag-Rajouri), May 13 (Srinagar) and May 20 (Baramulla).

The Lok Sabha elections have gained additional significance in the region because it will be the first major direct election since special status and statehood were taken away in August 2019. The National Conference currently holds all three seats in Muslim-majority Kashmir while the Bharatiya Janata Party holds both seats in Hindu-dominated Jammu.

In his 38-minute speech, the PM asserted that all issues of every section in J&K will be resolved, and blamed dynastic parties for stalling development.

For the sake of power, they (Opposition) had built a wall of Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir. Due to your blessings, Modi not only demolished that wall but also buried the debris deep into the ground. I challenge any political party in India, especially Congress, to announce that they will bring back Article 370. This country and the people would never their see their face, Modi said.

After the revocation of Article 370, the Congress led INDI alliance tried to spread misconception about it in other states. But we have made Article 370 history. I challenge Congress and other parties... do they have the guts to restore it? They cannot do it, he added.

Modi underlined how the situation had improved after the abrogation of Article 370, saying it was the first time after decades that elections were taking place without fear of terrorism and cross-border firing.

Terrorism, separatism, Article 370, stone-pelting, bandhs (strikes) and border firing are no more poll issues. People in Kashmir, including women, give me a lot of blessings because their life has changed. They know that their sons now wouldnt go astray, he said/

The government has repeatedly told Parliament that terror strikes have dipped since 2019.

Now schools are not being burnt, they are decorated. Now, there is a lot of development of infrastructure in health, education, industry and other sectors, he added.

Modi said the Centre was committed to restoring statehood. While I fulfilled promise of ending long sufferings of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, please trust me, I will rid J&K of the ills plaguing it for the last 60 years, Modi said. He said that his work so far was only a trailer.

Modi thinks with far-sightedness. What has happened so far was just the trailer. I have to get down to the task to create a new and wonderful picture of the new Jammu & Kashmir, he asserted.

To be sure, the Congress manifesto has promised restore statehood to J&K if it comes to power at the Centre. The Farooq Abdullah-led NC and Mehbooba Muftis Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have also been demanding that Article 370 be restored.

Modi targeted the NC and the PDP as well.

Congress, National Conference, PDP and all other parties want to take Jammu & Kashmir back to those old days. No one has caused as much damage to J&K as these family-controlled parties have done. Here political party means of the family, by the family and for the family. They try to spread false narratives about Article 370. These people must ask the women of J&K that how abrogation of Article 370 has ended discrimination with them. How Valmikis, Gurkhas , refugees, Paharis, Padris, Gadda Brahmins got benefits after abrogation of Article 370, Modi said.

He highlighted all-round development in J&K.

Now AIIMS, IITs and IIMs are being built here. Now modern tunnels, modern wide roads, and wonderful rail journeys are becoming the destiny of Jammu and Kashmir, he said, referring to the influx of tourists and pilgrims in record numbers.

Udhampur, from where Union minister Jitendra Singh is seeking a third term, will go to polls on April 19.

A triangular fight is all set to take place in this constituency where the Congress has fielded Choudhary Lal Singh and the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) has fielded three-time ex-MLA GM Saroori.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Saturday said that the ongoing subsidies on electricity, water and bus fare would be continued in the national capital and the people should not pay attention to any such rumors and statements made due to vested political interests. Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena in New Delhi. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)(HT_PRINT)

In a press statement released by the Raj Niwas, the lieutenant governor has assured the people of Delhi that none of the subsidy schemes benefitting the poor would be discontinued. The statement came amid rumours propagating that the central government and the LG would stop the subsidy schemes.

"Electricity, water and bus ride subsidies will continue in Delhi. An individual being in jail (Arvind Kejriwal) as per due process of law does not affect government schemes," it said.

"Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has taken serious note of false and deliberately misleading statements issued by not only Members of a particular political party but also Ministers sworn to the constitutional oath of office, wherein it is being propagated that the scheme and subsidies about 'free' electricity, water and bus rides for women will be stopped, since the Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal is in jail under judicial custody," the statement read.

Saxena highlighted that the schemes are being compensated by the consolidated fund of the NCT of Delhi and not from the account of any individual or political party. These schemes are funded by the people of Delhi themselves who contribute to the NCTD's consolidated fund by way of taxes, the statement added.

"The Lt. Governor has emphasised that the aforementioned subsidy schemes are those of the government and not driven by or dependent on any individual holding any position and therefore, because of any individual being in jail, the question of a scheme getting affected does not arise. These schemes have budgetary allocation in the budget document, which is in turn approved by the Govt. of India, as per constitutional and statutory provisions," he added.

Earlier, the Delhi government has also issued a statement appealing citizens to not fall prey to misinformation being spread by "notorious elements".

A statement issued by the Planning Department said "speculations and rumours are being spread by notorious elements with vested interests in Delhi" that welfare schemes and subsidies will be stopped. Even as the law takes its own course in the process of criminal investigation, it merits clarification that administration of schemes and governance are never specific to individuals and shall continue in normal course, as in the past," it read.

LG Saxena has earlier criticised the AAP-led Delhi government ministers over their refusal to attend meetings convened to discuss the functioning of their ministries following the arrest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

According to LG Saxena, the rationale adduced for not attending the meeting appears vague and exhibits lack of seriousness and insensitivity to matters affecting the day-to-day lives of the citizens of Delhi".

He later wrote a letter to union home ministry accusing the ministers ministers of insensitivity and lack of seriousness.

(With inputs from agencies)
New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India will hear Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea against arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, on April 15. Earlier this month, the Delhi high court upheld his arrest by the central agency. Delhi chief minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal leaves the Rouse Avenue Court after he was produced by the Enforcement Directorate in the excise policy-linked money laundering case.(PTI file photo)

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta will hear the matter, reported news agency ANI.

Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate last month in connection with the money laundering probe linked to the Delhi excise policy case. Last week, a Delhi court sent him to judicial custody till April 15.

Arvind Kejriwal had moved the Supreme Court after the Delhi high court said there was no contravention of legal provisions.

The Delhi high court ruled that the Enforcement Directorate had sufficient materials to justify the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal. The court said the agency could not be blamed for choosing the timing of the chief minister's arrest as he pushed it to a point where it had no other option.

The 103-page judgment by the single judge bench of justice Swarana Kanta Sharma observed that material placed on record before the court showed that Kejriwal had allegedly conspired with other persons and was involved in the formulation of the policy.

Also read: 'Inhuman': Sanjay Singh claims Sunita Kejriwal asked to meet Arvind Kejriwal through glass window

He (Kejriwal) is allegedly involved in the offence of money laundering in two capacities. Firstly, in his personal capacity as he was involved in the formulation of the excise policy and in demanding kickbacks. Secondly, in his capacity as the national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party as per Section 70(1) of PMLA, for use of proceeds of crime of 45 crore in AAPs election campaign in 2022 Goa elections," the court said.

Also read: Arvind Kejriwal moves SC after Delhi HC setback in money laundering case

Arvind Kejriwal had approached the high court on March 23, claiming the ED's action violated his fundamental rights and was motivated by politics.

Apart from Kejriwal, AAP leader Manish Sisodia has been in jail since February last year in the same case. Sanjay Singh, another AAP leader in jail, recently got bail in the case.

Also read: 'K Kavitha forced Sharath Reddy to pay 25 crore to AAP': CBI in court

The CBI and ED have alleged that AAP leaders accepted 100 crore as kickbacks from a group of politicians and liquor businessmen to grant licenses to them under the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy. They claim that the policy favoured certain liquor traders at the expense of the public exchequer.

With inputs from agencies
Patna: Former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav released Rashtriya Janata Dal's manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday morning, promising new five airports in the state. Releasing Parivartan Patra, RJD founder Lalu Yadav's son and political heir also promised 1 lakh per year to sisters from poor families on Raksha Bandhan. RJD leader and former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav acknowledges supporters during an election rally in Jamui. (PTI file photo)

Tejashwi Yadav, who released the document in the presence of senior RJD leaders, said his party has made 24 promises to the people of the nation and Bihar.

"We have released 'Parivartan Patra'. We have brought 24 'jan vachan' (public promise) for 2024. These 24 'jan vachan' are our commitments that we will fulfil," he said.

Tejashwi Yadav said if the INDIA bloc forms a government at the Centre, his party will ensure construction of five new airports in Bihar for better connectivity.

"For better connectivity in Bihar, we are going to build 5 new airports in the state -- in Purnea, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj and Raxaul," he said.

Tejashwi Yadav also promised special status to Bihar.

"We will implement OPS (Old Pension Scheme) and we will provide special status to Bihar," he said.

He vowed to rid the country of unemployment.

Also read: Tejashwi Yadav reacts to PM Modi's eating non-veg during Navratri remarks: Why was Bihar?

"From 15th August, people will start getting freedom from unemployment. If our government comes to power, the process of providing jobs will start from 15th August," he said.

Tejashwi Yadav said that cooking gas cylinders will be provided at 500.

"On the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, we will provide 1 lakh to our sisters belonging to the poor household, every year. We will provide gas cylinders at 500," he added.

The RJD leader promised one crore jobs to youths across the country.

"If our INDIA alliance is voted to power, we will give government jobs to one crore youth across the country...Today unemployment is our biggest enemy and BJP people did not talk about this. They had promised to give 2 crore jobs but we do what we say," he added.

Voting for the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 19. Counting will take place on June 4.

With inputs from PTI, ANI
Hundreds of people in Kerala have collected 35.45 crore through a crowd-funding campaign to secure the release of Kozhikode native Abdul Rahim, convicted in Saudi Arabia for causing the death of a 15- year-old disabled boy, reported news agency ANI. Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has hailed the initiative to help free Rahim. Hundreds of people in Kerala have collected  35.45 crore through a crowd-funding campaign to secure the release of Kozhikode native Abdul Rahim, convicted in Saudi Arabia for causing the death of a 15- year-old disabled boy(ANI)

"When the propagandists of hatred spread lies against the state, the Malayalees are raising their defence through stories of humanity and philanthropy. For the release of Abdul Rahim, a native of Kozhikode who was sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia, Malayalees all over the world have joined hands and collected 34 crore rupees," said Kerala CM on social media.

ALSO READ| Massive crowd-fund campaign raises 34 crore to save Kerala man on death row in Saudi Arabia

Why Abdul Rahim is facing death penalty in Saudi Arabia

As per news agency ANI, Abdul Rahim was employed as a house driver of a Saudi citizen and as the caretaker of a 15- year-old disabled boy. As per Rahim's version, while travelling with the boy one day, he stopped the vehicle at a red light. When the boy asked Rahim to violate the red signal, he accidentally hit and dislodged the tube of a life-support device attached to the boy's body. As a result, the boy fell unconscious and died.

Rahim was sentenced to death in 2018 under Saudi law for murder. The victim boy's family was adamant about the death penalty. But they eventually agreed to pardon him if he paid 'blood money' of 15 million Saudi riyals.

How people have arranged money for Rahim's release

A legal action committee was formed to organise the crowdfunding to save Abdur Rahim. The committee set up an app called 'SAVEABDULRAHIM' to collect the amount. More than 30 crore were collected through the app. The fundraising target was achieved by adding the amount received offline.

A social media campaign was also launched to aid the release of Rahim.

The committee has said that it will contact the Indian Embassy in Riyadh to help secure Rahim's release before the April 15 deadline.
Call these field notes from an atheist. For a very long time, I was a militant one. Im not quite sure when the needle shifted. While the atheism stays, the militancy is gone. It does not seek to fight or proselytise.

Perhaps this has to do with the realisation that we live in times where the world seeks to divide us into binaries. And I have come to see that, the harder we hold on to our positions, the more we fail to see the beauty in contradictions.

I didnt have to look too far to find the beauty, or the contradictions: my home has been fertile ground.

It is a place that has evolved from a marriage between two opposing worldviews, my wife being a devout Catholic. This is a dynamic that does present hurdles, every once in a while. But face-offs are rarer two decades in. I guess weve made our peace with each others beliefs and, and journeyed from a place of argument to respect and curiosity.

This, to me, speaks to the power of embracing contradictions  not as a source of division, but as an opportunity for growth and understanding. This realisation did not come easily. It demanded that both of us look beyond the surface-level discord to find the place of shared values that lay beneath: compassion, integrity, and a deep-seated belief that people are fundamentally good.

This journey demanded that I, a staunch advocate of science and empirical evidence, explore spirituality with an open mind. Accompanying my wife Anna on her spiritual treks, I have found beauty in its history, music and architecture. I only hope that she has similarly found beauty in the scientific laws that govern my beliefs.

The biggest beneficiaries have been our children, who over the years have been intrigued observers of this philosophical dance.

They have grown up in an ecosystem that encourages questioning and exploration, and a home where science and faith are seen not as adversaries but as complementary lenses. I am glad for that, because the wisdom of embracing contradictions extends far beyond the confines of our home.

History is replete with examples of individuals who navigated the complexities of seemingly contradictory beliefs to bring about profound change. Consider the Renaissance. It was a period marked by a renewed interest in the classical past and an embrace of humanism, alongside a deep religious fervour. This was a time when artists and thinkers explored the tension between the divine and the human, between faith and reason. And the outcome was works that continue to inspire awe and wonder.

Think of the ancient Taoist concept of yin and yang, which represents the harmony of opposites. It is a reminder that life is not about choosing between black and white, but about finding balance and beauty in the grey.

In more recent times, we have had scientists such as Albert Einstein express a profound sense of spiritual awe in the face of the universes mysteries. These examples underscore the fact that the boundaries between science and spirituality are more permeable than we might think.

I have come to believe that the key to navigating such contradiction lies in the willingness to listen to each other. This requires enormous humility, because such listening begins with the acknowledgement that no single perspective has a monopoly on truth.

Today, when people seem to place such a premium on certainty and dogmatism, it is profoundly liberating to hold space for ambiguity and doubt. It is in this space that we find the freedom to change our minds, expand them, and embrace the complexity of our humanity.

As we move forward, I hope that our children will inherit a world that values diversity of thought and applauds contradictions. Early on, they have seen that it is not a place of either/or but a vast expanse of also/and. This is a lesson that, if spread widely, has the power to transform families, communities, societies and, indeed, the world.

It has certainly transformed me. I now believe that the harmony my family has found in dissonance is proof of the human capacity to build inclusive societies. What more does any atheist or believer desire? All of us tread on common ground.

(Charles Assisi is co-founder of Founding Fuel. He can be reached on assisi@foundingfuel.com)
Ambedkar Jayanti is also known as Bhim Jayanti and is celebrated as a public holiday across India since 2015 to celebrate the champion of Dalit rights and the principal architect of the Indian Constitution, Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, who was born on April 14, 1891 in Madhya Pradeshs Mhow. He is fondly called Babasaheb by his followers and each year, his birth anniversary is celebrated as Ambedkar Jayanti to honour his countless contributions in the making of the present-day independent India where people pay their respects to Dr BR Ambedkar by offering flowers, lighting candles and organising cultural events. BR Ambedkar Jayanti 2024: 10 timeless quotes by the architect of India's Constitution (File Photo)

Dr BR Ambedkar was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and politician and is best known as the chief architect of the Indian Constitution. He belonged to the Mahar caste which was considered untouchable in Hinduism but converted to Buddhism on October 14, 1956, in Nagpur, along with 500,000 supporters, after studying the religion for years and is not only known for his great influence in eradicating the social scourge of untouchability in India but also for having led a crusade for the upliftment and empowerment of Dalits in the country since he believed that Dalits can never get their rights within Hinduism.

Due to his Mahar caste since childhood, Dr BR Ambedkar witnessed economic and social discrimination before converting to Buddhism and most of these painful experiences that honed Babasahebs life have been penned down by him in his autobiographical book Waiting For A Visa. It was on August 29, 1947, that he was appointed as the chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee for the constitution of independent India and after Independence, he was appointed as the law minister of India.

By writing the Indian Constitution, he not only broke the social conventions meant for Hindu Shudras to emulate caste supremacists, changed their mindsets and urged them to educate and fight for their rights and gave equal rights to all but also ended the monopoly of Hindu Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas - in education, military, trade, social standards - who deemed themselves as superior to Shudras or the untouchables. From publishing scores of journals and advocating for Dalits rights to making significant contributions toward the establishment of the state of India, drafting of the Indian Constitution, giving ideas that served as the foundation of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and playing a crucial role in promoting gender equality, Dr BR Ambedkar dedicated most of his life to empowering and voicing concerns for the downtrodden.

On his 133rd birth anniversary this Sunday, here are some inspiring quotes by Dr Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar to fuel our motivation:
Bohag Bihu, also known as Rongali Bihu or Xaat Bihu, is a traditional cultural festival observed in the northeastern state of Assam and various other regions of Northeastern India. Celebrated by the indigenous ethnic groups of Assam, it signifies the commencement of the Assamese New Year. Bihu is a tri-annual festival, with Bohag Bihu marking the onset of the seeding season, typically falling in the second week of April annually. The other two Bihu festivals, Kati Bihu and Magh Bihu are celebrated in October and January, respectively. The term "Rong" translates to joy in Assamese, and Rongali Bihu embodies this spirit of joy and happiness as the Assamese community joyously commemorates each day of the festival with fervour and enthusiasm. From date to history, scroll down to know more. (Also read: Vishu 2024: What is Vishu Kani? Why is it an integral part of Vishu celebrations? ) Bohag Bihu, also known as Rongali Bihu, marks the beginning of the Assamese New Year. (Freepik)

When is Bohag Bihu 2024

This year Bohag Bihu will be celebrated with much pomp and enthusiasm on Sunday, April 14. The festival spans across seven days, each day holding its unique significance, rituals, and customs.

All about the seven days of Bohag Bihu

During Garu Bihu, the first day, cattle are honoured with a special ritual. People lead their livestock to the rivers, where they are bathed, and adorned with garlands, and their horns and hooves are painted. This is accompanied by heartfelt prayers for their health and well-being. Following this, Manuh Bihu, the second day, starts with an early morning tradition of applying turmeric paste and taking a purifying bath.

As the day progresses, homes are filled with the aroma of traditional Assamese delicacies such as Til Laru, Pitha, Murir Laru, Ghila Pitha, and Poka Mithoi, shared amongst family and friends as gestures of goodwill. Guxai Bihu, on the third day, is dedicated to the reverence of household deities, seeking their blessings for prosperity and harmony. Taator Bihu, the fourth day, shines a light on the importance of handlooms and craftsmanship, symbolizing the cultural heritage deeply rooted in Assamese society.

Nangolor Bihu, on the fifth day, pays tribute to the essential farm equipment vital for agricultural sustenance. GharosiaJibar Bihu, observed on the sixth day, extends gratitude towards domestic animals, recognizing their invaluable contribution to rural life. Finally, Chera Bihu, the grand culmination, is celebrated with unmatched enthusiasm, marking the conclusion of this vibrant festival, where communities come together in joyous revelry.

History of Bohag Bihu

Bohag Bihu traces its origins back to ancient times when it was revered as a fertility festival, heralding the advent of spring. Rooted deeply in Assam's agricultural heritage, the festival is intricately linked with the cycles of harvest. Celebrated primarily as an agrarian festival, Bohag Bihu marks the onset of the Assamese New Year and the eagerly anticipated arrival of spring, a pivotal time for the farming community.

Bohag Bihu significance

Bohag Bihu, heralding the onset of the seeding season, is a vibrant celebration deeply rooted in Assamese culture. During the festivities, traditional musical instruments such as dhol, pepa, gogona, toka, and taal fill the air with melodious tunes, accompanying the spirited dances of young men and women. While Bohag Bihu holds special significance in Assam, similar spring harvest festivals are celebrated across India.

In states like Punjab, it is known as Baisakhi, in Tamil Nadu as Puthandu, in Kerala as Vishu, and in West Bengal as Pohela Baisakh. Despite regional variations in traditions, the essence of these festivals, celebrating the arrival of spring and the abundance of the harvest season, unites people across the country in joyous festivities.
Happy Bohag Bihu 2024: The beginning of the new Hindu Year Vikram Samvat and starting of a fresh harvest season welcome a range of harvest festivals that are celebrated with slightly varied traditions across the country. Bohag Bihu, the Assamese New Year, is the time to express gratitude to God for bountiful harvest and wish for a prosperous year ahead. Beginning on April 14 (Sunday), the 7-day festival, also known as Rongali Bihu, will conclude on April 20 (Saturday) this year. The word Rongali is derived from rong, which means joy in Assamese and Rongali Bihu is the time for joy and happiness for Assamese community. (Also read | Bohag Bihu 2024: Date, history, significance, celebration and all you need to know about Assamese New Year) Happy Bohag Bihu 2024: Spanning over 7 days, Bohag Bihu is celebrated with different traditions and rituals on each day. (Photo: Parveen Kumar/HT)

Spanning over 7 days, Bohag Bihu is celebrated with different traditions and rituals on each day. While the first day Garu Bihu is dedicated to cattle, on the second day of Manuh Bihu, people apply turmeric paste on their bodies and take bath followed by relishing traditional delicacies like Til Laru, Pitha, Murir Laru, Ghila Pitha, and Poka Mithoi. The third day of Bohag Bihu is called Guxai Bihu, where household deities are worshipped. The fourth day is called Taator Bihu or Bihu for the handlooms. The fifth day is called Nangolor Bihu, dedicated to farm equipment, while the sixth day is called GharosiaJibar Bihu, which celebrates domestic animals. The final day of the festival is celebrated as Chera Bihu.

HAPPY BOHAG BIHU WISHES, GREETINGS, IMAGES, MESSAGES

On the occasion of Bohag Bihu 2024, here's a collection of wishes, images, messages to share with your near and dear ones.

Allow this Bihu to give you the strength to accomplish everything you wanted to do last year but were afraid to try.

Happy Bohag Bihu: A time to make merry and indulge in festive feast(Freepik)

Let us welcome Rongali Bihu with great hope and eagerness. Lets look forward to a year full of happiness and prosperity.

This year, I wish that Bihu brings peace, joy and good luck for everyone! Happy Bihu!d

Happy Bohag Bihu: Rongali Bihu is celebrated over a span of 7 days(Freepik)

May this festival bring enormous happiness and enlighten your world! Wish you and your family a happy Bihu!

May this Bihu be delightful, prosperous and auspicious for you! Wishing you and your entire family a very Happy Bihu!

Dont judge your day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you sow. Wish you and your family a very happy Bihu

Bohag Bihu 2024: From traditional dance to delightful delicacies, Rongali Bihu is celebrated with much enthusiasm by Assamese people

Let us warm our hearts and welcome Bihu with open arms. Let us have spectacular parties to kick off the new year.

May this beautiful celebration fill your homes and hearts with joy, incredible positivism, and vivid energy.

Happy Bohag Bihu 2024! The festivities begins April 14

May the blessings of Maa Kamakhya and the warmth of Bihu celebrations bring you endless happiness. Happy Bihu!

As the Bihu festivities begin, may they bring cheer and delight to your doorstep. Happy Bihu!
The word Pohela Boishakh literally translates to the first day of the first month of Bengali calendar - Baisakh. Coinciding with Puthandu, Bohag Bihu, Pana Sankranti, Vishu and other regional new years, the Bengali New Year is celebrated with much pomp and show. The greeting of 'Shubho Noboborsho' is common when people meet each other to kickstart a brand new year and feed each other the sweetest of rasgullas. (Also read | Happy Bohag Bihu 2024: Best wishes, images, messages, greetings to share on Assamese New Year) Happy Pohela Boishakh 2024: On the occasion of Pohela Boishakh, here are best wishes, images, messages and quotes to share with your friends and family.

The story goes that Mughal emperor Akbar introduced this new calendar system to facilitate tax collection and to better regulate the agricultural cycle in the Bengal region. Some historians, however, are of the opinion that Bengali calendar was introduced by the 7th-century Indian king Shashanka. Many say that the festivities of Poila Baisakh or Pohela Boishakh goes back to ancient times and coincides with the beginning of harvest season across the country.

Bengalis welcome New Year with great enthusiasm. From cultural programmes, fairs like Boishakhi Mela to street processions, people partake in New Year celebrations in different ways. Special food spread includes Panta Bhat, Ilish Bhapa, Pitha and sweets like rasgulla and sandesh. Men dress up in traditional wear of red or white kurta while women deck up in red and white saree along with jewellery.

Pohela Boishakh wishes, images and greetings

On the occasion of Pohela Boishakh, here are best wishes, images, messages and quotes to share with your friends and family.

Wish your dreams, your aspirations come true on this festival. Shubho Nobo Borsho!

Happy Pohela Boishakh. Lets welcome this New Year with open hearts and minds.

Happy Pohela Boishakh 2024

Happiness, prosperity, peace, joy and laughter will soon replace all that is bothering you. May today be the start of a happy life. Shubho Nobo Borsho.

On the joyous occasion of Poila Boishakh, here's praying that God blesses you with good health, wealth, peace and prosperity. Subho Nobo Borsho.

Subho Nobo Borsho

This Nobo Borsho, let us hope for a bright, peaceful, and healthy future. Happy Bengali New Year.

Wishing you all the happiness and prosperity. Happy Pohela Boishakh.

Pohela Boishakh is celebrated on the first day of Bengali calendar

Happy Poila Baisakh! May you get success and happiness at every step of life.

Let's hope for a pleasant, tranquil, and healthy future on this Nobo Borsho. Happy Bengali New Year.

Pohela Boishakh coincides with other regional New Year like Puthandu, Bohag Bihu, Vishnu and Pana Sankranti

Poila Baisakh greetings to you and your family. I hope your new year is as sweet as rasgullas and as happy as you are. Happy Poila Baisakh to you, my dear friend.

Wishing you good luck for the upcoming Bengali new year. As we move ahead, may you achieve everything in your life.
Happy Puthandu: Puthandu, also known as Tamil New Year, marks the beginning of the year on the Tamil calendar and is widely celebrated by Tamil people worldwide. Observed on the first day of the Tamil month Chittirai, its date is determined by the solar cycle of the Hindu calendar, typically falling around April 14 on the Gregorian calendar. Similar New Year celebrations occur in various states across India, such as Ugadi in Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Poila Baisakh in West Bengal. These festivities herald the onset of the harvest season and are commemorated with grandeur. Families come together to partake in traditional rituals, rejoicing in their state's rich cultural heritage. This year the auspicious festival of Puthandu will be observed on Sunday, April 14.(HT photo)

If you and your family are celebrating Puthandu, then here are our special collection of best wishes, heartfelt images, messages and greetings to share on WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media platforms with your loved ones. (Also read: Puthandu 2024: Date, rituals, significance, celebration and all that you need to know about Tamil New Year )

Happy Puthandu 2024 Wishes, Images and Messages

As you celebrate Puthandu, may your life be filled with happiness, peace, and prosperity. Happy Tamil New Year.

Happy Puthandu! May this Tamil New Year bring you abundant happiness, good health, and success in all your endeavours.

Puthandu, the Tamil New Year, heralds fresh beginnings and renewed hope.(HT photo)

As you celebrate Puthandu, may your life be filled with happiness, peace, and prosperity. Happy Tamil New Year.

On this auspicious day of Puthandu, may your home be filled with laughter, your heart with peace, and your life with endless blessings.

It marks the onset of the Tamil month Chittirai, a time of celebration and joy.(HT photo)

May the brightness of Puthandu illuminate your path towards a fulfilling and prosperous future. Happy Tamil New Year.

Warmest wishes to you and your loved ones on Puthandu! May the New Year ahead be filled with prosperity, happiness, and positivity.

Families gather to partake in traditional rituals and cherish their cultural heritage.(HT photo)

May the new year usher in a season of joy, success, and prosperity in your life. Happy Puthandu!

Happy Tamil New Year! May the sweet melodies of Puthandu fill your life with harmony, joy, and success.

Homes are adorned with kolams, mango leaves, and colorful decorations.(HT photo)

Wishing you a Happy Puthandu filled with love, peace, and harmony. May this Tamil New Year be the beginning of a beautiful journey!

As you celebrate Puthandu, may the divine blessings of the occasion guide you towards a year filled with happiness, health, and prosperity.

Special prayers are offered to seek blessings for prosperity and happiness in the new year.(HT photo)

Sending you heartfelt wishes for a wonderful Puthandu. May this Tamil New Year bring you happiness and fulfillment.

Wishing you a bright and prosperous Puthandu! May this Tamil New Year bring you closer to your dreams and aspirations.

Delicious traditional dishes like mango pachadi, vadai, and payasam are prepared and shared.(HT photo)

May the melody of Puthandu fill your heart with harmony and the colors of joy paint your life with happiness.

As the sun rises on Puthandu, may it bring new opportunities and blessings your way. Happy Tamil New Year!
Celebrated twice a year, the grand festival of Chhath Puja falls in the months of Chaitra and Kartik. Dedicated to Surya God and Chhathi Maiyya, the ancient festival even finds mentions in the scriptures. Yamuna Chhath falls in the month of Chaitra during Navratri and commemorates birth anniversary of Goddess Yamuna, who is also one of the eight consorts of Lord Krishna. While in Bihar, Jharkhand, and some areas in Madhya Pradesh, this Chhath is referred to as Chaiti Chhath, in Braj region of the country like Vrindavan and Mathura, it is celebrated as Yamuna Chhath. (Also read | Chaiti Chhath 2024: Date, significance, rituals, arghya dates) Happy Yamuna Chhath: Chaiti Chhath Arghya will be offered on April 14 (Sandhya or evening Arghya) and April 15 (Usha or morning arghya) respectively

Yamuna Chhath or Chaiti Chhath Arghya will be offered on April 14 (Sandhya or evening Arghya) and April 15 (Usha or morning arghya) respectively. The festivities started April 12 onwards with Nahay Khay, followed up by Kharna on April 13. Check out full calendar here.

Thekua, Rasiya Kheer, Kaddu or bottlegourd sabzi, and other sweets, fruits and dry fruits are offered as prasad to the Sun God and Chhathi maiya, and after the final arghya distributed among people as blessings of the divine.

Happy Yamuna Chhath Puja: Best wishes, greeting and messages

On the occasion of Yamuna Chhath, here're best wishes, images, greetings, SMS, WhatsApp status and Facebook updates that you can share with your near and dear ones.

Happy Yamuna Chhath Puja 2024: Best wishes for your loved ones

Sending warm wishes for a blessed and fulfilling Yamuna Chhath Puja to you and your family. Happy Chhath Puja!

Wishing you and your family a harmonious and prosperous Yamuna Chhath Puja. Stay blessed!

Happy Yamuna Chhath Puja: It's time to spend quality time with loved ones and indulge in thekua prasad

As you offer prayers to the Sun God, may your life light up with hope and positivity. Happy Yamuna Chhath Puja to you and your family.

Chhath Puja is about sincere devotion, perseverance, faith, and one's belief. May the gracious rays of the Sun God light up your life. Happy Yamuna Chhath Puja.

Happy Yamuna Chhath Puja: The festival dedicated to Sun God and Chhathi Maiyya is here

As you celebrate Yamuna Chhath Puja, may your prayers reach the Sun God, and may your life be brightened with the divine light. Happy Chhath!

Sending you warm wishes on Yamuna Chhath Puja. May the Sun God's divine presence bring positivity and light into your life.

Happy Yamuna Chhath Puja 2024: May the Sun God's divine presence bring positivity and light into your life.

As the Chhath Puja festivities unfold, may the Sun God bestow upon you the strength to overcome challenges and the brightness of success. Happy Yamuna Chhath!

On this Chhath puja, may chhathi Maiya give you the courage of a lion and the strength of an elephant. Happy Yamuna Chhath.

Happy Yamuna Chhath: Herere best wishes and images to share with your loved ones.

May this Yamuna Chhath Puja mark the beginning of life, fortune and success for you. Be blessed by Sun God.

Worship the God of kindness and seek blessing of elders too. May this Chhath Puja bring nothing but the best for you. Happy Yamuna Chhath Puja.
Yoga enhances focus through various physical, mental and mindfulness aspects or so the experts claim as the combination of specific postures (asanas), breath control (pranayama) and meditation contributes to improved concentration. Yoga emphasises the connection between the mind and body and as practitioners move through asanas, they become more attuned to bodily sensations, fostering present-moment awareness and reducing mental distractions. 9 best Yoga asanas for students to build focus and sharp memory (Photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels)

In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Himalayan Siddhaa Akshar, Founder of Akshar Yoga Kendraa, shared, Pranayama techniques in Yoga involve conscious control of breath. Deep and intentional breathing calms the nervous system, reducing stress and promoting mental clarity, which is essential for sustained focus. Yoga postures promote physical health and a healthy body contributes to a focused mind. The improvement in overall well-being from regular practice positively influences cognitive functions and attention span.

He added, Yoga encourages circulation and blood flow throughout the body, including the brain. Improved blood flow ensures an adequate supply of oxygen and nutrients, positively impacting cognitive function and focus. To enhance focus and memory, students can benefit from incorporating specific yoga asanas into their routine.

He recommended some effective poses and techniques for students to build focus and sharp memory -

Tadasana (Mountain Pose): Stand tall with feet together, arms by your sides. This pose improves posture and enhances concentration by grounding the body. Vrikshasana (Tree Pose): Shift weight to one leg, place the sole of the other foot on the inner thigh or calf, and bring hands to prayer position. This helps in improving balance and focus. Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend): Sit with legs extended, hinge at the hips, and reach for your toes. This asana stretches the spine, promoting blood flow to the brain for improved cognitive function. Balasana (Childs Pose): Kneel with buttocks on heels, stretch arms forward, and rest your forehead on the mat. This relaxing pose relieves stress and encourages mental clarity. Sarvangasana (Shoulder Stand): Lie on your back, lift legs overhead, and support your lower back with your hands. Shoulder stand enhances blood circulation to the brain, aiding memory. Halasana (Plow Pose): From shoulder stand, lower your legs behind your head. Halasana stimulates the nervous system, promoting mental alertness. Anulom vilom pranayama (Alternate Nostril Breathing): Sit comfortably, close one nostril, inhale, then switch nostrils while exhaling and inhaling. This pranayama technique balances the brain hemispheres, enhancing focus. Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation): A series of twelve poses, Surya Namaskar improves overall flexibility and energizes the body, promoting mental alertness. Trataka Dhyan: Trataka meditation is a yogic technique involving focused concentration on a single point, commonly a candle flame. Rooted in ancient practices, it aims to still the mind and enhance concentration. Practitioners sit in a comfortable position, gazing at the chosen point without blinking. This simple yet potent method promotes mental clarity, improves memory, and cultivates a heightened state of awareness. Beyond its psychological benefits, it is believed to cleanse and improve eyesight.

The Yoga expert advised, Encourage students to practice these asanas regularly, focusing on mindful breathing and staying present in each pose. Consistent Yoga practice can significantly contribute to building concentration, reducing stress and enhancing memory.
Whooping cough outbreak has left health authorities across different countries worried. Apart from several deaths reported in China, cases have also been reported in US, UK, Philippines, Czech Republic and the Netherlands. More common in children and infants, this deadly infection can be a cause of concern in the coming days. Thirteen deaths were reported in China in the first two months of 2024, with 32,380 cases reported  more than 20 times higher than a year earlier, according to the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration. (Also read: Whooping cough is happening more frequently than before. Heres what to do) Whooping cough is a highly contagious bacterial infection, caused by bacteria Bordetella pertussis, and is common in infants and young children. (Shutterstock)

What is whooping cough?

Whooping cough is a highly contagious bacterial infection, caused by bacteria Bordetella pertussis, and is common in infants and young children. The infection transmits easily from person to person mainly through respiratory droplets produced by infected person while coughing or sneezing.

"It is transmitted primarily through respiratory droplets. The symptoms include runny nose, dry cough which classically sounds like a whoop. Fever, sneezing, watery eyes, vomiting etc. Prevention is through vaccination. The three primary doses are given at 6, 10 and 14 weeks followed by boosters. The general measures should always be considered like hand hygiene and covering mouth if a child is sneezing or coughing," Dr Shreya Dubey- Consultant - Paediatrics & Neonatology, CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram told HT Digital.

"It is characterized by severe coughing fits, followed by a distinctive 'whooping' sound as the affected person gasps for air. Whooping cough is different from viral cough as it increases with time rather than showing improvement. It is also called 100 days cough disease. It can also lead to post cough vomiting," says Dr. Gurmeet Singh Chabbra, Director and HOD - Pulmonology Marengo Asia Hospitals, Faridabad.

Symptoms of whooping cough

"Bacteria damages cilia leading to bronchial inflammation and excessive mucus production, causing the characteristic symptoms of rapid cough, common cold and low-grade fever. Few serious complications like pneumonia, seizures and brain damage can also occur with whooping cough infection," says Dr Mayank Saxena, Additional Director, Pulmonology, Fortis Noida.

"People with this respiratory infection can present the symptoms such as runny nose, sneezing, mild dry cough and fever. The disease can affect infants and young children severely. If left untreated, whooping cough can lead to long-term disability or death. Patients can develop serious health complications such as lung infection (pneumonia), fits (seizures) and brain damage (encephalopathy) owing to breathing problems or seizures," says Dr Chabbra.

How's it diagnosed?

"Diagnosis is usually based on coughing fits in presence of known exposure to disease. Laboratory tests, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or culture of respiratory secretions, can confirm the diagnosis by detecting the presence of Bordetella pertussis bacteria," says Dr Saxena.

Prevention

DTaP vaccine is recommended for children while Tdap vaccines can be given to adults that provides protection against pertussis.

"Preventing whooping cough is essential using DTaP vaccine, which is recommended for children at 2, 4, 6, and 15-18 months of age, with a booster dose at 4-6 years old. Adults & pregnant women can receive the Tdap vaccine, which provides additional protection against pertussis. in addition, good hand hygiene, covering face while coughing/sneezing and avoiding close contact with sick individuals can help reduce the spread," says Dr Saxena.

"Vaccination is the most effective measure to prevent this infection. The DTaP vaccine is routinely administered to infants and young children in multiple doses, starting at 2 months of age as it protects against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. Boosters are recommended for adolescents and adults. Pertussis-containing vaccines are safe even for expectant mothers. Pregnant women are advised to receive the whooping cough vaccination between 20 and 32 weeks to boost their protection against whooping cough. Vaccination at this stage of pregnancy can be beneficial for fetus as the mother passes on whooping cough antibodies to their growing baby. This will provide the baby protection after birth  even before they are old enough to get immunised," says Dr Chabbra.

"Treatment usually involves antibiotics, supportive care like hydration/rest, and symptomatic management," says the expert.

"Preventive aspect includes wearing mask. Post exposure antimicrobial prophylaxis to all close contacts within 21 days of onset of cough of index patient is advised. Avoid sending children to school/daycare/gatherings who are suspected to have or are suffering from whooping cough," says Dr Chabbra.
The Vessel, a climbable sculpture that drew hordes of tourists to the Hudson Yards megadevelopment on Manhattans west side before a string of suicides forced its closure in 2021, will reopen to the public later this year with added safety measures. The "Vessel," a 150-foot-tall structure of climbable interlocking staircases in the Hudson Yards development in New York. The Vessel, a climbable sculpture that drew hordes of tourists to the Hudson Yards mega-development on Manhattans west side before a string of suicides forced its closure in 2021, will reopen to the public later this year with added safety measures. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

The towering honeycomb-like attraction will feature new steel mesh barriers on several of its twisting stairways and platforms, according to a spokesperson for Related Companies, which owns Hudson Yards. The top level of the 150-foot (46-meter) structure will remain off limits.

The spokesperson did not confirm an exact date for the reopening but said the developer looked forward to welcoming visitors back later this year.

Designed by Thomas Heatherwick and fabricated in Venice, the Vessel opened in 2019 as the centerpiece of the glittering new Hudson Yards neighbourhood, quickly becoming one of the city's prime tourist destinations. But after three people took their own lives by jumping off the structure in less than a year, it was closed to the public in early 2021.

The Vessel reopened soon after with new safety features like enhanced security, suicide prevention signs and a ban on hiking up the steps alone  but without the barriers requested by some Manhattan officials and the local community board. Just two months later, it was closed once again, after a 14-year-old visiting the city with his family fatally leapt from the edge.

The structure has remained locked to the public ever since as developers have investigated the feasibility of additional protections, such as netting.

A spokesperson for Related said the new steel mesh would be cut-resistant and able to withstand the outdoor elements without compromising the Vessels form or views.

Jessica Chait, the chair of the Manhattan community board, praised the upgrades but said they should have happened sooner.

While we think it took Related four lives too many to make these physical adjustments, these are the changes we requested, which will allow for prioritizing the safety of everyone who visits the Vessel," she said.
In the zoo of elementary particles which make up our universe, there is only one particle named after a person. Peter Higgs, after whom the eponymous Higgs boson is named, passed away recently at age 94 in Edinburgh.

Almost exactly 60 years ago, Higgs proposed a mechanism which could give elementary particles like electrons and quarks a mass. This was essential since the underlying theory which explained the interaction of particles had no consistent mechanism to generate masses for particles. Independently, several others including Brout, Englert and Kibble had also stumbled upon a similar mechanism. The idea, which had also been proposed earlier by Philip Anderson in the context of superconductivity, was built upon the work of the Nobel Laureate Y Nambu and J Goldstone.

The theory proposed by Higgs and others did not find favour with the particle physics community at first. However, by the early 1970s, it had been refined and became an essential part of the so-called Standard Model of Particle Physics that we believe explains the sub-microscopic reality.

Although theoretically, the model was consistent and predictive, the missing link was still the Higgs particle. The mechanism which was thought to give masses to all massive particles also predicted the existence of this unusual particle which had not been detected. The clinching evidence for the validity of the theory could only come from the actual detection of this elusive particle. But this was difficult given the state of the accelerator technology in the 1970-80s.

The search for the Holy Grail of particle physics, as the Higgs search came to be known, took more than three decades, billions of dollars, a multinational collaboration with thousands of scientists and some clever technology. In 2008, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, the most powerful particle accelerator in the world, was finally commissioned. On July 4, 2012, a new particle which could be the Higgs boson was discovered at the LHC. It took another few months before it could be definitely said that this was indeed the Higgs boson. Higgs and Englert were given the Nobel Prize in 2013 for their theoretical prediction of this particle (Brout had died in 2011 and Nobel Prizes are not given posthumously).

Peter Higgs, who was an emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh at the time of his death, was not just a brilliant scientist but also a great teacher with a flair for explaining very complex concepts in a simple, yet profound way. Despite his fame and recognition, he was an exceptionally modest person. He was also notoriously shy of any publicity and, on the day the Nobel Prize was announced, went to a seafood bar to escape media attention. He apparently did not possess a mobile phone.

Even though the name Higgs boson is widely accepted now, it did lead to some controversy in the particle physics community. This was simply because the idea not only had a longer history but also because several groups had independently proposed something similar. Some particle physicists thought that it was unfair to the others who had contributed to the theory.

In 1993, another Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman wrote a popular science book called The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? Incidentally, Lederman reportedly wanted the title to be The Goddamn particle, but the publishers, understandably, rejected the idea! However, when the Higgs particle was discovered, the press dubbed it the God Particle, a moniker which still raises hackles among particle physicists. This is also ironic given that Peter Higgs was an atheist!

More than a decade after its discovery, there are still many unanswered questions about the properties of the Higgs boson and its interactions. There are plans to build an accelerator, colloquially called the Higgs factory, which will hopefully shed some light on the still mysterious particle which Peter Higgs in his characteristic modest fashion would refer to as the boson that is named after me!

Shobhit Mahajan teaches physics at Delhi University. The views expressed are personal
Real estate developers should not fall into the 'trap of investors as this could affect their cash flows and result in projects getting stalled, Anand Kumar, chairman, Real Estate Regulatory Authority for NCT of Delhi and Chandigarh said that the CII Conference on Evolving Landscape of Indian Real Estate: Trends and Future Outlook held in the Capital. Real estate developers should not fall into the 'trap of investors as this could affect their cash flows and result in projects getting stalled: Delhi RERA chief

Kumar cautioned that if builders do not act against such investors, their "financial cycle will be disrupted" and that will give rise to stalled projects.

There are several high net worth individuals who purchase many flats in the hope of making huge profits, he said, adding these investors stop paying their installments after having paid just about 30% of the total cost of the housing units.

Real estate developers are then forced to cancel the units, which leads to disputes with customers, he said.

"In case, you (builder) find any problem that somebody is not paying on time, you go to RERA first, before he comes to RERA. Because, RERA is meant not only for allottees but also for you," Kumar told developers.

Also Read: Haryana RERA denies Godrej Developers & Properties' application for Gurugram project's extension; freezes account

He said that under RERA, developers can even cancel the allotment of units if somebody does not pay up.

On the issue of unauthorized developments, he said that "If we curb unauthorized development, then we can have 5,000 houses in the same land where we have 1,000 houses.

Sanjay Kulshrestha, chairman and managing director of HUDCO, said around 3% of the country's land contributes to 60% of GDP and that real estate developers should venture into non-metro and smaller centers.

Also Read: DDA luxury flats in Delhis Dwarka sold out, but no Rera nod yet

On the PM Awas Yojana, he said that in the interim budget 2024-25, the government has made an announcement to build 2 crore affordable houses in the next five years. State governments such as UP, Maharashtra are developing townships. In Maharashtra, a highway connects Nagpur, Mumbai and JNPT  that connects 18 districts. From 15 hours the transit time is down to 8 hours.

These 18 districts are able to deliver goods to ports in four-five hours, he said and urged real estate developers to enter smaller untapped geographies to develop affordable houses, he said.

Real-estate is the second largest employer after agriculture and is also one of the fastest growing sector, said Neel C Raheja, Chairman of CII National Committee on Real Estate and Housing and Group President of K Raheja Corp.

"We are at the forefront of hiring people, training them and creating better livelihoods for them, he added.

In 2023, India has emerged as the office to the world, said Sriram Khattar, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, DLF Rental Business.

Also Read: Indian real estate expected to touch $1.5 tn by 2034; drive 15% of economic output: Knight Frank India - CII Report

In the office segment, markets had a record lead in 2023 with Indias top seven sub-markets crossing a sale of 60 million sq ft. A milestone has been achieved. This firmly establishes the countrys credentials as an office to the world. The demand emanated from global capability centres, in manufacturing, engineering, financial services and technology at a time when third party tech outsourcing had a rather muted year, he said.

Around 3% of the countrys land contributes to 60% of GDP, and there is a need for real-estate developers to venture into non-metros and smaller centres, said Sanjay Kulshrestha, chairman and managing director, HUDCO, at the CII Conference on Evolving Landscape of Indian Real Estate: Trends and Future Outlook on Friday

Emphasising the need to regulate unauthorised development, Anand Kumar, Chairman, Real Estate Regulatory Authority for NCT of Delhi and Chandigarh said If we curb unauthorized development, then we can have 5000 houses in the same land where we have 1000 houses. Unauthorised colonies, are a pain point in areas like Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, he added.

The event witnessed the release of CII Knight Frank Report India Real Estate: A Decade From Now: Assessing the economic and real estate sector potential in the next decade.

Both Mr Kumar, and Mr Kulshrestha stressed on the need of skilling human-resources in real-estate sector. Referring to the findings of report, Mr Kulshrestha said that skill sets will have be developed for standardization, material, reiterating the need to build affordable houses, stating that most buyers today are unable to pay the cost of houses. We need more semi-skilled workers. We have had cases where modules sent for a site were installed by the electrician incorrectly. And now, this has led to a GST issue. CII, NAREDCO, CREDAI need to get together to address this skill-shortage added Mr Kumar.

Real-estate is the second largest employer after agriculture and is also one of the fastest growing sector, said Mr Neel C Raheja Chairman, CII National Committee on Real Estate and Housing and Group President, K Raheja Corp. We are at the forefront of hiring people, training them and creating better livelihoods for them, he added. Today the real-estate sector is pegged to be around 7.5% of GDP, which is expected to grow to 15.5% of GDP by 2047, said Mr Raheja.

In 2023, India has emerged as the office to the world, said Mr Sriram Khattar Vice Chairman & Managing Director, DLF Rental Business. In the offices segment, markets had a record lead in 2023 with Indias top seven sub-markets crossing a sale of 60 million sq ft. A milestone has been achieved. This firmly establishes the countrys credentials as an office to the world. The demand came from global capability centres, in manufacturing, engineering, financial services and technology at a time when third party tech outsourcing had a rather muted year pointed out Mr Khattar, adding that even in residential and retail segments, sales were upbeat in 2023. India also bought bigger apartments in 2023, above the price of 1.5 crore being the fastest selling category, for the first time ever, he added.
An ex-Amazon software engineer has been sentenced to three years in jail after he admitted to have stolen millions of dollars in cryptocurrency by hacking two decentralised finance platforms.



US District Judge Victor Marrero pronounced the sentence to 34-year-old Shakeeb Ahmed, an immigrant from Saudi Arabia, who pleaded guilty in December, Bloomberg reported. He pleaded guilty to taking advantage of the flaws in the decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms' smart contracts to insert fake pricing data and generate $12 million inflated and unearned profits that he withdrew in cryptocurrency, the report added.



ALSO READ: Crypto rally under scanner as Bitcoin-Ether ratio signals warning



Smart contracts are computer programmes that automatically execute the transactions when pre-determined conditions are met. As per the Bloomberg report, Ahmed's hacked platform was not identified by the prosecutors but it is believed to be Crema Finance, based on the details on the indictment. The other platform was Nirvana Finance, which closed shortly after Ahmeds July 2022 hack.



Shakeeb Ahmed previously served as the technical lead of the e-commerce giant's bug bounty programme, which provides rewards to hackers for finding vulnerabilities in its software.



The prosecutors had sought a four-year sentence in jail for Shakeeb, arguing it was a first conviction for hacking smart contracts. They noted the ex-techie's acceptance of responsibility and that he surrendered most of his ill-gotten wealth but said that the incarceration was warranted due to the seriousness of his crime.

Shakeel Ahmed previously served as the technical lead of Amazon's bug bounty programme(Reuters file)
A black-walled dining hall with 2,000-year-old paintings inspired by the Trojan War has been discovered during excavations at the Roman city of Pompeii, authorities said on Thursday. This image released by the Italian Culture Ministry on Wednesday shows a fresco depicting the Greek mythology figures of Helen, left, and Paris of Troy, right, inside an imposing banquet hall with elegant black walls. (AP)

The size of the room - about 15 metres long and 6 metres wide - the quality of the frescoes and mosaics from the time of Emperor Augustus, and the choice of characters suggest it was used for banquets, Pompeii Archaeological Park said.

"The walls were painted black to prevent the smoke from the oil lamps being seen on the walls," Gabriel Zuchtriegel, head of the park, said.

Also Read: Pompeii discovery sheds light on life under slavery

"People would meet to dine after sunset, and the flickering light of the lamps had the effect of making the images appear animated, especially after a few glasses of good Campanian wine."

Pompeii and the surrounding countryside was submerged by volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius exploded in AD 79, killing thousands of Romans who had no idea they were living beneath one of Europe's biggest volcanoes.

The site has seen a burst of archaeological activity aimed at halting years of decay and neglect, largely thanks to a 105-million-euro ($112 million) European Union-funded project.

The dominant theme of the newly discovered paintings is heroism and fate.

One fresco depicts Paris and Helen, whose love affair caused the Trojan War, according to classical accounts. Another one shows doomed prophetess Cassandra and the Greco-Roman god Apollo.

This image shows a fresco depicting the Greek mythology figures Cassandra, right, a cursed prophetess, and Apollo, God of oracles and knowledge, inside an imposing banquet hall. (AP)

According to Greek mythology, Cassandra predicted the Trojan War after receiving the gift of foresight from Apollo, but no-one believed her. This was because of a curse Apollo put upon her for refusing to give herself to him.
A Reddit users post about his moms workplace has sparked anger among people. In his post, the Reddit user shared that his mom, who has stage 4 cancer, was asked to come to work by her boss. The boss also wanted to know more about her treatment plan. The image shows a part of the email that a woman with stage 4 cancer received from her boss. (Reddit/@disneydoll96)

My Mum has stage 4 cancer in 5 areas, and her boss has been pressuring her to come back to work, the Reddit user wrote and shared a screenshot of an email his mother received from her boss.

My mom is 50 and has been with this company for under a decade. She was diagnosed 18 months ago, and her workplace was notified right away, meaning the boss has been aware of the severity of the illness for a long time. Asking for welfare meetings less than 24 hours in advance is nuts, the Reddit user added while replying to his own post.

Take a look at the entire post here:

The post was shared two days ago. Since then, it has collected more than 37,000 upvotes, and the numbers are still increasing. The share has also prompted people to post varied comments.

How did Reddit users react to this post?

HR called me when I was in the middle of daily radiation treatment. I'd just had three surgeries and needed one more, but I had to complete radiation first. They called to tell me I needed to return to work in a couple of weeks, as I would use up all my FMLA days. I asked, 'How can I do that?' He tells me I have to, or I no longer have a job or health insurance if I don't. This was a job I'd had for 35 years with excellent evaluations and attendance. I was extremely fortunate to have a union lawyer who was able to work out an agreement with them. Still, I sweated it out pretty much, not even sleeping for 11 days trying to figure out how I could work and do radiation, then put off my last surgery for a year until I had more FMLA days (possibly letting cancer grow). I was lucky. Very lucky. Having your employer in control of your health insurance is disgusting, wrote a Reddit user.

Her treatment plan? This is all wildly inappropriate, added another.

Twenty-five years ago, I thought it was horrible when HR made me come in with a concussion after a car wreck to be fired, the reasons for which they lied. They tried to get out of paying me severance. They also told the ESC that I quit to try to stop me from receiving unemployment. Unless your moms boss is the head of the company, you could call the head of the company. Thats what I did. I received my two-week severance and unemployment, suggested a third.

Some people are so disconnected it's disgusting. I hope your mom has the capacity to dismiss the awful boss. It's not fair, and it sucks. Some people are just evil, wrote a fourth.
A post shared by an IIM-A professor has gone viral on social media. In her tweet, associate professor Promila Agarwal wrote how it would be for her if she ever returned to the campus as a student. An IIM-A professor shared this image on X. (X/@promila_agarwal)

It all started with a tweet by Agarwal where she shared a photo and wrote, LKP turns super calm & super comforting around late evening just as much as hyper it goes around 8.30 AM. To this, an X user inquired, Kitna percentile tha aapka (What was your percentile).

Agarwal replied, Never applied for PGP, but if even today I get admission to PGP IIM-A, I will actually take a two-year sabbatical from IIM-A as faculty to pursue PGP from IIM-A. Once in a while, I do have a strong craving to experience IIM-A as PGP.

She then added two more tweets and posted, I have so many questions abt PGPs. Like at what point inspite of being so intelligent & smart, PGPs decide to sell their self-respect in class with 90 others when they mark DCP.

They will write 2 page email to convince faculty for deadline extension so they can win T-nite & eventually all they win is musical chair competition. Is it really that hard? she added.

Take a look at the post here:

The post was shared a few hours ago. Since then, the tweet has collected more than 3,900 views, and the numbers are only increasing. The share has also collected close to 50 likes.

The original poster, Stuart Cook, jokingly wrote, You wrote 3 paragraph for 1 line question. Agarwal replied, Faculties are allowed to talk and write endlessly as part of profession itself.

In response, the X user who goes by Cook added, So introvert like me can't because Faculty. Agarwal reassured and replied, No, we have a few introvert faculties. Treat 90 students/participants in class as one person/1 unit. Cook then tweeted, How to become faculty at IIM ? Applying immediately, leaving my govt job.

What are your thoughts on this IIM-A professor's conversation with the X user and her thoughts on returning to the campus as a student?
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) never fails to captivate people with their numerous captures. Now, once again, the space agency went viral after they shared a video of a collection of stars that is 30,000 light years away from the Earth. Soon after the clip of the stunning capture was shared, it quickly caught thousands of eyeballs and left many mesmerised. Snapshot of the collection of stars. (Instagram/@NASA)

As NASA shared the clip, in the caption of the post, they informed, "Liller 1 is a globular cluster  a roughly spherical grouping of stars held together by gravity. However, while most of these types of clusters are home to older stars, Liller 1 hosts two populations of stars with remarkably different ages." (Also Read: NASA Hubble Telescope captures two galaxies in 'cosmic interaction', stunning picture is viral)

They further added, "The older one is 12 billion years old, and the youngest is just 1 to 2 billion years old, meaning Liller 1 managed to form stars over an extraordinarily long period of time."

Watch the video of the stars here:

This post was shared just a day ago on Instagram. Since being shared, it has gained more than three lakh views, and the numbers are only increasing. The share also has close to 23,000 likes and numerous comments. Many people flocked to the comments section of the post and shared their reactions. (Also Read: NASA captures Moon in its crescent phase, stunning picture goes viral)

Check out how people reacted to the video:

An individual wrote, "Bright start to my day!"

A second commented, "Gorgeous, these photos of our jewelled cosmos are infinitely worth more than the jewels we pay for so much here to declare our love for one another. Knowledge is the most precious of any."

A third shared, "Twinkle twinkle, really big star, we are coming to see just what you are."

"Revealing the enduring creativity of the universe," posted a fourth.

A fifth said, "Kids don't realise how lucky they are. I had to look at a science book in school, and the information was very limited."
With her owner holding her leash, Philippine pooch Hazel sniffs through rubble in a simulated search for survivors of a major earthquake in the capital Manila. A trainer guiding a pet dog during a search and rescue program in the Philippines. (AFP)

Hazel is taking part in a programme training pet dogs and their owners in search and rescue so they can be deployed in the aftermath of a disaster.

Every Sunday, around 46 mongrels and purebreds of all sizes are put through their paces by volunteer trainers at a facility in suburban Manila where they learn to find people, scale ladders, and bound over wooden structures.

Philippine disaster agencies already have search and rescue dogs that are deployed when disasters strike the archipelago nation.

But there are concerns that there might not be enough of them if a major earthquake were to hit the sprawling metropolis of Manila.

Hazel, who was a skinny street mutt before she was adopted by her owner Nathalia Chua, lacks the pedigree of some of her classmates.

But she shows plenty of enthusiasm as she follows instructions to search rubble, overturned water drums and small wooden huts.

The three-year-old barks and wags her tail when she finds a person hiding in a drum, drawing cheers from trainers and back rubs from Chua.

"My end goal with Hazel is just to be as prepared as possible if the 'big one' comes," Chua, 17, told AFP, referring to a major earthquake seismologists predict could strike the city one day.

Manila is vulnerable to quakes due to its location on the West Valley Fault and its proximity to the Manila Trench off the main island of Luzon.

Seismologists believe the movement of either one could trigger a major earthquake in the city of more than 13 million people that could kill tens of thousands.

The MMDA K-9 Corps volunteer group has trained around 700 pet dogs since it began the programme in 2016.

It aims to train at least 3,400 pet dogs in search and rescue across the city.

"We all know that for the 'big one'... we really need to be prepared," said trainer Katrina Florece, 25, at the training facility owned by the government's Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.

Hazel was malnourished and fearful when Chua found her in 2021 during a family holiday on the western island of Palawan.

The search and rescue training has helped her become calmer and more confident.

"She loves it," Chua said. "I think even if the dog doesn't end up enjoying search and rescue, joining this is a great opportunity to learn and bond with your dog."

Dogs have to complete at least 12 training sessions before they can be deployed in real-life disaster response operations.

American chef Jon Hrinyak, 40, regularly brings his German Shepherd Oly to the training in the hope that they might be able to save someone's life one day.

"You hope that when something happens... we can be there to assist someone," Hrinyak said.

A single life that we can help is worth it.
A former US ambassador who pleaded guilty to spying for Cuba for over four decades was sentenced in federal court on Friday to 15 years in prison. People protest demanding the "maximum sentence" for former US Ambassador to Bolivia, Victor Manuel Rocha, accused of spying for Cuba, outside the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Miami on April 12.(AFP)

Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in December for what US officials called "one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent."

Rocha pleaded not guilty in February to charges of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government but later accepted a plea deal with federal prosecutors.

Judge Beth Bloom, after a three-and-a-half-hour hearing in Miami on Friday, told Rocha she would give him "the maximum penalty permitted by law."

In addition to the 15-year sentence, Rocha was given a $500,000 fine.

Rocha, a naturalized US citizen originally from Colombia, allegedly began aiding Havana as a covert agent of Cuba's General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI) in 1981, and his espionage activities continued until his arrest, according to US authorities.

Victor Manuel Rocha, who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, appears during an interview with an FBI undercover employee in Miami, Florida in an undated still image from a video.(Reuters)

Attorney General Merrick Garland, announcing Rocha's arrest in December, said he had "repeatedly referred to the United States as 'the enemy'" and "repeatedly bragged about the significance of his efforts."

Rocha joined the State Department in 1981 and rose through the ranks as a career diplomat, serving in posts in Havana, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Washington.

Rocha served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 in the administration of president Bill Clinton, and was the ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002 under Clinton and George W. Bush. He also served as an advisor to the US military command responsible for Cuba.

The criminal complaint against Rocha details how, over multiple meetings with an undercover FBI agent beginning in November 2022, he "behaved as a Cuban agent," praising the communist-ruled island's late leader Fidel Castro and "using the term 'we' to describe himself and Cuba."

"Despite swearing an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, Rocha betrayed the US by secretly working as a Cuban agent for decades," said Larissa Knapp, executive assistant director of the FBI's National Security Branch.

"After years of lying and endangering national security and US citizens, he finally accepted responsibility for his actions and received the maximum prison sentence."

Numerous espionage cases have marred relations between the two countries, which have been enemies since Cuba's Communist revolution in 1959, at the height of the Cold War.

Rocha's arrest and conviction come around 15 years after the indictment of Walter Kendall Myers and Gwendolyn Myers, an American couple who spied for Cuba for nearly 30 years.

Kendall Myers was sentenced to life imprisonment, while his wife was sentenced to over five years.

And in 2001, military intelligence analyst Ana Montes was arrested on espionage charges, later admitting that she had been gathering intelligence for Cuba for almost a decade.

Cuba has been under a US embargo since 1962, and is on a State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has not had an easy week. One of the most conservative members of his congressional caucus is in revolt with him, which could cost him his job. Former US President Donald Trump listens as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks during a press conference at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on April 12, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. They spoke about "election integrity," which has been one of the former president's top issues. (Photo by JOE RAEDLE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)(Getty Images via AFP)

The issue of extending assistance to Ukraine is, to this point, still facing protest. The House Speaker also brought up the issue of passage of the domestic information collection program which he said took three times by the House to push through.

So on Friday, he took another short flight to Florida, where the man who has been POTUS's biggest voucher since before he even took office, gave him another lifeline to shelter under.

It's none other than former US President Donald Trump.

ALSO READ| Donald Trump to meet embattled Speaker Mike Johnson as as GOP dissent grows louder

Trump backs Jhonson amid calls for ouster

Johnsons leadership position has been under siege, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch conservative from Georgia and a dedicated follower of Trump, escalating her criticism of him. This comes less than half a year into Johnsons tenure as Speaker.

And Jhonson had no way left rather than running to Trumps Palm Beach resort, The visit was to save his neck on the line.

When questioned about his stance on Greenes proposal to unseat Johnson, Trump expressed: Were getting along very well with the speaker. And I get along very well with Marjorie. We have a speaker who was voted in, and it was a complicated process and I think very  its not an easy situation for any speaker. I think hes doing a very good job. Hes doing about as good as youre going to do. And Im sure that Marjorie understands that. Shes a very good friend of mine, and I know she has a lot of respect for the speaker.

Trump further reinforced his support for Johnson, stating, I stand with the speaker, and added, unfortunate that people bring it up because right now, we have much bigger problems.

ALSO READ| Donald Trump's Truth Social's future doesn't look that good. Here's why

Trump and Mike Johnson had a discussion on election integrity

The primary agenda for the meeting between Johnson and Trump was to discuss election integrity.

In the afternoon, Trump disclosed that their discussion centred on implementing safeguards to prevent noncitizens from participating in elections.

At the luxurious Mar-a-Lago resort, Johnson, representing Louisiana, expressed his satisfaction with the opportunity to collaborate with the GOPs prospective nominee for the 2024 election.

Despite the fact that noncitizen voting is already prohibited and instances of it occurring are exceedingly rare, Trump and his supporters have continued to propagate the unfounded claim that undocumented immigrants influenced the outcome of the 2020 election and could potentially do so again.

While clapping Trump's back, Johnson advocated for legislative action on federal voting laws, saying, House Republicans are introducing a bill that will require proof of citizenship to vote. It seems like common sense.

ALSO READ| Joe Biden says Iran to attack Israel sooner, rather than later', issues Dont' warning to Tehran: 10 points

He raised concerns about the presence of millions of illegals in the country, suggesting that they might try to vote under the radar. This could be a tight election  in our congressional races around the country. It could, if there are enough votes, affect the presidential election.
Hours after warning Iran of consequences, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) had been launched by Iran from its territory towards Israel. An Iranian woman watches an Iranian news TV channel, which is covering the news of Iran's attack on Israel, on April 14, 2024. Israel was coming under direct attack from Iran Saturday, the army announced, in a major escalation of the long-running covert war between the regional foes that threatened to overshadow the conflict in Gaza. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

The IDF is on high alert and is constantly monitoring the operational situation. The IDF Aerial Defense Array is on high alert, along with fighter jets and Navy vessels that are on a defense mission in Israeli air and naval space. The IDF is monitoring all targets, it posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Following Tehran's move, the Jewish state's aviation authority declared that the Israeli airspace was being shut.

In accordance with the guidance of the security system, starting at 12:30am, the airspace will be closed for international and domestic flights, the Israel Airports Authority said in a statement.

The country's top-rated Channel 12 TV news put the number of drones launched by Iran at around 100, adding that some of the UAVs were shot down over Syria or Jordan.

Meanwhile, confirming the strike, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) told state media that a drone and missile attack was underway.

In response to the numerous crimes committed by the Zionist regime, including the attack on the consular section, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired dozens of missiles and drones at specific targets inside the occupied territories, an IRGC statement read, referring to Israel.

Tehran holds Tel Aviv responsible for the April 1 strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria. An IRGC commander and seven officers were among 16 people killed.

The United States too confirmed that Israel, its ally, was under Iranian attack.

"President Joe Biden is being regularly updated on the situation by his national security team (NSC) and will meet with them this afternoon at the White House," said Adrienne Watson, NSC spokesperson, in a press release.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also reacted to the development, and accused Iran of once again demonstrating its intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard.

The UK will continue to stand up for Israel's security and that of all our regional partners, including Jordan and Iraq. Alongside our allies, we are urgently working to stablise the situation and prevent further escalation, Sunak wrote on X.
Police in Iran announced a new crackdown Saturday on women who ignore the country's strict Islamic dress code that makes it compulsory for them to wear headscarves in public. Iranian worshippers perform Eid al-Fitr prayer marking the end of the Muslims holy fasting month of Ramadan in Tehran on April 10. (AP)

"From today the police in Tehran, as in other provinces, will implement their measures against this sort of violation of the law regarding hijab," the capital's police chief AbbasAli Mohammadian said on live television.

Local media reported that police in the city had launched a campaign codenamed "Noor", the Persian word for light, in their efforts to double down on those who break the hijab dress code.

The authorities made it mandatory for women to obey the Islamic dress code shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled Iran's shah.

The dress code, known as hijab, makes it mandatory for women to cover their hair and bodies in public places.

"People who did not pay attention to previous police warnings will be specially warned in the city from today and legal action will be taken against them," Mohammadian said on Saturday.

The crackdown comes just days after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a speech reiterated that women in the Islamic republic must obey the dress code, regardless of their beliefs.

"The hijab issue, which has now become an imposed challenge, did not exist before," he said, and blamed "the intervention of foreigners".

Iran's morality police had kept a low profile since protests erupted following the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurd who died three days after they arrested her for allegedly violating the dress code in Tehran.

The morality police were never formally abolished by the authorities.

Amini's death triggered months-long demonstrations which the authorities labelled as "riots" fomented by foreign governments.

On Saturday, Iranian media including Ham Mihan daily posted "images of the presence of patrol vans" from the morality police in central Tehran's Valiasr Square.

There have been reports in the media over recent months that police have seized vehicles transporting women without veils and punished their owners.

In an effort to tackle those breaking hijab laws, the authorities have also shut cafes and restaurants where the wearing of the hijab was not respected.

After Amini's death, more and more women across the country began appearing in public without adhering to the dress code.
Israel-Iran News Highlights: Tensions are rising with Israel bracing for an attack by Iran as a retaliation to the airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus last week, which resulted in the killing of a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' overseas Quds Force and six other officers. While Israel did not claim responsibility for the attack, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had asserted that Israel must be punished and shall be for the attack. ...Read More

Amid fears of retaliation by Iran, Hezbollah on Friday night fired a barrage of missiles towards northern Israel, reported the Times of Israel. According to the report, around 40 rockets were fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel. There were no immediate reports of injuries in the attack.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said that he expects Iran to attack Israel sooner, rather than later and warned Tehran to not proceed with it. In his message to Iran, Biden simply said: Don't, adding that the US is devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed, he said, reported Reuters.
Iran will attack Israel sooner, rather than later, US President Joe Biden said on Friday. In an ominous warning, he told Tehran not to attack the country as the US was devoted to its defense. He promised that the US will help Israel. The Ministry of External Affairs has advised Indians to not visit Iran and Israel "in view of the prevailing situation in the region".

US president Joe Biden(AP file photo)
Britain's King Charles III said Saturday that he and his wife Queen Camilla were "horrified" by "senseless" stabbings at a shopping centre in Sydney that killed six people. HT Image

Australian police said multiple people were stabbed including a nine-month-old baby by the unidentified assailant, who was tracked down and shot dead by a policewoman who is being hailed as a national hero.

The incident occurred at the sprawling Westfield Bondi Junction mall complex, which was packed with thousands of Saturday afternoon shoppers.

"My wife and I were utterly shocked and horrified to hear of the tragic stabbing incident in Bondi," Charles said in a statement released by Buckingham Palace.

"Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who have been so brutally killed during such a senseless attack.

"While details of these shocking circumstances are still emerging, our thoughts are also with those who were involved in the response, and we give thanks for the bravery of the first responders and emergency services," he added.

King Charles III is the monarch of Australia, which is part of Britain's Commonwealth.

Earlier, his son and heir to the throne Prince William and his wife Catherine said they were "shocked and saddened" by the stabbings.

"Our thoughts are with all those affected, including the loved ones of those lost and the heroic emergency responders who risked their own lives to save others. W & C," the Prince and Princess of Wales said in a post on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.

Both Charles, 75, and Catherine, 42, have taken a back seat from frontline royal duties as they receive treatment for cancer.

Catherine announced last month that she was undergoing treatment after cancer was discovered following abdominal surgery.

Her shock disclosure came after Charles revealed that he was being treated for an unspecified cancer detected after he had surgery for a benign prostate condition.

pdh/rox

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Six people were killed, including a suspect, in a stabbing attack at a busy Westfield shopping centre in Sydney's Bondi junction on Saturday morning.



According to reports, the assailant was shot by a police officer during the rescue operations. Police enter the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall after a stabbing incident in Sydney (AFP)

Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters that he was content that there is no continuing threat. He said officials did not know who the offender was. This is quite raw, he said, and a lengthy and precise" investigation was just beginning.

Cooke also said there was nothing that we are aware of at the scene that would indicate any motive or any ideology. He also said that the police have not ruled out the angle of terrorism.

He added that the senior police inspector, who confronted the suspect, was alone. "She engaged him soon after her arrival on the scene, saving a range of people's lives, he said.

Also Read | Sydney stabbing: Chilling video shows Australian man blocking attacker

Authorities evacuated the shoppers from the shopping complex soon after the incident. Several videos doing rounds on social media showed ambulances and police cars around the shopping centre. Paramedics were also seen treating patients at the scene.

Police officers work at the scene outside Bondi Junction following reports of stabbings in the mall, in Sydney, Australia April 13, 2024.(Reuters)

Two witnesses told Reuters they heard shots fired. Even 20 minutes after people were rushed out of the mall, I saw SWAT teams of people sweeping the surrounding streets, one witness said.

Another witness described the police officer shooting the attacker to state broadcaster ABC.

"If she did not shoot him, he would have kept going, he was on the rampage," said the man, who did not give his name. "She went over and was giving him CPR. He had a nice big blade on him. He looked like he was on a killing spree."

Meanwhile, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese condemned the attack on X, formerly known as Twitter. Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones, he wrote.

(Inputs from Reuters, AP)
Atlanta rap legend Rico Wade, a founding member of the Dungeon Family and legendary Organised Noize producer, has passed away at the age of 52. Atlanta rap legend Rico Wade is survived by his mother, wife Debbie Wade and two children.(Getty Image)

Confirming the devastating news on Saturday morning, Wade's family in a statement said they were deeply saddened by the sudden and unexpected demise of the American songwriter and record producer.

Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of a talented individual who touched the lives of so many. We ask that you respect the legacy of our loved one and our privacy at this time, they wrote.

While the family did not disclose a cause of his death, Wade is survived by his mother, wife Debbie Wade and two kids.

Also Read: Who is the late rapper Lil Tays brother Jason Tian? family death shook the internet

Tributed pour in after Rico Wade's demise

Meanwhile, Wade's close friend Killer Mike expressed profound grief over his death.

I dont have the words to express my deep and profound sense of loss, Killer Mike wrote in a post on Instagram. I am praying for your wife and children. I am praying for the Wade family. I am praying for us all. I deeply appreciate your acceptance into the Dungeon Family, mentorship, friendship and brotherhood. Idk where I would be without yall.

Organized Noize and the Dungeon Family also reacted to the devastating news, stating that the world has lost one of the most innovative architects in music, and we have lost an invaluable friend.

Rico was the cornerstone of Organized Noize and the Dungeon Family, and we will forever treasure his memory and the moments we shared, creating music as a united team. Our hearts weigh heavy with sorrow, and we kindly request privacy and empathy during this challenging period. Ricos presence will always have a special spot in our hearts, and in the music we presented to the world, the statement added.

Also Read: Snoop Dogg mourns as younger brother Bing Worthington dies at 44: U Bac with Moms

In a post on X, producer Jack Antonoff recalled Rico as a lovely genius to be around. Had the honor to work with Rico wade and organized Noize on gone now. Those few days in Atlanta forever changed bleachers and me as a producer, he wrote.

Rico Wade founded Dungeon Family collective in 1990s

In the early 1990s, Wade, Ray Murray, and Sleepy Brown formed the Dungeon Family collective.

The Organized Noize songwriting-production team played an important role in early releases by artists such as Outkast, TLC and Goodie Mob.

Many of the hits of the era were not only born in Wade's studio in the East Point section of the city, "the Dungeon," but it was also featured in many of them.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Saturday that a vessel was seized by "regional authorities" 50 nautical miles (92 km) northeast of the United Arab Emirates' Fujairah. UKMTO did not say which authorities it was referring to.(Rep image)

UKMTO did not say which authorities it was referring to.

British maritime security firm Ambrey also reported on Saturday a "boarding" incident at the same location.

Iran-aligned Houthis have staged attacks on shipping in the Red Sea region for months in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war.

The commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard's navy said on Tuesday that Israel's presence in the UAE was viewed as a threat by Tehran and it could close the Strait of Hormuz - the entrance to the Gulf - if deemed necessary. Fujairah is located on the eastern side of the Strait of Hormuz.

Months of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around Southern Africa, and stoked fears that the Israel-Hamas war could spread to destabilise the wider Middle East.

The United States and Britain have carried out strikes against Houthi targets in response to the attacks on shipping.
President Xi Jinping recently met former Taiwanese president and opposition leader Ma Jing-yeou in Beijing, the first time a Chinese leader hosted a former president from the self-ruled island.

Until now, no serving or former leader from Taiwan had been hosted by the Chinese leadership since the retreating Kuomintang (KMT), after being defeated by Mao Zedongs Communist Party of China (CPC), took refuge and built a nation on the island off the southern Chinese coast in 1949. (Xi and Ma had met at a landmark summit in Singapore in 2015.)

Besides being rare, the high-profile meeting on April 10 was full of calculated courtesies.

Xi, for one, addressed Ma by his name, and the latter by the Chinese presidents designation as the CPC general secretary, each avoiding the usual formal diplomatic parlance of your excellency etc.

The way the two addressed each other was more than symbolic, it was necessary: Neither can recognise the other as president.

Political expediency

China sees democratic Taiwan as its own territory, a renegade region, to be merged with the mainland with force if necessary; Taipei rejects that assertion, asserting instead that it is self-ruled, and that its the will of the Taiwanese that will decide the future of the country.

Ma was Taiwans president between 2008 and 2016, a period that saw warmer ties between Beijing and Taipei. He remains an influential opposition leader of the KMT, which also opposes reunification but advocates closer cross-strait ties.

Given the binary, Mas 11-day tour of China  his second in about a year  leading a student delegation and his meeting with Xi at the Great Hall of the People was closely tracked.

Xi took the opportunity to push for reunification even if he packaged his firm positioning with soft talks about a family reunion.

Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are all Chinese people. There is no grudge that cannot be resolved, no issue that cannot be discussed and no force that can separate us, Xi told Ma, according to the agency reports, adding: External interference cannot stop the historic trend of the reunion of the family and the country.

Both sides of Taiwan belong to one China, he said.

There is no rancour that cannot be resolved, no problem that cannot be discussed, and no force that can separate us.

Ma reciprocated along the lines of how a war would be unbearable for the Chinese people, referring to the ethnicity of the people on either side of the Taiwan Strait.

If theres war, it would be unbearable to the Chinese nation, and the two sides of the [Taiwan] strait have the wisdom to handle their disputes peacefully, Ma said, according to Reuters.

I sincerely hope that both sides can respect the values and ways of life of their peoples, Ma said, adding that recent tensions between the two sides  have triggered a sense of insecurity among the public in Taiwan.

The timing of the Xi-Ma meeting coincided with two developments and came ahead of a third one.

History of relations

One was the anniversary of the US-Taiwan Relations Act. It was signed in April 1979 and defines ties between the island and the US but keeps bilateral relations unofficial.

Despite the official line of Washington following the one China policy Beijing remains particularly indignant with Washingtons deep engagement with the island country especially in the context of arms sales: China calls it external interference in internal matters.

Its a red line was how Xi described Chinas position on US-Taiwan ties in a recent phone conversation with US President Joe Biden.

The meeting also coincided with the US-Japan summit in Washington and took place a day before the first-ever trilateral meet between the two countries and the Philippines: Both Japan and the Philippines have territorial disputes with China and, at the end of the trilateral, Biden said the US defence commitments to the two countries remain ironclad.

And, Xi and Mas meeting took place just a month before Lai Ching-te, Taiwans new president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), took oath with incumbent Tsai Ing-wen making way after completing two terms. Beijing sees Lai as a troublemaker and instigator of war, given his statements on ties between Taiwan and the mainland.

The meeting seems to have primarily benefited Xi, projecting domestically that Taiwan isnt a lost cause. Yet, back in Taiwan, Ma faces difficulty in selling this notion, given the evolving sentiments towards China, said Sana Hashmi, a postdoctoral fellow at the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation and a fellow at George H. W. Bush Foundation for US-China Relations.

Referring to the timing of the meeting, Hashmi said it could be interpreted as a message to the US and, of course, to the DPP in Taiwan.

This timing suggests Xis intention to signal to Taiwan and the US that he is willing to engage with stakeholders who may be amenable to his overtures, even if they are not necessarily influential in Taiwanese politics or the broader US-China-Taiwan triangle.
Russian emergency services on Saturday said they had evacuated thousands of people from the southern regions bordering Kazakhstan as flood water continued to rise. HT Image

Fast-rising temperatures have melted snow and ice, and along with heavy rain have caused a number of major rivers that pass through Russia and Kazakhstan to overflow this month.

In the city of Orenburg, one of the worst affected areas in Russia, the Ural River has breached its banks, submerging streets and residential areas and water levels continued to rise Saturday.

On Saturday afternoon, the river level reached almost 12 metres , more than 2.5 metres above the level considered critical.

Regional governor Denis Pasler said in a press release Sunday evening that "as of today the situation remains complex. In Orenburg the flood is at the maximum peak."

The Ural River flows through the centre of Orenburg.

Flood water covered the embankment promenade and swirled around houses and an high-rise apartment blocks built close to the river, an AFP journalist saw.

More than 13,000 people have been evacuated from Orenburg and the surrounding region and more than 11,000 homes have been flooded, according to the emergency situations ministry.

Eldar Rakhmetov, a ministry official involved in the evacuation, told AFP that in Orenburg "there has been an increase in the number of homes flooded since this morning and more areas are being evacuated."

Local residents were using rubber dinghies to try to retrieve pets and belongings from flooded houses and some areas were left without power.

Valery, 64, a local factory worker, was one of those evacuated Saturday by a police truck.

"The most important thing is that does not get looted. That is what I am worried about. Other than that, it is fine! We will survive," he said.

The emergency situations ministry said that in the Kurgan region further east, the level of the Tobol River was continuing to rise steeply and more than 6,000 people had been evacuated.

The governor, Vadim Shumkov, urged residents likely to be affected to leave now.

"The water is treacherous and when there is so much of it, it rises unpredictably," Shumkov warned on Telegram, urging people to leave with valuables and pets.

"My fellow Kurgan people, you must evacuate urgently. Urgently!" the governor posted later.

In Kazakhstan, which shares around 7,500 kilometres of border with Russia, flooding has reached the outskirts of the northern city of Petropavlovsk, which has around 220,000 residents, causing problems with power and mains water supply.

More than 102,000 people, many of them children, have been evacuated in the vast Central Asian country, where almost 4,000 homes are still flooded, according to the emergency situations ministry.

Climate change due to global warming is associated with more frequent extreme weather events such as floods.

In the Russian city of Orsk in the Orenburg region, where a dam protecting the city from flooding broke this month, residents held rare protests this week over the local authorities' handling of the crisis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on the floods on Thursday but has not visited the affected regions.

bur/gv

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Iran on Saturday evening launched its most anticipated attack on Israel using suicide drones and missiles. The United States is expecting this to be a major attack, two senior US officials told NBC News. US President Joe Biden rushed back to Washington, D.C. from Delaware to "consult with his national security team about events in the Middle East," the White House claimed, hours before Iran launched drones and missile against Iran.(AP )

The US administration anticipates that Iran will launch over 100 drones, several cruise missiles, and several ballistic missiles on Israeli government locations rather than homes or places of worship.

Israel and the United States have been working closely together to defend against the attack. Were ready. The Israelis are ready, the officials stated.

Israel confirms planned attack by Iran, says tracking all drones

According to a CNN report, Daniel Hagari of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared that Israel was monitoring the drones and that it might take hours for them to cross the nation. He advised Israelis to exercise "vigilance", stating that GPS would not be available in some places.

"In response to the Zionist regime's crime in attacking the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, the IRGC's air force hit certain targets in the territories of the Zionist regime with dozens of drones and missiles," the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement, as per Iranian state media.

Hours before Iran launched drones and missile against Iran, White House claimed US President Joe Biden headed back to Washington, D.C. from Delaware to hold a meeting with his national security team about escalating tension and ongoing events in the Middle East.

Also Read: 'Joe, we're gonna..': What went down in the phone call between President Biden and Netanyahu

Netanyahu addresses nation as Israel govt issues guidelines for citizens

According to The Times of Israel, the government has issued new guidelines prohibiting educational activities an assemblies of more than a thousand people.

Additional restrictions have been put in place in the regions bordering Gaza.

Meanwhile, several unconfirmed footage have been circulated online and uploaded to Telegram, showing a large number of Iranian drones, which are known to emit a "lawnmower sound," buzzing over Iraq, NY POST reported.

Addressing the nation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel was already preparing for direct assault and would retaliate appropriately to Iran attack.

Our defense systems are deployed, and we are prepared for any scenario, both in defense and offense. The State of Israel is strong, the IDF is strong, the public is strong," he asserted.

Meanwhile, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' senior vice president of research, Jonathan Schanzer, said that any direct Iranian drone attack on Israeli territory "will probably" result in a ten-fold reaction.

If Israel is hit and is hit in a sensitive location, Israel will respond heavily, he said, adding that the Islamic States launching drone strikes is obviously a significant escalation. Theres no other way to put this.

US reiterates our support for Israels security is ironclad

Iran has started attacking Israel from the air, confirmed White House National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson to CNN and Axios.

He informed that Biden will meet with the national security council this afternoon at the White House and is routinely informed on the situation. The United States is in close contact with various partners and allies as well as Israeli officials, as per the statement.

Also Read: Biden talks tough on Netanyahu's approach in Gaza: What hes doing is a mistake

Stating that it is anticipated that this attack will take several hours to complete, he said: "President Biden has been clear: our support for Israels security is ironclad. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran."

On Friday, two US officials told CBS that Iran was capable of deploying up to 100 drones.

Iran said last year in August that it had developed the Mohajer-10, a sophisticated drone with a 1,240-mile operational range, reported the Times of Israel. These drones can carry loads weighing up to 660 pounds and fly for up to 24 hours.

The Iranian drone attack comes as Iran has been threatening for days to take revenge on Israel for an attack on its diplomatic post in Damascus that resulted in the deaths of a senior Iranian commander and other Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) personnel.

Experts have already warned that Iran's attack on Israel would lead to another full-scale conflict in the Middle East.
Is Canada an ideal country that Americans should look to for guidance? Well, Bill Maher doesn't think so. Bill Maher urged Americans to follow the advice good liberals if they want to save the country.(Bill Maher)

On Friday night, the Real Time host Bill Maher gave a blunt reality check to citizens of the United States who love Canada. During the latest episode of his show, he brought up the fact that Canada's health care system is overstretched and financially bursting and that it faces significant pollution problems.

Bill Maher blasts liberals who think Canada is a Utopia

Maher told his audience that once, Canada was where all the treasured goals of liberalism worked perfectly. It was like NPR come to life, but with poutine.

Theres only one problem with thinking everythings better in Canada, he stated, adding Its not. Not anymore.

Hecautioned the left that supporting "woke" ideas could help elect former US President DonaldTrump and called Canada a "cautionary tale" for the US. "They say in politics, liberals are the gas pedal and conservatives are the brakes," he quipped.

Maher further urged Americans to follow the advice good liberals if they want to save the country.

Also Read: US soil being used for terrorist activities against India, FBI told

Canada was the Statue of Liberty with a low-maintenance haircut, says Maher

Making acomparison between the US and Canada, he pointedout that the country to the north has more cities with greater air pollution and a higher unemployment rate.

Canada was the Statue of Liberty with a low-maintenance haircut and cross-country skis, a giant idealized blue state with single-payer health care, gun control and abortion on polite demand. Canada was where every woke White college kid wearing pajama pants outdoors who had it up to here with America's racist patriarchy dreamt of living someday. I mean, besides Gaza, he stated.

Also Read: Spotting Khalistan from North America

Canada facing worst migrant and house crises

The issue, according to Maher, is that Canada is not as ideal as it is being portrayed. Emphasising the migrant crisis, he said that Canada welcomed 1.3 million migrants in just one year, which is significantly higher than the 11 million immigrants the United States welcomed in the same period.

He highlighted that Canada currently faces a housing crisis that is far worse than the US. And were sleeping in tents. The median price of a home here is 346 grand; in Canada, converted to US dollars, its 487, he continued.

He did not mince words while critiquing Canada's health care system, claiming that it is the worst among high-income nations for both access to primary care and quick access to doctors.

Stressing that the reason isn't lack of spending, he said Canada spends more than 13% of its GDP on health care out of the 30 nations that have universal coverage.

Meanwhile, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman reacted to Maher's latest Real Time episode, calling it funny but a sad commentary on the current state of the Left in the US.
While OJ Simpson was acquitted of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown and his friend Ron Goldman, a key police witness has come forward with a shocking revelation after staying silent for 30 years. According to Daily Mail, John Dunton has claimed that Simpson not only hired Gambino gangsters to orchestrate the killing of Brown and Goldman, but he was also present at the crime scene.(AP )

Simpson was put on trial for the brutal murder of Goldman and Brown, who suffered multiple neck and scalp stab wounds outside her Brentwood, Calif., residence in June 1994.

Despite the strong public sentiment against him, Simpson was found not guilty at the end of his trial in 1995, which was widely known as "trial of the century." In a dramatic conclusion that was witnessed by about 150 million people, his legal team managed to obtain his freedom. However, he was later found responsible for their murder and a civil court directed him to pay $33.5 million to victims' families.

Also Read: Will OJ Simpson's family donate his brain for CTE research? Fatal brain disease explained

John Dunton makes stunning claims

According to Daily Mail, John Dunton has claimed that Simpson not only hired Gambino gangsters to orchestrate the killing of Brown and Goldman, but he was also present at the crime scene.

According to Dunton, he first spoke to LA police following the double murder, but he kept quiet after gangsters threatened to kill him and his family members if he spoke about the murder again.

Speaking with Hollywood private investigator Paul Barresi, Dunton declared that Simpson was fully responsible for the double murder.

When asked if Simpson hired gangsters to murder his ex-wife, Dunton replied, 100 percent. The four men who arrived belonged to the Gambino family.

Claiming that the double murder was planned with Simpson's guidance, he went on to say: "He (Simpson) was there. I don't know what he did, but he was there. He knew these guys were going over to Nicole's house to kill her."

Reacting to Simpson's death due to cancer, Dutton said: I'm glad he's dead to be honest. What he did was a really horrible thing and I went through hell because of that.

Also Read: O.J. Simpson 'represented' Black community because 'White people got killed' remarks backfire on CNN staffer

OJ Simpson kept Nicole Brown's photos in his home for years

Meanwhile, Simpson's friend told The Post that the convicted felon had displayed pictures of Nicole Brown around his Miami area home.

He had "pictures of his ex-wife all over his house," according to Charles Ehrlich, a co-conspirator in the ex-NFL player's 2007 armed robbery in Las Vegas.

Ehrlich insisted that clinging to the photos proves Simpson was innocent.

If you did something so horrific, and you had pictures of your ex-wife all over your home, you dont want to remember something like that, would you? he asserted, saying Simpson would cry if someone inquired if he killed Nicole.
Donald Trump is due to make a public appearance with embattled U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday, in a bid to demonstrate unity as the chamber's new leader struggles to wrangle his thin and fractious majority. The meeting presents Johnson with a chance to demonstrate a united front with Donald Trump that Republicans say is necessary if the party is to retain control of the House and capture both the Senate and the White House in November.(REUTERS)

Johnson gained the speaker's gavel in a weeks-long October nominating battle after a handful of House Republican hardliners orchestrated the ouster of his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, a historic first. Another party hardliner, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, has threatened to make a similar move against Johnson if he allows a vote on more aid for Ukraine as it struggles to fight off a Russian invasion.

Greene had also voiced opposition to a surveillance bill the House passed on Friday. The appearance at Trump's Mar-a-Lago Florida resort with the Republican presidential candidate could help buck up Johnson's standing with his 218-213 majority. His own members have repeatedly torpedoed his legislative priorities, including this week by temporarily blocking the surveillance bill and in February, when it took two efforts to advance a bid to approve articles of impeachment against Democratic President Joe Biden's top border official, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Why is this meeting crucial?

Trump, who holds great sway with congressional Republicans, has also regularly weighed in on legislation, including killing a bipartisan U.S.-Mexico border security deal, passage of which could have weakened one of his key attacks against Biden.

The meeting presents Johnson with a chance to demonstrate a united front with the former president that Republicans say is necessary if the party is to retain control of the House and capture both the Senate and the White House in November.

"We've got to get on the same page about where we want the party to go," said Representative Kevin Hern, who leads the conservative Republican Study Committee, the biggest House Republican caucus.

"I don't think we've all heard directly how the president and the speaker are aligned," Hern added. "We've got to get in lockstep as the Republican Party."

Greene renews threats to force a vote to remove Johnson

Greene this week has repeated her threats to force a vote to remove Johnson from leadership.

"Our voters will not support a Republican Party that continues like his leadership has been," Greene told reporters after a meeting with Johnson on Wednesday. "We have to have changed behavior that supports the policies that the American people are supporting under President Trump."

Disorder within the caucus has repeatedly forced Johnson to use a parliamentary maneuver bypassing Republican hardliners and relying on substantial Democratic support to pass critical legislation, such as bills averting government shutdowns.

But strong support from Trump could neutralize Greene's ouster threat and spare a repeat of the chaos that ensued after McCarthy's ouster. Trump could also determine which path the speaker takes on Ukraine aid, despite appeals to approve the assistance from an unprecedented number of foreign leaders.

"As far as being able to move anything in the House, his support or lack thereof is actually incredibly impactful," Republican Representative Kelly Armstrong said.
A federal judge in Delaware has dismissed multiple attempts by Hunter Biden to have his felony gun indictment dropped. Hunter Biden is currently swimming into legal woes. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo(REUTERS)

The trial, which will be for the very first time a child of the President who is still in office is prosecuted, is set to start during the first week of June. This is further in tune with presidential candidate Joe Bidens stimulus plan for his second term in White House.

Federal Judge Maryellen Noreika, presiding over this high-profile case, issued her decisions on Friday.

Hunter pleaded not guilty

He denied the charges of falsifying information on federal firearm forms and possessing a firearm while using illegal drugs.

The first sons legal team argued that their client was being unfairly targeted due to his familial connection to the current President.

However, the federal judge highlighted that the attorney general responsible for appointing Special Counsel David Weiss, who is leading the prosecution against Hunter, was appointed by the president himself.

ALSO READ| Judge rejects Hunter Biden's plea to dismiss tax case, US President's son to undergo trial in June

In her ruling, Judge Noreika stated, The Executive Branch that charged Defendant is headed by that sitting President  Defendants father. The Attorney General heading the DOJ was appointed by and reports to Defendants father. And that Attorney General appointed the Special Counsel who made the challenged charging decision in this case  while Defendants father was still the sitting President.

She further dismissed the notion that Hunter Biden was being prosecuted due to his relationship with his father, labelling such a claim as nonsensical under the facts here.

Hunter has failed to offer clear evidence: Judge

The judge ruled that a previous agreement from 2023 between Hunter and Weiss did not grant him immunity from the ongoing prosecution. She also rejected the assertion that the charges were politically motivated.

Judge Noreika concluded that Hunter has failed to offer clear evidence that the decision to indict him was influenced by his or his fathers political ties. She noted that there were legitimate considerations that support the decision to prosecute.

A key motion by Hunter Biden, which challenges the constitutionality of the gun laws under which he was charged, has yet to receive a ruling, as indicated by the court docket.

ALSO READ| Hunter Biden requests Los Angeles judge to waive $1.4M tax evasion case

The legal woes for Hunter extend beyond the gun case in Delaware. He is also contending with several federal tax charges in California. The judge overseeing the tax case has similarly dismissed arguments related to the 2023 agreement and alleged political motivations behind Weiss investigation.

The trial concerning the tax charges is scheduled to begin in late June, following the conclusion of the gun case trial.
Ahead of Stormy Daniels hush-money trial in Manhattan, former President Donald Trump vowed to defend himself, saying that he will testify on Monday and speak out the truth. During a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump said: "I'm testifying. I tell the truth. All I can do is tell the truth,"(AP)

During a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, Trump said: I'm testifying. I tell the truth. All I can do is tell the truth.

And the truth is that theres no case. They have no case," he claimed.

Calling the trial an illegitimate witch hunt", Trump said that it is a scam and an election interference by the Biden administration.

The trial is historically significant since this is the first time a former US president has been put on trial for a crime.

Also Read: US tabloid mocked for making huge blunder in OJ Simpson obituary: Trump walked out of...

All you need to know about hush money trial

Alvin Bragg, the district attorney for Manhattan, has accused Trump of 34 felonies of fabricating business documents in order to conceal a single payment made to former porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney, reportedly paid the $130,000 payment to keep Daniels silent about her allegation that she had an affair with Trump.

The ex-US President has entered a not guilty plea and disputes having a relationship with Daniels.

Also Read: Donald Trump's Truth Social's future doesn't look that good. Here's why

Trump could spend up to 136 years in jail or pay $170,000 in fines if he is found guilty of all 34 felony counts in the case.

The GOP leader is also on the verge of breaking the gag order imposed on him by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan. According to the order, Trump is barred from speaking about a number of witnesses, court workers, and prosecutors.

Trump says 'just found' evidence in hush money case

On Wednesday, Trump posted a letter on Truth Social that was allegedly signed by the ex-porn star in 2018.

Daniels stated in the letter that she never had a sexual relationship with Trump. It read, I am not denying this affair because I was paid 'hush money' as has been reported in overseas owned tabloids. I am denying this affair because it never happened.

Daniels recently claimed that she was coerced into signing the letter, which is partially the reason she came forward to criticise Trump.

The ex-porn star said she rejected the reports of having any sexual relationship with Trump due to a non-disclosure agreement and that she signed the statement because parties involved 'made it sound like I had no choice, AP reported last month.
An American woman of Indian origin, Riddhi Patel, is facing 18 felony charges post her Wednesday night arrest at Bakersfield City Council Hall for threatening to murder council members and Mayor Karen Goh. Riddhi Patel is arrested under 16 felony county(X)

The 28-year-old pro-Palestine protestor was spotted weeping after hearing the charges against her.

She was booked on suspicion of ten counts with intent to terrorise and eight other counts for threatening officials during her outrageous speech.

Patel's comments came to light when the Wednesday council meeting opened the room to public comments. She initiated her anti-Israel outburst, which the Hindu American Foundation eventually condemned for her invocation of Gandhi and Chaitra Navaratri while dropping threats to murder Bakersfield's mayor.

What was Riddhi Patel's controversial speech about?

Addressing the proposed security measures, the 28-year-old woman's address highlighted the crackdown on anti-Israel protests and the supposed criminalisation of the public.

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She said: You guys want to criminalize us with metal detectors. Before her message trailed away, she also dropped a massive threat: Well see you at your house. Well murder you, adding, I hope one day somebody brings the guillotine and kills all of you motherf******."

Soon after that, Patel's disgraceful speech went viral and her message was denounced. Her anti-Israel rhetoric quickly took a dark and contentious turn, as she added: You guys are all horrible human beings, and Jesus probably would have killed you himself. And none of you care because you guys don't care about anything happening in Palestine or any other country where oppression occurs.

Taking another drastic turn, Patel cited Mahatma Gandhi while also invoking the Chaitra Navaratri: You guys, those who votes to win in Bakersfield, parade Gandhi around and a Hindu holiday called Chaitra Navaratri that starts off this week. I remind you that these holidays that we practice, that other people in the global south practice, believe in violent revolution against their oppressors.

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As Patel's remarks ended with a direct threat to city officials, Bakersfield Mayor - Karen Goh - signalled police officers present at the premises to escort her out and take care of that.

The non-profit advocacy group, Hindu American Foundation, subsequently slammed Riddhi Patel's outrageous remarks in her threatening speech on X/Twitter. They wrote: The escalation of #antisemitic rhetoric from anti-Israel demonstrations into terroristic threats is a horrific reality that we condemn. It must stop now.

Riddhi Patel's 2021 Facebook post targetting Modi resurfaces online after her "outrageous speech" in which she threatened to "murder" city officials and Mayor Karen Goh.

As the video started doing rounds on the internet, one of her previous Facebook posts from 2021 also resurfaced online. Therein, her expletive-laden hate was directed towards the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as she wrote: "Man f**k Modi. F**k the BJP. F**k Nikki Haley. F**k Dinesh. F**k Bobby Jindal. F**k Hindu Fascism.
Numberless Indian Americans and other internet users banded together to denounce anti-Israel protestor Riddhi Patel after her brutal threats to murder Bakersfield City Council officials. The City Council gathering was slated for Wednesday, April 10, when the American woman of Indian origin twisted her anti-Israel rhetoric into a controversially violent warning for the council members and Mayor Karen Goh. Riddhi Patel is arrested under 16 felony county(X)

When it was time for the council to be opened for public remarks, Patel headed for the podium to drop menacing threats, claiming that she would go to the officials' house and murder them. Her contentious tirade followed as an address to heightened security measures as a clampdown on anti-Israel protests.

The 28-year-old woman, who's now been accused of 18 felony charges, cited Mahatma Gandhi and the Chaitra Navrati festivities in the same breath as her hostile claims against the city officials.

The internet community didn't take well to words and instantly shot her down online, condemning her as a Hinduphobe for invoking revered references while threatening to murder Bakersfield leaders.

Also read | Indian American protestor Riddhi Patel's expletive-laden Modi rant resurfaces after outrageous speech' in Bakersfield

Here's how the internet reacted to anti-Israel protestor Riddhi Patel's hot-tempered speech at the City Council meeting.

Indian Americans and the internet at large denounce anti-Israel protestor Riddhi Patel

Patel's anti-Israel discourse dwindled into a violent showdown that ended with threatening the city's officials. Before descending that route, she said: You guys, those who votes to win in Bakersfield, parade Gandhi around and a Hindu holiday called Chaitra Navaratri that starts off this week. I remind you that these holidays that we practice, that other people in the global south practice, believe in violent revolution against their oppressors.

In the end, she brought controversial heat while highlighting the criminalisation of the public: You guys want to criminalize us with metal detectors. Well see you at your house. Well murder you, she added.

As the news bubble burst online after Patel's subsequent arrest, the internet opened its proverbial fire.

The Hindu American Foundation gave her flak for her threatening outcry in a tweet that read: "We are outraged that this person invokes Gandhi & Chaitra Navaratri while threatening to murder @Bakersfield_Cal leaders.

The escalation of #antisemitic rhetoric from anti-Israel demonstrations into terroristic threats is a horrific reality that we condemn. It must stop now."

Indian American Asha Jadeja Motwani of Motwani Jadeja Foundation also took to her X/Twitter, casting Patel off as a hinduphobe."

She wrote: Pro Palestine Indian woman calling for murder of city council members in Bakersfield CA. Shes of course, now in police custody. A known Hinduphobe, she has also been ranting against Hindus . Its the same antisemitic #playbook of the #WokeLeft. Blame everything on Jews, Asians and white people. This playbook claims that the success of certain minorities is because of their white adjacent privilege and not merit or talent. Kids are indoctrinated in this ideology starting middle school.

Additionally, The Hindu Post eventually took a shot at her in a lengthy tweet tirade. Their tweet began: A Riddhi Patel is what you get when you fail to impart a Dharmic upbringing to children, when you don't develop their viveka (discernment) so they can differentiate between right and wrong, or teach bhakti/yoga to help calm and control their mind.

Quoting extracts from her speech, they also shared her old Facebook post that recently resurfaced online. In it, she overtly slandered Modi, Hindu Fascism and more. The latter half of their message read: Riddhi Patel was driven to the extent of making violent threats in true Leftist/Communist/Antifa Woke style over a complicated conflict in the Middle East with bad faith actors on all sides, rather than take up cudgels for the oppression taking place against Hindus in Pakistan, Bangladesh and pockets of Bharat.

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Comments under each of these tweets opened a heavy debate, with all of it fuming at Patel. She specifically dressed in this attire. This is how we, Indians are tagged. This is how propaganda is done and a perspective is created, someone wrote on the platform.

A different comment read: This is what wokeness does to people. It makes them crazy & dangerous to the society. I hope they lock her away for good.

Another user questioned her intent in dragging the Navratri festivities into this conversation: Why did she even mention Navratri?! Made no sense."

Similarly fuelled comments, like This is really pathetic. She'll bring bad name to all Indians abroad :( and She is American, just accept the fact that soon America will be bankrupt due to wokeism, added to the discourse.

Of her 18 felony counts, 10 charges cited her intent to terrorise and the other 8 for threatening the city officials.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle exchanged a sweet kiss after a polo match in Florida. The couple showed their affection for each other as Meghan presented Harry with a trophy in celebration of his team's victory at the Royal Salute Polo Challenge, which took place at the Grand Champions Polo Club in Wellington, Florida on April 12. For the unversed, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex recently announced two new Netflix series out of which one will chronicle Harrys passion for polo. Britain's Prince Harry, left, and wife, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, kiss as she presents his polo team with the trophy for winning the Royal Salute Polo Challenge to Benefit Sentebale, Friday, April 12, 2024, in Wellington, Fla. Prince Harry, co-founding patron of the Sentebale charity, will play on the Royal Salute Sentebale Team. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)(AP)

Prince Harry-Meghan Markle share a sweet kiss in Florida

"Well done, everyone!" Meghan cheered for the team as she presented the trophy. "They were very affectionate with each other," spectators at the match told PEOPLE. Onlookers also noted that Meghan appeared 'extremely happy' presenting the cup to her husband. In May, Harry is scheduled to fly back to the UK for his Invictus Games event; however, it remains to be seen whether he will be accompanied by the former "Suits" star.

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The kiss between Meghan and Harry brought back a lot of memories for the audience and onlookers, as it was reminiscent of the time when Meghan did a similar action right after their royal wedding. On April 11, the 39-year-old, Duke of Sussex competed against his longtime friend Nacho Figueras in a charity polo match benefiting Harry's charity, Sentebale.

Highlights of Prince Harrys charity polo match

Despite Harry failing to score any points, the Duke's team, Sentebale, won 1-0 in their opening game. Harry scored a point in the team's second game against Nacho, and they went on to win again, ultimately the winner.

Also read: King Charles desperate to meet Prince Harrys kids Archie and Lilibet as life is too

The polo match was also in conjunction with the production of the couples new Netflix series, which will be set in the polo world. The couples production company, Archewell Productions, announced two new series on April 11, in which they will serve as executive producers.

About Harrys Sentebale

Sentebale is a charity organization that Prince Harry co-founded in 2006 with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho. Sentebale's mission is to help children in Africa struggling with poverty, discrimination and the spread of HIV/AIDS. The polo match was part of fundraising campaign and was attended by 300 guests. Harry and Meghan later posed for photos with Figueras, as well as his wife, Delfin Blaquier.
On Friday night, US-based streaming service giant, Roku revealed that approximately 576,000 user accounts were compromised in a security breach, marking the second such breach this year. The Roku company logo is displayed on a building in Austin, Texas, U.S. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo(REUTERS)

The first breach had impacted 15,000 accounts. Rokus blog post detailed that unauthorized access was obtained through stolen login credentials.

The attackers method used in this case is known as credential stuffing where hackers gain entrance to numerous accounts, using login details which they obtained during a previous data breach. Such individuals typically use the same password for various online platforms, which is, in turn, exploited by hackers.

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Roku claims customer's information is safe with them

More investigations from the Roku side show that the stolen credentials came from a separate data breach of another service. The company assured users, There is no indication that Roku was the source of the account credentials used in these attacks or that Rokus systems were compromised in either incident.

Despite the large number of accounts affected, the actual financial impact was limited to fewer than 400 cases where the intruders made unauthorized purchases.

The streaming service giant has taken steps to reverse these charges and is issuing refunds to all impacted parties. These malicious actors were not able to access sensitive user information or full credit card information, they wrote in the revealed statement.

In response to the breach, Roku has automatically reset the passwords of affected accounts. The company will also reach out to those users directly. As an additional security measure, Roku is rolling out two-factor authentication for all accounts, which involves a verification step on a secondary device whenever a login attempt is made.

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Currently, Roku hosts a user base of over 80 million and is taking these incidents seriously. The company expressed its regret over the breaches and the inconvenience caused to its customers, claiming that account security remains a paramount concern.

We sincerely regret that these incidents occurred and any disruption they may have caused. Your account security is a top priority, and we are committed to protecting your Roku account, the statement read.

The aftermath of the announcement saw Rokus stock price fall by nearly 3%,
Joe Biden is finally walking toe-to-toe with his front-running rival for the 2024 US elections, Donald Trump. A new survey by The New York Times and Siena College demonstrates that the present-day president has nearly caught up with the former president's early polling numbers. In this combination photo, President Joe Biden speaks in Milwaukee, March 13, 2024, left, and former President Donald Trump speaks in New York, Jan. 11, 2024. Voters in Wisconsin, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island will weigh in Tuesday, April 2, on their parties' presidential nominees, a largely symbolic vote now that both Biden and Trump have locked up the Democratic and Republican nominations. (AP Photo)(AP)

With their numbers nearly tied, Trump still holds the advantage with a 46% to 45% race. While he still has the edge over Biden, the Democratic front-runner's chart has reflected severe improvement since February end, when the gap between the two candidates was more expansive, with Biden trailing 5% behind Trump.

Early polling numbers: Biden vs Trump

Like these poll results, voters can expect a similar vision of neck-to-neck staunch competition this fall when the real deal unfolds. Beyond the Biden vs Trump race, a 64% majority of pollers stand united under the banner of voters who believe that the US is headed in the wrong direction.

Despite the competition getting narrower, the odds weigh against both potential candidates equally, with the age factor creeping in as the biggest red flag. While Biden may be too old for a significant fraction of voters, the other side equally opposes Trump's stance with his several federal crimes.

Also read | 'I'll tell the truth': Donald Trump vows to testify in Stormy Daniels hush money trial as he just found

When asked if voters approved of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as president, 59% net disapproval of his strategies against a net 38% approval rate. Per The New York Times report, a 59-year-old hairdresser addressed Mr Biden as the lesser of the two evils in the rematch.

Even then, his age persistently emerges as a significant setback, with 69% of voters viewing the 81-year-old leader as too old to step in as the ideal president. On the flip side, if Trump is elected this time, he, too, would be the oldest US president in history, as he turns 78 in June. Despite their minimal age difference, some other statistics still play in Trump's favour here. Against Biden's 69% not deeming him fit to function as a president, only 41% of voters are against Trump due to his age.

The chart also singles out their handling of several issues during their presidential runtimes. 64% favoured Trump's economic strategies over when he was president. On the other hand, 63% disapproved of Biden's handling of the economy during his term.

Although the economy turned out to be a strong suit for Trump, Biden beat him with his dealings with the pandemic, unifying America and race relations. Except for the economy, Trump also fared well while dealing with immigration and foreign conflicts, as well as maintaining law and order.

Also read | Indian Americans condemn Riddhi Patel as Hinduphobe post violent Bakersfield City Council threats

Biden's been heckled at several stops of his campaign run as well these past few months, especially for his managing of the Israel vs Hamas conflict. A 23-year-old California bartender and server pondered over missing out on Election Day as a display of protest against Biden's response to the Gaza issue.

Yet he remarked, I really dont like Donald Trump and would not like him to be in office again. Thats why I would vote for Biden again. But other than that, I cant really think of a good reason to vote for him.

The US survey results were published just days before Trump's hush-money criminal trial, a first for an ex-American president. While one could expect Monday's legal fight between Trump and Stormy Daniels to impact these numbers registered in the pre-elections survey so far, its ultimate effect remains uncertain, especially with 37% of voters claiming they're barely paying heed to it.

Either way, until now, the poll is a testament to both Trump and Biden being declared a risky choice for the nation. See the survey results here.
Large U.S. airlines and some of their unions are asking the Biden administration to stop approving any more flights between the United States and China because of what they call anti-competitive policies that China imposes on U.S. carriers. The airlines and unions said Thursday that China closed its market to U.S. carriers at the outbreak of the pandemic and imposed rules that still affect American operations and airline crews.(REUTERS)

The airlines and unions said Thursday that China closed its market to U.S. carriers at the outbreak of the pandemic and imposed rules that still affect American operations and airline crews.

These actions demonstrated the clear need for the U.S. government to establish a policy that protects U.S. aviation workers, industry and air travelers, they said in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

The letter was signed by the CEO of the Airlines for America trade group and the presidents of the Air Line Pilots Association, the Allied Pilots Association, which represents crews at American Airlines, and the Association of Flight Attendants.

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The number of flights between China and the U.S. has been rising, although it remains far below pre-pandemic levels. The Biden administration increased the number of round trips that Chinese airlines can make from 35 to 50 per week, starting March 31, after China's aviation authority promised to seek an increase in flights by U.S. carriers.

The U.S. airlines said Chinese airlines get an advantage by flying shorter routes through Russian airspace, which has been off-limits to U.S. carriers since Russia invaded Ukraine more than two years ago. They said Chinese airlines also get certain protections from China's government because they are state-owned.

The U.S. industry groups said in their letter that without equal access to China's aviation market, American carriers will lose flights to Chinese airlines.

Also Read: Joanna Geraghty named JetBlue CEO, the 1st woman to lead a major US airline

Chinese airlines slump on US move to curb flight frequencies

Shares of Chinas biggest airlines slumped on Friday as investors reacted to news that US carriers are trying to block any increase in flight frequencies between the worlds two biggest economies.

Air China Ltd.s Hong Kong-traded stock slipped as much as 4.6% while China Southern Airlines Co. fell 2.2%. Shares in Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines Corp. declined as much as 3.5%, worse than the Hang Seng Indexs 1.9% decrease, Bloomberg reported.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been searching for Indian fugitive Bhadreshkumar Chetanbhai Patel, who is the most wanted person in both the US and India. Bhadreshkumar Chetanbhai Patel is wanted in Maryland for the April 2015 murder of his wife.(FBI)

Patel, a 32-year-old Gujarati native, is wanted in Maryland for the April 2015 murder of his wife. His name has now been added to the FBI's list of the ten most wanted fugitives. The federal agency on Friday announced a reward of up to $250,000 for any information leading to the capture of Bhadreshkumar Patel.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the federal agency wrote: The FBI offers a reward of up to $250,000 for info leading to the arrest of Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Bhadreshkumar Chetanbhai Patel, wanted for allegedly killing his wife while they were working at a donut shop in Hanover, Maryland, on April 12, 2015."

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Who is Bhadreshkumar Patel and what charges is he facing?

In 2015, Bhadreshkumar Patel killed his spouse Palak while they were employed at a Dunkin' Donuts in Hanover, Maryland. He allegedly stabbed his wife multiple times with a kitchen knife in the shops backroom, inflicting several wounds.

The gruesome incident, which occurred during the night shift in front of customers, was caught on camera. In the video, Bhadreshkumar, then 24, and his wife, then 21, were seen making their way to the kitchen before he vanished from sight.

Customers alerted the police when they did not see any employees in the shop, and they later learned that Palak had been murdered.

He is currently facing many serious offenses, including first- and second-degree murder and assault, as well as possession of a dangerous weapon with an intention to injure another person.

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What was the issue between Bhadreshkumar Patel his wife Palak?

Palak intended to return to India because the couple's visas were due to expire a month prior to her murder. According to local media reports, Palak was against relocating to the US, while Bhadreshkumar intended to stay. This led to several arguments between the couple.

In April 2015, the US District Court in Baltimore issued a warrant for Patel's arrest after he evaded prosecution.

Patel,who was last seen traveling from a hotel in New Jersey to the Newark train station by cab, "should be considered armed and extremely dangerous," the FBI said in its statement.

According to FBI Special Agent Gordon B. Johnson, Bhadreshkumar Patel earned a place on the FBI's Top Ten List because he committed extremely violent crimes.

"The ongoing efforts of our investigators, coupled with the public's assistance, will lead to the capture of Bhadreshkumar Patel. We will never forget, and will not rest until he is located, captured and brought to justice, the official said.
An Indian-American woman was arrested inside Bakersfield City Council chambers Wednesday night for threatening to murder council members and the mayor. Riddhi Patel is arrested under 16 felony county(X)

Who is Riddhi Patel?

Riddhi Patel, 28, a pro-Palestine protestor, is accused of 16 felony counts and booked into jail on suspicion of eight counts of intending to terrorize with the threats, and the rest of eight counts of threatening city officials during her speech.

She was seen sobbing with tears after hearing the felony charges against her.

During a segment of the council meeting designated for public commentary, Patel vocalized her opposition to the proposed security measures, specifically the installation of metal detectors, which she perceived as a criminalization of the public.

ALSO READ| Federal judge rejects Hunter Biden's request to drop federal gun case

Patels contentious remarks directly threatened the council, stating, You guys want to criminalize us with metal detectors, followed by, Well see you at your house. Well murder you. She further escalated her rhetoric speech: I hope one day somebody brings the guillotine and kills all of you motherf******.

She called out Navratri a festival of oppressors during her speech and invoked Mahatma Gandhi and Jesu Christ just before she threatened the city council members.

The pro-Palestine protestor's inflammatory and atrocious speech quickly went viral on socials like X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok.

From Collin Rugg to the Hindu American Foundation shared the video on X, which attracted more than 3 million views.

We are outraged that this person invokes Gandhi & Chaitra Navaratri while threatening to murder Bakersfield leaders, the Hindu American Foundation posted.

A known Hinduphobe, she has also been ranting against Hindus . Its the same antisemitic, an Indian-American woman posted condemning Riddi's action.

KGET TV, an NBC affiliate in Bakersfield, stated the council has been filled with tension as pro-Palestinian protesters urged council members to pass a cease-fire resolution for the Israel-Hamas War.

City council is not intimidated by Riddhi's threat

In response to the turmoil, Councilman and Vice Mayor Andrae Gonzales who was there at the time of Patel's speech, stated that the council would not yield to intimidation. He condemned the threats, labelling them as completely inappropriate, unproductive and is deeply concerning.

Gonzales explained, Sit at the table like adults and exchange ideas, go back and forth really trying to figure out how we can find a path together. Making real threats to elected officials and decision-makers is not the way to influence others. Nobody on the city council will be intimidated to action.

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The United Liberation Front, a pro-Palestinian organization, distanced itself from Patels actions. The group issued a statement denouncing any form of threats against public officials, clarifying that Patels aggressive language does not align with their principles and fails to represent the United Liberation Fronts stance.

Despite the controversy, the Bakersfield City Council proceeded to approve the security enhancements, including the metal detectors, with unanimous consent during Wednesdays meeting.
The Vatican announced on Friday (Apr. 12) that Pope Francis would take his very first overseas trip of the year, and it is expected to be historic as the four-nation tour would be the longest in his 11-year papacy.

According to state media Vatican News, the 87-year-old pontiff scheduled his visit to Jakarta, Port Moresby, Dili, and Singapore from Sept. 2 to 13, with the Holy See Press Office saying that a full program of his apostolic journey would be published at a later date.

The Asia-Pacific trip - the second one since his trip to Sri Lanka and the Philippines in 2015 - has been on the papal agenda for some time, but there had been doubts on whether Francis would embark on it given his increasing frailty and mobility issues, as well as a record of skipping major engagements due to health problems.

It could be recalled that his last international journey was a two-day stay in Marseille, France, in September.

The pope has been suffering on and off in recent months from what the Vatican has described as a cold, bronchitis, and influenza, and he needed a wheelchair or a cane to move around due to a knee ailment.

Other trips outside Rome include day trips to Venice (Apr. 28), Verona (May 18), and Trieste (Jul. 7), as well as a visit to Belgium, which was expected to happen in the second half of September.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, and its 8 million Catholics represent a mere 3% of its total population. Singaporean Catholics, on the other hand, comprise about 7% of its residents aged 15 and above, according to a 2020 census.

Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea has about 26% of its population are Catholics, according to a religious freedom report by the US State Department.

Timor-Leste is one of only two Asian nations with a predominantly Catholic population, with the Philippines being the other.

Vietnam, previously suggested by Vatican officials as a possible future destination, is missing from the tour.

The Argentine pope, the first from the so-called Global South, has made reaching out to Asia one of the priorities of his pontificate, during which the Vatican has struck a historic, yet contested and controversial, deal with China on bishop appointments, Reuters reported.
Former United States Ambassador to Bolivia Victor Manuel Rocha was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday (Apr. 12) after admitting to acting as an agent of Cuba in what the Justice Department called one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the US government.

Reuters reported that Rocha, 73, served as Washington's ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002. After being initially charged in December, he pleaded guilty to two charges, including acting as an illegal foreign agent.

The former diplomat secretly supported Cuba's ruling Communist Party and aided the country's intelligence gathering against Washington for over four decades, including a 20-year career in the State Department, US prosecutors said.

"Today's plea brings an end to more than four decades of betrayal and deceit by Mr. Rocha," US Justice Department senior national security official David Newman said during a press conference in Miami. "For most of his life, Mr. Rocha lived a lie. While holding various senior positions in the US government, he was secretly acting as the Cuban government's agent. That is a staggering betrayal of the American people."

Rocha admitted his decades of work for Cuba and boasted about his ability to avoid detection in a series of meetings in 2022 and 2023 with an undercover FBI agent who posed as a representative of Cuba's foreign intelligence service, according to a criminal complaint filed in Miami federal court.

"What we have done...it's enormous. More than a grand slam," Rocha told the undercover agent, according to the complaint.

Rocha agreed to plead guilty as part of a deal with federal prosecutors requiring him to divulge details of his interactions with Cuban intelligence.

However, US officials said they might never know the full extent of Rocha's cooperation with Cuban officials in Havana.

Prosecutors added that Rocha sought out positions that would give him access to sensitive information and influence over US foreign policy.

According to court documents, he worked for the State Department from 1981 to 2002, including as a member of the White House's National Security Council from 1994 to 1995.

A lawyer for Rocha did not respond to requests for comment.
Eleven peace and human rights organizations in Paris, including Amnesty International France and Attac, have filed legal cases this week to demand that France halt its arms deliveries to Israel.

German human rights lawyers have also initiated legal action against their government, asking the Berlin administrative court to suspend the German government's decision to send 3,000 anti-tank weapons to Israel.

Human rights violations and the deaths of innocent civilians in Gaza are at the root of legal actions.

It was revealed last month that France in October sold Israel spare parts for machine guns that could be used in Gaza, according to Politico.

French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu countered that "it's a license only for re-export" to other customers.

Over the past week, the NGOs filed three separate cases with the Paris administrative court.

One legal case targets an arms export license for ML3 ammunition and fuze-setting devices.

Another seeks to suspend about 20 other licenses for weapon sights, bombardment calculators (ML5), and infrared or thermal imaging equipment (ML15).

While the third case calls for suspending all export licenses for weapons and dual-use goods to Israel,.

The court cases coincide with growing pressure on Western nations, like the U.K. and Germany, to stop selling weapons to Israel amid its ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Canada, Spain and Belgium have pledged to stop supplying weapons to Israel, and a Dutch court banned the shipment of F-35 jet parts.

United States military aid to Israel reached at least 3.3 billion in 2023 and continues to increase. Germany reportedly approved arms exports worth 326.5 million, while Paris has exported 208 million worth of military equipment to the Israeli government over the past decade.
Israel was on high alert late Saturday and convened a War Cabinet meeting after Iran launched dozens of drones toward Israel just days after officials predicted an attack, Israel's military said late Saturday.

President Biden was meeting with national security aides in the Situation Room to discuss the conflict, an official told CNN.

Israeli media outlets were reporting that cruise missiles had also been launched, and that public shelters were being set up in the northern city of Haifa.

In the "event of an alarm" regarding bombing some train stations will also be opened as shelters, said a statement frtom the city of Haifa, CNN reported.

The Transportation Ministry announced that Israel will close its airspace beginning at 12:30 a.m. local time. Lebanon also closed its airspace.

All schools and camps were also shut in Israel.

It could take hours for the drones to reach the country, and the military is tracking their progress, officials said. Military leaders are hoping to intercept the drones before they reach Israel.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said in a statement read on Iranian state TV Saturday that it had launched "extensive drone strikes against targets in occupied territories," meaning Israel.

The statement called it a "response to the Zionist regime's crime in attacking the consular section of the Iranian embassy." and repeated that it had launched dozens of "drones  and missiles."

An attack by Iran had been anticipated as early as Friday or Saturday by Israel and its allies in retaliation for an attack on Syria two weeks ago that killed 13 people. Israel has not claimed responsibiity for the Syria assault.

Earlier Saturday commandos from Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rappelled from helicopters in a dramatic raid and seizure of a British container ship near the Strait of Hormuz.

The Portuguese-flagged ship is associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime, the Associated Press reported. Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer's Zodiac Group.

U.S .Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant early Saturday to "discuss urgent regional threats and reiterated unwavering U.S. support for Israel's defense," according to a readout from Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.

Austin emphasized that "Israel could count on full U.S. support to defend Israel against any attacks by Iran and its regional proxies," Ryder recounted.

Biden noted earlier this week that Iran was threatening a "significant attack," and he vowed to offer "ironclad" support to Israel.

On Friday he simply warned Iran: "Don't!"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Israel will harm any nation that harms it.
Clark Art Presents Art Making Workshop

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  As part of April School Vacation Week programming, the Clark Art Institute presents its Sprouting with Seeds Art-Making Workshop on Wednesday, April 17 from 13 pm.

The free workshop takes place in the Michael Conforti Pavilion, located in the Clark Center.

According to a press release:

Celebrate spring and the quickly approaching Earth Day by joining Clark educators for an art-making activity that incorporates indigenous pollinator seeds that you can take home and plant. Take care of the Berkshire bees with your seed creations that help support a resilient ecosystem and have fun with family and friends along the way!

Family programs are supported by Allen & Company.

Recommended for ages five and older.
Lenox Job Fair

LENOX, Mass.  The Lenox Chamber of Commerce is organizing a job fair on Wednesday, April 24, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM at the Lenox Town Hall.

The event aims to connect job seekers with potential employers across various sectors. Companies will be present to discuss job openings and career opportunities.

Admission is free for attendees, but there is a $25 fee for businesses that are not members of the Lenox Chamber.
Family Center of Northern Berkshire Touch a Truck Event

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The Family Center of Northern Berkshire, part of Child Care of the Berkshires, will host its 20th Anniversary Touch a Truck event on April 17 from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM at 210 State Street in North Adams.

Started in 2004 during April school vacation week, the event allows families to explore various vehicles like fire trucks and construction machinery up close.
PLDT Enterprise, the corporate business arm of the Philippines' largest telecommunications services provider, announced the expansion of its partnership with Kalibo Cable Television Network, Inc., providing advanced data center solutions and dedicated connectivity for businesses in Aklan and other areas in Visayas. This collaboration underscores PLDT Enterprise's commitment to support the digital transformation and business continuity of its clients through state-of-the-art technology.

Championing Digital Transformation in Visayas: (FROM L-R) Relationship Manager Mildred B. Urmeneta and Visayas Customer Relationship Management Head Kent De La Calzada of PLDT Enterprise together with President Cedric M. Sazon and Operations Manager Raul Benasa of Kalibo Cable Television Network, Inc. sign a pivotal partnership, enhancing business continuity and innovation through advanced data center solutions.

Since 2011, PLDT Enterprise has been a trusted partner of Kalibo Cable Television Network, Inc., the first and only cable provider in the region to offer Triple Play services. Building on this strong foundation, the partnership took a leap forward with Kalibo Cable Television Network, Inc.s adoption of VITRO Internet Exchange (VIX) and colocation services from VITRO Inc., the data center subsidiary of PLDT's ICT arm, ePLDT, a move that exemplifies their mutual commitment to innovation and excellence in service delivery.

Our expanded collaboration with Kalibo Cable is a testament to our commitment to delivering high-performance environments for our clients' critical IT infrastructure, said Mitch Locsin, First Vice President and Head of Enterprise and International Core Business at PLDT and Smart. With our Colocation and Metro E-Line services, we are setting new standards for reliability, scalability, and security in digital infrastructure.

Kalibo Cable Television Network, Inc.s decision to leverage VITRO Inc.s Colocation services was driven by the need for a secure, scalable, and cost-effective solution to support their growing IT infrastructure demands. The Colocation service provides a robust environment for their critical systems, ensuring uninterrupted service and enhanced security, while VIX connects Kalibo Cable Television Network Inc. to the countrys riches IP ecosystem thereby optimizing their local traffic routes for better user experience. Meanwhile, Metro E-Line service offers dedicated point-to-point connectivity with the simplicity and efficiency of Ethernet technology.

Cedric M. Sazon, President of Kalibo Cable Television Network, Inc., and the newly elected Chairman of the Philippine Cable and Telecommunications Association, Inc., expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership. PLDT Enterprise's solutions have been instrumental in enabling us to scale our IT infrastructure dynamically. This partnership not only supports our immediate needs but also positions us well for future growth and innovation.

The partnership is poised for further expansion with plans for additional rack space and connectivity solutions to support Kalibo Cable's operational needs. This strategic move aligns with both companies' visions of driving business success through digital innovation and reliable connectivity.

As businesses in the region continue to embrace digital transformation, PLDT Enterprise and Kalibo Cable Television Network, Inc.s partnership stands as a beacon of progress, demonstrating the pivotal role of advanced telecommunications and IT solutions in achieving business resilience and growth.
Premier Apple partner Power Mac Center (PMC) strengthens its foothold in the province of Iloilo with its expanded network of three retail stores and one service center, recognizing it as a key hub in the region.

PMC bolsters its commitment to bringing Apple technology to Filipino consumers nationwide. Following PMC Festive Walk Iloilo, The Loop by Power Mac Center SM City Iloilo, and Mobile Care Service Center Festive Walk Iloilothe sole service center in Western Visayas, PMC is also now operating in Robinsons Iloilo.

Power Mac Center has been enjoying the warm reception of the people of Iloilo, and we saw the need to expand to reach more tech enthusiasts, professionals, small business owners, and students here and in nearby provinces. We hope that you continue to harness technology to make your city better and use the tools at your disposal to uplift your digital lifestyle, said Joey Alvarez, PMC Director for Marketing and Product Management.

Up until April 14, 2024, the following offers await customers visiting PMC Robinsons Iloilo:

Up to P19,500 off on 13-inch MacBook Air M1

Up to P17,000 off on select iPhone models

Up to P7,000 off on iPad (9th generation)

Get P2,500 off on AirPods (2nd generation).

Get the Apple Pencil (2nd generation) for P5,890 when purchased with select iPad models.

Get the 20W USB-C Power Adapter for P990 when you avail select iPhone models.

Up to 50% off on select Mac and iPad accessories

Up to 20% off on participating brands (Anker, Before Anything Else, Elago, LAUT, SanDisk, and SAFE. By Panzerglass)

Get P1,000 additional trade-in value when you trade in your used device.

Terms and conditions apply. Regular store hours are from 9 AM to 9 PM.

To date, Power Mac Center already has 114 retail stores and 17 service centers nationwide. Apart from the three Iloilo stores and one service center, the Western Visayas region houses three other stores, namely, The Loop DMall Boracay, PMC SM City Roxas, and The Loop Capitol Central Bacolod.

Power Mac Center is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year with a series of store openings nationwide and various special activities for customers and loyal fans. To join the festivities, follow its official Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), TikTok, Viber, and YouTube accounts. Look back at PMCs growth in the last 30 years here.
The epigraph to Graham Greenes The Lawless Roads is a magnificent quote from Cardinal Newman: If there be a God, since there is a God, the human race is implicated in some terrible aboriginal calamity. Just as mad Ireland hurt Yeats into poetry, it was the frictions of faith that brought Greenes novels to life.

The End of the Affair is his masterpiece: an astonishing, painfully moving interrogation of the contradictions in a Catholicism he couldnt live without but struggled to live with.

Drawing on his long affair with his goddaughter Lady Catherine Walston (who refused to leave her husband because of her faith), The End of the Affair is Greene at his most pared-down and intimate: he had never written in the first person before. Gone are the tropical locations, the revolutions and gangsters. The narrative scaffolding of Greene-land has been dismantled, leaving us with a novel that gains extraordinary intensity from the narrowness of its focus.

It seems scarcely credible now, but the first time I read the book it seemed much more of a love story than a tale of the ravages of religion. I was 19, living in Paris, perpetually reeling from failed romances. The story of the flawed and floundering Maurice Bendrix and his love for the saintly Sarah was very familiar  her faith stood for all the confused impediments to love that had prevented me from skipping down the Boulevard Saint-Germain with my current mademoiselle of choice.

The novel inserted fissures of doubt in my adolescent atheism. I remember going to the American Church on the Quai dOrsay on finishing the book and sitting at the back of the room, waiting for some sort of epiphany. The End of the Affair provides a blueprint for finding a way into belief.

Bendrixs sardonic, burly resistance to Sarahs God finally breaks when the weight of evidence becomes too much. But this is not a happy conversion; in his final, bitter prayer  O God, youve done enough, youve robbed me of enough, Im too tired and old to learn to love, leave me alone forever  Bendrix shows that there is no comfort in his new-found relationship with God.

I read The End of the Affair again just before beginning my novel The Revelations. I wanted to write about religion in a way that didnt seem patronising or proselytising. I could think of very few authors who had managed to do this  Peter Carey in Oscar and Lucinda, JD Salinger in Franny and Zooey, perhaps  but certainly no one since John Donne had engaged so fully with the friction between faith and fornication as Greene.

It is hard to write a novel in a Christian setting in such a secular age; The End of the Affair manages to make even the punctilios of Catholic doctrine feel profoundly relevant. Bendrixs hesitant edging towards faith at the end of the novel would give even Richard Dawkins pause for thought.
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Hundreds of pictures daily fly across the news wires from battlefields around the world, inviting their audience to engage from a distance with the horrors that warring parties inflict on each other.

Does the source of these images, the war photographer, throw themselves into harrowing and deadly environments for a sense of duty? A thrill? A paycheque?

Peter van Agtmael, who spent many years on the ground with his camera in Iraq and Afghanistan, offers a nuanced answer in his new book, Look at the USA: A Diary of War and Home, published this month by Thames & Hudson.

Buried bomb in Miam Poshteh, Helmand, Afghanistan, 2009 ( Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos )

Fleet Week, Arms Fair in Washington DC, 2018 ( Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos )

As the title suggests Van Agtmael, a Magnum photographer born in Washington DC, had America on his mind while at work. He was not a dispassionate recorder of events but someone deeply concerned with the state of his country and how it was being affected by the waging of war down generations.

Why does war persist? Its who we are ... Enough of us, anyhow, to make a mess of things, he writes.

War had been an obsession of his from childhood, when the US first took up arms against Saddam Husseins Iraq in the Gulf War. In the introduction to his latest book he details how his nine-year-old self was spellbound by the patriotic maelstrom that followed Desert Storm and the reams of what might these days be called content published alongside it.

By 2005, Van Agtmael was 24 and still fixated on war. The US was two years into its invasion of Iraq, so he signed up to join American troops as an embedded photographer, later going on to Afghanistan.

Before an ambush in Miam Poshteh, Helmand, Afghanistan in 2009 ( Peter van Agtmael/Thames & Hudson )

Bobby Henline, a veteran of four tours in Iraq, in Houston, Texas, 2013 ( Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos )

Look at the USA brings together pictures from these tours with domestic photography to build a wider view of the American experience in the wake of 9/11, featuring also the imprints of nationalism, the election of Donald Trump, militarism, and race and class in American society.

Now 43 and living in Paris, Van Agtmael reflects on his years spent in war zones. In a recent interview with The Guardian, he said he had, for a time, been experiencing moral confusion.

Jennie Taylor chooses a headstone for her husband, Brent  killed by an Afghan soldier in an insider attack  in North Ogden, Utah in 2019 ( Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos )

Trump rally in Montoursville, Pennsylvania, 2019 ( Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos )

Traditionally, photographers are meant to operate from a position of authority and clear-headed detachment, but I never related to that, he said. For me, the professional and the personal are all tied together. In this book, I wanted to be clear that I was always an uncertain and confused observer.

Van Agtmaels earlier books Disco Night Sept 11 (2014), Buzzing at the Sill (2017) and Sorry for the War (2021) all dwell on post-9/11 America in some respect. With Look at the USA, he gathers images from these books  along with dozens of unseen photos  and guides the reader through them with his memories and thoughts on the meaning of the events and his work.

Raymond Hubbard, who lost his leg to a rocket attack in Iraq on 4 July 2006, plays Star Wars with his sons Brady and Riley in Darien, Wisconsin in 2007. ( Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos )

Adnan Thanon Younis was blinded by an exploding shell in Mosul ( Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos )

Van Agtmael is a mentor in the Arab Documentary Photography Program and has been a full member of the prestigious Magnum Photos collective since 2013.

He is the recipient of numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the W Eugene Smith Grant, several World Press Photo awards and an ICP Infinity Award.

Look at the USA: A Diary of War and Home is available from Thames & Hudson here
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Actor Varada Sethu will join Doctor Who as a new companion for Ncuti Gatwassecond season as a Time Lord.

The Indian-born actor, who has had roles in Star Wars spin-off show Andor and the Strike Back series, will join the long-running BBC science fiction programme as a second partner for the 15th Doctor.

It had been reported that Sethu would replace former Coronation Street actor Millie Gibson, who will play Gatwas companion Ruby Sunday in their first full series in those roles next month, but the BBC has confirmed that Sethu will be joining them as an additional companion for Gatwas second season, which will be aired in 2025.

Sethu said in a statement that she feels like the luckiest person in the world to be taking on the role.

It is such an honour to be a part of the Whoniverse, and Im so grateful to the whole Doctor Who family  because that is what they are  for welcoming me with open arms and making me feel so at home. I couldnt ask for a better team than Ncuti and Millie to be on this adventure with, this is SO much fun!

Showrunner Russell T Davies, who rebooted the cult series back in 2005, has returned to write and executive produce the new seasons.

open image in gallery Sethu will join the cast as the Doctors second companion in 2025 ( Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images )

He said of Sethu: I first worked with Varada on a BBC production of A Midsummer Nights Dream, and its a joy to welcome her on board the TARDIS. Right now in the studio, shooting for 2025, weve got Ncuti, Millie and Varada fighting side by side  we need all three, because the stakes are higher than ever!

Season 14 of Doctor Who will return to screens next month, with Gatwa officially taking over as Doctor  but its not the first time audiences have seen him in the role. For the shows Christmas special, Gatwa made his debut as the Doctor and was widely praised by critics as effortless.

open image in gallery Millie Gibson, Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu pictured at a table read for Season 15 ( BBC )

TV critic Ed Power said in The Independents review of the special that Sex Education star Gatwa more than lived up to expectations of him.

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He wrote: First things first: as the latest custodian of the biggest brand in British science fiction, a charismatic Gatwa knocks it out of the park.

There is never a moment you dont believe hes the same character who has riveted audiences across the past 60 years.

He concluded: When [Gatwa] returns for his proper full series, what fun it will be seeing Gatwa and Davies explore all aspects of the eternal Time Lord.

Season 14 of Doctor Who will return on 11 May on the BBC and Disney Plus internationally. Gatwas second season will air in 2025.

If youre travelling abroad and want to watch Doctor Who then you might need a VPN to unblock your streaming app. Our VPN roundup is here to help: get the best VPN deals on the market.
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Indians rallied in a display of solidarity to raise 3.2m in blood money for a man sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for accidentally killing a disabled boy.

Abdul Rahim, from the southern Indian state of Kerala, was imprisoned after a paralysed boy on life support died in 2006. According to local media reports, the life support system became detached while Rahim was driving the 15-year-old in a car, leading to his death.

Rahim has been in prison ever since.

In 2018, a Saudi court sentenced him to death after the boys family refused to grant him amnesty. The judgment was upheld by the countrys top court last year, before the victims family expressed their willingness to pardon him in exchange for 3.2m (Rs340m).

Rahim, who is from an impoverished family, couldnt possibly raise the money. Then a number of civil society organisations came together in early March to help save him from his fate. They managed to raise the amount three days before Rahims scheduled execution on 16 April.

This is the real Kerala story, said Ashraf Venghat, a Keralite businessman based in Saudi Arabia who helped with the donation drive, referring to a Bollywood film called The Kerala Story that is widely seen as a piece of right-wing propaganda for hyping up the alleged forced conversion of Hindu girls.

A general secretary of the Saudi chapter of the Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre, Venghat arrived in Kozhikode, Kerala, to bring together people from different communities in an effort to raise the money.

There are Hindus, and Muslims, and members of all political parties, including the BJP [Narendra Modis Bharatiya Janata Party], in the committee formed to save Rahims life, Mr Venghat said.

Expressing her gratitude to the people, Rahims mother told reporters that the communal harmony among people here helped collect such a huge amount so quickly.

I had no hope, as we have no means to raise Rs340m. But somehow it was all made possible, she added. I thank everyone.

Keralas chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan took to Facebook and said: Keralites across the world have united to mobilise Rs 34 crore (3.2m) for the release of Abdul Rahim, who is facing death sentence in Saudi Arabia.

To save a life, to wipe the tears of a family, Kerala has created a noble example of love. It is a declaration that Kerala is a fortress of brotherhood, which communalism cannot destroy.
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Gunmen killed nine passengers after abducting them from a bus in Pakistans restive Balochistan province, senior police officials confirmed on Saturday.

The incident took place in the mountainous Nushki district on Friday night when the bus was travelling from the provincial capital of Quetta to Taftan, a town bordering Iran.

The unidentified gunmen, 10-12 in number, intercepted the bus and took away the nine men after checking their identity cards and determining they were from the eastern province of Punjab, police officer Abdullah Mengal said. "All of them were travelling to Taftan.

The corpses of the victims, shot at close range, were found under a bridge nearby an hour and half after the abduction, Mr Musakhel said.

No organisation has taken responsibility for the attack so far.

In a separate attack on the same highway, unidentified gunmen fired on a car that tried to force its way through a blockade, killing one passenger and wounding at least four. Dawn reported that both the attacks took place at the same blockade.

Prime minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the killings and vowed to punish the perpetrators.

We stand with the bereaved families in this hour of grief, he said, according to Radio Pakistan.

Balochistan has long been a hotbed of ethnic insurgent groups that accuse the Pakistani state, dominated by Punjabis, of denying them their fair share of the regions rich natural resources.

Baloch insurgents have previously claimed responsibility for similar killings in the region, which is home to the strategic Gwadar sea port being developed by neighbouring China. The insurgents have also targeted Chinese nationals and their interests.

Beijing has invested heavily in regional development projects in Balochistan as part of its $65bn pledge to build the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Additional reporting by agencies
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Two New York City police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Kawaski Trawick inside his Bronx apartment five years ago will not face internal discipline, the citys police commissioner, Edward Caban, announced Friday.

In a statement, Caban said the officers, Brendan Thompson and Herbert Davis, acted within the law in the lead-up to the 32-year-olds death. He accused the citys police oversight board of waiting too long to bring administrative charges against the officers, adding that they were not guilty of any criminal conduct.

The 2019 killing of Trawick, a Black man, by a white police officer touched off widespread outrage in New York, followed by years of frustration over what some viewed as efforts by the police department to stall the investigation into his death.

Ellen and Rickie Trawick, the victim's parents, described the commissioner's ultimate determination as disgraceful. The utter disregard they have for our sons memory, to make this decision on the five-year anniversary of his death is disgusting and shameful, they added.

Trawick, an aspiring dancer who suffered from mental health issues, was living in a supportive housing facility in the Bronx when he called 911 on the night of April 14, 2019.

After the fire department helped him inside, police arrived at the apartment and pushed open the door, finding Trawick shirtless and holding a knife. In body-worn camera footage, Trawick can be heard telling them he was cooking and asking why they are inside his home.

As Trawick moved toward them, Officer Thompson fired his Taser at Trawick, then shot him four times with his handgun, even as his partner urged him not to use force. The full incident  between officers arriving at the door and Thompson fatally shooting Trawick  lasted under two minutes.

The district attorney in the Bronx declined to bring charges against the officers. An internal New York Police Department investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of Thompson or his partner.

Cabans decision not to impose discipline came nearly one year after a civilian agency charged with oversight of the NYPD brought administration charges against the officers, who they said should have de-escalated the situation before entering the apartment and more quickly administered aid following the shooting.

An administrative judge overseeing the case found the review board waited too long to bring the misconduct charges  a delay the board blamed on the NYPD failing to turn over body-camera footage and other evidence in a timely fashion.

The judges final decision, against imposing penalties on the officers, served only as a recommendation for Caban, who has the final say over all disciplinary decisions.

In his statement, Caban said the review board had brought their charges after the statute of limitations. He said the department has since adopted a new policy obligating them to provide body-camera footage to the board within 90 days of a request.

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said Friday that the NYPD was ultimately responsible for the delays and described their disciplinary process as "incredibly disturbing.

For five years, the Trawick family has been forced to fight for any semblance of acknowledgment and accountability for their sons killing, but they have only faced significant obstruction by the NYPD, she said. Ultimately, the Trawick family and all New Yorkers are left without the accountability they deserve from the citys police department."
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A transitional council tasked with choosing Haitis next prime minister and Cabinet was formally established Friday as gangs tighten their grip on the troubled Caribbean country.

The formation of the council, announced in a decree published Friday in a Haitian government gazette, was expected to trigger the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who promised to step down once the council was created.

Henry did not immediately issue comment following publication of the decree.

The council's creation comes exactly a month after Caribbean leaders announced plans to help form the nine-member panel, with seven members awarded voting powers.

Fridays development was cheered by those who believe the council could help steer Haiti in a new direction and help quell widespread gang violence that has paralyzed swaths of the capital of Port-au-Prince for more than a month.
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At least 21 men were left free to kill women after being released on bail over the course of a three-year period, figures have revealed.

Campaigners have said the system isnt fit for purpose and called for more to be done to protect women and girls after the shocking figures were uncovered.

Sobering data from the Femicide Census showed the horrifying death toll for UK women whose killers were released on bail between 2020 and 2022.

At least six of those men had been arrested on suspicion of offences against women before going on to kill their accusers, The Independent understands.

The research shows that a further 14 killers attacked their female victims while released from prison on licence in the same two-year period  including Zara Aleenas killer Jordan McSweeney. The career criminal was released from the high-security HMP Belmarsh  where he was serving time for carrying a weapon, criminal damage, and racially aggravated public order offences  just nine days before Aleenas murder.

Meanwhile, 16 men were subject to injunctions such as domestic violence prevention orders when they killed  sparking debate over the effectiveness of enforcement.

Dr Karen Ingala Smith, co-founder of the Femicide Census, said: We are concerned about the worth of processes like bail, licencing and domestic violence prevention orders [DVPOs, sometimes referred to as injunctions].

For example, a DVPO is a court order that is supposed to prevent someone from doing something. Do we really expect men who are highly abusive and dangerous to pay attention to that? To a court order? Its not as if they dont already know that violence and abuse are wrong.

We dont need a court order to tell us not to kill someone; similarly, a man who has decided to kill a woman isnt going to be prevented from doing so because a court order exists. The system isnt fit for purpose.

Zara Aleenas murderer, Jordan McSweeney, was released from prison nine days before he murdered her ( PA Media )

Cases include that of Emma Baillie, 26, who was strangled and repeatedly struck with a knife by her abusive partner Peter Duffy in Coatbridge, Scotland, in 2022.

Duffy, 48, who also went on to kill his brother in a separate attack, was subject to three bail orders at the time  including a requirement not to approach Ms Baillie.

Last month, her stepmother Carol Austin said he should never have been released, adding: It is very worrying to know there are serious criminals walking the streets when they should be behind bars at the time of their arrest.

Duffy was sentenced to 30 years in prison and warned that he may never be released.

Bethany Vincent, 26, and her son Darren (known as DJ), aged nine, were stabbed to death by her manipulative and controlling ex-partner Daniel Boulton at their home in Louth, Lincolnshire, in May 2021.

A court heard Ms Vincent had a restraining order against domestic abuser Boulton, but that he repeatedly broke it and walked 28 miles to carry out the brutal murders. He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 40 years.

Christopher McGowan tortured his girlfriend Claire Inglis before killing her at her flat in Stirling in November 2021. The violent offender, who had 39 previous convictions, had been bailed to live with Inglis, 28, and her young child, two months before he murdered her.

He beat and strangled her before burning her with a lighter and pushing a wet wipe down her throat in an attack that was described as beyond sadistic. He was jailed for 23 years.

Speaking after the case, Ingliss father Ian said: He should never, ever have been put in her flat with my grandson and Claire  not with the criminal record he had.

More recent cases  which are not included in the figures  include that of mother-of-two Hayley Burke, 36, who was shot in the head by her ex-partner Jacob Cloke, who is said to have held her at gunpoint and pulled the trigger during a stand-off with police in May 2023.

Cloke, 29, was facing charges of multiple attacks on Burke but had been bailed with an order not to contact her or enter Dartford, where she lived. He also suffered gunshot wounds and died in hospital days later.

Marcus Osborne was handed a whole-life order for killing Steven Harnett (left) and Katie Higton (right) ( West Yorkshire Police/PA Wire )

Abuser Marcus Osborne, 35, was last month handed a rare whole-life order for stabbing his ex-partner Katie Higton 99 times in a ferocious and merciless attack in May 2023, which he committed when he was given bail after being accused of domestic violence.

He also killed Steven Harnett, 25, a man Higton was dating, and raped another woman before inviting neighbours in Huddersfield to look at their bodies.

Five days earlier, Higton had reported Osbornes abuse to police, telling officers he had threatened to slit her throat if she said what he had done and that if she ever got a boyfriend he would kill them both.

Harriet Wistrich, director of the Centre for Womens Justice (CWJ), told The Independent: These are shocking figures over a two-year period, and reveal a failure by the authorities to adequately assess risk, and a failure by police/probation to enforce or properly supervise offenders on bail or on licence, and to enforce non-molestation orders.

She said issues around the breaching of bail conditions and court orders were raised in a police super-complaint submitted by the CWJ in 2019.

She urged the Ministry of Justice to focus on only releasing the lowest-risk offenders as part of the ongoing early release scheme, introduced in an effort to moderate the prison overcrowding crisis. She added: Those who present a serious risk of violence towards women need to be identified and contained, or effectively supervised if in the community.

Amy Bowdrey, policy and public affairs officer at domestic abuse charity Refuge, said each death was a tragic loss of life.

It is essential that the police and other services understand the dynamics of domestic abuse, including coercive control, and recognise the life-threatening risk abusive behaviours pose to those experiencing it, she said. We need immediate and effective police intervention in domestic abuse cases so that no more womens lives are tragically cut short.

A government spokesperson said: Bail decisions are made by the police and independent judges, but anyone who commits a crime while on bail rightly faces a tougher sentence. Suspects can also be electronically tagged and given strict conditions such as curfews, and we have strengthened bail requirements with Kays Law to protect victims.

This story has been updated to clarify that 21 men killed on bail during a three year period, not two.
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Liz Truss has revealed that she thought why me, why now? when she learnt that the Queen had died  just two days after she had been sworn in as prime minister.

In her new book, Ten Years to Save the West, Ms Truss admits that she went into a state of shock when told of the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.

Of their historic meeting at Balmoral in Scotland, which occurred just two days before the monarchs death, Ms Truss says the 96-year-old Queen seemed to have grown frailer since she had last been in the public eye.

However, Ms Truss wrote, in an excerpt published in the Daily Mail, that there simply wasnt any sense that the end would come as quickly as it did.

The meeting produced the last public photograph of the late Queen before she died on 8 September 2022 at her Scottish residence ( Getty )

The memoir details how the machine kicked into action when word reached No 10 that the Queen would not be able to join via video link, as had been planned, for the formal swearing in of new ministers.

My black mourning dress was fetched from my house in Greenwich, south London, Ms Truss wrote. Frantic phone calls took place with Buckingham Palace. I started to think about what on earth I was going to say if the unthinkable happened.

On Thursday, we received the solemn news that the Queen had died peacefully at Balmoral. To be told this on only my second full day as Prime Minister felt utterly unreal. In a state of shock, I found myself thinking, Why me, why now?

In the book, she shares details of her second and final meeting with Queen Elizabeth. The meeting produced the last public photograph of the late Queen before she died on 8 September 2022 at her Scottish residence.

The Queen was pictured using a walking stick and smiling warmly as she greeted Ms Truss in front of an open fire in her sitting room.

The final photographs of the late Queen were taken only two days before her death ( PA )

Ms Truss wrote: That Tuesday, September 6, 2022, she was standing up as she greeted me in her drawing room. I was told shed made a special effort to do so but she gave no hint of discomfort throughout our discussion.

This was only my second one-on-one audience with her. On the previous occasion, after Id been removed from a different job in the government, shed remarked that being a woman in politics was tough.

For about 20 minutes, we discussed politics  and it was clear she was completely attuned to everything that was happening, as well as being typically sharp and witty. There simply wasnt any sense that the end would come as quickly as it did.

Ms Truss, whose tenure in Downing Street lasted just 49 days after her disastrous mini-Budget unleashed economic chaos, also revealed that the late Queen told her to pace yourself.

Maybe I should have listened, the former PM said.

But Ms Truss, who is the MP for South West Norfolk, defended her approach in her memoir, suggesting that the pro-Remain Treasury, Bank of England and Office for Budget Responsibility were barriers to our plans.
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Migrant cleaners working at the Department for Education (DfE) are threatening strike action over pay as well as concerns that Black workers are not being afforded the same rights as their predominantly white colleagues.

Union members say they have been denied the London living wage of 13.15 per hour, plus the annual leave and sick pay entitlement that white-collar workers at the department receive.

A union representing the staff members has accused the government of failing to treat the workers with dignity.

Given the higher cost of living in the capital, the London living wage is set above the national minimum wage rate, which is currently 11.44 for workers who are 21 and over.

The outsourced workers, who clean offices within the departments Sanctuary Buildings headquarters, say they are struggling financially and are preparing to go on strike this summer.

Milgo Jama, a cleaner of 31 years at the DfE who plans to vote in favour of strike action, told The Independent that poor working conditions, including low pay, mean that she struggles to make ends meet during the ongoing cost of living crisis.

Everything has increased  rent and utility bills  yet our wages have remained the same, the mum of four said. Meanwhile, our workloads have also increased, and lots of people have quit because they cant cope with this management.

Going to work each day is hard because you have to face these people and conditions. Ive been wanting to leave this job for a while, but Ive been working here for a long time and hope things will improve.

Gloria Mancera, a cleaner of 18 years at the DfE who also wants to strike, said: In my 18 years as a cleaner at DfE Ive never experienced such terrible treatment. No sick pay, too much work, no proper holiday cover. We are treated with disdain, and we are fed up and stressed but united in our resolve. We cant wait for our ballot papers.

( UVW )

A United Voices of The World (UVW) union spokesperson said: The system of outsourcing allows companies to offer inferior terms and conditions for the outsourced cleaner workforce, which happens to be made up mostly of workers from ethnic minority and migrant backgrounds because of matters of historical structural racism.

While the policy itself does not intend to target the workers because of their ethnicity, its nevertheless disproportionally detrimental to Black, brown and migrant workers, which it could be argued is a form of indirect race discrimination.

The DfE workers have the same right as any other workers, to be treated with the same dignity, and to be offered equivalent terms and conditions to other workers in their building/workplace, regardless of whether they are outsourced to a private contractor or not.

Milgo Jama, a mum of four, has worked at the DfE for 31 years ( UVW )

Contractor ISS UK Limited, which outsources the cleaners to the Government Property Agency, has refused to negotiate  following numerous attempts, the union said  over the cleaners demands for a living wage, equal sick pay and annual leave with civil service workers, and appropriate staffing levels.

The UVW members went on strike in the summer of 2023 over this issue, which has yet to be resolved.

According to the UVW union, the staff are also grappling with a considerable increase in their workload over recent years caused by cuts to staffing levels, and the government has been urged to address this.

The UVW has represented thousands of low-paid, migrant workers since its founding in 2014. According to the union, most outsourced Black, brown and migrant cleaners are subject to inferior terms and conditions compared with the people they work alongside.

The union added: The DfE cleaners deserve to feel valued, and they deserve dignity, respect, and above all equality with the civil servants, their suit-wearing counterparts. It is unconscionable that in 2024, a government department is being run by a two-tier workforce where the mainly Black, brown and migrant cleaners are treated like second-class citizens.

A spokesperson for ISS UK&I said: We value the contribution of every ISS team member and will continue to work towards a resolution. We are disappointed that this ballot is going ahead. They declined to comment on whether they would negotiate.

A government spokesperson said: These staff members are employed by an external contractor and are not directly employed by the government. The contracts are owned by the Government Property Agency, not by the Department for Education.

The Government Property Agency ensures contractors abide by current employment legislation. It encourages contractors and the union to cooperate to resolve the dispute.
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Jeremy Hunt has said that it would be utterly outrageous to raise bills for Thames Water customers amid the companys failures.

The chancellor instead said shareholders involved should fulfil their obligation to sort out the mess, and fund the business themselves.

Speaking at a public meeting in his South West Surrey constituency, Mr Hunt said: I just want to say on behalf of my constituency, it would be utterly outrageous and totally unfair if we were made to pick up the tab for poor management and financial engineering by Thames Water shareholders.

He was speaking alongside the head of watchdog Ofwat, who would have to grant the request, and the boss of Thames Water.

The utility company, which provides water and sewage services to around 16 million households, is facing immense financial difficulty.

Water bosses insist that without a 40 per cent increase in bills, the company will be uninvestable.

The troubled utility company provides water and sewage services to around 16 million households ( PA Archive )

The issues intensified last week after its parent company, Kemble, failed to make an interest payment on a 400m loan.

Speaking to the Telegraph on the sidelines of the meeting, Mr Hunt said: My constituents do not have an obligation to bail out Thames Water shareholders for their poor decisions and we got a clear commitment from Ofwat tonight [that] that wont happen.

I think Thames Water needs to behave in a responsible way and sort out this problem. I think they have an obligation to sort out the mess.

The company has also been hit with several fines in recent years, with the Environment Agency charging it almost 36m between 2017 and 2023 for releasing untreated sewage into rivers.

Chris Weston, chief executive of Thames Water, told the Telegraph: There are lots of things going on and moving. I am absolutely talking to Ofwat about my business case.

Thames Waters financial struggles worsened last month when the company said its investors had pulled a 500m funding lifeline that was due to be paid at the end of April.

Some of that was understood to be earmarked to pay loans owed by Kemble.

It follows reports earlier this week that two Chinese state-owned banks and Dutch bank ING are among a group of lenders who could play an important role in the stability of Thames Water.
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Ukrainian refugees fleeing the horrors of war to find sanctuary in British homes were sent to live with suspected gangsters under the governments flagship Homes for Ukraine scheme, The Independent can reveal.

People with suspected links to serious or organised crime were among those approved as hosts under the scheme, which was set up in 2022 to encourage warm-hearted homeowners to lend a spare room to those fleeing Vladimir Putins invasion.

In the worst cases, Ukrainian families and individuals just disappeared, according to one council worker, while others were forced to work for their hosts or were charged rent. In one stark example, a couple with a young child were sent to live with a convicted paedophile.

Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones, the shadow safeguarding minister, said the shock findings, uncovered by this publication, raise serious concerns about the safeguarding and the screening of hosts, as she called for a full and proper investigation.

Eleanor Lyons, the independent anti-slavery commissioner, described the reports as concerning. She added: We know traffickers often target vulnerable people, so we must do all we can to support displaced Ukrainians and prevent them from becoming vulnerable to exploitation.

The Independent can also report that:

Council workers involved with the scheme reported refugees being forced to work for their hosts on farms and charged rent

One worker claimed some sponsors had only agreed to host young, female Ukrainians for the purposes of exploiting them for sexual gratification

Around a quarter of eligible councils  37 out of around 150  said they had been alerted to a serious safeguarding concern about a host, which can include child protection concerns

At least eight people who signed up for the scheme had suspected links to serious or organised crime

One local authority worker told researchers that one applicant was found to have a trafficking conviction

Maris Stratulis, England national director at the British Association of Social Workers, said her organisation had raised concerns about the scheme since the beginning.

For some individuals and families, this scheme has literally been a lifeline and a safe and positive experience, she said. For others, fleeing to perceived safety has not been a reality  their human rights and needs have not been protected.

She added that poor coordination between the government and local councils has created opportunities for children and adults to be lost in a system and vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

According to the figures, which The Independent obtained through a freedom of information request, at least 93 serious safeguarding alerts were raised across the UK over sponsors who put themselves forward for the scheme. Eight of these were about the links potential hosts had to serious or organised crime.

A further 374 warnings, known as adverse hits, were sent by the government to councils about Homes for Ukraine sponsors, the data shows. These hits occur when the host has failed Home Office checks.

In the London borough of Croydon, the council received alerts from the Home Office about two separate sponsors connections to serious and organised crime. The council said these sponsor arrangements were swiftly discontinued after the alert was received.

Suffolk County Council received a similar alert. The Ukrainian guests were offered an immediate transfer to another home, but they turned this offer down and later found alternative accommodation with friends.

Another alert over a sponsors connection to organised crime was received by Nottinghamshire County Council, resulting in a subsequent guest change of accommodation.

Sheffield City Council dealt with three serious safeguarding alerts: one sponsor with links to serious and organised crime, one sponsor who had accommodation requests linked to multiple commercial properties, and one case in which the sponsor was abroad and offered to pay for a Ukrainian to live in a hotel room.

In the case of the crime-linked host, the Ukrainian guests arrived in the UK but their whereabouts were unknown. The council had to raise a missing persons report with the police, who located them in private rented accommodation in another city.

Independent anti-slavery commissioner Eleanor Lyons says Ukrainian refugees must be protected from exploitation ( Getty )

In a case publicised in Northern Ireland, a couple with a young child went to live with a convicted paedophile for a number of weeks before he was deemed unsuitable to be a sponsor. A criminal record check by the Home Office had reportedly not flagged his conviction, and the family had moved into a mobile home on the mans property before further checks had been completed.

The social workers report, compiled by researchers from University College London and the organisation Focus on Labour Exploitation, found there were strong concerns over the UKs Ukraine schemes. One local authority worker told researchers that a host involved in Homes for Ukraine had been found to have a trafficking conviction.

Another worker in the east of England said: We had a number of families and individuals just disappear. Once in the UK they just disappeared, and we had no way of knowing if they were safe or in circumstances which placed them at risk  for example, around labour exploitation, criminal exploitation.

Another interviewee said they had seen cases where hosts had agreed to host young, attractive, female Ukrainians for the purposes of exploiting them. They added: Weve heard cases where entire families have been hosted and the host has been making efforts to isolate the young female from the rest of the family.

Councillors also said they had come across cases where refugees had been forced to work for their hosts. These cases included farmers in Northern Ireland reportedly using the scheme to get people to the UK to work for them, and then also charging them rent.

Speaking about the blurred line around labour exploitation, one council worker in the East Midlands explained: The sponsors are saying: Oh, heres the car, could you go and pick my children up? or I wont be back till 9pm, could you babysit the children in the evening? The Ukrainians feel that theyre compelled to do it because theyre living in their house rent-free.

One member of a strategic migration partnership  a council-led group designed to implement refugee schemes  said that during the scramble of getting thousands of Ukrainians to safety, they had to find a balance between eliminating every single risk, which is just not possible.

Many participants told researchers that visas for Ukrainian refugees had been issued before the pre-arrival DBS and accommodation checks were completed. The checks were then failed, and a new host had to be found at short notice or guests were reluctant to leave.

In a briefing given to MPs in February by the Local Government Association, it was noted that local authorities were still reporting cases where visas were being issued to Ukrainians before councils had carried out sponsor checks.

Safeguarding alerts usually go to county councils, but some borough councils also provided responses. A handful of these councils provided a figure of less than five, due to data protection, meaning that the number of serious safeguarding alerts could be even higher.

A government spokesperson said: Keeping sponsors and guests safe is a priority for the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

All sponsors and all adults living in a sponsors household are subject to stringent checks before they are allowed to host a Ukrainian refugee, and we would urge local councils to contact the police if they suspect any exploitation.

Over 180,000 visas have been issued to refugees through the Ukraine sponsorship scheme, government data shows.
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Details of her first and last meeting with the late Queen and fleas being in No. 10 are among the stories revealed in Liz Truss new memoir.

The first excerpt of her book, titled Ten Years to Save the West, made several candid confessions including how her husband predicted how her short premiership would end in tears and that she did not listen to the Queens advice.

The bombshell revelations include that she spent several of her six weeks as prime minister itching because Downing Street was infested with the pests.

In extracts from the book published by the Daily Mail, Truss admitted she went into a state of shock when told of Queen Elizabeth IIs death in 2022.

Of her historic meeting at Balmoral in Scotland, which occurred just two days before the monarchs death, Truss says the 96-year-old Queen seemed to have grown frailer since she had last been in the public eye.

Liz Truss Book ( PA )

However, she wrote in an excerpt published in the Daily Mail that there simply wasnt any sense that the end would come as quickly as it did.

The memoir details how the machine kicked into action when word reached Number 10 that the Queen would not be able to join via video link, as planned, for the formal swearing-in of new ministers.

My black mourning dress was fetched from my house in Greenwich, south London, she wrote.

Frantic phone calls took place with Buckingham Palace. I started to think about what on earth I was going to say if the unthinkable happened.

On Thursday, we received the solemn news that the Queen had died peacefully at Balmoral. To be told this on only my second full day as Prime Minister felt utterly unreal. In a state of shock, I found myself thinking: Why me, why now?

She shares details of her first and final meeting with the Queen.

( Getty Images )

Ms Truss wrote: That Tuesday, September 6, 2022, she was standing up as she greeted me in her drawing room. I was told shed made a special effort to do so but she gave no hint of discomfort throughout our discussion.

This was only my second one-on-one audience with her. On the previous occasion, after Id been removed from a different job in the Government, shed remarked that being a woman in politics was tough.

For about 20 minutes, we discussed politics  and it was clear she was completely attuned to everything that was happening, as well as being typically sharp and witty. There simply wasnt any sense that the end would come as quickly as it did.

Ms Truss, whose tenure in Downing Street lasted just 49 days after her disastrous mini-budget unleashed economic chaos, also revealed the late Queen told her to pace yourself.

Maybe I should have listened, the former PM said.

She was also scathing about the realities of living in No 10.

The place was infested with fleas, she wrote. Some claimed that this was down to Boris and Carries dog Dilyn, but there was no conclusive evidence. In any case, the entire place had to be sprayed with flea killer. I spent several weeks itching.

The most difficult thing to get used to, she wrote, was that spontaneous excursions were all but impossible: I was effectively a prisoner.

She recruited her teenage daughters, Liberty and Frances, to run errands because it was easier for them to leave the buildings without being spotted. Of their time in one of the most famous addresses in the country she said: Im pleased they at least managed to fit in a sleepover with their friends. And they did get to visit the nuclear bunker.

( Getty Images )

Before moving into Downing Street, Ms Truss revealed that her husband predicted her premiership would all end in tears in her new memoir.

The former prime minister describes the moment she learnt that her predecessor, Boris Johnson, was forced to resign while in Bali at the time as foreign secretary and said: As I walked along the beach in Indonesia I started crying.

Even Hugh [her husband], who predicted it would all end in tears, accepted that this was the moment I was expected to run and that if I didnt, people would say I had bottled it, Truss writes.

But the MP for South West Norfolk defended her approach in her memoir, suggesting the pro-Remain Treasury, Bank of England and Office for Budget Responsibility were barriers to our plans.
 Close Liz Truss endorses Donald Trump for US president

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Liz Truss has claimed she was too busy to back Brexit as she backs Donald Trump to win Novembers US presidential election.

It comes as Ms Truss, Britains shortest-serving prime minister, said the world was safer under Trumps presidency as she criticised incumbent Joe Biden.

The former PM, who was in office for 49 days, suggested she may have backed Vote Leave if she had time for more existential thinking.

Ms Truss said wanting to leave the EU was considered quite a far out, fringe position.

But she added: Had I spend more of my time thinking about it during those years, I might have come to share that view but I had been busy as a minister, knee-deep in floods and other distractions.

Ms Truss also launched into a scathing attack on President Joe Biden saying it has to be Donald Trump to win.

I dont think (President Joe) Biden has been particularly supportive to the United Kingdom. I think hes often on the side of the EU. And I certainly think I would like to see a new president in the White House, she told LBC.
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Lord Bethell has admitted that he was targeted by the most extraordinary honeytrap schemes when he was a minister.

The former health minister said he was less suspectable to scams because he blew off a lot of steam in his Ministry of Sound days. Lord Bethell managed the well-known London nightclub for nearly a decade before entering government.

Speaking to Carole Walker on Times Radio, he said: I get the most extraordinary propositions. Yes. A very great many of them, particularly during Covid, when I was a minister. Some of them have pretty pictures attached to them. Some of them were of a financial nature.

The whole time we are under, you know, I dont mean to be dramatic, but we are under threat, parliamentarians, all the time. And we should know it and take precautions accordingly.

He added: Ive come into politics quite late in my career. I spent ten years at the Ministry of Sound and blew off a lot of steam before I went into politics. So I am in a slightly different position than poor old Will Wragg. When I was 36, I didnt have a very good judgement at all.

Lord Bethell, former health minister, has described how he was targeted by honeytrap schemes ( AFP via Getty Images )

It came as The Times reported that a Labour MP and a top journalist were targeted with unsolicited WhatsApp messages in 2020.

Someone using the name Adrian messaged the personal numbers of both men in their 30s.

The Labour MP returned naked photos to the sender. Another person saying they were Adrians girlfriend approached one of the men later that year.

The messages were reported to have used similar language to recent honeytraps in the last year from people posing as Abi and Charlie.

Rishi Sunak has claimed the revelations that a senior Conservative MP leaked phone numbers of his colleagues after being caught in spear-phishing sting were a reminder about the importance of people in public life taking care with unsolicited messages.

William Wragg has resigned the Conservative whip after admitting he disclosed politicians phone numbers to a suspected scammer (UK Parliament) ( PA Media )

The prime minister was challenged on his response to revelations that William Wragg had been targeted in a so-called honeytrap scandal after resisting calls to take action over the MPs behaviour.

Mr Wragg has resigned the Conservative whip and will sit in parliament as an independent.

But Mr Sunak claimed there are wider things happening and that William Wragg has rightly apologised for what happened, adding that its a good reminder to everyone but particularly those in public life to be careful about unsolicited messages.
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The armourer on the movie Rust, who was convicted of manslaughter last month, trashed jurors in jailhouse calls following the verdict, prosecutors said.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed described the jury as idiots and a**holes, prosecutors said, after they reached a verdict in two hours. The 26-year-old is to be sentenced on Monday in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

She was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter over the 2021 accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed when a prop gun held by actor Alec Baldwin fired a live round of ammunition during filming.

Hutchins was hit in the chest and Joel Souza, the director, was struck by a bullet in the stomach. Mr Souza survived his injuries but Hutchins did not.

New Mexico prosecutors are seeking the maximum penalty for Gutierrez-Reed, arguing that the jailhouse calls to her mother, boyfriend, and her attorneys paralegal make clear her complete and total failure to accept responsibility for her actions," according to court filings on Friday.

Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed pictured in court on 5 March, 2024 ( AP )

Prosecutors have asked that she spend 18 months in jail, the longest possible sentence for the charges, according to CNN. Shes also expected to pay a $5,000 fine.

Her attorneys are hoping to avoid the maximum sentence and to secure a conditional discharge for the 26-year-old. They have asked for probation, citing her lack of a criminal record.

In calls from jail, Gutierrez-Reed blamed Hutchins death on the doctor and paramedics on set. She also claimed that the judge and special prosecutors office conspired against her, the outlet reported.

Prosecutors said that Gutierrez-Reed complained during her phone conversations about how the shooting has affected her life while never expressing genuine remorse at any time.

During her two-week trial, prosecutors said that Gutierrez-Reed repeatedly failed to maintain proper firearm safety, resulting in negligence that led to Hutchins death. Colleagues called the armourer sloppy and unprofessional.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed on the set of Rust moments after Halyna Hutchins was shot in 2021

Gutierrez-Reed's primary job was maintaining, controlling, and ensuring the safe handling of firearms and ammunition on set. Prosecutors argued that the live round that killed Hutchins was pulled from Gutierrez-Reed's work station on the day of the incident.

She routinely left firearms and ammunition lying around the set, prosecutors said. The jury was shown videos of numerous instances in which firearms were not being handled properly by actors. One clip showed Gutierrez-Reed holding a shotgun with the barrel pointed up at her own head.

Alec Baldwin will go on trial in July for involuntary manslaughter over Hutchins death.

Baldwin pleaded not guilty in January. Prosecutors say his actions led to safety compromises.

Gutierrez-Reed insisted she would not testify at Baldwins trial because he did not speak in her defence.

Alec Baldwin on the Rust film set in costume ( Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office )

Her attorneys have called her a scapegoat for Baldwin.

The jury previously acquitted Gutierrez-Reed of a tampering with evidence charge. Shes facing a separate charge of unlawful carrying of a firearm in a licensed liquor establishment, unrelated to the movie-set shooting.

Gutierrez-Reed is being held at Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility, where shes been since 6 March. Shes the first person to be put on trial for the Rust movie shooting.
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A Colorado motorist who was shot by police after calling 911 for help spent the last hour and a half of his life in absolute fear, prosecutors told jurors in their opening arguments for the murder trial of the former deputy charged in his killing.

Christian Glass, 22, died on 11 June 2022 after his car became stuck between boulders on a dirt road in the mountains about 45 miles west of Denver.

Former Clear Creek County Deputy Andrew Buen, who has since been fired from the force, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, reckless endangerment and first-degree official misconduct.

On Friday, Fifth Judicial District Attorney Heidi McCollum painted a brutal portrait of the killing for the 12 jurors and three alternates sitting before Judge Catherine Cheroutes. All but two were female, including one pregnant woman.

Christians parents, Simon and Sally Glass were seated in the front row of the gallery, wearing pink in a tribute to their sons favourite colour. Ms Glass bent over and stifled sobs, her husbands arm around her shoulders, as Ms McCollum chronologically outlined the last moments of her sons life and the fatal shots.

The grieving mother took her turn comforting her husband a short while later when the defence played portions of the 911 call featuring Christians voice.

The prosecutions case rests on demonstrating to jurors that Mr Buens actions were aggressive, excessive and criminal, McCollum said Friday.

She emphasized that Mr Buen, who was first to arrive at the scene with former deputy Tim Collins, seemed determined to remove Christian from the car from the outset  despite his visible fear from the drivers seat.

He was so focused on the wrong thing that nearly everything he did that evening escalated the situation, she told jurors, pointing out that Mr Buen had ordered Christian out of the vehicle 10 times in less than two minutes.

He also shouted at Christian not to remove knives and other tools that could be considered weapons from the vehicle, despite the 22-year-olds repeated offers to do so to make officers feel safer.

Seven officers from five different agencies ended up at the scene, and all have been charged with various offences resulting from Christians death.

Sgt Kyle Gould, who was supervising Mr Buen remotely, pleaded guilty at the end of last year to failing to intervene and has since lost his peace officer certification.

On the night Christian called 911, officers spent more than an hour trying various methods to convince him to get out of the vehicle before shooting him with bean bags and Tasers to breach the window and forcibly remove him.

After former Georgetown Police Chief Randy Williams tased Christian from behind, from a rear window, the scared driver grabbed a knife and began gesturing towards Williams  a knife that hes not threatening any one of them with because hes in the car, McCollum said.

Mr Buen then fired five fatal shots at Christian, who at no point throughout the interaction left the vehicle.

McCollum instructed jurors to examine that fact and Mr Buens determination to remove him from the scene of what hed determined verbally to be a car crash.

Keep in mind that, throughout this trial, that Christian Glass was the one who called for help, she said. He mistakenly thought that, when he needed assistance, police would do just that.

The defence countered in their opening arguments by querying Christians sobriety, state of mind and the prosecutors investigative methods themselves. Mr Buen, wearing thick-rimmed glasses and a suit, held a pen as he watched his lawyer point to exhibits of drug paraphernalia and other possible weapons she said her investigator found in the vehicle.

Lawyers for the Glass family, in the months after the shooting, had released an autopsy report which said Christian had THC, a .01 per cent blood alcohol concentration, and amphetamine in his system, the last of which the attorneys attributed most likely to an ADHD prescription.

Defence attorney Carrie Slinkard played for jurors earlier portions of the 911 call in which Christian spoke off folkloric skinwalkers, being followed and also of following another vehicle off the highway. She argued Christians car became stuck near an occupied house that could have ended up in the side of had he wrongly manoeuvered the vehicle.

She argued Mr Buen was assessing the wider situation of public safety and claimed that body camera footage could easily be watched without realizing that [Christian] is constantly looking at all the weapons he has in the car.

Mr Williamss decision to attempt using non-lethal attempts to subdue Christian from behind, she said, and the young mans reaction, left [Buen] no choice than to fire a weapon ... there was no other choice in that moment in his mind.

The trial is expected to last about two weeks. Witnesses will include Christians mother, the 911 operator, Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents and use of force expert Seth Stoughton, who testified for the prosecution in the George Floyd trial.

Christians parents, who were awarded the largest settlement in Colorado history  which includes changes to police training  told The Independent this week that Mr Buens trial had been a long time coming.

Im very pleased that its going ahead, Simon said. I hope that he is found guilty and justice prevails.

Sally said she and her husband had been fighting for justice in the hopes that some other poor young person doesnt get gunned down for no reason.

We have to stay strong for our son, and we want to support [Christian] through the trial, she said. And I think, when its all over and hopefully hes in prison, we can really properly grieve for our son  which we really feel like we havent had a chance to do yet.
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A California man will spend 40 years to life in prison after killing a six-year-old in a fit of road rage, a judge ruled Friday.

Earlier this year, a jury convicted Marcus Eriz, 27, of murdering Aiden Leos.

On 21 May 2021, Aiden was in the back seat of his mothers car on his way to kindergarten. The two were on State Route 55 when Aidens mother, Joanna Cloonan, flipped off a driver in a Volkswagen who cut her off.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, pictured with a portrait of Aiden Leos, praised Erizs maximum sentence on Friday ( AP )

Eriz was a passenger in that car  and he fired a gunshot that hit the six-year-old. Aiden later died at an Orange County, California hospital. During Erizs trial, it was revealed the bullet pierced Aidens liver, lung and heart.

Eriz was arrested two weeks later, after the California Highway Patrol launched an intense manhunt for the shooter. Police also arrested Wynne Lee, who drove the Volkswagen.

The depth of pain of a mother desperately trying to find some way to help her little boy as he lay dying is excruciating, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said following Fridays sentencing.

In January, a jury convicted Eriz of second-degree murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle, and two felony enhancements of the personal discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and death.

The 27-year-old was sentenced to be held in state prison for 40 years to life, Superior Court Judge Richard King ruled on Friday.

I am grateful Judge King realized that this wasnt a horrible mistake; this is a cold-blooded murder who is more focused on his life after prison rather than the little boy whose life he ended before it even began, Mr Spitzer said.

Marcus Eriz, pictured at his Friday sentencing, will spend at least 40 years in prison after killing six-year-old Aiden Leos ( AP )

Meanwhile, Ms Lee is awaiting trial, facing one felony count of accessory after the fact and one misdemeanour count of having a concealed firearm in a vehicle

Eriz apologised in court ahead of his sentencing, per NBC News.

He was a son, a little brother and a friend to others. He looked as if he brightened up the world everywhere he went and truly one of Gods little angels, Eriz said. And I am so sorry for ever hurting him, and for the pain that he went through because of me.

He never deserved it. And neither did his family, Eriz continued.
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A Texas mom has been accused of abandoning her children to go on a cruise.

Court records from the Harris County Districk Clerks Office show that Lakesha Woods Williams, 29, was charged with abandoning her children with an intent to return, a felony crime, after officers entered her apartment and found her two children alone.

According to a criminal complaint, the woman left her 8-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter in her Houston apartment from 4 April to 9 April.

A witness in the mothers apartment building became concerned for the children after shed heard from other tenants that the children had been left alone and were worried about their safety and requested officials conduct a welfare check, the complaint states.

The residents had seen the mother leave the building with luggage around noon on 4 April and did not see her return. The residents said that it was not the first time that the mother had left her children in such a way.

When deputies arrived at the scene, they cleared the apartment and found that no adults were present with the children.

The apartment was in a complete disarray and had trash and left-over food all over the unit, the complaint stated, adding that the unit also had a very potent smell of urine.

The children told the officers that their mother had left them to go on a cruise and did not know when she was coming back. The mother had a camera in the apartment she was using to watch the children and was keeping in touch with her son using a cellphone shed given him. The phone was later seized by police as evidence.

The children were released to their aunt. The officers tried contacting the mother but said shed been switching up her story about her whereabouts and was not cooperating. Her bond has been set at $25,000.

Shes currently being held at Houstons Baker Street Jail. The Independent has reached out to the Harris County Public Defenders Office, which is representing Ms Williams, for comment.
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President Joe Biden cut a weekend trip short and returned to the White House as reports indicate Iran launched dozens of drones towards Israel set to arrive in a matter of hours.

Mr Biden was set to spend the weekend in his home state of Delaware but his departure from there was announced just hours before the IDF detected Irans attacks. He returned to Washington by helicopter at 4.34 pm Eastern Time.

A White House official said Mr Biden subsequently met with a coterie of advisers in the White House Situation Room,including Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Q. Brown, Director Bill Burns, Director Avril Haines, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer, Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall, Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti and National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk.

Vice President Kamala Harris and White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients also joined the meeting by secure video link.

President Joe Biden meets with member of the National Security team regarding the unfolding missile attacks on Israel from Iran, Saturday, April 13, 2024, in the White House Situation Room. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz) ( The White House )

Meanwhile, the US has pledged to help protect Israel, with American and British warplanes reportedly shooting down Iranian drones that were on the way into Israeli airspace.

President Joe Biden, pictured arriving at the White House on 13 April 2024, cut his trip to Delaware short ( AFP via Getty Images )

Iran has begun an airborne attack against Israel, National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said on Saturday. President Biden is being regularly updated on the situation by his national security team and will meet with them this afternoon at the White House.

President Biden has been clear: our support for Israels security is ironclad, Ms Watson continued. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran.

The reported drone launch comes after a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria on 1 April. The strike killed 12 people. Such an attack could further heighten tensions and violence in the area. Just hours before their airstrike, Iran also captured an Israel-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, further indicating an attack was imminent.

Our defensive systems are deployed; we are ready for any scenario, both defensively and offensively, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday evening.

We have determined a clear principle: Whoever harms us, we will harm them, Mr Netanyahu continued. We will defend ourselves against any threat and will do so level-headedly and with determination.

Mr Netanyahu said the IDF is ready for any scenario after Iran launched airstrikes against Israel ( IDF )

Already, the region faces Israels continued offensive in Gaza and the consistent fire exchanged between the IDF and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, along the Israel-Lebanon border. American tensions with Iran also came to a head earlier this year when the US military struck Iran-backed militants and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Iraq and Syria. The attacks came in retaliation for a drone strike that killed three American troops in Jordan.

On Friday evening, the president said his administration expects Iran to launch an attack against Israel sooner rather than later. He also warned Tehran against launching the attack.

We are devoted to the defence of Israel, Mr Biden told reporters. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed.

Meanwhile, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said he spoke with an Israeli defence official on Saturday morning.

This morning, I spoke with my Israeli counterpart, National Security Advisor Hanegbi, to discuss events in the Middle East, Mr Sullivan said on X. During the call, I reiterated the United States ironclad commitment to the security of Israel.

Just hours before Iran launched their attack, IDF has issued an alert pausing all educational activities and limiting gatherings throughout most of the country to 1,000 people.

In the last six months, Israels bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 33,400 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza. The attacks come in response to 7 October, when Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 200 people hostage.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson urged the US to continue supporting Israel, while condeming the Biden administration.

The Biden Administrations undermining of Israel and appeasement of Iran have contributed to these terrible developments, Mr Johnson said in a statement on Saturday evening.

President Joe Biden, pictured boarding Air Force One to Delaware on Friday, will now return to Washington, DC to consult with his national security team ( AFP via Getty Images )

Tensions between Mr Netanyahu and Mr Biden have been on the rise in recent weeks.

This week, the president called for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza to allow humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians. However, he still appears poised to make an $18bn sale of fighter jets to Israel  a deal which the administration says has been in the making for years.

The Independent also exclusively reported this week that eight internal dissent memos were sent by US State Department staff during the first two months of the Gaza war, highlighting the widespread opposition within the department to the Biden administrations support for Israels war in Gaza.

Earlier this month, the IDF also killed seven humanitarian aid workers with World Central Kitchen, a non-profit founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres. One of those killed included a dual American-Canadian citizen. The non-profit said the IDF also gravely injured an eighth aid worker the same day in a separate strike. The Israeli government called the 1 April killings a mistake.
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A jury has convicted Donald Trump in the New York hush-money trial, making him the first US president to be convicted of a crime.

Meanwhile, he faces three other criminal indictments for withholding classified documents in Florida and attempting to overturn the 2020 election in two separate cases in Washington DC and Fulton County, Georgia. And thats all while he remains hot on the trail of another stint in the White House.

The ex-commander-in-chief  already the first in American history to be impeached twice  is also battling a number of other lawsuits relating to his business practices and personal history.

He denies all possible charges and is arguing that, in any case, a president should be granted absolute immunity from prosecution to enable them to execute difficult decisions in the Oval Office without fear of future reprisals, a matter on which the US Supreme Court could soon rule.

Despite this blizzard of controversy, conservative voters appear largely persuaded by Mr Trumps baseless political persecution narrative, which he has gleefully used to fundraise for his campaign.

The candidate has insisted he will remain in the race for the presidency whatever the outcome of the criminal cases against him.

What are the four indictments about?

Mr Trumps troubles began in April 2023, when he became the first-ever former or current American president to be hit with criminal charges when a New York City grand jury voted to indict him over an alleged $130,000 hush money payment made to the porn star Stormy Daniels just prior to the 2016 election.

He pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in order to the hide the payout to Ms Daniels, allegedly made to suppress her allegation about an extramarital sexual encounter in 2006 that might have cost him valuable support at the polls.

His second indictment followed that June, when Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith handed down federal charges against Mr Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, with 37 counts related to the unlawful retention of classified documents post-presidency and the obstruction of justice.

A second Trump employee, Carlos De Oliveira, was later also caught up in the case, brought about after the FBI raided his private residence, Mar-a-Lago, in search of boxes of classified documents he had declined to return to the National Archives.

Donald Trump appears in a Manhattan court in April 2023 ( AP )

Mr Trumps third indictment, again courtesy of Mr Smith, occurred in August and pertained to the 2020 election and his role in kickstarting the Capitol riot.

The former president was then indicted for a fourth time in Georgia later that month, this time charged by Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis with 13 counts related to an alleged conspiracy to alter the election result in the swing state in the aftermath of his defeat to Joe Biden.

He was charged alongside 18 other defendants, including Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and Sidney Powell, in an indictment containing a total of 41 counts related to racketeering.

Mr Trump has further been found liable for the sexual abuse and defamation of magazine columnist E Jean Carroll and for fraud over the Trump Organizations systematic inflation of the value of its assets to secure favourable terms from lenders, which yielded a $464m judgement against him earlier this year.

So can he still run for president?

There are no explicit restrictions in the US Constitution to prevent anyone convicted of a crime  or even currently serving prison time, for that matter  from running for or winning the presidency.

That said, a clause contained within the 14th Amendment was enough to convince the Colorado Supreme Court and Maines secretary of state that Mr Trump should be removed from ballot papers over his part in inciting the events of January 6.

However, the former president was able to successfully appeal both of those decisions and the matter ended up in the conservative-majority Supreme Court. There, the justices ignored the question of whether or not he had engaged in an insurrection but determined unanimously that only Congress could disqualify a candidate for federal office.

But despite his conviction, Mr Trump would still be free to run the entirety of his campaign from a prison cell.

What is far less clear is what would happen if he were to win.

Trumps booking mugshot released by the Fulton County Sheriffs Office in August 2023 ( Reuters )

Just as there are no restrictions in the Constitution on a person running while under indictment, there is no explanation of what should occur if they go on to win, not even an automatic reprieve from prison time.

State-level charges like the ones filed by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg or Ms Willis fall outside of any prospective presidential pardoning power. Its unclear if Trump will get jail time in the hush money case, but if he should win the 2024 vote while facing prison, it would likely lead to a massive legal brawl to determine whether there was a way for him to wriggle out of serving time.

If Trump was unable to avoid jail, it would almost certainly lead to his impeachment (for a jaw-dropping third time) or his removal via the 25th Amendment.

There are many duties and trappings of the presidency he would simply be unable to fulfil from a prison cell  the viewing of classified materials, to name just one.

While much remains unknown, the conversations Donald Trump has started with his bid for the presidency under such troubled circumstances have already pushed theoretical constitutional law into much darker places than many experts ever believed they might live to see.

This story was updated on 30 May 2024 to reflect new developments.
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Former president Donald Trump fired out three furious all-caps posts on his Truth Social page on 18 March 2023, invoking images of burning cities and World War III while stoking unrest with a call for his supporters to protest, protest, protest what he predicted would be his arrest in New York.

Alvin Bragg  the Manhattan district attorney whose office is overseeing a criminal investigation into the former presidents business practices following long-running allegations of fraud  issued a memo to his staff in response, stressing that he does not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York.

His internal message did not mention the former president by name or his incendiary rhetoric, but he referred to public comments surrounding an ongoing investigation by this office.

As with all of our investigations, we will continue to apply the law evenly and fairly, and speak publicly only when appropriate, he said.

On 30 March 2023, a Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Mr Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, making him the first former president ever to face criminal charges. Prosecutors accuse him of attempting to cover up an illegal scheme to suppress negative stories about him in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Like all defendants facing criminal charges, Mr Trump was processed before appearing in court on Tuesday 4 April 2023, with his fingerprints taken. However, he was not placed in handcuffs and no mugshot was taken.

At his arraignment that day, Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges before flying back to his Florida home at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach in time to deliver a prime-time address that night.

No matter who you are, we cannot and will not normalise serious criminal conduct, said Mr Bragg at a press conference that afternoon.

Throughout the prosecution and build-up to the trial, Mr Trumps allies and right-wing pundits have bombarded Mr Braggs office with claims of election interference or raised baseless conspiracy theories, including antisemitic and racist attacks, that baselessly accuse him of leading a politically motivated case against the 2024 candidate for president.

They also claim that Mr Bragg pursued the investigation while ignoring violent crime.

However, in 2022 when Mr Bragg took office, homicides in New York City fell by 12 per cent and then fell again by the same amount again in 2023. Shootings dropped by 17 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021, and 24.7 per cent in 2023 to the lowest rates since 2019, and significantly lower than massive surges in 1980s and 1990s. Indeed in the first quarter of 2024, crime across the five boroughs and in the nations largest subway system has continued to decrease from the highs recorded in the Covid-19 pandemic.

The former president and other right-wing conspiracy theorists have also placed Mr Bragg at the centre of antisemitic and racist conspiracy theories, alleging Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros is directing Mr Braggs investigation at the expense of the lives of Black New Yorkers. On 19 March 2023  shortly before the former president was indicted  Fox News programme Fox & Friends said that the Black prosecutor has to pay his master back by prosecuting Mr Trump.

So who is the man who could take down the former president?

Manhattans first-ever Black district attorney was overwhelmingly elected to the role in November 2021 with 84 per cent of the boroughs vote, handily defeating Republican opponent Thomas Kenniff in the general election for New York County District Attorney. He was sworn into office on 1 January 2022.

In addition to being the first Black district attorney, I think Ill probably be the first district attorney whos had police point a gun at him, Mr Bragg said during a victory speech after his election.

I think Ill be the first district attorney whos had a homicide victim on his doorstep. I think Ill be the first district attorney in Manhattan whos had a semi-automatic weapon pointed at him. I think Ill be the first district attorney in Manhattan whos had a loved one re-enter from incarceration and stay with him, he added. And Im going to govern from that perspective.

An early memo from Mr Braggs office said he would only seek jail time for the most serious offences with a goal to keep non-violent or first-time offenders out of jail, stressing that locking people up does not stop or slow crime. After widespread criticism from police groups and public officials, he later clarified that prosecutors ultimately have that discretion.

But the pledge outraged right-wing tabloids and Republican officials; Mr Braggs policy likely would have had a significant impact on hundreds of people routinely sent to jail for non-violent crimes, an effort that has increasingly seen bipartisan support.

( REUTERS )

Right-wing media and Republican officials routinely painted New York City as lawless and crime-infested, pointing the blame at recent laws aimed at reforming the money bail system.

New Yorks Division of Criminal Justice Services, however, has reported that the re-arrest rate is nearly identical since the reforms were implemented in 2020. Criminologists have not made any meaningful connections between crime rates and so-called progressive prosecutors.

Mr Braggs office and investigations were roundly criticised by Republican candidates across the country in 2022s elections, including by then-candidate for New York governor Lee Zeldin, a campaign that the GOP hoped would chip away at the states reliable Democratic firewall ahead of 2024.

Mr Zeldin accused the district attorney of abandoning his duties and refusing to enforce the law after Mr Bragg pledged that his office would limit the kinds of cases for which prosecutors would seek prison sentences, a line of attack that echoed across the country as candidates pounced on progressive prosecutors to advance a tough on crime message. (Mr Zeldins campaign also aired a violent advert telling voters to cast their ballots like their lives depended on it.)

Recommended Trump fails to delay his hush money trial after appeals court rejects his pleas for third straight day

While in office, Mr Bragg also opened a new Special Victims Division to focus on sex crimes, human trafficking and domestic violence. The offices hate crimes unit also has expanded with additional prosecutors and investigators.

The 49-year-old former state attorney and federal prosecutor from Harlem has been involved with lawsuits against the Trump administration more than 100 times.

As the chief deputy attorney general for the state of New York, Mr Bragg led a lawsuit against the Donald J Trump Foundation, which resulted in then-president Trump admitting that he used the organisation for political purposes and for his business under an alleged scheme that the office of New York attorney general called a shocking pattern of illegality. The foundation agreed to pay out $2m to charities and agreed to dissolve.

After he was repeatedly asked in his new role as DA whether an investigation into Mr Trump and his Trump Organization was still ongoing, Mr Bragg said: It is.

Prosecutors are going through documents, interviewing witnesses and exploring evidence not previously explored, he added.

The criminal investigation into the former presidents business empire centres on a hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Mr Bragg inherited the case from his predecessor Cy Vance, who began his investigation into Mr Trump while he was still in the White House.

The case against the former president going to trial on 15 April stems from when Mr Trumps former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to a federal charge relating to a $130,000 payment made to Ms Daniels two years earlier in the run-up to 2016s presidential election. The case of federal prosecutors during the Trump administration who outlined Cohens actions notably said they were made in service of then-President Trump.

The payment allegedly intended to buy Ms Daniels silence before she spoke publicly about an alleged affair with then-candidate Trump. Cohen was allegedly repaid the money he gave to her in payments that could be grounds for felony falsification of business records. Mr Trump has continued to deny the affair, though Ms Daniels has spoken about it in great detail in interviews since the story became public.

As the grand jury investigation wrapped up, Mr Trump appeared to be the only person to have leaked news of his predicted arrest. He made similar claims during a federal law enforcement search of his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida, publicising that a raid was underway before law enforcement agencies did.

The former presidents attacks on the DA didnt end after his arrest and arraignment a year ago. In his primetime TV address at Mar-a-Lago on that night he railed against the charges, Mr Bragg, and Judge Juan Merchan.

The criminal is the district attorney because he illegally leaked massive amounts of grand jury information, he said to loud applause. For which he should be prosecuted, or at a minimum he should resign.

He also targeted Mr Braggs wife and the Trump hating-judge with a Trump-hating wife and family.

His statements came just hours after Judge Merchan warned Mr Trump against making any threatening posts on social media that could inflame tensions or incite violence.

In the year since his arrest and arraignment, the former presidents continued attacks on the DA raised the probability that he could be placed under a gag order, which indeed happened and was then extended due to further vitriolic attacks on Judge Merchans family.

Mr Bragg had asked the judge to extend his gag order to cover court officers families due to Mr Trumps extreme and deliberate provocations.

With the landmark case due to start in just a couple of days, Mr Trump has lost three last-ditch bids in three days to delay proceedings.

The former president and Mr Bragg will therefore face off in court for four days a week over six weeks in the historic trial, the likes of which the US has never seen before.

This story was initially published on 19 March 2023 and has been updated with developments
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Kamala Harris used a speech in Arizona to accuse Donald Trump of trying to take womens rights back to the 1800s and gaslighting America over his abortion views, arguing the former president denied his role in setting the stage for the state this week to uphold a near-total abortion ban.

What has happened here in Arizona is a new inflexion point, Vice-President Harris said during a Friday speech, suggesting that Donald Trumps support for abortion restrictions and appointment of conservative justices to the Supreme Court, who later struck down Roe v Wade, were key tipping points leading to the Arizona Supreme Courts decision to uphold an 1800s-era abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest.

It has demonstrated once and for all that overturning Roe was just the opening act of a larger strategy to take womens rights and freedoms, part of a full-on attack, state-by-state, on reproductive freedom. And we all must understand who is to blame: former president Donald Trump did this, Ms Harris said.

The Biden administration official warned the crowd that a second Trump term could mean a nationwide abortion ban, despite the former presidents recent assurances he wouldnt sign such a bill into law.

Now Trump wants us to believe he will not sign a national ban, Ms Harris added at the event. Enough with the gaslighting. We all know if Donald Trump gets the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban.

The Arizona visit is the latest in a string of trips from the vice president to key swing states like Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, and Georgia, all of which the Biden campaign carried on narrow margins in 2020.

In March, during a trip to Minnesota, Ms Harris became the first president or vice president to visit an abortion clinic.

The Biden administration has sought to link Donald Trump and a second Trump turn to the wave of abortion restrictions being put into place post-Roe.

Mr Trump, for his part, has offered mixed messages about abortion since the Arizona ruling, a decision so hardline many Republicans are refusing to stand by it, despite many of them pushing to restrict access to the procedure.

This Wednesday the former president, on the way to a fundraiser in Atlanta, told reporters he wouldnt sign a national abortion ban and called on Arizona lawmakers to bring the states abortion policies back into the realm of reason.

Itll be straightened out and as you know, its all about states rights, Mr Trump said. Itll be straightened out, and Im sure that the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back into reason and thatll be taken care of, I think, very quickly.

However, earlier this week, in a video posted on Truth Social, Mr Trump also said he was proudly the person responsible for the 2022 demise of Roe. This Supreme Court precedent established a constitutional right to an abortion.

During his time in office, Mr Trump said he would sign a House-backed abortion ban that would outlaw the procedure after 20 weeks, but the bill never made it to his desk.

In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling to abolish Roe, at least 21 states ban or restrict abortion earlier in pregnancy than the standard set in the landmark case, according to data from The New York Times.
NGINAMADVOLO  An adult man of Nginamadvolo in the Hhohho region has voluntarily removed pictures of two lions on the gate leading to his homestead after he was accused by some residents of showing disrespect to the King.

For two years now, the pictures of the two lions formed part of the decor for the mans gate but it seems this has not been sitting well with some residents. In their view, the mans decision to display the pictures of the two lions outside his homesteads gate was an act of disrespect towards not just the countrys culture but the King himself.

In the Eswatini culture and customs, a lion is associated with the King while an elephant is aligned with the Queen Mother.

Some residents in the area are said to have taken up the matter with some umphakatsi members to whom they voiced out their displeasure about the impression the mans gate was giving in as far as culture was concerned. It must be revealed, however , that the two lion pictures have been outside the gate for about two years now allegedly without anybody complaining, as attested by the home owner when speaking to the Eswatini News this week.

Disappointment

He did not hide his disappointment at the manner in which this issue is being handled, pointing out that the pictures of the lions have been in existence for a long time. I am very surprised that there are people who have issues with the pictures of the lions on my gate because if my memory serves me well, they have been there for about two years.

Why have an issue now? It really beats me, but I have to respect that people will always have their opinions on things and you cannot control that, he said.

Adding, the man said he has not been summoned or interrogated about the pictures in question either by the police or umphakatsi. Just the other day, I was speaking with the chief in Piggs Peak town on other issues and he never mentioned the issue of the pictures. This is a decor I bought because it looked nice on my gate, there was no malice intended to the King or my culture as liSwati, he added.

The man did not hide his growing suspicions that some people in the area were jealous of his success in life.

Eversince I built this house, I have been observing negative energies from some people in my area. I am now even suspecting that those are the very people who are creating unnecessary drama about the two lion pictures on my gate, he said.

Adding, he made it known that he would never disrespect the King because he is loyal to the countrys authorities.

Not long ago, some police officers came to my home looking for a boy they thought was hiding here but they never said anything about the lion pictures on the gate. Before that, bemanti also came here during the Incwala period but they never raised an issue about the pictures. That is why I am puzzled as to why it is an issue now to people in my area, he said. Out of respect for the King and the country, the man revealed that he has decided to remove the pictures.

Spite

I can see that some people want to deliberately take this matter far and create trouble for me out of spite. I do not want to be seen as a disrespectful person, which is the reason I have decided to remove the pictures. As we speak, they are no longer on my gate, he said. The man said he was now even sceptical about wearing a t-shirt bearing a lion because some would view it as being disrespectful.

One of the residents, who claimed to have blown the whistle on the man with the umphakatsi insisting that this was nothing personal. This was done purely out of respect for culture, not that anybody has a vendetta against him. Look, he built his home on Swazi Nation Land, which in cultural terms, is authorised by the King. We also all know that a lion is associated with the King in our culture and you cannot therefore put pictures of lions on your gate. It is disrespect to the King, the resident said. Another resident supported these sentiments, adding that the mans actions amounted to a fine by the umphakatsi.
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In a typical presidential election year, candidates will spend the 11 months leading up to election day shaking hands and kissing babies at rallies as the primaries unfold.

But nothing is typical when it comes to Donald Trump.

Instead, the ex-president will be forced to juggle his campaign for the White House while also defending himself in federal and state courts in four different cases that have hearings and trial dates scattered throughout 2024.

Mr Trumps clashing schedules kicked off with E Jean Carrolls damages trial on the same day as the Iowa caucus and run through all the way to the Republican convention. The former presidents jam-packed schedule seemingly leaves little time for him to socialise outside of a courtroom.

How Mr Trump will manage his campaign while convincing voters hes innocent of it all  including alleged efforts to overturn previous elections in his favour  remains to be seen.

How is Donald Trumps 2024 calendar playing out?

15 April 2024  Hush-money payment trial begins

Last year, Mr Trump became the first sitting or former president to be criminally indicted after being charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in a Manhattan criminal court.

On 15 April, the trial began with jury selection. Opening statements  and potentially the first witness testimony  are expected to take place on Monday 22 April.

The charges stem from an investigation by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg that alleges Mr Trump tried to cover up hush money payments that he made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels in 2016 to silence her claims of an extramarital affair.

Mr Trump sits at the defence table with his legal team in a Manhattan court in April last year ( AP )

25 April 2024 - Supreme Court hears oral arguments for Trumps presidential immunity defence

The Supreme Court agreed in February to hear the case from Mr Trump after lower courts rejected his presidential immunity defence from criminal charges related to his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The arguments will take place on the last day of the courts calendar. The courts ruling is highly anticipated after the election conspiracy case, prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith in Washington, DC, essentially came to a halt when Mr Trump came forward with his defence. The trial was initially supposed to start on 4 March and has since been delayed.

So far, Mr Trumps defence has been shot down at both the appeals court and by the federal judge overseeing the case. Last month, appeals court judges wrote that citizen Trump is not shielded by executive immunity, and that his alleged efforts to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election were, if proven, an unprecedented assault on the structure of our government.

July-August 2024  federal classified documents trial could begin

Mr Trump is expected back in federal court this summer, this time in Florida, to face 40 charges pertaining to his alleged mishandling of sensitive government documents.

Officials have not announced an exact date, but prosecutors have proposed 8 July as an option, while Mr Trumps team have pushed for a 12 August start date. The trial was initially supposed to begin on 20 May.

Federal prosecutors indicted Mr Trump last June for allegedly unlawfully retaining top-secret documents that contained national security information at his Mar-a-Lago home after he left office. The charges include violating a section of the Espionage Act for allegedly unlawfully retaining top-secret documents that contained national security information.

15-18 July 2024 - GOP convention

After the remaining states conduct their primaries, the Republican Party will host its convention where it will announce an official nominee.

At the moment, Mr Trump is the unofficial presumptive Republican nominee after his final GOP opponent, Nikki Haley, dropped out of the race. Her concession came after losing fourteen state primaries to the former president on Super Tuesday.

5 August 2024  Georgia election interference trial?

Three months before election day, Mr Trump is expected to head to trial in Georgia for his alleged involvement in trying to overturn the states 2020 election results in his favour.

The former president was charged with violating Georgias Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute along with 18 other co-defendants.

Mr Trump faces 12 additional charges including solicitation of a public officer, conspiracy to make false statements under oath and more.

The trial was delayed while District Attorney Fani Willis faced allegations from Mr Trumps legal team that a previous romantic relationship with a prosecutor she hired for the case presented a conflict of interest. Ms Willis prevailed and prosecutor Nathan Wade resigned.

Efforts to delay the case continue and no trial date has been set, despite prosecution requests for a 5 August start date.

5 November 2024  Election Day

On Tuesday, 5 November, US voters will head to the polls to vote for a president.

Mr Trump delivers a speech at the Republican convention in 2016  the party will host this years convention in July, where it will announce an official nominee ( Getty Images )

How will this affect Donald Trump?

Glancing over Mr Trumps calendar, it may seem like his ability to successfully campaign is virtually impossible. But the ex-president has positioned himself to benefit from his trials.

In a weird way, none of this really bothers him. In fact, its a great asset for him politically, Kevin OBrien, a partner at Ford OBrien Landy LLP and former assistant US attorney, told The Independent.

Mr Trump has capitalised on his trials by painting himself as a victim  or martyr as Mr OBrien points out  to appeal to his supporters.

After each indictment, the ex-presidents campaign has called on supporters to express their outrage through their wallets. Splashed across his website, Truth Social posts and emails is Mr Trumps new slogan: Theyre not after me, theyre after you Im just standing in the way.

Mr Trump has capitalised on his trials by painting himself as a victim, calling on his supporters to express their outrage through their wallets ( Getty Images )

Even though some of the trials raise questions about Mr Trumps ability to lead the country successfully  such as the classified documents case and the federal election interference case  his former job and loyal fanbase reinforce his ability to be president.

He can always argue, and he will argue up until the day of the election, this is all unfair and he wasnt able to campaign effectively because of all these persecutions from Garland and Biden, Mr OBrien said.

But the likelihood that Mr Trump will have to juggle three criminal trials and a campaign simultaneously is still unclear. Though the judges in each case have set start dates, they can be changed  and according to Mr OBrien, it is likely that they will be.

Mr OBrien said the three trials are not feasible because they require massive time and resources from both the prosecutors and Mr Trumps legal team.

Its terribly unfair to the defence, Mr OBrien said. It takes months and months to prepare for one of these large white-collar cases  he only has so much manpower at his disposal.

Already, Mr Trumps legal team has sought to delay the trials by using every legal motion possible.

Two of the trials against Mr Trump will most likely need to be delayed until after the election. Prosecutors may choose to go forward with the strongest case against the ex-president which appears to be the federal election interference case.

Those issues are important for voters, its important to know how he intends to defend himself against what appears to be a pretty serious constitutional and criminal offence, Mr OBrien said.

Mr OBrien suggested the case could take two to three months to be completed, meaning the trial could conclude shortly before the GOP convention.

Even if its the only case Mr Trump is trailed in before the election, theres no telling how the outcome will change voters, and the Republican Partys, perception of the former president.
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Donald Trump has volunteered to testify at his upcoming criminal trial in Manhattan on charges connected to a hush money scheme to bury politically compromising stories of his alleged affairs.

During an unrelated press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday, standing alongside Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, the former president was asked whether he plans to testify in the case, with jury selection set to begin on Monday 15 April.

Yeah, I would testify, absolutely, he told reporters. Thats not a trial. Thats a scam.

As the event in Florida was underway, New York Justice Juan Merchan  a frequent target of Mr Trumps public attacks, and smeared as a Democratic operative leading a politically motivated prosecution against him  denied Mr Trumps latest attempt to adjourn the proceedings, after the former presidents attorneys argued that the trials publicity has deprived him of a fair trial.

The solution, Judge Merchan wrote, is a thorough, thoughtful and effective voir dire process during jury selection.

Mr Trump, who casts himself as a victim of a Democratic-led conspiracy theory against him, told reporters on Friday that the jury selection process that begins on Monday is largely luck.

It depends on who you get, he said.

Donald Trump speaks to reporters at Mar-a-Lago on 12 April. ( Getty Images )

Three state appeals court judges and the judge overseeing the case against Mr Trump all rejected Mr Trumps appeals to delay the case for four consecutive days this week.

On Tuesday, an appellate court judge rejected the first of four 11th-hour requests to delay the case while Mr Trump tries to move the trial out of Manhattan. A judge also rejected his request to delay the case while he challenges a gag order that prohibits parties from publicly attacking court staff and their families.

The following day, Mr Trumps attorneys failed to convince an appellate court that Judge Merchan caused the former president ongoing, unconstitutional and irreparable harm and has denied Mr Trumps chances at a fair trial.

His attorneys also failed to stall the trial while Mr Trump appeals the judges rejection of a presidential immunity defence that Mr Trump has raised to shield certain evidence against him.

Judge Merchan has a tremendous conflict at a level that nobody has seen before, Mr Trump told reporters on Friday.

They dont give us anything. Its a witch hunt that is taking place in New York, he said.

New York Justice Juan Merchan ( AP )

A grand jury indictment charges the former president with 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged scheme to buy up the rights to stories that would be politically damaging during his 2016 presidential campaign.

The case from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleges that Mr Trump falsified reimbursements to his then-attorney Michael Cohen as legal expenses when he was in fact paying adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair, fearing the publics attention could damage his election prospects.

He has pleaded not guilty.

If he does testify in the case, Mr Trump would join what is expected to be a lineup of other high-profile witnesses that includes former White House aides as well as Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.
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A first-time mother was among those killed in a shock stabbing spree at a Sydney shopping mall, with her nine-month-old baby undergoing surgery after suffering knife wounds.

Six people were murdered at the Westfield Bondi Junction centre on Saturday afternoon, with the attacker shot dead by a heroic off-duty female police officer who had responded to the scene.

Ash Good, 38, is the first victim to be identified, with witnesses reporting that she handed over her small child to other terrified shoppers for them to carry out make-shift medical aid.

Ash Good has been named as one of the knifemans victims while her baby remains in hospital ( PA )

Two brothers said they tried to help her and her child using shirts from the shop they were sheltering in to stop the bleeding.

One of the brothers told 9News Sydney: We were just shopping and saw the man run up to the woman with the baby and then we were both ready to go and help out.

But I just said to my brother, Weve got to run in  [we] ran in, told the guys to lock up the doors and then the mother came with the baby bleeding, stabbed and we got them into the store and just got them safe and then rang for help.

Police entering the Bondi Junction shopping centre after receiving reports of a stabbing attack ( AFP via Getty Images )

He added that his brother helped with holding the baby, and trying to compress the baby, and [the] same with the mother  trying to compress the blood from stopping, and call the ambulance and the police.

She was later confirmed as one of the deceased victims, with New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb telling reporters it was too soon to provide an update on her childs condition.

In the first tributes from those who knew her, Ms Good was described as a beautiful person, a wonderful athlete, who had been so excited to welcome her child.

Emotional shoppers being evacuated from the shopping mall ( AP )

Local media has reported that, just hours before the stabbing spree, Ms Good posted a video on Instagram of her daughter in her car seat, eating a snack, to the soundtrack of My Girl by The Temptations.

Emergency services were contacted at around 3.30pm local time after a lone knifeman entered the mall and began indiscriminately attacking shoppers.

A shocking video shared online appears to show a shopper confronting the attacker, who is wielding a large blade, on an escalator by holding a bollard towards him.

Four women and a man died within the shopping centre, while another woman, believed to be Ms Good, was confirmed dead after being rushed to hospital. Eight people, including her child, are in hospitals around Sydney receiving treatment for different injuries.

A video shows a brave shopper confronting the knifeman with a bollard on escalators inside the mall ( X )

A female New South Wales Police inspector has been hailed a hero after she confronted the attacker on her own, shooting him dead as he raised a knife and lunged at her.

At a press conference, Anthony Cooke, the forces assistant commissioner, said: This all happened very, very quickly  the officer that was in the vicinity attended on her own, [and] was guided to the location of the offender by people who were in the centre.

She took the actions that she did saving a range of peoples lives; (she was) an inspector, a senior police officer  she was on her own.

Police have said they believe the attacker was a 40-year-old male who was previously known to law enforcement agencies. While no motive has yet been established, it is not believed to be a terror-related incident.

Terrified shoppers were forced to take cover in stores before the attacker was shot dead ( AP )

A supervisor of a luggage store in the centre said he witnessed the attacker stab a woman and saw the bodies of four people on the ground, including two security guards.

Yohan Francois Philip, 29, said a woman fleeing the attacker ran to his shop, banged on the door and said let me in.

He added: As I was letting her in, the perpetrator fell behind her with a knife and I saw him and so did the other customers in the store locked in with us and so we quickly pulled her in, [and] locked the door. He got up and we realised he [had] just stabbed two security guards.

Then he ran across to the corner part of the luggage store, to the premium section, and he stabbed a woman, which I saw happen right in front of me.

Another shopper also described the attacker heading in her direction before the female officer shot him dead.

Two brothers desperately attempted to save the lives of the mother and her baby by using shirts from a shop ( 9 News Australia )

If she didnt shoot him, he would have kept going, she said. He was on the rampage.

Then she walked over and gave him CPR. He had a big blade on him  she chucked the knife away. He looked like he was on a killing spree.

King Charles said he and the Queen were utterly shocked and horrified by the senseless attack in Sydney and their hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who have been so brutally killed.

Prince William and Kate also offered their condolences, saying they were shocked and saddened by the terrible events.
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A baby girl injured in a stabbing attack at the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre has been moved out of the intensive care.

The nine-month-old child was in a serious but stable condition, a health official said. Her mother, Ashlee Good, was among the six people killed in the carnage on Saturday.

Meanwhile, police in Sydney declared the attack on a bishop at a church as an act of terrorism, as authorities call for calm in the wake of disturbance following the incident.

At least four people were injured in the attack, including Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, during a service at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in the suburb of Wakeley in the west of the city.

A 16-year-old boy was arrested during the event, which triggered a riot outside the church. Two officers were injured with one suffering a broken jaw after he was hit with a brick and fence palings. Ten police cars were destroyed.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese urged the public not to take the law into their own hands. It is not acceptable to impede police and injure police doing their duty or to damage police vehicles in a way that we saw last night, he added.
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German chancellor Olaf Scholz said he urged Chinese president Xi Jinping to press Russia to end its war in Ukraine.

Mr Scholz told Mr Xi in a meeting in Beijing on Tuesday that Chinas word carries weight in Russia.

I have therefore asked president Xi to influence Russia so that Putin finally calls off his senseless campaign, withdraw his troops and ends this terrible war, he wrote on social media platform X.

Earlier, a Russian source said Moscow was ready to redeploy Wagner troops working in Africa to bolster its offensive in Ukraine.

The source claimed Russian authorities are preparing to redeploy unspecified detachments of the Africa Corps from Africa to Belgorod, Ukraine, according to US think tank Institute for the Study of War.
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Iran has fired a massive swarm of more than 200 killer drones as well as ballistic and cruise missiles towards Israel, the Israeli military has said, igniting fears of region-wide war.

It is Tehrans first-ever direct attack on Israels soil, officials confirmed, which comes amid boiling tensions following the countrys devastating six-month war in Gaza.

Air raid sirens wailed and explosions lit up the skies over Israel, the occupied West Bank and Jordan overnight Saturday, as Irans Revolutionary Guards confirmed it launched the attack it has dubbed Operation True Promise.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, said together with Israels allies and partners across the region they had intercepted the vast majority of drones. But some landed inside Israel causing minor damage to an Israeli military base and injuring a 10-year-old girl.

Our planes are in the air. Tonights wide scale attack by Iran is a major escalation. Together with our allies and partners we are operating at full force to defend the state of Israel and the people of Israel, he added.

The UK and the US confirmed their jets in the region have been deployed to shoot down the missiles, and there were later reports they had successfully downed drones over Iraq-Syria border area. Prime minister Rishi Sunak condemned in the strongest terms Irans reckless attack and pledged to continue to stand up for Israels security and that of all our regional partners.

Joe Biden affirmed the USs ironclad support for Israel against the threats from Tehran.

Click here for live updates

Israel has been on high alert as Iran had been threatening retaliation for a strike on its Damascus consulate on 1 April that killed seven officers, among them two senior commanders. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the consulate bombing.

Irans mission to the United Nations said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Saturdays unprecedented attack was a direct response to Israels aggression.

The Iron Dome defence system targets drones in central Israel ( AP )

The Israeli military meanwhile warned that there would probably be several waves of drones following the first salvo.

We are continuing to intercept dozens of attack drones as well as cruise missiles and ballistic missiles outside of Israels border, said Rear Admiral Hagari, after the country shut down its airspace and warned citizens in the northern parts of the country to take shelter. The event is ongoing, he added as another Israeli military official told reporters that there may be more waves of drones through the night.

The same military official said that Israel was coordinating with United States Central Command (Centcom) as well as the United Kingdom. US Centcom chief General Erik Kurilla visited Israel two days ago to discuss these plans.

The war room in Tel Aviv after Iran launched drone strikes on Israel ( Supplied )

There are tens of aircraft in Israels skies at this time. We have conducted some GPS scrambling , the official added, without going into more detail. Explosions lit up the sky in Jerusalem, as well as the Jordanian capital Amman as apparent interceptions took place.

In a late-night statement on Saturday, the British Ministry of Defence said in response to increased Iranian threats and the growing risk of escalation in the Middle East, the UK government had moved several additional Royal Air Force jets and air refuelling tankers to the region. These will bolster Operation Shader, which is the UKs existing counter-Isis operation in Iraq and Syria.

In addition, these UK jets will intercept any airborne attacks within range of our existing missions, as required.

An official at the Pentagon also confirmed US aircraft were involved. In accordance with our ironclad commitment to Israels security, US forces in the region continue to shoot down Iranian-launched drones targeting Israel. Our forces remain postured to provide additional defensive support and to protect US forces operating in the region, the statement read.

Later sources told Reuters that US and British jets had shot down drones over the Iraq-Syria border. Regional sources told Reuters that Jordanian jets downed dozens of Iranian drones flying across northern and central Jordan heading to Israel.

Obviously everybody between here and Tehran is being impacted by whats happened over the last few hours, the Israeli military official added. Its a regional regional threat. The turmoil that Iran has caused this evening is unprecedented.

People celebrate the attack on Israel in Tehran ( AFP )

Israel launched an unprecedented bombardment of the besieged strip in October, in retaliation for Hamas bloody attack on southern Israel where militants killed over 1100 people and took more than 240 hostage.

Since then Isreals offensive has killed more than 33,000 people in Gaza according Palestinian health ministry and sparked a devastating famine. The war, now in its seventh month, has also driven up tensions in the region, spreading to fronts with Lebanon and Syria and drawing long-range fire at Israeli targets from as far away as Yemen and Iraq.

Irans drone attack  the first ever direct attack on Israeli soil  could see an even wider front open. Irans mission to the United Nations said on X that the wave of drones was legitimate defence for the attack on its consulate in Damascus.

It said: The matter can be deemed concluded, unless Israel strikes again. It warned the US to stay away. President Biden, who on Friday warned Iran against attacking Israel after saying such a scenario appeared imminent, has pledged to stand with its ally against Iran, the White House said.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, convened the war cabinet where he told Israeli citizens that Israel had been preparing for a direct attack from Iran for years.

Our defensive systems are deployed; we are ready for any scenario, both defensively and offensively.

We appreciate the US standing alongside Israel, as well as the support of Britain, France and many other countries. We have determined a clear principle: whoever harms us, we will harm them. We will defend ourselves against any threat and will do so level-headedly and with determination.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had threatened to attack Israel ( AP )

Israels military put the northern part of the occupied Golan Heights as well as Nevatim, Dimona and Eilat on standby for possible impact from Iranian drone launches early on Sunday, instructing residents to stay close to bomb shelters. Its home guard said there will be no educational activity throughout the country. Also, gatherings of over 1,000 people are prohibited.

Multiple neighbouring countries have closed their airspaces following the launch of the attack, including Lebanon and Jordan.

Syria has put its Russian-made Pantsir ground-to-air defence systems around the capital Damascus and major bases on high alert in the event of an Israeli strike, army sources said. They said they expected Israel would retaliate against army bases and installations where pro-Iranian militia were based, following the drone strike.

Irans attack comes after months of ratcheting tensions in the region over Israels war in Gaza reached new levels last week.

The White House said on Saturday that Mr Biden had cut short his weekend plans to confer with national security advisers.

Hours later, Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, saying the vessel was linked to Israel.

A video purported to show the Iranian helicopter raid on the cargo ship MSC Aries near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday ( AP )

There are concerns this could trigger further conflict and a region-wide war. Iran said on Sunday it will not hesitate to take further defensive measures to protect its interests against any military aggression, the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Iran, if necessary, will not hesitate to take further defensive measures to safeguard its legitimate interests against any military aggressions and unlawful use of force, it said, according to state TV, while reaffirming its commitment to the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law.
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Iranian forces seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, as the world braced for Tehrans feared retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike on its consulate.

Commandos from Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard dropped from a helicopter onto the MSC Aries, a container vessel associated with Zodiac Maritime, run by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.

Iran said the vessel would be taken into Iranian territorial waters, though it has not explained the incident.

US president Joe Biden returned to Washington on Saturday afternoon to consult with his national security team a day after saying that he expects an Iranian attack against Israel sooner, rather than later. Asked by reporters for his message to Iran about a possible attack, Biden replied: Dont.

The anticipated attack would be retaliation for an Israeli strike earlier this month on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed 12 people, including a senior Guard general who once commanded its expeditionary Quds Force there.

Israel placed its armed forces on full alert, and has called off school trips and other youth activities planned for the coming days, the beginning of the Passover festival.

Biden on Friday said the United States was "devoted" to defending Israel and that "Iran will not succeed."

Israels war on Hamas in Gaza is now six months old and is inflaming decades-old tensions across the whole region.

With Iranian-backed forces such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Yemens Houthi rebels also involved in the fighting, any new attack in the Middle East threatens to escalate that conflict into a wider regional war.

Video of the ship seizure, showed Iranian commandos rappelling down o to a stack of containers on the deck of the vessel from what appeared to be a Soviet-era Mil Mi-17 helicopter.

The MSC Aries had been last located off Dubai heading towards the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. The ship had turned off its tracking data, which has been common for Israeli-affiliated ships moving through the region.

Iran has engaged in a series of ship seizures and attacks on vessels. In previous incidents, it has initially denied any link to wider geopolitical tensions before later acknowledging as much. However, it has offered no explanation for Saturdays seizure other than to say the MSC Aries had links to Israel.

For days, Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been threatening to slap Israel for the Syria strike. Western governments have issued warnings to their citizens in the region to be prepared for attacks.

Earlier this week, Guard General Ali Reza Tangsiri, who oversees its naval forces, criticised the presence of Israelis in the region and in the United Arab Emirates. The UAE reached a diplomatic recognition deal with Israel in 2020, something that long has enraged Tehran.

We know that bringing Zionists in at this point is not merely for economic work, he reportedly said. Now, they are carrying out security and military jobs. This is a threat, and this should not happen.

The Gulf of Oman is near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all globally traded oil passes. Fujairah, on the United Arab Emirates eastern coast, is a main port for ships to take on new oil cargo, pick up supplies or trade out crew.

Since 2019, the waters off Fujairah have seen a series of explosions and hijackings. The US Navy blamed Iran for limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
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The UN has called for the preservation of evidence of mass graves in the Gaza Strip after 390 bodies were found at two different burial sites outside the Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals.

The Israeli army said any suggestion of its responsibility was baseless and unfounded and the graves were dug by Gazans a few months ago.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said its important that all forensic evidence be well preserved.

Earlier, the US demanded answers from Israel after mass graves were found outside two hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, at least five people have been killed following Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Palestinian hospital officials have said.

More than half of the territorys population of 2.3 million have sought refuge in Rafah, where Israel has conducted near-daily raids as it prepares for an offensive in the city.

In central Gaza, four people were killed in Israeli tank shelling.
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President Joe Biden said the US expects Iran to launch an attack against Israel sooner rather than later but warned Tehran against pressing ahead.

Such an attack would greatly inflame tensions in the Middle East, undermining efforts by Washington and its allies to prevent Israels war on Gaza from spilling into a wider regional conflict. The Israeli offensive in Gaza, which started in October, has killed more than 33,000 people so far and turned the Palestinian enclave into a wasteland of rubble.

Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Mr Biden simply said: "Dont.

"We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed," he added.

Israel is braced for an attack in retaliation for last weeks strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus as Western capitals fear that an already volatile situation in the region could quickly spiral out of control.

Tel Aviv has said it is ready to defend against any reprisals over the 1 April strike that killed Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and six other Iranian officers.

Iran believes the attack was carried out by Israel, though Tel Aviv has not spoken about it. Tehran has vowed to respond.

Mr Biden said he would not divulge confidential information but added that his expectation was that an attack by Iran could come "sooner rather than later.

The comments came as Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Israel "must be punished and shall be" for an operation he said was equivalent to an attack on Iranian soil.

John Kirby, Bidens national security communications adviser, said the US is looking at its own force posture in the region in light of Tehrans threat and is watching the situation very closely.

The US has rushed warships into position to protect Israel and American forces in the region, hoping to head off a direct attack from Iran on Israel that could come as soon as Friday or Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The attack could involve up to 100 drones and missiles, CBS reported quoting two unnamed US officials.

The conflict could also involve Iranian proxies, according to unnamed sources in the Biden administration and intelligence officers quoted by CNN. They added, however, that militia groups aligned with Iran did not appear poised to attack US soldiers or assets in the region as Tehran was wary of a dramatic escalation of the conflict.

The moves by the US that are part of an effort to avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East came after a warning from a person familiar with the matter about the timing and location of the potential Iranian attack, according to the Wall Street Journal.

However, a person briefed by the Iranian leadership said that while plans to attack were being discussed, no final decision had been made, the Journal reported.

We are certainly mindful of a very public and what we consider to be a very credible threat made by Iran in terms of potential attacks on Israel, and that we are in constant communication with our Israeli counterparts about making sure that they can defend themselves against those kinds of attacks, Mr Kirby said.

Meanwhile, US secretary of state Antony Blinken spoke with the foreign ministers of Turkey, China and Saudi Arabia, urging them to put diplomatic pressure on Iran against escalating the conflict, said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

Mr Blinken also spoke with Egyptian foreign minister Shoukry about the risk of escalation by Iran, the spokesperson posted on X. They also discussed ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire, the release of hostages, increased humanitarian aid to Gaza, and protection of civilians.

India, France, Poland and Russia have issued pleas to their citizens not to travel to the region while the UK and Germany have warned Iran not to escalate tensions.

India advised its citizens against travelling to Iran and Israel until further notice in view of the prevailing situation in the region.

Indias foreign ministry said its citizens in the two countries should observe utmost precautions about their safety and restrict their movements to the minimum.

The French foreign ministry advised its citizens against travelling to Iran, Lebanon, Israel, and the Palestinian territories.

In a statement on X, the ministry added that relatives of Iran-based diplomats will return to France and that French civil servants are now banned from conducting any missions in Iran, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

On Thursday, the US State Department barred diplomatic staff and their families in Israel from travelling outside of the cities of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beer Sheva.

The security alert did not mention Iran directly but it followed a warning from Tehran that they would punish those it viewed as responsible for the attack in Syria.

Out of an abundance of caution, US government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beer Sheva areas until further notice, the US embassy warning read.

The security environment remains complex and can change quickly depending on the political situation and recent events.

Additional reporting by agencies
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The body of a missing Israeli teenager thought to have been killed in a Palestinian attack was found in the occupied West Bank on Saturday in an incident that could trigger further violence.

Israel called 14-year-old Binyamin Achimairs death a terrorist attack, and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged the assailants would be found.

The teenagers disappearance sparked attacks by Jewish settlers who entered a nearby Palestinian village and set houses and cars ablaze despite a plea from defence minister Yoav Gallant who urged Israelis not to take the law into their own hands.

Palestinian Jehad Abu Alia was killed and 25 others were wounded in the attack on Mughayir, Palestinian health officials said. Israeli troops delayed the ambulance carrying the 26-year-old mans body for burial, witnesses said.

Settlers blocked entrances to two more towns in the area on Saturday and threw stones at passing vehicles, Palestinian official news agency Wafa said.

In the village of Douma, Israeli settlers set fire to around 15 homes and 10 farms, the head of the local village council, Suleiman Dawabsheh, told Associated Press, saying he had been there. The army came but unfortunately, the army were protecting the settlers, he said.

Mourners carry the body of Jehad Abu Alia, who was killed in violence following the death of an Israeli teenager ( AP )

Hamas issued a statement urging Palestinians in the West Bank to fight against what it described as settler militias.

Violence in the West Bank was already on the rise before the Gaza war broke out on 7 October with Hamas shock attack in southern Israel. It has since increased, with stepped-up Israeli raids and Palestinian street attacks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing of Achimair.

According to Israeli media, he was last seen leaving the settler outpost of Malachei Shalom early Friday to tend to livestock nearby. The sheep returned to the outpost hours later without him, reports said.

Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian villages in the West Bank on Saturday ( AP )

Israels Channel 13 TV said Achimairs body was discovered by a drone.

Mr Netanyahu said: We will get to the murderers and their helpers as we do to anyone who harms the citizens of the state of Israel.

In 2014, the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank escalated tensions and eventually ignited a 50-day Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, at the time the deadliest round of fighting between the two sides.

While Israel has established scores of settlements across the occupied West Bank, the outposts are not authorised, though the government gives them tacit support. The international community overwhelmingly considers all West Bank settlements illegal and obstacles to peace.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
MANZINI - SANU has revealed its strategy to contribute in the fight against the high rate of unemployment in the Kingdom of Eswatini.

It is worth noting that according to statistics which were released by government, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, unemployment rate have increased from 33.3 per cent to 34.5 per cent. Therefore, SANU Vice Chancellor Faith Mlotsa said as a university, they were mindful of the current un-employability and job creation, a challenge that confronts their graduates. As one of their responses to minimise the effects of this position, the vice chancellor said they have incorporated an entrepreneurship module as an attempt to inculcate an entrepreneurship mind-set as well as capacitation with minimal business development skills.

Furthermore, she said their Business Management and Entrepreneurship students run an annual Business Entrepreneurship Day, where the youth is capacitated on business start-ups and industry personnel and also showcase their financial services, especially for the youth.

She said attendance at this event encompasses both high school-going pupils and tertiary students. She extended their gratitude to the First National Bank and Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation for their financial support of these events. On another note, she said in 2023 SANU held an institutional review of programmes, which was conducted by the higher education regulatory body, Eswatini Higher Education Council.

Pride

Through this exercise, she said, they take pride in rolling out two new long-awaited programmes, a Bachelor of Education in French and a Degree in Pharmacy, which also incorporates an Entrepreneurship module in the course structure. She also highlighted that as an ongoing exercise, they look forward to the rollout of several other programmes once they were approved.

The vice chancellor said they have noted the continual financial shortcomings like all other sectors and they were cognisant of the changing financial landscape in their sector. She said they also noted the dwindling numbers in their enrolment, which was mainly caused by minimal sponsorship and capping of enrolment in some programmes.

Therefore, she said currently they were engaging in developing a turnaround strategy, one that would address the current educational and financial landscape, as well as strengthen their research output as an institution of higher learning. She said they had already embarked on cost-containment and income-generation strategies. Motsa said as they undertook this drive, they plead with industries to partner with them through collaborations in some ventures. She mentioned that some of the responses in this regard were positive.

We recently received confirmation of a sponsorship of USD80 000 (about E1.5 million) by one of the Nazarene churches in the United States of America (USA) to repurpose one of their facilities at the Faculty of Education to a Learning Hub, which would service the two faculties at the Manzini campus, the vice chancellor said. This, she said, included the installation laptops for a computer laboratory and the construction of a student experience centre. She said construction works will commence in June 2024.

Renovated

At their Siteki campus, she said the student hostels had been renovated through the generous sponsorship of another church in the USA and four whiteboards were installed in four lecture rooms through the donation of one of the local Nazarene churches. On top of that, she said SANU was joining hands with other organisations and institutions through exchange programmes. She said they received a team of lecturers and students from Turku University in Finland, who visited them on an exchange programme on capacitation in Mental Health.

She said their team of lecturers and students also returned the visit in November 2023. Motsa added that a report on this programme indicates potential benefits for the country in addressing mental health challenges that have become prevalent even in their institutions. She said they were hopeful that the experience gathered would assist in generating substantial evidence of the need to provide differentiated centres for mental health assistance.

Exchange

The vice chancellor added that they have yet another exchange programme with a University in Greece, which should commence in May 2024. She said its purpose was to develop a Sports Science programme. We believe capacitating our youth with relevant skills in the field of sports can contribute to their livelihood and the economy of the country, she said. Moreover, the vice chancellor said they were grateful to government for the continued assistance with funds for students and subvention.

She also appreciated various stakeholders, who have contributed to making it possible for their graduates to reach this milestone. She said some sectors have contributed through the academic empowerment of staff to ensure relevance and alignment with the fourth industrial revolution, while others provided funding for graduates to pursue their studies.
Higher tax rate has raised 40m for the Exchequer since 2021

Finance Minister Michael McGrath said the number of homes being sold to bulk buyers is low. Photo: Sam Toal/Collins

A higher stamp duty rate that applies to bulk buyers of residential houses generated 40m for the Exchequer between 2021 and 2023.

But Finance Minister Michael McGrath said the government has no plans to hike the rate or alter the thresholds that apply to the tax.

Earlier this year, Sinn Fein pressed the Government to raise the rate to 17pc.

The Government introduced the 10pc rate in May 2021, for where 10 or more residential units are bought in bulk by one buyer.

The levy applies only to the bulk purchase of houses rather than apartments and is triggered where 10 or more houses are bought by a single purchaser in any 12-month period. The higher rate is applied once the 10th property has been bought and then applies to all 10 or more properties bought in the period.

The higher rate was introduced in an effort to curtail the bulk purchase of houses, which are then typically rented out by investors.

Hundreds of houses worth hundreds of millions of euro have been bought by investment firms and other bulk buyers in recent years.

Some are taking advantage of the generous returns they can generate through high rents. Other bulk buyers have included companies such as Ryanair, which earlier this year confirmed it was buying houses in Swords, Co Dublin to rent to cabin crew.

In January this year, Sinn Fein unsuccessfully urged the Government to back its motion to raise the stamp duty rate on bulk house purchases to 17pc.

It argued that unless that was done, investment funds would keep buying houses that should be made available for families.

Sinn Fein has argued that the 10pc rate is not acting as a sufficient deterrent.

Last year, 46 of 54 houses built at Belcamp Manor in north Dublin were snapped up by an investment fund. Four-bedroom homes bought by the fund were put up for rent at 3,250 a month.

Mr McGrath told Sinn Feins Pearse Doherty and Denise Mitchell in response to a parliamentary question this week that the number of houses being sold to bulk buyers is low.

Revenue and CSO data show that that higher stamp duty rate has applied to less than 1pc of residential property transactions between May 2021 to end-2023, and has applied to less than 2pc of total new dwellings completed since 20 May, 2021, he said.

The minister insisted that given the measures the Government has taken to increase housing supply, and the steps already taken against bulk purchasing of residential property, I do not have immediate plans to increase the rate and reduce the threshold at which the higher stamp duty rate on certain purchases of residential property applies.

Housing starts in Ireland have continued to soar amid continuing strong demand from buyers.

The latest figures from Goodbody Analytics this week showed that housing construction commencements jumped 67pc year-on-year in the first quarter of this year. Apartments accounted for 41pc of the starts in the quarter.

It estimates that construction started on 12,297 housing units in the first quarter of the year, taking the total in the past 12 months to about 38,000.
Our technology editor answers your trickiest tech questions

Question: We have had a Netflix account that my wife and two kids use. However, my daughter has gone to college in the Netherlands and recently received a communication from Netflix stating she can no longer use our account and has to set up her own account. They seem to suggest that the account refers to one location only. As my son will probably be going to college in Poland in the coming months, lm sure he will be in the same boat. Any advice greatly appreciated.  Joe Kelly
I want to help tillage farmers have the confidence to plant in 2024, so I am committing that I will find a mechanism to support any farmer that puts seed in the soil this year.

Tillage farmers are fearful, unsure of what or when it will be possible to plant their crops and what it will be possible to yield, as the weather continues to impact. Fianna Fail is absolutely committed to increasing our tillage area and despite the restraints of my existing budget I am committing to deliver 100/ha for tillage farmers who plant field crops in 2024."

It comes after months of bad weather has left the majority of farmers unable to get crops in the ground.

Recent figures from Teagasc, given to the National Fodder and Food Security Committee, showed that as little as 10-15pc of crops were in the ground, with it now being too late for some crops to be planted.

Just two years ago the Minister committed 12m to a Tillage Incentive Scheme, launched in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to reduce the country's dependency on imported grain. The scheme was worth 400/ha to farmers who planted tillage crops. Around 2,000 farmers availed of the scheme with the area under tillage rising by around 6pc.

Today, Minister McConalogue reiterated Fianna Fail's commitment to farmers, saying it had delivered a 50pc increase in funding for CAP and our Programme for Government commitments for farmers are all being delivered.

I committed over 100m to fodder supports over the last two years. This built-up stocks on farms meaning we dont have a national shortage like we did when the weather hit us hard such as most recently in 2018. I also acted decisively pausing non-essential inspections and tasking Teagasc with coordinating the movement of fodder supplies between farmers. This week I introduced an economic support measure to facilitate the transport of fodder.

Many farmers feel maligned and like second class citizens. That is wrong and a narrative that must be stopped in its tracks. I want to see farmers confident in what they do, confident in what deliver and confident in the future of their industry. I am both listening and acting and that is why today I am making this commitment to our tillage sector.
Asylum-seekers who commit a serious crime while awaiting decisions on their international protection applications should be immediately deported, according an internal Fianna Fail policy document on immigration.

The report also called for legislation to be introduced to make it a criminal offence to destroy a passport when entering the country and seeking international protection.

It also called for significantly increased fines for airlines and ferries that fail to ensure passengers have a valid passport when they arrive in Ireland.

The document, prepared by Fianna Fail TD John Lahart on behalf of his party, also said migrant tent encampments should be banned and a government agency should be tasked with ensuring they do not appear on streets.

The Fianna Fail document emerged after a week in which the European Parliament voted to approve the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum which includes controversial measures such as the possibility of facial images and fingerprints being taken from children from the age of six, and that asylum-seekers may be detained during screening.

It also includes measures on faster decision-making and the sharing of responsibility across member states which could see relocation of international protection applicants or the payment of financial contributions to the EU instead of countries taking in asylum-seekers themselves.

The Fianna Fail report entitled Proposals on Migration Reform  Urgent, Necessary & Fair says the Government could reduce the number of people seeking protection in Ireland if more countries were designated as safe.

And it said that, if a person seeking international protection does not appear before an appeal hearing on their case, then the original decision, such as deportation, should be followed through on.

The report said the Government should not enter into contracts with hotels or nursing homes to accommodate asylum-seekers if the properties are providing an essential community service.

It also said the Coalition should clamp down on profiteering by emergency accommodation providers who are housing international protection applicants.

It highlighted the concerns of party members over the substantial decline in tourism trade due to the closure of hotels and other venues.

Deputies and senators have highlighted the devastating impact of tourism decline in their constituencies, describing it as a decimation, it said.

The loss of hospitality jobs also means there is less employment for the migrant community, meaning they are less likely to integrate into Irish society, the report warns.

This has resulted in a loss of community cohesion and the report warns there is a fear that society will break down.

Mr Lahart drafted the report following two lengthy parliamentary party meetings on the topic of immigration in February. The document contains comments and suggestions from TDs and senators who attended those meetings while others contributed to the report in recent weeks.

The document noted Ireland has a strong and proud tradition of offering a warm welcome to visitors and a deep historic connection and understanding of the plight of people fleeing famine, persecution and economic disaster.

The overwhelming view of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party is that the country would experience a serious shortage of skilled workers in a number of sectors, including health and tech, if it was not for inward migration.

Migrants working in Ireland help increase economic growth, ease labour market shortages, improve output and contribute to reducing earnings inequality, it said. They also engage in lower-paid employment that Irish workers often no longer undertake.

It said the application process for migrants seeking work permits should be made more accessible so Ireland can benefit further from their skills.

However, the report also said the majority of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party expressed great concern that the Government is finding it extremely difficult to house the number of international protection applicants and Ukrainian refugees who have arrived here in the last two years. There are concerns over the perception that asylum-seekers are receiving preferential treatment in areas such as social protection, housing and school transport when compared to Irish citizens.

Mr Laharts report said a failure to demonstrate fairness can exacerbate community tensions which can then be exploited and manipulated by bad actors.

The report said international protection applicants do not have access to the social housing and insisted the distinction is vital in ensuring fairness in the housing allocation process.

The document also contains anonymised comments from members of the parliamentary party on the record levels of immigration.

One member said minor issues such as school transportation can cause a lot of tension in some communities. When local families see their own children refused a ticket on their school route due to it being at capacity, and yet they see Ukrainian children getting access to the school bus, the person said. 

Another said: Housing is another obvious example, where we saw (some) rapid-build modular houses being provided for Ukrainian families but those waiting on housing lists for one- or two-bedroom bungalow properties are still waiting and cannot understand why a similar method cannot be followed to provide them with a home.

There were 13,000 asylum applications in Ireland last year, a 415pc increase compared with 2022. Some 60pc of applications were refused last year.

Amid the housing crisis, latest figures show 1,700 asylum-seekers are now without accommodation.
Ellen OConnor is described as being approximately 5 ft 10 inches in height with a slim build, and long hair.

Ellen OConnor is described as being approximately 5 ft 10 inches in height with a slim build, and long hair.

Gardai at Rathfarnham are renewing their appeal for assistance in locating a 14-year-old girl who is missing from Dublin.

Ellen OConnor is missing from Firhouse, Dublin 24, since Wednesday, April, 10.

Ellen is described as being approximately 5 ft 10 inches in height with a slim build, and long hair.

She was last seen in the Swords area at approximately 1.30pm on Wednesday.

When last seen, Ellen was wearing a black puff jacket, red hoodie, grey tracksuit bottoms and black runners, carrying a black Under Armour school bag.

Ellen's family and An Garda Siochana are concerned for her well-being and are seeking assistance from the public in locating her.

Anyone with any information on Ellens whereabouts are asked to contact Rathfarnham Garda station on 01 6666500, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.
Sydney stabbing attack: several people dead, including suspect, as police do not believe attack was terror-related

A Co Clare man has described the "horrifying scenes" he witnessed while in the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney as the stabbing attack took place, which has shook him to the core.

Niall Naughton, who is from Boston, Co Clare is living in Sydney for the last seven months and went to centre to do some shopping.

Usually, I don't venture to Bondi but for some reason I did today, unfortunately, Mr Naughton told RTEs Saturday with Colm O Mongain.

"I went in and I got my hair cut, which was on the same floor that everything happened, he added.

However, it was while he was in a clothes shop fitting room when the attack began.

"I could hear what sounded like a stampede of cattle coming running through the shop. I had the curtain closed in the dressing room so I couldnt see anything but I could hear everything, he said.

Niall Naughton

"Next thing, somebody pulled back my curtain and said get out, get out, get out, you need to go, you need to go. There's a stabbing, someone's stabbing, terrorism, terrorism, he added.

Mr Naughton said he did not have the chance to look back to see what was happening as everyone was running in one direction.

"We were escorted down to the basement, the storeroom in Zara by Zara staff, and they managed to bolt the door and we got down on the ground, and everyone was screaming, crying.

"It was absolutely horrific and there were even kids as young as four years of age in the room with us, Mr Naughton said.

(PA Graphics)

The lack of knowledge of what exactly happened led to panic, Mr Naughton said, despite staff doing their best to get customers to safety.

Ultimately, everyone was in such a state of panic and I think everyone was really just in such distress and overwhelmed and everyone was screaming and crying.

"It wasn't a very calm situation. But, you know, naturally enough, you'd be in that state when you hear of someone stabbing or shooting. So it was just horrific, Mr Naughton said.

The number of people in the basement made it difficult for the Clare man to contact his family as the crowds were so close together.

"I was even thinking of my own family at the time. What if there is a possibility that something is going to happen to me and I'm going to die? I couldn't even reach for my phone at this stage because there was so many of us crammed into the room, he said.

As the closest person to the emergency door, Mr Naughton said he opened it to see if it was safe for the crowd of people to evacuate and described how the scenes outside were like something from a movie.

"I was happy enough ultimately to open the door and just pop my head slowly around the corner, which was off the back of the shopping centre, Mr Naughton said.

"As I did so, I could see hundreds and hundreds of people coming running across the road. There's a two way street there and they were coming running across in front of cars, there were cars driving at full speed. It was like something you would see out of a movie, it was that scary, he added.

Emergency services at Bondi Junction (Steven Saphore/AAP Image via AP)

Once Mr Naughton got out of the storeroom, he ran away from the shopping centre.

I just kept running and that's all I could do was run as far away from the shopping centre as I could, he said.

It wasnt until he saw an Irish couple running that he was able to hear details of what happened.

"Whilst I was running, there was an Irish couple beside me in their mid 30s and both of them were in distress, crying, they were actually in this shopping centre, and saw everything that had happened at the time as well. So it was then when I actually got the first sight of some accurate information about the incident that occurred, he said.

After running about a kilometre to a nearby park, Mr Naughton called his friend, not knowing what he should do next.

"I rang her and I said, look, I don't know what to do. Where are we meant to go? Where am I meant to hide? Because ultimately, you're in a situation where you can't trust anyone around you.

"So it's just a state of panic really. Thankfully, I managed to grab a taxi. And my friends collected me from the nearest safest point, which was great, Mr Naughton said.

Mr Naughton, who works in mental health said while he would consider himself a strong person, he was shook from the events.

"This has properly shook me to the core. I never in my life thought I'd ever be in an incident where I'd be in some form of attack like that, he said.

"It has shook me but definitely this is going to have a ripple effect towards everybody living in Sydney. But also in the context of the wider world, something like this never happens especially in an area like Sydney.

Ive been living here for seven months. I've always felt safe. I've always felt comfortable living here.

"I do call this home now but ultimately you turn around and you think of your family straightaway when you're in an incident like that and it can make you quite homesick too and that you want to be with your family, Mr Naughton said.
The rate of appointment no-shows is as high as 19pc in some hospitals. Photo: Getty

Patients with an appointment at public hospital outpatient clinics can in future expect a new style of text message in a bid to combat the almost 500,000 yearly no-shows who fail to turn up for appointments at a cost of millions to the health service.

More than 568,000 patients are on waiting lists to see a specialist at these clinics and when people do not keep their appointment, they are wasting a slot which could be taken by someone in serious need. It can also have implications for the patients themselves who lose out on care.

Because of the lengthy waiting time to see a consultant  years in some cases  patients can easily forget about the appointment date.

Hospitals have been sending reminder text messages for years with limited success. So health officials looked to behavioural scientists to understand why peoples actions and what might influence their decisions.

Several types of text messages designed to prompt people to respond were tested in Naas Hospital based on behavioural science.

The text message style which led to the biggest reduction in patient no-shows read: We are expecting you at your appointment on Thursday 7, September at 15:00 with Naas hospital Dr Deirdre Robertson Pain Clinic. If you cannot attend or have any Covid 19 symptoms please phone (045)841111.

It led to one in eight non-attendee patients changing their behaviour.

We suspect it reduced did-not-attendances as it makes it easier to remember the appointment as it creates a stronger association with the appointment, according to the Department of Health report.

It added personalisation, reciprocity, day in words, a consultant name and clinic name. Adding additional information beyond that did not reduce no-shows further.

It is estimated to be highly cost effective with a benefit to cost gain of between 300 and 445 per 100 appointments.

It is now hoped that as more hospitals make this their template style of text message, no-shows will be cut by 60,000, which would save hospitals around 12m a year.

The rate of no-shows at outpatient clinics in 2022 was 12.4pc. But it varies across hospitals ranging from 5.7pc to 19.3pc.

Commenting on the findings of the re-designed text message experiment, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said non-attendances at public hospital clinics can lead to the inefficient use of staff time, worse care for patients and increase waiting times.

By reducing the rate for outpatient hospital appointments, it is possible to increase the number of appointments delivered within available resources. This not only increases hospital productivity, but it is also better for patients, said Mr Donnelly.

The paper identifies the best performing SMS reminder, which makes it easier to remember the appointment by creating a stronger association with the appointment.
Police forensics officers examine the area around a taxi as part of an investigation into a shooting incident in a Banbridge car park on Friday night. Photo: Alan Lewis.

A man remains seriously ill in hospital today after a shooting near Banbridge.

It happened shortly after 8pm last night in a car park on the Rathfriland Road.

The victim, who is aged in his 40s, was shot in the abdomen. He is in hospital where his condition has been described as serious.

The victim is believed to have been shot while sitting in a taxi.

Another male, also in his 40s, has been arrested.

On Saturday police forensics officers in white clothing could be seen carrying out searches of the car park where the shooting took place

The grey-coloured car, with its passenger window shattered, remained at the scene.

On Friday night, several roads were closed in Co Down as police investigated the incident.

Detectives are also exploring a link between the driver of a silver Citroen vehicle which made off from the scene southbound on the A1 dual carriageway and a vehicle reported on fire 20 minutes later in the Drone Hill Road area of Corbet.

The getaway car burning on Friday night. Photo: Kevin Scott.

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie urged anyone with information to come forward, saying it was a shocking incident.

Guns do not belong on our streets. If you have any information regarding this incident please get in touch with the PSNI, he added.

DUP MP Carla Lockhart said the victim was in hospital.

I would encourage anyone with any information to come forward to the PSNI either via 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, she said.

Please allow the PSNI time and space to investigate this serious incident.

Local Alliance MLA Eoin Tennyson said those behind the shooting do not represent the wider community in Upper Bann.

I utterly condemn this sickening attack, as will any right-thinking individual, he said.

My thoughts are with the victim of this terrible incident, who I hope makes a full recovery from his injuries.

The local community in Banbridge has been left shocked by this shooting. Those behind it certainly do not represent anyone in the town or indeed further afield. There is no place for guns on our streets and the culprits need taken off our streets.

I appeal to anyone with information on this incident to contact police with it immediately.

Sinn Fein councillor Kevin Savage condemned the shooting.

There is no place for guns on our streets, those responsible need to desist, he said.

Anyone with information on this attack should bring it forward to the PSNI.

A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Ambulance confirmed one person was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

"The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service received a 999 call at 8.06pm following reports of an incident in the Tullyear Close area of Banbridge, they said.

NIAS despatched a Rapid Response Paramedic and an emergency crew to the incident.

Following assessment and initial treatment at the scene, one patient was taken by ambulance to RVH in Belfast.

A police spokesperson said: Anyone with any information is asked to contact police on 101 quoting reference number 1683 12/04/24. Information can also be given anonymously through the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

You can submit a report online using the non-emergency reporting form via http://www.psni.police.uk/makeareport/.
Billy Keane: The Leinster and Munster rivalry never gets old  some of them are us and some of us are them
Many young children are handed smartphones without consideration for the dangers posed. Stock image

It was very much a case of preaching to the converted when I read an article on the absolute dangers of smartphones for children. But why am I in the minority?

Why are droves of pre-teen and young teenage children walking around, heads down, glued to their phones as if in some new depiction of evolution? Why are the adults allowing it?

Every article, including the ones you have published, concerning young people and smartphones, highlights the exposure to sexually explicit content, bullying, self-harm, disassociation from reality, lack of engagement and more.

Yet more and more young children are being bought smartphones and are using apps that are damaging to them. How can we reach the parents who are apparently refusing to read and refusing to listen?

It is exasperating to be the parent who does not conform to this new-age criteria. It is sadder still to witness the change in the children handed these devices long before time should permit.

Thank you for publishing the anonymous article My 12-year-old received sexually explicit photos on her phone  despite our efforts to keep her safe (Irish Independent, April 10).

It is a cautionary tale. The punchline, as delivered by a policeman, was that handing a child a smartphone was like giving them pornography and telling them not to look at it or as a local member of An Garda Siochana told the tiny group of parents who attended an internet safety talk in my area, it is akin to handing them a loaded gun.

I suppose I must be a dinosaur. But no, I too am the owner of the cursed smartphone. Luckily, I am old enough to know what a general pain in the proverbial it actually is. Unluckily for my kids, they wont be getting one for their confirmation.

Roisin Keegan, Castlebar, Co Mayo

US voters beggar belief as Trump will Make America Grate Again if re-elected

One can only agree with your esteemed columnist, Ian ODoherty, that US society needs a good shaking-up to get it back on track (Make America Sane Again should be the slogan for 2024 White House race, Irish Independent, April 10).

The introduction of Donald Trump into the political sphere has really muddied the waters and there has been a steady decline in general standards ever since. How he ever came to be accepted in polite society is a complete mystery. His slogan would more aptly read Make America Grate Again.

The once-great US deserves better than a run-off between the sorry pair of Trump and Joe Biden.

David Ryan, Co Meath

As Netanyahus acts of war continue, Israel must be ditched from Eurovision

On April 1, an Israeli airstrike hit just outside of the Iranian embassy in Syria, killing 16 people, including high-ranking military officers.

Killing foreign nationals at an established embassy is an act of war.

At the same time, the US and Israel havent stopped their planning for another military operation in Rafah, as Israel continues to bomb the area in preparation, regularly killing dozens of civilians.

It has been horrifying to watch the death and destruction in Gaza over the past few months.

Israeli forces have killed more than 33,000 people since October, and children are being starved to death.

If Israel is allowed to compete in Eurovision, it would give its prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu the perfect opportunity to glitterwash his war crimes.

With just five weeks to go until Eurovision, we in Ireland need to do everything we can to take that chance away from Netanyahu. Eurovision bosses are ignoring the peoples clamour to refuse Israels entry.

Daniel Teegan, Union Hall, Co Cork

Not all Jews are for the Gaza war  their opinions should be sought as well

Mondays article on the Educate Together AGM row after antisemitism allegations in the wake the of CEOs protest post seems to imply that Jewish people find CEO Emer Nowlans attendance at a peaceful demonstration in support of Gaza threatening to Jews living in Ireland.

Some Jewish people may feel this way, but many more do not.

It appears the Irish Independent sought only the views of those Jews who feel threatened by expressions of solidarity with Palestinians.

The article ignores the large and growing number of Jews in Ireland (one signatory of this letter being one of them) who fully support the imposition of sanctions on Israel until it abides by international human rights law.

The desire among Irish people of all faiths and none to halt the atrocities in Gaza is a fundamentally humanitarian impulse.

Palestinian civil society has called for a boycott campaign on Israel to do so. County and city councils, unions, charities and voluntary groups throughout the country have responded to this call.

It is natural that Educate Together schools, which promote equality and social justice, would support this.

People who object to these expressions of pro-Palestinian solidarity do so because of their political views, not because of their religion or ethnicity.

It is understandable that these people feel discomfited by attempts to sanction Israel, but the experience of discomfort is not the same as that of antisemitism.

David Landy, Jews for Palestine  Ireland, Cabra, Dublin 7

Conall O Dufaigh, Teachers for Palestine, Bray, Co Wicklow

Faulty Joe might need to go the Fawlty route  and yes, do mention the war

It has been reported that Joe Biden told Benjamin Netanyahu that what hes doing is a mistake and I dont agree with his approach.

This was interpreted as Mr Biden getting tough, but it sounds pretty polite to me.

Can we not look forward to Mr Biden taking a really strong line, perhaps taking his cue from the irascible Basil Fawlty?

A threat to break his bottom (Basils version of bust his ass) hardly seems all that offensive and might even be accompanied by a forthright declaration from US secretary of state Antony Blinken that Mr Netanyahu has been a very naughty boy indeed.

Brian Cosgrove, Cornelscourt, Dublin 18

Forming Palestinian state isnt as easy as it seems  jihadism is likely to result

Well done, Declan Power, for seeing the elephant in the room (Ireland is eager to lead the push for Palestinian statehood. So, why the delay?, Irish Independent, April 11).

If a Palestinian state is created, it wont be led by the discredited and corrupt Palestinian Authority. Its president, Mahmoud Abbas, was elected in 2005 for a four-year term, but has refused to hold elections ever since. Thats because any election is likely to be won by Hamas, Palestinian Jihad and Islamic State affiliates.

It will be Israeli Muslims, Christians and Jews  not Irish politicians  who will pay the price if a Jihadist state is created on Israels borders.

Karl Martin, Dublin 13

Scotts cupla focal bring to mind a few cherished Irish phrases from my youth

Tanya Sweeneys article (Andrew Scotts cupla focal went down well, Irish Independent, April 11) brings to mind some popular Irish phrases.

For example, Go raibh mile maith agat(a thousand thanks). It also evokes a saying from school days. When eating newly dug potatoes in July, the wish was Go mbeirimid beo ar an am seo aris (that we may be alive this time next year).

Leo Gormley, Dundalk, Co Louth

Questions to be answered over likely postponement of planned referendum

Fionnan Sheahans article (Referendum in doubt as the Coalition fears another heavy defeat, Irish Independent, April 12) says the proposed Referendum on the Unified Patents Court is to be postponed.

Three questions for the Government on this matter:

1. Is democracy being postponed until the odds favour the Government? 

2. Does this postponement mean another 23m will be spent on the referendum as a standalone ballot when the odds are right?

3. How much has the influence of publicly paid but unelected government advisers had on this decision and other government decisions?

This all points to a dilution of democracy by those who would lecture us on democracy.

Paddy Murray, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath
Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, 92 km northeast of Fujairah, on Saturday, days after Tehran said it could close the crucial shipping route and warned it would retaliate for an Israeli strike on its Syria consulate, reported Reuters, citing Iranian media.

MSC, which operates the Aries, confirmed Iran had seized the ship and said it was working "with the relevant authorities" for its safe return and the wellbeing of its 25 crew.

MSC leases the Aries from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime, Zodiac said in a statement, adding that MSC is responsible for all the vessel's activities. Zodiac is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.

Iran's state-run IRNA news agency has reported that a Guards helicopter had boarded and taken into Iranian waters the Portuguese flagged MSC Aries, saying it was linked to Israel.

Video on Iranian news channels purporting to show the seizure included a figure abseiling from a helicopter on to a ship. Reuters was able to verify that the ship in the video was the MSC Aries but not the date it was recorded.

The incident comes amid rising regional tensions since the start of Israel's campaign in Gaza in October, with Israel or its ally the US clashing repeatedly with Iranian-aligned groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Iran has threatened to retaliate for suspected Israeli airstrikes on its consulate in Syria's capital Damascus on April 1 that killed seven Revolutionary Guards officers including two senior commanders.

US President Joe Biden said on Friday he expected Iran to attack Israel "sooner, rather than later" and warned Tehran not to do so, said the Reuters report.

Meanwhile Israel's military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said "Iran will bear consequences for choosing to escalate this situation any further", in response to reports of the seizure of MSC Aries."

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz had accused Tehran of piracy.

On Tuesday the naval head of the Revolutionary Guards, Alireza Tangsiri, said it could close the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, if deemed necessary.

He said Iran viewed as a threat Israel's presence in the UAE, with which Israel established diplomatic relations in 2020 as part of the "Abraham Accords" mediated by the United States.

Analyst Hasan Alhasan of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said if the seizure of the MSC Aries was in retaliation for Israel's strike on Iran's Damascus consulate, it showed a desire to save face without a wider escalation.

"Iran may be trying to play on fears that it could obstruct shipping through the strait, a passageway of greater significance to global oil and gas supplies than the Red Sea," he added.
A new task force, which aims to tackle violence and ensure people feel safe in the city centre, is to be established in Dublin.

This body will comprise Gardai, businesses and community groups.

Addressing his party at the 82nd Ard Fheis at the University of Galway, Fine Gael Leader and new Taoiseach Simon Harris said that he would "immediately" assemble this task force during his tenure as leader.

He stated that this task force will help "chart a course towards a safer and vibrant Dublin".

"We advocate for more Gardai with enhanced powers and resources to ensure our streets are safe; we advocate for stricter sentences for those who commit heinous crimes," he said.

"We will expedite legislation to grant judges new powers to ensure that atrocious criminals serve lengthy sentences before they are even considered for release.

"And under my leadership, we will continue to expand prison capacity so that the prison service can respond," he added.

The Taoiseach has reached out to the chief executive of Dublin City Council, Richard Shakespeare, and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to establish the task force.

The Taoiseach intends to appoint a chairperson and members drawn from the council, Gardai, retail, business, community and cultural groups.

This task force will have approximately three months to draft its recommendations for a safer Dublin.

Harris also pledged to empower the Criminal Assets Bureau during his tenure to enable them to "deprive criminals of assets" more efficiently.

He further stated that this summer, we will witness the introduction of body cameras and updated technology to support An Garda Siochana.

An estimated 2.1 million has already been invested in a trial of body cameras in four divisions, which will come into effect in the next few months.

"We will introduce new measures to enhance penalties for knife crime and address the issue of antisocial behaviour, which has become too prevalent in our communities," he said.

City centre business group DublinTown submitted proposals to the government earlier this year, which included an increased Garda presence in the city, a crackdown on youth offenders, more 24-hour transport, and safe taxi hubs.

The issues highlighted by the lobby group included safety, transport, regeneration, and late-night disturbances.

A survey conducted by DublinTown found that one in ten people felt safe on Talbot Street at night, which serves as a significant transport hub on the north side of the Liffey.

The submission also requests that the increase in Garda numbers be sustained.

Through various surveys and research conducted by DublinTown, they consistently find that people would be more inclined to spend additional time in the city with more Gardai.
Dublin 12 is set to welcome a new community with draft plans unveiled for the Bluebell Waterways development, which consists of almost 400 apartments.

Spearheaded by the Land Development Agency (LDA) and Dublin City Council (DCC), this project promises to deliver nearly 400 homes along with community spaces and improved travel links.

Roughly 35pc of the homes will be social, and the remaining 65pc will be available to rent by low- and middle-income workers under the country's cost-rental scheme.

Located close to the Grand Canals fifth lock at the former filter bed complex, the space will occupy 2.8 hectares owned by Dublin City Council.

The development will cater to a range of housing needs, offering studio, one, two, and three-bedroom apartments.

In addition to the apartments, plans also include providing community spaces, a creche and open areas.

Residents, businesses and community groups were consulted as part of the plans for the apartments in the area, and further meetings and workshops are planned over the coming weeks to get their input.

The introduction of enhancing transportation infrastructure in the area can also be expected with the introduction of new footpaths and cycleways.

There will also be a green corridor linking to the planned canal greenway in aims to promote active travel.

"Engagement is at the heart of all LDA-DCC partnerships, and we want local people to feed into these plans and help shape the area for this and future generations, said Phelim ONeill, Head of Property at the Land Development Agency.

For people interested in making submissions on the current draft plans, information can be found on the Bluebell Waterways website.
Teenage Simon Harris came into the room talking when he won Rotary Ireland award

Now the Taoiseachs TikTok-ing is helping to inspire young Wicklow Rotary Ireland members

Simon Harris and then President of Wicklow Rotary Seamus Parle presenting young people with awards in 2015.

Tom Galvin Bray People Sat 13 Apr 2024 at 09:00

Taoiseach Simon Harris was only 17 when he won a Rotary Ireland Youth Leadership Development award and the organisation fondly recalls a supremely confident and articulate interviewee, who 20 years ago came into the room talking.
Supporters of Extinction Rebellion (XR) were joined by broadcaster and environmental campaigner Chris Packham as they staged a protest at a gallery in the Science Museum in London.

More than 30 people, including scientists, occupied Energy Revolution, the museums new climate gallery, on Friday in protest over its sponsorship by Adani, a large coal-producing company.

The firm is also involved in the manufacturing of drones for the Israeli military, XR claimed.

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Protesters led by Youth Action for Climate Justice held up a series of banners, including Teach us the truth and Adani kills, and created a display of black balls symbolising coal.

They said they intended to remain in the museum over the weekend, with the first school visits to the gallery beginning on Monday.

Speaking to the protesters, Packham said: Science tells us that the fossil fuel industry is responsible for the accelerating destruction of our natural world. The Science Museum is a place to spark imagination, to provide answers but also to encourage us to ask questions.

The question Im asking today is a big one, why on earth are we allowing a destructive industry to sponsor an educational exhibition whilst simultaneously setting fire to young peoples futures?

This is beyond greenwash  its grotesque.

Chris Packham spoke to the group (Andrea Domeniconi/PA)

Dr Aaron Thierry, a scientist who joined the protest, said: Its not just Adanis brand that the science museum is greenwashing, theyre also allowing the oil and gas giants BP and Equinor to sponsor their exhibits, disregarding the fact that these companies continue to expand fossil fuel production against the warnings of climate scientists.

That an institution like the Science Museum is working with such rogue companies is a disgrace.

The museums management needs to follow the example of Britains other leading cultural institutions and drop all ties to the fossil fuel industry.

A Science Museum spokesperson said: Climate change is the most urgent challenge facing humanity.

In recent weeks were pleased to have welcomed tens of thousands of visitors to our new gallery on the urgent energy transition the world needs to see, made possible by generous sponsorship from Adani Green Energy, a major renewable energy business.

During Friday evening there was a peaceful protest by a small group of activists which colleagues responded to with great professionalism.
Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has said there is an ongoing war on truth, journalists, and women.

The barrister and her husband, Hollywood actor George Clooney, spoke at the 2024 Skoll World Forum in Oxford about their work with Clooney Foundation For Justice, which they co-founded and co-chair.

Addressing the audience, Amal said: Were living through a time when we have more violent conflicts than at any time since the Second World War.

And we see women and children increasingly on the front lines, she added.

I also think theres a war on truth and truth-tellers and journalists, and we need to fight against that as well.

In too many places theres a war on women, and women are still fighting the most basic battles for their freedoms.

Describing what The Clooney Foundation For Justice does, Amal said: All of our programmes in one way or another, are attempting to meet some of these challenges.

And the way we do it is by providing free legal support to victims of abuses of human rights.

So we have a lot still to do. But weve had dozens of people freed because of interventions that weve made in individual cases.

Amal and George Clooney attending the Princes Trust Awards (Ian West/PA)

Weve also spent years sometimes trying to track down war criminals and gather enough evidence against them to trigger a prosecution.

So none of this happens as quickly or as simply as it should. But I think I speak for both of us when I say, and everyone at the foundation, when I say were as determined as ever to continue to do this work.

She later warned about a loss of womens rights and said: We see reversals in things like womens rights, not just in Afghanistan, but also in places like the United States.

Oceans Eleven star Clooney interjected: Arizona, apparently.

The state has recently revived an 1864 law that criminalises abortion throughout pregnancy unless a womans life is at risk.

George and Amal (Yui Mok/PA)

The Oscar-winning actor also spoke about how it is possible to bring awareness to issues through storytelling and revealed that he was called a traitor when he decided to stand against the USs decision to wage war on Iraq in 2003.

(The film) Good Night Good Luck I wrote because I was being called a traitor to my country by my own country for being against the war in Iraq, he said.

He added: The idea was anybody who spoke against the war in 2003 was a traitor, and it wasnt really fun. They were picketing my movies and all that kind of stuff.

He told the audience that storytelling is about finding a way to relate to people things that they can understand and not overwhelm them with peas and carrots.
Five of the six killed were womenBaby, aged nine months, among those hospitalisedNo indication of the man's motive, Albanese saysAustralia has strict gun and knife lawsPeople around me were terrified,' says witness

Sydney stabbing attack: several people dead, including suspect, as police do not believe attack was terror-related

An attacker who fatally knifed six people in a Sydney mall was shot dead by police in the beachside suburb of Bondi on Saturday, police said, as hundreds fled the scene.

The assailant was shot by a police officer after he attacked shoppers in the busy Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre, a police statement said.

Five of the six victims killed were women, while eight people, including a nine-month-old baby, were taken to hospital with stab wounds, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb told a press conference.

Police at this stage do not believe the attack was terrorism-related, Webb said.

Taoiseach Simon Harris said he is "horrified" and will reach out to the Australian prime minister. "I am horrified by the attack in Sydney on innocent people, including children. "I will reach out to prime minster Anthony Albanese personally but for now the thoughts and prayers of everyone in Ireland are with our Australian friends," said Mr Harris on X.

People are led out from the Westfield Shopping Centre where multiple people were stabbed in Sydney, Saturday, April 13, 2024. T(AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

The Department of Foreign Affairs has said it is not aware of any Irish Citizens hurt in the attack, but is ready to provide consular assistance.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin said the attack in the shopping centre in Sydney is a reminder of how the world is "more threatening and insecure".

"Horrendous and a terrible shock at the news," Mr Martin said on The Anton Savage Show on Newstalk.

"It's a reminder of the far more threatening and insecure world that we live in, when attacks of this kind can happen without any warning," he said.

There is a significant Irish community in Sydney and the Tanaiste said thoughts go immediately to those family and friends in the area.

"Of course all of us, we all know people who are in that district right now, family and friends and so forth. That's the immediate thought," Mr Martin said.

"So our thoughts are with those who are now bereaved and who have lost loved ones in this horrific attack," he added.

People are led out from the Westfield Shopping Centre where multiple people were stabbed (Rick Rycroft/AP)

Austialian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there was no indication yet of the man's motive.

"This was a horrific act of violence, indiscriminately targeting innocent people going about an ordinary Saturday doing their shopping," he told a press conference.

"Tonight the first thoughts of all Australians are with the victims of these terrible acts."

Australia, a country of about 26 million people, has some of the world's toughest gun and knife laws, and attacks such as the one on Saturday are rare.

Emergency services were called to the mall, about three kilometres (1.9 miles) from Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach and popular with children and families, just before 4 p.m. (0600 GMT) after the stabbing reports, police said.

Ayush Singh, 25, was working in a cafe in the mall when he saw the attack and then heard gunshots as police responded.

"I saw the guy with the knife running and chasing people. As he walked just past beside me I heard two or three gunshots and the guy was neutralised," he told Reuters.

"People around me were terrified. There were some old ladies I helped to get them inside a safe place inside the cafe."

(PA Graphics)

Two other witnesses told Reuters they heard shots.

"Even 20 minutes after people were rushed out of the mall, I saw SWAT teams of people sweeping the surrounding streets," one witness said.

The other witness said they saw a woman lying on the ground and took shelter in a jewellery store.

An eyewitness described the police officer shooting the attacker to state broadcaster ABC.

"If she did not shoot him, he would have kept going, he was on the rampage," said the man, who did not give his name. "She went over and was giving him CPR. He had a nice big blade on him. He looked like he was on a killing spree."

Other witnesses said the man was wearing shorts and an Australian national rugby league jersey, and looked confused and appeared to attack randomly.

People are led out from the Westfield Shopping Centre (Rick Rycroft/AP)

"He was not looking for anyone personally," one witness said on TV. "He was just running around with his knife."

Several posts on social media showed crowds fleeing the mall and police cars and emergency services rushing to the area.

One video show a man confronting the attacker with a bollard from the top of an escalator. Others showed people trying to move the injured to safety and help others hide in shops.

"I just saw the footage of the guy with the bollard, I reckon he's the real hero here," Bondi Rescue lifeguard Andy Reid, who was also shopping at the mall, told the Sydney Morning Herald. Reid also attended to a woman who was bleeding on the fourth floor.

The mall will remain closed on Sunday while an investigation continues, police said.
The US was last night on high alert for a significant retaliatory attack on Israel by Iran, with the White House saying that the threat is real and credible despite efforts from Washington and allies to try and avert a wider war across the Middle East.

Israel has said it is ready to defend itself from any reprisals over a strike on the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital, Damascus, at the beginning of the month, in which a number of senior Iranian commanders were killed. While Israel has not spoken about the attack, it is believed they carried it out.
Donald Trump breaks gag order to call Stormy Daniels and his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen sleaze bags ahead of hush money trial

Former president barred from making public statements about probable witnesses

Stormy Daniels says she has been harassed by Trump supporters encouraged by the former president. Photo: AP

Jake Offenhartz Sat 13 Apr 2024 at 03:30







Days after a New York judge expanded a gag order on Donald Trump to curtail inflammatory speech, the former president tested its limits by attacking two key witnesses in his upcoming criminal hush money trial as liars.
Photo courtesy: Screenshot grab from X video

New Delhi/IBNS: Actress-turned-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi, Kangana Ranaut, has slammed Congress in one of her fiercest attacks on the grand old party as she intensifies her campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.

Speaking at a rally, Kangana said as quoted by ANI "Other than looting, what else is Congress doing here?... today I want to ask them, they told that, they will give Rs 1,500 to all the sisters and mothers here, what happened to that money?

"They told they would give 5 lakh job opportunities, where are those jobs?...why do they give fake promises and lure people? Till when such politics will go on?..."

#WATCH | Mandi, Himachal Pradesh: BJP candidate from Mandi Kangana Ranaut says, " Other than looting, what else is Congress doing here?... today I want to ask them, they told that, they will give Rs 1,500 to all the sisters and mothers here, what happened to that money? They told pic.twitter.com/MNi7NXFwRg  ANI (@ANI) April 13, 2024

Last month, Kangana kick-started her Lok Sabha poll campaign from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi with a fiery speech.

Kangana addressed a massive gathering where she pitched herself as the "sister and daughter" of people from her home state.

"Don't think Kangana is a star or a heroine, consider me as your sister and daughter. All are my relatives," said the 'Queen' star in her first words as a politician.

Her words triggered "Jai Shri Ram" chants from the BJP supporters.

#WATCH | Lok Sabha elections 2024 | Himachal Pradesh: BJP candidate from Mandi and actor Kangana Ranaut addresses people as she conducts a road show here.



She says, "...Don't think that Kangana is a heroine, that she is a star. Consider Kangana your sister, your daughter. pic.twitter.com/6wcAjBYnCs  ANI (@ANI) March 29, 2024

Kangana, who has always remained a supporter of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, last year had expressed her wish to contest the parliamentary elections.

The 37-year-old actress, who hails from Himachal Pradesh's Bhambla, has a career spanning for two decades.
Image Credit: X/@KanganaTeam | X/@VikramadityaINC

Mandi (HP): Congress will field Himachal Pradesh minister Vikramaditya Singh from the Mandi Lok Sabha seat against BJPs candidate, Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, according to his mother and state party chief Pratibha Singh, media reports said.

According to an India Today report, Pratibha Singh said that the people of Mandi have "always been with us," apparently indicating her familys strong political influence in the constituency.

Pratibha Singh is the sitting MP from Mandi and has represented the seat in the parliament three times.

She told India Today TV that she has won the seat even in difficult times and Kangana Ranauts statements against her son wont impact his winning prospects.

Earlier, Kangana Ranaut had slammed Vikramaditya Singh for his comments over reports suggesting that she consumed beef.

"I pray to Lord Ram to give her wisdom and hope she goes back pure from 'Dev Bhoomi' Himachal to Bollywood because she will not win the elections as she knows nothing about the people of Himachal," Singh had said about the actor, according to the reports.

Ranaut had said that Vikramaditya Singh could not threaten her and tell her to leave Himachal Pradesh as the state did not belong to his ancestors.

The Himachal minister had also attacked Kangana Ranaut, saying she should talk about the issues in the state and Mandi.

He asked whether she had visited Manali even for one day during the worst-ever monsoon disaster.

The Congress leader also challenged Kangana Ranaut to speak about the issues of Himachal Pradesh and Mandi. He also questioned if she had visited Manali for a single day last year when floods and landslides wreaked havoc in the area.

Emphasizing his deeper connection with the state, Vikramaditya Singh said he was present on ground zero at the time of the disaster and dismissed Kangana Ranaut as someone who lived in Mumbai.

"The people of Himachal have nothing to do with what you eat and drink in Mumbai. Please talk about issues, your vision, what you did during the disaster, and what your role will be in the future," he was quoted as saying by India Today.
Image by Ayush Gupta/IBNS

Kolkata/IBNS: Bengali film veteran Moon Moon Sen and her actress daughter Riya Sen graced an exhibition to honour late acting legend Suchitra Sen on her 94th birthday anniversary in Kolkata earlier this month.

The exhibition- dubbed as 'Suchitra'- was held at the Abanindranath Tagore Gallery, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

Curated over the span of many years by Sudipta Chanda, this exhibition features original posters of films that featured Suchitra Sen, as well as her photo booklet, songbook, and ads, magazine covers, and film stills.

Born on April 6, 1931, in Pabna, Bangladesh, Suchitra Sen is often hailed as the 'Mahanayika' (great actress) of Bengali cinema, captivating audiences with her unparalleled talent and timeless performances.

Image by Ayush Gupta/IBNS

Her films continue to inspire generations of cinephiles and remain etched in the annals of Indian cinema history.

Suchitra Sen was awarded the Padma Shri by the Indian Government in 1972.

She was offered the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2005, India's highest state honor in the film industry. But she went to Delhi to hide from the public eye and expressed her inability to accept the honour.

Sen won the Best Actress Award at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1963 for her performance in the film 'Saat Paake Bandha'.

In 2012, she was awarded the Bengali Bhushan Award by the West Bengal government.

The exhibition was held till April 12.

(Reporting and images by Ayush Gupta/IBNS)
Photo courtesy: facebook.com/POTUS

Washington/IBNS: The United States has warned that Iran could attack Israel soon in retaliation after a senior officer was killed in Iran's embassy in Damascus, media reports said.

US President Joe Biden has warned that the attack could be as soon as on Sunday.

"I don't want to get into secure information but my expectation is sooner than later," Biden told reporters.

When he was asked about the message he wanted to send to Iran, the President said, "Don't."



Biden has cleared his country will support Israel if the attack comes as he has anticipated.

"We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed," he said.

Iran has been on an alert since April 12 in anticipation of a retaliation.

On April 1, the attack on Iran's embassy in Damascus killed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' overseas Quds Force and others. However, Israel has not claimed responsibility.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel "must be and will be punished".

Photo courtesy: X/@fr_Khamenei

In an address to a massive crowd on Eid, Khamenei said as quoted by Al Jazeera, "When they attack our consulate, it is as if they have attacked our soil."

"The malicious regime made a mistake on this matter, and it must be punished and will be punished," he added.

In his address, Khamenei also lashed out at the US and the UK for rallying behind Israel and support for the war.

"Western governments, in the past years events, openly displayed the wicked nature of Western civilization to the world," Khamenei said as quoted by Al Jazeera.

"The bloody events in Gaza have left a bitter taste for Muslims around the world during this years blessed Ramadan," he said.

Khamenei's comment comes in the backdrop of the Israeli military's attack on Gaza strip leading to the killing of more than 33,000 Palestinians.

Travel advisories

The Indian government on Friday advised citizens to avoid travelling to Iran and Israel until further notice given the "prevailing situation in the region".

In the wake of the threat, the US and Russia have issued similar travel advisories for their staff and citizens in the region.

The foreign ministry advised its citizens in the two countries to observe "utmost precautions about their safety and restrict their movements to the minimum".

It is feared that retaliation by Iran can widen the six-month-old conflict between Iran-backed Hamas militants and Israel in Gaza.
The attacker of the Sydney mall stabbing incident caught on camera. Photo Courtesy: Nioh Berg X page

At least six people died and several others, including a child, were injured in a mass stabbing incident at a shopping centre in the Australian city of Sydney on Saturday.

Police were called to Westfield Bondi Junction, one of the busiest shopping destinations in the city, following reports of multiple people stabbed.

Police said the suspect acted alone and was shot dead at the scene of the attack.

New South Wales Polices Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke told CNN a senior police inspector was nearby when the attack unfolded.

She reached the scene first and engaged with the attacker.

The police inspector shot the attacker when he raised a knife on her.

She discharged her firearm, and that person is now deceased, Cooke told CNN.

No information regarding the attacker or the motive behind the incident has been disclosed so far.

Eight patients, including one child, have been transported to hospitals across Sydney, NSW Ambulance service confirmed to CNN.

Witnesses describe the scene

Two brothers said they helped a mother and her baby who were stabbed by the attacker.

"The baby got stabbed," one of the men told 9News.

"The mum got stabbed and the mum came over with the baby and threw it at me and (I) was holding the baby," he said.

The man said he believed the baby would survive the injury.

The husband of one of the injured told 9News he was relieved to see his wife at St Vincent's Hospital.

"We didn't know what had happened," he said.

"She just got a little, they said, stab in the top right-hand corner of her back," he said.

"She thought she got punched and then she touched herself and there was blood," he said.

"But apart from that, she's okay, she's alive and that's all that matters," he told the news channel.

Earlier, a grocery shop worker at the shopping centre told 9News he was let out of the shopping centre just after 4.30pm.

"My girlfriend called me, she said that her mum works upstairs, level three and she said, 'Look, please be careful, there's a shooting,'" he said.

Australian PM reacts

Australian PM Anthony Albanese described the event in the mall as 'devastating'.

I have been briefed by the AFP on the devastating events at Bondi Junction.



Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones.  Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) April 13, 2024

"I have been briefed by the AFP on the devastating events at Bondi Junction. Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones," he said.

"Our hearts go out to those injured and we offer our thanks to those caring for them as well as our brave police and first responders," he posted on X.

Mass casualty events are rare in Australia.

In 2019, at least four people died in a mass shooting incident in Darwin.
Photo Courtesy: Unsplash

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps of Iran on Saturday (April 13, 2024) allegedly seized control over an Israeli-linked MSC ARIES container ship in a helicopter operation near the Strait of Hormuz, media reports said.

Sources told Tasnim News Agency that the vessel is the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime.

Zodiac Maritime is a part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofers Zodiac Group.

Zodiac has so far refused to comment on the issue.

The MSC Aries had been last located off Dubai heading toward the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. The ship had turned off its tracking data, which has been common for Israeli-affiliated ships moving through the region, reports The Times of Israel.

Tension between Iran and Israel escalating

The US expects Iran will strike against multiple targets inside Israel in the coming days and is prepared to help intercept any weapons launched at its ally, sources told CNN.

US President Joe Biden on Friday (April 13, 2024) said Irans attacks were coming sooner than later.

We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed, Biden told reporters on Friday as quoted by The Guardian.

Israel Defense Forces warns Iran

In a video statement, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, meanwhile, warned Iran that it will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further.

Iran is the worlds biggest state sponsor of terror. Its network of terror doesnt just threaten the people of Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria; the regime in Iran fuels the war in Ukraine and beyond, Hagari was quoted as saying by The Time of Israel.

Israel is on high alert. We have increased our readiness to protect Israel from further Iranian aggression. We are also prepared to respond, Hagari says.

He said the IDF is prepared to face all kinds of situations and take necessary steps.

Why did the tension rise suddenly?

An attack on the Iranian consulate building in Damascus on April 1 killed at least one senior IRGC commander.

Blaming Israel for the incident, Iran vowed to strike back, although Tel Aviv did not comment on the incident so far.
MCS Aries was seized near the Strait of Hormuz through a heliborne operation. (Photo courtesy: videograb )

Among the 25 crew members on the container ship captured by Iran's Revolutionary Guards off the coast of the UAE on Saturday, 17 are Indian nationals, media reports said.

Iran's state-owned IRNA news agency reported that the container ship, MCS Aries, was seized near the Strait of Hormuz through a "heliborne operation" and is currently en route to Iran's territorial waters.

BREAKING



Iran has released a video of the seizure of the MSC Aries, owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.



Normally, Iran only seizes oil tankers and not container ships, but it seems that the Strait of Hormuz is being closed to ships linked to Israel pic.twitter.com/fSZoObEbEL  Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) April 13, 2024

Media reported citing sources that there are at least 17 Indian nationals in the cargo ship 'MSC Aries' seized by Iran, and Delhi is in touch with Tehran through diplomatic channels to ensure their security and early release.

Amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, the seizure of the vessel occurs against a backdrop of heightened concerns regarding potential hostilities between Iran and Israel.

Iran vowed retaliation for an airstrike on its embassy's consular section in Damascus, Syria, nearly two weeks agowhich resulted in the deaths of seven people, including two generals. It has raised fears of an imminent attack on Israel.

Iran has asserted that the captured vessel has ties to the Israeli government, referring to it as "related to the Zionist regime (Israel) in the Gulf."

Tracking websites such as vesselfinder.com and marinetraffic.com have identified the MSC Aries as a container ship flying the Portuguese flag, with its last reported location in the Gulf.

"A container ship named 'MCS Aries' was seized by the Sepah (Guards) Navy Special Forces by carrying out a heliborne operation," the IRNA agency reported.

The operation, it stated, occurred "near the Strait of Hormuz," a strategic passage between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman crucial for global trade. The vessel has since been directed towards the territorial waters of Iran.

Israel Warns

Following the ship's seizure, the Israeli army issued a cautionary warning against further escalation of the conflict in the region.

"Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further," military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a statement.

"Iran is the world's biggest state sponsor of terror. Its network of terror doesn't just threaten the people of Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria; the regime in Iran fuels the war in Ukraine and beyond... Israel is on high alert. We have increased our readiness to protect Israel from further Iranian aggression. We are also prepared to respond," the statement said.
Photo Courtesy: Pixabay

At least nine people from Pakistan's Punjab region were killed in Balochistan's Noshki region on Saturday after gunmen forced them out of the bus in which they were travelling and shot them.

About 10-12 gunmen blockaded the Quetta-Taftan Highway N-40 in the vicinity of Sultan Charhai near Noshki and abducted nine passengers from a bus, Deputy Commissioner Habibullah Musakhel told Dawn.com.

The gunmen checked the identity cards of passengers from the Taftan-bound bus and kidnapped them, he added.

The bodies of the abducted passengers were found under a bridge nearby after an hour and a half, Musakhel said.

It is still not clear whether their belongings were taken by the gunmen.

The nine victims were from Punjab, Noshki Station House Officer Asad Mengal told Dawn.com.

The victims  all of whom were men  were from Wazirabad, Mandi Bahauddin, and Gujranwala, according to identity documents seen by Dawn.com.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif has condemned the incident.
Eid-ul-Fitr, a time of joyous celebration marking the end of Ramadan, was marred by violence in Pakistans Punjab province, as a clash erupted between army personnel and police officers. The shocking incident, captured on a now-viral video, has sparked widespread outrage and raised serious questions about the rule of law in the country.

The disturbing footage depicts Pakistan army personnel forcibly entering the Bahawalnagar police station, unleashing a wave of chaos and violence. They ransacked the premises, assaulted police officers, and inflicted brutal beatings using rifle butts and lathis. The station house officer was reportedly subjected to torture in the ordeal.

The confrontation unfolded on the morning of April 10th, shortly after Eid prayers, when a convoy of army vehicles descended upon the police station. The catalyst for this violent altercation stemmed from a prior incident where Punjab police officers had taken action against an individual accused of looting, only to discover that the perpetrator was a relative of an army officer.

In the aftermath of the clash, voices of dismay and disbelief reverberated across Pakistan. A police officer, his voice tinged with desperation, questioned the very essence of the nations ideals, lamenting, Is this Pakistan? Where is our CM Sahiba (Maryam Nawaz)? Will the people whom we protect raise their voices for us?

While senior police officials sought to downplay the severity of the incident, dismissing it as a routine occurrence, the gravity of the situation was not lost on the public. The viral video has ignited a firestorm of debate, with citizens expressing concerns over the apparent impunity enjoyed by the military and the erosion of the rule of law.

Political figures, including members of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), have weighed in on the matter, condemning the clash as a manifestation of systemic dysfunction within the state. Raoof Hussain, a PTI member, decried the incident as evidence of a malady afflicting Pakistani society, warning of the ominous specter of widespread anarchy.

Former Pakistan senate member Afrasiab Khattak echoed these sentiments, questioning whether the fundamental principles of justice and accountability still hold sway in the country. He cautioned against the dangerous trajectory of a state that succumbs to brute force and the lashkarisation of its institutions.

As the nation grapples with the aftermath of this harrowing clash, it stands at a crossroads, facing a critical juncture in its quest for justice, accountability, and the rule of law. The events in Bahawalnagar serve as a stark reminder of the challenges that lie ahead and the urgent need for concerted efforts to uphold the principles upon which the nation was founded.

(Text and photo courtesy: Khalsavox.com)
Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu), Apr 13 (UNI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday held a mega roadshow here in support of the BJP candidate and former Union Minister Pon.Radhakrishnan , who is contesting from Kanyakumari Lok Sabha constituency and also partys Vilavancode Assembly by-election candidate VS.Nandhini.

Shah, accompanied by senior BJP leaders and Pon Radhakrishnan held the road show from Mettukadai Junction to the Old Bus Stand covering more than one-km stretch on the Thuckalay-Thiruvananthapuram National Highway.

The senior BJP leader standing in an flower-decked open vehicle waved and greeted the huge number of people, who gathered on both sides of the road, carrying party flags and the portraits of Shah, chanting Bharat Matha Ki Jai and Meendum Modi, Vendum Modi (Once again Modi, we want Modi) slogans.

Hundreds of BJP men and women also participated in the roadshow.

Addressing the party workers , the Home Minister appealed to the people of Tamil Nadu to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been aiming for the countrys growth and security.

He said due to the corrupt rule of DMK and AIADMK over the past years, the State has failed to attain the expected level of growth.

Tight security arrangements were made by the police in view of the roadshow.

Shah, who was on a two-day visit to Tamil Nadu, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, held a roadshow in Madurai on Friday evening and he is scheduled to address an election rally at Tiruvarur. The Home Minister is expected to hold another roadshow at Tenkasi to canvass for the NDA candidates today.

The Kanyakumari constituency is set to witness a triangular contest, as the Congress, AIADMK and BJP parties have fielded Vijay Vasanth, Nazerath Pasilian and Pon Radhakrishnan respectively.

Vijay Vasanth is the sitting MP from Kanyakumari constituency, who won the by-election after the demise of his father H.Vasanthakumar in August 2020. Vasanthakumar defeated Pon Radhakrishnan in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The by-poll for Vilavancode assembly constituency was necessitated after sitting Congress MLA S.Vijayadharani quit the party and joined the BJP recently.

The Election Commission of India announced that by-election to Vilavancode assembly constituency in Kanyakumari district will be held along with Lok Sabha polls on April 19 in Tamil Nadu.

UNI GSM CS
Photo Courtesy Unsplash

Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, of Miami, a former US Department of State employee, who served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995, and as US Ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, has pleaded guilty to secretly acting for decades as an agent of the government of Cuba.

A federal judge sentenced Rocha to the statutory maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

Todays plea and sentencing brings to an end more than four decades of betrayal and deceit by the defendant, said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Departments National Security Division. Rocha admitted to acting as an agent of the Cuban government at the same time he held numerous positions of trust in the U.S. government, a staggering betrayal of the American people and an acknowledgement that every oath he took to the United States was a lie."

Victor Manuel Rocha secretly acted for decades as an agent of a hostile foreign power. He thought the story of his covert mission for Cuba would never be told because he had the intelligence, knowledge, and discipline to never to be detected. Rocha underestimated those same skills in the prosecutors and law enforcement agents who worked tirelessly to bring him to justice for betraying his oath to this country, said Markenzy Lapointe, Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

I am mindful that Rochas decades-long criminal activity on behalf of the Cuban Government is especially painful for many in South Florida. Rochas willingness to cooperate, as required by his plea agreement, is important, but does not change the seriousness of his misconduct or his clandestine breach of the trust placed in him. Rochas 15-year prison sentence, the maximum punishment for his crimes of conviction, sends a powerful message to those who are acting or seek to act unlawfully in the United States for a foreign government: we will seek you out anywhere, at any time, and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law, Lapointe said.

US District Court Judge Beth Bloom accepted Rochas guilty plea to counts 1 and 2 of the indictment, which charged him with conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government, and conspiring to defraud the United States and acting as an agent of a foreign government without notice as required by law.

The court then sentenced Rocha to the statutory maximum penalty on his counts of conviction: 15 years in prison, an USD 500,000 fine, three years of supervised release and a special assessment. The court also imposed significant restrictions on Rocha.

Under the terms of the parties plea agreement, Rocha must cooperate with the United States, including assisting with any damage assessment related to his work on behalf of the Republic of Cuba. Rocha must relinquish all future retirement benefits, including pension payments, owed to him by the United States, based upon his former State Department employment. Rocha must also assign to the United States any profits that he may be entitled to receive in connection with any publication relating to his criminal conduct or his US Government service.

Despite swearing an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, Rocha betrayed the US by secretly working as a Cuban agent for decades, said Executive Assistant Director Larissa L. Knapp of the FBIs National Security Branch. After years of lying and endangering national security and U.S. citizens, he finally accepted responsibility for his actions and received the maximum prison sentence. This should serve as a notice to our adversaries that the FBI will work tirelessly to stop foreign intelligence services and any who work with them against the interests of the United States and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.

Victor Manuel Rocha was sentenced to 15 years in prison today for deceiving our nation, said Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI Miami Field Office. He blatantly violated the oath of office he willingly took as an employee of the State Department and disregarded the loyalty to the United States that is inherent with that oath. As this case demonstrates, the counterintelligence threat facing our nation is real, pervasive, and has the potential to cause great harm to our national security. I want to commend the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Florida for their close partnership on this highly sensitive matter. I also want to thank our Washington Field Office and our Counterintelligence Division, as well as the Department of Justices National Security Division and the Department of States Diplomatic Security Service for their valuable contributions to this case.

The investigation of this crime demonstrates the sustained threat from hostile intelligence services, said Assistant Director for Domestic Operations Andrew Wroblewski of the U.S. Department of States Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). Todays guilty plea and sentencing are another example of our commitment to successfully work together with our federal law enforcement partners in the pursuit of those who compromise the security of the United States.

In pleading guilty, Rocha admitted that, beginning in 1973, and continuing to the time of his arrest, he secretly supported the Republic of Cuba and its clandestine intelligence-gathering mission against the United States by serving as a covert agent of Cubas General Directorate of Intelligence, US Department of Justice said in a statement.

By his own admission, to further that role, Rocha obtained employment at the US Department of State, where he worked between 1981 and 2002, in positions that provided him access to nonpublic information, including classified information, and the ability to affect US foreign policy.

Aside from serving as the US Ambassador to Bolivia and on the White House National Security Council, Rochas career included a stint as Deputy Principal Secretary of the State Departments US Interests Section in Havana, Cuba from 1995-97.

After his State Department employment ended, Rocha engaged in other acts intended to support Cubas intelligence services.

Rocha kept his status as a Cuban agent secret to protect himself and others and to allow himself the opportunity to engage in additional clandestine activity.

Rocha provided false and misleading information to the United States to maintain his secret mission and travelled outside the United States to meet with Cuban intelligence operatives.

In a series of meetings during 2022 and 2023, with an undercover FBI agent posing as a covert Cuban General Directorate of Intelligence representative, Rocha made repeated statements admitting his decades of work for Cuba, spanning 40 years. When the undercover told Rocha he was a covert representative here in Miami whose mission was to contact you, introduce myself as your new contact, and establish a new communication plan, Rocha answered Yes, and proceeded to engage in lengthy conversations during which he described and celebrated his activity as a Cuban intelligence agent.

Throughout the meetings, Rocha behaved as a Cuban agent, consistently referring to the United States as the enemy, and using the term we to describe himself and Cuba. Rocha additionally praised Fidel Castro as the Comandante, and referred to his contacts in Cuban intelligence as his Companeros (comrades) and to the Cuban intelligence services as the Direccion. Rocha described his work as a Cuban agent as enormous  More than a grand slam, and asserted that what he did strengthened the Revolution  immensely.

The FBI Miami Field Office investigated the case, with valuable contributions by the FBI Washington Field Office and the US Department of States Diplomatic Security Service (DSS).

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan D. Stratton and John C. Shipley for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorneys Heather M. Schmidt and Christine A. Bonomo of the National Security Divisions Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuted the case.
Photo courtesy: Screenshot grab from X video

Washington/IBNS: Riddhi Patel, a pro-Palestine Indian-American citizen, was arrested on Wednesday after she gave death threats to the Bakersfield Council members in California, United States.

Patel, who is of Indian origin, was seen in a video threatening to kill the council members including Republic Mayor Karen Goh.

She was heard saying, "You guys are all horrible human beings and Jesus probably would have killed you himselfYou guys dont care about anything happening in Palestine or any other country where oppression occurs because you don't care about oppression occurring here."

"I hope one day somebody brings the guillotine and kills all of you mother****ers," she added.

WILD: Unhinged Pro-Palestine protestor Riddhi Patel threatens to M*RDER Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh (R) in a psychotic rant during a city council meeting.



Patel is being charged with 16 felonies and is being held on a $1 million bail. pic.twitter.com/09PeBCWoNz  Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 12, 2024

Patel was arrested on Wednesday on 16 felony counts, it was confirmed by Bakersfield Police.

But who is Riddhi Patel?

Riddhi Patel, 28, is a pro-Palestine American citizen of Indian origin.

As per reports, Patel is the Economic Development Coordinator for the Centre for Race, Poverty and the Environment, which she joined in 2020.

Riddhi Patel is an Economic development coordinator with Centre on Race, Poverty and the Environment (CRPE). Riddhi Patel volunteered for Bernie Sanders presidential campaign. Ford Foundation, Libra Foundation fund CRPE. Libra Foundation also fund Equality Labs. https://t.co/babWTwMLqZ pic.twitter.com/4MfMroK3Nn  Stop Hindu Hate Advocacy Network (SHHAN) (@HinduHate) April 12, 2024

Born and raised in Bakersfield, Patel attended Stockdale High School. She did Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience.

Riddhi Patel's controversies

In the past, Riddhi Patel made anti-Hindi and anti-Narendra Modi remarks stirring controversy.

On January 21, Patel posted on Facebook, "Man f**k Modi. F**k the BJP. F**k Nikki Haley. F**k Dinesh. F**k Bobby Jindal. F**k Hindu Fascism."

Photo courtesy: Screenshot grab from Facebook
Bollywood actor and renowned philanthropist Sonu Sood has found himself amid a social media storm after voicing support for a Swiggy delivery boy accused of stealing a pair of shoes from a customer's residence in Gurugram.



Bollywood Actor Sonu Sood Stands By Swiggy Delivery Boy

Picture Of Sonu Sood/X

The incident came to light when CCTV footage capturing the alleged theft went viral across various social media platforms.

In the footage, the delivery personnel can be seen purportedly pocketing the shoes after completing the food delivery.

Despite calls for strict action against the accused delivery boy, Sonu Sood took to his official social media account to advocate for compassion and understanding. He suggested that instead of reprimanding the delivery person, he should be gifted a new pair of shoes, implying that he might have been facing dire circumstances prompting such actions.

Sonu's stance garnered mixed reactions from netizens. While some echoed his sentiments, emphasising the importance of empathy and kindness, others vehemently opposed the justification of theft under any circumstances.

Here Is How People Reacted To Sonu's Post:

Screenshots From X

What Exactly Happened?

Swiggy's drop and PICK up service. A delivery boy just took my friend's shoes (@Nike) and they won't even share his contact. @Swiggy @SwiggyCares @SwiggyInstamart pic.twitter.com/NaGvrOiKcx  Rohit Arora (@_arorarohit_) April 11, 2024

The CCTV footage, which circulated widely, depicted the sequence of events leading to the alleged theft. It showed the delivery boy delivering the order and subsequently lingering around the premises. Moments later, he was seen picking up the shoes and concealing them before departing from the scene.

Sonu Sood, recognised for his humanitarian efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, rose to prominence for his tireless endeavors in assisting migrant workers and providing essential aid to those in need. His recent statement adds another layer to his public persona, sparking discussions on ethics and empathy in society.

Amidst the controversy, Sonu Sood continues to engage in his professional commitments, with an upcoming action-packed thriller titled "Fateh," co-starring Jacqueline Fernandez, slated for release in 2024. Directed by Sood himself, the film promises to deliver an adrenaline-fueled cinematic experience for audiences.

For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.


Welcome to our collection of best wishes and messages for various New Year celebrations in India. Whether you're celebrating Sikh, Tamil, Bengali, Odia, Malayalam, Tripura, or Hindu New Year, we've got you covered!

In this article, we've curated heartfelt wishes and messages to convey your warm regards to your loved ones on these special occasions. From Hindu New Year to Sikh New Year to Bengali New Year, each New Year celebration holds its unique charm. Join us as we explore the beauty of these diverse festivities and discover the perfect words to express your joy and blessings for the New Year ahead.



Heartfelt Messages for Tamil New Year

As the Tamil community gears up to welcome the New Year, it's a time of joy, reflection, and anticipation. Sending heartfelt wishes filled with hope, prosperity, and happiness sets the tone for a promising year ahead. Whether it's through traditional greetings or modern messages, conveying love and blessings to friends and family marks the essence of the Tamil New Year.

"On this auspicious day of Tamil New Year, may your life be filled with prosperity, happiness, and success. Happy Puthandu!"

"Wishing you a New Year filled with new hope, new aspirations, and new beginnings. May this Tamil New Year bring you immense joy and blessings."

"As the sun rises to mark the beginning of another year, may it bring new opportunities and endless possibilities into your life. Happy Tamil New Year!"

"May the divine blessings of Lord Brahma shower upon you and your family on this Tamil New Year. Wishing you peace, prosperity, and abundance."

"Let's welcome this Tamil New Year with a heart full of gratitude and a spirit of joy. May each day of the year ahead be as bright as the colors of Puthandu."

"Sending you warm wishes on the occasion of Tamil New Year. May this day be the start of a year filled with love, laughter, and success."

"On this auspicious day, may the fragrance of blossoming flowers fill your life with sweetness and the melody of laughter resonate in your home. Happy Puthandu!"

"May the New Year bring you closer to your dreams and aspirations. Wishing you and your family a joyful and prosperous Tamil New Year."

"Let's cherish the traditions and values that bind us together as we celebrate Tamil New Year. May our bonds grow stronger with each passing day."

"As you step into the New Year, may you be blessed with good health, happiness, and peace. Happy Tamil New Year to you and your loved ones!"

Joyous Greetings for the Bengali New Year

For the Bengali community, the New Year heralds a time of festivities, marked by cultural events, delicious food, and vibrant celebrations. Sending joyous greetings encapsulating the spirit of Shubho Noboborsho spreads positivity and camaraderie among loved ones. From exchanging sweets to sharing heartfelt messages, every gesture fosters a sense of unity and togetherness.

"Shubho Noboborsho! Wishing you a New Year filled with joy, prosperity, and endless blessings."

"On this auspicious day, may Maa Durga bless you with strength, success, and happiness. Shubho Noboborsho!"

"As the sweet fragrance of 'sondesh' fills the air, may your life be filled with sweetness and joy. Happy Bengali New Year!"

"Let's welcome the New Year with open hearts and vibrant celebrations. Shubho Noboborsho to you and your family!"

"May this Pohela Boishakh bring new hope, new dreams, and new beginnings into your life. Shubho Noboborsho!"

"Wishing you a year filled with laughter, love, and prosperity. Happy Bengali New Year!"

"On this joyous occasion, may the rhythm of dhak fill your heart with happiness and your home with peace. Shubho Noboborsho!"

"May the colors of 'rangoli' brighten your life and the warmth of 'phuchka' fill your soul with happiness. Happy Pohela Boishakh!"

"Sending you my heartfelt wishes for a year filled with success, prosperity, and good health. Shubho Noboborsho!"

"As we step into the New Year, let's cherish the bonds of friendship and family. Shubho Noboborsho to you and your loved ones!"

Warm Wishes for Odia's New Year

Odia New Year, also known as Maha Vishuba Sankranti or Pana Sankranti, symbolizes the onset of a new agricultural cycle and a time for renewal. Extending warm wishes filled with blessings, abundance, and goodwill strengthens bonds and fosters a sense of community. Whether it's through traditional rituals or modern expressions, conveying happiness and prosperity for the year ahead holds immense significance.

Shubho Naba Barsha! May this Odia New Year bring you prosperity, happiness, and success."

"Wishing you a year filled with love, laughter, and endless blessings. Happy Odia New Year!"

"As the sun rises on another year, may it bring new opportunities and fulfil all your dreams. Happy Pana Sankranti!"

"May the fragrance of blossoming flowers and the sweetness of homemade sweets fill your life with joy. Happy Maha Vishuba Sankranti!"

"On this auspicious occasion, let's celebrate new beginnings and cherish the bonds of love and friendship. Happy New Year!"

"May the spirit of renewal and rejuvenation fill your heart with hope and optimism. Happy Odia New Year!"

"Wishing you and your family a year filled with prosperity, good health, and happiness. Happy Naba Barsha!"

"Let's welcome the New Year with open arms and grateful hearts. Wishing you a joyful and blessed Odia New Year!"

"May the colours of spring paint your life with happiness and prosperity. Happy Maha Vishuba Sankranti!"

"Here's to a year filled with new adventures, memorable moments, and endless blessings. Happy Odia New Year!"

Festive Greetings for Malayalam New Year

In Kerala, the Malayalam New Year, known as Vishu, is a time of joyous festivities and family gatherings. Sending festive greetings infused with blessings, prosperity, and good fortune encapsulates the essence of Vishu celebrations. Whether it's exchanging traditional gifts or sharing heartfelt messages, every gesture reflects the spirit of renewal and hope for a prosperous year ahead.

"Wishing you a Happy Malayalam New Year filled with joy, prosperity, and peace!"

"May this Vishu bring you abundant blessings, happiness, and success. Happy New Year!"

"As the golden konna flowers bloom, may your life be filled with prosperity and good fortune. Happy Vishu!"

"On this auspicious occasion of Vishu, may the spirit of happiness and harmony illuminate your life. Happy New Year!"

"May the sweet melodies of Vishu kani fill your heart with joy and contentment. Happy Malayalam New Year!"

"Wishing you and your family a Vishu filled with love, laughter, and new beginnings. Happy New Year!"

"May the divine blessings of Lord Krishna bring you peace, prosperity, and happiness this Malayalam New Year."

"Sending warm wishes and heartfelt greetings on the occasion of Vishu. Happy New Year to you and your loved ones!"

"May the festival of Vishu usher in a new era of hope, happiness, and prosperity in your life. Happy Malayalam New Year!"

"On this auspicious day of Vishu, may you be blessed with success, health, and prosperity. Happy New Year!"

Best Wishes for Tripura New Year

As Tripura gears up to celebrate its New Year, it's a time of cultural vibrancy and traditional fervour. Sending the best wishes filled with joy, peace, and harmony strengthens the bonds of friendship and kinship. Whether it's through colourful festivities or heartfelt messages, embracing the spirit of the Tripuri New Year fosters unity and solidarity among communities.

"Warm wishes to you and your family on Tripura New Year! May this auspicious occasion bring you prosperity, happiness, and success."

"Happy Tripura New Year! May the coming year be filled with joy, love, and abundance for you and your loved ones."

"Wishing you a delightful Tripura New Year filled with laughter, good health, and countless blessings."

"On this special day of Tripura New Year, may your life be showered with peace, harmony, and prosperity."

"Sending my heartfelt wishes for a joyful Tripura New Year! May this year bring new opportunities and endless happiness into your life."

"Happy Tripura New Year! May the divine blessings of Maa Tripura Sundari guide you towards a fulfilling and prosperous year ahead."

"Warmest greetings on Tripura New Year! May the festivities fill your heart with happiness and your home with warmth."

"Wishing you a wonderful Tripura New Year filled with love, laughter, and cherished moments with your loved ones."

"Happy Tripura New Year! May this new beginning bring you closer to your dreams and aspirations."

"As we celebrate Tripura New Year, may your life be illuminated with the light of happiness, peace, and prosperity. Cheers to new beginnings!"

Traditional Hindu New Year Blessings

For Hindus across the world, the New Year signifies the beginning of a new era filled with hope, prosperity, and spiritual growth. Sending traditional blessings and messages to family and friends invokes divine blessings and auspiciousness for the year ahead. Whether it's through sacred rituals or heartfelt exchanges, embracing the traditions of the Hindu New Year fosters a sense of connection and reverence for one's cultural heritage.

Happy Hindu New Year wishes and messages

"May this Hindu New Year bring you abundant blessings, prosperity, and success. Happy New Year!"

"Wishing you and your family a year filled with joy, love, and harmony. Happy Hindu New Year!"

"As we welcome the New Year, may it bring new hopes, new aspirations, and new beginnings into your life. Happy Navratri!"

"May the divine blessings of Goddess Lakshmi shower upon you on this auspicious occasion of the Hindu New Year. Happy Nav Varsh!"

"Sending you warm wishes for a prosperous and blissful Hindu New Year. May this year be filled with peace, happiness, and prosperity."

"On this auspicious day, may Lord Ganesha remove all obstacles from your path and bless you with success and happiness. Happy Hindu New Year!"

"As the sun rises on another year, may it bring new rays of hope and positivity into your life. Wishing you a very happy Hindu New Year!"

"May the colors of joy and happiness paint your life in the upcoming year. Happy Chaitra Navratri and Hindu New Year!"

"Wishing you a year filled with laughter, good health, and prosperity. Happy Hindu New Year to you and your loved ones!"

"May the arrival of the Hindu New Year fill your heart with renewed energy and enthusiasm to chase your dreams. Happy Nav Varsh!"

Happy all the different types of New Year wishes and messages in India:

May this Sikh New Year bring you abundant joy, prosperity, and peace. Wishing you a year filled with blessings and success ahead!

Warmest greetings to all our Tamil friends on this New Year! May the coming year be filled with happiness, good health, and prosperity for you and your loved ones.

   ! Wishing all our Bengali friends a joyful and prosperous New Year. May this year bring you endless opportunities and happiness.

     ! Happy Odia New Year to all. May this year be filled with love, laughter, and success.

Wishing all our Malayalam friends a Happy New Year filled with prosperity, health, and joy. May this year be as beautiful and colorful as the blooming flowers of Kerala!

    ! Happy Tripura New Year to everyone celebrating. May this year bring you closer to your dreams and aspirations.

On this auspicious occasion of the Sikh New Year, may Waheguru bless you with happiness, success, and prosperity. Happy New Year!

   ! Wishing you a year filled with love, laughter, and prosperity. Happy Tamil New Year!

 ! May this Bengali New Year bring you new hope, new aspirations, and new achievements. Wishing you joy and success in the coming year.

      ! Happy Odia New Year to all. May this year bring you prosperity and happiness.

Wishing all our Malayalam friends a Happy New Year filled with love, laughter, and prosperity. May this year be a wonderful journey of success and growth.

   ! Happy Tripura New Year to everyone celebrating. May this year be filled with joy, peace, and prosperity.

May the blessings of Guru Nanak Dev Ji be with you on this Sikh New Year. Wishing you and your family happiness, peace, and prosperity in the coming year.

  ! May this Tamil New Year bring you abundant happiness, success, and prosperity. Have a wonderful year ahead!

  ! Wishing you a Happy New Year filled with joy, prosperity, and success. May this Bengali New Year bring you closer to your dreams.

        ! Happy Odia New Year to all. May this year be filled with happiness and prosperity.

Wishing all our Malayalam friends a Happy New Year filled with love, peace, and prosperity. May this year bring you closer to your goals and dreams.

    ! Happy Tripura New Year to everyone celebrating. May this year be filled with happiness, success, and prosperity.

On this Sikh New Year, may Guru Gobind Singh Ji bless you with strength, courage, and wisdom. Wishing you a year filled with joy and prosperity.

   ! Wishing you a Happy Tamil New Year filled with happiness, prosperity, and success. May this year be auspicious and joyful for you and your family.

For more informative articles on historical and upcoming events from around the world, please visit Indiatimes Events
In a commendable achievement, a teenage girl from Andhra Pradesh who refused to be a child bride to pursue her dreams of higher education has topped the first-year intermediate board examinations in the state.

The girl, identified as S Nirmala, a native of Pedda Harivanam in Kurnool district, scored 421 marks out of 440 in the exam.

BCCL/ Representational Image

Parents unable to afford her education

This would have been an impossible feat if she had not stood up for herself and even fought with her parents who were eager to get her married off.

According to The Times of India, though Nirmala, had scored 89.5% marks in her Class 10 exams last year, for her family, higher studies was not an option.

The impoverished family that had already married off their three daughters at a young age was planning the same for Nirmala also.

FREEPIK

They told Nirmala that the family was not in a position to fund her education anymore and also pointed out that there was no junior college nearby for her to study.

How she prevented child marriage

An undeterred Nirmala then approached Adoni MLA Y Saiprasad Reddy, who informed District Collector G Srujana about her.

The district administration managed to rescue Nirmala and got her admitted to Kasturba Gandhi Balikala Vidyalaya at Aspari, where she continued to excel in her studies.

Nirmala said she hopes to become an IPS officer and work towards the abolition of child marriages.

Child marriage in Andhra Pradesh

Despite it being illegal for nearly a century now, the evil of child marriages continues in many parts of the country.

BCCL

A 2022 study had said that the prevalence of child marriages in the State is as high as 29.3 percent.

According to data by the Kailash Satyarthi Childrens Foundation (KSCF) around 1,130 child marriages were prevented in Andhra Pradesh during 2022-23.

Earlier this year, the Andhra State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) had proposed to intensify an awareness programme to reduce child marriages.

For more news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has issued an advisory asking its citizens not to travel to Iran and Israel. The MEA advisory was issued on Friday amid fears of an escalation in tensions between the two sides in the highly militarised and volatile region.

REUTERS

Tensions mounting in West Asia

There have been mounting tensions in West Asia following the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. Iran blamed Israel for the strike and there have been media reports from Tel Aviv that the Israeli forces are preparing for any eventualities.

Indians in Iran, Israel advised caution

The MEA also urged the Indians residing in Iran and Israel to exercise utmost precautions about their safety and restrict their movements to a minimum.

"In view of the prevailing situation in the region, all Indians are advised not to travel to Iran or Israel till further notice," it said.

"All those who are currently residing in Iran or Israel are requested to get in touch with Indian Embassies there and register themselves," the MEA said.

File Image

"They are also requested to observe utmost precautions about their safety and restrict their movements to the minimum," it added.

At present, around 4,000 Indians are residing in Iran while the number in Israel is nearly 18,500, according to official estimates.

Setback for Indian workers in Israel

Following the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza, which also resulted in a Palestinian labour shortage there, many Indians queued up to work in sectors including construction.

REUTERS

There were reports that the Israeli construction industry is looking at recruiting 100,000 Indian workers to replace the 90,000 Palestinians.

However, following the recent developments, Indians will no longer be allowed to go to Israel to work in these sectors. The first batch of 64 Indian workers had left for Israel earlier this month and over 6,000 construction workers from India were to leave for Israel in April and May.

AFP

In February this year, Iran had announced a visa-waiver programme for Indians entering the country by air for tourism for a maximum stay of 15 days.

For more news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
Lok Sabha Elections 2024: With just days remaining until the initiation of the Lok Sabha elections, posters alleging corruption by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre have appeared in various locations across Tamil Nadu.

Twitter

The posters feature a barcode and carry the inscription, 'scan the code and uncover the scams.' Positioned at the top is the phrase 'Ji PAY'.



Upon scanning the code, individuals are directed to a video. In the video, a speaker elucidates the BJP's purported involvement in corruption via electoral bonds and malfeasance in infrastructure projects, among other allegations.

The video concludes by urging voters to reject the BJP and lend their support to the INDIA bloc. According to reports, the posters were affixed by DMK functionaries.

ANI

Notably, in September 2022, before the Karnataka Assembly elections, the Congress party ran a PayCM campaign accusing the then Chief Minister of the BJP government,



Vasavaraj Bommai, of involvement in corruption. In this campaign, a QR code was placed containing the photo of Karnataka's then Chief Minister Bommai, similar to PayTM. Upon scanning the QR code, the website of Congress's '40 percent government' would open.



During the historic 2019 elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a significant triumph with 303 seats, while its coalition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), amassed 352 seats.

ECI

As India braces itself for the pivotal 2024 elections, there appears to be a noticeable shift in the political panorama. The Indian National Congress, spearheading a coalition of over two dozen parties known as the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (or "India" for short), emerges as a primary contender.

Key personalities within this alliance encompass Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, alongside siblings Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, carrying forward their father's legacy, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Voting is slated to take place across the nation on seven polling days: April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1. The results are scheduled to be announced on June 4.

For more news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.


Keralites from across the world have successfully raised Rs 34.4 crore to save the life of a fellow citizen, a death row prisoner who had been in a Saudi jail for the past 18 years.

The money pooled by ordinary citizens, celebrities, businessmen and philanthropists will be used to pay the blood money to save the life of Abdul Rahim, a native of Kozhikode in Kerala.

BCCL

Why was Abdul Rahim jailed

41-year-old Rahim, who was working as a driver and caretaker of a boy on life support in Riyadh landed in trouble after his 'accidental death'.

The 15-year-old died after Rahim accidentally ended up removing his breathing device while trying to quieten him, as he was driving. This, unfortunately, resulted in the death of the boy.

The incident happened in 2006 and Rahim had been in a Saudi jail ever since.

In 2018, a court in Saudi Arabia sentenced him for murder and the appeal court upheld this verdict in 2022, a decision later confirmed by the countrys Supreme Court.

BCCL

Victim's family agrees on blood money

However, after numerous discussions, the Saudi family agreed to pardon Rahim in exchange for blood money of 15 million Saudi Riyals which comes to around Rs 34 crore, to be paid before April 18.

This was an amount the family of Rahim could not afford and some well-wishers started a crowdfunding campaign in March.

Rs 5 crore raised in a month

Until last week the campaign had only managed to raise Rs 5 crores, a fraction of the amount required to save Rahim's life.

But things changed earlier this week after the campaign picked up momentum on social media.

BCCL

Businessman leads the donation drive

Maverick businessman and philanthropist Boby Chemmanur who himself donated Rs 1 crore also travelled across the state urging others to chip in.

And in a matter of days, the amount was raised to secure the release of Rahim.

BCCL

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan congratulated the efforts and said it was the "Real Kerala Story" of compassion and truth.

For more news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News.
In a remarkable display of skill and agility, a 6-year-old girl from Ahmedabad has etched her name in the annals of sporting history by setting a new world record in lowest limbo skating.

This awe-inspiring feat was achieved by the young prodigy, whose name has become synonymous with determination and talent in the skating community.

She surpassed all expectations with sheer perseverance and unwavering focus, captivating audiences worldwide with her exceptional performance.

Limbo skating, characterized by its demanding requirement of flexibility and balance, poses a formidable challenge to even the most seasoned skaters.

However, this remarkable youngster defied the odds, showcasing unparalleled skill and finesse that belied her tender age.

Her groundbreaking achievement inspires aspiring athletes everywhere, proving that with dedication and passion, any obstacle can be overcome.

What Is This Video All About?

A 6-year-old Ahmedabad girl sets a world record for lowest limbo skating | Image: Instagram

Guinness World Records (GWR) announced that Takshvi Vaghani, a six-year-old hailing from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, has clinched the title of "lowest limbo skating over 25 m."



The achievement was confirmed through a video shared by GWR on Instagram, showcasing Takshvi effortlessly conquering the challenge.

For the uninitiated, this sport entails skating under a horizontal pole, requiring exceptional flexibility and balance.

As stated on GWR's official website, Takshvi accomplished this remarkable feat on March 10 of the preceding year, driven by her aspiration.

A 6-year-old Ahmedabad girl sets a world record for lowest limbo skating | Image: Instagram

The video, uploaded by Guinness World Records on April 10, quickly gained attention, highlighting Takshvi's accomplishment: "Lowest limbo skating over 25 m,16 cm (6.29 in) by Takshvi Vaghani," as stated in the accompanying note.



Previously, Manasvi Vishal from Pune held the Guinness World Records title for "lowest limbo skating over 25 m."

Manasvi achieved this remarkable feat by gracefully gliding a distance of 25 meters while maintaining an astonishing height of only 16.5 centimeters above the ground. Manasvi's journey into limbo skating began at the tender age of three and a half when she discovered her passion for the sport.

A 6-year-old Ahmedabad girl sets a world record for lowest limbo skating | Image: Instagram

After a year of dedicated preparation, she embarked on her quest to set a new Guinness World Record. On July 29, 2023, Manasvi accomplished her goal, though official confirmation from Guinness World Records was not received until October 2023 for various reasons, as reported by The Indian Express.



Moreover, in July 2023, 18-year-old Indian skater Shrishti Dharmendra Sharma secured a new world record by achieving the "fastest time to limbo skate over 50 meters." Shrishti shattered her own previous record set in 2021, completing the distance in an astonishing 6.94 seconds, improving upon her previous time of 7.38 seconds.



Where Can You Watch The Video?

You can watch the viral video on Instagram posted by Guinness World Records.

How Did The Internet React?

Within hours of its posting, the video garnered an impressive 1.5 million views, along with numerous comments praising Takshvi's remarkable achievement.



Internet reacts to a 6-year-old Ahmedabad girl sets a world record for lowest limbo skating | Image: Instagram

Internet reacts to a 6-year-old Ahmedabad girl sets a world record for lowest limbo skating | Image: Instagram

What do you think about it? Do let us know in the comments.



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In a recent incident at a Bank of India branch in Nagpur, a young man was denied entry for wearing shorts, sparking a debate on dress codes and discrimination.



The incident occurred when the boy, a resident of Nagpur, attempted to enter the bank to conduct some financial transactions.

However, he was stopped by the security personnel at the entrance, citing the bank's dress code policy that requires visitors to be dressed in full-length trousers.

The boy expressed his disbelief and frustration, stating that he was unaware of the policy and had never faced such restrictions at other establishments.

The incident quickly gained attention on social media platforms, with many expressing outrage over what they perceived as discrimination based on attire.

While the bank has defended its policy to maintain decorum, the incident has raised broader questions about the balance between professionalism and individual freedom in public spaces.

What Happened In Nagpur Bank With This Man?

A Nagpur boy was denied entry by the Bank of India because he was wearing shorts | Image: X

A recent viral video allegedly depicted an incident at a Bank of India branch in Nagpur, where a man was reportedly barred from entry due to wearing shorts.



The footage captures a confrontation between the individual and a security guard, purportedly illustrating the guard's refusal to permit entry, citing the man's attire.

In the video, the man questions the existence of a dress code for bank patrons yet receives no direct response from the guard.

Where Can You Watch The Video?

You can watch the viral video on X shared by @gharkekalesh.

Kalesh between a Guy and a bank Security guard over that the Guy had gone to the bank wearing shorts/Half pant

pic.twitter.com/KsBcpnqtl1  Ghar Ke Kalesh (@gharkekalesh) April 11, 2024

How Did The Internet React?

A Nagpur boy was denied entry by the Bank of India because he was wearing shorts | Image: X

The video sparked varied reactions online. Many condemned what they perceived as unjust and discriminatory rules, while others pointed out the absence of an official dress code for customers.



In response to the footage, one user commented, "Spotting an orthodox security guard, huh?"

Another user remarked, "Forget everything else, just observe the security guard's fingers adorned with rings! My word, does he earn in lakhs?"

A third individual shared their experience, stating, "I, too, faced denial of entry and had to return home."

Internet reacts to a Nagpur boy was denied entry by the Bank of India because he was wearing shorts | Image: X

Internet reacts to a Nagpur boy was denied entry by the Bank of India because he was wearing shorts | Image: X

What do you think about it? Do let us know in the comments.



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Bello Matawalle, Minister of State for Defence, has condemned the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) for alleging that the region regrets voting for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The forum had faulted the administrations policies, vowing not to make the same mistake again, come 2027.

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Reacting Matawalle made this known on Saturday in a statement he signed describing the forum as a political paperweight seeking recognition from the government for relevance and living in delusion.

The former Governor of Zamfara State said, My attention has been drawn to the threats issued by the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which is reprehensible and naive.

It is preposterous for a group of people seeking political relevance to overburden the system and create political disunity among Nigerians.

The so-called NEF is more or less a political paperweight trying to embark on a destructive journey that will bring the North to disrepute for the groups personal and selfish gains.

In addition, This NEF is more of a political burden to Northerners.

The group is seeking to erode other peoples rights to be recognised or made relevant in the scheme of things despite the failure of their sponsored candidates in the 2023 general elections.

In as much as many have overlooked them in respect of their utterances, it is pertinent to underscore their overbearing attitude on issues that affect political unity and cohesion.

They can not offer any positive idea or thought about the future of Northern Nigeria or, indeed, of Nigeria and its unity and togetherness.

We all know President Bola Ahmed Tinubu won the February 2023 presidential election convincingly.

So, who is the NEF to want to undermine the Presidents victory and even threaten to unseat him?

READ ALSO: Threatening Nigerians With 2027 Election Lacks Good Reasoning  Ex Kaduna CAN Chairman Replies Northern Elders

This same group of people have intentionally shied away from their responsibility of engendering unity in the North by appreciating the incremental development being brought to the North by Ministers appointed by President Tinubu from the North, especially North West.

The NEF has not deemed it fit to seek an audience with Mr. President to discuss issues affecting the Northern region despite the numerous challenges facing the North as rightly highlighted by the President and being addressed by him.

The group has yet to visit any of the ministers dealing with issues of security, agriculture, water resources, police affairs, Education, Health, Budget, foreign affairs, or any head of security agencies in the country so far for first-hand knowledge of government programs and actions.

The majority of them are more interested in faulting the government to be recognised or accorded some relevance.

Our region, the North, is united, disciplined and politically driven enough not to listen and accept being teleguided by any group of elites who had fed fat in the past on the Norths resources and opportunities which had retarded development in the region and nation due to their selfishness.

President Tinubu is poised to do a lot for the North as President of Nigeria, elected by the people of Nigeria, not by one ethnic group or the other, therefore, anyone mistakenly seeing President Tinubu as a failure or a weakling is making a mistake and should rethink.

Such a person or group is either blind or misguided and unable to see the new Nigeria that is emerging.

Therefore, the NEFs statement allegedly expressing regret for voting for President Tinubu is unfortunate.

NEF is not more than a group that has refused to accept reality and is living in delusion.

The truth is that the North is proud of its support and vote for President Tinubu and will continue to be proud of her relationship with the President given the enormous change and development his government has brought to the region.

My advice to NEF and others alike is to support the present government and join hands with President Tinubu to further move the country forward.
Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has met the bail conditions imposed on him by Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja.

INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that Emefiele met the bail terms before the court closed on Friday, and he was released after the proceedings.

Recall that Justice Oshodi had granted Emefiele, who is standing trial before him over allegations of abuse of office and fraud, $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion bail with two sureties in like sum.

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The judge also directed that the sureties must be gainfully employed and have paid tax to the Lagos State Government in the last three years.

READ MORE: Lagos Court Grants Emefiele N50m Bail

The court further directed that the sureties must show proper identification, and they must be registered in the Lagos State Bail Management System.

Meanwhile, Emefieles co-defendant, Henry Isioma-Omoil, was also granted bail by the court.

At the hearing on Friday, a prosecution witness, Monday Osazuwa, had narrated to Justice Oshodi how the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on different occasions directed him to collect the sum of $3 million cash in tranches.

Osazuwa, an employee of the CBN, also told the court that he collected the money from a businessman on behalf of Emefiele, who is accused of abuse of office and fraud of $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion.

While being led in evidence by the prosecutor, Osazuwa narrated to the court how he served as a dispatch rider in Zenith Bank and later joined the CBN running errands for the former CBN governor.

Osazuwa said:I joined the CBN in 2014 as a contract staff and became staff in 2015. I have known the first defendant since he was a Deputy Director of Zenith Bank, and he became Director. I have worked with him since then.

I was still working in the governors office while I was appointed as a full staff, and we usually communicate through WhatsApp or email. I perform as a senior supervisor, recording and filing, with other official roles.

When he called me, he directed that I call a businessman who gave me 11 million dollars on his behalf. Some weeks later, the first defendant also called me to go and see the man, and he gave me $850,000, $750,000 and $400,000 in cash.

Whenever I receive the money and take it to the residence of Mr Emefiele, he always tells me to give it to the second defendant whenever he is not at home.

I did not record transactions because the instruction was to collect and bring the money to his house. The highest amount I collected is $1 million in cash.


Joshua Rogers, who recently kidnapped Channels Television reporter, has regained his freedom.

The reporter was abducted from his residence in Rumuosi, Obio/Akpor area in Rivers on Thursday.

Rogers, who was taken with his branded official car while returning from an assignment at the government house, was released by his captors around 10 p.m. on Friday unharmed.

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The management of Channels Television confirmed Rogers release in a brief statement on Friday night.

Channels Television reporter, Joshua Rogers, who was abducted last night in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has been freed.

READ ALSO: Unknown Gunmen Kidnap Channels TV Reporter In Rivers, Demand N30m

We thank our viewers and all those who expressed concern over the unfortunate incident, the statement read.

Meanwhile it is unclear whether he was rescued by security forces or ransom was paid to secure his release.

Recall that the captors demanded the sum of N30 million to secure his release.

The Police and the Department of State Services, DSS, had launched rescue efforts during his abduction.

Rogers is Channels Televisions Government House Correspondent in Port Harcourt.
As part of efforts to enhance good governance in the country, President Bola Tinubu has called for unity and collaborations between the federal government, state governors, including members of the National Assembly.

In a statement made by his media aide, Ajuri Ngelale, Tinubu made the appeal while receiving governors and the leadership of NASS in Lagos on Friday.

Speaking on behalf of the President, Vice-President Shettima, expressed optimism about Nigerias economic resurgence and called for collective efforts to propel the nation forward.

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He urged unity and collaboration among all stakeholders to achieve shared prosperity and promised a brighter future for the nation under President Tinubus guidance.

Shettima said: Let us unite, rally around our leader, and catapult this nation to a greater pedestal. By December, I hope we will have cause to celebrate. Let us coalesce to take the nation to a greater pedestal.

READ MORE: Let Us Support Tinubu, Governors  Buhari Begs Nigerians

This gathering cuts across ethnic, religious, and political lines. Here, we have Pastor Eno of Akwa Ibom and Father Hyacinth of Benue, and as the President was seated, he was asking, Where is Wammako, where is Yari? That is the hallmark of true leadership. What binds us together supersedes whatever it is that may divide us.

The future of the black man rests on Nigeria to make or mar. Our economy has turned the corner. By the coming months, the economy will roar back to glory.
Ondo State Governor, Lucky Ayedatiwa, on Friday, asked those trying to get him disqualified from the forthcoming governorship election to have a rethink.

According to him, the Government House in Alagbaka has no vacancy to accommodate them.

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Ayedatiwa disclosed this after the screening of the States All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirants at the Partys National Secretariat in Abuja.

He said: You see, we are all indigenes of Ondo state and we are all qualified to run to be the Governor of Ondo state, but there is a sitting governor, no vacancy. Thats what I am saying that I have the structures; the people and the competence.

Within the few months that I assumed office they have seen clearly that this is the best man of the job. Yes because of the peace in the state and some of the programmes that have been rolled out to the people.

Noting that the issues raised regarding his high school certificate were borne out of ignorance, the Governor said evidence abound, indicating that he did not forge any of his certificates.

Screening is one of the exercises that must be done among the processes that the aspirants have to go through. Mine has just been done this morning and all documents that were submitted have to be verified and questions asked where some were not too clear to the screening committee.

Questions were asked and answered and at the end of the day, I have been cleared that there are no issues. Especially the issue that has to do with certificate for which a petition was written, that has now been put to rest. My certificates are genuine and authentic. I think it is just a kind of mischief by some other aspirants who find me to be an aspirant to beat trying to look for a way to discredit my person but that has been verified and put to rest, he said.

READ ALSO: Nigerias Hardship A Trial From Allah, Impact From Bad Past  MURIC

However, one of the aspirants, Chief Olusola Oke who spoke with journalists after his screening, dismissed the Governors declaration that there was no vacancy in Government House.

He said; It is an aphorism from all incumbent persons. I heard this one in Lagos when Ambode was there. Ambode said no vacancy, he had to leave when he needed to leave. It is a statement of wish and desire by the governor and it is a statement that is intended to undermine a democratic exercise. If we are going to primaries and the people will have to determine, how would anybody have the guts to say there is no vacancy? There is no vacancy between now and February next year, no doubt, but after February, his one year term will be exhausted and then there will be a vacancy.

I dont intend to take over from him before the expiration of his one year in office. So, the essence of this exercise is that there will be vacancy after one year term, and that he or somebody else will occupy the seat. Having regard to my wide contact with the people, I believe that I am succeeding him.

Responding also to the Governors comments, the Senator representing Ondo South, Jimoh Ibrahim, described Aiyedatiwa as a joker.

He said, Hes joking. It is a big joke. He cant continue in government with P8, P7. The governor is joking, big joke, huge joke he is cracking with you. He is out of that place by the time we finish primary next week, he is gone and there is nothing virtually he can do about it.

I dont normally go against people, to me, clear everybody, let them go for primary, let the electorate determine. I have won election as senator; I won in six of the six local government areas, 65 of the 66 wards, 111,677 votes against Agboola Ajayi 60,000 votes.

There is no vacancy between now and February next year, no doubt, but after February, his one year term will be exhausted and then therell be a vacancy.
A dispatch rider, Monday Osazuwa, on Friday, narrated to the Special Offences Court in Lagos how the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, instructed him on different instances to collect the sum of $3 million cash.

Osazuwa, who was led in evidence in chief by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commissions counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, told the Court that he had been a dispatch rider at Zenith Bank since 2001 before joining the CBN as a contract staff member in 2014.

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While testifying before Justice Raman Oshodi, the witness said he was later appointed as a senior supervisor (full-time) in charge of recording and filing documents while working in the CBN Governors office in Lagos.

According to him, when he collected money for his boss (Emefiele), he would take it to his residence at Iru Close, Ikoyi, Lagos.

READ ALSO: Lagos Court Grants Emefiele N50m Bail

The highest amount I collected was $1m, all in cash. Some weeks later, the businessman also called me, and I collected $850,000, $750,000, and $400,000 in cash in different tranches.

I have never been rewarded, paid, or given anything. I was doing it out of faithfulness, and he knows it, but he never once said, Take this, the witness said.

The anti-graft agency had arraigned Emefiele on Monday, April 8, on 23 counts bordering on abuse of office and fraud to the tune of $4.5 billion and N2.8 billion.
Yo-Yo Ma brings the party with him. On Sesame Street, the classical cellist was the gentle hand of an art form ushering in new generations. Hes still a reliably big draw at opening night of any orchestra. And hes blithely hopped walls between genres. No classical artist has been more gregarious.

Friday night the party came to the Kimmel Center, where the vibe in a nearly full Verizon Hall was chill and giddy. The trademark Ma personality was all there  the sincerity, the mugging for audience laughs, and puckish teasing of his stage partner, pianist Kathryn Stott.

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But when lights went down, it was a cellist and his music, and as an artist Ma is not a big personality.

Speaking truth to power, Ma suggested to the Verizon Hall audience, is what Shostakovichs Soviet-era Cello Sonata in D Minor was about. Whether Ma was speaking historically or perhaps referring to the recent death of Alexei Navalny in Putins Russia wasnt clear, but the work brought the best moments in the recital.

Paradoxically, Ma was at his most intense emotionally in the quiet, lonely passages of the third movement, where the music sounds like a note from the gulag. Using inflections with the subtlety of a human voice, Mas urgency grew to desperation, and then fell away into a quiet so weak it was hopelessness itself. Stotts upper-register melody response floated above like poignant commentary on the scene below.

Many in the audience fidgeted in their seats, not totally with the music. Maybe they came for something else (and later in the program they got it), but repertoire is almost always a give and take, and it seems likely that something in Shostakovichs depths or the quick, sardonic final movement made an impression.

Arvo Parts Spiegel im Spiegel, from 1978, had an accessibility factor no more challenging than a meditation session, with its slow, mesmerizing, major-key journey (and accompanying projected images of space and the natural world). And yet there was an unbelievable amount of coughing in the audience. Too bad the noise kept snapping listeners back into reality and the pieces newly important role as an escape couldnt be fully appreciated.

A transcription for cello and piano of Francks Violin Sonata in A Major was most notable for Stotts beautifully expressive passages, and an interpretation from Ma that tended to be a bit cool.

But in a set of short opening pieces  by Faure, Nadia Boulanger, Dvorak, and Sergio Assad  Ma and Stott gave glimpses at various aspects of their personalities.

And then, two encores joined the Shostakovich in showing why we love Ma the way we do. His rich lower register in Prayer from Blochs From Jewish Life seemed to fill the entire hall, so great was its presence. And Cristal by Brazilian pianist and composer Cesar Camargo Mariano carried the essential spirit of a cellist who arrived in the classical realm decades ago and, thankfully, never forgot how to have fun.

Next recital in the Spotlight Series at the Kimmel: pianist Yuja Wang, April 30 at 8 p.m. in Verizon Hall, Broad and Spruce Streets. Tickets are $99-$299. ensembleartsphilly.org, 215-893-1999.
Imam Saifullah Muhammad, business manager of operations at the Philadelphia Masjid, speaks in front of press and community members about the recent shooting at an Eid al-Fitr event that left three people injured. Read more

The shooting at Clara Muhammad Square in West Philadelphia on Wednesday left three people shot, five arrested, and the citys Muslim community deeply shaken.

But in some ways, community leaders and city officials said Friday, it was a miracle.

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April the 10th will always be remembered as the day of a miracle, because its a miracle today that we still have all our loved ones, said Imam Saifullah Muhammad, business manager of operations at the Philadelphia Masjid. Nobody lost their mother, nobody lost their son. Nobody lost their father. Nobody lost a child.

Two days after gunfire erupted in the park as hundreds gathered for an Eid al-Fitr celebration to mark the end of the monthlong Ramadan fast, Muslim leaders and city officials decried the violence.

They announced plans for an April 27 community event during which they hope to fill in what Imam Kenneth Nuriddin described as fault lines that have developed between young people and their elders.

The reality is that we all have to now come together and begin to fill in the fault lines  add what you can, Nuriddin said. Add what you have to add to fill in the gaps so that our youth can have access to us. Because they look at us, and we are too distant from them.

It was not clear how many police officers would be assigned to the April 27 event, but a department spokesperson said there would be a police presence that day.

The Wednesday afternoon shooting occurred as hundreds of people were gathered to celebrate the end of Ramadan. As a barrage of at least 30 gunshots rang out, celebrants scattered and ran, ducking behind trash cans and trees, and children were separated from parents amid the chaos.

The incident, which police have described as a feud-turned-shootout, left two people shot  a 22-year-old man wounded in the stomach and a 15-year-old boy struck in the hand. A responding officer shot another 15-year-old who police said had a gun. The officer has been placed on administrative leave, as is customary.

Police charged five people on Thursday. Authorities named one suspect  Kahbir Oglesby-Hicks, 21, of Southwest Philadelphia  but the four others are juveniles and have not been publicly identified. The police department ordinarily does not identify juvenile suspects unless authorities charge them as adults.

Since the four juveniles were not charged with first-degree felonies, they were not eligible to be charged as adults, said Assistant District Attorney Bill Fritze of the offices Gun Violence Task Force.

Reached by phone, Saleemah Oglesby, Oglesby-Hicks mother, declined to comment, only saying, My son didnt have anything to do with that.

Responding officers recovered five guns  four handguns and a rifle, two police sources with knowledge of the case said.

Assistant District Attorney Marianne Aguilar, also of the offices Gun Violence Task Force, said investigators continued to sift through surveillance footage and evidence to try to determine which of the five people in custody, if any, fired shots Wednesday.

So far, the suspects are only facing firearm offenses, but additional charges could be filed if the ballistics and evidence leads there, Aguilar said.

The police department was continuing to put the recovered firearms through testing to see which had been fired.

We have a lot of work to do, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said.

District Attorney Larry Krasner urged people with information about the shooting to contact law enforcement so those responsible could be brought to justice.

Muhammad, too, called on the community to help law enforcement make a case against those who carried out what he called a hideous crime in the park there on this sacred ground.

You come forward and you give that information, Muhammad said. And dont worry about giving that information. I told you to give that information. The Philadelphia Masjid told you to give that information. The Muslims in this city told you to give that information.

And when you give that information youre not a snitch, youre a believing man, he said. Youre a man that dont fear nothing. Youre a woman that dont fear nothing.

Come out and pray

As the investigation into the shooting continues, Muhammad said, some community members feel traumatized. Fridays gathering, he said, was meant to serve as a reassurance that the Philadelphia Masjid remained a safe space to gather.

We want them to know that that is possible because we have every sector of society here showing their concern, Muhammad said. Weve got leadership here who know how to go into the operating room and operate, and cut out the gloom, cut out the sadness, cut out the despair.

 READ MORE: Philly Muslims are reeling after Eid al-Fitr shooting, as police investigate what sparked the gunfight

The shooting, Muhammad said, showed the strength of the Muslim community amid the violence that pervades the city.

No venue has been untouched or unblemished by the ugly head of violence, he said. The hand grenade of violence has devastated every venue in our society. Violence has no barrier. And violence has not been impeded by anything. But on the day of April the 10th, violence was impeded at the Philadelphia Masjid.

City Commissioner Omar Sabir said police have told him they would increase their presence in the area. Community members, he added, should feel safe practicing their religion there.

That foolishness will not happen again. Not on my watch, not on any of these other brothers and sisters watches, Sabir said. We are encouraging everyone to come out and pray.

Krasner, for his part, joined the imam in his entreaty that people with information about the crime come forward. The DA appealed to people who know things. People who know things we all need to know.

The way that we get to justice, he said, is by having the truth. It is by having the facts.
Three men were killed in separate shootings across Philadelphia on Friday that left three other people wounded, police said.

About 7:40 p.m., a 31-year-old man was shot multiple times outside on the 2200 block of Bryn Mawr Avenue in Wynnefield. He was taken by police to Lankenau Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 8:04 p.m.

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About 5:25 p.m., during a triple shooting on the 5400 block of Chester Avenue in the Kingsessing section of Southwest Philadelphia, a 20-year-old man was shot in the neck and back. Police said he was taken by private vehicle to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 5:51 p.m.

In that same case, a 33-year-old man was shot twice in the leg and was taken by private vehicle to Penn Presbyterian, where he was listed in stable condition, police said. And a 15-year-old boy was taken by police to Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, where he was listed in stable condition with a gunshot wound to the buttocks.

Earlier, just after 4:30 p.m., two men were shot inside a residence on the 2300 block of East Harold Street in Kensington. Police said one of the victims, who was 20 and shot in the head and neck, was taken by medics to Temple University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:06 p.m.

A 19-year-old shot in the left leg was taken by police to Temple, where he was listed in critical but stable condition.

In the Bryn Mawr Avenue shooting, a gym window at the Dane apartment complex across the street was shattered by a stray bullet, management told residents in an email Friday night. No one at the Dane was injured, management said, stressing to the residents of the 231-unit complex that their well-being is our top priority.

We are working closely with law enforcement to ensure that all necessary measures are in place to maintain a secure environment for everyone, it said. The shooting victim was not a Dane resident, management said in another email Saturday morning.

Police reported no arrests in any of the cases.

Staff writer Paola Perez contributed to this article.
Kevin and Julie McMonagle at their Lafayette Hill home with children Marty, 8, in the back; Maggie, 7, at right; Jack, 10, center; and Colleen, now 5 months, in Julie's lap. Read more

Kevin and Julie McMonagles nearly 3-month-old daughter was behaving oddly. Colleen wasnt finishing her bottles, her pacifier kept falling out of her mouth, and her cry was as quiet as a kittens.

As the parents of four children, they rarely worried about sniffles and stomach bugs. Still, they took the baby to the emergency department at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphias King of Prussia hospital in an abundance of caution. Julie told the older kids shed be home by dinner.

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But the McMonagles ended up staying at the hospital for two weeks, as their baby girl fought off an illness they knew nothing about. Colleen had infant botulism, a rare, potentially deadly infection that affects the nervous system and can lead to paralysis. She was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit and put on a ventilator when she started struggling to breathe.

The Philadelphia area, and in particular Montgomery County where the McMonagles live, is a hot spot for infant botulism. Pennsylvania has the second highest rate of infant botulism cases in the country, following California. The state health department reported 17 cases in 2019, representing 11% of the 152 cases reported nationally that year, according to the most recent available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pediatricians in other areas of the country may see one case in their entire career, said Laura McGarry, a neurologist at CHOP. In the first two years of residency, I had seen 10 to 12.

Theres little families can do to avoid the risk of this uncommon ailment, so doctors say its important for parents here to know the signs of an infection.

Parents are often warned against giving infants honey because it is a known source of the bacteria spores that cause botulism. But the bacteria more commonly comes from microscopic specks of dirt inhaled while driving with the windows open, playing at a park, or strolling past neighborhood construction.

We dont want parents to feel they did something to cause this, McGarry said. Its just something for people who live in this area to be mindful of.

What is infant botulism

Infant botulism is caused when babies ingest C botulinum, a type of bacteria. The bacterias spores colonize in the large intestine and release a toxin that affects the nervous system.

Symptoms include changes in facial expressions, such as smiling less; slow feeding; constipation; and low energy.

If untreated, the toxin spreads and begins to cause paralysis, making it hard for babies to breathe and eat.

The illness can come on suddenly or gradually and can be hard to diagnose, because the symptoms may easily be mistaken for more common illnesses in babies and infants, said Karen Ravin, division chief for pediatric infectious diseases at Nemours Childrens Hospital in Delaware, who treats a few cases every year. Children under a year old are at greatest risk.

Early diagnosis is key to recovery, she said. Infant botulism is treated with an antitoxin, called BabyBIG, thats manufactured by the California Department of Public Health. The medications antibodies bind to the toxin circulating in the body and neutralize it.

Before BabyBIG was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2003, the vast majority of infants would become so paralyzed they couldnt move a finger or open their eyes, and needed to be on a ventilator for weeks before their body cleared the bacteria and they could begin to recover.

With medication, symptoms start to improve within 48 hours.

An average of 190 doses a year were distributed to hospitals in the United States between 2019 and 2023. About 13% of those doses  24 a year  went to Pennsylvania. Each dose costs $57,300.

High concentration of cases in Philadelphia suburbs

Most cases of infant botulism are related to contaminated soil. Researchers have found hot spots of infant botulism in California and along a band of suburbs between Philadelphias Montgomery and Bucks counties, through central New Jersey to New Yorks Long Island, said Sarah Long, a professor of pediatrics at Drexel Universitys College of Medicine, who has studied botulism and infectious diseases.

Researchers arent sure what makes the soil in some areas more susceptible to the bacteria. The area may have a higher density of organisms that help the bacteria breed, or a greater likelihood of soil being disrupted from construction, she said.

Long, who researched infant botulism for years, also found a link between breastfeeding and botulism. Almost all of the cases she studied were among babies who had been breastfed, rather than formula-fed. Babies who are breastfed have a different gut microbiome composition that the bacteria may be better able to grow in.

Long cautioned that the correlation shouldnt affect parents feeding decisions.

You shouldnt live in fear of infant botulism, Long said. Its a very tricky, unusual, short-lived risk period.

Quick diagnosis

Doctors assured the McMonagles, of Lafayette Hill, that there was nothing they could have done to prevent their daughter from getting sick, and that shed begin to recover as soon as she got the medication.

Still, the parents were shaken after days in the NICU with their daughter hooked up to a mess of tubes and wires. Doctors took Colleen off the ventilator after a few days, but she was still too weak to breathe on her own, and they put her back on it so she could continue to regain her strength.

I felt so defeated, Julie McMonagle said. You just dont know. Everyones recovery story is different.

After two weeks, the family went home.

Colleen is back to smiling, laughing and, now 5 months old, trying to keep up with her older siblings.
Miri Davidson in Sidecar:

The far right wants to decolonize. In France, far-right intellectuals routinely cast Europe as indigenous victim of an immigrant colonization orchestrated by globalist elites. Renaud Camus, theorist of the Great Replacement, has praised the anticolonial canon  all the major texts in the fight against decolonization apply admirably to France, especially those of Frantz Fanon  and claimed that indigenous Europe needs its own FLN. A similar style of reasoning is evident among Hindu supremacists, who employ the ideas of Latin American decolonial theorists to present ethnonationalism as a form of radical indigenous critique; the lawyer and writer Sai Deepak did this so successfully that he managed to persuade decolonial theorist Walter Mignolo to write an endorsement. Meanwhile in Russia, Putin proclaims Russias leading role in an anti-colonial movement against unipolar hegemony, with his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov promising to stand in solidarity with the African demands to complete the process of decolonization.

The phenomenon goes beyond the kinds of reversal common to reactionary discourse. A decolonial perspective is championed by the two foremost intellectuals of the European New Right: Alain de Benoist and Alexander Dugin. In the case of de Benoist, this involved a major departure from his earlier colonialist allegiances. Coming to political consciousness during the Algerian War, he found his calling among white nationalist youth organizations seeking to prevent the collapse of the French empire. He praised the OAS for its bravery and dedicated two early two books to the implementation of white nationalism in South Africa and Rhodesia, describing South Africa under apartheid as the last stronghold of the West from which we came. Yet by the 1980s, de Benoist had shifted course. Having adopted a pagan imaginary and dropped explicit references to white nationalism, he began to orient his thought around a defence of cultural diversity.

More here.
A room featuring a champagne glass hot tub in the Roman Towers at Pocono Palace Resort in East Stroudsburg, Pa. The resort is closing in early May. Read more

EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa.  A giant, plastic hot tub shaped like a champagne glass sat empty on a dreary Wednesday afternoon, but Margaret and Corey Bienert drove 500 miles in the pouring rain to fill it with bubbles one last time.

The Bienerts, whove authored a popular book on kitschy hotels and amassed more than a million followers on social media, love the Pocono Palace. Like, seriously love it. Last year, the Michigan couple renewed their wedding vows at the iconic honeymoon hotel, and on this recent trip, their 10th overall, they dropped a few hundred dollars for room 707. The two-tiered suite is dripping in mirrors and a half dozen shades of red, a time warp to the 1970s with an indoor, heart-shaped pool, a sauna, and that requisite hot tub.

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The Palace will close for good on May 2, and by the end of their stay, the Bienerts probably spilled a tear or two into the suds.

Its a very special place, Margaret, wearing a Pocono Palace shirt, said by the circular bed on the second floor.

Honeymooning in the Poconos

Tens of thousands of honeymooners felt the same way for more than a half-century. Once synonymous with newlywed bliss in the Philadelphia and New York City regions, the Poconos has welcomed couples, lovers, and the curious at hotels like the Palace and its sister sites, Cove Haven and Paradise Stream resorts, for decades. Their founder, Poconos native Morris B. Wilkins, invented both the heart-shaped tub and the champagne glass whirlpool and single-handedly promoted the region as The Honeymoon Capital of the World.

Morris Wilkins has done more for romance than a box of chocolates, the Philadelphia Daily News wrote in 2000.

According to a 1971 Philadelphia Inquirer, young newlyweds said they loved the beautiful rolling hills, cool fragrant air, serene landscapes, romantic settings and luxurious or homey accommodations. That same year, a two-page photo spread in Life magazine featured a sensuous kiss in a Pocono bubble bath, with a caption that wondered if the scene ushered in a new era of affluent vulgarity.

Lawrence Squeri, author of Better in the Poconos: The Story of Pennsylvanias Vacationland, said the regions role in honeymoons evolved after World War II, when America had money, cars, and free time to explore.

For the first time ever, people could really drive and the Poconos was conveniently located near Philadelphia and New York, Squeri said. What did it in, ultimately, was air travel. Eventually, it became fairly cheap to fly down to the Caribbean or Florida, or any of the islands and the Poconos started losing a bit of its luster.

Christopher Barrett, president and CEO of the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, noted that both Cove Haven and Paradise Stream will remain open and that tourists can still soak in a 7-foot champagne glass there. He said the opening of three indoor water parks in the last 20 years is proof that the Poconos market has simply changed.

We still make memories, just in different ways, Barrett said.

1.3 million followers

The Bienerts, who work in video and photography, found Pocono Palace in 2018 while traveling for work. Theyre both in video and photography and rather than spend money at your ho-hum, modern hotels off highway exits, they looked a little harder for untouched vintage.

Pocono Palace was the hotel that truly sparked their passion for vintage hotels. They now have 1.3 million followers on TikTok, where a post about the history of champagne tubs has 319,000 likes. When the Bienerts announced the closure on Instagram, fans were heartbroken.

If they turn it into a regular, boring hotel, we riot, one fan commented.

Cove Pocono Resorts announced the closure itself on Facebook in February and did not return requests for comment. The new owners could not be reached for comment, but people familiar with Pocono Palace said they did not think it would continue as a hotel.

The Bienerts had a few days planned to memorialize the Palace. They brought a few costumes, were expecting a few visitors, and would probably make some content for their pages. Mostly, theyd be in mourning.

It feels like a wake, Corey, 35, said.

Margaret, 34, said their interest in the hotel isnt solely for content, though. Its not ironic either. They truly love the aesthetic and the people who stay there, regular couples looking for a heavy dose of romance for the weekend.

Youre just here with a very interesting crowd, just people who are here to enjoy each other, she said.

The couples interest in the hotel was so great, their reach so wide, that theyve been credited for actually boosting business there.

They certainly had an impact, said Kyle Kuczma, the former marketing director at Pocono Palace. If they put out a video or they promoted a promo code, we saw a direct spike online.

Kuczma grew so friendly with the Bienerts that he officiated when they renewed their vows. The couple traveled to Italy recently for his wedding, too.

Kuczma said Pocono Palace marketing eventually accepted the kitsch factor and went with it while he worked there.

We were leaning really hard on the romance, to come here and fall in love, and that worked in the 60s, 70s, and up to the 90s, he said. The resorts are funny, though. Youre taking a bath in a 7-foot-tall champagne glass. You have to lean into that.

Kuczma said celebrities have stayed at the Palace, often under a false name. Lucy Dacus, of the band boygenius, filmed the video for her song Night Shift there, and the Bienerts helped organize a Marc Jacobs fashion shoot there. Their suite could be a perfect backdrop for another video.

A friend said its very Lana Del Ray, Margaret said.

The Bienerts say theyll always be obsessed with vintage, kitschy hotels, and the places that go heavy on romance and fantasy, like Cherry Hills Feather Nest Inn, will always appeal to them. But theyre also eyeing other art projects and films.

They want some keepsakes and may have already measured whether the champagne glass hot tub would fit in an extra room. Theyll rent a U-Haul and bring the wrenches.

Ive been looking at just about everything and wondering what exactly theyll miss, Margaret said.

The Bienerts said theyd likely return to the Poconos, U-Haul or not, but the end of the Palace would leave a hole in their hearts, a hole as big as Morris Wilkins glossy red heart tubs.
A group from the Strawberry Mansion Neighborhood and Homeowners Association visited the "Ann Lowe: American Couturier" exhibit at Winterthur Museum in Delaware in January 2024. Read more

In January, a Strawberry Mansion neighborhood group took a trip to visit the exhibit on Ann Lowe, a Black fashion designer, at the Winterthur Museum. Lowe, who was well known to wealthy white women in New York and Hollywood, is perhaps most famous now for designing the wedding gown Jacqueline Bouvier wore to marry then-Sen. John F. Kennedy.

While high-society clients knew who Ann Lowe was, her name was kept secret from the general public. That meant she never reaped the recognition, or the financial rewards, she might have received had she been white.

A group of about 20 women and four men (two of them teenagers) went to view the Ann Lowe: American Couturier, exhibit at the Wintherthur Museum in Delaware, said Lysa Monique Jenkins-Hayden, founder of the neighborhood organization.

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The Strawberry Mansion Neighborhood and Homeowners Association announced a program called Unsung and UnSung Sheroes: In The Black Community: Ann Lowe.

As Inquirer columnist Elizabeth Wellington described the exhibit: Lowe had been born in Alabama before the turn of the 20th century to a family of enslaved dress designers. In 1928, Lowe moved to New York and designed debutante and wedding gowns for the Carnegies, the Rockefellers, and the du Ponts, who were among some of Americas richest families:

She hand-painted giant, sparkling flowers on the aqua ballgown Oscar-winner Olivia de Havilland wore to the 1946 Academy Awards, but she didnt get credit for the dress; New York-based design house Sonia Gowns did, Wellington wrote.

As a follow-up to that visit to Winterthur, and to fulfill a need that some of the people who visited the Lowe exhibit had to tell their own stories about fashion, the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood organization will present Unsung and UnSung Sheroes: In The Black Community: Ann Lowe, Part 2, from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Historic Strawberry Mansion in Fairmount Park. It will be a community discussion to talk about how peoples fashion choices and life experiences affect their sense of identity, whether as a Black person, a woman, or any other identity they have.

We are asking people to come out and share their fashion stories, Jenkins-Hayden said. We want people to bring photos of themselves, or of their grandparents and how they dressed, to talk about how the clothing they wore shaped their identities, she said.

For example, Jenkins-Hayden said she spent her entire education in Catholic schools, so school uniforms still tend to inform her own fashion choice.

Jenkins-Hayden said the idea to visit Winterthur came from community member, Shirley Slaughter, a Strawberry Mansion resident and who was site manager for the Hatfield House, also in Fairmount Park. Jenkins-Hayden said when Slaughter, told her about the Ann Lowe exhibit, the community leader had not yet heard of the fashion designer.

At the Saturday program, they will show pictures of Ann Lowes gowns, and even from those pictures, Jenkins-Hayden said, people will be able to tell from the level of detail, how much of her soul went into the art of her design.

Lowe may have been unrecognized and unnamed during her lifetime, but you cant take away how much of herself she put into her dresses. People can try to duplicate them, but they cant. "

She made custom dresses for all those socialites. They were running in the same circles in New York and they wanted something custom-made just to fit who they were, she said.

Seating is limited to 30 people for the in-person event, which takes place from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, at Historic Strawberry Mansion, 2450 Strawberry Mansion Drive, Philadelphia. People may also join by Zoom. To register for the event click here, or visit phillyneighborsunite.weebly.com and search for Unsung and UnSung Sheroes: In The Black Community: Ann Lowe, Part 2.
Former Councilmember Blondell Reynolds Brown (left) takes a selfie with Mayor Cherelle L. Parker during an event at City Hall in February. Reynolds Brown, who left the Council in 2020, is now working as a lobbyist. Read more

Clout has been seeing some familiar faces around City Hall recently. And it turns out theres a good reason.

Former City Councilmembers Derek S. Green, who ran for mayor last year, and Blondell Reynolds Brown have become registered lobbyists. They join Frank DiCicco, who was a Council member until 2012, as former city lawmakers now lobbying their old stomping grounds.

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The revolving door of government officials becoming lobbyists has long been an issue in Washington, D.C., but it hasnt come up much in Philly politics. Maybe thats changing.

The citys ethics laws include a cooling-off period, in which Philly officials are banned from becoming lobbyists for one year after leaving government.

Reynolds Brown, who left Council in 2020, said she spent the first three years of her post-lawmaker life writing a book called Walking a Tightrope Backwards in High Heels that will come out later this year. (The genre is self-help memoir, but Clouts favorite genre is Philly politics tell-alls. Were hoping this checks both boxes.)

After she finished writing, she took DiCicco up on an offer to join his eponymous government relations firm, she said.

Ive come to the firm as a senior adviser bringing of course decades of experience, Reynolds Brown said. Central to any role you play in government is authenticity in relationships, which helps to get an audience.

Reynolds Brown says she expects to work with clients in DiCiccos bread-and-butter area  development  but also hopes to get involved in issues such as arts and culture initiatives.

Green, who is a lawyer, has joined the Bellevue Strategies lobbying firm owned by Mustafa Rashed. His clients include Uber, Visit Philadelphia, and the Please Touch Museum, and he is also working for Comcast on national issues, such as the companys relationship with the National League of Cities.

For me, this is really continuation of the work Ive done in Council, Green said. I have clients here in Philadelphia, and I have clients nationally.

Green resigned from Council in September 2022 to run in last years mayoral election. He ended up dropping out of the race and endorsing the eventual winner, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.

Parker, as it happens, is a former state representative who became a Harrisburg lobbyist while she was running for mayor. She dropped that gig when she took office this year.

More drama in a West Philly primary

With less than two weeks left before the April 23 primary, the three-way rematch to represent parts of West Philly and Logan Square is getting messy.

Incumbent State Rep. Amen Brown (D., Philadelphia), who is seeking a third term to represent the district, has spent the week blasting his progressive challenger, community organizer Cass Green, for canvassing outside his third-grade daughters school.

Brown claims the Green campaign intentionally targeted his 9-year-old daughters school, but Greens campaign said it has been canvassing outside at least seven schools during drop-off and pickup as one of its get-out-the-vote strategies.

Amen Brown is trying to distract voters from his votes for private school vouchers which overwhelmingly benefit wealthy families, said Farah Muhammad, Greens campaign manager, in a statement which noted Browns past support from Pennsylvanias richest man, Jeff Yass.

Brown was particularly mad that the flier claimed he was against public schools and had received financial support from people who oppose abortion. Brown said he is a supporter of all schools, including public school and charters, and using state money to send children from poor schools to private ones.

Brown maintains he supports abortion access, despite receiving a campaign contribution last year from former Republican City Council hopeful Drew Murray, who opposes abortion.

Youre putting out lies and slander at my daughters school, just think of the potential harm you could be doing to her, Brown said. I get it, its politics, but they crossed a line.

Green, Brown, and Sajda Purple Blackwell will all face off on the April 23 ballot.

Carpenters return to the Convention Center  or at least one

Its difficult to describe why the internal drama of the Pennsylvania Convention Center is such a big deal in the world of Philly politics and organized labor. So just trust us when we say this next one is a bombshell:

Parker plans to appoint a carpenters union official to the Convention Center board. Shes letting the union pick its representative, and said she doesnt yet known who it will be.

Its a big deal because the Philly carpenters have been in a power struggle with the 30-odd unions in the Building and Construction Trades Council for more than a decade.

Both, however, played critical roles helping Parker win last years election, and the mayor said she needs their help to achieve goals such as building 30,000 new units of affordable housing.

I wont allow this administrations goals and objectives to be handicapped by any antiquated outdated beefs of the past, Parker said.

The union beef climaxed in 2014 when John J. Dougherty  the former electricians union and trades council leader who has recently been racking up guilty verdicts in federal corruption trials  (in)famously crossed a carpenters picket line at the Convention Center.

Things have changed. Johnny Doc was replaced at the council by laborers union leader Ryan Boyer. And Docs rival at the carpenters, Ed Coryell Sr., was ousted in a 2016 shake-up.

Boyer said he has no objection to Parkers decision and hopes the carpenters will finally rejoin the council following aborted attempts in recent years.

I dont think the relationship is beyond repair, Boyer said. I expect that they will be under the fold of the building trades sometime soon.

The Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters did not respond to requests for comment.

The mayor has two appointees, and Parker plans to reappoint one of former Mayor Jim Kenneys picks: Rich Lazer, who leads the Philadelphia Parking Authority. The carpenters official will replace former City Councilmember Marian Tasco, a Kenney appointee and Parkers mentor.

Its unclear if gaining a board seat will lead to the carpenters getting work at the Convention Center. Parker steered clear of that question.

Theres two kind of politics that you will never get me to engage in, she said. You will never get me to engage in church politics ... and I dont do union politics at all.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker walks along Kensington Avenue with Adam Thiel, managing director of city, on Thursday. Mayor Parker took the El to attend an event in the Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia. Read more

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker says her goal to end the billion-dollar open-air drug market that has plagued Philadelphias Kensington neighborhood for years can be achieved only through getting people in addiction into long-term treatment and housing.

But her strategy hinges on police conducting a sweep of the neighborhood and arresting people for such low-level crimes as drug possession and prostitution  offenses the city hasnt targeted in years.

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Parkers administration described those actions Thursday in its much-anticipated public safety plan that outlines a multi-step process for Kensington to remove the presence of drug users from the neighborhood and end its reputation as a drug destination.

The plan, however, raised new questions about the citys already strained criminal justice and drug treatment systems, including where people would be placed if they wanted to seek treatment, how a sweep would impact a population with complex health needs, and what it would mean for the jails, where the city has intentionally tried to reduce the population over the last decade.

Parker is sure to face resistance. Health providers who work with people in addiction have expressed concern. And District Attorney Larry Krasner, a progressive prosecutor, declined to comment Friday but said in an interview last month that if police made more arrests for drug possession, he would charge those cases  but doesnt think its the answer to the neighborhoods ills.

Am I enthusiastic about giving people convictions for possession of drugs who are willing to make contact with and engage in some level of treatment? No, Im not, he said. It doesnt make a lot of sense to me that we rack up a ton of possession convictions for people who are suffering from addiction, and thats somehow supposed to help them with everything thats necessary to recovery.

The Police Departments plan says one unit will investigate drug rings and suppliers in the area, but the crux of it was focused on the dealers and buyers most visible in the neighborhood, which has long been beset by sprawling homelessness, poverty, addiction, and violence.

Under the plan, police will first warn people living on the streets or openly using drugs that they are ramping up enforcement. Officers will later begin making arrests.

 READ MORE: New public safety plan details how police will address gun violence, retail theft, and Kensingtons crises

Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel on Thursday declined to set a timeline on how long the warning phase would last, but said residents will start to see an immediate difference.

It will not get resolved in the first 30 days. I want to manage expectations. This has been a systemic, ongoing problem for several years, he said.

Ben Cocchiaro, a family physician who lives in Kensington and works with people in addiction, said his patients are deeply uneasy and scared.

The one thing many of these folks have left is their agency and autonomy, and now were going to take that away, he said. For what, so we can warehouse them in a jail thats already overcrowded? The mayor needs to get serious about this, and this is not a serious response.

Parker says her administrations plan is three-pronged  prevention, intervention, and enforcement  and that officials are expanding the citys public-health ecosystem to serve people in addiction.

But she acknowledged her approach isnt universally popular and that shes driven primarily by the needs of long-term residents crying out for change.

I spent a significant amount of time talking with residents and stakeholders in the Kensington community, Parker said in an interview Wednesday. And it is after doing that active listening that I knew it was important to try to put together this comprehensive plan to address the challenges there.

The citys treatment capacity is in question

The city has dozens of programs designed for drug users and more than 1,800 beds in residential rehabs, but city officials acknowledge that the capacity isnt enough to get hundreds of people in addiction in Kensington into long-term care.

Managing Director Adam K. Thiel said Thursday hes met with leaders of health systems and providers to expand treatment options, saying this continuum of care literally doesnt exist. Asked how the administration would ensure theres enough space by the time police conduct a sweep of the neighborhood, he said: We work really hard.

 READ MORE: Long wait times and a toxic drug supply make it difficult for Philadelphia patients to get addiction treatment

Health providers who work with people in addiction said theyre concerned about the lack of specificity in the citys plan  and about the current state of treatment in the city.

I just dont know even under the best circumstances how we would ramp up treatment quickly enough to have spots available, and treatment that is high enough quality that its going to give people what they need, said Shoshana Aronowitz, a nurse practitioner who treats people with substance use disorder and is an assistant professor of family and community health at Penn Nursing.

And the citys toxic, unpredictable drug supply makes it harder to serve patients.

Fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid that has replaced most of the citys heroin supply, causes intense withdrawal symptoms that come on quickly. Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer often added to fentanyl, causes serious wounds that open easily and are slow to heal.

Many addiction treatment centers dont accept people with wounds because they dont have the medical capacity to treat them. And getting seen at intake centers, the required first step for many treatment options, can take hours or days, sending people in withdrawal back to the streets for relief.

It is dangerous and frankly naive to think we can just incarcerate people who have active addiction to fentanyl and exposure to xylazine without the right systems in place to take care of their health, said Ashish Thakrar, an addiction medicine physician at Penn Medicine.

 READ MORE: Philadelphia could establish a triage center for people in addiction within weeks, official says

Bethel said the department will enforce laws in a humane and dignified way and that the city is weighing the challenges of the community and the increasingly toxic drug supply  including people with open wounds and withdrawal symptoms.

A big shift in criminal justice policy

Krasner, a progressive in his second term, changed the citys strategy on some low-level crimes, and in 2018 directed prosecutors not to charge possession of marijuana cases or sex workers who have two or fewer arrests.

Drug arrests in the city have dramatically declined. Last year, 905 people were arrested for possession, compared with more than 6,000 four years ago  an 85% drop.

Even those who are charged are unlikely to be convicted or face lengthy jail time. About 18% of people charged with drug possession last year were convicted, data show  a rate that is on the rise since the coronavirus disrupted the courts, but still far below previous administrations.

Krasner said his office will withdraw charges when a defendant enters drug treatment. And he said that even when someone is convicted, most judges will sentence them only to probation or a few months in jail.

The number of people arrested for sex work has also plummeted since 2014, when more than 1,000 people were arrested for prostitution. Last year, 142 people were, according to data from the District Attorneys Office. Only two were charged.

Also last year, 67 people were arrested for patronizing prostitutes, and just four were arrested for promoting the work, or running a sex work business. All were charged.

People who are arrested and refuse treatment or diversion services could be charged and incarcerated under Parkers new plan. Its not yet clear what impact that could have on the citys jails, which have seen years of chaos amid severe understaffing and are under a federal monitoring agreement.

Philadelphia has been working since 2015 to reduce its jail population by eliminating unnecessary incarceration and providing people charged with nonviolent crimes an opportunity to be released early.

Leaders of the citys jail system meet monthly with court officials to analyze the population, according to Deputy Prisons Commissioner Xavier Beaufort, who testified before City Council on Tuesday about the departments budget.

But when Councilmember Nina Ahmad asked if the jails have a plan to handle an influx of prisoners from Kensington, Beaufort was vague.

If there is an increase in arrests and detainment, we dont have the luxury of not taking anybody, he said. We have to manage that.

How people can be diverted to treatment

The majority of people arrested for sex work and drug possession are diverted before they reach the courts through the citys Police Assisted Diversion program, or PAD.

Started as a pilot program in 2017, PAD is now a citywide strategy to offer resources and services to people arrested for drug possession, prostitution, and retail theft. People arrested are not required to enter treatment and can go through PAD twice, and people with outstanding warrants arent eligible. Most diversions are in the 24th Police District, which encompasses Kensington.

Since January 2023, about 2,150 people have been diverted  two-thirds for drug possession. A third were for retail theft, while about 6% for prostitution, according to city data.

Its unclear how Parkers new approach might impact PAD, which sends people arrested for prostitution who met certain conditions to a Salvation Army program.

Heather LaRocca, who runs the New Day to Stop Trafficking program, said people engaging in sex work are  like many committing other low-level offenses in Kensington  driven by addiction.

And, she said, theres not always a clear line between voluntary sex work and trafficking, which is prevalent in Kensington because if you think about the easiest way to control somebody, it would be to control their access to a substance they have an addiction to.

Rory Kramer, an associate professor of sociology and criminology at Villanova University who has studied urban policing, said offering diversion instead of arrest in cases of people living in addiction is akin to forced treatment, which he said many people dont respond well to.

It is a veneer of kindness, he said. Even if you say youre arresting someone to put them in treatment, what person who gets arrested is like, Im now going to trust you to treat me. Its a fantasy.

Inquirer staff writer Max Marin contributed to this article.
My patient was in his early 30s and his leukemia had returned again following yet another round of treatment.

He was a poster child for the recently reported rise in cancer rates in the young, and had just asked me what chemotherapy cocktail I could devise for him next, to try to rid him of his cancer.

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I hesitated before answering. Oncologists are notorious for always being willing to recommend to our patients one more course of treatment, even when the chances of success are negligible.

One grim joke even poses the question, Why are coffins nailed shut? The answer: To keep oncologists from giving another round of chemotherapy.

This unflattering stereotype is unfortunately backed by data. In one analysis of patients with a cancer diagnosis treated at one of 280 cancer clinics in the United States between 2011 and 2020, 39% received cancer therapy within 30 days of death, and 17% within two weeks of dying, with no decrease in those rates from 2015 to 2019.

My patient had received his leukemia diagnosis five years earlier, and initially, following chemotherapy, his cancer had entered a remission. He and his parents were farmers from Latin America and relocated at the time to the United States to focus on his treatment. When the leukemia returned after a year, he underwent a bone-marrow transplant, and that seemed to do the trick, at least for a while.

But then it reared its ugly head a couple of years later, and we worked to slay it with yet more chemotherapy and another transplant.

That victory was short-lived, though, and multiple rounds of unsuccessful treatment later, here we were. The last course had decimated his blood counts, landing him in the hospital with an infection, a bad one that he had barely survived.

Giving chemotherapy toward the end of life would be justifiable if we benefited our patients by enabling them to live longer, or live better. While thats our hope, it often isnt the case.

Other studies have shown that patients with cancer who receive treatment at the end of life are more likely to be admitted to the hospital and even the intensive care unit, less likely to have meaningful goals-of-care discussions with their health-care team, and have worse quality and duration of life.

Recognizing this, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has identified giving chemotherapy within two weeks of death as a poor-quality indicator that may adversely affect payments to hospitals. As a consequence, cancer doctors are discouraged from offering treatment to patients at the end of life, and can get in trouble with hospital administrators for doing so.

Despite the CMS measure, though, over the past three years the percentage of patients treated at the end of life hasnt changed much, with one recent study actually showing an increase in patients treated.

Why do we do it? Perhaps optimism is part of our nature, and what draws us to a career in oncology. I focus on the positive, and that may actually help my patients. Other studies have shown that optimism in people with cancer is associated with better quality of life, and even longer survival.

And perhaps the data on giving chemotherapy close to a persons last days on Earth, and the CMS quality metric, are unfair, and insensitive to the realities of how doctors and patients make decisions.

I stared back into the eyes of my young patient and then into those of his father, who was about my age. He looked kindly, with a thick, bushy white mustache, a red tattersall shirt, and work jeans. This man adored his son, accompanying him to every appointment, and always warmly clasped my right hand with both of his in thanks for our medical care  a gesture I felt unworthy to receive, given my inability to eradicate his sons leukemia.

If our roles were reversed, how would I react if my sons cancer doctor told me that the option for more chemotherapy was off the table, as CMS recommends, given the less than 10% chance that it would work, and the much higher likelihood that it could harm?

Wouldnt I demand that the doctor pursue any and all means necessary to save my sons life? Patients often do, and studies have shown that patients with cancer that has returned are quite willing to receive toxic cancer treatments that promise minimal potential benefit.

We discussed giving another round of chemotherapy, though I told my patient and his family that I was reluctant to administer it given the vanishingly slim chance that it would help. We also talked about my patient enrolling in a clinical trial of an experimental drug. And finally, we talked about palliative care and hospice, my preferred path forward.

Youve given us a lot to think about, my patient told me as he and his family got up to leave, even smiling a bit at the understatement. His father came over to me and clasped my hand warmly, as usual.

But a couple of days later, despite how well he looked in clinic, my patient developed an infection that landed him in the intensive care unit. If I had given him chemotherapy, we would have blamed the treatment for the hospitalization.

But the cause actually lay with his underlying cancer, which had compromised his immune system, making him more vulnerable to infections. This time, my patient became sick enough that he decided enough was enough, and he accepted palliative care.

For many of my patients at the end of life who doggedly pursue that one more round of chemotherapy, a hospitalization becomes the sentinel event convincing them that the side effects of treatment just arent worth it anymore. Its then no wonder people die so soon after their final treatment and time in the hospital.

It isnt justifiable to give people with cancer chemotherapy when it is futile, just to be able to say we tried something. Thats what the CMS quality metric is trying to prevent. But in doing so, it shouldnt interfere with a patients opportunity to come to that decision themselves.

Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, is chief of the division of hematology and professor of medicine at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami. He is author of the book Drugs and the FDA: Safety, Efficacy, and the Publics Trust.
Joe Moshenska at The Guardian:

In December 2021, the philosopher Yitzhak Melamed posted on social media a letter that he had received from the rabbi of the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam. Melamed had written requesting permission to film there for a documentary on the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, who had been emphatically expelled by the 17th-century Jewish community. The rabbi sternly explained that the elders of that community had excommunicated Spinoza and his writings with the severest possible ban, a ban that remains in force for all time and cannot be rescinded. Furthermore, not only was the ban  known as a cherem  still apparently in full force, but it was contagious: because Melamed has devoted his life to the study of Spinozas banned works, he too was now declared persona non grata in the Portuguese synagogue complex. When Melamed was interviewed about these events on the BBC World Service, he wryly commented: I dont completely buy the image of this kind of zealotry, partly because the synagogue itself is selling puppets of Spinoza in their shop. Its true: I visited in early 2022 and bought what was then the last puppet in stock, which now sits on the mantelpiece in my office and looks down at me when I teach.

more here.
We work very closely, obviously, with the APRA guidance as well around that, said Mills. As weve looked to move these EIRs, or extreme inherent risk workloads, or systems of record, we go through an extra round, if you will, of due diligence to make sure that the highest standards are being applied to the capability both technically and from a process point of view.
It takes No 2 Son and I, both equally disorganised and randomly careless, three attempts, including two fruitless treks across the city and beyond to Ballincollig, before we finally eat at Good For The Soul cafe.

The first time, we arrive on a day it doesnt open; the second is a busy Friday lunchtime with an hours wait minimum for a table. The third time, I book in advance.

I book tables for restaurants all the time but I had been guilty of presuming Good For The Souls engaging casual ambience implied it was neither possible nor necessary to do so.

However, booking could also be part of the new regime since it was recently taken over by highly progressive restaurateur Paul OCarroll (owner/operator of Bookshelf at the Elysian; Bookshelf Coffee House, on the South Mall; The Bookshelf Cafe, in Tralee).

Saturday, and I have a prime lunchtime table with Sons, Nos. 1 and 2, in what has always been a most charming haven, a delightful counterpoint to the nearby and near-bare cinema square, the most soulless part of Ballincollig.

Inside is an open kitchen, a chirpy hodge-podge of hanging plants and bric-a-brac is scattered around, and several shelves of gifts, cards and deli delights, such as West Cork Coffee and Harrys Nut Butter, add cosy clutter.

The place is packed and the vibe is most pleasant, all in all, a fine transformation of yet another sterile, lifeless commercial unit into a space with real personality  and, yes, soul.

A couple of years ago I came here, lured by several good reviews, only to be presented with a shockingly cooked cheese and ham toastie, that still causes me to shudder to this day.

The place looked just as becoming then but it takes some doing, and not of the good sort, to ruin a toastie. Worse again, none of my servers thought to ask me why I had left it alone after a single bite but it was still pandemic-era and I had no stomach for kicking an already wounded soldier, so I abandoned both toastie and any putative plans to review.

Fiery Benedict at Good for the Soul

Menus change at the weekend to all-day brunch so there is no chance to check on the state of the current house toastie as No 2 Son has volunteered to do, so he instead orders Fiery Benedict with smoky beans on the side.

It is two perfectly poached Ballyfin Farm eggs on toasted Arbutus sourdough with very nicely crisped slices of bacon, and hollandaise with hot sauce brings the fiery.

It is all top notch though No. 2 says the cannellini beans in a lusty spiced tomato sauce with smoky chipotle that plumbs depths are the making of his dish. He's not wrong.

Chilli heat is becoming more of a breakfast staple on Irish menus as many establishments geared towards younger, more health-conscious audiences ditch the traditional full Irish for healthier tropes from the edible Esperanto of international Instagrammable brunch offerings.

Turkish Eggs at Good for the Soul

That translates as No 1 Son signing up for Turkish Eggs  which he absolutely loves and rightly so.

Again, this reprises toasted sourdough and the poached Ballyfin eggs but this time served with spiced garlic yoghurt, chilli butter and fresh dill, to which he adds a few rounds of Clonakilty Black Pudding and crispy bacon, but it's the Turkish elements that really float his boat, creamy, tangy yoghurt with garlic astringency and cleansing, fresh dill anise engaging superbly with chillis punch heat.

To be honest, Id have looked no further than the same dish but ignore other variations on poached eggs  yes, the menu is cannily crafted to keep it simple in the kitchen  and opt for the brunch frittata.

A frittata is what too many Irish hotel breakfast cooks think is actually an omelette, a thick, fried eggy pancake incorporating a whole load of additional ingredients.

This frittata is industrial strength, a vehicle for bacon pieces, chunks of black pudding, potato, spinach and a mantle of melting cheddar, served with a tomato-based relish.

Its precisely the type of dish to be relished by a hungover student, primarily concerned with scarfing back suitably savoury and tasty ballast but it is all a bit much for this delicate soul, who always prefers a tad more finesse when it comes to his eggs.

A good start towards improvement would be to crumble black pudding into a size more morsel than monstrous, distributing dominant flavours and textures more equitably throughout the dish.

We finish with very good coffees, always a hallmark of OCarrolls establishments, and a varied selection of sweet treats: good lemon slice; decent chocolate chip cookie; almond croissant, severely deprived of almond paste; and a sugar-free muffin of oats, chocolate chip, raspberries, blueberries and maple syrup, that No 2 adores but is far too healthy for this particular sybarite, though by now, utterly content and well fed, I am merely nibbling out of professional curiosity.

It is early days in the new regime and I fancy more innovation will reach the menu once the ship has been steadied to OCarrolls satisfaction but it is already mighty fine and, yep, very good for the soul.

The Verdict:

Food: 7/10

Service: 7/10

Value: 8.5/10

Atmosphere: 9/10
08:00

I try to sleep in a little bit if I can, but when your body clock is set for getting up early during the week, its harder. I might stay in bed a bit after I wake up and just reflect on whats ahead that day.

Ill feed my dogs and make myself and my roommate a coffee, and we have breakfast. I might have vegan sausages or whatever I can find in the fridge.

10:00

I always try to see family on the weekends. Sometimes Ill meet my dad for a walk with my boys (my dogs) or Ill meet my mum and sister with the kids.

Ive two lurchers called Leonard and Charlie. They are very big but they are also very chill. I love bringing them down Dollymount strand for a run.

12:00

I try to meet someone for a coffee in Howth with the dogs, or go for some food. Im very lucky that a lot of my friends live near me as well, so Ill try and head into town and meet up with a few for shopping on Saturday afternoons.

14:00

Im a big true crime fan and I love listening to podcasts. My Favourite Murder is an LA-based crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark and Ive been listening to them since I lived in London. After that, I need something slightly lighter, so I listen to Camp Counselors. Its two content creators; a couple in New York, and I actually used to live near them, so I get a lot of the local references. Its just really good-natured.

I do miss living in New York, but life there is hectic. I came home to embrace a slower pace of life and to come back to myself a little bit, and Im loving it. Yes, the cost of living is a bit crazy here, but apart from that, Ireland has a beautiful way of staying pretty similar. Every time Ive lived away, coming home just feels so special.

Thalia Heffernan with her rescue dogs Leonard and Charlie

18:00

I try to get myself prepared for the week ahead on a Saturday or Sunday, so Ill go and do a food shop. Work-wise, I keep an eye on my emails over the weekend and organise my week ahead or go to an event. For the most part, my weekends are usually my own and I cherish them. Im lucky that even since moving back, I've had a lovely group of regular clients.

Often when you travel, you have this fear that youll come home and all your clients wont want you back, but Ive been really blessed to have been straight back with a lot of them which is good. Show season is always brilliant too. I love the energy around them, the music and seeing whats coming into fashion. I love the creative side of my job too so working on campaigns like CUPRA really feeds into that creative flow.

19:00

Around this time, Ill be looking to meet friends in a bar or for dinner on a Saturday night. I havent been going mad going out-out, but because Im only home four months, its still exciting to go out in town. I love 777, Yamamori.

Id spend a lot of time around that area of Camden Street into Aungier Street in Dublin. 37 on Dawson Street is a great place if you are out a little later on and Lennons Yard. It depends on the mood and who Im with. The food and drink scene in Dublin is really good.

21:00

I try to take it easy because I love starting my Sunday right. I dont like having Sunday Scaries if I can avoid them. I love to get up early on a Sunday and do a Pilates class and head out for a nice long walk and then go to a Power Gym for a session which is great. Ill have a swim and a sauna afterwards and it sets me up for the week. Obviously, there are exceptions if its a big night out though. Youll find me on the dance floor quite regularly. I just love laughing, smiling and having a good time.

23:00

Ill always read before I fall asleep. Usually crime books. Im also taking magnesium every night which is great for sleep. I used to wake up quite a bit at night but its helping with my nighttime routine. I like a wind-down before bed. Ill do my skincare and really try to get my eight hours if I can. Im so grateful for being able to see my family, my friends and my dogs whenever I want. Its the people around me who make me who I am, and that makes all the difference. Its the things you dont realise you miss until theyre gone.
Israel could deny Ireland relevant intelligence or military equipment if the Irish Government formally recognises Palestine as a state, security sources have indicated.

Sources stress the right of the Government to push for recognition of Palestine as a nation state because of Israels breaches of international human rights law in Gaza, including the widespread killing of innocent civilians, including children.

However, they say there could be security consequences, pointing out that Israel is a highly securitised state with a firm foreign policy approach to countries seen as particularly prominent supporters of Palestinians.

Read More Simon Harris: Ireland and Spain would recognise Palestine together

Sources point out that Western security agencies lean heavily on Israel in terms of intelligence, not only on the Middle East, but also on the presence of Middle Eastern terrorist outfits or criminal groups either operating in Europe or linked to domestic criminal and terrorist networks in Europe.

In addition, Israel is a major supplier of military equipment to countries around the world, including Ireland.

Last December, it emerged that security and police agencies in Denmark and Germany arrested a number of people suspected of planning attacks on Israeli embassies  and that the intelligence had come from Israel security agencies.

In November 2022, it was reported that Israels foreign intelligence service, Mossad, tipped off MI5, the UKs domestic security service, of terrorist threats, believed to be directed by Iran, against British citizens.

Read More Micheal Martin says Ireland will recognise Palestinian statehood

Irish security agencies are heavily reliant on the sharing of intelligence by other European agencies, including on the movements of suspects and their associates.

With tensions between Iran and Israel increasing, there are concerns that Iran could potentially back attacks on synagogues or on Israeli embassies in Europe.

Dail records show the Irish Defence Forces and the Department of Defence spent 11.5m on defensive equipment and hardware from firms in Israel.

Tanaiste, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence, Micheal Martin, told the Dail last month the equipment included drones, target sensor systems, optical sights and infantry platforms.

He said competitive tendering for Government contracts was an EU legal requirement and open to any company or country, subject to UN and EU arms embargoes or restrictions.

No such restrictions or embargoes are in place on Israel or Israeli companies, he said.
Unexplained bruising on a pregnant woman is one of the red flags healthcare workers are urged to watch out for under new guidelines for supporting women in abusive relationships.

A shocking one in eight pregnant women are estimated to suffer from domestic violence in Ireland, according to Womens Aid.

These soon-to-be-published guidelines are part of measures involving maternity care across hospitals and community services as well as projects running with Womens Aid.

Cork University Maternity Hospital social work team leader Ann-Marie McCarthy said other red flags can include a womans partner answering all the questions during pregnancy appointments.

This can extend to claiming the woman does not speak English, which may or may not be the case in reality.

Women missing many appointments can also be a sign that things are not right at home.

Its about knowing the signs and impacts, said Ms McCarthy.

Read More Call for better support of midwifery-led care services

Also a focus should be put on privacy and safety, so minding her in that space in terms of recognising that this is actually a really big thing for somebody to disclose.

She presented on the new guidelines at the All-Ireland Maternity and Midwifery Festival this week, along with midwife Jeannine Webster.

Ms McCarthy advised asking direct questions can help women explain what is happening. She said:

In our guidelines, we talk about very specific questions  so, do you feel safe in your relationship.

If its in the emergency department, for example, if somebody presents with bruising, its asking the question, did somebody actually do that to you.

Other children may also be impacted, she said.

Its important to be mindful that not only are you dealing with a woman, you are also dealing with the unborn baby and what the risks are to that unborn baby, she said.

Ms Webster added: Statistically, we know one in eight women are abused in pregnancy, thats a Womens Aid figure. So we ask everybody about domestic violence, and you are opening up the conversation.

Digital health records used in some maternity hospitals include mandatory questions on this sensitive area, including do you feel safe in your current relationship?.

The guidelines recommend introducing these electronic records to all maternity units in order to ensure consistency in screening for domestic violence in pregnancy.

They recommend mandatory antenatal screening for domestic violence for all women attending public care, semi-private, private. and all community settings.
The Workplace Relations Commission in Waterford is set to hear from a senior Siptu official who claims she has been subjected to a campaign of victimisation by management.

The hearing, due to take place on Thursday in Waterford courthouse, is set to hear details about some of the working conditions in Irelands largest union.

The senior official, who has been involved with Siptu for more than three decades, was on the National Executive Council in the 1990s and was a paid union official more than 20 years ago.

In 2021, the woman submitted several protected disclosures to the National Executive Council.

Her case at the WRC is due to hear allegations of wrongdoing within the union which she claims she came across during her work and tried to raise with management.

The Irish Examiner understands that the woman submitted 42 complaints on behalf of five activists in one local authority and several protected disclosures which remain to be independently investigated.

Other claims include that many members of the union confided in the woman that they contemplated suicide over being subjected to bullying and harassment, and that another senior official hired a vulnerable and inexperienced female who was subsequently dismissed unfairly.

The woman claims she was removed from the staff representative council after submitting a protected disclosure to the national executive council.

She has also alleged multiple breaches of employment law, and that some shop stewards encountered difficulties in getting paid for annual leave days and time off.

The woman alleges she has repeatedly raised with management of the union that the procedures for bullying and harassment are inadequate and do not provide for proper protection for workers or effective remedies for victims.

The adjudication hearing is set to involve some management of Siptu.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the union said: "Siptu is vigorously defending the management and staff of the union against all the allegations made."

The Irish Examiner also contacted the woman at the centre of the case but received no reply.
Gardai in Dublin seized half a million euro in an operation targeting organised crime groups.

As part of an intelligence-led operation, officers from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau arrested a woman, aged in her 40s, for an alleged offence in the Dublin 2 area.

During Friday's operation, approximately 500,000 in cash was seized along with a vacuum packing machine and documentation.

The woman is currently being detained at a Dublin garda station where she can be held for up to seven days.

Assistant Commissioner Justin Kelly said the seizure is a significant blow to an organised crime group.

"I commend the hard work and dedication of all the Gardai involved in this operation," he said.

"Such work demonstrates An Garda Siochana's commitment to disrupting criminal networks and preventing money laundering."

Investigations are ongoing.
Like the whiskeys hell help produce, hes a rare breed.

A carpenter who has become just the second cooper in almost half a century to be appointed to Irish Distillers massive distillery in Cork says he hopes to play his part in keeping the ancient craft alive.

Im looking forward to doing a good days work, day in day out, and to keeping the story of Irish coopers and the tradition alive, Derek Cronin said.

The 41-year-old father of four, from Ardmore in Co Waterford, has just completed his four-year apprenticeship under fifth generation master cooper Ger Buckley, and taken up his role as a cooper at Irish Distillers expanding Midleton Distillery, which produces some of the worlds most well-known and successful Irish whiskeys.

Coopers are central to the production of Irish whiskey, with wooden casks influencing up to 60% of the liquids quality and playing a key role in the maturation, aroma, and flavour of the final product.

It is a very specialised skill that has remained largely unchanged for thousands of years and has been passed down through generations.

Derek will be part of the very small and highly-skilled team responsible for the repair and maintenance of Midletons vast stock of over 2m wooden casks, and other various coopering and cask-related work.

Derek completed his four-year apprenticeship under fifth generation master cooper Ger Buckley.

Having trained and worked as a carpenter, Ive always had a passion for the craft and working with tools, he said.

When I joined Irish Distillers, I was immediately struck by Gers skill and knowledge and really admired his passion for the ancient craft of coopering. Its what inspired me to train as a cooper.

It has been a privilege to work so closely with Ger over the last four years, learning about the craft and the history.

I look forward to continuing to learn from him and expanding my knowledge and skills.

After sitting his Leaving Certificate in 2000, Derek began a carpentry apprenticeship with Tim Pat Crowley in Midleton, working mainly on roofing, before he went out on his own.

When the recession hit, he worked with his father, Michael, on forestry across Munster but decided in late 2011 to emigrate to Australia for what was meant to be just six-months.

That became seven years, during which he worked with Irish firm, Quickway, one of the largest builders of transport and utilities infrastructure in Australia, using his carpentry skills on large-scale work for several huge road and bridge projects.

He worked in mines and on high-rise buildings and got Australian citizenship, before he returned home in 2016, and began working with Hegartys for a few years before securing a general operative role with Irish Distillers in 2019.

Derek will be part of the very small and highly-skilled team responsible for the repair and maintenance of Midletons vast stock of over 2m wooden casks, and other various coopering and cask-related work.

As he drove forklifts, and filled and emptied casks, he became fascinated with the cooperage, and when a rare coopering job was advertised, he went for it.

I really missed working with wood, and working with my hands. I was reading the job description, I thought I tick all those boxes, this is the job for me.

And I went for it, he said.

In 2020, he embarked on his apprenticeship with Ger, and was trained in both the traditional manual techniques and in the modern techniques employed by cooperages around the world, marrying heritage and innovation to ensure the art of the ancient craft continues.

The apprenticeship allowed Derek to work in cooperages in Scotland, France, and Spain, where he broadened his coopering skills and knowledge, and was later registered with the Scottish Cooperage Federation.

Ger said training him was a wonderful experience.

His background in carpentry enabled him to hit the ground running and he has truly immersed himself in every aspect of the craft since the beginning, ensuring that the future of this age-old craft is in safe hands, he said.

Derek also paid tribute to Ger.

Ger has coopering blood in his veins, he said.

It has been a great experience to work with him, I am honoured to have had the opportunity to do it.

He has been amazing, showing me every trick in the trade.

Ive been trained in the ancient skills and in modern techniques.

Ive learned so much from him. Im learning every day and hope to continue learning from him for a long time to come.

Master coopers hand down their tools from one generation to the next and Ger has presented some of his familys coopering tools to Derek.

The art of coopering is an ancient craft that few still practice today.

Master coopers hand down their tools from one generation to the next and Ger has presented some of his familys coopering tools to Derek.

Like most historic trades, new members were recruited through the system of apprenticeship.

Traditionally, only the sons or male relatives of a cooper could be apprenticed which meant the trade was a closed shop and restricted to certain families only.

But this has changed.

In 2019, Killian OMahony, who was 26 at the time, became the first newly-qualified cooper appointed by Irish Distillers to its Midleton Distillery in 40 years, following in the footsteps of his great great grandfather, Batt Ahern, who was the distillerys blacksmith almost a century ago.

Whiskey has been distilled in Midleton since the 1700s, with Midleton Distillery today producing Irish whiskeys including Jameson, Powers, Redbreast, Midleton Very Rare, the Spot family, and Method and Madness.

In 2022, the company announced plans to build a state-of-the-art distillery on a 55-acre site next to, and connected to, Midleton Distillery. Once operational, it will create up to 100 jobs, over time.

The company has also since 2010 invested hundreds of millions of euro in the expansion of its production and bottling capacity, and in its operational efficiency.

It recently reopened its rebranded Midleton Distillery Experience, which has the potential to welcome more than 200,000 visitors annually.
Fianna Fail European election candidate Senator Lisa Chambers has called for asylum seekers who break the law to be deported.

At the Fianna Fail ard fheis, the Midlands-North-West candidate told reporters that there is nothing preventing the State from deporting asylum seekers who commit crimes.

If a blockage arises, we need to address it, Ms Chambers said.

Anybody that comes into this country, whether theyre seeking asylum or have been granted refugee status, if you break the law you need to be sent back and thats what the public is asking for.

Pressed on this further, Ms Chambers said that even refugees who have been granted status needed to be deported if they committed an indictable offence.

Thats what were hearing on the ground, that people want this taken seriously and if someone comes in and commits a very serious crime, that needs to be looked at," she said.

Ms Chambers said that, on a European level, she did not see a potential challenge to such a policy.

The Mayo senator is currently running for Fianna Fail in the Midlands-North-West constituency, alongside Laois-Offaly TD Barry Cowen and Donegal senator Niall Blaney.

Barry Cowen TD, Cynthia Ni Mhurchu, Barry Andrews MEP, Billy Kelleher MEP, Senator Lisa Chambers, and Senator Niall Blaney at Fianna Fail's ard fheis. Mr Cowen, Ms Chambers, and Mr Blaney are the party's European Parliament election candidates in Midlands-North-West. Ms Ni Mhurchu is running in Ireland South. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews

Her comments echo an internal Fianna Fail policy document on migration, which calls for any asylum seekers to be deported if they commit a crime and to create a specific criminal offence for destroying travel documents when entering the State.

The document was drawn up by Dublin South-West TD John Lahart and also calls for the ending of tents being set up in streets.

Dublin MEP Barry Andrews said that any reforms of Irish migration policy when it comes to criminal offences would need to be done by the Dail and not carried out in the European Parliament.

Mr Andrews said that the overall message was to get the balance right between protecting people who are fleeing a fear of persecution, while also restoring trust in how the Irish State manages migration.

We have to take the issue away from the far right. They want it to remain an issue on the table to sow social division, Mr Andrews said.
Paolo Gerbaudo in Phenomenal World:

In the late 1970s, Western markets were flooded with Japanese cars from then-unfamiliar brands like Toyota, Mazda, Datsun, and Honda. The combination of a high quality product, efficient fuel consumption, and a low price tag made these brands very popular in the US and Europe in the aftermath of the 1970s oil shock, resulting in a decline in market share for domestic manufacturers and complaints of unfair competition from entrepreneurs and trade unions.

The Japan Shock soon engendered a protectionist policy response. The US and the UK negotiated voluntary import quotas with Japan to limit competitive pressure on their car industries, and European countries adopted similar measures. But this was only the first step in a deeper transformation of Western industry. Desperately seeking avenues to regain international competitiveness and quell heightening domestic labor unrest, companies in the global automotive sector and beyond began to emulate their Japanese rivals. The Toyota method, expounded by the companys leading industrial engineer Taiichi Ohno, became a must-read for any serious industrial manager, while North Atlantic business schools started teaching Kaizen and Kanban methods of just-in-time production. This cultural shift, sometimes described as part of a broader process of Japanization, served to catalyze the embrace of what sociologists came to call post-Fordist management strategies, which focused on flexibility and cost-cutting while rejecting the vertically integrated production models of 1950s US and European auto leaders.

Nearly fifty years after the Japan shock, todays global automotive industry confronts a far more systemic upheavalwhat we could term the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) shock. Until recently, Chinas automotive industry was dismissed as a low-quality copy of Western or Japanese models. However, it has since achieved impressive quality and price competitiveness in the strategic section of electric vehiclesin 2023, the Chinese giant BYD overtook Tesla as the largest producer of electric cars with 3 million New Energy Vehicles (NEVs). That year, Chinas export of NEVs grew by 64 percent. Together with good Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) sales and Russian demand induced by Western sanctions, China has already overcome Japan as the worlds largest auto exporter overall.

More here.
Andrew Kennedy is a 30-year-old IT professional and is facing eviction. He must quit the house he shares on Cork's northside in May, giving him just a couple of weeks to find somewhere new. If he can't, he will have to return to live with his parents in a rural part of Limerick.

Kelly-Anne Healy is 37 years' old, works full time, but is forced to live in her childhood bedroom in Blackpool. She worries about the impact living at home has on her parents, and says trying to get on the housing ladder as a single person is even more challenging.

At 45, Waterford native Jennifer Mannifold cannot afford to buy, or even rent independently. She has to share with two flatmates, and fears if she loses her accommodation, she will lose her job as a tour guide, and basically lose everything.

At 51, Cristina Galvin is paying almost 1,200 for a one-bedroom apartment in Galway. She moved back to Ireland to take up her dream job, but says the cost of renting and how tenants are treated may force her to emigrate.

Maria Ovchinnikova is renting in Cork City, and unable to save to buy a home. Neither is she able to move back in with her parents as they both died, and the rest of her family are in Russia. She fears what will happen if she has to leave her rental property as there are so few rental options available.

Andrew, Kelly-Anne, Jennifer, Cristina and Maria have detailed to the Irish Examiner what it is like to rent in modern Ireland. They say the cost, the precarious nature of being a tenant, the lack of affordable options and the fact they can never see a situation where they will be able to buy their own home is leaving them crippled with anxiety.

They are urging the Government to completely overhaul the rental sector and make it easier for people in the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s, to get on the property ladder.

Threshold chief executive John-Mark McCafferty said among the challenges facing renters is not just the high cost of rent, but also the shortage of supply, the condition of some properties being offered, and difficulties around the retention of deposits. Picture: Jason Clarke

Chief executive at housing charity Threshold John-Mark McCafferty said organisations like his have been working overtime to meet demand from those locked out of the property market.

Mr McCafferty said becoming a homeowner in modern Ireland had become more about luck than about hard work.

It begs the question about whether its only the 'bank of mum and dad' that can facilitate people in gaining access to homeownership. Obviously, that's only open to certain families with sufficient funds and certain resources. It perpetuates this lie that if you work and study hard you will gain access to home ownership on a kind of meritocratic basis.

"If someone is lucky enough to be assisted by their mum and dad then its less to do with hard work and more to do with luck.

He said among the challenges facing renters is not just the high cost of rent, but also the shortage of supply, the condition of some properties being offered, and difficulties around the retention of deposits.

Rent

There seems to be some moderation in the increase in rents but they are still a very high base for many people, the Threshold boss told the Irish Examiner.

Affordability of rent has been an issue for people since the beginning of the recovery and this has only intensified over time against the increase in the rates of rent hikes.

"Prices are challenging for people trying to move into the private rental sector while balancing other costs they might have. Increases in the cost of living over the last two years have exasperated this issue.

Shortage of supply

The availability of rental accommodation has been an increasing issue of concern on a number of fronts. This is because we obviously have an expanding economy and growing population. Household formation and trying to move out of the family home has become more challenging for people than ever. Its very difficult to find accommodation.

"Many landlords are leaving the market, resulting in the end of tenancies. It means that a lot of families are losing their homes through no fault of their own. The rise in short-term lets is also contributing to a restricted supply.

Substandard conditions

Substandard conditions is another issue Threshold has been dealing with in recent years.

These are issues that in a way were always and continue to be of concern to a certain proportion of tenants. Things like standards and repairs and energy efficiency can be challenging to deal with. Whether there's damp or mould, a property has to meets all the standards required.

"Families and individuals need to be able to rent with dignity and security so that is an ongoing issue.

Deposits

Deposit retention also continues to be a problem.

Some landlords are retaining deposits even though the tenant has fulfilled all of their obligations and one knows they are eligible for the deposit to be reserved. That's always been an issue for a number of tenants.

"In neighbouring jurisdictions, they have tenancy deposit schemes. This involves a dedicated organisation that will return the deposit. If those deposits were held by a third party, we believe that would take a number of unnecessary disputes out of the RTBs [Residential Tenancies Board] hands and it could be dealt with through a specialist unit.

Efforts by the Government to prevent homelessness for renters have been welcomed by the charity.

Threshold wants the Government to do more by setting an ambitious goal of buying at least half of the suitable rental properties where tenants are subject to eviction notices.

The tenant-in-situ scheme is among a number of supports which have been rolled out to help renters. The scheme facilitates local authorities to purchase homes from landlords whose decision to sell will result in an eviction.

However, Threshold wants the Government to do more by setting an ambitious goal of buying at least half of the suitable rental properties where tenants are subject to eviction notices.

Meanwhile, groups around the country are taking matters into their own hands in an attempt to level the playing field for future generations.

Cork Student Housing Co-operative comprises a group of students and alumni from third-level institutions in Cork City who are working to provide not-for-profit student accommodation. Members are taking the lead of so-called co-operative models of mutual aid, self-help, solidarity and democracy across the globe.

Secretary of the initiative Daibhidh O Luinin explained how it works.

We are trying to get a housing co-op for students up and running in Cork City to try to address the general issue of housing. Its a different style of living. The people who live in the accommodation would be the landlords effectively. They more or less manage the property themselves.

"There isnt a single initiative like this one in Ireland, which is why we are very keen to get it off the ground. We see places like this in Switzerland. Its not just the rent thats an important factor in this. Living conditions are also a key priority.

"We want people to have an active voice and more importantly be able to stay warm because they are not being killed by high rent. We are trying to ease those pressures while creating a community at the same time.

Cristina: 'I am 51, and might have to emigrate'

At 51, Cristina Galvin fears Irelands rental crisis may leave her with no choice but to emigrate.

It's a situation she never imagined while working to improve her employment prospects in the UK. Cristina had moved to Wales in 2017 to gain experience in trauma services before returning home to her native Galway four-and-a-half years later.

Despite a well-paid position working as a university counsellor, she finds it impossible to balance paying rent with saving.

Cristina Galvin: 'For the first time in my life I thought I would be able to relax around finances. Instead, its had the opposite effect. Its been a major stress and thats why I sometimes think that maybe Im better off emigrating.'

Pressure in the rental market has forced the Galway City resident to reassess her future. Cristina is currently paying 1,150 for a one-bedroom property which is set to rise to 1,200 in the coming months.

Cristina explains she initially moved home to be close to family.

A job had come up with a student counselling service in Galway. I did part of my training there. It looked like a really good salary but I would be better off in Wales on a lesser salary without having all my money going on rent. I cant even afford to put my name down for a house. I am trapped renting.

She said the situation was a source of major stress.

For the first time in my life I thought I would be able to relax around finances. Instead, its had the opposite effect. Its been a major stress and thats why I sometimes think that maybe Im better off emigrating.

There has been a lot of talk about people in their 20s and 30s being unable to buy or rent but there are people older than that too. I do have shame around it.

"The talk around the subject generally is that you have done something wrong which feels deeply unfair. This is a systemic failure. Shelter is a basic human right.

Ms Galvin said the Government must act.

I am beyond outrage. I am despairing. It leaves you feeling like you dont have a place in society. Id be looking to move somewhere where you are more respected as a person. This is why I am looking into other possibilities.

"There are reasons why so many kids are moving to Australia and New Zealand. There are better conditions, better pay and better housing. I have been seriously considering New Zealand.

She said the cost-of-living crisis had added to difficulties for renters.

Nobody ever expected the prices of gas and electricity to go up so much as they did. The hike in grocery cost was not expected either. Then you have the rent on top of that.

Cristina spent nine months searching for accommodation before finding a place to rent.

"If I knew the extent of the housing crisis at home I dont think I would have moved because the rent is well over double what I was paying in Wales and its maybe triple what I was paying for a prime location in Salthill in a prime location in 2017.

"The housing stock is so limited in terms of one- and two-bedroom apartments. While searching for a place to live I did feel discriminated against. I looked at so many different places.

"Of course, its in a landlords interest to make sure the rent is paid. That why two wage earners are normally favoured over a single person. Its understandable because they want security but it can make life very difficult for a single person looking to rent.

Andrew: 'Sometimes, I wonder what's the point of living in this country'

Nothing could have prepared Andrew Kennedy for the sense of dread and uncertainty he felt after receiving a notice to quit the home he shares on Corks northside.

Andrew Kennedy: 'The reason I moved here was to create a bit of a life for myself. When I first moved down here, rent was cheaper. There was a lot more availability. Now, all were doing is clutching at straws.' Picture: Eddie O'Hare

The 30-year-old is facing a May eviction date and he is struggling to find alternative accommodation, with a a string of disheartening viewings and lack of available properties on Daft.ie

If unable to source a new house share, Andrew may have to give up the life in Cork he has worked so hard for and move back home with his parents in Limerick. Its not a outcome the IT professional likes to dwell on.

I cant let it affect me, Andrew told the Irish Examiner. However, if I still have nowhere in the next few weeks I will really start to panic.

Originally from Limerick, Andrew says living in Cork presents more opportunities for him.

At this stage I feel like its not going to happen, he said of finding a new home. Sometimes, I wonder what's the point in living in this country. Im constantly checking the internet and 99% of the people who make contact are scam artists.

He recalls what it is like trying to source other accommodation.

Any viewings Ive been to have had loads of other people interested. I have heard back from one or two thanking me for their time. Its very stressful at the moment.

If I dont get somewhere I will have to quit my job and move back in with my parents which would not be ideal for me whatsoever. Id rather not move in with my parents because I like my own independence.

"I grew up in a quiet place in the countryside where there isnt a lot going on. It would mean a loss of opportunities.

"The reason I moved here was to create a bit of a life for myself. When I first moved down here, rent was cheaper. There was a lot more availability. Now, all were doing is clutching at straws.

Hidden terms and conditions are also creating difficulties for house hunters, including Andrew.

I have been looking at house shares but rooms are being snapped up. Some of them are only 'Monday to Friday' rentals yet they still come in at a cost of 800 a month.

"I often work weekends so I wouldnt be able to agree to something like this. To be honest, I think that asking a tenant to move out every weekend should be made illegal.

He wants the Government to take action to solve the crisis.

Its more frustrating really because Government policies are a joke. My main goal is to eventually buy, but the prices are insane so this could take another while.

"The only way out of this is to build more social housing but this is going to take time since the cost of materials has gone through the roof.

"Ive been to Italy and Spain where they have lots of apartments. It makes me think about why the same cant be done here.

Andrew said he was doing his best to stay positive and proactive. It makes me angry but I am not the only one. There are other people in my shoes.

Kelly-Anne: 'There's not much you can do living in your childhood bedroom'

"When youre single, people think you have this fancy life, but theres not much you can do from your childhood bedroom."

Kelly-Anne Healy might be speaking for an entire generation of adults who find themselves in limbo due to low housing supply and spiralling property and rental costs.

Kelly-Anne Healy: 'Im not work shy or seeking handouts but the Government has to help us.'

Living at home with her parents in Blackpool has forced the 37-year-old to put her life on hold. During her teenage years, Kelly-Anne said she was led to believe hard work reaps rewards and success.

She recalled balancing school with working three nights a week  in addition to weekends  at a fast food outlet. The Cork native has not stopped working since and now holds a customer service role in the automotive industry.

However, she said high rents and property costs have priced her out of the market.

Im not work shy or seeking handouts but the Government has to help us, she said.

The world is changing. People arent getting married. There are single parents and gay couples. I never planned on having kids. The council should take into account women of my age who arent having children and who are in need of smaller properties.

"The typical Irish families we knew before were suited to three- or four-bedroom houses. They never consider one-bedrooms even though its easier to house someone in an apartment block over a housing estate.

Renting as a single person presents its own complications, said Kelly-Anne.

I am just as tied as anyone else is. Its not like a landlord is going to halve the price for me. Its going to be the same price regardless of whether its a couple or a single person. Rent isnt something I can afford at the moment.

"Sharing also isnt an option for me at my age. If I was in a house share situation theres a strong chance I would be sharing with college students and thats not something that would suit me at my time of life.

Kelly-Anne said not being able to afford a place of her own is impacting her parents.

Im always conscious of my parents and their privacy. They are only in their 60s so they are still a young couple. It means I am stuck in one room a lot. My dad is the biggest worrier in the world and I know its difficult for him seeing me so stressed. He can see it in me. Hes even converted a room for me and set up a couch and television to make it feel more like my own.

Kelly-Anne has tried to put her name on the list for a council house without success.

Houses are unaffordable at the moment. I was refused a place on the council list when I got on to them two years ago. Its not something I would have done before because I am working full-time but with the way things have gone it seemed like my only option. I cant get on the list for Hap.

"I know Im not going to get a house straight away, but it would be nice to even put my name down. People might say that I have adequate accommodation but its not my own home.

Jennifer: 'I'm 45, but can only afford to rent with housemates'

After years of precarious living situations, the current rental crisis continues to be a huge source of anxiety for tour guide Jennifer Manifold.

At 45 years' old, the Waterford native said the only way she could afford to rent is with two other housemates. Jennifer said she is one of the lucky ones  500 a month is a modest sum in contrast to what many other renters are paying in Cork city.

Jennifer Manifold: 'For many people, their life is based around their accommodation. Im not the only one feeling like this. I dont think many landlords could ever understand the level of anxiety that comes with this kind of insecurity.'

However, it also means she is not left with enough disposable income to save for a place for her own.

She described the situation as depressing.

I try not to think about it. I lived abroad for a while during the Celtic Tiger and can still remember people urging me to come home and buy a house. It makes me laugh to think how times have changed.

"Its a little bit depressing because even if I wanted to rent by myself there is no way that I would be able to with the money Im on. This is in spite of having a full-time job. I am trapped here for now.

Exploring the option of renting by herself was disillusioning for Jennifer.

For 1,200, you might get a crappy bedsit in Cork. Thats if you are really lucky. There are plenty of them that go for more. Even student accommodation that would have been 280 back in the day has since climbed to 900. I dont know how young people even pay for it.

Jennifer said many renters are at risk of homelessness.

if I dont have this accommodation there is nothing else. There is a strong chance I wouldnt get anything for the same price. Im a tour guide so I dont get a lot of money.

I try not to think about it but like many other people I am a stones throw away from not having a place to live. If I lost my accommodation I would lose my job. I would lose the life I know.

"For many people, their life is based around their accommodation. Im not the only one feeling like this. I dont think many landlords could ever understand the level of anxiety that comes with this kind of insecurity.

She said many of her friends and acquaintances are in equally precarious situations.

I have been collecting horror stories. People I know have been asked extremely personal questions while just applying for accommodation. One of my friends was asked if he had a girlfriend and any allergies that his flatmate should know about. These are questions that nobody would have dreamed of asking years ago that landlords can now get away with it.

She believes the rental crisis is having a huge impact on society.

All this is doing is creating a divide that makes poor people poorer and rich people richer. This is creating such anxiety for people. This is something that many people in a position of power would not be able to understand.

Maria: 'Shelter is a basic human need, it shouldn't be treated as a business'

For Maria Ovchinnikova, living at home with her family is not an option.

The 26-year-old from Russia, who grew up in Cork, lost her both of her parents at a young age. She is currently making the most of a house share but is unsure if she can see a future for herself in Ireland.

Maria Ovchinnikova: 'I don't have a problem with someone wanting to make some money off a property they own, but so many landlords see renting properties as an investment and not an opportunity to give people basic shelter.'

Maria is paying 625 per month for a room and says she often wonders if she will ever be able to enjoy the luxury of her own space. She explained the current challenges of trying to rent in Cork.

It's fine if you can move in with family, but some people don't have that privilege, she said.

I lost both my parents and the rest of my family live in Russia. It means I don't have the privilege of moving in with family if I have to leave my accommodation for any reason. This is extra stress that a lot of people unfortunately have.

"It's possible to sign up for council housing but you would be waiting a decade at least to receive any kind of accommodation.

She said in addition to the cost, and the shortage of rental options, tenants often face unrealistic regulations imposed by landlords.

Landlords have all sorts of rules and policies in the lease, which is fair, but sometimes it becomes a joke.

"I was viewing a house a few years ago with two guys. We were told that we weren't allowed any visitors even though we wouldn't have even been living with the landlord. It's tiring being made to feel like a guest within your own home.

"Realistically, you need luck on your side to find any accommodation because so many people are looking and so many places are so dear. I found my current room by sheer luck because a girl reached out to me on Facebook after I posted in several groups. This was after two months of searching.

Maria said she was shocked by the condition of some of the properties she had seen advertised.

I don't have a problem with someone wanting to make some money off a property they own, but so many landlords see renting properties as an investment and not an opportunity to give people basic shelter.

Prices are sky high and some landlords do the bare minimum to keep their properties in check and liveable. Some want to cram as many people into a dilapidated ruin and squeeze as much money out of them while treating them like second-class citizens.

"I still remember seeing a property online for students located in the countryside. The landlord said it could fit eight adults, and the bedrooms had bunk beds in them. It was nothing short of a hostel. The rent was 400 per person with bills not included.

"There are rent pressure zones, but there should be more laws and regulations put in for the prices, conditions, and policies of rentals. More housing should be in the hands of the State too and not privatised.

"Ultimately, shelter is a basic human need. It shouldn't be treated as a business.
As the worlds media continues to report on the harrowing images of emaciated children and a risk of imminent famine facing more than one million Palestinians in Gaza, mainstream television news channels in Israel largely decline to show the full reality of the human misery.

The killing of the seven food charity workers from World Central Kitchen by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) did make television headlines, but only fleetingly so.

It is an open secret that Israeli TV news channels since the beginning of the war have, for the most part, refused to show the humanitarian impact of the IDF bombing of Gaza.

The daily distressing images, carried by mainstream media, of dying or lifeless Palestinian children, bloodied victims in collapsed buildings, and distressing and chaotic scenes in hospitals, are simply not shown to Israeli television viewers.

Any TV footage of destroyed neighbourhoods or cratered bomb sites in Gaza that are shown is almost always devoid of any people at all.

Nightly news coverage of the war for the past few months has been dominated instead by the fate of the remaining hostages, the mounting death toll of Israeli soldiers, ongoing skirmishes with Hezbollah along the Lebanese border, and more recently by the rising military tension with Iran and the resumption of mass street demonstrations against the government of prime minister Bibi Netanyahu.

This week, I sat down with veteran Israeli journalist Anat Saragusti, Israeli parliamentarian Offer Cassif, and family members of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas to ask them all, why, in their opinion, the Israeli television news continues to largely ignore the unfolding human catastrophe in Gaza.

What you see in Ireland is a different dimension than what we see in Israel, says Saragusti.

The Israeli public doesnt see the horrors in Gaza, they dont see the hunger, they dont see the dead children, they dont see the scale of the atrocities.

Saragusti, now 70, was the first Israeli journalist to interview Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), back in 1982 in a besieged Beirut.

The Israeli media is still telling the story of October 7 (when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages), she says, before adding somewhat pointedly maybe its because some of the rest of the world [only] start telling the story from October 8.

Saragusti is adamant, however, that there is no state censorship directly or indirectly but rather the mainstream media is engaging in self-censorship based on the sentiment of the people.

Yarden Gonen (30), the sister of Romi Gonen (23), now held for more than 180 days in captivity in Gaza, admitted she doesnt know why they [Israeli TV] are not showing the horror in Gaza.

Hamas controls every move and every action coming out from Gaza, and we know they are lying," she says.

She is convinced Hamas is staging deaths for a gullible international media, you can see they are holding bodies, but then you see the bodies moving ... you cant really believe that.

Gonen is not just deeply sceptical of what she calls Hamas propaganda but is also distrustful of the international media, arguing the BBC has published a lot of lies so many times, during those five months.

Israeli protesters hold placards and block a road during an anti-government demonstration calling for the return of the hostages held in Gaza. File picture: Getty Images

Many Israelis, including Gonen, see the current conflict not through the prism of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict but rather through the lens of Islamic fundamentalism versus an enlightened West.

Israel is only the first [victim] because its the nearest, she says.

Gil Dickman (31), whose cousin Carmel Gat (35) was taken hostage on October 7, has been a vocal advocate for the return of the Israeli hostages.

Many Israelis dont feel they have the strength to look right now at whats going on in Gaza.

We are very much into our own pain; the media dont want to show it because people dont want to know this is part of their reality.

Last week marked six months since the remaining 130 hostages were taken by Hamas.

Ofer Cassif, a left-wing Israeli politician in the Knesset (Israeli parliament), is firmly of the opinion that in 10 or 20 years, when this era, this war, is analysed, the Israeli media will be criticised profoundly and negatively  they dont fulfil their real job.

Cassif, who is Jewish, is a parliamentarian from the small Hadash Party, a predominantly Arab-Palestinian party in Israel.

Recent polls show that while three quarters of the Israeli voting public wants Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu to resign, roughly the same number continue to support the war on Gaza. File picture: Maya Alleruzzo/AP He narrowly escaped expulsion from the Knesset in a vote of his fellow parliamentarians, on account of his support for the International Court of Justice genocide case against Israel.

Like Saragusti, Cassif argues that media censorship is voluntary self-censorship in favour of the government policy.

They are literally lying, and theyve been hiding the truth, he says.

Cassif admits that the failure of the mainstream media cannot be divorced from the fact that most people dont want to know, they dont want to know because no one likes to see a villain in the mirror.

When asked if Israelis are seeing some of the horrific images from Gaza that the rest of the world sees daily might it affect their attitude and support for the war, Dickman is hesitant.

Im not sure that shoving it down their throat is the way to change their mind about it, I believe we are at war right now. People want to survive and win that war, he says. Most Israelis would just flip the channel and move on.

Saragusti is equally unsure. Seeing the true horror, she says, may not change the sentiment of the people.

But she is unequivocal that it is the responsibility of Israeli media, as professional journalists, to show the whole picture, including telling the full story of the killing of thousands of small children.

She would like to believe that if Israelis see and hear this, maybe things will change.

Maybe, they will challenge the government to do something to [end] the war.

But she despairs that the majority of the Israeli public doesnt care whats going in Gaza.

Cassif says that while exposure to the reality in Gaza, may not immediately change political views it may crack the spiral of silence, that allows alternative voices to be heard.

Night after night the three mainstream TV Channels in Israel, Channell 11, 12, and 13, devote hours of TV studio time and discussion to the attack of October 7, the plight of the hostages, and the wider current conflict but images of humanitarian horror in Gaza, just 60km from Tel Aviv, are rarely broadcast.

When asked if the journalists themselves might have a different conversation off-screen to the one they present to middle Israel, Saragusti admits its a good question but adds many Israeli journalists are fed by the army, so they see themselves as kind of spokespersons of the army.

Most of the journalists do know what is going on [in Gaza], they do consume CNN or BBC. They are informed, but they simply reflect the sentiment of everyday Israelis," she says.

Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Monday. Picture: Fatima Shbair/AP

Recent polls show that while three quarters of the Israeli voting public wants Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu to resign, roughly the same number continue to support the war on Gaza.

Dickman, whose cousin languishes in captivity, clearly regrets the huge loss of life in Gaza but he, like the vast majority of Israelis is adamant where the real blame for the horror lies.

With his voice audibly rising, he defiantly declares: We fight for life, while on the other side, there is a terror organisation that is sanctifying death.

As of this week, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has estimated that 13,800 children have now been killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes launched in response to Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel.

One cannot help but wonder, in ignoring the depth of suffering in Gaza, mainstream television news in Israel has contributed to the dehumanisation of Palestinians and therefore given enormous succour to the government of Netanyahu to sustain the war.

Paul Kearns is a freelance journalist living in Tel Aviv
UNHEARD of outside the Leinster House bubble before his elevation to Cabinet this week, many will have been asking who exactly is new Enterprise Minister Peter Burke?

Quietly effective and not afraid to call out bullshit, as one party member put it, the Westmeath man is now one of the most significant threats to Simon Harriss leadership.

While his elevation to Cabinet has gained him headlines in recent days, Burke has been catching the eye of many within the party for some time.

Back in February 2022, when the Irish Examiner surveyed Fine Gael TDs and senators about who they would support in a leadership contest, one unexpected name emerged.

Unsurprisingly at the time 31% of members questioned said they would favour Harris with Helen McEntee coming in second with 22% support.

But even without the prominence of a Cabinet title, Burke was an unprompted name that kept coming up during the conversations. Then he was being viewed as a dark horse candidate, maybe not to replace Leo Varadkar, but certainly he was being talked up as a strong contender for the time after that.

A significant number of those polled strongly believed that he deserved a seat in Cabinet, something that didnt materalise under Varadkars time as head of government.

As well as grabbing the attention of Fine Gael TDs and senators, Burke has gained respect among the grassroots as someone who remains grounded and in tune with both the party and the general public at local level.

As one member stressed, as minister of state for European Affairs, Burke regularly travelled straight home off a Brussels flight to clean out cattle sheds.

I like that type of person who stays grounded, that knows about bad quality silage, the impact of weather on growth, dosing cattle, the price of them when you sell them and the price and when you buy them and the hassle there is around calves.

I think thats a very important trait in a Fine Gael politician because as a party we need to get back to basics again with our bread and butter people, one member of the Fine Gael national executive said.

Having delivered on long-promised salary increases for local representatives when he served as junior minister for local government, Burke is popular among Fine Gael councillors.

Hed know every councillor by name, he was always in constant contact with them, one member said.

Praise for the father of two young children has also come from unusual quarters, including Ryanair boss Michael OLeary who described him as a good guy doing great work in a short video clip ahead of the 2020 elections.

Ive seen at close hand over the last year or two the great work on the ground Peter has done on behalf of Longford-Westmeath constituency, the airline chief said.

Burke will be more than happy to have been plucked out of the European junior role and not just because it provides him with stronger standing in the party; when he was initially appointed to the position by Varadakar he had to break it to the then Fine Gael leader that he has a fear of flying.

He likes being at home, hes a minister who is paranoid about being away from his constituency, one Fine Gael senator said of the Mullingar native.

As an only child, it is understood Burke took the death of his father Peter Burke Sr in May 2022 quite hard and he has been running the family farm since.

Background

Many members of the party this week have said the appointment to Cabinet will have therefore provided him with a boost in many respects. But being a home bird has not put a limit on his ambition.

Burke made a surprise breakthrough into national politics in 2016, while his two sitting colleagues, James Bannon and Gabrielle McFadden, lost their Dail seats.

A chartered accountant, he was soon appointed to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, the finance committee and later the rural and community development committee.

As a junior minister, Burke was never going to run against Harris for the Fine Gael leadership. Instead, any potential race became an uncontested anointment.

Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar with Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

However, those close to him say that he has joked in recent weeks that he will be in the running next time around, already marking cards.

There is that sense that it could be Peter and Jennifer [Carroll MacNeill] next time, one person said.

Two very different personalities, both would come to any leadership contest with contrasting approaches, although the two have been some of the most vocal in Fine Gael in terms of criticising Sinn Fein.

At the recent Fine Gael Ard Fheis, MacNeill laid into Mary Lou McDonalds party in a lengthy tirade, accusing her members of not being able to count.

In 2021, Burke got involved in a tense radio debate with Rose Conway Walsh, telling the Sinn Fein TD: Excuse me, youre not the presenter.

While Burke may usually go about his business in a more low-key manner, those in Leinster House see him as a man who isnt afraid to speak his mind.

He wouldnt speak at the parliamentary party [meeting] very often, he speaks when he has something to say, there are some who would speak every week, hes not like that. He is straight down the line, he will call out bullshit if he sees bullshit, said one TD.

His promotion to the Enterprise portfolio recently vacated by Simon Coveney will now put

him on an elevated stage and also gives him the edge over MacNeill who has remained on the junior benches.

A vacancy at the top of Fine Gael may not come around for a significant period.

But new Taoiseach Harris should know that politics is an unpredictable game, and with difficult local and European elections taking place in June, and a general election on the horizon, anything can happen.
ON the morning of October 3, 1995, I was in the common room of Heald Business College in San Francisco along with the other students and faculty members, all of us waiting for the verdict in the OJ Simpson murder trial.

At the time I was an instructor in English and communications in the college (and also, for one unforgettable semester, basic maths. When my late father heard this news he whistled and said: America truly is the land of opportunity).

Though we should have been ploughing through advanced report writing at 10am, we had given that up as a lost cause. Instead, we were grazing on the common rooms confectionery offerings as we awaited the resolution of what might well have been the Trial of the Century.

At this remove, its impossible to overstate the hold that the Simpson trial had over the US at that time, and in California specifically. Even in the Bay Area  which usually tried to play down the significance of any event in Los Angeles  every link and connection to the case was highlighted.

One of the prosecution lawyers, Chris Darden, was from El Cerrito in the East Bay, and one of the local newspapers abandoned all restraint in headlining his appointment (AREA MAN TO PROSECUTE JUICE).

Well, almost every link: OJ himself had grown up a couple of miles from the Heald campus, on Portrero Hill, but nobody seemed to want to dwell on that.

All of us were familiar with the trials dramatis personae, from Judge Lance Ito of the Letterman top 10 chat-up lists (My names Ito, and you look neat-o) to Simpsons dream team of lawyers, featuring Johnny Cochrane, F Lee Bailey, and a relatively obscure attorney with a distinctive white plume of hair and an unfamiliar surname: Robert Kardashian.

OJ Simpson cheers while standing with his attorneys F Lee Bailey (L) and Johnnie Cochan Jr (R), after hearing the not guilty verdict in his criminal murder trial, Los Angeles, California, October 3, 1995. Picture: Getty

The months of testimony and cross-examination were often echoed in the classroom in Heald. Gil, a friendly Filipino, would volunteer complicated theories on the DNA evidence found at the murder scene; Monica, who had lived in Los Angeles, often queried driving times and routes cited in the court.

It was a good way to get the students relaxed and talking ahead of public speaking, the dreaded final component of the course; many of them were newcomers to the US and conscious of their accents and command of English, so a quick chat about the latest shenanigans in court (If the glove dont fit, you must acquit) was a low-key way to get them to open up before the class got underway.

(I cant recall if that was the specific class in which 18 different languages were spoken  that total had stood briefly at 17 until a clever Nicaraguan student asked how many languages Irish people used.) That was the background to our arrival in the common room for the verdict. Like a lot of people I fully expected Simpson to be found guilty, and when the verdict was read out  the jury spokesperson stumbling slightly over his name  I was surprised.

There were gasps around the common room but no cheers. One student said: The Juice is loose, a phrase which must have been heard several million times that day, and we all went back to class.

The rationalisations and explanations came later, from the accusation that the memory of the Rodney King riots coloured the jurors thinking to the urban legend about former Black Panthers being on the jury.

In the immediate aftermath, though, there was a clear reaction in our classroom. When I came in, the usual mix of students had vanished, with all the black kids together on one side of the room. The rest werent divided by race but scattered around the room in their usual loose groupings, looking at the black kids in surprise.

No one was looking for OJs blood on one side of the room, and no one crowing at the acquittal on the other, but there was a tension in the air.

Advanced report writing didnt seem that important all of a sudden.

Look, its close enough to lunchtime, I said.

Why dont we break early and you can see if Gil left any muffins after him down in the common room?

Damn, said Gil. You had two of them. Back we trooped, and the hunt for pastries relieved the tension.

The news that Simpson died on Wednesday brought that scene back vividly, reminding me that some version of it played out all across America that morning, given over 100m people reportedly watched the verdict live. We also learned that Bill Clinton, then president, had been briefed on security options if the verdict had sparked rioting.

Not my place to offer advice to the Oval Office, but directing my charges towards high-sugar foodstuffs was the best security option I could have picked.
A former career US diplomat has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after admitting he worked for decades as a secret agent for communist Cuba.

Manuel Rocha, 73, will also pay a 500,000 dollar (401,000) fine and co-operate with authorities after pleading guilty to conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government.

In exchange, prosecutors dismissed more than a dozen other counts, including wire fraud and making false statements.

Your actions were a direct attack to our democracy and the safety of our citizens, US District Court Judge Beth Bloom told Rocha.

Rocha, who asked his friends and family for forgiveness, said: I take full responsibility and accept the penalty.

Prosecutors said details of what Rocha did to help Cuba remain classified and would not even tell the judge when the government determined he was spying for Cuba.

The State Department said on Friday it would continue working with the intelligence community to fully assess the foreign policy and national security implications of these charges.

Rochas sentence came less than six months after his arrest at his Miami home on allegations he engaged in clandestine activity on Cubas behalf since at least 1981, the year he joined the US foreign service.

His prestigious career included stints as ambassador to Bolivia and top posts in Argentina, Mexico, the White House and the US Interests Section in Havana.

In 1973, the year he graduated from Yale, Rocha traveled to Chile where prosecutors say he became a great friend of Cubas intelligence agency, the General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI).

Rochas post-government career included time as a special adviser to the commander of the US Southern Command and, more recently, as a tough-talking Donald Trump supporter and Cuba hardliner, a persona that friends and prosecutors said Rocha adopted to hide his true allegiances.
The suspect in the Sydney stabbing attack was known to law enforcement and acted alone, police have said.

Six people were stabbed to death, several people, including a nine-month-old-baby were seriously injured, before the suspect was shot dead by police during his rampage through the Westfield shopping centre at Bondi Junction at 3.30pm (6.30am Irish time).

Four women and a man died at the scene. A fifth woman died in hospital later.

Reports have suggested the woman who died in hospital is the childs mother.

The baby is undergoing emergency surgery. Their nationalities have not been released.

A man at the shopping centre said he helped the baby who had been stabbed.

Six people were stabbed to death, several people, including a nine-month-old-baby were seriously injured, before the suspect was shot dead by police. Picture: Steven Saphore/AAP Image via AP

The man told 9News Sydney: The baby got stabbed. The mum got stabbed and came over with a baby and threw it at me  I was holding the baby, it looked pretty bad.

He added: There was a lot of blood on the floor. I hope the baby is all right.

The Department of Foreign Affairs here says it stands ready to provide consular assistance if required, but the early indications suggest that none of the victims is Irish.

While the 40-year-old suspect has yet to be formally identified, there are no indications at this stage that this was a terrorist incident New South Wales Police Force Commissioner Karen Webb said in a briefing in the last hour.

"The community, like we do, should feel sad about what happened here, but they should have no ongoing concerns. We believe the person responsible acted alone, and there is no ongoing risk to the community," she said.

The suspect was shot dead by a senior police officer attached to the citys Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command after six people were fatally stabbed in what appears to have been a random attack on people in the busy shopping centre.

People are led out from the Westfield Shopping Centre where multiple people were stabbed in Sydney. Picture: AP Photo/Rick Rycroft

The senior police officer, who was among one of the first police officers to arrive at the scene, tracked the suspect down, confronted him, and when he allegedly raised a knife and lunged at her, he was shot.

The officer conducted CPR until the arrival of NSW Ambulance paramedics, who worked on the man, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Video footage shared online appears to show a shopper confronting the attacker on an escalator in the shopping centre by holding a bollard towards him.

It has been confirmed the man fatally stabbed six people in the centre before he was shot, police said.

In a briefing with the media this morning, Ms Webb said they believe the attacker is a 40-year-old and formal identification is awaited.

But let me assure you that there is no ongoing risk and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased, she said.

If it is the person we believe it is then we dont have fears for that person holding an ideation  in other words, it is not a terrorist incident.

She confirmed the suspect was known to law enforcement and while the investigation is at an early stage, and will take some time, there are elements already available which rule out terrorism as a motive.

The suspects car and home will be searched, and his associates will form a key part of the investigation over the coming days, she said.

Ms Webb praised the courage and bravery of shoppers, business owners and the police officers who responded to the incident.

And she said the senior police officer who took down the attacker is doing well, given the circumstances.

"She showed enormous courage and bravery, and she will process that. She will need to be interviewed formally, but she's got everything she needs for the time being," she said.

A critical incident team comprised of State Crime Commands Homicide Squad and the Central Metropolitan Region will now investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.

The investigation will also be subject to an independent review.

'Is there a possibility here that I'm going to die?': Irish man's eye witness account

A crowd gathers outside Westfield Shopping Centre in Sydney, Saturday, April 13. Picture: AP Photo/Rick Rycroft

Niall Naughton from Co Clare was inside the shopping centre when the attack happened.

He had just had his hair cut on the fourth floor and went downstairs to Zara, when the horror began to unfold.

"I was inside in the dressing room when I could hear literally what sounded like a herd of cattle coming running," he said.

"Everyone started screaming and shouting and then just kept roaring 'Stabbing or shooting. Stabbing or shooting. Quick we need to leave'.

"I could hear, there was a lady in the back and she was shouting 'Terrorist. Terrorist. Terrorist'.

"Because everyone was rushing so fast I actually had the outfit on me from Zara and I grabbed all of my belongings that were on the floor and we just ran as fast as we could."

Mr Naughton, who is living and working in Bondi, said shop staff escorted them out the back and downstairs into a basement which they then barricaded.

"We were just all there and they were telling us to be quiet.

At that point, what was going through my mind was my family. Like, is there a possibility here that I'm going to die?"

He said there children as young as four and five down in the basement with them.

"As we arrived outside, there were multiple people screaming, crying, there were children looking for their parents," Mr Naughton said.

"There were helicopters, police, ambulances everywhere. It was horrific, horrific scenes.

"There were shoes, bags, there was everything that was just dropped as everyone ran for their lives."

Taoiseach Simon Harris has said that he is horrified by the attack that took place and said he will reach out to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

"But for now, the thoughts and prayers of everyone in Ireland are with our Australian friends," he wrote on X.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin has expressed his shock at the attack, adding it underlines the threat posed across the globe by such unprovoked acts.

"It is a reminder of the far more threatening and insecure world that we live in when attacks of this kind can happen without any warning," said Mr Martin.

- Additional reporting by PA
Commandos have raided a ship near the Strait of Hormuz by helicopter in an attack attributed to Iran amid wider tensions between Tehran and the West.

Video showed the attack earlier reported by the British militarys United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. It described the vessel as being seized by regional authorities in the Gulf of Oman, off the Emirati port city of Fujairah.

In the footage, commandos drop on to a stack of containers on the deck of the vessel.

A crew member can be heard saying: Dont come out, and tells colleagues to go to the ships bridge as more commandos come down on the deck. One commando can be seen kneeling above the others to provide potential covering fire.

The footage corresponds to known details of the boarding and the helicopter involved appears to be one used by Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has carried out other ship raids in the past.

MSC Aries (Alamy/PA)

The vessel involved is likely to be the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime, which is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofers Zodiac Group.

The MSC Aries had last been located off Dubai heading towards the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. The ship had turned off its tracking data, which has been common for Israeli-affiliated ships moving through the region.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the West, particularly after a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge seizing any vessel and there was no report by state media about the incident.

However, Iran since 2019 has engaged in a series of ship seizures and had attacks on vessels attributed to it amid tensions with the West over its nuclear programme.

The Gulf of Oman is near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil passes.

Fujairah, on the United Arab Emirates eastern coast, is a main port for ships to take on new oil cargo, pick up supplies or trade out crew.

Since 2019, the waters off Fujairah have seen a series of explosions and hijackings. The US Navy blamed Iran for limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers.
The body of a missing Israeli boy has been found in the occupied West Bank after he was killed in a terrorist attack, according to the Israeli army.

The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair sparked a large settler attack on a Palestinian village on Friday and Saturday.

The killing of the teenager and the settler rampages marked the latest in an escalation of violence in the territory, at a time when Israel is waging war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

A torched vehicle in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir (Nasser Nasser/AP)

Security forces are continuing the pursuit after those suspected of carrying out the attack, the army said on Saturday.

On Friday, one Palestinian man was killed and 25 others were wounded in an attack on the village of Mughayyir, Palestinian health officials said.

Israeli troops delayed the ambulance carrying the body of the 26-year-old man for several hours, but it eventually got through.

Dozens of settlers returned to the villages outskirts on Saturday, burning two homes and several cars.

Palestinian health officials say more than 460 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli fire since the war in Gaza erupted in October.
A senior Chinese official has reaffirmed ties with North Korea during a meeting with the countrys leader Kim Jong Un, Chinas state media reported, in the highest-level talks between the allies in years.

The visit to Pyongyang by Zhao Leji, who ranks third in the ruling Communist Party hierarchy and heads Chinas ceremonial parliament, came as North Korea has test fired missiles to intimidate South Korea and its ally the US.

The Xinhua News Agency reported that Mr Zhao told Mr Kim at the meeting concluding his three-day visit that China, the Norths most important source of economic aid and diplomatic support, looked forward to further developing ties, but made no mention of the political situation on the peninsula or the region.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 75 years ago, China and North Korea have been good neighbours and struggled together to attain a common destiny and level of development, Xinhua quoted Mr Zhao as saying.

Zhao Leji speaks during a welcome reception in Pyongyang (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP)

China fought on behalf of the reclusive Communist State against the US and others during the 1950-53 Korean War, and in recent years has helped prop up its weak economy, allegedly in violation of UN sanctions in response to Pyongyangs nuclear weapons programme that Beijing had endorsed.

Mr Zhao met his North Korean counterpart Choe Ryong Hae on Thursday and discussed how to promote exchanges and co-operation in all areas, the Norths official Korean Central News Agency reported.

North Korea closed its borders during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic amid reports of a major outbreak and food shortages.

Mr Zhaos visit marked the first bilateral exchange involving a Chinese Politburo Standing Committee member since the pandemic started. Mr Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping held two summits in 2019.

North Korea and China are expected to hold a number of exchanges this year to mark the anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties.

North Korea has sought to boost its co-operation with Beijing and Russia in the face of a standoff with the US and South Korea over its missile launches and nuclear programme.

Mr Kim travelled to Russia in September for a summit with President Vladimir Putin. The US, South Korea and others accuse North Korea of supplying conventional weapons for Russias war in Ukraine in return for advanced weapons technologies and other support.

China has refused to criticise the Russian invasion and accused the US and Nato of provoking Moscow, but says it will not provide Russia with direct military support.
Six people have been killed and numerous others injured - including some in critical condition - after a man went on a stabbing spree at Westfield shopping centre in the Sydney suburb of Bondi Junction.

The attacker was shot dead after being chased by a lone police officer who was on duty on an unrelated matter.

The injured include a nine-month old baby, who is understood to be in a critical condition in hospital.

The New South Wales police commissioner, Karen Webb, said in a press conference on Saturday evening the attacker was a 40-year-old man but he was yet to be formally identified.

Police did confirm the attacker acted alone and was known to them. They also said that they do not believe his motive was related to terrorism.

Police officers walk past a sign to evacuate at Westfield Shopping Centre, where multiple people were stabbed in Sydney on Saturday, April 13. Picture: AP Photo/Rick Rycroft

If it is the person we believe it is, we dont have fear for that person holding an ideation, Webb said.

In other words, that its not a terrorism incident.

We believe that this person acted alone and theres no ongoing threat to the community.

A major incident was declared at the shopping centre on Saturday afternoon after the man, who had earlier left the complex, returned with what witnesses have described as a large blade just before 3.30pm.

One witness reported seeing the man, dressed in an Australian rugby league jersey and shorts, moving calmly through the shopping centre.

He was walking like he was having an ice-cream in the park, the witness told ABC News.

He began stabbing shoppers in a fashion that seemed random, police said.

Four women and one man died at the scene, Webb said, while others were taken to hospital.

Several witnesses recalled seeing a mother holding her baby in need of help. One man told 9 News he had held the baby as he and others tried to compress its wounds with any clothing they could find, while the mother was suffering more significant bleeding.

People being led out from the Westfield Shopping Centre in Sydney following the attacks. Picture: AP Photo/Rick Rycroft

The mother, who was named in local reports as Ash Good, died later on Saturday night after being taken to hospital.

The nine-month-old had surgery and was among eight injured being treated in hospitals across Sydney on Saturday night.

Sky News Australia reporter Laura Jayes, who was reporting on the incident from Bondi Junction, said on air that she knew the mother who had been killed.

She was so excited to be a new mother and all of that was ripped away in seconds, she said.

'A horrific act of violence'

Another witness reported seeing a woman lying on the floor of the Chanel shop covered in blood.

Mobile phone footage from inside the six-storey shopping centre showed one shopper confronting the attacker on an escalator with a bollard.

Panicked shoppers alerted police to the attack, including one officer who had been on duty for an unrelated reason.

She chased the attacker to the fifth floor of the centre.

He turned, faced her, raised a knife. She discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased, the assistant police commissioner, Anthony Cooke, told reporters. Three shots were fired.

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, condemned what he called a horrific act of violence but said the officer was a hero and praised first responders and bystanders who rushed into danger to help victims.

Australian prime minister. File Picture: Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP

There is no doubt that she saved lives through her action, Albanese said in Canberra on Saturday evening.

And it is a reminder that those people who wear uniform are people who rush to danger, not away from it.

This was a horrific act of violence indiscriminately targeted at the innocent people going about an ordinary Saturday, doing their shopping.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, who was on holiday, announced he would return to Sydney immediately.

As the alarm was raised and the centre went into lockdown, shoppers hid inside stores. Santiago, an employee at the Harris Farm supermarket, said his instincts had kicked in and he ushered people inside and shut the shop. Others hid in the Apple Store, which was at street level, for about an hour.

Shoppers in the multi-level David Jones department store said they were hiding in changing rooms, and were receiving conflicting messages about when to evacuate the centre.

Thousands spilled on to the streets around the centre as they were evacuated, as multiple TV crews arrived.

Teams of heavily armed tactical response police units combed the shopping centre in search of a rumoured further attacker but ultimately ruled out that possibility.

Some shoppers hid in various levels of the complex, waiting to be evacuated.

Emergency officers stand by with stretchers outside the Westfield Shopping Centre. Picture: AP Photo/Rick Rycroft

One woman from the nearby suburb of Clovelly, who asked not to be named, told Guardian Australia: We had to run and hide in a location on the floor which turned out to be a storeroom.

There would have been about 70 or 80 of us in there. We were told to keep our phones on silent and stay quiet. It was very hot in there.

There was quite a bit of confusion throughout the hour that we were in there with some orders being to evacuate and other orders to stay put.

At one stage we were evacuated and then told to run back inside. Staff did their best they could in the circumstances. Then we were told to evacuate and ran out of the centre.

Jason, a shopper evacuated from the centre, told 9 News he had seen the alleged attacker with a nice big blade.

Everyone started running toward the end of the building, he said.

Jason said he had later witnessed police shoot the alleged attacker.

She shot him, he said. When the copper shot him she was giving him CPR.

Roy Huberman was in a clothes shop changing room when he heard two shots, followed by fire alarms. Staff moved customers to the back of the shop and out of a back door, where he saw a huge emergency response.

We saw ambulances, about eight police cars, riot police, helicopters hovering from above, Huberman said.

Some young women were crying and they were saying that they spoke to a little girl who saw a dead body. I saw people running across Oxford Street and the police came and cordoned it off.

Webb said the shopping centre would be closed on Sunday.

- The Guardian
Adam Shatz interviews Pankaj Mishra in the LRB Podcast:

Pankaj Mishra joins Adam Shatz to discuss his recent LRB Winter Lecture, in which he explores Israels instrumentalisation of the Holocaust. He expands on his readings of Jean Amery and Primo Levi, the crisis as understood by the Global South and Zionisms appeal for Hindu nationalists.

You can read The Shoah After Gaza in the LRB archive, or watch the lecture via the LRB YouTube channel. From The Shoah After Gaza:

In 1977, a year before he killed himself, the Austrian writer Jean Amery came across press reports of the systematic torture of Arab prisoners in Israeli prisons. Arrested in Belgium in 1943 while distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets, Amery himself had been brutally tortured by the Gestapo, and then deported to Auschwitz. He managed to survive, but could never look at his torments as things of the past. He insisted that those who are tortured remain tortured, and that their trauma is irrevocable. Like many survivors of Nazi death camps, Amery came to feel an existential connection to Israel in the 1960s. He obsessively attacked left-wing critics of the Jewish state as thoughtless and unscrupulous, and may have been one of the first to make the claim, habitually amplified now by Israels leaders and supporters, that virulent antisemites disguise themselves as virtuous anti-imperialists and anti-Zionists. Yet the admittedly sketchy reports of torture in Israeli prisons prompted Amery to consider the limits of his solidarity with the Jewish state. In one of the last essays he published, he wrote: I urgently call on all Jews who want to be human beings to join me in the radical condemnation of systematic torture. Where barbarism begins, even existential commitments must end.
Israeli aviation authorities say they are closing the countrys airspace to all flights as it braces for an Iranian drone and missile attack.

The countrys airport authority said the closure would go into effect at 12.30am local time.

It said flights would be affected and advised travellers to check with their airlines for changes.

Iranian state television announced that Tehran had launched an attack towards Israel.

Irans state-run IRNA news agency says Tehran has fired a "first phase" of ballistic missiles at targets inside Israel.

Iraqs state news agency quoted Transportation Minister Raqqa Saadawi as saying the countrys airspace was closed.

Before the attack was announced, a FlyDubai flight from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv, Israel, turned around as it was over Saudi Arabia, flight-tracking data showed.

According to a report from Reuters, Jordan has declared a state of emergency. Lebanon and Iraq have also closed their airspaces.

The Israeli armys spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said it would take several hours for the aircraft to arrive.

He said Israel was prepared.

Israel has been on heightened alert since an airstrike last week killed two Iranian generals in Syria.

Iran accused Israel of being behind the attack and vowed revenge. Israel has not commented on that attack.

A US official briefed on the attack said Iran had launched dozens of drones. The official could not publicly discuss details of the attack and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli military said it was cancelling school and limiting public gatherings to no more than 1,000 people as a safety precaution.

Briefing reporters, Mr Hagari said Israel is prepared and ready with defensive and offensive actions. He also said there was tight co-operation with the US and other partners in the region.

The head of the US Central Command, General Erik Kurilla, has been in Israel in recent days to co-ordinate with Israel about the Iranian threats.

Israel has a number of layers of air defence capable of intercepting everything from long-range missiles to UAVs and short-range rockets.

Mr Hagari said Israel has an excellent air defence system but stressed it is not 100% effective and urged the public to listen to safety announcements.

President Joe Biden was set to convene a principals meeting of the National Security Council on Saturday to discuss the unfolding attack, the White House said.

Mr Biden cut short a weekend trip to his beach house in Delaware to return to the White House and monitor the situation.

British prime minister Rishi Sunak condemned Irans attack and reiterated the UKs continued support for Israels security.

"I condemn in the strongest terms the Iranian regimes reckless attack against Israel," he wrote in a post on X.

"Iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in itw own back yard.

"The UK will continue to stand up for Israels security and that of all our regional partners, including Jordan and Iraq."

He said his government and its allies were "urgently working to stabilise the situation and prevent further escalation".

"No one wants to see more bloodshed," he said.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. File Picture: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP

For days, Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have threatened to slap Israel for its Syria strike.

Iran has largely avoided directly attacking Israel, despite its targeted killings of nuclear scientists and sabotage campaigns on Irans atomic sites.

Iran has targeted Israeli or Jewish-linked sites through proxy forces.

Israels war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip has inflamed decade-old tensions in the Middle East, and any new attack threatens to escalate that conflict into a wider regional war.
1371138342::cfb49c8e-2422-11e5-99a3-d7f5c6e8b241

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.
China's second-largest freshwater lake expands

Xinhua) 09:50, April 13, 2024

This photo taken on Dec. 14, 2022 shows migratory birds at Hengling Lake Provincial Nature Reserve, a part of Dongting Lake wetland, central China's Hunan Province. (Xinhua/Zhao Zhongzhi)

CHANGSHA, April 12 (Xinhua) -- The latest monitoring data revealed a significant expansion of the Dongting Lake, China's second-largest freshwater lake located in Hunan Province, with its surface area increasing by approximately 80 percent since the beginning of this month.

The lake's surface area reached about 950 square km, expanding by 420 square km since April 1, according to the latest monitoring data as of 8 a.m. on Friday.

The province's Dongting Lake water conversancy affairs center said on Friday that the half-year-long dry season had come to an end with increased precipitation across the region since the flood season started in April.

The water level at the lake's landmark Chenglingji hydrological station rebounded to 25.78 meters as of 8 a.m. on Friday, 3.63 meters higher compared to last year's readings during the same period.

Between 2022 and 2023, the Dongting Lake experienced low water levels due to factors such as dry weather and insufficient upstream water inflow. Several hydrological stations recorded their lowest water levels on record during this period, affecting production and people's daily life in the surrounding areas.

During the 2023 flood season, water levels of the Dongting Lake showed some recovery. However, starting from Oct. 17, 2023, it once again entered a period of low water levels.

Statistics from the provincial meteorological and hydrological departments showed that, as of 8 a.m. on Friday, the accumulated precipitation in Hunan since the beginning of this year reached 392.9 mm, a 15.4 percent increase compared to the same period in previous years.

Since the onset of the flood season, the accumulated precipitation has reached 111.5 mm, which is 83.4 percent above the average for the same period in previous years.

The rise in water level of the lake also shows potential higher flood pressure this year, according to the provincial meteorological and hydrological authorities.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
By Elke Schwarz, Queen Mary University of London | 

A report by Jerusalem-based investigative journalists published in +972 magazine finds that AI targeting systems have played a key role in identifying  and potentially misidentifying  tens of thousands of targets in Gaza. This suggests that autonomous warfare is no longer a future scenario. It is already here and the consequences are horrifying.

There are two technologies in question. The first, Lavender, is an AI recommendation system designed to use algorithms to identify Hamas operatives as targets. The second, the grotesquely named Wheres Daddy?, is a system which tracks targets geographically so that they can be followed into their family residences before being attacked. Together, these two systems constitute an automation of the find-fix-track-target components of what is known by the modern military as the kill chain.

Systems such as Lavender are not autonomous weapons, but they do accelerate the kill chain and make the process of killing progressively more autonomous. AI targeting systems draw on data from computer sensors and other sources to statistically assess what constitutes a potential target. Vast amounts of this data are gathered by Israeli intelligence through surveillance on the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza.

Such systems are trained on a set of data to produce the profile of a Hamas operative. This could be data about gender, age, appearance, movement patterns, social network relationships, accessories, and other relevant features. They then work to match actual Palestinians to this profile by degree of fit. The category of what constitutes relevant features of a target can be set as stringently or as loosely as is desired. In the case of Lavender, it seems one of the key equations was male equals militant. This has echoes of the infamous all military-aged males are potential targets mandate of the 2010 US drone wars in which the Obama administration identified and assassinated hundreds of people designated as enemies based on metadata.

What is different with AI in the mix is the speed with which targets can be algorithmically determined and the mandate of action this issues. The +972 report indicates that the use of this technology has led to the dispassionate annihilation of thousands of eligible  and ineligible  targets at speed and without much human oversight.



Lavender 3, digital, Dream/ Dreamworld v. 3, 2024.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were swift to deny the use of AI targeting systems of this kind. And it is difficult to verify independently whether and, if so, the extent to which they have been used, and how exactly they function. But the functionalities described by the report are entirely plausible, especially given the IDFs own boasts to be one of the most technological organisations and an early adopter of AI.

With military AI programs around the world striving to shorten what the US military calls the sensor-to-shooter timeline and increase lethality in their operations, why would an organisation such as the IDF not avail themselves of the latest technologies?

The fact is, systems such as Lavender and Wheres Daddy? are the manifestation of a broader trend which has been underway for a good decade and the IDF and its elite units are far from the only ones seeking to implement more AI-targeting systems into their processes.

When machines trump humans

Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported on the latest version of Project Maven, the US Department of Defense AI pathfinder programme, which has evolved from being a sensor data analysis programme in 2017 to a full-blown AI-enabled target recommendation system built for speed. As Bloomberg journalist Katrina Manson reports, the operator can now sign off on as many as 80 targets in an hour of work, versus 30 without it.

Manson quotes a US army officer tasked with learning the system describing the process of concurring with the algorithms conclusions, delivered in a rapid staccato: Accept. Accept, Accept. Evident here is how the human operator is deeply embedded in digital logics that are difficult to contest. This gives rise to a logic of speed and increased output that trumps all else.

The efficient production of death is reflected also in the +972 account, which indicated an enormous pressure to accelerate and increase the production of targets and the killing of these targets. As one of the sources says: We were constantly being pressured: bring us more targets. They really shouted at us. We finished [killing] our targets very quickly.

Built-in biases

Systems like Lavender raise many ethical questions pertaining to training data, biases, accuracy, error rates and, importantly, questions of automation bias. Automation bias cedes all authority, including moral authority, to the dispassionate interface of statistical processing.

Speed and lethality are the watchwords for military tech. But in prioritising AI, the scope for human agency is marginalised. The logic of the system requires this, owing to the comparatively slow cognitive systems of the human. It also removes the human sense of responsibility for computer-produced outcomes.

Ive written elsewhere how this complicates notions of control (at all levels) in ways that we must take into consideration. When AI, machine learning and human reasoning form a tight ecosystem, the capacity for human control is limited. Humans have a tendency to trust whatever computers say, especially when they move too fast for us to follow.

The problem of speed and acceleration also produces a general sense of urgency, which privileges action over non-action. This turns categories such as collateral damage or military necessity, which should serve as a restraint to violence, into channels for producing more violence.

I am reminded of the military scholar Christopher Cokers words: we must choose our tools carefully, not because they are inhumane (all weapons are) but because the more we come to rely on them, the more they shape our view of the world. It is clear that military AI shapes our view of the world. Tragically, Lavender gives us cause to realise that this view is laden with violence.

Elke Schwarz, Reader in Political Theory, Queen Mary University of London

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment)  Cracks are showing in the Iron Wall of the Biden administration knee-jerk support for the far-right, extremist Israeli governments total war on Gaza. US AID Administrator Samantha Power admitted that Israels campaign in Gaza has produced a famine. And Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) admitted that Israel is committing a genocide there.

Sen. Warren spoke at the Islamic Center of Boston in Wayland, Massachusetts, and a video of one of her exchanges was posted to X by WGBH reporter Tori Bedford (@Tori_Bedford).

A member of the congregation asked her if Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, an allegation that has been made in international forums.

She replied:

WARREN: So, I think whats happening now is going to be a long and involved debate over what constitutes genocide when you ask a legal question. For me it is far more important to say that what Israel is doing is wrong  and it is wrong. It is wrong to starve children, women, a civilian population, in order to try to bend them to your will. It is wrong to drop 2,000-pound bombs in densely-populated civilian areas. I think I can make a more effective argument by describing the behavior that is happening and whether I believe it is right or wrong and look people in the eyes if you want to tell people you think it is right and it should be the policy of the United States of America to support those actions. So thats how I analyze this 

Audience member: You didnt answer the question.

WARREN: No, I did answer the question. I said 

Audience member: It was a yes or no.

Audience member: It was a yes or no. The second question was a yes or no question, to clarify.

WARREN: So if you want to do it as an application of law, I believe they [the International Court of Justice] will find it is genocide, and they have ample evidence to do so. What Im also trying to tell you is that Im trying to get people past a labels argument, which seems to throw up a screen, and get them to look at the behavior on the ground, get them to look at the children; to get them to look at the moms and the old people and the people who have been displaced and the people who are living outside and the people who are drinking dirty water. And talk about what the role of the United States is in connection with supporting the Netanyahu government, which put the people of Gaza in that position.

At a Q&A at a Wayland mosque last week, @SenWarren is asked if she thinks that Israel is committing a genocide. "If you want to do it as an application of law, I believe that they will find that it is genocide," she says, adding that she's trying to get "past a labels argument" pic.twitter.com/mxqBP6oTlH  Tori Bedford (@Tori_Bedford) April 8, 2024

I think the subtext of this exchange is that it is easier for a member of the Senate to decry particular military tactics of the Israeli government than to utter the word genocide, because admitting that Israel is committing genocide would require that the US cease transferring arms and perhaps even money to Tel Aviv. Even elements of the Israel lobbies must be feeling pretty conflicted about the horror story in Gaza by now, and might be willing to tolerate severe criticism of it. But genocide is a step too far for most of them. Most Jewish Americans, of course, know the score, and young Jews are done out with Netanyahu and increasingly with Israel; Im talking about the AIPAC establishment.

It is important to underline that we got this admission from Warren, who has a Rutgers law degree, that under International Humanitarian Law, Israels conduct in Gaza meets the legal definition of genocide, only because Muslim Americans held her feet to the fire.

Israel in the halls of Congress is now the king with no clothes, and Warren has worked herself toward admitting it in public. Many of the Progressive Caucus among Democrats in the House have been saying these things for some time. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), for instance, used the term genocide on the House floor two weeks ago, and so paved the way for this admission by the more circumspect Warren (who began her political career as a Republican).

Then, Power testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday. Rep. Jaoquin Castro (D-TX) questioned her about the situation the Israeli government has created in Gaza (House Foreign Affairs Committee Holds Hearing on USAIDs Foreign Policy and International Development Priorities) (emphasis added):

JOAQUIN CASTRO: Administrator Power, thank you for joining us today. And of course, Id normally ask you about locally led development and some of your great work there at USAID. But I want to ask you obviously, about the very urgent situation, humanitarian situation in Gaza. In your testimony, you said that the entire population of Gaza is living under the threat of famine. News reports came out recently that certain USAID officials sent a cable to the National Security Council warning that famine is already likely occurring in parts of the Gaza Strip. According to the report, quote, famine conditions are most severe and widespread in northern Gaza, which is under Israeli control. Do you think that its plausible or likely that parts of Gaza, and particularly northern Gaza, are already experiencing famine? SAMANTHA POWER: Well, the methodology that the IPC [Integrated food security Phase Classification] used, is one that we had our experts scrub, its one thats relied upon in other settings, and that is their assessment. And we believe that assessment is credible. JOAQUIN CASTRO: So theres  famine is already occurring there. SAMANTHA POWER: That is  yes. JOAQUIN CASTRO: Yeah. OK. And more than half of the population of Gaza is under the age of 18, as you know, and are seriously affected by the lack of access to food and nutrition. And various organizations, including the United Nations, have warned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children may die, if they dont get necessary food and nutrition assistance in just the next two to three weeks. Has USAID made such an assessment itself? And do you have a sense of how many such children might be at risk of dying if they dont get access to food and nutrition thats currently unavailable? SAMANTHA POWER: I do not have those assessments on hand. but I will say that the  in northern Gaza, the rate of malnutrition, prior to October 7th, was almost zero. And it is now one in three kids. But extrapolating out is hard. And I will say, just with some humility, because it is so hard to move around in Gaza, because the access challenges that give rise, in part, to the malnutrition are so severe, it is also you know, hard to do the kind of scaled assessments that we would wish to do. But in terms of, you know, actual severe acute malnutrition for under fives, that rate was 16 percent in January, and became 30 percent in February. And were awaiting the  the March numbers. But we expect it to continue  JOAQUIN CASTRO: So it got markedly worse. SAMANTHA POWER: Yeah, markedly worse . . .

President Joe Biden apparently lives in a world where it is unthinkable that Israel is committing a genocide or deliberately starving the civilian population to, as Sen. Warren put it, to try to bend them to its will. But the people around him are not blind or stupid, and they know the score. They havent been able to get through to him in any significant way. He finally admitted that 30,000 are dead in Gaza and said it cannot become 60,000. He is not doing anything practical to forestall that result, however, and the likelihood is indeed that 60,000 will be murdered if not more.

Power declines to resign, even though she helped propel the Obama administration into a war in Libya to try to prevent the killing of 25,000 protesters by Gaddafi in 2011. If she were consistent she would be calling for a US war on Israel to make it withdraw from Gaza.

Warren, meanwhile, continues to vote to give ever more arms and money to Israel, so she appears merely to regret the genocide but prefers to be senator than to try to do anything practical to stop it.

Despite these frank admissions, which come far too late, the reek of rank hypocrisy in the Democratic Party concerning the impunity of Netanyahu and his fascist henchmen continues to lie like a thick layer of fog over our nations capital.

As for the truly unhinged Republican Party, which may be to the right of Netanyahu, its bright idea is to condemn Biden for being too hard on the Likud. Some Democrats say they will go along, for all the world like politicians of the Hutu Power faction denouncing Rwandans who were too soft on the Tutsi minority.
( Foreign Policy in Focus )  Critics of Israel once occupied the fringes of the debate in the United States. Then, in 2007, J Street was founded as a loyal opposition to the kind of Israeli politics that received uncritical support from the U.S. mainstream. By organizing pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy Americans in favor of a more enlightened U.S.-Israel relationship, J Street has opposed policies of the Israeli government without challenging the foundational principles of that country.

A more radical view, however, has been taking shape, thanks largely to the extremism of the Netanyahu government in Israel and the intransigence of a succession of U.S. governments. In 2020, influential Jewish intellectual Peter Beinart published a piece in The New York Times that effectively renounced the notion of a Jewish state in favor of a one-state solution in which Jews and Palestinians live together with equal rights in a single state.

Given a choice between liberalism and Zionism, many Americans are giving up on the latter. What started as a trickle has now become a noticeable stream, as Beinart writes in an article last month in the Times. The polling supports his analysis. Last year, Gallup revealed that sympathy among Democrats now favored Palestinians (49 percent) over Israelis (38 percent), a reversal never seen before in the polling. The gap within the Democratic Party is sharply generational. Among Democrats under the age of 35, 74 percent side with Palestinians compared to only 25 percent of those 65 and over.

Heres an even more startling Ipsos poll, from last year. When asked about a situation in which the West Bank and Gaza remained under Israeli control, a majority of Republicans (64 percent) and Democrats (80 percent) said that they would favor Israeli democracy over its Jewishness. Without really knowing much about Zionismmost respondents in the poll either didnt know about or were unfamiliar with the ideologya majority of Americans have already gone down Beinarts path.

U.S. politics hasnt quite caught up with U.S. public opinion. In March, Senator Majority Leader Charles Schumer delivered a 44-minute speech on the floor of the Senate that called on Israelis to hold an election and essentially get rid of Netanyahu and his ruling coalition. Even though Schumer expressed his love for Israel and denounced Hamas, he still came in for considerable criticism from Republicans as well as from those who were aghast that he didnt call for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict.

Like Schumer, the Biden administration has been shifting its position on Israel, but not enough to satisfy younger voters on the left. Together with Arab-Americans, these voters have made their voices heard in the primaries in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Hawaii where the uncommitted slate has picked up 25 delegates so far. It may not be enough to tip the electionvoters who are uncommitted in the primary are still likely to vote for the Democrats in the face of a potential Trump second termbut it still worries the Biden camp, which is behind in most head-to-head election polls.

The Biden administration has altered its policies toward Israel over the last months, though it might not seem like much of a change given that those policies havent ultimately made an impact on the course of the war in Gaza. However, combined with evolving public opinion, these incremental changes may well mark the beginning of a major course correction in U.S. foreign policy. After decades of military assistance and policy coordination, the United States is facing up to its irreconcilable differences with Israel, which could prompt one or both parties to file for divorce.

The Biden Shift

The deaths of over 30,000 Palestinians during Israels prolonged assault on Gazawhich was launched after the Hamas attacks of October 7has certainly concerned the Biden administration. The president and his emissaries have tried to persuade Benjamin Netanyahu to be more targeted in his onslaught so that Israeli forces dont kill quite so many non-combatants. Around 70 percent of Palestinians casualties so far have been women and children.

The Biden administration has also tried to persuade the Israelis not to launch a ground attack against Hamas in the southern city of Rafah, where so many Palestinians have sought refuge. And it has been pushing for a temporary ceasefire that could provide an opportunity for Israel to retrieve some of the hostages that Hamas and its allies still hold and for Gazans to get more humanitarian assistance to stave off serious food and medical crises.

The Israeli authorities have shrugged off U.S. criticisms and suggestions, often angrily, which has basically been the Israeli approach all along.

The most recent Israeli strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy of three vehicles, which killed seven aid workers, has prompted even more soul-searching within the Biden administration. The humanitarian organization provided the Israeli authorities with full information about its intentions and its route. Still, Israeli armed forces struck all three vehicles with pinpoint accuracy, even though the lead vehicle and the one at the back were separated by nearly a mile and a half. Nor were these isolated deaths. At least 196 aid workers have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank since October 2023.

Netanyahu apologized for the tragic incident. But its hard not to conclude that more precise targeting is not the issue in the Gaza war, given how precisely that convoy had been targeted. The issue is that Israel kills indiscriminately and with impunity. The issue is that the Netanyahu government is engaging in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and, with the assistance of armed settlers, in the West Bank as well. The Israeli government seems determined to remove the material basis for a Palestinian state.

In the face of this policy, the Biden administrations response is obviously inadequate. In addition to the failed effort to minimize civilian casualties, Washington has pushed for more humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza. Here it has had more success in changing Israeli policythough the policy hasnt been implemented at all crossings and, as Oxfam points out, It is a drop of water in an ocean of need.

The administration has not stopped supplying Israel with military assistance or attached any conditions on that aid, despite some congressional pressure. More than 30 House Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, recently sent a letter strongly urging Biden to reconsider your recent decision to authorize the transfer of a new arms package to Israel, and to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers until a full investigation into the airstrike is completed. The distressing part is that it took the killing of international aid workers, not the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, to prompt such a letter.

Guardian News Video: Biden calls for Israel to push for ceasefire and says Netanyahu making a mistake on Gaza

As for the administrations attempt to forestall an Israeli attack on Rafah, the Netanyahu government has announced on many occasions that it fully intends to finish the job. In this context, providing humanitarian assistance so that people dont starve to death before they are killed in a military operation is a morally dubious position.

So, at what point will the Biden administrationor any U.S. administrationdecide that its relationship with Israel is a net negative?

Best Friends?

The boosters of the alliance between Israel and the United States like to note that Israel is a democracy, one of the most prosperous countries on the planet, and the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk, as former Secretary of State Alexander Haig once put it. President Obama was even blunter, The United States has no better friend in the world than Israel.

All of these statements are at best half-truths.

After various autocratic moves by the Netanyahu administrationthe judicial overhaul designed to weaken the Supreme Court, the various corruption casesIsraels democratic credentials have become significantly tarnished. Meanwhile, the Palestinians who make up 20 percent of the population dont enjoy the full citizenship rights of Israeli Jews. The same can be said about the countrys prosperity: half of Arab families in Israel qualify as poor compared to one in five Israeli Jewish families.

Nor is Israel Americas aircraft carrier. There is only one clandestine U.S. military base in Israela radar surveillance site with an unknown number of U.S. soldiers. Most U.S. soldiers based in the Middle East are in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar (with other U.S. forces located in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria). On top of that, Israel frequently engages in military conflicts that run counter to U.S. interests.

As for friendship, the relationship has rarely been all that close. In 1956, the Eisenhower administration was furious at Israels occupation of the Sinai peninsula and threatened to withhold aid if it didnt withdraw. Ultimately, Israel did (though it reoccupied the peninsula a decade later). In 1967, Israel attacked a U.S. spy ship in international waters, killing 34 seamen. In 1981, Israel bombed a nuclear reactor in Iraq, which was awkward for the Reagan administration since it was then allied with Saddam Hussein against the Iranians. And Israeli settlement policy in the West Bank has jeopardized relations with several U.S. administrations, beginning with George H. W. Bush.

The Balance Sheet

So, what does Israel provide the United States?

Theres an economic relationship, with Israel investing about $24 billion in the United States. That might sound like a lot, but it doesnt make it into the top 20 (Singapore invests $36 billion, the UK $663 billion). Meanwhile, since 1946, Israel has absorbed $158 billion in unrestricted aid from the United States, more than any other country.

On the military side, the United States has benefitted (probably) from the sharing of intelligence. On the other hand, Israel kept its own nuclear program a secret from its American friends, so it certainly cant be accused of over-sharing. Meanwhile, Israel has launched attacks in the regionLebanon, Iran, Iraq, Syriathat have complicated (to put it mildly) U.S. objectives in the region. However, an argument can be made that Israel sometimes serves as a useful attack dog, taking more aggressive actions than the United States feels that it can make.

Israel used to be a bulwark against Soviet communism. But the Soviet Union is no more, and Israel did not join the sanctions regime against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Israel was a more-or-less reliable ally for the United States in its various interventions in the Middle East. But that hasnt always been the case. Israels anti-Iranian positions got in the way of forging a nuclear agreement with Iran. Israels invasion of Gaza has drawn the United States back into a military conflict with the Houthis in Yemen. And Israeli strikes in Lebanon and Syria threaten to turn the Gaza conflict into a region-wide war, which would be a nightmare for the United States (among other countries).

Then theres the reputational issue. The United States has used its veto 45 times at the UN through December 2023 to defend Israelwhich is more than half of the U.S. vetoes at the Security Council. Most of these vetoes were about Israeli settlement policy or treatment of Palestinians. In February, the United States was the only country in the Security Council to vote against the Gaza ceasefire proposal. The next month, however, the United States abstained from the vote, allowing the UN resolution to move forward, though it didnt have any effect on Israeli policy.

The United States did a credible job rallying the world against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That it has failed to do the same against Israels invasion of Gaza is obviously hypocritical. True, many countries are equally two-faced for rightly protesting Israels actions and doing little to nothing to push back against Russias violations of international law. The hypocrisy of other countries notwithstanding, the United States risks what remains of its positive international reputation by its support of Zionism over liberalism.

Its long past time for the United States to reevaluate its relationship with Israel. The era of arms shipments should end (especially since Israel makes most of what it needs domestically). The recent congressional pushback is a start. The protective cover provided at the UN must end as well, since the United States is so out of step with international public opinion. The abstention on the most recent ceasefire proposal is also a positive sign.

The U.S. ending of its support of Israel as a Jewish state is a much heavier lift. After all, the United States is also a settler state, and there are powerful Christian forces that support the U.S. alliance with Israel for religious reasons. But the process that has begun within the American Jewish community, to choose liberalism over Zionism, must ultimately be the decision for U.S. policymakers as well. Divorce can be averted, of course, if Israel also chooses liberalism over Zionism. Since thats not very likely at the moment, it might just be time to bring in the lawyers.

Via Foreign Policy in Focus
Kim Go Eun, Nam Ji Hyun and Park Ji Hu delivered a groundbreaking performance as the Oh sisters in the 2021 psychological thriller drama "Little Women."

It was a Korean remake of the classic novel of the same name, which was given a blend of mystery, drama and romance that appealed to thousands of viewers.

This 2024, the trio is coming back with more exciting works that fans will surely love. Here's what we know so far. Keep on reading.

Kim Go Eun

Earlier this year, Kim Go Eun returned to the silver screens with the supernatural horror film "Exhuma" with Lee Do Hyun, Yoo Hae Jin and Choi Min Sik.

She transformed into a shaman who works as a dead body collector. The film was well-received by the public and as of April 4, the film has grossed over 82 million USD.

With this, "Exhuma" became the highest grossing film among the South Korean films that were released this 2024. Catch the film now in cinemas as it has already hit international screens.

In addition, Kim Go Eun is set to return to prime with the upcoming drama "Two Women" opposite Park Ji Hyun, which depicts two old friends who are deeply entwined by fate.

It's a drama about love and friendship that will bring comfort to the viewers. The production is currently underway, and it's expected to air in the second half of the year.

Nam Ji Hyun

This 2024, Nam Ji Hyun is making her most anticipated comeback to the television screens with the upcoming SBS drama "Good Partner."

The show also stars veteran actors Jang Na Ra, Kim Jun Han and idol-actor BLOCK B P.O. It tells the story of two reputable divorce lawyers who are forced to work together in their cases.

Nam Ji Hyun transforms into rookie lawyer Han Yu Ri who is new to divorce. She constantly clashes with Jang Na Ra's Cha Eun Kyung, a haughty veteran attorney in their firm.

The actress is excited to star in the work that gave her an in-depth glimpse into human life and their relationships. Meanwhile, "Good Partner" is set to air on SBS in the second half of the year.

Park Ji Hu

Currently, Park Ji Hu is preparing for the second installment of Netflix's mega hit apocalyptic series "All of Us Are Dead" which is expected to be released some time this year.

In addition, she is also gearing up for her new drama "Spirit Fingers" with Choi Bomin, which depicts high school students who find comfort from art and painting.

The series will reportedly consist of a total of 12 episodes, and will be released after its final phase in its production. There's no details about its release yet so stay tuned for more updates.







KDramaStars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
Best known for her iconic role in "Lovers on Paris," Kim Jung Eun recently made a successful K-drama comeback in 2023 after headlining "Strong Girl Namsoon."

Amid her K-drama hiatus, the actress lives a happily married life with her non-celebrity husband.

In 2015, the actress confirmed her engagement with a Korean-American businessman after dating for three years.

"I am truly blessed to be able to marry someone who always embraces my flaws," she said, following the engagement announcement.

Who is Kim Jung Eun's Husband?

In June of the same year, Kim Jung Eun admitted her relationship to her non-showbiz boyfriend, who works for a foreign finance company.

During the dating stage, the actress said that he had been a big supporter since they first met.

Lo and behold, the couple had their wedding in March 2016 in Seoul.

At 41, Kim Jung Eun walked down the aisle and said, "I do," the love of her life.

Among the guests included are her celebrity friends, including Lee Hye Young, Ko So Young, and Kim Hee Ae.

Kim Jung Eun Shares the Story Behind Her Husband's Proposal

Following her big day, Kim Jung Eun talks about the unforgettable scene during the proposal.

As mentioned in a report, the actress knew that she was going to marry her then-boyfriend early in their relationship.

"He was so passionate that he asked to get married within a month of us meeting."

However, instead of saying yes, she didn't accept the proposal, maybe because of her career.

"But at the time, I wasn't ready, so we didn't get married. Then time passed, and when it came around to getting married, my husband hadn't proposed."

Kim Jung Eun then shared what led her to accept the proposal on his second try.

After his father passed away, he asked the actress to visit him at his grave but was clueless that it would be another proposal.

"There, he said, 'Father, we're getting married,' and proposed to me. Since it was a grave, I wasn't wearing a dress or anything, and I was just wearing exercise clothes with no makeup on."

The actress also mentioned that her then-boyfriend and now husband "wanted to propose in front of his dad," and so he did.

"I cried immediately," she said, recalling the sweet surprise from her husband.

What's Next for Kim Jung Eun?

"Strong Girl Namsoon" is Kim Jung Eun's comeback after three years since the psychological thriller K-drama "My Dangerous Wife."

However, as of this writing, there are no rumored offers for the actress, but the viewers of the spin-off wanted JTBC to release a sequel focusing on his character.

Kim Jung Eun perfectly portrayed the self-made chaebol Hwang Geum Joo, who is dedicated to putting an end to the drug activities in their neighborhood.

She is also the mother of Kang Nam Soon, played by Lee Yoo Mi, who also harbors the same powers as hers.

For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, keep your tabs open here at KDramaStars.

KDramaStars owns this article

Written by Geca Flores
FILE - This Feb. 1978 photo shows Robert MacNeil, executive editor of "The MacNeil/Lehrer Report". MacNeil, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour in the 1970s and co-anchored the show for with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died on Friday, April 12, 2024. He was 93. (AP Photo/FILE)


Saturday, April 14, 2024 - Renowned Kenyan sprinter Ferdinand Omanyala is on the spot for reportedly snatching another mans girlfriend.

The heartbroken man shared private chats between Omanyala and his pretty girlfriend who goes by the name Kim Sene, a fitness trainer.





The estranged lover stumbled upon chats between his girlfriend and Omanyala after gaining access into her Instagram DMs.





In the DMs, the lady is seen asking Omanyala whether he arrived safely after they met for secret escapades.

Omanyala tells her he arrived safe and sound and affirms his love for her.

In another conversation, the same lady is seen telling Omanyala that she misses him so much and says she is dying to see him.

Omanyala tells her he has been busy with training but promises to meet her soon.

She also praises his bedroom prowess and vows she cannot leave him.

See the leaked private chats that expose Omanyala badly.

The Kenyan DAILY POST


Saturday, April 13, 2024 - A quack who opened a medical clinic at Nairobi's Kayole Phase 1 while purporting to be a qualified medical officer thereby obtaining money from unsuspecting patients is behind bars.

James Waweru Njenga, 45, was arrested at his unregistered medical facility christened Axis Medical Clinic & Lab Services, by a team of detectives and officers from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board who were investigating a complaint from an affected patient.

In the filed complaint, the 31-year-old male victim indicated that between March 1 and March 27, 2024, Waweru charged him over Sh 60,000 for sample tests allegedly at laboratories in some of the country's renowned medical facilities, before "diagnosing" him with a liver disorder.

Despite being given a prescription, the patient's condition deteriorated forcing him to seek the opinion of another specialist at the Nairobi West Hospital. No lab test ran at the Hospital pointed to any liver issues.

Launching investigations, detectives uncovered that the medical reports issued to the patient by the quack purporting to be lab results from German Medical Centre, Jubaland Imaging Centre and Mater Hospital were all fake and falsified.

Further, the Pharmacy and Poisons Board confirmed that the suspect neither had any prove of registration as a medical officer, nor held a business registration certificate.

The suspect was taken away by Kamukunji detectives and appropriate charges preferred against him.

The Kenyan DAILY POST


Saturday April 13, 2024 - Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Moses Kuria, has called on Kenyans to end their silence on the fact that civil servants consume nearly half of the nations revenues.

Speaking at an event at the Nairobi Safari Club organised by the Steering Committee of the Third National Wage Bill Conference 2024, Kuria termed civil servants as selfish for facilitating the high wage bill.

The outspoken CS expressed his bewilderment at the persistently high wage bill, which currently stands at 43 per cent of revenues.

This is a question of morality.

It is a question of ethics.

It is not even a question of economics and other high-value principles, Kuria bemoaned.

It is a question of selfishness.

How can one million people be so selfish? he added.

Kuria questioned the ethical and moral justifications for such disproportionate spending.

How can you agree to shoulder the burden of one million people for so long?

How can you allow one million people to gobble up all the money you make? he queried the audience, emphasizing the urgent need for reform.

Kuria's remarks come ahead of the much-anticipated conference scheduled from April 15th to 17th, which aims to tackle this pressing issue.

The goal is to reduce the wage bill-to-revenue ratio to 35 per cent by 2028, potentially saving the country an estimated Ksh 80 billion annually.

Lyn Mengich, Chairperson of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), echoed Kurias sentiments, highlighting the broader economic implications of such a reduction.

The Kenyan DAILY POST


Saturday April 13, 2024 - Agriculture Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mithika Linturi has clarified the difference between the Fake Fertilizer claims and the certified Government product.

Speaking during a media interview, Linturi noted that the product being distributed in the market is not what the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) had previously certified.

The CS further added that the product circulating in the Kenyan markets was different from the approved fertilizer distributed through the Governments subsidy program.

The fertilizer people are referring to is not the fertilizer that I am distributing within the subsidy program.

I had taken all the necessary measures to ensure that our fertilizer within the program we are running was properly insulated against interference, Linturi clarified.

According to Linturi, the product featured on Africa Uncensored was not part of the deal signed with NCPB.

He further alleged that the fertilizer deal signed in March 2022, before the Kenya Kwanza Government took office, was for producing a soil conditioner.

The product certified by KEBS is not the product that is in the market.

In his defence, Linturi noted that under his guidance, the product under the subsidy program was thoroughly inspected, and produced under tight guidelines.

The product was properly insulated against interference.

In terms of standard and beating specs that were agreed between NCPB and the suppliers, he added.

The Government, on April 5, confirmed the presence of fake fertilizer in the country, as CS Linturi directed farmers to avoid getting the products from specific companies.

The Kenyan DAILY POST


Friday, April 12, 2024  Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has asked a federal judge to reinstate his telephone call and visiting privileges at the supermax prison in Colorado, where he's serving a life sentence.

In a letter to federal judge Brian Cogan, dated March 20 and filed Tuesday in a New York district court, Guzman wrote: '"Sorry to bother you again with the request that I have asked you before with regards to my wife, Emma Coronel."

"I ask that you please authorize her to visit me and to bring my daughters to visit me, since my daughters can only visit me when they are on school break, since they are studying in Mexico," he wrote.

The Tuesday filing includes a handwritten envelope sent to the judge from Guzman, who was convicted in 2019 of running the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico.

In the March 20 letter, Guzman writes that his wife is the only person who can visit him in prison because she lives in California, and other relatives would require visas to visit him.

"I also bother you to continue giving me the two 15-minute calls a month that you authorized me (one call every 15 days), since in May of 2023, the facility stopped giving me calls with my daughters," he wrote. "And I haven't had calls with them for seven months."

"I have asked when they are going to give me a call with my daughters and the staff here told me that the FBI agent who monitors the calls does not answer. That's all they've told me," he continued. "I ask you to please continue giving me the two calls that you authorized me per month. I don't understand why the prosecutor who is in charge of the SAMs Rules stopped authorizing calls with my daughters."

Guzman said what is being done to him is "unprecedented discrimination" and is asking the judge to intervene.

Guzman was convicted in 2019 of conducting a continuing criminal enterprise, including large-scale narcotics violations and a murder conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracies, unlawful use of a firearm, and a money laundering conspiracy. A federal appeals court in January 2022 upheld the conviction after Guzman sought to overturn it in Brooklyn federal court on 10 grounds. The appellate court determined that "none of these claims has merit."

Under Guzman's leadership, the Sinaloa cartel imported more than 1 million kilograms of cocaine and hundreds of kilograms of heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine into the U.S.


Saturday April 13, 2024 - Labour Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore has told her Health counterpart, Susan Nakhumicha, to agree to dialogue with the striking doctors, saying the strike is doing more harm than anticipated.

In a statement to Kenyans, Bore noted that the ongoing strike was putting Kenyans at risk, insisting on the need for the workers to get back to work.

She asked the health workers to consider dialogue to end the ongoing crisis in the sector.

Bore has insisted on the need to employ negotiations as the way forward in resolving the ongoing crisis and consider both parties in the final decision.

Citing the Industrial Relations Framework, the statement highlighted social dialogue, tripartite relations, social equity, fairness, justice and the rule of law as the building blocks for negotiations in resolving the health crisis.

I wish to remind the unions that whereas the framework to exercise freedom of Association and the right to industrial action is provided for in the Constitution, the right to strike is not absolute, Bore warned.

The Ministry further directed the Unions involved to suspend the nationwide strike and sit down with the Ministry of Health and the 47 counties.

The union needs to direct its members to get back to work, to pave the way for meaningful negotiations to take place to find a lasting solution, the letter read in part.

Speaking to the practitioners directly, Bore urged the doctors, clinical officers and laboratory technicians to return to work and give dialogue a chance.

It is our position that industrial peace and harmony must be maintained at all times for the well-being of everybody.

Following the four-week doctors' strike, several counties have resulted in suspension and threatened to get the health workers back to work.

The Kenyan DAILY POST


Friday, April 12, 2024  Social media users have flooded the comment sections of Khloe Kardashian's most recent X and Instagram posts with "condolences" after OJ Simpson's death, based on the unfounded conspiracy theory that he is her real father.

For years, people have pointed out that Khloe Kardashian looks different from her siblings and her paternity has been a topic.

Due to her mother, Kris Jenner's friendship with Nicole Brown Simpson, the ex-wife of O.J. Simpson whom he was acquitted of murdering, the rumour mill claimed O.J fathered Khloe.

Both Khloe and O.J. Simpson vehemently denied the rumor, with the reality star and Good American founder slamming aholes and haters" for it as far back as 2017.

Despite this, the rumours have not stopped.

After O.J. Simpson's death was announced, Khloe began trending on X as people sent her condolence messages.

Kardashian has not publicly commented on his death.


Friday, April 12, 2024  14-year-old twin sisters who both ran away from home were found with a 30-year-old man in a hotel in Allen Park, Detroit.

Police located the twin sisters with a 30-year-old man with a criminal background after they went missing for one month.

The 14-year-old twins were reported missing by their father on March 8, after they failed to return to their home in the 1800 block of Robson Street in Detroit.

Detroit police announced that the sisters were recovered and reunited with family this week.

According to Fox2detroit, a debit card number that was reported stolen out of Nebraska led police to the Comfort Inn off I-95 in Allen Park, where the sisters were found with Highland Park resident Marcus Peoples.

The stolen debit card information was used by Peoples to buy the hotel room that the twins were staying in, according to police.

The card belonged to a Nebraska teenager named Abigale, who got an alert text from her bank. She immediately told her mother, who then called the hotel and the Allen Park Police Department.

"I didn't know that it was bigger than what it is until yesterday, and it was quite the shock  to say the least," said Megan McQuain, Abigale's mother.

A newly released body-camera video from Allen Park police shows when the sisters were found on April 8. One officer responding to the scene for the debit card fraud happened to recognise the missing twins.

"I know who you guys are, and I know who's looking for you, okay? And we're going to have to solve that tonight," an officer can be heard saying in the released footage.

When asked why they ran away from home, one of the girls told police, "don't worry about it, it. That's none of your business."

The sisters also told police that they did not know Peoples and that he only bought the room for them so they had somewhere to stay.

The suspect claimed that his brother sent him the card information, and he didn't know that it was stolen, according to the body-camera video.

Peoples was charged with fraud, using a stolen credit card, and harbouring missing juveniles, according to police. His bond was set at $150,000.

"If you see something, say something because if we wouldnt have checked on our credit cards right then and there, and if I would've just waited until the next day, it wouldve been, maybe, too late," McQuain said. "You just never know."

In an interview with FOX 2 before they were found, their father, George Ogden, said they had left home without permission before. The two previously ran away while visiting their grandmother in River Rouge and while Ogden was able to bring them back home, they took off again without their cell phones only one day later.


Saturday, April 13, 2024 - Nairobi Governor, Johnson Sakaja, is reportedly swimming in money after looting billions from public coffers.

According to blogger Abuga Makori, Sakaja is building 10 floor apartments in Githurai 44.

The high-rise apartments are almost complete.

Sakaja has been linked to several corruption deals involving billions of shillings.

The County Public Accounts and Investments Committee (CPAIC) has put him on notice for failing to honour various invitations and summons from the House.

On Monday, Sakaja failed to appear before CPAIC to respond to audit queries.

This prompted the committee to issue another summon for Sakaja to appear in the next 14 days.

The committee, led by Senator Moses Kajwang', also invited the EACC leadership to appear before the committee and start investigations into Nairobi County over misuse of funds.

See photos of his apartments.


Friday, April 12, 2024  Charges have been filed against a suspect arrested in the shooting of a man at 2634 Yorktown Street about 7:35 p.m. on Thursday, March 21.

The suspect Keaiirra Shavoiyae Chidozie, 28, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the 263rd State District Court.

This is following the shooting of her African husband.

The victim, 26, was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.

HPD Major Assaults & Family Violence Division Detective D. King said Chidozie told detectives she and her husband (victim) got into an argument that escalated and she started to fear for her safety.

As she walked to the bedroom, her husband followed her and continued to argue with her.

Chidozie then grabbed a pistol and shot her husband several times.

She then left the apartment with the couples two children.

Chidozie was stopped in the parking lot and detained by responding officers. She was arrested and subsequently charged for her role in the shooting.

The children were placed in the care of a family member.


Saturday April 13, 2024 - Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi clashed with veteran journalist, John Allan Namu, over his investigative piece on the fake fertiliser scandal.

The two engaged in a heated exchange during an interview after CS Linturi called out Namu, accusing him of failing to give the Ministry a right of reply before releasing his investigative piece.

"What was run on Africa Uncensored is not anything that I would take seriously.

Irresponsible journalism would require that before you do it, get a clarification from the Ministry to understand what is happening.

There is every reason for one also to say no, this is not fair," Linturi stated.

Allan Namu, who joined the show on phone, dismissed Linturi's claims that they reached out to the Ministry and he did not respond.

"The CS claims we never reached out to the Ministry, thats a lie.

On 15th Feb this year, we reached out via email, his Ministry is the only Government department that did not respond to our claims.

When he says that I am a crook and a liar, perhaps he should take a hard look in the mirror," Namu responded.

"The Ministry is not me, there are many people in the Ministry.

He should be saying he sent to my email, the office of the CS or my PA, that is how it would have gotten to me," Linturi hit back at Namu in a quick rejoinder.

However, Namu castigated the CS asking him to sort out the issue regarding fake fertiliser instead of running a smear campaign against him.

"It is in the public interest that we are doing this work.

I do not know Mithika Linturi.

If he has a personal grudge against me, he should take it up with me personally, not to try and mislead the nation in such a serious time," Namu remarked.

The Kenyan DAILY POST


Friday, April 12, 2024  A nun in Chile was captured moving the dead body of a fellow sister crammed into a suitcase.

Footage shows the nun, 80, walking along a residential street as she struggles to pull the huge suitcase behind her. The woman, who has not been named, walked past a home where she was recorded on their security system

Local reports in Chile say that a horrified passerby later found the body of the second nun, aged 58, in the case on April 8 and called police.

The CCTV video emerged after police began a full-scale murder hunt over what they first believed was a drugs cartel killing in Santiago.



Investigators at first believed the body had been dumped by a gang. Only for authorities to look at CCTV in the area to discover that it had been abandoned by a nun.

It later emerged that the case had contained the corpse of a fellow 58-year-old nun who had apparently died of natural causes a year ago.

Her fellow sister told police that the pair had made a pact to take care of each other beyond death.

Officer Juan Fonseca said the dead nun had been kept in a case as an act of 'affection and loyalty'.

The situation only changed when the 80-year-old nun's daughter visited and decided the woman should be laid to rest, investigators concluded.

An autopsy showed no signs of deliberate killing, police said.

Local media reports that the 80-year-old nun was not arrested but could be charged with violations of the health code.





It later emerged that both women did not belong to a formal religious order but were 'consecrated laywomen' who lived a cloistered life in habits and robes.

A police investigation is ongoing.


Friday, April 12, 2024  A South African police officer has committed suicide after killing his 27-year-old girlfriend, Abona Magaba, and their one-year-old daughter, Lihlume Magaba.

Thembelani Lamani shot and killed Aboni and Lihlume at her parents home in Samora Machel, Cape Town, on 10 April 2024.

It is alleged that the suspect, who was also a police officer stationed at Faure, used his service pistol to murder Abona after she ended their relationship a couple of weeks ago.

Lamani had allegedly visited Abonas home the days before the brutal murder to convince her to get back together, but she refused.

The suspect came back on 10 April, and when Abonas family tried to stop him from entering the house, he started shooting, killing his ex-girlfriend and their child.

Abonas younger sister, 13, was also shot in the leg but survived the incident.

The suspect then went to his vehicle, where he allegedly turned his service pistol on himself.

Speaking to journalists, the deceased's mother, Nozuko Magaba explained Lamani had been visiting their home, trying to get back with Aboni but she refused.

"I was walking out of the yard, he was standing outside by the gate and he was smoking. I knew him, he was in a relationship with my daughter. I asked him why he was here and told him not to go into my house while smoking, the grief-stricken woman said.

He took out a gun and I told Abona to lock the door. My 14-year-old daughter locked the door, he shot just under the lock and then shot at the window to the passage and then went to the window on the side of the house and broke it and gained entry.

There were so many shots, all I could say to the people was that my family was being annihilated. And then I heard my husband shout, Why have you come to kill my child in my house?

Shortly after that, I heard another shot. I decided to run to my sisters house and told her that people have been killed in my house

"The police responded very quickly and asked where the shooting was. I told them in my house, they went inside..

They told me not to go inside and they told me that my husband was still alive, but my eldest daughter and grandchild had been killed and that the young one had been shot in the legNozuko said Lamani then shot and killed himself in the car which was parked outside the house."

The gandmother explained that the relationship between Abona and Lamani was turbulent.

He was an abusive man and we didnt approve of him. Where my daughter drew the line was when he broke her laptop from work and her cellphone because he accused her of cheating, which wasnt true. My daughter was either with him or here at home

"My daughter had to buy a laptop which cost R15 000 because her employer didnt care what happened.

Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm Pojie said detectives in Samora Machel are probing the circumstances surrounding the death of three people which includes that of an off-duty police constable.

The tragic incident happened on Wednesday evening at about 7pm at Basil February Street, Samora Machel. Preliminary investigation suggests that the off-duty police constable shot his girlfriend, her daughter and wounded a 13-year-old girl in the leg who resides at the same address," Pojie said.

He then went to his car where he allegedly turned his service pistol on himself. Two counts of murder, an attempted murder and an inquest were opened for further investigation.


Friday, April 12, 2024  Moroccan-American rapper, French Montana has claimed Taylor Swift turned down a multimillion-dollar payday for a private concert in the United Arab Emirates.

The billionaire popstar, 34, was reportedly offered $9million to take to the stage in December in UAE, with Montana, 39, sharing a now-deleted screenshot of texts showing him being offered $1million to perform alongside the star.

The censored screenshots had Swift's name blurred out with Montana writing: 'Somebody just sent me a show offer who yall think the 9 million for lol?'

Speaking on VladTV recently, Montana said: They had a show offer for me and Taylor; her $9 million, me $1 million. Somewhere in the Emirates.

It is not known why Swift turned down the offer.
A splashy headline in The Washington Post caught my attention: Breast cancer death rate dropped 58 percent over 44 years in U.S. A Stanford Medicine news story reports that this victorious conclusion is based on a new multicenter study led by Stanford Medicine clinicians and biomedical data scientists. Using observational data, clinical trial data, and simulation modeling, the researchers found that approximately 25 percent of the reduction in breast cancer mortality was associated with screening mammography. The remainder was attributed to improvements in breast cancer treatment.

So, is it time to celebrate?

I wish I could say I was popping open a bottle of champagne, but instead, Im writing this article. When I see these kinds of headlines, Im reminded of the adage, If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. It can be tempting to get shiny object syndrome and latch onto the promising headline of the latest news story. However, in light of this recent development, there are two landmark studies about mammography and breast cancer mortality that we would be wise to remember.

First, in the U.K., a randomized controlled trial was conducted in which 39- to 41-year-old women were randomly assigned either to the intervention group of annual mammography or to the control group. After 10 years, when the researchers followed up and compared the groups mortality rates, there was no statistically significant difference in breast cancer mortality rates between the groups. These results were published in The Lancet in 2006.

Second, a Canadian study assessed breast cancer incidence and mortality over the course of a 25-year follow-up period. The women in this study, aged 40-59, were randomly assigned either to the mammography arm (3,250 women) or to the control arm (3,133 women). During the entire study period, 500 women in the mammography arm and 505 women in the control arm died of breast cancer. Therefore, the researchers concluded that in women aged 40-59, annual mammography did not reduce mortality from breast cancer. These results were published in The BMJ in 2014.

The big question is, why is there such a wild discrepancy between the conclusion reached by the new Stanford Medicine-led study and the prior results of the U.K. and Canadian studies? The short answer is that the researchers used different methodologies to investigate the extent to which screening mammography has impacted breast cancer mortality. Both the U.K. and Canadian studies were randomized trials, whereas the Stanford Medicine-led study was based on simulation modeling.

All scientific research has limitations, but randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for a reason. Theyre specifically designed to minimize bias as much as possible, and they help eliminate confounding variables that could otherwise distort the results. Therefore, the outcomes of RCTs are generally considered to be more reliable than other kinds of scientific research.

Models, on the other hand, are prone to lead us to spurious conclusions. Author, programmer, and consultant Tyler Vigen cleverly demonstrates this on his website. Using software he designed to scour enormous data sets, Vigen has discovered numerous unlikely statistical correlations. For example, milk consumption correlates with the divorce rate in Colorado. The project is tongue-in-cheek, but the bottom line is critically important. When it comes to big data, we need to remember one of the most fundamental research principles: correlation is not causation.

This is not to say that simulation modeling should be disregarded entirely. After all, as British statistician George Box famously quipped, All models are wrong, but some are useful. Since some models are useful, there is great potential for them to enrich scientific understanding. However, we need to ensure that this approach doesnt surreptitiously replace the scientific method. In The Art of Statistics, another renowned British statistician, David Spiegelhalter, notes that while Box appreciated the power of models, he also understood the danger of actually starting to believe in them too much.

Whether you lean towards relying on the results from the U.K. and Canadian randomized trials or the results of the Stanford Medicine-led study based on simulation modeling, the impact of mammography on breast cancer mortality rates still hasnt been definitively settled. Its great to see people galvanizing around womens health issues like breast cancer (which, of course, is not only a womens health issue), but the irony is, it doesnt exactly feel like were getting closer to the truth.

Shannon Casey is a physician assistant.
A 24 year old woman required immediate resuscitation after presenting at University Maternity Hospital Limerick (UMHL) due to a ruptured ectopic pregnancy (EP) two weeks after having a medical termination of pregnancy (MTOP) .

An ectopic pregnancy is when a fertilised egg implants itself outside of the womb, usually in one of the fallopian tubes

The case report featured in the March 2024 edition of the Official Journal of the Irish Medical Organisation, where the authors  obstetricians and gynaecologists  said that it provided insights into a serious and life-threatening event i.e maternal collapse due to a ruptured ectopic pregnancy after MTOP.

The case report elucidates the association between induced abortion and EP and highlights MTOP as a risk factor for EP.

The paper is entitled 'Medical Termination of Pregnancy  an Emerging Risk for Maternal Mortality'.

In the case, the woman was brought to UMHL by ambulance with right lower abdominal pain and hypovolemic shock  an emergency condition in which severe blood or other fluid loss makes the heart unable to pump enough blood to the body, which can cause many organs to stop working.

She was also hemodynamically unstable  suffering abnormal blood pressure  and required immediate resuscitation.

The woman in question had taken abortion pills under the care of her GP two weeks previously.

The report makes a reference that EP is a significant cause of maternal morbidity and mortality, and that healthcare providers ideally should be able to diagnose and exclude women with ectopic pregnancy before a medical termination of pregnancy.

At the end of the report there is a recommendation that asymptomatic women with certain red flag risk factors for EP get a diagnosis of IUP (an intrauterine pregnancy) before a medical termination.

The red flags include previous ectopic pregnancies, IUCD users and previous pelvic abscesses.

However, the medics also noted in the case report that their patient in this case had no risk factors for EP.

The report cites a reference that EP is uncommon among women presenting for abortion.

The full paper is available to read on www.imj.ie
Minister for Education Norma Foley TD has announced 1.7 million in funding to support digital learning in schools and minor building works in Kilkenny.

50 million in grant funding for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) will issue shortly to all recognised primary and post-primary schools across the country, while a separate 29 million in minor works funding is being provided to primary and special schools.

The ICT funding is being provided to schools to help them continue to use digital technologies in their teaching, learning and assessment, while the minor works funding can be used by these schools for maintenance and small-scale improvements to school buildings and grounds.

The 50 million ICT grant represents the second tranche of ICT funding under the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027. Schools previously received 50m in ICT grant funding for the 2021 to 2022 school year.

Minister Foley said: I am pleased today to be announcing funding which will support primary, post-primary and special schools in Kilkenny and throughout Ireland to enhance both school settings and teaching and learning, to benefit our pupils and students.

ICT grant funding will support schools to ensure they can continue to embed the use of digital technologies in their teaching, learning and assessment.

Digital technologies can open up a world of opportunities to our pupils and students. It is important that schools can properly equip our young people with the knowledge, skills and understanding to harness the benefits of such technologies.

The Digital Strategy ICT grant will consist of a 2,000 basic grant for primary schools plus an additional payment of 39 per mainstream pupil, 43 per pupil in DEIS schools and 47 per pupil with special educational needs attending a special school or attending a special class attached to a mainstream primary school. For example, a 100 pupil-primary school will receive 5,973 and a 500 pupil- primary school will receive 21,865.

Post-primary schools will be paid a 2,000 basic grant plus 47 per mainstream student and 52 per student in DEIS schools. A 500 student- post-primary school would receive 25,840 and a 1,000 student-post-primary school would receive 49,680.

This ICT grant builds on the 210m already allocated under the previous Digital Strategy for Schools 2015-2020, and the 50m issued under Irelands National Recovery and Resilience Plan to enable schools to support learners at risk of education disadvantage through the digital divide.

Minister Foley said the department is acutely aware of schools need to have appropriate ICT infrastructure and it remains committed to continued funding to support the implementation of the Digital Strategy.

Minister Foley is also commissioning further research into the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning as part of the Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027.

Implementation of this strategy is well underway so it is timely to consider where we are in this journey. To that end, I am further commissioning research on the impact on student learning and wellbeing through the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning to help inform policy and optimise the resources and supports provided to schools.

The circular outlining the criteria applying to the Digital Strategy ICT Infrastructure Grant Scheme will be published soon.

Meanwhile, arrangements are now being made for the payment of 29 million in Minor Works grants to primary schools and special schools. This will support the operation of the primary schools for the forthcoming 2024/25 school year. The lead-in period ahead of the new school year will give schools good time to consider plans and priorities for use of the funding.

Minister Foley said: Minor works payments are a vital resource in terms of supporting the operation of schools generally and I am pleased to be able to announce 29 million in funding that will allow school communities to address issues at local level. Given that each school setting is different, individual schools are best placed to decide how best to use this funding to address their particular maintenance needs. In this respect the minor works grant funding provides good flexibility to address issues at local school level.

Good maintenance arrangements are important and should be prioritised with this funding. Maintenance of school buildings is important in promoting health and safety, in providing an appropriate and welcoming learning environment, and in protecting the significant levels of public funding being invested in new and upgraded school infrastructure.

The departments Planning and Building Unit is currently finalising updated guidance for schools in relation to good practice arrangements for maintenance of school buildings. It is envisaged that this guidance will be finalised and published later in Q2 2024. It is envisaged that the guidance will be provided in an on-line interactive format that will be easily accessible and user friendly for use by schools.
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The dome of the U.S. Capitol is reflected in a window on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, in April 2023. The House has put a modified surveillance bill on track for final passage as soon as April 12.
In March, Amariah Jacobs was on a hike with her husband along the Oregon coast when she found a rare fossil of an extinct animal.
About 576,000 Roku accounts were compromised in a cyberattack, the company said on April 12, the second security breach for the streaming service this year.
YoonA drew traction online for her visuals in THESE advertisement photos for Estee Lauder, which were reminisced by netizens on a thread.

Here's what people are saying about her photos!

Girls' Generation YoonA's Chemistry With Estee Lauder Reminisced By SONEs, K-Netz

On April 12, netizens gathered in an online community titled, "YoonA Really Matched Estee Lauder," where they discussed the idol's campaign photos for the brand.

Knets look back at Estee Lauder's chemistry with Yoonahttps://t.co/1kU7WeqdRY pic.twitter.com/mMO1xJr3Gm  pannchoa (@pannchoa) April 12, 2024

YoonA became its model in 2020, and netizens recalled how much the idol suited the brand's identity and elegant vibe. Some recalled that YoonA was the perfect ambassador for the brand since it matched her age. Read their reactions below:

"She's so luxurious."

"It was age-appropriate, so it was a good transition. I'm curious to see where she goes now that her contract ended."

"The brown bottle looked so perfect with the blue dress."

"She looks so opulent, daebak."

"The last pic is a finisher wow, wow!"

"For real, it suits her latest image so well."

"But it really matched her so much."

International also joined in, as many of them complimented YoonA's visuals.

"She will forever be that girl no matter what she does. SNSD are legends."

"Yoona slayed, both Estee Lauder & Innisfree fitted her!"

"Her Innisfree days were legendary, she transitioned well to EL. I feel like a luxurious and mature makeup brand suits her well."

"Yoona's beauty is timeless. My original SNSD bias."

"I don't know if she really matched the brand or not since I don't know the brand that well, but the photos though, they came out very well and she is so gorgeous."

Some discussed IU as YoonA's replacement for Estee Lauder.

"On a side note, honestly, IU for Estee Lauder was such a mismatch, unless they want to change up their image. "

"As a fan, I just don't find IU suitable for luxury brands she's endorsing, she's a big star & age appropriate for it but something about her image is more fitting for approachable brands."

Others expressed that while all the idols who are current models of the brands YoonA once endorsed were great, they claimed her image and impact from those brands never dissipated. The thread also trended on social media platform X (Twitter).

"I like how these brands left her, but her image never left the brands, like I'm sorry but for me, Innisfree is YoonA and Estee Lauder too."

"I like and respect the new models though, but it feels like the image of YoonA for these brands is just too strong." 'I like how these brands left her but her image never left the brands.' Super agree! It really shows how effective an endorser she is. It is, however, good that the contract has ended. https://t.co/rDc1T9vlb1  lovieyoong (@Yoongstar) April 13, 2024 Undoubtedly this is one of her iconic looks. https://t.co/ZekLMkqMOw April 13, 2024 Shes the perfect match for the brand. https://t.co/c8eeUIu7W0   (@_chaelormoon) April 12, 2024

What are your thoughts on their discussion? Let us know in the comments below!

Read KpopStarz for more K-pop news.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: SNSD YoonA Hailed #1 Most Beautiful Korean Celebrity in Japan - See TOP 10

KpopStarz owns this article

Written by Israel Monte
PRNewswire

Singapore, April 13: IMC Pan Asia Alliance (IMCPAA) unveiled a historic rebrand as (TPC) Tsao Pao Chee Group Pte Ltd at the AT ONE International Festival in Suzhou, China today. This significant milestone, under the helm of fourth-generation steward and Chavalit Frederick Tsao, Chairman, TPC (Tsao Pao Chee) Group propels the company into an exciting new era laser-focused on impactful investments and fostering a well-being economy.

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The TPC brand honours the company's original tradename, Tsao Pao Chee, which dates back about 120 years during the Qing Dynasty. It signals its evolved commitment to creating value through stewardship, collaboration, and entrepreneurship in service of life's flourishing. This rebrand echoes Chavalit's clarion vision: transforming family businesses into catalysts for positive change across societies.

"This is more than just turning the page. We need to go back to finding our own roots, our own culture, our own morality, and ethical traditions. Therefore, I decided to return to our roots and bring back the original trade name of the family business used by my great grandfather because that has always been our true brand, " Chavalit said.

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The rebranding is more than just a new name and logo. It symbolises the dedication to aligning business success with the betterment of lives and communities. Under the TPC banner, the company is poised to leverage its history of innovation and strategic partnerships to drive sustainable growth. Strategic business verticals like IMC Industrial and OCTAVE will reorient toward adding value to co-create the well-being economy. TPC's investment arms have already redirected USD 320 million to invest in the impact and well-being sectors.

TPC is also transforming its approach to corporate philanthropy by incorporating it into its business culture. Three non-profit units have been established to achieve this: OCTAVE Institute, No.17 Foundation, and Restore Nature Foundation, which focuses on restoring human relationships, collaboration, and nature, respectively.

Tsao Wa-Chang founded TPC in the late 1800s. Over four generations, for nearly 120 years, the company evolved from a traditional shipping company into a multinational business. Today, TPC is transforming into a purpose-driven profit business with a mission to "serve human well-being and create wealth at the same time."

Under Chavalit's stewardship, OCTAVE, which fused wisdom from Eastern practices with modern science, is created to foster individual and collective growth. Chavalit's founding of OCTAVE and involvement in various philanthropic endeavours speak to his commitment to stewarding the business as a purpose-led profit institution.

The brand's new logo melds English and Chinese characters into one holistic emblem, and the colour "Awakening Red" represents new materialism. TPC's corporate colour, emerald green, reflects TPC's deep reverence for nature as the source of life, while its crisp, flowing geometry symbolises constant evolution and the open exchange of ideas.

TPC calls on entrepreneurs, investors, economists and socially conscious leaders across the globe to join them in co-creating an economy where purpose and profit flourish in tandem. Through innovation, courage, and the radical embrace of interconnectedness, TPC is committed to driving progress where it matters most - the flourishing of all life.

About Tsao Pao Chee Group Pte Ltd

TPC (Tsao Pao Chee) is a purpose-led-profit family business consisting of OCTAVE, IMC Industrial, and various non-profit organisations operating as one integrated system to create a well-being business ecosystem. The company's headquarters is in Singapore, with a strong presence in China, Indonesia, and Thailand. TPC employs more than 8000 people.

For more information, visit https://tsaopaochee.com/

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2385599/1.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2385600/2.jpg

(ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jabalpur (MP), Apr 13 (PTI) Workers and leaders of Congress and BJP allegedly attacked each other with sticks and plastic chairs, leaving some of them injured, during a poll debate organised by a news channel in a public park in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur on Saturday night.

Videos of two groups throwing plastic chairs and using sticks are doing rounds on social media.

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City Superintendent of Police Pankaj Mishra confirmed the incident.

"One person was injured in this incident and hospitalised. Some activists have also suffered injuries," he said, adding that the process of filing FIRs by both sides is underway.

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The incident occurred when a TV news channel had organised a debate at Bhawartal Park in the evening.

The BJP and the opposition Congress traded charges over violence.

BJP MLA Abhilash Pandey claimed Congress leaders passed certain remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which were opposed by saffron workers.

"During the heated exchange, former Congress MLA Vinay Saxena and his supporters attacked BJP workers. This shows the desperation of the Grand Old Party which is staring at defeat in elections," alleged Pandey.

On the other hand, former Congress MLA Vinay Saxena alleged that BJP workers had pushed a Congress supporter during the debate.

According to Saxena, Congress workers suffered injuries when BJP members attacked them with pipes and chairs.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Jaipur, Apr 13 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday accused the Congress of spreading misconception that BJP wants to abolish quota for Dalits, tribals, and the Other Backward Castes.

"I want to make one thing clear. Congress party is spreading misconception, especially among Dalit and tribal brothers, that BJP is going to abolish reservation," Shah said while addressing an election meeting in Harsoli (Alwar) in support of Alwar Lok Sabha candidate Bhupender Yadav.

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"Listen to me carefully. Be it reservation for Dalits, tribals or backward classes, BJP supports it. We will neither end the reservation nor allow anyone to do it," he said.

"(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi himself is the biggest supporter of reservation," he said and accused the Congress of being anti-OBC and cold shelving key reports on the issue of reservation.

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"Congress party is an anti-OBC party. The Congress Party did injustice to the backward classes for years. kept the Kaka Kalelkar report suppressed. Kept the Mandal Commission report suppressed. Modi ji came and worked to give constitutional recognition to the OBC Commission. Modi ji has done the work of giving 27 per cent reservation to the OBC community in all recruitments at the Centre," Shah said.

Shah added, "Modi ji himself, who has brought glory to our country and the entire world, comes from the OBC community and there are more than 27 OBC ministers in Modi ji's cabinet today."

The BJP leader sought the people's votes saying Modi did many "seemingly impossible" in 10 years of his government.

(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, Apr 13 (PTI) The Congress on Saturday hit out at the Narendra Modi government on the issue of Chinese transgressions and said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's reported remark that "China has not occupied any of our land" is akin to giving another free pass to the neighbouring country.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the EAM's statement is a "copy-paste" of Modi's clean chit to China after the Galwan skirmish in 2020, when 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

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Kharge responded to the remark in a post on X, "Wearing '56-inch' long Chinese Blinkers, on the 'Laal Aankh,' Modi Government has given a free pass to the Chinese, twice in a week's time."

He added, "First, @narendramodi ji's interview in foreign press where he failed to put forth India's case strongly at the global stage. Now, his Foreign Minister, handing over another Clean Chit to expansionist China."

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Kharge hit out at the Modi government alleging it was yet to come out clean on the Chinese transgressions at borders and asked him if the bilateral talks between the two countries were to open Indian markets to imported Chinese goods.

"@narendramodi ji, Since 4 years, the people of India, and the Opposition is asking you take them in confidence, in the Parliament and in public discourse on repeated Chinese transgressions, illegal occupation and building of military infrastructure, near our borders, but you have not bothered to take us in confidence," Kharge said in his post.

"What were the 19 rounds of bilateral talks with your Chinese counterpart for? Was it to increase Chinese imports of India? Or take PMCARE funds from 3000 companies having Chinese directors," he asked.

"Why has the status quo ante, pre 2020, not returned? Why is India still denied access to areas in Depsang Plains, Demchok Nalla and several patrolling points in Hot Springs and Gogra Post? Mr. Modi's Policy towards China is 'M' for 'Meek'.

"Modi Ki Chinese Guarantee 2.0. A sordid saga of endangering National Security and India's Territorial Integrity by giving a 'double clean chit' to China for stealing our land," the Congress chief said.

Congress general secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh in a statement said the Modi government has been letting off China for its aggression against India.

He claimed that after the prime minister's public "clean chit" on June 19, 2020 and the Union Home Minister's "clean chit" on April 9, 2024, comes a third "clean chit" from Jaishankar.

"Clearly this is all orchestrated by the Super Sutradhar himself," Ramesh said.

Ramesh said that EAM's recent statement that "China has not occupied any of our land" represents a "renewed setback" to India's position on its northern border, rivalled only by the prime minister's statement that "No one has entered Indian territory and no one is in our territory."

"Not only are all these statements a profound insult to our fallen soldiers in Galwan, but they also represent the legitimisation of Chinese claims over thousands of square kilometres of land to which Indian troops had access until May 2020.

"In particular, the EAM's remarks represent an acceptance of Chinese control over Demchok and the strategic Depsang Plains where Chinese troops continue to block our soldiers' at the critical Y-Junction, preventing them from accessing Patrol Points 10, 11, 11A, 12 and 13," Ramesh alleged.

Ramesh claimed that Chinese troops remain in place despite 21 rounds of military talks over four years.

Where withdrawals have been negotiated, the Modi government has accepted buffer zones that lie predominantly in areas that Indian troops once freely accessed, he said.

He also termed as "weak" the MEA's response to the issue of Chinese PLA denying grazing rights to Indian shepherds.

"For four years, the Modi government has tried to cover up the worst territorial setback in six decades for India with its DDLJ approach: Deny, Distract, Lie and Justify. Mr Jaishankar's latest statement only highlights the extent of the Modi government's submission to Chinese aggression," Ramesh alleged.

(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, Apr 13 (PTI) The IAF on Saturday recalled its contribution in 'Operation Meghdoot' 40 years ago when its tactical and strategic airlifters and key helicopters had ferried men and material to "dizzying heights" in Siachen, the world's highest battlefield.

The Indian Army marked four decades of its presence on the strategically-significant Siachen glacier.

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Operation Meghdoot was launched on April 13, 1984, when the Indian Army and Indian Air Force had advanced to the Siachen glacier to secure the heights dominating the northern Ladakh region, officials said.

Playing an "irreplaceable role" in this effort, IAF's tactical and strategic airlifters, AN-12s, AN-32s and IL-76s transported stores and troops and air-dropped supplies to high altitude airfields, from where Mi-17, Mi-8, Chetak and Cheetah helicopters "ferried men and material to dizzying heights on the glacier, far above the limits set by the helicopter manufacturers," a senior official said.

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While the initial operations involved only the use of transport and helicopter aircraft transporting men and material, the IAF gradually expanded its role and presence in the region with the deployment of fighter aircraft as well.

The official acknowledging the role of the IAF in Siachen in the past few decades, said, "flying in such ruthless terrain, records of human endurance, flying and technical proficiency" are being set by it nearly every day.

'Operation Meghdoot' involved the airlifting of Indian Army soldiers by the IAF and dropping them on the glacial peaks.

"Although the operation began in 1984, IAF helicopters were already operating in the Siachen glacier since 1978, flying the Chetak helicopters which was the first IAF helicopter to land in the glacier in October 1978," the senior official said.

By 1984, Pakistan's "cartographic aggression in the uncharted territory of Ladakh", allowing foreign mountaineering expeditions in Siachen, was becoming a "cause of concern", the officials said.

Having received intelligence inputs about an impending Pakistani military action in the area, India decided to "thwart Pakistan's efforts to legitimise its claim on Siachen," they said.

The Indian Army launched 'Operation Meghdoot' to secure strategic heights in Siachen with the deployment of troops.

Soon, about 300-odd troops were positioned on the strategically important peaks and passes of the glacier.

By the time the Pakistan army reacted by advancing its own troops, the Indian Army was occupying strategically crucial mountain peaks and passes, thereby gaining a tactical advantage, the officials said. New Delhi, Apr 13 (PTI) The IAF on Saturday recalled its contribution in 'Operation Meghdoot' 40 years ago when it ferried men and material to "dizzying heights" in Siachen, the world's highest battlefield.

The Indian Army marked four decades of its presence on the strategically significant Siachen glacier.

Operation Meghdoot was launched on April 13, 1984, when the Indian Army and Indian Air Force had advanced to the Siachen glacier to secure the heights dominating the northern Ladakh region, officials said.

Playing an "irreplaceable role" in this effort, IAF's tactical and strategic airlifters - AN-12s, AN-32s and IL-76s - transported stores and troops and air-dropped supplies to high-altitude airfields, from where Mi-17, Mi-8, Chetak and Cheetah helicopters "ferried men and material to dizzying heights on the glacier, far above the limits set by the helicopter manufacturers," a senior official said.

While the initial operations involved only the use of transport and helicopter aircraft transporting men and material, the IAF gradually expanded its role and presence in the region with the deployment of fighter aircraft as well.

On the role of the IAF in Siachen in the past few decades, he said, "Flying in such ruthless terrain, records of human endurance, flying and technical proficiency" are being set by it nearly every day.

'Operation Meghdoot' involved the airlifting of Indian Army soldiers by the IAF and dropping them on the glacial peaks.

"Although the operation began in 1984, IAF helicopters were already operating in the Siachen glacier since 1978, flying the Chetak helicopters which was the first IAF helicopter to land in the glacier in October 1978," the senior official said.

By 1984, Pakistan's "cartographic aggression in the uncharted territory of Ladakh", allowing foreign mountaineering expeditions in Siachen, was becoming a "cause of concern", the officials said.

Having received intelligence inputs about an impending Pakistani military action in the area, India decided to "thwart Pakistan's efforts to legitimise its claim on Siachen," they said.

The Indian Army launched 'Operation Meghdoot' to secure strategic heights in Siachen with the deployment of troops.

Soon, about 300-odd troops were positioned on the strategically important peaks and passes of the glacier.

By the time the Pakistan army reacted by advancing its troops, the Indian Army was occupying strategically crucial mountain peaks and passes, thereby gaining a tactical advantage, the officials said.

In extending valuable support to the Army's fight for maintaining military dominance on this desolate glacier since April 1984, "the IAF's incredible performance at the extremes of temperature and altitude remains a continuing saga of fortitude and skill," the senior official added.

In the highest battlefield in the world, known for its extreme climatic conditions, IAF helicopters form the lifeline and the sole link of Indian troops with the outside world, playing a critical role in continuing the four-decade-old military operation, responding to emergencies, supplying essential logistics and evacuating the sick and wounded from the 78 km-long glacier, the officials said.

The IAF's Hunter aircraft kick-started fighter operations from the high-altitude airfield at Leh when a detachment of Hunters from No. 27 Squadron commenced operations in September 1984, according to the IAF.

In the next couple of years, the Hunters flew "an impressive total of more than 700 sorties from Leh".

"As an increasingly large number of fighter sweeps and simulated strikes began to be carried out over the glacier itself, it served as the ultimate morale booster for Indian troops deployed on the glacier, and sent a stern message to the adversary to avoid any misadventures in the area," the official said.

Later, live armament sorties were carried out at the high-altitude firing range at Kar Tso, south of Leh. With the ground infrastructure becoming more conducive for fighter flying, MiG-23s and MiG-29s also started operating from Leh and Thoise.

The IAF also inducted the Cheetal helicopters for operating in the glacier in 2009. The Cheetal is a Cheetah helicopter that is re-engineered with a TM 333 2M2 engine having better reliability and load-carrying capability at high altitudes, it said.

On August 20, 2013, in a significant show of capability, the IAF landed one of its key acquisitions, the Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules four-engine transport aircraft at Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO), the world's highest airstrip, near the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, the IAF added.

Today, nearly all the aircraft of the IAF including Rafale, Su-30MKI, Chinook, Apache, Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Mk III & Mk IV, Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) Prachand, MiG-29, Mirage-2000, C-17 , C-130 J, IL-76 and An-32 operate in the area, the official said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Doda (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], April 13 (ANI): As many as six persons were killed and four others injured when a car skidded off and fell down a gorge in the Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, the police said.

Harvinder Singh, Doda Deputy Commissioner, said that the incident happened at around 8.30 pm on Saturday on Phagsoo Road in the Thathri sub-division of Doda.

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According to the officials, 10 passengers were travelling in the car, including three minors.

The injured persons are undergoing treatment at Government Hospital in Doda, the Deputy Commissioner said.

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More details are awaited. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Imphal/Churachandpur, Apr 13 (PTI) The Kukis and Meitis may be at loggerheads in Manipur but their thoughts on one point converge -- this is not the right time for Lok Sabha elections in the restive state.

It has nearly been a year since ethnic violence broke out between the hill-majority Kukis and the valley-majority Meitis. It has not only killed over 200 people and displaced around 50,000 but also sharply divided Manipur along ethnic lines.

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Elections for two Lok Sabha seats in Manipur will be held on April 19 and 26. While Inner Manipur and some segments of Outer Manipur will vote in the first phase, the remaining segments of Outer Manipur will go to polls on April 26.

Living separately and refusing to co-exist in future, many members of both Kukis and Meitis communities ask - why elections at this time and what difference will they make?

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"Our demand is clear - we want a separate administration for the Kuki Zo community. For years the development has only been in the valley and not our areas and after what has happened last year, we cannot live together There is no question or possibility" said Lhaineilam, a Kuki who is the coordinator at a relief camp in Churachandpur district, which was epicentre of the violence last year.

"There is no exchange happening between the two sides -- neither of words nor of commodities, and the government wants us to vote for other side How is that possible? A Kuki displaced from Meiti region has to vote for the Meiti constituency. How and why? The elections should have been conducted after addressing these sentiments and issues...Now is not the right time," he added.

The Kukis have already declared that they are not fielding any candidate in the upcoming polls as an act of boycott. However, different groups are still contemplating whether they will abstain from voting too.

"Several meetings have been going on and there is still no decision on what stand will we take about voting... There is one view of voting for the right candidate who can raise the demand for a separate administration and another view is why there are elections at this time...in a state which has literally been burning, is this the priority or some resolution to achieve peace," said a professor of a government college in Imphal, requesting anonymity.

"What will change after the elections? If they (government) had to act, they would have done by now," he added.

The academician, a Kuki, hasn't visited his workplace since clashes broke out and has no idea about when he will be able to take classes.

"The Meiti students do not want to attend my classes. If I take classes online, there is no cooperation from my colleagues too, simply because I am from Kuki community Why should I vote for a constituency which is no longer mine," he said.

The Outer Manipur constituency, reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, has been represented by six Naga and five Kuki leaders so far. This time, all the candidates in the fray are Nagas, with no Kuki throwing their hat in the ring following the call of influential pressure groups to abstain from contesting.

Of Outer Manipur's eight lakh strong electorate, Nagas are the largest cohort with 4.61 lakh voters, followed by Kuki-Zomi (3.21 lakh).

Meitis, on the other hand feel that at a time when their houses have been burnt and their lives pushed back by at least two decades, how can they think of voting.

"We were living in the hills, we used to visit the valley frequently and sell goods here, we had our vehicles running, business was good. Now, our house is no longer there, the means of livelihood are gone and there is constant threat if we ever make an attempt to visit even the remains... It feels like our lives have gone back to where they were two decades back...and they want us to vote?" said Oinam Cheema, a displaced Meiti.

The Election Commission has announced that the displaced population will have the opportunity to cast their votes from relief camps.

According to Election Commission officials, over 24,000 people living in the relief camps have been found eligible to vote and 94 special polling stations are being set up for the purpose.

Posters of political parties, mega rallies and visible movement of leaders - the traditional elements of campaigning - are conspicuously missing in the strife-torn state.

The only visible hint of elections is the hoardings put up by local election authorities, urging citizens to exercise their franchise. Major party figures have refrained from visiting the conflict-ridden state to canvas for votes or make electoral pledges.

The Delhi Meitei Coordinating Committee (DMCC), an umbrella body representing Meitei civil society organisations in Delhi, has written to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the Chief Justice of India (CJI) seeking postponement of the Lok Sabha election in Manipur for the time being, citing the ethnic unrest and "abnormal" situation in the state.

"The situation is still abnormal...there are burnt remains and razed structures left right and centre, people are displaced...many have left the state and they cannot get back to cast their vote, neither any arrangements are being made to let them vote from outside How can this be a fair election...this is not the right time," said 42-year-old Kunzang, who runs a shop at the famed Ima market in Imphal.

Manipur has traditionally seen a very high voter turnout with more than 82 per cent polling recorded in the 2019 elections.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], April 13 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all geared up and campaigning in full swing for the Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a rally on Sunday for the third time within just the last eight days.

PM Modi will be addressing a public gathering at Pipariya in Narmadapuram district which will target four parliamentary seats in the state which include Hoshangabad, Betul, Chhindwara and Mandla.

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The prime minister will address the rally in support of the BJP nominee from Hoshangabad Lok Sabha, Darshan Singh Choudhary. The rally will also leave an impact mostly on the Chhindwara parliamentary seat and the other two seats.

BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal told ANI over phone, "Planning has been done in such a way that PM Modi's message reaches every parliamentary seat. Tomorrow, PM Modi is coming to Pipariya in Narmadapuram district and his address will cover four Lok Sabha constituencies connecting nearby."

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"Some parts of an assembly constituency of Mandla Lok Sabha is located in Pipariya and it is itself a part of Hoshangabad Lok Sabha seat. Apart from this, some parts of Chhindwara and Betul Lok Sabha seats are also connected from here," the BJP leader added.

Chhindwara is a hot seat in the state and it is considered a stronghold of former chief minister and veteran Congress leader Kamal Nath. The former CM's son Nakul Nath is contesting from the seat and it was the only seat that the grand old party managed to win in the previous 2019 general elections in the state.

This time, the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to win the Chhindwara Lok Sabha in the upcoming polls. Chhindwara will go to polls in the first phase on April 19 with five other parliamentary seats in the state.

On the other hand, Hoshanagabad will go to poll in the second phase on April 26. Betul was also scheduled to undergo polling in the second phase but the election commission postponed the election in Betul in the third phase on May 7, following the death of a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate from the seat. BSP candidate Ashok Bhalavi died after suffering a heart attack on April 9.

Earlier on last Sunday, PM Modi held a roadshow in Jabalpur as part of the party's election campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and people in large numbers gathered to witness the roadshow on both sides of the road.

Later on Tuesday this week, the prime minister visited the state again and addressed a public gathering in Balaghat in support of BJP nominee Bharti Pardhi.

Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh will be conducted in four phases. The first phase of polling would be held on April 19, followed by April 26, May 7 and May 13.

Madhya Pradesh has a total of 29 Lok Sabha constituencies, making it the sixth-largest state in terms of parliamentary representation. Out of these, 10 seats are reserved for SC and ST candidates, while the remaining 19 are unreserved.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, the BJP secured a massive victory in Madhya Pradesh, winning 28 out of the 29 seats. The Indian National Congress (INC) managed to win only one seat. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Nagpur, Apr 13 (PTI) A 30-year-old man allegedly committed suicide after killing his live-in partner and their three-year-old son in a hotel room in Nagpur city of Maharashtra on Saturday evening, police said.

The bodies of Sachin Vinodkumar Raut, Naznin (29), and their son Yug were found in a room in Golden Key hotel situated near Gajanan Colony in MIDC area by staff, who in turn informed the police.

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"Raut was found hanging from the ceiling fan, while his live-in partner Naznin was found with a head injury and a hammer with blood stains lying nearby. No injuries were found on Yug's body," a police official said.

Preliminary investigation suggests that Raut fatally attacked Naznin with the hammer before either poisoning or strangling the boy to death. He then hanged himself, the official added.

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A truck driver by profession, Raut was already married with two children. He was having an extra-marital affair with Naznin, originally from Madhya Pradesh, he said.

Raut never divorced his wife and started living with Naznin.

"He later started avoiding Naznin. This led to frequent arguments between them. Finally, they decided to stay separately. On Friday, both signed a mutual agreement on a stamp paper of Rs 500 that they would stay separately. Police have seized the stamp paper for investigation," the official said.

Raut, Naznin, and the boy checked in at the hotel in the afternoon, he said, adding that further investigation is on.

Police have registered a case of murder against deceased Raut.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
By Shailesh Yadav

Shillong (Meghalaya) [India], April 13 (ANI): The Chief Electoral Officer of Meghalaya, BDR Tiwari on Saturday expressed confidence that the state will surpass all previous voter turnout percentages in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

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Meghalaya is set to vote for its two Lok Sabha seats, Shillong and Tura, in the first phase of polling on April 19. The state has a total of 22.27 lakh voters, with female voters outnumbering males, totalling 11.27 lakh compared to 11 lakh male voters.

The CEO of Meghalaya mentioned that the last Lok Sabha election in 2019 witnessed a 71.42 per cent voter turnout but this time around, they anticipate around "80 per cent voting in Meghalaya".

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Tiwari emphasized that this expectation stems from their extensive outreach across the state, encouraging people to come out and vote on April 19. They've conducted outreach programs involving youth and Village Durbar, and they've planned a tree plantation program to motivate voters. The first male and female voters at each polling station will participate in tree planting.

In preparation for a free, fair, and peaceful election, Meghalaya has deployed 40 companies of Central Armed Paramilitary Forces and state police personnel at 29 critical and 477 vulnerable polling stations. The state has a total of 3,512 polling stations, with 140 bordering Bangladesh and 187 bordering Assam. As of April 11, seizures worth Rs 44 crore have been made, with 11,000 arms deposited after the Model Code of Conduct came into force.

In Shillong (ST), the candidates include Vincent Pala from the Indian National Congress, Ampareen Lyngdoh from the National People's Party (NPP), Robertjune Kharjahrin from the United Democratic Party (UDP), and Ricky AJ Syngkon from the Voter's Party of India (VPP).

In Tura (ST), candidates include Saleng A Sangma from the Indian National Congress, Agatha Sangma from the National People's Party (NPP), and Zenith Sangma from the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).

Key political parties and alliances in Meghalaya include the INDIA bloc represented by the Indian National Congress, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), and the Regional Democratic Alliance. Meghalaya will witness a multi-cornered contest for its two Lok Sabha seats, with 10 candidates vying for victory. The BJP has chosen not to contest to keep the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) votes unified. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Rewa (Madhya Pradesh) [India], April 13: A 6-year-old boy fell into an open borewell in an agricultural field at Manika village in the Janeh police station area of Rewa district, officials informed on Friday.

Speaking to ANI, Additional SP, Rewa, Anil Sonkar said, "This borewell in which the six-year-old boy fell and is presently trapped is 6 cm in diameter. The child fell into the borewell while playing. The locals informed the police, after which the rescue team reached the spot and launched an operation to bring him out. Two earthmovers have been pressed into service as part of the ongoing rescue work." Madhya Pradesh: Toddler Falls Into 20-Foot-Deep Borewell in Vidisha, Rescue Operation On (Watch Videos).

Rescue Operation Underway to Rescue the Child

#WATCH | Madhya Pradesh: Rescue of the 6-year-old child who fell in an open borewell, going on in Rewa. (12.04) pic.twitter.com/r4ylstwb5h  ANI MP/CG/Rajasthan (@ANI_MP_CG_RJ) April 13, 2024

He informed further that a parallel pit was in the process of being dug so that the trapped six-year-old could be brought out safely. Madhya Pradesh: Four-Year-Old Girl Dies During Treatment in Hospital After Being Rescued From Borewell in Rajgarh (Watch Video).

"A rescue team from Varanasi will also reach the spot shortly. We are trying to identify the exact location of the boy. We are hopeful that he will be rescued very soon."

This is a developing story and further details are awaited.

(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], April 13 (ANI): The Indian Air Force is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the famous 'Operation Meghdoot' which was carried out by the Indian forces to gain control of the Siachen glacier by thwarting Pakistan's efforts to capture it.

The operation by the Indian Army and Indian Air Force was carried out on April 13, 1984, in what was one of the biggest operations carried out by the Indian forces. Saturday marks 40 years of the Indian presence on the glacier.

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The Siachen Glacier is located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalayas and is often considered the world's highest battlefield.

"A military operation 'Operation Meghdoot' took place on April 13, 1984, by the Indian Army and Indian Air Force (IAF), in order to gain control of Siachen glacier, the world's highest battlefield. The operation's primary objective was to thwart Pakistan's efforts to legitimize its claim on Siachen," the IAF statement said.

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"Playing an irreplaceable role in this effort, IAF's tactical and strategic airlifters, An-12s, An-32s and IL-76s transported stores and troops and air-dropped supplies to high-altitude airfields, from where Mi-17, Mi-8, Chetak and Cheetah helicopters ferried men and material to dizzying heights on the glacier, which was far above the limits set by the helicopter manufacturers," it added.

In the highest battlefield in the world which is known for its extreme climatic conditions, IAF helicopters form the lifeline and the sole link of Indian troops with the outside world, playing a critical role in continuing the four-decade-old military operation. (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, Apr 13 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday paid tributes to those killed in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Hundreds of peaceful protestors were killed in indiscriminate firing by British forces on this day in 1919.

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"On behalf of my family members across the country, I pay my deepest respects to all the brave martyrs of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre," PM Modi wrote on X.

(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], April 13 (ANI): President Droupadi Murmu has greeted fellow-citizens on the eve of the birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar.

In a message, the President said, "On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the architect of our Constitution and one of the most eminent nation builders, I extend my warm greetings and best wishes to all fellow citizens."

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President Murmu further upheld the contributions made by Ambedkar adorning various caps.

"Babasaheb Ambedkar, pioneer of social change and a versatile personality, made exceptional contribution to our country and society as a jurist, educationist, economist, social-reformer and political leader. Even today, his strong belief in the constitutional system is the foundation of our democracy and good governance. Ambedkar devoted his entire life for the establishment of an egalitarian society and struggled for the upliftment of the downtrodden," she said.

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"On this occasion, let us adopt the ideals of Dr Ambedkar and work collectively for the inclusive development of our country," President Murmu said. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Udhampur (J&K), Apr 13 (PTI) Senior Congress leader and star campaigner Raj Babbar Saturday accused the BJP-led central government of doing grave injustice to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and said it is time to bring about a change through the ballot.

Addressing a massive rally here in support of the Congress candidate for the Udhampur parliamentary constituency Choudhary Lal Singh, the actor-turned-politician claimed that the people of the entire country were fed up with the Modi government for its "anti-youth, anti-poor and anti-farmers policies".

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The Udhampur Lok Sabha seat is going to polls on April 19. The BJP has fielded Union minister Jitendra Singh from the constituency.

"The BJP has done injustice to the people of Jammu and Kashmir in every sphere and it is time to bring about a change through the ballot," the Congress leader said.

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Babbar also hit out at the government for launching the Agnipath military recruitment scheme and claimed it spoiled the future of the youth and dashed their dreams of joining the armed forces.

He assured that the Congress would abolish the scheme and restore regular recruitment drives once it is voted to power.

Former Union minister and AICC in-charge for J-K Bharat Singh Solanki, Pradesh Congress Committee president Vikar Rasool Wani, Lal Singh, National Panthers Party leader and former minister Harshdev Singh also addressed the rally.

Babbar said the Congress will provide relief to the youth, farmers, women and workers as guaranteed in its manifesto.

Seeking votes for Lal Singh, Babbar said he is a crusader against injustice and fights for the rights of the poor and downtrodden.

"Jammu and Kashmir was deprived of its status, rights and dignity by the BJP government," Solanki said, in an apparent reference to the abrogation of Article 370 that provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories in August 2019.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election rally in Udhampur on Friday, he said top leaders of the BJP were rushing in one after another to campaign here as they know that people have made up their minds to bring about change.

Wani hit out at the BJP and the Modi government for "destroying the democratic system" in Jammu and Kashmir.

"The rights of people have been snatched, resources looted and our state downgraded. The large crowd here the very next day of the prime minister's rally is an indicator of the mood of the people who want to punish BJP...," he added.

Lal Singh assured the gathering that he would continue his fight for the dignity of the people who have been deprived of their "identity, status, and land and job rights".

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Peshawar, Apr 13 (PTI) The first two days of Eid festivities claimed 19 lives in different incidents in northwestern Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a rescue official said on Saturday.

As many as 326 traffic accidents, 187 fire incidents, 10 drownings and two wall collapse incidents were reported from scenic and tourist spots, including Naran, Kaghan, Swat, and Galyat areas, due to the huge rush during the festivities, a spokesman for Rescue 1122 said.

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In all, 1,499 people were provided emergency medical cover and many were moved to hospitals.

At least 15 people celebrating Eid drowned when their boat capsized in the Indus River in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Thursday, authorities said.

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The officials said they rescued 11 people alive and the search for the missing three was underway.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
California, April 13: During Bakersfield city council meeting in California on Wednesday, a protester Riddhi Patel made alarming threats towards council members and Republican Mayor Karen Goh, citing their lack of support for a cease-fire resolution against Israel and increased security measures at the government building in response to ongoing anti-Israel protests, Fox News reported.

Later on, Patel was taken into custody and charged with felony counts for her threats to the council. Video footage captured Patel saying that she hoped oppressed minorities would guillotine city government members, stating that even Jesus Christ would kill them, and threatening to go to their houses and murder them. According to Fox News, these threats were made in two separate speeches delivered to the city council during the evening. NRI Murdered in Punjab: Indian-Origin US Citizen Murdered, Her Body Kept in Freezer by In-Laws for 'Insurance Money' in Kapurthala.

In her initial address, Patel stated that she was speaking in support of the cease-fire resolution and then predicted that the body would decline to support it because "you guys are all horrible human beings and Jesus would've killed you himself." Following that she accused the council members of not caring about the oppression of Palestinians or people anywhere else in the world and later expressed hope that "the global south" rise and execute them, as per Fox News.

Further, she said, "I remind you that these holidays that we practice, that other people in the global south practice, believe in violent revolution against their oppressors, and I hope one day somebody brings the guillotine and kills all of you." During her second speech to the mayor and council, Patel criticized the installation of additional security measures, such as metal detectors, characterizing them as attempts to "criminalize" protesters. US: Four, Including Three Indian Nationals, Arrested Along Canada Border; Charged With Entering United States Illegally.

She ended her address with a violent threat, declaring, "We'll see you at your house. We'll murder you." After Patel walked away from the podium, Mayor Goh gestured to the police officers present and then addressed the protester, stating, " Ms Patel. Ms Patel, that was a threat - what you said at the end. And so the officers are going to escort you out and take care of that."

Riddhi Patel's Speech in City Council Meeting:

'Navratri a festival of oppressors' :- Riddhi Patel, Indian-American pro-Palestine protester. She is arrested & charged under 16 felonies, So satisfying. pic.twitter.com/Ayqhdf3Wrm  Prayag (@theprayagtiwari) April 13, 2024

Riddhi Patel Charged for Threats To 'Murder' Bakersfield Lawmakers:

Riddhi Patel crying in court after being charged with 16 felony counts over threatening to murder city councillors in Bakersfield unless they voted to endorse a ceasefire in Gaza.  pic.twitter.com/tkX7hKzgE2  John Aziz (@aziz0nomics) April 13, 2024

Bakersfield Police Sgt. Eric Celedon confirmed to local outlet Bakersfield.com that Patel was taken into custody and faces 16 felony counts. The report detailed these as "eight counts of threatening with intent to terrorize, and eight counts of threatening the seven City Council members and the mayor." Anti-Israel protesters who were there with Patel tried to distance themselves from the woman after she was arrested.

"The comments of Riddhi Patel were shocking. They in no way represent those of us who continue to come to the city council to demand a ceasefire and an end to the genocide [in Gaza]. I ask that this does not distract anyone from our mission to end the genocide. Ceasefire now," a journalist claimed to NBC affiliate.
Helsinki, Apr 13 (AP) The head of Latvia's government tapped an experienced diplomat to become the Baltic nation's new foreign minister after the incumbent stepped down earlier this week amid a criminal probe over alleged misuse of government funds.

The ruling centre-right New Unity party decided to back the nomination of Baiba Braze, 57, who is currently the ambassador for special tasks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after Prime Minister Evika Silina's endorsement, Latvian news agency LETA reported on Saturday.

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Latvian Television LTV said Braze's candidacy will be officially announced on Monday and lawmakers at the Saiema, Latvia's 100-seat Parliament, are set to vote on a motion of confidence in her on Thursday.

Among other posts, Braze has previously served as Latvia's ambassador to Britain and to The Netherlands, and held the post of NATO's deputy secretary general for public diplomacy in 2020-2023.

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Krisjanis Karins, Latvia's former top diplomat and an ex-prime minister, announced his intention to resign this month on March 28. His decision came in the wake of a criminal probe over the use of expensive private charter flights by Karins' office during his time as prime minister between 2019-2023.

There are no indications that Karins himself faces charges as part of the probe into the scandal that erupted last year and caused public outrage among Latvians. Silina took up Latvia's top government job in September when Karins became foreign minister of the nation of 1.9 million, a European Union and NATO member state. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
By Ashoke Raj

New Delhi [India], April 13 (ANI): In response to the heightened tensions resembling a wartime scenario between Iran and Israel, Indian airlines have opted to avoid Iranian airspace and utilise alternative routes to ensure the safety and security of their operations.

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Indian airlines are altering flight paths for Europe and the Middle East due to escalating tensions between Iran and Israel. Air India and Vistara, two major carriers, have opted to avoid Iranian airspace following the Indian government's advisory urging citizens to steer clear of travel to Iran. As a result, they are now taking longer routes to ensure passenger safety and operational stability.

Vistara Air issued a statement regarding changing the flight path due to ongoing tensions between Iran and Israel.

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In the statement, Vistara Air said, "Due to the current situation affecting parts of the Middle East, we are making changes to flight-paths of some of our flights. Contingency routes, which are kept available to ensure operational continuity during such eventualities, are being used instead."

Vistara Airlines has acknowledged that it will be taking longer routes as a precautionary measure, resulting in increased travel time to reach destinations.

"This may result in longer flight times on certain routes and associated delays. The situation is being monitored closely and further changes will be made if required," a Vistara spokesperson said.

Air India, the largest Indian airline with extensive operations in Europe, the US, and the Middle East, has said that they are monitoring the developing situation in the Middle East.

Air India said in a statement, "We are closely monitoring the developing situation in the Middle East. Presently, our aircraft will operate on alternate flight paths to and from India- according top priority to the safety of our passengers and crew."

On April 12, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a travel advisory to Indian citizens on Friday and asked them to refrain from travelling to both countries until further notice. The ministry further asked people who are currently in Iran or Israel to contact Indian embassies and register themselves.

In an official release, the MEA said, "In view of the prevailing situation in the region, all Indians are advised not to travel to Iran or Israel till further notice. All those who are currently residing in Iran or Israel are requested to get in touch with Indian Embassies there and register themselves. They are also requested to observe utmost precautions about their safety and restrict their movements to the minimum."

Tensions escalated between Iran and Israel amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. As has been reported globally, Tehran vowed revenge after Israel launched airstrikes on the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus. (ANI)

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Pishin (Balochistan) [Pakistan], April 13 (ANI): Ahead of the joint opposition's scheduled gathering on April 13, Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) has been enforced in Pishin, as reported by ARY News.

The Deputy Commissioner of Pishin issued a notification stating, "Section 144 has been imposed to ensure public safety and maintain law and order."

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Under this provision, gatherings of more than five individuals within the city are prohibited, and the obstruction of main highways and roads is strictly forbidden, ARY News reported.

This decision follows the announcement by the newly formed Tehreek Tahafuz-e-Aaeen (Constitution Protection Movement), a coalition of six opposition parties, to hold a public gathering in Pishin.

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The alliance, chaired by Mahmood Khan Achakzai, named itself "Tehreek Tahafuz-e-Aaeen" against the government.

During a meeting hosted by Balochistan National Party (BNP) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal, attended by Omar Ayub of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Sahibzada Hamid Raza of Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), Mahmood Khan Achakzai of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Allama Nasir Abbas of Majlis-e-Wadhat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), and Liaquat Baloch of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), it was decided that Mahmood Achakzai would lead the coordination committee.

Omar Ayub confirmed that two public gatherings would be held in Balochistan on Saturday, April 13, ARY News reported.

Meanwhile on Friday. the Baloch Yakjehti Committee continued its protests against the alleged enforced disappearances of Baloch people. The committee highlighted the case of Naeem Rehmat's case who was allegedly forcefully disappeared on March 17, 2022, from Aman Aatoz Turbat.

The committee said that despite continuous protests, including a recent demonstration on the day of Eid, aimed at securing his safe release, the administration's failure to provide a meaningful response only compounds the suffering and uncertainty for his family. The family has been protesting since the day of Eid, blocking CPEC Road in Shapuk. The BY Committee urged people in the surrounding areas to support them. (ANI)

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Tel Aviv [Israel], April 13 (ANI/TPS): Haifa University appointed Professor Mona Maron as rector on Thursday, making her the first Israeli Arab to be appointed to the position in an Israeli university.

A world-renowned researcher in the field of neuroscience and post-trauma, Maron will replace Prof. Gur Alroey, who in October will become the university president.

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"I am grateful for the trust I received from the members of the university senate and look forward to taking up the position. First and foremost, the University of Haifa is a home for me. A home that welcomed me into its ranks more than 30 years ago, as an undergraduate student, then as a faculty member in the neurobiology department and now with the rector's role," Maron said.

"I pledge to continue to invest my all in my academic home, to continue to promote first and foremost outstanding research and to continue to be a beacon of science and excellence in the heart of the north, promoting a common, genuine and daily existence between members of all religions and denominations in Israel."

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A Maronite Christian from the village of Isfiya, near Haifa, Maron has been a trailblazer for the integration and advancement of women in the sciences, particularly within the Arab community. She was the first Arab woman from her village to earn a doctoral degree and Israel's first Arab professor of neuroscience.

She researches the neural and molecular basis of anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder, and is examining, among other things, the possibility of "erasing" memories of fear, through the silencing of the neural mechanisms responsible for forming fear memories in the brain. Maron completed her three degrees at the University of Haifa and did her post-doctorate in France at the University of Paris.

Maron has been currently serving as the university's Vice President for Research.

"Mona was chosen because she is an outstanding researcher, because she is an excellent vice president for research who promoted academic excellence and that the members of the faculty believed that she was the right person to continue advancing the university towards our goals and objectives," said Alroey. "And at our university, the right person can be a man or a woman, a Jew or an Arab -- it really does not matter and is not important. This is the meaning of our shared existence."

Around 18,000 students are enrolled in the public research institution. (ANI/TPS)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Islamabad [Pakistan], April 13 (ANI): People in Pakistan's northwestern upper and lower Kohistan districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa blocked the Karakoram highway on Friday against the suspension of senior police officers following the Bisham suicide attack, Dawn reported.

Five Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver were killed in a suicide bombing on March 26 while travelling between Islamabad and a hydroelectric dam construction site in Dasu, in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Also Read | Pakistan: Militants Kidnap, Kill 11 People in Balochistan Province.

The bus was attacked in the Bisham city of KP's Shangla district, Dawn reported on April 1.

The attack in Bisham was one of several assaults occurring within a short timeframe, all aimed at Chinese interests.

Also Read | Israel Intelligence Reports of Minor Drone Attack by Iran on Its Military Establishments.

Following the deadly blast, China urged for a comprehensive investigation into the incident and emphasized the need for heightened security for its citizens. In response, Islamabad swiftly announced a probe to hold the "perpetrators and accomplices" accountable. Chinese investigators had also arrived to join the probe, as per Dawn.

Responding to the Chinese government's call for prompt action, Islamabad decided to establish a joint investigation team to thoroughly examine the attack.

According to Dawm, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took decisive action last week by ordering measures against five senior police officers due to negligence and security lapses that facilitated the Bisham attack.

Addressing a press conference, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the action was ordered against the police chiefs of Hazara division, Upper Kohistan and Lower Kohistan districts; Dasu Hydropower Project security director; and the commandant of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Special Security Unit.

"The inquiry report found these security officials were negligent in their duties and should have remained alert on the day of the incident," he said, adding, "Disciplinary action will be taken within 15 days," the minister said.

Today, the residents of Upper and Lower Kohistan staged protests in the main bazaars of both districts. They alleged that the officials suspended were not culpable as the attack had taken place in Shangla district's Bisham area.

They lamented that the officials of Upper and Lower Kohistan, as well as the regional police officer of Hazara division, were suspended instead of those from Malakand division, where Shangla is located. They also demanded compensation for the Pakistani driver who was martyred in the attack.

The protesters chanted slogans against Tarar while blocking the Karakoram Highway for two hours.

One of the protesters, Maulana Abdul Aziz Haqqani, said that Kohistan had remained peaceful during a surge in militancy in Malakand and other areas.

He further highlighted that after the 2021 attack in Upper Kohistan, China had received a large amount as compensation but authorities did not do the same for the Pakistani driver who was killed.

In 2021, a suicide attack targeted Chinese engineers, killing 13 people, including nine Chinese workers, and injuring over 23 passengers.

He said that he would not rest until the federal government provided compensation to the heirs of the Pakistani driver killed in the Bisham attack. He also alleged that authorities had not even visited the family of the deceased driver.

"We will not let the government continue [with] this behaviour [of] suspending the Kohistan, Hazara division police officers in a case of Shangla and Malakand division," Maulana Israr, another protester, said.

He said that the protesters wanted a transparent inquiry into the blast, adding that action should be taken against those who were responsible for the crime.

Maulana Waliullah Tawhedi said that doling out punishments to officers from Kohistan in the case of Shangla was not justified. He also demanded compensation for the Pakistani driver killed in the attack, saying that it should be equal to the amount given to the Chinese. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Abu Dhabi [UAE], April 13 (ANI/WAM): UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan exchanged Eid Al-Fitr greetings during phone calls today with His Excellency Bashar Al-Assad, President of the Syrian Arab Republic, and Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani, Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq.

The president shared congratulations and best wishes on the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr and prayed that God continues to bestow His blessings on their countries and peoples.

Also Read | UN Slams Pakistan: United Nations Experts Lambast Pakistan for Failing To Stop Forced Conversions, Marriages of Minor Girls in Country.

They also expressed their hopes for God to grant stability and prosperity to Arab and Muslim nations and to the whole world.(ANI/WAM)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)
Puthandu is the celebration of the Tamil New Year, which will be celebrated on April 14 this year. This annual commemoration is celebrated with great enthusiasm by people from the Tamil community. Like other traditional Hindu calendars, the Tamil calendar begins in April. As we prepare to celebrate Puthandu 2024 on April 14, people are sure to share Happy Puthandu messages, Puthandu Nalvalthukal wishes, Puthandu 2024 greetings, Puthandu Nal Valthukkal images, Happy Tamil New Year images and Puthandu Vazthukal wallpapers, Tamil New Year 2024 WhatsApp stickers and Puthandu 2024 Nalvalthukal Facebook status pictures with family and friends. Here's a look at the latest collection of Puthandu messages, wishes, greetings and more. Puthandu 2024 Date: When Is Varusha Pirappu or Tamil New Year? Know Significance, Celebrations, Rituals & More.

Puthandu is the first day of the Tamil month, Chithirai. It falls on or about April 14 every year on the Gregorian calendar. Different festivals in various parts of the country also mark the celebration of Puthandu. While people in Kerala celebrate this day as Vishu, it is marked as Vaisakhi or Vaisakhi in North India. Hindu New Year's Days 2024 Dates in Different States: Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, Puthandu, Vishu & Jur Sital; Enjoy the Colourful Mosaic of India's Harvest Festivals.

Since the commemoration of Puthandu is said to be the beginning of a new year, the celebrations are focused on starting afresh with the right attitude. From dressing up in new, festive clothes to visiting temples to offer prayers and preparing lavish meals to indulge in with family and friends - Puthandu celebrations are filled with various fun and pompous activities.

As we prepare to celebrate Puthandu 2024, here are some Happy Puthandu messages, Puthandu Nalvalthukal wishes, Puthandu 2024 greetings, Happy Tamil New Year images and wallpapers, Tamil New Year 2024 WhatsApp stickers and Puthandu 2024 Nalvalthukal Facebook status pictures that you can share with family and friends.

Happy Puthandu Greetings (File Image)

WhatsApp Message Reads: May the Dawn of Puthandu Usher In a Cascade of Blessings, Illuminating Your Path With Hope, Happiness, and Prosperity. Puthandu Vazthukal

Happy Puthandu Greetings (File Image)

WhatsApp Message Reads: As We Step Into This Tamil New Year, May the Melodies of Success and Harmony Resonate in Your Life, Filling Every Moment With Abundance and Fulfillment. Happy Puthandu

Happy Puthandu Greetings (File Image)

WhatsApp Message Reads: Let Us Embrace the Freshness of This Tamil New Year With Renewed Vigour, Seizing Each Opportunity With Enthusiasm and Gratitude. Wishing You a Jubilant Puthandu Celebration

Happy Puthandu Greetings (File Image)

WhatsApp Message Reads: On This Auspicious Occasion, May the Divine Light Guide You Towards Success and Contentment in All Your Endeavours. Puthandu Vazthukal

Happy Puthandu Greetings (File Image)

WhatsApp Message Reads: May the Tapestry of This Tamil New Year Be Woven With Threads of Joy, Love, and Prosperity, Painting a Vibrant Picture of Happiness in Your Life. Happy Puthandu

We hope that the Tamil New Year celebration brings you the prosperity, happiness, and good luck you deserve. We wish you and your family a very happy and prosperous Happy Puthandu 2024!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 13, 2024 09:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday greeted Sikhs on Baisakhi and Tamils on Puthandu, renewing his government's commitment to building a "better, fairer, and more inclusive country for everyone".
The progressive growth in the BJPs vote share in West Bengal since the 2009 Lok Sabha elections could be a major concern for the ruling Trinamool Congress. This is because even a marginal addition in the BJPs vote share can result in a fall in the number of seats for the ruling party.
To support news publishers of all sizes, the company has so far launched Google News Showcase which operates in 26 countries with over 2,500 participating publications.
Meanwhile, Israel Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, on Friday, said, "The world is seeing the true face of Iran, the terrorist body that incites terror attack across the Middle East and funds Hamas, Hezbollah and other proxies in attacking Israel.
Bill Paxton knew he was pretty stoned on something pretty bad after eating PCP-laced chowder while filming part of Titanic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1996.

The story about PCP-laced chowder on the "Titanic" set isn't a new one, but it's a good one  good enough that Bill Paxton just revisited it with Larry King.

"I knew I was pretty stoned on something pretty bad. And me and Jim [Cameron] thought there was a neurotoxin in the clams," the actor said on Ora.TV's "Larry King Now."

Paxton, who reportedly opted for the chowder over Italian food that night while filming on location, described the scene as bunches of crew members were "stumbling" into the ER at a small hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, at 1 a.m.

"You see some people are freaking out, some people are conga dancing, some people are euphoric," he said.

Although it was initially reported that only crew members and none of the cast was dosed, Paxton said he definitely was.

"We didn't know what it was. We thought maybe the clams had been left out in the sun or whatever," said the 60-year-old "Texas Rising" star.

But with all those other people ahead of him at the ER, Paxton opted for a home remedy.

"I said, 'Jim, I'm not gonna hang out here, this is bedlam. I'm gonna ... wander back down to the set and just drink a case of beer,' which is what I did.

"That seemed to help me."

Halifax police investigating the incident said at the time that testing had confirmed the presence of the drug, also known as angel dust, in the catered chowder.

Not confirmed? Whether the chowder contained lobster or clams. And whether 50, 100 or 150 people were drugged. Details of the story seem to have changed over the years.

Hey, when it's a good story, that's pretty much what happens.

Follow Christie D'Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ and Google+. Follow the Ministry of Gossip on Twitter @LATcelebs.
Donald Trump just got dealt a massive blow to his defense in the classified documents case in Florida as his lawyer, Evan Corcoran, has left his legal team. To make things worse, he might become a witness against him as Trump may have lied to Corcoran and hid classified documents from him as the lawyer was trying to comply with an FBI subpoena.

Corcoran was forced to recuse himself after it came out that the former president lied to him about there being no more classified documents in Mar-a-Lago. This time, however, he is not representing the ex-POTUS anymore as he completely left the legal team.

Corcoran, who was just doing his duties as Trump's attorney, was trying to comply with the subpoena at that time and was looking for the classified documents to give up to federal authorities. However, as it turned out, Trump had his henchmen hide the classified documents elsewhere in Mar-a-Lago.

The now-former Trump attorney has been known for taking notes and voice recordings. These include his dealings with the former president and these may be important to Special Counsel Jack Smith's prosecution as these may reveal whether or not Trump misled Corcoran about his mishandling of sensitive documents that he took from the White House.

The Independent reported that Corcoran has been listed as "Trump Attorney 1" in the Mar-a-Lago indictment and his departure may cause more headache for Trump because he could be a liability for the former president as his testimony could help bring him down.

Evan Corcoran Notes Showed Donald Trump Tried Evading Subpoena for Mar-a-Lago Classified Documents

When Brian Butler, a Mar-a-Lago worker who flipped against Trump and was identified in the indictment as "Trump Employee 5," spoke with CNN, he stated that Corcoran "unknowingly helped Mr. Trump move several boxes allegedly containing classified materials to an airport while Mr. Trump was greeting federal investigators at his property in June 2022."

READ MORE: Donald Trump Lawyers Screwed Up, Sent Subpoena To Wrong Person in Porn Star Hush Money Trial

This is ironic as Corcoran was the lawyer who was looking for these very classified documents to give up to federal authorities so that his client, Donald Trump, would not go to jail. He reportedly searched all over Mar-a-Lago and only found a cache of 38 documents.

It was revealed in Trump's indictment that the former president even asked Corcoran if the lawyer found anything incriminating among a cache of 38 documents, even suggesting that the lawyer "pluck" them out. Despite this, Corcoran still gave those documents up, not knowing the president was hiding even more.

Donald Trump Loses Yet Another Delay Attempt for Porn Star Hush Money Trial

As Donald Trump deals with possibly having one of his top lawyers turning against him, he also tried to employ his "Delay Delay Delay" tactic to his New York porn star hush money trial and failed for the fourth straight time.

This time, in another longshot attempt to delay the historic trial, scheduled to kick off on Monday with jury selection, the former president tried to postpone his trial because of publicity about the case. This was immediately thrown out, with Judge Juan Merchan saying that that idea was "not tenable."

The former president "appears to take the position that his situation and this case are unique and that the pre-trial publicity will never subside. However, this view does not align with reality," wrote the judge in his decision.

READ MORE: Donald Trump Tried Using Ruby Garcia Death To Attack Joe Biden; Her Family Slams Him and Denies They Spoke With Him

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Haberman: Former Trump lawyer's notetaking is 'disquieting' to Trump - CNN
In a decisive move to tackle rampant turmoil, Haiti's government has established a nine-member transitional presidential council.

They will select new Haiti leaders, aiming to address its challenges.

This development marks a significant step towards restoring security in the Caribbean nation, which has been grappling with the pervasive influence of criminal gangs, particularly in its capital city, AP News reports.

However, the decree unveiled by the council raises more questions than it answers.

It refrains from disclosing the identities of the council members or setting a timeline for their installation and the replacement of Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

Henry had previously committed to stepping down upon the appointment of his successor but has not yet commented on this latest development.

The decree entrusts the current prime minister, despite his waning popularity, with overseeing the initial proceedings.

He is tasked with making the necessary preparations before the new appointments take effect.

The Haiti transitional council, once formed, will collaborate with the prime minister in assembling an inclusive cabinet of ministers.

Moreover, the decree underscores the council's role in expediting the deployment of international troops, a request made by Henry in 2022 to bolster law enforcement efforts against the escalating threat posed by armed gangs.

READ NEXT: Haiti's Leaders Secure Agreement for Transition Government

Challenges and Delays

Despite the formalization of the transition plan to hire new Haiti leaders, uncertainties linger, exacerbating the already precarious situation, according to Reuters.

The announcement comes amid a backdrop of escalating Haiti gang violence, with armed assailants launching attacks in areas of Port-au-Prince not yet under their control, while Prime Minister Henry remained outside the country.

The location of the council's headquarters, slated to be the National Palace in downtown Port-au-Prince, raises concerns given the recent spate of attacks targeting the symbolic seat of Haiti's government.

Reports of gunfire in the capital following the publication of the decree only serve to underscore the gravity of the security challenges facing the nation.

Efforts to finalize the Haiti transitional council's composition have been mired in delays, prompting accusations of obstructionism by Henry's allies.

Despite assurances of imminent announcements, the nominations put forth by various groups have yet to be formalized, prolonging the transition process and fueling frustrations among the populace.

International Support and Assistance

In a show of support for Haiti transitional council efforts, the Biden administration has authorized the release of $60 million in aid, primarily earmarked for equipment and training for a multinational police force.

This assistance is intended to bolster the capacity of Haitian law enforcement in combating the Haiti gang violence wreaking havoc across the country.

President Biden's decision to utilize the Presidential Drawdown Authority underscores the urgency of the situation, bypassing congressional hurdles to expedite vital assistance to Haiti.

The funding will facilitate the deployment of Kenyan police officers, who are set to play a pivotal role in the multinational security mission, the Miami Herald noted.

However, securing adequate funding for the mission has proven to be a formidable challenge, with both the United States and the United Nations struggling to garner sufficient support.

Congressional skepticism, coupled with logistical hurdles, has hindered efforts to mobilize the necessary resources, underscoring the complexities of the crisis facing Haiti.

As with grapples escalating Haiti gang violence and political uncertainty, the establishment of a transitional presidential council represents a crucial step towards restoring stability and addressing the myriad challenges confronting the nation.

However, the path ahead remains fraught with obstacles, requiring concerted efforts both domestically and internationally to navigate the turbulent waters ahead.

READ MORE: Argentine President Javier Milei Scheduled to Meet Elon Musk

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Ross Key

WATCH: Haiti leaders reach deal to form transitional council - From ANC 24/7
Manuel Rocha was once regarded as one of the most respected diplomats the US has had. However, he is now a convicted criminal after it was found that he was a spy for Cuba, with a federal court sentencing the former US Ambassador to Bolivia to 15 years in prison.

The 15-year sentence came after Rocha, who was once one of the US State Department's most trusted and respected diplomats to the Americas, pled guilty to two counts of "conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiring to defraud the United States and acting as an agent of a foreign government without notice as required by law."

According to The Hill, he was sentenced to "the statutory maximum penalty" as his case was considered one of the highest breaches of national security in US history as Manuel Rocha operated as a Cuban spy for decades without the US government knowing anything despite the warning signs.

"Today's plea and sentencing brings to an end more than four decades of betrayal and deceit by the defendant," said Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division in a statement. "Rocha admitted to acting as an agent of the Cuban government at the same time he held numerous positions of trust in the U.S. government, a staggering betrayal of the American people and an acknowledgment that every oath he took to the United States was a lie."

Rocha was found out to be a spy after getting caught in a sting operation where he called the United States "the enemy" to an undercover FBI agent.

READ MORE: Cuba Spy Case: Ex-CIA Agent Admits 'They Beat Us' Amid Manuel Rocha Espionage Arrest

Judge Issues Scathing Remarks Against Manuel Rocha for Being a Cuban Spy

Rocha's betrayal has shocked the entire US Foreign Service and it was noted that his plea agreement still leaves many unanswered questions regarding his future.

The court also ordered Rocha to pay a $500,000 fine and to cooperate with authorities. However, this did not save Rocha from being berated by US District Court Judge Beth Bloom, who told the Cuban spy, "Your actions were a direct attack to our democracy and the safety of our citizens."

Rocha was given some time to address his actions, asking his friends and family for forgiveness before saying, "I take full responsibility and accept the penalty."

Judge Also Blasts Prosecutors on Other Possible Victims of Cuba Spy Manuel Rocha

The judge did not just scold Rocha but also the prosecutors, suggesting that they did not do enough to investigate possible victims. However, according to CNN, prosecutors just stated that the US government was his only victim.

Judge Bloom also asked prosecutors why they did not go for stripping Rocha of his citizenship, given that he pledged allegiance to the US during a naturalization ceremony in the 1970s while working for an enemy of the state. However, Assistant US Attorney Jonathan D. Stratton stated that "the government considered stripping his citizenship but prioritized that Rocha admit his guilt."

READ MORE: Ex-US Ambassador a Cuba Spy? Manuel Rocha Calls America 'The Enemy'

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia Manuel Rocha to plead guilty - CBS Miami
The top criminal court in Argentina, the Federal Criminal Cassation Court, has found that the Islamic fundamentalist organization Hezbollah and the government of Iran are liable for the deadly attacks on Argentina during the 1990s. These include the deadly attacks on the Israeli Embassy and the AMIA Jewish community center.

The Federal Criminal Cassation Court declared both attacks, the 1992 Israel Embassy attack and the 1994 Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) community center attack, as crimes against humanity. This means that this status places both attacks "beyond the statute of limitations despite the passage of time and the lack of judicial results."

It has been over three decades since these attacks, and the chamber's judges called Iran a "terrorist state" as it found the country to have ordered both attacks, which were perpetrated by Hezbollah.

However, the Buenos Aires Times noted that the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish community center has never been claimed or solved, though both the governments of Argentina and Israel have suspected that Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah group carried it out at the request of the Iranian government.

"Hezbollah carried out an operation that responded to a political, ideological, and revolutionary design under the mandate of a government, of a State," said Judge d Carlos Mahiques, one of the three judges who ruled on the case. He added that the terrorist group "acted under the inspiration, organization, planning, and financing of state and parastatal bodies subordinate to the Ayatollahs' government."

It is well known that Argentina and Israel have strong ties as the country has the largest Jewish community in Latin America, with over 300,000 Jewish people living there. However, Argentina is also home to immigrant communities from the Middle East, including Syria and Lebanon.

READ MORE: Argentina President Javier Milei Sparks Protests After Firing 24,000 Government Workers

Argentina Court Failed to Provide Concrete Evidence Iran Was Behind Jewish Center Attack

Despite Argentina's top criminal court finding both Hezbollah and its state sponsor, Iran, to be the ones responsible for the deadly attacks, which both happened in Buenos Aires, the Associated Press noted that the court also did not provide concrete evidence that Iran was behind either attack.

There was actually no concrete evidence of Iran's direct involvement presented by the court and neither did it shed new light on the case after 30 years.

It was noted that Argentina has been blaming Iran for the attack for decades now, and this placed a strain on the relationship between the two countries.

Victims Could Now Sue Iran Over 1990s Attacks After Court Decision

Even though the Argentine court did not find any solid evidence against Iran, the decision could be pivotal as this opens the Islamic Republic up for lawsuits from the families of those who died in both attacks that have also been blamed on Hezbollah.

"The significance of these grave human rights violations for the international community as a whole invokes a state's duty to provide judicial protection," the 3-judge panel ruled.

Despite this, however, relatives of the victims just found the ruling a "grim reminder of their anguish as the case remains open," according to NBC News.

READ MORE: Seven More States Sue Education Department Over Joe Biden's SAVE Plan

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Written by: Ross Key

WATCH: A state lawmaker left his loaded firearm in a Capitol bathroom, and he's not first to do it - From Next 9NEWS
A catastrophic incident unfolded in Brenham, on Friday, resulting in one fatality and injuring 13 others after a Texas man driving a stolen 18-wheeler truck intentionally crashed into a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) building.

Officials deemed the act deliberate, sparking shock and grief in the community, USA Today reports.

According to Sgt. Justin Ruiz of the Texas DPS, law enforcement officers-initiated pursuit of the stolen truck upon recognizing it had been reported as stolen earlier that morning.

The chase culminated in tragedy when the driver, identified as 42-year-old Texas man Clenard Parker of Chappel Hill, Texas, abruptly veered and crashed into the DPS building around 10:30 AM.

Law Enforcement Response and Victim Updates

During an afternoon press conference, Texas DPS, along with Senator Lois Kolkhorst and Brenham Mayor Atwood Kenjura, provided updates on the devastating event.

Of the 14 individuals present in the DPS building at the time of the Texas semi-truck crash, all sustained injuries, with one tragically succumbing to their injuries later at the hospital, according to CNN.

The Texas semi-truck Parker was operating had been reported stolen, prompting law enforcement to pursue the vehicle.

Despite the intentional crash, Parker emerged unharmed.

However, three individuals remain in critical condition, with two airlifted to nearby hospitals and one transported to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.

The remaining victims received medical treatment and have been released.

READ NEXT: Texas Concrete Truck Driver Admits Cocaine Use Before Fatal Bus Crash

Investigation and Official Responses

Texas Rangers have assumed responsibility for investigating the incident, with assurances from DPS that there is no ongoing threat to public safety.

Texas man now faces multiple felony charges and is in custody at the Washington County Jail.

The community, reeling from the tragedy, has rallied around the victims and their families, with victim support services established at the Brenham Police Department.

Senator Kolkhorst emphasized the severity of the situation, pledging to pursue justice vigorously.

The gravity of the situation was palpable during the press conference, with sentiments of shock and sorrow reverberating through the community, KBTX noted.

Mayor Kenjura described the incident as a "senseless tragedy," expressing gratitude for the swift response of first responders.

Governor Greg Abbott echoed these sentiments, extending condolences to the victims and their families while affirming Texas's commitment to holding the perpetrator accountable.

Washington County Sheriff Otto Hanak characterized the event as a criminal act, highlighting the collaborative efforts of law enforcement to ensure public safety.

As the community grapples with the aftermath of the tragedy, support and prayers pour in from across the state.

Law enforcement authorities continue to investigate the incident, with a focus on understanding the perpetrator's motives and ensuring justice for the victims of the Texas man.

Brenham, a tight-knit community located approximately 70 miles northwest of Houston, stands united in solidarity with the victims and their families during this challenging time.

As investigations unfold, authorities urge caution and cooperation from the public to facilitate a thorough examination of the circumstances surrounding the tragic event.

READ MORE: Astrology Influencer in California Fatally Stabs Partner, Pushes Children from Moving Vehicle

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Ross Key

WATCH: 18-wheeler crashes into Texas DPS offices: 1 dead, 13 injured - From FOX 26 Houston
SHAMPOO YOUR PAINTBRUSHES

Dear Heloise: When I wash my paintbrushes after painting, I shampoo them with a dish detergent, then condition them using a hair conditioner. Afterward, I rinse them really well and let them dry. Ive been using the same brushes for years. -- Jan Nelson, via email

ANOTHER LID-OPENING HACK

Dear Heloise: Another great way to open stubborn jars is to use an auto oil filter wrench. It adjusts to many different sized lids; however, make sure to do it over the sink. If it takes too much force, youll end up splashing pickle juice everywhere. But that pesky lid will definitely come off.

Im a daily reader of your column in the Journal Gazette. -- Richard K., Fort Wayne, Indiana

LIST OF PRESCRIPTIONS

Dear Heloise: Miss Donna wrote in that she prints out labels with her list of prescriptions to attach to doctors forms. I just keep a word document with prescriptions and supplements, plus one for medical history. Then I print out a paper copy to attach to the doctors forms, and I write see attached in the section that requests it. -- M.D., in California

MAYONNAISE HINT

Dear Heloise: I have a kitchen hint. Mayonnaise now comes in squeeze bottles, which are great for making sandwiches. However, its difficult to get the last few teaspoons out. So, I add just a splash or two of buttermilk to the bottle. It gets all of the mayo out of the bottle or jar and still keeps it tasting delicious!

Hope you like my hint. -- Betsy, Bellingham, Washington

OUTDATED CALENDARS

Dear Heloise: Another use for outdated calendars is to donate them to a youth group such as the Boys & Girls Clubs. Kids might like a pretty picture to hang in their room, or the pictures can be used to make placemats and other things for such groups. Another group is Meals on Wheels. -- Mercy Grace, via email

ANGEL GOWNS

Dear Heloise: I do volunteer work with a nonprofit organization called NICU Helping Hands/Angel Gown Program (www.nicuhelpinghands.org). We take donated wedding dresses and make gowns for infants who are about to take their last journeys as they leave this world. We consider it a privilege to honor a tiny life by making a burial gown and helping a bereaved family.

As sad as the occasion is, its still a wonderful feeling to know that I can help someone who is grieving. In fact, most charities need more volunteers. I urge anyone who is retired or has free time to find a charity in need of helping hands and look into volunteering. Somewhere someone needs your help. -- Anon., in San Antonio

PET PAL

Dear Heloise: This is Harley Jones, a very sweet pit bull mix. She resides with our family, who loves her to death. She is our angel. -- A Reader, via email

Harley JonesHeloise

Readers, to see Harley Jones and our other Pet Pals, go to Heloise.com and click on Pet of the Week.

Do you have a furry friend to share with our readers? Send a photo and a brief description to Heloise@Heloise.com. -- Heloise

SEND A GREAT HINT TO: Heloise@Heloise.com

(c) 2024 by King Features Syndicate Inc.
An Allentown man is headed to prison for a double fatal crash in Whitehall Township that authorities said was blamed on motorcycle racing.

Christian Joel Gonzalez-Santiago, 28 was sentenced Friday to between 2 1/2 and five years in prison, according to the Lehigh County District Attorney. He had pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter, admitting that prosecutors have enough evidence to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt.

The 2022 crash claimed the lives of Jose Estrada-Estrada, 42, of Reading, the other motorcyclist, and 16-year-old Mia G. Due, a Whitehall High School student.

In July 2022, police were called to a crash on MacArthur Road at Mechanicsville Road for an accident involving two motorcyclists who were accused of racing, and a Jeep Renegade.

Gonzalez-Santiago and Estrada-Estrada were racing on their motorcycles at speeds that exceeded 80 mph, according to the district attorney. The state argued that those fatalities were a result of the vehicles racing at the high speed.

Due was a passenger in the Jeep that collided with the motorcycle driven by Estrada-Estrada, police said.

Estrada-Estrada and Due were pronounced dead at the scene from blunt force trauma, according to authorities. The Lehigh County Coroner ruled the deaths as accidental.

Jelani Gibson is a cannabis and politics reporter for NJ.com. He can be reached at jgibson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jelanigibson1 and on LinkedIn.
As a member of the House State Government Committee, one of our main focuses is examining legislation related to the electoral process, voting rights and reforms to Pennsylvanias Elections Code.

As a Lehigh County legislator, I understand and value the importance of fair and transparent elections. When Pennsylvanias citizens go to their local polling place to cast their ballot for candidates across offices, they are exercising their right to have their voices heard and are holding their elected officials accountable.

In Pennsylvania, April 23 is Primary Election Day  another opportunity for eligible voters to participate in the electoral process and select candidates who best represent their beliefs and values.
*Reader discretion is advised*

THERE were emotional scenes in Limerick Circuit Criminal Court this Friday morning as a mother told the man, who engaged in a sexual act with her baby boy, he was a dirty, ugly, horrible, smelly scumbag".

The woman went over to the accused as he was being led away by prison officers at the end of the sentencing hearing and verbally berated him.

Judge Tom ODonnell lifted reporting restrictions on the defendant - Jamie Marshall, aged 35, who is a native of Limerick. The judge told media in attendance not to name the mother, the child or give Mr Marshalls address as his parents reside there.

Mr Marshall pleaded guilty to five charges - engaging in a sexual act with a child under the age of 15, possession of child pornography, knowingly distributing child pornography, knowingly producing child pornography and use of information and communication technology to facilitate sexual exploitation of child.

The evidence in the case was heard on Thursday.

Judge ODonnell put matters back to this Friday to consider his verdict.

In giving his verdict, the judge said he would not go into the graphic details.

Judge ODonnell said the behaviour of Mr Marshall was vile, egregious, despicable and appalling. He said it was depravity of the highest order with an infant child. The judge spoke of the psychological damage suffered by the mother.

Judge ODonnell took into account the accuseds early guilty pleas, remorse expressed and the avoidance of a trial.

The judge handed down a six-year jail sentence with the last two years suspended on each of the five charges to be served concurrently. They were backdated to May 2, 2023, when Mr Marshall first entered custody.

The mother of the child wished to waive her right to anonymity but she cannot be named as it would identify the child.

She told media at the conclusion of the case she would have preferred if he got longer (in jail).

Four years for such horrible acts and uploading them - I think it's an absolute joke. It was too nice to him, said the woman, who hoped the DPP appeals the sentence on grounds of leniency.

I was hoping for at least 10 years. Im not happy with the sentence at all. I wanted closer to 10 years definitely. I am distraught by it all, she said.

The woman wished to thank the messaging mobile app Kik for reporting the videos and images, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in America, gardai and especially Detective Garda John ONeill.
Micheal Martin said the damage caused to young people by social media is the public health challenge of our time.

The Fianna Fail leader said there is a need for a serious public debate around the issue, saying that the Government needs to engage with social media companies.

He also said he didnt agree with the decision by social media giant Meta to lower the minimum age to use WhatsApp

The change, which reduces the age limit from 16 to 13, came into force in the EU and UK on Thursday.

I dont agree with that. I think this is the serious stuff weve got to engage with and we will engage with the technology companies, Mr Martin said on Saturday as the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis got under way.

I think the elephant in the room today, and there is maybe a few elephants in the room, but one crucial one is the damage social media is doing to young people and to children.

We need a real serious public debate.

The research is there and emerging in terms of the damage thats been done to children and young kids.

I think that is the big elephant in the room.

I think that is the public health challenge of our time.

He said he believes that weve all backed off the issues cause by social media.

People are very concerned about AI. This is huge industry, he added.

I also feel that we were all brought along on the tide of it, that this is wonderful new technology, that is fantastic.

And theres huge positives in online and social media  huge positives.

But in terms of education, in terms of connectivity of young people, in terms of bullying, in terms of psychological impacts and the manipulation of algorithms, the apps that underage children are on.

There are huge issues. I think weve come late to that side of the story around the internet, social media and so forth.

Its interesting, (there is) a lot of that focus on AI, there was a greater preparation around that. But there wasnt the same sort of alarm bells ringing.

Mr Martin said he does not use TikTok on government phones but was aware the Taoiseach Simon Harris had been posting on the social media giant in his government office, despite warnings.

I dont use TikTok on government phones and we have far increased security around our government phones and government email systems, he told Newstalk.

In December, Mr Martin took legal action against Google over ads that were linked to him in the public interest.

He launched the court action against the tech giant over ads that were linked to him, with the High Court issuing a court order to force the multinational to hand over information about the adverts.

Mr Martin said the ads suggested he was endorsing cryptocurrency companies.

He said he believes that there was cooperation from the company because of his position in government.

But wheres the citizen? What opportunity has a citizen? he added.

Im not finished with that job, because a lot of material has come in and whats interesting is this could be part of the model.

A similar thing happened just two or three weeks before the referendum.

I was kind of plastered all over X (formerly Twitter), as endorsing (a fake ad).

Im encouraging people, apparently, to invest and that I found this ingenious way  this is all fixed.

Then X says it is taking it down but then it reappears again.

Now the problem for us is in politics is what happens in the middle of a general election if more refined methodology emerges?

We still have to go to court to get a court order.

So I think the technology companies have to get to grips with their model, and really understand that theyre part of a society.

Minister for Education Norma Foley said that social media could face fines amounting to millions of euro if they failed to comply with safety regulations.

She said that Coimisiun na Mean, the newly established regulator for broadcasters, on-demand services, and online media, will have considerable power and force.

She also appealed to parents of primary-school children not to buy smart phones for their youngsters.

Ms Foley added: I have met with a wide variety of the social media platforms and I am very, very keen in this space, that we would do all that we can, in particular to protect young people.

Im very keen, for example, around the area of age verification.

I have consistently asked that would be a priority for them.

I am very, very pleased that Coimisiun na Mean is up and running in terms of the regulation that they would have.

The considerable power and force that they would have in terms of regulation.

If various platforms are not complying as they should, in terms of health and safety aspect, particularly for young people, that there will be considerable fines there, whether it would be 20% of their overall profits.

Were actually talking millions of euro here and I think thats right and proper.

For our part in education, were doing all that we can to inform parents, to inform young people.

Its a growing area of incredible concern. I think its quite appalling to see that there are children as young as six and seven, who not only do they have a smartphone, but we are told that there are children being groomed online.

Theres exchange of very inappropriate images, extortion, and content also that no young people really should be exposed to and no family, no parents or guardians want them to be exposed to.

It is a minefield and I think people have to be very cognizant of the decisions that they make, particularly for our younger people and to safeguards need to be there.
Irelands deputy premier has appealed to Iran to step back from an escalation, after it pledged to retaliate against Israel over the attack on its consulate in Damascus.

Micheal Martin said there have been very worrying developments between Iran and Israel in recent days.

Iran has vowed to retaliate after two of its top generals were killed in an air strike on its consulate in Syria earlier this month, which the US military believes was carried out by Israel.

Mr Martin used his keynote address to Fianna Fails conference to appeal for calm.

Speaking in Dublin on Saturday, Mr Martin said: This weekend there are very worrying developments in tensions between Iran and Israel.

We join with others in appealing to Iran to step back from an escalation which threatens millions more people in the region with conflict.

And events internationally remind us again of the urgency of working for lasting peace and reconciliation on this island.

Turning to events in Gaza, he said that tireless work has been carried out over the past six months to try to bring an end to the war.

Let there be no doubt, the brutal savagery of Hamas on October 7th should be condemned by anyone with basic decency. Nothing could ever justify their objectives and actions, Mr Martin added.

Wonderful to see so many Fianna Fail members and friends gathered at the 82u Ard Fheis. This is an opportunity to reflect on our achievements in Government and look forward to the future. #FFArdFheis24 pic.twitter.com/azoWjqmICV  Micheal Martin (@MichealMartinTD) April 13, 2024

They should release all hostages and stop their activities, which have brought great misery to the Palestinian people.

But as I have said repeatedly, including in direct discussions with the Israeli government, its war in Gaza is causing a shocking humanitarian catastrophe and cannot be justified.

The evidence shows that war crimes have been committed and the bombardment of the population must be utterly condemned.

He called for a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages and a mass humanitarian relief.

The only possible route to peace is for a stable, democratic state for the Palestinian people, Mr Martin added.

I will soon bring to Government a formal proposal, in coordination with other governments we have worked with throughout this conflict to recognise a Palestinian state.

He also pledged to clamp down on social media companies, who fail to comply with safety regulations.

Mr Martin said that every school in Ireland will receive funding to support the banning of smartphones during school time.

Wherever I go in the country I meet parents who are worried about what is becoming the new public health crisis of our time  the impact on children of social media and being constantly online, he added.

And to the social media companies our message is clear. Take concrete steps to get underage children off your apps or we will impose those steps on you.

Online safety  getting children off their screens and back talking to each other  these are objectives we should all share.

He said there is also a need to tackle the rising cost of living, which he said is being experienced by every family.

Now and always, Fianna Fail is at its best when it takes on the hardest work. When it puts serving the people ahead of politics. When it is willing to take hard decisions today in order to deliver sustained progress for Ireland. There is much more to be done. #FFArdFheis24 pic.twitter.com/eG87w6iKmT  Micheal Martin (@MichealMartinTD) April 12, 2024

The Fianna Fail leader said that Irelands largest reserve funds will guarantee investments.

Called the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, they will mean that the needs of our citizens are provided for, today and well into the future, he added.

He said the Infrastructure Fund will see that new school buildings, new hospitals facilities, roads and public transport will have secured funding.

Mr Martin also used the speech to address climate issues, saying the extreme weather changes are the direct impact of climate change.

No community is being hit harder by climate change than our farmers and the wider agri-food industry, he said.

They are not only our largest indigenous industry, they are also custodians of our nature and our food security.

We need our farming community. We need sustainable food production.

Fianna Fail understands that reconciling both food security and action on climate change is a defining challenge of our time  and we have to support farmers in this.

We are putting in place urgent assistance, but more importantly we will deliver longer-term support.

New technologies, direct aid to farmers and real partnership for change  this is Fianna Fails commitment to secure the future for Irish farming and food production.

He also said that childcare fees will reduce by 50% from September, pledging to increase funding to create affordable childcare places nationwide.

And when it comes to changes in personal taxes the priority must be families on low and average incomes who are feeling the most pressure from rising prices, he added.

Thats what weve done this year, and this is our priority for future budgets.

Every cost adds up, and thats why we are also cutting charges for many public services.

Free schoolbooks have been introduced up to the Junior Certificate and will be expanded to all remaining years  permanently lifting a major cost from parents.

On housing, Mr Martin said the Government is reforming planning laws to stop delays of housing projects.

He added: In the last four years more houses have been built than in the previous nine years combined. There is more to be done, but that is real momentum.

Last year alone saw the delivery of 12,000 social homes. And we will go much further. Thousands more are already in the pipeline.

He said the Government will also increase and expand the 750 euro tax credit for renters.

At a time of real crisis for renters, an unacceptable number of homes have been diverted to short-term letting and lie idle through much of the year, he added.

This year we are going to take much stronger action to return homes to the rental market.

And well fund a major expansion in dedicated student housing.
A family has organised a fundraiser after their dad, who worked as a surgeon, lost his battle with cancer.

Fadhil Laabei dedicated his life to science and research, while saving lives as an exceptional consultant surgeon.

To honour his memory, his wife and children will embark on a journey, from Kildare to Mayo, hoping to also raise cancer awareness.

With our Dads recent passing, as a family we are finding strength in the memory of an incredible man, Fadhil Laabei, a devoted Husband, Dad, Grandad, Brother, Son, Uncle, Friend and Doctor, who fought bravely against small cell lung cancer. The loss of such an amazing and generous man has left a void in our lives but his legacy of love and resilience continues to guide us, said the family on GoFundMe.

His wife Bernadette and his children, Senad, Miriam, Eamon, Maisem and Janeen will travel from Naas to Croagh Patrick in Co Mayo.

Amidst the lush greenery of County Kildare, the three lads will pedal 250 km from the family home in Naas, across the Irish countryside, bound for Croagh Patrick in County Mayo. When we reach Croagh Patrick, Mom, Miriam, and Janeen will join us for the climb.

Mayo is not just a destination for us, its a place deeply rooted in our family's history and our mother's hometown. Together, we will ascend the mountain, with the memories of Dad's unwavering resolve etched in our hearts and minds. It will be a bittersweet moment, but we hope to find solace in knowing that our efforts may bring comfort to those facing similar battles, they explained.

The fundraiser is a tribute to their dad, Fadhil, who was dedicated to science and research while saving lives as an consultant surgeon.

The funds raised will go to the Trinity St James Cancer Institute.

Specifically, we aim to fund a Cancer Research Stimulus (CREST) Award which would enable a short-term (up to 12 months) innovative research project ring-fenced to small cell lung cancer and would be named in honour of our Dad. The value of each award is 10,000-12,000 and therefore our target. Your donations and support will make this happen, they said.

The family said they know of the tool of small cell lung cancer.

With each kilometre, we carry his spirit forward, our hearts heavy yet buoyed by the hope of helping others. With every pedal and every step, we shine a light on the importance of cancer research, carrying forward our Dad's legacy, love and resilience.

You can donate to the fundraiser here.
Madison Pacific Properties Inc. announces the results for the six months ended February 29, 2024





VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Madison Pacific Properties Inc. (the Company) (TSX: MPC and MPC.C), a Vancouver-based real estate company announces the results of operations for the six months ended February 29, 2024.



The results reported are pursuant to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for public companies.

For the six months ended February 29, 2024, the Company is reporting net loss of $43.4 million (2023: net income of $23.0 million); cash flows generated from operating activities before changes in non-cash operating balances of $4.3 million (2023: $4.6 million); and loss per share of $0.73 (2023: income per share of $0.38). Included in net loss is a provision of $50.2 million (2023: $nil) for uncertain tax positions recognizing a tax liability for unpaid taxes, estimated interest and awarded legal costs and provisions against the carrying value of the Company's tax deposits and deferred tax assets related to unused carryforward amounts. Also included in net loss is a net gain on the fair value adjustment on investment properties of approximately $4.3 million (2023: $14.0 million).

As previously reported in the Company's Consolidated Financial Statements, the Company and certain subsidiaries had received from the Canada Revenue Agency ("CRA") and Alberta Tax and Revenue Administration ("ATRA") tax notices of reassessment for various taxation years. The reassessments deny the application and usage of certain non-capital losses, capital losses, deductions and investment tax credits arising from prior years. The Company and its subsidiaries had filed notices of objection and notices of appeal to the reassessments with the CRA and ATRA.

The appeal with the Tax Court of Canada ("TCC") for one of the reassessed companies, Madison Pacific Properties Inc., was heard in 2020, 2022 and in 2023 (the "MPP Appeal"). The TCC released its judgement on the MPP Appeal on December 27, 2023 in favour of the CRA's position, confirming the CRA's reassessments. The decision denied Madison Pacific Properties Inc.'s ability to use certain carryforward losses for certain taxation years within its 2009 to 2017 taxation years. On January 26, 2024, the Company filed a notice of objection to the Federal Court of Appeal to appeal the decision issued by the TCC.

Based on the decision of the TCC in respect of the MPP Appeal and other related factors, including the accounting criteria under IFRS regarding tax contingencies, the Company has recorded a full provision against the carrying value of the tax deposits and deferred tax assets related to unused carryforward amounts and a liability for uncertain tax positions for unpaid taxes and estimated interest for all three tax reassessments totalling $50.2 million. The total amount of $50.2 million was recognized to income tax expense of $36.7 million and interest expense and other costs on uncertain tax positions of $13.5 million in the Interim Consolidated Statement of (Loss) Income and Comprehensive (Loss) Income for the six months ended February 29, 2024. As at the date of this Press Release, the Company and its subsidiaries have paid a total of $49.3 million to the CRA and ATRA for the taxes and estimated interest the CRA and the ATRA claimed are owed.

The Company will continue to evaluate its defense positions in respect of the two other reassessed subsidiaries.

As at February 29, 2024, the Company owns approximately $709 million in investment properties, including the Company's proportionate share of investment properties held through joint operations.

As at the date of this Press Release, the Company's investment portfolio comprises 56 properties with approximately 1.9 million rentable sq. ft. of industrial and commercial space and a 50% interest in four multi-family rental properties with a total of 151 units. Approximately 98.57% of available space within the industrial and commercial investment properties is currently leased. The Company's development properties include a 50% interest in the Silverdale Hills Limited Partnership which currently owns approximately 1,400 acres of primarily residential designated development lands in Mission, British Columbia.

For a review of the risks and uncertainties to which the Company is subject, see its most recently filed annual and interim MD&A.

Contact: Mr. John Delucchi Ms. Bernice Yip President & CEO Chief Financial Officer Telephone: (604) 732-6540 (604) 732-6540 Address: 389 West 6th Avenue Vancouver, B.C. V5Y 1L1

12 april 2024 at 20:20

News published onand distributed by:
Gold Mountain Closes Debt Settlements and Private Placement and Announces 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders Details





NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / April 12, 2024 / Gold Mountain Mining Corp. ("Gold Mountain" or the "Company") (TSX:GMTN)(OTCQB:GMTNF)(FRA:5XFA) is pleased to announce that further to its press release dated March 25, 2024, the Company has closed its previously announced transactions with two secured creditors and a number of other unsecured creditors for the settlement and postponement of certain secured and unsecured debts (the "Debt Settlements") and has closed a non-brokered private placement raising gross proceeds of $750,000 (the "Private Placement").

The secured creditors are Nhwelmen Construction LP Ltd. ("Nhwelmen") who settled $1,250,000 in debt and Hedge Minerals Corp.("Hedge") who settled all of its debt, being $1,241,669.18. Nhwelmen and Hedge agreed to accept common shares of the Company at an issuance price of $0.0075 per share (the "Issue Price"), which pricing was at a discount to market price (for a maximum of 166,666,667 common shares being issued to Nhwelmen and 165,555,891 common shares being issued to Hedge).

The remaining amount of the Nhwelmen secured debt will be repaid in equal cash payments over 24 months commencing in April, 2024 and including interest at a rate of 18% per annum.

The Company also approached certain unsecured vendors who provide critical services to the Company and entered into debt settlement agreements for the conversion of $1,249,400 of unsecured debt for settlement of such debts in payment of common shares of the Company at the Issue Price for 166,586,667 common shares.

Further, the Company closed on the Private Placement issuing 100,000,000 common shares in the capital of the Company at the Issue Price for gross proceeds to the Company of $750,000, which represents 14.56% of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares following the issuance of common shares with respect to the Debt Settlements. The common shares issued are subject to applicable resale restrictions, including a hold period of four months and one day from the closing of the Private Placement under Canadian securities rules. The Private Placement is subject to final Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") approval. Proceeds of the Private Placement will be used to ramp up operations at the Elk Gold Mine and for working capital and general corporate purposes. No insiders of the Company will be participating in the Private Placement.

Insider Participation

As disclosed in the March 25, 2024 press release, none of the creditors currently own (directly or indirectly) any securities of the Company. Upon completion of the Debt Settlements and Private Placement, Nhwelmen owns 24.26% of the Company's common shares, Hedge own 24.10% of the Company's common shares and the unsecured creditors own 24.25% the Company's common shares, all on a non-diluted basis. As a result of such ownership, Nhwelmen and Hedge are now "insiders" of the Company for purposes of the TSX Company Manual and a "related party" of the Company pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). No unsecured creditors or subscribers pursuant to the Private Placement have become "insiders" or "related parties" in the Company. The Debt Settlements resulted in a change of control of the Company as both Nhwelmen and Hedge are now control persons in the Company, owning more than 20% of the current issued and outstanding.

The Debt Settlement is a "related party transaction" within the meaning of MI 61-101. However, in light of the fact that the Board and Special Committee have determined that the Company is in serious financial difficulty and that the Debt Settlement is designed to improve the Company's financial situation, the Company is relying on the exemption from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in Section 5.5(g) and Section 5.7(1)(e) of MI 61-101, respectively, on the basis of the "financial hardship" exemption therein.

Financial Hardship Exemption

As the Debt Settlements have: (i) resulted in the issuance of shares to Hedge and Nhwelmen in an amount greater than 25% of the number of common shares outstanding and materially effect control of the Company (section 604(a)(i) of the TSX Company Manual); (ii) diluted the Company's market capitalization by more than 25% (section 607(g)(i) of the TSX Company Manual); and (iii) the issuance of common shares in the Debt Transactions and Private Placement were priced lower than market price less the maximum applicable discount (section 607(e) of the TSX Company Manual), disinterested shareholder approval and an independent report regarding the value of the transaction consideration is required. However, the Company applied to the TSX for a "financial hardship" exemption from the requirements to obtain disinterested shareholder approval and an independent valuation report on the basis that the Company is in serious financial difficulty and the Debt Settlement is designed to improve the Company's financial situation. The application was made upon the recommendation of the Special Committee, free from any interest in the Debt Settlement and unrelated to the parties involved in such transactions (other than the Company) and was based on its determination that the Debt Settlement is reasonable for the Company in the circumstances.

Early Warning Disclosure

Nhwelmen and Hedge are each providing the following additional information pursuant to the early warning requirements of applicable Canadian securities laws.

Prior to the Debt Settlements, Nhwelmen did not own any securities of the Company. Under the Debt Settlements, Nhwelmen acquired an aggregate of 166,666,667 Common Shares at a deemed price of $0.0075 per share in exchange for a portion of its secured debt, representing approximately 24.26% of the issued and outstanding common shares on a non-diluted basis following completion of the Debt Settlement and Private Placement.

Prior to the Debt Settlements, Hedge did not own any securities of the Company. Under the Debt Settlements, Hedge acquired an aggregate of 165,555,891 Common Shares at a deemed price of $0.0075 per share in exchange for the entirety of its secured debt, representing approximately 24.10% of the issued and outstanding common shares on a non-diluted basis following completion of the Debt Settlement and Private Placement.

The securities above are held by Nhwelmen and Hedge for investment purposes. Each of Nhwelmen and Hedge have a long-term view of the investment and may acquire additional securities of the Company including on the open market or through private acquisitions or sell securities of the Company including on the open market or through private dispositions in the future depending on market conditions, reformulation of plans and/or other factors that either the Nhwelmen and Hedge, as applicable, considers relevant from time to time.

A copy of the early warning reports of each of Nhwelmen and Hedge will appear on the Company's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

Annual General Meeting Details

The Company announces that its annual meeting of shareholders ("AGM") will be held on June 19th, 2024 to be held by Zoom at 10am PST.

For further information about the AGM, including access to all meeting materials, the Company will post such materials on its website at www.gold-mountain.ca and under the Company's profile on the SEDAR+ website at www.sedarplus.ca.

About Gold Mountain

Gold Mountain is a British Columbia based gold and silver production, exploration and development company focused on the development of the Elk Gold Mine, a producing mine located 57 kilometers from Merritt in South Central British Columbia. Additional information is available at www.sedar.com or on the Company's new website at www.gold-mountain.ca.

For more information, please contact:

Gold Mountain Mining Corp.

Ronald Woo, CEO

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.gold-mountain.ca

Twitter: www.twitter.com/goldmtnmine

Forward Looking Statements

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation regarding the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern, the impact of the Debt Settlement on the Company and the results thereof, including that it will allow the Company to address its significant working capital deficiency and provide operating capital to the Company so that it can go forward as a viable going concern, receipt of the regulatory and TSX approval, the removal of all secured debt, elimination of future interest payments and the ability for the Company to restart the mine, thereby significantly improving the Company's financial situation. Forward-looking statements include statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release and are not purely historical including any information relating to statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future and often, but not always, use words or phrases such as "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "estimates" or "intends", or stating that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. 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. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; delay or failure to receive board, shareholder or regulatory approvals; the price of gold; and the results of current exploration. 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. Gold Mountain 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.

The TSX has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this News Release.

SOURCE: Gold Mountain Mining Corp

12 april 2024 at 21:02

View the original press release on accesswire.comNews published onand distributed by:
Minister Rodriguez advances Canada's supply chain agenda at the G7 Transport Ministers' Meeting in Italy





MILAN, April 13, 2024 /CNW/ - The Minister of Transport, the Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, wrapped up a successful trip at the G7 Transport Ministers' Meeting in Milan, Italy, from April 11 to 13, 2024.

Minister Rodriguez highlighted the importance that Canada places on increasing supply chain resiliency to build a stronger middle class in Canada and building a cleaner economy. He also took the opportunity to share Canada's best practices and hear from other G7 countries on innovation, supply chain crisis management, and the energy transition.

As part of the G7 discussions, Canada proposed the creation of a new G7 Working Group on Transport Supply Chains to coordinate efforts of G7 countries. This will increase collaboration, share best practices and explore areas for cooperation to strengthen transportation resiliency and sustainability. Today, Ministers agreed to launch the Working Group.

During his visit, Minister Rodriguez met bilaterally with his counterparts from France, Germany, Italy, and the European Union, during which he discussed areas of cooperation between Canada and our allies to build resilient, secure, and sustainable supply chains for future generations across the G7, as well as the greening of the marine, air, and rail sectors.

Ministers concluded their meetings by issuing a joint declaration to reiterate the G7's shared goal of ensuring safety across all modes of transportation as well as to reaffirm the importance of:

improving supply chain resilience and sustainability;

improving accessibility;

dealing with artificial intelligence and improving cyber security;

recognizing the role of strategic infrastructure investments;

mitigating the impacts of global crises on maritime connectivity; and

engaging with emerging markets and developing countries.

Additionally, Minister Rodriguez highlighted the fourth-year anniversary of the downing of flight PS752 and reiterated the need to ensure the continued safety and security of international civil aviation passengers and crew with the Safer Skies Initiative, to enhance the level of safety and security for travellers in or near conflict zones, and to prevent future tragedies.

At a dedicated session on Ukraine with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration and Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, Oleksandr Kubrakov, G7 Ministers expressed their concerns about the global impacts of Russia's illegal and unjustifiable war of aggression, and discussed G7 coordination on reconstruction of transportation infrastructure to help the Ukrainian people. Minister Rodriguez reiterated Canada's unwavering support for Ukraine. Canada unequivocally condemns Russia's ongoing war of aggression and is committed to Ukraine's recovery. As a founding member of the Common Interest Group for Ukraine (CIG4U), facilitated by the International Transport Forum (ITF), Canada helps co-ordinate support for Ukraine's immediate transport-related needs and long-term transport infrastructure plans.

This is also why Minister Rodriguez announced a new investment of $300,000 to the ITF, under the Clean Transportation System program, to help Ukraine's greener reconstruction of passenger road and rail transportation systems. This funding is a natural expansion of Phase 1 announced in March 2023. Phase 2 will focus on passenger road and rail inter-city and international travel. This important work will speed up recovery, giving the people of Ukraine the modern, well-connected, and sustainable rail and road infrastructure they need to secure a prosperous future.

This G7 meeting also gave Minister Rodriguez the opportunity to lay the groundwork for Canada's G7 presidency in 2025.

Quote

"The G7 Transport Ministers' Meeting gives us an important opportunity to exchange ideas on increasing supply chain resiliency to build a stronger middle class and cleaner economy. Having a seat at these meetings is an opportunity to develop and strengthen these relationships, and to promote Canadian priorities to advance a strong transportation sector."

The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez

Minister of Transport

Quick Facts

The G7 members are Canada , France , Germany , Italy , Japan , the United Kingdom , the United States and the European Union.

, , , , , the , and the European Union. Canada will assume the Presidency of the G7 in 2025.

Associated links

G7 Ministers of Transport's joint declaration

Canada and the G7

Minister of Transport announces funding for research to support the rebuilding of more sustainable transport infrastructure in Ukraine

Safer Skies Initiative

Transport Canada is online at www.tc.gc.ca. Subscribe to e-news or stay connected through RSS, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr to keep up to date on the latest from Transport Canada.

This news release may be made available in alternative formats for persons living with visual disabilities.

SOURCE Transport Canada - Ottawa

13 april 2024 at 15:23

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An anti-missile system operates after Iran launched drones and missiles toward Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, on April 14, 2024. AMIR COHEN / REUTERS

Booms and air raid sirens sounded across Israel early Sunday after Iran launched an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel, the Israeli army announced late Saturday, April 13, in a major escalation of the long-running covert war between the regional foes. Iran's proxies and allies also carried out attacks on Israeli positions as sirens sounded in many places and Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondents heard blasts in the skies above Jerusalem early Sunday.

"The regime in Iran sent a massive swarm of over 200 killer drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles," Israel army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a statement, Sunday, adding that "so far, we've intercepted the vast majority of incoming missiles." He said a girl had been injured in the attack.

Iranian strikes caused "minor damage" to an Israeli base, Daniel Hagari added Sunday, after Iran's state media reported "heavy blows" to the base. "Only a few missiles fell in the territory of the state of Israel with slight damage to a military base in the south, with only slight damage to the infrastructure," Rear Admiral Hagari said in a statement.

Operation Honest Promise

Iran's Revolutionary Guards confirmed early Sunday that a drone and missile attack was underway against Israel in retaliation for a deadly April 1 drone strike on its Damascus consulate. "In response to the numerous crimes committed by the Zionist regime, including the attack on the consular section (...) the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired dozens of missiles and drones at specific targets inside the occupied territories [Israel]," state television quoted a Guards statement as saying.

Operation Honest Promise is "being carried out with the approval of the Supreme National Security Council under the supervision of the General Staff of the Armed Forces," the Guards statement said.

Iran had repeatedly threatened to strike Israel in retaliation for a deadly April 1 air strike on its Damascus consular annex and Washington had warned repeatedly in recent days that the reprisals were imminent.

"Iran launched UAVs from its territory towards the territory of the state of Israel," military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement. "We are working in close cooperation with the United States and our partners in the region in order to act against the launches and intercept them," Rear Admiral Hagari said.

Read more Subscribers only Tehran faces strategic dilemma after Damascus consulate is targeted by strikes attributed to Israel

People in Jerusalem sought cover, as residents also stockpiled water. "As you can see it's empty, everybody is running home," said Eliyahu Barakat, a 49-year-old grocery shop owner in Jerusalem's Mamilla neighborhood.

I just met with my national security team for an update on Irans attacks against Israel. Our commitment to Israels security against threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad. pic.twitter.com/kbywnsvmAx  President Biden (@POTUS) April 13, 2024

US President Joe Biden vowed Washington's "ironclad" support for Israel after an urgent meeting with his top security officials on the spiraling crisis.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards confirmed a retaliatory drone and missile attack was underway against Israel in retaliation for the Damascus strike which killed seven Guards, two of them generals.

The Guards said its ballistic missiles were fired almost an hour after the slower-moving drones. Hundreds of Iranians gathered in Tehran's Palestine Square waving Iranian and Palestinian flags to celebrate the unprecedented military action against Israel.

Demonstrators wave Iran's flag and Palestinian flags as they gather at Palestine Square in Tehran on April 14, 2024, after Iran launched a drone and missile attack on Israel. ATTA KENARE / AFP

An Israeli army official said Iran had launched more than 200 attack drones and ballistic missiles at Israel.

Iran's allies in the region joined the attack with Yemen's Huthi rebels also launching drones at Israel, according to security agency Ambrey, and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement announcing rocket fire at Israeli positions in the annexed Golan Heights. The official IRNA news agency said the attack had dealt "heavy blows" to an air base in the Negev desert, but the Israeli army said there had only been minor damage.

'Unfolding' attack

The White House said it expected the attack  which comes against the backdrop of the six-month Israel-Hamas war in Gaza  to "unfold over a number of hours."

The Iranian mission to the United Nations warned Washington to keep out of Iran's conflict with Israel. "It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the US MUST STAY AWAY!" it said. But it added that it hoped its action to punish the strike on its diplomatic mission would lead to no further escalation and "the matter can be deemed concluded." A Pentagon official said US forces were shooting down drones that had been aimed at Israel.

Shortly before the launches, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was prepared for a "direct attack from Iran." "Our defense systems are deployed, we are prepared for any scenario, both in defense and attack," the Israeli premier said. Iran's Revolutionary Guards had already seized an Israeli-linked container vessel in the Gulf earlier on Saturday, putting the whole region on alert.

Israel said it was closing schools nationwide while Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon announced they were temporarily closing their airspace. Israel said it was closing its airspace. The Israeli military warned Iran it would suffer the "consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further."

The April 1 strike in Damascus, which killed 16 people, including two Iranian generals, had been widely blamed on Israel. Iran had repeatedly vowed to hit back but had not specified how. Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a container ship "related" to Israel in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, which was now heading towards Iranian waters, Iranian state media reported.

The ship's operator, the Italian-Swiss group MSC, said it was working with the relevant authorities to ensure the wellbeing of the 25 crew onboard. Both Israel and the United States denounced the seizure as piracy, with Israel also demanding that the Guards be declared a "terrorist organization" by the European Union.

Read more Iran seizes container ship 'affiliated' with Israel off the coast of the United Arab Emirates
FAMILY Carers Ireland the charity providing support to family carers across the country, is thrilled to announce a number of locations in county Clare for its national fundraising event, the exhilarating Cold Water Dip.

Scheduled for Sunday, April 21, this event calls upon the community in Clare to make a splash for a noble cause.

Each year, the Cold Water Dip stands as a unique opportunity for supporters to engage in a fun, spirited activity while championing the invaluable work of family carers.

Participants are invited to register for the event via the Family Carers Ireland website with a modest entry fee of 10. For those inspired to go the extra mile, an optional fundraising page is available, aiming for a target of 50per participant.

In addition to OBriensbridge, Lahinch and Milltown Malbay in Clare, the Cold Water Dip will also make waves in Rosses Point in Sligo, Keem Beach on Achill Island, and Hodson Bay, Roscommon.

Participants are welcome to join at these locations or choose their own spot to take the plunge, symbolising their support for family carers nationwide.

Among the enthusiastic participants is Michael Davis from Limerick, a dedicated carer for his wife, Family Carers Ireland has been a lifeline for me. While caring brings its joys, it often comes with a sense of isolation. However, the resources and support I've received from Family Carers Ireland have been a constant reminder that I'm part of a community.

You can show your support for family carers by joining the Cold Water Dip challenge on Sunday, 21st April. It's an exhilarating way to contribute, raising vital funds to ensure that no family carer ever feels they're walking this path alone."

Jean Ryan, Community Support Manager at Family Carers Ireland in Limerick, echoes Michaels sentiments, We are encouraging everyone in Limerick to dive into this unique opportunity to support a vital cause. The Cold Water Dip is more than a fundraiser; its a celebration of family carers.

"We stand with Michael and all the countless other family carers, recognising their unwavering commitment. We invite everyone on April 21 to take part in this memorable event. Together, we can make a difference, one dip at a time.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was on Saturday injured after stones were pelted during his 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign in Vijayawada, his office informed.

According to news agency PTI, the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party chief was attacked by unknown persons.

Reddy suffered a small cut on his temple above the eye during his Memanta Siddham Lok Sabha poll 2024 canvassing bus tour.

"The stone struck the CM while he was acknowledging the crowds as part of his bus tour at Vivekananda School Centre in Singh Nagar, Vijayawada," the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said a statement.

The PTI report said the stone hit the Andhra chief minister at a very high velocity, prompting the people standing around him to apply pressure to his forehead with a handkerchief initially. Officials are suspecting that it could have been launched from a catapult, said the report.

Reddy was immediately administered first aid inside the bus by a doctor.

The report further added that he was attended to by a doctor inside the bus as he grimaced from pain.

However, unfazed by the stone pelting, Reddy resumed his tour in the city, where he has been canvassing for nearly four hours.

YSRCP leaders have alleged Telugu Desam Party's (TDP) involvement in the "attack".

Earlier today during the bus tour, Reddy said TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu ignored the handloom weavers' community during his tenure.

"Chandrababu ignored the industry (weavers community) in his previous term, but the current government has backed them in the last five years," said Reddy, adding that Mangalagiri weavers are renowned in the Telugu speaking states for their craft.

Jagan Mohan Reddy has embarked on a 21-day Lok Sabha election 2024 campaign bus tour from Idupulupaya in Kadapa district to Icchapuram in Srikakulam district.
A tepid economic recovery, fear of Russian aggression, and the prospect of a Donald Trump electoral victory in the U.S. are nudging Europe closer to China.

On Sunday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will land in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing for a three-day, three-city tour of China focused on economic re-engagement with Beijing. Leading a blue-ribbon delegation of German companies and flanked by three cabinet ministers, Scholz will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday in the capital, Beijing.

Next month, Xi will travel to Paris to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, according to diplomats there, capping a series of events and festivities to mark 60 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The talks, following Beijings lavish welcome for Macron last year, are expected to focus on trade.

The diplomatic ballet follows overtures by Beijing. In November, it allowed nationals from the European Unions five biggest economies to travel visa-free to China, a privilege it has since extended to an additional six European nationsbut not the U.S. In January, China reauthorized Irish beef imports, suspended last year on health grounds, and lifted a 2018 ban on Belgian pork.

This marks an inflection point. In just a few months, the EU has launched four investigations into Chinas subsidizing of its train, wind turbine, solar panel and EV manufacturers in an effort to curb a flood of cheap Chinese imports. The EU is also pushing European companies to reduce their reliance on certain raw materials from China.

European governments have also largely heeded Washingtons calls to cut China off from advanced chip-making technologies. Germany, Chinas biggest European trade partner, unveiled its first China strategy paper last July, calling China a partner and competitor but also a systemic rival and pledging to reduce Germanys exposure to the Asian giant.

German companies have complained about increasing competition from Chinese rivals in sectorsfrom luxury autos to advanced industrial machinesthat used to be Western preserves. Having largely weathered Chinas rise to dominate consumer-goods manufacturing, German high-end engineering companies are being increasingly undercut by Chinese rivals, both in and outside China.

But as Europes economy struggles to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the mood is shifting in some European countriesif not in Brussels. In the U.S., Trumps steady poll lead over President Biden is raising concerns about trans-Atlantic tensions and a new global trade war.

Brussels is moving aggressively against China," said Noah Barkin, a Europe-China analyst at Rhodium Group, an independent research group. But some big European countries like Germany are more preoccupied with Ukraine and TrumpThis raises questions about how forcefully they are going to push back against China."

The threats have led some to question why they should be following Americas lead while China represents a more distant threatand a bigger economic opportunityfor Europe than Russia.

We are a manufacturing, export-oriented nation. Our wealth depends on access to international markets," said Bernd Westphal, a lawmaker for Scholzs Social Democratic Party who sits on the parliaments economic policy committee.

Ding Chun, director of the Centre for European Studies at Shanghai-based Fudan University, said the stakes in the event of a Trump electoral victory were high for Europe, given that the U.S. is both a trade partner and the regions security guarantor. Likewise, Chinese analysts said there was more potential for compromise and cooperation between Europe and China, which are economic competitors, than between China and the U.S., which are increasingly geopolitical rivals.

After Scholzs election in 2021, Germany adopted a tough-on-China approach, cutting state guarantees for German investments there, intensifying export controls and blocking several prominent Chinese acquisitions of German companies.

Among the myriad products made by Trumpf, a private German engineering company with a large presence in the U.S. and China, are lasers essential for making high-end semiconductors. Berlin doesnt allow those to be sold to China, but last year, the companys CEO lashed out at the German government, saying it was slow-walking export permits for a range of innocuous products.

In recent months, however, things have really improved," said Stephan Mayer, Trumpfs China chief. We are almost back to the speed of two years ago."

Chinese analysts said Beijing will use Scholzs visit to defuse growing trade tensions with Europe and ask Berlin to help dilute antisubsidy investigations launched by the EU in recent months. Germany is skeptical about EU plans to place tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles because German car manufacturers, which have a strong presence in China, fear retaliatory measures.

We dont want to reduce trade with China. We want to increase trade with China while at the same time derisking and diversifying," said a senior German government official.

Despite Beijing presenting itself as a champion of free trade, there is hardly a level playing field between European and Chinese exporters, according to European economists. The Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a think tank, estimates Beijing lavishes subsidies equivalent to about 2% of the countrys gross domestic product on its companies, all the while setting barriers for foreigners operating in China.

View Full Image (Source: WSJ)

Moritz Schularick, president of the Kiel Institute, said Chinas approach means that any economic benefit that Europe would derive from re-engagement with China would only be minimal.

China used to be this very supportive growth driver for Europe. People still have this model in their minds," he said. What gets lost is that China is now a fierce competitor for exactly the products Europe is good at making."

Europe is struggling to adjust to the fact that it now finds itself competing against China in fields it used to dominate, said Wang Yiwei, the director of European Union studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing. People will feel unsettled. Its a transition process, itll take time for everyone to get accustomed to it."

While Europe-China trade contracted last year, Europes and Germanys trade deficits have ballooned, reflecting Chinas rise up the value chain. At the same time, European companies are increasingly producing inside China. New German direct investments in China reached a record in 2022, according to data compiled by Rhodium Group.

Wang said Chinese companies were willing to mirror such a local-for-local" strategy in Europe by building local manufacturing facilities for batteries and wind turbines to create jobs and serve the European market, which could assuage European concerns about cheap imports.

The bigger worry in Europe, however, is manufacturers reliance on Chinese chemicals, raw materials and parts, some of which are hard or expensive to source elsewhere.

Jurgen Matthes, head of international economic policy at the German Economic Institute, a think tank, said trade data showed that German companies had made little progress in reducing these dependencies over the past two years.

There is more inertia in this area than the government had hoped," he said. Whether substituting these products just takes a long time, or whether some businesses are just not interested, its hard to tell."

An Allianz study released this week showed Germanys share of critical components sourced in China had risen to 22% of imports, from 6%, over the past 18 years. And a survey by the Ifo Institute found that fewer than 40% of German companies wanted to reduce their reliance on intermediate goods from China compared with half two years ago.

Europe and China remain so intertwined that a sudden decoupling between the two on par with the Russia-Europe breakup of 2022 would cause the German economy to contract by 5%, a shock comparable to that of the Covid pandemic and the global financial crisis, according to a December study by the Kiel Institute.

The dependency isnt one-sided, said Trumpfs Mayer, noting that China remains dependent on a number of products from Western manufacturers. This means both should find ways to work with each other in mutual respect," he said, without being naive, of course."

Write to Bertrand Benoit atbertrand.benoit@wsj.com and Sha Hua at sha.hua@wsj.com
Bank Holidays in April 2024: All banks in India, including the State Bank of India (SBI) will remain closed today on April 13 on account of the second Saturday off. Banks in the country have leaves every second and fourth Saturday of the month. Further, April 13 will also be a weekend off for Sunday.

In fact, in some states, the holidays stretch out further into the next week too, with Monday and Tuesday (April 15 and 16) also being holidays, for Bohag Bihu and Ram Navami, respectively.

Customers are advised to check with their nearest bank branches to confirm local and state holiday leaves to avoid confusion and inconvenience.

Notably, last week, all national banks enjoyed a long holiday week due to religious festivities on April 9, 10 and 11 on account of Gudi Padwa/ Ugadi/ Telegu New Year, Bohag Bihu, and Eid, respectively.

Overall, the banks in India will remain shut for 12 days in April 2024. This will differ in each state as per the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) calendar, for reasons like public holidays, regional holidays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

The holiday calendar is decided by the central bank and the corresponding state governments. The regional holidays of the banks vary depending on the local customs of different states.

See | Maharashtra Bank Holidays in 2024

Below is the full list of other bank holidays in April 2024 April 5 bank holiday: On account of Babu Jagjivan Rams Birthday/Jumat-ul-Vida, banks will remain shut in Telangana and Jammu

April 9 bank holiday: Banks in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Manipur, Goa, Jammu and Srinagar will be closed for Gudhi Padwa/Ugadi Festival/Telugu New Year's Day/Sajibu Nongmapanba (Cheiraoba)/1st Navratra.

April 10 bank holiday: Banks will be closed in Tripura, Assam, Manipur, Jammu, and Srinagar because of the Bohag Bihu/Cheiraoba/Baisakhi/Biju festivals.

Also Read | Bank Holidays in 2024. Check the full list here

April 15 bank holiday: On this day, banks will suspend offline operations for customers in Assam and Himachal Pradesh due to Bohag Bihu and Himachal Day.

April 16 bank holiday: On the occasion of Ram Navami, banks will be closed in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Chandigarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh.

April 20 bank holiday: Banks' branches in Tripura will be shut for Garia Puja festival.

Regular Bank Closures Banks will be closed on the second Saturday: April 13

Banks will be closed on the fourth Saturday: April 27

Bank holiday on Sundays: April 7, 14, 21 and 28

Customers Can Use Online Banking Facilities, ATMs Online banking services will continue as usual regardless of holidays or weekends. Customers can conduct their banking activities via banks' websites, mobile apps or ATMs for urgent transactions. However, in case of work needing bank staff assistance, it is imperative to be cognizant of the bank holiday schedule and plan visits around the non-working dates.
Supplies are low for everything from lifesaving injections to diabetes medications, according to data from the University of Utah Drug Information Service, which tracks shortages. Among the medicines affected are popular diabetes drug Ozempic, lifesaving allergy treatment epinephrine, child-friendly forms of the common antibiotic amoxicillin, chemotherapy medications and injections hospitals commonly use in intensive care.

A total of 323 drugs were in shortage in the first quarter of 2024, up from the previous high of 320 in 2014, according to the Utah data published by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Thats the highest since the Utah group began tracking in 2001.

Many of the drugs are generics. The shortages mean some patients must visit multiple pharmacies to find a drug or wait longer to receive a key treatment or get second-choice substitutes or pay more if a generic drug is unavailable but the brand is. Shortages can also put patients at higher risk of medication errors as hospitals scramble to adjust doses.

It was like a panic" when Stan Bradys pharmacy ran out of Eli Lillys diabetes drug Mounjaro recently and he couldnt refill the prescription he has been taking for more than two years to control his blood-sugar levels, said Brady, 68, of Bratenahl, Ohio.

Brady needs to take a diabetes drug to avoid the complications that can result if blood-sugar levels get out of control. His doctor switched him to another diabetes drug, but Brady said so far it hasnt controlled his blood sugar as well as Mounjaro did.

I just find it amazing that you cant find this stuff, and nobody seems to be doing anything about it," Brady said.

Lilly said an unparalleled surge in demand" for Mounjaro and a cousin drug, the anti-obesity treatment Zepbound, have limited their availability. The company also has seen supply disruptions for an older diabetes drug, Trulicity.

We recognize this situation may cause a disruption in peoples treatment regimens and are working with purpose and urgency to address it," the company said.

Lilly is investing in manufacturing and supply capacity to increase production of Mounjaro and Zepbound throughout the second half of 2024. The company said it expects intermittent availability in the near term due to the unprecedented demand.

Supplies of many medicines have been a continuing and worsening problem in recent years. While some brand-name drugs such as Ozempic are running short simply because their makers havent yet caught up with demand, health economists have pinned most shortages on a broken pharmaceutical supply chain that makes it difficult for generic drugmakers to make a profit and stay in business.

Many generic-drug makers have left the business or offshored to countries where labor is cheaper, such as India. Shortages can result, and linger, if a factory pauses production. There are few suppliers to pick up the slack, and it isnt easy to jump-start manufacturing of a particular drug, especially the sterile injectables that are so tricky to make and that hospitals use so often.

Were not seeing very many shortages resolved," said pharmacist Erin Fox, who leads the shortage data collection for the University of Utah. For many of these drugs, there really are one or two suppliers so as you lose capacity there, there isnt additional redundancy."

Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist and intensive-care doctor at Emory University Hospital, said he is constantly having to substitute one drug for another due to shortages. These substitutions are extraordinarily frustrating," he said. This happens every day."

Continuing shortages reached a similar peak in 2014, then abated for several years. Theyve been on a mostly steady upswing since 2021. New shortages include Rifaximin tablets, which are used to treat diarrhea, and meperidine hydrochloride injection, used to treat pain during surgeries.

Fixing the problem will probably involve changing the business model, including taking steps that would increase the prices of generic medicines so sales can support manufacturers and attract additional companies, according to researchers and policymakers.

The White House earlier this month proposed spending between $3.26 billion and $5.11 billion over a decade to help address shortages. The plan would include linking Medicare payments to hospitals in part on whether hospitals do a good job buying drugs from companies that demonstrate quality over the long term, rather than just the cheapest price. The proposal would need approval and money from Congress.

Policymakers have also proposed giving the Food and Drug Administration more power to demand information about shortages and pending shortages, since the agency has little information now. Currently the FDA is mostly limited to calling manufacturers and asking if they can step up supply to make up for shortfalls elsewhere.

Right now we have spotty pieces of information about whats going on out there from the manufacturers," FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf told the House Oversight Committee Thursday. We spend a lot of time on the phone."

The Federal Trade Commission recently launched an inquiry into whether companies that buy drugs in bulk for hospitals, known as group purchasing organizations, cause or exacerbate shortages.

Jennifer Calfas contributed to this article.

Write to Liz Essley Whyte at liz.whyte@wsj.com and Peter Loftus at Peter.Loftus@wsj.com
In an indirect reference to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi, Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Saturday assured that the ongoing subsidies on electricity, water and bus fare will continue in Delhi asking people to not pay attention to rumours spread by vested political interests.

Rumours are being propagated that the central government and the lieutenant governor would stop the subsidy schemes, said a press statement released by the Raj Niwas, reported PTI.

LG Saxena took a serious note in the matter of patently false and deliberately misleading statements by members of a particular political party and its ministers, reported PTI citing the press release statement. According to the press release, the misleading statements related to "free" electricity, water and bus rides for women were being spread among people claiming that these subsidies will be stopped since Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is in jail.

"The schemes are part of the budget approved by the Government of India and Lt Governor, and these do not belong to an individual or a political party. Therefore, the question of a scheme getting affected does not arise just because an individual is in jail," the LG said.

The statement has been released amid allegations by AAP that the CM Arvind Kejriwal has been arrested as a part of a conspiracy to stop such schemes introduced by his government in Delhi.

Victory for CM Kejriwal, AAP reacts to Delhi LG's statement In response to Delhi LG Saxena's statement, minister Saurabh Bharadwaj claimed that the statement was a victory for the AAP chief and stressed that till Kejriwal is the chief minister of Delhi, all public works will be carried out and the subsidy schemes will continue.

Referring to LG's statement, Bharadwaj said, It is a significant victory for CM Kejriwal that even while in jail he has compelled the LG to say that work and free schemes will continue.

"Arvind Kejriwal had promised Delhi people that he will not let any work be stopped whether he is in jail or out of it," he said in a Delhi government statement.
A school bus met an accident in Haryana's Mahendragarh that claimed the lives of six children and left at least 20 others injured.

Speculations arose on how the authorities did not take notes which led to such a situation. State Education Minister Seema Trikha, while visiting the injured students in hospitals, issued a show-cause notice to the private school, questioning why it remained open on Thursday, a designated holiday for Eid.

President Droupadi Murmu noted that the death of schoolchildren was heart-rending. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was extremely painful. Here are the reasons why this happened:

Drunk driver As per a report by PTI, an injured student told reporters that the bus was being driven at a high speed when the driver lost control of the vehicle, resulting in the crash. The driver appeared to be drunk, he said.

According to Mandeep Singh, a lawyer from Kheri Talwana village, certain villagers and parents took action to halt the bus upon discovering that the driver was drunk. However, the situation took a turn when the principal intervened, instructing them to return the bus key and assuring them that the driver would be substituted the following day.

A Class 12 student filed a First Information Report (FIR) stating that the driver smelled of alcohol, disregarded requests from the children to drive slower, and allegedly even threatened them.

Expired fitness certificate of school bus Mandeep Singh noted, The fitness certificate of the vehicle had expired long back and it did not have insurance and other documents also.

Moreover, Transport Minister Aseem Goel said the state government has ordered a probe into the incident. He also directed officials to check the fitness of all school buses. An assistant secretary in the office of the district transport secretary in Mahendragarh was suspended when it was discovered that certain documentation for the bus was missing.

Meanwhile, Haryana Chief Secretary T V S N Prasad has instructed the civil and police administration to thoroughly inspect the fitness of every school bus in their respective districts within the next 10 days. Additionally, a committee has been established to investigate the factors contributing to the accident.

In the latest development, in Gurugram, the administration summoned owners of approximately 2,700 buses from around 500 private schools to verify their documents and fitness. An official told PTI that a thorough campaign will take place on April 13 and April 14 to inspect these buses.

On Friday, 45 buses were checked and challans were issued to 16 buses for flouting rules while 11 buses were impounded for not meeting fitness standards, he said.

No attendant The FIR stated that the school bus lacked a male or female attendant responsible for ensuring the safety of the children. Courts have previously mandated trained attendants of both genders to be present on school buses to oversee the children's safety. This incident concerns the haphazard operations of many private schools, especially those situated in remote areas of the state.
The Maldives Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators (MATATO) aims to enhance travel and tourism between the Maldives and India. The travel body had last week met the Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives in a bid to foster robust tourism ties between the two countries. The association also shared its strategy to "bolster tourism initiatives".

"The recent meeting with the Indian High Commissioner signifies MATATO's continued dedication to fostering robust tourism ties between the Maldives and India, paving the way for transformative collaborations that will drive sustainable growth in the region's tourism sector," the MATATO said in a post on X on April 9.

MATATO's statement and meeting with the Indian envoy came at a time when tourism from India to Maldives has continued to decline significantly since January this year.

How Maldives aim to regain decline in Indian tourists MATATO said on April 9 that plans are underway to launch a comprehensive roadshow across key cities in India. There are also plans to facilitate influencer and media familiarisation trips to the Maldives in the coming months.

The Maldives' travel body said it looks forward to partnering with prominent travel associations and industry stakeholders across India to further "promote the Maldives as a premier travel destination".

"...The Association is confident [that] with the support from the industry and the government agencies, Maldives can regain the current decline in Indian tourists," the MATATO added.

'India remains vital market for Maldivian tourism' The MATATO said on X that India remains a vital market for Maldivian tourism. It noted that India's burgeoning middle class is anticipated to spend a substantial $144 billion annually on international travel by the year 2030.

The MATATO cited Euromonitor's data as showing that the number of outbound Indian travellers is expected to double to 47 million by 2030. Moreover, their spending is projected to increase from $35 billion in 2019 to $84 billion by 2030.

"This growth trajectory positions India to ascend to the sixth-largest outbound travel market globally by 2030, trailing only China, the US, the UK, Germany, and France," the MATATO added.

But Maldives saw a decline in Indian tourists The number of Indian tourists travelling to Maldives fell significantly this year, as per daily report revealed by the Maldives' Ministry of Tourism.

The drop was so much so that India's position on Maldives' top tourism market charts plunged from first to sixth spot. Subsequently, China climbed up the chart to achieve the top spot in the Maldives tourism market.

India Vs China in Maldives On December 31, 2023, tourists from India formed the highest  11.1 percent  of the total market share of the Maldives tourism sector. India was at the first spot back then, according to the data revealed by the Maldives Ministry of Tourism.

Later on January 2, the share dropped to 7.1 percent and by April 10, it further fell to 5.6 percent. As of April 10, India was in the sixth position on the Maldives Top 10 Market list, according to the daily report published by the Maldives' ministry.

Meanwhile, China, which was in the third spot with 10 percent market share on December 31, topped the chart on April 10, with 10.9 percent market share.
Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu said that Indian military personnel based on the second platform has left the Maldives last Thursday, local media Edition reported on Saturday. There has been no confirmation on this from the Indian side as of now.

The President also confirmed that the final batch of Indian military personnel will be leaving the Maldives on the agreed date, by May 10.

ALSO READ: India slips to 6th rank on Maldives Tourism charts as President Mohamed Muizzu welcomes China

"There is only one platform left. As the two countries have already signed, they [the remaining Indian military personnel] will also be recalled ahead of May 10. They will leave," President Muizzu was quoted by the report as saying.

He added, "So that pledge is fulfilled, isn't it? All foreign military here will leave before May 10. So any pledge I make, I will work to fulfill to the greatest extent." He was speaking at a campaign rally ahead of the April 21 Parliamentary Election in the Maldives.

The first batch of 25 Indian troops had reportedly left the island nation earlier around March 13.

Earlier in April, Muizzu had highlighted the presence of Indian troops on three platforms in Maldives. Maldives' PSM News quoted him as saying that the withdrawal of foreign troops from Maldives is being "pursued in accordance with diplomatic norms and principles".

India-Maldives deal Soon after taking over the Maldives President, Muizzu had requested India in January this year to withdraw military troops stationed in Maldives. He had also set May 10 as the deadline for the complete withdrawal of the troops.

The agreement between Maldives and India was aimed at replacing the Indian military personnel stationed in Maldives  to oversee the operations of the military aircraft  with trained civilians, also from India.

However, Muizzu later declared that no Indian military personnel, including those in civilian attire, would be permitted in his country after May 10. As per reports, India operated and maintained radars, helicopters, and aircraft in the Maldives.
A year after facing controversy over the branding of its product BournVita as healthy and beneficial for child growth, Mondelez-owned Cadbury, has again landed in soup after the Ministry of Commerce issued an advisory. In its letter to e-commerce websites, the Ministry asked them to remove beverages like Bournvita from the health drink category.

Even though the advisory mentioned Bournvita, it referred to a larger category of similar products that have been sold by e-commerce websites as health drinks, and asked their removal of the tag from all such products.

Why did the govt issue health drink advisory? The advisory issued by the Commerce and Industry Ministry focused on the blatant use of the term health drinks on e-commerce websites, as well as in advertisements. Referring to an inquiry by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), the Ministry underlined that there is no 'health drink' defined under FSS Act 2006, rules and regulations submitted by FSSAI and Mondelez India Food Pvt Ltd.

Since, there is no such term as health drinks in FSS Act 2006, the use of the term for beverages is inappropriate. Hence, all the e-commerce companies/portals have been advising to remove drinks and beverages, including Bournvita, from the category of health drinks from their platforms/sites.

"National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), a statutory body constituted under section (3) of the Commission of Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act 2005 after its inquiry under Section 14 of CRPC Act 2005 concluded that there is no 'health drink' defined under FSS Act 2006, rules and regulations submitted by FSSAI and Mondelez India Food Pvt Ltd," the Commerce and Industry Ministry said in an advisory to all e-commerce companies.

Bournvita controversy Last year, Bournvita entered into a controversy after a viral Instagram reel questioned the tall claims made by the beverage of boosting immunity and providing several health benefits.

In April 2023, influencer Revant Himatsingka, known as foodpharmer by the Instagram community, shared a video, in which he claimed that every 100 gm of Bournvita contains 50 g of sugar.

The giant confectionary producer took legal action against the influencer after which he removed the video from his social media account.

NCPCR inquiry against Bournvita Within a month of the controversy, the apex child rights body asked Cadbury to withdraw all its misleading advertisements, packaging and labels. The instruction came after it received a complaint alleging that Bournvita brands itself as a health drink as it improves childrens growth and development' even when it contains a high amount of sugar, reported Economic Times referring to PTI.

The NCPCR also sent a notice to Cadbury asking it to send within seven days a detailed explanation or report on the matter.

Bournvita's clarification of influencer claim After the controvery, Bournvita released a clarification on the matter rejecting the claims made by the Instagram influencer. As we continued to witness an abnormal and unusual amount of traction on the post, we were constrained to take legal recourse to avoid misinformation. We also stated to clarify and share the correct facts to allay the concerns of our consumers," Mondelez India said in its statement.

The company also clarified that every serving of 20 gm of Bournvita contains 7.5 grams of added sugar, which is approximately one and a half teaspoons. The said amount is less than the daily recommended intake limits of sugar for children.

We would again like to reinforce that the formulation has been scientifically crafted by a team of nutritionists and food scientists to offer the best of taste and health. All our claims are verified and transparent and all ingredients have regulatory approvals. All the necessary nutritional information is mentioned on the pack for consumers to make informed choices," Mint quoted Bournvita earlier.

Bournvita slashes sugar content by nearly 15 per cent Months after the controversy, the confectionary brand chose to reduce the added sugar content in Bournvita by nearly 15 per cent, Himatsingka claimed in another video released in December last year.
The Sandeshkhali incident gained prominence over the last few days under which leading politicians and affiliated goons faced land grab and sexual assault allegations in Sandeshkhali village of West Bengal. As per the latest development in the case, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on April 13, Saturday, released a spot enquiry report underscoring several human rights concerns.

The report states, "The Commissions spot enquiry has revealed several instances of atrocities inflicted upon the victims, which clearly demonstrate, prima facie, that there was a violation of human rights due to negligence in the prevention of such violation or abatement thereof by the public servant."

Also read: Sandeshkhali row: CBI creates e-mail ID for land-grab victims to lodge their complaints Furthermore, the report was sent to the Chief Secretary and DGP to submit an Action Taken Report (ATR) within eight weeks.

The locals of the Sandeshkhali area alleged that impoverished women were harassed and sexually assaulted by a local gang connected to Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Shahjahan Sheikh. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing three cases related to mob attacks on Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials at Sandeshkhali that were allegedly instigated by the TMC leader.

Also read: West Bengal: Calcutta HC orders CBI probe into alleged crimes against women in Sandeshkhali The locals raised a call for legal action against the perpetrators of crimes committed by goons and anti-social elements after the failure of the local administration to provide justice to the victims. The report further revealed that a total of 25 cases were registered among which 7 cases were on alleged complaints of sexual offence against women. The probe led to the arrest of 24 accused while a search operation is underway to apprehend absconding perpetrators.

Also read: West Bengal news: Constable grievously injured after miscreants attack Sandeshkhali police camp; 3 TMC leaders arrested The NHRC investigation team discovered a number of concerning issues listed below that entail violation of fundamental human rights which are listed below.
Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Uddhav Thackeray, chief of Shiv Sena (UBT) has in a retort to Prime Minister Narendra Modi recalled the BJP leader's "fake degree" controversy, as per an ANI report.

Referring to Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah labelling his faction of the Shiv Sena as "fake", Thackeray said that the Maharashtra-based party was founded by Bal Thackeray and is "not your degree", it added. He was speaking at a campaign rally in Boisar on April 12.

"The Shiv Sena, which was founded by Bal Thackeray to fight for the rights of sons of soil, is being called fake. They say that this is a fake Shiv Sena. It is not your degree to call it fake. Is this your degree which you are calling fake? After him (PM Modi), his other party member Amit Shah came and he also called it fake," Thackeray said.

Thackeray also defended the chances of the INDIA bloc, stating that they will win over 300 seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections. "I am saying this with pride and confidence, that the INDIA alliance will form the government and will win more than 300 seats," he said.

What did Modi-Shah say? Addressing a rally in Chandrapur (Maharashtra) on April 8, the prime minister had taken jibes at the opposition's INDIA alliance and its member parties.

"INDIA alliance partner DMK is talking about finishing Sanatan and linking Sanatana Dharma to malaria and dengue. And the Congress and the fake Shiv Sena are calling the same people for rallies in Maharashtra," Modi had said.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Amit Shah on April 11 said the three allied parties in Maharashtra have two "fake" and one "half". "Three parties have united in Maharashtra under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. One fake Shiv Sena, one fake NCP, half Congress. We have a phrase in Gujarat, 'Teen Tighda Kaam Bigada'. Uddhav Ji's Shiv Sena is left half, Sharad Ji's NCP is left half and both of them reduced Congress to half," Shah said.

Shiv Sena & NCP Splits - A Recap

Former Shiv Sena leader and current Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde revolted against the party leadership in June 2022, along with 40 other party MLAs. The group joined hands with the BJP which led to the collapse of the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Agadhi (MVA) government in Maharashtra. The Thackeray loyalists are now known as Shiv Sena (UBT).

MVA comprised of Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena allied to form the state government. All allies of the MVA are also a part of the INDIA bloc, established to jointly tackle the BJP in this General Elections.

Later in 2023, the NCP suffered a similar fate when party chief Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit Pawar and prominent leader Chhagan Bhujbal jumped ship to the BJP.

Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second-largest after Uttar Pradesh. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 23 out of 25 seats it contested in alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena.

Elections to the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, and May 20. the counting of votes will be done on June 4.
The deadline loomed like the sword of Damocles but an astonishing four days is all it took for people in Kerala to channel their compassion and rally together to raise an astounding 34 crore to save a man from the state from the gallows in Saudi Arabia.

In a display of solidarity, people in Kerala have come together to save Abdul Rahim, who hails from Kozhikode, whose only chance to live is to pay the blood money of 15 million Saudi Riyals which comes to around 34 crore, before April 18, 2024.

Until five days ago, the action committee, formed to work for the release of Rahim, could raise only a meagre amount but as the deadline neared, the campaign was intensified and help poured in from Kerala people from across the world, the action committee formed to help Rahim, said on Friday.

Why Was Kerala man Abdul Rahim Jailed? Rahim has spent 18 years behind bars in the Gulf nation for allegedly killing a Saudi boy in 2006.

Local people said Rahim was jailed in 2006 after he accidentally caused the death of a specially-abled boy whom he was taking care of. He was sentenced to death in 2018 after the family of the Saudi boy refused to grant amnesty.

The action committee members told the media that the appeals were rejected by the top courts but later the family agreed to pardon Rahim if he pays 'blood money.'

CM Pinarayi Vijayan Praises The Real Kerala Story Praising the spirit of Kerala people, Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, said it was the "Real Kerala Story" of compassion and truth.

He said in the face of relentless hate campaigns targeting Kerala, "the indomitable spirit of Malayalis shines through", upholding together the state's resilience and compassion.

"Abdul Rahim's story, a Kerala man facing execution in Saudi Arabia, symbolises this resistance. With 34 crore rupees raised for his release, Kerala's commitment to its people and values is crystal clear, shattering divisive lies.

"Gratitude to all those who joined hands for this humanitarian cause. United, we'll continue sharing the Real Kerala Story of compassion and truth," Vijayan posted on X.

Organisations, Businessman, and Political Groups United to Reach Payment Deadline The action committee, which met the media said more than 75 organisations in the Gulf region, along with Kerala-based businessman Bobby Chemmannur and various political organisations in the state, worked tirelessly in the last few days to meet the deadline.

"Thousands of common people contributed whatever they could and all helped us to raise the money," a member of the committee told the media here.

His mother said she never thought that such an amount could be raised.

"I had no hope as we have no means to raise 34 crore. But somehow it was all made possible," she said.

The committee said all the transactions were through a mobile application created for crowdsourcing and it ensures transparency in the matter.
As Israel is bracing for a direct and unprecedented attack by Iran and the tension is escalating between the two countries every minute, US President Joe Biden said that America will stand with Isreal and Iran will not succeed.

An assault from Iran has emerged as one of the expected outcomes by the Jewish state and its allies, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg; and further warned a bombardment with drones and precision missiles could come within the next 48 hours.
Tensions between Iran and Israel may soon escalate into a direct confrontation following a deadly airstrike on April 1. Tehran had vowed retaliatory action after a suspected Israeli attack on its embassy in Syria killed several people  including two top Iranian generals. The situation is being closely monitored by Western governments and many countries have already issued travel advisories and warnings for citizens currently in the Middle East. The details of a possible Iranian attack however remain elusive. Potential scenarios include an unprecedented drone and missile strike on Israeli territory or even the closure of a crucial shipping route.

Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have repeatedly threatened to slap Israel for the Syria strike. While there is no clear timeline for such an attack, US President Joe Biden said on Friday that a strike against Israel was likely to occur "sooner rather than later". The Israeli military has issued stern statements of preparedness this week while citizens continued with their normal lives amid a lingering cloud of concern.
Iran seized a cargo ship linked to Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer on Saturday amid growing concerns about a wider Middle East war. Indian authorities are now in touch with their Iranian counterparts after learning that there are 17 citizens on board MSC Aries. Iranian state media said the ship  identified as the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries  had now been "directed towards the territorial waters" of Tehran.

We are aware that a cargo ship MSC Aries has been taken control of by Iran. We have learnt that there are 17 Indian nationals onboard. We are in touch with the Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and in Delhi, to ensure the security, welfare and early release of Indian nationals, sources told news agency ANI.

Visuals accessed by news agency AP showed commandos from the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rappelling down from a helicopter onto the vessel near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday. The UK Joint Maritime Information Center said the ship was likely targeted due to its perceived Israeli affiliation. MSC Aries is a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime  a company that is part of the Zodiac Group led by Ofer.

ALSO READ: Iran seizes ship linked to Israeli billionaire amid escalating tensions | Watch video According to Geneva-based MSC, there had been 25 crew members on board the vessel. The ship was last located off Dubai as it headed towards the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. It had turned off tracking data  now a common practice for Israeli-affiliated ships moving through the region. The company said the ship was boarded by Iranian forces at around 6:43 am (United Arab Emirates time) as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz.
As many as six people were killed in a stabbing attack in a sprawling Sydney shopping centre packed with Saturday shoppers. Several others, including a young child, were injured in the attack.

A policewoman at the scene shot the knife-wielding attacker dead. "If she did not shoot him, he would have kept going, he was on the rampage, " an eyewitness said.
No cabe dar respuesta a declaraciones infundadas sobre la delincuencia organizada transnacional. El Peru reafirma su solido compromiso en la lucha contra este flagelo. El Plan de Accion Resolutivo de la Comunidad Andina lo evidencia y confirma. https://t.co/1M4HKKFnta
A stabbing attack at a busy Sydney mall on Saturday claimed at least six lives, along with that of the knife-wielding attacker who was shot dead by the policewoman on scene. The New South Wales police put the Westfield Bondi Junction mall under lockdown following the attack and evacuated hundreds of people from the building.

But at the face of adversity, social media was flooded by video of a "brave Australian man" who was single-handed stalling the attacker at the escalator of the Sydney mall.

The man was seen stopping the attacker from getting off the escalator by holding what appears to be a bollard (short post used to prevent traffic from entering an area) from the shopping centre.

Also read: He had a nice big blade..., eyewitness recounts horror | Here's what we know so far Netizens applauded the 'hero' of the Sydney mall stabbing attack.

Watch: Viral video of 'brave' Australian man stopping Sydney mall attacker with a bollard:

On the viral video of the man stalling Sydney mall stabbing attacker, an X user said, "That bloke is a hero others should have backed him up."

While some netizens believed of a Iran news terrorist connection to the Sydney mall attack, the Police Commissioner Karen Webb clarified that the 40-year-old attacker did not hold terrorist motivations or ideology.

A Sydney Morning Herald report quoted Webb saying, "Its not a terrorist incident. We are confident that there is no ongoing risk.

Webb confirmed five women and one man had died in the attack. A nine-month-old baby is being treated for injuries in hospital.

Scentre Group chief executive Elliott Rusanow condolence the victims and the families of the deceased of the Sydney attack, while also praising the force for their swift action.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024, several opinion polls gave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) an edge over the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal. In case the BJP takes the lead in the state, it will come as a major blow to Mamata Banerjee's TMC which has been in power in the state since 2011.

In an exclusive interview with news agency PTI, political strategist Prashant Kishor made a "surprising" prediction for Bengal in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He said, "...the BJP is going to be the number one party in West Bengal."

Before this, News18 Mega Opinion Poll 2024 also predicted that the BJP, led by Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari in Bengal, may win 25 out of 42 seats in the state. The poll, meanwhile, indicated that the TMC might get 17 seats.

The India TV-CNX poll predictions too were on the same line. It suggested that the BJP is likely to win 22 seats, while the TMC may emerge victorious on 19 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal.

In contrast, the ABP-CVoter opinion poll said the TMC is likely to top the seat tally in the state. As per the survey, the TMC may win 23 seats, while the BJP may trail closely at 19.

BJP VS TMC in Bengal: What may help BJP gain seats

1. Sandeshkhali incident: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP have been attacking the TMC over the Sandeshkhali incident, for which, a TMC leader has been held responsible.

TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh and his associates were accused of sexual harassment and land grabbing in Sandeshkhali.

PM Modi and the BJP made this incident one of the poll issues in Bengal and held the TMC responsible for "atrocities inflicted on mothers and sisters" there. "The court itself had to intervene in everything here, it's the TMC syndicate that rules here," PM Modi said during a rally in Jalpaiguri.

2. TMC going solo in Bengal: Despite being a key ally of the Opposition's INDIA bloc, Mamata Banerjee's party decided to go solo in the 2024 elections. The TMC cited the delay in finalising the seat-sharing pact on the Congress' part ahead of announcing candidates for all the 42 Lok Sabha seats.

This might have impacted the perception of the strength of the INDIA bloc. The Congress had earlier called Mamata Banerjee "one of the co-architects" of the opposition alliance which aims to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. However, Mamata Banerjee opting out of it in the state might hit the "optics" of the INDIA bloc and raise the question of whether the alliance is strong enough to run the country.

3. PM Modi star campaigner: Political experts have deemed Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the winning factor for the BJP today. On most occasions, the party has fought elections on PM Modi's clout and won them. He seems to keep the party way ahead of its rivals in the states.

Hindu refugees from Bangladesh form the Matua community in Bengal. The community forms a significant portion of West Bengal's Scheduled Caste population. It had dubbed the day of CAA implementation as their "second independence day".

The Bengal BJP feels that the CAA move will not only bring the party closer to the refugee community, especially the Matuas in the state but will also help it in the consolidation of the majority votes, news agency PTI reported.

"Implementation of CAA will have a direct impact in at least 10-12 constituencies and we are confident of winning all the Matuas and refugee community-dominated seats," Union Minister and leader of the Matua community, Shantanu Thakur, was quoted as saying.

5. Discontent against TMC over corruption: PM Modi and other BJP leaders have time and again attacked TMC over corruption in the state. "For TMC, the priority is not the development of Bengal, but corruption, nepotism and betrayal. TMC wants to keep the people of Bengal poor so that its politics and game continues...," PM Modi said in Krishananagar on March 2.

Besides Shahjahan Sheikh, a TMC strongman who faces allegations of "sexual assault and land grabbing" in Sandeshkhali, several TMC leaders have been under the scanner of central probe agencies over allegations of money laundering and corruption.

In 2022, the Enforcement Directorate recovered around 50 crore in cash, along with jewellery, from two flats of Arpita Mukherjee, the close aide of suspended TMC leader Partha Mukherjee, in southwest Kolkata and Belghoria.

Is BJP a threat? But TMC can't be ignored: What numbers tell The TMC has been winning West Bengal since 2011. It ousted the Left Front government headed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI M), which was uninterruptedly in power in West Bengal from 1977 till May 2011.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the TMC won 22 of the 42 seats, bagging a vote share of around 43.5 percent. The BJP had won 18 seats (40.5 per cent votes) and the Congress two seats.

Just two years later, in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections, the TMC had won 215 of the total 294 assembly seats in the state. The vote share of Mamata Banerjee's party was 48.5 per cent. The BJP has won 77 seats.

1.TMC vs BJP performance in state elections The BJP seems to have gained some ground in the West Bengal since 2016. A comparison with its tally in the 2016 assembly polls shows that the BJP's tally increased from three in the 2016 state polls to 77 in the 2021 polls.

In 2016 state polls, the TMC had won 211 seats and in 2021, the party's tally increased marginally to 215.

2. TMC vs BJP performance in Lok Sabha elections At the national level too, a slight jump was seen in the BJP's tally in Bengal. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won two seats. However, in the 2019 polls, it had won 18 seats.

While the BJP gained some numbers, the TMC lost some. 2014 was the first Lok Sabha polls since the TMC came to power in West Bengal in 2011. In the 2014 general elections, the TMC had won 34 seats, while in 2019, it won 22.

Mamata wooing minorities and migrants Like every other election, this year too, Mamata Banerjee sees a significant vote bank in migrant workers and minorities in the state. She has been opposing the CAA, calling it a "trap to turn legal citizens into foreigners".

Researchers told Down to Earth that most migrant voters were "apprehensive over BJPs advocacy for CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC)". Amid this, TMC leaders hope to leverage the CAA to highlight their stance against the BJP's perceived "anti-Bengali" sentiments.

This comes in contrast to the BJP's hope of wooing the Matua community and Dalit Bengali Hindus  thus bifurcating their target voters.

A TMC leader was quoted by news agency PTI as saying that the CAA implementation will help them consolidate the minority votes.

"The minorities are wary of CAA implementation. It will also help us in getting the support of a large section of Bengali elite, who have moved away from the party over corruption issues and marginalised sections who lack proper documentation," the leader said.

Meanwhile, experts said the issue of the CAA may have an impact on Matua-dominated seats such as Bongaon, Ranaghat, presently with the BJP, and Krishnanagar and parts of refugees-dominated seats.

"But they also indicated that there could be a counter impact in minority-dominated seats of South and North Bengal, where the BJP had swept in 2019," they added.

The Lok Sabha elections are set to take place this year in seven phases. The voting will begin on April 19 and the results will be announced on June 4.
The Congress in Rajasthan faces a significant setback as approximately 400 party members tender their resignations, plunging the party into turmoil, according to a report published on NDTV.

In a strategic move, the Congress has forged an alliance with the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) on the Nagaur Lok Sabha seat, reserving it for the RLP.

Meanwhile, three Congress workers faced a six-year suspension on Monday following allegations of campaigning in favour of BJP candidate Jyoti Mirdha from Nagaur. The suspension was enacted based on a complaint filed by Beniwal.

It is to be noted that the Congress has fielded candidates for 22 seats and forged alliances for two seats, Nagaur with the RLP and Sikar with the CPI (M). However, the decision on the Banswara seat is still pending. In contrast, the BJP has fielded candidates for all 25 seats.

Meanwhile, in a press conference on Friday, Tejpal Mirdha said, Congress was in a strong position in Nagaur during Assembly polls. It won four out of eight seats. Even in Lok Sabha polls, its position was equally strong. Despite this, why was the alliance formed with the RLP.

"Hanuman Beniwal is a tool who is trying to destroy the Congress in Nagaur. Congress workers have been deeply shocked by the formation of an alliance with such a person. That's why we all are giving our collective resignation letter," he added.

It is to be further noted that in the Jat-dominated Nagaur constituency, a fierce battle is growing between former Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha, now representing the BJP, and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) convener Hanuman Beniwal. Interestingly, Beniwal is contesting the Lok Sabha election in alliance with the Congress.

However, this electoral clash is not new; both Mirdha and Beniwal have a history of rivalry. Beniwal, a prominent Jat leader, clinched victory in the 2019 election in alliance with the BJP, defeating Jyoti Mirdha, the Congress candidate at the time.

Jyoti Mirdha's recent shift to the BJP before the 2023 assembly elections led her to contest the Nagaur seat, only to face defeat at the hands of her uncle, Harendra Mirdha, the Congress candidate.

The upcoming general election for the 543 Lok Sabha seats will span seven phases, commencing on April 19. With nearly 97 crore eligible voters, the nation gears up for a significant democratic exercise. Vote counting is scheduled for June 4.

Rajasthan's electoral process will unfold across two phases, on April 19 and April 26. In the initial phase, polling will occur for 12 Lok Sabha seats, followed by the remaining 13 seats in the subsequent phase on April 26.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram is positive that INDIA bloc is likely to set a stupendous victory in the Southern states including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka but it would be difficult to predict outcomes in other states.

"I cannot speak for all the states. I can confidently predict that the INDIA bloc will record a resounding victory in Tamil Nadu. In Kerala, the two fronts (UDF and LDF) will share the 20 seats, leaving nothing to the BJP. In Karnataka and Telangana, the Congress governments are popular and Congress will get many more seats than in 2019," Chidambaram told PTI.

He is, however, positive that Congress is likely to show vastly improved performance in some northern states as well. He said, there are also encouraging reports about the INDIA bloc from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Delhi.

Lok Sabha election 2024: Mamata Banerjee as a "key player" The former finance minister also cited West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee as a "key player" in this election and said that her ability to hold the fort in the state will strengthen the INDIA bloc.

Chidambaram said, "Undoubtedly, she is a key player in this election. Her ability to hold the fort in West Bengal will strengthen the INDIA combination."

'Appeasement' is the BJP's code word PM Narendra Modi accusing the Opposition parties of appeasement politics and calling them a "band of anti-Hindu politicians bent on breaking India up" is the BJP's strategy for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.

"This is the BJP's calculated strategy to paint the entire Opposition as anti-Hindu and to boost Narendra Modi's credentials as the saviour of Hindus. Hinduism is not in danger. Narendra Modi is asking Hindus to imagine fears that do not exist. 'Appeasement' is the BJP's code word for its anti-minority stand," he opined.
Congress MLA Laxman Savadi courted controversy this week after seeking approval from Mallikarjun Kharge before chanting Bharat Mata Ki Jai. The incident took place mere days ahead of the Lok Sabha elections during an election rally in the Kalaburagi area of Karnataka. Savadi had left the BJP to join Congress last year ahead of the Assembly elections.

I hope Kharge sahab doesn't misconstrue this. I wish to say this to you all. I shall say 'Bolo Bharat Mata ki Jai' and you all have to repeat it after me with tight fists, reports quoted the Athani MLA as saying.

The remarks have prompted outrage in the BJP ranks with Karnataka BJP chief BY Vijayendra dubbing it a very pitiful and dangerous turn of events. Karnataka will incidentally vote during the second and third phases of the Lok Sabha elections  on April 26 and May 7.

ALSO READ: BJP offered  50 crore to Congress MLAs but...': Siddaramaiah hints at 'Operation Lotus' in Karnataka Isn't it very pitiful and dangerous that a Congress leader trying to express his patriotism and praise Bharat Mata feels guilty and hence seeks to clarify his stand of raising the slogan to their national president, asked Vijayendra.

MLA Laxman Savadi understood the true ideology of the Congress party after seeing the action of the Minister Priyank Kharge who advocated on behalf of those who shouted the Pakistan Zindabad slogan. He was very scared of raising the 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' slogan within in the Congress party and asked permission from Mallikarjun Kharge, added a post on X by Leader of Opposition R Ashoka (roughly translated from Kannada).

The Bharat Mata Ki Jai chant had previously become a topic of debate in late March after Keraka Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan claimed that it was coined by a Muslim. The senior politician said that the slogan had been formulated in the 19th century by the prime minister of Maratha Peshwa Nana Saheb. Vijayan also wondered whether the sangh parivar would now decide to avoid chanting the slogan since it was framed by a Muslim.

Now, in some programs we hear some Sangh Parivar leaders asking people to chant 'Bharat mata ki Jai'. Who coined the slogan Bharat mata ki jai? Was it some Sangh Parivar leader? I don't know if the Sangh Parivar knows this. His name is Azimullah Khan, he had said during a rally against the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Venus, popularly knowns as Earth's "evil twin", had once seen all the water vanishing from its surface. Now, a new study revealed how gases  oxygen and carbon  are stripped away from the upper layers of the planet's atmosphere.

According to a study published in Nature Astronomy journal, the Mercury-bound BepiColombo spacecraft performed its second fly-by of Venus on August 10, 2021. The fleeting visit of the ESA/JAXA mission "provided a short-lived observation of its induced magnetosphere".

ALSO READ: Why future missions to Venus will not be as easy as they look

What is induced magnetosphere: Unlike Earth, Venus does not generate an magnetic field in its core. The planet is rather surrounded by a weak, comet-shaped induced magnetosphere, Phys.org explained in a report.

This magnetosphere is created around the planet by the interaction of charged particles emitted by sun (the solar wind) with electrically charged particles in Venus's upper atmosphere. "Draped around the magnetosphere is a region called the 'magnetosheath' where the solar wind is slowed and heated," it explained further.

Early in its history, interactions with the solar wind had stripped away the water on Venus, leaving an atmosphere composed mainly of carbon dioxide and smaller amounts of nitrogen and other trace species, the report added.

What new study revealed? As per a report in Phys.org, the detections in a previously unexplored region of Venus's magnetic environment show that carbon and oxygen are travelling at such accelerated speeds that "they can escape the planet's gravitational pull".

The research noted that most of the heavy ions in Venuss ionosphere are cold and slow moving. "This is the first time that positively charged carbon ions have been observed escaping from Venus's atmosphere," said Lina Hadid, CNRS researcher at the Plasma Physics Laboratory (LPP) and lead author of the study.

How is it possible?: "These are heavy ions that are usually slow moving, so we are still trying to understand the mechanisms that are at play. It may be that an electrostatic 'wind' is lifting them away from the planet, or they could be accelerated through centrifugal processes," Hadid was quoted as saying.

Earlier, scientists at Nasa and University College London (UCL) discovered that Venus electric field is so strong that it can accelerate the heavy electrically charged component of water  oxygen  to speeds fast enough to escape the planets gravity.

Why is this new study important? The researchers said in their study that these results have important implications regarding the evolution of Venuss atmosphere and, in particular, the evolution of water on the surface of the planet.

Dominique Delcourt, researcher at LPP and the Principal Investigator of the MSA instrument, was quoted by Phys.org as saying, "Characterising the loss of heavy ions and understanding the escape mechanisms at Venus is crucial to understand how the planet's atmosphere has evolved and how it has lost all its water."

Besides, the European Space Agency (ESA) says, There is no human activity on Venus, but studying its atmosphere provides a natural laboratory to better understand a runaway greenhouse effect.

Venus once had 'oceans like Earth' The European Space Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have time and again explained how the Venus lost all of its water on the surface. According to the space agencies, Venus, at some point in its history, began trapping too much heat.

Venus has a dense atmosphere and it is hotter than planet Mercury, which orbits closer to the Sun. This is because of its thick atmosphere that traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect. This makes it the hottest planet in our solar system, with surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead.

"It was once thought to host oceans like Earth, but the added heat turned water into steam, and in turn, additional water vapour in the atmosphere trapped more and more heat until entire oceans completely evaporated. Water vapour is still escaping from Venus atmosphere and into space today," the ESA said.

Meanwhile, NASA explained that a "runaway greenhouse effect" turned all surface water into vapor, which then leaked slowly into space.

In a dramatic twist, study co-author, Moa Persson of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics said, Recent results suggest that the atmospheric escape from Venus cannot fully explain the loss of its historical water content.

Is life possible on Venus? "The present-day surface of volcanic rock is blasted by high temperatures and pressures. Asked if the surface of Venus is likely to be life-bearing today, we can give a quick answer: a hard 'no'," the NASA explained.

Then why researchers and astronomers are interested in Venus? The NASA says that although Venus is not currently habitable, the planet lies within the Suns "Goldilocks zone," and may have been habitable before Earth.

Impact in Earth? Earth's nearness to Venus is a matter of perspective, the NASA says.

Meanwhile, the ESA explains that in the very long term  billions of years into the future  a greenhouse Earth is an inevitable outcome at the hands of the aging Sun.

"Our once life-giving star will eventually swell and brighten, injecting enough heat into Earths delicate system that it will eventually become Venus true twin," the ESA says.

Venus  Earth's evil twin Venus is known as Earth's "evil twin" as the two planets are similar in many way, but also opposite in some aspects. The NASA says that in some ways, Venus is more an opposite of Earth than a twin.

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, and the sixth largest planet. Its the hottest planet in our solar system. It is similar in structure and size to Earth. However, the planet spins backward, has a day longer than its year, and lacks any semblance of seasons.

Venus might once have been a habitable ocean world, like Earth, but that was at least a billion years ago. "The atmosphere [of Venus] is so thick that, from the surface, the Sun is just a smear of light," the NASA says.
Modern AI businesses now call Hong Kongs stock market home in the fast-paced world of technology and innovation. Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks listed in Hong Kong are becoming more and more popular among investors as the technology is changing industries all over the world and they look for growth and profit prospects.

Here, we examine a few of the top-performing AI stocks that are traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, emphasizing both their outstanding results and contributions to the rapidly changing field of AI technology.

SenseTime Group Limited (09980.HK) As one of the leading AI unicorns in China, SenseTime has garnered significant attention for its innovative AI algorithms and applications.

The company specializes in computer vision, facial recognition, autonomous driving, and other AI-powered solutions.

SenseTimes stock has demonstrated robust growth, fueled by increasing demand for AI-driven technologies across various sectors. Ping An Healthcare and Technology Company Limited (1833.HK) Leveraging AI and big data analytics, Ping An Healthcare and Technology is revolutionizing the healthcare industry in China.

The companys AI-powered platforms offer personalized healthcare services, telemedicine solutions, and health management tools.

Ping An Healthcares stock has witnessed steady growth, reflecting investors confidence in its transformative AI-driven healthcare ecosystem. Meituan (3690.HK) Although primarily known for its food delivery services, Meituan has been actively investing in AI and technology to enhance its business operations.

The company utilizes AI algorithms for route optimization, demand forecasting, and customer analytics, driving efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Meituans stock performance reflects its strategic focus on leveraging AI to maintain a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving e-commerce and services industry. Alibaba Group Holding Limited (9988.HK) As one of the worlds largest e-commerce and technology companies, Alibaba has been at the forefront of AI innovation.

Alibabas AI initiatives span various domains, including cloud computing, e-commerce, fintech, logistics, and smart cities.

The companys robust AI capabilities have contributed to its strong financial performance and sustained growth in the Hong Kong stock market. Tencent Holdings Limited (0700.HK) Tencents diversified business portfolio includes significant investments in AI, gaming, social media, cloud computing, and fintech.

The company leverages AI technologies to enhance user experiences, optimize content recommendations, and drive innovation across its platforms.

Tencents stock performance reflects its position as a key player in the global AI ecosystem, with strategic investments in cutting-edge AI startups and research initiatives.

China is now at the forefront of the global artificial intelligence (AI) scene thanks to the technologys rapid growth. Chinas AI market is expanding exponentially because to the governments strong support and large investments from the public and commercial sectors. Hong Kong-listed companies offer a singular chance for investors looking to gain exposure to this emerging industry to capitalize on the enormous potential of Chinas AI market.

Chinas AI Market Boom: Strong government efforts, quick technical advancement, and rising demand for AI-powered solutions across a range of industries have all contributed to the markets impressive recent growth. AI technology is transforming conventional business structures and fostering efficiency, productivity, and creativity in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, and finance.

Key Factors Driving Growth: Several factors contribute to the rapid growth of Chinas AI market:

Government Support: The Chinese government has made AI development a national priority, with initiatives such as the New Generation AI Development Plan and substantial funding allocated to AI research and development. Technological Innovation: Chinese tech giants, startups, and research institutions are pioneering breakthroughs in AI algorithms, machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and robotics. Market Demand: Increasing demand for AI-driven solutions in areas such as healthcare, fintech, smart cities, and autonomous vehicles is fueling market growth and adoption. Investment Opportunities: Chinas vibrant startup ecosystem and supportive regulatory environment attract significant investments from venture capital firms, private equity funds, and multinational corporations.

Why Stocks Listed in Hong Kong? Hong Kong is a great place for investors to get exposure to Chinas AI sector because of its role as a major global financial center and as a special entry point into China. Hong Kong-listed equities come with a number of benefits:

Access to Chinese Tech Giants: Many of Chinas leading AI companies, such as SenseTime, Meituan, and Tencent, are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), providing investors with direct access to these industry leaders. Diversified Investment Opportunities: HKEX offers a wide range of AI-related stocks across different sectors, including technology, healthcare, e-commerce, and finance, allowing investors to diversify their portfolios and capitalize on various growth opportunities. Regulatory Stability: Hong Kongs robust regulatory framework, investor protections, and transparent market regulations provide a stable and secure environment for investors, instilling confidence and mitigating risks. Global Connectivity: As an international financial center, Hong Kong offers unparalleled connectivity to global markets, facilitating cross-border investments and enabling investors to capitalize on Chinas AI market growth while accessing diversified investment options worldwide.

Investors are increasingly looking to Hong Kong-listed stocks to take advantage of this profitable potential as Chinas AI sector continues to grow. Hong Kongs advantageous location, varied investment prospects, and stable regulatory environment make it an ideal entry point for investors interested in exploring Chinas burgeoning artificial intelligence market. Investors can access Chinas top AI companies and position themselves to profit from the revolutionary effects of AI technology on Chinas economy and society by purchasing Hong Kong-listed stocks.



Shayne Heffernan
The announcement of Cathie Woods Ark Investment Managements investment in OpenAI, a major participant in Silicon Valleys artificial intelligence space, has garnered media attention. Wood believes AI has the potential to revolutionize technology, and this decision demonstrates her belief in that potential.

Clients were notified via email on Thursday that Arks Venture Fund, which manages a $54 million venture capital fund, has invested in OpenAI. Ark highlighted the potential of OpenAI to transform sectors, describing it as at the front of a explosion in artificial intelligence capabilities.

Arks closed-end interval fund was founded in September 2022 and is primarily focused on investing in private and public firms. SpaceX, Epic Games Inc., Freenome Holdings Inc., and Relation Therapeutics are a few of its noteworthy holdings.

Chief futurist and member of Arks investment committee Brett Winton highlighted the substantial market potential and expressed excitement about the industrys rapid advancement in AI. According to his projections, by 2030, enterprises that utilize foundation models might command a market worth of up to $16 trillion.

OpenAI has received significant funding, mainly from Microsoft Corp., which has contributed $13 billion in total. Through a tender offer, the startup recently permitted employees to sell shares at a worth of $86 billion. Although Ark used a special purpose vehicle to declare its investment in OpenAI, no specifics were provided.

According to Winton, OpenAI will own about 4% of Arks venture fund holdings. Additionally, the company owns about 5% of the same fund in rival Anthropic.

Woods well-known investment instrument, the Ark Innovation ETF, rose to notoriety during the pandemic due to its audacious wagers on businesses such as Tesla Inc. Nevertheless, since Teslas stock price dropped this year, the ETF has had difficulties.

Approximately 80% of the companies held by Arks venture fund are private companies. Every day, the funds assets are updated to guarantee investors fairness and transparency.

Winton highlighted the companys intention to take advantage of the quick speed of innovation in the AI industry and commended OpenAI for their ground-breaking Sora model, a text-to-video generative AI tool.

Although Winton acknowledged the possible drawbacks of OpenAIs distinct corporate governance structure, he also highlighted the technologys potential advantages. He compared AI to nuclear power and said that legislative barriers would impede advancement, but in the end, he was upbeat about AIs potential to revolutionize society.

Heres a list of stocks in the AI sector:

Nvidia Corporation (NVDA) Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) Intel Corporation (INTC) Salesforce.com, Inc. (CRM) Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) Tencent Holdings Limited (TCEHY) Facebook, Inc. (FB) Twilio Inc. (TWLO) C3.ai, Inc. (AI) Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR) Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA)

Shayne Heffernan
New York state authorities said they reached an agreement to shut down activities of two cryptocurrency trading platforms which hid an estimated $850 million in losses.

The writing is on the wall to get your Crypto out of the USA.

State Attorney General Letitia James said the agreements this week with Bitfinex and Tether would end all trading activity with New Yorkers and require penalties totaling $18.5 million.

Jamess office began investigating the two companies in 2017 for their trading in stablecoins, which are supposed to maintain real-dollar value.

The investigation found the two companies made false statements about the backing of the tether stablecoin, and about the movement of hundreds of millions of dollars between the two companies to cover up losses.

Bitfinex and Tether recklessly and unlawfully covered-up massive financial losses to keep their scheme going and protect their bottom lines, said James.

Tethers claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by US dollars at all times was a lie. These companies obscured the true risk investors faced and were operated by unlicensed and unregulated individuals and entities dealing in the darkest corners of the financial system.

The companies agreed to stop any trading activity with New Yorkers and to submit to mandatory reporting on core business functions.
Increasingly, traders have more and more ways to access cryptocurrencies. New exchanges and trading platforms have started in response to the wide interest in crypto. This larger choice of apps and exchanges gives us access to a wider selection of cryptocurrency  there are literally thousands  or some offer other benefits such as lower cost.

Platforms like the ones listed below offer specialized cryptocurrency exchanges, online brokers, and money and payment apps. You can get a feel of the scope of each app or exchange by looking at the pricing and the maximum number of coins you may trade.

It might not make sense to use an app that offers you dozens of other coins if youre only interested in trading the biggest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. On the other hand, if your goal is to trade everything is popular right now, you should look at a more varied app or exchange.

Bittrex

Bittrex is an attractive option for crypto traders thanks to its straightforward low-cost commissions, particularly for those trading high volumes. If youre trading less than $50,000 every 30 days, youll pay between 0.25 and 0.30 percent in commissions, but the fees fall quickly from there if youre trading big bucks. Plus, Bittrex doesnt charge for USD deposits or ACH withdrawals.

Hard-core crypto enthusiasts will also appreciate Bittrexs offering of about 100 cryptocurrencies to trade. Youll find all the most popular coins including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin, as well as the more obscure listings.

Cost: Fees start at 0.35 percent and decline sharply for high-volume traders.

Coins available to trade: About 100 coins including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and Litecoin

Binance.US

Binance.US, which is the American arm of the larger Binance organization, is one of the best crypto exchanges because of its low trading costs. Bitcoin and Ethereum traders can access commission-free trades, while other coins are priced on a sliding scale for high-volume traders. Plus, if you use Binances in-house coin, BNB, to pay trading fees, youll get a discount of 25 percent.

Youll also be able to trade more than 130 different cryptocurrencies at Binance, so you shouldnt have any trouble finding what youre looking for, especially if you just want to trade the most popular coins.

Cost: Free for Bitcoin and Ethereum, but fees for less-common coins start at 0.45 percent and decline for high-volume traders. A 25 percent discount is available if you pay trading fees with BNB.

Coins available to trade: 137 coins including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano and more

eToro

The broker eToro is all crypto, all the time (at least for American traders, though others can trade stocks). At eToro, youll have access to about 80 cryptocurrencies, including quite a few, such as Tezos, Uniswap and Polygon, that you wont normally find on the traditional brokerage apps. The app doesnt charge a direct commission but rather a flat spread markup of 1 percent, regardless of which coin you purchase or how much.

Cost: Commission-free, but spread markup of 1 percent

Coins available to trade: 79 cryptos, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and more

Probit

ProBit Exchange is a global Top 20 crypto exchange in real daily trading volume that has successfully completed over 200 rounds of IEO. This exchange also features over 500 trading pairs  one of the highest in the market. ProBit Exchange offers customer support, customer service , and customer care

Cost: Effective trading fee 0.03%  0.2%

Coins available to trade: Over 500 trading pairs, all the top coins and many more such as Finance Blocks (FBX) by KXCO.io and many more

Coinbase

Coinbase is a specialized cryptocurrency exchange that allows you to trade a bunch of digital currencies, 230 at the latest count. That range will likely scratch your crypto itch, since it includes most of the top coins, including Bitcoin, of course. But what will you pay for using the basic service? Unfortunately, Coinbase has become cagier about what youll pay to trade, recently obscuring the fee structure on its website.

When it was visible, the fee structure was complex, to say the least. Youd pay a spread markup of about 0.5 percent and a transaction fee that depended on the size of the transaction and the funding source. For Coinbase Advanced Trade, youll pay fees that start at 0.6 percent for 30-day volume under $10,000 and decline to as low as 0.15 percent for up to $100,000 in volume and then head even lower.

Cost: Typically at least 1.99 percent (lower with Coinbase Advanced Trade)

Coins available to trade: A whopping 230, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano and Solana

Kraken

Kraken is another specialized cryptocurrency exchange that lets you trade a ton of different coins, including the most popular as well as some (Solana, Uniswap, Cardano and more) that are not typically available on the usual financial apps. In total, the exchange supports trading in more than 212 cryptos. Kraken does not offer its service to residents of New York and Washington state.

Commissions on Kraken Pro are competitive, ranging from 0.16 to 0.26 percent at the lowest volume levels and declining to a range of 0 to 0.1 percent with volume of $10 million or more in the last 30 days. High-net-worth traders can also access margin trading, increasing their buying power (and risk). While you can deposit money via ACH for free into Kraken, debit or credit card transactions incur a 3.75 percent fee plus 25 cents, and you can get hit with a 0.5 percent online banking processing fee if you fund through a bank, at last check.

Cost: Fees start at 0.26 percent, plus fees for cards and online banking

Coins available to trade: 212 of them, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Uniswap

Webull

Webull may not be the poster child for trading apps, but its feature set feels a step above Robinhoods. Like its well-known rival, Webull offers stocks, options, ETFs and cryptocurrencies with no out-of-pocket commission. And similarly, Webull works on a spread markup for its crypto trades, so your cost is built into the trade. Youre also able to trade a few more coins than youre able to at Robinhood, including Cardano.

Cost: Commission-free, but spread markup of 1 percent (100 basis points)

Coins available to trade: 58 different types, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana

Cash App

When you think of cryptocurrency, you might not think of Cash App at first. The financial app is known more for its cash management account or even its ability to trade stocks and ETFs. But it also offers the ability to trade crypto, albeit only one  Bitcoin. While you can send Bitcoin to other users for free, Cash App charges what it calls a small fee for trading the coin, which it will disclose before you place the trade. Thats in addition to a spread markup built into the trade itself. Unfortunately, it doesnt disclose its exact fee structure.

Cost: Spread markup plus a trading fee

Coins available to trade: Only Bitcoin
#AgendaPresidencial | La presidenta Dina Ercilia Boluarte asistira al arribo del feretro del Mayor FAP Ramiro Rondon Medina a la Base Aerea Las Palmas. pic.twitter.com/S4zh14pD8f
Some surprising voices have joined the chorus of legal experts, physicians and activists weighing in on Idahos abortion ban: Tinder, Hinge, Bumble and Match.

The dating apps and several other high-profile businesses and national chamber of commerce organizations in a joint amicus brief urged the U.S. Supreme Court to interpret federal law to provide an emergency exception to Idahos abortion ban, and argued that the states strict abortion laws are bad for businesses and have already cost Idaho millions in economic losses.

The businesses join dozens of advocacy groups and medical and legal experts who have submitted amicus briefs to the court, which will hear arguments later this month to determine whether the federal Emergency Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) supercedes Idahos abortion ban.

While most briefs argue on moral, religious, legal or medical grounds, the 10 business entities  which include the U.S. Womens Chamber of Commerce, Lyft ride-sharing, Levi Strauss, Yelp and various dating apps  focused instead on economics.

The brief cited a January study by the Institute for Womens Policy Research that, prior to the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, estimated the economic impact of abortion restrictions in Idaho at about $1.2 billion per year on average. Idaho was among the top 10 states with the highest economic losses, the study found.

It analyzed state abortion laws like mandatory pre-abortion counseling and waiting periods, both of which Idaho had. Idaho passed its most stringent abortion law, called the Defense of Life Act, in 2020 with a trigger that would allow it to go into effect as soon as states regained authority over abortion laws, as they did in 2022. The amicus brief said the state can expect even more economic losses now that more stringent abortion laws are in place.

This might seem an unusual case for businesses to raise concerns over economic issues, the brief said. But the hard truth is that Idahos attempt to carve out an exception to the federal guarantee of emergency medical care for pregnant women raises critical  and even existential  concerns for businesses across the country, especially those that are women-owned and operated.

IDAHO IS LOSING LABOR AND MONEY, BUSINESSES SAY

Forty-five amicus briefs have been filed with the court. Groups that claim a vested interest in the outcome of a case can submit amicus briefs, also called friend of the court briefs, to provide additional context and legal arguments to the judges.
Kimberly M. Morrison was sentenced to 6-18 years in prison Friday morning for her role in the death of her father, following a plea agreement negotiated by the state and defense.

Second District Judge Mark Monson handed down the sentence at the Nez Perce County Courthouse on charges of voluntary manslaughter and destruction of evidence for burning the body of Kenneth M. Morrison.

She was given a minimum sentence of six years, plus an indeterminate period of up to eight years, for a maximum sentence of 14 years. She wont be eligible for parole during the first six years.

On the charge of destruction of evidence, she was sentenced to up to four years, which would run consecutively with the voluntary manslaughter charge, meaning her time on that charge would start after she completed the manslaughter sentence. Her total sentence on the two charges would be 6-18 years.

Morrison was also given credit for 646 days served and will pay a $5,000 fine and $245.50 in court fees.

Morrison, 55, along with her mother, Kay Morrison, 84, were charged in the death of Kenneth Morrison, who is Kimberlys father and Kays ex-husband. An investigation allegedly showed the two played a part in the drugging, suffocating and burning of the body of the 87-year-old man in their home in Lewiston.

Both Morrisons were charged with first-degree murder. In May 2023, Kimberly Morrison pleaded guilty to amended charges of voluntary manslaughter and destruction of evidence, both felonies, after mediation took place.

The maximum penalty for voluntary manslaughter is 15 years in prison and a $15,000 fine, and the maximum penalty for destruction of evidence is five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The plea agreement Morrison signed is a Rule 11 agreement, which is binding on the court. That means if a judge doesnt follow the sentence set in the agreement or rejects the agreement, Morrison can withdraw her guilty plea and the case would go to trial on the original charge of first-degree murder, according to court documents.

As part of the agreement, Morrison testified against her mother in Kay Morrisons preliminary hearing Jan. 10.

At the sentencing, Monson first acknowledged that there was a second amended Rule 11 plea agreement that didnt alter the charges but shortened the agreed-upon sentence.

Monson highlighted several times that Kimberly Morrison was getting a significantly reduced sentence from her original charge of first-degree murder. He said it was an understatement that the sentence was reduced and considerably less than the minimum sentence of first-degree murder. He also said the agreement got better over time, which is unusual.

When Monson first received the plea agreement, he was reluctant to follow it, but was urged by the prosecution and defense to issue the agreed sentence. That, along with Kimberly Morrisons cooperation in the case against her mother, and her past trauma, were reasons Im going to go along with this plea agreement, Monson said.

Public defender Rick Cuddihy said the parties had been working on the agreement for quite a long period of time and the amended agreement was the result of Morrison cooperating with the Nez Perce County Prosecutors Office.

Both Cuddihy and Nez Perce County Chief Deputy Prosecutor April Smith asked Monson to follow the agreement in their argumentst. There were no victim impact statements given at the sentencing and the entire hearing lasted about 25 minutes.

Monson noted that he received a letter of support for Kimberly Morrison and received two letters from her. Monson said he read her letters and asked if she wanted to add anything in the courtroom.
A Clarkston man has been charged with grand theft for allegedly taking large stones from Garlinghouse Memorials, a business that makes headstones and monuments for cemeteries.

Lewiston police responded at 9:19 a.m. Monday to Garlinghouse, on Main Street, Lewiston, for a report of a man, Bryce A. Morrow, 48, who was being fired and had been allegedly stealing supplies from the company. When the officer arrived, Morrow wasnt at the business, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The owner, Sheyanna Weber, told the officer she had been missing items from the business and alleged Morrow took them. She told the officer the first item was a tall triangular granite piece that was last seen April 5. There was also a tile saw valued at $1,000 and a black wheelbarrow valued at $175 that were reported missing according to the affidavit.

Surveillance at the business showed around 2 p.m. Sunday a black Ford pickup at the back of the shop. Morrow can allegedly be seen using a forklift to load a large piece of granite used by the business into his truck, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit noted that the video was upside down and distorted but the officer could see the granite was outside the shop and allegedly loaded into the truck by Morrow. The officer interviewed another employee, who reported he had arrived shortly after the incident was recorded on the video and saw a set of keys in the lock at the back door that he identified as Morrows.

Later in the day, the officer returned to Garlinghouse because Morrow had texted one of the employees that he was on the property near the Yamaha shop on Main Street. The officer went outside to wait for Morrow but he didnt show up.

The officer was told Morrow drives a black Ford pickup and the officer saw one driven by a woman drive by the location. The officer was then told that Morrows pickup was in the back lot, according to the affidavit.

The officer went to the back lot and spoke with the woman, who was driving the vehicle, and who was identified as Morrows daughter. She told the officer she allegedly heard a conversation between Morrow and her mother about the stolen items and became so fed up with the both of them and decided to return the items herself, according to the affidavit.
A 56-year-old woman is facing multiple charges in an incident where she allegedly stole from WinCo Foods, bit an employee and had methamphetamine in her purse.

Lewiston police responded at 2:43 p.m. Thursday to WinCo for a report of a theft with an uncooperative woman in custody.

The officer arrived and spoke with witnesses who reported that Laurissa Jefferies allegedly stole $30.63 worth of merchandise from the store.

She left the store and was confronted by the loss prevention employee and placed in handcuffs, and she allegedly bit the WinCo employee on his arm, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The employee told the officer he wanted Jefferies arrested for petit theft and battery. During a search of her purse for the stolen merchandise the officer allegedly found a bag with marijuana, a bag of suspected meth and drug paraphernalia. Jefferies allegedly admitted to having illegal stuff in her purse when asked by the officer to identify the items, according to the affidavit.

Jefferies was taken to the Nez Perce County Jail and charged with felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance, drug paraphernalia, petit theft and battery.
Dam removal no panacea

To date, the arguments favoring dam removal seem to be just so much pseudo-science.

I want to see a report of the trends Canada is experiencing in their free-flowing rivers. If their fish counts parallel ours, then the problem lies elsewhere, and not here locally. I concede the dams have an impact, but not to the extent we are led to believe. Removing them is not the panacea it is claimed to be.

If the dams are breached, I foresee:

l Shorelines littered with lost fishing tackle, rusted hooks and whatever else the river may give up.

l Having to walk from the nearest road across mud flats that, in time, fill in with snake- and tick-infested brush.

l Any attempt at shoreline development by a private entity will meet prompt opposition from environmental groups. Currently in place are a number of easements addressing flowage, inundation, slumps and wildlife riparian areas. These are not recorded in county records but maintained in a central Army Corps of Engineers vault and filed by river mile. Other lands were purchased in fee specifically for wildlife habitat.

Jack Waldemarson
The board of elections decided that Jeff Long, Vanita Hullander, Larry Black, and Steven Henry will be allowed on the ballot for the Republican primary on May 21.
YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. The Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan has spread another misinformation, the Defense Ministry of Armenia said.

''The statement of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan alleging that on April 13, at around 08:30 am, the units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia opened fire toward Azerbaijani combat positions located in the northeastern part of the border, does not correspond to reality,'' the ministry said in a statement.
The families of Kingsmill victims are entitled to truth and justice, Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly has said.

Mr Kelly was reacting after a coroner ruled that the shooting of 10 Protestant workmen in 1976 was an overtly sectarian attack by the IRA.

Coroner Brian Sherrard also heavily criticised the political representatives of the IRA for failing to engage with the proceedings.

Mr Kelly said: The Kingsmill families are entitled to truth and justice.

In 2014, the two governments and the main Assembly parties signed up to the Stormont House Agreement which included human rights compliant mechanisms to ensure all families can access truth and justice, through independent investigations and the continuation of judicial processes such as inquests, truth recovery and the legal system.

The British Governments shameful Legacy Act is about closing the door on families ever getting truth and justice.

They should repeal it and fully implement the Stormont House Agreement in a human rights compliant manner.

The UK Governments Act will halt legacy inquests which have not reached the point of verdict by May 1 and offers a limited form of immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offences for those who co-operate with a new body aimed at truth recovery.

Last month, a judge at Belfast High Court ruled that the provision for conditional immunity was not compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Government is appealing against that finding.

DUP MLA William Irwin attended Laganside Courthouse on Friday where the inquest findings were delivered.

He said: Those who still bear the pain of what happened in 1976 have not seen anyone brought to justice, and now have faced obfuscation and evasion from authorities in the Republic of Ireland and others elsewhere.

Some who talk most loudly about the need for truth appear only to mean this when it relates to the actions of the security forces.

Many of the victims lost faith in this process some time ago and it will be of no comfort to them that their stance has been justified.

Mr Irwin added: The families have been through decades of pain and grief because of the actions of republicans.

Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie said the inquest had failed at every level.

He added: Failed to give the families confidence that they would receive information into the loss of their loved ones, failed to identify publicly those responsible for this horrific crime although they are known.

It also failed to move the Irish government into finally giving up their secrets into this vile episode of our troubled past in an open and transparent manner.

Mr Beattie added: We now have to look towards the United Kingdom Government and ask them to do the right thing and hold an inquiry into the Kingsmill massacre, making public the information that has been made known to them via the security services since that fateful day.

TUV leader Jim Allister said many unanswered questions about Kingsmill remained.

He said: To this day, republicanism maintains the fiction that the PIRA were not responsible for Kingsmill.

Welcome as todays finding is, the coroners failure to name the murderers responsible was a grievous shortcoming.

Many unanswered questions remain about this darkest of days in the long annals of terror in our province.

It is for that reason that I believe that nothing short of a full public inquiry is necessary to get to the truth.
Bill is joined by LWJs Seth Frantzman just after the six-month mark of Israels defensive war in Gaza resulting from the October 7 attack against it by Hamas. They discuss Seths latest visit to border communities in Israel and whether theres a realistic timeline for still-evacuated citizens to return, disturbing reports that Hamas has apparently lost track of which hostages are dead or alive, and Tehrans possible response to Israels April 1 assassination of an IRGC-QF commander in Damascus as we enter day ~seven of bracing for an imminent Iranian attack against Israel within 24-48 hours.

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Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.
Experts warn against painting turtle shells as it can cause serious illness and even death.

Images of brightly coloured turtle shells circulating social media might seem harmless to some, but it's a sign of a deadly trend which can have devastating consequences, experts have warned.

It's not uncommon for the animals' shells to be decorated with paint or nail polish, but the novelty can "cause severe illness" or deformities and in some cases even death.

Shane Davies from Turtle Rescues NSW told Yahoo News Australia "people sometimes paint them to thier favourite football team colours or they just do it to decorate the turtle" for fun  and while mostly seen overseas, it happens locally in Australia too.

Painting turtle shells can cause serious illness, including deformities as shown in this image. Source: Facebook

Warning against painting turtle shells

Viral images on social media show a group of small freshwater turtles donning brightly patterned shells in a small tank of water. While another shows what can happen as the turtle, or tortoise, continues to grow.

"If youre wondering why this turtle ended up like that, its because the paint obstructs the absorption of the vitamins needed for these species to develop properly, which they get from sunlight," the caption on the viral post reads.

Davies said while he hasn't come across "anything this bad," referring to the deformed shell, he confirms it to be true. "I would absolutely advise not to do that," he said warning people against painting the animals' shells.

"Its not good for the turtle for its shell to be painted at all," he told Yahoo. "It is an act of cruelty and can cause illness to the turtle due to toxins in the paint."

The toxins in the paint are absorbed through the porous shell and can cause serious injury to the animals. Source: Facebook

Thier shells are porous meaning they absorb all liquids and the paint toxins can indeed stunt their growth. Once it penetrates the shell, it can cause serious injuries such as deformities and even respiratory issues.

Shocking images leave people outraged

The confronting images shocked many on social media who were baffled by the apparent trend.

"What type of idiot would paint a turtles shell?" one questioned "This is horrifying," said another.

Others agree it's a form of animal cruelty and condemned those who thought it was harmless and fun to decorate the reptile shell. Some however deemed it "common sense" not to mess with the "poor animals".

Turtle shells require UV from the sun to form properly and and protect them. Source: Turtle Rescue NSW

Major threats to Australian turtles

In Australia, ocean enthusiasts continue in their plight to help protect marine life, with turtles particularly under constant threat.

Crab pots on and around Aussie beaches are a major problem, Grahame Lloyd from Sea Shepard previously told Yahoo. He said he is "constantly" finding turtles deceased after being strangled by or caught in crab nets.

Fishing hooks and lines are also extremely problematic. Taronga Wildlife Hospital Rescue and Rehabilitation Coordinator, Libby Hall, told Yahoo they now see more animals impacted by fishing hooks and fishing lines than they used to.

"It's an increasing problem," she said.

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Dear Amy: My closest friend from college is getting married in the fall. He has asked me to be his best man.

The problem is that I dont want to. The main issue is that this wedding is already shaping up to be very time consuming and expensive. I am graduating from law school, working and studying for the bar exam, and I cannot imagine being able to commit fully to this.

In addition to the wedding itself, he wants me to organize a three-day stag party, either in Las Vegas or Wyoming (for fly fishing).

The wedding itself will be a three-day-long event, involving travel, the rehearsal dinner, the wedding, and a brunch afterward.

Just thinking about it exhausts me.

Is there a good way to say no to this without insulting my friend or harming the friendship?

 Not the Best Best Man

Dear Not the Best Man: Bridezillas and Frankengrooms, take note!

Overall, culturally, I wonder when marrying couples will realize that their attendants have reached the breaking point.

This issue used to be mainly confined to the bride and her attendants (or maybe they just talked about it more).

I have noticed an increase in concerns like yours expressed by men who are feeling the social, personal and economic squeeze of being an attendant.

Your best friends wedding is scheduled for several months from now.

Tell him right away that you cant do this. Preface this tough conversation by telling him how honored you are, but tell him, quite honestly, that you do not have the bandwidth to take on any organizing duties.

Are you available and interested in being a groomsman? If so, let him know, but emphasize that you realize the decision is his to make, and that you will feel honored to attend the wedding as a guest.

You might offer to include his grandmother as your plus-one and to prepare and deliver a toast, if he would like.

Dear Amy: Engaged and Worried didnt ask his much-younger brother to be in his wedding. Your response was spot on!

I too had a brother 12 years younger, and I headed off to college and the service when he was only six. Although he meant a lot to me, the vast difference in our ages and outlook was always too much to completely erase.

It is still a major source of regret.

Nevertheless, he was an important part of my wedding, a decision which has grown in significance now that he is gone.

He died of AIDS in his 30s, and left a hole in my life.

Jim, I still miss you and will love you always.

 Loving Brother

Dear Loving Brother: Heres to Jim. RIP, dear brother.

(You can email Amy Dickinson at askamy@amydickinson.com or send a letter to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or Facebook.)

2024 Amy Dickinson. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Pat Maroon skated the entire practice on a regular line for the Bruins on Friday.

He was scheduled to fly with the team to Pittsburgh and take part in morning skate on Saturday. Barring a setback, Bostons veteran trade-deadline addition expects to become their veteran fourth-line right wing at 8 p.m. on Saturday against the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena.

Glad to be back. Glad to be part of the team again and be in the lineup. Ill be there, Maroon said. Im excited. Obviously, were playing a Pittsburgh team thats trying to get into the playoffs. Its a good start for me to get ready for the playoffs.

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Jim Montgomery didnt want to skip any steps.

That was a 40-minute practice. He took part in every drill for the first time on a regular rotation, Montgomery said. Well see how he is tomorrow morning. Hes progressing well.

The Bruins traded for the 35-year-old three-time Stanley Cup winner at the deadline in hopes hed add to the teams veteran leadership and provide a physical presence at the bottom of the lineup. Maroon was coming off back surgery as the time and had to wait to complete rehab to get back in the lineup. He said the team has embraced him off the ice while waiting for him to join them on it.

Its been a great locker room. Very welcoming, Maroon said. Its a good group of guys in here. Guys that want to win. Guys that are passionate. Guys that like each other. Theyve been very good to me. Its been fun Im excited to go out and play with them.

Maroon, who said he felt comfortable playing either wing, expected to be playing through rust.

Im assuming my timing will be off. Hopefully not too bad. Im not the fastest skater, he said. My hands, vision have usually got me through where Im at right now.

Would three regular season games be enough to get him ready?

I dont know, he said after pausing to think about it. Ive been here before. Ive done it. I just have to go out there and play my game.
Author Margarita Barresi contends that people should read books that celebrate other cultures so they can be better citizens of the world.

So the native of Puerto Rico infused her first novel with her love of Puerto Rico, its beauty, people, traditions, culture, food and language.

I wanted to pack as many details about life on the island as possible, to make Puerto Rico practically a character in the book. I hope readers fall a little bit in love with the island, said the author of A Delicate Marriage.

Set against the vibrant landscape of Puerto Rico 40 years after its colonization by the United States, the novel weaves together the lives of Isabela and Marco.

Isabela, a woman of privilege, makes the ultimate sacrifice by forsaking her artistic dreams to marry Marco, a passionate advocate for social change in a country grappling with its identity under U.S. influence. As Marco rises to power in the real estate industry while navigating the political currents of the time, Isabela finds herself increasingly disillusioned with her traditional role and torn between her loyalty to her husband and her own desire for autonomy.

As political violence threatens their paradise, Isabela and Marco question whether their marriage, like the islands relationship with the U.S., should continue. The novel celebrates Puerto Rican culture while delving into themes of class, oppression and the effects of colonialism through the lens of a marriage.

The characters of Isabela and Marco are based on the authors grandparents; Don Gabriel is based on her great-grandfather.

Marriage and politics are similar in that to be successful they both require compromise, Barresi said. A marriage should benefit both parties, yet thats not always the case in a colonial marriage. In a colonial relationship theres an imbalance of power and the ruling party is likely to benefit the most.

The books title refers to the tenuous relationship the main characters have because of their differing political opinions. It also refers to the delicate marriage between Puerto Rico  a colony  and the United States.

Barresi thought it would be interesting to create a couple who are passionate about improving conditions on the island but have opposing political views. This enabled me to illustrate how being a U.S. colony has affected the island in both negative and positive ways. The give-and-take in Isa and Marcos marriage mirrors the relationship between the U.S. and Puerto Rico, which remains fraught with tension to this day. Stories need tension to be interesting and what better tension than different ideologies under one roof?

Two things inspired the book. First, the story of my grandparents courtship. Like Isa, my grandmother was a debutante who wanted to be an actress. Like Marco, my grandfather came from nothing but used his smarts to get an education. They met and fell in love, but my grandmothers father, Cheo, did not approve of my grandfather as a suitor for his daughter and did everything in his power to keep them apart, she said. In the book, everything Don Gabriel does to keep the lovers apart, Cheo did in real life. I grew up listening to those stories and thinking it all sounded so glamorous.

Secondly, Barresi wanted to educate readers about the islands history, particularly after it became a U.S. colony in 1898. The Puerto Ricans were on the cusp of attaining independence from Spain when the U.S. landed on its shores, so you can imagine the frustration of the Puerto Rican people to have once again to bow to a greater power, she said. Its now the oldest colony in the world, and its fascinating story is part of the history of the U.S. but not taught in schools.

Puerto Rico is part of the United States, yet many Americans dont know that basic fact or anything about the island and its people, she said. A Delicate Marriage puts the islands history into context. It begins to answer questions such as, Why have so many Puerto Ricans migrated to the mainland since the 1940s? It shines a light on decisions that well-meaning leaders made during the 1940s and 50s which had unfortunate long-term impacts.

Barresi was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and lived there until coming to the states to attend Boston University. She majored in public relations and had a successful career in marketing and communications, working at agencies for clients like Smartfood Popcorn, Dunkin Donuts and Bausch & Lomb and in-house for Tufts Health Plan and Bentley University; she now works as a freelance editor and copyeditor.

Barresi, who has been married for 34 years and has two adult daughters, lives in Wakefield where she has a small area in her house with lots of windows that serves as her dedicated writing space.

A Delicate Marriage, historical fiction, in paperback sells for $17.99, hardcover for $27.99 and Kindle for $8.99. It has 352 pages and was published by Atmosphere Press in October.

For more information, go online to margaritabarresi.com.
The young mum is the sixth person to die after a knifeman went on a rampage through the shopping centre on Saturday.

A TV reporter has made an emotional tribute to the latest confirmed victim of the Westfield Bondi attack, revealing she personally knew the mother who'd been stabbed alongside her nine-month-old baby.

The young mum is the sixth person to lose their life after a knifeman went on a rampage through the shopping centre on Saturday. It's understood her baby is receiving treatment at hospital.

Sky News Australia anchor Laura Jayes broke down on air while reporting live from the scene on Saturday evening, admitting it was "the worst possible news" to hear the woman hadn't made it.

Sky News Australia anchor Laura Jayes broke down on air while reporting the death of the sixth victim, a mother who was stabbed alongside her baby. Source: Sky News Australia

"I didnt know the others but I knew one," Jayes told Peter Stefanovic in the Sky News studio. "I can tell you that it was a mother, a mother in the prime of her life, a new mother with a nine-month-old baby. She's a beautiful woman".

"Her baby went into surgery and her mum didnt make it. That is really hard news to take," she continued through tears. "She was so smart, so beautiful and it was all ripped away in seconds."

Two men rush to save baby

Two men earlier described the moment they rushed to the woman's aid after witnessing her and her baby get stabbed by the attacker. The pair frantically used clothes from a store to stop the blood.

"The mother came with the baby bleeding, stabbed, and we got them into the store and just got them safe and then rang for help," one of the men told Nine News as shoppers spilled out onto the street.

"I just kept yelling out to get some clothes, get some shirts and just help us to compress and stop the baby from bleeding."

Two men came to the rescue of a mother and baby after they were stabbed. Source: Nine

The woman was reportedly transported to St Vincents Hospital where she died from her injuries. Meanwhile, the infant was rushed to Sydney Childrens Hospital in Randwick, 7News reported.

Jayes spoke of the woman's final bid to save her child's life  by passing the infant over to strangers.

"I can't imagine her needing to hand over the most precious thing in her life," Jayes said while reporting from Bondi. "They both went into surgery, her husband not knowing if either of them had survived... and now the worst possible news."

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
Billerica police worked with a local bank manager to prevent a woman from losing thousands of dollars due to a fraud attempt, the police department said.

A TD Bank manager contacted police on Tuesday to alert them to a possible fraud-in-progress at the banks 499 Boston Road location, police said in a statement.

Officers found that a 75-year-old woman had withdrawn $7,000 earlier in the day and returned to the bank to withdraw more cash, police said. She received a call from an unknown person who said she won $220,000 in a contest. Before she won, she needed to pay taxes first.

The woman was told to buy gift cards and provide the activation numbers over the phone before depositing $7,000 into a bank account that was not hers, police said. Police determined this was a fraud attempt and worked with the manager to place a hold on the deposit.

Detectives were able to regain the money spent on the gift cards, and it appears the woman will lose none of her money, police said.

This was a very close call in which a woman nearly lost thousands of dollars to a scam attempt, Billerica Police Chief Roy Frost said in the statement. Id like to thank and praise the branch manager and TD Bank for their attention to this matter, which enabled our detectives to intervene in time to save the residents money with assistance from the bank. As always, we encourage anyone who believes they may be facing a scam or fraud attempt to contact Billerica Police at 978-671-0900.

The investigation into the fraud attempt remains ongoing.
By JOSEF FEDERMAN and JON GAMBRELL Associated Press

JERUSALEM  Booms and air raid sirens sounded across Israel early Sunday after Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East closer to a regionwide war.

The attack marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the countrys 1979 Islamic Revolution. Condemnation from the United Nations chief and others was swift, with France saying Iran is risking a potential military escalation, Britain calling the attack reckless and Germany saying Iran and its proxies must stop it immediately.

The Israeli militarys spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Iran fired scores of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles  with the vast majority intercepted outside Israels borders. He said warplanes intercepted over 10 cruise missiles alone, also outside Israeli airspace.

Hagari said a handful of missiles landed in Israel. Rescuers said a 7-year-old girl in a Bedouin Arab town was seriously wounded in southern Israel, apparently in a missile strike, though they said police were still investigating the circumstances of her injuries. Hagari said a missile struck an army base, causing light damage but no injuries.

A wide-scale attack by Iran is a major escalation, he said. Asked whether Israel would respond, Hagari said only that the army does and will do whatever is required to protect the security of the state of Israel. He said the incident was not over, and dozens of Israeli warplanes remained in the skies.

U.S. forces downed some of the Iran-launched drones flying toward Israel, according to a U.S. defense official and two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. Israels military said its Arrow system, which shoots down ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, handled most interceptions and noted that strategic partners were involved.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office said he was speaking to U.S. President Joe Biden early Sunday. No details on their conversation were immediately made public. But Biden has said his commitment to Israels security is ironclad in the face of Iranian threats  a departure from his harsh criticism over Israels handling of the war in Gaza.

Iran had vowed revenge since an April 1 airstrike in Syria killed two Iranian generals inside an Iranian consular building. Iran accused Israel of being behind the attack. Israel hasnt commented on it.

Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israels six-month war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. An Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed over 33,000 people, according to local health officials.

Almost immediately after the war erupted, Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, began attacking Israels northern border. The two sides have been involved in daily exchanges of fire, while Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have launched rockets and missiles toward Israel.

In a statement carried late Saturday by Irans state-run IRNA news agency, the countrys paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged launching dozens of drones and missiles towards the occupied territories and positions of the Zionist regime.

In a later statement, the Revolutionary Guard issued a direct warning to the U.S.: The terrorist U.S. government is warned any support or participation in harming Irans interests will be followed by decisive and regretting response by Irans armed forces.

IRNA also quoted an anonymous official saying ballistic missiles were part of the attack. A ballistic missile moves on an arch trajectory, heading up into space before gravity brings the weapon down at a speed several times faster than the speed of sound.

Israel has a multilayered air-defense network that includes systems capable of intercepting a variety of threats including long-range missiles, cruise missiles, drones and short-range rockets. However, in a massive attack involving multiple drones and missiles, the likelihood of a strike making it through is higher.

Iran has a vast arsenal of drones and missiles. Online videos shared by Iranian state television purported to show delta-wing-style drones resembling the Iranian Shahed-136s long used by Russia in its war on Ukraine. The slow-flying drones carry bombs. Ukraine has successfully used both surface-to-air missiles and ground fire to target them.

Some Israelis watched the interceptions light up the night sky.

Air raid sirens were reported in numerous places including northern Israel, southern Israel, the northern West Bank and the Dead Sea near the Jordanian border.

Israels army ordered residents in the Golan Heights  near the Syrian and Lebanese borders  as well as the southern towns of Nevatim and Dimona and the Red Sea resort of Eilat into protective spaces. Dimona is home to Israels main nuclear facility, and Nevatim has a major air base. Loud booms were heard in Jerusalem and northern and southern Israel.

The armys Home Front Command canceled school Sunday and limited public gatherings to no more than 1,000 people. Israel and some other countries in the region closed their airspace.

Earlier, Netanyahu warned: Whoever harms us, we will harm them.

In Washington, Biden convened a principals meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the attack.

Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of the U.S. militarys Central Command, was in Israel over the weekend consulting with Israeli defense officials. The Central Command oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Irans mission to the United Nations issued a warning to both Israel and the U.S. Should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Irans response will be considerably more severe, it wrote online. It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!

For days, Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had threatened to slap Israel for the Syria strike.

In Irans capital, Tehran, witnesses saw long lines at gas stations early Sunday as people appeared worried about what may come next. Dozens of hard-liners demonstrated in support of the attack at Palestine Square.

Lebanons state-run National News Agency reported heavy Israeli airstrikes and shelling on multiple locations in south Lebanon following Irans launch of drones. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military site in the Golan Heights early Sunday. It was not immediately clear if there was any damage.

Iranian missiles or drones were intercepted in the sky above the Jordanian capital, Amman. In Lebanons capital, Beirut, and elsewhere in the country, residents reported seeing missiles in the sky and hearing explosions, likely from interceptions. In Syria, explosions were heard in the capital, Damascus, and elsewhere. Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Syrian air defenses tried to shoot down Israeli attempts to intercept Iranian missiles.

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. AP correspondents Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, Michael Balsamo in New York, Krutika Pathi in New Delhi, Stephen Graham in Berlin, Thomas Adamson in Paris, and Zeke Miller and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
A 17-year-old boy was hospitalized after a shooting and rollover crash in Somerville late Friday, news outlets reported.

Officers went to the area of Alston Street in response to reports about shots fired and a car rolling over Friday night, Boston 25 News reported.

When officers arrived, they found a 17-year-old boy who had been shot at least twice. He was taken to a nearby hospital. His injuries are not considered life-threatening, according to Boston 25.

The Somerville Fire Department confirmed for WCVB two individuals were driven by ambulance to the hospital, but it is unclear whether they were injured in the shooting or crash.

Law enforcement believe multiple individuals drove away in a vehicle that was allegedly stolen and then hit a parked car, causing it to roll over, Boston 25 reported. They are accused of fleeing on foot.
Police are seeking the publics help in identifying a man accused of being involved in a random attack on multiple people in South Boston on Saint Patricks Day, according to authorities.

Three people were randomly attacked by a group of five individuals, who then allegedly fled down Tudor Street toward F Street shortly before 4:45 p.m. on Sunday, March 17, the Boston Police Department said in a statement.

Detectives assigned to District C-6 in South Boston are asking the public help assist them in identifying the man allegedly involved in the assault. He was described as about 30 to 40 years old, roughly 5 feet 11 inches tall, around 200 pound in weight, fully bearded and wearing aviator sunglasses, a flat-brim black Celtics hat, a black and green Tatum Celtics jersey and jeans.

The department shared multiple photographs to help the public identify the man.

Police are actively reviewing the facts and circumstances surrounding the attack. Anyone with information is strongly urged to contact detectives at (617) 343-4742.

Community members wishing to assist this investigation anonymously can do so by calling the CrimeStoppers Tip Line at 1 (800) 494-TIPS or by texting the word TIP to CRIME (27463), the statement said. The Boston Police Department will stringently guard and protect the identities of all those who wish to help this investigation in an anonymous manner.
Police are seeking a person accused of vandalizing a Jewish temple in Portsmouth, New Hampshire earlier this week, according to authorities.

The Portsmouth Police Department is asking for the publics help in identifying the individual shown in images shared from Temple Israel on State Street. The person is accused of striking two lamp that have the Star of David displayed on them around 8:30 p.m. Monday.

We are asking the publics assistance identifying this individual. Should you know who this is, please contact Dave Keaveny, Investigative Division Captain at 603 610-7511, the department said in a statement posted to Facebook on Friday.

Anonymous tips can be made through Seacoast Crime Stoppers by calling (603) 431-1199, online at www.seacoastcrimestoppers.com and using the P3 phone app, which is available as a free download.

Rewards of up to $1,000 may be paid for help solving cases if the information leads to an arrest or indictment of a suspect, according to the department.
Two Boston police officers were injured in a crash early Saturday, according to authorities.

The crash took place in the area of 30 Clifton St. in the Roxbury neighborhood of the city shortly after 2:20 a.m. Saturday, Sgt. John Boyle, a spokesperson for the Boston Police Department, told MassLive.

Both officers suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. They were taken to a nearby hospital, according to Boyle.

The department would not publicly disclose the cause of the crash, as the report on the collision is still being written, Boyle said.

No further information about the crash was immediately released to MassLive.
I hope everyone got the chance to see the partial eclipse on Monday. While Western Massachusetts did not fall under the path of totality, this event was still incredible to witness. Mark your calendars for the next great North American eclipse in 2045.

Over at the Statehouse this week, both the House and Senate adopted a joint resolution to recognize April as the Month of the Military Child. Here in Massachusetts, we not only recognize and appreciate the selflessness our active-duty military members, but we also recognize the challenges that their families and children face, whether that be going periods without seeing a parent to frequently moving around and switching schools. Last session, the Legislature took tremendous strides with the SPEED Act to ease the transition of military children and families moving to the commonwealth, and I was proud to join Sen. Jo Comerford, Rep. Zlotnik and Rep. Whipps this week to recognize the many military-connected children across Massachusetts.

On Monday, I joined the new CEO of Tapestry Health, Mavis Nimoh, at their location in Holyoke to tour their offices and learn more about the work she hopes to take on to support the behavioral health of countless individuals across Western Massachusetts. Tapestry Health has played a vital role over the last five decades to be a leading expert in public health issues that impacts our region. I am extremely grateful for their collaboration on many of the legislative issues I review with the Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery.
WESTFIELD  A crowd gathered in the rain on Thursday to honor and remember Navy Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Christopher J. Chambers, formerly of Westfield.

Chambers was killed in action in January during a nighttime mission off the coast of Somalia. While his Navy SEAL team was seizing a vessel illegally transporting advanced weapons from Iran to Houthi rebels in Yemen, Chambers fell into the water between the Navy ship and the rebel ship. Neither he nor a fellow Navy SEAL who dived in to rescue him, Nathan Gage Ingram, resurfaced.
WESTFIELD  To plug a shortfall in the budget, school administrators are recommending closing the Westfield Virtual School.

School administrators presented a proposed fiscal 2025 budget at an April 9 meeting of the School Committee. Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski said he suggested the proposed cut reluctantly, and both he and other speakers made a case for keeping the school open, if money can be found.
The popular clothing store certainly raised eyebrows in its first Australian store this week.

Most of us have owned an item of clothing with a US place name on it. Whether it be Boston or New York, they're often seen scattered among crowds in the name of fashion.

But have you ever wondered what people from those places make of it all? Well that's exactly a situation Sydney-based Brandy Melville shoppers are currently facing, who have been taken aback by the popular store's latest clothing range.

Sydneysiders were baffled as to why Blue Mountains had been chosen as a location to put on Brandy Melville clothing. Source: TikTok/ bellabeenaa

In a TikTok video posted on Friday, a shopper unveils three college-style garments branding the names of Camp Cove, Watsons Bay and the Blue Mountains. While the former two, nestled at the tip of the exclusive eastern suburbs, were generally well-received, the Blue Mountains certainly raised eyebrows.

"Blue mountains is wild," one person declared, garnering over 3,000 likes. The original poster replied: "I could not believe my eyes". "Too funny," another added.

"Guys imagine someone from New York buys Blue Mountains thinking its this beautiful place in Europe," one person hypothesised. "Times square < The Three Sisters," one user responded, referencing famous landmarks at the two destinations.

Some people went in to bat for the Blue Mountains, arguing it was a "beautiful" place deserving its place on a shirt.

Others suggested if the region west of Sydney warranted space on the racks, so did other locations including Penrith, Bankstown and Mount Druitt. "Would kill for Campbelltown," one person pleaded. Another suggested TAFE hoodies were on their way.

Brandy Melville under the spotlight after surging success

Brandy Melville's popularity grew exponentially in the 2010s in the US before entering the Australian market in 2019. The Italian fashion brand is known for its one size fits all strategy.

It is currently the subject of a HBO documentary offering an insight into the fast fashion business. Named 'Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion', it explores allegations of racism and misogyny at its stores while it also dissects what some have said are unrealistic beauty standards set for young teens.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
A GROUP opposed to the proposed route of a new Greenway from Westport to Murrisk have called landowners from Westport to Louisburgh to attend a public meeting in Lecanvey this Friday.

The local Belclare to Murrisk Committee who oppose the controversial preferred route option have called a meeting for Friday, April 19 in Lecanvey Community Centre at 8pm. They are inviting landowners from Belclare to Louisburgh who may be affected by future greenways to listen to a number of speakers who they have invited to address the meeting.

The speakers will include Gerard Quinn, Professor Emeritus in law at the University of Galway while there will also be speakers who will speak on the environmental concerns of greenways as well as members of farmers groups who did not sign up to the Greenway Code.

A spokesperson for the committee said they were inviting all landowners from Belclare to Louisburgh to attend and listen to how future greenway planning will affect them in the future.

The Murrisk Greenway project is being developed by Mayo County Council in conjunction with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). The preferred route option will see the Greenway go off road from Aughavale Cemetery via the townlands of Cloonagh, Kiladangan and Deerpark towards Murrisk and will cut through land at the foot of Croagh Patrick.

A number of landowners along this proposed route have come out strongly opposed to it and say they will not give access to their lands and are prepared to go to the High Court to prevent access.

The committee say they are not against greenways and believe the best option for the community and tourists would be to develop a greenway along the R335 which is the main road from Westport to Murrisk.
The first-ever Darkness Into Light Kiltimagh walk to be held in Kiltimagh promises to be one of the biggest walks in Mayo.

Over 250 people have registered to take part in the town's inaugural Darkness Into Light walk, which takes place on May 11.

Darkness Into Light is a nationwide event which is the flagship funding campaign for Pieta, a charity which assists those affected by suicide and mental health issues.

Last year in Connacht alone, Pieta provided over 4,000 hours of therapy and saw over 500 clients across the province. The charity also supported almost 100 families and households bereaved by suicide.

The launch of the walk took place in Tommy Ryan's Bar in Kiltimagh yesterday (Friday) and was attended by Irma Joyce Campaign Executive Connacht, Pieta West, and local GP Dr Diarmuid Murray.

Speaking at the Darkness Into Light Kiltimagh launch, Chairperson Joe Corry said: Suicide prevention and mental health support services is something which myself and all members of the committee are absolutely passionate about. That is why we decided to take the reins this year to organise Kiltimaghs Inaugural Darkness Into Light Walk, alternating with Swinford Darkness Into Light who are taking a break for this year. Along with the rest of the team we are absolutely delighted to work with Pieta and Electric Ireland to support this years campaign and to celebrate the most important sunrise of the year right here in our hometown of Kiltimagh

The Darkness into Light Kiltimagh walk begins at the Bocce Courts at 4.15am.

The walk traverses the hinterlands of Cordarragh and Kilchon in Kiltimagh taking participants on just under a 5-kilometre looped walk before finishing back at the Bocce Courts at dawn.

Pieta depends on the funds generated by Darkness Into Light, with over 85% of the charitys annual income coming from public fundraising. Pietas 300 qualified Therapists, Suicide Bereavement Liaison Officers and support staff across the country rely on this essential income to continue their lifesaving work.

You can register for Darkness Into Light by signing up at www.darknessintolight.ie.

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Ellinor Stenhammer, 24, has been 'humbled' by the cooler conditions sweeping across most of Australia this week.

Parts of the country have experienced a dip in temperature as we well and truly bid farewell to summer, and even those among us more accustomed to colder climates have found the change a difficult one to accept, with one Norwegian expat admitting she has been "humbled" by winters here.

Ellinor Stenhammer, 24, has lived in the country for over two years and is already donning large jumpers and "wool socks" this week with the temperature dropping in Melbourne while regions in NSW experience the same. However, her biggest claim was admitting she found Scandinavian winters more bearable.

"Everyone is like, 'Oh, you're from Norway you should be fine with Australian winters'. No! Australian winters are the worst," the Melbourne-based woman said online. "It is so cold, it's April and already like, I can't feel my fingers."

Ellinor Stenhammer, 24, claims the Australian winter is worse than those she experienced back in Norway. Source: TikTok

Reasons expat prefers winters in Norway

Stenhammer said winters in Norway feel "nice and cozy" and the frequent snowfall makes it an enjoyable experience, especially as it coincides with Christmas. In comparison she describes an Aussie winter as "grey" and "rainy" and something to endure until the warmer seasons swing back around.

After sharing her thoughts Aussies acknowledged parts of the country get "glorious" winters in comparison to other parts of the world, with one North Queenslander saying "it's not bad" having 32-degree days in winter. However, others were on board with Stenhammer's sentiment and pointed to possible reasons why the winters feel so chilly here, with one in particular coming up time and time again.

"Aussie homes aren't built for the cold," one wrote.

Many Aussie homes are colder than Scandinavian ones

A study carried out last year by the University of Adelaide found Aussie homes get colder in winter than those in Greenland and Finland, with minimum temperatures averaging well below the World Health Organisation's recommended minimum temperature of 18 degrees.

Victorian and Tasmanian homes in the study averaged 15 degrees while by comparison Finland averaged between 20 and 24 degrees.

Poor housing contributes to this as well as the attitude that, as Australian winters are more temperate compared to others in the world, dips in temperature can be ignored without appropriate measures to withstand it.

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  Trusted Source

UK/Portuguese study strongly suggests antibiotic-resistant superbugs are being passed from cats and dogs to their owners



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Drug-resistant infections claim over 1.2 million lives annually worldwide, a number forecasted to escalate to 10 million by 2050 without intervention. #antibioticresistance 

Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Pets and Humans

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UK/Portuguese study strongly suggests antibiotic-resistant superbugs are being passed from cats and dogs to their owners - (https://www.escmid.org/fileadmin/escmid/media/pdf/press_releases/2024/2024-q2/Press_Release_20240412_P1868pawspathogensFINALESCMIDGLOBAL.pdf)

New findings propose a significant role for pet dogs and cats in the dissemination of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Research conducted in Portugal and the UK indicates the transmission of multidrug-resistant bacteria between afflicted pets and their unaffected owners ().This discovery heightens apprehensions about pets potentially serving as reservoirs for resistance, thus facilitating the proliferation of resistance to crucial medications.World Health Organization (WHO) classes antibiotic resistance as one of the greatest public health threats facing humanity.Recent research indicates that the transmission of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) bacteria between humans and animals, including pets, is crucial in maintaining resistance levels, challenging the traditional belief that humans are the main carriers of AMR bacteria in the community, says lead researcher Juliana Menezes, of the Antibiotic Resistance Lab at the Centre of Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon.Understanding and addressing the transmission of AMR bacteria from pets to humans is essential for effectively combating antimicrobial resistance in both human and animal populations.Ms Menezes and colleagues tested faucal and urine samples and skin swabs from dogs and cats and their owners for Enterobacterales (a large family of bacteria which includes E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae) resistant to common antibiotics They focused on bacteria resistant to third generation cephalosporins (used to treat a broad range of conditions, including meningitis, pneumonia and sepsis, they are classed among the most critically important antibiotics for human medicine by the World Health Organization) and carbapenems (part of the last line of defence when other antibiotics have failed).The prospective longitudinal study involved five cats, 38 dogs and 78 humans from 43 households in Portugal and 22 dogs and 56 humans from 22 households in the UK.All of the humans were healthy. All of the pets had skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) or urinary tract infections (UTI).In Portugal, one dog (1/43 pets, 2.3%) was colonized by an OXA-181-producing multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli strain. OXA-181 is an enzyme that confers resistance to carbapenems.Three cats and 21 dogs (24/43 pets, 55.8%) and 28 owners (28/78 owners, 35.9%) harbored ESBL/Amp-C producing Enterobacterales. These are resistant to third generation cephalosporins.In five households, one home with a cat and four with dogs, both pet and owner were carrying ESBL/AmpC-producing bacteria. Genetic analysis showed the strains to be the same, indicating that the bacteria passed between pet and owner.In one of these five households, a dog and owner also had the same strain of antibiotic-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae.In the UK, one dog (1/22 pets,14.3%) was colonized by two strains of multidrug-resistant E. coli producing NDM-5 beta-lactamase. These E. coli were resistant to third generation cephalosporins, carbapenems and several other families of antibiotics.ESBL/AmpC-producing Enterobacterales were isolated from eight dogs (8/22 pets, 36.4%) and three owners (3/24 owners, 12.5%).In two households, both dog and owner were carrying the same ESBL/AmpC-producing bacteria.It wasn't possible to prove the direction of transmission, however, in three of the homes in Portugal, the timing of the positive tests for the ESBL/AmpC-producing bacteria strongly suggest that, in these cases at least, the bacteria were being passed from pet (two dogs and one cat) to human.Ms Menezes, a PhD student, says: Our findings underline the importance of including pet-owning households in national programmes that monitor levels of antibiotic resistance.Learning more about the resistance in pets would aid in the development of informed and targeted interventions to safeguard both animal and human health.Bacteria can be passed between pets and humans by petting, touching or kissing and through the handling of faeces. To prevent transmission, the researchers recommend owners practice good hygiene, including washing their hands after petting their dog or cat and after handling their waste.When your pet is unwell, consider isolating them in one room to prevent the spread of bacteria throughout the house and clean the other rooms thoroughly, adds Ms Menezes.All of the dogs and cats were successfully treated for their infections. The owners did not have infections and so did not need treatment.Source-Eurekalert
A baby was among those injured in a horrifying mass stabbing that has rocked Australia.

WARNING - GRAPHIC CONTENT: Six people have been killed in a terrifying mass stabbing at a busy Sydney Westfield shopping centre on Saturday.

A senior female officer who was first to arrive on the scene shot the male perpetrator dead after he stabbed his victims with what one witness described as a "big blade". She was led to the man by brave shoppers after he made his way up several floors.

Emergency services rushed to Bondi Junction Westfield after the stabbing spree was first reported shortly after 3pm. Panicked shoppers were seen running for their lives, many in tears at what had just unfolded, while others were forced to hide in stores to escape the horror, which one witness described as "carnage".

A family in tears in the aftermath of the attack. Source: Getty

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb revealed five of the deceased are female, one who later died in hospital. She said eight people remain in hospital, including a baby who is undergoing surgery. Commissioner Webb said police believe the knifeman to be a 40-year-old individual known to police but he has yet to be formally identified.

"If it is the person we believe it is, then we don't have fears for that person holding an ideation," she said.

Ambulances and police cars outside the shopping centre. Source: ABC

The female officer who shot the male perpetrator dead has been widely hailed as a hero. Source: X

Knifeman acted alone, police stress

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters they are confident the man acted alone, following incorrect reports there was a second perpetrator. Police crews remain at the scene, while armed officers earlier took to the building's roof.

"I am content that there is no continuing threat," Assistant Commissioner Cooke said. He said there was nothing that we are aware of at the scene that would indicate any motive or any ideology".

He said the lone senior officer likely saved many lives with her bravery.

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw told reporters it is too early to categorically determine whether or not the incident was terror-related.

NSW Police said in an earlier statement people are still urged to avoid the area.

One video circulating on social media shows the man running along a floor of the shopping centre. Source: X

Baby among eight taken to hospital

NSW Ambulance confirmed they transported eight people to hospital, including a nine-month-old baby.

Two have gone to St Vincents, one baby has gone to Sydney childrens, one has gone to St George, one has gone to Royal North shore, two have gone to RPA," a spokesperson said.

Two brothers said they rushed to help a bleeding woman and baby inside. We got them into the store... and rang for help, one of the men told Nine News. They said both had been stabbed and they tried to stem their bleeding with garments from the store.

A patient is taken to an ambulance outside the Westfield shopping centre. Source: ABC

Video shows man with knife

Sirens were heard ringing out of the shopping centre which underwent an "emergency evacuation". Vision on social media shows distressed people fleeing the building. One video shows at least four officers attending to a person behind a white screen.

Several videos show a man in an old Kangaroos rugby league jersey holding a knife inside the shopping centre. In one video he is on an escalator with a man at the top attempting to hold him off with a bollard.

A separate video shows the man running through the shopping centre, lunging at one person while another squares up to him, forcing him to flee in the opposite direction.

One witness told the ABC they saw a man in a green shirt begin stabbing people "indiscriminately" outside the Country Road store. "It was carnage," he said. The man said he gave his young kids to his wife and tried to help the victims amid loud screams. He said it was not long after until shots were heard.

Commissioner Webb said the crime scene at Westfield is "extensive" and the shopping centre will be closed on Sunday.

Video shows a man trying to stall a man holding a knife on an escalator. Source: X

Bondi Junction shoppers left crying as they hid in stores

One mother waiting for the lift to enter the shopping centre from the underground car park told Yahoo she saw customers rushing past her, holding children. "They were screaming that people had been stabbed. I feel sick in my stomach," she said.

Other eyewitnesses say they heard gunshots, according to the ABC. A shopper named Roy told the ABC he was in a store when he heard two shots ring out. He initially hid in a changing room and was later led out a fire exit by a staff member onto the street below.

Police crews rushed to the scene. Source: Supplied

Onlookers stand outside the shopping centre as police remain on scene heading into the evening. Source: Getty

Shopper Ben told Yahoo he had made it to his vehicle and was driving off when traffic came to a halt "while a dozen emergency vehicles rushed passed". "Everyone was really confused and there was a lot of panic," he said.

One witness, a woman called Mackenzie, told Yahoo News Australia that she was shopping in Glue Store with a friend when the lights went off and the door was shut.

Sirens were going off and the mall was saying evacuate now. They said someone is running around the mall stabbing people so get into the back room. I was very confused. We all ran into the store room and waited for five minutes, some people were crying and shaken up," she said.

Mackenzie said after five minutes, the doors were reopened and there were huge crowds outside the Westfield.

Witness describes moment 'hero' cop shot knifeman

Cafe worker Ayush Singh, 25, told The Daily Telegraph he saw "a guy with a knife runningto the cafe that I work".

"He wasnt saying anything he was just running with a knife," he said. "I didnt hear him say anything.

"I saw him right before he was neutralised by the police."

Another horrified witness described the moment the female officer took down the knifeman with a single bullet.

As he was walking away, she walked behind him quickly to catch up before yelling at him, prompting him to turn and advance towards her.

"All she said was 'Put it down'. Just once. Then she shot him in the chest and he went down," 52-year-old shopper Jason Dixon told the publication.

Police helicopter now at Westfield Bondi Junction after incident pic.twitter.com/cPWTgz0pVQ  Ricardo Goncalves (@BUSINESSricardo) April 13, 2024

Albanese addresses 'devastating' mass stabbing

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns have expressed their horror at the deadly attack on shoppers at Sydneys Westfield Bondi Shopping Centre.

Albanese said the Australian Federal Police had briefed him on the "devastating events at Bondi Junction".

Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones," he said on X.

Our hearts go out to those injured and we offer our thanks to those caring for them as well as our brave police and first responders.

Later addressing reporters, he called the female officer who was first on the scene "a hero" who saved many lives.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed reporters about the tragic attack. Source: ABC

NSW Premier Chris Minns is returning from his holidays following the attacks.

"I am horrified to hear about the events at Bondi Junction this afternoon, he said. "I am making immediate arrangements to return to Sydney.

"I want to thank NSW Police, emergency services and first responders and the community for their bravery in the face of this shocking incident."

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The Marlins announced that right-hander Matt Andriese has been designated for assignment. Calvin Faucher has been called up from Triple-A Jacksonville to take his fellow rights spot on the 26-man roster.

Signed to a minor league deal during the offseason, Andriese had that contract selected on April 4, resulting in his first taste of Major League action since the 2021 campaign. Andriese had a 5.40 ERA over five innings and three appearances with Miami, eating some innings in a mop-up capacity while also allowing two homers in this brief sample size.

The home run ball was often an issue for Andriese during his seven-year run in the bigs from 2015-21, as he had a 14.5% homer rate over 509 innings with five different clubs. Andrieses 2022 campaign was spent in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants, and he returned to North America last season on a minor league deal with the Dodgers, posting a 6.05 ERA across 93 2/3 innings for Triple-A Oklahoma City without ever getting a call-up.

Should Andriese clear waivers, Miami could opt to keep him around at Triple-A as bullpen depth, even if his lack of minor league options makes him an imperfect candidate to be shuffled back and forth between the majors and minors. Andriese can also refuse an outright assignment to Triple-A in order to become a free agent, as he has previously been outrighted off a 40-man roster earlier in his career. Given his rather long path back to the Show, it seems possible that Andriese might prefer the relative stability of remaining in the Marlins organization rather than again testing the open market.
MARQUETTE COUNTY, MI  A man and his dog were saved from the icy waters of an inland lake Friday evening in a rescue that saw two first responders later treated for hypothermia.

The incident was reported around 4:06 p.m. Friday, April 12, when Marquette County Central Dispatch received a call of a man in distress in the waters of Lake Michigamme, about 30 miles west of Marquette.
Authorities say foreign drivers are involved in too many crashes on Australian roads, prompting the use of a surprisingly simple road sign.

It may seem the most obvious road rule to Australians, but authorities have spent thousands in ensuring tourists Down Under don't forget it. One Brit however couldn't believe visitors were being reminded they needed to drive on the left hand side of the road more than 250km from the nearest international airport on the Gold Coast.

"I kept on thinking about this sign all day - what are the chances of an oblivious foreigner driving all the way to Stanthorpe on the right side of the road and having to be reminded in that particular location?" the puzzled tourist explained online.

"It would have been quite an achievement to make it there on the wrong side of the road to begin with Whats the point of it being miles away from the nearest airport in Australia?"

The sign near Stanthorpe (left) and a similar sign in the Northern Territory (right). Source: Facebook/ Getty

The man was quickly informed the region around the NSW and Queensland border has a high population of backpackers performing regional work on farms.

Stanthorpe Police Sergeant Daniel ODea previously told the Stanthorpe Border Post authorities were spending more on education programs to safeguard local roads with the community "concerned" over the presence of international drivers.

"The major difference between international drivers to locals is failing to keep left, this error can be the most lethal," he said. In 2022, four Korean backpackers in their 20s were killed in a crash as they made their way home from a day's work in a packing shed. And while that crash did not involve their vehicle o nthe wrong side of the road, authorities are continuously concerned by the high proportion of backpackers involved in road crashes in the area.

One local supporting the road signs said he'd seen drivers ending up on the wrong side of the road by mistake. "I've witnessed first hand farm vehicles leave a property and start driving in the right lane in a 100km zone," he said.

In a bid to crack down on bad overseas drivers, the NSW government recently closed a loophole that allowed foreign drivers to accumulate endless demerit points without losing the right to drive on the state's roads.

Residents create their own road signs for tourists

Similar signage is present across Australia, with other states and territories erecting permanent or temporary reminders. Residents in high-risk areas have also resorted to putting up their own traffic signs, and often in different languages for foreign visitors to read.

One resident near Victoria's Great Ocean Road, a scenic stretch popular with foreign tourists who rent hire cars, put up a Stop sign in Mandarin to ensure people were stopping at what she called a "notorious" junction.

We always get a lot of visitors in the region and the signs needed to be in Chinese," she told Yahoo in 2019. Ive told people youve got everything but a brass band playing to tell you to stop at that intersection. Its been the scene of so many accidents.

Unofficial road signs which are designed to influence drivers' behaviour are in fact illegal.

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GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The Calvin University president who stepped down in February amid accusations he sent inappropriate messages to a woman on campus is disputing the claims in federal court.

Wiebe Boer and his wife Joanna filed an April 12 lawsuit in U.S. District Court that accuses the private Christian college of breach of contract, discrimination and defamation.
BATTLE CREEK, MI - A gunman fleeing a traffic stop was arrested, while a nearby Battle Creek elementary school was briefly placed in a lockdown, police said.

Officers attempted to make a traffic stop after 12:30 p.m. on Friday, April 12 near the intersection of Oak and High streets, said the Battle Creek Police Department.
KALAMAZOO, MI -- The Kalamazoo Public Schools board is considering adding metal detectors in schools following an uptick in homicides in Kalamazoo.

The idea was brought up by Superintendent Darrin Slade at an informational dinner meeting prior to the 7 p.m. board meeting on Thursday, April 11. Slade broached the subject after Trustee Jermaine Jackson brought up how community violence affects students.
Morgan Schug, a 28-year-old Battle Creek woman, was stabbed to death late Friday, April 13, by her boyfriend, police say. (MLive file photo)Joel Bissell
What many climatologists and meteorologists feared is coming true: it is quite possibly going to be a very active tropical hurricane season in the North Atlantic Ocean. A fairly inactive past few years could be taking a turn for the worst as we potentially see one of the most active tropical seasons in recorded history within the Atlantic basin.

Every year around early springtime, researchers/professors and scientists at Colorado State University release the annual Hurricane Season Outlook. Shown below is a summary graphic of the overall outlook issued by CSU.

This years outlook is quite an alarming one as almost double the amount of named storms is very well possible.Colorado State University

There will be updates made to this outlook so this is not the final prediction for tropical activity for the summer and fall. Nevertheless, the first one always sets the tone for what is most likely to occur over the next six months or so. Typically, the Atlantic basin experiences around 14-15 named storms per year. This year they are projecting 23 or more. With respect to hurricanes, about half of all named storms get classified as such with 3-4 of those labeled as a major hurricane, which is Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Our outlook has a strong probability of 11 hurricanes, with at least 5 of those reaching the 111 mph mark to officially classify it into major hurricane status.

About this time last year, the forecast outlook was announced with a very different message. 2023s prediction was a much more tame one, with the overall dynamic hinting at more of an average year in the tropical Atlantic. Thirteen named storms with 6 hurricanes as well as two major Category 3s were predicted. As seen below, that mostly verified; the only real difference being the amount of named storms. According to the map, there were 19 named storms with 6 hurricanes, including three that reached major Category 3.

A quick look back at last year's hurricane season shows it wasn't as active as expected.The Weather Channel

According to meteorologists, the largest reason for a bold forecast this year is a much anticipated switch in climatic conditions. As a majority of society is already aware of, weve been in an El Nino period for the last few years. This has had a tremendous impact on the atmosphere and ocean dynamics, especially in the Atlantic. Colorado States forecast heavily incorporates the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) parameter into their final statistical analysis.

El Nino conditions typically mean a warmer, but drier pattern. Along with that, there is generally stronger vertical wind shear and less instability for developing thunderstorms to work with. La Nina is the exact opposite of this as a warmer/wetter ocean surfaces pair with much less vertical wind shear and increased instability. As of early April, we are currently transitioning from El Nino to La Nina.

For hurricanes to form, the right conditions must be present. These conditions include vertical wind shear, moisture availability, ocean surface temperatures, and atmospheric instability. The best case scenario for optimal hurricane formation is less vertical wind shear, more moisture present, warmer ocean temperatures, and higher instability. As a result of these anticipated oceanic settings, an active tropical season is possible.

The last time we found ourselves flipping from El Nino to La Nina in the middle of hurricane season was 2010. Interestingly enough, they had an ultra-active tropical season that year. Nineteen named storms, 12 hurricanes, and 5 major hurricanes occurred that year. What 2010 didnt see was record warm Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs). As of April 2nd, 2024, SST anomalies are well above average. Simply put, the ocean is much warmer than normal right now and is going to get warmer in the near future.

Are we really going to see a record hurricane season? It may be too early to tell. Atlantic Hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, so theres still time for things to play out. History has shown that the CSU outlooks have generally panned out. They havent been perfect and some years have been complete busts for that matter, but most of the time they get very close.

So, this ominous forecast doesnt necessarily guarantee a high-impact season. It simply means the odds are higher. Keep that information in mind as we head into summertime.
Swimmers have been told to stay out of the water over fears a 'horrible' brain-eating amoeba has been discovered.

Swimmers have been told to stay away from a popular weir after a brain-eating amoeba with a 99-per cent fatality rate was potentially discovered in the water.

With highs of 28C over the weekend, some may have been planning a refreshing dip at Drakesbrook Weir, more than 100km south of Perth. However council issued a warning on Friday afternoon telling people to stay out of the water.

"Testing this week has again indicated the presence of Naegleria amoeba in the water," Shire of Waroona Council said. "The Shire is now awaiting results to rule out the presence of Naegleria Fowleri, the organism responsible for amoebic meningoencephalitis, commonly referred to as amoebic meningitis."

The amoeba can enter a person's brain when water is thrust up their nose. Council advised anyone who had put their head under water at the lake and feels unwell to seek immediate medical attention.

Visitors to Drakesbrook Weir have been told to stay out of the water. Source: Instagram - outandaboutperth/ freocookster

Similar warnings were issued in January and February, with Health Department managing scientist Richard Theobald warning of its deadly nature.

If there is nice warm water in a pool with no chlorine but a little bit of dirt, you start to run the risk of amoeba, so that water should be emptied and then refilled regularly, he said.

Infection is very rare (but) the death rate is 99 per cent. When infected, the amoeba travels to the brain and does what amoeba love to do: multiply and consume."

There has been three known cases in Western Australia since the 1980s.

Amoebic meningitis kills you in less than three weeks

Water researcher Professor Ian Wright previously told Yahoo News Australia amoebic meningitis is a "horrible, horrible thing". "You could probably have a thousand people swim in that waterway and not get it. But if you get infected, it's likely fatal. It takes between one and 18 days to die," he said.

On the other side of the country, one Sydney council issued a different type of deadly warning after a blue-ringed octopus was located at popular swimming baths in Woolwich. Professor of Marine Ecology at UTS David Booth told Yahoo he was pleasantly surprised to see the octopus so far up the harbour, with most sightings normally occurring at ocean beaches.

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A brave shopper armed with a bollard confronts a knife-wielding man on escalator at a shopping centre in Sydney's east.

A man has been hailed a hero for standing up to an armed attacker during a terrifying mass stabbing at one of Australias biggest shopping centres.

The unknown shopper put his own safety at risk to protect others from the knife-wielding man who killed six people and injured more during the frightening scene at Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon.

A short clip of the incident shared online shows the knifeman walking up an escalator while the man, armed with a bollard, confronts him at the top.

A brave man wards off the knifeman with a bollard at Westfield Bondi Junction. Source: X

It appears he's attempting to stop the knifeman from reaching the fourth floor. Shouting is heard in the background as the man holds the base of the bollard towards the knifeman outside a Cos store.

This Aussie man took on the armed attacker in Bondi Junction Shopping Centre, Sydney - putting his own safety at risk to save others, hailed one woman who shared the footage to X.

A f**king legend and a hero he is, said another person, with a third adding that he deserves a medal.

A senior female police officer was first to arrive on the scene and shot the male perpetrator dead after he went on a stabbing spree shortly after 3pm.

Police told reporters they are confident the man acted alone, following incorrect reports there was a second perpetrator. Police crews remain at the scene, while armed officers have taken to the building's roof.

This Aussie man took on the armed attacker in Bondi Junction Shopping Centre, Sydney - putting his own safety at risk to save others.



He is a hero. https://t.co/vs9xFMXSPV  Anna McGovern (@AnnaMcGovernUK) April 13, 2024

Witnesses share moments of bravery

Reports from shoppers describe the terrifying scene  with many acting with extreme bravery.

One pair of shoppers sprung into action after witnessing a mother and a baby stabbed by the attacker. The two men frantically used clothes from a store to stem the bleeding.

The mother came with the baby bleeding, stabbed, and we got them into the store and just got them safe and then rang for help," one of the men told Nine News.

I just kept yelling out to get some clothes, get some shirts and just help us to compress and stop the baby from bleeding.

NSW Ambulance confirmed that they have transported eight people to hospital, including the nine-month-old baby.

Two brothers came to the rescue of a mother and baby after they were stabbed. Source: Nine

Shoppers hide in stores from attackers

A shopper called Mackenzie, told Yahoo News Australia that she was browsing in Glue Store with a friend when the lights went off and the door was shut.

Sirens were going off and the mall was saying evacuate now. They said someone is running around the mall stabbing people so get into the back room. I was very confused. We all ran into the store room and waited for five minutes, some people were crying and shaken up," she said.

Mackenzie said after five minutes, the doors were reopened and there were huge crowds outside the Westfield. Mackenzie praised the efforts of staff who acted quickly to protect customers.

"They did a really good job of handling the situation," she said.

Police outside Westfield Bondi Junction following the mass stabbing incident. Source: AAP

Dad tells daughter to 'get cover'

A text from a young girl to his father described hundreds of shoppers hiding at the back of David Jones as the knifeman carried out his attack outside.

Theres a shooter at Bondi Junction, the girl wrote to her dad. We just heard gunshots.

The dad replied for her to get to cover and hide.

The text message a daughter sent her dad from Westfield Bondi Junction. Source: X

Read more: Westfield Bondi Junction stabbing: Man shot dead by police after five shoppers killed

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OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla./NASHVILLE, Tenn.As age verification legislation continues to be debated across the country, bills proposed in Oklahoma and Tennessee are seeing progress through friendly state legislatures that are controlled by Republican majorities. Both of these bills propose "reasonable" age verification measures.

In Oklahoma, Senate Bill (SB) 1959 was advanced through the House Rules Committee and continues on to the next steps to potentially become law. SB 1959 was first introduced by Republican state Sen. Jerry Alvord. Alvord shepherded SB 1959 through the state Senate last month with bipartisan support, 41-5.

Rep. Toni Hasenbeck is the bill carrier in the House. Thursday, she testified before the House Rules Committee that the bill is constitutional, citing the "reasonable" claims.

Rep. Andy Fugate, a Democrat of Oklahoma City, disagreed with Hasenbeck by saying that SB 1959 is an "unconstitutional restraint on adult behavior via reporting by Tulsa World. Nevertheless, it passed out of committee on a 6-2 vote.

AVN reported on Senate Bill 1959 earlier this year, noting that the bill features an "opt-out" option to prevent access to age-restricted materials. If adopted, an internet service provider would be required by law to block access to such materials on any device linked to the internet and cell services belonging to the person and family.

A pair of Tennessee proposals that would make violating the potential age verification law a criminal act is advancing with considerable steam. On the Senate side, Senate Bill (SB) 1792, sponsored by Republican Sen. Becky Massey, was unanimously adopted by the Senate on Tuesday.

SB 1792 has now been transmitted to the House of Representatives for consideration. Note that the other measure, House Bill (HB) 1614, is being considered as a budget bill item currently before a finance subcommittee. HB 1614, sponsored by Republican Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, is technically a companion to the Massey proposal.

If passed, this means that both bills will be resolved in a conference committee to agree on their nature before being sent to Gov. Bill Lee for ratification or veto.

Both bills contain language that charges violators with a felony. Other penalties adult site operators would be liable for include damages, attorney's costs, and court fees.
An image from EyewitnessZunes (Marco Gaudino)s Linktree, featuring Alex Jones wearing sunglasses.

The criminal case around former Deadspin editor Tim Burke continues to take twists. Matthew Keys of The Desk reported Saturday that 24-year-old Marco Gaudino of Auburn, WA, has been charged with a single count of criminal conspiracy around this case.

As per Keys report, that charge is over Gaudino allegedly working with Burke to gain access to video servers of news organizations like CBS and Fox News and leagues like the NBA. Keys also noted that Gaudino is cooperating with authorities, which may see him testify against Burke. Here are Keys tweets on this:

Gaudino accepted a plea deal in exchange for prosecutors recommending a lenient sentence. As part of the plea deal, he will cooperate with investigators in their case against Tim Burke, @bubbaprog, which could include testifying against him if Burke's case goes to trial. https://t.co/VrVHbDZ6WC  Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) April 13, 2024

I reached out to@bubbaprog's attorneys last month after learning that the co-conspirator in his case was a Washington man in his mid-20s. That person has now been identified as Marco Gaudino, 24, of Auburn, Washington. (No response from Tim's attorneys, by the way.) pic.twitter.com/j4YvTwVH9D  Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) April 13, 2024

Gaudino accepted a plea deal in exchange for prosecutors recommending a lenient sentence. As part of the plea deal, he will cooperate with investigators in their case against Tim Burke, @bubbaprog, which could include testifying against him if Burke's case goes to trial. https://t.co/VrVHbDZ6WC  Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) April 13, 2024

For the record, Gaudino has deleted his Twitter/X account, but a quick search shows plenty of interactions between him and Burke. Here are more details from Keys report on the details of the charge against Gaudino:

Sources familiar with the investigation say Gaudino used the Twitter handle EyewitnessZunes to communicate with Burke for months. The two men followed each other on the social platform in late 2021, and began exchanging messages privately a short time later. In some messages reviewed by The Desk, Gaudino furnished Burke with a username and password that allowed him to access an online server associated with the NBA. Using a process called file transfer protocol and a computer program called Cyberduck, Burke downloaded numerous large files over the course of several weeks before his access was cut off, the messages show. Later, Gaudino and Burke discovered online credentials that were accidentally posted to the website of a CBS News Radio affiliate in Tennessee. The credentials gave both men access to a website operated by LiveU, which offers a cloud-based service called Matrix that allows broadcasters like CBS and Fox to transmit live video over the Internet. In letters and court filings, attorneys representing Burke say the radio station invited their listeners to use those credentials. But the president of the radio station in question disputed this when contacted by The Desk last December, saying they would never intentionally direct listeners to use credentials belonging to another media organization.

The Burke case has taken a lot of turns over the last year. It started with a FBI raid of his home and seizure of his devices last May. That led to numerous public statements from his wife, his lawyers, and himself that he was conducting journalism rather than carrying out criminal activities. And on the legal defense fund site he regularly promoted to raise money for his legal costs, he emphasized all of last year that he had not been charged with a crime. But he was charged with 14 federal counts this February: one count of conspiracy, six counts of accessing a protected computer without authorization, and seven counts of intercepting or disclosing wire, oral or electronic communications.

As discussed in that last piece about the charges Burke is facing, there are significant potential impacts for journalism from his case. And there are numerous notable legal and ethical debates at play. Many of those revolve around particular distinctions, and even small-looking distinctions may wind up being important here.

One of those is about sourcing. Theres a significant difference between a source inside an organization passing on information they legitimately have access to and a journalist or ally gaining that information without an inside connection. And thats part of what makes the identification of and charge against Gaudino here notable, as he appears to be a similar outside party looking for credentials to places he did not work rather than an inside source. And thats now led to a charge against him, and to him reportedly cooperating with authorities.

That does not necessarily mean that Burkes own case will resolve the same way. Gaudino may have been one of Burkes sources, but that doesnt necessarily make him the only source for these videos. And if Burkes case does go to trial, there undoubtedly will be plenty of further discussions there about just how public the server credentials discussed here were and if it was illegal to use them.

None of that is resolved just as yet. But there are a couple further notable elements in Keys piece that matter to this. Keys writes that federal prosecutors were reportedly set to offer Burke a similar plea deal to what they offered Gaudino (albeit with significant restitution payments), but pulled that after Burkes attorneys signed on to a Tampa Bay Times legal motion requesting a law enforcement affidavit attached to the raid on his home, added a further affidavit demanding the return of his devices (initially denied, the appeal is pending), and gave interviews Keys sources cited as  intentional misrepresentations of the law enforcement investigation. So it seems like this proceeding to trial may indeed be in the works.

Beyond that, last October (five months after the raid, but four months before charges were filed) saw a variety of press freedom advocates send a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland expressing concerns over the lack of transparency in the Burke case. That letter is signed by journalism-specific organizations such as the Committee To Protect Journalists, the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Reporters Without Borders, and the National Press Club, but also by a lot of specific broadcasting companies, including E.W. Scripps, Gray, and Nexstar. Keys reports that those broadcasters have no further plans to attach themselves to the Burke case:

Some news organizations began walking back their support for Burke after he was charged in February. Officials with Scripps and Gray Television told The Desk that their letter was merely about the raid on Burkes home, and not about his current legal situation. Privately, broadcasters and press freedom groups have been encouraged by some of the alleged victims in the case to stop making public statements supporting Burke, according to numerous sources who spoke with The Desk. In one recent informal conversation, an executive for LiveU pointed out that ongoing public support for Burke could be viewed as siding against CBS News and Fox News Media, two of the alleged victims in the criminal case, who are also clients of their service, one source said. Nexstar, Scripps and Gray have no plans to append their name to future letters sent by press freedom groups on the matter, according to sources at all three companies.

Again, that letter came at a very different time, when there was next to no public information from the government side on the raid or its reasoning and it was unclear if any charges at all would be filed against Burke. The situation appears significantly changed now, and thornier for broadcasters in particular to intervene in. So this seems like a logical move.

But its definitely notable that those broadcasters arent planning to support Burke in this way again. And there may also be other signatories there who arent as enthused about defending this as a journalism case with the further details that have emerged of charges, methods, sourcing, and now an alleged co-conspirator. Well see how the discussions around the Burke case progress going forward.

[The Desk; image, of Alex Jones in sunglasses, from Gaudinos Linktree]
FILE PHOTO: People walk past remains of vehicles near the presidential palace, after they were set on fire by gangs, as violence spreads and armed gangs expand their control over the capital, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti March 25, 2024.
In US meeting, Philippines says it will assert South China Sea rights
BOND notes and the Zimdollar (ZWL$) did not have any backing during their tenure, the central bank has said, raising questions on the facilities that were bandied to be supporting the local currency.

Bond notes were introduced in 2016 with the central bank saying they were backed by a US$200 million Afreximbank facility.

The Bond notes and coins were then dropped to allow for the re-introduction of the ZWL$ in June 2019.

A new currency, Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG), replaced the Zimdollar.

During a Monetary Policy Review and Economic Business Outlook Symposium organised by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) yesterday, RBZ governor John Mushayavanhu said: RTGS and bond notes were not backed by anything.

ZiG is backed by foreign trade balances, gold and other precious metals in the vaults in the central back, HE (Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa) came to inspect to assure the nation that we have 2,5 tonnes of gold.

These are worth US$185 million. We also said we have US$100 million plus of foreign currency balances. That is US$285 million.

The ZiG that is circulating on the market is 80 million which means we are more than three times covered. That is the difference between ZiG and the other currencies that have been circulating in the past.

When NewsDay sought clarity on this comment, Mushayavanhu said there was no structure supporting Bond notes or the ZWL$.

What I mean is that, if you recall, the definition of a structured currency is a currency that is backed by either foreign currency or a basket of commodities. In the past, we never had that policy where our local currency was backed so we did not maintain sufficient reserves to back the currency, he said.

We may have had a situation sometime back that the amount of currency in circulation was higher than the amount of reserves held by the central bank and that was corrected by introducing the structured currency.

This means that, before Mushayavanhu assumed the governorship of the central bank, RBZ had ZWL$18 trillion in circulation without backing.

The shocking revelation led to industry executives at the symposium giving a vote of no confidence in the ZiG.

Our view as CZI that we think is key and that the Reserve Bank considered is obviously, one, we have to do everything to ensure that the ZiG is backed, CZI president Kurai Matsheza said.

I hear the varying views, but we hope they [RBZ] have enough arsenal to ensure that whatever is necessary to intervene to make it stable is considered.

He said transparency was needed as to what conversion metrics were used to determine the value of the ZiG.

Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president Mike Kamungeremu said the time for talk was over and what was now needed was for the governor to deliver.

No more indicating left, then turning right. That is the first message I attended a school recently where there was a poem where they were saying anything done for us, without us, is not for us. This might be key going forward, he said.

What we are simply saying is that governor, let us walk together, consult regarding the monies that we are owed. We know the implications on business. It would be good to be engaged in detail so that together we agree on the way forward.

He said business also wanted policy clarity and consistency which while the governor promised, needed to be followed up with some commitment.

We just hope that is what is going to happen, Kamungeremu said. NewsDay.

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Yves here. I am not keen about the term unhoused as opposed to homeless or better yet, the British term sleeping rough. Describing this desperate condition in sanitized terms seems all wrong. this desperate condition. The article describes in passing programs in Houston and Chattanooga that have reduces homelessness. If you know more about these or other policies that have made a difference, please pipe up in comments.

By Farrah Hassen, J.D., a writer, policy analyst, and adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona. Originally published at Common Dreams

As the cost of housing has exploded, so has the number of people experiencing homelessness. And unfortunately, instead of trying to house people, more states and cities are criminalizing people simply for lacking a safe place to sleep.

According to the National Homelessness Law Center, almost every staterestricts the conduct of people experiencing homelessness. In Missouri, sleeping on state land is a crime. A new law in Florida bans people from sleeping on public propertyand requires local governments without bed space for unhoused people to set up camps far away from public services.

Laura Gutowski, from Grants Pass, Oregon, lives in a tent near the home where she resided for 25 years. Soon after her husband unexpectedly passed away, she became unhoused. It kind of all piled on at the same time, she told Oregon Public Broadcasting. Flipped my world upside down.

The underlying issue is how we treat those who struggle to meet basic needs in the wealthiest nation in the world.

Grants Pass, like most cities today, lacks enough shelter beds to accommodate its unhoused population. Its now the subject of a Supreme Court case: Grants Passv. Johnson, which started when Grants Pass began ticketing people for sleeping in public even when there werent enough shelter beds.

People can be fined hundreds of dollars and face criminal charges simply for existing without access to shelter, said Ed Johnson, an attorney for the unhoused residents of Grants Pass. The Supreme Courts decision will have far-reaching ramifications as communities grapple with rising homelessness and housing costs.

If the court rules in favor of Grants Pass, local governments will get more authority to clear homeless encampments and penalize those who sleep on streets, only exacerbating the problem.

Alternatively, the court could prohibit these camping bans and remove criminalization as an option. Back in 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals took that route in Martin v. City of Boise, which held that it is cruel and unusual punishment to criminalize homelessness when people have no other place to go.

According to the federal government, last year 653,100 people experienced homelessness on a single night in Americaa 12% increase from 2022. Nearly half of these people sleep outside.

Researchers have found that homelessness is primarily linked to unaffordable housing, compounded by the lack of adequate healthcare and social safety net support. With half of all renter households now spending more than 30% of their income on housing, more people today are one emergency away from being vulnerable to homelessness.

Fining, arresting, and jailing people for a lack of housing is never the solutionand compounds existing housing inequities. Neither is displacing people without providing permanent alternative housing. Unpayable fines perpetuate the cycle of poverty, and a criminal record makes it even more difficult to secure employment and decent housing.

Moreover, the costs of criminalizing people for living unhoused are higher than housing them, both morally and financially. Instead of kicking them while theyre down, housing support combined with other voluntary services help to lift them back up.

Using a Housing First approach, Houston, Texas, reduced homelessnessby nearly two-thirds over a decade. Chattanooga, Tennessee, reduced homelessness by half in 2022-2023 by connecting more people to housing, increasing homelessness prevention efforts, and creating more affordable housing units.

Other helpful measures include expanding housing subsidies, rent control, a renters tax credit, and ensuring access to healthcare services.

The underlying issue is how we treat those who struggle to meet basic needs in the wealthiest nation in the world. Criminalizing people for involuntarily living unhoused and in poverty is inherently cruel.

For the U.S. to truly address this crisis, we must transform our approach and recognize that housing is a fundamental human right, not a commodity. All people deserve to live in a home in peace, security, and dignity.
Yves here. Fascism has arrived in Europe. The crackdown on speech, here in Germany in support of Palestinian rights, is deliberately thuggish and looks set only to get worse.

By Yanis Varoufakis. Originally published at his website

The speech that I could not deliver because German police burst into our Berlin venue to disband our Palestine Congress (1930s style) before I could address the meeting. Judge for yourselves the kind of society Germany is becoming when its police bans the following words:

Friends,

Congratulations, and heartfelt thanks, for being here, despite the threats, despite the ironclad police outside this venue, despite the panoply of the German press, despite the German state, despite the German political system that demonises you for being here.

Why a Palestinian Congress, Mr Varoufakis?, a German journalist asked me recently? Because, as Hanan Ashrawi once said: We cannot rely on the silenced to tell us about their suffering.

Today, Ashrawis reason has grown depressingly stronger: Because we cannot rely on the silenced who are also massacred and starved to tell us about the massacres and the starvation.

But there is another reason too: Because a proud, a decent people, the people of Germany, are led down a perilous road to a heartless society by being made to associate themselves with another genocide carried out in their name, with their complicity.

I am neither Jewish nor Palestinian. But I am incredibly proud to be here amongst Jews and Palestinians  to blend my voice for Peace and Universal Human Rights with Jewish Voices for Peace and Universal Human Rights  with Palestinian Voices for Peace and Universal Human Rights. Being together, here, today, is proof that Coexistence is Not Only Possible  but that it is here! Already.

Why not a Jewish Congress, Mr Varoufakis?, the same German journalist asked me, imagining that he was being smart. I welcomed his question.

For if a single Jew is threatened, anywhere, just because she or he is Jewish, I shall wear the star of David on my lapel and offer my solidarity  whatever the cost, whatever it takes.

So, lets be clear: If Jews were under attack, anywhere in the world, I would be the first to canvass for a Jewish Congress in which to register our solidarity.

Similarly, when Palestinians are massacred because they are Palestinians  under a dogma that to be dead and Palestinian they must have been Hamas  I shall wear my keffiyeh and offer my solidarity whatever the cost, whatever it takes.

Universal Human Rights are either universal or they mean nothing.

With this in mind, I answered the German journalists question with a few of my own:

Are 2 million Israeli Jews, who were thrown out of their homes and into an open air prison 80 years ago, still being kept in that open air prison, without access to the outside world, with minimal food and water, no chance of a normal life, of travelling anywhere, while bombed periodically for these 80 years? No.

Are Israeli Jews being starved intentionally by an army of occupation, their children writhing on the floor, screaming from hunger? No.

Are there thousands of Jewish injured children no surviving parents crawling through the rubble of what used to be their homes? No.

Are Israeli Jews being bombed by the worlds most sophisticated planes and bombs today? No.

Are Israeli Jews experiencing complete ecocide of what little land they can still call their own, not one tree left under which to seek shade or whose fruit to taste? No.

Are Israeli Jewish children killed by snipers today at the orders of a member-state of the UN? No.

Are Israeli Jews driven out of their homes by armed gangs today? No.

Is Israel fighting for its existence today? No.

If the answer to any of these questions was yes, I would be participating in a Jewish Solidarity Congress today.

Friends,

Today, we would have loved to have a decent, democratic, mutually-respectful debate on how to bring Peace and Universal Human Rights for everyone, Jews and Palestinians, Bedouins and Christians, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea with people who think differently to us.

Sadly, the whole of the German political system has decided not to allow this. In a joint statement including not just the CDU-CSU or the FDP but also the SPD, the Greens and, remarkably, two leaders of Die Linke, Germanys political spectrum joined forces to ensure that such a civilised debate, in which we may disagree agreeably, never takes place in Germany.

I say to them: You want to silence us. To ban us. To demonise us. To accuse us. You, therefore, leave us with no choice but to meet your ridiculous accusations with our own rational accusations. You chose this. Not us.

You accuse us of anti-Semitic hatred We accuse you of being the antisemites best friend by equating the right of Israel to commit war crimes with the right of Israeli Jews to defend themselves.



You accuse us of supporting terrorism We accuse you of equating legitimate resistance to an Apartheid State with atrocities against civilians which I have always and will always condemn, whomever commits them  Palestinians, Jewish Settlers, my own family, whomever. We accuse you of not recognising the duty of the people of Gaza to tear down the Wall of the open prison they have been encased in for 80 years  and of equating this act of tearing down the Wall of Shame  which is no more defensible than the Berlin Wall was  with acts of terror.



You accuse us of trivialising Hamas October 7th terror We accuse you of trivialising the 80 years of Israels ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the erection of an ironclad Apartheid system across Israel-Palestine. We accuse you of trivialising Netanyahus long-term support of Hamas as a means of destroying the 2-State Solution that you claim to favour. We accuse you of trivialising the unprecedented terror unleashed by the Israeli army on the people of Gaza, W. Bank and E. Jerusalem.



You accuse the organisers of todays Congress that we are, and I quote, not interested in talking about possibilities for peaceful coexistence in the Middle East against the background of the war in Gaza. Are you serious? Have you lost your mind? We accuse you of supporting a German state that is, after the United States, the largest supplier of the weapons that the Netanyahu government uses to massacre Palestinians as part of a Grand Plan to make a 2-State Solution, and peaceful coexistence between Jews and Palestinians, impossible. We accuse you of never answering the pertinent question that every German must answer: How much Palestinian blood must flow before your, justified, guilt over the Holocaust is washed away?



So, let s be clear: We are here, in Berlin, with our Palestinian Congress because, unlike the German political system and the German media, we condemn genocide and war crimes regardless of who is perpetrating them. Because we oppose Apartheid in the land of Israel-Palestine no matter who has the upper hand  just as we opposed Apartheid in the American South or in South Africa. Because we stand for universal human rights, freedom and equality among Jews, Palestinians, Bedouins and Christians in the Ancient Land of Palestine.

And so that we are even clearer on the questions, legitimate and malignant, that we must always be ready to answer:

Do I condemn Hamas atrocities?

I condemn every single atrocity, whomever is the perpetrator or the victim. What I do not condemn is armed resistance to an Apartheid system designed as part of a slow-burning, but inexorable, ethnic cleansing program. Put differently, I condemn every attack on civilians while, at the same time, I celebrate anyone who risks their life to TEAR DOWN THE WALL.

Is Israel not engaged in a war for its very existence?

No, it is not. Israel is a nuclear-armed state with perhaps the most technologically advanced army in the world and the panoply of the US military machine having its back. There is no symmetry with Hamas, a group which can cause serious damage to Israelis but which has no capacity whatsoever to defeat Israels military, or even to prevent Israel from continuing to implement the slow genocide of Palestinians under the system of Apartheid that has been erected with long-standing US and EU support.

Are Israelis not justified to fear that Hamas wants to exterminate them?

Of course they are! Jews have suffered a Holocaust that was preceded with pogroms and a deep-seated antisemitism permeating Europe and the Americas for centuries. It is only natural that Israelis live in fear of a new pogrom if the Israeli army folds. However, by imposing Apartheid on their neighbours, by treating them like sub-humans, the Israeli state is stoking the fires of antisemitism, is strengthening Palestinians and Israelis who just want to annihilate each other and, in the end, contributes to the awful insecurity consuming Jews in Israel and the Diaspora. Apartheid against the Palestinians is the Israelis worst self-defence.

What about antisemitism?

It is always a clear and present danger. And it must be eradicated, especially amongst the ranks of the Global Left and the Palestinians fighting for Palestinian civil liberties around the world.

Why dont Palestinians pursue their objectives by peaceful means?

They did. The PLO recognised Israel and renounced armed struggle. And what did they get for it? Absolute humiliation and systematic ethnic cleansing. That is what nurtured Hamas and elevated it the eyes of many Palestinians as the only alternative to a slow genocide under Israels Apartheid.

What should be done now? What might bring Peace to Israel-Palestine?

An immediate ceasefire.

The release of all hostages: Hamas and the thousands held by Israel.

A Peace Process, under the UN, supported by a commitment by the International Community to end Apartheid and to safeguard Equal Civil Liberties for All.

As for what must replace Apartheid, it is up to Israelis and Palestinians to decide between the 2-state solution and the solution of a Single Federal Secular State.

Friends,

We are here because vengeance is a lazy form of grief.

We are here to promote not vengeance but Peace and Coexistence across Israel-Palestine.

We are here to tell German democrats, including our former comrades of Die Linke, that they have covered themselves in shame long enough  that two wrongs do not one right make  that allowing Israel to get away with war crimes is not going to ameliorate the legacy of Germanys crimes against the Jewish People.

Beyond todays Congress, we have a duty, in Germany, to change the conversation. We have a duty to persuade the vast majority of decent Germans out there that universal human rights is what matters. That Never Again means Never Again. For anyone, Jew, Palestinian, Ukrainian, Russian, Yemeni, Sudanese, Rwandan  for everyone, everywhere.

In this context, I am pleased to announce that DiEM25s German political party MERA25 will be on the ballot paper in the European Parliament election this coming June  seeking the vote of German humanists who crave a Member of European Parliament representing Germany and calling out the EUs complicity in genocide  a complicity that is Europes greatest gift to the antisemites in Europe and beyond.

I salute you all and suggest we never forget that none of us are free if one of us is in chains.
Major Colombian gang leader who snuck across the border captured in Texas

Aderbiss Segundo Pirela, a high-ranking member of the notorious Colombian gang Los Satanas, was recently apprehended in Texas, sparking conversation regarding how such an infamous criminal was able to cross the border

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Antonio announced that Pirela, 28, was arrested in New Braunfels, northeast of San Antonio. He was wanted for at least four murders and at one point was one of the most wanted men in Colombia and by Interpol. Colombia also has warrants out for his arrest for extortion and drug trafficking. HSI San Antonio released him to Border Patrol's custody to be processed federally. (Related: Texas National Guard member ARRESTED for smuggling illegal alien in government vehicle.)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement alleges that Pirela first entered the U.S. unlawfully on Jan. 2 near Eagle Pass. Border Patrol initially arrested him near El Paso and issued him with a notice to appear in court at a later date. He was released on Jan. 5 with an order of recognizance.

Gen. Jose Daniel Gualdron, commander of the Bogota Metropolitan Police on Colombia, said his country and the U.S. had been monitoring Pirela's movement north for months, using the migrant convoys of thousands upon thousands of people as cover. Once he arrived in Mexico, he began seeking political asylum in the United States.

Pirela's case an example of how criminals exploit open border policies

Pirela's case serves as a stark example of how criminals can exploit these open border policies to evade justice and potentially pose a threat to American communities. Pirela's criminal journey began when he migrated from Venezuela to Colombia in June 2023. He quickly ascended the ranks of Los Satanas after the arrest of their leader, Jose Vera, in Ecuador the previous November.

Human knowledge is under attack! Governments and powerful corporations are using censorship to wipe out humanity's knowledge base about nutrition, herbs, self-reliance, natural immunity, food production, preparedness and much more. We are preserving human knowledge using AI technology while building the infrastructure of human freedom. Speak freely without censorship at the new decentralized, blockchain-power Brighteon.io. Explore our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Support our efforts to build the infrastructure of human freedom by shopping at HealthRangerStore.com, featuring lab-tested, certified organic, non-GMO foods and nutritional solutions.

Despite various raids resulting in the arrest of 18 gang members in December, Pirela and nine others managed to evade capture and flee the country.

Nearly two months after he first arrived in the U.S., authorities reported on Feb. 27 that Pirela still had control over Los Satanas' criminal activities in Colombia. An investigation even found that Pirela and his associates were operating from a shelter somewhere in Texas and were sending orders to gang members back in Bogota.

Critics argue that the open borders policies of the administration of President Joe Biden are facilitating the entry of dangerous criminals like Pirela into the United States.

The lack of stringent border controls and enforcement measures is seen as a significant vulnerability that can be exploited by transnational criminal organizations and individuals with malicious intent.

Former Department of Homeland Security agent Ari Jimenez emphasized the urgent need for comprehensive border security reforms to address the threat of other major gang leaders like Pirela trying to make their way into the United States. Jimenez emphasized the gravity of Pirela's criminal activities, including allegations of homicide, drug trafficking and extortion and the death of a seven-year-old boy.

Pirela's case has raised questions about the effectiveness of current border control measures and screening processes. Critics point to this incident as evidence that there may be vulnerabilities in the system that could allow individuals with criminal backgrounds to enter the United States.

Learn more about the migrant crisis at Migrants.news.

Watch this video discussing the need for more control over the southern border to prevent disasters.

This video is from the channel The New American on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Texas installs RAZOR WIRE along New Mexico border to block ILLEGAL ALIENS from crossing.

Biden admits to FLYING 320,000 migrants into U.S. to PURPOSELY skew border crossing numbers.

Turkish smugglers using SOCIAL MEDIA to aid and abet illegal immigrants crossing southern border.

Texas liberates island near U.S.-Mexico border occupied by criminal cartels.

Sources include:

LawEnforcementToday.com

ExpressNews.com

Brighteon.com
Congress introduces ADL-backed Countering Antisemitism Act to police online speech (and silence criticism of Israel)

A bipartisan pair of AIPAC-funded senators have introduced a new bill backed by the Anti-Defamation League aimed at silencing criticism of Jews and Israel and policing Americans' online speech.

(Article by Chris Menahan republished from InformationLiberation.com)

The bill comes as Israel is committing an active genocide of Palestinians with US-supplied bombs and inducing a man-made famine in Gaza.

"The Countering Antisemitism Act is the most far-reaching antisemitism initiative to be introduced in Congress," ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said Thursday on X. "It offers a smart, bipartisan, whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to combating this hatred and protecting Jews around the country."

The Countering Antisemitism Act is the most far-reaching antisemitism initiative to be introduced in Congress. It offers a smart, bipartisan, whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to combating this hatred and protecting Jews around the country. https://t.co/PMQnqlYoB6  Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) April 11, 2024

Here's how the ADL describes the bill in a statement on their website:

The Countering Antisemitism Act (CAA)the most comprehensive antisemitism initiative to be introduced in Congresswill implement the National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism and ensure its policies and infrastructure are made permanent. As ADL data shows, the U.S. Jewish community is facing the worst crisis of antisemitism that we have seen in a generation. As we reach the conclusion of the National Strategy's 12-month timeline, we must guarantee the important policies within the plan continue to protect Jewish lives. The Countering Antisemitism Act will ensure these policies endure and create lasting executive structures to prioritize and fight antisemitism, including a domestic National Coordinator and a dedicated Task Force that meets regularly to coordinate efforts to fight antisemitism across federal agencies. As we face such historic levels of antisemitism, the Countering Antisemitism Act offers a smart, innovative whole-of-government approach to combating this hatred and protecting Jews around the country. The Countering Antisemitism Act is authored by Senators Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK) and Reps. Kathy Manning (D-NC) and Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chairs of the House and Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism. Key Provisions - Establishes a National Coordinator to Counter Antisemitism to serve as the President's principal advisor on countering domestic antisemitism and coordinate Federal efforts to counter antisemitism. - Establishes an Interagency Task Force to Counter Antisemitism to coordinate the implementation of Federal strategies to counter antisemitism. - Requires federal agencies to submit a report to Congress detailing their implementation of the National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism. - Requires the FBI, DHS, and National Counterterrorism Center to jointly produce an annual threat assessment of antisemitic violent extremism. - Requires the National Coordinator to conduct an annual analysis of online antisemitic content, including Holocaust denial and distortion, and prepare recommendations for Congress on how to counter the spread of antisemitism online. - Requires the Department of Education to designate a senior official to advise and oversee the Department's efforts to counter antisemitic discrimination at colleges and universities. - Requires the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to study Holocaust education efforts across public K-12 schools. - Requires FEMA to ensure they have sufficient resources and personnel to carry out the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. - Formally designates May as "Jewish American Heritage Month."

The bill is supposed to work in concert with the Biden administration's "National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism" which called on "all online platforms" to ban "extremist websites," ban "hate speech" and institute "zero tolerance" policies to protect Jews from antisemitism.

If someone introduced the same bill but replaced "Jews" with "Whites" or "Christians" and demanded policing of "antiwhiteism" and "anti-Christianism" they would be laughed out of Congress.

Instead, we're getting "conservative" states like South Dakota, Georgia, Florida and Texas passing what amounts to hate speech laws to silence all criticism of "God's chosen people."

Two and a half centuries of free speech needs to come to an end to prevent the Jewish State from being criticized while they're actively committing genocide.

A U.S. aid official warns that famine has begun in northern Gaza  the first U.S. official to publicly say so. https://t.co/67n7ystJUM  Axios (@axios) April 11, 2024

Read more at: InformationLiberation.com
Former DNC chair Brazile excoriates medias treatment of Biden, claiming nobody listens when he speaks

Donna Brazile, the former acting chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), castigated the media's treatment of President Joe Biden in an interview.

The two-time DNC head vocally expressed her dissatisfaction in an interview on ABC's "This Week," during the program's Powerhouse Roundtable segment. The discussion centered on U.S. policy toward Israel and whether Biden needs to communicate more directly about events like the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

"Absolutely  not just in Israel [and] Ukraine. We are a superpower. He is the Commander-in-Chief. He should speak out more," said Brazile. "Also, we should cover what he's saying because often when he speaks, nobody listens."

The erstwhile DNC chairwoman isn't the only one with this sentiment about Biden needing to speak more in front of the media. In February, Democratic strategist Paul Begala argued that the incumbent president should spend more time in front of cameras and microphones even though he is prone to gaffes.

"I want to see more Biden  the gaffes are built in," he remarked during an appearance on the fake news purveyor CNN. However, Biden himself had frequently told crowds that he would get "in trouble" for answering unauthorized questions. According to the New York Post, the president has been heard on multiple occasions asking staffers for permission to "take a couple of questions" during campaign stops and public appearances. (Related: LOST IN TRANSLATION: Dementia sets in deeper as Dark Brandon asks permission to speak, even though he is supposedly the president.)

We are building the infrastructure of human freedom and empowering people to be informed, healthy and aware. Explore our decentralized, peer-to-peer, uncensorable Brighteon.io free speech platform here. Learn about our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Every purchase at HealthRangerStore.com helps fund our efforts to build and share more tools for empowering humanity with knowledge and abundance.

"Biden has kept a low media profile throughout his presidency, interacting with the press far less than many of his predecessors," the Post continued. "[He] has also participated in fewer sit-down interviews than the previous six [U.S.] presidents."

"His last Oval Office address to the nation was in October, when he called on Congress to pass over $100 billion in security and humanitarian assistance for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. It was only the second prime-time Oval Office address of his presidency."

Biden should go UNSCRIPTED

Meanwhile, the National Pulse stated that Brazile's complaints during her "This Week" appearance "come amidst ongoing complaints from the White House about the medias reporting on Biden's age and cognitive decline. Washington reporters covering the Biden government have expressed increasing fatigue over what many are interpreting as unjustifiable criticism from the White House."

One reporter attested to this, noting that many journalists are growing tired of the "nagging and complaining" coming out of the administration. They told Fox News: "The White House and [Biden] campaign 'memos' to media criticizing our coverage are a joke to any serious reporter."

Fox News contributor Joe Concha responded to Brazile's remarks by suggesting that Biden's heavily scripted persona might contribute to the lack of attention he receives. He also raised concerns about the president's gaffes whenever he goes off-script, necessitating follow-up clarifications from Biden's communications team.

"When he does speak extemporaneously, it's sometimes or oftentimes awkward, confusing or patently dishonest," said Concha. "[Thus], his [communications] team needs to clean up."

To back up his point, Concha recounted the revelation by news anchor Sage Steele about her interview with Biden. According to the former ESPN host, network executives entirely scripted her interview with the president  with no review for deviation whatsoever.

"I was told, 'You will say every word that we write out. You will not deviate from the script and go," Steele shared with Fox News.

Concha ultimately remarked that the American people need to hear from Biden. Instead of sitting down with celebrities, he suggested that the chief executive do a live interview with an actual journalist or conduct a press conference lasting for up to an hour.

"We haven't seen anything like that this year, or many months going into 2023. So if his handlers want to hide him for this long  OK, I guess. But the American people want to hear from Joe Biden, the president, the man, and actually hear answers that come from his head and not a teleprompter," the Fox News contributor remarked, pessimistically arguing that such an endeavor is unlikely to happen before the November 2024 election.

Check out JoeBiden.news for similar stories.

Watch former DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile warning that Joe Biden is in big trouble below.

This video is from the SecureLife channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Operation Bubble Wrap: Jill Biden and several White House staffers SHIELDING Joe Biden from unscripted media interactions.

MEDIA MARCHING ORDERS: White House orders media to cover up Joe Biden's corruption bombshells.

Too feeble to indict: Joe Biden's disastrous press conference confirms his diminished mental capacity.

Sources include:

TheNationalPulse.com

NYPost.com

MSN.com

Brighteon.com
Fully vaccinated about to see tsunami of illness and death, warns virologist

World-renowned Belgian virologist Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche has another warning for the public: the mass collapse of immunity among the fully vaccinated is upon us.

In a recent appearance on the KunstlerCast podcast, Bossche predicted a soon-coming "massive, massive tsunami" of illness and death among those who got "vaccinated" for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), whose immune systems are now unspeakably compromised.

The result of this coming wave of mass illness and death is sure to completely overwhelm the health care sector, not to mention the economy-wide impact in terms of eventual total economic failure and social chaos.

It will start to be noticeable, Bossche explained, with a spike in cases of what the system will dub as "long COVID." Once those cases really start stacking up, then comes the massive wave of illness and death, which Bossche says is inevitable.

"You will see what will happen, for example, in the next coming weeks ... is more and more cases of more serious long COVID," Bossche said. "They will start to replace the surge of the cancers ... now we have a more chronic phase."

"It will end with a hyper-acute phase, a huge, huge wave ... I've been studying this now for four years. I know what I'm talking about."

(Related: Back in 2022, Bossche warned that "the vaccinated" are responsible for unleashing the "end of Western civilization.")

"We will have to build a completely new world," Bossche says

Claiming himself to be one of the, if not the, only person who understands the immunology behind all this, Bossche says the coming crisis is "imminent," meaning it will happen at any moment and likely take most of the world by surprise.

We are building the infrastructure of human freedom and empowering people to be informed, healthy and aware. Explore our decentralized, peer-to-peer, uncensorable Brighteon.io free speech platform here. Learn about our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Every purchase at HealthRangerStore.com helps fund our efforts to build and share more tools for empowering humanity with knowledge and abundance.

The health collapse and crisis it brings will result in a total failure of the system, after which Bossche says "we will have to build a completely new world."

"It is very, very clear that when this starts, our hospitals will collapse," Bossche warned. "And that means the chaos in all kinds of layers of society  financial, economic, social, you name it  will be complete."

In other words, it would seem as though COVID is what really got the dominoes of the current world order falling. And by the time it gets to the end, all that will remain is ash and dust from which a phoenix will then rise to recreate a new world order.

"It's very strange for me to make such statements, but I'm not hiding it because I'm 200 percent convinced that it will happen," Bossche stated ominously.

"You commit errors or even crimes at the very small scale, you can hide them  I've seen this happen with the Ebola vaccination with Africa a number of years ago. However, if you do this at the very large scale, like what has happened with this mass (COVID) vaccination campaign, the truth will surface."

Those responsible for unleashing Operation Warp Speed and the COVID "pandemic" at large will continue lying to the people about what is going on, even as it is going on. They will pretend as though they only tried to "help" when the reality is that they unleashed a mass genocide event that is taking several years to fully manifest.

"If these people would now go out and say, 'Yeah, wait a minute, we have been making some mistakes, it wasn't all right, we have to correct them, we have to revise our opinion,' these people will be stoned in the streets," Bossche added.

"They can only hope that something will happen that will distract from this issue, but it won't."

More of the latest news about the after-effects of Operation Warp Speed can be found at Genocide.news.

Sources for this article include:

YourNews.com

NaturalNews.com
New hate speech law in Poland would punish people who insult LGBT ideology with 3 years in prison

Poland's new left-wing government has proposed legislation that would criminalize the "insulting" of LGBT ideology.

Any person found guilty of committing "hate speech" against someone over "sexual orientation or gender identity" would face three years in prison for the so-called crime.

Just last week, the Polish Ministry of Justice published a draft amendment to the country's penal code that expands the scope of "hate speech" to include "sexual orientation or gender identity," a move that conservative Poles have condemned.

Traditionally, Poland has been a conservative nation centered around Roman Catholicism and the traditional understanding of morality and marriage, as punctuated by the pontificate of the Polish Pope John Paul II. All of that would change under the new hate speech law.

"The introduction of the proposed solutions will ensure enhanced and full criminal law protection against the use of violence or unlawful threats, incitement to hatred, insults and violations of bodily integrity due to the disability, age, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity of the injured party," the draft legislation reads.

(Related: The other day, a United States drone was forced to make an emergency landing in Poland  as usual, Russia was blamed for jamming the aircraft's GPS system.)

"Unlawful threats" could result in five-year prison term

The proposed law contains an additional layer of added punishment for so-called "unlawful threats" made against LGBTs in Poland. Violators of this provision would face up to five years in prison, while those found guilty of "insults" would face just three years in prison.

We are building the infrastructure of human freedom and empowering people to be informed, healthy and aware. Explore our decentralized, peer-to-peer, uncensorable Brighteon.io free speech platform here. Learn about our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Every purchase at HealthRangerStore.com helps fund our efforts to build and share more tools for empowering humanity with knowledge and abundance.

Commenting in denunciation of the law was Conservative Confederation Party MP Karina Bosak, who warned that its passage would destroy freedom of speech in Poland as well as criminalize Christian teachings.

On Good Friday, Bosak issued a statement of condemnation from her party:

"The ruling coalition, as part of its coalition agreement, has announced that they want to penalize so-called?hate speech. The current left-wing Deputy Minister of Justice?Krzysztof ?miszek, from the New Left, has stated that his department is currently working on introducing these regulations, which limit freedom of speech and public debate in Poland.?We, as the Confederation, strongly oppose this. The direct consequence of criminalizing certain words will, in fact, be the criminalization of conservative, religious, Christian views."

Fellow Confederation party member Dobromir So?nierz added that the proposed law would be easily manipulated to dub pretty much any speech that liberals do not like as "hate speech," allowing it to be used as a political weapon of lawfare.

"What the left understands by so-called hate speech, in practice, will mean speech hated by Minister ?miszek, not necessarily speech that expresses hatred towards someone, but something that leftists dislike," So?nierz warned.

The proposed law follows a court case from last fall in which a Polish court ruled in favor of Google concerning the removal of two videos on its YouTube platform explaining LGBT ideology through the lens of Catholic teaching.

In short, the videos highlighted the biblical view of LGBT that it is a sin, which Google cited as "hate speech" before removing the videos. A Polish court decided that Google made the correct decision.

The videos in question were first removed back in 2019, prompting Polish weekly Do Rzeczy editor Pawe? Lisicki to sue Google for censorship. The Polish court, failing to give a legal definition of the term, decided that the videos constituted "hate speech" as they presented views that were deemed to be "highly damaging."

Conservative Poles had also been trying to ban transgender surgeries for minors prior to the current left-wing takeover of the nation's government, which threatens to turn Poland into just another bastion of left-wing perversion.

The latest news about the left-wing takeover of free speech can be found at Censorship.news.

Sources for this article include:

LifeSiteNews.com

NaturalNews.com
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Don't be fooled by the rhetoric from the Great Satan and illegitimate state of New Izrael. They're STILL trying to starve the Palestinians to death.

A promised surge in aid into Gaza that Benjamin Netanyahu promised Joe Biden a week ago has so far failed to materialise, aid workers say, as the US aid chief confirmed that famine is beginning to take hold in parts of the besieged coastal strip.

The increase in the number of truck crossing into Gaza claimed by Israel conflicts with UN records and already appears to be faltering.

- Aid still not reaching Gaza, as top US official warns famine has started

The illegitimate state of New Izrael has been blocking food trucks. Of the few that have got through, they opened fire on them, killing hundreds of Palestinians. Then they bombed the WCK aid workers in a deliberate three-tap strike whilst they were travelling on a road which had been agreed beforehand.

The Great Satan has pretended to admonish the illegitimate state of New Izrael. But it too has cut funding for UNWRA as has the poodle state and Germany.

The Great Satan hasn't cut funding for arms to the illegitimate state of New Izrael, however.

The Great Satan dropped aid. It was reported there was military rations but no medicine or water, where disease will be a major cause of death in addition to the famine. But they were also hitting the ground "like bombs". One hit a building, causing it to collapse and killing five Palestinians. Then the Great Satan switched to dropping the aid into the Sea where Palestinians were drowning in an attempt to get to them.

The Great Satan did suggest building a jetty to provide aid. But that was probably for the purposes of looting the offshore gas field, which is probably the aim for this whole episode of genocide. The BRICS have dumped the jew-confetti "worthless paper" USD. So now the Anglo/Jew useless genocidal parasites are desperate to find a source of income.

Israels proposed removal and resettlement of Gazas Palestinian population is the textbook definition of ethnic cleansing, Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf has said. Yousaf is the first UK party leader to condemn the controversial depopulation plan.

- Scottish nationalists accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing

Israeli historian Raz Segal, who studies Holocaust and modern genocide, calls it a textbook case of genocide.

- The rubble of Americas rules-based order in Gaza,
Another insurance carrier adds war exclusion to policies as WWIII looms

Policyholders with The Cincinnati Insurance Companies are receiving notices about coverage changes pertaining to the threat of full-scale war.

Dr. Ben Tapper (@DrBenTapper1) shared an image on X  see below  showing policy changes that "include a war exclusion."

"Your Commercial Inland Marine Coverage will include a Nuclear, Biological, Chemical and Radiological Hazards Exclusion," the notice further reads.

My friend sent this to me and said he received it in the mail. Interesting? pic.twitter.com/emBdSXYhqL  Dr. Ben Tapper (@DrBenTapper1) April 7, 2024

(Related: Earlier this year, we warned that insurance companies were altering their policies to exclude coverage for injuries or sickness caused by war, rioting, insurrection.)

Is the insurance industry expecting World War III?

Though war exclusions are technically nothing new for insurance carriers, they do have ominous implications for what is soon expected. Click For Cover, now known as CFC.com, published a piece last year that explains why.

In the spring of 1937 when German bombs fell on Guernica, Spain, flattening 70 percent of the town's buildings in less than three hours, property insurers were completely unprepared because they were not expecting such a thing to happen.

"They soon realized it wouldn't take many Guernicas to wipe out the balance sheets," CFC says. "They responded by adding exclusions to policies for acts of war  a move reflected in contracts to this day."

CFC says that insurers "are moving to address war again" now that it is clear there are major developments taking place on the march towards World War III. CFC says cyber war specifically is at the forefront of the insurance industry's worries, but anything could happen.

We are building the infrastructure of human freedom and empowering people to be informed, healthy and aware. Explore our decentralized, peer-to-peer, uncensorable Brighteon.io free speech platform here. Learn about our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Every purchase at HealthRangerStore.com helps fund our efforts to build and share more tools for empowering humanity with knowledge and abundance.

"This time the concern is cyber war  specifically, attacks so catastrophic that they cripple a nations ability to function," CFC says. "Lloyd's of London have mandated the exclusion of such scenarios from March 31st of this year. Some in the market are resisting the move."

"Insurance brokers are suspicious when new exclusions appear. And rightly so; they usually signal a reduction in cover for policyholders. They present problems for brokers when clients discover they dont have the cover they thought they did."

Back in the day, cyber war would have had no meaning since there were no computers. Today, the definition of war has greatly expanded to include a lot of things that policyholders need to know about because it could mean that they will not be covered once the "bombs," including cyber bombs, drop.

"Mainstream global security organisations now accept that modern war includes cyber-attacks," CFC explains. "Article 2 (4) of the United Nations Charter prohibits the threat or use of force by one state against another. This applies to nation state conduct in cyberspace."

"While armed attack is still considered the most serious use of force, cyber-attacks fall under this definition too. In 2019, NATO, the world's largest military alliance, confirmed this. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that a 'serious cyber-attack could trigger article 5,' a reference to the collective self-defence clause at the heart of NATO's founding treaty."

Simply put, there are a whole lot of events that are now considered to be "war" in the eyes of both the government and the insurance industry. By adding war exclusions to policies, many policyholders will likely find themselves in a serious bind when they realize their assets are no longer covered.

"Imagine a company trying to pay out damages to infrastructure in Gaza right now," one commenter wrote about current events.

"Imagine offering coverage on nuclear damages," wrote another about how the insurance industry could never cover a nuclear attack and survive.

The latest news about the slow descent into another world war can be found at WWIII.news.

Sources for this article include:

Twitter.com

NaturalNews.com

CFC.com
ZIONIST FAIL: Israel finally admits they CANNOT DESTROY HAMAS while attempting to blame the United States for their half-year of relentless genocidal bombings of civilians

After nearly half-a-year of intense bombings that have targeted and killed countless innocent civilians, Israel admits it can't destroy the enemy, whoever that is. What looks like another proxy war for NATO and the grand embezzlers of the MIC (military industrial complex), the Gaza War has been nothing but a disaster (pardon the pun) and mostly at the expense of American taxpayers. Again, the terrorists are everywhere and nowhere at the same time, but Israel and America don't see it that way. They would rather send all of the weapons and money America needs to defend the Republic to fund bombings that only end up killing a few dozen terrorists, while inflicting mass-damage to infrastructure, hospitals, schools, temples and more.

Intelligence officials in Israel losing hope of destroying their endless sea of enemies in the Middle East

The Israeli goal of destroying "Hamas" could be equated with smashing the ocean with hammers. After six months of wasted time, money, resources, weapons and innocent lives, the "terrorist leaders" are still at large, everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The Gaza invasion has become a genocidal nightmare of epic proportions, and the Biden Regime is all in for this war, trying to spark World War III from Israel instead of Ukraine now. The military industrial complex is hard at work embezzling billions of dollars in the name of making "peace" around the world.

Somebody or something has to be blamed for the failure. There must be a scapegoat. Is it climate change? Is it those pesky Russians that supposedly helped Trump win in 2016? Maybe it's those crazy terrorists that flew planes into New York sky scrapers twenty-some years back. Where are all those "evil-do'ers" hiding now, Israel and O'Biden (Obama) claim to want to know.

We are building the infrastructure of human freedom and empowering people to be informed, healthy and aware. Explore our decentralized, peer-to-peer, uncensorable Brighteon.io free speech platform here. Learn about our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Every purchase at HealthRangerStore.com helps fund our efforts to build and share more tools for empowering humanity with knowledge and abundance.

The incessant drone-led bombing of women and children must stop. The entire world is dead tired of America and Israel claiming to try to keep the peace while starting and propagating wars for which taxpayers foot the bill. It's tax-payer-funded genocide. This is not some holy war, or war to keep the peace, or war to protect the innocent. This is a war ON the innocent, funded by the innocent.

Israeli's top rabbi now claiming the Torah demands the killing of Palestinian men, women, children and babies

Oh yes he did. Israel's top rabbi in Jaffa, a man named Eliyahu Mali, is claiming genocide of Palestinians is somehow inscribed in the first five books of the old testament, also known as the Torah. "Don't leave a soul alive... not only 14, 16-year-old lads ... and those who create the future generation," claims the rabbi  " you can't outsmart the Torah."

That's the claim, that the mass killing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is justified in the bible, according to Halakhic principles. Talk about extremism. The Jewish law supposedly claims this is all justified by the "way to behave or act" according to "divine law" among Orthodox Jews. Isn't this the same as terrorists who claim they'll go to heaven and get 19 virgins if they kill Israeli's in the name of Allah, or some other deity? Sounds like more reasons to act like a Neanderthal and say it's justified.

So now, U.S. taxpayers are financing this "war of extermination" and supplying Israel with bombs and missiles to kill children throughout Gaza. The minute the U.S. stops funding the useless war, it ends. "All of our missiles, the ammunition, the precision-guided bombs, all the airplanes and bombs, it's all from the U.S.," says retired IDF Maj. General Yitzhak Brick. Tune your apocalypse dial to Preparedness.news for updates on real news about surviving and thriving the NATO-originated World War III.

Sources for this article include:

Censored.news

InformationLiberation.com

NaturalNews.com
Benjamin Netanyahu sets date for invasion of Rafah amid pressure over mounting civilian casualties

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has formally announced the scheduling of a ground operation to attack Rafah , the last remaining Palestinian shelter in Gaza.

Netanyahu, addressing the nation in a brief video statement on the evening of Monday, April 8, emphasized the imperative of invading Rafah and eradicating the "terrorist factions" supposedly entrenched within the southern Gazan city. He declared that a specific date for this invasion has been set and underscored the seriousness of this planned offensive.

The decision to launch the attack reportedly comes amidst mounting pressure from various quarters. Israel's closest ally, the United States, has expressed strong apprehension regarding the potential humanitarian consequences of the offensive and has urged extreme caution.

Furthermore, members of Netanyahu's own coalition government are at odds with each other over the decision to launch a decisive military strike against supposed Hamas militants hiding out in Rafah. (Related: Extremist ministers in Netanyahu's government demand OFFENSIVE on Rafah following IDF's temporary withdrawal from Gaza.)

Rafah, right on Gaza's border with Egypt, currently has an estimated 1.4 million people, the majority of whom are internally displaced persons from other parts of Gaza. The densely populated area presents significant challenges for any military operation, raising concerns about civilian casualties and humanitarian fallout.

Netanyahu and his government have long identified the elimination of Hamas as a key objective, and have claimed that the invasion of Rafah is necessary to fulfill this goal.

Human knowledge is under attack! Governments and powerful corporations are using censorship to wipe out humanity's knowledge base about nutrition, herbs, self-reliance, natural immunity, food production, preparedness and much more. We are preserving human knowledge using AI technology while building the infrastructure of human freedom. Use our decentralized, blockchain-based, uncensorable free speech platform at Brighteon.io. Explore our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Support our efforts to build the infrastructure of human freedom by shopping at HealthRangerStore.com, featuring lab-tested, certified organic, non-GMO foods and nutritional solutions.

In preparation for the upcoming operation, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has announced the temporary withdrawal of most of its ground forces from southern Gaza in a move that aims to provide soldiers with sufficient rest and preparation for the forthcoming mission in Rafah.

Declarations of impending Rafah invasion might be tactic to pressure Hamas in negotiations

There is speculation among analysts that the prime minister's repeated announcements of an imminent operation in Rafah might serve as a strategy to apply pressure on Hamas during ongoing hostage negotiations, which were reportedly reaching a pivotal stage on Monday, awaiting Hamas' response to Israel's latest offer.

Responding to these developments, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller stated that Israel had not yet briefed the White House on the planned date for entering Rafah. Miller reiterated Washington's opposition to a major invasion in Rafah, emphasizing concerns about potential civilian casualties, disruption of aid routes and damage to Israel's international reputation.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby also mentioned on Monday that Israel had assured the U.S. it would not initiate a major ground operation before holding an in-person follow-up meeting next week. Kirby indicated that there were no apparent signs of an imminent major ground operation or troop repositioning for such an endeavor.

The U.S. is pushing for Israel to explore alternatives to a large-scale invasion, including targeted strikes against Hamas leadership and collaboration with Cairo to secure the Egypt-Gaza border, aiming to curb smuggling and weaken the remaining fighters of Hamas. Israel has reportedly presented this plan to Egypt for consideration.

Read more stories like this at IsraelCollapse.com.

Watch this report from Tel Aviv discussing the growing anti-Netanyahu protests in Israel.

This video is from the Vampire Slayer channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Netanyahu convenes war cabinet as Israel prepares for imminent retaliation from Iran after airstrike against embassy in Syria.

Netanyahu rejects UN ceasefire resolution, says hostages still in Gaza must be returned or the bombings will continue.

Netanyahu goes rogue, says IDF will invade Rafah safe zone despite presence of one million refugees sheltering there.

Netanyahu REJECTS Hamas offer to release ALL hostages for a ceasefire  further proof that the Israeli leader doesnt care about his own people.

Sources include:

SHTFPlan.com

TimesOfIsrael.com

Brighteon.com
Police in Hammond, Indiana discover 13 migrants HIDING in the basement of an apartment building

Thirteen migrants were found living in the basement of an apartment building in Hammond, Indiana after police discovered them while responding to a 911 call on April 2.

Hammond Police Department (HPD) officers discovered the migrants at 1100 block of Indiana Street while investigating the alleged overdose death of a resident at the apartment building. An upstairs resident informed the officers that there were 13 individuals living in the basement of the premises.

Upon investigating the basement, police officers reported that they discovered 13 occupants, including nine children between two months and 14 years old, two adult women and two adult men. All of the hiding migrants were from Venezuela.

The HPD dispatched officers from its Code Enforcement Division, who shared that they also identified several code violations that made the home a hazard to its residents and the surrounding community. The police officers said the violations included overloaded extension cords, along with inadequate exits, windows and walls.

Because of the inspection, the residence was considered uninhabitable. The occupants were also issued a notice to vacate the premises within 10 days.

Kelly Kearney, head of the citys Department of Inspections, advised that this type of illegal basement apartment puts "people at extreme risk and danger, with owners often preying on marginalized people and those without means to find other adequate housing." (Related: Deadly new ISO drugs on the streets of San Francisco now a leading cause of overdose deaths.)

Human knowledge is under attack! Governments and powerful corporations are using censorship to wipe out humanity's knowledge base about nutrition, herbs, self-reliance, natural immunity, food production, preparedness and much more. We are preserving human knowledge using AI technology while building the infrastructure of human freedom. Use our decentralized, blockchain-based, uncensorable free speech platform at Brighteon.io. Explore our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Support our efforts to build the infrastructure of human freedom by shopping at HealthRangerStore.com, featuring lab-tested, certified organic, non-GMO foods and nutritional solutions.

Further investigation revealed that a local member of the clergy organized the living arrangements for the 13 illegal aliens from Venezuela. The suspected clergy member was not named because he had not been charged with a crime yet.

Hammond Mayor Thomas M. McDermott Jr. said if the investigation reveals that the clergy member thought that he could send 13 undocumented illegal aliens to live in an illegal basement apartment in the city, he will ensure that the suspect will be held responsible for his actions.

"The City of Hammond is not open to this type of illegal criminal activity and [he has] placed people in significant harm, including children," added McDermott. The HPD is investigating the matter and said that officers will be working with relevant federal authorities to address any potential immigration law violations.

It is not yet certain if the City of Hammond will help relocate the 13 Venezuelans after issuing a 10-day notice to leave the premises. City officials also added that they will know more after a follow-up inspection is conducted on April 12.

Illegal migrants also discovered hiding in New York City flop house

Unfortunately, Hammond isn't the only city where large numbers of illegal aliens have been found hiding in small spaces and unsanitary living conditions.

In March, New York City building inspectors discovered an illegal flop house for migrants where illegal aliens were living in the cramped basement of a Queens furniture store.

The inspectors discovered the illegal boarding house when they were called to 132-02 Liberty Avenue in South Richmond Hill to investigate reports of a large and dangerous collection of e-bike batteries.

Initially believing that they found 40 migrants at the location, officers were shocked to discover that the true number was twice that. Fire officials said the migrants, mostly from Senegal, were taking turns to sleep because of the lack of space in the area.

An investigation revealed that Ebou Sarr, the building's owner, is also an immigrant and was charging the illegals $300 a month to live in the flop house.

Visit OpenBorders.news for more stories about the adverse effects of illegal migration in the United States.

Watch this clip from "The Breanna Morello" show as the host talks to guest Mike Lipetri about how illegal aliens have become squatters and hide guns in a New York home.

This video is from the MyPodcastDropped2320 channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

DRUG CITY: San Francisco hits grim record of 3 OVERDOSE DEATHS each day due to FENTANYL.

CBP seizes four tons of cocaine in NARCO-SUB off southwest Mexico coast.

Newsom deploys 50% more California National Guardsmen along U.S.-Mexico border to combat drug trafficking, but wont halt illegal immigration.

Portland declares fentanyl state of emergency as overdose deaths skyrocket.

Sources include:

Breitbart.com

WGNTV.com

NYPost.com

Brighteon.com
Report: U.S. may intervene if Iran directly attacks Israel

An American official has informed Al Jazeera that the Department of Defense might intervene militarily in the event of an Iranian attack on Israel.

"We do not rule out launching joint retaliatory strikes with Israel if it is attacked by Iran or its agents," said the American official. However, there was no elaboration on whether a joint Israel-United States response would involve offensive strikes against Iran or solely defensive measures, such as the deployment of anti-air defenses.

U.S. Army Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, is anticipated to make a visit to Israel soon to coordinate a joint response to a potential attack on Israel by Iran or its proxies. He is expected to meet with senior Israeli Defense Forces officials as well as with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.

Recent threats from Israeli officials suggested the possibility of targeting Iranian nuclear sites, an act that could gravely escalate concerns of a wider conflict amid already heightened tensions following Israel's deadly attack on Iran's embassy in Syria on April 1. (Related: Iran declares RED LINE: If U.S. strikes Iranian soil over three soldier deaths, Iran will strike numerous American targets throughout Middle East.)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said his nation is committed to retaliating against Israel for the Damascus strike, which he described as an attack on Iranian territory.

Strike against Israel "imminent"

Intelligence agencies anticipate a retaliatory attack very soon. U.S. intelligence suggests the first retaliatory strike will be done with missiles targeting sites within Israel. It is uncertain whether these missiles will be launched by Iran or its proxies, but the attack is expected to be "imminent."

Human knowledge is under attack! Governments and powerful corporations are using censorship to wipe out humanity's knowledge base about nutrition, herbs, self-reliance, natural immunity, food production, preparedness and much more. We are preserving human knowledge using AI technology while building the infrastructure of human freedom. Use our decentralized, blockchain-based, uncensorable free speech platform at Brighteon.io. Explore our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Support our efforts to build the infrastructure of human freedom by shopping at HealthRangerStore.com, featuring lab-tested, certified organic, non-GMO foods and nutritional solutions.

This assault, potentially utilizing high-precision missiles, is anticipated to occur in the coming days, according to sources familiar with the intelligence.

There is also disagreement regarding where Israel will be hit. U.S. and other Western intelligence agencies do not believe an attack from Iran and its proxies will target Israel's north, where Hezbollah, Tehran's ally in Lebanon, has been busy targeting Israeli military sites with rockets and artillery.

Questions have also been raised as to the extent of Tehran's desire to retaliate. There is concern that it may try to target a high-ranking Israeli official as revenge for the death of Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a high-ranking military officer within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria during the Damascus embassy strike.

Alternatively, analysts suggest that Tehran may just want to try to save face by giving the impression of retaliation sufficient enough to claim that it has responded while avoiding an Israeli counterstrike that could escalate into a regional conflict.

Recent statements from Tehran consist of Iran reaching out to Washington by stating that it will respond to Israel's attack on its Syrian embassy in a way that will avoid major escalation. Tehran added that it will not act "hastily," and the wider goal of this retaliation will be to help pressure Israel to agree to certain demands, including a ceasefire in Gaza.

A source within the U.S. intelligence community confirmed to Reuters that Iran has been signaling very clearly that its response to the attack on the Damascus embassy would be "controlled" and "non-escalatory" and could be done using regional proxies who will be responsible for launching retaliatory attacks on Israel.

Watch this video discussing how Iran is preparing a potentially devastating response to Israel's airstrike against its embassy in Syria.

This video is from the Neroke 5 channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Iran unveils new HYPERSONIC MISSILE in apparent warning to the US and Israel.

Iran tests ballistic missiles as part of war drills designed to prepare for potential strikes on Israeli military facilities.

U.S. aggressively pushing ESCALATION in its ongoing SHADOW WAR with Iran.

Sources include:

ZeroHedge.com

AtlanticCouncil.org

Reuters.com

Brighteon.com
Democrat Rep Sheila Jackson Lee tells students the moon is made up mostly of gases

Congressional Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) told students during a ceremony that the moon is "made up mostly of gases" the same day of the recent solar eclipse.

(Article by Thomas Stevenson republished from ThePostMillennial.com)

The former member of the Science Committee and former Ranking Member of the Space and Aeronautics Committee in Congress spoke to the students on Monday and said that the moon was "made up mostly of gas."

Rep. Sheila Jackson: The moon is made up mostly of gases pic.twitter.com/eVq1RRGANI  The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 9, 2024

There was heavy backlash online against the comment because the moon has a solid surface that has also been pitted by asteroid strikes to make up such images as the "man on the moon." It has a very thin atmosphere, according to NASA.

In response to the controversy online, Jackson Lee posted that Republicans are focused on stupid things, and claimed that she misspoke.

Obviously I misspoke and meant to say the sun, but as usual, Republicans are focused on stupid things instead of stuff that really matters. What can I say though, foolish thinkers lust for stupidity! https://t.co/ABGxUdRqF6  Sheila Jackson Lee (@JacksonLeeTX18) April 9, 2024

"What can I say though, foolish thinkers lust for stupidity!" she added.

She the went onto post, "Also, I care more about these children who would not have experienced the eclipse in this enthusiastic manner. And, I care more about protecting the rights of women and children than engaging in this kind of senseless dialogue!"

The same day, she said that she got to spend time with some teenagers and "created the opportunity to see a unique science and solar experience for the students at Booker T. Washington High School."

Today, I created the opportunity to see a unique science and solar experience for the students at Booker T. Washington High School. As a former member of the Science Committee and former Ranking Member of the Space and Aeronautics Committee, this was an irreplaceable moment pic.twitter.com/DhlorZthW7  Sheila Jackson Lee (@JacksonLeeTX18) April 8, 2024

She added, "As a former member of the Science Committee and former Ranking Member of the Space and Aeronautics Committee, this was an irreplaceable moment."

Her account further added on social media, "In history. There should be more opportunities to introduce science to our diverse and vulnerable communities!"

According to her congressional biography, she touts her accomplishment in the space industry as well. It reads that she was responsible for "introducing an amendment to funding bills that provides for outreach to minority- and women-owned businesses concerning business opportunities in the commercial space industry."

Read more at: ThePostMillennial.com
Transgender ideology comes from the depths of hell, warns Christian journalist

journalist Brandon Showalter appeared on recently to discuss the transgender takeover of America.

According to Showalter, his first encounter with the world of transgenderism was in 2016. At that time, Showalter says he was "thrown into" the subject because of the meteoric rise of "gender clinics" in the United States, which he says do "atrocious" things to children.

Subjecting children to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones will "almost certainly render a child [permanently] sterile," Showalter explained.

"Since when did it become ethical to sterilize a child, especially when there's no disease like cancer, where ... you might lose your fertility because you've got drugs for chemo and radiation?"

"Gender confusion ... [is] a psychological condition that does not warrant a hormonal or surgical intervention. So it's a disgraceful practice. It should never happen in my opinion."

Listen to the full episode below:

(Related: Remember last summer when The North Face told children everywhere to "come out?")

Becoming your "authentic self" through mutilation

What bothers Showalter the most are the "gruesome" surgeries that children go through in order to become another gender. Boys and girls are getting their genitals cut off and sometimes replaced with fake genitals to match their desired "transition."

The process is not only gruesome but also expensive with taxpayers footing much of the bill, all because of the "ideological indoctrination" that Showalter says children are being exposed to at school and in the media.

We are building the infrastructure of human freedom and empowering people to be informed, healthy and aware. Explore our decentralized, peer-to-peer, uncensorable Brighteon.io free speech platform here. Learn about our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Every purchase at HealthRangerStore.com helps fund our efforts to build and share more tools for empowering humanity with knowledge and abundance.

"This is neo-Gnosticism on steroids, literally," Showalter said about these deceived children's efforts to become their "authentic self."

"And it's happening to young people, very young people, including teenagers as young as 13 or 14 years old," he added.

In order to successfully reconstruct fake genitals for transgenders, body butchers must harvest and remove tissue from elsewhere on these children's bodies, including from the abdomen and forearm.

These "Frankenstein surgeries," as Showalter calls them, are rough approximations and do not even serve a functional purpose once complete.

"This is intentionally damaging the body in pursuit of a physiological impossibility. This is surgery in pursuit of a lie," Showalter warns.

"A surgery should never be done to remove a physically healthy body part. Medical ethics is just dead as a doornail, in my opinion, that this would be something doctors or surgeons would ever do."

Christians everywhere, Showalter says, need to be praying every day for divine deliverance from this societal curse.

"There are stories in Scripture where all hope seems lost and that we're up against seemingly insurmountable odds," Showalter said. "But God then shows up, and He uses a remnant of people."

"If we pray, and if we set our faces like flint, and we believe that God is for us and not against us ... and that He loves the little children ... [Jesus] has very harsh words for those who harm them ... If we pray, I believe we will see this wickedness dismantled in the realm of the spirit."

Any additional action beyond prayer is between a person and God, Showalter added, encouraging people to do what they feel they are led to do without having to be told from someone else what to do.

"I pray and ask God the Father to comfort any and all children who are suffering with loneliness and confusion right now at this moment," one person prayed in the comment section.

"That they would feel and know the personal touch of you, Jesus, for you are the only one who can justify any one of us. That they would be cocooned in a warm blanket of your love. Put safe people in their space. To know they are not alone."

The powers that be want your children to become transgenders. Learn more at Transhumanism.news.

Sources for this article include:

LifeSiteNews.com

NaturalNews.com
Oblivious U.S. Treasury orders China to stop selling tools, equipment to Russia, as if the U.S. thinks it can control world trade

Super Mario Toad lookalike Janet Yellen of the United States Treasury paid a visit to China recently where she threatened "consequences" if Chinese companies supply parts or equipment to the Russian military.

During the multi-day endeavor, Yellen accused China of saturating global markets with cheap goods, which the U.S. itself caused back in the 1970s and 1980s when it offshored America's manufacturing industry to the Far East.

Yellen made it very clear that she will not be pleased if China or anyone else provides material support for Russia now that it is clear the West is losing the war in Ukraine.

"Secretary Yellen emphasized that companies, including those in the PRC, must not provide material support for Russia's war against Ukraine, including support to the Russian defense industrial base," said the U.S. Treasury in a statement following Yellen's meeting with Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in Guangzhou.

Any company that is found supporting Russia in any way will "face consequences if they do so," Yellen's agency further threatened.

(Related: In Yellen's view, America can "absolutely" afford another war.)

The Russia-China powerhouse

Such threats have technically been made since the beginning of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, which began in February 2022. However, things are now escalating after it was revealed that some Chinese firms are supplying Russia with war materials.

A Bloomberg report recently revealed that Chinese companies are supplying microelectronics and machine tools for Russia to produce tanks, optics and propellants for use in missiles.

Human knowledge is under attack! Governments and powerful corporations are using censorship to wipe out humanity's knowledge base about nutrition, herbs, self-reliance, natural immunity, food production, preparedness and much more. We are preserving human knowledge using AI technology while building the infrastructure of human freedom. Speak freely without censorship at the new decentralized, blockchain-power Brighteon.io. Explore our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Support our efforts to build the infrastructure of human freedom by shopping at HealthRangerStore.com, featuring lab-tested, certified organic, non-GMO foods and nutritional solutions.

Neither Moscow nor Beijing have yet commented on that report. They have, however, denied American claims that the Russian military purchased ammunition and "dual use" technology with both military and civilian applications from China.

We know that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping forged a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 that deepened their military and diplomatic cooperation in the years since.

Russia is now the leading supplier of oil to China. The Russian space agency Roscosmos also just announced a partnership with China to build an automated nuclear reactor on the moon by the year 2035.

The U.S., meanwhile, is finding itself increasingly left behind in the global trade schematic, though Yellen insists the U.S. intends to "pursue a healthy economic relationship with China."

Yellen is upset, though, that China is producing and exporting what she says is more "than the global market can bear."

"It is in China's best interest that the U.S. and Anglo-Saxon 'rule-based order' is defeated," one commenter noted about how Yellen's threats are more than likely being laughed at by Beijing.

"What Yellen is doing is complaining to Russia for screwing up the money masters' plan," wrote another. "Russia and China don't have to do much to hear the complaints."

"The Western order is falling apart fast. The rate cuts will not happen. No way are big banks strangling Americans coming down. Free money taken by big banks loaned to government debt payments and American public now paying 22.75 percent interest on credit cards."

Another joked that Yellen's clear attempts "to become a man" are failing, as demonstrated by her transition that "appears to be the longest ever."

"This is the clown who presides over the biggest national debt the world has ever seen and she doesn't know what to do about it," wrote another. "She is the one who came up with that hairbrained idea of oil price caps. I'm a bit surprised that the Chinese allow her to even come to China, for what exactly? To get threatened by this geriatric? Give me a break!"

When will the U.S. learn that it no longer has control over world affairs? Find out more at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

RT.com

NaturalNews.com
LGBTZ? Top five things the destructive philosophies of transgenderism and zionism have in common

Is it time to add a "Z" to LGBT?

Here are the top five things transgenderism and zionism have in common:

1. Both transgenderism and zionism destroy children. Transgenderism mutilates children through surgery, chemical castration and psychological damage. Zionism bombs children to death as they sleep in their beds. After bombing entire families to death, zionists then declare those families to be "Hamas" so they can claim they are destroying Hamas terrorists.

2. They both demand absolute obedience to their twisted agendas. Transgenderism demands you participate in the mass mental illness of men who think they're women. Zionism demands you support their genocidal agendas of mass death, or you will be labeled an "anti-Semite."

3. They both push for legislation to criminalize any criticism of their nefarious actions. New laws to protect transgenderism are called "hate speech" laws, pretending that it's loving to be a pedophile or groomer, but it's hateful to reject the child abuse. Meanwhile, zionists are pushing for new legislation (even in the USA) that would criminalize any criticism of Israel's horrific mass slaughter campaigns and their deliberate targeting and killing of food aid workers and Palestinian civilians. With legal immunity, zionism would operate with impunity while carrying out mass murder on an ever-increasing scale, much like Big Pharma.

4. They are both run by globalists and are waging a war against humanity: Transgenderism is a globalism agenda to destroy families, promote mass mental illness and destabilize generations of children. Zionism is also a globalist agenda rooted in ethnic supremacy and the existence of a "master race" who believe they are "chosen by God" to carry out ethnic cleansing and coordinated theft of land and resources for the benefit of globalists.

Human knowledge is under attack! Governments and powerful corporations are using censorship to wipe out humanity's knowledge base about nutrition, herbs, self-reliance, natural immunity, food production, preparedness and much more. We are preserving human knowledge using AI technology while building the infrastructure of human freedom. Speak freely without censorship at the new decentralized, blockchain-power Brighteon.io. Explore our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Support our efforts to build the infrastructure of human freedom by shopping at HealthRangerStore.com, featuring lab-tested, certified organic, non-GMO foods and nutritional solutions.

5. They are both dominated by evil, satanic, arrogant people who reject the real teachings of Christ: Transgenderism is closely allied with satanism and rejects nearly all teachings of Christ. Self-mutilation and denial of God are core principles in transgenderism. Zionism teaches their own children to grow up seething with hatred and violence against both Christians and Muslims. Zionists despise all who are not zionists, although they are happy to exploit gullible Christians into supporting zionism in the short term. But ultimately, zionists believe that Christians are expendable pawns who are "beneath" the zionists themselves. Racial supremacy.

If you oppose transgenderism, you might also want to oppose zionism. Neither philosophy is compatible with human rights or sustainable human civilization.

As I posted earlier on the new decentralized, P2P blockchain-driven free speech platform Brighteon.io:

The Declaration of Independence states that it is self-evident that all men (people) are created equal. Zionism, in contrast, says that only one race (Jews) is chosen by God (a master race) and that this race has the divine monopoly right to not merely rule over all other races, but to slaughter them at will, to steal their land, destroy their homes and take their resources. If you believe in the founding philosophy of the United States of America, you CANNOT simultaneously support #zionism and #Israel. They are irreconcilable. Those Americans who support Israel are, by definition, abandoning the founding principles of America. And anyone who believes that they are chosen by God to slaughter others at will is a danger to society and incompatible with civilized human life on this planet. The era of zionism, much like Apartheid, is headed for collapse. Israel will be gravely humbled, if not ultimately destroyed by its own arrogance, violence and hatred toward others.

In other words, if you believe in human dignity, human rights and the principles upon which the United States of America was founded, you cannot possibly support zionism or transgenderism. Both are rooted in the philosophy of "supremacy," which smacks of racism and the Third Reich.
The United Nations encouraged the international community to invest in scientific research to protect the world's oceans, which are increasingly threatened by pollution and global warming.

Ocean Is Suffocated

Audrey Azoulay, director general of the United Nations' educational, scientific, and cultural organization UNESCO, stressed the importance of science in addressing the global problems in the ocean.

The UN official warned that the oceans were "suffocating" as new temperature records were established on a regular basis.

"We have key objectives to achieve. Much has been done for the oceans, but much remains to be done and can be done," she added.

When the ocean's average surface temperature reached a new record high in March 2023, scientists were alarmed, but few projected that ocean temperatures would continue to rise.

The average sea surface temperature has established a new daily record every day for the past 12 months, and it is now breaking records set in March.

In the short term, the most noticeable effect has been coral bleaching, which is the loss of photosynthetic algae that lives (and grows) on coral reefs.

The iconic Great Barrier Reef in Australia is currently experiencing a severe bleaching episode, and the corals of the Florida Keys were subjected to unprecedented bleaching conditions last year.

Oceans cover 70% of the earth and have maintained the Earth's surface habitability by absorbing 90% of the excess heat produced by human-caused carbon pollution since the beginning of the industrial age.

Hotter oceans produce more moisture in the atmosphere, resulting in more irregular weather, such as high winds and heavy rain.

Read Also: Limits of Large-Scale Ocean Protection: A Study of Chile's Marine Protected Areas

Ocean Decade Conference

The UN holds a three-day meeting in Barcelona dedicated to ocean conservation.

During the event, UNESCO and 13 cities announced the formation of the "Cities with the Ocean" platform, a new alliance between the UN agency and coastal cities and ports that would supplement the work already underway with its 194 member states.

Seventy-five percent of the world's megacities are located in coastal locations, placing their populations among the most vulnerable to natural and man-made maritime dangers such as tsunamis, ocean pollution, and the consequences of climate change.

UNESCO renewed its support for these communities by implementing projects tailored to their requirements, such as enhancing the organization's tsunami-ready Ready Recognition Programme, teaching urban planners to anticipate coastal erosion concerns, and gathering critical scientific data.

Next year, a first international symposium will bring this network together in Qingdao, one of China's major coastal cities. This effort will also be presented in Nice, France, during the United Nations Ocean Conference in June 2025.

"Some may think that our century is experiencing more serious, more urgent and more profound crises than those affecting the ocean ecosystem, but what brings us together here today is crucial for our future," said Monaco's Prince Albert II.

Following 15 years of negotiations, UN member states adopted a convention last year to protect the world's oceans and undo the harm done to vulnerable marine environments by pollution, overfishing, and other human activities.

Related Article: Ocean Cleanup Develops a System For Eliminating Ocean Plastics with Almost 20,000 Pounds of Trash Removed
A recent study suggested that plate tectonics drove the mass extinction amid earth's expansion of life some 500 million years ago.

Supercontinent Gondwana

Experts have found links between the rock layers in Antarctica and Southern Australia, which at the time were part of the supercontinent Gondwana. The study had indicated that similar dynamics were occurring around the supercontinent roughly 513 million years ago, including the uplifting of mountains and the death of ancient reefs.

Further, some eroded material from the continent was pouring into the sea. These moments in time had coincided with the extinction known as the Sinsk event.

Scientists pointed out that the Cambrian explosion, one of the most consequential biological revolutions in Earth history, occurred in two phases separated by the Sinsk event, the first major extinction of the Phanerozoic.

Trilobite fossil data showed that Series 2 strata in the Ross Orogen, Antarctica, and Delamerian Orogen, Australia, had recorded nearly identical and synchronous tectono-sedimentary shifts marking the Sinsk event.

These resulted from an abrupt pulse of contractional supracrustal deformation on both continents during the Pararaia janeae trilobite Zone. The Sinsk event extinction was triggered by initial Ross/Delamerian supracrustal contraction along the edge of Gondwana, which caused a cascading series of geodynamic, paleoenvironmental, and biotic changes.

The said phenomenon included loss of shallow marine carbonate habitats along the Gondwanan margin; tectonic transformation to extensional tectonics within the Gondwanan interior; extrusion of the Kalkarindji large igneous province; release of large volumes of volcanic gasses; and rapid climatic change, including incursions of marine anoxic waters and collapse of shallow marine ecosystems.

It was also said that the extinction of the archaeocyathid reefs coincided with giant mountain-building events.

Experts said that as the mountains popped up on land, the nearby shallow oceans right off the coast subsided in a kind of seesaw motion of the crust. This later caused the archaeocyathid reefs to suddenly deepen, submerging them past their ability to survive.

Following that, erosion from the new mountain ranges dumped layers of cobbles and gravel over the drowned reefs.

Read Also: Explosive Evolution Driven by Tectonic Plate Movement Beneath the Earth [Study]

Tectonic Event

The timing of the tectonic event that experts had documented for the Austral-Antarctic margin of Gondwana corresponded with that of the Sinsk event.

''We posit that tectonic transformation involving inversion from collisional supercontinent assembly to lithospheric-scale orogenic collapse and extension triggered a series of cascading environmental and biotic processes during the Sinsk event,'' researchers noted.

Further, the tectono-sedimentary events along the Austral-Antarctic margin were part of a supercontinent-wide transformation that led to shallow-water carbonate habitat loss along equatorial Gondwana.

These events were also geo dynamically linked to a broad inversion from collisional supercontinental assembly to extensional tectonics associated with lithospheric-scale orogenic collapse within the interior of Gondwana, the latter including eruption of the Kalkarindji LIP.

The tectonic movements that caused mountains to lift in some places also caused the crust to stretch out in others, allowing magma to rise to the surface and harden into the rock basalt.

Experts usually deemed this as a geologic formation known as a "large igneous province."

Related Article: Missing Chunk of Ancient Earth From 160M Years Ago 'Pontus' Tectonic Plate Revealed as Modern-Day Borneo Via Tomography
Sea turtles are disappearing in a small area along the Caribbean coast of Venezuela, with the marine reptiles seeming to be struggling with the growth of their population due to a mysterious "sea turtle killer," according to reports earlier this week.

The phenomenon, which involves a low survival rate for hatchlings, is happening in a small town called La Sabana, which is one of the seven villages located in Vargas State, Venezuela.

The culprit behind the sea turtle deaths has been linked to a flowering plant, called Scaevola taccada, also called beach cabbage or sea lettuce. The unlikely sea turtle killer is neither a mutated nor a monstrous plant but rather a typical flora species that can be found in rocky or sandy coastal locations across the tropics.

Furthermore, the S. taccada directly grows on beaches along tropical coasts.

Sea Turtle Deaths in La Sabana

The sea turtle killer in the shores of La Sabana is affecting the species of loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). The beach cabbage, which also thrives in the mangrove swamps of the South Pacific, was found by biologists to be responsible for the marine reptile's struggling population in the area.

The main cause of the sea turtle deaths is due to the plant's roots crowding the eggs before they are even fully formed.

One of the witnesses of this bizarre phenomenon is biology student Angelica Burgos, who is also a volunteer at the Nueva Esparta State Sea Turtle Conservation Group. Burgos reportedly identified the ecological change in the area as early as 2014, according to US media reporting.

The volunteer also added that the small, thin roots of the sea lettuce are invading the miles-long coastline of La Sabana town.

Also Read: Sea Turtle Dies After Swallowing Halloween Toy, Scientists Highlight Impact of Plastic Pollution [Study]

Beach Cabbage

According to experts, the beach cabbage plant species is considered invasive in some parts of the world, including in Bermuda, the Bahamas, and some islands of the West Indies. S. taccada belongs to the family Goodeniaceae which includes 12 genera and 430 species with a global distribution.

All species belonging to this plant family are common in environments with arid and semi-arid climates.

Aside from its reported track record of killing sea turtles in La Sabana, the beach cabbage is considered a natural barrier against coastal erosion. For instance, the presence of sea lettuce along sandy shores prevents ocean waves from entering inland, absorbing the waters that could strip the sand from the beach.

Global Sea Turtle Threat

Sea turtles not only face threats from invasive plants but also from a variety of natural and anthropogenic factors. Citing a study published in the journal Biological Conservation, the non-profit organization Oceana reported that 4,600 sea turtles are killed each year in the United States.

Experts say the sea turtle populations in the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean are declining. Some of the causes of death include poaching, overexploitation, bycatch, and habitat destruction, in addition to natural predation and climate change.

Related Article: Over 1.1 Million Sea Turtles Killed between 1990 and 2020 [New Study]
Champaign, IL (61820)

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Windy with a mix of clouds and sun. High near 70F. Winds WNW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

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Clear to partly cloudy. Low 44F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.
A generative artificial intelligence (AI) model that can analyze the narrative accounts of women who have undergone recent childbirth has shown the ability to accurately screen for post-traumatic stress disorder (CB-PTSD), a study by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system has found.

By exploring the capabilities and shortcomings of several models from OpenAI, including ChatGPT, the researchers identified a version that offers rich insights into maternal mental health following traumatic childbirth.

The model can fit seamlessly into routine obstetric care and could potentially be harnessed to assess other mental health disorders. The results of the study were published in Scientific Reports.

Evaluation of PTSD related to traumatic birth currently relies on extensive clinician evaluation, which fails to meet the urgent need for a rapid, low-cost assessment strategy." Sharon Dekel, PhD, director of MGH's Postpartum Traumatic Stress Disorders Research Program, and senior author of the study

"The use of brief patient narratives of childbirth analyzed by AI's text-based computational methods could become an efficient, low-cost, and patient-friendly strategy for detecting CB-PTSD after a traumatic birth and with more research this tool may potentially aid in identifying women at risk for CB-PTSD before the condition fully develops."

For an estimated eight million women a year globally, childbirth that is traumatic and/or medically complicated is expected to trigger post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition historically has been associated with military combat or severe sexual assault.

In recent years, childbirth has become acknowledged as a significant PTSD trigger which, if left untreated, can impair the health of both the mother and child and result in significant societal costs.

In previous studies, Dekel's lab found evidence that brief psychological interventions delivered soon after traumatic childbirth can reduce maternal childbirth-related PTSD symptoms.

In their latest study, Dekel in collaboration with first author Alon Bartal, PhD, of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, investigated the effectiveness of artificial intelligence and related machine learning (ML) analysis strategies to detect CB-PTSD.

Specifically, they evaluated the performance of different large language models (LLMs) and variations of ChatGPT and their ability to extract novel insights from text-based data sets derived from the brief narrative descriptions by postpartum women of their childbirth experience.

As part of their work, the team collected short narrative accounts from 1,295 women who had recently given birth.

The study focused on an OpenAI model known as text-embeddings-ada-002, which converted narrative data from the personal accounts of women with and without probable CB-PTSD to a numerical format that was then analyzed by a trained machine learning algorithm developed by the team.

Researchers showed this model had superior performance in identifying postpartum traumatic stress compared to other ChatGPT and large language models, which are typically trained on huge volumes of data allowing them to understand, analyze and interpret natural language.

"The reliance of the ML model using childbirth narrative input from the Open AI model as its exclusive data source presents an efficient mechanism for data collection during the vulnerable postpartum period, demonstrating 85 percent sensitivity and 75 percent specificity in identifying CB-PTSD cases," notes Dekel.

"Moreover, the model we developed could potentially improve accessibility to CB-PTSD screening and diagnosis by fitting seamlessly into routine obstetric care and providing a foundation for commercial product development and mainstream adoption."

Dekel, whose research program is dedicated to exploring women's mental health following traumatic childbirth, underscores the clinical benefits of using a pre-trained large language model to assess potential PTSD in new mothers.

"Early intervention is essential to prevent the progression of this disorder to chronic stages, which can seriously complicate treatment," the MGH investigator points out.

"Our unique approach could introduce an innovative and cost-effective screening strategy for identifying high-risk women and facilitating timely treatment. It may also holds promise for assessing other mental health disorders, and consequently improving patient outcomes."

The emergence of artificial intelligence tools in health has been groundbreaking and has the potential to positively reshape the continuum of care. Mass General Brigham, as one of the nation's top integrated academic health systems and largest innovation enterprises, is leading the way in conducting rigorous research on new and emerging technologies to inform the responsible incorporation of AI into care delivery, workforce support, and administrative processes.

Dekel is a psychologist at MGH, and assistant professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. Bartal is an assistant professor of Information Systems at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Co-authors in the Dekel Laboratory include Kathleen Jagodnik, PhD, a Harvard research fellow, and Sabrina Chan, a clinical research coordinator.

Dekel was supported by funds from the NIH (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, grants R01HD108619, R21HD109546, and R21HD100817).
While Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) affects about five percent of the general pediatric population, 80 percent of children with Down syndrome experience OSA. Continual OSA results in poor health, including disruptions to cognitive development and functioning, leading physician-researchers from Mass General Brigham to investigate better methods to treat these patients as early as possible to maximize their health outcomes.

In a new case study published April 11 in Pediatrics, they report on a 4-year-old boy with Down syndrome and OSA who underwent a procedure to implant a hypoglossal nerve stimulation device, and experienced improvements thereafter.

Currently, adenoidectomies and tonsillectomies are among first-line treatments for pediatric OSA, however they are not always effective for children with Down syndrome because OSA can recur. Additionally, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment, which streams compressed air into airways during sleep, is often not tolerated by children with Down syndrome due to sensory sensitivities.

The hypoglossal nerve stimulation device by Inspire has been an option increasingly used to treat OSA in adults since its 2014 FDA-approval. The device detects when the airway is blocked and sends an electrical pulse to the hypoglossal nerve that controls the tongue, causing it to move forward in the mouth, thereby opening the airway. Positive treatment data in adults first led lead study author Christopher Hartnick, MD, director of Pediatric Otolaryngology at Mass Eye and Ear, to wonder whether the treatment may help his patients with Down syndrome whose lives were impacted by OSA. With Mass General Brigham colleague Brian Skotko, MD, MPP, the Emma Campbell Endowed Chair on Down Syndrome at Massachusetts General Hospital, they organized a clinical trial looking at the safety and effectiveness of the procedure in children between the ages of 10 and 22 with Down syndrome. Results of a 42-patient trial showing the benefits and safety of the procedure were published in 2022, leading to FDA approval for the device for adolescents with Down syndrome over the age of 13 nearly a year later.

These results spurred the researchers to examine whether the procedure could benefit younger children who are impacted by the physical and neurocognitive effects of OSA during pivotal developmental years.

Hartnick and Skotko identified a patient candidate, 4-year-old Theodore "Theo" Scott of Knoxville, Tenn., who had been on CPAP therapy since he was 1 year old.

After Hartnick and his team had extensive discussions about potential risks with colleagues in other medical specialties and Theo's parents, Rachel and Andrew Scott, a surgery took place in May 2023. The surgery was successful without complications, and the procedure was modified to allow for Theo's continued growth.

After one month, Theo experienced an improvement in sleep, and his obstructive apnea-hypopnea index (a measure of apnea severity) decreased by 40 percent. Additional follow-up care will take place for Theo to monitor effects of the procedure on neurocognition and surveillance of the device as he grows.

"The most significant change we have seen is the amount of sleep Theo is now getting, routinely over 10 hours a night versus what we experienced with CPAP where he would pull his mask off up to fifteen times a night. Theo sleeping through the night has also benefitted us as parents since we would need to get up and assist him, and we could each feel the toll poor sleep was taking on our health," Rachel and Andrew Scott said in a statement. "We have also noticed Theo wakes up more easily in the morning and has a longer attention span than before the surgery, and his language development has accelerated from one-word statements to multiple word sentences. This procedure has absolutely been a game-changing intervention in Theo's life and in our family's."

Hartnick and Skotko are currently leading an NIH-sponsored 4-year trial examining the impact of upper airway stimulation on neurocognition and language in young patients with Down syndrome.

Children with Down syndrome are disproportionally affected by obstructive sleep apnea and often don't benefit from traditional interventions, and research shows this impacts their cognitive development and IQ scores. The potential long-term impact on neurocognition was a major driver of our team and the family's shared decision-making to pursue this treatment, and this case suggests it may be a possible option for some families." Christopher Hartnick, MD, Director of Pediatric Otolaryngology at Mass Eye and Ear

"In our Down Syndrome Program, I see first-hand how frustrated families become when their child with Down syndrome runs out of options to treat significant sleep apnea," said Skotko. "Theo now opens up a new frontier for research and potential clinical care."
Researchers have unveiled a microfluidic device that significantly improves the separation of tumor cells and clusters from malignant effusions. This novel technology promises to advance the diagnosis and treatment monitoring of cancer by enabling the high-throughput, continuous-flow ternary separation of single tumor cells, tumor cell clusters, and white blood cells (WBCs) from clinical pleural or abdominal effusions.

Understanding the nature of malignant effusions, teeming with tumor cells and clusters, is critical in comprehending the breadth of cancer's impact. The significant role of tumor clusters, with their heightened potential for metastasis compared to individual cells, cannot be overstated in the context of comprehensive cancer care. While traditional techniques have shown adeptness in isolating single tumor cells, they often fall short when it comes to tumor clusters, thus limiting the scope of clinical research. The evolution of microfluidic technologies has introduced high-throughput, label-free approaches for the separation of these cells, leveraging their physical characteristics for more precise analyses. However, the challenges presented by tumor cell clusters-;primarily their rarity and fragility-;call for innovative solutions to ensure their efficient yet careful separation, maintaining their viability for downstream applications.



In response to this challenge, a team of researchers from Southeast University has unveiled a microfluidic device, designed to achieve the precise separation of tumor entities with unprecedented efficiency. These findings were detailed in an article (DOI: 10.1038/s41378-024-00661-0) published on March 12, 2024, in Microsystems & Nanoengineering. This research introduces a device that skillfully integrates slanted spiral channels with periodic contraction-expansion arrays.



This design utilizes inertial forces to adeptly separate single tumor cells, tumor cell clusters, and WBCs from clinical samples of pleural or abdominal effusions-;key indicators of cancer metastasis. Operating at a brisk flow rate of 3500 L/min, the device not only manages large volumes efficiently but also ensures an exceptionally high degree of separation accuracy. With over 94% of WBCs effectively removed, the recovery of more than 97% of tumor cells and the preservation of over 90% of vital tumor cell clusters, this technology heralds a new era in cancer diagnostics, facilitating early detection, prognosis evaluation, and the monitoring of treatment outcomes.

Our device represents a substantial advancement in the analysis of malignant effusions. By efficiently isolating tumor cell clusters, known for their considerable metastatic potential, we're forging new pathways for the early detection and treatment of cancer." Professor Nan Xiang, the study's lead author

This innovation marks a significant milestone in the realm of cancer diagnostics, enhancing the efficiency and throughput of tumor cell and cluster separation from malignant effusions. As such, it sets the stage for more nuanced cancer detection, ongoing monitoring, and the personalization of treatment strategies, heralding a promising future for cancer care.
When today's older adults were growing up, urgent care centers and clinics inside retail stores didn't exist. But most of them have now embraced these non-traditional sites for getting medical care, a new national poll finds.

In the past two years, 60% of people age 50 to 80 have visited an urgent care clinic, or a clinic based in a retail store, workplace or vehicle, according to new findings from the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging.

Urgent care clinics were the most common alternative source of care, with 47% of adults age 50-80 visiting one at least once, and 23% going more than once, in the past two years.

Many of those who went to any alternative site said they did so to avoid going to the emergency room (44%) or to get a vaccine, a test or an exam (35%). They went for a variety of health reasons, including getting immediate attention for symptoms and injuries, getting vaccinated, and receiving tests or treatments for COVID-19 infections.

And 75% of those who have gone to such a site recently say they're likely to go again in the next two years.

But even as they sought care at these sites, most older adults who also have a primary care provider preferred the quality of care and sense of connection at their regular clinic. Among those who say they're not likely to go to an alternative site for care in the future, 74% said it's because they prefer to go to their regular provider.

The poll is based at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and supported by AARP and Michigan Medicine, U-M's academic medical center. Two members of AARP's Public Policy Institute worked with the poll team on the poll questions and report.

The rapid rise in availability of these kinds of clinics, which typically offer walk-in convenience, expanded hours, and self-scheduling of appointments in locations close to home, work or shopping, has transformed the American health care landscape in less than two decades. With the nationwide shortage of primary care providers, it's important to understand how this age group, with generally higher medical needs, views and uses this type of care." Jeffrey Kullgren, M.D., M.P.H., M.S. poll director

Kullgren is a primary care physician at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and associate professor of internal medicine at U-M.

"Access to timely and convenient care was critical for older adults during the pandemic, and our research shows alternative care options will continue to be in demand for the long-term," said Susan Reinhard, senior vice president and director of AARP Public Policy Institute. "Policymakers and clinicians must ensure that patients receive high quality care at sites like urgent care clinics that is well-coordinated with their usual health care provider."

Other key findings from the poll:

The percentage of older adults who had gone to a retail clinic was half that of the proportion who had gone to an urgent care center, at 28% vs 47%. Only 9% had gone to a clinic at their worksite, and 5% had gotten care from a traveling provider based in a bus or van.

Those in their 50s and early 60s were more likely than those age 65 to 80 to have sought care from one of these types of alternative care sites, at 64% vs. 55%.

Women were more likely than men to have gone to an alternative site for care in the last two years, at 63% vs. 57%.

Older adults who live in urban or suburban areas with populations over 50,000 were more likely than those in less-populated areas to have gone to an alternative site for care, at 62% vs 52%.

61% of those who said they have a primary care provider said they visited an urgent care clinic, retail clinic or other alternative site in the past two years. The majority (64%) had let that regular provider know they had gone to an alternative site.

Asked to compare the two, 43% of those who had gone to an alternative site for care said the alternative site was more convenient than their usual provider. But 52% said the quality of care was better at their usual provider's clinic, and 67% said they felt more connection to their provider at their usual clinic.

Cost does not seem to be a main driver for seeking care at a non-traditional site, with only 9% of alternative site users citing it as a reason. And 19% of those who had gone to an alternate care site said their alternative site was better on cost. Also, 23% of those who said they weren't likely to go to an alternative site for care in the next two years said that they were concerned about cost or lack of insurance coverage for such care.

43% of those who haven't gotten care at an alternative care site in the past two years say they are likely to do so in the next two years.

The poll report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for IHPI and administered online and via phone in July and August 2023 among 2,657 adults aged 50 to 80. The sample was subsequently weighted to reflect the U.S. population.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Indias largest IT services company, on Friday reported a net reduction of 1,759 employees during January-March 2024. With this, the companys workforce as of March 31, 2024, stood at 6,01,546. The total headcount of TCS is the lowest in the last two years, according to a regulatory filing by the company.

The March 2024 quarter is the third consecutive quarter of declining total headcount at the company. In the preceding October-December 2023 quarter, TCS workforce fell by 5,680 employees, bringing the total headcount to 603,305. Overall, in the fiscal year 2023-24, TCS has reduced its workforce by 13,249 employees.

The attrition rate in IT services continues to decline and stood at 12.5 per cent during the March 2024 quarter.

Milind Lakkad, chief HR officer of TCS, said, The reduced attrition rate of 12.5 per cent, along with a positive response to our campus hiring, increased customer engagements, and employees returning to the office, has fostered a vibrant atmosphere in our delivery centres and boosted the morale of our associates.

The CHRO also announced annual increments for the TCS workforce with top performers receiving double-digit hikes.

Samir Seksaria, chief financial officer of TCS, said, In FY 2024, our disciplined approach to operations has helped us expand our industry-leading margins. In a challenging environment, we persisted with our long-term investments in workforce reskilling, research and innovation. We will continue to drive efficiencies and competitiveness to capture opportunities for growth with profitability.

TCS workforce stood at 601,546 as on March 31st. The employee base is very diverse, with 35.6% women and with 152 nationalities, the IT company said in the regulatory filing on April 12.

Year to date, TCSers have clocked 51 million learning hours and acquired five million competencies. IT services attrition was at 12.5 per cent for the last 12 months.

TCS Salary Hikes

Milind Lakkad said, We are pleased to announce the annual increments for our

workforce, as we have done consistently every year, with top performers receiving double-digit hikes. The reduced attrition at 12.5 per cent, enthusiastic response to our campus hiring, increased customer visits and employees returning to the office have resulted in great vibrancy in our delivery centres and elevated morale of our associates.

TCS Q4 Earnings

Tata Consultancy Services on Friday reported a 9.1 per cent growth in its March quarter net profit at Rs 12,434 crore. In the fiscal year 2023-24, the companys net profit grew 9 per cent to Rs 45,908 crore, as per an exchange filing.

The Tata Group companys post-tax profit during the January-March period last year stood at Rs 11,392 crore. In the March quarter, its revenue grew 3.5 per cent to Rs 61,237 crore year on year.

Its operating profit margin expanded by 1.50 per cent to 26 per cent.
Everyone aspires to become a successful figure in life but only a few become. Recently, one inspiring story has garnered the attention of people. Ramesh Singh, a school inspector of Ballia District, has made it to the front. Starting his journey from a humble beginning, he has achieved a remarkable feat in the education sector.

Sharing about his journey, he mentioned that during his time, there were no proper education facilities. Despite lacking robust education support, he managed to carve a niche for himself. He is now helping district students gain knowledge and realise their fullest potential.

Ramesh Singh reflected on his childhood spent in Azamgarh, where he lacked a conducive study environment. Despite these challenges, he has emerged as an inspiring figure for students. His journey of overcoming obstacles to completing his studies sets a motivating example for others. Currently, he is focused on making education better in the district.

Ramesh Singh also opened up about his upbringing. He grew up in Chhatauna village, Azamgarh district. Despite coming from a well-off family, he was presented with limited opportunities. Back then, he finished his primary schooling at the village and was there up to fifth grade.

Later, he completed high school at Udyog Vidyalaya Inter College in Koyalsa, Azamgarh, from the UP Board. He then pursued a masters degree from Allahabad University in 1989.

Just after completing his post-graduation, he started appearing for government exams. He failed three times before he landed jobs as a Sub Inspector, second officer at the Fire Brigade and Bank PO.

In 1995, Ramesh Singh cleared the PCS exam. Two years later, in 1997, he transitioned into the role of Basic Education Officer (BSA). Throughout his career, he held various positions, such as Deputy Education Director, in multiple locations like Etah, Allahabad, Basti, Gorakhpur, and the Directorate of Education. Recently, he assumed the responsibility of District School Inspector in Ballia district.

Ramesh Singh believes, Keep trying and youll never fail. He advised me not to give up because success can come unexpectedly. From his own life, he learned that persistence is vital. If he had quit after three failures, he wouldnt be successful today.
Indian Air Force has declared the results for the Agniveervayu Phase-I online exam for Intake 1/2025. This recruitment process, offering approximately 3500 positions, garners a significant number of applications nationwide. Candidates who took the exam can now check their results on the official website at agnipathvayu.cdac.in/AV/.

IAF Agniveervayu Phase-I Results 2024: How to check

To check your Air Force Agniveer Result, follow these steps:

Step 1. Open your web browser and visit the official website of Air Force Agniveer at agnipathvayu.cdac.in/AV/.

Step 2. Locate the Candidate Login section on the homepage and click on it.

Step 3. Enter your username and password in the provided fields.

Step 4. After logging in, find the result section, which may be labeled as Result or Result of Phase-I Exam on the dashboard.

Step 5. Look for the link/button corresponding to the Phase-I exam result for Intake 01/2025 and click on it.

Step 6. Your result will be displayed on the screen. Review it carefully and take note of any important details.

Step 7. Save your result and take a printout for future reference.

Candidates should review their results and follow any further instructions provided by the Indian Air Force regarding the next steps in the recruitment process.

IAF Agniveervayu Phase-I Results 2024: Selection Process

The Air Force Agniveer Recruitment 2024 selection process includes a written exam, CASB (Central Airmen Selection Board) evaluation, Physical Efficiency Test (PET) and Physical Measurement Test (PMT), Adaptability Test-I and II, document verification and a medical examination.

Physical Standards

Candidates must meet the prescribed physical standards and fitness criteria set by the Indian Air Force, including a minimum height requirement of 152.5 cm, chest expansion of 5 cms, and passing the Physical Fitness Test (PFT) which includes a 1.6 Km run to be completed within 6 minutes 30 seconds, along with other exercises like push-ups, sit-ups and squats.

The release of the Phase-I exam results signifies a crucial stage in the Air Force Agniveer recruitment process, allowing qualified candidates to advance to the subsequent stages in order to serve in the Indian Air Force.

For more details and further updates, visit the official website regularly.
The results of the 2024 High School and Intermediate board examinations are expected to be released soon by the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP). Students can view their results on the official UPMSP websites, upmsp.edu.in, upresults.nic.in or result.upmsp.edu.in, soon after the results of both classes are announced. They can also obtain the results via DigiLocker or SMS.

This year, more than 55 lakh students took the Intermediate and High School examinations administered by the UP Board. According to reports, this years board results will be announced between April 15 and April 20.

According to the recent information, on March 30, 2024, the UPMSP finished evaluating the answer papers from both classes.

The results of both classes for the Academic Year 2023-24 were declared on April 25, 2023, by the UPMSP.

UP Board Class 10, 12 2024: How to Download Results Online

Step 1: Visit the UP Boards official website at upresults.nic.in.

Step 2: Click on the provided link to view the UP Board Class 12/Class 10 Results.

Step 3: Choose the year 2024 and enter your birthdate.

Step 4: Select View Results.

Step 5: Download the 12th/10th UP Board Result 2024.

UP Board Class 10, 12 2024: How to Download Results Via DigiLocker

Step 1: Go to the digilocker.gov.in website.

Step 2: Make an account on DigiLocker using the necessary login information.

Step 3: Check in with your DigiLocker account.

Step 4: To view the 12th class mark sheet and the 10th class mark sheet, click on the HSC and SSC marks, respectively.

Step 5: Choose the UP State Board of Intermediate and High School Exam.

Step 6: Choose the year of passing the UP Board from the drop-down box and enter your roll number.

Step 7: On the screen, UP Board Class 10, 12 Result 2024 will appear.

Step 8: Download the 2024 UP Board 10th and 12th results.

Students may expect to receive their physical mark sheets two to three weeks after UPMSP announces the results online for Classes 10 and 12. It is recommended that students constantly visit the official website for updated information.
Nearly 21,000 candidates lost a sum of Rs 46 crore in forfeited deposits in the last three Lok Sabha polls held between 2009 and 2019, official data analysed by News18 shows.

According to the Election Commission of India rules, a candidate contesting the Lok Sabha poll has to make a deposit of Rs 25,000 while filing the nomination. For candidates from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the amount is half.

After the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, there has been a consistent rise in the share of candidates losing their deposit, popularly known as Zamaanat Zapt.

In 2009, the number of candidates who lost deposits was 6,829 of the 8,070 in the fray. In 2014, of the 8,251 candidates, 7,000 lost their deposits. In 2019, this share was 6,923 out of 8,054 candidates.

The ECI numbers analysed by News18 show that almost 85 per cent candidates who fought Lok Sabha polls in 2009, 2014 and 2019 have lost their security deposits as they failed to get a minimum of one-sixth of the total valid votes polled.

Between 2009 and 2019, a total of 24,375 candidates contested the election and 20,752 lost deposits. The amount that was lost in the three elections was: Rs 15.59 crore in 2009; Rs 14.57 crore in 2014; and Rs 15.86 crore in 2019.

While it may not seem to be a big number, when compared to the first Lok Sabha, the amount is significant. According to the ECI documents accessed by News18, in 1951, when simultaneous polls were held across the country, a total of 9,067 deposits were lost, amounting to Rs 22.80 lakh. There were 741 deposits worth Rs 3.51 lakh forfeited in the Lok Sabha and 8,234 deposits from the assembly polls worth Rs 19.24 lakh.

Back then, the deposit amount was Rs 500 for candidates from the general class and Rs 250 for candidates from SC and ST communities.

The analysis also shows that since 1951, the first Lok Sabha election, a total of 91,159 candidates have contested elections and 71,264 have lost deposit. This means of every 100 candidates in the fray, about 80 lost their deposits.

It was the 1996 election when 91 per cent  12,688 out of 13,952  candidates lost their deposits, the highest till date. This was also the election when the highest number of candidates contested for Lok Sabha till date.

After the 1996 elections, it was the 1991 elections that saw the highest number of deposits lost.

Who Takes This Money?

The deposit goes to the government treasury if a candidate fails to get a minimum of one-sixth of the total valid votes polled.

Section 158 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, lays down the method of disposal of the deposits made by the candidates.

For every candidate filing nomination, the security deposit is a must. It is deposited with the Returning Officer in cash or a receipt showing that the amount has been deposited in the Reserve Bank of India or in Government Treasury.

When a candidate is declared a winner, or has secured more than one-sixth of the total valid votes, the RO gives them back the deposits.

The Rules

The rules say that if the candidate has polled exactly 1/6th of the total number of valid votes polled by all, the deposit will not be refunded. On the other hand, if the candidate is elected, the deposit will be refunded even if they did not poll more than 1/6th of the total valid votes.

Also, if a candidate is fighting the elections from more than one seat, they can only re-claim the deposit from one seat, irrespective of the votes they get. Other deposits made by them will be forfeited to the government.

But if the candidate is contesting for Lok Sabha and assembly polls in simultaneous elections, they can get the return of deposits made in both the elections, if they are entitled for it, as the two elections are different.

The money is also refunded if the candidate is not shown in the list of contesting candidates or if they die before the commencement of the poll

Also, candidates who file multiple nominations from the same seat can get the money back from the extra nominations after the publication of the list of contesting candidates.

Further, the deposit can be refunded only to the person in whose name it was made in the treasury or his legal representative if they die.

The main purpose of this practice is to ensure that only genuinely interested candidates file nominations to be a part of the electoral process.

India is now gearing up for the Lok Sabha elections which will be held in seven phases, starting April 19. The results for the polls will be declared on June 4.
Amid Arunachal Pradesh being in the news after China renamed some areas of the state, both the Lok Sabha constituencies in the far-flung northeastern state will go to polls in the first phase of the elections on April 19. Only recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Sela Tunnel between Tawang in Arunachal and Tezpur in Assam, which is of strategic importance to India. The state will also witness simultaneous polling for 50 assembly constituencies on the same day.

Arunachal West Lok Sabha constituency is one of the two Lok Sabha seats in Arunachal Pradesh, which is represented by union minister Kiren Rijiju. This constituency covers Tawang, West Kameng, East Kameng, Papum Pare, Lower Subansiri, Kurung Kumey, Upper Subansiri and West Siang districts.

The main contest in the constituency is between the BJP and Congress. Fielded by the BJP, Kiren Rijiju is seeking a fourth term as MP and he will be up against Congress candidate and former chief minister Nabam Tuki. The union minister registered back-to-back victories from this seat in 2014 and 2019, and has also represented this seat from 2004 to 2009. In the previous election, too, he was fighting against Tuki and won by a big margin.

The seat, which was created in 1977, was previously a stronghold of the Congress. The constituency has a significant ST population, making tribal issues the focus in this area. The central government has initiated a number of projects in the constituency, including the Sela Tunnel, which are of high strategic importance due to the areas closeness with the China border, or the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Here are some of the key issues in the constituency:

Rehabilitation of Chakma and Hajong tribes, which have been battling to remove their refugee status. While Chakmas are Buddhists, Hajongs are Hindus by faith. About 65,000 Chakmas and Hajongs permanently reside in Arunachal Pradesh.

Remote villages Rime Moko, Pidi Rime and Todi Rime in West Siang district have threatened to boycott the polls if the government fails to construct a permanent bridge over the Hijum river. These villages have a population of at least 400, of which 300 are eligible to vote.

Connectivity is one of the most prominent issues in the state. Lack of connectivity in terms of roads, bridges and internet access, hinders daily life.

Health and transport are two sectors that need development, along with an untapped tourism potential. This can become a source of income and growth.

Here are factors influencing the vote in this constituency:

Increased security: The development of Tawang district is a sign of Indias stronger defence presence near the China border. According to reports, this focus on security resonates with the people of Arunachal West.

The development of Tawang district is a sign of Indias stronger defence presence near the China border. According to reports, this focus on security resonates with the people of Arunachal West. Improved infrastructure: The construction of the Sela Tunnel and development of roads suggests improved connectivity, a major concern in Arunachal West. This infrastructure development is seen as progress by voters.

The construction of the Sela Tunnel and development of roads suggests improved connectivity, a major concern in Arunachal West. This infrastructure development is seen as progress by voters. Economic benefits: Development in Tawang district could lead to economic benefits like tourism or job opportunities. Voters perceive development as bringing economic improvement.

Development in Tawang district could lead to economic benefits like tourism or job opportunities. Voters perceive development as bringing economic improvement. Nationalist sentiment: The dedication of the tunnel by the prime minister to the nation stresses a nationalistic viewpoint. It resonates with voters in the constituency, especially those in Tawang as they were overrun by the Chinese in 1962.

What are the key issues in the state?

Arunachal-Assam border issue: An agreement was signed in April 2023 to settle the long-standing border issue between the two states. But, in September 2023, reports surfaced that a village named Durpai in Arunachal Pradesh is being transferred to Assam as part of the solution. The residents of Durpai have strongly opposed this move and want to remain in Arunachal.

An agreement was signed in April 2023 to settle the long-standing border issue between the two states. But, in September 2023, reports surfaced that a village named Durpai in Arunachal Pradesh is being transferred to Assam as part of the solution. The residents of Durpai have strongly opposed this move and want to remain in Arunachal. Etalin hydro power project: The controversial 10,000-MW Etalin hydro power project has been scrapped in its present form as a temporary respite to local communities and conservationists objecting to it.

The controversial 10,000-MW Etalin hydro power project has been scrapped in its present form as a temporary respite to local communities and conservationists objecting to it. Electricity and power shortage: The energy situation in the state is challenging as it faces a critical power deficit. Upgrading hydropower efficiency, exploring alternative energy sources, and improving distribution infrastructure are crucial to bridge the gap and ensure equitable access to electricity for all.

The energy situation in the state is challenging as it faces a critical power deficit. Upgrading hydropower efficiency, exploring alternative energy sources, and improving distribution infrastructure are crucial to bridge the gap and ensure equitable access to electricity for all. Opposition to the Uniform Civil Code: An ally of the BJP, the National Peoples Party (NPP), is opposed to the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). It has argued that Arunachal has its own established customary laws that govern personal matters like marriage, inheritance among others. The party believes that the UCC will undermine the existing legal structures. The state has a diverse multi-ethnic and multi-tribal population. Instead of a common code, the NPP has proposed codifying the existing customary laws with necessary modifications. There is concern that the UCC could be a one-size-fits-all approach that overrides the states authority.

An ally of the BJP, the National Peoples Party (NPP), is opposed to the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). It has argued that Arunachal has its own established customary laws that govern personal matters like marriage, inheritance among others. The party believes that the UCC will undermine the existing legal structures. The state has a diverse multi-ethnic and multi-tribal population. Instead of a common code, the NPP has proposed codifying the existing customary laws with necessary modifications. There is concern that the UCC could be a one-size-fits-all approach that overrides the states authority. Call for the Old Pension Scheme: The NPP has also placed the demand to revoke the New Pension Scheme by reintroducing the Old Pension Scheme. The state working president of the regional party has said it will be a key issue for the assembly polls.

The NPP has also placed the demand to revoke the New Pension Scheme by reintroducing the Old Pension Scheme. The state working president of the regional party has said it will be a key issue for the assembly polls. Drug use and consumption: Chief minister Pema Khandu has led the fight against drug abuse in the state for two years, highlighting the governments strong stance. Drug trafficking is a major concern due to the states borders with Myanmar, which acts as entry points for smuggling, particularly impacting the Changlang district.

Low representation of women

The ground reality on womens participation in Arunachals electoral politics speaks of a different narrative with only a few of them taking part in the simultaneous polling.

Toko Sheetal, a greenhorn representing the Gana Suraksha Party, is the only woman among the total 14 candidates for the two Lok Sabha seats  Arunachal East and Arunachal West.

Only eight women filed nominations for 50 assembly seats. The ruling BJP has fielded four, the opposition Congress nominated three, while there is one independent candidate.

Only one woman represented the state in the Rajya Sabha to date, while 15 women were elected to the assembly since Arunachal Pradesh graduated to a full-fledged state in 1987 from North East Frontier Agency (NEFA). Of the eight, BJP nominee from Hayuliang constituency, Dasanglu Pul, won uncontested.

According to women activists and political analysts, several factors such as cultural barriers, socioeconomic constraints and lack of awareness could contribute to the low participation of women in electoral politics. Chairperson of the Arunachal Pradesh State Commission for Women (APSCW) Kenjum Pakam said: Women should be given a chance to have the right to vote and be voted for. This will allow them to occupy political offices and contribute to the development of the nation.

Additional 10 companies of central forces to be deployed

The Election Commission of India will deploy an additional 10 companies of central armed police forces (CAPFs) in Arunachal for the elections. The Election Commission after assessing the ground reports in the state will deploy 10 additional companies of paramilitary forces, said chief electoral officer (CEO) Pawn Kumar Sain.

At present, 70 companies of CAPFs, state armed police and Indian Reserve Batallion are stationed in different districts of the state. Additional forces will arrive by next week. One company comprises 100 personnel, meaning a total of 8,000 security personnel will be deployed.

Sain said: This is the highest-ever deployment of security personnel in the state for elections. Their core duty is to instill a sense of confidence and security among people.

He said besides deploying the armed forces, the EC is ensuring webcasting of all polling stations. Micro-observers have been appointed for critical polling stations and they will report to general observers, he added.

The EC has appointed 15 general observers, six police observers and 25 expenditure observers to oversee the poll process in the state, the CEO said. A total of 11,130 polling personnel have been deployed to conduct the elections. Altogether 6,874 electronic voting machines (EVM) will be used for the simultaneous elections, which will be held across 2,226 polling booths.

Counting of votes for the assembly elections will be held on June 2, while the votes for the two Lok Sabha seats will be counted on June 4 along with the rest of the country.

VOTER DEMOGRAPHICS

Total voters: 4,61,214

Male: 2,23,234

Female: 2,37,980

Sex ratio: 1,066

ST voters: 79.68%

Literacy rate: 67.08%

There are more female voters than male.

Voting pattern

Traditionally, the constituency has been a stronghold of the Congress. But, in recent years, the BJP has made significant inroads with Kiren Rijiju winning two consecutive terms. This indicates a shift in voter preference towards the BJP.

The 2019 election was described as a closely contested battle, highlighting the presence of multiple strong contenders.

Congress candidate Nabam Tuki putting up a tough fight suggests a strong voter base for the party despite the BJPs win.

(With PTI inputs)
I am not a fake nationalist. The BJP despite wanting to is not able to do Hindu-Muslim in these elections, said Kunwar Danish Ali to News18, with a laugh. Ali is the Congress candidate from the Amroha Lok Sabha seat in western Uttar Pradesh for the upcoming polls. He won in 2019 as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate while in alliance with the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal.

Ali is facing a tough challenge this time as though he still has the SPs support, the BSP has also fielded a Muslim candidate in Amroha, while Bharatiya Janata Partys former MP Kunwar Singh Tanwar is contesting again with backing from the RLD now. On the ground, Tanwar seems to be running a stronger campaign. Ali won by 63,000 votes in 2019 and hit the headlines last year when BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri called him a terrorist among other things inside Parliament. Bidhuri was later denied a ticket by the BJP.

People of Amroha saw what happened to me in Parliament. I am a Gandhi-vadi, an Ambedkar-vadi, and a Samajwadi personI am not a fake nationalist, Ali told News18.

Asked about the BJP denying a ticket to Bidhuri, he said that was an internal matter of the ruling party but the abuses in Parliament do ring out on the ground among people in Amroha. What was said was wrong on many levels. Ali has our sympathy, a group of Muslim voters in Hasanpur said.

Non-vegetarian Food during Festivals

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday castigated opposition leaders for openly having non-vegetarian food during Hindu festivals and said peoples sentiments were being hurt. Ali said this was a non-issue.

See, they (BJP) are getting no opportunity for doing polarisation. People have understood it and are ready to teach a lesson to the government. You have nothing to show for the last 10 years, so you make such statements, he told News18. Who eats what, drinks what, do our girls wear jeans, or skirts, or cover their heads  they have the freedom to do as they wish. This is not even a relevant issue. The relevant issue is: has farmers income doubled? Our thinking is that what someone wants to eat or wear is their freedom, Ali added.

Opposition Unity, Agenda

The BSP had dismissed Ali for anti-party activities and he later joined the Congress this year. Mayawati is not upset with mewe are with our ideology with conviction and the BJP can only be defeated by the INDIA bloc and we had tried that Mayawati should join us and the opposition be united, Ali told News18.

He said his agenda in Amroha was the same as Rahul Gandhis  that farmers, youth, and women should get nyay (justice).

Rahul Gandhi has taken out two yatras  all sections of society are distressed. The youth need jobs. Everyone has seen that youths were beaten up by lathis when they went to Lucknow seeking jobs. The government does paper leak because it does not want to give jobs, Ali claimed. He said the BSPs Muslim candidate wont be able to split the votes. I am getting SC votes in big numbersall the communities are voting for me, he asserted.

Challenge from BJP

Danish Ali dismissed his BJP challenger, calling Kunwar Tanwar a big businessman with a lot of money and advised him to focus on his business. Tanwar has a big farmhouse on the outskirts of Amroha, complete with a helipad. People have seen his work for five years before I defeated him. He should do his business, he is not here to serve the people, Ali told News18.

He added that the people of Amroha had seen how he raised their problems in Parliament, compared to Tanwars tenure in 2014-19. This seat has been infamous that any moneyed person comes here and wins and goes away. I broke this myth with the support of the people and will break this myth againthe moneyed and business people cannot serve the people as they get busy in their business, Ali said. He added that not just Muslims, but the upper castes were also against the BJP this time.

The BJP camp in Amroha, however, is confident of a victory, pointing out how the top Congress leadership like Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have not come to campaign for Ali yet. Congresss UP incharge Avinash Pande though was present at a rally by Ali in Hasanpur on Friday and the local Samajwadi Party MLA organised it. Very soon, you will have Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi campaigning here, Pande assured the crowd. Amroha will have polling on April 26 in the second round of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections.
The Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam in north-eastern India. It encompasses 12 assembly segments. It will vote in phase one on April 19.

Traditionally, Jorhat has been a stronghold of the Congress, consistently winning elections. However, the BJP has made inroads in recent times, capitalising on its focus on development and outreach programmes. The close contest in the 2019 Lok Sabha election reflects this shift, with the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) victory seen as a significant achievement.

Jorhat boasts of a vibrant educational scene with a wide range of institutions catering to diverse fields. The prestigious National Institute of Design and the North East Institute of Science and Technology are present here. It also boasts of Assam Womens University, two engineering colleges and a medical college. Jorhat also houses the worlds oldest and largest Tea Research Organization, a testament to its rich agricultural heritage. The Assam Agricultural University strengthens the regions agricultural knowledge base.

Current MP: Topon Kumar Gogoi, BJP

Candidates: Topon Kumar Gogoi (BJP), Gaurav Gogoi (Congress).

THE CONSTITUENCY AND ITS ISSUES

The town is still called the cultural capital and has a strong Ahom legacy. The identity of being an Asamiya is a key political issue in the elections. The BJP has placed itself well with the planned inauguration of the 125-ft statue of Bir Lachit Borphukan and Ahom hero, and the UNESCO nomination for Charaideo Maidam, also referred to as the Pyramids of Assam. The issue of identity remains major here. Illegal immigration from Bangladesh, which the BJP and its ally AJP are sternly against, is a factor. The completion of the four-lane National Highway 37 has been a long-standing concern for both Jorhat and Sibsagar districts of the constituency. PM Narendra Modi is expected to address a rally near this incomplete national highway. Construction of a flyover at Baruah Chariali in Jorhat, costing the state Rs 164 crore, is on the cards. The upcoming bridge connecting Jorhat to Majuli Island could be a positive factor for the incumbent government, if completed before the election. It would be seen as delivering on a major demand and improving infrastructure for the islands Mising tribe. The ongoing issues of floods and erosion affecting Majuli Island could lead to dissatisfaction with the governments handling of these problems. This might hurt the party in power. Other issues such as water, power, jobs, development, corruption and crime still remain contentious.

WHAT WORKS FOR BJP?

Party Strategy: The BJPs strong organisational machinery is mobilising voters.

Development Agenda: The BJPs emphasis on development issues resonate with Jorhats electorate.

Candidate Backgrounds: Topon Kumar Gogois social service background attracts voters seeking social welfare initiatives.

Ahom Legacy: The emphasis on Jorhats Ahom history, including the Veer Lachit Barphukan statue and Charaideo Maidam promotion, could resonate with voters who identify with the Ahom identity. This might benefit the BJP positioning themselves as the party preserving this heritage.

VOTERS AND DEMOGRAPHICS (PRE-DELIMITATION)

Population and voters

Total voters: 1,347,881

Rural Voters: 1,124,133, which is around 83.4%

Urban Voters: 223,748, which is around 16.6%

Sex Ratio: 956 (2011)

Voter turnout: 77.2% (2019 Parliament election)  lower than the 2016 Assembly elections 83.6% turnout.

Social Composition

4.7% Scheduled Caste (SC) voters

4.8% Scheduled Tribe (ST) voters

Religious composition

Hindu: 88.86

Muslim: 8.2%

Buddhist: 0.3%

Christian: 2.49%

Jain: 0.04%

Sikh: 0.11%

THE STATE AND ITS ISSUES

A number of issues will decide the outcome of polls in Assam:

Delimitation: The delimitation exercise has redrawn constituencies, and reports suggest it might benefit the BJP. By merging Muslim-majority areas with others and increasing seats in areas with indigenous populations (who lean towards the BJP), the party hopes to gain an edge. This is concerning for parties like AIUDF (All India United Democratic Front) which rely heavily on Muslim votes. The redrawing of constituencies has resulted in some previously Muslim-dominated seats being categorised as Scheduled Caste (SC) strongholds. The BJP hopes to capitalise on this by attracting SC voters, while parties like AIUDF fear loss of their traditional base.

Delimitation has forced some parties to reshuffle their candidates. This is evident in the case of Congress. Such internal conflicts may damage the partys image and voter confidence.

Identity politics and demographic change: Reports highlight a prevalent fear among some Assamese communities of losing their political and cultural influence due to a perceived demographic shift. This fear is fueled by factors such as increase in Muslim-majority districts and the narrative of illegal Bangladeshis taking away resources and political power.

The BJP has effectively capitalised on this fear by using slogans such as jati mati bheti (home, land and hearth), promising to protect the Assamese identity from outsiders. This strategy aims to consolidate the Hindu Assamese vote bank and potentially attract some ethnic tribes with similar concerns.

The data shows past success with this tactic. The BJPs 2016 victory and 2019 domination is attributed partly to their promise of addressing the illegal Bangladeshi issue.

Even parties like the Congress have used identity politics in the past to appeal to Assamese voters. Completely ignoring the issue might alienate some voters.

Consolidating Assamese and tribal votes could help the BJP consolidate votes from the Assamese majority and some ethnic tribes who share similar anxieties. However, it has also led to counter-mobilisation by Muslims and parties who see the Congress and AIUDF as a counter balance to BJP.

Assam Healing (Prevention of Evil) Practices Bill, 2024: The bill has gained support from those who believe non-scientific healing practices exploit vulnerable people and delay proper medical treatment. People who oppose exploitation of the sick and vulnerable are seeing the bill as a positive step.

But traditional healers and practitioners have attacked the bill as a violation of traditional tribal practices and cultural beliefs. Some religious groups, including Badruddin Ajmals supporters who believe in his healing water, might see the bill as restricting religious freedom.

Rural poverty: Assam is predominantly a rural-based state, almost 86% of its population still living in rural areas. The socio-economic position among the people in rural areas is poor compared to urban areas and all-India figures. Rural poverty is more than twice that of urban poverty.

Natural Disasters: Assam, with its vast network of rivers, is prone to natural disasters such as flood and erosion which hamper the overall development of the state. The Brahmaputra and Barak Rivers, with more than 50 tributaries feeding them, cause flood devastation every monsoon.

Poor Healthcare: Assam has also faced many challenges in the health sector. There are several public health care centres that have been badly affected in the rural areas due to the shortage of doctors and medical staff. Getting proper medical facilities is a challenge in rural areas. There is lack of awareness regarding health, which resulted in the hooch tragedy last month.

Unused agricultural land: The total cultivable land in the state has decreased from 31,14,408 hectares in 2016-17 to 30,76,909 hectares in 2019-2020. There is a total reduction of 37,499 hectares of cultivable land in Assam from 2016 to 2020. According to a media report published in May 2023, over 10 lakh hectares of cultivable land in Assam remains unutilised. The media quoted the Assam Agricultural University (AAU) and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), which had mapped these unutilised or rice-fallow areas lying scattered in the state. It could raise issues of food security in the state.
The Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha constituency comprises six assembly segments  Kanniyakumari, Nagercoil, Colachal, Padmanabhapuram, Vilavancode, Killiyoor. The current MP is Vijay Vasanth of the Indian National Congress who was elected in the 2021 by-poll. He was preceded by H Vasanthakumar of the Congress. Kanniyakumari will vote in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 on April 19 and results will be out on June 4.

Voting Factors

Stronghold of National Parties: Kanniyakumari has always been the stronghold of national parties as Congress and BJP hold more sway here than the DMK and its Dravidian politics. Former chief minister and DMK president M Karunanidhi was renowned for his statement: Nellai enadhu ellai; Kumari enadhu thollai, which translates to Tirunelveli is my limit, and Kanyakumari is my trouble. This phrase highlighted the struggle Dravidian parties encountered in making inroads into regions dominated by national parties.

Kanniyakumari has always been the stronghold of national parties as Congress and BJP hold more sway here than the DMK and its Dravidian politics. Former chief minister and DMK president M Karunanidhi was renowned for his statement: Nellai enadhu ellai; Kumari enadhu thollai, which translates to Tirunelveli is my limit, and Kanyakumari is my trouble. This phrase highlighted the struggle Dravidian parties encountered in making inroads into regions dominated by national parties. Religion Dominates Caste: Religion is a stronger factor than caste in Kanniyakumari elections. The constituency has a significant Christian population (along with Hindus), and parties often campaign based on religious affiliations. The Nadar community, a Hindu group with a sizeable presence in Kanniyakumari, has its own history of fighting against social discrimination. This has led to a focus on broader social issues over caste-based politics.

Religion is a stronger factor than caste in Kanniyakumari elections. The constituency has a significant Christian population (along with Hindus), and parties often campaign based on religious affiliations. The Nadar community, a Hindu group with a sizeable presence in Kanniyakumari, has its own history of fighting against social discrimination. This has led to a focus on broader social issues over caste-based politics. Congress Stronghold: Kanniyakumari has traditionally been a Congress bastion in the state of Tamil Nadu, but in the last few decades, the BJP has made deep inroads in the constituency. This is owed primarily to the polarisation of Hindu votes, the BJPs push for development and popular BJP leader P Radhakrishnan. The incumbent Congress candidate, Vijay Vasant, is confronting significant anti-incumbency sentiment due to his failure to fulfil several election pledges. His MPLADS funds remain largely underutilised with only about Rs 2 crore spent out of an allocation of Rs 10 crore, according to the MPLADS website. However, his alliance with the DMK could potentially bolster his chances of securing victory once again. Interestingly, Vasant is reportedly one of the key financiers of the Congress party in Tamil Nadu as he runs his fathers business Vasanth & Co. An actor, he is also the cousin of BJP leader and now Governor Tamilisai Sounderrajan.

Kanniyakumari has traditionally been a Congress bastion in the state of Tamil Nadu, but in the last few decades, the BJP has made deep inroads in the constituency. This is owed primarily to the polarisation of Hindu votes, the BJPs push for development and popular BJP leader P Radhakrishnan. The incumbent Congress candidate, Vijay Vasant, is confronting significant anti-incumbency sentiment due to his failure to fulfil several election pledges. His MPLADS funds remain largely underutilised with only about Rs 2 crore spent out of an allocation of Rs 10 crore, according to the MPLADS website. However, his alliance with the DMK could potentially bolster his chances of securing victory once again. Interestingly, Vasant is reportedly one of the key financiers of the Congress party in Tamil Nadu as he runs his fathers business Vasanth & Co. An actor, he is also the cousin of BJP leader and now Governor Tamilisai Sounderrajan. Modi Magic at Work? PM Modis visit to the constituency will play a role in attracting voters. Moreover, the partys state leadership has a dynamic leader in Annamalai who may appeal to the sentiment of voters. According to Annamalai, if a BJP candidate is voted to power in 2024, he will be granted the position of a Union cabinet minister. BJP is yet to announce its candidate. But Pon Radhakrishnan remains a popular figure. He was a minister in Vajpayee cabinet and also served as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Shipping between May 2014 and May 2019. Referred to as Ponnar in the constituency, the leader is known for development work. During Vajpayees tenure, the four-lane bypass to Kanniyakumari was constructed under his auspices. Additionally, Parvathipuram and Marthandam bridges were also erected under Ponnars leadership. Its worth noting that Pon Radhakrishnan effectively utilised his entire allocation of Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLADS) Scheme funds, amounting to approximately Rs 25 crore, throughout his tenure from 2014 to 2019. Contrast this with incumbent MP Vijay Vasanth, whose MPLADS funds remain under-utilised.

PM Modis visit to the constituency will play a role in attracting voters. Moreover, the partys state leadership has a dynamic leader in Annamalai who may appeal to the sentiment of voters. According to Annamalai, if a BJP candidate is voted to power in 2024, he will be granted the position of a Union cabinet minister. BJP is yet to announce its candidate. But Pon Radhakrishnan remains a popular figure. He was a minister in Vajpayee cabinet and also served as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Shipping between May 2014 and May 2019. Referred to as Ponnar in the constituency, the leader is known for development work. During Vajpayees tenure, the four-lane bypass to Kanniyakumari was constructed under his auspices. Additionally, Parvathipuram and Marthandam bridges were also erected under Ponnars leadership. Its worth noting that Pon Radhakrishnan effectively utilised his entire allocation of Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLADS) Scheme funds, amounting to approximately Rs 25 crore, throughout his tenure from 2014 to 2019. Contrast this with incumbent MP Vijay Vasanth, whose MPLADS funds remain under-utilised. Shifting Loyalties: Vilavancode Congress MLA Vijayadharani has jumped ship to the BJP. In 2021 assembly elections, she had won the seat with a margin of 28,669 votes. She is pinning hopes on a Lok Sabha ticket from the BJP and could bring a chunk of Congress votes with her. She had quit the Congress as the high command did not heed to her demands for a ticket in the Lok Sabha election.

Vilavancode Congress MLA Vijayadharani has jumped ship to the BJP. In 2021 assembly elections, she had won the seat with a margin of 28,669 votes. She is pinning hopes on a Lok Sabha ticket from the BJP and could bring a chunk of Congress votes with her. She had quit the Congress as the high command did not heed to her demands for a ticket in the Lok Sabha election. Local Connect: In the last urban local body polls in the state, DMK had won the bulk of the seats. But most of the BJPs victories came from Kanniyakumari. Half of the corporation seats that it won are in this district alone. Similarly, 168 of the 230 seats it won in town panchayats were also in Kanniyakumari.

Voter Demographics:

 Total number of voters (2019): 1493509

 Urban: 1,230,651 (82.4%)

 Rural: 262,858 (17.6%)

 Literacy rate: 82.8%

Voters by Caste (Approximate):

 SC: 59,740 (4%)

 ST: 5,974 (0.4%)

Voters by Religion (2011 Census):

 Muslim: 4.2%

 Christian: 46.85%

 Hindu: 50%

Key Constituency Issues

Religious Polarisation: Recent elections have seen a rise in communal polarisation, with the Hindu majority (51%) and Christian minority (44%) potentially influencing voting patterns. Nadar Hindus are a key constituency of the BJP in Kanniyakumari. The constituency also has a significant Christian population, mainly from the fishing community, which has historically supported the Congress and its allies. DMK scion Udhayanidhi Stalins eradicate Sanatan controversy is likely to have some effect in the seat. It has rubbed Hindus of Kanniyakumari the wrong way and may drive them away from the INC-DMK alliance, in favour of the BJP. However, a consolidation of Christian and Muslim vote can also be seen.

Recent elections have seen a rise in communal polarisation, with the Hindu majority (51%) and Christian minority (44%) potentially influencing voting patterns. Nadar Hindus are a key constituency of the BJP in Kanniyakumari. The constituency also has a significant Christian population, mainly from the fishing community, which has historically supported the Congress and its allies. DMK scion Udhayanidhi Stalins eradicate Sanatan controversy is likely to have some effect in the seat. It has rubbed Hindus of Kanniyakumari the wrong way and may drive them away from the INC-DMK alliance, in favour of the BJP. However, a consolidation of Christian and Muslim vote can also be seen. Fishermens issues: The presence of Christian fishermen communities along the coastal areas has been a major factor influencing the voting patterns. In the last election, a controversy arose that approximately 40,000 to 45,000 fishermen were deliberately left out from the electoral list. They asserted that their names were struck off the voter list just days before polling day. This controversy had also served to coalesce support against Pon Radhakrishnan. Considering Kanniyakumaris large coastal population, fishing-related issues become important. Fishermen from Kanniyakumari dont often go fishing near Sri Lanka so they do not face issues caused by Lankan Navy actions. However, they have faced issues with erratic weather etc. During Cyclone Okhi and the 2018 Kerala Floods, Kanniyakumari was also badly hit. Fishermen have been seeking a permanent helicopter pad to help with rescue of fishermen during disasters and accidents in high seas.

The presence of Christian fishermen communities along the coastal areas has been a major factor influencing the voting patterns. In the last election, a controversy arose that approximately 40,000 to 45,000 fishermen were deliberately left out from the electoral list. They asserted that their names were struck off the voter list just days before polling day. This controversy had also served to coalesce support against Pon Radhakrishnan. Considering Kanniyakumaris large coastal population, fishing-related issues become important. Fishermen from Kanniyakumari dont often go fishing near Sri Lanka so they do not face issues caused by Lankan Navy actions. However, they have faced issues with erratic weather etc. During Cyclone Okhi and the 2018 Kerala Floods, Kanniyakumari was also badly hit. Fishermen have been seeking a permanent helicopter pad to help with rescue of fishermen during disasters and accidents in high seas. Port Terminal at Colachel: A proposed transhipment container terminal at the historic Colachel Port has drawn severe criticism from the local population. They allege the facility will impact their livelihoods and the environment. Fishermen feared displacement and disruption to their fishing areas. This was a major factor that led to Pon Radhakrishnans defeat in 2019.

A proposed transhipment container terminal at the historic Colachel Port has drawn severe criticism from the local population. They allege the facility will impact their livelihoods and the environment. Fishermen feared displacement and disruption to their fishing areas. This was a major factor that led to Pon Radhakrishnans defeat in 2019. Illegal quarrying: Several complaints have arisen about illegal quarrying in the region. In Kanniyakumari, illegal quarrying operations have been underway with the collusion of officials, according to a petitioner in the Madras High Court. In February this year, the high court sought a detailed report from the district collector, considering the seriousness of the matter. The operations have reduced the quality of life of residents living in the vicinity of the quarrying sites. BJP leader Annamalai has alleged that state minister Mano Thangaraj is involved in smuggling of ore from Tamil Nadu to Kerala.

Several complaints have arisen about illegal quarrying in the region. In Kanniyakumari, illegal quarrying operations have been underway with the collusion of officials, according to a petitioner in the Madras High Court. In February this year, the high court sought a detailed report from the district collector, considering the seriousness of the matter. The operations have reduced the quality of life of residents living in the vicinity of the quarrying sites. BJP leader Annamalai has alleged that state minister Mano Thangaraj is involved in smuggling of ore from Tamil Nadu to Kerala. Rights of Plantation Workers: Kanniyakumari has a good number of rubber and cashew plantations on its western border and plantation workers, too, face problems with respect to wages and lack of facilities. The price of rubber is of particular concern.

Kanniyakumari has a good number of rubber and cashew plantations on its western border and plantation workers, too, face problems with respect to wages and lack of facilities. The price of rubber is of particular concern. Separate Religion Demand: BJPs sole constituency in Kanniyakumari the Nadar Hindus  follow the Ayya Vazhi sect of Hinduism. They are now posing a new demand of autonomy. The state governments Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department has taken over administration of the major Ayya Vazhi temple at Swamithope, angering followers. Balaprajabathi Adigalar, Ayya Vazhis present head, has now demanded that Ayya Vazhi be recognised as a separate religion so that it does not come under the state governments control.

BJPs sole constituency in Kanniyakumari the Nadar Hindus  follow the Ayya Vazhi sect of Hinduism. They are now posing a new demand of autonomy. The state governments Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department has taken over administration of the major Ayya Vazhi temple at Swamithope, angering followers. Balaprajabathi Adigalar, Ayya Vazhis present head, has now demanded that Ayya Vazhi be recognised as a separate religion so that it does not come under the state governments control. Identity Politics: Pon Radhakrishnan had earlier stirred controversy by referring to Tamil people as ungrateful for failing to acknowledge PM Modis praise for the Tamil language. Later, he retracted, stating that he did not label all Tamils as ungrateful, but only those involved in politicising the language. The 2019 controversy may be raked up again against him this time.

Infrastructure Developments
Election 2024 LIVE: Amit Shah to Address Election Rally in Jammu Next Week, Says BJP Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address his first election rally in Jammu on April 16, Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina said on Saturday. Raina said Shah is coming to garner support for BJP candidate Jugal Kishore, who is vying for his third term from the Jammu parliamentary constituency.

Election 2024 LIVE: Congress Fields Vikramaditya Singh From Mandi Against Kangana Ranaut The Congress party fielded Vikramaditya Singh as the candidate from Mandi constituency against BJPs Kangana Ranaut for the Lok Sabha polls.

Election 2024 LIVE: AIADMK Writes to ECI Alleging Illegal Phone Interception By TN Intel Wing The AIADMK wrote to the Election Commission of India, alleging illegal phone interception by Tamil Nadu Intelligence Wing to target Opposition leaders.

Election 2024 LIVE: BSP Announces Candidates for Patiala, Jalandhar Lok Sabha Seats in Punjab The Bahujan Samaj Party on Saturday announced its candidates for two Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, fielding Jagjit Chharbarh from Patiala and Balwinder Kumar from Jalandhar. Both Jagjit Chharbarh and Balwinder Kumar are the partys Punjab unit general secretaries. The BSPs in charge of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh Randhir Singh Beniwal said candidates for the remaining seats in Punjab will be announced soon. The Mayawati-led outfit has already announced its candidates for Hoshiarpur, Ferozepur and Sangrur Lok Sabha seats.

Election 2024 LIVE: BJP's Slogan 400 Seats is to Divert Public Attention from Their Defeat, Says Siddaramaiah Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday termed BJPs slogan Abki Baar, Chaar Sau Paar (This time more than 400 seats) a strategy to divert public attention. He said the INDIA bloc and the anti-BJP parties will come to power this time at the Centre.

Election 2024 LIVE: Time to Bring Change Through Ballot: Congress Leader Raj Babbar in Udhampur Senior Congress leader and star campaigner Raj Babbar Saturday accused the BJP-led central government of doing grave injustice to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and said it is time to bring about a change through the ballot. Addressing a massive rally here in support of the Congress candidate for the Udhampur parliamentary constituency Choudhary Lal Singh, the actor-turned-politician claimed that the people of the entire country were fed up with the Modi government for its anti-youth, anti-poor and anti-farmers policies.

Election 2024 LIVE: BJP Will Not Even Win 200 Lok Sabha Seats, Says WB CM Mamata Banerjee Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modis guarantees are false, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday claimed that the BJP will not even win 200 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Speaking at an election rally for party candidate Nirmal Chandra Roy, the Trinamool Congress supremo also accused the BJP of destroying the countrys Constitution drafted by B R Ambedkar.

Election 2024 LIVE: Wont Withdraw Nomination Papers, Says Rebel BJP Leader Eshwarappa Rebel BJP leader and former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa on Saturday dismissed reports that he would withdraw his candidature for the Lok Sabha elections. Eshwarappa on Friday filed his nomination papers as an independent candidate from Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituency. He will be contesting against BJPs sitting MP and former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappas elder son B Y Raghavendra and Congress candidate Geetha Shivarajkumar.

Election 2024 LIVE: Nirmala Sitharaman and Tamil Nadu BJP Chief K Annamalai Holds Roadshow in Coimbatore VIDEO | Lok Sabha Polls 2024: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) and Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai (@annamalai_k) hold a roadshow in Coimbatore. #LSPolls2024WithPTI #LokSabhaElections2024 pic.twitter.com/OoKJd8LSh6  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) April 13, 2024

Election 2024 LIVE: Modi to Address Rally in Madhya Pradesh's Pipariya on April 14 Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a rally at Pipariya town in Madhya Pradeshs Narmadapuram district on April 14, the birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar. Narmadapuram, formerly known as Hoshangabad, is part of the Hoshangabad Lok Sabha constituency. Modi will address a gathering at around 11.45 AM in Pipariya town, the state BJP said.

Election 2024 LIVE: AIMIM Supports AIADMK in TN for LS Polls, Pact to Continue for Assembly Polls Too The AIMIM on Saturday announced its support to the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu for the Lok Sabha elections. AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi said on X that the alliance would also continue for the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.

Election 2024 LIVE: BJP to Release Manifesto For LS Polls on Sunday At Party Headquarters in Delhi The BJP is set to release its manifesto for Lok Sabha polls on Sunday at party headquarters in Delhi. PM Modi will also be present there.

Election 2024 LIVE: How Will Cong Look After People When They Are Unable to Manage Own Govt, Says Kangana Ranaut BJP candidate from Mandi, Kangana Ranaut said, Even after Independence, the country was impacted by the Congress for 70 yearsEvery day a new scam, scandalHow will they (Congress govt in the state) look after you when they are unable to manage their own government.

Election 2024 LIVE: We Have Been Given Option of Either Voting at Original Polling station or Special Polling Station, Says Manipur Chief Electoral Officer On preparations for Lok Sabha elections, Pradeep Kumar Jha, Chief Electoral Officer of Manipur said, We have given an option of either voting at the original polling station or at the special polling station. This arrangement we have done for displaced people, in that we have created special polling station at 94 locationsthis system ensures that the voter is voting for the constituency where he/she is originally enrolled.

Election 2024 LIVE: Our Manifesto Made After Talking to Thousands of People, Says Rahul Gandhi Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, while addressing a rally said, These are the 5 main promises of our manifesto. We made our manifesto thoughtfully. It was not made in a closed room. It was made after talking to thousands of people This is the peoples manifesto.

Election 2024 LIVE: Congress Nominees in Gujarat to File Nominations Between April 15-17 Congress candidates in Gujarat will file their nomination forms for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections between April 15 and 17. All 26 constituencies in Gujarat will vote on May 7 in the third phase of the general elections. Bypolls for five assembly segments are also scheduled to be held in the state on that day.

Election 2024 LIVE: Union Minister Anurag Thakur Plays Badminton in MP's Chhindwara #WATCH | Madhya Pradesh: Union Minister Anurag Thakur plays badminton in Chhindwara, on the sidelines of an election campaign pic.twitter.com/M2qCm4WrNe  ANI (@ANI) April 13, 2024

Election 2024 LIVE: Cong's Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Spotted Getting into Tiff with TMC Workers #WATCH | Murshidabad, West Bengal: Congress leader and party's Lok Sabha candidate from Behrampore Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was seen getting into an altercation with a few TMC workers (Video source  TMC) pic.twitter.com/cCa7J4CKPK  ANI (@ANI) April 13, 2024

Election 2024 LIVE: Cong Looting & Luring People Through False Promises, Say BJP's Kangana Ranaut BJP leader Kangana Ranaut took a dig at the Congress and said that the ruling party in the state was looting the people and luring them through false promises. While adressing a gathering in Mandi district, Ranaut said, Other than looting, what else is the Congress doing here? Today I want to ask them if they would give Rs 1,500 to all the sisters and mothers here. What happened to that money? They said they would give 5 lakh job opportunities. Where are those jobs? Why do they make fake promises and lure people? Till when will such politics go on?
Putting a stop to speculations over who would fight from the Mandi Lok Sabha seat of Himachal Pradesh, the Congress on Saturday fielded Vikramaditya Singh from the high stakes Parliamentary constituency. Congress on Saturday released another list of 16 candidates for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections fielding Manish Vikramaditya Singh from Mandi, Manish Tewari from Chandigarh and Vino Sultanpuri from Shimla.

Lok Sabha Elections 2024 | Congress releases another list of 16 candidates for the general elections.Vikramaditya Singh to contest from Mandi (against BJP candidate Kangana Ranaut), Manish Tewari from Chandigarh. pic.twitter.com/jIGHjjD5ql  ANI (@ANI) April 13, 2024

Vikramaditya Singh will take on the fight against Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut fielded by the BJP from the Mandi seat.

According to an India Today report, talking about her son, Vikramaditya Singhs candidature, Himachal Pradesh Congress unit chief Pratibha Singh said the people of Mandi have always been with us.

Pratibha Singh is the sitting MP from Mandi and has won the seat thrice.

According to a TOI report, Pratibha Singh, after a meeting with Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu, said party leaders agreed that a young candidate should be fielded from the Mandi seat.

Discussions were held on the 2-3 names that we shortlisted. It depends on the high command, on Mallikarjun Kharge, and on what names they approve. All our senior leaders believe that this time a young leader should be fielded. So, a consensus has been reached on the name of Vikramaditya Singh. The names will be finalised soon, Pratibha Singh was quoted by TOI as saying.
There is momentum for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the ground in Tamil Nadu, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday, exuding confidence that her party would do well in the southern state in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

In an interview with CNN-News18, she also touched upon a wide range of talking points  from electoral bonds to the perceived north-south divide and the oppositions allegations of misuse of probe agencies.

Launching a scathing attack on Tamil Nadus ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) led by Chief Minister MK Stalin, she accused it of creating myths for its own gains. She also said the Congress was reduced to playing second fiddle to the DMK in the state. Edited excerpts:

Q. The perception that the DMK and the Congress party have tried to build is that Tamil Nadu is a territory that cannot be breached by the BJP. Yet, Mission South is very integral to Prime Minister Narendra Modis ideology  and yours as well. Do you think this is a bastion that can be breached?

A: Undoubtedly, it can be breached. You can see the momentum on the ground. You can see how people are responding. It is largely because of the attention the Prime Minister pays to Tamil Nadu and its development. Women in villages are talking about how they have got toilets. They also got cooking gas. They are very clear that their houses are being built through the Prime Ministers Awas Yojana. And so on.

So not only the Prime Minister at his level is giving attention to Tamil Nadu, but the execution of projects at the level of households is also visible. The Congress party has absolutely forfeited its rights in Tamil Nadu. And it is playing only second fiddle to one of the Dravidian parties [the DMK].

So, as a national party, the Congress party is not able to stand up on its own and say what is in the interest of Tamil Nadu and what is in the interest of the country. Whereas the BJP says if the entire country has to develop and we have to reach the level of the third-largest global economy, we need every state of India to grow. Even without an MP [of the BJP] from here, the PMs message is he wants every state to develop. So should Tamil Nadu.

Q: The criticism which comes from the Dravidian parties is that the BJP is a north party trying to impose its language, and its culture. Would you, as someone who belongs from here, want to issue a clarification?

A: Hundred per cent. And that is part of the Dravidian myth-creating effort. They always look at North Indians and Hindi. All of us are part of this country. And in this countrys history, Tamil Nadus contribution is not the property of any one party. The DMK cannot say it is us who kept up the Tamil.

Absolutely discriminatory, differentiating  and a separatist ideology is the Dravidian ideology. As a result, you find them always speaking of north versus south, Hindi versus Tamil or, you know, outsiders versus locals. They like to keep it within themselves.

So, they are the arbiters of who is a native Tamil as opposed to who has come from outside. These are very clear wedges which they drove into the Tamil society. People are clearly rejecting it. And theyre not even democratic. Theyre highly dynastic. Its only their family that is seen in politics; common Tamil people are not seen.

Q: The Katchatheevu issue is being dismissed by the Chief Minister and the Congress party as a diversionary tactic by the BJP. They say national interest is not the thekedari of the BJP.

A: National interest may not be the thekedari [read ownership] of the BJP, just as I am trying to say that Tamil Nadu is not the thekedari of the DMK. What is their contribution to national cultural heritage or the spirit of nationalism? It is not for nothing that we have raised this issue.

When Katchatheevu was given [to Sri Lanka in 1974], then Tamil Nadu chief minister [late DMK doyen] Karunanidhi knew fully about it, but he didnt inform the people of the state. He kept it to himself. And not even a symbolic protest was held. That was the truth then. But why did we raise it now? The fact has to be brought out. They gave it away knowingly.

Tamil fishermen had been fishing in that area based on their traditional right to fish. What has happened is after the Katchatheevu handover, the traditional fishing rights have also been diluted considerably. Because you muddied the water then by giving away or diluting the traditional fishing rights, you are not able to resolve the fishermens issue with Sri Lanka even today.

When the DMK was an ally and partner of the UPA government, a minister went ahead with banning [bull-taming sport] Jallikattu in the name of cruelty to animals. Jallikattu is an inherent part of Tamil Nadu. You were a party to that UPA. Your government came up with banning Jallikattu.

You were an alliance partner, DMK. You didnt protest. So what are you talking about? Tamil interest or national interest? Neither are you a thekedar of Tamil interest nor are you a thekedar of national interest. Jallikattu was restored thanks to the honourable Prime Minister. Because he fought in the Supreme Court and restored it as a cultural symbol of Tamil Nadu.

Q: You must have had a look at the Congress manifesto. It talks about the right to work. It talks about the rights of minorities. The PM has said it speaks the language of division and that of the Muslim League. This has of course outraged Rahul Gandhi as well as the Congress party.

A: I wish he was outraged much before these matters were put into his manifesto. He should have seen the draft and said, No, I shall not approve this. Just like an ordinance, he tore when then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was outside the country. He said, No, I dont want this. Should he not tear the manifesto?

Q: Do you think the INDIA front can be an alternative or even a threat or a challenge to the NDA?

A: I dont think they are a challenge. However, every election is a serious matter for the BJP. We will have to take every challenge at the state level and at the national level seriously and address them. And that is why we want our campaign to be a lot more robust  reach out to every section of our society and talk to them about the difficulties.

Q: What do you feel about the caste census? Thats clearly the fulcrum of Rahul Gandhis thinking.

A: In other words, their aim is not to reach out to people irrespective of their caste. The [Oppositions] aim is to go on perpetrating this narrative, saying, Oh, there is this backwardness which needs to be addressed  only which comes out of a caste census.

But Prime Minister Narendra Modi is saying, Look, if I address women, every caste gets included. Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes. If I address youth and give them solutions, every section will be covered. The same goes for farmers. While he is trying to build an India where everybody will get benefits, some are talking about caste because they want to keep the difference alive. Thats a very negative way of thinking about making a difference in Indian society.

Q: You have K Kavitha behind the bars. You have Arvind Kejriwal behind the bars. And the entire INDIA front is saying that your government misuses ED/CBI to target political opponents.

A. Where was CBI during the UPA rule? It was described as a caged parrot. CBI, Enforcement Directorate and other investigative authorities were all curtailed completely.

They were clearly instructed not to move forward at all. And I would very clearly, with the benefit of hindsight, tell you they were kept like that because had they been given their due freedom to operate independently without political interference, the first people to be targeted would have been those in power.

Because you had a scam per day, a big-ticket scam coming out every day. So they knew if only the agencies were given independence, the first of the lot would be their own ministers. Now, the caged parrot under Prime Minister Modi is given its independence, the due independence that an enforcement agency should have.

So, obviously, they are going where they smell wrongdoing. And that is why I say when ED or CBI go and do a survey or a search, they dont go empty-handed. They go with enough proof to say they had credible information to act.

Q. You think its okay for the Delhi CM to work from behind bars? He says the laws dont stop him from doing so.

A: Of course, laws dont stop him from doing so. Laws also didnt expect a chief minister to be behind bars after eight summonses were rejected by him. Our Constitution-makers were so good that they had faith in people who would come to public service; they didnt think that people reaching these high offices would be put in jail, and there would be a constitutional question of whether you could be a chief minister functioning from behind the bars. We are probably betraying the faith.

Q. Electoral bonds. Much politics has been done over it. but your government and your party are being attacked. There have been allegations of quid pro quo.

A: Electoral bonds were a law made through Parliament. It was accepted that this would be better than what was prevailing earlier. What was prevailing earlier was a free-for-all.

Anyone could carry a bag full of cash, or a suitcase full of cash and not say where he earned it from, but give it to the political party  and the political party could be happily spending it all.

The intent of [late BJP leader] Arun Jaitley and Prime Minister Modi at that time was to at least bring in some kind of bank account-driven system, wherein only white money would come into politics. So the bond issuer and the bond beneficiary both had recorded transactions. Today, the Supreme Court in its wisdom says well this is not right. Well follow it.

Q: Last question: Robert Vadra or Rahul Gandhi from Amethi?

A: You must tell me one thing. Im told  and this is just the buzz in the town  that he [Rahul] wouldnt announce his candidature in Amethi before polling is completed in Wayanad [Rahuls seat in Kerala].

Because he doesnt want the people of Wayanad to think, Oh well, hes not going to be here. We may as well give it [the seat] to somebody else. And after that, hes going to smartly announce that he is going to Amethi. So confirm that for me.
Amid heavy Lok Sabha elections campaigning, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Friday took back a Mumbai local to home while he was returning from a rally. The leader travelled in the local train from Boisar to Bandra after a poll rally in Palghar.

Posting a video of himself seated inside a Mumbai local train along with his party leaders, Shiv Sena wrote on X, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) party chief Uddhav Thackeray travels from Boisar to Bandra in Mumbai local train, the party captioned the post.

#WATCH | Former Maharashtra CM and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray travels on a local train during his Palghar visit. (Source: Shiv Sena (UBT) office) pic.twitter.com/4JfEni7zV8  ANI (@ANI) April 12, 2024

In the video clip, the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra was observed talking to the Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) chief boarded the local train after wrapping up his rally in Maharashtras Palghar and took a suburban local train to return to Mumbai, 110 km from Boisar.

Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, Thackerays assistant Milind Narvekar and a few other party leaders accompanied him in the first-class compartment

During the speech, Thackeray hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his fake Shiv Sena remark, and said his party was not like your degree.

Speaking at a campaign rally at Boisar near Mumbai for his partys Palghar Lok Sabha constituency candidate Bharti Kamdi, Thackeray also claimed that the opposition INDIA grouping will cross the 300 mark and defeat the BJP.

He also vowed to scrap the Vadhavan port project in Palghar district, which he said is opposed by local fishermen.

Earlier this week, at a rally in Maharashtra, Modi had dubbed the Thackeray-led Sena as fake. INDIA alliance partner DMK is talking about finishing Sanatan and linking Sanatana Dharma to malaria and dengue.
The weather agencies have predicted that the temperature will rise in Karnataka resulting in heatwaves and scarcity of rain in the state. The heatwave outlook from March to May, issued by the India Meteorological Department ( IMD) based on the Multi-Model Ensemble Forecasting System, says that the state will witness above-normal heatwaves for more days this season. Suffering from the scarcity of rain, the people of the Mandya district of Karnataka have been performing various rituals and special poojas to appease the rain god. Following an old ritual of worshipping the rain god, the residents of Maddur town in Mandya district purified an ancient statue of Iraraya ( rain god) by pouring 101 pots of water and offering a special pooja. There is a belief among the townpeople that if you worship the Iraraya statue with devotion and earnestness, rain is sure to come.

As per the procession, a man named Umesh carried the statue of the rain god and marched through the streets of Maddur. He visited the houses on the lane for the women to worship the statue through sandalwood sticks and lit aarti with camphor. It was followed by pouring a pot of water on the statue as Umesh bent on his knees. After performing puja in the village, Iraraya was dissolved in Maddurammas Lake. The prasad of the pooja was distributed among the residents of the town.

It is not the first time that such a ritual has taken place in Karnataka. To please the rain god, the residents of Karnataka are often spotted performing such rituals from time to time. Yaluvahalli village of Kolar district in Karnataka too believes in this procession. In the past when there was drought, when people offered prayers to the Iraraya statue, there were rains, says Munisomappa, a senior citizen of the village as quoted in Deccan Herald.
The two men arrested from West Bengals Digha in connection with Bengalurus Rameshwaram Cafe blast managed to evade arrest for 42 days by picking low-cost hideouts and not panicking despite a nation-wide alert for them, top Intelligence sources have told CNN-News18.

The men, identified as Mussavir Hussain Shazib and Abdul Matheen Taahaa, were arrested on Friday, with sources saying they opted for road travel, spent less time on their mobile phones and visited crowded tourist places while on the run  all in a bid to escape scrutiny.

The men were not in a state of panic or hurry. They very carefully maintained a low-cost lifestyle and stayed in hotels that charged just Rs 400-500 a night. Cryptocurrencies were used where their account was linked to the account of the handler and the ATM card was with the accused, the sources said.

So far, agencies have not worked out the full itinerary of the men but according to them, they travelled to Chennai, Odisha and West Bengal.

Nothing was planned after the blast. They decided everything on the spot and kept moving to avoid being apprehended. Their longest stay was at a Digha lodge which was a possible mistake. They used all identities, including of Maharashtra domicile, Jharkhand, Karnataka, and Tripura. They ensured different fake IDs for all hotels and lodges, including surnames like Patel, Dass and Agarwal according to the demography of the place, the sources added.

After the blast on March 1, the men left for Chennai and later entered West Bengal.

The interesting part is there was no desperation for money and the amount received was also not huge. They wanted things to settle down and were also on the lookout for the next target during these 42 days, the Intel sources said.

The arrests are a crucial breakthrough for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Intelligence agencies which had managed to crack the pattern that the accused were following while on the run.

Sources said after the attack, the accused stayed only in guesthouses and private lodges where verification was not forced. The first breakthrough came after agencies found the cap worn by one of the men. It was purchased from a Chennai store. Then, we started looking at their pattern of stay. In Chennai, too, they stayed in a lodge and were on the run after this. We followed all small towns and tourist town where lodges are not checked for identification. Finally, they were found in Digha.

Officials had earlier said that Shazib had placed the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at the cafe in Brookefield on March 1, which had a timer set for an hour, while Taahaa was the mastermind behind the planning and execution of the blast.

Ten people were injured in the blast at the popular eatery in the area. The cafe reopened on March 15 with heightened security measures. The NIA Special Court, Kolkata, where the two accused were produced after arrest, has granted three days transit remand to the agency.

The men are residents of Thirthahalli in Shivamogga district of Karnataka and are linked to the 2022 Mangaluru pressure cooker blast. They are close friends of Mohammad Shariq, who was involved in the Mangaluru blast. They may have been planning to make one big IED and carry out a major blast. Their handler is foreign-based, who is hiding and funding them, sources said.
Sydney Mall Stabbing: Six Dead, Toddler Among Several Injured; Knifeman Gunned Down

At least six people were killed when a man went on a stabbing spree in a busy shopping area in Australias Sydney. The attacker was shot dead by the police, according to Australian news agencies The Sydney Morning Herald and news.au.com. READ MORE

Air India Flights Avoid Iranian Airspace As Tensions Spiral In West Asia

Air India flights are avoiding Iranian airspace as a precautionary measure as tensions rise in West Asia following Iranian threat of reprisals for the alleged Israeli strike on Irans embassy in Syrian capital Damascus earlier this month. READ MORE

Low-Cost Hideouts, No Panic: How Bengaluru Cafe Blast Accused Evaded Arrest for 42 Days | Exclusive

The two men arrested from West Bengals Digha in connection with Bengalurus Rameshwaram Cafe blast managed to evade arrest for 42 days by picking low-cost hideouts and not panicking despite a nation-wide alert for them, top Intelligence sources have told CNN-News18. READ MORE

Iranian Revolutionary Guards Raid, Seize Vessel Headed Towards India Near Strait of Hormuz

Commandos from Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard raided a ship near the Strait of Hormuz by helicopter Saturday as tensions between Iran and Israel grew following the latters alleged strike on the formers consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus earlier this month. READ MORE

Witnesses Describe How Policewoman Took Down Sydney Knifeman, Video Shows Man With Bollard Fending Him Off

A brave cop and a brave shopper tackled the knifeman who stabbed five people to death and injured several people, including a nine-month-old baby, at Sydneys Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday. The female cop was the one who shot dead the knife-wielding man. READ MORE

When I Came to CSK Last Year: Ajinkya Rahane Reflects on How His Role Changed After Joining Chennai Super Kings

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Who is Payal Dhare, The Award-Winning Indian Gamer Who Met PM Modi?

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While returning from a wedding function in Uttar Pradeshs Greater Noida, a road crash led to the death of three members of a family, including a teenager, after an unidentified vehicle hit their motorcycle, the police said.

The man, who was riding the bike, and two of his sisters were declared dead in the hospital while the fourth pillion suffered serious injuries and is currently undergoing treatment.

According to officials, the occurred around 2.30 am at Pari Chowk, under the Beta 2 police station area.

Surendra Singh (28) along with his sister Shaili (26) and brother Anshu (14) and Anshus friend Simmi were returning to their homes in the Kulesara area from the wedding ceremony in Kasna, a police spokesperson said.

They were hit by an unknown vehicle near Pari Chowk roundabout and were taken for treatment to the nearest hospital, where Surendra, Shaili and Anshu were declared dead by the doctor while Simmi was undergoing treatment, the spokesperson said.

An FIR has been registered under Indian Penal Code sections 279 (rash or negligent driving), 338 (causing grievous hurt by negligence) and 304A (causing death by negligence) against an unknown accused.

The police said that the speeding car ran over the injured after hitting the motorcycle.

The Noida police are attempting to identify the driver and vehicle involved in the tragic incident to initiate further legal proceedings against the accused.

Gautam Buddh Nagar, which comprises Noida and Greater Noida cities, witnessed 1,176 road crashes in 2023 that resulted in the deaths of 470 people and injuries to 858 people.

The district had recorded 437 such deaths and injuries to 856 people in 2022, according to official data.

(With PTI Inputs)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reaffirmed Indias commitment to respond against any act of terrorism committed from across the borders on Friday, saying that there cannot be any rules in a countrys answer to terrorists.

While interacting with the youth at an event titled Why Bharat Matters: Opportunity For Youth and Participation In Global Scenario in Pune, he said that there is a change in the foreign policy of the nation since 2014 and the key change is the way terrorism is dealt with.

Giving the example of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Jaishankar said that if something like that happens now and the nation doesnt react then how are we going to prevent the next attack. He said that a nation cannot have any rules when responding to terrorists because they dont play by the rules either.

He further said that after the 26/11 attacks, the UPA government held various rounds of discussion only to come to the conclusion that the cost of attacking Pakistan is more than the cost of not attacking it.

Terrorists should not think; we are this side of the line, so no could touch us. Terrorists do not play by any rules. The answer to terrorists cannot have any rules, the External Affairs Minister said.

Asked about which are the countries that India finds difficult to maintain relationships with, Jaishankar pointed to Pakistan, which was in the neighbourhood and for that we are only responsible. He took note of the past history of terrorism acts perpetrated from across the border.

He said that in 1947 Pakistan sent tribal invaders into Kashmir and the Army countered them and the integration of the state took place. He said that the government at the time labelled those invaders as infiltrators and not terrorists, almost as if they were representing a legitimate force.

Narendra Modi came (to be Prime Minister) only in 2014, but this problem did not begin in 2014. It started in 1947, not even after the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 26/11. This started in 1947, the first people came from Pakistan in Kashmir and attacked Kashmir it was terrorism. They were blazing towns, cities. They were killing people. These were people from Pakistans northwest front the Pakistani army put them on the frontlines and asked them to totally disrupt Kashmir, saying we will come after you, S Jaishankar said.

What we did was we sent the army and the Kashmir integration took place. We stopped the army from doing its work. After that, we went to the UN, he said, adding that there is no mention of terrorism in Indias demands before the United Nations on the Kashmir dispute back then.

He noted that the demands rather read tribal invasion, like it was a legitimate force. In 1965, the Pakistan Army, before attacking, sent infiltrators We have to be very clear in our mindset. In no situation is terrorism acceptable, Jaishankar further said.

Earlier as well, the External Affairs Minister had said that the victims of terrorism do not sit together with perpetrators of terrorism.

Jaishankar came down heavily on Pakistans then-foreign minister (in 2023), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari over his weaponising terrorism remarks.

Victims of terrorism do not sit together with perpetrators of terrorism to discuss terrorism. Victims of terrorism defend themselves, counter acts of terrorism, they call it out, they legitimise it and that is exactly what is happening. To come here and preach these hypocritical words as though we are on the same boat, he had said.

(With inputs from agencies)
Bengaluru cafe blast accused Mussavir Hussain Shazib and Abdul Matheen Taahaa who were arrested in West Bengals Purba Medinipur district on April 12 spent more than 15 days in Kolkata hotels using fake identity documents, News18 has learnt.

The explosion took place on March 1 in the popular Rameshwaram Cafe during the busy lunch hour and left at least nine people injured. The case was handed over to the National Investigation Agency on March 3. Officials say Shazib planted the bomb while Taahaa is believed to be the mastermind. A court on Saturday gave the NIA ten-day custody of the two men after they were tracked down and caught in a hideout in West Bengals Purba Medinipur district.

The states opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is asking why West Bengal police were unaware of the two men staying in Kolkata for 15 days when lookout notices had already been issued for them.

News18 visited four hotels in Kolkata where the duo had stayed. Workers there said the men had claimed to be tourists.

The first hotel News18 went to in Ekbalpur was where Shazib and Taahaa checked in on March 21.

Workers said the photocopier there was down that day. The two men said they would themselves get copies of their ID cards made and give them to the hotel. But on the 22nd they left without paying or informing anyone.

Speaking to News18, hotel worker Zalilur Raheman said, I am now scared and cant even sleep at night. On March 21, they came here saying they were tourists. Our Xerox machine was not working. I told them to let me keep their cards. They said they would need them and that they would get copies made. The matter later slipped my mind. On the 22nd, they left without telling anyone. They did not pay. I am an old person but nothing like this has ever happened before. On the night of April 4, the police called us.

News18 next went to a second hotel in the neighbourhood where Shazib and Taahaa stayed for three days. Asgar Hossain, a worker there, said, They checked in here on March 25 and stayed in room number 203 for three days. They said that they were tourists. They gave ID cards and said one of them was from Maharashtra and the other from Karnataka. They left after three days. Then five days ago the police came along with NIA officers. We initially thought this was a cybercrime case. It came as a shock to us that they had committed such a serious offence.

The hotel owner said NIA officers also stayed there for a few days for investigation.

News18 then went to a third hotel in the city where Shazib and Taahaa spent some time but the staff refused to interact.

At a fourth hotel in central Kolkatas Esplanade area, the duo stayed on March 13. The workers here too told News18 that Shazib and Taahaa used fake IDs to check in.
Bengaluru cafe blast accused Mussavir Hussain Shazib and Abdul Matheen Taahaa who were arrested in West Bengals Purba Medinipur district on April 12 were absconding since 2020 when Islamic States Al Hind module came on the radar of Indian agencies and was later busted with 18 people apprehended in Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, top intelligence sources told CNN-News18 on Saturday.

The main person was Tamil Nadus Khwaja Moiuddin who was linked to Karnatakas Mehboob Pasha and Shazib and Taahaa were his associates, they said.

Moiuddin and his young associates Samat and Nasir wanted to go to Afghanistan and Pakistan for Hijrat (migration). They left but were arrested in Nepal.

These were small players in Al Hind but became big after going on the run, said the sources.

Earlier, a Kanyakumari police inspector was killed by youngsters from Moiuddins group and they were also given refuge by Shazib and Taahaa.

After absconding, Shazib and Taahaa got into touch with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba handlers who wanted to carry out blasts in other parts of India, said intelligence officials.

The operatives were surviving on the money provided by Lashkar mostly through the cryptocurrency route and they were living away from home for about four years, added the sources.

The blast in Bengalurus popular Rameshwaram Cafe on March 1 that injured nine people was carried out after the 2022 Mangaluru autorickshaw blast with the involvement of these operatives, they said.

They were also linked to a pro-terror graffiti case in Mangaluru in November 2020, said the sources.

In that case, Mohammed Shariq and Maaz Muneer Ahmed were directly involved and they were from Thirthahalli town in Karnatakas Shivamogga district.

After Shariqs module was busted, eight people were arrested. The other operatives including the planner then decided to enter the field because they were also experts in making improvised explosive devices (IEDs), said sources.

They added that material related to IEDs was also recovered from them, which shows they were planning to stir up trouble in other parts of the country.

During investigations it was found that they were using multiple fake accounts and money was coming through cryptocurrency.

They didnt want their handlers to ever disown them because their motive was against the establishment and due to regular intervention by security agencies it was difficult for them to survive, said sources. So, they added, to please their handlers they wanted to show regular work.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held discussions with top Indian gamers on various gaming industry issues on Thursday, just a week before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

This initiative, spearheaded by the 73-year-old Prime Minister, convened seven leading gamers at 7 Lok Kalyan Margthe official residence of the PM, adorned with neon lights that mirrored the ambiance of the present generation.

The discussion centred around recent developments in the gaming industry and the Modi governments acknowledgment of gamers creativity, bolstering the gaming sector in India. Additionally, the talks focused on differentiating between gambling and gaming, as well as addressing the involvement of women in the gaming community

The attendees included renowned gamers such as Payal Dhare, Tirth Mehta, Animesh Agarwal, Anshu Bisht, Naman Mathur, Mithilesh Patankar, and Ganesh Gangadhar.

Payal Dhare, a popular female gamer in India, shared a photo with PM Modi from the meeting on her Instagram account.

She wrote, Honored to have met Honorable Prime Minister Shree Narendra Modi to discuss the future of gaming in India! Feeling blessed to be part of S8ul and grateful for this incredible opportunity. His charismatic personality and determination to do something for the nation is par excellence. Lets continue to shape the gaming landscape together!.

Who is Payal Dhare?

Payal Dhare, professionally known as Payal Gaming, stands out as one of Indias leading female game creators and personalities within the Indian Gaming Community (IGC). She serves as a content creator and streamer for S8UL Esports, an organisation housing numerous content creators and streamers. While primarily streaming the popular Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) title, she has also diversified her content by streaming various other games recently.

Payal was raised in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, where traditional beliefs discouraged girls from playing video games. Despite these societal norms, she refused to let stereotypes hinder her love for gaming. While my mother initially had reservations, my father constantly backed my pursuit of making a mark in the gaming world, she shared with HELLO! magazine in an interview in March.

According to AFK Gaming, Payal has been making waves since 2021, bagging multiple content creator and streamer awards at prestigious events like the Indian Gaming Awards, Creators United, and more. In 2023, she clinched the Dynamite Gaming Creator of the Year award at the Creators United Awards, followed by the Best Female Gamer award at the InfluenceEX Awards.

Additionally, she was named Fan Favorite Female Streamer of the Year at the India Gaming Awards Season 2 held on October 17, 2023. Continuing her winning streak, Payal secured the Gaming Creator of the Year Female award at the Creators Unit 2.0 Awards on March 15, 2024, marking her presence at one of Asias largest creator festivals.

Currently, Payals YouTube channel, named Payal Gaming, has amassed a whopping 3.7 million subscribers. As per Social Blade, her estimated earnings for this channel range from $3.4K to $54K USD per month, or $40.5K to $648.6K USD annually. In addition to her main channel, Dhare also runs a separate YouTube Shorts channel called Payal Shorts, which has over 600K subscribers.

According to her Instagram bio, Payal is the owner of a thrift store called thriftxpayal. She boasts over 3 million followers on the social media platform.

Speaking to news agency PTI about her meeting with Prime Minister Modi, the father of the gaming video creator, Shivshankar Dhare, expressed his pride, stating, I am very proud. When PM Modi called her to meet, I felt extremely happy. Sitting with the Prime Minister of our country, and playing games with him is unbelievable. Everyone who meets me now says that Payal has made the village and the district proud.
Bollywood actress Kiara Advani needs no introduction when it comes to fashion. The Shershaah actress enjoys a massive fan following on social media, all thanks to her acting skills and sartorial wardrobe choice. From stunning bodycon dresses to traditional outfits, Kiara can effortlessly ace any look of hers. Once again, the actress has captured the audience with her gorgeous look in a custom sleeveless midi dress, which she recently wore in an ad commercial.

The Satyaprem Ki Katha actress looked straight out of heaven as she wore an orange sleeveless midi dress with a sweetheart neckline and pleated skirt detailing. She chose the outfit from the house of fashion designer Surya Sarkar. Her outfit featured flower and leafy patterns all over with applique details in shades of pink, red and green.

For the makeup, Kiara kept it minimal with dewy cheeks, shimmery lids and glossy lips. Kiara accessorised her look with a pair of butterfly-shaped earrings, a delicate bangle and a floral hairband.

As for the hairstyle, Kiara tied her tresses into a braided ponytail. The actress exuded grace and elegance, embodying summer vibes, in her recent outfit.

Kiara is known for setting up fashion benchmarks and her wardrobe choices are always top-notch. She is the epitome of fashion and glitz and wins over netizens hearts with her beauty both on and off-screen.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by S U R Y A S A R K A R (@surya___sarkar)

Recently, the actress looked drop-dead-gorgeous in a blue strapless cut-out gown with a thigh-high slit, which dramatically added the oomph factor. She wore it at an award function in Mumbai. On the makeup side, Kiara chose to have dewy-matte-cheeks, winged eyeliner, mascara-laden lashes, gloss on the lips and pink eyeshadow, which beautifully complemented her look.

She tied her hair into a sleek bun and accessorised her look with diamond stud earrings. Also, earlier at the pre-wedding festivities of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant, the actress slipped into a designer off-shoulder all-black strapless column gown with a structured neckline. Her outfit had a lacy floral embellishment on one side of the gown. She tied her hair into a sleek bun and accessorised her look with statement earrings.
Elevating the sacred heritage, culture, spirituality and crafts of Kashi, renowned couturier Manish Malhotra is all set to weave magic through an opulent fashion showcase in Varanasi on April 14th.

Working with artisans and celebrating Indian crafts in his collections and presenting them for the world to witness, Manish and his creations will highlight the intricate handicrafts and handlooms of Banaras against the picturesque backdrop of the Namo Ghat.

Expressing his thoughts on celebrating the heritage of Kashi, Manish posted an insightful video exploring the world of Varanasi and his vision for the show.The video was supported by a heartfelt caption he wrote: Kashi is a city where Indian tradition and modernity are beautifully woven together. Kashi is known for its culture, spirituality and its world famous for Banarasi handicrafts. This handicraft has been taken to new heights by Honble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modis Vocal for Local, Local for Global policy in the last 10 years.

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Inspired by the timeless elegance of Banarasi weaves, Manish Malhotra will be bringing the myriad shades of the craft in his latest collection. Manish Malhotra who is one of Bollywoods most loved couturiers, will also have two special celebrity stars walking in the show for him. Through Indias heritage, I am going to bring together Modern Fashion and Tradition to showcase this historic heritage of Kashi with Ranveer Singh and Kriti Sanon. We want to bring this handcraft of Kashi to every corner of the world with our efforts. Get ready to see this art of Banaras and be mesmerised, shared Manish Malhotra, on Instagram.

Ranveer Singh, who has walked for Manish Malhotra in the designers past shows, also took to Instagram to give a sneak peek into what to expect from the one-of-a-kind showcase in Varanasi. Looking forward to celebrating Indian culture and tradition in the vibrant city of Kashi, shared Ranveer Singh on his Instagram story.

The Manish Malhotra fashion show, which is part of the two-day event (April 1314) organised by the Indian Minorities Foundation, to promote handicrafts and handlooms of Varanasi, will be hosted on the Namo Ghat.

We cant wait to see the vibrancy of Ranveer Singh, the charisma of Kriti Sanon and the magic of Manish Malhotra come alive in Indias heritage  Kashi.
If you or someone you know has recently been diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease, let fear not paralyse you and your dear ones. A new research study has shown that Yoga can help cope with the condition in the long term.

The diagnosis of Parkinsons Disease usually comes as a major blow for anyone. One of the most rapidly growing neuro-degenerative conditions, it has both motor and non-motor manifestations. Conventional treatments  dopamine replacement and deep-brain stimulation  are effective in the early stages but as it progresses, the disease develops resistance to these. Hence, the course of the disease remains unaltered. Regular exercise can help to slow its progression, but patients have limited ability to engage in intense activity.

It is here that Yoga therapy holds significant promise. Yogas mild stretches are suitable for patients of Parkinsons Disease (PD) and several studies have shown it to be a useful ally alongside conventional treatment, with positive effects on motor coordination, balancing, mobility, anxiety, depression, and overall quality of life.

So far, however, this evidence was of short-term nature. Would Yoga really be of help in the long term also? To see Yogas effectiveness for PD in the long term was the purpose of a recent research study.

Whats the New Research?

A longitudinal, randomised controlled clinical trial (RCT) was conducted at Anvesana, a centre for advanced research in Integrative Medicine at SVYASA University, Bengaluru. The 18-month study concluded in March this year has found evidence that sustained Yoga practice aids in slowing disease progression in early Parkinsons Disease.

We saw improvement in all aspects of the disease over the period of the study. This demonstrates the need and desirability of Yoga intervention in early Parkinsons Disease, says Parameshwar Some, author of the study, who has over 15 years experience in administering Yoga therapy to patients with neurological disorders.

Given the long-standing nature of Parkinsons Disease, the implications of this study provide a large measure of hope and cheer for PD patients and their families. Usually, patients get better within 2-3 weeks of therapy: tremors almost disappear, they are able to walk and write, facial rigidity improves, and many other forms of relief are seen. But once they go back home, they discontinue the practices and lapse back into their original state. So, the issue is adherence to the protocol. We devised this trial in a way that patients could benefit even after they returned home, explains Some.

The study used a mixed contact and home-based approach to deliver Yoga intervention. A total of 160 patients were divided into groups  an adjunct Yoga group and a standard of care group. The Yoga group received 21 daily-contact Yoga sessions of 60 minutes, 3-5 days a week at the centre. This was followed by home-based sessions under supervision in tele-mode via online sessions (40 sessions), and then at-home self-practice (180 sessions). The other group remained on conventional drug-based treatment. There was follow-up at regular intervals.

After 72 weeks, both groups were compared. The group taking only conventional treatment showed almost no improvement. In the Yoga group, the two-third patients who completed the trial found they were able to manage the disease and had improvement in their sleep, psychological and quality-of-life issues. (See table)

This is good news, as we now know that if yoga-based interventions could be provided in home settings, we can manage symptoms in PD in the long term, says Some.

Symptoms Tally Over the Trial Period  Some Illustrative Examples

(Higher scores indicate poorer wellbeing)

*Names have been changed to protect privacy of participants

**Cumulative Scores, after assigning 0, 1, 2, 3 to each symptom; where 0 means `no symptoms, 1 is `mild, 2 is `moderate, 3 is `severe

Symptoms Set 1: Includes Speech, Tremors, Facial expressions, Rigidity, Hand movement, Legs agility, Posture, Gait, Postural stability, Body bradykinesia and Hypokinesia

Symptoms Set 2: Intellectual impairment, Thought disorder, Depression, Motivation

Symptoms Set 3: Speech, Salivation, Swallowing, Handwriting, Kitchen work, Dressing, Hygiene, Falling, Freezing when walking, Sensory complaints

Symptoms Set 4: Feelings of fear, lack of support, being ignored, embarrassment, worry, lack of confidence; poor memory, concentration; spasms and pain, heat and cold; distressing dreams

Yoga Therapy Regimen for Parkinsons Disease

The stretching and extended physical poses make limbs and joints flexible, reduce rigidity, and increase muscle strength. Yoga also improves oxidative stress and promotes neuroplasticity in depression. Quality of life gets better, and sleep and anxiety crises lessen.

The one-hour sessions included preparatory loosening exercises (5 min) followed by postures (30 min), relaxation (2 min), breathing practices (12 min) and meditation (5 min).

Poses included:

 Ardha Uttanasana (Standing half-forward-bend pose)

 Parsva Uttanasana (Forward-bend pose)

 Utkatasana (Chair pose)

 Urdhva Prasarita Padasana (Upward extended feet pose)

 Pascimattanasana (Seated forward bend)

 Virabhadrasana (Warrior pose)

 Prasarit Pada Uttanasana (Intense Leg Stretch Pose)

 Vrikshasana (Tree pose)

 Setubandhasana (Bridge pose)

 Jatara Parivritti (Knee bend)

 Apanasana (Knee-to-chest pose)

 Utthita Trikonasana (Extended triangle pose)

 Utthita Parsva Konasana (Extended side-angle pose)

Breathing Exercises included:

 Kapalabhati

 Sectional Breathing

 Bhramari

 Nadanusandhana

 Guided meditation

Yoga can effectively manage symptoms, is cost-effective and has few side effects. If PD patients can remain active in daily and recreational activities, time and effort spent in daily Yoga practice is worth its while.

(Please note: This article is meant for educational purpose only. Before attempting Yoga, get a go-ahead from your physician/medical care provider, especially persons with recent surgical interventions, arthritis, and cardiovascular or musculoskeletal disease. Do not try any of the exercises without first learning from an experienced Yoga teacher, preferably at a Yoga Therapy school.)

This is the first of a two-part series on Yoga for the Long-term in Parkinsons Disease. Watch out for the next part on details and description of the Yoga practices next week.

The author is a journalist, cancer survivor and certified yoga teacher. She can be reached at swatikamal@gmail.com.
On September 11, 2023, the shooting for the highly-anticipated political thriller Ulajh,: featuring Janhvi Kapoor, Gulshan Devaiah, and Roshan Mathew, came to a close, under the adept direction of Sudhanshu Saria. In this cinematic endeavor, Janhvi Kapoor embodies the role of an IFS (Indian Foreign Service) officer, embarking on a perilous journey as she finds herself entangled in a dire conspiracy far from her homeland, despite hailing from a lineage of esteemed patriots. Recent months have sparked widespread speculation regarding the films release date within the industry circles.

Pinkvilla confirmed that the makers of Ulajh, under the banner of Junglee Pictures, are eyeing a release date of July 5, 2024. An insider closely associated with the films production shared, With the post-production work nearing its completion, the team of Junglee Pictures are targeting to bring their political thriller on July 5, 2024 and an official announcement is around the corner. The enthusiasm within the team is palpable, as theyre eager to introduce a novel genre to the Indian cinema audience.

Ulajhs stellar cast also includes Gulshan Devaiah, Rajesh Tailang, Meiyang Chang, Adil Hussain, Rajendra Gupta, and Jitendra Joshi in key roles. Reflecting on her experience with the film, Janhvi Kapoor shared, I have learned so much through this experience, I wake up every day and feel so inspired seeing each one involved in the film, giving their heart and soul to everything. It was amazing to see how passionate everyone was, how high the energies were, and how fun everything was.

Previously, Janhvi expressed, When I was approached with the script of Ulajh, it instantly attracted me because as an actor, I am constantly looking for scripts that make me break out of my comfort zone and portraying a character based in the celebrated world of the Indian Foreign Services was just that. Just as the name of the film suggests, my character and the story, have so many layers, emotions, and parameters, which are challenging and exciting at the same time. I am thrilled for the audience to see me in this new role envisioned by Sudhanshu, who has such a fresh approach towards dealing with this genre. I am also looking forward to working with such talented co-actors and a development studio like Junglee Pictures for the first time.

In addition to Ulajh, Janhvi Kapoor is set to grace the silver screen in another project titled Mr & Mrs Maahi, directed by Sharan Sharma, with its release date to be declared soon.
Popular Marathi serial Pirticha Vanva Uri Petla completed 400 episodes on April 12. The actors and crew members of the serial celebrated this milestone by cutting cake on the sets followed by live interaction with their fans through social media. Actress Rasika Wakharkar and actor Indraneil Kamat play the lead roles in the serial. Rasika Wakharkar who gained fame through her character in the Tejaswini Pandit production horror series Athang has now become a household name due to her character of Saavi in the Pirticha Vanva Uri Petla serial. The photos and videos of their 400-episode completion celebration have now gone viral.

In the latest viral photos, the actors and crew members of the serial Pirticha Vanva Uri Petla were seen cutting a cake on which Pirticha Vanva Uri Petla Completed 400 Episodes was written. The lead actors cut the cake while the other members joined them in their celebration. In the video, the Pirticha Vanva Uri Petla artists congratulated their colleagues and cheered for the success of the serial. Pirticha Vanva Uri Petla revolves around the brewing love story between Rasika Wakharkar and Indraneil Kamat. Originally planned to con the wealthy family of Kavthekars, Saavi ( Rasika Wakharkar) decided to marry their son Arjun ( (Indraneil Kamath). However, things take an unexpected turn when Saavi falls in love with Indrajeet. This produces a dilemma for the actress to either trick his loving partner or stay with him. Take a look at the photos and videos,

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dattsangram Dilip Wasamkar (@sang_insta_gram)

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The fans of the actress and the serial were quick to flock towards the comment section to congratulate the couple for the achievement. Actress Shivani Sonar too congratulated the team of Pirticha Vanva Uri Petla for achieving this milestone.

Before her popular role in the ongoing serial Pirticha Vanva Uri Petla, the actress worked in movies like Makeup and Django JD. She played brief roles in the movie. Her head-shaving scene in the horror series Athang garnered headlines after the release of the series.
Priyanka Chopra is among the biggest stars in Bollywood. After conquering the Hindi film industry with her spectacular performances, the actress has also impressed the West through shows like Quantico and Citadel. Priyanka enjoys a massive fan following globally. Although she won hearts internationally, did you know that the actress didnt start her career in Bollywood? After bagging the Miss World Pageant in 2000, she made her acting debut with Tamil film Thamizhan in 2002. Now, the Dostana actress has shared a picture on her Instagram story, celebrating 22 years of the flick.

Priyanka Chopra uploaded the unseen picture on Instagram story as her debut film, Thamizhan, completed 22 years of its release. In the throwback picture shared by the actress, she could be seen sharing the stage with Thalapathy Vijay, composer D. Imman and others. Along with the picture, she wrote, 22 years of Thamizan.

Thamizhan was a Tamil courtroom drama directed by Majith. The film starred Thalapathy Vijay and Priyanka Chopra as the leads. Apart from them, the film also featured Nassar, Revathi, Vivek and Ashish Vidyarthi in important roles. The movie received a mixed response from the audience and the critics.

Earlier, in an interview with Vanity Fair, Priyanka talked about her debut and the struggles she faced while filming Thamizhan. She said, I remember Thamizhan, which was really difficult for me as I did not know Tamil as a language. I was learning it phonetically, memorising it, understanding the meaning behind it, and then saying my lines.

Despite the struggles, the actress was all praise for Thalapathy Vijay. Priyanka revealed that she loved watching the South superstar on the set and was among the first few people who had an influence on her life. She also admired his humility and appreciated his hard work.

After Thamizham, Priyanka Chopra made her Bollywood debut in 2003 with Anil Sharmas The Hero: Love Story of a Spy, opposite Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta.

Currently, Priyanka Chopra is shooting for her upcoming Hollywood film, Head of Stone, in France. The film stars John Cena and Idris Elba in the lead roles. After Head of Stone, the Quantico actress will also be seen in The Bluff, which is directed by Frank E. Flowers.
Ram Charan has reached another significant milestone in his illustrious career. He is set to be honored with an honorary doctorate from the esteemed University of Vels, located in Chennai. Reports indicate that Charan will serve as the chief guest at the universitys upcoming graduation ceremony, scheduled to take place at Wales University today on April 13. To attend the same, Ram Charan flew down to Chennai and was papped in the process.

In a bunch of pictures that were shared by the popular paparazzo handle Instant Bollywood on Saturday, Ram Charan can be seen exiting the airport premises. He wore a light blue shirt, black trousers, black cap and black sunglasses. The actor was welcomed with a flower bouquet before entering his car and leaving the scene. The photos went viral on social media in no time.

At the event, Ram Charan will officially receive the honorary doctorate. This accolade follows his international success for his performance in RRR, further cementing his reputation as a Global Star.

This distinguished honor places Charan among notable personalities such as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and renowned director Shankar, who have also been honored by the university in the past. This years honorees alongside Charan include Dr. P Veeramuthuvel, Project Coordinator at Chandrayaan, ISRO, among other distinguished individuals.

Ram Charans imminent honor has ignited excitement among his fans, who are joyfully celebrating this significant recognition.

On the professional front, Charan is deeply involved in his next venture, Game Changer, under the direction of celebrated filmmaker Shankar. This project is highly anticipated in the Telugu and Kollywood cinema circles. Game Changer, which is being produced by Dil Raju under the Sri Venkateswara Creations banner, features Bollywood actress Kiara Advani as the leading lady opposite Charan. The film also boasts a stellar cast including Anjali, SJ Surya, Samudrakhani, Jayaram, Sunil, and Bollywood actor Harry Josh. With the film nearing completion, it is expected to be released around Dussehra, aiming to mesmerize audiences with its engaging storyline and exceptional performances.
Fans eagerly waiting for the third season of Bigg Boss OTT might have to wait longer. Reports suggest that the digital version of the show wont return this year due to concerns about oversaturation. Despite rumours of a May 15 release, sources indicate otherwise. The makers are considering skipping this years season to avoid viewer fatigue, as per a report by The Indian Express. However, no official confirmation has been given by Banijay Asia, Colors TV or Jio Cinema, regarding the same.

Bigg Boss has been a household name since its TV debut in 2006, with Salman Khan as its host since 2010. In 2021, the show expanded to digital platforms with Bigg Boss OTT, hosted by Karan Johar, where actor Divya Agarwal emerged as the winner. Salman returned to host the second season, which crowned YouTuber Elvish Yadav as the winner. Both seasons were streamed round-the-clock, in addition to daily one-hour episodes on Voot for Season 1 and Jio Cinema for Season 2.

Bigg Boss OTT 2 made stars out of many contestants like Pooja Bhatt, Jiya Shankar, Manisha Rani, Elvish Yadav, and Abhishek Malhan. The third season was rumoured to feature names like Sheezan Khan, Arhaan Behll, Shehzada Dhami, Pratiksha Honmukhe, Dalljiet Kaur, Maxtern, Sriram Chandra, and Dhanashree Verma.

There were reports that Vicky Jain was approached for the third season of Bigg Boss OTT. As reported by E-Times, the makers of Bigg Boss OTT had approached Ankita Lokhandes husband for the third season of the controversial reality show. Reportedly, while Ankita was not asked for the show, her husband had considered the offer.

Last year, Elvish Yadav won Bigg Boss OTT 2, beating contestants like Abhishek Malhan, Pooja Bhatt, Manisha Rani and Bebika Dhurve. He entered as a wild card contestant and became one of the top contenders for the trophy. Elvish also became the first wildcard contestant in the history of the show to take the trophy home.
Ladakh, today, finds itself at a critical juncture, grappling with the competing imperatives of development, identity preservation, and constitutional rights. A critical analysis of the situation shows that the approach needs to be less confrontational and more empathetic. Lets first try to understand what is going on in the Indian state nestled amidst the towering peaks of the Himalayas.

Activist Sonam Wangchuk has decided to call off his proposed border march to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Chungathung border area. The move came in response to the Ladakh administrations imposition of restrictions under Section 144 and the implementation of internet curbs in the region, effectively quashing the planned demonstration.

Wangchuks intended march was not merely symbolic; it aimed to spotlight the encroachments made by China along the border since 2020, a matter of grave concern for the Ladakhi populace. His activism, rooted in the pursuit of statehood and the implementation of the Sixth Schedule for the Ladakh Union Territory, reflects a broader sentiment among local communities clamouring for constitutional safeguards to protect their land, culture, and environment.

Central to the demands articulated by Wangchuk and allied groups is the inclusion of Ladakh in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. This constitutional provision, traditionally applied to tribal areas in states like Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram, affords local communities a substantial say in the governance and administration of their territories, a principle fervently advocated for by Ladakhi activists.

Wangchuks assertion is that Ladakh is being treated akin to a colony, with external bureaucrats dictating policies governing the ecologically sensitive region. The failure of the government to honour commitments made in previous engagements, as alleged by Wangchuk, underscores the disillusionment prevailing among Ladakhis regarding the efficacy of official assurances and the urgent need for substantive action to address their grievances.

In essence, the impasse between the Ladakh administration and activist groups like those led by Sonam Wangchuk epitomises the broader struggle for self-determination and environmental stewardship in the region. As aspirations for autonomy and environmental preservation collide with the imperatives of state control and geopolitical exigencies, Ladakh finds itself in a paradoxical situation.

The demand for Ladakh to become a separate Union Territory, therefore, seemed to be rooted in legitimate grievances and aspirations of the people of the region and transitioning to a Union Territory status was seen as a means to achieve this goal, allowing Ladakhis to have more control over their own affairs and development.

However, while the creation of Ladakh as a Union Territory addressed some of these concerns, it also brought about unforeseen challenges. One significant issue was the loss of certain safeguards that Ladakh enjoyed as part of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir. For example, preferences in government jobs and educational opportunities for state residents are no longer applicable, leaving Ladakhis at a disadvantage in competing for these opportunities. This change disproportionately affected the local population, who had relied on these provisions for socio-economic advancement.

Furthermore, the establishment of Ladakh as a Union Territory also impacted the functioning of the hill development councils, which were originally set up to empower local communities and address their specific needs. The UT status potentially diluted the independence and authority of these councils, leading to concerns about the effective implementation of development projects and the preservation of local interests.

In essence, while the demand for Ladakh to become a separate Union Territory seemed justified at a conceptual level, its implementation brought about unintended consequences and challenges for the people of Ladakh. It also highlighted the complexity of governance reforms and the importance of balancing autonomy with safeguards to protect the interests of all stakeholders.

While the grievances expressed by Ladakhis regarding their rights and autonomy are significant, it is imperative to subject them to further scrutiny and analysis to ascertain their validity in demanding additional legislative safeguards as well. Despite claims of external control over policies and resources, a closer examination reveals that there are no existing mines or forests in the Union Territory of Ladakh that are being exploited or leased to outsiders or locals. Moreover, the limited presence of mineral resources, primarily minor minerals, is predominantly utilised by locals for essential development projects such as roads and buildings.

Furthermore, there has been a substantial increase in allocations to the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils (LAHDC), with area development funds for councillors experiencing a noteworthy rise from a modest Rs 20 lakh per councillor to a commendable Rs 1.5 crore. These developments underscore the necessity for a comprehensive assessment to discern the true extent of grievances and the efficacy of existing legislative mechanisms in addressing them, thereby informing any potential need for further safeguards to protect the interests and aspirations of the Ladakhi populace.

The issue might seem paradoxical but the Indian government does not have time to reflect upon it for too long. Given Sonam Wangchuks popularity in Ladakh, his proposed march to the LAC was not welcome news for India. While the situation has been temporarily averted by imposing restrictions, it serves as a wake-up call for the government to address the underlying grievances effectively. Even though the government did take some prompt measures, clearly, we are still far away from an absolute solution.

The Government of India established the High Powered Committee on January 2, 2023, with the aim of addressing the pressing demands put forth by the Apex Body of Ladakh (ABL) and Kargil Democratic Association (KDA). Despite initial delays, marked by several months passing before ABL/KDA actively engaged in discussions, the committee convened its inaugural meeting on December 4, 2023. The Terms of Reference for the High Powered Committee encapsulated the core issues fueling recent agitation, ranging from safeguarding Ladakhs distinct cultural heritage and language to ensuring land protection and employment opportunities for its people.

Additionally, the committee was tasked with exploring avenues for inclusive development, empowering the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Councils of Leh and Kargil, and examining potential constitutional safeguards to underpin the proposed measures. The Government of Indias unequivocal commitment to furnishing constitutional protections for the Union Territory of Ladakh was formally announced on March 4, 2024, signalling a pivotal step forward. This commitment was reinforced by ongoing consultations, including discussions on a draft framework for these safeguards during a sub-committee meeting on the same date, with representation from ABL, KDA, and officials from the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Amid escalating tensions, its crucial for the Indian government to also vigilantly observe Chinas strategic actions in the region and adapt accordingly. China has already activated a new runway at Hotan, its closest airbase to Ladakh. The voices of Ladakhs residents must be acknowledged, as ignoring their grievances could result in severe repercussions for both the local area and the broader national interests. Its vital to avoid a confrontational stance that might be manipulated by neighbouring adversaries. Immediate dialogue with Sonam Wangchuk and his associates is imperative to mitigate the situations escalation. Domestic developmental concerns can be managed internally, without granting any advantage to Indias adversaries.

India has a long history of tensions and territorial disputes with China, particularly concerning Ladakh. The border conflict between the two nations dates back to the 1962 Sino-Indian War. Subsequent skirmishes and standoffs along the Line of Actual Control have further strained relations between the two countries, with Ladakh often serving as a flashpoint for territorial disputes.

Chinas potential exploitation of issues in Ladakh against Indian interests is a genuine concern. Given the strategic importance of the region, any unrest or dissatisfaction among the local populace can be leveraged by China to undermine Indias territorial integrity and security. By engaging in dialogue and addressing grievances promptly, India can mitigate the risk of external interference and safeguard its interests in the region.

The writer takes special interest in history, culture and geopolitics. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
There are numerous reports of anxiety and apprehension in some parts of the world about the possibility of the return of Donald Trump to the White House post 2024 presidential election in the United States. Many countries fear that the world order under the Trump 2.0 is going to drastically change and preparations should begin to confront the coming challenges before it is too late. Is the world order going to be radically different, if Donald Trump becomes the 47th President of the United States?

Most of such apprehensions come from the trans-Atlantic allies of the United States. During his presidency, Donald Trumps language and tone regarding the relevance and viability of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation were harsh and unsettling. But the main message from the Trump White House for the alliance partners was to follow the norm of defence burden sharing and make contributions of 2 per cent of their respective GDP for collective defence. Trumps communication was downright clear; it had an effect on the members and today about two-thirds of NATO members spend 2 per cent of their GDP for defence.

Donald Trump during his current campaign for the presidential position has yet again sought to frighten the NATO members who are yet to comply with the requirement by saying that he would allow Russia to do anything it wants with such NATO members. This statement has sparked anger, fear and disenchantment in Europe because of its timing. First, Trumps remark was made amidst Russias continuing war in Ukraine. Second, Trump is against spending billions of dollars to back Ukraine defend itself against Russia. Third, it is largely because of him that the US Congress has not yet been able to authorise more than $60 billion of additional aid to Ukraine. Fourth, he has bragged that he would end the war in one day if he is elected. This has created a perception that he may allow Russia to annex the areas it has occupied in Ukraine as part of the deal to end the war.

However, Trump has clarified that he will not withdraw from NATO. There are talks about defence capability building in Europe and Trumps statements have energised the countries that have for long supported a militarily stronger Europe. Trump 2.0 administration would certainly accept the idea of a stronger Europe, which will actually be effective defence burden sharing. Thus not much change in trans-Atlantic ties is likely to an extent that would affect the global strategic order.

It is important to note that it was Donald Trump who sought to shape the Indo-Pacific order by issuing a strategy report in 2017; reviving the dormant Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, adopting a tougher stance on the unfair trade practices of China and engaging in a tariff war with Beijing and further strengthening defence and security partnership with India for maintaining peace, stability and freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific.

Significantly, his successor President Joe Biden did not alter Trumps strategic initiatives in the Indo-Pacific and rather built upon them by elevating Quad to summit-level meetings and operationalising it with working groups, by launching the AUKUS defence pact with the United Kingdom and Australia, which may be expanded to include Japan in the near future and standing behind Taiwan and the Philippines in the face of Chinese aggressive postures and grey zone offensive moves.

As far as the hydrocarbon resource-rich West Asia is concerned, Donald Trump during his presidency successfully engineered the Abraham Accord as a positive step towards promoting peace in the region and enhancing Arab-Israeli constructive interactions. Under American inspiration and encouragement, the UAE and Bahrain signed agreements with Israel. Trump was dead against the nuclear deal with Iran, but Biden has not been able to do much to revive the deal and Washingtons relationship with Iran is anything but friendly.

Both Trump and Biden are pro-Israel and no matter who wins the election, US-Israel strategic cooperation will endure. While Trump is credited with signing of the Abraham Accord, Biden encouraged a new quadrilateral cooperation mechanism consisting of India, Israel, UAE and the US (I2U2). Biden did not oppose the Abraham Accord and Trump 2.0 is unlikely to dispute I2U2. Thus no discernible transformation in the broader strategic order in West Asia is likely to come about post 2024 US election.

The world has lived with Trump Administration 1.0. The transition period after Trumps victory in the 2016 presidential election was a little chaotic. None expected a business tycoon and a political outsider like Trump to win the election. The Trump team was not ready with any blueprint for the administration to lead the global affairs. But the Trump 2.0 administration, if it comes about, will not be as muddled. Think tanks and several advisors and experts supporting Trump are quietly working on projects, schemes and missions to make the transition orderly and peaceful.

What worries and confuses the international community is the artless language and raw rhetoric used by Donald Trump during the campaigns. His statements can hurt or bring delight, embolden the adversarial nations and frighten friendly countries, but a little dissection and reading between the lines make it clear that Trump will do whatever he thinks to be good for America and, of course, for his party.

The world order takes decades to form and no single country can shape it in full. Trump has to respond to events abroad and the actions of other powerful and influential countries. And the international community likewise will have to respond to the Trumpian approach to global affairs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government has had deep experience in dealing with President Trump. If the current trend continues in Indian politics, the NDA under the leadership of Modi will form the next government after the national elections. There is little to be concerned about the Trump 2.0 administration in the US.

There will be certain bilateral differences over trade and investment issues between India and the US. The strategic convergences between India and the US will be durable and effective. India will remain a strong partner of the US in shaping events in the Indo-Pacific and West Asia that will contribute to global peace and stability. What India needs to cogitate upon is the ways and means of coordinating with the US to work on the existing mechanisms, such as QUAD in the Indo-Pacific, I2U2 in West Asia; Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. Trump 2.0 administration will most likely try to modify a bit to suit its vision and mission and India has to remain prepared in advance.

No great changes are thus likely to take place in the global order. There will be no Trump 3.0 administration ever. Hence Donald Trump will most likely seek to leave his positive imprints in the history of global affairs that will be long-lasting.

The writer is founder chairperson, Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies, and formerly Professor at JNU. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh on Saturday claimed that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is currently imprisoned at Tihar Jail has been denied permission to meet his family, including his wife Sunita, in person.

Calling the move inhumane, Singh said that the AAP supremo is not being allowed to meet his family at mulakat jangla and can only see his wife through a window.

There is an attempt to break the morale of CM Kejriwal. His family has not been allowed in-person meetings with him. They are only allowed to meet him through the jangla. This is inhuman. Even hardcore criminals are allowed in-person meetings, the AAP leader said.

For the unversed, the mulakat jangla is an iron mesh which separates the inmate from the visitor in a room inside the jail. A visitor and an inmate can talk to each other by sitting on different sides of the mesh.

While there was no immediate reaction from the Tihar administration on Sanjay Singhs claim, the chief minister was allowed to meet his wife Sunita Kejriwal and personal secretary Bibhav Kumar inside the prison on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the jail authorities scheduled Kejriwals meeting with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann for April 15, saying that he could meet the AAP convener, but as a normal visitor in the mulakat jangla.

Earlier, Singh claimed that an inquiry had been launched into Kejriwal for sending messages to his MLAs through his lawyers from Tihar jail and that a threat was issued to stop his meetings.

The Modi government is punishing Kejriwal for providing free amenities to Delhiites, including education, health, electricity and water. They want to turn Tihar into Hitlers gas chamber, where CM cannot even send a message for public service, Singh was quoted as saying in an Aam Aadmi Party statement.

Since his arrest on March 21, he has sent messages to his party leaders and directions to Delhi ministers through his wife and lawyers.

Eight-nine policemen stay around Kejriwal during his meetings with his lawyers in jail. This is against the rules as inmates are allowed to speak to their lawyers privately, Singh said.

(With PTI inputs)
In a rare and selfless gesture by a stranger, a woman came forward and donated her kidney to a needy patient with stage 4 renal cancer. At a time when people have become busy with their lives, with very little time to think about their loved ones, this story comes as a heartwarming tale to listen to and makes us believe in humanity. A recent Facebook post shows the womans kind gesture, which left the patients family grateful. Hailing from Kentucky, Chase Cooper, a father of two, was diagnosed with Stage four cancer last year, and his name was put on a kidney transplant list.

His wife, Kaila Cooper, said, We were told prior to him starting this that typically, people wait two to five years before they receive an organ."

This is when she took things into her own hands and shared a Facebook post asking for help. However, to their surprise, a stranger actually contacted them and offered her help by donating her kidney. She further shared how Hanna Durbin, a complete stranger to the Coopers, approached them and also began the process to see if she was a match.

She was the real deal. The stars align well, more than the stars aligning. The good Lord had us covered," Kaila told the outlet.

While the original transplant date was set for December, the family found that Durbin and Chase were no longer compatible for a kidney transplant, leaving them devastated. As they started looking for another donor, it was again in January 2024 that the doctors told them that Durbin was once again" a direct living donor for Chase Cooper.

Later, they went through successful surgery for the transplant at the University of Kentucky. Expressing extreme gratitude over Hannas selfless gesture, Chase Cooper also spoke to the outlet and said that she is like a family member now.

God is good. That is all I can think to say. What an incredible storyline he wrote for us and Hanna. Hard to fathom that a total stranger, compelled by her faith and following/growing in it  saved MY HUSBAND. Never will there be another day that Hanna is anything but family to us," Kaila wrote on Facebook in a final update.

In the meantime, the story has gone viral, with a lot of people coming forward to hail Hannas efforts.
A common assumption among people is that predators like tigers and lions are the most dangerous and fearless animals in the jungle. Surprisingly, there is another animal that doesnt even hesitate to attack even lions or tigers. It is not for nothing that the honey badger has earned the reputation of being the worlds most fearless animal. Despite its small size, this predator is known for its ferocious defence skills and aggressive nature. According to the Independent, the honey badger has been named the worlds most fearless animal by the Guinness Book of World Records and can even fend off much larger predators such as lions and hyenas.

Honey badgers are not only fearless but also quite ferocious and intelligent. Its sharp teeth and nails make it even more dangerous. In recent years, the species have become extinct rapidly. In this situation, it is protected by being included in the category of extinct wild animals. However, honey badgers are often seen in the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, Uttar Pradesh which is world-famous for its biodiversity.

Honey badgers are found across much of sub-Saharan Africa, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Western Asia. According to South African Country Life, their bodies are designed to defend themselves against predators. They have sharp claws and incredibly strong jaws, coupled with thick skin.

Recently, an extraordinary video went viral on the internet showing a pair of honey badgers just doing their job. In the video, shared on social media by Indian forest official Susanta Nanda, a pair of honey badgers can be seen taking on a pride of lions. Despite being outnumbered by far larger animals, the honey badgers were filmed winning the fight and forcing the big cats to retreat.

Pride of the lions pride taken to dustThe honey badger is known for its strength, ferocity and toughness. It is known to savagely and fearlessly attack almost any other species when escape is impossible, reportedly even repelling much larger predators such as lion and hyena. pic.twitter.com/7iyz0hPHxN  Susanta Nanda (@susantananda3) August 6, 2020

The video was shot from inside a truck in Zambia by a tourist named Abdulaziz Adam Mr Adam shared the video on Facebook, where it went viral with thousands of views. According to Nanda, the video was shot in the Luangwa National Game Park in eastern Zambia. The honey badger is known for its strength, ferocity and toughness.

The honey badger is known to attack almost any other species of animal ferociously and fearlessly when escape is impossible. It reportedly fends off much larger predators such as lions and hyenas, Nanda wrote while sharing the video.

Honey badgers dont care, one person wrote in the comments, referring to a popular slogan associated with these fearless animals. Size is nothing compared to bravery and self-defence skills, wrote another.
A recent occurrence at a Bank of India branch in Nagpur led to a discussion on social media over discrimination and dress codes after a man was refused entry for wearing shorts.

The video shows the man arguing with a security guard, allegedly to demonstrate the guards refusal to let him in because of his clothes.

The incident happened when the Nagpur man tried to enter the bank to do some money transfers. He attempted to enter the bank but was stopped by security guards who pointed out that visitors must wear full-length trousers according to the banks dress code. The man, who had never encountered such limitations at other locations, expressed his shock and annoyance, saying he was unaware of the policy.

A security guard standing at the banks gate is seen in the video arguing with a customer after he claims that the reason the man was denied entry to the bank was because he was wearing shorts instead of trousers. The man can be heard inquiring as to if there is a dress code for customers entering banks, but the guard stays silent.

Watch the video here:

Kalesh between a Guy and a bank Security guard over that the Guy had gone to the bank wearing shorts/Half pantpic.twitter.com/KsBcpnqtl1 Ghar Ke Kalesh (@gharkekalesh) April 11, 2024

The man in the video queries why there is a dress requirement for bank customers, but the guard doesnt answer him directly.

Although the bank has maintained its decorum-maintaining policy, the video has brought up more general concerns on how to strike a balance in public areas between professionalism and individual freedom.

Social media users were outraged by what they saw as discrimination based on dress as soon as the video went viral. Many people responded to the video on the internet by arguing that such rules were discriminatory and unfair, while other people claimed that there was no official dress code for customers.

One user on X (formally Twitter) wrote, Orthodox security guard spotted. A second user commented, Leave everything, Just look at the security guards fingers with rings! My goodness, is that guy earning in lakhs? a third user, who faced a similar situation said, I was also denied entry and I went back home.

Do share your thoughts on this video.
As humanity looks to the stars, questions about potential encounters with extraterrestrial beings loom large. The fear of the unknown often fuels speculation about whether aliens would come in peace or pose a threat to Earth. In this context, a scientists warning that the world is ill-prepared for an alien attack has sparked concerns.

Philip Mantell, a former head of investigations at the British UFO Research Society, has raised alarm bells, emphasizing that governments worldwide are not adequately equipped to handle such a scenario. Mantells concerns reflect a broader sentiment that global leaders may be caught off guard if faced with an extraterrestrial threat. This sentiment is compounded by the realization that the world was ill-prepared for the recent coronavirus pandemic.

A recent poll conducted in Britain reveals a significant level of public apprehension regarding the governments readiness for an alien invasion. Shockingly, 47% of Britons surveyed believe that authorities are not prepared for such an eventuality, with 18% expressing genuine concern that an attack may occur. This anxiety has been exacerbated by reports of unidentified objects spotted in the sky, prompting questions about government response and preparation.

Despite these concerns, there remains a glimmer of hope that any contact with extraterrestrial beings will be peaceful. However, the uncertainty surrounding such encounters underscores the need for proactive measures to ensure the safety and security of humanity.

Adding to the intrigue, podcaster and UFO expert Ash Ellis has identified Wales as a hotspot for UFO sightings within the UK. Wales reportedly boasts the highest number of UFO sightings per capita, with one notable incident dating back to 1983. Metal debris collected near the village of Llanilr, following an observed objects collision with trees, remains one of the few tangible pieces of evidence of such phenomena on Earth.

As discussions about potential alien encounters continue, it is evident that both scientists and the public alike are grappling with the implications of such events. Whether Earth is ready for such a scenario remains uncertain, but the need for vigilance and preparedness persists in the face of the unknown.
A woman named Melody Felicano Johnson, 40, has pleaded guilty to poisoning her husband Roby Johnsons coffee after he caught her red-handed pouring bleach into his drink. Roby, a US Air Force officer, witnessed this with the help of the secret cameras in their home. As per the Daily Star portal, Melody had pleaded guilty to two instances of poisoning food or drink for depositing the poisonous chemical into her husbands coffee machine on July 11 and 18. As per the 13 News portal, Melody pleaded guilty to the lesser crimes, and the attempted murder charge she initially faced upon arrest was dismissed in return. Now, Melody is set to be sentenced on May 10 as prosecutors are reportedly suggesting that she serve at least two years in prison. Melody hails from Arizona, United States of America, and is currently being held on a 200k (Rs 1,67,22,260) bond.

As per the court documents, Melodys husband Roby had suspected that she was trying to kill him to obtain the monetary benefits after his demise. They have a child together and were going through a divorce during the time she attempted the poisoning. He stated she knew that he would prep his coffee pot to be ready at night so that in the morning he just needed to turn it on to make his coffee, court documents show. At that time he stopped drinking the coffee but continued to pretend to drink.

Roby had his first instance of doubts regarding his wife in March 2023 when the coffee served to him by the wife tasted strange. He set up a camera to catch her in the act and even submitted evidence of the same to the police on July 6, 2023, but they rejected it on account of insufficient evidence. Undeterred, he set up a second camera concealed as a fire alarm. The Air Force official then returned to the police department on July 18 to provide additional evidence. This time, the police officials had every reason to believe because the new footage allegedly showed shocking footage of Melody tipping bleach into the coffee machine before brewing. Following this footage, she was detained.
Air India flights are avoiding Iranian airspace as a precautionary measure as tensions rise in West Asia following Iranian threat of reprisals for the alleged Israeli strike on Irans embassy in Syrian capital Damascus earlier this month.

An Air India flight flying from New Delhi to London this morning took a longer route to avoid the Iranian airspace, according to Flightradar.

Air India joins Lufthansa and Qantas to avoid Irans airspace amid soaring tensions in the region. Australian carrier Qantas said on Saturday it would redirect its long-haul flights between Perth and London to avoid Irans airspace.

Well reach out to customers directly if theres any change to their booking, the spokesperson for Qantas said.

German carrier Lufthansa and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines have also redirected their flights and extended a suspension on flights to and from Tehran after Iran threatened Israel with reprisals and US officials told news agencies that an attack on Israel is imminent.

Due to the current situation, Lufthansa is suspending its flights to and from Tehran up to and including Thursday, 18 April. The airline is also no longer using Iranian airspace, Lufthansa spokesperson said Friday.

The US on Friday maintained that Iranian threat to Israel remains high and its President, Joe Biden, asked arch-foe Tehran to refrain from attacking its strongest ally in the region.

He said he expects Iran to strike in the short term in retaliation for a strike in Syria.

I dont want to get into secure information but my expectation is sooner than later, Biden told reporters after an event.

We are devoted to the defence of Israel, we will support Israel, we will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed, he said.

The air strike that struck Irans consulate building in the Syrian capital on April 1 killed 16 people, including seven members of Irans Revolutionary Guard.

The most senior figure killed was Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Quds Force, which runs Irans foreign military operations.

Iran and Syria have blamed the attack on Israel, which has not confirmed its involvement but is widely considered to be responsible  including by its allies.

(with inputs from CNN-News18)
The Khyber Temple, a historical Hindu temple near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, was demolished earlier this year to make way for a commercial complex. According to a report by news agency PTI, the construction for a commercial complex has started at the site in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The temple has been closed since 1947 after the original occupants migrated to India.

The temple is located in the border town of Landi Kotal Bazaar in the Khyber district. It was demolished and construction started at the site about 10-15 days ago, the news agency said. It also said that the temple was vanishing brick by brick over the years.

Pakistan administration denied they were aware of the existence of the Hindu temple and claimed that the construction was being done in accordance with the rules.

Tribal journalist Ibrahim Shinwari, who hails from Landi Kotal, claims that there was indeed a historical temple in the main Landi Kotal Bazaar. The temple was located in the centre of the Landi Kotal bazaar, which was closed in 1947 after the local Hindu families migrated to India. It was partially damaged by some clerics and seminarians in 1992 following the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in India, Shinwari was quoted as saying by the news agency.

However, several Pakistani officials speaking to the Dawn expressed ignorance and denied the existence of any such temple.

The entire land in Landi Kotal Bazaar was owned by the state, Assistant Commissioner Landi Kotal, Muhammad Irshad was quoted as saying. The report said he expressed ignorance when asked about the temples demolition.

The official maintained that a no objection certificate has been issued to the builder for the renovation and repair of some old shops in Landi Kotal Bazar.

The tehsil municipal authorities have granted permission for the commercial buildings or shops at all commercial and trade centres in tribal districts.

Tehsil Municipal Officer (TMO) Shahbaz Khan said that the local government was authorised to give the go-ahead signal for the construction of all commercial structures in the area only after their maps or drawings were approved and the requisite fees were deposited.

The Municipal authorities admit that they do not have authentic and organised revenue records in Khyber district.

Abdus Samad, the former TMO during whose tenure the deal for the construction of a commercial building was struck, expressed complete ignorance about any such orders issued by his office.

Landi Kotal patwari Jamal Afridi claimed he was not aware of the construction activity at the temples site. He added that the revenue records had no mention of a mandir at that site.

If the government fails to fulfil its obligations towards religious minorities, all their places of worship and other historical buildings will vanish soon, he said.

Shinwari questioned the claims of the district administration at Khyber and the municipal authorities having no official land record of the temple.

He recalled that as a child he heard many stories about the temple from his forefathers.

There is no doubt in it that there was a temple named Khyber Temple in Landi Kotal, he said.

Many aged tribal elders would bear testimony to this fact that there was a temple in main Landi Kotal Bazaar. It is the responsibility of the auqaf department to maintain and preserve historical non-Muslim places of worship, but the department had no office or employees in the Khyber tribal district, he further added, questioning the claims of the district administration at Khyber and the municipal authorities having no official land record of the temple.

Haroon Sarabdiyal of the Pakistan Hindu Mandir Management Committee insisted that it was the responsibility of the district administration and relevant government departments to ensure the protection and rehabilitation of historical buildings of religious importance to non-Muslims.

The archaeology and museums department, police, culture department, and local government were bound by the 2016 antiquity law to protect such sites, including places of worship, he said.

Sarabdiyal suggested that the places, which were either not used by minorities or in a dilapidated condition, could be utilised for any social welfare activity to the collective benefit of the local communities rather than demolishing it and constructing something new.
The White House on Saturday called on Iran to immediately release a British-owned ship it seized near the Strait of Hormuz, as Middle East tensions soar and fears mount over an retaliatory attack on Israel.

We call on Iran to release the vessel and its international crew immediately, said National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson. Seizing a civilian vessel without provocation is a blatant violation of international law, and an act of piracy by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
After reports surfaced of Irans Revolutionary Guards seizing an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, government sources told CNN-News18 that there are 17 Indian nationals among the crew on board.

The sources further added that they are in contact with Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and New Delhi, to ensure the security, welfare, and early release of the Indian nationals.

Commandos from Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard raided a ship near the Strait of Hormuz by helicopter as tensions between Iran and Israel grew following the latters alleged strike on the formers consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus earlier this month.

Sources also informed CNN-News18 that the ship, MSC Aries, was en route to the port of Nhava Sheva in Mumbai, India and the expected arrival was on the night of April 15.

#NEW: Video of the hijacking of the MSC Aries by the IRGC pic.twitter.com/AlANlpbAYM Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) April 13, 2024

In response to the attack, Israel issued a warning, stating that Iran would face consequences for escalating the conflict in the region.

Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further, stated Israels military spokesman Daniel Hagari in a video statement.

Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further.Watch IDF Spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagaris statement regarding Iranian involvement in the war and its effect on the Middle East: pic.twitter.com/AdaJB2WtJd  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 13, 2024

US vows ironclad commitment to Israel

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said he spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi, regarding the issue and and reiterated the United States ironclad commitment to the country.

This morning, I spoke with my Israeli counterpart, National Security Advisor Hanegbi, to discuss events in the Middle East. During the call, I reiterated the United States ironclad commitment to the security of Israel, stated Sullivan in a social media post on X.

This morning, I spoke with my Israeli counterpart, National Security Advisor Hanegbi, to discuss events in the Middle East. During the call, I reiterated the United States ironclad commitment to the security of Israel. Jake Sullivan (@JakeSullivan46) April 13, 2024

Condemning the Iranian seizure of the British-owned ship, White House spokesperson Adrienne Watson called on Iran to release the vessel and the crew, stating, Seizing a civilian vessel without provocation is a blatant violation of international law, and an act of piracy by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

We strongly condemn the Iranian seizure of the Portuguese flagged, British-owned MSC AIRES in international waters. The crew is comprised of Indian, Filipino, Pakistani, Russian & Estonian nationals. We call on Iran to release the vessel & its international crew immediately, Watson said in a post on X.

We strongly condemn the Iranian seizure of the Portuguese flagged, British-owned MSC AIRES in international waters. The crew is comprised of Indian, Filipino, Pakistani, Russian & Estonian nationals. We call on Iran to release the vessel & its international crew immediately. Adrienne Watson (@NSC_Spox) April 13, 2024

Israels Foreign Minister Israel Katz called on the international community to immediately declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have seized a Portuguese civilian cargo ship, belonging to an EU member, claiming Israeli ownership, he said on X.

I call on the European Union and the free world to immediately declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guards corps as a terrorist organization and to sanction Iran now, he added.

MSC Aries is a Portuguese-flagged container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime. Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofers Zodiac Group. The container vessel was last located off Dubai heading toward the Strait of Hormuz on Friday and has turned off its tracking data. Israeli-affiliated ships moving through the region often employ this technique.

Iranian authorities confirmed later that Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commandos have taken over the vessel and are redirecting it to Iranian waters. A container ship named MCS Aries was seized by the Sepah (Guards) Navy Special Forces by carrying out a heliborne operation near the Strait Of Hormuz. This ship has now been directed towards the territorial waters of Iran, the IRNA state news agency said citing the IRGC.

The attack was first reported by the British militarys United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations and said the vessel was seized by regional authorities in the Gulf of Oman off the Emirati port city of Fujairah, without elaborating.

In the video, a crew member could be heard saying: Dont come out.

He is then heard asking his colleagues to head to the ships bridge as more commandos were seen rappelling down on the deck. One commando can be seen kneeling above the others to provide them potential cover fire.

CNN-News18 could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the West, particularly after a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian Consulate in Syria. Meanwhile, the wider West Asian region remains on edge after six months of Israels war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The Gulf of Oman is near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all globally traded oil passes. Fujairah, on the United Arab Emirates eastern coast, is a main port in the region for ships to take on new oil cargo, pick up supplies or trade out crew.

(With inputs from Akash Sharma in New Delhi)
Israel is closing schools nationwide over security concerns, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Saturday, after threats by Iran to retaliate for a deadly air strike on its Damascus consulate.

There will be no educational activities when the school week begins on Sunday in light of the security situation, he said in a televised statement.
US President Joe Biden on Friday told reporters at the White House that he expects Iran to attack Israel sooner than later. I dont want to get into secure information but my expectation is sooner than later, Biden was quoted as saying by CNN. When asked what message he would like to send Iran at this moment, Biden said: Dont.

Biden also said that the US remains devoted to the defence of Israel, as was evidenced by US moving additional defence assets to West Asia after Lebanese group Hezbollah said it fired dozens of Katyusha rockets at Israeli artillery positions Friday.

We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel, we will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed, Biden said.

The Hezbollah missile attack was in response to Israeli strikes in the south, the Iran-backed Lebanese group said.

The US has been on high alert for a significant Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel in recent days as fears grow of a wider regional war.

There remains a real, credible and viable threat of Iran launching strikes, the White House said Friday, following Israels attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria last week that killed three Iranian generals.

The Israeli army said approximately 40 launches were identified crossing from Lebanese territory, some of which were intercepted.

No injuries were reported, it said, adding that it had earlier intercepted two Hezbollah attack drones that had crossed from Lebanon.

Lebanon and Israel are technically at war since the creation of the latter and have abided by the general ceasefire agreement since the 2006 Lebanon war.

The violence has so far killed at least 363 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including at least 70 civilians, according to a tally by news agency AFP.

In Israel, the military says 10 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled their homes on both sides of the border.
At least six people were killed when a man went on a stabbing spree in a busy shopping area in Australias Sydney. The attacker was shot dead by the police, according to Australian news agencies The Sydney Morning Herald and news.au.com.

New South Wales emergency officials said that one man was shot dead by the police. The man is believe to be one of the attackers.

Police said only one offender is involved. New South Wales emergency officials said that one man was shot dead by the police. The man is believed to be one of the attackers. They also said that eight people were taken to the hospital.

Im advised that there are five victims who are now deceased as a result of the actions of this offender, said New South Wales police assistant commissioner Anthony Cooke.

The motive was not immediately clear, but Cooke said terrorism could not be ruled out at this stage.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb later said the knifeman was a 40-year-old who was known to police but is not believed to have held terrorist beliefs. He is yet to be formally identified and the police are confident he acted alone, according to a report by the Sydney Morning Herald.

I do not know at this stage who he is. You would understand this is quite raw. Inquiries are very new and we are continuing to make attempts to identify the offender in this matter, said Cooke.

A critical incident has commenced following the shooting of male at Bondi Junction.Just before 4pm (Saturday 13 April 2024), emergency services were called to Westfield Bondi Junction following reports of multiple people stabbed. People are urged to avoid the area. Inquiries  NSW Police Force (@nswpolice) April 13, 2024

A critical incident has commenced following the shooting of male at Bondi Junction. Just before 4pm (Saturday 13 April 2024), emergency services were called to Westfield Bondi Junction following reports of multiple people stabbed. People are urged to avoid the area. Inquiries are continuing in relation to the incident and there are no further details, the New South Wales police said in a post on X.

The sprawling Westfield Bondi Junction mall complex, which has been locked down.

What Happened In Sydneys Bondi Shopping Center Today

A person speaking to Australian broadcaster Nine News said the attacker, who wore a green t-shirt, seemed like he was picking targets randomly. He wasnt going for anyone personally, you could tell it looked quite random, he was just running around with his knife, the man was quoted as saying.

A person speaking to the news agency news.au.com said that a mother and her baby were also stabbed. The person said the mother is not in a good state but the baby will survive.

Condolences Pour In

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was briefed about the incident by news agency AFP.

I have been briefed by the AFP on the devastating events at Bondi Junction. Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones.  Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) April 13, 2024

I have been briefed by the AFP on the devastating events at Bondi Junction. Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones. Our hearts go out to those injured and we offer our thanks to those caring for them as well as our brave police and first responders, Albanese said in a post on social media site X.
An Indian-origin woman, identified as Riddhi Patel has reportedly been arrested in the United States and charged with making terror threats against the Mayor of Californias Bakersfield.

Speaking at a city council meeting on Wednesday, Riddhi Patel lashed out at officials and directed threats towards them for not backing a ceasefire resolution for the Israel-Hamas conflict.

A video of Riddis speech went viral on the internet wherein she expressed her desire for oppressed minorities to guillotine the citys officials. I remind you that these holidays that we practice, that other people in the global south practice, believe in violent revolution against their oppressors, and I hope one day somebody brings the guillotine and kills all of you, she said in her speech.

According to an NDTV report, the Indian-origin woman made the threats during two separate speeches she delivered to the city council that evening.

She initiated her speech by citing support for the ceasefire resolution but anticipated its rejection and called the council members horrible human beings.

Subsequently, she criticised putting in additional security measures at the government buildings, like installing metal detectors, calling them attempts to criminalise protesters.

You guys, those who vote to win in Bakersfield, parade Gandhi around and a Hindu holiday called Chaitra Navaratri that starts off this week. I remind you that these holidays that we practice, that other people in the global south practice, believe in violent revolution against their oppressors, she said.

Well see you at your house. Well murder you, she concluded.

Bakersfield, Calif.  A prominent local far-left Indian-American activist threatened to kill city council members at their own homes during a speech on April 10. Riddhi Patel is a prison abolitionist, like Antifa ideologues, and is involved in local black and brown abolitionist pic.twitter.com/bFur67f91D Andy Ngo  (@MrAndyNgo) April 12, 2024

Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh responded to Riddhis statements, indicating to police officers present that action needed to be taken. Ms Patel, that was a threat. What you said at the end and so the officers are going to escort you out and take care of that, she said.

Riddhi was escorted out of the chambers and taken into custody by the police.

According to the Bakersfield Police, Riddhi faces 16 felony counts, including threatening with intent to terrorise and targeting city officials.
$20 million Cambria Hotel readies for opening in Niagara Falls

The $20 million The Cambria Hotel Niagara Falls, part of a mixed-use project two blocks away from Niagara Falls State Park, is celebrating its opening.

The seven-story, 120-room upscale hotel project, which is located at 311 Rainbow Boulevard, also includes three two-story, two-unit townhouses fronting on Buffalo Avenue behind the hotel. The residential units are earmarked as vacation rentals.

It was developed by Plati Niagara Inc., owned by veteran Niagara Falls hotelier Frank Strangio along with his father Antonio and his brother Anthony. The developer also owns a Wingate by Wyndham in Niagara Falls.

USA Niagara Development Corp. gave the project a $1.7 million grant, and NFC Development Corp., the City of Niagara Falls development agency, awarded the project a $250,000 grant. The Niagara County Industrial Development Agency also approved a 10-year tax incentive package.

The project was originally announced in September 2019, but it was put on hold for a while due to the pandemic. The hotel is expected to employ about 35 people.

A ribbon-cutting will be held 10 a.m. Monday.

 Mike Petro
Tech giant Apple said it is working to fix a bug in its latest iOS software because it has been suggesting a Palestinian flag emoji when some users search for the word Jerusalem in the emoji keyboard, US broadcaster CNN said in a report.

The latest @Apple update offers a *Palestinian flag* emoji when you type Jerusalem pic.twitter.com/OgvRWh3tPR Jake Wallis Simons (@JakeWSimons) April 10, 2024

The company told the broadcaster that it is aware of the bug within predictive emoji in the keyboard and said it is working on fixing the bug which will be made available in the next update.

Dear @Apple @AppleSupport @tim_cook Ive just upgraded my software to version iOS 17.4.1, and now, when I type the capital of Israel , Jerusalem, Im offered the Palestinian flag emoji. This didnt occur on my phone immediately before this update. Below is a pic.twitter.com/Cw9TDmE6VD  Rachel Riley MBE (@RachelRileyRR) April 9, 2024

Apple introduced its latest software, iOS 17.4.1, on March 21 but users discovered the bug recently and were upset with it. An iPhone user questioned whether Apple was aware of the error and was the bug intentional in nature.

Why is it that when you type Jerusalem into your emoji search bar this comes up? A programmer at Apple is being intentionally provocative. Search for any other city in the region and nothing comes up, journalist Eve Barlow posted on social media site X.

The quirk was also pointed out on social media by British television presenter Rachel Riley, renewing debate over whether Israel or Palestinians have a rightful claim to Jerusalem as their capital.

When I type the capital of Israel, Jerusalem, Im offered the Palestinian flag emoji, Riley wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, calling on Apple to explain.

She pointed out no flag emojis were suggested when an array of other capital cities were typed into iPhone messages.

Showing double standards with respect to Israel is a form of antisemitism, which is itself a form of racism against Jewish people, Riley contended in the post.

Apple said the issue was a mistake and that it was not coded into the keyboard intentionally.

A separate report by CNN said that it is possible that Apples machine-learning technology determined the suggested emoji after analysing texts from millions of its users but Apple is yet to comment on the cause and has not shared when the next update would become available.

The region and territorial claims surrounding it are complex in nature. In 1967, Israel seized East Jerusalem along with other areas and subsequently incorporated it into Jerusalem, designating the unified city as its capital. However, much of the international community regards East Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territory. Israel maintains Jerusalem as its indivisible capital. In a reversal of long standing American foreign policy, President Donald Trumps administration acknowledged Jerusalem as Israels capital in 2017. Amidst ongoing tensions between Israel and Hamas, suggesting a Palestinian flag emoji for the search term Jerusalem exacerbates tensions.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) declared a reward of up to $250,000 for any information leading to the capture of Bhadreshkumar Chetanbhai Patel. Bhadreshkumar Chetanbhai Patel, an Indian-American, is on the ten most wanted list of the US investigative agency.

The FBI offers a reward of up to $250,000 for info leading to the arrest of Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Bhadreshkumar Chetanbhai Patel, wanted for allegedly killing his wife while they were working at a donut shop in Hanover, Maryland, on April 12, 2015," the FBI notice read.

Bhadreshkumar Chetanbhai Patel is a fugitive and has been on the run since killing his wife in 2015. He and his 21-year-old wife, Palak Patel, used to work at a Dunkin Donuts in Hanover, Maryland. He attacked his wife with a kitchen knife, inflicting multiple stab wounds in the shops backroom. He has been on the FBIs radar since 2017.

When customers did not see the presence of any workers in the outlet, they called authorities who then found out that Palak was murdered. According to news radio station WTOP, Palak wanted to return to India as their visas had expired a month before the murder occurred. This led to several arguments between the couple leading up to the day Palak was murdered. US news media outlets reported that Bhadreshkumar wanted to stay but Palak was opposed to living in the US.

CCTV footage from the night of Palaks murder shows both of them walking towards the outlets kitchen before disappearing behind the racks.

Patel faces charges including first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, and possession of a dangerous weapon with intent to injure.

The US district court in Baltimore in April 2015 issued an arrest warrant after Patel was charged with fleeing to avoid prosecution. Patel was last known to have taken a taxi from a New Jersey hotel to a train station in Newark.

The FBI said that the Gujarat-born 32-year-old should be considered armed and extremely dangerous.
A syndicate of six suspected fraudsters including the alleged ringleader in the forgery of the tittle deed to former Cabinet Minister, Dr Dzingai Mutumbukas house has appeared at the Harare Magistrates Court today for allegedly altering documents to a US$400 000 Borrowdale home and sold it for only US$92 000.

Prosper Bizwork (48) who is also the alleged mastermind in the current case and five accomplices are charged with fraud as defined in Section 136 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9; 23.

The suspects were arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) detectives in just two weeks after ZRP had failed to make any headway in four months.

It is understood that some ZRP officers are now under investigation for receiving US$7 000 to sweep the case under the carpet. Sources allege that the officers had demanded US$20 000 to destroy the case.

The State is denying bail for the six arguing that they are likely to abscond considering the serious charges that they are facing. The Investigation officer, Eric Chacha told the court that investigations have linked syndicate members to 10 other properties that were fraudulently sold.

He said the syndicate has links to a number of Government departments where it managed to get forged identity cards and to get a replacement deed.

Bizwork was supposed to appear in another courtroom today in a case in which he forged title deeds to Dr Mutumbukas US$600 000 Chisipite house and sold it for just US$45 000.

The case had to be postponed.

According to the State outline, conveyancing of the property; Number 589 Rietfontein Township of Lot 15 Harare was done at TK Hove and Partners. The law firms conveyancing clerk Samson Mushayi is one of the six who was arrested and appeared for bail application today.

Mushayi is also accused of creating a duplicate title deed used to sell the house. The State also says Mushayi is the one who facilitated interviews at Zimra and the transfer of the property in the name of the buyers.

The other accused are Erick Dube (39), Tedious Marufu (47), Amos Chisvo (43) and Patience Nhope (46). Another suspect only identified as Collen is at large.

The State says sometime in 2023, the six connived to defraud unsuspecting buyers and sell them houses.

Bizwork hired Patience Nhope and another person only known as Collen to act as sellers of 589 Rietfontein which in actual fact are owned by Octavious Chikonyora and Precious Danda. He managed to get fictitious identity cards for the two sellers of the houses in the name of Chikonyora and Danda.

Nhope and collen appeared for interviews at Zimra pretending to be Chikonyora and Danda.

Bizwork then brought in Marufu to look for agents to sell the house. Marufu brought in Chisvo and Ndamuka as agents.

Mushayi was brought in for conveyancing and allegations are that meetings were held at his offices at TK Hove.

Dube advertised the house using a fake name Raphael Dube under a marketing company called Rockwell Land Developers.

Max Merrit Msutu and Tariro Chingaya responded to the advert wanting to buy the house. The two insisted that they wanted to use their own conveyance company but they were told that for the purpose of transferring and conveyancing, this was strictly going to happen at TK Hove and Partners.

It is the State case that TK Hove did not have the original title deed of the property hence Mushayi created a duplicate deed.

After the finalisation of the deal the syndicate which had agreed to share the money equally getting about US$10 000 each did not as others were duped and they got less than US$5 000.

The owner of house who was away only became aware of the deal after a neighbour called him to find out if he had sold the house since he had seen new people tidying up the place.

The bail ruling will be on Monday. Masvingo Mirror
Virginia is set to ban marriage before age 18 after legislators sent a bill to Gov. Glenn Youngkin's desk, NPR reports, which would make it the 12th state with laws on the books that prohibit the marriage of minors with no exceptions. The bill knocks out loopholes that allowed some exemptions after the state previously passed restrictions in 2016. At the time, lawmakers didn't have enough votes to fully ban child marriage, and compromised by carving out a rule that allowed 16-year-olds to marry if signed off by a judge that emancipated them. Per VPM , advocacy group Unchained at Last estimates 8,000 minors in the state were married from 2000 to 2018 (and nearly 300,000 across the US during the same period).

"I could not speak up then," Brigitte Combs, who was married at 16, told legislators during hearings on the issue. "But I can speak now. And I will fight tooth and nail for others who are not able to speak." Supporters of the bill say minors, who are most often girls, are left vulnerable by the law. Emancipated teens face other age-based restrictions (they cannot vote or drink alcohol), and advocates wonder why marriage is not included. NPR notes that teen pregnancy is one reason opponents of the bill, like the religious group Family Foundation, believe the exceptions should remain.

"I could not escape to a domestic violence shelter, because I was a minor," one woman, who said she was wed at 16 to a 29-year-old man, told VMP. "I could not hire an attorney or enter into a lease, because I was a minor. I couldn't even drive, because I wasn't old enough, and he controlled my entire life." Delaware became the first state to ban child marriage in 2018, and Washington was the most recent to sign a ban into law this March. Among the other states drawing a hard line at 18 are Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. (Former child brides in Missouri want it outlawed.)
A category of workers known as digital nomads is growing in ranks around the world, and the BBC reports that Cape Town, South Africa, illustrates both the positive and negative aspects of the trend.

The term: Digital nomads are typically younger people who can work wherever they have an internet connection, and they take advantage by traveling the world, per apartmenttherapy.com.

Digital nomads are typically younger people who can work wherever they have an internet connection, and they take advantage by traveling the world, per apartmenttherapy.com. Cape Town: It's a popular destination, with these temporary workers gathering to surf, dive, hike, and generally have fun in their free time, per the BBC. "Cape Town is a big city, but it is also quite intimate," says a 29-year-old German photographer who has made the city part of her rotation. "It is not too crazy."
By one basic metric of politics, Republicans have made gains against Democrats since the last presidential election: The Pew Research Center finds that the nation is roughly split between voters who identify as Democrats (49%) and Republicans (48%), reports the Hill. That's a contrast to the lead-up to the 2020 election, when Democrats held an edge of 51% to 46%. However, it's more in line with historical norms.

In broad strokes: Republicans "have made significant gains among voters without a college degree, rural voters and white evangelical voters," per the New York Times, while "Democrats have held onto key constituencies, such as Black voters (though numbers are slipping) and younger voters, and have gained ground with college-educated voters."
Vice President Kamala Harris went to Arizona, the state that became the center of the abortion rights debate this week when its Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law prohibiting nearly all abortions, to assess responsibility. "We all must understand who is to blame," the Democrat told a campaign rally in Tucson on Friday, the BBC reports. "Donald Trump is the architect of this health care crisis." In 2016, Trump made a campaign promise of appointing US Supreme Court justices who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. The three he nominated did that in June 2022, ending national access to abortion, and Republican-run states have taken steps like Arizona's since.

"Donald Trump did this," said Harris, who is running for reelection with President Biden. Trump has backtracked since the Arizona ruling, saying the decision went too far. On Friday, the GOP presidential candidate posted on Truth Social that the state's legislators should undo it "as fast as possible." Republicans blocked an effort to do that on Wednesday. Trump said that ideally, Arizona would allow exceptions to the ban in cases of rape, incest, and instances in which the life of the mother is at risk, per the Hill. Kari Lake, a Trump ally running for US Senate in Arizona, also has retreated after previously calling the 19-century legislation a "great law." Lake reportedly also is pushing legislators to repeal the law.

Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs also wants the law repealed but criticized the "political opportunism" of Republicans. "I am pretty tired of cleaning up Donald Trump's messes in Arizona," Hobbs said Friday, adding, "This is what they wanted when they worked to overturn Roe v. Wade." Harris told the rally this could be just the beginning. "A second Trump term would be even worse ... he will sign a national abortion ban," she said. A spokesman for the Trump campaign said Trump does not support a national ban, per the BBC. "These are decisions for people of each state to make," he said. (More anti-abortion laws stories.)
Commandos from Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rappelled down from a helicopter onto an Israeli-affiliated container ship near the Strait of Hormuz and seized the vessel Saturday, the latest in a series of attacks between the two countries. The Middle East had braced for potential Iranian retaliation over a suspected Israeli strike earlier this month on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed 12 people, including a senior Guard general who once commanded its expeditionary Quds Force. Iran's state-run IRNA said a special forces unit of the Guard's navy carried out the attack on the vessel, which other media widely identified as the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime. Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer's Zodiac Group. Zodiac declined to comment.

Earlier, a Middle East defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, shared a video of the attack with the AP. In it, the commandos are seen rappelling down onto a stack of containers sitting on the deck of the vessel. A crew member on the ship can be heard saying: "Don't come out." He then tells his colleagues to go to the ship's bridge as more commandos come down on the deck. One commando can be seen kneeling above the others to provide them potential cover fire. The video corresponded with known details of the MSC Aries. The helicopter used also appeared to be a Soviet-era Mil Mi-17 helicopter, which both the Guard and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen have used in the past to conduct raids on ships.

The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations described the vessel as being "seized by regional authorities" in the Gulf of Oman off the Emirati port city of Fujairah, without elaborating. The MSC Aries had been last located off Dubai heading toward the Strait of Hormuz on Friday. The ship had turned off its tracking data, which has been common for Israeli-affiliated ships moving through the region. (More Strait of Hormuz stories.)
Israel's army said Saturday the body of a missing Israeli teen was found in the West Bank after he was killed in a "terrorist attack," as violence escalated across the Israeli-occupied territory where tensions have simmered for months. The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair sparked a large attack by Israeli settlers on a Palestinian village on Friday and Saturday, reports the AP . On Friday, one Palestinian man was killed and 25 others were wounded in the attack on the village of Mughayyir, Palestinian health officials said. Israeli troops on Saturday delayed the ambulance carrying 26-year-old's body for several hours, witnesses said. Dozens of settlers returned to the village's outskirts on Saturday, burning two homes and several cars. The Palestinian Health Ministry said three people from the village were injured, one critically.

In the nearby village of Douma, Israeli settlers set fire to several homes, according to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency. The Palestinian Red Crescent said six people were injured by gunfire but did not say who fired. Since the war began, Hamas has been trying to ignite other fronts, including the West Bank, in hopes of exerting more pressure on Israel. Such efforts have largely failed, though more than 460 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since Oct. 7, most in clashes sparked by army raids but some by vigilante settlers. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing of the Israeli teen. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the killing. "We will get to the murderers and their helpers as we do to anyone who harms the citizens of the state of Israel," he said in a statement.

(More Israel-Hamas war stories.)
Iran launched its first full-scale aerial attack against Israel on Saturday, including ballistic missiles, and the US was helping its ally prepare to defend against the strikes. Israeli intelligence had detected the launch of dozens of bomb-carrying drones and cruise missiles from Iran and Iraq, the New York Times reports, and projected the targets to be in the Golan Heights and an Israeli air force base in the Negev Desert. Iranian state media later said ballistic missiles, which travel much faster than drones, also were on their way to targets inside Israel, per the AP . Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting with his war cabinet on Saturday night, and President Biden ended his weekend stay in Delaware to return to the White House to meet with the National Security Council about the escalation that threatened to start a broad war in the Middle East.

The Pentagon plans to assist Israel in intercepting anything flying toward Israel, per ABC News. Israel had shut its airspace earlier in the day in anticipation of the attack, and Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon later did the same. The US, Israel, and Iran had all put their militaries on high alert, per the New York Times, after an April 1 strike by Israel on Iran's embassy in Syria, for which Iran promised retaliation. Israel said Saturday that dozens of its combat planes were airborne, waiting for the drones. Its defense systems are capable of downing ballistic missiles. But such a broad attack, involving scores of drones and missiles, makes it more likely that Israel will be struck.

Hezbollah announced in a statement early Sunday that it had fired dozens of rockets at an Israeli barracks in the Golan Heights, per the Times, without saying whether the attack is linked to Iran's. The Pentagon has been concerned that its troops could be targets during an escalation, and Iran warned the US not to join in any counterattack Israel might launch. American fighter jets in the region now are on standby, per CBS News. (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)
The giggles reverberate around the playground.

Five-year-old Makiah Lockley is doubled over, desperately trying to bat off his older brother's tickling. He can't stop giggling, it's infectious.

From the outside, they look like your typical happy family. Six kids playing together in the yard, laughing, teasing, smiling.

But five of the six have serious health issues - from brain tumours to severe autism to an intellectual disability.

"The toll on us is our mental health, our physical health, our own wellbeing. It's huge," said their mother Leisha Lockley, who now battles ME and endometriosis

Her four oldest children have neurofibromatosis, inherited from their dad Patrick.

It's a group of three conditions in which tumours grow in the nervous system. They can turn cancerous.

"There is no remission from this, there is no end day, no heal like a broken bone, this is forever," Leisha said.

No one in the family knew about the condition until Leisha was pregnant with baby number four, Brae.

It was discovered when baby number three, Aayla, was diagnosed with brain tumours, she was just three years old.

"She has other tumours growing now, she can only feel half of her skull. Her outlook on life is up in the air. We say a ticking timebomb."

Leisha then looks to her husband, Patrick, who gently rubs her shoulder.

"We are just living day to day not knowing what tomorrow brings for any of our children," he said.

The couple used IVF for baby number five - to avoid passing on the condition - but Eli was born with severe autism.

But this loving family has never complained, never asked for help. Until now.

"It's the only drug available for a rare condition. Please fund it. Please fund it," Leisha pleaded.

She's referring to a drug for her oldest child, 23-year-old Paetyn, who has tumours in his spine and a large aggressive cancerous tumour in his thigh. He was diagnosed with the latter just two weeks after starting his dream engineering job.

The medication to shrink the thigh tumour, trametinib, costs up to $5000 a month - and that's the cheap option. The medication they really want, the most successful one - selumetib - is $65,000 a month. They can't afford either. They're not funded.

So I asked the Lockleys what would happen if Paetyn didn't have the treatment. Their answer was quick and heartbreaking.

"Complete loss of leg," said Leisha. "And of course there's concern of complete loss of life."

At that moment, Patrick looks at his wife, a mixture of sadness and anger in his eyes.

"It's bull crap that they can't fund it for families in need," he said. "It doesn't matter if you are poor or rich, every kid deserves a chance to live."

Associate Health Minister David Seymour, who looks after Pharmac, encouraged the family to apply - through their specialist - for the Named Patient Access Scheme.

"I would encourage them to do that and if they do then Pharmac will do their best to deliver what they need," Seymour said.

It's not guaranteed. But it is something.

Both parents have had to give up their jobs to take care of their children - for so long, they've done it alone. But they have no regrets.

"Definitely not, it's made us who we are today, made us stronger, shown us how important life is," said Patrick.

A friend has set up a Givealittle page.

And they are speaking out now - not just to help their children but every sick child in New Zealand.
Tauranga is set to host the next National Iwi Chairs Forum from 1 to 3 May.

The hui will bring together iwi leaders from across Aotearoa to deliberate on issues affecting Maori and the wider nation.

The theme for this year's forum is underscored by the whakatauki, "Ahakoa uhi uhi nga ngaru, Ka whakaea ano te toka a Tirikawa" (Irrespective of the waves that crash continuously, Tirikawa rock remains resolute and prominent), and reflects the steadfastness and resilience required in the face of ongoing political challenges impacting Maori communities.

Ngati Ranginui Chairperson Charlie Rahiri said the forum is a testament to Maori resilience and kotahitanga.

"The timing of the forum is especially poignant, as it aligns closely with the 160-year commemoration of the Battle of Pukehinahina (Gate Pa), a pivotal event in New Zealand's history," he said.
Cheated by own kind, stranded by own kind: A story nobody wants to tell

Cheated by own kind, stranded by own kind: A story nobody wants to tell

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Report by Mahir Haneef

Stories of expatriates coming together to the aid of fellow expatriates down on luck are aplenty in the Kingdom of Bahrain but there are stories that often go untold  the stories of those cheated by their own kind and stranded by their own kind.

One of such stories is that of Jacob Varghese (name changed on the request of the victim), a young man from the Indian state of Kerala, who was cheated by another man from Kerala while in Bahrain and then shunned by the largest Facebook group of people from Kerala in Bahrain, even though the cheating originated from one of the WhatsApp groups run by the group.

Jacob wanted to be with his wife in Kerala when she delivers their first child in two months. Working as an electrical technician in Bahrain, he didnt have much money to spare.

He made a post in one of the WhatsApp groups run by the Facebook group seeking help from travel agents to find a low-cost air ticket to Kerala.

Shortly thereafter, he received a WhatsApp message from a man who said he is a travel agent based in Manama and found his query on the WhatsApp group.

He promised a two-way ticket for BD98 and suggested booking soon to get the ticket at that rate.

Money was transferred by Jacob to the IBAN number BH66NBOB00000220071306 provided by the travel agent.

Once the money was received, the travel agent began to avoid Jacobs calls and did not provide a ticket as promised. Jacob raised the issue in the WhatsApp group.

While some members supported him and some others reported being duped in a similar manner, the administrator of the group took the stance that the cheating occurred outside of the group and there is nothing that can be done.

Jacob countered by saying that it is from the group that his mobile number was obtained by the scammer but the administrator said the group cannot be held responsible and that it is a group that has proved useful to a countless number of expatriates.

Cheated by own kind and shunned by own kind, Jacob has now approached the police to trace out the travel agent. Sharing his plight with the media, Jacob says he wants others to be aware of such a scam so that they wont become victims like him.

Expatriates cheating own kind

Juan M Pedroza is an Assistant Professor of Demography, Migration and Inequality at the University of California, Santa Cruz and had been studying scams faced by expatriates and how expatriates cash in on the vulnerability of other expatriates and their fear of law.

Expatriates are often targeted when they are seeking information, often about adjusting their legal status or seeking any benefits, notes Juan. Scammers seem to target people who may not have other sources of reliable information or who may not be familiar with the laws, language, or customs of their adopted country, Juan said.

However, such scams often do not get properly categorized as scams perpetrated by one expatriate on another as the background of those involved are not often disclosed, he said.

Privacy in WhatsApp groups The scam faced by Jacob also brings to light the need for a system to ensure the privacy of members who are part of WhatsApp groups.

While Jacob asked a query in the WhatsApp group, the phone number from which the scammer contacted him was not listed as a member of the group.

This means either the scammer used another phone number to track the WhatsApp group chats or somebody else leaked that information to the scammer.

With WhatsApp allowing members to be added by clicking a public link, it becomes difficult to even track who is accessing the phone numbers of group members.

Whats the way out?

Jennifer Vessels, who is based in Norway is the CEO of Silicon Valley-based global consulting firm Next Step.

She has been helping large companies in their technological transformation, now by leveraging AI, and her client list comprises hundreds of companies, including Adobe, Cisco, Autodesk, Google, and Nvidia. She was also a keynote speaker at the 10th edition of Bahrain International eGovernment Forum last year.

While empathizing with Jacob, Jennifer highlighted the human naivety in using free online services such as WhatsApp.

She said it is not possible to have a system where phone numbers of the WhatsApp group are not visible or accessible to everyone in the group.

Based on the architecture of WhatsApp and the business model of the parent company (Meta), this is not feasible.

There are however other ways that people can communicate through private groups via Slack, LinkedIn or even Facebook Groups (subject to spam but not based on phone numbers so can be more easily managed), she said.

She recommends caution in choosing the WhatsApp groups to join and avoid communicating anything personal, including travel plans or areas in which one is seeking assistance, to the full group.

Privacy appetite

Ameen Altajer is the CEO of INFINITEWARE, an artificial intelligence company based in Bahrain that deals with large clients, including the Government of Bahrain and Saudi Aramco.

According to him, whether there should be a control on phone numbers of WhatsApp group members getting exposed and how much control should be there boils down to the privacy appetite of the user. I mean, it all boils down to the privacy appetite of the user.

Some people have no problem with that. Some people have a lot of problems with their number being shared. I stand on the fence.

It depends on the user and how they feel about it. However, theres a segment of users, such as the elderly, who might need a little bit of guidance on how to do this.

So, I wouldnt say a system, but more of awareness, because at the end of the day, its a matter of choice, Ameen said.

Dark sale of personal info

Databases containing personal information such as phone numbers of members of public groups are often sold through the dark web.

Discretion in joining free groups and in communicating with members of public groups is the only way, says Jennifer. Considering that WhatsApp and Facebook are free funded through an advertisement-based business model, it is unlikely for Meta to invest in strict security, regulations or tracking the sale of information by or to its advertising customers.

Therefore, to avoid receiving spam, it is best to minimize use of free groups while also setting strong spam filters on your phone.

As we rely more on technology in all aspects of our daily lives, we must be increasingly careful and discerning of what we post, communicate to whom, she stated.

Regulation is key

A clear regulation that addresses the misuse of personal information is required and it should be implemented properly, says Ameen.

Honestly, regulation is your best bet. Lets say a company in Bahrain abuses this, their regulator or the government should have clear controls on how to mitigate against this and how to penalize the company that does this.

Theres a lot of that happening, so there should be very clear regulations that should not be very forgiving, so people can actually understand how big this is for peoples privacy, the AI expert stated while calling for a proper regulation along with creating awareness among end users.

How can AI help?

Putting AI to work can help a lot in warning users about scams and phishing, says Ameen.

Al can help out a lot by telling you, for example, that this thing is fishy or you want to get away from this gentleman or this lady because it seems that they want to scam you.

So what lm trying to say here, a little bit of guidance powered by Al is getting pretty interesting, he stated.

The AI expert further said different tools and products based on AI can help in warning users, especially those belonging to vulnerable categories, about scams.

AI may be a useful tool in predicting common scams and phishing online but a system to prevent cheating by those whom you trust, be it your own kind or not, is yet to come.
AFP | Vatican City

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Pope Francis will visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore in September, the Vatican announced Friday, an ambitious trip that could test the 87-year-old's increasingly fragile health.

Running from September 2 to 13 and covering around 30,000 kilometres (18,600 miles) in total, the trip is the longest for the Argentine since he became head of the worldwide Catholic Church in 2013.

"He will visit Jakarta from 3 to 6 September, Port Moresby and Vanimo from 6 to 9 September, Dili from 9 to 11 September and Singapore from 11 to 13 September," the Vatican said in a statement.

The visit, his first abroad since September last year, has been on the cards for months, but the pontiff's health issues had raised questions on whether it would go ahead.

Francis pulled out of a key Easter event at the last minute in March, and has asked aides to read several of his speeches in recent weeks due a bout of bronchitis.

The pontiff, who uses a wheelchair, has suffered increasing health problems in recent years, from knee pain to surgery for a hernia and on his colon.

He is known for his work ethic -- he never takes holidays -- but has been forced to make concessions to his age and health, including cancelling a trip to UN climate talks in Dubai last year.

Francis had been due to visit Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Indonesia in September 2020 but the trip was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

- Tolerance, unity and peace -

Involving more than 30 hours of flight, an eight-hour time difference and a series of meetings and masses, the September trip will represent a major physical challenge.

But the pontiff loves being among his flock, and his arrival is keenly awaited.

The government in Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, had already announced the pope's visit last month, describing it as a "special gift" for the country's Catholics.

In a statement Friday, its foreign ministry said the visit was important "for all religious communities".

"The visit is also expected to strengthen the message of tolerance, unity and world peace," it said.

According to the Pew Research Centre, Indonesia is home to 242 million Muslims and around 29 million Christians -- 8.5 million of whom are Catholics.

Authorities in Papua New Guinea had also announced in January his visit, but no trips are considered official until the Vatican confirms.

Papua New Guinea is home to more than nine million Christians -- almost the entire population -- though most Papua New Guineans are Protestant, while retaining many traditional animist beliefs.

A 400-year-old version of the King James Bible, bound in calfskin, sits in the centre of the country's parliament.

The last papal visit was in 1995, when Pope John Paul II was met with tribal dancers adorned with the feathers of exotic birds, grass skirts and loincloths.

Since becoming pope 11 years ago, Francis has made 44 trips abroad, the most recent to Marseille, France, in September.

He has also announced plans to visit Belgium this year, while he has mentioned a possible visit home to Argentina.

Francis also has three coming trips planned within Italy, the first of which will be to Venice on April 28.
AFP | Mexico City

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Mexico filed a lawsuit against Ecuador Thursday at the International Court of Justice over the storming of its embassy in Quito, saying it wanted the South American country "suspended" from the United Nations.

Mexico's complaint asks that Ecuador be suspended from the UN unless it issues a public apology "recognizing the violations of the fundamental principles and norms of international law," Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena said.

The goal was to "guarantee the reparation of the moral damage inflicted on the Mexican state and its nationals," she told a press conference.

Ecuadoran security forces stormed the embassy last Friday to arrest former Ecuadoran vice president Jorge Glas, who is wanted on corruption charges and had been granted asylum by Mexico.

The rare incursion on diplomatic territory sparked an international outcry, and led Mexico to break ties with Ecuador, pulling its diplomats out of the country.

At the same press conference, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the goal of the suit was "that this doesn't repeat itself in any other country in the world, that international law is guaranteed."

Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa has defended the embassy raid as necessary to detain Glas because he posed a flight risk, saying he was willing to "resolve any difference" with Mexico.

- 'Harm caused' -

The Hague-based ICJ -- set up after World War II to rule on disputes between countries -- confirmed late Thursday it had received the application.

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said suspending a country from the UN is "an issue for member states to decide."

"We do very much hope that the tensions between Ecuador and Mexico are dealt with through dialogue," Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.

While a proper hearing into the matter may take several years, Mexico has also asked international judges to hand down "provisional measures" -- a set of emergency orders -- to protect its diplomatic officials.

"The Mexican Embassy in Ecuador, along with its property and archives, faces the risk of not being protected or further being violated again," Mexico said in its application.

- 'Hunger strike' -

Several Latin American states, Spain, the European Union, United States and the UN chief have condemned the embassy intrusion as a violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations.

Latin American leaders will hold a virtual conference next Tuesday to discuss the raid, Honduran President Xiomara Castro said.

They will consider a proposal for the "firm condemnation" of Ecuador's actions and possible sanctions, according to Castro, the current president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

A German foreign ministry source meanwhile confirmed that Glas also has German citizenship.

"We are following Mr Glas's case very closely and are trying to seek direct contact with him through the Ecuadoran authorities," the source told AFP.

Glas, who had already served time on corruption charges, was the subject of a fresh arrest warrant for allegedly diverting funds intended for reconstruction efforts after a devastating earthquake in 2016.

After his capture, Glas, 54, was taken to a maximum security jail in Ecuador's port city of Guayaquil -- notorious for violent riots and drug-related gang violence.

He was later taken to a hospital, with officials saying it was due to his refusal to eat, but he returned to prison on Tuesday.

His friend and former boss Rafael Correa, Ecuador's president between 2007 and 2017, wrote on X Wednesday that Glas was "on a hunger strike" and alleged he had made "a suicide attempt."

Correa lives in exile in Belgium to avoid serving an eight-year corruption sentence in Ecuador, and frequently posts on social media his views of his native country's affairs.

Ecuador's minister of labor filed suit Thursday against Correa, accusing him of "treason" and seeking to have his social media accounts suspended for "exaggerating the situation and issuing messages that put the troops and the civilian population in anxiety."

For his part, Correa responded on X, saying: "Don't be ridiculous, the only one who has betrayed the country and endangered the security of the State is (president) Daniel Noboa."
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

In Bahrain, citizens own 65% of the 83,877 Commercial Registration (CR)s, while non-citizens only account for 16% of the total records. The Minister of Industry and Commerce, H.E. Abdulla bin Adel Fakhro, disclosed this in response to a parliamentary inquiry by MP Hamad Al-Dowai.

Confirming this breakdown, Minister Fakhro specified that out of the total commercial registrations, 54,725 are owned by Bahraini citizens.

Partnerships between Bahraini and non-Bahraini entities comprise 15,730 records, representing 19%.

Moreover, the minister emphasised the presence of 382 commercial activities, allowing foreign individuals to operate without Bahraini partners.

These activities span diverse sectors, including manufacturing, banking, insurance, financial services, information and communications, as well as hospitals and medical centres.

A Commercial Registration certificate (CR) is a legal document issued to investors upon registering their establishment in the Kingdom of Bahrain with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

There are three types of commercial registration certificates issued:

1. Commercial Registration certificate without a licence: issued before obtaining approvals or licences for the business activities.

2. Commercial Registration certificate with the licence: issued after obtaining approvals or licences for the business activities.

3. Virtual Commercial Registration (Sijili): Issued to give small individual enterprises and entrepreneurs the legal status to perform business activities and simplify the procedures for establishing some businesses.




News / National

by Nkululeko Nkomo

Renowned ZANU PF DCC leader and disability rights activist, Gift Mabhaudhi, has recently achieved a major victory in the ongoing battle for fair treatment and accessibility for persons with disabilities in Zimbabwe. Mabhaudhi's diligent lobbying efforts have led to the successful negotiation with the Ministry of Finance to review and ultimately scrap a controversial statutory instrument that imposed taxes on devices used by persons with disabilities. Mabhaudhi was tasked by persons with disabilities from his DCC in Harare Province to act on the matter and ensure that the SI was reversed.The statutory instrument, which initially drew widespread criticism for unfairly burdening individuals already facing significant socio-economic challenges, was set to tax crucial devices such as mobility aids, hearing aids, and communication devices for persons with disabilities. Understanding the detrimental impact this tax could have on the quality of life and independence of individuals with disabilities, Mabhaudhi and the National Disability Dialogue team took proactive measures to advocate for their rights and challenge the government's decision.Through a series of negotiations and advocacy campaigns, Mabhaudhi and the NDD effectively communicated the pressing need to reconsider the taxation policy and underscored the inherent unfairness of taxing essential tools that are vital for the daily functioning and well-being of persons with disabilities. His efforts ultimately culminated in a positive outcome, with the Minister of Finance agreeing to rescind the tax on devices used by persons with disabilities.This significant achievement represents a key milestone in the ongoing fight for inclusion, accessibility, and equity for the disability community in Zimbabwe. Mabhaudhi's dedication to representing and amplifying the voices of persons with disabilities has not only resulted in concrete policy changes but has also set a powerful precedent for future advocacy efforts.Mabhaudhi and the National Disability Dialogue are also fighting for PWDs to be included in agricultural land distribution, mining claims distribution and other economic Empowerment activities that also include the right to self representation in Parliament, Urban and Rural Councils, Cabinet and all levels of government. The team has already made their presentation to the Head of State, President ED Mnangagwa who is now working on ensuring that persons with disabilities are not left behind in National Development issues.In a statement following the successful negotiation, Mabhaudhi on behalf of the National Disability Dialogue expressed gratitude for the Ministry of Finance's willingness to engage in dialogue and reconsider its taxation policy. He emphasized the importance of recognizing and addressing the specific needs and challenges faced by individuals with disabilities and reiterated his commitment to continued advocacy on their behalf.As Zimbabwe moves towards a more inclusive and equitable society, Mabhaudhi's tireless efforts serve as a beacon of hope and inspiration for the disability rights movement. By championing the rights of persons with disabilities and effecting positive change at the policy level, Mabhaudhi exemplifies the transformative impact of grassroots advocacy and collective action in advancing social justice and equality for all.
Anitta is embarking on her first-ever North American tour, and her fans could not be more excited.

Her highly anticipated BAILE FUNK EXPERIENCE will start in the U.S. on May 21 in Los Angeles and will wrap up on June 2 in New York City at the Brooklyn Paramount.

She will then make her way over to Columbia and several other international locations once done in the U.S.

Anitta plans to give her fans a taste of the iconic funk parties in Brazil, which is why she chose intimate venues for her tour.

Currently, fans can find tickets for Anittas tour on StubHub, Vivid Seats, TicketCity, SeatGeek and Ticketmaster.

The cheapest ticket for her New York City concert, before fees and at the time of publication, is $72 on Vivid Seats.

First-time Vivid Seats users can save $20 on ticket orders over $200 by entering promo code NJ20 at checkout.

TicketCity users can save $15 on orders over $400 using promo code TCITYSAVE15 at checkout.

A complete list of Anittas tour dates is available here.

Upcoming 2024 tours

Anitta is not the only artist heading out on tour this year.

Here are a few more tours you do no want to miss out on: Bryson Tiller, Chris Brown, Lionel Richie and Janet Jackson.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Nicole Iuzzolino can be reached at niuzzolino@njadvancemedia.com. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips.
A police officer who fatally shot a man armed with a knife inside a Middlesex County home nearly one year ago will not be criminally charged, a state grand jury ruled Monday.

Police responded to a 911 call regarding a dispute at 3:09 p.m. on April 24 at a home on Woodland Avenue in the Laurence Harbor section of Old Bridge, according to the New Jersey Attorney Generals Office, which investigated the incident.

Old Bridge police Officer Christopher Hammel was met at the door by an unidentified woman, who told him 26-year-old Luke Mendez was upstairs, according to police body-camera footage previously released by the office.

The video shows at least two other people inside the house and they begin having a discussion about whether or not the woman was justified in placing cameras inside the home. One of the other residents can be heard saying the woman was threatening (Mendez) with the cops.

In audio of the 911 call provided by the Attorney Generals Office, the woman can be heard telling police she wants Mendez out of the house.

As the officer calls up the steps for Mendez, he appeared at the top of the staircase and is holding a large knife, the video footage shows. Hammel told him to put it down and when Mendez did not, the officer pulled out his gun and told him to relax.

Put the knife down and get down on the floor, Hammel can be heard saying in the body-cam video. You need to put it down and let me talk to you.

He asked Mendez why he was upset, but he did not answer. The officer continued to try to persuade him to drop the knife for about two minutes before Mendez suddenly ran down the stairs with the knife in his hand.

Hammel fired three shots as Mendez reached the bottom of the steps, the video shows.

Hammel moved the knife away from Mendez, called for backup and medics, and can be seen placing his hands on the gunshot wounds before the video stops.

The video blurred out the faces of several people in the house and parts of the shooting scene.

Mendez was taken to Old Bridge Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 4:47 p.m., authorities said.

State law requires the Attorney Generals Office to investigate the death of a person who is killed during an encounter with police. The actions of the officer are then reviewed and include interviews of witnesses, collection of forensic evidence, review of video footage, and autopsy results from the medical examiner.

The findings of the investigation are then presented to a grand jury to determine if the evidence supports the return of an indictment against the officer or officers involved. In this case, the jury decided that Hammel was justified in shooting Mendez, the office said.

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Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
A man who admitted kidnapping a woman and sexually assaulting her inside a Fairleigh Dickinson dorm room last year was sentenced Friday to 15 years in state prison, authorities said.

On April 9, 2023, Jayshawn E. Moore, 22, of Jersey City, forced the woman into the room, threatened her and then physically and sexually assaulted her over the course of several hours while armed with a knife, the Morris County Prosecutors Office said in a statement.

Moore is not affiliated with the university and the woman he assaulted was known to him, the office said.

Moore was arrested two days later and charged with two counts of kidnapping, four counts of aggravated sexual assault, burglary, terroristic threats and weapons offenses, officials said.

He ultimately pleaded guilty to first degree kidnapping and first degree aggravated sexual assault on Oct. 25, investigators said.

Moore has been held in the Morris County Correctional Facility since his arrest and will now remain in jail until at least 85% of his sentence is spent, the office said. At that time he will be eligible for parole.

Once he is released from jail, he will be registered as a sex offender and will be subject to parole supervision for life, authorities said.

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Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.
News / National

by Mandla Ndlovu

The Monetary Policy statement and other documents indicate that Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) contribute a significant 60% to Zimbabwe's gross domestic product (GDP). This news highlights the immense potential of these enterprises in driving economic growth and job creation. 60% of the nation's GDP is therefore housed under the Monica Mutsvangwa headed Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development.However, despite their substantial contribution, the Ministry of Finance has not allocated sufficient budgetary resources to support the growth and formalization of the MSMES.Disturbingly, a mere 4% of bank loans are directed towards the MSME sector, further exacerbating their struggle for financial support.The absence of a Venture Capital Board on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) or the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX) only compounds the issue. With MSMEs inherently considered more risky by lenders, the lack of a dedicated platform for venture capital and investment further limits their access to funding. This, in turn, hampers their expansion, innovation, and competitiveness in the marketplace.It is imperative that Minister Monica Mutsvangwa takes an innovative approach to address these concerns and support the growth of MSMEs. The sector's potential as a driving force of the economy cannot be overlooked, and thus, stronger policies must be implemented to ensure their sustained development. One key measure would involve establishing a robust and vibrant advisory board that focuses exclusively on MSMEs. This board would provide strategic guidance, expert insights, and recommendations to the Minister, enabling her to make informed decisions that foster growth in this vital sector. While coordinating and engineering necessary structures to support the MSMES sector.While it is commendable that the Ministry emphasizes the women and gender aspect of its operations, it is crucial not to neglect the MSMEs that are now the backbone of Zimbabwe's economy. The Minister needs to strike a balance between promoting gender equality and empowering MSMEs, channeling resources, and attention to both areas equally.Moreover, the lack of financial support for MSMEs is substantially impacting the exchange rate and overall economic stability. By enabling these enterprises to flourish, Minister Monica Mutsvangwa can contribute to the reduction of informal economic activities and promote job creation, ultimately leading to a more stable and robust economic landscape.It is evident that MSMEs are vital not only for economic growth but also for job creation and poverty reduction in Zimbabwe. Minister Monica Mutsvangwa must take immediate action to address the funding disparity, ensure the establishment of a Venture Capital Board, and create a dedicated advisory board that can provide timely and sound advice. Only through these proactive measures can the Minister harness the full potential of MSMEs for the benefit of the nation, its people, and the stability of the economy.
As New Jerseys human residents start to get excited for the summer at the Jersey Shore, the end of beach season is quickly approaching for its canine residents.

The majority of New Jerseys ocean beaches ban dogs during the spring and summer months, with some towns stopping beach access for dogs as early as March 1. Most allow dogs to return in the fall, typically some time between late September and mid-October.

Owners are always required to pick up any dog waste, regardless of the time of year. Unless otherwise noted, leashes should be 6 feet or shorter.

Rules for bay beaches frequently differ from ocean beaches, so make sure to double check bay beach rules before heading out with your pup.

Want to take your dog down the shore? See the rules for each town below.

Asbury Park

Between May 16 - Sept. 14: Dogs are welcome on the dog beach between 6 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. Use the Deal Lake Drive north or Fishermans Parking Lot entrance to reach the beach. Dogs are not allowed on the boardwalk at all.

Between Sept. 15 - May 15: Dogs are welcome at the dog beach at any time, but are still not allowed on other parts of the beach. The boardwalk is open to dogs during the off season.

Leash Rules: Not required for properly supervised dogs on the beach. Required at all times on the boardwalk.

Atlantic City

Memorial Day - Sept. 15: No dogs allowed on the beach or boardwalk.

Sept. 16 - Memorial Day: Dogs are allowed on the beaches.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Avalon

March 1 - Sept. 30: No dogs allowed on beach or boardwalk.

Oct. 1 - Feb. 28: Dogs are allowed on the beach, but not the boardwalk.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Avon-by-The-Sea

May 2 - Sept. 30: Dogs are not allowed on the beach or boardwalk.

Oct. 1 - May 1: Dogs are allowed on the beach, but are not allowed on the boardwalk.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Barnegat Light

April 15 - Sept. 30: Dogs are not allowed on the beach or near the inlet.

Oct. 1 - April 14: Dogs are allowed on the beach.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Bay Head

June 15 - Labor Day: Dogs are not allowed on the beach.

Tuesday after Labor Day - June 14: Dogs are allowed on the beaches.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Beach Haven

May 15 - Sept. 15: Dogs are not allowed on ocean beaches. A small dog beach is located on the bay at Taylor Avenue.

Sept. 16 - May 14: Dogs are allowed on all ocean beaches.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Belmar

May 1 - Sept. 30: Dogs are banned from the beach and boardwalk.

Oct. 1 - April 30: Dogs are allowed on the beach. They are not allowed on the boardwalk.

Leash Rules: Required at all times.

Bradley Beach

May 16 - Sept. 30: Dogs are not allowed on the beach or boardwalk.

Oct. 1 - May 15: Dogs are allowed on the beach, but are not allowed on the boardwalk unless crossing over to get to the beach.

Leash Rules: Unleashed dogs are allowed on the beach during the off season, but must be leashed going to and from the beach.

Brick

Year-round: Dogs are never allowed on the beaches in Brick, regardless of the time of year.

Michele Tadley of Brigantine walks her dog Franklyn on the dog-friendly Beach North beach in Brigantine on Saturday, June 17, 2023.Jim Lowney | For NJ Advance Media

Brigantine

May 30 - Sept. 30: Dogs are allowed on the North End Beach. They are not allowed on the ocean beaches.

Oct. 1 - May 29: Dogs are allowed on all beaches.

Leash Rules: Leashes are always required, including on the North End Beach.

Cape May

April 1 - Oct. 30: Dogs are not allowed on the beach.

Nov. 1 - March 31: Dogs are allowed on the beach.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Cape May Point

March 15 - Oct. 31: Dogs are not allowed.

Nov. 1 - March 14: Dogs are allowed on the beach.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Corsons Inlet State Park

April 1 - Sept. 15: No dogs allowed.

Sept. 16 - March 31: Dogs are allowed on the beach.

Leash Rules: Must be leashed at all times.

Deal

Labor Day - Friday before Memorial Day: Dogs are banned on the beach.

Monday after Labor Day - Memorial Day weekend: Dogs are allowed on the beaches.

Leash Rules: Leashes are required at all times.

Harvey Cedars

May 30 - Sept. 15: Dogs are not allowed on the beach.

Sept. 16 - May 29: Dogs allowed.

Leash Rules: Leashes are always required.

Island Beach State Park

All year: Dogs are not allowed on swimming beaches or inside buildings. They are allowed on all unguarded beaches.

Leash Rules: Must be leashed at all times.

Lavallette

Dogs are never allowed on the beach in Lavallette. They are allowed on the boardwalk outside of bathing season.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Loch Arbour

May 15 - Sept. 15: Dogs are not allowed on the beach.

Sept. 16 - May 14: Dogs are allowed on the beach.

Leash Rules: Leashes are always required.

Long Beach Township

May 16 - Sept. 30: Dogs are not allowed on the beach.

Oct. 1 - May 15: Dogs are allowed on the beaches, except Bayview Park.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Long Branch

May 1 - Sept. 30: Dogs are not allowed on the beach or boardwalk.

Oct. 1 - April 30: Dogs are allowed on the beach, they are not allowed on the boardwalk.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Longport

May 1 - Sept. 30: Dogs are allowed on the beach between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.

Oct. 1 - April 30: Dogs are allowed on the beach at all times.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Manasquan

April 16 - Sept. 30: Dogs are not allowed on the beach or boardwalk.

Oct. 1 - April 15: Dogs are allowed on the beach, but not the boardwalk.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Fishermans Cove (Manasquan)

All year: Dogs are allowed on the east portion of the beach year-round. They must be leashed at all times.

Mantoloking

May 15 - Oct. 1: Dogs are allowed on the beach between sunrise and 10 a.m., and 6 p.m. and sunset. They are not allowed in the North Lagoon area at all.

Oct. 2 - May 14: Dogs are allowed on the beach at all hours.

Leash Rules: Leashes are required during the summer season. Dogs can be off-leash during the off season.

Monmouth Beach

March 15 - Oct. 1: Dogs are banned from any beach where endangered and threatened species have been identified, but are allowed on other beaches.

Saturday before Memorial Day - Labor Day: Dogs are not allowed on any beaches.

Oct. 2 - March 14: Dogs are allowed on the beach.

Leash Rules: Required at all times.

North Wildwood

All year: Dogs are allowed on the beaches between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., and 5:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. There is also a dog park on the east side of the 24th Avenue beach open between 8 a.m. and dusk. A $10 permit is required. They are not allowed on the boardwalk.

Leash Rules: Always required, can be up to 8 feet in length.

Ocean City

May 1 - Sept. 30: Dogs are not allowed on the beach or boardwalk.

Oct. 1 - March 14: Dogs are allowed on the beach, but not the boardwalk.

March 15 - April 30: Dogs are allowed on the beach, except in the area from Longport Bridge to the jetty at Seaspray Road, and between 18th and 34th Streets. They are not allowed on the boardwalk.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Ocean Grove

May 2 - Sept. 30: Dogs are not allowed on the beach or the boardwalk.

Oct. 1 - May 1: Dogs are allowed on the beach, but not the boardwalk.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Ortley Beach

All year: Dogs are never allowed on the beaches.

Sandy Hook

March 16 - Sept. 14: Dogs are allowed on the bayside beaches, but banned on the ocean beaches.

Sept. 15 - March 15: Dogs are allowed on all beaches.

Leash Rules: Required at all times.

Sea Bright

March 15 - May 14: Dogs are allowed on the beach, except areas where there are endangered species. Off limits areas are North Beach between Ship Ahoy Beach Club and the public access stairway at Via Ripa, and South Beach between the Monmouth Beach/Sea Bright border and the Driftwood Beach Club.

May 15 - Sept. 15: Dogs are not allowed on any beaches.

Sept. 15 - March 14: Dogs are allowed on all beaches.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Sea Girt

May 15 - Sept. 15: Dogs are not allowed on the beach.

Sept. 16 - May 14: Dogs are allowed on the beach.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Sea Isle City

May 2 - Sept. 29: No dogs are allowed on the beach.

Sept. 30 - May 1: Dogs are allowed on all beaches.

Leash Rules: Required at all times.

Seaside Heights

All year: Dogs are banned from the ocean beaches and the boardwalk. They are allowed on the bay beach.

Seaside Park

All year: Dogs are never allowed on the beach or boardwalk.

Seven Presidents (Long Branch)

April 1 - Oct. 31: Dogs are not allowed in the park.

Nov. 1 - March 31: Dogs are allowed in the park, including on the beaches.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Ship Bottom

May 1 - Oct. 1: Dogs are not allowed on the beaches.

Oct. 2 - April 30: Dogs are allowed.

Leash Rules: Required at all times.

Spring Lake

May 15 - Sept. 30: Dogs are only allowed in the fenced-in area near Pitney Avenue between sunrise and 9 a.m. They are not allowed on the boardwalk.

Oct. 1 - May 14: Dogs are allowed on all beaches, but not the boardwalk.

Leash Rules: Dogs can be unleashed in the dog park area, but must be leashed everywhere else.

Stone Harbor

Friday before Memorial Day - Labor Day: Dogs are allowed on the beach between 7 p.m. and sunset.

Day after Labor Day - Thursday before Memorial Day: Allowed on the beach at all times.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Strathmere

March 15 - Sept. 15: Dogs are not allowed on the beach.

Sept. 16 - March 14: Dogs are allowed on the beach during this time.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Surf City

May 1 - Sept. 30: Dogs are not allowed.

Oct. 1 - April 30: Dogs are allowed on the beaches at all times.

Leash Rules: Required at all times.

Ventnor

May 15 - Sept. 30: Dogs are allowed on the areas of the beach washed by the high tide line between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Oct. 1 - May 14: Dogs are allowed on the area of the beach washed by the high tide lines at all times.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Wildwood

June 1 - Sept. 30: Dogs are only allowed at the dog friendly park at Glenwood Avenue. They are not allowed on the boardwalk.

Oct. 1 - May 30: Dogs are allowed on the beaches, but not the boardwalk.

Leash Rules: Leashes in the park are optional. They are required everywhere else.

Wildwood Crest

June 1 - Sept. 30: Dogs are not allowed on the beach or boardwalk.

Oct. 1 - May 30: Dogs are allowed on the beach at any time, but not the boardwalk.

Leash Rules: Always required.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.

Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieKausch.
Authorities charged two teenagers Friday in a shooting that left three men wounded in Paterson, said police and the Passaic County Prosecutors Office.

A 16-year-old boy from Paterson and a 16-year-old boy from Clifton were charged with acts of juvenile delinquency that would constitute the crimes of first degree attempted murder, second degree unlawful possession of a weapon, and second degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, if they were adults, the prosecutors office said in a release.

The arrests stem from an early morning shooting on Sept. 3, 2023 in the area of Union Avenue and Jasper Street. Paterson police arrived at 2:40 a.m. and found a 28-year-old Elmwood Park man with an apparent gunshot wound. Officers were told about a second victim, a 33-year-old Paterson man, who also suffered a non-fatal gunshot wound, the prosecutor said.

Both victims were taken to St. Josephs University Medical Center in Paterson. Police learned that a third victim, a 29-year-old male Paterson resident, had been brought to St. Josephs in a private vehicle for treatment of gunshot wounds.

An investigation revealed the two juveniles were responsible for the shooting, the prosecutors office alleged.

The Prosecutors Office is seeking additional information about this incident. Anyone with information can call the tips line at 1-877-370-PCPO or tips@passaiccountynj.org or call the Paterson Police Shooting Investigation Unit at 973-321-1342.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @CommutingLarry
Stormy Daniels is known as many things  a former porn star who says she had sex with former President Donald Trump and was paid $130,000 to keep quiet; a star witness in Trumps hush-money trial that starts Monday with jury selection; and, to MAGA supporters, a Twitter/X assassin known for one-line daggers.

And over the past few days, as she prepares to return to the spotlight in a Manhattan courtroom showdown with Trump, Daniels  who has 1.3 million followers on Twitter alone  has been firing zingers on social media.

In an exchange on Friday, a MAGA supporter wrote, Stormy Daniels is a parasite that would sell anything for a dollar, and Daniels responded, saying, Not true. I wouldnt sell Bibles.

Daniels was mocking the cash-strapped Trump, who last month  just in time for Easter  urged supporters to buy the God Bless the USA Bible for $59.99. Happy Holy Week! Lets Make America Pray Again. As we lead into Good Friday and Easter, I encourage you to get a copy of the God Bless the USA Bible, Trump wrote on social media.

MORE POLITICS:

Fox News hosts begs Biden and Democrats to help Trump

Are voters finally calling B.S. on Trump? Heres latest polling

Marjorie Taylor Greene slapped with brutal nickname by GOP colleague

Daniels swipe at Trumps religion-for-cash scheme was just one of several.

When a MAGA fan wrote, Sad day when fools believe a stripper before they believe the president. Keep sucking up the lies, Daniels responded, Sad day when a stripper is more honest than the (former, impeached, indicted) president ...

When a second Trump fan called her a whore whos on her 4th marriage, Daniels replied, Sounds like I have the credentials to run for president ... my current spouse is even a nude model. Does it still count if I didnt buy him a green card or big kidneys?

On The View, she recently compared Trumps supporters to suicide bombers as they ramp up their attacks.

Theyre more like suicide bombers this time around, where they honestly, truly believe that they are being patriotic and that I am the devil.

She added: And the sad part about it is, or the tricky part, is that I had started to do really well, things had gotten quiet. I had moved, you know, my daughter was able to go back to school and things like that. And then suddenly the indictment happens and all of this stuff. So it was like, 2018 all over again.

When Trump supporters re-surfaced a letter she supposedly wrote, denying the affair, Daniels reminded them that she wrote the letter in order to get paid.
For months, New York Times polls have insisted that Donald Trump held a substantial lead over incumbent Joe Biden in the presidential race  often painting a dismal picture for Democrats and causing widespread freakouts within the party over whether Biden should be replaced as a candidate

But on Saturday morning, the Times polling finally fell in line with other recent surveys, and while it still has Trump barely in the lead  bucking a slew of other recent polls that insist Biden has pulled ahead  the Times survey did admit that Biden has closed the gap of past Times polling.

According to the Times:

President Biden has nearly erased Donald J. Trumps early polling advantage, amid signs that the Democratic base has begun to coalesce behind the president despite lingering doubts about the direction of the country, the economy and his age, according to a new survey by The New York Times and Siena College.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are now virtually tied, with Mr. Trump holding a 46 percent to 45 percent edge. That is an improvement for Mr. Biden from late February, when Mr. Trump had a sturdier 48 percent to 43 percent lead just before he became the presumptive Republican nominee.

Mr. Bidens tick upward appears to stem largely from his improved standing among traditional Democratic voters  he is winning a greater share of voters who supported him in 2020 than he did a month ago. Then, Mr. Trump had secured the support of far more of his past voters compared with the president  97 percent to 83 percent  but that margin has narrowed. Mr. Biden is now winning 89 percent of his 2020 supporters compared with 94 percent for Mr. Trump.

NEW: Biden has nearly erased Trumps early polling advantage, amid signs that the Democratic base has begun to coalesce despite lingering concerns on economy and age.



Trump: 46% (-2)

Biden: 45% (+2)



My write up of the latest NYT/Siena poll> https://t.co/E2ycphhgPr  Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) April 13, 2024

The polling comes just before Trumps historic criminal trial in New York City, the first for a former American president. He faces charges related to falsifying records for a hush-money payment to porn star, Stormy Daniels. The case is one of four involving felony indictments against Trump, but the only one so far with a start date before the November election.

In addition, the polling doesnt take into consideration the recent ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court to reinstitute an 1864 law banning abortion in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Courts overturning of Roe v. Wade. Trump and the GOP are being blamed for womens loss of reproductive rights throughout the country, but the Arizona law  seen as the most draconian  will put the key swing state in play and likely move polls even more in the Democrats direction.

Earlier in the week, Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg posted to X, formerly Twitter, his take on recent polls.

Here's the 20th poll taken in the last few weeks showing Biden ahead. Note that we are now starting to see Biden leads of +2, +3, +4. https://t.co/AAeG8hxr43  Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) April 10, 2024

Time now for stories on how the election is changing, Rosenberg wrote. Biden is gaining ground. Data is clear as day now.

He added: Biden is gaining ground. The Congressional Generic is improving. Dem Senate polling is holding. National landscape for Democrats has gotten better in recent weeks. It is no longer accurate to say Trump leads or is favored.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
A powerful line of severe thunderstorms are expected to move into parts of northwest New Jersey Sunday night, bringing damaging winds up to 70 mph and possibly even an isolated tornado, the National Weather Service said Saturday.

Carbon and Monroe counties in Pennsylvania have been placed in an Enhanced Risk for severe thunderstorms, while a Slight Risk extends across northwest New Jersey and the Lehigh Valley. The storm also calls for a marginal risk down to the I-95 corridor. The line of thunderstorms is projected to approach the Poconos between 5 and 7 p.m. Sunday and moving into northwest New Jersey between 7 and 9 p.m., the NWS said.

Damaging wind gusts up to 60-70 mph are possible, as well as thunderstorms capable of producing frequent cloud to ground lightning. Brief heavy downpours will occur, but the risk of flooding is low due to the speed of the storms.

An isolated tornado cannot be completely ruled out, however the threat is much lower compared to damaging winds, the NWS said.

Our journalism needs your support. Please consider subscribing to NJ.com. Matthew Stanmyre may be reached at mstanmyre@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @MattStanmyre. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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.

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At 67, Luot Nguyen thought she wanted to retire after the stress of the pandemic took its toll. Shed spent a lifetime in the restaurant business.

But after dipping her toe into the world of the formerly employed, Nguyen found the lack of structure just wasnt for her.

The longtime chef is back in the kitchen at her familys latest restaurant, Magasin Vietnamese Cafe, in a new location on Magazine Street, just a block up from where she originally opened a dozen years ago.

Magasin Where 4226 Magazine St. When lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. How dine-in Check it out A casual Vietnamese restaurant reopens on Magazine Street

My mom isnt the type to spend all her time with the grandkids, says her daughter Kim Nguyen, who as a native English speaker runs the business for her mother.

Luot Nguyen came to the U.S. in 1975, like so many Vietnamese immigrants in the waning days of the Vietnam War. She traveled with her aunt, who adopted her when her mother died in childbirth, and the pair landed first in Orange County, California, where they worked in a relatives restaurant. Then they relocated to New Orleans East, where Nguyen eventually opened Golden Lotus, a Chinese-American restaurant. She later added another location on Canal Street, but both closed after Hurricane Katrina.

In 2012, the family opened a combination corner grocery and takeout spot, true to its name, which in French means small store. That first location was 4201 Magazine St.

It was a risk to open a traditional Vietnamese place in that neighborhood, says Kim Nguyen, who also works in real estate. She didnt know how the food would be received.

It was welcomed with open arms.

They expanded with Magasin Kitchen in the CBD in 2016. There they introduced more creative dishes in a space with modern design. That location closed during the pandemic.

Then the family opened Mukbang to focus on Viet-Cajun-style boiled seafood in 2022 on Oak Street. Between high seafood prices, a lack of street traffic and a brutally hot summer, the location floundered. Last fall, Kim Nguyen rebranded Mukbang as Magasin, but business was too inconsistent. With her mom eager to get back in the kitchen, the family returned to open a smaller cafe on Magazine Street in March.

The menu remains essentially the same as the original restaurant, Kim Nguyen says. My mom wants to keep her customers favorites while elevating with a few new dishes, she says.

The cafe offers a solid menu of Vietnamese noodle shop standards, starting with pho offered with brisket, filet, rare steak, chicken and tofu. Lemon grass beef, tofu, chicken and salmon are a few protein options available with vermicelli or rice. Bahn mi sandwiches are made with grilled pork or chicken, char siu pork or fried, marinated tofu.

Chef Shonda Cross brings creative dishes to French Quarter Festival Shonda Cross told us about becoming a chef, starting her business and what's on the menu at French Quarter Fest.

The chef upped her game with some dishes. She makes hand-pulled wide noodles, which are served in a stir-fried shrimp and garlic dish and in a spicy beef noodle soup. One version of her fried potstickers is stuffed with seasoned, chopped squid. Luot Nguyen also played around with firm tofu to get a meaty, umami texture in vegetarian potstickers. She pressed the tofu and mixed it with rice flour to a consistency that will go through a pasta extruder, creating little nibs.

She adds chopped avocado into her fresh spring rolls, giving a creamy finish to the popular appetizer.

As the third generation in the restaurant business, Kim Nguyen never planned to follow her mothers path.

But here I am, she says. She wasnt happy not working in the kitchen. After she took a little break, it seemed like she lost her purpose. I wanted to see her happy again. Its really all she wants to do.
New Orleanians had the chance to soar to new heights  80 feet, to be exact  85 years ago this week when the legendary Zephyr roller coaster debuted at the Pontchartrain Beach amusement park. Newspaper ads called the wooden roller coaster the most daring sensational ride in America.

According to Bryan Batt and Katy Danos book Pontchartrain Beach: A Family Affair, the roller coaster was designed in Dayton, Ohio by the National Amusement Device Company. Batts grandfather, Harry Batt Sr., founder and owner of Pontchartrain Beach, paid a whopping $100,000 for the attraction. He was pictured in the April 15, 1939, Times-Picayune presenting Mrs. A.L. Claverie with a $25 prize for naming the roller coaster the Zephyr. Its Art Deco loading station was designed to resemble the lead car of the Burlington Zephyr train, which ran between Chicago and Denver.

At its highest point, the new Zephyr exceeds 80 feet and at its turn it is expected to attain a speed of more than 80 miles per hour, reported the April 23, 1939, Sunday Item-Tribune. In the same article, Harry Batt Sr. said the ride had been thoroughly tested. Although its one of the most thrilling experiences of its kind, engineers and other experts have examined it minutely and pronounced it safe, he said.

The Zephyr opened to the public on April 23, 1939. Miss New Orleans 1938, Irene Schoenberger, was on hand to christen the coaster with a bottle of champagne.

The Zephyr remained a popular attraction for decades, until Pontchartrain Beachs closure in 1983.
FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump attends a campaign rally in Waterford Township, Mich., Feb. 17, 2024. Trump is holding events Tuesday, April 2, in Grand Rapids, Mich. and Green Bay, Wis., as he pressures President Joe Biden on immigration.
The Duke and Duchess arrived at the Royal Salute Polo Challenge after they announced their new Netflix shows.

Anwar Hussein/Getty Images

Meghan Markle just kicked off the weekend wearing a dress with a chest cutout  and that's not a style move that you'd expect from a royal, even one that's stepped away from her official duties. Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry, arrived at the Grand Champions Polo Club in Wellington, Florida, ahead of the Royal Salute Polo Challenge. It's an annual event that raises money for a cause close to Harry's heart, Sentebale. The organization, which the duke founded in 2006 with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, works to "help children in Africa affected by poverty, inequality and HIV/AIDS," according to People, which published photos of Meghan's cream-colored dress.

The Heidi Merrick dress included a crisscross halter-style bodice that created a cutout at the midriff and a wide, cummerbund waistband, as well as a midi-length A-line skirt with thick box pleats. She finished the look with vintage Chanel earrings, a Valentino bag, and Aquazzura shoes. Attendees also shared video clips of the Sussexes at the event.

Related: I'm Updating My Wardrobe With These Meghan Markle-Inspired Amazon Finds, From $20

Meghan has attended the event several times, including in 2018, when it was held in Windsor.



The polo match in Florida, which also included an appearance by Harry's pal Nacho Figueras, comes just one day after the Sussexes announced that Archewell Productions would be teaming up with Netflix for a pair of new shows, with one centered on polo and the very event that the duo attended today. Filming for the series did take place at the event, People confirmed. Harry and Meghan are set to be credited as executive producers on the series, but will not star in it  though the publication notes that they'll probably appear in it via a cameo or two.



Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage

Related: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's New Reality Shows Are About Cooking and Polo

"Known primarily for its aesthetic and social scene, the series will pull the curtain back on the grit and passion of the sport, capturing players and all it takes to compete at the highest level," a statement about the upcoming project shared.



Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage

Figueras met Harry at a charity match benefiting Sentebale back in 2007 and the two hit it off immediately. The model and polo pro previously told People that noticed Harry's passion for the sport immediately.

"From day one, I saw how committed he was to his charity," Figueras said. "Fast forward 15 years, I've been to Lesotho with him a few times, and I've seen what great work the charity does and how important it is for a lot of kids, how committed he is, how much he really cares about it."



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Read the original article on InStyle.
Fitz in the Community is a podcast attached to this paper and basically does what it says on the tin. I wander around the county talking to anyone about anything which encapsulates the community in which we live.

I usually get wet, as well.

Launched every Monday on the website of this paper, we have already taken in celebrities and sausages, birdwatching, and beer.

You can listen back to all the podcasts at your leisure and thank you for listening as we know so many of you do.

This week I run into an old friend of mine, Simon Drew, artist, and satirist of the highest order.

His shop in Foss Street in Dartmouth is a wonderful cabin of comedy and his magnificent drawings have entertained generations of people who just need a smile. His gallery was founded in 1981 specialising in diverse crafts, ceramics, prints and greeting cards, all with his own slant on life.

He has always enjoyed offbeat humour and ridiculous images normally featuring runner ducks! But the shocking truth behind this man will come out in the podcast.

Ive never had a cup of coffee, he told me quietly but then again, Ive only had six cups of tea in my entire life. The last cup I sipped at was in 1984! More startling revelations to come in the podcast.

The Fishermans Mission is at the heart of our community and this week I caught up with Helen Lovell Smith from the mission to look back at her work on what she has

achieved and who she helps.

At the moment Im doing quite a lot of funeral planning, said Helen on the Brixham waterfront.

The mission can give welfare support, pastoral support and is basically there for any member of the family from the fishing industry who has passed away.

The 12th May has now been marked as National Fishing Remembrance Day. This will be marked for the first time this year. said Helen. It is vitally important and there will be a lot going on at Brixham quayside so contact me at

helenlovell@fishermensmission.org.uk

The Army Benevolent Fund have a special event each year at Exeter Cathedral raising money for this military charity. I met with events Executive for The ABF, Philip Hutchens at Wyvern Barracks in Exeter.

Philip is a former member of the Coldstream Guards and on April 22 will be welcoming down the Band of the Coldstream Guards to the Exeter Corn Exchange.

This is not the first time that I have seen the guards in Exeter, in fact I have seen the regiment more in Devon than I have in London but why?

The founder of the regiment was actually born in Merton in North Devon, said Philip in his offices at the barracks.

General George Monck raised the army in Coldstream in the Scottish boarders and marched to London to assist Cromwell. However, he did change sides and without him, we wouldnt have the monarchy as we have it today.

Fitz in the Community, a podcast coming to your community  why not get in touch?
Napoleon, OH (43545)

Today

Cloudy with occasional rain showers. High near 60F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 45F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
GARY  Two female attorneys, both living in Gary, are competing at the May 7 primary election for the Democratic nomination in Indiana House District 3.

State Rep. Ragen Hatcher, D-Gary, has represented the district  which includes portions of Gary, Hobart, Lake Station and New Chicago  for six years, while Heather McCarthy, attorney for the city of Hobart, believes the district's 68,000 residents need a different voice speaking for their interests at the Statehouse.

The candidates agreed more than they disagreed on key issues Thursday night during a well-attended, one-hour debate at the Gary Public Library and Cultural Center, sponsored by Lakeshore Public Media, the Calumet Area League of Women Voters and Rise NWI.

But Hatcher, the daughter of former Gary Mayor Richard Gordon Hatcher, distinguished herself by repeatedly referencing her personal experience working to advance or halt legislation in the Indiana House, as well as during her tenure on the Gary Common Council.

For example, Hatcher explained a good deal of her work in the Republican-controlled House is "playing defense" to stop proposals, often championed by rural lawmakers, that likely would have a negative impact on urban and suburban residents of Northwest Indiana, or to modify the proposals in a way that produces a win-win for Hoosiers no matter where they live.

"It's our job, as the representative of those areas that may be negatively impacted, to not only talk to that other legislator, but explain to them why the legislation may hurt our community," Hatcher said. "That takes reaching across the aisle, working with Republicans, and working with those who may not understand what happens in Northwest Indiana."

"Much of my time in the Statehouse is spent explaining issues in Northwest Indiana and how we are so different than much of the rest of the state."

McCarthy, on the other hand, emphasized her interest as state representative in working closely with local leaders in each community in the district to truly understand their needs, and then taking steps to see those needs are met through legislative action.

If elected, McCarthy said she would host quarterly meetings to keep in touch with every community, particularly to promote cooperation on economic development issues that results in benefits rebounding beyond the boundaries of each city or town.

"District 3 is such a diverse community, there's so many different issues, different challenges that we face," McCarthy said. "I truly believe in inclusive government and that all voices should be heard, and being accessible to that, and I think that's one of the key points that a state legislator should prioritize in their role."

"I've worked very hard locally in the district for the municipalities, serving clients. I now want to do that hard work at the state level."

On specific policy issues, Hatcher and McCarthy both expressed opposition to a new state law requiring 3rd graders unable to pass the state's reading test to repeat 3rd grade a second time with limited exceptions.

Hatcher said it's unfair to subject 3rd graders to a high-stakes reading test when Indiana doesn't even require students to attend school until age 7  meaning a student could show up in 1st grade completely unable to read, or not even knowing the different letters and numbers.

To prevent that, Hatcher wants kindergarten mandated for all Indiana students, and no-cost preschool available to every 3- and 4-year-old: "We have a multibillion dollar rainy day fund in the state of Indiana and we need to start using that money for these types of programs for our children," she said.

McCarthy said student literacy is an essential component of a community's economic development, but she also believes retaining a struggling student in 3rd grade is not the answer.

"I think we need to provide support and stability for the families. And we need to pay qualified teachers. But we can't expect them to do everything. We need support and resources in the schools," McCarthy said. "How do we get those resources and how do we make sure that we have them for all our children? That's the issue, and I'm willing to go to the state to fight for that."

The candidates also both oppose Indiana's near-total abortion ban, support the placement of a possible Lake County convention center in the district, favor policies restoring local control of the formerly cash-strapped Gary Community School Corp., and want to explore the legalization of at least medicinal marijuana in the Hoosier State.

They said there's little the General Assembly can do concerning the pending sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel. But Hatcher and McCarthy suggested if the sale goes through, it would be the perfect opportunity to reexamine the property tax benefits provided to U.S. Steel by Indiana and to redirect those funds to the city of Gary instead of a foreign corporation.

"It's not a question, it must change. We must work on that this upcoming session to make sure that U.S. Steel is paying its fair share of property taxes to Gary so we can do all the things needed with public safety, streets and other issues within the community," Hatcher said.

McCarthy said it's important all taxpayers pay their fair share. Though she's also interested in Northwest Indiana opting into federal programs enacted by Democratic President Joe Biden supporting the development of quantum computing and other high technology enterprises.

"There's no reason why District 3 can't take advantage of some of those opportunities," McCarthy said.

Hatcher, meanwhile, said Indiana's weak pollution prevention laws make her skeptical of any new big industrial developments and she is encouraging communities in the district to use their zoning authority to keep them out.

"We want to make sure that not one more industrialized company comes into District 3," Hatcher said.

The 3rd District Indiana House seat has been controlled by Democrats for decades. Hatcher succeeded now-Lake County Councilman Charlie Brown, D-Gary, when she first was elected to represent the district in 2018.

No Republican currently is seeking the GOP nomination to compete in the general election, so the winner of the May 7 Democratic primary likely will earn a two-year term serving the district.

Northwest Indiana 2024 primary election early voting sites, hours Lake County Government Center, 2293 N. Main St., Crown Point Judge Lorenzo Arredondo Justice Center, 3711 Main St., East Chicago Gary Public Library, 220 W. 5th Ave., Gary Lake County Courthouse, 232 Russell St., Hammond Hobart Police and Community Center, 705 E. 4th St., Hobart Lowell Town Hall, 501 E. Main St., Lowell Munster Town Hall, 1005 Ridge Rd., Munster Schererville Town Hall, 10 E. Joliet St., Schererville St. John Township Assessor's Office, 9157 Wicker Ave., St. John Wicker Park Breezeway, 8554 Indianapolis Blvd., Highland Winfield Government Center, 10645 Randolph St., Winfield Duneland YMCA Healthy Living Campus, 651 W. Morgan Ave, Chesterton Hebron Community Center, 611 N. Main St., Hebron NIRPC Building, 6100 Southport Rd., Portage North Porter County Government Complex, 3560 Willowcreek Road, Portage Porter County Administration Building, 155 Indiana Ave., Valparaiso Union Township Fire Station #2, 267 N. 600 W., Valparaiso Valparaiso Fire Training Center, 355 Evans Ave., Valparaiso 302 W. 8th Street, Michigan City, IN 46360 LaPorte County Fairgrounds Small Project Building, 2851 W. State Road 2, LaPorte Wills Township Community Center, 6981 E. 350 N., Rolling Prairie Wanatah Town Hall, 104 N. Main St., Wanatah
CROWN POINT  Professionals who help abused children in the legal system linked arms Friday afternoon to acknowledge their young charges during the annual Pinwheels for Prevention event.

Lake County Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA, hosts the event each year during April, which is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

"Pinwheels are emblematic of the innocence and joys of childhood and have been used to recognize our youth since the inception of National Child Abuse Prevention Month in 1983," according to a statement released by the county.

CASA is a nonprofit that works to advocate for abused and neglected children in the juvenile court system.

Advocates and other workers from the Indiana Department of Child Services gathered at the Lake County Juvenile Justice Complex to "acknowledge the children who have suffered abuse at the hands of parents or caregivers; celebrate the resilience of children who have triumphed notwithstanding abuse that they may have suffered; to inform the community that child abuse is preventable and to encourage youth workers to continue to be the voice for children and to continue to work diligently to 'Change a Childs Story,' the statement said.

Prevent Child Abuse America introduced the blue pinwheel in 2008 as the national symbol for child-abuse prevention.
The Southland Development Authority recently released a market report to encourage in investment in the 45 cities, villages and other municipalities in Chicago's south suburbs.

The "2023 Market Report & Prospectus" charts growth, employment, transportation and spending data. Meant to appeal to prospective investors, it suggests that "the south suburbs are on the rise and ripe for new investments."

The south suburbs of Chicago have been overlooked for far too long. After decades of private and commercial divestments, big business closures, disparities in government-funded infrastructure and general economic inequality, this Lookbook shines a bright light on the opportunities that are right here in our backyard, said Bo Kemp, CEO of the Southland Development Authority.

The nonprofit Southland Development Authority, which was launched by business, civic and government leaders in 2019, released the 156-page guide that highlights local real estate opportunities in the Southland between the Indiana state line to the east and Orland Park and Mokena to the west, stretching as far south as Beecher and Peotone and as far north as inner-ring suburbs bordering Chicago like Blue Island, Alsip and Calumet Park. It's meant to help inform property developers, real estate professionals and business people, guiding them toward potential investments.

The report found office inventory grew by 0.3% or 34,251 square feet to 13.1 million last year. It had an occupancy rate of 94.1% and average rent of $20.24.

Retail space has declined by 0.1% or 21,525 square feet to 42.7 million square feet since 2018. The occupancy rate was 92.2% and the average rent was $15.70.

The Southland has 31,922 residential rental units with an occupancy rate of 95.8% and an average rental rate of $1.48 per square foot. Overall, the Southland has an estimated 750,000 residents or about 500 per square mile.

Industrial space has grown by 7.7 million square feet or 9% to 42.7 million square feet over the past five years. The average occupancy rate is 92.2% while the average rent is $15.70 per square foot.
Eleanor Coppola, a documentary filmmaker and artist who called herself an observer at heart  a description borne out through works chronicling the cinematic triumphs and ordeals of her husband, Francis Ford Coppola, and their daughter, Sofia Coppola  died on Friday at her home in Rutherford, Calif. She was 87.

Her family announced the death in a statement, which did not state a cause.

Ms. Coppolas career as a documentarian began when her husband asked her to record the production of Apocalypse Now, his 1979 exegesis of the Vietnam War that took so long to make, some began calling it Apocalypse Never. By then, Mr. Coppola was Hollywood royalty on the strength of his first two Godfather movies. But with Apocalypse Now, he stumbled.

He came close to going broke as the movie, its roots in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness, ran way over budget and over schedule. Filming was slowed by steady rains on location in the Philippines, which served as a stand-in for Vietnam. A typhoon destroyed movie sets. Major parts of the script were written on the fly. Marlon Brando was overweight and underprepared for his role as a deranged Green Beret colonel. To top it all off, the films principal actor, Martin Sheen, had a heart attack during the shooting.
Shortly after congressional leaders met with Japans prime minister in Speaker Johnsons ceremonial office in the Capitol on Thursday morning, the conversation turned to Ukraine aid.

Mr. Johnson was in the middle of another agonizing standoff with the ultraconservatives in his conference, after they had blocked legislation to extend a major warrantless surveillance law that is about to expire. His chief Republican antagonist, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, had intensified her threat to oust him. But on Ukraine, he offered his counterparts an assurance.

Were going to get this done, he vowed.

His comments, confirmed by multiple people familiar with the meeting, were consistent with what Mr. Johnson has been saying for weeks, both publicly and privately: that he intends to ensure the House will move to assist Ukraine, a step that many members of his party oppose.

Even as right-wing Republicans have sought to ratchet up pressure on their speaker, Mr. Johnson has continued to search for a way to win the votes to push through a Ukraine aid. He is battling not only stiff resistance to the idea among House Republicans, but also mounting opposition among Democrats to sending unfettered military aid to Israel given the soaring civilian death toll and humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza.
Before visitors step into any gallery at the 2024 Venice Biennale, which opens April 20, Indigenous artists will have made their presence known.

A collective of painters from the Brazilian Amazon, MAHKU (Movimento dos Artistas Huni Kuin), will cover the facade of the central exhibition hall with an intricate mural. Inuuteq Storch, the first Greenlandic and Inuk artist to represent Denmark at the international art festival, will erect a sign reading Kalaallit Nunaat, or Greenland above the pavilions entrance. (Greenland has been a self-governing country within the Danish Realm since 1979. )

The Brazil Pavilion nearby has been renamed the Hahawpua Pavilion  one of many terms that Indigenous people use to describe the territory that, after colonization, became Brazil. There is a very political aspect to the Indigenous presence in an artistic space like the Venice Biennale, said Denilson Baniwa, the Hahawpua Pavilions co-curator. Our aim is to rewrite history and add a new chapter to art history.

Beyond the United States Pavilion, which features the art of Jeffrey Gibson, the Venice Biennale offers a taste of the wide range of work produced by Indigenous, First Nations and Native artists around the globe. Here are some highlights.
Bowen Yang had just played an overcompensating straight guy opposite Sydney Sweeney on Saturday Night Live. But in a video call from his Brooklyn apartment, he was all about Hot White Heist, his queer action-comedy audio series on Audible.

Last season, he was the voice of the fortune teller Judy Fink, who with his squad of misfits went after a government sperm bank.

In Season 2, Judy and his coalition are living in bliss on their private island, Lesbos 2. That is, until a true-crime podcaster comes nosing around. Series veterans including Cynthia Nixon, Jane Lynch, Cheyenne Jackson and Tony Kushner are joined by Raul Esparza, Sara Ramirez, Ian McKellen and Trixie Mattel.

It revolves around these really poignant themes about community and the smallest unit of queerness being two people, said Yang, who also hosts the pop-culture podcast Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers.
Don Wright, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist whose pointed work punctured duplicity and pomposity and resonated with common-sense readers, died on March 24 at his home in Palm Beach, Fla. He was 90.

His death was confirmed by his wife, Carolyn Wright, a fellow journalist.

In a 45-year career, Mr. Wright drew some 11,000 cartoons for The Miami News, which folded in 1988, and then The Palm Beach Post, where he worked until he retired in 2008. But he reached a readership far beyond Florida: His cartoons appeared in newspapers nationwide through syndication.

Mr. Wrights readers knew where he stood, and especially what he was against, whether it was the Vietnam War; Israels military support for the pro-apartheid regime in South Africa (he depicted a menorah with missiles in place of candles); sexual abuse by clergymen; the John Birch Society, the anti-Communist fringe group; and racial segregationists, notably the violent Ku Klux Klan.
For anyone with sincere and absolute convictions on abortion, pro-life or pro-choice, Donald Trumps attempts to reposition himself this week should be somewhere between depressing and infuriating.

For pro-lifers, the problem is the cynicism  the reminder that Trump is purely transactional in his relationship to their ideals, a lousy spokesman for the cause of unborn human life and a willing betrayer when politics requires it.

For pro-choicers, the problem is the chutzpah  the man who did so much to overturn Roe v. Wade trying to disavow responsibility for its policy consequences.

But Trumps cynicism is also one of his political strengths. What he does crudely, with naked calculation and comic transparency, is what successful politicians used to do more normally: triangulate between your base and the general public, make showy moves to reassure swing voters that youre not just an ideologue, suggest that youre willing to negotiate when public opinion is against you.
Ahead of the release of Civil War, the new alt-history action-drama from the director Alex Garland, A24, the studio that produced the film, released a map of the United States showing the lines of the conflict. There was the New Peoples Army of the Pacific Northwest, the Mountain West and some of the Great Plains. There were the Western Forces of Texas and California. And there was the Florida Alliance, encompassing most of the Southeast. What remained was labeled the Loyalist States.

This little bit of information spurred a torrent of speculation on social media about the political contours of the film. What, exactly, were the stakes of the conflict? How, precisely, did the country come to war in the world of the movie? In what universe do the people of California find common cause with the people of Texas? The scenario wasnt just far-fetched; it seemed nonsensical. And it did not help that in interviews, Garland took a pox on both their houses approach when asked about the relationship between his film and contemporary political life. Its polarization, he said. You could see that everywhere. And you could see it getting magnified.

I saw Civil War a few weeks ago at a screening in Charlottesville. I had no particular expectations, but I was interested to see if the film would try to flesh out its world. It is not a spoiler to say that, well, it didnt.

Garland and his collaborators make no attempt to explain the war. They make no attempt to explain the politics of the war. They make no attempt to explain anything about the world of the film. There are hints  allusions to the precipitating crisis and the contours of the conflict. In one scene, a television broadcast refers to the presidents third term. In another, a soldier or paramilitary whose allegiances are unclear, executes a hostage who isnt the right kind of American. In another sequence, we see a male soldier  an insurgent fighting the government  sporting colored hair and painted fingernails.
The suffering of civilians in Gaza  tens of thousands dead, many of them children; hundreds of thousands homeless, many at risk of starvation  has become more than a growing number of Americans can abide. And yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his ultranationalist allies in government have defied American calls for more restraint and humanitarian help.

The U.S. commitment to Israel  including $3.8 billion a year in military aid, the largest outlay of American foreign aid to any one country in the world  is a reflection of the exceptionally close and enduring relationship between the two countries. A bond of trust, however, must prevail between donors and recipients of lethal arms from the United States, which supplies arms according to formal conditions that reflect American values and the obligations of international law.

Mr. Netanyahu and the hard-liners in his government have broken that bond, and until it is restored, America cannot continue, as it has, to supply Israel with the arms it has been using in its war against Hamas.

The question is not whether Israel has the right to defend itself against an enemy sworn to its destruction. It does. The Hamas attack of Oct. 7 was an atrocity no nation could leave unanswered, and by hiding behind civilian fronts, Hamas violates international law and bears a major share of responsibility for the suffering inflicted on the people in whose name it purports to act. In the immediate aftermath of that attack, President Biden rushed to demonstrate Americas full sympathy and support in Israels agony. That was the right thing to do.
Melissa Kirsch and

On Friday, Civil War was released in theaters across the United States and Britain. Written and directed by Alex Garland, the film imagines a future in which America is at war with itself and four journalists must risk their lives to travel to the White House and interview the president.

Melissa Kirsch, deputy editor of Culture & Lifestyle, talks with The Timess chief film critic, Manohla Dargis, about how Garland created a unique sense of discomfort and why she made Civil War a Critics Pick.
On This Weeks Episode:

A look back at O.J. Simpsons attempt to reboot his media career, plus more stories about knowing the right moment for something to happen.

This is a rerun of an episode that first aired in August 2015.

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Xavier Cruz and JP Gomez, a married gay couple, knew discrimination against the L.G.B.T.Q. community had become widespread. But as owners of Barba Grooming Boutique, a salon in Manhattan, they thought their industry was largely immune.

So in 2016, when they read a story about a trans man suing a California barbershop for denying him a haircut, they were spurred to action: With the help of Terri & Sandy, an ad agency, the two set up Strands for Trans, a nonprofit group that maps salons and barbershops that have explicitly pledged their support for transgender clients.

Mr. Cruz, 55, and Mr. Gomez, 37, initially called locations in New York asking if they would join, receiving some welcome publicity from their friend the fashion designer Marc Jacobs. But finding businesses in some areas proved more challenging. After two weeks (and hundreds of calls), the couple was able to recruit at least one member in each state.
In December 1994, investigators from the Los Angeles County prosecutors office drilled open a safe deposit box that had belonged to Nicole Brown Simpson. In it, they found Polaroids of her with a battered face and letters from O.J. Simpson apologizing for abusing her.

The message in the box was clear, wrote Marcia Clark, the lead prosecutor in the bombshell trial of Mr. Simpson for Ms. Brown Simpsons murder, in a book about the case. In the event of my death, look for this guy.

These pieces of evidence were presented in a trial that captivated the nation, showing the public a pattern of abuse and control in horrifying detail.

It was kind of like America was learning about domestic violence all at once, said Stephanie Love-Patterson, a consultant for Connections for Abused Women and Their Children, an organization in Chicago that provides support for victims of domestic violence.
A $9,000 designer sweater made out of the ultrarare fur of a South American animal called a vicuna is not exactly a typical area of focus for a member of the U.S. Congress.

But when Representative Robert Garcia, a first-term California Democrat and the first Peruvian-born person to serve in the House, saw reports that the luxury design house Loro Piana was not fairly compensating Indigenous workers in Peru who source the rare wool in some of its priciest knit clothing, he decided to use his position to make some noise.

As the first Peruvian American member of Congress and co-chair of the Congressional Peru Caucus, I write regarding concerning reports about the sourcing of vicuna wool by Loro Piana, a subsidiary of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, he wrote to company executives last month.

He demanded that the fashion house  whose products including shirts, scarves and coats can cost anywhere from $500 to $30,000  explain how it could raise its prices so steeply while steadily reducing the amount it was paying the people who harvest the raw materials for it.
The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia will travel to China on Sunday, the State Department announced, just days after President Biden met with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines in Washington as part of a broad diplomatic outreach in the region to counter Chinas aggression.

Daniel J. Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, will travel with Sarah Beran, Mr. Bidens top China adviser on the National Security Council. They will be in China until Tuesday, meeting with officials as part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and to responsibly manage competition, according to a statement from the State Department.

Chinas moves in the Indo-Pacific region were a focus at the White House this week during a three-day state visit by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan that ended with a first-ever three-way summit with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines. That nation has borne the brunt of Chinas intimidation campaign in the South China Sea.

Tensions between China and the United States have recently increased amid concern that China might begin a conflict over Taiwan, and because the United States is treaty-bound to defend the Philippines.
Thousands of protesters gathered in the capital of Niger on Saturday called for the withdrawal of U.S. armed forces personnel stationed in the West African nation, only days after Russia delivered its own set of military equipment and instructors to the countrys military.

The demonstration in the capital, Niamey, fit a well-known pattern in some countries in the region, run by military juntas, that have severed ties with Western nations in recent years and turned to Russia instead to fight extremist insurgencies.

U.S. Army, you leave, you move, you vanish, read one sign brandished by a protester. No bonus, no negotiation.

About 1,000 American military personnel are stationed at a remote drone base in Nigers desert, from which they fly drones tracking movements of extremist groups in Niger and throughout the region.
Narendra Modi once looked up to China. As a business-friendly Indian state leader, he traveled there repeatedly to attract investment and see how his country could learn from its neighbors economic transformation. China, he said, has a special place in my heart. Chinese officials cheered on his march to national power as that of a political star.

But not long after Mr. Modi became prime minister in 2014, China made clear that the relationship would not be so easy. Just as he was celebrating his 63rd birthday by hosting Chinas leader, Xi Jinping  even sitting on a swing with him at a riverside park  hundreds of Chinese troops were intruding on Indias territory in the Himalayas, igniting a weekslong standoff.

A decade later, ties between the worlds two most populous nations are almost completely broken. Continued border incursions flared into a ferocious clash in 2020 that threatened to lead to all-out war. Mr. Modi, a strongman who controls every lever of power in India and has expanded its relations with many other countries, appears uncharacteristically powerless in the face of the rupture with China.
The stabbing attack in a Sydney shopping center that left at least six people dead on Saturday was Australias worst act of mass violence since 2017, when a driver killed six people by deliberately plowing his car into pedestrians in Melbourne.

In a country where mass stabbings and shootings are rare  in part because of strict gun laws  the latest attack has horrified Australians.

Here is how it compares to other acts of mass violence in the country in recent years:

June 2019: A gunman killed four people in a shooting spree across the main business district of Darwin, in the Northern Territory.

January 2017: A man with drug-induced psychosis drove his car into a busy shopping street in Melbournes central business district, killing six people and injuring more than 20 others.

December 2014: A gunman held 18 people hostage in a cafe in Sydneys central business district. The standoff with the police, which lasted 16 hours, ended with the deaths of two hostages and the gunman. The authorities later labeled it a terrorist attack.

November 2011: Fourteen people died when a nurse set fire to a nursing home in Quakers Hill, near Sydney.

April 1996: Australias worst mass shooting occurred at Port Arthur, Tasmania, when a gunman killed 35 people. Just weeks later, the countrys leaders brought in strict gun laws.
A stabbing attack on Saturday afternoon at a crowded mall in Sydney, Australia, left six people dead and at least 11 others injured, including a 9-month-old girl. The rampage was the deadliest act of mass violence in the country since 2017.

The authorities said that the attacker, who was identified on Sunday as Joel Cauchi, 40, was shot and killed by a police officer.

Two days after the mall stabbing, a man was arrested and accused of stabbing multiple people during a live streamed Mass at a church west of Sydney.

Heres what we know so far.

What happened in Sydney?

The attack happened at Westfield Bondi Junction, a popular shopping center about a mile away from the famous Bondi Beach, in Sydneys affluent eastern suburbs.
Witnesses to the stabbings at a mall in a Sydney, Australia, on Saturday described a scene of terror as shoppers fled from the knife-wielding man or huddled in stores as panic spread through the shopping center.

Some shoppers hid inside as alarms blared. Others ran out, screaming as they passed by bodies on the floor.

When Gavin Lockhart, 37, saw people running as he sat inside a coffee shop at the mall, there was a moment of confusion. Is it a celebrity? he first thought. Is it because of a gunman?

Then he fled when he heard, Hes got a knife! Hes got a knife!

He followed the coffee shops owner, Michael Dunkley, 57, who also brought his wife, who was cooking, and two baristas into a staffroom where they could lock the door. Mr. Dunkley said afterward that just one thought was in his mind when the screaming began: I have to get my wife and staff to safety.

Mr. Dunkley left the room to try to chase down the attacker, whom he described as a thin man with a beard and short hair, wearing dark green pants and a green jersey.

Then, Mr. Dunkley recounted, he saw a police officer attempt to stop the assailant. When the officer told the man to put his knife down, he lunged toward her with his weapon, the cafe owner said.
For months, Western governments have provided military support for Israel while fending off accusations that their weapons were being used to commit war crimes in Gaza. But as a global outcry over the growing death toll in Gaza mounts, maintaining that balance is becoming increasingly difficult, as was clear on a single day this past week.

On Tuesday, in a United Nations court, Germany found itself having to defend against accusations that it was complicit in genocide against Palestinians in Gaza by exporting weapons to Israel.

A few hours later, in Washington, a top Democrat and Biden administration ally, Representative Gregory W. Meeks of New York, said he might block an $18 billion deal to sell F-15 fighter jets to Israel unless he was assured that Palestinian civilians would not be indiscriminately bombed.

And two miles away, at a media briefing at the State Department, Britains foreign minister, David Cameron, was pressed on what his government had concluded after weeks of internal review about whether Israel has breached international humanitarian law during its offensive in Gaza.
Iranian forces seized a container ship with links to Israel in the Persian Gulf on Saturday, as leaders in the Middle East and beyond watched for a retaliatory strike by Iran against Israel.

MSC, a major shipping company, said on Saturday that the MSC Aries, which is registered in Portugal, had been boarded by Iranian authorities via helicopter as it passed the Strait of Hormuz.

A video shared by Iranian state media showed a military helicopter hovering above what appeared to be the stern of the ship, with at least two soldiers descending a rope onto the deck.

The soldiers were part of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, according to IRNA, the state news agency.
An Israeli teenager whose disappearance had led to riots by Israeli settlers in the West Bank was found dead on Saturday, the Israeli authorities said, threatening to further inflame tensions in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Dozens of Israelis and Palestinians were wounded during clashes at several locations across the West Bank later on Saturday, the Israeli military said in a statement. Israeli extremists stormed at least two villages in the territory, attempting to burn Palestinian property and clashing with residents, according to Palestinian witnesses.

Binyamin Achimair, 14, had left a farming settlement in the West Bank to herd sheep on Friday morning, but never returned, according to the Israeli police. The Israeli forces later found his corpse, and the military said, without providing evidence, that he had been murdered in a terrorist attack.

After Binyamins disappearance on Friday, armed Israeli settlers stormed a Palestinian village near Ramallah, torching several buildings and cars, according to Palestinian officials and Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group. One Palestinian man  Jihad Abu Aliya  was killed during the clashes and at least 25 others wounded, according to the village mayor, Amin Abu Aliya.
Gardai in Dublin have seized almost 500,000 in cash and arrested one woman, dealing a "significant blow to an organised criminal group

As part of ongoing intelligence-led investigations targeting serious and organised crime in the Dublin Region, officers from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) arrested a woman in her 40s in the Dublin 2 area for an alleged offence, contrary to Section 72 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2006, this Friday, April 12.

During the operation, approximately half a million euros in cash, along with a vacuum packing machine and documentation, were recovered.

The woman is currently detained at a Garda Station in the Dublin Region, pursuant to the provisions of Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2007, allowing for a maximum detention period of seven days.

Following the operation, Assistant Commissioner Justin Kelly, head of Serious & Organised Crime, stated: 'This seizure of approximately half a million euros in cash is a significant blow to an organised criminal group."

"I commend the hard work and dedication of all the Gardai involved in this operation. Such work demonstrates An Garda Siochana's commitment to disrupting criminal networks and preventing money laundering.

"The seizure of substantial quantities of cash is a priority for the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Unit (GNDOCB), as cash often underpins and enables the activities of criminal organisations," Commissioner Kelly continued.

Investigations are ongoing.
BEFORE a packed group of supporters in the Phoenix Bar in Tullamore tonight, Cllr Tony McCormack launched his campaign for re-election to Offaly County Council.

The Fianna Fail representative is defending a seat in the Tullamore Electoral Area which he won at the last local election in 2019 having served on the former Tullamore Town Council prior to that.

I've been a councillor here for 12 years and have been involved in some fantastic projects. Work as a councillor is never dull and it's a busy job, he said.

We deal with everything from potholes to major infrastructure projects and everything else in between. I've enjoyed helping to shape our community and helping those most vulnerable in our county.

He listed many of the positive developments in Tullamore and Offaly in the last few years, including the capital investment pledged by the Government for a hospice in the county town.

The councillor also said over 300 houses had been given to families over the last 18 months around the county but more were needed.

He stressed that on Monday he will be proposing to Offaly County Council that modular houses will be built to provide much needed homes.

He highlighted the need for a new N52 road link between Tullamore and Kilbeggan for safety reasons and reminded his audience that he had accompanied Durrow people to Dublin to meet junior minister Jack Chambers and Tanaiste Micheal Martin to lobby for the road.

He mentioned last year's opening of the Esker Arts Centre, where he performed on stage this year himself; the street enhancement programme in Tullamore and the changes to O'Connor Square; and the Grand Canal Greenway and its car parks.

The councillor pointed to his active involvement in Tullamore Chamber strategic group, his work as chair of Offaly Innovation and Design Centre, his past presidency of Tullamore Chamber of Commerce from 2009 to 2011 and Midlands Gateway Chamber in 2014 saying they demonstrated his proactive approach towards addressing the challenges of ensuring Tullamore continues to have a healthy environment for businesses, local indigenous and international.

He said there were 10 businesses and 40 people employed in the Junction innovation centre and recalled how he had started his own business, Print Plus, 22 years ago and it now employed 16 people.

I'm lucky that I have a brilliant team which has allowed me to pursue my political aspirations.

Concentrating on his involvement in politics, he said former Taoiseach Brian Cowen had been a great influence on him and he also paid tribute to the help he received from Deputy Barry Cowen and all his councillor colleagues.

He thanked Fianna Fail executive members of cumainn, the Comhairle Ceantair and the Comhairle Dail Ceantair, and his canvassers and his director of elections Peter Waters.

He also thanked his family, Joan, Sean and Jacob, his mother, his late father, his sisters and brother and all other extended family members for always believing in him and supporting him.

The councillor also offered his condolences to his last director of elections PJ Lynam on the passing of his brother Aidan and to Paddy Dunican's family and friends on his untimely passing.

Paddy Dunican was president of the Rotary Club, an organisation of which Cllr McCormack is an active member, and was always a great Fianna Fail man who never missed an Ard Fheis.

Cllr McCormack said it had been a pleasure to work for all the people of Tullamore, Clara, Killeigh, Durrow, Blueball, Mountbolus, Rahan, The Island, Cappincur, Ballinamere, Mucklagh and all the other areas in the Tullamore Municipal District and county.

The launch event was opened by Kerry-based Fianna Fail Senator Mark Daly who said there were just 49 days to the election but polling day would follow five years of work by councillors like Tony.

We're the largest party in local government and we want to make sure we grow and get bigger and we do that by not only retaining the seats that we have like Tony's and the other seats we have in Offaly and throughout the local authorities around the country.

Senator Daly appealed to all supporters to ask at least one person every day to vote for Cllr McCormack.

The more people who ask for votes for the candidate the more votes the candidate gets. It's as simple as that.

The senator said Ireland had its own democracy for over 100 years and at a time when democracy was under threat, it is very important that good leaders are elected.

Ireland is in the unique position of being one of just 12 countries that have been continuous democracies for the last 100 years, he stressed.

The launch was attended by Cllr Declan Harvey, who is also seeking re-election in the Tullamore Electoral Area, and two Fianna Fail councillors who are retiring, Cllr Danny Owens and Cllr Eamon Dooley. Deputy Cowen was unable to attend because he was at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis.
After years of planning, a statue honoring the late Vel Phillips, Wisconsins first woman and first African American elected to statewide office and first Black judge, is set to be erected this summer on the state Capitol grounds in Madison.

The state Capitol and Executive Residence Board, which is in charge of decorations at the Capitol, on Friday unanimously approved placing the statue at the South Hamilton Street entrance to the Capitol, up the street from the Dane County Courthouse.

Dave Endres, chair of the Vel Phillips Legacy Initiative, said the statue could be installed before the end of June.

Michael Johnson, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County, began the push for a statue of Phillips in 2020 in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

This sculpture is not just a monument to my mothers legacy; it is a beacon of hope and a catalyst for action, Phillips son, Mike Phillips, said in a statement. It stands as a powerful reminder that we all have the ability to break barriers and champion the values she lived by.

The Vel Phillips Legacy Initiative, started by Johnson and supported by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County, raised more than $500,000 to pay for the statue, which will portray Phillips atop a polished black granite base engraved with her many accomplishments.

The statue will also include a quote from Phillips: What have you done, today, thats good?

This is my mom ... theyve captured who she is, Mike Phillips said while looking at photos of a clay mold of the future statue.

Phillips was the first Black woman to graduate from the UW-Madison School of Law in 1951. She was the first African American, as well as the first woman, to serve on the Milwaukee City Council and to become a Wisconsin judge. Phillips was also a leader in the civil rights movement and, in 1978, she was elected the states first female and first non-white secretary of state.

The Peoples House should be a reflection of the Wisconsinites we serve, and no one is more deserving than Vel Phillips, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement.

Future generations of kids will be able to look up at Vel and see a leader who looks like they do  an everlasting example of her historic legacy.

In addition to honoring Phillips, Endres said the statue will also serve as a tribute to New York-based artist Radcliffe Bailey, who designed the statue before his death last year.

We are pretty confident that this will be the last significant installation of public art by Mr. Bailey, Endres said.

When completed, the statue of Phillips will join the Forward and Col. Hans Christian Heg statues, which were reinstalled in September after being torn down by protesters in June 2020. Heg was an abolitionist who died in a Civil War battle, and the Forward statue has come to represent womens rights. The fourth corner of the Capitol grounds features a memorial to fallen law enforcement officers.
I, and much of the citizenry of the US as well as many around the world, have been shocked by the savagery of what Israel is doing in Gaza, a walled-in, occupied Palestinian enclave filled with people, many of whom were pushed off their land by the formation of Israel in 1948. All this retributive fury is in retaliation for a Palestinian resistance attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The Israeli response is like attacking an imprisoned population and exacting revenge out of all proportion to the Israeli deaths and hostage taking of October 7. The known death toll in Gaza is now over 32,000 Palestinians, a third of them being children, with over 75,000 others wounded. There are likely thousands more, uncounted, under the rubble. The dead account for approximately 5% of the population of Gaza and would be equivalent to Israel losing 5% of its population to such slaughter or over 490,000 Israeli deaths, one-third of those being children and the rest cut off from food, medicine or humanitarian assistance. How would the western world deal with that?

To watch as the leaders of our nation, and the leadership of the nations in Europe not just stand by to watch the slaughter, but actively support arming this Israeli onslaught, is shocking and incredibly disillusioning for many people. Not only is the West arming Israel, but the US is also actively blocking all international efforts to stop the onslaught or to even provide humanitarian assistance. It has even gone so far as to actively stifle support for the Palestinian people. The US even bombed nations that were actively supportive of the Palestinians. Did the rhetoric of the humanizing influence of Western civilization ultimately mean nothing? Did our structure of rules and laws only apply to others? Apparently so.

It must be clarified that those decisions were made by the leadership and many of the citizens of those nations were opposed to such decisions and continue to show that such decisions do not necessarily reflect the will of the people.

Pretense

The pretense of the goodness of Western civilization is exposed. The mask of compassionate Christianity has been torn off. Those western nations are basically the US and the white European nations who created and subsidized Israel as an extension of European civilization in the Middle East.

These are the nations who have, under the banner of bringing civilization and modernization to the underdeveloped world, practiced a harsh colonialism for centuries, often justified by a strange version of Christianity, in order to displace, and often slaughter indigenous populations and then, to despoil what had been an unspoiled environment. All of this in the name of progress and civilizing forces, but really only a cover for economic exploitation.

All of this was erected on a structure labelled "Western civilization". A humanizing structure of rules and laws to produce a well-regulated society, regulated by the dominating economic elites, who were often foreign elites. And that structure of rules and laws was then used to control and punish those who do not abide by those rules. Although often unspoken, those rules and laws, did not apply to ruling elites, who saw themselves as entitled to special treatment, meaning they were above the rules and laws.

In addition, most of those colonized nations were not white and therefore were seen as inferior, unable to really comprehend what civilization really afforded them, much less ever being able to understand it in all its complexity. The job of bringing civilization to those people was seen as "the white man's burden", with the understanding that those benighted souls were probably lost forever in a kind of permanent childhood.

Just as the US, increasingly exported free-market capitalism under the pretense that free-market capitalism was the only way forward toward democracy, just as the US supported such a projection with it military presence and the heavy hand of its economic clout to often bludgeon other countries into compliance, just as the US has used black ops to influence local politics and even used coups, and sometimes wars, to install friendly governments in nations, we have exposed the pretense of the values of Western civilization. We have spied on friends and foes and used all the tools of propaganda to influence both domestic and world opinion. We have used legal and extra-legal methods to achieve our goals even including torture and unending imprisonment; i.e. Guantanamo still is operational. How does any of this fit within the rules and laws of any humanizing society?

Result

In the process, the moral emptiness of Western civilization was exposed, the humanizing influences were exposed as empty rhetoric. And apparently, Western civilization finally showed its true face, the face of violence, domination and exploitation, a face hiding, not so well recently, behind the pretense of a beneficent Western civilization of rules and laws, or a pretense of a benign Christianity. And all of this in an attempt to create a world in its image, only to realize that the world has come to see the inhumanity behind the mask, an inhumanity willing to sacrifice the Palestinians in Gaza to its goals.

If we do not want that image of Western civilization to continue to reign in the hearts and minds of most of the world, we need to mend our ways and quickly find our way back to a sense of basic humanity and of what many of us thought was the real heart of our Western civilization.

Time now for action and redemption.
By Robert Weiner and Ben Kearney

Isolationism, the idea of America going it alone in the world within political, economic, and military spheres, was popular in the 20th century. Now, it is back on the rise as Donald Trump aims to re-enter the White House as President. However, isolationism allowed for one of the most nefarious dictators to come to power with Hitler in the 1930s and could prove dangerous for America if Republicans took back a majority of the government.

Isolation was vast in the Republican Party pre-WWII when they resisted what they called "foreign entanglements." Including sending aid to Britain before the passing of the Lend-Lease Act in early 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor led many isolationists to change their tune and become more invested in "collective security for peace". This was a similar trend amongst Democrats about sending troops to Vietnam. Ultimately, history has shown isolation to be a failure for whichever party adopts it.

George Washington famously warned the nation to "steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world" in his farewell address in 1796. The nation's historical ties to other countries have been important for establishing trade and maintaining peace.

Trump's Republican colleagues in Congress continue to advocate against sending both aid to Ukraine and Israel, echoing the isolationism of the past. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson argued that Ukraine can't win its war against Russia, despite their chance of holding its own before running out of artillery shells. Johnson's argument evokes the prewar defeatism of figures like Robert Taft and Joseph Kennedy, who once argued against helping the U.K. during the Blitz because Hitler was "destined to win".

Trump has at times used similar rhetoric of Hitler to call migrants "poisonous" to America, but claiming ignorance, especially to people who oppose racist or antisemitic rhetoric, is a tactic he repeatedly uses to distance himself from unflattering storylines. Considering that Trump still uses this rhetoric, it spells concern for what his administration would choose to face the current global conflicts if they win in November.

Isolationism is gaining traction, as new polls by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs covered by NBC highlight that "53% of Republicans said it would be best for the future of the U.S. to stay out of world affairs rather than take an active role". Marking the first time in the 49-year history of the survey that "a majority of Republicans adopted that view". The poll noted, "Forty-eight percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say the U.S. is delivering too much aid to Ukraine, while just 16% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters view the current level of assistance as excessive."

One thing that stands different from the previous isolation times is that Donald Trump is at the helm of a party that no longer follows the path once set by Ronald Reagan. In the same NBC article, Matthew Kroenig, vice president at the Atlantic Council, said, "Reagan really defined modern Republican foreign policy for more than a quarter of a century. The Reagan Doctrine was all about arming freedom fighters against communists wherever they are around the world. That's not where the party is today."'

If Trump wins reelection, the United States could sever ties to key allies in NATO, allow Putin to stomp all over Ukraine, and leave the starving displaced people of Gaza to their own devices. While the youth in America is anti-war, as is standard in young voters, not providing resources to those who need them may leave America to appear more selfish. America cannot go backward, and isolating itself from the world will be to the benefit of Trump-era Republicanism and its greediness for power and control of our nation's resources.

Robert Weiner was the spokesman in the Clinton and George W. Bush White House Drug Policy Office. He was Communications Director of the House Government Operations and Judiciary Committees under committee chair and CBC founder John Conyers, and Senior Aide to Four-Star Gen/Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey and Reps. Charles Rangel, Claude Pepper, Ed Koch, and Sen Ted Kennedy. Ben Kearney is a Policy Analyst and Writer at Robert Weiner Associates and Solutions for Change.
Nike cofounder Phil Knight on Friday told The Oregonian/OregonLive that embattled CEO John Donahoe has his unwavering support.

Knights statement came after a Thursday press event in Paris at which Nike unveiled a string of new products, a move seemingly designed to answer critics who say the companys product line has gotten stale. It also came weeks, if not days, ahead of whats expected to be the second wave of a mass layoff.
A man is dead, another suspect is arrested and four Clark County Sheriffs deputies are on leave after a carjacking and an attempted carjacking in Vancouver Saturday morning, according to a news release from the sheriffs office.

Deputies responded to a reported carjacking in the Hazel Dell neighborhood at 10:38 a.m. The victim said his van was stolen by a man with a handgun and a woman in the 9200 block of Northeast 15th Avenue.

At 10:54 a.m., deputies were dispatched to the Salmon Creek neighborhood where witnesses said a man and women had attempted to steal another vehicle with a person inside near the Goodwill on the 14300 block of Northeast 20th Avenue. Witness descriptions of the suspects matched those from the Hazel Dell carjacking.

Deputies were searching the area and found the stolen van behind the American Legion at 14011 N.E. 20th Ave. and saw the male suspect enter the building around 11:30 a.m, according to officials with the sheriffs office.

Deputies contacted the suspect inside the American Legion, where an officer-involved shooting took place. The male suspect is deceased, according to the news release. Sheriffs office officials confirmed that there were people inside the American Legion building when the shooting happened, but did not say how many people were present.

The sheriffs office would not confirm whether deputies had shot the suspect.

Officers used K-9 units and drones to search the area for the female suspect and eventually found and arrested her a few blocks from the American Legion around 3:30 p.m.

Clark County Sheriff's deputies arrested the female carjacking suspect at Northeast 20th Avenue and Northeast 144th Street in Vancouver after an hourslong search.Tanner Todd/The Oregonian

Four deputies are on leave while the shooting is being investigated. Video captured by body cameras the deputies were wearing will be released later, the sheriffs office said.

The shooting will be investigated by the Southwest Washington Independent Investigative Response Team, which is led by the Vancouver Police Department. The Clark County Sheriffs Office will investigate the carjacking.

Officials have not released any other information yet.

Deputies used deadly force in Clark County earlier this year. Deputies shot and killed a man in Brush Prairie in the early morning of Feb. 20.

A woman called 911 around midnight because she was worried for her mothers safety, officials said. The sheriffs office came to believe the womans mother was being held against her will by a male relative.

Deputies arrived at the location and tried to arrest the man, but he pulled out what appeared to be a firearm, prompting three deputies to shoot, according to statements from the sheriffs office and Vancouver police. He was pronounced dead by first responders. No deputies were injured.

 Tanner Todd covers crime and public safety. Reach them at ttodd@oregonian.com, or 503-221-4313.
This is the seventh part of a video series about the disappearance of Cosmo, a talking crow from southern Oregon.

If fowl play were involved in the disappearance of Cosmo the talking crow, was it a crime?

According to the law, no.

Crows are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which generally prohibits the killing, trapping, selling and transporting of certain bird species without permission.

There are a few ways to get permission. For instance, theres a crow hunting season in Oregon, which includes the time frame in which Cosmo disappeared.

But Cosmo was considered a nuisance bird and a threat to human health because he dive bombed people and sometimes pecked at them  in at least one instance, drawing blood.

Ultimately, Oregon State Police and Oregon Fish & Wildlife officers told neighbors that a private citizen doesnt need a depredation permit to kill a crow when it is a threat to human health.

Watch the first six episodes of this true, not-a-crime video series from The Oregonian/OregonLive, and follow along as new episodes are released on The Oregonians TikTok and YouTube.

Watch more Cosmo:

Episodes 1 and 2: A talking crow went viral after befriending an Oregon elementary school. Then he went missing

Episode 3: A beloved talking crow went missing, and it wasnt the first time: Cosmo Part 3

Episode 4: Another habituated crow shows up in southern Oregon, but is it Cosmo?: Part 4

Episode 5: A talking crow flies into an elementary school: Part 5

Episode 6: Could a hitman have silenced this talking crow?: Cosmo Part 6

-- Samantha Swindler covers features for The Oregonian/OregonLive and Here is Oregon. Reach her at sswindler@oregonian.com.

Our journalism needs your support. Subscribe today to OregonLive.com.
Charlottesville police are searching for the man they say shot and killed a local father while he sat in his car shortly after taking his daughters to the park Tuesday evening.

Charlottesville resident Sidney Montcellus Stinnie is wanted for the murder of 31-year-old DeQwane Brown.

Brown was found dying in his vehicle parked near the intersection of Rosser Avenue and 12th Street in the citys Venable neighborhood Tuesday night. Police reported he had suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Stinnie is charged with second-degree murder, using a firearm in commission of a felony and possessing a firearm as a violent felon.

It is not the first time Stinnie has been accused of shooting a man.

Charlottesville Circuit Court records show he received a five-year sentence in 2014 after shooting and wounding a local man. He was ordered to remain on good behavior for two decades as a condition of getting 28 years of his sentence suspended.

Police say Stinnie has not lived up to that agreement.

Authorities are warning the public that Stinnie is at large and likely armed.

Mr. Stinnie has not been taken into custody and is considered armed, police said in a statement. This investigation is ongoing. If you have knowledge of Sidney Stinnies location or any information related to the incident, please contact Crime Stoppers Tip Line at (434) 977-4000.

The victims family told The Daily Progress earlier in the week that he had just dropped his 2-year-old and 6-year-old daughters off at their mothers house Tuesday evening after taking them out to eat dinner and play at the park. They said Brown was likely eating in his car when his assailant attacked.

We just wish we could turn back time, Teryn Barbour, Browns sister, said. I just really want justice.

Browns death marked the first homicide case reported in Charlottesville in 2024.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has condemned the repeated use of violence by armed groups as a means of resolving disputes in Libya, saying it endangers the safety of civilians and undermines the fragile security situation
An 85-year-old woman from Idaho is being exalted as a "hero" after she protected herself against an armed invader who purportedly handcuffed her, assaulted her, and threatened her life numerous times.

85-Year-Old Woman Fights Off Armed Man During Home Invasion

Christine Jenneiahn, who lives near Blackfoot, Idaho, managed to survive the frightening ordeal by shooting the purported assailant, 39-year-old Derek Condon, with her .357 Magnum, ultimately resulting in his death.

Jenneiahn recounted waking up around 2 a.m. on March 13 to discover a stranger standing over her bed wearing military attire and a ski mask, armed with a gun and a flashlight.

The intruder, suspected to be Condon, allegedly entered the home by breaking a window and then proceeded to pistol-whip Jenneiahn before handcuffing her to a chair and demanding to know the location of valuables in her home.

Despite being restrained, Jenneiahn managed to retrieve her handgun from under her pillow and hid it near her as she waited for an opportunity to defend herself.

When Condon returned and threatened her life once more, Jenneiahn seized her chance and fired at him, hitting him twice. In the exchange of gunfire, Jenneiahn sustained multiple gunshot wounds.

After Condon collapsed and died in the kitchen, Jenneiahn remained handcuffed and injured for 10 hours until her disabled son found her and helped her call to call 911.

Authorities determined that Jenneiahn's actions were justifiable under Idaho's "stand your ground law," citing her need to protect herself and her son from imminent danger.

Prosecuting Attorney Ryan Jolley ratified Jenneiahn's braveness and survival intuition, intensifying that her actions were required for self-preservation.

He noted that if Condon had survived, he would have faced accusations including attempted killing, kidnapping, burglary, aggravated battery, and grand theft.

Authorities discovered burglary tools and items from Jenneiahn's home with Condon, supporting Jenneiahn's account of the situation.

Jolley stated that Jenneiahn's actions constituted a "justifiable homicide" under Idaho law, emphasizing her right to defend herself and her son.

He praised her resilience and determination, stating that her survival was remarkable and justified by the circumstances of the encounter.

Suspect of Home Invasion Remains at Large

A male in his twenties was badly shot in the face during a home invasion on the North Side of the city late Wednesday night, as reported by San Antonio police.

Police were warned around 11:30 p.m. to the Tuscany Park Apartments in the 1200 block of Patricia Drive, near Blanco Road and West Avenue, after reports of a person wounded.

According to authorities, a person forcibly entered a second-story apartment after knocking and proceeded to shoot the victim in the face with a rifle. Subsequently, the man staggered before collapsing outside his apartment. Sadly, he later succumbed to his wounds.

A woman and a child were currently inside the apartment during the firing, but fortunately, neither sustained wounds. The woman managed to hide in a closet during the shooting.

SAPD indicated a lack of detailed suspect descriptions. A suspect reportedly escaped the location in a white sedan post-shooting and remains at large.

The identity of the victim has not been revealed, and the motive behind the gunfire remains mysterious.

The incident was reponded by the San Antonio Police Department, along with the San Antonio Fire Department and EMS. Authorities are conducting further investigation into the matter.
Disney disability changes will soon roll out this summer as part of its theme park updates.

Disney is set to implement new guidelines for visitors with disabilities at its theme parks, introducing restrictions on services that facilitate queue bypass for certain guests.

The recent updates, disclosed on park websites, have stirred apprehension among fans, who are now uncertain about the future accessibility of the Disability Access Service (DAS).

This policy adjustment reflects Disney's recognition of past misuse instances, prompting proactive measures to address program abuse.

The News Disney Disability Access Changes

The recent updates at both Florida and California theme parks encompass changes to the Disability Access Service (DAS) program, affecting eligibility, accompanying family members, application procedures, and utilization guidelines.

This complimentary service empowers guests to schedule ride times comparable to the current wait time at the attraction, allowing them to return without enduring the conventional queue.

For instance, if the wait for Space Mountain is 45 minutes, guests can reserve a slot for 45 minutes later, avoiding the need to stand in line and accessing expedited lanes upon return.

As per the newly published criteria, the disability access initiative caters primarily to individuals with developmental disabilities, such as autism, who struggle with extended queue waits.

Disney's recent announcement detailed forthcoming changes, effective May 20 at Disney World and June 18 at Disneyland, reducing eligible family members to four from the previous six. Additionally, the enrollment frequency adjusts to every 120 days instead of 60.

Disney reports a substantial surge in demand for disability access, marking it as the most requested service across their parks, with a threefold increase over the last five years.

Len Testa, President of Touring Plans and co-author of the Unofficial Guides to Walt Disney World and Disneyland, notes the system's historical challenges with misuse or abuse.

This uptick in DAS users correlates with the introduction of Genie Plus in 2021, a paid service enabling visitors to bypass lengthy queues for a fee ranging from $17 to $27 per person at Walt Disney World.

Testa highlights the strain on the system due to increased demand and acknowledges the need for adjustments.

Disneyland's Addressing Misuse

In Disney fan communities across social media platforms, blogs, and forums, individuals sharing their experiences with the Disability Access Service (DAS) expressed concerns about the recent policy changes.

These voices included guests with various medical conditions like multiple sclerosis, anxiety disorders, respiratory issues, and Crohn's disease. Many voiced apprehension over how the adjustments might impact their future park visits.

Some community members viewed the updates as a strategic move to incentivize purchasing Genie Plus, a paid service that facilitates skipping long queues.

This sentiment was echoed by those who felt that the park, once a safe haven for guests with disabilities, now appeared more challenging to navigate.

Responding to these concerns, Disney emphasized its commitment to ensuring a positive experience for all guests, including those with disabilities, through innovative support services at its theme parks.

At Disneyland, visitors can utilize virtual video chat services before their trip or seek in-person assistance upon arrival. In contrast, Florida visitors will have access to virtual video chat options exclusively, either in advance or during their park visit.

To cater to guests facing difficulties with queuing, Disney is introducing a "return to queue" process, although specifics for individuals requiring frequent restroom breaks are yet to be fully disclosed. The company plans to increase the number of trained cast members to guide guests towards suitable options.

Additionally, health professionals from Inspire Health Alliance will collaborate with Disney staff to assess eligibility without necessitating documentation, a departure from practices at other theme park companies such as Universal and Six Flags.
A Texas mother was arrested due to alleged child abandonment neglect after she leaves kids home alone to go on a cruise trip.

The woman, Lakesha Woods Williams, 29, left her two young children at home, a 6-year-old girl and an 8-year-old son, in their apartment in Huston for a vacation trip on April 4. It was alleged that the 29-year-old mother, who was subjected to abandoning her children alone earlier this month, had previously done this.

Authorities have confirmed that Williams is now charged and is arrested on a $25,000 bond.

Texas Mother Arrested for Child Abandonment Allegations

On April 9, authorities from the Harris County Precinct 5 Constable's Office responded to a welfare check at a luxury high rise in the Memorial City area. Concerned neighbors had reported unattended children in the vicinity.

Upon receiving a call for service, deputies conducted a wellness check the following Tuesday. A witness informed them about the residents' worries regarding two children left unsupervised in one of the units.

According to the witness, neighbors had observed Lakesha Woods Williams leaving the premises with bags and luggage but hadn't seen her return.

Williams' charging document revealed that many residents had expressed recurring concerns about similar incidents in the past, indicating a pattern of neglect. He adds in the charging document, "Many of the residents were worried about the children and have said this is not the first time that something like this has occurred."

During the check, deputies discovered Williams' 6-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son alone in the apartment, which was described as being in disarray.

The children informed deputies that they had been without adult supervision since April 4, with their mother on a cruise. They were unsure about her return date.

Police Investigation Hands a Temporary Custody

Deputies observed signs of neglect in the apartment, including a strong smell of urine and evidence that the children had tried to cook for themselves.

Additionally, they discovered a webcam that Lakesha Woods Williams had used to monitor her children and a phone her 8-year-old son used to stay in touch with her during her absence. These items were confiscated by the deputies.

The apartment was described as being in a chaotic state, with trash and leftover food scattered throughout and a "very potent smell of urine" inside.

The absence of any adults to supervise the children since Williams' departure further emphasized the neglectful situation. The report documents, "No adults were present supervising the juveniles, and none appeared to have been present since the defendant's departure."

Williams had left for Miami five days before boarding a cruise to Puerto Rico, as per information provided by the deputies. However, when contacted by deputies, she was uncooperative and provided conflicting accounts of her whereabouts.

During her appearance before a magistrate on Friday afternoon, it was noted that Williams would face a higher-than-usual bond due to previous allegations of similar circumstances. If she posts the $25,000 bond, she will be required to wear a GPS ankle monitor and follow a curfew.

As a result of the incident, Williams' children are now under the care of her sister, and a protective order has been issued to prevent Williams from contacting or being near her daughter and son.

Williams is scheduled to return to court on April 15 at 9 a.m. for further proceedings before Judge Brian Warren.
Two new articles went up today on the moribund and perpetually static website of the Interpreter Foundation:

Our Great God Has in Goodness Sent These: Notes on the Goodness of God, the Didactic Good of Nephis Small Plates, and Anti-Nephi-Lehis Renaming, written by Matthew L. Bowen and Pedro Olavarria

Abstract: Anti-Nephi-Lehis speech (Alma 24:716) reveals multiple allusions to significant texts in Nephis small plates record. Thus, when he declares I thank my God, my beloved people, that our great God has in goodness sent these our brethren, the Nephites, unto us to preach unto us, he appears to allude to an inclusio that bookends the two books of Nephis small plates record which emphasizes the goodness of God as a theme. Anti-Nephi-Lehis description of his ancestors as wicked fathers appears to deliberately contrast Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael with Nephis goodly parents in 1 Nephi 1:1. The name Nephi constitutes a key element in Anti-Nephi-Lehis own name, a name honorifically bestowed on him as a throne-name by his father. In view of the probable etymological origin of Nephi as Egyptian nfr (good, goodly, fair) and its evident, persistent association with good among the Nephites, Anti-Nephi-Lehis naming and the introduction to his speech deserve closer examination. This article explores the possible significance of this naming in conjunction with the Lamanites reception of divine goodness in the contexts of Nephite/Lamanite history and the Lamanite conversion narratives.

Interpreting Interpreter: Naming the Good, written by Kyler Rasmussen

This post is a summary of the article Our Great God Has in Goodness Sent These: Notes on the Goodness of God, the Didactic Good of Nephis Small Plates, and Anti-Nephi-Lehis Renaming by Matthew L. Bowen and Pedro A. Olavarria in Volume 61 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship. All of the Interpreting Interpreter articles may be seen at https://interpreterfoundation.org/category/summaries/. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter series is available at https://interpreterfoundation.org/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought/. The Takeaway: Bowen and Olavarria suggest that Anti-Nephi-Lehi alludes strongly to Nephi in Alma 24, not just with his own name, but with references to goodness and other concepts that Nephi uses to bookend his record in the small platesgoodness which represents the doctrine of Christ.

Not a few, I think, will find inspiration and comfort in this moving article by my friend Joseph Grenny. I highly recommend it: Jacobs Answer to Parental Despair. He refers in his article to The Other Side Academy, which is an absolutely marvelous project. We traveled to Egypt with Joseph and his wife and daughter and some of the leaders of The Other Side Academy back in January. It was a great experience  for us, anyway.

A few days ago, I posted an entry here called The Earliest Kerygma, in which I summarized some current scholarly thinking about the presence, in 1 Corinthians 15, of a quoted early-Christian creed (so we preach, and so ye believed [15:11]). The topic is important for several reasons. One of them, and the one that I emphasize, is that, if the creed (being quoted) pre-dates 1 Corinthians itself  which is already pretty early (ca. 53-54 BC)  it must be older than 1 Corinthians. Accordingly, it gives us a glimpse into the very earliest Christian teaching. And, interestingly enough, that earliest teaching appears to include the resurrection of Jesus Christ  indicating that the resurrection is unlikely to be a late, slowly developed legend.

But the opening verses of 1 Corinthians 15 arent the only creed-like passage in the New Testament.

Another creed-like text exists, according to many contemporary scholars, in 1 Timothy 3:16, which was probably written around AD 62-64). This is a passage in which the action of preaching and the response of believing are both included within the formulation itself:

God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen [] of angels, preached [] unto the Gentiles, believed [] on in the world [ ], received up [] into glory.

This single verse summarizes the earthly ministry of Jesus from the very beginning in his birth or incarnation all the way up to his ascension. Moreover, it appears to proceed in chronological order, with the ascension occurring in final position. With that in mind, the appearance to angels most probably refers to the angels, the guardians at the tomb, of the Easter narrative. (Of course, the Greek word  [angels] can refer to human messengers, as well.)

Pauls epistle to the Romans (written ca. 55-57 AD) also contains several statements that are now generally recognized by modern scholars as creed-like formulae. Among these are the following:

Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. (Romans 1:3-4) Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (4:25) It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. (8:34) If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (10:9)

Each of these passages includes mention of Christs resurrection, which seems to show that the early Christian movement saw his resurrection as an essential element of its faith. In fact, Romans 10:9, the last passage cited above, suggests that individual and communal confession of the resurrection of Jesus was fundamental.

Another such passage occurs in 2 Timothy 2:8 (AD 62-65), in which the author admonishes his reader(s) to

Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.

That King James Version rendition of the original Greek is a good one:

     ,   ,    

But the New International Version of 2 Timothy 2:8 seems to make the creedal character of Pauls exhortation more plainly obvious:

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel.

Again, the resurrection of Christ from the dead is regarded as essential to what the author calls my gospel (  ). It doesnt appear to be a late add-on or afterthought.
The United Kingdoms British Museum (BM) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) on Tuesday, April 9, returned to Ghana the thirty-two negotiated royal objects taken from the Palace in Kumasi during the Anglo-Asante Wars of the 19th century including items from the Sargrenti War of 1874.



Gold and silver regalia associated with the Asante royal court will be displayed at the Palace Museum as part of a long-term loan commitment by the V&A and the British Museum. Many of these items will be seen in Ghana for the first time in 150 years.



The hundred- and fifty-year-old mostly golden royal regalia on loan for an initial three years and renewable for another three have fifteen pieces from the BM and seventeen from the V&A.



This followed the final signing of official documentation in London two weeks ago by the directors of the BM and V&A, Sir Mark Jones and Dr Tristram Hunt and the chief negotiator, Mr Ivor Agyeman-Duah who represented and signed on behalf of the Manhyia Palace.



Their return is in the context of the silver jubilee year of the Asantehene Osei Tutu II who first opened the negotiations in May 2023 and is also connected to the 150th commemoration last February and the coming centenary of the return of the Asantehene Prempeh I from exile in Seychelles.



Otumfuo Osei Tutu II would receive the objects and the specially designed Belgian cases in Kumasi. The subsequent closure of the Manhyia Palace Museum for three weeks would be for installation works and encasing of over forty returned objects including seven that have already been permanently given by the Fowler Museum of the University of California at Los Angeles.



These would collectively constitute the star objects of an international exhibition that would be opened to the public, Homecoming- Adversity and Commemoration.



The exhibition is being put together by a team of British- BM and V&A and Ghanaian -the Foundation for Contemporary Art curators, Manhyia Palace and KNUST and has as partners the British Airway, Fidelity Bank and the Otumfuo Foundation.



The opening by the Asantehene on May 1 2024 would be attended by directors, curators and trustees of the BM and V&A from London as well as journalists and photographers from the BBC, Reuters, Aljazeera, The Daily Telegraph, The Art Newspaper, some leading figures of Government of Ghana, UNESCO and members of the diplomatic community.



The occasion would also see the outdooring of two major books, a history of 200 years of museology in Asante titled, A History of Manhyia Palace Museum- Inaugural and Other Objects written by Agyeman-Duah with a Foreword provided by Gus Casely- Hayford OBE, Director of V&A East, and previously Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC.



The other book is on contemporary reflections on Images of Ghana- Museums, the Ownership of Cultural Property and Restitution by former Keeper of Ethnography at the British Museum and Vice Principal of the University of Glasgow, UK, Prof. Malcolm McLeod.



As Manhyia pursues cultural engagements through the initiative of the Asantehene, new paradigms on restitutions with British organizations and others continue as it was recently in South Africa of the Gold of Africa Collection.

The Asantehene would also give a major public lecture on Asante Culture and Heritage- Past and Present on the platform of the BM in London in July 2024; as part of an evolving cooperation in international cultures, and mutual technical and business development.



The BM and V&A selected world leading Anglo-Ghanaian philosopher of New York University and the Laurance S. Rockefeller Emeritus University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, Kwame Anthony Appiah to introduce the occasion and lecture.



Appiah is also the current President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Source: Citinewsroom









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The UN has asked Mali's military junta to lift its recent ban on political activity in the West African country.



"We are deeply concerned by the decree suspending the activities of political parties and other civic associations," the UN has said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.



Opposition groups have also been critical of the move by the military authorities, which have been in power since a 2020 coup.



It has further inflamed tensions that have been growing since the junta broke its promise to hold presidential elections in February.



Cherif Kone, general co-ordinator of L'Appel du 20 fevrier, said it was out of the question to let the dictatorship prosper in the country.



In its decree, the junta said broadcasts and the publication of political activities were also barred to maintain public order.



In response, influential cleric Mahmoud Dicko issued a video on social media to his supporters from exile vowing to return home.



He initially supported the coup but has since fallen out with the junta for failing to meet various deadlines for a return to civilian rule - leaving Mali for Algeria in December.



A few civil society and opposition groups called for demonstrations on Thursday, but they were banned. They also called for weekend protests.



"The Malian population should unite itself and protest against this decision," Ismael Sacko, president of the African Democratic Socialist Party (PSDA), told the BBC.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A US helicopter charter company is being sued over a crash in February that killed the former boss of Nigerias stock exchange, Abimbola Ogunbanjo.



He had been travelling to Las Vegas to watch the Super Bowl when the helicopter went down in southern California.



Five others were also killed in the crash, including Herbert Wigwe, the co-founder of Access Bank - Nigeria's largest bank.



Mr Ogunbanjos family are seeking compensation, including money for funeral expenses.



In the lawsuit, filed in a US court on Wednesday, the family accuses the charter company Orbic Air LL of flying in unsuitable weather conditions.



Local police said the weather was poor, with reports of rain and snow showers in the area.



Helicopters do not do very well in snow and ice, Andrew C Robb, the lawyer representing the Ogunbanjo family, told the Associated Press news agency.



"This flight was entirely preventable, and we dont know why they took off.



He added that the family wants "answers and accountability.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Authorities in Ethiopia have started returning migrants stranded in the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia by flying 842 of them on Friday.



The goal of this programme's third phase is to return 70,000 people in four months by operating 12 flights per week.



The government says they were in "difficult conditions" as most are undocumented and have been languishing in prisons and detention centres in the country.



However, the risk of them returning to Saudi is also high as thousands travel each year seeking better living conditions. Earlier this week, 38 Ethiopian migrants including children, died in a shipwreck off the Djibouti coast, Ethiopian officials said.



It is thought they could have been on their way to Saudi Arabia.



The kingdom hosts about 750,000 Ethiopian migrants, more than half of whom are believed to have entered the territory illegally, according to reports.

Source: BBC









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ashanti Regional youth oganisers have clarified their stance amidst rumors circulating about their endorsement of Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh as a potential running mate for the party.



Dismissing the claims as misrepresentative of the broader sentiments within the region, the organisers emphasized the importance of democratic processes within the New Patriotic Party (NPP).



According to Article 12 (b) of the NPP's Constitution, the selection of the vice-presidential candidate lies within the prerogative of the presidential candidate, in consultation with the National Council.



The organisers underscored that it is not the mandate of youth organisers to exert undue influence on such decisions, stressing the need for democratic principles to prevail.



"It's important to clarify that this assertion does not accurately represent the sentiments of the majority of youth organisers in the Ashanti Region," the organisers stated firmly, addressing the misconception surrounding Dr. Prempeh's alleged endorsement.



Furthermore, the organisers outlined the qualities they believe are essential in a vice-presidential candidate, emphasizing traits such as humility, respect across all sectors, national appeal, and widespread popularity among Ghanaians.



"To ensure maximum support from party members and the Ghanaian populace, it is paramount for our party's leadership to consider a candidate who embodies these qualities," they urged.



Below is the press statement



We Have Not Endorsed Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh as Running Mate; Ashanti Youth Organisers



We wish to address the recent press statement regarding alleged widespread support for Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh for the position of running mate. It's important to clarify that this assertion does not accurately represent the sentiments of the majority of youth organisers in the Ashanti Region. The purported endorsement merely reflects the views of a few individuals and does not speak on behalf of the broader Youth Organisers or their Constituency.



Article 12 (b) of the Constitution of the New Patriotic Party provides that, the selection of the vice-presidential candidate rests with the Presidential Candidate, in consultation with the National Council of the party. It is not within the mandate of youth organisers to exert pressure, whether directly or indirectly, on the Presidential Candidate regarding the choice of a running mate. Such actions would constitute undue influence and run counter to the democratic principles of our party.



To ensure maximum support from party members and the Ghanaian populace, it is paramount for our party's leadership to consider a candidate who embodies humility, commands respect across all sectors, possesses national appeal, and is widely liked by the majority of Ghanaians before finalising the choice of a vice-presidential candidate.



We urge all members of our party to extend their support and prayers to the presidential candidate through prayers and encouragement as they deliberate on selecting a suitable vice-presidential candidate. Let us collectively uphold the democratic values of our party and strive towards unity in preparation for the upcoming elections.



Convenors



Nana Sarpong

Youth Organiser, Kumawu

0242022351



Boitey Kwasi Dickson

Youth Organiser, Juaben

0242022351



Gideon Okyere Darko

Youth Organizer, Offinso North

0246244131



Prince Boateng

Youth Organiser,Bosomtwi

0244179815



Duggan Bright

Youth Organizer, New Edubiase

0240568308





Bright Nyampong

Youth Organizer, Obuase West

0546597955















Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Some Identifiable trade groups at Kejetia market in the Ashanti Region are appealing to the bigwigs of the New Patriotic Party ( NPP) to pick a female from the region to partner His Excellency Alhaji Mahamadu Bawumia.



Peacefmonline Sampson Kwame Nyamekye filed that as the NPP party executives consider their options, the call for a woman running mate resonates strongly among the traders and many others who believe in the power of inclusivity and equal representation in political leadership.



The traders believe that having a woman as a running mate would not only promote gender equality but also bring a fresh perspective to the political landscape.



At a Press briefing at Kejetia New Market, they said as the party has able to conquer the tribalism and religious extremism within the party, its time to promote women equality as well.



We need to pick a woman as a running mate like our competitors and this election will only focus on projects undertaken by these two different administrationsone trader added.



We have seen the incredible impact that women leaders can have in various sectors. It is time for our political landscape to reflect that reality another trader chipped in .



They argue that women possess unique qualities and perspectives that can contribute greatly to the development and progress of the nation.



The traders are confident that a female running mate would bring a new dynamic to the campaign and resonate with a wider range of voters, particularly women.



The appeal from the Kumasi traders highlights the growing desire for gender equality and female representation in politics.





Source: Samson Kwame Nyamekye/ Hello Fm









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It doesnt seem all that long ago that Florida Georgia Line was filling up concerts and country charts alike.

The duo  Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley  formed in 2010, and they produced a string of hits together. But Florida Georgia Line last performed together in 2022, and it sounds like that  well, it sounds like that will be it for the duo.

Hubbard is preparing to drop his second album since the split, and he recently spoke to PEOPLE.

It was a cool season of life, and I wouldnt trade it for the world, he said of his Florida Georgia Line days. But I dont want it back. Im in away different place, and I wouldnt trade it.

Meanwhile, Kelley made headlines back in March when he released his new song, Kiss My Boots. Some went as far as to call it a diss track directed toward Hubbard.

Want the world to know that you did me wrong, the song goes. I dont know how you act sweet, after how you did me, heres a middle finger to you through a song.

The video reportedly shows Kelley hunting a snake and has a shot to close it all of a close up of his belt and the word Florida. He was, of course, the Florida half of Florida Georgia Line.

It was healing to write. I feel released now. Everyone processes things differently. I went inward, Kelley said then, according to PEOPLE. I went to work and stayed busy. Im proud of myself for doing it that way. It was worth it. Now I have a song that helped me through a tough time. Hopefully, Kiss My Boots can help a lot of people. Give them some confidence and help them get their power back.

Hubbard appears to have taken the high road when PEOPLE asked him about the song and the relationship.

Im happy for BK, and I hope hes happy and that hes doing his thing and Im doing my thing, he said in what PEOPLE called a prepared statement. I want only good things for him, and I wish him the best.

In the end, it appears that, at least for now, Kelley and Hubbard are happy being on their own. And it certainly seems as though there is a rift of some sort. But they are still young  Hubbard is 37 and Kelley is 38  and considering their success together it would not surprise to see a reunion down the road, too.

Time has a way of healing.
A 24-year-old man was shot and killed in his Lebanon home on the night of Wednesday, April 10, according to the Lebanon City Police Department.

Officers responded to the Good Samaritan Hospital around 9:50 p.m., where Hector Pomales-Torres was taken after being struck with a single bullet in his home on the 700 block of Lehman Street. Pomales-Torres eventually died of his injuries.
PITTSBURGH (AP)  U.S. Steel shareholders have overwhelmingly approved the companys sale to Nippon Steel of Japan for $14.1 billion in cash, voicing unequivocal support for a combination that has drawn opposition from the Biden administration on economic and national security grounds.

More than 98% of the shares voted at a special investor meeting Friday approved the takeover, according to a preliminary count of ballots announced by Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel.

The transaction has raised concerns about what the sale could mean for unionized workers, supply chains and U.S. national security.

President Joe Biden has come out in opposition to the deal, saying in March that the U.S. needs to maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steelworkers. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday during a White House news conference that he hopes discussions on Nippon will unfold in directions that would be positive for both sides.

The Japanese company has tried to assuage critics by promising no job losses due to the merger. It also committed to keeping the U.S. Steel name and Pittsburgh headquarters, while noting it already has a presence in the American market and would bring in new resources to foster job growth.

The company, which is the worlds fourth largest steel producer, launched a website with supportive statements from Larry Summers, the former treasury secretary, and Pat Toomey, a Republican and former senator from Pennsylvania.

But Biden, and Democratic senators John Fetterman and Bob Casey opposed the sale.

Casey said that the nations marquee steel company should remain under American ownership.

U.S. Steel played a pivotal role in the industrialization of the country, manufacturing the steel that not only built cities, but wartime equipment for the military.
WILLIAMSPORT-The wife of the former manager of the morgue at the Harvard Medical School has admitted her role in a stolen body parts case.

Denise Lodge, 64, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. Middle District Court to a charge of interstate transportation of stolen goods.
The final concerts of the Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginias season will give composers and guest artists from the UVa Department of Music some time to shine.

The Academic Festival program, set for 7:30 p.m. April 20 in Cabell Hall Auditorium in Old Cabell Hall and 3:30 p.m. April 21 at Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center at Charlottesville High School, will include performances of Leonard Bernsteins Overture to West Side Story and Maurice Ravels perennially popular Bolero, for which music director Benjamin Rous has created an arrangement specifically for the combination of guests. The rest of the program is all about the diverse composers from the UVa community, and Rous said symphony members are embracing the opportunity to branch out in terms of genres and styles.

This is a bunch of different styles that we dont normally get to play, Rous told The Daily Progress. I can say that I know its fun for me. For the audience, theyll get to see how a symphony orchestra can be.

Compositions by UVa faculty members are giving the musicians room to explore jazz, African rhythms, moments in American history and the majesty of glaciers.

Flutist Nicole Mitchell will be the soloist for her own Flight for Freedom for Creative Flute and Orchestra. Mitchells composition honors the courage of Harriet Tubman.

John Dearth, a trumpeter, bandleader, composer and arranger who leads the UVa Jazz Ensemble, will be performing his Concerto for Quintet and Orchestra as a member of the Free Bridge Quintet. The popular jazz faculty quintet includes Dearth on trumpet, Jeff Decker on saxophone, Peter Spaar on bass, Calvin Brown on piano and Robert Jospe on drums.

Composer Matthew Burtners Threnody (Sikuigvik) for orchestra and glacier ecoacoustics will be performed along with a video created from images Burtner took inside the glacier.

Its the first time the university symphony has played his music, Rous said, adding that the first rehearsal with Burtner present was a memorable event for the professor and the performers alike.

He was over the moon, Rous said of Burtner, who has taught at UVa for 18 years. That was an incredible moment.

JoVia Armstrong will play solos on bongos and on cajon, an African percussion instrument, during her orchestra arrangements of three songs from her Inception album from 2023: Creation, Embryo and Birth.

And although the Charlottesville concerts on April 20 and 21 will be bringing the symphonys current season to a close, theres one more performance in store. Thats because Academic Festival was created to help celebrate UVas new Northern Virginia campus.

For once, this idea actually came from outside, Rous said. He said the concert idea came to life when Gregory Fairchild, dean of the new location, approached Jody Kielbasa, who is UVas vice provost for the arts, to create buzz around UVas new Northern Virginia location in Tysons.

Academic Festival will be performed a third time at 3 p.m. April 28 at Capital One Hall in Tysons, a new concert venue featuring what Rous calls great acoustics.

The Tysons concert is the most recent event taking the Charlottesville Symphony at UVa out of its comfort zone on away from UVa Grounds. In December, the symphony joined Charlottesville Ballet for four performances of The Nutcracker in Lynchburg.
There is no clearer indicator than last months horrific Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse to highlight the blood and sweat immigrants are giving every day to this country. Meanwhile, some of our countrys leaders are committed to lies and dangerous rhetoric while completely ignoring the fact that immigrants are pouring their heart, soul, and their lives to build Americas infrastructure.

While the rest of us were sleeping, six hard-working construction workers gave their lives to better ours and improve our commutes to work.The six construction workers were also fathers, brothers, husbands, and uncles, who came from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala with hopes of achieving the American Dream.

Their sacrifice should remind us that immigrants in this country should be celebrated and not demonized.Immigrants are essential to the identity and history of the United States, which has been a beacon of hope for many immigrants.
By Mark S. Singel

Scrolling deeply into my junk mail, I came across an article that was published on The Hill website recently. It seems that the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation planned to give former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) its annual award for distinguished public service.

Instead, the groups executive director issued a statement saying that they changed their mind. Why? Because some of its board members feared retribution  possibly IRS retaliation in a potential second Trump administration. Their fears are justified. Just this week, for example, candidate Trump made it clear that National Public Radio would be on the chopping block under his authoritarianism. Not one dime is how Trump described his non-support for one of the most effective and thoughtful journalistic outlets in the world.

Back to the Ford Foundation, it turns out that there is at least one bright shining example of courage in that story. David Hume Kennerly, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, who served directly for Gerald Ford, resigned as a trustee of the Foundation because of their display of cravenness. He made it clear that Ford, himself, would have been appalled. He pointed to the excesses of the Nixon administration that helped bring Ford to power. Nixon had used the IRS as a weapon against some of his enemies. That, said Kennerly, is exactly what the Executive Committee of the Foundation fears will happen if theres a second coming of Donald Trump. He called them out for cowering to an autocratic regime that is not even in power yet.

He went on to lay it on the line: Many foundations, organizations, corporations, and other entities are caught up in this tidal wave of timidity and fear thats sweeping this country. I mistakenly thought we were better than that.

FILE - Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, July 21, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)AP

Then, in a rare display of political courage, Kennerly called out timid Republicans and praised the remarkable Liz Cheney: Those of you who rejected Liz join many good Republicans now aiding and abetting our 45th president by ignoring the genuine menace he presents to our country. America is fortunate to have Liz Cheney still out there on the front lines of freedom vigorously defending our Constitution and democratic way of life. But you dont have her back.

Closer to home, I have been quizzing Republican friends about their loyalties in this election. In one jarring conversation after another, I hear good Republicans telling me that they are not willing to rock the boat. Almost to a person, they tell me that they do not intend to vote for Donald Trump and his chaos but they are not willing to make their positions known. They know full well that a second term for Trump endangers many of the underpinnings of our republican form of government. They also will say privately that their own conservative values are not reflected in the scorched earth, revenge politics of Trump. Still, like NPR and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, they are afraid of repercussions if they dont join the MAGA parade.

An anonymous Indian thinker wrote: A coward suppresses his own identity and follows the crowd. A coward never expresses his true opinions or stands for or against anything. His entire life is as if it never was. Therein lies the fatal flaw of cowardice.

Democracy is hard. There are times that demand that we stand up to political bullies. We need to remind ourselves that the U.S. Constitution matters. It is not acceptable to tolerate candidates who are openly hostile to political adversaries or to institutions that have proven their worth to the nation over many years. One cannot claim to be a patriotic American if they are silent in the face of clear and present dangers to the Republic.

It may be that Americans are waking up to the threat. Recent polling shows an uptick in the favorability of President Biden. We are also on the cusp of a media campaign that will be well funded on both sides and, therefore, relentlessly droning away on television and other media outlets.

In the sound and fury of the coming air wars, it will be critically important that citizens rise from their own indifference. It requires that we all put aside our timidity and stand for our principles and our country.

Mark S. Singel is a former lieutenant governor and acting governor of Pennsylvania.

More:

Both Biden and Trump should take note of Robert Kennedys running mate | Opinion

Putin tightens his grip on Russia and threatens World War III | Opinion
Manchester United hits the road for a date with AFC Bournemouth and a key Premier League matchup that concludes a busy league day. United and Bournemouth are scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. ET with TV coverage on NBC.

Live streams of the Manchester United-AFC Bournemouth match are available with introductory offers from FuboTV (free trial), DirecTV Stream (free trial) and SlingTV (low intro rate). The match is also available for streaming on Peacock ($5.99+ monthly).

Manchester United vs. AFC Bournemouth

English Premier League matchup at a glance

When: Saturday, April 13 at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Where: Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth, England.

TV channel: NBC. Live streams: FuboTV (free trial), DirecTV Stream (free trial), Sling (low intro cost), Peacock ($5.99+ monthly)

Manchester United goes down the final stretch of a tumultuous 2023-24 Premier League season, where expectations were high and inconsistent results never met them. United is still in sixth position in the league standings and in solid position to get a UEFA Europa bid, but 12 losses and a rough go in matches decided by one goal have been consistent themes. Last time out, Man U. gave up an equalizing goal on a penalty by Mohamed Salah in the 84th minute to settle for a 2-2 draw with Liverpool. And the match prior, United started a 4-3 loss to Chelsea in a 2-0 hole and surrendered two goals in the 10th and 11th minutes of extra time to squander a 3-2 lead.

AFC Bournemouth is a narrow favorite (+135) in the early betting line on the strength of its home field advantage at Vitality Stadium. Bournemouth enters in 12th position in the Premier League standings with its 11-8-12 record and 41 points. Still, just six points stand between the team and a top-8 position and a victory over Manchester United would help all trailing teams positioning.

Manchester United and AFC Bournemouth are set for a 12:30 p.m. ET start on NBC. Live streams are available with introductory offers from FuboTV (free trial), DirecTV Stream (free trial), SlingTV (low intro rate) and Peacock ($5.99+ monthly).
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene owns stock in Trumps declining media company, and when asked, she wouldnt say what has happened to her stock.

NBC News reported:

Asked by CNBC and NBC News, Greene wouldnt say what happened to her stock in Digital World Acquisition Corp., which, through a merger with Trump Media and Technology Group, recently started publicly trading as DJT. The share price is down at least 45% month to date.



Greene bought shares of DWAC on Oct. 22, 2021, just days after the merger announcement, in an amount ranging from $15,000 to $50,000, according to her official congressional financial disclosure filings. The DWAC stock opened up trading that day at $118.80 and finished around $67.

Either Greene doesnt want to admit that she still has the stock and is losing money on it, like all of Trumps other investors, or she may have gotten some inside information as a member of Congress and cashed out before the stock fell off the cliff.

Rep. Greene probably doesnt want to say because the answer doesnt look good for her or Donald Trump. The idea that any current member of Congress is investing in an ex-president/current party nominees company is troubling on its own.

The entire situation is an invitation for corruption and potential criminality.

As a public official, Marjorie Taylor Greene needs to come clean and tell the American people where her Trump stock is.

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We have been honored to be able to put your interests first for 14 years as we only answer to our readers and we will not compromise on that fundamental, core PoliticusUSA value.

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Donald Trump yelled about the criminal cases and the value of Mar-a-Lago while trying to dodge and spin abortion questions in a horrible press conference.

Trump first complained about the value of Mar-a-Lago in the New York fraud case:

Trump literally walked out to the microphone and immediately complained about the valuation of Mar-a-Lago in his fraud case. pic.twitter.com/Dl5JT1quEI  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) April 12, 2024

Speaker Mike Johnson then pushed the already debunked claim that illegal immigrants are going to vote in the presidential election:

Speaker Mike Johnson lies and claims that illegal immigrants can register to vote and vote by signing up for a drivers license or welfare. These claims have been fact checked and they arent true. Fact Check: https://t.co/MZxZGpn8BO pic.twitter.com/KlPkj3kyvk  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) April 12, 2024

Trump recycled his lie that Democrats want to kill babies after they are born:

Trump repeats his lie that Democrats are executing babies after they are born. pic.twitter.com/XKbRSbCt5s  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) April 12, 2024

After lying and saying FISA was used to spy on his presidential campaign and calling Marjorie Taylor Greenes motion to vacate unfortunate. Trump said that he would testify at his Manhattan criminal trial:

The whole event was 20 minutes long, including the questions. Trump repeated his dodges on abortion, fearmongered on immigration, and revealed that he is the Newsmax grandpa presidential candidate.

Trump didnt offer the American people any ideas or solutions, and if a viewer were watching who doesnt get their news from Fox News or Newsmax, they would have no idea what Trump was talking about.

The Trump-Johnson event was terrible, really bad, almost Saturday Night Live cold open parody bad.

Donald Trump reminded the nation that he is only running for president again to try to avoid a criminal conviction and potentially prison.

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We have been honored to be able to put your interests first for 14 years as we only answer to our readers and we will not compromise on that fundamental, core PoliticusUSA value.

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Trump is coming unglued as his criminal trial starts on Monday, as he violated the gag order by attacking witness Michael Cohen.

Trump posted on Truth Social:

There is NO WAY I can be given a Fair (Biden) Trial on Monday with Judge Juan Merchan, who is totally conflicted and corrupt, presiding. Soros backed Alvin Bragg, the District Attorney who has, along with his sidekick Leticia James, let violent crime flourish in New York, never wanted to bring this case because it is a sham and mockery of our legal system. He brought it anyway for purposes of saving the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!

Has Mark POMERANTZ been prosecuted for his terrible acts in and out of the D.A.s Office. Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for LYING? Only TRUMP people get prosecuted by this Judge and these thugs! A dark day for our Country. MAGA2024!!!

WHY DIDNT THE MANHATTAN D.A. BRING THIS RIDICULOUS & LAMBASTED CASE SEVEN YEARS AGO? Because they are corrupt and wanted to use it for purposes of Election Interference against Crooked Joe Bidens Political Opponent!

Trumps claim that he is a criminal that should have been charged earlier is not the win that he thinks it is. Secondly. the case could not have been brought seven years ago, because the investigation hasnt been going on for seven years. Plus, Trump fought the Manhattan DAs office for years in court over access to his tax returns.

The trial is starting in less than two days and Donald Trump is attacking Michael Cohen in violation of the gag order. The three people who seem to trigger Trump the most in these court cases are Stormy Daniels, E. Jean Carroll, and Michael Cohen.

Trump has a rally scheduled for this evening in Pennsylvania, and the Keystone State could be in for quite a bender, as the ex-president seems very upset that he is about to go from failed, one-term former president Trump to failed term ex-president, criminal defendant Trump is less than 48 hours.

A Special Message From PoliticusUSA

If you are in a position to donate purely to help us keep the doors open on PoliticusUSA during what is a critical election year, please do so here.

We have been honored to be able to put your interests first for 14 years as we only answer to our readers and we will not compromise on that fundamental, core PoliticusUSA value.

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In uniform Marines were at a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser, which means that either they were fake or illegally attending a political event in uniform.

Several people who were dressed as Marines were pictured at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago:

Its either illegal per UCMJ, or they arent marines which would be weird https://t.co/BEcKYP8uLN  Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini)  (@AdamKinzinger) April 13, 2024

According to guidance on political activities and campaigns issued in 2011, Marines are prohibited from appearing in uniform at partisan political events:

AS A PRIMARY EXAMPLE, MARINES AND SAILORS SHALL NOT WEAR A UNIFORM WHEN THEY ATTEND A PARTISAN OR NONPARTISAN POLITICAL FUNDRAISING ACTIVITY, MEETING, RALLY, DEBATE OR CONVENTION AS A SPECTATOR.

2. MARINES AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES ARE SUBJECT TO GENERALLY MORE RESTRICTIVE RULES THAN FEDERAL CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES. REF A IS A PUNITIVE LAWFUL GENERAL REGULATION APPLICABLE TO MARINES, SAILORS AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES ON ACTIVE DUTY. PERMISSIBLE ACTIVITIES INCLUDE REGISTERING TO VOTE AND VOTING, ENCOURAGING OTHERS TO VOTE, MAKING A FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION TO A POLITICAL PARTY OR CANDIDATE, PARTICIPATING FULLY IN THE FEDERAL VOTING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM, AND DISPLAYING A PARTISAN BUMPER STICKER ON A POV.

PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES INCLUDE PARTICIPATING IN PARTISAN POLITICAL FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES, USING OFFICIAL AUTHORITY TO INFLUENCE OR INTERFERE WITH AN ELECTION, MARCHING OR RIDING IN PARTISAN PARADES, SPEAKING BEFORE A PARTISAN POLITICAL GATHERING, PERFORMING CLERICAL OR OTHER DUTIES FOR A PARTISAN POLITICAL COMMITTEE OR CANDIDATE DURING A CAMPAIGN, DISPLAYING A LARGE POLITICAL SIGN (AS DISTINGUISHED FROM A BUMPER STICKER) ON A PRIVATE VEHICLE, AND DISPLAYING A PARTISAN POLITICAL SIGN, POSTER, BANNER, OR SIMILAR DEVICE VISIBLE TO THE PUBLIC AT ONES RESIDENCE ON A MILITARY INSTALLATION (EVEN IF THAT RESIDENCE IS PART OF A PRIVATIZED HOUSING DEVELOPMENT).

Former Rep. Kinzinger was correct. Either the Marines in attendance were fake, or they were illegal present in uniform at a partisan political event. It is illegal for any member of the armed forces to appear at a partisan political event in uniform.

Trump had Marines present because since leaving the White House, the former president has been obsessed with creating a replica fake White House at his properties. Trump tries to lend the appearance and create the perception of being a president in exile, when he is in reality a loser who cant let it go.

There are some questions that need to be answered about Trumps Mar-a-Lago Marines, and if those pictured were active service members, they need to be disciplined for their illegal activities.

A Special Message From PoliticusUSA

If you are in a position to donate purely to help us keep the doors open on PoliticusUSA during what is a critical election year, please do so here.

We have been honored to be able to put your interests first for 14 years as we only answer to our readers and we will not compromise on that fundamental, core PoliticusUSA value.

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Photo: Ron Filipkowski on (X)/a>
Even on one of downtown Charleston's most historic streets, the home at 149 South Battery still stands out. Classic wrought-iron railings give way to timeless red brick, all of it wrapped in a Federalist style that's been a mainstay of American home design since the Revolution. The refined e Read moreFall Home Showcase: Robust autumn market gives Charleston buyers more to choose from
Anytime I tell people that Im a chaplain, I can never be sure they understand the title, much less spell it. (Im not a Chaplin, like Charlie.) Some people think a chaplain is just like a church pastor. Some think chaplains are exclusive to the military. Some assume chaplains are always Christians. After I encourage them to disavow these assumptions, they still arent sure what chaplains do.

Chaplains serve in many roles, but during the years I was fully employed as a hospital chaplain, I often told folks that I was a religious translator. When they cocked their heads for better understanding, I offered this story.

In the early 1990s, I was working at Houston Northwest Medical Center when I found the ICU nurse manager, Grace Heffron, madly flipping through a patients chart. Grace was 5 feet, 3 inches of green-eyed Italian. She charged her work with a no-nonsense approach and didnt fancy interruptions. Nevertheless, I asked her to suggest which patients might need to see a chaplain. Grace shot me a look over the top of her glasses. She didnt see her job as birddogging problem patients for me.

How about bed No. 2, she suggested. Her voice was baited with East Coast sarcasm, but I bit nevertheless.

Why, whats going on?

Oh, nothing really, she said, her volume increasing. Nothing except for a bill passing 2 million and their religious family is calling us liars.

That actually makes some sense, I said.

Grace slapped the chart down. None of it made sense to her.

Give me a few minutes, and Ill come back to say more.

Having her undivided but somewhat undesired attention, I retreated into the patients room to find a 75-year-old man, suffering from a massive stroke and nearly brain-dead. Now, 60 days after admission, he was on a ventilator and had developed multiple bedsores. His daughters greeted me with suspicion, but when I offered a prayer, they instantly raised their open-palmed hands and began shouting a prayer something like this:
I was all ready to denounce the Senate Judiciary Committee for rushing the Houses 43-section S.C. utility regulation overhaul  ending its lone public hearing after only supporters had been allowed to testify and advancing it to the floor a mere week after senators got their first look at it  when Sen. Tom Davis told the panel what hes been up to.

Mr. Davis isnt a member of the committee and so normally wouldnt even be part of the conversation yet, but he sponsored a more modest companion bill to H.5118, and hes been working with what he called stakeholders to design a consensus bill to make sure South Carolina has enough electricity to meet its growing demand without destroying important environmental assets or plunging ratepayers into another V.C. Summer-sized boondoggle.

Coming from some people, this wouldnt be particularly encouraging, but Mr. Davis has become the essential consensus builder in the Senate. So he has street cred, regardless of the topic.

On Tuesday he reeled off what he called tension points that remain between utility, business, environmental and consumer advocates, and he said his goal was to develop a Venn diagram of the changes everyone could live with. It was clear that he wasnt going along with some of the most troublesome parts of the House-passed bill  requiring the Office of Regulatory Staff to look out for the interests of the utilities instead of the public, for instance  but he was equally uninterested in giving utilities the back of his hand.

Suddenly, the speed felt less problematic. The idea that it might not be cataclysmic to rush the so-called S.C. Energy Security Act to the full Senate while Mr. Davis built that consensus in the background was underscored by Judiciary Chairman Luke Rankin's assurance that the bill wouldnt pass without it: Unless we're all singing Kumbaya, this bill doesnt advance beyond the Senate floor.
PR-Inside.com: 2024-04-13 13:45:46

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Additionally, individuals can visit the company's website atwww.allyearcooling.comto browse a wide selection of systems from reputable brands such as Daikin, Goodman, Ruud, Rheem, Trane, and more. The website also provides detailed information on installation processes and warranty details. All Year Cooling is equipped to handle a range of services, from installing new AC units and cleaning air ducts to setting up humidifiers, offering comprehensive support for all cooling needs.In an ongoing effort to support the local community and promote environmental sustainability, All Year Cooling has recently launched a new initiative aimed at reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. This green initiative includes upgrading existing systems to more energy-efficient models and incorporating renewable energy technologies in their operations. As part of this commitment, All Year Cooling also offers specialized consultations on energy-saving practices and rebates for customers who choose to upgrade to environmentally friendly air conditioning units. This proactive approach not only enhances home comfort and reduces energy bills but also supports the broader goal of making South Florida a leader in sustainable living practices.For more information, please visitwww.allyearcooling.com About All Year CoolingFounded in 1973, All Year Cooling is a licensed and insured full-service air conditioning provider known for its expertise in AC repair, maintenance, and installation throughout South Florida. From Vero Beach to Homestead, the company has built a reputation for quick turnaround times and exceptional service, understanding the critical need for efficient air conditioning in the region's hot climate. With over 350,000 customers served and more than 200,000 AC installations completed, All Year Cooling has demonstrated its capacity to respond swiftly to new orders and emergency situations.Operating from the heart of South Florida, All Year Cooling deploys a large fleet of vehicles daily, ensuring comprehensive coverage and timely service. Each service call includes a thorough evaluation of the AC system, inspecting and diagnosing the unit and ventilation system without any obligation to continue services. The company prides itself on employing only the finest technicians, who are rigorously screened, tested, and continuously trained to stay abreast of the latest technologies and methods in air conditioning repair. 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The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the police have warned candidates preparing for the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) against patronising fake websites.

They gave the warning at a joint news conference in Abuja on Saturday.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, an assistant commissioner of police, said there were several fake websites created by unscrupulous individuals with the intention of misleading candidates.

He urged candidates to be wary of their tactics, saying the fake web sites were designed to deceive innocent candidates into providing personal details such as registration numbers, email addresses, and phone numbers.

Both JAMB and the Nigeria Police Force condemn these fraudulent activities and hereby reiterate the readiness to safeguard the interests of candidates and maintain the integrity of the examination process.

We urge parents, guardians, and all stakeholders to ensure that candidates print their UTME Notification Slips only from the Boards approved website: www.jamb.gov.ng.

Candidates can print their slips from the comfort of their homes or visit any of the over 700 accredited Computer-Based Test (CBT) centres nationwide, he said.

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Mr Adejobi explained that the force was familiar with the tactics employed by fraudsters, especially during the annual assessment and admission exercises.

He, therefore, said that both organisations was actively sensitising candidates and the public about these deceptive practices.

Any candidate who visits these fake sites will definitely have unreliable information and thereby miss out in the forthcoming exams.

Candidates are advised to print their UTME Notification Slips before Friday, 19th April, 2024, to access vital information about their examinations.

Any website other than www.jamb.gov.ng offering UTME slip printing services is fake and designed to defraud candidates, he said.

He also called on candidates to beware of web sites offering live questions and answers, as they were false and deceptive, saying that accessing such materials was prohibited.

He further said the board was partnering with the Nigeria Police Force National Cyber Crime Centre (NPF-NCCC) to address online scam-related issues seamlessly.

He assured candidates and the public of the force firm dedication to ensuring a fair and transparent examination process.

He also stressed that the Inspector General of Police had ordered the NPF-NCCC to go after scammers and fraudsters who engage in cyber related crimes and create phishing sites/portals.

On his part, the JAMB spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, pledged the Boards commitment to continue in playing its role

He, therefore, urged candidates to ignore any unsolicited messages noting that they were from elements who aim at defrauding candidates.

The 2024 UTME is scheduled to commence on Friday, 19 April and end on 29 April. (NAN)

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Two students recently kidnapped at the Federal University Wukari (FUW) in Taraba State, Joshua Sardauna and Obianu Elizabeth, have regained their freedom.

The Head of Information and Protocol of the university, Ashu Agbu, confirmed their release to our correspondent over the telephone on Friday.

Mrs Agbu said the students regained freedom Thursday night after the payment of an undisclosed amount of money to their captors.

Mr Sardauna, a student of Economics, and Miss Obianu of the Microbiology department were earlier this month abducted by unknown gunmen from an eatery on the institutions premises.

The kidnappers eventually contacted the university authorities and demanded N50 million as ransom for their release. The ransom was later renegotiated down to N12 million.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt from sources in the school that N700,000 was paid after a series of negotiations to secure their release.

The kidnappers were said to have abducted the students after missing their target  the owner of the eatery.

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) has cleared the 16 aspirants seeking its ticket to contest the 20 November Ondo State Governorship election.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the seven-man screening committee, led by Joshua Lidani, gave all the aspirants the nod to contest the 20 April primary election of the party.

A report submitted to the partys Directorate of Organisation in Abuja on Saturday, said the committee considered eligibility, suitability, character, support base, among other areas.

Among those cleared was Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa.

Also cleared are Isaac Kekemeke, former APC National Vice-Chairman (South West); Olusoji Ehinlanwo, Olugbenga Edema, a former member of the state House of Assembly; and Jimoh Ibrahim, a serving senator.

Others are Funmilayo Waheed-Adekojo, Akinfolarin Samuel, former Commissioner for Finance, Adewale Akinterinwa; Olusola Oke, a former Governorship candidate in the state, Ohunyeye Felix and Morayo Lebi.

Also cleared were Garvey Iyanjan; Dayo Faduyile, a professor, Judith Omogoroye, Ifeoluwa Oyedele and Okunjimi John.

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All aspirants demonstrated a willingness to support the aspirant that emerged as the partys candidate for the November 2024 governorship election, the report stated.

It urged the partys leadership to ensure that the 20 April primary election is free, fair, credible and acceptable to all.

(NAN)

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President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has reiterated his administrations commitment to end banditry in Zamfara State as well as ordered the deployment of troops and a sustained military onslaught against bandits in the state.

A statement by the spokesperson of the Zamfara governor, Sulaiman Bala Idris, said President Tinubu received some state governors and the leadership of the National Assembly in his Lagos residence.

According to the statement, also part of the delegation as its leader was Vice President Kashim Shettima. He said they paid a Sallah homage to President Tinubu on Friday.

Mr Idris further stated about the homage: During a conversation with Governor Dauda Lawal, President Tinubu asked about the security situation in Zamfara State.

Governor Lawal informed the President of the progress made and the ongoing military operations against bandits in the state.

President Tinubu assured the governor that he is committed to ending the menace of banditry in the state, adding that he had ordered a sustained military onslaught and deployment of more troops to Zamfara State.

He requested regular updates from Governor Lawal regarding the states security situation for effective collaboration in the fight against banditry, he added.

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Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Friday, said the state government was considering a series of tough decisions to curtail the recklessness of traders across markets, which resulted in fire incidents.

He said this while receiving the leadership of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), led by its newly appointed Director-General, Zubaida Umar, at the State House in Marina.

The NEMA national leadership team was in Lagos to sympathise with the state government on the fire disaster that razed no fewer than 14 multi-storey buildings and destroyed assets worth millions in Dosunmu market on Lagos Island on Tuesday.

While decrying the fire incident, Mr Sanwo-Olu expressed disappointment at the reckless handling of flammable materials in the market.

The governor noted that before the fire incident, the state government had conducted a sensitisation programme for traders on the need to refrain from acts that could potentially endanger their lives and their trading environment.

He said it was disheartening that some traders were still reckless and inconsiderate.

Mr Sanwo-Olu said firefighters arrived at the fire scene on time and could have saved some of the razed assets, but the responders could not access the fire source due to obstruction along the tiny street.

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The governor, who noted that 120 tanks of water were used up before the inferno was brought under control, commended the first responders from both the state and federal governments for their round-the-clock action to salvage the situation and stop the spread of the fire.

The NEMA leaderships visit came just as the Lagos States emergency response team was winding up its recovery effort at the fire scene.

Mr Sanwo-Olu conveyed his appreciation to the agencys boss for the prompt deployment of first responders from NEMA to join the states emergency response team in combating the inferno minutes after the alert was sent out.

He disclosed that the state government had commenced enumeration of the razed area to ascertain the loss of the traders and to support them to get back on their feet.

This data, he said, would be shared with NEMA to help the agency properly channel its support for the affected traders.

Mrs Umar said the visit was to show solidarity with the Lagos State government and to show support to the first responders who had remained at the scene since the incident occurred.

She pledged that NEMA would raise its awareness and sensitisation on power utilisation in closely built markets to minimise the risk of fire and mitigate emergencies.

PREMIUM TIMES reports that in the aftermath of the fire outbreak, Mr Sanwo-Olu directed that commercial activities in Dosunmu Street and its immediate environs be suspended immediately until further notice.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Central Business Distress (CBD), Bola Lawal, announced the closure and suspension when she led a delegation to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.

According to Mrs Lawal, the markets affected by the closure include Dosunmu, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Moshalashi, Woro Pedro, Obanikoro Street, Ago Tawa, Idumagbo Avenue, Idumagbo, IdoOluwo and Oju Olobun Street.

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A former governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Congress (ADC) in Lagos State, Funso Doherty, has demanded a thorough investigation into the award of the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway contract.

Mr Doherty made the demand in a letter addressed to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas.

The 700-kilometre road project was allegedly awarded to a private contracting firm, Hitech, and is expected to cost N15.6 trillion.

Since the contract was made public, it has generated controversy. Nigerians have been questioning the transparency of the contract award process.

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, recently described the project as scandalous, insisting that the awarding process was shrouded in secrecy.

Atiku also claimed that President Bola Tinubu prioritised personal business interests over national interest by awarding the road contract to Hitech, a company owned by Gilbert Chagoury, without competitive bidding.

In the letter addressed to Messers Akpabio and Tajudeen, the former governorship candidate urged the National Assembly to probe the road contract because the awarding process violates the provision of the Public Procurement Act.

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In what appears to be an alarming violation of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 (PPA), the executive arm of Government through the Federal Ministry of Works (FMW), led by the Honorable Minister, David Umahi, has recently awarded a massive contract for the construction of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road to Hi-Tech Construction Ltd.

By the ministers public admission, competitive bidding was not applied, and the contract was awarded to Hi-Tech on a single-source basis.

As you are no doubt aware, for obvious reasons aimed at protecting the public interest, the PPA as enacted by the National Assembly, requires open competitive bidding except for certain specific exemptions that are clearly outlined in Part VII of the act.

In my opinion, none of the reasons canvassed by the minister for exempting this project from competitive bidding, apply to the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, he said.

I, therefore, hereby call on the National Assembly, in its capacity as representatives of the people and, in the exercise of its powers and responsibilities of oversight, to immediately commence an investigation into this project, the FMW and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), he said.

Mr Doherty said the project should be suspended and subjected to due process including competitive bidding as required by the law.

In addition, you may consider the following to be relevant to your investigation: Both Hi-Tech Construction and South Energy Ltd (Promoter and developer of Eko Atlantic, the vast coastal concession granted for shoreline protection and development of luxury real estate, where the Coastal road will originate from) are reported to be substantially beneficially owned by Gilbert Chagoury, Doherty said in the letter.

As a result of the issues now being raised on the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road project, the National Assembly may also want to better understand the Eko Atlantic concession, who its other ultimate beneficial owners are, its extent, limits and the process that was followed in granting that concession.

Furthermore, according to the Minister, certain changes have been made to the proposed alignment of the road from the originally gazetted right of way to the one now being implemented by Hi-Tech.

An argument has been made that being under common ownership (the Chagoury Group) with the concessionaire of an adjacent property, (Eko Atlantic), Hi-Tech is an interested party and may stand to benefit from some of the alignment changes that have been made.

If offences under the PPA or code of conduct are established in the course of your investigations, we expect that they will be prosecuted and that the consequences provided in the law will be applied to serve as a deterrent.

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Two people were reported dead while 13 others sustained injuries in an accident at Ajede, after J4, on the Sagamu-Ijebu Ode expressway on Saturday.

Florence Okpe, the spokesperson, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Ogun, confirmed the incident in Abeokuta.

Ms Okpe explained that the accident occured at about 12:10 p.m. and it involved a Toyota Hiace bus marked GUE 59 ZY and a truck with registration number BGT 94 LG.

The FRSC spokesperson explained further that the accident was caused by excessive speeding which made the bus driver to ram into a stationary truck parked by the roadside.

Fifteen people were involved in the crash  10 men and five women and a total of 13 people sustained injuries while two persons died, she said.

Ms Okpe added that the injured victims were taken to Hope Hospital at J4 while the deceased were deposited at the Ijebu-Ode General Hospital Morgue.

Anthony Uga, the Sector Commander, cautioned motorists against wrong parking of vehicles on the highway.

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Mr Uga further cautioned motorists against over speeding and advised them to always drive carefully.

(NAN)

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Movie producer, Adanma Luke, has spoken on why she contracted the deceased Nollywood actor, John Paul Odonwodo, for the ill-fated movie, The Other Side of Life.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Mr Odonwodo, popularly known as Junior Pope, and four other actors drowned after their boat capsized in Anam River in Anambra State on Wednesday while returning from the movie shoot.

The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) had earlier said 12 individuals were on the ill-fated boat.

NIWA added that of the 12, seven were successfully rescued, two found dead, including Mr Odonwodo while three others  two females and one male  were declared missing.

The police in Anambra State, Friday, said they had recovered bodies of the three missing Nollywood stars.

The filmmaker, on Thursday, voluntarily turned herself in to the police, who said they were investigating any criminal liability on the unfortunate incident.

Hiring Junior Pope

In her first public comment on the incident in a video clip she uploaded online on Saturday, Mrs Luke said she contracted Mr Odonwodo for a role in the movie production because of appeals from the deceased actor and his wife.

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This is my first time working with Junior Pope. Hes my friend. The wife is my friend too, she said in a video clip uploaded on her Instagram handle.

I talked to the wife sometime, and that was when she said, Why arent you giving my husband work? Junior Pope said, Ada, you be my friend, why you no dey give me work?

I told Junior Pope that you know it is action films you usually shoot, I hardly do action (movies). He said no that he also does love stories, he could do other things. He said thats why hes an artiste.

I said I forgot that as an artiste he could do anything. And I said its okay. Dont worry (I would contract you in my next movie shooting), the filmmaker narrated.

PREMIUM TIMES reported earlier that the film maker blamed Junior Popes death on his refusal to wear a lifejacket during the ill-fated boat trip.

I was supposed to be in the capsized boat

Mrs Luke also said she was supposed to be part of the crew members that boarded the boat, but arrived later after the boat had taken off.

She said My production manager was calling me to bring memory card so they could start filming, and I told him to come and collect it (from my house).

He said, Mama, you know this place is far; please just bring it for us. I said, Okay.

Continuing, the movie producer said, So, on 10 April (the day the boat capsized), while I was getting ready to go drop the card with them, I was accompanied by my brothers children  two kids that were supposed to go with me. We were supposed to be on that boat together.

They were my family; Im traumatised

Mrs Luke said she was traumatised by the tragic incident because the victims were more like a family to her.

Ive been so traumatised. Ive been so cold. I still cant believe this. These crew members were my family. Theyve been working with me.

If Im working in Lagos, theyll come from Asaba to come and work with me. All through last year, we stayed together in Lagos. We were filming and working together.

This whole thing, it still feels like a dream to me. I blame myself that I would have been in Lagos, doing my thing in Lagos. I blame myself for coming down to Asaba, she said while shedding tears.

Actor guilds ban

Mrs Lukes comments on the boat accident came days after The Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) barred actors from dealing with her for the time being.

In a statement on Thursday, the National President of the AGN, Emeka Rollas also announced the suspension of the production of The other side of Life, the movie which led to the accident.

On their part, the police in Anambra State, South-east Nigeria, have also begun an investigation to unravel any criminal liability in the cause of death of Mr Odonwodo and four others.

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The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has said that the construction of the Vice Presidents official residence in Abuja will not cause any traffic disruption upon completion.

Mr Wike stated this while inspecting the project on Saturday.

He said the federal governments design and planning for the residence took traffic flow into careful consideration.

According to the Minister, the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) provided valuable input into the project, ensuring that necessary adjustments were made by both the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and the project contractor.

Those who designed the Vice Presidents residence know why. We are not the ones who designed it. It was the Federal Government that decided that the Vice Presidents residence should be located here. So, Im sure they considered everything before deciding that.

We have invited the office of the NSA and they have taken a look and made their input which the FCDA and the contractor, Julius Berger have taken into cognizance and made amendments. So, for traffic concerns, I dont think its a problem, he said.

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Highlighting the meticulous planning behind the project, Mr Wike said the selection of the residences location was a decision of the federal government, with thorough consideration of all relevant factors before construction commenced.

He expressed contentment with the progress of the project, noting the speed and quality of work.

The minister confidently announced that the project is on track for completion and commissioning by next month, with the contractor pledging timely delivery.

Furthermore, Mr Wike assured the public of the timely completion of other infrastructure projects in the FCT, slated for May, underscoring the administrations commitment to fulfilling its promises within the first year of office.

READ ALSO: Governor Fubara throws jabs at Wike over comments on Odili

Significant progress has been made on the project since his last visit to the site, while the contractor has also promised to hand over the project in May.

As for the quality of the job, of course, we can see the work is going according to design and specification. So, we believe, by the grace of God, that is something that will be actualised, he stated.

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The Lagos chapter of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), has decried an orchestrated plan to hijack and absorb some charlatans into the association.

REDAN made the disclosure in a statement signed by its chairman, Bamidele Onalaja, and the secretary, Toby Ifada, on Thursday.

The association said that investigation has revealed that many realtors with non-existent identities and names have been fraudulently registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), in order to manipulate the electoral process for the successor to Mr Onalaja, the outgoing chairman and his cabinet members.

It noted that the REDAN as the principal agency and umbrella body of the organised real estate sector, recognised by the central and state governments of Nigeria, does not admit realtors as its members due to differences in objectives and responsibilities.

To execute their devious ploy, we have discovered that the upcoming election has been scheduled to take place in Oyo State, in clear violation of the associations constitution, the statement reads.

The association called on both Lagos and Oyo state governments, as well as REDANs Board of Trustees, to take immediate action and stop this travesty, which if allowed to happen will largely erase the achievements and successes REDAN, Lagos chapter, has recorded since its inception in 2020.

In addition to erasing the achievements of REDAN Lagos, the massive admission of all manner of companies without proper KYC will further erase the credibility of a body like REDAN. Hence, we implore the anti-graft agencies, the EFCC, ICPC and relevant authorities to promptly begin a comprehensive investigation into this fraudulent scheming.

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We are also urging the general public to disregard all memo, press releases or advertisements from these impostors and avoid being scammed by these impostors. In the interim, the outgoing Excos will remain in office until all issues are resolved and proper structure is re-established to ensure that the election is held in Lagos State, with registered and verified members as voting blocs, the statement further read.

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Ikeja Electric Plc announced Saturday it has obtained approval to add 34 additional Band A feeders to its network.

The company disclosed this in a statement posted on its Facebook page on Saturday.

Last Wednesday, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) ordered the immediate upward review of electricity tariffs from Wednesday, 3 April.

The NERC Vice Chairperson, Musiliu Oseni, who disclosed this while speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday, explained that the increase would affect only electricity customers in band A.

He noted that the increase would not affect Bands B, C, D and E while noting that the number of customers previously on Band A has been reduced.

Band A customers are offered an average daily electricity supply of 20 hours, although many complain they do not get up to that.

The official said the Band A consumers represent 15 per cent of the population but consume 40 per cent of the nations electricity.

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Accordingly, he said, power distribution companies (DisCos) will be allowed to raise electricity prices to N225 ($0.15) per kilowatt-hour from N68.

SEE FULL LIST

In its statement on Saturday, Ikeja Electric said the additional feeders increase its feeders from 51 to 85.

Effective today, April 13th, 2024, and based on our demonstrated ability to consistently provide a minimum of 20 hours of daily availability during a performance evaluation period monitored by the Regulator, we are pleased to announce that we have obtained approval to add 34 additional Band A feeders to our network. This brings our total from 51 to 85, with the breakdown as follows: 51 at 11kV, 31 at 33kV, and 3 at 132kV.

Ikeja Electric remains committed to meeting the service delivery expectations of all our customers across various tariff bands as we continue to enhance network upgrades within our coverage areas, it said.

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The Channels Television reporter, Joshua Rogers, who was abducted from his residence in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, has been freed.

He was released around 10 p.m. on Friday unharmed, about 24 hours after being abducted from his home in Rumuosi, Obio/Akpor area of Port Harcourt on Thursday.

He was reportedly seized by gunmen around 9:00 p.m. on Thursday as he returned from an official assignment at the Government House.

The criminals intercepted him and forcefully took him away in a Channels Television-branded vehicle.

Release

His colleague, Charles Oporum, confirmed the news of his release in the late hours of Friday.

Yes, he has been released about an hour ago, and has reunited with his family, Mr Oporum said.

The management of the television station also confirmed Mr Rogers release in a brief statement.

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The statement reads: Channels Television reporter, Joshua Rogers, who was abducted last night in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has been freed.

We thank our viewers and all those who expressed concern over the unfortunate incident.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) also saw a video showing Mr Rogers celebrating with his family after he regained his freedom.

However, it remains unclear whether he was rescued by security forces or if ransom was paid for his release.

The abductors were said to have contacted his wife, demanding a ransom of N30 million for his release.

But the police and the State Security Service (SSS) launched rescue efforts during his abduction.

NUJs call for journalists release

The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) had on Friday night called for the immediate release of the kidnapped Channels Tv reporter.

Chris Iziguzo, NUJ President, made the call while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja.

READ ALSO: NUJ seeks immediate release of Channels TV reporter

He urged the Rivers State Government and security agencies to ensure to ensure the journalist was promptly released safe.

The NUJ is deeply concerned about the escalating insecurity faced by journalists and media practitioners in the country.

It is distressing that individuals involved in the vital work of informing the public have become targets of criminal activities.

The NUJ hereby appeals to the Government of Rivers State and relevant security agencies to prioritise efforts towards securing the safe and immediate release of Rogers, he said.

The NUJ president emphasised the need to ensure journalists well-being and safety during this critical time.

Mr Rogers is Channels TVs Government House Correspondent in Port Harcourt.

(NAN)

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Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has signed into law the executive bill for the establishment of the State Rule of Law Enforcement Authority.

Mr Makinde, while signing the bill into law on Friday in Ibadan, the state capital, said that the establishment of the body would allow for quick dispensation of justice to law breakers in the state.

According to the governor, the executive bill was presented to the House of Assembly to bridge the gap in enforcement of extant laws on traffic management, environmental sanitation and other issues.

He noted that law enforcement had faced serious challenges due to lack of adequate cooperation between state and the relevant federal law enforcement agencies.

Justifying the establishment of the agency further, Mr Makinde said: We have been here for over four years and we have seen that we do have adequate laws to deal with the aspect of protecting the environment, traffic laws, and road transport management authority.

We also signed the anti-open grazing law but some of these we have not been able to enforce, maybe, because we have not had full cooperation from the law enforcement agencies.

But we have to keep striving for the kind of state that we are all comfortable with and we have been dreaming about.

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So, this is the basis for sending the executive bill to the state assembly.

I have had to deal with people driving against traffic, leading to accidents causing maiming, even death. We have had several instances of deaths.

We have had to deal with street trading. People have also turned the median of our roads to dump sites.

We have been saying these things must stop and in reality, they must stop. So, what this law is going to do is to allow quick dispensation of justice for the law breakers.

That is why with the signing of this law, we will put everything in place to give a bite to the people that will run this authority, he said.

Retired judge heads new body

He equally announced the appointment of Retired Justice Aderonke Aderemi, as the new chairman of the enforcement agency, immediately he assented to the bill.

He promised that his government would give maximum support to the newly established agency to enhance its performance.

Enforcement

Mr Makinde disclosed that there would be mobile courts all over the state to prosecute breakers of any of the laws at any hour of the day, be it midnight or 1.00 a.m.

But we are not just going to stay on the enforcement side, we will also have advocacy, he said.

He urged all residents of the state to cooperate with his administration so they could have an Oyo State of their dreams.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Deputy Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Abiodun Fadeyi, presented the bill passed by the house to the governor.

Mr Fadeyi said the lawmakers were thorough in handling and passing the bill, adding that all the ministries that were concerned appeared before the house.

(NAN)

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The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has lauded the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for its move to recapitalise banks to achieve economic resilience in the country.

The Managing Director of NDIC, Bello Hassan, made the commendation on Friday during the NDIC Special Day at the ongoing 35th Enugu International Trade Fair.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the fair, which began on 5 April, is themed: Promoting made-in-Nigeria products for global competitiveness.

Mr Hassan pledged that the NDIC would continue to collaborate with the central bank in ensuring a seamless transition while safeguarding depositors interest.

According to him, in the light of the ongoing global economic dynamics, the CBN has stepped up regulatory efforts to ensure the resilience and stability of the Nigerian banking sector.

Proposed recapitalisation

The managing director said that significant stride in this direction remained the recent revision and pegging of higher minimum capital requirements for banks operating in Nigeria.

Under this proposal, commercial banks would be required to maintain minimum capital levels of N500 billion, N200 billion, and N50 billion for international, national, and regional institutions.

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As well as N50 billion for merchant banks, while national and regional non-interest banks are required to maintain N20 billion and N10 billion respectively.

This strategic recapitalisation initiative is in line with President Bola Tinubus administration urge to grow Nigerias economy to the ranks of $1 trillion base economies.

This will not only strengthen the banking system but would also enhance the sectors ability to withstand financial shocks, he said.

Gains of past revocation of banking licenses

Mr Hassan revealed that since the CBN revoked the licences of 179 Microfinance Banks and four Primary Mortgage Banks in 2023, the NDIC had continued to efficiently disburse insured sums to verified depositors of these closed institutions.

He noted that depositors, who have undergone verification and have provided alternative account details, had received their payments seamlessly within a record period of five working days.

While it is worth noting that depositors with amounts exceeding the insured limit will receive liquidation dividends once debts are recovered and assets of the closed banks are disposed.

Moreover, the NDIC strongly encourages depositors of the affected banks to come forward with their Bank Verification Number (BVN), proof of account ownership, proper identification, and/or alternative account details.

Various channels are available for claims, including visiting nearest NDIC offices in person, using the NDIC App online, or accessing the Claims Page on the NDIC website.

Additionally, they can reach out through our Toll-Free Help Desk Line at 0800 634 424 357 for further inquiries as we remain steadfast in fulfilling our mandate and prioritising the safety of depositors funds, he said.

Nigerians money is safe

Earlier, President of Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Odeiga Jideonwo, said that NDIC had given Nigerians sleep and rest of mind that their deposit is safe.

Mr Jideonwo appreciated the work of the Corporation as it had ensured financial stability, growth and confidence in the financial sector, adding those days when depositors are worried about their deposits are gone.

He also said that NDIC had been in the forefront of using the fair to enlighten depositors on how to safe guard their bank accounts/deposits against fraudulent practices in the banking/financial sector.

The Chamber is happy that the decade-long relationship with NDIC is very healthy and we envisage higher synergy in years to come, he said.

(NAN)

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Gunmen attacked one of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirants in Benue in the 2023 race, Terwase Orbunde on Friday and abducted his wife and househelp, the police declared on Saturday.

Mr Orbunde, Chief of Staff to Governor Samuel Ortom escaped with a gunshot wound to his right arm in the attack.

Police spokesperson in Benue, Sewuese Anene, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the gunmen attacked Mr Orbunde and members of his household in the Benue capital as they were returning from the farm.

She said Mr Orbunde reported the attack to the police which dispatched a team of detectives to the scene of the assault and recovered the politicians car.

Ms Anene assured that the assailants would be tracked and arrested and the abducted freed.

Witnesses said Mr Orbunde, his wife and the househelp had gone to inspect the weeding of their farm located close to the road.

After paying the workers, five gunmen attacked them and ordered their victims to follow them to an unknown destination, but discarded bleeding Mr Orbunde who was too slow to keep pace.

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READ ALSO: Gunmen kill 19 persons in Kogi community

The gunshot caused villagers and passers-by to scamper to safety in different directions, the witnesses said.

A family source told NAN that the assailants demanded a N100 million ransom on Saturday for the release of the two women abducted.

(NAN)

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President Bola Tinubu has assured Nigerians that his administration will continue to promote the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) to improve access to higher education in the country.

Mr Tinubu gave the assurance at the 13th Convocation and Investiture of the third Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Ewuare II, the Oba of Benin, on Saturday in Abuja.

We will continue to do this in order to improve quality, access and affordability, he said.

Mr Tinubu was represented at the event by Biodun Saliu, the Deputy Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC).

He said the deployment of ODL approach in tertiary education was the major link to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Government is, therefore, committed through the Federal Ministry of Education and the NUC to provide the enabling environment to ensure a good delivery of this mode of education in Nigeria, he said.

NOUNs contributions open and distance e-learning

The Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, Olufemi Peters, a professor, said the university had maintained its leadership role in promoting ODL across the African continent.

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This, Mr Peters said, necessitated the re-election of the institution as the 1st Vice-President on the Board of the African Council for Distance Education (ACDE) during the seventh Triennial Conference and General Assembly held in Kenya.

The university continues to contribute significantly to Open and Distance e-Learning (ODeL) initiatives. The ACDE is a continental and leading organisation of African universities in ODeL and other higher educational institutions.

We take pride in offering education that is both flexible and qualitative, yet affordable and accessible.

We prioritise equity and equal opportunities in education at the university level, striving to widen access and promote lifelong learning.

Since inception, NOUN has provided scholarships to about 83 inmates in correctional centres, exemplified by a current PhD student in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution.

NOUN, from humble beginning

From a very humble beginning, the university has grown in leaps and bounds. We have brought smiles to many people who had thought university education was beyond them. Our student enrolment figures have increased.

Our programme offerings have also increased. From about 1,230 students in 2003, the student population has now grown to about 170,000 active students in 2024 and over 100,000 alumni, straddling important sectors of our economy.

We have grown from relative obscurity, where many in the tertiary education sector and employers within the Nigerian labour market tried to question the quality of our products, to a pre-eminent position as the undisputed leader in Open and Distance Learning in sub-Saharan Africa, Mr Peters said.

2024 convocation

He noted that the 2024 convocation was unique because of the investiture of the institutions third Chancellor, the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II.

The convocation is also unique because of the award of honorary degrees on Dr Innocent Chukwuma, founder, Innoson Motors and Hajiya Hafsatu Ahmed, the first female Hausa novelist from Northern Nigeria, he said.

He said the choice of the awardees reflected the core values at NOUN which centred on entrepreneurial ingenuity and knowledge based content creativity.

ALSO READ: Nigeria grants approval to 12 universities to operate Open Distance Learning

Indeed, as a mark of the profound admiration of Chukwumas entrepreneurial sagacity, the NOUN under my management, has decided henceforth, to acquire only Innoson vehicular products as our operational vehicles, Peters added.

Chancellor speaks

The Chancellor, the Oba of Benin, who spoke after his investiture, said he was aware of the responsibility accompanying his position.

My vision for the National Open University of Nigeria is one of excellence, innovation, and inclusivity.

It is my fervent aspiration to leverage my position as a traditional ruler to enhance the fortunes of this esteemed institution.

Without any gainsaying, NOUN holds a unique position as a beacon of hope and opportunity in the realm of Open and Distance e-learning mode of instructional delivery.

We will do our best to ensure that this university remains not only a pioneer in Nigeria but also a shining example across the entirety of the sub-Saharan Africa.

As we all know, education knows no boundaries, and I am committed to an environment where knowledge transcends borders and transforms lives.

Together, we will embark on a journey of advancement and progress, guided by principles of integrity, scholarship and service.

I challenge us all to let us work tirelessly to uphold the values upon which this university was founded, and to chart a course towards an even brighter future, the chancellor said.

Graduating students

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 22,175 students in various disciplines participated in the convocation from NOUN 120 study centres nationwide.

While 15,768 bagged undergraduate degrees, 6,407 earned postgraduate degrees, with the Faculty of Social Sciences producing the highest number.

NAN also reports that 22 of the students got first class, 2,362 PGD graduates, 41 Masters and six PhD holders.(NAN)

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Iran has launched drones and missile attacks on Israel in what Tehran says is a retaliation for the Israeli attack on an Iranian consulate in Syria.

Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) released a statement after the launch of the missiles.

We launched an operation using drones and missiles in response to the Zionist entitys crime of targeting the Iranian consulate in Syria.

The operation was carried out with dozens of missiles and drones to strike specific targets in the occupied territories.

Israel has also confirmed that the missiles and drones had been launched but that it was prepared to defend its territory.

Our defence systems are deployed; we are prepared for any scenario, both in defence and attack, AlJazeera quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying in a televised statement. He added that Israel had the backing of the United States and many countries.

The missiles and drones launched by Iran had yet to reach Israel at the time of this report.

Israel, backed by the United States, has an elaborate air defence system and is expected to shoot down most of the projectiles.

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Some countries including the US and UK have condemned the Iranian attack.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described the attack as reckless and said the UK would continue to stand up for Israels security.

Alongside our allies, we are urgently working to stabilise the situation and prevent further escalation. No one wants to see more bloodshed, Mr Sunak said in a statement.

Iran had threatened to retaliate after Israeli air strikes on its consulate in Syria recently killed seven top Iranian security officials including two commanders of the IRGC.

Consulates are diplomatic buildings that are protected under international law and many countries including Russia and China condemned the incident.

Israel neither confirmed nor denied it carried out the attack.

Israel is currently waging war against Hamas in Gaza and has killed over 30,000 people, mostly civilians. The Israeli war on Gaza started after Hamas militants last October attacked Israel, causing the deaths of over 1,000 people, many of them civilians.

Hamas, which says it is fighting for an independent Palestine, is backed by Iran.

Iran and Israel have fought shadow wars in the past but have avoided direct confrontation until the latest incidents.

This is a developing story and PREMIUM TIMES will provide updates in subsequent reports.

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The Nigerian government has attributed the crude oil production shortfall recorded in the first quarter of the year to issues encountered on the Trans Niger Pipeline.

The government said the issue was also worsened by maintenance activities carried out by some oil companies operating in the country.

Nneamaka Okafor, the special adviser on media and communication to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, made this known in a statement on Friday.

Over the years, crude theft, pipeline vandalism and its negative impact on the countrys economy have been a source of concern for the Nigerian government.

In February, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Nigerias crude oil production dropped to 1.149 million barrels per day in January, from 1.422 million bpd recorded in December 2023.

Last month, according to the oil cartels direct communication data, Nigerias crude oil production dropped to 1.322 million barrels per day in February from 1.427 million recorded in January.

Mr Lokpobiri on Friday said the reported production shortfall was primarily due to issues encountered on the Trans Niger Pipeline coupled with maintenance activities carried out by some oil companies in the country.

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In response to recent concerns regarding a shortfall in oil production in Nigeria during the first quarter of 2024, The Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resource (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, assures that measures are being taken to address the situation to, not only restore production to previous levels but to also increase it.

The minister clarifies that the reported production shortfall was primarily due to issues encountered on the Trans Niger Pipeline, coupled with maintenance activities carried out by some oil companies operating in Nigeria, the statement said.

Mr Lokpobiri assured that the issues have been adequately addressed, and production is expected to return to its previous levels in the coming days.

He anticipates that Nigerias oil production, including condensate, which was approximately 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) before these developments, will soon be restored.

Furthermore, the statement said the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is actively engaged in policy evolution aimed at maximising the utilisation of all available wells in Nigeria.

This strategic approach will enable the country to ramp up production, thereby generating vital revenue to stabilise the nations foreign exchange reserves. The increased revenue will also empower the government to fulfil its commitments in providing essential infrastructure, as outlined in the 2024 budget, it said.

Mr Lokpobiri further assured Nigerians of hope as the nation navigates these challenges while urging all to remain committed to ensuring the sustainability and growth of Nigerias oil sector, which plays a crucial role in driving the nations economy.

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as the world marks 30 years of the Rwanda genocide, we have 1,410 Israelis slain, 33,098 Palestinians killed, with over 70 per cent of them being women and children, and 90 per cent of the victims being civilians. So, rather than the world to shout, Never again! it is witnessing genocide, Yet again! Some years down the line, the powerful who have rationalised the ongoing genocide may be seeking justification, or making excuses for the role they are playing in refusing to recognise genocide.

Victims who narrate stories of genocide, do so because they survived. Millions perish, whose voices we would never hear again. There are even victims who did not have the chance of being born. Their lives were simply terminated as they grew in the womb.

Humanity witnessed this nightmare, 30 years ago in Rwanda. Genocide, as defined by the United Nations (UN), is a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part.

In 100 days, from 6 April to 15 July, 1994, over 850,000 persons were massacred in Rwanda. On that occasion, humanity rose in unison to say: Never again! Only to sit back and watch the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

As in Rwanda, there are debates whether the Palestinian genocide going on before our very eyes is genocide or a mere conflict by two sides. Powerful countries, especially those who supply arms or occupy permanent seats in the UN Security Council, racists and deluded Men of God, rule that what we are witnessing is a mere conflict in which one nation is teaching the other unforgettable lessons.

It took South Africa the wisdom, courage, humanism and sense of history to call genocide by its true name by getting the International Court of Justice to rule that there is genocide in Palestine.

One of the witnesses to the Rwanda massacres, and the man who actually led the forces that put a stop to that genocide, is Paul Kagame. This past Sunday, which was exactly 30 years that the genocide began, he declared before an international audience, the basic truth: It was the international community which failed all of us, whether from contempt or cowardice.

Indeed, when the Rwanda genocide was being planned, the UN, which had its peacekeeping force, the United Nations Assistance Mission For Rwanda (UNAMIR), on ground, was aware. Its Commander, General Romeo on 11 January, 1994 sent his Genocide Fax to the UN Headquarters, reporting the genocide plans. He followed up with five more warnings and sought permission to intervene, but was ignored.

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I asked Dallaire whether French soldiers bleed the same way ours do; whether we have blood in our bodies. Then I thanked him, and told him he should just go and get some rest and sleep, after informing the French that our response would follow. And it didWe took Butare at dawn. Within weeks, the entire country had been secured, and we began rebuilding.

So, when the genocide began, UNAMIR was an indifferent force. Interventions came down to individual soldiers like Captain Mbaye Diagne, the Senegalese soldier who gave his life rescuing victims. I titled my 3 October, 2020 tribute to this internationalist: Saluting Captain Mbaye Diagne, the Soldier Who Covered UNs Shame.

I was not surprised by the revelations of Kagame on Sunday, that as he and people under his command raced through Rwanda to stop the genocide, France threatened to annihilate them militarily unless they stopped, and allowed the genocide to go on.

The Kagame story: One night, in the latter days of the genocide, I received a surprise visit past midnight from General Dallaire. He brought a written message, of which I still have a copy, from the French General Commanding the force that France had just deployed in the western part of our country, Operation Turquoise.

The message said that we would pay a heavy price if our forces dared to try to capture the town of Butare, in the southern part of our country he warned me that the French had attack helicopters, and every kind of heavy weapon you can imagine, and therefore were prepared to use them against us if we did not comply.

I asked Dallaire whether French soldiers bleed the same way ours do; whether we have blood in our bodies. Then I thanked him, and told him he should just go and get some rest and sleep, after informing the French that our response would follow. And it didWe took Butare at dawn. Within weeks, the entire country had been secured, and we began rebuilding.

But not all countries were bystanders as the Rwanda genocide was carried out. Kagame acknowledged the positive roles of countries like Uganda, Eritrea, Kenya, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Ethiopia and of course, South Africa, which emerged a democratic country as the genocide was going on.

The Rwandan President, last Sunday, added an historical gratitude: At the United Nations Security Council in 1994, moral clarity came from Nigeria, the Czech Republic, and even as far away as New Zealand. Their ambassadors had the courage to call the genocide by its rightful name, and resist political pressure from more powerful countries to hide the truth. Ambassador Ibrahim Gambari of Nigeria and Czech Ambassador Karel Kovanda are here with us today, and we applaud you.

The genocide in the Palestine is taking a similar shape. First, the perpetrators, in order to have a rationale to slaughter their victims, classify them as non-human beings. In Rwanda, the victims were labelled cockroaches, while in Gaza, Israel refers to the Palestinians as human animals. Secondly, the UN Security Council, as in Rwanda, held long debates on whether the on-going genocide is really a genocide. It is also unable to agree on a permanent ceasefire.

There are countries like Canada, which regretted their inaction. The Clinton administration in the United States, long before the genocide, knew of a final solution to eliminate all Tutsis, but did not act decisively even when the genocide was on.

President Bill Clinton admitted that had his administration taken some action, at least 300,000 lives could have been saved: If wed gone in sooner, I believe we could have saved at least a third of the lives that were lostit had an enduring impact on me.

Six days into the genocide, Belgium, which had one of the largest contingents in the UNAMIR, announced it was withdrawing its troops. Other nations also did.

Following widespread condemnation of the role of France, the French Parliament enquired into the role of the country in the genocide. After several months, the president of the parliamentary mission, former Defence Minister Paul Quiles, declared in 1998 that France was not guilty.

However, an independent Rwandan Commission Report of 5 August, 2008, concluded that France was not only aware of the preparations for the genocide, but also helped train the ethnic militias that carried out the genocide. It accused 33 senior French military and political officials of complicity in the genocide. It also reported that: French soldiers themselves directly were involved in assassinations of Tutsis and Hutus accused of hiding Tutsis.

The genocide in the Palestine is taking a similar shape. First, the perpetrators, in order to have a rationale to slaughter their victims, classify them as non-human beings. In Rwanda, the victims were labelled cockroaches, while in Gaza, Israel refers to the Palestinians as human animals. Secondly, the UN Security Council, as in Rwanda, held long debates on whether the on-going genocide is really a genocide. It is also unable to agree on a permanent ceasefire.

So, as the world marks 30 years of the Rwanda genocide, we have 1,410 Israelis slain, 33,098 Palestinians killed, with over 70 per cent of them being women and children, and 90 per cent of the victims being civilians. So, rather than the world to shout, Never again! it is witnessing genocide, Yet again! Some years down the line, the powerful who have rationalised the ongoing genocide may be seeking justification, or making excuses for the role they are playing in refusing to recognise genocide.

Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.

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Today, we raise a toast to a mans exceptional profile in courage. In the ongoing struggle against judicial malfeasance in contemporary Nigeria, Chidi Odinkalu embodies the fusion of both Ogbuagu and Aare Ona Kakanfo. May divine protection accompany his courageous striving to emancipate Nigerians from the shackles of an oppressive system. Dikeogu, as long as your Ikenga lives, you can wrestle in the land of the spirits.

On 5 August, 2005, the observatory team representing a coalition of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) raised a matter of urgent concern. Agents of the State Security Service (SSS), acting on orders from above, were searching for Chidi Odinkalu, a 37-year-old lean lawyer leading an international coalition advocating for justice against former Liberian President Charles Taylor. Despite Taylors indictment, he was hosted by Nigerian authorities under President Obasanjo, sparking controversy.

It has been several years now since that brush with the Obasanjo government, and Charles Taylor has been cooling his heels in Frankland Prison since October 2013. Throughout this time, Chidi Odinkalu has unwaveringly persisted in his struggle against injustice wherever they occur, with no intention of letting up.

I once approached the man with a proposition akin to a cold-call: To intern in his office for a few months, eager to absorb his wisdom, resilience, and all nuances in between. Uncertain of the existence of such a position, but it didnt matter to me one bit. I was prepared to forge one, yearning for even a week under his tutelage. His sagacity, intellect, and unparalleled fortitude in navigating uncertainty, notwithstanding formidable adversaries, captivated me. Chidi Odinkalu is not your run-of-the-mill Nigerian activist, pretending to work for the masses but patiently waiting in line for his payday. He is a maverick.

As a profoundly successful individual capable of living out his days in gilded mansions and attended to by a coterie of aides, there must be a unique motivation for the man to opt for a hard knocks life. Apart from his aversion to injustice, I suspect that, unlike many caterpillars of Nigerias commonwealth, he acknowledges that individual prosperity cannot insulate one from the failures of his society.

Many Nigerians fail to grasp this fundamental concept, treating their country as a mere cash cow to be milked to death. They ascend to positions of power, looting the nations resources, while their actions systematically undermine the countrys well-being. Oblivious to the far-reaching consequences, they bask in their wealth, only to encounter humiliation abroad simply by virtue of being Nigerian, failing to recognise the correlation with their own actions.

We have also witnessed a slew of supposed activists and civil right champions transform into replicas of the politicians they once opposed, succumbing to the allure of power. From media figures turned Joseph Goebbels to civil rights champions who became election manipulators, morality crumbles in the face of opportunity.

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In todays world, however, human actions scarcely surprise me. To be fair, I am uncertain how I would personally navigate the challenges facing families in Nigeria if I were to live there. Its easy to preach morality with a full belly and a clear head, but for the impoverished, survival takes precedence. The political elite has remarkably succeeded in perpetuating poverty, ensuring few escape its grasp, making it nearly impossible to resist the allure of corruption. But I digress.

Professor Odinkalus educational journey reflects a remarkable commitment to excellence. He obtained his law degree (LLB) from Imo State University in 1987, where he distinguished himself as the top graduate of the School of Legal Studies. Recognised for his exceptional skills, he was awarded the Chief FRA Williams prize for outstanding achievement in Legal Drafting and Conveyancing upon his admission to the bar in 1988. Continuing his academic pursuit, Odinkalu earned a masters degree in law from the University of Lagos in 1990, followed by a PhD in law from the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science.

Harnessing his profound knowledge and expertise, Odinkalu has assumed pivotal roles in various spheres. He has served as the former Chairman of Nigerias National Human Rights Commission and presently holds the esteemed position of senior team manager for the Africa Program of Open Society Justice Initiative. In addition, he has lent his advisory prowess to renowned institutions such as the Ford Foundation New York, World Bank, African Union, and International Council for Human Rights Policy. Recognised as a leading authority in his field, Odinkalu was appointed as a professor in Human Rights Law at the esteemed Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in August 2021.

Professor Odinkalu speaks with the sagacity of a revered elder, drawing you into his counsel as if you were sitting across from your venerable grandfather. An intellectual endowed with a radical edge, his discourse instills a profound sense of introspection, leaving even the most influential figures apprehensive of his insights. He doesnt suffer fools gladly.

Over the years, he has emerged as a solitary force, fervently endeavouring to infuse a semblance of moral rectitude into a judicial apparatus marred by systemic injustices. As a legal luminary himself, his vigilance against the rampant corruption permeating the courts transcends mere concern. Despite encountering threats from the highest echelons of authority  Supreme Court luminaries, formidable political figures  he remains resolute, steadfastly refusing to succumb to coercion.

In ancient Igbo culture, the transition into manhood was marked by a profound ritual: the granting of an ikenga, a meticulously carved wooden totem. The Ikenga becomes not only his proud possession to be preserved and honoured for the rest of his life, but is also an integral part of his identity as a unique individual

Signifying the owners potential for success and mastery over his own destiny, the sacred object transcended mere symbolism; it encapsulated his Chi (personal god), Nnaochie (ancestral spirits), and Ike (power). Indeed, a mans ikenga was a tangible manifestation of human endeavour, accomplishment, triumph, and an unwavering testament to his dedication to society. I am firmly convinced that Chidi Odinkalu was among the final recipients of his Ikenga before the gods, in a moment of fury, reclaimed it from our midst.

Whether its inquiring about the whereabouts of citizen Dandiyata, being pursued by the Federal Government of Nigeria in the case of Charles Taylor, slugging it out with Governor Nasir El-Rufai over alleged human rights abuses, or addressing rogue justices in Nigerian courts, Odinkalus numerous battles have shaped his life and career as a human rights lawyer and academic

Today, we raise a toast to a mans exceptional profile in courage. In the ongoing struggle against judicial malfeasance in contemporary Nigeria, Chidi Odinkalu embodies the fusion of both Ogbuagu and Aare Ona Kakanfo. May divine protection accompany his courageous striving to emancipate Nigerians from the shackles of an oppressive system. Dikeogu, as long as your Ikenga lives, you can wrestle in the land of the spirits.

Osmund Agbo is the author of Black Grit, White Knuckles: The Philosophy of Black Renaissance and a fiction work titled The Velvet Court: Courtesan Chronicles, along with other publications.

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When I asked one of the Chibok survivors what her AUN education meant to her, she said words that I shall always carry in my heart: Education gives me the wings to fly, the power to fight, and the voice to speak. Every child in Nigeria and in the world deserves to feel that way about their education. Will they?

The story of the Chibok women is one both of hope and continuing challenges. The problems are always reported by the press, and often inaccurately, but the truth about the Chibok women is far more positive and far more complicated.

Many of the Chibok women  and they are no longer girls  are building successful and meaningful lives in Nigeria, in the United States, and other places around the world. One is working to become a nurse; one will graduate from one of Americas most elite colleges this May, with a 3.8 grade point average. They are accountants and working for NGOs and businesses. Some, not surprisingly, have struggled to rebuild their lives after the unimaginable trauma of being kidnapped, raped, forced into marriages and living in horrible conditions.

Their progress should be celebrated, and lessons learnt from their triumphs. Those victories did not happen by accident.

Educating girls, as the Chibok story shows us, is the most powerful tool Nigeria can use to improve individual lives and transform communities. When girls are educated through secondary school, they are healthier and wealthier. From all over the world we learn that economic growth increases, poverty is reduced, infant and child mortality declines, corruption is reduced, and societies are more peaceful through female education.

Many countries have made this sort of educational progress, and those citizens and societies have prospered. This has not been true in Nigeria, where the situation remains grim. According to UNICEF data, 50 per cent of Nigerian girls are not attending school at even the basic education level. About 48 per cent of out-of-school girls are in the North-East and North-West. These numbers are getting worse. Nigerias rapidly growing population currently at 228 million, ranked 6th in the world  is doubling every 27 years. It is expected to reach close to 400 million by 2050. With a commitment to widespread and high-quality education for the girls and boys being born today, Nigeria could hit the half-century mark as a global leader. But the lack of educational commitment is very troubling. Without policy changes, there will be far fewer successful Chibok stories.

The American University of Nigeria will always be intertwined with the story of the Chibok students  with their progress and with their challenges. When, Dr Lionel Rawlins (chief of AUN security) and I drove at dawn to an area near Chibok on 30 August 2014, to bring the first students who had escaped their kidnappers to AUN, their futures were very uncertain. Could they adapt? Where would we put them? Who would pay for this? What kind of support would they need? And not the least, would we be able to make the journey through Boko Haram controlled areas safely?

Generous hands reached out immediately. Atiku Abubakar, the founder of AUN, never hesitated. When we spoke that morning, and I told him where we were and what we had done, besides being a bit surprised, his first words were: How can I help? Robert Smith, a wealthy and very generous American investor, called me early one morning out of the blue. He said: You dont know who I am, but I want to help pay for those girls education. I usually am calling people to say you cant have my money. I am calling to say you should tell me what you need.

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I will never forget those words. They not only removed the burden of looking for money to educate and support these young women, but reconfirmed the generosity of the human spirit, exemplified by these two men. The AUN community lifted up these students. New classes were designed, emotional support provided. The AUN staff and faculty and the Yola community surrounded them with education, love, protection, and care. The whole village truly gave these women an education, their chance at a better life.

When I asked one of the Chibok survivors what her AUN education meant to her, she said words that I shall always carry in my heart: Education gives me the wings to fly, the power to fight, and the voice to speak. Every child in Nigeria and in the world deserves to feel that way about their education. Will they?

Margee Ensign was the president of the American University of Nigeria from 2010-17 and 2021-22. She is currently the president of the American University in Bulgaria.

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Movie producer, Adanma Luke, has broken her silence on the boat accident that occurred during her new movie shoot in Delta State, claiming the lives of popular Nollywood actor, John Paul Odonwodo, and four others

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that Mr Odonwodo, popularly known as Junior Pope, and four other actors drowned after their boat capsized in Anam River in Anambra State on Wednesday while returning from the location of the movie shoot.

The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) had earlier said 12 individuals were on the ill-fated boat.

NIWA added that of the 12, seven were successfully rescued, two found dead, including Mr Odonwodo while three others  two females and one male  were declared missing.

The police in Anambra State, Friday, said they had recovered bodies of the three missing Nollywood stars.

Real reason

Mrs Luke, in her first public comment on the incident in a video clip she posted online on Saturday, blamed the death of Junior Pope, on his refusal to use a life jacket during the boat travel.

On that shooting day, I saw my director. I saw Emeka. They were outside. My director was wearing a life jacket. Emeka, the D.O.P. was on a life jacket. There was still one other jacket which I dont know who took it, she said in a video clip uploaded on her Instagram handle on Saturday.

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Continuing, the filmmaker said, My production manager said they saw one life jacket hanging there. So, they took it. He even told the late Friday to send one (live jacket) to Junior Pope but Junior Pope said it was dirty and so, he didnt take it. These people with life jackets survived (the boat accident).

And they also told me that when they were in the water trying to survive, the Junior Pope was there asking if everybody was Okay. And that they even threw a gallon to him to use and hold himself which he was holding. But all of a sudden, they didnt see him again.

She did not, however, confirm if four other crew members who died in the boat accident were not putting on life jackets during the incident.

AGNs moves

The Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) had declared Thursday as No Shoot Day for all Nollywood filmmakers, and suspended movie production involving riverine areas indefinitely, following the death of actor Junior Pope and others.

Making the declaration in a statment on Thursday, Emeka Rollas, National President of AGN, also announced the suspension of the production of the movie which led to the accident, The other side of Life, produced by Adamma Luke.

Following the tragic incident of a boat mishap that claimed the life of Junior Pope and three other crew members at waterside of River Niger Cable point Asaba on 10th of April, all films that involve riverine areas and boat riding is hereby suspended indefinitely.

No Shoot on all locations nationwide on Thursday, 11th April 2024 and the film titled The other side of Life is suspended indefinitely, the statement said.

It also barred actors from dealing with the movie producer for the time being.

Also, no actor is allowed to work with Adamma Luke as a producer till further notice, while we keep searching for the bodies of the remaining persons, he said.

The police in Anambra State, South-east Nigeria, have also begun an investigation to unravel any criminal liability in the cause of death of John Pope and others.

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olice in Oyo State have arrested 20 suspected Yoruba nation agitators over Saturdays alleged invasion of the states House of Assembly complex in Ibadan.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a group of persons allegedly invaded the complex located at the Government Secretariat vicinity in an attempt to take it over.

Police spokesman in Oyo State, Adewale Osifeso, confirmed the arrest of the suspects in a statement he issued in Ibadan.

Mr Osifeso stated that the 20 suspects arrested had in their possession three pump action guns, 29 live cartridges, two expended cartridges, 67 cutlasses, five bulletproof vests and six pairs of boots,

They also had in their possession, 10 Public Address Systems, three berets with Oodua insignia crafted on them, seven belts, 11 Oodua Nation camouflage uniforms, one unregistered bus and three motorcycles, he added.

He stressed that the police, in collaboration with sister security agencies successfully thwarted the attempt by the agitators to forcefully take over the secretariat.

The suspects who wore military camouflage came heavily armed in an unregistered bus and had cutlasses, pump action rifles, cartridges, assorted charms and an Oodua Nation agitation flag with them.

Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later

They were overpowered and completely suppressed by officers and men of the police in concert with those of sister security agencies, he stated.

He described the act of the suspects as criminal and unpatriotic and a clear case of treasonable felony and terrorism.

READ ALSO: Lagos police announce arrest of Yoruba Nation agitators

He assured that appropriate punishment would be meted to those found culpable, while the police would continue to protect law-abiding citizens.

The spokesman stated that the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Adebola Hamzat, already ordered an investigation and an enlargement of the dragnet to arrest others connected with the incident.

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DUBAI, UAE, April 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Hussain Sajwani, Chairman of DAMAC Group, expressed his deepest condolences following the announcement of founder Roberto Cavalli's death on Friday, April 12th 2024.

"We extend our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Roberto Cavalli. We remain committed to honouring the legacy of the Robert Cavalli Maison and the vision of its iconic founder, through our efforts to reinforce the brand's heritage and aesthetics and through our ventures across retail and real estate developments."

Roberto Cavalli rose to fame in the 1970's with the likes of celebrities Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot who wore his vivacious prints and luxury designs  and more recently, UAE-based entrepreneur Karen Wazen, the first Middle Eastern to be appointed as a Global Brand Ambassador.

For more information visit www.damacgroup.com
NEW YORK, April 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, continues to investigate potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of JBS S.A. (OTC: JBSAY) resulting from allegations that JBS may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public.

SO WHAT: If you purchased JBS 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=22976 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action.

WHAT IS THIS ABOUT: On February 28, 2024, Reuters published an article entitled "New York sues meatpacking giant JBS over climate claims." The article stated, in pertinent part, that "JBS, the world's largest beef producer, was sued on Wednesday by New York state's attorney general, which accused it of misleading the public about its impact on the environment in order to boost sales. Attorney General Letitia James said JBS USA Food Co, the Brazilian company's American-based unit, has "no viable plan" to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, making its stated commitment to achieving that goal false and misleading."

On this news, JBS' American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs") fell $0.22 per ADR, or 2.4%, to close at $9.02 per ADR on February 28, 2024.

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 firm's 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

[email protected]

www.rosenlegal.com

SOURCE THE ROSEN LAW FIRM, P. A.
MOBILE, Ala., April 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 10, 2024, the law firms of Cunningham Bounds and Beck, Amsden & Stalpes obtained a $15 million verdict against Rainbow Ranch Lodge and other defendants in a carbon monoxide poisoning case involving the tragic death of Lew Hudgens. The record-setting verdict was more than double the existing largest verdict in Gallatin County, Montana.

In January 2021, Lew and Catharine Hudgens traveled to Big Sky, Montana for their honeymoon. The couple checked in to Rainbow Ranch Lodge on January 11, 2021. After not hearing from the newlyweds, the family called the Lodge on multiple occasions requesting wellness checks on the couple. The Lodge's staff failed to confirm the wellbeing of the Catharine and Lew. On January 15  four days after the couple's arrival - the Lodge's general manager entered the Hudgens' room where he found Lew deceased in the bed and Catharine severely disoriented.

Lew's death and Catharine's injuries were caused by their inhalation of carbon monoxide that seeped through the wall separating their room and an adjacent room housing a spa boiler. The boiler had not been properly maintained for years, causing it to release the deadly carbon monoxide into the Hudgens' room.

The case was filed against Rainbow Ranch, its general manager, several plumbers, and others alleging that their negligence led to the death of Lew Hudgens and caused life-altering injuries and trauma to Catharine Hudgens.

When speaking about the case, Cunningham Bounds' attorney David Cain stated, "It was an honor to represent the Hudgens family and we are grateful to the jury for holding Rainbow Ranch accountable for this tragedy. An extremely dangerous spa boiler was ignored and neglected for years, resulting in its failure and the release of deadly carbon monoxide. Rainbow Ranch failed to do a wellness check on the Hudgens despite repeated calls by concerned family members and did not have the legally required carbon monoxide alarm in the Hudgens' room. We hope this verdict brings additional focus to the dangers of carbon monoxide, the importance of carbon monoxide alarms, and the need for timely action by staff when welfare checks are requested."

Catharine Hudgens was represented at trial by Skip Finkbohner and David Cain of Cunningham Bounds and Justin Stalpes of Beck, Amsden & Stalpes.

Cunningham Bounds is committed to fighting for plaintiffs in cases involving wrongful death, serious personal injury, medical malpractice, products liability, industrial accidents, and complex civil litigation. For more information about Cunningham Bounds, visit: www.cunninghambounds.com.

The law firm of Cunningham Bounds has offices in Mobile, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia and has been representing plaintiffs for more than 65 years. The firm continues its tradition of representing victims in cases involving catastrophic personal injury, industrial accidents, defective products, truck and automobile accidents, medical malpractice, and wrongful death cases. The firm also has expertise in business litigation, complex litigation, and national and state class action litigation involving defective products and consumer fraud.

For more information, contact:

Amanda Cotton

[email protected]

251.471.6191

SOURCE Cunningham Bounds
DENVER, April 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Experts from NYU Langone's Department of Neurology present their latest clinical findings and research discoveries at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) 2024 Annual Meeting, April 13 to 18, in Denver.

Among the topics presented:

measuring effects of burnout and appreciation practices within a neurology department

using sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to better understand changes in the brain among migraine patients

how vision tests can help detect precursors to Alzheimer's disease

"Neurology covers a diverse array of scientific discovery, and that is demonstrated by the incredible presentations at this year's AAN annual meeting," said Steven L. Galetta, MD, the Philip K. Moskowitz, MD, Professor and Chair of Neurology in the Department of Neurology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. "Our faculty continue to push the entire field forward in its understanding of the brain and its capacity to shape human life."

U.S. News & World Report's "Best Hospitals" ranks NYU Langone the No. 1 hospital in the country for neurology and neurosurgery; its Department of Neurology includes 18 divisions and centers.

At this year's meeting, there are more than 50 presentations by Department of Neurology facultybelow are some of the more notable.

Measuring Burnout and Practices of Appreciation Within a Neurology Department: Identifying Prevalence and Shaping Solutions

Physician burnout poses significant challenges to healthcare and personal wellbeing, particularly among neurologists. Researchers at NYU Langone surveyed 90 clinicians, residents, and fellows to identify the best methods of showing neurologists that they are valued in order to improve their job satisfaction and reduce burnout.

The results revealed that transparent efforts to reduce daily frustrations and strengthen inclusion in decision-making processes were highly valued by both faculty and trainees. However, institutional awards and themed gifts received low ratings from both groups. The findings can guide the implementation of preferred recognition methods, with potential applicability to other organizations seeking locally customized approaches to burnout mitigation.

"Our findings underscore the importance of tailored approaches to recognition and appreciation in combating burnout within healthcare settings," said Neil A. Busis, MD, principal investigator for the study and clinical professor in the Department of Neurology.

Neurological Changes in Migraine Patients Assessed with High-Gradient Diffusion MRI

Researchers used high-gradient diffusion MRI, which uses special software and higher sensitivity imaging, to better understand the inner workings of brain tissue among patients with migraine. The study reviewed the brains of 16 migraine patients experiencing auraan often-visual disturbance prior to a headache or seizureand 16 patients without migraine.

The results reveal significant alterations in the structure of both gray and white brain matter of migraine patients compared with people who do not experience these severe headaches. This research underscores the importance of advanced imaging techniques in elucidating the structural alterations underlying neurological disorders like migraine, offering potential avenues for targeted therapeutic interventions to mitigate associated risks and improve patient outcomes.



"Our findings underscore the presence of occult changes in gray and white matter in migraine patients, potentially explaining decreased brain volumes and the development of white-matter lesions seen on conventional MRI," said Katharina Eikermann-Haerter, MD, corresponding author on the study and associate professor in the Department of Radiology.

The discovery may shed light on the association between migraine and cognitive impairment, stroke risk, traumatic brain injury, and accelerated growth of tissue death.

Visual Tests to Detect Precursors to Alzheimer's Disease

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can be an early sign of Alzheimer's disease, and is critical to identify in order to determine a patient's eligibility for successful therapy or participation in clinical trials. Currently, biomarkers of MCI require invasive spinal fluid tests or costly neuroimaging. Researchers tested whether inexpensive, easily deployed visual tests could help in detection.

"Identifying noninvasive and cost-effective biomarkers for MCI is crucial for early detection and intervention in Alzheimer's disease," said Arjun V. Masurkar, MD, PhD, senior co-author of the study and assistant professor in the Department of Neurology.

The patients with MCI exhibited significantly poorer performance on the two tests administered compared with their healthy counterparts, suggesting the tests' potential use in early Alzheimer's disease detection. There were 75 participants recruited into the study.

Overall, the findings suggest that certain visual tests have potential as noninvasive biomarkers for MCI. Further research is warranted to validate these findings and their potential to enhance early detection and intervention strategies for Alzheimer's disease.

Media Inquiries

Colin DeVries

Phone: 212-404-3588

[email protected]

SOURCE NYU Langone Health System
NEW YORK, April 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit on behalf of those who held the common stock of Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. n/k/a The Lion Electric Company (NYSE: NGA, LEV) as of the record date of March 18, 2021 for the merger with the then-private The Lion Electric Company. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than June 10, 2024.

SO WHAT: If you held Northern Genesis common stock as of the record date of March 18, 2021 for the merger with the then-private The Lion Electric Company, you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.

WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Northern Genesis class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=23699 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than June 10, 2024. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, defendants: (1) used materially deceptive "risk factor" statements to withhold the truth about problems facing the then-private The Lion Electric Company ("Legacy Lion Electric"), including supply chain problems with its suppliers and sub-suppliers; (2) misled Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp.'s ("NGA") stockholders about Legacy Lion Electric's prospects using grossly unrealistic financial projections; and (3) failed to provide NGA stockholders with the "net cash" value of their shares  the key disclosure about the fundamental purchasing power their NGA shares represented. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

To join the Northern Genesis class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=23699 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action.

No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Contact Information:

Laurence Rosen, Esq.

Phillip Kim, Esq.

The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.

275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor

New York, NY 10016

Tel: (212) 686-1060

Toll Free: (866) 767-3653

Fax: (212) 202-3827

[email protected]

www.rosenlegal.com

SOURCE THE ROSEN LAW FIRM, P. A.
NEW YORK, April 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ --

WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, continues to investigate potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: SAN) resulting from allegations that Santander may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public.

SO WHAT: If you purchased Santander 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=22671 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action.

WHAT IS THIS ABOUT: On February 5, 2024, the Financial Times published an article entitled "Iran used Lloyds and Santander accounts to evade sanctions." This article stated, in part that "Santander UK provided accounts to British front companies secretly owned by a sanctioned Iranian petrochemicals company based near Buckingham Palace, according to documents seen by the Financial Times."

On this news, Santander's American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") fell $0.24 per ADS, or 5.7%, to close at $3.94 per ADS on February 5, 2024.

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 firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.

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Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

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SOURCE THE ROSEN LAW FIRM, P. A.
CINCINNATI, April 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Taft is among a coalition of law firms that have been working together for over a decade to lead litigation and secure settlements on behalf of those harmed by PFAS contamination. The coalition is pleased to announce yet another major settlement to address this "forever chemicals" contamination in U.S. drinking water supplies in the context of the ongoing multi-district litigation to address claims for damage from PFAS released from aqueous film-forming firefighting foam (the AFFF MDL). This latest settlement, reached with Tyco Fire Products LP (Tyco), a wholly-owned, indirect subsidiary of Johnson Controls, will provide an additional $750 million in settlement benefits, adding to the earlier announced settlements with 3M and DuPont-related companies, valued at up to over $13.5 billion for U.S. drinking water providers.

Michael London of coalition firm Douglas & London in New York serves as Co-Lead Counsel for all plaintiffs in the AFFF MDL and proposed Class Counsel for the new Tyco settlement. Gary Douglas, also of Douglas & London and lead trial counsel and Co-Chair of the Science Committee for plaintiffs in the AFFF MDL, stated, "We are proud to continue our fight for justice for the American people, and in particular the public water systems who serve millions of Americans who so desperately need funding to remove PFAS from our drinking water. We commend the leadership at Tyco for helping to make this possible."

Taft Partner Rob Bilott, who serves as the court-appointed Advisory Counsel to plaintiffs in the AFFF MDL and Co-Chair of the Science Committee, added, "This new settlement with Tyco is another historic step forward in what has been many years of work to make sure that those responsible for the contamination of our nation's drinking water supply with PFAS "forever chemicals" pay for the damage  not the victims of the contamination."

Lawyers at the Levin Papantonio law firm in Pensacola, Florida also have been key members of this national PFAS litigation team for more than a decade, with partners Mike Papantonio, Ned McWilliams, and Wes Bowden helping lead trial teams and holding key leadership roles in the AFFF MDL.

Kevin Madonna and lawyers at SL Environmental have also been instrumental members of the national PFAS litigation team for years.

The legal team's remarkable efforts on PFAS have been the subject feature length documentaries, including "The Devil We Know" and "How to Poison a Planet," a Hollywood film, "Dark Waters," and the book "Exposure."

The legal team is currently representing injured parties, including more than 200 public water providers, in ongoing efforts to address PFAS damages.

SOURCE Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP
Springboard Consulting honors companies for Disability Inclusion.

FOLLY BEACH, S.C., April 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Winners of the 2024 Disability Matters North America Awards were announced throughout the conference on Thursday and Friday, April 4 & 5 in-person and via simultaneous live-stream from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Awards honor companies for their innovative programs resulting in the successful outreach, recruitment, engagement and retention of candidates, employees and customers with disabilities. The Honorees represent the "best of the best" when it comes to the commitment required for disability inclusion; we shine a spotlight on companies that have successfully mainstreamed people with disabilities in their workforce, workplace and/or marketplace.

The annual event and awards is produced in the United States, Europe and Asia by Springboard Consulting, LLC. Springboard is recognized as the global expert in corporate disability inclusion.

Companies sponsoring and attending the event included: HOST SPONSORS: Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin, and ManpowerGroup. WELCOME RECEPTION: Molson Coors Beverage Company. CAPTIONING: Workday, Inc. RUBY: UPMC. SILVER: Barilla America, FIS Global, Victoria's Secret & Co. BRONZE: American Institutes for Research, Bank of America, The Cigna Group, Crum & Forster, HSBC Bank N.A., Jackson Lewis P.C., The Dow Chemical Company. MEDIA: Diversity MBA Media, among others that were also represented.

The 2024 North America Disability Matters Honorees are:

MARKETPLACE AWARD

Capella University

JPMorgan Chase & Co,

Victoria's Secret & Co.

Disney Experiences

WORKFORCE AWARD

American Institutes for Research

CAI

Maximus

WORKPLACE AWARD

HSBC Bank

MillerKnoll

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division

SMALL BUSINESS AWARD

Prairie Grass Cafe

EVERYDAY HERO AWARD

Diveheart

DISABILITY CHAMPION

Steven K. Cosgrove , Training Specialist, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division

, Training Specialist, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division Wendy Dasgupta , Corporate Business Operations Supervisor, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division

For more information, visit >> https://consultspringboard.com/disability-matters-about/

Entries for the 2025 edition will open July 2024.

ABOUT SPRINGBOARD. Founded in 2005, Springboard is recognized as the expert in mainstreaming disability in the global workforce, workplace and marketplace. Serving corporations and organizations throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia, Springboard has become a trusted partner in relation to disability issues and initiatives across every business category. Springboard annually honors exemplary organizational initiatives that promote the outreach, support & engagement of people with disabilities as employees and as consumers through the Disability Matters Awards. www.consultspringboard.com

SOURCE Springboard Consulting, LLC
SANTIAGO and BEIJING, April 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from Beijing Review:

The Spanish edition of Xi Jinping on the Belt and Road Initiative is helping Latin American countries better understand and participate in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), officials and scholars said at a seminar held for readers to share their ideas in Santiago, Chile, on April 11.

A seminar for readers to share their views on the Spanish edition of Xi Jinping on the Belt and Road Initiative underway in Santiago, Chile, on April 11 (COURTESY PHOTO)

"Within the BRI framework, China and Chile have worked together effectively in the construction of infrastructure such as ports, subways and highways, as well as in the development of a science and technology center," Yu Tao, Vice President of China International Communications Group (CICG), said at the seminar.

Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the BRI in 2013 to boost connectivity along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes. Chile is the first Latin American country to voice support for the initiative and sign a memorandum of understanding on Belt and Road cooperation with China.

The Spanish edition of Xi Jinping on the Belt and Road Initiative gives Latin American readers an in-depth, nuanced understanding of the initiative, thereby contributing to more productive collaboration, Yu said. CICG is China's leading international communication institution and owns the book's publisher, the Beijing-based Foreign Languages Press (FLP).

The book is a collection of 42 articles by President Xi on Belt and Road cooperation, dated from September 2013 to July 2018, addressing issues ranging from how and why the initiative was introduced to its principles and goals. Its English, French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Japanese editions have been published by the FLP for international audiences.

The book is a definitive work that is assisting all sectors of Chilean society to familiarize themselves with China's proposals and the rationale behind them, so that the two countries can work in concert more efficiently, Ma Zhen, Political Counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Chile, said.

Fernando Reyes Matta, former Chilean Ambassador to China and Director of the Center for Latin American Studies on China at Chile's Andres Bello University, said the BRI aims to benefit the international community and the Spanish edition of Xi Jinping on the Belt and Road Initiative enables Latin American people to understand China's concepts and policies.

Ricardo Gamboa Valenzuela, Deputy Director of the Institute of International Studies (IEI) at the University of Chile, said his institute pays great attention to China's increasingly important role in Latin America and the rest of the world. The book provides authoritative reading materials for professors and students, giving them a deeper understanding of China.

Carlos Olguin, an associate professor at the IEI and former Director of the Asia-Pacific Department at Chile's Foreign Ministry, Luis Ajenjo Isasi, General Manager of Radio Cooperativa, and Malva Venturelli, President of the Jose Venturelli Foundation, also shared their views. They all recognized the book's role in cementing mutual trust.

Hu Kaimin, FLP President, said he hoped the book will make the initiative more popular in Chile and the rest of Latin America, build new cultural ties, and promote the two-way understanding of the Chinese and Latin American civilizations.

With the guidance of CICG and the Chinese Embassy in Chile, the seminar was organized by the FLP, CICG Center for Americas and the IEI. Approximately 50 representatives from sectors including politics, academia and culture participated in the event.

SOURCE Beijing Review
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Tehran, April 13 : Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani held a phone conversation on bilateral relations and regional developments.

In the talk, Amir-Abdollahian said on Friday that Iran has always played a positive part in regional development and has borne considerable costs to ensure sustainable stability and security in the region, according to a statement released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

Iran expected Italy to take the opportunity of the G7 rotating presidency to end Israel's "genocide and war crimes" in Gaza and the West Bank, he added as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.

Tajani, for his part, asked Tehran to exercise restraint in reaction to the deadly Israeli attack on the consular section of Iran's embassy in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

After the attack, Tajani said, "We, in tandem with the European Union, condemned the invasion," emphasising that it was crystal clear that diplomatic missions should not be attacked.

The two diplomats also stressed the importance of ensuring shipping and maritime security in the Red Sea, with Tajani calling for the continuation of Iran's positive role in resolving tensions and promoting sustainable peace in the region.

They also recognised growing bilateral ties and agreed to further enhance consultations on bilateral, regional and international levels, said the statement.

Earlier this month, a senior commander of Iran's Islamic IRGC Quds Force and his deputy, along with five others, were killed in the targeted Israeli strike on the consulate building, sparking growing concerns over a major retaliatory attack from Iran.
Jerusalem, April 13 : Israel's military chief Herzi Halevi has said that the army was prepared, in close coordination with the US Central Command (CENTCOM), for a possible Iranian retaliatory attack.

Israel was on high alert on Friday as warnings increased of Iranian retaliation following Israeli airstrikes on Iran's embassy in Damascus, in which seven senior Iranian officers were killed, Xinhua news agency reported.

Photos released by the military showed CENTCOM Commander General Michael Erik Kurilla participating in a situational assessment meeting in Tel Aviv alongside Halevi and other senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commanders on Friday.

"The IDF is very strongly prepared, both offensively and defensively, against any threat," Halevi said on Friday, adding the military was "constantly preparing to deal with existing and potential threats in coordination with the US Armed Forces".

Later in a press briefing, IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said the joint meeting was held to "ensure a close coordination between us".

Hagari said that Israel's official alert application Home Front Command had not released new instructions for the public but that the military was on high alert.

"We are prepared for an attack with various capabilities and we will also know how to defend the citizens of Israel," he added.
Moscow, April 13 : Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed his readiness for dialogue with Ukraine, and that an aborted 2022 peace deal could serve as the basis for resuming the negotiation, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

In a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday, Putin noted that Moscow is in favour of resuming negotiations, but such talks must not be aimed at "imposing any schemes that have nothing to do with reality".

Peskov on Friday added that the "Istanbul agreements," a draft peace pact reached in March 2022 between Russia and Ukraine, could serve as the basis for resuming talks, despite that there have been many changes since then, Xinhua news agency reported.

He said the Kremlin does not feel the Ukrainian side is ready for negotiations with Russia.
The Bill Chipman Palouse Trail bridge that was lost to an arson fire has been rebuilt and will reopen Monday.

In little over a months time, crews rebuilt the bridge. Construction is expected to finish this weekend, and trailgoers can begin crossing next week, according to a news release provided by the Whitman County Parks and Recreation department.

The bridge was reportedly set ablaze by a Moscow teenager in August 2023.
Kiev, April 13 : The Ukrainian government has allocated an additional 3.88 billion hryvnias ($100 million) to build defence fortifications, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Telegram.

Out of the sum, 1.7 billion hryvnias ($43 million) will be used to install reinforcements in the eastern Kharkiv region, and 1.5 billion hryvnias ($38 million) will go for fortifying the northern Sumy region, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

The rest of the funds will be channeled for the construction of protecting structures in the southern Kherson and Mykolayiv regions and the eastern Donetsk region.

Since the start of the year, the government has allocated a record 30 billion hryvnias ($766 million) to construct defensive lines amid the war with Russia.
Gaza, April 13 : At least three Palestinian journalists were injured in an Israeli shelling targeting them at the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Palestinian sources said.

Eyewitnesses told Xinhua news agency on Friday that the Israeli artillery fired a shell towards a group of journalists while they were covering events in the Nusseirat camp.

On Thursday, the Israeli army announced the start of a surprise military operation on the outskirts of the Nusseirat camp, Xinhua news agency reported.

Medical sources told Xinhua news agency that the three injured journalists arrived at the Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. One of them suffered an amputation of his right foot and scattered shrapnel wounds on his body, while the other two sustained moderate injuries.

There was no comment from the Israeli army on the incident.

Meanwhile, the Hamas-run government media office said in a statement that the Israeli army targeted the three journalists while they were wearing vests with clear "Press" markings.

The statement considered it "a crime of targeting media crews as part of a series of severe violations against Palestinian journalists".

The statement condemned the Israeli army's targeting of media crews as "deliberate and intentional in a clear message to intimidate and threaten them in an attempt to silence the truth".

The International Federation of Journalists was called upon to "condemn this crime and pursue the occupation in international forums and courts for its crimes against journalists and media professionals".

It is not the first time that the Israeli army has targeted journalists while they were covering events during the ongoing war since October 7 last year.

Nearly 140 journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip over the past six months, according to data from the Gaza government media office.
Chandigarh, April 13 : Tens of thousands of devotees on Saturday thronged gurdwaras across Punjab and Haryana to celebrate Baisakhi, one of the biggest festivals that marks the foundation day of the Khalsa Panth (Sikh order) by the tenth Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh.

It also marks the start of harvest season.

The Golden Temple in Amritsar, one of Sikhism's holiest shrines, was decorated and saw crowds to offer prayers.

As per the directive of the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, to hoist Khalsa flag atop houses to mark the 325th Khalsa Sajna Divas (Baisakhi), the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has been providing flags to the devotees.

The SGPC, which manages gurdwaras in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, has deployed task force staff to manage crowds at the Golden Temple.

A sea of devotees was also witnessed at the Takht Kesgarh Sahib in the holy city of Anandpur Sahib, where the Khalsa Panth was founded in 1699.

A jatha of pilgrims has left for Gurdwara Sri Panja Sahib in Pakistan to participate in the religious congregation to be held to mark Khalsa Sajna Diwas.

Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann extended greetings on Baisakhi and on Sajna Diwas of Khalsa Panth.

In a message, Purohit said Baisakhi has multi-faceted importance.

"It marks the beginning of the harvest season heralding happiness and prosperity. It is also an occasion to remember with gratitude about the contribution of our farmers to the progress of the nation."

The Governor added that this auspicious occasion has a special significance in the glorious history of Sikhism, as on this day in 1699, the tenth Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, founded the 'Order of Khalsa' to fight against the tyranny of the Mughals.

"This day also marked a watershed in our freedom movement in 1919. Many known and unknown martyrs sacrificed their lives on this day in the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. This massacre gave a great impetus to the freedom movement," he said in a statement.

"May this festival strengthen our resolve to contribute to the nation's progress and usher prosperity and happiness for all in the year ahead," the Governor added.
Washington, April 13 : South Korea and the United States have agreed to hold bilateral talks on supply chain and commercial issues and a trilateral industry ministers' meeting with Japan in the first half of the year, a senior Seoul official said.

Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun announced the agreement, wrapping up his dayslong trip in Washington, during which he met U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, lawmakers and experts for talks on trade, energy and industrial issues.

The plan for the meetings comes as Seoul, Washington and Tokyo have been strengthening bilateral and trilateral cooperation under a U.S. push to cement a "lattice-like" network of allies to confront regional and global challenges, reports Yonhap news agency.

"Through a meeting with the commerce secretary, we discussed ways to produce wide-ranging outcomes from the South Korea-U.S. Supply Chain and Commercial Dialogue (SCCD), and discussed ways to cooperate through the South Korea-U.S.-Japan industry ministers' meeting," Ahn said in a meeting with Korean reporters.

He was referring to the trilateral ministerial meeting that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to create at their landmark summit at Camp David in Maryland in August.

SCCD is a regular ministerial forum designed to discuss promotion of resilient supply chains of key products, including semiconductors, batteries, and critical minerals.

During bilateral energy ministers' talks this week, Ahn proposed holding the Ministerial Energy Policy Dialogue -- a comprehensive platform designed to discuss a wide range of bilateral energy issues -- within this year.

"The two sides formed a shared understanding over the need to revitalise communication channels between the two (energy) ministers," Ahn said.

The minister also said that he called for U.S. government officials and lawmakers to ensure that South Korean enterprises can get subsidies and tax incentives without any discrimination, and smoothly secure visas for their workers needed for the establishment of U.S. facilities.
Tel Aviv, April 13 : The Israeli intelligence agencies Mossad and Shin Bet have reported to the Israel war cabinet that Iran could conduct a minor drone attack on Israeli military establishments.

Sources in Israel's Defence Ministry told IANS that the agencies have informed that Iran would not go for a major attack on Israel and that missiles may not be used.

A senior official with Israel's Defence Ministry, while speaking to IANS, said: "Iran will not attack Israel in a major way and might go for a drone attack. However, Israel is well prepared for that."

US President Joe Biden has already warned Iran against a possible attack.

Meanwhile, Israel Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, on Friday, said: "The world is seeing the true face of Iran, the terrorist body that incites terror attack across the Middle East and funds Hamas, Hezbollah and other proxies in attacking Israel."

He added: "We are prepared to defend ourselves on the ground and in the air and in close cooperation with our partners, and we know how to defend ourselves."

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has already warned Israel that an attack is coming and have fired explosive-laden drones at Israel at the West Bank border. Hezbollah is considered a militant outfit funded and nurtured by Iran.

Iran, according to Arab and Hebrew media outlets, is planning an attack on Israel within the next 24 hours. This is in retaliation to an attack in Damascus, Syria, in April that killed top Iranian military officers including Brigadier General Mohammed Reza Zahedi and six other officers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Raza Zahedi, according to Israel was directly overseeing the supply of arms and ammunition to Hezbollah and also part of the conspiracy of October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Kolkata, April 13 : The ED has so far seized assets to the tune of Rs 411 crore in the two cases pertaining to the cash-for-school job scam and the ration distribution racket in West Bengal.

Sources said that at Rs 230.60 crore, the value of the assets seized in the cash-for-school-job case is higher than in the PDS case.

The seizures mainly pertain to the personal assets and properties of the former convener of the screening committee of the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC), Santi Prasad Sinha and arrested middleman Prasanna Roy.

In the PDS case the value of the total assets seized by the ED is around Rs 150 crore.

These assets belong to former West Bengal Food and Supplies Minister, Jyotipriya Mallick and three other arrested accused in the case, namely Shankar Adhya, Bakibur Rahman and Biswajit Das.

In both cases the assets confiscated were largely in the form of land or apartments, some of which were even located outside West Bengal.

Some fixed deposits and savings account deposits have also been confiscated by the ED.

Sources added the confiscated property by the ED included two apartments owned by Jyotipriya Mallick, one of which is in Kolkata and the other in Bolpur-Santiniketan in Birbhum District.

On Friday, the ED had submitted its third supplementary charge sheet at a special court of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Kolkata in the PDS case, where the central agency mentioned that Rs 350 crore was diverted to Dubai through the hawala route via the foreign exchange entity owned by arrested businessman Biswajit Das.
Mumbai, April 13 : Actress Pooja Hegde, who will be soon seen in the upcoming movie 'Deva' along with Shahid Kapoor, is set to move into her new house.

Mumbai, April 13 (IANS) Actress Pooja Hegde, who will be soon seen in the upcoming movie aDevaa along with Shahid Kapoor, is set to move into her new house.

The sea-facing property is worth Rs 45 crore and has 4,000 square feet of living space.

The pan-India staras new property is in the Bandra area of Mumbai.

This move marks a significant transition for the actress, who previously lived in another residence within the city.

The actress has a discerning eye and impeccable taste, with a flair for design and aesthetics.

A source close to the actress shared: "Pooja Hegde has relocated to a stunning sea-facing mansion, boasting a sprawling 4,000 square feet of living space. Nestled in a prime location, this opulent abode not only offers panoramic vistas of the sea but also serves as a sanctuary of comfort and elegance in the heart of Mumbai."

Earlier, Pooja went on a vacation to Goa. The diva, who enjoys 26.6 million followers on Instagram, dropped a series of pictures of herself basking in the Goan sun while sporting a no-makeup look.

The actress also dished up glimpses of some of the culinary delights of Goa and a picture of her chilling by the poolside.

Meanwhile, on the work front, the actress has a slew of highly anticipated films in the pipeline. Apart from aDevaa, she has aSankia and three major South Indian projects on her plate.
Bhopal, April 13 : Rescue operation to save the 6-year-old boy, who fell into a borewell in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa, has been going on for the last several hours. In a fresh update, the NDRF team has dug a 40-foot deep hole adjacent to the borewell.

Bhopal, April 13 (IANS) Rescue operation to save the 6-year-old boy, who fell into a borewell in Madhya Pradeshas Rewa, has been going on for the last several hours. In a fresh update, the NDRF team has dug a 40-foot deep hole adjacent to the borewell.

Rewa district collector, Pratibha Pal has informed that the NDRF team was called from Banaras (Uttar Pradesh) late on Friday.

"The boy is stuck between 50 and 60 deep. A camera was lowered to monitor the situation of the child. We are hopeful to rescue the child in the next two hours," Pal told IANS.

The incident happened on Friday in Teonthar tehsil, around 70 km from district headquarters Rewa.

As per the official information, the boy identified as Mayank Kol was playing in a field with his friends when he fell into the open borewell on Friday evening.

His friends rushed to his parents and raised the alarm. Meanwhile, local police were informed and the rescue operation began during the night.

In the past two years, around a dozen such incidents occurred in different parts of Madhya Pradesh and in most of the cases, victims lost their lives.

The state government has issued several notifications in the past one-and-half years and ordered officials to ensure that not a single borewell should remain open.

However, this fresh incident revealed that all those orders issued in the past remained on paper only, and Mayank Kol became a new victim of it.
Mumbai, April 13 : Auteur Anurag Kashyap, who last directed the Sunny Leone and Rahul Bhat-starrer 'Kennedy', recently met with the National Award-winning Malayalam filmmaker Senna Hegde on the sets of his upcoming film 'Rifle Club'.

Mumbai, April 13 (IANS) Auteur Anurag Kashyap, who last directed the Sunny Leone and Rahul Bhat-starrer aKennedya, recently met with the National Award-winning Malayalam filmmaker Senna Hegde on the sets of his upcoming film 'Rifle Club'.

On Saturday, Anurag, who is known for aBlack Fridaya, aGangs of Wasseypura, aUglya, and others, took to his Instagram and shared a picture of himself alongside Senna.

In the image, Anurag can be seen hugging Senna while the latter looks into the camera.

Anurag wore a pair of denim jeans and a sweatshirt, while Senna opted for black jeans and a T-shirt.

In the caption, Anurag wrote: "Finally met the national award-winning filmmaker @senna.hegde as my co-actor on the sets of @aashiqabu as RIFLE CLUB... Filmmakers turned actors... #IndieBrotherhood."

Senna made his film debut with the 2016 Malayalam film a0-41*a featuring a cast of non-actors.

His film aThinkalazhcha Nishchayama won the Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Film, and Senna received the Kerala State Film Award for Best Story in the 51st Kerala State Film Awards. The film also won the Best Feature Film in Malayalam at the 68th National Film Awards.
Sydney, April 13 : Five people were stabbed to death at a shopping centre in Australia's Sydney on Saturday, and the assailant has been shot dead by police, local media reported.

Witnesses said a man was chasing and slashing people with a knife before Westfield Bondi Junction was evacuated and locked down, according to a report by dailytelegraph.com.au.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was briefed by the Australian Federal Police in Canberra, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The police are probing the terror links.

Details are awaited.

In a post on X, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, "Our hearts go out to those injured and we offer our thanks to those caring for them as well as our brave police and first responders."
Today

Hemp Fest  10 a.m. to 7 p.m. East City Park, Moscow. Free. Live music, vendors and information about medical marijuana.

Palouse Patchers Quilt Show  10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Latah County Fairgrounds, 1021 Harold Ave., Moscow. Cost: $5 for adults, $3 for seniors and children under 10. Over 200 quilts on display. Raffle quilt will be chosen at the end of the show.

Showing of God & Country  2 p.m. Kenworthy Performing Arts, 508 S. Main St., Moscow. Cost: $8. Sponsored by Community Congregational United Church of Christ and United Church of Moscow. God & Country follows the growing trend of Christian Nationalism and its effects on the country and Christianity.

Sunday

Repair Cafe  1-4 p.m. 1912 Center, 412 E. Third St., Moscow. Volunteer experts will assist in repairing various items. Glueing station, knife sharpening, and more. No guarantee items can be fully repaired. Free.

Community Concert  3 p.m. Admin Auditorium, University of Idaho campus, Moscow. Tickets available online at wa-idsymphony.org. Featuring Greater Palouse Youth Orchestra and the Cantabile String Ensemble.
New Delhi: People hold posters outside the Tihar Jail ahead of the hanging of four convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya rape case, in New Delhi on March 20, 2020. . Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, April 13 : The meetings between inmates and their relatives or friends are conducted according to the jail's manual and this applies to all inmates without exception, top prison sources told IANS on Saturday, in response to claims made by AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh.

Singh, on Saturday, while addressing a press conference, said that incarcerated Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's wife, Sunita Kejriwal, had applied to meet him in jail, but she was told that she cannot meet him face-to-face but only through a window.

"A glass window is present during these meetings, known as 'Jangla meeting', enabling communication through phones installed on both sides of the window between the inmate and the person they are meeting. There is no special treatment for anyone," said sources.

Sources further said that the meeting can also be through a video call.

"All meeting procedures are conducted online. It is at the discretion of the individual applying for the meeting on the website to choose whether they prefer to meet the inmate through Jangla meeting or video conferencing. It's up to the jail Superintendent to allow the inmate and visitor to meet face-to-face," said the official.

As per the jail manual, every interview shall take place in a special part of the prison appointed for this purpose.

"If possible such a place should be at or near the main gate to ensure the safety and security of prisoners. The interview room will have a fiber glass partition with intercom facilities or equipped with any other latest technology, so that the prisoners can have a peaceful interview," reads the Delhi prison manual.

"The interview room shall be divided into cubicles and should have sound-proofing materials covering its walls and ceiling. However, the Superintendent of Prisons may allow well-behaved prisoners to have face-to-face interviews after giving due consideration to security and other related aspects," it stated.

The jail manual also stated that on admission, every prisoner should submit a list of persons who are likely to interview him and the interview shall be restricted to family members, relatives and friends.

"The conversation at the interviews shall be limited to private and domestic matters and there shall be no reference to prison administration and discipline and to other prisoners or politics. The number of persons who may interview a prisoner at one time shall ordinarily be limited to three. The Superintendent may restrict any visitor to conduct interview with any prisoner with justified reasons," it read.

The manual further stated that every interview with a terrorist or militant, whether serving a sentence or kept as an under-trial prisoner or a prisoner detained under Preventive Detention Laws, shall take place in the presence of an officer not below the rank of Assistant Superintendent.

Kejriwal, who was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi excise scam, is lodged in Tihar Jail No 2, which is under constant heavy guard by security personnel, with Quick Response Teams (QRT) ready to intervene if necessary.

In Jail No 2, there are around 650 inmates, of which nearly 600 have been convicted and they are constantly under CCTV watch.

Kejriwal has provided a list of six individuals, including the Chief Minister of Punjab Bhagwant Mann, whom he intends to meet in prison, and his family members.

A Delhi court had sent Kejriwal to judicial custody till April 15. The ED has termed CM Kejriwal the "kingpin and the key conspirator" of the alleged excise scam in collusion with other ministers of the Delhi government, AAP leaders, and other persons.

(Shekhar Singh can be reached at shekhar.s@ians.in)
Islamabad, April 13 : At least 11 people hailing from Pakistan's Punjab province were abducted, identified and then killed near Noshki area of Balochistan province on Saturday.

The attack hints towards a major surge in sectarian and provincial hatred prevailing among extremist groups in Balochistan.

Unidentified gunmen between 10-12 in number blocked the Quetta-Taftan Highway N-40 of Sultan Chorhai area Noshki and abducted at least 11 passengers from a bus.

"The gunmen checked the identity cards of passengers from Taftan-bound bus and kidnapped them. They were subsequently shot dead. The bodies of the abducted passengers were found under a bridge nearby after an hour and a half," Deputy Commissioner Habibullah Musakhel said.

"Nine of the eleven victims were from Punjab," told Asad Mengal, Noshki Station House officer.

Sources said that the gunmen opened fire on a bus after it did not stop at the blockade on Quetta-Taftan highway. Over one dozen gunmen opened fire on the bus from at least three sides, which overturned the bus.

"The gunmen identified government officials among the passengers, specifically those from the Punjab province and killed them. The attack does not seem to be a sectarian one because other pilgrims were not targeted," said a source with inside knowledge of the incident.

It was established that at least nine of the 11 killed were abducted first before being shot dead as their bodies were later found under a nearby bridge.

Security officials have cordoned off the area and a search operation is underway following the incident.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other government officials including the Chief Minister Balochistan Mir Sarfaraz Bugti have condemned the tragic incident.

Experts say that the incident hints towards the surge in hatred among the people in Balochistan, who have been protesting against the neglect they suffer from the authorities in comparison to the rest of the country.

"It seems that since the Baloch protest sit-in in Islamabad demanding the government to return the family members of their loved ones, who have been picked up by security forces and have been declared as missing for years; a surge in anti-Pakistan sentiment has spread like wildfire across Balochistan," said senior political analyst Adnan Shauqat.

"The latest attack targeted at government employees from Punjab hints towards the same narrative of provincial level hate, being utilised by extremist groups like the BLA (Baloch Liberation Army) and its affiliates to extend their so-called pro-Baloch and anti-Pakistan campaign," he added.
New Delhi, April 13 : The Indian Army, on Saturday, paid tribute its bravehearts who sacrificed their life in the line of duty, on the occasion of 40th Siachen Day.

As aOperation Meghdoota, launched on April 13, 1984, completed 40 years, the Indian Army posted on its official X handle: "Four decades of valour at the highest battlefield on Earth."

"Quartered in snow, silent to remain. When the bugle calls, they shall rise and march again," Fire and Fury Corps of the Indian Army posted on social media along with a video saluting the soldiers who launched the operation at the world's highest battlefield.

The ongoing operation, as the Indian Army details, was launched to wrest control of the strategic heights on the Saltoro Ridge, overlooking the Nubra Valley.

On this day, a platoon of 4 Kumaon led by then Captain Sanjay Kulkarni planted the first Indian flag on Siachen glacier at Bilafond La, marking the beginning of Operation Meghdoot.

It has since then been the ultimate operational frontier for the brave Indian soldiers who routinely operate at 20,000 feet and above in extremely challenging conditions.

"The military action resulted in Indian troops gaining control of the strategically located Siachen Glacier. It is considered as a feat unparalleled in the history of high altitude warfare where soldiers of the Indian Army and Air Force operate under most adverse weather conditions with sub-zero temperatures of minus 500 degrees Celsius," states the Indian Army.

Siachen lies in the Karakoram Range in northwest India. The glacier is 76.4 km long and covers about 10,000 sq km of uninhabited terrain.
Kolkata, April 13 : The progressive growth in the BJP's vote share in West Bengal since the 2009 Lok Sabha elections could be a major concern for the ruling Trinamool Congress.

Kolkata, April 13 (IANS) The progressive growth in the BJPas vote share in West Bengal since the 2009 Lok Sabha elections could be a major concern for the ruling Trinamool Congress.

This is because even a marginal addition in the BJPas vote share can result in a fall in the number of seats for the ruling party.

This statistical progression in the vote share of the BJP is across the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal and is not limited to a few pockets.

This would mean consolidation of the anti-incumbency votes in one kitty as opposed to being scattered among multiple Opposition forces.

The following statistics will give a clear picture of this consolidation which is worrying the Trinamool and the Congress-Left combine.

As per the records of the office of the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP secured a total of 23,027,517 votes, showing an upward swing in the vote share by 22.76 percentage points over the 2014 General Election results.

The party was able to increase its seat tally by nine times to 18 from just two in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

In 2019, the constituency in which the increase in the BJPas vote share was minimum was Baharampur in Murshidabad District where the growth figure was just 3.9 percentage points.

Baharampur continues to be a stronghold of the Congress with the partyas state President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury being the sitting five-time MP.

On the other hand, the partyas vote share growth was maximum in Purulia, where the figure was 42.15 percentage points.

This comparative statistics is a major concern for Trinamool Congress as Puralia virtually became an open field for the ruling party since the 2011 Assembly elections which witnessed the end of the 34-year Left Front rule.

The increase in the BJPas vote share by 10.9 percentage points from what it was in 2009 began in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, when it secured a total of 8,691,765 votes and doubled its seat tally to two from one.

Significantly, the BJPas vote share growth was despite a highly-unstructured organisational base of the party in West Bengal.

In both the general elections the focus of the central leadership of the BJP was much less on West Bengal than what it is this time, with the Prime Minister already having addressed many rallies in the state.

Some additional factors are working in favour of the BJP in West Bengal this time. The state is going for polls under the shadow of the ongoing investigations by the CBI, ED and NIA on various cases of corruption, which was not so in 2019 or 2014.

A number of top Trinamool Congress leaders, including two heavyweight ministers, who were the pillars of the partyas organisational base are currently behind bars.

Plus, till 2019 the ruling party really did not have to confront any vociferous face of Opposition in the state. The void has now been filled by the current Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari.

Finally, during the last five years, the BJP has been able to streamline its organisational network across the state.

So further improvement in the BJPas vote share in West Bengal cannot be ruled out, which in turn can result in a dent in the number of seats of the ruling party.
Kolkata, April 13 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Saturday that there is an unnecessary attempt to malign the image of West Bengal by labelling that the state is unsafe following the arrest of two accused in the Bengaluru cafe blast case.

"An incident took place in Bengaluru. The accused were based in Karnataka. They were in East Midnapore for just two hours. Bengal Police tracked them. Now they are saying that West Bengal is unsafe and are maligning Bengal's image as well," the Chief Minister said while addressing an election rally at Dabgram-Phulbari in Jalpaiguri district on Saturday.

The Chief Minister said that although Trinamool Congress is contesting independently in West Bengal, she will help the INDIA bloc to form government at the Centre.

"The national scenario is different. But in West Bengal Congress and CPI(M) are equal opponents to us like BJP," the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister once again said that there are attempts to blow the recent development at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district out of proportion.

"There was not a single murder committed in Sandeshkhali. Everything is normal there. We have returned everything which was taken away. Our own men stand arrested in Sandeskhali," the Chief Minister said.

However, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested them after they escaped from Bengaluru. The arrested duo first kept hiding at different hotels in Kolkata for the first few days before going to Digha in the East Midnapore district.
New Delhi, April 13 : A local court recently modified its order to grant former Delhi Congress councillor Ishrat Jahan permission to practise law beyond the National Capital Region (NCR).

Jahan, an accused in the 2020 Delhi riots case, was granted regular bail on March 14, 2022, and was imposed with a condition to not leave the jurisdiction of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi.

Now, since Jahan is a practising advocate having enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi, she sought the aforementioned relief, stating that since the grant of bail, she has not breached any condition and has always abided by the orders of the court.

"It is prayed that considering the good conduct of the applicant (Jahan), the bail order be modified and the applicant be granted the desired relief," Additional Sessions Judge Sameer Bajpai of Karkardooma Courts noted.

The prosecution opposed Jahan's application arguing that the court has already given reasonable liberty to her and considering her previous conduct during the period when the alleged offences were committed by her, she should not be granted further relief.

However, Judge Bajpai noted that since the grant of bail, the investigating agency or the prosecution did not bring any fact to the notice of the court that Jahan breached any condition of bail.

Thus, the court deemed it just and appropriate to modify the condition as prayed by Jahan.

Accordingly, the court modified the order ruling that Jahan shall neither leave the territory of India without prior permission of the court nor shall she indulge in any kind of criminal activity.

--IANS

spr/dan
Panaji, April 13 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address a public meeting in South Goa Lok Sabha constituency, from where the BJP has fielded a woman candidate.

State BJP President Sadanand Tanavade, after the party's core committee meeting on Saturday, told media persons that they reviewed the campaigning for the polls during the meeting.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi may address a meeting in Curchorem (in South Goa) between April 28 to May 1," Sadananad Tanavade said.

"Our candidates will file nominations on April 16, and four days later, we will start our corner meetings and public meetings in cities," he said.

He said that so far they have received good feedback from people. "Our campaign is doing well. We are concentrating on small meetings," he said.

The BJP has fielded Union Minister Shripad Naik from North and Industrialist Pallavi Dempo as South Goa candidate.
Bengaluru, April 13 : Deputy Chief Minister and Karnataka Congress President D.K. Shivakumar said on Saturday that former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda's JD-S party is facing an existential crisis, hence before commenting on the Congress government, he should be more concerned about the survival of his party.

Shivakumar made the statement at his residence in Bengaluru while reacting to former PM Deve Gowda's statement that there is no guarantee for the Congress government after the Lok Sabha polls.

"I have seen as many astrologers as Deve Gowda has seen. If he has 60 years of experience in politics, I have 40 years of experience in politics. We have 136 and more MLA seats on our side in the assembly," Shivakumar explained.

"Let him (Gowda) first clarify whether his party is going to survive. Whether JD-S will survive or not? Whether JD-S will merge with the BJP or continue to exist as a separate entity? Deve Gowda primarily has to answer these questions before the people of the state," he maintained.

The JD-S party was founded by Deve Gowda. "I am not questioning his party or loyalty to the party. Today, their party does not exist in the state. Let him forget about the survival of the Congress government, hon'ble Gowda should explain the survival of his party," Shivakumar stated.

When questioned about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assurance that no attempt to change the Constitution would be made, Shivakumar said he respects the position of the PM. "But, why the statement at this time? Why had their party not taken action against those who said the Constitution would be changed?" Shivakumar questioned.

"I appeal to the PM, if he is so honest to the Constitution, let him expel leaders who spoke on changing the Constitution. Then we can understand his loyalty. Due to the election, the honourable PM is bringing up the matter. The statement was made after the poor, those belonging to the SC and ST, oppressed classes began to raise their voices that the security given to them was being taken away. This makes it a political statement," he said.
Agartala/Imphal, April 13 : Hectic preparations are underway ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's much-expected visit to Manipur and Tripura on Monday to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.

BJP sources said that the Home Minister would arrive in Tripura on Monday (April 15) morning and after addressing an election rally in northern Tripura's Kumarghat, he would fly to Imphal.

A senior BJP leader said that the Kumarghat election rally would cover the Tripura East Lok Sabha seat, reserved for the tribals.

A BJP leader in Imphal said that Home Minister Shah, one of the star campaigners of the ruling BJP, would address an election rally at the Hapta Kangjeibung ground in Imphal East district on Monday afternoon.

Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh and other BJP leaders are also likely to address the gathering.

"People from both Lok Sabha constituencies (Inner Manipur and Outer Manipur) would attend the public rally. Leaders of our ally Naga People's Front (NPF) would also attend the election meeting," the leader said.

After addressing the election rally, the Union Home Minister would hold a meeting with the Chief Minister, state BJP President Adhikarimayum Sharda Devi and other senior party leaders.

Union Home Minister Shah's Monday rally would be the first such major election event in Manipur as due to over 11 months long ethnic strife, no political party has so far organised any kind of election rally in the trouble-torn state.

The campaigns of all political parties are extremely subdued with the leaders mostly using social and traditional media to ventilate their views, statements, commentaries and appeal.

The leaders of different political parties, both ruling and opposition, are trying to involve various organisations and civil societies to undertake campaigns for their party candidates.

After violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, the Union Home Minister visited the state for four days from May 29 to June 1 last year and held a series of meetings with top officials, politicians, NGOs, before announcing a slew of measures to deal with the ethnic violence between the Meitei and Kuki-Zomi communities.

Elections in Manipur's two Lok Sabha seats will be held in two phases.

Six candidates are contesting in Inner Manipur seat while four candidates are in the fray in the Outer Manipur seat, reserved for the tribals.

The Inner Manipur seat will go to the polls in the first phase on April 19 along with some parts of the Outer Manipur constituency (15 assembly segments). The remaining parts of Outer Manipur (13 assembly segments) will vote in the second phase on April 26.

The BJP has fielded state education minister Thounaojam Basanta Kumar Singh in Inner Manipur and extended support to the Naga People's Front nominee K Timothy Zimik in the Outer Manipur seat, reserved for the tribals.

The opposition Congress-led 10-party INDIA bloc has put up Angomcha Bimol Akoijam for the Inner Manipur seat while Alfred Kanngam S. Arthur has been fielded in Outer Manipur (ST).

Voting would be held in Tripura West and Tripura East Parliamentary constituencies on April 19 and April 26 respectively.

In total, 18 candidates, including two women, are contesting the two Lok Sabha seats.

However, the main contest is expected to be between the BJP and the INDIA bloc, comprising the Congress, CPI(M) and six other parties.
New Delhi, April 13 : JK Tyre's Gaurav Gill put himself in the battle for the win with a top-three placing at the end of the opening day of the Otago Rally in New Zealand.

Piloting 2022 APRC champion and 10-time Otago Rally winner Haydon Paddon's Hyundai i20 N Rally2 machine, Gill and his New-Zealand based co-driver Jared Hudson were third on the timesheets, a little over 30 seconds behind overall leader Jack Hawkeswood and 11 seconds adrift of second-placed Robbie Stokes.

On day one, the drivers navigated through eight special stages. Gill lost fifteen seconds on stage 5 due to an error, but the triple-APRC champion offered proof of his outright speed by winning stages 4, 7 and 8.

Gaurav Gill said, "It has been a very unique experience; the super-fast stages are so distinct and varied from one another that I would describe them as extremely fast. I have never driven this fast before. We had a pretty good start in the morning stages, and now we're trying to become better at maintaining our rhythm on the trickier parts. We are up against cars more powerful than ours. That makes a difference, and the settings are ideal for them. We are happy with our performance today and will try to replicate the same tomorrow, ensuring a podium finish."

The Otago Rally is amongst the most historic rally events in the world and has been held every year since 1976. This year, the rally has drawn a field of 117 cars, the largest in four years. A customary mix of challenging sections comprise the 16 special stages that make up the rally.

Over 144 km of competitive stages, the contestants demonstrated their driving prowess on Saturday. On Sunday, another 130 kilometres of stages will be driven.

This is Gill's first time competing at the Otago Rally, which with its stages made up of fast, flowing open public roads, blind brows as well as gravel-strewn sections, offers a unique challenge. Gaurav is the three-time winner of the Rally of Whangarei, which also takes place in New Zealand.
New Delhi, April 13 : Congress leader Praveen Chakravarty on Saturday took exception to the party's swipe at Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, based on remarks of her estranged husband, wherein the latter accused the Modi government of fanning anarchy and hatemongering in the country.

The Congress shared an interview of Parakala Prabhakar on its X handle, dated April 7, showing his tirade against the Modi dispensation while adding that he is the husband of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. A leading publication from South reported, citing Prabhakar's remarks, that the elections will "cease to happen" in the country if the Modi government bags a third term.

"Political economist and husband of Union FM Nirmala Sitharaman, Parakala Prabhakar said if the BJP wins the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and PM Narendra Modi is re-elected again in 2024, then there will never be elections in the country again," wrote The Hindu newspaper on X, while sharing the news.

The news report created a storm on social media and elicited many reactions. Many termed it a "blatant attempt to sensationalise" the matter and a "mischievous" bid to sully the image of the Finance Minister. Some termed it a "real blow for the media" while others slammed the Congress spokespersons for trolling the Finance Minister over her separated husband's personal observations.

Chakravarty, also the Head of Data Analytics department and Chairman of All India Professionals' Congress (AIPC), slammed the report and said that such attempts to denigrate Finance Minister must be avoided despite political differences.

"Political and ideological differences aside, I agree that this constant dig at FM Sitharaman using her (estranged) husband is in bad taste and needs to stop," the Congress leader wrote.

Even the news publication's former bosses didn't concur with such "falling standards of reporting".

Malini Parthasarathy, former chairperson of The Hindu Group, called it a "real low blow for media" and also called out misogynist haters for distasteful comments.

aIt's real low blow for media and Opposition party spokespersons to troll the Union Finance Minister, every time Parakala Prabhakar makes his own observations. It's a sheer malice and deliberate baiting of Ms Sitharaman by misogynists who can't understand that women can be successful and lead their own lives," wrote Malini Parthasarathy.

"It's known that Nirmala Sitharaman and Parakala Prabhakar lead separate lives. This baiting of Ms Sitharaman for remarks unconnected to her is unfair and has got to stop," she added.

Parakal Prabhakar is a noted economist and social commentator. He also had brief stints in politics. He was the official spokesperson of BJP in early 2000s and later joined Praja Rajyam Party and then quit it in 2009 over disagreements with the party's functioning.

-- IANS

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Bhopal, April 13 : Even as rescue operations continue, all communication with the 6-year-old boy who fell into a borewell in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa District has been lost.

The boy, Mayank Kol, has stopped responding after being stuck in the narrow space since Friday evening.

However, all efforts to save him are on and a horizontal tunnel is being dug in a bid to extricate him.

Giving an update on the rescue operations, Rewa District Collector, Pratibha Pall, who was present at the spot, said that SDRF and NDRF teams are relentlessly working to save the child.

"A camera was lowered to monitor the boy's situation. However, we received no response. Now, a horizontal tunnel is being dug. It will take another two-three hours to reach the boy," Pal said.

The mishap occurred on Friday in Teonthar Tehsil, around 70 km from district headquarters Rewa.

Mayank Kol was playing in a field with his friends when he fell into the open borewell on Friday evening. His friends rushed to inform his parents and raised an alarm.

The local police were informed and the rescue operation began at night.

BJP MLA from Teonthar, Siddharth Tiwari and Deputy Chief Minister, Rajendra Shukla, who also belongs to Rewa, have visited the spot and met the boy's parents.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Saturday directed district administrations across Madhya Pradesh to insure that not a single borewell is left open.
Bengaluru, April 13 : Leader of the Opposition in Karnataka, R. Ashoka, said on Saturday that the leaders and ministers of the Congress government attempted to botch up the investigation in the Bengaluru cafe blast case.

However, it is commendable that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was able to crack the case, he added.

Addressing a Press conference, Ashoka stated, the people of the state were fearful following the terrorist attack. The NIA had arrested the suspected terrorists at an appropriate time and thwarted security threats in future. "I congratulate NIA officers for this," he added.

The Congress leaders had attempted to twist the incident. They had pressurised the police, calculating that if minorities were pained by the action, they would miss their vote bank.

Dy CM D.K. Shivakumar had given a statement that the incident was triggered out of business rivalry and the police carried out his instructions. When the cooker blast incident occurred earlier in the state, Shivakumar interfered and addressed the accused persons as his brothers, Ashoka charged.

"Because of the state government's approach, the police couldn't get any clues. However, after the NIA took over the case, and probed, it turned out to be an act of terror," he stated.

"The terrorists were caught in the state of West Bengal where the sister of Congress party Mamta Banerjee is ruling. The terrorists are finding a safe haven in the West Bengal state," Ashoka said.

When NIA had called one Sai Prasad (BJP worker) for the investigation, Minister for Health Dinesh Gundu Rao taking advantage of the development tried to mislead the state. However, he was a witness in the case and the Congress leaders have exposed all details about him, Ashoka charged.

"They don't have any concern for the country. The Congress leaders have an objective to create a separate nation to carry out the loot. Minister Priyank Kharge tried to twist the incident of raising pro-Pakistan slogans in the state legislature," Ashoka stated.

The KG Halli-DJ Halli violence in Bengaluru resembled a terror act. The person who was jailed in this connection, Sampath Raj has been given the post of President of a Board. But, no action was taken even after the house of Dalit MLA was burnt in the incident, Ashoka explained.

KG Halli-DJ Halli violence had broken out after the objectionable social media post on Prophet Muhammad surfaced on August 12, 2020. Three persons were killed in police firing. The rioting mob had torched the police station and house of the then Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy.

Ashoka further stated personal attacks were made against Prime Minister Narendra Modi during election time. The complaint will be lodged for using the words 'Hitler' and 'dictator' with the Election Commission.

The real 'Hitler' could only be the Congress party. Late PM Indira Gandhi imposed an emergency in the country and sent all opponents to prison. The Congress which is comparing Prime Minister Modi to Hitler still has a British colonial mindset, Ashoka said.

"Indian Constitution is Bhagavad Gita for the BJP party. The Congress is carrying out a propaganda that if BJP came to power, the Constitution would be changed. Since the Congress party is weak, they want a weak nation. The Congress party does not want a powerful India," he added.
Agartala, April 13 : Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha said that it is more than 100 per cent confirmed that Narendra Modi would become Prime Minister for a third term. Also, the BJP would easily win the two Lok Sabha seats in the state but we are not taking the INDIA bloc lightly, he added.

Saha, a former Tripura state BJP president, said that the party fought an election with all seriousness and never considered the opponent parties as weak.

"We are not complacent about the poll outcome in Tripura and other parts of the country. Our challenge is to increase our victory margin compared to the previous elections," the Chief Minister said in an exclusive interview with IANS.

Admitting that there are still certain bases of the Left parties in Tripura, he said that the BJP has been trying to get better results in those assembly segments where the party comparatively does not perform satisfactorily or lost the seats to the opposition parties in last year's February 16 assembly polls.

Tripura has two Lok Sabha seats and 60 assembly constituencies with 30 assembly segments falling in each parliamentary constituency.

In last year's assembly polls, the ruling BJP won 32 seats while its ally, the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura secured one.

The tribal based Tipra Motha Party (TMP) secured 13 seats while the CPI-M managed 11 seats and the Congress three. The CPI-M and the Congress contested the assembly polls in a seat sharing arrangement.

The Chief Minister said that for the all round development of the northeast and the welfare of the people and to establish peace in the region, the Narendra Modi government has signed 12 agreements with various organisations and communities in the region including one with the TMP on March 2.

"The tripartite accord with the TMP would further develop the 12 lakh Janajati (tribals) and would boost their socio economic condition and make them happy besides facilitating smooth development in the tribal areas."

After the March 2 agreement, the erstwhile opposition party TMP joined the BJP government on March 7 and two of the party's MLAs became ministers in the BJP led government.

"Despite agreement with the TMP, our Janjati Moracha (tribal wing of the BJP) would further step up its activities in the tribal areas. There would be no problem. We would go with our own policies, strategies and mission," the septuagenarian dental surgeon-turned-politician said.

Saha, who was also a Rajya Sabha member for a brief period before becoming the Chief Minister in May 2022 after former chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb resigned from the top post, said that as the people have gladly accepted the BJP government's policies and governance, our responsibilities have increased further.

Noting that the Lok Sabha elections are being held on national issues, the Chief Minister said that due to PM Modi, the credibility of the BJP has increased not only in the country but all over the world.

"Whenever the Modi government and our party promised anything, these were always fulfilled. Be it the issue of Article 370, Ram Mandir, CAA or Triple Talaq, we fulfilled all the promises," he said adding that with the Pran Pratishtha of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, PM Modi has realised the 500 year old hopes and aspirations of Indians and crores of people living abroad.

Slamming the CPI-M and the Congress for their slogan to protect democracy and the Constitution, Saha said that the two parties have no moral right to speak about democracy.

"We have all records that during the regimes of both the Congress and the Left parties many innocent people and leaders belonging to the opposition parties were killed.

"The CPI-M government could not protect its own former Health Minister Bmal Sinha (who was killed by militants in March 1998). Several MLAs were also murdered during the Left governance," he pointed out.

Saha said that people have experienced the CPI-M's governance in Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura and their experience has been very horrific.

"Who is the face of the INDIA bloc? The alliance is in disarray. With no credibility, they are fooling the people," remarked Saha, who in last year's assembly polls was re-elected from the Town Bordowali seat for the second time after defeating state Congress president Asish Kumar Saha.

Polling for the Tripura West Parliamentary seat will be held on April 19 in the first of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, while the Tripura East (ST) constituency will go to the polls in the second phase on April 26.

The by-election to the Ramnagar Assembly seat will also be held on April 19. The seat fell vacant after the demise of sitting BJP MLA Surajit Datta on December 28 last year.

In all 18 candidates, including two women, are contesting the two Lok Sabha seats while two candidates, one each from the BJP and the CPI-M, are trying their electoral fortunes in the Ramnagar Assembly by-poll.

In the Lok Sabha poll for the two seats, the main contest is expected to be between the BJP and the INDIA bloc, comprising the Congress, CPI-M and six other parties.

(Sujit Chakraborty can be contacted at sujit.c@ians.in)
All new Model 3 cars qualify for $7,500 EV tax credit in US: Tesla. Image Source: IANS News

New Delhi, April 13 : Elon Musk is coming to India for the first time to spend at least 48 hours in the country later this month. As all eyes are on what the billionaire would announce during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industry leaders, Tesla lovers have only one question: When will they finally be able to drive a 'Make in India', affordable EV?

A cheaper Model 3, which is the entry-level Tesla, can only be possible with local manufacturing of battery components and a strong EV supply system, for which Musk will surely have a substantial announcement to make during his maiden visit to the country.

Currently, Tesla prices are almost the same worldwide. The base variant of the Model 3 is priced at over $40,000 (nearly Rs 33.5 lakh).

According to senior analyst Soumen Mandal from market intelligence firm Counterpoint Research, the import duty will be eliminated by setting up local production by Tesla, thus paving the way for an affordable Tesla car.

Also, the cost reduction could be achieved if Tesla cars manufactured in the country come with fewer features compared to the ones available globally.

Mandal told IANS that certain hardware required for Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode could be eliminated and "Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) Level 2 could be included".

Tesla can eventually produce 5 lakh electric vehicles annually that start from Rs 20 lakh in India.

To produce a Rs 20 lakh car, Tesla can also have a battery pack with a lower capacity than 50kW and the electric motors could be of lower power. The in-vehicle electronics could also be reduced with a smaller centre display.

In the new EV policy, the Indian government has cut the customs duty to 15 per cent (with certain riders) from the earlier 100 per cent on imported cars.

A minimum investment of Rs 4,150 crore (about $500 million) will be required to set up the manufacturing facilities for EVs in the country.

According to industry experts, Tesla can generate at least $3.6 billion in revenue in India by 2030.
Mumbai firm was first in India to give 'menstrual leave' for women in 2010. Image Source: IANS News

Mumbai, April 13 : In 2010, a small Mumbai firm quietly introduced something unheard of - 'menstrual leave' for all its women employees - and the practice continues uninterrupted even now.

It was the brainchild of Uttam R. Jain, 43, proprietor of Shree Lakshmi Steel Industries located in south Mumbai, where all his female employees were permitted to avail five days of paid "menstrual leave", with no questions asked.

Nearly 15 years after that small beginning, the Maharashtra National Law University campus has now rolled out a new menstrual leave policy for female students.

It's the outcome of the initiatives by the MNLU Executive Council of the Student Bar Council which got the in-principle nod of the varsity's Executive Council this week, to achieve gender justice within the university.

The students shall be permitted to avail one menstrual leave per month or the equivalent of medical leave, with a cap of five per semester.

Though no medical certificate would be required for the menstrual leave, students must mandatorily fulfil the minimum attendance criteria of 67 per cent as per the rules.

On his part, Jain said that he feels happy that the MNLU has decided to carry forward the small torch he lit 15 years ago when even the subject of menstrual leave was considered a taboo, and even females would discuss it in whispers.

"I am a devotee of Goddess Durga Ma... Most Indian families follow strict traditions about the menstrual cycles of their womenfolk, they are not allowed in the kitchen, or do any hard work, etc. So why can't the same privileges be available to women even at their workplaces," Jain told IANS.

His company has been employing women since around 2005 and the numbers keep varying as many leave after marriage, transfer of husbands, or family responsibilities, etc.

However, Jain said that on the very first day any woman joins, she is informed subtly "not to come to the office for 'those' five days, no questions will be asked, and there shall be no salary cuts".

The initiative has improved their productivity at work, they are more relaxed, their families also support them and it is good for the mental and physical wellbeing of the working woman. After so many years, now the MNLU is taking the laudable initiative. Why can't it be made into some kind of a national welfare policy by the government," said Jain.

In a brief explanatory note, the MNLU said it aims to support and make appropriate provisions concerning menstrual leave for students and research scholars.

"The student community grapples with the impact of menstrual cramps and conditions like dysmenorrhea, lower abdominal pain, and diarrhoea, often likened in ordinary conversation to the severity of health issues and period pain which significantly affects their well-being," it said.

Further, students experiencing symptoms of menstrual disorders such as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and Polycystic Ovarian Disease (PCOD) need necessary awareness, encouragement of healthy lifestyles, and specific educational reasonable accommodations.

The MNLU acknowledged the importance of menstrual leave and said it is determined to implement this policy effectively for the health and well-being of the students.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)
Kochi, April 13 : Congress' leader of opposition in the Kerala Assembly, V.D. Satheesan, on Saturday accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of constantly attacking Rahul Gandhi and the party only to please Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.

"As the campaign for the April 26 Lok Sabha polls enters its final phase in the state, all we hear is Vijayan's tirades against Rahul Gandhi and the Congress. There is no word on PM Modi or the BJP. The Chief Minister is doing this only to please PM Modi and the BJP," Satheesan alleged.

He also claimed that Vijayan has nothing to say about good governance because Kerala is reeling under his corrupt rule.

"Vijayan promised free internet for two million households and 30,000 government offices under the much-publicised K-Fon (Kerala Fibre Optic Network) project. The project was launched in 2017 with a targeted completion period of 18 months at a cost of over Rs 1,500 crore. However, it has not reached anywhere, but the Chief Minister's relatives who got a contract benefitted from it. A CBI probe needs to be launched to find out the truth behind this scam," Satheesan said.

"The Karuvannur Cooperative Bank scam worth Rs 300 crore, in which the top CPI-M leaders from Thrissur are involved, is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate. Vijayan and the CPI-M are supporting Suresh Gopi, the BJP candidate from Thrissur, so that they get exonerated by PM Modi.

"Hence, the Chief Minister is attacking Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, as the biggest gainers will be PM Modi and the BJP. But no matter what Vijayan does, the Congress will ensure that the BJP doesn't open its account in Kerala," Satheesan said.

M.M. Hassan, the Acting President of Kerala Congress, said: "While veteran CPI-M leaders like former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and Biman Basu in West Bengal are working with the Congress in their respective states and attacking the BJP at the same time, Vijayan is yet to utter a word against the Prime Minister."
Mumbai, April 13 : Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) state president and Raigad Lok Sabha candidate for Mahayuti Sunil Tatkare on Saturday expressed confidence that their minority community's vote count will be higher than in the 2019 elections.

"Today, caste-based forces are pretending to be secular; but we are working at their service in a truly secular way without asking if they have ever greeted 'Eid Mubarak'," he said in his speech at a meeting of the minority community held in Mandangad.

Tatkare, who is the sitting MP from Raigad start, is pitted against Shiv Sena UBT candidate and former union minister Anant Geete.

He said, "Politicians will continue to engage in politics, but we know we are working with secularism. We have worked a lot to strengthen the minority community's youth. Just as umbrellas come out during monsoons, Anant Geete comes out as the election approaches. But Sunil Tatkare has been at your service 24 hours and will continue to do so."

"There is a misconception that the NDA government is against the Muslim community. However, the government has implemented several schemes for minority communities. Mandangad taluka from Raigad constituency is also among those included in multiple minority schemes. Moreover, for 40 years I have worked with secular thoughts. While participating in the NDA, we are also moving forward with the thoughts and ideals of Shiv-Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar," he said.

He said the then Minister Nawab Malik had proposed to increase the funds of Maulana Azad Economic Development Corporation.

"Being the state Finance Minister, Ajit Pawar had sanctioned the funds and now the corporation fund stands at Rs 800 crore, courtesy of Ajit dada," he added.

The Muslim community had demanded an Irani College since there was none in Maharashtra. Sunil Tatkare said upon giving a proposal to Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif, he sanctioned Rs 340 crore within 24 hours for the college.

Apart from this, large funds have been given to the minority community through different schemes, he said.
Islamabad, April 13 : Two soldiers and a terrorist were killed on Saturday in an intelligence-based operation in Buner district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said.

Islamabad, April 13 (IANS) Two soldiers and a terrorist were killed on Saturday in an intelligence-based operation in Buner district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said.

During the operation, after an intense fire exchange, a "high-value terrorist ring leader" was killed while two other terrorists were injured, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said in a statement.

The two soldiers, identified as Lance Havildar Mudassar Mehmood and Lance Naik Haseeb Javed, embraced martyrdom, Dawn reported.

The wanted terrorist, identified as Saleem Rabbani, carrying a reward of Rs 5 million, was killed in the operation.

"The terrorist was actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces as well as extortion and target killings of innocent civilians, said the ISPR, adding that he was highly wanted by the law enforcement agencies," the ISPR said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif hailed the security forces for the successful operation and expressed grief over those martyred.
Jaipur, April 13 : Bharatiya Janata Party leader General V.K. Singh (Retd) was in Jaipur on Saturday where he listed the achievements of the BJP-led Central government in the past 10 years, which he claimed put India among the top five economies of the world.

He claimed that 60 per cent of the world's digital transactions happen in India.

Jaipur, April 13 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party leader General V.K. Singh (Retd) was in Jaipur on Saturday where he listed the achievements of the BJP-led Central government in the past 10 years, which he claimed put India among the top five economies of the world.

He claimed that 60 per cent of the world's digital transactions happen in India.

Addressing a press conference here, Gen Singh, the Union Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways and Civil Aviation, said that China has never occupied any piece of Indian territory in the past 10 years. He was answering a query on the Congress allegation that Indian land has been occupied by China. He termed it as a sheer lie.

Under the Narendra Modi government's rule China has not occupied any land, nor will it be allowed to do so, he asserted.

On the question of PoK merging with India, Gen Singh said that he had already said that it will merge on its own. "Let it come," he added.

Gen Singh said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi India had consistently smashed its own record every year in the field of FDI. Out of 182 countries, 162 countries are investing in India in 32 different areas across the country.

On road connectivity, he said the road network has expanded in the last 10 years benefitting the people across the country.

In 2014, the national highways stretched to 90000 km which has increased to 1.60 lakh km now, he said.

The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway has made travel smoother to Delhi. In fact, those associated with civil aviation say that people these days prefer travelling via road as compared to air travel due to the smooth roads and connectivity, he said.

He added that in 2014 there were 74 airports which have now increased to 148 airports.

We will try to take this number to 200 in the coming years, he promised.

Speaking on the benefits of investing in infrastructure, he said, "We became strong financially by investing in infrastructure as the money invested in it helped industries in different segments thereby pushing the overall economy to new heights."

We are growing at the rate of 6.8pc which is the highest in the world. The world looks upon India with high hopes because it has strong leadership. We have a PM who pays personal attention to each sector, he added.

The minister mentioned segments like mining and railways and said that a lot of work has been done in these areas.

Attention has also been paid to green energy. Research is going on to produce hydrogen too. In this stream, we are equal to Japan. Although we don't speak much about it, silently work is in progress at a fast pace, he added.

If we speak about the digital field, mobiles are being manufactured and exported. India has become the biggest exporter of Apple mobiles, he said.

Gen Singh added, "Digital data is the cheapest in India and hence people in villages can be seen using social media. Sixty per cent of the world's digital transactions happen in India."
A Vancouver, Wash., man was sentenced to just over a year in prison for being part of a robbery on Washington State Universitys campus last July.

RJ William, 22, was convicted of first-degree robbery and first-degree theft in Whitman County Superior Court in October 2023. Whitman County Judge Gary Libey sentenced him Friday morning to a year and a day in jail and a year and a half of probation.

William was one of three men who were a part of the robbery. Frank Rodriguez and Robert Garcia, both 19, were ordered to serve six months in prison and a year of probation after reaching a plea deal in September.

The three were also ordered to pay the victims in restitution fees.

Washington State University officers were called to a reported robbery in the early morning hours in July 2023. Five men were smoking cigarettes when they were approached by Garcia, Rodriguez and William, according to court records.

The three stole four phones from the five men and a guitar, according to court records. William struck one of the men in the face before he, Garcia and Rodriguez ran away with the stolen items.

Whitman County Prosecutor Denis Tracy said in court they had broken the guitar and thrown the phones away. The property was never recovered.

A victim testified during the sentencing and said he is still affected by the incident. He said he no longer feels safe in small-town Pullman, and often avoids leaving home at night. He added the other men feel similarly.
Mumbai, April 13 : Social media sensation Uorfi Javed, who is known for her weird fashion sense, turned heads on Saturday when she wore a heavy gown.

The actress was seen getting down from a tempo in Mumbai while wearing a blue-coloured sheer gown.

Uorfi, who will be soon seen in the upcoming film 'Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2', said that it took 2-3 months to make the entire outfit, and it was made by 1011 people. Her team members were seen helping her get down from the tempo.

Meanwhile, the actress announced her new title 'Follow Kar Lo Yaar' a few weeks ago. The show, which will stream on Prime Video, is based on her life and is directed by Sandeep Kukreja.

At the launch event in Mumbai, Uorfi said: "A lot of people were suggesting a lot of things. Someone was saying, do a movie, others were saying, 'do a dating show.' I was not getting any offers for movies. Though I am not a choreographer, I was planning my next move. In my personal life, you can find many genres -- drama, trauma, love, there's spice and violence. My life has everything. So I thought, 'I should do a reality show on my own life'."
Baghdad, April 13 : Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani has left Baghdad for an official visit to Washington to discuss the issues of ending the U.S.-led international coalition's mission in Iraq, according to a statement by al-Sudani's media office on Saturday.

During the visit, al-Sudani will hold a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, in which they will review the work of the joint Higher Military Commission (HMC), with an aim of setting a timeline for ending the coalition's mission and for Iraq transiting to bilateral relations with the coalition member states, it said, Xinhua news agency reported.

Al-Sudani noted that the meeting will also discuss issues and escalations in the Middle East region, focusing on joint efforts to promote calm and prevent the ongoing conflicts from widening, which could impact global stability, the statement added.

Al-Sudani's visit came as Iraq and the U.S.-led coalition held several rounds of dialogues to discuss ending the coalition's mission of fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq.

On Jan. 25, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Iraq and the United States agreed to form the HMC to end the international coalition's mission in Iraq. The ministry added that after the coalition's withdrawal, Iraq will move to comprehensive bilateral relations with the coalition countries at political, economic, cultural, security, and military levels.
New Delhi, April 13 : Elon Musk-run X Corp banned a record 2,12,627 accounts in India between February 26 and March 25, mostly for promoting child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity.

The micro-blogging platform also took down 1,235 accounts for promoting terrorism on its platform in the country.

In total, X banned 213,862 accounts in the reporting period in the country.

X, in its monthly report in compliance with the new IT Rules, 2021, said that it received 5,158 complaints from users in India in the same time frame through its grievance redressal mechanisms.

In addition, X processed 86 grievances which were appealing account suspensions.

"We overturned 7 of these account suspensions after reviewing the specifics of the situation. The remaining reported accounts remain suspended," said the company.

"We received 29 requests related to general questions about accounts during this reporting period," it added.

Most complaints from India were about ban evasion (3,074), followed by sensitive adult content (953), hateful conduct (412), and abuse/harassment (359).

Between January 26 and February 25, X banned 5,06,173 accounts in India.

The micro-blogging platform also took down 1,982 accounts for promoting terrorism on its platform in the country.
Kolkata, April 13 : Since 2009, the Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district has not repeated the winning mandate in any elections.

Now it is to be seen if the BJP candidate from Raiganj, Kartick Paul, can reverse that trend when the seat goes to the polls in the second phase on April 26.

In 2019, BJPas Debasree Chaudhuri won the seat by over 60,000 votes. However, this time the BJP has fielded her from the Kolkata Dakshin Lok Sabha seat and given the ticket for Raiganj to Kartick Paul, a greenhorn in electoral politics.

In a four-cornered contest between the BJP, Trinamool Congress, Left Front, and the Congress in 2014, CPI-Mas Md Salim, who is the current state Secretary and a politburo member of the party, got elected by a thin margin of 1,500 votes.

In 2009, when the Congress and the Trinamool Congress were in a seat-sharing arrangement against the Left Front and the BJP, Congressa Deepa Dasmunsi won the seat by a handsome margin of over one lakh votes.

Despite fielding a greenhorn in electoral politics, two factors can give a leg-up to the BJP's poll prospects in Raiganj.

After winning the seat in 2019, the BJP also performed commendably in the 2021 Assembly elections from there, winning four out of the seven seats under the Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency, while the remaining three seats went to the ruling Trinamool Congress.

Another factor that might help the BJP is the Trinamool's choice of candidate for Raiganj this time. The ruling party has fielded Krishna Kalyani, who on paper continues to be the BJP legislator from the Raiganj Assembly constituency. Kalyani had switched sides to the Trinamool after the Assembly elections in 2021.

In its campaigns, the BJP has been questioning the political morality of Kalyani for contesting as a Trinamool candidate while keeping his BJP MLA status intact.

The Congress has fielded Ali Imran Ramz a.k.a. Victor from the seat, a comparatively young face in the party with substantial legislative experience.

Victor won the Assembly elections twice from Chakulia -- a constituency under the Raiganj Lok Sabha seat -- in 2011 and 2016 as the All India Forward Bloc nominee.

However, due to his differences with the Forward Bloc, which aggravated after the 2021 Assembly polls when the Left Front drew a blank, Victor joined the Congress last year.

Being a two-time legislator from the area with his roots here, Victor expects to win the voters' confidence this time. The BJP candidate has also said that the contest in Raiganj is against Victor, and not the Trinamool nominee.
Srinagar, April 13 : Senior National Conference leader Mian Altaf Ahmad on Saturday said that he will campaign and contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency.

"My health is better now. I will campaign and contest the Lok Sabha polls from the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency," Altaf said in a video message after a local newspaper reported that he would not campaign due to his ill health.

He said he had a viral fever which is now subsiding.

Following media reports, NC Vice President Omar Abdullah went to Altaf's residence in Wangat village in Ganderbal district.

Following his meeting with Omar, Mian Altaf Ahmad put out a video statement saying that he is feeling better now and would contest polls as the NC candidate from Anantnag-Rajouri constituency.
Beirut, April 13 : Israeli warplanes on Saturday morning carried out a series of airstrikes targeting Hezbollah military sites near the town of Jezzine in southern Lebanon, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Israel fired eight air-to-surface missiles at four Hezbollah military sites situated in forested areas approximately 10 km from the border between Lebanon and Israel, and no casualties have been reported yet.

Eyewitnesses confirmed that eight successive explosions rocked the areas, with the sound being heard from afar and dense smoke rising in the atmosphere.

"It is difficult to determine the nature of the targeted centers because they are located in rugged areas, and it is not possible to determine whether they were hit by raids or if casualties occurred because they are considered closed military areas," said the military sources.

Hezbollah hasn't issued any statement about the Israeli raids.

On Friday evening, Hezbollah announced that its fighters launched an attack on the Israeli settlement of Ramot Naftali, firing dozens of Katyusha rockets on the Al-Zaoura site in the occupied territories.

Tensions escalated along the Lebanon-Israel border on Oct. 8, 2023, as Lebanese armed group Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets towards Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the previous day. In response, Israel retaliated by firing heavy artillery towards southeastern Lebanon.
Itanagar, April 13 : Former Union Minister and Pasighat West MLA Ninong Ering, and three others, were injured on Saturday when his car collided with another vehicle in Arunachal Pradesh's East Siang district, the police said.

A police officer said that Ering's car crashed with another vehicle near Sille village along the National Highway. Following the accident, he was immediately taken to the hospital.

A vehicle abruptly came out of the BJP's party office in Sille and hit the MLA's vehicle, turning both vehicles upside down.

The MLA received minor injuries to the head and hand while the other occupants of the vehicle received slight injuries.

Ering, a BJP candidate in the Pasighat West seat, was going to attend an election campaign event before the mishap.

He quit the Congress in February and joined the BJP.
Mumbai, April 13 : The fight in Hatkanangale Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra's Kolhapur will be interesting to see following the entry of an Independent legislator Prakash Awade. His move may change the equations of MahaYuti as the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has already re-nominated the sitting MP Dhairyasheel Mane from the Hatkanangale seat and he has launched his campaign as well.

Mumbai, April 13 (IANS) The fight in Hatkanangale Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtraas Kolhapur will be interesting to see following the entry of an Independent legislator Prakash Awade. His move may change the equations of MahaYuti as the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has already re-nominated the sitting MP Dhairyasheel Mane from the Hatkanangale seat and he has launched his campaign as well.

In addition, Shiv Sena (UBT) has nominated Satyajeet Patil while former MP and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana founder Raju Shetti, Shetkari Sanghatana leader Raghunathdada Patil and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi nominee DC Patil are also in the fray.

Awade, who after leaving Congress won the 2019 assembly elections as an Independent defeating the BJP nominee, declared that he is contesting the elections seeking votes for Narendra Modi to become the Prime Minister for the third time. He confirmed that he had an hour-long meeting with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde who sought to know his decision to contest the election.

''I have clearly told the CM that considering the present situation in Hatkanangale constituency, I strongly feel that the crucial vote will not be cast in favour of Modi to become the PM for the third time,'' he added.

He said that he would file his nomination on April 16.

aaI have not staged any rebellion nor withdrawn my support to BJP. After I got elected as an Independent in the 2019 assembly elections, I extended my support to the BJP looking at the pro-development agenda implemented by the Modi-led government. I supported the BJP as the NDA government abrogated Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. My support was there to BJP in the past, it is also there now and will also be there after I get elected as MP,aa said Awade.

aaI strongly feel that Modi should become the Prime Minister for the third time to speed up the countryas overall development. It is my attempt to give my vote to Modi to make him PM for the third time,aa he noted.

Awade said that he would fight the election purely on the development issue and thereby make Modi the PM for the third time.

aaIchalkaranji has emerged as the development model and the hi-tech power-loom centre across the country. More than 60,000 workers from various parts of India are currently working in the powerloom industry. Besides, 20,000 women have got jobs. I want to replicate the Ichalkaranji development model for the Hatkanangale constituency. I am confident that the voters will vote for me,aa he added.
Chennai, April 13 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah's massive roadshow in Madurai on Friday has boosted the electoral prospects of the BJP candidate from there.

Amit Shah conducted the roadshow in support of Rama Sreenivasan, the party candidate from Madurai, a seat the BJP has never won. But the party leadership thinks that the party has got a major boost after the visit of the Home Minister.

M.P. Saravanan, a local leader of the BJP, told IANS that, " The Union Home Minister touched a chord with the people of the constituency and this has given a big boost to the fortunes of the party candidate Prof Rama Sreenivasan. Amit Shah attacked both the main Dravidian parties, AIADMK and the DMK, and pitched on the need for electing the BJP candidate."

He said that his visit has given the BJP's electioneering a big boost as several voters who were in a dilemma have given a thumbs up to the BJP.

In the Madurai Lok Sabha seat, BJP candidate Rama Sreenivasan is in a three-cornered fight against CPI-M leader and sitting MP, Su Venkatesan and AIADMK leader P. Saravanan.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Su Venkatesan won the seat by a margin of 1,39,995 votes defeating AIADMK leader, V.V.R Raj Satyen. Madurai Lok Sabha constituency consists of Melur, Madurai East, Madurai North, Madurai South, Madurai Central and Madurai West assembly seats.

In the 2021 assembly elections, the Melur assembly seat was represented by AIADMK leader Periyapullam P. Selvan defeating the Congress' T. Ravichandran by a margin of 35,162 votes. The DMK's P. Murthy representing the Madurai East assembly seat defeated AIADMK leader R. Gopalakrishnan by 49,604 votes.

Madurai North assembly seat is represented by G. Thalapathi of the DMK who defeated BJP leader P. Saravanan by 22,916 votes.

In the Madurai South assembly seat, M. Boominathan of the DMK defeated S.S. Saravanan of the AIADMK by 6515 votes. Madurai Central assembly seat is represented by Tamil Nadu minister for information technology, Palanivel Thiagarajan who defeated Jothi Muthumarilangam of the AIADMK by a margin of 34,176 votes.

While the DMK represents four assembly seats and AIADMK represents 2 assembly seats in the six assembly seats under the Madurai Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP campaign is focused mainly on the return of the BJP government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre.

Amit Shah while addressing the public mentioned clearly that the NDA under Prime Minister Narendra Modi was winning in more than 400 seats and had appealed to the voters of Madurai to climb on to the bandwagon. He said that the Madurai Lok Sabha constituency will witness development if the people elect the BJP candidate

R. Shakthivel, a political analyst speaking to IANS said, "While arithmetically, BJP doesn't have a chance, there has been a significant improvement on the ground for the BJP. The possibility of a BJP government under Narendra Modi coming back to power is a major advantage for the BJP at the grassroots level. The roadshow of a senior leader like Amit Shah has indeed helped the BJP candidate and the party has to now capitalize on this advantage."
Chennai, April 13 : BJP Tamil Nadu State President K. Annamalai on Saturday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a special love for former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam (OPS) and Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency.

"Prime Minister Modi has a special love for Panneerselvam and Ramanathapuram that is why Prime Minister fielded OPS from this constituency. If a former Chief Minister enters the Parliament, he will command respect and it will immensely benefit the constituency," Annamalai said while addressing a public programme in favour of OPS at Ramalinga Vilasam.

OPS is contesting as an independent candidate backed by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The BJP leader said that OPS had easy access to the Prime Minister and added that this would help the constituency.

He said that OPS is a leader who was trusted by Late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for his simplicity, his character and his loyalty.

Annamalai said that OPS is also representing Late Thevar leader Muthuramalinga Thevar, who divided his wealth into 16 parts and used it for the welfare of the people from backward communities.

He also came out strongly against DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Revenue Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, accusing him of denigrating Muthuramalinga Thevar.

He said Ramachandran had said that Ramanathapuram could not grow because Thevar had a confrontation with the state government.

Annamalai said Tamil Nadu politics had witnessed many betrayals, and one was the removal of the late M. G. Ramachandran (MGR) from the DMK by its late leader M. Karunanidhi while another was the removal of OPS from the AIADMK by Edappadi K. Palaniswami.

"Presently, OPS is ahead of his rivals by 15 per cent votes but ensure that he wins by 5 lakh votes," Annamalai said.

On the issue of drinking water problems faced by the local people, Annamalai said that the BJP government would allot special funds to link the Cauvery-Vaigai-Gundar rivers and permanently solve the drinking water problem of the district.

--IANS

aal/dan
The sanctuary in Luang Prabang, the ancient capital of Laos, is run by Free the Bears, an Australian wildlife conservation group that works with local communities and governments in Asia to rescue and protect the endangered Asiatic Black Bear, commonly known as the moon bear, and the equally at risk smaller sun bear native to Southeast Asia.

The group's CEO Matt Hunt said the sanctuary was considering expanding its play, housing and veterinary facilities as it has never hosted so many bears, or ones so young, before.

The cubs are now being bottle fed, and will need to stay in the sanctuary for several months until they are big enough to survive on their own, he added.

The cubs were seen playfully running at the sanctuary and swimming in a small pond.

"It's probably the single largest-ever rescue of endangered bear cubs worldwide," he told Reuters.

Laos police rescued the cubs in late March during a raid on a home owned by a Chinese national, Hunt said. The neighbors alerted the police, after hearing the cubs crying. By the time the police were able to extract them, one of the cubs had died, he added.

"They are extremely young, seemingly purchased illegally from hunters across Northern Laos ... most likely to try and establish a bear bile farm," Hunt said.

Bear bile farming involves extracting bile from the gallbladders of living bears for use in traditional Chinese medicine. The practice is legal in China, but outlawed in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, among other countries.
New Delhi, April 13 : Actor Randeep Hooda is over-the-moon with his directorial debut "Swatantra Veer Savarkar" which has raked in Rs 29.15 crore worldwide since its release on March 22.

New Delhi, April 13 (IANS) Actor Randeep Hooda is over-the-moon with his directorial debut "Swatantra Veer Savarkar" which has raked in Rs 29.15 crore worldwide since its release on March 22.

Talking about the collection, he said in spite of all the naysaying and the negativity put out for the film, "it is turning out to be a sleeper hit."

Randeep was present at the private screening of "Swatantra Veer Savarkar" held in the national capital on Saturday, he spoke about the film touching Rs 29.15 crores worldwide.

He told IANS: "Inspite of all the naysaying and the negativity put out for the film, it is turning out to be a sleeper hit and I am very glad not only as an actor but as a filmmaker as well."

With the film, Randeep returned to the silver screen as a solo lead after almost seven years.

"It has been 7-8 years people have seen me on a big screen and a lead role so it was a big opportunity for me and I am so grateful to god that it has come as a well-timed thing not just as an actor but as a filmmaker because as an actor you are just a part of the story as a filmmaker you are the storyteller," Randeep said.

The actor said he did take a lot of "risque treatment for the movie."

"Breaking the fourth wall and a lot of movies in English. But still it was a poignant story to be told and it is an alternate take at what we have been fed as our history," he said.

The movie was released alongside Kunal Kemmu's "Madgaon Express". With eyeballs getting divided and less screen counts played foul.

"We do have fewer screens in the Northern states. Maharashtra and down south has a lot of screens. Northern states have lesser screen count and the best way to boost the business is to have more screens and to have it more available for more people."

Randeep added: "Our release was a very limited release but we've grown screen by screen and I am very happy and maybe my next movie will have a larger screen count.

The private screening, which can easily be tagged as a VIP event with the who's who from the world of politics and legal heads stepping in to watch the film, was hosted by advocates Manish Mohan and Vineet Dhanda.

Talking about why he wanted to screen the film, Mohan said: "I have screened this movie not only to see and learn more about Savarkar ji but also as a tribute to people like Randeep Hooda who has imbibed the legend and revived him on screen while taking us through the freedom movement of that era."
Amritsar, April 13 : Starting his day before dawn by offering prayers in Sikh's holiest shrine, the Golden Temple, here on Saturday, BJP candidate from Punjab's Amritsar Parliamentary constituency, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the diplomat-turned-politician who is making his electoral debut, said he has vision to redress hurdles of farmers settled along the India-Pakistan border.

During his visit close to the Zero Line at Zirpur village in Amritsar district, Sandhu interacted with local farmers and heard about their issues, as well as shared his vision to revamp border areas in three major aspects.

The first is to address hurdles by boosting farmers' incomes; second, infrastructure development for better market connectivity; and third, enhancing education access and skill development opportunities for their children.

Before visiting border areas, Sandhu, a 1988-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer who shared a video of his interaction with US President Joe Biden during his stint as the US Ambassador, offered prayers at the Golden Temple.

"Blessed to start Vaisakhi with 'darshan' at Sri Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar. Wishing everyone a joyful and prosperous Vaisakhi. May the divine blessings of the Almighty bring happiness, peace, and prosperity to all on this auspicious harvest festival," he wrote in a post on X. Responding to his video with Biden, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar sent him a congratulatory message by saying: "He certainly represented India very well."

"He looks so distinguished every time I see him. This is how an ambassador should look like," Biden told Sandhu during his interaction amid the presence of S. Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

A close aide of Sandhu told IANS that on an average, he holds three-four public meetings a day in which he interacts with locals from all walks of life to understand their issues.

"He prefers to interact with civil society members, local community, students, farmers, traders, besides members of trade organisations. In every interaction, his focus is first to listen to their problems and then lay out his roadmap," the aide added.

On Friday, he had an interactive discussion with the Amritsar Textile Processors Association.

"Will create a vibrant and flourishing ecosystem for the textile sector's prosperity through better connectivity, infrastructure and policy support," Sandhu, who belongs to Amritsar, was quoted as saying.

During his campaigning trail amid the soaring heat, he could be seen enjoying a refreshing glass of fresh suagrcane juice from a roadside vendor.

Almost every day, Sandhu, known for his wide network in the US political and administrative set-up, prefers to seek divine blessings by visiting a Hindu or a Sikh shrine during his campaigning almost every day.

Sandhu is the grandson of former Congress leader and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) founder member Teja Singh Samundri.

Sandhu on March 19 joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), almost two months after he wrapped up his term in office in Washington DC.

Sandhu has a rich family heritage.

His father, Bishan Singh Samundri, was the founding Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar.

His mother, Jagjit Kaur, was the principal of Government College for Women in Amritsar.

His grandfather quit the British army to join the Independence and gurdwara reforms movement.

He died in his 40s in Lahore Jail in 1926 under colonial custody.

Now, Samundri Hall in Sri Harmandir Sahib is named in his memory.

Punjab's 13 Lok Sabha seats are slated to go to the polls in a single phase on June 1.

During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress-led UPA won the maximum -- eight seats -- in the state, while the BJP-led NDA managed to secure victory in four seats -- two each for the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

The AAP was restricted to just one seat.

(Vishal Gulati can be reached at gulatiians@gmail.com) --IANS

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Kohima, April 13 : Amid the election boycott call given by the Eastern Nagaland People's Organisation (ENPO) demanding statehood, the Election Commission is getting ready to hold the Lok Sabha polls for the lone parliamentary seat in the state on April 19.

The ENPO, which has been demanding a separate administration or state comprising six backward Nagaland districts since 2010, remains firm on boycotting the April 19 elections to the lone Lok Sabha seat in the state unless their demand is met, despite the appeals from the state government and various other parties.

Election officials said that they are making all-out efforts to conduct the voting in the eastern Nagaland areas, comprising 20 of the 60 assembly seats, in six eastern districts -- Kiphire, Longleng, Mon, Noklak, Shamator and Tuensang.

The agitating ENPO in support of its demand since March 8, has imposed a 'public emergency' affecting normal activities.

Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister and BJP Legislature Party leader Yanthungo Patton said that polling stations would be set up across the state, including eastern Nagaland.

While talking with the media, Patton said that the state government would continue to appeal to the ENPO to participate in the election.

On the ENPO blaming the state government for their decision to abstain from taking part in the election, the Deputy Chief Minister said: "They should not blame the state government. Initially, they did not consult with the state government. The state government was doing its best to resolve the matter."

Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio last week held a meeting with officials of the eastern Nagaland region and requested them to persuade the ENPO to withdraw the boycott call.

Rio, who is sympathetic to the demand of the ENPO, recently said that the state government has already recommended, to the Centre, that an autonomous region be set up for the people belonging to the eastern region.

Of Nagaland's 16 districts, seven backward tribes -- Chang, Khiamniungan, Konyak, Phom, Tikhir, Sangtam, and Yimkhiung -- are living in the six eastern districts.

The ENPO, the apex Naga body, and its associated organisations, in support of its separate state demand, gave a call to boycott last year's Assembly polls (February 27) but later withdrew it following an assurance from Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The Union Home Ministry, responding to the ENPO's demand, last year formed a three-member committee, headed by Adviser, Northeast, A.K. Mishra to study their demand, and the panel visited Nagaland several times and spoke with all stakeholders.

On March 28, a closed door meeting was held between the Eastern Nagaland Legislative Union (ENLU), a body of 20 MLAs representing the six backward districts and the ENPO.

But after the crucial nine-hour meeting, the ENPO leaders reiterated their call to boycott the April 19 Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP, a part of the United Democratic Alliance government in Nagaland, has urged the ENPO to hold a dialogue with the government over their demand for a separate state.
Mumbai, April 13 : The Maharashtra Child Rights Commission has complained to the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking action against Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sushma Andhare for allegedly using children for political leverage, officials said here on Saturday.

In a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S. Chokalingam and ECI CEC Rajeev Kumar, Shah has said that Andhare had organised a media conference against the ruling MahaYuti Lok Sabha MP Ramdas Tadas, and now Wardha candidate, in which his estranged daughter-in-law Pooja Pankaj Tadas was also present.

Shah alleged that in that meeting, 'Andhare also brought Tadas' 17-month-old grandson on the stage' and said it amounted to violating the election code of conduct which strictly prohibits the use of children for political gains or election campaigning.

"The matter will be investigated at the Commission level. We have demanded appropriate action by the ECI," said Shah in a statement.

She pointed out that the ECI rules state that "children cannot be used for any work related to the elections like campaign meetings, morchas, sloganeering, and posters."

Political leaders and candidates are also barred from carrying children in their arms, in vehicles or at rallies, and restricted from using children in political campaigns in any manner, including poems, songs, spoken words, display of political party/candidate symbols, display of political party ideology, and promotion or success of a political party.

Despite such clear regulations, Shah said that Andhare blatantly flouted the rules, as using children for politics is considered a crime worldwide and it should be seriously probed.

It may be recalled that on April 11, Andhare and independent candidate from Wardha LS seat Pooja held a press conference in which the latter sought justice for herself and her toddler son from the Tadas family.

Pooja Tadas also narrated the tortures, assault and humiliation at the hands of the Tadas family, including her husband Pankaj Tadas.

Today (April 13), Pankaj Tadas denied all the allegations hurled by his estranged wife (Pooja), claiming he had a lot of evidence to prove his contentions, among other things.
New Delhi, April 13 : As the General Elections draw near, Hyderabad is one constituency which has garnered lot of attention because of heavyweight candidates, AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi and BJP's K Madhavi Latha, making lot of waves despite her poll debut.

The battle for Hyderabad has only got fiercer with BJP candidate Madhavi Latha launching a no-holds barred attack on the incumbent MP, giving jitters to the party.

Madhavi Latha, in an exclusive interview to IANS revealed party's plans to take on the incumbent MP in 2024 polls and also batted for Hyderabad's name change, claiming that it will undo the 'sins of past'.

Latha claimed that Asaduddin Owaisi has brotherly ties with the Congress and it is only getting stronger by the day. She said that she hasn't met the Owaisi brothers but if she wins the elections from Hyderabad, she will first free the land appropriated under the Waqf Board, by Owaisi brothers.

She said that the BJP is canvassing before the people to win their support with its progressive policies.

"Unlike Opposition's attempt to generate fear in the electorate, we have focused our campaign around love and respect for human values," she said.

BJP candidate said that both Asaduddin Owaisi and Akbaruddin Owaisi used to live in rented accommodations earlier but are now living in a bungalow sprawling over 7 acres.

"They have become Ambani of Muslims. They claim themselves to be saviour of Muslim community but the reality is that they ditched their community, made themselves rich and betrayed the common Muslims," said BJP nominee from Hyderabad.

Latha also raised questions over Y+ security cover to AIMIM Chief and asked the rationale behind it.

"Owaisi remains surrounded by Muslim brothers, also visits Muslim-dominated constituencies for poll campaign. Why does he feel threatened? Why he needs Y+ security," she asked.

Sharing her views on the public clamour to rename Hyderabad as 'Bhagyanagar', she said that that there was nothing wrong in doing so as this was the city's original name.

When asked about her outreach to the Muslim community, she said that the development should nurture a level-playing field for all and not remain restricted to certain sections.

"All children, including those of Muslim community should have access to basic education, women should have equal rights cutting across religions. This will set the stage for an inclusive and all-round growth," she said.

She said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains party's inspiration and strength.

"For us, PM Modi is like Lord Hanuman. His visionary leadership motivates us to join the mission for Viksit Bharat and contribute to the India story dream. All including Muslim women are benefitting from various schemes rolled under his government," she told IANS.

On her portrayal 'Lady Singham' in the polls, she said that she lives with the promise of exposing lies and standing by truth, in all times.

Notably, Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat is a stronghold of Owaisi's party for years. Owaisi's father Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi won the Lok Sabha polls for the first time from this seat, as an independent candidate in 1984. The constituency with a population of around 20 lakh has elected Owaisi as MP, four times.
Jaipur, April 13 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday accused the Congress of spreading lies that the BJP wants to abolish reservation for Dalits, tribals, and the Other Backward Class (OBC).

"The Congress is spreading lies among the Dalits, tribals, and OBCs. The BJP will not scrap reservation," Amit Shah said while addressing an election rally at Harsoli in Rajasthan in support of the party candidate for the Alwar Lok Sabha seat, Bhupender Yadav.

Stating that the BJP supports reservation, the Home Minister said, "We will neither scrap reservation, nor allow anyone else to do it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the biggest supporter of reservation," he said.

He also accused the Congress of being anti-OBC, saying: "The Congress did injustice with the backward classes by not releasing the Kaka Kalelkar report. It also did not release the Mandal Commission report."

Stating that PM Modi gave constitutional recognition to the OBC Commission, Amit Shah said, "The Prime Minister gave 27 per cent reservation to the OBCs in all recruitments at the Centre. He himself belongs to the OBC community, while more than 25 ministers in his Cabinet are also from the community," he claimed.

The Home Minister also said that Congress 'launched' Rahul Gandhi 20 times, but each time the launch failed.

"Now the Congress is unable to launch itself due to its repeated failed attempts to launch Rahul Baba," Amit Shah said.

The BJP leader also accused former Congress President Sonia Gandhi of playing family politics.

"Sonia Gandhi's entire focus is on making Rahul Baba the Prime Minister. She is not concerned about the future of your sons or daughters," he claimed.

The Home Minister also attacked the Congress over the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP).

"Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma has assured me that every house in every village will soon have regular water supply in Alwar. The Congress opposed the interlinking of rivers. I promise you that the ERCP will be launched soon. This is Modi's guarantee," he said.

He also accused successive Congress governments at the Centre of delaying the construction of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, saying the 'dream' was realised only after the Modi government took charge.

"This year, Ram Navami will be celebrated with grandeur in the newly-constructed Ram Mandir (in Ayodhya)," declared Amit Shah, as he urged people to re-elect Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister for the third time for a strong and prosperous India.
Gurugram, April 13 : Following state government instructions, Artemis Hospital management has returned Rs 90,000 as admission fees to the parents of children undergoing treatment for injuries in connection with the school bus accident that took place in Kanina in Mahendragarh district on April 11.

On April 12, Haryana Health Minister Kamal Gupta visited Artemis Hospital and took detailed information from the doctors about the children who were undergoing treatment.

The minister had instructed the hospital management that the entire cost of treatment of the children injured in the accident would be borne by the Haryana government.

DC Nishant Kumar Yadav said that after the bus accident, three parents had admitted their children to Artemis Hospital in Gurugram in an emergency.

But despite government assurance, it came to our notice that the hospital under the regular admission process, an amount of Rs 50,000 and Rs 40,000 was taken as admission charges from two parents by the hospital management.

"The hospital management, while presenting its stand on this matter, told that at the time of admission, the hospital management did not have complete information about the bus accident of the admitted children," Yadav said in a statement.

"The depositing some amount at the time of admission is a part of the regular treatment process, but as soon as the hospital management received the instructions from the Haryana government, with immediate effect, the admission amount of Rs 90,000 was returned to the parents," Divisional Head of Artemis Hospital, Ashutosh Sharma claimed.
Jaipur, April 13 : The Rajasthan Police on Saturday arrested twin brothers in Bhilwara district and seized counterfeit currency worth Rs 1,88,600 of Rs 200 denomination notes from their possession, the police said.

Bhilwara Superintendent of Police, Rajan Dushyant, said that police acted on a tip-off that the two accused were roaming in a market with counterfeit currency notes.

A special team has been formed which reached the location and arrested the twin brothers, Nirankush and Niranjan, with counterfeit currency.

When the accused were asked where they brought these notes from and where they were taking them, it was found that they themselves were printing fake currency notes on good quality paper with the help of a laptop, printer-scanner and green colour.
Hyderabad, April 13 : Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday launched the party's campaign for next month's Lok Sabha elections in the state with an appeal to people to reject both the Congress and the BJP.

Addressing Praja Ashirwad sabha in Chevella constituency near Hyderabad, he said both the Congress and BJP had betrayed the people of Telangana and claimed that only BRS can safeguard people's interests as the party was born for Telangana.

The BRS chief urged people to make a conscious decision while voting.

He said during Assembly elections, the people fell prey to the false promises of the Congress and as a result, they are facing problems in getting water for drinking and irrigation.

KCR, as Rao is popularly known, said tankers have come back while crops over 20 lakh acres have withered due to lack of water supply and the government's failure to provide uninterrupted power.

He cautioned people that if they vote for Congress or BJP, these parties will not do anything for people as they tend to think that people voted for them despite making false promises and betraying them.

The former chief minister said if people elect BRS candidates in all constituencies, they can have a strong opposition to question the government and get their problems solved.

He asked why people should vote for Congress and BJP and appealed to them to elect BRS candidates as they alone can raise voice in the Parliament on behalf of the people.

The BRS chief said people should not remain silent but fight. He told them that if they remain silent their problems will not be solved.

He said the Congress came to power by offering allurements to people.

Hitting out at the Congress over its four-month rule, he said the Congress government was not sincere in people's welfare.

KCR also lashed out at the BJP saying it did not fulfil a single commitment made to Telangana and neglected the state.

KCR said the Congress government in Telangana not only failed to deliver on the promises made in Assembly elections but also stopped implementation of the schemes launched by the previous BRS government.

"The A. Revanth Reddy government has failed in providing investment support to farmers under Rythu Bandhu or protecting their crops by providing water and uninterrupted power," he said.

Asserting that Telangana state was achieved after many struggles and indefinite fast, he said the BRS government launched many schemes to help distressed farmers.

He mentioned that the government implemented Rythu Bandhu under which farmers were provided financial support of Rs 10,000 per acre every year, supplied quality power for 24 hours to farmers, implemented insurance scheme for farmers and procured the entire produce of the farmers.

KCR said the BRS government without any discrimination on the basis of caste and religion extended financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh each for the marriage of poor girls under Kalyana Lakshmi.

He said Congress promised gold in addition to financial assistance but has not implemented the promise.

The BRS chief also asked what happened to the Congress promises to procure all agriculture produce, pay bonus of Rs 500 per quintal of agricultural produce. He claimed that the previous government launched Dalit Bandhu to financially empower Dalits by giving Rs 10 lakh to every family.

He said Rs 1.30 lakh Dalits were sanctioned Dalit Bandhu funds. He alleged that the Congress government stopped release of funds under the scheme.

He said the Congress party promised that it would give Rs 12 lakh to Dalits but it was not even giving Rs 10 lakh.

KCR announced that if the government failed to release the funds immediately under Dalit Bandhu, he would stage a protest at Ambedkar statue along with the beneficiaries identified under the scheme.

"As long as I am alive, I will continue to fight for people," he said.

The BRS chief urged people of Chevella to reject Ranjith Reddy, who quit BRS to join Congress party. Ranjith Reddy, who was elected on BRS ticket from Chevella in 2019, recently joined the Congress, which has named him as its candidate.

BJP candidate Vishweshwar Reddy was also with BRS before joining Congress in 2018.

He later quit Congress to join the BJP.
Vijayawada, April 14 : Andhra Pradesh's ruling party YSR Congress on Saturday blamed Telugu Desam Party (TDP) for an attack on Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy during Memantha Siddham rally in Vijayawada.

The YSR Congress chief sustained an injury on his left eyebrow after he was hit by a stone when he was standing atop a special campaign bus to greet people.

The party claimed the TDP was behind the attack as it was unable to bear the momentous response that CM Jagan was getting in their so-called bastion.

YSR Congress parliamentary party leader V. Vijayasai Reddy condemned the attack on Jagan Mohan Reddy.

He posted on X that TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu never believed in the politics of development.

"It has been proved once again that he is doing cowardly politics, believing only in violence and conspiracies," he posted.

Another YSR Congress leader and MLA Hafeez Khan alleged that TDP is behind this cowardly act because they could not bear to see the massive response that CM Jagan was receiving during his Memantha Siddham Yatra.

"We urge the police to nab the culprits. TDP should know that they cannot win the election by such attacks," he said.

Meanwhile, state Congress chief and Jagan Mohan Reddy's sister YS Sharmila Reddy termed the incident as sad and unfortunate.

"We think it was an accident. If it was intentional, everyone should condemn it. There is no place for violence in a democracy. Every democrat must condemn violence. I am praying to God for Jagan's speedy recovery," she said.

Meanwhile, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has termed as drama the attack on Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy during the latter's 'Memantha Siddham Yatra' in Vijayawada on Saturday.

Party's national president N. Chandrababu Naidu, however, condemned the attack.

The former chief minister took to X to say that he strongly condemns the attack.

He requested the Election Commission to 'initiate an impartial and unbiased inquiry into the incident and punish the responsible officials'.

Meanwhile, TDP's Andhra Pradesh unit president K. Atchenaidu termed the incident 'Kodi Kathi drama 2.0 version'.

He alleged that the YSR Congress Party chief resorted to this drama due to lack of public response to his election campaign.

He asked if shutting down electricity supply before the chief minister's visit is not part of the plan.

The TDP leader claimed that there is no difference between the Kodi Kathi drama at Visakhapatnam Airport before the 2019 elections and 'gravel' attack in Vijayawada.

He said as part of the plan, within minutes after the attack YSR Congress leaders like Perni Nani and Ambati Rambabu alleged that Chandrababu Naidu was behind the attack.

Atchenaidu said that no matter how many dramas Jagan does, people have decided to send him home. He stated that people are no longer ready to believe his dramas.

Jagan Mohan Reddy was injured in an attack at Visakhapatnam Airport on October 25, 2018.

Srinu, a worker at a food joint at the airport, had attacked Jagan Mohan Reddy, then leader of opposition, with a knife, injuring him on the shoulder. The accused had used Kodi Kathi (rooster knife) which is normally used in cockfights.

Elections to the 175-member Andhra Pradesh Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state are scheduled on May 13.
The Schengen-style joint visa initiative for six Southeast Asian countries, proposed by Thailand, will be a great opportunity for Vietnam to attract international visitors and increase its competitiveness, insiders said.

In recent months Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has been discussing the initiative with his counterparts in Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Vietnam, Bloomberg reported.

The joint visa would enable tourists to explore all six Southeast Asian countries on a single visa.

Herbert Laubichler-Pichler, CEO of Alma Resort Cam Ranh in Nha Trang, said that Vietnamese tourism and the hospitality industry would benefit greatly if the proposal was passed.

"This Schengen-type visa would help address concerns Vietnam is losing out on travelers because of relatively cumbersome visa requirements compared to Thailand and Malaysia," he said.

"Thailand continues to attract higher numbers of tourists than Vietnam, so this visa arrangement could help offset that trend by encouraging more tourists who may otherwise visit only Thailand to also visit Vietnam."

Vietnam currently waives visas for 25 countries compared to 162 by Malaysia and 64 by Thailand.

Herbert said Vietnam's big cities with direct flights between these neighboring countries would benefit the most because many people will fly, for example, from Bangkok to HCMC and from Kuala Lumpur to HCMC.

Six Southeast Asian countries welcomed 70 million international visitors in 2023, of which Thailand and Malaysia accounted for more than 50%.

Pham Ha, CEO of luxury cruise operator Lux Group, said that if only 50% of international visitors to Thailand and Malaysia visit Vietnam, the tourism industry will see a "gold mine" that helps boost revenue growth.

Thailands selection of five neighboring countries for the joint visa scheme is "not by chance," Ha said.

The four countries that share land borders with Thailand are Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Myanmar. Vietnam is located next to Laos and Cambodia. Tourists can easily visit 6 countries by road or train, an alternative to expensive air travel.

This also helps make tourists' trips more economical, increasing the competitiveness of the six ASEAN countries with major markets such as China, India, South Korea and Japan, Ha added.

Hebert said its a very clever move on Thailands behalf.

"The Thai authorities know that if the many tourists who have visited Thailand previously come back for a beach break, this visa will encourage them to experience the culture of nearby Vietnam, Laos and/or Cambodia and make the trip overall more interesting," he said.

Among the six countries, Thailand and Malaysia have more flight routes than Vietnam, which however has more flight routes than its two neighbors Laos and Cambodia.

Joining the alliance is an opportunity to help Vietnam become a "hub" in the Indochina region, said Hanoi-based AZA Travel CEO Nguyen Tien Dat, adding tourists who prefer Cambodia or Laos will fly to Vietnam, then to the other two countries.

Countries participating in the joint visa scheme may have difficulty managing and synchronizing the database with the remaining five countries. However, from the perspective of a tourism insider, Ha believed that Vietnam would enjoy more benefits if joining the alliance.

Currently, Vietnam tourism is facing fierce competition in the region. If Vietnam joins the scheme with the scheme, its competitiveness will be stronger.

Dat also analyzed that if Vietnam refuses to join while the remaining five countries agree, the Vietnamese tourism industry will face a new strong competitor - the alliance of the five countries.

"Competing with Thailand is difficult, having to compete with five countries at the same time will be even more tiring."

According to Hebert, this visa scheme would be a game-changer not only for Vietnam but for the Southeast Asian region.

Following Thailands proposal, leaders of the five Southeast Asian countries have expressed a positive attitude towards the joint visa initiative, according to Bloomberg.
Bhopal, April 14 : More than 30 hours have passed after six-year-old boy Tanmay Kol fell into a borewell in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district, a rescue operation jointly undertaken by the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) continues.

The boy's parents along with more than 500 locals surrounding the borewell have been praying for his life as the rescue operation was underway.

Local BJP MLA, Siddharth Tiwari, who along with Rewa District Collector Pratibha Pall and Superintendent of Police Vivek Singh, has been monitoring the rescue operation since last Friday night appealed people to pray for Tanmay's life.

"Administration is trying its best to get Tanmay out from the borewell. All of you please pray to God that we get good news soon," said a fresh update Siddharth Tiwari posted on his social media account late Saturday night.

Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla earlier on Saturday visited the spot and met the boy's parents.

Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, who addressed a public rally to seek support for two-time BJP MP Janardan Mishra from the Rewa Lok Sabha constituency on Saturday, said he has directed the officials to launch a search operation to find out open borewells across Madhya Pradesh.

On December 12, 2023, a five-year-old boy Vijay died after he fell into a borewell while playing with his friends at a village in Alirajpur district.

On December 5, 2023, a five-year-old girl Mahi fell into a borewell and was rescued after an hour-long rescue operation, however, she could not survive more than two hours and died while undergoing treatment at a hospital.

Another borewell tragedy occured on June 8 last year when six-year-old girl, Shristi Kushwaha, fell into a borewell left open at a village in Sehore district.

She was rescued after more than 60 hours of efforts jointly by the SDRF, NDRF and Army, however, her life could not be saved.

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had chaired a high-level meeting with senior bureaucrats and directed for a survey to find out open borewells across the state.

Before this mishap, two similar tragic incidents (July 18 and March 15) occurred in Vidisha district.

On December 10, 2022, five-year-old Tanmay Sahu died after falling into a borewell in Betul district.
Jerusalem, April 14 : Iran has launched unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) toward Israel, the Israeli military said.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Saturday evening in a press briefing that the drones would take several hours to arrive in Israeli airspace and that the country's defence systems would try to intercept them, Xinhua news agency reported.

An official statement said the Israeli airspace will be closed from 12:30 a.m.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it is "constantly monitoring the operational situation".

According to the statement, "the IDF Aerial Defense Array is on high alert, along with Israel Air Force fighter jets and Israeli Navy vessels that are on a defence mission in Israeli air and naval space."

Iranian media reported that about 50 UAVs have been launched.

Israel's state-owned Kan TV news reported that the drones were launched from Iran as well as from other countries allied with Iran.

Israel has been on heightened alert over the past few days following Iranian threats to avenge the killing of seven Iranian officers in its consular building in Damascus, Syria, earlier in April, which was carried out by Israel, according to Iran.
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When Matt Cain was five years old and, as he puts it, the kind of boy who plays with the girls at school, he emerged from a joyous evening in a friends bedroom sporting a thick coat of polish on his fingernails. Enamored by the color and unaware hed committed any sort of transgression, Cain marched into class the next morning still wearing it. This being Northern England in the early 1980s, few of his peers appreciated the makeover. I was absolutely obliterated and crucified, Cain recalls, flinching, on a Zoom call from his home in London. I dont know why my parents didnt diplomatically and sensitively remove it.

While the same thing doesnt happen to Ted Ainsworth, the protagonist of Cains Becoming Ted (Kensington, June), he does suffer plenty of episodes that carry distinct echoes of that childhood humiliation. The novel picks up in the final moments of 40-something Teds marriage to Giles, a snobbish, tattooed hotelier who abruptly ends their relationship after nearly 20 years. In the aftermath of the breakup, Ted shakes the cobwebs off his long-dormant ambitions to become a drag queen. Along the way, he confronts repressed memories of loved ones who tried to curb his interest in womens clothes. How am I supposed to fancy you like that? Giles snaps in one particularly nasty episode, after seeing Ted decked out in drag for the first time.

The novels core concept came to Cain during the peak of the pandemic, when he and his husband were stuck inside bingeing The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. That shows focus on a housewife becoming a stand-up comedian connected, in Cains mind, to the 1989 dramedy Shirley Valentine, about a bored 42-year-old Liverpudlian woman who rediscovers her lust for life after falling for a Greek tavern owner. Cain could put his own spin on the story, he thought, with an eye toward gay themes. And what better rainbow-tinted liberation vessel than drag?

Often, in the narrative arts, drag is seen as a comedic device: a fun bit of light relief and window dressing. In reality, it can be incredibly subversive, Cain says, invoking RuPauls sentiment that drag doesnt change who you are, it reveals who you are. For Ted, heels and a wig provide a golden key to the assertive corners of his soul that remained locked during his relationship with Giles. Fittingly, he names his funny, foul-mouthed alter-ego Gail Force.

Ive always been interested in second-act stories, Cain muses, accounting for the thematic overlap between Becoming Ted and 2021s The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle, his first novel published in the U.S., which follows a 60-something postal worker as he comes out of the closet and tracks down a past love. I kind of feel like a second-act sensation myself, because it took me so long to achieve my own professional and creative dream.

In his efficient ensemblea wrinkle-free purple polo and sleek, square

wristwatchCain looks every bit the spirited journalist hes known as in Britain. (Similarly revealing are the bare walls and still-boxed belongings in the writing room he began working in a year ago; too many deadlines to fuss with the decor.) Across his two-decade career, Cain has written for every major U.K. newspaper, worked as the culture editor for Channel 4 News, and served as editor-in-chief of the gay British lifestyle magazine Attitude. But life in the press pen was never his real ambition.

I always knew I wanted to be a novelist, but I had no idea how to make it happen, Cain recalls. There was no one around him in working-class Bolton, a textile manufacturing town just outside of Manchester, who made any sort of living in the arts. After graduating from the local university, Cain wrote 211 application letters for what he considered creative positionsjobs in film, publishing, TV, and magazinesand received just a single reply, from ITV, for a role producing documentaries. He got the job, but all the while, his literary ambitions simmered.

From 2005 to 2015, Cain estimates, he wrote and shopped around his first novel, The Madonna of Bolton, to agents and publishers across the U.K. while working full-time. Over and over, he says, he was told there was no market for gay stories outside of strict literary fiction. This is not for housewives who shop in supermarkets. Theyre not educated enough to be open to these stories, Cain sneers, recallingand perhaps interpretingwhat he heard in meetings and rejection letters.

So, after he took charge of Attitude in 2016, he decided to print The Madonna of Bolton with U.K. crowdfunding publisher Unbound. He sourced the necessary funds in a week; meanwhile, he says he kicked up a stink with a publicity campaign about the British book industrys lack of gay-friendliness that involved sending his rejection letters to the Guardian.

The book came out, and it was a success, Cain says proudly. Then, with a tight smile: But what sometimes happens when youre labeled a disrupter and a rule breaker is that you come up against resentments.

More than once in our conversation, Cain laments not being invited to the big literary festivals in the U.K. and points out the lack of coverage for his books in broadsheet British papers like the Times or the Independent. He chalks it up to a variety of factors: his incendiary Madonna of Bolton campaign, yes, but also his working-class northern accent and his self-described camp, effeminate demeanor, which he notes naysayers have often perceived as indicative of a certain frivolity.

The feeling, Cain notes, drudges up memories of being a gay child nobody wanted, alone at the lunch table because other kids worried they might catch AIDS. Unlike Ted, Cain hasnt found much catharsis on the few occasions hes donned drag since that kindergarten dalliance with nail polish (though he stresses hes a staunch Drag Race fan). Instead, hes learned to draw strength from a less flashy source: getting his books published and into peoples hands.

Cains ability to dramatize that sort of clarity of purpose is what drew Kensington editor-in-chief John Scognamiglio to his work in the first place. What Ive noticed about his books is that hindsight is always part of the story, Scognamiglio says. His characters are at a certain point in their life, and they realize, What have I been afraid of for so long? This is who I am. This is what I want. This is what I want to do. And they do it.

While Becoming Ted focuses primarily on Teds dragged-up transformation, other threads touch on religious traumas, tumultuous straight relationships, and characters getting out of professional ruts. Cain hopes, in turn, that the book might resonate with audiences outside the gay bar.

All queer stories involve somebody who doesnt fit in breaking out from the traditional mold theyre being forced into, and finding a new way of life, he says. All audiences, including straight ones, connect with that, because were all unique. Were all individual. He smiles. Why should being able to live and love a little more freely be reserved for queer people?
Tappers Terrorist Detectives Goes to Atria After an auction, author and CNN anchor Jake Tapper has sold North American rights to The Terrorist Detectives to associate editor Sean deLone at Atria Books. Sloan Harris at CAA negotiated the deal. Atria said the deeply reported book, Tappers first nonfiction title in over a decade, tells the unbelievable story of two assistant U.S. attorneys who, working with others in law enforcement, must race against the clock to build a case against a deadly al-Qaeda terrorist before hes set free and explores the sacrifices and limits of seeking justice in the war on terror. The Terrorist Detectives is set for a fall 2025 publication.

Grand Central Takes Devils Bargain

After an auction, Grand Central editorial director Colin Dickerman has acquired North American rights to author, historian, and journalist Lesley M.M. Blumes A Devils Bargain, which documents how Vincent Bugliosi, Truman Capote, Joan Didion, and others engaged in what the publisher called a frenzied race to write the definitive account of the Manson murders, exploring the origins and acceleration of Americas true crime obsession. Jay Mandel at WME brokered the deal. The book has a tentative pub date of spring 2026.

Del Rey Wins Skrutskies Romantasy

In an exclusive submission, Emily Archbold at Del Rey has taken world rights to Last Night Before the War Was Won by Emily Skrutskie (The Salvation Gambit). The deal was handled by Thao Le at Sandra Dijkstra. Del Rey said the novel will appeal to fans of Shannon Chakrabortys The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi and Travis Baldrees Legends & Lattes. Its a fantasy romance in which, after a last-chance hookup on the night before the world was supposed to end, two soldiers must reckon with a romantic future they never could have imagined after the realm is unexpectedly saved. A summer 2025 publication is planned.

Ascher Hell Bent for Kensington

Elizabeth May at Kensington has acquired world rights to bestselling paranormal and romantasy author Aurora Aschers five previously self-published titles in her Hell Bent series, plus a yet-to-be published (and as yet untitled) series finale. Brent Taylor at Triada US brokered the deal. Kensington said the series is a spicy paranormal romance in which six demons escape from hell to party and meet human women in Montreal, unwittingly setting in motion a series of events that will topple the hierarchy of the underworld. The first book in the deal, My Funny Demon Valentine, which was first published in 2021, will be republished by Kensington in January 2025.

Evanovich Strikes Plum Deal with Atria

Atria Books editor-in-chief Peter

Borland has acquired world English rights to bestselling author Janet Evanovichs next three Stephanie Plum novels. The deal was brokered by Celeste Fine at Park & Fine Literary and Media. Evanovich has published 30 Stephanie Plum novels to date, with number 31Now or Neverset to be released by Atria in November. The deal ensures the Stephanie Plum series will continue through at least book 34. Pub dates for the new books have not yet been announced.

Eaton Not Sorry for Bloomsbury

Ben Hyman at Bloomsbury has acquired world English rights (excluding Canada) to psychology professor Judy Eatons Sorry, Not Sorry. Eatonwhose research, according to her website, delves into the causes, consequences, and resolution of interpersonal conflict and the role that gestures of remorse can play in facilitating forgivenesswas represented by Max Edwards at Aevitas Creative Management. Bloomsbury said the book will explore the craft of saying sorry effectively and draws on social science, history, and current events to highlight the underappreciated power of apologies to bolster relationships, stabilize communities, and ensure human flourishing. Sorry, Not Sorry is tentatively set for a winter 2027 publication.
It's been quite an April for the library community. A strong 2024 Public Library Association conference in Columbus rolled right into National Library Week, and the release of the annual State of America's Libraries Report.

In her introduction to the report, ALA interim executive director Leslie Burger nods to how the library community has responded to complex moment they find themselves in. "Toward the end of 2023, I joined the American Library Association (ALA) in a new capacity, as interim executive director, at a time when book bans were plaguing school and public libraries and when library workers were being threatened and attacked for defending the First Amendment freedom to read," she writes. "The first thing I noticed was that so many libraries across the country were bursting with new programs, new displays, new services, and new ways to serve their communities, whether patrons or students. In the face of adversity, library workers were taking action."

In the report, Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), puts the unprecedented state of book banning in America in context. "In 2023, OIF recorded demands to censor 4,240 unique book titles in libraries, the highest number of books challenged since ALA began compiling data about censorship in libraries," she writes. "To understand how extraordinary this figure is, we can look at the average number of unique book titles challenged between 2001 through 2020. During that time, the average number of unique book titles targeted for censorship each year was 273. The highest recorded number of unique titles challenged during this period was 390 in one year. In that entire two-decade span, only 3,637 unique titles were challenged by censorsmore than 600 fewer titles than in 2023."

Meanwhile, some good news from PLA: total attendance at the PLA Annual Conference in Columbus came it at 7,573 (5,702 attendees, 1,518 exhibitors, and 353 virtual), well above expectations. American Libraries has a host of great coverage from PLA, well worth checking out, if you haven't already.

Next up, the Texas Library Association gets underway next week. At Publishers Weekly, we previewed the 2024 TLA Conference. And it's not too early to start thinking about the ALA Annual Conference which runs June 27-July2 in San Diego. Registration is now open.

 "In that entire two-decade span, only 3,637 unique titles were challenged by censorsmore than 600 fewer titles than in 2023 alone. 

The Idaho Capital Sun reports that Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed a new law that will require Idaho public and school libraries to "move materials deemed harmful to children" or face litigation. "House Bill 710, backed by Republican legislative leaders, follows years of attempts by the Idaho Legislature to regulate materials deemed harmful to children in Idaho libraries," the report states. "The Idaho Library Association, which represents more than 260 librarians statewide, said it was 'so disappointed.'" The law empowers "children or their parents to file a legal claim against a public or school library if they obtain materials deemed harmful to minors."

AL.com reports that Alabama legislators want to condition library funding on librarians moving or removing books as instructed. "For public libraries to receive $6.6 million in funding for fiscal year 2025, 'a public library must be in compliance with the Governor's proposed amendments' to the Alabama Public Library Service code, which includes moving books deemed "inappropriate" for children and teenagers," the report states. "The budget amendment is the third legislative action taken regarding libraries in the last week. Two bills were filed last week to make public school, university, and public librarians liable for 'obscene' content checked out by minors and to prohibit libraries from joining the American Library Association."

NPR has a segment on what's been going on in Alabama, where librarians have been fired for refusing to move or remove books deemed objectionable. "It's National Library Week, but in Prattville, Ala., it's a time of stress for librarians," the report notes.

Over at Book Riot, Danika Ellis and Erica Ezeifedi are filling in for Kelly Jensen, who is on a well-deserved break, and deliver a must-read roundup of their own, including news that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit this week heard a challenged to Missouri's controversial rule on books deemed harmful to students.

Courthouse News has the report on that aformentioned Missouri case: The injury here is that there is a right of access to receive ideas and information, attorney Gillian R. Wilcox, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, argued on behalf of the parents in a 30-minute hearing. And when the policy is triggered by any complaint, the book in a library is automatically removed, and that causes the injury to the students and parents who are filing on their behalf.

And finally this week, PBS has a piece on libraries who are fighting back against book bans, many by filing lawsuits of their own. "Suzette Baker lost her job as a librarian in Llano County, Texas, after refusing to put a third edition of Critical Race Theory behind the counter where patrons couldnt find it unless they asked for it," the report notes. "Baker is now suing Llano County, county commissioners and community activists appointed to the library board. Her lawsuit claims that she was fired in order for the defendants to discriminate against protected groups, like those who identify as LGBTQ+, as well as suppressed her First Amendment rights."

The Week in Libraries is a weekly opinion and news column. News, tips, submissions, questions or comments are welcome, and can be submitted via email. Previous columns can be viewed here.
The world is inevitably growing increasingly digitalized. Today, some seven billion digital devices are connected to the Internet of Things. Next year, that number is expected to rise to 22 billion, according to the Unite Nations.

Advancements in cybertechnology can bring enormous benefits. And yet, our increasing reliance on these technologies makes us vulnerable to cyber-crime.

International law applies in cyberspace and offers guidance and norms on how states can act responsibly, said U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield. That includes an expectation that States investigate and mitigate malicious cyber activity emanating from their territory and aimed at the critical infrastructure of another.

We have seen a significant spike in ransomware attacks on hospitals and health care organizations here in the United States, causing disruptions to everything from prescription refills to vital surgeries, she said. And yet, despite the expectation that States investigate ransomware actors on their soil, some members  most notably, Russia  have looked the other way, or worse, empowered those malicious actors.

Several other countries also sponsor malicious cyber-attacks. One such is the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, or North Korea. UN investigators found that the DPRK is most likely responsible for 17 cyber-attacks last year that netted the thieves some $750 million.

Those heists follow 58 similar suspected DPRK cyber-attacks in the six years prior, with cryptocurrency companies counting some $3 billion in losses, said Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield.

And lets be clear: Its not just that this money was stolen. Revenues from the DPRKs cyber operations, including work to steal or launder foreign currency directly funds its unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programs.

Increasingly, non-state actors are also raising the stakes. Previously, this technology was prohibitively expensive to acquire, and prohibitively complex to develop and deploy, said Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield. Now malicious actors can readily and easily purchase powerful capabilities at an increasingly low.

This growing marketplace of more affordable, accessible, and advanced commercial cyber tools, including commercial spyware, is already changing the cyber landscape  making it harder for the international community to hold parties accountable for bad behavior, and introducing new instability to cyberspace, she said.

There is no separating what happens in cyberspace from what happens in the real world. The two are inextricably linked, and cyber security is international security, said Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield.

The United States is working with likeminded countries to highlight and condemn disruptive, destructive, and destabilizing behavior in cyberspace.
'Maharashtra's asmita was crushed under Delhi's feet.'

'Marathi Manoos is definitely angry.'

IMAGE: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Founder Raj Thackeray addresses the MNS's Gudi Padwa rally at Shivaji Park in Mumbai, April 9, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo

A day after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Founder Raj Thackeray declared his unconditional support for the ruling Mahayuti alliance in the state, Sanjay Shirsat, the spokesperson for the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, claimed the move would avoid the potential vote division in elections.

An MNS general secretary, Kirtikumar Shinde, who remained unknown among the party's hierarchy and worked from behind the scenes as an organsational man, suddenly hit the spotlight after he tendered his resignation on social media to express his opposition to Raj Thackeray's 360-degree political turn in Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra D Modi's support.

"A state like Maharashtra, which takes immense pride in its independence from Delhi, had to witness the humiliation of having two of its most important political parties split vertically by the Modi-Shah duo. This was unthinkable, " Kirtikumar Shinde tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com.

Why did you quit the MNS?

I posted my resignation, and the reasons why I quit the MNS, on my Facebook feed.

The position that Raj saheb and the MNS took against the Modi-Shah duo during the 2019 general election was very important; it was historic.

The situation under Prime Minister Modi's rule, in the next five years (between 2019 and 2024 during Modi's second term), worsened much more than what it was between 2014 and 2019.

In these last five years, Modi made large-scale use of agencies like the ED (Enforcement Directorate), the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and the Income Tax department to cow down and destroy the entire Opposition space across India.

A state like Maharashtra, which takes immense pride in its independence from Delhi, had to witness the humiliation of having two of its most important political parties (the Shiv Sena headed by Uddhav Thackeray and the Nationalist Congress Party headed by Sharad Pawar) split vertically by the Modi-Shah duo making use of these very same agencies.

This was unthinkable, extraordinary, yet abominable for the people of state.

The modus operandi used by Modi to bring about these splits in Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party is absolutely condemnable.

Maharashtra's asmita (pride/self-respect) was crushed under Delhi's feet by these two splits. Maharashtra would have never imagined such political chicanery just so that the Opposition remains in disarray and nobody challenges the powerful in Delhi.

That is not Maharashtra. Maharashtra has always challenged Delhi's might whenever such force was used to crush our pride and self-respect.

And here I am not talking about political parties forming alliances of their own free will, to expand their bases or protect their own interests.

Ashya veli Raj sahebansarkhya dumdar, kankhar vyaktine, aadhichi line gheun, virodh karayala hawa hota (Given this background, a solid, strong leader like Raj Thackeray should have opposed the duo, just like he did it in 2019).

If he had had his political compulsions, he should have remained neutral.

But Raj Thackeray, at a public meeting during the MNS's Gudi Padwa rally, offered his unconditional support to Narendra Modi and exhorted his party workers to start preparing for the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections. Why?

The only reason that comes to my mind is that he must have done it for the MNS' survival.

Perhaps, he must have had thought that such a move will help the MNS expand its wing and come out of a bad patch that the party finds itself in today (From 13 MLAs in 2009, the MNS today has just one MLA in Maharashtra and its vote share in the 2019 general election stood at a mere 1.5 per cent).

Do you think that the reason you have given for your resignation as MNS's general secretary is shared by many other functionaries of the party as well as a sizeable section of ordinary Maharashtrian voters in the state?

The feedback that I am getting not only from party functionaries but also the general public in Maharashtra suggests that the people of Maharashtra share my concerns.

Marathi manoos tar nakkich naraz aahe (The Marathi-speaking people are definitely angry).

People like Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar may have taken along with them some other important leaders (to form the government in alliance with the BJP), but can they be sure about their voters' allegiance, or support, for what they did to their parent parties in the state?

We will get a very clear answer to this question on June 4 (the scheduled day for counting of ballots for the 2024 Lok Sabha election) but people like me don't want to wait till June 4.

Though this is not in any way a rebellion, I had to express my dissatisfaction and opposition to the decision taken (by Raj Thackeray to offer unconditional support to the BJP).

IMAGE: Kirtikumar Shinde, right, with MNS President Raj Thackeray. Photograph: Kind courtesy Kirtikuar Shinde

What do you make of his statement exhorting his supporters to start preparing for the 2024 Maharashtra assembly election?

There are reports which suggest that Raj Thackeray will take over the Shiv Sena after merging the MNS with the Shiv Sena and then lead the party against Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena?

He has himself denied it (such a possibility) in his (Gudi Padwa) speech. Such reports are preposterous. He has publicly made his view known on this subject.

Didn't he take on Narendra Modi and Amit Shah during his public rallies during the 2019 Lok Sabha election?

People have not forgotten his 'lava re to video' to make fun of Modi and exhort his supporters to vote against the BJP and make India Modi-mukt.

And yet today, he has offered his unconditional support to Modi. Does such a volte face within five years improve credibility of political leaders today?

I am still sure that MNS will not merge into the Shiv Sena and what the reports are suggesting will ever become a reality.

Will the MNS continue to exist as an independent political party and contest the 2024 assembly elections on its train engine symbol?

Even today the MNS exists. The party might have lost its vote share, but the party still exists. Raj saheb still uses it as a platform to espouse the cause of the people of Maharashtra.

The MNS exists today and it shall also exist tomorrow.

Like you have high tides and low tides, a political party also, as it comes into existence, grows, ebbs, and then again grows, also experiences crests and troughs.

Like after its formation in 2005, the MNS saw a high tide in its fortunes in 2009; then the ebb in 2014 and 2019 and yet the party exists. We also fared well during the 2012 BMC election. We even had our rule in the Nashik Municipal Corporation.

Will Raj Thackeray, Devendra Fadnavis, Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar form an umbrella alliance and contest the 2024 assembly elections in Maharashtra?

100 per cent.

Won't it bring good days for the MNS then? And yet you quit the party when it is hoping to revive itself and expand in the days ahead?

I have quit on the basis of my principles. I am very much attached to the politics of Marathi people and let me assure that whatever I do I will never join hands with the BJP.

I will take my own time before making my next political move.

But I would like to reiterate that there is confusion in the MNS (after Raj Thackeray took the diametrically opposite position of supporting Narendra Modi after his blistering attack on him and the BJP in 2019).
India is in touch with Iran to secure the release of 17 Indians on board an Israeli-linked cargo ship that was seized by the Iranian military near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday amid increasing fears of an Iranian attack on Israel.

Image used for representational purpose only. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Official sources said India has taken up the matter with Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and in Delhi, to ensure the welfare and early release of the Indian crew of the cargo ship 'MSC Aries'.

The Iranian action came amid heightened fears that Tehran may launch an attack on Israel in retaliation to a strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria 12 days ago.

Iran blamed Israel for the strike.

"We are aware that a cargo ship 'MSC Aries' has been taken control by Iran. We have learnt that there are 17 Indian nationals onboard," an Indian government source said.

"We are in touch with Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and in Delhi, to ensure security, welfare and early release of Indian nationals," it said.

Iranian news agency IRNA reported that the Portuguese-flagged vessel is operated by the Zodiac Maritime Shipping Company, which is partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.

It said Special Naval Forces of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps seized MCS Aries near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, adding the forces carried out a heliborne operation on the ship's deck, directing it towards Iran's territorial waters.

With tensions rising, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said, "Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further."

In a brief update, the UK's Maritime Trade Operations agency mentioned the seizing of the ship by "regional authorities" off the coast of Fujairah in the UAE.

It did not mention the involvement of Iranian forces.

There have been mounting tensions in West Asia following the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1. Iranian media reported that seven Revolutionary Guards personnel, including two generals, were killed in the attack.

After Iran vowed to avenge the attack, media reports from Tel Aviv said that the Israeli forces were preparing for any eventuality.

On Friday, US President Joe Biden cautioned Iran against an attack on Israel.

"We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will defend, help defend Israel. And Iran will not succeed," he told reporters.

India had on Friday asked its citizens not to travel to Iran and Israel.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that India was committed to respond to any act of terrorism perpetrated from across the borders, and asserted that since terrorists do not play by rules, there cannot be any rules in the country's answer to them.

IMAGE: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar meets the social media influencers, in Pune, Maharashtra, April 12, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo

Attacking the United Progressive Alliance dispensation over its response to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, he said that after a lot of deliberation at the government level, nothing fruitful came out at that time as it was felt that the cost of attacking Pakistan was more than not attacking it.

Interacting with youth on Friday at an event titled 'Why Bharat Matters: Opportunity for youth and participation in global scenario' here, he asked that if a similar attack happens now and one does not react to it, how can the next such attacks be prevented.

Jaishankar also said that the country's foreign policy has undergone a change since 2014 and it is the way terrorism is dealt with.

When asked about countries with which India finds it challenging to maintain relationships, Jaishankar said India should question whether it should maintain any relationship with certain countries.

"Well, one is just next to us. Let us be honest, the one country that is very, very difficult is Pakistan, and for that, we should only introspect why. One reason for this is us," he said.

He added that had India been clear from the start that Pakistan was indulging in terrorism, which India should not tolerate under any circumstances, the country would have had a vastly different policy.

"In 2014, Modi ji came. But this problem (terrorism) did not start in 2014. It did not begin with the Mumbai attack. It happened in 1947. In 1947, the first people (invaders) came to Kashmir, they attacked Kashmir. It was an act of terrorism. They were burning down villages and towns. They were killing people. These people were tribals from Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. The Pakistan army backed them. We sent the army, and the integration of Kashmir took place," Jaishankar said.

"While the Indian army was taking action, we stopped in the middle and went to the UN, mentioning that the attack was by tribal invaders instead of terrorism, as if it was a legitimate force," he said.

He added that in the 1965 Indo-Pak war, Pakistan first sent infiltrators to sabotage.

"We have to be very clear in our minds about terrorism; under no circumstances is terrorism acceptable from any neighbour or from anyone who uses terrorism to force you to sit at the negotiating table. This should never be accepted," he said.

He mentioned that sometimes he is asked about the continuity in India's foreign policy and he responds clearly that there is 50 percent continuity and 50 percent change.

"One change is regarding terrorism. After the 26/11 Mumbai attack, there was not a single person in the country who felt that we should not have responded to the attack. Everybody in the country felt it. There is an account of that time. The NSA had written that this minister looked at it, that minister looked at it. Everybody deliberated, a lot of analysis took place, and then it was decided that the cost of attacking Pakistan is more than not attacking Pakistan. So after a lot of deliberation, nothing fruitful came out," he said.

He emphasised that if something like Mumbai happens and you do not react to it, how can you prevent the next one from happening? "They (terrorists) should not feel that since they are across the border, no one can touch them. Terrorists do not play by any rules. The response to terrorists cannot have any rules," he said.
This month marks the second anniversary of the jailing of Russian journalist and opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza. He was convicted of treason for denouncing the war in Ukraine and is serving a 25 year sentence.

At a recent gathering at the U.S. Capitol, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Sonata Coulter recalled her meetings with Kara-Murza:

I know firsthand he is impressive in his tireless commitment to seeking a brighter future for his country. As I reflect on the Kremlin's decision to arrest and convict him for peaceful expression, I am appalled. The Kremlin's denial of Vladimir's freedom only underscores the Russian political systems weaknesses.

Kara-Murza recognized the risks he took in returning to Russia from the U.S. after calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal for invading Ukraine, said Deputy Secretary Coulter. But [Kara-Murza] believed then, as he does now, in the justness of that choice, his commitment to speak boldly and truthfully about the rot within Russia's political system.

Even from prison and harsh conditions for crimes he did not commit, Vladimir continues to speak boldly in support of freedom and democracy. He speaks of a brighter future for Russia ... a Russia in which its citizens may take part in their constitutional rights, in meaningful participation in their government, in self-determination and in peace, she said.

Deputy Secretary Coulter called Russia's internal repression and its external aggression inextricably linked.

Vladimir's case. . .is sadly representative of the almost 700 political prisoners the Kremlin is estimated to currently hold. The Kremlin's reach and its transnational repression have surely affected many times that number. This chilling atmosphere reduces the space for free expression or peaceful dissent, contributing to a climate in which the Kremlin attempts to convince Russians and those around the world that the Kremlin's actions are justified or even popular.

The United States will continue to raise Kara-Murzas case with the Russian government at every opportunity. We've sanctioned a number of those responsible for oppressing him and continue to sanction more, said Deputy Secretary Coulter.

As long as the Kremlin continues to punish those who speak for democratic values, we will speak up for these prisoners, and we will continue to do so until Russia takes up the brighter path that brave souls like Vladimir Kara-Murza campaigned for.
Senior Aam Aadmi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Saturday claimed that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was not being allowed in-person meetings with his family in Tihar jail.

IMAGE: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal leaves the Rouse Avenue Court after being produced by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi Excise Policy case, New Delhi, March 28, 2024. Photograph: Jitender Gupta/ANI Photo

Addressing a press conference, Singh said, "There is an attempt to break the morale of CM Kejriwal.

"His family has not been allowed in-person meetings with him. They are only allowed to meet him through the jangla. This is inhuman. Even hardcore criminals are allowed in-person meetings," the AAP leader said.

The 'mulakat jangla' is an iron mesh which separates the inmate from the visitor in a room inside the jail.

A visitor and an inmate can talk to each other by sitting on different sides of the mesh.

"In the same Tihar jail, many meetings take place but Arvind Kejriwal, a three-time elected chief minister, is being humiliated and made to meet his family through the jangla. This is happening at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government," Singh said.

"His rights as an inmate are being snatched," said the AAP leader, who was granted bail by the Supreme Court earlier this month after spending over six months in jail in the Delhi excise policy case.

There was no immediate reaction from the Tihar administration.

Kejriwal has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case stemming from the alleged excise policy scam. He is in judicial custody till April 15 and is currently lodged in Tihar jail.

On Friday, the jail authorities scheduled Kejriwal's meeting with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann for April 15, saying that he can meet the AAP convener, but as a normal visitor in the 'mulakat jangla'.

The chief minister met his wife Sunita Kejriwal and personal secretary Bibhav Kumar inside Tihar Jail on Tuesday.

Singh also alleged that the jail administration, after issuing a token to him for meeting Kejriwal, cancelled it citing security reasons.

Now, only Bhagwant Mann will meet him, he said.

Singh hit out at the Modi government saying people will respond to its "tyranny and atrocities" with votes in the elections.

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva hit back saying Singh should have knowledge about the jail manual as he came out recently after spending months there.

He said as per jail manual rule 602, inmates and their visitors are seated across a screen. Kejriwal is meeting those who want to meet and is even sending messages through them.

Maybe there is some message for Singh if he is not able to meet the Delhi Kejriwal, Sachdeva said.

The inmates in a jail are managed through the manual prepared by the government. Only courts can allow any special permissions to the inmates and Kejriwal is even having home cooked food in the jail, he added.
A contest between a former chief minister and a political greenhorn is being projected as a battle between an "outsider" and a "local" by the ruling Congress, raising the stakes for Janata Dal-Secular in this key Lok Sabha poll in this 'Sakkare Naadu' (land of sugar).

IMAGE: BJP candidates for LS polls V Somanna, Tejasvi Surya (4th from right), Shobha Karandlaje (6th from right), PC Mohan and Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar along with JD-S candidate HD Kumaraswamy (third from left), meet Nirmalanandanatha Swamiji, in Bengaluru, April 4, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo

This Vokkaliga dominated, largely agrarian constituency is all set for a face-off between JD-S leader and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy contesting as the joint candidate of his party and its alliance partner the Bharatiya Janata Party, and Congress' Venkataramane Gowda, popularly known as 'Star Chandru', a contractor.

While Kumaraswamy hails from Hassan district and largely operates from neighbouring Ramanagara, Gowda is from Nagamangala taluk.

Mandya lies between Bengaluru and Mysuru.

The heartland of Vokkaliga politics in the Old Mysuru region, is known for rivalry between Congress and JD-S to gain upper hand, while the BJP is relatively weak here but has been gaining strength in recent years.

Winning this seat is key for Kumaraswamy, the son of former prime minister HD Deve Gowda and Congress' Vokkaliga leaders especially deputy Chief Minister and state Congress president DK Shivakumar, to strengthen their clout over the region and the community.

In 2019, actor turned-politician Sumalatha Ambareesh, an independent backed by the BJP, won by defeating then Kumaraswamy's son and joint candidate of the then ruling Congress-JD-S alliance Nikhil by 1,25,876 votes.

Though Sumalatha sought a BJP ticket for re-election, the saffron party ceded the seat to its alliance partner the JD-S, and also managed to convince her.

Kumaraswamy met her subsequently. Sumalatha last week announced her decision to opt out of the elections, and joined the BJP. She is yet to campaign for him.

Once considered a JD-S bastion, the regional party now has just one MLA in the district. Congress has its might with six MLAs including a minister and two MLCs on its side.

JD-S initially appeared to be on the back-foot in Mandya, but the entry of Kumaraswamy, who enjoys personal connect and bonding with voters here, in the poll arena galvanised the party cadre and boosted their morale, a party leader said.

Congress, aiming to wrest Mandya after a gap of 10 years, had announced much in advance the candidature of Star Chandru, the brother of Independent MLA from Gauribidanur K H Puttaswamy Gowda, who backed the Congress in the Rajya Sabha polls earlier this year.

The grand old party is hopeful about his win, banking on its growing strength in the district and the state government's guarantee schemes.

"However, agriculture and irrigation related issues, drought, release of Cauvery river water to Tamil Nadu despite drought here and perception that the state government did not do much to stop it, may have some adverse impact on the Congress' prospect," a party functionary said.

"Speculation about Kumaraswamy becoming Union Minister in the event of NDA returning to power, while Star Chandru remaining a mere MP, may resonate among the masses", a political analyst said. "The possible anger among the Vokkaliga voters in the district about Shivakumar, who is from the community, not being made CMr after assembly polls, may also have its impact."

On their part, Shivakumar and other Congress leaders have tried to project Kumaraswamy as an outsider. "He is like a touring talkies hopping from one place to another," Shivakumar said alleging that Kumaraswamy has come to Mandya, deserting people of Ramanagara and Channapatna.

Pitching himself as the son of the soil from Mandya, Star Chandru said, "Mandya people have seen earlier that people from outside come here and get elected promising to be with them, addressing them as anna (elder brother), tamma (younger brother), but after getting elected they are not accessible, but I'm from here, I will always be with the people."

Kumaraswamy is hoping for a win, based on his personal appeal and goodwill among Mandya voters, and consolidation of Vokkaliga vote base, besides banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity and BJP's support.

"Congress' strength in the district and JD-S' core vote base moving away from the party, seen during the assembly polls, is still a major concern," a JD(S) leader said.

He also said that there is an absolute need for BJP and JD-S workers to work together on the ground for the transfer of saffron party votes in favour of Kumaraswamy. For this, Sumalatha's active support and that of local BJP leaders, would help in no small measure.

Highlighting Mandya district's contribution in giving political strength to him and his party, Kumaraswamy, calling it "heart of JD-S", said the party's strength has weakened in Mandya for some time now, and the people and JD-S workers want him here for the development of the district and growth of the party.

He has also expressed his ambition to be Union agriculture minister.

"There is certainly a Modi wave in Mandya too and coupled with Kumaraswamy's contest in this Vokkaliga belt, BJP and JD-S are certain to win from here. People don't know about Star Chandru. Siddaramaiah is here (as CM), but we want Modi in Delhi," said an office goer in Maddur.

A young voter in Mandya said, "Kumaraswamy comes when he is in need and speaks about Mandya, later he is not accessible. He may give a fight in the election, but Star Chandru will win."

Mandya has eight assembly segments, out of which six are represented by Congress, and one each by JD-S and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea against a high court order that has upheld his arrest in a money-laundering case stemming from the alleged excise policy scam.

IMAGE: AAP supporters install a poster in support of Delhi CM and party national convener Arvind Kejriwal, in New Delhi, April 12, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo

According to the cause list uploaded on the apex court's website, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta will hear on April 15 Kejriwal's petition challenging the Delhi High Court's April 9 order.

In a massive blow to the chief minister, the high court has upheld his arrest in the money-laundering case, saying the Enforcement Directorate was left with "little option" after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation.

The high court has dismissed the Aam Aadmi Party leader's petition challenging his arrest by the ED and subsequent remand in the federal agency's custody.

The matter pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 that was later scrapped.

Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21, hours after the high court refused to grant him protection from coercive action by the federal anti-money laundering agency.

He is in judicial custody till April 15 and is currently lodged in Tihar Jail.

Kejriwal has described his arrest by the ED ahead of the general election as an "unprecedented assault on the tenets of democracy" and urged the apex court to release him by declaring the case against him as "illegal".

In the appeal filed in the top court, Kejriwal has said his arrest on March 21 after the announcement of the Lok Sabha polls was "obviously motivated by extraneous considerations".

"The intervention of this court is urgently warranted, as over and above the issue of illegal curtailment of liberty, the petitioner's arrest also constitutes an unprecedented assault on the tenets of democracy, free-and-fair elections and federalism, both of which form significant constituents of the basic structure of the Constitution," the plea has said.

The arrest was made solely relying on subsequent, contradictory and highly-belated statements of the co-accused who have now turned approvers, it has said.

Moreover, such statements and material were in possession of the ED for nine months and still the arrest was made illegally days before the general election, Kejriwal has said in his plea.

"The petitioner's arrest bears serious, irreversible ramifications for the future of electoral democracy in India and if he is not released forthwith to participate in the upcoming elections, it will establish a precedence in law for ruling parties to arrest heads of political opposition on flimsy and vexatious charges before elections, thereby eroding the core principles of our Constitution," the plea has said.

Assailing the high court order, it has said the judgment failed to appreciate that statements made before a probe agency are not held to be the gospel truth and can always be doubted by the courts.

"The ED has allowed its process to be used and misused by vested interests as an instrument of oppression to not only invade the liberty of the political opponents in the midst of general elections 2024 of such vested interests but also to tarnish their reputation and self-esteem. Such lawlessness cannot be allowed to be perpetrated under any circumstances," the plea in the top court has said.

The high court had cited the ED's claim that Kejriwal conspired and was actively involved in the use and concealment of the proceeds of crime to reject his petition against his arrest.

It had chastised the AAP leader, alleged to have been involved in money laundering in his "personal capacity" and in his capacity as the national convenor of a political party, for questioning the timing of his arrest and underlined that an investigation against the "classes and masses" cannot be different.

It had also rebuked Kejriwal for "casting aspersions" on the judicial process with his claim about an approver making donations to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre through electoral bonds, saying the law relating to approvers is more than 100 years old and it was not enacted to implicate him.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president MK Stalin on Saturday said the INDIA bloc will deliver a sweet victory on June 4.

IMAGE: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin share a light moment during a public meeting ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, in Coimbatore, April 12, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo

Stalin who was pleasantly surprised over receiving Mysore Pak from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the latter's visit to the state on Friday, expressed that he was touched by his brother's sweet gesture."

The two leaders had addressed a poll rally in Coimbatore.

Posting a video of Gandhi jumping over a road divider and rapidly walking towards a sweet shop in Coimbatore to purchase Mysore Pak for him, Stalin said in a post on the social media platform X quoting a couplet from Thirukkural on the possession of love: touched and overwhelmed by the 'sweet gesture' from my brother @RahulGandhi.

On June 4th, #INDIA will surely deliver him a sweet victory! the DMK president said.

In the video that went viral on social media, Rahul Gandhi could be seen jumping over a road divider, crossing the road and walking swiftly into a sweet shop.

When asked what he would like to purchase, he could be heard replying to the salesperson I want Mysore Pak for my brother Stalin.

After tasting the sample sweets offered to him, Gandhi could be seen paying for the gift pack, thanking the salesperson and posing for a group photo with the staff.

He later walks up to Stalin and presents him the sweet gift, which the pleasantly surprised DMK president accepts.

Posting the video, the Congress said in a post Shri @RahulGandhi gifts famous Mysore Pak to Shri @mkstalin. Celebrating the loving relationship he shares with the people of Tamil Nadu.
At least four people were reported to be dead after a man entered a mall in Sydney's eastern suburbs on Saturday afternoon and began randomly shooting and stabbing people, local media reported.

IMAGE: Police officers work at the scene outside Bondi Junction following reports of stabbings in the mall, in Sydney, Australia April 13, 2024. Photograph: Kirsty Needham/Reuters

The toll of casualties at Bondi Junction's Westfield shopping centre may extend further, with eight people, including a child, rushed to hospitals in Sydney, their conditions yet to be disclosed, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Chaos erupted around 4 pm (local time) with reports of multiple stabbings within the bustling shopping complex.

Witnesses describe scenes of sheer terror as a man, reportedly armed with a knife, ran amok, leaving bystanders in a state of shock and confusion.

"We didn't really know where to go. We tried to go back in the other building but there were people running down that direction," recounted Hannah Bodrozic, who was shopping in Country Road at the time. "Then we heard three gunshots and everyone just started screaming."

In a swift response, heavily armed tactical operations police descended upon the scene.

"Heavily armed tactical operations police responded and shot a male offender," as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald.

"The police responded to reports of multiple people stabbed at Bondi Westfield just before 4 pm," reported authorities.

Harrowing eyewitness accounts paint a picture of pandemonium within the shopping centre as terrified shoppers scrambled for safety. The sudden eruption of violence shattered the tranquility of the bustling retail hub, leaving scores of people traumatised and reeling from the ordeal.

"You'd never expect something like this in Sydney," remarked Guy Johnston, who witnessed the chaos unfold, according to local media reports.

The sheer scale of the incident has prompted a massive law enforcement response, with officers from various commands converging on the scene to secure the area and launch a thorough investigation, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy seized the Israel-linked MSC ARIES container ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, The Times of Israel reported, citing Iranian news agency.

IMAGE: Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. Photograph: ANI Photo

The ship in question was the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship owned by Zodiac Maritime, based in London. Zodiac Maritime is a division of Zodiac Group, owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.

The MSC Aries was last seen on Friday, sailing towards the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Dubai, according to The Times of Israel.

The ship is currently sailing through the Persian Gulf, according to ship tracking site, Marine Traffic.

Tensions escalated between Iran and the West amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

Amid fears of the ongoing hostilities in Gaza devolving into a larger Middle-Eastern conflict, US President Joe Biden said earlier today that he expects Iran to attack Israel 'sooner than later'.

"I don't want to get into secure information but my expectation is sooner than later," Biden told reporters when asked how imminent an Iranian attack on Israel would be.

As has been reported globally, Tehran vowed revenge after Israel launched airstrikes on the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus, taking out three top military generals.

The US has been on high alert for a significant Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel in recent days, as fears grow of a wider regional war.

There remains a "real, credible and viable" threat of Iran launching strikes, the White House said on Friday, following Israel's attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria last week, killing three Iranian generals.

Biden, who warned this week that Iran was threatening a 'significant attack' on Israel, has been receiving constant updates on the situation from his national security team.

The US and several other countries, including India, Britain and France, issued new travel guidelines for government employees in Israel as the Iranian threat loomed.

"In view of the prevailing situation in the region, all Indians are advised not to travel to Iran or Israel until further notice. All those who are currently residing in Iran or Israel are requested to get in touch with Indian embassies there and register themselves," the ministry of external affairs stated in an official release.

"We're watching this very, very closely," said John Kirby, the US National Security Council spokesman, who declined to provide information about the expected timing of the threat.
The Kukis and Meitis may be at loggerheads in Manipur but their thoughts on one point converge -- this is not the right time for Lok Sabha elections in the restive state.

IMAGE: Kuki Students Organisation members stage a silent protest demanding justice on the completion of nine months of Manipur violence, at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, February 3, 2024. Photograph: ANI Photo

It has nearly been a year since ethnic violence broke out between the hill-majority Kukis and the valley-majority Meitis. It has not only killed over 200 people and displaced around 50,000 but also sharply divided Manipur along ethnic lines.

Elections for two Lok Sabha seats in Manipur will be held on April 19 and 26. While Inner Manipur and some segments of Outer Manipur will vote in the first phase, the remaining segments of Outer Manipur will go to polls on April 26.

Living separately and refusing to co-exist in future, many members of both Kukis and Meitis communities ask -- why elections at this time and what difference will they make?

"Our demand is clear - we want a separate administration for the Kuki Zo community. For years the development has only been in the valley and not our areas and after what has happened last year, we cannot live together. There is no question or possibility" said Lhaineilam, a Kuki who is the coordinator at a relief camp in Churachandpur district, which was epicentre of the violence last year.

"There is no exchange happening between the two sides -- neither of words nor of commodities, and the government wants us to vote for other side. How is that possible? A Kuki displaced from Meiti region has to vote for the Meiti constituency. How and why? The elections should have been conducted after addressing these sentiments and issues...Now is not the right time," he added.

The Kukis have already declared that they are not fielding any candidate in the upcoming polls as an act of boycott. However, different groups are still contemplating whether they will abstain from voting too.

"Several meetings have been going on and there is still no decision on what stand will we take about voting... There is one view of voting for the right candidate who can raise the demand for a separate administration and another view is why there are elections at this time...in a state which has literally been burning, is this the priority or some resolution to achieve peace," said a professor of a government college in Imphal, requesting anonymity.

"What will change after the elections? If they (government) had to act, they would have done by now," he added.

The academician, a Kuki, hasn't visited his workplace since clashes broke out and has no idea about when he will be able to take classes.

"The Meiti students do not want to attend my classes. If I take classes online, there is no cooperation from my colleagues too, simply because I am from Kuki community. Why should I vote for a constituency which is no longer mine," he said.

The Outer Manipur constituency, reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, has been represented by six Naga and five Kuki leaders so far. This time, all the candidates in the fray are Nagas, with no Kuki throwing their hat in the ring following the call of influential pressure groups to abstain from contesting.

Of Outer Manipur's eight lakh strong electorate, Nagas are the largest cohort with 4.61 lakh voters, followed by Kuki-Zomi (3.21 lakh).

Meitis, on the other hand feel that at a time when their houses have been burnt and their lives pushed back by at least two decades, how can they think of voting.

"We were living in the hills, we used to visit the valley frequently and sell goods here, we had our vehicles running, business was good. Now, our house is no longer there, the means of livelihood are gone and there is constant threat if we ever make an attempt to visit even the remains... It feels like our lives have gone back to where they were two decades back...and they want us to vote?" said Oinam Cheema, a displaced Meiti.

The Election Commission has announced that the displaced population will have the opportunity to cast their votes from relief camps.

According to Election Commission officials, over 24,000 people living in the relief camps have been found eligible to vote and 94 special polling stations are being set up for the purpose.

Posters of political parties, mega rallies and visible movement of leaders - the traditional elements of campaigning - are conspicuously missing in the strife-torn state.

The only visible hint of elections is the hoardings put up by local election authorities, urging citizens to exercise their franchise. Major party figures have refrained from visiting the conflict-ridden state to canvas for votes or make electoral pledges.

The Delhi Meitei Coordinating Committee, an umbrella body representing Meitei civil society organisations in Delhi, has written to the Chief Election Commissioner and the Chief Justice of India seeking postponement of the Lok Sabha election in Manipur for the time being, citing the ethnic unrest and "abnormal" situation in the state.

"The situation is still abnormal...there are burnt remains and razed structures left right and centre, people are displaced...many have left the state and they cannot get back to cast their vote, neither any arrangements are being made to let them vote from outside. How can this be a fair election...this is not the right time," said 42-year-old Kunzang, who runs a shop at the famed Ima market in Imphal.

Manipur has traditionally seen a very high voter turnout with more than 82 per cent polling recorded in the 2019 elections.
The strong relations between the United States and Japan were on full display as President Joe Biden hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House.

President Biden called the alliance a cornerstone of peace, security, [and] prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and around the world:



Just a few generations ago, our two nations were locked in a devastating conflict. It would have been easy to say we remain adversaries, Instead, we made a far better choice: We became the closest of friends.

That friendship, said President Biden, shares the same hopes, the same values, the same commitment to democracy and freedom and dignity for all. He praised Prime Minister Kishida for his condemnation of Russias brutal invasion of Ukraine and for the billions of dollars in assistance Japan has provided to Ukraine.

He noted how Japan has stood strong with the United States in support of freedom of navigation, including in the South China Sea; and how it has been a partner in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits.

Now our two countries are building a strong defense partnership and a stronger Indo-Pacific than ever before, said President Biden.

At a news conference with Prime Minister Kishida, President Biden announced the two countries are significantly upgrading their alliance.

Japan and the United States and Australia will create a networked system of air, missile, and defense architecture. Were also look forward to standing up a trilateral military exercise with Japan and the United Kingdom, he said. And our AUKUS defense partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom is exploring how Japan can join our work in the second pillar, which focuses on advanced capabilities, including AI, autonomous systems. All told, that represents a new benchmark for our military cooperation across a range of capabilities.

President Biden also underscored the robust economic relations between the United States and Japan, as well as the science and education ties:

Those ties stretch up to the moon, where two Japanese astronauts will join future American missions, and one will become the first non-American ever to land on the moon.

Addressing Prime Minister Kishida, President Biden said, Through our partnership, we have strengthened this allianceAnd now, the U.S.-Japan alliance is a beacon to the entire world.
Big battlefield losses and drone attacks at Naypyitaw headquarters are having a psychological effect on the juntas generals.

The State Administrative Council, as the junta is formally known, was shaken by the incursion of some 29 drones flown into Naypyitaw on April 4 that targeted the military headquarters, the Aye Lar airbase and leader Min Aung Hlaings palatial residence.

None did significant damage and the military claims to have brought down 13 drones. Anti-junta rebel forces claimed to have caused five casualties.

While there was little physical damage, the psychological impact is more important. Naypyitaw is the impregnable fortress of the State Administrative Council, or SAC. Thats why and how it was built. Its the physical manifestation of the mental bubble that the generals live in.

As Kyaw Zaw, the presidential spokesman for the shadow National Unity Government, said, With this attack on their nerve center, Naypyitaw, we want to highlight that they dont have a safe place.

Immediately, the SAC announced that it was redeploying troops to Naypyitaw.

But more importantly, the drone attacks are sapping the militarys already depleted morale. More officers will be scapegoated for allowing the incursion. The remainder will be spending more of their time trying to get their ill gotten gains out of the country.

The anti-junta drone squad Kloud Team prepares drones for the attack on junta locations in Myanmar on April 4, 2024. (Kloud Team via Facebook)





And morale has been ebbing quickly. Around the country, the military is spread thin and continues to suffer significant setbacks.

The military has been unable to retake any territory that it lost in northern Shan state since the Three Brotherhood Alliance launched its Operation 1027 offensive in October.

The Border Guards Forces in Kayin state, which are formally aligned with the junta, have begun to distance themselves from the military.

The Kachin Independence Armys offensive continues in the northeast, with the capture of over 60 camps, and it now controls the key border crossings and the main highways.

In the countrys west, the Arakan Army now controls eight of 16 townships and has driven the military out of much of northern Rakhine state.

And while the fractious Chin groups dont have as much effective control, the mountainous terrain and long and windy roads have made any military counter-offensive costly.

Special evacuation flights

The SAC couldnt muster a dry-season offensive, exactly when conventional forces should be at their strongest, and they are now entering a rainy season that will favor guerrilla forces.

The exception to this has been in the Sagaing and Magway regions, the ethnic Bamar heartland, which has been the militarys priority. There they have fought with desperation and barbarity, arsoning homes, intentionally targeting civilians with air and artillery strikes, and committing egregious human rights abuses, including torture, the killing of POWs and beheadings.

This week, opposition forces took control of Myawaddy, the primary border crossing with Thailand. Some 617 soldiers, civil servants and family members apparently surrendered.

Even more humiliating, the SAC requested landing rights for three charter planes to evacuate its officers, bureaucrats and their families from Thailands Mae Sot. One flight allegedly ferried the cash reserves of the banks from the thriving border town.

A Myanmar soldier rests on the Myanmar side of a bridge across the Moei River to Thailands Mae Sot district, April 11, 2024. (Nava Natthong/AP)

Apparently, the humiliation of the flights, which was leaked to the media, led to the SAC scrapping the other two flights that Thailand had agreed to on humanitarian grounds.

Attempts to retake Myawaddy have failed, and the regime has taken to bombings and helicopters strafing civilians. Some 200 soldiers crossed into Thailand, where they were disarmed.

Unit level defections continue. Sixty soldiers fled into China from Kachin state, while attacks from a Peoples Defense Force militia led to the capture of 120 in Sagaing.

Junta troops that have defected in recent months acknowledge having received no food, water, medicine and ammunition. Its difficult to maintain discipline and morale when logistics have broken down.

The loss of 12 aircraft since the February 2021 coup, including at least three heavy-lift helicopters, has severely impacted the militarys ability to resupply and reinforce units.

Urban guerrilla forces have launched a series of bombings and attacks against military targets in Yangon in the past few months, including an attack on a military office in Mingaladon township.

As one would expect, the SAC has been rotating generals in their search for scapegoats.

A Yangon-based think tank, the Institute of Strategy and Policy, recently reported that there have been 56 personnel changes to the SAC since it was established just after the coup.

The SAC has been re-organized four separate times and only 11 of 51 individuals beneath the level of prime minister and deputy prime minister have served the full term. At present, the SAC has only 18 members, as Min Aung Hlaing surrounds himself with his most loyal sycophants.

Since March, the SAC has replaced four regional military commanders. In early April, the SAC fired its deputy minister of defense, Maj. Gen. Aung Lin Tun  at Chinas urging  for his alleged profiteering from transnational crime scam centers.

With few friends, the junta has no choice but to give in to Chinese demands. Yet, now the SAC is taking away the personal revenue streams of its corrupted officer corps.

Depleted ranks

The arrest of senior officers has also included those in the field. Officers who negotiated the surrender of their over-run troops, on SAC orders, in northern Shan state were tried and sentenced to death for treason.

The deployment of senior-level officials to engage with tactical level operations is usually a sign of a failed plan, a lack of confidence in the military leadership and desperation.

The 79th annual Army Day parade was significantly scaled down. With so many troops deployed across the country, the ceremony was held under the cover of darkness to hide the depleted ranks, as Min Aung Hlaing railed against foreign interference.

Regional forces were unable to participate, leaving female-staffed units  rarely seen in the machismo Myanmar military  on parade. The Air Force, which normally does flybys for the event, appeared in comical fashion, with lights silhouetting the few airframes that they could muster.

Myanmar soldiers march during a parade to commemorate Myanmars 79th Armed Forces Day, in Naypyidaw, March 27, 2024. (Aung Shine Oo/AP)





At the recent graduation ceremony of the once prestigious Defense Service Academy, well under 200 newly commissioned officers were photographed in state-controlled media; half the pre-coup graduation rate.

To make matters worse, on April 8, NUG forces lobbed five 107mm rockets into the Defense Service Academy grounds. Though they missed the barracks, a symbolic target was struck. Days later, they fired rockets into Naypyitaws Aye Lar airbase.

The military is so short of manpower that it has had to rely on a pre-existing but unimplemented conscription law.

Originally supposed to go into effect in mid-April, the generals began enforcing it a month early, desperate to reach their 5,000 man monthly quota. People have taken to the hills to join the opposition, or have fled abroad. Military units are dragooning men at roadside checkpoints, while other units are frantically searching for those who are avoiding conscription, threatening two- to three-year prison sentences.

In retaliation, the NUG has stepped up their assassination of officials in charge of implementing the conscription law. Already, 37 have been gunned down.

The generals continue to be divorced from reality, but economic collapse, battlefield losses, escalating violence in the cities and drones buzzing the capital are puncturing their cocoon.

The NUG and their allies are getting into the generals headspace, which is good, because panicked people do stupid things. That might be their greatest victory yet.

Zachary Abuza is a professor at the National War College in Washington and an adjunct at Georgetown University. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of the U.S. Department of Defense, the National War College, Georgetown University or Radio Free Asia.
The resulting matsutake shortage will hurt livelihoods and exports to Japan and South Korea.

A recent wildfire in a Tibetan-populated area of Chinas Sichuan province ravaged vast swathes of forests covered with pine and oak trees that nurtured a hidden treasure and an economic lifeline for residents  matsutake mushrooms.

The wildfire that broke out in March in Nyagchu county, or Yajiang in Chinese, in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, forced 3,000 people from the traditional Kham region of Tibet to evacuate the area and burned down several houses. No human casualties have been reported.

But the fire destroyed about one-sixth of the countys matsutake output, Chen Wen, director of the Yajiang Matsutake Industrial Park, told Chinese media.

The mushrooms, which Tibetans gather to supplement their income and others use in dishes in Japan, South Korea and China, may not grow again in the burned area for at least 20 years, he said.

Matsutake mushrooms, seen in this undated photo, are referred to as 'oak mushrooms' in a nod to their symbiotic relationship with evergreen oak trees in Tibet. (Citizen journalist)

China is the worlds largest producer and exporter of matsutake mushrooms, exporting US$30.3 million in 2022, while Japan is the top importer, bringing in US$24.7 million that year.

The primary places where the mushrooms grow in China are within the Tibetan plateau, including in Nyagchu county, which accounted for more than 12% of Chinas annual output, according to the Yajiang County Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Science and Technology Bureau.

Demanding and lucrative

Many families in Nyagchu  where Tibetans make up the majority of the countys population of over 51,000  have for years braved the frigid mountain air to forage for the elusive mushrooms during the traditional harvest season between July and September.

Foraging matsutake is a demanding if lucrative job with harvesters often spending weeks at high altitudes in harsh weather conditions to search for the mushrooms, said an area resident. Some varieties are rare and require meticulous searching, while others grow underground and require careful removal, he said.

In one day, you can make more than 2,000 yuan (US$300) during the harvesting season, said a source inside Tibet who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Tibetans forage for matsutake mushrooms in this undated photo. (Citizen journalist)

Residents believe that the impact of the fire may force some Tibetans to abandon matsutake harvesting and seek alternative sources of income in other areas.

But at a recent press conference on the impact of the wildfire, Sichuan provincial representatives did not mention the disasters potential effects on the livelihoods of Tibetans who rely on matsutake harvesting.

The fire also damaged the local ecosystem, killing birds and insects that play a role in the growth of the mushrooms, said an area resident, adding that the long-term ecological consequences of the blaze remain unclear.

Nyagchu is renowned for its abundance of naturally grown matsutake, and the harvest is a crucial source of income for many Tibetan families in the county, said Washington-based Tsering Palden, a native of Nyagchu, who has sold the mushrooms in the past.

Palden estimates that area households earn about 200,000 yuan (US$28,000) annually from selling the mushrooms.

Oak mushrooms

In Tibet, matsutake mushrooms are most commonly referred to as oak mushrooms, or beshing shamo and besha for short in Tibetan, in a nod to their symbiotic relationship with evergreen oak trees in Tibet.

Matsutake mushrooms, seen in this undated photo, are a highly prized delicacy in many parts of Asia. (Citizen journalist)

In his 2022 book What a Mushroom Lives for: Matsutake and the Worlds They Make, Michael Hathaway, professor of anthropology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, describes how Tibetan villagers in Yunan province hunt for them.

The villagers gather the mushrooms in the morning and return home when dealers arrive at a market or drive along the roads, buying them as they go, he writes. The dealers then sell their matsutake to other dealers, who arrange for them to be shipped across China and to Japan and South Korea.

The price of matsutake mushrooms had jumped over the past 40 years from the equivalent of about US$1 per pound (2.2 kg) in 1985 to US$70 per pound, according to Beijing-based Tibetan writer and poet Tsering Woeser.

The mushrooms have specific environmental requirements for growth and thrive in undisturbed, high-altitude forests with the right balance of sunlight and moisture, said the source inside Tibet.

The fire has disrupted these conditions and may take years for the ecosystem to recover sufficiently to support matsutake growth, he added.

Translated and edited by Tenzin Pema for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
Russian President Vladimir Putin used a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Masud Pezeshkian, to cement their growing bilateral ties that have raised concern in the West as war rages in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The two leaders met in Ashgabat on the sidelines of a conference in the capital of the tightly controlled Central Asian country of Turkmenistan on October 11. It was the first of two meetings between the men, with another scheduled at the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan that runs on October 22-24.

It was the first of two meetings between the two, with another scheduled at the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan that runs on October 22-24.



Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters ahead of the meeting that while the talks will focus on bilateral relations, "the situation in the Middle East definitely will not be ignored and will also be on the agenda."



The meeting was the first between the two since Pezeshkian assumed office on July 30 after winning an election to succeed his hard-line predecessor, Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.

Relations between Moscow and Tehran have strengthened since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"Pezeshkian is trying to gauge to what extent Iran can rely on Russia for help," Touraj Atabaki, professor emeritus of Middle East and Central Asia social history at Leiden University in the Netherlands, told Radio Farda.

"Russia wants to stand with Iran due to Iran's support in its war on Ukraine but Moscow doesn't want to darken its relationship with Israel further and cut all ties," he added.

Since the early months of the Ukraine war, Russia has been accused of using Iranian-made Shahed and Mohajer-6 drones, many of which have been found after being shot down over Ukrainian cities and battlefields.



Iran initially denied arming Russia before relenting and admitting that it had supplied a "limited number of drones" to Moscow before the war.



Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Tehran continues to deny that its drones are being used by Russia against Ukraine. That has not stopped the United States and the European Union from imposing sanctions on Iran for helping Moscow.



Last month, the EU said it had "credible" information provided by allies suggesting that Iran has supplied short-range ballistic missiles to Russia to help Moscow wage war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, tensions in the Middle East have been heightened since Tehran launched some 200 missiles at Israel on October 1, saying the attack was in response to the killing of Tehran-backed militant leaders and a general from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.



Israel has vowed to launch a "deadly, precise, and surprising" attack on Iran in retaliation, while it continues to pound targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip that it says are aimed at Iran-backed proxies.

At least 30 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded on October 11 by Israeli strikes in Jabalia in northern Gaza, according to the territory's civil-defense agency.



The recent spiral of violence was sparked by the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas that killed around 1,200 people and saw some 250 taken hostage. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.



The fighting in Gaza prompted another Iran-backed group, Hezbollah, to fire missiles into Israel in support of Hamas. Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, while the EU blacklists its armed wing but not its political party.



The Israeli military has launched massive air strikes on Beirut and southern Lebanon in response, as well as a ground incursion into southern Lebanon intended to destroy the Iran-allied militant group, whose political party has seats in the Lebanese parliament.

Israel faced condemnation on October 11 after its forces fired at what it said was a threat near a UN peacekeeping position in Lebanon. Israeli soldiers had responded to "an immediate threat" around 50 meters from the UNIFIL post, the military said.

"An initial examination indicates that during the incident, a hit was identified on a UNIFIL post...resulting in the injury of two UNIFIL personnel," the statement added. The army pledged to carry out a "thorough review."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the firing as "intolerable" and "a violation of international humanitarian law," while the British government said it was "appalled" by reports of the injuries.

U.S. President Joe Biden said he was "absolutely" asking Israel to stop firing at UN peacekeepers, while the French, Spanish, and Italian leaders issued a joint statement expressing "outrage."

French President Emmanuel Macron renewed his call for an end to exports of weapons used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, while saying the UN peacekeepers had been "deliberately targeted."

In Iran, more than three dozen hard-line lawmakers on October 10 demanded the government revise its nuclear doctrine to pursue atomic weapons.



In a letter to the Supreme National Security Council, they said Western powers could not control Israel, thus making nuclear weapons "Iran's option to create deterrence."



Iran has been hit with waves of crippling economic sanctions for its nuclear program, which has seen a sharp increase in its uranium enrichment capacity after the United States under former President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 landmark deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that restricted Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions.



Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes, but government officials caused alarm recently by saying it could change its "nuclear doctrine" if it is attacked or its existence is threatened by Israel.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP
One year ago, Hamas -- the U.S.- and EU-designated Palestinian terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip -- carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel, the deadliest in the countrys history.

In response, Israel launched an aerial bombardment and ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave to destroy Hamas and rescue the 251 hostages taken by the group.

Israel has expanded its war in recent weeks by invading Lebanon and launching air strikes targeting Hezbollah, the armed group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon.

RFE/RL spoke to Lior Yohanani, manager of quantitative research at the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based independent research center, which on October 7 released a wide-ranging survey of Israeli public opinion after one year of war.

RFE/RL: Can you explain what your study found as to how Israelis view the past year since Hamas's October 7 attack?



Lior Yohanani: Well, I think Israelis still don't see October 7 as an event that's over. Sure, the actual horrific events of that day ended, but Israelis are still living with the consequences.

There are two main aspects to this. First, since October 7, Israel has been in this multifront war that doesn't seem to have an end in sight. And then, of course, there is the issue of the hostages still being held in Gaza. So, we're seeing a sharp drop in people's sense of personal security. Almost three quarters of the public feel less safe compared to before October 7, and that's despite a year of war and some significant military achievements. On the flip side, we're also seeing that most people say their lives have returned to normal when it comes to things like work, media consumption, and family and social gatherings.

Another thing we're noticing is that the Israeli public is giving pretty low marks to all the political and military leaders for the performance since October 7. For example, almost two-thirds of Israelis are rating Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu's performance since then as poor or not good.

RFE/RL: How has Israel's involvement in a two-front conflict, in both Gaza and Lebanon, as well as a confrontation with Iran affected public opinion among Israelis?



Yohanani: It's tough to answer that question, because we're at the point where things could go in a few different directions. In the last few weeks, we've seen a major escalation in the conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, and just last week, Iran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, which Israel is expected to respond to. In a survey we just did recently, we asked whether Israeli society and the military could handle fighting on two or more fronts for an extended period of time, and the results were pretty striking. Over 70 percent believe that yes, both Israeli society and the military can handle that kind of prolonged fighting. So, while the situation is complex and evolving, there seems to be a strong sense of resilience and capability among Israelis, even in the face of these multiple threats. But of course, public opinion could shift depending on how events unfold in the coming weeks or months.



RFE/RL: Is there support for Netanyahus response to October 7? Is there debate in Israeli society, as well as political circles, over Netanyahus strategic choices?



Yohanani: First of all, it's important to say that the Israeli public has largely supported significant military operation against Hamas in Gaza. That said, the Israeli discourse around the October 7 events, the ongoing war, and especially toward Prime Minister Netanyahu, is very polarized between right-wing supporters on the one hand and left and center supporters on the other.

People are hoping for a future where Israel can exist without constant threats, rather than expecting a harmonious relationship with its neighbors in the near-term."

So, on the left and the center, there is a high level of distrust and suspicion toward Netanyahu and his government. For instance, Netanyahu's apparent reluctance to pursue a deal for returning the hostages in exchange for ending the fighting in Gaza is seen by large parts of the public, even on the right, as resulting from Netanyahu's dependence on far-right, ultranationalist members of his government who refuse any compromise or ceasefire.

Now for a long time, Netanyahu and his ministers argued that only significant military force would lead Hamas to compromise and release the hostages. Now, with military attention and resources shifting to the north, people are asking, where is this massive military force that was supposed to bring the hostages home?

One question we have asked several times since October 7 in our polls is what should be the main goal in Gaza: Dismantling Hamas or bringing back the hostages? And as time goes on, public opinion is increasingly supporting the return of hostages. In our current survey, 62 percent saw bringing the bringing back the hostages as Israel's main goal, while only 29 percent pointed to dismantling Hamas as the primary objective.

RFE/RL: How do ordinary Israelis see the question of the remaining hostages amid the continued protests by the hostages' families?



Yohanani: As I mentioned before, most of the public supports a deal to release the hostages, even if it means ending the war and withdrawing the military forces from Gaza. There's this widespread feeling that we've left the hostages behind, and that's really hitting at our sense of solidarity, which is a deep and fundamental value, I think, in Jewish history in general and in Israel society in particular.

At the same time, the campaign run by the Hostages And Missing Families Forum has become very politicized. Many right-wing supporters see it as weakening Israel. As time goes on, we're seeing more and more harassment of protesters who support bringing the hostages back. There are cases of passersby cursing, even hitting and throwing eggs, at hostages' families. In our latest survey, we asked about the effectiveness of the protests and actions taken by the hostages' families.

Despite most of the public feeling empathetic toward the hostage issue, only less than a third think these actions are actually helping to advance a deal for the hostages' release, while almost 40 percent think they're actually hurting the cause. So, you've got this complex situation where people want the hostages back, but there is disagreement and some backlash about how to make that happen.

RFE/RL: Can you explain the reasons behind the apparent contradiction in views regarding prioritizing a negotiated return of the hostages, or destroying Hamas?

Yohanani: You're right to point out that apparent contradiction. Let me break it down a bit. As I mentioned earlier, a clear majority of the public sees a deal to release the hostages as the main goal. But there is a big gap between political camps on this issue. In the center and left, about 80 percent support the deal for the hostages' release, while the opinions on the right are evenly split. So, for most of the left and center, the fighting in Gaza has run its course. They feel most military objectives have been achieved, and Hamas's military power has been significantly weakened. From their perspective, continuing the fight now only puts the hostages at greater risk.

It's important to know that about half of the right-wing also shares this view of prioritizing the hostages' release, but the other half of those on the far-right thinks dismantling Hamas is more important.

Why? For a couple of reasons.

First, there's a security stance that Hamas must be wiped out and not allowed to recover. There is also a very strong sentiment of revenge, with minimal consideration for the cost, whether it's the lives of the hostages, soldiers, let alone innocent civilians in Gaza. Another significant component openly discussed in religious nationalist circles is the return of Jewish settlement to the Gaza Strip after Israel evacuated Jewish settlements from there in 2005.

RFE/RL: Is there public confidence that Israel will ultimately be able to remove the threat of Hamas and Hezbollah and come out of this conflict with greater prospects for a peaceful and stable near-term future?



Yohanani: Right now, the Israeli public isn't showing a lot of optimism. In our current survey, when we asked people if they're optimistic or pessimistic about Israel's future, we found more pessimists, 48 percent, than optimists, 45 percent.

I also think it's important to note that a peaceful future, as you put it, or peace in general, isn't really a common concept in the current Israeli discourse. I would say the hope of Israelis is that the military actions against Hezbollah and Iran will lead to a situation where Israel's existence isn't in question, and that Israeli military superiority will prevent events like October 7 from happening again. So, it's less about peace in the traditional sense, and more about security and deterrence. People are hoping for a future where Israel can exist without constant threats, rather than expecting a harmonious relationship with its neighbors in the near-term.
President Xi Jinping and visiting Surinamese President Chandrikapersad Santokhi made joint pledges on Friday to foster an even closer bilateral strategic partnership. The two leaders agreed to expand cooperation on investment, green development, education and the digital economy.

Xi rolled out the red carpet for Santokhi, who is making a week-long state visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, in a pomp-filled ceremony that included a guard of honor and a 21-gun salute.

"China is willing to work with Suriname to further consolidate political mutual trust, strengthen economic and trade cooperation, expand people-to-people exchanges, enhance international collaboration, and promote the healthy and stable development of China-Suriname relations," Xi told his guest.

The two heads of state also witnessed the signing of a series of cooperation documents. Xi underlined Beijing's readiness to welcome the import of more high-quality products from Suriname.

He told his guest that the nation stands ready to deepen cooperation with Suriname on jointly building the Belt and Road and expand cooperation in areas such as agriculture, energy and mining.

He noted that Suriname is one of the countries in the Caribbean with the largest overseas Chinese community and is the first in the Western Hemisphere to designate the Chinese Spring Festival as an official holiday.

Both sides should continue to encourage cultural exchanges, facilitate people-to-people exchanges and jointly develop Confucius Institutes, Xi said.

He also highlighted the need to bolster subnational cooperation to keep enriching bilateral exchanges and cooperation.

China stands ready to work with developing nations like Suriname to strengthen multilateral coordination, solidarity and cooperation, safeguard common interests and achieve common development, the president added.

Xi reiterated China's emphasis on developing ties with Caribbean countries, saying that the nation supports countries in the region in seeking prosperity and development and enhancing public wellbeing, and it makes continuous steps to offer aid to the best of its capacity.

Santokhi, who is visiting China for the first time since taking office in 2020, lauded the major significance of the initiatives proposed by the Chinese president on upholding multilateralism and promoting global peace and sustainable development.

"Our talks today are also important first steps in solidifying the strategic cooperative partnership and identifying new areas of cooperation," Santokhi told his host.

He stressed readiness to further enhance exchanges between political parties from both countries, and expand cooperation in areas including investment, green development and the response to climate change.

Santokhi also met separately on Friday with Premier Li Qiang and Wang Huning, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

According to a joint communique released by the two nations, China will continue to provide Suriname with necessary assistance through bilateral and multilateral channels for development financing.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, trade between China and Suriname grew by 7.7 percent year-on-year to $384 million in 2023, with China's imports from the Caribbean country up by 19.1 percent.

China mainly exports electromechanical products, steel, furniture, textiles, plastic products, agricultural products, tires and clothing to Suriname, while importing raw wood and sawed timber.

Cui Shoujun, founder and director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Renmin University of China, said stronger cooperation with China can help Suriname, one of the least developed countries in the world, in improving its infrastructure, alleviating its power shortages and bolstering its exports.

"Suriname is also confronted with severe challenges from rising sea levels and climate change. Strengthening partnership with China can enable the nation to bolster its capacity in climate change mitigation and adaptation," he said.

For China, enhancing cooperation with Suriname can serve as a linchpin for broadening and deepening its partnerships with other South American countries, he added.
Dragan Stanojevic has never hidden his pro-Russian ties, support, or actions.

The right-wing Serbian politician, who has been blacklisted by Kyiv, has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, cheered his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and jeered Western actions to punish Russia.

Given his views, it was no surprise that Stanojevic was one of many mostly fringe figures across Europe to be featured and interviewed by Voice of Europe, a Russian disinformation operation based in Prague that was recently shut down by Czech authorities, who accused the murky operation of not only spreading fake news but funding politicians aligned with Russian goals.

Prague on March 27 imposed sanctions on Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian magnate with strong Kremlin ties, and his close associate, Artem Marchevskiy, over the funding of Voice of Europe. According to Czech officials, Voice of Europe gave a platform with its website and YouTube channel to EU lawmakers, many on the extremes of the political spectrum, in hopes of influencing the outcome of upcoming European Parliament elections in June.

While the details remain vague, Czech officials said that Voice of Europe also had an unspecified number of pro-Kremlin European politicians on its payroll.

Despite the website being blocked and inaccessible, RFE/RL's Balkan Service has learned that Stanojevic gave an interview to Voice of Europe, which was published in January, a month after his right-wing populist party, We -- The Voice From The People, scored surprising results in local and national elections in Serbia.

Stanojevic told RFE/RL in a statement that he could not recall anything specific about the interview. "During that period, many journalists called me, and I know that this team came to Belgrade and that I spoke about the fact that Serbia would be a good hub between Brussels and Moscow," Stanojevic said.

Ukraine Connection

Stanojevic was linked to another Medvedchuk initiative in December 2023, when Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, reported that the pro-Russian organization Other Ukraine, founded by the Ukrainian oligarch, had been registered in Serbia and that Stanojevic would head it.

According to Schemes, Stanojevic lived in Ukraine in the late 1990s and early 2000s, where he headed an organization called the Serbian Community of Ukraine and participated in other pro-Russian political parties. He also still owns businesses registered in Ukraine. For his pro-Russian activities, Ukraine placed sanctions on Stanojevic in 2021, barring him from entering the country for three years.

Medvedchuk was one of Ukraine's wealthiest individuals, with a fortune estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, including energy assets in Russia. He was also widely believed to be Putin's right-hand man in Ukraine. Medvedchuk was charged with high treason and placed under house arrest in 2021, only to flee as Russia launched its full-scale invasion. He was subsequently rearrested in April 2022.

In September 2022, he was handed over to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stripped Medvedchuk and three other prominent pro-Russian figures of their Ukrainian citizenship.

Asked by Schemes about the goals and aims of the Serbian branch of Other Ukraine or its ties to Medvedchuk, Stanojevic only said he was not trying to assist him but rather Ukrainians. He had "never supported any aggression," Stanojevic said, but did "not support the Ukrainian government."

Russia In The Balkans

Stanojevic was not the only Balkan politician to be given a platform by the now-blocked Voice of Europe. Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russian Bosnian Serb separatist leader who has been put under sanctions by both Brussels and Washington, recently gave an interview to the publication -- picked up by local media -- where he spoke about the "friendship between Russia and Republika Sprska" and accused Sarajevo of "producing terrorists."

Asked by RFE/RL's Balkan Service about the interview at the time it was published in January, Dodik gave a curt response. "Yeah? And? What's the problem?"

The Balkans have long been a prime target for Russian disinformation operations. According to research published by the Clingendael Institute, a think tank and academy on international affairs based in The Hague, one of the Kremlin's goals was to "obstruct the Euro-Atlantic integration of the region by advocating against NATO and EU integration and by raising instabilities."

Because of their historical ties with Russia, shared Slavic heritage and Orthodox faith, Russian narratives tend to resonate particularly with ethnic Serbs, amplified by politicians, state media, businesspeople, and priests.

What appears to unite the politicians who appeared on Voice of Europe is their "opposition to the main liberal-democratic consensus in Europe," said Anton Shekhovtsov, director of the Vienna-based Center for Democratic Integrity and author of the books Russia And The Western Far Right and Russian Political Warfare.

"Russia believes that the rise of antiestablishment forces will somehow polarize European societies, make them more isolationist," Shekhovtsov explained to RFE/RL.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Shekhovtsov, listed some of the more prominent European politicians who have spoken to Voice of Europe. One of those listed, Cyril Svoboda, a former Czech foreign minister and leader of the Czech Christian and Democratic Union, is now facing calls to step down from the party, in part, due to that interview.

Anti-Western Voice

Voice of Europe may have its roots in the Netherlands, the Dutch daily NRC reported. An entrepreneur linked to the site at the time "worked with" far-right leader Thierry Baudet in 2016 "to bring about the Ukraine referendum," the paper wrote, referring to a nonbinding vote in which Dutch voters opposed a political Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU.

Voice of Europe was registered in Prague in 2016 under the name "Dada-Mapo," and got its current name in 2023, according to Czech records. Its director is listed as Jacek January Jakubczyk, a Polish national about whom little is known from publicly accessible sources. Besides the website and YouTube channel, Voice of Europe was also active on X, Facebook, and Telegram, a popular messaging app in Russia. The Facebook page and YouTube channel went silent on March 27, the same day that Czech authorities imposed sanctions on Medvedchuk and Marchevskiy.

Data analyzed by RFE/RL indicates that between December 2023 and February 2024, Voice of Europe's website registered nearly 420,000 views, with the top five countries including Germany, Poland, and the United States, with Vietnam perhaps surprisingly top.

With Voice of Europe, Medvedchuk and the Kremlin were launching another phase of its ongoing information war targeting Western audiences, Shekhovtsov says.

"Not a single bullet is flying against the EU. There are no bombs. At least not yet," Shekhovtsov said. "But Russia is waging a war by supporting those forces that it believes are working alone against the consensus in Europe."

Written by Tony Wesolowsky based on reporting by Andi Mioc and Mirjana Jevtovic of RFE/RL's Balkan Service and data analysis by Maja Zivanovic
KYIV -- Dmytro Yasynok showed up at the recruitment office of the Da Vinci Wolves Battalion two days after a Russian bomb hit the center of his hometown of Bilopillya. The 27-year-old civil-law lecturer came to Kyiv from Sumy, more than 300 kilometers east, near the Russian border, to join the ranks of a popular unit that promises recruits real training and decent service conditions.

His hands shook as he went through a 20-minute interview with a recruiter, held in an art-deco drama theater in the capital. He'd prefer to be a sniper, a drone operator, or a combat medic. But with no military experience, he will most likely have to serve in a basic infantry position, the recruiter, Maksym, told RFE/RL.

Yasynok will soon spend a trial week at a training center, and then officially join up or head back home. As the third spring since the Russian full-scale invasion blooms, millions of Ukrainians like him struggle to find their place in a stark wartime reality that's getting harder and harder for civilians to escape.

"Perhaps it's not a rational decision, but I am determined to join the army," Yasynok, who is exempt from military service as a university employee, said after the interview as he walked down a busy street.

WATCH: Ukrainian Army units have launched their own recruitment campaigns for combat soldiers.

On April 11, after months of delays and heated debate, the Ukrainian parliament approved a mobilization bill seeking to replenish the country's army and address some of the burning issues. The legislation, which President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to sign, comes as the depleted Ukrainian forces suffer setbacks on the front lines amid a shortage of ammunition and a lack of new U.S. weapons supplies leaves the country increasingly vulnerable to Russian attacks.

With many of the initial proposals on sanctions for draft evasion watered down and other widely expected measures excluded from the bill -- above all a framework for the demobilization of exhausted soldiers -- its many critics argue it will not fix a recruitment system that is widely regarded as broken.

'Busification'

The method of recruitment offered by the Da Vinci Wolves Battalion, which unlike most other units carries out its own recruitment campaign -- the slogan: "Everyone will fight" -- bears little resemblance to the realities of the draft in Ukraine. The days when volunteers were lining up in front of the military enlistment offices after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 are long gone.

A month ago, Tymofiy, 28, was working as a project manager in the IT industry in the western city of Lviv, which has been targeted in missile attacks but is far from the front. Now he lives in barracks in central Ukraine and is training for the war.

He wouldn't be here if not for a trip to the Carpathian Mountains, where he was stopped by conscription officers -- most of them veterans with visible war wounds -- who bundled him onto a bus and drove him to an enlistment office. Within a few hours, he had been interviewed, photographed, and examined by a medical commission.

"It's what people call 'busification,'" Tymofiy told RFE/RL -- one of the ways the military snares mobilization-age men off the streets as it struggles to fill the ranks.

He said that while he was treated respectfully overall, he considers what happened "a failure to comply with the law and procedures on both sides." Like many Ukrainian men, Tymofiy did not fulfill his obligation to get a draft card and enlist on a military register. Despite the way it unfolded, he is now "at peace" with being drafted and wants to get as good training as possible.

"I did not have enough courage to join the army, but I also did not actively do anything to avoid the draft," he said. "Ultimately, we are victims of Russia's military aggression."

Yuriy, 34, was drafted in February during a business trip to Chernivtsi, a city about 40 kilometers from the Romanian border. He said he was approached by men in uniforms and told he needed to register at the draft office, as he was in the border area.

As an employee of a pharmaceutical company working with the Health Ministry, he had a document exempting him from military service, but recruiters at the draft office said they couldn't open the file on their computer. The medical commission qualified him as fit for service despite his severe nearsightedness.

Yuriy said he would not exercise his right to question the draft decision in court, partly because he believes the courts are too slow. But he also told RFE/RL he intended to join the army anyway and had made some preparations but was delaying a final decision.

He keeps a high spirit although he believes that most people around him were drafted unwillingly, their morale is low, many of them have weak health, and the army organization is poor. He recently finished military training abroad. He wanted to operate a drone, but he would operate anti-tank weapons.

"The mobilization cannot be carried out like this, but we are all responsible for the status quo and I am not sure we are ready to change it," he told RFE/RL on a day before the adoption of the new mobilization bill.

Worth The Wait?

Conscription reform had been in the works at least since last summer, when Zelenskiy reacted to a series of corruption scandals by dismissing senior military recruiters nationwide and vowing to shake up the system. But after that -- with the presidential administration, parliament, and the military seeking to hand responsibility off to one another -- the mobilization bill turned into a political hot potato. An initial draft, widely criticized, was scrapped in January.

Disagreement over the reform was apparently one of the reasons for Zelenskiy's dismissal of the top military commander, General Valeriy Zaluzhniy -- a drawn-out process that exposed tensions among Ukraine's leaders as a major counteroffensive launched in June 2023 sputtered and fizzled out. Before he was ousted in February, Zaluzhniy reportedly requested 500,000 recruits to strengthen the army ranks, replace expected losses, and demobilize soldiers who have served for years.

Zelenskiy dawdled, resisting the request amid concern over a public backlash. And more recently Zaluzhniy's replacement, General Oleksandr Syrskiy, said that as a result of an internal audit conducted by the Defense Ministry, the recruit number had been "significantly reduced."

The bill that was passed on April 11 received 283 votes in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada, where Zelenskiy's Servant of the People party holds a majority, with 49 lawmakers from opposition parties abstaining. Over 4,000 amendments were proposed before its final adoption. It will come into force a month after Zelenskiy signs it.

Before the vote, General Yuriy Sodol, who commands the troops in the Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions and was one of more than a dozen commanders present in parliament for the vote, told deputies it was crucial the law be passed despite any flaws or misgivings.

"We are maintaining our defenses with our last strength," he said, adding that Russian forces outnumber Ukraine's up to 10-fold on the battlefield in the east.

New Draft Measures

According to Fedir Venislavskiy, a lawmaker from Zelenskiy's faction in parliament, the main goal of the law is to register all conscripts and update their data so that the state clearly understands who can be mobilized, who has the right to postpone being drafted, and who can enter the reserves.

In practice, within 60 days men between the ages of 18 and 60 will need to update their personal information with draft officials. Moreover, those who previously held "partially eligible" status will need to go through mandatory medical checks.

The bill introduces new sanctions for avoiding the draft, such as the potential revocation of driver's licenses or, in the case of military-age men abroad, the right to consular services. It also increases fees for draft-related misdemeanors such as not carrying one's draft card.

Inna Simakina, a lawyer from the human rights advocacy organization Yurydychna Sotnya, told RFE/RL that the organization had been flooded with questions from men concerned about the bill since long before its passage.

"We all know how good our people are at avoiding sanctions, so we need not only transparent rules but also carefully crafted supplementary legal acts," she said. "On the other hand, I am also worried that men will find it difficult to exercise their rights in courts given the short time limits for appeals."

Some key elements of the reform aimed at boosting the number of soldiers were passed in separate bills earlier this month. They included lowering the minimum draft age from 27 to 25, introducing an electronic register for conscripts, and doing away with "partially eligible" status.

Moreover, the April 11 legislation replaces Soviet-style conscription with basic military training for students and Ukrainians under the age of 24. Five months in peacetime and three months in wartime of such training will be mandatory for men and voluntary for women.

No Demobilization Framework

The day before the Rada vote, it became clear that a provision outlining rules for the demobilization of those currently serving in the armed forces would not be included, a big blow to soldiers exhausted by months and years of warfare -- and to their families as well.

WATCH: Several dozen Ukrainian women rallied in the city of Zaporizhzhya in December, demanding the end of military service for their husbands and sons.

"They took away the norm that is key for my comrades who went to the front as volunteers in the early days. A norm that [would have] introduced at least a little bit of certainty about the timing for the right to demobilize," said Roman Lozynskiy, a deputy from the Holos (Voice) party who served as a soldier for 15 months. He called the legislation "unjust."

The original version of the bill foresaw a 36-month limit on mandatory service. But at the request of Syrskiy and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, that provision was dropped at the last minute. The issue is to be addressed in separate legislation in the coming months. But for now, only disabled soldiers and soldiers who have returned from Russian captivity will be able to discharge themselves.

The bill does, however, introduce some opportunities for rest: Soldiers are to be rotated out for at least one month after three months at the front. Those credited with destroying Russian weapons or equipment will get additional days of leave.

Soldiers will also receive economic benefits, such as state support for their mortgages and exemption from some interest charges and penalties for delinquency on loans. In a separate bill, the Rada approved monthly bonuses of 70,000 hryvnyas ($1,785) for soldiers serving on the first line of defense or taking part in assaults.

The bill does not include long-discussed economic exemptions for individuals or employees of companies prepared to pay a levy to stay out of the army, which was widely seen as socially unjust. The government said it would come back to these ideas, though.

A Workable Compromise?

The initial response to the bill suggests that it's a compromise that few Ukrainians fully approve of -- and that some doubt will be workable.

Maryana Bezuhla, a deputy from Servant of the People, said that the law was "as soft and confusing as possible" and that while it leaves a lot of avenues to postpone or avoid the draft "not everyone is satisfied anyway" and "months were lost" before it came to a vote.

Volodymyr Vyatrovych, a deputy from the opposition European Solidarity party, said the bill was not only "bad but also belated."

"[It] will not strengthen the mobilization of new [soldiers] but may well weaken the motivation of those who have been defending the country for years," he said.

It's getting a lukewarm reception in the military as well. Maksym Zhorin, a deputy commander of the 3rd Assault Brigade, warned not to expect miracles on the battlefield. "For sure, it will generally bring a little more order and systemic approach to the issue of mobilization," he said on television, but he added, "Personally, I would make it much tougher and also continue to reduce the conscription age."

Vladyslav Hrezyev, the CEO of Lobby X, a human resources agency that is recruiting candidates for the military in cooperation with the Defense Ministry, told RFE/RL that the "fragmentary and situational mobilization bill is not forward-looking."

"We need to focus on those clusters of society that can be still motivated to join the army. The sanctions-based approach will not bring professional and effective military personnel," he said.

With a population one-third the size of Russia's and unfavorable demographic trends, Ukraine must use its mobilization resources carefully. According to Dmytro Natalukha, chairman of the Economy Committee in parliament, there are 4.35 million Ukrainian men who are 25-60 years old, are not exempt from military service on family or professional grounds, are not yet serving, are not disabled, and do not live under Russian occupation or abroad. Some estimates put the number of men eligible for mobilization slightly higher, around 5 million.

According to Zelenskiy, there are 880,000 soldiers in the armed forces. It is not clear how many of them are actually fighting. In February, Zelenskiy said that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since February 2022. Other estimates, including from U.S. officials citing intelligence, are much higher -- up to 70,000 killed and 120,000 wounded.
TASHKENT -- Uzbekistan has intensified measures against "religious extremism" and "terrorism" recently, raiding the homes of suspected extremists, warning parents against sending children to Islamic schools abroad, and preventing imams from leaving the country.

The tough actions by Uzbek officials come on the heels of the terrorist attack that killed 144 people at the Crocus music venue near Moscow on March 22 -- allegedly carried out by Tajiks and planned by the extremist Islamic State (IS) group.

Some observers link the crackdown to Uzbek government anxiety from the tragic event that has led to xenophobic treatment of Central Asians in Russia, where hundreds of thousands of Uzbeks work.

Security officers in the capital, Tashkent, carried out 45 raids on April 7 on the homes of people alleged to have joined "radical extremist groups," police reported.

"Suspects are being arrested," authorities said in a statement accompanied by photos of security forces visiting a private home and masked officers taking several men into custody.

Police also advised people to avoid following Muslim extremist groups on social media and to closely monitor their children's activities online.

On April 12, the authorities warned parents against sending their children to "illegal and unregistered" schools abroad or letting them to stay abroad "unsupervised." They reminded parents that the law stipulates up to eight years in prison for parents and legal guardians who fail to obey court orders for their underage children living abroad to return home.

Uzbeks have also been urged to report to the police any attempts to spread "extremist" ideas in their neighborhoods.

In a separate measure this month, the state-backed Muslim Board of Uzbekistan ordered all imams to turn in their passports in a move described by some religious figures as part of the government's efforts to keep tabs on Islamic leaders in the aftermath of the attack in Russia.

RFE/RL's Uzbek Service obtained a copy of an official letter sent to all mosque officials in Uzbekistan.

"We are collecting the passports of the imams and deputy imams of all mosques and will hand them over to the representatives of [the Muslim Board]," it read.

"District imams are responsible for collecting the passports and should start now," says the letter, which was sent via Telegram by Erghash Rustamov, assistant to Tashkent's chief imam.

Rustamov and at least two officials told RFE/RL that at least two officials at the Muslim Board claimed the passports were being taken for "data registration" purposes. "We will put the information in the imams' passports into our database and then return their passports," he said.

A Muslim Board official said the agency wanted to ensure all imams "have their passports ready" for potential tours abroad, such as the hajj pilgrimage and other state-organized business trips. "Our imams recently traveled to South Korea, Russia, and America," the official claimed. "Our aim is for imams to have their passports ready in case they're selected for such trips."

Tashkent Anxious After Crocus Hall Attack

Several Uzbek imams who spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity dismissed the officials' explanation, saying it was "devoid of any logic." They said the authorities, on the contrary, want to prevent imams from travelling abroad.

One Tashkent imam said the measure is a response to the Crocus attack. "After the [attack] in Russia, it was expected that Uzbekistan will take serious measures against imams and religious people in general," he claimed.

"There has been too much pressure on imams in recent days, hence the authorities fear that some imams will leave the country because of it," he told RFE/RL, without elaborating on the Uzbek government's "pressure" on religious figures.

There are about 2,040 mosques in the Muslim-majority Central Asian country of 35.6 million. Each has an imam and usually one or more deputies depending on the size of the congregation. The order to hand over passports applies to all of them.

Another imam in Tashkent said the government move to collect religious leaders' passports was "illegal" and the explanation "does not make sense."

"Imams are not small children from whom you take away their passports under the pretext that their documents should be always ready in case they go on a business trip," he said.

The imams said there was no need to "confiscate" the passports of more than 7,000 Muslim officials while "the number of Uzbek imams who go to the hajj and 'umrah' pilgrimages will not exceed 300 at the most."

Dozens of Central Asians have been arrested in recent years in Russia, Turkey, the European Union, the United States, Iran, and Afghanistan for allegedly carrying out or plotting terrorist attacks.

Some 6,000 Central Asians -- including at least 2,500 Uzbek citizens -- joined IS in Syria and Iraq when it seized swathes of territory there a decade ago and tried to set up a so-called caliphate.

Most Central Asian governments repatriated hundreds of their citizens, mostly women and children, after the IS's defeat in 2019.
THIS Woman Being Rumored To Be Diljit Dosanjh's Alleged Wife; Here's What She Said

Recently, a picture went viral on social media in which a mystery woman can be seen posing alongside Diljit Dosanjh.

Who is Diljit Dosanjh's Alleged Wife Sandeep Kaur? Punjabi star Diljit Dosanjh has been stealing all the spotlight over the release of his film 'Amar Singh Chamkila' which has been released on Netflix. However, the limelight is not only for 'Amar Singh Chamika' but also for his personal life as there has been intense speculation among fans that Diljit is married and that he has a son as well.

Recently, a picture went viral on social media in which a mystery woman can be seen posing alongside Diljit Dosanjh, with claims circulating that she is his wife.

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As per India Forums, the woman, whose identity was initially misconstrued as Sandeep Kaur, took to Reddit and set the record straight. Disassociating herself from the ongoing rumors, she said she had worked with Diljit on a music video shoot titled "Shoon Shaan" for the movie "Mukhtiar Chadha" as a model.

She added, Diljits wifes photo on the internet is NOT a woman called Sandeep Kaur. Its me! A while ago I worked as a model and did a music video shoot called Shoon Shaan for the movie Mukhtiar Chadha with Diljit Dosanjh."

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She further said, "Ever since then, somehow or the other, I was made aware by friends and relatives that my image was being used maliciously to be Diljit Dosanjhs wife on the internet. At first, I laughed it off as I had no idea how this happened, and I did attempt some take-down requests across YouTube and Quora. Never did I think the image would remain so pervasive for so many years. This news continues to go viral every so often, and here we are again with my image being used on a lot of TikToks and Instagram posts recently. I just want to clear the air that this picture is of me and I am not Sandeep Kaur.

However, the question remains the same. Is Diljit Dosanjh married? Who is his wife? What is his wife's name? Does he have kids? A lot of questions are there but the answer remains unanswered.

(For more news apart from Who is Diljit Dosanjh's Alleged Wife Sandeep Kaur? stay tuned to Rozana Spokesman)
Alphabet, Inc. (GOOG) Google announced its decision to shut down VPN services offered in Google One later this year, according to a customer email seen by Android Authority.

The tech giant told 9to5Google that it was forced to take the decision as "people simply weren't using it." The company further said that the deprecation will allow the team to "refocus" and "support more in-demand features with Google One."

Originally, VPN was launched in October 2020 for Android users, and later in 2022 for iOS and Mac users, for providing an "extra layer of online protection" and "peace of mind that your data is safe."

The service was a part of Google One's premium 2TB storage plan, which was priced at $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year.

Last year, Google extended availability of VPN services to all One plan users, in an attempt to make it more affordable and popular.

The company confirmed that Pixel 7 users can continue to use VPN, as a 5-year guarantee of services was given at the time of launch in 2022.

Moreover, a recent VPN upgrade in Pixel 8 device, will be soon introduced to the Pixel 7, 7 Pro, 7a, and Fold in June.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Technology News
The recent rise in measles cases across the nation during the first quarter of 2024 "represents a renewed threat to the U.S. elimination status," according to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

As of April 4, 113 measles cases have been reported across 18 states in the U.S. Experts believe that the lack of vaccinations and an uptick in international travel after the pandemic have spiked the cases.

The agency noted that about a third of all U.S. measles cases in the past four years happened during a three-month stretch in 2024, indicating the need to take strict measures to curb the rise in cases and prevent further transmission within the nation.

According to the report, around 90 percent of the recent cases were documented in patients who weren't vaccinated or those for whom vaccination status was unknown.

It further stated that most of the cases were introduced by people traveling from Eastern Mediterranean and African regions to the U.S., but the report also noted that the imported cases might be under-reported.

The localized outbreaks at a children's hospital and daycare center in Philadelphia, an elementary school in Florida and at a migrant shelter in Chicago also contributed to the increase in the total measles cases.



The CDC's report urged healthcare officials to expand vaccination coverage, especially among young children before international travel and people with low immunity, as earlier vaccination has helped in eliminating measles from the U.S. in 2000.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Health News
The Gem Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) is holding the third edition of the International Gem & Jewellery Show (IGJS) in Jaipur from April 12-14, which is being attended by 250 buyers from 27 countries.

Buyers from countries spanning Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the UAE, Ukraine, the UK, the US, and Uzbekistan are in Jaipur to attend the event, officials said.

Vipul Shah, Chairman, GJEPC, said, "India's gem and jewellery industry holds a prominent position as the global leader, making substantial contributions to the world market. Our annual exports amounting to $40 billion underscore our strength and expertise in this sector, supporting the employment of over five million individuals.

"We remain steadfast in nurturing robust international trade relationships between India and the global markets. This commitment is demonstrated through initiatives such as IGJS and by actively enabling opportunities for our exporters through participation in international events.
NEW YORK (AP)  The Vessel, a climbable sculpture that drew hordes of tourists to the Hudson Yards megadevelopment on Manhattans west side before a string of suicides forced its closure in 2021, will reopen to the public later this year with added safety measures.

The towering honeycomb-like attraction will feature new steel mesh barriers on several of its twisting stairways and platforms, according to a spokesperson for Related Companies, which owns Hudson Yards. The top level of the 150-foot (46-meter) structure will remain off limits.

The spokesperson did not confirm an exact date for the reopening but said the developer looked forward to welcoming visitors back later this year.

FILE - This March 8, 2019 photo shows the "Vessel," a 150-foot-tall structure of climbable interlocking staircases in the Hudson Yards development in New York. The Vessel, a climbable sculpture that drew hordes of tourists to the Hudson Yards mega-development on Manhattans west side before a string of suicides forced its closure in 2021, will reopen to the public later this year with added safety measures. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)AP

Designed by Thomas Heatherwick and fabricated in Venice, the Vessel opened in 2019 as the centerpiece of the glittering new Hudson Yards neighborhood, quickly becoming one of the citys prime tourist destinations. But after three people took their own lives by jumping off the structure in less than a year, it was closed to the public in early 2021.

The Vessel reopened soon after with new safety features like enhanced security, suicide prevention signs and a ban on hiking up the steps alone  but without the barriers requested by some Manhattan officials and the local community board. Just two months later, it was closed once again, after a 14-year-old visiting the city with his family fatally leapt from the edge.

The structure has remained locked to the public ever since as developers have investigated the feasibility of additional protections, such as netting.

A spokesperson for Related said the new steel mesh would be cut-resistant and able to withstand the outdoor elements without compromising the Vessels form or views.

Jessica Chait, the chair of the Manhattan community board, praised the upgrades but said they should have happened sooner.

While we think it took Related four lives too many to make these physical adjustments, these are the changes we requested, which will allow for prioritizing the safety of everyone who visits the Vessel, she said.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  A member of the FDNY was injured responding to a fire at a home in Port Richmond Friday evening.

The blaze broke out in the 2.5-story residence, located at 101 Lexington Ave., just after 6:30 p.m. Friday evening, a spokesperson with the FDNY said.

In response, 12 units consisting of 60 FDNY and EMS personnel took to the scene and combatted the flames, the FDNY reported.

Firefighters battle a blaze at a home on Lexington Avenue in Port Richmond on Friday, April 12, 2024. (Staten Island Advance/Luke Peteley)(Staten Island Advance/Luke Peteley)

One firefighter suffered minor injuries and was transported to Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze.

The second floor of the residence sustained significant damage in the blaze.

Firefighters brought the fire under control at around 7:08 p.m., the spokesperson said.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

Firefighters battle a blaze at a home on Lexington Avenue in Port Richmond on Friday, April 12, 2024. (Staten Island Advance/Luke Peteley)Luke Peteley

Firefighters battle a blaze at a home on Lexington Avenue in Port Richmond on Friday, April 12, 2024. (Staten Island Advance/Luke Peteley)Luke Peteley
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The only thing worse than getting stuck in traffic is knowing you could have avoided it. That being said, a couple of events in New York City this weekend could prompt road closures.

The Annual Greek Independence Day Parade and the Fire Department Holy Name Society Communion Mass and Breakfast on Sunday, April 14, could potentially cause a headache for motorists in Manhattan.

Residents may wish to take heed of the following information from the NYPD:

SUNDAY, APRIL 14: ANNUAL GREEK INDEPENDENCE DAY IN MANHATTAN

Formation:

61st- 65th Streets between 5th Avenue and Park Avenue

5th Avenue between 61st- 65th Streets

Route:

5th Avenue between 64th  79th Streets

Dispersal:

79th between 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue

80th Street between 5th Avenue and Park Avenue

81st Street between 5th Avenue and Park Avenue

Miscellaneous:

69th Street between 5th Avenue and Park Avenue

78th Street between 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue

Closure: At the discretion of NYPD

SUNDAY, APRIL 14: FIRE DEPARTMENT HOLY NAME SOCIETY COMMUNION MASS AND BREAKFAST IN MANHATTAN

Formation:

East 51st Street between 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue

Route:

West 51st Street between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue

6th Avenue between 51st Street and 53rd Street

Dispersal:

6th Avenue between 53rd Street and 54th Street

Closure: At the discretion of NYPD
STATEN ISLAND,N.Y. -- When St. Johns University first announced it would be closing its Grymes Hill campus due to low enrollment rates, community members voiced some serious concerns about the fate of the 16.5-acre property: Could rows of detached houses be developed there? Would the city use the sites vacant buildings to house migrants? Or would the land continue to be reserved for educational purposes?

And now, as the college readies to close, officially ceasing academic operations and ownership at the end of this month, answers to those questions still remain unclear.

I can share with you that the university is in close, serious conversation with one of the organizations that bid on the property, but there are certain contingencies present that limit the disclosure of details and names, Brian Browne, associate vice president of communications and public affairs for St. Johns, recently told a crowded room full of public officials and concerned residents, fielding questions about the status of the transaction during a Grymes Hill Estates Association meeting.

Browne reiterated that the universitys real estate adviser, Savills Inc., has marketed the campus as a pre-assembled turnkey opportunity for the past 18 months, one that is specifically well-suited for an educational facility. But he also acknowledged that the schools zoning -- R3-1 -- is residential, and as of right permits building semi-detached one- and two-family homes, as well as detached homes.

Savills casted a wide net, and we heard from a lot of different organizations, not just in New York but around the country and the world, Browne said. We spoke to our higher education neighbor down the road; we spoke with a variety of non-profits and religious groups. We had a lot of serious conversations and did our due diligence with organizations that submitted a bid.

And while the potential buyer could not yet be named, Browne revealed a few details at the association meeting. Heres what we know so far:

The campus will be vacated within the next few months, and the transaction should be completed this summer.

According to St. Johns academic calendar, the last day of classes at the Staten Island Campus is Monday, April 29. Final exams will be issued there from May 2 to 8. Browne said that the university will then begin to vacate the property, and he is hopeful that the real estate transaction will close within the next few months. We are not there yet. Conversations are still ongoing, and our due diligence continues, he said. But St. Johns has a great commitment to Staten Island and intends to honor that.

The university will continue to secure and maintain the property until the sale is complete.

Browne said that as long as the university owns the property, it will secure and maintain it, continuing to provide daily presence of a public safety officer. Safety concerns during the transition of ownership will be worked out at closing.

The property will not be used as a migrant shelter.

During the civic association meeting, Browne reassured attendees that the site would not be used as a shelter. I can say we were never contacted by New York City for any kind of housing or migrant shelter, he noted.

The prospective buyer matches the propertys current zoning.

The groups weve heard from match the zoning, Browne told meeting attendees. A year ago, during our first meeting with the community, there was a lot of talk about the property continuing as an educational facility. But over the past 12 months or so, weve heard more about smart growth or smart development. As far as higher ed, there was some interest, but it didnt go too far. Thats just kind of how it played out. When we can say more, we will.

No inquiries have been made for a zoning change/variance.

St.Johns is located in an R3-1 zone -- which is residential, and as of right permits building semi-detached one- and two-family homes as well as detached homes. According to the NYC Zoning Application Portal, no inquiries have been made to alter that zoning.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Staten Islanders suggestions for new North Shore bus shelter locations will be heard this week during a virtual Community Board 1 committee meeting.

Representatives of the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will welcome suggestions on Thursday, April 18, at 6:30 p.m. during the virtual meeting, held via Zoom.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  In honor of those who have died, here is a compilation of obituaries posted on SILive.com. Viewing times and guest books can be seen here.

Diane M. Jacey, a longtime educator and cherished member of the community, passed away peacefully on Sunday, April 7, 2024. Originally from Staten Island, she dedicated 30 years of her life to teaching at PS 26 before relocating to Manchester, N.J., over two decades ago. Diane leaves behind fond memories and will forever be remembered by her brothers Charles and sister-in-law Arlene Jacey, her cousins Mary Reilly, Marita and Thomas Coakley, Joan Sherry, and Kenneth Gamgee, as well as her nieces, nephews, and their families. She was preceded in death by her parents, Charles and Marie Jacey. Active in her church and community, Diance was a member of the Toms River Presbyterian Church, the Educators Club, and the Ladies Auxiliary of Kimball Medical Center. Her kindness and dedication touched the lives of many and will be deeply missed. For the full obituary, click here.

YESTERDAYS OBITUARIES

Carol Kerr, a beloved educator and lifelong resident of Staten Island, passed away peacefully at her home, surrounded by her devoted family. After graduating from Cedar Crest College, she dedicated herself to teaching, spending many years as a beloved kindergarten teacher at PS 48, Targee Street, until her retirement in 1991. Throughout her teaching career, Carol pursued her passion for learning, earning a Masters Degree at Wagner College and continuing her education. In retirement, Carol enjoyed traveling with the YMCA to destinations like Ireland and Disney World. She also engaged in community work, participating in the senior Olympics and cherishing the companionship of friends at the local senior center. Known for her love of animals, children, and vibrant spirit, Carol embraced every moment. Preceded in death by her husband, Dr. Fred W. Kerr, and more recently her son, Fred Kerr, Carol is survived by her children David, Scott, Pamela, and her husband Tim, and grandsons Tim and Patrick Murphy. Supported by her aide Lucy and therapist Max, Carol leaves behind a legacy of love and kindness, warmly remembered by her extended family. For the full obituary, click here.
As New Jerseys human residents start to get excited for the summer at the Jersey Shore, the end of beach season is quickly approaching for its canine residents.

The majority of New Jerseys ocean beaches ban dogs during the spring and summer months, with some towns stopping beach access for dogs as early as March 1. Most allow dogs to return in the fall, typically some time between late September and mid-October.
After 66 million years, a few more months doesnt seem like too long a wait. Thats all the time that remains before the Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park is scheduled to open this summer.

The 44,000-square-foot facility in Mantua will sit above a former marl quarry where Mesozoic Era marine and terrestrial fossils have been found.

Rowan University broke ground on a $73 million dinosaur fossil park and museum in 2021 on the site of a prehistoric treasure trove of relics just a few miles from its campus in Glassboro.

Weve been working on this project for more than a decade, Ric Edelman, a school alumni who has contributed more than $25 million for the facility, told NJ Advance Media earlier this month. Its very gratifying to see everyones enthusiasm.

Edelman said he expects the site to open in June. He will also be the keynote speaker at the schools commencement ceremony in May.

One of the museums planned exhibits will include a recreated Dryptosaurus, the first discovered tyrannosaur, which was found a mile from the fossil park site in 1866, and a 53-foot mosasaur, like one discovered at the fossil park site, a statement from the school said.

You will not only be able to put your hands in the dirt and walk the 60-plus acres of the park, youll also be able to experience what the world was like 66-million-years ago and the incredible diversity of life that existed on this planet to help you connect with the past in a very real, physical endeavor, Edelman said. This will not only ground you in todays world, itll help remind you of where we came from and the threats that we face going forward.

Visitors to the site will be able to dig for fossils and keep many of their finds as souvenirs. But some of the discoveries may be kept for further research if they are rare.

Only a few hundred square yards of the 65-acre site have been fully excavated. Still, theyve yielded more than 50,000 cataloged marine and terrestrial fossils, from reptilian mosasaurs to sea turtles, sharks, bony fish, coral and clams, the university said.

The museum will feature immersive exhibits, galleries, full-scale reconstructions of extinct creatures, hands-on learning experiences, live animal attractions, virtual reality, and other opportunities to connect to the natural world, a statement on the facility website said.

This is going to be not only an incredibly entertaining experience, its going to be a profound educational one, as well, Edelman told NJ Advance Media. We think it will have a very big impact on shaping the hearts and minds of todays students that are going to be tomorrows scientists.

The fossil park is on the site of a former industrial sand pit. Archeologists have already turned up a fossil of the largest prehistoric crocodile ever found and researchers expect to turn up more important finds, the school said.

In New Jersey, fossilized remains of several late Cretaceous-era dinosaurs and reptiles have been found along a stretch of what used to be a shallow marine environment from Atlantic Highlands in Monmouth County, through Middlesex, Mercer, Burlington and Gloucester down to Salem County and present-day Delaware.

Researchers have said the green sand marl found along this stretch of shallow water was perfect for preserving fossils of cow sharks and mosasaurus, 50-foot extinct carnivorous aquatic lizards.
When Dr John Wiseman graduated as a doctor more than 70 years ago, it was not unusual for general practitioners to spend an hour with their patients, maybe even two. The concept of mental health was unheard of and Australias polio epidemic was near its deadly peak.

One of Wisemans first jobs was at the Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, where children and adults suffering various degrees of paralysis and disablement from polio were lined up in long wards of 20 or 30 beds.

Still working at 96, Dr John Wiseman is Victorias oldest doctor. Credit: Simon Schulter

We still had, in my ward, five people on what they called an iron lung, recalls the 96-year-old.

They lived permanently in a wooden box because they couldnt breathe. I tell people about it now, they think Im talking about another world.
The problem with identities is that theyre like  elbows. Everybody has them. And like elbows on an aeroplane armrest, they sometimes battle to occupy the very same space. That is the essence of a case in the NSW Federal Court this week.

Tickle v Giggle isnt the light-hearted affair the litigants names would suggest. Giggle is an app created to provide a space for women to communicate on a range of issues just among women. It is a platform to find other women to travel with, share houses with, and, if theyre lesbian, perhaps find someone to date.

Roxanne Tickle says Giggle for Girls illegally discriminated on the grounds of gender identity after her access to the app was revoked. Credit: AAP

Trans men, who were born female, are invited to join the app, which sees itself as providing a safe space for all people who have experiences and vulnerabilities particular to female biology.

Roxanne Tickle is a trans woman who was excluded from partaking in the app because, while she identifies as a woman, she was born male. Tickle has reportedly had gender-affirming surgery and, as Australian law allows, changed her birth certificate to reflect her gender identity. Her lawyer has taken pains to emphasise how genuinely and profoundly she feels that she is a woman. Despite these feelings, Tickle was denied access to Giggle, on the basis that the app is exclusively for biological females, which Tickle is not.
The National Allergy Council has a one-hour online free course for hospitality staff, called All About Allergens, as well as specific training for cooks, and people serving food in particular settings such as schools, hospitals and childrens camps. About 163,000 Australians have undertaken the courses since they were launched in 2021. People doing the RSA take it upon themselves as a prerequisite to do their job. Why not give your staff an hour of leave to do the training, to keep customers safe, argued Said. We dont want near misses and fatalities to be what it takes for the industry to take this seriously. People who live with allergies and anaphylaxis say there needs to be better awareness about allergens at food service businesses, particularly among waitstaff.

Shaela Templeton, who has lived with anaphylaxis to egg since she was a baby, ordered a salmon poke bowl at a cafe last month, which waitstaff said did not contain egg. When the meal came out, it had a white sauce on it, the Sunshine Coast 26-year-old recalled. And I thought it looked a bit suss because Ive never really seen a white sauce like that, that doesnt have mayonnaise in it. She spoke to a second staff member who told her the sauce was made in house, and did not contain egg. I only had a tiny bit, but I started feeling off and then started vomiting, Templeton said, adding that she later phoned the restaurant to ask them to please not offer the mayonnaise-drizzled meal as an egg-free option.

Loading She said restaurants had become better at catering to her allergies over the past 10 years, but there were definitely places still not up to scratch. Debra Azzopardi, a former hospitality industry worker from Melbournes south-east, admits she knew little about food allergy and cross-contamination before her now adult sons were diagnosed with life-threatening allergies. Joel, now 21, had his first anaphylaxis reaction to egg aged five, while his younger brother Blake, 18, has severe allergies to all nuts, shellfish and dairy. I let them know my allergies, and Ill put it down if its a function and they ask, but often I just dont eat, said Joel, adding that he often settles for a bowl of chips when out and about.

Blake said he more commonly has reactions while eating out, recently attending hospital after eating at a pizza restaurant, which he suspects is due to cross-contamination in the kitchen. While some people who live with an allergy would like to see allergens listed on menus, Said believed this could create problems  for example, if a fill-in chef put their own spin on the dish  and it was best to have a conversation between waitstaff and the diner. Ideally, because it can be uncomfortable for a person with a food allergy to advocate for themselves at a restaurant, she said this would happen by the waitstaff asking: Any allergies? We dont expect food services to provide a guarantee, but we do expect that they do what they can to reduce risk, she said. People who have an allergy also need to be reasonable. For example, if you have a fish allergy, dont go to a seafood restaurant. And try to order a simple meal, check ingredients beforehand and, if you can avoid it, dont arrive at a busy time.
On one reading, Jason Lau, the man who successfully challenged the discriminatory sexism of the Ladies Only lounge at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, is a massive sook. But on another reading, Lau is a paladin for modern men.

He is the victor in a small but significant fight against an increasingly aggressive feminist agenda that portrays all masculinity as toxic but doesnt bother to define for boys what non-toxic masculinity might look like.

Kirsha Kaechele (left) and supporters arrive at court for the anti-discrimination case launched by Jason Lau. Credit: Charlotte Vignau

Lau paid full entry price for MONA but, like all male visitors, was refused entry to the lounge, which is a women-only space full of plush sofas and exquisite artworks cordoned off from the male gaze. The curator of the lounge, Kirsha Kaechele, says the discrimination is the point of the artwork  it is a comment on the historical exclusion of women from male spaces for centuries.

So piqued was Lau at being bounced from the lounge that he instigated a legal challenge against the museum. He made a complaint with Tasmanias anti-discrimination commissioner, who escalated it to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
In the great shares versus real estate investment debate, former ASX chief Dominic Stevens has proved somewhat of a poster boy for high-end property, given the gains on his previous homes and despite his day job.

Stevens and his wife Emmas last splash on title records was as owners of the Bellevue Hill trophy home, Belhaven, for which they paid $21 million in 2017 and, after a decent renovation, were approached by a buyer offering $52 million. Who could say no?

The Point Piper home sold by Geoff Cousins and Darleen Bungey to Dominic and Emma Stevens. Credit: Domain

Their former Bellevue Hill home also outshone the best of the share price gains: it was purchased for $8.7 million in 2005 and sold for $14 million in 2018.

Their former Victorian manor in Woollahra was picked up in 1996 for $1.6 million, and sold for $4.46 million in 2005, and to none other than former NAB markets boss Drew Bradford.
Top Iranian commanders have warned Israel that the country would face a bigger attack if it retaliates against its drone and missile strikes, adding that Washington has been told not to back any military action from its ally

Iran launched explosive drones and fired missiles at Israel on Sunday (AEST) in its first direct attack on Israeli territory, a retaliatory strike against Israels bombing of its consulate in Syrias capital on April 1 that killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Our response will be much larger than tonights military action if Israel retaliates against Iran, armed forces chief of staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri told state TV, adding that Tehran warned Washington via Switzerland that any backing of Israeli retaliation against Iran would result in US regional bases being targeted.

Our operations are over and we have no intention to continue them, Bagheri said, before claiming that Irans attack had successfully targeted two Israeli military bases.
Sacramento: Google has begun removing California news websites from some search results, a test that acts as a threat should the state legislature pass a law requiring the search giant to pay media companies for linking to their content.

Google announced the move in a blog post on Friday, calling it a short-term test for a small percentage of users ... to measure the impact of the legislation on our product experience. The company said it also would pause new investments in the California news industry, including the partnership initiative with news organisations and its product licensing program.

An employee arrives at the Google Bay View campus in Mountain View, California. Credit: Bloomberg

By helping people find news stories, we help publishers of all sizes grow their audiences at no cost to them. (This bill) would up-end that model, Jaffer Zaidi, Googles vice president for global news partnerships, wrote in the blog post.

The California legislature is considering a bill that would require tech giants like Google, Facebook and Microsoft to pay a certain percentage of advertising revenue to media companies for linking to their content. How much the companies would have to pay would be decided by a panel of three judges through an arbitration process.
Miami: A former US ambassador and career diplomat has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after admitting he worked for decades as a secret agent for communist Cuba, a plea agreement that leaves many unanswered questions about a betrayal that stunned the US foreign service.

Manuel Rocha, 73, will also pay a $US500,000 ($770,000) fine and cooperate with authorities after pleading guilty to conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed more than a dozen other counts, including wire fraud and making false statements.

Former diplomat Manuel Rocha (pictured in 2003) admitted he worked for decades as a secret agent for Cuba. Credit: Miami Herald/AP

Your actions were a direct attack to our democracy and the safety of our citizens, US District Court Judge Beth Bloom told Rocha.

Rocha, dressed in a beige jail uniform, asked his friends and family for forgiveness. I take full responsibility and accept the penalty, he said.
~Shining Stars FCCA Foundation Dinner Serves Up Record 13 Presidents and Above~

Miramar, FL:--- The cruise industry was navigating by the stars Tuesday night, with 13 presidents and above from FCCA Member Cruise Lines hosting the revitalized marquee event for Seatrade Cruise Global by Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA). Shining Stars FCCA Foundation Dinner joined the record-setting cruise line brass with key stakeholders for an unforgettable night filled with surprises galore, delectable food, and a side of networking and routing an itinerary for mutual success, all while supporting the relaunch of FCCAs charitable arm, the FCCA Foundation.



I cannot be more honored and humbled by the record number of FCCA Member Line Presidents, CEOs, and Chairs participating at an FCCA Foundation event, said Michele Paige, CEO of FCCA. This clearly shows their support in the foundation's mission and made the event a tremendous success for all involved, actualizing the Foundations pillar of creating a better futureand marking a bright future for this annual event at Seatrade.



The exclusive event, coordinated by FCCA, supported by FCCA Member Cruise Lines, and sponsored by Diamonds International and Port Everglades, took place last evening at Steakhouse Prime 54. The 13 presidents and above hosted tables sponsored by FCCA partners interested in supporting the cause and engaging in a lively night packed with unique networking experiences.



Table Hosts included Gus Antorcha, President of Holland America Line; Christine Duffy, President of Carnival Cruise Line; Felix Eichhorn, President of AIDA; David Herrera, President of Norwegian Cruise Line; Laura Hodges, President of Celebrity Cruises; Natalya Leahy, President, Seabourn; Paul Ludlow, President, Carnival UK; Tom McAlpin, Chairman, Virgin Voyages; John Padgett, President, Princess Cruises; Frank A. Del Rio, President & CEO, Oceania Cruises; Rick Sasso, Chairman, MSC Cruises USA; Josh Weinstein, President & CEO and Chief Climate Officer, Carnival Corporation & plc; and Mario Zanetti, President, Costa Cruises.



Table Sponsors included the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Canaveral Port Authority, Cayman Islands Department of Tourism, Chukka Caribbean Ltd., Effy Jewelry, Huna Totem Corporation, ITM Group, PortMiami, and Port St. Maarten.



All proceeds will go directly to the FCCA Foundations efforts and its revamped focus on building a foundation for youths throughout the Caribbean and Latin America  with primary identified objectives of education, sports, and career-building opportunities to support them in the present and future  while restarting past initiatives including the Holiday Gift Project and annual essay competition.
Argentina's Milei meets with Elon Musk in Texas



San Francisco, April 12 (AFP) Apr 12, 2024



Elon Musk met with Argentine President Javier Milei on Friday at a Tesla plant in Austin, Texas, posting a picture of the pair happily giving thumbs-up signs.

Under the photo was written "Libertad", which is Spanish for "Freedom."

Milei shared on X, formerly Twitter, a picture of him and Musk shaking hands in a conference room, with a message saying long live freedom.

Milei and Musk "agreed on the need to free markets and defend the ideas of freedom" as well as the importance of eliminating bureaucratic obstacles to business, a spokeswoman for the presidency said in a statement.

The libertarian Argentine leader also offered to be an ally to Musk in his legal battle in Brazil, the spokeswoman added.

X owner Musk is under investigation in Brazil after he accused a Supreme Court judge of censoring social networks, calling him a "dictator" and vowing to disobey rulings blocking users found to be spreading disinformation.

Musk agreed to take part in an event in Argentina in the near future to promote ideas of freedom, according to Milei's spokeswoman.

Milei, a political outsider who won the presidency in November, is facing pushback on the streets and from some of his own conservative allies.

His government has rekindled debate over Argentina's military dictatorship by questioning the number of its victims, while also seeking a greater role for the armed forces in tackling ongoing security issues.

Argentina is home to deposits of lithium used for rechargeable batteries like those that power Tesla electric cars.
Ukraine starts building first US-design nuclear reactors



Netishyn, Ukraine, April 13 (AFP) Apr 13, 2024



Ukraine has started constructing two US-designed reactors at a nuclear power plant in the west of the country following devastating Russian attacks on its energy network.

Workers at Khmelnytskyi nuclear power station on Thursday poured a symbolic cubic metre of concrete for the reactors, which will use US technology and fuel, as Ukrainian and US flags fluttered.

The project is aimed at increasing Ukraine's energy security and reducing its dependence on Russian nuclear technology.

Guests at the ceremony included the head of Ukraine's state nuclear operator, Energoatom, Petro Kotin; Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko; US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink and the CEO of US nuclear energy company Westinghouse, Patrick Fragman.

Energoatom asked for the launch to be reported Saturday due to security concerns over Russian attacks.

The ceremony took place hours after a Russian strike destroyed a power plant outside Kyiv.

"This is our answer to the terrorists, this is our answer to the invaders," Galushchenko said.

"Today we are talking about the future, we are talking about stability, we are talking about the development of nuclear energy," he said, describing the plans for Khmelnytskyi as Ukraine's most significant modernisation project since World War II.

A sign at the plant reads "the future is with nuclear energy".

Ukraine derives around half of its energy from nuclear power. All its current reactors are of Soviet design but it has shifted them to US fuel.

The country's largest nuclear plant -- Zaporizhzhia in the south -- has been under Russian control since the start of the war.

Khmelnytskyi power plant already has two functioning reactors. Its reactors 3 and 4 are partially built to a Soviet design.

The ground-breaking ceremony was for unbuilt reactors 5 and 6, which will be built using Westinghouse's AP1000 technology.

The units will each have a capacity of over 1,100 megawatts and according to Fragman will be "the most advanced nuclear reactor operating today in the world".

With all six reactors on stream, Khmelnytskyi will become Europe's largest plant, topping Zaporizhzhia, said Energoatom chief Petro Kotin.

EnergoAtom and Westinghouse did not say exactly when the reactors will come on line.

Energoatom said construction of one reactor unit in peace time takes five years and the estimated cost starts from $ five billion.

The first unit will be on an "accelerated schedule", because Ukraine has agreed to buy heavy equipment that is ready to instal, Fragman said.

The US Exim Bank will partly finance the project.

The Khmelnytska region has been regularly targeted by Russian attacks because of a major air base there.
Thousands protest in Niger for US troops to leave



Niamey, Niger, April 13 (AFP) Apr 13, 2024



Thousands of people in Niger's capital on Saturday protested for the immediate departure of US soldiers from the north, after the military junta in Niamey said it was withdrawing from a military agreement with Washington.

Following a July coup, the West African country said in mid-March that the 2012 cooperation agreement had been "unilaterally imposed" by the United States.

Students and several prominent figures from the military regime were amongst the crowd in front of the National Assembly Headquarters in Niamey.

The crowd was heard chanting "Down with American imperialism" and "The people's liberation is on the march".

French troops were expelled at the end of 2023, but about 1,000 American soldiers remain based in Agadez city in the north.

In late March, Niger said the US would submit a proposal to "disengage" its soldiers from the country. Washington declined to comment, but said it contacted Niger to "obtain clarification".

"They said they (the Americans) were going to leave, so let them leave in peace and quickly," shouted Sheikh Ahmadou Mamoudou, a well-known religious leader.

Flags from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Russia were visible but organisers asked demonstrators to refrain from slogans insulting the US or burning its flags.

In March Niger joined neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso in the creation of a joint force to battle the long-running jihadist rebellions raging in the three nations.

The three countries have turned their backs on former coloniser France and strengthened their ties with Russia.
Israel closes schools over security concerns: army



Jerusalem, April 13 (AFP) Apr 13, 2024



Israel is closing schools nationwide over security concerns, military spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Saturday, after Iran threated to retaliate for a deadly air strike on its Damascus consulate.

There will be "no educational activities" when the school week begins on Sunday "in light of the security situation," he said in a televised statement.

"Starting tomorrow morning and over the coming days, educational establishments, day camps, and planned trips will not take place," he said.

Israel will also limit the number of people allowed to gather outdoors to 1,000, with an even smaller number in border regions, where beaches will be closed.

There have been weekly protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem against the government and in favour of a hostage deal that have regularly drawn in many thousands of demonstrators.

The measures are set to last two days, according to online army guidelines.

Iran has vowed retaliation after the presumed Israeli strike on April 1 which levelled its consulate in Damascus, killing seven members of the Revolutionary Guards including two generals.

US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he expected Iran to retaliate "sooner (rather) than later".

Earlier on Saturday Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a container ship "related to the Zionist regime (Israel)" near the Strait of Hormuz, state media reported.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz postponed a planned visit to Hungary and Austria which had been scheduled to begin on Sunday "due to the security situation," his spokesman said.
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Tanaiste Micheal Martin speaks to the media at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis, at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre (Brian Lawless/PA)

This year we are going to take much stronger action to return homes to the rental market.

At a time of real crisis for renters, an unacceptable number of homes have been diverted to short-term letting and lie idle through much of the year, he added.

He said the Government will also increase and expand the 750 euro tax credit for renters.

Last year alone saw the delivery of 12,000 social homes. And we will go much further. Thousands more are already in the pipeline.

He added: In the last four years more houses have been built than in the previous nine years combined. There is more to be done, but that is real momentum.

On housing, Mr Martin said the Government is reforming planning laws to stop delays of housing projects.

Free schoolbooks have been introduced up to the Junior Certificate and will be expanded to all remaining years  permanently lifting a major cost from parents.

Every cost adds up, and thats why we are also cutting charges for many public services.

Thats what weve done this year, and this is our priority for future budgets.

And when it comes to changes in personal taxes the priority must be families on low and average incomes who are feeling the most pressure from rising prices, he added.

He also said that childcare fees will reduce by 50% from September, pledging to increase funding to create affordable childcare places nationwide.

New technologies, direct aid to farmers and real partnership for change  this is Fianna Fails commitment to secure the future for Irish farming and food production.

We are putting in place urgent assistance, but more importantly we will deliver longer-term support.

Fianna Fail understands that reconciling both food security and action on climate change is a defining challenge of our time  and we have to support farmers in this.

We need our farming community. We need sustainable food production.

They are not only our largest indigenous industry, they are also custodians of our nature and our food security.

No community is being hit harder by climate change than our farmers and the wider agri-food industry, he said.

Mr Martin also used the speech to address climate issues, saying the extreme weather changes are the direct impact of climate change.

He said the Infrastructure Fund will see that new school buildings, new hospitals facilities, roads and public transport will have secured funding.

Called the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, they will mean that the needs of our citizens are provided for, today and well into the future, he added.

The Fianna Fail leader said that Irelands largest reserve funds will guarantee investments.

He said there is also a need to tackle the rising cost of living, which he said is being experienced by every family.

Online safety  getting children off their screens and back talking to each other  these are objectives we should all share.

And to the social media companies our message is clear. Take concrete steps to get underage children off your apps or we will impose those steps on you.

Wherever I go in the country I meet parents who are worried about what is becoming the new public health crisis of our time  the impact on children of social media and being constantly online, he added.

Mr Martin said that every school in Ireland will receive funding to support the banning of smartphones during school time.

He also pledged to clamp down on social media companies, who fail to comply with safety regulations.

I will soon bring to Government a formal proposal, in coordination with other governments we have worked with throughout this conflict to recognise a Palestinian state.

The only possible route to peace is for a stable, democratic state for the Palestinian people, Mr Martin added.

He called for a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages and a mass humanitarian relief.

The evidence shows that war crimes have been committed and the bombardment of the population must be utterly condemned.

But as I have said repeatedly, including in direct discussions with the Israeli government, its war in Gaza is causing a shocking humanitarian catastrophe and cannot be justified.

They should release all hostages and stop their activities, which have brought great misery to the Palestinian people.

Let there be no doubt, the brutal savagery of Hamas on October 7th should be condemned by anyone with basic decency. Nothing could ever justify their objectives and actions, Mr Martin added.

Turning to events in Gaza, he said that tireless work has been carried out over the past six months to try to bring an end to the war.

And events internationally remind us again of the urgency of working for lasting peace and reconciliation on this island.

We join with others in appealing to Iran to step back from an escalation which threatens millions more people in the region with conflict.

Speaking in Dublin on Saturday, Mr Martin said: This weekend there are very worrying developments in tensions between Iran and Israel.

Mr Martin used his keynote address to Fianna Fails conference to appeal for calm.

Events internationally remind us again of the urgency of working for lasting peace and reconciliation on this island

Iran has vowed to retaliate after two of its top generals were killed in an air strike on its consulate in Syria earlier this month, which the US military believes was carried out by Israel.

Micheal Martin said there have been very worrying developments between Iran and Israel in recent days.

Irelands deputy premier has appealed to Iran to step back from an escalation, after it pledged to retaliate against Israel over the attack on its consulate in Damascus.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Fariz Rzayev was on a working visit to Greece on April 10-12, Trend reports.

Rzayev took part in panel discussions during the session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) at the IX Delphi Economic Forum.

Rzayev spoke about the preparations for COP29 in Azerbaijan in November 2024, as well as actions taken in Azerbaijan to safeguard the environment and create alternative energy sources. He stated that the regions liberated from occupation in Azerbaijan had been designated as a green energy zone.



Rzayev also met with government officials and members of the Greek Parliament. During the sessions, the parties discussed the present condition and potential for bilateral and multilateral cooperation, as well as topics on the regional and international agenda.

Delphi Economic Forum is a nonprofit, member driven organization, committed to deliver and promote innovative ideas for sustainable and competitive growth for Europe and the wider Eastern Mediterranean region.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
Like many other health disparities, there is a difference in the immunization rate for Black and white children.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 66.5% of children 19 to 35 months old are fully immunized compared to 71.5% of white children. The gap is not as large for children who have received MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccinations, but a recent surge in measles cases in Missouri and the United States is concerning to health officials.

According to the CDC, a total of 64 measles cases were reported in 17 areas in the state of Missouri, as of March 21, 2024.

Nationally, the total number of measles cases has already reached the level that occurred during the entire year of 2023, as reported by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).

As the number of vaccinations continues to decrease, measles cases or outbreaks have emerged in several states. The Department of Health and Human Services recommends parents and guardians check their childs vaccination records to make sure they have received the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Statewide, the MMR vaccination rate among kindergarteners has dropped steadily from 95.4% in the 2016-2017 school year to 90.5% at the start of the 2023-2024 school year, according to preliminary data reported by Missouri school districts.

According to the DHSS, 92% of kindergarten-aged students are vaccinated in St. Louis County while 74% of kindergarten-aged students are vaccinated in St. Louis city.

While religious (non-medical) exemptions have simultaneously increased from 1.9% to 3.5% accounting for some of the decrease in vaccination rates, state epidemiologist George Turabelidze said travel is also playing a role in the decrease.

A lot of U. S. residents travel abroad, and many countries are experiencing measles outbreaks as well because this vaccination is down worldwide, not just in the United States. If they are not vaccinated, they bring it back, he said.

Every time your population or community vaccination rate drops below 95 percent, especially below 90%, this is a setup for a measles outbreak.

Turabelidze spoke with the St. Louis American concerning measles outbreaks, possible side effects of the vaccine and next steps to protect those most vulnerable to the disease  children and immunocompromised individuals.

The measles vaccine gives those vaccinated with just one dose 93% protection against measles infection. Both doses of the vaccine provide individuals with a 97% protection rate throughout their lifetime, according to the DHSS.

I think the public should be aware that measles was one of the major killers among infectious diseases going back not too far, even in the mid-20th century, Turabelizde said.

We have high rates of vaccinations in this country and because of mass vaccinations, this disease has become unknown.

Herd immunity, achieved through a measles vaccination rate of 95% or more, is crucial for preventing disease outbreaks.

Achieving this level of vaccination creates a barrier that limits the spread of infectious disease within a community, safeguarding those who are unable to be vaccinated due to their age or compromised immune systems, Turabelidze said.

If you dont vaccinate preschoolers now, generation after generation, you will continue [to see] dropping vaccination rates.

Measles is a highly contagious and serious disease, especially serious for children under age five and those who are immunocompromised. Common symptoms include a rash that starts as flat red spots on the head and spreads to other parts of the body, high fever, cough, runny nose, red and watery eyes, and tiny white spots inside the mouth.

The virus spreads through coughing and sneezing and can live for up to two hours in an airspace after an infected person leaves an area. If not treated, complications can grow in severity including an elevated risk of hospitalization and pneumonia.

In some cases, you can develop a brain infection and end up in a death outcome, so it is a serious disease, and we encourage everyone to be protected, Turabelidze said.

This vaccine has been used in the United States since the 1970s and is a safe and effective way to protect children from measles, according to the DHSS.

To be fully immunized, the DHSS recommends children receive two doses of the MMR vaccine, with the first dose between ages 12-15 months and the second dose between ages 4-6 years old. Infants as young as 6 months can receive the first dose if traveling to areas where the measles infection rate is high, according to the DHSS. Families should consult their healthcare provider to discuss appropriate vaccine options for their children.

Most health insurance plans cover vaccines, but individuals should check with their insurance provider to verify coverage. For those without insurance, the Vaccines for Children Program, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), provides free vaccines to children who qualify.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. EU is Azerbaijans biggest supporter when it comes to de-mining, Chair of the Political and Security Committee of the European Union Delphine Pronk wrote on her page on X, Trend reports.

"Proud to make a difference: the EU is Azerbaijans biggest supporter when it comes to de-mining. By training an all-female de-mining team, the EU helps to increase the role women play in security. Time has come for concrete steps to ensure peace and stability in the region. The EU is ready to deepen cooperation and continue supporting peace efforts, she wrote.
April 13, 2024: The U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton is a high-altitude long endurance UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) developed for high seas or coastal surveillance. Tritons can do this more effectively and at much less cost than manned aircraft. Although there are no personnel on board, Triton requires a ground crew of operators and maintainers to keep Tritons operational. While most of Triton flight operations are pre-programmed, there is always a back-up operator on the ground to handle any unforeseen situations. Triton can and often does cross the Atlantic or Pacific oceans to an area they will operate in. Such long deployment operations are monitored but not controlled from the ground. When a Triton is on the ground it requires the attention of maintainers who check all systems and make repairs, upgrades or refurbishment as required.

Triton is a naval version of the original RQ-4 Global Hawk that was developed for land surveillance in the 1990s and entered service in 2001. RQ-4s are still in service and so far 42 have been built for the U.S. Air force, NASA, and NATO. The air force is the major user. Triton entered service in 2019 after nearly a decade of development. The Navy plans to acquire 65 Tritons in addition to the two prototypes used for development. Australia has ordered four Tritons, with an option to obtain three more.

Tritons currently cost $142 million each. Tritons are 15-ton unmanned aircraft that have a top speed of 575 kilometers an hour and a cruising speed of about 400 kilometers an hour. At cruising speed, a Triton can stay aloft for up to 30 hours at altitudes of up to 17 kilometers (56,000 feet). Range is 15,000 kilometers.

In 2017 the U.S. Navy received its first production model MQ-4C. There were then six production models in service and two development models. There used to be five development models but three have been lost, the first one in 2012 in the United States. Two were lost in 2019. One was heavily damaged during a takeoff accident late in 2019 while another was shot down by the Iranians in mid-2019. The development models were air force RQ-4B aircraft modified for naval service. As development ended the development aircraft were put to work and the last two losses were operating in the Middle East. One of the production models had a landing accident in late 2018 and it is unclear when that one will return to service as it landed on its belly because the UAV lost power and the landing gear did not fully deploy.

The first production MQ-4Cs joined squadrons already created to use them. The first of five MQ-4C squadrons, VUP (Unmanned Patrol Squadron) 19, became operational in late 2016 even though the squadron only had access to the three MQ-4C prototypes and three RQ-4s configured as Tritons. VUP 19 was moved to Guam in the Pacific and received its first two MQ-4Cs in 2020 and began operations. Each VUP squadron has about 130 personnel, including UAV operators and maintenance personnel. The MQ-4C carries a lot of electronics, including a sense and avoid system so that the UAV can operate in commercial airspace and alongside other military aircraft, including the P-8A manned reconnaissance aircraft. The sense and avoid system is still not fully operational. The 360-degree ocean surveillance radar is operational as is the air search radar. The ocean surveillance radar operates in all weather and can identify most ships it detects on the surface.

A second squadron is being formed in California to cover the eastern Pacific. Three more VUPs will be based in Kadena, Japan, Sigonella, Italy and other bases bordering the Atlantic. All five VUP squadrons are now active. Each will eventually have eight or more MQ-4Cs and can maintain at least four of them operational at all times to provide 24/7 surveillance where needed in their region. Each VUP will eventually have at least 12 MQ-4Cs so that some can also be sent overseas as needed. Before that happens some MQ-4Cs will be flown to the new VUPs as needed for training or operations. Currently Tritons are operating in Europe to monitor the situation in Ukraine and the Black Sea.

Australia has seven MQ-4Cs on order to complement its P-8As and other manned maritime surveillance aircraft. India and Britain are watching all this unfold before while they consider obtaining MQ-4Ca. There is no question that the MQ-4Cs can perform and the developmental models have spent enough time in the air to determine that the MQ-4Cs will probably suffer about four UAVs lost per 100,000 flight hours. That will improve over time, but it has already improved quite a lot since the original RQ-4 Global Hawk entered service.

The navy now plans to buy at least 65 MQ-4Cs Tritons and 130 P-8A Poseidon manned jet aircraft to replace 250 prop-driven P-3Cs maritime surveillance aircraft. This replacement program is supposed to be completed before 2030. The new surveillance aircraft provide more information over a wider area and do it more quickly. So far 106 P-8As are in service with the U.S. Navy and foreign customers.

In 2009 one of the six navy RQ-4Bs used for MQ-4C development was put in service on an experimental basis. The first year of testing consisted of 60 flights and over 1,000 hours in the air. The flights were over land and sea areas, even though the UAV sensors are designed mainly to perform maritime reconnaissance. In 2012 a navy RQ-4B began operating with a carrier task force at sea. Circling above the task force at 22,500 meters (70,000 feet), the UAV monitored sea traffic off the Iranian coast and the Straits of Hormuz. Anything suspicious was checked out by carrier aircraft, land-based aircraft, or nearby warships. The RQ-4B could fly a 24 hour sortie every three days. The brief tests with the fleet were a success and the first pre-production MQ-4C was delivered in late 2012.

The Navy initially planned to buy MQ-4Cs for over $60 million each. The MQ-4C has a wingspan of 42.2 meters and is 15.5 meters long. Range is over 22,000 kilometers and cruising speed is 650 kilometers an hour. The MQ-4C is based on the RQ-4B Global Hawk which entered service in 2006. At 13 tons the Global Hawk is the size of a commuter airliner (like the Embraer ERJ 145) but costs nearly twice as much. Global Hawk is equipped with powerful and expensive sensors which more than double the cost of each aircraft. These spy satellite quality sensors, especially AESA radar, are usually worth the expense because they enable the UAV, flying at over 20,000 meters, to get a sharp picture of all the territory it can see from that altitude. The B version is a lot more reliable. Early A models tended to fail and crash at the rate of once every thousand flight hours.

The MQ-4C is seen as the ultimate replacement for all manned maritime patrol aircraft, at least once it is equipped with more anti-submarine sensors and weapons. The P-8A will probably be the last manned naval search aircraft. Some countries are using satellite communications to put the sensor operators who staff manned patrol aircraft on the ground. Some nations propose sending aircraft like the P-3 or P-8 aloft with just their flight crews, not all the system operators and having all the other gear operated from the ground. This will enable the aircraft to stay in the air longer and carry more equipment.
April 13, 2024: South Korea recently signed the CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and other Middle East nations to make it easier for South Korea to export weapons and military equipment to Middle Eastern nations, particularly without the burden of heavy import tariffs and similar additional costs. Recent exports include the KM-SAM (Surface to Air Missile) air defense systems that can also intercept ballistic missiles, man-portable Raybolt ATGMs (Anti-tank Guided Missiles) and K329 MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket Systems).

The South Koreans have a reputation for providing excellent post-sale service for equipment they offer. This is a major sales advantage in the Middle East, where most nations have a shortage of local technicians and are increasingly reluctant to hire technicians from Europe or the United States. South Korean technicians speaking English or Arabic are a welcome change.

Middle Eastern Military Officials are increasingly considering South Korea when they seek new weapons or improved replacements for ones they already have. South Korea has much to offer, including combat aircraft like the KF-21 and FA-50 as well as Surion helicopters. There is also the M-SAM-2 BMD (ballistic missile defense) system which can also intercept aircraft at all altitudes. South Korea is also a major manufacturer of diesel-electric submarines for the South Korea Navy as well as export customers. This month South Korean submarine builder Hyundai Heavy Industries delivered the 21st of 27 KSS class diesel-electric submarines. These are 3,600 ton boats with vertical launch tubes for missiles as well as the usual torpedo tubes for torpedoes and deploying naval mines. These new submarines use lithium-ion batteries that enable these submarines to remain submerged for weeks at a time. This is nearly as effective as an SSN (nuclear powered attack submarine) and a lot cheaper. These subs were designed for extended cruises in the Pacific Ocean, which is much larger than the North Atlantic, where most submarines have operated for over a century. In the 21st Century the Pacific is the likely main theater of operations for any future conflict. The 20th Century submarine threat came from Germany which Russia has been a much smaller threat in the 20th and 21st Centuries.

South Korea has also been exporting a large array of accessories for naval, air and land combat. This includes American GE F414 jet engines built under license in South Korea for their KF-21 fighter. The South Korean built engine is available to other nations for aircraft under development. South Korea also develops and builds electronic systems for combat aircraft including AESA radars and very capable fire control systems and airborne communications networks.

North Korea is also a prolific exporter of weapons. While many Western nations are sending South Korean weapons to Ukraine, Russia uses ballistic missiles, artillery shells and other munitions from North Korea for use in Ukraine against Ukrainian forces.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. On April 13, at about 08:30, the Armenian armed forces units from the positions located in the direction of Chinarli settlement of Tovuzgala region using small arms subjected to fire the Azerbaijan Army positions stationed in the direction of Kokhanabi settlement of Tovuz region, Trend reports.

The Azerbaijan Army Units took adequate retaliatory measures in the mentioned direction, the Ministry of Defense said.
China lodges solemn representations to Japan, Philippines over negative moves in Washington

Xinhua) 09:57, April 13, 2024

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- China has lodged solemn representations to Japan on Friday over its negative moves in Washington, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Liu Jinsong, director general of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, summoned Chief Minister of the Embassy of Japan in China Yokochi Akira to lodge solemn representations and express serious concerns and strong dissatisfaction over Japan's negative moves during the Japan-U.S. summit in Washington and the trilateral summit among the United States, Japan and the Philippines.

China has also lodged solemn representations to the Philippines on the same day over its remarks during the trilateral summit.

On April 11, the leaders of the United States, Japan and the Philippines held their first trilateral summit in Washington and issued a Joint Vision Statement after the summit.

Previously, the United States claimed that this summit and the U.S.-Japan-Philippines cooperation "is not aimed at" China. However, the Statement discusses the South China Sea issue at length, blames China on the East China Sea issue and contains irresponsible comments on the Taiwan question.

"China strongly opposes the practice of bloc politics by relevant countries. We firmly oppose any acts that stoke and drive up tensions, and harm other countries' strategic security and interests. We are seriously against forming exclusive groupings in this region," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks when asked to comment on a related query at a regular press briefing on Friday.

She said that Japan and the Philippines have every right to develop normal relations with other countries, but they should not introduce bloc confrontation into this region, still less engaging in trilateral cooperation at the expense of other countries' interests.

"To know whether the trilateral summit and cooperation is truly not aimed at China, the answer is right there in the trilateral statement. What else could it be if it's not a smear and attack against China?" Mao said.

On the Taiwan question, Mao said it is purely China's internal affair, adding that resolving the Taiwan question is a matter of the Chinese own and no one can interfere in it. The biggest threat to cross-Strait peace now is the separatist activities of "Taiwan independence" forces, and external connivance and support for them.

If relevant countries truly care about cross-Strait peace and stability, and want the world to be safe and prosperous, they should uphold the one-China principle, oppose "Taiwan independence" separatist activities unequivocally, and support China's reunification, she said.

"This is the right way to ensure peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. No one should underestimate the will and capability of the Chinese people to safeguard our sovereignty and territorial integrity," Mao said.

To respond to the South China Sea issue and the East China Sea issue, Mao said that China has indisputable sovereignty over Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands and Nanhai Zhudao.

"Our activities in the East China Sea and South China Sea are lawful, justified and beyond reproach," said Mao.

China does not accept relevant countries' groundless accusation and deliberate smears against China on the East China Sea and South China Sea, does not accept the illegal arbitral award on the South China Sea or any unilateral moves based on the award, Mao said.

The situation in the East China Sea and the South China Sea is generally stable, she noted, adding that certain countries keep seeking backing from non-regional countries as they infringe on China's sovereignty and rights, and make provocations at sea.

What they have done has escalated the tensions. Certain country outside the region keep fueling the flame and stoking confrontation. This is flagrant, said the spokesperson.

"Let me stress once again that China will firmly guard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and we remain committed to properly settling bilateral maritime issues through dialogue and consultation with countries directly concerned. And we resolutely oppose non-regional countries' meddling and sowing discords to escalate the situation," Mao said.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
Iran's ambassador to Azerbaijan, Seyyed Abbas Mousavi, responded to US President Joe Biden's warning to Iran, Azernews reports, citing the post shared by Seyyed Abbas Mousavi on his official "X" account.

"Israel will definitely be punished, under any circumstances !" he added.

It should be recalled that yesterday US President Joe Biden emphasized that he will support Israel, while answering journalists' questions. Recent events related to Israel proved once again that Iran's war is waged only through mass media and social networks. The regime carries out cheap threat campaigns with exaggerated statements, especially on social networks.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. Kazakhstan is committed to the quick establishment of peace between Baku and Yerevan, said President of Kazakhsthan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in an interview with Armenian media, Trend reports.

"Kazakhstan is deeply invested in this issue. We're keen on seeing a swift peace agreement between our friendly neighbors. Cementing a durable peace between Yerevan and Baku serves our country's interests," he remarked.

President Tokayev further stated that as proponents and initiators of peace-building initiatives, Kazakhstan stands ready to back any endeavors aimed at fostering peace and sustainable development in the region.

He also stressed the growing significance of the South Caucasus in the Eurasian transport network, and therefore, unlocking transport routes in the region becomes a necessity.

"Ensuring smooth transportation operations is a crucial step towards economic integration across the entire South Caucasus and the establishment of enduring peace in the region," the president added.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov received the Egyptian candidate for UNESCO director-general post Khaled el Enany, a source in the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan told Trend.

The discussion included an exchange of views on current topics on the Azerbaijan-UNESCO collaboration agenda, the country's position and initiatives, as well as regional issues.



The minister stated that during Azerbaijan's membership in UNESCO, the country made significant contributions to the organization's activities, such as the development and promotion of intercultural dialogue.



He stressed the relevance of the Baku Process, the country's educational and humanitarian activities, and gave Azerbaijani ideas on problems that the Egyptian candidate will consider relevant to include in his electoral program.

Bayramov also provided detailed information about the history of the former Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, the fact of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories and the destruction of cultural heritage sites in Azerbaijan by Armenia, and the situation in the region in the post-conflict period.

Besides, the minister emphasized that despite the fact that for more than 20 years calls have been addressed to UNESCO to organize a mission to Azerbaijani territories and register the destruction caused by Armenia, the Armenian side in every possible way prevented this, and this fact was noted in the UNESCO report for 2005.

The minister wished the candidate for the post of Director General of UNESCO success in the election campaign.

The meeting also included an exchange of views on other issues of mutual interest.

To note, the election for the director-general post is due to be held in the last quarter of 2025 at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. The final meeting on the results of the first quarter was held in the Land Forces under the training plan for 2024, Trend reports citing the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

Chiefs of departments, branches, units attended the meeting led by the Deputy Minister of Defense  Commander of the Land Forces, Lieutenant General Hikmat Mirzayev. Commanders and Deputies of army corps and formations, battalion commanders took part in the meeting via video teleconference.

First, the memory of the National Leader Heydar Aliyev and Shehids (Martyrs) who sacrificed their lives for the independence and territorial integrity of the Motherland was honored with observing a minute of silence. The National Anthem of the Republic of Azerbaijan was performed.

At the meeting, the reports of commanders on the organization of service and combat activities in subordinate military units during the first quarter of 2024, the work done in this field, the tasks carried out, as well as the state of the service of troops, logistics and military discipline were widely analyzed.

The tasks set by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Mr. Ilham Aliyev to the Azerbaijani Army, as well as the instructions of Defense Minister, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov on further improvement of the organization of the troops service were brought to the attention.

At the end of the meeting, distinguished servicemen were noted based on the results of the first quarter.
Venezuelan migrants wait in line to get their passport stamped at the Immigration office in Cucuta, Colombia. (Jose A. Iglesias, Miami Herald/TNS)

(Tribune News Service)  In a new sign of Venezuelans simmering desperation, a poll released Thursday shows that 40% of Venezuelans would consider leaving the South American nation if ruler Nicolas Maduro is declared the winner of Julys presidential election.

The opinion poll, prepared by the firm Meganalisis, also said that 45% of those surveyed did not know if they would consider leaving the country or not, allowing that at least some of them might do so if Maduro stays in power. The election, whose credibility has already been questioned in the U.S., is set for July 28th.

Only 16% of those consulted responded that they would not consider leaving, in a result described as monstrous, scandalous by Meganalisis President, Ruben Chirinos.

More than 7.7 million Venezuelans, equivalent to about 20% of the population, have already left the country to escape the dire economic conditions and lack of freedom imposed by Caracas socialist regime.

The majority of immigrants who have left Venezuela ended up settling in Colombia, a country that welcomed 2.8 million of them, but hundreds of thousands also sought refuge in Peru, Spain, Chile, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina and the United States. The total number of Venezuelans that reached the United States has been estimated at more than 545,000.

If 40% of the Venezuelan population decided to leave the country, that would translate to 10 million people seeking refuge in other nations.

The desire to leave the country is born out of an overall sense of hopelessness prevalent in Venezuela following more than two decades of autocratic rule by Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, Chirinos said.

With the passage of time, the perception that we are seeing in Venezuela is that the Chavista movement, with all that socialism entails, is increasingly weaker in terms of popular support, but led by individuals clinging to power, and clinging to the notion of imposing on the population their way of seeing the country, which is a way that does not translate in generating opportunities for the people, nor in possibilities for growth, to have a family or to have a better quality of life, he said. .

The survey, based on interviews with 1,000 people in the capital and in 23 states of the country, also showed that a large majority of Venezuelans continue to support the leadership of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, even though the Maduro regime has banned her from running for president.

When asked who is the most reliable and most credible political leader in the country, 74% said Machado, while 72% said they would vote for her if she was allowed to compete in the election.

These numbers contrast with those for Maduro, who would get 13% if he competed against the candidates who have been authorized to run in the election.

According to the opinion poll, 81% of those surveyed do not want Maduro to remain in power, 10% want him to do so, and 9% said they do not know.

Fearing that Maduro would clearly be defeated in the election if Machado was allowed to compete, the Caracas regime banned her from participating, in what was described by the Biden administration as a violation of the democratic transition roadmap agreed by Caracas, Washington and the Venezuelan opposition in an accord signed last year in Barbados.

2024 Miami Herald.

Visit at miamiherald.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey speaks during a press conference at the State House. (Nancy Lane, Boston Herald/TNS)

BOSTON (Tribune News Service)  Migrant families whove stayed overtime at a Cape Cod hotel will be moved out by the end of the month and into an unknown destination, prompting some lawmakers to call for full transparency from the Healey administration on shelter locations.

Town officials in Yarmouth have received word that all 39 migrant families staying at Harborside Suites will be relocated to various shelters, all of which will be staffed by Emergency Assistance shelter provider agencies, on April 23 and 25.

The motel sparked controversy in the popular summer vacation beach town by housing families since last September  a violation of a local bylaw that limits temporary stays to less than 30 days.

Town Administrator Robert L. Whritenour alerted residents in an update Tuesday that the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities has scheduled the transfers and officials were actively informing families of the upcoming moves.

Further details about the specific destinations for each family will be communicated closer to the transfer dates, he wrote.

A spokesperson for the state housing office confirmed to the Herald that the families will be moved out of Harborside Suites to shelters off the Cape but declined to disclose what towns and cities they will be in.

Due to the confidentiality of the families in shelter we will not be revealing the location of shelter sites, the spokesperson said.

Republican lawmakers tell the Herald they believe the closed-door operations are a disservice to towns and cities that will be receiving migrant families in ensuring they have the proper resources to serve them.

Housing and relocating migrant families at taxpayer expense shouldnt be a covert operation, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, said in a statement Thursday. The cities, towns, and regions that are going to have to deal with any burdens of accommodating them need as much advance notice as possible.

Moving the migrant families out of Yarmouth is part of ongoing shelter consolidation efforts, according to the state housing office. Harborside Suites has been staffed by the National Guard but lacks a contracted service provider.

Families will be relocated to sites with service providers who provide 24-hour staffing, support services, and re-housing case management to incentivize exiting the shelter system, the housing office spokesperson said.

The goal of site consolidation is to reduce overhead costs, the spokesperson added, reduce the number of shelter sites, streamline resource allocation, simplify coordination, and to improve service delivery for residents in shelter.

Yarmouth Building Commissioner Mark Grylls issued a violation notice to Harborside Suites last October.

The motel sought a reversal, but the Zoning Board of Appeals late last month approved upholding Grylls notice  a delayed action from January when motel attorney Mark Boudreau told board members families were slated to be moved by the end of February to a larger facility in the Foxboro area that would provide better opportunities for food and room.

We would move today if we could, Boudreau said on March 28. The migrants that are there, they are ready to move.

Boudreau highlighted how motels that housed migrants in Bourne and Wareham, which he represents, were completely evacuated. He maintained that the future shelter for the Yarmouth migrant families is within a 20-mile radius of Foxboro.

State Rep. Jay Barrows, R-Mansfield, said he had not received any communication from the state on whether the Yarmouth migrants will be relocated to his district which also includes Foxboro and Norton, as of Wednesday.

Roughly 450 migrants are residing in Foxboro, with dozens of children enrolled in the towns public schools, maxing out the shelter system there, Barrows said. Migrants that had been in Mansfield were relocated to Stoughton, he added.

It would be helpful to the communities where these are going to land to know ahead of time so they can make the appropriate adjustments with transportation, with necessary supplies that maybe many of these people dont have, Barrows said. Two weeks is better than two minutes, but again, there needs to be some forward-thinking here.

Top Beacon Hill Democrats are still racing to tie up a spending bill that could shuttle more money to the states emergency shelter system just as funding for the program could run out in the next week.

Massachusetts lawmakers have said that the $575 million allocated this fiscal year for the emergency shelter system is expected to dry up by mid-April, though the date could change depending on when bills come due. A report released earlier this week showed the administration has already spent $504 million on emergency shelters as of April 4.

The state is just one family shy of housing 7,500 in its emergency assistance shelter system, with 7,499 being recorded on Thursday. As of last week, 76 hotels and motels were providing living accommodations.

There is no justification for withholding information from the public regarding the destinations for these migrants, MassGOP Chairwoman Amy Carnevale said in a statement. The Democratic supermajority bears responsibility for this crisis and theyre not being straightforward with how theyre handling it.

State Rep. Steven Xiarhos, R-Barnstable, is calling on the state to perform background checks on migrants to determine if any individuals being moved into residential areas pose a public safety or public health risk.

Yarmouth town leaders assured residents last December that there were no active cases of tuberculosis at Harborside Suites after a brief scare, the Cape Cod Times reported.

If the state is sheltering migrants anywhere at taxpayer expense  a policy I disagree with in the first place  there needs to be complete transparency regarding where they will be staying and what it will cost taxpayers, Xiarhos said.

2024 MediaNews Group, Inc.

Visit at bostonherald.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Alexander De Croo. (Ksenia Kuleshova/Bloomberg)

Belgium may prosecute people for interfering in European-wide elections as part of an effort to combat Russian disinformation, its prime minister said Friday.

Our federal prosecutor has started an investigation which is based on the declassified report that our intelligence services have brought out, Alexander De Croo told reporters in Brussels. Our judicial authorities have now confirmed that this interference is subject to a prosecution.

His announcement came after the Czech government said last month that its counterintelligence service had uncovered a Russian network trying to influence politics and public opinion across Europe, including making payments to European politicians. Prague also imposed sanctions on a local company that runs the Voice of Europe website and on two individuals linked to it. A new law came into force in Belgium last week targeting interference.

While Belgian intelligence services found that cash payments didnt take place in Belgium, De Croo said that the interference was allegedly carried out in the country.

De Croo also called for action on the EU level, which he said he will raise at a leaders meeting in Brussels next week. Belgium holds the blocs rotating presidency.

The prime minister asked for Eurojust, the EUs agency for judicial cooperation in criminal matters, to convene and discuss the matter urgently, as well as examine how to broaden the mandate of the European Public Prosecutors Office to allow for prosecuting these types of threats.

We must remain very vigilant to any future elections and definitely related to the European election, which is happening at the beginning of June, De Croo said. The only intent is to weaken European democracy and to weaken the support for Ukraine, which is one of the objectives that Russia has.
A video screen grab shows Ghassan Abu Sitta during an interview in April 2019. According to reports on Saturday, April 13, 2024, Abu Sitta said he was questioned for three hours at Germanys Berlin airport before being told he was not allowed to enter the country. (YouTube)

BERLIN - A prominent British Palestinian doctor said he was forcibly prevented from entering Germany on Friday, with the Palestinian solidarity conference he was due slated to speak at shut down by police who detained dozens of activists in the process.

Ghassan Abu Sitta, a reconstructive plastic surgeon who spent 43 days tending to the wounded in Gaza City last year, said that he was questioned for three hours at Berlins airport before being told he was not allowed to enter the country. He said he had also been informed he was not allowed to record any videos that could be shown in events in Germany this month.

Today we saw how accomplices in a crime behave, Abu Sitta said at a demonstration at the German embassy in London after arriving back in Britain, referring to Berlins support of Israels war. Accomplices in a crime try to hide the evidence and silence the witnesses.

Germanys interior ministry did not respond to emails requesting comment.

The pro-Palestinian conference at which Abu Sitta was due to speak was broken up by police shortly after he was turned back at immigration. It accuses Germany of being complicit in Israeli apartheid and genocide on its website and was scheduled to include speakers such as former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and Irish politician Richard Boyd Barrett, both known for their Palestinian activism.

Germany has thrown full support behind Israel during its war in Gaza, with the countrys security seen as paramount to the state given Germanys Holocaust history. It is the second largest arms supplier to Israel after the United States, with Nicaragua lodging a case at the International Court of Justice earlier this week alleging that Germany is aiding genocide through its deliveries. Berlin has called the case grossly biased.

Alongside its support for the war has come what officials describe as a zero tolerance stance toward antisemitism, which in practice has brought hypersensitivity to pro-Palestinian expression. The slogan Free Palestine has been banned in Berlin schools, while a slew of exhibitions and events have been closed over the Palestinian sympathies of artists.

In February, Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham caused a firestorm at the Berlin International Film Festival after he called for a cease-fire in Gaza and criticized Israels treatment of Palestinians.

Critics have countered that Germanys intention is to stifle voices critical of Israels war, and point to the soft hand of authorities when it comes to antisemitism of White far-right Germans.

When you see what they are doing to the people in Gaza, this is nothing, said Abu Sitta, who said that his lawyers would be taking up his removal from the country with the German authorities.

Police shut down the Palestinian solidarity conference about a minute into playing a video message from Palestinian author Salman Abu Sitta - Ghassan Abu Sittas uncle. We have never seen before all means of life systematically destroyed: hospitals, clinics, schools, universities, libraries, ancient monuments, mosques, universities, cemeteries, apartment buildings, he said before the police intervened.

Be calm, they are embarrassing themselves, an organizer told attendees as police cut off the live stream. Around 30 police officers had been in the room of 250 participants to monitor the event, attendees said. They then cut power to the building.

Berlin police said it broke up the event because 86-year-old Salman Abu Sitta is forbidden from being politically active in Germany. Seventeen people were detained, according to a police statement which did not give further details on the reasons.

There is a risk of a speaker being put on screen who in the past made antisemitic and violence-glorifying remarks, Berlin police said on social media. The last two days of the conference have been banned, it said.

Wieland Hoban - the chairman of Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, which co-organized the event - said the organizers had not been informed in advance that Salman Abu Sitta was under a speaking ban. Two of the groups members were detained, he said, including one who held up a Jews against genocide sign outside the event venue in the morning.

The conference - and Salman Abu Sittas participation in particular - stirred controversy before it even began, with Germanys antisemitism commissioner, Felix Klein, saying he was in favor of banning the author from entering the country. The furor related to a January blog post in which Salman Abu Sitta wrote that he could have been one of those who broke through the fence if he were younger and still lived in the concentration camp called the Gaza Strip.

Organizers said around 100 police officers showed up at the event Friday morning, but did not raise any concerns with them about the conference program.

In the morning, police had told organizers that building and fire regulations meant that only 250 attendees would be able to attend, with more than double that number planned. Normally routine health and safety checks with police dragged on for several hours, said one organizer who declined to be named for fear of legal repercussions.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wagner praised the police actions. We have made it clear which rules apply in Berlin, he tweeted. We have made it clear that hatred of Israel has no place in Berlin. Anyone who does not abide by these rules will feel the consequences.
Members of Switzerlands Peoples Party want to enshrine the position of permanent, armed neutrality in the constitution. (Twitter/SVP Schweiz)

Switzerland is heading for a popular vote on its long-standing neutrality amid a debate ignited by the countrys decision to sanction Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Activists and members of the Peoples Party, the largest in parliament, want to enshrine the position of permanent, armed neutrality in the constitution. In addition to preventing Switzerland taking part in any military alliance, the initiative also wants to block participation in non-military coercive measures, which would include sanctions.

The group behind the proposal submitted its petition, backed by more than 130,000 signatures, this week, though the actual vote wont take place for some time.

Switzerland has traditionally refused to take sides in European conflicts, but decided to adopt European Union sanctions against Russia in 2022. According to critics, that was a departure from neutrality and jeopardized the countrys role as an international mediator.

On the other hand, corporate leaders have been increasingly warning that neutrality is harming the countrys business prospects. Switzerland has been blocking weapon shipments from Germany and elsewhere to Ukraine, drawing international ire.

The Peoples Party said this week that there have been targeted attempts to undermine neutrality, citing the countrys adoption of EU sanctions against Russia. It said this has undermined the international view of Switzerland as neutral.

The government says sanctions are compatible with neutrality and is trying to revive Switzerlands relevance by hosting on a conference on peace in Ukraine in June. Russia has already said it wont attend the meeting.

While the backers of the initiative have collected enough signatures, a vote is still some time off. Once the tally is legally certified, the government and parliament will discuss the issue, and the full process usually takes a number of years.

Swiss neutrality, which can be traced back to medieval cantons hiring out mercenaries to warring European states, was enshrined at the Treaty of Paris in 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon. Switzerland follows the legal obligations imposed on neutral states by the 1907 Hague Conventions.

A history of political fence-sitting barely survived World War II, when Switzerland violated its own neutrality by granting loans and selling arms to Nazi Germany. The neutral nation - while helping wounded soldiers and children - also sealed its borders to thousands of Jewish refugees.
Former U.K. Ministry of Defense official Jeffrey Cook. (Serious Fraud Office UK)

An ex-UK Ministry of Defense official was sentenced to 30 months in prison after he was found guilty of accepting kickbacks of cash and cars to help secure lucrative contracts in Saudi Arabia.

Jeffrey Cook, 67 years-old, was convicted of misconduct in public office between 2004 and 2008 last in March. Prosecutors said he hid more than $87,294 of gifts in return for contracts given to the Saudi Arabian National Guard. This was while he was on secondment from the government to a Airbus SE unit.

You made a personal gain at the expense of the public purse, Judge Simon Picken said at Londons Southwark Crown Court on Friday. This offense is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified.

Cook was separately acquitted of corruption charges alongside another defendant John Mason, the ex-joint owner of GPT Special Project Management Ltd., where corrupt payments were allegedly made through.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power has called the crisis in Gaza a famine, fundamentally. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

This story has been corrected

As more progressive Democrats implore the Biden administration to suspend its pipeline of military aid to Israel as a means of compelling a course change in Gaza, lawmakers and analysts say the law offers several tools for doing so.

U.S. leverage over Israel owes in large part to the $3.3 billion in annual security assistance Washington provides to the Jewish state, making it the largest recipient of American military aid. Israels growing isolation on the international stage  fallout from the staggering number of civilian casualties and an emerging famine in the Palestinian enclave  has only underscored the importance of its relationship with the United States, observers say.

The fury being felt by some lawmakers came through this week as they grilled senior national security officials during congressional budget hearings. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., lamented to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that we are the ones supplying Israeli forces with the bombs being used to destroy homes and hospitals and refugee camps.

The U.S. government provides an extraordinary amount of weaponry to Israel, said Brian Finucane, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, noting that the Biden administration has authorized more than 100 arms sales since Oct. 7, including through emergency means that bypass congressional review. And so, he said, all of that gives the United States a lot of potential leverage, either by outright withholding or blocking transfers, or through the credible threat of doing so.

If President Joe Biden wished to take such a step, he would not need new legislation. There are a lot of laws on the books, said Sarah Margon, director of foreign policy at the Open Society Foundations, that can be used to restrict and condition security assistance in whole or in part.

Here are the options:

Foreign Assistance Act

First, theres Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, an obscure law that several members of Congress have alluded to recently in their debates over Israel policy.

The law states: No assistance shall be furnished  to any country when it is made known to the President that the government of such country prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.

Human rights advocates and some Democrats have pointed to the statute  and the administrations own descriptions of the suffering in Gaza  to assert that Israel is violating the law.

Samantha Power, United States Agency for International Development administrator, told lawmakers this week that 1 in 3 children now suffers from malnutrition in north Gaza, while virtually none did before the war, and that the conditions amounted to a famine, fundamentally.

The government of Israel has eyes on everything that goes into Gaza, Power told a panel of senators. In another hearing, she emphasized that the flow of aid into and through Gaza had become so restricted that kids are dying, when theres food on the shelves in supermarkets just a few kilometers away. She declined to say whether Israel was violating 620I, however.

The White House did not respond to questions about the law.

Margon said policymakers regard it as something of a third rail option because, if implemented, security assistance and arms sales would be cut entirely.

Leahy Laws

In theory, the so-called Leahy Laws provide a more palatable means of using security assistance for leverage. Named for former senator Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., the statute compels the State Department and the Pentagon to restrict assistance to specific foreign security units believed to have committed gross violations of human rights.

One big limitation of the Leahy Laws, however, is that most military aid flows to a given partner country without specifying intended units. Changes to the law in recent years have sought to address that loophole by requiring recipient countries to withhold assistance from any units designated by the United States as human rights violators.

But scrutinizing problematic units has always been a time-consuming, resource-intensive task, said Sarah Harrison  another senior adviser at the International Crisis Group  who worked previously on Leahy enforcement at the State Department. And in practice, the Leahy laws are inconsistently enforced, at best.

In the case of Israel, despite years of war with the Palestinians and well-documented concerns about the conduct of Israeli forces, the law has never been used to restrict weapons.

Presidential policy

Additionally, Harrison notes, Bidens own policies could be applied. Each president develops one pertaining to U.S. weapons, known as the Convention of Arms Transfer (CAT), and Bidens happens to be explicit about human rights. All decisions must consider the risk that the recipient may use the arms transfer to contribute to a violation of human rights or international humanitarian law, it says.

Earlier this year, Biden issued an additional policy, a national security memorandum, in response to pressure from Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and other Democratic senators. Known as NSM-20, it requires U.S. arms recipients to provide assurances that they are acting in compliance with international law and facilitating, rather than restricting, humanitarian assistance.

Lawmakers have complained that Biden is neglecting the guidelines set by this policy as well.

Last week, after Israeli strikes killed a group of international humanitarian workers, Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call that the U.S. approach to Israel will be determined by our assessment of Israels immediate action to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering and the safety of aid workers in Gaza. But the administration has given no indication of what action it might take if Israel does not comply.

I think people are rather skeptical that the executive branch is applying other laws objectively to Israel, said Harrison. The only way to really get them to change their behavior is for Congress to act.

Holds and budgets

Yet beyond generating public pressure, Congress has few viable pathways to force an administration to cut off U.S. military aid to a country.

For instance, any one of the four chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate foreign relations committees has the option of placing a temporary hold on the forthcoming sale or transfer of U.S. weapons to a foreign country  an authority invoked previously to withhold weapons from Egypt and Turkey.

But weapons holds  while typically respected by the president  are not legally binding. President Donald Trump in 2019 blew through a congressional hold to complete an arms sale to Saudi Arabia.

Congresss greatest power is its ability to authorize government spending. If a majority of lawmakers want to limit U.S. military assistance for Israel, they can do so when Congress passes its fiscal 2025 budget. Or they can reject a stalled supplemental funding bill that includes aid for Israel, Ukraine and several other national security priorities.

The obstacle to such a shift is simple, though: Support for Israel remains one of the most broadly popular and bipartisan foreign policies in Washington, and relatively few people in national politics want to restrict U.S. assistance in an election year with the pro-Israel lobby one of the biggest financial players.

Over the past several years, Rep. Betty McCollum (Minn.), the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, has introduced four pieces of legislation seeking to condition Israel military aid on compliance with human rights. None has become law, which she attributed in part to personal attacks by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobbyist group spending millions of dollars this year to take on Israels critics

It makes members think twice, she said.

Ultimately, lawmakers and experts said, the power to withhold aid rests with Biden. The bottom line, Finucane said, is if the U.S. government is going to use leverage  it has to be an action or credible threat from the White House itself.

Tyler Pager contributed to this report.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. A significant quantity of weapons and ammunition has been found in the town of Khankendi, Trend reports, referring to the Azerbaijani Interior Ministry.

Additionally, it was noted that during police actions held on April 12, 9 automatic weapons of different brands, 3 rifles, 4 grenades, 1 firecracker gun, 2 smoke bombs, 35 cartridge magazines, 880 cartridges of different caliber, 1 bayonet knife, and other ammunition were found and seized on the territory of the city.

Following the liberation of its lands, Azerbaijan began operations in November 2020 to clean its lands of mines, booby traps, and other weaponry left behind by illegal Armenian forces.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
Malin Rostas is accused of posing as Father Martin to rob from Catholic churches. (Riverside County Sheriffs Department/TNS)

(Tribune News Service)  A notorious fake priest who left a trail of doubt and disbelief among the faithful hes accused of swindling from coast to coast will soon face judgment in Riverside County, sheriffs officials say.

For months, Malin Rostas, aka Father Martin, donned black garb and showed up at Catholic churches across the U.S. and Canada claiming to be a visiting priest from Chicago, according to investigators.

But when his all-too-trusting hosts would leave him alone in the rectory  a priests personal quarters next to the church  investigators say Rostas would rifle through their valuables and make a hasty exodus with their cash.

In March, Father Peter Raydar, of the appropriately named American Martyrs Roman Catholic Church in Queens, N.Y., got burned for $900.

Hes a vulture, hes a vulture, Raydar told a local TV station. Its very sad that someone is going to come to any house of worship and just violate everybody.

But, Raydar confessed, the alleged fake priest had done his homework. Hed learned the names of people at the church, used ecclesiastical vocabulary and knew where to find the loot, he said.

Rostas is accused of pulling a similar caper at a church in Houston, making off with $500. And authorities suspect hes responsible for the theft of more than $1,700 from a church in Oregon.

Theres nothing new about diabolical scammers posing as men of the cloth, of course.

In October, the Diocese of Stockton issued a warning about two men who had assumed the identities of real priests in Toluca, Mexico, and were charging mostly immigrant parishioners exorbitant fees to perform impromptu rituals: baptisms, confirmations, first Communions.

The wolves in sheeps clothing, as a diocese spokeswoman described the men to the National Catholic Register, also started demanding copies of the parishioners birth certificates, raising fears of identity theft and possible human trafficking.

In Miami, church officials recently warned the faithful about fake priests performing bogus rituals in exchange for iTunes gift cards loaded with cash. One parishioner was duped for $1,500.

It got so bad, the local archbishop had to go on TV and remind his flock that, although it is common for priests to pass around the collection plate asking for money during Mass, no Catholic clergyman will ask a parishioner for a gift card.

But perhaps the most inspired recent priest scam occurred in Sacramento, when the owners of a small chain of taquerias that was under federal investigation for labor law violations hired a fake father to hear employees confessions.

I found the conversation to be strange and unlike normal confessions, one of the servers later told investigators.

Instead of giving her space to search her soul and reflect on her sins, the fake priest kept steering the conversation to her job performance: asking if she ever showed up late, stole from the restaurant or did anything to harm her employer.

For Father Martin, the reckoning arrived Thursday morning in Moreno Valley in the form of Riverside County sheriffs deputies who said they noticed his car matched the description of a vehicle used in a string of burglaries.

Behind the wheel they found Rostas, 45, of New York. After running a routine check for arrest warrants, they quickly realized they were face to face with what so many had been searching for  the alleged pilfering padre.

Rostas was booked at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside on an outstanding felony warrant from Pennsylvania. More charges are expected to be filed soon, according to the Sheriffs Department.

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(DOJ)

A former United States ambassador was sentenced Friday to 15 years of imprisonment after pleading guilty to charges that he served for decades as a secret agent for Cubas spy agency.

The Justice Department had described the acts of Manuel Rocha, 73, as one of the most serious, highest-reaching infiltrations of the U.S. government in history.

Todays plea and sentencing brings to an end more than four decades of betrayal and deceit by the defendant, Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said in a statement dated Friday.

The guilty plea and sentencing came after a year-long undercover operation in 2022 and 2023 conducted by an FBI agent posing as a Cuban spy. During that operation, the undercover agent secretly recorded Rocha detailing his own spy work and repeatedly referring to the United States as the enemy, according to the Justice Department.

Rocha told the FBI agent that his spy work was more than a grand slam and that he strengthened the Revolution  immensely, the Justice Department alleged. Prosecutors also said Rocha told the undercover FBI agent that Cubas General Directorate of Intelligence asked me  to lead a normal life.

After he entered a not-guilty plea, Rocha agreed to plead guilty in February to charges of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government. Prosecutors at the time dropped 13 other charges, including wire fraud and making false statements, the Associated Press reported. On Friday, Rocha also pleaded guilty to acting as an agent of a foreign government without notice.

The former State Department employee, who also served on the National Security Council and as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, admitted to spying on the United States for more than 40 years, starting covert operations as early as 1973. Born in Colombia, Rocha became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1978 and began ascending the ranks of the State Department in 1981, prosecutors said.

Over four decades, Rocha served at U.S. embassies in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Mexico. From mid-1994 to mid-1995, he worked on the National Security Council with a portfolio that included Cuba. He was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia in July 2000, and in that job and others he gained access to national secrets, including classified information, which he allegedly shared with Cuban intelligence operatives.

Between 2006 and 2012, Rocha advised military officials at U.S. Southern Command, a military branch whose responsibility includes Cuba.

To betray that trust by falsely pledging loyalty to the United States while serving a foreign power is a crime that will be met with the full force of the Justice Department, Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters when news of the accusations broke.

Prosecutors did not describe in the criminal complaint specific acts of espionage or how the FBI came to suspect him, but they said the agency received a tip about him before November 2022.

The undercover FBI agent told Rocha that they were a representative of a Cuban intelligence agency in Miami and that their mission was to establish a new communication plan with Rocha, who agreed to meet with the undercover agent.

During those meetings at an outdoor food court, the former ambassador allegedly said he created a public reputation as a right wing person, even as he was really committed to communist Cuba. He praised Fidel Castro and referred to other members of the Cuban intelligence agency as his comrades, prosecutors said.

After the year-long sting operation, Rocha was arrested in December. In addition to the prison sentence, the federal court ordered Rocha to pay $500,000, forfeit future pension payments, cooperate with the U.S. government and share details of his dealings with Cuba. Rocha also agreed in the plea agreement to work undercover for the U.S. government should agents request it.

Rochas 15-year prison sentence, the maximum punishment for his crimes of conviction, sends a powerful message to those who are acting or seek to act unlawfully in the United States for a foreign government, said Markenzy Lapointe, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security during a budget hearing at the U.S. Capitol on April 10, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images/TNS)

WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service)  The House plans to deliver impeachment articles for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate Tuesday afternoon, after a delay sparked by Senate Republican efforts to ensure an impeachment trial.

Senate Democrats have said they plan to quickly dismiss or otherwise dispense with the two articles of the historic impeachment of a sitting Cabinet secretary for willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and breach of public trust tied to the Biden administrations immigration policies.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., initially planned to deliver the articles April 10, but announced the delay after a request from Senate Republicans who have sought to muster enough support to force the Senate to hold a trial. A Johnson spokesman confirmed the articles would be sent Tuesday.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, one of the leading advocates for a trial, told reporters Tuesday that waiting until the next week would allow senators to debate the impeachment while not dealing with jet fume intoxication on the day senators usually go home.

In a floor speech Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said he had not changed his plans to deal with the impeachment articles shortly after they are sent to the chamber.

The Senate is ready to go, whenever the House is. We want to address the issue as expeditiously as possible, Schumer said. As I said yesterday, impeachment should never be used to settle policy disagreements. That sets an awful precedent.

Schumers office has said that the day after the articles arrive, senators will be sworn in as jurors and Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray, D-Wash., would preside over the chamber.

Senators on both sides of the aisle have said they expect Democrats to offer a procedural motion to dismiss or table the charges, however Schumer has declined to answer when asked about specifics.

Most Senate Democrats have disparaged the articles, with Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn., calling them laughable on their face during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Homeland Security Department budget request Wednesday.

Murphy said the administration has lacked the tools to deal with the current influx of migrants at the Mexican border due to decisions made in Congress not to fund immigration enforcement and not to overhaul the system.

Mayorkas, the most prominent figure in the broader struggle between the Biden administration and Republicans on immigration policy, is the first Cabinet secretary in more than a century to be impeached.

At the appropriations hearing, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Mayorkas had broken the trust of the American people through his handling of the border and immigration.

Most Republicans dont trust you and a vast majority of the American people dont trust you, thats why you have been impeached, Kennedy said.

The House adopted two articles of impeachment in February by a 214-213 vote.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) is catching the eye of European partners, said President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in an interview with Armenian media, Trend reports.

"In 2023, freight transportation along the TITR surged by 65 percent, reaching 2.8 million tons, with Kazakhstani exports seeing a remarkable 2.5-fold increase. Alongside exports, there's been a noticeable uptick in import cargo flow. This clearly underscores the interest of European companies in the Trans-Caspian route," he remarked.

Tokayev also highlighted the collaborative efforts made last year by the railway administrations of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. They established Middle Corridor Multimodal Ltd., aiming to streamline logistics services through a "single window" approach, standardize tariff policies, and ensure transport stability along the TITR.

"Several European countries are eager to join this route, with some already actively involved. Consequently, the significance of the South Caucasus in the Eurasian transport network has seen a notable uptick," added President Tokayev.

The TITR, also known as the Middle Corridor, serves as a vital link between China and the European Union, traversing through Central Asia, the Caucasus, Turkiye, and Eastern Europe.

This multi-modal transport infrastructure seamlessly connects ferry terminals of the Caspian and Black Seas with the railway systems of China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkiye, Ukraine, and Poland.

One of the key advantages of this transport corridor is its ability to deliver goods from China to Europe in just 20-25 days, making it an attractive option for shippers and businesses alike.
Tareq Elkudir pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to one count of sexual assault on the Ryanair flight on May 2, 2022.

Tareq Elkudir (61), with an address at Hunters Lane, Ashbourne, Co Meath, pictured leaving the Criminal Courts of Justice (CCJ) on Parkgate Street

Tareq Elkudir (61), with an address at Hunters Lane, Ashbourne, Co Meath, pictured leaving the Criminal Courts of Justice (CCJ) on Parkgate Street. Pic: IrishPhotodesk.ie

This is the man who avoided jail after sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl on a Ryanair flight from Manchester.

Tareq Elkudir (61), with an address at Hunters Lane, Ashbourne, Co Meath, was arrested after he disembarked from the plane in Dublin Airport.

He was highly intoxicated and passengers described him as drinking from the neck of a litre-bottle of whiskey during the 45-minute flight.

Elkudir pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to one count of sexual assault on the Ryanair flight on May 2, 2022.

At a hearing this week Judge Martin Nolan said Elkudir did not deserve to go to prison and handed him a fully-suspended sentence of 18 months.

Garda Danielle Black told Michael Hourigan BL, defending, that the teenage girl had travelled to Manchester the previous week on a short trip to visit family friends.

Her father had booked her ticket and checked her on to the flight and the girl was due to return on April 29, however she decided to stay a few days longer and booked her return flight for the day in question.

The teenager, who made a statement to gardai after she arrived in Dublin Airport, said she had boarded the flight in Manchester shortly before 8pm and taken her seat in the middle of a row.

Tareq Elkudir (61), with an address at Hunters Lane, Ashbourne, Co Meath, pictured leaving the Criminal Courts of Justice (CCJ) on Parkgate Street

She said a man in his forties sat down in the aisle seat next to her and spoke to her continually during the flight, using profanities.

The man was drinking from a litre-bottle of Jameson and grabbed her hand with force several times.

The girl said Elkudir hit her a few times on the upper left arm and took her hand several times and kissed it.

The teenager said he was drunk and she was too scared to get up and move so she tried to just get through the flight.

At one point, Elkudir rubbed his right hand near her breast area and she moved away and turned to face the window.

She said Elkudir was still being a pest when the plane landed and as they were taxi-ing in towards the terminal, he tried to pull her in for a kiss a few times and she kept pushing him away.

She managed to get the attention of a woman in another seat and signalled for her to press the button to call cabin crew, but nobody came.

A male passenger in another row asked the girl if she was ok and she replied: No, this man keeps touching me.

The other passenger told Elkudir to back off and leave the girl alone, but he got very angry and stood up.

Cabin crew arrived and the teenager said she had told Elkudir she was 16 and that he replied: I don't give a fuck.

She said Elkudir had punched her twice, hard, on the shoulder and had asked if she had a boyfriend.

Elkudir was arrested on arrival but was highly intoxicated and not fit for interview until the following morning.

Gda Black agreed with counsel for the defence that Elkudir was a completely different person the following morning and was very apologetic.

He told gardai he deserved his punishment and that he was really sorry.

Elkudir has one previous conviction for assault causing harm dating back to 1999.

Counsel said the accused had written a letter of apology to court and brought the sum of 3,000 as a concrete expression of his remorse.

The court heard that the teenager, who did not file a victim impact statement, is ready to move on with her life.

Elkudir has not come to garda attention since this offence and is married with three young children.

He is a Libyan national but has been living in Ireland for over 40 years.

Judge Nolan said that if the injured party does not wish to accept the money, it should be transferred to a charity of her choice.

The judge said the victim had been unlucky to happen upon Elkudir and had put up with 45 minutes of hassle, during which she was punched and grabbed near her breast.

Judge Nolan said Elkduri was unlikely to reoffend, and addressed him saying: My advice to you is not to drink. It seems to get you in trouble.
Elizabeth Mulcahy (43) allegedly assaulted a female garda after allegedly spitting on the hotel lobby floor during a public order disturbance.

Elizabeth Mulcahy of Summerhill South, Co Cork, will be disputing everything, a court heard. Photo: Paddy Cummins

A woman accused of carrying a sharp object as a weapon after biting a garda in a hotel told a court all she had in her possession at the time were rosary beads.

Elizabeth Mulcahy (43) allegedly assaulted a female garda after allegedly spitting on the hotel lobby floor during a public order disturbance.

Judge Gerard Jones adjourned the case at Dublin District Court after she said she would be disputing everything.

Ms Mulcahy, with an address at Summerhill South, Co Cork, is charged with assault, possession of an article which had a blade or was sharply pointed, criminal damage and threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour.

She is also charged with failing to comply with garda directions and obstructing both a garda and a person helping a police officer.

The offences are all alleged to have happened at Easy Hotel, Benburb Street, on February 9 this year.

Judge Jones asked for an outline of the allegations.

A garda sergeant said it was the prosecutions case that Ms Mulcahy entered the foyer of the hotel and began verbally abusing staff.

She refused to leave, it was alleged, and gardai were called.

She allegedly spat on the hotel floor, which required cleaning and resisted arrest, biting a gardas hand.

It was also alleged she had a sharp object in her possession. Ms Mulcahy told the court the only objects she had were rosary beads and she would be disputing absolutely everything.

The judge told Ms Mulcahy she had better get a solicitor as they were serious matters.

Adjourning the case, the judge said when she was represented, a solicitor could apply for legal aid on her behalf.
Haddock had driven the car away from the scene of the burglary, but later switched places with her partner.

Shannon Haddock (28) of Redgap, Rathcoole, Co. Dublin pictured leaving the Criminal Courts of Justice (CCJ) on Parkgate Street

A woman has been handed a suspended 12-month sentence for assisting her partner after the burglary of a house in South Dublin.

Shannon Haddock (28) of Redgap, Rathcoole, Co. Dublin pleaded guilty to charges of assisting an offender and dangerous driving. She has no previous convictions.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard today that the co-accused is Haddock's partner and he was previously sentenced to 27 months after pleading guilty to burglary of a house in Sallynoggin in March 2023.

The property's owner was driving past when he saw a commotion outside the house on the morning of March 1, 2023. He stopped and went inside where he noticed a kitchen window was broken and there was glass on the floor.

Garda Lorraine Doyle told Carol Doherty BL, prosecuting, that Haddock acted in concert with the co-accused and was at the scene in a car.

Gardai were told a red Audi was seen leaving the scene in the direction of Glenageary.

Gda Doyle said the car was observed in a nearby estate. Haddock had driven the car away from the scene of the burglary, but later switched places with her partner. Both Haddock and her partner drove the car during the incident, the court was told.

The red Audi didn't stop after gardai signalled for it to pull in and drove the wrong way up Sallynoggin Road.

The co-accused was observed to be driving as the car continued onto Kill Lane, stopping after it appeared to collide with other vehicles.

Haddock and the co-accused both fled on foot from the car. She was arrested by gardai shortly afterwards.

She was interviewed, but nothing of evidential value was obtained.

Gda Doyle agreed with Sarah-Jane O'Callaghan BL, defending, that the burglary was nothing to do with her client and the house was unoccupied at the time.

The garda agreed Haddock was courteous in her dealings with gardai and has not come to further negative attention.

It was further accepted that the co-accused has previous convictions and difficulties with addiction.

Gda Doyle agreed that Haddock was experiencing her own difficulties with addiction at the time of the offence. It was also accepted that

Haddock was placed into a chokehold by a member of the public after the car stopped on Kill Lane.

Ms O'Callaghan told the court her client feels absolutely humiliated and ashamed to find herself before the court.

Her client is in a long-term relationship with the co-accused and remains supportive of him.

Haddock continued her studies after completing her Leaving Certificate. A number of certificates, a letter of apology and other reports were handed to the court. She has a work history and assists with the care of two younger siblings, who have additional needs.

Ms O'Callaghan outlined that Haddock faces some challenging personal circumstances including difficulties with her mental health. She was also dealing with addiction at the time of the offending, but has abstained from alcohol and drugs since this incident, which defence counsel said was a horrific mistake and a huge wake-up call for her client.

Imposing sentence, Judge Orla Crowe noted that a member of the public placed Haddock in a chokehold, but when one participates in a crime of this manner, these things can happen.

She said this was a sorry state of affairs noting that Haddock's poor life choices and poor choice of company had brought her before the court.

Judge Crowe said it is an aggravating feature that Haddock was an active participant and drove the car. She noted Haddock's lack of previous convictions and her proactive efforts towards rehabilitation among the mitigating factors.

Imposing a 12-month sentence, Judge Crowe said Haddock would be given an opportunity to keep faith with the court and suspended on strict conditions for two years.

Haddock was also disqualified from driving for two years.
Further details about the 1981 killing, including the name of the person murdered, have been redacted

A 9mm short 'Savage' semi-automatic pistol similar to the one used in the killing

The PSNI has admitted a gun used in an 1981 murder has been destroyed.

However, police have refused to release details of why that decision was taken.

It follows a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to the PSNI last year.

The person who made the request asked for a copy of the destruction order issued by the RUC in connection with the 9mm short Savage semi-automatic pistol said to have used in the murder.

When the PSNI turned down the request, a complaint was made to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), which looks into issues around FoI requests.

Further details about the 1981 killing, including the name of the person murdered, have been redacted in a report recently issued by the ICO into the complaint.

In the report, Information Commissioner John Edwards reveals he was provided with a confidential submission by the PSNI in relation to the case.

John Edwards

As a result, he said he agreed with the police decision to keep the requested information out of the public domain.

After the initial request in February 2023 for the guns destruction order, the PSNI declined to either confirm or deny that it held such a document.

However, the police were later told by the ICO it must confirm whether or not it held a destruction order for the weapon.

As a result, last September, the PSNI confirmed holding the destruction order but again refused to release it.

In its refusal notice, the PSNI claimed the release of the destruction order would potentially prejudice/hamper and could adversely affect any future evidence gathering opportunities.

Cops said the order contained details relating to the investigation of this murder.

Arguing for the release of the document, the complainant said the murder took place in 1981, with the original investigation completed soon after, which led to two people being convicted in 1985. He claimed, therefore, the case was no longer being actively investigated.

The complainant claimed the destruction order for the gun was issued in the same week in 1985 when an arrest was made in relation to the murder.

This, he claimed, raised grave suspicions about the conduct of the police investigation.

However, in its submission to the ICO, the PSNI stood by the decision not to release the destruction order.

Information gathered as part of the investigation should be protected should any further evidence come to light, the PSNI statement said.

Release of this requested information could prejudice any future investigation thus hindering the course of justice.

There are examples in recent times of historical investigations being reopened when police receive new leads/evidence.

Any investigations may be prejudiced by premature release of information resulting in loss of evidence or alerting a suspect, therefore there is a strong public interest in protecting the ability of PSNI to carry out investigations including those legacy cases without fear of premature disclosure of information.

Whilst there may be some information already in the public domain, the PSNI would not wish to provide any further detail, as they have a duty to protect the integrity of investigative information.

It would therefore not be in the public interest to release information which would in turn impact on police resources and lead to more crime being committed, placing individuals at risk and an investigation or the outcome of subsequent proceedings could be compromised.

After considering all the submissions, Mr Edwards came down on the side of the PSNI.

In relation to the claim that there was something suspicious about the weapons destruction, the Information Commissioner said he had seen nothing to support this view.

The commissioner accepts that there is a presumption running through FOIA that openness is, in itself, to be regarded as something which is in the public interest.

As well as this general public interest in transparency, the commissioner acknowledges the public interest in accountability in law enforcement.

He recognises the importance of the public having confidence in public authorities that are tasked with upholding the law. FOIA is a means of helping to meet that public interest, as confidence will be increased by allowing scrutiny of how they discharge their duties.

However, the commissioner considers that disclosure of the withheld information in this case would add little which would inform the public on the processes for the destruction of weapons in the 1980s or provide clarity about the weapons destruction in the particular circumstances of this police investigation.

In this case, the commissioner has placed considerable weight on the confidential submission which PSNI provided to him; unfortunately he is unable to share this submission here as it would undermine reliance on the exemption being cited.

Taking the above into account, and having been presented with no persuasive countervailing public interest arguments in support of disclosing the information, the commissioner is satisfied in this case that the public interest clearly favours maintaining the exemption.
The south Armagh men realised Hucker had many more names in his locker and they gave up.

Details of the curious contest emerged last week as hundreds gathered to say their goodbyes to one of the most prolific killers of the Troubles.

Moyna (67) passed away when he fell down a flight of stairs in his Belfast home.

A close friend at the funeral in west Belfast said: Even the toughest of tough IRA men knew not to cross the line with Hucker. They were all well aware he had the capacity to come back at them.

His partner and sons led hundreds of mourners as his tricolour-draped coffin wound its way from his Bombay Street former home in the Clonard district to St Pauls Catholic Church on the Falls Road.

As friends huddled in small groups outside, many swapped stories about the Clonard mans past life as a republican gunman.

Recalling a killing competition in which Moyna took part, one man told us: We were on the booze with Hucker in Dundalk when we fell in with half a dozen IRA men from south Armagh. They knew Hucker and they liked him.

Watch: Shots fired over the coffin of 'Gerard 'Hucker' Moyna in west Belfast

Its well known that south Armagh republicans dont rate the Belfast IRA. They always enjoyed rubbing the Belfast mens noses in it and embarrassing them about the number of touts in the city.

After the pub, we went back to a flat which was just wall-to-wall with IRA men, so inevitably the conversation came round to war stories.

Hucker was enjoying the craic and he challenged the south Armagh men to try their luck with him by naming names. Hucker even agreed that the six IRA men could play as a team, whereas he was on his own.

Everything went quiet as we waited for Hucker to speak. When he had their full attention, he smiled and said, Lenny Murphy.

And immediately, one of the south Armagh men came back at him with Robert Nairac.

It went on until around nine or 10 when the south Armagh men ran out of names, while Hucker was still sitting there with a smile on my face.

The south Armagh men realised Hucker had many more names in his locker and they gave up.

Moyna was still a schoolboy when the Troubles erupted around him.

He witnessed loyalist mobs rampaging along Bombay Street where he lived, smashing up Catholic homes, and he watched his father suffer a heart attack and die when he was savagely beaten by soldiers from the Parachute Regiment.

But Hucker took his revenge. When still a schoolboy, he lobbed a grenade into the back of an open army jeep with soldiers inside.

And when he was old enough, he joined the IRA and later the IPLO.

Last week, republicans paid a paramilitary tribute to Hucker in the Clonard Street where he had been born and raised.

Moynas flag-draped coffin was placed on easels in Bombay Street as three hooded men marched out in order and stood over it.

One man produced a handgun and fired three shots into the air in his honour.
I havent seen something as humanly driven as this. There is no comparison in the modern era.

DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA - APRIL 02: (----EDITORIAL USE ONLY - MANDATORY CREDIT - 'WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN / HANDOUT' - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS----) Australian Lalzawmi Frankcom (L) and Chef Oli (R), employees of the US-based international volunteer aid organization World Central Kitchen (WCK), who were killed in an Israeli attack on a vehicle belonging to WCK, are seen in a video taken before the attack in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on April 02, 2024. The World Central Kitchen (WCK) on Tuesday, April 2, confirmed that its seven humanitarian aid workers were killed in Monday's Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip. The seven killed are from Australia, Poland, United Kingdom, a dual citizen of the US and Canada, and Palestine. (Photo by World Central Kitchen / Handout /Anadolu via Getty Images)

Palestinian children, wait to receive food, distributed by charity organizations, for their families as Israeli attacks continue in Deir Al Balah, Gaza on April 01, 2024. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

TOPSHOT - EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / People gather around the carcass of a car used by US-based aid group World Central Kitchen, that was hit by an Israeli strike the previous day in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on April 2, 2024, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The international food aid charity said on April 2 it was pausing its Gaza aid operations after seven of its staff were killed in a "targeted Israeli strike" as they unloaded desperately needed food aid delivered by sea from Cyprus. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

RAFAH, GAZA - APRIL 02: People become emotional as they receive the bodies of World Central Kitchen workers who were killed by Israeli air strikes on April 02, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza. In a statement, the charity World Central Kitchen said that seven of its workers were killed while driving in a convoy after leaving a warehouse in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, where they had unloaded humanitarian food aid brought there via ship.(Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images)

A Belfast UN worker says the attack on a food charity in Gaza this week was unjustified and unjustifiable.

Angus Lambkin, a conflict specialist who has worked in the worlds most war-torn countries, says the starvation faced by more than a million Palestinians caused by Israels blockade of aid is unprecedented.

He believes the killing of seven volunteers with World Central Kitchen (WCK) is a turning point in the conflict, in which more than 30,000 Palestinians have died.

Israel faced an international backlash and a stern warning from US President Joe Biden after it emerged that the three-car convoy carrying volunteers from the charity had been systematically attacked in a series of drone strikes.

Seven people, including three UK citizens, died, bringing to 220 the number of aid workers who have been killed.

Angus Lambkin engaging peacekeepers and national army in the Congo

Following the attack, Oxfam said the killing of aid workers in Gaza had been systemic. The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland said the war machine in Gaza was out of control and more aid workers had been killed there than in any other conflict.

The UN estimates that 1.1 million people are facing catastrophic hunger and Angus says the starvation is man-made.

The 43-year-old, who has worked in South Sudan, Haiti, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Afghanistan and most recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo, says hes seen starvation as a consequence of war, but not as a strategy.

I have encountered malnutrition in other conflicts where its a symptom, says Angus.

In this particular instance, there is a policy in place limiting the amount of food allowed in and limiting Gazans ability to grow their own food.

I havent seen something as humanly driven as this. There is no comparison in the modern era.

The Israeli Defence Force has admitted to grave errors by military personnel and dismissed two senior officers, however that hasnt quelled calls from aid organisations, including the head of WCK Jose Andres, for an independent inquiry. Following the deaths, Israel says it will open two border crossings to allow food aid in.

The only food coming in is from humanitarian agencies and that aid is only getting to certain areas, says Angus.

Even if you restart aid convoys, you still need people and it takes time to make arrangements like visas.

We are seeing two million people pushing against smaller amounts of aid. We are already seeing emaciated children on the news and we will see deaths more directly caused by starvation.

Palestinian children, wait to receive food, distributed by charity organizations, for their families as Israeli attacks continue in Deir Al Balah, Gaza on April 01, 2024. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

He says air drops of aid arent a solution. They are a fraction of whats needed and they can be a bit of a distraction.

All humanitarian activities are run by road, and if you dont have a road network transporting it, you are going to run into difficulty.

Angus, who has volunteered to work in Gaza, says aid agencies are already reviewing their security, particularly as the volunteers who died had informed the Israeli Defence Force of their movements, in a process known as deconfliction. WCK had supplied 43 million meals in Gaza in the last six months, but has now paused its work there.

They have an established relationship and they had permission to be there. Whats being said is that somehow a Hamas commander got into their convoy. Even if a Hamas commander is with an international aid convoy, it doesnt justify an attack on it.

It doesnt in any way justify killing these people.

Organisations are constantly reviewing security and there is so little predictability. If you dont know its safe, you dont send people.

The WCK deaths are the latest in a series of attacks on charities including a shelter used by medical charity Doctors without Borders in February.

The vast majority of deaths have been among Palestinians working for UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees). The ongoing attacks on humanitarian institutions have been a feature of this conflict, says Angus.

This is a turning point. How other countries view Israel is changing. Israel has a right to defend itself in principle, but so much is not justifiable under that principle and this is categorically not justified as self-defence, says Angus.

see richard sullivan: Page 21
There are a number of annual parades in the east and there are fears the rump of the outcast unit will try to use them to try and portray a level of community support

An Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) mural in support of the Ulster loyalist paramilitary group

Loyalist bands have been warned not to carry UVF regalia when taking part in parades in east Belfast.

As the marching season looms, the terror group leadership is anxious to avoid increased tension with the rogue unit in the east of the city.

It was agreed to issue what sources described as guidance for upcoming marches.

There are a number of annual parades in the east and there are fears the rump of the outcast unit will try to use them to try and portray a level of community support.

Bands have been warned that only those outfits officially affiliated to the paramilitary group are entitled to carry UVF banners and regalia.

It comes weeks after East Belfast stepped back from a potential confrontation when they were warned not to attach themselves to a planned Culture Day this weekend.

The event is hosted by the UVF Regimental Band which is based in the east, and who will be marking their 55th anniversary this year.

The mainstream leadership was concerned the remainder of the East Belfast unit would hijack an upcoming band parade in that part of the city.

It is understood East Belfast UVF had approached several bands from outside the area inviting them to join the parade, prompting the Shankill leadership to warn against accepting.

The Culture Day is the preserve of the Regimental Band and is not seen as a mini-Twelfth occasion.

The Shankill was concerned East Belfast were attempting to use the event effectively to stage a show of strength and an opportunity to paint the picture they retain support in the community.

The Sunday World understands band members were concerned as they regard themselves as representing the mainstream UVF, not splinter groups.

The latest stand-off comes as tensions between what remains of East Belfast and the Shankill continue to rise.

Eight members of the command structure were stood down last November. The negotiated deal was aimed at avoiding any violent reaction, with the eight stood down agreeing to step back without resistance.

Many of them have walked away from the Easts criminal enterprises but a rump continues to be involved in organised crime.

Elements of the mainstream leadership and other veterans believe the terror group did not go far enough when moving against the East, and there are calls for a fresh push against those who remain involved in drugs.

Last month, the Sunday World revealed how residents in the Ballybeen estate have turned on what is left of the organisation.

Walls in the estate were daubed with graffiti demanding they leave.

The community backlash is believe is believed to have forced them into stepping back from interfering in next weekends parade

Veterans believe a second move against what remains of the organised crime gang would command public support and could be done without sparking a violent reaction.

Sources have told the Sunday World the leadership has left the job half done.
The incident occurred shortly after 8pm in a car park on Rathfriland Road. The victim, who was shot in his abdomen is currently in hospital where his condition has been described as serious.

A man aged in his 40s has been arrested after a man has been left critically ill in hospital following a shooting in Co Down.

The incident occurred shortly after 8pm in a car park on Rathfriland Road. The victim, who was shot in his abdomen is currently in hospital where his condition has been described as serious.

Earlier this evening, police said they at the scene of an ongoing incident with several roads closed in Co Down.

Police are also exploring a link between the driver of a silver Citroen vehicle which made off from the scene southbound on the A1 dual carriageway and a vehicle reported on fire 20 minutes later in the Drone Hill Road area of Corbet.

Rathfriland Road, the off-slip and on-slip to the A1 dual carriageway at the flyover, alongside the Drone Hill Road in Corbet remain closed as officers continue enquiries.

In a post on social media, DUP MP Carla Lockhart said the victim was critically ill in hospital.

I would encourage anyone with any information to come forward to the PSNI either via 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800555111, she said.

Please allow the PSNI time and space to investigate this serious incident.

Alliance MLA Eoin Tennyson said the community in Banbridge has been left in shock by this senseless act of violence.

"There is no place for guns on our streets, he said in a post on social media.

Im grateful for PSNIs swift action in making an arrest and would appeal for anyone with information to contact police immediately.

A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Ambulance also confirmed one person has been taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

"The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service received a 999 call at 20:06 following reports of an incident in the Tullyear Close area of Banbridge, they said.

NIAS despatched a Rapid Response Paramedic and an Emergency Crew to the incident.

Following assessment and initial treatment at the scene, one patient was taken by ambulance to RVH in Belfast.

A police spokesperson said: Anyone with any information is asked to contact police on 101 quoting reference number 1683 12/04/24. Information can also be given anonymously through the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

You can submit a report online using the non-emergency reporting form via http://www.psni.police.uk/makeareport/.
Clare native Niall Naughton, who is living in Sydney, was in Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre when the stabbings took place.

People are led out from the Westfield Shopping Centre where multiple people were stabbed in Sydney, Saturday, April 13, 2024. T(AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

An Irishman caught up in the Westfield shopping centre stabbing attack in Sydney  during which an assailant fatally stabbed six people- has described the ensuing scenes as "just horrific".

Clare native Niall Naughton, who is living in Sydney, was in Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre when the stabbings took place.

He told the Saturday with Colm O'Mongain show on RTE: "Everyone was in such a state of panic. Everyone was in such distress and overwhelmed, everyone was screaming and crying. It wasnt a very calm situation. It was just horrific."

Video of the attack broadcast by Australian news channel 7News and on Twitter shows how the unmasked knife attacker lunged at shoppers randomly as he prowled the shopping centres concourse.

Sydney stabbing attack: several people dead, including suspect, as police do not believe attack was terror-related

Other images show a shopper appearing to confront the attacker as he rode up an escalator while other dramatically capture the moment a local police officer confronted him before she was forced to shoot him dead.

Speaking earlier the NSW police commissioner Karen Webb said police did not believe the attack was related to terrorism.

Eight people were being treated in hospital in the aftermath including a nine-month-old baby whose mother was among the dead.

Police were called to the popular shopping centre at 3.30 pm following reports of a multiple stabbing.

A local police officer who was nearby tracked his movements through the centre before confronting the 40-year-old man before shooting him as he turned and raised his knife to her.

Niall Naughton

According to local media, hundreds of people were hiding inside shops and store-rooms as the horror attack took place.

One of these was Clare man Niall Naughton who recounted what occurred during his interview on RTE earlier.

He said was in the dressing room when he learned that something was happening.

Next thing, he said, somebody pulled back my curtain and said 'Get out, get out, get out. You need to gotheres stabbing, someones stabbing

Mr Naughton said he hid with other customers and staff in the basement of the shop with the door barricaded and there was huge panic.

He continued: I was even thinking of my own family at the time. What if there is a possibility that something is going to happen to me and Im going to die. I couldnt even reach for my phone at this stage cos there was so many of us crammed into the room."

He said he and the other customers got out through an emergency door from the basement outside at the back of the shopping centre.

The shock attack was caught on camera

"I could see hundreds and hundreds of people coming running across the road. There's a two way street there and they were coming running across in front of cars.

"There was cars like driving at full speed. It was like something you would see out of a movie. It was that scary.

"I just kept running. That's all I could do was run as far away from the shopping centre as I could."

Mr Naughton said he is in shock after the events of today.

"This has properly shook me to the core. I've never in my life thought I'd ever be in an incident where I'd be in in some form of attack like that.

"Ultimately you turn around and you think of your family straight away when you're in an incident like that and it can make you quite homesick too.

"You want to be with your family. But thankfully I have a good group of friends here that are looking after me this evening."

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has praised the police office who shot the attacker saying: She is certainly a hero.

There is no doubt that she saved lives through her actions.
Two witnesses said they heard shots fired.

Emergency service workers stand near Bondi Junction after multiple people were stabbed inside the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney, April 13, 2024. AAP Image/Steven Saphore via Reuters

A critical incident has commenced after at least six people have been stabbed to death in a shopping centre in Sydney, police have said.

It is not yet known if any Irish were among the stabbing victims.

Hundreds of people on Saturday were evacuated from a Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney and police have confirmed that a male was shot in the mall.

In a statement on social media, police said emergency services were called to the shopping centre near Bondi Beach just before 4pm local time, with reports that multiple people had been stabbed.

A critical incident has commenced following the shooting of male at Bondi Junction, New South Wales police said.

Police are now urging people to avoid the area and said inquiries are now ongoing with no further details at this time.

Two witnesses told Reuters they heard shots fired.

One of the witnesses said they saw a woman lying on the ground before sheltering in a jewellery store.

Several posts on social media showed crowds fleeing the mall and police cars and emergency services rushing to the area.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. The spending of the Azerbaijani State Social Protection Fund (SSPF) under the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population grew by 14 percent (207 million manat, or $121.7 million) to 1.7 million manat ($1 million) from January through March 2024, a source in the fund told Trend.

According to the source, SSPF's revenues in the reporting period increased by 7% (108 million manat, or $63.5 million) from the forecast, totaling 1.67 billion manat ($980 million).

During the same time, income from compulsory state social insurance increased by nine percent (104 million manat, or $61 million), totaling 1.3 billion manat ($760 million).

Notably, the SSPF's income in 2023 was 6.67 billion manat ($3.9 billion), up 16.5 percent from 2022, while expenses were 6.08 billion manat ($3.58 billion), a 15.8 percent increase.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
Inspired by folk in a Waikato town, praying for the industry that provides much of their livelihood, has seen prayers for the kiwifruit season rise from the Western Bay of Plenty.

Te Puke is known as New Zealands kiwifruit capital  and now people there can also gather to pray for the wholesome fruit industry which gives so much to the community.

The Weekend Sun caught wind of a gathering on March 14 of about 40 people at The Orchard Church in Te Puke, praying for this years kiwifruit harvest.

Organiser of the 2024 Te Puke kiwifruit prayer, James Muir, says a few years back Tauranga Church leaders heard of churches in Te Awamutu praying to God for their dairy industry and the milk delivery trucks and drivers.

This led to Te Puke churches hosting prayer gatherings at the start of the kiwifruit harvest  as 41 per cent of NZs kiwifruit orchards are in Te Puke, and the BOP has 79 per cent.

Last year we gathered at Te Puke Baptist Church; the year before we met at the Harvest Church in Te Puke.

James says its obvious the kiwifruit industry is heavily significant to the livelihoods of all Bay of Plenty residents.

In the BOP were very aware over the years of the severe negative impact on our NZ kiwifruit growers of Psa and other diseases, extreme bad weather, poor pollination and international economic crises, as in October 1987 for example.

The points of 2024s prayer were agreed to and confirmed by long-term local growers in Te Puke and a key representative from the New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Association Incorporated.

[As such] NZKGI made all 2800 kiwifruit growers in NZ aware throughout Aotearoa that Christian churches were praying and encouraged many to pray with us.

WBOP Deputy Mayor John Scrimgeour and councillor, the late Richard Crawford, attended the March prayer meeting with Richard thanking all and reminding us how important the kiwifruit industry was to Te Puke and WBOPs economy.

James says many others began praying with them in the region and nationwide  now his group will carry on their prayers until the end of harvest.

Regular ongoing prayer to God is needed until June/July, until the full harvest is in, packaged and despatched to the different world export markets.

James says people pray for the safety and welfare of the 2800 growers, their families and for the over 20,000 workers  including the RSE workers here in NZ working in the kiwifruit industry from the Pacific.

We also pray for the care and quality of the fruit harvest, from the orchards to the packhouses and coolstores.

"For cooperation/interaction between industry players to ensure a smooth flow of product through the supply chain.

"For care and quality from NZ to the international markets.

For Zespri and the Government for wisdom in monitoring national and international economic and currency matters.

They also pray for the best possible weather conditions through the harvest.

And we pray for a possible increase to a forecast of some 190 million trays in 2024, says James.

He intends to host the prayer event in Te Puke in February next year  so more growers and contractors can be free to attend before harvest-time gets too busy.

Its also possible a celebration event might be arranged in Te Puke at the end of the present harvest season, come June or July.

To know more, contact James on 021 400 874.
Thanks to CRAFT Management Charitable Trust, the Tauranga Shakespeare Festival returns on Sunday, April 21 at The Historic Village.

The Historic Village will host the day-long festival, which includes various Shakespearean and Medieval activities that is free to attend.

The festival was initially launched to reintroduce Shakespeare performances to the community and offer collaborative opportunities.

Creative Director, Harry Oram, says the festival was driven by a desire to fill a cultural and educational gap left by the cessation of traditional summer Shakespeare performances due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

At CRAFT, we recognised a chance to reinvigorate the communitys connection with classical literature and live theatre through a new festival, says Harry.

It was also a great opportunity to introduce fresh faces and innovative approaches to Shakespearean storytelling.

We focus on collaboration and aim to harness and showcase the diverse talent within Tauranga and Western Bay.

Attendees will be able to see performances of Shakespearean shows, experience music from the Elizabethan period, and witness choreographed fighting for films and theatre. Crafts and activities will also be available to try.

The Tauranga Western Bay Community Event Fund supported the festival with a $7,500 community event grant to ensure its accessibility to the community with no entry fees.

The fund is a partnership between local funders Acorn Foundation, BayTrust, TECT, Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Council with the core purpose of supporting community-led events and those that encourage participation for free or at low-cost.

Alongside the festival being free to attend and showcasing a time period many would not be familiar with, attendees can also join in on competitions for the Most Creative Costume, Best Copy of Shakespeares Image and a Monologue Competition with a cash prize!

The festival was initially launched to reintroduce Shakespeare performances to the community and offer collaborative opportunities. File Photo.

BayTrust Chief Executive Alastair Rhodes says CRAFT have a vision to make Shakespeares work more available and relevant to modern audiences, which is great to see.

Nelita Byrne, Venues and Events Manager of Tauranga City Council says the Tauranga Western Bay Community Event Fund sees significant value in the efforts CRAFT is making to connect and engage the wider community with the rich experience of live theatre and the arts.

It is fitting the festival is being held in The Historic Village - a one-of-a-kind place in our city that celebrates diversity, uniqueness and quality experiences.

Were looking forward to celebrating Taurangas artistic spirit as the festival brings Shakespeares magic to life in our creative, community hub,  says Nelita .

This years festival will also include a partnership with 16th Avenue Theatre to present Macbeth from April 15 to 23.

Macbeth will see one of the largest casts to date for 16th Avenue Theatre as they run eight shows throughout April.

Festival Details:

Tauranga Shakespeare Festival

Sunday 21 April 2024

The Historic Village, 159 17th Avenue West, Tauranga South, Tauranga 3143

Timetable

10:00 am Opening Ceremony with Maypole Dancing Art Gallery Opens with Shakespeare Unplugged (Open all day)

10:30 am Stalls and Market Opens incl variety of Shakespearean and Medieval Stalls, activities, riddles, food and drinks Kids Costume Corner

11:00 am Games on the Green (Skittles and Hobby Horse) New Zealand Stage and Screen Combat School  Archery and Axe Throwing (Additional fee) New Zealand Stage and Screen Combat School Medieval Combat Demonstration

12:00 pm Midday Poetry Workshop with Jenny Argante at the Village Cinema (Additional fee) Elizabeth Bring-Your-Own Picnic at The Incubator Creative Hub

2:30 pm Screening of Shakespeare in Love at the Village Cinema

3:30 pm Monologue Competition at the Amphitheatre (Cash Prize)

4:30 pm  6:30 pm Various performances of dance, theatre and music at the Amphitheatre
A car has crashed into a fence in Katikati following a medical episode.

Police say they received a report of a car going into a fence on Fairview Road about 2.50pm.

"It appears the driver may have had a medical episode," says a police spokesperson.

Police say two people in the car received injuries.

It is unknown at this stage how injured the people are.

At the scene?

Phone 0800SUNLIVE or email newsroom@thesun.co.nz
A lucky Powerball player from Carterton will be celebrating a life-changing win after winning $30.16 million with Powerball First Division in Saturday nights live Lotto draw.

The winning ticket was sold on MyLotto to a player from Carterton.

The prize is made up of $30 million from Powerball First Division and $166,667 from Lotto First Division.

Saturdays winner is the fourth Powerball multi-millionaire of 2024, and the win comes just over a month after a $12.3 million Powerball prize was won by a couple in Otago, who say they are now lucky enough to be able to fulfil their dreams.

Five other lucky Lotto players will also be celebrating after winning $166,667 with Lotto First Division in Saturday nights live Lotto draw.

The winning tickets were sold at Waimauku Minimart in Waimauku, Pacific Superette in Auckland, Pak N Save Ormiston in Auckland, and on MyLotto to two players from Waikato.

Meanwhile, Strike Four has rolled over tonight and will be $800,000 on Wednesday night.

Powerball wins in 2024:

Date Prize Store Location 01 27 January $17.25 million MyLotto Canterbury 02 10 February $8.3 million MyLotto Hawkes Bay 03 2 March $12.3 million MyLotto Otago 04 13 April $30.16 million MyLotto Carterton

26 Lotto players win Second Division

Twenty-six lucky Lotto players will be enjoying a boost to their bank account after each winning $21,080 with Lotto Second Division in Saturday nights live Lotto draw.

Four lucky players also won Powerball Second Division, taking their total winnings to $30,890.

The winning Powerball Second Division tickets were sold at Mobil Constellation Drive in Auckland, Woolworths Timaru North in Timaru, and on MyLotto to players from Gisborne and Wellington.

The winning Second Division tickets were sold at the following stores:

Store Location Pak n Save Sylvia Park Auckland Fresh Choice Mangere Bridge Auckland Mitchell's Paper Power Auckland Eastridge Lotto Auckland New World Victoria Park Auckland Mobil Constellation Drive (+PB) Auckland Dominion Superette Auckland MyLotto (x3) Auckland Paper Plus Whitianga Whitianga MyLotto Waikato MyLotto (x2) Bay of Plenty MyLotto (+PB) Gisborne Feilding Video Centre Feilding The Bookshelf Waikanae Paper Plus Kilbirnie Wellington Whitcoulls Cuba Mall Wellington MyLotto (x2 incl. 1x PB) Wellington MyLotto Nelson MyLotto Christchurch Woolworths Timaru North (+PB) Timaru Musselburgh Food Centre Dunedin Four Square Newfield Invercargill

Anyone who bought their ticket from any of the above stores should check their ticket as soon as possible in-store, on MyLotto, or through the MyLotto App.

Players can phone Lotto NZ on 0800 695 6886 if they want to enquire about the best way to claim a prize.

Lotto NZ exists to return 100 per cent of its profits to Kiwi communities through lottery grants programmes run by Te Puna Tahua NZ Lottery Grants Board.
Cicero, N.Y.  The number of volunteer firefighters in New York state has dropped by 30,000 over the last 25 years, a decline that has fire departments scrabbling to find more volunteers.

There were 110,000 volunteer firefighters in 1998, according to the Firefighters Association of the State New York. In 2024, there were nearly 80,000.

Twenty-three fire departments in Onondaga County will host open houses Saturday and Sunday to encourage more people to volunteer. The county has 58 volunteer fire departments.

The open houses are part of RecruitNY, a statewide effort the firefighters association started in 2011 to increase the number of volunteers.

Dave Glenn, recruitment and retention chair for the state firefighters association, said there are multiple causes for the drop in firefighters. Some people might not have time to volunteer as they juggle a family, job or other personal issues, he said.

Volunteering with a department doesnt mean only fighting fires, Glenn said at a RecruitNYs news conference held Thursday in Cicero. Volunteers can take on administrative roles, help around the fire house, provide help as scene support or assist in other ways, he said.

There is a job in the fire service for everyone, Glenn said. We are changing. I can find a job for you guaranteed in the matter of two to three seconds.

In Onondaga County the dwindling numbers of firefighters is a concern, Cicero Assistant Fire Chief Jon Barrett said. But anyone can join when the time is right, he said.

If you know youre going to have a job or status change down the road, departments accept applications every month, he said.

Fire departments will also host other events this weekend.

The Lysander fire department, for example, will be at the Lysander town hall parking lot from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. People can watch fire extinguisher demonstrations, tour fire trucks and hang out with Sparky the Fire Dog.

Fire departments like Borodino are also hoping the weekend encourages young people to get involved.

Borodino offers a cadet program that allows kids 14 to 16 years old to get an introduction to firefighting. The program also teaches other skills like how to balance a checkbook, how to apply to college and offers tutoring.

As a cadet, we dont just train them in fire and EMS, we also teach them in life skills, Borodino chief Mark Swing said.

County fire stations and public buildings like the JMA dome and the Oncenter will be lit up with red lights this weekend in recognition of the recruitment drive.

More details on the open houses and open houses planned in other counties can be found here: RecuitNY site.

Staff writer Timia Cobb covers breaking news. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at tcobb@syracuse.com.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. Kazakhstan will actively participate in COP29 in Baku, Advisor to the President and Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan on International Environmental Cooperation Zulfiya Suleimenova said during a working visit to Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

The 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) will be held in Baku in November 2024 to focus on climate finance.

The Conference serves as the Convention's top decision-making body. Every year, government representatives from all around the world attend the conference to collaborate on efforts to reduce and alleviate the effects of climate change.



During the visit, Zulfiya Suleimenova and Kazakh Ambassador to Azerbaijan Alim Bayel met with Azerbaijan's Assistant to the President on Foreign Policy, Hikmat Hajiyev, Minister of Energy Shahbazov, Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, and President of COP29 Mukhtar Babayev., MP, UN High-Level Leader for Climate at COP29 Nigar Arpadarai, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Chief Negotiator at COP29 Yalchin Rafiyev. During the meetings, concerns regarding the planning and holding of COP29 were discussed.

Suleimenova congratulated Azerbaijan on the upcoming big event and stated her willingness to provide support and close cooperation.



The Azerbaijani counterparts, in turn, thanked Kazakhstan for its assistance and informed Kazakhstan of Azerbaijan's aims and actions within the context of COP29 leadership, preparation work for this prestigious event, and negotiation with governments and international organizations.



During the meetings, both sides discussed their experiences transitioning to a more ecologically friendly development style. In particular, Azerbaijani colleagues discussed current clean energy production efforts, notably in the country's Karabakh region. It was stressed that building an electric cable along the bottoms of the Black and Caspian Seas to export "green" electricity to Europe would be a significant contribution by our countries to the promotion of the green agenda.

The advisor to the President of Kazakhstan emphasized that the leader of Kazakhstan places a high value on environmental protection and informed the interlocutors about Kazakhstan's initiatives on the transition to "green" energy, including the establishment of the Project Office of Central Asian Countries on Climate and "green" Energy in Almaty, within which the formation of a portfolio of projects has already begun. Suleimenova proposed that, in order to support Azerbaijan's presidency at COP29, cooperative projects on climate change be developed. Azerbaijani colleagues endorsed the suggestion, citing Kazakhstan's substantial achievements in promoting environmental initiatives and developing related legislation.

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The US Space Force is now looking to conduct its inaugural military exercise in orbit, marking a major milestone in its efforts to bolster defense capabilities against potential threats emanating from space.

Dubbed "Victus Haze," the exercise comes amidst escalating apprehensions surrounding China's extensive satellite tracking network, raising alarms within the US military establishment, The Sun tells us in a report.

US Space Force to Conduct Exercises Against 'On-orbit Aggression'

In a strategic move aimed at testing responses to potential "on-orbit aggression," the Space Force has forged partnerships with Rocket Lab and True Anomaly, stressing a shift towards collaboration with smaller, agile commercial space entities.

This exercise represents a departure from traditional paradigms, focusing on rapid deployment and real-time responsiveness to emerging space threats.

The exercise entails Rocket Lab simulating a non-ally satellite pursuing another satellite crafted by True Anomaly, a demonstration of the Space Force's preparedness to counter adversarial maneuvers in space.

General Michael Guetlein, Space Force's Vice Chief of Space Operations, highlighted the urgency of the endeavor, stating, "We no longer have the luxury of time to wait years...to deliver some of these capabilities."

China's Growing Satellite Threats

Concerns over China's burgeoning satellite network, capable of monitoring Western military operations on the ground, have intensified in recent times. General Guetlein emphasized the imperative of identifying and understanding unknown assets in space, stressing the need for a proactive approach to safeguard US interests.

Earlier this week, we reported that US authorities expressed concern about China's rapid space advancement. At the 39th Space Symposium on Tuesday, April 9, US officials described China's recent actions as a deliberate effort to increase space dominance.

US Space Command Chief General Stephen Whiting acknowledged China's rapid advancement in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance satellites in 2018. Whiting raised issues about China's "kill web" in the Pacific Ocean, which was used to identify and attack US and allied military assets.

(Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP)

TOPSHOT - The brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Vulcan Centaur, lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41d at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 8, 2024, for its maiden voyage, carrying Astrobotic's Peregrine Lunar Lander.

Developing Space Defense Dynamics

The project's significance extends beyond mere military exercises, reflecting broader shifts in space exploration and defense dynamics. True Anomaly and Rocket Lab, relatively smaller players in the commercial space domain, secured contracts totaling $62 million, indicative of the growing influence of agile private entities in shaping military space initiatives.

True Anomaly's press release elucidated the mission's objectives, emphasizing the development of rendezvous and proximity operation (RPO) capable space vehicles and command and control centers. These systems are poised to facilitate rapid deployment, potentially launching satellites into orbit within days, rather than weeks.

Meanwhile, the US Space Force and US Space Command have submitted a combined $2.3 billion in "unfunded requirements" to Congress, underscoring the urgency of fortifying satellite defense capabilities, Space News reports.

The specter of Chinese and Russian threats in the space domain looms large, prompting concerted efforts to bolster space control, space superiority, and space domain awareness capabilities.

Stay posted here at Tech Times.
Shakeeb Ahmed, a cybersecurity engineer, has been sentenced to three years in prison for his involvement in stealing approximately $12 million in cryptocurrency. The sentence was announced by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in a recent press release.

$12 Million Crypto Heist

Ahmed was convicted of hacking into two cryptocurrency exchanges and orchestrating the theft of a substantial sum of crypto. Prosecutors alleged that he carried out cyberattacks on Crema Finance and Nirvana Finance, resulting in the theft of $9 million and $3.6 million, respectively. The stolen funds from Nirvana Finance constituted nearly all of its holdings, leading to the exchange's closure.

Legal Proceedings and Plea

Following his arrest, Ahmed pleaded guilty to the charges related to both cyberattacks. He was initially described as a "senior security engineer for an international technology company," with previous employment at Amazon. However, a spokesperson told TechCrunch that he was not an employee there when he was arrested.

Unusual Deal and Consequences

After hacking Crema Finance, Ahmed attempted to return the stolen funds to the company, demanding a $1.5 million fee and assurance that the attack would not be reported to authorities. However, the crypto exchange rejected the offer, leading to Ahmed's apprehension.

While such deals, known as "white hatting," are sometimes normalized in the crypto industry, law enforcement views them differently.

In addition to his prison sentence, Ahmed has been ordered to serve three years of supervised release. He must forfeit $12.4 million, along with a significant amount of cryptocurrency, and pay restitution totaling over $5 million to the affected cryptocurrency exchanges.

Crypto hacks are rampant and as long as hackers have something to steal, the urge to commit these crimes is not going to stop.

2023 Recorded $1.8 Billion Worth of Stolen Cryptocurrency in Total

In late December, Tech Times reported that the incidents of crypto heists were rampant last year. In this year alone, hackers were able to drain $1.8 billion worth of cryptocurrency in several organizations and platforms.

This is what the investors fear about their crypto investments-the fact that their money is not safe and they are at risk of getting stolen every time.

The worst crypto hacks were associated with the Mixin platform where around $200 million was siphoned by the cybercriminals.

$1.83 billion may be big for the stolen cryptocurrency, but compared to 2022 and 2021's record, it's still smaller.

The 2022 record for stolen crypto reached $3.8 billion while in 2021, experts tallied $3.1 billion.

The trajectory of the trend suggests that the stolen crypto is going to be lower this year, but still, it's subject to change anytime. There's no assurance that it will increase or decrease because it merely depends on how tight are crypto security practices and how innovative are crypto hackers.
Roku disclosed a second security breach in two months, disclosing that hackers breached over 576,000 customer accounts. Credential stuffing, a technique that hackers use to access additional accounts without authorization, led to the compromise of Roku customer data.

The cybercriminals used the saved payment information to make illegal purchases of Roku hardware and streaming subscriptions through the hacked accounts less than 400 times, Roku revealed in a statement on Friday. The company assured affected users that they had received reimbursements for these fraudulent transactions.



In spite of the security issue, Roku guaranteed its 80 million subscribers that the hackers could not access private user data or complete payment card information, according to TechCrunch.

Earlier Data Breach Impacted 15,000 Users

When Roku discovered this most recent problem, it was in the midst of alerting nearly 15,000 Roku customers about an earlier credential stuffing attempt.

According to a TechTimes report, the earlier breach, revealed in March, gave hackers access to stored credit card information, enabling them to make unauthorized transactions and sell hundreds of hacked accounts online.



The TV streaming firm discovered the information in records it sent to Maine and California attorneys general, according to reports released on Friday. The public records reveal that the breach impacted a total of 15,363 accounts from December 28, 2023, to February 21, 2024.



The filed documents state that hackers circumvented Roku's internal procedures to take advantage of the accounts by using login credentials they had acquired from other sources. Threat actors use credential stuffing to enter other systems, leveraging publicly available credentials from previous data breaches.

Roku Users Urged to Create Stronger Passwords

Roku users were unable to access their accounts in the TV streaming platform, allowing threat actors to utilize stolen credit card information for transactions without sending order confirmation emails to legitimate account holders.



Due to cybersecurity concerns, Roku users must utilize two-factor authentication, which needs a time-sensitive code and login credentials. User account credential-stuffing may be prevented with this method.



Roku asks its customers to "be vigilant," noting any "suspicious communications appearing to come from the company, such as requests to update your payment details, share your username or password, or click on suspicious links." Roku recommends a "strong, unique password" for user accounts, per CBS News.



"We sincerely regret that these incidents occurred and any disruption they may have caused," it said. "Your account security is a top priority, and we are committed to protecting your Roku account."
ASTANA, Kazakhstan, April 13. By 2025, the National Bank of Kazakhstan intends to implement a national unified QR code system for all the country's banks, chairman of the bank, Timur Suleimenov, told journalists, Trend reports.

Suleimenov underlined that research in this area is currently ongoing. The system's goal is to develop a single, interoperable QR code that all banks will accept. As a result, customers will be able to make payments in stores regardless of which bank provided the QR code.



Earlier, the head of the National Bank emphasized the importance of reducing payment market monopolies. He emphasized that the country's two major banks have a sizable market share, and the new system will make the payment process more transparent and convenient for all players.



According to him, the system's pilot deployment will take place at the end of this year, with the complete introduction of the uniform QR code for all banks anticipated for 2025.
ASTANA, Kazakhstan, April 13. Kazakhstan has canceled the Astana International Forum, the press service of the Kazakhstan President said, Trend reports.

Due to the unprecedented flooding in Kazakhstan and the need to save financial resources to eliminate the consequences of large-scale devastation and provide assistance to the citizens of the country, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has decided to cancel the event, scheduled to be held on June 13-14 this year.

According to information, the Astana International Forum will resume work in 2025.

The floods in Kazakhstan began in March. In 8 regions of the country at the local level declared a state of emergency. Rescue work involved more than 35 thousand people, 4,000 units of equipment, and 17 airplanes. Since the beginning of the flooding, 102,328 people have been rescued.

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Thousands flee flooding in Russian Urals region of Orenburg



Orenburg, Russia, April 13 (AFP) Apr 13, 2024



Russian emergency services on Saturday said they had evacuated thousands of people from the Orenburg region in the south of the Urals as flood water continued to rise.

Fast-rising temperatures have melted snow and ice, and along with heavy rain have caused a number of major rivers that cross Russia and Kazakhstan to overflow this month.

In the city of Orenburg, one of the worst affected areas in Russia, the Ural River breached its banks, submerging streets and residential areas and water levels continued to rise Saturday.

On Saturday afternoon, the river level reached almost 12 metres (39 feet), more than 2.5 metres above the level considered critical.

The Ural River flows through the centre of Orenburg.

Flood water covered the embankment promenade and swirled around houses and an high-rise apartment blocks built close to the river, an AFP journalist saw.

Almost 14,000 people have been evacuated from Orenburg and the surrounding region, according to authorities.

Eldar Rakhmetov, an official from the Ministry of Emergency Situations involved in the evacuation said: "There has been an increase in the number of homes flooded since this morning and more areas are being evacuated."

Local residents were using rubber dinghies to try to retrieve pets and belongings from flooded houses and some areas were left without power.

Valery, 64, a local factory worker, was one of those evacuated Saturday by a police truck.

"The most important thing is that (my house) does not get looted. That is what I am worried about. Other than that, it is fine! We will survive," he said.



- 'Treacherous water' -



The Kurgan region further east was also urging people to evacuate, anticipating the arrival of flood water.

The governor, Vadim Shumkov, urged residents likely to be affected to leave now as the level of the River Tobol is forecast to rise sharply due to melting ice.

"The water is treacherous and when there is so much of it, it rises unpredictably," Shumkov warned residents on Telegram, urging them to leave with valuables and pets.

"If you do not leave in time, you might not be able to sit it out in the attic or on the roof," the governor added.

In Kazakhstan, which shares around 7,500 kilometres (4,660 miles) of border with Russia, flooding affected the outskirts of the northern city of Petropavlovsk, which has around 220,000 residents, leaving some areas without power or mains water.

More than 103,000 people, many of them children, have been evacuated in the vast Central Asian country, where almost 5,000 homes have been flooded out, according to the emergency situations ministry.

Climate change is associated with more frequent extreme weather events such as floods.

In the Russian Urals city of Orsk, where a dam protecting the city broke earlier this month, residents held rare protests this week over the local authorities' handling of the crisis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on the floods on Thursday but has not visited the affected regions.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, April 13. Kyrgyzstan plans to pay off its external debt, which now amounts to over $5 billion, by 2035, the country's President Sadyr Zhaparov said during an interview with local media, Trend reports.

"We shall repay earlier debts from the national budget with the support of the people, as there were previously no self-sustaining projects. All the money got poured away like water in sand," he said.

According to him, Kyrgyzstan's present loans are for self-sustaining projects.

"For example, the Kabambarata-1 hydroelectric facility will cost around $56 billion to construct," Zhaparov noted.

He explained that this project will be profitable within 1315 years after completion and commissioning. When it comes time to repay the debt for this project, it will not burden the national budget or the people.

"There are small and medium-sized hydroelectric projects that will pay off in 7-8 years. We also need to put money into them. We're now contacting the Global Climate Fund. We will completely shift to green energy with their help," Zhaparov said.

He also noted that there are many projects in other areas. Kyrgyzstan is implementing them with private investors and, as far as possible, using the budget.
Sicilys tourist hot spots are living an economic boom thanks to shows like HBOs The White Lotus, which put the islands breathtaking vistas on display. But the ancient islands infamous underbelly remains untouched by the influx of new wealth. In fact, organised crime has only diversified and become more entwined with the legitimate economy.

On a recent trip to Sicily, the contrast between the flourishing tourism sector and the declines elsewhere was as stark as Ive seen in more than 20 years of reporting on the island. In Palermo, the piazza around the cathedral was brimming with activity. Not 10 minutes walk away, burned out cars lined a residential street of dilapidated high-rise apartments. In Taormina, with its Greco-Roman theatre and views over Mt. Etna, locals told me new Louis Vuitton and Prada stores had brought more well-heeled visitors to the hilltop town that has a starring role in the second series of the hit HBO show. Yet down the hill and along the coast, piles of filthy refuse made beaches unusable.

Season two of The White Lotus boosted Sicilys thriving tourism industry. Credit: HBO/Binge

Sicily and organised crime  the islands Cosa Nostra  have been synonymous since at least the 19th century. Atrocities dwindled in recent years following an aggressive campaign by police in response to the 1992 roadside bombs near Palermo that killed prosecuting magistrates Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone. But magistrates say its also because the Sicilian mafia and its Calabrian counterpart, ndrangheta, have grown more sophisticated, following the money into drugs, prostitution and people trafficking rather than open confrontation with the authorities.

But post-pandemic, theres a new trend developing thats a warning for all of Europe. While mobsters continue to follow the money in big cities, they are also feeding on increasing inequality and polarisation to undermine the declining and indebted Italian state.
Geopolitical risks strongly influence global oil prices and supplies, Acting Chief Trading Officer at SOCAR Trading (the trading house of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan), Taghi Taghi-Zada said.

He made the remark on the sidelines of a meeting of global trading companies (Commodities Global Summit 2024) in Lausanne.

"The oil market is expected to remain tense in the short term due to world conflicts, geopolitical pressure, and logistical disruptions. There are many uncertainties (regarding crude oil)," noted Taghi-Zada.

However, he acknowledged that OPEC "has been doing a good job managing oil prices in recent years".

"OPEC may be interested in acting to maintain the global oil price at an average of $90 per barrel. They have been successful, and I see no reason why they should not continue this trend as a group," Taghi-Zada explained.

Overall, most global traders believe that this year the price of oil could be in the range of $85100 per barrel.

To note, the Commodities Global Summit was held on April 810, organized by the Financial Times.

Headquartered in Geneva, SOCAR Trading was incorporated in December 2007 as the marketing arm of SOCAR with a mandate to market Azeri barrels produced from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field and other surrounding fields in Azerbaijan.




BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, April 13. The construction costs of the Kambarata-1 hydropower plant (HPP) in Kyrgyzstan, totaling $5-6 billion, will be fully recovered within 13-15 years from the completion and commissioning of the HPP, the country's President Sadyr Zhaparov said during an interview with local media, Trend reports.

According to Zhaparov, the HPP building period will last 8-10 years. The maximum time it will take to fully repay the cost of Kambarata-1, including construction, is 25 years.



He stated that the World Bank (WB) is giving a $500 million loan with a 50-year term and a 10-year grace period at no interest for the project. Kyrgyzstan has never had such advantageous credit terms.

"When it is time to settle the debt for this project, neither the national budget nor the people will be accountable for payment," the president said.

The Kambarata-1 Hydropower Project is one of Central Asia's largest, according to Kyrgyzstan's Ministry of Energy. It will be on the Naryn River. The HPP has a capacity of 1,860 MW and a reservoir volume of 5.4 billion cubic meters, with a projected annual power generation of 5.6 billion kWh.



The World Bank has previously provided $5 million for technical assistance in revising the Kambarata-1 HPP feasibility study in November 2023.
Are you feeling stuck in your job at the moment? Im sure it took you less than a second to answer that question, and if so, its completely normal to feel stuck in a role  even if you once really loved it, or you expected it to be your dream job.

The good news is that you dont have to stay stuck forever and theres a range of options available to you if you need to shake things up.

Once you recognise why you are feeling stuck, its time to stand up for yourself and take the next step. Credit: Erin Jonasson

Firstly, take a moment to reflect on the warning signs that you may be stuck in your job. This could include:
Diners could be sharing their next cafe brunch or pub meal with pets under a plan to permit dogs inside hospitality venues.

Sydneys dog-loving Lord Mayor Clover Moore also wants to expand subsidised vet services to help pet owners suffering bill shock after seeking treatment for sick animals, as the cost of living crisis impacts animal welfare.

Sydney vet Dr Anne Quain with Bentley, a patient at the Potts Point Veterinary Hospital. Credit: Louise Kennerley

Moore will write to the NSW government seeking a change to food and companion animal laws to allow dogs inside cafes, restaurants and pubs across the state after City of Sydney councillors voted unanimously to back her motion on responsible pet ownership.

Many people want to bring their pets to cafes and pubs and increasingly operators want to allow it, Moore said.
Qantas has been forced to redirect its non-stop route from Perth to London to avoid flying over parts of Iran and the Middle East due to safety concerns.

The change in flight path is due to fears Iran is planning an imminent attack on Israel.

The new flight path will avoid airspace close to the conflict zone in the Middle East. Credit: Getty

QF9, usually a 17-hour journey direct from Perth to London, will now stop in Singapore to allow the aircraft to carry a full load of passengers and refuel for a different path.

The return flight, QF10, will still operate as a direct flight on an alternative path due to prevailing winds.
Two men spoke to Nine News about helping a baby and its mother who were both bleeding. The pair, who indicated they were brothers, said they saw a man run up to the woman with the baby. Loading We got them into the store ... rang for help, one of the men said. The men said the babys mother had been stabbed, and they were trying to compress the babys wounds, including using shirts from the shop. The mother later died in hospital. Video has emerged of a man wearing shorts and a sports jersey jogging inside the shopping centre, carrying a knife.

A witness who had been near a gym at the shopping centre saw the man, and told Nine he looked scattered and chaotic. He wasnt going for anyone personally, you could tell it looked quite random, he was just running around with his knife, the man told Nine News. We had also seen people with bollards I think who were going to chase him. Emergency services at the scene. Credit: Oscar Colman Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said while Bondi Junction was the scene of terrible violence, the response to the attack brought out some of the best of our humanity. It was also witness to the humanity and the heroism of our fellow Australians, our brave police, our first responders, and of course, everyday people who could never have imagined that they would face such a moment, he said, paying tribute to the workers at the shopping centre who helped people hide.

This should have been a normal shift. Shoppers peacefully going about their lives. And yet for these Australians, their first instinct in the face of danger was to help someone else. That is what we hold on to tonight as Australians. Thats confirmation of who we are. Brave, strong. Together. A shop owner said he heard shouting outside his store then saw a man with a knife and police before the weapon was thrown and that man was shot dead. Rakesh Sanga, 33, told the Herald he became very panicked by the sound outside his shop, Bondi Alterations, on level five. I went to see what was happening, he said. Police coming from the other side. The man coming with the knife  everyone running. We panic, and we go move to the other side of my store.

He said the man, who was wearing a green T-shirt, threw the knife towards a mobile store and was shot by a policewoman. I think she shot like two times or three times, he said. Photographs from the scene show a man, who appears to be dead, outside the shop. Multiple posts on social media show crowds fleeing as emergency services swarmed the centre. A witness who did not wish to be named said she was about to go into Coles supermarket when she saw a man pull out a knife. I looked up and bolted, the witness said.

Ellie Williams, 21, was finishing lunch on the top floor of Westfield Bondi food court with her friend about 3.40 pm when she saw groups of people running and screaming. Images circulated on social media of the incident at Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon. People were so confused and we were told a guy was stabbing people on the floors below, she said. People were being locked into stores and we looked down and saw a guy with a knife chasing people. I heard a man scream as we were about to go down the escalator. Williams heard three gunshots as she left through the fire escape.

Two police officers stand near a suspected offender. Huma Hussainy and Mohamad Naveed were shopping in LuLu Lemon when they heard screaming. They saw the attacker brandishing a large knife, swiping at people indiscriminately. The knife came up to here, Hussainy said, gesturing to her forearm. The couple saw two girls lying in a large pool of blood outside Cotton On around two metres apart. One looked to be about 17 years old, they said. The attacker reversed his steps, heading back towards LuLu Lemon before walking down the escalator. I screamed, I thought he was going to turn around and come into the store, Hussainy said. Soon the gunshots rang out, and the pair thought the attacker also had a gun. Police came and shut the door of the store. Someone walked up and tried to wake the girl (who had been stabbed), Hussainy said. The victim couldnt be roused.

When the pair were escorted from the store about 45 minutes later, one girl had been taken away and a screen set up over the second one.It was terrifying. If he came into the store we would be dead, she said. Im glad Im alive. Hannah Bodrozic and Guy Johnston were shopping in Country Road when they saw a group of around 20 young people fleeing down the escalators. They didnt understand what was happening until someone screamed: Theres a man stabbing people! The couple froze as shops around them slammed their shutters shut, with groups of people running in every direction. This was posted to social media from inside Bondi Westfield - Prayers for any victims. Please dont let this be the new normal. Credit: Twitter/Mark Hudson @mhudson

Then we heard three gunshots and everyone just started screaming, she said. About 100 people stampeded out the exit, she said. Youd never expect something like this in Sydney, Johnston said. The Australian Federal Police were consulting with NSW Police and if necessary would activate the joint counter terrorism team, sources said. Officers from commands all over Sydney are likely to be deployed, with an enormous crime scene likely to take up to two days to process. The shopping centre will be closed on Sunday.
Apparently working out who supplied the mulch and where it came from is trickier than you might think. By Friday the EPA had confirmed fragments of asbestos had been found at a total of eight city parks with test results pending for four others. The EPA has been quick to point out that at least some of the contaminated mulch was put there before 2015, prior to new laws and regulations for mulch supplier and demolition companies that came into force in 2021. It has also continued to insist the two most likely sources of asbestos contamination are illegal dumping, or it was already on the site and mulch laid over it, including new mulch that has been deposited on top of older mulch still present at the site. All of this amounts to a convenient explanation for the various parties that stand to lose most from the possibility the mulch being used on playgrounds is still being contaminated: the Allan government, the EPA, the mulch producers and the demolition companies supplying timber.

The possibility that asbestos found its way into recently supplied mulch via building material should not be discounted so easily, nor should the risks to public health be so lightly dismissed. Most would understand the horror Yarraville father Jason Murphy felt when he was the first to come across the suspicious materials while out playing with his children at the Spotswood park. Loading Its a dereliction of the duty of care of everyone involved, Murphy said. This new playground is a fantastic asset, but I wont be taking my kids back there until the problem is solved. All the while the Allan government has continued to direct a mounting list of unanswered questions to the EPA, and insist problems are being appropriately dealt with by the EPA and the council.

We need to allow the EPA to conclude those investigations, Allan said. If the state government wanted a blueprint leading up to this debacle, it might have looked north to NSW. Earlier this year 75 sites in that state, including seven schools, a supermarket, hospitals and numerous public parks, were found to contain asbestos in mulch. As with Victoria, it was not the regulator that detected the initial contamination, but a member of the public. The initial investigation was launched in January after a child took home bonded asbestos from a playground in Sydneys inner west.At the time, we were reassured by the state government that this wasnt a problem in Victoria. Clearly it is. To its credit, the Minns government quickly announced an asbestos taskforce designed to give more resources and support to the NSW Environment Protection Authoritys investigation into asbestos in mulch. If the NSW experience wasnt warning enough, a month later, easily-crumbled asbestos was also detected in Queensland, leading to concerns that dozens of locations, including schools, had received asbestos-contaminated mulch.

The Victorian government might have also heeded a warning from the states Auditor-General. In November last year, a report from his office concluded measures to reduce illegal asbestos disposal are not coordinated across agencies, warning the state government had little understanding of the scale of the issue or whether it was even being addressed effectively. Loading Even more damning, a key government program set up in 2021 designed to deal with a predictable increase in the amount of asbestos going into landfill lost funding this year. As The Age revealed in January, the government chose not to fund the plan to expand the number of safe landfill sites, led by Sustainability Victoria, beyond March this year after delays and cost blowouts. The program set up three pilot sites but was meant to have eight by June 2022.
Matt Golding Credit: .

To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@theage.com.au. Please include your home address and telephone number. No attachments, please include your letter in the body of the email. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published.

No understanding

How dare Peter Dutton reference the Port Arthur massacre in a bid to score cheap political points? It was crass and tasteless. It demonstrates his lack of understanding of the impact of that awful event. The eagerness of other senior members of the Coalition to defend his comments is incredibly disappointing.

Robin Lohrey,

Howrah, Tas

Disingenuous Dutton

How disingenuous for Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to compare the Port Arthur tragedy with such a divisive and complex issue as the horrific Hamas massacre of Israelis and Israels disproportionately horrific response in Palestine. Its another example of his consistent efforts to drown out peace-building narratives by raising fearful images.

Research immediately after the Port Arthur tragedy revealed 94 per cent of Australians supported gun-control legislation. Human rights workers had gun-control legislation well-prepared by then. And prime minister John Howard would have known that strong support for gun-control legislation by deputy prime minister and National Party leader, Tim Fischer, would limit backlash from Nationals supporters. Thus, while Howards leadership on gun-control legislation is certainly praiseworthy, he had support nationwide from Australians, political parties, and legally, to immediately introduce such legislation.

Equally disingenuous is Duttons misrepresentation of Anthony Albaneses and Penny Wongs advocacy for an eventual two-state solution conditional on the absence of Hamas, as a means to bring long-term peace to both Israel and Palestine. Dutton omits to mention their stated requirement for this solution, of the absence of Hamas. Australians deserve better.
Orenburg, Russia: The Russian city of Orenburg battled rising water levels after major rivers across Russia and Kazakhstan burst their banks after fast-than-usual snow melts in the worst flooding seen in nearly a century.

The deluge of melt water has forced more than 120,000 people from their homes in Russias Ural Mountains, Siberia and Kazakhstan as major rivers such as the Ural, which flows through Kazakhstan into the Caspian, overwhelmed embankments.

Two men ride a boat delivering food in Orenburg, Russia. Russian officials are scrambling to help homeowners displaced by the rising waters of the Ural River. Credit: AP

Residents in the city of Orenburg said the waters of the Ural rose swiftly and to far beyond breaking point, forcing them to flee with just their children, pets and a few belongings.

It came very quickly at night, Taisiya, 71, told Reuters in Orenburg, a city of 550,000 about 1200 kilometres east of Moscow. By the time I got ready, I couldnt get out.
London: Downing Street was a prison infested with fleas caused by Boris Johnsons dog Dilyn, former British prime minister Liz Truss has claimed in her new book.

Truss wrote that she spent her first weeks in the job itching because of a flea infestation at Number 10, the countrys official prime ministerial residence. Some believed that was a result of her predecessors dog.

Liz Truss and her husband Hugh OLeary enter Downing Street for the first time in her leadership. Credit: Getty

She also compared herself to a prisoner when resident in Downing Street, saying that just being stuck there was one of the most difficult things to get used to.

In an extract from her new book, Ten Years to Save the West, serialised by The Daily Mail, Truss wrote: The place was infested with fleas.
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DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, April 13. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has approved a provision of a $5 million loan for Tajikistans Arvand Bank, Trend reports.

According to the EBRD, the loan is provided under the GCF-Green Economy Financing Facility Regional Framework (GCF-GEFF Programme in Tajikistan II). Out of the total amount, up to $3.75 million is to be provided by the EBRD and up to $1.25 million by the GCF.

The funds from the loan will be directed towards climate change mitigation and adaptation technologies. This transaction will aid in expanding Arvand's range of products by introducing green lending options, with a focus on gender responsiveness.

Meanwhile, the current loan portfolio of the EBRD in Tajikistan amounted to 482 million euros for 69 active projects as of January 31, 2024.

As of the reporting date, the EBRD's cumulative investments in Tajikistan totaled 919 million euros, spread across 165 projects, with the private sector's share in the portfolio amounting to 13 percent.

Arvand Bank provides a comprehensive suite of banking services, focusing mainly on the retail and MSME sectors in Tajikistan. As of the end of 2023, Arvand ranks as the ninth-largest bank by assets and the fourth-largest by loan book among banks in Tajikistan.
Assembly polls in J&K soon: PM Modi







UDHAMPUR,

ASSERTING that the time is not far when the Assembly polls will be held in Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the people of the Union Territory will soon be able to share their issues with Ministers and legislators. The Prime Minister said the development projects undertaken by the BJP-led Centre in the erstwhile State are just a trailer, adding that he has to work for the creation of a fabulous picture of a new Jammu and Kashmir in the days to come. Modi said, Jammu and Kashmir has completely changed and the biggest thing is that there has been a change of heart as people have moved from disappointments towards hope. The time is not far when the Assembly polls will be held in J&K, which will also get its Statehood back. You will again raise your issues with your legislators and ministers, Modi told a rally organised here to garner support for Union minister Jitendra Singh.
Bhopalites seem reluctant to adhere to helmet diktat





By Ankita Garg

Under its campaign against helmetless two-wheeler riders, the city traffic police is penalising people continuously at various check points in city but the citizens are still riding without helmet and driving four-wheeler without fastening seat belts. There are around 1,500 challans issued for the violation since January. If we talk about last year data, there were total 1,594 traffic challan issued to offenders in the State capital from July to October 2023 and these cases helped to collect total fine of Rs 7.97 lakhs. Traffic police officials said that despite large number if challans issued to the offender in almost all parts of city, people are still violating the rule by putting their lives into high risk. The traffic police started campaign following the orders of Police Training and Research Institutes on the directives of MP High Court for past three years but it seems that there is no impact on the riders.

It is very common scene on city roads to see a two wheeler rider without helmet and four wheeler drivers without having seat belt. Even many people keep the helmet hang on their vehicle just to escape from the challan. These people wear the helmet at selected points to pass the checking point and then they keep it hanged after crossing the area. Savita Kanas, traffic police said, We are continuously campaigning to penalise the offender riding two-wheeler without having helmet and four wheelers driving without seat belt.

People make many excuses and even many of them keep helmet with them but wear it after watching the police team at squares. She further said, Sometimes people make excuses that cannot be ignored but the facial expression tells everything. once a girl was caught without helmet when police team asked her for the penalty, she said that she is having pain in neck due to which she is not wearing the helmet. But her facial expression said the real story. She said people in Bhopal are still not habitual of following the safety rules and they feel uncomfortable to use helmet or seat belt but safety rules are to be followed.
Goons are hung upside down, given chilli blast: UP CM





SAHARANPUR,

UTTAR Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath, while addressing an election rally in Saharanpur on Friday, hit out at the previous Governments over the poor law and order situation in the State. Yogi Adityanath said that his Government was taking stern action against rioters in UP. Today, rioters are hung upside down and given a blast of chilli powder, Yogi Adityanath said. The Chief Minister mounted a scathing attack on the SP, Congress and BSP and said that these parties will be seen during elections only, and will disappear during times of crisis, therefore, people should use their vote very thoughtfully.

He targeted the Opposition for pursuing appeasement politics and added, Earlier UP Governments used to kneel before one religion. Earlier, there used to be migration from UP. There was anarchy in UP. All these things used to happen during the time of the SP and Congress. In the New India, the responsibility of UP has increased in the same way as Indias respect in the world has increased. Terrorism and Naxalism have ended in India. Yogi Adityanath presented the model of a mafia-free and safe UP and warned criminals against posing a threat to society if they valued their lives. No one ever thought that daughters and businessmen could venture out at night without worry. We ensure Ram Naam Satya (last rites) for the danger posed to the safety of daughters and businessmen. We live our lives chanting Lord Rams name. Without Ram, nothing is possible, Yogi Adityanath said.
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, April 13. Tajikistan's President, Emomali Rahmon, has directed the government to plan an urgent supply of humanitarian aid to Kazakhstan in response to the country's widespread floods, Trend reports.

Rahmon made the remark during a phone chat with Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, according to Tajikistani President's press service.



Rahmon stated that assistance would include basic food and commodities. In light of the severe flooding in Kazakhstan, he extended his solidarity to the people.



The president emphasized the effectiveness and timeliness of Kazakhstan's government's efforts to localize and reduce the effects of the natural disaster, expressing confidence in their speedy resolution.

Furthermore, the heads of state discussed Tajikistan-Kazakhstan cooperation, confirming their mutual willingness to maintain strong partnerships in a variety of settings. The session also included an exchange of views on the planned meetings on bilateral and multilateral forums.



Kazakhstan's Ministry of Emergency Situations reports that 102,328 individuals, including 37,537 children, have been rescued and evacuated since the flooding began.

A total of 3,246 people, including 1,068 children, have been rescued by air transport. Additionally, 10,120 people have returned home. Currently, 6,757 people, including 3,148 children, are staying in temporary accommodation centers. Furthermore, 1,100 tons of humanitarian aid have been delivered to the affected regions.
GRIM WARNING !





THE grim warning by the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) to Bengaluru about its dismal ecological future should also be treated as a wake-up call for all urban centres in the country -- if not in the world. CES experts have cited actual datas of how Bengaluru lost its green cover and its water-bodies over time and how those were replaced by jungles of concrete buildings to accommodate human communities and their other needs. If this trend continues, then Bengaluru will choke itself to death, the experts have predicted. Most unfortunately, almost exactly similar conditions prevail in most cities in India including New Delhi and all other megalopolises and metropolises. Tier II and Tier III cities, too, are travelling in the same direction -- of ecological doom. Yet, so blinded are Indias town-planners by their idea of urban growth and overall yet terribly narrow developmental vision that they do not see any danger signal in the paved surfaces covering spaces in urban centres to the extent of 98-plus per cent. When areas as massive as mega-cities are paved in such a blind and dangerous manner, then the soil loses its accommodative qualities -- of absorbing water, aerating itself, and giving out life-nourishing elements to help life have a healthy growth. Yet, unfortunately, all this potential danger does not daunt urban planners and developers of the day -- which is totally inexplicable. For the past many years, India has, thus, been following a totally wrong model of urban growth -- that kills both, the cities as well as surrounding rural areas that get emptied out in favour of life in cities.

In almost every urban centre in the country, trees are being sacrificed in favour of built-up areas and lakes are being allowed to die -- so that in time enough land would be available for construction activities for the strong builder-lobbies with big political backing and robust financial muscle. This is the story in any and every urban centre in the country -- almost without exception, the hollow political lip-service in favour of ecological conservation notwithstanding. Currently, Bengaluru has received its red flag on the issue. Tomorrow, almost every other city in the country will face the same fate, thanks to the diabolical greed with which some economic vested interests in the country are afflicted. It is common knowledge that all such vested interests are backed by lords of political rings -- which makes the task of getting appropriate clearances for their projects easier. Unfortunately, nobody in the Government has woken up to the grim reality of declining standards of urban living no matter the so-called economic prosperity.

Unfortunately, the Central and the State Governments have shown a remarkable similarity in their blindness to the dangers of thoughtless urban growth. In spite of the fact in every rainy season, all cities in the country face terrible flood-conditions, there is no waking up of the authorities to the dangerous outcome of their wrong brand of urban growth. The grim warning by experts to Bengaluru, therefore, needs to be taken as a wake-up call for all cities in the country. The saddest part is that no city or its leadership (political as well as administrative) is conscious of the danger being courted everywhere in the country. For all such heads, the Bengaluru example should come as a warning signal. But if the countrys ruling and bureaucratic leadership is blinded by its own definition of urban growth, then the country will face a grimmer reality on urban ecology soon. Hence this loud warning. Hence urging the urban authorities across the country to develop proper vision for urban growth. If this caution is not heard, then the country will have a green-less future.
IAF airlifts injured jawan from Ladakh, helps restore hand





NEW DELHI,

AN INDIAN Army personnel, whose hand had got severed while operating a machine at a unit located in a forward area, was brought to a Delhi hospital after a dark night airlift by an IAF C-130J aircraft from Ladakh sector, officials said on Friday. The jawan underwent an emergency surgery at the Armys Research Referral (R&R) Hospital here, and his severed hand was stitched back, they said. Sources said the incident took place on Wednesday, adding, the personnel was first evacuated to Leh air base and from there a Super Hercules airlifted him to Palam air force station in Delhi.

From the time he was brought to the Leh air base to the time he was brought to Delhi, the span was about four hours, and this superior coordination between the Army and the IAF ensured the injured jawans critical surgery could be performed in time to stitch back his severed hand, a source told PTI. On Friday morning, the Indian Air Force posted on X about the emergency airlift and also shared a photo of the patient recuperating at the hospital. An #IndianArmy personnel severed his hand while operating a machine, at a unit located in the forward area. Given a window of 6 to 8 hrs for emergency surgery to save his appendage, an IAF C-130J aircraft was launched within an hour to move the jawan for surgery at the R & R hospital in Delhi, it posted.
JP Nadda targets Opposition for promoting dynastic politics





Our Correspondent

Chhindwara,

National BJP President J P Nadda targeted the Opposition political parties of promoting dynastic politics while addressing an election rally in the traditional bastion of former CM Kamal Nath in Chhindwara. He spoke about I.N.D.I. alliance and accused them of running political party for their family members only. He mocked at the Congress for becoming a family political party for Kamal Nath and his son. He urged voters to ensure defeat of such political party and its candidate in this Lok Sabha election. Chhindwara needs change and time has come to bring this change by ensuring victory of BJP candidate Vivek Bunty Sahu. National BJP President J P Nadda addressed an election rally at Dussehra ground, Chhindwara, in support of BJP candidate from Chhindwara Lok Sabha seat Vivek Bunty Sahu.

He said that INDI alliance are in state of dejection and they are seeing their imminent defeat. This Ghamandia alliance is being run for two facts one to save corrupt and to save their family. Nadda said that 10 years back, politics was done in the name of caste , religions, region, south-north and others but Congress did great works of promoting fight between two brothers. PM Narendra Modi has changed the entire definition of politics, culture, system, pattern of politics. Now, politics is based only on development. National BJP President said that PM Narendra Modi has advocated GYAN which is G-Garib, Y-Yuva, A-anndata, N-Nari Shakti, when development of these would take place then development of nation will be possible.
Lights along runway malfunction.. Several flights to and from Nagpur Airport affected





Staff Reporter

Several incoming and outgoing flights got delayed at Nagpurs Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport due to a technical glitch that disrupted power supply to the runway lights. The Hitavada reader Prof Deepak Kulkarni brought this issue to the notice of this newspaper. He, along with his family, was travelling by an IndiGo flight from Goa to Nagpur. His flight was supposed to reach by 7.50 pm at Nagpur. He and his family boarded the flight at Goa and were seated inside aircraft for one-and-a-half hours. After repeated enquiry, flight attendant told him that the flight was not able to take off because of the malfunctioning runway lights at Nagpur airport.

The Hitavada received an information from airport sources that Runway End Identifier Lights (REIL) were not functioning. The engineer concerned was busy in restoring the light on the runway. The function of REILs installed at many airfields is to provide rapid and positive identification of the approach end of a particular runway. The system consists of a pair of synchronised flashing lights located laterally on each side of the runway threshold. According to airport sources, these lights were not functioning. By the time of filing this report, the engineer resolved the issue.
Lok Sabha elections.. Regional parties gained importance in early 90s





By Vikas Vaidya

The participation of regional and local parties in Lok Sabha polls assumed importance from early 90s in Maharashtra. The national parties always tried to finish these parties but they could not. Some years ago, a very senior leader of an old national party had said that the existence of regional parties is making the country face hung parliament. But the importance of regional parties kept rising. Not all regional parties succeeded in establishing dominance as most leaders formed them by splitting from some national groups. Shiv Sena is one regional party that one can say made its presence felt in the national politics too. If one has a look at the journey of these regional parties and their performance, one would notice that these parties always had to take the support of some or the other national party. More than 30 years ago, Congress used to fight either with Communist Party of India or Jansangh or Janata Party. Shiv Sena is the first major regional party that came into being in 1966. But it did not contest polls till 1989. In 1970s, Sena expanded its pro-Marathi ideology to supporting a broader Hindu nationalist agenda.

It joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 1989, it contested Lok Sabha polls with BJP as its ally. Nobody thought then that Sena would become a threat to national parties later on. In Maharashtra, nobody can talk about politics without ignoring Shiv Sena. Single party rule became passe after 90s. The second party that was formed in 1999, by Sharad Pawar, P A Sangma, and Tariq Anwar was Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). It was the second experiment of Sharad Pawar. This experiment worked well till its split in 2023 as Ajit Pawar formed a separate group. Splitting from national party like Congress and forming a separate group was not an easy job. But Pawar did it and he succeeded to a large extent. Because of NCP, Pawar established his dominance on national stage. Despite Modi wave in 2019, Pawars charisma brought four Lok Sabha seats for his party in Maharashtra.
Militants kill 11 people in Pakistan's Balochistan province in latest terror attacks

Karachi, Apr 13 (PTI)

At least 11 people, nine of them from Punjab province, were shot dead by militants in Pakistan's restive Balochistan in two separate incidents, authorities said on Saturday, as the region witnessed a surge in terror attacks in recent days.

Nine of the deceased were travelling in a bus on the National Highway from Quetta to Taftan when they were stopped by unknown militants, who pulled them out of the bus and killed them later, an official said.

The bodies of these nine men were later found with bullet wounds in the nearby mountainous areas near a bridge, he said.

The bus was going from Quetta to Taftan when armed men stopped it and after identifying passengers took the nine men to the mountainous areas, he added.

The victims were from Wazirabad, Mandi Bahauddin, and Gujranwala in Punjab province.

In a separate incident, a car was fired upon on the same highway in which two passengers were killed and two others injured.

Condemning the attacks, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sought a report of the incident from authorities.

He also expressed condolences over the deaths and said that the terrorists and their facilitators will be brought to justice.

Balochistan's Chief Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said that the terrorists involved in the killing of the 11 people on the Noshki highway would not be forgiven and hunted down soon.

Bugti that the terrorists involved in the attacks would be chased, adding that they aimed to sabotage the peace of Balochistan.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also condemned the incident, saying that the government stands with the families of the deceased at this time. "There is no room for such a tragic incident...," he added.

No outfit has claimed responsibility for the killings but in recent weeks this year, there has been a surge in terror attacks by banned outfits and terrorists in the province in which security forces and installations have also been brazenly targeted.

The banned Balochistan Liberation Army has claimed to have carried out three major terror strikes in the province in recent weeks in Mach town, Gwadar port and a naval base in Turbat in which security forces killed some 17 militants.

Pakistan has been blaming Afghanistan for sheltering Pakistani Taliban terrorists, a charge dismissed by Kabul's Taliban regime.
NCPCR moots uniform syllabus, evaluation methods across schools under RTE Act





NEW DELHI,

THE National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has written to all principal secretaries and secretaries of school education across India asking them to ensure uniformity in the syllabus, textbooks, and evaluation methods across all schools falling under the Right To Education Act. The apex child rights body, in its letter, underscored the importance of adhering to Section 29 of the RTE Act, 2009, which specifically outlines the curriculum and evaluation procedures for elementary education. The recommendations, detailed in a letter dated April 9, emphasise the need for strict enforcement of curriculum guidelines laid down by academic authorities, particularly the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) at the Central level and respective State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) at the State level.

This directive seeks to ensure uniformity in syllabus, textbooks, and evaluation methods across all schools, including Central schools and institutions affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), falling under the Act. The NCPCR expresses concern over reports of certain schools prescribing textbooks published by private entities, a practice deemed inconsistent with childrens entitlement to quality education under the RTE Act. Violations of the Acts Section 29 (1), which designates academic authorities for curriculum specification, have prompted this urgent call for action.

The implementation of the RTE Acts curriculum standards is anticipated to yield several benefits for students and families nationwide, including uniformity in educational content across all RTE-compliant institutions, reduction of education costs by limiting prescribed materials to those approved by NCERT/SCERT, and mitigation of physical strain on students through lighter school bags, achieved by adhering strictly to designated textbooks. The NCPCR reiterates that any deviation from the prescribed curriculum, especially the use of non-approved textbooks, constitutes a violation of the Act.
Positive developmentTaliban to return private land to Hindu, Sikhsin Afghanistan: MEA





NEW DELHI,

INDIA on Friday described as positive development the move by the Taliban regime to restore private land rights to Afghan Hindus and Sikh minorities. According to reports, the Taliban administration has taken steps to restore property rights of the Hindu and the Sikh communities. We have seen reports on this issue. If the Taliban administration has decided to restore property rights to their citizens belonging to the Afghan Hindu and Sikh community, we see this as a positive development, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. His remarks came in response to a question on the matter during his weekly media briefing.

The Taliban regime has reportedly set up a commission to ensure return to owners the rights of private land which were seized by warlords during the tenure of the previous dispensation in Kabul. The latest move by the Taliban dispensation comes weeks after Indias pointsperson on Afghanistan J P Singh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), held talks with Talibans Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi last month.
Rahul Gandhi dubs NEET anti-poor, says States can decide on it if we win





TIRUNELVELI (TN) ,

CONGRESS leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday assured a legislation to provide apprenticeship to young people and filling 30 lakh vacant Government jobs. Addressing his first election rally in Tamil Nadu, Rahul Gandhi dubbed the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test anti-poor. I know, the people of Tamil Nadu have a big issue with NEET. We are going to leave the decision to the State; on whether you want to do NEET or not to do NEET. NEET is an anti-poor exam and we are more than happy to allow you (Tamil Nadu) to take a decision on whether or not to take the exam. Picking from ally DMKs campaign themes, the Congress leader said when Tamil Nadu sought flood relief, it is refused, by the Centre. The ruling DMK has been consistently focusing on the Rs 37,000 crore flood relief sought by Tamil Nadu alleging that the Union Government did not give even a single paisa. The Centre labels Tamil Nadus request for flood relief as Pitchai, a plea made to seek alms, Gandhi alleged. DMK and Congress have been alleging that BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman belittled flood relief as pitchai. When fishermen seek assistance they get nothing from the Centre and similar is the plight of Tamil farmers, who are forced to go to Jantar Mantar in Delhi to fight for their rights, he claimed. Outlining the features of Congress partys 2024 LS polls manifesto, he said if the I.N.D.I.A. bloc is voted to power at the Centre, drastic action will be taken to provide employment opportunities to the young people.

There are 30 lakh vacant jobs in the Government and these jobs will be provided to young people, he said and added that in order to benefit all the graduates and diploma holders a law--Right to Apprenticeship-- will be passed in the Parliament. Slamming the BJP, Gandhi alleged the Saffron party MPs openly stated that they are going to change the Constitution if they retained power at the Centre. While the rest of the world earlier looked at India as a beacon of democracy; now it is of the view that Indias democracy is no longer a democracy, the former Congress President alleged. Attacking PM Modi, he said: The only thing Modi cares about is having a monopoly on finances and the communication system (seen as reference to media) of this country. He said the nation today faced an ideological battle. On the one side is the ideology of social justice, freedom and equality, championed by icons such as reformist leader Periyar E V Ramasamy and on the other side are the ideas of RSS and PM Narendra Modi and his Government. Gandhi alleged Modi stood for one nation, one leader and one language. He alleged all Indias institutions and agencies have been stuffed full of RSS people.

The ED, CBI and Income Tax departments are used as political weapons and election commissioners are being chosen by the Prime Minister. The Congress partys bank accounts were frozen and two months before polls, Chief Ministers (Jharkhands Hemanth Soren and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal) are arrested and opposition leaders are threatened. The whole idea of the BJP is to make sure that three or four of Indias richest people benefit. The Congress leader reiterated that the MSMEs were destroyed by a flawed GST and demonetisation. Referring to the farmers protest, Gandhi assured legal guarantee to MSP. Modi has given huge loan waivers to the richest people in the country. We are going to give the farmers of India a farm loan waiver. For the poorest of women living in poverty, one woman from each of such families, will be provided Rs one lakh every year if the INDIA alliance is voted to power. We are going to wipe out poverty from India forever. Fifty per cent reservation for women in Government jobs and immediate implementation of reservation for women in Lok Sabha and other legislative bodies and not like PM Modis after 10 years assurance was among the Congress leaders promises.

Gandhi said he really loved visiting Tamil Nadu and loved the people of the state. He praised Tamil people, their culture, history and language as the biggest teacher. Whenever he wanted to understand India, he did that through the prism of Tamil Nadu; its history and tradition, its relationship with the rest of the world and its influence. Hailing leaders of Tamil Nadu including Periyar, CN Annadurai, Kamaraj and M Karunanidhi as giants, he said: You have shown the rest of the country how to walk on the path of social justice. Hence, when it was decided by the Congress party to conduct the Bharat Jodo Yatra it was launched in Tamil Nadu, he said. This is an ideological battle; a battle for your history, tradition, culture and way of life. I am going to stand and Congress party is going to stand with Tamil people to protect your language, culture and your history. Tamil language is no less than any other language and an attack on Tamil language is an attack on Tamil people, nothing less. There can be no India without Tamil, Bengali and other languages Indian people speak and the fight is all about guarding all the Indian languages. Further, he said: This election is being fought to save Indian democracy and it is being fought to protect the Indian Constitution. I am confident we are going to win this fight.
RGPV Scam: Lookout notice for remaining two accused





Staff Reporter

Following the alleged Rs 19.48 crores FDR Scam at only technical university in State the Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV), police speeded-up the pace for further investigation. After arresting the former VC Sunil Kumar Gupta, police is rigorously searching for the other two main accused former registrar Professor Rakesh Singh Rajput and Financial Controller Rishikesh Verma by releasing a lookout notice. Police officials said that they are making all efforts to arrest the two accused within a week. FIR was lodged against four accused including the former VC, registrar and financial controller. They are allegedly involved in scam of Rs 19.48 crore. allegation has been made that all the accused have done fraud with the university and transferred the amount in their personal account. Police team is also collecting the information of personal properties of all the accused. Sources said that their personal property would be auctioned after seeking permission of the court. Former Axis Bank Manager Ramkumar Raghuvanshi has also been arrested and took on remand for further prosecution for allegedly being involved in the case.

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is demonstrating against the RGPV Scam since the day one. The student activities of ABVP staged various protest in this case and demanded to arrest the accused at earliest. Shivam Jat, Regional Media Co-ordinator of ABPV, said, RGPV came under scanner after the scam of Rs 20 crore was revealed. Police arrested only one accused after lodging FIR against five people. Some of the accused are absconded and a few of them have left the country. We are demanding strict action against the accused. Police has not arrested any main accused which is not acceptable. He further added, At present, only scam of Rs 20 crore has been revealed. Once interrogation get start, many more scam from the university will come to the front.

In January, a three-member committee was already formed to probe the matter. The committee submitted its report to the Government and after that FIR was lodged against five. According to reports, RGPV generates large amount of revenue due to which bank approaches the university making FDR. Sources said that Registrar R S Rajput decided to submit Rs 10 crore in the bank. One account was opened in RBL Bank in the name of university while the second account was opened in Axis Bank in personal name. Rs 8 crores were allegedly credited in the university account at RBL Bank and an amount of Rs 2 crores was credited to a personal account name as Mayank in Axis Bank. However, the account has been seized and Government has formed three-member committee to probe the case. All the bank account of university has been seized for further interrogation.
Rural Employment Assistant in Lokayukta net for taking bribe from Govt scheme beneficiary





Staff Reporter

Lokayukta Police, Jabalpur, trapped Rural Employment Assistant while taking bribe of Rs 20,000 for transferring payment to a beneficiary of Sambal Yojana at a restaurant in Katni, on Friday. The accused has been identified as Praveen Kumar Tiwari, posted as Rural Employment Assistant, Barkhera village in Katni district. According to Lokayukta Police Jabalpur, an appellant named Jeera Bai, wife of late Ittu Kol, a resident of Barkhera village in Katni, lodged a complaint at office of Superintendent of Police, Lokayukta Jabalpur that she had applied for payment of Rs 2 lakh under Sambal Yojana after death of her husband. She several times contacted Rural Employment Assistant of Barkhera village, Praveen Kumar Tiwari who demanded bribe of Rs 20,000 for transferring the payment in her bank account.
Top brasses from 10 states meet





Staff Reporter

Raipur,

A galaxy of top brasses from Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Intelligence Bureau (IB) along with Director Generals of Police (DGPs) from 10 states and senior officials of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) converged in the state capital for taking part in a crucial meeting at Police Headquarters (PHQ) here to devise a robust offensive for eradicating leftwing insurgency from Bastar  the epicentre of leftwing insurgency in country. The high-level meeting holds a pivotal strategic importance since Union Home Minister Amit Shah reaffirmed the governments resolute commitment to eliminate the Maoist insurgency within three years during his recent visit to Chhattisgarh in January this year. The extensive meeting, which witnessed active participation from officers deployed in Bastar, including paramilitary forces, IB, and police officials, was also necessitated since the voting for Lok Sabha seat of Maoist-hotbed Bastar will take place on April 19. In a prelude to spearhead this initiative, Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla and Intelligence Bureau (IB) Chief Tapan Kumar Deka had commenced their two-day visit to Chhattisgarh on Wednesday.

Top brasses during the meeting indicated that the government is prepared to address the Maoist insurgency with the same vigour on the lines of counter-terrorism operations in Kashmir. Virtual participation of senior police officers from Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh also underscored the collaborative approach adopted to eradicate the Maoist insurgency, knowledgeable sources averred to The Hitavada, requesting anonymity. According to the sources, the agenda of the meeting, spearheaded by the Chief Secretary and IB Director, zeroed in on ensuring electoral peace during the fast upcoming Lok Sabha elections, apart from devising robust strategies for Maoist violenceafflicted regions. Strategic plans were unveiled to implement Target-Based Operations akin to those in Kashmir, deploying specialised teams to conduct thorough surveillance of Maoist activities. The meeting emphasised launching covert operations against Maoist factions based on insights from the Intelligence Bureau. The focus was on actionable intelligence and implementing TargetBased Operations to dismantle the Maoist insurgency effectively, the sources elucidated. Sources further disclosed that prominent officials from Chhattisgarh including Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain and DGP Ashok Juneja actively participated in the discussions, along with representatives from CRPF and other central agencies.

The recent successful operations against Maoist insurgents in Bijapur were acknowledged by the senior officials, reflecting the progress made in the fight against insurgency. Addressing operational challenges including resource deficits, Ajay Kumar Bhalla and Tapan Kumar Deka emphasised the importance of refining the Target Best Approach with a focus on meticulous target identification, the sources disclosed. The Governments proactive measures to confront the Maoist insurgency in Chhattisgarh demonstrate a resolute effort to bring about peace and stability to the region. With high-level meetings, collaborative strategies, and targeted operations, there is a clear commitment to address the roots of the insurgency and safeguard the democratic process during the upcoming elections, a senior IPS official, one among several attendees in the meeting, told this newspaper reporter. Meanwhile, as per the sources, senior officials from Chhattisgarh and neighboring states along with heads of central security forces also engaged in virtual meetings to discuss inter-state coordination on law and order.
Utter Falsehood !!!





By Vijay phanshikar

The Bharatiya Janata Party is going to change the Constitution of India after winning the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. ... - Congress leader Mrs. Sonia Gandhi

THIS statement is a repeat of the refrain of the Opposition camp as part of its election propaganda based fully on falsehood. The statement also betrays the extreme frustration the Opposition camp is experiencing after sensing a clear defeat in the ensuing battle of the ballot. Not one single Opposition leader, let alone Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, has been able to put forth any evidence of whatever nature that suggests the BJPs intention to twist the Constitution of India once it gets elected for the third time in a row. The campaign managers of the Opposition developed an altogether false perception in a desperate attempt to wean the voters from the BJP leading the centrally-ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). They have no evidence, they have no Intelligence about the thinking of BJP or the NDA or Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, and they have no understanding of the constitutional process. Yet, they foist an utter falsehood on the people. They are only spreading canard. That is the only tool they now have in their hands. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is following that script of falsehood, of malicious political propaganda. So is doing every other leader of the Opposition camp across the country. The purpose is to issue threats of a distortion of the Constitution -- so that a scared electorate rejects Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi lock-stock-and-barrel. Bah ! Time it is now to highlight how the Constitution has been toyed with by earlier regimes headed mostly by the Congress party.

Time it is to tell the people once again how concepts that were not in the original document of the Constitution were introduced into the text because the founding fathers of the Constitution did not find the need to do that originally when the esteemed Constitution Assembly discussed and debated various provisions of what the Constitution of Independent India should contain or include as the basic statute of New India post-Independence. Those visionaries had a clear idea about the form and content of the Constitution as the gospel of New India -- and therefore chose to keep certain concepts away from the document as part of a considered opinion. But the present-day Opposition camp has refused even to acknowledge this reality. And, this is not out of ignorance; this is out of a dangerous plan to spread utter falsehood, so much so that there is enough ground to suspect that they are playing into the hands of some anti-India powers based in foreign lands. The statement of Congress leader Mr. Rahul Gandhi on the floor of the Lok Sabha can be cited as a ground for this profound doubt. He had said, in effect, that India was not at all a nation, but only a Union of States.

He very well knew that he was heaping insult on the countrys sense of nationhood and peoples sense of uncompromisable pride in the nations long and glorious history that has mountains of evidence to prove the spirit of nationhood. Yet, he chose to make that statement -- in Parliament and also elsewhere -- because he was being goaded by some anti-India powers. The same is the story about the attempt to foist falsehood on the people through dirty propaganda that the BJP is going to distort the Constitution after its third consecutive win in the Lok Sabha election. These people are absolute purveyors of unmitigated falsehood -- without any evidence of whatever nature. They are pushing their dirty agenda by spreading lies about the so-called intentions of the Modi-led BJP -- as if the Prime Minister whispered that secret detail into their ears ! Utter nonsense that only the Opposition can dish out ! Shame on Opposition ! But may this not disturb the common people of India in any manner. For, by now, the true colours of the Opposition have been exposed fully not once but several times.

The common voters know that such falsehood has become the main point of the Oppositions electoral narrative only after its leaders sensed a clear, impending defeat in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections for which voting will be held for the first phase on April 19, 2024. In this entire essay, the scribe has avoided the use of the new nomenclature of the Opposition camp -- I.N.D.I.A. -- since the combination actually no longer exists and its components are engaged in electoral fights against one another all over the country. This political reality (read frustration) also reflects in the Oppositions attempt to spread falsehood about the distortion of the Constitution. No matter all that, every voter senses that the Opposition is fighting a losing battle -- a fact that its leaders privately acknowledge. They know that their dirty propaganda has no power to affect the voter-psychology. They actually know that they have lost the fight !
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 14. Should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Irans response will be considerably more severe, said Irans permanent mission to the UN, Trend reports.

The mission said that conducted on the strength of Article 51 of the UN Charter pertaining to legitimate defense, Irans military action was in response to the Israeli regimes attack to diplomatic premises in Damascus.

The matter can be deemed concluded. However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Irans response will be considerably more severe. It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the US must stay away, the statement reads.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. Family members of German embassy employees leave Tehran, Trend reports.

The reason is related to a possible Iranian attack on Israel.

It is noted that the exact number of German citizens who will leave Iran is still unknown.

The German Foreign Ministry called on its citizens to leave Iran as soon as possible.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. Austria's Foreign Ministry has advised Austrian citizens to desist from travel to Iran, and those who are currently there should leave immediately, Trend reports via foreign media.

The media reported that due to the region's current tight condition, the level of danger is projected to rise in the next few days.

Austrian airlines have cancelled flights to Tehran until April 18.

Earlier, Germany's Foreign Ministry urged its citizens to leave Iran. The French Foreign Ministry has recommended its people avoid travel to Iran, Israel, and Lebanon owing to the possibility of escalation in the Middle East. In addition, Slovenia's Foreign Ministry advised its people to avoid traveling to Iran.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 14. France condemns Iranian attack on Israel, said French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Stephane Sejourne, Trend reports.

"France condemns in the strongest terms the attack launched by Iran against Israel. By deciding on such an unprecedented action, Iran is taking a new step in its destabilizing actions and taking the risk of a military escalation," he wrote on his page on X.

He added that the France reaffirms its commitment to Israel's security and assures of the countrys solidarity.

On April 14, Iran confirmed that it had launched an operation against Israel and fired dozens of drones and missiles at Israel.

On April 1, an Israeli airstrike in the Mezze district of Damascus killed 13 people, including the commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Syria and Lebanon, General Mohammad Reza Zahedi and his deputy, Mohammad Haji Rahimi. Since then, tensions between Iran and Israel have increased.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 14. The Israeli Air Force's defense and offensive systems are on alert, with dozens of aircraft in the sky, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces Daniel Hagari said during a briefing, Trend reports.

He said there was close coordination with the US. Hagari noted that this week the Israeli army assessed the situation and approved plans to prepare for an attack from Iran.
The Calcutta High Court on Friday issued a show-cause notice to the officer-in-charge (OC) of Mathurapur police station in South 24-Parganas on charges of not filing an FIR against the Trinamul Congress candidate Bapi Halder in Mathurapur Lok Sabha (LS) constituency and his wife Sili Halder even after getting complaints of alleged corruption charges against the couple.

Anup Kumar Mistri, BJPs rural body head of Krishnachandrapur gram panchayat moved the HC alleging diversion of huge funds for development in the village against the Halder couple.

The single Bench of Justice Joymalya Sengupta issued the show-cause notice on the basis of the complaints.

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Justice Sengupta has sought clarifications from the OC as to why the latter didnt file an FIR though the complaints are lying with the PS for more than one month. The OC will have to report to the court within 15 days and the next hearing on the matter will be held on 6 May.

Justice Sengupta made strong observations against the Mathurapur police for their inaction to make proper investigations soon after getting complaints lodged by Mr Mistri with the police station.

The petitioner has requested the HC for an inquiry either by the CBI or Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe the irregularities in connection with diversion of funds allotted for development of roads and drainage system in the Krishnachandrapur gram panchayat area.

He alleged that South 24-Parganas district administration like district magistrate and superintendent of police didnt take any action even though both of them were officially informed about the alleged corruption in Krishnachandrapur, where Mr Halder was panchayat pradhan. In 2018, the Krishnachandrapur panchayat was reserved for women candidates. As a result, Mrs Halder became the rural body head on the Trinamul ticket.

But in 2023, BJP won the Krishnachandrapur panchayat defeating Trinamul Congress and started investigations against the couple.

Mr Halder used to run the gram panchayat on behalf of his wife till 2023, Mr Mistri alleged.
In a major breakthrough in the Bengaluru cafe blast, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested two suspected militants today from Kanthi in East Midnapore.

NIA sources said that bomber Mussavir Hussain Shazib and his accomplice Abdul Matheen Taha from a hideout on the outskirts of Kolkata city in West Bengal in connection with the Bengaluru cafe blast case. However, the arrest of militant members has sparked a dispute between the BJP and the state police. The BJP and state police blamed each other over the arrest of militants. Gathering inputs about their movements in Assam and West Bengal, the NIA arrested the accused, who carry Rs 10 lakh reward on them. Shazib aka Shazeb, 30, is a resident of Thirthahalli town in Karnatakas Shivamogga district. Another conspirator, Taahaa aka Matheen aka Taha aka Vignesh. D aka Sumit was also wanted in other cases.

Shazib is the accused, who placed the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at the cafe and Taha is the mastermind behind the planning, execution of blast, and subsequent evasion from the clutches of law, NIA sources said. Confirming the arrests, West Bengal Police said that, Two suspects in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case have been arrested from East Midnapur in a joint operation by the West Bengal Police and the central intelligence agencies.

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The proactive role of the West Bengal Police in the matter has been officially acknowledged by the Central Agencies. West Bengal has never been a safe haven for terrorists and the state police will continue to remain ever-vigilant in keeping its people safe from nefarious activities, the statement read.

Shazib has been using the forged driving license in the name of Mohammed Juned Sayed or other similar forged ID documents to conceal his identity. The accused has been using Hindu identity documents, forged Aadhaar in the name of Vignesh, or other similar forged ID documents to conceal identity. His other aliases are Mohammand Junai Hussain and Mohammed Juned Sayed. The low intensity Improvised Explosive Device (IED) bomb was manufactured in Cuddalore city of Tamil Nadu. Mussavir had carried the bomb to Bengaluru and met Taha in KR Puram locality of Bengaluru. Taha was the mastermind, who planned the manufacturing of the bomb. Taha was behind planting it in the Rameshwaram Cafe located in the IT corridor region.

Mussavir and Taha joined each other before planting the bomb and later absconded together. The NIA took over the case on 3 March and identified the main accused, Mussavir, who had carried out the blast. Earlier, the NIA had announced the arrest of Muzamil Shareef, a key conspirator in the cafe blast case.

NIA investigations have revealed that Muzammil Shareef extended logistic support to the other two identified accused in the case, involving in an IED explosion in the cafe located at ITPL Road, Brookfield in Bengaluru on 1 March. Several staff members were injured, some of them grievously, in the blast, which caused extensive damage to the property. However, the arrest of militant members has sparked a dispute between the BJP and the state police.

NIA detains two chief suspects in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast, bomber Mussavir Hussain Shazib and accomplice Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa, from Kolkata. Both likely belong to ISIS cell in Shivamogga, Karnataka. West Bengal, unfortunately, under Mamata Banerjee, has become a safe haven for terrorists, BJP IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya, wrote on X after the arrest.

On the contrary West Bengal Police contradicted his statement in social media.
Trinamul Congress senior leader and minister Shashi Panja addressing the Media, said, Our national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and our MPs are there in Jalpaiguri to meet the victims of the cyclone. Despite Abhisheks meeting with the Governor and our MPs going to meet the Election Commission in Delhi, it failed to permit the state government to make houses for the affected people.

She further said that chief minister Mamata Banerjee has also stated in her meeting today that EC allowed the Assam government to give grants for the Bihu festival but did not permit the Bengal government despite a humanitarian crisis. Whereas, a new train was introduced from Balurghat today that BJP leader Jagannath Chatterjee is saying even while the MCC is in place.

The minister said that Mamata Banerjee has announced on Friday that Rs 20,000 has already been given and another Rs 40,000 will be given to the victims of the cyclone as first installment and another Rs 60,000 will be given later. Abhishek Banerjee out of concern for these people is meeting the affected 1,600 families in Maynaguri. The delegation will also tell the people how our leaders were harassed by the Delhi police when they went there to speak for the people who lost everything in the cyclone, added Mrs Panja.

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We have seen that if anyone praises the state, the BJP leaders cannot take that happily. We all knew that the person who was arrested in the Bangalore Cafe blast had links with the BJP. NIA has specifically said that the West Bengal Police arrested two alleged culprits from Kanthi within two hours of getting the information.

NIA in their statement praised the West Bengal Police for their good work and swift action but the BJP is so jealous of this that they are bringing in several theories and trying to belittle the praise. Why were the culprits nabbed from Kanthi? Just to divert the fact that which family is there in Kanthi and what is the connection between the terrorists and Kanthi, BJP leaders are saying certain things, said Mrs Panja.

I must tell you that we are very concerned about the 1,600 families affected by the storm, whom we want to help at once but we are not being permitted. We are not asking for money from anyone and we will make their homes as there might be rain anytime.
East Midnapore SP Soumyadip Bhattacharya, clarifying on Bengaluru Cafe blast arrests today, said, Last night we got information based on which WB Police and central intelligence agency launched a joint operation and within two hours arrested the accused duo of Rameshwaram Cafe blast. We began our action as soon as we received the information.

I want to reiterate that it was a joint operation between WB Police and the central intelligence agency. Within two hours of receiving the information, we worked out every detail and the accused duo was arrested. Further details regarding the investigation will be revealed by the (central) investigative agency. We wont be able to comment on it further.

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Delhi Cabinet Minister Gopal Rai on Saturday said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), on the guidelines Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has decided to observe Samvidhan Bachao, Tanashahi Hatao (Save the Constitution, Remove the Dictatorship) day in the capitals of 24 States on the occasion of Dr BR Ambedkars birth anniversary on April 14.

Chief Minister Kejriwal is currently in Tihar Jail under judicial custody. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21 in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.

Addressing a press conference, Rai said, CM Arvind Kejriwal has sent out a message which said no matter how many atrocities the BJP people do on us, we will tolerate it all. However, it is important to stay focused on the crucial period of the Lok Sabha elections.

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It is an extremely crucial time because the way the Modi led BJP government is crushing the values of the constitution, it is important for the people to unite and stand against them to save the constitution. It is important for everyone to pledge to save the constitution and to uproot those who are violating the values of the constitution in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, under any circumstance, he said.

Rai said accordingly, the party has decided to observe Samvidhan Bachao, Tanashahi Hatao day across all the states capitals on April 14.

In Delhi, this oath ceremony will take place at the AAP headquarters at Rouse Avenue where all the officials and senior leaders, ministers, MLAs will read the preamble of the Constitution together and pledge to save the constitution, the AAP Delhi State Convenor affirmed.

Tomorrow, the AAP will observe Samvidhan Bachao, Tanashahi Hatao day across the nation. We will also organise the oath ceremony across the capitals to save the constitution. The AAP workers, from every nook and corner of the country, will work to save democracy and the constitution, and to uproot the dictatorial government, he added.
Even though Congress is contesting on 17 seats in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, it is leaving no opportunity to reach out to the people and convey its message in all the 80 seats of the state.

The party has prepared a strategy so that along with ground campaigning in the elections, it can also use the social media for the purpose.

The party has formed a team of social media and media, which is vigorously raising local issues through media coordination and coordination with the candidates in all the Lok Sabha constituencies.

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A coordination team has been formed for social media at the state level, Lok Sabha level and organization level. The team is making and broadcasting bytes of its top leaders as well as local leaders, former MLAs, MPs etc. on all major issues through YouTube.

 Facebook, X, Instagram and other social media are being used extensively. For this, a separate media coordinator has been made in every Lok Sabha constituency, claimed UP Congress mefia department chaurman CP Rai here on Saturday.

Through this strategy Congress is working to convey the partys policies to the people as well as raising local issues. Apart from this, they are also trying to expose the unfulfilled promises of the BJP governments.

He said that on major and local issues, they will take the bytes of prominent party leaders, former MLAs, ministers and MPs and convey them to the common people through every medium. He said that one of the main reasons for working with focus on social media is that todays youth are using this medium the most. In such a situation, this is a good medium to convey our message to them. At the same time, programs of leaders rallies, meetings, public relations etc. are going on separately.

Meanwhile, the party has divided the state into nine zones in terms of social media. This includes Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi, Agra, Moradabad, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Prayagraj. Media incharges from the state level team have been deployed here. These will cover these major districts as well as the surrounding districts. By contacting the local leaders there, they will raise the issues prominently. Besides, they are also working to make the tweets and bytes of prominent party leaders reach every person.

To give impetus to the election campaign, the media department of the party has constituted various election committees.

Dr Rai said that Strategic, Planning and Research Committee has been formed to speed up the election campaign. Dwijendra Tripathi has been appointed as the coordinator of the 17-member advisory committee of the media department, All India Congress Committees media panelist Surendra Rajput has been appointed as the convenor of the 14-member strategic committee, and state spokesperson Anshu Awasthi has been appointed as the co-convenor.

State spokesperson Dr Hilal Ahmed Naqvi has been appointed coordinator of the 15-member research committee and spokesperson Sanjeev Singh has been appointed coordinator of the 15-member planning committee. He informed that Lok Sabha media in-charges have been appointed. To establish coordination between the Lok Sabha constituencies and the organization and war room, media incharges of six zones have also been appointed.
Migrant workers who have left their places of nativity to other States to eke out a living are likely to play a role in deciding the poll outcome in several parliamentary and Assembly constituencies in migration-prone districts of Odisha.

As the poll battle is poised to be tough and intriguing, each of the votes does carry its value. Parties in the fray are in no mood to take chances to ignore the worth of migrant workers votes in the upcoming twin polls.

Odisha is going to simultaneous polls for the 147 Assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats on May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) with 12 seats bagged the maximum number of seats, followed by the BJP (8) and the Congress (1).

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In the last assembly election, held simultaneously with the general election in 2019, the BJD had recorded thumping electoral success winning 113 of the 147 seats. The BJP stood at distant second with 23 seats, followed by the Congress with 9. The CPM won one seat and another was won by an Independent.

The migration is a perennial feature in almost all parts of the State. Abysmal lack of employment opportunities has triggered large-scale exodus of human resources right from the Ganjam, the home district of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to the backward Nuapada district.

The distress migration is more pronounced in around 500 gram panchayats of 20 blocks of Bolangir, Nuapada, Bargarh and Kalahandi districts. The affected blocks in these four districts are Bangomunda, Belpara, Khaprakhol, Muribahal, Titlagarh, Turekela, Gaisilet, Jharbandh, Padampur, Paikmal, Bhawanipatna Sadar, Golamunda, Lanjigarh, M. Rampur, Th. Rampur, Boden, Khariar, Komna, Nuapada and Sinapalli, according to officials.

In the remaining parts of the State, there is seasonal migration of workforces including skilled labour.

It remains to be seen whether the migrant workers who are firmly ensconced outside the State undertake a homeward journey to participate in the upcoming polls. However, ahead of the polls, the parties and candidates fighting are understood to have activated their agencies to bring them back home before the polls. After all, the votes of these migrant workforces and the registered voters of their family count a lot.

My father may skip the vote. He is settled in Kochi in Kerala. He has already expressed unwillingness to turn up. He is disillusioned with the lack of developmental work in the village. Canal water is not reaching our village as it is situated at the tail end of the canal system. Drinking water problem has not been solved by peoples representatives over the years, said Raghunath Rout of NImapursasan village in Kendrapara district explaining his fathers unwillingness to vote.

Raghunath Rout, a native of Gobindanagar village in Ganjam district, spoke on the same line.

My father and elder brother have shifted to Surat in Gujarat for the past five years. They are working on a spinning meal. In 2019 general elections for the assembly and Lok Sabha, they had returned home to take part in the voting. They will only come to vote if the employer grants them paid leave. In 2019, they were allowed paid leave. But this time, the employer is reluctant to do the same, he said.

The coastal State, infamous for exodus of skilled and unskilled labourers to other parts of the country in quest of bread and butter, had witnessed homeward influx of over 10 lakh people during pandemic outbreak. However, the actual figure of migrant labourers in the State could go up manifold.
Water is once again at the centre of the electoral narrative in Telangana since the state is reeling under drought-like conditions. The proposed Palamuru Rangareddy Lift irrigation project (PRLIS) on river Krishna, which will irrigate the parched lands of Mahabubnagar, Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda, has hence taken centre stage as the BRS, BJP and the Congress are involved in a triangular contest in these Lok Sabha seats.

While the BRS and the Congress demanded national status for the project deemed as a lifeline for these districts, the BJP candidate for Chevalla, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, cautioned that it would prove to be another engineering blunder like the Kaleshwaram project and accused the two parties of going only for contractor-friendly projects.

According to the current project plan, which has received environmental clearance, 90 tmc of water would be lifted in 60 days at five stages through pumping from the foreshore of Srisailam reservoir during the flood season near Yellur in Kollapur mandal of Nagarkurnool district to the proposed KP Lamidevipally reservoir near Shadnagar.

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Utilising the water by gravity, the project envisages creating irrigation potential in upland areas of Nagarkurnool, Mahabubnagar, Vikarabad, Narayanpet, Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda districts, besides providing drinking water supply to Hyderabad city and supporting industrial use. The water from PRLIS would be a great boon for this region which is known for droughts and distress migration. Hence, every politician worth his salt raises the issue of PRLIS while campaigning for these Lok Sabha seats.

Although BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao laid the foundation stone for PRLIS just before the Assembly elections last year, promising to turn the parched land in these districts fertile, the party facing huge anti-incumbency failed to draw any benefit. The stink over the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project downed any talk over PRLIS. But the Congress right after coming to power again raised the PRLIS, particularly because Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has promised to bring water to his constituency Kodangal. He along with irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy had met Jal Shakti minister Gajendra Singh Sekhawat urging him to consider national status for the project but they were turned down since the Centre has stopped granting national status to irrigation projects since 2014.

Engineer-turned-politician Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, the BJP candidate from Chevella, however, said that the PRLIS would be another engineering blunder like Kaleshwaram. Dont make this another Kaleshwaram. One of the reasons he (KCR) lost the elections was Kaleshwaram, and if they (Congress) do I will say please go ahead and lose all elections. These are contractor-friendly and commission-friendly projects, Reddy asserted. He said it was much easier to bring water from Jurala to Vikarabad and Ranga Reddy instead of going further downstream and then pumping the water back.
Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation have intensified work on the development of different segments of the North-South international transport corridor (ITC), First Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Industrial Policy, Innovations, and Trade of St. Petersburg Alexander Sitov told media.

"Several areas of collaboration with Azerbaijan have been established in order to activate the ITC North-South. This corridor starts in the Baltic Sea near St. Petersburg, and its branches end in Iran and can reach India. A portion of the route travels through Azerbaijan on land (roads and railroads) and along the Caspian Sea, and we agreed to develop cooperation zones," Sitov noted.

According to him, the Russian Federation is currently modernizing its Caspian port of Olya (year-round navigation) to increase cargo turnover along the North-South ITC.

Furthermore, it is planned to create a new cargo area of 250 hectares in the port of Olya: the 1st stage assumes the construction of six berths by 2027 for cargo turnover of up to 6 million tons; the 2nd stage is capacity development of up to 12 million tons; and the 3rd stage is capacity development of up to 50 million tons.

Also, the construction of highways, transport interchanges, bridges, and engineering structures will be intensified under the North-South project.

"I think Azerbaijan will be interested in new initiatives of the Russian Federation on the North-South ITC," Sitov emphasized.

To note, the decision to create this ITC was made in St. Petersburg in 2000, and the agreement on this corridor has been ratified by 14 countries in the world.

The railroad segment of the ITC is projected to establish the section Rasht (Iran)-Astara (the border between Iran and Azerbaijan), for which VTB Bank (Russia) loaned Iran more than 1 billion euros.




BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 12. French Ambassador to Russia Pierre Levy was summoned to the Foreign Ministry regarding recent statements of French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Stephane Sejourne, the Russian diplomatic department said, Trend reports.

"In relation to the recent statements of French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Sejourne about the lack of interest on the French side to talk to Russian officials, as the statements published by them allegedly contain false information, the French ambassador was pointed out the unacceptability of such statements that have nothing to do with reality," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

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Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday countered the Bharatiya Janata Partys often repeated attack that nothing happened in the country during the decades of Congress partys rule, saying the grand old party is being blamed despite not being in power for the last 10 years.

For how long youll keep blaming Congress. Congress is not in power for the last 10 years, Priyanka said while addressing a public rally at Ramnagar in Uttarakhand.

For the last 10 years, they (BJP) have been in govt with a full majority, now they say 400 paar they want more majority. They say nothing has been done in 75 years. If nothing has happened, how have such skills developed in Uttarakhand, where IITs, IIMs, and AIIMS were established. Chandrayaaan landed on the moon, if Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru hadnt built these, was it possible? she added.

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Attacking the Modi government over the issues of Agniveer, a controversial Army recruitment scheme, Priyanka said that the prime minister has broken the hopes of youth who work hard to join the Army.

PM Modi talked about soldiers in his speech here, but who brought the Agniveer scheme? Thousands of youth work hard for many years to join the army because they have a feeling of patriotism. They hope that by staying in the job, they will serve the country as well as their parents. But Modi ji broke the hopes of the youth by bringing a scheme like Agniveer, she said.

The Congress leader also accused the BJP and PM Modi of abandoning Devbhoomi when it was hit by a terrible disaster.

We all call Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh as Devbhoomi. But when a terrible disaster struck the same holy land of Himachal, neither Modi ji nor any BJP worker was seen there. Congress leaders, ministers and the CM himself were providing relief there. The Modi government has not given any relief money till date. For Modi Ji, Devbhoomi exists only during elections because this has become his habit and the truth is something else, she added.
Politics and glamor world have been together for a long time and were seen as two sides of the same coin.

The trick of gathering crowd in the elections with the help of film personalities is also old and tested, but this time Bollywoods efforts are not visible in the UP elections so far visible in the first phase of elections.

Political parties have given more importance to personalities with political influence than film faces.

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According to poll experts, the elections attracted huge crowds due to the campaigning of superstars and popular TV stars in the past among the youth.

Many candidates find their way to victory only through the presence of Bollywood stars.

But this time, if we look at the list of star campaigners of major parties for the first phase of election campaign, only the names of Hema Malini and Jaya Bachchan will be visible, who are related to the film world.

Both of them have also been made star campaigners not because of their glamor but because of political activism. It has been more than 25 years since both Hema Malini and Jaya Bachchan entered politics.

While Hema Malini is contesting from Mathura seat on BJP ticket, which goes to poll in the second phase, Jaya Bachchan is SP Rajya Sabha member.

BJP did not take the help of Bhojpuri stars like Manoj Tiwari, Dinesh Yadav Nirahua and Ravi Kishan to woo voters in the first phase of elections. BJP has given tickets to actress Kangana Ranaut and Bollywoods Ram Arun Govil, they have also been kept out of the list of star campaigners at present.

Though Hema Malini has been named in the star campaigners list of BJP but she was only concentrating in her Mathura constituency. Similarly Jaya Bachchan is engaged in Mainpuri seat, where Dimple Yadav is SP candidate.

Politics has an old connection with the film world. Late SP leader Amar Singh, who was the National General Secretary of SP, had considerable influence in the corridors of Bollywood. He made Jaya Prada MP from UP. Then he got Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt to campaign in favor of SP.

Amitabh Bachchan also won elections from Allahabad seat in 80s while Raj Babbar won Firozabad seat.

Bhojpuri film star Ravi Kishan is also a BJP MP from Gorakhpur. Jayaprada, who has contested elections from Rampur several times, is missing from the electoral scene this time.

In the last elections, many stars like film actress Nagma, Chunky Pandey, Govinda, Ameesha Patel, Shamita Shetty, Vivek Oberoi, Shilpa Shetty and Sonakshi Sinha shone in the election atmosphere of UP for a long time, but this time they are out of the picture.

Several Bollywood stars tried their luck in UP and particularly from Lucknow.

Nafisa Ali, Poonam Sinha , Raj Babbar , Javed Jaffri were among some who contested from Uttar Pradesh.
The Centre has been constantly reviewing the availability of pulses by holding regular meetings with pulse industry stakeholders.

Nidhi Khare, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, during a series of interactions with representatives of pulses industry in the run up to operationalisation of online stock monitoring from 15 April emphasised that anyone found to be indulging in forward trade of pulses would be dealt with firmly as per various provisions of the Essential Commodities Act.

The feedback from the industry and inputs from market intelligence relating to the stock position with various market players have been collated for further verification.

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An official press note on Saturday said Ms Jhare also discussed with the Indian Mission in Yangon issues relating to pulses imports from Myanmar.

The Indian Mission told her that the Rupee-Kyat Settlement Mechanism has been operationalised from 25 January to simplify trade transactions and to make them more efficient. The Central Bank of Myanmar has released guidelines for payment procedures under the Special Rupee Vostro Account (SRVA) on 26 January.

The new mechanism will apply for both sea and border trade and for trade in goods as well as services. Adoption of the mechanism by traders will reduce costs associated with currency conversions and eliminate complexities related to exchange rates by eliminating the need for multiple currency conversations.

Dissemination about the operationalisation of this mechanism among trading communities esp pulses importers is being separately done wherein they are being requested to utilize Rupee/ Kyat direct payment system using SRVA through the Punjab National Bank.

The importers and other industry players like millers, stockists, retailers etc have been asked to honestly declare their stock of pulses, including imported Yellow Peas, on a weekly basis on the portal https://fcainfoweb.nic.in/psp/ from 15 April.

The States and UTs have also been asked to enforce weekly stock disclosure by all stockholding entities and verify the stocks declared by them. Stocks in warehouses located in major ports and in pulses industry hubs should be verified from time to time and strict action should be taken on stockholding entities found to be reporting false information on stock disclosure portal.
The Uttar Pradesh government headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is focusing on its development narrative to consolidate votes across sections in the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2024 to achieve its ambitious target of 80/80 seats.

In this context, the governments slogan Developed Uttar Pradesh for a Developed India, which is raised in every public meeting, may prove to be a game-changer, claimed BJP leaders here on Saturday.

From Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the BJP leaders are making concerted efforts to drive the message of development and well-being of people home to the voters.

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At every public gathering, these leaders meticulously outline the progress achieved nationwide over the past decade, as well as in Uttar Pradesh over the last seven years in order to familiarise people with their works, but also their intent.

The BJP is keen on highlighting the monumental changes witnessed in the state under the governance of the double-engine government.

The BJP leaders claimed over the past seven years, the Yogi government has orchestrated transformative initiatives, particularly in bolstering the states infrastructure and enhancing its amenities.

The improved connectivity has garnered the interest of investors both domestically and internationally, leading to the influx of investments worth lakhs of crores of rupees and the creation of numerous employment opportunities.

PM Modi and CM Yogi have set their sights on winning all 80 seats in the state, aiming to sustain this momentum of progress and transformation. If analysts are to be believed, this objective is finding resonance and support among the populace of the state.

In every election, development emerges as the paramount issue, and General Elections 2024 are no exception. The BJP stands out with a significant advantage over its oppositions, particularly regarding development agendas.

Notably, in Uttar Pradesh, CM Yogi has spearheaded a transformative era of progress over the past seven years. This period has witnessed remarkable advancements in the states infrastructure, amenities, and connectivity.

Under the guidance of PM Modi and leadership of CM Yogi, Uttar Pradesh now boasts the operation of six expressways, with an additional seven under construction, significantly elevating its share to over 55 percent of the nations total expressway network.

Moreover, Uttar Pradesh leads the nation in airport infrastructure, with four international and eleven domestic airports in operation, complemented by six under development.

Noteworthy is the establishment of one of the countrys two defense corridors within Uttar Pradesh, delineated into six nodes, including Aligarh, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Jhansi and Chitrakoot. Brahmos units are being established in Lucknow node and Bharat Dynamics units in Jhansi node.

The connectivity landscape of Uttar Pradesh extends far beyond conventional highways and airports, encompassing modern metro systems and waterways. Presently, metro services are operational in four cities of the state, including Gautam Buddha Nagar, Lucknow, Kanpur, and Agra.

Additionally, plans are underway to introduce metro projects in Kashi, Meerut, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, and Bareilly, signaling a significant expansion of urban transport infrastructure. Notably, efforts to enhance metro connectivity in Lucknow through a second phase expansion are in progress.

Moreover, the inauguration of Rapid Rail Namo Bharat on the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor marks a significant milestone, establishing the countrys inaugural regional rail service. In Varanasi, the implementation of a ropeway project underscores the commitment to innovative transport solutions.

Furthermore, Uttar Pradesh has made commendable strides in leveraging waterways for connectivity enhancement. The National Waterway-1 vision is facilitating the linkage of Prayagraj with Haldia port, fostering seamless inland navigation. Moreover, a multi-modal terminal is being operated on the Haldia-Varanasi road and river Ganga in Varanasi.

Due to improvements in infrastructure, Uttar Pradesh has become the dream destination for investors. In the Global Investors Summit 2023, proposals worth nearly Rs 40 lakh crore were received from across the country and the world, which could potentially create crores of jobs and employment opportunities.

Recently, through the GBC 4.0, the implementation of investment proposals worth Rs 10.24 lakh crore has begun. This will create employment for thousands of youth. Prior to this, investment proposals worth Rs 4.28 lakh crore were received in the Investors Summit 2018. Under this, the implementation of these investment proposals was carried out through three GBCs.
Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday visited Dantewada in southern Chhattisgarh to bolster the BJPs election campaign in the region.

Addressing the Vijay Sankalp Shankhnad Maha Rally in Dantewada, Singh expressed his gratitude for the warm welcome and recognised the occasion as an opportunity to address a public gathering in Bastar after a significant gap.

Singh emphasised the regions significance as the sacred land of Goddess Danteshwari and the ancestral home of Lord Rama. Referring to his previous role as party in-charge during the inception of Chhattisgarh, he underscored the publics trust in the BJP.

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Singh lamented the prevalence of corruption during the Congress regimes. Praising Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sais integrity, he cited instances of corruption during the Congress rule.

Singh lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi governments unblemished track record. He commended Prime Minister Modis proactive approach in addressing corruption, symbolised by his efforts to ensure transparency in government spending.

Singh also commended the Modi Governments initiatives aimed at uplifting the underprivileged, particularly tribal communities. He highlighted the establishment of a separate ministry for tribal affairs by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

BJP state president Kiran Singh Deo hailed Prime Minister Modi for his transformative leadership and urged voters to support the BJP for a progressive India.

He emphasized the need for a strong and decisive leadership under PM Modis stewardship. Mahesh Kashyap, BJPs Loksabha candidate from Bastar, expressed gratitude for being nominated despite having a humble background.

He credited his nomination to the BJPs commitment to meritocracy. He appealed to the electorate to bless Prime Minister Modi with a third term at the Centre.
Yog Guru Baba Ramdev on Friday paid homage to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj as the narration of the saga of great Maratha king at Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar entered day four.

Narrating the saga, Swami Govind Dev Giri Ji Maharaj said that when war is inevitable, it becomes the duty of a warrior to fight for righteousness.

When the time comes to sacrifice for the protection of the nations borders and culture, those who do not retreat hold the true honor. Our brave warriors have sacrificed immensely for this cause, he said.

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On day four, Govind Dev Giri Maharaj narrated that all the brave warriors of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj were from the Maratha region, as they hailed from the Maval region. Their valor and courage were renowned, and they were considered the epitome of bravery. Despite the adversities, Shivaji Maharaj did not forsake his warrior duty and bravely faced the enemies, establishing his valor and courage.

On the occasion, Baba Ramdev said that all the mothers of India will give birth to sons like Shivaji Maharaj, drawing inspiration from Mother Jijabai.

This land, Ramdev said, is the land of valor, of sages, of warriors, and its courage will continue to awaken.

Never should one falter in their righteousness, in their duty to the nation, in their adherence to Sanatan Dharma. Amidst countless obstacles and struggles, one must progress like Shivaji Maharaj, a warrior and victor, he added.

He further remarked that today, imperialist, capitalist, market-driven forces seek to establish their dominance over the world, using their bloody hands and cruel tactics. Just as we observe the lives of Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Acharya Chanakya, Chandragupta, and Shivaji Maharaj, it becomes evident that success is achieved through righteousness. The essence lies in enthusiasm, courage, valor, righteousness, duty to the self, nation, Sanatan Dharma, national duty, Rishi Dharma, and Ved Dharma, and the greatest proponent of all these virtues is Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

In recent days, corporate, medical, or pharmaceutical mafias, who label the knowledge of yoga, Ayurveda, and Vedas as pseudo-science, have been making foolish and cunning remarks, denying the existence of Rama, Krishna, Shiva, and Hanuman. They tarnish our culture and ancient values, Ramdev alleged.

He also emphasized that the British deceitfully enacted laws to serve their interests. In 1835, the Indian Education Act was passed to dismantle the Indian education system. Similarly, the Drug and Medical Remedies Act of 1940 was passed.

Shouldnt amendments be made to these wrongful laws enacted during the British era? The struggle continues, and we shall emerge victorious, he added.
Stepping up his attack at the BJP-led government, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said Prime Minister Narendra Modis policy towards China is meek.

Referring to the issue of China, the Congress chief in a post on X wrote, A sordid saga of endangering national security and Indias territorial integrity by giving a double clean chit to China for stealing our land. External Affairs Ministers (S Jaishankar) statement that China has not occupied any of our land is a copy-paste of Modi jis clean chit to China, post Galwan, where 20 of our brave soldiers made the supreme sacrifice for Bharat Mata.

Kharge, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha said, Wearing 56-inch long Chinese blinkers, on the laal Aankh, the Modi government has given a free pass to the Chinese, twice in a weeks time. First, Narendra Modi jis interview in foreign press where he failed to put forth Indias case strongly at the global stage. Now, his Foreign Minister, handing over another clean chit to expansionist China.

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He claimed that since the last four years, the Opposition has been asking the Prime Minister to take them in confidence, in the Parliament and in public discourse on repeated Chinese transgressions, illegal occupation and building of military infrastructure, near our borders, but he has not bothered to take them in confidence.

The Congress chief also posed a volley of questions to the Prime Minister over the Chinese issue.

What were the 19 rounds of bilateral talks with your Chinese counterpart for? Was it to increase Chinese imports of India? Or take PMCARE funds from 3000 companies having Chinese directors? Why has the status quo ante, pre 2020, not returned? Why is India still denied access to areas in Depsang Plains, Demchok Nalla and several patrolling points in Hot Springs and Gogra Post? Mr Modis Policy towards China is M for Meek, Kharge said.
The Central Bureau Investigation (CBI), which is probing into the death of Veterinary student J S Sidharthan, who was found hanging in the hostel of Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) campus at Pookode in Wayanad, on Saturday conducted a dummy inspection in the hostel washroom, where he was found dead.

The scientific examination was conducted by a CBI team led by DIG Lovely. A forensic team from Delhi also reached the hostel.

The CBI team reached the hostel at around 9:30 am on Saturday. The investigation team consisting of 10 persons including DIGs and two SPs reached the hostel.

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The investigation team inspected the room where Siddharth was brutally beaten, the courtyard where he was the victim of a mob trial, and the washroom where he was found hanging. The scientific test was carried out with a dummy of Siddharths weight and height.

JS Sidharthan, second year veterinary student the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Pookode campus in Wayanad , was found dead inside the hostel after a brutal ragging and assault allegedly by the SFI leaders on February 18.

Sidharthan was reportedly beaten up by SFI leaders at four places in the college premises. However, the SFI has denied the allegations.
Election Commission of India ( ECI) has given the visually handicapped voters the facility of dummy ballot sheet in Braille script for voting in this Lok Sabha polls.

Voters who do not know Braille script will get the facility to take an assistant with them.

UP Chief Electoral Officer( CEO) Navdeep Rinwa said here on Saturday that in the Lok Sabha General Election-2024, visually impaired voters are being given the facility to vote through dummy ballot sheets in Braille script. This sheet will be available at every polling booth.

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He said, In the EVM, the Braille serial numbers of the candidates are engraved on the right side of the blue button. After the list of candidates is prepared, this list is being prepared in Braille script. In the dummy ballot sheet with Braille script, firstly the number of the ballot unit, then the candidates serial number, the name of the candidate and the name of the party are printed. When the number of candidates is more than 15, Ballot Unit-1 and Ballot Unit-2 are prepared.

CEO said that on demand of a visually impaired voter, a dummy ballot sheet in Braille script will be made available at the polling booth. After voting the dummy ballot sheet will be taken back by the Presiding Officer. The Presiding Officer will have to maintain a record of the voters who have utilized this facility.

Rinwa said that after the list of candidates contesting the elections is prepared, this list is prepared in Braille script. In the dummy ballot sheet with Braille script, the candidates serial number, name of the candidate, party affiliation and independent will be printed in the same order in which it will be printed in the ballot paper. The name of the concerned constituency will be mentioned in the dummy ballot sheet. This dummy ballot sheet will be made available in every polling booth.

He said that wide publicity is being given through print, electronic media and social media to make them aware about the facilities being provided to visually impaired voters. Apart from this, presiding officers and polling officers are also being given special training regarding the facilities being provided to visually impaired voters.

Also, visually handicapped voters who do not know Braille script will be allowed to take one companion along with them at the polling station as per Rule 49N of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, he added.
India is hugely dependent on petroleum imports (about 90 per cent of its requirements). India with a paradigm and planned shift from petroleum fuels can leverage biofuels and bio-based chemicals and polymers, which are nearly carbon neutral, offering the best way forward for energy security, and reducing imports of petroleum. Indias energy security needs planning based on its inherent strengths. India is an agricultural economy with over 50 per cent of the population involved in this sector.

Bioenergy will play a key role for energy security, agriculture growth, and green transition for MSMEs to reduce pollution in major cities. Bioenergy sources are generally considered renewable and carbon-neutral, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, and contributing to climate change goals. India has the right policies in place and aims to achieve all sustainable goals of net zero by 2070. India contributes only a small amount of total global carbon emissions (below 10 per cent, despite having nearly 18 per cent of the worlds population) but it is growing with fast industrialization. The contribution of bioenergy, as the worlds primary energy supply, is expected to substantially increase in the future.

It holds significant potential for mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Clean-burning, high-octane liquid biofuels can play a crucial role in hard-to-abate transport sectors like automobiles, shipping, and aviation, providing a sustainable and non-polluting alternative to fossil fuels while ensuring energy security. The bioenergy sector presents numerous opportunities to enhance energy access across various applications. Recognizing the significance of bioenergy, the Prime Minister took the lead during G20 by announcing the Biofuel Alliance. The formation of the Global Biofuel Alliance was a priority during Indias G20 Presidency, aimed at fostering cooperation and intensifying the use of sustainable biofuels, especially in the transportation sector.

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The Union Government, under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, has initiated numerous policies and programmes to promote bioenergy in the country. The National Bioenergy Programme, encompassing sub-schemes like waste-to-energy, biomass, and biogas programmes, stands as one of these initiatives. Biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel are produced through biochemical processes. Ethanol is typically made by fermenting sugars from crops such as corn or sugarcane. Biodiesel is produced through the transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats, where glycerine is separated from the fat or oil, leaving behind methyl esters (biodiesel) and glycerine.

Advances in biofuel production include the development of cellulosic ethanol from agricultural residues and woody biomass, which significantly increases the feedstock base. Genetic engineering of microbes to improve fermentation yields and the use of novel catalysts for biodiesel production are also notable advancements. These innovations enhance biofuel productions efficiency, reduce costs, and improve environmental sustainability. India needs ethanol for the E20 and E30 target. Ethanol blend to partly decarbonize diesel is also being adopted creating sizable additional demand.

Ethanol is also a basic and main feedstock for Sustainable Aviation Fuel and renewable diesel. There is scope for over 50 large biorefineries (1000-1500 KLPD standard size in the USA and EU) to reach the E30 programme and meeting diesel and SAF demand. To reach the Governments target of E30 by 2030, we would need 18 million tons of ethanol for blending in gasoline and more ethanol if 5 per cent blending in diesel and SAF is adopted. The current production is around 4 million tons, leaving a wide gap. Indias gasoline consumption would reach 60 million tons/year by 2030.

Biofuels alone will not replace other energy sources but will have a major role. Being high-octane and clean burning, they would cut down PM2.5 emission and pollution in Indias major cities. Biogas can generate huge opportunities, with the least investment as compared to other energy generation options and because of the easy availability of raw materials. Bioenergy/ Biogas in principle, has the potential to replace fossil fuels completely, especially to decarbonize the transport sector.

There is a need to set up Bio Compressed Plants and worldclass biorefineries in almost all states of India. Over 800 biomass power projects have been installed with a combined capacity of 10,632 MW for power generation and 140 tons/ day for compressed biogas production. The country is also developing a market for bio-products like biomass pellets. Government initiatives, with a mandate for a minimum 5 per cent utilization of biomass in thermal power plants, and the STAT scheme, which promotes the use of CBG in transportation, along with amendments to the National Policy on Biofuels in 2018, contribute to this growth. The national policy on biofuels now allows a wider range of feedstocks for biofuel production with immediate aims for a 20 per cent blending of ethanol in petrol by 2025-26. The 2023 budget proposed the establishment of 500 new waste-to-wealth plants under the Goverdhan Scheme, including 200 CBG plants.

The focus is on diversifying to advance feedstocks to minimize land use for price and other environmental factors. Technologies like cellulosic ethanol and biomass waste Fischer-Tropsch are being developed to expand non-food crop biofuel production. MSMEs adopting bioenergy can enhance their environmental footprint and appeal to ecoconscious consumers. Bioenergy plays a crucial role in the growth and sustainability of the micro, small, and medium enterprises sector in several ways. Bioenergy sources like biogas, biodiesel, and biomass offer MSMEs an alternative to conventional fossil fuels. This can lead to energy independence, reduced dependence on volatile fuel prices, and cost savings in the long run. Bioenergy technologies like biogas plants and biomass gasifiers can be implemented at the local level, empowering MSMEs to generate their own electricity or heat.

This decentralizes power generation, reduces reliance on large grids, and improves energy security. Many bioenergy technologies utilize organic waste generated by MSMEs such as food processing units, agricultural farms, and textile mills. This not only solves waste disposal challenges but also creates valuable energy products like biogas or compost. The bioenergy sector offers significant potential for rural development and job creation. MSMEs can set up bioenergy plants in rural areas, promoting entrepreneurship, generating income for local communities, and creating new employment opportunities. Biogas plants generate electricity or heat from food waste, agricultural residue, or animal manure. Biogas gasifiers power industrial processes in sectors such as textiles, ceramics, and brick making. Biodiesel is produced from waste cooking oil or non-edible oils for use in transportation or generators. Biomass briquettes or pellets are used for industrial boilers and heating systems.

Farmers being the backbone of society are benefitted with agriculture growth. Bioenergy initiatives offer rural farmers a pathway towards enhanced livelihoods by providing opportunities for additional income streams. Through the cultivation of biomass feedstock such as agricultural residues, energy and protein rich crops, and organic waste, farmers can diversify their revenue sources while contributing to the renewable energy sector. Moreover, the establishment of bioenergy facilities in rural areas stimulates local employment and entrepreneurship, thereby uplifting rural communities and reducing migration to large cities, thus augmenting their standard of living.

(The writer is Chair, Environment & Green Hydrogen Committee, PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry and former Chairman, EAC (Industry 2), Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change. He can be reached at jpglobalconsultinggroup@gmail.com)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a telephone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdullahian, the Russian Foreign Ministry says, Trend reports.

The ministry said the focus was on the situation in the Middle East.

"The Russian side again emphasized its strong condemnation of the April 1 Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consular office in Damascus," the ministry said.

During the conversation, it was noted that any attacks on diplomatic and consular facilities, the inviolability of which is guaranteed by the relevant Vienna Conventions, are unacceptable.

The foreign ministers confirmed that they are committed to maintaining a high level of coordination on current issues on the international and regional agenda.
At least four people were reported to be dead after a man entered a mall in Sydneys eastern suburbs on Saturday afternoon and began randomly shooting and stabbing people, local media reported.

The toll of casualties at Bondi Junctions Westfield shopping centre may extend further, with eight people, including a child, rushed to hospitals in Sydney, their conditions yet to be disclosed, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Chaos erupted around 4 pm (local time) with reports of multiple stabbings within the bustling shopping complex. Witnesses describe scenes of sheer terror as a man, reportedly armed with a knife, ran amok, leaving bystanders in a state of shock and confusion.

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We didnt really know where to go. We tried to go back in the other building but there were people running down that direction, recounted Hannah Bodrozic, who was shopping in Country Road at the time. Then we heard three gunshots and everyone just started screaming.

In a swift response, heavily armed tactical operations police descended upon the scene Heavily armed tactical operations police responded and shot a male offender, as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald.

Police responded to reports of multiple people stabbed at Bondi Westfield just before 4 pm, reported authorities.

Harrowing eyewitness accounts paint a picture of pandemonium within the shopping centre as terrified shoppers scrambled for safety. The sudden eruption of violence shattered the tranquility of the bustling retail hub, leaving scores of people traumatised and reeling from the ordeal.

Youd never expect something like this in Sydney, remarked Guy Johnston, who witnessed the chaos unfold, according to local media reports.

The sheer scale of the incident has prompted a massive law enforcement response, with officers from various commands converging on the scene to secure the area and launch a thorough investigation, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
As tensions soared high in the Middle-East, Iran on Saturday seized Israel-linked cargo ship MSC Aries near the Strait of Hormuz. The ship has 25 crew members, including 17 Indians, onboard

According to sources, diplomatic channels between New Delhi and Tehran are open and efforts are being made to ensure the safety and early release of the Indian crew members.

We are in touch with the Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and in Delhi, to ensure the security, welfare and early release of Indian nationals, the sources said.

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Notably, Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy seized an Israel-linked container ship near the Strait of Hormuz.

The ship was the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship owned by Zodiac Maritime, based in London.

Zodiac Maritime is a division of Zodiac Group, owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.

According to ship tracking site Marine Traffic, the seized ship is currently sailing through the Persian Gulf.

The development comes hours after US President Joe Biden warned that Iran is planning to attack Israel sooner than later after an alleged Israeli strike at Iranian Embassy in Syria earlier this month.

Biden vowed to defend Israel and warned Iran against launching the attack.

We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel, Biden said, adding We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed.

Iran has accused Israel of carrying out the attack in which two of its top generals were reportedly killed.

While Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Jewish state must be punished and shall be for an operation that, he said, was equivalent to an attack on Iranian soil.

Reacting to the Iranian threat, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has vowed an appropriate response if Iran attacks his countrys territory.

A direct Iranian attack on Israeli territory will require an appropriate Israeli response against Iran, Gallant reportedly told US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin during a phone call on Thursday.
Tension soared high in the middle east with US President Joe Bidens warning that Iran could launch a direct attack on Israel sooner than later after the air strike on the Iranian embassy in Syria early this month.

Iran has accused Israel of carrying out the attack in which two of its top generals were reportedly killed.

While Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the Jewish state must be punished and shall be for an operation, he said, was equivalent to an attack on Iranian soil.

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White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the threat from Iran was real and viable.

In a statement, Biden vowed to defend Israel and warned Iran against launching the attack.

We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel, Biden said, adding We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed.

Reacting to the Iranian threat, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has vowed an appropriate response if Iran attacks his countrys territory.

A direct Iranian attack on Israeli territory will require an appropriate Israeli response against Iran, Gallant reportedly told US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin during a phone call on Thursday .

Meanwhile, several countries, including India, France, Poland and Russia, have issued warning to its nationals to avoid traveling to Iran and Israel.

Gallant detailed the Israeli preparations and emphasised that Israel will not tolerate an Iranian attack on its territory.

Meanwhile, according to reports, Air India flights on Saturday avoided entering into Iranian airspace and instead took longer routes.

In anticipation of the Iranian attack, the US has also diverted its warships near Israel. Top US military officials also visited Israel in the last couple of days and reportedly reached out to Qatar and China for mediation.

Notably, Israel is currently fighting a war in Gaza against Iran-backed militant outfit Hamas.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. US Deputy Secretary of State John Bass will visit to Turkiye on April 15-16, Trend reports.

During the visit, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Turkiye's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will discuss the outcomes of the US-Turkiye strategic mechanism meeting held in Washington on March 7-8, as well as bilateral and global issues such as the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine, and preparations for the NATO summit in Washington this summer.



According to reports, the meetings will also examine ways to strengthen economic and investment links between the two countries.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel


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Researchers at The University of Manchester have unveiled a groundbreaking molecular device that can precisely control the release of multiple small molecules using natural forces. This advancement in molecular technology opens the door to a myriad of possibilities in the fields of healthcare and material engineering, offering hope for more effective drug delivery systems and the development of self-healing materials that could transform the way we approach medical treatment and material durability.

Published in the prestigious journal Nature, the discovery introduces a force-controlled release system that could significantly advance medical treatment and smart materials. This innovative technique utilizes a unique interlocked molecule called rotaxane, which, when subjected to mechanical force such as that observed at an injured or damaged site, triggers the release of functional molecules, such as medicines or healing agents, to precisely target the area in need, such as the site of a tumor. Additionally, this breakthrough holds promise for self-healing materials that can repair themselves in situ when damaged, thereby extending the lifespan of these materials, such as fixing a scratch on a phone screen.

Professor Guillaume De Bo, an expert in Organic Chemistry at The University of Manchester, expressed, "Forces are ubiquitous in nature and play pivotal roles in various processes. Our aim was to exploit these forces for transformative applications, particularly in material durability and drug delivery. Although this is only a proof-of-concept design, we believe that our rotaxane-based approach holds immense potential with far-reaching applications -- we're on the brink of some truly remarkable advancements in healthcare and technology."

Traditionally, the controlled release of molecules with force has faced challenges in releasing more than one molecule at once, often operating through a molecular "tug of war" game where two polymers pull at either side to release a single molecule. However, the new approach developed by the researchers involves two polymer chains attached to a central ring-like structure that slide along an axle supporting the cargo, effectively releasing multiple cargo molecules in response to force application.

The scientists successfully demonstrated the release of up to five molecules simultaneously, with the possibility of releasing even more, overcoming previous limitations. This marks the first time scientists have been able to demonstrate the ability to release more than one component, making it one of the most efficient release systems to date. Moreover, the researchers showcased the versatility of the model by using different types of molecules, including drug compounds, fluorescent markers, catalysts, and monomers, revealing the potential for a wealth of future applications.

Looking ahead, the researchers aim to delve deeper into self-healing applications, exploring the possibility of releasing two different types of molecules at the same time. For example, the integration of monomers and catalysts could enable polymerization at the site of damage, creating an integrated self-healing system within materials. Furthermore, they will also seek to expand the types of molecules that can be released.

Professor De Bo emphasized, "We've barely scratched the surface of what this technology can achieve. The possibilities are limitless, and we're excited to explore further."
The Supreme Court will hear Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals plea challenging his arrest in a money laundering case on Monday. The Delhi High Court recently dismissed Kerjriwals petition against his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate.



A bench comprising of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta will hear the matter on April 15, Live Law reported.

The Delhi Court on April 9 dismissed a plea by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging his arrest in a money laundering case. The Court said that the Enforcement Directorate had sufficient materials to arrest the Aam Aadmi Party leader.

Hearing a plea challenging his arrest by ED in a money laundering case registered in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma upheld Kejriwals arrest as valid and dismissed his petition. The Court observed the agency was in possession of enough material which led to his arrest. His non-joining of the probe, delay caused by him, impacted those in judicial custody, the Court said.

The Court observed material collected by ED revealed that the Delhi CM conspired and was involved in the formulation of excise policy and used proceeds of crime. He is allegedly involved in personal capacity in the formulation of policy and demanding kickbacks, and secondly, in the capacity of national convenor of AAP, Live Law reported.

Kejriwal was arrested by ED on March 21 and has been remanded to judicial custody till April 15. The Delhi CM questioned the veracity of statements given by approvers and argued the statements were given in exchange for their release and ticket to contest elections.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 14. The US will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran, said NSC Spokesperson Adrienne Watson, Trend reports.

Iran has begun an airborne attack against Israel. President Biden is being regularly updated on the situation by his national security team and will meet with them this afternoon at the White House. His team is in constant communication with Israeli officials as well as other partners and allies. This attack is likely to unfold over a number of hours. President Biden has been clear: our support for Israels security is ironclad. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran, the statement reads.

Will be updated
Is India, the largest democracy in the world, relying on a flawed and undemocratic system of elections using electronic voting machines (EVMs)?

While civil society groups are waiting to hear from the Supreme Court (hearing on April 16) on the petition seeking to cross-verify the electronic count (of votes) recorded in the EVMs with the print-out of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips, a former bureaucrat and an advocate is questioning the sanctity and integrity of the EVMs in their unique ways.

While former IAS officer M.G. Devasahayam has approached the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC), after the ECI failed to respond to a memorandum (dated May 2, 2022) signed by 112 technocrats, academics, and senior civil servants, raising concerns over the integrity of the EVMs and fairness of the EVM-based elections in India; advocate Mehmood Pracha has taken the plunge into electoral politics to get the first-hand, an insider view of the electoral system.

Citing the findings of the Citizens Commission of Elections report (January 2021), Devasahayam stated that EVM-VVPAT voting and counting does not comply with the essential democratic principle that each voter should be able to verify that her vote is cast and counted as intended, and the current system is not verifiable due to the absence of end to end verifiability.

Eminent citizens have also raised concerns over the suitability of EVMs to conduct fair elections as the current system has no way for the voter to verify if the vote is cast as intended by him, recorded as cast by him and most importantly, counted as recorded. Also, the report states there are no provable guarantees against hacking, tampering and spurious vote injections into the current set of EVMs, said Devasahayam, convener of Forum for Electoral Democracy, who was in Bengaluru on Friday to address the media on the Role of free and fair elections in a democracy.

EVMs are banned in developed countries like the US, UK, France and Germany, which have gone back to the paper ballot. But India, being the largest democracy, is following the EVM system of elections. The ECI neither acknowledged the CCE report nor responded to our memorandum seeking clarifications. We made a second appeal before the CIC and that led to the CIC issuing strictures to the ECI to furnish the details within 30 days from the date of hearing (March 19, 2024), said Devasahayam, adding that it was important for the voters to know the vulnerability of the current system of elections.

Reading out a set of 17 posers to the ECI, Devasahayam underlined that the VVPAT slip was the real vote and not the EVM memory as per the Rule 56D(4)(b) of the Conduct of Election (Amendment) ruled 2013.

Yet, ECI is refusing 100 per cent counting of VVPAT slips and counts only the EVM memory. The ECI is maintaining secrecy on the origin of the current set of EVMs and VVPATs without disclosing where they are being procured from, their design and functional integrity. The operational manual of the Symbol Loading Units (SLU) used to transfer the party symbols and the final list of candidates into the EVMs (ballot, control and VVPAT units) is not available in the public domain. After the ECI failed to respond to our queries, we sought information under the RTI Act, but to no avail explained Devasahayam.

Earlier, the Association for Democratic Reforms, in its writ petition pending in the Supreme Court, had pleaded that the print-out of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips must be handed over to the voter who, in turn, must be able to deposit them in the VVPAT Box. It further adds that these slips must be counted and cross-verified by the electronic count in the EVMs, in accordance with the directions of the top court in Subramanian Swamy v. Election Commission of India (2013).

Meanwhile, Mehmood Pracha, who has filed his nomination as an independent candidate from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh said, I wanted to understand the functioning of the EVM-based election and unless you are a candidate, you have no access to the strong room and the processes like uploading of symbols into the ballot box, randomisation (shuffling of EVMs) and a mock poll that happen before the final voting. My experience is that the system is vulnerable and open to manipulation at several stages.

I filed for paper ballot in Rampur, as per section 61A of the Representation of Peoples Act. But, the ECI did not honour it and instead announced EVM-based voting across all 543 seats. I filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court as the ECI reasoned that both the poll personnel and electors were conversive with EVMs. This is despite the fact that voters and candidates have expressed doubts over the integrity of EVMs. I catalogued my step-by-step struggle to document proof of the inherent incurable faults of the EVM, and the colossal failure of the ECI to even implement its own faulty system, said Pracha, who has urged candidates interested in free and fair elections to study and understand methods to stop electoral frauds and manipulations, while appealing to opposition parties to hold mass and peaceful protests to save democracy.

Stating that the paper ballot is the gold standard for elections, Pracha said, The first randomisation or mixing of EVMs was done even in the absence of the candidates, while the second randomisation was not physically done but displayed only a TV screen, where the list of booths and EVMs was matched. The commissioning of EVMs in the strong rooms was done in my absence as they had misled me to go to another centre. On my return, I found the EVMs were in unsealed condition. The symbol loading procedure was hideous too as they were at the Chief Electoral Officers office in unsealed condition and no user manual was given to the candidates. Each Lok Sabha constituency is allotted 10 engineers to upload the symbols and we do not know their credentials.

Reverting to a paper ballot is not retrogressive as the ECI wants us to believe. With the advent of new technology, a paper ballot system can be upgraded to make it foolproof and ensure fair elections, asserted Devasahayam.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was in Coimbatore on Friday to campaign for Lok Sabha elections, made an unexpected pitstop enroute to the rally ground to present a surprise gift for alliance party leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.



Rahul Gandhi, along with Tamil Nadu Congress President K. Selvaperunthagai and a few other leaders visited a sweet shop in Coimbatore and bought sweets for Stalin on Friday evening. Reaching the campaign site, Staling received Rahul Gandhi with a hug. The Tamil Nadu chief minister was visibly surprised when Rahul presented him with the sweets. Congress shared a video of the sweet moment on X, formerly Twitter.

Shri @RahulGandhi gifts famous Mysore Pak to Shri @mkstalin.



Celebrating the loving relationship he shares with the people of Tamil Nadu. pic.twitter.com/Lw8vYrCC8L  Congress (@INCIndia) April 12, 2024

Responding to the video, Stalin tweeted, Touched and overwhelmed by the 'sweet gesture' from my brother @RahulGandhi. On June 4th, #INDIA will surely deliver him a sweet victory!

Rahuls gesture comes amidst Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Partys attack against him and a few other Opposition leaders for eating non-vegetarian food during the Sawan month. Modi made a veiled attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and RJD's Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday and accused opposition leaders of demonstrating a 'Mughal mindset' and "teasing" the people of the country by consuming non-vegetarian food in the holy month of Sawan and posting a video of it online.

"The law does not stop anyone from eating anything, and neither does Modi. All are free to have vegetarian and non-vegetarian food whenever they want but the motive of these leaders was different."

"The Mughals used to get satisfaction by vandalising temples, not by defeating kings. They used to derive pleasure out of it. Likewise, they (INDIA bloc leaders) tease the people of the country by releasing such videos in the month of Sawan and trying to consolidate their vote banks," the prime minister said. "In the month of Sawan, they went to the house of a person who was handed a punishment by a court and is on bail and cherished the taste of mutton. They made a video of it to tease the people of the country," Modi said.

BJP Tamil Nadu President K. Annamalai is contesting Lok Sabha polls from the Coimbatore constituency. The ruling DMK has fielded P. Ganapathy Rajkumar and AIADMK has fielded Singai G. Ramachandran.
The horrific incident of stabbing spree in Sydney has sent shock waves across Australia. The suspect, shot dead by the police, involved in the stabbing--that claimed six lives and left eight severely injured, was identified as a 40-year-old man. According to New South Wales Police Commissioner, Karen Webb, he was known to the police.

While ruling out terrorism, Webb said "If it is the person we believe it is, we don't have fear for that person holding an ideation." "In other words, that it's not a terrorism incident...We believe that this person acted alone and there's no ongoing threat to the community" she added.

The police said that they would only confirm the identity of the suspect after thorough verification.

The motive is still unclear, said the police.

Witnesses and shoppers in the mall recall the chaos and shock of the incident. The man was seen holding a "large blade" and going on to attack random people.

"He was walking like he was having an ice cream in the park," a witness told ABC News.

According to police five women and a man died at the scene and the rest injured were taken to the nearby hospital. Among the eight injured also include a nine-month-old baby. Reportedly, the mother of the baby died after being taken to the hospital.

Several witnesses recall seeing a woman lying on the floor of the Chanel shop covered in blood. Shoppers were running to the exit doors and hiding in the mall while the suspect attacked people.

"She was getting stabbed. Everyone was in shock and didn't know what to do," a witness was quoted by BBC. "Other shoppers were using clothing and other things....to stop the bleeding."

It was a police official on duty who put an end to the stabbings by shooting the suspect dead.

Three shots were fired by a woman cop, who had been on duty for an unrelated reason, at the attacker. He turned, faced her, raised a knife. She discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased, said assistant police commissioner, Anthony Cooke.

Since the 2017 Bourke Street attack, where James Gargasoulas mowed down and killed six people in a car at a busy public shopping strip, this is the first shocking incident that shook the nation.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was "beyond words or understanding".

"This was a horrific act of violence indiscriminately targeted at the innocent people going about an ordinary Saturday, doing their shopping," he said.

Albanese praised the officer as a "hero". "There is no doubt that she saved lives through her action, Albanese said in Canberra on Saturday evening. "And it is a reminder that those people who wear uniform are people who rush to danger, not away from it," he added.

Webb said that the shopping centre would be closed on Sunday for further investigation. She also added that a thorough investigation will take place on the incident.
President of the United States Joe Biden said Iran could attack Israel sooner than later and warned Tehran against it. Biden said the US is devoted to defending Israel.



Addressing presspersons, Biden said, We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed." When asked about his message to Iran in the wake of the threat, Biden said, Dont. The US President said he wouldnt be able to reveal secure information and said his expectation was that an attack could come "sooner, rather than later.

As per US intelligence reports, Israel is preparing for a direct attack from Iran in the next 24 to 48 hours. While plans to attack are being discussed among Iran's top leadership, no final decision has been taken in this regard, according to The Wall Street Journal. The report, quoting an unnamed person, said Israel is preparing for an attack on either the southern or northern part.

"The strike plans are in front of the Supreme Leader and he is still weighing the political risk," an adviser to Irans Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said. However, it is unclear whether the attack would come directly from Iran or via one of its proxies.

Meanwhile, the US is beefing up its presence in the Middle East amidst threats of an Iranian strike, The Washington Post reported. The Israel ally has dispatched additional warships and aircraft to the region. The US has also issued a security alert to its embassy staff in Jerusalem, advising them to restrict movement.

The United States is dispatching additional warships and aircraft to the region amid heightened concern about an imminent Iranian strike on Israel and fears of spillover violence directed at U.S. personnel. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has issued a security alert restricting the movement of government employees and their families.

Iran had vowed to retaliate after an airstrike on an Iranian consulate building in the Syrian capital of Damascus killed several Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, including two generals. Though Israel did not take responsibility for the attack, Iran believes it was carried out by the Israeli Defence Forces.
Amid tensions with the West, Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a container ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday. The ship belonged to Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. Reportedly, 17 Indian nationals are onboard the cargo ship.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations received reports earlier that a vessel had been seized by "regional authorities" close to the Emirati port city of Fujairah.

Iranian state media had said that the ship identified as the Portugese-flagged 'MSC Aries' had now been "directed towards the territorial waters" of Tehran. A container ship named 'MCS Aries' was seized by the Sepah Navy Special Forces by carrying out a heliborne operation," the IRNA news agency reported.

The video reportedly showed the boarding of MSC Aries via helicopter by Iranian forces off the Straits of Hormuz and the seizure of the ship.



Mediterranean Shipping has been a repeated target for the #Houthi, and now it appears #Iran. pic.twitter.com/NnRsdvfuGV  Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping)  (@mercoglianos) April 13, 2024

Videos that circulated in social media showed commandos rappelling down onto a stack of containers stacked on the deck of the vessel.

MSC Aries is a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime  a company that is part of the Zodiac Group led by Ofer. "We regret to confirm that MSC Aries owned by Gortal Shipping Inc which is affiliated to Zodiac Maritime, and chartered to MSC, has been boarded by Iranian authorities via helicopter. She has 25 crew onboard, and we are working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their wellbeing, and the safe return of the vessel," the company said in a statement.

The vessel was headed towards the Strait of Hormuz from Dubai.

According to sources, India is in touch with Iranian authorities to ensure security, welfare and early release of Indian nationals onboard.

While the Israeli army warned Iran that it would suffer the "consequences" of further escalating the conflict in the region. "Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further," military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a statement.

The seizing of the ship comes amid Iran's retaliation attack threat against Israel. Iran has vowed to avenge an alleged Israeli attack on its consulate in Syria that killed around 13 people, including its two generals. The possibility of an Iranian attack has pushed Israel to an edge. Countries including India, the US, Russia and France have issued travel advisories in the wake of the imminent attack.

Amid retaliation threat, President Joe Biden has promised Israel "ironclad" US support. "As I told Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel's security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad - let me say it again, ironclad," said Biden.

"We are going to do all we can to protect Israel's security," he added.
The uncritical support of the current Indian government for Israel stems from two reasons. One is personalthe friendship between Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu. The other is ideologicalthe admiration that hindutva propagandists have for Israels fusion of state and its demonisation of the other. Ramachandra Guha historian

If he plays, I will bad-mouth him all day, all night. R. Ashwin cricketer, on what his reaction would be if Ravindra Jadeja is picked over him for the Test series in Australia

I consider the 1980s to be the darkest time for Hindi cinema. People were either writing double-meaning songs or songs with no meaning at all. I avoided films that, in any way, had lyrics that I found absurd or vulgar. Javed Akhtar lyricist

The biggest casualty under the Narendra Modi government is the failed attempt to reduce inequalities. Crony capitalism, public investment in capital intensive industries, reduction in corporate tax, taxes on goods of mass consumption, high fuel prices, inadequate minimum wages, neglect of tenant farmers, bias against services consumed by the poor and other policies have increased the economic inequalities between the top 1 per cent and the bottom 20 per cent. P. Chidambaram Congress leader
Art works at airports are perhaps the best result of privatisation. But do they cater to anyone else other than a selfie seeker?

There is chaos in Mumbais airport. Terminal 1 thankfully has less mayhem than Terminal 2 where I am told the recent Vistara cancellations have caused fury and rage amongst flyers. The airport is packed and the flight to my hometown Bhavnagar is yet again delayed.

Being a perpetually tardy passenger, waiting at an airport is tremendously boring for me. I find myself pacing between the Coco Cart Cafe (a saving grace for every coffee lover) and my boarding gate. I glance up at a wall, which I may have crossed five if not more times in the past 15 minutes, and look at the two paintings displayed. I am simply stunned.

For some obscure reason, I had completely missed noticing these gorgeous paintings. At the bottom right, the art works are signed by the late Lalitha Lajmi. I look around me at the many other travelers, passing by, glued to their mobile phone screens or simply making a dash to the gate. How many of these passengers would have noticed these fabulous works of art?

Lalitha Lajmi passed away last year in February. An artist whom I had the pleasure of interacting with on several occasions, she was one of the many underappreciated artists of India. Sister to the legendary actor and director Guru Dutt, Lajmi was a self-taught artist hailing from a simple background. She explored the complexes of humanity through a range of mediums. Her last exhibition being a retrospective at the NGMA, Mumbai, which took place in January 2023, just a month before her passing. As I glanced at her two large canvases, I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness as I thought these works deserved a far better audience.

What is the end goal of having airports impeccably curated with art works? Are they in competition with a museum?

The beautiful International airport (Terminal 2) in Mumbai, for example, houses a treasure trove of art works and a very well-appointed art conservation laboratory. Limited airports in the world have this infrastructure and luxury, with an air of sprezzatura. One

of the worlds busiest airports, Los Angeles International, has been designed with a similar ethos  that of celebrating culture and local, regional artists.

Mumbais T2 is an exploration of Indian tradition, craft and culture. The elegant manner in which, beautiful, intricate metal embossed boxes or pataras (as they are known in Gujarat) are displayed over the luggage belt. A juxtaposition to the rough and crude manner by which the

incoming suitcases are handled on the belt. A combination of folk art, craft and contemporary art, the airport is a gratifying experience for a culture vulture.

It is vital that art gets out of the intimidating, even boring, confines of a museum and is brought directly to people. But how many art lovers, let alone people with no interest, have the time and bandwidth to relish art at an airport? While public programmes such as these would give emerging and young artists a platform to have their works exhibited, is it worth the exercise?

Are we wasting our resources and underselling our artists by having prized works, deeply studied narratives be part of a place where people are only interested in reaching from point A to point B? Artists, pride themselves showcasing at museums or perhaps even public spaces. But Ive heard none take pride in their work showing up at the departure terminal.

I was impressed to see the new Bangalore International Airport, which has collaborated with the State Archaeological Department to display some exquisite works of historic significance. The Greeks have followed a similar concept of showcasing archaeological finds at the Athens airport. It may serve as the best bet for a passenger in transit to have a little cultural exposure. It may also help the airport build a distinct cultural identity. A celebration to Karnatakas regional heritage, the airport even offers a walk through similar to a museum and gallery.

But most in transit are worried about missing their next flight. Would they stop and stare? I see many passengers take selfies with the art works, without even stopping at the panel to read the artists name?

Airports seem to be racing ahead of cities in glamorising art. Should we not be investing in cultural heritage sites and museums as places of visiting before we showcase our airports? Is this opulence the result of privatisation ?

Airports might have the power to educate a lay person with no cultural interest and it may also inspire another to study art or draw inspiration from what is being displayed.

Given the many psychological benefits of exposure to art, airports may organically aid in reducing stress, especially while travelling. There is a dedicated group of researchers who study neuroaesthetics and the positive impact of high visual stimulation. Analysing the

impact of art and the new neural pathways, it helps develop, these researchers credit art exposure to considerable improved mental well-being.

Our surroundings play such an integral role in inspiring the creative within each one of us. It is probably why most great artists and literaries found solace in nature. For the population living in concrete jungles, airports might hopefully evolve to be that haven.

Until then, we satisfy the selfie seeker.
Mumbai, India  April 12, 2024  The CII School of Logistics in collaboration with Amity University Mumbai proudly announces its MBA Counselling Session 2024, which is scheduled to take place on April 16th, 2024. The event will be held at the Mahindra and Mahindra Hall, CII Western Region Headquarters, Mumbai.



This MBA Admission counselling session will serve as a pivotal platform for fresh graduates from any discipline who are considering Logistics and Supply Chain Management as their career path. Attendees will have the unique opportunity to interact with seasoned industry experts and Faculties in the field, gaining valuable insights into both global and domestic trends. Such interactions will empower prospective students to make informed decisions about their educational journey and career aspirations.



The Indian logistics industry, valued at an estimated USD 435.43 Bn in 2023, plays a pivotal role in shaping the nations economy. With significant technological advancements, government impetus, and infrastructure growth, the sector is undergoing transformative changes.



Furthermore, attendees will have the chance to glean inspiration from the success stories of alumni who have completed the program and are now thriving in reputable companies across various industries.



Event Details:



Date: April 16th, 2024



Time: 9:00 Onwards



Venue: Mahindra and Mahindra Hall, CII Western Region Headquarters, Mumbai



Prospective students, industry professionals, and individuals interested in exploring opportunities in Logistics and Supply Chain Management MBA Programme are cordially invited to attend the MBA Admission Counselling Session 2024.



For further information and registration, please visit.



Students and their parents are welcome to join a campus tour starting today at the CII School of Logistics, Amity University, A2 Block, 4th Floor, Room No: 416, along the Mumbai - Pune Expressway in Bhatan, Post  Somathne Panvel, Mumbai, Maharashtra  410206.



(Disclaimer : The above Press Release is provided by HT Syndication and PTI will not take any editorial responsibility of this content.). PTI PWR

PWR
New Delhi, Apr 13 (PTI) The CBI has registered an FIR against Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd, which was the second-biggest buyer of electoral bonds worth Rs 966 crore, in an alleged bribery case.

Eight officials of the NISP and NMDC and two officials of MECON were also named in the FIR for receiving alleged bribe of around Rs 78 lakh in clearing bills of Rs 174 crore of Megha Engineering in connection with works related to Jagdalpur integrated steel plant, officials said Saturday.

Megha Engineering had emerged as the second-biggest buyer of electoral bonds and donated the highest amount of about Rs 586 crore to the BJP, according to the data released by the Election Commission on March 21.

The company also donated Rs 195 crore to BRS, Rs 85 crore to DMK, and Rs 37 crore to YSRCP. The TDP got about Rs 25 crore from the company, while the Congress got Rs 17 crore. The JD-S, Jana Sena Party and the JD-U got smaller sums ranging from Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore.

According to the FIR made public on Saturday, the CBI had registered a preliminary enquiry on August 10, 2023 about the alleged bribery in Rs 315 crore project related to works of intake well and pump house and cross-country pipeline at the integrated steel plant Jagdalpur which was awarded to the company.

Based on the findings of the preliminary enquiry, a recommendation was made on March 18 to register a regular case into the alleged bribery which was filed on March 31.

The CBI has named eight officials of NISP and NMDC Ltd -- retired executive director Prashant Dash, director (production) DK Mohanty, DGM PK Bhuyan, DM Naresh Babu, senior manager Subro Banerjee, retired CGM (finance) L Krishna Mohan, GM (finance) K Rajshekhar, manager (finance) Somnath Ghosh, who allegedly received Rs 73.85 lakh bribe.

The agency has also named two officials of MECON Ltd - AGM (contracts) Sanjeev Sahay and DGM (contracts) K Illavarsu - who allegedly received payment of Rs 5.01 lakh against the payment of Rs 174.41 crore by NMDC Ltd to MEIL against 73 invoices from Subhash Chandra Sangras, general manager, MEIL and Megha Engineering and unknown others.

Chandra and Megha Engineering have also been named as accused in the case.
Kathmandu, Apr 13 (PTI) Nepal on Saturday celebrated New Years Day according to the traditional Bikram Sambat 2081 calendar with much fanfare, with tourists and pilgrims thronging scenic spots and temples in the Himalayan nation.

The Bikram era or Sambat is named after Indian King Bikramaditya and this is the official calendar in Nepal.

On Saturday, the first day of Baisakh as per the Nepalese calendar, people are celebrating New Years Day with fanfare across the country.

To celebrate the Nepalese New Year, people clean their houses, prepare delicious cuisine and visit temples to celebrate. There was a big rush in Pashupatinath and other temples in and around Kathmandu on the day.

Restaurants, bars, nightclubs, picnic spots, temples, hill stations, and various other public places in and around Kathmandu are jam-packed.

President Ramchandra Poudel, extending a message of best wishes on the occasion, said, Our efforts should be for achieving a sufficient and sustainable economy through the development of national capital by promoting domestic production and development of entrepreneurship.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda in his message vowed to create a strong base for developing the nation through economic reforms.

The ultimate goal of all Nepalis is to bring prosperity and elevate the nations image through promoting unity, mutual cooperation and harmonious feeling, he said.

Meanwhile, the Nepal government has lifted the time restrictions in Thamel and Durbarmarg, the tourist hubs of Kathmandu, starting from New Years Day to promote tourism.

All tourism-related outlets, including restaurants, night clubs, dance bars and discos will remain open round the clock starting from Saturday, a notice issued by the local authority said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 14. The Iranian drone attack on Israel is likely to unfold over a number of hours, said NSC Spokesperson Adrienne Watson, Trend reports.

Iran has begun an airborne attack against Israel. President Biden is being regularly updated on the situation by his national security team and will meet with them this afternoon at the White House. His team is in constant communication with Israeli officials as well as other partners and allies. This attack is likely to unfold over a number of hours. the statement reads.

The spokesperson added that President Biden has been clear about the US support for Israels security.

The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran, the White House said.

Will be updated
Ottawa, Apr 13 (PTI) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday greeted Sikhs on Baisakhi and Tamils on Puthandu, renewing his government's commitment to building a "better, fairer, and more inclusive country for everyone".

In separate statements issued by his office, Trudeau wished the Sikhs on the celebration of their harvest festival and the Tamils on their New Year.

Today, Sikhs in Canada and around the world will come together to celebrate Baisakhi, one of the holiest days of the Sikh calendar," he said.

Baisakhi commemorates the creation of the Khalsa and is also a celebration of the spring harvest festival," Trudeau said.

Asserting that it is a time of reflection, gratitude, and renewal, symbolising unity and community, he said that as part of the celebrations, "Sikhs will gather at their local Gurdwaras, participate in vibrant and colourful parades known as Nagar Kirtans, and celebrate their rich diversity and heritage."

Trudeau pointed out Canada marks its fifth annual celebration of Sikh Heritage Month this April and said, "Vaisakhi offers another opportunity for all of us to recognise the invaluable and ongoing contributions that Canadians of Sikh faith bring our communities."

"This is especially evident in their countless acts of selfless service  or seva  which exemplify the values of generosity and compassion at the heart of their faith and encourage us to be better," he said.

Vaisakhi diyan lakh lakh vadhaiyan," he said, wishing those celebrating the festival a happy and blessed Baisakhi.

Also wishing the Tamil community on the start of their New Year, he said, "It is a joyous occasion to express gratitude for the past year and to look toward new beginnings with renewed hope and enthusiasm."

On Puthandu, Tamils in Canada and around the world unite to celebrate the start of the Tamil New Year," he said.

He added that to celebrate the occasion, families and loved ones will decorate their surroundings with kolams  traditional art drawn with rice flour, coloured powders, or flower petals  and dress in new, colourful, and vibrant clothing

In Canada, this day also gives us an opportunity to recognise the many important contributions that Tamil communities make to our country. As we look forward to the New Year together, we renew our commitment to building a better, fairer, and more inclusive country for everyone.

Iniya Puthandu Nalvazhthukkal," he said, wishing everyone celebrating a "happy New Year filled with peace, health, and prosperity".
Peshawar, Apr 13 (PTI) The first two days of Eid festivities claimed 19 lives in different incidents in northwestern Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a rescue official said on Saturday.

As many as 326 traffic accidents, 187 fire incidents, 10 drownings and two wall collapse incidents were reported from scenic and tourist spots, including Naran, Kaghan, Swat, and Galyat areas, due to the huge rush during the festivities, a spokesman for Rescue 1122 said.

In all, 1,499 people were provided emergency medical cover and many were moved to hospitals.

At least 15 people celebrating Eid drowned when their boat capsized in the Indus River in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Thursday, authorities said.

The officials said they rescued 11 people alive and the search for the missing three was underway.
Lahore, Apr 13 (PTI) As many as 2,400 Indian Sikh pilgrims arrived here in Pakistan's Punjab provincial capital on Saturday via the Wagah Border to participate in the annual Baisakhi festival, an official said.

Sardar Ramash Singh Orara, the first Sikh Minister in Pakistan's Punjab province who is also Pakistan's Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee President, along with the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) additional secretary shrines Rana Shahid and other senior officers greeted the Indian pilgrims at the Wagah border.

"As many as 2,400 Indian Sikh pilgrims arrived here today to attend Baisakhi festivities in Gurdwara Punja Sahib, Hassanabdal," ETPB spokesperson Amir Hashmi told PTI.

The ETPB looks after the holy places of the minority communities in Pakistan.

He said that the Indian Sikhs were transported to Hassanabdal by train for the first time after the upgradation of Hassanabdal Railway Station.

The Indian pilgrims were provided security cover by the police and the Rangers.

Hashmi said that the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi had issued 2,975 visas to Sikh pilgrims to participate in the annual festival taking place on April 14 at Hassanabdal. However, 2,400 of them arrived here.

According to the spokesperson, the ETPB has completed all arrangements for the Baisakhi Mela and for first-time pilgrims coming from India will use rail transport instead of buses.

Hashmi said that the main event of the festival will be held on Sunday in which over 11,000 local and foreign Sikh pilgrims will converge at Panja Sahib.

The other foreign Sikh pilgrims have come from Canada, the US, the UK, the US, Australia, and New Zealand.

"The Indian Sikhs will be housed in hostels managed by the ETPB while those from other countries will stay in various colleges and schools," Hashmi said.

Baisakhi marks the first day of the month of Vaisakh in the local calendar. It is not only the spring festival in the region but also marks the founding anniversary of Khalsa.

Baisakhi is also the formal founding day of Sikhism as established by Guru Gobind Singh  the 10th Guru of the Sikhs.

During their stay, the pilgrims will also visit Gurdwara Janamasthen Nankana Sahib, Gurdwara Sacha Sauda Sheikhupura, Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur,

Gurdwara Rori Sahib, Gujaranwala and Gurdwara Dera Sahib Lahore, before leaving for their homeland on April 22.
New York, Apr 13 (AP) The judge in Donald Trump's hush money criminal case on Friday turned down the former president's request to postpone his trial because of publicity about the case.

It's the latest in a string of delay denials that Trump has gotten from various courts this week as he fights to stave off the trial's start Monday with jury selection.

Among other things, Trump's lawyers had argued that the jury pool was deluged with what the defense saw as exceptionally prejudicial news coverage of the case. The defense argued that was a reason to hold off the case indefinitely.

Judge Juan M. Merchan said that idea was not tenable.

Trump appears to take the position that his situation and this case are unique and that the pre-trial publicity will never subside. However, this view does not align with reality, the judge wrote.

He said questioning of prospective jurors would address any concerns about their ability to be fair and impartial.

Prosecutors had objected to Trump's request, saying that the publicity wasn't likely to wane and that Trump's own comments generated a lot of it. Prosecutors also noted that there are over 1 million people in Manhattan and said jury questioning could surely locate 12 who could be impartial.

Trump's lawyers had lobbed other, sometimes similar, arguments for delays at an appeals court this week. All were turned down by individual appellate judges, though the matters are headed to a panel of appeals judges for further consideration.

Trump's hush money case is the first of his four criminal indictments slated to go to trial and would be the first criminal trial ever of a former president.

Trump is accused of doctoring his company's records to hide the real reason for payments to his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who helped the candidate bury negative claims about him during his 2016 campaign. Cohen's activities included paying porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 to suppress her story of an extramarital sexual encounter with Trump years earlier, which Trump denies.

Trump pleaded not guilty last year to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. His lawyers argue the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses. (AP)



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Dubai, Apr 13 (AP) The British military warned Saturday that a vessel may have been boarded by an unknown party near the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

The warning from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations offered no details about the boarding in the Gulf of Oman off the Emirati port city of Fujairah.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and the West, particularly after a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian Consulate in Syria.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge seizing any vessel, nor was there any report carried by state media about the incident. However, Iran since 2019 has engaged in a series of ship seizures and had attacks on vessels attributed to it amid ongoing tensions with the West over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.

The Gulf of Oman is near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil passes. Fujairah, on the United Arab Emirates' eastern coast, is a main port in the region for ships to take on new oil cargo, pick up supplies or trade out crew.

Since 2019, the waters off Fujairah have seen a series of explosions and hijackings. The US Navy blamed Iran for limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers. (AP) GSP
(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)
Washington, Apr 13 (PTI) India's Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra has met US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks and they discussed the importance of expanding the scope of bilateral military engagements, the Pentagon said.

Kwatra is in the US for a series of meetings with senior officials of the US government and interaction with industry leaders to advance bilateral cooperation in areas like defence and technology.

The foreign secretary was on a three-day official visit to Washington and left for New York on Friday.

Hicks and Kwatra discussed priorities for strengthening the US-India defence partnership, including the implementation of the roadmap for the US-India Defense Industrial Cooperation, Pentagon spokesperson Eric Pahon said.

The two officials underscored the historic momentum in the Major Defense Partnership in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific, according to an official statement.

They applauded the efforts by both countries to advance the co-production of fighter jet engines and armoured vehicles, as well as the continued success of the India-US Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) in promoting innovation and partnerships between US and Indian researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors, it said.

Kwatra and Hicks also spoke about the importance of expanding the scope of US-India military engagements to strengthen cooperation across all domains while highlighting the shared efforts to promote stability and security in the Indo-Pacific, Pahon said.

They also discussed a range of regional security issues and committed to collaborating closely in support of a shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific, the statement.
Islamabad, Apr 13 (PTI) At least 11 people, nine of them from Punjab province, were shot dead by militants in Pakistans Balochistan in two separate incidents, authorities said on Saturday, in the latest terror attack in the restive region.

At least nine passengers were killed in the Noshki area of the province when gunmen forced them off a bus they were travelling in and kidnapped them after verifying their Punjabi ethnicity, officials said.

About 10-12 gunmen blockaded the Quetta-Taftan Highway, N-40, in the vicinity of Sultan Charhai near Noshki and abducted nine passengers from a bus, according to a senior civilian official of the area, Habibullah Musakhel.

He said that the gunmen first checked the identity cards of passengers and then kidnapped only those hailing from Punjab province. Later, they killed them and dumped their bodies under a nearby bridge.

In a separate incident, two people were killed on the same highway when gunmen fired at their car after they tried to break through their cordon. One of the victims was a brother of provincial assembly member Ghulam Dastgir Badini, police said.

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks so far but Baloch nationalists often carry out such acts of violence against the people from Punjab. They allege that the people from Punjab were involved in extracting the mineral wealth of Balochistan.

In October last year, gunmen killed six labourers from Punjab in Turbat area of Balochistan.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the attack and sought a report into the incident, according to Radio Pakistan. We stand with the bereaved families in this hour of grief, he said and promised to eliminate violence from the country.

Balochistans Chief Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said that the terrorists involved in the killing of the 11 people on the Noshki highway would not be forgiven and hunted down soon.

Bugti that the terrorists involved in the attacks would be chased, adding that they aimed to sabotage the peace of Balochistan.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also condemned the incident, saying that the government stands with the families of the deceased at this time.

There is no room for such a tragic incident..., he added.

The banned Balochistan Liberation Army has claimed to have carried out three major terror strikes in the province in recent weeks in Mach town, Gwadar port and a naval base in Turbat in which security forces killed some 17 militants.

Pakistan has been blaming Afghanistan for sheltering Pakistani Taliban terrorists, a charge dismissed by Kabuls Taliban regime. PTI SH CORR AMS NSA GSP AKJ GSP
Al-Mughayyir (West Bank), Apr 13 (AP) Israel's army said on Saturday the body of a missing Israeli teen was found in the West Bank after he was killed in a terrorist attack, as violence escalated across the Israeli-occupied territory where tensions have simmered for months.

The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair sparked a large attack by Israeli settlers on a Palestinian village on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, one Palestinian man was killed and 25 others were wounded in the attack on the village of Mughayyir, Palestinian health officials said. Israeli troops on Saturday delayed the ambulance carrying 26-year-old's body for several hours, witnesses said.

Dozens of settlers returned to the village's outskirts on Saturday, burning two homes and several cars. The Palestinian Health Ministry said three people from the village were injured, one critically.

In the nearby village of Douma, Israeli settlers set fire to several homes, according to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency. The Palestinian Red Crescent said six people were injured by gunfire but did not say who fired.

Tensions in the West Bank have been especially high since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in nearby Gaza on October 7.

Israel declared war on Hamas after militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 250 hostages. More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive since then, according to Gaza health officials.

Since the war began, Hamas has been trying to ignite other fronts, including in the West Bank, in hopes of exerting more pressure on Israel. Such efforts have largely failed, though more than 460 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since October 7, most in clashes sparked by army raids but some by vigilante settlers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing of the Israeli teen.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the killing We will get to the murderers and their helpers as we do to anyone who harms the citizens of the state of Israel, he said in a statement issued by his office.

In 2014, the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank escalated tensions and eventually ignited a 50-day Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, at the time the deadliest round of fighting between the two sides. (AP) PY

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Washington, Apr 13 (PTI) Gopi Thotakura, an entrepreneur and a pilot, is set to become the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's Blue Origins NS-25 mission.

Thotakura was selected as one of the six crew members for the mission, making him the first Indian space tourist and the second Indian to venture into space after the Indian Army's Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma in 1984.

The flight date is yet to be announced, the aerospace company said.

This mission will be the seventh human flight for the New Shepard programme and the 25th in its history. To date, the programme has flown 31 humans above the Karman line, the proposed conventional boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space.

New Shepard is a fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin.

According to Blue Origin, "Gopi is a pilot and aviator who learned how to fly before he could drive."

He is the co-founder of Preserve Life Corp, a global centre for holistic wellness and applied health located near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

In addition to flying jets commercially, he pilots bush, aerobatic, and seaplanes, as well as gliders and hot air balloons, and has served as an international medical jet pilot.

A lifelong traveller, his most recent adventure took him to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Andhra Pradesh-born Thotakura is a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Other crew members of the flight include Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Schaller, and former Air Force Captain Ed Dwight, who was selected by President John F Kennedy in 1961 as the nations first Black astronaut candidate but was never granted the opportunity to fly to space.

During the flight, each astronaut will carry a postcard to space on behalf of Blue Origins foundation, Club for the Future.

This programme gives students access to space on Blue Origins rockets, including an all-digital method to create and send postcards. The Clubs mission is to inspire and mobilise future generations to pursue careers in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) for the benefit of Earth.

From an environmental standpoint, nearly 99 per cent of New Shepards dry mass is reused, including the booster, capsule, engine, landing gear, and parachutes.

New Shepards engine is fuelled by highly efficient liquid oxygen and hydrogen. During the flight, the only byproduct is water vapour with no carbon emissions, the company said.
The Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon 150th Anniversary measures a total two millimetres thick. That's half the thickness of the now second-thinnest

There are different ways of breaking a record. For example, Piaget's latest addition to its Altiplano Ultimate Concept collection measures the same two millimetres thick as the very first model introduced in 2018. Two millimetres including the tourbillon. Yes, that's right, including the tourbillon.

Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon 150e Anniversaire  Piaget

The Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon measures two millimetres thick but, unlike its predecessor and every other watch to have limboed under this incredibly low bar, it has a tourbillon. Which could be described as flying, as there is no upper bridge, but there is no lower bridge either. This is an annular tourbillon, secured at its periphery.

At first glance, it appears Piaget has simply added a tourbillon to the existing movement architecture. As though anyone could simply add a tourbillon to something thinner than a two Swiss Franc coin. As though a tourbillon were (as it sometimes seems to be) a mere technical flourish, well within the capabilities of dozens of brands. Watchmaking doesn't work like that.

Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon 150e Anniversaire  Piaget

A tourbillon is an accumulation of components. It comprises a cage which, being a cage, encloses the watch's regulating organ, namely the balance wheel and balance spring, lever and escape wheel. The cage rotates this organ on its axis, taking the place of the second wheel in the gear train. Think of it as a sandwich containing the already incredibly thin steak of the Altiplano Ultimate Concept. And there is an art to making a good sandwich.

Piaget, at its manufacture in La Cote-aux-Fees, had already done away with the watch's traditional structure, which is also sandwich-like. The case represents the two buns: one on the bottom (the case back), one on the top (the crystal and the bezel) with the steak (the movement) in the middle. Piaget shaved two of these layers: the back of the case becomes the movement's baseplate, with recesses for its components. This is how the brand whittled its Altiplano Ultimate down to 3.65mm before pushing the needle to the maximum (or rather, minimum) and claiming the record for the world's thinnest watch in any category with the Altiplano Ultimate Concept.

Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon 150e Anniversaire  Piaget

This record was broken shortly after by Bulgari and the 1.8mm of the Octo Finissimo Ultra. Then Richard Mille decided it would have a go and reached new heights (or lows) with the RM UP-01 Ferrari at 1.75mm. Meanwhile, Piaget was already working on its Altiplano Ultimate Concept Tourbillon. The thinnest tourbillon watch ever.

It beats the previous record-holder, the Bulgari Finissimo Tourbillon at 3.95mm thick. Piaget has almost halved that. In the ultra-thin arena, records are set within a hair's breadth. Piaget has excelled in keeping a low profile.
Washington, Apr 12 (AP) China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow in turn is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine, according to a US assessment.

Two senior Biden administration officials, who discussed the sensitive findings Friday on the condition of anonymity, said that in 2023 about 90 per cent of Russia's microelectronics came from China, which Russia has used to make missiles, tanks and aircraft.

Nearly 70 per cent of Russia's approximately USD 900 million in machine tool imports in the last quarter of 2023 came from China.

Chinese and Russian entities have also been working to jointly produce unmanned aerial vehicles inside Russia, and Chinese companies are likely providing Russia with nitrocellulose needed to make propellants weapons, the officials said.

Beijing is also working with Russia to improve its satellite and other space-based capabilities for use in Ukraine, a development the officials say could in the longer term increase the threat Russia poses across Europe. The officials, citing downgraded intelligence findings, said the US has also determined that China is providing imagery to Russia for its war on Ukraine.

The officials discussed the findings as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to China this month for talks. President Joe Biden has previously raised his concerns directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping about Beijing indirectly supporting Russia's war effort.

While China has not provided direct lethal military support for Russia, it has backed it diplomatically in blaming the West for provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to launch the war and refrained from calling it an invasion in deference to the Kremlin.

China has also said it isn't providing Russia with arms or military assistance, although it has maintained robust economic connections with Moscow, alongside India and other countries, amid sanctions from Washington and its allies.

Xi met in Beijing on Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who heaped praise on Xi's leadership.

Russia's growing economic and diplomatic isolation has made it increasingly reliant on China, its former rival for leadership of the Communist bloc during the Cold War.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who returned to Washington this week from a visit to Beijing, said she warned Chinese officials that the Biden administration was prepared to sanction Chinese banks, companies and Beijing's leadership, if they assist Russia's armed forces with its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The Democratic president issued an executive order in December giving Yellen the authority to sanction financial institutions that aided Russia's military-industrial complex.

We continue to be concerned about the role that any firms, including those in the PRC, are playing in Russia's military procurement, Yellen told reporters, using the initials for the Peoples Republic of China.

"I stressed that companies, including those in the PRC, must not provide material support for Russia's war and that they will face significant consequences if they do. And I reinforced that any banks that facilitate significant transactions that channel military or dual-use goods to Russia's defense industrial base expose themselves to the risk of US sanctions.

Meanwhile, China on Thursday announced rare sanctions against two US defence companies over what it called their support for arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy Beijing claims as its own territory to be recovered by force if necessary.

The announcement freezes the assets of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and General Dynamics Land Systems held within China. It also bars the companies' management from entering the country.

Filings show General Dynamics operates a half-dozen Gulfstream and jet aviation services operations in China, which remains heavily reliant on foreign aerospace technology even as it attempts to build its own presence in the field.

The company also helps make the Abrams tank being purchased by Taiwan to replace outdated armour intended to deter or resist an invasion from China.

General Atomics produces the Predator and Reaper drones used by the US military. (AP) PY

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New York, Apr 12 (AP) Donald Trump will make history as the first former president to stand trial on criminal charges when his hush money case opens on Monday with jury selection.

The case will force the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to juggle campaigning with sitting in a Manhattan courtroom for weeks to defend himself against charges involving a scheme to bury allegations of marital infidelity that arose during his first White House campaign in 2016.

It carries enormous political ramifications as potentially the only one of four criminal cases against Trump that could reach a verdict before voters decide in November whether to send him back to the White House.



Here's what to know about the hush money case and the charges against Trump:



WHAT'S THIS CASE ABOUT?

The former president is accused of falsifying internal Trump Organisation records as part of a scheme to bury damaging stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign, particularly as Trump's reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made about women.

The allegations focus on payoffs to two women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said they had extramarital sexual encounters with Trump years earlier, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child he alleged Trump had out of wedlock. Trump says none of these supposed sexual encounters occurred.

Trump's former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels USD 130,000 and arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer supermarket tabloid to pay McDougal USD 150,000 in a journalistically dubious practice known as catch-and-kill" in which a publication pays for exclusive rights to someone's story with no intention of publishing it, either as a favour to a celebrity subject or to gain leverage over the person.

Prosecutors say Trump's company reimbursed Cohen and paid him bonuses and extra payments, all of which were falsely logged in Trump Organisation records as legal expenses. Cohen has separately pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance law in connection with the payments.



WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?

Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The charge carries up to four years in prison, though whether he will spend time behind bars if convicted would ultimately be up to the judge.

The counts are linked to a series of checks written to Cohen to reimburse him for his role in paying off Daniels. Those payments, made over 12 months, were recorded as legal expenses in various internal company records.

To win on the felony charge, prosecutors must show that Trump not only falsified or caused business records to be entered falsely  which would be a misdemeanour  but that he did so with intent to commit or conceal a second crime. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has said that Trump was trying to conceal violations of federal campaign finance laws  an unusual legal strategy some experts argue could backfire.



HOW WILL JURY SELECTION WORK?

The process to choose 12 jurors, plus six alternates, will begin with Judge Juan M. Merchan bringing scores of people into his courtroom to begin weeding out people for potential biases or other reasons they cannot serve. The judge has said he will excuse anyone who indicates by a show of hands that they can't serve or can't be fair and impartial before calling groups of those who remain into the jury box to answer 42 questions. Potential jurors will be known only by number, as the judge has ordered their names to be kept secret from everyone except prosecutors, Trump and their legal teams.

Among the questions potential jurors will be asked: Whether they follow the former president on social media, have ever worked for a Trump organisation and have ever attended a Trump rally  or anti-Trump organisations or rallies and whether potential jurors are supporters or followers of far-right groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, whose members were among the pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, or of the far-left-leaning collective known as antifa, which resists fascists and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations.



WHO'S EXPECTED TO TESTIFY?

Cohen, a Trump loyalist turned critic, is expected to be a key prosecution witness, as he was the one who orchestrated the payoffs. Before testifying in front of the grand jury that brought the indictment last year, Cohen said his goal was to tell the truth" and insisted he is not seeking revenge but said Trump "needs to be held accountable for his dirty deeds. Cohen served prison time after pleading guilty in 2018 to federal charges, including campaign finance violations, for arranging the payouts to Daniels and McDougal.

Other expected witnesses include Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Daniels alleges that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 that she didn't want, but didn't say no to. Trump says it never happened.



WHAT WILL TRUMP'S DEFENCE BE?

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has slammed the case as an effort to hurt his 2024 presidential campaign. Trump has acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment and that it was designed to stop Daniels from going public about the alleged encounter. But Trump said in 2018 it had nothing to do with the campaign.

Trump's lawyers will likely attack the case by trying to undermine the credibility of prosecution witnesses like Cohen and Daniels. Trump has described the two as liars, testing the limits of a gag order that the judge imposed. It seeks to curtail the president's inflammatory rhetoric about the case. Trump's lawyers are expected to paint Cohen as a con man and point to his conviction on multiple federal crimes as well as his disbarment to try to persuade jurors that he can't be believed.

Trump recently posted on social media a picture of a 2018 written statement from Daniels, in which she denied they had a sexual relationship. Not long after, Daniels recanted the statement and said that a sexual encounter had occurred. She said her denials were due to a non-disclosure agreement and that she signed the statement because the parties involved made it sound like I had no choice.



WHAT ABOUT TRUMP'S OTHER CASES?

Trump's three other criminal cases have gotten bogged down in legal fights and appeals, which may mean jurors won't hear about them before the November election.

The 2020 election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith remains on hold while Trump pursues his claim that he is immune from prosecution for actions he took while in the White House. The US Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the matter in late April.

The other case brought by Smith accuses Trump of illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The trial had been scheduled to begin in May, but the judge heard arguments last month to set a new trial date and has yet to do so.

No trial date has been set in the Georgia case accusing Trump and his allies of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. Prosecutors have suggested a trial date of August, but defence attorneys are now urging an appeals court to consider whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from the prosecution over a romantic relationship she had with a former top prosecutor who recently withdrew from the case.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in all three cases and says he did nothing wrong. (AP) PY

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Karachi, Apr 13 (PTI) At least 11 people, including nine bus passengers, were killed by unknown militants in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, authorities said on Saturday.

In the first incident, armed men stopped a bus on the highway in Noshki district and kidnapped nine men at gunpoint on Friday, police said.

The bodies of these nine men were later found with bullet wounds in the nearby mountainous areas near a bridge, one official said.

The bus was going from Quetta to Taftan when armed men stopped it and after identifying passengers took the nine men to the mountainous areas, he added.

In a separate incident a car was fired upon on the same highway in which two passengers were killed and two others injured.

Balochistans Chief Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said that the terrorists involved in the killing of the 11 people on Noshki highway would not be forgiven and hunted down soon.

Bugti that the terrorists involved in the attacks would be chased, adding that their aim was to sabotage the peace of Balochistan.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also condemned the incident, saying that the government stands with the families of the deceased at this time.

"There is no room for such a tragic incident...," he added.

No banned outfit has claimed responsibility for the killings but in recent weeks this year there has been a surge in terror attacks by banned outfits and terrorists in the province in which security forces and installations have also been brazenly targeted.

The banned Balochistan Liberation Army has claimed to having carried out three major terror strikes in the province in recent weeks in Mach town, Gwadar port and a naval base in Turbat in which security forces killed some 17 militants.
Palghar, Apr 13 (PTI) The police in Maharashtras Palghar district have recovered a big chunk of a cashew consignment worth Rs 1.2 crore that was misappropriated during transportation from Karnataka to Gujarat, an official said on Saturday.



A supplier from Karnataka's Udupi district had on April 2 despatched 24.63 metric tonnes of cashew nuts for delivery in Surat and Ahmedabad in Gujarat, he said.



When the nuts valued at Rs 1.21 crore, packed in 2,469 boxes, did not reach the destination, the supplier filed a police complaint.

Acting on leads, the Karnataka police sought the help of their peers in Maharashtras Palghar district who then tracked down a bulk of the consignment to two godowns at Nalasopara in the district and Navi Mumbai, the official said.

Senior Inspector Rahul Rakha of the Central Crime Unit of Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar Police said they have recovered cashew nuts worth Rs 92.7 lakh.

Efforts are on to arrest the accused and to recover the remaining cashew, he added.
New Delhi, Apr 13 (PTI) The defence ministry has issued a tender to state-run aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for procurement of 97 light combat aircraft (LCA Mk-1A) Tejas for the Indian Air Force, officials said on Friday.

The fighter jets are expected to cost around Rs 67,000 crore.

The Tejas aircraft is a potent platform for air combat and offensive air support missions while reconnaissance and anti-ship operations are its secondary roles.

In November, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) had cleared the project to acquire 97 more Tejas jets for the Indian Air Force (IAF).

The DAC also approved a proposal of the IAF to upgrade its Su-30 fighter fleet by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL)
Gonda (UP), Apr 13 (PTI) A case for violation of the Model Code of Conduct and prohibitory orders was on Saturday filed against BJP MP from Kaiserganj and former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a senior official said.

District Magistrate (DM) Neha Sharma said the MP visited several villages in the Katra assembly segment of his constituency under the Khargupur police station area with a convoy of about 25-30 vehicles on Friday without permission.

As a result, in-charge of the flying squad team of the Katra market area Dr Nazmul Islam filed a case under relevant sections against Singh, Sharma said.

The DM said restrictions under CrPC section 144 is in force in the district in view of the Lok Sabha elections ahead and that the district administration was committed to complying with the Model Code of Conduct.

Strict action will be taken if anyone violates it, the official added.

Police station in-charge Dinesh Singh said a case has been registered under relevant sections and the investigation was handed over to Sub-Inspector Mrityunjay Singh.

The BJP has yet to declare its candidate for the Kaiserganj seat.
Thane, Apr 13 (PTI) A businessman from Surat in Gujarat was booked for allegedly cheating two dry fruit traders of Rs 23 lakh in Navi Mumbai's APMC masala market, a police official said on Saturday.

As per the complaint of the two traders, Atul Shah owes them Rs 18.40 lakh for 3.3 tonnes of almonds and 50 kilograms of walnuts as well as Rs 5.31 lakh for 810 kilograms of cashew, the APMC police station official said.

"He cheated them in connection with deals that took place between December 2023 and January this year. Shah was booked for cheating and other offences but is yet to be arrested," the official added.
Latur, Apr 13 (PTI) About 100 students from two agricultural colleges in Maharashtras Latur city studied non-stop for nearly 18 hours to commemorate the birth anniversaries of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and social reformer Jyotiba Phule, the institutes dean said on Saturday.



The initiative was organised at the College of Agriculture and Vilasrao Deshmukh College of Agricultural Biotechnology on Friday and Saturday, respectively, said Dr Babasaheb Thombre, the dean of both institutes.

The birth anniversaries of Dr Ambedkar, the architect of India's Constitution, and Phule are celebrated on April 14.



The initiative was an attempt to make students aware of the study habits of great personalities like Dr Ambedkar and Mahatma Phule, said Thombre, adding they were encouraged to read books as per their choice and also provided food during the study hours.


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The death of the Italian fashion guru Roberto Cavalli at the age of 83 shocked the world as he managed to win many hearts with his unique designs during his long life. The Italian showed a flair for creativity since childhood.

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The designer preferred to be called a "fashion artist". OBOZ.UA decided to tell you some interesting facts about the iconic man, whose outfits have conquered both ordinary customers and world celebrities.

The origins of his talent

Roberto's grandfather, Giuseppe Rossi, was a well-known portrait painter in the region and also taught painting to young girls. The world-famous fashion designer's mother, Rolando Fratini, together with her daughter Lietta, founded a clothing studio. Fashion, drawing and art have surrounded Cavalli since childhood, so it was difficult for him to think about another profession.

Marriage to Miss Europe

In the early 1970s, Cavalli invented and patented a new procedure for applying drawings to the skin, and even then his name became recognizable, so in 1977 Roberto was invited to be a member of the Miss Universe beauty pageant jury.

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In the Dominican Republic, where the finals took place, he immediately listed Eva Maria Duringer as his favorite Miss Austria. But the beauty took second place, becoming the first vice miss. In the same year, she became a semi-finalist in the Miss World contest, and in 1978 she won the Miss Europe contest.

The Austrian model devoted herself to helping her husband with his business as she was also a talented fashion designer. However, they divorced in 2010.

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A father of many children

The Italian is survived by six children, the youngest of whom, son Giorgio, was born to the fashion artist by model Sandra Nilsson, who is almost 50 years younger. In 2023. 5 of his other heirs have long been of age.

Last years of life and hobbies

Although Roberto Cavalli started out as a designer. He mastered a new business at the end of his life, becoming a restaurateur. In 2002, the Italian opened his first cafe shop in Florence. Soon after, Just Cavalli opened its doors in Milan.

In addition, he was fond of cars and fast driving, loved to sail a yacht, got a pilot's license and bought a helicopter on credit, and also bred thoroughbred horses. By the way, his eldest son Tommaso took over his father's last hobby and received a professional education in this field.

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Cavalli in Kyiv, trolling Kirkorov

In 2006, Roberto Cavalli came to Kyiv to judge the Miss Europe pageant. In a conversation with journalists in the audience, the name of Putin fan Philip Kirkorov, who had been the face of the Cavalli brand in Russia for several years and was proud of his personal acquaintance with the master, was mentioned. The Italian just shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know this lady," he said, which made the audience laugh.

By the way, the traitor Ani Lorak once wore the designer's dress while representing Ukraine at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest.

Only verified information is available on OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber . Do not fall for fakes!

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IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari on Motzei Shabbos made a dramatic announcement about a drastic change in the Home Front Commands directives for Israelis amid fear of an imminent Iranian reprisal attack.

At the end of a situational assessment, it was decided that beginning tonight at 11 p.m., it was decided that starting tonight at 11 p.m., a change will be made in the Home Front Commands defense guidelines, Hagari said. As part of the changes, it was decided to prohibit educational activities across the country. Gatherings are limited to 1,000 people.

Gatherings are more strictly limited in the Gaza border area and areas near the Lebanese border. The new directives go into effect on Motzei Shabbos at 11 p.m. and are valid through Monday at 1 p.m.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said earlier: We are closely monitoring a planned attack by Iran and its proxies against the State of Israel. In recent days we have strengthened our defensive array and our offensive array and we are determined to take any means to protect the citizens of the State of Israel.

We have added new capabilities  on land, in the air, at sea, in intelligence, within the State of Israel and together with our partners, led by the US. Iran is a terrorist state  the world is seeing this now now more than ever. We are determined to protect our citizens against this terrorism and will know how to respond to it. I ask the citizens of Israel to obey the instructions of the IDF and act in accordance with the directives of the Home Front Command.

(YWNs Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis haShabbos in Israel)
For the first time in Israeli history, Iran launched a direct attack from its territory at Israel, firing hundreds of drones and missiles, Israeli media reported on Motzei Shabbos at about 11 p.m.

When the attack began, the IDF spokesperson confirmed that Iran launched UAVs at Israel and requested that civilians heed the warnings of the Home Front Command. Hagari said that the drones will reach Israel in several hours and are being tracked by the Air Force. Channel 12 News reported that US intelligence officials first identified the launch and immediately notified Israel.

At about 11:20 p.m., Iran launched another round of drones and cruise missiles at Israel. About a half hour later, Iranian media reported that a third launch of drones was identified. Israeli security officials said that drones were also launched at Israel from Iraq and Yemen. At about 12:45 a.m. Iranian media reported the launch of medium-range ballistic missiles. At about 1:35 a.m., the IDF confirmed that Iran launched ballistic missiles at Israel.

US, British, Saudi and Jordanian forces assisted the Israeli Air Force in intercepting Iranian drones over Jordan, Iraq, and Syria. There were reports of explosions in those areas as the fighter jets destroyed most of the drones.

At about 1:15 a.m., the IDF spokesperson stated that the residents of northern Ramat HaGolan, the Nevatim area, Dimona, and Eilat are asked to stay near a protected area until further notice. If a warning is sounded, you must enter the protected area.

A senior US official told ABC News: It is estimated that there will be 400-500 drones and missiles launched at Israel from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the Houthis, but most of them will be launched from Iran.

At about 1:25 a.m, an Israeli security source told Army Radio that over 100 UAVs launched at Israel have already been intercepted outside our territory by the US and Britain, out of hundreds of UAVs in total.

Sirens went off in Jerusalem at about 1:46 a.m. along with numerous other cities across Israel. The sounds of booms were heard in Jerusalem. There were reports of a direct hit in Umm al-Fahm, an Arab-Israeli city in the Haifa area but it was later clarified that shrapnel from an interceptor missile fell in the city and no injuries were reported. A ten-year-old in a Bedouin town in the Negev, near the Israeli city of Arad, was seriously injured by shrapnel from an interceptor missile. MDA paramedics evacuated him to Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva in serious condition, sedated and ventilated.

At about 2:50 a.m., a US official told ABC News that Iran launched another 70 missiles.

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said at about 3 a.m. that most of the over 200 drones and ballistic missiles fired at Israel were intercepted outside of Israel, over the skies of Jordan, Syria and Iraq. He also reported that the Nevatim air base in the Negev was slightly damaged. There are reports that the air base was hit by seven ballistic missiles.

The IDF said that the vast majority of rockets and drones were intercepted. A few impacts were identified, among them at a military base in the south of the country, with minor damage to infrastructure, it said in a statement.

Shrapnel from an interceptor missile fell in a village in Jordan, causing a fire:

Videos of missiles intercepted over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv can be seen below.

Missiles over Har HaBayis:

Tel Aviv:

Direct hit in the Negev:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of the war cabinet shortly after midnight at the underground military headquarters in Tel Aviv. It was reported at about 2 a.m. that the war cabinet approved a military response to Irans attack.

Israels Airport Authority announced that Israeli airspace will close at 12:30 a.m. and remain closed until 7:30 a.m.

At about 11:40 p.m., Iran confirmed that it launched an attack against Israel with a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) saying: We attacked targets in Israel with dozens of drones and missiles in response to the crimes of the Zionist regime, including the attack on the consulate wing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus and the killing of our commanders and military advisers in Syria.

The Iranian Defense Minister threatened that any country that opens its airspace or territory to Israel in order to attack Iran  will be met with our decisive response.

White House NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said: Iran has begun an airborne attack against Israel. President Biden is being regularly updated on the situation by his national security team and will meet with them this afternoon at the White House. His team is in constant communication with Israeli officials as well as other partners and allies. This attack is likely to unfold over a number of hours. President Biden has been clear: our support for Israels security is ironclad. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran.

Gas Rushes are occurring in Israel, Lebanon, Iran and likely several others Countries in the Middle East, as a Major Regional War between Iran and Israel now appears to possibly be Imminent. pic.twitter.com/gAEszmGYpx  OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) April 13, 2024

ass=twitter-tweet>

Additional Footage showing what is believed to be Iranian Land-Attack Cruise Missiles heading West over Eastern Iraq. pic.twitter.com/3gQYKOPxhn  OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) April 13, 2024

Unofficial #Iranian sources affiliated with the #Iranian_Revolutionary_Guards: About 50 drones were launched from Iranian territory towards #Israel. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/8KnbYbuZAo

 AbuAliEnglish (@AbuAliEnglishB1) April 13, 2024

Hundreds of drones from Iran are on their way to Israel as well as cruising missiles.

This is Irans official declaration of war on Israel. They have officially proclaimed their desire to destroy the State of Israel and have been working for years to promote terrorism with the pic.twitter.com/LbpUS5XXuf     Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) April 13, 2024

(YWNs Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis haShabbos in Israel)
A flurry of cheaper, well-stocked Chinese cars  particularly electric  is now arriving on UK shores.

This is proving a double-edged sword. Chinese cars can be up to 20 per cent cheaper, according to the EU, which is great news for consumers seeking more affordable plug-in motoring in the sub 30,000 'sweet spot'.

But the UK government, EU and US have warned that China's aggressive policies pose a 'challenge' to Western values and economies.

Sales drive: New Chinese import to Britain, the BYD Atto3 electric SUV

It is making us overly dependent on China's battery, microchip and other technologies.

China already controls (via Africa) global supplies of cobalt vital to electric car batteries.

In October last year the European Commission announced an 'anti-subsidy' investigation into imports of electric vehicles from China alleging that the 'global market is flooded with cheaper electric vehicles' dumped on Western markets with artificially low prices backed by 'huge state subsidies'.

President Biden has already imposed tariffs of 27.5 per cent (Trump would hike to 100 per cent) and the EU and UK may follow.

The U.S. also fears smart chips on Chinese cars could turn them into 'spies on wheels'.

Against this background Chinese car firms are making their pitch.

Among the brands heading this way are BYD, the world's biggest exporter, Omoda, legendary UK brand MG, now owned by China's SAIC, and Volvo, along with Polestar, owned by Geely.

And Mini is building its new electric Cooper and Aceman models initially in China as part of a joint venture with Great Wall Motors.

Warning: The UK government, EU and U.S. have warned that China's aggressive policies pose a 'challenge' to Western values and economies

Renault unveils refreshed Captur compact crossover

Available from autumn, it is the taller sibling of the Clio and comes with a choice of two powertrains.

The entry level 90bhp 1.0-litre three-cylinder is linked to a six-speed manual gearbox, averages 48.3mpg and is expected to cost from around 22,000.

Colourful: Available from autumn, it is the taller sibling of the Clio and comes with a choice of two powertrains

The full-hybrid automatic 143bhp E-Tech variant combines a 94bhp 1.6-litre 4-cylinder engine with two electric motors and a 1.2kWh battery and will cost from about 29,000. It averages 60.1mpg.

Pressing an 'E-Save' button near the steering wheel maintains a battery charge of at least 40 per cent for optimum performance under strain.
Queens may be among the most photographed women in the world. But before that, some of them are mothers and grandmothers: sometimes photographers manage to catch touching shots of royals with their families.

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From family portraits and photo shoots to more candid moments, these royal grandmothers love their grandchildren endlessly. HELLO magazine has collected a selection of the best photos.

Princess Anne

The royal princess is the grandmother of five grandchildren. For many years, the family idyll of Elizabeth II's daughter and her children could be seen at the British Triathlon and Horse Show Festival.

Queen Margrethe and Prince Christian

Before she abdicated in January 2024, the Danish queen hosted a lavish white-tie gala to celebrate the 18th birthday of her grandson, Crown Prince Christian. The photo shows the future king kissing his grandmother on the cheek.

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Queen Margrethe with Count Nikolai and Count Felix

Despite stripping four of her eight grandchildren of their royal titles in 2022 in order to reduce the monarchy, Queen Margrethe remains close to her sons Prince Joachim, Count Nikolai, and Count Felix (pictured), as well as Joachim's children by his second wife, Princess Maria, Count Henrik and Countess Athena.

Princess Beatrix

The former Dutch queen, who abdicated in 2013, maintains a close relationship with her three granddaughters, Princess Catherine-Amalia, Princess Alexia, and Princess Ariana. The girls were photographed with their grandmother during their winter vacation in the Austrian city of Lech in 2015.

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Queen Silvia

The Swedish queen hugs her eldest granddaughter, Princess Estelle, during the celebration of King Carl XVI Gustaf's 40th birthday in 2013. She is also the grandmother of Crown Princess Victoria and son Prince Daniel.

Queen Sofia

The former queen of Spain adores her granddaughters, Princess Leonora and Sofia, and often joins her son, King Felipe and his wife, Queen Letizia, during their summer vacation in Palma de Mallorca.

Princess Carolina

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The Queen of Monegasque gently hugged her grandson Sasha Kaziraghi as Prince Albert celebrated his tenth year on the throne in 2015. Princess Caroline has four children and seven grandchildren.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Popular Russian clown, actor, circus animal trainer, and Z-patriot Yury Kuklachev hospitalized in a life-threatening condition after his concert in Moscow. The artist, who called on the Russian Federation to bomb peaceful European and American cities and feared Russia's defeat, suffered a heart attack and is now in serious condition.

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According to his son Dmitry, doctors do not give any prognosis. The clown was operated on and left in the hospital. Russian media wrote about it.

"Yesterday, Kuklachev became ill during his anniversary concert in Moscow. At first we thought it was just a pinched nerve, but the situation turned out to be much more serious. The circus animal trainer was hospitalized and operated on at night," the propagandists wrote.

Interestingly, Kuklachev, 75, wanted to donate the money he earned from this performance to the families of the Russians killed and injured in the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack. It was after the shooting at the mall that he spoke of "revenge on the West and Europe."

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"The terrorists' attack clearly showed who we are fighting during the "SMO". Our people have now seen what the West and Europe will do to us if they, God forbid, defeat us. They will shoot us like partridges, they will implant chips in us to make us their slaves," the Kremlin jester said.

Kuklachev's son told the media that the operation was successful. He added that the actor is in a serious but stable condition. "Doctors never give good or bad prognoses, they did everything they could," he said.

As a reminder, Kuklachev once performed in the Russian-annexed Crimea, for which he was included in the Myrotvorets database.

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"Propaganda of war. Propaganda of Russian fascism and Nazism. Public support of Russian aggression and murder of Ukrainian citizens. Attempts on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Participation in events aimed at glorifying war criminals who participated in the murders of Ukrainian civilians," his "dossier" reads.

By the way, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin congratulated Kuklachev on his 75th birthday, noting his "significant contribution to the development of circus art."

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Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Ruslana Pysanka's colleague Yehor Hordieiev was perhaps the only one of her friends who knew about the serious diagnosis of the TV presenter and actress, who preferred not to disclose details about her illness until her death. Ruslana Pysanka passed away in July 2022. She died prematurely due to cancer.

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In an interview with OBOZ.UA, Yehor explained why she hid her diagnosis even from her friends and also recalled a call from Ruslana from Germany, after which he felt that, like in a movie, "puzzles were falling apart."

Yehor Hordieiev and Ruslana Pysanka worked together on the Your Day program. Hordieiev was the project manager of the program, and Pysanka was one of the hosts.

"It was very easy for me to work with Ruslana," Yehor recalls of their collaboration, "She was one of our best players, she understood the tasks at a glance, and she knew how things work on television. I'm thirteen years younger than her, but that was in no way an obstacle for us to work together as a producer and a presenter. She is a great team player. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to do a lot of things as we didn't finish and didn't talk... I knew the truth about Ruslana's illness because I could help her and her husband a little bit logistically during their stay in Germany. That's why Ruslana told me everything. But I really understand and respect her desire to keep it a secret."

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"You know, people around you often perceive your grief differently," Yehor replies when asked why Ruslana didn't tell him about her diagnosis, "Sometimes they take it as their own, and without meaning to, they suck a lot of energy out of you. And if you need this energy more than ever, it's better not to talk about it. So I think she made a very wise and correct decision. Ruslana was preparing to the last even when she went on air for two minutes from her hospital room. And few people knew what kind of hard preparations there were, how hard it was for her to do it physically. But she did it and gave us joy, celebration, and optimism."

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Hordieiev says that Pysanka projected a magnetic energy on camera, "A small example: we're shooting, there are three presenters on the set, but nothing is working. I can't explain it. Everything is scripted and edited correctly, but it doesn't stick together, there is no chemistry, it doesn't work. And then I said, "Ruslana, just try to go out and enter the frame abruptly." She does it, and everything gets better, you know?"

Remembering Your Day, where they worked together, Yehor admits that he regrets that the project was suspended due to the full-scale invasion, "I confess that at one time we did not say goodbye to this program. That's why we organized an online meeting during one of the broadcasts of Breakfast about a year later. Stasia Rovinska was already in New York, Ruslana Pysanka was being treated in Germany... And I remember that that broadcast emotionally "tore" us all apart. It was also hard for me because I was the only one who knew what was really going on with Ruslana. She did not express it in any way."

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"Knowing about the severity of the disease, I realized that, in principle, any conversation we had could be our last," Yehor adds, "I took every phone call as the last opportunity to talk. I will always remember one very difficult day when Stasia Rovinska first called and said that she and her husband had decided to go to America for the sake of their children. And half an hour later, Ruslana called and admitted that she was with her and asked for some help. And then I realized what big changes had happened to us. When the full-scale war started, there was no time to think about it. But on days like these, when you see puzzles falling apart like in a movie, you realize how global the changes are."

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Read the full interview with Yehor Hordieiev on Sunday, April 14.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
The Vision Art Platform will host the personal exhibition of Aida Mahmudova titled "A Dream Unfolds", Azernews reports.

The exhibition, which will debut on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 at 5.00 p.m., can be visited at Vision Art Platform at Akaretler No: 35 until July 22, 2024.

A Different Way to See the World

Art has played an important role in every aspect of life since the dawn of humanity, and throughout history, artists have used different art forms to express their feelings, thoughts and experiences. Art's expressive ability has had far-reaching influence on individuals across history, society, and culture. Whereas art reflects the lifestyle, beliefs, and cultural values of a period, it also shows the intellectual and aesthetic understanding of the relevant age. This is a practice that brings people together socially, allows us to share our feelings, and creates a common language. Nevertheless, art sometimes is against the existing aesthetic consensus and reveals a rebellious and autonomous new language of expression. Each artist reminds us of a different way of seeing the world. I would like to speak about Aida Mahmudova. She studied art at Central Saint Martins and has held solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions internationally in different cities including Belgium, London, Rome, New York, Moscow, Tbilisi, and Baku. Mahmudova also took part in the 55th and 56th Venice Biennale.

Aida Mahmudova dives into the essence of materials in her search for artistic expression and tries to decipher the language of the world through the figurative, semi-abstract and abstract forms. At the same time, she approaches her work with deep curiosity and a burning desire to solve the mysteries within, like a philosopher pondering the nature of existence.

If we think the material world is like a massive book that we only need to read and observe to gain knowledge, Aida Mahmudova wholeheartedly embraces and implements this idea. Her works are like the chapters in this remarkable book, and each stroke and layer reveal a new side of her exploration.

Aida Mahmudova's works reflect poetry that attempts to capture the beauty of nature. The artist's works evoke a serene contemplation like Wordsworth's memories of calm emotions, and these works invite viewers to lose themselves in the depths of her compositions.

The artist is never satisfied with mere representation, so her searches for realities are beyond the surface. Mahmudova is interested in the expressive potential of materials and tools. Through her experiments with heat, light, color, and matter, she creates a multi-layered narrative that transcends the boundaries of a single work and invites viewers to engage with her work on a visceral level.

From this perspective, Mahmudova's works reflect avant-garde thought by offering innovative materials and content. The artist uses many materials to create deep expressions. She manipulates them in a way that pushes the boundaries of form and function, and this blurs the distinction between art and life.

Continuously investigating materials and their potential, the artist produces visually striking, emotionally and intellectually stimulating paintings. Mahmudova's works make us to re-evaluate our prejudices about art and call us to re-perceive the world through the lens of a true visionary.




Austrian Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler has presented a bill that provides for a complete rejection of Russian gas by 2028. In fact, Russia will lose the last major buyer of natural gas in Europe.

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This was reported by the Kleine Zeitung newspaper, which obtained the document. It states that gas suppliers will be obliged to provide evidence that every year they increase the share of fuel purchased outside of Russia. By 2028, the share of non-Russian gas in the country should reach 100%.

In February 2024, the share of supplies from Russia in Austria's total gas imports was 87%, while two years ago this figure was 79%. In February, Gewessler announced plans to explore options for exiting the long-term contracts between OMV and Gazprom.

They are valid until 2040. Later, OMV said that in order to abandon Russian gas, lawmakers need to create a legal framework, and if necessary, the company will be able to supply 100% non-Russian gas to consumers in Austria. As noted in March, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said that Austria plans to completely abandon Russian gas by 2027.

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As reported, Russian oil companies have faced many months of delays or even blocking of payments from their foreign buyers. We are talking about payments for oil and its refined products (fuel) exported from Russia to China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). These countries have become more cautious in their dealings with Russia, fearing secondary US sanctions.

Only verified information is available on OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
The housing minister has played down ambitions by Simon Harris to increase the Governments house building targets, after the Taoiseach insisted it could deliver 50,000 homes every year for the next five years.

Minister for Housing Darragh OBrien said the Government needs to build up the capacity in the construction sector before it can commit to building 250,000 homes in a five-year period.

Mr Harris said his pledge to build 250,000 homes between 2025 and 2030 would not mean the smooth delivery of 50,000 across each of those years, conceding it could take time to ramp up capacity.

Speaking at the the 82nd Fianna Fail Ard Fheis conference in Dublin, Mr OBrien said that the Government has gone from building 20,000 homes in 2020 to building 33,000 homes last year.

He said he expects to reach the high 30s this year.

Weve exceeded every target that weve set so far, the target set under Housing for All that we brought forward have been the floor, not the ceiling, Mr OBrien added.

Weve exceeded those targets and what Im really interested in is exceeding the target again this year.

I can confidently predict that we will see very significant housing delivery in 2024, to build on the 100,000 plus new homes that Fianna Fail and government have been able to deliver.

Lets be in no doubt we are acutely aware that theres many many people out there who still dont feel that change, particularly those who dont have a home at all.

They are our priorities too but the trajectory this year is very, very positive. Affordable housing for the first time in a generation, more social homes in over 50 years. First time buyers now buying at a rate that we havent seen since 2006.

Were going to double down on our efforts this year.

He added: I think the reality of it is if if you could flick a switch and deliver 50,000 homes next year, of course you would do that.

The reality of it is that you need to build up the capacity in the construction sector to deliver those homes and people understand that too.

We have about 25,000 more people working in construction now that we have pre-Covid. That capacity is building and youre seeing because of that build capacity now, the delivery actually building too.
Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has suggested a general election would take place in June if the decision were up to him.

If it was my decision, the election would be in mid-June when it is warm and it is bright till half ten at night. But that is not going to happen, he said, speaking to reporters at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre this Saturday afternoon.

People will need to have a warm pair of gloves as he believes it will be the last Thursday or Friday in February, Mr Ahern said.

However he reaffirmed that he believes "this government will now run the full-term".

The former Taoiseach said he has been canvassing with party candidates ahead of the local and European elections.

Every election is a challenge, he said, adding that there is six weeks of hard work ahead, but that the reception on the doorsteps has been good.

He also wished newly elected Taoiseach Simon Harris well.

"He has a lot of experiences. He was in health, which is a hard ministry for four years. He was higher level education," Mr Ahern said.

"Hes been in in finance. So he was chairman of Wicklow County Council, so hes a lot of experience. He might be 37, but he still has put in a lot of years. So I wish him well."
The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has announced that an assassination attempt on the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, has been prevented. A local was recently detained in Kherson on suspicion of organizing the attempted assassination in cooperation with Russian special services.

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This was stated by SSU Head Vasyl Maliuk during a meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, Dzerkalo Tyzhnia reports . According to Maliuk, the detained Kherson resident was adjusting an enemy FPV-drone that was supposed to hit Prokudin's car.

"A Kherson local was detained on April 10. He was organizing an assassination attempt on Prokudin together with the enemy's special services," Maliuk said.

The SSU Head noted that, according to the investigation, the Russians launched a new model of their FPV-drone from a depth of 12 km. A resident of Kherson adjusted the attack on Prokudin's car on the spot.

"This scoundrel was conducting visual surveillance on the spot, and he adjusted the drone to hit the Prokudin's car. All this was documented. He was detained at the stage of the completed assassination attempt. The enemy drone was jammed on time thanks to our electronic warfare devices," Maliuk assured.

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He also said that the Service's colleagues are constantly thwarting enemy attempts to infiltrate critical infrastructure and defense industry facilities.

"One of the most extreme cases is the detention of an FSB agent in Dnipro who was filming a thermal power plant on his phone and preparing retaliatory strikes. Together with colleagues from the internal security of the National Police, we detained a former police officer in Zaporizhzhia who worked very closely with defense industry facilities. We detained several employees of Ukrzaliznytsia who provided information to the enemy on the logistical movement of weapons and munitions," Maliuk noted.

He added that in 2023, SSU officers identified and documented 47 enemy agent networks.

Earlier, it became known that the SSU exposed an FSB agent who was recruiting other convicts for subversive activities against Ukraine. The traitor was serving his sentence in a penal colony in the Zhytomyr region. After his release, he was supposed to facilitate the breakthrough of Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups (SRGs) and collect intelligence on the Defense Forces in northern Ukraine. While waiting to be released from prison, he was actively forming his "agent network" of imprisoned criminals who were nearing the end of their sentences.

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Only verified information is available on OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber . Do not fall for fakes!
The "moderate" leader in Kansas spent today chopping up some of the most controversial GOP election year efforts.



And now . . .



We wait and see if the Kansas GOP can enforce their veto-proof majority that faltered amid flat tax efforts earlier in the session.



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoes ban on gender-affirming care for minors | CNN Politics Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Friday vetoed a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, setting up a showdown with Republican state lawmakers.

Governor Kelly vetoes abortion bill, among others Governor Laura Kelly vetoed the abortion bill and others.

Developing . . .
Most local media is ignoring this case . . . However, the update and alternative perceptive is appreciated given that the legal matter continues outside of public view . . . Check-it:



Clay Chastain Press release: Chastain & Trump are being victimized by "lawfare". The outcomes of these dueling legal battles stand to change the course of both Kansas City & America.

Like the monumental stadium vote, Chastain's monumental legal case against the City & Mayor Lucas will determine the course of Kansas City's future. The stakes are high as the sky: Can an unscrupulous government crush a citizen's free political speech, then maliciously arrest that citizen & then maliciously prosecute that citizen in order to criminalize and delegitimize that citizen & interfere with an election?



Since Mayor Lucas refuses to apologize to former Mayoral Candidate Chastain for his mean, discriminatory prosecution of Chastain (that was driven by personal and political animus), we wait for 16th Circuit Court Judge Castle's ruling on the City's Motion to Dismiss Chastain's lawsuit against the City.



Like the radical left is trying to destroy Trump, Mayor Lucas and the City employed similar "lawfare" against Chastain by bringing spurious criminal charges against Chastain right before a KC election (a KC Judge threw out the City's bogus charges).



It should be self-evident to many that if, say, a member of KC tenants had come to City Hall to protest on City Council day that individual would never have been stopped, arrested and prosecuted. The only reason I was treated differently is because my name is Chastain - not because I broke any law.



It is anti-American, unlawful and reprehensible for those with power to weaponize the law in order to destroy their political opponents.



KC Activist, Clay Chastain

##########



Developing . . .


There's a lot to cover in this collection of crime reporting, police action & court drama.



Check TKC news gathering . . .

Standoff begins near KC elementary school after attempt to serve warrant A standoff was started near a Kansas City elementary school after classes let out during an attempt to serve a suspect with a felony arrest warrant.

67-year-old man stabbed Thursday night in Olathe Around 11:20 p.m. Thursday, officers were called to a house near Santa Fe Street and Parker Street where they found a man who had been stabbed.

Man charged in connection to suspicious death in southern Johnson County Andrew Wacaster, 31, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Cade Blackburn, 27, man who died on March 30.

Could you be jailed for cheating on your spouse in Kansas or Missouri? What state law says Cheating is one of the most common reasons for divorce in the United States.

Smithville man facing charges for October road rage incident in Liberty A 25-year-old Smithville man now faces charges from a road rage incident six months ago in Clay County.

Can you legally drink in a Kansas City area park? Here's what the law says You might want to reconsider stashing a few alcoholic beverages or a wine bottle inside that picnic basket.

Johnson County District Attorney says Olathe officer justified in shooting suspect Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe announced Friday that no charges will be filed in the deadly shooting of Dane Laing.

'Bright light:' Kansas City 6th grader remembered as police hunt killer Kansas City police search for a gunman responsible for killing 11-year-old Kourtney Freeman who was inside her home at the time of the shooting.

Developing . . .
Right now author, fashionista & hottie Emrata inspire our morning peek at pop culture, community news and top headlines.

Check TKC news gathering . . .

Desperation After 'Victory' Party

Crossroads Community Association VP discusses Crossroads' future after stadium plans defeated The Crossroads Community Association is taking the next steps to prepare for any future downtown Royals stadium.

Benefits From Baller

Owners of KC Argentinian restaurant gifted autographed items from Lionel Messi Less than 24 hours until Sporting Kansas City takes on Inter Miami at Arrowhead Stadium.

OP/Ed Urges Responsibility

I'm relieved Rashee Rice surrendered to police. He has no place on the Chiefs' roster | Opinion Rashee Rice walked away without checking on the other motorists in the crash, and even left a team playbook in the wrecked Lamborghini. Those are fireable offenses, writes Toriano Porter.

Rock Chalk Relocation

'It'll be different,' KU home football games to be played in Kansas City this season The Kansas Jayhawks will play their home games in Kansas City while Memorial Stadium in Lawrence is renovated. Construction plans include a reimagined stadium, plus new retail and dining options.

Home Team Reality Check

Streak snapped, Royals fall to Mets 6-1 Apparently the Royals won't win all the rest of their games this year.

EmRata Shares Fashion Winning

Emily Ratajkowski shows off her slender figure in a tiny black bra Emily Ratajkowski took to Instagram to show off her chest and slender figure in a see-through black bra on Friday. She was glowing as she donned a tiny black sheer bra that bared all.

Prez Campaigns On Blame Game

Biden's new take on inflation: Trump would be worse Biden's team knows there's not a lot it can do to lower it before the Nov. 5 election.

Community Embraces MAGA

Black people like Trump, and that's a 'nightmare' for the left-wing media: Leo Terrell Civil rights attorney says former President Trump's likability and policy choices are bringing in Black voters and upending the media's "false narrative."

Holy Land Tragedy Aftermath

Israel finds the body of a teen whose disappearance sparked a deadly settler attack in the West Bank Israel's army says the body of a missing Israeli teen has been found in the occupied West Bank after he was killed in a "terrorist attack."

Eastern Europe End Game

Ukraine could face defeat in 2024. Here's how that might look With ammo critically low and Western aid stalled, what might Russia attempt in Ukraine this year?

Red Sea Standoff Begins

Iranian special forces seize ship in Strait of Hormuz, state media reports Navy special forces from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used a helicopter to board and seize a container ship near the Strait of Hormuz, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Money & Fear Matter

U.S. consumer sentiment falls slightly as outlook for inflation worsens An increase in gas prices likely contributed to the decline in consumers' outlook, according to Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Economic Indicator

2 Fed officials urge patience before any interest rate cuts Kansas City Fed president Jeff Schmid and San Francisco Fed president Mary Daly said they would employ patience and caution before approving any rate cuts.

Building Kansas City

$550M project in KC is geared to save lives, homes. Did you even know it's happening? "If a flood were to occur in this area, it would be devastating." Now this project is heading into its final phase.

Satirical Hot Takes

Kansas City Chiefs Superfan 'ChiefsAholic' To Pay $10.8 Million For Bank Robbery Xaviar Michael Babudar, known for attending Kansas City Chiefs games dressed as a wolf and going by the name "ChiefsAholic", was sentenced to pay a bank teller $10.8 million in damages after an armed robbery of an Oklahoma credit union. What do you think?

Local Wellness Conversation

332: Public Health Coordinators with the Mattie Rhodes Center & Upcoming Events | Northeast News Join us this week in a discussion with Mattie Rhodes with Community Health Coordinators Salena Fierro-Chavez and Kat Sarmiento as they discuss upcoming thrilling events with podcaster Michael Bushnell. Look...

Enjoy Weekend Before Weather

FIRST WARN FORECAST: First Warn Monday night for strong to severe storms Good morning and happy Saturday. It will be a summer-like day across the viewing area with temperatures in the upper 70s low to mid 80s!

Sabrina Carpenter - Espresso is the song of the day and this is the OPEN THREAD for right now.
Call this important Friday follow-up on a story that ended with intervention rather than tragedy.

Last week we blogged about a groundswell of Midtown concern over a dude that garnered infamy for harassing women.

Thankfully, local elected officials and authorities were paying attention and stepped in before anything WORSE happened.



Jackson County Legislator Manny Abarca offers the most behind the scenes detail:



"I want to send a special thanks to the actions of many. Through the advocacy of many neighbors in Volker, Roanoke and Valentine neighborhoods, Jackson County Prosecutor's Office team members announced, at the Volker Neighborhood Association meeting, that they were charging an individual who has plagued many within the midtown neighborhoods.



"Sadly, this individual has been harassing several women and neighbors for far too long and is in need of immediate behavioral health services. Through the creativity of Jeans Prosecutorial team, they found a balanced solution to get this individual the help he needs and the relief neighbors welcome.



"Special thanks for the collaborative efforts of Councilman Eric Bunch-4th In District Kansas City and Councilman Crispin Rea Jr. as through collective advocacy we are getting neighbors relief and the offender the health they need. Equally supportive and engaged was Major Tim Hernandez and his team with Kansas City Missouri Police Department."



Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Midtown Plaza Neighborhood Association Post: Thank you so much to those of you who have reached out and taken action!



Update:

The neighborhood group reports that the guy is now in custody.

Developing . . .


Overview on medical drama and political flexing in an election year . . .



"Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer wrote that Bailey can collect documents under Missouris consumer protection statute that arent protected under federal mandate, namely the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . .

Missouri's Anti-LGBTQ Attorney General Can Now Access Medical Records A judge ordered Planned Parenthood to hand records of transgender care over to Andrew Bailey.

Missouri AG's 'Sham Investigation' into Planned Parenthood Can Continue, Judge Says But Judge Michael Stelzer will not allow Bailey to access the private medical records of people who've sought gender-affirming care

Developing . . .
Starting April 10, travelers from the US, Canada, and Australia will need to secure a visa before visiting Brazil. This new requirement marks a return to the visa policy that was in place until 2019 when Brazil temporarily removed the necessity for visas.

US Travelers Must Obtain Visas to Visit Brazil Starting in 2025

American tourists looking to enjoy Brazil's renowned destinations, such as Rio de Janeiro, will need to prove they have a steady income to obtain their visas.

According to the Brazilian government's website, applicants can demonstrate their financial stability by presenting either their last three bank statements or the most recent six pay stubs. Those who don't meet the minimum income requirement of $2,000 must have a sponsor.

The visa process has been made more accessible through an online e-visa application system, which eliminates the need to visit a consulate. The visa fee is set at $80.90 and is valid for ten years, allowing multiple entries into Brazil, with each stay limited to 90 days per year.

As per the New York Post, applicants are also required to submit a letter of intent detailing the length and purpose of their visit, alongside proof of US citizenship, and must show their return tickets.

The Brazilian government and US State Department suggest travelers apply for their visas at least two months prior to their planned departure. Processing times are expected to average five working days.

The reimplementation of Brazil's visa policy is part of a broader context where visa requirements are typically reciprocal. For Brazilians traveling to the US, the visa application process remains more stringent, involving an in-person appointment and a higher fee of $185.

Brazil Welcomes Nearly 6 Million International Tourists in 2023

In 2023, Brazil received 5,908,341 international visitors, a number just shy of the 6.3 million who visited in 2019. This count was slightly lower than the six million target set by Embratur's president, Marcelo Freixo, for the year.

However, Freixo praised the achievement, attributing increased global interest in Brazil to positive changes in government policies on the environment, democracy, and human rights. He emphasized Brazil's new reputation as a leading ecotourism destination, as reported by Tourism-Review News.

The Minister of Tourism, Celso Sabino, expressed optimism about reaching and exceeding pre-pandemic tourist numbers by 2024 due to various initiatives aimed at developing and promoting tourism in Brazil.

The country has already seen significant economic benefits from tourism, with international visitors contributing R$31 billion to the Brazilian economy in 2023, surpassing previous records.

Argentina remains the top source of tourists to Brazil, followed by the United States and Chile. Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Rio Grande do Sul were the most visited states, with the majority of tourists arriving by air.

The upcoming report from the Central Bank, which will include data from December, is expected to further detail the economic impacts of tourism for the year.
The Dolphin Discovery Centre in Bunbury, Western Australia, has been saved from financial troubles with a $1.5 million funding package from the state government.

This decision comes after the tourist attraction faced significant challenges, including the resignations of several board members and its chief executive. The center also suffered difficulties from the COVID-19 pandemic like staff shortages and high supply costs.

Dolphin Discovery Centre Receives $1.5 Million From State Government

Regional Development Minister Don Punch announced that the funds would help the centre pay off its debts and continue to operate sustainably. He emphasized that the Dolphin Discovery Centre is not only beloved by the community but also an important draw for tourists visiting Bunbury.

The centre, known for allowing public interaction and feeding of wild dolphins, is one of only two places in WA licensed to do so.

The funding is split into two parts. According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation, about $500,000 will go towards maintaining the large facility, which has been a challenge to manage.

The remaining $800,000 is an immediate injection to cover financial liabilities and provide working capital for the upcoming winter season. Additional support is expected as the centre prepares for the busier summer months.

Related Article : Dolphin Recreational Center Loses Four Dolphins In Taiji

An advisory group led by the South West Development Commission will oversee the management to ensure the responsible use of taxpayer money. Minister Punch expressed confidence in the future operations of the Dolphin Discovery Centre, noting that Bunbury is an ideal place for dolphin sightings and interactions.

He praised the efforts of the centre's board and receivers in creating a sensible plan to secure its future. The community and visitors are encouraged to support the centre as it embarks on this new chapter.

RSM Takes Charge at Dolphin Discovery Centre

The Dolphin Discovery Centre (DDC), a well-known tourist spot in Bunbury, Western Australia, is now under the administration of RSM, a professional services firm. This action comes as the centre struggles with financial pressures worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, which severely affected the tourism and hospitality sectors, as well as high supply costs and a lack of staff.

Established from the longstanding relationship between locals and the Bottlenose dolphins since the 1960s, the DDC has been a conservation and research hub where visitors could interact closely with dolphins. Despite the current challenges, the centre will keep running mostly as usual.

Consultancy.com.au revealed last month that Greg Dudley, Jerome Mohen, and Travis Kukura of RSM are leading the restructuring efforts. They are conducting a thorough review of the centre's operations but have planned only minor changes, like alterations to the centre's restaurant service.

Mohen highlighted the community's connection to the DDC, appreciating the ongoing support from many volunteers. The team from RSM is coordinating with various stakeholders to restructure the centre's funding and operations to ensure its sustainability.
After the devastating massive Russian attacks that caused significant damage to the Ukrainian energy system, Ukraine began looking for additional Patriot systems. In particular, Kyiv has sent relevant requests to Poland and Spain. It is also asking Romania to consider the possibility of transferring SAMP/T.

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However, these European countries are in no hurry to respond to the requests, arguing that they need to preserve their own defense capabilities. This was reported by the Financial Times, citing its own sources.

One of the interlocutors of the publication emphasized that Ukraine desperately needs only a few Patriot batteries to defend itself, but even their Western partners cannot find them for a country that is being attacked by Russia every day.

"They need only seven (Patriot batteries - Ed.). However, everything is complicated," the source said.

In general, according to EU High Representative Josep Borrell, there are about a hundred weapons in the arsenal of Ukraine's Western partners that the West can do without. Therefore, according to the diplomat, the fact that they cannot allocate only seven of them to Ukraine is "unbelievable."

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According to FT, Ukraine has at least three Patriot batteries and one SAMP/T battery.

Germany has handed over two Patriot systems and, as German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock noted, "cannot offer more yet."

Poland is also not ready to share Patriot SAMs with Ukraine, with President Andrzej Duda stating that the Polish air defense system has only just begun to be created.

On the other hand, Finnish President Alexander Stubb is convinced that decisions on the admissibility of reducing the minimum strategic stockpile of certain weapons for transfer to the Ukrainian Armed Forces should be made by the military command of individual EU countries and should remain confidential.

"Ukraine's demands have drawn attention to strategic minimum defense levels and whether European NATO states will decide to go below their own minimum levels necessary to protect their states in order to send equipment to Ukraine," the FT writes.

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As a reminder, on April 12, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukrainian diplomats are actively negotiating with partner countries to strengthen Ukraine's air defense system. Currently, the possibility of supplying two Patriot batteries and one SAMP/T is being discussed.

Kuleba emphasized that Kyiv knows exactly where to get these systems, which would help Ukraine defend its cities from brutal Russian attacks. And if the partners agree, Ukraine will receive additional protection in a few weeks.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber . Do not fall for fakes!
US airlines are asking the Biden administration to stop approving more flights to and from China. They say that China's rules are not fair and hurt American workers. This request was made in a letter on Thursday to US leaders, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

US Airlines Challenge Unfair Competition in China Flight Agreements

The letter is from Airlines for America, a group that represents big airlines like American Airlines, Delta, and United. Other aviation worker unions have also signed it. They claim that Chinese policies are making it hard for US airlines to compete.

This is a problem for about 315,000 workers in the US who have jobs related to these flights.

CNN reported that the letter says that if the US keeps allowing China to increase its flights here without making sure things are fair, US airlines will lose more flights to Chinese companies. This will hurt US workers and businesses.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, China made it very tough for US airlines to operate there. They also had strict rules that affected passengers and the treatment of US airline crews.

Adding to the troubles, in 2022, China's airlines could still fly over Russia, but US airlines could not because of the war in Ukraine. This made flights longer and more expensive for US carriers.

China's Foreign Ministry mentioned that increasing flights was agreed upon during a meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden last November in San Francisco. They believe more flights will help people from both countries connect better and understand each other more.

US airlines want the US government to create rules that protect American aviation workers and the industry from these unfair practices.

Related Article: Pilot Shortages Shift as Mainline Airlines Pause Hiring

Request Extension on Flight Requirements Due to Staff Shortages

Major US airlines are asking the government to continue easing flight requirements at busy airports in New York City until October 2025. The airlines are facing problems because there are not enough air traffic controllers.

Airlines for America, representing carriers like American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Southwest Airlines, sent this request in a letter.

Currently, airlines must use their assigned airport slots 80% of the time or risk losing them. However, a special waiver has allowed airlines to keep their slots even if they do not meet this requirement. This waiver is in place until October 2024, but airlines want to extend it due to ongoing staffing issues.

As per Reuters, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has plans to improve the situation by moving the control of Newark, New Jersey's airspace to Philadelphia. This move is to help manage the heavy traffic better.

Despite these efforts, Airlines for America has noted that the staffing at New York's air traffic control is still not enough. They reported a shortage of 93 controllers from their target at one major facility.

The FAA has not yet responded to the airlines' request. Meanwhile, air traffic controllers are working extra hours to manage the flights, showing the urgency of the staffing shortage.
The new law on mobilization, which was passed by the Verkhovna Rada, contains a provision that Ukrainian men abroad will have to update their data within 60 days at appropriate centers or through an electronic cabinet. However, this law does not establish any obligation to return to Ukraine after that.

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This was stated by Fedir Venislavskyi, MP, PhD in Law, member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence in an exclusive interview with OBOZ.UA. He noted that updating the credentials is necessary primarily so that the state does not waste time and resources informing men who are not in the country.

According to him, the law does not define any new obligations for citizens who update or receive military documents to return to Ukraine, and it is difficult to imagine mechanisms for fulfilling these obligations for men abroad.

"It is important for us that citizens of Ukraine who are liable for military service and live abroad update their personal data. Because a person can live abroad and still receive notices and summonses to addresses registered with the military registration and enlistment office. The state spends time, material and human resources to inform a person who, in principle, cannot be informed because he is not in this city," Venislavskyi said.

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If a person who is abroad receives a military registration document remotely, he can do so via e-mail, by phone or through the consulate when activating or receiving consular services. Therefore, there are no problems in this case, and no negative consequences are foreseen for these persons.

Earlier, the Ministry of Defense explained what will change for Ukrainians after the law on mobilization comes into force. In particular, men between the ages of 25 and 60 will need to carry a military ID. The document will have to be provided at the request of a representative of the military commissariat, border guard service or police officer.

As it has become known, about half of Ukrainians believe that the mobilization process in Ukraine is currently going in the wrong direction. At the same time, about 60% of citizens of our country negatively assess the work of the Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support and blame the military commissariats for the disruption of mobilization.

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Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber . Do not fall for fakes!
The laws on benefits for the occupiers fighting in Ukraine and their families, signed by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on April 6, are intended to encourage more recruits to go to the front, as well as to limit criticism from the wives of fallen soldiers. However, the Kremlin's initiative is likely to be a blow to the Russian economy in the long run.

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This is stated in the UK military intelligence report released on April 13. The agency noted that on April 6, Putin passed two laws to support the Russian Armed Forces military fighting against Ukraine and their families.

The first one exempted the occupiers from paying interest on consumer loans and loan repayment holidays. This follows from the law of October 2022, which exempted the mobilized and other participants in the invasion of Ukraine from penalties for late payments for housing, utilities, loans, and credit card debts.

The second law, signed by Putin, amends the Russian Labor Code and prohibits employers from firing the widows of Russian military personnel within a year of their husband's death.

The British intelligence service noted that the Kremlin probably introduced these laws "in the hope of pacifying the Russian military by financially incentivizing more recruits to join the fighting in exchange for state benefits and limiting criticism from the wives of fallen soldiers."

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"Although any payment holidays may cost the Russian federal government little in the short term, they are likely to have long-term consequences for Russia's economic situation and prospects," the report says.

As a reminder, according to UK intelligence, in 2024, Russia intends to recruit about 400,000 more contract soldiers. The Kremlin's goal is to compensate for heavy losses.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that negotiations with Putin are possible only when he realizes that he must withdraw his troops from Ukraine. Until then, direct talks do not make sense, Scholz said.

Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!

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The father of the man killed by police on Friday says his son needed help for a mental illne
Ukraine and Bulgaria will co-host the Second Black Sea Security Conference of the International Crimea Platform in Sofia on April 15.

According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service, the co-organizers of the conference are the two countries' foreign and defense ministries in partnership with Ukraine's Center for Defense Strategies.

Delegations from 42 countries and eight international organizations are expected to take part in the conference.

"Conference participants will analyze the impact of Russian aggression on the security situation in the Black Sea-Azov region and beyond and discuss strategies for responding to existing threats and the future of regional security. The implementation of the Ukrainian Peace Formula will also be a key topic of discussion," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

The Crimea Platform's First Black Sea Security Conference took place in Bucharest on April 12-13, 2023.
Exactly two years ago, on April 13, 2022, the Moskva missile cruiser, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, sank to the bottom of the Black Sea. It was hit by Ukrainian-made Neptune cruise missiles fired from a coastal anti-ship complex.

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It was the first time in 30 years that a ship of this size had been destroyed in combat, becoming the most expensive loss during the full-scale invasion and the largest loss of the Russian navy since 1941 when Hitler's army destroyed the battleship Marat. Read more about the Moskva defeat and its uniqueness in the OBOZ.UA article.

What is known about the Moscow cruiser?

"The Moskva (formerly Slava) is a Soviet and Russian Project 1164 Atlant (NATO Slava class) missile cruiser, the lead ship of its series. It was built at the Mykolaiv shipyard and launched in 1979. After the anti-submarine cruiser Moskva of Project 1123 was decommissioned, it inherited its name and became the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet.

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The Moskva was designed to strike large surface ships, provide combat stability to shipboard anti-submarine groups, provide air defense for remote formations, and provide fire support for landing parties.

It took part in the wars in Georgia in 2008 and Syria in 2015, as well as in the blockade of Ukrainian ships during the Russian seizure of Crimea in 2014.

In Ukraine, the Moskva became famous after approaching the Ukrainian border guards on the Snake Island on February 24, 2022, to attack them. The cruiser captain responded to a proposal to surrender with the words, "Russian warship, go f*** yourself."

How the Moskva missile cruiser was destroyed

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On Wednesday, April 13, 2022, at approximately 18:52, the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine used the RK-360MC Neptune anti-ship complex to hit the cruiser. Two R-360 Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles hit the ship, which was about 80 nautical miles from Odesa and 50 miles from the border of Ukraine's territorial waters.

As a result, the cruiser capsized and sank in a little more than a day. On the evening of April 14, the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged the loss of the ship.

However, Shoigu said that the Moskva allegedly sank "in a storm while being towed to the port due to hull damage caused by the detonation of ammunition during a fire."

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The destroyed cruiser became Russia's most expensive combat loss during Putin's "special operation." According to Deutsche Welle, with an initial cost of about $2 billion, the residual value of the cruiser was $750 million. Ukraine has promoted the sunken cruiser to an underwater cultural heritage site under No. 2064.

Personnel losses on the cruiser

On April 22, the Ministry of Defense of the aggressor country stated that one crew member of the Moskva cruiser was killed in the fight for the ship's survival, 27 went missing, and 396 people were allegedly evacuated.

At the same time, on April 16, the agency published video footage that allegedly showed a meeting between the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, and the crew of the Moskva.

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The number of sailors who participated in the meeting was not officially reported, but Reuters, after a rough count of the people in the video, estimated the number to be about a hundred. The video shows the commander of the Moskva, Anton Kuprin, together with the crew (according to media reports, he died on the sinking cruiser).

The uniqueness of the Moskva defeat operation



The flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which was considered unsinkable in Russia, could have been sunk thanks to an ingenious trick, the Daily Mail suggested. As it turned out, the cruiser's defense systems were "distracted" by two Bayraktar drones raised in the sky as a decoy and did not notice the approaching missiles. The British newspaper called the destruction of the Russian ship "one of the most sophisticated operations of the war."

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In addition, the Russians' overconfidence contributed to the ship's destruction, which probably prevented them from activating their air defense systems. Even if they had, they would have had big problems with the Neptune missiles.

Damage to the ship's hull indicates that the hit resulted in the denotation of air defense ammunition, namely S-300 Fort, Osa SAM and AK-630 artillery systems.

In addition, nature itself helped the Ukrainian Armed Forces. "At the time of the invasion, we did not have any over-the-horizon radars, and Russia knew about it. But since the clouds were very low and the signal from this corridor between the water and the clouds had nowhere to go, the radar suddenly reached Moskva" one of the Ukrainian missile engineers involved in the development of Neptune said.

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Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
After the adoption of the new law on mobilization, every citizen of Ukraine liable for military service must update their personal data at the territorial recruitment centers. It is noteworthy that this must be done within 60 days after the law comes into force.

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If this requirement is ignored, the The Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support may notify the citizen by sending a call-up paper through the mailbox, MP Fedir Venislavskyi told OBOZ.UA in an exclusive interview.

According to him, the legislation requires updating one's personal data at the center. However, if Ukrainians liable for military service do not fulfill this requirement, they will receive a notification by mail. Venislavskyi emphasized that such a message will be considered proper notification of the person.

"This law stipulates that every citizen of Ukraine aged 18 to 60 is obliged to update their personal data at the recruitment centers within 60 days. Therefore, in fact, the notification in this way will definitely not violate human rights in any way. The person will be able to appeal if it arrives late," Venislavskyi said.

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The MP also emphasized that absolutely all male citizens of Ukraine are obliged to update their personal data at military registration and enlistment offices within 60 days. The MP added that the summons is still handed over against signature. Therefore, there will be no negative consequences if the call-up paper is thrown into the mailbox as this is considered proper notification.

As a reminder, about half of Ukrainians believe that the mobilization process in Ukraine is going in the wrong direction. At the same time, about 60% of citizens of our country negatively assess the work of the military commissariats and blame them for the disruption of mobilization.

Earlier, the Ministry of Defense explained what will change for Ukrainians after the law on mobilization comes into force. In particular, men between the ages of 25 and 60 will need to carry a military ID.

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Only verified information is available on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber . Do not fall for fakes!
In a groundbreaking initiative, Perimeter College, a part of Georgia State University, witnessed a momentous occasion last year as it celebrated the inaugural graduation of incarcerated students.

Despite the challenges of confinement, nine individuals at Walker State Prison defied the odds, donning caps and gowns to receive associate degrees through the university's Prison Education Project (GSUPEP).

A Program at Risk: Facing Financial Hurdles

Established eight years ago, GSUPEP has been a beacon of hope for incarcerated individuals across Georgia. It operates in two state prisons and one federal facility and provides educational opportunities for approximately 60 students. However, the future of GSUPEP now hangs in the balance as university officials contemplate its closure due to financial constraints.

Cynthia Lester, interim dean of Perimeter College, cited the restoration of Pell Grants to incarcerated students as a pivotal factor in the program's uncertain fate. With the reinstatement of these grants, stringent federal standards must be met, placing additional administrative and financial burdens on participating institutions.

READ ALSO : Northwestern University Gives Incarcerated Graduates A New Chance On Life

Community Outcry and Advocacy Efforts

The decision to shutter GSUPEP has elicited shock and dismay among faculty, students, and alums, who had witnessed the program's transformative impact firsthand. Katherine Perry, an English professor and co-founder of the program, expressed profound disappointment, emphasizing the emotional toll on faculty and students.

Petitions and letters urging the university to reconsider its decision have garnered significant support, with students, alums, and faculty members voicing their solidarity with GSUPEP. LaTonya Penny, chief executive of the Laughing Gull Foundation, underscored the program's invaluable contributions and pledged continued support to prevent its closure.

Navigating Complex Challenges and Advocating for Change

While financial constraints and regulatory hurdles pose formidable challenges, advocates emphasize the broader implications of GSUPEP's closure. Ruth Delaney, director of the Unlocking Potential Initiative at the Vera Institute of Justice, highlighted the societal benefits of college-in-prison programs in promoting rehabilitation, reducing recidivism, and fostering social mobility.

The closure of GSUPEP not only jeopardizes the educational aspirations of incarcerated individuals but also undermines the university's commitment to inclusivity and access to education. As Georgia State grapples with budgetary constraints and regulatory demands, the fate of GSUPEP underscores more significant questions about the role of higher education in fostering equity and social justice.

A Call for Continued Advocacy

As Georgia State weighs the future of GSUPEP, advocacy voices grow louder, calling for a renewed commitment to prison education and rehabilitation. The closure of GSUPEP would not only be a loss for the incarcerated individuals it serves but also a setback for the university's academic excellence and social responsibility mission.

Amidst the challenges and uncertainties, the legacy of GSUPEP serves as a testament to the transformative power of education and the resilience of the human spirit. As stakeholders rally in support of GSUPEP, they reaffirm the belief that education knows no bounds and that every individual, regardless of circumstance, deserves the opportunity to realize their full potential.
Before his transgender daughter was suspended after using the girls' bathroom at her Missouri high school. Before the bullying and the suicide attempts. Before she dropped out. Before all that, Dusty Farr was  in his own words  "a full-on bigot." By which he meant that he was eager to steer clear of anyone LGBTQ+.

Now, though, after everything, he says he wouldn't much care if his 16-year-old daughter  and he proudly calls her that  told him she was an alien. Because she is alive.

"When it was my child, it just flipped a switch. And it was like a wake-up," says Farr, who is suing the Platte County School District on Kansas City's outskirts.

Looking back, Farr figures his daughter, the youngest of five, started feeling out of place in her own body when she was just 6 or 7. But he didn't see it, even as they fished and camped together.

Then when she was 12, she started to steer away from him, spending more time with the rest of the family. It lasted for a few months before she came out. He knows now how hard this was. "Growing up," he says, "my kids knew how I felt."

His wife, whom he described as less sheltered, was on board immediately. Him, not so much.

"Given the way I was raised, a conservative fire-and-brimstone Baptist, LGBTQ is a sin, you're going to hell. And these were things, unfortunately, that I said to my daughter," Farr says. "I'm kind of ashamed to say that."

They bumped heads, their relationship strained. In desperation, he turned to God and then it hit him: "She's a girl."

"Pure joy"

His daughter, who is named only by her initials of R.F. in the lawsuit, was stunned. He had been, she recalls, "to say it nicely, very annoying." Now everything was different.

"There was this electricity in me that was just, it felt like pure joy," she recalled as she played with her dog at a park in February. Her father was with her.

She, her father and her attorneys asked that she remain anonymous because she is unnamed in the lawsuit and they want to protect her from discrimination.

She was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, or distress caused when gender identity doesn't match a person's assigned sex. She grew out her hair and began taking drugs to delay puberty  a common treatment.

Farr says things returned to normal  for the most part. But then came high school. "And," Farr says, "anything I did to her, school was 10 times worse."

The 2021-22 school year had just started when the assistant principal pulled his daughter aside. According to the suit filed last year, the administrator said students must use the restroom of their sex designated at birth or a single gender-neutral bathroom. The district disputes that happened.

Another employee, the suit said, took it further and told her using the girls' bathroom was against the law. The district disputed that happened, too.

The thing is, there isn't a law  at least, not in Missouri.

While more than 10 states have enacted laws over bathroom use, Missouri is not one of them. What Missouri has done is impose a ban on gender-affirming care. For bathrooms, it leaves policy debate to local districts.

"Hopeless" feeling

"Asinine" is how Farr described the whole wave of restrictions, while acknowledging in the same breath that he probably would have supported them a decade ago. "Kind of makes me dislike myself a little bit."

He figured it was all just a way to intimidate her. His daughter didn't understand: "It kind of just made me feel hopeless in my education," she recalls thinking.

The gender-neutral bathroom was far from her classes and often had long lines, the suit says. She, as a freshman, was missing class, and teachers were lecturing her. So she used the girls' restroom. Verbal reprimands were followed by a one-day, in-school suspension and then a two-day, out-of-school suspension, the suit says.

"Your policy is dumb," Farr recalled telling the school, which argued in its response to his lawsuit that his daughter was eating lunch in the girls' restroom.

His daughter started using the boys' restroom. One day, a classmate approached and told another student, "Maybe I should rape her," the suit said.

Beyond angry now, Farr called not just the school but the American Civil Liberties Union. The district acknowledged the incident, saying a student made a "highly inappropriate" comment about rape and was disciplined. By now, Farr's daughter was afraid to go to school.

He described it as a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

The district sees it differently, writing in a court filing that "there were numerous factors and circumstances in R.F.'s life, unrelated to school, which may have caused emotional harm, depression and anxiety."

Ultimately, her parents got the school to agree to let her finish her freshman year online. But she missed three weeks of classes before the switch was approved. Typically an A and B student, she plummeted to D's and F's. Worse to Farr, his daughter was withdrawing.

He describes it as "a dark rabbit hole of depression." Twice she tried to kill herself and was hospitalized. Everything from butter knives to headache medicine was locked up.

She returned in person to start her sophomore year, hoping things would be better. She made it only a few weeks before returning to online school.

Family leaves

At semester's end, Farr and his family moved out of the district. Bathroom access remained a source of friction in her new school, so again she switched to online school. When she turned 16 last spring, Farr and his wife agreed to let her drop out.

She is in counseling now, taking hormone replacement therapy and considering an alternative high school completion program. She'd like to go to college one day and study psychology, maybe law.

Sometimes Farr's daughter yells at him, and he admits that he missed the teen attitude. That spirit and fight had faded.

"Being a teenager is hell," he says. "Being a trans teen is 10 kinds of hell. She's the brave one. I'm just her voice."

He feels he has changed enough to fill this role  that being her voice can help other parents and kids avoid what his family endured. He thinks that because of where he came from, maybe people will listen when he raises alarms. Maybe.

"It's almost like a transgender person," he says of his transformation. "There's the dead me. And then there's the new me."
Russian troops are making significant gains in Ukraine's eastern region near the Russian-occupied industrial town of Avdiivka, Ukraine's commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi said Saturday on his Telegram channel.

"The situation on the eastern front has deteriorated significantly in recent days," said Syrskyi, adding that the Russian army intensified its offensive along several stretches of the more 1,000 kilometer-long front line after the presidential elections in Russia last month.

Warmer, drier weather also is playing a factor in Russia's surging offensive, allowing its heavy vehicles to move more quickly across the drying terrain.

Russia's defense ministry announced its troops had "liberated" the village of Pervomaiske in the Donetsk region, about 11 kilometers west of the largely destroyed town of Avdiivka, which was captured by Russia in mid-February.

Ukraine has not confirmed the loss of Pervomaiske, and its army asserted Friday that it had repelled attacks on the village.

In a Telegram update Saturday, the Russian military said Moscow's forces also had taken Bohdanivka, another eastern village close to the city of Bakhmut  known for its bloody siege and subsequent capture by Russian forces nine months ago.

Shortly afterward, Ukraine's Defense Ministry denied that Bohdanivka had been captured and said "intense fighting" there is ongoing.

Ukraine has also said the situation around the eastern front-line city of Chasiv Yar, west of Bakhmut, remains "difficult and tense" with the area under "constant fire."

Syrskyi acknowledged that Russian forces have been "actively attacking" Ukrainian positions in three areas of the eastern Donetsk region, near the cities of Lyman, Bakhmut and Pokrovsk. He said Ukraine was planning to "strengthen the most problematic defense areas with electronic warfare and air defense."

Russia has an advantage in firepower and personnel over Ukraine, which is running low on ammunition, to increase attacks across eastern Ukraine. Additionally, Russian forces are increasingly using satellite-guided gliding bombs that allow planes to drop them from a safe distance and overwhelm Ukrainian forces.



Germany to deliver Patriot system



As Kyiv awaits the desperately needed U.S. aid that is stuck in Congress, Germany announced Saturday it would deliver a Patriot air defense system to Ukraine, its third so far, citing "massive and ongoing Russian airstrikes."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for "a real manifestation of support for Ukraine at a critical time for us."

The German chancellor said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he had discussed the "massive" Russian air attacks on civilian energy infrastructure with Zelenskyy on Saturday, and he said Berlin will "stand unbreakably by Ukraine's side."

The Ukrainian military also is hampered by the lack of adequate training it requires to improve its capabilities of operating "military equipment and western weapons," Syrskyi noted.

Ukraine's European allies are engaged in a training push for Kyiv's forces.

French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Friday that future Ukrainian fighter pilots likely to fly American F-16 aircraft were receiving their initial training in the south of France.

Other countries including the Netherlands, Denmark and Romania are helping Ukraine to train its pilots.

Some Ukrainians, after receiving initial training in Britain, are now undergoing "advanced training" in an undisclosed location to learn how to fly fighter jets, according to a military source.

Russian missiles batter infrastructure

Russian missiles and drones Thursday struck infrastructure and power facilities across Ukraine, leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without power, in what Ukraine's private energy operator DTEK called one of the most powerful attacks this year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the strikes as retribution for Ukrainian attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure after a slew of Ukrainian drone strikes over the past few months hit oil refineries deep inside Russia.

In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of killing 10 people by shelling the occupied town of Tokmak, a town captured by Russia in the beginning of the invasion.

Ukrainian authorities in Zaporizhzhia said Russia had struck the region more than 400 times over the last day, including from planes.

Russian casualties include tanks, says media



The independent Russian media outlet Mediazona reports that an estimated 50,000 military personnel have lost their lives since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago. The outlet says tens of thousands more are believed to have died, making the troop-casualty figure likely closer to 85,000.

Mediazona, which tracks Russian war casualties with the BBC based on deaths recorded by open sources, said in its latest update that 50,471 members of the Russian military had died in the war since it began in February 2022.

The outlet also said Russia had lost a large number of tanks, armored personnel carriers, and artillery units in recent weeks, although casualties from those losses were not included in the updated figures.

RFE/RL cited Mediazona as saying that Russia loses about 1,200 soldiers weekly.

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
A top-ranking Chinese official reaffirmed ties with North Korea during a meeting Saturday with the countrys leader, Kim Jong Un, in Pyongyang, China's state media reported, in the highest-level talks between the allies in years.

The visit by Zhao Leji, who ranks third in the ruling Communist Party hierarchy and heads the ceremonial parliament, came as North Korea has test fired missiles to intimidate South Korea and its ally, the United States.

The Xinhua News Agency reported that Zhao told Kim at a meeting concluding his three-day visit that China, the Norths most important source of economic aid and diplomatic support, looked forward to further developing ties. He made no mention of the political situation on the peninsula or the region.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 75 years ago, China and North Korea have been good neighbors and struggled together to attain a common destiny and level of development, Xinhua quoted Zhao as saying.

China fought on behalf of the reclusive communist state against the U.S. and others during the 1950-53 Korean War and in recent years has helped prop up its weak economy, allegedly in violation of United Nations sanctions in response to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program that Beijing had endorsed.

Zhao met his North Korean counterpart, Choe Ryong Hae, on Thursday and discussed how to promote exchanges and cooperation in all areas, the Norths official Korean Central News Agency reported.

North Korea closed its borders during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic amid reports of a major outbreak and food shortages. Zhaos visit to North Korea marked the first bilateral exchange involving a Chinese Politburo Standing Committee member since the pandemic started. Prior to the outbreak, Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping held two summits in 2019.

North Korea and China are expected to hold several exchanges this year to mark the anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties. North Korea has sought to boost its cooperation with Beijing and Russia in the face of a standoff with the U.S. and South Korea over its missile launches and nuclear program.

Kim traveled to Russia in September for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The U.S., South Korea and others accuse North Korea of supplying conventional weapons for Russias war in Ukraine in return for advanced weapons technologies and other support.

China has refused to criticize the Russian invasion and accused the U.S. and NATO of provoking Moscow but says it will not provide Moscow with direct military support.
The head of Latvia's government tapped an experienced diplomat to become the Baltic nation's new foreign minister after the incumbent stepped down earlier this week amid a criminal probe over alleged misuse of government funds.

The ruling center-right New Unity party decided to back the nomination of Baiba Braze, 57, who is currently the ambassador for special tasks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after Prime Minister Evika Silina's endorsement, Latvian news agency LETA reported Saturday.

Latvian Television LTV said Braze's candidacy will be officially announced Monday and lawmakers at the Saiema, Latvia's 100-seat Parliament, are set to vote on a motion of confidence in her on Thursday.

Among other posts, Braze has previously served as Latvia's ambassador to Britain and to The Netherlands and held the post of NATO's deputy secretary general for public diplomacy in 2020-2023.

Krisjanis Karins, Latvia's former top diplomat and an ex-prime minister, announced his intention to resign this month on March 28. His decision came in the wake of a criminal probe over the use of expensive private charter flights by Karins office during his time as prime minister between 2019-2023.

There are no indications that Karins himself faces charges as part of the probe into the scandal that erupted last year and caused public outrage among Latvians. Silina took Latvia's top government job in September when Karins became foreign minister of the nation of 1.9 million, a European Union and NATO member state.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday blamed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for the loss of abortion rights in Arizona, three days after a court there upheld a 160-year-old ban on the procedure.

Arizona's conservative Supreme Court sent a shock wave through one of 2024's most competitive election states, which could swing the presidential race and determine control of the Senate.

Strategists in both parties said the ruling, which outlaws nearly all abortions, would push even Republican-leaning moderates toward Democrats, while also animating young voters and voters of color.

"We all must understand who is to blame: former President Donald Trump did this," Harris said before an audience that included reproductive health patients and providers in Tucson. "A second Trump term would be even worse ... . If Donald Trump gets the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban."

Trump, set to face President Joe Biden again in November's election, has distanced himself from the Arizona ruling. On Wednesday, he said the court had gone too far in reviving a near-total abortion ban, even while defending the Supreme Court decision that permitted states to restrict abortion.

"President Trump could not have been more clear. These are decisions for people of each state to make," said Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson.

Biden beat Trump in Arizona by fewer than 11,000 votes out of 3.3 million ballots cast in 2020, the Democrat's narrowest margin of victory in any state.

Democrats think their opposition to restrictions on reproductive rights can help them secure another victory in the border state, where voters had been more focused on cost-of-living issues and immigration.

Biden has tasked Harris, a former prosecutor and senator, with leading the administration's reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 ruling overturning abortion rights and with reaching core liberal voters undecided on a second, four-year term for the president.

The Supreme Court's decision overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was powered by a conservative majority that Trump installed.

Harris visited Phoenix, Arizona's capital, just last month to talk about abortion rights as part of a "Fight for Reproductive Freedoms" tour that has taken her to 20 states and included a visit to a Minnesota health clinic that offers abortion services.

U.S. Representative Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat running for a U.S. Senate seat in the Western state, criticized his Republican opponent Kari Lake for previously backing the abortion ban even though Lake disavowed the court ruling to reinstate it.

Gallego traveled with Harris from Washington to Tucson and was set to hold another event on the topic in Phoenix later on Friday.

"We don't want this to be our brand. Arizona's a state that's got a booming economy," Gallego told reporters aboard Air Force Two. "Now we look like this state that is relegating our women back to the 1860 laws?"

The Biden campaign has aired an advertisement in Arizona in which a Texas woman tearfully describes almost dying after she was denied an abortion following a miscarriage. Across a black screen, the words "Donald Trump did this" flash as her sobs continue in the background.

Asked at the White House on Wednesday what he would say to the people of Arizona, Biden replied, "Elect me."

Biden ran on legalizing abortion, but Democrats did not deliver him such a bill when they controlled Congress by slim margins from 2021 to 2023.
American politician Donald Trump has called for assistance to Ukraine but in the form of a loan rather than a grant. The presumptive Republican presidential candidate also hinted that he expects European countries to be more active in supporting Kyiv.

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He expressed his opinion after a meeting with Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson on April 12. The Republicans spoke at a joint press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's private residence in Palm Beach, Florida, Voice of America reports.

Former US President proposed to allocate additional assistance to Ukrainians "in the form of a loan, not a gift"

Johnson, a Republican congressman from Louisiana, has not made any statements regarding assistance to Ukraine. However, according to the Voice of America, Trump's position is likely to influence many Republicans in the House of Representatives.

"We are considering it (aid to Kyiv - Ed.) now, they are talking about it, and we are thinking of doing it in the form of a loan, not just a gift. We continue to give away billions and billions of dollars in gifts, and we will consider it... But much more important for me is that Europe has to step up, they have to contribute money. They have to equalize (the level of support - Ed.). If they don't, I will be very upset because they will suffer much more consequences than we will," Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak quoted Trump as saying.

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He did not rule out that Trump's supporters would try to amend the bill, which provides for assistance to foreign countries, or initiate a new document.

Earlier, the Financial Times wrote that Washington could provide Kyiv with funds for defense and economic support on credit secured by the proceeds of frozen assets of the Russian Federation.

Earlier, CNN warned that Trump could use Washington's aid as leverage and force Ukraine and Russia to negotiate if he wins the US presidential election (scheduled for November 5, 2024).

Earlier, Trump's former adviser Fiona Hill said in her book that the politician could not understand that Ukraine is an independent state. He allegedly believed that Ukraine should be part of the Russian Federation.

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Earlier, Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Brennan said that Trump was not and is not competent in dealing with national security issues.

Only verified information on our Telegram channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!
Police in southwestern Pakistan said Friday that separatist militants blocked a national highway linking the country to Iran, kidnapped 11 travelers and then shot them all to death.



The deadly late-night violence occurred in the Noshki district of the sparsely populated Baluchistan province.



Habibullah Musakhail, the district deputy commissioner, confirmed the incident, saying a search by police and paramilitary forces later recovered the victims bodies from under a bridge. He added that nine passengers of a bus were among those killed.



Police said that about a dozen armed men had blocked the highway. After checking the national identification cards, the attackers stopped a bus and took nine passengers to the nearby mountains, where they were fatally shot.



Authorities said that the slain bus passengers were traveling from the provincial capital of Quetta to the border town of Taftan. They were identified as residents of Pakistans most populous province of Punjab. The identities of the other victims were not known immediately.



No one claimed responsibility for the Friday night killings in Baluchistan, which is rich in natural resources. Several ethnic Baluch outlawed groups are active in the province and routinely target security forces as well as settlers from other parts of Pakistan.



The so-called Baluch Liberation Army, or BLA, has taken credit for plotting many of the recent attacks.



Last month, BLA militants attacked a key Pakistan naval airbase and a government complex in Baluchistan within days of each other. The ensuing clashes killed several security force members and about a dozen assailants in both attacks.
The White House says reports of an imminent attack by Iran on Israel is a real and viable threat. The U.S. and other countries warn their citizens against travel to the region. Families of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza rallied outside the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv Friday, pleading for President Joe Biden to help secure the release of their loved ones. Russias war on Ukraine could also be reaching a dangerous turning point. A look at what it could mean for U.S. and European national security.
Iran has launched an aerial attack on Israel from Iranian territory, marking a major escalation in conflict between the rival regional powers and prompting action by U.S. forces in support of Israel.

Irans top military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, issued a predawn statement Sunday, saying that it launched missiles and drones from Iranian territory toward Israel. It said the attack was in retaliation for what Iranian officials say was an Israeli strike that killed several senior Iranian military commanders in Damascus on April 1. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the April 1 strike.

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Sunday that Iran launched more than 300 projectiles toward Israel, including launches from Yemen and Iraq, with 99% intercepted by Israeli air defenses outside of Israeli airspace. The Israel Airports Authority also announced early Sunday that as of 7:30 a.m., Israeli airspace had reopened. It said flight schedules in Tel Avivs Ben Gurion Airport were subject to change.

Videos posted on social media showed some of the projectiles being intercepted over central and southern Israel and others hitting the ground and exploding as sirens wailed.

Hagari also was quoted as saying one impact wounded a young girl in the southern Negev desert.

An IDF statement posted to the X platform said several other impacts caused minor damage to infrastructure at an IDF base in southern Israel.

In a message sent to VOA, Israeli reserves Brig. Gen. Jacob Nagel, a former national security adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli forces were assisted by their U.S., British, Jordanian and Saudi allies in intercepting the Iranian projectiles.

A U.S. military official confirmed to VOA that U.S. forces "continue to shoot down Iranian-launched drones targeting Israel."

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant briefed U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about Israels defensive responses to the Iranian attacks, according to a statement from Gallants office. It said Gallant emphasized that the Israeli defense establishment is "prepared for any further attempts to attack" the country.

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Netanyahu late Saturday. The official said Bidens national security team "will continue to work with partners in the region to prevent further escalation."

As the Iranian assault began, Netanyahu said in a televised message that Israel will defend itself "against any threat and will do so level-headedly and with determination."

At around the same time, White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson issued a statement saying the United States will "stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran."

"This attack is likely to unfold over a number of hours. President Biden has been clear: our support for Israel's security is ironclad," Watson said.

Netanyahu acknowledged that support in his own statement, saying, "We appreciate the U.S. standing alongside Israel, as well as the support of Britain, France and many other countries."

In a post on the X platform, Irans U.N. mission in New York said the aerial attack on Israel marks the conclusion of Tehrans military action.

It added: "Should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Irans response will be considerably more severe. It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!"

In an updated statement posted later, the IRGC warned that any U.S. participation in harming the interests of Iran will be met with a "decisive and remorseful response" by Iranian forces.

Nagel, a senior fellow with the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the Iranian attack, the first of its kind in decades of hostility between Iran and Israel, likely will be a turning point in the conflict.

"Probably we are going to see a regional confrontation, because it is not only Iran against Israel, but Iran against the free world," he said.

VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
The Massachusetts city of Lowell is home to the second-largest Cambodian community in the U.S., and the Khmer Post USA, a newspaper printed in English and Khmer, aims to keep them informed under a near-constant threat of closure.

The newspaper has a potential audience of 35,000 Cambodians in Lowell and the surrounding area. Many seem to use its pages as tablecloths or packing paper, but the biweeklys co-founder and publisher, Soben Ung, 38, says this doesnt upset her.

One of her goals for the publication is keeping the Khmer language alive in the immigrant community. As Cambodians born in the U.S. supplant those who arrived as refugees in the 1980s in the aftermath the murderous Khmer Rouge rule of 1975-79, the language is used by fewer people.

When they spread it out to pack stuff, they see it, at least they read one or two words, she told VOA Khmer during an interview. It is a kind of exposure. As long as the paper reaches their hands, it serves some benefit.  Reading it is helping yourself, improving your knowledge.

A mix of news

Soben Ung publishes 5,000 copies of the newspaper, which is distributed free and supported by ad revenue. The small staff includes journalists in Cambodia, and each issue offers readers a mix of news from Cambodia, local news related to Cambodians that isnt covered by the mainstream press and features on Cambodian history.

The immigrant press has a long history in the United States. Benjamin Franklin published the first such newspaper, the German-language Philadelphische Zeitung in 1732. It failed about a year later because the German community rejected a publication by somebody who wasnt German, according to notes for a 2014 exhibition in Washington.

The exhibition, curated by Sharon Shahid, who is now an editor at VOA, focused on how Americas ethnic media not only kept their particular constituencies informed, but also propelled each groups struggle for justice. By linking their country of origin with their adopted country, immigrant media help newcomers by guiding them toward inclusion, said Shahid.

In Lowell, Cambodians' move toward inclusion is due in part to the citys history of welcoming waves of immigrants since the 19th century because they were needed as workers in the storied textile mills that put the place on the map in the 1820s.

The Cambodian community has been active in civic affairs for years, and a Cambodian American, Sokhary Chau, who is now on the city council, was elected mayor in 2021. Soben Ung believes the Khmer Post USA has been key to the emergence of Cambodian engagement in the local political process.

It made our community grow, she told VOA Khmer. We have a voice, we have power so that we have respect. We had a mayor who is Cambodian. We have state representatives who are Khmers, two of them. We have three city councilors.

Began in Philadelphia

The Khmer Post USA editor-in-chief, Samkhon Pin, was president of the Khmer Journalist Association of Cambodia, formed in 1994, which pushed for a free press after decades of restrictions.

He said the paper began in 2005 to serve the Cambodian population of Philadelphia before moving to Lowell in 2010, which had a larger Cambodian community and more Cambodian-run businesses that could afford to buy the ads that support it.

Vladimir Batrim of the Lowell Primary Care Center has advertised in the Khmer Post USA since 2017, when he opened the center.

More than 95% of the centers 4,000 users are Cambodian Americans, he said, and his thinking was, As we work for the Cambodian community, why not support another Cambodian-run business, which is the newspaper?  That is a kind of mutual support. I support their business because they are working for the same community.

Other local businesses and government agencies bought ads because they viewed the Khmer Post USA as an effective channel for getting information to the Cambodian community on topics such as local schools, social services or elections.

But the newspaper battles for survival.

Some Cambodians, like Sovanna Oung, 61. who fled to the U.S. in 1983 and now repairs houses and delivers fish, say theyre too busy to read the paper regularly. The target audience is diminished by elders who find reading taxing on the eyes and by younger people who cannot read Khmer.

Soben Ung vows to keep publishing the newspaper as long as possible. If I dont run it, who will? she said.

I hope that it lives for a long time, said Samkhon Pin.

Sovanna Oung added, If it has to close, Ill be sorry.
Pakistani police are searching for gunmen who killed eight people after abducting them from a bus on a highway in the countrys southwest, a police official said Saturday. Earlier, the same attackers killed two people and wounded six in another car they forced to stop.

According to the police official, the abduction took place on Friday in Baluchistan province, which has long been the scene of an insurgency by separatists.

Deputy Commissioner Habibullah Mosakhail said the gunmen set up a blockade, then stopped the bus and went through the passengers ID cards. They took eight people with them, all from the eastern Punjab province, fleeing into the mountains, he said.

Police later recovered eight bodies under a bridge about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the highway. Earlier on Friday, the same gunmen had opened fire at a vehicle that failed to stop for their blockade, killing two and wounding six.

A search for the perpetrators was underway, Mosakhail said. The bus was heading from the provincial capital of Quetta to Taftan, a town bordering Iran.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack, expressing his deep sorrow and regret over this shocking incident. He offered his condolences to the families of the victims and said he stood by them in their hour of grief, according to a statement from his office.

The perpetrators of this incident of terrorism and their facilitators will be punished, Sharif said.

Abductions are rare in Baluchistan, where militants usually target police forces and soldiers or infrastructure.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killings. Police said there was no ransom demand and no indication of a motive for the attacks.

Although the government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in the province has persisted.
Ola Kozak is celebrating. The 11-year-old, who loves music and drawing, expects to have more free time for her hobbies after Poland's government ordered strict limits on the amount of homework in the lower grades.

"I am happy," said the fifth-grader, who lives in a Warsaw suburb with her parents and younger siblings. The lilac-colored walls in her bedroom are covered in her art, and on her desk she keeps a framed picture she drew of Kurt Cobain.

"Most people in my class in the morning would copy the work off someone who had done the homework or would copy it from the internet. So it didn't make sense," she said.

The government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk enacted the ban against required homework this month amid a broad discussion about the need to modernize Poland's education system, which critics say puts too much emphasis on rote learning and homework, and not enough on critical thinking and creativity.

Under the decree, teachers are no longer to give required homework to kids in the first to third grades. In grades four to eight, homework is now optional and doesn't count toward a grade.

Not everyone likes the change  even Ola's parents are divided.

"If there is something that will make students enjoy school more, then it will probably be good both for the students and for the school," said her father, Pawel Kozak.

His wife, Magda Kozak, was skeptical. "I am not pleased, because [homework] is a way to consolidate what was learned," she said. "It helps stay on top of what the child has really learned and what's going on at school."

Ola's brother Julian, a third-grader, said he sees both sides.

Homework's plusses and minuses

Debates over the proper amount of homework are common around the globe. While some studies have shown little benefit to homework for young learners, other experts say it can help them learn how to develop study habits and academic concepts.

Poland's educational system has undergone a number of controversial overhauls. Almost every new government has tried to make changes  something many teachers and parents say has left them confused and discouraged.

For example, after communism was thrown off, middle schools were introduced. Then under the last government, the previous system was brought back. More controversy came in recent years when ultra-conservative views were pushed in new textbooks.

For years, teachers have been fleeing the system due to low wages and political pressure. The current government is trying to increase teacher salaries and has promised other changes that teachers approve of.

But Sawomir Broniarz, the head of the Polish Teachers' Union, said that while he recognized the need to ease burdens on students, the new homework rules are another case of change imposed from above without adequate consultation with educators.

"In general, the teachers think that this happened too quickly, too hastily," he said.

He argued that removing homework could widen the educational gaps between kids who have strong support at home and those from poorer families with less support and lower expectations. Instead, he urged wider changes to the entire curriculum.

Boy's complaint inspired limits

The homework rules gained impetus in the runup to parliamentary elections last year when a 14-year-old boy, Maciek Matuszewski, stood up at a campaign rally and told Tusk before a national audience that children "had no time to rest." The boy said their rights were being violated with so much homework on weekends and so many tests on Mondays.

Tusk has since featured Matuszewski in social media videos and made him the face of the sudden change.

Education Minister Barbara Nowacka said she was prompted by research on children's mental health. Of the various stresses children face, she said, "the one that could be removed fastest was the burden of homework."

Pasi Sahlberg, a prominent Finnish educator and author, said the value of homework depends on what it is and how it is linked to overall learning. The need for homework can be "very individual and contextual."

"We need to trust our teachers to decide what is good for each child," Sahlberg said.

In South Korea, homework limits were set for elementary schools in 2017 amid concerns that kids were under too much pressure. However, teenagers in the education-obsessed country often cram long into the night and get tutoring to meet the requirements of demanding school and university admission tests.

In the United States, teachers decide how much homework to assign. Some elementary schools have done away with homework to give children more time to play, participate in activities and spend time with families.

A guideline circulated by teachers unions in the U.S. recommends about 10 minutes of homework per grade. So, 10 minutes in first grade, 20 minutes in second grade and so on.

The COVID-19 pandemic and a crisis around youth mental health have complicated debates around homework. In the U.S., extended school closures in some places were accompanied by steep losses in learning, which were often addressed with tutoring and other interventions paid for with federal pandemic relief money. At the same time, increased attention to student well-being led some teachers to consider alternate approaches, including reduced or optional homework.

It's important for children to learn that mastering something "usually requires practice, a lot of practice," said Sahlberg, in Finland. If reducing homework leads kids and parents to think school expectations for excellence will be lowered, "things will go wrong."
Authorities in the Russian city of Orenburg called on thousands of residents to evacuate immediately on Friday due to rapidly rising flood waters after major rivers burst their banks due to a historic deluge of melting snow.

Water was also rising sharply in another Russian region  Kurgan  and in neighboring Kazakhstan. Authorities said 100,000 people had been evacuated so far, as rapidly warming temperatures melted heavy snow and ice.

The deluge of melt water has forced more than 120,000 people from their homes in Russia's Ural Mountains, Siberia and Kazakhstan as major rivers such as the Ural, which flows through Kazakhstan into the Caspian Sea, overwhelmed embankments.

Regional authorities called for the mass evacuation of parts of Orenburg, a city of over half a million people about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) east of Moscow.

"There's a siren going off in the city. This is not a drill. There's a mass evacuation in progress!" Sergei Salmin, the city's mayor, said on the Telegram messenger app.

Russian news agencies later quoted officials in Orenburg as saying that more than 13,000 residents had been evacuated throughout the region, more than a quarter of them children.

The agency reports quoted Salmin as saying residents were turning out to help erect dikes to keep high-rise apartment blocks from being flooded. Dump trucks loaded with clay were dispatched to areas at risk.

Emergency workers said water levels in the Ural River were more than 2 meters (7 feet) above what they regarded as a dangerous level. Water lapped at the windows of brick and timber houses in the city, and pet dogs perched on rooftops.

Salmin called on residents to gather their documents, medicine and essential items and to abandon their homes.

Personal losses

People living in flooded homes lamented the loss of their belongings.

"Judging by the water levels, all the furniture, some household appliances and interior decorating materials are ruined," local resident Vyacheslav told Reuters as he sat in an idling motorboat and gazed over his shoulder at his two-story brick home, partially submerged in muddy water. "It's a colossal amount of money."

Alexei Kudinov, Orenburg's deputy mayor, had said earlier that over 360 houses and nearly 1,000 plots of land had been flooded overnight. He said the deluge was expected to reach its peak on Friday and start subsiding in two days' time.

Orenburg Governor Denis Pasler told President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that 11,972 homes had been flooded and that if waters rose further, 19,412 more people would be in danger.

The village of Kaminskoye in the Kurgan region was also being evacuated Friday morning after the water level there rose 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) overnight, Kurgan's regional Governor Vadim Shumkov said on the Telegram messaging app.

Kaminskoye is a settlement along the Tobol River, which also flows through the regional center of Kurgan, a city of 300,000 people. Shumkov said a deluge could reach Kurgan in the coming days.

"We can only hope the floodplain stretches wide and the ground absorbs as much water as possible in its way," he said, adding that a dam was being reinforced in Kurgan.

Kurgan is home to a key part of Russia's military-industrial complex  a giant factory that produces infantry fighting vehicles for the army that are in high demand in Ukraine, where the Russian military is on the offensive in some areas.

There were no reports that the factory, Kurganmashzavod, had so far been affected.

Rising water levels are also threatening southern parts of Western Siberia, the largest hydrocarbon basin in the world, and in areas near the Volga, Europe's biggest river.

Water levels in some other Russian regions are expected to peak within the next two weeks.
Zeljko Ilicic saved his first horse from certain death 12 years ago and found his calling.

The Serbian, now 43, set up the Balkan country's only horse sanctuary in 2015 on a small piece of land in Lapovo in Central Serbia. Around 80 horses have since passed through Staro Brdo, or Old Hill, sanctuary. Ilicic has taken in tortured, old and abused horses, but also those that had lived well but could no longer be looked after by caretakers.

Animal care is a persistent challenge in Serbia, which is impoverished and marred by corruption after years of crisis and conflict in the 1990s. While authorities run shelters for dogs, there are no state-backed facilities for horses. Ilicic's sanctuary today provides shelter and care for dozens of animals.

"I witnessed the sad destiny of a horse that was about to be put down," he said, recalling the first animal he saved. "I decided to try to bring him back to life and to keep him if he survived. And he did."

One of Ilicic's favorite horses over the years, he said, was a local derby winner that eventually died peacefully of old age. Another, now 28, was in a number of Serbian movies before retiring to the sanctuary, its legs stiff with arthritis. Some horses end up in limbo as "neither a pet nor a working machine" on farms, he said, so they become a burden to people.

Violeta Jovic, who works at the sanctuary, remembers a time in 2020 when veterinary inspectors intercepted a truck packed with nearly two dozen illegally transported horses bound for slaughter. She said they were all in bad condition but that the sanctuary managed to find new homes for most of them, while three remained under their care.

"This is no longer volunteerism or a hobby or a job," she added. "This has become my life."

The sanctuary tries to find new homes for as many animals as possible to ensure there is always space for new ones. When a horse is ready for adoption, the sanctuary launches a bid for potential caretakers.

Staro Brdo today looks after nine horses, two donkeys, a buffalo, seven pigs, and several dogs, cats and chickens. Seven newborn kittens, found in a closed plastic bag, and seven Yorkshire piglets found at a waste dump have become fully grown animals that like to cuddle and play. A cacophony of animal sounds echoes through the small estate as a visitor ventures in.

The sanctuary operates on donations but Ilicic said he hopes to become self-sustaining through various initiatives, including therapy riding. Serbian authorities have helped by repairing local roads and Ilicic has cooperated with veterinary inspections, but there is still no legal framework to register his facility as an official horse sanctuary.

"We are the only ones in the Balkans at the moment and we hope that, in time, we will be recognized by the state," he said.
A transitional council tasked with choosing Haitis next prime minister and Cabinet was established Friday in a move supporters hope will help quell turmoil in the troubled Caribbean country, where most of the capital remains in the grip of criminal gangs.

The formation of the council, announced in a decree published in a Haitian government gazette, was expected to soon trigger the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, but a new provision said he would step down when a new premier was chosen. Henry did not immediately comment.

Those awarded a seat on the council were Petit Desalin, a party led by former senator and presidential candidate Jean-Charles Moise; EDE/RED, a party led by former Prime Minister Claude Joseph; the Montana Accord, a group of civil society leaders, political parties and others; Fanmi Lavalas, the party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide; the January 30 Collective, which represents parties including that of former President Michel Martelly; and the private sector.

The two nonvoting seats were represented by someone from Haitis civil society and its religious sector.

The establishment of the ... politically inclusive council signals the possibility of a new beginning for Haiti, a Caribbean trade bloc known as Caricom, which helped form the council, said in a statement.

It said that the council will take the troubled country through elections to the restoration of the lapsed state institutions and constitutional government.

It is also clear that one of the first priorities of the newly installed Presidential Council will be to urgently address the security situation so that Haitians can go about their daily lives in a normal manner; safely access food, water and medical services; children can return to school; women can move around without fear of horrific abuses; and so that businesses can reopen, Caricom said.

The published decree acknowledged what it called a multidimensional crisis that has worsened since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. It said the crisis has led to a catastrophic humanitarian situation and that Haiti is experiencing unprecedented institutional dysfunction, which has led to a political impasse.

It also noted that Henry would present his resignation once a new prime minister was appointed.

The decree, signed by Henry and his Cabinet, noted that no one who has been sanctioned by the U.N., opposes the deployment of a foreign armed force or plans to run in the next general election can be a member of the council.

Inauguration date

While an election date hasnt been set, the decree stated that the president-elect must be sworn in on February 7, 2026, at the latest, and that the council will exercise presidential powers until then.

The council also will be responsible for helping set the agenda of a new Cabinet and will appoint members to form a provisional electoral council, which is needed before elections are held. It also will establish a national security council whose responsibilities have not been decided.

The decree does not set any deadlines for choosing a new prime minister or Cabinet, stating only that the council must quickly do so.

The council will be based at the National Palace, and its mandate is supposed to end when a new president is sworn in, with no possibility of extension.

The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti posted on X that it would continue to closely follow the political process. It called for international support for Haitis National Police, saying it was essential to restore security and the rule of law.

We reaffirm our commitment to supporting the countrys institutions in their efforts to restore democratic institutions, Maria Isabel Salvador, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, said in a statement.

The council's creation comes a month and one day after Caribbean leaders announced plans to help form it.

Fridays development was cheered by those who believe the council could help steer Haiti in a new direction and help quell widespread gang violence.

More than 1,550 people were killed across Haiti and more than 820 injured from January to March 22, according to the U.N.

While gangs have long operated throughout Haiti, gunmen organized large-scale attacks starting February 29. They burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remains closed and raided the countrys two biggest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 inmates.

The attacks were meant to prevent the return of Henry to Haiti. At the time, he was in Kenya pushing for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country. He remains locked out of Haiti.

While the violence has somewhat subsided, gangs are still launching attacks throughout Port-au-Prince, especially in the downtown area, where they have seized control of Haiti's biggest public hospital.
Robert MacNeil, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast "The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour" in the 1970s and co-anchored the show with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died on Friday. He was 93.

MacNeil died of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, according to his daughter, Alison MacNeil.

MacNeil first gained prominence for his coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings for the public broadcasting service and began his half-hour "Robert MacNeil Report" on PBS in 1975 with his friend Lehrer as Washington correspondent.

The broadcast became the "MacNeil-Lehrer Report" and then, in 1983, was expanded to an hour and renamed the "MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour." The nation's first one-hour evening news broadcast, and recipient of several Emmy and Peabody awards, it remains on the air today with Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz as anchors.

It was MacNeil's and Lehrer's disenchantment with the style and content of rival news programs on ABC, CBS and NBC that led to the program's creation.

"We don't need to SELL the news," MacNeil told the Chicago Tribune in 1983. "The networks hype the news to make it seem vital, important. What's missing [in 22 minutes] is context, sometimes balance, and a consideration of questions that are raised by certain events."

MacNeil left anchoring duties at "NewsHour" after two decades in 1995 to write full time. Lehrer took over the newscast alone, and he remained there until 2009. Lehrer died in 2020.

When MacNeil visited the show in October 2005 to commemorate its 30th anniversary, he reminisced about how their newscast started in the days before cable television.

"It was a way to do something that seemed to be needed journalistically and yet was different from what the commercial network news [programs] were doing," he said.

Wrote memoirs, novels

MacNeil wrote several books, including two memoirs, "The Right Place at the Right Time" and the best seller "Wordstruck," and the novels "Burden of Desire" and "The Voyage."

"Writing is much more personal. It is not collaborative in the way that television must be," MacNeil told The Associated Press in 1995. "But when you're sitting down writing a novel, it's just you: Here's what I think, here's what I want to do. And it's me."

MacNeil also created the Emmy-winning 1986 series "The Story of English," with the MacNeil-Lehrer production company, and was co-author of the companion book of the same name.

Another book on language that he co-wrote, "Do You Speak American?," was adapted into a PBS documentary in 2005.

Explored post 9/11 challenges

In 2007, he served as host of "America at a Crossroads," a six-night PBS series exploring challenges confronting the United States in a post-9/11 world.

Six years before the 9/11 attacks, discussing sensationalism and frivolity in the news business, he had said: "If something really serious did happen to the nation  a stock market crash like 1929 ... the equivalent of a Pearl Harbor  wouldn't the news get very serious again? Wouldn't people run from `Hard Copy' and titillation?

"Of course you would. You'd have to know what was going on."

That was the case  for a while.

Born in Montreal in 1931, MacNeil was raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa in 1955 before moving to London, where he began his journalism career with Reuters. He switched to TV news in 1960, taking a job with NBC in London as a foreign correspondent.

In 1963, MacNeil was transferred to NBC's Washington bureau, where he reported on civil rights and the White House. He covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas and spent most of 1964 following the presidential campaign between Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, and Republican Barry Goldwater.

In 1965, MacNeil became the New York anchor of the first half-hour weekend network news broadcast, "The Scherer-MacNeil Report" on NBC. While in New York, he also anchored local newscasts and several NBC news documentaries, including "The Big Ear" and "The Right to Bear Arms."

MacNeil returned to London in 1967 as a reporter for the British Broadcasting Corp.'s "Panorama" series. While with the BBC, be covered such U.S. stories as the clash between anti-war demonstrators and the Chicago police at the 1968 Democratic Convention, and the funerals of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Senator Robert Kennedy and President Dwight Eisenhower.

In 1971, MacNeil left the BBC to become a senior correspondent for PBS, where he teamed up with Lehrer to co-anchor public television's Emmy-winning coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973.
The Holy See has formally protested to France after a French court ruled that a former high-ranking Vatican official was liable for what the court determined to be the wrongful dismissal of a nun from a religious order.

According to French media, the Lorient tribunal on April 3 ruled in favor of the nun, Sabine de la Valette, known at the time as Mother Marie Ferreol. She was forced to resign from her religious order, the Dominicans of the Holy Spirit, after a Vatican investigation.

In a statement Saturday, the Vatican said that it had received no notification of any such verdict, but that the ruling nevertheless represented a grave violation of the right to religious freedom.

The Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis had tasked Cardinal Marc Ouellet, at the time the head of the Vaticans bishops office, with conducting an investigation that ended with the Holy See taking a series of canonical measures against Valette, including her expulsion after 34 years as a nun in the order.

The statement also cited potential diplomatic issues, given Ouellets immunity as a cardinal and official of a foreign government. The Holy See is recognized internationally as a sovereign state.

According to French Catholic daily La Croix, the Lorient court found the nun's expulsion was without merit and ordered Ouellet, the religious order and other defendants to pay over 200,000 euros ($213,000) in material and moral damages, as well as fines. The defendants are appealing, La Croix said.

The Vatican frequently conducts such internal investigations into religious orders or dioceses, which can be sparked by complaints of financial mismanagement, sexual or other types of abuses, or governance problems. It considers the measures it takes to be exclusively internal to the life of the Catholic Church.

As a result, the Lorient court decision represented an unusual intrusion of secular justice in internal church matters, prompting the diplomatic complaint from the Holy See.

The French justice system seems increasingly willing to take on even high-ranking church officials in court, much more so than in Italy, and especially concerning allegations related to clergy sexual misconduct and cover-up.

In 2020, for example, a French appeals court threw out a lower court ruling that had convicted Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of covering up the sexual abuse of minors in his flock.

That same year, a Paris court convicted a retired Vatican ambassador to France of sexually assaulting five men in 2018 and 2019 and handed him a suspended eight-month prison sentence. The Vatican had lifted the immunity of the ambassador, Monsignor Luigi Ventura, which allowed the trial to go ahead.
Editor's note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

Regretting coming to U.S., some Chinese immigrants return home

Chinese migrants coming across the southern U.S. border say they made the treacherous journey to flee Chinas authoritarian rule, seek the American dream or escape growing political and economic uncertainty at home. But the challenges do not end after they arrive, and some have decided to return to China, while others have no choice. Produced by VOAs Tracy Liu.

Undocumented Indian migrants chart new path to U.S. via Canada

In recent years, the United States has seen an unprecedented surge in undocumented migrants from India, most slipping in through Mexico. But as the U.S.-Mexico border faces growing pressure, many are turning to a less-conventional path: crossing the expansive and lightly guarded border with Canada. Produced by VOAs Masood Farivar.

Maryland governor: State focused on families of workers killed in bridge collapse

Authorities believe six workers  immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador  plunged to their deaths in the Patapsco River. Two others survived. The bodies of three workers have been recovered, and the search for the other victims continues. Maryland Governor Wes Moore said the state remains focused on supporting the families of the six workers. Reported by The Associated Press.

VOA60 Africa: Lack of aid pushes Sudanese to edge of famine

Over a year since the start of the civil war, a lack of aid combined with precarious conditions have pushed people in Sudan to the edge of famine. Displaced citizens celebrated Eid al-Fitr from hospitals and refugee camps.

Immigration around the world

Sudanese refugees face collapsed health care system in South Sudan

Political violence in Sudan is forcing thousands of refugees, many of them children, to neighboring South Sudan for safety. There, they face a different threat  a collapsing health care system. Sheila Ponnie reports for VOA from Renk, Upper Nile State, South Sudan.

Thousands continue to flee Sudan every day as conflict rages

The United Nations refugee agency says thousands of people are still fleeing Sudan every day as clashes between two warring army factions, raging for nearly a year, show no signs of abating. The latest UNHCR figures show that more than 8.5 million people in Sudan have been forced to flee their homes since war erupted on April 15, 2023, making this one of the largest displacement and humanitarian crises in the world. The number includes 1.8 million Sudanese who have fled to neighboring countries seeking refuge. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

International Organization for Migration: Shipwreck off Djibouti leaves 38 dead

A ship carrying Ethiopian migrants sank Monday off Djibouti, killing at least 38 people, according to the International Organization for Migration. Twenty-two people were rescued, the U.N. agency said in a statement. The ship was traveling to Yemen from Djibouti, the main transit country for migrants attempting to reach Gulf nations from the Horn of Africa. VOA News reports.

EU lawmakers approve overhaul of migration law, hoping to deprive far right of votes

European Union lawmakers on Wednesday approved a major revamp of the bloc's migration laws aimed at ending years of division over how to manage the entry of thousands of people without authorization and depriving the far right of a vote-winning campaign issue ahead of June elections. The members of the European Parliament voted on the Pact on Migration and Asylum, regulations and policies meant to help address the thorny issue of who should take responsibility for migrants when they arrive and whether other EU countries should be obliged to help. Reported by The Associated Press.

News brief

 Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced Friday the extension and redesignation of Ethiopia for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months, from June 13, 2024, to December 12, 2025, due to ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Ethiopia that prevent individuals from safely returning.
An inexperienced House speaker facing a brewing intraparty rebellion as he seeks bipartisan compromise to push through defense funding for Ukraine and Israel got a boost on Friday from the presumptive Republican party presidential nominee, Donald Trump.



"He's doing a really good job under very tough circumstances," Trump, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, said at the start of a news conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson.



Trump suggested Republicans push for making additional U.S. military aid to Ukraine "in the form of a loan rather than a gift."



Johnson, a Republican congressman from the state of Louisiana who has been House speaker since October, made no statement about the aid. But Trump's stance is likely to hold sway over many House Republicans.



Johnson, according to Republican Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, has been negotiating with the White House about a package that would deviate from the Senate's $95 billion foreign security legislation.



The most contentious elements involve aid for Ukraine, locked in a defensive war against Russia, and for Israel, which has been on the offensive in Gaza against Hamas.

Johnson's job in jeopardy

Johnson, relatively unknown on the national stage when he emerged as a compromise candidate among Republicans to become House speaker, finds his job in jeopardy. Republicans are bitterly divided on further U.S. military aid for Ukraine.

"I'm not giving Ukraine any money, never have, never will," responded Representative Troy Nehls to a question from VOA's Ukrainian Service on Thursday. "Can anybody tell me what the strategy is for Ukraine?"

Nehls  who is among the Republican lawmakers who falsely assert the 2020 presidential election was "rigged" in favor of President Joe Biden  predicted if Trump is again elected president in November, Russian forces "will be out of Ukraine by April 1st."

Another Republican in the House, Keith Self of the state of Texas, wants any support for Ukraine tied to increased funding for security at the U.S. Southern border with Mexico.

Self told VOA that while Kyiv awaits further aid from Washington, it should turn to European countries for help.

"I think Europe is starting to realize that they need to take care of their own backyard," said Self, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

If Johnson is seen as acceding to the desires of Democrats, it would likely expand the number of Republican lawmakers dissatisfied with his leadership.

Johnson is compelled to work with the Democrats on major legislation because his party retains a thin majority in the House.

Democrats disagree about Israel

The Democratic Party leader in the House, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New Jersey, has suggested Democrats will help Johnson retain his position if the speaker helps push over the finish line the national security package sent by the Senate, where Democrats enjoy a majority, to the Republican-controlled House chamber.

The Democrats face their own disagreement over the bill, with some opposing sending offensive weaponry from the United States to Israel while it engages in its campaign in Gaza that, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry, has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians.

"I'm looking at the possibility of a Ukraine-only [funding] bill" to avoid further delays, Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from the state of Washington who is chair of the left-wing congressional progressive caucus, told VOA's Ukrainian Service.

Not aiding Ukraine "is malpractice on our part," according to Representative Madeleine Dean, who termed the hesitation among some lawmakers in both parties "literally un-American" and appeasing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I can't tell you how strongly I feel about it, how upset and angry I am," the Pennsylvania Democrat added as she became emotional on the steps of the Capitol.

The task of reaching consensus in the House rests primarily on the shoulders of Johnson, a hard-right litigator who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election. The Trump loyalist is the least experienced speaker in nearly a century and a half.

Johnson's visit on Friday to Trump's Florida resort home was seen as an attempt by the weakened House speaker to be shored up by the former president. Trump's backing has been pivotal for top Republicans to stay in their positions or gain them.

His lack of support for the previously elected House speaker, Kevin McCarthy of California, and Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel led to exits from their respective leadership jobs.

Kateryna Lisunova on Capitol Hill contributed to this report.
Garland needed Tyler Perrys 330-acre studio, a Navy SEAL, and a dry sense of humor. Photo: A24

This piece contains spoilers about Civil War, including its ending.

Many of the questions raised at the start of Civil War remain unanswered by its end, namely how? and why? In depicting a near-future United States ravaged by sectarianism, Alex Garlands feature-length alarm bell borrows from the dystopian playbook that Roland Emmerich and other filmmakers return to  but unlike those sci-fi counterparts, Garlands backstory is only legible in bits and pieces. Even the cast and crew say they werent told what led to the movies authoritarian third-term president (Nick Offerman), who has disbanded the FBI and unleashed air strikes on his own citizens, and now aims to stamp out the so-called Western Forces, Texas and Californias illegal secessionist movement.

Despite wanting an ambiguous political backdrop that avoids talk of Republicans and Democrats, Garland knew from the outset how Civil War would end: with insurgents executing the president in the Oval Office. He had a premise  America has disintegrated into a state of civil war, as Garland describes it today  and an outcome, which he reverse-engineered to focus on four journalists traveling by van from New York City to Washington, D.C., in hopes of questioning a president who hasnt spoken to the press in 14 months. Eventually, Garland devised a climactic 20-minute battle that erupts as the group arrives in the capital city one day after the presidents generals have surrendered. Outside the White House, Humvees roll in, helicopters circle overhead, the Lincoln Memorial and other structures explode, and snipers open fire.

In a strange way, I compared it to the last 20 minutes of Annihilation because its almost doing the same thing.

What I see happening in the film is more like a traditional concept of anarchy, which is not chaos  its multiple autonomous groups working at once, Garland says. In addition to the Western Forces guerrillas closing in on Pennsylvania Avenue, an unnamed faction brands itself with pink, green, and turquoise stripes. Theres also the presidents militaristic supporters and various loose-knit blocs stationed throughout the country. The protagonists  photographers Lee (Kirsten Dunst) and Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), and reporters Joel (Wagner Moura) and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson)  document it all in what is part higher calling and part adrenaline addiction.

Garland shot Civil War in sequence, so the intensity the actors absorbed was constantly mounting. By the climax, youve reached a moment where dialogue almost becomes irrelevant, says cinematographer Rob Hardy, who has worked on all of Garlands projects. In a strange way, I compared it to the last 20 minutes of Annihilation because its almost doing the same thing, he adds. Theres a laser focus on where they are heading and what they need to do. Theyre stepping over the line and going into a space where anything could happen, but the juxtaposition is that the space is familiar. It was important to really throw the audience into that tension.

Parts of the battle unfolded at Tyler Perrys 330-acre studio in Atlanta, which contains a replica of the White House. Other sections, like the 30-foot-tall makeshift barrier surrounding the mansion, were constructed in nearby Stone Mountain, and certain facades were embellished using blue screens and CGI. After dispatching the visual-effects department to measure actual D.C. buildings and streets, production designer Caty Maxey built a scale model that she, Garland, and stunt coordinator Jeff Dashnaw used to map out the sequence so various sets could be stitched together seamlessly. That meticulous preparation, replete with toy cars, allowed them to stage many of the explosions and shoot-outs practically. Maxey got chills when she saw real bullet holes in a limousine meant to dupe eyewitnesses into thinking the president had fled the White House.

Alex Garland on the set of Civil War. Photo: A24

Its a dangerous work environment because you have tanks and Humvees, Garland says. Sometimes the Humvees are moving very quickly, and there are flows of people that are supposed to start moving when the Humvee shoots past them. Quite often, people take their cues off something else, and then everything gets slightly out of order  someone starts running earlier than they should, and now theyre in the path of the Humvee. We have guns firing blanks, which means they have a muzzle flash, which makes the same kind of noise. If youre in front of one of those things, youd get really badly hurt. You might have half of your face blown off. So its a strange environment, and very, very carefully planned.

Garland recruited former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza, who has also advised on The Terminal List and the Mark Wahlberg war movie Lone Survivor, to help choreograph the battleground action. Mendoza hired other veterans to play extras, and Garland encouraged the principal actors not to worry about where the cameras were placed so they could move about as naturalistically as possible.

I have a dry sense of humor, and I think at that moment there is something dry happening, but also something real.

When Lee realizes the presidents supposed evacuation is merely a diversion, she makes her way into the White House alongside Jessie, Joel, and a few bossy Western Forces commandos wearing camo. (Sammy has been killed by the time they get to D.C.) Inside, Maxey and her team created an immediate sense of disarray. Dead bodies, weapon cases, containers of half-eaten takeout food, and paperwork are strewn throughout the entrance hall, conveying the longevity and ferocity of the conflict. We wanted to show that people had been living here under pretty harsh circumstances to protect the president, Maxey says.

As Lee, Jessie, and Joel inch toward the Oval Office, it becomes clearer, albeit subtly, that this is not the White House of yesteryear. The walls feature few presidential portraits. A chandelier fit for a king now hangs near the Resolute desk. Windows are covered by grates or boarded up, evidence of a building under siege. When Jessie steps forward to snap a photo in the red-carpeted hallway, Lee  once a reluctant mentor  leaps out to take the bullet heading toward her. Its a reversal of an earlier scene in which Lee coldly insinuated that she would photograph Jessies death if she witnessed it. Realizing her idol has been shot on her behalf, Jessie lifts her camera and does the same, hardening in real time to the horrors of wartime photojournalism. It really is the key moment, and everything about the finale was kind of born out of that idea, Hardy says.

That leaves only Joel and Jessie to encounter the president, who is cowering on the floor as the Western Forces infiltrate his office. Joel halts the soldiers pointing guns at the presidents face to demand a quote. Dont let them kill me, he pants, to which Joel cooly responds, Yeah. Thatll do. Its something of a punch line: the almighty autocrat begging a journalist hed recently treated as an enemy to save his life. As the electropunk duo Suicides buoyant Dream Baby Dream kicks off the end credits, Jessies final image from the film fills the screen, showing four soldiers encircling the presidents corpse. Theyre grinning like theyve just won a game. The picture reads as a slight wink: No one can resist a good photo op.

I have a dry sense of humor, and I think at that moment there is something dry happening, but also something real, Garland says. There are many photos that exist  it could be law enforcement, but I think you particularly get it with military  where they kill someone theyve been trying to get and then they take that photo. Theres a famous one from when Pablo Escobar was shot. So, like many other things in the film, it was a commentary on things that actually happen.
Photo: Prince Williams/WireImage

A Texas judge has dismissed Drake from litigation over the Astroworld tragedy. Per The Houston Chronicle, the rapper was dropped on Friday from a large class-action lawsuit filed in the wake of the 2021 Astroworld Festival. Drake made a guest appearance during Travis Scotts headlining set at the Houston event, where a crowd crush left 10 dead and hundreds injured. Per a court filing obtained by USA Today, a Harris County District Court granted Drakes request for a summary judgment and dismissed all claims asserted against defendant (Drake) by all plaintiffs and intervenors in this multidistrict litigation. His lawyers argued in March that he was not part of festival planning, did not receive any security briefings, and was not informed of any crowd control issues or stop show orders before or during his 14-minute cameo onstage.

Dozens of defendants, including Scott and Live Nation, were named in the suit. Drake and Scotts label, Epic Records have both been dismissed. Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that motions to dismiss filed by Apple (which livestreamed the event) and two companies associated with Scott were denied. The first trial is scheduled for May 6.

A Houston grand jury previously decided that Scott and several Astroworld Festival organizers would not face criminal charges. However, multiple civil lawsuits against Scott and other defendants were filed by attendees and their loved ones. The class-action that Drake has been dropped from was a consolidation of multiple claims.
The Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Moldova, Ulvi Bakhshaliyev, has met with the Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vladimir Bolea.

Azernews reports, citing the post shared by the ambassador on "X" page.

According to the information, the parties discussed the possibilities of expanding cooperation between the countries. At the same time, they emphasized that they are committed to the intensification of relations in the field of agriculture.

It should be noted that joint relations between Azerbaijan and Moldova have been formed for a long time, and later, thanks to the successful policy of President Ilham Aliyev, the relations between the two countries were further developed.

The meeting of the head of state with the President of Moldova Maia Sandu in Chisinau in May of last year and the discussions on political and economic relations between the two states, as well as energy issues and investment, can be highlighted due to their special importance.

Recall that, about two weeks ago the State Customs Committee (SCC) of Azerbaijan and the Customs Service of Moldova signed a Joint Declaration on cooperation in a move aimed at enhancing bilateral ties in the customs sector, according to the committee.

The declaration was formalized during a recent visit by a delegation from the State Customs Committee to Moldova.

Ambassador Ulvi Bakhshaliyev, focusing on bolstering the collaborative efforts between the customs services of both nations. Emphasis was placed on the significance of fortifying cooperation and facilitating the exchange of expertise.

As part of the delegations itinerary, members were afforded the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the operations of Moldovas legal department and anti-smuggling department within the Customs Service.

Additionally, visits were made to the Sculeni and Leuseni-Albita checkpoints situated along the border with Romania. The Azerbaijani delegation received comprehensive briefings on the intricacies of border crossing procedures and customs control protocols.

Both Azerbaijan and Moldova reaffirm their commitment to fostering constructive dialogue and partnership in various spheres, underscoring the importance of sustained collaboration in advancing mutual interests.




In response, the government is convinced we need more competition between businesses  and one way to achieve this is to tighten the corporate merger regime. Under this weeks package, Chalmers wants to bring in changes from 2026 that should make it easier for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to block anticompetitive deals. Treasurer Jim Chalmers this week pointed to growing concentration in the economy. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer For a start, the new regime would require the watchdog be notified of mergers above a certain threshold, and the ACCC will then have to assess the deal for any risks to competition. Thats actually a significant development. Under the current laws, if the ACCC doesnt like a deal it has to make its case in court, putting the onus on the regulator to prove that the merger that hasnt happened yet will result in a substantial lessening of competition. The watchdog has had some well-known losses in court, where its struggled to counter evidence from executives who swear competition wont be harmed by the deal theyre planning.

As well as requiring deals to go to the ACCC first, the new regime will allow a deal to be quashed if it creates, strengthens, or entrenches substantial market power. These few words could make a real difference. The ACCCs chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, hopes these changes will help the regulator deal with one of its big concerns: so-called killer acquisitions, often by technology giants. This is where an established player decides to buy out a nascent but promising rival  something that is indeed bad news for competition. (The ACCC would still need to prove its case in court.) A general suspicion theres not enough competition sits behind much of the recent political backlash against big business and the accusations of gouging. The new regime will also make it easier for the ACCC to block companies from making creeping acquisitions  lots of small deals that on their own seem insignificant, but have the cumulative effect of weakening competition. Business groups were not exactly heaping praise on these changes this week, but their complaints about red tape werent hugely vocal, either. Thats probably because the new merger regime wont result in radical changes, or a dramatic rise in the number of deals that are rejected. Indeed, Chalmers was at pains to point out that most mergers arent bad  they can be a way for businesses to gain scale and become more efficient.

But if thats the case, then how big a change are we talking about, really? Quantifying the benefits of the changes is tricky, because we just dont know which future mergers might now not happen under the new rules. Even so, the evidence suggests that the Australian economy has become more concentrated. And we also know that companies with market power like to use it when setting their prices  indeed, this is what the sharemarket expects. So, there is a solid economic case for tighter merger laws, provided they dont add excessive costs to businesses. As for the debate about divestiture (forced corporate break-ups), some experts  including Fels  have made convincing arguments that this would be a useful tool for dealing with companies that have seriously breached competition laws.
When Sabrina Damiano bought her first home  a one-bedroom apartment in Sydneys eastern suburbs  the possibility of not getting along with her neighbours didnt cross her mind.

Ive rented for the last 10 years and never had any issues, she says. When I moved in, I even went around and introduced myself with cupcakes and cookies.

But just over a month later, Damiano received a breach notice saying her dog, Rufus  a 15-year-old pug-cross-maltese with dementia  was disturbing the peace by occasionally barking.

Sabrina Damiano says neighbours made her life difficult with a string of noise complaints about her dog. Credit: Ben Symons

Damiano says she took every measure to improve the situation. She got Rufus new medication, worked from home more frequently, and hired a dog-sitter when she had to leave the house. But the breach notices kept coming. Now, the case may go to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Terence, 35, is the brains behind the videos but Rob, 80, and May, 68, are the stars  though they often need the pop culture references explained to them, and only recently learnt who Swift is. However, their Qantas parody holds a special place in their heart: the advertisement was constantly on TV in the lead-up to the 2000 Olympics during their first year in Australia. Rob and May have become quite professional at their lip-synching side hustle, Terence said. Once a month, the trio will film three videos from their home in Cherrybook in Sydney, which takes under half an hour. But the trio never set out to be famous. They started sharing videos with family on Terences account but soon set up a dedicated one as family members shared the videos with more and more people. We wanted something fun to do together at home during COVID-19 and I would share it with family and friends to make them laugh, Terence said. It was supposed to be just for family.

Terence works on digital promotions for a supermarket and had limited experience growing a social media following, but the popularity of the account grew quickly. Rob and May have now even made sponsored content for brands and say its not uncommon to get stopped on the street with Rob always happy to stop for a selfie. Full-time content creator Mother-of-two Barbara Bryan runs the Lets Go Mum social media pages with 113,000 Instagram followers, creating content focusing on single parenting and travel. Her videos and blog, launched 15 years ago when her children were just one and three, started making money almost immediately, with sponsored holidays and trips through Australia.

Samantha, Barbara and Brooke Bryan travel the world for Barbaras blog and social media accounts, Lets Go Mum. Content creation has been her full-time job, and source of income, since then. She still travels with her girls, Brooke, 18, and Samantha, 16. The girls are homeschooled from their property in country NSW. Bryan runs more than 50 Facebook pages, a website, a blog and an online shopfront, and creates YouTube videos, Instagram Reels and TikToks, and recently partnered with Jetstar as a sponsor. She makes money through paid partnerships, affiliate links and sponsored posts.

Bryan said she has had to stay alert to trends and changes on social media to stay relevant. Instagram used to just be about pretty pictures, but now its about reels which take a lot more time. You constantly have to be adapting, she said. Being a full-time content creator can be exhausting. Bryan focuses on the intricacies of travel for parents, such as how to buy train tickets in Japan or how long lines are at Disneyland, so her posts are detailed. Sponsored trips can sound like a prize, but you do work your butt off, she said, though added she loved content creation so much, shed likely still be doing it even if it did not earn her an income.

Spreading happiness Megan Castran, 57, has more than 20,000 followers on her Instagram account, Jewelchic, where she  often wearing rainbow clothes and bright beads  shares daily happiness videos. Shes been making content since YouTube launched in 2005, creating positivity videos, behind-the-scenes videos of theatre productions, and going viral for a run-in with Oprah. Shes since been appointed as Oprah Correspondent for the Today Show. Castran is best known for her happiness videos, which saw her social media channels take off during COVID-19. She initially intended to make 50 videos for 50 days but she has not skipped a day in the nearly four years since.

She said negative comments affected her early in her career, but now she simply blocks them out and focuses on the good messages. Loading I never comment on politics or stuff thats divisive  my stuff is mainly about happiness and keeping it light, and being authentic, she said. Castran, who lives in Melbourne, said shes been recognised across Australia and in London and New York. I love it when people come up and say my videos make them happy or that its got them through bad times or given them the courage to wear colour, she said.
Its hard to believe there was a time in the not-too-distant past when former garbo-turned-yacht broker Ian Malouf stood apart from his fellow rich list mates as a die-hard renter. But there he was, in 2020, paying former Crown casino chairman Rob Rankin some $12,000 a week for the Woollahra trophy home Woodlands.

The five-bedroom house in Double Bay makes it three in a row for Ian Malouf and family. Credit: Domain

Dial-a-Dump founder Ian Malouf aboard his super yacht Mischief. Credit:

Havent things changed. In less than three years Malouf and his wife Larissa have gone full property binge, coughing up more than $208 million in ultra-prestige real estate from Palm Beach to Double Bay.

The latest Double Bay purchase is a five-bedroom house for which they competed against two other buyers at Mondays auction to buy for $9.5 million through Sothebys Michael Pallier.
Washington: China is backing Russias war effort in Ukraine by helping Moscow in its biggest military build-up since the Soviet era, providing drone and missile technology, satellite imagery and machine tools, senior US officials said.

The American officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said US President Joe Biden raised the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping in their recent phone call and that it is a topic of discussion with US allies in Europe and around the world.

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping declared a no-limits friendship in 2022. Russian technology is being used to improve the stealthiness of Beijings submarine fleet while Chinese parts help Russias war in Ukraine. Credit: AP

One official said Chinese materials were filing critical gaps in Russias defence production cycle and helping Moscow undertake its most ambitious defence expansion since the Soviet era and on a faster timeline than we believed possible early on in this conflict.

Our view is that one of the most game-changing moves available to us at this time to support Ukraine is to persuade the PRC [China] to stop helping Russia reconstitute its military industrial base. Russia would struggle to sustain its war effort without PRC input, the official said.
Correspondence held in the Australian National Archives from Mary and ODells father John, who was the proprietor of the Bingara Cordial Factory, reveal their desperate attempts to discover what had happened to him, including Mary pleading to know if he had uttered any last words. Heartbroken, she died three years later. And yet, apart from their graves hewn from the parched, rocky Maltese earth, there is little other physical evidence the Anzacs were ever in Malta, despite the enormity of their presence over a century ago. Still standing despite relentless air raids in WWII, a fire in 1998 and ambitious property developers, Australia Hall in Malta. Tucked away a few blocks behind the bustling cafes and bars of the picturesque holiday spot St Julians Bay stands one unmissable remnant: a crumbling Australian coat of arms adorning a stone ruin known as Australia Hall. Miraculously, having survived WWII air raids, fire in 1998 and seen off plans to build a supermarket and a new Chinese embassy on the site, the building is intact, surrounded by fields of prickly pear, avenues of heavily scented pink oleanders, nondescript apartment buildings and neighbouring St Catherines High School.

The Australian coat of arms atop Australia Hall in Malta. But in 1915 Australia Hall was a vastly different place, a beacon of mateship for convalescing Anzacs far from home. Some 2000 of them could be accommodated within its stately hall at any given time, playing cards, writing letters to worried family, singing by the piano and sipping cups of tea, or something stronger when the ghosts of the battlefield came to haunt them. The fortresslike structure was hurriedly built by the royal engineers in just two months, with 2000 raised by the Australian Red Cross  around $250,000 in todays money. A gathering of convalescing Anzacs in Australia Hall during 1915. Credit: Richard Ellis Archive

Malta, home to the crusading Knights of St John in the 16th century, was dubbed the nurse of the Mediterranean during the disastrous Gallipoli campaign. It is an extraordinary and proud history we Maltese share with Australia and the Anzacs, but it is one I dont think is widely known across Australia  even though it truly deserves to be, Maltese historian John Portelli told the Herald from Valletta. The voyage across the Eastern Mediterranean in these makeshift hospital ships from the Gallipoli Peninsula to Malta was not an easy one. Australian troops and nurses in Malta during Gallipoli campaign. Credit: Richard Ellis Archive It took the steam ships up to eight days to cover the 1163-kilometre journey, and newspaper clippings paint a horrific image of their arrival in Vallettas fortified Grand Harbour; unloading human cargo of wounded, many septic and barely alive young men, their motionless bodies delicately lowered on stretchers by ship cranes onto barges waiting alongside.

At the beginning of April 1915, there were 824 military hospital beds in Malta. At the end of May 1915, there were more than 6000 in 14 hospitals spread all over the island. At its peak there were 25,522 beds in 28 hospitals, with the highest number of patients on any one day a staggering 16,004. Loading The Daily Malta Chronicle reported an unnamed Australian infantryman found a bullet had struck the bible in his (breast) pocket. The bullet penetrated as far as the gospel of St Matthew  resting on the words Till I put thine enemies underneath thy feet. Initially, the wounded were given a heros welcome, cheered by locals who tossed sweets, cigarettes and flowers into the passing horse-drawn ambulances. But as the numbers grew, the arrivals became more subdued. Even the church bells, of which there are hundreds across the staunchly Roman Catholic islands, fell silent. Prominent Maltese politician and lawyer Herbert Ganado wrote in his memoir of what he witnessed at Porta Reale as the soldiers were brought ashore: Masses of people packed the Strada Reale  Large crowds lined both sides and waited silently  Some clapped but were quickly shushed by the crowd. It was not an occasion for noise and shouting.

The people, particularly mothers in the crowds, became very emotional  Some of the wounded waved, smiled and looked happy they had been welcomed with such love and spontaneous attention. Only a day after the first wounded arrived, Ganado writes of witnessing the first of many military funerals. This is how I learned Chopins Funeral March, and now, whenever I hear the music, this scene comes to mind: a firing party, rifles at reverse arms, pointing downwards, a band and a coffin draped in the Union Jack on a gun carriage. Occasionally, one saw six or seven coffins in the same funeral procession. The Maltese compassion and hospitality did not go unnoticed back in Australia. Inside St Andrews Scots Church in Valletta are two stained-glass windows representing Christ the Light and Christ the Good Shepherd, commissioned by the Vasey family from the Melbourne suburb of Malvern.

Australian soldier John Vaseys grave at Pieta Cemetery in Malta. On August 14, 1915, corporal John Vasey of the Second Field Company died of septicemia, a month shy of his 21st birthday, having lost a leg after being wounded at Gallipoli. Vasey is buried at Pieta. According to war records his family received a collection of personal effects which included a shaving brush, notepad, fountain pen, matchbox and a pair of mittens. Vaseys brother George would later join the front and during WWII became one of Australias most storied warriors. Major General George Vaseys wife Jessie founded the War Widows Guild. In 1921 the Vasey brothers father, also named George, presented the stained-glass windows on behalf of the broader Australian Methodist community as a gift to the Maltese in honour of his son John and other Anzacs buried there. Today Vasey family descendants are as largely unaware of the windows provenance as the dwindling congregation at St Andrews, however a small plaque on the wall mentions the Australian connection.
Eladio Carrion poses in a Dolce&Gabbana shirt. Adrian Cuerdo

Yesterday I went to Kanyes concert. He is my favorite artist, the biggest inspiration for my music. I barely recorded three videos and I didnt even look at the cell phone when I did it, says Eladio Carrion in a luxurious hotel room in Madrid, fresh from Paris Fashion Week. He dresses like the urban music star that he is: headphones over one ear, a loose black leather jacket from Off-White, an oversized sweatshirt, jeans, black clogs and, of course, his huge diamond watch on his left wrist. With a solid build  he was a professional swimmer representing Puerto Rico  deep voice, large hands, tattoos and a neatly trimmed beard, he is impressive. But he relaxes as soon as he sits in a velvet armchair next to the enormous bed where his press team is relaxing in silence, and with their own tape recorder.

Using cell phones at concerts is something that obsesses him: I understand that there are people who want to have their memories, but if it were up to me I would have the phone taken off them for the entire concert, he says. We are glued to our cell phones. There are people who watch entire concerts through it. It is incredible, and the energy that is transmitted to the artist is different. Were on social media too much. We want to post everything we experience instead of living it.

Recently, a video of one of his live shows in Costa Rica went viral. In it, he asked his fans not to record while his song Mbappe was playing. It was such an unusual request that he remembers it as almost countercultural. It was like they were in Woodstock [laughs]. No phone, everyone jumping and bouncing like crazy. In May and June he will be on tour in 11 Spanish cities and another six European cities. He has already announced several sold-out concerts. Will you ask the audience to turn off their cell phones? Claaaro, brother, he exclaims. Its the first time Ive toured here. Im really looking forward to it.

King Eladio? The Puerto Rican musician in a coat by Louis Vuitton. Adrian Cuerdo

Until now Carrion had only performed in Spain at festivals, but that, he says, is not even close: A 40-minute live show is nothing like one that lasts almost two hours. Spain deserves a little showcito from me. Were going to see [the vibe] in Italy and Switzerland, but [in Spain] they have been [following] me for a long time and they deserve it. There is nothing better than putting on a show. Today you can buy views, but you cant buy the emotions that people feel with your music. Sometimes Im amazed that my fans know all my songs word for word.

Over 21.6 million people per month listen to Eladio Carrion on Spotify, and his music has garnered more than five billion views across different digital platforms. With TQMQA (acronym in Spanish for I love you more than yesterday), the first single from his new album, Sol Maria, was his first song to reach number one in the United States on Billboards Latin Pop Airplay. He performs reggaeton, rap, dembow, and even R&B and Jersey club (electronic music), but he is known above all for trap. In fact, there are those who consider him a Spanish-language trap artist par excellence. And among these authoritative voices is one of his admirers and compatriots, Bad Bunny: I got out of trap a while ago. I left it to Eladio, he sang last year in MONACO, the first single from his latest album.

Reggaeton esta cabron, its a good genre to convey happiness and get played on the radio, but it does not give me the opportunity to express myself well.

The two met at the right time. Carrion was an influencer who had signed with Rimas, which was a small local company back then. Unsure about his future, he decided to enroll in the College of Cinematography, Arts and Television in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Apparently, when he walked through the door, Bad Bunny came out, then known only as Benito, and they became firm friends. Carrion, who boasts of having a golden ear for hits, heard the original version of the now legendary Diles, and it was he who told Noah Assad, the boss at Rimas, about little Benito. The rest is history.

Today, for Eladio Carrion the musica urbana label is too broad. He prefers to talk about trap and hip hop. It makes it easier for me to tell my story. Its the challenge that I like: putting ten punchlines in eight bars, floating in a rhythm, offering references that people understand... And he contrasts: Reggaeton esta cabron, its a good genre to convey happiness and get played on the radio, but it does not give me the opportunity to express myself well. Its more like a game of searching for that repetitive chorus, that melody. Of course, for him it is also challenging to do it and for people worldwide to like it. If Carrion stands out for something, its his versatility. His tracks can be just as melodic as dance music, but he knows how to complement them with the narrative flow of rap lyrics. The themes range from self-improvement and redemption to the romantic and sexual. But he cleverly sidesteps the cliches of the genre.

The multi-platinum artist has recently entered a new stage in his life. He has just become the father of twins, who were born last November. They were born when, after several years of nominations, Carrion finally won the Latin Grammy for best hip hop song for Coco Chanel, along with Bad Bunny. Unfortunately, he couldnt pick up the award, as the twins were born on the day of the gala, which was held in Seville, Spain. The fate of his sixth album, Sol Maria, released earlier this year is in the lap of the gods. Mamas Boy, the last song on the album  which she performs with the Spanish rapper Nach  is dedicated to his mother, after whom he named the album. I have a giant heart and it is because of how you have raised me, sings Carrion. Its an album for her. I wanted to thank her through music, he says now.

The album and his new family have made him reflect about when they told me: You will never understand this until you are a dad. Well, I now understand. I am having a super beautiful experience with my children, it is something inexplicable, he responds with a smile from ear to ear. This sixth album confirms it. On it are the established talents of Latin American music such as Arcangel, De La Ghetto, Yandel, and Duki. But Carrion also supports emerging talent, like the teenager Milo J. With the young Argentine in La Cancion Feliz Del Disco he appears happy, immune to possible criticism and, above all, relaxed. Today I feel blessed and lucky, he declares.

You have to value what youre singing, because it carries a lot of influence, especially, on young children who are glued to YouTube. They are at an age when they take in all there is to learn.

Carrion claims his Puerto Rican identity. Im from the H, not [like] Travis. I have the salsa flow Hector Lavoe, he sings at the beginning of his session with Bizarrap. Eladio Carrion was the first Puerto Rican to record with the Argentine super producer. His song has had 220 million views on YouTube. The H is for Humacao, the town where he grew up, not Houston, the city where the world trap figure Travis Scott was born. Carrion has the best of both worlds. He was born in the United States and his first language was English. But, judging by how he speaks to his entourage, he jumps naturally between English and Spanish in his daily life. He is probably the Puerto Rican artist whose style comes closest to American hip hop, but he always raps in Spanish.

Puerto Rico is the island home of Bad Bunny, Myke Towers, Daddy Yankee, Arcangel, and Rauw Alejandro, with whom he has collaborated. Why does such a small place dominate the international scene? It has always been the powerhouse of Latin urban music, he responds. There was even a time when if you werent from there, nobody took you seriously. Then very powerful artists came out from all over. We have influences from different cultures: the Caribbean, North America, and hip hop. There is a lot going on there on that little island. I think its because of everything we have around us, we adapt.

The island is experiencing years of political instability. In 2019, Puerto Rican artists Ricky Martin, Residente, and Bad Bunny led protests against Governor Ricardo Rosello, who ended up resigning. The islands current governor, Pedro Pierluisi, outsourced the ownership of the state electricity company to Luma Energy and there has been a rash of sudden power outages in the territory. Bad Bunny highlighted and criticized this whole situation in his video-documentary El Apagon (The Blackout). I am Luma for my haters because I am not going to give them power, says Carrion on Air France. There have been many years of maladministration in Puerto Rico. It happens there and in many more places in the world. He takes a moment and reflects, again, about the importance of education in a society: In Puerto Rico, the education system is failing. They [the administration] are not supporting the teachers. In a perfect world I feel that teachers should be paid like doctors, because they are the ones who are molding people. But in Puerto Rico there are many good and bad things happening at the same time, he says.

Carrion has also collaborated with superstars of the urban genre from outside the island. His influences are many: Future, Lil Wayne, and 50 Cent. He speaks as if he had it all thought out for years: I already had the feature in my head for every American Ive collaborated with, and songs that Ive saved for them. I know their tastes. I studied those artists a lot. I consumed them. I know their producers, what rhythms they were going to like

Eladio Carrion dressed in Gerrit Jacob and wearing sunglasses by Cartier. Adrian Cuerdo

Tattooed on his right hand he has the logo of his first album, Sauce Boyz  a rose on a marijuana plant, he does not hide the fact that he loves cannabis. Many people got that same tattoo after the release of that album. When he hears that, Carrion smiles and pats his back twice. Its a movement. It is much more than music. When you treat music with love and respect, it becomes more than just a job or money. It has now become a commitment to society, to the community, and to my fans. In the end, you are an influence for these children and adolescents. Over time, he is becoming an artist for the whole family. He says that he sees more and more parents with children at his concerts. Throughout his latest album he is aware of his responsibility as an artist. You have to value what youre singing, because it carries a lot of influence, especially, on young children who are glued to YouTube. They are at an age when they take in all there is to learn. He confesses that he knows that there are songs that may have a focus on ignorance, but that he tries to provide a product that is pure.

During the transition to the artist he is today, he slept in cars and on the sofas of his friends in the studios. His ambition to achieve his dream was huge. After all his global successes, it is clear that he has earned a lot now. I learned that money is not happiness, he argues in Fe, Cojones y Paciencia. Anyone who has made a lot of money and has gone through having it and not having it will tell you that it is not money that brings happiness. But anyone who has only lived with money wont know that. Money doesnt make you happy, it makes you comfortable. Happiness is when I see my babies smiling. I cant pay them 20 pesos to get them to smile. You cant buy that, he says, smiling.

Carrion works hard. For him, a recording session of less than 12 hours is not a session. He takes ownership of the content of his songs and gives them his all to be a good influence and have hits. He considers himself a storyteller of the experiences that some people have: I like to tell stories. I dont like doing things for their own sake. What satisfies you most about your job? That people identify with the music is the best thing about art. I like to make people feel good at the end of the day.

Have you ever felt empty with your success? Que va! he responds quickly. There is a lot more to do! I have the same hunger as the day I started. Im still growing, thank God, and that is what I want. And the future? New music, great shows, and growing my beer brand, and SauceBoyz Fest, he says, referring to his successful festival in Puerto Rico. The interview ends, he jumps up, shakes hands and says thank you. He quickly leaves the room with his team. The photographers are waiting to take his photos. But first he has an appointment with his trusted barber, newly arrived from Seville. First things first.

Direction: Alfredo Santamaria / Makeup and hair: Miky Valles (Another Artist) / Photography assistant: Luis Calvo / Production assistant: Nicole Katzky

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An opinion piece that you describe, praises or criticizes, on the whole or partly, to cultural or entertainment work. It must be written by an expert on the matter

The noir genre often falls victim to the same trope: that of the serial killer who is presented  like it or not  as an attractive character. This year alone, we have seen several examples of said phenomenon. But a wave of novels, led by the extraordinary These Women by Ivy Pochoda (Faber & Faber) and Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman (William Morrow) have disrupted the trend in recent years in their resolute focus on the victim, on the victims, with uncommon force and style that transcends noir and plot fixation. Now, from a different approach, and with more radical motivations, two writers of the highest order (Rebecca Makkai and Joyce Carol Oates) have built out novels about murdered women that will leave no reader indifferent.

Rebecca Makkais gaze

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai is a layered tale in which, thanks to a powerful narrator (whose power lies not in her story, but rather in the authors capacity to keep us with her) we discover the ins and outs of a murder, that of young Thalia Keith, which occurred many years past. Our protagonist, Bodie Kane, was the victims roommate at a boarding school for rich kids. In the 1990s, Kane returns to the scene of the crime and with it, to the memories of years during which she yearned to disappear, to an adolescence mired in the complexes and fears of a young, declasse person from Indiana. Herein lies part of the books strength, based not on Makkais demarcated ability to describe an era (a feat she had already accomplished via the 80s Chicago milieu of The Great Believers), but because of how a look back at the past is essential to solving some crimes. Here, someone has been convicted and imprisoned, but one must only scratch the surface to realize that they werent the true perpetrator.

The book is also an intense assessment of the creative process, of the construction of voices in a podcast and the narrators responsibility when it comes to the adoption of a point of view. Its a panorama on how to torpedo a reputation and a life with just a couple of messages on social media. It would be too many things, in fact, if not for Makkais steady pulse.

Ultimately, the reader is left wondering if the titles you, the seemingly perfect professor who is married with children, handsome, replete with social and academic prestige, is the culprit. Or, if he is not a murderer but is a sexual predator. Or, if he had nothing to do with the crime at all. The options are endless, in fact. At the beginning of the book, the narrator and protagonist is convinced of his culpability, but many surprises are in store for her down the line.

Two aspects, neither of them minor, complete the edifice of I Have Some Questions for You. On the one hand, the tale of a trial we never see for ourselves, and yet, that we follow passionately. And on the other, respect for the victim (her death is always treated as a secondary characteristic) and contempt for the murderer, a far cry from the tiresome fascination displayed by so many stories about psychopaths.

Another gift from Joyce Carol Oates

M. or Marguerite Fulmer disappeared in New York in 1991. Some time later, her sister, younger by six years, contemplates the circumstances that led to her loss, ever conscious of the tricks that memory can play. G. or Georgene, our narrator, has a hypnotic voice through which the reader begins to approach the details, whether they are true or not, of what happened to M. Here too are statements to the police, as well as things they were never told: a narrator-reader privilege that places the story in a dangerous and fascinating space.

Effectively, she who enters 48 Clues Into the Disappearance of My Sister must take care with its diabolical game, because it is G. who is leading this show, along with her jealousy and envy of a sister who surpassed her in all areas. She plunges the reader into a host of maybes before she sets the hook: Too many maybes! Nonetheless (such is the seductive promise of clues!) perhaps one of them, as improbable and unlikely as it may be, is the Truth.

In her explorations of noir, Oates likes to play with derision: G., for example, makes mention of worn-out police investigation cliches, even comparing them to a threadbare carpet. But she also infuses the book with true-crime style, enumerating real cases (a technique also employed by Makkai) to locate her fictional victims in a real, terrifying context.

Through that which she says, does not say, and that which we intuit she is hiding or exaggerating, we form a portrait of G. more complex than it originally seems, a portrait of M. (of the woman, the artist, beyond her status of victim and despite the distorted gaze of her sister) and, ultimately, a portrait of the heartbreaks of an investigation like this one, and all its surroundings: errors, gossip, sensationalism, cliches, loneliness and silence. Ah, and of course there is a suspect and fascinating trappings of a classic crime novel in certain sections of the story. A triple somersault that could only be made possible by the likes of Oates.
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Pap and Kathryn Murphy of Turas Siar, Clogher, Belmullet, were recipients of a Mayo Cathaoirleach's Award for their contribution to the preservation and promotion of the Irish language (Gaeltacht-based). The award was presented at a ceremony in Breaffy House Hotel on March 7. Turas Siar is a language and culture research and genealogy centre open from 10am to 10pm seven days per week.

Pap has made a wonderful contribution to media and has spoken on Radio na Gaeltachta, TG4 and RTE. Several Irish language events have been held in the centre, which has been a huge benefit to students and Gaelgeoirs.

Down through the years, Pap has hosted many events for Seachtain na Gaeilge, local craft workshops such as basket weaving and Irish language book launches. He has gathered and recorded stories and folklore passed down from generation to generation in the native Erris canuint.

From an early age, Pap recorded people and their life stories. He initiated the founding of www.duchas.ie, which aims to digitise the Irish National Folklore Collection.

Pap wrote Turas Siar go Cill Mor or Journey Back to Kilmore and also Fili agus Amhrain na Cille Moire or Songs and Poets of Kilmore with his wife Kathryn Murphy. He is currently working on digitising his vast collection of CD recordings. Furthermore, he hopes that the centre will one day become an Irish academy.

A celebration of the award was held in Turas Siar on March 24 where traditional Irish music was provided by Darren ORegan and Liam McGonigle. Children from the local Gaelscoil, Scoil Bhreandain, Eachleim sang sean-nos songs and played traditional music at the event and Sheila OMongain sang sean-nos songs with the children.
An Ecuadorian court on Friday declared illegal the arrest of former vice-president Jorge Glas, carried out last Friday at the Mexican Embassy in Quito where Glas was waiting to receive a safe conduct as a political asylum seeker. The violation of Mexican sovereignty ordered by President Daniel Noboa has triggered a diplomatic conflict and the breakdown of relations between the two countries, and attracted nearly unanimous condemnation by other nations.

The court considered that the detention was arbitrary and that Glass rights, as well as national regulations on the status of diplomatic missions, were violated. A few days before the assault on the Mexican embassy, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of Mexico had granted political refugee status to Glas, who served as vice-president to former Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa. The latter considers himself to be persecuted by Ecuadorian authorities and a victim of lawfare.

Glas spent five years in prison for a corruption case and was about to go back to preventive prison on an embezzlement charge. Mexico was counting on Noboa to issue a safe conduct to the politician so that he could fly to Mexico City but, instead, the president issued a surprise order to raid the Mexican embassy and extract Glas. Ecuador has justified the move by assuring that Glas is a common criminal and that he does not deserve asylum status.

At the Friday hearing, judges denied the habeas corpus request that Glas defense had filed to get him out of La Roca, the maximum security prison where he is being held in Guayaquil along with leaders of the criminal groups that have made Ecuador the most dangerous country on the continent in recent years. The lawyers asked that the former vice-president be returned to the Mexican embassy or to another embassy that can guarantee him asylum. Neither has been granted.

Meanwhile, in the National Court of Justice, prosecutors are seeking to involve the former vice president in a new legal process over the alleged misuse of public funds that should have been destined for the reconstruction of areas affected by an earthquake in 2016. Glas headed the Reconstruction Committee that administered a $3 billion fund, but according to prosecutors, several projects executed by that agency had nothing to do with disaster relief. A judge has yet to make a decision on this new legal challenge.

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Members of Irans Revolutionary Guard on Saturday seized the MSC Aries, a container ship flying a Portuguese flag and owned by a subsidiary of Zodiac Maritime, one of the worlds main maritime companies, in the Strait of Hormuz. Members of the Iranian paramilitary organization rappelled down from a helicopter. The vessel is partially owned by Eyal Ofer, an Israeli businessman whose ships have been attacked in the past, Irans state news agency Irna has confirmed.

The attack on the ship, which Iranian forces are taking to the their country, is taking place amid heightened tension over Tehrans announced revenge for the murder of 13 people (including several senior officers of the Revolutionary Guard) in an Israeli bombing of a consular building in Damascus, Syria. This past Tuesday, the head of the Revolutionary Guard naval force, Alireza Tangsiri, warned about the possibility of closing down the Strait of Hormuz, an important maritime passageway between Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Israeli diplomacy has reacted, urging the European Union to immediately declare the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization and sanction Iran, because the ship had the flag of one of its member states. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Iran is a criminal regime that supports Hamas crimes and is now conducting a pirate operation in violation of international law. Just after the first news of the cargo ship emerged, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari issued a statement warning Iran that it will bear the consequences of choosing to escalate this situation further.

The Saudi television channel Al Arabiya has broadcast a video in which people are seen lowering onto the ship with a rope from a helicopter. Shortly before, the British Navy had indicated that a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz had been seized northeast of the port city of Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates, by regional authorities, without specifying which. The Iranian state agency has noted that details related to the seizure of the vessel will be announced later.

Zodiac Maritime has released a statement in which it indicates that the ship belongs to one of its subsidiaries, Gortal Shipping Incas, which had it long-term leased to Mediterranean Shipping Company, the largest container shipping company and which was in charge of all activities, including freight operations and maintenance of the ship.

Buying time

Rouzbeh Parsi, head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs think tank, believes that, for Iran, capturing this ship is a way of doing something that is not serious enough to legitimize retaliation by Israel that would escalate the conflict. My prediction is that, with this limited-scope act, Iran intends to avoid this Israeli retaliation, but it is unpredictable whether or not this will deter Israel from responding. I doubt that this is all that Iran is going to do, but it does help it buy time, he explains.

On Friday, with oil prices at their highest, more Western countries raised the alert level for travel to Israel and more airlines began avoiding flying over the Middle East. U.S. President Joe Biden noted that he expected Iran to retaliate against Israel sooner rather than later. Asked what his message to Tehran was, he responded only: Dont. A day later, The Washington Post revealed that the Pentagon has sent more warships and planes to the area with the goal of strengthening deterrence efforts and increase the protection of American forces, according to a defense official cited by the newspaper on condition of anonymity.

In this context, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday announced the closure of its embassy in Tehran as a precaution. And KLM, the countrys division of the Air France-KLM group, will stop flying over Israel and Iran for the same reason, although it will maintain the route to Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv, which is still considered safe. Lufthansa and its subsidiary Austrian Airlines, the only two Western companies with routes to Tehran, have stopped flying over Iran these days.
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Venezuela's AG Tarek William Saab in Caracas in a file photo. Manaure Quintero (REUTERS)

Venezuela has decided to cooperate, at least on the diplomatic front that has been opened with Chile following the murder of former Venezuelan military officer Ronald Ojeda, who had taken refuge in that country. Venezuelas attorney general Tarek William Saab reported that he will respond to requests for information from the Chilean prosecutors office regarding five people who have been linked to the crime.

Ojeda, a former lieutenant who opposed the government of Nicolas Maduro and a political refugee in Chile since 2018, was found dead on March 2, his body inside a suitcase buried beneath a building in the outskirts of Santiago de Chile, sprinkled with white lime powder to hasten decomposition and covered with cement. Saab has said that he will take action to locate the individuals designated for arrest, in the event that they are in Venezuela; he also noted that Chiles request for mutual assistance was not carried out through the corresponding diplomatic mechanisms.

Prosecutors in Chile said Friday they plan to formally request that Venezuela extradite two of its citizens to stand trial for charges related to the abduction and killing of the dissident. Chile has assured that Ojedas murder was planned from Caracas. Two suspects of participating in the kidnapping of the Venezuelan dissident were identified as Maikel Villegas and Walter Rodriguez, and according to the investigation they have fled to Venezuela. The Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, demanded on Friday that Venezuelan authorities arrest and extradite the suspects for the kidnapping and murder of the former military man. Saab, however, did not allude to the political motivations that Chilean prosecutors said could exist in this case.

Saab pointed out that two of the five people about whom Chile requested information and criminal records are Ojeda himself and Captain Anyelo Heredia, detained by the Venezuelan intelligence services last December. Heredia has been the key witness and informer in the alleged assassination conspiracies against Maduro that the Chavista regime has denounced, and for which they have imprisoned the activist Rocio San Miguel and several collaborators of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and issued arrest warrants against journalists and YouTubers. The Minister of Communication of Venezuela, Freddy Nanez, brought up the hypothesis of Chilean authorities that there was a political motive behind the Ojeda case  disclosed on Friday by EL PAIS  and said that it was all part of a dirty campaign against Venezuela.

In Saabs statement, posted in a message on X, the attorney general added that Venezuela is willing to collaborate in the fight against transnational crime and that the so-called Tren de Aragua, Venezuelas largest criminal organization, also identified as the Structured Group for Organized Crime (GEDO), was completely dismantled at the end of last year. In September 2023 authorities seized the Tocoron Prison, which served as the Tren de Araguas center of operations, but the groups leaders and main operators were not captured. For a couple of years, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and the United States have been denouncing the expansion of this group linked to the trafficking of migrants and women and extortion crimes.

Just three months ago, Chile and Venezuela had signed a cooperation agreement in criminal investigation between their heads of internal relations and the judicial police, in the midst of a regional insecurity crisis that has worsened with the expansion of criminal gangs. Chile, however, has been denouncing little collaboration from Venezuela on this issue and in the deportations of Venezuelan migrants with expulsion orders. Venezuela is not collaborating with the countries of the south; it does accept expulsions from the United States to Venezuela, but it is not doing so with the countries of the south and is not taking responsibilty for this situation, said the Undersecretary of the Interior of Chile, Manuel Monsalve.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan pose for a group photo with President of the Republic of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi and his wife Mellisa Santokhi-Seenacherry prior to the talks between Xi and Santokhi in Beijing, capital of China, April 12, 2024. Xi held talks with Santokhi, who is on a state visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday. [Xinhua/Huang Jingwen]

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua)  Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with President of the Republic of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi in Beijing on Friday.

Noting that the China-Suriname friendship has a long history and has stood the test of time, Xi said Suriname was one of the first Caribbean countries to establish diplomatic ties with China, establish a strategic partnership with China and sign the Belt and Road cooperation plan with China.

The two countries have always respected each other and treated each other as equals, becoming a model of South-South cooperation, he said, adding that China is willing to work with Suriname to further consolidate political mutual trust, strengthen economic and trade cooperation, expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges, step up international coordination, and push for a closer China-Suriname strategic cooperative partnership to better benefit the two peoples.

Xi stressed that China highly appreciates Suriname's friendship and its firm support for China on issues concerning China's core interests and major concerns. He added that China also firmly supports Suriname in safeguarding its national sovereignty and independence and independently choosing a development path suited to its national conditions.

China is willing to continue to understand and support each other with Suriname, maintain high-level exchanges, increase friendly exchanges between various departments, legislative bodies and political parties, and enhance the exchange of experience in governance, according to Xi.

"China welcomes more high-quality and distinctive Surinamese products to enter the Chinese market, and stands ready to deepen cooperation with Suriname on joint Belt and Road construction, enhance synergy of development strategies, and expand cooperation on trade, investment, agriculture, energy, mining, infrastructure construction and digital economy to bring more tangible benefits to the two peoples," Xi said.

Noting that Suriname is one of the countries with the largest number of overseas Chinese in the Caribbean and the first country in the Western Hemisphere to mark the Chinese New Year as an official holiday, Xi said the two sides should continue to encourage cultural and people-to-people exchanges, facilitate personnel exchanges, and jointly build Confucius Institutes.

The two countries should strengthen sub-national cooperation and constantly enrich the content of bilateral exchanges and cooperation, he added.

Xi said China is ready to work with Suriname and other developing countries to strengthen multilateral coordination, solidarity and cooperation, safeguard common interests, achieve common development and promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.

China attaches importance to developing relations with Caribbean countries, supports Caribbean countries in seeking prosperity and development and improving people's well-being, and stands ready to continue to provide assistance within its capacity for the economic and social development of countries in the region, Xi said.

Noting that the friendly exchanges between the two countries enjoy a long history, Santokhi, for his part, complimented the important contributions made by the Chinese community in Suriname to the development of the country.

He said that since the two countries established diplomatic ties 48 years ago, the Surinamese side has always firmly adhered to the one-China principle, and will continue to support China unswervingly in its endeavor to achieve national reunification.

Santokhi expressed Suriname's appreciation for the assistance provided by the Chinese side to its economic and social development, saying that the fruitful cooperation between the two countries in agriculture, health, infrastructure and other fields reflects the high-level political mutual trust and brotherly friendship, improved Suriname's economy and people's livelihoods, setting a good example of South-South cooperation.

Suriname supports the important initiatives proposed by China, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative, which are of great significance in upholding multilateralism and promoting world peace and sustainable development, and stands ready to advance coordination with China to jointly promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, Santokhi said.

He said that Suriname expects to improve exchanges between the political parties of the two countries, expand cooperation in fields such as trade, economy and investment, green development and climate change, and advance the Suriname-China strategic cooperative partnership, and is willing to contribute to Caribbean-China relations.

The two heads of state witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents on economy, trade, investment, green development, digital economy, education and other fields. The two sides also issued a joint press communique.

Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a welcome ceremony for President of the Republic of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi at the square outside the east entrance of the Great Hall of the People prior to their talks in Beijing, capital of China, April 12, 2024. Xi held talks with Santokhi, who is on a state visit to China, in Beijing on Friday. [Xinhua/Ding Haitao]

Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a welcome ceremony for President of the Republic of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi at the square outside the east entrance of the Great Hall of the People prior to their talks in Beijing, capital of China, April 12, 2024. Xi held talks with Santokhi, who is on a state visit to China, in Beijing on Friday. [Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan]

Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a welcome ceremony for President of the Republic of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi at the square outside the east entrance of the Great Hall of the People prior to their talks in Beijing, capital of China, April 12, 2024. Xi held talks with Santokhi, who is on a state visit to China, in Beijing on Friday. [Xinhua/Shen Hong]

Chinese President Xi Jinping holds a welcome ceremony for President of the Republic of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi at the square outside the east entrance of the Great Hall of the People prior to their talks in Beijing, capital of China, April 12, 2024. Xi held talks with Santokhi, who is on a state visit to China, in Beijing on Friday. [Xinhua/Shen Hong]

Chinese President Xi Jinping holds talks with President of the Republic of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi, who is on a state visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, April 12, 2024. [Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan]

Chinese President Xi Jinping and President of the Republic of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi witness the signing of bilateral cooperation documents on economy, trade, investment, green development, digital economy, education and other fields after their talks at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, April 12, 2024. Xi held talks with Santokhi, who is on a state visit to China, in Beijing on Friday. [Xinhua/Ding Haitao]

(Source: Xinhua)
Wrexham Tesco shoppers urged to help raise funds for food allergy charity

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Apr 13th, 2024

Generous shoppers in Wrexham are being encouraged to help an in-store fundraising campaign in support medical research into food allergies.

Running between Monday 22 to Sunday 28 April, the supermarket giant will be raising funds for The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, the UKs food allergy charity.

It is the fifth year running that Tesco has worked alongside the charity, which helps to raise awareness and support clinical research into food allergies by contributing 10p from every own brand Free From product bought in stores and online, as well as providing customers with the opportunity to round up their shopping at self-service tills throughout the week.

All money raised will help Natashas Foundation to continue its research into reducing the risks of food allergies and further developments into the management of allergies.

In addition to the funds being raised, the campaign aims to increase awareness in Wrexham about the importance of understanding food allergies and clearly highlighting ingredients in food which can cause allergic reactions.

Natashas Foundation was founded in 2019 by Tanya and Nadim Ednan-Laperouse following the tragic loss of their daughter Natasha who had a fatal allergic reaction to a baguette that contained sesame seeds that were not listed on the packaging.

Tanya Ednan-Laperouse OBE, said: Were thrilled that Tesco is supporting us for the fifth year running.

Allergen awareness is so important, and money raised in previous years has helped to fund clinical research exploring the management of food allergies.

Oonagh Turnbull, Head of Health Campaigns at Tesco, said: The work that Natashas Foundation has done to date has been fantastic and we are delighted to be able to support this for a fifth year.

There are now 175 products in our Free From range, from meals and desserts to snacks, all created with great taste but without any of the allergens.

We welcome any shoppers in Wrexham to try these products or kindly round up their shopping at the self-service tills to help raise money for a fantastic cause.

Natashas Foundation is committed to raising awareness and funds for critical food allergy research. But the real impact of the charitys work lies in the lives it can change.

Millions of people live with food allergies in the UK and must navigate a world where seemingly simple acts, like grabbing a quick bite to eat, can become fraught with danger. It can affect anyone, at any age.

Billie Hoque, a commercial manager for a maritime security company, from Luton, has three allergic children  Jess, aged 7, Jude, 4, and Jayde, three months.

Billie said: Life changed for me in June 2021 when I found The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation. I found a community  parents united by the fight for awareness. Meeting Nadim and Tanya, who lost their daughter Natasha to allergies, laid bare the heartbreaking truth of this condition. Yet, their strength resonated deeply.

Though every single allergy story and experience shared through Natashas Foundation was different, the community all had one thing in common; we understood the fear, the loneliness, and the exhaustion of the continuous battling needed to keep our children alive.

This community transformed me. No longer alone, I found strength and inspiration among these incredible people.

Today, my purpose is clear. With this supportive network and a collective voice, we can raise awareness and fight for a future free from food allergies.

This journey not only saved my sons, but it has also saved me too. Id urge everyone to support the fantastic work of The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation and their goal of making food allergies history through research and raising awareness of food allergies.
Just days left to register to vote in the Police and Crime Commissioner elections

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Apr 13th, 2024

There are just days left to make sure that you are registered to vote for next months Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections.

The deadline to register to vote is midnight on April 16.

On Thursday May 2, voters will go to the polls to vote for North Wales PCC.

The role of the PCC is to ensure the policing needs of their communities are met as effectively as possible, bringing communities closer to the police, building confidence in the system and restoring trust.

In North Wales four candidates have put themselves forward to become the regions next PCC. These are:

Andy Dunbobbin  Labour and Co-operative Party

Ann Griffith  Plaid Cymru

Brian Jones  Welsh Conservative Party

Richard Marbrow  Welsh Liberal Democrats

With only one week to go until the voter registration deadline for next months PCC elections, anyone wanting to vote must make sure they are registered in time.

Voters have a range of options  they can vote in person, by post or by appointing someone they trust to vote in their place, known as a proxy vote.

You can find out more about the different ways to vote on the councils PCC election webpage.

You can apply online at gov.uk/register-to-vote. It takes just five minutes.

Photo ID

At the PCC election voters will need to show photographic ID at the polling station in order to be able to vote.

Accepted forms of ID include a UK, European Economic Area (EEA) or Commonwealth passport or drivers licence; and some concessionary travel passes, such as an older persons bus pass or an Oyster 60+ card.

Voters will be able to use expired ID if they are still recognisable from the photo.

Jackie Killeen, Director of Electoral Administration and Guidance, said: Anyone voting at a polling station will need to show photo ID before they can be given their ballot paper.

Its important that everyone understands what types of ID they can use, and how to apply for free ID if they need it.

You can find information about the new requirement and what to expect at the polling station, on the Electoral Commissions website.

Ian Bancroft, Returning Officer at Wrexham Council, said: With elections taking place in Wrexham on May 2, 2024, it is important that those who want to vote make sure they have an accepted form of ID.

It may seem early but checking now means you will be ready to vote in May.

Residents who do not have one of the accepted forms of ID can apply for free ID either online or by completing a paper application form and sending this to Wrexhams electoral services team.

If you need any help with applying for the free ID or want to request an application form, contact the electoral services team on email electoral@wrexham.gov.uk or call 01978 292020.

Anyone who doesnt have one of the accepted forms of ID will be able to apply for free ID online or by completing a paper form.

The full list of accepted ID is available on the Electoral Commissions website, along with more information about the new requirement and details of how to apply for the free ID, at electoralcommission.org.uk/voterID.
Welsh Conservatives call to scrap road building ban and 20mph limit

This article is old - Published: Saturday, Apr 13th, 2024

The Welsh Conservatives are calling on the Welsh Government to scrap its road building ban and controversial default 20mph limit.

The opposition party, which will table a motion in the Senedd on Wednesday 17 April, has argued that an anti-motorist agenda and lacklustre transport policies are not fit for purpose and are holding Wales back.

The 20mph speed limit has come under fire since its introduction in September 2023, with many criticising the cost of its rollout and its effectiveness.

There have also been questions over whether it has led to an increase in congestion  whilst a petition calling for it to be scrapped has gained over 468,000 signatures since September.

However recent data shows that speeds have reduced by an average of 4mph on main roads since the national rollout of the default 20mph speed limit.

The data, which was collected by Transport for Wales, monitored millions of vehicles speeds in nine different communities across Wales before and after implementation.

It shows that since the new default speed limit was introduced in September 2023 the average speed on Wales roads dropped an average of 4mph  from 28.9mph to 24.8mph.

On urban roads with low average speeds, there is average six per cent reduction in collisions per 1mph reduction in average speed

According to the Welsh Government the research shows a strong link between lowering speeds and decreasing the number of collisions and people injured.

The motion will also call for the Welsh Government to reverse its ban on new road building across Wales, which was announced in February 2023.

Commenting ahead of the debate, Welsh Conservative Shadow Transport Minister, Natasha Asghar MS, said: Labour Ministers in Cardiff Bay continue to push their anti-motorist agenda, with drivers being forced out of their vehicles through Labour Government policy.

The people of Wales want to get on with their daily lives, yet Labours lack of investment in public transport, road building ban, and 20mph speed limits are preventing them from doing exactly this.

In the Senedd next week, well be calling on the Welsh Labour Government to end their war on motorists, scrap their road building ban and 20mph speed limits, and to get Wales moving again.

The motion which will be debated on Wednesday reads:

To propose that the Senedd:

1. Believes the Welsh Governments transport policies for Wales are not fit for purpose.

2. Regrets the North and South transport divide in Wales, with 50m allocated to the North Wales Metro, and over 1bn to the South Wales Metro.

3. Calls on the Welsh Government to urgently:

a) undertake a review of the current road building tests with a view to implementing all previously scrapped schemes that will boost economic growth or enhance road safety;

b) reverse the Restricted Roads (20mph Speed Limit) (Wales) Order 2022 and adopt a targeted approach to 20mph speed limits in Wales; and

c) invest in public transport to make buses and trains more competitive with travelling by car.
A study that came out a few years ago came to a singular conclusion: the more expensive the ring, the quicker the divorce. Sometimes, couples dont even make it to the wedding: such was the case of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck the first time they got engaged. The $2.5 million pricetag of Lopezs custom Harry Winston 6.1-carat rose diamond ring wasnt enough to ward off the dissolution of their engagement. Eventually it became public knowledge that Lopez meant to return the ring to her then-ex-partner, but that was the last anyone heard of the matter. Truly, theres no manual on what to do with your ring after breaking off a relationship. The answer to the question is personal and valid, and may lead to returning it, squirreling it away, selling it or transforming the gem into another piece entirely. According to jewelers, this latter method is far from new  though in recent years, its become an increasingly popular option.

A few days ago, model Emily Ratajkowski (who finalized her divorce with producer Sebastian Bear-McClard over his infidelities) proudly shared on Instagram that she had created a pair of divorce rings from her wedding rings pear- and princess-cut diamonds. The same New York jeweler who had designed Ratajkowskis original ring, Alison Chemla of the brand Alison Lou, created the new pieces. Their photos have already received more than a million likes, but the impact of her announcement has reached even further: Divorce rings are having a moment, announced The New York Times.

Ratajkowski is one of the influencers who are driving a change in the way we talk about divorce, one being made visible through the reutilization of wedding rings. In an interview with Vogue UK, the model tells how her refashioned rings are highly symbolic, a kind of proof of how her life had become her own once again. When she put them on for the first time, Ratajkowski says she felt the power of using accessories to change ones narrative around divorce, and of moving on. Its been a crazy couple of years, and finally I feel a sense of peace within myself and about the life and future I have and will continue to build with my son, she says. Somehow, these rings feel like a reminder that I can make myself happy in ways I never imagined.

A similar conclusion was reached this month by Sofia (not her real name). A longtime client at Madrid jeweler Nicols, Sofia came to the shop this time with a special request: now divorced, she wanted to refashion her ring with other gems, like a green emerald, that carried with them new meanings. Aside from this metamorphosis, Sofia had made another important modification: she changed the finger on which she wore the piece. Instead of continuing to sport it on her ring finger, traditionally related to matrimony, it now sits on her index finger, the power finger. With this gesture, she looks to evoke the power of the future, of continuing to move forward and learning about life.

In the Joyerias Nicols workshop, artisans have been remodeling pieces in this manner since forever, vice president and commercial direction Sani Nicolas tells EL PAIS. The divorce ring has always been around, but the big difference now is that as many men as women feel proud of their change in status and of the learning theyve gained through the relationship. Nowadays, instead of selling them, they are refashioning them, says Nicolas, whose business has been in his family for three generations, and which opened its first boutique in Madrids Salamanca neighborhood in 1978. With the rise in divorces and this new trend, people no longer want to hide their divorce or their engagement ring, but rather the opposite, to say, Hey, I value this, I have learned, Im growing, Im probably taking very beautiful things from this relationship  especially if there are kids  but Im in a different moment. Im free and I want this ring not only to remind me of the commitment we shared and has now been broken, but also all the learning that in some ways we did as a couple, and how this new situation is launching us into a world that is full of possibilities, he says.

In the experience of Nicolas, when people decide to refashion their ring, they change it completely, whether thats with other gems or shapes, and that in addition to creating new rings, some are refashioning such pieces into chain necklaces that hang down to the heart to impart new symbology. Prices for these transformations start at $532 for two classic 18-carat gold wedding rings, though the maximum price is up to the client, depending on how far they want to go. Those whose endings have been less than amicable, the jeweler says, usually prefer to sell the stones and be done with them, often buying another piece of jewelry to celebrate their new life chapter. When it comes to these new gems, they tend to avoid diamonds (which have been associated with eternal love since the DeBeers marketing campaign launched a century ago that popularized the phrase a diamond is forever). Sapphires, emeralds and rubies are more common choices for celebrating a divorce.

The path that Marta (also, not her real name) took in refashioning her wedding has been longer, but ultimately arrived at the same place. After 11 years of divorce and 11 years of marriage, there was no longer any bitterness or guilt associated with her diamond ring, nor that of her former husbands, a classic half-round band that she had wound up with. I dont want to deny the past, Im not ashamed of itin fact, she looked back at their time together with gratitude. She had realized that she had experienced a great lesson. Now that she had achieved everything she wanted through being on her own, the moment had arrived to do something with the rings. So, she went to the MIGAYO workshop in the center of Madrid. Celia Gayo, its jeweler and founder, has transformed numerous such pieces in the seven years of her brands existence, and from the beginning she was clear that divorce rings had to be a celebration of self-love. I wanted a ring that would remind [Marta] of two things: to never forget her inner shine, which nothing and no one can extinguish (represented by a central, rose-cut diamond that sparkles subtly), and that her path goes on and that she still has a lot to learn (which I represented by setting her wedding diamonds in such a way that they are partially hidden by the band, though still visible, in process). The gold band was fluid, I wanted it to be clear that it came from melting the metal and that it adapted to what came its way, without a defined, hard shape, Gayo tells EL PAIS. In her workshop, located in the capitals Mariano de Cavia plaza, the price of such modifications lies between $851 and $1,597.

Sara (a pseudonym) came to the workshop with her engagement and wedding. Her marriage had broken up some time ago, but she shared her daughter Maria (not her real name) with her former partner. The mother didnt want to wear the rings anymore, but she thought it made sense for her daughter to have them, only, in a new form. She decided to refashion the three pieces into a new ring, a piece that would hold a powerful significance because, as Gayo explains, you wear it on your hands, which are always in front of you, reminding you of what you want.

This revindication of life after divorce through jewelry opens two doors: one is that jewelers, as Vogue Business pointed out, are finding new business in divorced clients. And secondly, it confirms a trend of socially and culturally recontextualizing divorce. Such has been the path of Lauren Boc, a jeweler with a New York showroom who is the founder of Hera Fine Jewelry, and who in October was surprised to be served with divorce papers just four months after her wedding. She decided to refashion her emerald-and-diamond ring alongside her life itself, and shared her experience on social media. Since the fall, requests for divorce jewelry have risen by 300%.

Historically, divorce rings have been seen as mournful jewels, says Rachel Church, author and former jewelry curator of Londons Victoria and Albert Museum, in The New York Times. Their goal, she says is to send a social message through which people will know that they should not ask how ones husband is doing. Modern rings, however, are not an expression of mourning, and bring new meaning to divorce.

Jewelry is the latest expression of a phenomenon that has been forming for some time. In October 1984, EL PAIS published an article entitled Las fiestas para conmemorar el divorcio hacen furor en la costa oeste de Estados Unidos (Divorce parties are causing a stir on the West Coast of the United States), which told how recent Los Angeles divorcees were renting jukeboxes, playing songs from their married years and dancing like crazy. Some symbols of mourning were to be found in these celebrations, such as black curtains covering the walls, but people have a good time, declared a representative from a company that organized such gatherings to celebrate signing the divorce papers.

Four decades later, divorce continues to be a process met with feelings of shame and loss. But, as Christine Gallagher, author of The Divorce Party Handbook, points out in an article on the subject in EL PAIS, before, divorced people were on their own, as if they were ashamed of having failed, which increased their stress. The party is a way of airing out what happened, and at the same time, friends help one to get through this difficult moment in life. Rituals can be very powerful and effective. Now that the term divorcee is experiencing a comeback in the lexicon of young people, reshaping its meaning and wearing it with pride as proof of self-love after a breakup may just be the new language for overcoming heartbreak.

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A heavily-redacted, secret 2023 Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) report reveals deep concerns within Canadas national-security apparatus that unprecedented social inequality and growing economic insecurity combined with climate and technological change will fuel political and social upheavals that threaten bourgeois rule.

The report, titled Whole of Government Five-Year Trends for Canada and obtained by private broadcaster CTV under an access to information request, paints a stark picture of economic crisis, environmental collapse and social unrest. The report was compiled using open-source information into late 2022, and identifies shifts in the domestic and international environments that could have a significant effect on the Canadian government and the RCMP.

The report begins with the observation that Canadian capitalism and its state are caught up in a series of global crises, with COVID-19, supply chain issues, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine It then goes on to warn that future prospects are bleaker still. The situation will probably deteriorate in the next five years, it affirms, as the early effects of climate change and a global recession add their weight to the ongoing crises.

The RCMP report has received only paltry and politically myopic coverage in the capitalist press. The neo-conservative National Post ludicrously ascribed the rise in social inequality emphasized in the RCMP report to declining worker productivity. At the opposite pole, the pseudo-left writer David Moscrop declared that the report should prompt a serious, good faith discussion about class in this countryas if any section of the ruling class would entertain such a discussion, let alone has a substantive program to reform capitalism!

The RCMP report is a response to the accelerating pace of the class struggle in Canada and internationally. Since 2020, more than 1.3 million Canadian workers have struck their workplaces. While the report was being researched, 60,000 Ontario education workers walked out in defiance of a savage Ontario Tory anti-strike law precipitating a movement for a province-wide general strike. Ultimately, the Ford government prevailed because the leaders of Canadas major unions intervened to force the workers back on the job with none of their demands realized. Since then, the ruling class has been able to beat back a wave of militant struggles, including strikes by federal government workers, West Coast dockers, and Quebec public sector workers, only due to their systematic sabotage by the corporatist trade unions and the NDP, their close political ally.

Whole pages of the brief 11-page report have been withheld, but the scraps that remain are revealing. Canadas national police force contemplates challenges to Canadian capitals world position arising from new technologies and environmental collapse. Technologies such as quantum computing, Blockchain and AI pose threats, but as the report makes clear also provide the ruling class opportunities for more efficient surveillance and exploitation of the working class: AI will enhance and assist decision-makers by helping coordinate operational resources and in finding patterns in vast datasets, which will no doubt include the social-media posts of workers, and left-wing minded students and youth.

One of the many heavily redacted pages from the RCMP report. Final sentence reads: "Law enforcement should also contribute to policy change relating yo the privacy of personal information, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), quantum computing, digital ledger technology, and more." [Photo: Government of Canada]

An enhanced state spying operation is required because the RCMP expects young workers to rebel at their miserable future prospects.

According to the report, In the words of Emanuel Macron, we are about to see the end of abundance. Economic forecasts for the next five years and beyond are bleak. It is always unclear how economies will perform, but this period of recession will likely have a negative impact on the social and political world as well.

The RCMPs decision to quote Macron, popularly dubbed the President of the rich, is no accident. As Macron was announcing the end of abundance and effectively declaring war on the working class in an August 2022 speech, French corporations were reporting that they had paid out 44 billion Euros to their shareholders in the previous quarter. The French working class responded to Macron by launching nationwide protests in October 2022 in which millions defied the government, which reacted with a campaign of police terror.

As the World Socialist Web Site has documented, the 2020s have seen an acceleration of the transfer of wealth to the ruling class through the funneling of vast sums into the financial markets and increased austerity for working people. Since 2020 the worlds five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes, at the rate of $14 million per hour, from $405 billion to $869 billion, while almost 5 billion people, over half the worlds population, have been made poorer. A 2020 report by the Parliamentary Budget Office revealed that Canadas richest 1% held 25.6 % of Canadas wealth, a percentage which increased rapidly to 34% by 2023, according to Oxfam.

There is clearly no end of abundanceall of which is created by the labour power of the world working class. Only capitalism is siphoning an ever-greater share of that abundance to the billionaires and the top 10% of society. Ever-ballooning payouts to investors require an ever-increasing rate of exploitation, which can only be enforced by ever-expanding police measures.

Mass protest in Montreal on November 4, 2023, against the imperialist-enabled Israeli genocide in Gaza. [Photo: SEP-Canada/WSWS]

The ruling class has relied on the trade unions, the NDP, and their pseudo-left apologists to suppress the class struggle, but with their credibility evermore frayed their ability to do so is breaking down. There are numerous signs of this: from the wave of rank-and-file rebellions against union sell-out contracts and the eruption of mass protests around the world against the imperialist-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza to the powerful vote for Will Lehman, the WSWS-supported socialist candidate for the presidency of the United Auto Workers, and the growing influence of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees.

The RCMPs Whole of government report is indicative of how the capitalist state and the ruling class are respondingby preparing and resorting to ever more sweeping and violent forms of repression.

The police guardians of inequality fear working-class radicalization

The RCMP report raises concern over the waning of the control the ruling class has long exercised through its traditional parties and institutions, including the media and the trade unions, or what it calls the erosion of trust. The past seven years, it states, have seen marked social and political polarization in the Western world with the rest of the comments redacted. The next public passage reads, Law enforcement should expect continuing social and political polarization fueled by misinformation campaigns and an increasing distrust of democratic institutions.

Under the heading Paranoid Populism, the RCMP writes: Capitalizing on the rise of political polarization and conspiracy theories have been populists willing to tailor their messages to appeal to extremist movements. Authoritarian movements have been on the rise in many liberal democratic nations. The rest of the section is redacted.

The RCMP report was written in the aftermath of the misnamed, far-right Freedom Convoy, which menacingly occupied downtown Ottawa for more than three weeks in Jan-Feb. 2022 and blocked key Canada-US border crossings, provoking a major political crisis. As the Socialist Equality Party explained at the time, the Convoy had negligible public support but it was supported and encouraged by much of the ruling class as a means of bulldozing over public opposition to the scrapping of anti-COVID public health measures and pushing politics as a whole sharply to the right. Ultimately, the Trudeau government, with the full support of the NDP and the unions, used the Emergencies Act to disperse the Convoy, setting a dangerous precedent for the future use of anti-democratic, draconian powers against the working class.

Declassified RCMP PROFUNC plans for the rounding up of enemies of the state in Quebec [Photo: Government of Canada]

RCMP spying and provocations have always been directed primarily at the working class and the socialist left. It has kept secret files on socialists and labour leaders since before the Russian Revolution, and during the Cold War it developed the so-called PROFUNC scheme to imprison labour militants and socialists in concentration camps in the event of a war with the USSR. The RCMP ran WWII Nazi collaborators as spies against the labour movement. The Canadian state has also historically aligned itself with the Ukrainian far-right, and is currently sponsoring fascistic Ukrainian nationalists as proxies in its war against Russia.

In the RCMP reports highly redacted section on the COVID 19 pandemic, it envisages continued established opposition to existing and potential public health measures and other restrictions, while conveniently skirting around the fact that a considerable share of that opposition is to be found within the ranks of the RCMP and other sections of Canadas national-security apparatus.

Canadas Public Order Emergencies Commission of Inquiry under Justice Rouleau, formed to report on the Liberal governments invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the Convoy movement, revealed that Convoy organizers received a constant stream of leaks from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and active-duty military, and that the RCMP was aware of the potential for serious insider threats from within its own ranks.

In fact, the Canadian state is perfectly willing to tailor messages to appeal to extremist movements based on conspiracy theories. In 2021, Canadian cabinet ministers promoted the debunked theory that the COVID-19 virus originated in a Wuhan laboratory, as part of a continuing campaign to whip up hostility to Beijing and thereby legitimize Ottawas ever more complete integration into the US war drive against China. The ruling class campaign to drive workers back into unsafe workplaces based on the notion that the pandemic is over draws all of its political oxygen from capitalist politicians who preach conspiracy theories about COVID-19 to justify the abandonment of basic public health measures which have been accepted science for more than 100 years. The leader of Canadas official parliamentary opposition, Pierre Poilievre, came into the leadership of the Conservative Party as a strident supporter of the Freedom Convoy.

Likewise, the RCMP reports comments about the destruction of the world environment are not at all concerned with halting the processes that have led to it. Their concern is merely that melting polar icecaps will threaten Canadian sovereignty over its largely uninhabited Arctic archipelago, and therefore the opportunity for profit which climate change opens up.

The final section of the RCMP Report, entitled Next Steps has been completely redacted. It is not however difficult to guess what next steps are being contemplated.

The Rouleau Commissionat the prompting of the Trudeau government, CSIS, the RCMP and other police-security agenciesrecommended a vast expansion of police state powers, including surveillance and the restriction of political protests around critical infrastructure, a term which also features in the RCMP report.

In response to the protests against the Gaza genocide, hysterical demands for police repression have been splashed for months now across the front pages of Canadas major dailies, along with vicious smears labelling those denouncing the Zionist state and Canadian imperialist complicity in the mass slaughter as antisemites. On Saturday March 30, Toronto Police delivered, violently attacking a march for Palestinian Land Day with horses and hospitalizing several demonstrators.

The secret and not so secret plans for a massive state crackdown on democratic rights only reinforce the urgent need to build a mass anti-capitalist and anti-war movement in the Canadian and international working class.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins visited the United States this week for talks to further integrate New Zealand into the expanding US-led military alliance in the Indo-Pacific region.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, and New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters meet with reporters at the State Department in Washington, Thursday, April 11, 2024. [AP Photo/Cliff Owen]

Even as the US and its allies escalate the war against Russia over Ukraine, and double down on supporting Israels genocidal war against Gaza, the Biden administration is preparing a third war front against the main US economic rival, China. US imperialism is cementing alliances with countries across the Indo-Pacific region, seeking to encircle China.

The New Zealand ministers visited Washington at the same time as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who met with President Joe Biden to announce a major expansion of the US-Japan Security Treaty, aimed at achieving seamless integration of the two countries militaries. Japan is set to participate in the AUKUS (Australia, UK, US) military alliance, and Biden announced that the US, Japan and Australia would create a networked system of air, missile, and defense architecture.

On April 11, Peters and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a joint declaration stating that New Zealand and the US are working more closely than ever on shared challenges, including the US-NATO war against Russia. New Zealand troops are in Britain providing training for Ukrainian conscripts, who are serving as cannon fodder in this brutal NATO-provoked war that has already killed hundreds of thousands of people.

The statement highlighted New Zealands long-standing membership in the US-led Five Eyes global intelligence network, and its status as one of NATOs four Indo-Pacific partners (along with Australia, Japan and South Korea). It said that the most challenging strategic environment in decades requires us to do more together.

Peters and Blinken endorsed the increased US military presence in the Pacific region, saying there were powerful reasons for New Zealand to engage with AUKUS and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (a quasi-alliance between the US, Japan, Australia and India).

The declaration said the historic partnership between the US and New Zealand was based on shared values and interests such as the rule of law, democracy, human rights.

In reality, the lawlessness and barbarism of both governments can be seen in their support for the mass murder and ethnic cleansing carried out by the Israeli regime. The normalisation of genocide by all the imperialist powers must be taken as a warning: the destruction of Gaza, as horrific as it is, will be repeated on a far greater scale as the US charges toward war against nuclear-armed powers.

New Zealands right-wing National Party-led government is positioning itself to join Pillar II of AUKUS, which will mean enhanced sharing of military technology with the US, Australia and UK.

In addition, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told the Australian Associated Press this week that his government had reasserted our belief in the Australia, New Zealand and United States Security Treaty (ANZUS) and was deeply committed to it. In 1985, the US suspended its obligations to New Zealand under the 1951 treaty in response to New Zealands anti-nuclear laws, which prevented US warships from entering the countrys waters. The US never reveals whether or not its navy vessels or warplanes are nuclear-armed.

Luxon said the nuclear-free policy would remain in place, despite his commitment to reviving ANZUS and support for AUKUS, which includes an agreement for the US to supply Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines. Asked by the Australian newspaper whether the AUKUS submarines would be welcome at NZ ports, Luxon explicitly left the door open. Thats something well look at, he said.

Conscious of widespread anti-war sentiment in the population, opposition Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins told reporters on Tuesday that ANZUS is not an active part of our foreign policy and hasnt been for a long time. He said New Zealand should not pick one side or the other in a conflict between China and the US.

Another former Labour Party prime minister, Helen Clark, said the Luxon governments pronouncements on ANZUS were profoundly undemocratic, as it was not part of the National Partys campaign in last years election.

These statements are hypocritical posturing. Since the end of World War II, successive governments have strengthened the alliance with the US in order to ensure US support for New Zealand capitalisms own predatory neo-colonial dominance over much of the South Pacific.

Clarks 19992008 Labour government played a key role in boosting the alliance by sending troops to join Americas illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2016, notwithstanding their nuclear-free posturing, Labour and the Greens welcomed a US warship visit to New Zealand for the first time since the 1980s.

The 20172023 Labour government backed the US military build-up against China and the US-NATO war in Ukraine. The Ardern-Hipkins government also left the door open to New Zealand joining AUKUS Pillar II.

Labours then defence minister, Andrew Little, stated last August that the military had to be properly equipped in case it was called on to fight in the South China Sea. If it had been re-elected last October, Labour would be following the same trajectory as the current government.

Having covered up the increasing danger of global war for most of the past decade-and-a-half, New Zealands political and media establishment is now demanding that the country join AUKUS and other US-led alliances, and build up the military, as part of the stampede to World War III.

The US-linked intelligence agencies and the corporate media are playing their part in stoking hysteria with allegations that China hacked into New Zealands parliamentary computer network, and claims that New Zealanders being employed as trainers by the Chinese military represents a security threat.

In an April 12 article entitled Full-scale war in Europe and Asia now a real possibility, the New Zealand Heralds Matthew Hootonone of the medias most vociferous defenders of Israels genocide in Gazacalled for doubling the defence budget from just over 1 to 2 percent. Labour and National both agree on this.

Hooton noted that politicians and military leaders in France, Germany and the UK are considering reintroducing conscription for war against Russia, and declared that if New Zealand wanted to remain part of the Western defence network, that comes with a pricefirst in money and treasure, and perhaps later in blood.

Six months of global protests against the Gaza genocide have demonstrated that there is mass opposition to war. But in order to stop this atrocity and to halt the plans of the ruling class for a catastrophic world war, workers and young people must turn to a socialist program and fight to mobilise the working class globally to put an end to the source of war: the capitalist and imperialist system.

To discuss the way forward, we urge readers to register to attend the International Youth and Students for Social Equalitys webinar on Tuesday, April 16 at 6 p.m. (NZ time): The crisis of political perspective of the Gaza protests.
Having met ones partner online is no longer considered taboo. Long gone are the days when one made giggling confessions about finding love through a chat or an application. The situation is no longer even exotic enough to write songs about it. Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky finds in its report Influencia de la tecnologia en la vida de los espanoles (Technologys influence on the lives of Spaniards) that 40% have used or use applications to meet people and that 18.6% met their partner on the internet.

However, more and more users of such platforms are falling victim to the weariness and hopelessness that can emerge in the face of an endless succession of dates. Out of the despair generated by a failure to find love in the digital universe, new formulas are being born that look to embrace the art of IRL meetings. Such is the case of the Pear ring, which costs $34.56 and is worn by single people to advise the world of their marital status. If all the singles in the world wore this turquoise (or purple, for the LGBTQI community) ring to indicate their status, we wouldnt need dating apps, reads its website.

This March saw the inauguration of Closer, whose creators, Arturo Vacas and Martin Zulueta, say is the complete opposite of a hookup app. Here there are no matches nor swipes: chemistry is tested face to face. You match with someone and feel like theres chemistry between the two of you. Is it real? Open Closer and answer a random question about him or her. If the interest wasnt mutual, youll never hear from this person again. If it was, Closer will work its magic and youll be able to chat, explain the instructions for what its creators describe as an anti-app.

We dont consider ourselves a dating app, because you have to have seen someone in the street to be able to talk with them, so its not a network youll use at home. Youre also not putting all your hope in an application: were talking about something that is real and tangible, not just sending a random request, says Ines Velasco, brand manager. Some people think that technology is the enemy, but we believe the opposite. My 13-year-old cousins would die of embarrassment if they had to order a pizza by telephone, because theyre not used to having to call. Wed also never approach someone were attracted to on the subway. What weve done is take a hold of this reality that reflects whats happening to the newer generations, and try for a more human technology that helps us, she says.

The 1950s: illustration of a teenage house party, where young people had to flirt face to face. Mobile phones did not exist. GraphicaArtis (Getty Images)

Gonzalez, the creative director of Closer, came up with the idea that the project could be the opposite of a more standard dating app. Its the most human social network that we were able to create, because it goes back to the romantic idea of meeting someone away from the catalogue of people on the apps and even on Instagram. When people say that the youth cant do anything without an app, we tell them that Closer is a tool. Its about facilitating contact. More than technologizing relationships, its about humanizing them, he tells EL PAIS. A note on those catalogues of people: while other apps present infinite filters for searches and ask for endless data with which to present you to the world, Closer only requires your name (which will only appear if the other user accepts you), a photo and sexual orientation.

The weariness of loves never-ending search

Frustration with online dating has even been acknowledged by the applications themselves, as illustrated by Bumbles snooze mode, an option that allows one to pause activity on the app while retaining ones connections and chats. Your profile cant be seen by other users for 24 hours, 72 hours, a week or indefinitely. During that time, you can choose a status that shares the reason for your absence with your existing connections, to take a break without losing your chats or connections, says its website.

This kind of application forces us to consume people and emotions, without allowing ourselves time to really develop a relationship. Relationships are built, and these apps dont allow for second chances. In addition, there are people who dont understand that there is a person behind the screen, and their ways of relating on the apps lacks real emotions beyond immediate pleasure, says Eva Campos, author of the book Y te doy mi corazon: Manual para identificar banderas rojas y sobrevivir a ellas (And I give you my heart: A manual for identifying red flags and surviving them). This is the perfect formula for frustration. The pileup of experiences that people can have on this kind of app can often translate into a loss of self-esteem and even depression, says the writer.

The paradox of face-to-face apps

The application Meetic, designed for shy people who may find dating uncomfortable, came up with the idea of three-minute blind dates, another hybrid formula for finding a partner (or whatever else one is seeking). Worrying about physical appearance, running out of things to talk about, not getting the feeling for a person  theyre no longer cause for concern, because any bad date will only last for three minutes and then youll get another chance to find love. If you both think there was a connection, you can take off the virtual blindfold and continue the date with a face-to-face videocall, its website says. Creators of the app swear that this is a less stressful strategy than traditional dating. Theyre blind dates and focus on questions to break the ice. Plus, since youre meeting someone without seeing their profile or photos, theres greater room for intuition, allowing for a more authentic experience. On the other hand, its a more relaxed way to meet people that lets the individuals connect more quickly, which allows them to save time, since we only allow compatible profiles to get in touch with one another, the site says.

1960s: Tourists take a dip in the pool at a hotel in Tahiti. There are no mobile phones. Aladdin Color Inc (Corbis via Getty Images)

Closer was downloaded 4,000 times during its first 24 hours, a sign that many people may be looking to recover the flirting tactics of yesteryear  But isnt it a paradox to run from the apps, yet still need an app to make contact? Zulueta, co-founder of Closer, explains that the idea is to solve a problem for people who dont dare to speak directly to the person they like. We created an app to make that moment happen. We cant say that its like flirting used to be, but its the closest you can get  Plus, its not just an ally for people who dont dare to approach others, but also in those moments in which you really cant, because youre with your family or in a meeting, for example. There are a lot of opportunities we miss because were embarrassed, he says.

Jorge Basante, a 22-year-old publicity student, uses Closer. I was intrigued when I learned it was about first seeing someone in person and then sending them a wink. I wanted to try it. Its going pretty well. The other day, I was exchanging looks with a guy and a little while later, when I got on the app, I saw that he had sent me a wink, so I responded. I think were going to meet up this weekend, he says.

I think that those of us from Generation Z are afraid of meeting people because of the traumas of other generations, says Bruno, another 23-year-old Closer user. Our emotional availability is low. I think that relying less on getting to know people by their appearance, and opting instead for closeness, can generate less negative thoughts.

Javier, a 38-year-old manufacturing worker, says he was attracted to Closer because of how it offers a way to meet new people halfway between the virtual and real worlds. We spend so much time messaging on WhatsApp that we forget to relate to each other in the real world.

Porto Ercole, Italy, in the 1970s. Flirting took place face to face. Slim Aarons (Getty Images)

Those who still believe in meeting people without applications, but perhaps still with the use of wifi, may well be attendees of Bored of Dating Apps (BODA). Its a United Kingdom event series that focuses on what organizer Jessica Hope-Evans calls more mindful dating. Remember the feeling of making eyes at a stranger you like in a bar? The moment that you first start talking? Being able to meet someone face to face in a physical place, and not on an application? asks the networks website, which clarifies that its events have little to do with speed dating. Theyre simply parties at which everyone is single. One of the best things about our socials are everyone is on the same page. People who are over hook-up casual culture and the fast and furious dating app are all in the same room.

Does online dating stigma still exist?

Like Damona Hoffman, writer and dating expert, explains to EL PAIS, Tinder offered its users ease of use and it reduced the stigma of online dating being for losers. But did we really leave that stigma behind? We see that people still prefer to say that they met someone in real life, not on a platform. With what weve managed, you can now say that you met someone in both places, says Miguel Quevedo, Closers art director.

Campos thinks that stigma is generational. The youngest generations have created a 100% digital environment, which isnt a problem for them, theyve normalized meeting someone on social networks like Instagram or TikTok or dating apps. The interesting thing is this kind of app is being used by people over 60, who no longer have any problem in saying that they met someone that way. In contrast, for those of us who had one foot in the analogue world, and who lived through the birth of the internet at a certain age, its still a bit tricky, maybe because in a certain moment, meeting through a screen was associated with people with few social skills, he says.
On Friday, the House of Representatives passed a bill by a vote of 273 to 147 to reauthorize and strengthen warrantless electronic spying by the US government in what is known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The two-year extension is expected to be passed by the Senate and then signed into law by President Joe Biden.

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with Congressional leaders in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in Washington. From left, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson of La., Vice President Kamala Harris, and Biden. [AP Photo/Evan Vucci]

The surveillance powers in Section 702, which were set to expire on April 19 if not renewed, are a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution against unreasonable searches and seizures. They permit intelligence agencies to gather electronic communications of US citizens and non-citizens without a warrant by tapping directly into the systems of telecommunications and internet providers, such as AT&T, Verizon, Google and many others.

The bipartisan vote147 Democrats joined with 126 Republicans to pass the billdemonstrated once again that the US political establishment supports the unimpeded access of the spy agencies, i.e., NSA, CIA and FBI, to electronic communications and claims that blanket surveillance is a critical national security matter that overrides Fourth Amendment rights.

According to the official language of the FISA rules, the US intelligence agencies are authorized to collect email, text and phone call data and monitor the communications of foreign citizens outside of the US without the need for a court-approved warrant. However, this activity also necessarily gathers the same information of US citizens communicating with the foreign targets. The intelligence agencies claim the surveillance is needed to fight human trafficking, cybercrimes, drug smuggling and terrorist plots.

The fraud behind these arguments and violation of basic democratic rights has been exposed repeatedly since the illegal spying operation was first established by the George W. Bush administration post-9/11.

After the Section 702 rules were established in 2008, a supposed reform of the surveillance which legalized the operations, the US governments own internal oversight and monitoring of these powers has shown that the communications of everyone are being illegally collected and searched at will regardless of citizenship.

In May of last year, for example, unsealed court records showed that the FBI violated the rules of Section 702 at least 278,000 times. The documents showed the FISA database was used in domestic law enforcement investigations into the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack, the mass George Floyd protests in the spring and summer of 2020 and 19,000 financial contributions to a congressional candidate.

During the political maneuvering on the House floor before the reauthorization bill was finalized and passed, a series of extraordinary but unsurprising events took place. President Biden reportedly made phone calls to individual congresspeople to flip their votes and defeat an amendment requiring the government to get a warrant before searching the communications of US citizens.

The Democrat Biden was successful in blocking the amendment by joining with Republican Speaker Mike Johnsonwho claims the president was not legitimately elected and is working directly with Donald Trump to disrupt the vote in the 2024 electionswho cast the deciding vote for a 212-212 tie. In the House, a tie equals a defeat.

On Thursday evening, the White House issued a statement that said it strongly opposes the warrant amendment because it would rebuild a wall around, and thus block our access to, already lawfully collected information in the possession of the US Government. In other words, since the data has already been gathered in violation of the Fourth Amendment, the Constitution should not be allowed to block the intelligence and law enforcement agencies from using it as they see fit.

In the leadup to the passage of the bill, Trump had mobilized his fascist supporters in the House in a campaign to KILL FISA, saying it was used to spy on his campaign for president in 2016. Days before the bill was passed, it went down to defeat, which forced a number of adjustments, including the reduction of the duration of the authorization from five to two years.

Other modifications to the bill, which increase the surveillance powers, permit intelligence gathering on foreign narcotics trafficking organizations and vetting potential foreign visitors to the United States. The bill also empowers certain congressional leaders to observe classified hearings before the FISA court that authorizes national security surveillance of anyone and expanding the types of companies with access to foreign communications that can be required to participate in the program.

Behind the campaign of the Biden administration to pass the Section 702 reauthorization is the hegemonic strategy of US imperialism and plans for world war being developed by the Pentagon. The Democrats and Republicans fear the growing movement against the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza and the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine.

The Section 702 surveillance powers are a critical part of the repressive apparatus being built up with the aim of suppressing opposition to war among young people and in the working class. The defense of democratic rights cannot be entrusted to any section of the capitalist ruling elite, including the nominally liberal wing. It requires the independent political mobilization of the working class in the fight for socialism.
US President Joe Biden warned yesterday that Iranian retaliation in response to Israels highly provocative April 1 attack on Irans consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus was expected sooner than later.

In this picture released by the official website of the Iranian Army on Jan. 19, 2024, a missile is launched during a military drill in southern Iran. [AP Photo/Iranian Army]

While not criticizing, let alone condemning Israels attack on the embassy, Biden was quick to declare his administrations total support for Israel. Our commitment to Israels security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad, he declared. Let me say it again: ironclad.

The Israeli airstrike on the consular section of Irans embassy in Syria killing three senior Iranian generals and other officials was a flagrant act of war that could only further inflame tensions in the Middle East and lead to a wider war. It was not only another breach of Syrias national sovereignty, but a direct attack on Iranian territoryas embassies in a foreign country are designated as such by international convention.

Bidens remarks amount to a blank cheque to the Israeli regime to carry out illegal acts of aggression anywhere in the Middle East, including against Iran. Just as it has backed Israels barbaric war in Gaza to the hilt on the basis of its right to defend itself, so the US gives its ironclad backing for setting the region aflame.

Asked by reporters what his message to Iran was, Biden simply declared: Dont. He provided no evidence that an Iranian strike was imminent, but again stressed: We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the US Navy is strengthening its already substantial fleet in the Middle East with two more destroyers to the region, one of which is equipped with an Aegis anti-missile system.

General Erik Kurilla, the head of US Central Command, held what could only be described as a war council with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant yesterday along with top Israeli military and defence ministry officials. We are prepared to defend ourselves on the ground and in the air, in close cooperation with our partners, and we will know how to respond, Gallant declared after the meeting.

Having deliberately provoked a confrontation with Iran, the Israeli regime is preparing to widen its genocidal war in Gaza throughout the Middle East. Whoever harms us, we will harm them, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Thursday as he visited troops at an Israeli military airbase. We are prepared  both defensively and offensively.

Israel with Washingtons backing is already engaged in an escalating conflict with Iranian-linked Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon while carrying out airstrikes deep into Lebanon and Syria targeting senior figures in both Hamas and Hezbollah. At the same time, the US and allied forces continue to carry out attacks against Houthi militia in Yemen.

The Biden administration has sought to distance itself from the April 1 Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin had contacted Gallant on April 3 to complain that the US had not been given advance notice because of the strikes implications for US troops and interests in the region.

As with previous Israeli strikes on Iranian officials in Syria, neither Austin nor any other administration official has made even a hint of condemnation of Israels action, even though the potential for a broader Middle East war is evident. In December, an Israeli airstrike in a Damascus suburb killed Irans top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp Seyed Razi Mousavi.

Far from marshaling diplomatic pressure to prevent further Israeli acts of aggression, the US has contacted countries around the world, including China, calling for them to urge Iran not to take retaliatory action on Israel for its April 1 attack.

UK foreign secretary Lord David Cameron said he had made clear to the Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian that Iran must not draw the Middle East into a wider conflict. I am deeply concerned about the potential for miscalculation leading to further violence.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Wednesday that the attack on its consulate was equivalent to an attack on Iranian territory. When they attack our consulate, it means they have attacked our territory, he said. The Zionist regime made a mistake and must be punished and will be punished.

Irans Tasnim news agency commented that Irans punishment for Israel was inevitable and would be heavy. But it dismissed US claims that an attack was imminent, saying that suggestions that Tehran would respond in the next few days or was planning a missile and drone strike were simply speculation.

While the region braces for an escalating war, the Israel military is continuing its barbaric operations in Gaza that have inflamed tensions throughout the Middle East and provoked mass protests around the world. With the death toll now over 33,000, five more people were killed and 30 more injured today in an Israeli attack in Gaza City.

Armed Israeli settlers have also carried out multiple attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, killing one person and injuring dozens in the town of al-Mughayir, as well as setting homes and vehicles alight.

In the wake of international outrage over the Israeli murder of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza this month, Israel claims to have nearly doubled the number of aid trucks entering Gazastill far short of what is required to avert starvation and famine.

Weve been asking for this for months, Jamie McGoldrick, the UNs humanitarian coordinator in Jerusalem, told CNN. Weve been calling out the fact that theres a real humanitarian crisis in the north, where famine is imminentits only now that we start to see the announcements.

There has been no significant change in the volume of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza or improved access to the north, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian Affairs, said on Tuesday. Since the beginning of April, an average of 177 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza per day via the Karem Abu Salem and Rafah land crossings.

In other words, the Israeli blockade continues. The use of starvation as a weapon of war in Israels ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza underscores its utter contempt for international law and basic human rights.
On Friday afternoon, the German capital of Berlin witnessed scenes reminiscent of the era of the Nazi regime. Hundreds of police officers terrorised an anti-war congress, which was directed against Israels genocide in Gaza, in order to disperse and ban it after two hours.

German police arresting Jewish Voice for Peace spokesperson Udi Raz, April 12, 2024. [Photo: @AliAbunimah]

Prominent speakers were expected at the congress, organised by the Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East and attended by several pro-Palestinian organisations. They included former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, Irish MP Richard Boyd Barrett, British-Palestinian doctor and rector of Glasgow University Ghassan Abu-Sitteh, 86-year-old Palestine expert Salman Abu Sitta, a former member of the Palestinian National Council, Jewish filmmaker Dror Dayan and Palestinian journalist Hebh Jamal.

The media and political establishment unleashed a vicious smear campaign against the congress in advance. From the tabloid Bild to the respectable Tagesspiegel, they denounced the participants as Israel-haters. Bild headlined on Friday morning: Congress of Israel haters. These terrorist fans are appearing in Berlin today.

An all-party Alliance against Anti-Semitic Terrorism, which spans politicians from the right-wing Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union to the Left Party, declared that the Congress was expected to spread anti-Semitic hatred and that Berlin should not become the centre of terrorist glorification. For the Left Party, former Berlin Senator for Culture Klaus Lederer and former Berlin Labor Senator Elke Breitenbach signed the appeal.

The police acted accordingly. Ghassan Abu-Sitteh was denied entry at the Berlin Airport. The doctor, who worked at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza after the beginning of the war and gave a harrowing interview to Der Spiegel on 6 December about his terrible experiences there, was to give a lecture at the congress in the evening. Instead, he was told that he was not allowed to enter Germany until April 14.

When the location of the congress was announced on Friday morning (the organisers had kept it secret for security reasons), a large contingent of police was mobilised. Of the 2,500 police officers scheduled for the entire conference weekend, almost 900 surrounded the congress hall in Tempelhof and set up barriers. About 25 people attended a counter-demonstration against the congress organised by the CDU and Zionist groups.

Under the pretext of fire safety regulations, the police restricted access to the congress hall. Although the hall is designed for 1,000 people, they only allowed 250 people to enter. The queue of another 250 people, who were not allowed in, was unceremoniously deemed by the police to be a gathering that had to be dissolved by 3:00 p.m. At the same time, the police arrested people waiting in line, including a member of the Jewish Voice holding up a banner reading Jews Against Genocide.

While denying registered participants access to the meeting, the police smuggled several dozen non-accredited journalists into the building through a back entrance, most of whom came from the Springer press, which was the worst agitator against the congress.

Uniformed and armed police officers were also in the meeting room to intimidate the participants. Due to the obstructions by the police, the congress was only able to start after a long delay. The pretext for its dissolution was a video lecture by Salman Abu Sitta, who had also been denied entry.

Abu Sitta, who was expelled from Palestine as a child in 1948, has devoted his life to the cause of the Palestinians, engaging in public debates with Israeli peace activists, such as Uri Avnery and Rabbi Michael Lerner.

Two minutes after the start of the video lecture, 30 to 40 police officers stormed the podium at around half past 4:00 to block the transmission. They allegedly cited illegal content as justification. Subsequently, the police violently broke into the control room and switched off electricity and lights in the congress hall in order to interrupt the livestream from the congress.

Less than an hour later, at 5:24 p.m., the police dissolved the congress and ordered the participants to leave the meeting room. The police gave no reason for this at the location. Later, they justified their arbitrariness with the danger that speakers could deny the Holocaust or glorify violence.

A short time later, Udi Raz, board member of the Jewish Voice for Peace and co-organiser of the Palestine Congress, was arrested. In an interview with Junge Welt, she reported that her arrest was justified on the grounds that she had called a police officer antisemitic and that this had been perceived as an insult.

The police operations in the style of a dictatorship were closely coordinated with the Berlin state government and the federal government. In relation to the Palestine Congress, Interior Secretary Christian Hochgrebe (Social Democrats, SPD) announced in advance in the Committee on the Interior that he would do everything in our power to prevent crimes such as incitement to hatred and the use of prohibited symbols.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) thanked the police for their decisive intervention in this hate event on Friday afternoon. It had been made clear which rules apply in Berlin. Wegner continued: We have made it clear that hatred of Israel has no place in Berlin. Anyone who does not adhere to this will feel the consequences.

Berlin Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) said: I fully support the decision of the police. And the Federal Ministry of the Interior led by Nancy Faeser (SPD) wrote on Twitter in the run-up to the congress: It is good that the Berlin police announced a harsh crackdown at the so-called Palestine Congress in Berlin. We keep a very close eye on the Islamist scene.

The youth organisations of the SPD, CDU/CSU, Free Democrats and Greens also supported the police operation. In the run-up to the congress, they published a joint statement against anti-Semitism and the glorification of terrorism supposedly being promoted by the congress.

The authoritarian methods used by the German ruling class against the Palestine Congress are inextricably linked to their return to militarism. It is impossible to make Germany fit for war, in the words of Defence Minister Pistorius, without abolishing freedom of expression and democracy.

After the United States, Germany is Israels largest arms supplier and Ukraines largest donor. The government is in the process of shifting billions from the social to the military budget and reintroducing conscription in order to have cannon fodder for further wars. Although it can no longer be denied that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, the government unconditionally supports the Netanyahu regime and criminalises any opposition to it.

The attack on the congress is directed against the growing opposition to this war policy. According to a recent survey, 69 percent of the population of Germany opposes Israels military actions in the Gaza Strip. But the greater the opposition in the population, the more savagely the ruling class lashes out. Dictatorial police state measures are intended to intimidate anyone who rejects this militarist programme.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain attended a state dinner Wednesday for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, part of a series of events aimed at escalating the economic and military conflict with China. The participation of the head of the UAW exposes not just Fains individual rottenness, but the social function of the trade union bureaucracy as a whole.

President Joe Biden, center, is greeted by UAW President Shawn Fain, left, and Darren Riley, a local entrepreneur, as he arrives at Selfridge Air National Guard Base to attend a campaign event. [AP Photo/Evan Vucci]

Two years ago, Fain came to power on the false claim that he would democratize the UAW after federal investigators sent numerous top officials to jail for taking bribes and stealing workers dues. Instead, following a toothless limited strike, Fain rammed through a sellout contract last year that has already cost thousands of autoworkers their jobs.

Meanwhile, as his indicted predecessors enjoyed steak and cigars at the London Chophouse in downtown Detroit, Fain dined on dry-aged ribeye in the White House alongside heads of state, billionaires like Jamie Dimon and Tim Cook, and various war criminals, including Genocide Joe Biden.

The fact that Fains political star is rising as the UAW collaborates in mass layoffs is only the latest proof that the ruling class, and especially the Democrats and the Biden administration, are relying on the union bureaucracy to suppress the class struggle and ram through sellouts. The experience in auto has been repeated countless times in other industries, including at UPS, where last years Teamsters contract is being used to lay off tens of thousands of workers and close 200 facilities.

But Fains presence at the reception Wednesday points to an even more critical role the bureaucracy plays for the capitalist class: Helping pave the way for world war.

The purpose of the Japanese prime ministers visit was to strengthen military ties between Japan and the US and escalate his countrys remilitarization. The main target of this alliance is China, whose economic growth is seen by Washington as an existential threat to US imperialist global domination. Plans for a US-led war against the worlds most populous country are well advanced, with Congress wargaming such a conflict beginning in 2025. This would inevitably involve hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of US troops.

Fains presence at the reception was entirely predictable. The role of the bureaucracy in the escalating global war is to discipline the working class on the home front so as to ensure the continued production and deployment of military equipment and to suppress opposition from workers both to the war itself and to social austerity and heightened exploitation to pay for it.

World war has already effectively begun on the battlefields of Ukraine and the Israeli killing fields of the Gaza Strip. These are not separate conflicts, but part of a single emerging world conflict. The United States and its imperialist allies are determined to use war to strengthen their control over supply chains and natural resources.

Kishidas visit was only the latest in a series of major military escalations by the imperialist powers in the last several weeks. The French president has publicly floated the idea of deploying NATO troops to Ukraine, raising the danger of fighting between Western and Russian troops that could rapidly escalate into nuclear war. Germany, author of the worst atrocities in world history, is reviving its militarist traditions, declaring that the country has to be fit for war within three to five years.

The US, the cockpit of world imperialism, recently passed a record $825 billion military budget, while it continues to funnel weapons carte blanche into Ukraine and into Israel, even as the genocide in Gaza threatens to spiral into an all-out war with Iran.

The whole of American society must be mobilized for war. Biden, who calls himself the most pro-labor president in American history, is consciously seeking to develop a corporatist alliance, drawing together the union bureaucracy with the capitalist state and the major corporations. Announcing the new National Security Strategy in 2022, Biden boasted that his administration had broken down the dividing line between domestic and foreign policy.

He repeatedly invokes the so-called Arsenal of Democracy, referring to the American war economy during World War II, as the model for his own policies. In reality, a key to wartime production during the Second World War was a no-strike pledge enforced by the union bureaucracy to keep the explosive class struggles that had emerged during the Great Depression under wraps. This was accompanied by the jailing of anti-war socialists.

In January, when Biden accepted the UAWs endorsement for his re-election, while union bureaucrats threw Gaza protesters out of the union hall, Biden declared that it was workers who had to build the aircraft carriers and tanks.

The UAW is helping to carry out a modern-day version of the no-strike pledge. The union represents workers in key munitions factories that are producing weapons for Ukraine and Israel. It recently forced through a sellout to prevent a strike at Allison Transmission, which makes parts for Israeli fighting vehicles being deployed in Gaza.

The drawing together of the bureaucracy with the state is not simply a preferred policy, but a fundamental tendency in the era of imperialism. In 1940, Leon Trotsky observed that, deprived by the centralized command of monopoly capitalism from profiting by the competition between the different enterprises, the unions adapt themselves to the capitalist state and to contend for its cooperation.

Trotsky continued:

This position is in complete harmony with the social position of the labor aristocracy and the labor bureaucracy, who fight for a crumb in the share of superprofits of imperialist capitalism. The labor bureaucrats do their level best in words and deeds to demonstrate to the democratic state how reliable and indispensable they are in peace-time and especially in time of war. By transforming the trade unions into organs of the state, fascism invents nothing new; it merely draws to their ultimate conclusion the tendencies inherent in imperialism.

This is even more true than in Trotskys day. The bureaucrats have spent the past 40 years carrying out massive job and wage cuts while their own salaries have ballooned. They are fully creatures of the state and the corporate boardrooms.

The America First rhetoric of Donald Trump, which is accepted in substance by the Democrats, was pioneered decades ago by the union bureaucracy. While actively collaborating with US corporations in the wholesale destruction of jobs, the apparatus presented trade war measures, in alliance with American transnational corporations, as the means to save American jobs. This nationalism paralyzed workers by pitting them against their allies in the working class of different countries.

There is a historical irony to the presence of Fain at the reception for a Japanese prime minister. In the 1980s, the UAW carried out a furious racist campaign against Japanese vehicles, which led to acts of violence against Asian Americans. Today, Fains confederates in the United Steelworkers are backing a nationalist campaign against the merger between Nippon Steel and US Steel.

At the same time, the American trade unions are playing the role of mercenaries for US imperialism in Mexico and Latin America, helping construct new independent unions that are, in reality, controlled by the US Embassy. This is a continuation of its decades-long role in assisting anticommunist conspiracies by the CIA during the Cold War.

For any semblance of credibility after decades of sellouts, the modern union bureaucracy is increasingly dependent upon pseudo-left forces like the Democratic Socialists of America and Labor Notes. Through their support for Fain and other reform candidates, groupings backed by the pseudo-left have now entered the highest echelons of the union bureaucracy.

These fake-left organizations, in reality anti-socialist and pro-imperialist, work to divert and strangle opposition to war among workers and young people by channeling it back behind the Democratic Party. Last December, the UAW passed a ceasefire resolution on Gaza, only to endorse Genocide Joe Biden just a few weeks later.

The pseudo-left as a whole is playing an increasingly key role in bolstering the credibility of all the institutions of bourgeois rule, especially the Democratic Party, as popular support collapses amid mass anger over war and staggering levels of social inequality.

Bidens use of the phrase Arsenal of Democracy is also meant to drum up support for war by presenting military production as good for jobs. After all, the Second World War saw a large decline in unemployment and increase in wages in the United States.

But that was a different period for US imperialism. The US war effortwhich included the internment of Japanese Americans, the use of atomic weapons and the firebombing of German civilianswas never for democracy, but to establish US imperialism as the leading world power. But the US at that time was still a rising power, which could afford to make certain concessions to the working class in exchange for labor peace. And there was broad opposition in the working class to German fascism, to which Roosevelt could appeal.

Today American capitalism is in terminal decline and preparing a war capable of destroying the planet. It is combining this with policies at home aimed at ramping up mass unemployment to smash the working class, with the support of the union bureaucracy. This cannot be done with any semblance of democracy, but can only be enforced through dictatorial, and even fascistic, means.

Above all, the corporatist alliance is aimed at suppressing the growth of socialism in the working class. Only through a mass working class movement, on the basis of socialist internationalism, can the emerging World War III be halted.

The key role of the bureaucracy in preparing the war shows that this movement is totally connected with the growing rebellion against the union bureaucracy. The development of new organizations of struggle, rank-and-file committees, prepared to fight both management, the union apparatus and the capitalist state, must be combined with a political movement against the source of war, the capitalist profit system.
The newest film by Woody Allen, Coup de Chance [stroke of luck], had to be made in France because the US movie industry has essentially excluded the veteran writer-director. Discredited sexual abuse claims against Allen have been vindictively leveraged to damage and if possible end his career. The 88-year-old filmmaker is regularly described in the media as controversial or even disgraced, although intensive official inquiries cleared him of any potential wrongdoing decades ago.

With extraordinary hypocrisy and dishonesty, Hollywood, well-known for its high ethical standards and sexual piety, has blacklisted Allen, along with French-Polish director Roman Polanski. Disgracefully, according to Variety, Allen is believed to be facing more difficulties to find big-name American actors willing to star in his films. This is all the result of the especially odious and strong influence of upper-middle class identity politics in the US, which has produced a new McCarthyism in the form of the #MeToo campaign.

Niels Schneider and Lou de Laage in Coup de Chance

Allen recently told the digital weekly newsletter AirMail that, not astonishingly, All the romance of film making is gone. He was referring specifically to new structures of film production and distribution, but obviously the comment extends beyond that, and includes his own travails.

Allen further observed that when asked by an interviewer about cancel culture, he had replied, If youre going to be canceled, this is the culture that you want to be canceled from. Because who wants to be part of this culture?

Coup de Chance takes place in Paris in the present day. Fanny (Lou de Laage) and her somewhat older husband, Jean (Melvil Poupaud), seem to live a charmed life. He is a financial adviser, who has obviously done well. They live in the lap of luxury. He is domineering and tends to present himself as a predator, in business as well as in deer-hunting and other activities. We learn that a former business associate of his disappeared mysteriously some years before, and that Jean was suspected of having something to do with it, before eventually being cleared.

Although she has her own career working for an art auctioneer, Fanny worries she is merely a trophy wife, a pretty ornament in Jeans life. She meets an old schoolmate, Alain (Niels Schneider), on the street one day. Alain is a writer, only in Paris temporarily. He explains that he had a crush on her when they were in high school, although he never let on at the time. They arrange to have lunch, and one thing leads to another. Through Alain, Fanny comes to recognize her discontent with her present existence.

The jealous, severely possessive Jean begins to doubt his wifes fidelity. A private detective only confirms his worst fears. He takes extreme action, and when his mother-in-law becomes suspicious about Alains disappearance, plans to deal drastically with her as well.

This is not a comedy, and neither Allen nor a surrogate for his long-established persona appear in Coup de Chance. The filmmaker seems able to make a more objective assessment of the given social milieu, the French upper-middle class and above.

The film adopts a generally healthy, that is to say, hostile, attitude toward the very affluent. Early on in the film, Jean smugly informs his wife that Too sexy doesnt exist. Not too rich either.

Later, she mildly complains that even as his wife, she is not clear as to what he does for a living.

Jean replies, This is crazy. Why does everyone find it so mysterious? Ive already explained a thousand times.  I am adding to assets. It cant get any clearer. Rich people want to become richer. Less tax, more for the children. I help with that, and thats how I earn [income].

And everythings legal, she asks?

Uh, yeah. Mostly.

She subsequently tells Alain that her husband makes rich people richer.

During a cocktail party conversation, the couples friends too wonder aloud precisely what it is that the wonderfully wealthy Jean does:

- A brilliant businessman, they say. - What does he do? - Nobody knows how he makes money. - What are you insinuating? Is there something fishy?

(As noted above, rumors abound about the vanishing of Jeans former partner. We learn at a certain point that Jean indeed was homicidally responsible )

Melvil Poupaud in Coup de Chance

Fanny complains that the people Jean invites are boring and shallow, their only quality is being wealthy. It's about money and the best hotels. If I mention Rome or Madrid, they only talk about fancy restaurants there.

Poupaud as Jean does well, suggesting someone who, as the character explains, was not born rich and who has worked like mad to get my money. There are no red lines in regard to what he will do to maintain his position and money.

The Alain-Fanny romance is relatively formulaic. The notion of a bohemian novelistwho likes to quote from Jacques Prevert living in a garret in central Paris, one of the most expensive cities on earth, in this day and age is largely a fantasy.

There are other formulaic or overly simple elements here, but the heart of Allens film is generally in the right place.

How seriously are we to take the films insistence on the role of chance?

Alain explains that the book he is writing is about the irony of life. Everyones at the mercy of chance and coincidences.  Life as a cruel joke. Fanny later says to him, You believe deeply in luck. Without coincidence, he argues, they wouldnt have met.

A portion of the novel Alain is writing reads:

She drew the conclusion that life was uncertain. The chance of your existence is one in four hundred billion. So every life is a miracle. Every living creature is a jackpot in the cosmic lottery. Do not waste that miracle. She felt ready to continue until the end of her choices and her mistakes. It remained no less terrifying to realise the immense role played in all things by chance and the importance of being lucky. It was better not to dwell on it.

No, perhaps not.

For his part, the ruthless Jean despises people who rely on luck. Luck doesnt exist. You must force things.  I create my own luck.

This is not especially edifying. If we follow Allens logic, his own current difficulties, for example, are merely the result of his meeting and involvement with X, whereas happiness would later prove, in fact, to lie in a relationship with Y. If he had never met X, his life would have been a paradise.

However, the fact that there have been a rash of #MeToo victims suggests that Allen has not merely suffered from bad luck, but that a certain necessity, reflecting the needs of specific social layers and political forces, found expression in his accidental fate.

To borrow from a great Marxist, that this particular American comic-filmmaker found himself under attack in this unprincipled and vicious manner was a matter of chance, but if he had been lacking, another would have filled his place (and, in fact, numerous others have suffered the same fate). Such a victim would have been found, sooner or later, because such a victim was necessary.

The character of his own witch-hunting apparently remains obscure to Allen, perhaps too painful to probe, and this continues to weaken his film making. If he could have drawn together serious thinking about the #MeToo hysteria with his critique of the very rich, something significant could have emerged. In any case, Coup de Chance at least points in the right direction.
In Australia as internationally, Israels genocide against the Palestinians has been accompanied by an onslaught against free speech, with opponents of the war crimes subjected to slander, lies and intimidation by Zionist lobbyists, the corporate media, official institutions and the government. Critical voices in the arts have been a particular target.

There are, however, indications of a growing pushback by principled figures in the creative industry. The brazenness of Israels mass murder, as well as the crude and increasingly fascistic character of its apologists, are undoubtedly factors. So, too, is a broader popular revulsion and anger.

Hugo Weaving [AP Photo/Joel Ryan/Invision]

In comments to the Sydney Morning Herald on Friday, Hugo Weaving, one of Australias most acclaimed actors, warned of a climate of fear, with people cowed into not speaking out against Israels atrocities.

Weaving has been a leading figure in television, film and theatre for more than thirty years. A recipient of six Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, Weaving is known to an international audience, including through his roles in the Matrix and Lord of the Rings films.

While pointing to the broader atmosphere that has been cultivated, Weaving specifically referenced the experience of his son, the talented young actor Harry Greenwood. Together with two other cast members, Greenwood donned a Keffiyeh during the curtain call of a Sydney Theatre Company (STC) production of Anton Chekhovs The Seagull on November 25.

The wearing of the Palestinian scarves provoked a brutal onslaught against the young actors. As Weaving explained: That very silent protest, it wasnt even noticed on opening night. Really, it wasnt. I was there. I didnt notice the keffiyeh. It was the fact that it was attacked the next morning in the national newspaper [the Australian] and that those three actors were called junior actors, when two of them were playing two of the lead roles. And they were vilified and called antisemites, and they were asked to resign. That is so deliberately divisive, and its appalling. The outcry was appalling.

The Australian and other corporate outlets presented the wearing of Palestinian scarves as equivalent to a declaration of support for Hamas. High-profile supporters of Israel claimed that the Keffiyehs were triggering and had made them feel unsafe. Two board members of the STC resigned, one accompanying her departure with hysterical comments along those lines.

The campaign was not only absurd, but was also completely racist. Clothing associated with the Palestinians was to be banned, in a kind of cultural erasure accompanying Israels physical erasure of the people of Gaza. A demand for the blacklisting of an article of clothing associated with any other ethnic or religious grouping would have been denounced as the worst xenophobia, but not in this instance.

Instead, the STC management bent over backwards to appease the witch-hunters and join in the vilification of the actors. Pointing to the climate that was created, Weaving explained that the real reason a November 29 performance of The Seagull was canceled was that Greenwood and his co-stars were being hounded by the media.

Weaving noted: I do think there wasnt enough front-foot commentary back from the STC. I think the problem in our country is were all cowed into not speaking out. And thats the problem I have. And I thought that was true of the STC. I think its true up to the highest echelons of power in our country and in the US.

Weaving has been in Ireland over recent months, acting in a play titled The President. Its interesting being in Ireland; theyre much more vocal, much more sane talking about Gaza and Palestine, much more level-headed, he said. Its great to hear so many incredibly intelligent Jewish artists, lawyers, getting up and talking about the various things that Harry was trying to highlight, very quietly.

The STC responded to Weavings comments with a statement to the Herald that only served to underscore everything he had said. It confirmed that whatever has happened at the STC since late November has not included the growth of a backbone, or the development of any commitment to artistic freedom.

We acknowledge there are things we could have done better, STC chair Ann Johnson wrote. We know some of our donors felt we didnt do enough, and we know some of our artists felt we didnt do enough. We continue to listen and learn and are committed to finding a positive way forward.

The equal billing given to the feelings of donors and the rights of artists sums up much that is wrong with the arts. If the theater is beholden to the whims and feelings of the ultra-wealthy, who throw some of their spare change at the stage, genuine artistic freedom is a dead letter. In this instance, the offended feelings were over an item of clothing, which the captains of industry decided was an unacceptable protest against the genocide that they support.

The STCs journey of listening and learning has not taken it very far, with the statement declaring that the institution does not support individual political statements being made in curtain calls.

Based on the context, those individual political statements presumably include the wearing of Palestinian scarves. It is hardly hyperbole to ask, what is next? Will Palestinian and other Middle Eastern actors be banned from the stage, lest their presence hurt the feelings of the donors?

The STC furore, though an extreme example, formed part of a broader campaign, all of which is premised on the false conflation of the militarist Israeli state with the Jewish people.

That lie is also receiving a welcome pushback.

In the latest example, 83-year-old British-Australian actress Miriam Margolyes delivered an impassioned condemnation of Israels war crimes.

In a social media video, Margolyes, who is Jewish, said: I have never been so ashamed of Israel as I am at this moment. To me it seems as if Hitler has won. Hes changed us Jews from being compassionate and caring and do unto others as you would have them do unto you, into this vicious, genocidal, nationalist nation, pursuing and killing women and children.

Margolyes declared: In the name of humanity, I call upon all Jews to shout, beg, scream for a ceasefire. It is not antisemitic to have a different opinion of the wartime actions now. We have to do as my mother used to say the right thing. The right thing is a ceasefire to stop the killing.

The video has reached 2.4 million people on X/Twitter, where it has been liked more than 20,000 times. It was put out by the Jewish Council of Australia, formed earlier this year, to provide the growing numbers of Jewish people opposed to the Israeli war crimes with representation.
Dr. Melina Abdullah, center, Co-Founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles at the "#BLM Turns 10 People's Justice Festival" on Saturday, July 15, 2023, at the Leimert Park neighborhood in Los Angeles. [AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes]

In an appearance on the Wednesday morning edition of The Tavis Smiley Show, independent presidential candidate Cornel West revealed that his running mate will be Melina Abdullah, a tenured professor at California State University, Los Angeles, co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter (BLM), and founder of Black Lives Matter Grassroots (BLMGR).

West and Abdullah have placed their racial identity and religion front and center. In a campaign statement announcing his selection, West cited Abdullahs unique Black analysis, which he claimed helps us confront our crumbling era of empire, white supremacy, and patriarchy.



In his interview with Smiley, West declared, Im running for Jesus, shes running for Allah! Abdullah said in the same interview that after West invited her to be his running mate, it felt as if God was speaking to me.



Unlike the two official ruling class parties, West, like all third-party candidates, is obligated to name a running mate before he can begin petitioning for signatures to be on the ballot in November in many states. In one of the many anti-democratic obstacles placed in front of third parties by the Democrats and Republicans, over half of US states (26), and the District of Columbia, require third-party candidates to name a running mate before petitioning for ballot access.



In choosing Abdullah, (nee Reimann), West is deliberately amplifying the politics of racial division, practiced and propagated by the upper-middle class and the Democratic Party.



While presenting herself almost exclusively as a Black woman, Abdullah is the daughter of John Reimann, a non-practicing Jewish person born in New York in 1946.

Adbullahs paternal grandfather, and Johns father, was Gunter Reimann (born Hans Steinicke), a German-Jewish Marxist economist who fled Germany during the rise of Adolf Hitler. As a teenager, Gunter wrote for Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknechts Die Rote Fahne (The Red Banner), the press organ of the Spartacus League in Germany. Following the January 1919 assassinations of Liebknecht and Luxemburg, the paper continued to be published by the Communist Party of Germany until Hitler came to power in 1933.



Gunter died in 2005. John is still a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, with which Abdullah also has close relations. On his personal blog, Reimann advocates US funding for the US/NATO war against Russia in Ukraine.



Unlike her grandfather, Abdullah rejects a class-based analysis. Prior to founding BLM-Los Angeles, Abdullah chaired the Pan-African Studies Department at California State University. In her 2003 dissertation, titled, Greater than the sum of her parts: A multi-axis analysis of Black women and political representation, Abdullah advanced the intersectional and post-modernist framework that has served as the bedrock of Democratic Party ideology for decades.



Arguing for politics based on racialism and mysticism, Abdullah claimed:

Black women stand at the intersection of race and gender, their identity cannot be wholly defined simply by the sum total of race disadvantage and gender disadvantage; a third position of disadvantage is birthed at the intersection which cannot be divided out and attributed to either the race axis or the gender axis alone.

Thus, Abdullah postulated, Black women are in the unique position of being full members of their gender group, their racial group and the group of Black women. Ergo:

Black women representatives are uniquely qualified to serve as authentic representatives for Blacks (regardless of gender), women (regardless of race), and Black women.

Ten years after writing her dissertation, Abdullah would go on to become a leading member and organizer of the Black Lives Matter organization. From the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin to today, BLM leaders, including Abdullah, have repeatedly intervened in protests against police violence to sow illusions in reforming the police by defunding them and appealing to Democratic Party politicians. At the same time, BLM falsely presents police violence, which affects workers and poor people of all ethnicities, in purely racial terms.



By deliberately covering up the class role of police in capitalist society, Abdullah and BLM seek to block the development of a class-based movement against police violence, which is an international phenomenon.



Abdullah and the reactionary and self-centered politics that dominate BLM found expression in the scandal that engulfed the leadership of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) following the resignation of co-founder Patrisse Cullors in 2021.



In 2022, Abdullah sued BLMGNF, claiming the organization pilfered money and misused donations. This included the purchase of a $6 million mansion in Los Angeles, which served as the setting for an infamous video featuring Adbullah and fellow BLM leaders Alicia Garza and Cullors. In the video, Cullors, Garza and Abdullah dine on hors doeuvres and sip champagne while complaining about the hardships they endured collecting some $90 million in donations between 2020 and 2021.



In 2023, a Los Angeles judge dismissed Abdullahs lawsuit against BLMGNF and ordered her to pay Shalomyah Bowers, an executive of the organization, over $100,000 in legal fees.



Abdullah is almost a caricature of identity politics. If one didnt know any better, one would think her entire public persona was performance art. For years on her Twitter/X account, Adbullah, posting under the handle @DocMellyMel, has advanced reactionary Black nationalist, pro-capitalist and, frankly, racist conceptions.

A sample of some of Abdullah's inane and racist tweets. [Photo: @DocMellyMel]

Abdullah has repeatedly tweeted in favor of Black liberation via the boycotting of white corporations. Last November, she tweeted the hashtag, Build Black, Buy Black, Bank Black.



Abdullah makes a practice of tweeting in favor of racial separatism despite the fact much of her family is white. In a July 6, 2019 tweet, Abdullah complained that she was compelled to step off the sidewalk three times during my 30-minute walk so that White folks and their dogs could pass. She continued: Got me feeling like #gentrification is #JimCrow revisited.

In a June 18, 2021 tweet, Abdullah wrote that White folks dont get to come to the #Juneteenth barbecue, which she clarified in a later tweet was a CELEBRATION DAY for Black people and PAY REPARATIONS DAY for white folks



During the 2020 Democratic presidential debates, Abdullah declared, Nobody White should ever refer to the nation of Niger. Periodt. (sic)

Just over two months ago, on February 11, Abduallah tweeted, Why do I feel like its slightly racist to be a Taylor Swift fan? When a user responded that everything and everyone is racist, Abdullah responded, Nope. Only white people can be racist.



Predictably, Abdullah is a fan of the New York Times 1619 Project, a racialist falsification of American history. The project postulated, among many falsehoods, that Black people alone fought back against racism and slavery. In January 2023, Abdullah favorably tweeted quotes from the main author of the 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, when Jones was promoting the Hulu television adaptation of the project in Los Angeles.



Like West, Abdullah has abandoned any fight against the ongoing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has even expressed anti-vaccine sentiments. In September 2020, she tweeted, Whos gonna be first in line to get the rushed, untested COVID-19 vaccine? #NotIt #PresidentialDebate2020.



There is nothing remotely progressive, let alone left-wing, in the black nationalist and anti-Marxist campaign of West and Abdullah. Workers and youth interested in ending police violence and the genocide in Gaza must be armed with a political perspective that is aimed not at racial division, but at uniting the international working class is a mass movement against the source of police violence, war, inequality, racism and fascismthe capitalist system.
Spain's PSOE Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Economy Minister and first Deputy Prime Minister Nadia Calvino and Sumars Labor Minister and Second Deputy Yolanda Diaz at the Spanish parliament in Madrid, Spain on Friday, September 29, 2023. [AP Photo/Bernat Armangue]

Last Wednesday, Spains Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Madrid was ready to recognise the state of Palestine. The prospect is now openly being debated in Australia, Norway, Ireland, Portugal, Slovenia and Malta, whilst European Council President, Charles Michel, has floated coordination at EU level on the subject.

The move has nothing to do with sympathy towards Palestinian people, let alone an action that will stop the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, which is backed by the US and EU powers. This political stunt is meant to placate mass global opposition to the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, without in any way deviating from support for the Zionist regime.

On Wednesday, Sanchez presented a foreign policy report to the parliament, declaring, Spain is prepared to recognize Palestine. Sanchez called to recognise a Palestinian state because it is fair, it is demanded by the social majority and for the geopolitical interest of Europe, and because the international community will not be able to help the Palestinian State if it does not recognize its existence.

In a clear indication that the move has no progressive content whatsoever, Sanchez announced this in the same speech he called for hiking military spending in Spains weapons industry, the eighth-largest in the world in terms of exports.

Seizing on the war in Ukraine, Sanchez said increased military spending aims to dissuade those who do not share the project of peace and democracy that is Europe, calling to reinforce security and defence. The EU, he said, had agreed to dedicate an additional 5 billion to militarily support the Ukrainian regime, launch a new 1.5 billion military development programme and strengthen the European defence industry with more investment and more domestic production.

The Palestinian nationhood announcement comes after Sanchezs visit across the Middle East in the first week of April. During this tour, Sanchez already signaled his intention to recognise a Palestinian state before July.

In March, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Malta issued a joint statement that declared, We are agreed that the only way to achieve lasting peace and stability in the region is through implementation of a two-state solution, with Israeli and Palestinian States living side-by-side, in peace and security.

Sanchez also claimed, We must be attentive to the decisions that will be taken soon in Brussels and New York, referring to Maltas intention to promote the entry of Palestine into the United Nations at the Security Council this month. This proposal is stillborn, however. It would have to be approved by the permanent members of the Security Council, including Israels chief backers, the US and Britain, which have veto power.

Sanchezs remarks are an enormous exercise in hypocrisy, deceit and political fraud. The record shows that since the formation of the current PSOE-Sumar government in November and before that, under the PSOE-Podemos government, Sanchez has been an accomplice of the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians.

After October 7, Spain continued to sell weapons to Israel even though the government repeatedly lied, claiming such sales had ceased. It also kept purchasing Israeli weapons labelled as combat tested because they have been used against the Palestinians.

The Ministry of Defence has continued awarding public contracts to the Israeli military-industrial complex, including 207 million to manufacture designators for the Eurofighter to Rafael Advanced Defense Aystems LTD, or 576 million awarded to Elbit Systems for the supply of a high-mobility rocket launcher system.

Now, Madrid has also announced its intention to offer NATO a new port in the western Mediterranean, on the island of Menorca, in Mao. This base will reinforce NATOs military escalation and also specifically support the forces bombing Yemen and covering Israels flank in the eastern Mediterranean.

Spain was already helping defend Israel, by sending ships to the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier battle group deployed by the United States in the eastern Mediterranean, whose mission is to attack forces in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq or Iran that could intervene militarily to help Gaza.

Sanchezs proposal on Palestinian statehood is an empty gesture with no practical implications. It means recognising the existence of a state whose land is de facto controlled by sea, land and air by the Israeli state, which continues to oppress millions of Palestinianswithin Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

For a thin layer of the Palestinian middle class it could create jobs in diplomatic bodies representing a state with no sovereignty. However, it would do nothing to improve Palestinians social and economic conditions, let alone stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza that has cost the lives of over 33,000 Palestinians.

The proposal seeks to promote illusions in the bankrupt and fictitious two-state solution. In the unlikely event it ever materialised, it would amount to having the Israeli apartheid state exist side-by-side with ghettos in which the Palestinians would be concentrated. These ghettos would be ruled by the Palestinian Authority (PA) or some equivalent entity representing the Palestinian bourgeois puppets of US imperialism.

Besides Israel, it would be surrounded by Jordan and Egypt, who are determined to prevent a mass exodus of destitute Palestinians. In the end, it would be an open-air prison imposed by imperialism, the Zionist entity and with the complicity of the Arab regimes. The current PA has already offered itself to administer the Gaza Strip if and when Israels genocidal war ends.

Sanchezs claim that such a move is in the geopolitical interest of Europe deserves comment. This means it would help the European powers Middle Eastern allies, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which desperately need such a fig leaf to cover up their refusal to come to the aid of the Palestinians, despite mounting opposition across the region.

The chief architect behind this maneuver has been the PSOEs government coalition partner, Sumar, a split-off of the pseudo-left Podemos party. Sumar originally tried to integrate this into the coalition agreement with the PSOE, but the PSOE refused. Now, the PSOE has revived Sumars proposal amid escalating mass opposition.

Sumars leader and deputy prime minsiter, Yolanda Diaz, welcomed the initiative, demanding it be done as soon as possible. It is not enough for us to have it happen in the summer (recognition of the Palestinian state), we should do it immediately, she said.

Sumar is aware of mounting opposition among workers and youth on its left. The stench of hypocrisy stemming from the PSOE-Sumar government is so evident that Diaz had to defend herself, going on prime-time television to say: The president of the government is leading the ceasefire in Palestine. I value this because it seems that the government of Spain is not doing anything. In reality, he is doing something: providing weapons to support Israels genocidal offensive in Gaza.

This is well known by the Spanish population and, above all, by voters of the PSOE and Sumar. These two parties are so discredited that their photo-up organised in February, held under a Freedom for Palestine banner, gathered only 3,000 people.

This contrasts with the hundreds of thousands of protesters across Spain and globally who have mobilized in support of Palestine since Israel began its military operation against Gaza on October 7.

The interests of Arab workers and the interests of Jewish workers can be secured only through the dissolution of the existing state of Israel and its replacement by a multinational state, with full democratic and social rights for Jews and Arabs. This requires building an international socialist, anti-war movement in the working class, opposed to cynical middle class reactionaries like Podemos and Sumar.
The national onslaught on public education continued Thursday, this time in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where the local school board voted 4-3 to approve layoffs of teachers and support staff. They did so in the face of heated opposition from an overflow crowd of hundreds of parents, teachers and students, nearly 150 of whom signed up to give public comments. The meeting, which started at 7pm, lasted until midnight.

Skyline High School in Ann Arbor [Photo by Dwight Burdette / CC BY 3.0

The Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) board recently announced a budget shortfall of some $25 million for the 2024-25 school year, partly occasioned by an accounting error regarding a $14 million retirement liability. The district has been given an April 15 deadline for submitting a corrective action plan to the state treasurer or face the possibility of state oversight.

Like every school district in the country, AAPS is also impacted by the ending of the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) federal COVID money, of which Michigan received $3.7 billion. The Citizens Research Council of Michigan (CRC), a private non-partisan research organization, estimated that statewide up to 5,100 full-time teachers jobs could be cut, including 142 teachers in Ann Arbor.

Above all, the cuts emerge from a far-reaching bipartisan restructuring of federal government spending. The most recent US budget appropriated a record $886.3 billion for the military, amounting to more than half of the governments entire discretionary funding.

According to a recent report by K-12 Dive, the federal budget includes $500 million less for the Department of Education as compared to the 2023 fiscal year and represents the first major cut to education since 2015.

With ever-increasing spending on the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine, the financing of Israels genocide in Gaza, the active extension of war in the Middle East to include Iran and Syria and the global preparations for war against China, the current round of cuts in education will only increase.

At Thursdays meeting, a World Socialist Web Site campaign team distributed a critique of the AAPS attacks and its connection to war and broader attacks on workers, and spoke to teachers and parents at the meeting. Many teachers expressed their eagerness to fight against any cuts. A teacher with ten years of experience noted that morale among AAPS teachers had been steadily eroding over the past decade, as teachers have made greater and greater sacrifices for their studentsonly to have deeper cuts imposed upon them. And were supposed to be one of the better-off school districts in the state. This is probably even worse in most other districts around the state. And we did nothing to cause this mess!

The fight to defend jobs in AAPS will bring teachers face-to-face with the leadership of their own union, the Ann Arbor Education Association. At the board meeting on Thursday, the union organized the teachers to chant: We are teachers; we are not the problem. There was no mention of the crisis engulfing almost every district across the country, including the wealthier ones like Ann Arbor. Nor was anything said about the bipartisan attack on education, nor more immediately to genocide and war escalation, where hundreds of billions are made available while workers are told they must accept cuts.

Michigan is a key battleground state for the Democratic Party in the November elections, and the union bureaucracies are playing a key role in paralyzing workers struggles. The fight to defend jobs extends way beyond the school districts, with hundreds of layoffs already implemented in the auto industry, of which Michigan remains the center.

A middle school teacher told the WSWS, Most of the people on the school board are wealthy or using it as a springboard to get more money elsewhere. I dont think they have any genuine interest in making schools equitable or thriving places for education.

Educators and parents in Ann Arbor have natural allies in other Michigan school districts. Flint, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Detroit and other Michigan school districts are all implementing deep cuts, including school closures. Last month in Wayne-Westland, teachers, school bus drivers and other educational staff forced the school board to postpone a vote to adopt its budget.

The middle school teacher continued: I am aware of some of the struggles facing teachers across the state. After seeing our comrades in Ypsilanti and Flint endure this, we have to start drawing a line in the sand!

The educator also noted the cynical role local Democrats are beginning to play among the teachers. Some local representatives came around our meeting last night to offer paid campaigning positions. These people wont even defend us with any real substance, but they want us to campaign for their re-election?

The same teacher also discussed the connections between the funding of militarism and genocide abroad, and the attacks on workers at home. Were an empire in decline, and the rich are using the wars and the cuts to get as much money as they can to build their own rescue boats. They dont care if they sink everyone else.

On January 17, Ann Arbor teachers and parents were able to get a resolution passed by the school board calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, despite political pressure. There has been a consistent effort to intimidate Palestinian teachers and any teachers that spoke out against the genocide by community groups that are extraordinarily antagonistic to pro-Palestinian sentiment being raised. We could see that there were possible cuts coming last semester to some extent, and the threat of layoffs was used as a mechanism to create a chill against speaking out in defense of the Palestinians, or of our Palestinian colleagues here in Ann Arbor. And I think we can see efforts where the rich or right wing forces use identity to try and divide us, and pit us against each other.

The school board has scheduled a virtual town hall meeting for Monday, April 15 at 6:30 PM, where another update will be presented. That will be followed by a community meeting for the general public on Tuesday, April 16 at Huron High School, with meetings for AAPS staff and secondary staff on Wednesday, April 17 at Pioneer. It concludes with another community meeting at Skyline High School Thursday, April 18. Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) has scheduled community forums next week at the three high schools to take input from educators and families on what programs and services to target.

The Michigan Educators Rank-and-File Committee, part of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees, is fighting to unite educators and parents with other sections of workers in struggle. Any effective defense of jobs requires complete political independence from the Democrats and Republicans and a socialist perspective, to combat the source of wars and attacks on jobs and living standards: the capitalist system.

We urge interested educators, parents and youth to sign up for the Michigan Educators Rank-and-File Committee.
Continuing its program of mass job cuts in the wake of the 2023 sellout contract, automaker Stellantis has cut another 229 jobs at its parts sequencing facility off Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, near the Detroit Assembly ComplexJefferson. The layoffs were carried out March 31 but are only now coming to light. According to a report in the Detroit News, 20 of the workers were later brought back.

There were earlier reports of mass firings of supplemental workers at the plant on trumped-up charges. The workers at the facility carry out the sequencing of parts for final assembly.

The impacted workers were supplemental (SE), or temporary, workers. The latest cuts follow the mass layoff of SEs at US production facilities and the firing last month of 400 salaried engineering workers. Layoffs have also hit workers at General Motors and Ford as well as workers at Stellantis facilities in Italy.

Workers at the Stellantis Detroit Assembly ComplexJefferson [Photo by Stellantis]

The layoffs of parts sequencing workers follows the layoff of 2,453 workers February 5 at Detroit Assembly ComplexMack, including 750 SEs, and about 341 SEs at the Toledo Assembly Complex that builds the Jeep Wranglers and Gladiators in Ohio. Many workers from the Jeep complex had been forced to relocate to the Detroit parts sequencing facility.

The cuts hitting Stellantis SEs are a particularly hard pill to swallow since they had been promised full-time jobs under the 2023 contact. Some had been stuck in supplemental status for years, often working irregular hours, earning lower pay and having fewer benefits.

On March 2 a group of Stellantis SEs held a picket outside the UAWs Solidarity House headquarters in Detroit to protest the layoffs and the collaboration of the union with corporate management in carrying out the mass firing of SE workers.

In March, following the mass firings at the Toledo Assembly Complex, workers at the plant staged a mass sickout to protest the mass firing of SEs. Workers also circulated a petition at the plant demanding an end to the mass layoffs and the rehiring of laid-off workers with full back pay and the restoration of their previous service date.

The layoffs at Stellantis Detroit parts sequencing facility follow the announcement of layoffs by Warren, Michigan-based Universal Logistics, which contracts with Stellantis, at another parts sequencing plant on Georgia Street in Detroit. The cuts involve 677 workers, including 230 truck drivers employed by subsidiary Universal Dedicated and another 447 inside workers employed by Logistics Insights. The workers are all covered under a contract by Teamsters Local 299 and are set to be laid off May 31. The union has done nothing to fight for these workers. A Teamsters official merely said, Were still working with our employer to save these jobs.

A Teamsters official claimed Stellantis had revoked the contract with Universal in order to give it to a nonunion firm paying even lower wages as a cost saving move.

In addition to the layoffs of Stellantis Toledo Jeep workers, about 70 workers at the KUKA facility that makes chassis for the Gladiators at the Toledo Assembly Complex were laid off along with another 80 at Syncreon, which does parts sequencing. The workers are members of the UAW but are paid substantially less than Stellantis assembly plant workers.

The continuing cuts and the refusal of the UAW to wage any fight have angered autoworkers. The latest report of layoffs comes as UAW President Shawn Fain wined and dined with corporate CEOs at a lavish White House reception Wednesday as part of a state visit by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Japans support is seen as critical for US war plans against China. The Biden administration sees the UAW as another critical part of US war plans, securing the home front by suppressing strikes and other forms of social opposition.

Fains rubbing shoulders with billionaires is ironic and revealing. During the the 2023 contract talks Fain had demagogically posed as a foe of the billionaires, wearing a T-shirt with the slogan Eat the Rich during one strike update livestreamed on Facebook.

A Stellantis worker from Kokomo, Indiana who recently lost their job told the World Socialist Web Site, It makes me sick. When he (Fain) wore that shirt (Eat the Rich) he meant eat WITH the rich. He should ask for his money back for the misprint.

A salaried worker at the Stellantis tech center outside Detroit, a member of UAW Local 412 where 400 jobs were recently cut, said, Carlos Tavares, our CEO who whined and complained about giving us a raise, all of a sudden gets $25 million for his yearly pay. Come on, really? And youre going to tell me youre going to get $25 million and all Im asking for is a 25 percent raise?

I work in instrumentation engineering and what we do is work mostly on things like dynamometers; we keep them running so they can test the engines.

Im an electronics tech so basically before the layoff we were busy every day; we were getting overtime. Then the company went ahead and laid off 400 in engineering and my particular department has 11 members and they laid off six engineers. Now, because theres a lack of engineers, I spend most of my time sitting.

I think theres going to be another wave of nonunion people. In this first layoff, no managers were laid off. Im going to guarantee you that with this next layoff upper management is going to get hit, and middle management.

The management changed the parameters of the profit sharing check. To get a full profit sharing check you used to have to be on the rolls through October 31st. The new language reads, and nobody told us that, is that you if you want to get a profit sharing check at all you have to be on the rolls on December 31st, last day of the year.

The company cant just arbitrarily do this unless its been negotiated. Apparently Sean Fain did that to us, but didnt tell us.
The Russian information resource "Military Informant" presents an analytical review of the Indian artillery installation that Armenia acquired, Today.az reports, citing Day.Az.





Analyzing the characteristics of the new Indian self-propelled artillery unit, the author of the publication comes to the following conclusion - either Indian engineers were able to deceive the laws of physics, or Yerevan will receive a disposable piece of scrap metal, which the "Military Informant" diplomatically called "analognet".





The problems of the Indian self-propelled guns begin with the fact that they mounted a 155-mm gun on an ordinary four-wheel drive truck. Considering the loads experienced when firing from such artillery, the author of the publication doubts that this thing will fire more than once.





Even the Chinese do not risk installing anything larger than 122 mm caliber on them, writes Military Informant. Whats even funnier is that this self-propelled gun was only seen live once, almost a year ago. Yerevan will be the first to know what it is like in practice.
Imagine a Christmas tree. Or try to visualize in your mind the last meal you ate yesterday. Recall the face of a family member you havent seen in a while. Surely, the majority of us are able to evoke these mental images without a problem, perhaps to varying levels of precision and detail, but with the same fluidity with which we recall objects, people and lived experiences every day of our lives. But a certain percentage of us, around 1% of the total population, cant carry out such exercises: these are the people living with aphantasia, a neurological condition that prevents the creation of conscious mental images. A scientific review has dug into our still-limited understanding of the characteristic, concluding that it is associated with reduced autobiographical memory and facial recognition. Also, that it is more common among autistic individuals and people in scientific professions.

Typically, our imagination hangs onto the sensory properties of objects and activities when they are absent, such as what the color orange looks like or the sound of thunder. Through an intricate neurological process, we are able to mentally call up these images. However, people with aphantasia are unable to build these internal images, to visualize them through thought. That doesnt mean they have no imagination, qualifies Adam Zeman, professor at the University of Exeter and author of the aforementioned scientific review. It indicates a lack of visual imagery and oftentimes, also sensory imagery, but people with aphantasia can be imaginative in the sense of creativity, says the scientist, who published the article in the journal Trend in Cognitive Sciences.

First of all, its important to establish that aphantasia is not an illness. Its more accurately classified as a characteristic that explains how an individual process information and that, occasionally, can be a symptom of a neurological or psychological disorder, says Zeman. A cerebral lesion or the evolution of a pathology can cause a loss of the ability to call up visual images in the mind, but the characteristic can also be hereditary and lifelong. The healthy people who experience it are completely functional.

In this sense, Saul Martinez-Horta, neuropsychologist at Barcelonas Hospital Sant Pau who did not participate in the review, emphasizes that normality in human cognition is diverse and can function in very different ways. With aphantasia, he points out, the way the neurological systems that process visual information are organized will probably be different, but that doesnt mean a person is incapacitated. When something has always took place without any effect on our day-to-day life, that doesnt mean much. But if something appears suddenly, like an inability to project images in the mind, that could be an indication that something has happened, he says. Psychiatrists have reported the appearance of aphantasia in the context of depression, depersonalization and psychosis, among other conditions.

Zemans scientific review found that 1% of the population experiences pronounced aphantasia, but the spectrum is varied, and 2% to 6% of people were found to have vague and tenuous visual imagination. Theres also the other side of the coin, which is that around 3% of the population tends in the opposite direction and displays signs of hyperphantasia, the ability to generate hyperrealistic images in the mind. Theres an entire spectrum of ability to evoke, but there is no standard value and its very difficult to quantify. Probably, its what one is born with, says Javier Camina, spokesperson for the Spanish Neurology Society, which did not participate in the investigation.

According to scientists, aphantasia is overrepresented among people who work in mathematics, computations and the sciences, a phenomenon that Martinez-Horta associates with convergent thinking. In convergent thinking, when you consider the uses of a pen, your thoughts will be rigid and methodical: it is used for writing. On the other hand, divergent thinking is more childish: the pen can be a weapon or used to put up your hair. Aphantasia is associated with a convergent pattern, that is more bound by the predictable, he says. In traditionally more creative industries, there is a greater likelihood of finding individuals with hyperphantasia.

Less autobiographical memory

When it comes to experimental memory measurements, people with aphantasia have also shown mild to moderate impairment. Consistent with the close relationship between remembering the past and imagining the future, the richness of descriptions of imagined scenes is also reduced in aphantasia. Aphantasia similarly reduces the detail of eyewitness testimony, Zeman points out in the article. Autobiographical memory, which refers to memory of a persons own life, is also reduced among these individuals, to the point of being linked to a syndrome in which the individual lacks vivid first-person memories of his or her life history, even though he or she is able to function normally in day-to-day life.

Scientists are still trying to ascertain how a brain with aphantasia works. The key difference probably lies in connectivity, with a stronger connection between the regions of thought and sensory areas among people who have more vivid mental images, says Zeman. Camina agrees that there likely are differences in the modulation of certain processes that play a role in the brains powers of perception. In the absence of a stimulus, cerebral structures like the prefrontal cortex play a role; also, the limbic system, because we have to evoke past memories; and the fusiform gyrus, which is involved in facial recognition. Rather than structurally altered areas, theres may be abnormal regulation of connectivity between these areas.

Indeed, another peculiarity of aphantasia is difficulty in recognizing faces: about 40% of people who experience this neurological feature say they have difficulties with facial recognition, more than twice as often as people who do not have the trait. The studies analyzed by Zeman also indicate that people with aphantasia score higher on questionnaires that measure the autistic spectrum.

Zeman also suggests that aphantasia can offer certain protection against some mental health conditions, because some studies have pointed to an elevated ability to create mental images as a risk factor for hallucinations caused by schizophrenia and Parkinsons, as well as visual intrusions caused by post-traumatic stress. Still, the experts consulted for this article wanted to be prudent, and suggested that the issue is complex. Likely, if that person has schizophrenia or Parkinsons, they are going to have different hallucinations, possibly less symptoms. But its not the deciding factor. A person who starts out with hyperphantasia, if they suffer from post-traumatic stress, they will have the ability to recall a traumatic episode and it will show up with more frequency, intensity and duration of symptoms, says Camina.

Ability to dream

Paradoxically, although aphantasia prevents evoking conscious images, people with the neurological characteristic can dream. This is probably explained by the fact that the path to the imagination in the brain is very different when it comes to voluntary imagination in a wakened state versus the imagination of dreams, says Zeman. People with aphantasia are able to have dreams with visual qualities, although some studies describe avisual dreams with variable narrative, textual, conceptual, auditory and emotional content more frequently than among participants who do not have the characteristic, states the scientific review.

Experts admit that identifying aphantasia is complex because there are no infallible tests for its diagnosis and there is a high level of subjectivity in its perception. Explaining how I see my internal world is very difficult. A person who has challenges in constructing internal images doesnt know it. The majority discover what aphantasia is when they read about it somewhere, points out Martinez-Horta. But that complexity doesnt mean that it doesnt exist or that everything is a product of our own perception. Zeman says that behavioral, physiological and neural data exists that unpacks differences in the aphantasia spectrum. He gives one such example in the article itself: Whereas normal participants listening to (extremely) scary stories show a hike in their galvanic skin response (GSR) (they sweat!), people with aphantasia do not. The natural interpretation is that, in the absence of imagery, the impact of emotive language is reduced because imagery typically mediates between verbal description and emotional response.

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Elon Musk has had a good idea, according to a study published in the Information Systems Research Journal on February 28. Community Notes on X (formerly Twitter) are designed to combat disinformation and have proven to be more effective than censorship in preventing the spread of fake news, according to the studys findings. Thats a point in favor of the mogul, who, since he acquired the social network, has been criticized for his approach to handling fake news, including making it difficult to evaluate his policies by limiting access to the platforms data.

The analysis is based on 1,468 news articles spreading false information about health-related topics. The main conclusion is that the implementation of Xs policy, first launched in 2021 under the name Birdwatch, succeeds in reducing the spread of such fake news. Posts that include links to misinformation articles are less likely to be retweeted, cited or commented on. This effect is most noticeable in that there are fewer instances of real people sharing links to dubious information. However, it does not affect accounts managed by bots. In 2022, an academic paper from Purdue University analyzed this system and reached a similar conclusion, adding that this measure could reduce the number of posts and perhaps total user activity on the platform.

Community Notes are a mechanism through which users can provide additional context, point out errors, or highlight verified information that contradicts or explains the content of a post. Others on the platform can rate these notes in terms of their usefulness and accuracy. This is done to ensure that the notes added are of high quality and reliable. Users vote on whether the note is useful or not, and these votes determine the visibility of the correction, which appears directly below the tweet. According to the company, this mechanism seeks to foster an environment of transparency and collaboration where the community plays an active role in content moderation.

A late-arriving improvement

However, several fact-checking experts have pointed out that Elon Musks changes to the platforms security and content moderation policies after he bought Twitter have made it considerably less reliable than before. Raul Magallon, the author of Unfaking News: How to Combat Disinformation, believes that these notes are a good move, but he doubts that they will have a significant impact on the social networks current situation. When you take five steps back and one step forward, I dont know how much you can talk about an improvement, he observes.

In principle, there are several studies that confirm the experts view of the matter, noting that it is now more difficult to draw conclusions from the proliferation of fake news on the old Twitter. According to a report prepared by Health Feedback, the X accounts of disinformation super-spreaders have increased their interactions by 42% since the Tesla owner purchased the social network, while those of highly credible accounts have dropped by 6%. In the week after Musk acquired the company, accounts deemed untrustworthy experienced a 57% increase in interaction levels, measured in likes and retweets, according to a study by NewsGuard.

Myriam Redondo, the author of the book Digital Fact-Checking for Journalists, sees this tool as a positive, provided that X users know that this policy is in place. They should also be offered this option as a route that they can take or not take, that is, ultimately they are aware of what is happening when they navigate it, she says. In her opinion, the best course of action would be to give a nudge in those cases where disinformation affects essential matters such as health or public safety and when it reaches a level that the platform has previously established as alarming.

For example, if a social media platform identifies a news story that has been disproven or is unfounded, instead of removing or censoring it, it could redirect it by displaying a message or link to verified articles or reliable sources that counter or clarify the information presented. It is essential that platforms clearly state and communicate their criteria for determining what is considered alarming misinformation, ensuring that these measures do not appear to have a bias or hidden agenda, Redondo adds.

A 2018 MIT study concluded that fake news spread significantly faster on Twitter than real news. The analysis is notable for being the largest longitudinal study ever conducted on the spread of fake news online. It used data from Twitter, spanning from 2006 to 2017, involving approximately 126,000 stories tweeted by about 3 million people, more than 4.5 million times. According to the research findings, fake stories were 70% more likely to be retweeted than true ones. The researchers used information from six independent fact-checking organizations to classify news stories as true or false.

Distrust of AI

In January 2024, the World Economic Forums Global Risks Report 2024 identified misinformation as one of the main risks in the current and future global context. It expressed particular concern about artificial intelligence-generated fake news, which has the potential to intensify social polarization and deteriorate public discourse.

In recent years, this phenomenon has raised particular alarm around elections in a number of countries. The Economic Forum report emphasizes the importance of implementing digital literacy campaigns that equip people with the necessary tools to discern and dismiss misinformation and incorrect information. It also highlights the need for collective and coordinated action both locally and internationally to counter misinformation. According to the document, collaboration among different sectors, including the public and private spheres, is essential for developing effective strategies to mitigate the impact of misinformation on society.

Along the same lines, Jesus Miguel Flores Vivar, professor of journalism at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, emphasizes the importance of media literacy. It is crucial that people learn to differentiate false news from truthful information as soon as possible. How can that be accomplished? Flores Vivar suggests creating an independent body, distinct from platforms and media outlets, that awards quality seals to reliable news sources.

People should be informed that these types of quality ratings exist. A good example is the Trust Project, which, through its Trust Indicators, offers a method to evaluate the integrity and transparency of journalistic organizations, thus promoting a more truthful and trustworthy information environment. Flores Vivar also points out the increasing trend toward using artificial intelligence that, through algorithms, facilitates the design and development of bots and platforms dedicated to combatting information toxicity.

The three experts consulted agree that the current performance of digital platforms in the fight against disinformation is insufficient. Redondo believes that much of what they do in this area is aimed at improving their image, but not at solving the real problem, since doing the latter would imply too great a reduction in their income.

For his part, Magallon is blunt in his assessment of these companies and gives them a failing grade: Although each social network presents a different scenario, the measures implemented so far are clearly insufficient. The expert believes that misinformation has taken root permanently. It has become an essential component of international geostrategy, affecting critical areas such as climate change. The truth is that we are considerably behind in media literacy, which should be a fundamental component of secondary education. The good news is that the solution is in our hands.

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SPOILER ALERT: This contains major spoilers for the ending of Civil War, now playing in theaters.

Call it the fog of war.

More from Variety

At the height of the blood-soaked third act of Alex Garlands Civil War, audiences may be unsure who is on which side of the battle between two factions in an America torn asunder. The bullets and rockets are flying at such an unyielding clip amid the films deafening sound effects that theatergoers will likely struggle to keep score and instead become immersed in the real-life chaos of combat.

In the dystopian thriller set in a not-too-distant future, Kirsten Dunst stars as Lee, a world-weary photojournalist who has seen and shot it all, including the motherfucking legendary photo of the Antifa massacre. Heading into the films final 30 minutes, Lee has finally embedded with the Western Forces, an alliance of states led by California and Texas in a heavily armed rebellion against the federal government. She is joined on her ill-fated quest to capture the violence by veteran journalist Joel (Wagner Moura) and neophyte Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), the latter becoming an anchor around Lees neck given the young womans lack of combat experience.

As the trio moves on foot alongside resistance soldiers, they find cover behind torched cars and bullet-riddled marble columns before they breach the interior of the White House. (In an ironic twist, the uber-violent scenes were shot at the replica White House at Tyler Perrys Atlanta studio  the same place Madea once played for laughs as President Trumps fictitious communications director.) The three-term president (Nick Offerman) very much resembles Trump, even if Garland insists otherwise (I had a very clear goal in my head, which is to not instruct the audience what to think but actually to prompt an exchange [of dialogue], the director says.) For her part, Dunst says Offerman is not Trump. Its just a fascist president. But I didnt think about Nicks character being any certain political figure, she said during a Variety cover story interview. I just thought this is this president, in this world, who will not abide by the Constitution and democracy.

As Western Forces combatants close in on the Oval Office, the presidents secret service returns fire. In a chilling scene, the presidents press secretary is shot and killed as she tries to negotiate his surrender (but its a trap).

All along, the trio are snapping photographs of the dead and wounded as though they were capturing a lively parade rather than the end of America. But Jessie would prove to be a liability as Western Forces soldiers trade fire with the presidents contingent. She moves out into an empty hallway to take a photo and is about to be hit when Lee jumps in to save her. Lee takes the bullet and crumples to the ground while Jessie  in a stunning lack of empathy  grabs hold of her camera and takes the shot. For some audiences, it might be unclear which side killed Lee, but Dunst cleared up any ambiguity.

It was definitely fired from the presidents Oval Office, she says. What happened was that I know when to cross and when not to cross with the soldiers when they fire. I know the signals and how to read them. You just know when its time to move and when its time not to. Thats something that Cailees character Jessie obviously does not know.

For Moura, the reverberations of Lees demise spilled over into real life.

When her character died, it really kind of broke my heart because I was so used to having Kirsten every day with me in that journey, he tells Variety. From that point on, wed have to shoot without her like an extra week. And I remember telling her that this is not gonna be the same without her. She was really the heart of the movie.

After Lees death, the film carries on until the ultimate denouement of the president being gunned down by rebellion soldiers. The credits roll on top of a black-and-white photo of a group of Western Forces soldiers smiling as they stand next to the dead president. It was a shot presumably caught by Jessie.

A Civil War sequel would seem to be in the cards given how much of the drama remains open-ended. Will the military continue trying to quash the rebellion and bring out the big guns, like tactical nukes? Will the citizenry loyal to the federal government lay down arms now that their leader is dead? Will Jessie win the Pulitzer?

The fate of a follow-up will likely depend on whether or not Civil War resonates with both red and blue states in a divided America.

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A look back at the royals in Palm Beach County: When Charles, Diana, Prince Harry visited

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arrived in Palm Beach County on Friday, April 12, and headed to the Grand Champions Polo Club in Wellington for the Royal Salute Polo Challenge to benefit Sentebale.

This is the second time Harry, 39, has played polo in Wellington. In 2016, a similar Sentebale charity event was held at Valiente Polo Farms.

Harry is a co-founder of Sentebale, which works with children in Lesotho and Botswana, in southern Africa, impacted by poverty and health issues like HIV. Sentebale means "forget-me-not" in Sesotho, the language of Lesotho.

Harry was part of a panel Thursday, April 11, at Zaytinya, a restaurant at The Ritz-Carlton in South Beach, to address health and wealth inequity, and also climate challenges facing youth in Africa.

The royal family always seems to make news, even when they visit the United States.

Here's a look back at when members of the royal family visited Palm Beach County.

2016: Prince Harry plays a charity polo match in Wellington

In 2016, Prince Harry, the younger son of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, visited Palm Beach County to play a charity polo match at Valiente Polo Farm in Wellington.

Prince Harry plays charity polo in Wellington, Florida on May 4, 2016.

Queen Elizabeth visits to Florida: Miami wristwatches, crystal palm tree from Tampa among welcome gifts

From the Post archives: Prince Charles bestows royal name, presence to polo club in Florida

1989: Prince of Wales bestows name, presence to polo club north of Palm Beach County

In 1989, the Prince of Wales visited Florida to inaugurate the Windsor Polo and Beach Club. The heir to the British throne lent his presence and his family name  Windsor  to a commercial development owned by friends.

The polo club, 10 miles north of Vero Beach in Indian River County, was the brainchild of Geoffrey and Jorie Kent. He was born in East Africa, she was from Oak Brook, Illinois, and together they owned Abercrombie & Kent, a travel company specializing in expensive trips to exotic places. Geoffrey Kent and the prince had been playing polo together for years and founded the Windsor Park Polo Team in England in 1987.

Following the inauguration of the new club in Vero Beach, Kent and the Prince of Wales played for the Windsor Park Polo Team at the Palm Beach Polo and Country Club in Wellington.

1980: Prince of Wales admitted to hospital in West Palm Beach

1980: Prince Charles walking out of Good Samaritan Hospital in West Palm Beach.

In 1980, the Prince of Wales was admitted to what is now Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach after suffering from heat exhaustion. He had spent a rigorous afternoon on horseback on the polo fields of Wellington in 90-degree heat. He was released the next day, flew to Eleuthera in the Bahamas and returned to Wellington a few days later.

1985: Prince Charles, Princess Diana attend controversial event at The Breakers in Palm Beach

Princess Diana accepts flowers from Tara Sansbury, 7, of West Palm Beach, on Nov. 11, 1985. She came to town to watch then-husband Prince Charles play polo in Wellington.

In 1985, Prince Charles brought his wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, to Wellington and Palm Beach in a visit marred by controversy over a $5,000-a-head banquet at The Breakers that was to benefit a college in New Mexico.

In a speech at the banquet, the prince chastised critics of the benefit's host, industrialist Armand Hammer. There also was a flap over Patricia Kluge, the ball's co-chair, who resigned after it was revealed that, years earlier, she had posed nude for a British magazine.

The Breakers: Five things you may not know about the Palm Beach luxury resort

1988: Prince Charles visits Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago

Prince Charles returned to Palm Beach County in 1988. He visited Donald Trump's Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago but stayed for two nights in less grandiose surroundings  a horse ranch west of Lake Worth Beach owned by his polo-playing friends Geoffrey and Jorie Kent. There was a wildlife show in Wellington, a luncheon to benefit Friends of the Masai Mara, and a polo match, which, as always, the prince's team won.

Laura Lordi is the digital strategy editor for The Palm Beach Post. Contact Lordi at llordi@pbpost.com. Support local journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, King Charles in Palm Beach County
Wynonna Judds troubled daughter, Grace Kelley, was slapped with soliciting prostitution and obstructing governmental operations charges in addition to the indecent exposure rap she was arrested on last week, according to updated jail records.

Kelley, 27, was taken into custody last week in Elmore County, Alabama, after officers noted that the individual was dressed inappropriately, with both her upper and lower private areas exposed, in public view, Millbrook police chief P.K. Johnson told The Wetumpka Herald following the arrest.

I was advised by our court department staff that Ms. Kelley had people inquiring about her bond and that she is apparently the daughter of a celebrity, country music star Wynonna Judd. It was the first time that I or anyone affiliated with the Millbrook Police Department had any inclination of who Ms. Kelley was.

It was revealed Thursday that Kelley was also holding a sign that said Ride for a Ride while exposing herself to motorists, Johnson told The Daily Mail.

Kelley has a history of trouble with the law that includes a 2015 drug-related conviction, for which she served nearly four years in prison.

Her bond was listed at $2,000, with another court appearance scheduled for April 25.

Kelley is the product of the country music legend and her ex-husband, businessman Arch Kelley III.

The troubled 27-year-old also welcomed a daughter of her own two years agoKaliyah Chanelwho is currently being taken care of by Judd, according to Page Six.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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It is hopeless for the occasional visitor to try to keep up with Chicago  she outgrows his prophecies faster than he can make them. She is always a novelty; for she is never the Chicago you saw when you passed through the last time, Mark Twain wrote in 1883. With all due respect to the father of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, EL PAIS consulted three art world experts for their recommendations on discovering Chicagos artistic side beyond its primary creative hub, the Chicago Art Institute. Benedicta Badia, a consultant at museums like New Yorks Guggenheim; Theaster Gates, who is number seven on the annual Power 100 of most influential figures in the world of contemporary art, and Claudia Segura, curator of exhibitions and collections at Barcelonas Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), kindly agreed to take us on tours.

Segura had carte blanche when it came to the curation of the In situ section at her first recommendation: Expo Chicago, the annual contemporary art fair that returns to Navy Pier, located on the shores of Lake Michigan, April 11-14. The building will be filled with intriguing, large-scale sculptures, video installations and site-specific works. Its a sustainable fair, where you can buy and sell. But there is also a curatorial exchange program and a meeting of museum directors, so its very thought-focused, Segura says. This year, the event was acquired by Frieze, a global giant among contemporary art fairs. The city is super-vibrant, with an art scene that has a lot of potential, and a focus on Latino art. In fact, its one of the few cities in the United States where billboard ads for exhibitions are often written in Spanish. Based on the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies Van der Rohe, and located around the edges of a lake that is nearly an ocean, the city is home to fascinating museums, some of them owned by universities, she describes.

Of these, Segura mentions DePaul Art Museum, which is operated by the school by the same name, and has a permanent collection composed of more than 3,500 pieces of modern and contemporary art, many of them by Chicago artists, but also individuals from the African and Latin American diasporas, and other groups who are traditionally underrepresented in the art world, such as women and the LGBTQ community. With a relatively small team, they are able to carry out very powerful exhibitions that nurture the relationship between curators and academics, Segura says.

Opening of Expo Chicago.

The curator also highlights the offerings of galleries that showcase the work of Black figurative artists, including the West Town location of Mariane Ibrahim, a French Somali gallerist who represents artists like Ferrari Sheppard, Zohra Opoku and Lina Iris Viktor. The latter was in the headlines after reaching a settlement with Kendrick Lamar when the rapper used works from her Constellations series in his music video for All The Stars, which appeared on the Black Panther movie soundtrack. Theres also a lot of interest in the Latin American diaspora at the MCA, a contemporary art museum that shows the work of Chicago artists, but that has a Latin American director, and also a curator, Carla Acevedo, who has reinforced that link. The museum has hosted exhibitions by Frida Kahlo and Jeff Koons, and its collection includes work from luminaries such as Cindy Sherman and Jasper Johns.

An MCA Chicago exhibition. Antonio Perez (Getty Images)

Also among Seguras suggestions are two projects that offer a certain allure of exclusivity and privilege. The first is The Arts Club, a private club founded in 1916 that exhibits well-curated international contemporary art. It hosted Pablo Picassos first show in the United States, back in 1951. Unfortunately, none of the buildings Mies van der Rohe original interiors remain, save for the central stairwell. Her next recommendation is nearby at the 21c Museum Hotel, which is open 24 hours a day at its downtown location, for those whod like to see the private collection of Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, an art-collecting couple who invite guests and visitors to enjoy their works by 21st-century artists. From the lobby to the hallways of the hotel, everything is full of pieces from their collection. Its quite different from the norms of how art tends to be consumed and distributed, says Segura of the hotel, which has locations in 10 other U.S. municipalities, from Nashville to Kansas City.

With a storied musical legacy, Chicago is also home to surprises like Corbett vs. Dempsey, a gallery that since its opening in 2004 has represented a host of artists who studied at the Chicago Art Institute, like Karl Wirsum and Omar Velasquez. The space is incredible and its owners are the source of a powerful amount of knowledge. But above all, if you visit, you cant miss its spectacular library that is dedicated to jazz, says Segural, who recommends going from there to Document, a small, honest gallery that also has a location in Lisbon.

The citys underground scene is also a cant-miss aspect of Chicago. The Floating Museum is another one of Seguras recommendations, which makes a lot of sense, given that just like the curator herself, the museum puts a premium on non-hegemonic discourse. Its a hangar in which social practice and civil community come together, Segura explains. The collective has mounted exhibitions about a river, and inside a subway car. Speaking of rivers, another necessary stop for any art lover is an exploration of local architecture aboard the only Chicago River tour boat associated with the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC). First Lady Cruises offers a 90-minute tour with volunteer guides, who unpack the citys buildings and the legendary architects who designed them.

Another necessary stop for any art lover is an exploration of local architecture aboard the only Chicago River tour boat associated with the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC): First Lady Cruises. Beata Zawrzel (NurPhoto / Getty

A Scandinavian neighborhood

Argentinas Benedicta Badia is one of the most important art collectors in the world, and her recommendations are closely connected to her critical approach to vanguard work. Her Chicago list challenges the status quo of the citys artistic community when it comes to non-Western stereotypes and dominant narratives. As such, its no surprise that she included LVL3 Gallery, a space founded and run by artists. They are the ones who really know art, says Badia. The gallery fosters the communal, with collaborations between sectors who might not otherwise meet, and international artists from communities that are under-represented in the art market circuit. If you are interested in the work of emerging and mid-career artists, the is the place for you.

Work by artists who have avoided traditional paths is also the focus at Intuit, an independent museum that was founded in 1991 to highlight artists who have confronted marginalization and overcome personal obstacles in order to do their work. Last fall, the organization began a dramatic renovation of its 150-year-old historic building and is slated to reopen this summer.

From there, a long walk in the direction of Lake Michigan brings one to the doors of Wrightwood 659, a light-filled concrete building designed by the Pritzker Award-winning architect, Tadao Ando. The space, located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, is designed for exhibitions of architecture and socially-conscious art. It is a unique site of reflection on art as a political and social practice. Its engagement with the narratives of international artists is priceless. While major institutions do show international art, Wrightwood 659 has the agility of an independent center that brings a fresh and revolutionary gaze to Chicago, says Badia. Her next recommendation is The Renaissance Society, an independent contemporary art museum founded in 1915, dedicated to the commissioning and production of new works by international artists. Here, one can enjoy free concerts, readings and lectures. The Ren, as its called, is not to be missed. It is run by the University of Chicago, one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world, yet its programming questions the established with the help of pedagogical narratives that interrogate hegemony, she says.

To conclude, she also recommends a walk through the historically Swedish Andersonville neighborhood. If you look at a map of how Chicago was formed, youll see that Andersonville is where the Swedes settled. To enter the area is to get into the Scandinavian spirit. Here, you can find everything from one of the citys best feminist bookstores to stores specializing in antique furniture, delicious artisanal bakeries and a small community museum. Homemade goods, design, and urban community are all present in these streets, says Badia, who hosts one of the hottest parties of Expo Chicago in her art deco penthouse.

The Swedish Andersonville neighborhood. D Guest Smith (Alamy)

A walk through Black Chicago

No one builds beautiful buildings for Black people in this neighborhood. Why would white people build in Black neighborhoods if they werent promised anything in return? asks Theaster Gates, an artist who was born in East Garfield Park, on Chicagos West Side. Gates is both a specialist in social art and professor in the department of visual arts at the University of Chicago. Hes also a real force in the art world, according to ArtReview, which ranked him number seven on its latest list of the 100 most influential people in the art world.

We asked Gates to take us on a tour of the neighborhoods where the artistic agitator who is the founder and director of the Rebuild Foundation, a non-profit organization started in 2010 to promote artistic and cultural projects in abandoned spaces largely located in Black and low-income neighborhoods, spends his time. Hes also been part of a project to renovate two abandoned apartments into a refuge for LGBTQ minors who have been kicked out of their family homes.

A tour of Gatess projects includes a visit to Stony Island Arts Bank, a bank location that was built in 1923 and abandoned in 1979. Gates bought in 2012 so that neighbors would be able to access the works of John H. Johnson, founder and editor of the magazines Ebony (1945) and Jet (1951). The first Black person to appear on the Forbes 400 list in 1982, Johnsons personal library is now available to anyone who visits the old bank. Here, you can also find the record collection of Frankie Knuckles, the father of house music, alongside art from the University of Chicago and the Chicago Arts Institute.

Stony Island Arts Bank, a bank location built in 1923 and abandoned in 1979 that is now home to the personal library of John H. Johnson, founder and editor of the magazines Ebony (1945) and Jet (1951). Jeff Schear (Getty Images)

The Rebuild Foundation is also behind Gatess next three recommendations for visitors: The Listening House, The Archive House and The Black Cinema House. The latter is a theater located in an abandoned building near South Dorchester Avenue on the citys South Side. It has screened movies made and starring people from the African diaspora since 2012. A visit to The Archive House, another one of the buildings that have been recovered by the foundation, allows one to take in the impressive, 14,000-book archive that came from a defunct specialized bookstore. The Listening House preserves 8,000 albums from the shelves of Dr. Wax Records.

I began rebuilding simply because I didnt have enough money to build what I wanted. Nowadays, there are those who think that our interventions will wind up gentrifying these areas. But at the moment, these neighborhoods are still abandoned and neighbors can still buy a house in them. Our goal is to create an artistic community that is open to the entire world, in these neighborhoods, says the Chicagoan Gates about his city, which should be visited by any art lover, at least once in their life.
Earth Month is as good a time as any to reflect on the progress being made in the ongoing battle against the climate crisis and environmental challenges that dominate the worlds ever-escalating headlines. In recent years, sustainability has shed its reputation as a progressive buzzword and become a critical focus area for individuals, governments, and corporations across the globe, as they increasingly recognize the importance of making permanent changes to slow carbon emissions and the pace of global warming. In particular, this has also sparked an era of reassessment for the fashion industry, which produces between 100 and 150 billion items a year, of which only 80 percent are sold.

For founder and creative director Gabriela Hearst, its her humble beginnings growing up on a ranch in Uruguay that introduced her to the importance of sustainable practices in fashion. Im not revolutionary, Im just using practices from the past, the designer explained during a panel conversation with ELLE UK editor-in-chief Kenya Hunt and British Fashion Council CEO Caroline Rush in London last night.

The trio met at the residence of United States Ambassador Jane Hartley to discuss fashions commitment to sustainability and what big businesses can learn from small independent companies. The event was attended by numerous sustainability advocates, designers, and CEOs in the industry, including Completedworks jewelry designer Anna Jewsbury, Princess Eugenie, Torisheju Dumi, Tolu Coker, eBays pre-loved style director Amy Bannerman, and more.

Its going to take all of us working together to make a difference, Hartley said of sustainability in fashion during her foreword at the event. Globally, fashion is responsible for 10 percent of carbon emissions, more than international flights and maritime shipping combinethis means we have a big opportunity, in addition to a big challenge, to change.

With fashion contributing 1.3 million jobs to the U.K. economy alone and considering the fact that the industry is worth around $1.7 trillion globally, Hartleywho wore a vintage green off-the-shoulder Gabriela Hearst dress from the online marketplace The RealReal for the eventnoted that changing trends in fashion will have a major impact across the world. One such change comes with the ambassadors announcement that Hearst is funding not one, but two new scholarship positions at the University of the Arts London and the London College of Fashion with David Carey, Hearsts senior vice president of public affairs and communications. This is an issue very close to my heart, because just as much as I want change, I believe that change has to provide a better future for young people, Hartley noted.

Oliver Holms

Sustainability has always formed the bedrock of Hearsts future-focussed ethos. It saw Hearst UK win the honor of Sustainability Strategy of the Year 2022 at the Newspaper and Magazine Awards. The London office, known as House of Hearst, uses 100-percent-certified renewable energy with zero waste to landfill, and its New York City HQ, Hearst Tower, is the first building to receive both Gold and Platinum LEED certifications. Moreover, 100 percent of the paper fiber that Hearst Magazines and Hearst Newspapers purchase is sourced in an ecologically responsible matter.

Hearsts uncompromising commitment to sustainability is as renowned as her namesake label, which she launched in 2015 before taking the helm at Chloe in 2023a position from which she stepped down last year. For years, her runway shows have been a shining example of the power of using deadstock fabrics and eliminating plastic, including her spring/summer 2020 collection, which became the first-ever carbon neutral runway show. Last month, the designer received the Time Earth Award, and just last week, the San Francisco Ballet premiered a female-first version of Carmen with costumes designed by Gabriela.

With privilege comes responsibility, Hearst began the conversation, noting her beginnings growing up in South America where her family would live off the grid and use only one hours worth of energy from a generator at night. Ive learned to live in these two worldsI have to go to work thinking of the realities of others and thinking that, because of climate and conflict, were going to be relocating 125 million refugees, 50 of them being children, and over 450 million people living in conflict zones. Regarding the widely held view that sustainability is detrimental to creativity, she added: You think it will became weaker, but its actually strongeryou dont sacrifice anything.



Rush, who became the CEO of the British Fashion Council in April 2009 and has welcomed the return of Matthew Williamson, Burberry, and Mulberry, to London Fashion Week during her tenure, explained that collaboration is fundamental in tackling the biggest challenges that fashion faces in regards to sustainability. The way that the fashion industry used to operate is that...youd have your brand, you wouldnt share knowledge, suppliers, anything. [The increased focus on] sustainability has really brought together the industry in terms of opening up its contact book, thinking about how it can do things differently and sharing case studies, she added.

Oliver Holms

With a passion for renewable energy, Hearst went on to discuss the opportunities that open with fusion, which generates electricity using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear has had bad PR, she joked, noting that Chloe produced a show powered by fusion energy in 2022. The idea that you can deweaponize energy is remarkable, and it gives me so much hopeit has the ability to really solve the big dependency that we have in fossil fuels. Its not the only solution, but its one of them. She explained that one of her reasons she took her previous role at Chloe was due to seven years of research and development in this area, which she knew would be valuable to the Richemont Group-owned brand. Chloe was in the perfect position, because they were looking for change, and change only happens when a lot of people want it, she added, citing that, by the time she left the brand, her sustainability team had grown from a one-person team to a group of 13.

During the conversation, Hearst, Rush, and Hunt also discussed the importance of reverse mentoring, where small businesses are helping to educate large businesses about sustainability. The image you create isnt only important, rather the message I value efficient businesses more than big businesses, added Hearst, with Rush stressing the financial benefits of improving sustainability in fashion. If you maximie the utiliation of resources, youre saving money, she explained, listing over-production and waste through design as the big issues the industry currently faces.

Looking ahead to the future, Hearst mentioned that, as a designer, she believes shes a guardian for the next generation. Its their world, not ours, she said, stressing her passion for protecting women. While discussing fabric innovationfor example, using silver linings in clothes that protect womens reproductive organs from mobile phone radiationHearst said: I love dressing women, I love framing women, I love empowering womenI know the power of dressing a woman.

Oliver Holms

Hearst and Rush agreed that, despite damning news about the state of the environment, they both find hope for the future through scientists, brilliant minds, and the human spirit. Every time theres a cheap option of a lower price from a company, you have to remember that somebody else is picking up the bill now, or in the next generation, Hearst warned.

While its clear that society is aware of the environmental impact of carbon emissions, and efforts have been made to improve investments into electric cards and transportation around the world, Hartley is concerned the conversation about fashions impact on sustainability is lagging due to a failure to adequately communicate its vital impact and meaning.

On a micro level, people want to protect their environment, she told ELLE UK prior to the panel. People are aware that theres a problem, but I think in many cases, individuals dont really know what to do about it, she added, emphasizing the importance of checking a piece of clothings label, investigating where companies are producing the items, and looking at their green efforts. According to Hartley, promoting sustainable fashion involves two steps: understanding its problem, and understanding what individuals and groups can do to solve it.

Hartley has served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland since 2022, and previously served as the U.S. ambassador to France and Monaco from 2014 until 2017 during the Barack Obama administration.

She has long had an interest in fashion [Ive always loved itI had this hot-pink coat I used to wear everywhere but now I tend to be more of a black or white person: black in the winter and white in the summer], with a love for sartorial design running through her family. Her daughter Kate is the highest-ranking woman in country for Italian luxury brand Loro Piana. When we look at fashion, its important to remember that fashion is a business, Hartley said of the industrys economic-driving credentials, listing the way it creates jobs and enables the next generation of creatives to receive training.

An avid supporter of Hearst and designer Tory Burch, Hartley is a champion of women both in and outside of the realms of fashiona trait that is needed more than ever. According to a study from the Pew Research Center, the gender pay gap has barely closed in the United States in the past two decades, and in 2022, women typically earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. Hartley recalled a time when she was on the board of directors at an executive firm and pushed her employers to invite more women to the table. It means getting more women on boards, in top slots and in positions like CFO, CEO, and CMO, she said, before adding: When I watched their internal [hiring] process, it was clear it was meant to keep women out. During the search for a new CEO, Hartley recalled the fairly narrow list of qualifications required for the position, which resulted in around 98 percent of applicants being male. If youre willing to look outside of the box, youve got some fantastic women. People have to start thinking about leadership and pools of talent differently.

From her own experience as the second female ambassador to France in over 200 years, and the second female ambassador to the U.K. in the last 50 years, Hartley knows all too well the importance of giving women prominence in positions of power. When I walk down the hall in the embassy, there are portraits of all the ambassadors and I think, we can do better than thiswe have to do better than this.

Ensuring young people, especially women, receive adequate training is vital in ensuring growth, Hartley added. Companies have a responsibility to do well, but they also have a responsibility to do good, she said. Young people are being left behind with an underemployment problem, and many of those people are women because they might have left the workplace for family responsibilities and might not have kept up with their skillshaving a good income and a good future is really important, especially as we move towards AI, we have to make sure people are trained.

Oliver Holms

And as a woman in politics who keenly remembers the misogyny presidential candidate Hillary Clinton faced in 2016 (she was delivering speeches that were critically important on NATO and people were talking about her suit), Hartley admits she isnt immune to feeling frustrated when journalists comment on her appearance over her politics. When I was in France, there was one personwho will remain namelesswho was constantly talking about my hair....It drove me nuts because no one would ever say that to a man.

Ahead of election season, Harley noted the importance of sustainability for the Democratic Party. I think a couple of the constituencies that care deeply about sustainability are going to be critical to swinging the vote, whether its young people or women in the suburbs, she said.

As weve seen with the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, which is currently pending in the New York State Assembly and will require companies to report on their impacts and reduce carbon emissions, Hartley underscored that you need political action, and then government action to make a change. Because government action is the only way youre going to get the big picture, otherwise its too individualistic.

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Heinz wants to convince Chicago that ketchup and hot dogs can co-exist. Will it succeed?

CHICAGO  It looks a bit like the huge monolith from the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey." But in fact, it's a giant ketchup dispenser and it's come here to change the way humanity thinks about the condiment.

Ketchup giant Heinz put it here, right in the heart of Chicago on the Navy Pier, to try and sway Chicagoans to the notion that ketchup on a hot dog is not such a bad thing. Throughout the ages, Chicago has firmly eschewed ketchup on hot dogs, and Heinz is trying to paint the city red with ketchup appreciation.

For some in the Windy City, the message isn't sinking in.

Chicago South Side native Mari Zavala raised her eyes at the shining red giant that spits out packets of ketchup with a slam of your hand. "When youre adding ketchup, youre a weirdo, says the 22-year-old, who worked until recently at Ricobene's, an iconic nearby sandwich spot.

But it's that very attitude that Heinz is attacking in Chicago, preaching ketchup almost as though it's a Constitutional right. A video splashed prominently at the top of the Heinz company web site shows the 7+-foot high ketchup dispenser with messages such as "Some restaurants refuse to serve Heinz" and "We have a solution" flashing across the screen.

"Now serving Heinz wherever Heinz isn't served," reads another message, while a supposed Chicagoan devours a hot dog smothered in ketchup.

Mari Zavala, right, shows her cousin, Yunuen Medina, around Navy Pier in Chicago, where the pair came across an unusual sight, a dispenser meant to tempt locals into adding ketchup to hot dogs.

The company is piloting the monolith dispenser as an answer to Chicago restaurants refusing to serve their product. The anti-ketchup attitude is engrained deep in this city. From Barack Obama to the man on the street, Chicagoans are known for their aversion to ketchup on hot dogs.

Heinz, which sells 650 million bottles of the red sauce every year, says it wants to help ketchup lovers.

People get really frustrated when theyre stuck in a restaurant without it, says Megan Lang, a Heinz spokesperson who called Chicago a ketchup catastrophe." She tells USA TODAY that the idea for the hand-smack dispenser came after hearing stories of frustration and grief from Heinz devotees unable to find their ketchup fix in Chicago.

This spurred us to think about how we could turn the iconic bottle-smacking behavior into a way to let them get out their frustration, Lang said. We felt like we needed to challenge Chicago on this condemnation."

Or perhaps condiment-nation.

Heinz put up the ketchup stand two weeks ago not far from hot dog stands and restaurants and plenty of passers-by, both tourists and locals alike. It's a short trial run  in fact, the stand's last day is Saturday - and Heinz says it may bring it back for future efforts in Chicago and elsewhere.

In most U.S. cities, ketchup is splashed all over. But on hot dogs in Chicago, ketchup raises a red flag. Local reporters even question mayoral candidates about their stance on the issue and Mayor Brandon Johnson, in a perfectly straight face, calls the practice of putting ketchup on hot dogs "a sin."

A line drawn . . . in the ketchup?

Chicagoans generally pride themselves on dressing their dogs with other condiments, including mustard, neon-green relish, onion, tomato, a pickle spear, sport peppers and celery salt, all on a poppy seed bun. But usually, not a drop of the red stuff.

The Chicago way of dressing a dog is one of many from around the county. But Chicagoans feel so strongly about it, sales of ketchup have fallen off and are 20% below the national average, according to data provided by Heinz.

The Heinz stand at Navy Pier is in one of the citys most popular tourist destinations by Lake Michigan. It consists of a red display board with an upturned bottle in the middle. Above it, instructions read, Smack for Heinz. Such a smack causes packets of ketchup to drop down like candy from a vending machine.

On a recent day, more people than not reacted with shock and horror at the stand.

Its just wrong, its wrong for a dog, said Chicago native Cathy LaShea.

There's even some national anti-ketchup precedent. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, established by the American Meat Institute and which serves as an information resource to consumers on questions related to quality, safety, and nutrition, of hot dogs and sausages, addresses the subject in its online "Etiquette Guide."

"Don't use ketchup on your hot dog after the age of 18," the hot dog council advises. "Mustard, relish, onions, cheese and chili are acceptable."

Tourists don't mind the ketchup monolith

Not everyone in Chicago is adverse to the ketchup-hot dog union.

Jaelyn Baisch and Miriah Forness, a pair of North Dakotans visiting Chicago, lit up like running into an old friend after finding the radiant ketchup stand. Ketchup runs in Fargo like the salmon in Alaska, the pair says.

You can use as much ketchup as humanly possible, said Forness, 26.

The two medical students were surprised that in Chicago, adding ketchup could earn someone a scarlet letter.

Whoops, well came to the wrong place as ketchup lovers, said Baisch, 23.

To be frank, Chicago is not alone

Other parts of the U.S. avoid dressing their dogs with ketchup, according to the hot dog council.

New York City goes for steamed onions and yellow mustard; in the Southwest, the Sonoran dog comes wrapped in bacon and topped with pinto beans, grilled onion, green peppers, fresh tomato and more; and Michigans Coney Island dog comes topped with chili, according to a council list of regional styles.

But nowhere is the animosity towards ketchup so pronounced as in Chicago. It goes all the way to the top.

Is ketchup on a hot dog ever acceptable, Anthony Bourdain asked President Barack Obama on his show Parts Unknown in 2016.

No, said the president, who used to call Chicago home. Let me put it this way, its not acceptable past the age of 8.

Chicago below the average for ketchup consumption

The Heinz stand has been moved around to a few different spots in the city. It first appeared outside a North Side hot dog stand before being moved to Navy Pier.

Chicagos disdain for ketchup has made it about 20% below the national average when it comes to ketchup consumption, Heinz said, although the citys taste for mustard - also made by Heinz - partly makes up that shortfall.

Knoxville, Tennessee; Syracuse, New York; and Orlando, Florida, consume a disproportionate amount of ketchup, Heinz reports.

Chicago residents and tourists have smacked about 100 bottles of ketchup from the stand in the last few weeks, Heinz said.

Hoodwinked by ketchup

Bobby Trice, a line cook at The Weiner's Circle, the iconic North Side stand outside where Heinz set up last week, opines that Chicagos stance on ketchup goes back decades.

They had a lot of rotten meat," he explained, waving his hands back to a bygone era, "and in order for you to eat it, they put ketchup on it.

Bobby Trice, a longtime line cook at The Weiner's Circle on the North Side of Chicago, dishes on the city's aversion to using ketchup on hot dogs.

The sweetness of it, he said, overtook any unsavory flavors. Anything you put ketchup on, you cant taste nothing else.

Heinz first began bottling catsup in 1876, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, just a few years before a German immigrant popularized hot dogs at Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Trice, a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, said he grew up with ketchup but came became a convert after moving to Chicago.

I thought it was all a show, but it wasnt, he said. This is serious.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Ketchup catastrophe' in Chicago prompts Heinz to try frank tactics
Next time you get an invite to a friend's place for dinner, you can skip the standard bottle of wine and try grabbing a few Belgian beers instead. Despite being smaller than even some of the smallest U.S. states, the Western European country is arguably the greatest beer brewing country in the world, producing a massive number of local styles that are unique and beloved by beer drinkers. Part of this comes from the country's particular brewing history, which grew partially out of a tradition of small beer breweries in local abbeys and Trappist monasteries but also encompasses local farmers, and Belgium's position as a borderland connecting the brewing cultures of Germany, France, and Britain.

It all adds up to an exciting and overwhelming amount of choices. So, Tasting Table reached out to Lindsay Jo Whirley, a certified cicerone and the assistant director of culinary operations at Newfields in Indiana, to tell us what makes Belgian beers so great for parties.

LJ told us, "Belgium takes an artistic approach to brewing, and breweries pride themselves on the uniqueness of their beers rather than ever conforming to a specific style." With flavors ranging from fruity and tart sours beers like lambics to bready witbiers, she explained, "One main reason for their place in the top for food pairings is their malt-over-hop forwardness and their unique yeast strains used," which forgo the hop emphasis of many brewers for "a much more complex aroma and flavor profile overall."

Read more: 13 Liquors Your Home Bar Should Have

Belgian Brewers Utilize A Variety Of Yeasts And Brewing Methods To Produce Highly Complex Beers

variety of Belgian beers - Ledlopezhdz/Getty Images

There are a surprising number of Belgian beer types, including respected craft styles like dubbels, tripels, and saisons, but even that actually underestimates the diversity at play. LJ says, "Different Belgian beers, though, while sharing similarities in ingredients, have their own distinctive elements exclusive to their own brands and identities." Much like your favorite style of red wine can taste very different coming from California or France (and even different vineyards in the same region), the different styles of Belgian beer are merely a rough guideline, and two beers of the same style can run across notes that are tart and fruity in one, or creamy and peppery in another.

That bottle-to-bottle variation is why, even outside their home country, Belgian beers  and the city of Leuven  have a devoted following among beer lovers, and it's what makes them so much fun for parties and dinners. You, of course, can find almost any flavor profile to pair with the food or snacks, but the actual experience of cracking open a bottle and sipping is an act of discovery each time, which can surprise people and really get them talking. If you are looking to impress people and give them an option they haven't considered, there aren't many more unique beverages in the world than Belgian beers.

Read the original article on Tasting Table
Wolf dogs that once roamed Warwick have built a bond between RI and Ohio sanctuary

When she finally agreed to take in a pair of wolf dogs that had been running wild in Warwick a year ago, Susan Vogt didn't realize she was starting a relationship with a lot of Rhode Island residents that would end up helping support and expand her Ohio wolf-dog sanctuary.

Since the canine sisters, initially thought to be "black coyotes," arrived at the Red Riding Hood Rescue Project last May, Rhode Islanders have donated thousands of dollars, food and toys, which have supported not just the two "401 Girls" but all 22 of the sanctuary's wolf dogs, said Vogt, co-founder and president.

"What happened was the biggest blessing," said Vogt, whose three-year-old nonprofit rescue relies entirely on donations. "Rhode Islanders have been tremendously supportive."

Wolf dog Wiley, rescued from Rhode Island, now weighs about 95 pounds and is "a rascal," according to Susan Vogt, co-founder and president of the Red Riding Hood Rescue Project in Ohio.

More: 'Fresh start:' Warwick wolf dogs start their new life in Ohio in the '401 Run'

Here are some examples of the connection between Rhode Island and the Ohio rescue often called just "The Red":

A Coventry woman and her boyfriend drove 15 hours from Rhode Island to Middletown, Ohio, to deliver the wolf dogs to their new home.

A Warwick woman has become one of the rescue's volunteers, flying to Ohio to help out.

A Providence woman has provided thousands of dollars in matching funds for several projects to expand and improve the rescue. Vogt calls her "our East Coast Advocate," because she also hands out the rescue's business cards and spreads the word about its mission.

The sanctuary keeps an active Facebook page with frequent updates on the wolf dogs. "Our digital analysis still shows Rhode Island is our biggest audience," Vogt said.

Just last week, after Vogt mentioned on Facebook that the sanctuary was running low on meat, a Rhode Island woman contacted her to say she would send deer and bear meat recently harvested by family members.

Willow, the other wolf dog from Rhode Island, is a little smaller than Wiley and tends to hold back and stay in the shadows, according to Susan Vogt.

More: DNA test confirms Warwick dogs mistaken for coyotes are part wolf. Here's how much.

Last spring the 'black coyotes' made big news in Rhode Island

This time last spring, the two wolf dog pups, then called Libby and Bella, caused a stir running free around Warwick. They were eventually captured and ended up in the custody of the Warwick Animal Shelter but couldn't stay in Rhode Island because it's illegal to keep wolf dogs here.

When Ann Corvin, director of the Warwick Animal Shelter, called to ask if The Red could take the wolf dogs, Vogt said no; her sanctuary was full. Corvin didn't give up, and Vogt eventually gave in.

The dogs, renamed Wiley and Willow, have been at the sanctuary for almost a year and have nearly doubled in size. Wiley is about 95 pounds; Willow, a little shorter in length and height, weighs about 85 or 90 pounds. At about 1 years old, they're yearlings and still growing.

"They are doing really well," Vogt said. "They have settled in. They know the routine."

Wiley is a "rascal" and a quick learner, Vogt said, while Willow prefers to "stay in the shadows." Delivery trucks often pull up to The Red with gifts for the wolf dogs, many from Rhode Islanders. Willow loves carrying stuffed animals in her mouth. "When people send her stuffies," Vogt said, "it's like her emotional support animal."

A lot of people have asked about adopting Wiley and Willow, but they're not ready for that. "They have this edge to them," Vogt said. "They were treated poorly. They were running loose."

With the sanctuary's wolf dogs, one of the milestones comes when the animals allow a handler to place a slip leash over their heads so they can go out for walks. That kind of trust also makes it easier for veterinarians to work with the animals. Willow and Wiley haven't gotten there yet.

"It's work, and it's a very slow process," Vogt said.

'This is a good place for them'

Danielle Verrier, of Coventry, is an animal lover, but her boyfriend, Alex Clarke, of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is the one who had experience working with wolf dogs. When Clarke asked Verrier last year whether she would drive 830 miles with him to deliver the animals, Verrier "didn't think twice about driving 15 hours. I said, 'No problem. We'll make it work,'" Verrier recalled recently.

With the air-conditioning blasting to keep the animals comfortable, the couple drove straight through. "When you've got a couple of wolf dogs with you, you can't really stop at a hotel," Verrier said.

Bosco, another of the wolf dogs cared for by the Red Riding Hood Rescue Project, sniffs the hair of co-founder and president Susan Vogt.

Arriving at The Red, Verrier immediately got a good vibe. Having worked with other rescue organizations, Verrier believes she can sense when the humans are in it for the animals. She remembered thinking, "Oh, yeah. This is a good place for them. Everyone cares so much for these animals."

After staying a couple of days in May, Clarke and Verrier returned in July for a visit. Verrier said, "They're my Ohio friends now."

Helping out a long way from Rhode Island

Caring for 22 wolf dogs requires a lot of hard work, and the Red Riding Hood Rescue Project relies on many volunteers. Alicia Bigos is a little different from the sanctuary's other volunteers, because she lives in Warwick and flies to Ohio to help out.

Alicia Bigos, of Warwick, has flown out to Ohio to volunteer with the Red Riding Hood Rescue Project. Here she is with Jackson and Tilly.

Bigos has gone twice, helping with tasks such as feeding, cleaning up after the animals and providing enrichment. She plans another visit at the end of this month. The rescue doesn't accept just anyone, according to Vogt, but requires its volunteers to pass a training program.

Bigos has always been "fascinated" by wolf dogs and "absolutely fell in love" with them on her first visit, she said. "Susan and her husband [Colin] are such welcoming people. I instantly felt at home, like I belonged there."

"We all love her," Vogt said. "We want her to move here."

More: Mistaken for coyotes in Warwick, turns out Bella and Libby were puppies - the domestic kind

'She has built this place'

Vogt hopes to soon meet a woman who is perhaps the sanctuary's greatest Rhode Island supporter, Alicia Mancini, of Providence.

"I have yet to meet her, but I adore her," Vogt said.

Mancini and her husband, Rob, have provided thousands of dollars in matching funds for several projects. They've helped expand Willow and Wiley's pen, which, in turn, enabled an expansion of the entire facility, allowing the rescue to build more pens and take in more animals.

They've donated money to extend water lines from Vogt's house to the wolf-dog pens so volunteers don't have to lug water buckets a quarter mile, and they've also donated, so the rescue could put down thousands of yards of gravel to keep the animals and volunteers out of the mud.

"She has built this place, I told her," Vogt said. "She's done a tremendous amount of good."

Mancini and her husband have provided their financial support anonymously. To show their gratitude, The Red named its expanded section after their pet cat, Kurtz.

Vogt calls Mancini The Red's "East Coast Advocate." She sent her business cards, which Mancini hands out to friends and family. Mancini sometimes wears a Red Riding Hood Rescue shirt and finds that people will often ask her about it. She often tells them about the rescue and the mission and hands them a card.

Helping the wolf dogs at The Red "feels good," Mancini said.

"It's worth it," she said. "It's a wonderful thing."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Ohio's Red Riding Hood Rescue Project's wolf dogs forge bond with RI
"1,200 km is no limit": Ukraine now using many more drones on battlefield

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi and Defence Minister Rustem Umierov learn about Ukrainian defence innovations on 7 April. Photo: Syrskyi on Facebook

Three times more drones have been provided to frontline Ukrainian forces since the beginning of 2024 than during all of 2023, with hundreds of unmanned ground vehicles in use on the front.

Source: Colonel Vadym Sukharevskyi, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, during an official event dedicated to the Weapons of Victory. Made in UA post stamp on Saturday, 13 April, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine

Quote from Sukharevskyi: "During 2024 so far we have supplied almost three times as many drones as during all of last year. This dynamic continues There will be more and more."

Details: Sukharevskyi explained that 99% of drones delivered to the front are Ukrainian-made.

He also said that naval surface vessels (or sea drones) currently used to "clean up" the Black Sea will soon be used in the Sea of Azov as well.

Sukharevskyi also said that drones will soon be able to travel more than 1,200 kilometres into Russia, which is the current longest range.

"And believe me, 1,200 kilometres is not a limit today, nor was it a limit yesterday," he said.

He also talked about the creation of new units that will focus on unmanned ground vehicles within the unmanned systems units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The results of their work will be evident by the end of 2024.

Sukharevskyi said that "dozens, even hundreds" of these vehicles were already in use on the front for a variety of purposes.

He added that drones that are now most widely deployed in combat zones, including unmanned aerial vehicles, such as FPV drones, attack drones, night vision drones, and multicopter drones, provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with a significant advantage and can compensate for "limited resources when it comes to artillery".

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One person is dead, at least 10 more were injured and dozens were trapped high above ground for hours after a Friday accident on a mountainous cable car in the Southern Turkey resort city of Konyaalt in the province of Antalya. Photo courtesy of Antalya Governorship/EPA-EFE

April 13 (UPI) -- One person is dead, at least 10 more were injured and dozens are trapped high above ground on Saturday after an accident on a mountainous cable car in Southern Turkey.

Officials said a cable car cabin collided with a broken pole around 5:23 p.m. local time Friday in the Turkish province of Antalya, causing its occupants to fall onto the mountain below and leaving 24 other cabins high stranded above the ground.

Teleferikte mahsur kalan vatandaslarmz kurtarma calsmalar aralksz devam etmektedir. Mahsur kalan 19 kabindeki 137 kisi basaryla tahliye edilmistir. 5 kabinde 29 kisinin tahliyesine de devam edilmektedir. Sahil Guvenlik Komutanlgna ait 4 Jandarma Genel... pic.twitter.com/X9xNUpQjMq Ali Yerlikaya (@AliYerlikaya) April 13, 2024

More than 600 search and rescue personnel, eight helicopters and a military cargo plane were dispatched to help, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement on X.

Video showed a helicopter hovering high above the stranded cable cars, hanging over a sheer rock face.

Yerlikaya confirmed the cabin that fell plunged into a rocky area on the mountain, killing a 54-year-old man. Two young children were among those injured.

The highest peak of the mountain is 2,027 feet.

Turkey's Interior Ministry said 112 people had been rescued as of Friday night. Yerlikaya reported Saturday the remaining people had been rescued.

The incident happened in Konyaalt, a small resort municipality in Antalya covering around 211 square miles, with a population of around 204,000 people.

The coastal resort is typically busy, as Friday marked the final day of a three-day public holiday in Turkey marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The province's chief prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into the incident to determine what exactly led up to the collapse, according to Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc.
SAN MARCOS, Texas (KXAN)  One person is dead after an officer-involved shooting happened in San Marcos on Thursday, according to the City of San Marcos.

A city news release said two men told 911 dispatchers they were being followed by a man when they were walking in the area of East Hopkins and Cheatham Street in San Marcos. The callers said the man followed them from a convenience store on Cheatham Street.

Then, the man pulled out two large knives and threatened them, the release said. That man was described as shorter Black man in his 20s and was wearing a yellow shirt and blue pants. According to police, he walked away from the area when the two men called 911.

Then, around 10:33 p.m., officers saw the man after he went back to the convenience store, the release said. The man and an officer walked out of the store, and that is when the man ran to an occupied business across the street.

Officers were not able to stop the man with a stun gun. Police shot the man after he ran toward a business while holding the knife, the release said.

Officers provided first aid to the man, and he was then taken to Seton Hays Hospital in Kyle where he was pronounced dead, the release said. Police did not identify the man Friday.

No other injuries were reported, according to the city.

An autopsy will be conducted by the Travis County Medical Examiner. The shooting remained under investigation by law enforcement Friday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  One man died and another man was injured following a shooting at an Antioch apartment complex Friday night.

According to the Metro Nashville Police Department, officers from the South Precinct responded to the shooting just after 9:30 p.m. on Friday, April 12 in the parking lot of Cascade Apartments in the 3300 block of Murfreesboro Pike.

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When authorities arrived at the scene, they said they found 23-year-old Vidal York, of Smyrna, lying in the parking lot, so an ambulance rushed him to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Meanwhile, a 19-year-old who arrived at the apartment complex with York was taken to a hospital by a family member with non-critical injuries, officials said. He was reportedly treated and released.

Police said they believe the shooter fled the apartment complex in a vehicle shortly after the incident.

Teen dead after shooting near Goodlettsville trailer park, police say

The motive behind the gunfire has yet to be determined, but Homicide and Specialized Investigation Division detectives are working active leads, according to MNPD.

If you have any information about this case, you are asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 615-742-7463. Callers to Crime Stoppers can remain anonymous and qualify for a cash reward.

 Download the News 2 app to stay updated on the go.

 Sign up for WKRN email alerts to have breaking news sent to your inbox.

 Find todays top stories on WKRN.com for Nashville, TN and all of Middle Tennessee.

This is a developing story. WKRN News 2 will continue to update this article as new information becomes available.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
1 Killed, 13 Injured When Man Crashes Truck Into Office After He Was Denied a Driver's License: Police

The suspect has been charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle and evading arrest causing serious bodily injury

AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi Scene of the crash

One person was killed, and 13 others were injured on Friday, April 12, after a 42-year-old man crashed an 18-wheeler into a Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) office.

According to a department media briefing, the vehicle struck the office in Brenham shortly before 11:00 a.m.

Texas DPS Sgt. Justin Reese said that multiple law enforcement agencies were following the truck after it was reported stolen.

AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi First responders arrive at the scene of the crash

Related: Police Pursuing Ala. Man Charged with Kidnapping Woman in Crash Near Cemetery

Reese noted that the suspect, who was identified as Clenard Parker and taken into custody, had visited the office on Thursday.

"Parker did come to the DPS Brenham office yesterday at approximately 3 or 4 p.m., where he was denied his commercial driver's license. While he was there, the driver's license staff advised Parker that he was not eligible to renew his commercial driver's license," said Reese.

According to Reese, after law enforcement saw the stolen truck, they tried to stop the driver. The driver then took a U-turn before taking a hard right and driving through the building's front office, Reese said. Parker was arrested and taken out of the driver's seat as he tried to crash through the building again, Reese said.

The sergeant said that the incident is being treated as a "criminal investigation" led by the Texas Rangers and that Parker "did not suffer any injuries."

DPS can confirm that 14 people were injured in todays tragic incident at the Brenham DPS Office.



One is now deceased, two have serious injuries, three were taken to a hospital & released, and eight were treated at the scene.



The Texas Rangers are leading this investigation. https://t.co/fd4UkpOdia  TxDPS - Southeast Texas Region (@TxDPSSoutheast) April 12, 2024

Related: La. Father Pleads Guilty to Killing 3 Children in Intentional House Fire, Then He's Attacked in Courtroom Brawl

There were 14 people in the office. "One is now deceased, two have serious injuries, three were taken to a hospital & released, and eight were treated at the scene," the department confirmed on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday afternoon.

"What I can say today is that this area is safe. We've got the suspect in custody and we're all out here trying to get the scene all fixed up and taken care of," said Reese during the media briefing



Texas DPS Regional Director Gerald Brown called it a "tragic day," adding, "My heart and prayers go out to the family members of those who are injured."

View of the Texas Department of Public Safety Office in Brenham, Texas, before the crash

According to Washington County Jail records reviewed by PEOPLE, Parker has been charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle and evading arrest causing serious bodily injury. KHOU reports that Parker also has "several previous arrests."

Texas State Senator Lois Kolkhorst, who visited the scene after the incident, thanked first responders at the media conference, expressing that the suspect will be prosecuted to "the fullest extent of the law."

in the press conference, we will prosecute this coward to the fullest extent of the law. This shameful and murderous act will not be tolerated in my hometown or our state.



Please join me in praying for the deceased, the injured victims and all families impacted. pic.twitter.com/iWOqSR4656  Senator Lois Kolkhorst (@LoisKolkhorst) April 12, 2024

Sharing a photo from the scene on social media, Kolhorst wrote, "From details thus far, this was an intentional act of violence against innocent citizens and our civil servants that work in this facility. As I stated in the press conference, we will prosecute this coward to the fullest extent of the law. This shameful and murderous act will not be tolerated in my hometown or our state."

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

"Please join me in praying for the deceased, the injured victims and all families impacted," she continued.



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Read the original article on People.
You may feel youve been robbed at an online casino before now. But sometimes, in the physical world, the tables get turned and not in a fair way. OLBG compiled a list of the 10 biggest casino heists of all time, chronicling when players didnt play by the rules and the house lost in the end.



Casinos employ numerous strategies to keep players engaged, including ambient tricks that can significantly boost their earnings, such as perfuming the air, a tactic proven to increase slot revenue by 45% in one Vegas casino. Despite these tactics, some players seek ways to outsmart the system, which is designed to ensure the house always wins. Cheating attempts from card counting to more elaborate schemes have been explored, but maintaining an advantage requires flawless execution. Researchers are now investigating if quantum entanglement could potentially offer an edge in games like blackjack.



However, Jeff Jonas, a data scientist, notes that casinos are adept at detecting cheating through sophisticated surveillance technologies, such as his NORA software, which analyzes data to identify fraud. Ultimately, without the ability to legally or effectively cheat, individuals are left with few options to beat the casino, leading some to avoid gambling altogether or, in extreme cases, attempt heists. These dramatic endeavors, often glorified in Hollywood casino movies, highlight the extreme lengths some will go to in trying to gain an upper hand against the meticulously calculated odds of casino games.

The Crown Casino Heist: $33M

The 2013 heist at Crown Casino is the largest and most Hollywood-esque operation on this list. Millionaire New Zealand businessman James Manning was invited by a VIP services manager at the Crown Casino in Perth, Australia, to play in the high rollers room. Manning won eight hands of blackjack, winning a total of $33 million. As it turns out, his luck was the result of breached security cameras and card signaling from the same VIP services manager who recruited him to play. Because Manning never cashed out his fraudulent winnings, the Crown Casino was able to remove him from the premises later that evening and keep the heist under wraps.

MIT Blackjack Team: $22M to $57M

This story is a heist by way of card countingand since its technically not illegal, it might be most accurate to just call these winnings. According to Bill Kaplan, the founder of the MIT blackjack team, blackjack is the only game you can truly win through statistical analysisprobabilities change with every card the dealer plays. So Kaplan put together a team of students from Harvard, MIT, Princeton, and the University of Chicago, teaching them to count cards and employ strategy. Over the course of two decades, the team won tens of millions of dollars from casinos across the world playing blackjack. Report totals range from $22 million to $57 million.

Circus Circus Heist: $3M

In 1993, Heather Tallchief proved that not every heist needs to involve camera breaches, cheating, or an elaborate scheme. Under the advisement of her boyfriend, Roberto Solisa convicted murderer released from prison thanks to his award-winning poetryTallchief got a job with Loomis driving armored vehicles in Las Vegas transporting cash to fill casino ATMs. While making a routine stop at the Circus Circus casino, Tallchief drove away with roughly $3 million while the other transport guards were inside. Tallchief and Solis moved out of the country until 2005 when she eventually turned herself in. Tallchief claims she separated from Solis and only received $1,000 of the multimillion-dollar heist. Authorities have still not been able to locate Solis.

Ritz Casino, London: $1.7M

While statistics and probabilities will not give you an advantage in roulette, three people proved that physics certainly can. In 2004, a group of gamblers used laser scanners and microcomputers to calculate the balls orbital decay, or where it would land. This strategy is known as sector targeting. After a nine-month investigation, police concluded no crime was committed and the players were returned their winnings. The use of smartphones makes this type of cheating easier to carry out and more difficult to detect. But this wasnt the first time sector targeting was attempted. Graduate physics students at the University of California, Santa Cruz employed a more rudimentary version of this technology in the late 1970s, hiding the system under their clothes.

Soboba Casino: $1.5M

As evidenced by the list so far, many heists are inside jobs. In 2007, a Soboba Casino surveillance technician named Rolando Luda Ramos walked into work, hog-tied his coworkers, and took a little over $1.5 million from the casino vault. He and his getaway driver, Eric Aguilera, were apprehended 48 hours later.

Bellagio, Las Vegas: $1.5M

While the Bellagio Biker Bandit may seem like the kind of person who chases Kevin McCallister around abandoned buildings at Christmastime, (Home Alone, anyone?), this real-life thief carried out one of Las Vegas most brazen robberies. In 2010, Anthony Michael Carleo, the son of a Las Vegas judge, walked into the Bellagio wearing a motorcycle helmet, brandished a gun, and made off with $1.5 million worth of chips off a craps table. Just days earlier, Carleo had stolen $20,000 worth of chips from the Suncoast Hotel & Casino in the same manner. Ironically, Carleo does have one thing in common with the criminals from Home Alone: he couldnt resist taking credit for the crime, which ultimately led to his capture.

Stardust Casino: $500K

While maybe not the flashiest heist on the list, the story of the Stardust Casino is certainly the most mysterious. In 1992, Bill Brennan, a cashier at the Stardust, was assigned to count the money from the sportsbook, which ended up totaling $500,000. And then he simply walked out with the moneyhalf in cash, the other in casino chips. Brennan was placed on the FBIs Most Wanted list until 2006 when the Stardust closed and his case was dismissed. The crime remains unsolved and neither the money nor Brennan have been seen since that day.

Stardust Casino: $1.1M

If were assigning superlatives to the heists on this list, this other 1992 robbery of the Stardust Casino may be the most theatrical involving an inside job, a family crime ring, and some smoke bombs. In 1991, a Stardust security guard named Royal Hopper used his two sons as fake robbers in order to steal $150,000. With a taste for this type of crime, six months later, Hopper and his two sons attacked a guard carrying $1.1 million in cash and checks from an armored truck and used smoke bombs to conceal their escape.

The Bellagio (Las Vegas): $160K

Jose Vigoas heist of the Bellagio in 2000 was the last in a two-year crime spree. Donning bulletproof gear, Vigoa hopped the cashier counter and stuffed a bag with $160,000 worth of casino chips. Despite his protective clothing, Vigoa, a former commando in the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, didnt even attempt to conceal his face, covering the most important thing of all: his identity. He was apprehended shortly after and is currently serving four life sentences for multiple robberies and the murder of two armored truck guards.

Treasure Island: $30K

Just the thought of robbing a casinonot a fleeting fantasy about being rich or living out a George Clooney movie, but a thought you intend to act onis completely unrelatable to most people. To actually make an attempt is outside the average persons comprehension. To make three attempts at the same casino in a calendar year is a reckless impulse only one person on Earth could have ever entertained: Reginald Johnson. Johnson robbed Treasure Island in July, October, and December 2000, shooting at and injuring security guards on multiple occasions. In his first two attempts, Johnson walked away with more than $30,000. The third time was indeed the charm for Vegas authorities; he was captured and pled guilty to robbery and attempted murder charges.

This story was produced by OLBG and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.

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By Tomoyuki Tachikawa, KYODO NEWS - Apr 13, 2024 - 08:27 | All, Japan, World

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida may become more willing to call a general election as early as June as he apparently believes his state visit to the United States has borne fruit, helping reverse his unpopularity.

As the first Japanese political leader to make a trip to the United States as a state guest in nine years, Kishida agreed with President Joe Biden to bolster bilateral cooperation in a wide range of fields, including defense and cutting-edge technologies.

Some pundits have credited Kishida for his diplomatic efforts to strengthen the alliance between Tokyo and Washington ahead of the U.S. presidential race in November, in which Donald Trump, who has pursued his unilateralist "America First" policy, might be reelected.

In Japan, however, criticism of Kishida has shown little sign of subsiding due to a political funds scandal that has considerably eroded public trust in his ruling Liberal Democratic Party, although he recently punished around 40 lawmakers involved in it.

The LDP has come under intense scrutiny after its largest faction, formerly led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and others neglected to report portions of their income from fundraising parties and accumulated slush funds for years for their members.

Earlier this month, the LDP took severe punitive measures against senior lawmakers of the biggest faction, but the party excluded its leader Kishida despite a former accountant of his group having been issued a summary indictment over the slush funds scandal.

Within Kishida's LDP, the punishments have drawn backlash from its members who perceive them as unfair, while opposition parties have criticized the ruling party's investigation for failing to fully bring to light the facts surrounding the scandal.

The LDP said about 80 members were implicated in the scandal, but "the number of lawmakers subject to the disciplinary actions is small," signaling Kishida's desire to avoid intraparty division, said Tomoaki Iwai, a professor emeritus at Nihon University in Tokyo.

"Dissatisfaction will build up within the LDP" unless Kishida adequately explains what was behind his decision, said Iwai, well-versed in political science, indicating he cannot create momentum to dissolve the House of Representatives in the near future.

Nevertheless, Kishida said following the announcement of the penalties, "I want the public and party members to make a final judgment" on whether his decision was correct, sparking speculation that he would dissolve the lower house to call a snap election soon.

Nobuyuki Baba, the leader of the country's second-largest opposition Japan Innovation Party, said Kishida should "seek a popular mandate immediately," with expectations growing that the LDP will lose many seats if a lower house election is held in June.

Kishida, who took office in October 2021, has been exploring the optimal timing to win a general election to consolidate his political footing, as he has been keen to be reelected as LDP leader. The next presidential race is scheduled around September.

On Monday in Washington, Kishida became Japan's first prime minister to visit the United States as a state guest since 2015, when Abe, who was fatally shot during an election campaign in 2022, did. Kishida addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Thursday.

At a summit in Washington on Wednesday, Kishida confirmed with Biden that Japan and the United States will work together to tackle security threats in the Asia-Pacific region and reinforce supply chains, amid China's increasing military and economic assertiveness.

At an arrival ceremony for the Japanese premier, Kishida said Japan and the United States will "take the lead" in grappling with global challenges, looking "10 years and also 100 years ahead" in developing relations.

His speech at a state dinner hosted Wednesday by Biden and his wife Jill was warmly received by the attendees.

Takashi Kawakami, a lecturer at Chuo University in Tokyo, said it is "significant" to aim to enhance the Japan-U.S. alliance now, as bilateral ties could become more fragile in the coming years if Trump were reelected as president.

Kishida's state visit to the United States came as approval ratings for his Cabinet have been plunging to their lowest levels since it was launched against a backdrop of the slush funds scandal revealed late last year.

Stephen Nagy, a professor at International Christian University in Tokyo, said, "Bilateral summits with U.S. presidents always provide a temporary boost to Japanese prime ministers. I do not expect any difference from this visit."

So far, Kishida has tried to prop up his sluggish support by pitching his diplomatic achievements, such as making a surprise visit to Ukraine in March 2023 and successfully hosting the Group of Seven summit in his home constituency of Hiroshima in May that year.

Especially after the G7 summit, Kishida's approval ratings had temporarily recovered, but they eventually faced another downward trend due in part to the emergence of inappropriate photographs taken during a family function at the prime minister's official residence.

A source close to Kishida said his state visit to the United States might offer a window of opportunity for him to restore his political power, prompting him to dissolve the lower house in the run-up to the LDP presidential election in the fall.

Satsuki Katayama, an LDP lawmaker, said Kishida appears to be mapping out strategies to call a snap election, while a heavyweight within the party said, "The headwinds are not going away anytime soon, so the lower house dissolution is unlikely."

Asked about when Kishida will dissolve the lower house, a senior government official close to him said, "It is like a mirage. You can see it a little further ahead, but as you get closer, you cannot see it anymore."

The current four-year terms for lower house members expire in October 2025 unless Kishida dissolves the chamber. Under Japan's Constitution, the prime minister has the authority to decide whether to dissolve the lower house.

Related coverage:

Japan PM Kishida makes self-deprecating jokes at White House dinner

Japan PM asks U.S. to take lead for global order in landmark speech

FOCUS: Biden and Kishida future-proof bilateral ties in uncertain times
Seattle Police Department are investigating after a young man was shot early Friday morning.

Police say that they received a call just after 2:30 a.m. that a boy was shot two times. When officers arrived at the scene located near Sand Point Way Northeast and Northeast 74th Street, they found a 16-year-old boy with multiple gunshot wounds to his chest.

Seattle Fire Department crews provided the victim with aid and transported him to the Harborview Medical Center in stable condition.

The boy reportedly told investigators that he was walking by a bus stop in the Northgate area when he was shot. He did not identify the suspect.

After the shooting, a friend drove him from the Northgate area to Sand Point Way Northeast and Northeast 74th Street.

Information about the exact location of the shooting remains unclear. Officers searched the area but could not find a crime scene. The circumstances surrounding the shooting are unclear. The shooting remains under investigation.

No suspect has been identified and the name of the victim has not been released since he is a minor.

Seattle Police Departments Gun Violence Reduction Unit Detectives will be leading the investigation. If anyone has information about the shooting, please call the Seattle Police Departments Violent Crimes Tip Line at 206-233-5000.
The 1968 killing of a milkman who was a WWII veteran has been solved 56 years later

Fifty-six years after a Florida milkman failed to return home after his rounds, his homicide has been solved, closing the oldest cold case in Indian River County Sheriffs Office history.

The emergence of two people who say the suspect confessed to them helped investigators determine who killed Hiram Ross Grayam, a decorated World War II veteran who was fatally shot execution style while working on April 11, 1968, according to the sheriffs office.

The victims son Larry Grayam, who was 16 at the time of his fathers death, said the resolution of the case has brought mixed emotions.

It devastated my family as a young kid, and caused me to actually lead a life of public safety and work as a photojournalist as well, Larry Grayam said.

Hiram Grayam, 47, a married father of three from Vero Beach who was a recipient of the Purple Heart, was last seen by a witness talking to two males who then got into his truck, Sheriff Eric Flowers said Thursday at a news conference.

The witness said Mr. Grayam engaged them in conversation and announced that he would be back shortly, Flowers added. The next day, Grayams body and truck were located in a wooded area in what was described as a chilling scene, the sheriffs office said in a statement.

Over the subsequent years, 16 separate investigations occurred through April 1974 in an effort to solve the case, Flowers said.

In 2006, the case was reopened at the request of a family member. After the victims family was interviewed by the media, the suspected killer, Thomas J. Williams, wrote a letter to the editor of a local newspaper saying he had been accused of the killing but denied being involved in it, Flowers said.

At that point, he wasnt on anybodys radar, Larry Grayam said at the news conference. He kind of interjected himself into the crime and became a suspect.

Williams died in 2016, but two people said prior to his death he confessed to them that he had killed Grayam, the sheriff said.

The sheriffs office told CNN investigators were tipped off in February 2022 by an inmate in their jail, who told them Williams had confessed to him. The inmate was a member of Williams family, the sheriff said.

After receiving that information, detectives tracked down the suspects ex-wife, who also said Williams confessed to her, Flowers said.

The sheriffs office noted the two individuals who knew of the confession were independent witnesses who did not know each other and had not come forward earlier out of fear for their safety as Williams had threatened them. The witnesses said the suspect had been arrested and convicted several times on other charges, the sheriffs office added.

Thomas Williams, we believe is our shooter in this case but we know theres another person out there that knows what happened on that day. We know who he is, and we want someone to come forward from the community to give us more information about that, Flowers said.

The sheriffs office said the developments in the milkman homicide case stand as beacons of hope for families like the Grayams, ensuring that no victim is forgotten, and no crime is unpunished.

Cara Lynn Clarkson contributed to this report.

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After a mid-March fatal shooting in Kennesaw on McGuire Drive, two men were arrested for murder and other drug-related charges.

Kennesaw police began an investigation into the incident, where 21-year-old Sanifu Henry died.

Channel 2s Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell was in Kennesaw Friday, where police said that just after midnight on March 15, officers received reports of a person shot.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

At the scene, officers couldnt find a victim. Instead, Henry was able to get to a hospital but died of his wounds.

Zier Xzavier Green and ReShard Marquis Lee arrested for his death. They told police they drove to the neighborhood to sell drugs.

TRENDING STORIES:

Police told Channel 2 Action News bthat the real motive was to rob Henry and another person he was with and during the exchange, shots were fired.

Cobb County court records show Green and Lee were both indicted by a grand jury and face seven charges each:

Felony Murder (3 counts)

Aggravated Assault

Criminal Attempt to Commit Armed Robbery

Possession of Marijuana with Intent to Distribute

Possession of Firearm During Commission of a Felony

As previously reported by Channel 2 Action News, Henry moved to Georgia from California to get away from gun violence. He was shot to death in Kennesaw in over oregano and spinach, according to his mother.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
3 dead after 3 shootings in Charlotte on Friday night. Police ask public for help

Police responded to three fatal shootings in Charlotte within hours Friday night and asked the public for help in the investigations.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released few details about the homicides, including who was shot and if anyone is in custody. Police also didnt say if they believe any of the shootings are related.

In each case, police found a male victim with a gunshot wound after responding to a call of a shooting.Medic pronounced each person dead at the scene.

 Just after 5 p.m., officers responded to a shooting in the 6200 block of Upas Lane, according to a CMPD news release. Thats just north of Waverly Lake and Albemarle Road in east Charlotte.

 About 6:40 p.m., police found a person with a gunshot after responding to a call of a shooting in the 7600 block of Boswell Road. Thats off Misenheimer and Harrisburg roads in east Charlotte.

 And just after 9 p.m., a person was found shot in the 5300 block of Pinehurst Park Drive, off Providence Road in south Charlotte..

Police urged anyone with information about the shootings to call the Crime Stoppers anonymous tips line at 704-334-1600 or the CMPD homicide unit at 704-432-8477.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  Four middle school students were taken to a hospital after it is believed they ate gummies containing THC, the primary psychoactive component found in marijuana.

The isolated incident happened on Thursday at Dan McCarty Middle School in Fort Pierce.

He bashed my face in: Woman recalls being nearly beaten to death while walking home

In a statement to parents obtained by NBC affiliate WPTV, Principal Latricia Stubbs said the students were taken to the hospital out of an abundance of caution.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), THC can be impairing or mind-altering. Consuming high dosages of THC can have delayed effects, leading to a higher risk of overdose or poisoning.

The full statement can be read here:



Today (Thursday), our school resource deputy, in conjunction with the Sheriffs Office and school security, investigated an isolated incident involving 4 students suspected of ingesting gummies that may have contained THC. Out of an abundance of caution, those students were transported to a local hospital to receive medical attention. Any student who distributes, possesses, or is caught in the act of using, admits to use, or is discovered to have used drugs, narcotics, or controlled substances in the course of an investigation will receive consequences outlined in the Student Code of Conduct. Consequences can include suspension, expulsion, and/or arrest. All variables are considered before determining final disciplinary actions pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation. As parents, you can help. Please take this opportunity to speak with your child about not accepting or ingesting anything given to them by someone else. We want to encourage students to feel comfortable reporting any information they may have that compromises their safety and the safety of others. When students see something and say something it helps to keep everyone safe. Working together we can maintain an environment where students are free to focus on learning. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at __________.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
Four people, including a 1-year-old and an infant, were injured after a crash in Darke County Friday afternoon.

Darke County Deputies were dispatched to the intersection of Greenville-Nashville Rd and Hillgrove-Southern Rd around 2:39 p.m. Friday in reports of a crash.

The preliminary investigation indicated a white pickup truck driven by 67-year-old Jonathan Younkers of Greenville was stopped at the stop sign at Hillgrove-Southern Road and Greenville-Nashville Road.

>> Officers investigating shots fired call near bar in Dayton

Younkers then turned right onto Greenville-Nashville Road and attempted to make a left turn onto Hillgrove Southern Rd and hit an SUV driven by 28-year-old Cordell Rock of Arcanum, Ohio.

The SUV was traveling eastbound on Greenville-Nashville Rd and was attempting to pass the pick-up at the intersection. The SUV traveled off the right side of the road and crashed into a utility pole.

Rock, along with the front seat passenger of the SUV,25-year-old Brooklyn Hunley of Greenville were transported to Miami Valley Hospital for their injuries, and a 1-year-old and an infant that had been in the back seat were transported to Wayne HealthCare,

Younkers was not injured. The crash remains under investigation by the Darke County Sheriffs Office.
WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said four men were shot in four separate shootings overnight.

Police said that at about 11:15 p.m., they were dispatched to the 4100 block of Hunt Place in Northeast for a shooting. MPD said they found a man who had been shot. He was conscious and breathing.

A few hours later at about 1:18 a.m., MPD was dispatched to the 1200 block of Raum St. in Northeast for a shooting.

Man shot, killed wife in Prince William County, police say

MPD said a man was found shot. He was also conscious and breathing.

At about 3:30 a.m., officers were dispatched to a local hospital at the 2500 Block of New York Ave. in Northwest D.C. for a man who walked in for help after being shot.

He was conscious and breathing.

Police said that at about 4:12 a.m., they found a car partially parked on the sidewalk at the intersection of Stanton Road and Mississippi Ave. SE.

When MPD approached the car, they found a man who had been shot. He died there.

The man was identified as 35-year-old Christian Elsberry of Clinton, Md.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | Washington, DC.
Four people were taken into custody in connection to the disappearance of two Kansas women who were last seen driving through the Oklahoma Panhandle, The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) confirmed to Fox News Digital.

The OSBI confirmed on Saturday that four individuals were in custody. One was arrested in Texas County while the other three were arrested in Cimarron County.

The OSBI identified the suspects as 43-year-old Tad Bert Cullum, 54-year-old Tifany Machel Adams, 50-year-old Cole Earl Twombly, and 44-year-old Cora Twombly.

Officials said all four individuals were booked into the Texas County Jail on two counts of First-Degree Murder, two counts of Kidnapping, and one count of Conspiracy to Commit Murder in the First Degree.

While the arrests have been made, the women are still missing, according to OSBI.

FBI JOINS SEARCH FOR MISSING KANSAS WOMEN IN OKLAHOMA

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Hugoton Assembly of God Pastor Tim Singer tells Fox News that Jilian Kelley, left, and Veronica Butler, right, were heading Saturday to pick up Butler's children to bring them back to a birthday party in Hugoton, Kansas.

Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, were last seen on March 30 heading to pick up children before their car was found abandoned near the Oklahoma-Kansas border, with "foul play" suspected, police said.

"We are still telling everybody in that area that if you know anything or have any additional information to please contact us," Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation public information manager Hunter McKee told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

YOUTUBERS SEARCH FOR MISSING KANSAS WOMEN INSIDE ABANDONED HOME: REPORT

Veronica Butler, left, and Jilian Kelley were last seen Saturday while driving to pick up children, police say.

McKee told Fox News Digital on Monday that "its becoming more and more challenging" to find the women alive as the days mount with no signs of their whereabouts.

A missing persons advisory from the Texas County Sheriffs Office said that Butler has "several tattoos, a Chinese symbol on her left forearm, a sunflower on her left shoulder" and that "Jilian has a butterfly tattoo on her left forearm."

The alert describes Butler as being 5 feet, 4 inches tall with red hair and green eyes, last seen wearing a blue short-sleeve shirt and denim shorts.

Kelley has brown hair and blue eyes and was last seen wearing a long-sleeve shirt, blue jeans and tan or beige shoes, the alert adds.

Fox News Digital's Greg Norman contributed to this report.





Original article source: 4 people arrested in connection to 2 missing Kansas women: OSBI
KYODO NEWS - Apr 13, 2024 - 12:33 | All, Japan

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida emphasized Friday that he was able to convey "future-oriented" messages on relations with the United States during his state visit to the country, the first by the Asian nation's leader in nine years.

"I believe that I could send such messages through several opportunities, including the Japan-U.S. summit" to the American people and the world, Kishida, who is scheduled to leave the United States on Saturday, told reporters.

At the summit in Washington on Wednesday, Kishida agreed with U.S. President Joe Biden to bolster the bilateral security alliance, with China's increasing military and economic assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region in mind.

The two leaders also confirmed the necessity of deepening trilateral cooperation involving South Korea to grapple with security threats posed by China and North Korea, which has continued to develop missiles and nuclear weapons.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's ruling party, however, suffered a crushing setback in Wednesday's general election, dealing a heavy blow to his administration that has expressed eagerness to improve ties with Japan since it was launched in May 2022.

Amid concern that the outcome of the election would affect Japan-South Korea relations, Kishida said the two countries are "critical partners and important neighbors" in tackling global issues, pledging to maintain close communication.

The prime minister will return to Japan on Sunday, with three House of Representatives by-elections to be held on April 28 and his Cabinet's approval ratings at their lowest levels since he took office in October 2021.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party, led by Kishida, has come under intense scrutiny after some of its factions neglected to report portions of their income from fundraising parties and accumulated slush funds for years for their members.

Earlier this month, the LDP, which has been in power for most of the period since its formation in 1955, decided not to field candidates in two of the three by-elections, given the party's low support rates.

Speculation lingers that Kishida may dissolve the lower house as early as June for a snap election to restore his political fortunes ahead of the LDP's presidential race around September.

Asked whether he could dissolve the lower house soon, Kishida said only, "I will place top priority on rebuilding public trust in politics and addressing other challenges that cannot be put off. I am not thinking about anything other than that."

On Friday, Kishida visited the site of a battery plant being constructed by Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's largest automaker by volume, in North Carolina, highlighting his nation's contributions to job creation and investment in the United States.

Kishida agreed at the summit with Biden that mutual investment by their countries is important in spurring global economic growth. Toyota's total investment for the plant has climbed to $13.9 billion, with the factory expected to employ more than 5,000 people.

Political experts said Kishida is seeking to showcase Toyota's involvement in the world's biggest economy, given the possibility that Donald Trump, who has criticized the U.S. trade deficit with Japan, could be reelected president in November.

Japanese automakers have been ramping up their production capacity in the United States so that their electric vehicles are eligible for tax breaks offered under the Biden administration, which requires EVs to be built in North America.

Later Friday, Kishida held a gathering with Japanese university students in the United States. He promised to expand economic support for students studying abroad to mitigate the negative impact of the sharp depreciation of the Japanese yen.

Related coverage:

Japan PM Kishida makes self-deprecating jokes at White House dinner

Japan PM asks U.S. to take lead for global order in landmark speech

FOCUS: Biden and Kishida future-proof bilateral ties in uncertain times
All 6 Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant power units in cold shutdown for first time since 2022  IAEA

All six power units of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) have been switched to the cold shutdown mode for the first time since 2022.

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), referring to Director General Rafael Grossi

Details: Reportedly, all six power units are in a cold shutdown mode after the power unit No.4 was put into this state early on Saturday morning.

On Friday morning, the plant began the transition of the power unit No.4 from hot to cold shutdown, which was completed on Saturday at 07:30. The decision to take this step was made after the winter heating season recently ended in the neighbouring city of Enerhodar, where most of the plant's staff live, the IAEA said.

Quote from Grossi: "I welcome this development which has been recommended by the Agency for some time, as it enhances the overall safety of the facility...

The decision to have all six units in cold shutdown is positive in itself, as the cooling down of the reactor provides an additional buffer in case of an accident. But it doesnt address the fundamental issue of a recent sharp deterioration of the situation at the plant. Without a doubt, nuclear safety and security at this major nuclear facility remains very precarious."

More details: The IAEA noted that Ukraines State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate had previously issued regulatory orders to limit the operation of all six ZNPP units to a cold shutdown.

Background: The Wall Street Journal reported that Russian leader Vladimir Putin informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the Kremlin plans to restart the Zaporizhzhia NPP, which is currently under Russian control. This significantly increases the risks of an incident at Europe's largest nuclear power station.

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As of Saturday, its been 75 years since a large earthquake shook the Pacific Northwest, toppling chimneys, breaking gas lines and collapsing brick walls.

At 11:55 a.m. on April 13, 1949, the 7.1 magnitude quake hit between Olympia and Tacoma, according to HistoryLink.

Eight people died, including two young people -- an 11-year-old and an 18-year-old -- both boys. Dozens more were hurt when the ground shook for about 30 seconds.

The most damage was seen from Seattle to Chehalis, with 40% of the latter citys homes and buildings damaged.

In addition, eight buildings at the Washington State Capitol in Olympia were damaged.

In King County, the damage varied.

One of the areas in the county with the most shaking was Auburn, where four blocks of the downtown business district were extremely damaged.

The worst shaking also extended to Richmond Beach and parts of Seattle, where some of the affected areas included Pioneer Square, where most buildings had some damage. Three Seattle schools had to be condemned and cracks in the ground opened near Green Lake.

Gas lines broke in 100 places in the city, and nearly 2,000 brick walls came down, or were damaged.

Many houses built on filled areas were demolished and in some places the ground turned to quicksand causing floors to crack and basements to fill with silt. Cracks opened in the ground, some spouting water six feet high, author Greg Lange wrote on HistoryLink.

In Richmond Beach, there was considerable damage, with fallen chimneys, cracked walls and broken windows.

This story was written from information from HistoryLink.org.




Abortion shapes Joe Biden's and Donald Trump's legacies. It may help one of them win reelection.

WASHINGTON  Abortion is the leading political cause of our time, the most controversial and consequential since the fight for civil rights in the 1960s.

Half a century after the right to abortion was established by the Supreme Court  then rescinded in 2022  the issue promises to be the dominant driver of this years presidential race.

No matter who wins, the legacy of the two leading candidates  both of them men  will be tied to a decision that primarily affects the lives of women.

Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, is personally opposed to abortion and once said the Supreme Court had gone too far in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion. But throughout his five-decade career in public office, Biden has set his personal beliefs aside and supported the right to choose to end a pregnancy. Now the incumbent president, he is leading the charge to write reproductive freedom protections into federal law.

Donald Trump, the former president and presumptive GOP nominee, declared himself pro-choice in every respect in a television interview more than two decades ago. But when he first ran for president in 2016, he courted religious conservatives by proclaiming his opposition to abortion and even suggested women who get illegal abortions deserve some sort of punishment. Once in office, he stacked the Supreme Court with conservative justices who delivered the death blow to Roe v. Wade.Running again just four years after losing his reelection bid to Biden, Trump now boasts, "I was able to terminate Roe v. Wade." Yet earlier this week, he angered anti-abortion activists by saying individual states should set their own restrictions on a womans right to choose and later announcing that he would not sign a national abortion ban if given a second term.

How the two candidates navigate the minefield of abortion politics over the next few months could determine which one of them returns to the White House.

If Biden wins, it's going to cement the importance of abortion rights as an issue to the electorate, said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis and an expert on the law, history and politics of reproductive issues.

In Trumps case, abortion is already part of his legacy because of the overruling of Roe, Ziegler said, and I think hes going to face, if hes elected, really unprecedented questions about what this is going to mean.

A rematch nobody wanted: Some big differences define Biden vs. Trump in 2024

Abortion is a legacy-defining issue for Joe Biden and Donald Trump

'More right than you are'

Biden entered public office just as the debate over abortion was about to upend U.S. politics for decades.

Only 30 at the time, Biden was sworn in as the new Democratic senator from Delaware on Jan. 3, 1973. Three weeks later, on Jan. 22, the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Roe.

In his memoir "Promises To Keep," Biden recalled heading to vote in the Senate for the first time and being asked by Sen. Abraham Ribicoff, D-Conn., where he stood on the issue. Biden told his new colleague that while he was personally opposed to abortion, he didnt think he had the right to impose his view on others.

Ribicoffs advice: Pick a side. Youll be much better off politically.

Biden decided to stake out middle ground. He lamented to Washingtonian magazine in 1974 that the Supreme Court went too far with Roe and said he didnt think a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body. That same year, however, he informed an angry group of anti-abortionist advocates that he would not back a constitutional amendment to ban the procedure.

I am not sure my stand against such a constitutional amendment is right, nor am I sure the anti-abortionist stand is right, he told the group, according to an account in the Wilmington Morning News. But, he said, right now I think I am more right than you are.

Bidens position was not all that unusual at the time, said author Joshua Prager, who has written about the history of the abortion movement. Abortion had yet to turn into the potent political weapon it would become, and several other prominent Democrats of the era were either ambivalent about the issue or opposed abortion rights altogether.

For a long time, abortion was completely apolitical. It was not in any way political or partisan," said Prager, whose book The Family Roe: An American Story chronicled the life of Norma McCorvey, who as Jane Doe was the plaintiff in the lawsuit that led to the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.

Throughout his Senate career, Biden resisted most efforts to restrict abortion access while objecting to federal funding of abortions.

In 1981, he authored what would become known as the Biden Amendment, which prohibited foreign aid from being used for biomedical research on abortion. He also consistently supported a separate measure known as the Hyde Amendment, which banned the use of federal funds for abortion except for cases of rape, incest or when pregnancy endangered the life of the expectant woman.

Biden would not change his position on Hyde until five years ago, when he was a candidate for president. Under pressure from his fellow Democrats, he announced on June 6, 2019, that he no longer supported the measure even though he had instructed his staff the day before to say that he did.

Biden suggested the reason for his about-face was that Hyde's restrictions would interfere with his desire to provide a broad range of health services to women. But his shift was widely seen as an acknowledgement of the significance that Democratic voters had come to place on abortion rights.

Occasionally, Biden's middle-of-the-road approach led to seemingly contradictory actions. In 1999, for example, he voted in favor of a Republican measure to ban a late-term procedure that critics have labeled partial birth abortion. That same day, however, he supported Democratic legislation endorsing Roe v. Wade as an important constitutional right that should not be overturned.

Throughout the early 2000s, before he left the Senate to become vice president, Biden voted to repeal a regulation that barred U.S. foreign aid from being used to perform or promote abortions. First put in place by Ronald Reagan, the so-called Mexico City Policy, also known among its opponents as a global gag rule, would become the equivalent of a political ping-pong ball. Whether or not it was in effect depended on whether the president was a Republican or Democrat.

Trump restored the policy early in his presidency. Biden rescinded it just a week after taking office.

Trump's evasions and contradiction

Trump's history on the abortion issue has been filled with evasions and contradictions, some of which are combining to create a massive election obstacle as he campaigns for another term as president.

The candidate who once described himself as "pro-choice" ultimately became the president who did more than anybody to undo abortion rights, appointing three conservative Supreme Court justices who would be part of the majority that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Now seeking to be the first president in more than 125 years to regain the White House after losing it, Trump is warning Republicans to be "careful" about how they deal with the issue because it has hurt them in elections.

In a new approach, revealed in a video he posted Monday, Trump is seeking to appeal to his anti-abortion base by saying he supports state efforts to ban or restrict the practice. He also has stressed the need for exceptions in cases of rape, incest and to protect the mother.

"The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both," Trump said. "Whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state."

'One person responsible': Biden campaign blames Trump after Arizona abortion ruling

A long and winding road

For Trump, abortion has been a long and winding road filled with inconsistencies. He has often adjusted his positions on the issue.

Back in 1999, a time when he was thinking of running for president on the Reform Party ticket, Trump told NBC's "Meet The Press" that "Im very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion. I hate it. I hate everything it stands for. I cringe when I listen to people debating the subject. But you still  I just believe in choice."

During Trump's first presidential campaign in 2016, members of anti-abortion groups expressed worry about his commitment to their cause. The then-businessman and television celebrity sought to allay their worries by pledging to appoint conservative jurists to the Supreme Court.

Trump kept that promise. He appointed justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the high court, completing the majority that overturned Roe.

The post-Roe era

When Republican legislators rushed to ban abortion in their states after Roe's demise, Trump became the one expressing concern. He blamed abortion for Republican losses in the 2022 congressional elections  a demonstration of the issue's power to drive voters to the ballot box.

Noting the success of abortion rights candidates and referendums in conservatives states like Alabama and Kansas, Trump has warned Republicans to be careful about how they discuss the issue.

During a "Meet The Press" appearance this past September, Trump dodged when asked about a 15-week ban. "It could be state or it could be federal," he said. "I don't frankly care."

Things got to the point where some of Trump's opponents in the GOP primary, particularly Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, accused the Republican presidential candidate of being soft on pro-life issues. Trump countered that DeSantis' proposal to ban abortion after six weeks was a bad idea.

Trump also has called for compromise on abortion, though combatants on all sides say that is highly unlikely.

"I would sit down with both sides and I'd negotiate something," Trump told 'Meet The Press,' "and we'll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years."

Skeptical abortion-rights supporters accused him of saying whatever would benefit him politically.

"We all know that Trump cannot be trusted and will say whatever it takes to get back into the White House," said Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes. "That includes lying about his support for a national abortion ban."

Where is abortion banned or protected? A year after the fall of Roe v. Wade, abortion access is reshuffled on state lines

'The power of women in America'

Biden and the Democrats, meanwhile, are seeking to cast Trump as the leader of the abortion ban movement.

Shortly after Trump announced that abortion restrictions should be left to the states, Bidens reelection campaign responded with a digital ad featuring a woman who, choking back tears, said she suffered a miscarriage and nearly died twice from sepsis because doctors in Texas would not perform an abortion.

Donald Trump did this, the video concludes.

Trump's state-federal distinction is meaningless, Democrats said, because he has supported a series of "extreme" state abortion bans. Biden and others said Trump is trying to make people forget his central role in overturning Roe.

"Donald Trump and all those responsible for overturning Roe don't have a clue about the power of women in America," Biden said. "But they are about to find out.

Abortion has proved to be a winning issue for Democrats at the ballot box since the Supreme Courts decision overturning Roe. Another ruling this week by the Arizona Supreme Court that upheld a 160-year-old abortion ban could further fire up voters in what is expected to be a key swing state in this years presidential race.

Biden's reelection team is making the restoration of abortion rights a central theme of his campaign. Biden has taken multiple steps to protect reproductive freedom since Roe was overturned, such as issuing orders that protect access to medication, making legal representation available to women who choose to travel out of state for the procedure and expanding coverage for no-cost contraception.

In March, the White House took the unprecedented step of sending Vice President Kamala Harris to an abortion clinic in Minnesota to highlight the administrations efforts to safeguard reproductive rights. Her visit was the first ever by a president or vice president to a clinic that provides abortion services.

Biden also continues to press Congress to write into federal law the abortion protections provided under Roe, the ruling that he once declared had gone too far.

With abortion once again a pivotal election issue, Biden's campaign is eager to compare his record to Trump's.

"For more than 50 years, Joe Biden has fought to protect Roe and women's right to choose, said Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for Bidens re-election campaign. "Donald Trump on the other hand says he is proud to have overturned Roe and says women should be punished for getting an abortion. That's the choice facing women this November."

Asked about Trumps complicated history with abortion, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt insisted he "has long been consistent in supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion." In 2018, however, Trump pushed for a federal ban on all abortions after 20 weeks. In 2023, speaking before a crowd of religious conservatives, he again endorsed the idea of national abortion restrictions but did not back any specific legislation.

Whether Biden or Trump wins in November, their history on abortion rights will help shape how they are remembered for years to come.

Reach Michael Collins on X, formerly Twitter, @mcollinsNEWS and David Jackson @djusatoday.

'A moral battle with myself': Young voters aren't warming up to Biden. They know it means Trump could win again.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden's, Trump's abortion stances could help one win reelection
To the layman, this weeks story that an Afghan sex offender could be given refugee status because his behaviour towards women may put him at risk in his home country is absurd. For those used to Britains asylum system, its par for the course.

After all, just a few weeks ago we heard a similar tale, when the Clapham attacker Abdul Ezedi was granted asylum despite his criminal convictions. As a former immigration official noted of that decision: Its not a glitch that you get sex offenders let in the third time around. Its how the system is meant to work.

Over the last year, immigration has hardly left the headlines. Politicians nominally in control of the country have fulminated about the abuses of the asylum system that have seen small boat crossings surge, bringing 29,437 people to our shores last year, and on course for a new record high in 2024. Theyve watched as changes to the legal migration system sent the inflow soaring to 1.2 million, and started to unwind the mistakes they made with dependent visas for students and care workers.

In the last few days, focus has shifted back to the Rwanda plan. Having come to grief in the Supreme Court and the House of Lords, Rishi Sunak is now threatening to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) should the human rights court block the scheme.

James Cleverly and Rwanda's Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta exchange documents after signing a new treaty to send asylum-seekers to the African nation - BEN BIRCHALL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

But even if the planes start taking off, theres another problem waiting. While Westminster can design whatever immigration policy it likes, it appears increasingly unable to enforce it on the ground.

A day in court

The best way to understand what this means is to see it first hand. Immigration and asylum tribunal cases are open to the public. If youre willing to set aside a few hours, you can sit in the gallery and see what Britains immigration system looks like in practice.

What you may not be able to do is find out how the case is resolved. First-tier immigration and asylum tribunal decisions are not published. The only way to get access to the result is to apply directly to the president of the court, and hope they decide in your favour.

The cases I saw were chosen at random, with no indication of their contents beyond the broad codes given in the list of hearings  HU for human rights claims, PA for what we would call loosely asylum cases.

The immigration court I chose sat off a roundabout opposite a Tesco superstore. Outside, planes taking off and landing at Heathrow rumbled overhead. Inside, the courtrooms were quiet enough for the ticking clocks on the wall to be audible. Green signs in three languages warned those waiting their turn not to eat, smoke or drink.

Most of the attendees sat in groups, chatting in apparent good humour. A few were tense and alone. A lost-looking interpreter tried to work out which of the courts he was meant to be attending, and staff members shuttled back and forth directing people to hearing rooms. They were polite, friendly and highly taken aback that someone had turned up to listen to cases. One security guard audibly swore when told by another why I was there.

The first case turned out to be a tourist who had overstayed. She had come from India for a holiday with her husband in 2021, visiting children who had emigrated to the UK. Her husband had sadly died during their visit. Struggling to cope, she had been staying with their children since. Now, in 2024, years later with her right to stay long expired, she was fighting to stay permanently.

Human rights laws appeared to present a promising avenue for her representative to argue that she would face significant obstacles to functioning on her own in India, and so could not be made to leave.

To start with, she was receiving therapy for depression in the UK, and it was argued that mental health issues were unlikely to be as well cared for in India. One child gave evidence as a witness. Despite having lived in the UK for 18 years, they were deemed to have limited English skills, so the interpreter stayed to assist them. The point was hammered home that the woman had said she would end her life if made to leave.

Other medical issues were discussed and disputed. The Home Office presenting officer did their best to make the case against allowing her to stay, although it was interesting to note that facts or assertions were rarely directly disputed. When the lawyers examined the notes entered as evidence, it was unclear in one instance whether the doctor had actually seen the patient, or merely written down the description given by the daughter. Nobody appeared to have simply checked directly with the surgery.

In addition, while her family could afford to pay for a carer, and her own financial security would not be an issue, she would lack emotional support. Her family in India consisted of a single sister, who was old, and to whom she no longer talked. Not only that, but, as her representative reminded the court, the Home Office advised against travelling in the country as a lone woman. Would we really send her back to that?

At this point, alarm bells should be ringing. It should not be possible to enter on a tourist visa, stay for years, and then avoid deportation by claiming the need to access public health services, or arguing that you could not possibly function in the country youd spent your life in. Even the most compassionate among us would surely argue that we cannot be expected to take on the cost and burden of caring for the citizens of other countries in their old age, rather than expecting their government or family to fulfil their own obligations.

Yet these tactics do seem to work; cutting people off from NHS services, or forcing them to return to their life as it was can be intolerable to our compassionate state, which instead invites them to stay. This urge sometimes leads to absurd outcomes. In one case, an illegal migrant who raped a woman at knifepoint avoided deportation after a tribunal found he would experience genuine difficulties being able to access a regular supply of his necessary medications, and be at real risk of social isolation and stigmatisation. Better, instead, to let him live in Britain.

A long stay

The second case was again picked at random; of the two due to begin when the first ended, it was the one that started soonest. Again, it was a straightforward case of overstaying. The appellant had been given a 14-month study visa, and failed to leave on time. The visa was issued in 2007. Rather than stay for 14 months, she had stayed for 17 years.

This hearing followed a slightly different format. The appellants representative laid out their case. The judge listened. The Home Office presenting officer remained silent because they werent there; the department had chosen not to send anyone to attend.

Again, the health of the applicant was raised. They had a serious and extensive operation scheduled to take place on the NHS; if they were sent back to India, this plan of treatment would be significantly disrupted, even if they were able to afford it.

In this case, the second obstacle was that deportation would constitute a major disruption to her married life. In the time she had stayed in the UK, she had married an Afghan man who had taken British citizenship. He, in turn, would most likely be unable to join or even visit her in India.

After all, not only did he lack Indian citizenship, he would most likely be refused any application to even visit the country: in his time in the UK, had received a prison sentence of 11 years for a serious offence. Even if India decided to let him in, the British authorities would look askance at letting him leave: he had been released on an extremely restrictive licence.

Given this, the argument went, and considering that if the appellant was forced to return to India, she would likely be able to return to the UK on a spousal visa, did her overstay really warrant the disruption removing her would cause? After all, the Home Office had made no effort to enforce her removal for 17 years, even when she had applied for (and been denied) the right to remain in 2013.

Although it was possible to sympathise with this argument, it also raised some difficult questions. How had it been possible to stay in Britain for so long when the Home Office had been made explicitly aware of the overstay? After all, it was the length of her stay that had led to her developing the ties which were now being used to argue against ever removing her; had she been swiftly removed a decade ago, there would be no claim to continuity of married life, or of NHS treatment. And on that topic, how was it that the British taxpayer had found itself providing her healthcare?

Welcome to the Hotel Britannia

People come to Britain for a reason. You do not push a dinghy into the waters of the channel, or spend your life savings on a plane ticket to Heathrow for nothing. The attractions are straightforward: the world speaks English, work is easy to find, and if you can get into the country you have a good chance of staying.

Take the asylum seekers crossing the Channel. They arent coming because theyve been misled by cunning people smugglers. Theyre doing it because Britain is a good place to lodge a claim. Before appeals, France accepted just 28 per cent of the claims it evaluated in 2022. Spain was a little more generous at 42 per cent. Denmark accepted 52 per cent of the 985 applications assessed.

Britain accepted a full 76 per cent of the 23,870 claims it resolved, making 1,625 more grants of asylum than Austria despite processing 15,130 fewer applications. No country with more cases resolved had a higher grant rate than the UK.

Our generosity doesnt stop there. If your claim is denied  or even if you have no claim at all, and simply fail to leave when your visa expires  you may well be able to stay. The problem with Britains borders, at the most basic level, is simple: we dont know whos here, and when we do, its very hard to make them leave.

In 1998, Britain stopped checking the documents of people leaving the country as it was an inefficient use of resources. While we had some idea of who was coming in, we no longer knew if they were leaving. It would take until 2015 for exit checks to be reintroduced. By 2017, two years worth of data had been gathered, showing 10 million people whose leave to remain in the UK had expired. For 601,222 of these, there was no evidence of their departure.

To lose one passenger might be considered careless; to lose half a million is farcical. Some of these people may have left the country, travelling through the Common Travel Area with Ireland, or using different documents, or simply falling through holes in the collected data; 201,301 records for people leaving the UK couldnt be accurately matched to an inbound journey. But of the remainder, some will have decided to remain in the UK, living underground.

How large this population is a matter for guesswork; in 2005, the Home Office believed some 430,000 people were living in Britain without the right to be here. No subsequent estimate has been published.

What we do know is that the number has likely grown substantially since then. The last publication on exit checks, showed that 3.8 per cent of people who required visas to enter the UK were not recorded as leaving on time  a little under 92,000 people in 2019/20.

Removals blocked

Counting people in and out might make it easier to find those who overstay. But even if it did, we would still find it difficult to remove them. While immigration has risen to record highs, the number of people being removed from the country has fallen by 21,000 since 2009. Enforced removals, in particular, have plummeted. While this has been partially offset by a rise in voluntary removals, the overall trend is clear: the Government is finding it increasingly hard to remove those with no right to live in the country.

Take failed asylum seekers. Just 41 per cent of those who made a failed claim for asylum between 2010 and 2020 had been removed from the UK by June 2022. Among their number was the Liverpool bomber Emad al Swealmeen, who had his asylum claim rejected in 2015. The Home Office failed to deport him, allowing him to mount a fresh claim in 2017, which was rejected in 2020. A year later, he was still in Britain, and still free to attempt his attack on a hospital.

Part of the problem is simply one of resources. Real terms funding for removals fell by 11 per cent between 2015-16 and 2019-20. This year, the planned funding for immigration enforcement is just 537 million, or a little over 13 per cent of the 4 billion spent on supporting asylum seekers in the UK.

Given the mismatch between the scale of the challenge and the resources allocated, its little surprise that the National Audit Office found in 2020 that immigration enforcement teams lacked the capacity to fulfil their tasks; enforcement visits had fallen from 20,000 a year in 2015 to just over 11,000 in 2020.

Detention capacity is also an issue. The stream of appeals and challenges means detention spaces are quickly filled, and there is little political appetite for dealing with this issue; attempts to impose limits on the right to appeal in the Rwanda Bill were rejected by the Government. If anything, the overwhelming direction of policy has been to reduce the use of detention further.

In 2019, immigration minister Caroline Nokes wrote that the Government was committed to a material reduction in the number of people detained an the length of time they spend in detention, boasting that by summer 2019, the immigration detention estate will be almost 40 per cent smaller than it was four years ago, and that 95 per cent of those who are liable for removal are managed in the community.

This has consequences. When the Government declared in January that it had resolved the backlog of asylum cases, it turned out that 17,000 cases had been resolved simply because the Home Office had lost touch with the claimants. Of the 5,000 immigrants originally identified for removal to Rwanda, meanwhile, only 700 are still in regular contact with the government. Without resources to keep tabs on people  and ensure they leave when necessary  the Government is fighting a losing battle in its attempts to maintain our borders.

Perhaps most troublesome, however, is the role of the legal system. As the National Audit Office noted, less than half of enforced returns planned in 2019 actually took place, with late legal challenges often blocking the process.

Rishi Sunaks latest tilt at the ECHR is merely the latest in a long series of clashes between the Government and the courts. In the view of legal critics, judicial empire-building has slowly expanded the range of potential obstacles to deportations, making it difficult to ensure that flights can actually get off the ground. These delays, in turn, can eventually provide grounds for claims to permanent residency. It hardly helps, as one observer noted, that the Government appears to be extremely cautious in assessing its ability to challenge bad case law, or test the limits of international law.

A system on trial

Both of the cases we saw in court illustrated a major problem for immigration enforcement: when the Government is slow to remove people, they will tend to build up grounds for staying in the UK. The classic example is the asylum seeker who, when their initial application is denied, finds a sudden urge to join a church, finds Jesus, and with him a potential fresh claim for staying in the UK.

The difficulties with credulous clerics accepting conversions at face value have been covered elsewhere; the broader problem of people building claims to stay in the UK, whether on the basis of religious persecution, the right to a family life, or some other combination remains. So too does the problem of the Home Office failing to examine stories in depth.

It certainly does not help that, as we saw above, the Home Office does not always send a presenting officer to tribunals. The share of cases where no presenting officer attended has been above 10 per cent for five of the last six quarters. This can put judges in a difficult position; their job is to listen to and evaluate adversarial arguments, rather than to conduct inquiries of their own. When only one side is making a case in person, it is difficult for this system to work.

Even when the Home Office does attend, one expert noted that it often lacks the staff and expertise to properly analyse cases. Immigration cases can be dismissed on relatively superficial grounds, even as the department fails to conduct the investigations necessary to spot outright fabrications.

Take the example of a political separatist. In assessing such a case, the expert said, the Home Office would tend to rely on evaluating documents. If a claimant said they had been beaten in their home country, and presented papers from a hospital, the Home Office would scrutinise them for spelling errors, wrong dates, and obvious inconsistencies. What it would not do, said the expert, was check that the hospital actually existed.

A welcoming environment

These problems are not new. In this context, its little wonder that the Government hit on the idea of the hostile environment: if you cant stop people from coming in, and you cant deport them, you can at least make it hard for them to be here, deter future arrivals and hope they leave on their own. Checks on immigration status were introduced for renting properties and taking jobs.

While this succeeded in creating difficult headlines for the Conservative party  and shifting part of the cost of border enforcement to the businesses and landlords who found themselves on the immigration frontline  evidence for its success in encouraging people to leave is thin.

Part of this is beyond the governments control; as one expert put it, people still stick it out as its worth it. The benefits of living in Britain are considerable, and very few will trade them in for an easier time with the paperwork in a much poorer country. Far better to live in a sublet apartment, working cash jobs, than to return home.

Even so, there is low-hanging fruit for the Government to pick, should it so choose. As the then-immigration minister Robert Jenrick noted, the practice of gig economy companies allowing unchecked account sharing makes it easier for illegal working to take place. Targeting the companies enabling these practices for immigration enforcement  and levelling massive fines where possible  would end that rapidly.

The NHS passport to stay

Also ripe for reconsideration is the UKs own system of doctors without borders. In both of the court cases we examined earlier, access to healthcare was presented as a major obstacle to removing the claimant from Britain.

As things stand, the NHS is effectively open to the world. Anyone can register with and see a GP, regardless of immigration status. Emergency healthcare is provided without charge. Secondary care is different; in theory, those without the right to stay should pay for the treatment they receive. Anything considered urgent is delivered, and payment may be chased later.

Even this barrier may be more permeable than it appears. As the BMA helpfully notes, whether treatment is urgent is the doctors decision alone, and consists of anything that cannot wait until the person can be reasonably expected to leave the UK. As the Governments guidance sets out, when an illegal migrant can be expected to leave is often unclear, leaving room for ambiguity over what care might qualify. Hospitals, in turn, can choose not to pursue debts in some circumstances, while the Home Office is under no compulsion to refuse immigration applications from those who have accrued them.

Destination unknown

So even if Rishi Sunak withdraws from the ECHR, and rewrites human rights law in the next nine months to make Rwanda work, there are still real barriers to stopping the flow across the Channel, or fixing the holes in our borders.

We would still be unsure who is actually living in Britain. Enforcement would still be underfunded and overwhelmed. Deportations would still face huge legal barriers, with a Home Office poorly equipped to evaluate cases. And the pull factors drawing people from around the world would remain.

Yet as a depressing day in the asylum courts reveals, nobody should be satisfied with the status quo. A situation where the state is no longer sure who lives in Britain, is unable to remove those with no right to be here, and seems to lack any realistic plan for bringing the situation under control is not sustainable.

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TechCrunch

Fidelity Investments, one of the world's largest asset managers, has confirmed that over 77,000 customers had personal information compromised during an August data breach, including Social Security numbers and driver's licenses. The Boston, Massachusetts-based investment firm said in a filing with Maines attorney general on Wednesday that an unnamed third party accessed information from its systems between August 17 and August 19 "using two customer accounts that they had recently established. We detected this activity on August 19 and immediately took steps to terminate the access, Fidelity said in a letter sent to those affected, adding that the incident did not involve any access to customers Fidelity accounts.
FILE - Afghan Taliban's Acting Minister of Interior Sirajuddin Haqqani speaks during a ceremony in Kabul,, Afghanistan, May 11, 2023. Messages by two influential Taliban leaders in Afghanistan this week showed tensions between hardliners and more moderate elements who want to scrap harsher policies and attract more outside support, experts said Thursday, April 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, file)

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP)  Messages by two influential Taliban leaders in Afghanistan this week showed tensions between hardliners and more moderate elements who want to scrap harsher policies and attract more outside support, experts said Thursday.

The messages for Eid al-Fitr marking the end of Ramadan were delivered by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who defended the imposition of Islamic law and railed against the international community for its criticism, and Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who called on the Taliban to be humble and avoid behaving in ways that make Afghans unhappy.

The Taliban seized power in 2021 amid the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces after two decades of war. Their rule, especially bans affecting women and girls, has triggered widespread condemnation and deepened their international isolation.

The reclusive Akhundzada released two messages for Eid. In the first, a written statement issued on Saturday in seven languages including Arabic, English, Turkmen and Uzbek, he was conciliatory and pragmatic, with measured advice for officials in the Taliban-controlled administration.

He issued the second in a rare public appearance on Wednesday at Eidgah Mosque in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar in the south. His Eid sermon, a half-hour address in Pashto, was more in keeping with the tone and content of his past fiery messages.

If anyone has any issues with us, we are open to resolving them, but we will never compromise on our principles or Islam, he said. At the same time, we dont expect Islam to be disrespected. I wont even take a step away from Shariah (Islamic law). They (the international community) object to it, saying public stoning and amputation are against their laws and human rights. You expect us to follow your laws while imposing them on us.

Akhundzada is almost never seen in public. There are no photos from his address, and his face was concealed from the thousands of worshipers.

Haqqani released his Eid message on Wednesday in Afghanistan's commonly spoken languages of Dari and Pashto. He called on the Taliban to avoid creating a rift between the people and authorities. And, unlike Akhundzada, he referenced the challenges facing the country.

We know that after nearly half a century of problems and difficulties, we cannot easily and urgently expect the kind of life and possibilities we wish for, but the important thing is that the (Islamic) system and the whole nation are working to fulfill these wishes," he said.

Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Centers South Asia Institute, said Haqqani, by attempting to show a softer side, was looking to draw trust and support from a broader Afghan public aware of the Talibans brutal form of governance. But for Akhundzada, the Eid sermon was about consolidating support and loyalty in his circle.

The messages also had a global audience in mind. The Haqqani network seeks investment and aid from the international community, Kugelman said.

Projecting a softer side is likely meant to make potential donors more comfortable. With the emir (Akhundzada) its about signalling that the Talibans social agenda, especially its abhorrent policies toward women, isnt up for negotiation," he said.

The Taliban have barred women from education beyond sixth grade, most jobs and public spaces like parks. They have implemented corporal punishment and public executions, practices seen during their first period of rule in the late 1990s. The economy is now in decline and Afghans are experiencing drought, hunger, and displacement on a massive scale.

Pakistani journalist and author Ahmed Rashid, who has written several books about Afghanistan and the Taliban, said the two leaders were sending a strong message to the faithful that nothing has changed despite pressure from the West.

There are clearly divisions within the Taliban but theyre holding together, Rashid said. There are moderate elements that want to see women educated, but theyre not in a strong position so theyre biding their time.

He described Akhundzada as a skilled communicator who used his mosque training to great effect. Its how he establishes his writ. But he doesnt answer questions that people are asking. There are elements of Afghan society who want something better.

Haqqani has previously spoken out against the Talibans leadership and decision-making process, drawing a rebuke from chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

But Haqqani didnt overstep in his Eid message, according to Rashid. He is on the periphery, but he is very popular. His support base is pushing him forward.

The Talibans double messaging is also part of a skillful campaign to show they have influence and clout at home and abroad, he said: Theyre saying, We can spread the word. They have done this with pride and conviction.

No country recognizes the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. But some important regional players, including China, Iran and Pakistan, have formal diplomatic relations with them.
The Boney Courthouse in downtown Anchorage, across the street from the larger Nesbett Courthouse, holds the Alaska Supreme Court chambers. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

The Boney Courthouse in downtown Anchorage, across the street from the larger Nesbett Courthouse, holds the Alaska Supreme Court chambers. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

An Anchorage Superior Court judge on Friday struck down an Alaska law that allows the state to distribute cash payments to the parents of homeschooled students on the grounds that it violates constitutional prohibitions against spending state money on private education.

This court finds that there is no workable way to construe the statutes to allow only constitutional spending, wrote Judge Adolf Zeman, concluding that the relevant laws must be struck down in their entirety.

The decision has major and immediate implications for the 22,289 students enrolled in state-operated correspondence programs used by homeschooled students.

Lon Garrison, executive director of the Alaska Association of School Boards, said he believes that with the allotment program eliminated, the state will automatically return to the system it was using before 2014, when the program was created.

Zeman also ruled unconstitutional a law that requires correspondence programs to create individualized learning plans for participating students.

Im blown away by his verdict, said Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River and co-chair of the House Education Committee. She said she had been expecting a ruling on the funding aspect, but not something as broad as Fridays decision.

Scott Kendall, the attorney who represented plaintiffs suing the state, said he believes the changes will not disrupt correspondence programs.

What is prevented here is this purchasing from outside vendors that have essentially contorted the correspondence school program into a shadow school voucher program, he said. So that shadow school voucher program that was in violation of the Constitution, as of today, with the stroke of a pen, is dead.

The change throws a hot potato into the halls of the Alaska Legislature, which has been struggling for months to pass education legislation.

This is going to become a hot-button legislative item, said Rep. Justin Ruffridge, R-Soldotna and co-chair of the House Education Committee. I would imagine that would quickly become a No. 1 legislative priority.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, also expressed concern.

It couldnt have come in some ways at a worse time to do because this, its a major, major policy issue. And weve got the budget that were dealing with  the capital budget, the operating budget, weve got energy, a whole host of energy issues, and a whole host of bills that are out there, he said.

Wielechowski said the attorneys for the plaintiff expect the state to ask for a stay, which would postpone the enactment of the ruling.

My hope is there is a stay until the school years out so that parents can get through the school year, he said. And then well see what the Supreme Court says and hopefully the Supreme Court takes it up quickly, picks it up quickly and gives us some final guidance on this.

The stakes for correspondence programs and public schools in general are high. Since the 2014 law, roughly 10% of Alaska school enrollment has shifted from school buildings to correspondence programs, with the pace of the shift accelerating over the past four years.

Allotment program was Dunleavy brainchild

Alaska has operated correspondence programs for homeschooled students since before statehood, but only recently have those programs begun giving cash allocations to families.

In 2013, then-Sen. Mike Dunleavy sponsored legislative language that allowed parents of correspondence program students to spend their share of state education money, labeled an allotment, on nonsectarian services and materials from a public, private, or religious organization.

Article VII, Section 1 of the Alaska Constitution states in part that No money shall be paid from public funds for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution, and Dunleavy simultaneously attempted to amend that section of the constitution.

The constitutional amendment failed, but Dunleavys proposal became law the following year, even as some legislators raised concerns that it could be found unconstitutional.

The state began allowing parents to spend correspondence program money on nonreligious materials, but those materials could be purchased from public, private or religious organizations.

After Dunleavy became governor in 2018, the state appeared to expand the ways that allotments could be used.

In 2022, reporting from the Alaska Beacon found several state-licensed homeschool programs had begun allowing participants to use their allotments to pay for classes at private and religious schools after Dunleavy became governor.

Jodi Taylor, the spouse of Attorney General Treg Taylor, wrote publicly that year about her plans to use correspondence allotments for private school tuition and wrote instructions to help other parents follow suit.

Two months later, Deputy Attorney General Cori Mills issued a legal opinion concluding that the practice did not violate the Alaska Constitution to pay for one or two classes, while saying that the money cant pay for most of a students private school tuition.

The idea appears to remain widespread today. The Alaska Policy Forum, a limited-government group that once included Jodi Taylor on its policy board, listed nine programs that permitted allotments to be spent on private schools.

Teachers and parents file lawsuit

In response to the states decision, a group of four teachers and parents filed suit against the states education commissioner and the state of Alaska in January 2023, alleging that the states system of correspondence program allotments is being used to reimburse parents for thousands of dollars in private educational institution services using public funds thereby indirectly funding private education in violation  of the Alaska Constitution.

It was the first time that the constitutionality of the program, then almost nine years old, had been challenged.

The plaintiffs were represented by Kendall, an attorney with the firm Cashion, Gilmore and Lindemuth. They argued in written filings and in an October oral argument that the allotment program violated the plain language of the state constitution.

In its section on public education, the constitution says: No money shall be paid from public funds for the direct benefit of any religious or other private educational institution.

Attorneys representing the state of Alaska argued that the allotment program should be preserved because even though a school district might use the program unconstitutionally, the statutes also have many constitutional applications.

Judge Zeman, examining the legislative history of the program, concluded otherwise, saying that the statutes were drafted with the express purpose of allowing purchases of private educational services with the public correspondence student allotments.

He went on to say that there was no way for the state to repair the unconstitutional language by regulation and that he could not rule only part of the law unconstitutional.

Parents have the right to determine how their children are educated, Zeman wrote. However, the framers of our constitution and the subsequent case law clearly indicate that public funds are not to be spent on private educations.

Attempting to preserve part of the law would amount to effectively writing a new law, Zeman concluded.

If the legislature believes these expenditures are necessarythen it is up to them to craft constitutional legislation to serve that purposethat is not this Courts role, Zeman said.

Huge ramifications

Wielechowski said he was stunned by the ruling. Several legislators said they had expected Zeman to preserve the allotment program but limit its use.

I read the whole thing  and then I got to that last page. And I didnt expect that, for them to strike down the entire statute, the entire section. I was surprised at that. And its got potentially huge ramifications. Really enormous ramifications, Wielechowski said.

Garrison said he was pretty excited about the ruling because he has long had concerns about state education money going to private and religious organizations.

Those concerns have been echoed by others in the state Capitol during this years debates over a multipart education bill. Dunleavy encouraged lawmakers to increase the number of state charter schools, but opponents of the idea feared that the combination of allotments and charter schools would amount to a shadow school voucher program, as Kendall said.

Really what was going on here was the reimbursement of state funds to pay for tuition at private schools. That was really, in a nutshell, what this case was all about, he said. Now that cannot happen any longer, but Kendall stressed that the ruling does not affect parents retroactively.

Garrison said that those fears were at the root of his opposition to Dunleavys charter reform proposal, which would make the state Board of Education and Early Development a charter school authorizer. He said that could lead to privately operated charters. Garrison still opposes the policy, but this ruling puts that concern to rest, he said.

NEA-Alaska, the states largest teachers union, funded the lawsuit against the state, and afterward, it issued a congratulatory email to supporters.

Were still reading through the entire ruling but its fair to say that this is a big win for public education in Alaska, NEA-Alaska President Tom Klaameyer said in the email. I wanted to say thank you, particularly to our Board of Directors, for believing in this lawsuit and putting our money where our mouth was to uphold the Alaska Constitution.

The Alaska Department of Law had a different conclusion.

Responding by email Friday evening, Mills said, We have just received this 33-page decision from the Superior Court a few minutes ago and are beginning to review. But we can see that the court apparently struck down the correspondence study programs as contrary to the state Constitution. The ruling is very concerning. This is a public school program for public school children. This could result in taking away important public education opportunities from Alaskan families. We are evaluating next options.

Allard said she doesnt understand the resistance to the allotment program and its uses.

Were trying to educate our children. Why are we trying to fight the different ways that children learn? she said. If we want a better education system, then we need to be flexible.

Appeal is likely, experts believe

Though the state of Alaska has yet to say whether it will appeal Fridays decision, Kendall, Wielechowski, and others said they expect that the Alaska Supreme Court will eventually be asked to examine Zemans conclusions.

Its also possible that the decision could be stayed  or put on hold  until the end of the states fiscal year on June 30 to avoid disruptions for students in correspondence programs. Wielechowski said he would support such a stay.

Its possible that the Alaska Supreme Court wont have the final word on the topic, either. A decision by the states high justices could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Allard said she believes thats likely.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that Maine could not prohibit a state-run voucher program from being used at religious schools. That decision followed a similar one out of Montana in 2020.

There is no doubt, based federally, that they support public funding for all schools, including faith-based, Allard said of the Supreme Court justices.

But Wielechowski, a practicing attorney, said those cases involved instances where states attempted to allow public money for non-religious schools but not religious ones.

Here, Alaskas Constitution prohibits public money for religious and non-religious private schools alike, treating them equally.

The U.S. Supreme Court would have to fundamentally say that public funds must be used for private education and religious education, he said. I would be shocked if the Supreme Court said that.

Correction: The committee that Ruffridge co-chairs and his home community have been corrected.

The post Alaska judge strikes down states cash payments to families using correspondence school programs appeared first on Alaska Beacon.
This is the moment that many of us have been warning about for so long. After years of shameful American obsequious towards Iran, the emboldened theocratic pariah has launched an attack on Israel, threatening to draw us into war.

The full extent of the hostilities are still unfolding, but two conclusions are certain. First, this is the culmination of years of American appeasement. Second, it carries the danger of escalation into a global conflict that would involve Britain. In fact, to these we can add a third: If intelligence assessments about Irans nuclear programme are wrong and the regime already possesses an operational warhead, all bets are off.

Looking at how things could escalate is easier than finding the narrow path to sustained peace. For example: Iran is joined by the formidable Hezbollah and its other proxies in the war, overwhelming Israeli air defences with swarms of drones and following that with missiles. Houthi rockets block the Red Sea, destabilising the global economy.

As America, Britain and other democracies dispatch forces to the eastern Mediterranean, China attacks Taiwan, forcing the White House to divert assets to the Indo-Pacific. Seeing an opening, Putin attacks Estonia, a Nato state, and fires missiles at London. Next steps could include nuclear warheads and North Korea.

How would Britain fare? Look at us. Depleted armed forces, a few weeks supply of ammunition at best, Trident missiles that plopped into the sea at the last test, a 3 billion aircraft carrier with a rusty propeller and a society that for decades has wilfully undermined its own patriotism.

The Defence Secretarys warning in January that we were living a pre-war world had little effect on our decadent and peace-fattened public. At next weeks London Gaza march, I wouldnt be surprised to hear a new chant: Iran, Iran, make us proud. Very soon, our self-righteous finger-wagging over Israeli self-defence will give way to panic when we feel the heat ourselves.

Speaking of decadence  and naivety and sheer incompetence  this crisis has been facilitated by Joe Biden. His administrations attitude towards Tehran has been one of abject appeasement. And when facing interlocking adversaries like China, Russia and Iran, appeasing one emboldens them all.

The wests sole weapon against the Iranians has been economic. But as Rich Goldberg, former director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction for the White Houses National Security Council, has noted, the Biden administration has been undermining its own sanctions, releasing $16 billion in frozen funds to Tehran in the leadup to October 7.

That vast sum included $6 billion to secure the release of five American captives in September, a historic ransom that could only have encouraged the taking of further hostages. The deal avoided congressional oversight by being rushed through in the summer recess. Does anyone believe that American efforts to earmark this money for humanitarian purposes have worked?

It sounds preposterous, but the State Department has also been turning a blind eye towards sales of Iranian oil to China, enabling Tehran to export over a million barrels daily, and has allowed Iraq to trade oil for Irans gas. These economic sweeteners started as part of a failed effort to revive Barack Obamas nuclear deal, from which Donald Trump withdrew in 2018 in favour of maximum pressure.

The talks, led by the ultra-dovish Robert Malley, were woeful. So soft were the Americans that it was left to British negotiators to toughen things up, a diplomat involved in the talks told me. In the event, the Iranians simply played for time while accelerating towards a bomb. All the crucial milestones, including achieving enrichment at 20 per cent, then 60 per cent, and so forth, were reached in this period of dithering. Tehran is now thought to be a week away from having enough nuclear material for one warhead. This could be weaponised within months.

To achieve this, with the eyes of the world on Gaza, the Ayatollahs have been building an underground facility in Natanz deep enough to evade any Western airstrike. One bomb alone will not destroy the world, but the clock stands at a minute to midnight. Is it finally about to chime?

The heart of the problem is that the west has no theory of mind about the Iranian regime. Our diplomatic class projects the principle of enlightened self-interest onto the Ayatollahs, when in truth, despite their sophisticated strategising, they are driven by religious fanaticism.

As anyone educated in regime schools will confirm, they believe that an apocalyptic war will herald the return of a messianic figure called the Mahdi. Along with 313 of his most loyal fighters, he will conquer the world and usher in a new age. The regimes strategy for the endtimes involves three components: ballistic missiles, proxy militia and nuclear weapons. Israel is the target.

We are in the crosshairs, too. There have been at least 25 foiled Iranian assassination attempts in Britain in the last two years. Last month, an Iranian dissident journalist was stabbed in London in a suspected regime attack. A security official told me that of all the threats facing our country, Iran was the one that kept him up at night.

It is too late to demand for Britain to re-arm. It is too late for the Americans to get tough. This is war. We are what we are, and we must gather our courage.



Jake Wallis Simons is the author of Israelophobia

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A former employee of Angela Rayner has provided a statement to the police contradicting her claims about where her primary residence was.

Matt Finnegan said he was in no doubt that a residence Ms Rayner shared with her husband was her family home.

The claims come at a time when the Labour deputy leader is under investigation by Greater Manchester Police and will lead to further questions about whether she underpaid tax on the sale of her home.

Ms Rayner has faced scrutiny about whether she should have paid capital gains on the 2015 sale of her council house on Vicarage Road, Stockport, owing to confusion about whether it was her principal residence or whether she was living with her then-husband at a separate address on Lowndes Lane.

Wrongly declaring her permanent address on the electoral roll would also have been a criminal offence, and Greater Manchester Police announced on Friday it was investigating whether any offences have been committed.

The Sunday Times reported that Mr Finnegan, a former adviser to Ms Rayner, has provided a statement to police saying he visited her at a property in Lowndes Lane in the summer of 2014, around the time she became a parliamentary candidate.

Mr Finnegan, who left Ms Rayners employment several years ago with a payout and non-disclosure agreement after accusing her of unfair dismissal, said in his letter: There was no doubt in my mind that this was Ms Rayners family home, where she lived with her then husband, Mark.

I remember it quite vividly because Ms Rayner was not at home at first and I had to wait for some time in my car before she eventually arrived. It was also memorable in that it was the first and only time I visited her home during the course of my voluntary work for her.

Jim McMahon, the shadow local government minister, dismissed the allegations as a 'storm in a teacup' - Getty/Ian Forsyth

When the police investigation was announced on Friday, Ms Rayner said she would quit if found to have committed a criminal offence.

In her statement, she said: Ive repeatedly said I would welcome the chance to sit down with the appropriate authorities, including the police and HMRC, to set out the facts and draw a line under this matter. I am completely confident Ive followed the rules at all times.

She added: I will say as I did before  if I committed a criminal offence, I would of course do the right thing and step down.

However, a legal expert has said she cannot be prosecuted over allegations she gave false information about her main residence because the time limit for such action has passed.

Scott Wortley, a law lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, has said that Ms Rayner cannot be prosecuted because there is an absolute rule under the Representation of the People Act 1983 that any offence under the Act has to be prosecuted within a year.

It is possible to get an extension for one more year, but that extension has to be applied for within the first year, he said.

Theres no way it can be prosecuted because its an absolute timebar.

Mr Wortley added: The only way you could determine whether someone has committed a criminal offence, is if theyre found guilty of committing a criminal offence [in court].

Trying to save her skin

The information has led some Conservative MPs to claim that Ms Rayner carefully worded her statement to set an impossibly high bar for her resignation.

One Tory backbencher told The Telegraph: Shes obviously doing whatever she can to try and save her skin.

I think its pretty clear to everyone that shes acted improperly and shes shown a high degree of hypocrisy as well.

They added: Its obviously double standards, its obviously rank hypocrisy, the number of times shes gone on the attack and shes called for various Conservative ministers to stand down when various investigations are taking place.

So the fact that she herself wont stand aside is what Ive come to expect from the Labour Party and people like her.

Another Tory MP said they agreed Ms Rayner had carefully constructed the statement to limit the potential damage to her career. They said: When I heard [the statement], I thought, this is very particular isnt it?

The MP claimed that Ms Rayner had shown the utmost hypocrisy and that there could be a case for her to resign if she was separately found to have underpaid tax.

On Saturday, one Labour shadow minister dismissed allegations against Ms Rayner as a storm in a teacup.

Jim McMahon, the shadow local government minister, said: You dont get many Conservative MPs, in fact I cant think of anyone who welcomes a police investigation. We want to draw a line under it and move on.

We dont get many Tory MPs who say if there is wrongdoing found, then they will take the appropriate action and to step aside.

Raises serious questions for Sir Keir

The Tories, meanwhile, said that the affair reflected poorly on the judgment of Sir Keir Starmer.

Jonathan Gullis, a deputy chair of the party, said: The Angela Rayner saga raises serious questions about Sir Keirs ability to lead his own party, let alone the country.

If he displayed this level of wilful blindness against his own deputy, how can he be trusted to make a decision on anything?

Its about time Starmer got his head out of the sand.

A Labour spokesman said: Angela has always made clear she also spent time at her husbands property when they had children and got married as he did at hers. The house she owned remained her main home.

Angela looks forward to sitting down with the appropriate authorities, including the police and HMRC, to set out the facts and draw a line under this matter.

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KYODO NEWS - Apr 13, 2024 - 21:39 | World, All

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Zhao Leji, ranked No. 3 in the ruling Chinese Communist Party's leadership, vowed to deepen bilateral ties in their meeting Saturday in Pyongyang, according to Chinese state-run media.

As this year marks the 75th anniversary of the two countries' diplomatic relations, Kim said North Korea is willing to "deepen traditional friendship and write a new chapter" in bilateral relations, China's official Xinhua News Agency said.

Zhao, China's top legislator who made a three-day visit to the neighboring country through Saturday, said Beijing is eager to "promote bilateral pragmatic and mutually beneficial cooperation to achieve new results," the news agency said.

The chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee conveyed Chinese President Xi Jinping's cordial greetings and best wishes to Kim, who in response asked Zhao to send his "sincere greetings and best wishes" to Xi, Xinhua said.

The North Korean leader pointed out that the dispatch of a Chinese delegation led by Zhao to his country fully demonstrated Xi's "friendly sentiments" for the development of bilateral relations that are "deeply rooted and unbreakable," the report said.

Kim also said bilateral relations are constantly developing to "a new and higher stage in accordance with the requirements of the new era" and that it is his country's "unswerving policy" to further deepen their ties, according to the report.

Zhao was the highest Chinese official to visit North Korea since Xi traveled there in June 2019. During his stay, the top legislator held talks with his North Korean counterpart, Choe Ryong Hae, head of the Supreme People's Assembly, and attended a ceremony in honor of this year's anniversary, according to the two countries' media reports.

China is North Korea's closest and most influential ally economically. The two countries established diplomatic relations on Oct. 6, 1949.

Speculation is growing that Kim may visit China later this year to mark the anniversary.

Related coverage:

China's No. 3 leader vows firm ties with North Korea at anniv. ceremony

Japan, U.S. leaders vow to boost security alliance amid China rise

Japan, U.S., South Korea hold maritime exercise in East China Sea
(FOX40.COM)  Nearly two weeks after law enforcement busted thousands of marijuana plants and guns in several Stanislaus County homes, another illegal grow operation was discovered.

On Wednesday, Stanislaus County Sheriffs Department said it acted on a search warrant at a residence on the 1100 block of North Carpenter Road in Modesto. During the search, a large illegal marijuana grow was in operation and 4,000 plants were seized.

Over 5,000 marijuana plants, multiple guns seized from Stanislaus County homes

Although growing and using marijuana is legal in California, there are some restrictions. Illegal cultivation of marijuana plants in California typically refers to growing cannabis without complying with state and local laws. Violations include:

 Growing more plants than allowed by law.

 Cultivating cannabis without the necessary permits or licenses.

 Growing cannabis in prohibited areas, such as near schools or parks.

 Engaging in cultivation activities that violate environmental regulations, such as illegal water diversions or the use of banned pesticides.

 Cultivating cannabis for sale without proper authorization, such as operating an unlicensed commercial grow operation.

New marijuana laws in California to protect employees take effect in 2024

Current state laws allow California residents 21 years and older to cultivate up to six cannabis plants in a single private residence. Violations can result in fines, property seizure, and criminal charges.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40.
Earlier this month, a farmworker in Texas was infected with bird flu. Its the second human case detected since the viruss arrival in the U.S. in late 2021. The illness presented as little more than eye redness, and the patient is on the mend. But the incident stirred up some concern among scientists, in part because of the creature that passed it on: The bird flu was spread to the person not by a bird, but by a cow.

The highly pathogenic influenza virus called H5N1 has been actively ravaging poultry farms around America for a few years, resulting in the culling of more than 82 million farmed birds as of last week. But the Texas infection marked the first time its been found on a dairy farm.

Since the discovery, outbreaks among dairy cattle have been reported in seven more states. That number will likely go up as surveillance efforts, which had previously been focused mostly on poultry farms, expand.

Theres a lot that we dont know, and some things that we do. Lets talk about it.

I feel like Ive been hearing about bird flu for a long time.

Yep. The current version of the virus wreaking havoc emerged in 2020, and it made its way to the U.S. about a year later. Another subtype of avian flu made the rounds here back in 2015, but it mostly just affected farmed birds, like chickens and turkeys. This time its been decimating wild bird populations too. Pelicans, vultures, and raptors have been especially affected.

So it mostly affects birds, obviously! And now some cows. And a person. Had bird flu been found in other animals, too?

Over the past year or so, the virus has traveled to almost every corner of the world, and to a variety of animals: from polar bears in the Arctic to penguins in Antarctica, and everywhere in between (so far Australia and New Zealand seem to have been spared, says Philip Meade, a virologist at Icahn School of Medicine). Some larger outbreaks in particular have been especially worrisome to scientists: a mink farm in Spain (fall 2022); South American sea lions in Peru (spring 2023); and fur farms in Finland (summer 2023).

This level of devastation in wild animals due to avian flu is unprecedented.

If so many species have been infected, why is the cow thing a big deal?

Cows were not previously thought to be susceptible to avian flu, so in and of itself its just a surprising development. Its true that the virus has jumped from bird to mammal several times now. Early evidence suggests that the virus involved in the recent human case had a mutation linked to more efficient spread in mammals. But that mutation has happened several times, including in foxes and cats that have caught H5N1, and it hasnt resulted in a human outbreak yet.

So, the presence of this mutation alone does not seem to be cause for concern. Even infection in mammals doesnt necessarily predict human infection and human transmission, says epidemiologist Stephen Morse of Columbia University.

OK, but the cow-to-human infection did happen. Yikes?

Yeskind of. But there are still some open questions. What would be more concerning is if the virus is found to definitely be spreading between cows, as opposed to spreading from bird to cow to human. Cow-to-cow transmission would suggest that the virus has become more adept at transmitting between mammals.

Given the outbreaks on several farms, it seems this possibility is likely, virologist Richard Webby of St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital told Nature. But, Meade notes, its still very much a developing situation, and were learning more every day. The level of concern will depend a lot on the specific mutations the virus has picked up, which scientists are still trying to figure out.

Well, how likely is it to infect humans going forward?

Since H5N1 was first described in 1996, fewer than 1,000 people have been infected; infections have ranged from mild to more severe in other countries besides the U.S. There was one concerning outbreak in Hong Kong back in 1997, when 18 people were affected and six died. And again, so far only two people have been infected in the U.S., ever.

Importantly, those recent infections occurred in people working in close proximity to animals. That suggests that prolonged contact with an infected animal is needed to cause infection in a person. Thats good news for us because [the virus] doesnt seem to be particularly good at infecting humans, Meade says. And, it means that in our daily lives, birds flying past, stepping on bird poo, that kind of thingthats not dangerous.

But that could change, right?

Yes. And thats whats causing concern among scientists. With every new infection, scientists say, theres another chance for the virus to mutate and become better equipped for infecting humans. Flu is so unpredictable, says Morse. But its clear that this virus has been evolving considerably in the last few years, and that it does seem to have much greater ability to infect mammals.

A very worrying scenario would be if the virus evolves to be able to transmit between people. There is no evidence that this is the case at this time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So, how worried should I be?

The CDC human health risk assessment for the U.S. continues to be low.

Since this family of viruses has been circulating worldwide for quite a while, theres good surveillance for it established in the U.S. and beyond, says geneticist Christine Marizzi, who teaches at Icahn School of Medicine. The World Health Organization, the CDC, and other global health organizations are all in communication, sharing info and genetic sequences with one another. Keeping on top of the latest sequences helps organizations ensure that their stockpiled vaccines and drugs will still be effective for the latest version of the virus if an outbreak among humans does end up occurring.

As far as vaccines go, the CDC has a couple candidate vaccines that could be quickly tweaked and mass produced if needed. There are also at least four antiviral medications that can treat people sick with bird flu, one of which (oseltamivir) is stockpiled by the government to the tune of tens of millions of doses. Generic versions of that drug also exist commercially worldwide.

In general, Meade says: Be aware but not alarmed.

OK, I am aware! A couple questions along those lines: consuming milk and eggs  is that OK?

The USDA recently announced theres no need to worry about this. Whenever this virus is detected in any agricultural operation, they immediately shut down any movement of products into the market, says Meade. But even if the virus were in a batch of milk, pasteurization would effectively neutralize it.

Similarly, cooking eggs and meat should be enough for their safe consumption, as long as youre cooking them thoroughly enough. That being said, officials at the Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture are continuing to monitor the situation in case anything changes.

How do I know if theres bird flu near me?

You can check out this handy-dandy map to get a sense of where the bird flu is showing up.

While the flu is often discussed in the context of poultry farms or backyards, theres no reason it wont show up in urban spaces too. Recently theres been some media coverage of the confirmation of infected wild birds in New York City. Though this research was only just published, the samples were from back in late 2022 to early 2023. And researchers werent surprised by the finding. Itd be stranger for it not to arrive here, says Meade of New York City. In fact, if anything, the low prevalence was surprising, Marizzi addsonly six samples tested positive out of over 1,900.

Still, the finding demonstrates that its important to be cautious around birds in urban spaces, as well as rural ones.

Ah, theres bird flu in my area. What do I do?

Its more what you shouldnt do: Dont pick up birds! Dont kiss them! If you have to pick up an injured bird, wear gloves and a mask! But reallyif you see a bird that looks like it needs help, reach out to a local organization rather than handling the matter yourself, and report dead birds to the USDA. Basically: Just follow common sense.
Arab American Heritage Month is intended to commemorate and honor the achievements of the some of the roughly 3.7 million members of the community residing in the U.S.

But this year, many Arab Americans dont feel inclined to celebrate.

Instances of anti-Arab hate and sentiment have been on the rise in the U.S. since the start of the war in Gaza in October, according to experts, who have received an influx of reports.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) said it received 2,500 reports of anti-Arab hate from October to March, a sharp uptick from the under 500 reports it received in the same time period last year. The Council on American Islamic-Relations also reported receiving the highest number of bias reports in its 30-year history in 2023, with nearly half of them coming in the final three months of the year following the escalation of violence in Gaza. While not all Arabs are Muslim, Muslim and Arab identities have long been conflated, particularly by those who seek to villainize both, making anti-Muslim hate part and parcel of anti-Arab racism, according to the organization.

Bias incidents against Arabs range from verbal to fatal. The most high-profile incidents include the fatal stabbing of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy, in Illinois and the shooting of three Palestinian men in Vermont. Experts say the violence in the U.S. is directly linked to the violence in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians and wounded over 75,000 others in its campaign to eliminate Hamas, according to the enclaves Ministry of Health.

6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume. (Courtesy of Hela Yousef)

Israel has been accused of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in the International Court of Justice, which ruled that the country should do everything it can to prevent genocidal acts in the enclave. It is hard to celebrate anything with all the death and the destruction happening through the genocide, said Abed Ayoub, the national executive director of the ADC. So I think this month  more than any month  is not a celebration, but its a show of our resilience, and its an opportunity to show our character and the fact that we exist.

Zaina Ujayli, a 27-year-old Ph.D. student specializing in Arab American history, observes that although the community has long grappled with discrimination and racism, theres a growing sense of comfort among certain individuals in openly expressing it.

For the last few months, its just been so in your face, Ujayli said. It became very real and in your face in a way that I feel like wed almost worked against in the years before.

A community under attack

Arab Americans trace their origins to 22 Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and Africa, including the occupied Palestinian territories, Sudan, Algeria and Iraq. The community is not a monolith  Arabs can belong to any racial or religious groups, and differ culturally.

Arab Americans have a long history that stretches to the end of the 19th century, when Arabs started to immigrate to the U.S. to escape conflict and seek economic opportunities.

The long road to establishing a month to celebrate community members contributions to art, culture, diplomacy, technology and science started approximately 40 years ago, when advocacy groups including the ADC started pushing for one. It was first recognized at the local level by some states, but in 2021, President Joe Biden became the first U.S. president to declare April as Arab American Heritage Month.

This year, the month comes at a somber time for many Arab Americans, who are watching their family members, friends and fellow Arabs deal with loss, trauma and a looming famine in Gaza. Many supporters of Palestinian human rights have been calling for an end to the violence for the past six months by protesting and appealing to politicians with little result.

Nader Ihmoud. (Courtesy Nader Ihmoud)

It [Arab American Heritage Month] means nothing, especially with whats going on, said Palestinian American Nader Ihmoud, a writer and insurance agent. If this administration or government here in the U.S. cared about Arab Americans at all, they have completely kept that hidden from us, because all their actions say otherwise.In past years, Ujayli said she would usually welcome Arab American Heritage Month by posting about it online, or helping organize events on her schools campus. But in light of the current climate in the U.S., the month feels a little bit cheap this year, she said.

If youre not going to recognize Arab Americans political demands now, if youre not going to listen to us when were asking you for a cease-fire, for political action  if youre not even going to meet us with empathy, then I dont care whether you want to celebrate our presence in this country, she said.

Biden issued a proclamation again this year in which he acknowledged the pain being felt by so many in the Arab American community with the war in Gaza and mourned the lives taken.

He also highlighted that in the U.S., Arab Americans remain the target of bias and discrimination  including harassment, hate crimes, racist rhetoric, and violent attacks, adding that hate never goes away. It only hides.

Feeling unheard and unsafe

Still, some community members say Bidens words are not enough, especially as his administration continues to send weapons to Israel, potentially assisting the violence in Gaza.

In February, Biden released a statement on the U.S. strikes in Iraq and Syria in response to a deadly drone attack in Jordan that killed three American service members.

If you harm an American, we will respond, he said in the statement.

Many Arab Americans are wondering where that energy is for members of the community who have been targeted for being Arab or supporting Palestinian human rights. A few have even been killed or imprisoned in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Ujayli said she has attended protests calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, during which some people drive by and call those gathered terrorists. The slur has been employed to marginalize those in the Arab American community, aiming to portray them as outsiders in American society.

If youre assuming that your Arab American neighbors are calling for violence every time they go out to protest on the streets, thats an implicit bias, Ujayli said. I frankly think its the most American thing it is, to speak out against injustice, to express our freedom of opinion.

Jasmin Abdullah, a 35-year-old Iraqi American scientist and content creator, says she speaks out against the violence in Gaza on social media and is often met with harassment. She sometimes worries she may lose her job, which she uses to support her family, as a result of the advocacy.

Jasmin Abdullah. (Courtesy Jasmin Abdullah)

Theyll attack you and say these horrible things, Abdullah said about people who have targeted her for her beliefs on the internet. Then theyll go to your page and harass you, and theyll harass people who follow you.The group Palestine Legal has been tracking incidents of bias and repression of people who advocate for Palestinian human rights. Since the day Hamas launched an attack in Israel on Oct. 7, the organization has received 1,680 reports of repression, around a 320% increase from the number it typically receives in a year. The incidents range from people being physically attacked for their advocacy to being verbally harassed or fired from their jobs for doing things as simple as sharing a social media post or statement in support of Palestinians, said Danya Zituni, communications manager for Palestine Legal.

Weve been both seeing and responding to incidents of repression across campuses, across workplaces  and really no industry or profession has been untouched, Zituni said.

Zituni says statements released by officials acknowledging Arab American Heritage Month come across as disingenuous and hypocritical in light of the repression many community members have been subjected to, including the arrests of students at peaceful protests and the suspension of campus advocacy groups.

These documented incidents have not discouraged Ihmoud from speaking up for Palestinian rights, which he does with his relatives in the West Bank at the forefront of his mind.

Theyre in such a dire state right now that we cant let our foot off the gas, he said. You got to continue pushing all the way until this comes to an end, and its not just the war ending  its the occupation ending, its the right of return. Its everything that has been on the table for the last 75 years.

He hopes to one day celebrate Arab American Heritage Month the way that other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. celebrate months dedicated to their history.

Keep the month, Ihmoud said. Just dont occupy our lands, dont kill our people, dont starve our children.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Eva Burch is a Democratic state Senator in Arizona.

Last month, I had a safe, legal abortion in Arizona. Today we are all tied up in white-knuckled knots, wondering if were going to start throwing doctors in jail for the care they gave me. People of America: We need to talk.

I am an Arizona state Senator. Im also a nurse practitioner and a mother of two. My husband and I live in Mesa, where we look after my sons, our two dogs, and a very well-fed cat. Okay, fine, we have three cats.

We were not trying to get pregnant. We had two failed pregnancies in the last two years and had stopped actively trying. But I wasnt on birth control either and the discovery that I was pregnant brought on those hope-induced giggles that you try to stifle for fear of a jinx.

One ultrasound after another, the disappointment set in. The pregnancy wasnt viable. Again. I had a rather nasty experience with my miscarriage in 2022 and I didnt want to go through it again. We scheduled an abortion. I felt very much at peace. For a moment, anyway.

At my first doctors visit with Planned Parenthood, the doctor and I discussed that my pregnancy was not viable, and I shared my bloodwork and ultrasounds with her. In spite of this, she was required to ask me why I was having an abortion. She was required to tell me that I could consider adoption or parenting instead of abortion. She was required to tell me that if I chose to continue my pregnancy, the father would be required to provide me with financial support. She was required to give me another transvaginal ultrasound. She was required to ask me if I wanted to look at it.

I stopped feeling peaceful and another feeling crept up my stomach and through my spine and settled into the part of my brain that I normally reserve for bullies, bad drivers, and long lines. It was anger. Not anger at the medical provider, who was as much a prisoner as I was, but angry at the politicians who had clearly put laws in place to force doctors to try to coerce their patients out of having an abortion, regardless of circumstance.

My abortion took place less than three weeks before the Arizona Supreme Court handed down its decision to uphold a complete abortion ban from 1864. The only exception it provides is if the pregnant patient is actively dying.

Now Republican legislators who have been pushing an anti-abortion agenda for decades are scrambling to backtrack, in an obvious act of political desperation. At any point in time, the Arizona legislature could have repealed this ban and stopped the clock on the Supreme Courts activities. The bill to repeal the ban, sponsored by state House Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (D), still sits collecting dust as Republicans dance around the issue and dream up excuses.

Its an interesting conundrum for Arizona Republican lawmakers. They know this ban is horribly unpopular and that it is going to cost them politically. They dont want to allow a Democratic bill to succeed in solving the problem, but they dont want to anger their base voters by sponsoring a solution themselves.

Theres also the fact that most of these Republicans are dealing with crippling cowardice against the Freedom Caucus of the Arizona legislature. This vocal minority of extremists pulls the strings on who gets challenged in the next election cycle, and they have already put out a glowing statement of support for the ban. To challenge them is to play roulette with reelection.

Instead, Republican leaders are throwing out their usual nonsense, saying that Democrats want unlimited partial birth abortions on demand all the way up to the ninth month of pregnancy. Not only will you find no record of Arizona Democratic legislators ever supporting such an idea, but there are no abortion providers in this state or the country who provide such services. It proves that the Republican strategy continues to be: When you cant win, lie.

There is only one solution to this abortion problem, and it lives in the November ballot box. We have to elect pro-choice candidates up and down the ticket, from the White House to the state legislatures. The facts of the day remain that this means voting for Democrats.

Until the Republicans are willing to release their ransom of this issue, abortion rights will continue to erode all across the country.

There seems to be only one language these politicians speak. The risk of losing power is all they will respond to and the time to make that move is now. I will keep telling my story, consequences be damned, and Ill see you in November.

More from Rolling Stone

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Arkansas AG claims purchasing laws do not apply to governor, days before release of lectern audit

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, left, gestures during a news conference at the Arkansas Capitol. (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate)

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin released an opinion Wednesday, at Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders request, declaring that certain executive branch officials such as the governor are not subject to certain laws that regulate purchases by government entities.

Sanders request and Griffins response came just days before lawmakers are expected to release the results of Arkansas Legislative Audits investigation into the controversial purchase of a $19,000 lectern last year by Sanders office.

Lawmakers authorized the audit in October into both the lectern purchase and all matters made confidential by Act 7 of 2023, which exempted records related to the governors security from the state Freedom of Information Act.

Arkansas Legislative Audits lead auditor, Roger Norman, told lawmakers in February that the probe by the nonpartisan agency that investigates government spending was set to conclude in March.

The decision of when to make the final report public is up to Legislative Joint Auditing Committee co-chairs Sen. David Wallace of Leachville and Rep. Jimmy Gazaway of Paragould, both Republicans. Gazaway told the Associated Press this week that the report should be released by the end of next week.

Sanders office bought the lectern and a carrying case with a state-issued credit card in June 2023 from Beckett Events LLC, a Virginia-based event design and management firm with political ties to Sanders. The purchase totaled $19,029, complete with the credit card processing fee. Similar lecterns are available online for significantly lower prices.

The Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursed Sanders office for the full amount in September, about the same time that attorney and blogger Matt Campbell was using the FOIA to report on the governors offices expenses.

Campbell, who is now a reporter for the Arkansas Times, posted the invoice for the lectern on X (formerly Twitter) on Sept. 15. Sanders signed Act 7 the previous day after a special legislative session in which she had supported additional exemptions to the FOIA.

The lectern purchase and the FOIA exemption brought scrutiny on Sanders office. She repeatedly called the purchase a manufactured controversy, and she said her office followed the regular course of law, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

If the purchase was indeed legal, asking the attorney general for an opinion on whether state procurement laws apply to Sanders office seems silly to me, said Tom Mars, a Rogers-based attorney and former Arkansas State Police director who has criticized Sanders over what he and others call Lecterngate.

You cant have it both ways, Mars said. When youre caught red-handed, sometimes its just better to say Im sorry and do what you can to fix it.

State purchasing laws

Griffins opinion states that elected constitutional offices are not state agencies under the General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law, which regulates the financial behavior of the states agencies, boards, commissions, departments, and institutions. The list included in the law does not specifically contain offices or officers and therefore does not apply to them unless otherwise necessary, a phrase taken directly from the law, Griffin wrote.

Portions of the General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law apply to the governors office, but only if the relevant provisions provide that they apply either: (1) to one or more specific constitutional offices or (2) generally to offices or officers, Griffin wrote.

According to the law, the state and its listed subsidiaries must provide adequate accounting for all fiscal transactions.

Constitutional offices are also not subject to the marketing-and-redistribution process outlined in another statute because it too does not mention offices or officers, according to Griffins opinion. The M&R statute regulates effective utilization of surplus state property.

Griffin opined that the General Accounting and Budgetary Procedures Law does not require constitutional offices to use M&R either.

In fact, it doesnt require any state agency to use M&R, Griffin wrote. Instead, it is directed only at the Secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration, as the States Chief Fiscal Officer.

If the audit report reveals that Sanders office broke state procurement law, that might be the least of the governors concerns, Mars said.

In September, Mars said he represents an anonymous client who can provide clear and convincing evidence to the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee that Sanders office had recently altered and withheld FOIA-accessible records.

According to Arkansas law, violating the state FOIA is a Class C misdemeanor, and tampering with public records that are not court records is a Class D felony.

My general reaction to [Griffins opinion] is so what? Mars said. I didnt ever think there was a huge debate over whether most of the purchasing laws apply to constitutional offices or not. It looks to me like more of a PR strategy than anything else.

Griffin declined to comment further on the opinion, saying through a spokesperson that it speaks for itself.

Sanders office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

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The post Arkansas AG claims purchasing laws do not apply to governor, days before release of lectern audit appeared first on Arkansas Advocate.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  A highly anticipated report looking into the governors offices podium purchase is right around the corner and the attorney general has now weighed in ahead of the audits release.

Attorney General Tim Griffins office released an opinion per the request of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders office. In an interview with KARK 4 News, Griffin clarified that he has not seen the full audit report yet but does say the governor should not be subject to the states budgetary and accounting law.

Draft audit report of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders lectern purchase complete

The story started months ago when the purchase was made public on social media, showing the governors office had purchased a $19,000 lectern with tax dollars. It was after that became public that the Republican Party of Arkansas came in and reimbursed the governors office for this. The lectern has not been seen in a press conference since that purchase was made.

In the fall, a legislative audit committee approved an auditor to look into the purchase and see if theres any wrongdoing.

Scrutiny of Arkansas governors $19,000 lectern deepens after new records are released

KARK 4 News is told that the audit is complete and will be released any day now.

The laws pretty clear that it does not apply to constitutional offices, Griffin said in an interview. It applies to the agencies, for example of the executive branch, and this is not really its not a close call.

The attorney general said this opinion is nothing new in the report. In 1967, the general assembly passed a law thats still in place which confirms elected constitutional offices of the state are exempt from the general accounting and budgetary procedures law.

Arkansas Sen. Jim Hickey requests audit of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders podium purchase

Griffin acknowledged this does go against a former attorney generals opinion from 1992, which he said, was not supported by any reasoning.

KARK 4 News asked if hed have this opinion either way, whether its a governor he supports or not.

Griffin said, This is the opinion.

Arkansas legislative subcommittee approves audit of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders podium, security expenses

The attorney generals opinion can be read online.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK.
An organization affiliated with the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran revealed that Iranian General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who was reportedly killed by an Israeli airstrike on April 1, played a key role in the mass murder of 1,200 people, including over 30 Americans, on October 7.

The U.S.-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) located the shocking admission and translated it into English. Irans Coalition Council of Islamic Revolution Forces published on April 3 a notice of mourning and recognition for the late Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, Zahedi.

Zahedi was the IRGCs commander of its elite Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon and was killed along with six other men in Irans diplomatic compound in Damascus.

ISRAELI PM, MILITARY LEADERS HOLD EMERGENCY MEETING AMID POSSIBLE DIRECT IRANIAN ATTACK

Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike in Damascus, Syria.

"The strategic role of the martyr Zahedi in consolidating and strengthening the resistance front, and in the planning and execution of Al-Aqsa Flood, are part of the great pride that will transform the quiet efforts of this great commander into the eternal history of the struggle against the occupation by the Zionist regime," declared the Iranian Coalition Council of Islamic Revolution Forces, according to the MEMRI translation.

The Al-Aqsa-Flood is the Hamas name for the October 7 invasion that resulted in mass rapes, deaths, and hostage-taking. There are currently over 100 hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

When asked about the MEMRI report and Zahedi's role in the October 7 massacre, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that "IRGC Qods Force Brigadier General Mohamed Reza Zahedi was a significant leader of Irans effort, directly and through proxies, to threaten Israel. While we are unable to comment on the precise role he has played in the October 7 attack, there is no question that the IRGC Qods Force and people like Zahedi have long been involved in supporting threats to Israel and to U.S. interests, including the arming and funding of terrorist groups and militant proxies and partners that threaten Israels security and stability across the Middle East."

A spokesman for Israels Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Fox News Digital that the "IRGC is the largest state-funded terror organization. Its the main tool of the terror regime in Iran to export its policy in the ME and around the world. Israel calls on the international community to designate the IRGC as a terror organization."

The State Department echoed the views of Israel. According to the spokesperson, "The IRGC is absolutely a terrorist organization. Thats why we designated the IRGC and why we have encouraged other countries to take a similar step. The case is stronger today than it has ever been. Our views related to the IRGC are clear in the numerous actions we have undertaken to sanction them and their members, including since October 7. We continue to work with allies to identify sanctionable activities undertaken by Iranian government entities, including the IRGC."

The Trump administration designated the IRGC in 2019 a foreign terrorist organization. Major world powers such as France, Britain, Germany and Canada have resisted calls over the years to sanction the IRGC.

According to MEMRIs analysis of the disclosure of Zahedis involvement in the October 7 atrocities, the research institute said, "This is essentially an official admission by a senior Iranian regime figure that Iran did indeed have a hand in the planning and execution of the October 7 attack."

The U.S. and Israel are on high alert as Tehran increased its saber-rattling about launching military strikes against Israel.

US RESTRICTS STAFF IN ISRAEL FROM TRAVELING OUTSIDE CITIES AS IRAN ATTACK THREAT PERSISTS

An Israeli soldier patrols near Kibbutz Beeri in southern Israel on October 12, 2023, close to the place where 270 revellers were killed by terrorists during the Supernova music festival on October 7. Thousands of people, both Israeli and Palestinians, have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas terrorists entered Israel in a surprise attack leading Israel to declare war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip enclave the following day.

MEMRI added that the Coalition Council of Islamic Revolution Forces announcement contradicts Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's official denial, on October 10, 2023, that Iran had played any role in the October 7 terrorist attack.

The MEMRI report appeared days before a London Times article on Thursday that said Israel has obtained letters showing Irans financial support to its proxy, Hamas. "The Times has been shown letters to Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza, revealing what Israels military believe is evidence of a series of payments from Iran," wrote the paper.

The money outlined in the letters from 2020 and 2021 shows that Iran funneled $222 million to Hamas.

Israeli army battle tanks move in an area along the border with the Gaza Strip and southern Israel on April 2, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and the militant group Hamas.

The announcement mourning Zahedis death warned about a pending attack against Israel as the Middle East is on the brink of a possible wide-ranging open war.

"The lethal blows struck during those days against the occupiers of Jerusalem [i.e. Israel] have led the leaders of [that] regime to the brink of helplessness and despair. The cowardly attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus is clear proof of [the truth] of this assertion," the official Iranian announcement noted about Zahedi.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS TURN UP HEAT ON BIDEN TO BROKER EXPEDIENT RELEASE OF HAMAS HOSTAGES, SUPPORT ISRAEL

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei looks at the coffins of members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were killed in the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy complex in the Syrian capital Damascus, during a funeral ceremony in Tehran, Iran April 4, 2024.

The Zahedi notice continued, "The supporters [of the regime in] Tel Aviv must know that Iran's harsh and unfortunate response to this bloody crime is on its way, and it will absolutely have a divine impact on the future equations in the region."

Irans staged antisemitic demonstrations called the Qods Day across its country last week calling for the seizure of Jerusalem and the elimination of Israel. Qods is the Arabic term for Jerusalem.

The announcement for Zahedi noted, "Again, we send blessings to and salute the souls of the seven martyrs [who died] on the way to Jerusalem, and invite the zealous men of Tehran to participate in the Qods Day march and to make a glorious showing at the funeral of these proud fighters."

The U.S. State Department, under both Republican and Democrat administrations, has classified Irans regime as the worlds worst state-sponsor of terrorism. Numerous Fox News Digital press queries to Irans Foreign Ministry and its UN Mission were not answered.





Original article source: Assassinated Iranian general involved in 'planning and execution' of October 7 Hamas massacre: report
KYODO NEWS - Apr 13, 2024 - 23:01 | All, Japan

Tokyo police arrested Saturday a man suspected of stealing a pure gold tea bowl costing around 10 million yen ($65,000) from a major Tokyo department store earlier in the week.

Masaru Horie, 32, allegedly took the bowl at around 11:40 a.m. on Thursday at a special exhibition and sale event at the Takashimaya department store's Nihombashi branch in central Tokyo, police said.

Horie has admitted to the allegations, police said, telling them he "sold the bowl" at a shop in Tokyo that buys goods from customers for 1.8 million yen.

Security camera footage captured the moment a bespectacled man in a grey sweatshirt and black pants lifted the unsecured plastic case covering the display and put the bowl in a grey backpack.

An employee reported the theft to police at around 12:15 p.m. after realizing the bowl was missing. Investigators believe Horie fled the scene via Tokyo Metro's Tozai Line, traveling from Nihombashi Station to Kiba Station, close to his residence.

On Saturday morning, investigators spotted Horie in the area around Kiba Station wearing clothes that closely resembled those of the man in the security camera footage. He was later apprehended at around 2:30 p.m. in a shopping area near Tokyo Station.

Related coverage:

10 million yen gold bowl stolen from Tokyo department store
Photo by Gage Skidmore | Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0

The Republican Party of Arizona has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to accept Kari Lakes tabulator case, claiming that lower courts across the country have set the bar too high for election challenge cases.

Lake, a current U.S. Senate candidate who failed in her bid for Arizona governor in 2022, filed the suit in April 2022 alongside current state Senate candidate Mark Finchem, who also lost decisively in his bid for secretary of state that year. In the suit, Lake and Finchem claimed that the electronic ballot tabulators used in Maricopa County were hackable and asked the court to ban their use in the 2022 election.

A federal judge threw the case out in August 2022 in a scathing ruling, saying their claims were mere conjectural allegations of potential injuries. In October 2023, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with that ruling, calling the case frivolous.

But in March, Lake and Finchem petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the lower courts dismissals, and to possibly grant them a do-over of the 2022 election. And on April 11, the Arizona Republican Party  along with the Georgia Republican Party and the Republican State Committee of Delaware  filed a brief in support, urging SCOTUS to weigh in on the case before this years November election.

The AZGOP, which is struggling with major financial woes, recently went through a shakeup in leadership, after its former head Jeff DeWit was caught reportedly trying to bribe Lake to stay out of the U.S. Senate race. In January, he was replaced by Gina Swoboda, who worked for the Trump campaign in Arizona in 2020 and runs a nonprofit that has made false claims about discrepancies in voting records across the country.

Virginia attorney William J. Olson urged the court, on behalf of the three state Republican parties, to both take up the case and expedite it to ensure its resolved ahead of the 2024 election.

The proper conduct of the 2024 elections is now in the hands of Respondent Secretary of State (Adrian) Fontes, who could be expected to have little motivation to make necessary changes to election procedures, as his own election was achieved under the 2022 procedures, Olson wrote. Unless the motion to expedite is granted, and the petition acted on quickly, this Courts decision could come too late to affect the 2024 election, which will suffer from the same irregularities as the 2022 election.

Olson argued that, since 2020, state and federal courts across the U.S. began using what he called unreasonable standards to determine whether election cases have legal standing to move forward.

The decision of the district court of Arizona to dismiss Petitioners challenge to the conduct of the 2022 Arizona election is one of the clearest illustrations of this abusive line of cases which have required much more than well-pled allegations, brought by candidates, that elections were being conducted in violation of law, Olson wrote.

He even posed the idea that the Supreme Court itself had inadvertently set what the Republican parties view as too high of a standard when it dismissed an election case from Texas in 2020, wherein that state challenged the administration of elections in four other states.

Especially if it was this Court that inadvertently created this problem of lower courts refusing to decide legitimate election challenge cases and controversies brought to them, a course correction is now desperately needed to ensure elections are conducted in accordance with law, the three GOP state parties wrote.

Olson accused the federal judge who initially dismissed the case of setting unattainable standards and for shooting down the case before Lake and Finchem could gather evidence to prove their claims.

The two Republicans repeatedly claimed that Dominion Voting Systems equipment used in Maricopa County, and in many other counties across the country, have a built-in security breach enabling malicious actors to take control of elections, likely without detection, but those claims have never been proven.

Dominion and its software have been the target of right-wing election conspiracy theories for years now, and last spring Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787 million over false claims it made about the companys voting equipment.

While Olson attempted to show that the lower courts dismissal allowed Lakes and Finchems alleged fears about the 2022 election to play out, the judges who presided over their separate lawsuits challenging the results of that election were not convinced.

Olson even claimed that, in the 2022 election, there was a 11,592 difference between the official canvass and final voter file  but that number is actually pulled from an inaccurate analysis of the 2020 election results completed during Arizonas partisan election audit, not from the 2022 election.

Petitioners report that they have identified multiple critical failures in the administration of Arizonas 2022 election that rendered the results untrustworthy, compromising the voting rights of all Arizonans, Olson wrote.

But whatever evidence they identified was not convincing enough to grant any of the statewide Republican candidates who filed election challenges in Arizona any kind of relief.

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to discuss the case privately on April 19, but John J. Martin, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, previously told the Arizona Mirror that he was skeptical that the court would opt to take up the case.

I doubt that there are four justices eager to entertain what can best be described as speculative and conspiratorial allegations brought by Lake and Finchem, Martin wrote in an email.

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Bald eagle eats 2 of its hatchlings in West Virginia out of 'confusion', officials say

In a tragic turn of events, two baby bald eaglets that hatched this week at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, were killed by their bald eagle father, who ate them.

One of eaglets passed away Monday night, while the other died shortly after being born on Friday, the National Conservation Training Center said.

"While this behavior was unusual, there's much we don't know," NCTC said in a social media post Friday. "This nest has brought us joy for years, raising countless eaglets for two decades. While this year's nesting season was not easy, it has offered a rare glimpse into the complexities of nature and the challenges that bald eagles face."

The bald eagle nest on a large sycamore tree in a wide field at the National Conservation Training Center in West Virginia.

A spokesperson of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed the death of the second hatchling to USA TODAY Friday and explained that such incidents, though rare, are not unusual, especially among birds of prey. The spokesperson added that the population of the bald eagle, which is also the national symbol of the United States, has continued to soar, with an estimated 316,700 individual bald eagles in the lower 48 states.

The population of the bald eagle has more than quadrupled since 2009, said the spokesperson, adding that the above estimate is based on the most recent survey done in 2019 and eagle populations are likely higher now.

Animal killed: Baby giraffe named 'Saba' at Zoo Miami dies after running into fence, breaking its neck

Father consumed eaglets in 'confusion', officials say

A female bald eagle on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, with a rainbow in background, earlier this season.

Earlier, in a social media post Tuesday, the NCTC had said that an eaglet passed away Monday night "despite a promising start," after its father "consumed" it in confusion.

The eaglet had hatched around 11:30 a.m. Monday at the center and was doing well, enjoying its first fish meal around 5 p.m., a photo of which the center shared on social media.

"Unfortunately, just about two hours after the female gently fed fish to the eaglet, the male bald eagle returned to the nest and exhibited unexpected behavior," said the center, adding that the 4.5-year-old male eagle was confused with the eaglet's presence.

The male eagle was rough with the eaglet and eventually consumed the hatchling.

Officials say behavior by bald eagle father isn't uncommon

"This behavior, while heartbreaking, has been observed in other nests and is not uncommon in birds of prey," the center had said. "Bird behavior is complex and driven by hormones and instinct."

"Bald eagles are naturally predatory and aggressive; that's the only way they can survive. Every day, they hunt to live," the center added.

While the hatchlings have died, the nest continues to be under protection at the center, which is a closed facility. Authorities have warned the public from causing any harm to the male eagle, emphasizing that the death of the two hatchlings is part of nature's cycle.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bald eagle eats 2 of its own eaglets in West Virgina, officials say
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD)  The Baton Rouge Police Department said there were 33 homicides in Baton Rouge in the first three months of 2024. Its more than double what it was for the same quarter of 2023.

The police departments Crime Trend Analysis reports another four homicides since the start of April.

Police said Baton Rouge had 81 actual homicides in 2023. That doesnt include negligent homicide or self-defense slayings.

In my first 50 days, I sat down with all shifts of uniformed patrol and their supervisors. I have directed my officers to engage in proactive policing in addition to the nearly 30,000 calls theyve responded to so far this year, Chief Thomas Morse Jr. said in a March press conference.

Morse has put more police units on the streets and is already seeing benefits from making arrests and seizing illegal firearms and narcotics, he said.

East Baton Rouge Parish coroner talks about number of overdose deaths, homicides in 2023

As of April 12, police said they made 868 felony arrests in the first quarter and seized 363 firearms.

About 134 felony arrests have been made in April so far, according to the data report, totaling 901 so far this year. At this time in 2023, police had made 1,134 felony arrests.

Law enforcement plans to tackle gang violence

The East Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office and the Baton Rouge Police Department have created new units. The units focus on crime related to violent groups.

Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said the EBRSO Gang Intelligence and Enforcement Unit will work with the homicide unit. They will also work with the School Drug Task Force and Special Operations Intelligence Division, EBRSO Investigative Support Unit, EBR Parish Prison, and EBR District Attorney.

Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome said BRPDs Special Investigations Unit is aimed at dismantling criminal activities perpetrated by groups and gangs.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to BRProud.com.
By Jarrett Renshaw and Gram Slattery

SCHNECKSVILLE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) -Donald Trump again slammed the judge overseeing his first criminal trial during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, comments that portend a rough-and-tumble several weeks ahead as the former president gears up for court.

Trump is expected to be in Manhattan on Monday for the beginning of the trial, a case involving hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The former president has frequently attacked Justice Juan Merchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in the past, accusing both men of exhibiting political bias against him.

Merchan in late March issued a gag order preventing Trump from making public statements about witnesses concerning their potential testimony and about prosecutors, court staff and their family members, if those statements are meant to interfere with the case.

On April 1, Merchan extended that gag order to include members of his own family, after the former president disparaged his daughter, who runs a digital marketing agency that works with Democratic candidates and nonprofits. The order excluded Merchan himself.

"I have a crooked judge. This has never happened before, you do know that, right?" Trump told supporters on Saturday night in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Allentown.

"Fully gagged before a highly conflicted and corrupt judge, who suffers from TDS. Does anyone know what TDS is? Correct. Trump Derangement Syndrome."

During the speech, Trump briefly referenced Iran's recent drone and missile attack on Israel, saying that it would have never happened under his watch.

"They're under attack right now," Trump said. "That's, that's because we show great weakness. This would not happen, the weakness that we've shown, it's unbelievable, and it would not have happened if we were in office."

Trump's visit to Pennsylvania, which also included a fundraiser, will be closely followed by President Joe Biden, who will make three stops in the battleground state next week, speaking first in his hometown of Scranton about his push to reform the U.S. tax code.

With 19 electoral votes - one of the highest counts among all 50 states - and voters that swing between backing Democrats like Biden and Republicans like Trump, Pennsylvania is a top prize in the 2024 presidential election and is likely to see many more visits in coming months.

Biden won Pennsylvania in 2020 by less than 1.5%, or roughly 80,000 votes, after Trump beat Hillary Clinton there by less than 45,000 votes in 2016. State opinion polls taken in March swing from showing Biden with a 10-percentage-point lead to Trump up 4 points, election data site FiveThirtyEight shows.

Democrats are betting on a strong turnout in Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs, a region that accounts for 33% of all voting registrations, to offset losses throughout much of the rest of the state. Trump and Republicans are looking to run up huge margins in less populous, largely white counties to offset urban votes.

Biden, who has been to Pennsylvania four times so far this year, will also travel to the Pittsburgh area and Philadelphia over three days, the White House said on Friday.

Trump's Saturday rally at Schnecksville Fire Hall targeted the Lehigh Valley, a mix of Rust Belt cities, sprawling suburbs and rural towns. It includes Northampton County, one of two counties Biden flipped in 2020, which has long been a reliable bellwether of statewide success.

"If you win Northampton County, you are likely to win the state. It's that important of a location," Chris Borick, a political science professor at Pennsylvania's Muhlenberg University, said of Trump's rally.

The former president attended a fundraiser before his rally in Bucks County, another bellwether region that Biden narrowly won in 2020. The event was hosted by Jim Worthington, a wealthy gym owner who has pressured Trump to stop criticizing mail-in voting.

TRUMP ENDORSES MCCORMICK

Pennsylvania is a sprawling, politically complex place where voters historically have often elevated consensus-minded statewide candidates, a history that could affect the closely watched U.S. Senate race.

Incumbent Bob Casey, a Democrat, will battle Republican Dave McCormick, a wealthy former hedge fund executive, one of just a handful of races in 2024 that will decide who controls the Senate.

During his rally on Saturday night, Trump offered his endorsement to McCormick, even though the two men have had a complex relationship at times in the past.

"He's given up a lot to do this, and I'll tell you what, he's the nominee of the Republican Party," Trump said.

Population shifts could affect the races here. Pennsylvania's population topped 13 million in 2021, but has declined in the two ensuing years, finishing at 12.96 million people last year. Declines since 2020 have come from counties that Biden won, according to an analysis by Franklin & Marshall College.

Democrats continue to lose their voting registration advantage in the state as they face defections from rural and blue-collar voters, who are joining Republicans or registering as unaffiliated, according to state voter data.

In 2020, Democrats held a roughly 700,000-voter registration advantage, but that has narrowed to 400,000 this year as Democratic voters switched to unaffiliated.

The defections are due to voters who supported Republican candidates but never bothered to change their party status until now, some political analysts believe.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, and Gram Slattery in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons and Jonathan Oatis)
Longtime Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. Bob Casey has distanced himself from the defund the police movement in the run-up to his self-described "tough" election this year, despite recent endorsements from groups advocating that police departments be defunded and promoting a bill that would have overhauled policing practices at the height of 2020's protests and riots.

"Senator Casey has a long and clear record of working alongside law enforcement and delivering hundreds of millions of dollars to fund bulletproof vests, SWAT gear, police cars, and ballistics shields for officers," Maddy McDaniel, spokesperson for the Casey campaign, told Fox News Digital this month. "Senator Casey doesnt support defunding the police, and hes voted to block federal funding from cities and towns that defund their police departments."

The campaigns response comes after the longtime Keystone State senator received endorsements this year from pro-defund advocacy groups Indivisible Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania state chapter of Indivisible.

"Indivisible Philadelphia and the #IndivisiblesOfPA enthusiastically support @Bob_Casey for re-election to the US Senate! #PASen," Indivisible Philadelphia tweeted last month.

LONGTIME PA DEM SILENT ON SUPPORT FOR FRESHMAN 'SQUAD' MEMBER AFTER HIS NAME IS QUIETLY REMOVED FROM SITE

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., speaks during a campaign rally in Newtown, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 6, 2022.

Indivisible Philadelphia describes itself as a "grassroots organization of volunteers determined to advance a progressive agenda by resisting corruption, authoritarianism, and inequality in our governmental institutions." The group has also repeatedly advocated for police departments to be defunded, most notably in 2020 when defund the police and Black Lives Matter protests and riots unfolded in cities from coast to coast.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"We wont stop until they #DefundThePolice," the groups website reads in a June 25, 2020, post titled "Make Your Demand!"

"When we said #DefundThePolice we meant fewer officers on the street terrorizing Black and Brown residents. We meant moving away from the racist system of criminalization and penal punishment, and moving toward community-led public safety methods and programs," the post continued, which came after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis that year.

DEM SEN BOB CASEY SLAMMED BY GOP FOR SHIFTING IMMIGRATION STANCES: 'COMPLICIT IN THE CRISIS'

The advocacy groups leader recently told Fox News Digital that police should be funded for "policing work" while other funds should be directed to support social workers and health officials to handle non-policing issues in communities.

"Our position has always been that police should be funded to do policing work, and that for other kinds of problems in the community, adequate funding should be provided for health care professionals, social workers and mental health professionals as appropriate," Indivisible Philadelphia group leader Vicki Miller said.

Demonstrators in Rochester, New York, hold signs at a Sept. 6, 2020, protest for Daniel Prude, who died after police put a spit hood over his head during his arrest on March 23, 2020.

Caseys endorsement follows him outlining on his official Senate page that "we must reform" policing systems in the U.S., co-sponsoring the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, and even drawing the ire of law enforcement officials in the state after Indivisible Philadelphia threw its support behind him.

"At a time when there were four shootings in four days on our local public transit system, and law enforcement across the commonwealth is understaffed, Casey's decision to align himself with these defund the police activists is alarming and extremely dangerous," said Folcroft Deputy Police Chief Chris Eiserman, who is also the Delaware County FOP Lodge 27 president, during a recent press conference with other law enforcement officials.

Casey joined Democrat New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and then-California Sen. Kamala Harris in 2020 to promote the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, which was introduced after Floyd's death. The bill, which did not pass, would have overhauled the qualified immunity doctrine  which protects police from lawsuits alleging that an official violated a plaintiff's rights  and provided grants to state attorneys general to conduct policing practice investigations and create investigation processes for allegations of police misconduct.

The bill also would have banned choke holds and changed the use of force standard for federal officers; made conspiracy to commit a hate crime a federal crime; mandate officers to receive racial, religious and discriminatory profiling training; and create a federal registry of all federal, state and local law enforcement regarding misconduct complaints or disciplinary records.

COOKIE MONSTER HIDES SEN BOB CASEY'S REPLY ON X AFTER DEM SOUGHT CAMPAIGN DONATION: CAN YOU CHIP IN?'

"We must end police brutality and systematic racism in policing," Casey said in a press release about the bill in 2020. "It is time for us to create structural change that safeguards every Americans right to safety and equal justice. I am proud to cosponsor the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, which will hold police accountable and improve transparency in policing."

Police officers in the state railed against the bill at the time, as well as an op-ed Casey penned that argued the legislation would help address "systemic racism in policing."

"For too long, we have looked to increased training or increased resources as if they alone will solve the systemic issues in our law enforcement. And, too many times, we have witnessed the tragic consequences of our inability to fully implement a comprehensive solution to address the racial injustice and police brutality that permeates our nations history," Casey wrote in the op-ed.

Scott L. Bohn, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association, fired back in his own op-ed shortly after Caseys opinion piece "seemingly maligned over 1,000 professional and dedicated law enforcement executives in the commonwealth."

"The senators commentary, while politically expedient, lends itself to potentially shortsighted decisions that may have an adverse or unintended consequence," Bohn wrote. "The opinion he expressed does not inform nor does it reflect the law enforcement environment in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvanias professional police chiefs are committed to public service and ensuring our communities are safe. Pennsylvanians need to work together and against social injustice and make our Commonwealth equally safe for all its citizens."

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.

Fox News Digital obtained a copy of a letter that Casey reportedly sent to police officers who contacted him with concerns over the bill. In the letter, he doubled down on the legislation that would "put in place the most significant police reforms in our Nation's history by focusing on officer accountability, data transparency and police practices and training."

"Pennsylvanians and people across our Nation are angry, sad, tired and desperate for change. The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer has reawakened our national attention not only to the significant concerns over the relationship between law enforcement and those they serve, but to the centuries of injustice and systemic oppression that led to this tragedy," the response letter reads.

REPUBLICAN DAVE MCCORMICK LAUNCHES BID FOR VULNERABLE SENATE SEAT IN BATTLEGROUND STATE

In 2021, Casey did vote for an amendment that would have blocked federal funding to jurisdictions that defunded the police, supported the American Rescue Plan  which provided more than $65 million for Pennsylvania policing funds  and backed legislation last year that provided $1 billion in federal funding for law enforcement agencies across the nation.

Casey, who has served as a senator since 2007, has said that hes bracing for his "toughest" re-election campaign this year in an anticipated race against Republican Dave McCormick.

"Itll be a close, tough race," he recently told NBC. "But look, theres a lot on the line every time. Every time Ive run for public office in Pennsylvania, Ive had to earn the vote and the trust of the people. And I got to do that again."

Dave McCormick

McCormick is an Army combat veteran who served as the Commerce Department's undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security as well as undersecretary of the Treasury Department's Office of International Affairs in former President George W. Bushs administration.

McCormick has received the endorsement of 47 sheriffs in the state, and he took issue with Indivisible Philadelphias endorsement of Casey in a comment to Fox News Digital.

DEMOCRAT SEN BOB CASEY CONCEDES THERE'S NO 'VIDEOTAPE' THAT'LL DISPROVE BIDEN'S AGE CONCERNS

"Bob Casey headlined an event for Indivisible Philadelphia where he gladly accepted the endorsement of these Defund the Police activists, once again failing to stand up for our men and women in blue. This is a group that said, We won't stop until they defund the police, called for fewer officers on the street,' and advocated to end cash bail. Pennsylvania deserves better," McCormick wrote.

Casey has also received endorsements from law enforcement, including from Delaware County Sheriff Jerry L. Sanders Jr.

"Bob Casey has proven hell prioritize public safety for Delaware County and has stuck his neck out to give officers the resources and support they need to do the job. His opponent has only proven hell prioritize himself," Sanders said in a comment to Fox News Digital.

The states Senate primaries will be held this month. Both Casey and McCormick are running unopposed in their respective primaries.





Original article source: Battleground state Dem distances himself from defund movement, but political record shows different story
Mahmoud Sheleib appeared to joke on Twitter about a woman whose grandmother was abducted by Hamas receiving an 'inheritance'

A BBC Arabic show whose producer was investigated over biased social media posts suggested a guest should apologise for showing sympathy towards Israel.

Egypt MeanTimes presenter appeared to criticise one of its interviewees for saying he understood Israels outrage over the Hamas attacks that killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

She also appeared to mock Egyptian parliamentarian Muhammad Anwar Esmat Sadat, the nephew of assassinated president Anwar Sadat, for acceding to Western demands that the Oct 7 attacks should be condemned.

Egypt MeanTimes executive producer Mahmoud Sheleib was subject to complaints about bias over his social media posts following Oct 7.

Shortly after the attacks, he took part in a Twitter conversation in which he appeared to joke about a woman whose grandmother was abducted by Hamas receiving an inheritance.

He also suggested in a tweet that all young Israelis were combatants and should not be regarded as civilians in a conflict.

Mr Sheleib is one of a number of BBC Arabic journalists subject to an investigation for bias in the wake of the attacks who are once more reporting on the Israel-Gaza conflict, with no further disciplinary action taken against them.

His programme, which frequently interviews guests who take an anti-Israel stance, hosted Mr Sadat on Jan 29, when he was asked by presenter Nesma Elsaied to justify comments he made to an Israeli newspaper.

Mr Sadat had told Ynetnews: I certainly understand the Israeli outrage of each and every one of you over the terrible murder committed by Hamas in the southern towns and the kidnapping of the Israelis to Gaza on Oct 7, but that while he recognises the fact that Israel has the right to defend itself, against Hamas, the Israelis took it to the extremes, without considering Egypt.

During the discussion, Ms Elsaied asked Mr Sadat: You said, I understand their outrage... And [it is] this expression, which Western media have been attempting lately to fish out of any Arab politician, but everybody refused while you took [the bait].

Apology demand

She also asked him: Some demanded of you an apology to Egyptian society, for normalising [relations with Israel]. Is it possible that you do that?

Egypt MeanTime has been criticised for hosting guests who repeatedly take an anti-Israel or an anti-Semitic stance and critics have contrasted the sympathetic treatment they receive with that given to Mr Sadat.

A spokesperson for Camera Arabic, a US-based NGO that campaigns for accurate and balanced coverage of Israel, said: There is an Arabic media echo chamber of fake experts and mock intellectuals feeding off each others bigotry towards Israel and Jews. Regrettably, it seems that BBC Arabic employees are more focused on gatekeeping and maintaining this echo chamber than they are on challenging it so that an open and informed dialogue could emerge instead.

Camera added: This phenomenon is particularly evident in the case of Egypt MeanTime, the programme produced by Mahmoud Sheleib, which continues to invite anti-Semites and conspiracy theorists to talk about Israel and in one instance even sought a participants apology for expressing empathy over 7/10 in an interview with the Israeli press.

Rather than taking an impartial approach towards the issue of Egyptians engaging with Israelis, Elsaied  and presumably, the entire programmes staff  was mostly bothered by her interviewees refusal to apologise for not falling in line.

The BBC defended its Arabic channel, stating: We will of course consider any complaint from Camera, once we have received it, and reply to them directly when we have looked into the matter raised although, as audiences expect, our journalists routinely challenge the views of contributors.

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Dr Hilary Cass said children who think they are transgender should not be given any hormone drugs at all until at least 18 - Yui Mok

Belgium and the Netherlands have become the latest countries to question the use of puberty blockers on children after the Cass Review warned of a lack of research on the gender treatments long-term effects.

Britain has become the fifth European nation to restrict the use of the drug to those under 18 after initially making them part of their gender treatments.

Their use was based on the Dutch protocol - the term used for the practice pioneered in the Netherlands in 1998 and copied around the world, of treating gender dysphoric youth using puberty blockers.

The NHS stopped prescribing the drug, which is meant to curb the trauma of a body maturing into a gender that the patient does not identify with this month.

In Belgium, doctors have called for gender treatment rules to be changed.

Research into impact

In our opinion, Belgium must reform gender care in children and adolescents following the example of Sweden and Finland, where hormones are regarded as the last resort, the report by three paediatricians and psychiatrists in Leuven said.

Figures from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom show that more than 95 per cent of individuals who initiated puberty inhibition continue with gender-affirming treatments, the report by P Vankrunkelsven P, K Casteels K and J De Vleminck said.

However, when young people with gender dysphoria go through their natural puberty, these feelings will only persist in about 15 per cent.

The report was published after a 60 per cent rise in the number of Belgium teenagers taking the blockers to stop the development of their bodies. In 2022, 684 people between the ages of nine and 17 were prescribed the drug compared to 432 in 2019, the De Morgen newspaper reported in 2019.

Pressure is also building in the neighbouring Netherlands to look again at their use. The parliament has ordered research into the impact of puberty blockers on adolescents physical and mental health.

Dutch protocol

The Telegraph understands that the Amsterdam Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria, where the protocol originated, is set to make a statement on the use of puberty blockers next week.

I too thought that the Dutch gender care was very careful and evidence-based. But now I dont think that any more, Jilles Smids, a postdoctoral researcher in medical ethics at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, told The Atlantic.

Attitudes in the Netherlands have hardened against trans rights, with a bill to make it easier for people to legally change their gender being held up in parliament.

The Cass Review said that the NHS had moved away from the restrictions of the original Dutch protocol, and researchers in Belgium have also demanded those restrictions be reintroduced.

Belgium is regarded as one of the most trans-friendly countries in Europe. A minister in the government is transgender and people have been able to legally change their gender without a medical certificate for the past five years.

But the hard-Right Vlaams Belang party is currently leading the polls ahead of national and European elections in June.

It has called for hormone therapy and sex surgery to be halted for underage patients until clear and concrete research has been carried out.

Greatest ethical scandals

In March, a report in France described sex reassignment in minors as potentially one of the greatest ethical scandals in the history of medicine.

Conservative French senators plan to introduce a bill to ban gender transition treatments for under-18s.

On Monday, the Vaticans doctrine office published a report that branded gender surgery a grave violation of human dignity on a par with euthanasia and abortion.

Finland was one of the first countries to adopt the Dutch protocol but realised many of its patients did not meet the Protocols strict eligibility requirements for the drugs.

It restricted the treatment in 2020 and recommended psychotherapy as the primary care.

Sweden restricted hormone treatments to exceptional cases two years later. In December, Norwegian authorities designated the medicine as under trial, which means they will only be prescribed to adolescents in clinical trials.

Denmark is finalising new guidelines limiting hormone treatments to teenagers who have had dysphoria since early childhood.

In 2020, Hungary passed a law banning gender changes on legal documents.

The import and the use of these hormone products are not banned, but subject to case by case approval, however, it is certain that no authority would approve such an application for people under 18, a spokesperson told The Telegraph.

In August, Russia criminalised all gender reassignment surgery and hormone treatments.

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Police officers interrupt the Palestine Congress 2024 in Berlin. German police on Friday broke up a pro-Palestinian conference in the capital Berlin and asked some 250 participants to leave the venue just two hours into the three-day event. Officers had already intervened in the event during a speech via video by an activist who is banned from political activity in Germany. Michael Kuenne/PRESSCOV via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Following the cancellation of a controversial "Palestine Congress" planned for three days in Berlin, the city's police were on Saturday prepared in force for spontaneous protests.

Police on Friday broke up the pro-Palestinian conference in the Tempelhof area of Berlin and asked some 250 participants to leave the hall just two hours after the event began.

Organizers of the conference had decried Israel's ongoing military offensive in the Gaza Strip, and attacked the German government's support for the Israeli government.

According to the police, organizers had registered a demonstration of 1,500 people for Saturday against the ban on the event. A police spokesman said the assembly area would be protected accordingly.

Despite a calm night in the capital, the police were out in large numbers to monitor the situation on Saturday, with reinforcements available as needed.

"The number of officers we deploy on Saturday will depend on the situation," a spokeswoman said in the morning. Originally, around 900 officers were to accompany the second day of the congress.

The reason given by the authorities was a video broadcast of a speech by a man who is banned from political activity in Germany for hate speech against Israel and Jews.

When the man spoke, the police intervened with several officers, cut the transmission and temporarily switched off the power.

According to a police spokeswoman, the authorities saw the danger "that such anti-Semitic, violence-glorifying and Holocaust-denying speeches could be repeated at the event."

The decision therefore applies not only to Friday, but also to Saturday and Sunday, she added.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser praised the police's efforts on X, formerly Twitter.

"It is right and necessary for the Berlin police to crack down on the so-called Palestine Congress. We do not tolerate Islamist propaganda and hatred against Jews," Faeser wrote.

The police union also called the crackdown by officers a "strong signal in the direction of those who exploit our democracy or doubt the assertiveness of the capital's police force."

"Anyone who wants to utilise our democratic opportunities must also comply with regulations and laws," regional head Stephan Weh said in a press release.

Police officers interrupt the Palestine Congress 2024 in Berlin. German police on Friday broke up a pro-Palestinian conference in the capital Berlin and asked some 250 participants to leave the venue just two hours into the three-day event. Officers had already intervened in the event during a speech via video by an activist who is banned from political activity in Germany. Michael Kuenne/PRESSCOV via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
KYODO NEWS - Apr 13, 2024 - 22:38 | All, World

Six people were fatally stabbed by an attacker at a shopping center in an eastern Sydney suburb on Saturday before the suspect was shot dead by police at the scene, according to Australian authorities.

Five women and one man were killed in the knife attack at the Westfield Shopping Center in Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon, as hundreds of shoppers fled the scene.

The offender was confronted and fatally shot by a senior police officer after he allegedly lunged at her with the weapon, police told reporters in Sydney.

Eight people injured in the attack were taken to the hospital, and several remain in critical condition, including a nine-month-old infant who has undergone surgery, police and ambulance officers said.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb told a press conference that the man is believed to be a 40-year-old known to police, though they are awaiting formal identification.

"If he is the person that we believe, then we don't have fears of that person holding an ideation. In other words, it's not a terrorism incident," Webb said, adding that police were confident he acted alone.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the crime is shocking for those in Australia, where gun and knife laws are strict, and such attacks are rare.

"This was a horrific act of violence, indiscriminately targeted at innocent people going about an ordinary Saturday, doing their shopping," he told a press conference in Canberra.

"Tonight, the first thoughts of all Australians are with the victims of these terrible acts and their loved ones."
The Biden admin wants to change home appliances, Republicans are pushing back

Flames emerge from burners on a natural gas stove, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, in Walpole, Mass. Introduced by Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko, the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act would encompass prohibiting energy conservation standards on any household appliance. | Steven Senne

The House Republican leadership has organized a lineup of bills it believes will address what the House GOP says is ongoing Biden administration overstep in how household appliances are regulated.

Republicans war on energy conservation standards

The Committee on Rules will meet Monday with Republican representatives to consider a series of bills that would prohibit the federal government from putting energy conservation standards on household appliances that Republicans say are not cost-effective or technologically feasible.

Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act

Introduced by Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko, the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act would prohibit energy conservation standards on any household appliance.

In a post on X, Lesko said the Biden administrations alleged overreach on regulating household appliances is not a new concept, noting the passage of her previous bill Save Our Gas Stoves.

President Biden worked to ban gas stoves  then pressured SNOPES to change it's fact check about it!



Gas stoves won't be banned on my watch. Thats why we passed my bill, Save Our Gas Stoves, and well do it again with my Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act!  Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (@RepDLesko) April 11, 2024

The Save Our Gas Stoves Act was passed by the House to stop regulations that would impose new energy efficiency standards for gas stoves, affecting 50% of current gas stove models and leading to higher prices of the product, per Fox News.

After the legislation passed, the Department of Engergy came out with a new, compromise proposal that would instead impact just 3% of gas stove models, according to Fox News.

Liberty in Laundry Act and Clothes Dryer Reliability Act

On Feb. 29, the Department of Energy finalized efficiency standards for clothes washers and dryers to save American households $2.2 billion per year on their utility bills, while significantly cutting energy waste and harmful carbon pollution.

Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles presented the Liberty in Laundry Act to prevent implementation of energy conservation standards on clothes washers.

Furthermore, Mississippi Rep. Mike Ezell introduced the Clothes Dryer Reliability Act to prevent the government from establishing energy conservation regulations for clothes dryers.

Ben Lieberman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute told Fox News the government should stay away from doing these regulations.

The main concern with these negotiated rulemakings is that it mostly involves the manufacturers and the energy efficiency activists. One wonders how much the interests of consumers are taken into account during this process, Lieberman said to Fox News.

Refrigerator Freedom Act

Also on Feb. 29, the DOE proposed new rules for residential refrigerators and freezers to reduce utility bills, energy waste and carbon pollution. Projected consumer savings are about $1 trillion over 30 years. Compliance would be required in 2029 or 2030, depending on the configurations of the appliance.

In response, Iowas Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks presented the Refrigerator Freedom Act to prohibit the government from putting new energy conservation standards on refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers and freezers.

Per Newsweek, the new rules for refrigerators and freezers could lead to higher costs and restrict consumer choice.

Affordable Air Conditioning Act

In 2023, under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, first enacted in 1975, the Energy Department set new energy conservation standards for some consumer and commercial products including air conditioners and gas stoves. The department stated these new standards were technologically feasible and economically justified.

In response to the new standards, 18 energy and consumer advocacy organizations submitted comments to regulations.gov that the 1975 legislation does not mandate a new energy conservation standard for cooking products, but permits one only if it benefits consumers. This is not the case here.

The Affordable Air Conditioning Act, introduced by Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, would prohibit the government from mandating new energy conservation standards for room air conditioners.

Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act

In energy conservation efforts aligning with the EPCA, the Energy Department also looked at products such as dishwashers, as seen in a proposed rule.

New York Rep. Nick Langworthy presented the Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act to prevent the government from establishing energy conservation standards for dishwashers.

Democratic response to bill lineup

MSNBC said the home appliance bills will not progress in the Senate, however Republican representatives want to be able to tell the ... Republican base that theyre on Capitol Hill, fighting tooth and nail in support of pointless messaging bills ...

Some Democratic representatives shared their annoyance over the Republican bills:

This is real. This is actually what Republicans are preparing to spend next week on in the House. Really: https://t.co/8VyLSolMZO https://t.co/7yJxwYdFAO  Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) April 11, 2024

Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse shared a video on X that said, I dont think the American people had that in mind. I dont think theyre thinking of the Liberty in Laundry Act. I think they expect this House Republican majority to address the consequence of challenges that face our country.

House Democrats are focused on the priorities of the American people.



House Republicans top priority?



The Liberty in Laundry Act.



Seriously. pic.twitter.com/cFG1oa6T7r  Rep. Joe Neguse (@RepJoeNeguse) April 12, 2024
The Biden administration is calling on Iran to release an Israeli-linked cargo ship and its crew immediately, following its seizure in the Strait of Hormuz Saturday.

We strongly condemn the Iranian seizure of the Portuguese flagged, British-owned MSC AIRES in international waters, Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council, posted on social media platform X.

The crew on board are Indian, Filipino, Pakistani, Russian and Estonian nationals, according to Watson.

We call on Iran to release the vessel & its international crew immediately, her post said.

The White House announced midday Saturday that President Biden would be returning from his Delaware home to the White House to consult with his national security team about the unfolding events in the Middle East.

Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) rappelled down from a helicopter onto the ship Saturday around noon local time, Tasmin News Agency, an Iranian outlet associated with the IRGC, reported.

The vessel is the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a containership, that is associated with the London-based Zodiac Maritime. Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofers Zodiac Group.

The IRGC is independent of Irans traditional army but acts as a branch of its armed forces. The U.S. State Department has designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist group.

Video obtained by The Associated Press showed the attack, where commandos can be seen repelling down onto a stack of containers on the ship. A crew member can be heard saying Dont come out and telling his colleagues to go to the vessels bridge.

Seizing a civilian vessel without provocation is a blatant violation of international law, and an act of piracy by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, Watsons second post said.

Watson said the attack must be condemned unequivocally and the United States will work with its partners to hold Iran to account for its actions.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trader Operations reported the recent incident and said British military officials are investigating. Its asked ships in the area to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity.

The MSC Aries was last located in Dubai Friday heading toward the strait. The vessels location tracking data was turned off, which is not uncommon for Israeli ships in the region, the AP noted.

The vessel takeover comes as Israel has been bracing for a major attack from Iran. Western intelligence and U.S. officials said Israel was preparing for a retaliatory attack after striking Irans embassy in Syria, killing seven military advisers and three senior IRGC members.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
President Biden cut short his weekend trip to his Delaware beach house and returned to the White House to monitor the crisis in the Middle East amid concerns of a potential, immanent Iranian attack on Israel.

Biden departed from Rehoboth Beach a day earlier than planned in order to consult with his national security team about events in the Middle East, according to the White House.

Biden on Friday said he expects Iran to attack Israel "sooner than later" as Tehran continues promising to take revenge for the attack on its Damascus consulate.

"I don't want to get into secure information, but my expectation [is] sooner than later," Biden told a reporter, adding: "We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will defend, help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed."

ASSASSINATED IRANIAN GENERAL INVOLVED IN PLANNING AND EXECUTION OF OCTOBER 7 HAMAS MASSACRE: REPORT

The U.S. and others have attributed the Damascus consulate attack to Israel, but no Israeli official has taken credit for the strike, which killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Marine One with US President Joe Biden aboard approaches a landing zone at Gordons Pond State Park April 12, 2024, in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Saturday to discuss urgent regional threats, according to a readout presented to reporters by Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.

Austin told the Israeli official that Israel could count on full U.S. support if Iran or any regional proxies attack, according to the readout.

IRAN VS ISRAEL: HOW POTENTAIL CONFLICT COULD LOOK ACCORDING TO EXPERTS: ALREADY AT WAR

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also spoke with his Israeli counterpart, reiterating Americas "ironclad" commitment to the security of Israel.

US President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on April 12, 2024 as he departs for Rehoboth, Delaware, where he will spend the weekend.

Iran has continually promised to avenge the strike on the consulate, and on Saturday appeared to ratchet tensions up even more as IRGC troops seized a Portuguese-flagged ship, the MSC Aries. Iranian officials claimed the ship was owned by an Israeli, but the U.S. disputed this and claimed the ship belonged to a British company.

A view of US President Joe Bidenas vacation house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, United States on February 1, 2023.

"We strongly condemn the Iranian seizure of the Portuguese flagged, British-owned MSC AIRES in international waters," NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said of the seizure, for which Iran did not provide any explanation. "The crew is comprised of Indian, Filipino, Pakistani, Russian and Estonian nationals."

HOUSE REPUBLICANS TURN UP HEAT ON BIDEN TO BROKER EXPEDIENT RELEASE OF HAMAS HOSTAGES, SUPPORT ISRAEL

"We call on Iran to release the vessel and its international crew immediately," Watson insisted. "Seizing a civilian vessel without provocation is a blatant violation of international law, and an act of piracy by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization."

"It must be condemned unequivocally, and we will work with our partners to hold Iran to account for its actions," she added.

Iran earlier this week reportedly indicated to U.S. officials that it would seek a non-escalatory response without providing any more specific details.





Original article source: Biden cuts beach trip short amid potential Iranian attack on Israel
On Saturday, President Joe Biden boarded Marine One at Gordons Pond in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, cutting a weekend trip short to return to the White House after learning that a series of drones had been launched from Iran to Israel.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem issued a security alert restricting its employees and their family members from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beer Sheva areas until further notice out of an abundance of caution, according to NBC News. And fears of an imminent retaliatory attack by Iran after a prior attack in Syria killed one of its top generals proved to be valid, with NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson confirming today's drone strike in a statement, saying, "President Biden has been clear: our support for Israels security is ironclad. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran."

Aside from the initial drone attack, officials are saying that they expect Iran to launch missiles in an extended operation expected to last late into the night. Back at the White House, Biden will be meeting with principals of the National Security Council to discuss the situation and plan next steps.
President Biden has narrowed former President Trumps lead in what is likely to be a tight rematch of the 2020 election, according to a new survey.

The poll, released Saturday from The New York Times/Siena, found the former president only edged Biden out by 1 point, bringing in 46 percent to the incumbents 45 percent. This is a switch up from a similar poll conducted by the pollsters in February, which showed Trump with 48 percent to Bidens 43 percent in a two-way matchup.

When adding third party candidates to the mix, Biden drops down to 40 percent support and Trump drops to 42 percent. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earned two percent. per the poll.

Seven percent of respondents also said they didnt plan to vote, and 6 percent said they were unsure. About 2 percent of respondents said they would choose someone other than Biden, Trump, Kennedy or other third-party candidates.

Trump earned more support among male voters, while more females supported Biden. The former presidents largest age group of supporters is voters 49 to 64 years old. Biden was most popular with respondents 65 years and older.

Just under 70 percent of Black respondents said they would vote for Biden, while just 16 percent support Trump, the survey found. White voters were also more likely to back the former president over the incumbent, 53 percent to 39 percent, respectively.

Biden was favored among college-educated adults. Roughly 55 percent of respondents with a bachelors degree said they would pick the current president, compared to 39 percent who said they would back Trump.

Regardless of education level, Biden was more popular with people of color. Fifty percent of Hispanic respondents said they would choose Biden. Just under 60 percent of people who consider themselves races other than white, Black, Hispanic or Latino, said they would back the sitting president.

Trump, however, remained popular with independent voters  a large voting group that will help determine the outcome of the election this fall. He earned 47 percent support of these voters, while Biden trailed behind with 42 percent, per the survey.

The Times/Siena poll was conducted Apr. 7-11 among 1,059 voters. It has a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
U.S. President Joe Biden disembarks from Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base, in Dover

By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden on Saturday condemned Iranian attacks on military facilities in Israel, pledged a coordinated G7 diplomatic response and said the United States had helped Israel take down "nearly all" of the attacking drones and missiles.

Biden, who cut short a trip to Delaware and returned to Washington earlier on Saturday to meet with advisers about the attack, said U.S. forces and facilities had not been hit.

The president said he reiterated the ironclad U.S. support for Israel's security in a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he has had strained relations over Israel's handling of the war in Gaza.

"I told him that Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks  sending a clear message to its foes that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel," Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

"Tomorrow, I will convene my fellow G7 leaders to coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran's brazen attack," he said.

Iran launched explosive drones and fired missiles at Israel late on Saturday in its first direct attack on Israeli territory, a retaliatory strike that raised the threat of a wider regional conflict,

Tehran had vowed to retaliate for Israel's attack on Iran's embassy compound last week in Damascus that killed a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' overseas Quds Force and six other officers.

Biden said he had directed the U.S. military to move aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week.

"Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our servicemembers, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles," he said.

Biden said his team would coordinate with counterparts across the region and stay in close touch with Israel's leaders.

"And while we have not seen attacks on our forces or facilities today, we will remain vigilant to all threats and will not hesitate to take all necessary action to protect our people," he said.

Biden met with officials in the White House Situation Room, a crisis management center deep within the West Wing, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns, Director of National Intelligence Avril Hines, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other officials, the White House said.

Earlier on Saturday, Austin spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to discuss "urgent regional threats," the Pentagon said, and reiterated full American support for Israel against attacks by Iran and its proxies.

Sullivan relayed a similar message of U.S. support to his own Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi, he said in a post on X.

On Friday, Biden warned Iran against retaliation even while predicting the attack may be imminent. "We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed," he said.

Leading lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties expressed support for Israel against an Iranian attack.

The U.S. House of Representatives will make a change in its schedule to consider legislation that supports Israel and holds Iran accountable, Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a statement.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Steve Holland, Doina Chiacu, Eric Beech, and Joel Schectman; Editing by Diane Craft, Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis and Miral Fahmy)
Israels war cabinet was due to meet Sunday to decide how to respond to Irans huge, failed drone and missile attack. Observers across the world fear this could be the tipping point where the current conflict could explode into a full-blown regional war.

The Israeli military says it intercepted the vast majority of drones and missiles launched by Iran in a direct attack on Israel late Saturday. Israel used the Iron Dome and Arrow 3 defensive weapons systems to counter the attack. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that missiles and drones from Syria, Yemen, and Iran had also been neutralized, according to The New York Times. The British and Jordanian militaries also shot down drones and missiles during the attack. (Jordans government said its actions were done in self-defense and to protect its airspace and its citizens below.)

Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari told CNN the assault included 200 different kinds of drones, as well as ballistic and cruise missiles. A child from a Bedouin town in the southern Negev region was the only reported serious casualty of the attack so far; she was reportedly hurt by flying shrapnel from an interceptor missile. On Sunday, her condition remained life-threatening, the Times of Israel reported. The girls father told the paper, It fell on us into the house at around 2 in the morning. She was sleeping in the house and we immediately took her to [the] hospital.

At least eight other people with minor injuries from shrapnel were treated at that same hospital, the Times reported.

U.S. forces helped to shoot down the drones, underlining what the White House called an ironclad commitment to Israels security. In a late-night statement Saturday, President Joe Biden condemned the attack, saying: At my direction, to support the defense of Israel, the U.S. military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week. Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our service members, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles.

It was reported by Axios, however, that Biden told Netanyahu in a call on Saturday that the U.S. would not support, nor would it take part in, retaliatory strikes against Iran.

You got a win. Take the win, Biden reportedly said.

Israels war cabinet was granted the power on Saturday night to decide how the nation should respond to the unprecedented Iranian attack. The three members of the cabinetNetanyahu, security hawk Benny Gantz and defense minister Yoav Gallantwill decide whether to heed U.S. calls for de-escalation or strike back forcefully against Iran.

Some Israeli politicians are advocating for a tough response by Israelthe countrys national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, called for a crushing attack, according to The New York Timeswhile others urged strategic patience.

While world leaders called for restraint, Israels Channel 12 TV quoted an unnamed official who said there would be a significant response to the strikes.

The United Nations Security Council is due to meet Sunday at 4 p.m., after Israel requested an emergency meeting.

Iran, meanwhile, issued stark warnings against the U.S., with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps promising a reciprocal response to any actions taken by Washington that Tehran deems a threat.

Shortly before the first reports of interceptions came in Jerusalem, Irans Permanent Mission to the United Nations posted a confused message appearing to downplay the significance of its attack while simultaneously justifying its launch of hundreds of missiles and drones. It called the attack a response to aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus in a statement on X but also said the matter can be deemed concluded.

U.S. President Joe Biden (L) cuts short a weekend trip to Delaware on Saturday to return to Washington for urgent consultations on the Middle East, amid heightened tension between Iran and Israel. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

The statement continued: However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Irans response will be considerably more severe. It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!

The barrage of drones and missiles had a ripple effect throughout the region, with Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq temporarily shutting down their airspace.

Iranian Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani was quoted in local media issuing a dire warning to Israels allies, saying, Any country that opens its airspace or ground to Israel for attacking Iran will receive Irans decisive response.

Conducted on the strength of Article 51 of the UN Charter pertaining to legitimate defense, Irans military action was in response to the Zionist regimes aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus. The matter can be deemed concluded. However, should the Israeli  Permanent Mission of I.R.Iran to UN, NY (@Iran_UN) April 13, 2024

Hours before reports of the drone attack surfaced, Biden hurried back to Washington, D.C. from Delaware to consult with his national security team about events in the Middle East, the White House announced.

Tehran had promised for days that it would seek to punish Israel for an attack against an Iranian diplomatic mission in Damascus that killed a top Iranian commander and other Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) officials earlier this month. Experts warn that Irans attack could push the region closer to a full-blown military conflict on multiple fronts, igniting another all-out war in the Middle East.

Bidens Very Dangerous Race to Avert All-Out War With Iran

Although Israel has not claimed responsibility for the Syria assassination, the Israeli military had been preparing for the Iranian counterstrike. Last week, the IDF canceled leave for soldiers in the combat unit and boosted air defenses.

Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect differing accounts over the age of the child injured in the attack.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The Treasury Department this week admitted that any funds sent to Iran directly go toward funding "violent" activities of Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps "before its ever used for their people and humanitarian aid."

Sen. Tim Scott is now demanding answers from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, after Deputy Secretary Adewale Adeyemo testified about Iran's use of humanitarian aid before the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

Adeyemo testified in response to questions from Scott, R-S.C., about the "fungible nature of so-called humanitarian assistance."

"What weve seen time and time from the Iranian regime, is that they fail to feed their people and they put the IRGC first," Adeyemo said. "Any dollar they have will go towards violent activity before they deal with their people."

IMMINENT ATTACK FROM IRAN KEEPS ISRAEL ON ALERT AS US ADMITS 'CREDIBLE' THREAT FROM TERROR STATE

Adeyemo said that is "partially why almost none of the humanitarian money has been used for humanitarian purposes, because they dont care about getting drugs and food for their people."

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"In Iran, theyve proven that any dollar they get, that they have direct access to in the country, will be used for the IRGC before its ever used for their people," Adeyemo added.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina is interviewed by Fox News, on July 18, 2023 ahead of Scott's town hall in Salem, New Hampshire.

Fox News Digital obtained a letter Scott sent to Yellen following his testimony.

"Treasury plays a critical role in ensuring the national security of our country through its toolkit to stop illicit financing and curb the flow of funds that support bad actors," Scott said, adding that he still has "serious concerns with U.S.-enabled efforts that increase Irans access to sanctioned fundsfunds that directly support Irans terror proxies throughout the Middle East."

Scott said Adeyemos testimony "has only elevated" his concerns, noting that Adeyemo made it "abundantly clear that the current sanctions relief and humanitarian assistance scheme provided to Iran are not viable solutions, and rather deteriorate U.S. national security interests."





"Alarmingly, under your watch, Iran has increased its oil exports, with China serving as the largest purchaser," Scott wrote. "This increase has led to billions in additional revenue for the regime, which, as Treasury testified, will almost certainly go to fund violent terror activity."

BIDEN EXPECTS IRAN TO ATTACK ISRAEL 'SOONER THAN LATER'

Scott said that given the "proven track-record Iran has on redirecting so-called humanitarian assistance to violent activity, as characterized by Treasury, we must operate under the assumption that every dollar made available to Iran is another dollar that will be used to put U.S. servicemembers in harms way or threaten our allies, especially Israel."

"In light of this, I am requesting an accounting of all international high-value Iranian assets around the world that are currently blocked by U.S. sanctions as well as additional steps Treasury will now take to actively account for current funds that have already been released to Iran," Scott wrote. "Not a single dollar, euro, or dinar, sanctioned by the United States should ever be released to Iran when this Administration actively recognizes that any money to Iran supports terrorism."

But the Treasury Department said there are two different types of funds  humanitarian aid, which they say are tied up in banks outside of Iran that would get sent into the country by third parties, and any money that is already inside Iran.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with nuclear scientists and personnel of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday, June 11.

A Treasury official pointed Fox News Digital to a separate section of Adeyemo's testimony in which he says the humanitarian money is "tied up in financial institutions" and insisted that "none of that money will ever see its way to Iran."

As for the other type of funds, Adeyemo said that while in the U.S. "money is fungible, in Iran, they've proven that any dollar they get that they have direct access to in the country will be used for the IRGC before it's ever used for their people."

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., asked Adeyemo if humanitarian aid could ever be used as money already held inside Iran, to which Adeyeo replied: "No. None of those dollars have gone to Iran. None of those dollars will go to Iran."





Original article source: Biden Treasury Dept official testifies 'any dollar' Iran gets in aid will fund 'violent' activities
Billions spent, jungle-trekking poll workers and voting at 15,000 feet. What to know about the worlds biggest election

The worlds biggest election kicks into gear next week when the first ballots are cast in Indias mammoth national polls, considered the most consequential in decades with the potential to shape the countrys future.

Nearly 1 billion people are eligible to decide whether to grant Prime Minister Narendra Modi a rare third consecutive term in office and extend the 10-year rule of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Under Modi, India has become the worlds fastest growing major economy, pushing the country of 1.4 billion people to near-superpower status.

But India has also become increasingly polarized along religious lines and critics say another five-year term will give Modis right-wing BJP a mandate to continue its policies that have transformed the country from a secular republic to a Hindu-first nation.

Heres what you need to know about the largest election in human history:

How does India vote?

Indias national elections are a giant exercise in democracy and logistics that take over a month to complete.

About 968 million people are eligible to vote  more than the populations of the United States, the European Union and Russia combined.

Given the size of the electorate, there isnt a single date when everyone will vote. Instead, polling will unfold over seven phases around the country, beginning on April 19 and ending on June 1. All the votes from the countrys 28 states and eight union territories will be counted and results released on June 4.

Under a multi-party, first-past-the-post system, Indians will vote to fill 543 of 545 seats in the lower house of parliament, called the Lok Sabha, with two other seats nominated by the countrys president.

The party with the majority will form a government and appoint one of its winning candidates as prime minister.

Voters register at a polling station in Hyderabad on April 11, 2019. - Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty Images

Who are the contenders?

Modi and his BJP remain hugely popular and he is widely expected to secure another five years in power.

The 73-year-old was first elected prime minister in 2014 with a roaring majority on a ticket of development and anti-corruption. He is credited with implementing welfare and social reforms, and easily secured a second term in 2019, this time on a more apparent platform of Hindu nationalism.

In that election more than 67% of Indians cast their ballot  the highest voter turnout in the countrys history.

The main challenger to the BJP is the Indian National Congress, which has governed the country for much of the 77 years since independence but now finds itself in the doldrums.

In an effort to prevent another Modi win, the Congress formed an alliance with other opposition leaders, including major regional parties. The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, or INDIA, launched its campaign late last month on a platform of saving democracy.

Political scion Rahul Gandhi is the face of the Congress party but other key figures include popular leader of the Aam Aadmi Party and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.

There are also regional heavyweights such as the West Bengal chief minister and All India Trinamool Congress Mamata Banerjee and the souths Tamil Nadu chief minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin, who will be vying to block a BJP takeover in their respective states where Modi is yet to break through.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses his supporters during an election campaign rally in Pushkar on April 6, 2024. - Himanshu Sharma/AFP/Getty Images

How strong is the opposition?

The INDIA bloc has been beset by infighting and is yet to put forward its candidate for prime minister. Analysts say it is struggling to match the kind of star quality and appeal projected by Modi.

The opposition is also under pressure from what it says is a campaign by the BJP to weaken Modis opponents.

Several prominent members of the opposition, including Delhi chief minister Kejriwal, have been arrested or investigated by state agencies in moves decried as political by their parties. The Congress had its bank accounts frozen by federal tax authorities and said it was asked to pay a further $218 million in taxes.

The BJP has denied political interference.

Meanwhile, another victory for Modi would cement his place as one of Indias most important and longest-serving leaders.

Modis party and its allies are aiming to win more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha  giving them enough votes to change Indias constitution. That figure will also improve its absolute majority secured in 2019 when the BJP won 303 seats, to the Congress partys 52.

Congress senior party leader Rahul Gandhi during the release of the party manifesto on April 5, 2024 in New Delhi. - Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times/Getty Images

What are the main issues?

India is the worlds largest democracy but over a decade of BJP rule, analysts say the populist Modi has tightened his grip on its democratic institutions.

Minorities, especially the countrys 200 million Muslims, say they have been persecuted under the BJPs Hindu-nationalist policies.

And Modi has been accused of silencing his critics including cracking down on Indias independent media. In the annual World Press Freedom Index, India has dropped from 140th in 2014  the year Modi came to power  to 161 out of 180 nations in last years list.

From demolishing Islamic monuments, to renaming cities founded by ancient Muslim rulers and revising history textbooks, Modis rule has been a seismic shift for India, from its secular founding values to that of a Hindu-first nation. Analysts say another BJP term will push India further along this road.

Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party flags fly in Delhi on March 27, 2021. - Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Modis supporters point to his economic record: India is poised to become a 21st-century powerhouse as its economy rapidly expands. They say his presence on the world stage  including hosting the G20  has cemented the country as a modern global power, along with a history-making moon landing.

Modi has also delivered on many of his key promises, with his crowning achievement the inauguration of the controversial Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir, a Hindu temple in the holy city of Ayodhya that was built on the site of the destroyed Babri mosque.

But while Indias economy is rising, the worlds most populous country has failed to generate enough jobs for the millions of young people struggling to enter the workforce. Unemployment among 20- to 24-year-olds was a staggering 44.4% at the end of 2023.

Farmers have also emerged as the biggest threat to the ruling party in recent years, repeatedly taking to the streets to demand stronger protection of their economic welfare including higher fixed prices for their crops.

Agriculture is the primary source of livelihood for about 55% of Indias population and farmers have previously had success strong-arming Modi into repealing unpopular agriculture policies.

Party symbols and voting at 15,000 feet

Indias election is believed to be the worlds most expensive, even outstripping US presidential elections. In 2019, political parties, candidates and regulatory bodies spent up to $8.6 billion, according to the Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies. This year, spending is expected to surge past that.

From the high peaks of the Himalayas to the remote forests of Indias central states, votes are cast electronically across more than 1 million polling stations. Some 15 million election workers will be deployed, traveling via road, boat, camel, train and helicopter to reach every Indian voter.

At 15,256 feet (4,650 meters), Tashigang, a village in the far northern state of Himachal Pradesh on the border with China, was the worlds highest polling station when its residents voted in 2022 state government elections.

In 2019, more than 8,000 candidates contested the election. This year, candidates are still being announced, but more than 2,700 parties will fight it out for seats in the Lok Sabha, including six national and more than 70 state parties.

Election officials carry Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and other election material, followed by paramilitary personnel, in Lohore Sapori, Assam on April 10, 2019. - Biju Boro/AFP/Getty Images

Each party has a symbol allotted to them by the Election Commission that appears on the ballots  helping the dozens of parties to differentiate themselves, while making it easier for voters to make their choice in a country where around a quarter of the population is illiterate.

They are everyday objects like a ceiling fan, a comb and a mango.

The ruling BJPs symbol is a lotus, while the Congress party is a raised, open-palmed hand. Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party (or the Common Mans Party) is a broom, representing its origins in an anti-corruption street movement.

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KYODO NEWS - Apr 13, 2024 - 10:10 | All, World, Japan

Nearly 100 percent of the United States Steel Corp. shareholders who cast votes on Friday regarding Nippon Steel Corp.'s proposed acquisition of the company approved the plan, despite opposition from unionized workers backed by President Joe Biden.

The U.S. steelmaker said, based on a preliminary count of ballots, that more than 98 percent of the votes at a special meeting of shareholders were in favor of its $14.1 billion merger deal with the major Japanese firm. The votes in favor of the transaction represented 71 percent of its outstanding shares.

"The overwhelming support from our stockholders is a clear endorsement that they recognize the compelling rationale for our transaction with (Nippon Steel)," David Burritt, president and chief executive officer of U.S. Steel, said in a statement. "We are one step closer to bringing together the best of our companies."

The Japanese and U.S. companies believe the merger, creating the world's third-largest steelmaker by volume, would benefit both sides. But since the planned all-cash transaction was announced in December, United Steelworkers International has expressed strong opposition, turning it into a political issue.

Nippon Steel said in a separate statement it is "confident that this acquisition will protect and grow U.S. Steel and bring significant benefits to its stakeholders, including customers, employees, union workers, suppliers, communities and stockholders -- as well as to the American steel industry and the United States as a whole."

The endorsement by the shareholders marked "a major step toward achieving this goal," it said.

In mid-March, Biden, who wants to secure support from labor unions for the November presidential election, said the iconic steelmaker should be domestically owned.

"It is important that we maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steel workers. I told our steel workers I have their backs, and I meant it," Biden said in a statement.

Former President Donald Trump, who is running against Biden in a bid to return to the White House, has also said he would "block" Nippon Steel's plan.

U.S. Steel, founded in 1901, is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a key battleground state in the presidential election.

The Biden administration has said Nippon Steel's plan should be scrutinized in terms of its potential impact on national security, despite the offer being from a key U.S. ally.

Nippon Steel has said its advanced production technology would improve the operations of the U.S. firm, which was once an industrial leader but has fallen to 27th in global output.

The Tokyo-headquartered company has also promised to leave the name and branding of U.S. Steel unchanged, while vowing no jobs would be lost as a result of the acquisition, under which it offered to pay $55 per share, representing a 40 percent premium over the stock's closing price before the December announcement.

In the days leading up to a formal meeting between Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday, senior officials of the two countries were repeatedly asked whether Nippon Steel's bid to buy U.S. Steel was on the agenda.

During a press conference after the summit at the White House, the U.S. and Japanese leaders were also asked whether they had discussed the matter, but both of them dodged the question.

"Japan believes that appropriate procedures based on law are being implemented by the U.S. government," Kishida said. "Japan is the largest investor in the United States. Japanese businesses employ about 1 million workers in the United States."

"Investment from Japan is on an ever-increasing trend. We hope to continue to ensure such a win-win situation for both countries," he said.

Biden said, "I stand by my commitment to American workers. I'm a man of my word, I'm going to keep it," adding he also stands by his commitment to maintaining a "strong alliance" with Japan.

Related coverage:

Nippon Steel defends U.S. Steel buyout deal after Biden's opposition

Nippon Steel rebuffs Trump criticism over U.S. Steel deal
Body Cam: Foster mother accused of murdering boy says she killed him in hospital room confession

A newly released body camera video shows the moment an Ohio foster mother confessed to detectives about killing her 5-year-old foster son in February.

The video from the Brooklyn Police Department, obtained by our news partners at WBNS in Columbus, shows Pammy Maye in a hospital where she was taken to be evaluated. Maye explains to officers that she suffocated Darnell Taylor with a trash bag.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Foster mother accused of murdering boy competent to stand trial, attorney says

Taylor was at the center of a statewide AMBER Alert that was issued on Feb. 14. His body was found two days later inside a sewage drain in Franklin County.

Maye was located in Brooklyn, a suburb of Cleveland, on Feb. 15. She was taken to the hospital to be evaluated. There, detectives asked her if there was a chance that Taylor was alive.

No, there isnt. And I did it, Maye said.

In the video, Maye can be heard saying she killed Taylor in his room and later hid his body in a closet for several hours. She says she was angry at him for eating snacks in bed the previous night.

When her husband came home from work, she said he went to bed assuming the 5-year-old was asleep, WBNS reported. Two hours after he went to bed, Maye said she put Taylors body in her Jeep and started to look for a place to take it.

>> RELATED: Judge sets $4 million bond for woman accused of murder of Ohio boy at center of Amber Alert

After placing his body in a sewage drain, she went home and got into bed with her husband. She told him she had something serious to say.

Mayes husband called 911 around 3 a.m. to report that she told him the boy was no longer alive. He said he searched the house before calling and couldnt find Taylor.

As News Center 7 previously reported, Maye has since been charged with aggravated murder, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with evidence. She pleaded not guilty to the charges. According to her attorney, she is competent to stand trial.

Maye is scheduled to appear in court later this month.












Body Found in Burned Car Believed to Be Woman Who Was Abducted on Video

A body found inside a burned-out car is believed to be that of a woman who was carjacked and kidnapped in broad daylight just hours earlier, local police said Friday. Authorities are on the hunt for her suspected killers.

Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias, 31, was driving a white Dodge Durango in Winter Springs, Florida, on Friday when she was abducted at gunpoint, Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said at a news conference.

A witness caught the terrifying exchange on video. In it, a man wearing dark clothing and a Halloween mask can be seen climbing out of the suspects car, a small green Acura, and pointing his gun at Aguasvias through the drivers side window. He then climbed into the car from the back drivers side door.

***Be on the Lookout: Driver and Vehicle Missing from Possible Carjacking***



Just before 6:00 p.m. this evening (April 11, 2024), a witness recorded a possible carjacking in progress at the intersection of East Lake Drive and Tuskawilla Road in the Winter Springs area of pic.twitter.com/ujcaMCo6eC  Seminole County S.O. (@SeminoleSO) April 12, 2024

Police believe the carjacker then forced Aguasvias to drive to a new location.

I suspect that where they told her to go is somewhere where theyve been before, they seemed very familiar with that area down there. I don't think this is randomly, hey pull off the road, Lemma said.

Less than two hours later, police were alerted to a burning vehicle at a construction site in nearby Osceola County. They found the body inside, although it and the vehicle were too destroyed to determine whether it was Aguasvias and the white Dodge. Police are awaiting lab tests to confirm Aguasvias identity, but theyre confident it is her. Lemma said shell casings found near the charred vehicle matched that of the firearm the suspected kidnapper was carrying.

Man Charged With Gruesome Murder and Dismemberment of 19-Year-Old Sade Robinson

Lemma told reporters that before the abduction, Aguasvias had noticed the green Acura following her and ramming into her back bumper, which prompted her to call her husband. He told her not to stop, Lemma said, but neither of them called the police. Aguasvias was forced to stop at a red light at an intersection, which is where the suspects pounced.

No motive was given for the kidnapping, but police believe it was a targeted hit.

We do feel that the occupants of the green Acura, both the driver and at least one other person who got out of the car and entered in the Durango, knew exactly who they were following, Lemma said.

Theres no criminal history for either Katherine or her husband in the United States. Theres no clear indicator why somebody would do this, why somebody would target them, Lemma continued.

Aguasvias, a U.S. citizen living in south Florida and originally from the Dominican Republic, was visiting family in the area, her husband told police. However, police said there were no known family members there they were aware of.

The sheriff said Aguasvias vehicle had only been in the area for about an hour before the carjacking.

Police advised the public to be on the lookout for the green Acura, a sedan with a partially obstructed license plate. The suspects are both described as white or Hispanic men.

Police urged anyone with information on the case to contact the Seminole County Sheriffs Office.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Boise State University took a step in its quest to build a $100 million science building on campus when it opened a request for qualifications from design professionals.

The primary goal of this facility is to provide additional space for the life sciences, Drew Alexander, associate vice president of campus operations, told the Idaho Statesman by phone. (It) would be state-of-the-art for research.

Like the rest of the Treasure Valley, the university has seen its population grow over the past decade. Enrollment at Boise State increased by about 4,000 to nearly 27,000 students between the 2012-13 school year and 2022-23, according to Boise State enrollment data.

Some of the biggest increases have come in the universitys health programs and its science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, fields  which have outgrown their available buildings, according to the request letter.

The number of graduates in Boise States STEM and health programs swelled by over 90% since the 2012-13 academic years while enrollment in doctoral programs have tripled, according to the letter. Much of this is from new doctoral programs in biomolecular sciences and in ecology, evolution and behavior.

This rendering shows what could be possible for the 100,000-square-foot science building and is meant to act as inspiration for designers.

The university continues to experience growth in the student population, STEM and health fields, and its research mission, the letter said. This growth in STEM education and research stretches the limits of the campus facilities and highlights deficiencies in existing buildings.

Boise State built the existing science building that houses its chemistry and biology programs near the Boise River in the 1970s, and it has reached the limits of the buildings capacity, according to the letter. The building has been frequently modified for research needs.

Besides expanded classroom and research space, the new building could also include faculty offices, graduate student spaces, informal learning areas, teaching labs, a large lecture hall and active learning classrooms.

There currently are not enough people in Idaho prepared to meet our states workforce needs  and in some very critical areas, Alexander said in an email. We want to prepare Idahoans to fill those jobs. We are growing for Idaho.

The university is planning to receive about $30 million from the state that it can use for the new building. The remaining $70 million would come from bonds, donors and other university funds.

Issuing bonds can be a way to secure financing for construction projects such as the new science building, but the university will have to pay that money back, generally with interest.

The university will use reserves and facility fees to pay down the bond debt, Alexander said.

The universitys objective is to create a state-of-the-art research facility that will allow recruitment of top researchers, attract new grant funding and preserve needed academic space, the letter said.

The university has a significant shortfall of research space based on the number of its active researchers compared with other universities, according to the letter.

The current and future shortage of quality research spaces impinges the universitys ability to attract and retain new faculty and grant funding, the letter said. If the university is not able to construct this facility, continued growth in science programs is not sustainable.

The Boise State campus looking southwest along the Boise River. The universitys out-dated main science building can be seen in center, directly above the somewhat triangular-shaped Morrison Center.

BSU building for future growth in science

The idea for a new science building has floated around campus for a while, but the universitys callout for design companies is one of the first steps in turning that vision into reality.

The design team would help the university choose from two potential sites for the new building:

The southeast corner of University Drive and Boise Avenue, just north of the University Heights Apartments.

Behind the Environmental Research Building on University Drive and Euclid Avenue.

We expect to have major headway on that selection as we head into the summer, Alexander said.

The university is aiming for the building to total 100,000 square feet and have perhaps five or six stories, depending on the site, Alexander said.

Alexander said the building might open in 2028 or 2029.

Most buildings on campus range from four to six stories, with the education building reaching the highest at seven, not counting Albertsons Stadium.

The science building would be the first educational building on campus since the Micron Center for Materials Research in July 2020. The university started construction on a residence hall in September that it plans to open in 2025.

The Micron Center for Materials Research building, shown here, is the most recent academic buiding on the Boise State campus. It opened in 2020.

A new campus, science buildings and... a farm? What this Boise-area college is planning

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A boomer who moved to Panama after years as a bartender in the Hamptons and New Mexico outlines the pros and cons of living in Central America

George Stumpp, a retired bartender, lives comfortably in Panama after moving from New Mexico.

Stumpp rents two properties as Airbnbs, supplementing his income in a country with good healthcare.

He said Panama has robust infrastructure, a lower cost of living, and many of the same stores as the US.

George Stumpp, 65, worked as a bartender and bar supervisor in Long Island and New Mexico for decades. Realizing his retirement savings could go further in a different country, he settled in Panama.

In 2006, he and his wife bought a property on the outskirts of Panama City for $37,000 in cash, traveling back and forth until his retirement. After 15 years of going back and forth, he settled there permanently in 2021, renting out two casitas as Airbnbs to supplement his income. He's enjoying retirement in a country with a lower cost of living and high-quality healthcare, and he said he's enjoyed adapting to Panamanian culture.

"One of the reasons I chose Panama over other Central American countries is because we've got better infrastructure than anyplace else," Stumpp told Business Insider. "It's a thriving country, and a lot of that is based on income that they get from the Panama Canal."

George Stumpp said it's taken him time and effort to get acquainted with Panamanian culture George Stumpp

As the cost of living continues to increase, driven by elevated housing costs and still-high grocery bills, many American retirees are looking abroad for retirement. Some recent retirees previously told BI they're living much more comfortably in places like Colombia, Thailand, and St. Maarten.

Leaving the US

Stumpp grew up in the Hamptons on Long Island and eventually worked as a bartender for 15 years. He worked at rock 'n' roll clubs in the 1970s then found work at more upscale bars and restaurants.

As Long Island got more expensive, he decided to relocate to Sante Fe, where he had a cousin at the time. In 1993, he moved to Santa Fe with his then-girlfriend and her two kids.

He got a job at a luxury hotel downtown, working his way up the ranks to bar supervisor. For years, he managed the bar, from creating schedules to ordering inventory. As his kids got older, he started to vacation in Central America, traveling to Costa Rica, Belize, and Panama.

His parents had retired to a lakefront cottage in Ontario, Canada, so he knew he wanted to retire abroad. In the mid-2000s, he started looking into purchasing a property in Belize, a predominantly English-speaking nation, although he and his wife ended up passing on it after noticing it wasn't as peaceful as they wanted it to be.

After reading more about Panama and seeing more Americans moving there, they took a lengthy trip searching for potential properties. He noticed he could get cheaper prices by calling the number on hand-painted signs outside homes instead of going through real estate websites, which would upcharge nonlocals.

Buying a home in Panama

He settled on a nearly half-acre property for $37,000 back in 2006 located three minutes from the beach, giving his Sante Fe home to his stepdaughter. The property had an old home that was falling apart, and he and his wife built a smaller house toward the back of the property with a bedroom, small kitchen, bathroom, and front porch. They split the old house in two as rental units. He owns his property outright with no mortgage, and his annual property tax is less than $100.

George Stumpp purchased a nearly half-acre lot for $37,000. George Stumpp

"We literally just took it apart  it was wired with extension chords, and it was in sad shape," Stumpp said. "We took it apart, put it back together again, and turned it into these two cute little Airbnb rentals. I'm not making a million dollars, but it's supplemental income."

After moving back and forth between Panama and the US for work for several years, he finally decided to retire and put his Santa Fe house on the market in 2021, noticing his home increased over $100,000 in value from the year before. He sold his convertible and bought an SUV, drove around the US for four months visiting friends and seeing national parks, and then flew back to Panama with his dog.

Moving to Panama permanently

He said over the last two decades, Panama's infrastructure has become much more robust than many other Central American countries. He said the city has good healthcare, a thriving financial scene, and plenty of big-box retailers and large chains.

Within 15 minutes of his house, he said there are four grocery stores, a Home Depot-like retailer, and many restaurant chains similar to those in the US.

George Stumpp lives a short drive from the beach. George Stumpp

"Anything I can buy in the States I can buy here. You might pay a little bit more for certain things, but then again, there's always alternatives," Stumpp said. "I can buy Kellogg's cornflakes and pay a lot of money, or I can buy the local cornflakes for a lot less."

Because he's over 60, he gets discounts on his utilities, doctor visits, public transportation, flights, and even movie theaters.

He's seen many large condominium complexes built along the beach that sell for about $300,000 with monthly maintenance fees of between $150 and $250. In his area, which has fewer tourists and expats, home prices are much lower, though he said sometimes houses can stay on the market for years without buyers.

His electricity fees are about $50 a month, while WiFi is $40 a month. His water bill is a miniscule $5 a month, and he rarely uses air conditioning, which keeps costs down. Still, he estimates his grocery bills are comparable to what he spent in the US, though going out to eat is slightly less.

"As more and more North Americans come down, prices on certain things like services have gone up," Stumpp said. "When I first got here, a hand carwash was $2, but now it's $10."

He loves the weather and living by water, and he's enjoyed becoming integrated into Panamanian culture over the past few years. Still, he said he's noticed a lot of Americans moving down to Panama who don't adapt to the culture, noting that some have left recently citing cultural differences. He said Americans should understand that they're guests in Panama and respect their neighbors, even if it means having to listen to loud music during a party.

"If you come down here to retire, it's not going to be like back home, and you're going to have to be flexible," Stumpp said. "There's some other old-timers here, and those are the ones that can adapt to life here, but there's those that can't."

Have you recently left the United States for a new country? Have you recently moved to a new state? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com .

Read the original article on Business Insider
Trinity has been found safe.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original report:

Boston police are seeking the publics help in finding a missing 14-year-old girl.

Trinity Fontaine was last seen on Friday, April 12 around 3:50 p.m. in the area of 71 Humboldt Ave. She is described as a white female, about 51, medium build, black hair.

She was last wearing black/red pajamas, and grey and pink Nike sandals. Fontaine suffers from mental health issues, police say.

Anyone with information regarding her whereabouts is advised to contact 911 or B-2 Detectives at 617-343-4275.

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
The British Jewish community has experienced a huge surge in anti-Semitic incidents in the UK - Getty/Rob Stothard

The Jewish community in Britain has been put on high alert following Irans attack on Israel.

On Saturday night, the Community Security Trust (CST)  a charity that exists to protect Jews from anti-Semitism  said it had issued a notice to Jewish organisations to upgrade security measures in light of the attack.

The charity said: CST has tonight sent a notice to all communal organisations, requesting that security measures are fully implemented.

This is a necessary precaution because of the situation between Iran and Israel. It is not due to any specific information or warning here in the UK.

It added: CST has worked tirelessly with our community, police and Government since the war began on Oct 7, doing everything we can together to support and enable UK Jewish life. This will continue for as long as it is needed.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said on Saturday night: We are praying for the safety of Israel and its citizens, as well as the entire region, as the Iranian regime launches a direct attack.

Huge surge in anti-Semitism

Since the Oct 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, the British Jewish community has experienced a huge surge in anti-Semitic incidents in the UK.

According to the CSTs annual report released in February, there were 4,103 anti-Semitic incidents in the UK last year, nearly double the previous record in 2021.

Two-thirds of the anti-Semitism reports received were on or after Oct 7.

Attacks increased by 147 per cent compared to the 1,662 recorded in 2022 and were 81 per cent higher than the previous annual record of 2,261 in 2021.

The CST said the speed at which anti-Semites mobilised after the Oct 7 attack, and the huge increase in anti-Jewish hate, was, if anything, a celebration of Hamass massacre by people whose own hatred was emboldened and, in their minds, legitimised by the brutality enacted on civilians in southern Israel.

Incidents were at a record high across all types of hate last year. CST recorded 266 assaults, double the 136 in 2022 and the most ever recorded in a year. Cases of damage and desecration of Jewish property rose by 146 per cent from 74 in 2022 to 182 last year, the highest-ever annual figure in the category.

Threats to people, institutions or property  as opposed to more general abuse  rose by 196 per cent from 103 incidents in 2022 to 305 last year, another record.

Abuse at a record high

Abusive behaviour also hit a record high with 3,328 incidents, more than in any other year and an increase of 149 per cent from the 1,339 instances reported in 2022.

The charity noted a worrying proportion of children perpetrating anti-Semitism, with under-18s thought to be behind a fifth of the 2,086 incidents recorded where the offender or offenders approximate age was provided.

The CST said it had received a further 2,185 reports of potential incidents that were not deemed to be anti-Semitic but instead involved anti-Israel activity rather than anti-Jewish language, motivation or targeting and so were not included in the 2023 total.

Gary Mond, chairman of the National Jewish Assembly, said the UKs Jewish community should take particular care as there is now an increased risk of anti-Semitic attacks.

The attack on Israel by Iran was predicted and our community prays for the safety of all Israelis and that Israel will be able to deliver a highly effective military response, he said.

As with the war against Hamas, there is a risk of increased anti-Semitic attacks and the Jewish community needs to take particular care.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Britains roads have more potholes than craters on the moon

Labour has said Britain's pothole-riddled highways resemble the surface of the moon

Britains roads could have more than 100 times as many potholes as there are craters on the moon, according to Labour.

The UK had more than a million potholes last year, the party said, comparing the figure with astronomers estimates that there are more than 9,000 craters on the Moon.

But whereas craters are generally caused by the explosion or impact of a meteorite, potholes are largely the result of a mix of traffic, weather and poor road maintenance.

The comparison comes after a nationwide survey earlier this year found that 107,000 miles of local roads are fast reaching the end of their lives as a result of potholes.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, UK roads spending in 2019 was just over half (51 per cent) what it was in 2006.

Angela Rayner, the shadow local government secretary, who is currently the subject of a police investigation, said: Rishi Sunak vowed to rid Britain of potholes, but hes living on another planet.

Under the Tories, Britains roads look more like the surface of the moon than the safe, secure roads that taxpayers left counting the cost of damaged tyres expect.

Labour will be on the side of drivers and put local services first, ending the Tories sticking plaster approach by providing integrated, multi-year funding settlements to local leaders, giving them greater certainty to plan for the future.

Rishi Sunak inspects a pothole in Darlington, County Durham. The Government has said it will spend 8.3 billion from the cancelled HS2 railway line on road maintenance. - Stefan Rousseau/PA

Labour also highlighted a tweet by Rishi Sunak from 2021 encouraging the public to enjoy National Pothole Day before theyre all gone.

The most recent Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (Alarm) survey warned in March that the road network is reaching breaking point as the sum needed to tackle the repair backlog broke 16 billion for the first time.

The Government has said it is spending 8.3 billion from the cancelled northern leg of the HS2 railway line on road maintenance.

Simon Williams, the RACs head of policy, said earlier this year: By the Governments own admission, the extra 8.3 billion from the cancelled parts of HS2 is only sufficient to resurface around 5,000 miles of road, which is sadly just three per cent of all council-managed roads in England.

Around two million potholes are expected to be filled in this year, the highest number since 2015.

Labour has made two significant transport pledges in recent months. Party leaders have promised to renationalise the railways and, earlier this week, also said they would bring Britains buses back under state control.

Buses were deregulated in 1980 during Margaret Thatchers first term in government.

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Israel says Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles, 99% of which were intercepted

Israel says Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles, 99% of which were intercepted

JERUSALEM (AP)  Booms and air raid sirens sounded across Israel early Sunday after Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East closer to a regionwide war. A military spokesman said the launches numbered more than 300 but 99% of them were intercepted.

Calling the outcome a very significant strategic success, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Iran fired 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles. Of those, several ballistic missiles reached Israeli territory, causing minor damage to an air base.

Rescuers said a 7-year-old girl in a Bedouin Arab town was seriously wounded in southern Israel, apparently in a missile strike, though they said police were still investigating the circumstances of her injuries.

In Washington, President Joe Biden said U.S. forces helped Israel down nearly all the drones and missiles and pledged to convene allies to develop a unified response.

The Iranian attack, less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria that killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building, marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the countrys 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Condemnation from the United Nations chief and others was swift, with France saying Iran is risking a potential military escalation, Britain calling the attack reckless" and Germany saying Iran and its proxies must stop it immediately."

Hagari said the vast majority of the intercepts came outside Israels borders, including 10 cruise missiles that were intercepted by warplanes.

"A wide-scale attack by Iran is a major escalation, he said. Asked whether Israel would respond, Hagari said only that the army does and will do whatever is required to protect the security of the state of Israel. He said the incident was not over, and dozens of Israeli warplanes remained in the skies.

Israels military said its Arrow system, which shoots down ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, handled most interceptions and noted that strategic partners were involved.

At my direction, to support the defense of Israel, the U.S. military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week, Biden said in a statement. Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our service members, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a separate statement that U.S. forces intercepted dozens of missiles and UAVs en route to Israel, launched from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke early Sunday, Israeli time, their governments said. Biden said in his statement that he reaffirmed Americas ironclad commitment to Israel's security  a departure from his growing criticism of Israel's conduct in its war on Hamas in Gaza.

Iran had vowed revenge since the April 1 airstrike in Syria, which Tehran accused Israel of being responsible for. Israel hasnt commented on it.

Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israels six-month war against Hamas militants in Gaza. The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. An Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed over 33,000 people, according to local health officials.

Almost immediately after the war erupted, Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, began attacking Israels northern border. The two sides have been involved in daily exchanges of fire, while Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have launched rockets and missiles toward Israel.

In a statement carried late Saturday by Irans state-run IRNA news agency, the countrys paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged launching dozens of drones and missiles towards the occupied territories and positions of the Zionist regime.

In a later statement, the Revolutionary Guard issued a direct warning to the U.S.: The terrorist U.S. government is warned any support or participation in harming Irans interests will be followed by decisive and regretting response by Irans armed forces."

IRNA also quoted an anonymous official saying ballistic missiles were part of the attack. A ballistic missile moves on an arch trajectory, heading up into space before gravity brings the weapon down at a speed several times faster than the speed of sound.

Israel has a multilayered air-defense network that includes systems capable of intercepting a variety of threats including long-range missiles, cruise missiles, drones and short-range rockets. However, in a massive attack involving multiple drones and missiles, the likelihood of a strike making it through is higher.

Iran has a vast arsenal of drones and missiles. Online videos shared by Iranian state television purported to show delta-wing-style drones resembling the Iranian Shahed-136s long used by Russia in its war on Ukraine. The slow-flying drones carry bombs. Ukraine has successfully used both surface-to-air missiles and ground fire to target them.

Some Israelis watched the interceptions light up the night sky.

Air raid sirens were reported in numerous places including northern Israel, southern Israel, the northern West Bank and the Dead Sea near the Jordanian border.

Israel's army ordered residents in the Golan Heights  near the Syrian and Lebanese borders  as well as the southern towns of Nevatim and Dimona and the Red Sea resort of Eilat into protective spaces. Dimona is home to Israels main nuclear facility, and Nevatim has a major air base. Loud booms were heard in Jerusalem and northern and southern Israel.

The armys Home Front Command canceled school Sunday and limited public gatherings to no more than 1,000 people. Israel and some other countries in the region closed their airspace.

Earlier, Netanyahu warned: Whoever harms us, we will harm them.

In Washington, Biden convened a principals meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the attack.

Gen. Erik Kurilla, the head of the U.S. militarys Central Command, was in Israel over the weekend consulting with Israeli defense officials. The Central Command oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Irans mission to the United Nations issued a warning to both Israel and the U.S. Should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Irans response will be considerably more severe, it wrote online. It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!

For days, Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had threatened to slap Israel for the Syria strike.

In Irans capital, Tehran, witnesses saw long lines at gas stations early Sunday as people appeared worried about what may come next. Dozens of hard-liners demonstrated in support of the attack at Palestine Square.

Lebanons state-run National News Agency reported heavy Israeli airstrikes and shelling on multiple locations in south Lebanon following Iran's launch of drones. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched dozens of Katyusha rockets at an Israeli military site in the Golan Heights early Sunday. It was not immediately clear if there was any damage.

Iranian missiles or drones were intercepted in the sky above the Jordanian capital, Amman. In Lebanons capital, Beirut, and elsewhere in the country, residents reported seeing missiles in the sky and hearing explosions, likely from interceptions. In Syria, explosions were heard in the capital, Damascus, and elsewhere. Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Syrian air defenses tried to shoot down Israeli attempts to intercept Iranian missiles.

___

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. AP correspondents Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, Michael Balsamo in New York, Krutika Pathi in New Delhi, Stephen Graham in Berlin, Thomas Adamson in Paris, and Zeke Miller and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.
An aerial drone photo taken on April 12, 2024 shows passengers at the Vientiane Station of the China-Laos Railway in Vientiane, Laos. The Lao New Year is the most important festival in the Lao calendar. This year's holiday for celebrations runs from April 13 to 18. Public transportation is expected to see a travel peak during the period before and after the Lao New Year. (Photo by Yang Yongquan/Xinhua)

VIENTIANE, April 12 (Xinhua) -- People and businesses across Laos are preparing to celebrate the traditional Lao New Year when many provinces will hold a wide range of activities.

The Lao New Year is the most important festival in the Lao calendar and also a time of endless fun for Laotians. This year's holiday for celebrations runs from April 13 to 18.

"I believe that this year will be much more fun than usual because many activities are organizing across the country and we are all getting a long holiday," Soudthida Navamminh, a 21-year-old woman living in the Lao capital Vientiane told Xinhua on Friday.

Khamkeo Baiyavanh, a 31-year-old man from northern Laos' Luang Prabang province, said that he will go back to his hometown during the holiday.

"During the Lao New Year, I will go to several temples to pray and sprinkle water over Buddha images. I also plan to have a small party with my friends and family."

The celebration of the holiday is expected to have a positive impact on the domestic economy.

Markets have made extensive preparations to cope with the extra demand over the holiday and have introduced measures to regulate the price of goods, ensuring that traders do not raise prices arbitrarily.

Saysamone, a butcher shop owner, told Xinhua that his shop is fully stocked with a wide range of products to meet the needs of shoppers.

Saysamone said that his shop is ready to provide clean and safe meat for society during the holiday.

In addition, public transportation is expected to see a travel peak during the period before and after the Lao New Year.

Station manager for the Southern Bus Station in Vientiane Souksavath Sisouk said that extra buses will be put into service to cope with the high volume of passengers over the Lao New Year holiday.

Moreover, the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd. (LCRC) will provide extra train services from April 12 to 19 between Vientiane and the Luang Prabang province. It is anticipated that travels on this route will reach peak levels as the northern province is the most popular destination during the holiday.

Laos' Ministry of Public Security has planned to deploy more than 700 traffic police officers to over 100 intersections across Vientiane to ensure peace and order along public roads during the Lao New Year celebration in mid-April. 

Passengers are seen at the Vientiane Station of the China-Laos Railway in Vientiane, Laos, April 11, 2024. The Lao New Year is the most important festival in the Lao calendar. This year's holiday for celebrations runs from April 13 to 18. Public transportation is expected to see a travel peak during the period before and after the Lao New Year. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

Passengers are seen at the Vientiane Station of the China-Laos Railway in Vientiane, Laos, April 13, 2024. The Lao New Year is the most important festival in the Lao calendar. This year's holiday for celebrations runs from April 13 to 18. Public transportation is expected to see a travel peak during the period before and after the Lao New Year. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

An aerial drone photo taken on April 12, 2024 shows passengers at the Vientiane Station of the China-Laos Railway in Vientiane, Laos. The Lao New Year is the most important festival in the Lao calendar. This year's holiday for celebrations runs from April 13 to 18. Public transportation is expected to see a travel peak during the period before and after the Lao New Year. (Photo by Yang Yongquan/Xinhua)

Passengers are pictured at the Vientiane Station of the China-Laos Railway in Vientiane, Laos, April 13, 2024. The Lao New Year is the most important festival in the Lao calendar. This year's holiday for celebrations runs from April 13 to 18. Public transportation is expected to see a travel peak during the period before and after the Lao New Year. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

Passengers are seen at the Vientiane Station of the China-Laos Railway in Vientiane, Laos, April 11, 2024. The Lao New Year is the most important festival in the Lao calendar. This year's holiday for celebrations runs from April 13 to 18. Public transportation is expected to see a travel peak during the period before and after the Lao New Year. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)

Passengers are seen at the Vientiane Station of the China-Laos Railway in Vientiane, Laos, April 13, 2024. The Lao New Year is the most important festival in the Lao calendar. This year's holiday for celebrations runs from April 13 to 18. Public transportation is expected to see a travel peak during the period before and after the Lao New Year. (Photo by Wen Yonghua/Xinhua)

Passengers are seen at the Vientiane Station of the China-Laos Railway in Vientiane, Laos, April 11, 2024. The Lao New Year is the most important festival in the Lao calendar. This year's holiday for celebrations runs from April 13 to 18. Public transportation is expected to see a travel peak during the period before and after the Lao New Year. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua)
California man sentenced in road-rage killing of 6-year-old on his way to kindergarten

LOS ANGELES  A Southern California man who shot at a car on a freeway during a road-rage incident and killed a 6-year-old who was on his way to kindergarten was sentenced Friday to the maximum possible sentence of 40 years to life in prison.

Marcus Anthony Eriz of Costa Mesa was convicted by a jury in January of second-degree murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle for the May 21, 2021, killing of Aiden Leos.

Superior Court Judge Richard King said Aiden was a 6-year-old in the back seat, the most vulnerable victim that you can even imagine, going to kindergarten being driven by his mom.

Road Rage Trial Verdict in California (Paul Bersebach / MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

I dont think the English language can even attempt, for anybody, to even describe what Aidens mother went through after he said ouch, King said. She pulls over, and her little boy dies in her arms.

Eriz fired a shot at the car after his girlfriend, who was driving their car, cut Aidens mom off on State Route 55. The girlfriend gave a peace sign and Aidens mom flipped them off, prosecutors said.

Eriz, in the back seat, opened the window and fired a handgun at her car. The mother heard a noise and her son cry out as she was driving away, authorities said. Aiden, who was in a car seat in the back, was struck.

Eriz apologized in court Friday.

He was a son, a little brother and a friend to others. He looked as if he brightened up the world everywhere he went and truly one of Gods little angels, Eriz said. And I am so sorry for ever hurting him, and for the pain that he went through because of me.

He never deserved it. And neither did his family, Eriz said.

Eriz would have been sentenced to 15 years to life, but he was convicted of a sentencing enhancement that added an extra 25 years to life, and the judge refused to strike that enhancement.

King said he could not connect any mitigating factors put forward by the defense, like childhood trauma or his age at the time, with the actions that Eriz took that day.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said that this wasnt a horrible mistake; this is a cold-blooded murder.

Marcus Eriz pulled out his gun and fired it into a moving car because he wanted to world to know what he was capable of  and what he took was the life of a little six-year-old boy and the sense of security of drivers everywhere who worry that driving on our freeways could be a death sentence, not because of a crash but because of a bullet, Spitzer said in a statement after the sentencing.

Erizs girlfriend, Wynne Lee, has been charged with one count each of accessory after the fact and having a concealed firearm in a vehicle. Her case is pending and she has pleaded not guilty.

If convicted on both counts, Lee faces up to three years in state prison and one year in the Orange County Jail, the district attorneys office said.

The shocking violence on the freeway sparked a manhunt that ended with the pairs arrest on June 6, 2021, around two weeks after the shooting. A reward for information had grown to more than $300,000 in the case.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
After weeks of rising tensions, Iran launched a major drone attack on Israel late last night. Footage showing what appeared to be Iranian weapons passing low through Iraqi airspace indicated that they were the same weapons deployed to such devastating effect by Vladimir Putins forces in Ukraine.

The regime in Tehran has cast a long shadow over the world. From its direct funding of the evil of Hamas in Israel, to the proxies it uses to assault shipping in the Red Sea, to its assassination plots on British soil, it has constantly sought to undermine the global order.

With the launch of a direct assault upon Israel, it has crossed into outright, explicit and undeniable attacks upon the West.

The time for appeasement is now over. Britain must stand in full behind Israel and its right to defend itself. Shameful talk of halting arms sales must cease; the Iranian proxies threatening shipping in the Red Sea must be utterly defeated.

It is not aggression on the part of Israel and the West that has brought us to this point, but our weakness. Israel has been engaged in an existential struggle for its existence as a safe, prosperous and democratic state since the horrors of the October 7 pogrom last year.

Yet Western leaders, who almost without exception proclaimed their solidarity with the Jewish state in the immediate aftermath of the attack, have begun to lose their stomach for the defence of the ideals they professed so strongly to hold.

As Israel set about neutralising the genocidal threat posed by Hamas, and ensuring the safety of its people, this support began to ebb away, even as anti-Semites took to the streets in Western capitals baying for blood.

While the United States previously vetoed United Nations resolutions demanding a one-sided ceasefire in Gaza that would prevent the Hamas terrorists from being crushed and allow them to regroup, last month it abstained. The UK voted in favour.

It is time for us to remember who our friends are, and where our interests lie. Britain has admirably championed Ukraines resistance to Moscow and loudly made the case for the West doing the maximum to resist Putins tyranny and stand for freedom.

We must now show the same resolution against the Iranian regime, another autocracy that threatens all our values. Britain must stand with Israel to the last.

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Canada warns citizens against all travel to Israel and Gaza

(Reuters) - Canada has warned citizens to avoid all travel to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, upgrading its risk assessment of the region due to the increased threat of attacks on Israeli territory.

Foreign Minister Melanie Joly posted a statement on social media site X late on Friday and said Canadians already in the area should consider leaving by commercial means.

"With a heightened risk of attacks on Israeli territory, the regional security situation remains highly volatile & could escalate without notice," Joly posted.

The federal government had previously advised Canadians to avoid non-essential travel to the region.

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday that he expected Iran to attack Israel "sooner, rather than later" and warned Tehran not to proceed.

(Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
Measles has made an unwelcome return to the U.S., with dozens of children across multiple states having caught the highly contagious viral disease so far this year. There are several reasons why measles has become a larger problem both here and worldwide as of late, but theres one commonly speculated suspect for its resurgence that simply isnt to blame: covid-19.

As of early April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 113 measles cases detected in 18 states, with the most reported in Illinois. Two-thirds of the cases have involved children, and half involve children under the age of 5. No deaths have been reported, but 65 people have been hospitalized for isolation or to manage complications of the infection, including 37 children under 5.

Measles was locally eliminated in the U.S in 2000, meaning that cases of measles seen in the country today usually originate from somewhere else. But outbreaks can and do sometimes spread here. Some of the seven ongoing outbreaks in the U.S. date back to late last year, but the tally of cases is already double the toll reported in 2023 and is on track to be the most seen in a year since 2019, which saw over 1,200 cases.

If you browse social media posts discussing these outbreaks, it wont take long to see people point to covid-19 as a culprit. Some people argue that, since covid is known to weaken peoples immune systems, it must have provided fertile ground for measles to emerge once again. It isnt just measles eithersimilar arguments have been made to explain the recent uptick of tuberculosis or unusual outbreaks of disease, like the clusters of severe pediatric hepatitis cases that occurred across several countries in 2022. And some people have even gone as far as to nickname covid airborne AIDSinvoking the well-known effects of an untreated HIV infection in causing other opportunistic infections.

Some of the many social media comments speculating about a link between measles and covid-19. - Screenshot: Ed Cara via Twitter/X

The biggest problem with this hypothesis, at least for measles specifically, is that there isnt really a need to come up with a special explanation for its return. The measles virus can spread incredibly well between people who havent been exposed to it previously. So as long as there are large enough pockets of people not immune to measles in a community, it will always have the chance to cause wildfires of disease once given the opportunity. Measles also remains endemic in many parts of the world, so theres no shortage of sources for new outbreaks.

There were measles outbreaks among unvaccinated people long before covid-19, Emily Smith, an epidemiologist specializing in infectious diseases at George Washington Universitys Milken Institute School of Public Health, said in an email to Gizmodo.

All states mandate vaccination against measles and other once-common germs before children enter the public school system. And while the national rate of childhood measles vaccination is still high93.1% in the 2022-2023 school yearits recently dipped below the 95% threshold that experts say is needed to ensure limited spread in a community (a concept known as herd immunity). Some regions of the U.S. have even lower vaccination rates, giving measles that much more room to spread if its ever introduced there.

Theres nothing strange going on with these latest outbreaks, immunity-wise. According to the CDC, 83% of cases have involved people who were either unvaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status, while another 12% of cases involved people who only received one of the two vaccine shots needed for measles. Measles vaccination is highly effective and long-lived (upwards of 99% protection with the full two shots), but it isnt completely foolproof, so the occasional case in vaccinated people can occur, especially if the virus is allowed to circulate in a community long enough.

The other stumbling block here is that theres simply not much supporting the idea that covid is eroding our defenses to other germs on a widespread level.

Theres no evidence that covidor the vaccineis adversely affecting peoples immune systems, Richard Rupp, a pediatrician and the director of clinical research at the University of Texas Medical Branchs Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences, told Gizmodo. Measles has always been worrisome. I think people have this image of measles as just red spots on the face, or someone being a sad sack sitting there with it. But no, its always been a bad disease.

Life-threatening cases of acute covid are known to wreak havoc on the immune system, and they can raise a persons risk of catching other germs at the same time, though this is true of any severe infection. Some people can also experience lingering symptoms after their initial covid infection (including mild ones), a condition known as long covid. And there is evidence suggesting that at least a subset of long covid cases could be tied to ongoing, harmful changes in the immune system triggered by the infection.

But even these changes seem to be examples of immune dysregulation and overactivation, not the sort of long-term immune deficiency that could make someone more susceptible to other infections (something that does happen with HIV). On a population level, there is no data showing that rates of known opportunistic infections have exploded the way you would expect if covid was weakening everyones immune systems. And much like these latest measles outbreaks, covid is hardly needed to explain every mysterious cluster of illness that shows up. The strange wave of severe child hepatitis cases that occurred in 2022, for instance? It now appears to have been caused by a previously unknown interaction between a common virus and a rare genetic vulnerability to severe infection from it.

To put it bluntly, there is no good reason that covid should be viewed as airborne AIDS. And it does a disservice to everyone to treat it as such. Covid remains a real public health issue (it killed at least 48,000 Americans last year, according to provisional CDC data), and those with long covid deserve more attention and research. But blaming every other health problem on the coronavirusis both inaccurate and a wasteful distraction.

The pandemic did have a real effect on the return of measles globally, for instance, since it interrupted or diverted resources from existing measles vaccination programs, especially in poorer countries. The disinformation spread by the anti-vaccination movement about the covid-19 vaccine also likely weakened public confidence in other vaccines. So beating back measles will require reminding people everywhere about the value of vaccination and ensuring that they can easily access vaccines.

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Chaos as 26 barges break free and float down Ohio River near Pittsburgh

26 barges, several of which are pictured, broke loose in the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania late Friday evening (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District)

More than two dozen barges were free-floating down the Ohio River, causing the closure of at least one bridge in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania metro area.

Just before midnight on Friday, 26 barges broke loose in the Ohio River near the major city, according to a statement from the US Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District.

Now 23 barges are secure, with authorities working on Saturday afternoon to lock down two more, a public information officer for the US Coast Guard Eighth District told The Independent.

26 barges, several of which are pictured, broke loose in the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania late Friday evening (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District)

Meanwhile, one barge remains unaccounted for as of 2 pm local time on Saturday. The cause of the barges coming loose is still unknown.

In response to the chaos, authorities closed the McKees Rocks Bridge, just outside of Pittsburgh, for about eight hours beginning at midnight. The city of Pittsburgh initially announced they had closed the West End Bridge, but The New York Times reported a Public Information Officer later clarified the bridge never closed. The news comes just weeks after a bridge collapsed in Baltimore when a ship rammed into it, killing six people.

Of the loose barges, 23 are carrying dry, non-hazardous materials, while the remaining three are empty, according to a statement from Pittsburgh Public Information Officer Cara Cruz.

No injuries were reported. However, Peggys Marina  a family owned and operated harbour, according to their website  sustained extensive damage, Ms Cruz said.

One of the barges, several of which are pictured, is still unaccounted for as of Saturday afternoon (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District)

This isnt the only Ohio River disaster Pittsburgh residents have faced in recent days.

On Friday, about three inches of rain fell on the Pittsburgh area, causing dangerous flash flooding throughout the region. The downpour spurred several emergency evacuations and rescues. Some parts of southern Allegheny County, Pennsylvania saw up to four inches of rain.

As of Saturday, no injuries have been reported as a result of the extreme weather.

The Independent has contacted the City of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gaineys office for comment.
Broward County School Board member Daniel Foganholi, a Gov. Ron DeSantis appointee, wants the board to immediately remove its chief attorney at its meeting Tuesday.

He claims general counsel Marylin Batista took unauthorized actions in an unresolved legal fight over how much money the district owes charter schools from a 2018 voter-approved bond issue. (The agenda item misspells Batistas first name throughout. Maybe a lawyer should have reviewed it first).

School Board member Torey Alston, who also was appointed by DeSantis and not elected by Broward voters, wants to rescind a binding negotiated contract, approved in February, between the district and its teachers.

Welcome to the home of the nations sixth-largest school district, as repurposed by DeSantis, to borrow a popular term these days.

Alston and Foganholi dont have enough votes to make either of these things happen. As Board Chairman Lori Alhadeff told me, My colleagues and I will vote with the best interest of our district and students in mind.

But things are likely to get ugly in public, and thats what this is all about. Its disorder by design.

The point should be obvious: to create enough of a perception of chaos and instability to provide a rationalization for the state to punish the district  or worse, provide another political basis for DeSantis to wreak havoc with more suspensions of board members in an election year like he did two years ago.

He got away with it once. Why wouldnt he do it again?

Separately, Alston now wants the Department of Education in Tallahassee to investigate what he calls a blatant corrupt culture that he claims exists among certain board members, district staff and the Broward Teachers Union in the recent negotiations that led to a 3.96% pay raise for teachers.

As the Sun Sentinels Scott Travis reports, some money for those raises came from COVID-19 relief money that will dry up this year as the district grapples with financial pressures and faces the politically difficult closings of under-enrolled schools.

Alston alleges that pro-union board members leaked confidential negotiation details to the union to win the BTUs endorsement. The charge seems ludicrous on its face as the union reliably supports Democratic board members anyway.

I will weave together public and discoverable facts that illustrate a blatant corrupt culture that still exists in Broward County Public Schools, Alston wrote in a letter to the state, describing an alleged pay to play culture.

If Alston is so certain that corruption exists  a felony under Florida law  he neednt seek help from his friends in Tallahassee. He should walk right across Southeast Third Avenue in Fort Lauderdale and file charges with State Attorney Harold Pryor, a two-minute walk from his School Board office.

But no. For obvious reasons, Alston much prefers a different forum: Commissioner Manny Diazs Department of Education.

Thats the same DOE that acted as judge, jury and executioner by overriding a still-pending lawsuit and found probable cause that the district broke the law by not sharing proceeds of a 2018 bond issue with charter schools.

That long-simmering issue may also come to a boil in the coming days.

The School Board is scheduled to hold another private settlement discussion Tuesday (as allowed by law), and the following day, Diazs Board of Education, politically aligned with the charter school industry, will take up the issue in Tallahassee.

The mediator in the charter school dispute, former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, has told the state: I am pleased to report the parties entered into a preliminary agreement to resolve the dispute.

So its settled? Apparently not.

The Board of Education agenda item reads: The State Board of Education will consider whether the Broward County School Board is unwilling or unable to comply with (state law) regarding revenue it collected under a local ad valorem tax  the State Board will now determine whether the District is unwilling or unable to comply and, if so, what actions should be taken to bring the Board into compliance.

Through carefully calculated actions, Alston and Foganholi and their allies in the governors office are doing their best to seize control of the district. But it has to be done in the forum of public opinion, not a courtroom, and they cant control the agenda because they dont have five votes on the nine-member board.

Not yet, anyway.

Attentive voters are aware  or should be before election day  that these two disruptive board members were chosen by a Republican governor who has never been popular in Broward County. Nobody cast a ballot for either of them.

DeSantis knows what everyone in Broward knows: Alston and Foganholi could likely never get elected.

Another coup to override the will of voters will have to happen quickly, if at all, because an election is coming. Contested School Board races, still officially nonpartisan, are held in August, with a November runoff if no one gets more than 50% of the vote.

Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a weekly columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240 and follow him on X @stevebousquet.
A charter school in Las Vegas faces closure if more than $800K in taxpayer funds are not repaid

A charter school in Las Vegas faces closure if more than $800K in taxpayer funds are not repaid

LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  A newly opened Las Vegas charter school is facing allegations of misuse of taxpayer funds and could close if the money isnt paid back, documents said.

Eagle Charter School, located near Sahara and Eastern avenues in east Las Vegas, owes the Nevada Department of Education $837,085, according to documents from the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority.

The school opened its doors in August. On Friday, plans were tentatively put in place to close Eagle Charter School unless the funds were paid back to the state of Nevada.

You knew you were coming before us today to present and that we would have hard questions for you, said Kurt Thigpen, a State Public Charter School Authority board member. Its very concerning that you dont know these very basic answers.

The charter school was initially projected to have 306 students enrolled in classes and receive $837,085 from the Nevada Department of Education. However, enrollment was only about half that. Despite the lower-than-expected enrollment, the State Public Charter School Authority accused Eagle Charter School of taking overpayments.

The Eagle memo that suggests board members were not aware of the seriousness of the situation are incorrect, Jasmine Graciano, a board member at Eagle Charter School, said.

Graciano was critical of Melissa Mackedon, State Public Charter School Authority Executive Director, and a memo she wrote that said that the charter school would stop receiving funding in the summer unless the establishment paid the money back.

Maintaining operations is defined as paying all liabilities and obligations for Eagles daily operations on time and without delinquent payment, Mackedon said.

Two Eagle Charter School board members said they werent aware of the financial issues, according to Mackedon.

As of now, we do have a plan in place to get the NDE repaid, Graciano said.

Some state board members were critical of the response.

Im asking why [] your accountant is telling us that you kept track of the overpayments  why wasnt the entirety of the overpayments not set aside so that NDE could be repaid, Thigpen asked. Where did that money go?

Mackedon said she attempted to address Eagle Charter Schools school board last month during a public comment period but was denied. The State Public Charter School Authority is scheduled to meet in May. The hope is that a plan for Eagle Charter School to return taxpayer funds will be in place by then.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
CHESAPEAKE  A Chesapeake man was found guilty Friday of murdering, robbing and abducting a woman from New York state who was staying in the same apartment complex as him.

The jury deliberated for about three hours before convicting Raheem Cherry of all charges, including first-degree murder. Sentencing was set for July. Cherry, who was 19 when the crimes were committed, could get up to two life terms plus 15 years.

The slaying occurred around 5 a.m. on May 17, 2021, at the Taylor Bend apartment complex in Western Branch.

Laura Miles, 61, a resident of upstate New York who spent weeks at a time in Chesapeake as a safety supervisor at Craney Island, was attacked immediately after she stepped into her Ford F150 in the complexs parking lot, according to prosecutors. Shed been talking on the phone with her husband, who told police he heard a scream and then a struggle. He also got texts from her phone moments later that he said were out of character for her.

Officers discovered Miles truck on the other side of the complex later that day. Soon after, they found her body in a ditch near the Taylor Bend YMCA. A medical examiner determined Miles had been stabbed 11 times.

A detective who saw Cherry walking back and forth in the area where the truck was found stopped him for questions, then let him go. Cherry became a suspect after fingerprints found on the truck and Miles phone were determined to have come from him.

Cherry denied any involvement, then later told detectives he was somewhat involved. He said that on that morning, hed smoked marijuana in a car in the parking lot with a man hed never seen before. He said the man told him he wanted to rob someone, and showed him a gun and a knife.

When Miles came out of her apartment and got into her truck, the man ran over and attacked her, Cherry told police. He said the man then forced him at gunpoint to help dump Miles body, dispose of her belongings and clean the truck.

None of this makes any sense, ladies and gentleman, Deputy Commonwealths Attorney D.J. Hansen told jurors during closing arguments. It doesnt make sense because it never happened.

Cherry testified in his own defense, telling jurors he initially lied to police because he didnt trust them. He also said that he didnt attempt to run away, or report what had happened, because he was afraid.

Defense attorney Amanda Newins pointed to doorbell video footage that showed Cherry in the area, and then a minute later another man wearing different clothes in the same area.

We know there was someone else there, Newins told jurors. We know that because there is video footage showing there is someone else there.

Newins also questioned prosecutors assertion that Cherry had sent the texts to Miles husband. The only prints found for him were from his pinky and middle fingers, not typically ones used to type. Cherry said his prints were there because he touched the phone while helping the other man clean the truck.

The defense lawyer also pointed to the fact that no blood was found on the clothes Cherry was seen wearing in the video, and that a partial DNA sample located on Miles arm was ruled to have come from two different men. There wasnt enough evidence, however, to determine who the men were.

Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
On April 10, another incident occurred on the conventional border between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The Armenian armed forces again opened fire at the Azerbaijani border post, as a result of which a state border service officer was wounded, Today.az informs with reference to Trend.





As a result of the investigation, the National Security Service of Armenia accused the Armenian border guards of violating the rules, which led to a shootout.





On April 10, a conscript soldier of the NSS border troops, having learned that a shepherd and his flock had gotten lost and ended up on Azerbaijani territory, together with his colleagues decided to cross the border without permission and return the cattle, thereby violating the rules of service, which through negligence caused significant damage , led to a groundless shootout and endangered the lives and health of people, the department said.





However, this begs the question: where was the EU observation mission at that moment?





The EU monitoring mission in Armenia was launched in January last year. Initially, the number of arriving employees was 100 people. But already in December their number was increased to 209 people. And really none of them were able to respond in a timely manner?





The fact that in principle there was no reaction from them to this incident already suggests that the Europeans are simply not ready to take on this responsibility.





This is not the first time that Europeans remain silent or justify themselves by saying that they allegedly do not have access to some Armenian villages. When a similar incident occurred in February this year, the EU mission shifted responsibility to Russian border guards.





What then are their responsibilities? Only in March 2024 did the Armenian parliament ratify an agreement with the European Union on the status of the EU observation mission, which should regulate the activities of the mission and also clarify its functions. What the observers have been doing for the past year is unclear.





It is obvious that all this time the Europeans were protecting their Armenian friends. The Armenian side has already taken responsibility, and the EU continues to cover them. So, binocular diplomacy did not work again.





Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pashinyan says that the mandate of the European mission in Armenia can be extended for another two years. In addition to the fact that the Europeans have once again shown inaction and proven their absolute uselessness, the extension of their mandate simply becomes another obstacle to the delimitation of the Azerbaijani-Armenian border and the conclusion of peace between the parties. At the same time, Pashinyan states that all problems of Baku and Yerevan must be resolved independently, without third parties. What is the Armenian leadership trying to achieve?
Victims' coffins are transferred to a hospital in southwest Pakistan's Quetta on April 13, 2024. Eleven people were killed and four others injured as militants killed passengers of several vehicles in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Saturday.

The incident happened at around 7:00 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) on Friday when the militants hoisting flags of the banned outfit Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) on their motorbikes blocked a highway in Nushki district of the province, official sources from the district told Xinhua. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua)

ISLAMABAD, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Eleven people were killed and four others injured as militants killed passengers of several vehicles in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Saturday.

The incident happened at around 7:00 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) on Friday when the militants hoisting flags of the banned outfit Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) on their motorbikes blocked a highway in Nushki district of the province, official sources from the district told Xinhua.

"During the snap checking of each passing-by vehicle, the BLA militants offloaded nine passengers from a bus bound to Iran's Taftan from Balochistan's provincial capital of Quetta and shot them dead in nearby hills," the sources added.

The deceased were identified as residents from different cities in the eastern Punjab province. They were believed to be singled out by the militants who scrutinized their passports before targeting them.

Two more people were killed with four others injured when the militants fired upon another vehicle and a motorbike after they refused to stop for snap-checking.

The militants maintained the road blockade till around 8:30 p.m. local time when they were dispersed after an exchange of fire with the security forces, the sources added.

Following the militants' attack, the security forces kicked off a search operation in the area.

The sources added that snap-checking has been observed multiple times, usually after important festivals, including the Islamic festival of Eid al-Fitr when laborers travel to Balochistan after spending holidays.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has condemned the attack and conveyed condolences to the families of the victims.

He vowed to ensure that the perpetrators of the attack and their facilitators will face real punishment. 

A victim's coffin is transferred to a hospital in southwest Pakistan's Quetta on April 13, 2024. Eleven people were killed and four others injured as militants killed passengers of several vehicles in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Saturday.

The incident happened at around 7:00 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) on Friday when the militants hoisting flags of the banned outfit Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) on their motorbikes blocked a highway in Nushki district of the province, official sources from the district told Xinhua. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua)

A victim's coffin is transferred to a hospital in southwest Pakistan's Quetta on April 13, 2024. Eleven people were killed and four others injured as militants killed passengers of several vehicles in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Saturday.

The incident happened at around 7:00 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) on Friday when the militants hoisting flags of the banned outfit Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) on their motorbikes blocked a highway in Nushki district of the province, official sources from the district told Xinhua. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua)

A staff member notes details of victims at a hospital in southwest Pakistan's Quetta on April 13, 2024. Eleven people were killed and four others injured as militants killed passengers of several vehicles in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Saturday.

The incident happened at around 7:00 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) on Friday when the militants hoisting flags of the banned outfit Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) on their motorbikes blocked a highway in Nushki district of the province, official sources from the district told Xinhua. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua)

A victim's coffin is transferred to a hospital in southwest Pakistan's Quetta on April 13, 2024. Eleven people were killed and four others injured as militants killed passengers of several vehicles in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Saturday.

The incident happened at around 7:00 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) on Friday when the militants hoisting flags of the banned outfit Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) on their motorbikes blocked a highway in Nushki district of the province, official sources from the district told Xinhua. (Photo by Asad/Xinhua)
As China's navy grows, the US fleet is on a 'downward trajectory,' maritime expert says

The threat of a conflict over Taiwan has put the spotlight on the US and Chinese navies.

The US Navy has been shrinking, meaning China's is now the world's largest.

A major decline in US shipbuilding capacity could be a problem in the future, analysts say.

The oceans are once again becoming a key geopolitical battleground.

In the Indo-Pacific, the aggressive shadow of China is growing. Meanwhile, sea-based drone warfare in the Black Sea between Russia and Ukraine and the Houthi rebels' disruption of commercial shipping in the Red Sea have become conflict hot spots.

"It's the end of the pacifist period on the seas," Dr Steven Wills of the Center for Maritime Strategy, told Business Insider.

The US fleet is still widely considered the world's most powerful navy due to its 11 aircraft carriers and cutting-edge nuclear submarine capabilities.

However, while maritime pressures have increased, US shipbuilding has stagnated.

The USS Gerald R. Ford is thought to be the world's largest warship. Nikos Libertas/Getty Images

"In the early 1990s, the Navy had over 500 ships. But over the course of the 2000s and 2010s, there was a failure to properly follow up naval deployments with enough time for refit, repair, and rest," Wills explained.

As subsidies and funding for maritime infrastructure were cut in the post-Cold War period, industry capabilities slowed. That was compounded by a series of costly shipbuilding blunders.

"The US Navy was really rudderless. They didn't have an idea what it wanted to do," Wills said.

The fleet is now down to just under 300 ships.

Doug Livermore, who until recently was a senior intelligence officer and director of sensitive activities and special operations in the Navy, admits it's "not as robust of a ramp-up as it should be."

In the latest budget released in March, plans for seven new Arleigh Burke-class destroyers were reduced to six. Just one rather than two Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines will be added, while 19 ships will be decommissioned.

"They're scrapping more ships than they're building, which means the US Navy is on a downward trajectory, not an upward trajectory," said Dr Salvatore Mercogliano, a maritime historian at Campbell University.

China outpacing the US

China has overtaken the US Navy in numerical terms with about 370 vessels, according to the Pentagon's 2023 China Military Power Report.

It will grow to be at least 50% larger than America's by 2035, a retired admiral projected in the US Naval Institute's professional journal.

The Chinese guided-missile frigate Yantai arrives at Yantai Port. Tang Ke/VCG/Getty Images

Submarines, which have historically given the US primacy over the sea, are a high priority for the People's Liberation Army Navy.

China operates 60 submarines, according to the Pentagon's latest estimates. That number is expected to rise to 80 by 2035, despite the ongoing retirement of older hulls. Most of its submarines are diesel-powered, but it also has nuclear-powered attack and ballistic missile submarines that have higher speeds and longer ranges.

The US operates 67 submarines, but not all are in the Pacific.

China's navy is still not as technologically advanced, only has two aircraft carriers, and the fleet has minimal active experience, but Livermore says the pace of expansion remains a concern.

"In the early 2000s, the Chinese navy had nothing that could rival US vessels. They were primarily diesel-powered submarines, a few old and loud nuclear-powered submarines. The speed of development is worrying," he said.

Quantity vs quality

The numbers only tell one part of the story, however. Despite its smaller size compared with China, the US Navy is still widely regarded as the world's most powerful.

In 2020, then Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said that even if the US stopped building ships, it would take years for China to match the US Navy's power due to its technological capabilities and expertise.

"Ship numbers are important, but they don't tell the whole story," he said.

Another piece of the puzzle is shipbuilding capacity. China is the world's largest shipbuilder. It could use its manufacturing capacity to rapidly build more ships in wartime.

Chinese shipyards have a capacity of about 23.2 million tons, compared to the US' capacity of less than 100,000 tons, according to figures from the US Office of Naval Intelligence that emerged last year.

David Sacks, fellow for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told BI: "One of China's largest shipyards has more capacity than all US shipyards combined. We have to maintain ships as well as obviously build new platforms, and we don't have the workers or the facilities to do that."

Peacetime footing

Gone are the days when merchant ships were built in bulk in the US, capacities that America used to expand its fleet by more than 15 times in World War II. In an extended war, China is poised to rapidly build this kind of vast fleet  a capacity the US lacks.

Instead, the US defense industrial base still finds itself on a post-Cold War peacetime footing, analysts told BI.

Expanding American shipbuilding capacity ought to start now, Wills said: "You don't make the arsenal of democracy overnight."

"The composition of the Navy is a long-term issue. If you want to start changing force structure, it takes time," Mercogliano said.

But given that Japan and South Korea now dominate commercial shipbuilding, some doubt whether this is a realistic or viable option.

That could have consequences in wartime. "It would be very hard to rapidly ramp up and replace battlefield losses just given the current state of the industry," Wills said. "That's not the industry's fault  they can only operate based on what the government gives them."

Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS City of Corpus Christi at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. US Navy/PO3 Dustan Longhini

Taiwan tensions

Rising tensions over Taiwan are another reason some are questioning the size and shape of the US fleet.

Taiwan has been self-governed since 1949, but China sees it as a breakaway province that should be under its control.

While there have been no official signals about a looming conflict with Taiwan, China's leader Xi Jinping has said that he believes unification is inevitable and has refused to rule out using force to achieve that goal.

As a democratic ally in the region and home to a leading AI chipmaker in the form of TSMC, securing Taiwan's freedom is a key strategic and economic goal for the US.

Last month, the commander for the Indo-Pacific told lawmakers that Beijing would be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.

If that ever happens, analysts fear the US Navy could find itself on the back foot.

The view of the sea from Pingtan island, one of mainland China's closest point from Taiwan. HECTOR RETAMAL/Getty

The Council of Foreign Relations' Sacks pointed to a 2023 CSIS report that said the US would run out of many key munitions for a conflict over Taiwan within the first two weeks.

China's home advantage would also be significant, said Wills. "They're fighting a local game in their backyard whereas the US and everybody else, except Japan, is waging an away game. There are long logistics needed to make that happen."

"I think there ought to be a greater level of urgency here. I'm not seeing it," he added.

Countering Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific took center stage this week at the first-ever trilateral meeting between the US, Japan, and the Philippines.

The US announced more than $1 billion worth of private sector investment in chips and infrastructure to support the region and said security cooperation in the South China Sea had increased to "historic levels."

In the week leading to the summit, the three countries and Australia held their first joint maritime military exercises in a further show of unity.

Read the original article on Business Insider
In this photo provided on April 12, 2024, by the North Korean government, Choe Ryong Hae, right, vice-chairman of the central committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea, talks with Zhao Leji, left, chairman of the National Peoples Congress of China during a reception, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang, North Korea, on April 11, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

BEIJING (AP)  A top ranking official Chinese official reaffirmed ties with North Korea during a meeting Saturday with the countrys leader Kim Jong Un in the capital Pyongyang, China's state media reported, in the highest-level talks between the allies in years.

The visit by Zhao Leji, who ranks third in the ruling Communist Party hierarchy and heads the ceremonial parliament, came as North Korea has test fired missiles to intimidate South Korea and its ally, the United States.

The Xinhua News Agency reported that Zhao told Kim at the meeting concluding his three-day visit that China, the Norths most important source of economic aid and diplomatic support, looked forward to further developing ties, but made no mention of the political situation on the peninsula or the region.

North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency also confirmed the meeting on Sunday and said Kim held unspecified discussions with Zhao on boosting the multi-faceted exchange and cooperation and other important issues of mutual concern. KCNA said the Chinese delegation left the country later on Saturday.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 75 years ago, China and North Korea have been good neighbors and struggled together to attain a common destiny and level of development, Xinhua quoted Zhao as saying.

China fought on behalf of the reclusive Communist State against the U.S. and others during the 1950-1953 Korean War, and in recent years has helped prop up its weak economy, allegedly in violation of U.N. sanctions in response to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program that Beijing had endorsed.

Zhao met his North Korean counterpart Choe Ryong Hae on Thursday and discussed how to promote exchanges and cooperation in all areas, the Norths official Korean Central News Agency reported.

North Korea closed its borders during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic amid reports of a major outbreak and food shortages. Zhaos visit to North Korea marked the first bilateral exchange involving a Chinese Politburo Standing Committee member since the pandemic started. Prior to the outbreak, Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping held two summits in 2019.

North Korea and China are expected to hold a number of exchanges this year to mark the anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties. North Korea has sought to boost its cooperation with Beijing and Russia in the face of a standoff with the U.S. and South Korea over its missile launches and nuclear program.

Kim traveled to Russia in September for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The U.S., South Korea and others accuse North Korea of supplying conventional weapons for Russias war in Ukraine in return for advanced weapons technologies and other support.

China has refused to criticize the Russian invasion and accused the U.S. and NATO of provoking Moscow, but says it will not provide Moscow with direct military support.

__ AP writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed from Seoul, South Korea.
'Chrisley Knows Best' star Todd Chrisley ordered to pay former Georgia revenue investigator $755,000 after defamation lawsuit loss, report says

A jury has found that Todd Chrisley defamed an ex-Department of Revenue investigator, say reports.

His defamatory statements on social media and his podcast have cost him over $750,000.

The "Chrisley Knows Best" star was incarcerated in 2022 on bank fraud and tax evasion charges.

Todd Chrisley, the disgraced reality TV star who is currently incarcerated for bank fraud and tax evasion, has been hit with fresh legal and financial issues, reports said.

The 54-year-old Atlanta-based businessman and television personality, best known for appearing on the USA Network reality show "Chrisley Knows Best," has been ordered to pay $755,000 to a former Georgia Department of Revenue investigator for making defamatory statements against her.

A Georgia judge on Thursday found Chrisley liable for two claims of libel and slander against Amy Doherty-Heinze, according to multiple reports.

According to documents obtained by The Los Angeles Times and People, Doherty-Heinze was awarded $350,000 in compensatory damages, $170,000 in punitive damages, and $235,000 in attorney fees from Chrisley.

Chrisley, who is 15 months into his 12-year sentence, testified remotely from FPC Pensacola during the trial.

Todd previously starred in "Chrisley Knows Best" alongside family members, including wife Julie Chrisley. Tommy Garcia/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

According to the investigator's suit, Chrisley shared several defamatory statements about Doherty-Heinze on his podcast and social media accounts after the Georgia Department of Revenue began their investigation into him and his wife, Julie Chrisley, in 2017.

On a 2020 episode of the couple's now-defunct weekly podcast, "Chrisley Confessions," the real estate mogul accused Doherty-Heinze of corruption and of "illegally accessing" a government program to pull information on his wife and children, the lawsuit said.

The plaintiff initially asked Chrisley to retract his defamatory statements, which he declined. She filed her lawsuit the following year in July 2021, alleging that Chrisley had accused her of "a multitude of crimes and wrongdoing," per legal documents.

Doherty-Heinze said that Chrisley "repeated false accusations" about her "criminal misconduct in her post as an investigator for the Georgia Department of Revenue's Office of Special Investigations."

According to the law suit, Chrisley continued to "defame" Doherty-Heinze in a September 2021 episode of their podcast after he attempted to have the case thrown out.

At the weeklong trial, which concluded on Thursday, an eight-person jury found Chrisley liable for the two claims of libel and slander made in 2020 and 2021 but not liable for a third claim of slander made in a 2022 podcast episode as they didn't believe he acted with "malice" on that occasion.

In response to the ruling, Chrisley's attorney, Leesa Guarnotta, said in a statement to USA Today: "Although we are pleased the jury recognized that not all of Mr. Chrisley's statements were defamatory and awarded the plaintiff a fourth of the damages she requested, we are concerned about the state of the First Amendment where such a case could make it to trial in the first place."

Todd Chrisley, Harvey Hughes, and Julie Chrisley in one of the last aired episodes of "Chrisley Knows Best." USA Network

According to his lawyer, Chrisley will be filing an appeal, and he is "optimistic" about its outcome.

Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison in 2022 after he and his wife were found guilty of defrauding banks out of more than $30 million by providing fake financial statements, giving the appearance they were wealthier than they were.

Meanwhile, His wife was handed a seven-year sentence. They are serving their sentences at two separate facilities in Florida and Kentucky.

As Business Insider reported in September, the pair have already had time shaved off their sentences.

According to federal prison records, Chrisley is scheduled to be released on October 9, 2032. Meanwhile, Julie's release has been moved to July 6, 2028.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Earlier this year Right Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover, told the General Synod of the Church of England that the term woke shouldnt be used negatively, as it is so often by various government ministers who are threatened by the social justice movement. Shes far from alone, with some leaders in the church advocating courses in unconscious bias training.

Fair enough, and the devaluation of language within political discourse has indeed become a scandal. Just as some on the Right routinely accuse opponents of being woke or Marxist, those on the hard Left throw the term fascist around with a horribly offensive disregard for truth, let alone how theyve distorted Zionist and perverted it into a term of abuse.

But theres another issue here involving organised Christianity, and one that goes beyond semantics. Throughout the Western world its the liberal, perhaps woke, churches that are in worrying and sometimes terminal decline.

There are exceptions of course, but generally speaking the growth that we see is within Latin Mass Catholicism, Book of Common Prayer or conservative Anglicanism, and intelligent megachurch evangelicalism. I say this, by the way, as a social democrat, a liberal, an old-style radical.

Individual leaders with a particular charisma or appeal might make a difference and break the trend but otherwise the pattern is fairly clear. The more traditional the beliefs and worship, the greater the appeal. Nor is this nostalgia, with older people clinging on to what theyve known. Its the under 40s, often under 30s and teens, who are searching for something that isnt merely a thin replica of what they see, hear, and learn in secular society.

Sometimes, as with several of the larger and wealthier evangelical churches within the Church of England, these churches are quite socially conservative too, especially around same-sex blessing and marriage. But thats not always the case, especially in North America.

A fascinating scenario has developed where young Christians or seekers who have long held progressive views on gender, marriage, and even party politics, feel the need for a more permanent and timeless theology and spirituality.

Part of the irony of it all is that older Christian leaders have convinced themselves that younger people want relevance when what they actually mean is that the next generation should be just like them. Theres seldom any malice involved, usually plenty of goodwill, but a painful lack of self-awareness.

With the triumph of social media and 24-hour news its virtually impossible to be contemporary, and teenagers and young parents know this all too well. They want an alternative to their daily lives, not a pale imitation of the commonplace, even the banal.

Musically, give them Byrd or Bach rather than embarrassing versions of what the middle-aged think is popular, and hermeneutically give them educated homilies centred on Biblical truth instead of cringing apologies for beliefs shaped and held by some of the finest minds in history.

Theres a great deal of pain and shame in the history of the church that we need to acknowledge and that involves contrition and repair  I speak as someone whose family fled pogroms, often inspired by local priests.

But that doesnt change the meaning and truth of authentic Christianity. Doesnt change the undeniable attraction of an orthodox faith delivered with sensitivity, empathy, and an informed understanding of the realities of this unforgiving and sometimes cruel age.

A decade ago, I experienced a major transformation, an epiphany if you like, in my thinking around same-sex marriage, and became a vocal advocate for Christian affirmation of LGBTQ people. I was asked, sometimes accusingly, if this was because Id lost or had diluted my faith?

The opposite. I changed not in spite of but because of it. As my faith deepened, became more conservative if you like, it led me to a different position on various topics. The reform was due to a commitment to Christian teaching rather than to political fashion or trendiness.

CS Lewis wrote, Liberal Christianity can only supply an ineffectual echo to the massive chorus of agreed and admitted unbelief . Did you ever meet, or hear of, anyone who was converted from scepticism to a liberal or demythologised Christianity?

Mind you, the great Jack Lewis may well come with a trigger warning in some of our churches. Yet Lewis remains, and they wont. But perhaps that just unconscious bias.

Rev Michael Coren is a priest, columnist, and author. His most recent book is The Rebel Christ (Canterbury Press)

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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  A Clackamas County corrections deputy is on paid administrative leave following accusations of a use of force against a person in custody at the county jail, the sheriffs office announced Thursday.

Court documents show Jeanamarie Fisher, 44, faces three misdemeanor charges after a case of offensive physical contact against 41-year-old Antwon Lee Roosevelt Williams on July 27, 2023.

Ex-Camas High School wrestling coach sentenced for child molestation

The charges, first reported by the Oregonian, include one count of harassment and two counts of official misdemeanor.

According to court records, Fisher did unlawfully and knowingly perform an act, which act constituted an unauthorized exercise of her official duties, with intent to harm another.

Fisher was put on administrative leave immediately after the incident was reported in July 2023. However, details of the allegations have yet to be released.

Stay with KOIN 6 News as this story develops.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
Centuries of hunting, habitat loss and persecution have left the UK and Ireland among the worlds most nature-depleted nations. But although weve lost our bears and wolves, great auks and Irish elks, the British Isles remain remarkably rich in whales and dolphins. Indeed, around a quarter of all known marine cetacean species occur in our waters. So when news broke from Cornwall recently of a humpback whale trapped in fishing gear, it highlighted that these massive beasts are closer to home than we might think.

The idea of ocean giants around our shores may be surprising, but the Cornish humpback was by no means an isolated sighting. Theyre spotted in Britain in increasing numbers, says Hannah Wilson of Marine Discovery, a boat trip operator that assisted in freeing the Easter individual. Were getting a lot more dolphins too as climate change impacts food distribution, bringing the animals closer inshore. Humpbacks have rebounded since the end of commercial whaling, so its likely that well see more of them as they repopulate their range.

A bottlenose dolphin breaches on a sunny day in the Moray Firth, Scotland - CATHERINE CLARK/CJDOLPHINPHOTOGRAPHY.CO.UK

Its not just in the southwest that cetacean encounters are booming. I grew up birding on the North Yorkshire coast in the 1980s and I never remember anyone seeing a whale back then, says Richard Baines of Yorkshire Coast Nature (yorkshirecoastnature.co.uk). Now we see minke whales on most of our seabirds and whale adventure trips.

With another operator, Farne Islands Tours (farneislandstours.co.uk) also plying the east coast, North Sea sightings are becoming ever more reliable. Other epicentres of whale and dolphin activity around the British Isles include Jerseys Les Ecrehous reef, Irelands west coast and Waless Celtic Deep. But the most prolific cetacean spotting lies in Scotland, particularly to the north and west.

Here, the Shetlands perform well for orcas, with a semi-resident population swelled by Icelandic transients that migrate to hunt seals. Sperm, fin, pilot and minke whales are also frequent visitors, and even an Arctic beluga whale was spotted here in January.

A humpback whale seen at Sumburgh Head in the Shetland Isles - LORNE GILL/SNH

Pickings are even richer in the scattered Western Isles. Their secret is The Minch: a channel between the mainland and Outer Hebrides that attracts sei, fin, humpback and pilot whales with reasonable frequency, plus much more commonly sighted porpoises, bottlenose dolphins and minke whales. Even blue whales  the largest animal ever to have lived  are not unknown here. Conditions are so ideal that its also possible to whale-watch from land, a prospect aided by the Hebridean Whale Trails 30-strong network of cetacean locations.

Calm, flat-sea conditions from May through September offer optimal whale-spotting, when plankton blooms attract shoals of fish upon which whales feed. So could the British Isles one day compete with Cape Cod, the Azores and other whale hotspots? Geography is against us, says Hannah Wilson. We lack the deep-water canyons and nutrient upwellings that encourage great whales to linger, plus were not on any major migration routes. So although dolphins are increasingly commonplace here in Cornwall, brushes with really big whales will likely remain rare  but incredible  thrills.

Five UK dolphin and whale experiences

Lands End leviathans

Cornwalls wild west (where the humpback whale was rescued over Easter) is a certified sealife hotspot. Expect to spy dolphins, seals and basking sharks on a four-hour Marine Discovery voyage departing from Penzance (from 57pp, marinediscovery.co.uk). Sailing on a catamaran ensures stability and comfort for a trip combining coastal habitats with the cetaceans deep-water fishing grounds (actual itineraries depend on sea conditions and recent sightings). Stay nearby in rolling countryside at Rosehendra, a stone barn conversion located between Penzance and Marazion. A weeks self-catering in May costs from 892 (sleeps four; luxurycoastal.co.uk).

Western Isles

Boat trips are no fun if you suffer from seasickness but in Scotland, land-based whale-watching rivals that at sea. Harris, Lewis and Skye are home to several Hebridean Whale Trail sites (whaletrail.org). Visit Kilt Rock, Tiumpan Head, the Butt of Lewis and others on a Highlands & Islands self-drive tour with kayaking, hiking and paddleboarding to round out the experience. The 13-night trip starts and ends in Fort William and costs from 1,645pp, including B&B accommodation, ferry crossings, various activities and detailed directions for the self-guided elements. Travel to/from Fort William not included (adventuretoursuk.com).

All at sea

By maximising time spent in the animals environment, small-ship cruises abound in whale-spotting potential. Hurtigrutens nine-night Edinburgh to Iceland voyage sails via the Shetlands (an archipelago renowned for orca sightings) as well as Fair Isle and the Orkneys (departs June 29, 2024, from 3,390pp with 300 on-board credit, mundyadventures.co.uk). Or go flight-free on an eight-night Scotlands Scenic Isles itinerary sailing round-trip from Newcastle on May 28 with Fred Olsen, taking in the Orkneys, Small Isles and The Minch alongside an expert from wildlife charity ORCA to locate and identify species (from 1,199pp, fredolsencruises.com).

Wildlife immersion

Whale-watching is just one highlight on this week-long Isle of Mull Wildlife Extravaganza escorted tour. As well as heading into The Minch to seek harbour porpoises, minke whales and various species of dolphin, the tour (led by presenters Mike Dilger and Nick Baker) focuses on puffins, hen harriers, short-eared owls and both golden and white-tailed eagles (for which Mull has perhaps the greatest density in Western Europe). Accommodation throughout is at Knock House in the 32,000-acre Benmore Estate. From 2,295pp, including half-board accommodation, guided excursions and return ferry from Oban (departs June 9, 2024; wildlifeworldwide.com).

Into the deep

Although deliberately swimming with cetaceans in the UK is not allowed, these curious mammals dont play by our rules. On Celtic Deeps tours to swim with blue sharks off Pembrokeshire, dolphins frequently approach for encounters on their own terms. The boat itself is a platform from which to spy pilot, fin and minke whales, plus other ocean giants such as basking sharks and bluefin tuna. Available from July to October, the full-day tours cost 195pp (celticdeep.org). Stay at Milford Waterfronts Ty Hotel, whose on-the-water floatel cabins complement the maritime experience (two-night July stays from 392, ty-hotels.com).

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DENVER (KDVR)  A Colorado coalition supporting a proposed initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution said it passed a milestone Friday after surpassing the campaigns signature goal.

The coalition is called Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom and said Friday it had gathered over 225,000 signatures, surpassing a goal of 185,000. Proposed Initiative 89 looks to recognize abortion as a right and would also prohibit state and local governments from denying, impeding or discriminating against the medical procedures access.

Trump says Arizonas abortion ban goes too far while defending the overturning of Roe v. Wade

The campaign needs 124,238 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, which must include 2% of the total registered electors in each of Colorados 35 state Senate districts.

As of today, the coalition has collected over 225,000 signatures  of which 48,175 have been collected from over a thousand volunteers, the coalition said in a release. The campaign has only three remaining state Senate districts in which to qualify  most by less than 100 signatures.

The measure would also allow abortions to be covered by health insurance plans.

A dueling initiative effort would ban abortion access throughout pregnancy. Should that measure make it to the ballot, it could be passed with a simple majority, while the proposed constitutional amendment to enshrine abortion rights requires the support of 55% of voters.

Abortion rights initiative would require health insurance coverage

The current initiative text states:

A change to the Colorado constitution recognizing the right to abortion, and, in connection therewith, prohibiting the state and local governments from denying, impeding, or discriminating against the exercise of that right, allowing abortion to be a covered service under health insurance plans for Colorado state and local government employees and enrollees in state and local governmental insurance programs. Proposed Initiative 89

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Abortions are legal in Colorado, but the Protecting Reproductive Freedom group is concerned that the 1984 constitutional measure barely passed and that people on public insurance are barred from coverage by the insurance companies. The group argues that by making abortion a constitutional right, state employees will no longer be discriminated against.

Private employers in Colorado are required to cover abortion, a measure that was passed in the 2023 legislative session.

Cobalt President Karen Middleton, co-chair of Coloradans for Protecting Reproductive Freedom, noted the recent Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade resulted in state governments removing residents right to abortion.

As a fundamental, shared value, Coloradans trust people and their doctors, not politicians, to make decisions about abortion, Middleton wrote in the release. That value has been reinforced in 2024 with the overwhelming enthusiasm for our ballot measure, as demonstrated by thousands of volunteers in every corner of the state collecting signatures. And we firmly believe that this energy and enthusiasm will carry us through to winning in November.

Campaign Director Jess Grennan pointed to the recent near-total abortion ban in Arizona and said it is an example of how vulnerable every state is without constitutionally securing the right to abortion.

Lawsuit alleges Democratic Party nominee may be ineligible to run

Ballot measures like Proposition 89 are our first line of defense against government overreach and our best tool to protect the freedom to make personal, private healthcare decisionsa right that should never depend on the source of ones health insurance or who is in office, because a right without access is a right in name only, Grennan said in a release.

Once all signatures have been gathered, they will be submitted to the Colorado Secretary of State Election Division for verification. If there are enough valid signatures and no one protests the determination, the measure will be placed on the Nov. 5 ballot.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
In this surveillance camera image, Ronald Caillier is pictured during his escape from a hospital in La Junta, Colorado, on April 11, 2024.

An inmate who escaped from a Colorado hospital after overpowering a deputy should be considered "armed and extremely dangerous," police say.

The Otero County Sheriffs Office issued an alert Friday, writing on Facebook that 38-year-old Ronald Caillier of Gillette, Wyoming had escaped Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center in La Junta, a town about 150 miles southeast of Denver.

Even though he was handcuffed, Caillier overpowered a deputy and a security officer, fleeing the hospital in the dark of night in a black-and-white striped jumpsuit and handcuffs in the front of his body, officials said.

Caillier was being held on local charges of burglary and assault at the time of his escape, the Bent County Sheriff's Office said.

"The public is advised that Caillier is considered armed and extremely dangerous," the sheriff's office said. "It is strongly advised not to confront him if spotted. Instead, individuals are urged to contact local law enforcement immediately."

Ronald Caillier, 38, is pictured. Police say he managed to overpower a deputy and a security guard while handcuffed at a hospital in La Junta, Colorado, and then escape despite backup arriving within minutes. They say he should be considered "armed and extremely dangerous."

Police using dog teams, thermal imagers, trackers

Otero Sheriffs Office deputy Shawn Mobley told KKTV that said the escape occurred at about 11:39 p.m. Thursday, with officers arriving on scene within minutes, myself about four minutes after the original call.

Since then, they've used dog teams, drones, thermal imagers and trackers in their efforts to find Caillier, he said. The search is ongoing and police are "following up on a couple of leads from the community, as well.

Caillier has ties to Colorado Springs, Greeley, and Gillette, Wyoming, the Bent County Sheriff's Office said.

The deputy and security guard involved in the escape were treated for injuries and have since been released.

Colorado officers still searching, escaped inmate hits the road with stolen car

The Baca County Sheriffs Office provided an update Friday afternoon, warning members of the public to be on the lookout for a 2007 White Dodge Grand Caravan with a Colorado plate that reads BFMW09.

The agency said the vehicle was stolen either late Thursday or in the early morning hours of Friday, and had a full tank of gas and a 9 mm gun under the driver's seat, according to the post.

The van does have some damage, including a dent to the passenger side and a cracked passenger side rear view mirror, which should make it easier to spot.

Other inmate escapes across the country

Caillier is among a handful of inmates who have made escapes over the last two months.

USA TODAY has reported on a number of them, which have occurred in North Carolina, Louisiana, and Idaho. And most recently in, Colorado.

Billy Lee Smith escaped from Marion Correctional Institution in Marion, North Carolina on Feb. 7. He was captured a couple hours after his initial escape, USA TODAY reported.

A couple weeks later, Leon Ruffin, escaped from a New Orleans correctional facility. He pepper-sprayed a deputy and made off in her marked sheriff's vehicle on Feb. 25. The manhunt for Ruffin, who was wanted on a murder charge, came to an end Tuesday when authorities tracked him to a New Orleans hotel.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Extremely dangerous' Colorado inmate Ronald Caillier escapes hospital
Geriatrician Dr. Gene Dorio, left, and Robin Clough in the kitchen of their home in Santa Clarita on Tuesday. Clough has been in treatment for an aggressive form of thyroid cancer. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

In the fall of 2022, Robin Clough and Dr. Gene Dorio were going about their lives as they had for many years, serving older adults in the Santa Clarita Valley. Clough was busy with her work as an administrator at the local senior center while Dorio , a house-call geriatrician, crisscrossed the valley visiting his patients.

In November of that year, Clough saw a lump on her neck and had it checked out. The early indication was that she had papillary thyroid cancer.

I was somewhat worried, said Clough, but not overly so, because she knew that type of cancer was treatable and highly survivable. So in the back of my mind it was like, 'Oh, Im so lucky. ... Its the easiest type of cancer to take care of.'"

Then things took a sharp turn for the worse. I noticed it growing a lot, Clough, 70, said of the lump. I was having trouble speaking.

Surgery was scheduled. Dorio, 72, said it was expected to take about three hours to remove the tumor and half of Clough's thyroid gland. But the procedure dragged on. When the surgeon updated Dorio nine hours later, the news was grim. The tumor had spread through the thyroid gland, onto the carotid artery and into the tracheal rings.

"He told me it was all over the place," Dorio said.

Tests revealed that Clough had anaplastic thyroid cancer, a far more aggressive form than papillary.

We all know our fortunes can turn without much warning, especially as we age and the odds stack against us, raising the threat of our bodies gradually failing and our minds fading. But in just a couple of weeks, Clough and Dorio had gone from cruising through life to confronting death.

Dr. Gene Dorio kisses Robin Clough in the kitchen of their home. Dorio, a house-call geriatrician, has been spending much of his time caring for Clough. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

With her type of cancer, life expectancy is often measured in months rather than years. It was so hard to process, and I think my mind stopped me from processing it because its just too overwhelming," Clough said.

Theyd fallen for each other about 20 years ago after each had been married and divorced. Dorio has a daughter named Janene. Clough has two daughters, Catie and Amy. The Dorio-Clough courtship and blending of the two families began with him giving her a flu shot at her senior center; then he had her on his local radio show, The Senior Hour.

They never married, and still dont see the need.

Were compatible and we love each other  and have the same interests  fighting for peoples rights, said Dorio, who, along with Clough, pushed for legislation  signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom  giving families more authority to determine medical decisions for loved ones even in the absence of an advance directive. Dorio had also served on the L.A. County Commission for Older Adults.

Robin Clough recalls how difficult the weeks of cancer treatment have been. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Facing her grim diagnosis, Clough and Dorio leaned on each other and on Janene, Catie, Amy and their godparents, Susan and Tony. There were weekly Zoom meetings to bolster spirits and share information about emerging therapies.

Id gotten to know Dorio a little bit over the years, having tagged along on his house calls , so I was copied on the periodic updates on Clough's status that he mailed to friends and family. She beat the three-to-six-month prediction, and in July of 2023 Dorio wrote to say she was better, but still has a ways to go.

Read more: Column: Los Angeles is not designed for anyone in their 80s; some days are an endurance test

By then, shed undergone seven consecutive weeks of chemotherapy and radiation, suffering skin burns on her neck from the latter. A metastatic lesion was surgically removed from her leg. Dorio took Clough to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston on a recommendation from Cedars-Sinai.

To all our friends and family, Dorio wrote in that July update, seeking a second opinion and being persistent in researching and asking questions of your doctor team is very important, no matter what the diagnosis might be. It is physically and emotionally a roller coaster. But we have been given wonderful support from our family and many of you in the community. We will provide help and guidance in the future should you need it.

In Houston, medical staff queried Clough about her family history. This cancer is mostly caused by radiation exposure, Clough said, and one of the first things they asked me  was where did you grow up?

Her answer was Arizona, downwind from nuclear weapons testing in nearby Nevada in the 1940s and 50s that contaminated water, soil and food sources for years.

I asked Clough if she had seen the Oscar-winning movie "Oppenheimer," about the creation of the first nuclear weapons.

"I won't watch it," she said firmly.

Read more: Very aggressive treatment on the streets of Skid Row from a Renegade M.D.

Its impossible to directly link Cloughs cancer to weapons testing, but the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that people exposed to radiation fallout , especially during childhood, may have an increased risk of thyroid disease, including thyroid cancer many years later.

Oncologists Alain Mita at Cedars-Sinai and Maria Cabanillas at MD Anderson, who had collaborated previously on patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer, determined that Cloughs form of cancer warranted treatment with Keytruda, a drug that stimulates the immune system.

But after a few months of treatment that had showed some promise, the cancer was growing again. In late December, Cloughs doctors switched to a drug called Retevmo, a targeted therapy that blocks the driver of tumor growth.

Dr. Gene Dorio put off hip surgery to take care of his partner, Robin Clough, and uses a cane for support. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A hopeful Dorio recalled that in a 2017 blog post, he had written that genetic engineering research is on the verge of finding the DNA 'stop button' " for cancer cell growth. He added, Hopefully one day our great-grandkids will ask  'What was cancer?'

One month into Retevmo medication, Clough had to stop because of adverse side effects to her liver. But a new scan revealed what seemed to her like a miracle.

The cancer was gone.

Two months later, she had another test.

No cancer.

Her cancer is, at this moment, undetectable and in remission. For anaplastic cancer thats very unusual, Dr. Mita told me.

That doesnt mean the cancer wont return, he said. But for the time being, theres cause for optimism.

Mita said that 10 years ago he could not have predicted this measure of success against such an aggressive cancer, and hes hopeful medical science will see more advances in the coming years. With some cancers, he said, doctors are now able to skip chemotherapy and radiation in favor of meds like those used to treat Clough.

Cabanillas shared his optimism, saying survival rates at MD Anderson have improved with some forms of anaplastic thyroid cancer by using immunotherapy in combination with targeted therapy.

Read more: Column: This SoCal suburb hailed for its five keys to a long, healthy life. We explore the Blue Zone

In her kitchen a few days ago, with the girls college diplomas and family photos hanging on the walls, Clough said its all been overwhelming at times, and Dorio chimed in on his own worries and determination to remain strong for her sake. Cloughs life has been consumed by doctor visits, surgical procedures, continued unpleasant side effects from treatment and the constant anxiety of awaiting the next test results.

I never felt like it was too much, Clough said. There are times when I think, Im so tired of this. But its never been too much, and I think thats because of my loved ones.

Dorio, meanwhile, put his practice on hold to focus on the house-call patient who lives in his own home. Hes been putting off hip replacement surgery, too, and uses a cane.

Its more than a little helpful, Clough said, when, in the midst of a life-threatening medical crisis, the person you live with is a doctor. She said she never felt that she could beat cancer entirely, "but that I could keep it under control. And I still have that hope." Each day, she said, is a bonus.

Clough shed a few tears as she told her story, but also flashed a radiant smile.

I was supposed to be gone, but Im not. So every day is 'Wow,' you know? I get to see my daughters, and in the process of this I had my first grandchild.

The baby boy is now 11 months old.

His name is Robin.

steve.lopez@latimes.com





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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
LIJIANG, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to the 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials, and digging sand, which caused great damage to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope to earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year.

He Yuyue (L) takes photo of her father He Jielin and tourists at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin puts on traditional costumes of Naxi ethnic group at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin writes in Dongba pictograph at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin (front) shows tourists the layout of his yard in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

He Jielin (L) talks with a tourist wearing costumes of Naxi ethnic group in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin conducts as a group of tourists visit his home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin (2nd L) and his daughter He Yuyue (1st L) explain as tourists learn about Naxi ethnic culture at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

He Jielin (R) helps as a tourist tries the traditional way to make tofu at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 25, 2024. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Yuyue (R) helps a tourist put on traditional costume of Naxi ethnic group at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin (2nd R) guides tourists around Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin (R) poses for photo with his wife (L) and daughter at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Aug. 28, 2023. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)
Kentucky Senate Education Committee members, many of them Republicans, showed support Friday for the commissioner of education nominee as he prepares for the first Senate confirmation for that post.

Several lawmakers said they had received many positive endorsements of Lawrence County Superintendent Robbie Fletcher, and he would have their vote on the Senate floor when a resolution supporting his confirmation is called.

That is expected to happen by Monday, the last day of the 2024 General Assembly.

I think this was an excellent process. This gives you a starting point, Fletcher said after the hearing. The Senate knows what to expect from me, and I know what to expect from the Senate.

I think when you have those open conversations, it can only be very positive. So this first step is great, and hopefully the confirmation goes well later on, too.

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Despite the accolades, Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, who sponsored the 2023 measure that now requires Senate confirmation of Kentuckys education commissioner, told Fletcher, you are not under the Governors authority.

Wilson said it is the legislature that has the responsibility under the Constitution to provide for common schools.

We make the policy, and you have to implement our policy, Wilson said.

On matters of education, Kentuckys Republican-led General Assembly has had a contentious relationship with both Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, and former Kentucky Education Commissioner Jason Glass.

Glass resigned last year after Republican lawmakers criticized the Department of Educations inclusive LGBTQ stances and called for his ouster.

He said a dangerous law  Senate Bill 150 from 2023  that critics called anti-LGBTQ, led to his departure.

When asked by a reporter after the hearing about his stance on the law, Fletcher promised to love all kids.

Im going to love all children. No matter what their background, no matter what the decisions they make, my goal will be to love all children, he said. When they come into my building, I want them to be safe, I want them to be loved, and I want them to be well-educated. So at the end of the day, my goal will be to love all children.

Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg, asked Fletcher not to air his grievances with lawmakers publicly before he takes his concerns to them directly.

In turn, were going to do the same thing with you. I think thats the best way we can approach this because were all in this together, Givens said. We want all these students to succeed. We want these teachers to have a safe workplace. We want our communities to thrive around these public schools. So recognize us as colleagues in this endeavor.

Senate Education Committee Chairman Stephen West, R-Paris, told Fletcher he looked forward to working with him. And, Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, told Fletcher he had been hoping that the Kentucky Board of Education would hire him.

Fletcher told lawmakers he would be transformational and a servant leader. He said he would be a good listener.

Fletcher said the investment the General Assembly had made in education in 2024 was appreciated, though he would probably come back and ask for more money.

The committee did not vote on Fletchers confirmation Friday.

Angela Billings, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leadership, has said the resolution will have to go to the Senate floor for confirmation, which was likely to occur Monday.

Fletcher on school choice

Kentucky voters this November will decide if theyd like to amend the constitution to give lawmakers the option to allow public dollars to go to private and charter schools. The amendment, passed in the form of House Bill 2, proved to be one of the most contentious issues of the 2024 session.

Fletcher told reporters he does not see it as his role to get involved in the forthcoming campaigning on the issue.

Fletcher said he supports school choice in that people should have the opportunity to go to the school they want to attend.

Now, I am not for taking public funds and putting them into a private school. Okay, Im not, and Ive talked to Senate members about that, he said. But now, if it passes in legislation ... then were going to have to, as public servants, honor that.

Fletcher said hed be voting against the amendment.

But if it comes to me and other people voted for it, then thats going to be my responsibility to make sure it happens in the best way, he said.

I do believe children should have the option to go wherever they want, he said. We do that in my own district. So even though you might live in the Fallsburg area, you can go to Blaine, you can go to Louisa. We dont change our bus routes, but if you can get to a bus and take you to the point, well do that for our kids. I think thats fair.

Now as far as taking any ... funding from public schools, I dont agree with that.
I could have died: model attacked outside East Village bar

I could have died: model attacked outside East Village bar

NEW YORK (PIX11)  New York City model Adam Byrd is speaking out after a brutal attack that left him with a broken jaw.

It happened outside of Little Sister Lounge in the East Village.

I can feel the braces and the screws, Byrd said.

Teen charged in violent attack on woman headed to church in Queens: NYPD

His jaw was broken, and he also lost several teeth.

To make matters worse he said the lounge security staff watched the attack and did nothing to help him. It happened last month, Byrd and a friend went to the lounge on business, and once they walked out a group of men attacked them.

His chain was also stolen, and his friends Rolex watch was taken.

Byrd remembers asking the lounge security for help even after he took a beating.

They saw this happening and didnt do anything; I could have died, Byrd said.

At one point he ran down the street and flagged down a car, it was the police, he said.

The 33-year-old hired attorney Anthony Sears and is planning to file a lawsuit against the lounge.

Sears said they had a responsibility and duty to make sure people inside, outside, and on the sidewalk were safe.

Byrd and Sears want to see the staff involved fired and hed be accountable for their lack of care and concern.

More importantly, they do not want to see this happen to anyone else.

Police are still looking for the men responsible, they say the attack was caught on surveillance video.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
A Labour council is allowing cowboy parking wardens with learner plates to issue fines to fully qualified drivers.

Civil enforcement officers, being paid more than many nurses, are using mopeds without a full licence to drive around residential streets in south-west London and catch out motorists.

Lambeth has been accused of exploiting a loophole to rush wardens onto the streets collecting up to 35 million a year in parking penalties, by rolling out a fleet of learner mopeds.

Through a private contract with the parking firm Apcoa, wardens aged 18 and over are hired with CBT certificates  short for compulsory basic training  a foundation pathway towards a full moped or motorbike licence that is valid for two years.

The day-long course does not require a full practical or theory test and teaches a low level of riding skills.

The wardens are covered by higher-rate commercial insurance, but the private contractor and council have refused to confirm whether taxpayers are paying for this and renewal CBT certificates.

The Telegraph observed five hi-vis wardens riding these vehicles with red L-plates in the borough, enforcing rules around residential permits, visitors and parking tickets.

Richard Hughes, a pensioner, parked in Abbeville Village, an upmarket area of Clapham, to pick up food for his granddaughter.

A parking warden with a learner plate on his scooter issues a ticket to a car in Clapham, south London - Jamie Lorriman

The 75-year-old qualified driver of 40 years, who had parked in a bay that was suspended for building works which were nowhere to be seen, said it was a bit odd to be issued a ticket by a learner.

It seems that there are loopholes and weaknesses in the system that means that its advantageous to them to be learners rather than to have passed their test, he said.

Its a bit draconian... Its a honey trap  theyre engineering it to catch people rather than improve the roads and improve the situation.

The Telegraph observed how a warden on a learner moped issued a penalty on the unoccupied car around two minutes after it arrived, after trying to find the driver. The moped was also parked in a suspended bay with its L plate partially upturned, which could get six points on a licence under road laws.

Lambeth is thought to be one of a handful of councils using learner mopeds to issue parking fines, including for residents who have visitors. Job adverts show these wardens can be paid 29,000 a year, a higher starting salary than nurses.

Nearby Tory-run Bromley council is also advertising for a Civil Enforcement Officer  Moped Rider, paid 25,000 a year, which like Lambeth only requires a CBT certificate, carrying learner plates.

Both authorities have contracted Apcoa to run their parking services. In Lambeth, this contract since 2016 is valued at an estimated 35 million, raking in around the same amount in parking fines a year.

We use electric scooters

Brian Gregory, policy director at Alliance of British Drivers, said: Its just more of this cowboy, Wild West enforcement mentality in local authorities  their attitude now is lets screw motorists and commercial vehicle drivers for every penny we can get out of them.

There needs to be, as there needs to be for speed enforcement cameras, an overarching objective regulatory body that can audit these people at a moments notice and if there is non-compliance then start fining them. Thats the only way to stamp this cowboy behaviour out.

An Apcoa spokesman said: Alongside foot patrols, scooters offer a low emission and versatile means for CEOs to carry out their duties within a large borough  80 per cent of the Apcoa mopeds operating in Lambeth are electric.

These vehicles are driven in accordance with licence & DVLA regulations and all the Apcoa fleet is insured under a commercial agreement.

The company said its mopeds were allowed to park safely in bays while issuing penalties and wardens are not offered any incentive or reward based on the number of PCNs they issue, adding that they ensure parking is fair and equitable for all and provide a reassuring uniformed presence.

A Lambeth council spokesman said: Our parking services help to keep the streets of our busy inner London borough safe and convenient. We use foot patrols and electric scooters to efficiently achieve that, all in line with relevant legislation.

Penalty Charge Notices are only issued to people breaking the rules, and there are no targets attached to this work.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: Penalty charges related to parking in London are set by the Mayor of London, so this is a matter for Lambeth Council and TfL (Transport for London), however we expect all enforcement officers operating using a motor vehicle to comply with the law.

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A 6-year-old Palestinian American boy, murdered in his Chicago home for being Muslim. Three Palestinian American college students, shot at in Vermont while out for a walk. An Arab American student hit by a car, while wearing a T-shirt with Arabic writing on it at Stanford University in California.

Since Oct. 7, when Hamas led a violent attack against civilians in Israel, theres been a surge in reports of Islamophobic biasthe largest uptick since Donald Trump announced his Muslim ban in December 2015, according to Corey Saylor, director of research and advocacy at the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Islamophobia tends to spike when theres any media exposure to Muslim-related issues, according to one 2016 study by the University of Texas at Austinand thats been the case in the U.S. since the Israel-Hamas war began, leaving American Muslims afraid for their safety at home as theyre grieving the bloodshed abroad. (The war in Gaza has since killed upwards of 30,000 Palestinian civilians and left many more hungry as famine grips the enclave.)

This is the kind of time when you might expect Democratsthe party that has in recent decades identified themselves with equity and social justiceto recommit to fighting Islamophobia. Instead, theyre allowing Islamophobia to sabotage the judicial nomination of a highly qualified candidate: Adeel Mangi, an attorney from New Jersey, who, if confirmed, would become the first-ever Muslim attorney to sit on a federal appeals court.

In December, at Mangis confirmation hearing, GOP senators fired off leading questions laced with racism without a single reference to the nominees actual judicial experience. Adding insult to injury, Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, along with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, in recent weeks have all publicly said they would vote no on confirming Mangi, knowing full well their partys razor-thin Senate majority means any defections will surely sink his nomination.

Confirming Mangi would add some sorely needed diversity to our nations courtsthe federal bench is currently 66 percent whiteand a check on biases. A study by the Center for American Progress found that judges belonging to different racial, ethnic, and religious groups use their unique backgrounds and life experiences to shape their rulings, and that it overall has a net positive impact on our judiciary. Women judges and judges of color have spoken out about gender and racial bias on the courts and led calls for reforms, said CAP, noting that judges of different backgrounds also enhance the courtroom experience for defendants and lawyers, regardless of their cases outcome.

And the seat Mangi has been nominated to, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is an especially important bench. It covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, states where banks and other corporations tend to have a big presence. (Over 50 percent of publicly traded companies are incorporated in Delaware.) Currently, the 3rd Circuit has a 76 conservative majority, and Mangis confirmation would bring some much needed balance.

The Democrats who have vowed to vote no on Mangis confirmation are openly giving credence to Islamophobia, calling into question what the party actually stands for.

At a dark time for American Muslims, Mangis historic nomination feels like a rare bright spot. He represents the best of the immigrant strugglecoming into a new country, seeking a better life while adapting to a new culture. Mangi became a civil servant here in the U.S., fighting for democracy on behalf of vulnerable Americans, and its made our country better. Mangi, born and raised in Pakistan, studied law at Oxford University, then immigrated to the U.S. at 22 years old to attend Harvard University. He began practicing law in the U.S. and became the youngest associate to make partner at the New York law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP. He worked on historic cases, including a landmark wrongful death lawsuit of a mentally ill Black man at a New York maximum security prison, which led to a $5 million payout to the victims family and required cameras and microphones to be installed throughout the prison.

Mangi also successfully fought for mosques to be built in New Jersey after their permits were denied, a case that earned a $3.25 million settlement and involved Donald Trumps Justice Department. Mangi has also been a fierce advocate for immigrants, joining a coalition of different faith groups in advocating for keeping DACA, and the LQBTQ+ community, writing an amicus brief defending Title VII.

But Republicans have made Mangi the target of a baseless smear campaign that accuses him of antisemitism over a Rutgers University event he was once tangentially involved with.

Mangi was an advisory board member for Rutgers Law Schools Center for Security, Race and Rights, from 2019 to 2023. In 2021 the center co-sponsored a panel discussion, which was hosted by the Peoples Forum, in honor of the 20th anniversary of 9/11.* Sami Al-Arian was a featured speaker, a Florida professor who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (a group the U.S. considers a terrorist organization) and was sentenced to prison. However, CSRR did not have a hand in picking Al-Arian has the events speaker.

Mangi also testified that he served as an adviser to Rutgers Law School, meeting just once a year to offer advice on the universitys academic issues. He was not aware of that 9/11 anniversary event happening, let alone did he have a say in which speakers were selected. Yet, Republican Sen. John Kennedy challenged that assertion, asking Mangi, Is this the way you celebrate 9/11?

I dont know any of these people or that event, said Mangi. I certainly and unequivocally would condemn any terrorism.

Other Republicans joined in, incessantly focusing on Mangis personal perspective on the Israel-Hamas war, while completely ignoring the experience and skills he would bring to the federal judiciary. Do you believe that Jews are colonial settlers in Israel?, asked Republican Sen. Tom Cotton. Do you condemn the atrocities of the Hamas terrorists?, asked Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

Over and over again, Mangi explained that international policy matters were not something he could weigh in on. I have no basis as a judicial nominee to cast views on the Middle East, said Mangi, when responding to a question about whether he believes Israel is a violent settler colonial state from Republican Sen. Josh Hawley. However, Mangi made clear that he believes the events of Oct. 7 were a horror involving the deaths of innocent civilians, and that he had no patiencenonefor any attempts to justify or defend those events.

This kind of racism has become commonplace for the GOP. Consider when TikTok CEO Shou Chew was called to testify before Congress, and Republicans continuously insisted he was affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, despite Chew confirming he is a citizen of Singaporewhich bans dual citizenship. And theres Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who, when calling to censure one of only three Muslim members of Congress, said Representative Ilhan Omar of SomaliaI mean Minnesota.

Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president and the Republican Partys standard bearer of extremism, told a crowd of supporters in December that immigrants coming into the U.S. are poisoning the blood of our country. Democrats are well aware of these bigoted tactics and recognize that the GOP has concluded that racism might be bad morals but its good politics, as New York Rep. Ritchie Torres put it to the New York Times.

Nevertheless, Cortez Masto was the first Democrat to publicly announce she would not vote for Mangi because of his affiliation with the Alliance of Families for Justice, a criminal justice reform group. She was quickly joined by fellow Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, who said she could not vote for Mangi because of concerns Ive heard from law enforcement in Nevada, without offering more specific details. (Rosens decision ignores the other five law enforcement agencies that endorsed Mangi as someone who demonstrated commitment to upholding the highest ethics and fair administration of the law.)

Unsurprisingly, Manchin, who is officially retiring from Congress after his current term ends this year, also said he wont vote for Mangi unless he can earn at least one vote from Republicans.

Since Rosen is up for reelection in a swing state this year, shes probably taking note of whats happening in other swing states, like Pennsylvania. The Judicial Crisis Network, an ultra-right-wing group focused on confirming conservative judges across the country, is funding ads smearing Mangi by declaring him antisemitic. The ads are also running in Montana in a pressure campaign to force the states sole Democratic lawmaker, Sen. Jon Tester, to vote no on Mangi.

In response to Republicans accusations of antisemitism, 15 Jewish advocacy groups that collectively represent more than 1 million Americans came together to offer a glowing endorsement of Mangi. And the American Jewish Committee not only endorsed him but went so far as to encourage senators to disregard the untoward implications underlying that unnecessary and unhelpful line of questioning. They were joined by the Anti-Defamation Leaguethe most prominent Jewish advocacy group in the worldwhich also fully endorsed Mangi and suggested the way in which senators questioned him appear to have been motivated by bias towards his religion.

Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is responsible for confirming judicial nominees, defended Mangi and called out Republican Sen. John Kennedy, who asked the nominee how he celebrated 9/11. Think about that for a second. Because [Mangi] is Muslim, the senator thought it was appropriate to ask him if it was appropriate to celebrate 9/11 in his home, said Durbin. He of course said no. He was a resident of New York and thought it was a tragedy that occurred to our nation, and that he had friends and family who were affected by that tragedy. Durbin urged his colleagues to dismiss Republicans smear campaign and evaluate Mangi on his record.

The White House has also tried damage control measures, demanding Cruz, Hawley, and Cotton apologize to Mangi. He represents the best of America, and when confirmed, Mr. Mangi will not only make historyhe will make an outstanding judge, White House spokesman Andrew Bates told NBC News.

In this current climate, simply chiding the Republicans who harassed Mangi and urging Democrats to vote for him isnt enough. The White House must hold Cortez Masto, Rosen, and Manchin accountable for the partys vow to condemn the decades-long campaign to demonize and dehumanize the Muslim faith communitybecause if they dont stand against Islamophobia at a moment like this, what do they stand for in the first place?
(KRON)  An Oregon man was charged with two felonies for his alleged involvement in a crash that killed a 9-year-old girl in Concord early Sunday morning, the Contra Costa Country District Attorneys Office said. Jesus Ivan Dorantes Guzman, 22, was arrested on Wednesday in Colusa County.

The crash happened at about 5:20 a.m. on northbound Interstate 680 at Highway 242. The DAs office claims Guzman was driving a car that rolled over in the dirt area near the freeway.

Missing teenager drowned in Russian River, Sheriffs Office says

Nine-year-old Danna Hernandez-Tapia of Oregon was killed. She was a passenger in the car being driven by Guzman, along with five others who were injured. The girls mother, 13-year-old sister and two 17-year-old cousins were among those victims. All other victims are in stable condition, California Highway Patrol said Wednesday.

Guzman ran away from the scene of the crash. He was arrested in the Colusa County city of Williams.

Guzman faces felony charges of hit-and-run resulting in the death or serious injury of another and child abuse for putting a minor in a situation that caused her death.

He is being held in the Martinez Detention Facility on a $1 million bail.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE)  A 59-year-old man has been sentenced to 30 years to life in prison after hitting and killing a 16-year-old boy in a Fresno crash in 2019, the Fresno County Districts Attorney announced on Friday.

The DA office says 59-year-old Albert Isaac Fimbrez was driving northbound on Valentine Avenue approaching Shields Avenue at a speed of 71 mph in a 40 mph zone. Two juveniles were walking northbound on the side of the road when Frimbrez struck both with his pickup truck, causing deadly injuries to one of them.

Man arrested for murder, DUI charges after 16-year-old boy hit and killed by truck in Fresno

The victim was identified by officers in 2019 as 16-year-old Dayvon Fletcher McCoy. His mother described him as a genuine, loving teen who had big dreams to care for his family.

According to officials, Fimbrez stopped his truck at the scene. Following an evaluation with officers from the Fresno Police Department, it was determined that Fimbrez was operating his vehicle while impaired, and a sample of his blood was obtained for analysis.

That analysis, according to the DA, revealed that Fimbrez was operating the vehicle under the combined influence of alcohol and prescription medications.

The DAs office says Fimbrez has a lengthy criminal history, including convictions for residential burglary, theft, domestic violence, criminal threats, vandalism, and elder abuse. He has prior convictions for driving under the influence from 2022, two in 2010, and one in 2011.

Officials say his prior convictions made him liable under Courtneys Law, which requires a sentence of 15 years to life in prison. That sentence was then doubled based on his prior strike conviction for residential burglary in 1996.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47.
Daughter of Army veteran killed in front yard calls for justice, change to policies: 'This is a vicious cycle'

Daughter of Army veteran killed in front yard calls for justice, change to policies: 'This is a vicious cycle'

The daughter of a U.S. Army veteran who was killed in front of his California home while doing yard work called for changes to local criminal justice policies critics say have enabled criminals at the expense of victims.

Mario Morales-Moreno, 51, was killed on April 4 at his Long Beach home when someone opened fire, hitting him and another victim, the Long Beach Police Department said.

Morales-Moreno was struck in the upper body and died at the scene. Another man was hit in the leg but survived. On Thursday, Morales-Moreno's daughter, Fernanda Sandoval, remembered her father as a man of service while calling for change.

CALIFORNIA DEPUTIES SHOT, KILLED TEEN KIDNAPPING VICTIM AS SHE WAS SEEN SURRENDERING: VIDEO

Fernanda Sandoval, center, speaks about her Army veteran father near a photo depicting him as prosecutors announced charges against four suspects charged in his murder on Thursday in Los Angeles.

"While we appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers, what we really need is policy and change," she said as Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon stood beside her. "Under our current policies, there are dangerous people that are being released into the public and re-offending. This is a vicious cycle."

"In this case, the police have done their jobs, and it's time for the judicial system and the politicians to do theirs," she added.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Investigators said the suspects fired multiple rounds but don't believe Morales-Moreno was the intended target. On Thursday, authorities announced the arrests of four suspects  Jordan Omarion Stokes, 18; Taylor Byron Woods and Tyrell DeShawn Louden Jr., both 20; and 21-year-old Semaj Lamar OBrien.

The DA's office said "the murder was committed willfully, deliberately and with premeditation" and that "Stokes and Louden Jr., personally used a handgun." During the arrests, authorities recovered multiple firearms and believe the shooting was gang-related.

All four suspects are charged with murder for the death of Morales-Moreno and the attempted murder of four others in Long Beach. They're each being held on separate $2 million bail.

"Gang-related violence has no place in any part of our city, and this callous criminal act has forever changed the lives of Mr. Morenos family," said Long Beach Chief of Police Wally Hebeish.

SAN BERNARDINO SHERIFF'S DEPUTY ARRESTED ON FELONY WEAPONS CHARGES, ACCUSED OF TIES TO OUTLAW BIKER GANG

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon is running for re-election amid harsh criticism and concerns about crime.

As the county's top prosecutor, Gascon has enacted a series of criminal justice directives since taking office in 2020 that have drawn scorn from opponents and many in law enforcement, such as barring prosecutors from attending parole hearings, promoting zero-cash bail and efforts to end the prosecution of juveniles as adults, even for violent crimes.

Sandoval said Los Angeles County residents are living in fear.

"We no longer feel safe in our homes. These current policies are not allowing the current victims of crime to feel justice," she said without mentioning specifics.

Los Angeles County Prosecutor Jason Lustig, who has criticized Gascon, his boss, over his policies, said Sandoval was most likely alluding to Gascon in her remarks.

"I think she was quite sophisticated and dignified because she knew exactly what she was saying," he said. "She could have really put it in his face."

Morales-Moreno worked for the suburb of La Mirada as a senior code enforcement specialist, the California Association of Code Enforcement Officers said. He rejoined the city after leaving in 2014.

In a statement, La Mirada City Manager Jeff Boynton praised Morales-Moreno as someone who came to work with a "positive attitude, worked well with residents and his colleagues at City Hall, and represented La Mirada admirably. He especially relished his leadership role with the City and enjoyed being a mentor to others in the Citys Public Safety Department. Mario will be deeply missed."





Original article source: Daughter of Army veteran killed in front yard calls for justice, change to policies: 'This is a vicious cycle'
Labour is open to a meeting with Donald Trump, The Telegraph understands.

David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, has already held meetings with several Republican figures including the former national security advisor (NSA) Robert C OBrien and ex-secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

While the decision to court Republicans  particularly Mr Trump  is controversial in some left-wing circles, senior figures in the party believe it is crucial to prepare for their possible victory in the US elections this November.

A Labour source said: The US is the UKs most essential ally. Labour is a realist party which will work with any US administration. This is an election year in the US as well as the UK which is why were building on our strong links on both sides of the aisle.

Mr Trump is the presumptive winner of the Republican nomination. Last month he won enough delegates to take him over the 1,215 threshold and secure the nomination for his party. In the mega-contest on Super Tuesday, Trump won 24 of the 26 states that voted.

Unlike in 2020, when the incumbent Joe Biden was always some way ahead of Trump in polling, Trump has held a small lead for much of 2024. Recent polls show Trump ahead in four swing states that could determine the outcome of the election.

His last remaining rival, Nikki Haley, trailed far behind, having won only in Vermont and the District of Columbia. She dropped out of the race altogether shortly afterwards.

Farage offer

Last week, Nigel Farage suggested that he would be willing to work alongside a Labour government as a trade envoy if Donald Trump becomes US president.

Mr Farage, the former Ukip leader predicted his friend would win the presidential election and said he would be very interested to work with Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader.

Asked at a Telegraph event whether he wanted to be Starmers man in Washington, Mr Farage replied: That isnt going to happen. It may well be the other way round. But I do think in the national interest there needs to be an intermediary between Trump and an incoming Labour government. And if I can help with that, Id be very interested to do so.

Mr Lammy held a series of meetings with Republican figures last month at the Munich security conference, including Ohio senator JD Vance who has been floated as a potential Republican running mate to Mr Trump.

They spoke on a panel together at the conference, and also held a separate bilateral meeting, with sources saying the relationship between the two is warm.

Mr Lammy has also held talks with Mr OBrien, who served as the NSA from 2019 to 2021. He was the fourth person to hold the position during the presidency of Mr Trump and is tipped for a role in a future Republican administration.

The shadow foreign secretary and Mr Pompeo have spoken in recent weeks, as well as dining together at the Munich conference.

Mr Pompeo served as director of the CIA between 2017 and 2018 and secretary of state from 2018 to 2021.

Mr Lammy is also known to enjoy a long-standing friendship with Condoleeza Rice, who served as George W Bushs secretary of state. The pair met when Ms Rice was in London last year.

Labour sources are keen to note that Mr Lammy has been making a good impression on Democrats as well as Republicans.

When Barack Obama was in London last month, Mr Lammy was invited to a dinner at Winfield House, the residence of US Ambassador Jane Hartley, to mark his visit.

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SYDNEY, April 13 (Xinhua) -- On Saturday, the Australian city of Sydney saw a violent stabbing spree unfold at one of its busiest shopping centers in Bondi Junction, which has so far left six innocent people dead and eight others fighting for life.

The knife-wielding attacker, who was believed to have acted alone, was fatally shot by an inspector, with police confirming that no continuing threat remained to the public.

As authorities are working against the clock to investigate the incident, the entire city is still reeling from the shock and the rampage has sparked strong reactions from Australian politicians.

SHOPPING MALL HORROR

Located less than four kilometers east of Sydney's central business district, the Westfield Bondi Junction Shopping Centre is usually packed with crowds during the weekend.

Around 3:10 p.m. local time on Saturday, a man entered the center but left shortly afterward. He came back at approximately 3:20 p.m. local time and then engaged people with a knife in his hand.

One witness told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he was near a clothing store when he saw the man start stabbing others "indiscriminately."

"(We just heard) screaming, and it didn't seem that long before we heard 'boom boom boom' of the gunshot and we thought, 'We hope it's the police,'" recalled the witness, who preferred to remain anonymous.

A female officer from the New South Wales (NSW) Police Force confronted the offender by herself before discharging a firearm and shooting the man to death.

During a press conference held on the heels of the stabbing, NSW Police Force Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke said that five victims were declared dead at the scene, with multiple others rushed to hospitals in critical condition.

Later, the death toll climbed to six, as a female succumbed to her injury in a hospital.

"There were four women deceased in the shopping center and one male, and subsequently another female passed away in hospital, taking it to a total of six," NSW Police Force Commissioner Karen Webb briefed reporters on Saturday evening.

"There are about eight people in hospitals around being treated for different injuries associated with being at the shopping center, including a nine-month-old infant that has been in surgery," she added.

MOTIVE UNCLEAR YET

According to Webb, the attacker is a 40-year-old man whose identity remains to be formally confirmed, but early inquiries suggested that his motive was not related to terrorism.

"We've known a little bit about this person ... If it is the person we believe he is, we don't have fear for that person holding an ideation," Webb said. "In other words, it's not a terrorism incident."

A crime scene has been established at the expansive shopping center, with investigations expected to last for several days, and the NSW Police Force pledged to provide regular updates regarding the incident.

"It will take us significant time and investigation to work through this. It's a very complicated crime scene. Obviously, seven people have died (including the attacker). Six people have been tragically killed. It will take us a long time," Webb noted.

"HORRIFIC ACT OF VIOLENCE"

In the wake of the Bondi Junction stabbing, a plethora of Australian politicians conveyed their condolence and sympathies to the bereaved families.

"The devastating scenes of Bondi Junction are beyond words or understanding. Australians will be shocked this evening. This was a horrific act of violence, indiscriminately targeted at innocent people going about an ordinary Saturday doing their shopping," said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Reece Kershaw joined Albanese at the press conference, announcing that the AFP is assisting the NSW Police Force in investigating Saturday's mass-casualty event.

"The AFP has deployed members to the crime scene and we've offered our full specialist capabilities such as digital forensics. It's too early to determine a motive and it will be unhelpful to speculate," said Kershaw.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton flagged the stabbing spree as "the tragic and terrifying" events. "We grieve for the five people who have been killed. We pray for those who have been rushed to hospital with injuries," Dutton said before the sixth victim was confirmed deceased.

Acting Premier of NSW Penny Sharpe expressed shock over the multiple casualties right after the incident was reported.

Extending her thoughts to the victims and their families as well as first responders, Sharpe also noted that she was receiving regular updates from police and emergency services to follow the changing circumstances.

Meanwhile, the state's Premier Chris Minns is also rushing back to Sydney from his family holiday.

"I am horrified to hear about the events at Bondi Junction this afternoon. I am making immediate arrangements to return to Sydney," said Minns. 
On August 12 2022, Salman Rushdie was stabbed. The attack came with terrifying speed at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York. Rushdie, who had been about to deliver a lecture, was injured in his abdomen, thigh, chest, neck and face. He has now lost the sight in his right eye, as well as the use of one hand. Yet Rushdie has not only written a memoir about the assault, Knife, which is one of 2024s most anticipated books, he has also displayed remarkable forbearance. In an interview last year, he said, Im lucky. What I really want to say is that my main overwhelming feeling is gratitude.

The attack on Rushdie represented the culmination of more than a quarter-century of controversy that began with the publication of his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, in 1988. The then 41-year-old author was a Booker Prize winner, for Midnights Children, and one of Britains most exciting voices. What he was not seen as, until September 26 that year, was a figure who would attract opprobrium for decades. The climate of fear engendered by his book still lingers on. Even today, many of those whom I approached for comment for this article would either only speak anonymously or not at all.

It was not long until The Satanic Verses drew the ire of fundamentalists, who objected to what they perceived as its blasphemous presentation of the apocryphal verses of the Koran. (The so-called Satanic Verses themselves are deeply controversial, in their suggestion that Mohammed was at one point misled by Satan into misinterpreting his entreaties for words of divine revelation, thus contradicting the prophets infallibility.)

It was banned in Pakistan in November 1988, but met with great acclaim in Britain, winning the Whitbread Award that month. Rushdie himself, who had been raised in a Kashmiri Muslim family, had anticipated some disquiet, but later commented that I expected a few mullahs would be offended, call me names, and then I could defend myself in public. A little healthy debate, after all, is good for ones reputation  and for sales. Even as it went on to be banned in South Africa, Sri Lanka and Sudan, the book was regarded as one of the years most important publications.

However, when The Satanic Verses was published in the United States in February 1989, protests intensified, climaxing when the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, declared a fatwa against Rushdie and his publishers on Iranian radio on February 14. During this unwelcome Valentines Day gift, Khomeini stated, I call on all valiant Muslims wherever they may be in the world to kill them so that no one will dare insult the sacred beliefs of Muslims henceforth. And whoever is killed in this cause will be a martyr, Allah willing. A $6 million bounty was placed on the authors head, and all hell broke loose.

The book that unleashed hell: British Muslims protest against The Satanic Verses outside Parliament, 1989 - Roger Hutchings / Alamy Stock Photo

As the author and literary critic D J Taylor says, it was the cause celebre of literary London, which swiftly became a matter that required one to take sides. I remember being very depressed by TV pictures of Muslim protesters in Bradford burning copies of The Satanic Verses, as they clearly had no idea who Rushdie was or the existence of the book until told to complain by their spiritual leaders. And I was even more depressed by the pusillanimity of certain Labour MPs, such as Max Madden of Bradford West, for whom the concept of free speech seemed to be much less important than sucking up to their constituents.

The reaction of Rushdies peers divided into three categories. In the first and, thankfully, largest category were authors who defended him, and his writing, without qualification. In the second were older writers such as Kingsley Amis and Anthony Powell who disliked Rushdie personally  jealousy of the books sales may have played a part in this, given their own declining commercial fortunes  but were still prepared to take his side, even if Powell wrote in his diary that Rushdie is a tedious writer, publicity-seeking in a distasteful manner, but this seems going too far on the Ayatollahs part. He later suggested that his motivation for signing a letter of support organised by the Society of Authors was that if [Muslims] live here, they must obey the laws of this country like everyone else [and] if they dont, they must get out.

And in the final group were those such as John le Carre and Roald Dahl who considered that Rushdies book was an insult to the Muslim faith. Dahl labelled Rushdie a dangerous opportunist. I am unclear about the extent to which Rushdie, perhaps inadvertently, provoked his own misfortune, Le Carre commented. Nobody has a God-given right to insult a great religion and be published with impunity. (Rushdie later complained that his fellow writer was a pompous ass.)

The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, declared a fatwa against Rushdie and his publishers - ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

Members of the literary Left and Right pilloried him. John Berger suggested that The Satanic Verses be withdrawn, fearful of the threat to the lives of those who are innocent of either writing or reading the book. Auberon Waugh mused about just how much we should exert ourselves, as deeply stained white imperialists, to protect him from his own people. Something of this attitude  that Rushdie had brought this upon himself  persists today. One well-known writer to whom I spoke for this piece remarked, If Id actually liked the man, Id have spoken up for him.

Nor was the criticism limited to the world of letters. The Conservative politician Norman Tebbit lambasted Rushdie as an outstanding villain and even the apparently more moderate Geoffrey Howe, then foreign secretary, offered at best qualified support for the author, saying in a March 2 1989 interview on the BBC World Service that The British government, the British people have no affection for the book, which he (incorrectly) perceived as being extremely critical, rude about us. It compares Britain with Hitlers Germany. We do not like that any more than the people of Muslim faith like the attacks on their faith contained in the book. That same week, prime minister Margaret Thatcher (mocked in the book as Mrs Torture) opined: We have known in our own religion people doing things which are deeply offensive to some of us And that is what has happened to Islam.

With friends like these, its no surprise that the author panicked. He fled into round-the-clock police protection after the announcement of the fatwa  although Taylor notes wryly that any terrorist who had wanted to assassinate him needed only to acquire a knowledge of the London literary party circuit, as he was always turning up at things with his minders.

Protests in Derby, 1989 - Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock Photo

Yet the violence continued, with riots worldwide and tens of thousands of Muslims protesting against Rushdie in London on May 27 1989. On Christmas Eve 1990, Rushdie agreed to meet some Muslim scholars at Paddington Green police station. He apologised for the disrespect he had shown and signed a document stating that he wished to re-embrace Islam. He then wrote an article for the New York Times, published four days later, in which he said, I am able now to say that I am Muslim; in fact it is a source of happiness to say that I am now inside, and a part of, the community whose values have always been closest to my heart.

One veteran publisher told me, when I read that, I thought Salman had gone mad, and Rushdie subsequently described his recantation as making him physically sick I felt I had lost my mind. Reading through my journals of that time, I see it was the blackest period everybody who loved me told me I was insane. This included his sister Sameen, who rang him and said, robustly, I dont f---ing believe it. Have you lost your mind? He consequently called himself a profoundly irreligious man and said of his short-lived conversion: It was hitting the bottom and one of the benefits of hitting bottom is you know where the bottom is.

There were many horrors, including the assaults on Rushdies publishers around the world (such as the fatal stabbing of his Japanese translator Hitoshi Igarashi). But there was plenty of black comedy, too. A 1990 Pakistani film International Guerillas offered a fictionalised version of the fatwa, in which Rushdie was portrayed as a megalomaniac seeking to destroy Islam, who is eventually killed by three enormous copies of the Koran, which fire lightning bolts at him.

Rushdie's sister rang him and said: 'I don't f---ing believe it. Have you lost your mind?' - dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo

The film briefly attracted attention when the BBFC considered banning it, on the grounds of criminal libel. Rushdie, however, disagreed, saying: As a writer, I am opposed in principle to the use of the archaic criminal laws of blasphemy, sedition and criminal libel against creative works, even in the case of a film which quite plainly vilifies me. If that film had been banned, it would have become the hottest video in town: everyone would have seen it.

By 1993, Rushdie was leading as normal a life as he could, lionised by free-speech campaigners the world over. This even included an on-stage appearance with U2 in London, although, perhaps blessedly, he did not duet with Bono; he later recalled that his son Zafar, when Rushdie asked his advice as to whether he should appear, said: Just dont sing, dad. If you sing, Ill have to kill myself. As the threat appeared to recede, Rushdie gave up police protection and resumed a prolific literary life, although none of his subsequent novels has ever attracted the attention  or sales  of The Satanic Verses.

Yet the 2022 attack showed, in brutal fashion, that the lingering effects of the fatwa would never disappear. Ironically, the event he had been due to speak at celebrated asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression. This creative expression  which Rushdie nearly became a martyr for  is as needed as it has ever been.

Knife by Salman Rushdie (Jonathan Cape, 20) is published on Tuesday

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Leading defence chiefs are urging Britain to ramp up military spending as the threat of war grows across the world.

Bosses at Airbus and Babcock have called for greater UK investment in defence, amid Russias war in Ukraine and the prospect of a second Donald Trump presidency.

Ben Bridge, global head of space and defence at Airbus, said military spending must be prioritised at a time when war is very much on our doorstep.

He said there was a need for the UK and other nations to take those threats seriously and then respond appropriately.

Babcock chief David Lockwood separately called for greater defence spending, warning that Britain needed sovereign capabilities in order to defend itself from threats to its values.

He said: I do think this is the first time in my lifetime when were not taking Western freedoms for granted. Because even in the Cold War, frankly, we were either going to be free or blown to smithereens  we werent under threat in the way we are now.

It follows demands from Grant Shapps to raise defence spending to 2.5pc of GDP, up from 2.2pc now.

Former prime minister Boris Johnson has also called for a boost to Britains defence budget, as he said last week that now is the moment for an even more robust posture.

Mr Bridge echoed these demands: It is a difficult political balancing game for each country to decide how much of their GDP is put towards defence.

Given the situation the world is in, I would certainly argue that this should be given priority among other budgetary needs.

He added: Clearly, its a very unstable time in the world.

Increasing defence spending to the levels that Mr Shapps has called for would cost an estimated 9bn next year. Mr Bridge urged ministers to invest in UK-based suppliers to help build up our sovereign capabilities.

This would mark a reversal of a recent trend across Europe. Many military contracts have been awarded to US suppliers such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

However, there are concerns about outsourcing work to the US given the chance of a second Trump presidency. The Republican candidate has vowed to put American interests first and has criticised Europes overreliance on the US for defence.

In February, Mr Trump said he would encourage Russia to do whatever the hell they want to Nato countries that dont meet the commitment to spend 2pc of GDP a year on defence.

Last month the former president told GB News that European nations should not take advantage of US support.

A government spokesman said: We have been clear that we need to spend more on defence in a more dangerous and contested world.

That is why the Government has overseen the largest sustained defence spending increase since the end of the Cold War  with a 24bn uplift in cash terms since 2020, and an additional 11bn at last years spring Budget.

We have committed to increase that to 2.5pc of GDP on defence when the economic situation allows.

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Russian assault groups reached the northern outskirts of the village of Bohdanivka in Donetsk Oblast overnight on April 13, Ukraine's Defense Ministry reported.

The statement came after reports of Russia's alleged occupation of Bohdanivka, less than 10 kilometers from the embattled city of Chasiv Yar. The ministry refuted the reports, saying the village remains under the control of Ukraine's forces.

"The battle is ongoing, the enemy does not stop attacking," the ministry said on Telegram.

The situation on Ukraine's eastern front has "significantly deteriorated in recent days," as Russia intensified its offensive efforts, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said earlier on April 13.

Warm, dry weather has enabled Russia to increase its armored assaults in the areas of Bakhmut, Lyman, and Pokrovsk, according to Syrskyi.

Russian troops have recently been focusing their efforts near Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast, which is located about 70 kilometers northwest of the occupied city of Donetsk and about 10 kilometers west of occupied Bakhmut.

According to Ukraine's military, Russia sees the potential capture of Chasiv Yar as a crucial milestone for further advances westward toward Kostiantynivka, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk.

Both foreign and Ukrainian officials have said the lack of U.S. aid has begun to hurt Ukraine's position on the battlefield and warned that the situation could worsen without a new infusion of military assistance.

In late March, President Volodymyr Zelensky did not rule out that a major Russian offensive may come at the end of May or in June.

Read also: Intense fighting, lack of resources leave wounded soldiers on their own

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The former North Industry School which Canton Township officials hope to demolish in the near future.

CANTON TWP.  The former North Industry School building is coming down.

Township officials are eager to demolish the 100-year-old structure at 4805 Wiseland Avenue SE.

"It's a better look for our community not to have this giant dilapidated building there, just off of one of our main streets," Trustee Christopher Nichols said. "From a safety standpoint and for the neighborhood, it's a blighted building that's not something anybody wants to look at."

More: 'Eyesore' former school building a growing concern for Canton Township

The school, which opened in 1923, has been vacant since it closed in 1984. In the years following, the building had various private owners.

The township enlisted help from the Stark County Land Reutilization Corporation, also known as the land bank, to acquire the property at the end of 2023.

"We had to follow the tax foreclosure process," Nichols said. "We couldn't really do that until the taxes exceeded the value of the property."

North Industry School building demo bids

The township received bids from nine contractors to complete asbestos abatement and demolition.

Before going out to bid, the engineer estimated the total cost of the project at $480,000.

The township is reviewing the bids.

"We had nine bids received that ranged from $211,400 up to $691,000," Nichols said. "Because a couple of those bids came in so far under the estimates, the architect and the attorney are reviewing to make sure the bids included anything and didn't miss anything."

State grants expected to help fund project

Nichols said the township needs assistance from grant money to fund the demolition.

"Off of the engineer's estimate of $480,000, our whole general fund is about $480,000 a year," he said. "Until brownfield grant monies were made available and American Rescue Plan monies everybody received, we just didn't have the financial resources to take that cost on."

Once the township awards the bid and finalizes the cost, officials will work with the Stark County Regional Planning Commission to secure state funding from the Ohio Department of Development.

"We received a grant back in 2022 to complete demolitions of residential or commercial properties that quality. This property was not originally in that scope of projects," said Sarah Peters, land bank manager at regional planning. "We had a project that came in under budget, so there were some funds that we had to try and reallocate."

The state still needs to approve the project.

"We're confident that it's going to get approved because the building sat vacant and there's significant asbestos abatement that's going to be needed to be done at the building," Peters said. "It's for sure beyond repair."

What's next for the North Industry School project?

Nichols said the trustees hope to execute a contract for the project within weeks so that abatement and demolition can begin in 60 to 90 days.

The board doesn't have any plans yet for the future of the property.

"We've really been focused on trying to get the thing taken down," Nichols said.

Reach Grace at 330-580-8364 or gspringer@gannett.com. Follow her on X @GraceSpringer16.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton Township plans demolition of North Industry School
Democratic candidate for Congress says failed pregnancy represents need for more reproductive healthcare in Arkansas

Democratic candidate for Congress says failed pregnancy represents need for more reproductive healthcare in Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  A northwest Arkansas woman challenging Congressman Steve Womack for the 3rd Congressional District seat said she is now experiencing firsthand what she said is the desperate need in Arkansas for more reproductive healthcare.

Democratic candidate Caitlin Draper told KARK 4 News she learned Monday she is experiencing a miscarriage after finding out she had a successful embryo transfer back in March. Draper said she had been trying to get pregnant for four years through IVF.

Concern grows for some Arkansans after Alabama Supreme Court IVF ruling

Draper, now in a waiting period during the miscarriage, consulted with her medical team.

I asked them, Well if I start having symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy, I live in Arkansas, am I safe to go to the emergency room for treatment? she said.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, an ectopic pregnancy is a life-threatening condition that happens when a fertilized egg implants outside of the uterus, most commonly in the fallopian tube.

Draper said that after looking into the matter, her doctor came back with the answer that she should be okay if that were to be the outcome.

You should be okay isnt enough for me, Draper said. Thats my life.

Attorney General Tim Griffin certifies Arkansas Abortion Amendment ballot language

The Supreme Courts reversal of Roe v Wade in 2022 allowing states to decide on the issue means in Arkansas a near-total abortion ban is in place because of the legislatures decision, except when its to save the life of the mother.

Draper said she fears the worst-case scenario will result in her needing intervention to terminate the pregnancy, which could require her to travel out of state to do.

Im resourced enough, Im married, I have a great job, I can leave the state if I need to if something goes off and I go to the emergency room and they wont treat me, Draper said. But there are women in my district that cant.

Draper said this propels her to fight harder in the pro-choice movement moving forward as the Democratic candidate.

Pro-life resolution presented in Garland County Quorum Court meeting

KARK 4 News reached out to Womacks team for a comment on the issue, but a spokesperson said he would not weigh in because this is a personal family matter for Draper.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK.
Democrats see recent state court rulings on abortion as a galvanizing moment to mobilize Latino voters in key states and battleground House districts, with a message about personal freedoms and access to reproductive health care.

Just this week, Arizonas Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 abortion ban is enforceable, a decision that came a week after Floridas Supreme Court allowed a six-week abortion ban to take effect. Coupled with Texas state law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, that puts many of the most heavily Latino House battlegrounds in the country in the middle of the nationwide fight over abortion policy.

Republicans have sought to sway more Latino voters to their side for years, and since 2020, support among Latinos for former President Donald Trump has spiked upward. And while Latino voters come from all different backgrounds, some of that shift has long been attributed to high levels of social conservatism and Catholicism in Hispanic communities.

But Democratic candidates and political strategists who spoke with NBC News argued that perceptions about the impact of Catholicism in Latino communities and how Latino voters view abortion is a misconception.

Latino voters are not a monolith, Victoria McGroary, the executive director of BOLD PAC, the Democratic-aligned campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, told NBC News. She added: This is fundamentally about freedom. And it is something ... Latino voters really, really care about.

Listen, Latina voters may have personal opinions that differ on what they might do in a specific circumstance. But the thing that is extremely clear among them ... is that they do not want politicians involved in this decision in any way, shape or form, McGroary added.

Framing abortion and health care together

Many Hispanic Americans outright support abortion access and reproductive rights. An Axios/Ipsos poll conducted in partnership with Telemundo that was released earlier this week found that 68% of Latino adults in the U.S. oppose making all abortions illegal at any time, under any circumstance.

Thats not exactly whats on the books in terms of state bans, even in Arizona, where the law recently upheld by the state Supreme Court bans abortion from the moment of conception but still includes an exception to protect the life of the mother. (The Arizona law is still on hold pending additional court cases.) Texas and Floridas six-week bans include a similar exception, while Floridas also has an extended window in cases of rape or incest.

But the poll results explain why a number of Democratic activists and candidates see the issue as an opportunity to make their case, and why they are framing abortion restrictions not just as bans but also as barriers to basic health care.

In Texas 15th District, where about 80% of the district is Latino, Democrat Michelle Vallejo is taking on GOP Rep. Monica De La Cruz for the second time after losing by nearly 9 points in 2022. Vallejo told NBC News that our families and voters are paying attention to this because its affecting people in their very own homes.

We are a region that lacks access to very basic health care. Here we are a region that is severely underinsured and  that is if people even have insurance to begin with, which many, many do not  so this is a very, very real issue, Vallejo added.

De La Cruzs campaign did not respond to an NBC News request for comment.

Former Arizona state Sen. Kirsten Engel, another Democrat running in a congressional rematch, echoed Vallejo, accusing her opponent, GOP Rep. Juan Ciscomani, of enabling the restriction on your rights ... from voting for restricting medication abortion, which affects so many Latinos and Hispanic women, especially those living in our more rural areas, where there is less easy access to health care and doctors and clinics.

In response to questions from NBC News, Ciscomanis campaign said the congressman is opposed to a total ban at both the state and federal levels. Thats why hes called for Arizonas territorial ban to be repealed. Juan is where most Arizonans are  he supports a 15-week law with reasonable exceptions. He believes we can support women and new life.

Vallejo often references a conversation she had with her grandmother early in her political career, saying that growing up in my own home, it was an issue we wouldnt talk about. We didnt talk about reproductive health care.

She added, [My grandmother and I] agreed that women and doctors should be the only ones making [reproductive] decisions. And politicians ... should be nowhere involved in making those decisions for us.

The Axios/Ipsos survey conducted in partnership with Telemundo reinforced this notion.

Sixty-seven percent of Hispanic or Latino adults surveyed said they oppose government policymakers basing laws and policies on their religious views.

McGroary said that, often, where Latino families originated plays a larger part in shaping their views on reproductive freedom than their personal beliefs or religion.

A lot of Latino voters in this country have backgrounds that come from places where freedoms are very limited and under attack regularly. And they know that that is not true here in America, McGroary said.

A key issue in congressional campaigns

Democrats across the country are planning to make abortion policy a key part of their campaigns again this year, after it proved to be a motivating issue in 2022.

Internal polling presented this week to House Democrats, which was obtained by NBC News, showed a strong majority of respondents in battleground districts saying that they thought unified Republican control of the House, Senate and White House would lead Republicans to pursue significant additional restrictions on abortion.

One House Republican strategist pushed back on the notion that this would drive election results this fall, telling NBC News that Republican candidates have been crystal clear on where they stand on abortion.

The strategist pointed to statements released this week by Ciscomani and Arizona GOP Rep. David Schweikert, who both serve in swing House districts, opposing the state Supreme Court ruling.

I do not support todays ruling from the AZ Supreme Court. This issue should be decided by Arizonans, not legislated from the bench. I encourage the state legislature to address this issue immediately.  Rep. David Schweikert (@RepDavid) April 9, 2024

Theyre pushing back on [the ruling], and thats part of the formula for us to win on the issue, the strategist said, adding: We have the reasonable position and Democrats dont.

Similarly, Kari Lake, the likely GOP Senate nominee in Arizona, said again in the wake of the state Supreme Court ruling that she would not back a federal abortion ban and does not back the Arizona ban.

And on Friday, former President Donald Trump made his own statement rebuking the Arizona Supreme Court, saying in a post on Truth Social: The Supreme Court in Arizona went too far on their Abortion Ruling, enacting and approving an inappropriate Law from 1864.

But Democrats in Arizona say this weeks state Supreme Court ruling sent shockwaves through the community that have already led to more organizing in Latino communities, for Democratic candidates and for a ballot initiative that would make abortion a fundamental right in the state.

Theres a lot of shock. Its unbelievable, said Raquel Teran, former chair of the Arizona Democratic Party and current candidate for a heavily Democratic congressional seat in the Phoenix area. A lot of people are distraught. A lot of people are feeling numb. A lot of people are feeling ready to organize.

Engel added that for women of all backgrounds in Arizona, the impact of the U.S. Supreme Courts 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is no longer hypothetical.

Voters here in Arizona are seeing really what it means to leave abortion access to the states. And before, if that was not clear what that could mean, its very clear today, she said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Deputy commander: Drone deliveries to front line this year already 3 times higher than in 2023

Drone deliveries to the front lines in Ukraine since the start of 2024 are already three times higher than for all of last year, according to the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Ukraines Armed Forces Vadym Sukharevskyi.

Since the start of 2024, we have supplied almost three times more drones than in the entire previous year. This process continues... and will only grow, Sukharevskyi told a ceremony commemorating the new Weapon of Victory. Made in UA postage stamp on April 13.

Sukharevskyi didn't specify the exact number of drones delivered so far this year.

Unmanned systems have become a key capability for both sides of Russia's war, as Kyiv intensified domestic drones production and imports.

In late February, Sukharevskyi said Ukraine's goal for 2024 is to meet Russian forces on the battlefield with drones. The Ukrainian military is not abandoning old systems, but rather looking for solutions to strengthen its existing capabilities, according to Sukharevskyi.

Almost every drone supplied is domestically produced, said Sukharevskyi, a high-ranking Ukrainian military official responsible for development and use of unmanned systems in the military.

Digital Transformations Minister Mykhailo Fedorov earlier said that Ukraine will achieve its goal of producing 1 million drones per year in 2024.

Sukharevsky also announced that maritime drones that have Ukraine has used to attack Russian naval targets in the Black Sea will be deployed to the Azov Sea "in the near future."

Ukraine's "Sea Baby" maritime drones have been used in multiple attacks on Russia's Black Sea Fleet since last year.

He also said Ukraine's ability to launch drones capable of reaching 1,200 kilometers inside Russia is not the limit.

And believe me, today and even yesterday, 1,200 kilometers is not the limit, the colonel said.

Ukrainian forces have launched a series of drone strikes aimed at damaging Russia's oil industry and productions facilities.

Ukraine on March 2 attacked drone production facilities and an oil refinery in the cities of Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk in Russia's Tatarstan Republic, some 1,300 kilometers from the country's border. It was the first Ukrainian attack on this Russian region since the start of the full-scale invasion.

A total of 12 Russian oil refineries were reportedly successfully hit in multiple regions deep inside Russian territory as of March 17.

President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree in February creating a separate branch of Ukraine's Armed Forces dedicated to drones.

Strategic Industries Deputy Minister Hanna Hvozdiar said that Ukraine has the capacity to produce 150,000 drones every month and may be able to produce 2 million drones by the end of the year.

Read also: The Invisible War: Inside the electronic warfare arms race that could shape course of war in Ukraine

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a bill curtailing citizen oversight of police misconduct by requiring civilian oversight boards to be made up of members appointed by a sheriff or police chief.

The bill was signed at a news conference on Friday morning. DeSantis framed the bill as protecting law enforcement officers, but the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has criticized the bill as a waste of tax dollars and said it undermines democracy.

DeSantis signs bill banning heat protection laws for outdoor workers

HB 601 mandates that Civilian Oversight Boards must be made up of three to seven members who are all appointed by a sheriff or police chief. One of the members must be a retired law enforcement officer.

HB 601 invalidates the work local communities have put into attempting to increase trust between residents and law enforcement, NR Hines, policy strategist at ACLU of Florida, said in a statement in February after the bill passed a house committee. Having a community that feels empowered to hold law enforcement in their area accountable is better for all Floridians.

[Civilian review boards] pose no threat to law-abiding officers and are designed to have a specific scope of work, Hines continued.

A news release from the governors office said the purpose of the bill is to prohibit localities from using political entities like Civilian Oversight Boards to drive an anti-police agenda.

Unfortunately, the only solution the legislature sees is to once again remove local power, while they continue to waste our tax dollars on bad policies that restrict our freedoms and undermine our democracy, Hines said.

The ACLU of Florida has not yet responded to a request for a new statement now that the bill was signed into law. Its unclear if the organization plans any legal challenges to the bill.

DeSantis also signed another bill that sets up restricted zones around first responders,

HB 184 bans people from coming within within 25 feet of a first responder if theyve been given a warning to back up.

I am proud to support the men and women of law enforcement throughout the state, DeSantis said in a statement. [This] legislation will ensure law enforcement can do their jobs without the threat of harassment. While blue states vilify and defund the police, Florida will continue to the be the friendliest state in the nation towards our law enforcement community.

HB 601 goes into effect on July 1, while HB 184 goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
MANILA, April 12 (Xinhua) -- China has urged the United States, Japan and the Philippines to stop playing bloc politics, stop interfering in China's internal affairs, and stop undermining regional peace and stability, a spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines said Friday.

The spokesperson made the remarks in response to a statement from the first-ever trilateral summit among the three countries.

The spokesperson said that by clinging on to the Cold War mentality, the three countries cobble together exclusive groupings.

"They stoke confrontation in the name of cooperation. Their so-called summit is indeed a platform to launch baseless attack against China on the Taiwan question and maritime issues, blatantly interfering in China's internal affairs and undermining China's security and strategic interest," the spokesperson said in a statement.

"The Chinese side expresses strong dissatisfaction with and resolute opposition to this," the spokesperson noted.

The Taiwan question is purely China's internal affairs and is at the core of China's core interests, the spokesperson said, noting that the one-China principle is the political premise on which China establishes and develops diplomatic relations with the Philippines, a universally recognized norm in international relations and a prevailing consensus among the international community.

The Philippine government recognizes the one-China policy in the Joint Communique on the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines, which is implemented by successive Philippine governments, the spokesperson said, urging Manila to earnestly observe the one-China principle and act prudently.

"China has indisputable sovereignty over Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands, as well as Nanhai Zhudao. China's activities in the East China Sea and the South China Sea are lawful, justified and beyond reproach. China will never accept the groundless accusations and malicious smears by relevant countries on the East China Sea and South China Sea issues, and will never accept the illegal award of the South China Sea Arbitration or any unilateral action based on it," the spokesperson said.

With the instigation and support of forces from outside the region such as the United States and Japan, the Philippines has been constantly provocative in the South China Sea recently, the spokesperson said, noting that China is compelled to take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests.

"We urge the Philippines to respect the facts, abide by the relevant understandings it has reached with China, and return to the right track of properly managing differences through dialogue and consultation as soon as possible," the spokesperson said.

The current situations in the East China Sea and the South China Sea are generally stable, said the spokesperson, noting that the United States and Japan are fanning the flames, provoking confrontation, escalating the situation, and using freedom of navigation and overflight as a pretext for the "freedom of rampage" of their warships and aircraft.

The United States frequently threatens to invoke its Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines, blatantly supporting the latter's violation of China's sovereignty, the spokesperson said.

"Such actions are serious breaches of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and seriously endanger regional peace and stability," the spokesperson said, urging the Philippines not to collude with non-regional forces, "or it will be used as a pawn against China and only to be discarded." 
Details on expert group from Northern Europe to advise Kyiv on EU accession revealed

The advisory group of experts who will advise Ukraine on the processes related to its accession to the EU will include representatives of six Northern European countries.

Source: press service of the Ukrainian government

Details: The group will include professional representatives of the North-Baltic Eight countries (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden, Iceland and Finland) who have extensive experience in EU institutions and have been involved in the negotiation process.

In particular, the list of representatives includes:

Alar Streimann, negotiator of Estonia's accession to the EU;

Algirdas Semeta, former European Commissioner and twice Minister of Finance of Lithuania;

Andris Piebalgs, former European Commissioner and Latvian diplomat;

Cecilia Malmstrom, former European Commissioner and Minister for EU Affairs of Sweden (2006-2010);

Hogni S. Kristjansson, Icelandic diplomat and Director for European Affairs and EU accession negotiator (2008-2013);

Katarina Areskoug, State Secretary for EU and International Affairs of Sweden (2010-2014);

Laimonas Ciakas, former Director General of the National Land Service of Lithuania (2017-2021);

Marja Rislakki, former Permanent Representative of Finland to the EU (2017-2021);

Stefan Haukur Johannesson, Chief Negotiator for Iceland's accession to the EU (2009-2013).

The group's activities will be coordinated by the National Board of Trade Sweden, a Swedish government agency founded in 1651 that deals with international trade, the domestic market and EU trade policy.

Background:

The initiative was announced by the Swedish Foreign Minister on 10 April after a meeting with his Nordic counterparts on the island of Gotland.

As is known, the Ukrainian side and Brussels are working to ensure that the official opening of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU takes place no later than the end of June, when Belgium's presidency of the EU Council ends and Hungary's six-month presidency begins.

Read more on the topic: Kyiv will take the Albanian path to EU membership: details of Ukraine's negotiating framework emerge

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Disney is giving out lifetime bans to guests who lie about disability status

People visit the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., April 18, 2022. The company recently updated its Disability Access System, or DAS, for both parks. | Ted Shaffrey, Associated Press

Disneyland or Walt Disney World guests who lie during disability registration will receive permanent bans at the parks.

According to ABC 7, the company recently updated its Disability Access System, or DAS, for both parks. To be eligible for the program and a pass, guests with disabilities will soon need to be interviewed by Disney personnel. In the past, they would receive it automatically.

This change will be in effect this year, starting May 20 for Walt Disney World and June 18 for Disneyland, per KTLA 5.

What is DAS?

The DAS program is offered to park guests who due to a developmental disability like autism or similar, are unable to wait in a conventional queue for an extended period of time, according to Disneylands DAS website.

According to Los Angeles Times, the pass doesnt immediately take recipients to the front of the line. Rather, the recipients are provided with a return time for an attraction; and once its ready, theyll go to the same line with guests whove paid to skip regular wait times.

Disney officials told Nexstar, a parent company to KTLA 5, that the program is popular between both parks, with its use tripling over the past five years.

What are the new policies?

According to the DAS website, any guests who made false statements while trying to obtain DAS eligibility will be permanently barred from entering the Walt Disney World Resort and the Disneyland Resort. In addition, any previously purchased Annual Passes, Magic Key passes, tickets and other park products and services will be forfeited and not refunded.

Los Angeles Times featured some other changes that will occur with the DAS program:

The parks will provide more training and hire on more cast members to help guests understand what accessibilities Disney offers.

Experts from Health Alliance  a health insurer  will work with Disney to determine an applicants eligibility for DAS, if needed.

Party sizes for DAS recipients will be lowered to three other people, but KTLA 5 claimed a recipients family as a party may be given exemption to the rule.

For guests visiting either park between now to Jun. 17, 2024, the DAS website noted to guests:

Pre-arrival conversations for DAS eligibility are available as early as 30 days prior to visit, and as late as two days before.

In-person conversations for DAS eligibility will be located at Guest Relations areas.

Guests using the DAS Advance plan can reserve up to 2 one-hour return windows for select experiences, per the DAS website.

Why Disney is updating its DAS program?

According to KTLA 5, the programs change is to curb the misuse of the program, resulting in longer attraction queues and backed-up Genie+ lanes for guests.

Shannon McEvoy, a Florida-based travel agent who helps book travelers with disabilities, told Los Angeles Times that she has received troubling requests from interested clients.

Ive had healthy people reach out and ask how they can get a DAS service pass and guest pass, and they dont have a particular disability, McEvoy said to Los Angeles Times. Its sad these people are trying to game a system that is near and dear to my heart.

Per ABC 7, the change may be an effort to minimize the number of people allegedly abusing the program.

Theyre announcing that you will be banned from Disneyland or Disney World for conceivably the rest your life, David Koenig, a business author, added to ABC 7. So, theyre really trying to scare people from trying to cheat this any further.
Disney says it will now issue lifetime bans to guests who lie about having disabilities at its theme parks

Disney is changing its theme park policies for guests with disabilities.

The updates address who can use Disability Access Services, among other changes.

Guests attempting to misuse the program will receive a lifetime ban.

Disney has updated its theme park policies for guests with disabilities as it tries to crack down on those misusing the program.

The new policy comes as Disney confronts a rise in the number of guests exploiting the program. A spokesperson confirmed for Business Insider in November 2023 that there had been an increase in people taking advantage of its disability policies to skip lines and avoid crowds.

Disability services have become the most requested service at the Florida and California parks, according to The Washington Post. The company reported that use of the services has more than tripled over five years.

Disneyland. MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

Changes to the company's Disability Access Service arrived on the official Walt Disney World and Disneyland websites this week.

Under the policies, guests who are disabled can now "request a return time for a specific experience that is comparable to the current standby wait," Disney wrote in its explanation. The service is meant to help guests navigate the often crowded lines and wait times for attractions.

The new policies outline more specifically who can rely on the program. Guests who lie to take advantage of it will receive a lifetime ban, Disney said.

Disney's policies previously said that the Disability Access Service was intended for "guests who have difficulty tolerating extended waits in a conventional queue environment due to a disability," which is a broad definition, according to Fox Business.

Now, they say the service is "intended to accommodate a small percentage of Guests who, due to a developmental disability like autism or similar, are unable to wait in a conventional queue for an extended period of time."

Walt Disney World and Disneyland will change its DAS policy. Joseph Prezioso/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The new policies will begin at Walt Disney World on May 20 and June 18 at Disneyland.

Representatives for Walt Disney World and Disneyland did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Fans of Disney have varied opinions about the new policies. Dennis Speigel, founder of International Theme Park Services, told Orlando-area NBC affiliate WESH 2 that he thinks the new changes will be beneficial.

"I have used it wonderfully, and I have seen the abuse that has occurred at different parks and at Disney through the years as the program has grown," Speigel said.

However, others are concerned the new policy changes will make it harder to navigate the parks.

"There's so many other health issues that may be affected by this," Stacey Crane, a Disney guest who previously qualified for the service due to stomach issues, told The Washington Post. "I'm just nervous to see how it's going to pan out."

In November, Disney also cracked down on "third-party tour guides," some of whom helped guests with disabilities navigate the parks.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Documents will be unsealed in L.A. city attorney and DWP corruption case, judge rules

More than 1,000 pages of confidential documents from a federal criminal investigation into the Los Angeles city attorneys office and the Department of Water and Power will be unsealed, a federal judge signaled Friday.

The Times and Consumer Watchdog had requested the documents to better understand the government's criminal case and whether former City Atty. Mike Feuer bore any culpability for a scandal involving a sham lawsuit and an extortion plot. Feuer has long denied wrongdoing.

In a tentative ruling, U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. said the documents, which consist mainly of dozens of search warrants filed during the government's investigation, will be unsealed, with personal data redacted.

The names of public officials, along with individuals who are wrongdoers, will not be redacted, Blumenfeld said at a hearing Friday  a blow to prosecutors who had sought to keep the officials' names from the public.

The Times and Consumer Watchdog are expected to work with the U.S. attorney's office to ready the documents for release in the coming weeks.

Much of Friday's hearing centered on Feuer and whether an FBI agent's alleged assertions that Feuer lied to a grand jury and lied to the FBI should be redacted.

The FBI agent's purported comments, made in an affidavit for a search warrant, were revealed in court by a defendant, Paul Paradis, at his sentencing in November.

Paradis, a former attorney turned cooperating witness for the federal government, pleaded guilty to accepting a nearly $2.2 million kickback from another attorney working on the DWP case and was sentenced to 33 months in prison.

Read more: Questions, anger after feds signal an end to DWP billing probe

Paradis had ingratiated himself at City Hall, befriending top city officials. An outside lawyer from New York, he was retained by Feuer's office to help with litigation related to the DWP, then went on to secure separate contracts at the DWP.

Later, he secretly recorded high-ranking city officials and was present when armed agents raided the home of DWP general manager David Wright, who is serving a six-year sentence after conspiring to give Paradis a lucrative contract.

Jerry Flanagan, an attorney for Consumer Watchdog and The Times, told Blumenfeld that the FBI agents comments amounted to an opinion that wasnt subject to federal rules that require grand jury information to be kept confidential. Flanagan also argued that the "cat is out of the bag" because Paradis had publicly revealed the alleged comments.

Blumenfeld appeared concerned about protecting the secrecy of the grand jury process and said he would rule later on the issue.

Feuer has said he had no knowledge of any crimes. In a 2022 letter, the U.S. attorney's office told Feuer that he wasnt a target in their criminal investigation.

When asked by The Times last November about the FBI agent's alleged statements, Feuer pointed to the 2022 letter.

Feuer also told The Times last year that he gave the U.S. attorneys office his phone in 2020, but investigators did not search his home or office.

A former state assemblymember and L.A. City Council member, Feuer ran for L.A. mayor in 2022 but dropped out shortly before the primary. Last month, he finished fourth in the primary for the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Adam B. Schiff.

The 1,400 pages of search warrants and other documents requested by The Times and Consumer Watchdog were issued between 2019 and 2021.

Court filings by prosecutors in the criminal case make clear that some individuals, including city officials who remain anonymous in the filings, took part in or were aware of various schemes.

Only four people were ultimately charged, and prosecutors said that their case concluded last year.

The criminal prosecution centered on a 2015 class-action lawsuit brought by DWP customers over massive errors caused by a new billing system at the utility.

The lawsuit was covertly written by Paradis, then working for Feuer's office, who handed the suit to an outside attorney to file against the city.

The goal, according to prosecutors, was to settle all the claims by various DWP customers on terms advantageous to the city.

Prosecutors also uncovered other unethical and illegal schemes, including an illicit payment involving the city attorney's office.

Blumenfeld said at Fridays hearing that he expected the name of one person, Julissa Salgueiro, to remain unredacted in the search warrants and other documents.

"Ms. Salgueiro is a quintessential wrongdoer," Blumenfeld said, describing why her name should be unredacted.

Prosecutors have never named or charged Salgueiro, but their court filings refer to a former employee of a Beverly Hills law firm who threatened to reveal the citys collusive lawsuit over the DWP billing errors.

The employee had stolen or improperly retained documents showing the collusive lawsuit and demanded money for their return, prosecutors said in court documents.

Thomas Peters, a top aide to Feuer, was charged with aiding and abetting extortion after being ordered by unnamed city staff to take care of the employee's threats, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors never charged any other senior staff members from the city attorney's office.

After pleading guilty, Peters was sentenced to nine months home detention and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.

Salgueiro's attorney, William Pitman, told The Times on Friday that he "respectfully disagrees with Judge Blumenfelds opinion." His client has never been charged, indicted and has no criminal history, he said.

"With regard to the unsealing motion, Ms. Salguiero was never notified [of the case]," said Pitman.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Ben Connors, Jr., 18, and his brother, Brayden Connors, 16, harvest wild rice on the Kakagon Sloughs on the Bad River Ojibwe Reservation in far northern Wisconsin.

UPPER PENINSULA  The Enbridge Line 5 pipeline has been found to be illegally trespassing on tribal land in Wisconsin, but will not be moved any time soon.

After years of court arguments, lawsuits and delays, the federal government announced this week that Enbridge is in fact trespassing on land owned by the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, but made no move to force the pipeline off the land.

Tribal groups in the Great Lakes region expressed relief that Enbridge's trespassing is being viewed as a crime after more than 10 years, but are still angry that no move is being made to remove the pipeline.

The Department of Justice announcement urged the courts to penalize Enbridge for its continued trespassing but also suggested the courts could allow Enbridge to continue trespassing illegally.

"Today, the United States agreed that Enbridges ongoing occupation of our land is illegal. We are grateful the U.S. urged the court not to let Enbridge profit from its unlawful trespass," said Bad River Band Chairman Robert Blanchard in a statement. "But we are disappointed that the U.S. has not unequivocally called for an immediate end to Enbridges ongoing trespass, as justice and the law demand. Enbridge should be required to promptly leave our reservation, just like other companies that have trespassed on tribal land. We are hopeful that the appeals court will put an end to Enbridges shameful decade of trespass and not condone its exploitation of our land and sovereign rights."

Built in 1953, Enbridge Energys Line 5 spans 645 miles from Superior, Wisconsin to Sarnia, Ontario. The line transports light crude oil and natural gas liquids. Four miles of the pipeline  consisting of two, 20-inch pipelines  crosses through the Straits of Mackinac.

Line 5's continued presence in the Straits of Mackinac has sparked serious concern from environmental groups and other advocates about the devastating risk of rupture. On the other side, proponents of the pipeline point to the economic impact and need for fuel transportation.

More: As legal sparring continues, Army Corps pushes Line 5 permit timeline to 2025

People hang a Stop Line 5 banner on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023 during the fifth annual Water is Life Festival in Petoskey's Bayfront Park.

All 12 of Michigans federally recognized tribes, as well as tribes in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Canada, have passed resolutions calling for the decommissioning of Line 5.

While tribal communities express concerns about a possible oil spill and potential ecological harm, the Great Lakes are also significant in the creation stories of the Anishinaabe tribes.

On March 21, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel delivered oral arguments at the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an attempt to bring the Line 5 decommission lawsuit back to the state of Michigan.

The Nessel vs. Enbridge lawsuit was originally filed in 2019 in Michigan, arguing that the 1836 Treaty of Washington guarantees these tribes the right to maintain their way of life in the ceded territory  a right, they claim, that will be destroyed if an oil spill from the pipeline contaminates the waters.

"We expect a fair trial that upholds the promises the United States government made to our ancestors," said Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians Chairman Austin Lowes. "We are going to present the facts behind our case and will never stop standing up for our rights as Indigenous people and the sovereignty of our nation."

Enbridge has successfully delayed the case multiple times and had it removed from state to federal court.

"If the United States supports Enbridge, it would destroy not only both tribal sovereignty but also state sovereignty with respect to the ability to manage land, resources and water for their citizens," said Bay Mills Indian Community President Whitney Gravelle.

Lowes added that "Our treaty with the United States government predates any treaty that Enbridge is using in an attempt to justify its illegal pipeline operations."

"Our case isn't just about whether Enbridge can continue operating Line 5, but it could impact every federally recognized tribe's right to control what happens on their land," he said.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals requested federal input in December 2023. After this, in early March, leaders of 30 Tribal Nations in the Great Lakes region sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging the United States to take action against Line 5s trespass on the Bad River Bands sovereign territories.

The Biden Administration has not responded to either request.

Built in 1953, Enbridge Energys Line 5 spans 645 miles from Superior, Wisconsin to Sarnia, Ontario. The line transports light crude oil and natural gas liquids. Four miles of the pipeline crosses through the Straits of Mackinac.

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More than 60 Tribal Nations supported Nessel in a motion to bring the case back to state court. The arguments for keeping the case in federal court or moving it back to state court were heard during the March 21 hearings at the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

Nessel maintains that this case belongs in state court based on Michigans sovereign responsibility to protect the public trust in the waters of the Great Lakes. She argued to the court that taking the case out of state court because Enbridge prefers a federal forum violates Michigans right to have state claims resolved in state court.

"The case law regarding a Tribal Nations sovereign right to maintain their homelands and thus their reservations is a core aspect of tribal sovereignty and any position to the contrary would be unexpected and shocking," said Gravelle.

Assistant Attorney General Dan Bock argued to the Sixth Circuit that by waiting more than two years to move the case to federal court, Enbridges removal was untimely and must be rejected. Bock also argued that, timing issues aside, the federal court misapplied the law when it ruled that the case belongs in federal court rather than state court.

An Enbridge monitoring station tracks the safety of the Line 5 oil pipeline passing through the Straits of Mackinac.

Enbridges attorney Alice Loughran argued that the removal to federal court was timely, and it should remain in federal court because federal issues dominate the case. Those issues include the impact of the 1977 U.S.-Canada transnational pipelines treaty, the federal Submerged Lands Act and the extensive federal regulation of oil pipelines.

Enbridge argued that the state's rights to protect the waters of the Great Lakes and the company's right to protect commerce profits are federal issues.

The arguments were presented to a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal: Judges Richard Griffin, Amul Thapar and John Nalbandian.

On April 9, the Department of Justice weighed in on the appeal and came to a final decision that Enbridge is illegally trespassing. Though it acknowledges the trespassing, it does not call for immediate removal and even suggested the courts could allow the trespassing to continue indefinitely.

Many tribal groups spoke out about the dangers of such a decision, as it continues to threaten both environmental safety in the area and tribal sovereignty.

"The filing leaves more questions than answers. It also leaves Bad River, other Tribal Nations throughout the region, and the 40 million people that rely on the Great Lakes at risk of a catastrophic spill. We fear it will take Line 5 failing again, and the disaster of an oil spill for our position to be taken seriously. This isn't just about tribes, it is about clean water, it is about life. It is about every U.S. citizen and preserving our natural resources for generations to come," said Gravelle.

Requests for comment from Enbridge were not returned.

 Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: DOJ weighs in on Line 5 trespass on tribal land in Wisconsin
Donald Trump said Mike Johnson was "doing a really good job under very tough circumstances" - GETTY IMAGES

Donald Trump has backed the embattled Republican House Speaker after he agreed to hold a series of congressional hearings on election interference.

The former president met Mike Johnson at his Florida resort on Friday where the pair pledged to work together on election integrity, which will include televised committee sessions over the next two months on US voting security in the US.

According to Mr Trump  who continues to falsely claim victory in the 2020 presidential election  the hearings will provide the American public an opportunity to hear sworn testimony and get clarity on election issues, including mail-in voting and voter registration.

Republicans are pushing for tighter rules on voting procedures and on Friday Mr Trump and Mr Johnson pledged to introduce legislation that will require people who register to vote in a federal election to prove that they are an American citizen.

Mr Trump has wrongly claimed that large numbers of non-citizens frequently vote in US elections.

Despite the new bill, the practice of non-citizens voting in US elections is already illegal.

Mr Trumps show of support for Mr Johnson comes as he faces a possible leadership challenge after only six months as speaker, led by Trump-ally and Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is leading calls to oust Mike Johnson - REUTERS

The pair appeared side by side at Mar-a-Lago in a vivid display of how Mr Johnson, and the Republican party in Congress, are now freighted to Mr Trumps needs ahead of Novembers presidential vote, including his claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

Mr Trump has claimed without evidence that mail-in voting is subject to widespread fraud. Last December he called for postal voting to be abolished,. He suggested last month that any time the mail is involved, youre going to have cheating.

The former president and Mr Johnson put on a show of unity on Friday, despite their differences over Ukraine aid, which Mr Trump opposes, and the re-authorisation of foreign surveillance legislation, which Trump encouraged Republicans to reject earlier this week, but passed the lower chamber on Friday.

Mr Trump said: Hes doing a really good job under very tough circumstances and I appreciate that he came to Mar-a-Lago.

Trump merchandise pictured at a souvenir shop in Manhattan on Friday - GETTY IMAGES

In a post on Trumps Truth Social platform, the former president said Mr Johnson had agreed to hold a series of public committee hearings over the next two months which will provide Members the opportunity to fact-find in advance of potential legislation to further safeguard our elections from interference.

The public hearings would be held to allow the House to scrutinise how the federal government is preventing illegal immigrants and non-citizens from voting in the 2024 presidential election.

It comes amid a row between Mr Trump and President Biden over the USs border security with immigration set to be a key battleground before November.

Mr Johnson said the legislation would put the US on a par with virtually every other democracy around the world that also prohibits non-citizen voting and would expunge non-citizens already on voter rolls.

He added that it was a critical thing to do at a very critical time.

But the planned law was immediately attacked by Democrats. Progressive congresswoman Pramila Jayapal called the idea ludicrous.

The reality is that they have done everything that they can on the Republican side to undermine election integrity, Ms Jayapal said.

This is the obligatory kiss the ring of the cult of Trump that the speaker is undertaking.

At the meeting, Mr Trump also addressed his imminent hush money criminal trial in New York, which a judge on Friday refused to postpone on the grounds of publicity about the case.

Asked at Mar-a-Lago if he planned to testify, Mr Trump said: Yeah I would testify, absolutely, adding that he considered his court appointment a scam thats not a trial.

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Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.



We have immense respect for Minnesota's nurses. But a dispute between their union and Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) over health insurance benefits and staffing is hardly sufficient reason to blow up this critical safety-net hospital's governance structure or jettison its CEO.

It's frustrating that this needs to be said and to have to advise that Minnesota legislators soon put sensible safeguards into state law to make it more difficult for Hennepin County commissioners to dissolve the board of community representatives currently responsible for the hospital system's oversight and finances.

A recent news conference held by the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA), which represents nurses at HCMC and across the state, put a regrettable, high-profile spotlight on the proposed governance change.

After months of criticism over working conditions and changes to health benefits, MNA leaders announced that they want Hennepin County commissioners to take back control of the medical center. Other HCMC unions have lent their support.

"We are here after months of inaction. We cannot keep nurses at the bedside under these conditions,'' said Jeremy Olson-Ehlert, who is an HCMC registered nurse and union leader.

Nurses at HCMC and elsewhere merit sympathy. Their work is challenging. Burnout from the COVID-19 pandemic is real. But so are the financial headwinds faced by hospitals across the nation.

"With higher labor costs and inflated expenses for services and supplies, more than 70 hospitals across the state collectively tallied an operating loss of $419 million during the first half of 2023," the Star Tribune reported in November. There have been significant job cuts at Allina and Fairview.

The financial pressures are even greater at HCMC, which has a more challenging "payer mix," meaning many of its patients rely on public programs that typically reimburse less for patient care than commercial health insurers.

Dissolving the community board overseeing HCMC and returning management to county commissioners wouldn't magically fix this.

Hennepin is the state's most populous county, and its commissioners' responsibilities are broad. About 20 years ago, county commissioners recognized that oversight of the medical center required more focus and expertise.

A task force studied how best to do this. It recommended setting up a separate governance structure. That work led to the Hennepin Healthcare System board of directors, with an 11- to 17-member board managing the medical center. Two of its members are county commissioners.

Star Tribune editorials from 2003 and 2004 lauded the move. Their reasoning illustrates why direct oversight by county commissioners is no panacea for MNA concerns.

"Just getting an important nurses' pay raise approved by the County Board took months of irksome politics," a 2004 editorial noted.

A 2003 editorial also described the limited flexibility of having HCMC directly supervised by county commissioners. "Under the current structure ... hospital executives must go to the County Board for every outlay exceeding $25,000, a political chore that hampers nimble and entrepreneurial management."

There were solid reasons for the new governance structure, and there's no compelling argument for switching back to the old model, especially when the business of health care has become increasingly complex. HCMC's budget for 2024 is $1.5 billion.

It should be noted that the benefit cut appears to leave a plan in place that covers 90% of union employee costs, though MNA leaders disputed this in an interview. HCMC's current community board may have erred, however, by too swiftly dismissing nurses' concerns about the change.

While county data suggests nurse retention isn't the problem that MNA claims, the hospital's board should work to repair its relationship with nurses to prevent retention from becoming a problem.

In addition, it's important to note a dispute over county commissioners' intentions.

An April 8 commentary written by Dr. Thomas Klemond, president of Hennepin Healthcare System's medical staff, stated that county commissioners are considering the community board's dissolution and termination of CEO Jennifer DeCubellis.

A statement on Thursday by current Hennepin County Board Chair Irene Fernando said Klemond's claims were "inaccurate." She added: "Further, I am not aware of any proposed action related to HHS governance, and there is no relevant action on our agenda for the next Board Meeting (April 16th)."

That's reassuring, but state lawmakers should act. A 2005 statute outlines the county and hospital boards' powers under the new governance model. County commissioners can resume hospital management with a two-thirds vote of the County Board.

State law should also require a compelling reason for that change, such as malfeasance by the hospital board, along with due diligence to analyze the impact.

Not requiring either of these was a mistake when the board was established. That left the door cracked open to self-serving special interests, such as a labor union, circumventing an otherwise solid hospital governance structure by taking their grievances to a more sympathetic and more politically minded County Board. That shouldn't be an easy process, and it's time to fix this oversight.

Editorial Board members are David Banks, Jill Burcum, Scott Gillespie, Denise Johnson and John Rash. Star Tribune Opinion staff members Maggie Kelly and Elena Neuzil also contribute, and Star Tribune CEO and Publisher Steve Grove serves as an adviser to the board.
The city of Rock Island, in partnership with the Quad Cities Chamber and Rock Island Downtown Alliance, will hold an official groundbreaking ceremony to kick off construction of the $8.7 million Rebuild Downtown Rock Island project, Monday, April 15 at 2 p.m. at the intersection of 18th Street and 2nd Avenue.

City council members unanimously approved final plans and construction contracts during the March 25 meeting. Valley Construction will work with design and engineering firms Veenstra & Kimm and Streamline Architects on the project.

The Rebuild Downtown Rock Island project is an exciting opportunity for the City to revitalize the downtown historic area through the largest single investment in more than 30 years, Mayor Mike Thoms said in a Friday release. We are excited for what this project will bring to our community. The goal is to encourage private investment and improve the overall quality of life for those who live, work in and visit downtown Rock Island.

The $8.7-million Rebuild Downtown Rock Island project is being funded with $3 million from a State of Illinois Rebuild Downtowns grant, $3.9 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, $1.5 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District funds, and a $267,000 State of Illinois Tourism Attractions grant.

Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) director Kristin Richards will be present at the groundbreaking to speak about the states investment in downtown Rock Island.

DCEO is committed to supporting economic development projects that boost communities and small businesses, Richards said in the release. Through the Rebuilding Downtowns and Main Streets Program, Illinois is proud to provide grant funding to support the Downtown Rock Island project, which will beautify the area, attract visitors, create jobs and provide new spaces for the community to come together.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Improvements will include:

Welcome to Downtown Rock Island gateway sign across from Schwiebert Park at 1 st Avenue and 18 th Street

Total reconstruction and streetscaping of four blocks

Decorative lighting and landscaping

Two large-scale murals in Arts Alley

Ten new outdoor patio areas at existing restaurants

Rock Island block letters for photo opportunities

Conversion of the parking lot at 2nd Avenue and 18th Street into greenspace for recreation and special events

Installation of a mini roundabout at the intersection of 2nd Avenue and 18th Street

The city in partnership with the Rock Island Downtown Alliance is committed to working with and supporting businesses and residents who may be affected by the construction project.

Businesses will remain open during construction, and we are asking for the communitys help in supporting them, especially as access temporarily becomes challenging, said Jack Cullen, executive director of the Downtown Alliance.We will get through this together, and we will be better off in the end.

Mondays groundbreaking will be at the intersection of 18th Street and 2nd Avenue, which will be transformed to look like this, with a new roundabout.

As part of the Rebuild Illinois (RBI) Downtowns and Main Streets Capital program, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) awarded $106 million in capital grants to 50 commercial corridors and main streets throughout Illinois, which represents the largest-ever RBI investment focused on community revitalization.

For more information on the Rebuild Downtown Rock Island project, click HERE.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com.
This photo taken on Feb. 21, 2024 shows a general aviation aircraft at CETC Wuhu Diamond Aircraft Manufacture Co., Ltd. in Wuhu City, east China's Anhui Province.(Xinhua/Wang Haiyue)

by Xinhua writer Wang Haiyue

HEFEI, April 13 (Xinhua) -- "Without leaving the town, we can make homegrown general aviation aircraft here." This was the most common response I received from the locals during my visit to Wanzhi Township of Wuhu City, east China's Anhui Province, earlier this year.

Nestled along the Yangtze River, this emerging aviation town, dozens of kilometers from Wuhu's urban area, is home to more than 140 aviation companies, including aircraft parts manufacturers, final assemblers and operation and maintenance companies.

Driven by my curiosity over the town's success, I visited the first aviation company established here. As I walked through the modern factory and cool exhibition halls, it was hard to imagine that most of the town was once a wasteland.

At the CETC Wuhu Diamond Aircraft Manufacture Co., Ltd., a group of young engineers were installing different parts on the fuselage of a white four-seat aircraft. Outside the workshop, the assembled aircraft was undergoing test flights on the long test runway with the roaring sounds of the engines echoing.

"About 10 years ago, CETC decided to collaborate with Wuhu City to establish the company here thanks to a newly approved airport and the city's automobile manufacturing prowess," said Wang Tao, who works for CETC Wuhu Diamond.

From introducing foreign production lines to independently developing new aircraft, the company has delivered over 100 aircraft to customers nationwide.

Over the past years, more companies have joined and witnessed the town's rapid development. Yan Huaiqiang, general manager of Wuhu United Aircraft Technology Co., Ltd., shared his story.

"Before deciding to establish the subsidiary here, we had inspected Wanzhi several times and the change here is undoubtedly huge," said Yan. "New factories are springing up. The increasingly complete industrial chain, excellent business environment and talent policy are quite alluring to us."

Riding the wave of the low-altitude economy, the company has developed a wide range of unmanned aerial vehicles for logistics, emergency rescue and air patrol.

"The low-altitude economy is on a fast track of growth with the support of policies and regulations as well as mature technologies. The output value of our company is expected to be no less than 200 million yuan (about 28 million U.S. dollars) in 2024," said Yan, adding that they are expanding capacity to meet market demand.

Data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China backs up Yan's words. The size of China's low-altitude economy is expected to reach 2 trillion yuan in 2030 from some 500 billion yuan in 2023.

As an important field for fostering China's new quality productive forces, this emerging industry enjoys broad prospects. This town has already witnessed the boom of the industry as upstream and downstream companies gather here.

In the exhibition hall of Wuhu Diamond Aero Engine Co., Ltd. (WDAE), Zheng Jun, general manager of the company and also a senior engineer, introduced us to their self-developed aircraft engines with great passion and pride.

"Since 2016, we have gone through more than 300 development and airworthiness validation flight tests and overcome many technical challenges and obtained the type certificate issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China in 2023," said Zheng.

In the WDAE factory, robots are assigned to perform various tasks, and automated guided vehicles transport materials in an orderly manner, helping to make mass production of engines more efficient.

This year, WDAE has received orders for nearly 500 engines, some of which will be supplied to nearby aircraft companies.

Interestingly, the propellers that match the WDAE's aircraft engines also come from a company just a few kilometers away.

"Like many peers in the town, we are both suppliers and customers," said Zheng, adding that cooperative development allows them to reduce costs and accelerate innovation.

From engines to avionics, propellers to raw materials, a whole chain of the general aviation industry has taken shape in Wanzhi, attracting talents from across the country to pursue their dreams here. In recent years, more than 800 aviation innovation talents have flocked to this once little-known place.

Wanzhi is just one of many Chinese towns charting their economic development paths based on their unique strengths and conditions.

In recent years, I have visited many unique towns, such as the wedding dress town, the brush-making town and the cable town. These towns have told excellent stories of upgrading and transformation amid China's rural revitalization and burgeoning economic growth. 
Draft law on demobilisation to be ready sooner than by end of year, says Ukraine's Defence Ministry

The draft law on the demobilisation of Ukrainian soldiers will be ready in less than eight months, Dmytro Lazutkin, spokesperson for Ukraine's Defence Ministry, has reported.

Source: Lazutkin during the national joint 24/7 newscast

Quote from Lazutkin: "This bill will be prepared jointly with the Ministry of Defence and representatives of the General Staff.

It is already in progress, and a draft will appear in the coming months, which will then be submitted to parliament.

Clearly, there are certain developments because the law on mobilisation, in the draft version that passed the first reading, contained some provisions.

Obviously, this is a subject that is both important and sensitive for society. It is clear that people on the front must be given a break, while at the same time, people with combat experience must be replaced, considering many different aspects, including the necessity to replace them with trained soldiers."

Details: Lazutkin noted that the deadline for the draft law to be ready in 8 months had been announced, but it was removed after some discussions.

The official said that "it will probably happen sooner".

However, he explained that "developing a draft law is one thing, and then passing it through the parliament is another."

Background: On Tuesday, 9 April, it was reported that the Ukrainian Parliament's Committee on National Security and Defence excluded the provisions on demobilisation and rotation of military personnel from the government's draft law on mobilisation.

The exclusion of the demobilisation issue from the draft law was initiated by Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET)  A man who alleged excessive force on the part of Bakersfield police, saying he suffered a broken elbow and rib during a New Years Eve arrest, has been charged with a misdemeanor and vehicle code infractions.

Donte Heath was charged Thursday with resisting or obstructing a peace officer and two infractions: not wearing a seat belt, and not having current registration tabs on his license plate.

Court records didnt show a date scheduled for Heaths arraignment.

His attorney, David A. Torres, said he was shocked and quite disturbed Heath was charged.

This is an affront to not only Donte Heath but to our local African American community and this is nothing more than the District Attorney covering for the Bakersfield Police Departments racial profile stop, he said.

Asked for comment, the District Attorneys Office released the following statement: All factors were considered when reviewing the case. After a thorough and unbiased review of evidence, our office determined that the traffic stop was justified, and appropriate actions were taken. Furthermore, our office found sufficient evidence to support the criminal charges that were filed.

In the early hours of New Years Eve, Heath was pulled over for allegedly not wearing his seat belt. He recorded the interaction with police as he refused to get out of his car.

An officer smashed his window.

Wow, you broke my window, now Im getting out, Im getting out, Heath says on the video.

In an interview with 17 News Mikhala Armstrong, Heath said, The first thing I feel is a hit, and Im slammed to the ground, I just felt my elbow being bent, my arm being bent, and I said, What are you doing to me, man? Why are you doing this to me, man? I dont understand why this is happening to me.'

The video captures him yelling, Help! Help! Hes breaking my arm! Hes breaking my arm, Im not resisting!

Heath has also retained attorney Daniel Rodriguez, who specializes in personal injury cases. Rodriguez said four officers were involved in the arrest.

He said he has not yet filed a claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, against BPD.

Its unfortunate that the BPD chose to go this route, Rodriguez said Friday. The right thing for the BPD to have done in this case would have been to admit that what they did that night was wrong and apologize.

He added, It was bad enough that this was a bogus stop to begin with. And now, they made it worse by filing charges based on this bogus stop.

When asked in January about the incident, police Sgt. Andrew Tipton said the following: Officers have the right to use reasonable force to effect an arrest, and so if they need to take someone into custody who is refusing to get out of a vehicle, then they can use an appropriate amount of force to enter that vehicle, or a house, or whatever they need to in order to make that arrest.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17.
The Duke of Kent (in his role as Colonel of the Scots Guards)

The Duke of Kent, the late Queens cousin, is to retire as Colonel of the Scots Guards after 50 years, as the regiment pays tribute to him as a constant in a rapidly changing world.

The Duke, 88, will hand over the Colonelcy to the Duke of Edinburgh after a final annual day of Remembrance Sunday.

A stalwart of the Royal family, the Duke is best known for his lifelong duty in support of his cousin, the late Queen Elizabeth II. He was the only person standing with her on the Buckingham Palace balcony to take the salute for the Platinum Jubilee in 2022, her final Trooping the Colour.

On handing over the Colonelcy of the Scots Guards, one of five Regiments of Foot Guards within the British Armys Household Division, the Duke of Kent said his 50 years of duty - the longest anyone had spent in the role - has been a true honour and one which will forever fill me with great joy.

The Duke of Edinburgh has promised to do my best as he takes over, claiming he accepted the role with a degree of trepidation, knowing he would undoubtedly be measured against the formidable record and reputation of my predecessor.

The Duke of Kent was the only person standing with the Queen on the Buckingham Palace balcony to take the salute for the Platinum Jubilee in 2022 - Max Mumby/Indigo

Colonel JDL Leask, Regimental Lieutenant Colonel of the Scots Guards, said of the Duke: He is the only Colonel most of us have known.

He has been a constant in a rapidly changing world.

His loyalty to the Regiment and selfless commitment to the country has been an example to us all.

The Regiment is delighted that His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh will shortly become the twenty-seventh Colonel Scots Guards.

This is a seminal moment for us. It marks the end of a remarkable era and the start of a new and exciting chapter in our long and distinguished history.

It is the latest change for the Duke, who last year also handed over his role as President of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, held for more than 50 years, to the Princess Royal.

He retains patronages with nearly 140 charities, organisations and professional bodies, including Blood Cancer UK, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, The Dresden Trust, The Scout Association, The Stroke Association, the Imperial War Museum and National Army Museum.

Devotion to duty

The Duke said: Serving as Colonel of the Scots Guards since 1974, the longest anyone has spent in this role, has been a true honour and one which will forever fill me with great joy.

Through those years, I have seen the work of the Scots Guards during peacetime and war and witnessed their bravery, selfless courage and devotion to duty.

To my fellow Scots Guardsmen, I am immensely proud to have served you all.

I am delighted that His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh will continue to champion all that you do and work towards preserving your great legacy.

As the new Colonel of the Scots Guards, the Duke of Edinburgh said: The Duke of Kent has been an extraordinary Colonel of the Scots Guards. Quite apart from his depth of knowledge and keen understanding of the Regiment and all those who serve, past and present, he has been a tireless and passionate advocate.

It is a distinct honour to be asked and entrusted by His Majesty to serve as the next Colonel. However, I accept with a degree of trepidation as I will undoubtedly be measured against the formidable record and reputation of my predecessor. I can only promise to do my best.

The Duke served in the military in the UK and overseas for over 21 years - Jane Barlow - Pool

The Duke of Kent will on Sunday attend the Scots Guards annual Black Sunday events in London, the annual day of remembrance for fallen members of the regiment and their families.

The Duke will join a Service of Remembrance at the Guards Chapel in Wellington Barracks before taking the salute for the final time as Colonel.

The Scots Guards, formed in 1642, have played key roles in major conflicts from the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the First and Second World Wars, the Falklands War and undertaken deployments to Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Duke has previously travelled to Afghanistan and Iraq to meet members of the regiment. On September 23, to mark his 50th anniversary, a newly-composed pipe tune, The Colonel, was performed by The Pipes and Drums in his honour.

The Duke trained at Sandhurst and served in the military in the UK and overseas for over 21 years.

Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Scots Greys, he undertook a regimental tour in Hong Kong before commanding a squadron serving in Cyprus as part of the United Nations Force.

He retired from the Army in 1976 as a Lieutenant-Colonel and, in 1993, was promoted to Field Marshal  the highest rank in the British Army.

The Duke will remain in position as Royal Colonel of the 1st Battalion, The Rifles, Honorary Air Chief Marshal of The Royal Air Force and Colonel In Chief of The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

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Duke University announced it will no longer offer its Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholarship Program, a full-ride scholarship program offered to top applicants of African descent. The news comes after last years ruling by the Supreme Court to strike down race-based affirmative action in college admissions.

It is very much disheartening to hear that this program that opened the door for me to come to Duke is now being closed essentially, even though it will take on a new form, Mya Harris, a junior, told The Duke Chronicle.

The program was established in 1979 in honor of Reginaldo Reggie Howard, Dukes first Black student government president. Applicants were required to show financial need, and selected undergraduate students were offered full tuition, room and board. The scholarship chose 15 to 20 Black students, who were also provided funding for independent research opportunities and domestic and international learning experiences.

Duke is replacing the scholarship program with the Reginaldo Howard Leadership Program, which is open to all undergraduate students regardless of race. Funding for the scholarship will now go toward this new program.

The Reginaldo Howard Leadership Program will honor Reggie Howards legacy by supporting Black academic excellence, intellectual community and leadership on campus through an intentionally designed series of engagement opportunities, Candis Watts Smith, the vice provost for undergraduate education, wrote in an email to Reggie Scholars and alumni.

A follow-up statement noted that the decision was taken in light of changes to the legal landscape related to race-based considerations in higher education.

The school also announced that recipients of merit-based scholarships will be notified about their awards after enrolling at Duke instead of before.

Reggie Scholars will continue to receive funding but no aid will be awarded to the Class of 2028 and beyond. They decry Dukes decision and hope they can keep Reggie Howards legacy alive.

I think the Reggie is a program that has given me a lot over the years, Drew Greene, a senior, said. Its given me not only a community, but a group of friends, a group of academic peers that I enjoy spending time with  It has been a fantastic experience, so of course in that regard, I am gutted.

We just want to make sure that Reginaldo Howard stays in the conversation in any way, shape or form that we can because he was a very prominent figure in Dukes history, period  not Black Dukes history, not Latino Dukes history, just Dukes history, Hannah Gedion, a sophomore student, added.
Agnes Marciniak-Kostrzewas phone wont stop ringing. Shes been in the property business for 25 years, helping Poles to buy homes on Spains southern shores, but the past few months have been really crazy.

There are lots of reasons why people might trade the Baltic coast for the Mediterranean. More than three decades after the collapse of communism, Poles are richer than ever before. Many who started businesses in the early 1990s are now looking to retire. And remote work, ushered in by the pandemic, has allowed many to live more rootlessly and opt for warmer climates.

But several realtors told CNN that their clients are now citing another reason: Russias war in Ukraine, and the fear that the conflict could spread.

I experienced two waves of rapidly growing interest in buying properties. The first was in February 2022, immediately after the outbreak of the war. The second has been since February 2024, Marciniak-Kostrzewa said.

The mood has darkened in recent weeks, as Russia seeks to build on recent battlefield gains, testing for weak spots along the frontlines and pummeling Ukraines cities with airstrikes. President Volodomyr Zelensky warned this week that, if the United States Congress fails to approve military aid, Ukraine will lose the war.

And the comments of prominent Western figures are causing jitters elsewhere on Europes eastern flank. Former US President Donald Trump in February said he would encourage Russia to do whatever the hell they want to any NATO member not paying their due. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk last month warned Europe is in a pre-war era.

After Trumps statement and after Tusks interview, we got calls  I dont even know how many  with people asking if they can come within three days and buy the property, and how long the whole procedure takes to get the keys, Marciniak-Kostrzewa said.

A record-breaking number of Poles bought property in Spain in 2023, topping the previous record set the year before, according to Polish outlet Bizblog.

Maria Ruiz Lopez, a lawyer based between Spain and Warsaw, said demand has been increasing incredibly since the start of the year.

Very often, our clients tell us that the reason for which theyre buying real estate is because theyre afraid of the war, theyre afraid of Russia, so they would like to have some place where, eventually, they could leave for fast, if there was such a need, she said.

Some buy in a slight panic. Lopez said a client last month bought a property because they wanted to avoid being conscripted into the Polish military. Marciniak-Kostrzewa recalled another who, spurred by fears of the war spreading, last month bought an apartment in Spain and asked to rent it out, on the condition that they could access it swiftly if needed. When she explained that removing tenants from a property takes time, the client said: OK, lets keep it empty, just in case something will happen.

Others buy with an eye to their investments. For Wieslaw, a retired Pole in his 70s, the prospect of war coming to Poland is a black swan: a low-probability, high-impact event. Still, he wants to hedge his bets.

When I heard stories of Ukrainian people being forced to leave their country within an hour, taking with them all their belongings, I realized then that all my property is in Poland, said Wieslaw, who preferred to give only his first name to maintain his privacy. He still lives in Warsaw, but bought a small property in Andalucia, southern Spain. The trigger, really, was the war in Ukraine.

But most buy just for peace of mind  a back-up plan, for those wealthy enough to afford one. Another Polish buyer, who wished to remain anonymous to discuss a private transaction, told CNN the war was definitely the main reason for making a quick purchase decision. A father of two children, he said the most important thing for him and his wife is that we know we have a second home if we need it. This gives us a great sense of comfort.

A woman hangs a sheet from an apartment balcony in Malaga, Spain. - John Keeble/Getty Images

Poles may be a special case. After its post-Communist economic miracle, more Poles are able to buy second homes abroad than before. And, due to its borders with Ukraine and Belarus, Poles may feel more need to do so.

But other Eastern European countries are also buying in the West. Liivia Illak started her business 20 years ago, mostly selling expensive Spanish properties to clients from her native Estonia. But this year, shes received more requests than ever  and many of her clients are looking for smaller properties.

Three months ago, I started to get requests for really small apartments, as people dont want to keep all their eggs in one basket in Estonia. They just want to get something here, so if the situation gets a little bit more serious, then they have a place to come, Illak told CNN.

Obviously, we are in NATO, but I must say theres a big amount of people who are really, really afraid, she said. This year, she says she has also helped Lithuanians to buy properties in Spain.

The spike in demand comes as Russia has stepped up its war on nerves, projecting an image of its own inviolability while Europe appears to dither on matters of its own defense.

In Russia, Putins grip on power is tighter than ever after his rule was extended another six years in widely discredited elections and the death of opposition figure Alexey Navalny.

And abroad, Putin is keeping Europe guessing. Missiles heading for Ukraine have strayed into Polish airspace. Belarusian troops  at the Kremlins behest  have built up on Polands border. Estonia has warned of shadow war attacks on its soil. And in Lithuania, one of Navalnys aides was bludgeoned by a hammer  a message that even home soil is not safe.

It seems like theyre doing a good job, because if  at the level even of real estate  we have people justifying their lifestyle choices and their decision to leave a country or a region, because they fear there could be World War III or there could be a nuclear holocaust or there could be Russian tanks, then theyve already won, in many ways, he told CNN.

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WASHINGTON (WJHL)  A new rule by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce toxic and cancer-causing emissions will apply to about 200 chemical plants across the country, including Eastman Chemical Companys Kingsport plant.

The new rule targets emissions of six chemicals: ethylene oxide, chloroprene, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, ethylene dichloride, and vinyl chloride.

Eastman will receive up to $375M for second molecular recycling project

According to the EPA, the rule will result in an 80% reduction in ethylene oxide and chloroprene emissions from covered processes and equipment and will reduce the number of people with elevated cancer risk by 96% in communities near chemical plants affected by the rule.

Some facilities will be required to conduct fenceline monitoring for emissions of the six chemicals.

The EPAs list of facilities affected by the new rule includes Eastmans plants in Kingsport and Longview, Texas plus its Taminco subsidiary in Pace, Florida.

The company told News Channel 11 on Friday that it is still reviewing the details of the new regulations.

Our compliance assurance programs and current emission monitoring processes demonstrate our compliance with state and federal regulations  here in Kingsport and at our other sites as well, spokesperson Amanda Allman said. Consistent with our responsibility and corporate commitment, we continuously evaluate ways to improve our air emissions controls and further reduce emissions at our sites. Eastman is committed to adhering to the new HON rule requirements.

Protecting air quality is an essential aspect of Eastmans environmental commitments, and we take our responsibility in how we operate and maintain our facilities very seriously. Our commitment to the communities in which we live and operate is personal to us, and we appreciate the focus and efforts our team members devote to operating safely and responsibly every day.

The EPA says monitoring data from fenceline monitoring will be published on its WebFIRE webpage.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather.
Viewers of Christopher Nolans Oscar-hoovering biopic about the physicist J Robert Oppenheimer will have learned a lot about the race to build nuclear weapons, but not much about the heros involvement in arguably a much more important debate: what science ought to be able to tell us about reality. Oppenheimer has a walk-on part in Quantum Drama, Jim Baggott and John L Heilbrons account of that epic struggle. Here, hes introduced as psychologically tender and quoted as declaring that Albert Einstein (impersonated in the movie by Tom Conti) had no understanding of or interest in modern physics.

It was indeed once the popular history that by the time the Danish genius Niels Bohr and his comrades had built the startling edifice of quantum mechanics Albert Einstein was already too old and set in his ways to accept it, and spent the rest of his life kvetching impotently from the sidelines. In fact, and as this hugely detailed narrative of the 20th-century battle for the meaning of physics emphasises, Einsteins challenges to the theory were tremendously powerful and inspired decades of fruitful research into questions that still are not definitively settled.

Niels Bohrs base of theoretical operations lent its name to what became known as the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, according to which  to put it very crudely  subatomic particles and maybe bigger things dont exist anywhere in particular until you look at them. Bohr was unperturbed by the implications, trusting in the equations. But Einstein would not accept a style of physics that, as he saw it, abandoned its duty to describe the real world. Nor, completely, would his friend Schrodinger, whose famous cat  which is somehow both alive and dead in its box until someone opens it  was intended as a reductio ad absurdum.

This book is at the crunchily technical end of pop science but also at the highest-quality end. It helps to be able to read an equation or three, but the style is humane and interesting, and also blessed with a fantastically dry sense of humour. Among the storys teeming cast we meet a cooperative experimentalist who did indeed find the desired result and could have found any result desired, for he faked his experiments, and a physics-curious English theologian, author of too many books. We can no longer stand on the hill where Heisenberg had an important insight, for the British blew it up, not from opposition to quantum mechanics but because it capped a fortress the Germans had used during World War II.

Picking apart the universe: Danish physicist Niels Bohr - Alamy

The authors also trace how apparently hermetic notions leaked out into the wider culture, particularly during the late 1960s and 70s when hippies, some scientists among them, sought to unify quantum mechanics with Eastern philosophy, resulting in such bestselling if not altogether scientifically reliable treatises as The Tao of Physics. The Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli, the most spiteful of Einsteins critics, had himself long been a fascinated adept of Jungian psychoanalysis. He acquired more grievances to analyse when his wife, a former cabaret dancer, went off with a chemist, and not a very good one.

Following laboratory experiments of exquisitely sensitive design from the 1970s to the present, it now seems that there can be no normal system of deterministic cause and effect, of the kind Einstein desired, somehow underlying the mysteries of quantum observations. To measure a particle in front of you can affect another particle light years away that is entangled with it. It might even be really possible to build superpositions of macroscopic objects  ones visible to the naked eye, such as a cat or a person  such that they exist in different states simultaneously.

But the struggle to understand what quantum mechanics tells us about the world we live in goes on. As our authors relate wonderingly near the books end, it can seem to imply that objects do not even exist until we look at them: modern physics has in some sense wiped the universe clean of things. There remains a tribe of heterodox hold-outs, however, cleaving to the conviction that science must speak of a fundamental reality and that quantum theory must therefore as yet be incomplete. It remains too soon to say, perhaps, that old Einstein was wrong.

Quantum Drama is published by OUP at 25. To order your copy for 19.99 call 0808 196 6794 or visit Telegraph Books

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EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  El Paso Water and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will host a public meeting next week that looks at ways of reducing mountain runoff in the Central Cebada watershed.

The meeting will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17 at the Memorial Park Senior Center, 1800 Byron St. The meeting will include a presentation from USACE and an open-house format. The public can stop in at any point during the 90-minute meeting and learn more.

In 2021, EPWater and the USACE began a three-year feasibility study of El Pasos Central Cebada watershed.

USACE ran models on flooding dynamics in the central watershed and completed an audit of the central drainage system. The findings will be released, questions will be answered and the USACE will provide information on possible next steps to provide support for stormwater infrastructure within the area, according to a news release sent out by the water utility.

EPWater will provide information on completed, current, and future stormwater projects aimed at reducing flooding in Central El Paso. Both EPWater and USACE staff will be available to answer questions.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
HEFEI, April 13 (Xinhua) -- In recent months, there have been several delegations of German enterprises visiting Hefei, a city in east China's Anhui Province, demonstrating keen interest in China's emerging industries.

Last month, Matthias Machnig, Vice President of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) Economic Forum, an independent German entrepreneurial professional association, led a delegation to the city. They visited new energy vehicle (NEV) factories there and held discussions with local entrepreneurs in various fields including NEV, AI and bio-medicine.

Anhui has displayed a huge potential in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, and future exchange on industry, technology and culture between Germany and this province is expected to be further deepened, Machnig said.

Anhui's ties with Germany can be traced back to 1984, marked by a joint declaration for cooperation between the province and the German state of Lower Saxony. This partnership stands as one of the longest-running regional collaborations between China and Germany.

In recent years, there has been a surge in visits from German entrepreneurs to Hefei, resulting in a flurry of industrial collaborations.

To advance its pace of innovation in China, Volkswagen Group China on Thursday announced that it will invest 2.5 billion euros (about 2.68 billion U.S. dollars) in the expansion of its innovation hub in Hefei.

"This additional investment in the site underlines our ambition to quickly expand our local innovative strength," said Ralf Brandstatter, Chairman and CEO of Volkswagen Group China, adding that the innovation hub in Hefei will bring technologies to market approximately 30 percent faster in the future.

Volkswagen (China) Technology Co., Ltd., located in Hefei, is the company's implementation hub for its production localization strategy. It is Volkswagen's largest research and development center outside of Germany.

Effective communication requires mutual engagement and exchange. A Hefei delegation led by government officials also visited Hannover, Wolfsburg, Berlin and Stuttgart in 2023. During these visits, discussions were held with representatives from Volkswagen, Continental, Porsche and Bosch to strengthen collaboration with China.

During his visit to Hefei last month, Jochen Leonhardt, a member of the board of the German Association for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (BVMW), said that the association has always maintained a good interactive and cooperative relationship with the city and provincial governments.

"Every time I come to Anhui, I can feel the rapid development and great changes here, which fully proves that it is a hot land for investment and development," Leonhardt said. 
Ethnic tensions on the rise in Russia, as government attempts to divert attention from war

Adam, a Tajik migrant, navigates daily life in Moscow amidst growing scrutiny and suspicion: since the Crocus City Hall attack, he's been taken to the police station every other day.

He also faced discrimination from common people:

"I was followed and then asked to leave a grocery store because people were 'uncomfortable' shopping around me. It is mad."

His experiences reflect a broader issueracial discrimination is intensifying, fueled by state policies and public sentiment in the wake of the attack.

Human Rights Watch's 2024 report paints a bleak picture of human rights in Russia, emphasizing the suppression of civil liberties and targeting of migrants and ethnic minorities, contributing to a climate of intolerance.

Cadets visit Russian patriotic artist Vasily Nesterenko's exhibition called "We are Russians, God is with us" in Moscow, Russia on May 23, 2023. (Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP via Getty Images)

Following the Moscow mass shooting, in which 144 people were killed, allegedly perpetrated by followers of the Islamic State from Central Asian Tajikistan, Russia's national minorities have witnessed a growing number of attacks and hate.

Read also: In Putins Russia, state violence is on full display

Anna Gomboeva, PhD candidate at the University of Virginia specializing in Slavic and East European Studies claims that public xenophobia is beneficial for the current regime.

Toughened immigration policies, police violence, and normalization of hateful rhetoric serve as a quick and easy pressure release from the growing war fatigue and possible public discontent.

Instead of acknowledging and addressing real problems such as geographic inequality, poverty, and the expanding wage gap, xenophobic aggression shifts the blame away from institutions of power and scapegoats individual victims of structural violence instead, Gomboeva said.

'Non-Russians' not welcomed

Following the attack, stories of racial bias against minority groups have emerged, particularly affecting the regions with a predominantly ethnic Russian population.

Instances of a Muslim couple from the Caucasus or Central Asia being denied hotel entry in Moscow and screenshots circulating in social media showing requests to cancel services if the provider is Tajik illustrate the deepening divide.

Maryam, a Muslim Chechen woman in Moscow, shares a poignant testimony of the alienation and hostility she faces, highlighting the extreme levels of xenophobia that have surged, making even the act of sharing her story a risk.

She claims it is almost impossible to use public transport since the attack: people would move away from her in the metro, stare at her as if she did something wrong, and even verbally offend her and scream that she is a terrorist.

Muslims have fast-breaking (iftar) dinner in the first day of Muslim's holy month of Ramadan in Moscow, Russia on April 2, 2022. The traditional iftar tent is set up for the holy month of Ramadan in front of the Anit Mosque in Zafer Park. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

"Russia has never been a non-xenophobic country, but these days it's been extreme, and I don't even think I can do anything," Maryam said.

Alexey Kim, a 33-year-old native of Buryatia who is now a refugee in the U.S., states that extensive racism and xenophobia in Russia are some of the main reasons why he decided to claim asylum elsewhere in the first place. He moved from Buryatia to Moscow and worked in a reputable IT company in the capital. However, back in 2018, when he was taking a walk with his friend, he found himself surrounded by skinheads.

Read also: Id be a king in Somalia with this money: Foreign POWs on being lured to fight for Russia in Ukraine

"At first I didn't even realize what was going on, they've been shouting towards me, that I should go back to my own country, they mentioned China as well for some reason, called me narrow-eyed," Kim said.

"At some point, that group of about five-six men surrounded me, and I realized that someone hit me in the face. Then I fell, and they started beating me up. I even heard that one of them directed the others to try to hit me in the face," he added.

"Some of these guys held my friend and asked her: 'Why would you want to help him? He is not one of us!'"

According to Kim, this incident happened next to a busy metro station, and no one offered any help. Moreover, when Kim went to the police, he was accused of "not being able to fight" and "walking around in an area you do not know."

Ultimately, Kim started working remotely, fearing the situation would repeat.

He soon decided to leave Russia.

Read also: Moscow shooting aftermath: Repressions, racism, terror

"I was really tired of the fact that my documents would be checked every other day on public transport. They would follow me around in the shops, thinking I was here to steal something, asking me where I got the passport, how I knew Russian so well, etc."

Diverting attention

The official response to the Crocus City Hall attack, characterized by deportations and raids, coupled with Putin's toughened immigration rhetoric, reflects a broader, increasingly hostile state policy toward foreigners.

Legislation aimed at enhancing immigration control underscores the growing challenges faced by those seeking refuge or opportunity in Russia.

Muslims offer morning prayers to start the Eid al-Fitr festival, which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, outside the Central Mosque in Moscow, Russia, on April 10, 2024. (Natalia Kolesnikova /AFP via Getty Images)

In a country where all political expression is heavily controlled and limited, participation in racist and xenophobic aggression creates a false sense of political participation and agency.

According to Gomboeva, the regime continues to safely do whatever it pleases, once again successfully diverting the public attention away from the real structural violence that it perpetuates both at home and abroad.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Russia highlights a significant deterioration in human rights, with arbitrary arrests and suppression of dissent creating conditions ripe for xenophobia. Amnesty International connects global issues of repression and discrimination, noting how these trends manifest in Russia to create a hostile atmosphere for minorities and migrants.

Russian riot police stand guard as Muslims gather to perform the Eid al-Fitr prayer at the courtyards of the Anit Mosque and Historical Mosque in Moscow, Russia on May 2, 2022. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

In a country with a substantially diverse minority population consisting of more than 195 ethnicities that are indigenous, with six of these groups having a population of more than a million population, acute xenophobia by the dominant Russian ethnic group is omnipresent.

Russia has seen waves of hate crimes and discrimination against migrants and those who are deemed "non-Russian" following terrorist attacks.

Additionally, according to the UN World Migration Report Russia holds the fourth largest migration population in the world, which equals more than 12 million people as of 2022.

Checks, arrests, deportations

According to Agents.Media, since March 22, the date when the terrorist attack happened, over 160 criminal and 4,400 administrative cases, mainly related to immigration laws, have been opened as a result of police raids on immigrants.

At least 1,759 decisions to deport foreigners have been made, and 346 migrants were issued draft notices during these operations, with some taken directly to military registration offices. Most deportations occurred in Saint Petersburg (418), Moscow (403), and other regions, including Chelyabinsk and Samara. The Tajikistan ministry of labor also states that there has been an increase in Tajik immigrants leaving Russia after the attack.

Read also: Kyrgyzstans trade is booming as Russia masters sanctions circumvention

According to Valentina Chupik, director of the Tong Jahoni organization, which offers legal help to migrants, on March 24 and 25, there were over 1,700 complaints per day, more than a thousand of which related to illegal detentions. Typically, there are 150-170 complaints daily, about 20 concerning unlawful arrests.

Property owners like Varvara, who has rented her Novosibirsk apartment to an Uzbek family for years without issue, now face backlash from xenophobic neighbors threatening police action against "non-Russian" tenants.

Muslims pray on the street during the celebration of Eid al-Fitr near the Cathedral Mosque in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 10, 2024. Thousands of people have gathered for the festive prayers in mosques and prayer rooms in St. Petersburg and other cities and towns around the world. (Andrei Bok/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

"I told my neighbors, you can call the police; lending a flat to people of different nationalities is not illegal. I don't know how these people's logic even works," she said.

These narratives, from Adam's daily struggles to Varvara's confrontation with xenophobic neighbors and Maryam's experience of isolation and fear, offer a window into the human cost of the rising tide of racism and xenophobia in Russia.

They underscore a complex interplay of terrorism, migration, and racial tensions, posing significant challenges to the fabric of Russian society in the aftermath of tragedy.

Read also: Whether afraid or indifferent, regular Russians enable autocracy

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting is saying what for too long has been politically unsayable - Peter Byrne/PA Wire

Wes Streeting is doing Gods work. The shadow health secretary is on a one-man mission to reveal the flaws in Britains favourite deity  also known as the NHS  and is suggesting reforms that could get patients faster access to treatment.

This week was no exception. Streeting decided to get ahead of Februarys NHS England backlog data, which revealed on Thursday that 6.29 million patients were waiting for treatment  barely any change from the month before.

The total number of appointments on the list was 7.54 million, down from 7.58 million in January  still 300,000 higher than when Rishi Sunak first pledged to bring it down. And the data was skewed by a change which removed patients being treated by community services (off the waiting list, still waiting for care).

Streeting didnt need to know the latest set of data to say what hed do about the near-record high number of patients waiting for care.

At the start of the week he promised more investment and major surgery, including using spare capacity in the private sector to cut the waiting lists. This was followed by broadcast rounds, where he doubled down on what he describes as a pragmatic approach to expand access to care.

When Sunak was chancellor he learned the hard way that promising billions more to the NHS in return for speeding up treatment can backfire spectacularly: the money goes in, only for the results to be lacklustre.

Thats why expanding capacity is so important. Streeting has long argued that the NHS should make use of spare capacity wherever its available. Public or private: what does it matter, so long as the access to care remains universal and free at the point of use?

Still, it was notable this week just how comfortable Streeting has become with this argument. It seems his trip to Australia and Singapore last winter to learn from the health systems in other countries was a big success. Now, the shadow health secretary is making the full-blown moral case for incorporating the private sector.

Having characterised critics in his own party as middle-class Lefties who cry betrayal on the NHS, he is willing not just to defend his comments but turn the criticism around  pointing the finger instead at those who would place a glorified idea of socialist medicine ahead of the abysmal outcomes and wait times patients must endure.

What Id say to my critics, Streeting told GB News, is you look those people in the eye and you tell them that youre prepared to see them wait longer because of your Left-wing principles.

When asked by Christopher Hope if, hypothetically, he could clear the whole backlog by using only the private sector, Streeting answered without hesitation: If you could, I would, then going on to recommit, realistically, to a hybrid system.

Earlier this week Suella Braverman made the case for similar kinds of reform in the pages of this paper  but where are the government ministers taking this fight to Labour? Sunak has supported the idea of using the private sector to help the NHS play catch-up, but it is not a policy thats paid much lip service by the party.

The defence goes that the Tories simply cant make the same arguments as Labour  that the public will only allow Nye Bevans successors to reform the NHS. But is the alternative, of being outflanked while having no story to tell exasperated patients, any better?

Activists might howl, but theyve been accusing the Tories of privatising the healthcare service for decades. Patients, many of whom care far more about getting treatment than who provides it, would be relieved.

Even if the Tories worry about rousing suspicions over their NHS intentions in an election year, have they given any real thought to what they would do if they were granted more time in power?

The feeling amongst senior MPs, many of whom have been in the party for decades, is that there will be no tolerance from the public for a social insurance model (something Streeting has also previously rejected), and that whats on offer must remain the same for everyone.

Were they to propose reform, MPs might opt to try replicating their biggest success story from 14 years in power: something akin to the schools model, which focused on decentralising power and offering up more choice.

And what the Tories dont seem to have grasped is the gift Streeting has handed them.

First, the shadow health secretary has made it possible for prominent politicians to admit the NHS needs to change. Second, he has publicly made the distinction between privatising the NHS (which virtually no one advocates) and using private provision (which most universal systems do) to get patients faster and better treatments.

They must seize this opportunity because at the moment they look more Left-wing than Labour, the party which created the UKs nationalised, dysfunctional behemoth. Streeting is laying down the law with the Left now, letting everyone know that the patient must finally come first. The Tories need to respond.

Its depressing how refreshing it is to hear a politician making these arguments. The case for the patient has been missing from this debate for far too long. By taking up the case, Streeting is showing that what has long been politically unsayable is not only sayable, but actionable, too.

Im sure its no help to the shadow health secretary when an American libertarian says all this, but I cant help myself: Streeting is clearly enjoying poking holes in the NHS orthodoxy, and its great fun to watch him do it.

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DENVER (KDVR)  A former paraprofessional in the Poudre School District received the maximum sentence after pleading guilty on Jan. 29 to several assault, child abuse and harassment charges.

Tyler Zanella, 37, was originally faced 164 charges.

In January, he pleaded guilty to seven counts of third-degree assault on an at-risk person, two counts of harassment and two counts of child abuse  knowingly/recklessly causing bodily injury. These were the top charges for each of his victims in this case, according to the 8th Judicial District Attorneys Office.

On Thursday, a judge sentenced Zanella to 12.5 years of confinement, with 10.5 years in the Department of Corrections following two years in the Larimer County Jail.

Angry parents address Littleton school board about shocking school bus video

The charges stem from his actions while working as a paraprofessional at the Poudre School District. In May 2023, Zanella was accused of hitting a kindergarten student with disabilities on his bus route. Law enforcement began to investigate and found evidence this had happened several times before with the same child, and then found 10 more children who had been abused.

Videos of the abuse were captured on bus surveillance systems.

This was a 36-year-old man abusing children from ages 5-10, said Laura Hinojos, the 8th Judicial District Attorneys Office Special Victims Unit chief prosecutor. He believes that he did not cause any long-term effects to these children, and much like most things he says  this is a lie.

At the Thursday sentencing, 12 people provided statements about the effect of Zanellas abuse on the children, their families and the community.

I have no idea who needs to hear this, and I have no idea if they are in this room or not, but you dont hire someone with a conviction of child abuse to be a paraprofessional to work with kids, Judge Daniel McDonald said before his ruling, according to the DAs office. He also detailed the abuse he witnessed Zanella commit on each of these children through provided evidence.

I believe that the only option is to remove Mr. Zanella from the community for as long as I can, McDonald said.

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According to Colorado court records, Zanella also was sentenced on one charge of child abuse  negligence that caused no injury in February 2013 for an incident in January 2012. He was sentenced to 18 months probation and required to pay court costs after he pleaded guilty to the single charge through a plea deal. Because of the deal, another child abuse charge was dismissed by the district attorney.

Affected families react to sentence length

After the sentencing, the parent of a child abused by Zanella told FOX31 the judge did the best he could to his legal abilities to give him the full sentence.

But for all of us as parents, Im sure that 12 and a half years is not going to be enough, she said. By the time he gets out of prison, our kids will all be young adults. Hopefully, by then they will all be moved on from this situation.

Sabrina Herrick, another parent whose child was affected, said she has sought action from the areas representatives to increase the legal penalties for these kinds of crimes. She also said Zanella would not be serving enough time and said the DA should not have given him the plea deal.

Im not terribly surprised, she said. I mean, I was holding out some hope that the deal would fall through, I maintain that I dont like the (plea) deal. I dont think its a long enough sentence, especially when you consider that the DA warned us before this hearing that whatever sentence he got, hed probably only serve half of it. Especially when you consider that, I dont think the 12 and half years is enough.

Douglas County High School seniors who skip class may have to miss prom

After information about Zanellas actions came to light, Poudre School District implemented new training for bus drivers and paraprofessionals. The district spokesperson, Madeline Noblett, said in August 2023 that the district was making changes.

All of our bus drivers and paraprofessionals are going through a whole host of training that we believe will be able to help them better support every student on every bus as an individual, Noblett said.

Supervisors were also tasked with reviewing school bus surveillance every week.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
The militarys top brass are demanding an exemption from the Rwanda scheme for Afghans who served with British forces.

Three former Chiefs of the Defence Staff as well as a former Chief of the General Staff and a former Chief of the Naval Staff have warned the Prime Minister that failure to do this would be a dereliction of our moral duty.

It comes as Rishi Sunaks Safety of Rwanda Bill, which will send some asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda to have their claims processed, returns to the Commons on Monday after a series of defeats in the Lords.

After a further round of parliamentary ping-pong between MPs and peers, it could pass by the end of this week, paving the way for the first flights.

In a letter to the Sunday Telegraph, the group of 13 senior military figures warn that any brave men and women who have fought alongside our armed forces or served the UK Government overseas must be exempt from removal to Rwanda.

They warn that if this is not granted, it will do grave damage to our ability to recruit local allies in future military operations.

They explain that they have seen first-hand the enormous courage and dedication shown by those who have fought alongside our Armed Forces and served British interests abroad, often at huge personal risk, and we take personally Britains obligation to honour the debt we owe to that cohort.

The letter has been signed by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Craig of Radley, Gen Lord Richards of Herstmonceux and Gen Lord Houghton of Richmond  all of whom are former Chiefs of the Defence Staff.

Cpt Alex Corbet Burcher from 1st Battalion Welsh Guards , attached to the Inkerman Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, patrols with Afghan National Army soldiers on June 1, 2007 in Sangin Valley, Helmand Province, Afghanistan - Marco Di Lauro/Getty

It also counts Lord Robertson, former Secretary General of Nato and Gen Sir John McColl, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, among its signatories.

The letter attacks the Government over its handling of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy  known as the ARAP scheme  which it says has been mired by mismanagement since its launch in April 2021.

The scheme supports Afghans and their families who worked for, or with, the UK government and Armed Forces in Afghanistan.

Last year the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was forced to apologise unreservedly for asking Afghans to get their documents approved by the Taliban in order to seek asylum in the UK.

Applicants to the ARAP scheme, had been asked by UK officials to have their certificates stamped by the Afghan government  the very people they are trying to escape.

And earlier this year, the MoD was forced into a U-turn over the issue of giving hundreds of Afghan special forces soldiers sanctuary in the UK, with the then Armed Forces minister acknowledging that earlier decisions for rejecting some applications to the ARAP scheme were not robust.

In February it was announced that some 400 soldiers who served in two specialist units will have their applications to settle in the UK reviewed after the MoD said it would change how it assesses their claims.

The soldiers have been subjected to torture and murder at the hands of the Taliban after being denied help by the UK Government, despite extensive evidence showing they were paid, trained and worked shoulder to shoulder with British special forces.

Lifeline for brave Afghans

The letter from military top brass explains that the Arap scheme was intended to be a lifeline for brave Afghans who worked alongside UK forces but there is a huge backlog of applications.

It explains that as a result, some Afghans who worked alongside our Armed Forces have been forced to flee along with their families.

It is essential that those who have made it to British shores are not unduly punished by being removed to Rwanda when the Governments scheme is up and running, the letter concludes.

Its signatories urge the Prime Minister to accept an amendment tabled to the Safety of Rwanda Bill by Lord Browne, a former defence secretary, which would see agents, allies and employees of the UK overseas exempt from being sent to Rwanda.

The amendment, which has cross-party support, says that the exemption should include those eligible for entry to the UK under the ARAP scheme, as well as their families.

A government spokesman said that the Arap scheme is one of the most generous of any country.

They added: We are proud to have relocated over 16,100 people to safety in the UK through the scheme so far, including over 3,000 since October 2023 alone.

There are safe and legal routes for people to come to the UK and since 2015, over half a million people have accessed these schemes and been relocated here.

Stopping the boats is a priority for this government and we are fully focused on passing our Rwanda Bill through Parliament and putting plans in place to get flights off the ground.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
A Labrador retriever deemed too friendly to become a drug-sniffing dog has made a name for himself as a star of Taiwans earthquake recovery efforts.

Roger, 8, is one of four search and rescue dogs sent to sniff through the rubble of this months 7.4-magnitude earthquake, which left at least 16 people dead. Last week, the dog located the body of a 21-year-old woman in Hualien County, the quakes thirteenth confirmed death, The New York Times reported.

A rescuer and rescue dog searching the Taroko National Park after an earthquake in Hualien on April 5. CNA/AFP via Getty Images

Roger had a winding road to success. As a puppy, he was intended to be trained as a drug detection dog for customs, but it soon became clear he was not cut out for that kind of work, according to Taiwans Central News Agency. The young canine was simply too friendly and boisterous for the duties required, his now-handler, Lee Hsin Hung, told the Times.

The same qualities that made Roger ill-suited for drug sniffing made him a promising search-and-rescue candidate.

The requirement for narcotic detection dogs is that they cant be too restless and independent, Chen Chih-san, captain of the Kaohsiung Fire Bureaus rescue dog unit, told CNN. But [these attributes] are what we want in rescue dogs.

That personality is a big part of whats made Roger a media sensation. Hes stolen the show on news segments by grabbing the microphone or tearing up a stuffed toy with gusto. Per the Times, Roger has become a talk show guest and media in Taiwan have branded him a little hero.

Roger has been a part of seven search and rescue missions in the past four years, but is set to retire once he reaches age 9, CNA reported, noting that the fire bureau will find an adoptive home for him.

Related...
The women of Gotham have found a new way to deal with the surge in random punching cases in New York City  walking the streets with an escort.

Self-defense instructor Tsahi Shemesh said the fear of imminent danger has been so palpable that six of his students have buddied up with each other or other pals to get to class, if they come at all.

The Post caught up with one of the women, Sophie, 24.

She said she asks her husband to attend Krav Maga classes with her at 250 West 100th St. or else simply accompany her to the studio.

More women are looking into taking self-defense classes. Helayne Seidman

Im definitely feeling afraid to go on my own [to self-defense classes] or anywhere on my own, said Sophie, who moved to East Harlem from Indianapolis in May.

Fear has gripped the city as women have been reporting getting sucker-punched by strangers on the street.

There have been at least 14 reported cases in the city since March 20.

In one case, Stephanie Weng, 33, was walking on Union Square East near East 16th Street around 4:30 p.m. March 20 when she said she was approached from behind and struck in the face.

That incident came hours after another woman, Ashley Cruz, 23, was struck without warning while walking on Sixth Avenue near West 14th Street.

Halley Kate, an influencer with 1.2 million followers on TikTok, was among other victims.

She posted a video March 25 in the aftermath saying she was punched in the face and fell to the ground.

Jenny Jiang said she was able to thwart a would-be attacker due to her self-defense classes. Helayne Seidman

More women are inquiring about self-defense classes at Krav Maga Experts since October, according to Shemesh.

He has seen a 400% increase in emails and calls in the last two weeks alone.

For some, self-defense classes alone are enough to turn the tide on attackers.

Jenny Jiang was headed to the 7 train at Court Square around 11 a.m. last summer when a drunk man speaking a foreign language approached her.

He tried to grab me on the sidewalk, the Long Island, Queens, resident, told The Post. I said, no. He tried to grab me again. I crossed the street trying to get away from him and he was following me. There were people around but they werent helping me. I knew I had to turn around and confront the man, confront the problem. And I told him, if you touch me again, Ill fight back.'

With that, the man yelled at her and backed away, Jiang, 42, said.

She credits her two years of Krav Maga classes with helping her fend him off.

I feel more assertive, she said. Krav Maga has changed my body and the way I carry myself.

Additional reporting by Tina Moore.
Americans told to avoid travel within Israel, U.S. troops and warships moved to positions in the Middle East, and a warning from President Biden of a sooner than later attack has Washington on edge over a possible Iranian retaliation strike on the ally country this weekend, a move that could trigger a regional war.

Western intelligence on Friday assessed that Israel was bracing itself for a major attack from Iran that could come as soon as Saturday, Bloomberg reported, a judgment that appeared to be backed by U.S. troops and warships moved to positions in the Middle East and a warning from Biden.

Asked Friday about how imminent an attack on Israel may be, the commander in chief said he didnt want to get into classified information but that his expectation is sooner than later.

The State Department also issued updated security warnings for U.S. government employees in Israel, restricting them and their families from personal travel outside of the greater Tel Aviv area, Jerusalem and the southern city of Beer Sheva.

The stark alarms come after an April 1 Israeli airstrike on an Iranian Embassy compound in Syrias capital of Damascus killed seven Iranian military advisers, including three senior members of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, eliciting vows from Tehran to respond.

Jewish officials are reportedly expecting an attack to come directly from Iranian soil, most likely via missiles and armed drones, a prediction shared by some experts.

The Middle East Institutes Iran program Director Alex Vatanka told The Hill he predicts an Iranian strike on a military or strategic asset not too close to Jerusalem or even Tel Aviv, but likely somewhere in the north or south of the country.

We know Iran has the military capacity, they have the missiles to strike Israel, they can do huge amount of damage, Im sure, he said. But he added that Tehran will likely be careful to not create a scenario where the United States could get pulled into the issue any further, given its military might.

Case in point, Washington this week moved forces and warships into position  including two destroyers, at least one of which carries the Aegis missile-defense system  in the region to protect American and Israeli forces in the event of an attack, The Wall Street Journal reported.

National security communications adviser John Kirby seemed to confirm the movements when he told reporters Friday that the U. S has made some adjustments to U.S. posture in the region given the viable and credible threat from Iran.

And Washington earlier dispatched to Israel its top military officer in the Middle East, U.S. Central Command head Gen. Erik Kurilla, who met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israeli military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi on Friday.

We are prepared to defend ourselves on the ground and in the air, in close cooperation with our partners, and we will know how to respond, Gallants office said after the meeting, adding that the officials discussed readiness for an Iranian attack against the State of Israel, which may lead to regional escalation.

That follows assurances Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin gave Gallant on Thursday night when the two spoke by phone, with Austin relaying that Israel could count on full U.S. support to defend Israel against Iranian attacks, according to the Journal.

Its unknown exactly how and where Tehran looks to strike Israel, but the scenario seemed all but guaranteed, as voiced by U.S. officials and lawmakers on Friday.

Barring some last-minute development, Iran is going to attack [Israel]. The response and risk of escalation will depend on what and how they attack, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Marco Rubio wrote on the social platform X.

The size of a response is also in flux, as two unnamed U.S. officials told CBS an Iranian attack could include more than 100 drones and dozens of missiles aimed at military targets on Israeli soil, but a smaller-strike could also be implemented to avoid a wider regional conflict.

The Iranians have lots and lots of options, but the most obvious option is to strike an Israeli diplomatic facility somewhere not in Israel, predicted Bruce Riedel, a former Central Intelligence Agency official dealing with the Middle East who is now with Brookings think tank.

After all, the Israelis struck an Iranian embassy in Syria, it didnt strike Iran. So to now strike Israel seems to me to be very risky and also increases the likelihood the Americans will be involved right from the beginning, he added.

Riedel told The Hill that a much more nuanced response would be for Iran to strike an Israeli embassy in Africa or South America, a strike that could still kill any Israeli defense attache placed there. He also pointing to Israel state media earlier announcing it had evacuated several unnamed embassies around the world.

Theyve never said which embassies were evacuated, but its not hard to believe that they will be the most vulnerable embassies in places like South Africa or East Africa, maybe in South America, he said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Federal regulators close case as thousands of people still complain about exploding sunroofs

Its a story our sister station WSB-TV Channel 2 Action News has been following for years: sunroofs that spontaneously shatter.

Federal regulators closed their case into the problem without ever determining a cause.

Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray has learned that there are still thousands of complaints that have been registered with regulators.

 WATCH CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS

This is a big piece of glass. The whole thing came out, said April Harvey, showing gray what was left of her shattered sunroof. Its a safety concern. Definitely it is.

Harvey said her husband was driving on Interstate 285 in their brand-new Hyundai Palisade when the sunroof exploded.

All of a sudden, he heard a big boom. And then the glass started shattering on him, Harvey said.

Its the same thing that happened last year to Kate Holder in her new Jeep Wagoneer.

Read: I miss her so much: Madeline Sotos biological father speaks out about death, disappearance

I was going 55 miles an hour then all of a sudden, like, literally an explosion, Holder told Gray at the time.

Truly spontaneous? Gray asked her.

Yes, the most bizarre thing ever, Holder said.

But it actually has happened so frequently that federal regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, launched a 7-year investigation finding spontaneous sunroof glass shattering is not an uncommon occurrence: More than 4,000 complaints of such occurrences were reported by the 13 manufacturers.

Harveys husband had to go to urgent care after spitting up blood, worried hed swallowed some of the glass.

Read: Woman missing after armed carjacking believed to be dead, Seminole County sheriff says

Hyundai settled a class action lawsuit about exploding sunroofs in 2019, agreeing to pay for repairs and cover shattered sunroofs by warranty for several model vehicles between 2011 and 2016.

But NHTSA closed their sunroof investigation in 2021 without ever determining the cause of the shattered sunroofs writing it has not identified sufficient evidence of a safety-related defect in the subject sunroof.

But the Harveys cant help thinking what could have happened.

Can you imagine a distraction like that? Harvey said.

A big issue the Harveys are dealing with -- and most drivers this happened to experience -- these sunroofs are typically not covered by warranty, even on new cars like theirs.

Read: Sheriff: Man dies after accidental shooting in Brevard County school pickup line

Gray has contacted Hyundai for comment. He received the following statement on April 8.

The safety of our customers is Hyundais number one priority. In the event of a safety-related defect identified in any of our vehicles, Hyundai acts swiftly and efficiently to recall and fix the problem for affected customers. For instance, in 2012 and 2013 we recalled certain Hyundai Velosters because we identified a manufacturing issue that may have caused damage to the sunroof glass.

Hyundai has commissioned multiple studies to analyze instances of sunroof breakage. Those studies have found no inherent defect within the sunroofs and the only confirmed cause of damage to the glass panels of sunroofs has been related to foreign object impact. Hyundai has identified no other safety-related defects and has issued no other safety-related recalls on its sunroofs since the reports of late last year. Hyundai continues to monitor this issue and if a product defect is identified we will take action to ensure the safety of our customers.

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Few states cover fertility treatment for same-sex couples, but that could be changing

Embryologist Ric Ross holds a dish with human embryos at the La Jolla IVF Clinic February 28, 2007 in La Jolla, California. The clinic accepts donated embryos from around the country through The Stem Cell resource which are then given to stem cell research labs for research. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker | Getty Images)

Elizabeth Bauer was working out at the gym one morning last August when she got a phone call from her fertility nurse. It was a call that Bauer and her wife, Rebecca, had long been waiting for.

Elizabeth dialed in Rebecca so they could listen together: They were pregnant.

The Washington, D.C., couple decided before they got married three years ago that they wanted to have a child. Both wanted to play a biological part in the pregnancy. So, they used a process called reciprocal in vitro fertilization, through which eggs were retrieved from Rebecca and fertilized with donor sperm to create embryos. Then one of the embryos was implanted in Elizabeths uterus.

Elizabeth, a 35-year-old elementary school teacher, and Rebecca, a 31-year-old nonprofit consultant, had health insurance, but it wouldnt cover the roughly $20,000 procedure, so they had to pay out of pocket.

But beginning next year, insurers providing coverage in D.C. will have to pay for IVF for beneficiaries, including same-sex couples, who cant conceive on their own. Only seven states (Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey and New York) have similar mandates. However, a new definition of infertility could prompt other states to follow suit.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine in October expanded the definition of infertility to include all patients who require medical intervention, such as use of donor gametes or embryos, to conceive as a single parent or with a partner. Previously, the organization defined infertility as a condition in which heterosexual couples couldnt conceive after a year of unprotected intercourse.

Rebecca Bauer, left, and her wife, Elizabeth Bauer, who is due to give birth in April, pose for a photo together. The Washington, D.C., couple paid out of pocket for in vitro fertilization, or IVF, last year. (Courtesy of Rebecca Bauer)

The group emphasized the new definition should not be used to deny or delay treatment to any individual, regardless of relationship status or sexual orientation.

Dr. Mark Leondires, a reproductive endocrinologist and founder and medical director at Illume Fertility and Gay Parents To Be, said the new definition could make a huge difference.

It gives us extra ammunition to say, Listen, everybody who meets the definition of infertility, whether its an opposite-sex couple or same-sex couple or single person, who wants to have a child should have access to fertility services, he said.

At least four states (California, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island) are currently weighing broader IVF coverage mandates that would explicitly include same-sex couples, according to RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. Bills were introduced but failed to advance in Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin.

A recent policy shift at the federal level also might add to the momentum. Earlier this month, the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs announced expanded IVF service benefits to patients regardless of marital status, sexual orientation or whether they are using donor eggs or sperm. The new policy follows a lawsuit filed in federal court last year.

The federal government is the largest employer in the country, so if theyre providing these type of benefits, it definitely adds pressure on other employers and states to do the same, said Betsy Campbell, RESOLVEs chief engagement officer.

A total of 21 states have laws mandating that private insurers cover fertility treatments, but only 15 include at least one cycle of IVF in that mandate. Only New York and Illinois provide some fertility coverage for people who are insured through Medicaid, the state-federal program for people with low incomes and disabilities. Neither state covers IVF for Medicaid recipients.

100,000 babies

IVF involves collecting mature eggs from ovaries, using donated sperm to fertilize them in a lab, and then placing one or more of the fertilized eggs, or embryos, in a uterus. One full cycle of IVF can take up to six weeks and can cost between $20,000 and $30,000. Many patients need multiple cycles before getting pregnant.

Nearly 100,000 babies in the U.S. were born in 2021 through IVF and other forms of assisted reproductive technology, such as intrauterine insemination, according to federal data.

IVF continues to garner nationwide attention in the wake of the Alabama Supreme Courts ruling last month that under state law, frozen IVF embryos are children, meaning patients or IVF facilities can be criminally charged for destroying them. The decision caused an uproar, and three weeks later Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill into law that provides criminal and civil immunity for IVF clinicians and patients.

Polly Crozier, director of family advocacy at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD, described the Alabama decision as a shock to the system. But Crozier said the reaction to it sparked a bipartisan realization that family-building health care is important to so many people.

Crozier praised the insurance mandates in Colorado, Illinois, Maine and Washington, D.C., for more explicitly including LGBTQ+ people. Maines law, for example, states that a fertility patient includes an individual unable to conceive as an individual or with a partner because the individual or couple does not have the necessary gametes for conception, and says that health insurers cant impose any limitations on coverage for any fertility services based on an enrollees use of donor gametes, donor embryos or surrogacy.

Christine Guarda, financial services representative at the Center for Advanced Reproductive Services at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, said more same-sex couples are seeking help starting families. One reason, she said, is that more large employers that provide insurance directly to their employees, such as Amazon, are including broad IVF coverage.

Elective procedure?

But some lawmakers are skeptical of expanding the definition of infertility to include same-sex couples. That was evident at a hearing on the Connecticut bill earlier this month, where Republican state Rep. Cara Pavalock-DAmato noted that infertility isnt necessarily elective, but having a baby is.

Now, we are changing definitions to cover elective procedures, Pavalock-DAmato said. If were changing the definition for this elective procedure, then why not others as well?

She added: Infertility, whether you are straight or gay, up to this point has been a requirement. Now, is it through this bill that we are no longer requiring people to be sick? They no longer have to be infertile?

But proponents of the change argue that extending IVF mandates to cover same-sex couples is a question of fairness.

I dont think anybody in the LGBTQ community is asking for more. Theyre just asking for the same benefit, and it is discriminatory to say, You dont get the same benefit as your colleague simply because you have a same-sex partner, Leondires said in an interview.

If youre paying to the same health care system as the person sitting next to you, then you should have the same benefit, he said.

Elizabeth and Rebecca Bauer, who are busy decorating a nursery and buying baby clothes, recognize that they were fortunate to have the money to pursue IVF even without insurance coverage, and that there are plenty of people who dont have the time or the ability.

There are so many ways that people who want to build a family might struggle, Elizabeth said, adding that the previous infertility definition felt like a pretty impossible barrier for non-straight couples. Insurance should make building a family possible for any person or persons who want to.

This story was written and produced by Stateline which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network, including the Daily Montanan, supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

The post Few states cover fertility treatment for same-sex couples, but that could be changing appeared first on Daily Montanan.
DELFT, the Netherlands, April 13 (Xinhua) -- The allure of Shanghai's Xuhui District, a world-class urban area in China's "Magic City," took center stage during a recent seminar held in the Dutch city of Delft.

Over 80 representatives from governmental bodies, business associations, banking institutions, entrepreneurs, and media from both China and the Netherlands, attended the event on Friday, aiming to promote investment opportunities in Xuhui.

Addressing the audience, Xuhui Party Secretary Cao Liqiang stressed the growing interest of European companies, particularly from the Netherlands, in tapping into the Chinese market and specifically setting their sights on Shanghai and Xuhui.

Currently, more than 600 European enterprises have made investments in Xuhui, totaling nearly 5 billion U.S. dollars, and 31 companies of them, including renowned Dutch firms such as Stellantis, MVRDV, Nouryon, and IMCD, have established regional headquarters in the district, he said.

Cao emphasized Xuhui's leading role in China's ongoing reform and opening-up initiatives, boasting a top-tier business environment and robust legal framework.

Xuhui welcomes global partners to join hands in entrepreneurship and shaping the future together, he said.

Jin Yuan, Economic and Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in the Netherlands, highlighted Shanghai's status as a dynamic economic powerhouse and a beacon of innovation within China.

Jin also extended a warm invitation to global investors, emphasizing that investing in China translates to investing in a future of boundless opportunities.

The seminar also featured remarks from Etwin Grootscholten, senior advisor for economic and Green Port affairs in South Holland Province, who emphasized the vast potential for collaboration between China and the Netherlands across various sectors, including economics, culture, technology, and sustainable development.

Grootscholten lauded Xuhui as a shining example of vitality and innovation in Shanghai, expressing optimism about further exploring cooperation opportunities between South Holland and Xuhui.

Thomas Knoop, General Manager of the Benelux Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, commended Xuhui's business-friendly environment and its ongoing efforts to foster sustainable development for enterprises.

He emphasized the importance of creating mutually beneficial partnerships and applauded Xuhui's commitment to providing world-class infrastructure and efficient services, which have contributed to attracting top talent and fostering innovation.

Li Ran, general manager of Huawei in charge of enterprise business in Shanghai, highlighted Xuhui's pivotal role in driving technological innovation and deepening Shanghai's status as a global hub for science and innovation.

Huawei, he affirmed, is dedicated to leveraging its global expertise and technological capabilities to support Xuhui's journey towards high-quality development.

Shi Wenqian, a partner of Dutch architecture and planning firm MVRDV, which entered Shanghai in 2012, shared her enthusiasm for Xuhui's rich cultural environment and its alignment with MVRDV's corporate culture.

She expressed eagerness for deeper collaboration, leveraging both Dutch and Chinese experiences to contribute to Xuhui's urban renewal and construction endeavors.

During the seminar, the participants were briefed on Xuhui's key competitive advantages, investment climate, and forthcoming development strategies.

They also witnessed the signing ceremony for a memorandum of cooperation between Xuhui District and Chinese and Dutch institutions, and the inauguration of the Shanghai Xuhui investment promotion service center in the Netherlands. 
First lady Jill Biden to visit NC and highlight career-connected learning programs

First lady Jill Biden will visit North Carolina on Monday, aiming to talk up the administrations focus on education.

Stopping in Greenville and Greensboro, Biden will visit local community colleges to discuss career-connected learning programs.

Schedule of the first ladys visit

At 12:30 p.m., Biden will make her first stop at Pitt Community College in Winterville, where shell highlight programs that are transforming the high school experience and unlocking new pathways to career opportunities for students, according to a press release.

Then, at 3:15 p.m., shell visit Guilford Technical Community College in Greensboro. There, she plans to join a roundtable discussion with local leaders, teachers and students.

In January, the Biden administration announced a $25 million investment in career-connected learning programs across the country. Montgomery County Schools received over $1.4 million as part of this program.

Presidential candidates focus on NC

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited Raleigh last month, discussing health care and the administrations desire to restore access to abortion.

And former President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Greensboro last month where he promised to order the largest domestic deportation operation in American history if elected.

Biden and Trump are both expected to campaign heavily in North Carolina this year as the state continues to be seen as a key swing state to winning the presidency.
Charities are set up to help those in need. Thats why so many of us donate, after all.

But significant sums are also being spent on things other than frontline services, including rebrands dreamed up in boardrooms and overseen by PR companies.

This week, the RSPCA was the latest charity to follow suit. It was immediately criticised for its woke rebrand, accompanied by a marketing blitz featuring a sad-looking cow and a snail narrowly avoiding being stepped on.

Chris Sherwood, the charitys chief executive, said the campaign had been launched to help people realise all animals have feelings and emotions. The rebrand costs amounted to fewer than one per cent of its annual welfare budget (which runs to tens of millions), he added.

But critics were quick to take aim at the organisation, accusing it of suggesting farmers were mistreating their animals and overstepping its role as the protector of the nations pets.

So, with the topic back in the spotlight, here are some other examples of controversial charity rebrands in recent years.

The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID)

Spent 260,000 on a rebrand that included a name change that didnt last a decade

To mark its 100th anniversary in 2011, The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) rebranded  changing its name to Action on Hearing Loss.

At the time, it said it had undertaken extensive brand research with focus groups of staff, supporters and service users before making the decision to change. It said the new name would better describe the breadth of support it provided for people with all types of hearing loss.

But in 2020, it changed its name back again after a poll of 6,000 people revealed the original was more popular. The second rebrand cost a further 69,000.

Brand expert Dan Dufour, who was involved in the second rebrand, says: I imagine, in the first instance, the charity didnt consult enough with its core members.

They ended up alienating a large part of their core audience, basically because they removed the word deaf, which is an important part of peoples identity.

The new name implied that it wanted to help get rid of deafness or hearing loss, and not get rid of the barriers and problems in society. It resulted in a decade of decline for the charity.

Nordoff and Robbins

Added and to its name at as part of a 172,000 rebrand

Music therapy organisation Nordoff Robbins spent more than 170,000 on a rebrand in 2023 that included adding the word and to its name in 2023.

Established in 1976, the charity was named after its two founders, American composer and pianist Paul Nordoff and British special education teacher Clive Robbins.

But after a 12-month period working with two external marketing agencies, it announced its new name would be Nordoff and Robbins.

The charity told Civil Society News it spent 172,000 on the rebrand. This included the change in name, as well as a new logo and website. Nordoff and Robbins, which had an income of 4.1 million in 2021, said it decided to rebrand to express our ambition and engage the public.

Making the decision to go through a brand reposition is never taken lightly, but when the evidence presented is clear, you have to take action, said Nadra Shah, director of engagement and communications.

Our research told us that the need for music therapy is currently at its highest, but public understanding of the benefits is low. To protect and increase our services we had to change the way in which we communicated our work and its impact. We now have a brand that will help us clearly express our ambition and engage the public.

Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research

Spent 125,000 on a rebrand that lasted five years

In a clear example of ill-thought-out branding, this cancer charity changed its name twice in the space of five years.

Originally called Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, it rebranded to Bloodwise in 2015. But despite spending some 125,000 on the name change, it later admitted it was confusing to the public and disliked among staff.

In 2020, the charity decided to rebrand to Blood Cancer UK, at an undisclosed cost, paid for by supporters.

Its former CEO Gemma Peters said at the time that while she had been determined not to alter the name again, carrying on as it was like driving with the handbrake on.

In a blog post, she wrote that the charitys income was declining when others coffers were growing.

The name Bloodwise wasnt just failing to communicate what we did, it was giving people the impression we did something else, she said.

Were lucky that we have a small group of supporters who were so passionate about the importance of good communications that they kindly donated enough money to cover the cost of changing our name. That means none of the money they [fundraisers] raise will be going towards the cost of the name change.

Helen de Soyza, deputy director of communications at Blood Cancer UK, told the Telegraph: Changing the organisations name in 2020 was not something we did lightly, and we made the decision in full consultation with our community.

Research around the previous name showed significant misunderstanding of what we did and, as a result, the people who needed us werent finding us and were missing out on vital information and support.

A small group of supporters recognised the limitations of the name and donated restricted funds so that none of our general donations needed to be used for this project.

As Blood Cancer UK, people with blood cancer have more easily understood who we are and what we do, and as a result weve managed to reach and support many more people affected by leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma than before.

Royal British Legion

Rebranded at a cost of 100,000, including redesigning its logo

In 2021, the Royal British Legion spent 100,000 on a total rebrand that saw the charity adopt a new logo in a move condemned by some veterans as a gross misuse of money.

The new design featured the red poppy associated with the organisation relocated to the middle of its logo  doubling up as the B.

Critics pointed out that the funds were spent at a time when thousands of servicemen were homeless.

At the time, Andy Price, who runs the Veterans Hub in Weymouth, Dorset, a support group that helps former servicemen, said: I am dumbfounded. Spending 100,000 on a brand change is a gross misuse of their funds and unforgivable at all levels.

A spokesperson for The Royal British Legion told The Telegraph: Our previous brand was designed more than 30 years before we rebranded in 2021, and before any of todays digital channels existed, therefore it was no longer fit for purpose in the modern world.

In addition, research showed that whilst the Legion is well known for Remembrance, understanding of our welfare work was dropping year on year and the new brand identity took action to address this.

We take the use of charitable funds extremely seriously and we made this significant investment to ensure we can reach and support more members of the Armed Forces community in the future by making it simpler for them to find us and understand who we are and what we do.

Citizens Advice

Dropped Bureau from its name as part of a rebrand that cost 1m

In 2015, the umbrella charity known as the Citizens Advice Bureau spent 1 million on a rebrand and name change that saw its title stripped back to Citizens Advice.

Out of this staggering sum, it spent 215,000 on research and development and 300,000 on changing office signs across 3,000 locations.

The charity said it decided to drop the word Bureau after discovering users did not understand its connotations, seeing it as overly old-fashioned and irrelevant.

It also redeveloped its website to make it easier for those who used English as a second language and increasingly accessible for people with disabilities.

Part of the rebranding involved replacing the old CAB logo with a speech bubble to convey a more personable, approachable tone and identity.

They would have done research to show that the word Bureau didnt work anymore, Dufour says.

People need to know that branding isnt just a website and logo, but can be a complete overhaul, and this does cost a lot for large organisations.

But still, charities need to be aware of costs so they take the public with them.

The Telegraph contacted each of the five charities identified above for comment

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Emergency services are seen at Bondi Junction after multiple people were stabbed inside the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney. A shopping centre is in lockdown in Sydney's eastern suburbs after multiple people were stabbed and a man was shot by police. Steven Saphore/AAP/dpa

Five people have been killed in an attack at a shopping centre in the Australian city of Sydney.

The suspected perpetrator was shot and died, Anthony Cooke, the deputy chief of the New South Wales Police, told a press conference on Saturday.

There was only one suspected attacker. There was no further danger. The police did not initially provide any information on the identity of the suspected perpetrator or a possible motive for what appeared to be stabbing spree.

Regarding the course of events, the spokesman said that the suspect had attacked about nine people. A policewoman was able to confront him and a firearm was then used.

Emergency services were called to the busy Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney's east at around 3:40 pm (0540 GMT) on Saturday.

Eyewitnesses reported that they had hidden themselves in shops. Several posts on social media showed crowds of people outside the shopping centre fearing for their loved ones.

The Australian news agency AAP reported that dozens of rescue workers were treating injured people at the scene. Several were taken to hospital with stab wounds, including a nine-month-old baby.

Emergency services are seen at Bondi Junction after multiple people were stabbed inside the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney. A shopping centre is in lockdown in Sydney's eastern suburbs after multiple people were stabbed and a man was shot by police. Steven Saphore/AAP/dpa

Emergency services are seen at Bondi Junction after multiple people were stabbed inside the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney. A shopping centre is in lockdown in Sydney's eastern suburbs after multiple people were stabbed and a man was shot by police. Steven Saphore/AAP/dpa
Flooding continues to impact Russia's Orenburg and Kurgan oblasts located on the border with Kazakhstan, causing destruction in the city of Orenburg, Russian media reported on April 13.

The impact of the floodwaters has prompted the evacuation of at least 120,000 people in the two oblasts and in a neighboring region of northern Kazakhstan.

Melting snow and torrential rain have caused swelling water levels in the Ural River, leading to the collapse of a dam in the city of Orsk on April 5.

At least 3,000 homes in the city of Orenburg have been flooded, and Russian authorities have called for the mass evacuation of residents of parts of the city, which has a population of more than half a million.

Emergency workers said the water levels in the Ural River were two meters (6.5 feet) higher than what is considered dangerous.

The Russian state-controlled news agency RIA Novosti reported on April 7 that the Orsk oil refinery had suspended its operations as a result of the flooding.

Read also: Bridge collapses in Russias Smolensk region, killing 1, injuring 5

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Former British soldier Shaun Pinner, who fought on Ukraine's side and was captured by the Russians in Mariupol in 2022, has won a court case against Russia.

Source: Radio Liberty; The Daily Mail; The Sun; website of the Solomianskyi District Court of Kyiv

Details: The Englishman filed a lawsuit with the Solomianskyi District Court of Kyiv in October 2023. The court has now ruled on financial compensation for torture in Russian captivity. The amount in question is not specified.

The Daily Mail notes that Moscow is likely to ignore this decision, but the case could set a precedent for more prisoners of war to file complaints against Russia. Pinner himself said in a commentary to the media outlet that he intends to continue his case in the British courts.

Quote from Pinner: "We've already begun that process and we won't give up. Russia needs to be held accountable for the way they treated me and this (the Ukrainian court ruling) is the first step. <...> When Russia comes back into the real world they are going to have to settle these legal cases... It's not about now, but the future, next year, 10 years, 20 years time"

Details: The media outlets report that another British citizen, Aiden Aslin, who was held captive in Russia with Pinner, intends to sue Russia in the near future.

Background:

Pinner and Aslin were released from Russian captivity in September 2022. They had been held there for 5 months. They said that the torture in detention could last for several hours: the prisoners were electrocuted, stabbed, and the death penalty was staged.

In early June 2022, the Moscow-controlled DPR (so-called Donetsk People's Republic) sentenced to death Pinner and Aslin, who fought in Donbas along with Ukrainian troops.

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A former corporate lawyer died after falling from a luxury liner, reports say. One expert says cruise safety is outdated.

A former corporate lawyer died after falling from a luxury liner, reports say. One expert says cruise safety is outdated.

Nigel Blythe-Tinker, a top UK lawyer, died after falling to his death from a luxury cruise balcony, reports say.

The 72-year-old died in 2023, the London High Court determined.

A cruise industry expert told BI that updates to maritime safety requirements are infrequent and inadequate.

A top UK lawyer who vanished after falling from a cruise has been declared dead by London's High Court of Justice, The Telegraph reported.

Nigel Blythe-Tinker, 72, was on board the Seven Seas Mariner when he fell to his death in July 2023.

Blythe-Tinker, the former head of legal at gambling firm William Hill, was vacationing on a Mediterranean cruise while planning to return to England after a stint in Australia.

Blythe-Tinker died after falling from his balcony while the cruise liner was en route from Marseille to Barcelona on 21 July, CCTV footage revealed, per the Telegraph.

While the chances of falling overboard on a cruise ship are extremely low , a cruise ship expert told Business Insider that the industry's safety protocols needed updating.

The late lawyer's daughter, Sophie Elizabeth Blythe-Tinker, filed a claim for a declaration of presumed death in October. The directions hearing took place on March 25.

Sophie Elizabeth Blythe-Tinker told the court her father "wasn't himself" and had become "increasingly abnormal" during his time on board, per the Telegraph.

"I have viewed the video evidence," she said. "Something descends from the ship at 4:28 a.m. I'm prepared to accept that that was a body, and the direction is consistent with it coming from the suite Mr Blythe-Tinker was in."

Judge Chief Master Karen Shuman concluded, per The Telegraph, "I'm satisfied on the evidence before me that Mr Blythe-Tinker died at 4:28 central European time by falling to his death from the ship that he was on."

The reason for the fall remains unclear.

A Regent Seven Seas Cruises spokesperson told BI, "We are very sorry to the family of Mr. Blythe-Tinker for their loss, and hope that they find some comfort and closure in the High Court's findings."

Cruise ship safety

Ross Klein, an international authority on the cruise ship industry, told BI he believes cruise ship safety rules are outdated. He said no substantial changes have been made to cruise ship safety since the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2010.

"There have been no improvements. Absolutely none, zero," he said.

Klein said the majority of cases of passengers falling or jumping overboard could be traced to intoxication.

"That's something that's entirely within the control of the cruise line. But they'd rather sell their all-you-can-drink packages than take some responsibility for people's overconsumption of alcohol," he said.

"Ninety percent of people who are going overboard go overboard between midnight and 7 a.m.," said Klein, adding that "those are the hours that people would be the most intoxicated."

It comes amid after a 20-year-old Royal Caribbean passenger has been missing since April 4 after jumping overboard at 3:30 a.m., reports say. Witnesses told the New York Post that the man appeared to be "pretty drunk."

The father of Levion Parker who went missing questioned why his son was able to consume so much alcohol while on the ship, in an interview with a local Florida news outlet, the Sun North Port.

"We don't drink. I'd like to know how my son was served so much alcohol," said Francel Parker.

Ross Klein said that suicides make up only a small fraction of cruise deaths but that "there's really no intervention available" for any passengers struggling with suicidal ideation.

Klein is "not very hopeful" about actionable change regarding cruise safety in the near future "because nobody's pushing for changes."

"I think legislation has been dreadfully inadequate," he said.

"Going on a ship today would be like going on a ship in 1990. There have been no improvements. Railing heights are the same," Klein said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Former NY prosecutor on Trump hush money trial: Hes going to have to sit there

Former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Catherine Christian said she will be closely monitoring former President Trumps behavior in his first criminal trial, scheduled for Monday.

Christian noted that unlike his previous civil trials, Trump will have to sit there and hear the things he may not want to.

I will be watching for Donald Trumps behavior, Christian said Saturday on NBC. Unlike the civil case of E. Jean Carroll, where he got up and walked out of the courtroom because he didnt like what he was hearing, he cant do that in a criminal trial. No one can do that.

None of the prosecutors, the defense attorneys or Donald Trump, she continued. Hes going to have to sit there. He will only be able to leave when theres a break.

Despite his attempts to get the case delayed past the November election, Trumps hush money trial is set to begin Monday with jury selection. The highly publicized case will mark the first criminal trial of a former president.

The case is set to have two key witnesses: adult film star Stormy Daniels and Trumps former fixer Michael Cohen. The case alleges the former president illegally falsified business records reimbursing Cohen for paying Daniels to conceal an alleged affair ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has lashed out at Judge Juan Merchan, his daughter and others in the case, even after he was hit with a gag order. Christian wondered on air if Trump will be able to remember the order during the trial if he gets upset.

Will he be able to refrain from doing that? Will he be able to refrain from making statements about prospective witnesses? Will he be able to refrain from making statements about the [district attorneys] staff? she questioned.

Hes going to hear things that will probably irritate him and  at the lunch break and at the conclusion of the day, therell be cameras and microphones in front of him, Christian said.

The former president was asked about the looming trial Friday during a joint press conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for the White House, said the jury selection would be largely luck and said he would absolutely testify if asked.

Story updated April 14 at 11:27 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
STILLWELL, Okla. (KNWA/KFTA)  A Stilwell man has pleaded guilty and admitted to sexually abusing a child, according to a news release from the United States Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

Lawrence Fourkiller, 47, admitted that between August 2020 and May 2021, he knowingly caused a child to engage in a sexual act while employed at Stilwell Elementary School.

Former OK teacher indicted on child sex abuse charges

The release says the crimes took place in Adair County within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation Reservation.

The charges arose from the FBI and the Stilwell Police Department.

Fourkiller will remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending sentencing, according to the release.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24.
BEIJING, April 13 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will pay an official visit to China from Sunday to Tuesday at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

Born in Osnabruck, Lower Saxony, in June 1958, Scholz studied law and graduated from the University of Hamburg.

He served as a member of the German Bundestag, the federal parliament, in 1998-2001 and in 2002-2011.

Scholz served as general secretary of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 2002-2004; the first parliamentary secretary of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag in 2005-2007; deputy chair of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag in 2009-2011; and deputy chair of the SPD in 2009-2019.

He was Federal Minister of Labor and Social Affairs in 2007-2009, first mayor of Hamburg in 2011-2018, vice chancellor and Federal Minister of Finance in 2018-2021. He has been Federal Chancellor since December 2021.

Scholz is married. 
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD)  The former Calvin University president and his wife have filed a lawsuit against the university, alleging breach of contract, discrimination and defamation.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court on behalf of former President Wiebe Boer and his wife, Joanna Boer.

Calvin University president leaving over inappropriate messages

In February, Wiebe Boer resigned after unwelcome and inappropriate communication with a non-student member of the campus community, according to the university. He took the job in 2022.

THE ALLEGATIONS

The complaint alleges Wiebe Boer was called to a meeting Feb. 22 with a group of Calvin administrators, where he learned for the first time of accusations against him by an employee of a contractor that Calvin uses to staff events at DeWit Manor, the on-campus home of the university president. The accusations centered on text messages, which administrators had apparently been investigating for about two weeks, according to the complaint.

Wiebe Boer was stunned and acknowledged texting with Complainant but did not agree that the texts were unwanted or inappropriate, the lawsuit says. According to the lawsuit, the texts were not sexual, and the complainant had approached him in public, never showed discomfort and actively participated in conversations, even asking him to autograph a book for her.

The university allegedly told Wiebe Boer that he could not go anywhere on campus besides DeWit Manor, that staff would be told he was gone for personal reasons and that he could not contact anyone in the campus community besides immediate family and one trusted advisor. If he disobeyed, he would be terminated, according to the complaint.

On Feb. 24, the lawsuit says Wiebe Boer was given 15 minutes to address the university Board of Trustees, in which he admitted texting the complainant had been a mistake but denied other unprofessional conduct. He also offered to undergo a Title IX investigation, according to the suit.

Hours later, the board chair allegedly called Wiebe Boer and said the board had the votes to fire him. The chair allegedly said Wiebe Boer could resign, and if he resigned, he could have a say in the public statement the university would release.

Wiebe Boer was given a 7 p.m. deadline to resign, according to the lawsuit. Then, the board chair allegedly moved the deadline up to 5 p.m. Wiebe Boer agreed to resign at 4:55 p.m., the lawsuit says.

An administrator implied to Joanna Boer that the board had decided not to conduct a Title IX investigation as a kindness to the Boers, according to the complaint.

Believing the university was prepared to go public with Wiebe Boers resignation, the lawsuit says the Boers were able to retain legal representation on Feb. 26.

According to the lawsuit, Calvin University on the same day released a misleading, vague, and unnecessarily damaging public statement about Wiebe Boers departure, which falsely implied that he had been afforded Title IX due process protections. The complaint says despite what had been promised, Wiebe Boer had no say in the universitys statement.

The complaint alleges the universitys statement sparked significant speculation and harmful false conclusions, citing graffiti on campus the next day that read justice for victims of Boers sexual harassment.

The lawsuit continues to say that negotiations between the Boers and Calvin broke down, particularly in regard to when the Boers would move out of DeWit Manor. The university asked the Boers to be out by April 15, while the Boers asked for more time. After many hours of mediation, Calvin allegedly rejected the Boers last counteroffer and declared that it was no longer negotiating.

While the Boers were on family vacation, the complaint alleges Calvin officials on April 2 entered DeWit Manor and changed the locks. When they returned on April 7, the lawsuit says they were only allowed to enter one at a time, with a security officer present, to collect some belongings to bring to their temporary accommodations.

According to the lawsuit, Calvin officials have also alleged there were other complainants against Wiebe Boer  seemingly trying to create the inference of a pattern  but the investigation only involved the one complainant.

With regard to Wiebe Boer, the university is accused of breach of contract. The lawsuit says Calvin constructively terminated him without properly finding he had engaged in serious misconduct, then would not pay him a year of salary continuation without other requirements.

The lawsuit also accuses Calvin of defamation, saying it intentionally painted Wiebe Boer in a false light and damaged his reputation.

Finally, Calvin is accused of discriminating against Joanna Boer on account of her sex and race. According to the lawsuit, Joanna Boer was the first woman of color to serve as Calvins first lady, for which she was paid as a university employee.

The complaint alleges Joanna Boer was allowed less discretion in her role than other people in similar positions. It also alleges the university limited her ability to do her job, refused to give her the budget and policies she needed and prioritized her appearance over her work.

Ms. Boers time working at Calvin was complicatedas she loved the community, was deeply committed to her role on campus, and worked tirelessly for a space based on equality and acceptance for all, but she did not receive the same respect and acceptance in return, the lawsuit reads. Rather, key members of Calvins administration frequently undermined her, belittled her, and unduly challenged her.

According to the complaint, in one case, an administrator found an event Joanna Boer had planned incredibly inappropriate. When they spoke about it, the administrator allegedly grew frustrated and later that day told Joanna Boer to focus on (her) kids.

Joanna Boer spoke with administrators about her concerns, the lawsuit says, but her struggles continued.

The lawsuit asks the court to award the Boers various damages, costs and fees.

UNIVERSITY RESPONSE

In a statement provided to News 8, the Calvin University Board of Trustees said:

Ultimately, Dr. Boers employment at Calvin was governed by an employment agreement that gives the Board the authority to determine his fitness to remain in the role. The Board recently conducted a careful and thorough review that resulted in a unanimous Board affirmation of the process of information-gathering and deliberation that led to Dr. Boers resignation. The Board remains confident that Dr. Boers decision to resign, and the Boards decision to accept his resignation, are in the best interests of all involved. We continue to lament the concern, confusion, and frustration this abrupt transition has caused for some in our community, and are disappointed by the numerous misrepresentations in the Boers legal complaint that will create additional confusion. We look forward to correcting the record through the appropriate legal processes.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com.
Former US ambassador charged with spying for Cuba sentenced to 15 years in prison

A former U.S. ambassador who has been previously charged with spying for Cuba was sentenced to 15 years in prison Friday, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Victor Manuel Rocha, 73 who previously served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, pled guilty to two counts that charge him with conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiring to defraud the United States and acting as an agent of a foreign government without notice as required by law, according to a press release from the DOJ. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to the statutory maximum penalty of a decade-and-a-half in prison.

Todays plea and sentencing brings to an end more than four decades of betrayal and deceit by the defendant, Assistant Attorney General Matt Olsen of the Justice Departments National Security Division said in the release.

Rocha admitted to acting as an agent of the Cuban government at the same time he held numerous positions of trust in the U.S. government, a staggering betrayal of the American people and an acknowledgement that every oath he took to the United States was a lie, Olsen continued.

Rocha told the judge overseeing his case, U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom, back in late February that he would plead guilty to charges the DOJ brought against him in Dec. 2023.

Rocha was accused of helping Cuba by utilizing access to classified information and foreign policy influence, including leaving the U.S. to meet with Cuban representatives.

I am mindful that Rochas decades-long criminal activity on behalf of the Cuban Government is especially painful for many in South Florida, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe said in the release. Rochas willingness to cooperate, as required by his plea agreement, is important, but does not change the seriousness of his misconduct or his clandestine breach of the trust placed in him.

The Hill has reached out to a lawyer for Rocha.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Former US ambassador, NSC official admits to acting as secret agent for Cuba, learns fate: DOJ

Former US ambassador, NSC official admits to acting as secret agent for Cuba, learns fate: DOJ

A former U.S. ambassador to Bolivia and a National Security Council member pleaded guilty on Friday to secretly acting for decades as an agent of the government of the Republic of Cuba, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

A federal judge sentenced Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, of Miami, to 15 years in prison for working against the U.S. government for decades for communist Cuba in "clandestine intelligence-gathering missions."

"Todays plea and sentencing brings to an end more than four decades of betrayal and deceit by the defendant," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the DOJ's National Security Division. "Rocha admitted to acting as an agent of the Cuban government at the same time he held numerous positions of trust in the U.S. government, a staggering betrayal of the American people and an acknowledgment that every oath he took to the United States was a lie."

Prosecutors agreed to dismiss more than a dozen other charges in exchange for his guilty plea, the Associated Press said.

FORMER US AMBASSADOR, NSC MEMBER CHARGED WITH ACTING AS SECRET AGENT FOR COMMUNIST CUBA FOR DECADES: DOJ

Former US ambassador arrested in Florida, accused of serving as an agent of Cuba, AP source says

Rocha was a former U.S. Department of State employee who served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995, and as U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"Victor Manuel Rocha secretly acted for decades as an agent of a hostile foreign power. He thought the story of his covert mission for Cuba would never be told because he had the intelligence, knowledge, and discipline to never to be detected. Rocha underestimated those same skills in the prosecutors and law enforcement agents who worked tirelessly to bring him to justice for betraying his oath to this country," said U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida.

"This action exposes one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent," Attorney General Merrick B. Garland previously said.

U.S. District Court Judge Beth Bloom accepted Rochas guilty plea to counts 1 and 2 of the indictment, which charged him with conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiring to defraud the U.S., and acting as an agent of a foreign government without notice as required by law.

The court then sentenced Rocha to the statutory maximum penalty on his counts of conviction: 15 years in prison, a $500,000 fine, three years of supervised release and a special assessment.

The court also imposed significant restrictions on Rocha.

FORMER US AMBASSADOR ACCUSED OF SECRETLY WORKING FOR CUBA PLEADS NOT GUILTY

Under the terms of the parties plea agreement, Rocha must cooperate with the U.S., including assisting with any damage assessment related to his work on behalf of the Republic of Cuba. Rocha must relinquish all future retirement benefits, including pension payments, owed to him by the U.S. based upon his former State Department employment.

He must also assign to the U.S. any profits that he may be entitled to receive in connection with any publication relating to his criminal conduct or his U.S. government service.

"Despite swearing an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, Rocha betrayed the U.S. by secretly working as a Cuban agent for decades," said Executive Assistant Director Larissa L. Knapp of the FBIs National Security Branch. "After years of lying and endangering national security and U.S. citizens, he finally accepted responsibility for his actions and received the maximum prison sentence. This should serve as a notice to our adversaries that the FBI will work tirelessly to stop foreign intelligence services and any who work with them against the interests of the United States and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law."

According to a criminal complaint from the DOJ, Rocha used his employment in the State Department between 1981 and 2002 to obtain classified information and affect U.S. foreign policy.

Following his employment at the State Department, Rocha transferred in 2006 as an advisor to the Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, a joint command of the U.S. military whose area of responsibility includes Cuba.

FORMER US AMBASSADOR CALLED CASTRO THE 'COMANDANTE,' LABELED US 'THE ENEMY': DOJ

Victor Manuel Rocha, who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, appears during an interview with an FBI undercover employee in Miami, Feb. 17, 2023.

The DOJ said that Rocha provided false and misleading information to the U.S. to maintain his secret status, traveled outside the U.S. to meet with Cuban intelligence operatives, and made false and misleading statements to obtain travel documents.

According to the complaint, Rocha made a series of recorded admissions to an undercover FBI agent who posed as a Cuban intelligence operative who reached out to Rocha on WhatsApp, saying that he had a message, "from your friends in Havana."

Rocha praised the late communist leader Fidel Castro , calling him "comandante," branded the U.S. the "enemy" and bragged about his service for more than 40 years as a Cuban mole in the heart of U.S. foreign policy circles.

FORMER US AMBASSADOR ARRESTED, ACCUSED OF SECRETLY SERVING AS AGENT TO CUBA: REPORT

Bolivian President Hugo Banzer, left, shakes hands with Victor Manuel Rocha, the then U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia, during a ceremony in the Government Palace in La Paz, Aug. 3, 2000.

He also allegedly told the undercover agent that his efforts to infiltrate the U.S. government were "meticulous and very disciplined" and he repeatedly bragged about the significance of his efforts, saying that "what has been done has strengthened the revolution immensely," Garland previously said.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

According to records, Rochas 25-year diplomatic career was spent under both Democratic and Republican administrations, with the majority of it being in Latin America during the Cold War.

Fox News Digital's Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.





Original article source: Former US ambassador, NSC official admits to acting as secret agent for Cuba, learns fate: DOJ
FREDONIA, N.Y. (WIVB)  Starting Saturday, April 13 at Midnight, Fredonia residents and other village water customers are being asked to conserve their water.

This is due to the villages planned water treatment plant maintenance, scheduled to begin Monday. The water conservation order issued by the Chautauqua County Health Department urges people to prepare to boil their water if necessary.

During the scheduled maintenance, customers will receive water from the plants water storage tank, the health department wrote. If the storage tank is depleted, water will have to come directly from the water treatment plant.

Residents could also purchase bottled water ahead of time in the event of a boil water order.

All Village of Fredonia water customers must conserve water so the storage tank can be filled, the health department wrote. Do not water lawns, shrubs, plants, etc. Do not wash cars, trucks, trailers, decks, houses, sidewalks, driveways, etc. Use paper plates and utensils to avoid dishwashing. Limit showers and baths. Run washing machines only if necessary and only if there is a full load.

The water conservation order will continue until further notice. Anyone with questions can call the village at (716) 679-2307 or the health department at (716) 753-4481.

Latest Local News

Evan Anstey is an Associated Press Award, JANY Award and Emmy-nominated digital producer who has been part of the News 4 team since 2015. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo.
Street performers: one council has used a PSPO to ensure they are 'courteous' - Dan Kitwood/Getty

Free speech campaigners have declared a victory in their fight against busybody charters as councils have started to shelve the measures in response to legal challenges.

Local authorities across the country have used Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) to impose increasing numbers of fines of up to 1,000 for a range of activities, including loitering, swearing or even walking a dog in the wrong place.

One council is even proposing to bring in a new PSPO-linked code which could see discourteous street performers banned from the borough.

Breaching the terms of a PSPO is a criminal offence and can result in a fixed penalty notice. Failure to pay the fine within 28 days could lead to being hauled in front of a court to face either a prison sentence or a larger fine.

The Free Speech Union (FSU) has analysed the PSPOs of 15 local authorities around the country, and says it has found numerous examples of overreach. In some cases, they have written to councils to threaten judicial review.

Bryn Harris, the FSUs chief legal counsel, said the use of PSPOs  known to their critics as busybody charters  has become out of control.

No safeguard for free speech

It seems that councils are overusing them, essentially to set their own local criminal laws, he said.

One of the main problems is that a lot of them are criminalising conduct which causes alarm or distress with no safeguards for free speech. This could end up criminalising completely legitimate free speech.

PSPOs were set up under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act in 2014. They were aimed at helping councils crack down on issues like prostitution or drinking alcohol in specific areas.

But some of the PSPOs analysed by the FSU have been extended to cover an entire borough. In London, both Haringey and Waltham Forest councils outlaw behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress across their entire boroughs.

Why is that a problem? Mr Harris asked. Lets say you want to protest on the streets and talk about someone dying and unbeknownst to you, this causes someone distress.

That makes you liable, even if you didnt intend it and couldnt have foreseen [it]. That is why safeguards are absolutely necessary to preserve freedom of expression.

The FSU wrote to Redbridge council  which has a PSPO extending across the entire borough  threatening judicial review. The council used its PSPO to outlaw catcalling and issued its first fine for this offence in 2022.

At the time, Jas Athwal, the leader of Redbridge council and London Councils executive member for crime and public protection, said: We are the first council in London using our PSPO to enforce against catcalling and harassment.

Were supporting covert police operations in the borough to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.

But in a letter to the council, the FSU argued that their PSPO is manifestly unlawful. Redbridge Council responded, confirming that they will not renew the measure when it expires in August.

Cumberland to reduce scope of PSPO

Meanwhile, Cumberland council said it would amend and extend its consultation on a new PSPO, following a legal letter from the FSU.

Cumberland council is proposing to update its existing PSPO by introducing a code of conduct for traders and street performers to adhere to. This states that they must always be courteous to members of the public and must also be calm and polite.

A Redbridge Council spokesperson said: This PSPO is due to expire in August. Before renewing a PSPO we carefully review evidence to ascertain whether it is still required.

In this case, evidence shows the PSPO has been effective and is no longer required for the whole area it covers. Instead we are exploring a similar PSPO for a smaller area. The decision process is evidence-based.

A Cumberland Council spokesperson said that a supporting document has now been linked to on their consultation page and added that a consultation extension allows us to receive and consider feedback on the new document.

A government spokesperson said: The use of PSPOs is a matter for local councils. The legislation is clear that to make an order, the local authority must be satisfied on reasonable grounds that the legal test is met.

Additionally, local councils must consult with the police, as well as appropriate community representatives, before implementing a PSPO.

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FT: Russia may be gearing up for large-scale offensive against Ukraine

Russian forces may be preparing for a large-scale offensive in late spring or summer, aiming to capture more land in Ukraine's partially-occupied Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, the Financial Times reported on April 13, citing unnamed Ukrainian and Western officials.

Ukrainian officials also said that Russia might plan to attack Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city that is located close to the Russian border, FT reported.

As crucial military aid for Ukraine remains stalled in the U.S. Congress, outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces are struggling to repel intensifying Russian offensives in several directions.

Both foreign and Ukrainian officials have said the lack of U.S. aid has begun to hurt Ukraine's position on the battlefield and warned that the situation could worsen without a new infusion of military assistance.

The situation on Ukraine's eastern front has "significantly deteriorated in recent days," as Russia intensified its offensive efforts, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said earlier on April 13.

Warm, dry weather has enabled Russia to increase its armored assaults in the areas of Bakhmut, Lyman, and Pokrovsk, according to Syrskyi.

Russian troops have recently been focusing their efforts near Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast, which is located about 70 kilometers northwest of the occupied city of Donetsk and about 10 kilometers west of occupied Bakhmut.

According to Ukraine's military, Russia sees the potential capture of Chasiv Yar as a crucial milestone for further advances westward toward Kostiantynivka, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk.

In late March, President Volodymyr Zelensky did not rule out that a major Russian offensive may come at the end of May or in June.

Russia has also recently intensified attacks on Kharkiv, targeting residential areas and critical infrastructure.

A number of media outlets have reported that Russia may launch a ground offensive against the city this year.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 6 that "Kharkiv is protected" in case Russia attempts to launch an offensive.

"Today, Kharkiv is not in danger," Zelensky said, referring to the local defensive lines and the readiness of the army. "Russians do not hide that it (Kharkiv) is a desirable target," Zelensky said.

Ukraine's military intelligence called the news of a potential attack on Kharkiv "part of a Russian psychological operation," adding that there were no signs of Moscow preparing new attack formations to carry out a ground offensive.

Read also: Trump reportedly thought Ukraine must be part of Russia as president

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Our Uniquely Fort Worth stories celebrate what we love most about Cowtown, its history & culture. Story suggestion? Editors@star-telegram.com.

Raised in Worth Heights from the 1940s to 1960s, Rita Rodriguez Utt was mentored by loving grandparents. The eldest of five siblings, she learned quickly from paternal grandmother Dolores that refined Latinas acted with class. Maternal grandmother Francisca (Dona Panchita) who spoke primarily Spanish but could cuss in English modeled how to stand up for herself. They armed her with grace and grit.

Some Fort Worth public school teachers and counselors told Latinos/as they lacked the right stuff for college and steered them into trade courses. An aunt who worked as a nurses aide offered the only familiar version of a professional. After earning her nursing diploma from Harris Hospital in 1963, Rita worked at John Peter Smith Hospital. She earned an RN degree at the University of Texas at Arlington in 1974.

In an interview, Rita said she had several Latino suitors who were looking for a housewife  not a partner. She met Airman Mike Utt at a Valentines dance at Carswell Air Force Base who followed me home. Married in 1965, she said her father Jessie disapproved and didnt visit them until their daughter Jessicas birth five years later.

Their intercultural relationship grew as Mike learned about Latino culture and Rita learned about Anglo cultures. When they moved to Austin to attend the University of Texas, she met students and professors from around the world. Opportunities she had never imagined opened for her. Rita, Mike, and Jessica moved to Houston in 1979, where Mike worked in management at the Sheraton Hotel.

Rita and Mike Utt receiving the traditional Mexican lasso at their wedding in 1965.

With three law schools in Houston, Rita told herself, Girl, youre stupid if you dont get a law degree. At age 39, in 1983, she entered the University of Houston. She toiled for three years, struggling to balance her roles as wife, mother, and law student. In 1986, she graduated and returned to Fort Worth and worked in the Tarrant County District Attorneys Office, prosecuting criminal cases. Latinos were mostly present in the judicial system as accused prisoners, probationers, and parolees. She witnessed their difficulty in proving their innocence with poor communication skills and low educational levels. Rita interpreted in court for the Spanish-dominant accused, advocating for state interpreter certification. She told the writer about an attorney describing Judge Pete Perez as a member of the Supreme Court of Mexico. Later, she worked for Lollar Phillips and Factor law firm and in 1991 opened a private practice with David Flores.

Rita Utt and Mike Utt at Ritas graduation from the University of Houston law school in 1986.

Rita and Mike jumped into the Fort Worth political world, campaigning for local, state, and national Democratic candidates. She joined the Fort Worth Chapter of the Mexican American Democrats (MAD). In 1991, she accompanied other Tarrant County minority leaders to Washington, D. C., where they advocated voiding the Texas redistricting plan that would dilute minority voting strength. That year, she submitted to the citys Charter Review Committee a proposal to expand the city council to 11 members: 10 elected from single-member districts and the mayor at large.

When news media circulated the Los Angeles police beating video of Rodney King in 1991, local police pointed to the decline in complaints. Rita countered that people stopped filing complaints because of the lack of police department responses.

In 1992, she ran for Criminal District Court Number 2 judge against incumbent Judge Lee Ann Campbell Dauphinot. In a survey of Tarrant County Bar members, 64% voted they preferred Rita for the judge position and 76% thought her qualified. Dauphinot received 36% preferred and 42% qualified votes. In the actual election, Dauphinot won with 58% and Rita with 42% of the votes.

Frustrated with weak Fort Worth Latino/a political strength, she joined Hispanic 2000, an organization foreseeing the growth of the Latino population and the need for more Latino/a elected officials and voters. In response to critics, she said, Watch the lips, folks. We want Hispanic representation. We dont want to overthrow the government. She discovered their political activities floundered primarily due to the lack of political maturity. She said, We self-destructed. We werent together long enough to understand that we could disagree and support different candidates but that we could come back together. ... There are old grudges that people have kept forever.

In 1987, she promoted Latina leadership with the founding of the Fort Worth chapter of the Hispanic Womens Network of Texas. Her organizational skills catapulted her to state chair of the network in 2010 and drew the admiration of Latinas across the state. Lupe Morin, a 30-year colleague, eulogized her in March 2024 as a strong, natural leader with compassion and common-sense approach to everything she does. Ritas daughter Jessica shared at the memorial Ritas advice, you own your own power.

Eva Bonilla, a cousin and colleague, said Rita should be remembered as a strong leader not just because she was a Latina. Johnny Lewis, former probation officer, said, Rita told him not to give up on people. Mike Utt said, The worst thing you can do is to tell Rita, no you cant because she will go ahead and do something.

A lover of books and Latino/a history, Rita founded the Historians of Latino Americans in 2019. She and doctoral student Cecilia Sanchez Hill interviewed Worth Heights elderly Latinas about their courageous lives.

Rita Rodriguez Utt died on Feb. 25, 2024, leaving a liberating history.

Author Richard J. Gonzales writes and speaks about Fort Worth, national and international Latino history.
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  After months of anticipation, funds allocated for handling the influx of migrants seeking asylum in the United States have finally arrived in San Diego County, totaling $19.6 million. These funds are earmarked for reopening the immigrant welcome centers that were shuttered in February due to a lack of funding.

Previously, without logistical organization, asylum seekers were simply being dropped off at bus stations or the airport. Those migrants who had secured a court date to plead their asylum case were often released into San Diego without the necessary language skills or means to organize their travel to their destination. At the border Friday, more migrants were being picked up by border agents.

Just passed and it looks like they are about to pick up a group of maybe about 25 migrants including about a half a dozen children who have been waiting here for approximately six hours, said Pedro Rios, the director of the American Friends Services Committee.

More addicted Americans finding cheaper highs in Tijuana, says activist

Rios was one of the leaders assisting migrants at the welcome centers and is relieved that funding is now in place to organize the migrant asylum seekers. Rios emphasizes that language, legal, medical, temporary shelter and transportation services are all necessary to calm the chaotic process. Along with financial support, Rios notes that, at least for now, the immigration pressure has somewhat eased.

The numbers have dropped somewhat, and so we are seeing fewer migrants crossing through San Diego which is good. However, I would like to see that the federal government recommit to respecting the asylum processes so that people dont have to cross over the border wall or in the mounds and they are able to safely present themselves at a port of entry, Rios said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 12 (Xinhua) -- San Francisco Mayor London Breed has voiced hope of strengthening local-level economic and people-to-people exchanges with China.

In an exclusive interview with Xinhua before embarking on a visit to China, Breed said that she looks forward to further developing friendly cooperation between San Francisco and China during her first official visit to China as mayor.

On Saturday, Breed will depart for China, where she and a delegation of San Francisco-based business and community leaders will meet with their Chinese peers in China's Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai before returning to San Francisco on April 21.

During the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders' Week held in San Francisco in November 2023, Breed attended a welcome dinner by friendly organizations in the United States for Chinese President Xi Jinping. Breed said she appreciates Xi's speech titled "Galvanizing Our Peoples into a Strong Force For the Cause of China-U.S. Friendship" at the event.

Breed said there is a broad community in San Francisco who are actively engaged in San Francisco's affairs and have a real interest in San Francisco's relationship with China.

Over the decades, San Francisco has served as the United States' gateway to Asia, Breed said. "Our San Francisco Chinese community has shaped the history, culture and strength of our city."

"Moreover, our immigrants and the generations that have followed have kept our city connected on that people-to-people basis to all of their native countries, most especially China," she said.

Breed believes that the San Francisco Bay Area and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area can strengthen communication and mutual learning in the future, especially in the field of science and technology.

Noting that artificial intelligence is a huge industry in San Francisco, and China is leading the way in some of the most significant technologies, Breed voiced hope that the two sides will explore more opportunities to learn from each other and grow together in this regard.

"I was born and raised in San Francisco. What I appreciate about San Francisco is we are a global city, and a cross-cultural city," she said. "When I go to Chinatown, I always see somebody. I know somebody."

"What's interesting, even as I became mayor, (is that) the people who are most significant, including many of my friends from high school, happened to be Chinese," she said.

"The relationship runs deep, and the opportunities are significant," she said, adding that she is "looking forward to what this (China) trip is going to bring to San Francisco." 
A gang member was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a young father in Oxnard.

David Guadalupe Calderon, 31, was convicted of murdering Edwin Herrera, 19, in a 2012 shooting, according to the Ventura County District Attorneys Office.

On February 29, 2012, Calderon, who was a registered gang member, was driving through Oxnard with another gang member, Carlos Hernandez. They had a sawed-off shotgun in the car and Calderon was looking to restore his credibility with his gang, officials said.

As they drove around the Lemonwood neighborhood, they suddenly spotted Herrera who was moving his car to avoid a parking ticket.

Calderon pulled up next to Herrera, got out of his car while holding the shotgun and demanded to know which gang Herrera was a member of. Herrera told Calderon he was not affiliated with any gang. Despite that answer, Calderon shot Herrera in the neck at close range. Both suspects drove away from the scene.

When the victims family heard the gunshot, they ran outside to find Herrera slumped over in his car. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died from his injuries.

David Guadelupe Calderon, 31, seen in court, was convicted of the murder of Edwin Herrera on March 15, 2024. (Oxnard PD)

David Guadalupe Calderon, 31, seen in a booking photo from the Ventura County District Attorneys Office.

Investigators discovered the suspects had purchased a unique type of shotgun ammunition from a local gun shop on the day of the murder. That ammunition was later used to kill Herrera, police said.

Around 25 minutes after the deadly shooting, Calderon was seen on security video calmly walking into a pizza shop and ordering a pizza.

A few days later, Calderon sold the shotgun involved in the murder to another gang member.

On March 30, 2012, Oxnard police officers served a search warrant at a home where the shotgun was found.

4 charged after Long Beach veteran shot and killed on front lawn

Forensic testing positively linked the shotgun to Mr. Herreras murder, the DAs office said.

Calderon was indicted and charged on August 28, 2015. At the time, he was already in custody for an unrelated robbery charge in which a recording caught him bragging about the killing to another inmate, court documents said.

On March 15, he was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder. On April 12, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 27 years to life.

Special allegations that were found true include killing a victim while participating in a street gang, the personal and intentional discharge of a firearm, street terrorism, and the commission of a felony after being released on bail.

We are so grateful to the Oxnard Police Department for their tireless investigation into this case, said John Barrick, a senior deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case. The evidence presented to the jury overwhelmingly proved that the defendant not only committed this horrendous crime but did so without remorse. Hopefully, the defendants conviction and sentence will allow Edwins family to begin the healing process they so rightfully deserve.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
Former President George W. Bush is hosting a fundraiser in Dallas next week for Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick.

The invitation, posted online by reporter Ryan Hernandez, is offering two paid events for guests  a VIP roundtable event that will cost $24,500 per person and a reception at $3,300 a person.

Along with Bush, billionaire Harlan Crow and republican strategist Karl Rove will be in attendance, among others.

McCormick and Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) are the only two candidates who will appear on the Pennsylvania Senate ballot, the states highest court ruled recently.

The ruling booted several other challengers from appearing on the ballot and cleared the way for a match-up between Casey, the incumbent, and McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO, in the April 23 primary.

Casey led McCormick in polls earlier this year by a comfortable margin. McCormick ran for Senate in 2022 but lost the Republican nomination to Mehmet Oz.

The Associated Press reported the Pennsylvania Senate race is likely going to be one of the most expensive and closely watched races this year as Democrats attempt to defend their majority in the Senate.

Pennsylvania, a critical battleground state, will help determine whether Democrats will maintain their majority in the Senate and reelect President Biden.

According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, Casey leads McCormick in a Wednesday poll. Casey has 45.7 percent support, while McCormick has 37 percent.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.
German envoy: Iran has made 'direct attack like never before'

Steffen Seibert, Germany's ambassador to Israel, waits for Israel's President Herzog. "A direct attack like never before: Iranian drones approaching Israel and there may be more to come," Seibert wrote on X, on 13 April. He advised all Germans in Israel to follow the advice of the security authorities. Michael Kappeler/dpa

The German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, has urged all Germans on the ground in Israel to follow the instructions of the security authorities to stay safe.

"A direct attack like never before: Iranian drones approaching Israel and there may be more to come," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday evening.

He advised all Germans in Israel to follow the advice of the security authorities.
German Minister of the Interior and for Home Affairs Nancy Faeser speaks during the 164th session of the Bundestag. Britta Pedersen/dpa

Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has said there have been initial successes in limiting irregular migration to Germany.

"Asylum applications are currently a fifth lower than in the same period last year. Our border checks have detained 708 smugglers since October and prevented 17,600 unauthorized entries," the Social Democrat politician told the Funke media group.

Faeser referred to resolutions passed by the government, which are supported by Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party coalition.

"We have legislated for faster asylum procedures," she said. "Our comprehensive legislative package for more and quicker deportations is in force. And now, with the payment card instead of cash, we have clearly shown that we are helping refugees fleeing war and terror, but at the same time preventing cash from going to people smugglers."

On Friday, Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, voted to provide asylum seekers and migrants in Germany with social benefits via a payment card instead of cash in the future.

Lawmakers who backed the change argued it would prevent migrants from using benefits to pay smugglers, or transfer money back to family in their home countries. Some contended that migrants have been drawn to Germany because of the social benefits.

Faeser also praised the adoption of the EU asylum reform, which has been controversial for years. This demonstrates Europe's ability to act, according to the minister.

"On Monday, I will visit the EU's external border between Bulgaria and Turkey to see how the massively increased protection of external borders and asylum procedures that comply with human rights are now being implemented as quickly as possible," Faeser said.
Police officers interrupt the Palestine Congress 2024. German police on Friday broke up a pro-Palestinian conference in the capital Berlin and asked some 250 participants to leave the venue just two hours into the three-day event. Officers had already intervened in the event during a speech via video by an activist who is banned from political activity in Germany. Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa

Following the cancellation of a controversial "Palestine Congress" planned for three days in Berlin, police in the German capital said they were expecting spontaneous protest events over the weekend.

Police on Friday broke up the pro-Palestinian conference in the Tempelhof area of Berlin and asked some 250 participants to leave the venue just two hours into the three-day event.

Officers had earlier intervened during remarks via video by an activist who is banned from political activity in Germany due to hate speech against Israel and Jews.

When the man spoke police cut off the transmission and temporarily switched off the power to the venue for the "Palestine Congress," which was organized by various pro-Palestinian groups.

Law enforcement officials then deliberated over their next steps before cancelling the event - not just on Friday, but Saturday and Sunday, too.

A police spokesman said officers made the decision because they saw the risk "that such anti-Semitic, violence-glorifying and Holocaust-denying speeches could be repeated at the event."

Organizers said they are considering whether to take legal action.

Before the start of the event politicians including Berlin Mayor Kai Wegener as well as the police had announced that they would take firm action if any anti-Semitic statements or criminal offences were committed at the meeting.

Organizers of the conference had decried Israel's ongoing military offensive in the Gaza Strip, and attacked the German government's support for the Israeli government.

"Together, with the voices of the Palestinian movement and the international community, we will denounce Israeli apartheid and genocide. We accuse Germany of being complicit," according to the event website.

Israel launched the offensive after the Palestinian militant group Hamas led unprecedented attacks on Israel on October 7 that left more than 1,200 dead.

More than 33,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Health Ministry there, which is controlled by Hamas.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had told dpa ahead of the event that "anyone spreading Islamist propaganda and hatred against Jews must know that they will be prosecuted quickly and consistently."

Berlin police deployed around 900 officers to keep watch on the conference and any pro-Palestinian demonstrations, summoning reinforcements from western Germany to bolster their forces, a police spokeswoman told dpa.

The crowd waiting to enter the hall on Friday chanted slogans including "Viva, Viva Palestine" and "Germany finances, Israel bombs." Some waved Palestinian flags outside the building.

"It is intolerable that a so-called Palestine Conference is taking place in Berlin," Wegner, a politician from the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), told dpa earlier in a written statement.

"We do not tolerate anti-Semitism, hatred and incitement against Jews in Berlin."

Police in Berlin have taken a generally tough stance toward pro-Palestinian protesters since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip.

Authorities have put strict conditions on pro-Palestinian demonstrations, or banned them outright, citing concerns that anti-Israeli statements could cross the line into outright anti-Semitism.

Protesters and critics, however, have accused authorities in Berlin of violating democratic freedoms of speech and assembly with the crackdowns.

The number of participants at the congress was limited by the police to 250 per day for fire safety reasons.

As they left the venue on Friday evening, they chanted "Shame on you" in English at the police.

Police officers will remain at the venue in Tempelhof, according to a police spokeswoman. Numerous police officers will also be out and about in the city area monitoring the situation, the spokeswoman said.

Originally, around 900 officers were to accompany the second day of the congress on Saturday.

"The number of officers we deploy on Saturday will depend on the situation," she explained.

Police officers stand in the event room after the police broke up the first day of the Palestine Congress 2024. German police on Friday broke up a pro-Palestinian conference in the capital Berlin and asked some 250 participants to leave the venue just two hours into the three-day event. Officers had already intervened in the event during a speech via video by an activist who is banned from political activity in Germany. Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa

A police officer addresses a participant in the event room after the police broke up the first day of the Palestine Congress 2024. German police on Friday broke up a pro-Palestinian conference in the capital Berlin and asked some 250 participants to leave the venue just two hours into the three-day event. Officers had already intervened in the event during a speech via video by an activist who is banned from political activity in Germany. Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa
A launcher of the Patriot air defense missile system stands on the airbase during the Bundeswehr Day. Germany delivers another Patriot system to Ukraine. Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa

The German government is supplying another Patriot air defence system to strengthen Ukraine in its defensive campaign against Russia, the German Defence Ministry announced in Berlin on Saturday.

The system comes from Bundeswehr stocks and is to be handed over immediately, the ministry said.

So far, Germany has delivered two Patriot systems to Ukraine. The system has proven itself in the fight against Russian aggression, according to the Defence Ministry.

The delivery should also be seen in the context of the intensive joint efforts of Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to lobby partners for more air defence systems for Ukraine.

"Russian terror against Ukrainian cities and the country's infrastructure is causing immeasurable suffering," said Pistorius, according to the press release.
A launcher of the Patriot air defense missile system stands on the airbase during the Bundeswehr Day. Germany delivers another Patriot system to Ukraine. Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa

The German government is supplying another Patriot air defence system to strengthen Kiev, following months of requests by Ukraine, while a commander in the embattled nation said the situation on the front line was becoming more difficult.

The German air defence system comes from Bundeswehr stocks and is to be handed over immediately, the German Defence Ministry announced in Berlin on Saturday.

So far, Germany has delivered two Patriot systems to Ukraine and the system has proven itself in the fight against Russian aggression, according to the ministry.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the Patriot system and other missiles for the Patriots already in use in Ukraine.

"Thank you, Olaf, for your leadership," he wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "This is a real sign of support for Ukraine at a critical time for us."

He also called on the leaders of other countries to follow Germany's example.

Berlin's decision comes after efforts by Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to lobby partners for more air defence systems.

"Russian terror against Ukrainian cities and the country's infrastructure is causing immeasurable suffering," said Pistorius, according to the press release.

Moscow's attacks are jeopardizing people's energy supplies and destroying industrial facilities that are important for the operational readiness of the Ukrainian armed forces, he added.

"With our support for Ukraine, we are going as far as we can justify in terms of our own operational readiness. Even before this decision, I was in favour of procuring new equipment as quickly as possible and we are working at full speed on the follow-up procurement," said Pistorius.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to destroy Ukraine, according to Baerbock. "Every day, his missiles and drones destroy what people need to live. With the additional Patriot system, we are standing by the people of Ukraine and reinforcing the protective shield over their cities," she said. "And we are emphasizing that we are taking responsibility."

Zelensky has been asking for more Patriot defence systems for months in order to better protect the country's airspace against Russian missile and drone attacks.

Scholz also reaffirmed Germany's solidarity with Ukraine in a telephone conversation with Zelensky and discussed ways to further strengthen Ukraine's air defences.

Scholz and Zelensky had agreed that further efforts by partners were necessary, a German government spokesman said. They also discussed a high-level international peace conference on Ukraine in Switzerland in the summer and the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference to be held in Berlin.

On the ground, Ukraine's military highlighted struggles on the front line and called for better technology to help Kiev's forces fend off the Kremlin's attacks.

"The situation on the eastern front has worsened significantly in recent days," Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on Telegram.

He said that this was due to increased offensive efforts by Russian troops following the election in Russia that handed Putin another term.

The situation around the towns of Lyman, Bakhmut and Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region is particularly sensitive, Syrskyi said. In Pokrovsk in particular, to the west of the town of Avdiivka, which was only captured by the Russians at the beginning of the year, the Russian military is attempting to break through the defence lines using dozens of tanks.

Syrskyi called for the Ukrainian army to be armed with high-tech weapons such as drones. Only with technological innovations would it be possible to equalize the numerical superiority of the Russian attackers.

Meanwhile several people were injured in rocket attacks on the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk.

Russian politician Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the We are Together With Russia movement, wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday that there were missile strikes near the bus station and a machine-building factory.

Three civilians were injured and several residential buildings were damaged, he said.

Ukrainian media, on the other hand, reported that the attack was aimed at a military unit and a collection of military vehicles near the factory.

Further west, in the small town of Tokmak in the Zaporizhzhya region, which was also captured by the Russians during the war, the death toll has risen to 10 following an attack on Friday.

Two more bodies were found under the rubble of a residential building, the Moscow-appointed governor for the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhya region, Yevgeny Balitsky, announced on Telegram.

Two people were still missing, he wrote, and 18 people were being treated in hospital for their injuries.

Russia has been targeting Ukrainian energy facilities. Against this background, Kiev has started building two more nuclear reactors in the west of the country.

The Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported that the foundation stone for reactor units 5 and 6 of the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant was laid in the presence of Energy Minister German Galushchenko and the US ambassador to Kiev, Bridget Brink.

In contrast to other types of power plants, Russia has so far spared nuclear facilities with its drone and missile attacks - also out of awareness that this could cause a nuclear catastrophe that is difficult to calculate in terms of scale.

The units are being built in co-operation with the US nuclear energy company Westinghouse Electric Company. They are pressurized water reactors of the AP1000 type with a service life of at least 60 years, according to the company.
A launcher of the Patriot air defense missile system stands on the airbase during the Bundeswehr Day. Germany delivers another Patriot system to Ukraine. Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa

The German government is supplying another Patriot air defence system to strengthen Kiev, following months of requests by Ukraine, while a commander in the embattled nation said the situation on the front line was becoming more difficult.

The German air defence system comes from Bundeswehr stocks and is to be handed over immediately, the German Defence Ministry announced in Berlin on Saturday.

So far, Germany has delivered two Patriot systems to Ukraine and the system has proven itself in the fight against Russian aggression, according to the ministry.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the Patriot system and other missiles for the Patriots already in use in Ukraine.

"Thank you, Olaf, for your leadership," he wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "This is a real sign of support for Ukraine at a critical time for us."

He also called on the leaders of other countries to follow Germany's example.

Berlin's decision comes after efforts by Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to lobby partners for more air defence systems.

Zelensky has been asking for more Patriot defence systems for months in order to better protect the country's airspace against Russian missile and drone attacks.

Scholz also reaffirmed Germany's solidarity with Ukraine in a telephone conversation with Zelensky and discussed ways to further strengthen Ukraine's air defences.

Scholz and Zelensky had agreed that further efforts by partners were necessary, a German government spokesman said. They also discussed a high-level international peace conference on Ukraine in Switzerland in the summer and the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference to be held in Berlin.

Zelensky underlined the importance of Germany in supporting his country as it fends off Russia's invasion.

"Germany's leadership role is really tangible, and thanks to this leadership role we will be able to save thousands of lives and offer Ukraine more protection against Russian terror," Zelensky said in his evening video address.

At the same time, he addressed further words of thanks directly to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz: "Olaf, Mr Chancellor, thank you once again for the air defence."

Zelensky hinted that further arms deliveries had also been discussed during the phone call with Scholz. "We are also working with Germany on an additional IRIS-T system, which is also a powerful air defence system, and on missiles for our existing air defence systems."

On the ground, Ukraine's military highlighted struggles on the front line and called for better technology to help Kiev's forces fend off the Kremlin's attacks.

"The situation on the eastern front has worsened significantly in recent days," Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on Telegram.

He said that this was due to increased offensive efforts by Russian troops following the election in Russia that handed Putin another term.

The situation around the towns of Lyman, Bakhmut and Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region is particularly sensitive, Syrskyi said. In Pokrovsk in particular, to the west of the town of Avdiivka, which was only captured by the Russians at the beginning of the year, the Russian military is attempting to break through the defence lines using dozens of tanks.

Syrskyi called for the Ukrainian army to be armed with high-tech weapons such as drones. Only with technological innovations would it be possible to equalize the numerical superiority of the Russian attackers.

Meanwhile several people were injured in rocket attacks on the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk.

Russian politician Vladimir Rogov, chairman of the We are Together With Russia movement, wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday that there were missile strikes near the bus station and a machine-building factory.

Three civilians were injured and several residential buildings were damaged, he said.

Ukrainian media, on the other hand, reported that the attack was aimed at a military unit and a collection of military vehicles near the factory.

Further west, in the small town of Tokmak in the Zaporizhzhya region, which was also captured by the Russians during the war, the death toll has risen to 10 following an attack on Friday.

Two more bodies were found under the rubble of a residential building, the Moscow-appointed governor for the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhya region, Yevgeny Balitsky, announced on Telegram.

Two people were still missing, he wrote, and 18 people were being treated in hospital for their injuries.

Russia has been targeting Ukrainian energy facilities. Against this background, Kiev has started building two more nuclear reactors in the west of the country.

The Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported that the foundation stone for reactor units 5 and 6 of the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant was laid in the presence of Energy Minister German Galushchenko and the US ambassador to Kiev, Bridget Brink.

In contrast to other types of power plants, Russia has so far spared nuclear facilities with its drone and missile attacks - also out of awareness that this could cause a nuclear catastrophe that is difficult to calculate in terms of scale.

The units are being built in co-operation with the US nuclear energy company Westinghouse Electric Company. They are pressurized water reactors of the AP1000 type with a service life of at least 60 years, according to the company.
ADDIS ABABA, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese telecom company Huawei is partnering with its Ethiopian peers in building a greener and digital Ethiopia, the head of Huawei Ethiopia told Xinhua on Friday during the launch of a summit on green energy here.

At the Ethiopia Green Energy Summit 2024, participants will discuss how Huawei could support Ethiopia in developing green energy and providing "sustainable power supply" to local banks, hospitals, schools and shopping malls by using high-tech electronic, storage, and information and communication technologies, CEO of Huawei Ethiopia Liu Jifan told Xinhua.

With the theme "Together for the Greener Ethiopia," the summit has gathered industry and energy experts to discuss the promotion of sustainable energy development and data centers, and electric vehicles charging practices in the Eastern African country.

New green energy technology products will also be launched during the summit.

The mobile data centers built by Huawei have contributed a lot to efficient energy utilization in Ethiopia, Tariku Demissie, chief technology officer of Ethio-Telecom, the country's telecom service provider, told Xinhua.

Ethio-Telecom is undertaking a transition in the use of renewable and green energy technology solutions to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

Out of the 8,400 mobile stations across Ethiopia, about 22 percent are found in off-grid areas and operated by solar energy, he said. 
Germany makes it easier to change gender and name on legal documents

Germanys Parliament Friday passed a law making it easier for transgender and nonbinary people to change their name and gender marker on official documents.

When the law, known as the Self-Determination Act, takes effect in November, trans and nonbinary residents will be able to go to a registry office and order the changes. No expert opinions or medical certificates will be required, a Human Rights Watch press release reports. The applicant will be able to choose from several gender markers  male, female, or diverse  or opt not to enter a gender at all.

The process is open to people over 18, plus 14- to 18-year-olds who have the consent of parents or guardians, according to the BBC. Those under 14 must have their parents or guardians make the request.

The new law replaces one from 1980 under which those seeking to make such changes to provide a local court with two expert reports attesting to a high degree of probability that the applicant will not want to revert to their previous legal gender, HRW explains. The German Constitutional Court had already struck down some aspects of the 1980 law, such as a requirement for surgery.

The act also makes it illegal to disclose a persons deadname except under certain circumstances  for instance, in the case of court proceedings or a police investigation.

Debate over the legislation was both contentious and sometimes emotional, Deutsch Welle reports.

As trans people, we experience time and again that our dignity is made a matter of negotiation, trans lawmaker Nyke Slawik told her colleagues, according to the publication.

Sven Lehmann, the governments LGBTQ+ commissioner, noted, For more than 40 years, the transsexual law has caused a lot of suffering ... and only because people want to be recognized as they are. And today we are finally putting an end to this.

The legislation had the support of Chancellor Olaf Scholzs governing coalition.

Other countries that have adopted similarly simple procedures for gender recognition include Argentina, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Uruguay, according to HRW.

Germany has joined a growing list of countries that are abolishing pathologizing requirements for gender recognition, which have no place in diverse and democratic societies, Cristian Gonzalez Cabrera, senior LGBT rights researcher at HRW, said in the press release. As populist politicians in Europe and beyond try to use trans rights as a political wedge issue, Germanys new law sends a strong message that trans people exist and deserve recognition and protection, without discrimination.
Editor's note: This is a developing story.

Berlin will provide Ukraine with one more Patriot air defense system to fend off increased Russian attacks, the German Defense Ministry announced on April 13.

As Moscow intensified its attacks on Ukraine during the spring, the shortage of air defense systems in Ukrainian cities and villages is being felt more acutely.

Russia's recent strikes against Ukraine's energy infrastructure destroyed several thermal power plants across the country, including the Trypillia plant, the main electricity supplier to Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Cherkasy oblasts.

Kyiv has ramped up its calls on allies to provide Ukraine with more air defenses, in particular, with U.S.-made Patriot systems that can intercept ballistic missiles.

"Russian terror against Ukrainian cities and the country's infrastructure causes immeasurable suffering," German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said.

The ministry said another Patriot will be handed over to Ukraine "immediately" in addition to the other systems already provided and pledged.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, saying that Berlin had also pledged to deliver missiles to the air defense systems that Ukraine already has in service.

"This is a true sign of support for Ukraine at a critical time for us. I urge all other leaders of our partner countries to follow the example," Zelensky said after a phone call with Scholz.

According to Zelensky, Ukraine needs 25 Patriots to protect the entire country from Russian attacks, but Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he is for now focused on securing seven to protect Ukraine's largest cities.

Kyiv is negotiating with its allies to receive two additional batteries of Patriot and one long-range SAMP/T anti-aircraft missile battery, Kuleba said.

Initially a hesitant partner, Berlin has become Ukraine's second-largest military donor after the U.S., although Scholz is still reluctant to supply some key capabilities, namely Taurus long-range missiles.

According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Germany has supplied Ukraine with 17.7 billion euros (around $19 billion) in military assistance as of April.

Read also: ISW: Thin air defenses may permit more Russian attacks on rear Ukrainian cities

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Germany has announced the urgent transfer of one Patriot anti-aircraft missile system to Ukraine.

Source: Germany's Defence Ministry, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Germany will urgently transfer another Patriot air defence missile system to Ukraine to protect it from Russian airstrikes, the ministry said.

"It will be provided in addition to the air defence systems that have already been delivered and those that are planned for transfer," Germany's Defence Ministry stressed.

Deutschland wird der #Ukraine unverzuglich eine weitere Feuereinheit #PATRIOT ubergeben, um russische Luftangriffe abzuwehren. Sie wird zusatzlich zu den bereits gelieferten und weiterhin geplanten #Luftverteidigungssystemen abgegeben. pic.twitter.com/1oULQYqSRd  Verteidigungsministerium (@BMVg_Bundeswehr) April 13, 2024

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Berlin is doing everything possible to support Kyiv in terms of German operational readiness.

"Russia's terror against Ukraine's cities and infrastructure is causing immeasurable suffering. It also endangers the energy supply to the population and destroys industrial facilities that are important for the operational readiness of the Ukrainian Armed Forces," he stressed.

Background:

On 12 April, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that "active negotiations" were underway with allies to obtain two batteries for the Patriot air defence systems and one for the SAMP/T systems.

Earlier, in a speech at the Wartime Diplomacy Forum, Kuleba outlined five priorities for Ukraine's Foreign Ministry in 2024, listing the supply of air defence systems to Ukraine as the first.

On Thursday 11 April, Kuleba urged the French Foreign Minister to take immediate action to supply air defence to Ukraine, noting that it was the lack of modern air defence systems that allowed the Russians to destroy the Trypillia Thermal Power Plant (TPP) near Kyiv.

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (C) gets off the plane at Chongqing Airport in China and is greeted by Zhang Guozhi, Vice Mayor of Chongqing City. Scholz's trip to Chongqing, Shanghai and Beijing will focus on economic relations with the world's second-largest economy, the war in Ukraine, the conflict over Taiwan and the human rights situation in China. Michael Kappeler/dpa

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz begins his three-day visit to China on Sunday in the metropolis of Chongqing, which is home to some 32 million inhabitants.

Scholz plans to visit a Bosch hydrogen drive production facility and talk to students about urban planning.

Scholz's programme also includes a meeting with the regional Communist Party secretary, Yuan Jiajun, and a boat trip on the Yangtze.

On Monday, his visit is expected to continue on to the economic and financial centre of Shanghai and on Tuesday to Beijing for political talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang.

The German chancellor is accompanied by a dozen top managers. Among them are the chief executives of the car manufacturers Mercedes-Benz and BMW as well as the chemical company BASF. Volkswagen, Europe's largest car manufacturer, is not taking part this time.

In Beijing, Scholz is also expected to be supported by Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir, Transport Minister Volker Wissing and Environment Minister Steffi Lemke.

This is the Scholz's second trip to China since taking office in December 2021. His inaugural visit in November 2022 was only a day trip due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. This time, he is taking three days - more than ever before for a single country on a single trip.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visits the Bosch company with the production facility for hydrogen drives in Chongqing, and has the drive system explained to him on a truck. Scholz's trip to Chongqing, Shanghai and Beijing will focus on economic relations with the world's second-largest economy, the war in Ukraine, the conflict over Taiwan and the human rights situation in China. Michael Kappeler/dpa

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sits in a limousine after arriving in Chongqing. Scholz's trip to Chongqing, Shanghai and Beijing will focus on economic relations with the world's second-largest economy, the war in Ukraine, the conflict over Taiwan and the human rights situation in China. Michael Kappeler/dpa

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gets off the plane at Chongqing Airport in China. Scholz's trip to Chongqing, Shanghai and Beijing will focus on economic relations with the world's second-largest economy, the war in Ukraine, the conflict over Taiwan and the human rights situation in China. Michael Kappeler/dpa

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz boards a plane from the air force's airborne unit to travel to China. It is the Chancellor's second trip to China since taking office. Scholz will be in China for three full days, visiting three cities: Chongqing, Shanghai and Beijing. Michael Kappeler/dpa
Shredded Lebanese and Hezbollah flags tower over a destroyed boardwalk where a panoramic view of Israels Upper Galilee stretches out for miles.

Buses (of people) used to come here just to see the Holy Land, says Lt. Col. Juan Garcia Martinez, part of Spains peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.

CNN was embedded on Friday with a Spanish battalion on patrol of Lebanons southern border area, transformed by six months of crossfire between Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces.

Craters pepper the roads and debris covers the sidewalks. Apart from a few Christian-majority villages that have largely been spared Israeli fire, the area is full of ghost towns  a mirror image of the northern-region of Israel where tens of thousands of residents have fled the fighting.

A view across the demarcation into Metula, Israel as seen from the Lebanese side of the demarcation line. - Charbel Mallo/CNN

More than 30,000 people have been displaced from the Lebanese area in the immediate perimeter of the 49-mile border, according to local authorities. Only one school remains functioning. More than 300 people  mostly fighters  have died in Israeli strikes. Eight civilians have been killed in Hezbollah attacks in northern Israel since last October. There have been Israeli soldier deaths in the cross-fire though the IDF has not provided an official tally.

Minutes after the CNN team left the operations area of the UN mission in Lebanon (known as UNIFIL), Lebanons state news agency reported that machine guns were fired from Israel at a car belonging to local journalists. The Israeli military has not yet responded to CNNs request for comment.

A flare-up ensued, more intense than the usual daily exchange of fire, and more consequential due to a possible Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel expected as soon as this weekend.

Hezbollah  the most powerful non-state actor in the region  coordinates closely with Iran. Mohammad Reza Zahidi, one of two high-ranking Iranian commanders killed in the April 1 airstrike on Tehrans consulate in Damascus, was a key intermediary between Irans revolutionary guards and Hezbollah.

Iran has vowed to avenge the deaths. That raised the specter of a conflict regional in scope and possibly catastrophic in its aftermath.

Lt. Col. Juan Garcia Martinez, from the Spanish contingent of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, on patrol with a CNN crew along the Blue Line. - Charbel Mallo/CNN

Speculation swirled about whether Hezbollah would take part in Irans expected attack. But a Lebanese source familiar with the matter ruled this out. The attack will be purely Iranian, the source said.

US intelligence appears to tally with this. The US has observed Iran moving military assets around inside its own country, including drones and cruise missiles, signaling a possible attack on Israeli targets from inside its territory, according to two people familiar with US intelligence.

The US expects Iran to carry out direct strikes against targets inside Israel, according to a senior administration official and a source familiar with the intelligence.

Hezbollah may only be compelled to join an Iranian war effort if the strike leads to further escalation, the same Lebanese source said. Hezbollah and other Iran-backed paramilitaries will be prepared for the stage that comes after the Iranian response, the source told CNN.

On Friday, Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appeared before a crowd wielding a rifle as he reiterated vows of revenge. Israel has been in a heightened state of alert since April 1. The widespread apprehension prompted officials there to urge people to refrain from stocking up on food, generators and medicine, as the country braces for the response.

Still, US officials expect Irans attack to be calibrated to avoid a regional war. Meanwhile, Iran will seek to reassert itself as a regional force to be reckoned with, analysts say.

The broader objective for Iran seems to be one of de-escalation, wrote Sina Toosi, a DC-based Iran analyst and senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, in a post on X, Tehrans strategy aims to incrementally increase the repercussions for Israeli aggression, thereby deterring future incidents without escalating to an all-out war.

Iran has sought to walk that tightrope since it first entered the fray of the Iran-Hamas war in October. Its paramilitary partners  including Hezbollah and Yemens Houthis who have repeatedly struck a key Red Sea shipping route  link their battles to the war in Gaza.

We repeat, if it ends in Gaza, then it ends here, Nasrallah said in a speech last week.

Yet the conflict in Lebanon increases in complexity the longer Israels offensive in Gaza goes on.

Kafr Kila is a town that is - for the most part - deserted, and one that has borne the brunt of Israeli airstrikes in a series of back and forth exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah. - Charbel Mallo/CNN

When warnings about a possible Iranian attack reached fever pitch on Friday night, Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets at Israels Upper Galilee, producing slew of intercepts from Israels anti-missile Iron Dome system.

It provided a glimpse of how Hezbollah might attempt to overwhelm Israels defensive systems as Iran conducts its expected attack.

The flighting on the Lebanon-Israel border has also re-opened long festering issues over the frontier, known as the blue line.

Over the last six months, negotiations over the armistice line between Lebanon and Israel  imposed by the United Nations in 2000 after Hezbollah forced out a 22-year Israeli occupation  have been revived. Meanwhile, Western leaders have mounted pressure on Lebanons government to pull Hezbollah from the border area.

A view of the town of Ghajar taken from a Spanish UNIFIL base in Lebanon. It straddles Syrian and Lebanese territory and is occupied by Israel. A field sowed with mines buffers Lebanese-controlled territory from the Israeli-constructed fence. - Charbel Mallo/CNN

Hezbollahs supporters say this is far-fetched, and, at best, unenforceable. But this diplomatic can of worms could protract the conflict in Lebanon.

From one of Spains bases near the demarcation line, there is a clear view of a microcosm of Lebanons long-standing border issues with Israel.

A verdant green field sowed with mines separates the base from the town of al-Ghajar. The blue line can be seen cutting through the town and splitting it in two. During the Israel-Lebanon war of 2006, Israel occupied the rest of the village  a UN watchtower marks the tip of the Israeli-occupied territory.

We are soldiers. We have to constantly adapt to the changing situation, said Captain Hector Alonso from a viewing point overseeing Ghajar. Asked if Alonsos unit was prepared for the growing danger of the present moment, he said: We are prepared.

CNNs MJ Lee, Natasha Bertrand, Zeena Saifi and Oren Liebermann contributed to this report

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Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signs Senate Bill 419, which bans TikTok in Montana, on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. (Handout photo)

Lets just hope the $227,000 of Montana taxpayer money that Gov. Greg Gianforte essentially gave to the other Governor Greg in Texas wont be needed here this year for firefighting.

With great sound and fury, Gianforte announced to Montanans on April 2 that he  meaning us  would further pile on the Trump-Abbot bandwagon to declare a disaster declaration and further condemn President Joe Biden.

The description allows Gianforte to dip into a pool of state money, the Governors Emergency Fund, that otherwise would be used to alleviate disasters  often natural  in the Big Sky State. At times, the Montana account could be used for mutual-assistance purposes in other states.

But this time, Gianforte effectively is using the money as a salvo in his reelection campaign to demonstrate his MAGA-bona fides at a time when his popularity among Montanans has sagged dramatically  just as most of the county commissioners in the state can attest. Those are among many other dissatisfied Montanans for other reasons.

While no one disputes the southern border situation is a disaster, there are ironies to be considered that are not listed in Gianfortes list of 20 whereas-es:

If Mexico had paid for the border wall as advertised, the United States wouldnt have this problem. Right?

Congress had a plan in place to combat many aspects of the border problem, but GOP legislators stopped in their tracks when Trump ordered that jettisoned for his next solution when (and if) hes elected.

In the meantime, prior to the Second Coming, congressional Republicans are castigating President Joe Biden for not using his presidential power  essentially executive orders  to act.

Also in the meantime, theres significant GOP opposition to presidential executive orders.

As one who served as an officer in the Army National Guard for 28 years in Montana and Wisconsin, and who had duty in Military Support to Civil Authorities missions, Im proud of guardsmen who deploy whether as state employees on state active duty or in either of two federal capacities, Title 10 and Title 32.

But in this case, does Montana really need to send 10 wheeled-vehicle mechanics as state employees to Texas for 30 days to change the oil and rotate tires on Texas Guard Humvees?

In my mind, the answer is, No.

But it sure makes for good campaign video, news coverage and Trumpish storm and bluster in a reelection campaign facing a formidable opponent who is growing stronger.

(Col. Peter D. Fox retired in 2004 as deputy assistant adjutant general for readiness and training for the Wisconsin Army National Guard and returned to Montana. He lives in Big Timber.)

The post Gianforte is using the National Guard as a political game appeared first on Daily Montanan.
Tech giant Google announced Friday that it will begin experimenting with removing links to California news websites on its search platform, in response to an Assembly bill that would require the company to pay for journalism content that it links to.

The move was a major preemptive escalation in opposition to the bill, which has not yet become law but has already sparked debate over who would benefit, and whether restricting access to news content might inhibit democracy.

AB 886, dubbed the California Journalism Preservation Act, would require social media companies such as Google and Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to pay a fee for every article that is shared on their platforms. The bill has passed out of the Assembly and currently sits in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In a blog post Friday, Jaffer Zaidi, Google vice president for global news partnerships, called that proposed fee a link tax and said that that would be unworkable.

To prepare for possible CJPA implications, we are beginning a short-term test for a small percentage of California users. The testing process involves removing links to California news websites, potentially covered by CJPA, to measure the impact of the legislation on our product experience, Zaidi wrote in the post.

He added that until theres clarity on Californias regulatory environment, the company will pause any further investment in the states news ecosystem, including new partnerships through Google News Showcase, our product and licensing program for news organizations, and planned expansions of the Google News Initiative.

Google declined to respond to an immediate request for comment about the number of California users who would be impacted by the change or how long the changes might last. It is also not clear which California news organizations will have their links removed from Google results.

Google isnt the only company to threaten action in response to AB 886. Last year, Meta threatened to pull all news content off of Facebook and Instagram if the legislation becomes law.

Many news organizations, meanwhile, have come out in favor of the bill.

Danielle Coffey, president of the News/Media Alliance, a sponsor of AB 886, called the announcement a power move by Google to try and sway the government and said that the act makes it all the more important for the bill to become law.

Google removing news is undemocratic and antithetical to open access to information, she said.

Chuck Champion, president of the California News Publishers Association, another bill sponsor, said in a statement that Googles suppression today of California news demonstrates exactly why the California Legislature needs to pass legislation to rein in the tech colossus.

Champion accused Google of leveraging its monopoly power to brazenly undermine our democracy.

He said Google has tried these scare tactics before in Australia and Canada. Neither nation backed down, Champion said.

The fact that one company can shut down the means by which 90% of the public find online content in order to achieve their own political and business ends show just how much policymakers need to act, and act now. Google is not above the law, and they should not be allowed to act as if they are, he said.

In a statement, Billie McConkey, chief administrative officer for McClatchy, which owns The Sacramento Bee, said: Numerous countries worldwide have passed journalism compensation laws to recognize journalisms vital role in a democracy. This is typical of how the dominant tech platforms have responded. They would rather block citizens access to essential information than simply pay fair market value for the content from which they profit.

The bills author, Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, said in a statement that her bill is about basic fairness.

Its about ensuring that platforms pay for the content they repurpose, Wicks said. We are committed to continuing negotiations with Google and all other stakeholders to secure a brighter future for California journalists and ensure that the lights of democracy stay on.
Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) called for retaliatory strikes against Iran after Tehran launched drone and cruise missile attacks against Israel on Saturday.

Iran has begun launching drone strikes on Israel, Blackburn said Saturday on social media platform X. @POTUS  we must move quickly and launch aggressive retaliatory strikes on Iran.

Blackburns post gives a sense of the pressure that President Biden could come under from some Republicans in Congress amid fears of a wider regional war.

IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari stated the direct attack from Iran constitutes a severe and dangerous escalation.

Our defensive and offensive capabilities are at the highest level of readiness ahead of this large-scale attack from Iran, he said in a video address posted on Saturday. This is a mission that we are determined and ready to fulfill.

The IDF said that Israel is on high alert and forces are constantly monitoring the developments. Naval vessels and fighter jets are on a defense mission, according to IDF. Air defenses also are on high alert.

NSC Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Irans attack is likely to unfold over a number of hours. The strikes had been expected for several days after Irans embassy compound in Damascus, Syria was hit by an Israeli strike on April 1. The early April attack killed two senior officers in Tehrans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

NSC said that President Biden is being regularly updated regarding the ongoing situation. He returned to the White House on Saturday in light of the situation with Iran, the White House said midday Saturday, adding he would be meeting with his national security team.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Gordon Ramsays pub taken over by brazen squatters who threaten legal action if evicted

Gordon Ramsays pub taken over by brazen squatters who threaten legal action if evicted

"Get out!"

A group of "professional squatters" have taken over a London pub owned by celebrity chef Gordan Ramsay and are brazenly threatening legal action against anyone who tries to kick them out, according to a report.

At least six freeloaders broke into Ramsays York and Albany hotel and gastropub, which is for sale for $16.1 million, boarded up the windows, locked the door with kitchen utensils and glued the locks.

The chef is trying to sign over the building in a multi-million-dollar deal, The Sun reports. Ramsay stars in the "Hell's Kitchen, The American Dream" reality show and Next Level Chef on Fox.

Shocking photographs show the squatters holed up in the trendy pub, one of whom can be seen barefoot and sprawled across on a black leather sofa.

A group of "professional squatters" have taken over a U.K. pub owned by celebrity chef Gordan Ramsay, left, and are threatening legal action against being evicted.

GORDON RAMSAY EXPOSES 'TOUGHEST GUEST' AS HE OPENS NEW RESTAURANT

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Another slipper-wearing occupier was scrolling his smartphone with tobacco, empty water bottles and wine glasses on the floor around him. A blue sleeping bag was dumped on another sofa while a pair of crutches were also visible.

The squatters also slapped up a "legal warning" sign on the front door defending their takeover and cautioned against any eviction attempts, The Sun reports.

The invaders say they have a right to be there, since it is not a residential building.

The occupation of a persons non-residential property without their permission is not itself a crime in the U.K., though police can take action if crimes are subsequently committed, including damaging the property or stealing from it, according to Wales Online.

"Take notice that we occupy this property and at all times there is at least one person in occupation," the notice reads, according to The Sun.

"Any entry or attempt to enter into these premises without our permission is therefore a criminal offense as any one of us who is in physical possession is opposed to such entry without our permission . . . if you attempt to enter by violence or by threatening violence, we will prosecute you."

The notice goes on to say that a violation could result in six months imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $6,200.

Fox News Digital reached out to Ramsay for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

GORDON RAMSAY'S 6TH CHILD MAKES HIM OLDEST DAD AT SCHOOL DROP-OFF

"That if you want to get us out you will have to issue a claim for possession in the County Court or in the High Court," the notice, which was signed by "the occupiers," reads.

Ramsay, a world-renowned chef known for his fiery temper and profanity-laced outbursts, called the police on Wednesday and is trying to secure an eviction notice, The Sun reports.

"Its an absolute nightmare scenario for poor Gordon," a source told The Sun.

"The pub was temporarily closed whilst he was finalizing a new lease, and during this handover period, a gang of professional squatters somehow bypassed all the security and CCTV, and got themselves in. Theyve now boarded themselves in the building and are slowly taking over the place, leaving their crap everywhere and brazenly telling locals this is now their home."

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Gordon Ramsay on the set of "MasterChef."

One shabby-looking squatter refused to speak to the publication when he was confronted outside. He had two black eyes with a cut above one and was wearing a blue hoodie, a knee compression bandage and sliders.

He then began recording and hiding around the back of the building.

The building was purchased in 2017 by film director Gary Love, who subsequently leased the property to Ramsay on a 25-year term with an annual rent of $330,000.

Ramsay also features on Fox shows Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars and MasterChef.





Original article source: Gordon Ramsays pub taken over by brazen squatters who threaten legal action if evicted
Representatives of the state committee visited several military units and met with servicemen, Today.az reports, citing the Defence Ministry of Azerbaijan.

According to the joint action plan signed between the Defense Ministry and the State Committee on Religious Associations, events are being held for the purpose of promoting the national and moral values and educating military personnel.

During the events, the blessed memory of the National Leader Heydar Aliyev and Shehids (Martyrs), who sacrificed their lives for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, was honored with observing a minute of silence.

The events discussed the role of Islam in the creation and formation of healthy mind, the education of the youth in the spirit of military patriotism and the measures taken by the state in the protection of national and moral values. Questions of military personnel were answered.
BAGHDAD, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani has left Baghdad for an official visit to Washington to discuss the issues of ending the U.S.-led international coalition's mission in Iraq, according to a statement by al-Sudani's media office on Saturday.

During the visit, al-Sudani will hold a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, in which they will review the work of the joint Higher Military Commission (HMC), with an aim of setting a timeline for ending the coalition's mission and for Iraq transiting to bilateral relations with the coalition member states, it said.

Al-Sudani noted that the meeting will also discuss issues and escalations in the Middle East region, focusing on joint efforts to promote calm and prevent the ongoing conflicts from widening, which could impact global stability, the statement added.

Al-Sudani's visit came as Iraq and the U.S.-led coalition held several rounds of dialogues to discuss ending the coalition's mission of fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq.

On Jan. 25, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Iraq and the United States agreed to form the HMC to end the international coalition's mission in Iraq. The ministry added that after the coalition's withdrawal, Iraq will move to comprehensive bilateral relations with the coalition countries at political, economic, cultural, security, and military levels. 
Newly-arrived passengers line up to await their turn at the UK Border Agency's passport control at Heathrow Airport - Richard Baker/In Pictures

A charitable trust that has received over 1 million of government funding has announced plans that suggest it will invest in projects which call for the abolition of borders and the dismantling of harmful immigration systems.

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation is reopening its migration fund, which has an annual budget of 5million.

Leticia Ishibashi, the foundations Head of Migration, said in a statement to mark the funds reopening: Previously, our grant-making was primarily focused on work that fosters positive changes to the UKs immigration system our new approach to systemic change focuses on dismantling harmful systems.

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, which has a financial endowment of over 800 million, published two statements from Ms Ishibashi in April.

Ms Ishibashi joined the foundation, which has an endowment of more than 800m, in 2017. She previously worked for Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, and according to her website biography she helped increase access to immigration in the capital.

The Migration Fund had been under consultation following a 2020 commitment to become an anti-racist funder.

Ms Ishibashi claims that immigration systems are built upon and reinforce systemic forms of oppression. The foundations new fund will support organisations that work towards shifting power to migrants and their diaspora communities. This will achieve their aim of dismantling the hostile environment and other harmful laws.

A list of resources that influenced our thinking is provided by Ishibashi, including books entitled The End of Policing, Abolish Borders: The Case for Abolition, Angry White People and Rules for Revolutionaries.

Conservative Party Islamophobia

Since the establishment of the groups migration fund in 2015, previously under the name Shared Ground Fund, the foundation has awarded over 35 million to charities working in the field. Under electoral commission rules, political parties seeking to contest elections can spend a maximum of 34 million during a national campaign.

According to their annual Charity Commission accounts, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation has received 1.36 million in direct government funding since 2020. These grants are used under the organisations Act for Change fund, which was supported by the Department for Media, Culture and Sport.

One of the grantees named in the Paul Hamlyn Foundations annual report is Hope Not Hate, which received 240,000 in 2023. Hope Not Hate have named Conservative backbenchers Miriam Cates and Jacob Rees-Mogg in their State of Hate 2024 report, with the groups founder Nick Lowles claiming that the Conservative Party has a deep rooted problem of Islamophobia.

Other groups that have received funding under the Paul Hamlyn Foundations Migration Fund include the Baobab Foundation, which claims to have received 1 million from the trust to set up operations in 2020. Baobab describes itself as being born out of generations of anger, frustration and struggle, explaining its mission as to significantly scale resourcing to Black and Global Majority communities in the UK, contributing to wealth redistribution.

Another recipient group is Detention Action, who have pursued legal action against the Home Office, most recently filing a case against the governments Rwanda plan. The charity was led by Bella Sankey, who has since left the group to serve as a Labour councillor for Brighton and Hove.

Prior to the April 9 relaunch of the fund, the foundation said it would expose economic extraction, systemic racism, increasing militarisation and discrimination upon which the UKs immigration system was and continues to be built. The Nationality and Borders Act, Illegal Migration Act and Safety of Rwanda Bill are all named as examples of dire legislation.

EU exclusionary white identity

The European Union is named as an example of a zone in which borders do not limit where we go, live, study or work, but is also described by Ms Ishibashi as being built on a limited and exclusionary white European identity.

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation was created in 1987 by founder Lord Hamlyn, who died in 2001. His daughter serves as chair of trustees. The trust was formed to support general charitable purposes, with a focus on the arts. Last year it awarded 39.6 million in grants.

Neil OBrien, a senior Tory MP, said: Its a shame to see money that should be used for useful charitable purposes squandered on extreme causes supported by almost no one in Britain, apart from a tiny number of people on the extreme Left.

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Ms Ishibashi were both approached for comment.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
What is Talking Points

There are already plenty of reasons for Weekender readers who are not yet TPM members to sign up to join the TPM community during our annual membership drive, even though we have, in fact, already exceeded our goal of signing up 1,000 new members.

Namely, were affordable  classy, but inexpensive. And were even more affordable than usual right now. If you sign up before the end of the membership drive on Monday, youll get access to all the good, the bad and the ugly TPM has to offer at a 40 percent discount.

But also, as of this week, reading TPM might help you win Jeopardy. If you have somehow missed all of the relentless bragging from various members of TPMs staff, TPM was the answer to a Jeopardy clue on Thursday night. If you sign up in the next few days, youll be one of the few readers who knew TPM way back when  before Jeopardy carved out a place for our scrappy team in the cultural zeitgeist of the 2020s, sending hoards of new Jeopardy-viewing Gen Z readers to our doorstep. Thats the response we are anticipating, at least.

But you didnt come here for more Jeopardy gloating. Heres what TPM has on tap for you this weekend:

Josh Kovensky previews what to expect next week as he heads to the courthouse to cover the first criminal trial of a former president.

Hunter Walker explains how Trumps throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks legal strategy even included stale internet garbage.

Khaya Himmelman does a wellness check on MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell.

Plus: More on Mike Johnson and Donald Trumps spammy election integrity team-up.

Lets dig in.

 Nicole Lafond

The Great Equalizer

Theres a lot of talk about how trial-by-jury is the great equalizer. A businessman, a drug dealer, a CEO, a petty thief, a president  they all submit to the same process of judgment by a jury of their peers, essentially pulled randomly off the street before selection.

Thats the process well see play out in depth next week. Ill be at the Manhattan criminal courthouse bright and early on Monday morning, going through rounds of NYPD barricades to make it to the floor of the building that the courthouse has reserved for the Trump trial. For jury selection, the courtroom itself will only have six journalists within. The rest of it will be filled with prospective jurors, Trump, and attorneys.

Once the trial begins, access will free up slightly, though the heavy Secret Service presence will keep everyone on their toes for a while. Were hoping that jury selection goes by swiftly, allowing the meat of the trial to begin. Its historic, but lets not forget the bedrock irony here: youre going to read and hear a lot about the solemnity of the office of the Presidency and its contrast with all the appurtenances of criminal prosecution.

Were all supposed to nod along to that, but lets not forget the reality of this case: Trump is accused of making false payments to hide a tryst he had with a porn star. Its tabloid stuff, and it goes to the man.

 Josh Kovensky

Trump Opts For The Expired Meme Defense

As his court date approached, Trump and his attorneys made frantic efforts to have the case delayed or dismissed. This included three straight days of appeals last week and multiple other appeals before that. Trump also unsuccessfully tried to assert presidential immunity last month when the judge declared he tried that move too late and had had myriad opportunities to raise the claim of presidential immunity well before March 7, 2024.

Trumps throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks legal strategy even included stale internet garbage. On Wednesday, Trump used his Truth Social platform to suggest there was new information he had just found that would clear him of any wrongdoing. This was a lie. Trump was simply rehashing a highly public, highly questionable document with a backstory you may already know. If not, you can read all about it here on TPM.

The former president wasnt even the first one to try and revive the document in an effort to defend him ahead of the trial. Trump supporters had been circulating it online so much that the AP was motivated to do a detailed fact check last month.

Shockingly, Trumps email chain letter defense did not stop the trial. Meanwhile, over on Instagram, Stormy Daniels is  quite literally  riding off into the sunset.

 Hunter Walker

MyPillow Guy Is Still Working On A Plan To Save Our Country

Election denier and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has been trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election results for years now. And, even though he was unsuccessful in that particular endeavor and even admitted that he was broke last year, he told TPM, in a rambly, disjointed interview this week that he still has a plan.

Like all things with the pillow magnate, the plan is a little hazy. But according to Lindell, it centers on getting rid of voting machines in every county in the country.

In his words, it goes something like this: Weve got electronic monitoring devices because the big lie says none of these voting machines are online when in fact theyre all online. Weve got an initiative where were going to every county, all 3,143 of them in the United States with a sales pitch.

The sales pitch is a hand-counting system that he claims is better than France, Germany, UK, Netherlands.

Lindell has been involved in a larger effort to try to scam counties into adopting a hand counting method of ballot countinga system fueled by conspiracy theories about voting machines that election experts warn is both inefficient and prone to error.

Lindell says that of course he is worried about the integrity of the 2024 election because he is worried about any election that uses machines. But he said that he would rather have computer manipulation in this upcoming election if it leads to permanently getting rid of voting machines, than the continued use of voting machines.

And if thats what eventually leads to getting rid of these voting machines and getting a paper ballot counted, I would rather have that,  he said.

When asked if he ever second guesses pouring all his resources into this project, Lindell responded no.

If we give up, we lose our country, he said. We lose our freedoms forever. Its over and its run by globalist, deep state uniparty.

 Khaya Himmelman

Trump and Johnson Promote Latest Election Integrity Spam

House Speaker Mike Johnson and former President Donald Trump are promoting a new election integrity effort via legislation that would somehow prevent non-citizens from voting  an expected area of fixation heading into 2024 as conspiracy theorists and election deniers look for new places to cast their baseless voter fraud ire. The two met Friday at Trumps Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago residence to discuss the bill, and, according to reporting from USA Today, elevate the issue of non-citizens voting in federal elections.

Its not surprising that Trump and Johnson are promoting such a measure, even though under federal law, it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. As the Washington Post points out, Trump has consistently alleged that Biden has been strategically getting migrants to illegally cast votes in his favor. In other words, the new effort is a continuation of his broader plan to campaign on little other than right-wingers overblown Biden crisis at the border.

While in Iowa this past January, Trump suggested that Democrats were registering migrants to vote: I think they really are doing it because they want to sign these people up to vote. I really do. He added: They cant speak a word of English for the most part, but theyre signing them up.

 Khaya Himmelman
Senate Republicans are anxious and frustrated about the possibility of House conservatives ousting a second Speaker in six months, warning them to avoid at all costs a repeat of the drama that ground Washington to a halt for weeks.

They worry that as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) gets closer to putting Ukraine aid on the floor, the chances increase that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) will move to force a vote on her motion to vacate  the same mechanism used to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

For some, its bringing up a bit of PTSD from the three-week slog in October that left Johnson as the last man standing.

Its a lot. I think theres quite a bit, said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), an ex-House member.

I just dont know why anybody else would do the job. If Mike Johnson proves to be inadequate, I dont know anybody else who would even try it. The guys got the best diplomatic skills, hes plenty conservative, he continued. But the burden of governing is very real, and I just dont know why anybody would take that burden on for a short stint  unless they really want their picture hanging in the Speakers lobby.

To say Senate Republicans were dismayed by the October episode, when eight Republicans and all Democrats made Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) the first Speaker in history to be removed, would be an understatement. The fight that followed undercut much of the work planned for the remainder of the year and beginning of 2024, including government funding. Congress needed to pass four stopgap spending bills before finally fully funding fiscal year 2024 last month.

It was Johnsons handling of government funding  and the deal he cut with Democrats to keep the government open  coupled with his expected plan to put a Ukraine aid bill on the floor that pushed Greene to file her motion to vacate, which she said was a warning to Johnson.

Greene and other hardline conservatives were also furious at Johnson Friday for helping pass a foreign surveillance reauthorization bill without a warrant requirement for Americans data swept up in the process.

She hasnt moved to force a vote on the ouster yet, but some House members think its only a matter of when.

Its the whole concept of a bunch of little things that continue to add up, Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) told The Hill. It feels inevitable.

This idea is alarming Senate Republicans who believe Johnson is in a no-win spot given that he has no margin for error and is essentially forced to rely on Democrats to pass key items.

Its just really counterproductive, said Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican. I know there are frustrations over there but I just think that having a governing majority that can actually get some things is really critical, particularly if your goal is to deliver results for the American people.

The big difference between this time around and October is the possibility that Democrats could save Johnson and spare the chamber from having to endure the saga that consumed the Capitol in the fall.

During that stretch, three members  House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.)  became Speaker nominees before withdrawing, with the House floor remaining paralyzed until Johnson finally won.

I think the time is ripe for Democrats to rise up and say: Were not going to tolerate this, and Mikes a lot more conservative than us, but we have to be a functioning body and demonstrate some seriousness on their part, Cramer said, acknowledging that it would put Johnson in a tough spot if he had to rely on Democrats, but that it might be necessary.

The adults have to step up at some point, he added.

A number of Democrats say they are willing to help save Johnsons Speakership  but only if he puts a version of a Ukraine aid bill on the floor that is almost certain to draw Greenes ire.

Republicans also argue that a push to oust Johnson couldnt come at a worse time as they attempt not only to win back the White House, but keep a grip on their tenuous House majority. The House GOP holds a 218 to 213 advantage, with three GOP leaning seats sitting vacant for the time being.

They worry that a second effort in less than a year to boot their own leader would only exacerbate what voters could view as a lack of seriousness.

It would be a mistake because I dont know what you gain by going through the process again.  It would play into the argument of chaos, said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.). Who would you put in [as Speaker]? And how long would it take? How does that help Republicans in general?

Among those who are particularly spooked are ex-House members whove watched how the GOP conference has changed from afar, including Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who left the House in 2016.

Yeah, back when it was just dysfunctional, he said. Not disastrous.

Mychael Schnell contributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
A complaint was made to the Stanislaus County Environmental Health Department of standing sewage water in front of a Waterford fast-food restaurant.

There were dirty conditions in a nutrition stores bathroom.

These were some of the things noted during inspections made by Stanislaus County officials during the last week of March.

The majority of the 2,400 permitted food service establishments in the county receive two unannounced routine food safety inspections per year, according to the Department of Environmental Resources. The website says inspection reports are scanned weekly.

Food trucks that operate under a Stanislaus County Health Department permit are also inspected by the county, though those are scheduled and done at the departments office.

Dirty conditions at a Stanislaus County restaurant? How to report health code violations

Of the 47 restaurant inspection reports sent to The Modesto Bee on Friday, five were not updated on the site as of Friday afternoon.

If an inspection listed below needs clarification, business owners can email Modesto Bee reporter Dominique Williams at dwilliams@modbee.com.

Several, or major, violations

Violations were found during routine inspections of the following Stanislaus County food facilities during the week of March 25-31. Only the dates of violations are listed.

The details of the reports do not indicate whether a restaurant passed or failed inspection. Corrective actions may have been made by the business by the time of publication.

The reports are linked. For updates on individual restaurants, search the DER website.

The Department of Environmental Resources received a complaint that sewage water was surfacing in a grass area near a Burger King at 11900 Yosemite Blvd. in Waterford. The restaurants district manager told inspectors there was an electrical failure in a lift pump inside a holding tank that pumps the sewage from the tank to the City of Waterford sewer line in the street. The district manager voluntarily closed the restaurant on March 26. During a reinspection on April 1, inspectors noted two new pumps were installed and the contaminated grass area was cleaned and sanitized.

Ultimate Fit Nutrition, 2508 Oakdale Road #11 in Modesto, had three violations on March 26. Inspectors observed residue buildup in the hand sink, stains and grime on the toilet bowl base and an empty soap dispenser in the bathroom.

Empire Gas and Food, 5018 Yosemite Blvd. in Empire, had four violations during a reinspection March 26. These violations remained from the initial routine inspection on March 19. The bathroom soap dispenser was empty, the toilet handle was marginally operational and the floor in the bathroom had dirt accumulation and miscellaneous items stored. The walk-in refrigerator ceiling area had dirt/debris buildup.

Dust Bowl Brewing Company, 3000 Fulkerth Road in Turlock, had seven violations on March 28  five of which were corrected at the time of the inspection. Inspectors observed food equipment and food supplies stored under an open stairwell and exposed fire sprinkler system pipes. There was a coffee mug on top of the dough mixer. Hot water in the womens restroom was noted at 93 degrees and hot water in the mens restroom was 91 degrees (must be between 100 and 108 degrees). Two hand sinks were noted to be inaccessible.

Burlys California Bistro, 1219 N. Carpenter Road Suite 5 in Modesto, had four violations on March 28. Inspectors observed food spillage and heavy food crumb accumulation at the corner battering station. The exhaust hoods were grease-laden. There was a water leak under a sink and on the ceiling above the dishwasher.

All violations were noted as corrected during a reinspection on April 4.

Other food facilities with three or more, or major, violations at the time of their inspections include:

One or two non-major violations

According to Stanislaus County, other food facilities that had one to two violations, none of them major, are:

No violations

These food facilities had no violations, according to the county:
Guilty plea by leader of polygamous sect near the Arizona-Utah border is at risk of being thrown out

FILE - This photo shows Hildale, Utah, sitting at the base of Red Rock Cliff mountains, with its sister city, Colorado City, Ariz., in the foreground, Dec. 16, 2014. The guilty plea of Samuel Bateman, the leader of a polygamous sect in the Colorado City-Hildale area who is accused in a scheme to orchestrate sexual acts involving children, is at risk of being thrown out due to an unmet condition of his plea deal that hinged on whether other charged in the case also would plead guilty. Prosecutors informed the court, Thursday, April 11, 2024, that two other men charged in the case had rejected plea offers. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

PHOENIX (AP)  A guilty plea by the leader of an offshoot polygamous sect near the Arizona-Utah border is at risk of being thrown out due to an unmet condition of his deal that hinged on whether others charged in the case also would plead guilty.

Under the terms of Samuel Bateman's deal, prosecutors can  but aren't required to  withdraw his guilty plea, after two other men charged in the case rejected plea offers and are now headed to trial.

Bateman, a self-proclaimed prophet who took more than 20 wives, including 10 girls under age 18, pleaded guilty this month to charges of kidnapping and conspiring to transport underage girls across state lines in what authorities say was a yearslong scheme to orchestrate sexual acts involving children.

The U.S. Attorneys Office in Phoenix declined on Friday to say whether it will withdraw Batemans plea.

We have yet to see it. Its not on the docket, Batemans attorney, Myles Schneider, said when asked about the matter. He declined to comment further.

Hearings are scheduled Monday and Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich over the offers that were rejected by Batemans co-defendants.

Bateman's plea agreement recommends a prison sentence of 20 to 50 years, though one of his convictions carries a possible maximum sentence of life.

In his plea, Bateman, 48, acknowledged taking underage brides, having sex activity with them and arranging group sex, sometimes involving child brides.

Authorities say Bateman created a sprawling network spanning at least four states as he tried to start an offshoot of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which historically has been based in the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.

He and his followers practice polygamy, a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it. Bateman and his followers believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven.
Habitat for Humanity Quad Cities celebrated the dedication of its latest home in Davenport.

The home is the last of four Habitat for Humanity got from the City of Davenport to renovate. The home took about ten months to complete, and Mevi Adigo and her family are the proud new owners. Habitat for Humanity requires applicants to put in a lot of work to get one of its homes. The other three homes from Davenport were dedicated in December.

For more information, click here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com.
TYLER, Texas (KETK)  The Habitat for Humanity of Smith County (HFHSC) held their Pup Houses in the Plaza on Friday in Tyler to help raise funds for their nonprofit.

Tyler non-profit donates pet oxygen masks to fire departments in East Texas

According to a release, five dog houses that were built by local companies and Tyler ISD will be auctioned off on April 20 at HFHSCs Celebration Gala and Auction. Those who participated in the fundraiser partnered up with pet-related nonprofits.

The 2024 builders and their partners were:

Fitzpatrick Architects with OMalley Alley Cat Rescue

Park Central Tyler with Angel Paws Advocates

Root Construction with Therapet

SCI Construction Ltd. with Pets Fur People

Tyler ISD Career & Technology Center with SPCA of East Texas

Mineola Purple Heart recipient gets home fixed up

The Habitat for Humanity of Smith County is a nonprofit organization that makes homeownership possible for low income working families in Smith County. The nonprofit said they have helped complete nearly 1,300 critical repair projects since 2009.

Those in attendance were able to cast their vote for the Peoples Choice Award. The pup houses will then be on display in the Plaza Tower Atrium until April 20 when the auction will be held. Anyone interested can purchase tickets for the gala and action here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com.
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question youd like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

What happened to Confederate money after the Civil War?  Ray G., 12, Arlington, Virginia

At the time the Civil War began in 1861, the United States government did not print paper money; it only minted coins. As a historian of the American Civil War, I study how the Confederate government used a radical idea: printing paper money.

In 1861, 11 states tried to leave the United States and form a new country, causing a four-year war. Wars cost a lot of money so the new country, called the Confederate States of America, printed money as a way to pay its bills.

But this money was more like a promise  in technical terms, a promissory note  because its certificates were really pledges to give the currencys holder a specific amount of gold or silver, but only if the Confederacy won the war.

Bills issued earlier in the war said right on them, Six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the United States, the Confederate States of America will pay the bills amount to the person holding it. Later currency delayed the promised payout until two years after a peace treaty.

This Confederate $1 bill was issued in 1864 in Richmond, Va., the Confederacys capital. National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History via Wikimedia Commons

The notes were commonly called graybacks, after Confederate soldiers, who wore gray uniforms. The bills were decorated with a variety of images, including depictions of mythological gods or goddesses, like the goddess of liberty. Other graybacks bore images of important people in Southern history like George Washington, Andrew Jackson and Jefferson Davis. Some of the bills depicted enslaved Americans working in the fields, or featured pictures of cotton or trains.

But these images often werent very good quality, because the Confederacy didnt have many engravers who could make the detailed plates to print the money.

When the South started losing the war, the value of Confederate money dropped. In addition, prices for food, clothing and other necessities rose because many items were scarce during the war. Graybacks became almost worthless.

This is what 1 million Confederate dollars looked like, in a photo from 1962. U.S. National Archives

In late 1864, a few months before the wars end, one Confederate dollar was worth just three cents in U.S. currency.

When the Confederate army surrendered in April 1865, graybacks lost any remaining value they might have had. The Confederacy no longer existed, so there was nobody who would exchange its paper money for gold or silver.

Today, though, Confederate dollars have value as a collectible item. Just like people will pay money to own a Civil War hat or musket, they will pay money to own Confederate money. Some rare Confederate bills are now worth 10 times more than they were in 1861.

Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question youd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit  adults, let us know what youre wondering, too. We wont be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Robert Gudmestad, Colorado State University

Read more:



Robert Gudmestad 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.
(The Hill)  Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday repeatedly knocked former President Trump during a campaign stop in Arizona where she also warned against another Trump presidency just days after the states Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law that made performing abortion a felony.

Harris brought up Trumps announcement earlier this week in which he said abortion laws should be left up to the states, while also appearing to say he would not sign a federal ban.

Enough with the gaslighting. We all know if Donald Trump gets the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban, she told a crowd in Tucson.

Senate Republicans furious over Trump trying to derail FISA bill

He basically wants to take America back to the 1800s, Harris added. But we are not going to let that happen. Because, heres the deal, this is 2024 not the 1800s and were not going back. We are not going back.

Harriss trip was announced soon after the Tuesday ruling, which includes an extremely narrow exception allowing for an abortion when it is necessary to save a pregnant persons life.

In the critical battleground state of Arizona, Harris called the Supreme Courts June 2022 overturning of Roe a seismic event adding that the Arizona ban that came down this week is one of the biggest aftershocks yet.

The vice president, who noted the 1864 law was made before Arizona was a state and before women could vote, said the state courts decision now means women here, the women here, live under one of the most extreme abortion bans in our nation.

She placed the blame squarely on Trump, which President Bidens reelection campaign has used as a strategy for months to warn about what a second term for the former president could mean for reproductive rights.

It has demonstrated once and for all that overturning Roe was just the opening act, just the opening act of a larger strategy to take womens rights and freedoms. Part of a full-on attack, state-by-state, on reproductive freedom, Harris said. And we all must understand who is to blameformer President Donald Trump did not.

Trump calls hush money jury selection largely luck, offers to testify at trial

Donald Trump is the architect of this health care crisis, she said, adding that he brags about it and noted Trump has said he is responsible for overturning Roe for boasting that the law was overturned by conservative justices he appointed during his first term.

While Harris was in Arizona, Trump held a joint press conference with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) at Mar-a-Lago. Harris noted in her remarks that Trump said the collection of state bans are working the way they are supposed to be.

In the wake of the Arizona ruling, the Biden campaign has relentlessly attacked Trump, launching an ad blitz in Arizona highlighting the court ruling. The campaign for months has been hitting Trump and Republicans over reproductive rights in an attempt to appeal to independents, women, and other key voting blocs by highlighting restrictive state laws since Roe was overturned.

Trump on Friday urged Arizona lawmakers to act as fast as possible to adjust the states abortion policy. On Wednesday, he told reporters he thought the Arizona law went too far and expected it to be straightened out.

Harris, during her remarks, also called Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) the next Arizona senator. Gallego is running for the Senate seat that will be left vacant by Sen. Krysten Sinema (I-Ariz.) against Trump ally Republican Kari Lake. Harris also said she was thinking of Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) as he begins his treatment for cancer.

Biden and Harris won Arizona in 2020 with extremely tight margins  49.4 percent compared to Trumps 49 percent.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
PARIS, April 13 (Xinhua) -- The three-day Paris Book Festival 2024 opened Friday with 1,150 Chinese books on display and sale and more than 40 percent of them in French version.

Up to 59 Chinese publishers from Beijing, Shanghai, Hebei, Zhejiang and other places are present in the festival, exhibiting and selling books on such subjects as literature, traditional Chinese culture, and children's books.

At the festival, Chinese publishers focus on the exhibition and sale of the first two volumes of "Selected Readings from the Works of Xi Jinping," multilingual edition of four volumes of "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China," and Xi's other related works.

During the festival, Chinese and French publishers will also team up to organize a number of activities. Eight well-known Chinese writers, including Qiao Ye and Shi Yifeng, are present to communicate with French writers.

The Paris Book Festival was founded in 1981 and hosted by the French Publishers Association. As one of Europe's large annual public cultural events, the festival attracted more than 100,000 visitors in 2023. 
They hate me: Ousted Brooklyn principal targeted by higher-ups for supporting Israel, she says

composite photo left Esther Shali-Ogli; right protesters lower right the exterior of the school

A veteran principal abruptly booted from her Williamsburg school says she was targeted for her open support for Israel.

Esther Shali-Ogli, who has led Juan Morel Campos Secondary School for seven years, was abruptly removed last month after Superintendent David Cintron claimed she failed to inform him of an aides arrest  an accusation she calls a lie.

They hate me, said Shali-Ogli, one of two Jewish principals in school District 14, where a rogue, parent-run Community Education Council promoted a citywide student walkout to support Palestine in November at the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and is accused of muzzling dissident voices.

Shali-Ogli, at home above, hung an Israeli flag on her office door in school. Aristide Economopoulos

I feel Im being targeted because Im a Jewish woman in a district which is all about supporting Palestine, she said.

Shali-Ogli, 58, unabashedly cheers the Jewish State  hanging an Israeli flag on her office door and plastering her car with bumper stickers with slogans like Bless Israel and Damn Hamas in Hebrew.

Im not included in anything, she said. I cant go to the CEC or district leadership meetings where theyre espousing annihilation of the Jewish state, and the superintendent has not addressed the hateful speech. As a Department of Education employee Im supposed to remain neutral and sit there quietly.

The principals Kafkaesque nightmare began on March 1, when deputy superintendent Arelis Parache told her to pack her belongings, surrender her keys and leave the building, Shali-Ogli said.

Parache handed Shali-Ogli a letter saying she was under investigation, but did not give a reason.

Shali-Ogli led the Juan Morel Campos Secondary School in Williamsburg for seven years. Google Maps

Her representative at the principals union learned she is under scrutiny over an incident involving a 14-year-old student who told Shali-Ogli on Feb. 7 that a school aide had shared a sex video on his cell phone.

The principal immediately notified the citys Special Commissioner of Investigation in an email titled New complaint of a sexual nature, and marked as high importance. DOE rules instruct schools to report sexual misconduct to the SCI, which usually contacts police.

But it wasnt until Feb. 20, with schools closed for the mid-winter recess, that SCI investigator Michael Bisogna wrote back, asking Was this reported to the NYPD?

After the break, the school called the cops, who arrested paraprofessional Douglas James, 40.

Shali-Ogli then called Cintron  who was in Arizona at a conference  to tell him about the arrest, but he refused to take her calls, she said.

Pro-Palestine leaders of Community Education Council 14 are accused of muzzling differing opinions. Gina M Randazzo/ZUMA Press Wire / SplashNews.com

Cintron later complained she never told him.

Thats a lie, Shali-Ogli said. I informed his deputy, his secretary and his executive director.

The Brooklyn District Attorneys Office did not find enough evidence to charge James, but the case remains under investigation, officials said.

In emails to families and staff, Cintron announced Shali-Ogli will no longer be serving as the principal. He gave no reason for her removal and said a search for an acting principal was underway.

Shali-Ogli denied allegations that she didnt inform the district about an employees arrest. Aristide Economopoulos

Shali-Ogli, who was also teaching a pre-calculus class for college credit at the school, was reassigned to report from home pending the disciplinary process.

I have never had a disciplinary meeting in almost 24 years as an educator, she said.

I miss my kids! I want to go back to work.

Former District 14 superintendent Alicja Winnicki said she hired Shali-Ogli in 2017 when Juan Morel Campos was one of the 50 or 60 lowest performing schools in the state and under threat of state takeover.

Esther improved it to a school in good standing, Winnicki told The Post.

Sa-nyah Lee, at left, a recent grad of Juan Morel Campos, with Shali-Ogli. Courtesy of Esther Shali-Ogli

The 459 students at the middle-high school are 92% Hispanic and black, 88% low income, and 30% with special needs, including kids with severe intellectual disabilities from the Hasidic community in a bilingual Yiddish program.

Sa-nyah Lee, a 2023 graduate and theater major at LaGuardia Community College, credits Shali-Ogli with helping her gain the self-confidence to sing and dance in school performances.

A lot of my friends keep saying they wish she was back. Shes been there for a lot of students  they really like her, Lee said.

DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer would not explain Shali-Oglis removal. While we do not comment on individual personnel matters, we expect all educators and administrators to bring dangerous and problematic information that impacts the safety of our students to us immediately, he said.

The Council of Supervisors and Administrators, the principals union, did not return repeated requests for comment.
CHATHAM, Ill. (WCIA)  The Chatham Police Department and the Better Business Bureau are warning of the return of a common telephone scam.

Its the Can you hear me? scam, officials said, and its designed to trick the call recipient into instinctively saying yes. Scammers have used this tactic for years and its one that the BBB recently issued an alert about, warning of its return to phone lines.

Champaign Co. Sheriff issues new scam warning

The BBB said other versions exist where the question is Is this [your name]? or some other yes/no question, but the end goal is the same: tricking the victim into saying yes. Usually, scammers will hang up immediately after getting a response or claim to have trouble with their handset and say theyll call back, but some consumers have reported being told about banking concerns, vacation packages, warranties and Medicare cards.

Scammers utilizing this tactic usually record the call, the BBB said, and use the recorded response to make a major purchase. Further conversation after the yes could result in attempts to steal personal information or further recording of the victims voice. In addition, a reply could confirm to the scammer that they reached a real working number, opening the victim to further scam calls.

Decatur warns of roofing scams after severe weather

The BBB offered the following tips to avoid being scammed:

Use Caller ID and consider not answering numbers one doesnt recognize. If it is urgent, the caller will call back.

If one does answer a call that prompts a yes/no answer, just hang up without saying anything

Make note of the number and report it to the BBB Scam Tracker

Join the Do Not Call Registry to limit telemarking and sales calls. This might not cut down on scam calls, but it will cut down overall calls

Check bank and credit card statements regularly and look for charges you didnt make

Chatham Police asked that people spread the word about the return of this scam, adding that theyve taken reports of Chatham seniors being scammed out of thousands of their dollars.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
High School Teacher Accused of Sex Trafficking Teenage Runaways She Offered to Help

Kedria M. Grigsby, 42, was arrested on Monday in connection with the incidents in November 2022, according to court documents

Harris County Sheriff's Office (2) Kedria Grigsby, left, and Roger Magee

Kedria M. Grigsby was a cosmetology teacher at a high-school in Klein, Texas at the time of the alleged incidents

She has been charged with several counts of trafficking children and compelling prostitution, court records show

Police say Grigsby assisted her son Roger Magee, who was arrested in November 2022 on the same charges

A high school teacher in Klein, Texas, has been arrested in connection with alleged sex-trafficking of three teenagers, authorities say.

Kedria M. Grigsby, 42, was arrested on Monday on three counts of trafficking a child and three counts of compelling prostitution of juveniles, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a statement.

It appears Grigsby recruited troubled juveniles from local high schools by offering them a place to stay, which would be a hotel, Gonzalez said in the statement. All the three victims are females.



Separate charging documents reviewed by PEOPLE allege Grigsby styled a juvenile identified only as A.A. and a 18-year-old victim, identified only as E.D., in November 2022 and went on to unlawfully transport, entice, recruit, harbor, provide and obtain them, eventually forcing them into prostitution. E.D. was 17 at the time of the incident.

Details about Grigsbys alleged crime against a third victim, 16-year-old K.L., was not available in online court records on Friday.

Police allege Grigsby worked with her son Roger Magee, 21, who had been arrested in November 2022 on one charge of Trafficking of Children. Since then, Magee has been charged with additional offenses of child trafficking and Compelling Prostitution charges, online court records show. He is currently in jail.

Authorities allege Grigsby and Magee participated in managing, directing, and taking profits from three juveniles in a prostitution enterprise, according to a probable cause document reviewed by PEOPLE.



The duo allegedly took the girls to a motel room used for prostitution and managed the finances related to the transactions, such as paying for the room and controlling a Zelle account where the victims would have to transfer the money they earned through prostitution, per the probable cause document.

Police said in the document that Grigsby is a cosmetology teacher at Klein Cain High School, but it wasnt immediately clear if her victims are from the same school.

In a statement to PEOPLE, Klein Independent School District said they are "disgusted" about the allegations and condemned Grigsby's "reprehensible behavior." They said they will "fully cooperate" with the investigation.



The district also refuted claims that they were aware of Grigsby's alleged criminal activities.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.



It isnt clear why Grigsby was arrested this week in connection with the alleged crimes from more than a year ago. Neither HCSO nor Klein police immediately responded to PEOPLEs request for comments.

The Klein ISD statement, which was also signed off by Klein police, said as of February 2023, HCSO had said Grigsby was not a suspect. The district did not learn about her alleged involvement until her April 8 arrest.

Plea information for Grigsby was not immediately available. PEOPLE has reached out to her attorney for further comments.



Magee has entered pleas of not guilty for all his charges, his lawyer Thomas Martin tells PEOPLE.

Anyone who may have more information is urged to contact Harris County Sheriffs Office at 346-286-2646.



If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.



If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

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Read the original article on People.
GEORGE COUNTY, Miss. (WKRG)  A Lucedale man is in custody after a high-speed chase that ended in a crash with a Mississippi Highway Patrol vehicle, according to the George County Sheriffs Office.

UPDATE: Attorneys for Jawan Dallas family respond to Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine being placed on administrative leave

GCSO deputies arrested 28-year-old Austin Butler of Lucedale, Mississippi, after he allegedly led law enforcement on a high-speed chase throughout the Central community.

Austin Butler, pictured at the left, and a car that reportedly flipped after a late-night crash. (Courtesy: George County Sheriffs Office)

According to officials, Butler was traveling eastbound, approaching a safety checkpoint at the intersection of Highway 26 and Central Fire Tower Road at around 9:40 p.m. on April 11. When he saw the checkpoint patrolled by several GCSO deputies and MHP troopers, he reportedly turned around.

Butler  who had previously been arrested for fleeing in a motor vehicle and was out on bond for armed robbery of a Raceway Gas Station in Moss Point  reportedly started driving westbound.

An MHP trooper reportedly noticed and followed Butler, leading to a high-speed chase.

The suspect allegedly lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a power pole, according to the GCSO, which said the crashs impact caused the pole to fall into the roadway, according to reports.

The crash on Cochran Town Road reportedly happened when an MHP trooper was trying to avoid the falling post.

Minor injuries were reported in the crash.

Mobile man arrested after drugs, gun found after fleeing traffic stop: Police

Butler was charged with felony fleeing, driving under the influence, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana, and several traffic violations, according to a press release.

He is currently being held at the George County Regional Correctional Facility, pending an appearance with a George County Justice Court judge.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5.
DAVENPORT, Fla. (WFLA)  Davenport police are searching for a man accused of trying to murder his own cousin Thursday afternoon.

The Davenport Police Department said at about 1 p.m., officers learned of a stabbing at a home in the Highland Meadows neighborhood.

Woman who stabbed classmate to please Slender Man wont be released from psychiatric hospital

Investigators said the suspect Douglas Kidd, 47, stabbed his cousin over 15 times but fled the scene before officers got to the home.

Its only a miracle that this lady is alive, Chief Steve Parker said.

Douglas Kidd (Photo provided by Davenport Police Department)

According to the release, the victim is in critical condition. It is not known why Kidd attacked her, police said.

This was a horrific attack, and we will go to great lengths to get his dangerous individual off the streets, Parker said. We are praying for the victims recovery following this ordeal.

The suspect had been living with the victim and her husband for about a year, according to Chief Parker.

We have spoken to the husband, and he says there have not been any issues going on within the house, within the family, that would lead him to believe that Mr. Kidd would do something of this nature, Parker said.

Kidd has a warrant out for his arrest for attempted first-degree murder. If you know where he is, call the Davenport Police Department at 863-419-3307 or Heartland Crime Stoppers at 888-400-TIPS (8477).

Suspect Douglas Kidds vehicle (Photo provided by Davenport Police Department)

I would definitely consider him dangerous, and if somebody does see him or see the vehicle or they think they see him,  contact local law enforcement, the chief said. Call 911 and let law enforcement approach him and confirm who he actually is.

According to Parker, the suspect is known to spend time around the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, and he has family in Georgia.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) Horry County Fire Rescue was dispatched to four-acre fire in the area of M W Stroud Road and Hardwick Road in the Nichols area.

Fire officials were dispatched to the fire at about 7:14 p.m., and the South Carolina Forestry Commission is assisting with a plow as firefighters work to contain the fire, HCFR said.

No structures are threatened at this time and people may see smoke in the area for an extended amount of time, HCFR said.

* * *

Taylor Ford is a digital journalist for News13. She joined the News13 team in January 2023. Taylor is a Florence native and covers the Pee Dee out of News13s Florence Bureau. Read more of Taylors work here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW.
Whats happening

After more than a year of speculation, debate and legal wrangling, the first proceedings of a criminal trial involving former President Donald Trump began in earnest Monday in a New York City courtroom.

In the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Trump faces 34 felony counts connected to an alleged scheme to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment made during the 2016 presidential election to porn actress Stormy Daniels, who claims she had sex with Trump in 2006.

There is nothing inherently illegal about paying someone not to disclose a purported affair. But Trump is being accused of illegally plotting to falsify business records in an effort to hide that payment. Under New York law, falsifying business records is a misdemeanor, but the charge can be bumped up to a felony if records were falsified with the specific intent to commit or conceal another crime. Bragg alleges that Trump schemed to hide violations of both state and federal election laws as well as New York state tax laws.

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The hush money case is one of four ongoing criminal investigations into Trump, and generally viewed as the least significant  both in the seriousness of the alleged crimes and the potential punishment the former president faces. But its possible that this will be the only one of the four cases to go to trial, let alone be decided, before Election Day in November, and each of the felony counts carries a maximum possible prison sentence of four years upon conviction.

Why theres debate

The question in the New York trial is whether Bragg can prove that Trump broke the law by attempting to conceal the payment to Daniels.

Outside of Trump and his GOP allies, who all claim that the case is a politically motivated witch hunt, most legal analysts believe Bragg appears to have ample evidence to secure conviction on the misdemeanor counts of falsifying business records. Theres serious disagreement, however, on whether he has the goods to tie those violations to a secondary crime.

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Skeptics across the political spectrum say the felony portion of the case is built on shaky and unproven legal reasoning that will require ironclad evidence to prove  evidence Bragg may not have. There are also major technical issues that could derail the indictment, most notably the untested matter of whether a federal crime such as a campaign finance violation can count as a secondary crime under New Yorks state-level business records law.

But others argue that the case isnt nearly as weak as skeptics make it out to be. They say Bragg and his team are adept at litigating complex financial issues such as this one. The lack of details about how Bragg plans to connect critical dots in the case, they add, is a sign that the district attorney is merely saving his most potent ammunition for later, not that he doesnt have it.

Finally, some legal commentators say this case is unique, both in the legal reasoning underlying the charges and the character of the defendant, that theres simply no way to predict how it will turn out.

Whats next

With jury selection completed as of Friday, the judge in the case expects the trial itself to begin as early as Monday.

Perspectives

The lack of second crime will sink Braggs case

Even legal minds who dont like Mr. Trump have said this case is a stretch. Whats the other crime?  Its far from clear that hush money like this is a campaign contribution, and that question could spend years on appeal.  Editorial, Wall Street Journal

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The case gets stronger the more we learn about it

To succeed, Mr. Bragg will need to overcome the first impressions of the case from its critics. In this view, it is nothing more than a years-old, stale case about hush money payments to a porn star on shaky legal ground. But since the indictment in April 2023, the legal foundations of the case have been revealed to be much stronger than the naysayers suggested.  Norman Eisen, Joshua Kolb and Barbara McQuade, New York Times

Bragg doesnt have jurisdiction to accuse Trump of a second crime

Donald Trump is facing a state criminal trial for violating federal election laws that Alvin Bragg has no jurisdiction to enforce.  We should think of Bragg as falsifying his prosecution  just as he accuses Trump of falsifying business records.  Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review

Weak as the case may be, its likely the only chance the Trump will be convicted of anything before November

Flawed as it is, the New York case seems to be the best bet remaining for a Trump conviction before the election.  Andrew Prokop, Vox

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Just because a legal theory is untested doesnt mean its weak

The mere fact that a legal theory is arguably novel or concerns highly unusual facts does not mean that it is invalid or somehow illegitimate under the law. It means that prosecutors will need to try to amass a robust legal basis  drawing on the text and historical underpinnings of the relevant statutes as well as broader legal principles  to persuade both the trial and appellate courts to rule in their favor.  Ankush Khardori, New York

Connecting all the dots in a way that proves convincing to a jury will be a huge challenge

These charges will be difficult to prove. There can be no doubt that the district attorney faces an uphill climb. They tell the story of a complex conspiracy to illicitly alter the course of the 2016 election  potentially, a powerful tale of corruption that persuades both the jury and the public of this prosecutions necessity. But Braggs legal theory is, if not convoluted, a fairly confusing effort to patch together disparate offenses into one alleged crime.  This is not at all the slam-dunk case that so many Democrats wanted.  Mark Joseph Stern, Slate

The weakness of this case may make it harder to convict Trump on more serious crimes

Not only may Trump potentially beat the charges, at trial or on appeal. He may be able to use those charges to create the impression among his supporters that he is a victim of politically motivated vendetta. In turn, that may make it harder for Georgia or federal prosecutors to bring and sustain much more serious charges against him.  Noah Feldman, Bloomberg
Nigeriens demonstrate to protest against the U.S. military presence in Niamey

Nigeriens demonstrate to protest against the U.S. military presence in Niamey

By Boureima Balima and Abdel-Kader Mazou

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Hundreds took to the streets of Niger's capital on Saturday to demand the departure of U.S. troops, after the ruling junta further shifted its strategy by ending a military accord with the United States and welcoming Russian military instructors.

Marching arm in arm through central Niamey, the crowd waved Nigerien flags in a demonstration that recalled anti-French protests that spurred the withdrawal of France's forces from Niger last year after the army seized power in a coup.

One hand-written sign in English read "USA rush out of Niger," in a show of support for the junta and its decision in mid-March to revoke an accord that had allowed around 1,000 U.S. military personnel to operate on its territory out of two bases.

"We're here to say no to the American base, we don't want Americans on our soil," said protester Maria Saley on the sidelines of the march.

Until the coup, Niger had remained a key security partner of France and the United States, which used it as a base as part of international efforts to curb a decade-old Islamist insurgency in West Africa's Sahel region.

But the new authorities in Niger have joined juntas in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso in ending military deals with one-time Western allies, quitting the regional political and economic bloc ECOWAS and fostering closer ties with Russia.

The arrival on Wednesday of Russian military instructors and equipment was further evidence of the junta's openness to closer cooperation with Moscow, which is seeking to boost its influence in Africa.

A few Russian flags were visible at the protest, but some citizens told Reuters on Friday they did not want the welcome Russian defence assistance to lead to a permanent presence in Niger.

"We must not subsequently see the implementation of Russian foreign military bases," said Abdoulaye Seydou, the coordinator of the M62 coalition of civil society groups that led anti-French protests last year.

His concerns were echoed by student Souleymane Ousmane: "This is how the French and the Americans and all the other countries settled in Niger  from military cooperation, they ended up occupying large parts of our country."

It is unclear, however, if or when the U.S. troops will leave.

In March, the top U.S. general appeared to suggest there was at least some support from within Niger's junta for a continued U.S. military presence despite its announced revocation of the accord.

One of the U.S. programmes in Niger is a drone base known as Air Base 201, which cost more than $100 million.

Violence in the central Sahel hit a high in 2023, with conflict fatalities in the region rising by 38% compared with the previous year, according to U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED, citing reports of over 8,000 people killed in Burkina Faso alone last year.

(Writing by Portia Crowe and Alessandra Prentice; editing by Clelia Oziel)
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY)  A husband heard his wife scream on the phone just before the call dropped. Hours passed before she was found dead in Chesapeake with 11 stab wounds.

Previous Coverage: Man charged with murder in death of missing Chesapeake woman

The killer, 22-year-old Raheem Cherry, was convicted on April 12 for first-degree murder, robbery, abduction and illegal concealment of Laura Miles, the Chesapeake Commonwealths Attorneys Office said in a news release.

In the early morning of May 17, 2021, Miles was leaving her apartment in Western Branch in Chesapeake when she was attacked in her truck in the parking lot. Miles husband heard her scream while on the phone before the call ended.

Previous Coverage: Court documents give new details on 19-year-old Raheem Cherry, man charged with killing Laura Miles in Chesapeake

The 61-year-old victim lived in upstate New York, but was staying at an Airbnb in Chesapeake for a work project as a safety officer. Evidence provided at court showed that Cherry stabbed Miles 11 times before abducting her in her vehicle and dumping her body into a ditch behind the nearby YMCA. He then covered her body with leaves.

Police found Miles truck at a nearby apartment complex later in the morning on May 17, and found her body that afternoon. Cherrys fingerprints were found on the outside of her truck and her cell phone found inside. The defendant gave several conflicting statements to police and denied killing her in his testimony at trial.

Miles is survived by her husband and three children. Cherry is expected to face sentencing on July 23. He faces the maximum penalty of two life sentences plus 15 years.

Check with WAVY.com for more updates.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com.
"I love living in Xinjiang. China is a very beautiful country, but if I have to describe China in one word, that would be peace and safety, and that is the most important thing." What's it like living in China's Xinjiang? Xinhua speaks to foreigners staying in the region to get their thoughts. #GLOBALink








FILE PHOTO: View of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir in Nikopol

FILE PHOTO: View of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir in Nikopol

KYIV (Reuters) - Safety at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine remains precarious but the shift to a cold shutdown of all six reactor units, completed on Saturday, is positive, the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief said in a statement.

Drones attacked Zaporizhzhia, Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, on Sunday, hitting a reactor building in the worst such incident since November 2022, though nuclear safety was not compromised, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that with the end of the winter heating season in nearby Enerhodar, where most plant staff live, unit 4 had been moved from hot shutdown on Saturday, bringing "all six reactor units" to cold shutdown for the first time since late 2022.

"I welcome this development which has been recommended by the Agency for some time, as it enhances the overall safety of the facility," Grossi's statement said.

Cold shutdown allows for an "additional response margin of several days before the cooling of the nuclear fuel in the reactor might be challenged," he added.

The reactor would also need less cooling water than in hot shutdown, he said, an issue that grew more challenging following the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in June.

However Grossi said the situation at the nuclear plant remained "extremely fragile," noting a team of IAEA experts had heard 16 rounds of outgoing artillery fire in less than half an hour on Saturday, and several drone strikes had targeted the facility over the past week.

The cold shutdown did not address the "fundamental issue of a recent sharp deterioration of the situation at the plant," he said. "Without a doubt, nuclear safety and security at this major nuclear facility remains very precarious."

Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused one another of targeting the plant since Russia seized it weeks after it invaded Ukraine. Both countries requested an emergency meeting of the IAEA's Board soon after Sunday's attack.

(Reporting by Elaine Monaghan in Washington; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
A missing 14-year-old Israeli boy has been found dead in the occupied West Bank, causing Jewish settlers to storm the village of al-Mughayyir armed with guns and stones in retaliation. Photo by Alaa Badarneh/EPA-EFE

April 13 (UPI) -- A missing 14-year-old Israeli boy was found dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Saturday following an intense search during which Jewish settlers stormed a nearby Palestinian village.

The Israel Defense Forces announced they found the body of slain teen Benjamin Achimeir, one day after the Jerusalem boy went missing while shepherding sheep in the Palestinian enclave.

The military said Benjamin had been "murdered in a terrorist attack" and that the Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet and police are investigating the slaying.

During the extensive 24-hour search, Jewish settlers stormed the Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir armed with guns and stones, prompting Israeli troops to intervene.

At least 25 people were injured and a 26-year-old Palestinian man was shot and killed during the disturbances. It was not clear whether the bullet that killed Jehad Abu Alia was fired by a soldier or an armed civilian.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Defense Minister Yoav Galant both condemned the killing of 14-year-old Benjamin Achimeir in the occupied West Bank but urged citizens not to take the law into their own hands. File Pool photo by Shir Torem/UPI

The Palestinian Red Crescent said at least eight people were hit by gunfire.

Israeli officials urged the public not to take the law into its own hands.

"I am saddened by the death of the boy Binyamin Achimair, who was murdered in cold blood by a vile terrorist," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Saturday on X. "The security system will reach the murderer and bring him to justice, as we have done with every terrorist and murderer."

Gallant appealed to the public to "let the security forces act quickly in the hunt for the terrorists -- revenge actions will make it difficult for our fighters in their mission - the law must not be taken into one's hands."

Achimeir was last seen early Friday morning, according to the IDF. The teenager set out with a herd of sheep from a farm near Malachei Shalom, an outpost on the West Bank near al-Mughayyir and northeast of Ramallah.

The sheep later returned to the farm without the 14-year-old, leading to the search.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also condemned Achimair's murder.

"The abominable murder of the boy Binyamin Achimair is a serious crime. I send my heartfelt condolences to his family," Netanyahu said in a statement.

"IDF and Shin Bet forces are in an extensive pursuit of the despicable murderers and all those who cooperated with them."
EFFINGHAM, Ill. (WCIA)  The resurfacing project on Illinois 121 through Mt. Zion, from U.S. 36 to southern limits of Mt. Zion, is resuming on Monday, April 15, the Illinois Department of Transportation announced.

The $11.9 million project is partially complete, with upgraded traffic signals sand sidewalk ramps already finished. Still remaining are the milling, resurfacing and striping. Because of this, one lane of traffic will be operating in each direction, with barricades and signs directing traffic.

Part of Illinois 185 closed for weekend due to mine sinkhole

IDOT officials say the projects benefits include safer intersections and smoother roads.

They added that drivers should expect some delays and allow extra time for traveling through the area, or take alternate routes. They also urge drivers to exercise caution when in the work zones, obeying speed limits and remaining alert for workers and equipment.

The project is expected to finish by mid-June this year.

The project is part of a more long-term goal, the Rebuild Illinois program, where over the next six years, IDOT plans to improve 3,000 miles of highways and 10 million feet of bridges.

Year-long road construction project beginning on U.S. 51 in Forsyth

For updates on the project, visit IDOTs traveler information map or follow @IDOTDistrict7 on X, formerly known as Twitter.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
The incredible life of Titanic's youngest survivor, who lived to 97 and refused to see James Cameron's movie

Millvina Dean was only 9 weeks old when her family boarded the Titanic in 1912.

She never publicly spoke about the Titanic until September 1, 1985, when the wreck was found.

She lived to be 97 years old, dying in 2009. She was the last living survivor of the ship.

The RMS Titanic and its doomed voyage have captured people's interest since the tragedy in April 1912.

The ship and its passengers were once again brought back into the spotlight when the wreckage was found on September 1, 1985, over 73 years after it sank.

Among those passengers was Millvina Dean, who was just 2 months old when the ship went down. She was the youngest survivor of the tragedy.

Learn more about Dean's remarkable life, including her service during World War II, her relationship with her newfound fame, and why she never saw "Titanic," one of the highest-grossing films ever.

Millvina Dean was just 9 weeks old when she boarded the Titanic in 1912 with her parents and older brother.

Millvina Dean and her mother. Public domain

As reported by the Los Angeles Times, she was the youngest passenger aboard. She boarded the Titanic with her mother, Georgette, her father, Bertram Frank, and her brother, Bertram Vere, before the ship set sail from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912.

But she wasn't supposed to be on the Titanic at all. The Dean family boarded the ship after a coal strike canceled their original trip.

The Titanic. Topical Press Agency/Getty Images

The family was supposed to cross the Atlantic on a different White Star Line ship, according to the Los Angeles Times' obituary of Dean. However, a coal strike led to the cancellation of their original voyage. The White Star Line offered them third-class tickets on the Titanic instead.

Her family was leaving the UK to move to Kansas City, Missouri, to join her father's cousin.

Millvina Dean reading some letters from Titanic scholars. Ian Cook/Getty Images

The Deans were going to Missouri to be with her father's cousin, who owned a store in Kansas City, according to Millvina Dean's obituary in The New York Times. Her father was going to co-own the store after the Deans sold the pub they owned in England.

On April 14, 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg and later sank. Dean, her mother, and 2-year-old brother survived, but her father died with the many other third-class men who weren't allowed on lifeboats.

A lifeboat from the Titanic. Ralph White/CORBIS/Corbis/Getty Images

According to Dean, her father felt the ship collide with the iceberg, which might have saved his family's lives.

"I think it was my father who saved us," Dean said in 2002, according to the Los Angeles Times. "So many other people thought the Titanic would never sink, and they didn't bother. My father didn't take a chance."

Dean, her mother, and brother were put on lifeboat 13, as reported by BBC News.

The survivors on lifeboats were later picked up by the RMS Carpathia and taken to New York City. But Dean's father was among the more than 1,500 people who died in the tragedy.

Dean said she believed it was true that White Star Lines employees had prevented third-class passengers from going above deck and potentially escaping the sinking ship, The New York Times reported.

"It couldn't happen nowadays, and it's so wrong, so unjust. What do they say? 'Judy O'Grady and the colonel's lady are sisters under the skin.' That's the way it should have been that night, but it wasn't," she said.

When the Deans returned to England aboard the Adriatic, passengers lined up to hold the baby. The demand was so high an officer made a rule that each person could only hold her for 10 minutes.

A small baby pictured on the deck of the Carpathia, which pulled stranded survivors from lifeboats. Carl Simon/United Archives/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Three weeks after the sinking of the Titanic, the RMS Adriatic took some survivors back to England. Dean, her mother, and brother were on board.

"Passengers who knew what the family had been through lined up to hold baby Millvina, the youngest survivor of the Titanic. To keep the line moving, a ship's officer ordered that no one could hold the baby for more than 10 minutes," wrote Mary Rourke of the Los Angeles Times in Dean's obituary.

Dean didn't learn about the true horrors of the Titanic until she was 8 years old when her mother finally told her.

Millvina Dean at a Titanic exhibit in 2003. John Stillwell - PA Images/PA Images/Getty Images

"My mother would never speak of it, because it was her husband and they were only married four years. He was strikingly handsome. I didn't know anything about it until I was 8 years old. And then my mother got married again. That's when I first heard about the Titanic, and about my father going down, everything like that," she told the Belfast Telegraph in 2009.

In another interview with the Irish Times, the Los Angeles Times reported, Dean said that her mother suffered severe headaches every day after the sinking.

Millvina and Bertram Dean were educated using money from the Titanic Relief Fund, a charity formed in England to support survivors.

Millvina Dean and a street that was named after her. Ian Cook/Getty Images

The White Star Line rather infamously didn't accept any liability for the Titanic's sinking for years, even though the tragedy left almost all of its passengers with no money, no possessions, and in many cases, no breadwinner  many families lost their husbands and fathers since they couldn't get on lifeboats.

The Wall Street Journal reported in 2003 that four years after the crash, the White Star Line agreed to pay the US $665,000, or roughly $430 per passenger.

In 2024, that'd be around $12,700 each.

During World War II, she worked in the British Army's map-making office.

A World War II-era map. Culture Club/Getty Images

After the war, she worked as a secretary in an engineering office for 20 years, reported the Los Angeles Times.

She never publicly spoke about the Titanic until 1985, when the shipwreck was found.

Millvina Dean at another Titanic exhibition. GERRY PENNY/AFP/Getty Images

"Nobody knew about me and the Titanic, to be honest, nobody took any interest, so I took no interest either," she said, according to The New York Times. "But then they found the wreck, and after they found the wreck, they found me."

For decades after, Millvina Dean attended many Titanic exhibitions, conventions, and events. She also traveled to different schools to tell her life's story.

Dean never watched James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster "Titanic" because she was worried it would make her think about what her father had been doing in his final moments.

"Titanic." IMDb/20th Century Fox

Even though Dean had said she didn't feel a huge connection to her father, since she never really knew him, she couldn't watch any movies or documentaries relating to the Titanic.

"Because that's the ship on which my father went down. Although I didn't remember him, nothing about him, I would still be emotional. I would think: 'How did he go down? Did he go down with the ship or did he jump overboard?'" she told the Belfast Telegraph in May 2009, weeks before her death.

Her brother Bertram, pictured right, died on the 80th anniversary of the iceberg collision in 1992. He was 81.

Survivors Eva Hart and Bertram Dean (left and right) with scientist Robert Ballard (center), who led the deep-sea expedition to film the wreck of the Titanic. PA/PA Images/Getty Images

Her mother lived to be 96, dying in 1975, according to The New York Times.

In 1997, Millvina Dean finally successfully crossed the Atlantic from Southampton to New York City aboard the Queen Elizabeth II.

Millvina Dean on the water. Xavier DESMIER/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

Eighty-five years after the ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic, Dean finally completed the journey from Southampton to New York City, reported the Deseret News.

According to United Press International, after she arrived in NYC in August, she then journeyed to Kansas City to visit the neighborhood that would've been hers, if everything had gone to plan.

She auctioned off some of her Titanic memorabilia later in life, including the mailbag her mother carried their possessions in after the sinking.

A 100-year-old suitcase that was filled with clothes donated to Millvina Dean. Ben Birchall - PA Images/PA Images/Getty Images

After breaking her hip in 2006, Dean began living in a nursing home. To help with expenses, she auctioned off some items that had been with her family on the Titanic, including a suitcase that sold for $18,650. In total, she raised $53,906, according to NBC News.

James Cameron and "Titanic" stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio donated thousands of dollars toward Dean's nursing-home costs in 2009.

Kate Winslet, James Cameron, and Leonardo DiCaprio at the Golden Globes. Hal Garb/AFP via Getty Images

Reuters reported that the trio behind "Titanic" donated $30,000 to Dean after her longtime friend Don Mullan challenged them to.

"I laid down the challenge to the 'Titanic' actors and directors to support the Millvina Fund and I was delighted with the generosity they have shown in meeting that challenge," Mullan told the Irish Examiner in 2009.

Millvina Dean died in 2009 at 97. She was the last living survivor of the Titanic.

Flowers where Millvina Dean's ashes were scattered. Johnny Green/PA Images/Getty Images

Millvina Dean's ashes were scattered by her partner, Bruno Nordmanis, at the Southampton Docks, where the Titanic left for its first and only voyage, NBC News reported.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Indian activists during a protest against capital punishment in New Delhi on 30 July 2015 (AFP via Getty)

Indians rallied in a display of solidarity to raise 3.2m in blood money for a man sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for accidentally killing a disabled boy.

Abdul Rahim, from the southern Indian state of Kerala, was imprisoned after a paralysed boy on life support died in 2006. According to local media reports, the life support system became detached while Rahim was driving the 15-year-old in a car, leading to his death.

Rahim has been in prison ever since.

In 2018, a Saudi court sentenced him to death after the boys family refused to grant him amnesty. The judgment was upheld by the countrys top court last year, before the victims family expressed their willingness to pardon him in exchange for 3.2m (Rs340m).

Rahim, who is from an impoverished family, couldnt possibly raise the money. Then a number of civil society organisations came together in early March to help save him from his fate. They managed to raise the amount three days before Rahims scheduled execution on 16 April.

This is the real Kerala story, said Ashraf Venghat, a Keralite businessman based in Saudi Arabia who helped with the donation drive, referring to a Bollywood film called The Kerala Story that is widely seen as a piece of right-wing propaganda for hyping up the alleged forced conversion of Hindu girls.

A general secretary of the Saudi chapter of the Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre, Venghat arrived in Kozhikode, Kerala, to bring together people from different communities in an effort to raise the money.

There are Hindus, and Muslims, and members of all political parties, including the BJP [Narendra Modis Bharatiya Janata Party], in the committee formed to save Rahims life, Mr Venghat said.

Expressing her gratitude to the people, Rahims mother told reporters that the communal harmony among people here helped collect such a huge amount so quickly.

I had no hope, as we have no means to raise Rs340m. But somehow it was all made possible, she added. I thank everyone.

Keralas chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan took to Facebook and said: Keralites across the world have united to mobilise Rs 34 crore (3.2m) for the release of Abdul Rahim, who is facing death sentence in Saudi Arabia.

To save a life, to wipe the tears of a family, Kerala has created a noble example of love. It is a declaration that Kerala is a fortress of brotherhood, which communalism cannot destroy.
The International Press Institute (IPI) sent a letter to Ukrainian authorities on April 12 urging them to investigate the "pattern of state-sponsored intimidation and harassment" of Ukrainian journalists, particularly Slidstvo.Info reporter Yevhenii Shulhat.

Shulhat published an investigation into Illia Vitiuk, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) cybersecurity chief, that led to Vitiuk's suspension. Shulhat was later targeted by enlistment officers in retaliation.

The IPI said it was "deeply troubled" by the treatment of Shulhat and called on authorities to "conduct their own credible internal investigations into possible irregularities and abuse of power in this case."

The letter, signed by IPI Executive Director Frane Maroevic, was addressed to Prosecutor-General Andrii Kostin, SBU Chief Vasyl Maliuk, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, and Commander-in-chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces Oleksander Syrskyi.

"(W)e call on authorities to establish systemic safeguards that prevent SBU officials from targeting journalists or other critics in retaliation for their work, and protect journalists who report on possible misconduct or crimes by SBU officials," the letter said.

The IPI also addressed other incidents involving the intimidation of investigative journalists in Urkaine, including the illegal surveillance of Bihus.Info and the harassment of journalist Yurii Nikolov.

The investigative outlet Bihus.Info proved that the SBU had secretly recorded some of their staff members using drugs during a New Year's party and then published the footage to discredit the organization.

After the revelation, the Security Service fired the employees implicated in the spying operation and pledged to stand for the freedom of the press.

Yurii Nikolov, a prominent journalist, said he received a threatening visit at his home after his reporting exposed corruption in the Defense Ministry's procurement operations.

Nikolov's investigations into inflated prices for food supplies and low-quality winter jackets for the military prompted the ousting of previous Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.

The IPI said these incidents "show a pattern of state-sponsored intimidation and harassment of investigative journalists in Ukraine."

The IPI is an international network of journalists and media professionals who promote press freedom around the world through direct advocacy and awareness campaigns.

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
The Metro Transit Police Department in Washington, D.C. is investigating after a man was accused of verbally berated a gay couple with their child on a public train.

Video from after the alarming incident went viral shortly after it was posted on Sunday evening to X, formerly known as Twitter, by local resident Gianna Gronowski, who said that the man yelled homophobic slurs at two gay men with their young child before turning his attention to her and her partner.

"Just witnessed a small child get SCREAMED at by a man for having two dads," she wrote. "This man yelled that everyone on the train should 'be sick' that this 'innocent child' was being raised by f@gs  we yelled at him to get off the train; the family departed and he followed them."



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twitter.com

Gronowski said that she then called out to the man to take his attention away from the couple. She continued: "He then turned his attention on my partner and I and screamed at us for being gay, calling us slurs. We felt incredibly unsafe. He reboarded the train and stared us down for a few stops before exiting at Judiciary Sq."



The videos posted by Gronowski do not show the initial confrontation, but rather begin once the man had backed away from her and her partner, and exited the train. As for why she did not begin filming earlier, Gronowski explained: "I wish I had recorded his verbal assault. But when he turned his attention toward me, I got shaky after [having] been brutally physically assaulted on the metro just a year prior."



The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority responded to Gronowski's posts on the platform, confirming that the Metro Transit Police Department is investigating. WMATA said that MTPD "is aware of the incident" and that "the video will help with additional information."


FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE)  An investigation is underway after an attic fire that left significant damage to a home in Fresno, the Fresno Fire Department said.

Just before 3 p.m. on Friday firefighters say they received reports of a house on fire in the area of Harrison and Thomas Avenues in Fresno.

Upon arrival, crews saw smoke and flames coming out of the home. They were able to search the house and identified the fire was in the attic. Nobody was home at the time.

Fire officials say they were able to salvage and recover most of the contents inside the home, but there is still significant damage.

As of Friday, the cause of the fire is still under investigation. Firefighters encourage residents that, if their home catches fire, call 911 and not go back inside.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47.
The latest instance of Iowa Nice as practiced by Gov. Kim Reynolds includes empowering the police in her state to arrest undocumented immigrants.

She thereby makes Iowa a place for immigrants to avoid when it is in the midst of an ongoing labor shortage.

Even if you were a completely legal immigrant in the county, why would you seek to settle in a state when you have to worry about becoming fair game to any cop who pulls you over?

Or, if you are an immigrant already working in Iowa, why would you stay if something better arose in an actually nice state?

The Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice has denounced the new law as a ridiculous stunt during an election year in order to perpetuate partisan campaign rhetoric, drive fear in immigrant communities and mobilize voters using fear and anti-immigrant sentiment.

And Reynolds pulled this stunt as the 2024 report of the Iowa Business Council makes clear one of its biggest worries.

Iowas workforce constraints continue to be a top strategic concern, the report said.

Imagine how Reynolds description of the measure sounds to an immigrant deciding where to join the workforce and build a better life: This bill gives Iowa law enforcement the power to do what [Joe Biden] is unwilling to do.

Legal Immigrants in Texas Should Be Worried, Too

An immigrant deemed by Iowa to have entered the state illegally will face a prison term of between two and five years. State judges will be allowed to order deportations. Immigrants will then either be placed aboard international flights or transported to the Mexican or Canadian border. Any immigrant who balks will face felony charges.

The new Iowa law was modeled on one in Texas that has been challenged by the U.S. Justice Department and numerous civil rights organizations. A court decision there will also likely determine how it goes in Iowa.

Meanwhile, Reynolds is deploying 100 Iowa National Guard and public safety officers to the Texas border, 1,000 miles away, as a way of dissing President Biden, saying she is taking action because he has not. She is shamelessly paying for this silly show of farce with funds from the Biden administrations American Rescue Planwhich is delivering a record amount of direct federal aid to local governments.

The token troop deployment is even sillier because Reynolds did the same thing in 2022. The Des Moines Register suggested in an editorial something useful the troops could do in light of a shortage of workers back home: Perhaps they could serve our state better by bringing some new Iowans home with them.

Reynolds sought a partial remedy to the labor crunch two years ago by forcing the unemployed to go back to work earlier. She cut unemployment benefits from the maximum of 26 weeks offered by most states to just 16 weeks. And after 8 weeks, the recipient was required to take any job that offered 60 percent or more of the previous wages.

Reynolds also sought to add to the workforce by lowering the minimum age and expanding the maximum hours for child labor. Children as young as 14 would be allowed to work in industrial laundries and meat coolers, where they had been previously barred. Sixteen-year-olds would be allowed to perform hazardous workincluding power machine operation, demolition, roofing, and excavationwhere federal law sets a minimum age of 18. Kids who are 16 and older could work as many hours as adults.

In Iowa, we understand there is dignity in work and we pride ourselves on our strong work ethic, Reynolds told the press, as if she were not just trying to fill jobs with youngsters that could be filled by grown immigrants if there were a sane immigration policy.

In late February, the U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against a janitorial service, charging among other things that it had hired children as young as 14 to work in an Iowa slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant, cleaning meat and bone-cutting saws, head splitters, jaw pullers and skinning equipment. The lawsuit notes that one young worker wore a T-shirt reading Class of 2025 South Sioux City High School and others had pink and purple sparkly backpacks.

A labor investigator reported that a 14-year-old identified only as Minor Child A routinely started work at 10:45 p.m. on nights when school was in session. Additionally, Minor Child A worked over three hours, typically seven to eight hours, and worked more than 18 hours in a week, typically at least 32, and as many as 54 hours in a week, when school was in session.

No words of outrage or remorse came from Reynolds. She was too busy with political stunts about Bidens failure at the border.

If Reynolds was really interested in addressing the immigration crisis and her states labor shortage, she would seek to have her fellow Republicans join her in clamoring for more immigration courts, more asylum officers, more bed space.

According to a database maintained by Syracuse University, there was a backlog on Friday of 3,4387,990 cases. Of those, 1,169,796 involved asylum seekers, who can wait as long as 10 years for a hearing.

As noted immigration attorney Ben Osorio sees it, the whole immigration system is in critical need of an overhaul. And nothing is being done because the opposing political parties cannot overcome their differences.

Nobody has any incentive to fix it because you cant give the other side a win, he said.

He reported that some 40 percent of the asylum petitions are granted. That would mean 467,918 completely legal immigrants. If the backlog were cleared. Some of them might even want to go to Iowa, where the labor shortage means there are plenty of jobs. Reynolds army could even bring them there.

Wouldnt that be nice?

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A helicopter raid targeting a vessel near the Strait of Hormuz. The Special Naval Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has seized an Israel-linked MCS Aries ship near the Strait of Hormuz. The incident comes amid heightened tensions between Iran and Israel over the regime's attack on the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1. Tasnim News Agancy/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

The navy of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has detained a container ship in the Gulf that is allegedly linked to Israel, news reports said on Saturday, as the threat of an Iranian retaliatory attack on the Jewish state was deemed imminent.

Images distributed by the Iranian state news agency IRNA and Tasnim news agency, which is considered a mouthpiece of the IRGC, showed commandos rappelling from a military helicopter onto the ship's deck.

The vessel was on its way to Iranian waters after being detained, according to IRNA. No further information was initially made available by Iranian sources.

Tensions in the region have risen sharply since a suspected Israeli airstrike on Iran's embassy compound in the Syrian capital Damascus on April 1. Two brigadier generals died, prompting the leadership in Tehran to threaten Israel with retaliation.

Amid fears of an imminent strike on Israel, the Washington said it was increasing its military presence in the Middle East.

The UKMTO maritime agency, which is part of Britain's Royal Navy, previously reported on the incident without naming Iran. It said the seizure occurred about 50 nautical miles (92.6 kilometres) north-east of the port city of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

The Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported that the Portuguese-flagged container ship MSC Aries was seized by Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz.

Citing unnamed sources, the broadcaster said there were 20 Filipinos aboard the freighter, which was reportedly heading to India.

The Israeli army broadcaster also reported the seizure by Iran of a vessel sailing under the flag of Portugal. It presumably has Israeli owners, the broadcaster wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Washington criticized Tehran's move. "We strongly condemn the Iranian seizure of the Portuguese flagged, British-owned MSC Aires in international waters," said National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson.

"Seizing a civilian vessel without provocation is a blatant violation of international law, and an act of piracy by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization," she said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

According to the maritime tracking service Vessel Finder, the 366-metre-long container ship was on its way from the United Arab Emirates to India. Its position was last reported on Friday off Dubai.

Responding to the incident, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned a "pirate operation in violation of international law."

Meanwhile in Israel, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant says the nation is prepared.

"We are closely monitoring a planned attack by Iran and its proxies against the State of Israel," Gallant said. "In recent days we have strengthened our defensive and offensive array and we are determined to take any measures required to defend the citizens of the State of Israel," he said, according to his office.

He told the public to follow instructions issued by the army and Homeland Security that were issued on Saturday evening, entering effect at 11 pm (2000 GMT) and initially in force for 48 hours.

School lessons and other educational activities are cancelled, as are holiday camps and organized excursions from Sunday onwards, according to Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists.

Sunday marks the start of a two-week school holiday for the Jewish festival of Passover.

The guidance also restricts gatherings according to the areas deemed most at threat, telling citizens to ensure they can swiftly reach a shelter.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin assured Gallant of the "unwavering US support" in a call due to "acute regional threats," according to US Defense Department spokesman Pat Ryder.

Austin said Israel can "count on full US support" against any attacks by Iran and its proxies.

"This morning, I spoke with my Israeli counterpart, National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi, to discuss events in the Middle East. During the call, I reiterated the United States ironclad commitment to the security of Israel," US White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.

Several German politicians from across the political spectrum also spoke out in support of Israel in the event of an Iranian attack, including the Social Democrats' parliamentary group's foreign policy spokesman, Nils Schmid, and Johann Wadephul, deputy leader of the Christian Democrats parliamentary group.

Some leaders and ministers around the world made contingency plans given the high threat, with US President Joe Biden cancelling his weekend plans. He was returning to the White House to consult with his national security team on events in the Middle East, the White House said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Katz postponed a visit to Austria and Hungary planned for Sunday.

Passenger airlines meanwhile were avoiding Iran amid the heightened threat situation.

Dutch airline KLM and the Australian airline Qantas said they had adjusted their flight routes to avoid flying through dangerous airspace. KLM said it would no longer fly over Iran and most of Israel with immediate effect, as a "precautionary measure," Dutch news agency ANP reported.

However, in Israel, no special instructions had yet been issued for Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, an Israeli army spokesman on Israeli television on Saturday evening.
KABUL, April 13 (Xinhua) -- More than 8,000 foreign tourists visited Afghanistan over the past two years, local media TOLOnews reported Saturday, citing government official.

Under the rule of the Afghan caretaker government since August 2021, a total of some 8,200 foreign tourists have visited the country, said Khubaib Ghufran, spokesperson for the Ministry of Information and Culture.

The Afghan caretaker government has been working on new plans in efforts to attract more foreign tourists, according to the report.

Some countries like the United States and Australia have advised their citizens not to travel to the war-torn country, citing reasons including security concerns. 
An anti-missile system operated after Iran launched drones and missiles toward Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)

Iran sent over 300 drones and missiles hurtling toward Israel on Saturday, escalating tensions across an already fraught Middle East and causing the international community to scramble to formulate a response.

The attacks came in retaliation for the April 1 bombing of Iran's embassy in Syria. Iran said it now considers that matter "concluded," but also warned Israel and the U.S. against further reprisals. President Biden, meanwhile, condemned the attacks and said he would convene G7 leaders Sunday for "a united diplomatic response."

It was unclear how much damage the attacks caused. Many of the projectiles were intercepted by Israel's air defense system, with assistance from the U.S. and other allies.

U.S. and Israeli officials had been predicting a strike. Biden sought to dissuade Iran Friday with a simple one-word message to Tehran's leaders: "Don't."

That warning went unheeded Saturday. Heres a look at how we got here, and what could happen next.

Whats happening?

Israel Defense Force spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Iran had launched more than 200 drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles towards Israel Saturday, according to The New York Times. Hagari said one girl had been injured.

The Iranian-run state news agency IRNA said Tehran had fired ballistic missiles at Israeli targets, the Associated Press reported.

President Biden cut his weekend visit to Delaware short, returning to the White House on Saturday to meet with his national security team and later speak with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a statement, Biden affirmed that the U.S. "commitment to Israels security against threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad."

Biden also said he had directed U.S. military resources to the region over the past week to support Israel's defense, and that as a result "we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles."

The background

Tensions have long simmered and flared between Iran and Israel. Iran has been accused of providing funding and support to militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah to help facilitate attacks on Israel.

But Saturday's attack came less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria. The attack killed seven of Irans military advisers, including three senior commanders.

Although the attack took place outside Iran, it may as well have been a direct hit on the country. Diplomatic compounds, including embassies and consulates, are generally considered sovereign territory of the country they represent and are afforded certain protections. However, during times of war or conflict, diplomatic compounds may become targets for attacks by opposing forces. These attacks are usually condemned by the international community, and when they do occur in conflict zones, it often leads to diplomatic tensions  and potential repercussions.

Saturday's attack came amid the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel, although Iran does not take responsibility for aiding Hamas during its attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 Israelis.

On Friday, Biden had said he expected Iran to attack sooner than later" and urged Tehran against it. The U.S. also took steps in recent days to protect Americans in Israel and prepare U.S. troops and warships in the region to defend Israel.

What Iran has said

Iran had blamed Israel and the U.S. for the April 1 attack and had been threatening retaliation.

On Saturday, Iran's mission to the United Nations said in a statement it considered these retaliatory attacks to be a conclusion in the matter of the April 1 embassy bombing. The statement, however, warned Israel that any future reprisals would be met by a "considerably more severe" response and that "the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!"

Prior to the Saturday attack, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also seized an Israeli-affiliated container ship near the Strait of Hormuz in another apparent sign of aggression by Iran.

What Israel has said

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his war cabinet Saturday night and spoke with President Biden.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently speaking with US President Joe Biden, following the deliberations of the Security Cabinet and the War Cabinet. pic.twitter.com/v2oJqMSky4  Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 14, 2024

Israel has not publicly taken responsibility for the April 1 embassy attack, though it has not denied carrying it out either.

How are other countries responding?

Many nations quickly came to Israel's defense.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he condemns the Iranian regimes reckless attack against Israel. These strikes risk inflaming tensions and destabilizing the region, he stated. Iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard.

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock also strongly condemned the attack, which she said could plunge an entire region into chaos. She called for Iran and its proxies to stop this immediately, adding that Israel offers our full solidarity at this time."

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that we are following events in the Middle East with the deepest concern, adding that the country is in permanent contact with their embassies in the region, which will remain open to support Spaniards in the area.

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro called the unfolding events predictable, declaring it a prelude to World War III, when humanity should rebuild its economy towards the rapid goal of decarbonization.

What happens next?

International leaders will meet Sunday to coordinate a response.

The United Nations Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting at 4 p.m. E.T.

Following a letter received from @IsraelinUN ,the Maltese Presidency of the #UNSC has scheduled an open emergency meeting of the Council tomorrow at 4pm under the agenda item The situation in the Middle East to consider the drone & missile attack by #Iran on #Israel @MFETMalta  Vanessa Frazier  (@_VanessaFrazier) April 14, 2024

President Biden also said he would convene a meeting with the leaders of the G7 countries, which include France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, to discuss a unified diplomatic response.
Iranian demonstrators wave a Palestinian flag during an anti-Israeli protest in Palestine Square in Tehran early Sunday after Iran launched airstrikes toward Israel. (Vahid Salemi / Associated Press)

Iran launched waves of attack drones toward Israel on Saturday in retaliation for a deadly Israeli airstrike this month, in what may be the start of a broader multi-front reprisal.

A military response from Israel is expected, although it was unclear how robust it would be. Air raid sirens were reported in Israel early Sunday. An Israeli military spokesman said that Iran had fired more than 200 "deadly drones" as well as cruise and ballistic missiles but that the "vast majority of threats" had been intercepted "with assistance from our partners."

Attacks from Iranian soil toward Israel proper represent a major escalation in the regional conflict amid the Israel-Hamas war that has raged for six months in Gaza.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said early Sunday that the attack caused minor damage to one military base and no serious casualties.

Hagari said Israel had been on high security alert, canceling school and large public gatherings. Regional governments, Israel and its major ally, the U.S., had been bracing for a violent response from Iran after Israeli airstrikes April 1 killed seven senior Iranian officials at an Iranian diplomatic mission in Syria.

President Biden cut short his weekend in Delaware on Saturday and rushed back to the White House, where he was joined by a team of national security advisors.





Biden was also joined by the secretaries of Defense and State, Lloyd J. Austin III and Antony J. Blinken, amid reports from the Pentagon that U.S. forces deployed across the Middle East were helping Israel pinpoint, intercept and destroy incoming rockets. Biden also telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Our commitment to Israels security against threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad," Biden said in a statement.

In Jerusalem, journalists reported hearing overhead explosions that may have been weapons systems blasting incoming rockets, while warning sirens sounded through the early predawn hours. The Israeli army ordered residents in the Golan Heights, the disputed territory near Israel's border with Syria, to "stay in protective spaces."

Iran, through its official state news agency IRNA, said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired "dozens of drones and missiles toward the positions of the Zionist regime in the occupied Palestinian territories." Iran considers all of Israel to be an occupied territory.

Read more: U.S. bracing for potential Iranian response to attack attributed to Israel

Iran's mission to the United Nations said in a statement posted on social media that its action was a defensive move in response to Israel's attack on the consulate in Damascus, the Syrian capital.

"The matter can be deemed concluded," the statement said. "However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Irans response will be considerably more severe. It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!"

Iran said the attack on its facility in Damascus violated international law governing diplomatic missions. U.S. officials raised doubts over the status of the building, alleging it was being used to plot military actions against Israel.

Iran's proxy in Lebanon, the Hezbollah militant organization, arrayed across Lebanon's southern border with Israel, also could be expected to attack with missiles  in a larger display of the kind of daily cross-border barrages both sides have been executing.

Still, U.S. officials have long said direct military engagement between Israel and Iran would be a game-changer.

"We are in totally uncharted territory," Mairav Zonszein, Middle East analyst with the International Crisis Group, said on the social media platform X.

"Iran attacking Israel would be the prelude of a wider regional war," Mark Esper, who served as Defense secretary in the Trump administration, said on CNN.

Biden administration officials, along with counterparts from several Arab and European nations, in recent days had been urging Iran to show restraint even as Tehran's heated rhetoric increased and preparations for an attack were clearly underway.

Read more: Israeli airstrike demolishes Iranian Consulate in Syria, kills two Iranian generals

Several countries neighboring Israel, such as Jordan, on Saturday closed their airspace, while others, including the Netherlands, ratcheted up official warnings against travel to Israel.

U.S. officials also urged Israel to calibrate any response commensurate with Iran's action.

But a wider conflict, in a region already reeling from Israel's devastating war in the Gaza Strip, would further stymie Washington's diplomatic efforts aimed at easing tension and freeing hostages held by the Hamas militant group, including several U.S. citizens.

It could also undermine Biden's domestic support among war-weary voters less than seven months before the U.S. presidential election.

The Middle East has been engulfed in crisis since Hamas attacked Israelis in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostage. That triggered an Israeli campaign of airstrikes and ground-based raids that have killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.

Earlier Saturday, Revolutionary Guard commandos seized an Israeli-linked container ship near the Strait of Hormuz. Photos showed members of the paramilitary unit rappelling onto the deck from helicopters.

IRNA, the state-run Iranian news agency, said the Revolutionary Guard's naval unit took the MSC Aries, a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship associated with Zodiac Maritime Shipping Co. and Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. The agency said the commandos were turning the vessel toward Iranian waters. MSC said 25 crew members were on the ship.

We are working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their wellbeing, and safe return of the vessel, the company said in a statement.





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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
(The Hill)  Iran has launched a wave of drone strikes toward Israel, the White House and Israeli Defense Forces said Saturday, widening fears of a regional war in the Middle East.

The IDF on Saturday afternoon said in a Telegram post that Iran launched the drones from its country a short while ago.

A spokesperson for the National Security Council said President Biden was being regularly updated on the unfolding situation and would meet with his national security team at the White House.

Israel closes schools in anticipation of Iran strike: Officials

NSC Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the attack by Iran, which had been expected for days, is likely to unfold over a number of hours.

President Biden has been clear: our support for Israels security is ironclad. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran, Watson said in a statement.

The attacks come less than two weeks after an April 1 Israeli airstrike on an Iranian Embassy compound in Syrias capital of Damascus that killed seven Iranian military advisers, including three senior members of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

On Saturday afternoon, military officials announced the closure of schools and limiting of country-wide trips ahead of the expected strikes.

This is a developing story.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
UPDATE: President Joe Biden condemned Irans air attack on Israel in the strongest possible terms, and said that he will speak with G7 leaders on Sunday to coordinate a united diplomatic response.

My team will engage with their counterparts across the region. And we will stay in close touch with Israels leaders, Biden said. And while we have not seen attacks on our forces or facilities today, we will remain vigilant to all threats and will not hesitate to take all necessary action to protect our people.

More from Deadline

The president said that he spoke to Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reaffirm Americas ironclad commitment to the security of Israel. I told him that Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks  sending a clear message to its foes that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel.

Biden also confirmed that the U.S. moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region in the past week. Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our servicemembers, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles, Biden said.

PREVIOUSLY: News networks have been showing images of Iranian drones being intercepted before reaching targets in Israel, following Tehrans launch of a retaliatory strike.

Israeli officials said that Iran launched more than 200 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. So far the majority have been intercepted outside Israeli territory via the countrys defense systems, with assistance from U.S. forces, according to Israel Defense Forces. A small number of hits struck targets in southern Israel, including at an IDF base, but there was minor damage, according to the IDF.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called on President Joe Biden to lead an international effort to impose sufficient costs on Tehran to compel an end to its aggression and terror. He also called on Biden to give Israel the time, space and support it deserves to finish the job against Hamas. Tehran and its proxies are emboldened when they see divisions between the U.S. and Israel.

PREVIOUSLY: Iran has launched drones toward Israel today, in highly anticipated retaliatory strikes that the White House said is likely to unfold over a number of hours.

Iran has launched a direct attack from Iranian soil towards the state of Israel, IDF Spokesperson Daniel Hagari said. We are closely monitoring Iranian killer drones that are en route to Israel that are sent by Iran. This is a severe and dangerous escalation.

He said that the Israel Defense Forces was operating at full force to defend the state of Israel and the people of Israel.

CNN reported that Iranian state media also had confirmed the drone attack, which is expected to take a number of hours to reach Israel.

Major news networks went to coverage of the attack throughout the afternoon, with shots of the night sky over Tel Aviv, and some broadcast networks provided updates during regular programming. CBS broke into Masters coverage for a special report from senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, and Jose Diaz-Balart anchored a report for NBC News.

President Joe Biden returned to Washington from a weekend in Rehoboth Beach, DE, to meet his national security team in the Situation Room.

Iran has begun an airborne attack against Israel, said National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson. President Biden is being regularly updated on the situation by his national security team and will meet with them this afternoon at the White House. His team is in constant communication with Israeli officials as well as other partners and allies. This attack is likely to unfold over a number of hours. President Biden has been clear: our support for Israels security is ironclad. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran.

The attack is believed to be in response to a strike on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, which killed senior military leaders. Iran has blamed Israel for the airstrike, although Israel has not taken responsibility for the attack, per Reuters.

In anticipation of the strikes, Israel has restricted major public events.

More to come.

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Iran has launched drones from its territory toward Israel, ramping up fears of a broader war in the Middle East as tensions in the region escalate dramatically.

Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on state television that it had fired drones and missiles at specific locations in Israel in response to crimes by the Zionist Regime. Israel Defense Forces spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement that it is prepared and ready for all its formations in defense and attacks.

The drone attack  which involves more than 100 unmanned aerial vehicles, according to the IDF  is the start of what is expected to be an operation that will last late into the night. The attack is also likely to include missile launches, NBC News reported, citing three U.S. officials.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said President Joe Bidens team is in communication with Israeli officials, and she reiterated the presidents ironclad support for Israels security. Israel also closed its airspace to all commercial flights.

The Iranian government had vowed to retaliate after suspected Israeli airstrikes hit its consular offices in Damascus, Syria, on April 1, killing two top Iranian commanders and five military advisers in the IRGC.

Bracing for a possible attack on Saturday, Israeli officials called off upcoming school trips and put IDF forces on full alert. Biden also cut short a vacation weekend to return to meet with his national security team in Washington, D.C., about unfolding developments.

Irans drone attacks on Saturday come after a flurry of efforts from the U.S. to dissuade Tehran from retaliating against Israel. The strikes will take several hours to reach Israel, Hagari said in his statement, warning citizens to take cover in protected areas if they receive an alert.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Iran has launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, unleashing a barrage of missiles, rockets and drones from both its own territory and its proxies across the Middle East.

US and British forces reportedly intercepted more than 100 drones after hundreds were launched from Iran in a long-awaited attack after weeks of threats from Tehran.

Iranian state television said ballistic missiles had also been launched in a joint assault designed to overwhelm Israeli air defences deep in the occupied territories.

Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesman, confirmed missiles were fired from Iran, saying: A short while ago, Iran launched missiles from its territory toward the territory of the State of Israel.

In a separate statement, the army said it was urging residents of the northern Golan Heights and the areas of Nevatim, Dimona, and Eilat to stay near protective spaces.

Drones and rockets were also launched by Iranian proxy groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

The Israeli army said it sounded sirens in a kibbutz near the Lebanon border.

Fighter jets were scrambled as the drones launched were seen flying low as they passed over Iraq, in an apparent attempt to avoid radar detection.

A loud buzzing noise could be heard on videos posted on social media as they passed overhead.

This is a severe and dangerous escalation. Our defensive and offensive capabilities are at the highest level of readiness ahead of this large-scale attack from Iran, Mr Hagari, said in an earlier televised statement.

He added: We are working in close cooperation with the United States and our partners in the region in order to act against the launches and intercept them.

The Israeli military has already begun planning for a retaliatory strike on Iran or its proxy groups in the region.

Israeli civilians have been advised to monitor government alerts and follow advice from the Home Front command.

Schools across the country and beaches near Gaza have been closed in light of the security situation, Mr Hagari said.

He added that the IDFs interception attempts would scramble GPS signals across the country.

Mr Netanyahu convened his war cabinet, while Joe Biden returned to the White House from Delaware to be briefed on the situation by his national security team.

Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, condemned the reckless attack and said that the UK would stand up for Israels security.

He said: These strikes risk inflaming tensions and destabilising the region. Iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard.

Israeli forces were joined by warships, jets and air defence systems from the US and Jordan.

Israel citizens seen taking cover on Twitter

On Saturday night there were unconfirmed reports that the UK had joined the defence of Israel with fighter jets from Cyprus. GPS data showed two RAF transport aircraft in the region shortly after the attack was first reported.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that the UK has moved several additional Royal Air Force jets to the Middle East which can intercept airborne attacks.

It said in a statement: In response to increased Iranian threats and the growing risk of escalation in the Middle East, the UK Government has been working with partners across the region to encourage de-escalation and prevent further attacks.

We have moved several additional Royal Air Force jets and air refuelling tankers to the region.

These will bolster Operation Shader, which is the UKs existing counter-Daesh operation in Iraq and Syria. In addition, these UK jets will intercept any airborne attacks within range of our existing missions, as required.

The Israeli defences will involve fighter jets and navy ships, which are both equipped with anti-aircraft missiles, and Israels Iron Dome missile defence system.

The US has moved the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier and three other warships closer to Israel in the northern Red Sea in recent days.

Jordan said its air defences were also ready to intercept and shoot down any Iranian drones or aircraft that violated its airspace, two regional security sources said. Mr Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said: Our defence systems are deployed, and we are prepared for any scenario, both in defence and offence.

The State of Israel is strong, the IDF is strong, the public is strong. We appreciate the US for standing by Israels side as well as the support of the UK, France and many other countries.

I established a clear principle  whoever hurts us, we will hurt them. We will defend ourselves from any threat and we will do so calmly and with determination.

Benjamin Netanyahu convened a War Cabinet in Tel Aviv

A statement from Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reported on state television said: In response to the recent crime of the Zionist regime against the Iranian consulate in Syria, the IRGC air forces have successfully fired tens of drones and missiles towards the occupied territories.

Irans permanent mission to the UN defended the attack as lawful legitimate defence and warned the US not to enter the conflict.

Irans military action was in response to the Zionist regimes aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus, said a spokesman.

The matter can be deemed concluded. However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Irans response will be considerably more severe. It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the US must stay away.

Iranian state television broadcast images of crowds gathered across Iran, celebrating the attack and chanting Death to Israel.

Crowds were seen celebrating the attack in Iran - ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Long lines formed at petrol stations in Tehran as Iranians anticipated the Israeli response.

Airspace was closed over Israel, Iraq and Jordan after the attack was first reported, while schools in Israel have been told not to open.

Channel 12, an Israeli news network, reported that the US had been the first to warn Israel the attack was incoming.

Analysis

Why has Iran attacked Israel?

Read more

A White House spokesman said the attack was likely to unfold over a number of hours, adding: The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defence against these threats from Iran.

Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, said that further escalation was in no-ones interest and risks further loss of civilian life.

The UK will continue to work with our partners in support of regional security, he added.

Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said: We condemn the Iranian regimes decision to subject Israelis to these unacceptable attacks.

The international community has been united in urging restraint and we regret that yet again Iran has chosen a different, dangerous path.

The attack was first considered imminent by US intelligence on Wednesday, after Ali Khamenei, Irans supreme leader, said Israel must be punished for a strike on an Iranian consulate compound in Damascus on April 1.

The strike killed 13 including a senior IRGC general, six other Iranian officials and six Syrians.

Irans response is thought to be directed at government and military buildings in Israel, not civilian targets. It is the first time that Iranian forces have directly attacked Israel, although Iran has backed the proxy groups Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza and Lebanon.

Israel has indicated that it will strike Iran directly in response to any attack on its territory.

Irans most notorious drone is the Shahed, which has been deployed by Russia against Ukraine and by Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Analysis

The Shahed drone: Iran's low-cost but deadly weapon of choice

Read more

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Members of Irans Revolutionary Guard rappelled down from a helicopter onto an Israeli-linked containership near the Strait of Hormuz and seized the ship Saturday, reports confirm.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members seized the cargo ship around noon local time Saturday, Tasnim News Agency, an Iranian outlet associated with the IRGC, reported.

Sources have reported that the vessel is the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime, according to Tasnim News Agency. Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofers Zodiac Group.

The IRGC is independent of Irans traditional army, but acts as a branch of the Iranian armed forces. It has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Zodiac declined to comment and referred questions to MSC, when The Associated Press reached out. MSC did not immediately respond.

A Middle East defense official, who spoke to The AP on the condition of anonymity, shared a video of the attack where commandos can be seen rappelling off a helicopter, down onto a stack of containers on the ship.

A crew member can be heard saying Dont come out and then telling his colleagues to go to the ships bridge as more IRGC members were coming on to the deck.

The details aligned with information known about the MSC Aries, according to The AP. The helicopter appeared to be a Soviet-era Mil Mi-17 helicopter, which the IRGC has used before to conduct ship raids.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported the recent incident and said British military officials are investigating. The agency has asked vessels in the area to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity.

The MSC Aries had last been located in Dubai Friday and heading toward the Strait of Hormuz. The ship turned off its location data, which is not uncommon from Israeli ships in the region, The AP noted.

The incident comes as Israel has been bracing for an attack from Iran. Western intelligence assessed that Israel was preparing for a major attack from Iran in response to an April 1 attack on its embassy in Syria. The suspected Israeli attack killed seven Iranian military advisers, including three senior IRGC members.

U.S. officials have sounded the alarm this week that a large retaliatory attack could be coming. Americans have been told to avoid travel, U.S. troops have been moved to new positions in the Middle East and tensions have risen as concerns of a greater regional war continue.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Iran says attack on Israel involves missiles and drones

Iran and Israel cropped flags displayed behind a wooden hourglass sand timer. Iran has launched a drone attack from within its territory towards Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari. It will take several hours for the drones to reach Israeli territory, he said. Andre M. Chang/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has fired off missiles as well as drones towards Israel, according to an IRGC statement.

The attack comes in "response to the recent crimes of the Zionist regime", according to the statement.

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Iranian state media and the US all confirmed the attack that began on Saturday evening.

Israel has shut its airspace overnight due to the attack, Israeli media reported, citing the aviation authority.

"We are closely monitoring Iranian killer drones that are en-route to Israel," an IDF spokesman said. "This is a severe and dangerous escalation."

He said Israel's defensive and offensive capabilities are at the "highest level of readiness ahead of this large-scale attack from Iran."

US President Joe Biden was being kept informed of the situation and was to meet with his security team at the White House for talks, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council said.
Irans Revolutionary Guard seized an Israeli-affiliated shipping vessel on Saturday, amid mounting tensions between the two countriesand threats of military actionafter a deadly missile strike on Irans embassy in Syria.

Operatives of the Iranian paramilitary group rappelled onto the container ship MSC Aries as it sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, according to IRNA, a state media outlet in Iran. The ship was then directed into Iranian waters.

The Portuguese-flagged vessel is operated by Zodiac Maritime, a shipping company owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. Forbes estimates that Ofer is worth $24.8 billion.

Following the seizure, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Iran was committing piracy, and called on the international community to declare the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Iran is a criminal regime that supports Hamas crimes and is now conducting a pirate operation in violation of international law, Katz said.

Iran Tells Israel Its Embassies Arent Safe After Syrian Consulate Strike

Israel has been bracing for an imminent attack ever since Iran vowed it would retaliate after a deadly missile strike on its embassy in Syria earlier this month. A top commander in Irans Quds Force, Mohammed Reza Zahedi, was said to be among a group of seven Iranians killed in the blast.

Iran claims Israel is responsible for the attack. On Friday, it was reported that top Pentagon officials had expressed frustration that Israel did not give them a heads-up on their plans to strike the Iranian consulate.

Saturdays attack on the vessel comes after predictions that Iran would hit Israel through proxy forces in the region, as opposed to launching a direct attack. On Friday, U.S. embassy personnel in Israel were warned of the likelihood of an attack in the coming 48 hours, and advised to limit their travel outside of Tel Aviv.

President Biden pledged that the U.S. would support Israel in its conflict with Iran, according to the Associated Press. We are devoted to the defense of Israel, he said. We will support Israel, we will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed.

Tensions between the two nations have only continued to rise throughout Israel's brutal military campaign in Gaza, which has killed over 33,000 people according to Gazas Ministry of Health. Iran has, until this point, been apprehensive to attack Israel directly. Meanwhile, Yemens Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran, have made multiple attacks against Israeli vessels in the Red Sea since October.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Participants attending the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) pose for a group photo in Minsk, Belarus, April 12, 2024. Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CIS was held on Friday in Minsk. According to the official website of CIS, in a narrow format, the heads of foreign affairs agencies exchanged views on current issues on the international agenda and interaction in the Commonwealth format. (Photo by Henadz Zhikov/Xinhua)

MINSK, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was held on Friday in Minsk.

According to the official website of CIS, in a narrow format, the heads of foreign affairs agencies exchanged views on current issues on the international agenda and interaction in the Commonwealth format.

In a broad format, the heads of delegations discussed the issue of establishing a single anniversary medal "80 years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."

Members of the Council of Foreign Ministers approved an agreed draft convention on the legal status of delegations to CIS member states. The purpose of concluding the Convention is to regulate at the international legal level practical issues of organizing visits of delegations from the Commonwealth countries.

Participants approved the results of multi-level inter-MFA consultations held in 2023 within the CIS and instructed the Commonwealth Executive Committee, together with the foreign ministries of states, to develop and submit in the prescribed manner for consideration by the Council of Foreign Ministers a similar draft Plan for 2025.

Statement on ensuring safe conditions for the professional activities of journalists and preventing infringement of their rights was adopted.The document notes that the right to freedom of opinion, expression and access to open information are the most important components of modern society, guaranteed by fundamental international documents in the field of human rights.

Statement was signed in connection with the 30th anniversary of the CIS being granted observer status at the UN General Assembly. It calls for further deepening of cooperation and coordination of efforts between the CIS and the UN, their executive bodies, specialized UN agencies and specialized structures of the CIS. 

A press conference is held after the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Minsk, Belarus, April 12, 2024. Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CIS was held on Friday in Minsk. According to the official website of CIS, in a narrow format, the heads of foreign affairs agencies exchanged views on current issues on the international agenda and interaction in the Commonwealth format. (Photo by Henadz Zhikov/Xinhua)

Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is held in Minsk, Belarus, April 12, 2024. Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CIS was held on Friday in Minsk. According to the official website of CIS, in a narrow format, the heads of foreign affairs agencies exchanged views on current issues on the international agenda and interaction in the Commonwealth format. (Photo by Henadz Zhikov/Xinhua)
Iran vs Israel: How potential conflict could look according to experts: 'Already at war'

Iran vs Israel: How potential conflict could look according to experts: 'Already at war'

War between Iran and Israel would be to no ones benefit in the region as it would likely end up in a pitched battle that regional forces would keep away from, experts told Fox News Digital.

"Frankly, none of the Arab states would want to take either side in this conflict," Matt McInnis, senior fellow for the Institute for the Study of War, explained. "They may inevitably be drawn into it, and I think that's one of the things that Iran is very worried about."

"[Iran is] not quite sure if Israels efforts over the last few years to increase diplomatic and security relationships with states like Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and others are sufficient to keep these states out of a larger conflict," McInnis added.

"Our bases and others in those countries, in a larger and larger conflict as part of our support and defense of Israel is obviously very complicated," McInnis explained. "I think that on the Iranian side, certainly the Syrians will side with them, but I don't know what material support that provides aside from potentially allowing Iran to use Syrian territory for attacks."

BIDEN EXPECTS IRAN TO ATTACK ISRAEL SOONER THAN LATER

Tehran has continued to threaten a response against Israel for the attack on an Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members, including two generals.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

U.S. CENTCOM Gen. Michael Kurilla has been in Israel, where he met with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Friday to assess military preparedness, moving up his plans due to the threats from Iran, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed during a press conference Thursday.

U.S. Nation Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby on Friday told reporters that the U.S. remains in "constant communication" with Israeli counterparts to make sure they are ready for attack but refused to "armchair quarterback  in a public way in terms of the conversations were having or what were seeing in the intelligence picture."

Jonathan Conricus, a former spokesman for the IDF and now a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) commented on what he said was the media hype and tension and even a 'minor panic' in Israel over the so-called Iranian retaliation against Israel after the Damascus attack last week.

Speaking on FDD's Morning Brief podcast, he said that while Iran has a lot of options, he said he had "quite solid faith in Iranian strategic patience."

"They are disciplined, they are long-term thinkers, they do not take rash decisions based on emotions  even though the rhetoric is high," Conricus said.

"I know that it wouldn't be smart for Iran to attack Israel, because then the distraction in Gaza and Lebanon will become a forgotten issue, and everything will focus on Iran, on its hostile and negative activities in the Middle East, and they themselves will be front and center of Israeli and perhaps U.S. attention, and the Iranians do not want that," he added. "They don't want it because it will put focus on their nuclear plans and because it will take pressure off Israel from its fighting in Gaza and Lebanon."

During an appearance on Fridays episode of "Fox & Friends," Gen. Jack Keane of the Institute for the Study of War (IFSW) said an attack will happen at some point, because Iran "cannot avoid the international publicity surrounding the taking down of the IRGC headquarters in Syria," saying it was "just a reality" but adding that Iran will likely pursue a "measured response" and does not really want escalation.

IMMINENT ATTACK FROM IRAN KEEPS ISRAEL ON ALERT AS US ADMITS CREDIBLE THREAT FROM TERROR STATE

Keane suggested that the best way to handle Iran was to destroy its IRGC assets in Iran, because "Iran does not want to escalate," claiming Iran has "a weak air force  a weak navy" and "not particularly well trained or  well equipped" troops  instead, he argued that Iran relies heavily on its drone and missile arsenal.

"Iran knows that war with them would destroy their regime economically, and they likely lose it," Keane insisted. "The leverage has always been on the side of Israel, the United States and the West, but we absolutely refuse to use it."

McInnis agreed with Keanes assessment, but he argued that it largely depended on what shape the conflict would take. His estimation determined that in small-scale personnel-driven engagements, Iran could find some gains due to the integration of IRGC personnel with proxy forces such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inset over an explosion on the border of Israel.

"If we got to that point, I think some of those smaller scale operations, on the ground, I think the Iranians are in better shape than they would have been a couple of decades ago," McInnis said.

ISRAELI PM, MILITARY LEADERS HOLD EMERGENCY MEETING AMID POSSIBLE DIRECT IRANIAN ATTACK

"But it is true for a long, all-out war, which I don't really foresee  I guess that's a fair critique," he continued. "They have certainly improved in their ability to coordinate very sophisticated drone cruise and ballistic missile actions, and we look at the classic one in Saudi Arabia in 2019, [which] was the kind of beginning of that period where we have these far more sophisticated capabilities combined with what Lebanese Hezbollah could do."

"I think both the Iranians and the Israelis are most concerned about if this becomes a ground war, similar or in some ways inspired by the October 7th Hamas attack, where it's not just missiles and drones but combined with ground operations," he explained.

Thick smoke billows from an explosion on the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Sderot.

"That's something that, I think in particular, the Israelis and the Iranians are worried we're going to end up in that type of conflict in southern Lebanon or even in northern Israel struggling to go on as another as a kind of a flashpoint," he added. "I think that's where the capabilities of Iran's axis of resistance, along with the Revolutionary Guard Corps, could still be fairly serious to Israels security."

Bill Roggio, founder and editor of the "The Long War Journal," stressed Irans reliance on proxy groups to wage war and keep enough distance to maintain something of a response without the rampant escalation that would accompany direct response.

"I think one of the things that's kind of misunderstood is that Iran and Israel are already at war, it's just Iran is doing it via its proxies. Israel is under attack already by the Iranian proxies  but they could be escalating, right?" Roggio said. "So, at the bare minimum, these are Iran's closest allies in the region, and they do wield significant power: Lebanon, the proxy, particularly in Iraq, essentially running things."

"The Saudis have indicated that they really don't want to be a frontline state," Roggio added. "They've experienced Iranian attacks with drones, and, given Israel's position in Gaza, I don't expect the Egyptians or any other Arab country to come to the Israeli side."

Roggio also noted that Russia and China have a vested political and diplomatic interest in Iran, which they last year invited to join the BRICS economic bloc. Highlighting the "tightened" bonds between the three countries, he argued that Iran and China could provide support that aimed to keep the conflict "hot" but was unclear how that might happen.





Original article source: Iran vs Israel: How potential conflict could look according to experts: 'Already at war'
Members of the Palestinian Civil Defense retrieve the bodies of Palestinian citizens from under the rubble of homes destroyed during Israeli airstrikes on April 13, 2024, in Khan Younis, Gaza.

Editor's Note: This page is a summary of news on the Israel-Hamas war for Saturday, April 13. For the latest news on the conflict in the Middle East, view our story for Sunday, April 14.

WASHINGTON  For the first time ever, Iran launched an attack Saturday against Israel directly from its territory.

Iran sent a wave of drones toward Israel, a U.S. official told USA TODAY Saturday, as the country ramped up preparations for an Iranian strike amid soaring Mideast tensions. The official was not authorized to speak publicly.

The Iranians had been observed preparing drones to attack Israel, according to a second U.S. official briefed on the intelligence but not authorized to speak publicly.

The attacks were retaliation for a suspected Israeli airstrike on Irans embassy in Damascus, Syria last of Apr. 1. that killed seven Revolutionary Guards officers including two senior commanders. The move by Iran marks the most recent escalation in an inflamed Middle East that has been building for half a year  ever since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack in Israel detonated a retaliatory war against the militant group in the Gaza Strip.

"Our defensive systems are deployed; we are ready for any scenario, both defensively and offensively," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address. "The State of Israel is strong."

Israel's military said fighter jets and navy vessels are "on a defense mission in Israeli airspace."

The attack is "likely to unfold over a number of hours," U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said. President Joe Biden is set to meet with his national security team at the White House on Saturday afternoon and is being updated on the situation, Watson said.

"President Biden has been clear: Our support for Israels security is ironclad. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran," Watson said in a statement.

After the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, the small Mideast country maintained relations with Iran  an outlier from other Muslim majority countries in the region. After Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, the two nations turned into fierce rivals.

Developments:

 Iran said it will not hesitate to take further "defensive measures" to protect its interests against any military aggression, the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement Sunday.

 Israel's national emergency service reported a 10-year-old boy in the Arad region had been injured. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.

 Biden returned to the White House to meet with national security advisers about events in the Mideast on Saturday afternoon, cutting short a weekend trip to Delaware, the White House said in a statement.

 Iraq and Jordan temporarily closed their airspace as Iran launched drones toward Israel Saturday. Jordan has helped Israel respond to the attack by shooting down dozens of Iranian drones, Reuters reported.

Israeli Ambassador to U.N. calls for emergency meeting of Security Council

Israels top diplomat to the U.N. called for the Security Council to meet immediately to condemn Irans attacks and to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization.

In a letter released Saturday night, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan wrote to U.N. Security Council President Vanessa Frazier said Irans drone and missile attacks at Israel was a clear violation of the U.N. Charter and international law, calling it a severe and dangerous escalation.

He pointed to Saturdays attacks, as well as weapons transfers to Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah, among other Iranian-backed proxies, as evidence of violations that he said threaten international peace. He also cited Revolutionary Guards seizing a Portuguese civilian cargo ship earlier on Saturday.

The time has come for the Security Council to take concrete action against the Iranian threat, he said.

The 15-member Security Council includes the U.S. as a permanent member. Neither Israel nor Iran are current members.

IDF: Most Iranian missiles intercepted outside Israels borders, IDF base hit with minor damage

Israel said most missile launches from Iran were intercepted before crossing into Israel. On social media, Israel Defense Forces said its Aerial Defense Array and its strategic allies intercepted most launches before they hit Israeli territory. Still, IDF did identify a small number of hits, including at an IDF base in southern Israel. The base had minor damage to infrastructure, IDF said.

Over the past few hours, many dozens of hostile aircraft, as well as dozens of cruise missiles, from Iran were identified approaching Israeli territory and intercepted, IDF said. Dozens of (Israeli Air Force) fighter jets are currently operating to intercept all aerial threats approaching Israeli territory.

What is Israels Iron Dome?

The Iron Dome is Israels mobile missile defense system that is designed to find and shoot down short-range rockets fired at Israel. An all-weather system, the Iron Dome can also take down artillery and drones, and it can detect and engage rockets up to 40 miles away.

After becoming operational in 2011, its been upgraded over the years and has a high success rate. Its part of Israels three-tiered air defense system that protects against short-range ballistic missiles, large-caliber rockets and cruise missiles, via Davids Sling, and also through Arrow-3, which provides defense against medium-range ballistic missiles.

Iran wont hesitate to take more defensive measures to protect legitimate interests

Irans foreign ministry said it would not hesitate to take further defensive measures, against any military aggression, Reuters reported.

Iran, if necessary, will not hesitate to take further defensive measures to safeguard its legitimate interests against any military aggressions and unlawful use of force," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, according to state TV.

Iran would do so, the statement reportedly said, while reaffirming its commitment to the principles of the U.N. Charter and international law.

U.N. secretary-general deeply alarmed by region-wide escalation

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he strongly condemned Irans large-scale attack on Israel. In a statement, he called for an immediate stop to the fighting.

I am deeply alarmed about the very real danger of a devastating region-wide escalation, he said. I urge all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid any action that could lead to major military confrontations on multiple fronts in the Middle East. I have repeatedly stressed that neither the region nor the world can afford another war.

Trump praises Israel, attacks Biden's leadership during Pennsylvania rally

Former President Donald Trump paid tribute to Israel and blamed President Joe Biden for Iran's attack during a campaign rally Saturday night in Pennsylvania.

"God Bless the people of Israel," Trump said at the start of a rally at a fairground in Schnecksville, Pa., near Allentown.

Trump, who attacked Biden in a series of Truth Social posts earlier in the day, did not cite the president by name when discussing Israel, but did blame what he called weak U.S. leadership for the attack by Iran.

Echoing a Truth Social post earlier in the day, Trump said the attack "would not have happened" if "we were in office."

 David Jackson

I just met with my national security team for an update on Irans attacks against Israel. Our commitment to Israels security against threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad. pic.twitter.com/kbywnsvmAx  President Biden (@POTUS) April 13, 2024

Biden says commitment to Israels security 'ironclad'

President Joe Biden said that he met with his national security team for an update on Irans attacks against Israel.

Our commitment to Israels security against threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad, he said on social media.

Sirens, booms across Israel as 10-year-old critically injured

Sirens sounded off across Israel amid Iranian drone attacks, according to Israel Defense Forces.

The IDF issued a flurry of alerts on Telegram for sirens sounding from southern Israel to northern Israel. This also included Jerusalem, the Negev and Dead Sea regions, among others.

Magen David Adom, Israels national emergency service, said there were no casualties reported, but a 10-year-old boy in the Bedouin area in the Arad region is in critical condition. On social media, MDA said first responders were treating the boy.

It was unclear whether he was injured by missile fragments or an interceptor, Times of Israel reported.

Earlier, MDA said sirens sounded across the country but there were no reports of casualties aside from calls of stress symptoms and people injured running for cover.

Sirens sounding across Israel pic.twitter.com/BuDasagr10  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 13, 2024

Trump attacks Biden over Iran attack; claims it wouldn't have happened under him

Former President Donald Trump reacted to the attack by referring to himself.

"ISRAEL IS UNDER ATTACK! This should never have been allowed to happen - This would NEVER have happened if I were President!" the presumptive Republican presidential candidate said in one of a string of Truth Social posts.

In other posts, Trump taunted Biden for not giving a live speech on the attack, and said the U.S. would always stand behind Israel.

Trump may address the situation during a campaign rally near Allentown, Pa.

 David Jackson

Jordan shoots down dozens of Iranian drones to help Israel

Jordan shot down dozens of Iranian drones above northern and central Jordan en route to Israel, Reuters reported citing two security sources.

The news outlet reported Iran said it had been watching if Jordan made any moves seen as supporting Israel, warning that Jordan could be the next target, Reuters reported.

Iranian drone attack makes Israel attack on embassy concluded, Iran U.N. mission says

Irans mission to the UN. said its drone attack against Israel marks the end of its response to Israel suspected bombing Iran's embassy in Syria in early April.

The matter can be deemed concluded, Irans mission said in a social media post Saturday evening. However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Irans response will be considerably more severe. It is a conflict between Iran and the rogue Israeli regime, from which the U.S. MUST STAY AWAY!

Lawmakers respond to Iran attack on Israel

Reactions from lawmakers were largely divided among partisan lines, with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La, stating the "Biden Administration's undermining of Israel and appeasement of Iran have contributed to these terrible developments," and GOP Rep. Mike Crenshaw, R-Texas, arguing that "Biden signaled waning support for Israel. Now a potential war is erupting."

Other GOP lawmakers such as Sen. Roger Wicker, the top-ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called on the U.S. to stand with Israel.

Our shared enemies, including Iran and their proxies, need to know our commitment is unwavering. We must join with Israel to ensure that Irans aggression is met with resolute action and resounding strength," Wicker, R-Miss., said.

Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada also said, "The United States stands firmly with Israel and its right to defend itself against attacks from Iran and its terrorist proxies."

The senator said she would keep working to get legislation passed that provides additional military aid to Israel.

"What is happening now in the Middle East is why the house should have voted for the Senate passed security bill that supports Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan in their fight for sovereignty and democratic principles," Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said in a X post, calling the U.S. the "backbone of the free world."

Drones key to Iran and its militias against U.S., Israel, researchers say

Drones have been key to Iran and militant groups it supports to attack U.S. forces and allies, according to the Iran Primer, a consortium of scholars who study the country.

Iran first developed rudimentary drones during its war with Iraq in the 1980s, Iran Primer's article said Friday. Today, Iranian drones are used for combat as suicide drones that explode on impact, or by traveling long distances to launch munitions at targets. They are also used for surveillance to identify targets using photo and video.

Iran began sending drones to Hezbollah, the militant group it backs in Lebanon, in the 2000s. In 2006, Hezbollah used drones against Israel in its 34-day war. Theyve reportedly since been used against ISIS militants, as well as in attacks in Saudi oilfields and in Iraq against U.S. military and diplomatic targets. Since 2022, Iran has supplied Russia with drones starting to use against civilian and military targets in Ukraine. Irans use of drones has increased in Syria, Iraq and Jordan after the war began between Hamas and Israel. In January, an Iranian-made drone killed three American soldiers in Jordan, while Houthi militants, backed by Iran, used Iranian-designed drones to attack ships in the Red Sea.

While some Iranian drones are small, carrying as little as 7 pounds of explosives, others can have payloads of up to 1,240 pounds. Many are modeled on captured American drones, Iran Primer said.

Plans in place ahead of drones, defense not hermetic, IDF says

Israel plans to cut GPS services in certain areas as part of its plan to counter Iran launching drones at the country, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a briefing Saturday evening.

The IDF and the Israeli Air Force are implementing the plan we prepared in advance, Hagari said in remarks. As part of the preparations, GPS services will not be available in certain areas - the disruption is deliberate and according to plan. If we detect additional threats with a shorter arrival time, we will update you immediately.

Hagari reminded Israelis of Home Front Command, which helps prepare civilians for conflicts or disasters. With sirens activated, IDF said people must enter shelters and remain there for no less than 10 minutes, though he said it could be longer. He encouraged Israelis to act responsibly and calmly. The IDF remains cooperating with the U.S. and partners in the region to counter launches and intercept them, he added. Protection includes the Israeli Air Force and Navy personnel, as well as the Aerial Defense Array, which includes the Iron Dome Aerial Defense System.

The defense is not hermetic, he said, adding its crucial to follow the country's Home Front Command.

U.S. promises to support Israel in face of Iran attack

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke Saturday with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and made clear that Israel could count on full U.S. support to defend Israel against any attacks by Iran and its regional proxies, according to a readout of their call provided by Pentagon press secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan also affirmed the U.S.' "ironclad commitment to the security of Israel" in a call with his counterpart in Israel, Tzachi Hanegbi, Sullivan said Saturday.

Netanyahu said in an address he appreciates the U.S. and other allies' support.

How long until the Iranian drones reach Israel?

The dozens of drones that were launched could take hours to arrive, according to Israel's top-rated Channel 12 TV news. Retired general Amos Yadlin told the channel the drones were equipped with 20 kg of explosives. Israel's military said sirens will sound in any threatened areas. Iran has threatened to retaliate for an April 1 attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed seven of its military commanders. Iran blames Israel for the attack, but Israel has not confirmed or denied involvement.

Iran readies missiles for potential attack, US official says

Iran has been observed preparing cruise missiles for use in a potential attack on Israel, according to a U.S. official briefed on the matter.

Meanwhile, national security officials remained focused Saturday on Irans next steps, a second official said. Both officials were not authorized to speak publicly.

Biden confirmed Friday that U.S. intelligence showed that an Iranian attack on Israel could happen soon. Iran has vowed revenge for the April 1 airstrike. Iran blames Israel for the airstrike; Israel has not publicly acknowledged its role in the attack.

Irans anticipated retaliation comes as tensions have spiked in the Middle East as Israels war against Hamas continues. The Pentagon has bolstered defenses for the tens of thousands of U.S. troops in the region in advance of the prospect of an imminent attack on Israel and Western interests.

More: Israelis ask if world has forgotten their hostages six months after the trauma of Oct. 7

More: Pregnant women in Gaza Strip face starvation, no anesthesia after 6 months of war

Iranian forces seize ship with ties to Israel in Strait of Hormuz

Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard seized an Israel-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday.

Iranian state media reported that the MSC Aries ship, which carries a Portuguese flag, was taken into Iranian waters. The ship's operator, MSC, confirmed the seizure by Iran and said it was working with authorities to ensure its return and the safety of the crew.

The crew includes Indian, Filipino, Pakistani, Russian and Estonian, according to White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson. Watson said the seizing of a "civilian vessel without provocation is a blatant violation of international law" and an act of piracy.

"We strongly condemn the Iranian seizure of the Portuguese flagged, British-owned MSC AIRES in international waters," Watson said on X.

Ship incident comes amid Houthi attacks in Red Sea

The Iran-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen has been attacking ships in the Red Sea for months, saying it aims for Israel-linked ships.

The ship seized on Saturday is owned by Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Zodiac Maritime. Zodiac is partly owned by an Israeli businessman. Zodiac said in a statement that MSC leases the Aries and is responsible for its activities.

"Iran will bear consequences for choosing to escalate this situation any further," said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for Israel's military.

Hasan Alhasan, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Reuters that if the seizure of the ship is in retaliation for the April 1 attack, it may indicate Iran's desire to save face without causing a wider escalation of the regional conflict. "Iran may be trying to play on fears that it could obstruct shipping through the strait, a passageway of greater significance to global oil and gas supplies than the Red Sea," Alhasan said.

Body found of missing Israeli teen

Israeli officials said the body of a 14-year-old boy who went missing near the Malachei Shalom outpost on Friday morning was found Saturday in the West Bank.

Binyamin Achimair's death was a "terrorist attack," the Israeli military said, while Netanyahu vowed the perpetrators would be found.

Israeli forces were searching "from the air and on the ground" Friday, while groups of Israeli settlers stormed a nearby Palestinian village and set fire to houses and cars overnight. One person was killed and several injured in the conflict, Palestinian officials said.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law by most of the world, which Israel contests. The settlements house Israeli citizens in the occupied land.

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel war updates: Iran launches drones at Israel in revenge strike
U.S. Marine Sgt. Joseph Graydon is shown standing security watch aboard the USS San Diego in the Strait of Hormuz on Feb. 19, 2021. Iranian media reported Saturday the country's military has seized a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship it claims is linked to Israel. U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Brandon Woods

April 13 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden cut short his weekend vacation and returned to the White House Saturday after the Iranian seizure of an Israel-related container ship made the threat of retaliation more tangible.

Biden's return was announced Saturday afternoon in a White House pool report, which said the president planned to convene with his national security team ahead of a possible Iranian attack against Israel.

Members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps executed a helicopter-borne assault to capture an Israeli-related container ship in the Strait of Hormuz, official Iranian media reported earlier Saturday.

IRGC forces fast-roped from a helicopter onto the deck of the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries at about 2:50 a.m. UTC time, captured the vessel and rerouted it to Iranian waters, according to the MEHR News Agency.

The U.K. Maritime Trade Organization in a post on X said the assault occurred about 50 nautical miles northeast of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, in the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.

The Italian-Swiss Mediterranean Shipping Company confirmed in a statement to media outlets the captured ship is the Aries, which had 25 crew members on board. Company officials said they are working with "relevant authorities to ensure their well being and [the] safe return of the vessel."

The ship's seizure occurred 12 days after a deadly Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus on April 1. The attack killed 16, including seven IRGC members.

Iran has vowed revenge, and the United States on Friday warned Israel of a pending attack after restricting government employees and their families from traveling to Israel.

U.S. and Israeli defense officials have said an Iranian attack would likely include launches of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and attack drones.

Shortly after the ship seizure, the Israel Defense Forces warned they are on the alert for any threats.

"Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further," IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video post on X. "Israel is on high alert. We have increased our readiness to protect Israel from further Iranian aggression."

White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrianne Watson also condemned the attack on X and called on Iran to "release the vessel and its international crew immediately."

Israeli officials have increased military measures and restrictions on public gatherings in anticipation of an attack.

The Home Front Command said it ordered a two-day pause on educational activities beginning Saturday night and limited gatherings to 1,000 people or fewer in some areas.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration says ships bearing a combined total of more than 20% of the world's oil supply annually traverse the Strait of Hormuz.
Irans paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) troops seized a Portuguese-flagged ship owned by an Israeli billionaire as tensions between the two nations remain at a high amid continued threats of attack.

"UKMTO has received a report of an incident  northeast of Fujairah, UAE," the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported. "Vessel reported to have been seized by regional authorities. Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity to UKMTO."

The MSC Aries, a Portuguese-flagged ship owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofers Zodiac Group, was passing through the Strait of Hormuz when an Iranian helicopter dropped IRGC troops onto its deck. Video taken by a crew member shows the troops rappelling down onto a stack of containers while the crew member tells his colleagues "Dont come out."

He then tells the other crew members to go to the ships bridge while the IRGC commandos set up to take the ship, with one troop kneeling on top of the containers to provide potential cover fire if those on the ship tried to resist as more troops descend to the deck.

IRAN VS ISRAEL: HOW POTENTAIL CONFLICT COULD LOOK ACCORDING TO EXPERTS: ALREADY AT WAR

The Associated Press suggested the helicopter could be a Soviet-era Mil Mi-17 helicopter, which both the IRGC and Iran-backed Houthis have used to raid ships across the Red Sea, Sea of Oman and Persian Gulf.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Geneva-based MSC reported that the ship had 25 crew members aboard, and the Iranian state-run IRNA said the IRGC was taking the vessel into Iranian territorial waters.

PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD SPOKESMAN REVEALS GROUP'S GAZA PROPAGANDA PLAYBOOK

The seizure follows a week of increased tensions between Iran and Israel. Tehran has repeatedly sworn to take revenge for the attack on an Iranian consulate in Damascus, which many  including the United States  attributed to Israel even though no Israeli official took credit for the attack.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military personnel are walking along Enghelab (Revolution) Avenue as an Iranian Kheibar Surface-to-Surface missile is being unveiled during the Ela Beit Al-Moghaddas (Al-Aqsa Mosque) military rally in Tehran, Iran, on November 24, 2023. The IRGC is unveiling two new missiles during the rally.

President Biden on Friday said he believed Irans response could happen "sooner than later," and the U.S. moved some assets closer to Israel to prepare for the possibility of an Iranian attack over the weekend. U.S. CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael Kurilla also moved up his trip to Israel in the face of increased Iranian threats over the past week.

ISRAELI SETTLERS ATTACK A WEST BANK VILLAGE, KILLING 1 PALESTINIAN AND WOUNDING 25

The IRGC has previously tried to exert control over the Persian Gulf. In 2020, a number of smaller Guard boats harassed American naval ships, using their own ships to try and drive the American ones out of the Gulf.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R) addressed while standing next to commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hossein Salami (L), and Mohammad Bagheri, Chief of Staff for the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, during a military parade marking Iran's Army Day anniversary near the Imam Khomeini shrine in the south of Tehran, April 18, 2023. Raisi said, we will destroy Haifa and Tel Aviv if Israel takes ''the slightest action'' against Iran.

The IRGC also seized a number of ships in the Gulf, including the 2020 taking of a Hong Kong-flagged oil tanker, also near the Strait of Hormuz, which is the pinch point between the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman. That ship was later released, Radio Free Europe reported.

Iran eased off its maritime activities as the Yemen-based Houthis ramped up their own raids on ships throughout the Red Sea, claiming the ships had ties to Israel and helped support Israels operations in the Gaza Strip.

Iranian officials usually provided some explanation for seizing a vessel, but so far have offered nothing regarding the MSC Aries other than to note its links to Israel, The Associated Press reported.





Original article source: Iranian paramilitary troops seize Portuguese ship with Israeli ties as tensions remain high
Iranian special forces seized a container ship near the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane to the Persian Gulf, the state-run IRNA news agency reported Saturday.

Navy special forces from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps used a helicopter to board and seize a container ship, IRNA news reported, adding that the MSC Aries was being transferred to Iranian territorial waters.

Video on the state-owned news network Press TV showed what it said were people using a rope to drop onto the ship. NBC News could not independently verify the footage.

The move could escalate tensions in a region reeling from the war in Gaza and a recent strike, suspected to have been carried out by Israel, that killed senior Iranian military officers. Since Hamas deadly Oct. 7 terror attack and mass hostage taking and Israels subsequent full-scale assault on the Gaza Strip, more than 33,000 people have been killed and 75,000 others have been injured.

And attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militants on ships in the Red Sea have already rocked global trade as several major shipping lines and oil transporters suspended their services through the waterway.

As companies avoid the Suez Canal, which feeds into the Red Sea, and opt instead to go around Africa to get to the Indian Ocean, it can add up to 14 days to a shipping route, incurring higher fuel costs. And since ships take a longer time to get to their destinations, delays in container and commodity deliveries are inevitable.

IRNA said the Portuguese-flagged ship was operated by the Zodiac shipping company, which is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofers Zodiac Group. Zodiac said in a statement that the ship is managed and operated by the U.K.-based shipping company, MSC, which confirmed Saturday that the MSC Aries had been boarded by Iranian authorities via helicopter. The shipping company also said there were 25 crew members onboard and that it is working with relevant authorities to ensure their safety.

Iranian authorities did not immediately issue a public statement on the incident.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said on X that the MSC Aries had been seized 50 nautical miles northeast of the Fujairah, an area close to the Strait of Hormuz that forms the entrance to the Persian Gulf.

When asked by NBC News, the Israeli government said it had no comment on the ships seizure. But Israel Katz, the countrys foreign minister, said on X that Iran was now conducting a pirate operation in violation of international law.

In a separate statement Saturday that was not in response to the incident unfolding in the Strait of Hormuz, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that Iran would bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further.

Israel is on high alert. We have increased our readiness to protect Israel from further Iranian aggression. We are also prepared to respond, he said.

The attack comes after a strike, suspected to have been carried out by Israel, on the Iranian consular building in the Syrian capital of Damascus earlier this month. Israel did not take responsibility for that strike, but Tehran vowed revenge.

Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior member of the Quds Force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps elite foreign espionage group, was killed in the blast. He was the most senior Iranian official to be killed since Gen. Qassem Soleimani was targeted by an American airstrike in 2020.

Five military advisers in the IRGC, Irans immensely powerful military and political organization, were also killed in the attack. While Israel and Iran have avoided direct conflict for years, the IRGC has helped Tehran wage a shadow war with Israel across the Middle East.

After the attack, Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said at a prayer ceremony celebrating the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Wednesday that Israel must be punished, and it will be punished. Since the building destroyed was a consular building, he said, it amounted to an attack on Iranian soil.

The United States has signaled its support for Israel and worked to persuade Iran to stop short of a significant escalation. While increasingly critical of the way Israel is pursuing the war in Gaza, President Joe Biden has pledged that Americas commitment to Israels security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
An image from a video supplied by a Middle East defence official shows commandos descending from a helicopter on to the ship - AP

Iranian commandos dropped from a helicopter and hijacked a vessel linked to Israel in the Hormuz Strait on Saturday, prompting Israel to accuse Tehran of piracy.

The maritime attack came as Israel braced for an all-out Iranian strike on its territory following the alleged Israeli killing of a top Iranian commander in Damascus last week.

US president Joe Biden cut short a weekend stay at his Delaware residence to return to Washington and consult with his national security team about events in the Middle East, the White House said on Saturday.

Mr Biden warned late on Friday that an Iranian attack on Israel would come sooner [rather] than later.

A video shared online of the attack on MSC Aries showed three men dressed in black climbing down a rope onto a stack of containers on the boats deck.

Iranian state media said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) had seized a foreign vessel affiliated with the Zionist regime in the Persian Gulf.

The Portuguese-flagged container ship is associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime, which is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofers Zodiac Group.

Dont come out!

In the video, a crew member on the ship can be heard saying dont come out and then telling his colleagues to go to the ships bridge as more figures board the vessel.

Shipping company MSC confirmed the hijacking of MSC Aries, saying that it was boarded by helicopter and was now being diverted to Iran along with its 25 crew members.

We are working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their wellbeing, and safe return of the vessel, it said.

Earlier this week, Alireza Tangsiri, the commander of the IRGC navy threatened to close the Hormuz Strait if necessary, calling Israels presence in the United Arab Emirates a threat.

We can close the Hormuz Strait but are not doing so. However, if the enemy comes to disrupt us, we will review our policy, Mr Tangsiri said.

On Saturday, Israel Katz, Israels foreign minister, called on the European Union and the free world to immediately declare the IRGC a terrorist organisation and to sanction Iran now.

Iran is a criminal regime that supports Hamass crimes and is now conducting a pirate operation in violation of international law, Mr Katz said.

Iran will bear the consequences

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also issued a statement, warning Tehran would bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further.

Daniel Hagari, the IDF spokesperson, said: Israel is on high alert. We have increased our readiness to protect Israel from further Iranian aggression. We are also prepared to respond.

The Israel Defense Forces is prepared for all scenarios and will take the necessary steps, together with our allies, to protect the people of Israel.

Mr Hagari did not specifically mention the ship hijacking.

Iran has continually threatened to punish Israel for killing its top commander Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi along with several other IRGC officers in a strike on its Syrian embassy on April 1.

There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity to try to prevent any escalation.

The Prime Minister has been receiving regular updates over the weekend on the security situation in the Middle East, The Telegraph understands.

Rishi Sunak also chaired a one-hour Cobra meeting on Friday afternoon in the Cabinet Office, where the increasing threat from Iran was discussed, as well as the ongoing situation in the Middle East.

We call on Iran to release the vessel and its international crew immediately, said US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson. Seizing a civilian vessel without provocation is a blatant violation of international law, and an act of piracy by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Israelis stay sanguine

Israel on high alert as world works to stop clash with Iran, read the front page of the Jerusalem Post on one news stand on Saturday.

The headline on another Israeli paper, Maariv, read: Danger Zone along with a picture of an Iranian flag and a missile being launched.

But the papers laid out for customers at a local kiosk in the coastal town of Herzliya, central Israel, on Saturday morning stood in a stark contrast to the mood on the street.

Nothing will happen. They say it will but it wont. Its just talk. In Herzliya we dont talk so much about it, Itzik, a local supermarket owner, told The Telegraph.

Two women going for a job along the seaside were equally sanguine in the face of the Iranian threats.

We are concerned but not nervous. We are used to it. I think an attack might happen, but on a military target, not civilian, one of the women said.

Herzliya on Saturday morning, where the mood was sanguine - Jotam Confino

On the streets of Tehran, people were more concerned.

I dont know who is at fault and who is not, but it is better to reach a compromise so that the war does not begin, and innocent people dont die, Maryam, a 43-year-old private sector worker, told AFP.

God willing, our government will favour reason over emotion, added Salehi, a 75-year-old retired government employee.

Some believe Tehran will respond with force to Israels attack on its embassy.

War is always bad and worrying but sometimes to achieve peace, a war is necessary, said Ehsan, a 43-year-old university professor.

The Iranian reformist newspaper Shargh wrote on Saturday that the longer Tehrans response is delayed, the more it has negative consequences on the countrys economy and intensifies concerns in society.

It is too early to be sure if Saturdays ship seizure will be the last word from Iran in a tit-for-tat that has put the whole region on edge.

Not a new tactic

Attacking vessels in the Persian Gulf region is nothing new for the IRGC, which has repeatedly harassed and attacked ships deemed to have a connection with Israel.

It is suspected of hijacking the Asphalt Princess in August 2021 as well as the Advantage Sweet in April 2023 and the Niovi a month later. The seizure of the Advantage Sweet involved a helicopter, just as in the most recent hijacking.

Ambrey, a security firm, said it had observed still footage of at least three individuals fast-roping from a helicopter onto what appeared to be a container ship.

The IRGC have previously used this method of boarding while seizing vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, Ambrey added.

For that reason, the hijacking of MSC Aries is unlikely to be seen as the full extent of Irans retaliation, experts say.

It could be just the first part of a multi-pronged, unconventional attack by Iran  or the leadership may have completely abandoned its much-vaunted plans for a large-scale missile attack.

Iranian leaders prefer to avoid direct action in their shadow conflict with Israel. They tend to rely on asymmetric, veiled attacks, using their vast network of proxies in the region, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Regardless, Iranian regime officials seem to be very pleased about the anxiety caused without launching a single missile.

This psychological, media and political war is more terrifying for them than the war itself, because they are waiting for an attack every night and many of them have fled and gone to shelters, said Yahya Rahim Safavi, an adviser to Irans supreme leader.

Experts who closely follow Iran have suggested that this could be the true goal of the recent crisis: waging psychological warfare on Israel to grind down morale, and perhaps lay the groundwork for a security slip-up in the near future.

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Smoke fills the sky after Israeli settlers set fire to the properties of Palestinian villagers in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir, Saturday, April 13, 2024. Israel's army says the body of a missing Israeli teen has been found in the occupied West Bank after he was killed in a "terrorist attack." The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair sparked a large attack by settlers on the Palestinian village on Friday and Saturday. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Al-MUGHAYYIR, West Bank (AP)  Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank went on the largest rampage against Palestinians there since the war in Gaza began, as Israel's army said Saturday the body of a missing Israeli teen was found after he was killed in a terrorist attack. Witnesses said settlers assaulted a number of communities.

The Israeli military said dozens of people were injured in confrontations in several locations, with shots fired and rocks thrown. It did not specify how many Palestinians and Israelis were hurt. Several companies with the defense forces were deployed and all of the incidents have concluded, it asserted.

The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair sparked the attacks on Palestinian villages on Friday and Saturday. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a statement on social media urged people not to take the law into their own hands in the territory where tensions have simmered for months.

On Friday, Palestinian Jehad Abu Alia was killed and 25 others were wounded in the attack on al-Mughayyir village, Palestinian health officials said. On Saturday, Israeli troops delayed for several hours the ambulance carrying the 26-year-old man's body for burial, witnesses said.

Dozens of Israeli settlers returned to the village's outskirts on Saturday, burning 12 homes and several cars. The Palestinian Health Ministry said three people from the village were injured, one critically. Border police fired tear gas toward villagers who gathered, trying to disperse them.

They entered the house and burned it and burned cars, as you can see, 42-year-old Akef Abu Allu said, looking at his blackened two-story home in al-Mughayyir.

In the nearby village of Douma, Israeli settlers set fire to around 15 homes and 10 farms, the head of the local village council, Slieman Dawabsheh, told The Associated Press, saying he had been there. The army came but unfortunately, the army were protecting the settlers, he said, asserting that it fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinians trying to confront and expel them.

The Israeli military didn't respond to questions. The Palestinian Red Crescent said six people were injured by gunfire but did not say who fired.

The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din in a statement said at least 10 villages in the West Bank were attacked by Israeli settlers, with homes and vehicles damaged.

Tensions in the West Bank have been especially high since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Oct. 7, sparked by the Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages. More than 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in Israels offensive, according to Gaza health officials.

Since then, Hamas has been trying to ignite other fronts, including in the West Bank, in hopes of exerting more pressure on Israel. Such efforts have largely failed, though more than 460 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since Oct. 7, most in clashes sparked by army raids but some by vigilante settlers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing of the Israeli teen.

According to Israeli media, the teen was last seen leaving the settler outpost of Malachei Shalom early Friday to tend to livestock nearby. The sheep returned to the outpost hours later without him, reports said.

Israel's Channel 13 TV reported that Achimair's body was discovered by a drone. The broadcaster said he was not shot but did not elaborate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the killing. We will get to the murderers and their helpers as we do to anyone who harms the citizens of the state of Israel, he said in a statement issued by his office.

In 2014, the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank escalated tensions and eventually ignited a 50-day Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, at the time the deadliest round of fighting between the two sides.

Consecutive Israeli governments have expanded Israeli settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories the Palestinians seek for a future state, along with Gaza. Some are highly developed and resemble suburbs of Israeli cities, while smaller outposts often have only a few caravans.

While Israel has established scores of settlements across the occupied West Bank, the outposts are not authorized, though the government gives them tacit support. The international community overwhelmingly considers all West Bank settlements illegal and obstacles to peace.

Over 700,000 Israelis now live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem  territories captured by Israel in 1967.
Israel will close schools and limit trips country-wide in anticipation of retaliatory strikes from Iran, military officials said Saturday.

The temporary closures, announced by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari, come as fears ramp up that an attack is imminent after Irans embassy compound in Damascus, Syria, was hit earlier this month by an Israeli strike. The airstrike killed seven Iranian military advisers, including three senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members.

The news comes as fears have ramped up among Israels allies over the looming attack, including the U.S. President Biden announced Saturday he would return from his weekend trip to Delaware to consult with his national security team about the ongoing situation in the Middle East.

It also follows Bidens suggestion Friday that the attack from Tehran could come sooner than later.

Members of the IRGC, a group independent of Irans army, rappelled down from a helicopter onto an Israeli-linked container ship on Saturday, seizing the Portuguese-flagged vessel and its crew. The Biden administration called on Iran to free the ship and its crew on Saturday.

We call on Iran to release the vessel & its international crew immediately, Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council, said on social media platform X.

In response to the growing threat and as the war in Gaza recently passed six months, Americans have been warned to avoid traveling within Israel.

U.S. warships have also been moved to positions in the region and The State Department dished out a security warning to U.S. government employees to refrain from traveling outside of the greater Tel Aviv area, Jerusalem and the southern city of Beer Sheva.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Foreign tourists go through passenger clearance procedures at Tianjin International Cruise Home Port in north China's Tianjin Municipality, April 13, 2024. (Xinhua)

TIANJIN, April 13 (Xinhua) -- The Silver Shadow cruise ship, operated by the Royal Caribbean Group, docked at Tianjin International Cruise Home Port in north China's port city of Tianjin on Saturday morning, making it the third international cruise ship to visit Tianjin within a week.

Featuring luxurious facilities, Silver Shadow is one of the most popular cruise ships in the Silversea fleet. The cruise ship began service in 2000 and underwent renovation in 2019.

The ship has visited Tianjin 17 times in the past and this is its first visit to the city this year.

The ship will dock at Tianjin for two days and one night. The majority of the over 200 foreign tourists from 21 countries and regions aboard will go on sightseeing tours in Beijing and Tianjin.

"We work with the cruise line and the port company to streamline passenger clearance procedures, allowing them to have more travel time in China," said Liu Yang, a local immigration inspection officer.

With the rapid recovery of the cruise industry, there is a growing demand among foreign tourists to visit China's scenic spots and historic sites, Liu said.

"Last time I came to China to visit the Great Wall. This time, I would like to experience something different. I hope to take the high-speed rail from Tianjin to visit and enjoy Beijing," said Christopher Hamilton, a tourist hailing from Britain.

A couple from Germany stated that they had only one day in Beijing and would like to visit the Great Wall, perhaps the Forbidden City, and other popular attractions.

As the largest cruise home port in northern China, Tianjin International Cruise Home Port has welcomed three international cruise ships within a week.

Cruise ship Serenade of the Seas, also operated by Royal Caribbean Group, and Seabourn Odyssey, operated by Seabourn Cruise Line, docked at this port on April 7 and 8, respectively.

"The frequency of international cruise ships visiting Tianjin has surpassed previous levels," Liu said.

The Tianjin International Cruise Home Port has welcomed 24 cruise ships with 74,000 tourists so far this year, according to Dong Zichen, deputy general manager of Tianjin International Cruise Home Port Co., Ltd.

"We are quite optimistic about the recovery of the cruise tourism industry in Tianjin," Dong said, adding that the port is estimated to receive 100 cruise ships and 300,000 inbound and outbound tourists this year.

Royal Caribbean International announced its new China route deployment plan in March, which includes two cruises deployed in the ports of Shanghai, Tianjin and Hong Kong, with the sailing timeframe spanning from February 2025 to April 2026.

"We always stick to the Chinese market, and we are committed to creating value for Chinese consumers, social and economic development, as well as inbound and outbound travel. We have full confidence in the resilience of the Chinese economy," said Liu Zinan, chairman of Royal Caribbean Cruises, Asia. 

An aerial drone photo taken on April 13, 2024 shows the Silver Shadow cruise ship, operated by the Royal Caribbean Group, docking at Tianjin International Cruise Home Port in north China's Tianjin Municipality. (Xinhua)

An aerial drone photo taken on April 13, 2024 shows the Silver Shadow cruise ship, operated by the Royal Caribbean Group, docking at Tianjin International Cruise Home Port in north China's Tianjin Municipality. (Xinhua)
Israeli jets returned to their air bases after intercepting Iran's first ever direct attack on the country - Twitter

Irans massive attack, which included hundreds of drones as well as missiles according to state TV, was an unprecedented escalation in this conflict.

Mr Netanyahus next moves will hinge above all on how damaging Saturday nights attack proves to be and what exactly has been targeted by Iranian leaders.

Only a small number of the hundreds of drones and missiles launched by Tehran slipped past air defences on Sunday morning.

An Iranian air strike did damage a military base in the south of the country, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said.

Hitting only a few military targets may have allowed Iran to feel it has made its point without plunging the entire region into war.

Such a result may be within the limits of what Mr Netanyahu is prepared to tolerate at this stage.

He presumably thought carefully about the consequences of launching the consulate attack in Damascus  the cause for Irans retaliation  before he approved it.

Bold, choreographed attack

This might have been precisely what Tehran was aiming for: a bold, choreographed attack that it can claim has restored deterrence against Israel but that stops short of triggering all-out war.

Or, Mr Netanyahu may launch an in-kind response in which Israel carries out air strikes on targets in Iran, similar to those which may be in the firing line in Israel, such as military bases or government buildings.

Other obvious options for Israeli retaliation would be air strikes on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters or its bases around Iran.

Some analysts say this round of hostilities could last a few days or weeks. At some point, the two sides might cease hostilities, with both feeling they have made their stand.

Nightmare scenario

If things escalate, however, there remains a grim possibility of full-scale war between Iran and Israel, a nightmare scenario that would carry enormous cost to human life on both sides and probably drag the United States  and potentially Britain  into the fray.

Joe Biden, the US President, reportedly warned Mr Netanyahu on Sunday morning that the US will not participate in any attack by Israel on Iran.

Another key factor is Irans nuclear programme, which Israel has been working for years to dismantle via covert strikes. This new crisis might prove an opportunity to destroy the nuclear programme once and for all.

There are a few reasons to doubt that Iran truly wants war with Israel.

Experts say it would be ill-prepared militarily, and it is already under crippling Western sanctions. There is also massive internal opposition to the Iranian regime, as reflected in 2022s enormous protest movement.

But this attack was launched directly from Iranian territory and, the regime claims, includes missiles, not just drones.

This does not fit the pattern of Irans previous conduct, in which it has launched covert attacks on Israel or relied on regional proxies to do its bidding.

That means Israel  and the West  is now in uncharted and dangerous territory.

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Israel warns settlers not to take revenge into own hands after missing teenager found dead

According to local media, settlers entered the village, setting fire to cars and houses

The Israeli public was urged not to take the law into their own hands by seeking revenge after a teenager who went missing from a West Bank settlement was found dead.

Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was last seen leaving the settler outpost of Malachei Shalom early Friday to tend to his flock. The sheep returned to the outpost hours later without him, according to local media reports.

His disappearance prompted a major manhunt and deadly attacks on Palestinians in the nearby village of Al-Mughayyir on Friday evening.

According to local media, settlers entered the village, setting fire to cars and houses. A 25-year-old Palestinian man, Jihad Abu Alia, was killed and 25 others were injured in ensuing clashes.

Achimairs body was discovered by a drone on Saturday, according to Israels Channel 13 TV. The broadcaster said he was not shot but did not elaborate.

Terror attack

Authorities are treating it as a terror attack, with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant calling on the public to not interfere with the investigation.

Let the security forces act quickly in the hunt for the terrorists - revenge actions will make it difficult for our fighters in their mission - the law must not be taken into ones own hands, Mr Gallant posted on X.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the killing: We will get to the murderers and their helpers as we do to anyone who harms the citizens of the state of Israel.

Dozens of Israeli settlers returned to Al-Mughayyirs outskirts on Saturday, burning 12 homes and several cars.

Settlers reportedly also set fire to houses and cars in the Palestinian village of Douma, close to where Achimeirs body was found.

Hamas affiliates

At least 421 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7 with a further nine killed by settlers, according to the UN.

Israel says at least 3,600 terror suspects have been arrested in the West Bank of whom some 1,600 are Hamas affiliates.

Israel also said it foiled several terror attacks in the West Bank since October 7, including a major attack planned to be carried out in central Israel last month.

Violence between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank has significantly increased since Hamas terror attack on October 7, when they killed 1,200 people and took 250 people hostage.

More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

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Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has postponed a visit to Austria and Hungary planned for Sunday due to a possible Iranian retaliatory strike on his country.

His office announced on Saturday evening that the trip, during which Katz had planned to meet his counterparts in both countries, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok, among others, had been postponed "until further notice."

Military tensions in the Middle East have been growing for days.

Following the suspected Israeli airstrikes on Iran's embassy compound in the Syrian capital Damascus, in which two brigadier generals were killed, the state leadership in Tehran has threatened arch-enemy Israel with retaliation.
Hundreds of armed Israeli settlers stormed a village in the occupied West Bank on Friday, setting fire to several homes and cars in one of the largest attacks by settlers this year, according to Palestinian officials.

At least one Palestinian man was killed by gunfire in the village of Al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah, according to the head of the village council Amin Abu-Alia, who is related to the deceased.

About 25 others were also injured in the rampage, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, the scale of which has not been seen since hundreds of settlers stormed through the villages of Turmusayya and Huwara in two separate incidents last year.

According to Abu-Alia, Israeli security forces had informed Palestinian officials that the settlers were looking for an Israeli teenager who had gone missing earlier in the day.

He estimated that between 1,000 and 1,200 settlers surrounded the village, and around 500 stormed it just after midday local time on Friday, blocking all the roads in the area.

The settlers attacked the village, raided homes, and fired guns at residents, he said. Videos obtained by CNN show parts of the village burning, with smoke billowing over several buildings and settlers lobbing rocks. Houses and cars are seen completely burned up, with sounds of gunfire and clashes heard in the background.

Israeli settlers wearing headscarves are seen near billowing smoke. - Reuters

According to Abu-Alia, the Israeli military arrived at the scene at around 3 p.m. local time, but did not stop the settlers from attacking the village. Instead, Israeli soldiers allowed them to raid homes, prevented Palestinian residents from moving around and blocked ambulances from reaching the injured, he alleged.

Abu-Alia told CNN settlers stole approximately 70 sheep from the Palestinian village.

Reached for comment by CNN, the Israel Defense Forces said violent riots were instigated in multiple locations in the area following a search for the missing boy, and that Israeli forces tried to remove the settlers.

Security forces operated to disperse the violent riots. During the incident, rocks were hurled at IDF soldiers, who responded with fire. Hits were identified. Furthermore, IDF and Israel Border Police forces operated to withdraw Israeli civilians who entered the town of Al Mughayyir, it added.

A statement from the Palestinian Red Crescent said 11 ambulances drove to the scene of Fridays attack to pick up the wounded, reporting that several people were injured by bullet fragments.

Earlier on Friday, IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said IDF forces had been working to search for the missing 14-year-old, who was last seen near an Israeli settlement and around 2 kilometers from Al-Mughayyir.

IDF forces from the air and on the ground, including special forces, have been working since the early afternoon, along with the Israel Police and other forces, in the search for the 14-year-old boy who has been missing since this morning in the Malachei HaShalom area in the Binyamin Brigade, he said in a post on X.

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Protest against Israeli PM Netanyahu's government and to call for the release of hostages kidnapped in the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas, in Tel Aviv

Protest against Israeli PM Netanyahu's government and to call for the release of hostages kidnapped in the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas, in Tel Aviv

By Rami Amichay

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Thousands of Israelis rallied against their government on Saturday, with some demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu call off the half-year-old war in Gaza amid a deadlock in diplomatic efforts to retrieve hostages held there by Hamas.

Hamas-led gunmen seized 253 people during an Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 others, according to officials. Some hostages were freed in a November truce but Egyptian- and Qatari-mediated efforts to secure another deal appear to have stalled.

As concern mounts in Israel for the wellbeing of the 129 remaining hostages, who cannot be contacted, their families and friends have organised increasingly vocal demonstrations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightist government.

They have dovetailed with activists who have long called for Netanyahu's ouster given his trial on graft charges - which he denies - and his attempts to overhaul the judiciary last year.

"Our country's near the abyss. We've already started to drive down and we must stop it. I'm here to gather the force to tell the people that they need to come out and they need to tell our government that it's time to stop," said Marva Erez, 45, who was among demonstrators in Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu said he will continue with the war to dismantle Hamas, despite alarm in Washington and other Western capitals at the civilian toll in Gaza, where medical officials say more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed.

Hamas has said any new hostage deal must bring about an end to the Gaza war and withdrawal of all Israeli forces.

"There will be a (hostage) deal," Culture Minister Miki Zohar, a senior member of Netanyahu's Likud party, told Channel 12 TV. "But not at any price."

The anti-government protest in Tel Aviv was held separately to a smaller vigil for the hostages. Many of those taking part in the latter event soon merged with the bigger demonstration.

Michael Levy, whose brother Or is among the hostages, said he was protesting because "we have no time for the talks".

"We need actions. We need to get them home," he said.

(Writing by Dan Williams; editing by Barbara Lewis)
The Russian military is producing and deploying a new subsonic cruise missile, dubbed the Kh-69, in its renewed assault against Ukraine's energy infrastructure and vulnerable air defenses, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its April 12 report.

Russia has escalated attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure in recent weeks, exploiting a shortage in Kyiv's air defense systems brought on by delays in Western military aid.

A Russian missile attack overnight on April 11 destroyed the Trypillia Thermal Power Plant in Kyiv Oblast. The plant was hit by the new Kh-69 missiles, according to the Ukrainian military.

"ISW has not previously observed the Russian use of Kh-69 missiles in Ukraine," analysts said.

"Russian forces have reportedly launched Kh-69 missiles from 400 kilometers away from their targets, exceeding a previous estimated range of 300 kilometers and the 200-kilometer range of the most recent Kh-59MK2 variant."

Air Force spokesperson Illia Yevlash confirmed on April 12 that Russia had launched the new missiles during its massive aerial attack on April 11.

"This is an improved system of the Kh-59 version," Yevlash said.

"We are currently establishing what kind of missile it was, what type it was. These are fresh missiles with parts manufactured in 2023. That is, we can see that Russia is constantly trying to produce new missiles."

Yevlash said Russia was manufacturing the Kh-69 domestically, but continued production relies on the ability to source critical components from abroad. ISW analysts said Russia is not likely able to produce the new missile systems at a greater speed than its other missiles.

In addition to its expanded range, the Kh-69 can also reportedly be launched from Su-34 and Su-35 tactical aircraft, which are more common than strategic bombers. According to Yevlash, Patriot air defense systems would likely be effective at intercepting Kh-69s.

The ISW said that Western air defense provisions are "crucial" for Ukraine's defense against Russia's escalating missile and drone attacks.

Read also: What we know about hypersonic Zircon missiles  Russias latest threat

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni says surrogacy is inhuman and is backing steeper penalties against the practice, including fines of up to $1 million and multiple-year prison sentences.

The act of surrogacy  with or without payment  is already illegal in Italy but Melonis Brothers of Italy party has introduced a bill that would further criminalize the act by hiking fines from 600,000 to 1 million ($640,290 to $1,067,150) and increasing jail terms from three months up to two years.

I continue to believe that surrogacy is an inhuman practice, Meloni said at a conference For a Young Europe: Demographic Transition, Environment, Future in Rome on Friday.

I support the bill that makes it a universal crime, she added.

Melonis comments against surrogacy fall in line with the views held by the Catholic Church.

In a document released Monday, Pope Francis addressed surrogacy, saying it violates both the dignity of the child and the woman, who becomes a mere means subservient to the arbitrary gain or desire of others.

The Friday conference was designed to focus on Italys declining birth rates, which Melonis government has promised to reverse by making it easier for working mothers to find adequate child care and other support.

The demographic challenge, and the economic sustainability to which it is connected, is one of the main challenges for us, she said. There is no point in managing the present, if the future is not secure.

Meloni is calling for public spending increases to support families, including baby bonuses and tax breaks for families with children. Her government has already cut taxes on baby formula and diapers.

The move to criminalize surrogacy is largely seen as a move against the LGBTQ+ community. Italy was the last European country to legalize same sex unions, which it did in 2016 but does not allow gay couples to be married, in line with the Catholic Church.

Under Melonis government, birth certificates were changed to list mother and father rather than parent 1 and parent 2. In 2023 some communities where her Brothers of Italy leads the government, names of lesbian mothers were removed from birth certificates.

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United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg has announced indictments against postal workers Austin Engler (26, St. Augustine) and Teron Haywood, Sr. (46, Jacksonville) for alleged misconduct involving mail delivery.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

Engler and Haywood, both employed by the United States Postal Service (USPS), face charges of destruction or delay of mail, a serious offense carrying a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.

Duckworth, 43, from Jacksonville, stands accused of embezzling items from the mail, including a retail store gift card and a bracelet, on March 1, 2023. As a U.S. Postal Service employee, Duckworth faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison if convicted.

Meanwhile, Engler, 26, from St. Augustine, and Haywood, Sr., 46, from Jacksonville, both face charges of destruction or delay of mail during their employment as Rural Carrier Assistants with USPS. The indictments allege that in June 2023, Engler and Haywood knowingly and unlawfully destroyed or delayed mail intended for delivery along their respective routes. If convicted, each could also face up to five years in federal prison.

An indictment serves as a formal charge, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The Office of Inspector General of the United States Postal Service conducted investigations into these cases. Assistant United States Attorneys Laura Cofer Taylor and David B. Mesrobian will prosecute them.

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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday became the first foreign leader to visit the North Carolina Executive Mansion, where he was honored during a luncheon.

State leaders, including Democrats and Republicans, joined Kishida, his wife, and the rest of the Japanese delegation.

North Carolina First Lady Kristin Cooper, North Carolina Governor Roy Copper, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Japanese First Lady Yuko Kishida pose for a photograph before attending a luncheon at the Executive Mansion on Friday, April 12, 2024 in Raleigh, N.C.

Kishida has spent the week in the United States, and North Carolina is the only state he toured after meeting with President Joe Biden in Washington. The links between Japan and North Carolina have increased in recent years as several Japanese businesses have announced major job-creation projects in the state, including Toyota, Fujifilm and Kyowa Kirin.

I think most of the Japanese companies that we have dealt with plan for a long, sustainable future, Gov. Roy Cooper told The News & Observer. And they think about planting the trees under which people they may never know will enjoy the shade.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addresses a luncheon in his honor on Friday, April 12, 2024 at the Executive Mansion in Raleigh, N.C.

The menu was prepared by James Beard Award-winning chef Ashley Christensen.

The first course of chilled sunburst tomato and cucumber soup at a luncheon in honor of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday, April 12, 2024 at the Executive Mansion in Raleigh, N.C.
BRASILIA, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday inaugurated the first shipment of meat exports to China from central Mato Grosso do Sul state.

Lula da Silva placed the final seal on an item of beef to be shipped to the Asian country. As a result of market expansion, China authorized 38 Brazilian meatpacking plants to export meat in March, increasing the number of plants from 106 to 144.

The authorization will result in an increase of 10 billion reals (about 1.946 billion U.S. dollars) in Brazil's trade balance over the next 12 months. 
Jersey Shore teacher Jessica Sawicki charged with having sex with her student in a car parked in a wildlife refuge

A New Jersey English teacher is in hot water after allegedly having sex with one of her students in a park preserve, authorities said.

A Jersey Shore teacher is in hot water for allegedly having steamy sex with a student in a nature preserve, authorities said.

Jessica Sawicki, 37, of Point Pleasant, an English teacher at Hamilton High School West in Trenton, is accused of sexually assaulting the student at the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area in Upper Freehold Township on multiple occasions this year, Monmouth County prosecutors said.

The wildlife habitat is about a 20-minute drive from the school.

Sawicki allegedly admitted to authorities that she and the teen rendezvoused to have unprotected sex at least five times since December in the 6,393-acre state-owned wildlife management area, according to an affidavit of probable cause  obtained by The Post  that outlined the charges. htsdnj.org

Sawicki was arrested Monday and remains locked up at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, pending a detention hearing next week, authorities said.

Sawicki and her student were caught in states of undress by officers from New Jersey Fish and Wildlife on Sunday, officials said.

Sawicki allegedly admitted to authorities that she and the teen rendezvoused to have unprotected sex at least five times since December in the 6,393-acre state-owned wildlife management area, according to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by The Post.

The two had sex in the back seat of the teens car, according to the document.

The teen was described in the criminal complaint as being at least 16 but not yet 18.

The married teacher gushed about her profession on her now-deleted about the teacher page: This is my 7th year working at Hamilton West teaching English . . . I truly enjoy getting to know the students here and helping them become the best versions of themselves while they strive for their futures.

Sawicki and her student were caught in states of undress by officers from New Jersey Fish and Wildlife on Sunday, officials said. Google

Sawicki was arrested Monday and remains locked up at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution, pending a detention hearing next week, authorities said.

Sawicki was placed on administrative leave from her $41,000-a-year-position, according to a statement posted on the school districts website.

Sawicki was placed on administrative leave, according to a

statement posted on the school districts website.

As a result of the information gathered, the school district took immediate action to place the

individual on administrative leave. Our district fully cooperated with the prosecutors office during their investigation and will continue to do so, as needed, Principal Brian Smith and Superintendent Scott Rocco said in the statement.

The alleged incident goes against our professional standards as a school district and is far removed from the expectations we have for the personal conduct of an employee. We have no tolerance for any actions that harm or could potentially harm our students. The actions of one staff member do not represent the hard work and dedication of our entire school community.

The statement notes there is no indication that any of the alleged actions took place on school property.

Sawickis profile was scrubbed from the school website teachers directory following her arrest.

The married teachers profile was scrubbed from the school website teachers directory following her arrest.

There is no indication that any of the alleged actions took place on school property, school officials said. Google

She was charged with five counts of second-degree sexual assault and five counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.

Messages left for the Sawicki household were not returned.
President Joe Biden cut a weekend trip short and returned to the White House as reports indicate Iran launched dozens of drones towards Israel set to arrive in a matter of hours.

Mr Biden was set to spend the weekend in his home state of Delaware but is now returning to Washington, DC on Saturday afternoon to meet with his national security team.

Instead, his departure was announced just hours before the IDF detected Irans attacks. He returned to Washington by helicopter at 4.34 pm Eastern Time.

A White House official said Mr Biden subsequently met with a coterie of advisers in the White House Situation Room,including Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Q. Brown, Director Bill Burns, Director Avril Haines, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer, Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall, Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti and National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk.

Vice President Kamala Harris and White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients also joined the meeting by secure video link.

President Joe Biden meets with member of the National Security team regarding the unfolding missile attacks on Israel from Iran, Saturday, April 13, 2024, in the White House Situation Room. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz) (The White House)

Meanwhile, the US has pledged to help protect Israel, with American and British warplanes reportedly shooting down Iranian drones that were on the way into Israeli airspace.

President Joe Biden, pictured arriving at the White House on 13 April 2024, cut his trip to Delaware short (AFP via Getty Images)

Iran has begun an airborne attack against Israel, National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson said on Saturday. President Biden is being regularly updated on the situation by his national security team and will meet with them this afternoon at the White House.

President Biden has been clear: our support for Israels security is ironclad, Ms Watson continued. The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran.

The reported drone launch comes after a suspected Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria on 1 April. The strike killed 12 people. Such an attack could further heighten tensions and violence in the area. Just hours before their airstrike, Iran also captured an Israel-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, further indicating an attack was imminent.

Our defensive systems are deployed; we are ready for any scenario, both defensively and offensively, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday evening.

We have determined a clear principle: Whoever harms us, we will harm them, Mr Netanyahu continued. We will defend ourselves against any threat and will do so level-headedly and with determination.

Mr Netanyahu said the IDF is ready for any scenario after Iran launched airstrikes against Israel (IDF)

Already, the region faces Israels continued offensive in Gaza and the consistent fire exchanged between the IDF and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, along the Israel-Lebanon border. American tensions with Iran also came to a head earlier this year when the US military struck Iran-backed militants and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Iraq and Syria. The attacks came in retaliation for a drone strike that killed three American troops in Jordan.

On Friday evening, the president said his administration expects Iran to launch an attack against Israel sooner rather than later. He also warned Tehran against launching the attack.

We are devoted to the defence of Israel, Mr Biden told reporters. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed.

Meanwhile, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said he spoke with an Israeli defence official on Saturday morning.

This morning, I spoke with my Israeli counterpart, National Security Advisor Hanegbi, to discuss events in the Middle East, Mr Sullivan said on X. During the call, I reiterated the United States ironclad commitment to the security of Israel.

Just hours before Iran launched their attack, IDF has issued an alert pausing all educational activities and limiting gatherings throughout most of the country to 1,000 people.

In the last six months, Israels bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 33,400 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza. The attacks come in response to 7 October, when Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 200 people hostage.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson urged the US to continue supporting Israel, while condeming the Biden administration.

The Biden Administrations undermining of Israel and appeasement of Iran have contributed to these terrible developments, Mr Johnson said in a statement on Saturday evening.

President Joe Biden, pictured boarding Air Force One to Delaware on Friday, will now return to Washington, DC to consult with his national security team (AFP via Getty Images)

Tensions between Mr Netanyahu and Mr Biden have been on the rise in recent weeks.

This week, the president called for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza to allow humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians. However, he still appears poised to make an $18bn sale of fighter jets to Israel  a deal which the administration says has been in the making for years.

The Independent also exclusively reported this week that eight internal dissent memos were sent by US State Department staff during the first two months of the Gaza war, highlighting the widespread opposition within the department to the Biden administrations support for Israels war in Gaza.

Earlier this month, the IDF also killed seven humanitarian aid workers with World Central Kitchen, a non-profit founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres. One of those killed included a dual American-Canadian citizen. The non-profit said the IDF also gravely injured an eighth aid worker the same day in a separate strike. The Israeli government called the 1 April killings a mistake.
PALM BEACH, Florida  Mike Johnson got what he came for on Friday  an appearance shoulder to shoulder with Donald Trump, who criticized efforts to depose the House speaker.

Hes doing about as good as you're going to do," Trump said.

The former president's comments may not be enough to persuade Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to abandon her push to oust the Louisiana Republican. But Trump's remarks will likely give Republican thinking of aligning with Greene  and against Johnson  pause.

After praising Johnson, Trump said, "I'm sure that Marjorie understands that. She's a very good friend of mine, and I know she has a lot of respect for the speaker."

While Trump in recent days has put his talent for disrupting House GOP leaders best-laid plans on display, Greenes frustration with Johnson poses the most immediate threat to his future. Her spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on Trumps public show of support for Johnson, though she confirmed this week she discussed her attempt to remove Johnson with Trump.



Meanwhile, as Johnson remains mum on when hell take up a long-stalled Ukraine aid plan, hes getting pulled in two different directions: With Greene signaling that his handling of it will affect her campaign to boot him, some GOP centrists are urging him to bend Trumps ear on it. They, and some Senate Republicans, remain hopeful that the speaker could corral the former president behind an alternative approach to an aid bill that Greene and other conservatives abhor.

Trump told reporters Friday that were looking at Ukraine aid now and that it could be a loan rather than just a gift, though he also used the opportunity to criticize Democrats and lament the victims of the war.

The speaker talks to Trump frequently and their teams have coordinated strategy on keeping the House in Republican hands this fall. Johnson has to get comfortable riding the Trump rollercoaster if he wants his agenda to succeed, and despite this weeks stumble on government surveillance legislation, there are clear signs that the two have a decent relationship.

The former president has at times taken Johnsons counsel on how to engage in House races. Earlier this year, Johnson traveled to Mar-a-Lago to talk about congressional elections. The two were joined by North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, the National Republican Congressional Committee chair.

The speaker, along with Hudson, had been scheduled to meet with Trump on Friday to discuss House elections. But their respective teams decided to add a press conference that would be focused on election integrity-related matters  a catch-all for Trumps concerns about elections, including his false claim that the 2020 election was rigged.

Johnson has told people that he has stressed to Trump the importance of retaining the House majority, according to a person familiar with the discussions who was granted anonymity to speak freely. The speaker has also said that he told Trump that he is likely to get impeached by Democrats if hes elected president if Democrats win the House majority. He has also said that he conveyed to Trump that his appointees would likely be subpoenaed by House Democrats.

Those close to the two men say their relationship grew in part over Johnsons role in defending Trump during his first impeachment over allegations that he pressured Ukraine to investigate President Joe Bidens family.

But thats not to say Trump isnt willing to insert some chaos into the House GOP. In the 48 hours before Johnson showed up at Mar-a-Lago, Trump showed once again hes willing to buck House leadership. Soon after the former president posted on Truth Social on Wednesday that Republicans should kill a government surveillance law, 19 Republicans brought down a bill reauthorizing a key section of it that Johnson had painstakingly negotiated.



It was the latest in a series of major priorities that Trump has helped grind to a halt in Johnsons House simply by voicing his opposition  after a bipartisan Senate border deal and a Senate-passed Ukraine aid bill that the speaker is vowing to resist.

And things got more awkward from there. Johnson acknowledged to his members in private, according to three lawmakers familiar with the conversations, that he had spoken to Trump less than 24 hours before the failed Wednesday vote but that they didnt even talk about the surveillance fight thats plagued the speaker for months.

Trump had an impact on how leadership dealt with the rule defeat, said Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), one of the 19 conservatives who initially opposed taking up the surveillance bill on the floor. [Former] President Trump hanging out there and being in the picture has an impact.

Johnson moved quickly after Trumps broadside, shortening the period of reauthorization for the government surveillance program from five years to two years. That amounted to a gift to Trump, who would be able to preside over the next fight over the program if he wins a second term.

And as the speaker prepared to head to Florida, his members were eager to hear if Trump would formally clarify his position on the surveillance power while appearing with Johnson. Republicans on both sides of that fight cast their votes believing that Trump had softened his opposition; Trump-friendly Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) forecasted a great announcement from the duo about the spy power, which Trump did during the Friday press conference.



Trump repeated he is not a big fan of the broader surveillance law during his press conference  but hesitantly offered support of the new two year guardrail on the House bill. The former president said he told everybody to do what you want in regards to the bill.

They put a lot of checks and balances on, Trump said. And I guess it's down to two years now so that it would come due in the early part of my administration on the basis that we live up to the polls.

Surveillance wasnt the only issue that Republican lawmakers were hoping Johnson could convince Trump to address during their meeting. House GOP centrists, including Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), wanted him to try to get a commitment out of the former president.

Moderates like Bacon know Trumps blessing could help clear Ukraine aid through the House, plus give Johnson political cover on the issue that has propelled the first threat to strip his gavel.

Republican senators, who have heard Johnson say repeatedly in private  albeit somewhat vaguely  that he supports aiding Ukraine, are also eager for the speaker to move on it.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has publicly leaned on Johnson to pass his chambers foreign assistance bill rather than fight it out again in the upper chamber, where about half of Republicans oppose Ukraine aid and debating Israel aid could get ugly among Democrats. But McConnell isnt the only one leaning on Johnson.

I take him at his word, which is he says he's going to have a Ukraine bill on the floor, said Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.). This is of the most significant votes in this Congress, that many Congress will address and vote on. and it's hugely important.

Johnson did not respond to requests for comment about whether he plans to move on Ukraine aid next week, though supporters expect it to come up and are eagerly awaiting the details. If he doesnt, the matter is likely to slide into May  a three-month delay since the Senate passed its bill.

Part of the problem for Johnson: Hes not alone in working to cultivate Trumps favor and influence. In addition to Greene, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)  who was Trumps pick for speaker after Kevin McCarthy got fired  noted Friday that he talks to the former president all the time.

Whats clear to many House Republicans is that Johnson and Trump are still figuring each other out, which doesnt necessarily mean that a single disagreement can blight their dynamic.

They never ceased to have a good working relationship, said Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who worked on the noncitizen voting bill and had planned to attend the Mar-a-Lago event if possible.

Burgess Everett contributed to this story.
Niyak Ghorbani holds up his banner during a march in London on March 30 - Elliott Franks

A judge has told the Metropolitan Police it cannot stop an Iranian dissident who displays a sign branding Hamas as terrorists from attending pro-Palestinian protests.

Under strict bail conditions imposed by the force, Niyak Ghorbani, who has been arrested three times during his counter-protests, would have been prevented from going near any central London demonstrations relating to Israel and the conflict in Gaza.

But a judge has now thrown out the conditions, ruling that they were neither proportionate nor necessary.

The conditions had been imposed after 38-year-old Mr Ghorbani was arrested for a third time during a pro-Palestinian march earlier this month.

He has become well known for holding up a sign stating Hamas Is Terrorist while standing alongside the route of the regular protests being held in London against Israels retaliation to Hamass Oct 7 attacks.

He has been manhandled and attacked by some protesters, but insists he is doing nothing wrong in pointing out that Hamas is a proscribed terror group under UK law.

Niyak Ghorbani lies on the ground as he is handcuffed by police officers - @IncMonocle

Police attempted to impose strict bail conditions preventing him from attending future demonstrations after he was arrested and accused of refusing to stand where instructed by a police officer during an Al Quds day protest against Israel on April 5.

He was not displaying his banner at the time, but was working as a video reporter. A hoodie he was wearing with the same slogan was concealed by his zipped up jacket.

Following his arrest, he was handed a sheet outlining his bail conditions as being not to attend any protest relating to Israel or Palestine in the City of Westminster.

He was told by officers that the conditions would remain in place until at least July, when he is due to return to Charing Cross police station to learn whether he faces any charges.

On Friday, Mr Ghorbani went to Westminster magistrates court to appeal against the police action.

Niyak Ghorbani outside Westminster magistrates' court on Friday - CHRISTOPHER PLEDGER FOR THE TELEGRAPH

Jessie Smith, his barrister, of Doughty Street Chambers, told the court the Met had been wrong to impose the bail condition.

Pointing out that no further action had been taken by police following Mr Ghorbanis previous two arrests, she added: We have here someone who has held up a flag with a legal statement written on it.

A condition of this kind at this precise time, imposed for three months, and given that he does not have a criminal record , is not proportionate. It is wholly disproportionate.

Deputy District Judge Lisa Towell agreed and ordered the ban to be lifted. She told Mr Ghorbani: In these circumstances Im not satisfied that the condition is either necessary or proportionate. At this stage Im persuaded to remove the condition.

Dissident overjoyed by ruling

Mr Ghorbani said he was overjoyed by the courts ruling and vowed to attend future pro-Palestine protests and continue displaying his banner.

He told The Telegraph: It was fantastic to hear the judge say that she disagreed with what the police did. That means I can carry on with my protest against terrorism.

The police wanted to show their power to me, but they should be showing their power to the protesters who shout slogans in support of terrorist organisations like Hamas.

We live in a democracy, with free speech, but the police were trying to prevent my freedom. Im doing this for the British people, for the Iranians and for the Israelis, for people who live here peacefully.

Topsy-turvy policing

Mr Ghorbani, who wore a pendant in court with an inscription calling for all Israeli hostages to be released, urged others to take up the mantle of opposition to Hamas and lend their support to pro-Israeli counter-demonstrations.

On Saturday, Mr Ghorbani joined Israel supporters in Hastings, where he held up his banner as local pro-Palestinian activists marched past.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), which funded Mr Ghorbanis appeal, condemned the Mets response to his protests.

A spokesman for CAA said: All Niyak Ghorbani wants to do is point out to anti-Israel marchers that Hamas is a terrorist organisation under UK law.

Instead of addressing the threat that the marchers pose, the police have tried to impose draconian measures on Mr Ghorbani.

If only the police were half as concerned with the marchers as with people like Mr Ghorbani. How did British policing get so topsy-turvy?

The Metropolitan Police has been contacted for comment.

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Progressive media watchdog group Media Matters for America celebrated a legal win Friday, announcing that a federal judge has imposed a preliminary injunction against Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general who sought to investigate the group after it reported on white nationalist content appearing on X, formerly Twitter.

Media Matters President and CEO Angelo Carusone released a statement calling the news a victory for free speech.

Elon Musk encouraged Republican state attorneys general to use their power to harass their critics and stifle reporting about X. Ken Paxton was one of those AGs that took up the call and he was defeated. Todays decision is a victory for free speech, Carusone said.

After Media Matters published its report last November, X sued the watchdog group, as did Paxton. Media Matters responded with a suit against Paxton, alleging violations of their First Amendment rights, including a chilling effect on their ability to conduct their work. Paxtons suit, they argued, amounted to a baseless and arbitrary government investigation in a state to which they have no relevant connection.

Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia agreed, writing that the groups reporting on matters of public concern are core First Amendment activities. Paxtons comments about Media Matters showed retaliatory intent, he added. Paxton is now barred from being able to look through Media Matters internal documents, as he had demanded.

Paxton, who recently struck a deal to avoid being charged with securities fraud, has not yet issued a public statement in response to Fridays ruling.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A judge in Delaware has denied attempts by President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden to dismiss three federal gun charges, all but ensuring a trial will move forward this summer.

Attorneys for Hunter Biden in December filed a flurry of challenges to an indictment brought by special counsel David Weiss, challenging Weiss' authority to file charges and claiming the indictment came as the result of a selective and vindictive prosecution.

Defense attorneys also argued that an immunity provision tethered to Hunter Biden's ill-fated plea agreement remained in effect.

MORE: Hunter Biden seeks dismissal of federal gun charges

Prosecutors say Hunter Biden lied on a federal form about his drug use when he obtained a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver in 2018, after he later acknowledged in his memoir, "Beautiful Things," that he was addicted to drugs around that time. He owned the firearm for eleven days and never fired it, his attorneys have said.

Weiss' office in January pushed back on Hunter Biden's efforts to dismiss the case, calling his various arguments "absurd," "stunningly weak and wholly unsupported by facts and law," and "a fiction designed for a Hollywood script."

On Friday, Judge Maryellen Noreika sided with prosecutors, ensuring that the case will move forward to trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin in early June.

Attorneys for Hunter Biden had rested their hopes for dismissal in large part on their claim that an immunity provision in their plea deal, which ultimately fell apart, was ratified when both parties signed it. But Weiss' office argued that the contract required approval from a probation officer, and the probation officer never signed it.

PHOTO: In this April 18, 2022, file photo, Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, speaks to guests during the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/AP, FILE)

Noreika wrote Friday that "the relevant language [in the agreement] unambiguously requires probation to approve the agreement."

Hunter Biden had also argued that Weiss "buckled" under political pressure from Republicans and former President Donald Trump. But Noreika issued a stinging rebuke.

"At best, [Hunter Biden] has generically alleged that individuals from the prior administration were or are targeting him (or his father) and therefore his prosecution here must be vindictive," Noreika wrote. "The problem with this argument is that the charging decision at issue was made during this administration -- by Special Counsel Weiss -- at a time when the head of the Executive Branch prosecuting Defendant is Defendant's father."

"Defendant's claim is effectively that his own father targeted him for being his son, a claim that is nonsensical under the facts here," Noreika wrote.

The ruling marks another legal setback for Hunter Biden after a federal judge in California early this month blocked similar challenges to a nine-count indictment on tax charges. That case is expected to go to trial just weeks after the Delaware gun case.

Judge denies Hunter Biden's attempt to dismiss federal gun charges originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
A federal judge on Friday denied Hunter Biden's request to dismiss a gun case against him that his lawyers argue is politically motivated.

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected all of Biden motions, which cited vindictive and selective prosecution, thereby moving the case forward to trial.

The son of President Biden is accused of lying about his drug use on a federal form when he bought a firearm in October 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction to crack cocaine.

He's pleaded not guilty.

HUNTER BIDEN REFUSES TO ATTEND HOUSE HEARING WITH FORMER BUSINESS ASSOCIATES

Hunter Biden departs a House Oversight Committee meeting at Capitol Hill on January 10. On Friday, a judge denied a motion to throw out a federal gun case against him.

Hunter Biden has acknowledged his struggles with substance abuse during that period, but his lawyers have said he didn't break the law and another nonviolent, first-time offender would not have been charged.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

His lawyers have argued that prosecutors bowed to political pressure after an immunity provision from an original plea that fell apart was publicly pilloried by Republicans  including former President Trump  as a "sweetheart deal." Prosecutors have denied the case is motivated by politics.

Noreika has not yet ruled on a challenge to the constitutionality of the gun charges.

The trial is penciled in for jury selection for the week of June 3.

President Biden has repeatedly defended his son Hunter amid a wave of legal troubles, saying multiple times that his son has done "nothing wrong" and that he is "confident" of that prior to the Justice Department's appointment of a special counsel to further investigate the matter.

In California, Biden is still heading toward a trial on June 20 on tax charges. Biden's legal team in that case also plans to appeal a judge's denial of a motion to dismiss the charges.

"Notice is hereby given that Robert Hunter Biden hereby appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit," the court document giving notice of the interlocutory appeal states.

Biden is alleged to have participated in a four-year scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while living an extravagant lifestyle. The trial in that case is scheduled from late June until mid-July.

The Associated press contributed to this report.





Original article source: Judge denies Hunter Biden's motion to dismiss federal gun case
A judge on Friday moved to halt an investigation by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) into the liberal watchdog journalism organization Media Matters, issuing a preliminary injunction in the case.

Calling Media Matters a radical left-wing and anti-free speech organization, Paxton claimed to be investigating potential fraudulent activity by the group under Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, in response to its reporting about X  the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Media Matters President and CEO Angelo Carusone said in a statement on Friday evening that X owner Elon Musk had encouraged Republican state attorneys general to use their power to harass their critics and stifle reporting about X, adding: Ken Paxton was one of those AGs that took up the call and he was defeated. Todays decision is a victory for free speech.

Paxton launched an investigation into after Media Matters in November, after its senior reporter Eric Hananoki reported that X had been placing ads for major brands like Apple, Bravo (NBCUniversal), IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity (Comcast) next to content that touts Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party.

X filed a lawsuit against Media Matters in Texas calling the report intentionally deceptive, and Paxton made a sweeping demand for documents from Media Matters that same day. (Media Matters called the X lawsuit meritless.)

Paxtons office demanded the organizations internal and external communications about Musk, X CEO Linda Yaccarino, and Musks purchase of X. The attorney general also requested extensive details on its financials, demanding the group detail any revenue it receives from sources in Texas, as well as all direct and indirect sources of funding for all Media Matters for America operations involving X research or publications.

Media Matters filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to block those investigative demands, arguing the Paxton was violating its First Amendment rights and attempting to chill its newsgathering, research, and reporting activities on X or Musk.

The organization noted it has no relevant connection to Texas, explaining that it does not transact any business in Texas and thus has never registered in the state and similarly has not registered as a charity organization in Texas.

By filing the lawsuit, Media Matters effectively blocked Paxton from suing to try to enforce his offices investigative demands. Last month, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) jumped in and sued the organization in a Missouri state court, demanding similar documents, despite the fact that Media Matters is not registered as a business or charity in that state, either.

D.C. District Court Judge Amit Mehta granted Media Matters request for a preliminary injunction in its case against Texas on Friday. Plaintiffs reporting on matters of public concern are core First Amendment activities, the judge wrote, asserting that Paxton was pursuing Media Matters with retaliatory intent over acts with no apparent connection to Texas.

Mehta issued an order blocking Paxton from enforcing his offices original investigative demands and from issuing any additional demands relating to the investigation he announced in November.

We are pleased that the court stepped in today to protect Media Matters for America from a clear attack on the organizations core First Amendment activities, Elias Law Group partner Aria Branch, who represented Media Matters in the case, said in a statement. Todays ruling is a win for free speech, and it sends a strong message to conservative Attorneys General around the country that meritless, retaliatory efforts to investigate progressive organizations for their protected speech will not succeed.

Media Matters filed the lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C. to try to head off similar investigative demands from attorneys general in other red states where the organization does not operate.

This is their new tool to go after anybody they want, Ezra Reese, the Political Law chair at Elias Law Group, tells Rolling Stone. And figuring out how to stop it is really important, not just for Media Matters, but for all the other groups theyre going after.

Paxton, for instance, has sought to use the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act as grounds to demand that Seattle Childrens Hospital provide records of any gender affirming care it has provided to children from Texas. The hospital sued Paxton in a Texas court, arguing he has no jurisdiction to make such demands. Washington state also has a shield law designed to protect health care providers from such requests.

Reese says Media Matters approach can carve a path for everybody else these Republican AGs are targeting to defend themselves.

More from Rolling Stone

Best of Rolling Stone
BEIRUT, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Jamal Yehya, a Lebanese fisherman in his 50s, depends on fishing to support his family of five. However, since the start of the Hezbollah-Israel confrontations, the fisherman, who resides in southern Lebanon, is facing the risk of losing his livelihood.

For local fishermen like Yehya, an essential tool they rely on when going out to sea to cast their nets is the GPS navigation system. But during conflicts with Hezbollah, Israel tends to disrupt or even block local GPS signals.

"A few days ago, I was throwing my cast net in the sea near Tyre city in southern Lebanon, relying on GPS to determine the location. But because of (Israeli) interference, the device determined the wrong place, which appeared to be at a depth of 100 meters instead of 30 meters, so I lost my net and almost lost my boat," Yehya told Xinhua.

According to Ali Mantash, a 60-year-old fisherman, many civilians in southern Lebanon rely on fishing as their primary source of income. Like what Yehya experienced, Israeli interference with the navigation system could potentially lead fishermen towards remote islands and open seas, putting their lives in grave danger.

Since the onset of the Hezbollah-Israel conflict, local fishing activities have greatly decreased. While the sea used to be bustling with fishermen, their presence is now scarce. Only a handful of adventurers, who have no alternative source of income, persist in taking the risk of fishing, said Riad Ataya, head of the fishermen's cooperative in the Tyre-Naqoura region.

At the port of Tyre-Naqoura, Ataya said, more than 200 fishing boats are currently not in use, and the number of fishermen in the region has dropped from around 500 to no more than a few dozen due to the military confrontations.

Last month, the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants requested the country's permanent mission to the United Nations (UN) to submit an urgent complaint to the UN Security Council about Israel's "aggressions" against Lebanese sovereignty by interfering in the air and sea navigation systems.

"Lebanon once again demands ... to condemn Israel's interference with the country's navigation systems and hold it responsible for any incident that may occur," Lebanese Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamieh was quoted as saying by the National News Agency.

According to the minister, the government will allocate funds to enable the Lebanese army to provide technical and manpower support to ensure the continuous operation of air and maritime navigation systems.

Tensions escalated along the Lebanon-Israel border on Oct. 8, 2023, as Lebanese armed group Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets towards Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the previous day. In response, Israel retaliated by firing heavy artillery towards southern Lebanon. 
NEW YORK  Denying yet another bid by Donald Trump to delay his pending trial, Judge Juan Merchan said on Friday that the former president personally generated much, if not most, of the media circus he complains about.

Merchan agreed with prosecutors arguments opposing Trumps request for an indefinite delay because of intense media coverage, writing that the situation is not new to him and at least in part, of his own doing.

In just the past 12 months, defendant has very publicly been involved in a multitude of criminal and civil cases across several states in both federal and state jurisdictions, the Manhattan Supreme Court judge wrote in his order, citing Trumps trials in the New York attorney generals business fraud case and E. Jean Carrolls sexual assault and defamation lawsuits.

In those  matters, he was personally responsible for generating much, if not most, of the surrounding publicity with his public statements, which were often made just a few steps outside the courtroom where the proceedings were being conducted, and with his unrelenting media posts attacking those he perceived to be responsible for his plight.

Lawyers for Trump last month asked Merchan to delay the trial, set to begin with jury selection on Monday, in light of exceptionally prejudicial pretrial publicity, which is substantial, ongoing, and likely to increase.

Citing surveys they commissioned, the Trump lawyers claimed Manhattan was overwhelmingly biased and it would be impossible for the presumptive Republican nominee in Novembers presidential election to get a fair trial.

Prosecutors countered that Trumps legal team cherry-picked parts of a survey that bolstered their delay bid and ignored the 70% of respondents familiar with the case who said they could definitely or probably be impartial. They also questioned how the defense gathered respondents and ensured samples were random, as neither was explained.

Merchan said he was similarly skeptical.

Nonetheless, even if the court were to credit the results in full, it would still find that that the best way to address defendants concern is through effective jury selection, the judge wrote.

The ruling marks the fourth against Trump this week in his efforts to put off whats likely to be the only one of his four trials held before the election.

He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felonies alleging he falsified business records to disguise an illegal hush money scheme before the 2016 presidential election to hide damaging information from the public.

Lawyers for Trump declined to comment, as did the Manhattan DA.

___________
A federal judge in Delaware declined to dismiss gun charges against Hunter Biden Friday, rejecting several challenges from President Bidens son claiming he is being prosecuted for political purposes.

The younger Biden filed a series of motions late last year, accusing special counsel David Weiss of buckling under political pressure in bringing the case against him.

In three separate filings Friday, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika denied the defenses argument that the case should be dropped because of vindictive prosecution, rejected Bidens claim that Weiss was illegally elevated into the special counsel role and invalidated his motion to dismiss because of immunity conferred by a now-defunct plea deal.

The judge, appointed by former President Trump, has not yet ruled on Bidens constitutional challenge to his charges under the 2nd Amendment.

Norieka said in her ruling that Hunter Bidens legal team did not provide concrete evidence to back up their claims that outside influences tainted the special counsels decision to pursue the case.

The pressure campaign from Congressional Republicans may have occurred around the time that Special Counsel decided to move forward with indictment instead of pretrial diversion, but the Court has been given nothing credible to suggest that the conduct of those lawmakers (or anyone else) had any impact on Special Counsel, she wrote. It is all speculation.

Biden was indicted on three gun-related charges last September  two counts for failing to disclose drug use when seeking to buy a weapon and another for unlawful possession of a firearm while addicted to a controlled substance. He pleaded not guilty to all charges after a deal with the government fell apart.

Under the agreement, he would have pleaded guilty to two tax offenses in order to avoid a formal gun-related charge under specific conditions.

After the deal was placed on hold, Bidens attorney, Abe Lowell, accused the Justice Department of changing their decision on the fly.

One, they wrote something and werent clear what they meant. Two, they knew what they meant and misstated it to counsel. Or third, they change their view as they were standing in court in Delaware, he said of the prosecutors at the time in an interview with CBS News.

His legal team has also argued that because he gave up valuable rights as part of the contract, the immunity should still hold.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Judge rejects Hunter Biden's bid to dismiss the federal gun charges against him

The federal judge overseeing a case involving gun charges against Hunter Biden rejected efforts by the presidents son to have the case dismissed.

Judge Maryellen Noreika denied all five of Bidens motions, keeping the case on track for a June trial in Delaware. Biden was indicted in September on three counts tied to possession of a gun while using narcotics.

Efforts to have the case thrown out included arguments of selective and vindictive prosecution and that special counsel David Weiss was unlawfully appointed to oversee the case.

The judge also rejected Biden's contention that a pretrial agreement, which would have nixed the indictment and upcoming trial, was in effect.

An attorney for Biden and Weiss office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday night.

The trial is scheduled to begin June 3 in Wilmington and last approximately a week, according to Noreika. Biden pleaded not guilty to the gun charges in October.

The denied motions to dismiss came after a blanket rejection this month by a federal judge in California, where Biden faces tax-related charges, including three felony counts. He pleaded not guilty in January.

Bidens attorneys told the court on Friday that they were appealing those decisions in the 9th Circuit.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Judge Juan Merchan has rejected yet another attempt by former President Donald Trump to delay his criminal hush money trial set to begin in New York on Monday.

Merchan issued an order Friday denying a motion from Trumps attorneys to delay the trial due to excessive pretrial publicity. The ruling is hardly a surprise, and the latest in a series of decisions by the courts this week rejecting Trumps 11th hour attempts to stop his first criminal trial.

The remedy that Defendant seeks is an indefinite adjournment. This is not tenable, Merchan wrote Friday. The situation Defendant finds himself in now is not new to him and at least in part, of his own doing.

Trumps attorneys made the request to file the motion at a pretrial hearing last month. Merchan had already denied a similar attempt but allowed them to file the motion anyway.

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records over the reimbursement of hush money payments made before the 2016 election to an adult film star alleging an affair a decade earlier. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair.

Jury selection in the trial begins Monday.

Trumps attorneys Friday also asked Merchan to alter his plans for handling jury selection  just three days before the historic trial is set to get underway.

On Monday, Merchan outlined how he would handle jury selection, advising that he would ask the pool of potential jurors whether anyone felt they couldnt be fair or impartial or otherwise serve in the case and then excuse those who raised their hands without inquiring further.

In a letter Friday afternoon, Trumps attorneys said that approach is inadequate because the plan would not create a sufficient record for the purpose of any necessary appellate review, or a venue-change motion.

Instead, they are asking the judge to distinguish between jurors who said they cant be fair and those who are otherwise unable to serve.

That clarity is necessary so that President Trump can present arguments to the First Department, if and when necessary, regarding the number of potential jurors who believed they harbored a disqualifying bias before questioning, as well as the number of additional potential jurors who reveal a disqualifying bias during questioning, Trumps legal team wrote.

On Friday Trumps lawyers also argued the jury questionnaire lacks a question to identify potential jurors who align with rival political parties that are not necessarily anti-Trump but could still support a disqualifying bias that is worth of follow-up inquiry by the defense.

If Merchan doesnt amend the questions, Trumps lawyers ask that they be allowed to ask additional questions to explore any affiliations. The judge has not ruled on the latest request.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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Juvenile in critical condition after shooting at Lakewood party

DENVER (KDVR)  A juvenile male was in the hospital in critical condition after a shooting occurred at a party early Saturday morning, according to the Lakewood Police Department.

The shooting occurred around 3:52 a.m. in the 1100 block of Garrison Street.

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The preliminary investigation revealed there was a party there that ended in an altercation.

The juvenile male in critical condition was the only victim, according to police.

Lakewood police said there was currently no threat to the community, as they believe this was an isolated incident.

The investigation into the shooting was ongoing.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
Kamala Harris used a speech in Arizona to accuse Donald Trump of trying to take womens rights back to the 1800s and gaslighting America over his abortion views, arguing the former president denied his role in setting the stage for the state this week to uphold a near-total abortion ban.

What has happened here in Arizona is a new inflexion point, Vice-President Harris said during a Friday speech, suggesting that Donald Trumps support for abortion restrictions and appointment of conservative justices to the Supreme Court, who later struck down Roe v Wade, were key tipping points leading to the Arizona Supreme Courts decision to uphold an 1800s-era abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest.

It has demonstrated once and for all that overturning Roe was just the opening act of a larger strategy to take womens rights and freedoms, part of a full-on attack, state-by-state, on reproductive freedom. And we all must understand who is to blame: former president Donald Trump did this, Ms Harris said.

The Biden administration official warned the crowd that a second Trump term could mean a nationwide abortion ban, despite the former presidents recent assurances he wouldnt sign such a bill into law.

Now Trump wants us to believe he will not sign a national ban, Ms Harris added at the event. Enough with the gaslighting. We all know if Donald Trump gets the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban.

The Arizona visit is the latest in a string of trips from the vice president to key swing states like Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, and Georgia, all of which the Biden campaign carried on narrow margins in 2020.

In March, during a trip to Minnesota, Ms Harris became the first president or vice president to visit an abortion clinic.

The Biden administration has sought to link Donald Trump and a second Trump turn to the wave of abortion restrictions being put into place post-Roe.

Mr Trump, for his part, has offered mixed messages about abortion since the Arizona ruling, a decision so hardline many Republicans are refusing to stand by it, despite many of them pushing to restrict access to the procedure.

This Wednesday the former president, on the way to a fundraiser in Atlanta, told reporters he wouldnt sign a national abortion ban and called on Arizona lawmakers to bring the states abortion policies back into the realm of reason.

Itll be straightened out and as you know, its all about states rights, Mr Trump said. Itll be straightened out, and Im sure that the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back into reason and thatll be taken care of, I think, very quickly.

However, earlier this week, in a video posted on Truth Social, Mr Trump also said he was proudly the person responsible for the 2022 demise of Roe. This Supreme Court precedent established a constitutional right to an abortion.

During his time in office, Mr Trump said he would sign a House-backed abortion ban that would outlaw the procedure after 20 weeks, but the bill never made it to his desk.

In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling to abolish Roe, at least 21 states ban or restrict abortion earlier in pregnancy than the standard set in the landmark case, according to data from The New York Times.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) vetoed a bill that would have banned gender-affirming care for minors in the Sunflower State Friday.

This divisive legislation targets a small group of Kansans by placing government mandates on them and dictating to parents how to best raise and care for their children, Kelly said in a veto message Friday. I do not believe that is a conservative value, and its certainly not a Kansas value.

Kelly said that the legislation tramples parental rights and that the last place that I would want to be as a politician is between a parent and a child who needed medical care of any kind.

And, yet, that is exactly what this legislation does, she continued.

The legislation, Substitute Bill for Senate Bill 233, would have banned gender-affirming care practices like surgery and hormone treatments for those under 18 in Kansas. Kelly vetoed similar legislation last year, which Republicans werent able to override.

Cathryn Oakley, the senior director of legal policy at the LGBTQ rights group Human Rights Campaign, praised Kellys veto in a statement in a press release. She said that the group continues to thank Governor Kelly for seeing bills like SB 233 for what they really are: dangerous misinformation and attempts to target vulnerable youth for the sole purpose of riling up anti-LGBTQ+ extremists.

If any legislation seeks to ban best practice, medically necessary health care for no purpose other than the person receiving that care is transgender, that is discrimination  plain and simple, Oakley said. Doctors, patients, and families  not politicians  should be making health care decisions.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly vetoed a bill Friday that would have banned transgender treatment for minors in the state, as well as two bills imposing abortion restrictions.

Substitute Bill for Senate Bill 233 sought to outlaw transgender treatment for minors and allow for causes of action against healthcare providers who provided such treatment. The bill would also have restricted the use of state funds for transgender treatment.

"This divisive legislation targets a small group of Kansans by placing government mandates on them and dictating to parents how to best raise and care for their children," Kelly, a Democrat, said in a statement released. "I do not believe that is a conservative value, and its certainly not a Kansas value."

ESPN REPORTER QUESTIONS WHETHER TRANS ATHLETES HAVE ADVANTAGE IN WOMEN'S SPORTS

Kelly said the legislation "tramples parental rights," saying she does not want to stand "between a parent and a child who needed medical care of any kind."

"And yet, that is exactly what this legislation does," Kelly said in the statement.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly vetoed a bill Friday that would have banned transgender treatment for minors in the state, as well as two bills imposi

Kelly also vetoed two separate bills that would have imposed additional abortion restrictions throughout the state. HB 2749 would have required the reporting of abortions performed in the state "at a medical care facility or by a healthcare provider," according to the bill text. The reasons behind the procedure would be required in the reporting as well.

TENNESSEE SENATE CLEARS BILL MAKING IT ILLEGAL TO ASSIST MINORS SEEKING ABORTIONS

"House Bill 2749 is invasive and unnecessary. There is no valid medical reason to force a woman to disclose to the legislature if they have been a victim of abuse, rape, or incest prior to obtaining an abortion," Kelly said in the statement released. "There is also no valid reason to force a woman to disclose to the legislature why she is seeking an abortion."

Additionally, Kelly vetoed HB 2436 that would have criminalized coercion to obtain an abortion. Kelly cited the "vague language in this bill" and its potential privacy intrusion concerns as reasons for ultimately vetoing the legislation.

In 2022, Kansas residents voted against an amendment to the state's constitution that would have given lawmakers in the state the ability to regulate abortion.

"This overly broad language risks criminalizing Kansans who are being confided in by their loved ones or simply sharing their expertise as a health care provider," Kelly said in the statement.

TRUMP SAYS ARIZONA PRO-LIFE LAW WENT 'TOO FAR' AS BIDEN CAMP CLAIMS POLICY U-TURN

In 2022, Kansas residents voted against an amendment to the state's constitution that would have given lawmakers in the state the ability to regulate abortion. The vote came shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 landmark case Roe v. Wade in a decision that further split the nation on abortion.

Just this past week, Arizona made headlines regarding the issue after the state Supreme Court issued a ruling reverting the state back to a 160-year-old, pre-statehood law that outlaws abortions in nearly all circumstances and criminalizes abortions.

Just this past week, Arizona made headlines regarding the issue after the state Supreme Court issued a ruling reverting the state back to a 160-year-old, pre-statehood law that outlaws abortions in nearly all circumstances and criminalizes abortions.

The law, which was codified in 1913 after Arizona became a state, includes an exception in cases where the mother's life is at risk.

Fox News' Jamie Joseph and the Associated Press contributed to this report.





Original article source: Kansas governor vetoes bill banning transgender treatment to minors, abortion restrictions
Former White House communications director Hope Hicks is expected to take the stand in Donald Trump's New York hush-money criminal trial  and legal experts say her testimony could be pivotal to the prosecution.

Last year, Hicks met for several hours with prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney's office, according to NBC News. They allege the former president falsified business records around a hush-money payment the former president's then-lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film start Stormy Daniels near the end of his 2016 presidential campaign.

Hicks served as Trump's campaign press secretary at that time, and because of her position as one of Trump's most trusted aides, her testimony at the criminal trial, which begins jury selection Monday, could be "devastating" for him, Bennett Gershman, a Pace University law professor and former New York prosecutor, told Salon.

"Hicks was a fixture in Trumps 'inner circle,'" he said, speculating that "given her status, she very likely was a key player in the frantic discussions between Trump, Cohen and David Pecker of [American Media Inc.] about the bombshell report that Stormy Daniels was about to go public about her sexual affair with Trump, and the efforts they made to keep her silent by paying her off."

In 2019, an attorney for Hicks said that she had not known about the hush money payment until it became public. But, in an affidavit for Cohen's federal criminal case, an FBI agent who had been investigating Cohen said he believed Hicks was involved in the payment negotiations with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, over her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, NBC News notes.

The affidavit outlined that the negotiations began after the Trump campaign grappled with the Oct. 7, 2016, release of Trump's "Access Hollywood" hot-mic tape, in which he's heard professing that he can grope women without consent.

I have learned that in the days following the Access Hollywood video, Cohen exchanged a series of calls, text messages and emails with Keith Davidson, who was then Clifford's attorney, David Pecker and Dylan Howard of American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, Trump, and Hope Hicks, who was then press secretary for Trumps presidential campaign, the affidavit said.

"Based on the timing of these calls, and the content of the text messages and emails, I believe that at least some of these communications concerned the need to prevent Clifford from going public, particularly in the wake of the Access Hollywood story," the FBI agent added in the document.

Given Hicks' role on the Trump campaign, her involvement in both in-person and phone communications with Trump and Cohen about the "emergency" Daniels' claim of an encounter would pose is "likely," Gershman said.

Court records noted that Hicks called Cohen at 7:20 p.m. on Oct. 8, 2016  their first call in weeks  for a four minute conversation, with Trump having joined the call seconds after it began, according to NBC News. Hicks and Cohen spoke after Trump left the call, and afterward Cohen called Pecker, the president of AMI.

Moments later, Howard, AMI's chief content officer, phoned Cohen. Cohen then called Hicks and spoke with Pecker again. At 8:03 p.m., Cohen began what would be an eight minute phone call with Trump, the unsealed federal court documents indicated, per NBC News.

Court records also show Trump and his former fixer speaking twice on Oct. 26  the same day Cohen wired the $130,000 that would eventually be sent to Daniels' attorney to an escrow account.

Trump has denied sleeping with Daniels and denies committing any wrongdoing. He has pleaded not guilty to charges in Manhattan and dismissed the district attorney's case as politically motivated.

Cohen and Daniels are expected to be key witnesses in the case but Hicks will also be "important," former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Salon, noting concerns with the credibility of both key witnesses. Cohen, who in 2018 pleaded guilty to charges related to the hush money payment, is an "admitted liar" whose cross-examination will be "brutal" as a result, while Daniels, having been "paid to keep quiet," presents "her own credibility issues," Rahmani explained.

"So Hicks is going to be a better witness, at least from a credibility standpoint," he said.

Hicks could also be "particularly helpful" for the prosecution because, as an ex-Trump employee, "she is less likely to be subject to suggestions that she is biased against him," former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade told Salon, explaining that her closeness with Trump may make the jury find her testimony "particularly credible."

Hicks testified before the Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee in 2019 that she was not involved with the hush-money discussion, adding that she informed the FBI that she did not, "to the best of her recollection," learn of Daniels' allegations until early November 2016.

The Democratic chair of the committee questioned the "apparent inconsistencies" in Hicks' testimony after the FBI affidavit was unsealed in 2019. Shortly after, Hicks' lawyer, Robert Trout, rebuffed reports claiming Hicks' involvement as "simply wrong," according to NBC News.

Based on Hicks' congressional testimony and reports about her meetings with the FBI and testimony before the grand jury that investigated the aftermath of the 2020 election, Rahmani said he's unsure exactly "how much she knows" and if she'll be able to provide "more substantive testimony" than speaking to phone calls happening and a series of calls occurring on the days of interest.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Even then, MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin said on X, formerly Twitter, that Hicks' history of speaking with prosecutors and officials "suggests she'll be forthcoming" with what she knows if she's called as a witness in the Manhattan trial.

In an interview with the FBI, Rubin said, Hicks indicated that "the only other time" she had seen Trump as angry as he was when special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed was "when the Access Hollywood tape came out during the campaign.

Other instances of Hicks' willingness to speak came during the 2019 congressional testimony where she explained that her phone call with Cohen on Oct. 8 was about rumors of a different tape said to be of Trump in Moscow "with Russian hookers, participating in lewd activities" and that she called to ask him to contact TMZ, which she had been informed may have the tape, Rubin explained.

Hicks also recognized that she publicly denied, at Trump's direction, a relationship between him and Playboy model Karen McDougal  whose silence about alleged sexual encounters Trump is also alleged to have bought  and admitted that she had told "white lies" while acting as a communications aide though said she had "never been asked to lie about matters of substance or consequence."

"But perhaps most important is what she didn't say," Rubin said, noting that Hicks declined to answer questions about her time at the White House, leaving anything she learned as its communications director "off limits."

"Will it remain so at trial, especially after all the litigation about executive privilege and who controls it? Nope," she added. "And the DA's office could be seeking her testimony as much for what she saw/heard in the WH as for what she understood before the '16 election."

Will it remain so at trial, especially after all the litigation about executive privilege and who controls it? Nope. And the DA's office could be seeking her testimony as much for what she saw/heard in the WH as for what she understood before the '16 election. FIN.  Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) April 11, 2024

Hicks' testimony, then, could pose a considerable threat to the former president, legal experts told Salon. McQuade said that the ex-Trump aide could provide the court with "firsthand eyewitness testimony" about any observations she had about documents Trump signed or statements he may have made about their purpose.

Such testimony, Gershman added, would be crucial evidence "that Trump knew the peril he faced and concocted the payoff scheme to keep Daniels silent."

Rahmani also expects Hicks, should she be called to the stand, to "corroborate" Cohen and Daniels' testimonies that phone calls and payments were made and that the involved parties had discussions about the Enquirer, Daniels and McDougal. Though it may not amount to "direct evidence" that the calls were about the hush money payments, he said, it would "certainly" be "circumstantial evidence" consistent with other witness testimony.

What Hicks' proximity to the former president, Cohen and the situation at the time make "clear," Gershman added, "that if Hicks testifies, and if the jury believes her, it would be devastating evidence against Trump and make a conviction much more certain."
Killings in Hampton Roads dipped in 2023  though not yet back to pre-pandemic levels

After four straight years of increasing homicides, the number of killings in Hampton Roads dipped modestly in 2023.

There were 215 slayings for the year  down 7.3% from the 232 the year before  according to tabulations made by the Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot from information provided by local police departments.

The greatest reduction was in Norfolk, which typically leads the region in total homicides but finished second last year. Killings in the city fell by 33%, to 42, down from 63 the year before.

In fact, Norfolk came close to getting down to its pre-pandemic count of about 37 killings a year. Chesapeake also saw a sharp decrease, with its 14 killings down 44% from the previous year.

Newport News, on the other hand, saw a significant spike.

The Peninsula city recorded 46 killings in 2023, up 48% from the year before. That figure, which includes an interstate slaying being investigated by the State Police, was Newport News highest homicide tally in at least 54 years. It marked the first time in recent memory the city has led the region in homicides.

Slayings were up 21% in Hampton, to 29. They held even in Virginia Beach at 23. And they were down 15% in Suffolk, to 11.

In smaller jurisdictions, there were three killings in Gloucester and Isle of Wight, two each in Smithfield and Franklin, and one in York County. Williamsburg, James City, Mathews, Middlesex and Poquoson did not have any homicides in 2023.

But Portsmouth continues to far outpace the region in terms of homicides per capita.

The city recorded 39 killings in 2023, which was down by 7% from the 42 the year before  believed to be the citys all-time record.

But Portsmouths homicide rate  or the number of killings per 100,000 residents  came in at 41, or more than six times the national average.

That was followed by 25 homicides per 100,000 people in Newport Newport News, 21 in Hampton, 18 in Norfolk, and 11 in Suffolk. Meantime, there were 5.5 killings per 100,000 people in Chesapeake, just over five in Virginia Beach, and 3.2 in the areas smaller cities and counties on a combined basis.

All told, Hampton Roads finished 2023 with a combined homicide rate of about 12.3 killings per 100,000 people. Thats roughly twice the national and Virginia rates that are expected to be about 5.5 and 6.5, respectively, when announced in the coming months.

James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston, said Hampton Roads 7.3% reduction in total killings in 2023 was consistent with the 12% drop in killings seen in the nations largest cities last year  even if the decline wasnt quite as steep.

Thats obviously some good news, he said.

There were significant homicide spikes in 2020 and 2021 across the country caused in large part by the pandemic, Fox said, even as the nations per capita murder rates were still significantly higher in the 1990s.

The recent increases plateaued in 2022, he said, before finally tracking down last year.

But not way down, Fox said. Were still higher than we were nationally pre-pandemic  Even though things have improved, there was a significant share of the population that was struggling, and we have a generation of teenagers who were significantly impacted when schools were closed.

Hampton Roads followed that trend: The region recorded 138 slayings as recently as 2018. But that rose steadily to 232 by 2022  a 68% increase over four years  before last years dip.

You still have a long way to go, Fox said. But thats true of many places. Hopefully we get there  that the homicide numbers return to pre-pandemic levels.

In a December story about his citys homicide spike, Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said its important to think of every slaying as a real person whose life was cut short.

Those are family members, he said. Those are people. Those are community members. It affects our communities, our neighborhoods. It affects our officers  Every single death matters.

Fox said mid-sized cities can see significant swings due to chance factors, such as whether a vital organ was hit and whether emergency services arrived in time. Last years homicide spike in Newport News came even as shootings were down 8% on the year.

He predicted that cities with large jumps in 2023 are likely to see the numbers tamp down this year. And early signs on the Peninsula are hopeful. Newport News has had four homicides so far this year, down from 10 at this point in 2023. Hampton is also at four, down from 14.

What goes up must come down, Fox said. Sir Isaac Newton said that, and so do I. But Im talking about crime, not apples.

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Most victims shot to death

About 90% of the homicide victims in Hampton Roads last year died as a result of gunfire.

Of the regions seven major cities, Hampton had the highest gunshot victim percentage overall, with all homicide victims being shot. The next highest: 93% in Newport News and 92% in Portsmouth. Chesapeake had the lowest amount, with 64% of its homicide victims dying by gunfire.

Of the 215 homicide victims in the region, 157  or 73%  were Black males, while 11% were white males, 10% were Black females and 3% were white females. Two victims, or 1%, were Asian, while the races of the victims in the other five cases, including several involving juvenile victims, werent immediately clear.

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Juveniles involved in homicides  as victims and suspects

Of the 215 homicide victims across Hampton Roads last year, 22 were juveniles, or just over 10%.

They ranged in age from an unborn baby in Hampton  listed as a day old  to 17. The baby died after her mother, who was eight months pregnant, was fatally shot.

All but five of the juvenile victims were shot. Others died as a result of domestic violence, a hit-and-run accident, an overdose, and being left in a hot car. (Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Norfolk, Suffolk included some negligent accidental deaths in their counts, while several other localities did not).

A 2-year-old in Chesapeake died of blunt force trauma to her head. A 14-year-old Norfolk middle school student was killed in an accidental shooting. Another 14-year-old was killed in Chesapeake in a shooting that also sent four other people to the hospital.

There also were several youths charged with committing homicides across the region last year  roughly 11, ranging in age from 14 to 17.

The teens are accused of using a gun in all those cases except one  a 15-year-old was accused of killing his parents with a knife and hammer in Chesapeake.

But some victims were far older.

Those include 84-year-old James R. Carter  a well-liked convenience store owner known as the grandfather of Norfolk  was killed in a double shooting at his Lindenwood Avenue store in December. Police said he was an innocent bystander in a dispute between two others. Meanwhile, an 84-year-old woman in Norfolk and a 76-year-old woman in Newport News were killed by family members.

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Multiple killings in one

The 2023 slayings in Hampton Roads include two triple slayings on the Peninsula  both still unsolved.

Three men  ages 61, 60 and 36  were killed inside a home in the Denbigh section of Newport News in August, with the shooter fleeing on foot. In Hampton, a young couple in their 20s and their unborn child were slain last January in what police have termed a triple homicide.

There also have been 10 double slayings  two apiece in Hampton, Newport News and Portsmouth and one each in Norfolk, Chesapeake and Smithfield.

Twin brothers Portsmouth  51-year-olds Alvin K. Joyner and Calvin R. Joyner  were gunned down in a robbery Feb. 13, as a third victim survived by playing dead. While two were arrested and charged in that case, no arrests have been made in a Newport News double slaying that took the lives of two teens, 17 and 15.

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Two killed by law enforcement officers

Two of last years local homicide victims were killed in shootouts with law enforcement officers.

The first happened in January of last year in Hampton. A task force of federal, state and local law enforcement officers was attempting to pull over Lamont Lewis, 46, to arrest him for the murder of his wife when Lewis got out of his car and began firing at them, according to police. The officers returned fire, and one, Chesapeake sheriffs deputy Scott Chambers, was wounded while Lewis was killed.

The other happened in August in Portsmouth. Officers responding to gunfire on Greenland Boulevard encountered an armed suspect, according to police. Richard Albert Stoots, 56, was shot and killed by officers after he refused to put down his gun and fired at them, police said. Stoots wife was shot by her husband but survived.

___

Related Articles

Many cases still unsolved

The percentage of homicides that were cleared, or solved, last year varied greatly in Hampton Roads. Cases can be cleared by arrest, by the death of the perpetrator, by the shooting being ruled justified or other reasons.

The national average for homicide clearances in 2022  the most recent year that the information is available  was 52%.

In Hampton Roads, suburban areas had the highest clearance rates, with Virginia Beach at 87% and Chesapeake recording an 86% rate. Next was Suffolk, with 73%, Hampton at 61%, Portsmouth with 59%, Norfolk with 50% and Newport News with 44%, according to department numbers. (FBI statistical rules allow departments to include arrests of prior year homicides in a current years clearance rate).

___

Looking ahead

Hampton had a very difficult first half of 2023 in slayings  but then righted itself.

The city began the year with nine homicides in January and was at 22 by June 30, well on pace to set a record. But Hampton counted only seven in the years second half, only four after new Hampton Police Chief Jimmie Wideman took the helm on July 28.

I cant take credit for it, Wideman said. Maybe the organizational philosophy has changed, by virtue of us increasing our presence and our enforcement action in the locations identified as high crime, being specific and deliberate about identifying the most violent people in our community, and targeting them and making arrests.

Hampton has in recent weeks made several arrests in last years slayings, including the gunning down of a 17-year-old Rallys restaurant worker just before Thanksgiving. And the fact that the city is at four slayings so far this year compared to 14 at this point a year ago is also a good sign, Wideman said. .

It is our hope that we stay right here at these four, he said.

Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com

Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
People visit a helicopter pad on polar icebreaker Xuelong 2 in Hong Kong, south China, April 9, 2024. (Xinhua/Long Jingyi)

HONG KONG, April 13 (Xinhua) -- This week in Victoria Harbor of Hong Kong, as the sea fog gradually cleared on Monday morning, a giant ship of red and white came into sight. It slowly sailed into Tsim Sha Tsui Ocean Terminal to began its visit to Hong Kong.

"Xuelong 2, Hong Kong welcomes you!" At the harborfront, some people chanted enthusiastically, waving the national flags in their hands.

Put into service in 2019, Xuelong 2 or Snow Dragon 2, measuring 122.5 meters long and 22.3 meters wide, is China's first domestically made polar icebreaker, capable of breaking ice 1.5 meters high and snow 0.2 meters thick.

"This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's polar expedition, and Hong Kong was the first stop of Xuelong 2's homebound voyage after the country's 40th Antarctic expedition. This is a gift for us from the country," Ho Kin Chung, chairman of an executive committee of Xuelong 2's visit, said with excitement.

Twenty years ago, icebreaker Xuelong visited Hong Kong and was warmly welcomed. Now China has made remarkable achievements in polar exploration, making the people of Hong Kong feel excited and proud.

As early as in 1999, Ho boarded Xuelong to participate in China's first Arctic scientific expedition.

"Xuelong is an unidirectional icebreaker and it takes more than 10 hours to turn around in a fixed ice area. Xuelong 2 has the world's advanced bidirectional icebreaking technology, which can reduced the time to about half an hour," Ho said.

The past 20 years since Xuelong's first visit to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) have witnessed steady advancements in China's capability to design and build the Antarctic research vessel, Ho said.

In 2004 when Xuelong came to Hong Kong, Ho was a visitor. This time he became an organizer of Xuelong 2's visit and engaged in the preparatory work from September last year.

Xuelong 2 completed a five-day visit to Hong Kong and began its return journey to Shanghai on Friday. During its stay in the HKSAR, China's 40th Antarctic expedition team shared stories of scientists' struggles in work and life in the polar regions with Hong Kong people.

"The South Pole is extremely difficult," Wei Fuhai, deputy leader of the expedition team, said.

Extremely low temperature, sudden snowstorm and unknown abyss beneath the ice made each expedition not only a battle against the hostile environment, but also a test of the researchers' determination and perseverance to explore the polar world.

The Antarctic summer, which runs from December to February, is supposed to be the prime time for the research work. However, in January of this year, a sudden category 12 hurricane put the expedition team to face the biggest challenge of their Antarctic mission.

"The team members were challenging their limits in the unknown test, in order to help mankind better understand the Antarctic, protect it and use it," Wei said.

The scientists' sharing has brought "polar spirit" to Hong Kong, enhancing young people's sense of national pride and encouraging students to pursue their dreams.

"When I realized that a group of Chinese polar explorers are making contributions to the development of mankind and the world, come rain or shine, there is an undescribable glory felt in my heart," Evelyn Ji, a student from Pui Kiu Middle School, said.

Middle school student Chen Kai Yuan was deeply moved by the determination of the researchers to overcome difficulties and their selfless dedication. The young chemistry lover said he hopes to do something for China's polar expedition.

"I want to develop a medicine that can prevent frostbite in extremely cold weather, so that the team can carry out polar expedition safely," Chen, who aspires to be a pharmacist, said.

To help the young people in Hong Kong understand more about the polar regions and encourage them to devote themselves to related research fields, Ho founded Polar Research Institute of Hong Kong in 2018.

"I want to sow the seeds of polar exploration in the hearts of Hong Kong students," He said, hoping these seeds will one day take root, sprout, grow and bloom. 

Evelyn Ji, a student from Pui Kiu Middle School, speaks during an interview with Xinhua in Hong Kong, south China, April 9, 2024. (Xinhua/Long Jingyi)

Wei Fuhai, deputy leader of China's 40th Antarctic expedition team, speaks during an interview with Xinhua in Hong Kong, south China, April 9, 2024. (Xinhua/Long Jingyi)

Ho Kin Chung, chairman of an executive committee of Xuelong 2's visit, speaks during an interview with Xinhua in Hong Kong, south China, April 9, 2024. (Xinhua/Long Jingyi)

Chen Kai Yuan, a student from Pui Kiu Middle School, speaks during an interview with Xinhua in Hong Kong, south China, April 9, 2024. (Xinhua/Long Jingyi)

People visit polar icebreaker Xuelong 2 in Hong Kong, south China, April 9, 2024. (Xinhua/Tan Jiaming)
King Maha Vajiralongkorn, officially known as King Rama X, is the richest monarch in the world.

He was crowned in May 2019 following the 70-year reign of his father, Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died on Oct. 13, 2016, when he was 88 years old.

Read on to find out more about the life of the wealthy king and how he earned his fortune.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand is the wealthiest monarch in the world.

EXPLORING THAILAND'S TAPESTRY OF TRADITION, ADVENTURE, TIMELESS BEAUTY

What is King Maha Vajiralongkorns net worth? How many children does the king of Thailand have? Is the king of Thailand married?

The estimated net worth of King Maha Vajiralongkorn is between $30 billion and $45 billion, according to Fox Business.

His father was listed by Forbes as the worlds richest ruler in 2011, according to Reuters.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Most of the rulers wealth comes from the Crown Property Bureau, according to Reuters. The Crown Property Bureau holds 6,560 hectares (16,210 acres) of land in Thailand, with 40,000 rental contracts nationwide, including 17,000 in the capitol, according to the source.

The early life of the king included Australian military college and 3,000 hours in jet fighters after military training courses in the United States, according to the Associated Press. He has held high ranks in the Thai army, navy and air force, according to the source.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn has seven children between three of his former wives.

THAI WILDLIFE OFFICIALS TO REMOVE HUNDREDS OF MONKEYS FROM POPULAR TOURIST SPOT

His eldest child is Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati. His oldest daughter is his only child with Princess Soamsawali, who he married in 1977. Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati was put in a coma in December 2022 from a heart condition she endured.

He then married former actress Sujarinee Vivacharawongse. He divorced her in 1996 when he was crown prince, according to Reuters. They share five children: Juthavachara Vivacharawongse, Vacharaesorn Vivacharawongse, Chakriwat Vivacharawongse, Vatchrawee Vivacharawongse and Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana Rajakanya.

The youngest child and only daughter of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Sujarinee Vivacharawongse, Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana Rajakanya is a fashion designer.

Most of the children and Sujarinee were estranged from the family after their divorce. The youngest sister, a fashion designer and equestrian, is the only one who's a part of the royal family today and was given the title Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana Rajakanya.

Vacharaesorn Vivacharawongse, the kings second-eldest son, works at a New York law firm. In August 2023, he made a surprise visit to Thailand for the first time in 27 years.

"I am delighted to return ... I have been away for a long time, 27 years," Vacharaesorn told reporters at the Bangkok foundation, per Reuters.

"It is like a dream come true to be back," he said.

King Maha Vajralongkorn married his third wife, Srirasmi Suwadee, in 2001. They share the kings youngest son, Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti.

The king of Thailand is currently married to his fourth wife, Queen Suthida Bajrasudhabimalalakshana. Queen Suthida previously worked as a flight attendant for Thai Airways and was a former bodyguard to the king.

King Maha Vajralongkorn married Queen Suthida in 2019.

The two wed just days before his coronation in May 2019.





Original article source: All about King Maha Vajiralongkorn: The worlds richest monarch
Three French bulldogs that were stolen last week, along with their owners van, are back home with their Kirkland family.

On Apr. 5, Socks, Fancy, and JonPaul were inside a running unlocked van parked in front of a gas stations doors, while the owner ran inside.

When he returned, the van was gone, along with the three dogs inside.

Two of the dogs recently underwent surgery and needed medicine.

Kirkland officers flagged the van as stolen and shared the information with other police agencies. Two days later, on Apr. 7, the van was found by Bellevue Police, but sadly, no dogs were inside.

The next day, Kirkland Police investigators looked into a tip about someone who was trying to sell the stolen dogs. On Tuesday, Apr. 9, Kirkland officers investigating another case received another tip about the dogs.

On Thursday, Apr. 11, Kirkland Police found all three dogs.

Socks, Fancy and JonPaul appeared healthy and happy and were reunited with their family, Kirkland Police said in a news release Friday.
The Los Angeles City Council will consider a deal to aid tenants living at the Hillside Villa Apartments, foreground, in Chinatown. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

Residents who have been fighting huge rent increases at a Chinatown apartment complex could find some financial relief under a tentative deal reached between Los Angeles housing officials and the landlord.

The proposed agreement would require the city to spend nearly $15 million to ensure that rents are subsidized in dozens of units inside the Hillside Villa Apartments, according to a memo issued Friday by the city's Housing Department.

The agreement would run through February 2034 and cover 106 of the building's 124 units. For some renters, the subsidies would close the gap between the amount they were paying in 2019 and the market-rate rent the landlord wants to charge, city officials said.

The subsidy would not cover 17 apartments where tenants are already paying market rate or one unit reserved for the building's manager, the report said.

The deal, if approved by the City Council, is designed to resolve a long-running battle over steep rent hikes announced several years ago by 636 NHP, the building's owner. The company sought those increases after the expiration of a 30-year agreement with the city that had restricted the building's rents.

The new agreement would in effect scuttle efforts by tenant advocates to have the city acquire Hillside Villa using eminent domain, the legal process used by government agencies to force property owners to sell.

Ann Sewill, general manager of the Housing Department, warned the council in her memo that if the city completed a purchase of Hillside Villa, the cost of acquisition, renovations and refinancing would reach nearly $93 million. She also pointed out that the owner has no interest in selling.

"The purchase of the property from an unwilling owner would be a long, expensive and legally uncertain process, resulting in much higher acquisition costs," she wrote.

The proposal will be taken up by the council's housing committee Wednesday before reaching the full council.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, whose district includes Chinatown, declined to say whether she supports the agreement. An aide said Hernandez is still reviewing it.

"She is eager for the tenants  who are the directly impacted parties  to have an opportunity to weigh in and for this to be discussed in a public forum at council," said Chelsea Lucktenberg, a spokesperson for Hernandez.

Sewill said her agency's proposal would give the city the first right of refusal to purchase the building if the owner decides to sell at any time before February 2037. The deal would also give tenants six years to finish paying back rent owed from the period from 2019 to 2024.

If those tenants enter into a repayment agreement and make the required payments over the six-year period, the owner "will not seek to evict tenants for unpaid rent covered by that agreement," the report said.

Tenant advocates have spent several years pressuring city leaders to forcibly purchase Hillside Villa, staging protests at their homes and elsewhere. They launched their campaign after the building's mostly Latino and Asian residents, many of them elderly and low income, received notice that their rent would double or even triple.

On Friday, one tenant advocate voiced disappointment in the city's proposal, saying she is especially concerned that tenants are still being asked to pay back unpaid rent.

At this point, 35 households are facing eviction, said Annie Shaw, an organizer with Chinatown Community for Equitable Development, a group that has been working closely with Hillside Villa tenants. Several others owe back rent but have not been served with legal paperwork, she said.

"This [agreement] is very far from what the community really needs," she said. "Eminent domain would have been a far better solution."

Shaw and a handful of Hillside Villa tenants showed up at Friday's council meeting to present their own list of demands, calling for unpaid rent to be 100% forgiven. They also said any agreement to subsidize rents should remain in place for 99 years.

Mary Ramos, a resident of Hillside Villa, said a deal to establish rental subsidies through 2034 would not be enough.

"I am 73. I will be 83 by that time," she told the council.

Thomas Botz, the managing member of 636 NHP, declined to discuss the specifics of the proposed deal, saying Friday that it "speaks for itself."

"I hope the tenants appreciate what Ann Sewill is doing for them and the city, and will not be misled by the [tenant] organizers," he said.

Hillside Villa already accepts Section 8 rental vouchers for 68 of the building's units, according to the Housing Department.

Former Councilmember Gil Cedillo, who represented Chinatown for nearly a decade, launched the effort within City Hall to purchase Hillside Villa in 2020, after an earlier round of negotiations with Botz broke down. Two years later, while locked in a tight reelection campaign, Cedillo persuaded his colleagues to take the first step toward a purchase by seeking an appraisal of the building.

Botz resisted the city's efforts to get inside the building to assess its condition, setting off a drawn-out legal battle that delayed the appraisal for more than a year.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A view of City Hall. The City Council unanimously approved a settlement of up to $21 million for Ismael Soto Luna after part of a street lamp fell on his head. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

A man injured by a falling street lamp part will receive a settlement of up to $21 million from the city of Los Angeles.

In November 2020, Ismael Soto Luna was at Roscoe Boulevard and Noble Avenue in Van Nuys when a 2-pound metal cap from a street lamp struck his head, knocking him to the ground, according to a lawsuit he filed against the city.

The impact fractured his skull, and three months later he was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury, the lawsuit said. His condition progressively worsened, and in 2023 he was diagnosed with dementia, according to the lawsuit.

City regulations require a street lamp cap "to be secured in place such that the regular forces of nature would not cause it to become loose and fall, the lawsuit said.

Ivor Pine, a spokesperson for the city attorney's office, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The City Council approved the settlement Friday.

The council also approved other settlements, for a total of more than $40 million.

Claimants included a man who alleged that an LAPD officer in a department vehicle hit him while he was crossing the street in downtown L.A. will receive $15.25 million.

In another case, a lawsuit in which a man allegedly suffered severe injuries after the wheel of his scooter got stuck in uneven ground at a crosswalk in Westwood will be settled for $1.9 million.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, shown here at a crime scene in 2021, provide policing services for the City of Lancaster through a $26-million annual contract. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

The city of Lancaster has sued Los Angeles County, saying the Sheriffs Department is raking in an illegal profit of more than $10 million by overcharging dozens of cities for its policing services.

Like more than 40 other cities in the county  including Palmdale, Compton, Carson and West Hollywood  Lancaster pays for sheriffs deputies to police its area. But amid a staffing crisis, the Sheriffs Department isnt assigning as many deputies to Lancaster as the city has paid for, says the suit, which was filed in March.

Instead, existing deputies are working more overtime to make up for it. But more overtime costs less than more deputies, and the county allegedly isnt passing along the savings, according to the lawsuit.

Attorneys for the city filed the case as a proposed class-action on behalf of all 42 of the county's contract cities, pending the court's approval.

Read more: Audits Find Sheriff's Records Are Sloppy

Mayor R. Rex Parris said Lancasters lawsuit aims to hold the county accountable, but stressed that the city still supports the sheriffs deputies who patrol its streets.

Let me make this crystal clear: Our deputies are our community's guardians," he wrote in an emailed statement to The Times this week. "It pains us to see them pushed to their limits, short-staffed, and scheduled to work overtime, compromising their ability to protect and serve.

The Sheriffs Department said in an emailed statement this week that it had not officially been served with the suit, but reiterated its commitment to policing local communities.

We are dedicated to maintaining fair and transparent financial practices while delivering high-quality public safety services to our communities, the statement said.

Spokespeople for the county declined to comment.

Since the mid-1950s , some cities in Los Angeles County have avoided the headache and expense of having their own police departments by contracting with the Sheriffs Department for policing services.

For years, there were no state laws regulating how much the county could charge for those services. But in 1973  after several cities accused the county of overcharging them to fund general operational expenses  the state Legislature created a statute banning counties from marking up the price of their policing services.

Under the current five-year contract, Lancaster pays more than $25 million to the Sheriffs Department each year  a figure that includes pay, benefits and an 11% liability surcharge for about 70 deputies. But filling all 70 of those positions has become a challenge.

By late last year, department records show, more than 20% of sworn positions were vacant or held by deputies who were out on medical leave, relieved of duty or otherwise unavailable to work.

Thats why, according to the lawsuit, for the past several years the county has assigned only 51 deputies to the Lancaster station. To bridge the gap, the lawsuit says, those deputies need to work more than 32,000 hours of overtime per year, at an estimated cost of $3.2 million. That expense is about $1 million less than it would cost to pay for the benefits and salaries of 18 more deputies.

But the city says the county isnt passing along the savings.

The county engages in this same practice with respect to other contract cities, the suit says. By doing so, the county makes an illegal profit off the contract cities.

The lawsuit estimates that the illegal profit from all the contract cities totals more than $10 million for deputy pay alone  though the suit says the true figure could be higher after accounting for sergeants, lieutenants and higher-ranking officials.

Its not clear whether leaders in other contract cities are aware of the lawsuit, as several mayors did not respond to The Times requests to comment. One who did respond deferred to the California Contract Cities Assn., a group that represents 80 contract cities across the state.

Marcel Rodarte, the associations executive director, told The Times he hoped both sides would reach an amicable resolution after reviewing contract data.

We are also well aware of the ongoing personnel issues within the department but are hopeful that these difficulties will subside under the current sheriffs leadership, he said. We are currently working with the department to resolve many of the most pressing issues our cities have faced with ensuring contract compliance and minimizing liabilities relating to law enforcement.

The cost of policing contracts  and the rising cost of legal liability from them  has been a repeated source of controversy in the countys 42 contract cities.

In the early 2000s, an outside audit found that the Sheriffs Department was keeping such sloppy records it might not have been collecting enough money from contract cities.

But costs went up, and, by the late 2010s, some cities had begun raising concerns about the growing expense of legal settlements stemming from misconduct, abuse and shootings by deputies. Jim Ledford, mayor of Palmdale at the time, said liability costs were out of this world and wished the county would cover them.

Read more: Sheriff's Department misconduct-claim payouts have soared, topping $50 million last year

After Alex Villanueva took over the department in 2018, some cities began raising concerns about whether some of the sheriffs controversial decisions  including rehiring certain troubled deputies  would lead to expensive lawsuits that could increase legal payouts and insurance costs.

At the time, the Lancaster mayor said he wasnt worried about the sheriffs hiring decisions but flagged the departments staffing problems as a cause for concern, saying that forcing deputies to work 16-hour shifts could be a problem for public safety.

I really dont care about how the sheriff manages individual personnel decisions, Parris said in 2019. I care about whether the people in Lancaster are safer.

Two years later, officials in Compton accused the Sheriffs Department of rampant fraud, claiming the understaffed agency routinely charged the city for patrol work that was not actually done.

The new allegations out of Lancaster come months after the city announced it would form its own public safety agency . In September, city officials said at a news conference that the new local police department will respond to low-level crimes in an effort to relieve the workloads of overextended sheriffs deputies.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Police Department Chief Dominic Choi (C) is shown Friday announcing the arrest of a man accused of attacking women in two separate incidents near the Venice canals last week. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Police Department/Facebook

April 13 (UPI) -- The Los Angeles Police Department says it has arrested a man accused of attacking women in two separate incidents near the city's Venice Canals district last week.

Police said Friday they believe Anthony Jones used a hard object to hit both women, rendering them unconscious.

"At this point in the case, investigators are not ruling out the likelihood that the women may have been sexually assaulted," the LAPD said in a statement.

BREAKING NEWS LAPD just announced the arrest of a suspect in the Venice Canals Assaults. Watch: https://t.co/BMzqa65SmN? pic.twitter.com/mnQd8lwkFL LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) April 12, 2024

Jones, 29, faces two counts of attempted murder and is being held on $3.25 million bail.

Officials did not elaborate on how he was identified as a suspect. They did say Jones had traveled to San Diego where he was arrested Thursday.

Both attacks linked to Jones took place late on April 6.

The first occurred around 10:30 p.m. local time on Strongs Drive, while the second happened around an hour later.

In both cases, the women were knocked unconscious. It's not known if the victims were random or previously known to Jones.

In the first case, 54-year-old Mary Klein said she was ambushed and hit from behind.

She said she was walking near her home at around 10:30 p.m. when a man suddenly ambushed her from behind.

"All of a sudden, I just get knocked out," Klein told KTLA in an interview. "My teeth got knocked out. My jaw is wired shut. He bashed my face in. I think he was trying to kill me. It was like being hit by a truck."

Klein is still recovering in the hospital.

"I am proud of the tireless work and dedication to public safety demonstrated by all involved in this case, especially our specialized detectives," LAPD Chief Dominic Choi said during a media briefing. "The people of Los Angeles are safer today because this predator is in custody."
Lauren Boebert's son says he's had trouble affording a lawyer to defend him: 'It's just been kind of hard with the prices'

Rep. Lauren Boebert's son Tyler says he's had trouble finding a lawyer to defend him.

Tyler Boebert was arrested by the Rifle Police Department in February and now faces 14 charges.

"We are working to hire an attorney, but it's just been kind of hard with the prices," he said.

Rep. Lauren Boebert's teenage son Tyler told a court on Thursday that he was having trouble affording a lawyer to represent him.

Tyler Boebert, 18, was arrested by the Rifle Police Department in February after a "string of vehicle trespass and property thefts" in Rifle, Colorado. He initially faced 22 charges, including several felony charges for criminal possession of ID documents. Eight charges have since been dropped.

"We are working to hire an attorney, but it's just been kind of hard with the prices, but we are working on it," Tyler Boebert told the Garfield County Court on Thursday.

"Worst-case scenario, if we can't get something figured out with the lawyer, then I'm going to apply to a public defender or whatever works best for me," he continued.

He added that lawyers were advising him to "come into court today to figure out what's going on before we get anything settled."

Ninth Judicial District Judge John Neiley told Tyler Boebert that he had time to decide whether he wanted to hire a private counsel or apply for a public defender.

"I always think it's a good idea to maybe do both because if you qualify, you have options, and options are always good," the judge said. "But we can set this off for a little bit of time for you to make that decision."

Tyle Boebert's next court hearing date was set for May 9.

Representatives for Lauren Boebert didn't immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider.

Tyler Boebert's legal troubles have come at a trying time for his politician mother, who faces an intense reelection campaign. The teen also became a father last year after he got his girlfriend pregnant.

After Lauren Boebert finalized her divorce from her ex-husband, Jayson Boebert, in October, she said in December that she'd be switching congressional districts, moving from the state's 3rd congressional district to the more-conservative 4th district.

Changing districts hasn't given Lauren Boebert much of a boost at the polls. The Denver Post reported in January that she came in fifth among her fellow GOP candidates for the 4th district in a straw poll conducted with just over 100 Republicans.

"I love my son Tyler, who has been through some very difficult, public challenges for a young man and the subject of attention that he didn't ask for," Lauren Boebert said of her son in February.

"As an adult and father, Tyler will take responsibility for his actions and should be held accountable for poor decisions just like any other citizen," she continued.

According to an arrest affidavit viewed by BI, Tyler Boebert is one of four people accused of breaking into four cars in Rifle and stealing wallets to make purchases at businesses including McDonald's, Starbucks, and gas stations.

A woman who reported her wallet stolen as part of a spate of thefts that led to the arrest of Tyler Boebert told investigators she had a brain tumor and now wouldn't be able to pay for surgery, according to the court documents.

Read the original article on Business Insider
YANGON, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's vibrant Thingyan water festival kicked off on Saturday, with celebrations taking place across the country.

Traditional dance troupes in colorful dresses performed at the opening ceremonies of the festival.

In Yangon, the water festival was officially launched at the mayor's pavilion in front of the Yangon City Hall. Yangon Region Chief Minister U Soe Thein extended his best wishes to the people.

This year's water festival will continue until April 16, and the Myanmar New Year falls on April 17.

Alongside the main celebrations, various special events are featured, including walking Thingyan festivals in some towns and a floating water festival at Inle Lake in Shan state.

The Thingyan water festival holds immense cultural significance in Myanmar, standing as the most famous celebration among the 12 monthly seasonal festivals observed throughout the year.

Similar to Songkran in Thailand and Chaul Chnam Thmey in Cambodia, it is a time to welcome the traditional New Year, when people joyfully splash water on one another to wash sins and purify moral impurities from the old year. 
Learn about gravitational waves and how a Tri-Cities observatory spots the ripples in space

Using a unique scientific facility at Hanford, scientists have opened an exciting new field of astronomy and confirmed the existence of gravitational waves in the universe first predicted by Albert Einstein.

On Thursday, April 18, at noon, the Columbia Basin Badger Club will present an online forum about the LIGO Hanford Observatory featuring its head, Caltech physicist Dr. Michael Landry.

His talk, Eddies in a Cosmic Ocean, will review the basics of gravitational waves: what they are, what makes them, and how theyre detected by the giant 2.5 mile-long, L-shaped LIGO instruments.

He will also describe a future, 25-mile-long detector called Cosmic Explorer.

Workers build an optical cavity at LIGO Hanford for quantum squeezing of light to improve the observatorys sensitivity and help it detect gravity waves in a larger area of space.

Gravitational waves were first predicted in 1916 by Einstein, who was trying to understand how gravity moves about the cosmos. His answer?

Accelerations of matter stir up space and time to create ripples in the very fabric of the universe: space-time.

Gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes were first detected in 2015 by the twin LIGO detectors in Richland and Livingston, LA.

The facilities, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, use the pair of large-scale laser interferometers to detect minute expansions and contractions of the 2.5-mile arms caused by a passing gravitational wave.

The effect typically changes the length of the arms by about one-thousandth the width of a proton.

At LIGO Hanford vacuum tubes extend for 2.5 miles at right angles across previously unused Hanford site shrub steppe land near the Tri-Cities.

The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to LIGO founders Barry Barish and Kip Thorne of Caltech and Rainer Wess of MIT) for the first discovery of gravitational waves from collisions of black holes.

These collisions are the most powerful astronomical events known to humans, briefly outshining all the stars in the known universe. Except instead of releasing light, they cause space and time to recoil and shudder.

This illustration provided by Carl Knox depicts a black hole, center, swallowing a neutron star, upper left. The blue lines are gravitational waves, ripples in time and space, which is how astronomers detected the merger, and orange and red areas indicate parts of the neutron star being stripped away.

LIGO now works with other gravitational-wave observatories around the world including Virgo, in Italy, and KAGRA, in Japan.

LIGO India is expected to come online in the early 2030s. Gravitational-wave astronomy is big science that comprises 1,600 researchers around the world, about half of whom are in the US.

The LIGO Exploration Center or LExC (sounds like Lexi) is a Washington state-funded outreach center at the Richland observatory, aimed at K-12 students and the general public.

LExC houses an exhibit hall with fun, inquiry-based exhibits that cover the broad scope of LIGO science, engineering, and technology, as well as highlighting STEM and STEM-adjacent careers at the observatory.

Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and new Exploration Center in Richland.

LIGO holds public tours of the LExC and laboratory on the second Saturday of each month, and is open for drop-in visitors.

To register for this event, which will include a Q&A session, go to columbiabasinbadgers.com to receive a confirmation and links to join the Zoom forum and a half-hour Table Talk open-mic session afterward.

Cost is $5 for nonmembers and free for club members.
Conservative legal activist Leonard Leo swiftly rejected a subpoena issued Thursday by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of their investigation into lavish gifts to conservative Supreme Court justices.

The committee had voted along party lines in November to authorize subpoenas to Leo and billionaire megadonor Harlan Crow. Democrats on the Judiciary Committee finally acted this week to subpoena Leo; its unclear why they did not subpoena Crow.

I am not capitulating to his lawless support of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and the lefts dark money effort to silence and cancel political opposition, Leo said of Sen. Dick Durbin, the committee chairman, in a statement. (Whitehouse is also a member of the Judiciary Committee.) Leos attorney told Durbin in a letter that his client will not comply with what he called an unlawful and politically motivated subpoena.

Democrats on the committee have been investigating the ethical implications of gifts to Supreme Court justices, particularly Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, following multiple reports that they did not disclose substantial gifts and luxury trips they received thanks to wealthy right-wing legal activists like Leo and Crow. Crow, in particular, has had an especially close relationship with Thomas, as ProPublica has reported.

Leo, who is co-chairman of The Federalist Society, is an outsize force behind U.S. courts dramatic rightward shift: He helped to place reliable conservatives in powerful positions across the judiciary and personally saw to it that conservative justices on the highest court were content, according to ProPublicas reporting.

Mr. Leo has played a central role in the ethics crisis plaguing the Supreme Court and, unlike the other recipients of information requests in this matter, he has done nothing but stonewall the Committee, Durbin said in a statement to The Washington Post. This subpoena is a direct result of Mr. Leos own actions and choices.

Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have claimed that the subpoenas are invalid due to a procedural matter, and they publicly told Crow and Leo to ignore any subpoenas. If Leo does not comply, Democrats would need 60 votes in the Senate to seek enforcement of the subpoena in court.

With the partys razor-thin majority in the chamber, that appears unlikely to happen.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Letters: Royal Mails stamp fiasco is just another case of contempt for the British consumer

SIR  Royal Mails 5 charge for customers who receive forged stamps (Leading Article, April 12) is misguided and unjust. These people have done nothing wrong, and are being penalised for a crime that others have committed.

Furthermore, Royal Mail, in its attempt to blame Border Force for the counterfeit stamps (report, April 12), is failing to solve the problem or take responsibility.

Acceptance of responsibility is a central tenet of management, but apparently not at this company.

Stuart Moore

Bramham, West Yorkshire

SIR  How can it be legal  or just, for that matter  for Royal Mail to be able fine the recipient of a letter bearing an allegedly fake stamp when the contract for carriage was with the sender and the letter may well have been unsolicited?

John Godfrey

Hitchin, Hertfordshire

SIR  This fiasco demonstrates that Royal Mail is not fit for purpose. I suggest that the board be instantly dismissed and replaced with interim management from the Armys excellent Royal Logistics Corps while the stables are cleansed.

Huw Baumgartner

Bridell, Pembrokeshire

SIR  Sir Rowland Hill, inventor of the adhesive postage stamp, must be turning in his grave.

Duncan Rayner

Sunningdale, Berkshire

Labour hypocrisy

SIR  Reflecting on the situation with Angela Rayners council house and capital gains tax (telegraph.co.uk, April 12), along with Labours plans for private schools, I can only conclude that the party remains as riddled with hypocrisy and envy as ever.

I do hope that those intending to vote it into power realise this  and are prepared for what will follow.

Eddie Hazel

Bolney, West Sussex

NHS heroes

SIR  When will the wonderful, hard-working people who keep the NHS functioning on a daily basis get the recognition they deserve? The description of the NHS as an enemy of British patients (Comment, April 10) must be so demoralising for those who work tirelessly under dreadful pressures.

My husband and I have received nothing but excellent care from our GPs and local hospital staff whenever we have had cause to visit.

Laura Madden

Broughton Astley, Leicestershire

SIR  The letter (April 12) from Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, is simply another plea from another NHS bureaucrat for more money. She states: Our healthcare system has been given fewer resources than those of similar countries. Where is her evidence?

Perhaps if less money was spent on organisations such as NHS Providers (what exactly does it do?), along with diversity training, compliance officers and old-fashioned, expensive paper-based record-keeping and communications, there would be more to devote to front-line services.

Alan Law

Streatley, Berkshire

SIR  Here in Spain all our communications with the NHS are digital (Letters, April 9).

I am at a loss as to how people can be missing hospital appointments because their letters arent arriving on time, given that the waiting lists are so long.

Jane Eyles

Mahon, Menorca, Spain

SIR  Following a referral, I received a letter asking me to contact the hospital if I hadnt heard anything by a particular date.

When I heard nothing, I duly rang the phone number provided. After a wait of about 45 minutes I was told it was the wrong number and was given the correct one.

After another long delay I was finally informed that there would be a one-year wait for an appointment. What a waste of time and effort for everyone.

Gill Tomkins

Bourne End, Buckinghamshire

The cost of a degree

SIR  Vivienne Stern, CEO of Universities UK (Letters, April 11), may be correct that those in favour of restricting places today often benefited from a university education themselves.

However, they are likely to have done so at a time when a university degree  and the university you attended  were actually valued, because of the limited numbers of both and the strict entry requirements.

Secondly, why are 88 per cent of new jobs expected to require graduates, as her research suggests? Apprenticeships and traineeships used to be seen as a route to a career, but they have been devalued. The Labour Party must take its share of the blame for this, having pledged in 2001 to achieve a rate of 50 per cent of young people attending university.

Thirdly, Ms Stern suggests that young people should be given the same opportunities as the generations before them. I would remind her that, until 1998, all university education in Britain was free. Currently, fees at most British universities are set at 9,000 per annum. By all means provide the same opportunities, but ensure that fees are lowered and students are offered the same quality of education that previous generations enjoyed.

Jane Cooper

London N19

SIR  It is time for a different attitude to learning and work.

I did not go to university but have made five career changes, keeping on top of training and professional qualifications as I went along. This was an efficient and effective way to do it. All my contemporaries have degrees, but I have done just as well as any of them.

What young people really need is a wide-ranging education up to the age of 18, which leaves them confident and capable of choosing their own path. There will always be a demand for particular skills that require a university education, but in many cases such an education is not necessary.

Shirley Batten-Smith

Watford, Hertfordshire

Safer smartphone use

SIR  The discussion about the place that smartphones should have in the lives of young people (report, April 9) is welcome but long overdue.

The issue here is not a lack of legislation but ineffective parenting.

Understandably, many parents feel out of their depth, not having experienced the world that their children inhabit. Many, either from a lack of technical know-how or from an unwillingness to have difficult conversations, have stepped back from taking an active part in their childs journey to digital independence.

The result is that children have unfiltered and unrestricted access to the internet and social media at ever younger ages. The impact of this on the mental health of young people is felt at home and at school alike.

As a society we need parents to take stock and recalibrate.

Mark S Steed

Wimborne Minster, Dorset

Bump in the road

SIR  Driving slowly in order to avoid the numerous potholes on the outskirts of a Warwickshire town earlier this week, I was delighted to come upon a large crew, together with associated traffic lights, barriers and tarmac lorries. They were installing speed humps.

One for our Minister for Common Sense, perhaps.

Stephen J Gardiner

Congleton, Cheshire

SIR  We have received the renewal notice for our car insurance  an increase from 400 to 800 a year, without explanation.

Is this simply age discrimination? Do they want to get us octogenarians off the road?

David Denton

Belfast

Granthams greatest

SIR  K Harvey Proctors letter (Let Lady Thatcher put Grantham on the map, April 9) carries the implication that the town has never been on the map.

In fact it was put there more than 350 years ago by Sir Isaac Newton, who was a pupil at the Kings School in Grantham.

I was a pupil there for 10 years, and before that also in the kindergarten of the Kesteven and Grantham Girls School, when Margaret Roberts (as she was then) was head girl of the senior school in 1942-43.

Professor Michael Sewell

Reading, Berkshire

Haitch crime

SIR  With regard to the pronunciation of the letter H (Letters, April 12), when my daughter was born we decided to call her Helen.

My elderly neighbour congratulated me and asked if wed settled on a name. When I told her, she said: Thats nice. Is that Ellen with a haitch or an E?

Anne Brown

Bingley, West Yorkshire

SIR  I recall buying two fish suppers several years ago from a chippy in Middlesex, one with cod and one with haddock.

As the girl passed the two wrapped meals to me she said: So you know which is which Ive put a haitch on the addock.

David E P Judge

Hemingford Grey, Huntingdonshire

SIR  Is the Ritz a hotel or an otel?

Peers de Trense

London SW11

SIR  I have yet to hear even the worst offenders in the aitch versus haitch dispute refer to our health service as the N haitch S. When that day arrives, as it surely will, I shall know the battle has been lost.

Gregory Swain

Boston, Lincolnshire

A simple way to raise the standard of your toast

Bakers at work in a 15th-century French edition of the health treatise Tacuinum Sanitatis - Bridgeman

SIR  Ann Warde (Letters, April 10) can avoid ultra-processed toast by looking up one of the many variations on the recipe for the grant loaf, which requires no kneading and contains only natural flour, yeast, water, salt and a teaspoon of sugar.

It takes five minutes to blend and about an hour to rise and bake, which can be done while the oven is being used for something else.

In addition, it freezes beautifully and is perfect for batch cooking. Delicious, economical and wholesome.

Maria McGee

Culmore, Co Londonderry

SIR  My advice to Ann Warde is to buy a breadmaking machine. I have used one for almost two decades. You can then choose to buy high-quality flour  stoneground, granary, seeded or plain white  and enjoy very healthy toast and sandwiches.

Christine Hartridge

Hayling Island, Hampshire

Familiar face

SIR  I think I must be getting old. When our son was staying with us recently, he came down to breakfast and greeted me  as I looked up from behind my copy of The Telegraph, clearly exasperated by what I had been reading  with: Oh dear. Youve got that Have you seen this? face on again.

Paul Cheater

Dorchester

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Liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court justice says she wont run again, setting up fight for control

MADISON, Wis. (AP)  The longest-serving current Wisconsin Supreme Court justice and member of its liberal majority announced Thursday that she will not seek another term, setting up a high-stakes fight for control of the battleground states highest court.

Justice Ann Walsh Bradleys decision comes as a surprise after she had previously said she would seek a fourth 10-year term. It shakes up the race on the liberal side as they seek to maintain the majority they just won last year.

At least two current liberal judges  Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford and state Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor  are considering getting in the race.

Former Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel, currently a Waukesha County judge, is the only announced candidate, having gotten in the race in November.

TSA found more than 1,500 guns at checkpoints this year  and a very high percentage were loaded

The primary is Feb. 18 and the general election is April 1, just under a year away.

Bradley, 73, was first elected to the court in 1995. Her victory made her the the first woman in Wisconsin history to join the court by winning an election, rather than through an appointment. Shirley Abrahamson, the first woman to serve on the court, was appointed in 1976 and won election two times before Bradleys victory.

Bradley is now one of six women on the seven-justice court. She will leave as the fifth longest-serving justice in Wisconsin history.

My decision has not come lightly, Bradley said in a statement. Bradley said she could have won reelection, but its just time to pass the torch, bringing fresh perspectives to the court.

Schimel reacted to Bradleys decision by casting the race as one against the courts leftist majority, not just a single person.

Crawford, who won reelection to a second term just last week, said in a statement that she would have more to say about that in the coming weeks. She previously worked as chief legal counsel to former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, and as an attorney in private practice fought Republican laws that limited access to abortion, effectively ended collective bargaining for public workers and required photo ID to vote.

Taylor is a former Democratic state representative who also worked as an attorney and as public policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. Over her nearly eight years in the Legislature, Taylor was a vocal advocate for abortion rights, gun control and programs for sexual and domestic violence victims, while also being one of the leading critics of Republicans.

Instagram begins blurring nudity in messages to fight sexual extortion

She served three years as a Dane County circuit judge until she won election to the state appeals court in 2023.

Liberals hold a majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court thanks to Janet Protasiewiczs victory in 2023 over former Justice Dan Kelly, flipping the court after 15 years of conservative control.

The court has made several key rulings since liberals gained control, including a December decision overturning Republican-drawn maps of the states legislative districts.

Abortion was also a central topic during Protasiewiczs race and the court has since been asked to consider two challenges to a 175-year-old state law that conservatives have interpreted as banning abortion.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton.
The author is due to be in discussion with the Shakespeare actor Sir Derek Jacobi and critic Stephanie Merritt - Dominic Lipinski

The London Library has been accused of hosting an anti-intellectual conspiracy theory with an event that claims Shakespeare could have been a woman.

The 19th century institution in St Jamess Square is running a panel discussion with Elizabeth Winkler, the author of a controversial book titled Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies which explores who may perhaps have been hiding behind his name.

An advert for the event, which has the same title, says that the Bards biography is sketchy, to say the least, but to question his identity has become a literary anathema.

But it has sparked complaints from some of the librarys biggest supporters.

Oliver Kamm, a journalist and author, has written to the chairman of the London Library Simon Goodwin raising concern about this great institutions promotion of a baseless and anti-intellectual conspiracy theory.

Wildly inappropriate

It is wildly inappropriate for the Library to be hosting such an event and thereby promoting the hoary conspiracy theory that William Shakespeare was an allonym for some concealed author, he wrote.

He said it was a grave misjudgment to host the event and that to host a conversation with Shakespeare denialists is a betrayal of the values of literary scholarship and critical inquiry that we hold to.

Ms Winkler is due to be in discussion with the Shakespeare actor Sir Derek Jacobi and author and critic Stephanie Merritt in the London Library event on June 6.

Her book has proven highly divisive with its claims of a literary taboo surrounding the 16th century playwright, which it says could involve a forgotten woman,  a disgraced aristocrat or a government spy writing some of Shakespeares works.

The book has proven highly divisive with its claims of a "literary taboo" surrounding the 16th century playwright

The book claims to pull back the curtain to show how the forces of nationalism and empire, religion and mythmaking, gender and class have shaped our admiration for Shakespeare across the centuries.

But Mr Kamm said there was zero evidence that the 17th Earl of Oxford, the philosopher Francis Bacon or other historical figures are behind Shakespeares works, with the Bards name stated on the title page of the First Folio of 1623.

He said it was absurd to suggest that the Earl of Oxford was behind much of the scholarship as he died in 1604 before King Lear and Macbeth were written and Christopher Marlowe, another candidate espoused by Shakespeare critics, was murdered in 1593.

Mr Kamm called on the director of the library to add a Shakespeare specialist to the line-up such as Prof Emma Smith, an expert in Shakespeare studies at the University of Oxford.

Another critic of the event was Jonathan Beckman, editor of The Economists 1843 magazine, who said he had also written to the director because the library is supposed to be a bastion of scholarship.

There are so many gaps

Ms Winkler, a 34-year-old American journalist, has previously responded to her detractors, telling The Guardian: I dont really like controversy. I dont seek it out. There are some people that thrive on it and I dont.

I find it upsetting and distressing to see my work and my ideas misrepresented and twisted. Its not fun.

Insisting there are so many gaps in the Shakespeare story, she added: In literary circles, even the phrase Shakespeare authorship question elicits contempt  eye-rolling, name-calling, mudslinging.

If you raise it casually in a social setting, someone might chastise you as though youve uttered a deeply offensive profanity.

Her book alludes to a mysterious letter written in 1603 sent by Bacon to a lawyer who was to meet the new King, James I, signing off: So desiring you to be good to concealed poets, which she notes could be a reference to either Bacon, the Earl of Oxford or Marlowe.

Baconian theories held the most sway in the 19th century, the Earl of Oxford surged in the 20th century and recently more people have paid attention to Marlowes role in Shakespeare scholarship, as well as pushing theories about covert female input.

The London Library did not respond to requests for comment.

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The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has been informed of a possible measles exposure at Universal Studios, county officials reported Saturday. The possible exposure stems from one case of measles from an out of state tourist who traveled through the Los Angeles area from March 30 to April 1. The infected person visited Universal Studios on March 30 and the Santa Monica Pier on March 31.

The situation involved one person who visited a number of other Los Angeles locations including the Sheraton Gateway Hotel, Jenis Splendid Ice Cream in Beverly Hills and several restaurants at Universal Studios and elsewhere. Universal Studios addressed the situation in a statement to Variety, pointing the public to the countys health department for more information.

More from Variety

We were recently made aware that a guest who had been exposed to measles visited numerous Southern California locations including our theme park, Universal Studios said in a statement. While there is very low risk of transmission as a result of effective vaccination, the safety and security of our guests and team members is of utmost importance. More information is available through the Department of Public Health.

Individuals who were at the reported locations during the designated dates and times may be at risk for developing measles within 21 days from the exposure date, the county stated.

Measles is spread by air and by direct contact even before you know you have it and can lead to severe disease, said Muntu Davis, Los Angeles County health officer. Measles is highly contagious for those who are not immune to it. Initially causing fever, cough, red, watery eyes and followed by a rash, it can result in serious complications for young children and vulnerable adults.

Best of Variety

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The Los Angeles General Medical Center is seeking help in identifying a patient who was hospitalized on Thursday.

According to a hospital release, the unidentified man is approximately 55 years old, stands 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds.

He is of average build, has brown eyes, a shaved head and has multiple distinctive tattoos.

Heavy rain, gusty winds and high surf in store for Southern California this weekend

The man was injured in a collision between a car and a bicycle at the intersection of Fresno Street and Cesar Chavez Avenue in Boyle Heights on Thursday, hospital officials said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Los Angeles General Medical Centers Department of Social Work by calling Licensed Clinical Social Workers Brian Dillon at 323-409-3134 or Cristol Perez at 323-409-4317.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov met with Tajikistan's Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin as part of his business trip to the Republic of Belarus.

According to Azernews, this was shared on the "X" account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.

It should be noted that Jeyhun Bayramov paid a business trip to Belarus on April 11. Today, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister attended and spoke at the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CIS.

Recall that Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has visited to Belarus. During his visit, the minister met with his Belarusian counterpart Sergey Aleynik.

It was reported that within the framework of the meeting, the ministers discussed a wide range of issues on the bilateral agenda, as well as reviewed areas for the development of strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Belarus.




HAIKOU, April 13 (Xinhua) -- The booming consumer market in China, the world's second-largest economy, generates numerous business opportunities for global brands.

No big international brands would overlook the enticing Chinese market. This is precisely why the fourth China International Consumer Products Expo in China's southern island province of Hainan drew over 4,000 brands from 71 countries and regions.

As seen from the theme of this year's expo, "Share Open Opportunities, Co-create a Better Life", it emphasizes China's willingness and initiative to share open opportunities with global brands that are making significant market investments.

The expo, which started Saturday and lasts till April 18, is China's only national-level exhibition featuring consumer products and also the largest consumer expo in the Asia-Pacific region. This year it has the biggest scale ever, attracting a record number of brands with an indoor exhibition area of 128,000 square meters.

The participation of numerous international companies underscores their keen interest and confidence in the Chinese market where consumption has become a major driver of the economy.

There is no doubt that the Chinese consumer market is full of potential and opportunities, as its vast population of 1.4 billion, growing middle class, and increasing consumer demand for high-quality products have made China a key market for global companies.

The Hainan expo provides a multifaceted platform for global companies to not only showcase their products and services but also explore more lucrative business opportunities and tap into the vast potential of the Chinese market.

Meanwhile, Hainan is ramping up efforts to become a free trade port. This will increase market access and create a more favorable business environment.

China also aims to build Hainan into a globally influential tourism and consumption destination by 2035. Booming duty-free shopping attests to the province's burgeoning appeal as a consumer haven. In 2023, the number of shoppers and the total value of transactions climbed by 59.9 percent and 25.4 percent, respectively, year on year.

China's open and shared development injects great momentum into global economic growth. As China firmly advances high-standard opening up, the opportunities in its consumer market will only grow, offering a bigger slice of the cake for global brands. 
Lowell man charged with sexual assault of child over multiple years

A Lowell man has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a child over several years in Vermont, officials said Saturday.

Daniel Reilly, 66, is facing charges of sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault of a child, and lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, Newport, Vermont police say.

The Lowell man is accused of assaulting a child in Newport Center, Vermont multiple times over several years.

Police say Reilly was arrested Friday after an extensive police investigation, Newport police say. He is currently being held at the Northern State Correctional Facility on $50,000 bail. Reilly is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, April 15, at Orleans County Superior Courthouse, Criminal Division.

Any member of the public who may have information is asked to call Newport police at 802-334-6733.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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The Armed Forces of Ukraine. Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine

Lowering conscription age to 20 might have a negative impact on the demographic situation in Ukraine.

Source: Oleksandr Hladun, Deputy Director of the Institute for Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, on Ukraines national 24/7 newscast

Quote from Hladun: "Wars are generally bad for demographics. People in all age groups are being killed. In 2001, we had the lowest birth rate in the history of Ukraine. If you take five years on either side of 2001, people born in that 10-year period comprise the smallest share of the population of Ukraine compared to other age groups. This age group will shrink even further when exposed to increased mortality rates [associated with the war]."

Details: Taras Chmut, head of the Come Back Alive NGO, brought up the idea of lowering conscription age to 20 in a recent interview with Ukrainska Pravda.

Oleksandr Hladun said that Ukrainian womens average age at childbirth is 27-28 years old; men tend to become fathers slightly later in life.

Given that this group is in its peak reproductive age, lower conscription age could negatively affect Ukraines demographics.

However, Hladun said that the decision to lower the conscription age  or not  is ultimately for the Defence Ministry to make in light of the militarys present needs.

"What can we do if theres no one left to fight? Thats why we see that Russian [authorities] in the occupied territories [of Ukraine] are issuing their passports, conscripting people in their army, and forcing our citizens to fight against [other Ukrainian citizens]," Hladun said.

"Thats why I think that in this case, the Defence Ministry has to make the decision given their needs. Otherwise our state will just cease to exist," he added.

A total of over 187,000 children were born in Ukraine in 2023, the lowest number since Ukraines independence in 1991. Birth rate has fallen by over 30% in comparison with 2021.

However, Hladun stressed that in 2022-2023, only births registered on Ukrainian-controlled territory were counted, and that territory has shrunk compared with the time before the full-scale invasion.

"So the [birth rate] decline is explained, first of all, by the fact that not every birth in Ukraine has been counted. Second, yes, there really is an overall trend of declining birth rate," Hladun explained.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)  A man is dead after being shot late Friday evening in northeast Columbus during a house party.

According to Columbus police, 36-year-old Isaac Price was attending a party at the 2000 block of Lisa Drive in the North Central neighborhood. A little before 11:30 p.m., Price was engaged in an argument that escalated, resulting in him being shot.

Ohio Uber driver killed in shooting after being sent to pick up scammers package

CPD officers arrived and pronounced Price dead at the scene at 11:23 p.m. Anyone with information on the homicide is asked to call police at 614-581-7112.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
MICHIGAMME TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WJMN)  A man and his dog are safe after falling through the ice on Friday evening.

Marquette County Central Dispatch received a call after 4 p.m. on April 12 for a man in distress trying to rescue the family dog after it fell through the ice on Lake Michigamme.

56-year-old Thad Cooper was looking for his dog when he noticed the dogs head sticking out of the ice over 100 yards from shore. Cooper attempted to rescue his dog with a kayak, but when reaching the dog, he fell into the water. Cooper was not able to self-rescue and remained in the water.

Marquette County Sheriffs Office Dive and Technical Rescue Teams were dispatched to the scene along with Michigamme-Spurr Fire Department, Michigamme-Spurr First Responder Team, Michigan State Police, and the Michigan DNR. The U.S. Coast Guard and Alger County Sheriffs Office also responded.

Due to the deteriorating ice, rescuers had extreme difficulty reaching Cooper and his dog. A sheriffs office dive team member was able to reach Cooper with a floatation board secured to the shore with a rope. They were then pulled back to shore by supporting personnel. The dog was rescued after Cooper was brought to shore. It is estimated that Cooper and his dog were in the water for an hour and 25 minutes.

Rescue personnel also had to be extracted out of the water. Two first responders were transported and treated for hypothermia. And additional first responder sought treatment for a laceration sustained in a fall through the ice.

UP Health System-EMS transported Cooper and two of the first responders for treatment at UP Health System-Bell Memorial.

Marquette County Sheriffs Office wants to remind the public that all ice is unsafe this time of the year, and no one should venture out onto it for any reason.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJMN - UPMatters.com.
BARTLETT, Ill.  A former Bartlett man accused in the stabbing death of his 93-year-old mother in 2019 has been found guilty but mentally ill.

According to DuPage County States Attorney Robert Berlin, 69-year-old Edward Mitzelfeld was found guilty but mentally ill in the deadly stabbing of his mother, which occurred in May of 2019 at a home that the two shared in Bartlett.

Judge Daniel Guerin handed down the verdict on Friday, following a seven-day-long bench trial that ended on Friday, March 22.

Decorated Lake County Sheriffs K9 Dax dies days after retirement ceremony

Berlin said authorities were called to the home in the 700 block of Bryn Mawr Avenue just before 5:30 p.m. on May 29, 2019. After arriving on the scene, they found Mitzelfeld in the front yard with his hands in the air.

Authorities say they then entered the home and found Mitzelfelds 93-year-old mother, Frances Kelly, stabbed to death on the kitchen floor.

69-year-old Edward Mitzelfeld was found guilty but mentally ill in the deadly stabbing of his mother, which occurred in May of 2019 at a home the two shared in Bartlett.

The deadly stabbing sparked an investigation and authorities later determined that Mitzelfeld was in the kitchen with his mother when he stabbed her several times in the back with a kitchen knife. Mitzelfeld then called 911 following the stabbing.

Authorities say Kelly suffered stab wounds that severed her aorta and entered her lungs.

Mokena man accused of child porn possession facing felony charges

Mitzelfeld, who was later charged with five counts of first-degree murder, appeared in court on May 31, 2019, where his bond was set at $5 million with 10% to apply. He has remained in custody at the DuPage County Jail since that date.

This is a tragic case that has surely taken a tremendous toll on Frances and Edwards entire family, Berlin said. It is my sincerest hope that with the trial now behind them, Frances surviving family and friends will somehow be able to gain some measure of closure on this horrible chapter in their lives and remember Frances for how she lived and not how she died.

Mitzelfeld is set to make his next court appearance on Friday, May 10.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.
DENVER (KDVR)  A man received the maximum sentence Friday for killing Jefferson County Sheriffs K-9 Graffit and other crimes from the incident that happened last year.

According to the First Judicial District Attorneys Office, Eduardo Armando Romero, 30, was sentenced to 12 years in the Department of Corrections after he pleaded guilty earlier this year to:

Aggravated cruelty to animals

Identity theft

Menacing

Driving under the influence

Aggravated motor vehicle theft in the second degree

Colorado bill would increase penalties for injuring, killing law enforcement animals

Romero was sentenced to 12 years in prison to be served consecutively to the sentence he is already serving for similar crimes he committed in Denver, according to the DAs office. According to court records, those crimes included motor vehicle theft and forgery.

Romero was offered a plea deal by the DAs office, which resulted in the dismissal of previous charges of obstructing a peace officer, resisting arrest, vehicular eluding and motor vehicle theft.

The events leading to Graffits death started on Feb. 13, 2023, in Golden when the Mines Police Department and Golden Police Department say officers attempted to contact a driver slumped over his steering wheel and unresponsive near 19th Avenue and Elm Street. Once police woke the driver, he began to slowly leave, swerving into oncoming traffic, according to police reports, before losing consciousness again.

When police woke the suspect a second time, he began ramming into patrol cars. Police tried to remove the man from his vehicle, but he was able to flee police and run into a wooded area near the Colorado School of Mines campus. While fleeing, the suspect pointed a handgun at an officer, according to police reports.

K-9 Graffit (Credit: Jefferson County Sheriffs Office)

A procession was held for K-9 Graffit after an armed suspect allegedly shot and killed the K-9 on the Colorado School of Mines campus.

Police began to track the suspect with a K-9, later identified as Graffit. The man fired shots at the dog, killing Graffit. Later, police identified the suspect as Romero.

Officers, deputies mourn K-9 loss during sentencing

The DAs office said the overwhelming theme of Fridays sentencing was that K9 Graffit, who was the most experienced and trained dog on JCSOs team, was not just a dog.

Jefferson County deputies told the judge the profound impact Graffits death had on them.

Graffit was more than just a dog. He was a friend, family member, a loved one, and most of all, he was Deputy Olivers partner, said one deputy, according to the DAs office.

Donation drive for pets honors fallen K-9 Graffit

Senior Deputy District Attorney Amanda Becker, who specializes in prosecuting animal-related crimes, told the judge how law enforcement canines act as skilled partners, performing tasks beyond human abilities.

They have the senses that allow us to see what we cannot see  drugs, humans, weapons  law enforcement animals have helped keep our communities safe, and they are an asset, Becker said, according to the DAs office.

Romero also faced charges related to felony identity theft after providing a false name to police, having someones passport and using that identity to rent a motel room.

Becker said the maximum sentence was warranted given Romeros 10 previous convictions for similar behavior, his numerous unsuccessful attempts at rehabilitation, being on bond for multiple cases at the time of the incident and his aggravated behavior that placed law enforcement in severe danger.

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The DA provided evidence that Graffits training and experience cost Jefferson County taxpayers over $107,000. In addition to the necropsy and damages to patrol vehicles, the DA requested $158,455 in restitution.

A final hearing to address restitution is scheduled for July 11.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
Man gets prison time for shooting victim with his own gun, then posting video

An Efland man will serve up to nine years in prison after a jury found him guilty Friday of voluntary manslaughter in a fatal 2021 shooting in a Hillsborough shopping center.

Doyle Edwards, 25, was also found guilty of simple assault, breaking or entering into a motor vehicle, and larceny of a firearm in connection with the shooting. Superior Court Judge James Ammons Jr. sentenced him to 80 to 108 months in prison  six and a half to nine years  plus 30 months of supervised probation.

Edwards attorney, former Orange County Chief Superior Court Judge Carl Fox, hugged the young man following the verdict.

The jury could have found Edwards guilty of first- or second-degree murder.

What happened at the smoke shop?

Hillsborough police said 19-year-old JyQuel McRae, who was from Mebane, was shot around 5:30 p.m. on April 1, 2021, outside the Hillsborough Discount Tobacco & Vape shop at the Hampton Pointe shopping center.

The shooting was caught on surveillance video and shown to the jury during the trial.

Edwards and McRae went to the store that day separately to make purchases and got into an argument when they ran into each other, Fox and District Attorney Jeff Nieman said.

McRae had been wanting to fight another man, Chase Torain, who was at the store with Edwards, McRaes mother Stacy Jackson told the court before sentencing. McRae pulled the gun out during the fight but returned it to his car after seeing the other men were unarmed, she said.

Prior to that day, Jackson said, Torain had jumped my son multiple times.

Edwards left the fight and got the gun from McRaes car, then shot him with it, according to the video and court testimony. He went into the store briefly, then returned to make a cell phone video of McRae as he lay dying on the ground, Neiman said.

Edwards taunted McRae, saying dont play with me, Nieman said, and somebody needs to come get your boy. Edwards then posted the video to the Snapchat social media app, Nieman said.

McRae died later that day at Duke University Hospital.

Torain, of Cedar Grove, has already pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault for being involved in the fight, Nieman said.

Was the shooting self defense?

Shooting McRae was an act of self defense by Edwards, Fox said, because McRae had threatened him and Torain with the gun, and he then charged Edwards after he retrieved the gun from McRaes car.

Its probably different from what a normal self-defense case is, because the victim had threatened to kill them when they were fighting with him, so (Edwards) believed if he let him go and get the gun, he was going to shoot them both, Fox said.

He noted that Edwards did not have a criminal record, was regarded by his family as a person of good character, and that he stayed at the scene after the shooting, giving the gun to police and cooperating with the investigation.

Nieman countered that Edwardss actions that evening, including putting other people in the crowded commercial area on a weekday evening at risk and committing a crime that was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, deserved a stiffer punishment.

The jury and Superior Court Judge James Ammons Jr. agreed.

While Edwards acted under strong provocation, Ammons said, he also callously made a video recording of the victim JyQuel McRae while he was suffering a gunshot wound  and the defendant disseminated it to others on social media.

Fox argued that the surveillance video did not show anyone in danger at the shopping center and that the recording Edwards made of McRae was part of the act of shooting him and should not be considered separately.

Another story of guns and bad choices

The sad part of what happened is that it reflects a lot of the gun violence happening between young African-American males, Fox said in his remarks. There is not enough outrage about that, he said.

A young man like (Edwards), if he runs in his community, hes a punk. They can take advantage of him. They feel like they can beat on him and do what they want to in this situation, Fox said.

Unlike a lot of places where kids get into fights and they turn and go home, like it was when I was a kid, they turn and If theyre not satisfied with the outcome, they go get a gun and finish it off, he said. Its not my reality, but its his reality.

Edwards declined to speak to the court or the victims family before sentencing.

After apologizing to both families for their current circumstances, Ammons chided Edwards for his decision, saying he had a choice on that day and made the wrong one. Make better choices after prison in how to live the rest of your life, Ammons said.

When given an opportunity by this court to apologize to these people or to apologize to society or say anything at all, you declined, Ammons said. The video shows a very angry person. You did not become that person that day.  I hope you wont be a worse person when you get out of prison, or youll be going back for something.
Man who police say shot cousin in the head in Fort Worth in December arrested on murder

A man who police said shot his cousin to death in east Fort Worth in December was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of murder.

Joel Miles, 20, was taken into custody in the 1700 block of Coleman Avenue.

Miles on Dec. 30 shot Jordan Miles, also 20, in the head in the 2900 block of San Rose Drive, Fort Worth police said.

Police have said Joel Miles fired upon a group of people, then left, possibly in a vehicle.

Police said they recovered 26 ejected cartridge casings, two handguns and a rifle at the scene.

A police spokesperson did not respond on Friday to a request for the arrest warrant affidavit in the case.

Jordan Miles died in the street where he was shot.
MEXICO CITY, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Mexico on Friday denounced Ecuador's police raid on its embassy in Quito in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the Mexican Foreign Ministry.

The letter, which denounces "the serious violations incurred by the Republic of Ecuador on April 5," was delivered by Mexico's permanent representative to the UN Hector Vasconcelos, through the organization's deputy secretary general for Legal Affairs, said the ministry in a statement.

Ecuadorian police stormed Mexico's embassy in Quito to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, just hours after Mexico granted him political asylum, prompting Mexico to sever ties with the country. 
Man Sentenced to 50 Years in Jail for Poisoning His Baby with Antifreeze in Her Milk Bottle

Curtis Jack had previously insisted that the infant's mother terminate her pregnancy, police said

Stock image of baby formula.

A man in South Fulton, Georgia, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for attempting to kill his baby daughter by poisoning her breast milk with antifreeze, authorities said.

On Oct. 1, 2020, Curtis Jack tampered with bottles of breastmilk he picked up from the newborn babys mother, according to the City of South Fulton Police Department.

The mother, who was also a coworker of Jack's, had been hospitalized after giving birth to their daughter on Sept. 24, 2020.

After Jack picked up the bottles and delivered them to the childs grandmother  who was caring for the infant along with the womans other daughter at the time  the newborn became critically ill within a day, and was suspected of being poisoned, per police.

At the time, officers found that the daughter, who was just 18 days old, had suffered serious injuries, according to the South Fulton police.

She was then taken to a local childrens hospital, where she tested positive for ethylene glycol, a chemical often found in automotive antifreeze, authorities said.

Following an initial investigation, Jack was identified as a suspect, and warrants were obtained for a criminal attempt to commit murder and cruelty to children in the first degree, police said at the time.

Jack later admitted to adding antifreeze to the breastmilk to detectives, police added.

Authorities also learned that Jack and the babys mother had been in an intimate relationship since January 2020, and he had previously insisted that she terminate her pregnancy, the department said.

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Jacks trial for the attempted murder of the child, now 3, included testimonies from the child's mother, grandmother, law enforcement officers, and medical experts, including a demonstration of how easy it was to poison the breastmilk, police said.

The jury ultimately found Jack guilty on all counts, South Fulton police announced on social media on April 11. He was sentenced to 50 years in jail and will serve 40 of them in custody.

A special thanks to Madam Fani Willis and the Fulton County District Attorney's Office in obtaining justice for the victim and her mother, South Fulton police wrote in a statement.

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Read the original article on People.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)  A man has been sentenced to prison time at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction for a fatal gas station shooting last year.

Malike D. Miller, 23, received a 7 year sentence to be served at ODRC on Thursday. The incident leading to his arrest was a fatal shooting at a southeast Columbus Sheetz store, located on the 3000 block of South Hamilton Road.

Ohio Uber driver killed in shooting after being sent to pick up scammers package

At the time, police said officers responded to the store at approximately 4:22 a.m., where they found Jared B. Porter, 23, had been shot. The victim was later pronounced dead.

Miller received his sentence after entering a guilty plea to the stipulated lesser included offense of attempted improper discharge of a firearm into a habitation, with a one year firearm specification, a third-degree felony, and having weapons while under disability, a third-degree felony.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
LEAVENWORTH, Kan.  A 30-year-old man is sentenced for the death of a fellow inmate in Leavenworth.

In February, a Leavenworth County jury found Richey Ray Farmer guilty of voluntary manslaughter for the 2021 death of Scott Wilson.

KC businesses share concerns about homeless man with machete

Farmer was sentenced on Wednesday, April 10, to 7 years and 4 months in the Kansas Department of Corrections.

At the time, both Farmer and Wilson were inmates at CoreCivics Leavenworth Detention Center, according to Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson.

According to court documents, n Aug. 2, 2021, Farmer struck Wilson with a plastic food tray and then used his feet to kick and stomp Wilson.

Following the incident, Wilson was taken to a Kansas City area hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

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Farmer would later claim he was acting in self-defense when he struck and kicked Wilson.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
Man taken into custody in Fresno after surrendering

Man taken into custody in Fresno after surrendering

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE)  A man has been taken into custody after surrendering to deputies in Fresno, the Fresno County Sheriffs Office announced on Friday.

Deputies say their MAGEC team responded to the area of Platt and Fine Avenues in Fresno for a wanted parolee.

Sheriffs officials say a man escaped from a home. The SWAT team responded to the area to seal off the perimeter. They were concerned the suspect had access to guns.

According to deputies, their Crisis Negotiation Team (CNT) was able to speak with the man on the phone and convinced him to surrender. The man surrendered, walked out of the home, and was taken into custody.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to YourCentralValley.com | KSEE24 and CBS47.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WBTW)  A Marion County man serving 15 years at the Broad River Correctional Institute ran a bribery and smuggling operation along a prison guard, federal prosecutors allege.

Jerell Reaves, also known as Hell Rell, and Christine Mary Livingston, 46, whose aliases include Hell Rells Queen, were indicted on April 2 on 15 charges including bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering.

In all, Livingston accepted more than $219,000 in bribes over three years and got 173 contraband cellphones for inmates, according to the indictment.

Myrtle Beach man caught smuggling contraband into state prison, authorities say

Livingston accepted payments from 48 peer-to-peer accounts. Reaves was responsible for funneling at least $42,640 to the guard, according to the indictment.

Reaves received a 15-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of a man at a Marion County convenience store in 2015.

Both face up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and an order to pay back any illegal earnings if convicted.

Prosecutors say Livingston and Reaves, 33, took bribes for cellphones and other contraband accessories, accepting payments of between $1,000 and $7,000 through Cash App.

Livingston had worked for the state Department of Corrections for 16 years, promoted to captain at Broad River in 2016  putting her in charge of security at the Columbia prison.

Her employment with the agency ended in November 2021, court documents say.

Lawyers for Livingston and Reaves did not respond to emails from The Associated Press on Friday.

Reaves is scheduled for an initial court appearance on Wednesday in Columbia, while Livingston has an April 26 arraignment date.

Contraband cellphones in South Carolina prisons have been a long-running problem. Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said inmates have run drug rings, fraud schemes and have even ordered killings from behind bars.

A 2018 riot that killed seven inmates at Lee Correctional Intuition was fueled by cellphones.

This woman broke the public trust in South Carolina, making our prisons less safe for inmates, staff and the community. We will absolutely not tolerate officers and employees bringing contraband into our prisons, and Im glad she is being held accountable, Stirling said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The South Carolina prison system has implored federal officials to let them jam cellphone signals in prisons but havent gotten permission.

Recently, they have had success with a device that identifies all cellphones on prison grounds, allowing employees to request mobile phone carriers block the unauthorized numbers, although Stirlings agency hasnt been given enough money to expand it beyond a one-prison pilot program.

In January, Stirling posted a video from a frustrated inmate calling a tech support hotline when his phone no longer worked asking the worker what can I do to get it turned back on? and being told he needed to call a Corrections Department hotline.

From July 2022 to June 2023, state prison officials issued 2,179 violations for inmates possessing banned communication devices, and since 2015, more than 35,000 cellphones have been found. The prison system has about 16,000 inmates.

Stirling has pushed for the General Assembly to pass a bill specifying cellphones are illegal in prisons instead of being included in a broad category of contraband and allowing up to an extra year to be tacked on a sentence for having an illegal phone, with up to five years for a second offense.

That bill has not made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WBTW)  A Marion County man serving 15 years at the Broad River Correctional Institute ran a bribery and smuggling operation along a prison guard, federal prosecutors allege.



Jerell Reaves, also known as Hell Rell, and Christine Mary Livington, 46, whose aliases include Hell Rells Queen, were indicted April 2 on 15 charges including bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering.



In all, Livingston accepted more than $219,000 in bribes over three years and got 173 contraband cellphones for inmates, according to the indictment.

Myrtle Beach man caught smuggling contraband into state prison, authorities say

Livingston accepted payments from 48 peer-to-peer accounts. Reaves was responsible for funneling at least $42,640 to the guard, according to the indictment.



Reaves received a 15-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of a man at a Marion County convenience store in 2015.



Both face up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and an order to pay back any illegal earnings if convicted.



Prosecutors say Livingston and Reaves, 33, took bribes for cellphones and other contraband accessories, accepting payments of between $1,000 and $7,000 through Cash App.



Livingston had worked for the state Department of Corrections for 16 years, promoted to captain at Broad River in 2016  putting her in charge of security at the Columbia prison.



Her employment with the agency ended in November 2021, court documents say.

Lawyers for Livingston and Reaves did not respond to emails from The Associated Press on Friday.

Reaves is scheduled for an initial court appearance on Wednesday in Columbia, while Livingston has an April 26 arraignment date.



Contraband cellphones in South Carolina prisons have been a long-running problem. Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said inmates have run drug rings, fraud schemes and have even ordered killings from behind bars.

A 2018 riot that killed seven inmates at Lee Correctional Intuition was fueled by cellphones.

This woman broke the public trust in South Carolina, making our prisons less safe for inmates, staff and the community. We will absolutely not tolerate officers and employees bringing contraband into our prisons, and Im glad she is being held accountable, Stirling said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The South Carolina prison system has implored federal officials to let them jam cellphone signals in prisons but havent gotten permission.

Recently, they have had success with a device that identifies all cellphones on prison grounds, allowing employees to request mobile phone carriers block the unauthorized numbers, although Stirlings agency hasnt been given enough money to expand it beyond a one-prison pilot program.

In January, Stirling posted a video from a frustrated inmate calling a tech support hotline when his phone no longer worked asking the worker what can I do to get it turned back on? and being told he needed to call a Corrections Department hotline.

From July 2022 to June 2023, state prison officials issued 2,179 violations for inmates possessing banned communication devices, and since 2015, more than 35,000 cellphones have been found. The prison system has about 16,000 inmates.

Stirling has pushed for the General Assembly to pass a bill specifying cellphones are illegal in prisons instead of being included in a broad category of contraband and allowing up to an extra year to be tacked on a sentence for having an illegal phone, with up to five years for a second offense.

That bill has not made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
Maryland garbage collector shot to death on the job, police searching for suspects

Maryland garbage collector shot to death on the job, police searching for suspects

Police in Maryland released photos Friday of the suspects and car wanted in connection with the broad-daylight murder of a garbage collector last week.

Idongesit Udosen, 30, was shot and killed around 3:40 p.m. on Thursday, April 4, in the 6800 block of Greenvale Parkway in Hyattsville, according to the Prince George's County Police Department.

Officers responded to the area after receiving reports of a shooting to find Udosen "in the roadway suffering from gunshot wounds," the department said.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

MARYLAND BURGLARS LINKED TO SOUTH AMERICAN THEFT GROUP CONNECTED TO CASES IN MULTIPLE STATES: POLICE

The Prince George's County Police Department released photos on Friday of the two suspects wanted in connection with the shooting death of garbage collector Idongesit Udosen.

On Friday, the department released pictures of the suspects, who have yet to be identified, and video of the car they used in Udosen's killing.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

The car appears to be a gray Kia sedan, police said, and can be seen driving in the area of Greenvale Parkway prior to the shooting. Before the video ends, the driver backs into an open spot on the street in front of a parked van and next to three garbage cans.

BALTIMORE CRIME SPREE: WOMAN CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER AFTER STABBINGS, HIT-AND-RUNS LEFT 6 INJURED

Prince George's County police released video of the car used in Udosen's murder (pictured above) and described it as a gray Kia sedan.

When Udosen arrives at the scene in a garbage truck, two suspects exit the car and shoot at him before fleeing the area.

While a motive is working to be determined, detectives do not believe the shooting was random.

Prince George's County police detectives do not believe the shooting was random and are working to determine a motive.

A reward of up to $25,000 is available for information leading to an arrest and an indictment in Udosen's murder.

Tips can be called to the Prince George's County Homicide Unit at 301-516-2512 or anonymously to Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-8477 under case number 24-0019420.





Original article source: Maryland garbage collector shot to death on the job, police searching for suspects
Gov. Wes Moore (D-Md.) announced the launch of a program Friday to help Port of Baltimore businesses who were impacted by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge last month.

We must do everything in our power to support the 8,000 Port workers whose jobs have been directly affected by the collapse of the Key Bridge  and the thousands more who have been touched by this crisis, Moore said Friday in a press release.

By moving in partnership with the Maryland General Assembly, the federal government, and our local government partners, we are extending a hand to workers and businesses in need of help, he continued. Together, we will continue to ensure that we leave no one behind in our response to the bridge collapse.

The Port of Baltimore Worker Retention Program will award grants to eligible organizations directly impacted by the reduced operations at the Port and has an aim to minimize or eliminate the need for layoffs by enabling businesses to retain their employees until the Port fully reopens, according to its policy. Employers can apply for up to $200,000 dollars through the program and it has a maximum expenditure of $7,500 per worker.

Eligible applicants are Maryland-based small businesses, labor unions, trade associations, or companies that contract with or are members of a trade association who rely on access to the private and public marine terminals at the Port, and whose activities are hindered or halted entirely due to reduced Port operations, the program policy states. All applicants must be committed to resuming operations to the fullest extent practicable once the Port resumes full operation.

Maryland Secretary of Labor Portia Wu said that it is my top priority to help our critical Port of Baltimore businesses, and their workers get through this difficult time in the release on the program.

The Worker Retention Program will keep Port businesses in operation and workers able to earn income and support their families as the U.S. Army Corps and others work to get the shipping channels reopened, Wu said.

The announcement comes just over two weeks after a cargo ship, called Dali, lost power and collided with the bridge, causing much of the structure to fall into the Patapsco River. Six out of eight construction workers who were filling potholes on the bridge at the time were pronounced dead.

The critical port has been closed for repairs, and a timeline or full cost of the reconstruction project has yet to be determined.

President Biden, who visited Baltimore in the wake of the collapse, has vowed to use government resources to help with recovery efforts.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Maserati stolen in Coweta County found in middle Georgia, suspect arrested, deputies say

A man was arrested after being found in a stolen car in Muscogee County.

The car had been on a bit of a journey after being stolen more than 70 miles away in Coweta County, deputies say.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

When deputies found the stolen 2018 Maserati Q4, the driver, Tramaine Davison, tried to run off, but was quickly arrested.

He is being charged with felony theft by receiving a stolen vehicle, obstruction, possession of marijuana and two counts of giving a false name.

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He was also on probation in Troup County, so he will face a charge of probation violation.

Davison is currently being held in the Muscogee County Jail.

He also has several felony warrants out of Newnan and Coweta County.

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IN OTHER NEWS:
Juan Brito Lopez was in his mid-20s when soldiers rushed into his home in the village of Pexla, nestled in Guatemalas western highlands. He escaped, hiding in the wilderness, but could not save his wife and four daughters.

Now 70 years old, Brito Lopez recounted the horrors of that day to High Risk Court A in Guatemala City this week, saying the soldiers murdered his family during the early morning raid on January 20, 1982, burning their bodies inside their wooden home.

Their deaths took place in the middle of Guatemalas 36-year-long civil war as a series of US-backed military governments cracked down on leftist rebels across the country. Guatemalas counterinsurgency campaign led to the death of over 200,000 people, 83% of whom were indigenous Maya, according to a United Nations-backed truth commission in 1999.

Decades later, the bloodshed is being relived in the high-profile trial of the former head of Guatemalas army, Manuel Benedicto Lucas Garcia, in a monthslong process that is expected to see more than 150 witnesses, 30 survivors of sexual violence and dozens of forensic experts give testimony.

According to Brito Lopez and other witnesses who lived in the western Quiche region, troops under the command of Lucas Garcia killed men, women, and children, driving the indigenous Maya Ixil people who lived there away from their homes.

Retired General Benedicto Lucas Garcia (91) is seen on a screen during a video call from the ward of a military hospital where he is being held during his hearing at court in Guatemala City on April 5, 2024. - Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images

The former laborer, who sometimes broke into tears during his testimony, spoke in front of a large screen broadcasting Lucas Garcias impassive figure. Lucas Garcia participated in the proceedings via video link from a military hospital.

The retired general has been indicted for genocide, crimes against humanity, forced disappearances, and sexual violence against the Maya Ixil people, according to the organization representing the victims, the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR).

AJR accuses him of ordering more than 30 massacres and destroying 23 villages in the Maya Ixil region, causing the death of at least 1,771 people when he led the army between 1981 and 1982  during the tenure of his brother President Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia.

The former general has denied the charges, with one of his lawyers telling the court last week that Lucas Garcia will request an acquittal sentence with immediate freedom. CNN has attempted to contact his legal representation for comment.

The trial is among several important war crime proceedings since the 90s that have been attempting to address atrocities during the civil war, which ended in 1996. The proceedings have stuttered over the years, some producing ground-breaking results  including the first time a Guatemalan head of state was put on trial. In 2018, a Guatemalan court ruled that the army committed acts of genocide, but no one was convicted.

Human rights organizations and the Mayan victims of wartime massacres have been increasingly frustrated by the slow road to justice  especially when the alleged perpetrators and their victims begin dying of old age.

Lucas Garcia, 91, was meant to face trial this year with former military intelligence chief Manuel Callejas y Callejas. Both men were convicted in 2018 of aggravated sexual assault, crimes against humanity, and forced disappearances, and given a 58-year prison sentence. Callejas y Callejas was deemed unfit to stand in this current trial as he is suffering from dementia, said Jesus Silvio, acting president and legal representative of AJR, told CNN.

Scorched earth campaign

The bloodshed during the civil war increased dramatically under President Romeo Lucas Garcias regime (1978-1982), according to a report by Human Rights Data Analysis Group, which saw what had been a selective campaign against guerrilla sympathizers turned into a mass slaughter.

Under his rule, that is when the scorched earth campaign against indigenous communities of Guatemala really picked up, Jo-Marie Burt, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, who is an expert on human rights and transitional justice in Guatemala, said. The period saw soldiers and paramilitary forces execute Mayan authorities; tens of thousands of people were forcibly disappeared, and entire villages were burned to the ground.

A UN-backed Commission for Historical Clarification (CEH) report found that between 1981 and 1983, a period when Lucas Garcia helmed the military, the Guatemalan state committed acts of genocide against five Mayan groups, including the Ixil people.

The army said it was countering a leftist insurgency, but the report found the state deliberately magnified the military threat of the insurgency and in the majority of cases intentionally exaggerated the connection between the Mayan communities and the guerrillas.

Racism was a component behind the violence, the report said, as it also concluded that the undeniable existence of racism expressed repeatedly by the state as a doctrine of superiority explains the brutality with which military operations were carried out against hundreds of Mayan communities.

During the country's ongoing civil war, Guatemalan Army General Benedicto Lucas Garcia points to a map at a military garrison, Santa Cruz de Quiche, Guatemala, January 19, 1982. - Robert Nickelsberg/Archive Photos/Getty Images

Burt said this expression of racism is extremely profound, and its knock-on effects are evident in Guatemala today. During a separate genocide trial in 2013, which led to the conviction of dictator Efrain Rios Montt, Burt, who was observing the proceeding in person, saw supporters of the general spray perfume on seats that had been sat on by indigenous people.

Today, Guatemalas indigenous communities account for more than 40% of the countrys population, but their participation in public institutions and public life is certainly smaller in comparison to their size, said Tiziano Breda, a Latin American expert at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, of the deep inequalities that remain in Guatemala.

Infrastructure and services in areas mostly habited by the indigenous population (are) very dire, and the fact there are 22 Mayan languages in the country, and there are almost no signs in the capital in those languages are telling, he added.

A million people became refugees due to the civil war, and today, inequality has made the Central American country one of the highest source countries for migrants encountered at the US borders, many of whom come from rural areas largely populated by indigenous Guatemalans.

Delayed justice

It took post-conflict Guatemala years to build up capacity in its judicial system. Positive steps were made in the 2000s with vital reforms and leadership by individuals like Claudia Paz y Paz, who became attorney general from 2010-2014 and worked to break the tradition of impunity by criminal elements in the country, Burt said.

International actors, like the UN-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), assisted in hundreds of convictions, trained prosecutors, and has been attributed for helping reduce the countrys homicide rate.

But CICIG was dissolved in 2019 during a period of democratic backsliding in the country, where successive Guatemalan governments and the countrys elites have been accused of attempting to control the countrys judiciary.

Dozens of prosecutors and judges fled the country. Those who remain have reported privately about receiving death threats, say experts.

The system is co-opted, Silvio from AJR said. So, this case has been delayed for 13 years and we still do not understand the reasons but this year they gave us the possibility.

Survivors from the civil war gather outside the Supreme Court, prior to a hearing in the Ixil Genocide trial, in Guatemala City, Guatemala March 25, 2024. - Cristina Chiquin/Reuters

The issue was not building a case, but it was overcoming the fear of going after some of these people, some of the most violent operators in Guatemalas military regime, who maintain connections with armed actors and their own network of violent people, Will Freeman, Fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said.

CNN has reached out to Guatemalas prosecutors office and department of justice for comment.

The countrys current President Bernardo Arevalo, an anti-corruption figure who defied the odds and won the election last year in a landslide victory, has promised to empower the judiciary. He has been constrained by the Public Ministry  led by US-sanctioned Attorney General Consuelo Porras  that has made two requests to withdraw his immunity and is accused of attempting to disqualify the results of his election. Guatemalas Attorney Generals office hasnt responded to CNNs multiple requests for response to this accusation.

The victims advocates hope the trial will bring a measure of accountability to those who perished during the war, but time is running out, said Michelle Liang, who has been monitoring the trial as an international accompanier for the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA).

Lucas Garcias team has been deploying tactics of delay to basically try to wait out the witnesses, she said. They know that other witnesses are getting old, and already more than 40 witnesses have passed away.

CNN has repeatedly attempted to reach out to his public defender and his private attorney.

When the trial was due to start at the end of March, Lucas Garcias lawyers announced their resignation. He ended up using a public defender, who needed five days to familiarize herself with the case, according to the law, pushing proceedings back to April 5.

During Brito Lopezs testimony this week, he admitted to not being able to remember some details like the age of his wife when she was killed or the names of some of the 66 villagers he said were killed in his village.

What remains clear is the trauma of that period, where he was too devastated to collect the remain of his family members. I couldnt stand the sadness, he said. I fainted, so others collected the ashes.

Another victim Catarina Chel told the court about the days she spent in the mountains in January of 1981. She was hiding from soldiers who had rounded up her neighbors and killed them in a house used to store corn, she said.

Now more than 40 years after that date, she is no longer in hiding. Dressed proudly in traditional dress, she made her testimony feet away from a screen broadcasting a live feed of her villages alleged tormenter, Lucas Garcia.

He was the one who commanded the armies, and they killed my children, she said.

It is not money that the victims want, what they need is accountability, Silvia from AJR said.

Whether or not a conviction is achieved, he said, what the AJR and its witnesses seek is a record of what happened so that is never repeated.

CNNs Tara John reported and wrote from New York and CNNEs Ivonne Valdes reported from Mexico City.

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"I would very much appreciate and endorse every move that's made to secure the livelihood of the pandas and to secure their future." A group of diplomatic envoys and representatives hailed China's efforts in protecting the giant panda species during a recent visit to Sichuan. #GLOBALink





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As the city of Memphis continues to battle soaring crime, officials are calling for tougher sentences following the death of a local police officer who died early Friday in a shootout with two teens, one of whom was arrested last month on weapons charges and subsequently let go without bond.

That suspect, 18-year-old Jaylen Lobley, was shot and killed by police after the pair opened fire on officers who were investigating a suspicious vehicle at Horn Lake Road and Charter Avenue in Whitehaven, about nine miles south of downtown Memphis.

Officer Joseph McKinney, 26, who joined the Memphis Police Department (MPD) in 2020, lost his life in the early-morning gunfire, and he is being remembered as a dedicated police officer who "exemplified the highest standards of courage," the MPD said.

Officials are calling for tougher sentences following the death of Officer Joseph McKinney, top left, who died early Friday in a shootout with two teens. Jaylen Lobley, right, also died and was arrested last month on weapons charges and then let go.

MEMPHIS POLICE OFFICER KILLED DURING SHOOTOUT WITH TEENS, ONE OF WHOM WAS RECENTLY RELEASED

A second officer was also struck and is in non-critical condition, while a third officer was grazed by a bullet during the gunfire. A second suspect, a 17-year-old, was also shot and is expected to survive, police say.

Lobley, whose mugshot has been obtained by Fox News Digital, was arrested in March in a stolen vehicle while armed with an illegally modified semi-automatic weapon with a Glock switch attached, police say. The Glock switch converted the weapon to a fully automatic machine gun.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Lobley allegedly admitted to stealing two cars: a red Dodge Charger as well as a white Infiniti, Fox 13 Memphis reports, while police say that he had a programming device that is commonly used to steal cars.

But Lobley was cut loose on no cash bail, despite the district attorneys office saying it had objections, labeling Lobley as a "high-risk offender."

"Lobley was released in March on ROR (released on recognizance) with various conditions including reporting and curfew," Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said in a statement Friday.

"This bond was granted by a Shelby County Judicial Commissioner following a hearing where our office strongly argued against lowering the bond, citing the defendant's danger to the community. Despite our arguments, the Commissioner approved the ROR bond," Mulroy said.

"My office was actively prioritizing the Lobley case, identifying him as a high-risk offender  even though Lobley was a first-time offender, his case had been accepted for federal prosecution. This is consistent with my firm belief  that individuals found with stolen cars and guns, or found with Glock switches, can pose a danger and must be dealt with accordingly."

Memphis police officer Joseph McKinney, inset, was shot and killed Friday, April 12, 2024. Police Chief Cerelyn "C.J." Davis, right, and images from the scene, left.

MEMPHIS MAYOR DEFENDS POLICE CHIEF AS CRIME RISES

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., slammed the decision in a post on X.

"Because of soft-on-crime policies like bail reform, a Tennessee police officer lost his life to a criminal who was put back out on the streets," Blackburn wrote late Friday.

"Had he been in jail, this senseless murder would not have occurred."

Memphis, like many other big cities across the U.S., is in the midst of a rising crime wave with a record-breaking 398 homicides in 2023.

Memphis Mayor Paul Young also called for harsher sentences as well as stricter gun laws.

"We must demand tougher gun laws. We must demand sentencing that mirrors our love for our community. Sometimes, that love needs to be tough love," Young said in a statement.

"Together, lets petition our judges and the DA for stronger, swifter sentencing for violent offenses. If you are part of the judicial system, hear my voice first. We need to work together to do better for our community."

Meanwhile, Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., said the state must do everything to protect those who serve, and hold those responsible for the tragedy to account.

Tributes have been pouring in for McKinney, and the MPD on Saturday posted pictures to X of a memorial erected around his patrol car, with flowers and notes from friends and fellow officers who have come by to pay their respects.

"Thank you for all those who have come by to take the time to remember Officer McKinney," the MPD wrote.

"The love that the community has shown is overwhelming. Officer McKinney was well-loved and respected and we will continue his work."

"Officer Joseph McKinney exemplified the highest standards of courage and dedication, and his memory will forever inspire us to serve and protect our community honorably," the department said in a statement.





Original article source: Memphis cop-killing teen suspect identified as officials call for tougher sentences
A Miami-Dade teacher sent sexually explicit and uncomfortable messages to two of his students over the course of months and even threatened to tank one of the girls grades, police said.

He was fired and now finds himself behind bars.

Roger Alaniz, 24, was a teacher at Miami Senior High School. In December, a Miami-Dade Schools police detective was made aware that Alaniz had been sending inappropriate messages to two students through social media and text since October, according to an arrest report.

Roger Alaniz, a Miami Senior High School teacher, was charged with inappropriately messaging two of his students, threatening one of them, police said.

It started when Alaniz wrote his personal number on a paper a student was working on, according to the report. She told the detective she ignored but that Alaniz asked numerous times when she was going to text him.

She said she felt pressured and added him as a contact. The first conversation was normal, police said, but Alaniz soon told her, I think I might have a crush on you. Is that weird?

The student felt uncomfortable and took steps to try to avoid him  arriving at his class late and waiting for friends to enter so they would never be alone together.

In November, Alaniz sent another student a friend-request through Instagram, which the female student accepted, the report read. She asked Alaniz a question about a class assignment, and he, in return, asked for her number.

In text conversations, Alaniz gave her advice about her personal problems with friends and boys, police said. Alaniz asked how sexually active she had been.

Alaniz also invited her to go watch a movie and drive around town with him. The student began ignoring his messages.

Alaniz then threatened her by saying her grades would be affected. When the student said she wanted a different teacher, Alaniz said she wouldnt be able to get out of his class, and even if she did, he would find her.

On Thursday, Alaniz was arrested and charged with two counts of child abuse with no great bodily harm and two counts of offenses against students by authority figures. As of Friday, he remained in the Miami-Dade Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

In a statement, Miami-Dade County Public Schools said it is profoundly troubled by the concerning allegations made against the former employee, leading to his arrest.

When the district first learned of the suspected behavior, Alaniz was immediately reassigned away from the school, the statement reads. After the police investigation, he was fired.

M-DCPS goes to great lengths to provide a safe school environment for our students and employees; all new teachers undergo ethics and civil rights compliance/Title IX training as part of their onboarding, the district said. This individual will be precluded from seeking future employment with the District.
Just last month, Seattle's disastrous attempt to enact a minimum wage for app-based food delivery drivers was in the news. The result was $26 coffees, city residents deleting their delivery apps, and drivers themselves seeing their earnings drop by half. Now, the Minneapolis City Council has decided to join the fray in the multifront progressive war against the gig economyand this time, the outcome could be even worse.

In March, the Minneapolis City Council enacted an ordinance that creates a minimum wage rate for ride-share drivers in the city. It does so via a per-minute and per-mile calculation, which is currently set at $1.40 per mile and $0.51 per minute. It also sets a floor of $5 if the trip is short and otherwise would cost below that level.

The council claims it enacted the ordinance to ensure that ride-share drivers in the city were paid at an amount analogous to the city's $15.57 per hour minimum wage. Even putting aside the traditional economic arguments against the minimum wagesee California's recent fast-food minimum wage law as Exhibit Athe council's logic fails on its own terms. The day after the city council initially passed the ordinance, the state Department of Labor and Industry released a report showing that a lower $0.89 per mile and $0.49 per minute rate would be sufficient to make driver pay equivalent to the $15.57 minimum wage.

As a result, the ordinance was immediately vetoed by Minneapolis' liberal mayorthe second time in two years the mayor has vetoed such a measure from the councilonly for the council to then override the veto a week later. While the council did not have access to the state's report for the first vote, it had over a week to review it before the veto-override vote. Incredibly, one city council member even suggested that the state's report somehow convinced her to change her vote from "no" to "yes" on the minimum wage between the initial vote and the override vote.

In response to the council's override, ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft have announced they are planning to pull out of the Minneapolis market entirely unless the council reverses course. The ride-share companies originally were set to leave the city on May 1 when the ordinance went into effect, but after a last-minute agreement by the council to delay the ordinance's effective date to July 1, the ride-share companies are in wait-and-see mode.

If the council refuses to back down by July, it will cause even deeper ramifications for city residents than the higher food prices that Seattleites saw in the wake of their aforementioned minimum wage hike for delivery drivers. The ride-share companies have indicated that while they would support the minimum compensation levels proposed in the state's study, the city's higher rates are cost-prohibitive.

Panic has set in among many lawmakers at the state capital, with some calling for the Legislature to preempt the Minneapolis ordinance. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who previously vetoed a statewide version of a minimum wage bill for ride-share drivers, has stated that he is "deeply concerned" about the prospect of losing ride-sharing services in the Twin Cities.

The concern is well-founded since a ride-share pullout would disproportionately impact the city's senior citizens and disabled residents who often rely on these services to survive. Accordingly, advocates from the Minnesota chapter of the National Federation of the Blind, the Minneapolis Advisory Committee on Aging, and the Minneapolis Advisory Committee on People with Disabilities have all expressed opposition to the ordinance.

The possibility of losing ride-sharing has also created concern about the potential impact on the city's drunk driving rates. Evidence has linked the availability of ride-sharing to lower incidents of alcohol-impaired driving and alcohol-related car accidents, underscoring just how high the stakes may be.

Moreover, if the city council's move goes unchecked, deleterious minimum wage hikes will inevitably spread to other parts of the Twin Cities' gig economy. The Minneapolis ordinance is limited to ride-share drivers for now, but if the past is prologue, food delivery drivers are next.

Seattle first passed a minimum wage rule for ride-share drivers in 2020, only to follow that up with this year's food delivery minimum rate. New York City likewise followed a similar two-step trajectory of locking in minimum rates for ride-share drivers before moving on to food delivery drivers years later. Given that many ride-share drivers double as food delivery driversoften on the same appthe progressive pressure to expand the minimum wage to delivery may be substantial.

Also of note, the Minnesota Legislature is considering a bill that would make it more difficult to be classified as an independent contractor in the state, creating yet more foreboding storm clouds on the horizon for gig work.

Despite the fresh lessons from the Seattle food delivery debacle, Minneapolis council members appear oblivious to the on-the-ground reality. Ironically, it was none other than Karl Marx who famously declared that history repeats itself "first as tragedy, second as farce." The city councilwhich contains several openly socialist membersshould pay more heed to its intellectual forefather.

The post Minneapolis Is About To Kill Ride-Sharing appeared first on Reason.com.
MISSING: 16-year-old out of South Salt Lake

SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah (ABC4)  A 16-year-old girl is missing out of South Salt Lake, according to South Salt Lake Police.

Kylie Aust, 16, ran away from Dept. of Child and Family Services workers on Thursday, April 11, at around 3:50 p.m., according to SSLPD.

Aust reportedly ran from a Chevron located at 310 East 3300 South and headed south on State St. from 3300 South.

Utah turns radioactive wasteland in new Amazon TV series

Courtesy of South Salt Lake Police

Aust is described as 53, 115 lbs, with blue eyes and pink hair.

She was reportedly last seen wearing a black hooded jacket, blue jeans, and black boots.

If you have any information regarding Austs whereabouts, please call SSLPD at 801-412-3600 and reference case number LK24-11570.

No further information is available at this time.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.
The body of a missing Israeli boy has been found in the West Bank, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced Saturday.

The body of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair was located in the area of Malachei HaShalom a short while ago, the IDF posted on social media platform X.

The boy went missing on Friday morning and was murdered in a terrorist attack, the Israeli military said.

The military said security forces will continue looking for those who are suspected of the boys murder.

The investigation has been handed over to the Sin Bet, the Israel Security Agency, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the alleged murder abominable and a serious crime.

IDF and Shin Bet forces are in an extensive pursuit of the despicable murders and all those who cooperated with them, Netanyahu said, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Achimairs disappearance sparked a large attack from settlers on a Palestinian village Friday and Saturday, The Associated Press reported.

The news of the boys death comes as tensions rise over the weekend in the Middle East. Israel is reportedly bracing for a major retaliatory attack from Iran, after Israeli strikes in Syira killed seven members of the Iranian military.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Israeli settlers look for a 14-year-old, who according to the Israeli military went missing in the area near the village of al-Mughayyer

By Mohammed Torokman

AL-MUGHAYYER, West Bank (Reuters) -Armed Jewish settlers blocked roads, vandalised property and scuffled with Palestinians around towns and villages in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, medics and witnesses said, after an Israeli teenager was killed in a suspected militant attack.

The Palestinian health ministry said a 17-year-old Palestinian, named Omar Hamed, died of his wounds, hours after he was wounded by a settler's gunfire in the village of Beitin near Ramallah. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

At least 20 other Palestinians were wounded, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Israel's top-selling newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, said one of its photographers was assaulted by settlers, some of whom wore Israeli army uniforms.

Israeli authorities said they were beefing up security forces to tamp down the flare-up, worried about a possible spread of violence from the Gaza war now in its seventh month.

The friction between settlers and Palestinians, at several locations between the city of Ramallah and northern Nablus, began on Friday after a 14-year-old Israeli went missing in the area. His body was discovered on Saturday, the military said.

Calling the killing a "terrorist attack", Israel said the Palestinian suspects were being pursued. In a veiled reference to the boy's fellow settlers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israelis not to get in the way of the security forces.

But settlers blocked entrances to two Palestinian towns and threw rocks at passing cars, witnesses and municipal officials cited by the Palestinian news agency WAFA said. Some of the assailants fired live ammunition, officials quoted by Wafa said.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said settlers torched one of their cars and opened fire at their crewmen at Al-Mughayyer village near Ramallah.

Footage of cars and houses in flames circulated on social media. Reuters could not immediately authenticate the videos.

In a statement, the Israeli military said dozens of Israelis and Palestinians had been hurt in confrontations, some of which involved gunfire. It did not specify who did the shooting. Palestinian officials and medics said unlike the settlers, residents were unarmed.

On Friday, settlers entered a village and set houses and cars ablaze. One person was killed in that rampage, Palestinian medics said, though it was unclear whether he was shot by Israeli forces or settlers.

Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian group fighting Israeli forces on a mission to crush its militants in Gaza, issued a statement on Saturday urging Palestinians in the West Bank to fight against what it described as "settler militias".

Though Israeli ground troops have largely been withdrawn from Gaza this month, airstrikes continue as well as incursions in Al-Nusseirat in the centre of the enclave. Five Palestinians were killed there on Saturday, medics said.

Violence in the West Bank was already on the rise before the Gaza war broke out on Oct. 7 with Hamas' shock attack in southern Israel. It has since increased, with stepped-up Israeli raids and Palestinian street attacks.

The West Bank is among the territories the Palestinians seek for a state. Most countries around the world view Israeli settlements there as illegal, a view that Israel disputes.

(Reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Giles Elgood and Chizu Nomiyama)
A bipartisan bill to ban child marriage in Missouri won initial approval in the state Senate Wednesday afternoon.

Under current law, 16 and 17-year-olds are allowed to get married with parental consent. Marriage between a minor and anyone 21 or older is prohibited.

The legislation discussed Wednesday would prohibit issuing a marriage license to anyone younger than 18 under any circumstances.

State Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder speaks with attendees at the GOP Lincoln Day event at the Oasis Convention Center on March 9, 2024.

Under identical bills co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder of Scott City and Democratic Sen. Lauren Arthur of Kansas City, Missouri would join 10 states that have banned child marriage.

Weve heard from so many people who have endured a lot of trauma as a result of getting married at a young age and often having abusive relationships, or being forced to become pregnant, Arthur said.

There are all kinds of individual situations that have played out as a result of child marriage, she added, but all of them in their own way are terrible and should be warning signs to us all, that this is no longer an acceptable standard.

Rehder said that she got married at 15, and so as a child that was married, I can unequivocally say this: Its a terrible idea and youre not old enough to make those type of decisions.

 I was very alone, Rehder said, adding that statistics bear out that child brides often face mental health issues.

There was no opposition on Wednesday. Those who have previously opposed banning child marriage often invoke parental rights or religious liberty. Last year, Sen. Mike Moon, a Republican from Ash Grove, garnered national attention when he said: Do you know any kids who have been married at age 12? I do. And guess what? Theyre still married.

More: 'I do not support adults marrying minors' Missouri Senator Mike Moon defends comments

Arthur said Wednesday the bill adjusts the marriage age to align with childrens limited legal rights.

Were not telling someone that they cant marry the person they love, were just saying that children arent allowed to engage in legal contracts until theyre 18, Arthur said.

State Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City

Rehder added that all of us have stories of our great grandparents or getting married early and that was absolutely the norm. But that was before women had the opportunity that they have now. They didnt have the opportunity for education. They didnt have the opportunity for a professional life, like they have now.

 This is the one thing that can absolutely sidetrack all of that for our girls.

Until the legislature voted to raise the minimum marriage age to 16 in 2018, Missouri had among the most lenient child marriage laws in the nation  making it an especially popular state for 15-year-olds to travel to be married.

Despite the 2018 change, Missouri law still does not align with international human rights standards, which set the minimum age at 18. Activists argued at the time Missouris new law would continue to leave 16 and 17-year-olds vulnerable to potential coercion.

Those in favor of a ban on child marriage often argue that marriage under 18 is coercive and can transform into forced marriage, especially because children lack the legal rights of adulthood.

Rehder said that since the 2018 change, we got a little further, but we didnt complete the policy process which says this is an adult decision.

Between 2000 and 2018, 8,007 children were married in Missouri and Rehder said around 300 have been married since 2018.

The bill that won initial approval Wednesday afternoon also had a provision added by Rehder and two amendments from other senators.

Rehders bill, folded into this legislation, would modify fees in divorce proceedings. When one person is failing to abide by the courts orders in divorce proceedings, that person would be the one on the line to pay the costs of returning to court.

Rehder said her former spouse was refusing to abide by the process the court decided on for divorce. She would have to pay just to have a judge look at him and say, Yes, you have to do what Ive already told you to do.

 And Im like, you gotta be kidding me. I have to pay for that to make him do what hes already been told to do? Rehder said.

More: Springfield has a domestic violence problem. So why are police seeing fewer reports?

She said shes heard from many women whove experienced domestic violence about how this was another way of having that hold on them and making them pay more money to get away from a bad situation.

Sen. Rick Brattin, a Republican of Harrisonville, voiced his support for this provision.

I love the fact of kind of penalizing those that try to abuse the system, Brattin said.

Brattin added his own amendment to the underlying bill as well.

Sen. Rick Brattin, chairman of the newly formed Freedom Caucus, speaks at a press conference at the Missouri State Capitol Building on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024.

Currently, state law says sheriffs and other law enforcement officials may enforce the rights of custody or visitation agreements. His amendment changes that to make it required  that they shall enforce those rights.

Brattin said he faced his own challenges trying to get visitation with his kids after divorce, despite a court order, and said law enforcement could deter parents from failing to abide by those agreements.

More: Domestic violence: Where to get help or volunteer to help others in the Springfield area

The law enforcement shows up, well then that parents gonna know, Im not gonna be able to get away with this, so I do have to buck up and I have to play nice, even though I dont want to, Brattin said.

Arthur also added an amendment to the bill that would add considerations for judges when determining child custody, including the childs physical, emotional, educational and other needs.

The legislation still needs to receive final approval from the Senate before heading to the House, where a similar bill dealing with child marriage has yet to receive a committee hearing.

This story was first published at www.missouriindependent.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Bill banning child marriage in Missouri gets initial Senate approval
An aerial drone photo taken on April 9, 2024 shows the Lane Xang (L) passenger train and the Fuxing bullet train (R) at Mohan port in southwest China's Yunnan Province. A year ago, the China-Laos Railway launched its international passenger service, with one pair of trains running between Kunming in China and Vientiane in Laos.

Within the past year, the international service of the China-Laos Railway transported 180,000 cross-border passengers from 87 countries and regions, according to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

The China-Laos Railway, a landmark project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, began operations in December 2021. The 1,035-km railway connects China's Kunming with Vientiane in Laos. (Xinhua)

KUNMING, April 13 (Xinhua) -- As of Saturday, the China-Laos Railway has handled over 180,000 cross-border passenger trips since its international passenger service opened a year ago, according to the Mohan checkpoint on China's border with Laos in southwest China's Yunnan.

A total of 738 international passenger trains have been operated during the period, facilitating the smooth entry and exit of 183,000 passengers from 87 countries and regions, as noted by the checkpoint.

The most frequent foreign passengers are from Laos, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, mainly traveling for tourism, visiting family and friends, and business purposes.

As a landmark project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, the 1,035-km China-Laos Railway connects Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, with the Laotian capital Vientiane. 

An international passenger train from Kunming of China to Vientiane of Laos arrives at Mohan port in southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 9, 2024. A year ago, the China-Laos Railway launched its international passenger service, with one pair of trains running between Kunming in China and Vientiane in Laos.

Within the past year, the international service of the China-Laos Railway transported 180,000 cross-border passengers from 87 countries and regions, according to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

The China-Laos Railway, a landmark project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, began operations in December 2021. The 1,035-km railway connects China's Kunming with Vientiane in Laos. (Xinhua)
Modestos newest boba shop offers 17 signature drinks. See what makes it a happy place

Inside Look is a Modesto Bee series where we take readers behind the scenes at restaurants, new businesses, local landmarks and news stories.

Customers strolled in and were quickly greeted by bustling bobaristas.

Welcome to Teaspoon, they said in unison.

As one took a customers order, the others worked behind the bar rhythmically while pop hits played in the background.

Wendy Montes orders a drink from barista Emma Goodwin at Teaspoon cafe in Modesto, Calif., Tuesday, April 9, 2024.

Boba pearls were stirred, teas were brewed, drinks were shaken and cups were sealed all in a 10-minute span.

Right off of Highway 99, Modesto has welcomed its newest boba shop, Teaspoon, which celebrated its grand opening at 3900 Pelandale Ave. on Saturday, April 6.

Heres a look inside:

Story of Teaspoon Modesto

Owner Quynh Nguyen, who lives in Ripon, said running a boba shop wasnt always on her agenda.

Owner Quynh Nguyen stirs simmering boba pearls at Teaspoon boba tea cafe on Pelandale Avenue in Modesto, Calif., Tuesday, April 9, 2024.

She grew up in Stockton, then left California to pursue a career in health care. After 10 years, she returned to the Central Valley to start a family.

Weve been working in the Modesto area over the last five years, Nguyen said. I used to work at Kaiser Permanente and would take this exit (232 on Highway 99) all the time, so we know this area very well.

The recent loss of her father and the birth of her second child pushed Nguyen to do something nonclinical and be in a happy place.

Though she has no previous culinary or business experience, she said venturing into the world of bubble tea would help her get to that happy place again.

I know this is what (my father) would want me to continue, she said. And looking back, boba has a lot of happy memories for me.

When she was younger, she said she and her brother, Andy, would spend a lot of time visiting boba shops around Stockton and it helped them bond.

Lanh Tonnu prepares a boba tea drink at Teaspoon cafe in Modesto, Calif., Tuesday, April 9, 2024.

I wanted to create a store environment that would be safe, warm and welcoming to my community like the ones we used to visit, Nguyen said. My ultimate goal is to be a place of gathering.

To achieve that goal, she wants to schedule community gatherings, cater events, lay out games on shelves for customers to play and host trivia nights soon.

In 2021, Nguyen said she signed the franchise agreement with Teaspoon, which originated in Los Altos and has now expanded nationwide.

However, it took a few years to find an open space.

There arent a lot of new buildings in Modesto, she said. Initially, we were looking for a space on McHenry Avenue where a lot of local boba shops are, but we just couldnt find one that we liked.

When her real estate agent informed her of Wood Colony Plazas open spaces and its new landlord, she fell in love with the space.

The boba shop is on a corner tucked in the Wood Colony Plaza.

This embedded content is not available in your region.

With its location right off of Highway 99, she said she hopes to serve Modesto and passersby.

Despite the stores grand opening on Saturday, some Stanislaus County residents have already become regulars at Teaspoon.

The drinks are so good and so fresh. Every time I come in, its just as good as the last time, Modesto resident Wendy Montez said.

She visits Teaspoon about three to four times a week, since the business soft opening on March 6.

Teaspoon tastes fresh, she said. Everybody is so sweet and so friendly. When you walk in, it feels like a community.

Brandon Nunes orders a drink at Teaspoon cafe in Modesto, Calif., Tuesday, April 9, 2024.

Brandon Nunes said they have quickly become a regular at Teaspoon.

I was actually here yesterday, Nunes said. Ive been here about five or six times.

Nunes tries something new every time.

I like that here, its not just sugar bombs like other places, they said. All the drinks here are balanced to where you can taste all the ingredients.

Whats on the menu?

The boba shop offers a variety of drinks for sale, including teas, lemonades, coffee and more.

We try to use fresh and high-quality ingredients, including freshly made fruit bases made with real fruit, Nguyen said.

Specialty drinks at Teaspoon cafe in Modesto, Calif., Tuesday, April 9, 2024.

Here are some popular items listed on the business website, not including sales tax:

Guava Sunset - $6.50

Classic Thai Tea - $6

House Milk Tea - $6

Classic drinks, starting at $6 without sales tax, include:

Taro Lover

Creamy Jasmine

Black Sugar Assam

Shift lead Ciara Joy Bermillo said the fresh and different ingredients set Teaspoon apart from other boba locations.

One drink that is really unique is the Guava Sunset, she said.

The Guava Sunset is a freshly blended guava puree and pineapple marmalade, topped with lemon juice, the menu says.

Nguyen said the guava is imported from France.

I always recommend the Dirty Ube, Bermillo said. Its so good and its super pretty. The drink is a coconut infused ube with organic coffee and organic milk.

Teaspoon offers two coffee options made from organic coffee from Peru infused with French Chicory.

The Golden Brew is a sweet and creamy organic coffee with notes of rich hazelnut & dark cocoa, according to the menu.

The boba shop offers 17 signature drinks, ranging from infused teas to spicy toppings, including:

Red Bull Cocolada - $8

Ladybug - $6.50

Strawberry Sangria - $6.50

Silky Mango - $6.50

Matcha Royale Strawberry - $7.25

Mango On Fire Smoothie - $7.75

Paradise Lime - $6.50

If theres nothing that you like, you can create your own based on your preferences, Nguyen said.

Personalized drinks include customized fruit-flavored lemonades, black teas, oolong teas, green and herbal teas.

Our slogan is enjoy life one teaspoon at a time, so I want customers to have a happy feeling after a long day with either a drink or pastry, she said.

Pastry items, sourced from other vendors, include macarons, brownies and bars.

When is Teaspoon open?

The Modesto location is open daily 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

When visiting Teaspoon, Bermillo said to be prepared to make connections.

We always want customers to have a good experience and make a bond with us, she said. Be my friend.

What do you want to know about life in Modesto? Ask our service journalism team your top-of-mind questions in the module below or email servicejournalists@modbee.com.
Mom Is in Complete Shock After a Pain in Her Side Led to Her Cancer Diagnosis

The mother of three was informed that she also needed a living liver transplant, which she received from her co-worker

Getty Modern clean hospital ward stock image

Jamie Ball was experiencing pain in her side that she chalked up to gallbladder issues in November 2021, which ultimately led to the discovery of liver and colon cancer.

After almost a month of pain, the now 37-year-old woman said she couldnt tolerate it anymore and headed to the emergency for pain medication, reports TODAY.com.

Rather than receiving a pain prescription, the mother of three received the news that she had stage 4 colon cancer and a 15% chance of survival, per TODAY.com.

I was in complete shock because that thought didnt even cross my mind, she told TODAY.com. I am young.

Related: Woman Denied Mammogram at Age 30 Reveals Second Breast Cancer Diagnosis: 'Trying to Stay Positive'



Portra Images Stock image of patient sitting on hospital bed waiting.

Once she was informed of her diagnosis, she learned that the cancer had metastasized to her liver. The doctors disclosed that her prognosis was low and explained to Ball she could be a candidate for a liver transplant.

I was under the impression that I could have a liver resection," she told TODAY.com. A liver resection is surgery to remove the parts of the patients liver, according to the Cleveland Clinic. However, people must have up to two-thirds of your liver removed as long as the rest of your liver is healthy.

Unfortunately for Ball, doctors discovered the was cancer on both sides of her liver, meaning she was no longer eligible for a resection. "So my only chance was really a living donor, said Ball.

After her initial diagnosis, she began chemotherapy the next month and underwent a total of 12 rounds.

Although she responded very well, Ball shared it was really hard, noting that she couldnt eat, lost about 75, 80 pounds, and developed neuropathy. (Neuropathy is painful nerve damage that can be caused by chemotherapy, according to the American Cancer Society).

Related: Mom, 40, Had a Widowmaker Heart Attack  This Unusual Symptom Led to Her Diagnosis

Soon after, in early 2022, she then received a colon resection, which removed the remaining cancer in her colon. But she still was waiting for a liver transplant.

If I got placed on the recipient list, Id be towards the bottom because my liver was still highly functioning, she explained. Due to her circumstances, doctors advised her to search for a living donor, a type of transplant that occurs when a person with a matching organ donates part of their liver to the in-need patient, per the Mayo Clinic.

Ball shared an update on social media to search for a match, and many volunteered, including her sister and co-worker. Balls sister was rejected as a donor, but her co-worker Jennifer was an approved match.

Getty Stock image of empty doctor's office

Related: Mom Assumed Her Night Sweats Were a Symptom of Menopause  But She Had Cancer

Ball and her co-worker proceeded with the surgery in February 2023. I had racing thoughts the whole night, she explained to TODAY.com. I wasnt completely sure that the transplant would happen.

Although receiving a new liver was Balls only chance at life, the surgery went well, and Ball is now cancer-free.

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 celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Dr. Lorenzo Machado, a transplant surgeon at Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh, performed Balls transplant and told TODAY.com that a patient being treated with chemotherapy with cancer in both their liver and colon has at best 10 to 20% (five-year survival).

He shared that the odds of a five-year survival rate increase to around 80% if the patient received a transplant.

The liver has the potential to regenerate, Dr. Machado explained. If we remove the right side, it doesnt form a whole new right side. But the left side  will grow, will hypertrophy to meet the needs of the patient.

Dr. Machado explained that the transplant can potentially improve their survival threefold, but patients must take anti-rejection medications for the remainder of their life.

Following her surgery, Ball spent one month in the hospital but didnt feel normal for an additional five months. Now, shes been cancer-free for a year and is celebrating how "amazing" organ donation is.



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Read the original article on People.
Ukrainian soldiers from the 63 brigade are seen having military training simulating an attack. Stock photo: Getty Images

Montenegro is gearing up to join the EU training mission that provides training for the Ukrainian military.

Source: Radio Liberty's Balkan Service, citing the Montenegrin Defence Ministry, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Podgorica plans to send three instructors who will work in Germany to the mission.

"We are now at the stage of implementing national procedures, which should result in a parliamentary decision on the participation of representatives of our Armed Forces in the mission," the ministry said.

First, the decision must be made by Montenegro's National Security Council, and the parliament will give its consent based on this proposal.

"Montenegro stands firmly on Ukraine's side in its struggle to preserve the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and freedom of the Ukrainian people. Montenegro expresses its support and solidarity not only in words but also through specific political actions and financial and humanitarian support," Montenegro's Defence Ministry said.

Background: This week, Ukraine reached an agreement with Montenegro on a "transport visa-free regime" for freight traffic, with the liberalisation of transport coming into force on 1 June.

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Small Bang

Scientists seem to have figured out why the Moon is made up of such weird and heavy rocks: way back in the day, it turned itself inside out.

For decades now, scientists have pretty much agreed that the Moon formed from debris that flew off the young Earth when another planet smashed into it about 4.5 billion years. That cosmic wreckage "coalesced, cooled and solidified" to form the Moon as we know it today, researchers from the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory wrote in a press release  but what happened next is something of a "choose-your-own adventure," as the scientists describe it.

In a new paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the LPL researchers found that the surprisingly high concentration of titanium found in Moon rocks, such as those brought back during the Apollo mission in the 1970s, could be the result of heavy minerals like ilmenite, which is rich in both titanium and iron, initially sinking to the core and then rising back up to the surface.

"Our moon literally turned itself inside out," declared LPL associate professor and paper co-author Jeff Andrews-Hanna.

Hot To Go

In its earliest days, the Moon was covered in a vast ocean of magma, the composition of which made the young world unstable.

"Because these heavy minerals are denser than the mantle underneath, it creates a gravitational instability," explained Weigang Liang, the leader of the research and principal author. As such, "you would expect this layer to sink deeper into the moon's interior."

For some reason, however, it appears that the titanium-rich rocks first mixed with the mantle, melted, and then came back up to the lunar surface.

Pointing to a 2022 study conducted by Chinese researcher Nan Zhang  who is now a co-author on the recent paper  and hypothesizing that some past impact to the Moon may have pushed the titanium-heavy minerals to its core, Andrews-Hanna said that a "lightbulb went on."

As with all theoretical explanations of off-world geology, it'll take further research and far more lunar rock sampling to get to the bottom of how Moon rocks got to be so heavy. But for now, the data does appear to line up.

"Our analyses show that the models and data are telling one remarkably consistent story," Liang said of the research. "When the Artemis astronauts eventually land on the Moon to begin a new era of human exploration, we will have a very different understanding of our neighbor than we did when the Apollo astronauts first set foot on it."

More on Moon weirdness: Congresswoman Makes Strange Claims About the Earth's Moon
Authorities are investigating a crash that killed a motorcyclist on Friday afternoon, White Settlement police announced in a news release.

Around 3:20 p.m. Friday, police responded to a major crash involving a pickup truck and motorcycle in the 8100 block of Clifford Street near Waynell Street.

When officers arrived, they found the motorcyclist, a 40-year-old man, lying in the roadway. The pickup truck was occupied by a woman and a small child, according to police.

Officers believe the motorcyclist was traveling eastbound on Clifford Street, while the truck was traveling northbound on Waynell, attempting to turn westbound onto Clifford, the release states. The driver of the truck stayed at the scene and is cooperating with investigators.

The motorcyclist was taken to a local hospital and was pronounced dead at 4:30 p.m, according to police. The Tarrant County Medical Examiners Office will identify the deceased once next of kin have been properly notified.

Both the driver and the child in the truck were treated at the scene.

The Tarrant County Sheriffs Office and White Settlement police are conducting a forensic investigation into the cause of the crash.

The Fort Worth Police Department also assisted with traffic control at the scene of the crash.
People are led out from the Westfield Shopping Centre where multiple people were stabbed in Sydney, Saturday, April 13, 2024. A man stabbed six people to death at the busy Sydney shopping center Saturday before he was fatally shot, police said. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

SYDNEY (AP)  A man stabbed six people to death at a busy Sydney shopping center Saturday before he was fatally shot, police said, with hundreds fleeing the chaotic scene, many weeping as they carried their children. Eight people, including a 9-month-old, were injured.

New South Wales police said they believed a 40-year-old man was responsible for the Saturday afternoon attack at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, in the citys eastern suburbs and not far from the world-famous Bondi Beach. They said they were not able to name him until a formal identification had taken place but that they weren't treating the attack as terrorism-related.

The man was shot dead by a police inspector after he turned and raised a knife, New South Wales Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters.

This all happened very, very quickly  the officer that was in the vicinity attended on her own, was guided to the location of the offender by people who were in the center," he said. She took the actions that she did saving a range of peoples lives."

The attack at the shopping center, one of the country's busiest and which was a hub of activity on a particularly warm fall afternoon, began around 3:10 p.m. and police were swiftly called.

They just said run, run, run  someones been stabbed, one witness told ABC TV in Australia. (The attacker) was walking really calmly like he was having an ice cream in a park. And then he went up the escalators ... and probably within about a minute we heard three gunshots.

Six of the victims  five women and a man  and the suspect died. The officer conducted CPR on the attacker until the arrival of paramedics, who also worked on the man.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the eight injured people were being treated at hospitals. The baby was in surgery, but it was too early to know the condition, she said.

We are confident that there is no ongoing risk, and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased, Webb said in a later briefing. "Its not a terrorism incident.

Witnesses were shocked at the rare outburst of violence. Australia enacted strict gun laws after a man killed 35 and wounded another 23 in 1996, in Tasmania.

I saw all the people running and I didnt know what was happening," said Ayush Singh. I thought it was some people playing a prank or something and after some time I saw a guy with a knife running from the footpath to the cafe where I work.

He said police arrived quickly and told everyone to stay put.

Singh said he saw the man running just meters (yards) away as he wielded a knife. I didnt hear him say anything, he added. "Just a random guy stabbing people. Mad guy.

Video footage shared online appears to show a man confronting the attacker on an escalator in the shopping center by holding what appeared to be a post towards him.

Roi Huberman, a sound engineer at ABC TV in Australia, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident.

And suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didnt know what to do, he said. Then the very capable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked. She then locked the store and then she then let us through the back and now we are out.

As the attack unfolded, panicked individuals streamed out of the shopping center, many with children in their arms. Paramedics treated injured people at the scene. The shopping center and the surrounding area remains in lockdown as police piece together what went on.

This was a horrific act of violence indiscriminately targeted at innocent people going about a normal Saturday, doing their shopping, said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Today Bondi Junction was the scene of horrific violence, but it was also witness to the humanity and the heroism of our fellow Australians, our brave police, our first responders, and of course our everyday people who could never have imagined that they would face such a moment, he added.

The most senior members of Britains royal family, who are also royals in Australia, expressed their shock and sadness over the stabbings.

King Charles III said he and his wife Queen Camilla were utterly shocked and horrified by the senseless attack in Sydney and that their hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who have been so brutally killed. The kings eldest son Prince William and his wife Catherine, Princess of Wales, said they too were shocked and saddened and that their thoughts are with those affected and the heroic emergency responders who risked their own lives to save others.

Pope Francis also expressed his sadness at the senseless tragedy in Sydney, offering his spiritual closeness to all those affected and prayers for the dead and injured. The message was contained in a telegram to Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher and sent by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vaticans secretary of state.

___

Associated Press writers Pan Pylas in London and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.
Multiple tribal nations in South Dakota have banned Gov. Kristi Noem (R) from their reservation land, citing her immigration, crime and race-related remarks.

Relations between the governor and the tribes have been strained since she took office in 2019. But her recent comments have created even more tension, and she is now unable to set foot on more than 10 percent of the land in the state she governs.

Some of the tribes have also accused Noem, who has been floated as potential vice-presidential pick for former President Trump, of making decisions to boost Trumps campaign efforts.

Heres what you need to know about the bans.

First tribe bans Noem from reservations

In early February, the Oglala Sioux Tribe became the first tribal nation in South Dakota to ban Noem from their land. Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out released a statement barring the governor after she made comments about the U.S.-Mexico border in late January.

Noem delivered remarks to the state Legislature, where she said the Mount Rushmore State would send more resources to Texas as it grappled with an influx of migrants at the border, which she called an invasion. She announced that these resources would included South Dakota National Guard troops.

Calling the United States southern border in Texas an invasion by illegal immigrants and criminal groups to justify sending S.D. National Guard troops there is a red herring that the Oglala Sioux Tribe doesnt support, Star Comes Out wrote in a statement.

The tribe leader added that migrants dont need to be put in cases, separated from their children like during the Trump Administration, or be cut up by razor wire furnished by, of all places, South Dakota.

He also pushed back on Noem for placing blame on President Biden for the border crisis.

The governor responded that its unfortunate that the tribe chose to bring politics into the federal governments failure to enforce federal laws at the southern border and on tribal lands.

The Hill has reached out to Star Comes Outs staff for further comment.

Three more tribes follow suit

On Apr. 2, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe became the second tribe to ban Noem from their reservation.

Members of the Tribal Council were frustrated by the governors uninvited attendance at the quarterly Pe Sla meeting on March 29 in Rapid City. Chair Ryman LeBeau claimed Noem showed up at the meeting with cameras to use it for her agenda, Indian Country Today reported.

LeBeau expressed concern about Noems comments at two town hall events after she slammed tribal leaders for profiting from drug dealers.

Weve got some tribal leaders that I believe are personally benefiting from the cartels being there, and thats why they attack me every day, Noem said at a town hall in Winner, S.D., earlier this month, per The Associated Press.

Alli Moran, the tribes intergovernmental affairs officer, told The Hill that several tribes share the same sentiments that Noem does not respect or fully understand tribal sovereignty.

Thats the reason why were banning her is because she doesnt respect or uphold tribal sovereignty and her comments  that she made down in Winner, South Dakota at the town hall, but those are her sentiments and her thoughts of our people, Moran said. And so  to protect our people, we went ahead and moved forward with these measures.

Days later, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe banned Noem as well, citing her racially charged comments.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe straddles the border of North Dakota and South Dakota. According to audio shared with The Hill, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Vice Chair Frank Jamerson said South Dakota members of the council are upset with the vote to ban Noem.

At least five members of the South Dakota delegation were excused from the vote, and two others voted no on the measure. Six members from North Dakota on the council voted with one South Dakota member to ban the governor from the reservation, the audio shows.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chair Janet Alkire said in a statement Wednesday that Noems attempt to link tribes with Mexican cartels was irresponsible and a sad reflection of her fear-based politics that do nothing to bring people together to solve problems.

Alkire declined to comment further when reached over the phone.

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe became the fourth tribal nation to ban the governor from its land Thursday.

In a release, reported by the South Dakota Searchlight, officials said the ban is justified not only because of her recent comments, but her relationships with tribes since taking office.

Governor Noem claims she wants to establish meaningful relationships with Tribes to improve solutions for systemic problems, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe said. However, her actions as Governor blatantly show otherwise.

Noem doubles down on border comments

Noem argued that the tribes are one of the communities most affected by the surge in migrants.

In an emailed statement to The Hill, she doubled down on her comments, urging tribal leaders to immediately banish the Mexican drug cartels that are responsible for murders, rapes, drug addiction, and many more crimes on tribal lands.

The people in the communities live with unspeakable horrors and tragedy every day, but banishing me for telling the truth about the suffering does nothing to solve the problems, her statement reads. It may play well for the leftist media, but in reality, its pointless.

The real question you should be asking is: Why wont tribal leaders banish the Mexican drug cartels who are responsible for this devastation? she added.

Noem said regardless of the bans, she will take action to increase public safety on reservations.

In a video posted on the social platform X, Noem announced Thursday that she was offering a history-making opportunity to the states tribes by creating a law enforcement training course that will take place over the summer.

She said the program wont address every single challenge, but this training is a crucial first step towards addressing public safety issues in our tribal communities.

Noem said in her statement that she is also asking for help at the federal level. She urged the Biden administration to fund tribal law enforcement and to create agreements for law enforcement and highway patrol to help enforce tribal law on their reservations.

The governor said hundreds of concerned tribal members have reached out and thanked her for her efforts.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Yellow vests, hard hats and work boots cling to wooden crosses memorializing six men.

Miguel Luna. Jose Mynor Lopez. Dorlian Castillo Cabrera. Alejandro Alex Hernandez Fuentes. Carlos Hernandez. Maynor Suazo Sandoval.

Behind their crosses stands a mural depicting the tragedy that claimed their lives: They were members of a construction crew filling potholes on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early morning of March 26, when a massive container ship crashed into one of the bridges support piers, collapsing the span and sending them plunging to their deaths.

More than three weeks after the bridge fell, indefinitely disrupting the Port of Baltimore and permanently altering the citys skyline, the region continued to mourn the six men killed. On Friday in Hawkins Point and Dundalk  communities the bridge used to connect  people gathered for a vigil unveiling the mural and a service for one of the men who died.

Im sorry for them, and at the same time Im sorry for me, Pascual Magana, 60, said at the vigil.

His eyes welled up as he kneeled to light candles at the base of each cross, two of them for close friends he lost  Mynor Lopez and Castillo Cabrera  and all of them representing people like him who escaped poverty in Central America by coming to the United States to perform grueling work that is both critical and easy to overlook.

Magana, Mynor Lopez and Castillo Cabrera worked construction together in Virginia, fixing bridges and maintaining other types of infrastructure, he said. The three of them came here from Guatemala and got to know each other on job sites, joking and taking jabs at each other about their performances on any given day. He said they were really good friends.

Im so sorry for their families. They had children, Magana, who lives in Glen Burnie, said in Spanish.

He was one of about a dozen people who on Friday evening took in the mural painted by artist Roberto Marquez, of Dallas, Texas.

Marquez has responded to the scenes of several tragedies of national and international scale and made art with hopes of helping people cope with their grief. He painted murals after a gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers, and when dozens of migrants died in a sweltering tractor trailer near San Antonio.

The Key Bridge collapse also hit close to home, given that he once lived in Maryland.

When I found out about the accident, its like, this was my state, these are Hispanics and I used to work construction, Marquez said. I have the time, and this is what I do, try to bring some kind of hope, relief, company to the people that are suffering.

The mural spans several wooden panels, each providing his lens into an element of the tragedy.

Marquez chose not to paint the Dali, the cargo ship that struck the bridge, because he views it as the cause of the tragedy. Instead, he drew faces inspired by Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali with the colors of Marylands flag.

Divers recovered the bodies of two workers from a red pickup truck. Marquez painted the truck being hoisted from the water, rather than falling from the bridge, because its hope.

Once he painted the mural and erected the crosses, he invited the victims families to the site, asking them to add their own touches. Friends and relatives decorated their loved ones crosses with mementos, including photos, work clothing and the flags of their home countries.

Lunas family members decorated part of the mural with their handprints in red paint, signing their names next to their hands. Sandovals relatives authored messages to him  Our champion and We will always remember you, they wrote in Spanish  in another portion.

In Dundalk, Alejandro Hernandez friends, colleagues and relatives filed into Iglesia Solo Cristo Salva for a visitation Friday evening, a service closed to the news media at his familys request.

In previous interviews, coworkers told The Sun he worked his way up from laborer to foreman at Brawner Builders, a role that came with a company truck and his own crew to supervise. They remembered his big personality and how he was devoted to his family and church. They said he was particularly close to a brother-in-law who was rescued from the collapse.

A man who did not wish to be identified Friday out of respect for the familys desire for privacy echoed his colleagues, saying he got to know Hernandez working together for about 10 years.

Hernandez was a worker who liked to finish his goals, the man said in Spanish. Each thing he mentalized, he achieved.

Others werent ready to talk about their loss.

Related Articles

I really dont want to discuss it, one man said. Were just grieving the loss of our friend.

At the Hawkins Point memorial, a hardhat sat atop Hernandez cross, which was decorated with Mexican and American flags, a pair of work boots and a reflective yellow vest.

We work on bridges and you almost feel their pain, said Yunior Paz, 23, who came to pay his respects Friday night. Were almost family. It feels hard.

Paz, of Baltimore, said he works on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and has friends who previously worked on the Key Bridge. In their line of work, they worry about traffic blazing past. They worry about getting injured by heavy construction equipment. Never, he said, had they considered something so catastrophic as a bridge collapse.

Magana recounted several close calls on job sites and pointed out bruises on his hands. There are nights, he said, when he doesnt put down the jackhammer for hours.

We have training for jobs, falls, how to secure yourself, Magana said. But for a tragedy like this, there is nothing that can protect you. Nothing.

Struggling for words to describe how he was feeling, he patted his chest, right above his heart, and cried.
HONG KONG, April 13 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) held an open day on Saturday to tie in with the National Security Education Day on April 15 and to celebrate its 180th anniversary.

The first National Security Education Day after enacting legislation on Article 23 of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Basic Law will fall on April 15, which is of great significance to Hong Kong, John Lee, chief executive of the HKSAR, said while addressing the event.

He thanked the HKPF for being an important strength in safeguarding Hong Kong's stability and prosperity, as well as maintaining law and order and protecting the Hong Kong people since its establishment in 1844.

Zheng Yanxiong, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the HKSAR, noted that enacting legislation on Article 23 of the Basic Law is a significant achievement of the HKSAR in fulfilling its constitutional responsibility.

He hopes that the open day activities will deepen the relationship between the police and the people, enhance the awareness of the rule of law, and foster patriotism.

The Correctional Services Department and the Immigration Service Institute of Training and Development also held open day activities on Saturday. 
Col Ko Star, 42, a leader of the Tanintharyi PDF, crosses a river by boat near the frontline in Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar - Valeria Mongelli/The Telegraph

Sitting on flimsy plastic chairs in an old town hall with holes in the roof and flaking paint on the walls, a dozen young people wait patiently for their turn to join Myanmars rebel army.

As they kill time, they compare notes about the junta-controlled cities and villages they have come from.

Some are just mere miles away from the rebel-held town of Tagu, one of several areas in southern Myanmars Tanintharyi region which the insurgent Peoples Defence Force (PDF) has captured from the ruling military government over the past year.

I didnt even know a place like this existed, said Jenny, 18. She asked not to use her real name for fear of repercussions for her family, like all the people interviewed for this story.

Jenny wanted to join the fight against the countrys junta ever since they launched a coup in February 2021 and jailed then-leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She watched appalled as the army launched a campaign of violent repression, mass rape and bombing campaigns.

No way would I choose the Burmese military  they kill civilians, she said. I want to be a revolutionary.

Jenny, 18, fled to join the rebels to avoid conscription - Valeria Mongelli/The Telegraph

Her parents had always refused. That all changed when the army said it would be introducing conscription from mid-April. Women were initially included, and then exempted.

But Jennys family did not want to take the risk of her being called up. They gave their blessing for her to flee to Tagu.

I would have liked my own small business, but we lost our dreams a long time ago, she said. Instead, she now plans to make combat drones to destroy the military columns.

Jenny is one of hundreds of young people flocking to rebel-held territory to escape being conscripted into the Burmese army as it tries to plug major troop shortages.

Ever since the 2021 coup, the commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing and his forces have done everything in their power to stamp out any opposition, from shooting peaceful protesters to launching relentless air strikes to torching villages.

But they are continuing to lose troops  through defections and deaths  as well as territory to a loose alliance of ethnic rebel groups and a civilian militia movement that has squeezed the junta away from Myanmars borders with Thailand, Bangladesh, China and India and into a central rump of territory.

The army began training conscripts in April after announcing it would impose a mandatory service law for men aged 18-35, or 45 for professionals.

The regime wants 60,000 sign ups in the first year to almost double its current troop strength, estimated at 70,000, but it is not an enticing pitch.

Joy, 30, who defected from the governments home affairs department two months after the coup, said: With the conscription law, the people they are targeting could be more educated, younger people who have more political awareness.

New conscripts would be placed away from the rank and file, and closely vetted to find out who can be trusted, he said.

Those who cant be trusted may be used as porters or as human shields to cross mine fields.

Lists of new recruits have already been drawn up through Hunger Games-style local lotteries. Some names have allegedly been included by local regime officials to settle grudges. Draft dodgers face up to five years in prison.

The aim is to increase the war effort but so far it appears to be backfiring, instead causing a fresh exodus from the country.

New PDF recruits gather in a former school near the frontline, Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar - Valeria Mongelli/The Telegraph

Newly recruited PDF fighters train near the frontline in Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar - Valeria Mongelli/The Telegraph

Newly recruited PDF fighters train near the frontline in Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar - Valeria Mongelli/The Telegraph

In the rush to escape, two women were crushed to death in a queue for Thai visas, while at least two men killed themselves after their names were drawn in conscription lotteries.

In the western state of Rakhine, where Burmese troops have been accused by the UN of textbook genocide against the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, the same men that were once persecuted have now been forcibly enlisted to fight alongside their persecutor.

Bom, 31, said the atmosphere in his home city  which he didnt want to name for security reasons  was intense, because of the pressure from the dictatorship.

He described soldiers snatching young people from the streets, and families paying bribes of over $100 to avoid the draft.

We have to unite and fight the dictatorship now, said Bom. I am joining the PDF to fight.

Htet, 20, said like Jenny he too was held back by his family until the draft order was announced.

The conscription law sucks, he said. Its just a way to get civilians to kill each other. Since the coup, Ive wanted to join the PDF, but my parents were worried. When the conscription was announced, they let me leave.

Yone Lay, 25, left behind his job at a highway bus station. I dont want to fight the PDF, so I joined them instead. At the beginning I was afraid, but not now.

Tun Myint Zaw, 51, a headmaster in Tagu, is in charge of registering newcomers to the rebel-held area. He said he had signed up roughly 230 people over the past two weeks, 30 per cent of whom were women.

The resistances appeal among young people is helped by the fact that at the moment they appear to be winning.

The PDF claimed responsibility for a bold and unprecedented barrage of drone attacks on an air base, the airport and the military generals lair in the capital, Naypyidaw, in April. It was not clear how much damage was caused  if any  but the rebels ability to penetrate what should be a heavily fortified city was embarrassing for the junta.

A joint force of ethnic Karen forces and the PDF have captured Myawaddy, a key border town for most of Myanmars overland trade with Thailand.

Maintaining that momentum is the key challenge facing the resistance.

Back near the front line in the Tanintharyi region, 42-year-old Ko Star, a nom de guerre, assesses a room of 69 new recruits aged between 16 and 35 about to embark on two months training.

Once a parliamentarian, he was ousted in the coup and is now a regional PDF leader.

Ko Star, 42, a leader of the Tanintharyi PDF, is portrayed during an interview near the frontline in Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar - Valeria Mongelli/The Telegraph

PDF and fighters from other local resistance groups march in Tagu, Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar - Valeria Mongelli/The Telegraph

Due to weapon and ammunition shortages, not all the new recruits would receive a gun, and none would receive a salary, he explained.

That made the strong will of the new recruits all the more important, said Ko Star.

Recruits come to us based on their own decisions and their own feelings.

He compared the people joining the PDF of their own free will with the people being forced into the army and undergoing training without a desire to fight.

That will definitely fail, he said.

PDF fighters ride through the market on the back of a truck in Tagu, Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar - Valeria Mongelli/The Telegraph

Not everyone comes to Tagu to wage war, however.

Headteacher Tun Myint Zaw said: If they want to join the PDF, we can help them.

If they dont, they can stay in the village and we can help them with food and accommodation as much as we can.

Fresh arrival Bo Pein, 27, is one of those planning to stay off the battlefield, at least for now.

Wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the words Life is Easy above a picture of a cannabis leaf, he was vague about what he would do instead.

Ive never liked the military, he said. If necessary, I am ready to join the PDF. For now, I will stay in the village.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Did you find one? Theyre landing all over NE Ohio

*The above video is about Purdue Universitys eclipse weather balloon falling into Lake Erie*

ERIE COUNTY, Ohio (WJW)  One even landed on a front porch. An eclipse weather balloon, with atmospheric measurement devices, was found on a small cattle ranch in Berlin Heights Saturday, Elyria, and throughout Northeast Ohio,

University of Wyoming students drove 1,300 miles to Bluffton, Ohio, to be in the path of totality for the eclipse on April 8.

Top local wind gusts & see Lake Erie freighters seek safe harbor

The balloons were launched from Bluffton and rose to 110,000 feet before being landing with its parachute 110 miles away in Berlin Heights where it was found by Angie Catalano who sent pictures of the weather balloon to Fox 8 News.

Courtesy: Angie Catalano

Courtesy: Tony Catalano

Courtesy: Angie Catalano

Courtesy: Angie Catalano

Courtesy: Angie Catalano

Courtesy: Angie Catalano

The students launched 32 weather balloons to take real time readings of temperature, wind, humidty and gravity waves to see how the shadow of the eclipse might impact those elements.

University of Wyoming Researcher Philip Bergmaier told Fox 8 News Saturday, the students research could help with future weather forecasting and furthers the study of eclipses.

Where to recycle your eclipse glasses

It was a great opportunity for Wyoming students to get field work in Ohio, he said.

Courtesy: University of Wyoming

Courtesy: University of Wyoming

Courtesy: University of Wyoming

The weather balloon devices are marked as, harmless weather instrument, and with National Eclipse Weather Balloon.

Partial apartment collapse from high winds in NE Ohio

The eclipse study is part of the University of Wyoming NASA Space Grant Consortium.

For more information about the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project, you can click here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW.
NC Central student arrested in connection to shooting that sparked campus lockdown, police say

DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN)  A student at North Carolina Central University is facing charges in connection to a shooting last week that sparked a lockdown on campus, police said.

On April 2, police said one student was taken to Duke University Hospital after they were shot inside Lawson Street Residence Hall at around 10:15 p.m. University officials locked down campus for a few hours before lifting the lockdown around 12:30 a.m.

NCCU police said a student named Eric Randall was charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery and conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon.

READ MORE | 24 hours after shooting, NCCU officials have not said whether a suspect is in custody

Additional arrests related to this incident are forthcoming, and further details will be provided to the campus community as they become available, according to a news release from NCCU officials sent out on Wednesday evening. We appreciate your patience as NCCU Police works to resolve this case. Ensuring the safety and well-being of our community remains our top priority.

NCCU police said the victims injuries were not considered life-threatening.

This is a developing story; check back for updates

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
NH lawmakers defeat sixth gun safety bill, this one aimed at keeping guns out of schools

Thursday morning, Moms Demand Action gathered their gun safety advocates in the New Hampshire State Library to encourage them to continue pressing lawmakers to support their legislative agenda and to run for office to replace those who dont.

Weve done a lot of work this legislative session, putting up signs, showing up for hearings, and courageously providing testimony, Kathleen Slover, a volunteer with the New Hampshire chapter, told the crowd. Without your tireless work, we wouldnt have any hearings to go to or any bills to support.

Several hours later, lawmakers rejected the sixth bill on the groups priority list.

Sen. Debra Altschiller, a Stratham Democrat, encourages Moms Demand Action members to continue pushing for gun safety bills. Several hours later, the Senate defeated a bill that would have prohibited guns on school grounds.

Senate Bill 593, which failed in the Senate, 14-9, along party lines, would have prohibited guns on school grounds and buses. State law prohibits drugs but not firearms on school grounds.

That leaves just one gun safety bill still in play: House Bill 1711, a bipartisan effort to add certain mental health records to gun background checks. While federal law prohibits anyone who has been committed to a psychiatric facility from buying or possessing a gun, New Hampshire does not submit the mental health records that would identify those individuals.

The bill cleared the House two weeks ago with the help of 25 Republicans who joined Democrats in backing it. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the bill Tuesday afternoon.

The Senate debate over the bill banning guns on school grounds was brief Thursday.

Senate Democrats pointed to school shootings outside New Hampshire and incidents within the state where armed individuals have been on school grounds, threatening to shoot.

As a gun owner  and a parent, I value my Second Amendment rights while recognizing the need for responsible firearm regulation, especially in sensitive environments like schools, said Sen. Donovan Fenton, a Keene Democrat and the bills prime sponsor. Senate Bill 593 strikes this balance effectively, respecting individual rights while prioritizing public safety.

Republicans countered with two arguments: Bringing a gun to school would have been a misdemeanor under the bill, too light a penalty, they said, to deter anyone. And, they argued the millions the state has given schools to improve safety and expand mental health treatment is a more effective step toward preventing school shootings.

Lets focus  on actual solutions to the problems our state faces instead of supporting legislation that infringes on the constitutional rights of Granite Staters, said Sen. Sharon Carson, a Londonderry Republican.

Heres a look at the seven gun-related bills introduced this year.

Two bills aimed at protecting Second Amendment rights have passed.

House Bill 1336 would prohibit employers who receive federal or state money from disallowing employees from storing firearms and ammunition in their locked vehicles while at work. It would also make it illegal for employers to search an employees vehicle or ask whether they have guns or ammunition in their vehicle.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the bill Tuesday as well.

House Bill 1186 is a gun privacy bill that would block credit card companies from tracking firearm and ammunition purchases by prohibiting merchants from entering a code during a gun or ammunition purchase.

The bill would also allow the Attorney Generals Office to pursue legal action unless the retailer agreed to cease coding purchases.

Most gun safety bills failed before they could make it to the other chamber.

House Bill 1050 would have created an option for individuals to put themselves on a do-not-sell list for fear they will hurt themselves or others if they have access to a gun.

Robin Skudlarek, of Londonderry, told gun safety advocates a red-flag law would have allowed her family to take away her suicidal brothers gun before he shot himself.

Under Senate Bill 360, family or household members could have asked a court to restrict access to firearms for someone they believe poses an immediate or significant risk to themselves or others. At Thursdays morning rally with gun safety advocates, Robin Skudlarek, of Londonderry, said she needed such a law 20 years ago when her brother tried to kill himself.

He survived, but the memory remained difficult for Skudlarek to share Thursday.

My brother shot himself in the head. He was depressed. He was on the verge of eviction. We knew he had gotten a gun and there was nothing we could do, she said, wiping away tears. We went to the police and they said theres nothing you can do. (SB 360s red-flag law) is a tool that my family wishes we had, so we could have petitioned to have the guns taken away.

Senate Bill 577 would have imposed a three-day waiting period to buy a firearm.

House Bill 1037 would have repealed the liability protections for entities that make, sell, or distribute guns and ammunition in cases where either were used illegally.

Currently criminal background checks are done only when someone purchases a gun from a federally licensed firearm dealer. Under Senate Bill 571, background checks would be required when all guns changed hands, including during private sales and when guns are given as gifts.

The Biden administration finalized a rule Thursday that may accomplish some of what SB 571 attempted.

A new rule by the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, would require all gun sales to include a criminal background check. That would include merchants who sell online, by mail, or at flea markets and gun shows. It is expected to face legal challenges once it takes effect.

This story was originally published by the New Hampshire Bulletin.

State Sen. Debra Altshiller, D-Stratham, is the wife of Howard Altschiller, Seacoast Media Group's executive editor.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: NH lawmakers defeat sixth gun safety bill, one focused on schools
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)  Wichita State University officials said the National Institute for Aviation Research reduced a portion of its WERX MRO staff on Friday.

The NIAR WERX MRO team provides production design, initial and Supplemental Type Certification, instrumentation installation, modifications and field support/repair, according to WSUs website.

WSU cited delays occurring in the program modification schedule, saying those are outside of its control.

WSU students working closely with Heartspring outpatient team

WSU said the reduction of WERX MRO staff is a small percentage of NIARs overall personnel. They reduced 85 employees from the MRO, which represents approximately 5% of NIARs total employees.

Here are the programs currently listed under the WERX portion of NIAR:

Airbus 321 passenger to freighter conversion

Boeing 737 special mission modification

Boeing 757 passenger to freighter conversion

Boeing 777 passenger to freighter conversion

MD87 special missions modification

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV.
Not if but when, Natos deputy chief says about Ukraines accession

Mircea Geoana said a strong Ukraine with a robust military, democracy and economy were preconditions for joining Nato - VISAR KRYEZIU/AP

It is not a question of if Ukraine joins Nato, but when, the alliances second in command has told The Telegraph.

Nato deputy secretary general Mircea Geoana said there was absolutely no question among the 32 allies over whether Ukraine should join but only when the conditions would be met.

In 2008, Germany blocked Ukraine from joining the military alliance. Vladimir Putin demanded guarantees that Ukraine would not join Nato before he launched his illegal invasion of the country in February 2022.

Mr Geoana said that Nato support for Ukraine, which formally applied to join in September 2022, included building a bridge towards membership.

Ukraine is getting closer to Nato almost every day, he told The Telegraph. Its not a question of if Ukraine will become a member but when the political conditions will be met.

I cannot say when but I know that Ukraine will be part of the Euro-Atlantic family, he said.

War is not the best time to entertain such prospects. But the moment will come when considerations such as security guarantees for Ukraine, a stronger Ukraine and deterring Russia will be coming.

A strong Ukraine with a robust military, democracy and economy were preconditions for joining Nato, he said, as was the future security architecture of Europe.

Aggressive and unpredictable

Russia unfortunately, continues to be aggressive and unpredictable and dangerous and can continue to be so for many years to come, Mr Geoana said.

These three pieces are working in a certain direction. A dangerous Russia, strong Ukraine, and our interest in making sure that there is peace and stability in Europe.

Mr Geoanas comments echo those made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week. He said that support for Kyiv was rock-solid and that a July Nato summit in Washington would aim to forge a path to eventual membership.

The Nato deputy secretary general played down fears that some Nato members might veto Ukraines membership.

Hungary, led by Viktor Orban, has delayed EU sanctions against Moscow and aid for Ukraine. Slovakia is led by Robert Fico, who won elections after vowing to stop weapons shipments to Kyiv.

Of course, you see nuances from allies, but we do not see major differences in terms of continuing supporting Ukraine or investing in our own defence, Mr Geoana said,

He said there was less disharmony in Nato because we are dealing with the most precious thing which is national security and defence of the nation.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
National Public Radios (NPR)s new CEO denounced claims from a senior editor that the outlet has lost Americas trust, calling the comments made in an op-ed disrespectful and hurtful.

Katherine Maher explained in a message to employees Friday that the editor, Uri Berliner, called the outlets mission into question in two ways: Critiquing the quality and integrity of the editorial process, and criticizing who we are.

Asking a question about whether were living up to our mission should always be fair game: after all, journalism is nothing if not hard questions, she wrote. Questioning whether our people are serving our mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity, is profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning.

Berliner, who has worked for NPR for more than 20 years, published an op-ed in The Free Press earlier this week, arguing that those who listen or read the outlets coverage are only getting the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population.

He also claimed the news organization, which has been critiqued as having a leftward bend, has lack of viewpoint diversity, as well as an unspoken consensus about the stories we should pursue and how they should be framed.

Its frictionlessone story after another about instances of supposed racism, transphobia, signs of the climate apocalypse, Israel doing something bad, and the dire threat of Republican policies. Its almost like an assembly line, the editor wrote.

Maher pushed back on his view in her letter Friday, saying it is simplistic to assert that diversity in the U.S. can be reduced to any particular set of beliefs.

She added that it is faulty reasoning to infer identity is determinative of ones thoughts or political leanings.

Each of our colleagues are here because they are excellent, accomplished professionals with an intense commitment to our work: we are stronger because of the work we do together, and we owe each other our utmost respect, Maher said. We fulfill our mission best when we look and sound like the country we serve.

The opinion column also sparked backlash from others in NPR leadership.

Former President Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for the White House, responded differently. In a Truth Social post following the editorial, he called on the government to stop funding NPR over the perceived bias.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Coast Guard members are pictured during the rescue operation after a cable car accident in Turkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, April 13, 2024. One person was killed and 17 others injured late Friday when a cable car smashed into a pole in Turkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, the country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Saturday. (Mustafa Kaya/Handout via Xinhua)

ANKARA, April 13 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and 17 others injured late Friday when a cable car smashed into a pole in Turkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, the country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Saturday.

The injured have been subsequently hospitalized, the health minister said on social media platform X.

Dozens of people were stranded in mid-air in many other pods for hours because the entire system had to be shut down by local authorities.

A total of 137 people have been rescued, the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported, noting the individual killed was a 54-year-old Turkish man and that among the injured were two children.

Emergency service workers were still on-site on Saturday afternoon to rescue 29 individuals who remained stranded in five pods suspended in the air, said Anadolu.

The accident occurred at the popular Tunektepe cable car just outside the Mediterranean city of Antalya during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Antalya is Turkiye's biggest tourism hub visited by millions of domestic and foreign tourists each year. 

A Coast Guard member is pictured during the rescue operation after a cable car accident in Turkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, April 13, 2024. One person was killed and 17 others injured late Friday when a cable car smashed into a pole in Turkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, the country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Saturday. (Mustafa Kaya/Handout via Xinhua)

Coast Guard members are pictured during the rescue operation after a cable car accident in Turkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, April 13, 2024. One person was killed and 17 others injured late Friday when a cable car smashed into a pole in Turkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, the country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Saturday. (Mustafa Kaya/Handout via Xinhua)

Rescue workers transfer people evacuated from stranded cable cars after a cable car accident in Turkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, April 13, 2024. One person was killed and 17 others injured late Friday when a cable car smashed into a pole in Turkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, the country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Saturday. (Mustafa Kaya/Handout via Xinhua)
NYC mom looks disoriented during arraignment on murder charges in death of 5-year-old twins found vomiting, foaming at the mouth

The mother accused of smothering her 5-year-old twins  who were found vomiting and foaming at the mouth in their Bronx apartment late last year  faced a judge on Friday after being indicted on murder charges.

Gloria Asamoah, 42, looked slightly dazed as she appeared in Bronx Supreme Court, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, for her arraignment before Justice Brenda Rivera.

Asamoah, who was initially held in a psychiatric ward, was remanded without bail during the hearing.

She was indicted earlier this week on one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and two counts each of first- and second-degree manslaughter related to the Dec. 18, 2023 deaths of her son and daughter, George and Gianna Kantanka.

Gloria Asamoah looks at her lawyer during her arraignment on Friday. Tomas E.Gaston

This tragedy, occurring right before the holidays, was incredibly senseless, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement.

The young brother and sister were discovered lying together, lifeless, in their apartment, the DA said. Their mother allegedly killed these children and will be held accountable.

Little George and Gianna were found on the living room floor of their apartment on East 175th Street and were initially believed to have died from a medical emergency.

Twins George and Gianna Katanka died on Dec. 18, 2023. GoFundMe

An autopsy, however, revealed that the twins  who had special needs and were kept home from school the day they died  had actually been smothered, the medical examiners office said in mid-March.

Their mom was indicted some four months later.

Gloria Asamoah was remanded to custody following the court appearance. Tomas E.Gaston

Gloria Asamoah was initially held in a psych ward this week. Tomas E.Gaston

Shes back in the psych ward. Shes not free to leave at any given time. Shes there until doctors just clear her, and at that point, she will be taken into custody by the NYPD, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters during a briefing Tuesday.

The twins father was at work in Port Chester at the time their bodies were found, and was not expected to face charges, Kenny added.

George had been sick with a cold for about two weeks before his death, and was sent home from school the week before, authorities said.

The twins are believed to have been smothered. GoFundMe

Gianna had been suffering from an ear infection, and had also been acting out at school, Asamoah allegedly told authorities.

The little girl had apparently been biting and spitting in the classroom, the mom claimed, according to Kenny.

The mother  who is originally from Ghana  was so upset by the childrens deaths that she was hospitalized, law enforcement sources said at the time.
Travelers walk through Oakland International Airport. The Board of Commissioners for the Port of Oakland voted to proceed with a plan to change the airport's name to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

The Port of Oakland Board of Commissioners unanimously voted this week to change the name of Oakland International Airport to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, infuriating San Francisco officials who promised to sue over the decision.

The name change will be finalized if approved in a second vote May 9.

"Im very pleased with todays unanimous board approval, especially as a proud Oaklander myself who wants to enhance economic activity and local jobs for Oakland," Danny Wan, executive director of the Port of Oakland, said in a statement.

Port of Oakland officials say the change is necessary to sustain the airport's 30,000 direct jobs and $1.6-billion economic impact in the region. Under the proposed rebranding, the airport code, OAK, will not be changed.

The move has angered San Francisco leaders, who say it will confuse travelers. Before the vote, San Francisco City Atty. David Chiu wrote to the Port of Oakland, promising to sue if the change was approved. The city of San Francisco, he wrote, "has strong legal claims ... for trademark infringement that we intend to bring in court against the Port of Oakland."

The San Francisco airport, which has been operating since 1927, has been known by its moniker for almost the entirety of its existence, Chiu noted.

"The names 'San Francisco Airport' and 'San Francisco International Airport' are famous and highly recognizable among consumers in connection with the airport services that only SFO provides," Chiu wrote.

"While the proposed new name is very likely to cause confusion and mistakes broadly, the problem will be particularly acute for an audience of international travelers who may not speak or read English," he added. "Those international travelers comprise an essential part of SFOs consumer base."

San Francisco International Airport Director Ivar C. Satero said the airport would support a lawsuit.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed asked Oakland officials to "follow a similar model to SFO" and improve its airport services to increase revenue rather than changing its name.

Kaley Skantz, a spokeswoman for Oakland International Airport, said attempts to expand services over the years have not been successful because of "the lack of geographic awareness among inbound travelers."

She pointed to a study by the Port of Oakland, which found that 30% of domestic travelers did not realize how close the airport was to other Bay Area cities such as San Francisco, which is only 18 miles west by car.

"Flights to OAK havent performed as well as they could," Skatnz said. Between July 2008 and March 2024, the airport attempted to add 54 new routes, she said, but 39 have been eliminated. In addition, six preexisting routes were canceled because they did not have enough passengers.

Oakland officials hope the name change will boost recognition of the airport's location in the Bay Area. In 2016, Bob Hope Airport rebranded as Hollywood Burbank Airport and reported a subsequent 19% increase in flights during 2018 to 2019, though it's not clear if the name change alone resulted in the growth.

The Port of Oakland began surveying residents of Oakland and the surrounding East Bay area last fall, receiving results this month that showed general support for an airport rebrand.

The rebrand would cost about $150,000, but the change would be self-funded by the Port of Oakland without taxpayer dollars, port officials said.

Southwest and Spirit are two major airlines that have endorsed the change. Jennifer Bridie, senior vice president of marketing for Southwest, voiced support for "contemporary naming" that has "a newfound regional draw and instantly gains even more visibility among those around the world shopping for air travel to the Bay Area.

Mary Richardson, an attorney for the Port of Oakland, said officials are doing all they can to ensure clarity for prospective visitors to the Bay Area.

"SFO cannot lay claim to the geographically descriptive term San Francisco, let alone claim exclusive rights to the San Francisco Bay," she said in a statement.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
A South Carolina police officer was charged with murder Wednesday in the fatal shooting of a man who authorities said was trying to drive away after the two fought outside a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Summerville.

Summerville police Officer Anthony DeLustro, 64, was off-duty on March 20 when he shot 39-year-old Michael ONeal in the parking lot after a physical confrontation between the men, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) said in a news release Wednesday.

Witnesses said DeLustro started the fight, according to an arrest warrant attached to the SLED news release.

Do you want to do this? ONeal said several times to DeLustro, a witness told investigators, according to the warrant. He responded by saying, Come on, addressing ONeal with a gay slur.

Michael ONeal, 39, was fatally shot on March 20 by an off-duty police officer after the two fought in a Chick-fil-A parking lot in Summerville, South Carolina, authorities said. Michael ONeal via Facebook

Both men got out of their cars and exchanged kicks and punches as bystanders tried to intervene, the warrant states.

It is unclear what provoked the fight.

DeLustro then told ONeal he was under arrest and showed him his police credentials, SLED said. During the scuffle, DeLustros handgun fell from its holster to the ground. When ONeal said he was leaving and headed to his car, witnesses said, DeLustro threatened to shoot him.

DeLustros wife, who reportedly had tried to restrain ONeal during the fight, also attempted to block him from getting in his car, witnesses said. DeLustro picked up his handgun and got into the passenger side of ONeals car and shot him as ONeal tried to drive away, according to the warrant. Berkeley County Coroner Darnell Hartwell said the bullet entered ONeals right arm and traveled to his chest, killing him, South Carolina news station WCSC reported.

DeLustro told investigators that he acted in self-defense, the warrant states, and shot ONeal because he thought his legs were trapped under the moving car. Witness accounts and bystander video do not corroborate DeLustros claims that he feared for the safety of his wife and the community, investigators said. In an interview after the shooting, DeLustro allegedlyacknowledged that he knew ONeal was trying to leave and that he never saw him with a weapon or heard him threaten to use one.

DeLustro was an officer for the New York Police Department from 1980 to 2003, when he retired before a review board investigated a complaint against him, the Post and Courier in Charleston reported. He had been cleared of two previous misconduct accusations.

In a video call from jail Wednesday night, DeLustro told a judge that he had dedicated his life to public service and was at ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001, after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, WCSC reported. He did not address the shooting but asked the judge for mercy so he could help his wife in raising their two granddaughters, whose mother died in 2021.

In a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for his parents, ONeals cousin, Amy Nail, said that his father had been a police officer in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for more than 30 years.

This is a family that has a great deal of respect for law enforcement in general, yet is fully aware that no profession is free of bad actors, she wrote.

Solicitor Scarlett Wilson, whose 9th Judicial Circuit office will be prosecuting the case, said in a statement Wednesday that her thoughts and prayers were with ONeals family and praised witnesses for coming forward.

This is a very difficult time for them, but they have acted and reacted with dignity and grace, Wilson said about the ONeal family. We are grateful for their extreme patience, understanding and cooperation with us. Likewise, SLEDs investigation could not have been as thorough or productive without the involvement of the community. Eyewitness cooperation has been vital.

DeLustro is being held without bond in the Berkeley County Detention Center. No date has been set for his next court hearing.

Related...
MIDDLETON, Wis. (WFRV)  A man from southcentral Wisconsin was arrested on his fourth OWI charge after officers were first called to reports of a truck that was squealing its tires.

According to the Middleton Police Department, officers were made aware of the squealing tires just before 1 a.m. on April 13.

When officers were responding to the scene in the 7600 block of Lisa Lane, a truck that matched the previous description was spotted at a nearby gas station.

This embedded content is not available in your region.

Wisconsin man arrested for 7th OWI after officer noticed multiple signs of alcohol usage, impairment

The officer reported seeing the driver of the truck, later identified as Liam McDermott, allegedly accelerate rapidly as he was leaving the gas station, reportedly causing the vehicle to fishtail.

During a traffic stop, an officer reported McDermott to be showing signs of impairment; allegedly including a strong odor of alcohol on McDermotts breath, slurred speech, and red and glossy eyes.

The 28-year-old from Middleton was arrested for Operating a motor vehicle While Intoxicated  4th Offense and was booked into the Dane County Jail.

No other details were released.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton.
Officials announce enticing plan to incentivize solar panels for local residents: 'We will buy as much solar power as [they] can sell to us'

The city of Cape Town, South Africa, has announced that it will begin to buy excess power from residential households and businesses with rooftop solar panels.

The announcement  a first for any South African city  is a win for clean energy, but it came about due to desperation, as Bloomberg reported. Blackouts have plagued the country for more than a decade. Last year, Eskom  the state-owned utility company  cut power to households and companies for a record 280 days, up to 12 hours a day, per the Financial Times.

Now, the government of Cape Town is looking for power anywhere it can be found, including from the rooftops of homes and businesses fitted with solar panels.

"We will buy as much solar power as households and businesses can sell to us," Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg.

Although South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised, in advance of this year's election, that the problem will soon be under control, Hill-Lewis disputed that assertion. "The fact is that load-shedding has gotten considerably worse after every such promise. It should be obvious to all by now that we cannot wait for the same people who created the crisis to fix it. We must do so ourselves," he said, per Bloomberg.

Regardless of how Cape Town got there, adding more clean energy to the grid is a good thing for South African citizens and the planet  as many South Africans have already realized.

According to one report, rooftop solar capacity in the country increased by 349% between 2022 and 2023, as a large number of citizens sought a source of energy other than the unreliable Eskom.

Much of Eskom's power still comes from coal plants, the most environmentally destructive and polluting energy source. According to Our World in Data, coal plants account for by far the most deaths from air pollution.

Eskom surely did not intend to drive people toward clean, renewable energy passively generated on their own rooftops. However, by mismanaging their dirty-energy-producing plants, the utility company seems to have done exactly that.

Join our free newsletter for cool news and actionable info that makes it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.
ORANGE, Ohio (WJW)  Orange Village Mayor Judson Kline couldnt wait to witness history. His city was in the path of Mondays total solar eclipse, and he wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to see it.

The city distributed 1,500 eclipse glasses for its residents. It was supposed to be a kind gesture, but somehow it turned into a nightmare.

Eclipse is over, but another once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon will happen this year

We ordered them, we delivered them and making it known to the residents that we had these available and would be distributing them, added Kline.

But then, Mayor Kline says city officials began hearing that the citys glasses werent working.

Kline himself was wearing a pair of the glasses during the eclipse, he says. But when he looked up, all he could see was total darkness.

And then I kept getting texts from friends saying, I dont think these things work,' Kline explained.

City officials are trying to get a hold of the company for an explanation as to why their glasses didnt work.

Ohio village named among best small towns for summer vacation

But so far Kline says the city hasnt gotten a response back.

In any way they can, Mayor Kline hopes to make up for what happened. At the same time, theyll keep working to get their money back on the investment.

He added: Its obvious that they cant redo the eclipse, so they cant do anything other than that.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
The Ohio Wildlife Council has voted to remove the trumpeter swan from the states threatened species list following a 28-year effort by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to restore the species population in Ohio.

Today, the trumpeter swan population is at nearly 900. There are swans nesting in 26 different counties across the state, according to ODNR.

>> Don Donoher, winningest basketball coach in UD history, dies at 92

Trumpeter swan populations experienced severe declines throughout North America in the 1700s and 1800s due to unregulated harvest and wetland habitat loss. They were extirpated from Ohio as early as the 1700s.

The Division of Wildlife began a trumpeter swan reintroduction program in 1996 after aquatic habitat improvements and successful reintroductions in other Midwest states. This was done by collecting swan eggs from an established population at the Minto Flats State Game Refuge in central Alaska. The eggs were placed in incubators and flown to Ohio, where the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and The Wilds of the Columbus Zoo partnered to help care for the eggs, raise the young trumpeters, and release them in appropriate habitats, ODNR explained.

Ohios professional wildlife biologists dedicated themselves to growing the trumpeter swan population over nearly three decades, and their perseverance has paid off, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. In addition to monitoring the growth of the trumpeter swan population, a great deal of work also went into creating and restoring wetland habitat needed for generations of trumpeters to nest and thrive.

>> Local teacher among Ohios 2024 Teachers of the Year honorees

Wetland complexes in state wildlife areas provided the critical habitat Ohios trumpeters needed.

ODNR called the recovery of the trumpeter swan a monumental conservation success story in Ohio.

The Division of Wildlifes monitoring and management efforts to increase trumpeter swan populations and their habitat are ongoing.
OKCPD respond to shots fired near SE 53rd and Stiles Ave

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  The Oklahoma City Police Department responded to a disturbance call to a man shooting off guns fired near SE 53rd and Stiles Ave.

The subject barricaded himself and pulled a gun on OKCPD officers. Police returned fire on the subject.

OKCPD confirms that the subject was not hit and have him in custody.

This is a developing story.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
Stark County, where the box has been installed in the city of Canton, saw 159 deadly overdoses in 2022

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images A stock photo of a box of Narcan

A city in Ohio has crafted a new tool to aid the battle against the growing opioid crisis.

In Canton, Stark County, health officials have repurposed an old newspaper vending box into a free dispensary for Naloxone, commonly referred to as Narcan, according to ABC affiliate News 5 Cleveland. Narcan, which typically comes in the form of a nasal spray, is used to rapidly reverse an opioid overdose.

The box  believed to be the first of its kind in the state, per the outlet  has been installed inside Stark Community Support Network on Harrisburg Road NE. Tiffany Skillern, executive director of the organization, told the news outlet that people can pick up Narcan from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time on weekdays  with no questions asked.

"Anyone can come," she said. "It doesn't have to be that you're using drugs. I think that's one of the misconceptions is that if you come in here, then you'll be judged as a drug addict."

Related: What Is Narcan and Why Was It Used When Demi Lovato Overdosed?

Already, the newspaper box has become a lifeline for locals.

According to News 5 Cleveland, Stark County resident Melanie Crews came by the building last week to pick up two Narcan boxes, each of which contains two doses. Crews has family members who have experienced addiction issues, so she wants to be prepared by stowing a box in her car and her purse for anyone in the community who might need help.

"You never know when you'll need it, so that's why I picked it up," Crews told the outlet. "You just never know if you'll help a stranger in the streets or a family member."

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 celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Raye Campbell, who works in a local group home, also picked up some Narcan boxes, and told News 5 Cleveland that she has seen firsthand how significant the need is for the life-saving medication in Stark County.

"I see a lot of people at gas stations. They're slumped over, and everything like that, and I want to make a difference for somebody else and help them out," Campbell said.

Related: Overdose Deaths from Fentanyl Mixed with Stimulants Have Alarmingly Increased Since 2010, Study Finds

According to the Stark County Health Department, 131 people in the county died from an overdose in 2020, and area hospitals saw 755 emergency room visits for overdoses that year. About 76% of overdoses in 2020 involved heroin/fentanyl. In 2022, there were 159 deadly overdoses in the county.

Skillern told News 5 Cleveland that having Narcan easily available and accessible is critical because Stark Community Support Network is located in a high-need area of Canton. "We're living in a high-poverty area, A high-crime area, so people are stressed out. We're also seeing a lot of health disparities," she said.

As for the resourceful idea to repurpose the newspaper box, Crews added, "What once held news now holds life."



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Read the original article on People.
DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA)  One person and five pets are dead after a house fire in Danville late Friday night.

Around 11:52 p.m., Danville firefighters were dispatched to the 1300 block of McKinley Avenue where they saw a residence on fire with heavy flames coming from the front and sides of the home. A bystander told the firefighters that one of the occupants was still inside the home.

After firefighters worked to extinguish the fire until flames were under control, additional firefighters entered the home to look for the victim. They quickly found the victim, but ruled that they had succumbed to their injuries. Firefighters notified the Vermilion County Coroner.

Urbana family displaced after early morning house fire

Five pets were also lost in the fire. The Red Cross was notified so that they can assist the victims family. No firefighters or other civilians were injured.

Further investigation showed there were no working smoke alarms present at the residence. There are no damage estimates available yet.

The name of the victim has not yet been released as the coroners office is working to confirm their identity. The cause of the fire is still under investigation by the Illinois State Fire Marshals and the Danville Fire Department.

Ameren Illinois, AMT Ambulance and the Danville Police Department were also among the assisting agencies.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
This photo taken on April 12, 2024 shows the opening ceremony of the water-splashing festival in Mangshi City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province. The water-splashing festival is regarded as one of the most important festivals observed by the Dai and the De'ang people in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. People splash water on one another during the festival, wishing happiness and good fortune.

This year's festival kicked off here on Friday and will last to April 13. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Tourists and local people celebrate the water-splashing festival at a square in Mangshi City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 12, 2024. The water-splashing festival is regarded as one of the most important festivals observed by the Dai and the De'ang people in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. People splash water on one another during the festival, wishing happiness and good fortune.

This year's festival kicked off here on Friday and will last to April 13. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Tourists and local people celebrate the water-splashing festival at a square in Mangshi City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 12, 2024. The water-splashing festival is regarded as one of the most important festivals observed by the Dai and the De'ang people in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. People splash water on one another during the festival, wishing happiness and good fortune.

This year's festival kicked off here on Friday and will last to April 13. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Tourists and local people celebrate the water-splashing festival at a square in Mangshi City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 12, 2024. The water-splashing festival is regarded as one of the most important festivals observed by the Dai and the De'ang people in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. People splash water on one another during the festival, wishing happiness and good fortune.

This year's festival kicked off here on Friday and will last to April 13. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Tourists and local people celebrate the water-splashing festival at a square in Mangshi City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 12, 2024. The water-splashing festival is regarded as one of the most important festivals observed by the Dai and the De'ang people in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. People splash water on one another during the festival, wishing happiness and good fortune.

This year's festival kicked off here on Friday and will last to April 13. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Tourists and local people celebrate the water-splashing festival at a square in Mangshi City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 12, 2024. The water-splashing festival is regarded as one of the most important festivals observed by the Dai and the De'ang people in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. People splash water on one another during the festival, wishing happiness and good fortune.

This year's festival kicked off here on Friday and will last to April 13. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Tourists and local people celebrate the water-splashing festival at a square in Mangshi City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 12, 2024. The water-splashing festival is regarded as one of the most important festivals observed by the Dai and the De'ang people in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. People splash water on one another during the festival, wishing happiness and good fortune.

This year's festival kicked off here on Friday and will last to April 13. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Performers perform during the opening ceremony of the water-splashing festival in Mangshi City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 12, 2024. The water-splashing festival is regarded as one of the most important festivals observed by the Dai and the De'ang people in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. People splash water on one another during the festival, wishing happiness and good fortune.

This year's festival kicked off here on Friday and will last to April 13. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Performers perform during the opening ceremony of the water-splashing festival in Mangshi City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 12, 2024. The water-splashing festival is regarded as one of the most important festivals observed by the Dai and the De'ang people in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. People splash water on one another during the festival, wishing happiness and good fortune.

This year's festival kicked off here on Friday and will last to April 13. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

A child has fun during the celebration of water-splashing festival in Mangshi City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 12, 2024. The water-splashing festival is regarded as one of the most important festivals observed by the Dai and the De'ang people in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. People splash water on one another during the festival, wishing happiness and good fortune.

This year's festival kicked off here on Friday and will last to April 13. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)

Tourists and local people celebrate the water-splashing festival at a square in Mangshi City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 12, 2024. The water-splashing festival is regarded as one of the most important festivals observed by the Dai and the De'ang people in Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture. People splash water on one another during the festival, wishing happiness and good fortune.

This year's festival kicked off here on Friday and will last to April 13. (Xinhua/Jiang Wenyao)
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY)  Operation Blessing is headed to Slidell, Louisiana to provide relief to those impacted by Wednesdays tornado.

According to Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer, about 75 homes and businesses were damaged in the city.

Residents in need of assistance can fill out a work order request for free volunteer help starting Monday, April 15 at 10 a.m. at Celebration Church, 1615 Old Spanish Trail, Slidell, Louisiana.

The organization is also calling for local volunteers to help with debris removal and chainsaw work.

To donate to Operation Blessing click here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is no recent convert to Donald Trumps gospel of the Big Lie; after the 2020 election, Johnson led 100 House Republicans in filing an amicus brief supporting an effort to invalidate the results of four swing states President Joe Biden won. So it was little surprise to see him standing next to Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, trying to link election conspiracy-mongering to immigration fear-mongering.

Johnson and Trump were there to propose new legislation restricting noncitizen voting, even though it is already illegal and incredibly rare. The speaker spun out a familiar and ugly fiction, claiming that as part of a plot engineered by Democrats, huge numbers of immigrants are entering the U.S. illegally and registering to vote. Democrats, Johnson said, want to turn these people  undocumented immigrants  into voters. This is a version of the white supremacist Great Replacement theory, which says that there is a conspiracy afoot to bring in a wave of nonwhite foreigners to replace the people Tucker Carlson calls legacy Americans.

The continued effort by Trump and his allies to convince rank-and-file Republicans that any election they dont win must be fraudulent is a profound threat to American democracy. But theres another aspect to it that has gotten much less attention: As a political strategy, its absolutely harebrained.

As we saw in 2020, when courts continually rejected Trumps efforts to stop election counts or get results overturned, these attempts never succeed beyond making election workers lives miserable. Whether it was Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, or anywhere else, Trump tried and failed to get his losses overturned, and if and when he does the same in 2024, hell fail again.

Nevertheless, he has succeeded in persuading Republicans that the election system cant be trusted. Polls show as many as 70 percent of Republicans say Trump was the true winner of the 2020 election. Every Republican politician understands how committed their voters have become to that fantasy, and so fealty to Trumps election lies has become the test of whether youre a real Republican.

The result is that the party keeps nominating election deniers who alienate the independent voters (and even some moderate Republicans) they need to win. In the 2022 Senate contests, extremist Republicans such as Kari Lake, Blake Masters and Herschel Walker lost winnable races. As long as election denial is a requirement for winning a GOP nomination, the party will continue to nominate weak candidates. And in states, like Arizona and Michigan, the entire Republican Party apparatus has been all but driven into the ground by election deniers who care more about their conspiracy theories than winning elections.

Another complication for Republicans comes in the fact that their denialism obsession is making it harder for their own voters to cast ballots. Trump has spent the last few years telling his supporters that mail-in voting is totally corrupt and if you have mail-in balloting, you automatically have fraud. When they believe him, they deprive themselves of an easy and convenient way to cast their ballots. Party officials are trying to organize mail-in voting drives, but they run up against the skepticism their own leader never stops promoting.

Thats just one aspect of a broader problem that could prove disastrous for Trump: All the talk of stolen elections could lower turnout among his supporters. After all, whats the point of voting if its all rigged anyway?

This is particularly important for Trump because of a transformation in voting patterns that has occurred over the last decade. For years, higher turnout tended to benefit Democrats because of their support among those who vote only sporadically: lower-income and minority populations, young people, renters who move frequently, and so on. But thats no longer true. Now its the Democrats who are outperforming in low-turnout elections, and Republicans who need the occasional voters to mobilize.

As one recent poll found, among respondents who voted in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 general elections, Biden outpaced Trump 50 percent to 39 percent. But among respondents who were old enough to vote but voted in none of those three elections, Trump crushed Biden 44 percent to 26 percent. If a candidate is doing better among people who dont usually vote, hell have to work harder to get them to the polls, and election denialism only makes that task more difficult.

Its possible that repeating the stolen election lie will mobilize some Trump voters by making them angry; some may even believe the lunatic claims about undocumented immigrants rushing to fill out voter registration forms. But at the same time, relitigating a previous election, rather than offering something for the future, probably turns off voters in the middle in far greater numbers.

Trump may or may not believe his lies himself, but its hard to imagine most of the Republican politicians lining up behind him do; the rest agree because they feel they have no choice. But whichever category Mike Johnson falls into, he will continue to demonstrate his loyalty by repeating those lies, as well as the rancid fear-mongering about immigrants his party always believes is the key to victory. If he didnt, then he wouldnt be speaker for long.

One has to suspect that even Johnson knows that putting so much focus on bogus claims of fraudulent votes and stolen elections is an absolutely disastrous electoral strategy. But its what Trump demands, so Johnson and the rest of the party will obey  no matter how many elections they lose.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
By now the cowardice of the hollow men of the GOP is an old story, from the flip-flopping of Lindsey Graham to the opportunism of Kevin McCarthy.

But what happened this week with the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation is still worthy of note, because of what it tells us about the politics of retribution and intimidation.

David Hume Kennerly, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Fords White House photographer, resigned from the foundations board of trustees on Tuesday with a scathing letter. Kennerly claimed his former peers were refusing to honor Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., out of fear that Donald Trump might retaliate against the foundation if he returns to the White House  specifically, that he might prompt the IRS to revoke the foundations tax-exempt status.

But, as the Financial Times Ed Luce commented, the whole controversy was a dispiriting look into the not-so-unlikely future.

If Trump can scare the Gerald Ford Foundation from giving an award to @Liz_Cheney six months before the election, imagine the spinelessness we'd see after he won. Really terrible foretaste what would be in store.  Edward Luce (@EdwardGLuce) April 10, 2024

Indeed, the foundations allegedly pre-emptive surrender was a reminder that self-censorship is a feature of authoritarianism. The most effective regimes rely on a population internalizing the need to submit. Fearful of what comes next, they put the handcuffs on themselves. A vengeful president does not need to take punitive executive action; he only needs to seem capable of doing so. Like clockwork, politicians, institutions and businesses fall in line.

After the story of Kennerlys resignation broke, the foundation announced that it had awarded its top award to former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniel. Gleaves Whitney, the foundations executive director, said in a statement that selecting Cheney for its Gerald R. Ford Medal for Distinguished Public Service when she may or may not be contemplating a future presidential run might be construed as a political statement and thus expose the Foundation to the legal risk of losing its nonprofit status with the IRS.

Kennerly wasnt buying that explanation. At all.

Notably, former Vice President Dick Cheney received the same award in 2004, when he was a candidate for vice president.

In his resignation letter to his fellow trustees, Kennerly wrote that the foundation had instead refused to honor Cheney because of your agita about what might happen if the former president is re-elected. And the fact that the foundation was so worried about Trump weaponizing the IRS specifically was deeply ironic, continued Kennerly: Gerald Ford became president, in part, because Richard Nixon had ordered the development of an enemies list and demanded his underlings use the IRS against those listed. Thats exactly what the executive committee fears will happen if theres a second coming of Donald Trump.

Kennerly noted that Cheney had previously received the (similar) Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and three other defenders of democracy. The JFK Foundation praised Cheney for her conviction, calling her a consistent and courageous voice in defense of democracy and applauding her refusal to take the politically expedient course that most of her party embraced.

In contrast, Kennerly wrote, Those of you who rejected Liz join many good Republicans now aiding and abetting our 45th president by ignoring the genuine menace he presents to our country.

The former presidential photographer added that it was a painful decision to resign from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, but necessary. I hope more people around the country will follow Liz Cheneys example and speak out about the threat to our democracy.

In a second statement, Whitney reiterated its reasoning, calling it a fiduciary responsibility guided by legal counsel. The Foundations action this year in no way precludes her from serious consideration to receive the medal in a future year, the statement noted.

Like Kennerly, Im not buying it. Courage is far rarer than complicity, especially among groups that are risk averse. And Trump is counting on that as he continues to promise a presidency of retribution.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Editors Note: Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.

The streets in Washington, D.C., were festooned with flags of Japan in recent days, as the United States bestowed one of its rarest of honors, a lavish state dinner, on visiting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, a chance to reaffirm and strengthen bonds between two key allies.

Frida Ghitis - CNN

Meanwhile, at Mar-a-Lago, a parallel gathering of future-focused faux diplomacy was unfolding, with British Foreign Minister David Cameron making the trek to discuss US foreign policy with former President Donald Trump.

Camerons visit  which he defended as entirely proper  was only the most visible element of a mad rush by US allies to prepare for what could be the return of the most disruptive US president in memory  possibly ever.

As CNN reported, European diplomats are engaged in a frantic effort to make connections with Trump-linked figures, trying to understand what a possible Trump victory in November might bring.

Its not just Europe. Across the globe, with the worlds most powerful country on the cusp of an election that could bring a sharp turn in US foreign policy, nations are trying to prepare for what might lie ahead.

Trumps strong poll numbers have caught many Europeans by surprise. Now, theyre urgently working on two fronts: seeking to Trump-proof their foreign policy and defense, and hoping to minimize the potential negative impact of a Trump victory.

To fortify their defenses and boost the chances that their top foreign policy priority  preventing Russia from defeating Ukraine  doesnt turn to ashes if Putin-friendly Trump wins, both NATO and the European Union are trying to come up with massive funding mechanisms to help Ukraine, even as Kyivs ammunition stocks have already fallen far behind Moscows. The EU  along with the current US administration  is considering a plan to give Ukraine access to some $300 billion in frozen Russian assets, and NATO is mulling a $100 billion fund to support Ukraine.

Seeking to influence the current  and perhaps future Trump-centered Republican policy, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg recently spoke to Trump allies and to the traditionally conservative but now pro-Trump Heritage Foundation, highlighting the strength of NATO.

Less than two weeks later, Trump declared that if elected president again, he would encourage Russia to do whatever the hell they want to any NATO country that doesnt spend enough on defense. The statement reportedly turbocharged European efforts to prepare for his return.

Ukraine is not the only issue, of course. Europeans are worried about the survival of NATO and of the US commitment to the defense of its allies, and they fear that the deep ideological, economic, diplomatic and security bonds that have underpinned relations between the US and Europe could be in play. The very concept of the West looks fragile. Many worry that a second Trump term would prove so disruptive to democratic ideals that it would embolden far-right authoritarian politicians across the globe.

For authoritarian leaders, a new Trump administration is a welcome prospect. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose sharp erosion of democracy at home has sparked clashes with the EU, also visited Mar-a-Lago, where Trump praised him as a fantastic, noncontroversial figure. He explained his admiration by outlining the contours of authoritarianism, declaring that when Orban said, This is the way its going to be, thats the end of it.

The global courtship of the former  and perhaps future  president complicates President Joe Bidens own foreign policy tasks. With other countries seeking to ingratiate themselves with Trump, its quite conceivable that some are already toning down their support for Bidens own policies at a pivotal moment in global history, with two dangerous wars  in the Middle East and Europe  playing out.

Making matters more unusual  and far more unethical  Trump has effectively launched his own shadow foreign policy, actively undermining Bidens  Americas  policy. Not only is the former president leveraging his control of the Republican Party to block US aid to Ukraine  Trump is interfering in US foreign policy elsewhere.

Richard Grenell, a former ambassador and top intelligence official under Trump, is now traveling the world, holding meetings with far-right leaders, offering them Trumps support. In case anyone thought Grenell is acting on his own, which would be troubling enough, Trump has called him my envoy.

When far-right forces tried to block the inauguration of a democratically elected anti-corruption president in Guatemala, triggering sharp international criticism, including from Washington, Grennell flew to Guatemala and met with the hardliners trying to prevent the inauguration of the new president, and gave them resounding verbal support. Grennell defended the would-be coup plotters, who had seized the ballot boxes trying to overturn the vote. US officials say Grenell is harming US interests as he tries to advance Trumps.

Interfering in US foreign policy is bad enough, but theres also an unseemly financial angle.

When news emerged that Trumps son-in-law and former Trump administration official Jared Kushner was negotiating a massive real estate deal with Serbia and that Grenell was part of his team, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic denied it was part of a plan to ingratiate himself with Trump in case he returns to power, as the opposition had claimed.

Whatever was behind the deal, the very fact that the opposition viewed it in that light underscores the perceived urgency of sidling up to Trump.

The last time Trump won, the entire world was caught by surprise. Just days after the election, Japans late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rushed to New York, becoming the first foreign leader to meet in person with President-elect Trump. The meeting at Trump Tower, with daughter Ivanka Trump  at the time a private businesswoman  incomprehensibly in attendance, was one of the indelible images of the time.

This time, no one wants to be caught unprepared. But in their efforts to lay the groundwork for what most US allies view as the prospect of an unwelcome change, beginning with Trumps distaste for multilateral alliances, those countries risk undercutting a sitting president who has rebuilt the very alliances they fear losing, and finding themselves unprepared for what could be another electoral surprise.

I recently heard a respected Mideast analyst declare as matter of fact that Biden is a one-term president, a view that may be shared in some quarters but is very far from assured.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
Since Donald Trump carried Florida in 2016 and then, again, by a larger margin in 2020, the Democratic Party has been supposedly staging a comeback in the Sunshine State.

So far, Democrats have little to show for it. The numbers have been going in the opposite direction: The Republican Party is becoming more popular among Floridians  if voter registration tallies are an indication.

This week, registered Republicans outpaced Democrats by 892,000 voters, up from an edge of 851,000 at the end of February. The GOPs party chair told Politico he expects to have a one million-plus advantage by the November elections.

There is a caveat to these numbers, Democratic Party spokeswoman Eden Giagnorio told the Herald Editorial Board. Voter registration numbers dont take into account inactive voters who are still eligible to cast ballots, or independent voters.

Thanks to Floridas new election laws, thousands of voters have been deemed inactive with Democrats being disproportionately impacted, she said. When you factor them in, the Republican advantage is closer to 509,000 voters based on 2023 data, according to Giagnorio.

Republicans are lying about their advantage... they are not telling the whole story, she said.

Regardless, the numbers dont look good for Democrats. Until just three years ago, they led the state in voter registrations. Not only did the GOP catch up with them, it surpassed them by stunning margins.

Thats why theres a well believe it when we see it feel to the Florida Democratic Partys Take Back Florida Coordinated Campaign launching this weekend.

When Republicans won Miami-Dade County for the first time in two decades in 2022, that was not just a reflection of Gov. Ron DeSantis popularity  he won reelection by nearly 20 points  but also the long game the GOP has played nurturing support among Hispanic voters, and not just Cuban-Americans who have always leaned conservative.

A constant complaint from Democrats is how the party failed to engage those voters on a regular basis. Its what Miami-based Democratic pollster Fernand Amandi described as demolition by neglect.

I have seen a virtual abandonment of the field in South Florida, Amandi told the Herald Editorial Board.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party has treated Florida as its base state, Amandi said, attracting conservative voters from other parts of the country. Florida has become a laboratory for GOP policies, from DeSantis war on woke to his administration flying migrants from Texas to Marthas Vineyard.

Hoping that voters would shun the GOPs extreme laws  such as the one known as Dont say gay or the six-week abortion ban that goes into effect on May 1  has not paid off so far. More than calling out Republicans excesses and Trumps anti-democratic tendencies, Florida Democrats must show voters their vision for the state.

To be fair, since 2022, there have been some important Democratic victories under new party chair and former Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried. Democrats flipped a House seat in a January special election in Central Florida and the mayors office in Jacksonville, the states largest city, last year.

In the 2024 elections, Amendment 4 to protect abortion rights  along with another ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana  might be Democrats best shot at boosting voter turnout and attracting much-needed money from wealthy donors. But thats not a given. Voters upheld abortion rights in every state where the issue was on the ballot, but several Democrats on those same ballots lost, a Politico analysis found.

It all goes back to investing in the state long before ballots are cast. There are signs that the Democratic Party is taking that seriously. This weekend, they will kick off their Take Back Florida  initiative with eight events across the state, including in Miami-Dade, to register Democrats and re-enroll them to vote by mail.

With seven months before Election Day, will that be enough? Only if Democrats dont live up to their reputation of getting in their own way in Florida.

Click here to send the letter.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  The Oregon Court of Appeals on Friday has declined a motion by the state to put a hold on a Harney County judges ruling, which found Measure 114, Oregons gun control law, unconstitutional.

The measure, which was narrowly passed by voters in 2022, requires people to undergo a background check and gun safety courses for a gun permit and bans magazines carrying over 10 rounds. The law has been unable to go into effect amid various federal and state legal challenges.

Bob Day permanently named Portland police chief by Mayor Wheeler

For one, in November, Harney County Judge Robert Raschio struck down the law after he found the permit-to-purchase scheme under Measure 114 is unconstitutional based on the laws 30-day-minimum delay to buy a firearm, the measures use of language from concealed handgun statutes, and because the Federal Bureau of Investigation refuses to conduct criminal background checks.

The state then appealed the ruling in early February.

In a statement, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said, Research indicates that mass shootings and gun violence have decreased in other states after adopting permit requirements and magazine restrictions. We are making a very reasonable request: Let Measure 114 take effect now so Oregonians lives can be savednow!

Lewis & Clark College faces class action lawsuit over 2023 data breach

Plaintiffs in the Harney County suit include Joseph Arnold, Cliff Asmussen, Gun Owners of America, Inc. and the Gun Owners Foundation, who argue the law violates the right to bear arms under the state constitution. They further argued the magazine limit prohibits self-defense.

This current ruling by the appeals court means the measure will not go into effect until the court makes a final decision.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
Owners of arson-hit Crooked House pub want to rebuild in new location

The owners of The Crooked House have agreed to rebuild Britains wonkiest pub  but want to do so in a new location, according to planning documents.

The historic building in Himley, near Dudley in the West Midlands, was burnt out in a suspected arson attack before being demolished two days later.

In February, South Staffordshire Council served an enforcement notice ordering the owners to rebuild the iconic pub following its unlawful demolition.

ATE Farms were told to restore the building to the state it was in prior to a fire which destroyed it last August.

However, the owners appealed the notice and a planning inspector has now been appointed to decide the appeal, which will be heard in July.

A document submitted on behalf of the owners now reveals their intention to rebuild the pub on other land they own, along with other developments to increase footfall.

It states: The appellant has not refused to rebuild the building and has actively engaged with the council regarding this.

Requiring a re-build in the same location, whilst reflective of popular opinion, will not change the fact that the building in that location is not viable as a public house.

For this reason, the appellant has put forward a sustainable, and what it sees as a genuine and practical solution to the issue  that it rebuild the building on other land that it owns, to operate as a public house, with other development to increase footfall and give the pub and the building a real chance of success as a community asset.

The proposal locates a newly constructed Crooked House pub along with appropriate parking and landscaping further north off Crooked House Lane and as near to the highway junction with the Himley Road as [possible].

The document also reveals the reasons the owners claim the former pub had to be fully demolished, even though council officers agreed only to the removal of three elements of the building in order to make it safe.

It says that after the officers left the site there were further issues and it had not been foreseen that removal of the three elements instructed would render the remainder of the building unsafe.

The document said: Removal of the upper sections of the building took with it the steel tie-ins which rendered the remaining structure, in the contractors opinion, completely unsafe and at a high (and unacceptable risk) of collapse.

Media attention and public attendance

The council officers had left the land and  due to the amount of media attention and public attendance, a decision had to be taken quickly as to the immediate safety of the building.

A decision was made with reference to the director of the appellant that in order to abate the risk, the mainstay of the remaining structure needed to be taken down.

It was considered that there was a high risk of the building collapsing and causing serious injury or a fatality on the land given the entry on to the land by large numbers of people some of whom were conducting vigils and others removing bricks and other items as memorabilia / for sale.

There document also reveals plans to build an education centre in the area which would link to local history and would partly include retirement lodges set within the existing woodland.

It adds: In this regard, the appellant is in the process of preparing a detailed pre-application to be put to the council (and neighbouring authorities).

Rebuild it brick by brick

The demolition of the famous pub sparked a huge uprising by campaigners calling for it to be rebuilt brick by brick. A Facebook page called Save the Crooked House (Lets Get it Rebuilt) has more than 37,000 members.

Staffordshire Police, which is treating the blaze at the Crooked House as arson, has also made six arrests in connection with the incident.

The iconic building, which dated back to 1735, was changed from a farmhouse to a pub in 1830 and was famous for its wonky appearance.

It became a well-known tourist attraction due to the mining subsidence which caused one side of the building to be approximately four feet (1.2 m) lower than the other.

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The body of a missing Israeli teenager was discovered in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Saturday, only hours after a mob of Israeli settlers stormed a nearby village, killing one Palestinian and injuring 25 others.

Enraged settlers were searching for 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair when they tore through the village of al-Mughayir on Friday night, according to Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group,

The settlers set homes and vehicles on fire, fired live ammunition, and left graffiti as they went, the group said, calling the acts hate crimes. Israeli forces were present during the rampage, and reportedly fired on residents who threw rocks at soldiers.

Pro-Israel Conservatives Are Done With Tucker Carlson

The Palestinian man who was killed was identified by family members as 26-year-old Jehad Abu Alia. His father said he was killed by gunfire, but it was unclear whether he had been shot by settlers or soldiers.

The Associated Press reported on Saturday morning that the Israeli military had recovered Achimairs body in the West Bank, with Israels army saying hed been killed in a terrorist attack.

Palestinian health officials said that 460 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed since early October, in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre inside Israel by the militant Gaza-based group Hamas, and Israels subsequent war on Gaza.

Earlier this week, an Israeli airstrike killed three sons of a Hamas leader on the holiday of Eid, as peace talks between the two sides continue to falter.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Parade held at Tyler elementary school for former student who donated $100k

TYLER, Texas (KETK)  Douglas Elementary School held a thank you parade on Friday to celebrate a former Tyler ISD student who donated $100,000 to the elementary school.

Mineola Purple Heart recipient gets home fixed up

Friday afternoon, Jack Benson visited the school after donating $100,000 to go toward enhancing their outdoor spaces. Students and staff made signs and held a parade to show their appreciation.

Benson graduated during the 1940s from Douglas Elementary School and still remembers one of his teachers.

[The teacher] was a legendary first-grade teacher and I feel like that she really enhanced my start and helped my career and my life. It was something that I knew I wanted to give back to, Benson said.

Benson went on to have a successful life in investment management at Merrill Lynch.

Habitat for Humanity of Smith County hosts pup house competition to raise funds

It got me on my way to a successful start for a business career and I found this for a way to give back, Benson said.

With that money, the school is transforming their outdoor space.

A playground and an outside covered learning area so that our kids can have presentations outside if necessary, we can do science projects outside, Christy Roach, Douglas Elementary Principal, said.

Douglas Elementary has already ordered the brand-new equipment hoping to get a head start.

Our goal is to have everything ready for when we open our doors again in August, Roach said.

Benson hopes that those who still have relationships with their East Texas Schools can one day do something similar.

They should see the opportunity when you give back, the joy it brings furthering peoples education, Benson said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com.
TRIPOLI, April 12 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Friday expressed concern over the clashes that erupted a day earlier between rival armed groups in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, calling on all parties to exercise restraint and avoid escalation or retaliation.

In a statement, the mission condemned the use of violence to settle disputes "as it gravely endangers civilians and further undermines the fragile security situation," calling for those responsible for the clashes to be held accountable.

Meanwhile, the UNSMIL attributed the cause of the disturbance to "the prolonged political crisis and eroded institutional legitimacy," noting that "Libya needs to prioritize elections to establish legitimate governing bodies capable of extending the state's authority and upholding the rule of law," the statement said.

On Thursday, witnesses reported heavy gunfire in different parts of Tripoli and military mobilization on the streets. So far, no casualties due to the clashes have been reported.

Ever since the fall of late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been suffering insecurity and chaos. 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  Starting next year, social media companies like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok will have to get parental permission for minors to access their services.

This from a bill passed by the Tennessee General Assembly, the Protecting Minors from Social Media Act. According to Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), the law would require social media to verify the age of anyone attempting to create an account on their platform.

If the attempt to create the account is made by a minor, then the bill would require the social media to verify that they have express consent of the minors parent or legal guardian prior to becoming an account holder, Johnson said during floor debate earlier this year. The bill will also require social media companies to provide parents a means by which the parent or legal guardian may supervise a minors account, including options for the parent to view privacy settings, set daily time restrictions and implement breaks, during which time the minor cant access the account.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: TN bill requires parental permission for social media accounts

An additional facet of the bill grants the Tennessee Attorney General authority to enforce the law, and it will also prevent companies from waiving any of the requirements by contract, according to Johnson.

The evidence is clear: social media has harmful effects on children, teens and young adults, Johnson said in a statement via the Senate Republican Caucus. Oftentimes young children create social media accounts without their parents knowledge or consent. The unsupervised use of social media by children is not only inappropriate but can be potentially harmful to those children. This legislation puts parents back in the drivers seat of their childrens social media usage. It lays out clear steps social media companies must take to verify the ages of users to protect Tennessee children and empower parents.

It is not immediately clear how social media companies will have to verify the age of all users or parental consent for minors to create accounts. The bill as amended does not include the mechanics for that verification; only that they have to verify.

The measure passed the House in March with overwhelming bipartisan support. It passed 88-2-5, with seven Democrats opposed or abstaining. The Senate also overwhelmingly supported the measure earlier in April, passing 30-0-1, with only Sen. Heidi Campbell abstaining from the vote.

Read the latest from the TN State Capitol Newsroom

The bill has one more stop back in the House for an amendment before heading to the governors desk.

A representative for Gov. Bill Lees office said he intends to sign the legislation. Once signed, the bill will take effect in January.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
Parents of a Glendale student are outraged after a teacher allegedly assaulted their son during class.

The assault reportedly happened on April 10 at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, according to Edit Novshadyan, the students mother. She claimed school officials tried to cover up the incident following their complaint.

How could this happen in this day and age? Novshadyan said in disbelief.

She said their son was assaulted by his 7th-grade math teacher in an unprovoked attack.

I get a text message from him saying, Mom, my teacher hit me, and I wrote to him, What? Are you kidding me? Are you serious? Are you messing with me? And hes like, No, Mom. My teacher hit me.

Novshadyan said her sons teacher initially asked him to stop eating in class. When he turned around to speak with another classmate about a math problem, thats when the teacher allegedly came up from behind him and suddenly slapped him.

A 7th grade student shows his injured arm after a teacher allegedly assaulted him in class. (Edit Novshadyan)

Roland Bagdasaryan and Edit Novshadyan are upset and outraged after a teacher allegedly assaulted their son in class at Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Glendale. (KTLA)

Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Glendale, California. (KTLA)

Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Glendale, California. (KTLA)

Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Glendale, California. (KTLA)

Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Glendale, California. (KTLA)

She was shaming him very badly, said Roland Bagdasaryan, the boys father. Yelling at him, How dare you! Youre bad, youre not a good kid. Youre making stuff up.

In addition to the bruises the boy endured, he was also verbally belittled by the teacher for his alleged bad behavior.

A cellphone video captured by a student during the altercations aftermath showed the teacher allegedly defending her actions.

Im not afraid of you or your parent or your lawyer, whatsoever! the teacher is heard yelling at the student.

The boy replies, You cant hit me, and the teacher counters with, Yes, I can!

According to the familys attorney, the student who captured that exchange was told to email the recording to the vice principal and then erase it from his phone.

We need the truth, said Armen Akaragian, the attorney representing the student and his family. Especially when we drop off our kids at schools, where we as parents drop them off in a place where they think theyre safe. Unless school districts come down on their teachers and tell them there are going to be major consequences for this conduct, its just going to continue.

Upon hearing the news, some concerned parents are hoping the district will enact changes to school policies to prevent something like this from happening in the future.

Why was she allowed to continue to teach after an assault? Novshadyan asked. She assaulted a child. She should have been escorted off campus pending an investigation. There are rules that she has to follow and rules that [the student] has to follow. She cant hit a kid.

A Glendale Unified School District spokesperson responded to KTLAs request for comment, saying:

We are aware of the allegation and are thoroughly investigating. In order to maintain student and employee confidentiality, I cannot comment further.

So far, school officials have not announced whether any disciplinary action will be taken against the teacher.

Novshadyan said her son is still traumatized by the incident and has not returned to campus since. They said the schools vice principal had called them to say their sons class schedule was changed and that the teacher involved would not be on campus in the coming week.

However, the boys family said these actions arent enough and that the teacher involved, who has not been identified, should either resign or be fired for how she handled the situation.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WNCN)  Partial skeletal human remains have been found during the investigation into the disappearance of two relatives, the Fayetteville Police Department said Friday.

For several weeks, detectives have been searching for 17-year-old Blake Deven and 27-year-old London Deven, whose disappearances were recently discovered despite the two not being seen for several years.

PREVIOUS: Fayetteville police discover second missing relatives disappearance went unreported

On Friday, investigators said the police department and the FBI developed information that led them to locate partial skeletal human remains.

They said the remains have been sent to the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to be identified.

At this time, police have not confirmed who the remains belong to, and it could take weeks or months and do not always result in a positive identification, according to the police department.

During the weeks-long investigation, police and the FBI searched a home on Berriedale Drive in Fayetteville several times, which they said belongs to the Deven family.

FBI: Fayetteville home search related to 2 Deven family disappearances

However, they said the human remains were not found at the home.

CBS 17 spoke to Raleigh/Wake City-County Bureau of Identification Director Sam Pennica about what happens when human remains are discovered and sent to the Medical Examiners Office. Pennica is not part of this case.

Theres a lot of things they could still learn from the skeleton, Pennica said.

He said the medical examiner tries to determine a manner of death. If things like age, gender or race could be determined, law enforcement could cross reference that to missing person reports, but there are variables.

It just depends how much is left and what kind of condition its in, Pennica said.

A woman who said she is Londons biological mother tells CBS 17 the FBI came to her home Wednesday and swabbed her for DNA. Pennica said DNA could be available in bones.

That sample would have to be taken and then the analysts would have to determine the value of it, Pennica said. It may have been degraded too far, you just dont know.

The police department said no additional information will be released at this time.

CBS 17 is working to learn where the remains were found.

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Blake or London is asked to call the Fayetteville Police Department at 910-578-2697 or the FBI at 1-800- CALL FBI or online.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
Have patience: Site of 2019 downtown Durham deadly gas explosion taken off real estate market, development in limbo

DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN)  Wednesday marks five years since a gas explosion ravaged part of downtown Durham, killing two people and injuring more than two dozen others.

It was one of the biggest events ever in Durham, and after all this time, that property remains a vacant lot.

Drone photo of downtown Durham explosion aftermath in 2019 (Sister station CBS 17 Sky Eye)

On April 10, 2019, the destruction took place on the corner of North Duke and Morgan streets.

Haleigh Holder remembers that day. Her father is a firefighter who responded to the scene.

Teen inmates who escaped stole womans car then hit her with it: Sheriff

They pretty much just told us that there was a big explosion, Holder, who works just a block away, said. Me knowing that my dad was a firefighter, I was worried about it.

After half a decade, the explosion site sits fenced off. Businesses next to it are still empty on one of Durhams busiest streets.

Explosion site sits fenced off in downtown Durham (Ben Bokun/CBS 17)

Mayor Leonardo Williams calls it prime real estate.

It takes so much more than just somebody just making something appear, so I ask that our community have patience, Williams said.

Real estate developer Austin Lawrence Partners tells sister station CBS 17 it owns the property where the explosion took place. The property was up for sale, but was recently taken off the market. The developer also said there are no immediate plans, but something will come in the future.

I hope that whatever does go there that they think of building community, being a part of the fabric that already exists but also contributing to it with unique things that may not even exist, Williams said.

Documents reveal man admits to dumping Belmont man into the trash after inexplicable death

The mayor believes a building with retail and housing is the best option. Other residents like Holder said the businesses should stay local and recognize what happened.

Just to kind of remember its past and not just build something over it that completely ignores what happened there, Holder said.

Durham officials said theyll encourage the developer to build that community.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
A Pennsylvania murder case went cold for years until police started asking questions about their own

Hed been trying for almost a year to talk to the former police chief.

Sgt. Mike Slaughter, a police detective in suburban Philadelphia, wanted to interview the retired chief, Thomas Mills, about a decades-old unsolved homicide. The detective said he had repeatedly gone to Mills home and asked intermediaries to help broker a meeting. But Mills refused, he said.

Finally, in December 2015, the former chief agreed to a recorded interview and, after roughly an hour, Slaughter said he came away stunned by what Mills told him: While still a detective in the early 1990s, the former chief had been instructed to stay away from a possible suspect in the unsolved killing because of the mans status with the Bristol Township Police Department. He was a confidential informant. His handler was a narcotics detective.

That suspect, Robert Atkins, 58, was eventually charged, convicted and  earlier this year  sentenced to life in prison in the April 19, 1991, murder of Joy Hibbs. But the revelation that authorities allegedly protected Atkins, as Slaughter put it, left the detective baffled  and Hibbs family furious.Why a person who could be the murder suspect would be protected just because of their role as a drug informant for our police department  that doesnt make sense in any kind of cop math, Slaughter told Dateline in an exclusive interview.

I will say this to my last dying breath, he added. You never trade off a murder suspect as a drug informant.

To Hibbs son, David Hibbs, there was only one explanation for how the case was handled.

They turned the other way, and they covered this up, he told Dateline.

Mills died in 2017. Messages left on phone numbers listed as his relatives were not returned. Another narcotics detective identified in charging documents for Atkins as his handler died in 2018.

During Atkins trial, another officer who worked on the case initially  the lead homicide detective  testified that he had been ordered to back off Atkins as a possible suspect and allow narcotics investigators to handle that part of the investigation. That detective said he was told that the drug investigators didnt want anyone screwing up our narcotics deals. (The detective declined to speak on camera with Dateline.")

Another former police chief who the homicide detective said gave those orders is dead.

dateline (Courtesy Charlie Hibbs)

In a statement to Dateline, a lawyer for the Bristol Police Department said local officials are aware of the allegations surrounding the investigation into Hibbs killing but are unable to comment because none of them worked for the township in 1991.The statement noted that in 2015, a new police chief was tasked with restructuring and reorganizing the department. Two years later, the department was accredited by the state.

The chief assures the Bristol Township community that all criminal investigations are handled with the utmost professionalism, integrity and compassion, the statement says.

A $20 drug deal and a brutal killing

David Hibbs, 45, long believed that Atkins had something to do with his mothers killing.

Atkins had lived two doors down and his wife, April, often spent time with the victim. David Hibbs said Atkins had a temper: he could hear his neighbor yelling from their home. A few weeks before his mothers killing, he said, he heard Atkins screaming through the phone at his mother.

When he pressed his mother for details on the argument, he said, she reluctantly told him it was over the quality of a small bag of marijuana shed bought from Atkins.

My mom was shaken by that conversation, but I dont think she took it serious because its a $20 marijuana deal, David Hibbs said.

dateline (Dateline)

Then, on April 19, 1991, authorities responded to a fire at the familys home. Inside, firefighters discovered the victims body. Hibbs was badly burned, and authorities initially believed she was the victim of an accidental fire, according to grand jury documents in the case. But an autopsy revealed shed been stabbed, beaten and likely strangled, the documents say.When investigators asked the victim's son if he knew of anyone whod want to harm his mother, he said, he gave them Atkins name.

Hes the only person that came to mind, David Hibbs said.

In the months that followed, authorities seemed more focused on David Hibbs father  the victim's husband  than on Atkins. Charlie Hibbs told Dateline that he was repeatedly interviewed and polygraphed, even though hed been working a construction job in Philadelphia at the time of the killing and had multiple witnesses who could confirm where hed been.

Frustrated with the lack of progress, in 2006 David Hibbs tried to obtain case documents from the department with a goal of having someone else review the evidence. He said authorities declined to turn over the file, but a police lieutenant offered his view of who he believed was responsible for the killing.

In his opinion, it was my father, David Hibbs recalled the official saying. He was certain it was my fathers fault.

David Hibbs said hed never previously believed that his father could have killed his mother, but this new piece of information made me question everything.

He said he never asked his father directly about it. But for a time, he mostly disappeared from the relationship, Charlie Hibbs recalled.

He pulled completely away, he said of his son. We barely communicated.

This case was never supposed to be solved

By the time Slaughter was assigned to reinvestigate the killing in 2014, the case was frozen, the detective said. It was a block of ice. He didnt believe he could solve it, but he thought he could at least give it a proper update  organize it, categorize it and identify everyone who was still alive.

dateline (Dateline)

As Slaughter began to review the case file, he said he found there were no recorded interviews  just some handwritten and typed records  and little forensic evidence. Much of it had been damaged by the fire or the effort to extinguish it. He eventually concluded that Charlie Hibbs had nothing to do with the killing and that people who said otherwise had no idea what theyre talking about, he said.Slaughter had seen Atkins name in the file, the detective said, but investigators contact with him was documented in what he described as a brief paragraph or two.

dateline (Dateline)

In his conversations with police at the time, Atkins denied that he had anything to do with the killing, Slaughter said. He told authorities that hed received a phone call from his wifes co-worker that day  a Friday  before traveling to the Poconos with his family, Slaughter recalled. Investigators at the time never brought Atkins to the department to question him, nor did they obtain phone records to corroborate the call or its timing, Slaughter said. And there was nothing showing that Atkins wife was interviewed without him present, Slaughter said  an approach that he described as very suspicious.

That would be the opposite of what we would want to do, Slaughter said.

Not long after he began re-examining the case, Slaughter interviewed Atkins again. In the April 2014 interview, Atkins repeated his account from 1991 and acknowledged being a confidential informant  hed used and sold methamphetamines  for the police department, according to the grand jury documents. Atkins also confirmed that hed had a dispute with the slain woman about the quality of the marijuana hed sold her, but he denied having anything to do with her killing, the document says.

In a separate interview, Atkins wife said she hardly knew the victim and had nothing to do with her death, Slaughter recalled.

In addition to reviewing the case file and conducting interviews, Slaughter said, he had also been reaching out to the original detectives, who by then had retired or moved away. But most refused to speak with him, he said.Finally, in December 2015, Mills revealed details about Atkins that were nowhere in the case file  including that Mills had been told to not pursue him as a suspect, Slaughter said.

Slaughter struggled with what hed uncovered. He said he had affection for the officers who trained and hired him  Mills had been chief when Slaughter began working for the department  and he loves the department and the command staff who now run it. But nobody ever stepped up and went to the AGs office or state police or some other agency and said, Hey, we got to look into this, Slaughter said.

This case was never supposed to be solved, he said. It was supposed to go nowhere.

A new revelation

After the interview with Mills, Slaughter said, he shared what hed learned with a lieutenant and a sergeant. And he forwarded the case to the district attorneys office.

More than two years after he first interviewed Atkins wife, she showed up at the police department with Slaughters business card and said she needed to talk about something really important, Slaughter recalled.

dateline (Dateline)

Slaughter raced to the station. In the interview that followed, April Atkins  whod since divorced Atkins  told him that on the day of the killing, her husband came home wearing bloodstained clothes.I looked at him, I said, What happened to you? April Atkins told Dateline in her first interview about the case. He came to me, in front of me, and he said, I stabbed somebody and lit a house on fire.

Atkins told her to skip work that day and get their two young children ready for a trip to the Poconos, she said. The next day, when they went for a walk, he was carrying a bag, and at one point told her and the children to stop as he momentarily disappeared.

When he came back, that bag was gone, she said.

In her interview with Slaughter, April Atkins said that Atkins' sneakers may have been in the bag. She learned who the victim was only after a detective came to their home after the killing, she told "Dateline," and later pressed her husband to turn himself in. But she told "Dateline" that he beat her when she raised the subject and threatened to blame her for the murder if she continued. (Atkins' lawyer said his client absolutely denies the allegations of abuse.)

April Atkins said she remained terrified of her husband, even after their divorce in 2006, but finally reached out to Slaughter after a series of deaths in her own life.

As with the Mills interview, Slaughter said, he forwarded what he learned from her to the district attorney.

It wasnt until May 2022  more than five years after her revelations to Slaughter  that Atkins was arrested and charged in Joy Hibbs' killing. Matt Weintraub, a Bucks County judge who in 2022 was the countys district attorney, declined to comment on why it took years to charge Atkins, citing pending/impending nature of post-conviction matters.

After Atkins arrest, Weintraub told reporters there was no great reason, no specific reason for the delay. We have many cases, and some tend to take priorities over others, he said.

During the news conference, a reporter asked if Atkins' alibi had been thoroughly vetted back in 1991.

Perhaps other people that were situated differently back then accepted his alibi and maybe didnt look under every rock as thoroughly as we have now, Weintraub said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  The Shelby County Sheriffs Office has announced that in-person visitation will resume at the Youth Justice and Education Center.

The sheriffs office says that visitation may resume as early as next week and that the Juvenile Court is providing the critical information and training needed to restart visitation.

Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon had previously stated that the sheriffs office indicated that a court order would be needed to mandate parent visitation. Sugarmon says SCSO leadership received that order on February 28, 2024.

Religious leaders express concerns about youth inmates in Shelby County

A correspondence obtained by WREG shows that on April 8, the sheriffs office asked the Juvenile Court for information regarding the names and contact information of parents, guardians, and approved visitors for youth inmates.

Juvenile Court responded to SCSO on April 10 and gave the sheriffs office access to a list of contact information for family members.

The sheriffs office says that more information on visitation will be available on its website.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
Stacey Nixon, of the South Ogden Animal Shelter, talks to and pets a little dog that was hit by a car and ended up losing an eye as a result, on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.

You might call him Lucky, Second Chance or even Miracle Man.

A 9-year-old dog was hit by a car over the weekend of April 6 and while extremely sore, he escaped the encounter with no broken bones. That was lucky. He did sustain an injury to his eye, which required surgery to have it removed.

The South Ogden Animal Shelter tracked down the owner of record because the animal was microchipped, but the owner refused to claim him.

The shelter put out a public plea for donations to cover the medical costs, and the community responded with donations to take care of those costs, and more. A city employee decided to adopt this lucky dog, but it will have to wait until it is recovered enough to leave medical care and they determine his temperament.

The majority of animal shelters across Utah and elsewhere in the nation are beyond the tipping point. Some identified owners are refusing to claim their dogs, such as in Luckys case, and entire litters are being self-surrendered at facilities, many of which have monthslong waiting lists for the intake. And then there are the strays, the lost, the dumped. People have this idea if you dump the dogs or cats in the rural country, theyll find their way. Hmm, not.

Basically, there are too many animals coming in, and not enough going out. Some dogs, especially, spend months and months if not years, at a shelter waiting for adoption.

Ive been doing this for 10 years and I have never seen so many puppies in shelters in Utah, said Stacey Nixon, with South Ogden City Animal Control. And we have been getting slammed by microchipped dogs and people who dont want them back.

Shelter workers are burned out, developing compassion fatigue and staffing shortages are common in an environment that while full of hope and promise these animals might find a home, there is the depressing reality that some wont. The longer they stay, the more stressed they become, diminishing the chance theyll find a forever home.

The animal shelter in Weber County has had to close early periodically due to lack of staffing and routinely relies on social media in pleas for donations.

The overcrowding can lead to outbreaks of illness. Again, in Weber County, the shelter was in quarantine with its dogs until Wednesday due to a case of canine parvovirus.

Stacey Nixon, of the South Ogden Animal Shelter, holds a little dog that was hit by a car and ended up losing an eye, on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.

What does no kill mean?

Theres no limits on the work that has to be done that workers are facing and its like I just fed this cat for the past five days and now I got to go kill it. Theres no space for it. And so they build this relationship with these animals, and this trust, and then theyre having to go and just put it down. Its just like, you know, that sucks. Who wants to come to work and do that, questioned Thomas Sinnott, Utah strategist for the Best Friends Animal Society.

Years ago, we took our girl Bre to our veterinarian because she was riddled with cancer and suffering. Wed gone through expensive chemotherapy to extend her life, but knew it was only a matter of time. We made a giant leap and talked to a pet physic, although we were extremely skeptical. She told us things about Bre that only we knew. And she told us we would know that it was time when she put her head in my husbands lap to say she was done with the suffering. On the way to the appointment, she dragged herself to the Jeep, as if welcoming the relief about to come.

Sobbing and petting her, we said our goodbyes. She looked at us once, and then was gone. Its hard to imagine the thousands upon thousands of dogs and cats who meet a similar fate, through no fault of their own  when they are perfectly healthy but unwanted in an increasingly throw away society that discards personal items and animals at a whim. And while they have the comfort of a caring shelter worker by their side, it is not the same as having an owner with them in their final moments.

I couldnt be the administrator of those drugs.

The state is moving to make things better for shelters. In late February, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox proclaimed 2024 as the year of no kill for shelters across the state, declaring Utah would be the largest no kill state in the country.

Best Friends says 47 of 60 shelters in Utah are no kill and Sinnott said it is the organizations goal to reach no kill status for the nation in 2025.

Over a three year-period, the average save rate in Utah shelters was 87.8%, while 1,700 cats and dogs were killed.

The reality is no kill is not no kill. Animals are euthanized if they are too sick or too injured or too behaviorally messed up that theyre not adoptable. And, shelters are having to turn to euthanasia to make room for newcomers. Experts say about 10% of animals in shelter care meet that fate.

Shelter Animals Count, a national data-driven organization, said the number of animals euthanized or that died in custody rose by 15% in 2023 compared to 2022 and is up 29% compared to 2021.

The group also said the number of animals that entered shelters or rescue organizations sat at 6.5 million in 2023, the fourth consecutive year of too many animals and not enough adoptions.

An estimated 900,000 animals that entered shelters did not leave them.

We began increasing the number of animals coming into shelters, but not increasing the number of animals leaving at the same pace, so we really got into this bottleneck situation of too many animals in our care and at the same time, more continuing to come in each year, said Stephanie Filer, executive director of the organization.

It is not that people arent acquiring new pets, theyre just getting them from somewhere else, she added.

The majority of people are not getting them from shelters or pet stores. They are getting them online. That would indicate it is not pandemic-based as much as it is consumer-behavior based.

In fact, a survey done by Salt Lake County shows that only 22% of the respondents indicate they have children under the age of 18 living at home, while 38% percent own a dog.

Alan Waldron walks his five dogs, two of which are fostered, outside his home in Willard on Friday, April 12, 2024. An avid dog lover, Waldron has fostered a number of dogs. Within a week or two Ill have them walk on a leash, trained, sleeping through the night, all that, says Waldron The first couple of nights are always hard though.

Alan Waldrons dog, Taz, is pictured at his home in Willard on Friday, April 12, 2024. Taz is blind in one eye and was rescued by Waldron.

Alan Waldron walks his five dogs, two of which are fostered, outside his home in Willard on Friday, April 12, 2024. An avid dog lover, Waldron has fostered a number of dogs. Its fun to do it but you know, you just have to fix the problem, says Waldron. With little restriction on breeding in Utah, dog populations have soared and many are neglected and abandoned because of it.

Alan Waldron untangles five leashes from his wrist after walking his five dogs, two of which are fostered, at his home in Willard on Friday, April 12, 2024. Waldron often gets stares for the amount of dogs he walks, but he says its easy.

Alan Waldron stands in his backyard over his dogs, Lu and Taz, at his home in Willard on Friday, April 12, 2024. Waldron landscaped his yard for his dogs and future foster dogs to run and play.

Alan Waldron, a longtime foster dog parent and volunteer at area shelters, said he recently checked KSLs classified advertisements and found 2,800 postings for available dogs.

So if they have five or six puppies to sell, that is literally thousands upon thousands of dogs, he said.

Doodles, or any sort of oodle, are increasingly ending up in shelters even though the animal might have sold for as much as $2,500 or $3,000.

Breeders are not being upfront with people because they are very high-strung dogs. They are being bred with dogs that dont really go together. So theyre very hyper. Theyre working dogs. Theres so much wrong with it, said Lisa Saling, an Ivins resident in Washington County. I mean, every dog you could possibly imagine is being bred with a poodle these days. And its just disturbing to me.

Saling, a longtime animal advocate who helps out at the St. George Animal Shelter and has taken in rescues, said she has five of those oodle breeders on her block  even though it is technically against the law to breed dogs in Ivins. Theres just no enforcement.

French bulldogs are all the rage now, but they, too, are ending up in shelters, she said.

Saling said there are also guardian homes in which people take on an impregnated female on behalf of someone else to care for the litter before it is returned to be sold.

They basically recruit people and I dont think these people really realize what theyre getting into. And basically, the breeders are using them. "

Cats are generally easier to find homes for than dogs, but shelters across the country are bracing for kitten season, later this year when hundreds of kittens can enter one shelter during the breeding season.

Shelter funding cant keep up with the inventory, with many operating on a shoestring budget that does not cover costs. On top of that, there is a veterinarian shortage, with shelters vying for who might be available and presenting a real challenge for people who do want to get their pets spayed or neutered but are caught in an endless wait for a bill that is financially prohibitive for some owners.

The Deseret News interviewed experts, advocates and shelter directors for this story and found several common factors that underscore the problem of what is happening with overwhelmed shelters, rescue groups trying to place animals for rehoming and the challenge of making sure that these animals lives count in a situation in which they did not ask to be abandoned, neglected or forgotten. Theyre innocent.

There are some common dynamics at play in a nuanced problem that shows no sign of shifting from overdrive into low gear.

Economics: The price of pet food is nearly 24% higher than in January 2021 and 26.5% higher than in January 2019., according to PetFoodIndustry.com. Saling said with her animals she feeds, especially the community of cats that are feral, its a choice for survival. When it comes to down to food: I feed them before I feed me.

Housing: Unaffordable homes due to the spike in median prices and mortgage rate increases are driving more people into the rental market because it cheaper to sign a lease than to take over title. An eviction moratorium imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic has since been lifted and it is a free for all when it comes to pet regulations. Some property managers or landlords charge exorbitant fees to have a pet or do not allow them at all. Would-be home buyers are relinquishing their pets so they can rent a place to live for themselves.

Breeding: The cost of spaying and neutering has gone up and some people just cross their fingers and hope there is not an oops litter that happens. It typically is not a winning bet. Cats can get pregnant as early as six months. Heat cycles with dogs are hard to predict. If they escape, the owners destiny is likely a litter of unplanned puppies. Too, there are indiscriminate breeders who think it is fun to have a litter of puppies and dont realize the amount of work that it entails. They shed themselves of the burden by taking them to a shelter, or cant find homes for them. American Kennel Club breeders are also part of the problem. Some fail to properly educate would-be puppy parents, dont do their own research or proper health testing, and the dogs end up getting rehomed by new owners who are overwhelmed. In those cases too, with this economy, there are not enough puppy purchasers and the speciality breeding takes away from the adoption of shelter dogs. Many of them, too, are in it purely for the money. Alan Waldron, animal advocate, shelter volunteer and rescue parent, says he knows of breeder who makes several hundreds of thousands a dollars a year  tax free because it is cash up front and under the table.

Jessica McEwan bottle feeds a neonatal kitten as Weber County Animal Services hosts participants who learned how to bottle feed kittens in a mandatory training in Ogden on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.

A neonatal kitten cries out while sitting on a towel as Weber County Animal Services hosts participants who learned how to bottle feed kittens in a mandatory training in Ogden on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.

Stephanie Fleming, Camille Medina and Genesis Orellana hold juvenile kittens as Weber County Animal Services hosts participants who learned how to bottle feed neonatal kittens in a mandatory training in Ogden on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.

Camille Medina cuddles a kitten as Weber County Animal Services hosts participants who learned how to bottle feed neonatal kittens in a mandatory training in Ogden on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.

A kitten peeks over the shoulder of Jessica McEwan as Weber County Animal Services hosts participants who learned how to bottle feed kittens in a mandatory training in Ogden on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.

Jessica McEwan holds a neonatal kitten as Weber County Animal Services hosts participants who learned how to bottle feed kittens in a mandatory training in Ogden on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.

What are the solutions?

Spay and neuter. Please. It is the front line against this war on unwanted animals. Check with rescue groups, shelters or organizations to see if there are vouchers for discounts. Neutering keeps a male cat from spraying and repopulating. Young female cats reproduce at a rapid rate.

Sign up to be a foster parent. This helps to alleviate the chokehold shelters are experiencing with the tremendous influx of pets. The more fosters, the more animals that are not in a shelter. They are getting socialized, learning to be house trained and trained to obey simple commands. Waldron has taken in between 40 and 50 dogs and has successfully placed them in multiple states around the country. Salt Lake County has a robust troop of 45 volunteers they rely on to help and that includes shelter visits to socialize the animals, bring them treats and help with other tasks.

Bottle babies. More and more shelters are finding abandoned kittens or entire litters that are relinquished. Weber County Animal Services just recently held a mandatory class for 36 volunteers who want to take on the difficult task of feeding these babies who have lost their mother or are simply dumped. It is rewarding to do, but very hard, said Melanie Jensen, who coordinated the training. Its a really tough time to be in the field right now. There has been an uptick in entire litters, which used to be pretty rare.

Network and volunteer. Saling goes to the St. George Animal Shelter and takes photos of their animals and gets them posted online. Shes hooked in with multiple rescue groups and does what she can. There are breed-specific rescue groups or general rescue groups you can search online through Facebook and other means. Community Facebook groups often do a good job of spotting strays or runaways and are vital in the fight helping to reconnect owners with an escape artist.

Outreach and education. Best Friends Animal Society does extensive outreach with multiple shelters, advising them of new and innovative ways to engage the community and run a better shelter. It promotes resources that are available and works with owners who want to relinquish and talks them through solutions to keep the animal at home. Salt Lake County hosts a pet pantry once a month to help get donations and assist pet owners with items no longer used such as dog beds, leashes, etc. Davis County has a a rehab website and asks that would be relinquishers of animals post them there before taking them to the shelter.

Money and funding approaches. Weber County Animal Services has said it desperately needs more funding, but in general, animal services is an afterthought when it comes to the budget in many areas. Animal Care of Davis County jumped on a 2021 law passed by Utah lawmakers that allows funding to have its own line item in the budget. It went to 15 member cities, got them to sign off and the deal was for the cities to reduce their tax rate and instead pay that in property tax. Animal Care director Ashleigh Young said it was a fair solution for a city as small as Sunset to one as large as Layton. There was a zero percent tax increase and gave her agency more autonomy instead of fighting with the general fund. Its made a world of difference. We can be the man of our ship.

Changes in the law. Waldron is working with a group of people in a coalition to make changes to state law regarding breeders. He says they should be required to be licensed and regulated. In Colorado, where that is the practice, they have a shortage of animals. When he was working in New Mexico, he said theyd send up 50 dogs a month to Colorado because of the shortage. New Mexico is like a Third World country. The reservations are killing of upwards of 50,000 dogs per year, Waldron said.

Training. Young and others could not stress enough that it is important to take the time to socialize your dog. Enroll in puppy training, obedience classes and work to let that animal know the expectations. It can make all the difference with some investment of time and may avoid rehoming, or owner relinquishment at a shelter that may take months.

Shelters are not the problem

It used to be decades ago you called it the dog pound and some people in neighborhoods would dread seeing the truck with a cage roaming the neighborhood looking for strays or itching for citations. That is not the way of the world anymore.

As previously mentioned, shelters are strapped. Animal control workers are overburdened. The focus is on emergency care, feeding and moving dogs, cats and even other critters into good homes. They are not stalking neighborhoods.

It is curious as some people are in love with their pets and it has fostered a booming industry.

A Forbes story reports that 66% of U.S. households own a pet and in 2022, Americans spent nearly a $137 billion on their pets. So what is the disconnect among the interplay of pet ownership, the billions of private dollars spent and yet stranded animals in shelters?

If you go back to the dog at the beginning of this story, Lucky or Second Chance. He was microchipped, the shelter tracked the owner of record who refused to claim him. Who knows? Perhaps the dog was sold and no longer that owners technical responsibility. Perhaps the medical bill was too high for this original owner to absorb. But for whatever reason, a miracle happened. The people who got the dog from the microchipped owner made a huge donation to help future dogs in need. This dog is indeed lucky. They came for him, and now he is safe.

It is dicey.

The hunt is on for a lost Siberian husky in Weber County, with Facebook and social media lighting up posts and a reward by the owners and community that keeps growing to find her. It is up to $1,600, with donations streaming in. Akira still has not been found.

Its just constant cycle thats happening right now. And Ive never seen anything like it ever in my 17 almost 18 years Ive lived here with the shelter system and the over population of dogs and cats, Saling said. Its just so disturbing to me that its gotten to this point, but its irresponsible people that brought it to this point.

She stressed shelters are the collection point  like spoiled food that goes in the garbage disposal or the trash you take out to the curb. Attitudes need to change.

Its not a shelter problem, she said. It is a community problem.
YORK COUNTY, Va. (WAVY)  A petition has been created to call for the resignation of three controversial school board members in York County.

The petition shared Friday with WAVY alleges multiple instances and patterns of misconduct and incompetence from Board Chair Lynda Fairman, Vice Chair Kimberly Goodwin and board member Zoran Pajevic. The three were elected back in November after running together on a right-wing platform and now have a 3-2 majority on the board.

Previous coverage: Trainwreck: New school board leadership in York County accused of militia ties, could face legal issues

Alleged militia actions in York County may lead to democratic erosion, expert says

We denounce the conduct of the new school board members and ask that they step down for the good of our community. As concerned parents, educators, staff, and citizens of the York County School Division, we are initiating this petition to hold Lynda Fairman, Kimberly Goodwin and Zoran Pajevic accountable for their actions and to restore integrity, transparency, and accountability to the York County School Division Board, the petition reads.

The allegations include the trio holding unofficial meetings in violation of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, retaliatory conduct against the districts superintendent and the creation of a hostile work environment under Fairmans leadership.

The petition also points to alleged ties between the trio and a militia group in York County (which theyve denied), recent efforts to move the board to a partisan, ill-founded board association and numerous racist comments/slurs which have not been removed online from Goodwin.

The core group of about 10 concerned parents and community members behind the petition, several of which have spoken publicly against the board, say theyre speaking on behalf of hundreds who are also concerned about the boards new leadership. They said they were originally considering pushing for recall elections but ultimately opted for the petition due to the demands that Virginia law on recalls requires.

They say many, particularly teachers and staff, are concerned about speaking out against the new board leadership for fear of retaliation.

Previous coverage: York County School Board to get policy services from right-wing group

Previous coverage: York School Board vice chairs comments on slaves highlight history of incendiary rhetoric online

The group says theyve already started circulating the petition online and will be at multiple locations in the county coming up to gather signatures from residents. Theyll be at Mobjack Bay Coffee on Sunday, April 14 at 12:30 p.m. and plan to be at the next board meeting on April 22.

You can read the full petition below.

Petition-for-Resignation-1Download

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com.
A new report from the Pew Research Center pokes a hole in the oft-repeated claim that a historic racial realignment is occurring within American politics, with nonwhite voters learning to love the GOP and Donald Trump.

In recent years  days, even  theres been a seemingly endless deluge of news stories hyping up this purported realignment as fact. Trump and his allies have been touting similar claims as well (which seems like all the more reason to question them).

But you neednt just take my word for it. Pews analysis of registered voters  based on hundreds of thousands of interviews conducted from 1994 through last summer  showed that while Democrats may have lost some support among nonwhite voters, any seismic shift in party identification is largely a figment of the medias imagination.

Pew reported:

I think these findings should prompt some self-reflection, and maybe even some apologies, from those who have routinely pushed this angle. Because, frankly, a lot of the commentary in recent years, particularly about Black voters and their purported support for Trump and the GOP, has been offensively ignorant.

Nothing has offended me more than the parade of credential-less pontificators  often, pop culture figures  platformed by major news outlets to speak with certainty about this shift that doesnt actually appear to be based in reality.

Surely, youve heard their talking points:

And, to me, this half-baked punditry has always had the feel of racial pseudoscience  just without the calipers. It hasnt helped that media outlets have trotted out just about every aged and/or ignorant rapper or part-time pundit they can find, seemingly to help demystify the confusing Black mind and its supposed infatuation with the unabashedly racist Trump.

By golly, I cant make sense of why the Blacks are falling in love with Trump, a show booker might say. Surely, Ice Cube has the answers.

So I think the Pew analysis holds promise. Its encouragement for news outlets to do what I and many other Black folks have been advising for some time: Find a story more worthwhile. At minimum, one thats more rooted in reality.

As an example: I dont think the fact that there has been some movement toward the GOP among nonwhite voters is a complete non-story. I just dont think its a story for the reasons that media outlets often suggest, which is that it either signals love for Trump or disillusionment with Democrats.

I think theres a story to be written about how men could be drawn in by Trumps misogyny. (In fact, Ive written it a couple of times.) I also think theres a discussion to be had about how some nonwhite voters might cast ballots for Trump out of fear of the racial violence that could follow if he loses. He has, after all, warned about a bloodbath if he doesnt win.

But what Im talking about here are complex conversations that go deeper than the shallow Blacks are backing Trump narrative we hear so often  and which the Pew report has helped expose.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
The Kh-69 missile is fired by fast fighter jets rather than more cumbersome Russian bombers

Russian forces used a new subsonic air-to-surface Kh-69 cruise missile to destroy a power station near Kyiv this week, Ukrainian sources have said.

The Kh-69 improves the range of Russian air-to-surface missile attacks to 250 miles from 190 miles and is fired by fast fighter jets rather than more cumbersome Russian bombers.

The missile can fly as low as 20m, according to reports.

Major Ilya Yevlash, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, said that Kh-69 missiles posed a new problem for Ukraines depleted missile defence systems as they are quick and easy to deploy.

These are fresh missiles with parts manufactured in 2023. So we can see that Russia is constantly trying to produce new missiles, he told Ukrainian media.

Ukraine has been begging for more weapons from the West, especially missile-defence systems, which it has said are now depleted.

The Kremlin has been targeting Ukraines energy infrastructure and the missile strike on Thursday destroyed the Trypilska thermal power station, one of the largest in Ukraine.

Major Yevlash said that US-supplied Patriot air-defence missiles can shoot down Kh-69 missiles but Ukraine needed these quickly.

The Kh-69 missile is a new missile for us, so we are, among other things, studying how we can shoot it down, he added.

Analysts have said that Russia has gained the initiative along the front line in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, because it can produce far more weapons than Ukraine and because it has updated its missiles.

As well as the new Kh-69 subsonic missile, the Kremlin has fired glide bombs at Ukrainian soldiers and towns. These are standard bombs that have been modified to increase their range and precision.

Wreckage from an advanced Kh-69 missile that Russia used to strike the Trypilska power station

The US and its allies have under-delivered arms to Ukraine since its failed counteroffensive last summer, whereas the Kremlin has signed deals with Iran and North Korea and switched its civilian manufacturing base to arms.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War said that the appearance of the Kh-69 missile in Ukraine was an indication of the Kremlins determination to win its war in Ukraine by adapting its arms production.

We have not previously observed Russian use of Kh-69 missiles in Ukraine, it said.

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JERUSALEM, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Daniel Hagari on Saturday warned Iran that it "will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further."

Hagari made the remarks in a statement following reports that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy had seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship earlier in the day.

Without mentioning the incident, Hagari stressed in the video statement that Israel is "on high alert," saying, "We have increased readiness to protect Israel from further Iranian aggression."

"The Israel Defense Forces is prepared for all scenarios and will take the necessary steps -- together with our allies -- to protect the people of Israel," he added.

Iran's official news agency IRNA reported the seizure of the Israeli-linked container ship, MSC Aries, near the Strait of Hormuz. It comes 12 days after Israel killed seven Iranians, including two IRGC commanders, in a missile strike on the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Syria.

Iranian authorities have pledged to retaliate against Israel for the attack, raising concerns about potential escalations in the Middle East region. 
Defence chiefs face a backlash over proposals to merge the Armys four separate medical units into a single regiment, The Telegraph can reveal.

The Royal Army Medical Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps and the Queen Alexandras Royal Army Nursing Corps, known as the Army Medical Services, could soon become a single unit.

Opponents have warned the plans risk creating a characterless homogenous unit.

Details of the proposed merger, named Project Victoria, have been revealed in a letter sent to all serving and former members of the regiment on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the Army confirmed that amalgamating parts of Army Medical Services is being considered, but insisted that no final decision has yet been made.

Serving personnel have already said such a move would backfire, condemning the plans as a cost-cutting exercise prompted by the struggle to recruit medics to the Armed Forces.

One senior officer said: These are all very fine and famous regiments with a proud history. They are all distinct organisations with their own character and ethos.

It seems extraordinary to me that the MoD seems to think that the way ahead is to create a characterless homogenous unit. If this is a plan to save money and boost recruiting then it will backfire very badly.

Potential to cut costs

Merging four medical units into one umbrella organisation will mean that rather than four separate headquarters, the new unit will have one.

The move would offer the potential to cut costs but one source believes it could lead to inefficiency.

In a letter, seen by The Telegraph, Brigadier Anthony Finn, the head of Army Medical Services, said that although planning is at an advanced stage no decisions have yet been taken.

He wrote: We would like to assure everyone with an interest in this process that the needs of our serving community and the views of our veteran communities have been taken into account at all stages through a variety of representatives.

In a rapidly changing context for both defence and healthcare, making sure that we have the right structures and processes in place to care for our patients and support the Army, building on the heritage we share, has been paramount in all our discussions.

It is vital that we make sure we remain an attractive, modern and welcoming employer for those who are willing and able to deliver healthcare in difficult and frequently dangerous places beyond the next decade, he added.

Nothing we have discussed has negated any of your service to date, nor has it looked to weaken or remove the link between those serving now, and those who will serve in the future, with those who served, caring for the Armys patients, in the past.

He concluded: You will understand that these decisions do not all rest with us.

Roots in the 17th Century

The Royal Army Medical Corps is one of the most historic regiments in the British Army and dates back to the 17th Century.

Members of the regiment have also won 29 Victoria Crosses (VC), two of which were with a bar, indicating that the recipient medics won the VC twice.

One of those who won a VC was Surgeon Major James Henry Reynolds who won the medal at the battle Rorkes Drift in 1879, which was immortalised in the film Zulu.

A spokesman for the Army said: Were always looking to optimise the Armys outputs and operational effectiveness. Consideration is being given to amalgamating parts of Army Medical Services, but no final decision has been made at this time.

Army Medical Services remains a modern, operationally proven organisation dedicated to maintaining soldiers health and providing medical care to the sick and injured.

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Poland has established a new Council for Cooperation with Ukraine, Pawel Kowal, Polish Commissioner for the Restoration of Ukraine, said in an interview with the Polish Press Agency (PAP) on April 12.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk signed a decree establishing the council, which will deal with bilateral Polish-Ukrainian relations and Ukraine's reconstruction.

While Poland has been a staunch ally to Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, prolonged border blockades led by Polish farmers have led to deteriorating relations between Kyiv and Warsaw.

Kowal said that he would lead the new council, which will have different working groups and cooperate with Polish think tanks.

"It will be a public body that will include representatives of science, business, government and local authorities," Kowal said.

According to Kowal, Poland hopes to establish an entity "that will apply a more holistic approach to Polish-Ukrainian relations."

"We assume that they are unique, not only because of historical issues, but also because of Poland's participation in helping Ukraine, which is being defended, and Poland's role in the process of its recovery," he said.

Poland has donated some $3.2 billion in military aid and hosted around 1 million Ukrainian refugees since the outbreak of the full-scale war.

Disputes over agriculture policies have strained relationships between the neighboring countries in recent months, with Polish farmers and truckers staging protests and blocking border crossings.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal visited his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk and other government officials on March 28 to discuss the blockades, military aid, and ongoing trade between Ukraine and Poland.

Read also: Sikorski: We want to help Ukraine, but you must decide how long you are ready to go on

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Police on Friday said they found partial skeletal human remains as they investigate the disappearance of two members of a Fayetteville-area family.

Blake Deven, 17, and London Deven, 27, may have been missing for years, Police Chief Kemberle Braden said at an April 5 news conference.

In an update on the citys website on Friday afternoon, police said the remains were sent to the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Police on Friday, April 12, 2024, said they found partial skeletal human remains as they investigate the disappearance of two members of a Fayetteville-area family, Blake Deven, 17, and London Deven, 27.

Police call on public for help

Police said they dont know the identity of the person or persons they found.

Testing could take weeks or months and do [sic.] not always result in a positive identification, according to the police statement.

Police declined to say where they found the remains but confirmed the location was not the Deven home on Berriedale Drive that police and the FBI searched on April 8.

Police urged anyone with information about the case to call Fayetteville Police at 910-578-2697 or the FBI at 800-225-5324, and online at tips.fbi.gov.

Unusual missing person cases, chief says

On March 28, the FBI and police asked the public for help in finding Blake Devin. Police soon learned that London Devin also was missing, Braden said at the April 5 news conference. Blake Devin, he said, was last seen alone at a local Walmart.

Police on April 5 executed a search warrant at the familys former home, Braden said. The family living there now has no connection to this investigation, he said.

These are unusual missing-persons cases, Braden said at the April 5 news conference. ... Blake and London have been missing for years. This will be a complex investigation and will likely take time.

Detectives are piecing together a timeline of events and seeking information from anyone who has interacted with or made observations of Blake or London at any time, Braden said. Any interaction or sighting, no matter how recent or old, are significant in these cases.

The Devin family has lived in the Fayetteville area since 2015, Braden said.

Were in regular contact with family members, the chief said April 5. We are following leads based on information they provided, and we appreciate their cooperation at this time.
Police in Somerville are investigating a shooting and crash that injured a 17-year-old.

According to the City of Somerville, officers responded to the area of Alston Street for reports of shots fired and a motor vehicle rollover.

Upon arrival, officers discovered a 17-year-old male who had sustained up to two gunshot wounds. The victim was transported to a local hospital and at this time his wounds are considered non-life threatening.

The car was towed away by 9:30 p.m. with all the airbags deployed and deep cracks and damage to the front of the vehicle.

Police believe that several individuals involved in this incident fled in a reportedly stolen vehicle that struck a parked car, causing it to roll over.

The occupants of the vehicle fled on foot.

Neighbors told Boston 25 News reporter Daniel Coates they heard gunshots around 7:00 p.m.

Steve Cardoso and other neighbors came outside to find the dark-colored KIA with New Hampshire plates flipped on the one-way road just off the McGraw Highway.

A damaged white van could also be seen sitting on the opposite sidewalk.

Steve Cardoso says he knows the owner of that car but has no idea how this all happened.

I live down here for 47 years, said Cardoso. Ive never seen anything like that.

The incident remains under investigation. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Somerville Police at 617-625-1212.

#BREAKING: Major police presence on Alston St. in Somerville.



Investigation is surrounding a flipped car on the one-way road.



Neighbors say they heard multiple gunshots roughly an hour ago. @boston25 pic.twitter.com/AnUzDxgoHD  Daniel Coates (@danielcoates_25) April 12, 2024

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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Russian troops opened fire at a civilian car in the border area of Chernihiv Oblast, killing a man, Ukraine's National Police reported on April 13.

Chernihiv Oblast is located on Ukraine's northern border with Russia and was invaded and partially occupied during the beginning of Russia's full-scale war in February 2022.

Russian forces withdrew from Chernihiv Oblast in April 2022, but due to its proximity to the border, the region has been since attacked near-daily.

The car reportedly caught fire in Novhorod-Siverskyi district as a result of Russia's morning attack.

The car's driver, a man born in 1990, was fatally injured as he was on his way to bring food to the residents of border villages, the police said.

During the full-scale war, Russian troops have repeatedly attacked civilian vehicles, including when people tried to evacuate from front-line settlements.

In late March, a Russian drone attacked a bus in the Novhorod-Siverskyi district, injuring three people, Chernihiv Oblast Governor Viacheslav Chaus reported.

Read also: Ukraines angels who look after, evacuate civilians left in front-line Donbas

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WAMEGO (KSNT)  The Tulip Festival in Wamego is off to a rocky start after some local children allegedly tore out several plants, throwing them into a nearby fountain.

The Wamego Police Department took to social media Saturday morning to inform locals of a criminal damage investigation at the city park. City Park Department staff found around 50-75 tulip plants were damaged with many of them being tossed into the parks fountain.

While staff worked to remove the plants from the fountain, police looked into who might be responsible. Two children, ages 10 and 11, were brought to police by their parents during the investigation.

After the minors and their parents were interviewed, the City of Wamego elected not to pursue criminal charges. It was suggested after the Tulip Festival, the minors, under supervision, help clean the park by picking up trash. WPD social media statement excerpt

Shawnee County court sentences man after head-on, DUI crash kills teen

The Wamego Tulip Festival runs from April 13-14 and is free for everyone to enjoy. You can learn more about the festival by clicking here.

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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized President Bidens response to an expected Iran threat, saying the president has greenlit and not deterred the country from a retaliatory attack on Israel.

Biden warned Friday that the Iran attack could happen over the weekend. When asked what his message for Iran is, Biden said dont.

Pompeo joined Fox Newss Martha MacCallum Friday where he criticized the response, saying its really dangerous.

Well, he said dont multiple times and dont isnt a national security policy, Pompeo said. Its not even a deterrent.

The former Secretary of State said the risk of an Iranian attack seems significant, as U.S. officials have sounded the alarm this week.

Western intelligence has assessed that Israel is bracing for a major attack from Iran as a response to an April 1 attack on its embassy in Damascus, Syria. The suspected Israeli attack killed seven Iranian military advisers.

Americans have been told to avoid travel in Israel, U.S. troops have been moved to new positions in the Middle East and fears of a greater regional war continue.

Pompeo said Biden and the United States response has already failed.

The Iranians have already attacked Israel once on October 7 through their proxy Hamas. Theyre continuing to fire on American interests in the region now over 100 times since October 7, he said. So, what were talking about in the next 24 to 48 hours is just a continuation of a failed policy to actually protect Israel.

Pompeo noted that Iran has fired at Americans, the U.S. has had citizens die in the Red Sea amid attacks from Iran-backed Houthi rebels and have been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

They havent left us out of this and you cant leave the United States out when youre attacking our friend and ally in Israel, he said.

Pompeo added that the administrations message is a green light for a regime that has made very clear their intention is to destroy Israel and the United States.

His comments Friday echo remarks he made last month, when he accused the Biden administration of having a soft spot for Tehran. The former secretary of state, who has been an outspoken critic of Bidens foreign policy, said at the time that it is not possible to negotiate with Iran.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON)  Popular San Francisco nightclub Temple is preparing to shut its doors in May, according to a letter to staff that was obtained by KRON4.

Temple has been open since 2007 at its location at 540 Howard St. in the SoMa neighborhood. It cited economic factors for its closure.

Layoffs announced at 2 big Bay Area biotech firms

For the last several months Temple Nightclub has experienced financial difficulties due

to economic changes within our industry. In the past years we have taken action to

adapt to this new market with new processes. Unfortunately, this action has not resulted

in increased profitability, the letter said.

The closure will result in 86 layoffs, according to the notice. Those employees include bar staff, VIP servers, security and more.

The clubs last day of operation will be May 25.

Temple is overseen by Zen Compound, which runs venues in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Denver. Temple is its flagship location.

KRON4 reached out to Temple for comment and did not receive a response.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.
Porsche-driving Long Island squatters evicted by sheriffs deputies who changed locks, removed their belongings

Composite image: left, deputies bringing gayle out of the home's front door; upper right, grover; lower right, 39 brussel drive

A pair of accused Porsche-driving squatters who allegedly duped a judge to get legal rights to a home they didnt own were evicted this week when Nassau County sheriffs changed the locks and removed their belongings  including a big screen TV and their luxe ride.

Deputies knocked on the door of the Brussel Drive home in New Hyde Park around 8:30 a.m. Friday, escorting Denton Gayle and Margaret Grover out and watching as they loaded a moving truck.

The couple, who also share a toddler son, put their dog Daisy in the Porsche as they emptied the two-story Cape Cod, which had been in foreclosure for a decade and abandoned for years after members of the family that owned it died.

Sheriffs deputies brought Denton Gayle out of the home Friday morning. J.C. Rice

Gayle placing the couples dog, Daisy, into their Porsche. J.C. Rice

Authorities removed the couples belongings from the home this week. J.C. Rice

Gayle and Grover turned up at the dilapidated home last year, said irate neighbors who claimed the couple harassed them.

They were arrested in October after a 911 caller, concerned for the couples child, reported squalid conditions.

A Town of North Hempstead building inspectors report deemed the structure, which had no heat, electricity, hot water or working bathrooms, unlivable.

The couple had tried to claim they signed a lease for the home  which had no heat, electricity or hot water. J.C. Rice

Denton Gayle carries out a large-screen television while sheriffs deputies look on. J.C. Rice

Gayle and Grover claimed they signed a rent-to-own agreement. J.C. Rice

Gayle, 29, and Grover, 19, then went to Nassau Housing Court, and claimed to Judge Christopher Coschignano they had signed a rent-to-own agreement in July with the owner, Edward Iacono  even offering a lease with Iaconos signature.

Coschignano ordered they be allowed to return.

Margaret Grover shares a son with Denton Gayle.

Margaret Grover and Gayle turned up at the dilapidated home last year, said irate neighbors.

The two-story home was empty for years before Gayle and Grover began living there. Kathianne Boniello

But Iacono had died in 2016.

And his son, Edward Iacono Jr., died in 2018.

Furious neighbors went to court, submitting death certificates to Coschignano and asking for the order to be vacated.

Last month, Coschignano agreed after Gayle and Grover failed to offer proof of their claims.

They also sought to be made heirs to the property, records show.

A lawyer for the couple, who appealed Coschignanos decision, insisted to The Post earlier this month that they are not squatters, and that they believe they signed a valid lease in July with a man they thought was Edward Iacono.

A message regarding the eviction was not immediately returned.

Our residents deserve to live in a safe and peaceful community and the troubling issues at 39 Brussel prevented that, said North Hempstead Town Councilwoman Christine Liu, who visited the home Friday morning as the eviction was underway.

Myself and my colleagues at the Town of North Hempstead were happy to assist the residents [to] finally resolve this matter. We thank the Sheriffs Office for executing the eviction today.

Additional reporting by JC Rice
BEIRUT, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon announced on Saturday night the closure of the Lebanese airspace to aviation due to the Iranian drone attack on Israel.

"The Lebanese airspace has been closed to all aircraft arriving, departing, and crossing Lebanese airspace, temporarily and as a precaution, as of 1 a.m. on Sunday (2200 GMT Saturday) until 7 a.m.," the Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamieh said.

Iran has launched dozens of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) toward Israel which are expected to arrive in the Israeli airspace in the early hours of Sunday.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah announced early Sunday that its fighters targeted the Israeli Kela barracks with dozens of Katyusha rockets in the occupied Syrian Golan.

Hezbollah said in a statement that it launched its attack in response to the Israeli enemy's attacks on safe villages and towns in southern Lebanon.

Israeli warplanes on Saturday night continued their airstrikes in multiple areas in southern Lebanon, paralleled with violent artillery shelling targeting many towns and villages, Lebanese military sources told Xinhua.

The military sources, who spoke anonymously, said that Israeli warplanes carried out five raids in southeast Lebanon.

Eyewitnesses from border villages confirmed to Xinhua, "Dozens of powerful explosions reverberated in most of the border areas, and several drones flew at low to medium altitudes in the airspace of southern Lebanon."

Moreover, Israeli artillery fired approximately 80 shells toward more than 21 towns and villages in the eastern, central, and western sectors of the border area in southern Lebanon.

The military sources reported that they also monitored the crossing of several drones from Lebanon to Israel, most of which were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on Oct. 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas' attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon. 
The possibility of Ukraine's army collapsing cannot be ruled out a US official has warned, report says

The collapse of Ukraine's army cannot be ruled out, a US official told Bloomberg.

Russia has been advancing on the battlefield in recent weeks.

Ukraine's ammunition supplies and air defense capabilities are dwindling, say reports.

The possibility of Ukraine's army collapsing cannot be ruled out, an unnamed US official told Bloomberg.

The report said, citing talks with multiple officials, that Ukraine's position on the battlefield is at its most fragile moment since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022

Ukraine's war effort has been weakened in recent months by a severe shortage of ammunition, dipping morale among Ukrainian soldiers, and the impasse in Congress over US aid to Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.

One major risk is a collapse of Ukraine's line of defense, which would allow Russia to make a major advance, Bloomberg said, citing an official speaking anonymously.

In recent weeks, building on its capture of Avdiivka, Russia has advanced incrementally in eastern Ukraine, claiming new territory and threatening the town of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Friday that the government would allocate a further Hr 3.88 billion (almost $100 million) to help reinforce fortifications, primarily in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions, which sit near Russia's border.

However, The Wall Street Journal reported in March that although Ukrainian troops were building fortifications in preparation for an oncoming Russian offensive, there are fears that not enough progress is being made.

"What's happening right now is what Russia has spent a long time preparing for. It has gathered enough forces and resources to pressure various axes all at once," Maksym Zhorin, the deputy commander of the Third Assault Brigade, told the WSJ.

Meanwhile, Russia appears to have largely replaced its heavy battlefield losses, and at a much faster pace than anticipated, top US General Christopher Cavoli warned lawmakers on April 11.

"Russia is reconstituting that force far faster than our initial estimates suggested," Cavoli said in a statement to Congress. "The army is actually now larger  by 15 percent  than it was when it invaded Ukraine."

Ukraine's air defense capabilities are also showing vulnerabilities, as more Russian missiles and drones are hitting targets such as critical infrastructure facilities. The largest power plant delivering energy to Kyiv was destroyed Thursday raising concerns that Ukraine might be running out of surface-to-air missiles to counter Russian airstrikes, The Washington Post reported Friday.

"We need air defense systems and other defense assistance, not just turning a blind eye and having lengthy discussions," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

US aid to Ukraine

A new $60 billion US military aid has been held up in Congress since December due to opposition from some Republicans.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Joe Biden meet at the White House in September 2023. The Washington Post / Getty

The White House has tried to keep at least some aid passing through, sending $300 million in additional weapons last month and an emergency $138 million for upgrades to a key missile defense system, HAWK, earlier this week.

"If Congress does not help Ukraine, then Ukraine will lose the war," Zelenskyy warned Sunday to a group of celebrity ambassadors.

Zelenskyy said last week he remained hopeful of a "positive vote" in Congress, and suggested that Kyiv would be willing to receive the aid as a loan rather than a handout, an idea originally put forward by Donald Trump.

Read the original article on Business Insider
President Joe Biden delivers virtual remarks at the National Action Network Convention at the White House on Friday, April. The president touted record-low Black unemployment and a 60% increase in Black wealth, but warned of "extreme voices" who want to "turn back the clock." Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI

April 12 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden on Friday touted the promises his administration has kept for Black Americans, but warned of "extreme voices" that want to "turn back the clock" on racial equality.

Biden in his remarks to the National Action Network Convention, highlighted achievements under his administration, such as awarding $76 billion in federal contracts to small, disadvantaged businesses and investing $7 billion in historically Black colleges and universities.

He also touted "transformational changes" such as record-low Black unemployment and a 60% increase in Black wealth, while noting "there is much more work to do."

"There are more extreme voices out there who simply don't want to see people of color in the future of our country," Biden said.

"They want to turn back the clock -- voter suppression, election subversion, ripping away reproductive freedom, gutting affirmative action ... and attacking diversity across American life, banning books -- this is 2024 -- banning books, attempting to erase history, embracing political violence, like what happened on January the 6th."

President Joe Biden delivers virtual remarks at the National Action Network Convention as he seeks to rally Black voters to help him stay in office in November. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI

The Rev. Al Sharpton introduced Biden at Friday's National Action Network Convention as the incumbent president seeks to build support among Black voters ahead of November's general election.

Biden in his closing remarks said, "Our democracy is at stake," but he sees a future "where we defend democracy, we don't diminish it."

President Joe Biden at the National Action Network Convention touted such achievements under his administration as a $76 billion investment in small and underrepresented businesses. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI

"I see an America where, with your help, I sign the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act into law, where I sign the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act into law, where we make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again," he said.
The U.S. Congress must put their politics and grandstanding aside and pass re-authorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), for the safety and security of our nation and our United States assets overseas.

FISA has many portions to it, and the part we are discussing is called Section 702, enacted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which allows our intelligence community to monitor the communications of foreign suspected terrorists located outside of the United States, without a warrant. This is a crucial tool used to protect and prevent attacks on America. What's the problem? Politics. There are 19 Republicans who blocked a procedural vote that would have moved forward with authorization and funding for five more years. This section of this act will expire on April 19 and as House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, (being the House Intelligence Chair means he knows a lot of the spy stuff) starkly warned, "We will go blind on April 20.

Alicia Preston Xanthopoulos

It is irresponsible, dangerous and a remarkable dereliction of duty not to allow our good guys to spy on the bad guys, in order to protect we the people.

So, why would any lawmaker block a vote on such a vital tool for our safety? Because former President Donald Trump told them to. On Truth Social, Trump posted: KILL FISA, IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!! First, that is simply not true. Second, he himself signed this authorization into law while he was president, which came two years after he alleges his campaign was spied on during the 2016 cycle. Third, he holds no office in the U.S. government, so why are lawmakers, elected by we the people" listening to someone who was not elected by "we the people? At least not now and not yet again.

FISA Section 702 is not without problems or legitimate controversy. Its complicated, but the simple explanation is that there could be times if our intelligence community is monitoring a presumed foreign bad guy, if he is talking to an American, that data is collected. And while foreign alleged terrorists are most assuredly not protected by our Constitution and our laws, Americans are. However, there are procedures in place to assure that the data collected on Americans must go through a different protocol before it can accessed or used by our spy agencies and law enforcement. Further, there are current proposals to reform the Section to increase those protections into law. But, none of that can be taken up or addressed because 19 Republicans blocked the bill from even going to the floor of the House of Representatives. (For the record, I despise our rules process in Congress. It is unnecessarily cumbersome and complex, allowing moments like this to be caught up in partisan politics and political gamesmanship. They should adopt the straight forward procedures of the New Hampshire Legislature and maybe some things will actually get done.)

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, is trying to move the legislation forward, but he's up against reckless congressmen and congresswomen who are willing to do the bidding of the former president as opposed to the interests of the American people. For his part, Speaker Johnson is not exactly a Never Trump" Republican. He is self proclaimed MAGA Republican who just days ago went to Mar-a-Lago to join Trump for an election integrity" event. Moreover, he too, in his former position on the Judiciary Committee was skeptical about some of the concerns of FISA Section 702 citing terrible abuses by government and wanted reforms. Now however, in his current position, he receives all the intel that can be provided and says he understands the necessity of Section 702 of FISA and how important it is for our national security. It gave me a different perspective. Thats part of the process you have to be fully informed. What he's saying is: Before I had access to know all the scary spy stuff, I didn't understand how important this is, now that I do have access to all the scary spy stuff, I know we need this so terrorists dont attack us.

Several former Trump administration officials have come forward to alert us as to how dangerous it is not to reauthorize this program, including former Attorney General Bill Barr who referred to Trumps call to kill the bill crazy and reckless and admonished that there will be blood on peoples hands if it there is a terrorist attack, which could have been thwarted if only we had the needed intelligence.

What needs to be done is that dirty little word: compromise. Republicans, Democrats and the multiple factions within, must work together  give a little, take a little  when it comes to reforms within the bill. Congress is under some bizarre misconception that the American people dont want them to work together; that we don't want them to compromise; that were all so partisan we are willing to give up something as significant as our own safety and security for a political win. Thats not just a misconception, thats an absolute delusion.

Alicia Preston Xanthopoulos is a former political consultant and member of the media. Shes a native of Hampton Beach where she lives with her family and two poodles. Write to her at PrestonPerspective@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Commentary: FISA opponents put petty politics ahead of public safety
Professor Sallie Baxendale did not set out to challenge the orthodoxy on puberty blockers; her usual area of research is epilepsy. When Baxendale, a consultant clinical neuropsychologist in London, first read the claim that the controversial drugs were safe and reversible, my first thought was, this is really exciting, she says. That doesnt fit in with my understanding of how the brain works, so I want to go and see what the new evidence is and I just couldnt find any.

Prof Baxendales foray into this hotly contested area was accidental  the product of professional curiosity rather than an ideological agenda. Puberty blockers were not a topic of interest for her until she read, several years ago, that their effects were wholly reversible, a claim that was, at one point, on the NHS website and is still repeated by the transgender charity Mermaids.

From a neuropsychology point of view, [pubertal suppression] is really interesting, she says, speaking on the phone from her office at the UCL Institute of Neurology. We know that puberty is an important time in neurodevelopment, and we know that when it gets interrupted by other things, there are impacts on cognitive development. If there were a way round that, it could potentially have ramifications for Baxendales other work.

She was appalled to find an absence of evidence showing that the cognitive effects of puberty blockers were fully reversible, even though this was a treatment that had been adopted worldwide and was available on the NHS. There is no evidence, because nobodys looked at it, she says. People were really looking at puberty just from the development of sex organs and physical changes. But from a neuropsychological perspective, puberty is really important for cognitive development  in adolescence, the brain undergoes all sorts of changes.

But when Baxendale came to publish her review of the existing literature on the subject, she found it was an academic hot potato, rejected by three journals. As is usual, her analysis was subject to anonymous peer review processes before publication, but in each case she found herself criticised by the reviewers and the analysis was turned down. She claims this was nothing to do with the way Id conducted the study  it was rejected because they did not like the findings.

The reasons given for rejecting it were quite extraordinary, she says. One was this will stigmatise an already stigmatised group One [review] criticised me for using the terms male and female.... Thats what was so, so different compared to all the other papers Ive published. Anonymous reviewers cast aspersions about her motivation for exploring the topic in the first place.

Baxendale is certainly not the first researcher to find herself caught in the crossfire of the most toxic argument in academia, but says her case highlights how, when it comes to gender medicine, enthusiasm for treatment has overtaken the evidence.

Others in the field agree. Last month, the Dutch parliament ordered an investigation into the physical and mental health outcomes of children given puberty blockers  a dramatic about-turn given that the Netherlands pioneered the use of these drugs in a treatment protocol that was copied in the UK and around the world after it was published in 1998.

Baxendale didnt think her findings were controversial. I didnt think it was particularly earth-shattering, she says. It was basically, We dont know, we need to do some more research. She found that there had been more studies assessing the impact of puberty blockers on cognitive function in animals than in humans, and, in fact, most found that they had a detrimental effect.

Critical questions remain unanswered regarding the nature, extent and permanence of any arrested development of cognitive function associated with puberty blockers, she concluded. The impact of pubertal suppression on measures of neuropsychological function is an urgent research priority. She did not say puberty blockers should not be prescribed  just that there had not been enough research into their cognitive effects.

Campaigners insist that puberty blockers can form part of holistic and supportive healthcare for trans youth. Mermaids, the transgender charity, has claimed that denying a childs right to change their gender identity could increase the risk of suicide.

But the small number of studies that have assessed the impact of the drugs on children are flawed, Baxendale says. No human studies have systematically explored the impact of these treatments on neuropsychological function with an adequate baseline and follow-up. One credible piece of research  based on a single case study  actually found that puberty blockers caused an overall drop in IQ of 10 points. You cant say something is safe and reversible if you havent tested it to be safe and reversible, she says.

'These people deserve evidence-based care," says Prof Baxendale - Christopher Pledger/The Telegraph

When Baxendales research was published in February this year, she faced an online backlash. It has been quite distressing, she says. Ive been called a eugenicist, an anti-trans activist, and Im not even on social media.

Baxendale would do more research in the area were it not for the abuse shes received since publication. I would like to look at this again, but I would be quite wary of bringing other people onto the team early in their careers, because I wouldnt want them to be associated with the accusations of bigotry and transphobia.

Her academic colleagues were quietly supportive. Lots of people reached out and had stories, said Im very concerned, but none of them would go public and say that  because they see what happens when you do, she says.

I can see how younger researchers would run a mile from this. Its really really unpleasant when all youve done is write a paper to help the people they say you want to harm. That will really put people off doing research, and thats whats so desperately needed.

With the publication of the landmark review into gender-identity services for young people by Dr Hilary Cass this week, Baxendale is vindicated, as are the other academics who have gone against what was prevailing wisdom on the treatment of young people seeking gender reassignment.

The review concluded that the current treatment pathway for gender dysphoric young people is based on remarkably weak evidence. Its findings have led to a decision by NHS England to stop prescribing puberty blockers outside of clinical trials, but they remain available off-label via private prescriptions at non-NHS gender clinics.

The now-defunct Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust began prescribing puberty blockers to children as young as 12 on a trial basis in 2011.

In 2014, access to the drugs shifted from research-only to being available in general clinical practice, and GIDS lowered the prescription age from 16 to 11  despite its own research finding they do not improve psychological wellbeing for distressed children as previously claimed. The clinics director praised them on a CBBC programme, saying: The good thing is, if you stop the injections, its like pressing a start button and the body just carries on developing, despite concerns about irreversibility.

Baxendale hopes the Cass Review is a step in the right direction. It was really clear that research needs to be embedded into the new services, she says. These people deserve the same as everybody else: evidence-based care. When any group becomes exceptional and the rules start to not apply  thats when medicine goes off the rails.

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Prisoner accused of raping, terrorizing his NYC diplomat wife whines that hes traumatized by life in Rikers

A Saudi Arabian man charged with brutally raping and beating his high-ranking diplomat wife claims hes traumatized by life in Rikers Island.

Bandar Alharbi was arrested on Aug. 9, 2023 and charged with rape, assault, stalking and endangering the welfare of a child, and has been held without bail at Rikers awaiting trial since, records show.

Alharbi, 33, regularly abused his spouse, telling her all the graphic ways that he would kill her, and all that she was good for was in the bedroom, Assistant District Attorney Kirstie Raffan said during his August arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.

The family moved to the US in 2022 on diplomatic visas so the wife could take a job at the United Nations in NYC. Google

Alharbis alleged abuse of his wife, an ambassador from Bahrain, started on their honeymoon in 2017, according to a transcript from his arraignment.

In 2018, he gave her the first of many black eyes, prosecutors contend.

In 2022, they moved to Manhattan so the wife could pursue a job at the United Nations.

In one incident that year, Alharbi allegedly headbutted the woman in front of their 4-year-old at their posh Hudson Yards apartment, Raffan said.

She went to the hospital for stitches and when she returned home, he allegedly beat her with a garbage can and forced her to have sex, Raffan continued.

Alharbi would appear sexually aroused after these violent episodes, the prosecutor said in the transcript.

The woman once complained to Alharbi that her head hurt after one of his attacks, she said.

He came over to her, punched her on the other side of the head, and said, This is to balance it out,' Raffan said.

The couple previously rented a furnished apartment in a luxury Hudson Yards building. AFP via Getty Images

In April 2023, he threatened to send her family a photograph of him slitting her throat, Raffan said during the arraignment.

Another man wouldve killed you by now, he also told the 44-year-old, according to the transcript.

When their son was 5, he threw his hands up and pleaded with his father to stop hurting his mother, which the court papers said was the last straw for her.

She filed a police report and checked into a hotel, and Alharbi turned himself in a week and a half later.

His diplomatic immunity, which was granted when the family came to the US on diplomatic visas, was then withdrawn, according to the documents.

The wife has since fled to Bahrain with her son and filed for divorce.

Bandar Alharbi has been held in Rikers without bail and is due back in court at the end of April. AP

Now Alharbi is asking a Manhattan Supreme Court judge to release him from Rikers while awaiting trial at the end of the month, citing traumatizing and substandard conditions at the lockup.

Alharbi says an inmate stabbed him through his cheek while he was sleeping in November, according to the petition.

Another time, raw sewage spewed into his cell and he was forced to mop it up with his own clothes, according to the documents.

He was further forced to wait in literal filth until his entire area and laundry could be cleaned by janitorial staff, his lawyers claimed.

Alharbis lawyers say he has been assaulted at the jail and forced to mop up sewage with his clothes. NBC

Alharbi, who was an aircraft technician before moving to the US and was unemployed here, is seeking $250,000 bail, which his parents can help pay, and the Saudi government can loan.

In addition to his mechanical engineering background, Alharbi owns real estate in Saudi Arabia and a third of a nearly $2 million restaurant business, according to the filing.

His lawyers can then provide housing and help him find treatment for alleged alcoholism, the petition states.

His lawyers did not respond to questions.

A spokesman for the city Law Department said the complaint would be reviewed.
Tucker Carlson, please come back soon.

That was the message Newsweek senior editor-at-large Josh Hammer delivered shortly after Carlsons shocking ouster from Fox News, speaking for much of the American conservative movement at the time.

Hopefully, Carlson will retain something approximating his exceptional level of cultural and political influence in whatever role he next serves, because his witness to truth and civilizational sanity has never been more necessary, the conservative pundit added in his April 2023 column.

Nearly a year later, Hammers tone towards the former primetime cable-news star has noticeably shifted.

Turns out Tucker needed Fox more than Fox needed Tucker. Very sad, he tweeted this week.

So, what changed? Long story short: Gaza.

While the seeds of the pro-Israel rights split from Carlson were planted months ago, the situation came to a head earlier this week when the former Fox News star conducted a 40-minute online interview with Reverend Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian pastor from the West Bank. Throughout the cordial conversation, Carlson asked how the Israeli government had treated Christians since the launch of the war in Gaza, claiming that a consistent but almost never noted theme of American foreign policy is that it is always the Christians who suffer.

Even before watching the interview, Carlsons decision to platform Isaac, a pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, was already a step too far for many conservative supporters of Israel. The day after Hamas bloody Oct. 7 attack, the reverend seemed to celebrate the militant groups slaughter of Israeli music festival attendees.

One of the scenes that left an impression on my mind yesterdayand there are many scenesis the scene of the Israeli youth who were celebrating a concert in the open air [the Nova music festival] just outside the borders of Gaza, and how they escaped, Isaac said in his Oct. 8 sermon. What a great contradiction, between the besieged poor on the one hand, and the wealthy people celebrating as if there was nothing behind the wall. Gaza exposes the hypocrisy of the world.

But it wasnt just Carlsons guest of choice that infuriated many on the rightit was his own comments that were a bridge too far.

While taking aim at evangelical leaders and self-professed Christian lawmakers, Carlson claimed the United States has been sending money to oppress Christians in the Middle East. He urged Republicans to cut off military aid to Israel. It would be pretty easy for Republicans in the U.S. Congress to say we support the government of Israel. But if you touch a single Christian, harm a single church, prevent any Christian from practicing his religion, youre done, he declared. Not a single dollar will come from the U.S. Congress for you.

Carlson then concluded: If you wake up in the morning and decide that your Christian faith requires you to support a foreign government, blowing up churches and killing Christians. I think youve lost the thread.

Needless to say, especially since right-wing media and GOP officials have relentlessly bashed progressives over their increasingly pro-Palestinian stance, Carlsons screed went over like a lead balloon with a certain contingency of conservatives.

Tucker is cultivating hatred of Israel and Jews based on lies and innuendos, Israeli-American conservative journalist Caroline Glick tweeted in response to the interview.

It also further exposed the deepening rift between traditional conservatives and the openly bigoted alt-right, threatening to tear apart an already uneasy alliance holding the right-wing coalition together.

The dam may have broken with the Isaac interview, but the leaks had been forming for months when it came to Carlson, once a unifying figure for much of the Trump-era right.

While much of the newfound animosity relates to Israel, it also boils down to Carlsons role in a long-simmering feud between two of conservative medias most popular figures: far-right provocateur Candace Owens and Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro.

As an Orthodox Jew who fervently backs the Israeli government, Shapiro quickly took issue with Carlsons stance on the war in Gaza. Just days after the Hamas attacks, Carlson hosted former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who largely mimics the ex-Fox hosts isolationist foreign policy and attributed ongoing military support for Israel to financial and corrupting influences. Carlson, meanwhile, objected to selective moral outrage over the attacks while calling for more attention to American drug overdose deaths.

When it comes to comparing the Holocaust-level evil we just saw in Kfar Aza with people overdosing on the streets of Philadelphia, I have some moral questions. I do, Shapiro reacted at the time, accusing Carlson of moral blindness and downplaying the Oct. 7 attacks.

Owens, who at the time was still a Daily Wire host, also began to draw Shapiros ire over her criticism of Israel, much of which crossed the line into overt antisemitism. After their beef exploded out into the open last November, Carlson brought her on to dish. While taking Owens side in her increasingly fraught back-and-forth with the Daily Wire founder, Carlson also seemed to peddle the antisemitic dual loyalty trope about Shapiro. Im an American. Our country is being invaded right now. Over 100,000 Americans die every year of fentanyl, he exclaimed. Those are real tragedies. Ive never seen anything like the emotion from any commentator around those tragedies as Im watching about a foreign tragedy.

And late last month, with her rhetoric towards Jewish people reaching new lows, the Daily Wire finally kicked Owens to the curb. Her ouster from the ultra-successful right-wing media company, however, prompted explicitly racist and antisemitic edgelords and social-media trolls to rage about the firing by harassing Jewish conservatives with the phrase Christ Is King.

After Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing and others claimed that the use of the phrase was a coded antisemitic dog-whistle, much of conservative Twitter blew up at Boreing and his allies, prompting many influential figures to admit: We have a problem on the right.

Tucker is cultivating hatred of Israel and Jews based on lies and innuendos, one conservative journalist has written. Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty

Among the ringleaders of the backlash was Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist and Holocaust denier who leads the so-called Groyper movement. (The Groypers chanted this same phrase, Christ Is King, at the Million MAGA March.) The notorious social-media bigot, who infamously had dinner with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, has become an avowed fan of Owens as she became more explicitly antisemitic. Candace Owens has just been on a tear lately, he said last month. She has been in a full-fledged war against the Jews, and specifically some of these Zionist rabbis. And Ive been watching her evolution. Its been remarkable to witness.

Fuentes, not so coincidentally, was elated over Carlsons interview with Isaac and his comments about Israel and Christians. In a recent broadcast of his online show, Fuentes said, I love it because just like Candace Owens, it is waking people up.

I think its much better than almost anything Ive ever seen on his show since he left Fox News. I think its great stuff, he added.

While most Americans now disapprove of the Israeli militarys actions in Gaza, as Palestinian casualties continue to mount, a large majority of Republicans still back the countrys efforts. At the same time, that support is slowly eroding, dropping seven points since November, although a robust 64 percent of the GOP still remains firmly behind Israel.

So, does this mean the pro-Israel wing of the conservative movement is ready to turn its back on Carlson? It sure seems like it.

The vitriol towards the cable news host-turned-podcaster over his comments this week was fierce and direct.

This is who Tucker is: a click-chaser, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) declared on X. Tuckers MO is simple: defend Americas enemies and attack Americas allies. There isnt an objective bone left in that washed up news hosts body. Mindless contrarianism is his guiding principle, buttressed by his childish tactic to juSt aSK quEsTiOns!

Fox gave Tucker guardrails. Looks like he needed them, as well as access to decent researchers. So much of being at the top is hiring good support staff that dont make a fool out of you. A quick google search would have told Tuckers Fuentes-happy staff that Bethlehem is not,  Erielle Azerrad (@politicalelle) April 10, 2024

Crenshaws claim that Carlson would eventually fade into nothingness since his veneer of faux intellectualism is quickly falling apart was a common theme. Besides Hammer saying Carlson needed Fox more than they needed him, others said that the network gave Tucker guardrails because he needed them, citing his shoddy research for this latest interview.

Trumps former ambassador to Israel David Friedman also pushed back on Carlsons claims, noting that Bethlehem has been under Palestinian rule for decades and is now 80 percent Muslim and Christians are afraid. Columns for Tablet magazine and Jewish Insider, meanwhile, accused Carlson of whitewashing murderers to set fire to evangelical-Jewish relations by platforming the high priest of antisemitic Christianity.

Theres no one in American life who thinks less of Christians than Tucker. He doesnt like Jews, but he at least doesnt think were stupid, Commentary senior editor Seth Mandel tweeted. Even Trumps Bible selling is transparently transactional. Tuckers entire shtick relies on his belief that Christians are gullible saps.

Even one of Carlsons former colleagues called him out on live television. Leland Vittert, a former Fox News anchor who now hosts for NewsNation, likened Carlson to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, and accused him of overt antisemitism.

Tuckers a smart guy, Vittert said on Wednesday. Yet, hes taking the side of terrorists. Theres no other explanation than his unabashed hatred of Jews. (Vittert may also have some personal beef with his former colleague. In a 2020 text made public during Dominions Fox News lawsuit, Carlson told his primetime cohorts: We devote our lives to building an audience and they let Chris Wallace and Leland fucking Vittert wreck it.)

Ben Shapiros Daily Wire Cuts Ties With Candace Owens

In the end, a lot of people still want access to Tuckers platform, so [they] are reluctant to burn bridges, conservative social-media personality known as AG Hamilton, an outspoken Carlson critic with more than 150,000 X followers, told The Daily Beast. However, he said, it does appear that Carlsons recent comments have opened the door for more conservatives to feel free to openly bash the once-unimpeachable right-wing commentator.

I think the combo of the Russia stuff (subway etc), his attacks on Shapiro, the Israel interview has given people (outside of those like me who have always seen him as an inauthentic propagandist) permission to call him out. So to answer, I do think it will lead to some people distancing themselves. I dont think he will lose all or most of his audience, but thats with an already decreased baseline relative to his time on FNC, the pseudonymous writer added.

But at the very least it will lead some pro-Israel conservatives to ask whether the other information he is presenting on other topics is accurate, he concluded. Which is a good step.

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Alvin Bragg's about to become the most famous prosecutor in America (but no questions, please)

NEW YORK  Five days before his criminal trial against former President Donald Trump, the top prosecutor in Manhattan sat across from the liberal Rev. Al Sharpton in a hotel conference room packed with fellow Democrats.

For 12 minutes, they talked  about growing up in Harlem, about teaching Sunday school and about fighting gun violence. But not once did District Attorney Alvin Bragg mention Trump to the MSNBC host. Not once did he bring up the biggest case hes ever tried. And Sharpton had agreed not to ask.

I only talk about that matter in court filings and in the court. Thats what we do, Bragg said in a brief interview Wednesday as he left Sharptons National Action Network convention.

On Monday, Bragg will become the first prosecutor to put an American president on trial. He will be one of the biggest characters of the 2024 election and a hero to many Democrats, regardless of the outcome. Yet he appears to be a reluctant participant in his own narrative, avoiding interviews and declining to discuss the case in public settings.

Its a sharp contrast to the approach of New Yorks top litigator, Democratic state Attorney General Tish James, who has relished her role in securing a massive civil judgment against Trump  even getting standing ovations from similar audiences in recent months. In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is also leaning into her prominent role trying Trump on election interference charges, even after a romantic relationship with her top prosecutor almost forced her off the case.

Unlike the others, Bragg faced incredible political pressure from his Democratic base to indict Trump. And now that the case is going to trial, the first-term DA is shying away from owning the prosecution. Bragg isnt even planning on being in the courtroom every day, according to a person familiar with his thinking who was granted anonymity to discuss his plans.



At a time when the idea of an independent judiciary is under fire across the country  by those on both the left and right  Bragg is hoping to dull the criticism that hes unfairly prosecuting Trump to hurt the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Ive been an officer of the court going on more than 20 years, and the way we comport ourselves is important, Bragg said. In the courtroom first and foremost, [but] obviously, theres a public dimension. So we are guided by the rules of the court and fair play.

His approach is more reminiscent of U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has avoided saying much about his investigation into Trumps role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.

That sort of avoidance is sound legal strategy, said Eliza Orlins, a Manhattan public defender who ran against Bragg in 2021.

If he really were out there flaunting it, it would be pretty inappropriate, Orlins said. Trumps legal team has already tried to delay the trial every which way, with limited success. It would taint the potential jury pool if the district attorney were out there saying things, slam dunking.

Its also Braggs temperament, according to people close to him  understated, not fiery.

He's been in the crosshairs of the MAGA crowd since the day he took office, for sure, said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, a Democrat who is a friend and ally of Bragg. And the number of death threats incoming prove it. But Bragg hasnt been knocked off course, he added. Emotionally, he's still extremely solid because he's a resilient, strong person. He knows why he's doing this.

Bragg indicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records  charges that could lead to prison time, if hes convicted. The case argues that Trump hid the politically damaging information of an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels from voters by filing false checks and business records to obscure the hush money payments.



Trump has attacked Bragg personally, calling him a degenerate psychopath that truely hates the USA! and an animal. Bragg is Black.

But even as an elected official in Manhattan, where the overwhelming majority of the population opposes Trump, Bragg hasnt fought back. James, by contrast, has quipped that Trump inflating his net worth wasnt The Art of the Deal like his book, but the art of the steal.

When Bragg was asked about his case on public radio station WNYC in December, the furthest he went was a technical clarification of the question.

The core is not money for sex, Bragg said. We would say it's about conspiring to corrupt a presidential election and then lying in New York business records to cover it up.

But his relative silence on the eve of the Trump trial  declining to be interviewed for a New York Times profile, avoiding the Sunday show circuit  is also a clear component of Braggs communications strategy, a quiet response to the incessant complaints of Trump, and his supporters, that the case wouldnt be brought if Trump were not Trump.

It wasnt always this way for Bragg. He won a competitive open primary for the seat three years ago in part by arguing his previous job working in the state Attorney Generals office put him in the best position to take up the Trump investigation, which had wallowed in the Manhattan DAs office for years.

Again and again, hes shown a readiness to stand up to powerful people and interests in the fight for justice, former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara wrote in a fundraising email from Braggs campaign, whether its launching the investigation into the Trump Foundation or cracking down on abusive landlords.

But once he got into office, Bragg faced backlash for not charging Trump immediately. The lead prosecutors who had been handling the case in his office resigned in dramatic fashion, while Braggs liberal supporters grew restless with the lack of an indictment for more than a year.

I bring hard cases when they are ready, Bragg said at a press conference early last year, defending his deliberation.

Just like Trump, Braggs own political future could be tied to the result of the case.



Crime rates in Manhattan are trending down over his tenure, but are still above pre-pandemic levels. Like other progressive prosecutors, hes faced intense pushback to his focus on offering alternatives to incarceration. Hes been tagged on Fox News and in the conservative New York Post as a primary example of progressive policing policies gone wrong.

Bragg is up for reelection in 2025, and the Trump case is somewhat of an electoral gamble for him.

The political tradeoff is, if he wins the case, then Trump will reelect him, said Hank Sheinkopf, a moderate Democratic political consultant. If he loses, he can be beaten by the sense that things are out of control on the streets.

So even as the Trump trial swirls around him, Bragg is keeping a busy schedule with other things.

After the interview with Sharpton, Bragg said he was going to a cybersecurity conference to talk about how his office is prosecuting people who finance terrorism with cryptocurrency. Then to internal meetings with his street crime prosecution team.

We have a lot that is important to everyday New Yorkers, he said. I'm continuing to be focused on really, really important things.

Moments later, a Fox News reporter and two camera operators bound down a staircase to catch Bragg on his way out of the building. Why not focus on crime? Instead of Trump? the reporter shouted to him. Braggs security guard got in between them and rushed the district attorney out a side door.
The armourer on the movie Rust, who was convicted of manslaughter last month, trashed jurors in jailhouse calls following the verdict, prosecutors said.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed described the jury as idiots and a**holes, prosecutors said, after they reached a verdict in two hours. The 26-year-old is to be sentenced on Monday in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

She was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter over the 2021 accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed when a prop gun held by actor Alec Baldwin fired a live round of ammunition during filming.

Hutchins was hit in the chest and Joel Souza, the director, was struck by a bullet in the stomach. Mr Souza survived his injuries but Hutchins did not.

New Mexico prosecutors are seeking the maximum penalty for Gutierrez-Reed, arguing that the jailhouse calls to her mother, boyfriend, and her attorneys paralegal make clear her complete and total failure to accept responsibility for her actions," according to court filings on Friday.

Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed pictured in court on 5 March, 2024 (AP)

Prosecutors have asked that she spend 18 months in jail, the longest possible sentence for the charges, according to CNN. Shes also expected to pay a $5,000 fine.

Her attorneys are hoping to avoid the maximum sentence and to secure a conditional discharge for the 26-year-old. They have asked for probation, citing her lack of a criminal record.

In calls from jail, Gutierrez-Reed blamed Hutchins death on the doctor and paramedics on set. She also claimed that the judge and special prosecutors office conspired against her, the outlet reported.

Prosecutors said that Gutierrez-Reed complained during her phone conversations about how the shooting has affected her life while never expressing genuine remorse at any time.

During her two-week trial, prosecutors said that Gutierrez-Reed repeatedly failed to maintain proper firearm safety, resulting in negligence that led to Hutchins death. Colleagues called the armourer sloppy and unprofessional.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed on the set of Rust moments after Halyna Hutchins was shot in 2021

Gutierrez-Reed's primary job was maintaining, controlling, and ensuring the safe handling of firearms and ammunition on set. Prosecutors argued that the live round that killed Hutchins was pulled from Gutierrez-Reed's work station on the day of the incident.

She routinely left firearms and ammunition lying around the set, prosecutors said. The jury was shown videos of numerous instances in which firearms were not being handled properly by actors. One clip showed Gutierrez-Reed holding a shotgun with the barrel pointed up at her own head.

Alec Baldwin will go on trial in July for involuntary manslaughter over Hutchins death.

Baldwin pleaded not guilty in January. Prosecutors say his actions led to safety compromises.

Gutierrez-Reed insisted she would not testify at Baldwins trial because he did not speak in her defence.

Alec Baldwin on the Rust film set in costume (Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office)

Her attorneys have called her a scapegoat for Baldwin.

The jury previously acquitted Gutierrez-Reed of a tampering with evidence charge. Shes facing a separate charge of unlawful carrying of a firearm in a licensed liquor establishment, unrelated to the movie-set shooting.

Gutierrez-Reed is being held at Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility, where shes been since 6 March. Shes the first person to be put on trial for the Rust movie shooting.
As the Ukraine war rages for a third year, with casualties well into the hundreds of thousands, some Americans argue that the United States should pursue peace via negotiations, instead of helping Ukraine fight off Russias invasion.

Its a common position among the Republican Partys dominant MAGA wingfor example, Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) argued that military aid for Ukraine should be totally off the table and replaced with a push for peace talksas well as the anti-war left, and some self-styled realists.

Pope Francis Urges Ukraine to Have Courage of the White Flag in Peace Talks

The underlying logic is that American support makes the Ukrainians overconfidentincluding in 2023s costly and largely unsuccessful counteroffensiveand the U.S. doesnt mind sacrificing an indefinite number of Ukrainians to hurt Russia. Therefore, weakening Ukraine by withdrawing aid would encourage them to pursue reasonable accommodation. In this vision, Ukraine concedes land Russia currently controls and formally promises never to join NATO, the U.S. guarantees it, and the violence finally ends.

In The Nation, Adolph Reed, Jr. says hes outraged at Bidens adventurist bellicosity in Eastern Europe with rhetoric to stoke hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, and claims the United States seems hell-bent on fighting to the last Ukrainian.

Reed doesnt try to explain how the U.S. supposedly tricked or forced Russia into massing 190,000 troops and invading in 2022, nor tricked Ukraine into resisting Russias assault when they supposedly want to surrender. He assumes that Russia wants peace, the United States wants war, and Ukraine has no agency, so war it is.

Russian President Vladimir Putin talks to military pilots in Torzhok, Russia on March 27, 2024. Sergei Karpukhin/Sputnik/Reuters

Arguing in Foreign Affairs that the West should pave the way for diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine, Samuel Charap and Jeremy Shapiro acknowledge Russian and Ukrainian agency, but like Reed, assume Vladimir Putin wants peace. Kyiv and Moscow have more opportunities for signaling, because they are the belligerents, they write, so Russia should indicate that its war aims are limited, that it is prepared to negotiate an end to the war, and that it will abide by the terms of a settlement.

But what if Russias war aims are expansive, its not prepared to negotiate, and if it got concessions now, itd violate the settlement when ready to try for more, much as the 2022 invasion violated previous agreements? Charap and Shapiro dont say.

Some world leaders, such as Brazilian President Lula da Silva, have gone further, calling for negotiations now, and chastising Ukraine for wanting too much. Pope Francis stirred controversy in March when he told Ukraine to have the courage to raise the white flag.

But while the Trumpist right appears driven by a desire to see Russia succeed, even the well-intentioned calls to cut off Ukraine aid in the hope it leads to a negotiated settlement rely on a very dubious assumption: that Russian leader Putin wants peace.

Putin Is After Conquest

Most people like peace. They might be willing to fight in self-defense, but generally think the death and destruction of war is bad and want it to stop.

Putin is not like that. His words and actions indicate he prefers pursuit of domination over peace, and thinks his tolerance for the suffering of war is an asset against more peace-minded adversaries. Russia launched its full-scale attack on Ukraine over two years ago for basically the same reason Russia launched military action against Ukraine in 2014 and Georgia in 2008: because Putin wants to and can.

Ukrainian infantry soldiers of the 23rd Mechanized Brigade wait to head toward the frontline in the Donetsk region, on April 3, 2024. Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images

Putins Russia has repeatedly shown that by were open to negotiation they mean well accept your surrender now. Government officials and state media figures insist Ukraine is not a real country and should not exist. In March 2024, former Russian president and current deputy chair of Russias Security Council Dmitry Medvedev declared that Ukraine is definitely Russia, and displayed a map of Eastern Europe depicting a larger Russia, with Poland and Romanias borders changed as well.

Its possible all this is an elaborate, sustained, collective posturing to generate leverage for negotiations. But if so, its awfully consistent, and theyve maintained it across numerous public and leaked private channels for over two years under global scrutiny. More likely, its an expression of intent.

That means Russias reaction to Ukraine weakeningdue in large part to the loss of American supportis not oh thank God, that means were safe, we can stop this awful war now, but something more like see, I told you theyre weak, nows the time to push harder, theyll break.

In a recent interview, Putin himself confirmed as much, saying, It would be ridiculous for us to start negotiating with Ukraine just because its running out of ammunition.

Contractors work with the military to construct state-of-the-art shelters in the Zaporizhzhia region, southeastern Ukraine, on March 24, 2024. Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Ukraine Doesnt Want to Surrender

Ukrainians are human beings with agency. Ukraine is an independent state with an elected government. It might seem absurd to say something so obvious, but some prominent arguments against aid treat Ukraine as a Western vassal, forced to fight at foreign masters bidding.

For example, in one conspiracy theory, Ukraine and Russia were on the verge of a peace deal in spring 2022, except then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Ukraine not to.

Like many conspiracy theories, it requires leaps of logic. How did Johnson have the power to make a country that had been fighting off Russian invasion for two monthseight years, really, since Russia took Crimea and fomented war in Donbas in 2014to keep fighting when they wanted to quit?

In reality, Ukraine had just thwarted Russias initial thrust to take the capital, Kyiv, and uncovered torture, rape, and murder in the town of Bucha after Russian forces withdrew. In those 2022 talks, Russia rejected further withdrawal and demanded big concessions, Ukraine didnt want to subject millions of Ukrainians to Russian occupation like in Bucha, and the talks went nowhere due to incompatible demands.

Elon Musks Ukraine Peace Plan Is Asinine

Accepting that Putin wants to dominate Ukraine, and that Ukraine wants to resist, means that even a weakened Ukraine with less foreign support is unlikely to surrender. If Putin achieves his original goal of regime change in Ukraine, that probably wont end the waras Americans should know from Iraq.

If Putin takes a deal that leaves the Ukrainian government and military in place, it will likely be unstable, with Russia reconsolidating to try for more later, and Ukraine preparing to counter it. That describes the situation for a decade now, and into the indefinite future.

And even that sort of deal appears out of reach, with Russia and Ukraine both demanding significantly more (in opposite directions).

Russia isnt expressing openness to any real peace deal. And to the extent they do, Ukrainians dont trust Putins word. No negotiated agreement since 2014 stopped Russian aggressionnot entirely, or not for long.

Military Realities

Underlying some calls for Ukraine to sue for peace is a misunderstanding of the state of combat. After large swaths of territory changed hands in 2022, the front line barely moved in 2023, leading some to call it a stalemate. But the line was very active, with Russia alone suffering about a quarter million casualties last year.

The U.S. Government Cant Allow Elon Musk the Power to Intervene in Wars

Then in 2024, Russia managed to break that not-actually-a-stalemate. As Ukraine faces ammunition shortages, in part due to U.S. aid drying up months ago, Russia has taken advantage, pressing up and down the line. In February this year, Ukraine withdrew from the eastern city of Avdiivka, Russias first territorial gain since spring 2023.

Despite increasingly desperate requests, Congress hasnt passed any aid for Ukraine in over a year. The Senate passed a bill two months ago by a vote of 70-29, but Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has refused to bring that or any alternative to the floor (likely because he knows its popular and would pass with bipartisan support). Ukraine is notably weaker as a result, but there are no signs theyre more inclined to surrender.

A member of Russias emergencies ministry inspects a damaged flat inside an apartment building hit by recent shelling, in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, on April 4, 2024. Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Meanwhile, Russia has reacted to Ukrainian weakness not by seeking a negotiated settlement, but by pushing harder, throwing bodies at the front and bombs at Ukrainian cities. Putin, other top Russian officials, and Russian state media are sounding confident and aggressive, reiterating that Russia aims to dominate Ukraine, and that they expect the weak-willed West to fold.

As military analyst Michael Kofman notes, Russia has geared up for a long war, now devoting approximately 8 percent of GDP to defense.

If cutting off military aid would incentivize both Ukraine and Russia to seek peace, wed probably see signs of it by now. But were seeing the opposite.

Waiting for the 2024 U.S. Election

One of the biggest factors in the Ukraine war this year is the upcoming American presidential election, because there is a realistic possibility that the U.S. will switch sides.

Current president and Democratic nominee Joe Biden supports Ukraine and democracy more generally. Biden told Americas NATO allies in Europe that hell back Ukraine for as long as it takes, and calls on Congress to pass more aid.

By contrast, former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump expresses sympathy for Russia and Putins model of authoritarian leadership. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Trump publicly gushed that the move was savvy and genius. He urged Republicans in Congress to block Ukraine aid even after theyd won concessions on U.S. border security.

If Trump becomes president again, its apparent that his plan for the war is to push Ukraine to give Russia what Putin wants. Trump openly advocates Ukraine ceding territory to Russia, including land the Russian military hasnt been able to take and hold.

Donald Trumps Pathetic and Dangerous Foreign Policy Reboot

Going further, Trump says that if Russia threatened a NATO ally, he would encourage Russia to do whatever the hell they want if the NATO country didnt pay, misguidedly treating the NATO alliance like a protection racket rather than a mutual defense pact.

The Russian government can see all this, and surely believes theyd get a more favorable settlement in Ukraine with Trump in the White House rather than Biden. And since Putin doesnt see the death and destruction as inherently badsomething to stop for the sake of sparing lives on both sideshell continue the war through 2024 no matter what.

That means peace isnt an option this year, even if Westerners wish to see it. The choice facing the United States in Ukraine is not between peace and war, but between a weakened Ukraine pushed back by Russia and a well-equipped Ukraine defying Russia.

And that, like so much else, is on the ballot this November.

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Azerbaijani lands remained under Armenian occupation for thirty years, and during these three decades, Armenia's patron, mainly France tried to freeze the conflict in Garabagh through the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group. All this was a botched plan prepared by the representatives of the European Union and the OSCE at that time in favour of Armenia, but later it would fail due to the will of Azerbaijan's state policy and diplomacy.

Today, Armenia, which wants to achieve everything and sees the country where it takes every step as its territory, accuses the OSCE Minsk Group, which does everything in its favour, of inept policy.

After 2020, when the geopolitics in the South Caucasus changed, Armenia raised a fuss in front of all the organizations of the European Union, from the UN, and began to accuse Azerbaijan as an invader. However, until now, Yerevan considered the 4 resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council as mere paper and ignored its articles.

After September 2023, Armenia completely despaired of the European Union organizations and began to accuse the parties that once defended it one by one. The first of these was Russia, with which the country's incumbent government began to break ties.

Yerevan, which once submitted to all decisions under Moscow's patronage, today, is trying to burn bridges by turning its face only to the West.

Now it is the turn of the OSCE Minsk Group, which dedicated its entire 30-year "productive period" to Armenia.

The Armenian side believes that the Minsk Group of the OSCE has simply approached to Armenia with negligence for 30 years. It is even mentioned in one of the social networks: "For 30 years, they threw us from side to side like a bag" - Pashinyan is to blame and the OSCE Minsk Group.

He called the activity of the co-chairmen of the OSCE MG group "legitimate geopolitical rivalry for the Republic of Armenia", they said one thing to Armenia and did another.

This is not the first ingratitude of Armenia towards its partners. This has been the case for many years and will continue to be so.

Now it is the turn of their most beloved sister country, France. They will probably have their turn soon, and soon Macron and his entourage will be criticized in the main news headlines of the Armenian media.
Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, meets with Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in Pyongyang, the DPRK, April 13, 2024. Zhao is heading a Chinese party and government delegation on an official goodwill visit to the DPRK. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

PYONGYANG, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Zhao Leji, chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, met with Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) here on Saturday.

Zhao, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, is heading a Chinese party and government delegation on an official goodwill visit to the DPRK.

Zhao extended to Kim the kind regards and good wishes of General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping.

Zhao said that appointed by General Secretary Xi and the CPC Central Committee, he is heading the Chinese party and government delegation to pay an official goodwill visit to the DPRK and attend the opening ceremony of the "China-DPRK Friendship Year," and that he was warmly received by the WPK and the DPRK government.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and the DPRK, and the journey of the past 75 years epitomized good neighborliness and friendship as the two countries stood side by side, fighting together and sharing a common destiny and common development, he said.

Under the new situation, China is ready to work with the DPRK, in accordance with the lofty will of the top leaders of both parties and both countries and common aspirations of the two peoples, to push the China-DPRK relationship for greater development, Zhao said.

Zhao pointed out that the China-DPRK friendship, established and cultivated meticulously by the elder generations of revolutionists of both parties and both countries, has withstood various tests of the changing international situation and is an invaluable asset of the two countries.

Zhao said that the CPC and the Chinese government have always treated the China-DPRK relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective, and it is China's unwavering policy to maintain, consolidate and develop the China-DPRK traditional friendly and cooperative relations.

China is willing to work with the DPRK, under the strategic guidance of the top leaders of both parties and both countries, to promote bilateral practical and mutually beneficial cooperation to attain new achievements, continue to strongly support each other and safeguard the shared interests of the two countries, he said.

China stands ready for close coordination with the DPRK to ensure the success of all activities of the "China-DPRK Friendship Year," he added.

China, in accordance with the strategic plan laid out at the 20th CPC National Congress, is comprehensively advancing the building of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation through Chinese modernization, Zhao stressed.

China is willing to intensify coordination in development and deepen bilateral cooperation with the DPRK, and to continuously enrich China-DPRK relations, he said.

Kim asked Zhao to convey his sincere greetings and best wishes to General Secretary Xi.

Kim said that appointed by General Secretary Xi and the CPC Central Committee, the Chinese party and government delegation's visit to the DPRK and attendance at the opening ceremony of the "DPRK-China Friendship Year" fully demonstrate General Secretary Xi's friendliness over DPRK-China relations and strongly demonstrate the profound and unbreakable foundation of bilateral ties.

Kim extended his warm congratulations over the development achievements that China has made in the pursuit of its socialist cause under the strong leadership of General Secretary Xi and the CPC.

He stressed that the DPRK-China relations have boasted a profound historical tradition, having withstood various tests and been passed on from generation to generation.

Kim said that it is the unwavering policy of the WPK and the DPRK government to consolidate and develop the traditional friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries. The DPRK-China relationship is continuously developing to new and higher stages in line with the demands of the new era, he added.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties and the "DPRK-China Friendship Year," and the DPRK stands ready to work with China to strengthen cooperation in various fields, increase exchanges of experience in state governance, deepen traditional friendship, and write a new chapter for bilateral ties, he said.

Upon leaving Pyongyang, the Chinese party and government delegation was seen off at the airport by officials including Choe Ryong Hae, a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK.

On Saturday afternoon, Zhao visited and extended his regards to staff members of the Chinese embassy and representatives of overseas Chinese in the DPRK. 

Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, meets with Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in Pyongyang, the DPRK, April 13, 2024. Zhao is heading a Chinese party and government delegation on an official goodwill visit to the DPRK. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)
FILE PHOTO: Qantas planes are seen at a domestic terminal at Sydney Airport in Sydney

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's Qantas Airways (QAN.AX) said on Saturday it had temporarily rerouted flights between Perth and London on concerns about the Middle East, as expectations rose of an attack by Iran on Israel.

"Were temporarily adjusting the flight paths for our flights between Perth and London due to the situation in parts of the Middle East," a Qantas spokesperson said. "Well reach out to customers directly if theres any change to their booking."

Qantas said no flights between Perth, the capital of Western Australia state, and London had been paused or cancelled but that flights on the route were operating on an adjusted flight path via Singapore.

The Sydney-based airline's other flights to and from London remained unchanged as they take different flight paths.

Israel on Friday braced for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of retaliation for the killing last week of a senior officer in Iran's embassy in Damascus. U.S. President Joe Biden said he expected an attack "sooner, rather than later" but warned Tehran not to proceed.

(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by William Mallard)
Questions continue about funding for Port City United in wake of charges against employee

The New Hanover County Commissioners and county staff have been discussing the budget for the 2025 fiscal year. One major topic of conversation has been the future of Port City United's funding.

Funding for Port City United remains in jeopardy as the New Hanover County Commissioners begin budget discussions for the 2024-25 fiscal year.

During a budget work session on April 11, two commissioners  Dane Scalise and LeAnn Pierce  were adamant that they would not support continuing to fund the controversial department.

Port City United is a county-funded effort that aims to work within neighborhoods to provide connections, promote healing and help prevent violence. But its faced scrutiny since its inception.

The latest round of controversy comes after the suspension of Port City Uniteds mediation outreach program. On March 25, the units supervisor, Stephen Michael Barnett, was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact to attempted murder.

According to an arrest warrant, Barnett was allegedly driving the vehicle used to take the suspect in a shooting away from the scene at the Houston Moore community.

Barnett has since been dismissed from his position, and the units other employees have been placed on paid administrative leave.

Now, the commissioners are discussing how to move forward and whether Port City United should even continue to be funded.

More: Port City United faces uncertain future as leaders debate programs effectiveness

Funding details

At the budget work session, Chief Financial Officer Eric Credle outlined the costs, which total $5.74 million, associated with Port City United.

The approximate costs for each area are:

Administration: $568,000

Mediation and outreach: $946,000

Call center: $1.1 million

Community resource coordinators: $1.3 million

Legal aid/second chance: $352,000

Technical certifications: $250,000

United Way Capacity Building: $1.2 million

Administration, mediation and outreach, and community resource coordinators are already budgeted in the working 2025 fiscal year budget, Credle said, but legal aid/second chance, technical certifications, and United Way Capacity Building are not currently in the working budget.

The administration and call center would be funded almost completely through a combination of American Rescue Plan funding and general fund through the revenue stabilization fund, Credle said.

While the working budget already includes some cost reductions for Port City United, the two main areas being discussed are the mediation and outreach unit and the community resource coordinators.

Mediation and outreach unit

The mediation and outreach unit has 10 employees and has violence interrupters who work to deescalate cases at immediate risk of violence in the community and open cases to those in the community who need extra resources.

Coudriet said the mediation and outreach branch is under review for its policies and procedures and he expects to have more information in early May.

The mediation and outreach unit has successfully intervened in 85% of 52 cases that were at immediate risk of violence, according to statistics provided by the county.

Community resource coordinators

Meanwhile, the community resource coordinators division has 22 employees who work with K-12 students that work in high-risk public schools in the county.

The coordinators provide behavioral interventions, identify root causes of low academic success, social and emotional mentoring to teach conflict resolution and communication skills to children in local schools.

School administrators were surveyed about their satisfaction with the program and 100% said that they value having the community resource coordinators in the school buildings, according to information provided by the county.

Of the 58% of parents who responded to a survey asking for input, 97% said they were satisfied with the services that coordinators provide.

But they arent necessarily supported by everyone in the school district.

While perhaps its reported to us that the schools appreciate the attendance of these men and women, it has been made very clear to me that the school board is not necessarily supportive of these coordinators, Coudriet said. Im not sure Im in a position that I could recommend to you to continue with $1.3 million.

Coudriet said the community resource coordinators are not being zeroed out because of what is happening with the mediation and outreach portion of Port City United.

Commissioners' reaction

Scalise said he felt the mediation and outreach portion should not be funded in the next fiscal year and that he would not vote to approve the budget if that funding is included. Pierce said the same.

I dont think its a good return on investment in many instances, Scalise said.

Scalise said he would rather look to the private sector and nonprofit sector to explore experimental concepts and that New Hanover County should focus on funding law enforcement and education.

Coudriet said he could not let the mediation and outreach portion of Port City United take full credit for the downtrend of violence in the community with the work that law enforcement and other groups have also been doing.

Commissioner Jonathan Barfield Jr. said its important to recognize the work and at least take some credit for the work the mediation and outreach unit has done.

There are things that would happen, that wouldve happened, that havent happened that you will never even know about because someone was there to intervene, Barfield said. Those are situations that I will never know about because I will never be in those spaces and those places, and neither would anyone on this board.

As for the community resource coordinators, Barfield said, the teachers are closest to the problem, not the school board members, and theyre telling you x, y, and z.

Barfield said stepping back from Port City Uniteds mediation and outreach as well as community resource coordinators would send a different message to a specific part of the community, and he doesnt know if the county wants to send that message.

The commissioners will continue to meet to discuss fiscal year 2025s budget, which will start July 1. The planned budget adoption is set for June 17.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: New Hanover County continues to discuss Port City United funding
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When CNN asked for your questions about former President Donald Trumps first criminal trial  for his role in hush money payments made before the 2016 election to women who said they had affairs with him  we got a flood of input. Not all of it was fit to print.

But there were a lot of legitimate and very thoughtful questions, which weve updated now that the defense and prosecution have both rested and jurors may begin deliberations as soon as May 28. Keep reading for a representative sampling, which helps explain the case, along with context from CNNs reporters and coverage.

Most of the questions come directly from reader submissions, but for others, Ive taken the liberty of simplifying multiple submissions into one question. Trump, by the way, denies having the affairs and has pleaded not guilty in the case.

I went to CNNs chief legal analyst Laura Coates for the single, most-asked question, which was asked in many ways but boils down to: Could Trump actually go to jail?

Coates: If Trump were to be found guilty of all of the counts, he could theoretically be facing more than a decade in prison. The 34 felony counts are classified as Class E felonies in New York, the lowest level felony in the state.

The maximum penalty for each of those counts is four years; however New York caps sentencing for this type of felony at 20 years. It is within the judges discretion to decide whether those sentences would run concurrently or consecutively. Because the crimes involve nonviolent offenses and Trump does not have a criminal record, the judge could also consider jailing him for a period that is but a fraction of the maximum penalty.

Another possibility is that the judge could forego prison entirely and place him on probation with the possibility of incarceration looming over his head if he fails to abide by the conditions set by the judge. If the judge should decide to incarcerate post-conviction, Secret Service would become the elephant in the, well, cell. The unprecedented nature of incarcerating a former president would raise questions about how best to ensure equal treatment under the law and security for a former president.

Watch Coates show weeknights at 11 p.m. ET where shell answer a lot more of your questions.

I reached out to the Secret Service to ask if they had planned for the potential that Trump could be imprisoned. Not surprisingly, I was told by a spokesman that this is something we can not comment on at this time.

But note that as a matter of US law, former presidents and their spouses are afforded lifetime Secret Service protection, unless they decline it.

This is ultimately a question of strategy. But testimony in previous proceedings has not gone well for Weisselberg, the former, longtime chief financial officer for the Trump Organization.

He is currently indisposed at Rikers Island, a prison in New York, where hes serving time for admitting to perjury in the civil fraud trial that ended in a more than $400 million judgement against Trump for inflating his net worth to get friendly loan terms.

Prosecutors told Judge Juan Merchan they did not attempt to compel Weisselbergs testimony in this trial even though he played a crucial role in payments to Trumps former fixer, Michael Cohen. Defense lawyers said Weisselberg was not available to either side for testimony and would likely invoke his Fifth Amendment rights if called. Look for jurors to be given instructions about how to view testimony they heard about Weisselberg.

There is strong evidence that the campaign was in a state of panic after the release of the Access Hollywood tape in 2016. There is strong evidence from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker about the desire to help Trumps campaign by finding and neutralizing damaging stories. Its clear that Cohen organized payments for Stormy Daniels, a woman who claimed an affair with Trump, and that he took out a loan to make them happen.

But Cohen is the only witness who said that Trump specifically made payments to Cohen to reimburse him for the payments to Daniels. Jurors will have to believe Cohen, an admitted liar and felon, that the payments were improper reimbursement and not simply lawyer fees.

A unanimous vote is required for either conviction or acquittal. Anything short of a unanimous verdict would be a hung jury. The judge will try very hard to get the jury to reach a unanimous verdict.

A hung jury might be perceived as a net win for Trump since prosecutors would have to ponder whether to try him again on the same charges and theres little chance it would happen before Election Day.

The former first lady has not attended any of her husbands criminal trial, although many of Trumps political allies  senators, House members and more  have shown their support by attending some of the arguments.

Trumps son with Melania, Barron Trump, graduated from high school in Florida during the trial and the judge canceled arguments that day so that the former president could attend the ceremony. Given that the trial included testimony from Daniels about her alleged affair  which Trump has denied  it is perhaps not surprising that Melania Trump would decide not to attend the proceedings.

First, Trump never signed a check to Daniels, and that is a major element of the case. Cohen engineered the hush money payment when he could not get the National Enquirer to foot the bill. Cohen took out a line of credit on his apartment to come up with the cash. Trumps payments to Cohen after Trump won the White House were, according to Cohen, to pay him back for the Daniels payments, plus a bonus, and for other things like a bogus poll Cohen engineered.

Second, Trump did claim to give up control of the Trump Organization to his adult sons, Eric and Donald Jr., when he was in the White House. But the arrangement was universally criticized by ethics experts. Trump maintained his ownership stake in the business.

Some of his payments to Cohen were made from accounts associated with the trust set up to hold the Trump Organization while Trump was president. Other payments were made from a personal bank account, but all the payments were processed by the Trump Organization, according to prosecutors.

Trump isnt technically accused of having an affair, which he denies and which is not illegal. The hush money itself, represented by a contract between two parties, is not necessarily illegal either. Hush money was paid by the Trump-supporting publisher of the National Enquirer to the former Playboy model Karen McDougal, and, separately, it was paid by Cohen to Daniels.

But in this case, the payments, which were intended to hide details from voters before the 2016 election, violated campaign finance law. National Enquirers parent company admitted wrongdoing, and Cohen pleaded guilty to violating campaign law and served time in prison.

Federal prosecutors, as a matter of Department of Justice policy, were unable to prosecute Trump for the payments when he was president and decided not to bring charges after he left office. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg then brought this case. Trump is accused of falsifying business records (a New York state crime) in an effort to use illegal campaign contributions to influence the 2016 campaign (a federal crime).

Yes. This is an important element of the case. Falsifying business records in New York is a misdemeanor. The felony charge here is falsifying business records to further another crime. And this is where the case against Trump gets unique. The other crime is a campaign finance violation to which Cohen has already pleaded guilty. It is a state crime made a felony by furthering a federal crime.

Federal prosecutors, by the way, decided not to pursue charges against Trump with regard to the campaign finance violation.

Jurors heard testimony about how nervous Trumps campaign was after the Access Hollywood tape was published and they desperately wanted to tamp down on any unflattering stories. Trumps defense is that he did not want the Daniels story to be published because he wanted to keep the information from his wife.

Nothing about any of this is normal. Trumps stated legal strategy is to delay legal proceedings as much as possible in the hope that they do not conclude before the presidential election.

Its a strategy that so far is paying off in federal court. His federal election interference case is stalled until the US Supreme Court rules on what most people consider to be a ridiculous total immunity argument. His federal trial on classified documents is on indefinite hold in Miami. His trial in Fulton County, Georgia, on state election interference allegations has been delayed by allegations of impropriety in the personal life of the DA bringing the case.

This is a great and essentially unanswerable hypothetical. First, it assumes multiple things will occur: Trump would have to be convicted, sentenced, exhaust appeals, report to prison and win the election. Thats a very specific scenario thrust upon a very unpredictable set of circumstances and a short timeline.

I talked to Frank Bowman, a law professor emeritus at the University of Missouri who is both an expert in criminal law and published a book on the impeachment process, for his thoughts on how to deal with a convict president. The Constitution, he said, theoretically allows a person to serve even if hes a convicted felon or even if hes a convicted felon in the joint.

Timing, however, would get in the way of this hypothetical ever occurring. This stuff takes a long time, and the appeals would drag out, probably beyond Election Day and Inauguration Day, Bowman said.

Its also possible Trumps opponents, after a conviction, could try again to either impeach him or object to his presidency based on the 14th Amendment, although those avenues have been tried and failed previously.

If somehow Trump was convicted in this state case, Bowman imagined there could be some argument by which the Constitutions Supremacy Clause  which prohibits states from interfering in the exercise of constitutional powers  could be utilized to keep Trump from state prison. But it would be a novel thing.

If, on the other hand, Trump was somehow convicted in one of his two federal trials and sentenced to federal prison, as president he could theoretically try to pardon himself or order the Bureau of Prisons to do something like confine him at the White House. Again, this is uncharted territory that is unanticipated in US law and, Bowman argues, unlikely to occur.

This story has been updated with additional information.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
California has the fifth-highest number of missing and murdered Indigenous people cases in the country. How did we get here?

After passing Public Law 280 in 1953, Congress essentially washed its hands of funding law enforcement and criminal justice on tribal lands in six states: Alaska, California, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon and Wisconsin. That meant much fewer resources for public safety and significant obstacles to preventing or resolving cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people in these states.

My legislation, Assembly Bill 2138, will help remedy this injustice by giving tribal police greater law enforcement powers.

Public Law 280 eliminated federal support for law enforcement and courts, except for limited and specified expenditures. This has resulted in widespread confusion among tribal, local and state law enforcement agencies. Individual agreements between some tribes and local police can help, but they arent perfect, and miscommunication is an unfortunate and common consequence. Such agreements can also be terminated or altered when elections produce leadership changes.

Opinion

Other negative impacts of Public Law 280 include the absence of peace officer status for tribal police; the inability to arrest non-native persons committing crimes on tribal lands; less support for funding and infrastructure for personnel, equipment and training; a greater mistrust of outside policing; and a general uncertainty about who to turn to when criminal activity is underway or threatened on reservations.

This undermining of public safety also affects neighboring communities around reservations because cities and counties have fewer partners to rely upon when mutual assistance is needed.

Unsurprisingly, California  like other states affected by Public Law 280  has among the highest number of reported missing Indigenous people cases. Of the 10 states with 100 or more reported missing and murdered Indigenous people cases, five are subject to Public Law 280.

Now, California must consider revamping the way we administer this pernicious and racist law that originated when Congress was trying to deny tribal nations sovereignty, force greater assimilation and protect non-Native persons who committed crimes against those residing on reservations. We can ensure greater Indian County safety by enacting AB 2138, which would let the state grant peace officer status to tribal police.

Last year, a Native woman went missing in San Francisco. Despite mistrust of the police, the family filed a missing persons report that was treated dismissively by officers who said, Adult women dont go missing. Its a choice.

Tribal police requested  and were subsequently denied  a Feather Alert, a year-old state public notification system I authored similar to AMBER or Silver alerts that are used to notify the public when Native Americans are missing or endangered. Family, community and tribal police continued searching. Fortunately, the woman was found. But her story is not unique.

Victims and their families try to cope with life-changing grief and loss. Too often, children are left without parents or loving homes and become yet another Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons statistic. California ranks fifth nationally in the number of these cases, mostly in Northern California. In December 2021, the Yurok Tribe issued an emergency declaration in response to a spike in such cases and attempted human trafficking on the reservation.

California has appropriated new resources for the Department of Justice to combat violence and assist victims and tribes. Additional state funding of $12 million was approved in the 2022-23 budget to boost policing and victim support over three years.

New funding and greater attention to this tragic epidemic will help. In May, tribes and the nation will commemorate victims and their families, bringing attention to this crisis. Let us do more than remember the victims. We can help stop the violence by passing AB 2138.

Assemblymember James C. Ramos represents the 45th Assembly District and is the first and only California Native American serving in the states Legislature. Ramos chairs Assembly Budget Subcommittee #6 on Public Safety.
Systemic racism and sexism have permeated civilization since the rise of agriculture, when people started living in one place for a long time. Early Western scientists, such as Aristotle in ancient Greece, were indoctrinated with the ethnocentric and misogynistic narratives that permeated their society. More than 2,000 years after Aristotles writings, English naturalist Charles Darwin also extrapolated the sexist and racist narratives he heard and read in his youth to the natural world.

Darwin presented his biased views as scientific facts, such as in his 1871 book The Descent of Man, where he described his belief that men are evolutionarily superior to women, Europeans superior to non-Europeans and hierarchical civilizations superior to small egalitarian societies. In that book, which continues to be studied in schools and natural history museums, he considered the hideous ornaments and the equally hideous music admired by most savages to be not so highly developed as in certain animals, for instance, in birds, and compared the appearance of Africans to the New World monkey Pithecia satanas.

The Descent of Man was published during a moment of societal turmoil in continental Europe. In France, the working class Paris Commune took to the streets asking for radical social change, including the overturning of societal hierarchies. Darwins claims that the subjugation of the poor, non-Europeans and women was the natural result of evolutionary progress were music to the ears of the elites and those in power within academia. Science historian Janet Browne wrote that Darwins meteoric rise within Victorian society did not occur despite his racist and sexist writings but in great part because of them.

It is not coincidence that Darwin had a state funeral in Westminster Abbey, an honor emblematic of English power, and was publicly commemorated as a symbol of English success in conquering nature and civilizing the globe during Victorias long reign.

Despite the significant societal changes that have occurred in the last 150 years, sexist and racist narratives are still common in science, medicine and education. As a teacher and researcher at Howard University, I am interested in combining my main fields of study, biology and anthropology, to discuss broader societal issues. In research I recently published with my colleague Fatimah Jackson and three medical students at Howard University, we show how racist and sexist narratives are not a thing of the past: They are still present in scientific papers, textbooks, museums and educational materials.

From museums to scientific papers

One example of how biased narratives are still present in science today is the numerous depictions of human evolution as a linear trend from darker and more primitive human beings to more evolved ones with a lighter skin tone. Natural history museums, websites and UNESCO heritage sites have all shown this trend.

The fact that such depictions are not scientifically accurate does not discourage their continued circulation. Roughly 11% of people living today are white, or European descendants. Images showing a linear progression to whiteness do not accurately represent either human evolution or what living humans look like today, as a whole. Furthermore, there is no scientific evidence supporting a progressive skin whitening. Lighter skin pigmentation chiefly evolved within just a few groups that migrated to non-African regions with high or low latitudes, such as the northern regions of America, Europe and Asia.

Sexist narratives also still permeate academia. For example, in a 2021 paper on a famous early human fossil found in the Sierra de Atapuerca archaeological site in Spain, researchers examined the canine teeth of the remains and found that it was actually that of a girl between 9 and 11 years old. It was previously believed that the fossil was a boy due to a popular 2002 book by one of the authors of that paper, paleoanthropologist Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro. What is particularly telling is that the study authors recognized that there was no scientific reason for the fossil remains to have been designated as a male in the first place. The decision, they wrote, arose randomly.

But these choices are not truly random. Depictions of human evolution frequently only show men. In the few cases where women are depicted, they tend to be shown as passive mothers, not as active inventors, cave painters or food gatherers, despite available anthropological data showing that pre-historical women were all those things.

Another example of sexist narratives in science is how researchers continue to discuss the puzzling evolution of the female orgasm. Darwin constructed narratives about how women were evolutionarily coy and sexually passive, even though he acknowledged that females actively select their sexual partners in most mammalian species. As a Victorian, it was difficult for him to accept that women could play an active part in choosing a partner, so he argued that such roles only applied to women in early human evolution. According to Darwin, men later began to sexually select women.

Sexist narratives about women being more coy and less sexual, including the idea of the female orgasm as an evolutionary puzzle, are contradicted by a wide range of evidence. For instance, women are the ones who actually more frequently experience multiple orgasms as well as more complex, elaborate and intense orgasms on average, compared to men. Women are not biologically less sexual, but sexist stereotypes were accepted as scientific fact.

The vicious cycle of systemic racism and sexism

Educational materials, including textbooks and anatomical atlases used by science and medical students, play a crucial role in perpetuating biased narratives. For example, the 2017 edition of Netter Atlas of Human Anatomy, commonly used by medical students and clinical professionals, includes about 180 figures that show skin color. Of those, the vast majority show male individuals with white skin, and only two show individuals with darker skin. This perpetuates the depiction of white men as the anatomical prototype of the human species and fails to display the full anatomical diversity of people.

Authors of teaching materials for children also replicate the biases in scientific publications, museums and textbooks. For example, the cover of a 2016 coloring book entitled The Evolution of Living Things shows human evolution as a linear trend from darker "primitive creatures to a civilized Western man. Indoctrination comes full circle when the children using such books become scientists, journalists, museum curators, politicians, authors or illustrators.

One of the key characteristics of systemic racism and sexism is that it is unconsciously perpetuated by people who often dont realize that the narratives and choices they make are biased. Academics can address long-standing racist, sexist and Western-centric biases by being both more alert and proactive in detecting and correcting these influences in their work. Allowing inaccurate narratives to continue to circulate in science, medicine, education and the media perpetuates not only these narratives in future generations, but also the discrimination, oppression and atrocities that have been justified by them in the past.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Rui Diogo, Howard University

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Rui Diogo 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.
RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, in a file picture. British jets are reported to have taken off from the base - JULIAN SIMMONDS

British RAF jets were reported to have shot down Iranian drones bound for Israel on Saturday night.

It was reported that British jets took off from Cyprus in order to intercept drones and missiles launched from Iran.

Israels Channel 12 said that US and UK fighter jets shot down Iranian drones near the Syria-Iraq border.

When asked about the missile strikes, the Ministry of Defence did not comment.

The operation would mark a significant increase in the UKs involvement in supporting Israels security in the region.

In recent months the UK has joined with the US in undertaking air strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen in a bid to disrupt and degrade the Iran-backed groups capabilities.

The Houthis control much of north-western Yemen and have been attacking merchant vessels in the region since November.

US and British warships have also been deployed as part of an international task force to protect commercial shipping in the region.

But Saturday nights operation also comes against the backdrop of increasing tensions between the UK and Israel over the latters military offensive in Gaza.

Earlier this month, an Israeli air strike killed seven air workers from the World Central Kitchen, including three British citizens.

The deaths led to calls in some quarters for the UK to stop arms sales to Israel. However, last week Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, confirmed that such sales would not be suspended.

Lord Cameron said that he reviewed the most recent advice about Israels conduct and the latest assessment leaves our position on export licences unchanged.

Let me be clear, though, we continue to have grave concerns around the humanitarian access issue in Gaza, both for the period that was assessed and subsequently, he said.

So far, no like-minded countries have taken the decision to suspend existing arms export licences to Israel and Id add that Israel remains a vital defensive security partner to the UK.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Missouri teen Ralph Yarl feels like he got lucky when he survived being shot twice for ringing the wrong doorbell. Today (April 13) marks the anniversary that the 17-year-old mistakenly went to the wrong house to pick up his two younger brothers from a playdate. The door he should have approached was a block away, but Yarl did not have his phone with him and was unable to double-check the address.

Instead of being warmly greeted, he was shot in the right arm and head by Andrew Lester. The 85-year-old claimed he was in fear for his wellbeing. Yarl previously shared that he heard the man say, Dont come here ever again. The Staley High School scholar managed to flee, seeking help from neighbors. He was declared a walking miracle and managed to make a full recovery despite dealing with a traumatic brain injury.

Days later, Lester turned himself in and was charged with felony first-degree assault and armed criminal action. He was released on a $200,000 bond. The all-state bass clarinet player told NBC News Its definitely a bumpy journey, ahead of the one-year mark of the life-altering experience. The interview is the first in-depth public discussion about the shooting that he has participated in.

Whenever theres something that goes on that reminds me of what happened ... I just have, like, such a negative wave of emotions, like anger, like disgust. Its always a mix of good and bad days. And I feel like the good days are when Im able to be around people that help me build myself up, he added.

The college-bound student has described his recovery as a constant uphill battle that led him to not attend his senior prom out of concern of his peers asking about the shooting, at times avoiding phone calls and texts, and difficulty synthesizing complex information. He also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. If someone approaches me with kindness, of course, Im going to be friendly with them, he said, but still, he noted that theres always a part of me that says that person could potentially be a threat.

Next fall, he plans to pursue an engineering degree when he enrolls at a university, though he has yet to decide which he will attend. I just feel like I got lucky, really, he said about his survival. Lester is expected to appear before a judge on Sept. 6. His trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 7.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBlBczkbxhs
The Cascade County Courthouse in Great Falls, Montana (Photo by Darrell Ehrlick of the Daily Montanan).

Randy Pinocci is off the hook for a couple of felony charges in Cascade County  at least for now  but hes out $200.

As part of a deferred prosecution agreement, Pinocci pled no contest to a disorderly conduct misdemeanor with a $100 fine, and he admits there was probable cause to charge him for the felonies.

Pinocci, a Montana Public Service Commissioner, is a Republican running to be lieutenant governor as part of Tanner Smiths longshot bid for governor.

Pinocci was not required to enter any guilty pleas as part of the agreement and continues to maintain his innocence, his lawyer Mark Parker said Friday.

He is still adamant he didnt do anything wrong, Parker said.

The deferred prosecution agreement also comes with a $100 fee. It means Pinocci needs to obey the law for six months or risk being recharged with the two witness tampering felonies.

The charges were connected to a dispute Pinocci had last summer with the brother of a tenant of his. He was accused of challenging the man to a fight and later accused of trying to force witnesses to disavow testimony.

In January, however, Parker said he hoped the Cascade County Attorneys Office would take another look at the charges given the evidence; he considered the case a head-scratcher.

Parker said Friday he was pleased the prosecution did so.

Im proud of the county attorney for taking a fresh look at this, Parker said. Sometimes, they get stuck, and they wont take another look. And in this case, they took another look, and by God, thats what they have to do sometimes.

Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki said a judge agreed this week to the terms of the agreement.

He also confirmed his office faces political pressure when dealing with high-profile candidates such as Pinocci.

Racki said he receives phone calls from people lobbying for and against them  and wanting him to consider matters that arent relevant to the case.

But he said prosecutors must treat the more prominent suspects the same way they would treat an ordinary citizen.

You dont want to go for blood or go for broke because its a high-profile case, Racki said.

At the same time, he said, prosecutors cant just sweep an incident under the rug.

You want to treat them just like you would any citizen off the street who did the same thing, Racki said. And thats what we did in this case.

For instance, he said Pinocci has no criminal history, and the misdemeanor citation appeared to be out of character, which he said dictates the way his office approached the agreement.

The felonies dismissed as part of the agreement come with maximum penalties of 10 years in prison and fines of up to $50,000 or both.

Pinocci DPA Pinocci plea agreement

The post Randy Pinocci pleads no contest to misdemeanor, felonies dropped appeared first on Daily Montanan.
Raytown woman facing charges after shots fired in a road rage incident

LIBERTY, Mo.  Officers have arrested a Raytown woman after road rage led to her allegedly shooting a gun, according to the Liberty Police Department.

Shannon Ireland, 36, of Raytown, was arrested after an investigation with several different area police departments.

Smithville man facing charges for October road rage incident in Liberty

Police say that Ireland shot a gun near Kansas Street and I-35.

The Clay County Prosecutors Office charged Ireland with a Class B felony of aiding/abetting a person discharging/shooting a firearm at or from a motor vehicle. She has a $50,000 bond.

Ireland will be in court on Monday for an arraignment.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
CAIRO, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's air defense systems were placed on high alert following Iran's announcement of launching retaliatory attacks on Israel, a senior Egyptian security official told the Al-Qahera News TV on Saturday.

The official stated that a crisis response team was monitoring the situation and reporting to President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry voiced its concern over the escalation and urged restraint to prevent further instability in the region, adding the current tensions are connected to the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip and regional military activities.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) confirmed on Saturday that it had launched missile and drone attacks on Israel, in retaliation for the Israeli airstrikes on the Iranian consulate building at its embassy in the Syrian capital of Damascus on April 1. 
On April 9, 2024, the Arizona Supreme Court issued a 4-2 decision that allowed a law banning abortion  on the books since before Arizona became a state  to be enforced.

The backlash was immediate. U.S. President Joe Biden released a statement calling the law, which bans all abortions except those necessary to save the life of the mother and with no exceptions for rape or incest, "extreme and dangerous." Kari Lake, an Arizona Republican candidate for U.S. Senate who previously called the ban a "great law" in 2022, reversed course and urged state lawmakers to repeal it. Kris Mayes, Arizona's attorney general, has said she will not enforce the ban.

One particular claim seemed to come up again and again in criticism of the decision. MSNBC anchor Joy Reid, for example, noted that when the law was passed in 1864, the age of sexual consent for girls was just 10 years old. An article in The Washington Post said the same thing. Author Stephen King posted about it on X. But is it true?

(@StephenKing / X)

In 1863, the New Mexico territory was split into two territories: New Mexico and Arizona. In 1864, the territorial governor commissioned Arizona's first set of laws, called the Howell Code. Inside the Howell Code, one particular provision banned the practice of inducing a miscarriage.

Its wording was updated in 1901 (Title IX, Chapter 3, Sections 243 and 244), but it did not change the legislative effects. The 1901 version of the law was adopted after Arizona became a state in 1912 (Title IX, Chapter 5, Sections 273 and 274). One more rephrasing of the same law happened in 1928, but other than those wording changes, the 1864 Howell Code's law was the same as the statute that was challenged in 2024.

Snopes saw two versions of the claim about Arizona's age of consent in 1864 circulating online.

In its most vehement form, the claim is that the same law in the Howell Code criminalizing abortion also set the age of consent for females at 10 years old. This is false. The law in question (Chapter X, Section 45) mentions poisoning and the intentional causing of a miscarriage (abortion) but does not mention the age of consent in any way:

SEC. 45. Every person who shall wilfully and maliciously administer or cause to be administered to or taken by any person, any poison or other noxious or destructive substance or liquid, with the intention to cause the death of such person, and being thereof duly convicted, shall be punished by imprisonment in the Territorial prison for a term not less than ten years, and which may extend to life. And every person who shall administer or cause to be administered or taken, any medicinal substances, or shall use or cause to be used any instruments whatever, with the intention to procure the miscarriage of any woman then begin with child, and shall be thereof duly convicted, shall be punished by imprisonment in the Territorial prison for a term not less than two years nor more than five years: Provided, that no physician shall be affected by the last clause of this section, who in the discharge of his professional duties deems it necessary to produce the miscarriage of any woman in order to save her life.

It was actually a separate law within the Howell Code, Chapter X Section 47, that set the age of consent for females at 10 years old. Because these were different statutes, the Arizona Supreme Court's 2024 decision had no effect on the state's current consent laws. (By the time Arizona became a state in 1912, the age of consent was 18, for the record.)

SEC. 47. Rape is the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will. Every person of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall have carnal knowledge of any female child under the age of ten years, either with or without her consent, shall be adjudged to be guilty of the crime of rape, and shall be punished by imprisonment in the Territorial prison for a term not less than five years and which may extend to life.

The other and more common version of the claim was simply that under the Howell Code, and contemporaneous with the law banning abortion, Arizona's age of consent was 10 years old. This version of the claim was true.

The same 1864 code of laws (the Howell Code)  but not the same abortion law itself  set the age of consent at 10 years old. Still, any kind of rhetorical argument against archaic laws coming back into play still stands  the original version was passed more than 150 years ago.

After nearly a month of bipartisan pressure, on May 1, 2024, three Republicans in the Arizona House of Representatives and two state Senators joined all of both chambers' Democrats to repeal the law. Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, signed the bill repealing the ban on May 2, 2024.

With the stroke of my pen, the 1864 abortion ban is about to OFFICIALLY become a thing of the past.  Katie Hobbs (@katiehobbs) May 2, 2024

The fight wasn't quite over. In a statement released after the state Senate's vote, Attorney General Kris Mayes said there was still work to be done:

Today's vote by the Arizona Senate to repeal the draconian 1864 abortion ban is a win for freedom in our state. I look forward to Governor Hobbs signing the repeal into law as soon as possible. However, without an emergency clause that would allow the repeal to take effect immediately, the people of Arizona may still be subjected to the near-total abortion ban for a period of time this year. Rest assured, my office is exploring every option available to prevent this outrageous 160-year-old law from ever taking effect.

Sources:

13-3603 - Definition; Punishment. https://www.azleg.gov/ars/13/03603.htm. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024.

"Arizona Supreme Court Ruling | PDF | Roe V. Wade | Statutory Interpretation." Scribd, https://www.scribd.com/document/721546641/Arizona-Supreme-Court-abortion-law-ruling. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024.

"Arizona Supreme Court to Enforce 1864 Abortion Ban, When Age of Consent Was 10." MSNBC.Com, https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/watch/arizona-supreme-court-upholds-1864-abortion-ban-208672325700. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024.

Attorney General Mayes Issues Statement on Repeal of 1864 Abortion Ban | Arizona Attorney General. 1 May 2024, https://www.azag.gov/press-release/attorney-general-mayes-issues-statement-repeal-1864-abortion-ban.

Bump, Philip. "Analysis | Here Are Some Other Laws Arizona Had on the Books in 1864." Washington Post, 10 Apr. 2024. www.washingtonpost.com, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/10/arizona-abortion-law-1864-laws/.

DocumentCloud. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24539191-the-howell-code?embed=true&responsive=false&sidebar=false. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024.

Healy, Jack, and Kellen Browning. "Arizona Reinstates 160-Year-Old Abortion Ban." The New York Times, 9 Apr. 2024. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/09/us/arizona-abortion-ban.html.

Healy, Jack, and Elizabeth Dias. "Arizona Lawmakers Repeal 1864 Abortion Ban, Creating Rift on the Right." The New York Times, 1 May 2024. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/us/arizona-senate-house-abortion-ruling.html.

House, The White. "Statement from President Joe Biden on Arizona Supreme Court Decision to Uphold Abortion Ban from 1864." The White House, 9 Apr. 2024, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/09/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-arizona-supreme-court-decision-to-uphold-abortion-ban-from-1864/.

"Https://Twitter.Com/Katiehobbs/Status/1786104535875756523." X (Formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/katiehobbs/status/1786104535875756523. Accessed 2 May 2024.

"Https://Twitter.Com/StephenKing/Status/1778728393535561987." X (Formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/1778728393535561987. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024.

Linton, Caroline, and Elizabeth Campbell. GOP-Led Arizona Senate Votes to Repeal 1864 Abortion Ban, Sending It to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs - CBS News. 2 May 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arizona-abortion-ban-state-senate-repeal-vote/.

Mizelle, Shawna, and Elizabeth Campbell. Arizona House Votes to Repeal 1864 Abortion Law, Measure Now Heads to the State Senate - CBS News. 24 Apr. 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arizona-democrats-effort-to-repeal-1864-abortion-ban/.

Mutnick, Ally, and Megan Messerly. "Kari Lake Is Scrambling to Call Arizona Lawmakers after Abortion Ban Ruling ." Politico.Com, 11 Apr. 2024, https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/11/kari-lake-arizona-abortion-ban-00151835.

N, et al. "Arizona Attorney General Says She Won't Enforce a 164-Year-Old Abortion Law." NPR, 12 Apr. 2024. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2024/04/12/1244265593/arizona-attorney-general-says-she-wont-enforce-a-164-year-old-abortion-law.

Revised_Statutes_of_Arizona_1901.Pdf | Powered by Box. https://arizona.app.box.com/v/Revised-Statues-Arizona-1901. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024.

"Today in History - February 24." Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/february-24/. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024.

Updates:

May 2, 2024: This story was updated to reflect the fact that legislation repealing the 1864 statute was passed in the Arizona state legislature and signed by the governor.
The remains of a baby have been found at a house in Wigan, with police arresting five people in connection with the incident.

Greater Manchester Police has sealed off two addresses in the Lancashire town after making the discovery, which it described as heartbreaking.

The five people, aged between 20 and 70, were arrested on suspicion of unlawful burial and concealing a death.

They have all since been released on bail.

Officers remain on the scene at the two addresses. One is in the north western suburb of Marsh Green and the other is two miles on Valley Road, Pemberton.

The force said it had received intelligence from a partner agency before making the arrests.

A truly heart-breaking discovery

It said it would remain at the scene over the following days as officers conduct extensive enquiries.

Ch Supt Clare Jenkins said: This is a truly heartbreaking discovery, and I do not underestimate the impact that this news will have on the local community.

I would like to reassure you that we have several teams of officers and specialist resources working diligently to find answers.

You will likely notice an increased presence of our officers throughout the next week, if you have any concerns or want to share any confidential information, please do not hesitate to speak to them.

In the coming days we will know more about the circumstances surrounding this incident, but we are confident that this is isolated, and there is no threat to the wider public.

At this stage, we are keeping an open mind, and we will provide updates as soon as we can.

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New research has revealed that the ancient monuments Woodhenge and Stonehenge are contemporary with one another, not built hundreds of years apart as previously thought, and that Woodhenge was built in at least two phases.

The Neolithic monument of Woodhenge had long been thought to have been constructed in a single phase around 2300 BC on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, a couple of hundred years after the sarsen stones were erected at nearby Stonehenge.

Now, radiocarbon dating of Woodhenges concentric ovals of standing posts, surrounded by a bank and ditch, has found that the solstice-aligned timber rings are earlier than assumed and the monument was constructed over a longer period than previously realised.

It now seems the timber rings were erected in the decades around 2600 BC and the surrounding earthworks were made about 150 to 200 years later, circa 2450 BC.

The timber rings are therefore broadly contemporary to Stonehenge, which was erected in the decades around 2500 BC, or slightly earlier.

The research was co-headed by Amanda Chadburn, English Heritages former lead adviser at the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site.

She told The Telegraph: Weve dated different parts of Woodhenge and some bits are clearly later than others, showing that the monument wasnt all built at the same time.

Woodhenge lies around two miles from Stonehenge - Johnny Jones/Alamy

Weve discovered that it was a two-phase monument and that its solstice-aligned timber rings were earlier, constructed around 2600BC  and is therefore broadly contemporary with the sarsens at Stonehenge.

So its pushed Woodhenge back to a similar period. This shows that actually its a much more complicated picture.

Noting that both monuments were aligned with the solstices, she said of the Woodhenge discovery: Its significant because it proves that Stonehenge was not a one-off within the landscape.

It shows that people who held their ceremonies or religious rituals in these monuments were looking at the sun in a similar way [at the same time].

Discovered from the air

Woodhenge was discovered in 1925 after RAF Squadron Leader Gilbert Insall noticed strange formations in a ploughed field while flying near the Wiltshire village of Durrington.

The monument consisted of six concentric rings of timber posts of varying sizes, forming an oval 40 metres (131 feet) long and 36m (118ft) wide. English Heritage notes: The outermost two rings consisted of relatively small and closely spaced posts.

Moving inwards was the ring with the largest posts, comprising 16 posts measuring about 35cm (14in) in diameter Within this ring were three smaller ovals of posts.

While Woodhenge seems to have had a single entrance  facing towards the henge monument of Durrington Walls  its oval post rings are aligned northeast to southwest, linked to either the midsummer sunrise or midwinter sunset.

Dr Chadburn recently retired from Historic England, where she was senior policy adviser. For 20 years, at English Heritage, she oversaw Stonehenge as the lead archaeologist.

She conducted the latest research with Clive Ruggles, emeritus professor of archaeoastronomy in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at Leicester University.

Their findings will feature in their forthcoming book, Stonehenge: Sighting the Sun, to be published on May 8 by Liverpool University Press on behalf of Historic England, which funded and oversaw the radiocarbon dating.

They write: These new results mean that we can now say with some certainty that the timber sun-sighting monument at Woodhenge was earlier than its surrounding henge, which had no solstitial alignments

Once the timber rings started to decay, it seems reasonable to assume that this sun-sighting timber monument fell out of use.

Their new research also challenges common misconceptions about the monuments and explores archaeoastronomy, the study of how ancient peoples understood phenomena in the sky and what role the sky played in their cultures.

Dr Chadburn said: Clive and I wanted almost to set the record straight. Theres quite a lot out there which is fringe or inaccurate. Archaeoastronomy is not something that is well understood by archaeologists  and astronomers dont often understand the archaeology.

In their book, the academics write: Some of the most common misconceptions about Stonehenge concern its connections with the heavens As a result, a bewildering collection of contradictory accounts about Stonehenge and its astronomy are available in bookshops and online.

Dr Chadburn said: People have said it was used to predict eclipses or it was aligned on the equinox. People claim all kinds of astronomical alignments for Stonehenge, but when you examine them very critically, the evidence doesnt back that up.

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A provocative new study has found a link between left-wing beliefs and both higher intelligence quotient (IQ) scores and genetic markers believed to be associated with higher intelligence.

As psychology researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities report in their new paper, published in the journal Intelligence, numerous intelligence tests found that being more clever "is correlated with a range of left-wing and liberal political beliefs."

"Our results," the paper's authors wrote, "imply that being genetically predisposed to be smarter causes left-wing beliefs."

As with all research on human intelligence, the work is fraught. There are different types of intelligence, and it's hard to draw the line between nature and nurture, since education clearly causes IQ test scores to rise.

Still, the paper's methodology is compelling. The UM authors gleaned results from a study of more than 200 families, some of which included only biological children, others only adopted children, and a smaller portion of which had both adopted and biological kids.

"We find both IQ and genetic indicators of intelligence, known as polygenic scores, can help predict which of two siblings tends to be more liberal," study author Tobias Edwards told PsyPost in a fascinating interview about the research. "These are siblings with the same upbringing, who are raised under the same roof.

"This implies that intelligence is associated with political beliefs, not solely because of environment or upbringing, but rather that the genetic variation for intelligence may play a part in influencing our political differences," he added. "Why is this the case? I do not know."

"Using both measured IQ and polygenic scores"  the latter are genetic profiles that determine all kinds of things, from how one looks and to their risk of acquiring disease or expressing mental illness  the research measured "for cognitive performance and educational attainment" and then determined whether there was a correlation between intelligence, genetics, and political affiliation.

On the politics side, they tested for five variables: "political orientation, authoritarianism, egalitarianism, social liberalism, and fiscal conservatism."

"Polygenic scores predicted social liberalism and lower authoritarianism, within-families," the paper continues. "Intelligence was able to significantly predict social liberalism and lower authoritarianism, within families, even after controlling for socioeconomic variables."

Still, Edwards cautioned, political beliefs are complex constructs of a particular historical moment that will never be totally reduceable to any one variable.

"This surprise highlights an important point; there is no law saying that intelligent people must always be supportive of particular beliefs or ideologies," he told PsyPost. "The way our intelligence affects our beliefs is likely dependent upon our environment and culture. Looking back across history, we can see intelligent individuals have been attracted to all sorts of different and often contradictory ideas."

:Intellectuals have flirted with and been seduced by dangerous ideologies and tyrannical regimes," he added. "Many smart people have believed ideas that are downright stupid. Because of this George Orwell doubted that the intelligence of partisans could be any guide to the quality of their beliefs, declaring that, one has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.'"

More on politics: Bernie Sanders Proposes Four-Day Workweek With No Loss in Pay
Richland makes $30,000 bet on new firm to help pick police chief after failed search

Richland is taking its second stab at finding a new police chief  this time with a new search firm.

The city signed a $30,000 contract with California-based Mosaic Public Partners to run its second search for a new chief, according to an announcement on Friday.

Officials picked the company because of their experience with executive recruitments, including successful searches for police executives, said Hollie Alexander, the citys communications and marketing manager.

The company has conducted searches for police executives across the country from South Miami to King County.

The city set out a four-month timeline for this search, which started Friday. They expect finalists will be announced in early June and the public will be able to meet them in the middle of the month.

I am confident their energy and industry experience will assist in identifying our next chief of police, City Manager Jon Amundson said as part of Fridays release. I encourage members of the public who wish to meet our finalists to attend the community engagement event and provide feedback as we make this important decision.

The city has been hunting for a new police chief since September when former Chief Brigit Clary announced she would retire at the end of the year. Since then Dave Neher stepped into the role as interim police chief.

Former Spokane police Chief Craig Meidl is stepping into the position of interim police chief starting on Monday.

The city had worked previously with the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs to find a new chief. Their decision to change search partners came after the city rejected the two finalists picked for the position.

Richlands police chief heads a department of 73 commissioned officers and 22 professional staff, and oversees the dispatch center that serves Benton and Franklin counties.

The position pays between $149,000 and $208,000 a year, according to information from Mosaic.
News anchor Robert MacNeil, who cohosted The MacNeil/Lehrer Report on PBS from 1975 to 1995, has died at 93.

MacNeil created and cohosted the hour-long news program with Jim Lehrer, and the well-regarded duo had previously led PBS coverage of the Watergate Hearings in 1973.

Among the stories MacNeil covered during his decades-long career were the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the construction of the Berlin Wall.

PBS colleague Judy Woodruff announced his death on Friday. She said of MacNeil, who was known by the nickname Robin, He was not only one of the most important mentors in my life, he was a dear friend. I talked to his son Ian today, who said that, right up until the end of his life, Robin was following the news. He said he insisted on talking about what was in the news, literally right up until the very last day he was alive.

Woodruff also called him the consummate newsman and that he was the reason she joined PBS NewsHour, which succeeded The MacNeil/Lehrer Report in 1983.

She also recalled filling in for a few months for Lehrer after he suffered a heart attack. I could not have done it without Robin. Robin gave me the confidence to sit at the desk and keep going and so yes, he was a mentor and an inspiration for his entire life, Woodruff said Friday. Lehrer passed away in 2020 at 85.

The Montreal, Canada, native began his TV career as a correspondent for NBC in 1960, according to public broadcaster WETA.

On the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination, MacNeil recalled being on the ground in Dallas to cover the presidents visit, where he said opposition to Kennedy was high. So the authorities were expecting something and we were expecting something. I wasnt consciously expecting anything like what absolutely happened, he said in an interview on PBS.

He is survived by his four children; two from his first marriage, Ian MacNeil, a theatrical set designer who won a Tony in 2009 for Billy Elliot, and Cathy MacNeil; and Alison and Will MacNeil from his second marriage; as well as five grandchildren.

Deadline was first to report MacNeils death.

The post Robert MacNeil, PBS News Anchor and MacNeil/Lehrer Report Creator, Dies at 93 appeared first on TheWrap.
Chris Harman, a stamp collector since he was six, was charged a 5 fine for a stamp that is genuine - Terry Harris

Royal Mail has been accused of wrongly marking genuine stamps as fake by one of Britains most prominent authorities on forgeries.

Chris Harman, chair of the Expertising Committee of the Association of British Philatelic Societies, the worlds oldest stamp collecting society, said he had received a penalty charge after being sent a letter with a stamp that had been flagged as a fake.

But on closer inspection, the stamp expert said that the letter he received had been posted with a real stamp.

It comes after a senior Royal Mail source admitted its scanners were not always able to scan new barcodes correctly, meaning some genuine stamps have been mistakenly labelled as suspicious.

The postal service is now under mounting pressure to carry out an investigation into potential weaknesses in machinery used to scan stamps and spot fakes. Subpostmasters  who have been accused of selling fakes via the Post Office  have also warned they face being dragged into a fresh Horizon-style scandal and called for an urgent review of Royal Mails hardware.

Referring to a letter flagged as having been posted with a counterfeit stamp, Mr Harman said: Ive got this, which was addressed to me and cost me 2.50, that was the charge at the time, its now 5, and it said that the stamp is a forgery. It isnt, its perfectly genuine. So they dont always know.

The stamp was flagged as fake following an investigation by Royal Mails Revenue Protection Team which found a red first-class stamp used on the letter, first issued in 1993, bore several indicators pointing to it being a counterfeit, the Telegraph understands. These included signs the stamp had been reused, as well as with issues with the iridescence and the phosphor on the stamp.

A second green stamp used on the envelope was cleared as genuine.

Mr Harman, who began collecting stamps at the age of six, insisted the stamp, used on a letter sent by a friend last year, was genuine. He has been a member of the Royal Philatelic Society since 1979 and has held exhibitions and written a book about forged stamps.

Royal Mail has said it is investigating the prevalence of fake stamps in circulation, after this newspaper revealed China has been flooding the country with counterfeits in an act of alleged economic warfare.

Sources within the postal service have blamed China for victims being landed with fines for unwittingly using suspected fakes  a claim the Chinese embassy in London has denied. They have also suggested Border Force is not doing enough to crack down on counterfeits entering the country, while also suggesting fakes are entering circulation via smaller retailers who do not have to buy stamps directly from Royal Mail.

However, it has so far said it is not carrying out a review into its own systems, aside from routine checks.

Richard Trinder, a postmaster in Sheffield who is also chair of the Horizon scandal campaign group Voice of the Postmaster (VOTP), called for an urgent review and said subpostmasters risked being blamed.

Ive been on the counter this morning, weve had countless people asking if were selling Chinese stamps, which erodes our credibility, he said.

We have also noticed that a few more people are doing prepaid online postage even for letters.

Royal Mail needs to ensure that they have accurate equipment to check these stamps so they dont further damage their reputation by handing out spurious fines.

Royal Mail should be treating this very seriously and protecting the reputations of postmasters and postal workers on the front line.

Subpostmaster Richard Trinder says his customers are asking if he is selling Chinese stamps. 'It erodes our credibility,' he says

His comments were echoed by former Tory party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith.

He said: The problem is the Chinese, organisations in China are dumping these stamps on us, made worse now that Royal Mail is not capable of figuring out which are and which arent fake.

That means there could be loads of letters sent using these fraudulent stamps. Thats real incompetence, utter incompetence. They need to publish the details of what their problem is and sort it out... an audit, a check, a review. Whatever it takes, they should do it, and they should do it now.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: We have a robust, multi-stage process in place for assessing suspect stamps. Our letter processing machines scan, identify and extract counterfeit stamps before they are individually inspected by a skilled member of the team using specialist equipment before any stamp is marked as counterfeit or pre-used.

The Royal Mail website provides customers with guidance on how to spot counterfeit or used stamps and we urge customers to report any suspicious stamps, they added.

The Home Office has said it is taking concerted action to prevent illegal goods crossing the border.

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Russian forces attacked 10 communities along the Sumy Oblast border 21 times on April 13, causing 118 explosions, the regional military administration said.

Residents who live along Sumy Oblast's northeastern border with Russia experience daily attacks from nearby Russian troops.

The communities of Myropillia, Khotin, Svesa, Esman, Shalyhyne, Bilopillia, Putyvl, Seredyna-Buda, Velyka Pysarivka, and Krasnopillia were targeted with Russian artillery, mortars, missiles, first-person-view (FPV) drones, grenade launchers and KAB guided bombs.

The Bilopillia and Seredyna-Buda communities suffered the heaviest attacks with mortars, artillery and missiles, resulting in 26 explosions in each area throughout the day.

The Sver community suffered two KAB guided bomb attacks.

No casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure along the border were reported.

The day before, a Russian airstrike against the regional capital, the city of Sumy, injured three people and damaged residential and administrative buildings.

Read also: Why is Russia intensifying attacks on Ukraines Sumy Oblast?

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Russian forces attacked 12 communities along the Sumy Oblast border on April 12, causing over 100 explosions, the regional military administration reported.

The communities of Myropillia, Khotin, Svesa, Mykolaiv, Esman, Yunakivka, Shalyhyne, Bilopillia, Putyvl, Seredyna-Buda, Velyka Pysarivka, and Krasnopillia were targeted with Russian artillery, mortar, mines, and drones.

Bilopillia suffered the heaviest assault, with mortar attacks causing 20 explosions throughout the day.

The town of Bilopillia, which had a pre-war population of about 15,600 residents, lies just eight kilometers south of the Ukraine-Russia border.

No casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure along the border were reported.

Earlier in the day, a Russian airstrike against the regional capital, the city of Sumy, injured three people and damaged residential and administrative buildings.

Residents who live along Sumy Oblast's northeastern border with Russia experience daily attacks from nearby Russian troops. The government announced on April 12 that it has allocated Hr 1.5 billion ($38 million) for the construction of additional fortifications in Sumy Oblast.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Ukrainians should prepare for possible power outages, energy minister says

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Russian forces attacked several settlements in Donetsk Oblast, killing at least three civilians and injuring four others, the regional authorities reported on April 13.

The embattled Donetsk Oblast, a large part of which is occupied by Russia, suffers daily Russian attacks, often resulting in casualties and large-scale damage as Russian forces advance in several directions.

The regional prosecutors office reported that Russian attacks against residential areas in Pokrovsk and Volnovakha communities killed three people.

Meanwhile, a five-story residential building in Ocheretyne collapsed when a Russian KAB-500 guided bomb struck it, Donetsk Oblast Governor Vadym Filashkin reported.

The first responders rescued an injured woman. Other people may still be under the rubble, but the rescue operation was halted due to the security situation.

A 90-year-old woman was also injured in the backyard of her home in Ocheretyne.

Russia's KAB smart bombs, ranging from KAB-250 and KAB-500 to KAB-1500, can be laser-guided or satellite-guided. The KAB-500L, equipped with a high-explosive warhead, is frequently used in Russia's war against Ukraine, although multiple versions of KAB bombs have been used.

The village lies around 15 kilometers (nine miles) west of Avdiivka, a city that fell into Russian hands in February.

Russian artillery barrage also showered Krasnohorivka and Bohoiavlenka, injuring two civilians.

Before Russias war broke out in 2014, Krasnohorivka was a satellite city of the regional capital of Donetsk, a major Ukrainian city that fell under Russian control in 2014.

A total of 1,912 people have been reported killed in Donetsk Oblast since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, and 4,796 others have been reported injured.

However, these numbers do not include the casualty rates in Russian-occupied Volnovakha and Mariupol, as they are currently impossible to calculate. The actual casualty numbers are expected to be much higher.

Read also: Ukraines angels who look after, evacuate civilians left in front-line Donbas

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UNITED NATIONS, April 12 (Xinhua) -- UN humanitarians said on Friday they are deeply concerned for more than 500,000 displaced people sheltering in and around Goma from eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) violence.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that precarious conditions and escalating threats facing the displaced people in and around Goma raised concerns.

"More than 500,000 people currently live in displacement sites around the city after fleeing clashes between the Congolese army and armed groups in the Masisi and Rutshuru territories, in North-Kivu," OCHA said. "Since early March, several incidents of shelling and accidental grenade explosions in and around displacement sites in Goma have killed eight people and wounded 34."

The office said it is not entirely the proximity to the frontlines that are increasingly putting displaced people at risk but also the presence of weapons within the campsites.

The DRC government requested peacekeepers from the UN mission in the country, known as MONUSCO, to leave, complaining it was not protecting civilians from widespread violence in the easternmost provinces from several attacks on villagers.

The UN Security Council authorized a withdrawal, and the mission is complying. It already is in the stand-down process. 
Commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Syrskyi attends an in interview with Reuters in Kharkiv region

Commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Syrskyi attends an in interview with Reuters in Kharkiv region

By Tom Balmforth

KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine's army chief said on Saturday the situation on the eastern front had worsened in recent days as Russia has intensified its armoured assaults and battles rage for control of a village west of the devastated city of Bakhmut.

The statement by Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi more than two years since Russia's invasion reflected the grim mood in Kyiv as vital U.S. military aid that Kyiv expected to receive months ago remains stuck in Congress.

Syrskyi said he travelled to the area to stabilise the front as Russian assault groups using tanks and armoured personnel carriers took advantage of dry, warm weather that has made it easier to manoeuvre.

"The situation on the eastern front in recent days has grown considerably more tense. This is linked primarily to the significant activisation of offensive action by the enemy after the presidential elections in Russia," he wrote on the Telegram app.

A spokesman for the forces battling on the eastern section of the front said in remarks on Ukrainian television that Russia's army was attacking using all types of weapons, from artillery to tanks, drones and guided aerial bombs.

With superior manpower and equipment, Russia was fighting along the entire front, the spokesman, Nazar Voloshyn, said, adding: "The enemy is trying to exhaust the Ukrainian Army."

Since President Vladimir Putin won a new term in a stage-managed mid-March election, Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine and unleashed three massive aerial strikes on its energy system, pounding power plants and substations.

The slowdown in military assistance from the West has left Ukraine more exposed to aerial attacks and heavily outgunned on the battlefield. Kyiv has made increasingly desperate appeals for supplies of air defence missiles in recent weeks.

Moscow's forces, Syrskyi said, were taking significant losses during their attacks in the east, but were also making tactical gains.

Social media channels reported the fall of Ukraine's eastern village of Bohdanivka to the west of the occupied city of Bakhmut, prompting Kyiv's defence ministry to deny them.

But it acknowledged fierce fighting in the area and said Russian assault groups had reached the village's northern outskirts overnight. "Bohdanivka is now under the control of the defence forces," it said.

The settlement lies a few kilometres northeast of the town of Chasiv Yar, a Kyiv-controlled stronghold that Russia has been trying to reach after seizing the town of Avdiivka in February to the south.

SEIZE THE STRATEGIC INITIATIVE

Russia's defence ministry said on Saturday its forces had captured Pervomaiske, a village to the south also located in Ukraine's Donetsk region where Moscow has focused its offensive operations for months.

Moscow said its troops had improved their tactical position on the front line there after capturing the village 8 kilometres (4.97 miles) southwest of occupied Avdiivka. Kyiv did not immediately comment on the status of Pervomaiske.

Syrskyi said Russian armoured assault groups were attacking on the fronts of Lyman as well as Bakhmut and using dozens of tanks and armoured personnel carriers to try to break through lines on the Pokrovsk front.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has warned Russia may be preparing a big offensive push in late May or in June, inspected domestically-produced weapons at an event outside Kyiv where he presented state awards to Ukrainian arms producers.

At the event, Ukraine's military drone forces chief said supplies of drones to the front lines this year were already three times higher than the volume supplied over the course of the whole of last year, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

He also said Ukraine had strike drones capable of flying 1,200 km.

In his statement, Syrskyi said only a technological edge over Russia in sophisticated weapons would allow Kyiv "to seize the strategic initiative" from a better equipped and larger foe.

He called for better training for soldiers and in particular infantry, a clear reference to Ukraine's manpower challenges.

Ukraine's parliament passed a bill on Thursday to overhaul how the armed forces draft civilians into the ranks. Zelenskiy also signed legislation last week lowering the draft age from 27 to 25.

(Reporting by Tom Balmforth; editing by Tomasz Janowski and Barbara Lewis)
Russian forces attacked an ambulance in the Kupiansk community in Kharkiv Oblast, injuring one, the Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration reported on April 13.

Kupiansk, a crucial logistics juncture that was briefly occupied by Russia in 2022, has recently been under heavy attacks as Russia intensified its offensive efforts in the area.

A Russian FPV, first-person-view, drone dropped an explosive on the ambulance as it was on its way to Petropavlivka, according to the military administration.

Without specifying details, the regional authorities said a 58-year-old driver sustained injuries.

Read also: Intense fighting, lack of resources leave wounded soldiers on their own

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Russian attacks on April 12 in the Donetsk Oblast towns of Niu-York and Krasnohorivka killed two people, Governor Vadym Filashkin reported. Another eight people were injured across the oblast, he added.

Residents of Ukraines eastern Donetsk Oblast suffer from daily Russian strikes due to their proximity to the front line.

Filashkin did not provide any more details on the casualties or the nature of the Russian attacks.

The previous day, at least three people were injured in a missile strike on the Donetsk Oblast city of Kostiantynivka.

Read also: After 10 years of war, Krasnohorivka in new danger as Russia advances in the east

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Russian forces attack 9 oblasts of Ukraine over past 24 hours

The Ukrainian oblasts attacked by Russian forces over the past 24 hours. Photo: Military Media Center

Russian troops targeted the territory of nine Ukrainian oblasts on 12 April.

Source: Ukraine's Ministry of Defence

Details: Russian forces reportedly used a wide range of weapons, including mortars, artillery, tanks, multiple-launch rocket systems, air defence missile systems, UAVs, and tactical aircraft.

A total of 123 settlements and 135 infrastructure facilities came under Russian fire.

Russian attacks caused fatalities and injuries among civilians. The information about the number of casualties is being gathered.

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A machinery factory in the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk came under attack on April 13, Moscow-installed head of the occupied region Leonid Pasechnik claimed.

After reports of morning explosions in Luhansk, local Telegram channels published videos showing smoke rising over the city.

Pasechnik claimed that Ukrainian troops launched several missiles at the Russian-controlled factory that was supposed to soon start operating. Three people were allegedly wounded.

Ukrainian officials did not comment on the claims, which cannot be independently verified.

There have been multiple reports since the start of the full-scale invasion about attacks within Russia and the Ukrainian territories occupied by Moscow.

In October 2023, Ukraine reportedly struck military airfields in occupied Luhansk and Berdiansk, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, with U.S.-supplied long-range ATACMS missiles, destroying nine helicopters.

Among other Russian targets in occupied territories of Luhansk Oblast were also oil storage facilities and the S-400 missile system. Some of the targets have been reportedly hit by U.K.-provided Storm Shadow long-range missiles, capable of reaching deep into Russian-seized territories.

Read also: Source: Ukraine hits Russias Engels air base. Can it change how Russia attacks?

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Aftermath of Russian attack on Kupiansk at the night of 12-13 April. All photos: State Emergency Service of Ukraine

A man had been trapped under the rubble as a result of the Russian night attack on the centre of Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast. He has been rescued.

Source: Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration; State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Details: Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration stated that the attack occurred at 22:40 on Friday, 12 April.

A residential building with an area of 200 square metres was on fire.

A 62-year-old man was trapped under the rubble of a neighbouring building. Rescue workers extricated him and handed him over to medical personnel.

At another address, a 73-year-old man was injured. He was taken to hospital.

At 02:37 on Saturday, 13 April, Russian forces attacked the village of Borova in the Izium district, targeting the previously damaged House of Culture.



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Russian troops kill man carrying food to border villages in Chernihiv Oblast

Russian soldiers killed a man on the morning of 13 April who was carrying food to residents of villages along the border in Chernihiv Oblast.

Source: National Police of Ukraine (NPU)

Details: The NPU reported that the Russians deliberately targeted a civilian car.

The driver was a resident of the town of Novhorod-Siverskyi (Chernihiv Oblast).

The strike set the car on fire, and the man, 34, died of his injuries.

The relevant services are working at the scene.

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Russians blame Ukraine for "attempted arson attack" on government building in Russian city of Vladimir  photo, video

A man who supposedly tried to set fire to the regional government building has been detained in the Russian city of Vladimir. The Russians claimed he was "influenced by fraudsters from Ukraine".

Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency RIA Novosti, citing local authorities and source

Details: On Saturday evening, the agency quoted a source as saying that a man who supposedly threw 3 Molotov cocktail bottles on the Vladimir Oblast government building was detained in Vladimir. No one has been injured in the incident.

Later, Vladimir Oblast authorities claimed that a man had been detained near the regional government building after he attempted to throw a can filled with a flammable mixture.

The governor of the region claimed that the motives of the attacker "who threw flammable containers on a car" near the Vladimir Oblast government building are being investigated.

Later, the governor of the region said that the man "was likely under the influence of fraudsters from Ukraine", the agency noted.

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DAR ES SALAAM, April 13 (Xinhua) -- At least seven pupils were killed and four others injured on Friday morning when their school bus plunged into a flooded gorge in Tanzania's northern Arusha region, local police said Saturday.

Awadhi Haji, a police commissioner for operations and training, told Xinhua via phone that the school bus ferrying the pupils to school plunged into the flooded gorge at 6 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) Friday.

Haji said four pupils, a teacher and the driver were rescued and rushed to the hospital where their conditions were improving.

Heavy rains have been hitting the Arusha region for the past week, causing catastrophic emergencies to businesses and infrastructure. 
Russian occupation forces killed two residents of Donetsk Oblast in the villages of New-York and Krasnohorivka on 12 April.

Source: Donetsk Oblast Military Administration

Details: The number of civilians that were killed in the oblast, excluding Mariupol and Volnovakha, has risen to 1,912.

Moreover, there were eight people who were wounded in Donetsk Oblast over the day.

Among them are two in New-York, one in Krasnohorivka and five more in Kostiantynivka.

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Aftermath of Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Photo: Ivan Fedorov on Telegram

The Russians have attacked Zaporizhzhia Oblast 410 times over the past day. At least eight settlements have been under Russian fire. The Russians also shelled Nikopol district, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, with artillery twice.

Source: Ivan Fedorov, Head of Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram; Serhii Lysak, Head of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration

Details: Seventeen reports of residential buildings and infrastructure facilities being destroyed were received. No information about casualties was reported.

Russian aircraft launched four strikes on the village of Robotyne;

A total of 128 UAVs of various modifications attacked the settlements of Huliaipole, Levadne, Robotyne, Mala Tokmachka, Malynivka, Novoandriivka and Chervonodniprovka;

A total of 22 attacks using multiple-launch rocket systems targeted Mala Tokmachka, Robotyne and Malynivka;

A total of 256 artillery shells were fired on the territory of the settlements of Huliaipole, Mala Tokmachka, Novoandriivka, Robotyne, Levadne, Malynivka and Novoselivka.

Quote from Lysak: "The enemy shelled Nikopol district with artillery fire. Last night, the Russian army attacked Pokrovske hromada. Around midnight, Marhanets hromada [was under attack]. A total of about 15 shells hit there. The most important thing is that people are unharmed." [A hromada is an administrative unit designating a town, village or several villages and their adjacent territories - ed.]

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Russia's firing new, long-range Kh-69 cruise missiles, war experts say, piling on the misery for Ukraine's dwindling air defense

Russian forces have deployed a new cruise missile, the Institute for the Study of War said.

The Kh-69 was used in an attack on a major power station near Kyiv this week.

The Kh-69 is a leap forward in Russian tactical munitions.

Russian Forces are deploying a new, long-range cruise missile, known as the Kh-69, as it steps up attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

The Washington DC-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), noted in its Friday report that the new air-to-surface missiles were part of Russia's "continued efforts to improve strike packages and penetrate Ukraine's degraded air defense."

Russia has renewed its attacks against Ukraine's energy infrastructure in recent weeks, exploiting Kyiv's dwindling air defense systems.

"We need air defense systems and other defense assistance, not just turning a blind eye and having lengthy discussions," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

The post was in response to a Russian missile attack overnight on April 11 that destroyed the Trypillia Thermal Power Plant. The plant is one of the primary energy suppliers to Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. The plant was hit by the new Kh-69 missiles, according to the Ukrainian military.

Employees work at a thermal power plant heavily damaged by recent Russian missile strikes in Ukraine Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

"ISW has not previously observed the Russian use of Kh-69 missiles in Ukraine," it said.

"Russian forces have reportedly launched Kh-69 missiles from 400 kilometers away from their targets, exceeding a previous estimated range of 300 kilometers and the 200-kilometer range of the most recent Kh-59MK2 variant," wrote the ISW.

Illia Yevlash, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Air Force, confirmed on Friday that Russia had launched the new missiles during its massive aerial assault on Thursday.

"This is an improved system of the Kh-59 version," Yevlash said.

"We are currently establishing what kind of missile it was, what type it was. These are fresh missiles with parts manufactured in 2023. That is, we can see that Russia is constantly trying to produce new missiles."

Yevlash said Russia was manufacturing the Kh-69 domestically, but that continued production relied on the ability to source key components from abroad. ISW analysts noted that while the Russian stockpiles and production capability of these Kh-69 missiles are unclear, "Russia is unlikely to be able to produce them at a significantly greater speed or quantity than its other domestically produced missiles."

The Kh-69 is Russia's latest cruise missile

Reports that Russia was employing the Kh-69 first appeared on Ukrainian Telegram channels in early February.

On February 7, a Ukrainian military blogger posted a photo on Telegram purporting to show the destroyed rear fins of a Kh-69. A Ukrainian war monitor account, which tracks Russian aviation activity, claimed that three Kh-69s were fired at Ukraine overnight on February 7-8.

In September last year, the UK-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think tank reported that the Kh-69 was still undergoing testing. It described the missile as an "air-launched land-attack cruise missile likely akin to the European Storm Shadow or Taurus KEPD 350 missiles."

Kh-69 on display Mike1979 Russia/Wikimedia Commons

According to The War Zone, the Kh-69 was developed by Raduga, part of Russia's Tactical Missile Corporation. The missile weighs around 1,700 pounds, has an operating speed of up to 621 miles per hour, and has the option of either a penetration or a cluster warhead weighing up to 680 pounds. The missile's shape offers some degree of reduced radar signature.

Russian forces can launch the missiles from Su-34 and Su-35 tactical aircraft rather than solely from strategic bombers.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Reporters, photographers and an opinion writer for The Sacramento Bee earned five top prizes and were recognized as finalists in four categories Thursday evening at the Sacramento Press Club Journalism Awards, which honored exceptional coverage of policy and politics in 2023.

Among The Bees winning entries was the work of reporters Lindsey Holden and Matthew Miranda in the category of Capitol Enterprise, recognizing journalism that takes a deeper look at the decisions made by state lawmakers, the influences behind them and their effect on the broader public.

Holden and Miranda produced three stories on the struggles migrant farmworkers face in California, including finding affordable housing, the educational challenges their children face and the states practice forcing these families out rent-subsidized apartments that sit empty for three to six months every year.

Press Club judges said the stories on migrant farmworkers were a compelling read bolstered by shoe-leather reporting and original survey data, highlighting the devastating impact of a state law that requires these families to vacate temporary, state-run farmworker housing after each season.

The reporting underscored the fact that migrants are no longer birds of passage, one judge said. Theyre staying and they want to advocate and fight for their children.

The stories on migrant farmworkers by Holden and Miranda also won the top prize in the Social Justice and Equity Reporting category. The Press Club commended the duos effort in visiting seven of 24 migrant housing centers in the state and conducting interviews in 150 households.

Skydiving deaths in Lodi

The Bees Michael McGough and Stephen Hobbs won the top prize in the Business and Labor category for their expansive story on the Parachute Center in Lodi that remains open for business despite the deaths of 28 people in skydiving incidents.

The Press Club called the writing and storytelling by McGough and Hobbs an excellent example of investigative business reporting that shines a light on the tragic intersection of questionable business practices and weak regulation. The Press Club judges found the investigative story was complemented by compelling photography, poignant video and clear and informative graphics.

Reporters Ari Plachta and Joe Rubin from The Bee were recognized as a finalist in the Business and Labor category for their investigative story on how the Sacramento-based California Restaurant Association became a key ally for Southern California Gas Co. and its multimillion-dollar effort to push back against California cities cutting planet-warming pollution in new buildings.

Rubin also was a finalist in the Criminal Justice reporting category for a story on a pedophile priest who fled the United States as a California district attorney dropped charges against the priest and let him slip away. Rubins investigative story was followed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta agreeing to investigate the prosecutors decision.

Robin Epley of The Bees Editorial Board was recognized as a finalist in the Opinion/Commentary category for powerful columns on how a Sacramento mother became homeless as she waited for police to arrive to evict her and another womans descent into mental illness and the lack of public knowledge about pregnancy, womens bodies and reproductive health care.

Holly Porter, 40, who is functionally quadriplegic, stops her brother Mike Porter from placing her in a donated wheelchair Friday, March 24, 2023, when the armrest prevented her from sliding into it. Because she couldnt use the wheelchair, Porter had to sign her housing application while in the sling, since the property management representative was not allowed inside her tent for insurance reasons, at Camp Resolution in Sacramento.

Visual journalism winners

In the Feature Photography category, The Bees Renee C. Byer won the top prize for her still images of Holly Porter, a functionally quadriplegic homeless woman, in her hospital bed in a tent at Camp Resolution, a self-governing encampment in North Sacramento that is now slated to close.

Byers images also captured Porters brother, Mike Porter, trying to move his sister into a donated wheelchair using a hydraulic lift at the encampment. The armrest prevented her from sliding into the chair, so she had to remain in the sling to sign her housing application since the property management representative would not enter her tent.

Byer also was on assignment months later capturing a joyous occasion as Porter was wheeled around her new apartment by her Hope Cooperative caseworker Tracey Knickerbocker.

In viewing the work, it is clear that the photographer spent the time necessary to gain trust as well as to be present for several key surprising moments, the Press Club said of Byers photos. The result is a story that visually that shares the complex range of challenges that this person faces, amplifying the important story through understanding and empathy.

The Bees Hector Amezcua was recognized as a finalist in the Feature Photography category for his images for the migrant farmworker package of stories written by Holden and Miranda, including photos of 23-year-old Carlos Alfonso Perez, who lives at the Lodi migrant housing center with his family, pruning a grape vine as the sun rises and 11-year-old Karla Acevedo Perez waiting for the school bus at the Lodi migrant center.

Karla Acevedo Perez, 11, waits for the school bus at the Lodi migrant center on Oct. 29, 2023. Karla will have to leave her school when she returns to Mexico after the center closes for the winter.

Amezcua also was honored in the Spot News Photography category, winning the top prize for his photos of submerged and stranded vehicles on Dillard Road near Highway 99 in south Sacramento County. A January 2023 atmospheric river storm led to levee breaks along the Cosumnes River. Three drivers were killed in the flooding.

One of Amezcuas winning photos captured Rachel Thorpe after her husband, Jamey, came to her rescue when she and dozens of other drivers were stranded by floodwaters on Twin Cities Road near Highway 99.

The flooding photo on the highway shows a key strength of effective breaking news photography: being in the right place at the right time, the Press Club said about Amezcuas work, including photos he captured using an aerial drone The photographer utilized smart lens choice to compress the scene and depth of field that directs the viewers attention.

Environmental reporting

Los Angeles Times climate reporter Sammy Roth was recognized as 2023 Journalist of the Year for work that included an in-depth series on renewable energy trade-offs that was also honored as best environmental reporting. The Press Club noted that Roths twice-weekly climate column provides consistent insight on the climate threat and helps readers understand how our world is changing.

The Press Clubs Courage in Journalism award went to Doni Chamberlain, who publishes a Shasta County-based online magazine, anewscafe.com.

Chamberlain has endured physical harm and repeated threats covering the growing influence of local militias, according to a Press Club news release. Last summer, she suffered multiple injuries after being attacked while trying to cover a militia meeting whose location had been promoted publicly.

Alexei Koseff, the Press Club board president and a reporter for CalMatters, thanked the contests 42 volunteer judges, the Press Club board and the sponsors who helped raise thousands of dollars this year for the Press Clubs student scholarship program.

The Sacramento Press Club is proud to honor important politics and policy journalism that allows Californians to better understand their government and holds powerful officials accountable, Koseff said.
(KRON)  A student at San Jose State University was arrested and charged in connection to two fires set in the Martin Luther King Jr. Library on campus, Cal Fire announced Friday. Cal Fire, the San Jose State University Police Department, and the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) Arson and Bomb Unit responded to fires in the library on March 31 and April 8.

Layoffs announced at 2 big Bay Area biotech firms

An investigation determined the cause of the fires to be arson, officials stated. The arson occurred on State of California property at a time when students were present. A joint law enforcement investigation was launched in collaboration between Cal Fire, campus police, and the OSFM Arson and Bomb Unit.

Investigators canvassed the area, reviewed security camera footage, cultivated leads and identified the suspect as SJSU sophomore student Amogh Upadhya. Upadhya was arrested, charged with four counts of arson, and booked into Santa Clara County Jail.

He is currently being held on $400,000 bail and faced a court hearing on Friday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.
Read the full story on Backfire News

Scam Alert: Police Imposters Lying About Fatal Car Crashes

Scammers or con artists are always dreaming up new ways of getting you to turn over your hard-earned money. One of the latest scams involves showing up to a persons house, usually someone elderly, and posing as a police officer, telling them a relative was involved in a fatal car crash.

Check out the radical police Cybertruck.

That kind of shocking news is enough to get the victim worked up, who then is relieved to learn their relative, usually a child or grandchild, didnt die in the crash. However, theres a catch: their loved one has supposedly been arrested and is being held in jail. Thats when the full trap is sprung as the scammer asks for the money so the jailed relative can be set free.

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Under normal circumstances, a person wouldnt fall for this scheme in a million years. But, when first presented with shocking information which at first sounds like a relative might have died violently, presented by someone posing as an authority figure, the victim is primed to hand over whatever is necessary to help the relatively supposedly in distress.

Weve seen this scam before but it recently surfaced again, this time in Michigan, as covered by WJBK. Sadly, the elderly woman who was targeted went to the bank and withdrew the bail money for the scammer who showed up at her house to pick up the cash in person.

The Monroe County Sheriffs Office has identified the scammer in this case as Juan Romero of Berwyn, Illinois. However, hes still on the run with authorities asking the public for help finding him. That means the elderly woman he targeted is still missing her money, which we know is between $1,000 and $20,000 thanks to criminal charges filed against Romero.

Just remember, police will never show up at your house asking for money, either cash or using a card reader. Legitimate bail bondsmen dont even do that. If you suspect someone isnt who they say they are, call your local law enforcement and ask them to confirm. Any legitimate cop will appreciate your doing so.
Scaramucci on Trump: US must gird for when he loses in November

Former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said the U.S. must gird for when his ex-boss loses in November.

I think the country has to gird for when he loses in November  and hes gonna lose in November, Scaramucci told anchor Abby Phillip during a CNN NewsNight appearance Friday a clip highlighted by Mediaite. Hell claim that the election was rigged, and hell try to foment the same type of violence that he fomented on the sixth of January in 2021.

Trump made comments last month at an Ohio rally that seemed to imply violence, were he to lose the 2024 presidential election.

The remarks came when Trump at one point warned China against attempting to open up factories in Mexico to sell cars to the U.S.

No, were going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and youre not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected, Trump said. Now, if I dont get elected, its going to be a blood bath for the country. Thatll be the least of it. But theyre not going to sell those cars, theyre building massive factories.

The former president received over the blood bath comment from top Democrats such as President Biden and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

Its clear this guy wants another January 6, Biden said in a post on the social platform X in response to the remark. But the American people are going to give him another resounding electoral defeat this November.

Scaramucci, who has repeatedly criticized the former president more recently, labeled him as most un-American presidential nominee in U.S. history last month.

We have to focus on Mr. Trump being the most un-American presidential nominee in U.S. history, Scaramucci during an interview on CNNs The Source with host Kaitlan Collins. And we have to go through the things that hes saying hes going to do, as it relates to being the American president.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks during a press conference with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze after their meeting at Federal Chancellery Kay Nietfeld/dpa

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz heads to China on Saturday for a three-day trip in which he is set to meet President Xi Jinping after stopping in Chongqing and Shanghai.

He is due to reach Beijing on Tuesday for political talks that are expected to cover Russia's war on Ukraine, tensions with Taiwan and also trade.

Western countries have tried to isolate Moscow in light of Russia's all-out invasion of its neighbour but Beijing is the Kremlin's most important ally, although remaining outwardly neutral. China's leadership has not condemned the Russian war and instead blames the West for the conflict.

Relations between China and Taiwan are fraught, meanwhile, with Beijing viewing the self-ruled democracy part of its territory, although Taiwan has had an independent government since 1949.

China is Germany's most important trading partner and around a dozen managers of leading German firms are to join Scholz. He is also bringing Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir, Transport Minister Volker Wissing and Environment Minister Steffi Lemke in his delegation.

It is Scholz's second trip to China since he took office in late 2021, but he only spent a day there in November 2022 due to the pandemic. This three-day trip is longer than any other visit he has made to any single country on one trip as chancellor.

He is first due to stop in Chongqing, the world's largest city, home to some 32 million people, located on the Yangtze River. There, and then in Shanghai, Scholz is to visit German companies and also address students.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz boards a plane from the air force's airborne unit to travel to China. It is the Chancellor's second trip to China since taking office. Scholz will be in China for three full days, visiting three cities: Chongqing, Shanghai and Beijing. Michael Kappeler/dpa

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz departed for China on Saturday for a three-day trip in which he is set to meet President Xi Jinping after stopping in the cities of Chongqing and Shanghai.

He is due to reach Beijing on Tuesday for political talks that are expected to cover Russia's war on Ukraine, tensions with Taiwan and also trade.

Western countries have tried to isolate Moscow in light of Russia's all-out invasion of its neighbour, but Beijing is the Kremlin's most important ally, although remaining outwardly neutral. China's leadership has not condemned the Russian war and instead blames the West for the conflict.

Scholz addressed Russia's actions in Ukraine with Xi on his visit to Beijing a year and a half ago, and later Xi opposed Russian threats to use nuclear weapons. This time, the question may be whether China joins a Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland in mid-June. The talks' success could hinge on Beijing's participation.

China is also endeavouring to initiate a process to end the conflict but is suspected of supplying Russia with goods that can be used for military purposes at the same time, an area that Scholz may also address.

"It is important that China does not support Russia in waging a brutal war against its neighbour Ukraine," Scholz told the Tageszeitung daily newspaper before his departure.

Relations between China and Taiwan are fraught, meanwhile, with Beijing viewing the self-ruled democracy part of its territory, although Taiwan has had an independent government since 1949.

China is Germany's most important trading partner and around a dozen managers of leading German firms are to join Scholz, including

the cjhief executives of carmakers Mercedes-Benz and BMW and of chemical company BASF. No one from Volkswagen, Europe's largest car manufacturer, is part of the delegation this time.

Berlin's China strategy aims to reduce its economic dependency to avoid sudden economic shocks as when Moscow cut its gas supplies to Germany after launching the war in Ukraine.

However, German business leaders are sceptical, with the 5,000 or so German companies present in China more concerned about unfair competition conditions and sales figures.

Meanwhile, cheap Chinese electric cars are flooding the European market, prompting Brussels to launch an investigation into possible illegal subsidies. Any countermeasures could trigger a trade war, a worry for German car manufacturers in particular.

Scholz is expected to be joined by Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir, Transport Minister Volker Wissing and Environment Minister Steffi Lemke in Beijing.

The German leader also aims to address human rights issues during his trip, mainly concerns about the treatment of the Muslim Uighur minority in the province of Xinjiang as well as freedom of expression.

Human rights organizations want the chancellor to address the Chinese leadership clearly about these problems, and Scholz said for him talking openly about such issues is part of a "dialogue on equal terms."

It is Scholz's second trip to China since he took office in late 2021, but he only spent a day there in November 2022 due to the pandemic. This three-day trip is longer than any other visit he has made to any single country on one trip as chancellor.

He is first due to stop in Chongqing, the world's largest city, home to some 32 million people, located on the Yangtze River. There, and then in Shanghai, Scholz is to visit German companies and also address students.
Wen Hui, a nurse from the 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan, arranges medical equipment at Juba Teaching Hospital in Juba, South Sudan, on April 11, 2024. The 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan has been providing medical services at the Juba Teaching Hospital since September 2023. As of early April, 2024, the medical team had provided 6,873 outpatient and emergency services, completed 82 surgeries, organized six free treatment event, and provided professional training for over 1,100 local medical personnel. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

This photo taken on April 11, 2024 shows the China-aided Juba Teaching Hospital in Juba, South Sudan. The 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan has been providing medical services at the Juba Teaching Hospital since September 2023. As of early April, 2024, the medical team had provided 6,873 outpatient and emergency services, completed 82 surgeries, organized six free treatment event, and provided professional training for over 1,100 local medical personnel. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

This photo taken on April 11, 2024 shows the China-aided Juba Teaching Hospital in Juba, South Sudan. The 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan has been providing medical services at the Juba Teaching Hospital since September 2023. As of early April, 2024, the medical team had provided 6,873 outpatient and emergency services, completed 82 surgeries, organized six free treatment event, and provided professional training for over 1,100 local medical personnel. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

Doctors from the 11th batch of Chinese medical team provide free treatment for people in Nakitun Village, Juba, South Sudan, April 10, 2024. The 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan has been providing medical services at the Juba Teaching Hospital since September 2023. As of early April, 2024, the medical team had provided 6,873 outpatient and emergency services, completed 82 surgeries, organized six free treatment event, and provided professional training for over 1,100 local medical personnel. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

Chen Si, head of the 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan, attends to a patient at Juba Teaching Hospital in Juba, South Sudan, on April 11, 2024. The 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan has been providing medical services at the Juba Teaching Hospital since September 2023. As of early April, 2024, the medical team had provided 6,873 outpatient and emergency services, completed 82 surgeries, organized six free treatment event, and provided professional training for over 1,100 local medical personnel. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

Zhu Juan (C), a doctor from the 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan, provides training on neonatal asphyxia resuscitation for local medical staff at Juba Teaching Hospital in Juba, South Sudan, on April 11, 2024. The 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan has been providing medical services at the Juba Teaching Hospital since September 2023. As of early April, 2024, the medical team had provided 6,873 outpatient and emergency services, completed 82 surgeries, organized six free treatment event, and provided professional training for over 1,100 local medical personnel. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

Cheng Xiaojian (2nd R), Ren Huaibin (2nd L), Wen Hui (1st R) and Wang Yunsan (1st L), members from the 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan, perform a surgery at Juba Teaching Hospital in Juba, South Sudan, on March 27, 2024. The 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan has been providing medical services at the Juba Teaching Hospital since September 2023. As of early April, 2024, the medical team had provided 6,873 outpatient and emergency services, completed 82 surgeries, organized six free treatment event, and provided professional training for over 1,100 local medical personnel. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

Huang Yonggang, a doctor from the 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan, conducts a sample test at Juba Teaching Hospital in Juba, South Sudan, on Sept. 21, 2023. The 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan has been providing medical services at the Juba Teaching Hospital since September 2023. As of early April, 2024, the medical team had provided 6,873 outpatient and emergency services, completed 82 surgeries, organized six free treatment event, and provided professional training for over 1,100 local medical personnel. (Xinhua/Han Xu)

Ren Huaibin (L) and Wen Hui (R), members from the 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan, talk with a patient at Juba Teaching Hospital in Juba, South Sudan, on April 11, 2024. The 11th batch of Chinese medical team to South Sudan has been providing medical services at the Juba Teaching Hospital since September 2023. As of early April, 2024, the medical team had provided 6,873 outpatient and emergency services, completed 82 surgeries, organized six free treatment event, and provided professional training for over 1,100 local medical personnel. (Xinhua/Han Xu)
MUSKOGEE, Okla.  A former Adair County elementary school teacher accused of sexually abusing 10 second and fourth-grade students pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a seven-year-old child.

Lawrence Fourkiller, 47, of Stilwell, entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma to aggravated sexual abuse of a child in Indian Country.

Fourkiller faces up to a life sentence and a $250,000 fine, according to the plea agreement.

Fourkiller opted to plea instead of going forward with a jury trial set to begin on April 29, court records show.

Fourkiller was employed as a teacher at Stilwell Elementary School from 2018 to 2023. He admitted that between August 2020 and May 2021 he sexually abused a second-grade student.

Initially, Fourkiller was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and eight counts of abusive sexual contact. The plea agreement dismissed the remaining counts.

School officials were notified of the accusations against Fourkiller, and when they investigated them internally, they determined Fourkillers actions were not sexual in nature and sent Fourkiller home for the day, according to the motion filed by federal prosecutors.

Despite school officials being mandatory reporters, school administrators did not contact law enforcement or the Department of Human Services, the motion states.

After receiving more complaints school officials placed Fourkiller on administrative leave and the Stilwell Police Department was contacted.

All 10 victims reported Fourkiller inappropriately touched them. Fourkillers inappropriate touching was so prevalent a fourth-grade victim told investigators she and other female students developed codes to help each other make the touching stop by tapping on her leg or stomping her feet to signal that she needed help. UNITED STATES FIRST MOTION IN LIMINE, Jan. 22,2024

Fourkillers pattern would be to call the second-grade girls up to his desk, where he had them sit on his lap and sexually assaulted them, the 12-page motion states.

***CAUTION: GRAPHIC CONTENT***

One victim told law enforcement every Friday Fourkiller would have movie days for the students. On one of those days, Fourkiller picked up and placed the child on his lap and put his hand under her shirt. The victim also told authorities how Fourkiller sexually assaulted her with his finger. After a while, the child began refusing to sit on Fourkillers lap and he retaliated by sending her to detention, the motion states.

Another victim told authorities that Fourkiller made her go under his desk where he exposed himself and made the child perform a sex act. Fourkiller would hold her back from her specialized classes, like PE, so he could have more alone time with her, the motion states.

Another victim began to cry as she explained to the forensic interviewer that he was her teacher and that Fourkiller would have her sit on his lap and lay under her desk where she was inappropriately touched.

A fourth victim said Fourkiller would stand behind her at her desk and place his hands down her shirt and would touch her stomach and under her clothes.

Another victim told authorities she began to cry stating her mom tried to tell the school, but that nobody believed her. The child also told authorities Fourkiller would call her to his desk, spread his legs, then have her stand between his legs and touch her backside, the pleading states.

Fourkiller asked another victim if she had ever been sexually abused. The child told authorities she told Fourkiller about her previous sexual abuse because hes my teacher and I can trust him so I told him everything  like what happened. The victim told investigators Fourkiller told her he could not find the right spot to rub her back. The court pleading states that he began to use his hand to follow her bra strap.

She also told authorities she was lying on her desk asleep and woke up when she felt someone touching her, she looked up and saw Fourkiller standing over her and licking his lips saying, Its our time to shine.

Fourkiller, who was arrested at the Dallas Ft. Worth International Airport, remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending sentencing.

A civil lawsuit was filed against Stillwell Elementary School.

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Scientists search for Yorkshires Atlantis 900 years after it was lost to the sea

A survey of the Humber sea floor was conducted in May 2022

Scientists are deploying the most advanced sonar and magnetic scanning technology to solve the mystery of Yorkshires Atlantis.

They are trying to find the lost medieval Humber port of Ravenser Odd, which was swallowed up by the sea in the 14th century after one of the biggest storm surges in the North Seas history.

Tens of thousands died in the St Marcellus flood of 1362, which forced the residents of Ravenser Odd to abandon what was then one of the major medieval trading sea hubs on the east coast of England, rivalling Hull and Grimsby.

Now a group of marine experts and historians have teamed up to establish the location and remnant stone structures of Ravenser Odd beneath the shifting sands and shingle of the Humber estuary.

Its discovery will not only solve a historical mystery but also provide vital clues to the future shape of the estuary and Spurn Head peninsula which will determine whether it will remain a secure route for ships trading from Hull and Grimsby.

The Humber is a critical deep water trading route for the whole of the UK, while the Holderness coastline, to the north of Spurn Head, is the fastest eroding shore in Europe. Its crumbling cliffs of soft boulder clay are retreating at an average rate of almost seven feet every year.

The scientists are using a combination of ground-penetrating radar and magnetic gradiometry to probe beneath the seabed in the hope of finding stone structures that are all that is likely to remain of the town.

Ravenser Odd began life as a port on the narrow spit of shingle and clay known as Spurn Head that forms the north bank of the mouth of the Humber.

Spurn Head, which one theory says has shifted its position over the centuries, posing a possible threat to the Humber shipping route - ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

It grew into a prosperous settlement and in 1299, a charter made it into a recognised borough and exempted its merchants from some taxes. This allowed the town to build its own court, jail and chapel. It was represented by two members of parliament.

Ravenser contributed ships to Edward I and Edward IIs wars with Scotland, and its envious rivals on the Humber, Grimsby and Hull, accused it of piracy, as did German merchants and the king of Norway.

By the mid-14th century, the storms and strong tidal currents of the North Sea began to take their toll on the settlement, with the 1362 St Marcelluss flood delivering the final blow.

The location of Ravenser Odd has long remained contested because the historical evolution of Spurn Head remains uncertain, with no reports of structures from Ravenser for more than 500 years.

The search for the remains is being led by Dr Steve Simmons, a lecturer in energy and environment at Hull University, and Phil Mathison, a historian.

One theory suggests the Spurn Head peninsula gradually extends across the mouth of the Humber every 250 years before being breached, creating an island while a new spit is formed further inland.

This would place Ravenser more than a mile offshore from the present peninsula and, if correct, would suggest the Humber could silt up, threatening its future as a major trade route.

Mr Mathison, who has spent years investigating the history of the area, believes the truth is closer to home and that the remains of the town pass underneath the current spit. This is where he and Dr Simmons have focused their search.

If their theory is correct and they find Yorkshires lost Atlantis, Dr Simmons said it would overturn the cyclical spit theory and potentially dispel the threat to trade via the Humber.

It has implications for the Humber estuary. Its a significant trade route, accounting for 25 per cent of this countrys sea trade, said Dr Simmons.

If we found the town, it would provide significant evidence to how the spit evolved. It would knock down the theory of it being cyclical.

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Dresses based on drawings of a victim of Serbia's school shooting are presented during a Fashion Week in Belgrade

Dresses based on drawings of a victim of Serbia's school shooting are presented during a Fashion Week in Belgrade

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Jelena Acimovic is not a model, but on Friday evening she walked the runaway at Belgrade Fashion Week in a dress designed by Dior after drawings by her 14-year old sister who was killed in a school massacre last year.

Angelina Acimovic was in history class when her classmate, a 13-year old boy, entered the school and killed nine pupils and a guard in a shooting spree.

"This dress is white and resembles a wedding dress, she did not live long enough to see me as bride," Jelena said before the show.

To commemorate Angelina's life, her family last year called on designers to make dresses after her drawings made when she was 10 years old and attended a designers course for children.

Many Serbian designers responded and two dresses were made by Dior. Angelina's two sisters, nine of her young friends and several professional models walked the runaway wearing dresses.

"In every drawing there was joy and beauty. She had a very serious approach," said Bata Spasojevic, a Serbian designer who was among the first designers to respond to the Acimovic family's call to revive their daughter's sketches.

Angelina's other sister, Marija, wore an elegant sleeveless pink dress with a train. Pink was Angelina's favourite colour, she said.

"I am thinking about Angelina, that she is with us this evening and that she is happy with what we are doing," Marija said.

Andjelko Acimovic, Angelina's father, established a foundation named after his youngest daughter to commemorate her life.

"We believe that she is watching what we do and we will do everything to make her proud the way she made us proud," Acimovic said.

Last year 18 people were killed in two shootings - one in elementary school and another one in a small town outside Belgrade - on May 3 and 4.

The two shootings shocked Serbia and triggered the biggest anti-government protests since the Serbian Progressive Party took power in 2012, prompting the government to call a snap election.

(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Seven people were killed, and multiple others injured in a mass stabbing incident on Saturday at a shopping mall in Sydney, Australia.

Witnesses at the Westfield Bondi Junction mall described pandemonium on Saturday afternoon as a man in a green shirt appeared to indiscriminately stab shoppers, sending people running in search of safety. Shops locked their doors, and many of the shoppers struggled to find cover.

It was just carnage, one witness told ABC.

Among the people injured in the incident, a mother and her nine-month-old baby were also stabbed. The mother was taken to a hospital where she died from her injuries, while the baby went into emergency surgery, 9 News reports.

When a senior police inspector arrived on the scene to confront the attacker, he raised his knife toward her, CNN reported, and the officer shot at him.

The officer discharged her firearm, and that person is now deceased, said New South Waless Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke.

Cooke said that the attacker walked into the mall at 3:20 p.m., and proceeded to stab people with a weapon that was most likely a knife.

New South Waless police commissioner Karen Webb said police have identified the suspect, and believe the suspect was a 40-year-old man, but did not release any further details about his identity because the investigation is still ongoing.

She said that four women and one man died at the scene, in addition to the attacker and the other woman who succumbed to her injuries at the hospital. Eight people are currently being treated for injuries in hospital, including the infant.

King Charles III released a statement, saying he and Queen Camilla were utterly shocked and horrified by the tragic incident.

Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who have been so brutally killed during such a senseless attack, he said. While details of these shocking circumstances are still emerging, our thoughts are also with those who were involved in the response, and we give thanks for the bravery of the first responders and emergency services.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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Shred Day West Mobile hosted record number of people with sensitive documents, BBB says

MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG)  The Better Business Bureau Serving Central and South Alabama thanked West Mobile on Friday for a successful community Shred Day in a Facebook post.

According to the Better Business Bureau, 497 cars were served at Medal of Honor Park  reportedly the most in the history of hosting free Shred Day events.

WKRG has partnered in the Shred Day events since 2021. This was the first time a community Shred Day event was hosted in West Mobile.

Mobile man accused of forcibly removing person from residence: MPD

About 100 cars were turned away because the trucks loading shredded documents had filled.

We are sorry that so many of you had to be turned away, the post said. The trucks were bulging with documents when they left. We do hope to get another date soon.

The response showed the need was there for similar events, the post continued. Thank you to all who turned out.

The Better Business Bureau hosts these Shred Day events annually in Mobile, Birmingham, Montgomery, and the Eastern Shore.

Events have also been held in Trussville, Prattville and Tuscaloosa.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5.
Ukraine has said the situation around the eastern frontline city of Chasiv Yar is 'difficult and tense' - ANADOLU

Ukrainian forces positions along the front line have significantly worsened under intensified Russian assaults, its top general has admitted.

General Oleksandr Syrsky said that Russia has increased its attacks since Vladimir Putin won a presidential election in March and as warm spring weather has dried out previously untraversable muddy battlefields.

The situation on the Eastern front has significantly worsened in recent days, he said on the Telegram social messaging app on Saturday.

The enemy is increasing its efforts by using new armoured vehicle units which are periodically achieving tactical success.

Gen Syrsky, who has been the commander-in-chief of Ukraines military since February, said Russian forces were trying to break through west of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the Donbas region using dozens of tanks.

He added: This is facilitated by warm, dry weather, which has made most of the open areas of the terrain accessible to tanks.

Unlike Ukraine, Russia is not suffering from recruitment or arms shortages.

Analysts say that it can soak up the estimated 1,000 casualties that it is taking a day and can fire roughly five or six times as many shells and missiles as Ukrainian forces.

Troops advance as US military aid is held up

Russian military bloggers agreed with Gen Syrskys assessment. Rybar, one of the best-read Russian military Telegram channels with 1.2 million subscribers, said that Russian forces were sweeping through several villages.

It added: To the west of Avdiivka, Russian troops are advancing on a broad front, building on their success.

The bulk of the Wests military aid has been held up by politics in the US, where Republicans want 47 billion of promised military aid to Ukraine linked to strengthening the US-Mexico border against illegal immigrants.

One of Kyivs top military commanders told The Telegraph this week that Ukraine was now relying on drones donated by volunteers to hold back Moscows forces.

Some European military kit is still getting through, however.

On Saturday Germany said it would send another US-built Patriot missile defence system to Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Berlin and said it came at a critical time for us.

Analysts say that Russia may be setting up for a major assault later this year that aims to capture a bigger prize, possibly the entire Donbas region or even Kharkiv.

The key city in north-east Ukraine lies only 20 miles from Russias southern border and 160 miles from the front line. Russian forces had tried to capture it during the first few weeks of the war two years ago but were beaten back during a Ukrainian offensive in the summer of 2022.

Attacks aim at forcing out civilians

The population of Kharkiv has now recovered to about 1.3 million people, from 300,000 after the initial Russian invasion when hundreds of thousands of people fled.

Oleksandr Filchakov, the regions top prosecutor, said Russia was targeting civilians and that 97 people had already been killed in the Kharkiv region this year. The attacks are mainly aimed at intimidating the civilian population, he told Reuters. Theyre trying to make people leave the city, leave their buildings, homes, apartments.

He said Russia was also using Kharkiv to fine-tune modified bombs and had test-fired a new kind of aircraft-launched guided bomb at least six times, a weapon he described as a unified multi-purpose guided munition.

People living in the city told The Telegraph that missile and bomb attacks have intensified and that while they are determined to stay for as long as possible, everybody has a Plan B to flee.

You have to be prepared to leave Kharkiv at any time but we prefer to stay for now. If everybody leaves it means we lose the city to Russia, said Eugene Ovdiyuk, an IT specialist who manages two teams of developers in the city.

He listed the various contingency plans and equipment that he has set up to allow him to work through power cuts and daily air raid alerts, including bomb shelters with backup generators, power sources in his apartment and access to a Starlink satellite wifi terminal.

Teacher Victoria Sushanova also said that it was important to show resilience and adapt. She is the co-founder of the Honey Academy, a network of private schools and kindergartens. She explained how she has set up classrooms in windowless bunkers for children to evacuate to within one minute of an air raid warning.

The war is continuing. Kids grow up. We cannot stop time, she said. Education is very important. We cant lose time and we cannot lose a generation.vasion of Ukraine.

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Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has said that the situation on the eastern fronts has escalated significantly in recent days due to Russia's significant intensification of offensive operations after the presidential election.

Source: Syrskyi on Telegram

Details: Syrskyi said that the Russians were actively attacking on the Lyman and Bakhmut fronts with assault groups supported by armoured vehicles.

On the Pokrovsk front, the Russians are trying to break through the defences using dozens of tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.

Syrskyi explained this by the dry weather, which has made most of the open areas accessible to tanks.

He said that his first day in the area of operation was dedicated to this front and to taking all necessary measures to stabilise the situation, increase the effectiveness of Ukrainian troops and inflict maximum losses on Russian units.

Quote from Syrskyi: "The issue of achieving technical superiority over the enemy in high-tech weapons has once again arisen.

Only this will give us the opportunity to defeat a larger enemy and create conditions for seizing the strategic initiative.

The second serious problem is to improve the quality of training of military personnel, especially infantry units, so that they can make the most of all the capabilities of military equipment and Western weapons.

First and foremost, this task is the responsibility of the Ground Forces Command, which has come back from the combat zone [all commanders had combat experience  ed.]."

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Six House seats that could flip from blue to red in 2024, potentially giving GOP a bigger majority

Six House seats that could flip from blue to red in 2024, potentially giving GOP a bigger majority

A handful of House seats currently held by Democrats could flip in the 2024 elections, giving Republicans a potential sigh of relief as they seek to build on their slim majority.

All 435 seats in the House are up for grabs this cycle amid the GOP's fight to pick up seats in districts that favor right-wing candidates. That fight will likely take place in districts that were won, or narrowly lost, by Republicans in recent elections.

Republicans currently hold a 218-to-213 majority in the chamber. Amid the resignations and departures by several Republicans from the House in recent months, that number is expected to fall even further on April 19, when Wisconsin GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher, the chairman of the House select committee on China, leaves Congress.

The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election analyst, currently ranks 11 Democrat-held seats as "Toss Up" races this cycle. Several of those races also include districts won, or nearly won, by former President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

REPUBLICANS BLAST DEPARTING GOP LAWMAKERS AS RAZOR-THIN MAJORITY FUELS FEARS OF DEM TAKEOVER

Six House seats currently held by Democrats could flip in the 2024 elections, giving Republicans the ability to expand their slim majority in the chamber.

Of the many races, here are six House seats currently held by Democrats that could flip in 2024:

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, is looking to continue his representation of Maine's 2nd Congressional District  a position he has held since 2019  in the state's November election.

Two Republicans are running in the state's June 11 primary election, which uses a ranked-choice voting method, to challenge Golden  Maine state Rep. Michael Soboleski and Austin Theriault, a former NASCAR driver who also serves in the state House.

Once characterized by Politico as one of the "Trumpiest seats" for Democrats to defend, the district categorized as a "Democrat Toss Up" by the Cook Political Report covers four-fifths of the state, including the cities of Lewiston, Bangor and Auburn.

Despite the odds that are reportedly stacked against him in terms of voter demographics, Golden, a Marine Corps veteran who has bucked his party on a number of issues in recent years while serving as a co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, has won the seat three times  in 2018, 2020 and 2021.

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, at the U.S. Capitol on March 6, 2024.

Currently represented by longtime Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Ohio's 9th Congressional District is a seat that Republicans are looking to pick up in the state's 2024 election.

Kaptur, a Toledo native who has represented the recently redrawn Ohio district in the House since 1983, is currently the longest serving woman in the history of Congress.

But that could all change later this year as Kaptur, whose votes align with President Biden's interests nearly 100% of the time, plans to face off against Derek Merrin, her Republican challenger in the race.

Merrin, who was endorsed by Trump just prior to the state's GOP primary election last month, currently serves as a state representative. He previously served as a councilman and as mayor of the City of Waterville.

The race has been labeled by the Cook Political Report as a "Democrat Toss Up" in 2024.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, has represented Ohio's 9th Congressional District since 1983.

HOUSE GOP CAMPAIGN ARM RAKES IN OVER $33 MILLION TO KICK OFF 2024 ELECTION BATTLES

In Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District, Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright is looking to retain his post in the House.

Cartwright has voted nearly in lock-step with Biden since assuming office in 2019, giving Republicans who have largely focused on the economy and other topics like immigration and crime something to talk about.

Though the primary elections in the state won't take place until April 23, Cartwright, the presumed nominee for his party, is likely to face off against Rob Bresnahan Jr., the sole Republican challenging him.

Bresnahan has served as the chief financial officer and CEO of a family business, an electrical contracting company, since the age of 16, and his website states that he is "uniquely qualified to send a jolt of energy through Congress and deliver results" for the residents of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

The race has been labeled by the Cook Political Report as a "Democrat Toss Up" in 2024.

Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., has represented Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District since 2019.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., also co-chair of the moderate Democrats' Blue Dog Coalition in the House, is seeking re-election to the House after serving a single term in office representing Washington's 3rd Congressional District.

Perez is running in a race that has been labeled by the Cook Political Report as a "Democrat Toss Up" in 2024.

Perez, who was first elected to the House in 2022, is one of five candidates who will take part in the state's nonpartisan primary election on August 6.

The current Republican candidates looking to unseat the congresswoman include U.S. Army veteran Joe Kent, who ran against Perez in 2022 and narrowly lost, as well as Leslie French and Leslie Lewallen.

Kent, according to his campaign website, is "focused on restoring common sense Republican values and defeating the woke extremist Democrat Congresswoman Marie Perez."

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., was first elected to the House in 2022.

SCALISE BRINGS IN EYE-POPPING $12M AS GOP KICKS OFF 2024 BATTLE TO KEEP HOUSE

Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola, the first Democrat to represent Alaska's at-large congressional district in nearly 50 years, is hoping to earn the support of Alaskans through its ranked-choice voting method later this year.

Peltola, who was elected to serve a full term in the House in 2022 and has worked to portray herself as a moderate ever since, previously served for a decade as a member of the Alaska state House.

An Alaska native, Peltola is now gearing up for a political showdown for the Last Frontier as she prepares to take on Republican candidates Nick Begich and Nancy Dahlstrom, the state's current lieutenant governor, in Alaska's August 20 primary election.

Peltola, who also serves as a co-chair of the Blue Dog Coalition, has faced criticism from her GOP challengers for failing to vote in favor of the interests of Alaska residents.

"We like Mary as a person, but we don't like her voting record. She's not speaking for Alaskans," Dahlstrom told Fox News Digital earlier this year.

Similarly, Begich told Fox that "voters are furious" with the way Peltola has represented Alaska on the federal level.

Rep. Mary Peltola has represented Alaska in the House since 2022.

Another House seat, Michigan's 7th Congressional District, is an open seat that many in the political sphere are paying close attention to after incumbent Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, announced in February 2023 she would run for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.

The district  which includes the counties of Branch, Eaton, Hillsdale, Jackson and Lenawee, as well as large portions of Calhoun and Washtenaw counties  was narrowly lost by Trump during the last presidential election.

Two former Michigan state senators, Republican Tom Barrett and Democrat Curtis Hertel Jr., are running to represent the district in the state's 2024 election.

The race is labeled a "Democrat Toss Up" by the Cook Political Report.

Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., announced in February 2023 that she would run for the Senate.

GOING, GOING, GONE: COULD THE REPUBLICANS' SLIM HOUSE MAJORITY SLIP AWAY BEFORE NOVEMBER?

Though not as competitive, according to Cook Political Report ratings, Republicans are also eyeing Virginia's 7th Congressional District, where more than a dozen Republicans and Democrats are seeking their respective parties' nomination for the seat in the state's June 18 primary elections.

Former U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret and combat veteran Derrick Anderson is the leading Republican in the race and has received endorsements from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and several other members of GOP leadership in the House.

The Virginia seat is currently held by Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat who announced in November her decision to run for governor of the state in 2025. The seat has been ranked as a "Lean Democrat" by the Cook Political Report.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., announced in November her decision to run for governor of Virginia in 2025.

Despite the potential pick-up opportunities for the GOP in the House, several Republicans, many of whom represent districts won by President Biden in 2020, could be in jeopardy of losing their seats in the lower chamber later this year.

Similar to that of current Democrat-held seats that could flip, the Cook Political Report currently ranks 11 GOP-held seats as "Toss Up" races this cycle.





Original article source: Six House seats that could flip from blue to red in 2024, potentially giving GOP a bigger majority
Small private colleges are struggling to keep their doors open as declining enrollment leads to financial instability

Cabrini University hoped to save itself.

Enrollment at the small, Catholic liberal arts college in Radnor, Pennsylvania, had fallen more than 60 percent since 2016, putting the tuition-dependent school with a small endowment under serious financial pressure.

When Helen Drinan arrived to serve as interim president in June 2022, she quickly grew concerned that while Cabrini had already made cuts in staffing and other areas, there was more work to be done.

The overarching need was new revenue generating, Drinan told CNN. That is the most significant thing you can do. You can cut lots of different things, but if you cant build new revenue, you really are playing for time.

Drinan had faced this sort of challenge before, at Simmons University in Boston, which she led from 2008 to 2020. There, too, she had taken office at a time of financial precarity, with Simmons struggling to make payroll. It took about 18 months to turn things around, stabilizing the schools finances through staff reductions and finding new sources of revenue, including developing an online graduate education program in nursing, according to a case study by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.

But time ran out for Cabrini to carry out such a strategy. The university announced in June 2023 it will close this summer.

Cabrini is one of a growing number of US colleges and universities facing financial strain  often due to increasing operating costs, poor fundraising and declining enrollment. Some schools have chosen to merge with other institutions. Others are cutting programs and staff or, like Cabrini, shutting down altogether.

Helen Drinan, intertim president of Cabrini University. - CNN

Following a wave of closures of for-profit colleges in the mid-2010s, closures of non-profit institutions began rising in 2017, before slowing briefly in 2020-21, according to Rachel Burns, a senior policy analyst at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. She described the current trend as a catch-up period from the last four years, with many institutions yet to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and the expiration of federal aid that had kept some schools afloat.

Institutions that were not in a great place prior to the pandemic survived the pandemic because of that additional funding, but now theyre back where they were before, Burns said.

Another issue is the demographic cliff that is coming really from the declining birth rates, Burns said, with fewer high school graduates meaning fewer potential college students. Then there are enrollment declines because the cost of college has increased so substantially.

Overall, enrollment at 4-year colleges in the US peaked at nearly 18.1 million in 2010 and fell each year until 2021, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, which estimates enrollment will slowly rise over the next decade but remain under the 2010 high.

In fall 2023, overall undergraduate enrollment went up 2.1% but there was a 3.6% decline in freshman enrollment, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Fewer colleges, fewer college graduates

Private, liberal arts colleges have been hit hard, especially in the Northeast and the Midwest. At least seven schools have closed in New York since 2020, including Cazenovia College, outside Syracuse, which graduated its final class in 2023.

The concern? Fewer colleges will mean fewer college graduates.

There are a number of roles that are open right now to individuals who dont have any college education and I think were becoming more accepting of opening up positions to individuals with a high school education, but on the other side of that, the workforce is evolving so quickly that most jobs will require, if not some college education, a four-year degree, Burns said. We need to make sure that were creating a workforce that can fill that demand.

Meanwhile, four-year institutions that once catered to adult learners and first-generation college students, like Hodges University in Fort Myers, Florida, also are shutting down. Hodges had already raised tuition, cut programs and sold buildings to try to stay open, but could not compete with state schools and is closing this summer.

What is going to be lost is the commitment that we had to making sure that higher education was accessible to everyone, said Hodges President Charlene Wendel. Because not everybody can go travel out of their community to go to school.

The century-old College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, sparked anger and concern when news leaked in December that it would graduate its final class in May.

Upper class students help to carry the belongings of new students during move-in day at The College of Saint Rose on August 21, 2019, in Albany, New York. - Paul Buckowski/Albany Times Union/Getty Images

I am so angry at the fact that our students, our faculty, our employees, the parents of our students had to hear this news in the press rather than from us, Saint Rose President Marcia White said at a news conference, while calling the boards sudden decision excruciating.

Saint Roses aim is to graduate as many students as possible and to help others continue their education at other institutions, the schools director of communications, Denise Dagnino, said.

Closures put students at risk of dropping out

In the case of Cabrini, leaders reached a deal with nearby Villanova University, another Catholic institution, to take over the campus. Villanova agreed to preserve part of the legacy of Mother Cabrini, the first American saint of the Catholic church, though the specific plans for the Cabrini campus are unclear.

Drinan said research shows colleges that close haphazardly, without helping students find their next opportunity, jeopardize their chances of earning a degree. Cabrini partnered with four Pennsylvania colleges with a similar profile  Ursinus College, Holy Family University, Gwynedd Mercy University and Eastern University  that have agreed to match students financial aid packages and allow them to transfer credits.

Colin Tomczak, a junior from Philadelphia, said he was concerned and scared when he learned via email last summer Cabrini would close. He and his mother spent hours discussing what to do.

It took until probably my sophomore year for me to actually feel like I started to belong here. And very shortly after I felt like I had friends and could actually see myself finishing my four years here is when they told me we were closing down, Tomczak said. But honestly, the process here when I came back, the amount of help I got from people, definitely helped me steer away from just dropping out entirely.

After counselors walked him through his options, Tomczak decided to transfer to Eastern, just down the road from Cabrini, partly because he likes the schools writing program and heard many other students, friends and faculty would be transferring there.

There is no end in sight for closures, particularly of private, non-profit institutions, as enrollment continues to decline, Burns said, but part of what the industry is experiencing could be viewed as beneficial right-sizing.

There are some closures that are really unfortunate and fall outside of the right-sizing that just are devastating for students, she said. But some of the closures, while its still really challenging for students, are potentially in the long term the best thing for the field as a whole because it is allowing the limited resources that we have at the state and federal level to go to the institutions that are most likely to provide high quality education for students.

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KIGALI, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Rwandans on Saturday paid tribute to politicians killed during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi after they opposed the genocide plan, as the 30th national commemoration week came to a close.

The event took place at the Rebero Memorial site in the capital of Kigali, where more than 14,400 victims of the genocide are interred. It was marked by a presentation on the life and struggle of the 21 fallen politicians.

Senior government officials, members of the diplomatic corps, families of the fallen politicians and representatives of survivors' associations attended the event and laid wreaths at the graves in honor of the victims.

Senate President Francois Xavier Kalinda, who presided over the ceremony, urged Rwandan political parties and politicians to "foster unity among Rwandans and avoid divisive politics" so as not to drag the country back to its dark past.

Abbas Mukama, spokesperson for the National Forum of Political Parties, said the politicians were killed because they stood against genocide, hatred, dictatorship and segregation.

As politicians, "we have the duty to continue to educate our party faithful and all Rwandans about peaceful co-existence, upholding unity, being exemplary and working toward good governance," he said.

The commemoration week began on April 7 under the theme "Remember-Unite-Renew," during which various commemorative activities were held throughout the country, including a "Walk to Remember" march in Kigali and night vigils.

The commemorative activities will continue until July 4, marking the 100-day calamity when about 1 million people, mostly of the Tutsi community and moderate Hutus, were killed in the genocide by Hutu extremists. 
Small-town lawsuit could make big corporations pay after decades of deceiving the public: 'They lied to all of us'

Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is the latest locale to sue the oil industry, joining dozens of others.

The suburban region north of Philadelphia "wants oil producers to pay to mitigate the damage caused by climate change," the Associated Press reported Mar. 26, "asserting that major oil producers systematically deceived the public about their role in accelerating global warming."

The lawsuit accuses six oil companies  BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, ExxonMobil, and Shell  and the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association, of causing increasingly frequent and extreme weather events by burning fossil fuels and deceiving the public about it.

Seven people died in a July flash flood in Bucks County, which will spend $955 million through 2040 to mitigate the impact of the changing climate, according to the AP. It's the first county in Pennsylvania to file suit against Big Oil, but more than a quarter of Americans live in such communities, according to the Center for Climate Integrity.

The lawsuit compares the movement to the $206 billion settlement by the tobacco industry in 1998. Eight states, Washington, D.C., and municipalities in nine states plus the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico have sued major oil and gas companies for deceiving the public about their role in the changing climate, per the AP, which cited the CCI.

"These companies have known since at least the 1950s that their ways of doing business were having calamitous effects on our planet, and rather than change what they were doing or raise the alarm, they lied to all of us," Bucks County commissioner Gene DiGirolamo said in a statement. "The taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for these companies and their greed."

Much like the Big Tobacco agreement did, a judgment against Big Oil would change the world.

The deception started at least as early as 1954, the Guardian reported in January. It continues to this day as Big Oil and others follow the playbook.

These efforts are known as greenwashing  obscuring the true harms of a product in favor of falsehoods that tout its environmental positives.

"By misleading the public to believe that a company or other entity is doing more to protect the environment than it is, greenwashing promotes false solutions to the climate crisis that distract from and delay concrete and credible action," according to the United Nations.

Until Big Oil is held accountable, there are steps individuals can take to mitigate their impact on the planet: Rely on public transit or opt for an electric vehicle instead of a gasoline-powered one, eat less meat, and use clean energy such as solar and wind to power your home (which can also save you money).

As this and the other lawsuits by government officials demonstrate, perhaps the most important thing you can do is vote for candidates who support real green solutions to the climate crisis.

Join our free newsletter for cool news and actionable info that makes it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.
SMYRNA, Tenn. (WKRN)  A teen who was hit and killed by a drugged driver is being honored in a unique way.

This week marks 10 years since 13-year-old Clifton Braunwalder was killed on I-24 while changing his moms flat tire. In memory of Clifton, the Braunwalder family is working with Rutherford County law enforcement to conduct a sobriety checkpoint Friday, April 12, with hopes no other family suffers their same heartache.

It almost seems like yesterday, Cliftons father, Norbert, told News 2.

PREVIOUS: Community honors Rutherford County Boy Scout killed in hit-and-run crash 10 years ago

On April 10, 2014, Clifton was helping his mom change a flat tire on I-24 in Smyrna when a driver veered across traffic, hitting and killing him. Police said the driver was under the influence of Xanax, amphetamines, and marijuana.

When she got up that day, she didnt intend to kill anybody. Her actions that day with what she had in her system and her driving caused her to kill my son, but it wasnt intentional; I realize that, Norbert explained.

Not intentional but preventable, with Cliftons forgiving family hoping their tragedy will make others think twice.

Pedestrian killed in crash on Vietnam Veterans Boulevard

Its hard enough to plan a funeral for a spouse or a parent, you know, but when its a child, its even harder. People need to think, dont get behind a wheel, you know? If you are at a party, have a designated driver; its that simple. Theres Ubers these days, Lyft, and if you are on prescriptions, know what you are taking, know how it affects you, said Norbert.

Ten years later, the driver of the deadly hit and run remains behind bars, while Cliftons family is left grasping hold of memories of what could have been.

Seeing his friends graduate college now, starting to get married, and then when they start to have kids, all those moments we missed with him. Let people know you care about them. Say, I love you, and hopefully you make it back at the end of the day.

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

In honor of Clifton, a sobriety checkpoint will be held Friday from 10 p.m. to midnight on Sam Ridley Parkway.

Tina Wilson pleaded guilty to the charges of the deadly hit-and-run. The Braunwalders believe she is up for parole this year. They told News 2s Stephanie Langston as long as she doesnt have any marks against her in prison, they wont stand in her way of being released.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
Here are some of The Providence Journal's most-read stories for the week of April 7, supported by your subscriptions.

Here are the week's top reads on providencejournal.com:

The R44 helicopter sank after a crash landing into Worden Pond in South Kingstown. The helicopter was being used in the testing of altitude sensors for REGENT Craft to develop its seaglider, a high-speed, very low-altitude vehicle they seek to deploy as a coastal water taxi.

Two people were rescued from a helicopter that crashed in Worden Pond in South Kingstown on Tuesday morning.

The pilot was treated at the scene; the passenger was taken to South County Hospital with minor injuries, the police said. The pair were rescued by a local fisherman who happened to be in his boat nearby when the crash occurred.

The pilot and the woman flying with him were testing sensors that that determine the height at which an aircraft is flying over the water, said Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Police Chief Dean Hoxsie.

North Kingstown-based REGENT Craft, which develops electric seagliders, said one of its employees was on board as a passenger. Read on to find out how the helicopter's research figures into REGENT Craft's work on a prototype glider that could be ready this summer.

Local news: Helicopter crash: Why it was collecting data for one of RI's most innovative companies

A Superior Court judge upheld the firing of a North Kingstown High School chemistry teacher who coined "distasteful" nicknames for female students, including "crop top Karen," "baby" and "babela."

Judge Stephen P. Nugent ruled that the state commissioners of education and the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education got it right when they upheld the firing of James Viner in 2015 for good and just cause after a student reported that he'd kissed her on the cheek. Viners lawyer, Carly Iafrate, declined comment.

Find out more about the investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior by Viner and why state education officials concluded that his firing was for good and just cause.

Courts: RI teacher called students 'crop top Karen' and other names. A judge upheld his firing.

What happened at five of the biggest companies in Rhode Island when their corporate teams went home to work remotely during the pandemic?

The world kept turning and productivity held steady, but for many employees  and their employers  the future of the office changed permanently.

That was just one of topics discussed at the University of Rhode Island's symposium on April 1 with the chief financial officers of Ocean State Job Lot, Textron, Gilbane, Washington Trust and Amica Mutual Insurance.

Some employees strongly prefer to work remotely, while others miss the camaraderie and mentoring of working in the same building as their colleagues, speakers said at the event. Many employers said they want to get employees back into the workplace, but others say remote work has dramatically expanded the pool of talent from which they can hire. Will the pre-pandemic "normal" of 9-to-5 office life ever return?

Business: These big RI companies went remote in the pandemic. What do they think about the future of work?

Just some of the European fare at Celeste, in Narragansett.

Celeste, the latest addition to the Newport Restaurant Group, promises an innovative approach to coastal European cuisine at the site of the former Trio Kitchen + Bar in Narragansett.

Executive chef Andrew Gould and the Newport Restaurant Groups culinary team have a brand new menu that features a raw bar, an expanded pizza selection, shareable small plates and entrees in the flavors of coastal Italy, France and Spain.

Hungry yet? Let Journal food editor Gail Ciampa guide you through the mouth-watering menu.

Dining: Celeste brings coastal European tastes to Narragansett. See what's being served.

In Providence, a city teeming with great restaurants, Jamie Lee Curtis knows the best spot to get brunch: Little Sister.

The actress, who is in town to film the political comedy "Ella McCay," posted a picture of her breakfast Sunday on Instagram to thousands of likes.

"If you find yourself in Providence, Rhode Island, I recommend highly this lovely little corner cafe @littlesisterpvd and their yummy food and drinks!," she captioned a photo of two eggs covered in hollandaise sauce covering a plate of delicious-looking food.

Little Sister, at 737a Hope St., is a Puerto Rican cafe, restaurant and bakery that opened in 2020. Last year, head chef and co-owner Milena Pagan was nominated for a James Beard award.

Dining: Brunch with the stars: Jamie Lee Curtis recommends 'this lovely little' spot in Providence

To read the full stories, go to providencejournal.com. Find out how to subscribe here.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Journal top stories: Solar eclipse; Jamie Lee Curtis' fave brunch spot
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  A southwest Memphis community is shaken to its core after a shootout that left a Memphis Police officer and a suspect dead.

Memphis Police officer and suspect dead after shootout; multiple officers injured

MPD Officer Joseph McKinney was fatally shot after responding to a call on Hewlett Road and Horn Lake Road early Friday morning. One of the suspects, identified as 18-year-old Jaylen Lobley, was also killed.

A short drive down Hewlett Road shows the aftermath of the brutality hours earlier. A grandmother who spoke with WREG has called this community home for more than half a century, but that secure feeling of home was disrupted after peeking out shortly after 2 a.m.

Its sad, its sad because we have to walk this way to get our kids to school and its not safe, she said.

Marbell Neal was working at the time, but her daughter and grandson were at her home, which sits directly across the street from where the suspects car, full of bullet holes, stopped.

My daughter said she heard a boom, Neal said. She looked out the door and she said she saw the car. Someone had shot up the car.

Neal was unable to make it inside her house as it sat in the middle of one of the crime scenes. The widespread investigation stretched on for hours.

There are still unanswered questions, but neighbors WREG spoke to say what happened here overnight has reshaped the lives of many.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
Forty-three years to the day after the space shuttle Columbia landed from its first mission, CNN is set to conclude airing a four-part series on the orbiter's ill-fated last return to Earth.



"Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight," a new documentary co-produced by BBC and Mindhouse Productions, looks back at the winged spacecraft's 28th mission, STS-107, which ended in tragedy on Feb. 1, 2003. The program features new interviews with members of the fallen astronauts' families and some of the NASA managers and engineers who supported the flight and later contributed to learning why Columbia and its crew were lost.

"If you work in human spaceflight, this is the worst possible thing that could ever happen," says astronaut Ellen Ochoa in the third episode of "Final Flight." Ochoa was in Mission Control when Columbia broke apart as it reentered the atmosphere after a successful 16-day science mission in Earth orbit.



The first two hours of "Final Flight" debuted last Sunday (April 7) and will be aired again on Saturday (April 13) beginning at 8 p.m. EDT/PDT. CNN will then premiere the remaining two episodes at the same time the following day, coinciding with the anniversary of shuttle Columbia's STS-1 landing in 1981.

Related: Columbia is Lost: Space.com's STS-107 Archive

An arrow points to a piece of foam liberated from the external tank, which next strikes the leading edge of space shuttle Columbia's left wing, sealing the fate of the STS-107 crew on board.

As the documentary recounts, the issue that sealed Columbia's fate was known to NASA engineers from almost the first day the orbiter took flight. Foam covering the shuttle's external tank and its connection points to the spacecraft would fall off during launch and, depending on when and from where those liberations occurred, the foam could impact and damage the orbiter.



It was just such an occurrence that left a hole in the leading edge of Columbia's left wing, allowing hot plasma to compromise the integrity of the orbiter's airframe, which then led to the break up of the spacecraft and the death of the STS-107 crew, commander Rick Husband, pilot Willie McCool, mission specialists Laurel Clark, David Brown, Michael Anderson and Kalpana Chawla and Israeli payload specialist Ilan Ramon.

"I didn't know at the time that anything concerning had happened," says Sandra Anderson, Michael's wife. "There were people who did, though."

Related: Columbia Disaster: What happened and what NASA learned

As the accident investigation revealed, engineers at NASA were aware of the foam strike soon after it occurred on Jan, 16, 2003, and immediately began questioning whether it posed a risk to the safety of the vehicle and the crew. Rodney Rocha, who was the chief structural engineer for the shuttle, was among those who asked for and was denied the use of military assets, a.k.a. spy satellites, to provide the imagery needed to determine how severe the damage was from the foam impact.



"I was recounting all of the pushback we were getting from management, two weeks of just utter frustration and anger," said Rocha, describing a conversation he had with his wife on the night before Columbia's reentry.



The NASA managers who set aside Rocha's concern and who still dismissed the foam as the cause of the tragedy even after Columbia was lost were unable to be reached and so were not interviewed for "Final Flight," according to CNN.

The STS-107 crew poses in front of the hatch into space shuttle Columbia. Kneeling in front (left to right): payload specialist Ilan Ramon, pilot Willie McCool and mission specialist David Brown. Standing in the back: mission specialists Michael Anderson and Kalpana Chawla, commander Rick Husband and mission specialist Laurel Clark.

In addition to focusing on the cause of the tragedy, "Final Flight" also profiles the STS-107 astronauts through the memories shared by spouses and children, as well as the last footage taken of them aboard space shuttle Columbia. Mark Kelly, who is now a U.S. senator, is also interviewed as several crew members were his friends, having been selected together to become astronauts.



Kelly was also the first person from NASA to arrive in East Texas, where the debris from Columbia and the remains of the crew had fallen from the sky.



"There were pieces of space shuttle, thousands and thousands of pieces all over the place," says Kelly. "This was not something I was trained for."



"Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight" (which was previously released in the UK as "The Space Shuttle That Fell to Earth") concludes with a look at the space shuttle's legacy and what NASA is doing to ensure that the STS-107 crew's deaths were not in vain.



"Our viewers have long been fascinated by stories of space exploration," said Amy Entelis, an executive vice president at CNN Worldwide, in a statement. "This chapter in the space shuttle program captured the nation's attention and is equally as captivating in the retelling."

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2024 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
After months of delay, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is poised to step formally into the perilous debate over Ukraine aid  an explosive topic that carries high stakes for both the future of Kyivs sovereignty and the fate of Johnsons Speakership.

Since taking the gavel in October, Johnson has vowed to move another round of military help for Ukraines beleaguered forces in their fight against Russia. But the issue has taken a back seat to domestic concerns with hard deadlines, including efforts to fund the government and renew Washingtons foreign surveillance powers.

With those priorities in the rearview mirror, Johnson is now shifting gears to tackle a package of emergency foreign aid  including new assistance for Ukraine, Israel and Indo-Pacific allies  thats expected to hit the floor next week, according to sources in both parties.

I know there is a commitment from the Speaker to do something on Ukraine next week, said Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

The legislation is widely supported by lawmakers in both parties, but it comes with workplace hazards for the Speaker, who has infuriated conservatives in his GOP conference by cutting a number of deals with President Biden and risks an even fiercer revolt if he does it again on Ukraine.

One firebrand, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), has already filed a motion to remove his gavel and is dangling it over the debate.

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats have their own demands: Namely, they want a vote on a $95 billion Senate bill  combining aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan with humanitarian help for Gaza  which passed through the upper chamber in February with a 70-29 vote.

The only way we get aid to Ukraine is if the House takes up the Senate bill, Smith said. There may be other things, but the Senate bill needs to get a vote if Ukraine is going to get support.

How Johnson intends to thread the needle  securing his favored policies without suffering a job-ending backlash  is a mystery thats swirled for months in Washington.

Some Republicans are offering their quiet advice, saying the only way to get a bill passed through the divided House is to realize that, whatever you do, not everyone will be happy.

The problem is, hes trying to thread this needle and you cant thread the needle. The conference is too divided, a House Republican told The Hill. You got to pick a path and sell that he honestly and genuinely is trying to do the right thing.

The Speaker is vowing to plow ahead with the politically prickly debate as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, Biden administration officials and leaders around the globe sound the alarm about Ukraines immediate need for more military assistance.

But how, exactly, he plans to alter the Senate bill  and whether he intends to move it as a single package or split it into pieces  remains an open question.

Johnson has kept Washington guessing about his strategy for months, and that dynamic hasnt changed in the final days heading into the high-stakes debate.

Were gonna get FISA done today, and then well move to the next priority, Johnson said Friday when asked about Ukraine aid.

Complicating his task is the question of whether to include policies in the foreign aid bill to address the migrant crisis at the southern border.

Democrats, who are crucial to passing a Ukraine package, oppose any changes to the Senate bill, which has no border language in it.

To me theres no question what its got to look like: The Senate bill. Thats what its going to look like, said Rep. Greg Meeks (N.Y.), senior Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Time is of the essence and thats the only bill that will get right to the presidents desk.

Asked what happens if border language is added, Meeks didnt hesitate.

No deal, he said.

But Johnson has vowed not to move any Ukraine aid that doesnt include border reforms and removing the issue from the debate would spark a revolt from conservatives in his conference.

Thats not gonna go well over here, said Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.). Funding Ukraine without securing our nation is just untenable, as far as Im concerned and frankly as far as a lot of my colleagues are concerned. I would argue that its close to a majority of our conference.

A second House Republican, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic, predicted that omitting border security from the foreign aid package would trigger an ouster effort against Johnson.

Throw Ukraine down on the floor with no border security and I think itll be called, the GOP lawmaker said.

As the Speaker approaches the legislative minefield, he is on as thin of ice as ever with hardline conservatives, who are already furious with Johnson for his willingness to cut deals with Democrats.

Johnson on Friday oversaw the passage of bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the U.S.s warrantless surveillance authority, a topic that has sparked intense  and highly public  disagreements within the House GOP conference.

The bill  which would extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)  cleared the House in a 273-147 vote and, notably, did not include a controversial warrant requirement amendment that many conservative privacy hawks had been pushing for.

The chamber narrowly rejected that provision in a 212-212 vote  in the House, a tie fails  with the help of Johnson, who voted against the controversial amendment.

Hardline Republican privacy hawks  many of whom are also Ukraine opponents  are now aiming their fire at the Speaker, blaming him for the failed amendment vote and, in those statements, airing ominous signs that they may be ready for a new face at the top of the GOP conference.

A Republican Speaker voting against warrant requirements for American citizens after this very process was blatantly abused to spy on @realDonaldTrump and his campaign is beyond the pale, Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) wrote on X.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) blamed Johnson for the failed amendment vote, writing on X that he was the tie breaker for the controversial provision.

A spokesperson for Johnson, however, told The Hill that the Speaker voted early in the vote, and was not one of the final lawmakers to weigh in on the matter.

Greene also piled on Johnson after the FISA vote, telling reporters that the Speaker was the one that caused the warrant amendment to fail.

I think thats gonna tell a lot of people what Ive been saying is true, Greene said, whats the difference between Speaker Pelosi and Speaker Johnson?

Greene, for her part, has not yet disclosed when she plans to trigger her motion to vacate  the same tool used to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)  but she has urged Johnson in no uncertain terms not to put any Ukraine aid on the floor, and suggested that her timing will hinge on the Speakers handling of FISA and assistance for Kyiv.

Right now he does not have my support and Im watching what happens with FISA and Ukraine, Greene said after meeting with the Speaker on Wednesday.

Despite that warning, Johnson could send aid to Ukraine and save his job all at once  if he approaches the foreign aid puzzle a certain way.

A handful of Democrats have publicly declared that they will protect Johnson from a GOP coup if he puts the Senate-passed legislation on the floor, which would more than likely pass in a widespread bipartisan vote.

The move would incense hardline conservatives, but also be met with cheers from Ukraine supporters on both sides of the aisle  especially Democrats  a dynamic that is thrusting Johnson into a tenuous tug-of-war between keeping his job and helping the embattled U.S. ally.

Im one of those thatd be willing to save him, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas.) said Friday.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
At least five men and one woman are now squatting in the restaurant - JEFF GILBERT

Squatters occupying Gordon Ramsays 13 million Regents Park pub restaurant have held a press conference to say they are using our house to run a soup kitchen for the homeless.

The Grade II-listed York & Albany pub and boutique hotel, in a wealthy corner of Camden in north London, has been barricaded with kitchen appliances, cardboard boxes and bike locks.

At least five men and one woman are understood to be inside, with a legal notice pinned up on the door stating that if you want to get us out you will have to issue a claim for possession in the County Court or in the High Court.

The group broke their silence on Saturday afternoon by delivering a statement outside the former 1820s coaching inn and Georgian townhouse, which was until a month ago an upmarket restaurant, bar and hotel run by the celebrity chef and host of Kitchen Nightmares.

We are occupying this property under squatting law which is our right in this country, they told The Telegraph. We run a free cafe for the community on Tuesdays and Thursdays although we hope to open more frequently.

Describing themselves as Camden Art Cafe, they said: This is a civil matter between the occupiers and the landowner who we understand has also refused to comment on the matter... People will be welcomed again into our cafe on Tuesday, that is all.

An individual seen leaving the building - JEFF GILBERT www.jeffgilbert.co.uk

A spokesman for the squatters, who wore a mask and declined to be named, described it as our house and told how they were already hosting guests.

The Metropolitan Police has refused to intervene. A spokesman for the force said: Police were made aware of squatters at a disused property in Parkway, Regents Park, NW1 on Wednesday, 10 April. This is a civil matter and so police did not attend the property.

The Telegraph understands that the pub was closed a month ago and a new partner had been lined up in a multi-million-pound deal, but while it was changing hands squatters moved in a week ago.

Ramsay leased the property from Gary Love, the director and actor, on a 25-year term but in 2015 was embroiled in an unsuccessful legal battle to end the lease. The chef put it on the market with a 13 million guide price in December last year, with the business having lost a total of 15.3 million since opening in 2008, according to Companies House files.

Ramsay, 57, is said to be trying to finalise an eviction notice but its proving an absolute nightmare. A source told The Sun: Theyve glued tight all the locks and are cooking up a storm in the kitchen, which is especially galling for Gordon.

Four of the squatters were seen coming and going on Saturday from the 13 million building, designed by the renowned architect John Nash, including one man in a Palestine-style keffiyeh scarf who jumped the fence and ran away with a skateboard while shouting.

Later, another squatter came out to speak to reporters, insisting that any impression that it was a group of posh squatters was untrue.

Outside the York & Albany pub and boutique hotel near Regent's Park - PA

The woman, who wanted to remain anonymous and said her house had burnt down, said: Most Londoners are priced out, they cannot afford to rent or buy in London and thats why many people are homeless.

I was born in this country, so are my family, and were being treated like refugees basically. Its really disgusting.

Were looking to get whatever food we can and provide meals, we give people a lot more than just potatoes  freshly cooked and prepared meals and its all free of charge.

Asked what they have to say to accusations they have invaded Ramsays property, she said: From my knowledge, its not Gordons property, Gordon just happens to be the person who was helping to run the establishment from what Ive been told, Im not sure if thats correct.

British law allows squatters to become the registered owner of property or land if they have occupied it for 10 years, acted as the owners for that time and did so without the owners permission.

A neighbour in Regents Park, a 52-year old banker who wished to remain anonymous, told The Telegraph: Its legend around here that Ramsays father signed the lease 15-20 years ago, but it was a thriving, beautiful restaurant.

Apparently it was being readied for a new tenant. I suspect they will have to offer them something to get out to avoid causing a ruckus. The squatters seem to have changed the locks on the former pizzeria so they can now come and go as they want with their own keys.

A delivery of two large crates of potatoes was left at the pub on Saturday afternoon.

Ramsay has been contacted for comment.

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Joe Gothard settled his 6-foot-6 frame into a bean-bag chair on a recent morning at the American Indian Magnet School in St. Paul.

He was there to observe a reading intervention class  a routine that dates to the fall  and he noted the name on the chair, which was Big Joe.

That had been his nickname in his hometown of Madison, Wis., where he will return as that district's new schools chief next month.

Gothard leaves St. Paul as the 2024 National Superintendent of the Year, yet he and others say that it's the right time for a fresh start for all.

"Being back in Madison to me is really appealing at this stage in my life," he said in a recent interview. "It's not bigger than St. Paul, but that doesn't really matter to me. The purpose is still the purpose. The challenges are still going to be there."

Gothard is one of America's longest-serving urban superintendents, the third longest, in fact, among 78 in the Council of the Great City Schools. Although he and his leadership team have made creative moves that have garnered national attention, challenges remain for Minnesota's second-largest school district.

St. Paul's enrollment has steadied a bit under his watch, thanks in part to the district's multicultural offerings. Nonetheless, it still is sliding and now stands at 32,145 students.

The literacy work made possible by a massive infusion of federal pandemic aid shows promise and will remain in place, but the district's annual test scores lag and the achievement gap persists.

As Gothard prepares to hand the reins to veteran interim leader John Thein, he is helping shape a 2024-25 budget with a $107 million deficit and with cuts that undermine the goal of his Envision SPPS district redesign. School closings and mergers were supposed to make a well-rounded education for all elementary students possible, yet dozens of specialist teaching positions now are on the line.

Stephanie Anderson, a parent who helped block the proposed closing of Wellstone Elementary and later chaired board member Yusef Carrillo's campaign, said she believes Gothard "believes in public education and in the value of it. I believe he goes to work each day doing the best he can."

But, she said, "I think the timing is really good for him to leave."

Calm in a busy job

On Feb. 15, Gothard was in San Diego for the national conference of the American Association of School Administrators, during which the 50 state superintendents of the year are paraded out, an envelope is unsealed and the name of the National Superintendent of the Year is announced. As a finalist, he prepared a few words, just in case.

At the same time, St. Paul's teachers were in the process of authorizing a strike  a clean sweep of such votes during his seven years at the helm  and Madison's school board president phoned him in the morning to offer him the superintendent post.

"Thankfully, I've been through some tests in my tenure in St. Paul," he said of the ability to stay calm when emotions may be running high.

A year ago, a student was fatally stabbed in a hallway at Harding High School, and the district spent months exploring what it would take to make the schools safer.

As a mentor to aspiring leaders, Gothard said he makes it a practice to be present in the moment, to listen before speaking, to ask good questions and take cues from people who come at him all day with diverse perspectives.

"In this work and the work of leadership, you can't say 'yes' to everything," he said. "In fact, I have a quote I often share with people: How good are my 'yeses' if I never say 'no?'"

School closures and additions

Last spring, Gothard and his administrative team said yes when Somali parents and others advocated for a broader array of programming  eventually opening an East African Elementary Magnet School that helped ease the district's projected enrollment decline.

They launched a Karen language program believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.

Even Envision SPPS, which Gothard acknowledges as unpopular, set the district apart from others in the country by taking on school closures in a systematic way that allowed for some innovation, he said.

But Anna Peters, a parent at Galtier Community School, which was closed to make room for an early childhood education hub, said that after a year at nearby Hamline Elementary, she and her husband decided to pull their fifth-grader and place her in a St. Paul charter school.

Teachers need support to meet all of their students' needs, Peters said, and it isn't clear the bigger schools that result from mergers can deliver. Not that she blames Gothard. "Running a school district is such a behemoth of a job," she said.

What's next in St. Paul

Gothard's tenure in St. Paul ends on May 17, and Thein, who was interim leader before Gothard was hired in 2017, will bring the 2024-25 budget with its expansive cuts to the finish line in June.

The school board has not set a timeline for its search for a permanent superintendent.

Last week, Gothard was in Madison, visiting schools long familiar to him and his family, and in an exchange with a student who asked why he was returning, said: "How can I make school awesome every day for you? That's why I'm back."

But he has made clear, too, that he is National Superintendent of the Year because of St. Paul.
(KRON)  On Friday, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced the county will receive nearly $880,000 in civil penalties after a settlement was reached earlier this week with the California Department of General Services (DGS).

According to Prices office, DGS violated environmental regulations by maintaining leaking Underground Storage Tanks (USTs) that store petroleum or hazardous materials at several facilities in Sacramento and one in Oakland. Both facilities also faced hazardous materials handling violations.

SFPD submits 272 reform recommendations to CA Department of Justice

In January 2023, the Alameda County District Attorneys Office joined an investigation initiated by the Sacramento County District Attorneys Office.

According to Prices office, an inspection of the Elihu Harris State Building in Downtown Oakland uncovered that DGS failed to perform required inspections and testing, operated its USTs without a permit, did not provide the required training to employees, failed to maintain proper records, and did not properly label, mark and store containers of hazardous waste.

In total, DGS agreed to a total settlement of $2,665,000, including civil penalties, costs, and a supplemental project to promote statewide environmental training and enforcement efforts.

Of the $2.6 million, the Alameda County Department of Environmental Health will be receiving $813,833 in civil penalties. An additional $45,500 will go to the Alameda County DAs office, and $20,000 will reimburse DA costs.

Prices office said DGS also agreed to a judicial order requiring it to follow environmental laws and regulations regarding the proper maintenance of its Underground Storage Tanks and its handling of hazardous materials.

The State of California, like any other entity, is liable for ensuring it follows the laws meant to protect the public and our environment and the disposal of hazardous materials. This is another example of my offices commitment to hold government agencies accountable when they fail to protect public health and the environment from harm because of unlawful mismanagement. Alameda Distrct Attorney Pamela Price

sac-lawsuitDownload

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.
Steak and lobster on the menu for soldiers  if they pay for it

Troops have protested about what has been served including meals containing undercooked chicken and food infested with maggot - HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY

Defence chiefs have claimed that soldiers can eat steak and lobster for lunch and dinner every day  providing they are willing to pay for it. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said that a major revamp of their catering facilities across the UK will mean that troops will receive better quality food and value for money, with units being allowed to decide what they want on the menu.

According to a warrant officer responsible for overseeing the quality of food served across the UK, this means troops can have whatever they choose.

In an article in this months issue of Soldier magazine, Warrant Officer 1st Class Colin Sinclair, of the Royal Logistics Corps, said: If the decision is their personnel would like steak or lobster added to the menu, then so be it.

But they will pay the cost price at the till for these foods, plus VAT and a small 5 per cent surcharge for wastage.

The MoDs attempt to improve the quality of food served to troops in barracks comes after years of complaints by troops that meals at many bases are substandard and poorly cooked.

In some cases troops have protested about what has been served up by posting pictures on social media of meals containing undercooked chicken and food infested with maggots.

Two years ago, a soldier based at Windsor Castle filmed a maggot crawling across his plate, and another sailor based at HMS Nelson in Portsmouth posted a picture of a maggot he found in his plate of pasta.

Meals on all military bases are now produced by private contractors, such as the outsourcing company Sodexo, and soldiers pay for each meal under a scheme called pay as you dine, meaning they only pay for meals they eat.

Under the new strategy, individual units will have representatives on a base dining committee alongside reps from the private contractor responsible for producing the meals to decide what goes on menus so they can be tailored to their preferences.

Operating model

WO1 Sinclair added: The operating model is changing from next month and the contractors will now receive a fixed fee from defence for their services at each location, rather than building in margins on food and drink  normally sold as a retail offer.

This is vital for personnel to understand as it means there will be far more flexibility, potentially, around what goes on their plates and there will be opportunity to address the quality and quantity of food currently set by the core meal requirements.

The latest move follows an overhaul of the food being served up to troops and draws on the results from a recently concluded pilot programme conducted at six military units, which looked at how to enhance what was described as the Armys dining experience.

The scheme is aiming to improve food and facilities, with more flexibility in dining times, wider choices and better quality meals.

According to the MoD, a key element of the initiative is providing the meals at cost price, with no in-built profit on each item sold.

The plan also includes a radical 52m revamp of cookhouses and leisure and retail areas across UK bases that will take place over the next year or so.

A MoD spokesperson said: Our people are our most important asset, and we strive to make their experience the best it can be.



Weve listened to the views of our personnel on catering provision and will shortly be introducing a number of changes to provide greater flexibility in dining times, and healthier choices.

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SYDNEY, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Police have launched an investigation after two bodies were found in a shipping container in Australia's southeastern state of New South Wales (NSW) on Saturday.

Emergency services were called to Goolma Road in the state's central town of Gulgong at about 11 a.m. (0100 GMT) Saturday, following reports of a concern for welfare, the NSW Police Force said in a statement.

On arrival, officers attached to Orana-Mid Western Police District located two bodies in a shipping container, according to the statement.

A crime scene has been established as an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident continues, police said, adding that a report will be prepared for the information of the coroner. 
CHICAGO  A Stickney resident accused in a violent home invasion in Beverly that left a man seriously injured is now facing a handful of felony charges.

According to Chicago police, 25-year-old Joey Miller has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, home invasion causing injury, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

Man found guilty but mentally ill in deadly stabbing of 93-year-old mother in Bartlett

Authorities say the charges stem from Millers alleged role in a home invasion and beating of a 67-year-old man in Chicago in late March.

Stickney man accused in violent home invasion facing felony charges

Officers say just after 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 24, Miller allegedly forced his way into the mans home in the 2600 block of West 103rd Street. Once inside, he beat the man with a weapon, leaving him seriously injured.

Decorated Lake County Sheriffs K9 Dax dies days after retirement ceremony

Authorities have not provided an update on the victims condition or why he was targeted in the alleged attack.

Authorities later caught up with Miller on Thursday in the 7100 block of West 40th Street in Stickney, where he was taken into custody.

Miller appeared in court on Friday for a detention hearing.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.
After months trapped underground in an extended hibernation, this Hilton Head alligator finally got to stretch its legs.

The six-foot gator had been stuck in a small drainage pipe since October, when Port Royal Plantation residents first spotted its snout through the roadside grate on South Port Royal Drive. Matt Kraycar, owner of the Bluffton-based K&K Wildlife Services, rescued the critter from its stormwater solitude Thursday morning. Despite moderate injuries, the gator was released into a Hilton Head lagoon and is expected to make a full recovery.

Ive had them in drainage pipes before, but Ive never seen one in (a pipe) this small before, Kraycar said. It was only a 12-inch pipe, and its body was kind of smashed in there. He guessed the gator got wedged inside the duct after venturing past a tight turn, leaving its long body unable to turn back around.

Neighbors on South Port Royal Drive checked the drain intermittently after their initial sighting in October and only sometimes saw the alligator, according to Kraycar. They called the wildlife removal company Wednesday evening when they realized the animal was trapped.

After removing the metal grate, Kraycar was able to pull the gator to freedom with a catchpole, a humane restraining tool that can be looped around an animals neck and tightened. The rescue was done by 11 a.m. Thursday and took about 10 minutes of tugging, he said: I was shaking him back and forth trying to get him all wiggled out.

A Hilton Head alligator that had been trapped in a neighborhoods drain pipe for months was pretty beat up upon release but is expected to make a full recovery, said Matt Kraycar, owner of a wildlife pest control service in Bluffton.

The freed gator didnt look malnourished, Kraycar said, but the tight squeeze appeared to have rubbed some of its skin down to the bone. He released the reptile at a shoreline about 50 yards away, recording its long-awaited return to the Hilton Head lagoon.

He kind of hobbled off a little bit, but gators are so strong  I dont think hell have any issues, Kraycar told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette. He wasnt sure if the animal was male or female but estimated it was at least six years old.

How did the gator survive in the drain?

Kraycar said the trapped alligator could have fed on small fish in the drainage water during his six-month stint in the pipe. Even still, alligators have a markedly slow metabolism and can fast for months, sometimes years.

The species biological clock also came in handy. Every winter, alligators go through brumation, a five-month dormant state similar to hibernation that allows cold-blooded creatures to endure cold and freezing temperatures. The animals heart rate and metabolism dramatically decrease, helping them conserve energy and survive with little to no food.

It might not have been a bad time for it to happen, Kraycar said, noting that the gator became trapped in the drain about a month before brumations typical onset in November. It was probably going in and out of (dormant periods), which helped it stay healthier rather than just being down there in the summer starving to death.

This predicament isnt an uncommon one for the Lowcountrys apex predators. Kraycar estimates his company removes about one alligator a year from local drainage systems, which can be connected to water reservoirs that the animals call home.

Gators might follow fish into the pipes, Kraycar said, or others could be seeking refuge from cold weather in the fall and winter. K&K Wildlife saw a spike in alligator entrapments after Hurricane Matthew, when flooding and irregular water flow forced many of the animals into storm drainage systems. While some were rescued, other large gators were found dead inside the water lines.

The incidents represent one type of clash between human development and alligator populations in the Lowcountry, where residents have long debated how to coexist with the animals. Over 100,000 members of the once-endangered species live in South Carolina, with the vast majority located in coastal areas.

A sign warning of alligators and not to feed them are positioned on property owned by the Town of Hilton Head Island as seen on Monday, Aug. 23, 2022 near parking for The Legends on the Green Condominium Villas on Hilton Head.
Suburban Detroit police fatally shoot man who pointed gun at them

WARREN, Mich. (AP)  Officers responding to a calls about a man who was assaulting family members fatally shot him after he pointed a handgun at them Friday in suburban Detroit, authorities said.

The man came out of a home armed with a handgun and pointed the weapon at officers, who then opened fire, Acting Warren Police Commissioner Charles Rushton said.

In defense of the officers, several rounds were fired, Rushton said.

Lifesaving measures were attempted on the man before he was taken to a hospital, where he died of his injuries, police said.

The incident occurred around 1:45 p.m.

No officers were injured, police said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com.
Rishi Sunak has raised the possibility of the UK leaving the ECHR if it continues to block his delayed Rwanda plans - Getty/Danny Lawson

Rishi Sunak has hit out at the complete overreach of an illegitimate ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that imposes a duty on governments to achieve net zero.

The intervention from Downing Street comes ahead of a final round of votes on the Rwanda Bill, which could pass by the end of this week, allowing the Government to press ahead with plans for deportation flights. However, there are fears among Tory MPs that the long-awaited flights could yet be thwarted by judges in Strasbourg.

Mr Sunaks comments will fuel speculation that Mr Sunak is considering including a pledge in the Conservative Partys manifesto to pull out of the ECHR, with sources saying this has not been ruled out.

On Saturday night, a No 10 source said: The PMs view was that this judgment is a complete overreach and an illegitimate interpretation of the ECHR text. No doubt about that.

In the first judgment of its kind, the court ruled that the human rights of a group of elderly Swiss women had been violated by the failure of their government to act quickly enough to tackle climate change. The ruling also applies to the UK.

Two more Cabinet ministers have made known their dissatisfaction with Britains involvement in the ECHR, adding their voices to that of Claire Coutinho, the Energy Secretary.

A source close to Steve Barclay, the Environment Secretary, said human rights in Britain did not begin with the ECHR and wont end with it either.

They added: The Government was democratically elected on a mandate to deliver tougher border control and stop small-boat crossings. It is a fundamental threat to our democracy if an unelected overseas court is stopping that delivery and Steve has been clear to successive prime ministers for several years that leaving the ECHR must be on the table if it is the only option to uphold that promise to the British people.

Revolt spreading to top of Government

Another Cabinet minister told The Telegraph they would be perfectly relaxed about pulling out of the ECHR, adding: I dont think the public would be sorry to see the back of it.

Ms Coutinho has already expressed concern that Strasbourg judges were taking decisions best made by elected politicians.

Earlier this week, Strasbourg judges issued a landmark ruling that governments have a duty to protect people from climate change.

Aided by Friends of the Earth, some 2,000 elderly women claimed that the Swiss state was exposing them to an increased risk of death from extreme heat.

A British judge, Tim Eicke, issued the sole dissent, writing: I fear that in this judgment the majority has gone beyond what it is legitimate and permissible for this court to do, and unfortunately, in doing so, may well have achieved exactly the opposite effect to what was intended.

The ruling prompted a Tory backlash, with several senior MPs urging Mr Sunak to take Britain out of the ECHR in the wake of the ruling.

The revolt is spreading to the top of the Government, with Cabinet ministers breaking ranks to call for Mr Sunak to bow out of the convention, particularly given the difficulties it may also pose for implementing the Rwanda policy.

Other MPs, including Robert Jenrick, the former Home Office minister, and Danny Kruger, the co-chairman of the New Conservatives group of MPs, have accused the court of acting in a profoundly undemocratic way and being bent out of shape by progressive activists and politicians.

However, the Cabinet ministers opposed to leaving the ECHR are believed to outnumber those in favour by two to one. The remainder are said to be either undecided or to have not disclosed their position to colleagues.

The European Court found the Swiss state had breached Article Eight of the ECHR, which guarantees the right to respect for private and family life.

The ruling is binding to states that are signatories to the convention, like the UK, and will trickle down to influence the law in 46 countries in Europe, including Britain.

It means individuals and groups could sue for a breach of their human rights if the UK Government fails to meet its net zero or environmental targets.

In the UK, attempts to make such cases on the basis of the European Convention on Human Rights have, until now, not succeeded. However, in a landmark net zero case last year, the High Court suggested UK courts would keep pace with Strasbourg jurisprudence as it continued to evolve.

This month, Mr Sunak raised the possibility of the UK leaving it if the Strasbourg court continued to block his delayed plans to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda.

He said controlling immigration is more important than membership of the convention. Polling found that half of Conservative voters believe Britain should quit the ECHR. Mr Sunak said enough is enough and vowed to ignore the Strasbourg court if it tried to ground deportation flights.

He signalled that he would go ahead with the flights even if the court issued a Rule 39 injunction in an attempt to prevent their departure.

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The Iran drone strikes on Israel and former President Trumps upcoming criminal trial in New York will likely be the focus of this weeks Sunday news shows.

Iran has now launched drone strikes towards Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces, following rising concerns that it would do so in retaliation for a suspected earlier attack by Israel. White House national security communications adviser John Kirby, who will appear on Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday this week told reporters Friday that the Iranian threat is viable.

Were watching it very, very closely, he said, adding that the U.S. will continue to stay in close touch with our Israeli counterparts about preparations for this threat.

Former President Trumps hush money trial in the Empire State is set to start Monday. It will be Trumps first criminal trial, despite the fact that he has sought to delay all four of the criminal cases he faces so he can recapture the White House, halting the indictments.

Gov. Chris Sununu (R-N.H.), a critic of Trump and his legal cases, will appear on ABCs This Week Sunday. In February, he said that Trumps cases feed into his chaos, and noted that Trump had spent $50 million on legal costs.

So where are the resources going to come from? The [Republican National Committee] itself has a record low amount of cash on hand because of his leadership and his type of message, he said. You need everybody to get in here. If you dont get those suburban moms back, you dont get some of those young voters back, you cannot win in November. And thats what this is about.

Earlier this week, the Arizona Supreme Court decided to uphold an abortion law that is older than a century and a half. The state Supreme Court rejected arguments that it should uphold a 15-week ban on abortion in a 4-2 decision. The ban, originally passed in 2022, was enforced in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Arizonas highest court instead ruled in favor of the enforcement of an 1864 law that makes abortion a felony thats punishable by two to five years in prison for those who perform it or those who help someone get one. The court also lifted a stay on the abortion law, which has an intensely slim exception for when it is necessary to save the life of a pregnant person, resulting in it going into effect in two weeks.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who has criticized the Tuesday decision by his states highest court, will appear on CBS Face the Nation. In a post on the social platform X Tuesday, Kelly said that the Arizona Supreme Court set reproductive rights in our state back by two centuries, and now Arizona women will lose the right to an abortion.

This will criminalize doctors for doing their jobs and have a devastating effect on the health of Arizona women and families, Kelly continued.

Arizona is one of multiple states in the U.S. that either will have measures in favor of abortion rights on the ballot in upcoming elections or that have movements to get those measures on the ballot currently in progress. Advocates in the Grand Canyon State are working on collecting signatures to get a constitutional amendment protecting abortion prior to viability before voters eyes this fall.

After a contentious week in the House related to an effort to reauthorize the nations warrantless surveillance powers, the lower chamber finally cleared a bill to extend and reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Friday, sparing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from further embarrassment after 19 House Republicans voted to stop legislation for Section 702s reauthorization from advancing Wednesday.

Johnson, who recently supported the renewal of the nations warrantless surveillance powers, will make an appearance on Foxs Sunday Morning Futures this week.

Below is the full list of guests scheduled to appear on this weeks Sunday talk shows:

NewsNations The Hill Sunday  Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.).

ABCs This Week  Gov. Chris Sununu (R-N.H.); Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.).

NBCs Meet the Press  Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio).

CBS Face the Nation  Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.); Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas); White House national security communications advisor John Kirby; retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, a former commander of U.S. Central Command; Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

CNNs State of the Union  Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).

Fox News Sunday  Kirby; Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.); Will Scharf, a lawyer for Donald Trump; former Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg.

Fox News Sunday Morning Futures  House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.); Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.); Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.); former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe; former U.S. Attorney Jonathan Turley.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  One by one, people stopped by the Memphis Police Raines Station to pay their respects to a fallen police officer.

On Friday, police officer Joseph McKinney, 26, was killed during a shootout in the area of Horn Lake and Charter Avenue.

Memphis Police officer and suspect dead after shootout; multiple officers injured

I just want to thank them for serving. You put your life on the line and they take your life, supporter Cherryl Crite said.

For Crite, McKinneys death was a personal one, since her daughter is a major with the Memphis Police Department.

Every time an officer gets shot. Ok. Could that be my baby, Crite said. Even though shes not on the streets, shes still got to serve. Is somebody going to take her out?

Tribute to Joseph McKinney.

Tribute to Joseph McKinney.

Tribute to Joseph McKinney.

Memphis police say that McKinney was killed while responding to a suspicious vehicle call.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says as officers approached the stolen vehicle, the suspects opened fire.

One of the suspected gunmen, 18-year-old Jaylen Lobley, was killed during the shootout. A 17-year-old suspect was critically wounded.

Two other officers were also injured during the shootout.

Suspect dead after shootout with police had been arrested, released in March, records show

In a post on social media, Memphis Police say The love that the community has shown is overwhelming. Officer McKinney was well-loved and respected and we will continue his work.

When these things happen, officers come back the next day and answer the call for service, Reverend and former Memphis Police Colonel, James Kirkwood said. Theyre answering these calls continuously getting right back in harms way.

Memphis Police say McKinneys squad car will remain in place at least through the weekend for anyone who would still like to pay their respects.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Tuesday about whether Jan. 6 rioters should be sentenced using a federal charge that carries a hefty maximum penalty.

The Department of Justice has been regularly recommending Jan. 6 rioters be charged with a statute that prohibits obstruction of Congressional inquiries and investigations, including acts unrelated to investigations and evidence. On Jan. 6, 2021, rioters interrupted the counting and certification of electoral votes, a judicial proceeding.

The federal charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. So far, more than 100 rioters have been convicted and sentenced under that charge, but D.C. judges often sentence below the maximum.

On Tuesday, the court will hear oral arguments in Fischer v. United States, which challenges whether those who stormed the U.S. Capitol can be convicted on charges of obstruction, or whether the law was improperly stretched.

According to The Washington Post, defense lawyers plan to argue that prosecutors have been applying the charge too broadly, and could just as easily charge lobbyists and activists who disrupt Congressional committees. Meanwhile, the DOJ has said that it is appropriate in this case and not others, because the rioters actions are not protected by the First Amendment.

If the Supreme Court rules that prosecutors have been applying the charge too broadly, it could potentially reduce the sentences of more than 100 rioters.

In March, a panel of judges ruled that a Jan. 6 rioters sentence had been wrongly lengthened on the grounds that it obstructed the administration of justice.

The judges decided that the process of certifying votes bears little resemblance to the traditional understanding of the administration of justice as the judicial or quasi-judicial investigation or determination of individual rights.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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A traffic stop in Indiana led to the arrest of a man wanted for murder in Ohio.

Saturday morning, an Indiana State Police trooper stopped a vehicle for speeding on Interstate 70 near Knightstown, according to a spokesperson for Indiana State Police.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Investigators searching for armed and dangerous suspect in murder of teen girl

During the traffic stop, the trooper discovered that the driver, 18-year-old Robert Shields III, was wanted on an active warrant out of Toledo.

As News Center 7 previously reported, the U.S. Marshals Office and Toledo Police Department were looking for Shields. Hes accused of shooting a 15-year-old girl in the head after an altercation on March 17. The teen, Jaylah Perry, died from her injuries days later.

Shields was arrested and preliminarily charged with two misdemeanor counts.

He was taken to the Henry County Jail and is waiting to be extradited to Ohio.




OCEANSIDE, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI)  A suspect was arrested Thursday following a computer pop-up scam that targeted a senior in Oceanside, authorities said.

On Wednesday, the scammer falsely warned the victim that their bank account or other personal data was compromised, Capt. John McKean with the Oceanside Police Department said in a news release.

In order to fix it, the scammer demanded $50,000 and received the money before police were notified, according to officials.

The scammers called back once again on Thursday, this time wanting another $40,000.

Strong peso prompting Tijuana landlords to reject US dollars from tenants

The Oceanside Police Department Property and Financial Crimes Unit, working jointly with the FBI Elder Justice Task Force, swiftly devised a plan and coordinated with the victim to have the courier or Money Mule return to a predetermined location and collect the money, McKean said.

Chi Hung Duong, a 44-year-old resident of Monterey Park, Calif., was identified as the suspect and arrested without incident, police said. Duong was booked into the Vista Detention Facility on a $200,000 bail.

Oceanside police has provided more information on scams on its website.

Authorities warn the public about scams involving pre-paid credit cards, gift cards, computers or phones.



For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
ISLAMABAD, April 13 (Xinhua) -- A terrorist and two members of government forces were killed on Saturday in an intelligence-based operation in Buner district of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the military said.

During the operation, after an intense fire exchange, a "high-value terrorist ring leader" was killed while two other terrorists were injured, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said in a statement.

The two soldiers were killed during the operation, the ISPR added.

The killed terrorist had been actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces as well as extortion and target killings of innocent civilians, said the ISPR, adding that he was highly wanted by the law enforcement agencies.

A clearance operation was being carried out in the area to eliminate the possible presence of terrorists, according to the statement. 
Suspect with criminal history out of jail after last weeks Uptown stabbing

Shareef Sudan Thompson, 36, is out of jail, despite facing charges in a violent stabbing last week in Uptown Charlotte.

Channel 9 learned he has a lengthy criminal history.

RELATED COVERAGE: One hurt in stabbing at light rail station, MEDIC says

Veteran crime reporter Glenn Counts delved into his past and explored why cases like this are frustrating for officers.

Thompson had been arrested dozens of times before the stabbing on April 5 on East Seventh Street near the light rail.

Despite his record, he didnt have to come up with any money to get out of jail.

Police said the attack was unprovoked. The 26-year-old victim was stabbed multiple times and taken to Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center with life-threatening injuries.

Officers arrested Thompson and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. He got out of jail soon after he was given a $5,000 unsecured bond.

It doesnt surprise me, but I think the real question is why is that occurring? said Vickie Foster, a retired former assistant chief with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

Thompsons first arrest on his adult record was when he was 16 in 2004. Since then, Thompson has been arrested dozens of times. Most of those charges would be considered minor.

Some of the more serious offenses include assault on a female, assault on an officer, assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to inflict serious injury, drug possession, and habitual misdemeanor assault.

Foster said the revolving door cases frustrate officers.

Its also hard when they know sometimes that this person is going to eventually hurt someone and they see them continually getting out, over and over, she said.

Police continually review their policies, and she thinks its a good idea for other parts of the criminal justice system to do the same, Foster said.

Those things need to be reviewed as often as we review our different policies and procedures, she said. You got to do it the same way.

Family members said the stabbing victim is out of the hospital.

VIDEO: One hurt in stabbing at light rail station, MEDIC says
(KRON)  A San Francisco man was arrested after allegedly attacking a person, according to the Colma Police Department.

Colma police officers were alerted to a man physically attacking another man near Mission Road and El Camino Real at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

Popular San Francisco nightclub Temple to close

Responding officers located two men lying on the ground. Officers detained the suspect. Police said the victim informed them that the suspect came from behind, placed him in a bear hug and then began punching him. The victim also told police that the suspect attempted to steal his phone, according to police.

The suspect was identified as 65-year-old San Francisco resident Matthew Callaway.

The Colma Fire Department treated the victim who sustained moderate injuries.

Callaway was arrested and booked into the San Mateo County Jail for robbery and assault likely to cause great bodily injury.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.
Switzerland must quit the European Court of Human Rights to save it from the malign influence of foreign judges, the vice president of the countrys biggest party has said.

Celine Amaudruz warned that the Swiss population was the boss, not a court in Strasbourg.

On Tuesday, the court found in favour of more than 2,000 Swiss women  a third of them over 75  who said their countrys inaction in the face of rising temperatures puts them at risk of dying during heatwaves.

Ms Amaudruzs Right-wing Swiss Peoples Party (SVP) said the country should quit the Council of Europe and its court after the landmark judgement, which threatens to have consequences for all member states of the non-EU human rights organisation, including Britain.

She said, We are disappointed, even shocked about the decision. But for us, its not a surprise. Its just what we told the Swiss population. If we have a foreign court, we lose our independence and sovereignty.

People in favour of the court have always said we lose nothing with it. This situation proves what we have always said, we lose everything with a foreign court.

Greens welcome climate decision

The SVP is part of the cross-party government but other members, such as the greens and socialists, have welcomed the European decision.

However, the Eurosceptic party does hold the environment ministry, which will one day have to attempt to put the decision made by judges it calls puppets for activists into practice.

We are very good with the climate, we have a good ranking, Ms Amaudruz said. What the court said about human rights is fake news.

Switzerland was ranked in the top ten for environmental sustainability in one 2022 international study but attempts to ramp up its climate ambition have been blocked in referendums.

In Switzerland, in the end, the boss is the population of the country. The parliament is really the population, Ms Amaudruz said.

She said that the Swiss experience had many parallels with the UK Governments battles with the European court over the Rwanda plan.

It is exactly the same as in the UK. They start with climate because it is more popular but in the end, it will be everything, immigration, everything, she said.

No majority to leave Council of Europe

Political experts said her party would not be able to secure a majority to leave the Council of Europe and its court but suggested the government could perhaps push for some reforms to it.

Romain Clivaz is a political commentator and head of the opinion section at the Geneva-based newspaper Le Temps.

He said that Switzerland was polarised between its French and larger German-speaking community, which represents about two-thirds of the country, over the decision by the court in France.

In the French-speaking media, the European Court of Human Rights ruling has been much better perceived than in the German-speaking media, he told The Telegraph.

One reason was a stronger attachment to direct democracy in German-speaking Switzerland.

It goes back a very long way in history, with collective bottom-up decision-making mechanisms in rural communities, long before the foundation of modern Switzerland of 1848, he said.

Mr Clivaz said: In Swiss politics, the first and the last words come from the citizen, not from Swiss or foreign courts. And we voted on climate policy in a number of referendums.

Im convinced that a large majority of the citizens dont support the courts judgment, Mr Clivez added.

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The situation on Ukraine's eastern front has "significantly deteriorated in recent days" amid an intensification of Russia's offensive efforts, the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi said on April 13.

The dire warning comes against the backdrop of a shortage of ammunition plaguing the Ukrainian military, which has been exacerbated by an ongoing impasse in Congress over U.S. aid.

Syrskyi said that warm, dry weather has enabled Russia to increase its armored assaults in the areas of Bakhmut, Lyman, and Pokrovsk.

The general said that the tempo of the Russian offensive in the east has heightened since last month's presidential election, which saw Russian President Vladimir Putin handily win another six-year term in office. The election was widely seen as rigged.

Ukraine is working to stabilize the situation and "strengthen the most problematic defense areas with electronic warfare and air defense," Syrskyi said.

Both foreign and Ukrainian officials have said the lack of U.S. aid has begun to hurt Ukraine's position on the battlefield and warned that the situation could worsen without a new infusion of military assistance.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier in April that "Ukraine will lose the war" if Congress does not approve further aid.

Read also: Bloomberg: Ukrainian army collapse cannot be ruled out, US official says

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The alleged torture of the suspects of last month's terrorist attack in Moscow is "unacceptable," said Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin in comments at a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Minsk on April 12.

Several gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, a Moscow suburb, on the evening of March 22, killing at least 144 people. A branch of the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack shortly thereafter.

Russian authorities have detained 11 men, 10 of whom are from Tajikistan, in connection to the attack, including four who are accused of directly participating.

The four Tajik suspects appeared in court showing clear signs of abuse, following videos and pictures that were widely circulated on Russian social media depicting their alleged torture at the hands of Russian authorities.

"The use of torture in the form of bodily mutilation is unacceptable," said Muhriddin.

"The price of confessions extracted in this way is well known to everyone."

The U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) wrote in 2017 that beyond being "immoral" and "illegal," torture is "ineffective." It can even be "counterproductive," said Mark Fallon, a former U.S. official who supervised interrogations at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

Xenophobic incidents were also reported en masse after the attack, as were cases of Central Asians leaving Russia over fears of potential reprisals and increased racism.

Muhriddin said that as the result of an"ill-conceived information campaign," a "negative perception is being formed toward citizens of Tajikistan and Tajiks."

Millions of Tajiks and other Central Asians either live permanently in Russia or work there seasonally. The World Bank estimated in 2022 that remittances from migrant workers comprised as much as 50% of Tajikistan's GDP.

Read also: Moscow shooting aftermath: Repressions, racism, terror

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Teachers must not allow themselves to be bullied by trans campaigners

Teachers must not allow themselves to be bullied by transgender campaigners into allowing children to change gender without their parents knowledge, a minister has said.

Damian Hinds, the schools minister and a former education secretary, told The Telegraph teachers must not feel pressured and a landmark review into the treatment of transgender children by the NHS draws a line in the sand.

The intervention comes in the wake of a report by Dr Hillary Cass, a leading paediatrician, which found that social transitioning should be approached with extreme caution because we simply do not know the long-term impacts.

Mr Hinds said nobody working with youngsters should be vilified or called a transphobe for making difficult decisions which are in childrens best interests.

Draft guidance from the Department for Education, published at the end of last year, told schools to presume that a child could not change gender. Under the new parent-first approach, head teachers must tell parents if their child wants to change gender.

The debate must now turn a corner, Mr Hinds said. That is why we have made clear that teachers must not feel bullied or pressured into allowing decisions which can have serious long-term consequences for children in their care.

Dr Casss report warned of an exceptionally toxic debate over treatment for transgender children and that stormy social discourse does little to help young people.

The schools guidance had been promised since 2018 but was delayed amid a disagreement within the Government over how to respond to the rise in the number of children who say they are trans.

Earlier this month, the biggest survey of its kind revealed that primary school teachers were letting pupils change their names and pronouns without informing their families.

An analysis of more than 600 school equality and trans policies revealed that up to three-quarters misrepresent laws protecting sex and gender, with some implementing rules that allow boys to use girls lavatories and changing rooms if they say they are a girl.

Some gender-critical campaigners have said the governments school guidance does not go far enough because it does not ban social transitioning completely.

Ministers had considered an outright ban but Victoria Prentis, the Attorney General, advised that such a move would be unlawful under the Equality Act 2010.

Experts have now called for adult gender transitioning services to be investigated in the same way as children.

Dr Kathryn Webb, a tutor in psychology at Oxford University, warned that activism had taken the place of evidence, and said experts had been punished for speaking up against the rush to medically treat children who claimed they were born in the wrong body.

Dr Webb, who last year published research into trans maternity guidance, said that she had faced resistance when investigating the subject and warned that psychologists had been pressured to overlook other reasons for children seeking to transition.

Writing for The Telegraph, she said: For too long, the current approach to gender dysphoria care has left many of us feeling that fundamental principles of our profession were being neglected here.

Underscoring this is a shocking absence of quality research to base guidance upon. This is unsurprising to me, having personally experienced the resistance often faced when conducting research in this sensitive area.

In the absence of science, policies have instead looked to activism. Consequently, professional bodies have repeatedly released guidance which is, at best vague, and at worst unevidenced and politically-driven. Indeed, many clinicians have been ignored and even punished by their governing organisations for raising concerns.

Psychologists have felt adrift and afraid, unsure if we were truly serving the best interests of our patients.

She added: The Review focuses only on children and their support, yet many gender-distressed adults are arguably equally vulnerable. Sadly, adult care is likely to be affected by many of the same highlighted issues - politicisation, poor evidence, and limited options. It is clear that our learning should be applied here too, with a call for adult service investigation.

Following the publication of the Cass report the NHS is to review all transgender treatment it provides, including to adults, and treatment for any new patients aged 16 and 17 seeking to change gender at adult clinics will immediately be paused.

NHS England is also planning to investigate seven speciality adult gender dysphoria clinics and said it would send external quality improvement experts to each service.

They will also be ordered to hand over data which they refused to share with Cass Report researchers.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)  The Bernalillo County District Attorney says a 16-year-old girl accused of bringing a gun to a charter school will remain in custody until trial. Investigators believe the teen took the gun to Ace Leadership High School near 12th St and Bellamah Ave. on Tuesday to sell it to a classmate.

Student who brought gun to West Mesa High School sentenced

They say they also found at least 60 rounds of ammo and a knife in the classmates backpack. Both are charged with carrying a deadly weapon onto school premises.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.
The teen boy busted for callously shoving a Queens grandmother down the steps of her church and stealing her purse attempted to take his own life while in custody Friday, law enforcement sources said.

Jayvaun Prince, 16  who was arrested Thursday in the brutal mugging of 68-year-old Irene Tahliambouris  took his shirt off and wrapped it around his neck inside the NYPDs 107th Precinct stationhouse, the sources said.

He was brought out in a stretcher and hospitalized, but was not seriously injured, the sources said.

The teen is accused of brutally mugging a 68-year-old woman on the steps of a Queens church. Courtesy St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church

Surveillance video shows the incident on Sunday, April 7, 2024. Courtesy St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church

Tahliambouris is in critical condition after the incident. Courtesy St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church

The teen is expected to be arraigned in the youth part of Queens Criminal Court on Friday night on charges including robbery and grand larceny for the April 7 mugging on the front steps of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Briarwood, a district attorneys office spokesperson said.

He has also been charged with robbing another woman inside a Jamaica, Queens, apartment building and then fleeing in her car on April 4, according to the sources.

The viciousness with which the defendant is accused of having committed the robbery at the church struck the city at its core, Queens DA Melinda Katz said in a statement.

As alleged, he chose to rob an elderly woman by first pushing her down the stairs and then proceeded to take her purse and leave her to suffer while he took off in her car. He will now have to answer for the serious charges levied against him by my Office.

Prince was hospitalized after the attempt. Brigitte Stelzer

16-year-old Jayvaun Prince was arrested for shoving Irene Tahliambouris down the steps of a Queens church. Obtained by NY Post

Thank you to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny and the entire Detective Bureau for their relentless work.

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
SYDNEY, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Four people were stabbed and a man was shot by police at a shopping center in Australia's Sydney on Saturday, local media reported.

Witnesses said a man was chasing and slashing people with a knife before Westfield Bondi Junction was evacuated and locked down, according to a report by dailytelegraph.com.au.

At least the four people were stabbed and early reports suggested the armed man was shot by police, the report said, adding police believed he was the only perpetrator.

A report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) quoted eyewitnesses as saying that shots were fired at the shopping center in Sydney's east. 
'I tell the truth': Trump says he'll testify at hush money trial as judge rejects last minute plea

'I tell the truth': Trump says he'll testify at hush money trial as judge rejects last minute plea

Former President Trump has said he will testify at his upcoming hush money trial in New York City, the same day the judge overseeing the case rejected a last-ditch attempt from Trump's legal team to delay the trial, which begins Monday.

"I'm testifying. I tell the truth. I mean, all I can do is tell the truth," Trump told reporters at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago Friday. "And the truth is, that there's no case."

His trial related to accusations he falsified business records to cover up a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election is scheduled to begin Monday.

TRUMP RAISES MILLIONS IN ATLANTA NEIGHBORHOOD THAT WANTS TO SECEDE FROM THE HIGH-CRIME CITY

Former President Trump, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, said he will testify at his New York City trial.

The ex-president and 2024 White House candidate made the announcement alongside Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Fla., who was in Palm Beach to roll out a legislative package aimed at bolstering election integrity.

Trump called his trial a "scam" and a "witch hunt" when asked if he planned to testify at his upcoming trial.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

"What they have done is incredible. It's election interference, and it's got to stop. It's a third-world country. This country has never done it," the former president said.

The trial in New York City is the first of the election year for the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts.

TRUMP FILES MOTION REQUESTING JUDGE IN HUSH MONEY TRIAL BE RECUSED AMID DAUGHTER'S DEMOCRAT-AFFILIATED WORK

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg

Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan is presiding over the trial. Trump's legal team had filed a motion requesting Merchan be recused from the trial due to his daughter's Democrat-affiliated political work and his alleged "hostility" against the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Bragg last April charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges are related to alleged hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.

TRUMP GOES OFF-SCRIPT WITH CHICK-FIL-A VISIT WHILE BIDEN FINE DINES WITH CLINTONS

Bragg alleged Trump "repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election."

Trump's trial comes as he readies to challenge President Biden for another White House term later this year. Leading up to the election, Johnson vowed the House of Representatives would vote on a bill aimed at cracking down on voter fraud by requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to be able to vote.

Speaker Mike Johnson rolled out an election integrity package at a press conference with Trump

Noncitizens are already barred from voting in federal elections, but Johnson argued instances of such fraud are more likely given the record number of people crossing into the U.S. illegally.

"There's so many millions of illegals in the country that if only one out of 100 voted, they would cast potentially hundreds of thousands of votes in the election. That could turn an election," Johnson said.

The White House quickly smacked down the proposal in a statement by Biden spokesman Andrew Bates.

"As fact-checkers across the board have made clear, it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. The American people see through todays stunt, which amounts to House Republicans wasting time on a redundant proposal as they continue to choose fentanyl traffickers over the Border Patrol Union by delaying the toughest bipartisan border security deal in modern history," Bates said.





Original article source: 'I tell the truth': Trump says he'll testify at hush money trial as judge rejects last minute plea
This is a photo on the Ten Commandments on stone.

This article was originally published in Louisiana Illuminator.

A proposed law to require the display of the Ten Commandments in all Louisiana K-12 schools, colleges and universities advanced Wednesday in the Legislature, but its now more likely to face a legal challenge after it was amended to include private institutions.

If approved, Louisiana would be the first state to mandate that the Ten Commandments be placed in classrooms.

Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haughton, has promoted her bill as way to provide moral guidance to students through a historical document she attributes as the source of all laws in the U.S. Schools would not have to spend their money to acquire posters of the Ten Commandments, but they would be required to display them if they are donated.

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The House sent the bill to the Senate with an 83-18 vote.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana opposes the legislation.

Opponents of the legislation see it as state-sanctioned religion, which the First Amendment prohibits. Horton was asked whether she saw a problem with people who hold religious beliefs besides Christianity or Judaism who dont recognize the Ten Commandments as a moral compass.

Im not concerned with Muslims. Im not concerned with atheists, Horton said. I am concerned with our own children seeing what Gods law is.

Debate over Hortons bill surpassed three hours on the House floor, with three failed attempts to amend it.

Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, sought to have the Golden Rule to accompany the Ten Commandments. It derives from the New Testament (Matthew 7:12) in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you 

When asked, Horton said she did not know the origins of the Golden Rule. She objected to Landrys amendment, which the House voted down.

Rep. Joy Walters, D-Shreveport, wanted a tagline reading African American, A.D. 1750 added to displays of the Ten Commandments because they werent considered applicable to Black people until the mid-18th century, she said. Her effort also failed.

Rep. Candace Newell, D-New Orleans, suggested the 42 laws of Maat be displayed in classrooms as well. Some religious historians suggest the Ten Commandments were plagiarized from principles linked to Maat, the Egyptian goddess of truth, justice and order, which were scripted some 2,000 years before Moses received the commandments.

Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, was unsuccessful when he tried to remove the classroom display mandate from Hortons bill, but he did get House members to amend it to require any school that receives state money follow the proposed law.

The addition was problematic for Rep. Mike Bayham, R-Chalmette, who voted for Hortons bill and told colleagues it would increase the odds that a non-religious private school would sue to block the law from being implemented.

Representatives who supported the proposal sought to straddle the line between forcing their religious beliefs into the public school setting and what they see as the need to provide guidance to students.

I think the moral decline of our children is something we should be concerned about, Rep. Roger Wilder, R-Denham Springs said.

Rep. Chad Brown, D-Plaquemine, cited Republican Gov. Jeff Landrys inauguration speech from January to explain the need to remove any obstacles to education from the classroom.

We need to let the teachers teach, Brown said, quoting the governor. I dont believe this (the Ten Commandments) is in the curriculum.

Update: This report was updated to reflect Rep. Delisha Boyds vote change from no to yes.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and Twitter.
Tennessee Congressman Mark Green is wrong to push for repealing the federal death tax

Re: America's death tax is a threat to generational farming in Tennessee so repeal it, by Congressman Mark Green, March 27.

Mark Green misrepresents the federal estate tax. This tax applies only to people with high wealth. In 2021, only 2,584 estates paid this tax nationwide, perhaps 50 in Tennessee.

Green emphasizes farmers, but few farmers pay the estate tax. Among large farms with gross cash farm income over $5 million per year, only eight percent are likely to owe any estate tax. That may be one farm in Tennessee per year. People with high wealth usually hire experienced lawyers to mitigate the tax.

Congressman Mark Green represents District 7 in the U.S. House of Representatives

Green claims that the Founding Fathers, as farmers, despised this tax. But they used this tax to fund national defense from 1797 to 1802. The tax appeared again in 1862 and 1898. The estate tax continues to help fund our national defense and public safety.

Green suggests that taxing estates undercuts opportunity. But people who inherit large sums are less likely to work. Many wield undue political influence, often focused on lowering their taxes rather than promoting the general welfare. Green is among them. In contrast, many wealthy Americans, including George Washington, financed much of our Revolutionary War.

The estate tax generated $33 billion per year in 2022. The estate tax creates opportunity by supporting health, education, and infrastructure.

The estate tax also promotes contributions to private charities. A donation reduces the amount of wealth subject to tax. Bill Gates, MacKenzie Scott, and Michael Bloomberg donate to charities, likely nudged by the estate tax.

Malcolm Getz, Nashville 37205, professor emeritus of economics at Vanderbilt

Agree or disagree? Or have a view on another topic entirely? Send a letter of 250 words or fewer to letters@tennessean.com. Include your full name, city/town, ZIP and contact information for verification. Thanks for adding to the public conversation.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Death tax: Tennessee Congressman Mark Green wrong to push for repeal
Tennessee man accused in Eliza Fletcher slaying convicted in 2021 rape of different woman

Tennessee man accused in Eliza Fletcher slaying convicted in 2021 rape of different woman

The Tennessee man accused of kidnapping and killing a Memphis teacher in 2022 was found guilty on Friday of kidnapping and raping a different woman a year prior.

Cleotha Abston, 40, was convicted by a Memphis jury on three counts of aggravated rape, especially aggravated kidnapping and unlawful possession of a weapon, according to The Daily Memphian via The Associated Press.

The crime took place on Sept. 21, 2021, after the woman agreed to meet Abston at his apartment after connecting with him on a dating website. She reported that he held her at gunpoint, covered her face with a T-shirt and walked her outside to a vehicle where he raped her in the backseat.

The victim reportedly testified on Tuesday that she complied because she "didn't want to die."

ELIZA FLETCHER MURDER SUSPECT CLEOTHA ABSTON'S VIOLENT HISTORY OF RAPE, ASSAULT AND KIDNAPPING EXPLAINED

Abston, who is charged in the murder of 34-year-old Eliza Fletcher after allegedly kidnapping her during her morning run on Sept. 2, 2022, was not charged in the 2021 rape case until he was charged in Fletcher's death because of a delay in processing the first woman's sexual assault kit.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

The victim in the 2021 case sued the city of Memphis on allegations that its police department did not investigate her case properly, but the lawsuit was dismissed by a judge, the AP reported.

The victim in the 2021 rape case against Cleotha Abston, Eliza Fletcher's alleged killer, sued the city of Memphis after claiming Memphis police did not investigate her report properly. The lawsuit was dismissed by a judge.

The Tennessee legislature passed a law after Fletcher's death requiring that the state Bureau of Investigation issue quarterly reports on sexual assault kit testing times.

TENNESSEE WOMAN ELIZA FLETCHER DIED FROM GUNSHOT TO THE HEAD: AUTOPSY

Prior to Abston's trial for the 2021 rape, his lawyer, Juni Ganguli, filed a change of venue motion asking that jurors from the Nashville area hear the case instead of jurors from Memphis because of heavy media coverage, prompting concerns Abston wouldn't receive a fair trial.

Abston is accused of kidnapping and killing Eliza Fletcher, 34, in September 2022. Fletcher was a kindergarten teacher, wife and mother of two, and an avid runner.

Shelby County Judge Lee Coffee denied the request in January.

Abston has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and killing Fletcher, who was a kindergarten teacher, a wife and mother of two, and an avid runner.

A trial date has not yet been set.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.





Original article source: Tennessee man accused in Eliza Fletcher slaying convicted in 2021 rape of different woman
Tennessee teacher and gun safety advocates slam move to arm school staff: We dont go into teaching to kill someone

Tennessees Republican-led Senate passed a bill that would allow public school teachers to be armed on school grounds (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Cathy Barnett, a retired Tennessee teacher, has seen the job of an educator in the US change dramatically in the wake of bloody school shooting after bloody school shooting.

Following each tragedy across the country, the gun lobby has pushed the notion that armed teachers in the classroom could have somehow prevented weapons of war being turned on children and teachers.

We dont go into the profession to learn to shoot and to kill someone, she told The Independent.

But that soon could be part of the job, if a proposed bill allowing Tennessee public school teachers to carry firearms on school grounds becomes a law.

The GOP-controlled Tennessee Senate passed the controversial measure, sending the bill to the state House. The chamber has yet to announce when it would take up the bill.

The bill arrived just a year after a former Covenant School student walked into the private school and opened fire, causing a mass shooting that left three students and three school staff members dead.

Ms Barnett, a volunteer for Moms Demand Action, called the state Senate bill terrible.

The 74-year-old was an art teacher for 22 years, meaning she taught through the Columbine massacre until she retired just before the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting, a tragedy that outranked Columbine to become the deadliest K-12 school shooting in US history.

Our world has changed so much, she said, adding that when Columbine happened, it felt very removed and distant from her schools in Tennessee. But with Sandy Hook, she thought, If that can happen in an elementary school, it can happen anywhere.

It has happened everywhere, data shows. Since 1999, roughly 360,000 students have endured school shootings.

As school shootings have been on an alarming uptick year over year, state leaders are scrambling to find solutions to prevent such tragedies. However, Ms Barnett and other gun safety advocates argue they are going about it in the wrong way.

Misinformed approach

Ms Barnett and gun safety advocates said that although they believe the states legislature is trying to make schools safer, they arent looking in the right places.

Theyre not looking at the evidence, and theyre not listening to anyone, their constituents, the parents, Ms Barnett said. She and other activists have called elected officials, testified at hearings, and even protested. They just turn their heads, they dont listen.

There is no evidence that arming teachers will keep children safe from gun violence, Kris Brown, President of Brady United Against Gun Violence, told The Independent in a statement.

At the Covenant School shooting, for example, reports showed that multiple teachers were armed that day, yet that was not enough to stop six children and school employees from being murdered.

Ms Brown called introducing firearms into schools ludicrous, adding that at best, it increases the chances of students and staff feeling unsafe, and at worst, unintentional discharge or a teacher losing control of their firearm in a classroom of children.

It seems like introducing weapons into schools filled with children isnt the best solution generally, but especially in Tennessee, which has a staggering firearm-related child death rate.

Two women hug near a memorial at the entrance to The Covenant School, March 29, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee (Copyright 2023)

In Tennessee, one in four deaths of children aged 17 and under were due to a firearm, according to a 2023 report by the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth.

Dustin Williamson, regional legal director at gun safety group Everytown, underscored this misconception, telling The Independent that he believes some legislators who already are of the mindset that more guns make people safer are focusing strictly at what happens when a gun gets in school rather than relying on proven solutions that could stop the guns from entering the school in the first place.

One solution to address gun violence in schools, that doesnt involve arming teachers, is enacting extreme risk laws, Mr Williamson said. These laws allow family members and members of law enforcement to temporarily remove firearms from someone who is at serious risk of harming themselves or others.

These laws provide an opportunity for a dangerous person to be stopped long before they enter a school with a gun.

Only 21 states have adopted these laws  Tennessee is not one of them.

Joining the armed teachers club

If the bill became a law, Tennessee would join 16 states that have already enacted similar measures.

Brynn Beecham lives in one of those states: Texas.

Ms Beecham, a Students Demand Action and an 11th-grade student in Dallas said her school has two to three active shooter lockdown drills each semester, given the prevalence of gun violence in schools.

Given the increased frequency of these mass shootings, the 17-year-old said the anxiety around a potential shooting has upsettingly been a thought in the back of my head a lot of the times when I go to pretty populated areas or concerts or even school every day.

Stock image of shooting equipment ready to use (Getty Images)

She said her school resource officer has a gun, but teachers at her high school arent armed. Asked whether an armed presence on school grounds eases her anxiety, she said, I would rather have a no-gun campus because I think having that scaresme and my friends. Ms Beecham said, We dont know if [a gun] could get into the wrong hands.

Nearby districts, however, do have armed teachers, she said. We see other schools doing it, and we worry that maybe our school will be a school to do it as well, the high school junior added. Having weapons on campus distracts us as students with other worries that we shouldnt have to be thinking about.

Kept in the dark

The bill mentions a litany of requirements for a school staff member to possess a concealed handgun on school property, like having a handgun permit and completing a minimum of 40 hours of training specific to school policing every year.

This training aside, theres evidence that shows that our teachers cant, and in a moment of extreme duress, be expected to act the same way that a specially trained law enforcement officer would be, Mr Williamson said.

There seems to be another problem; the legislation lacks a storage requirement.

Ms Barnett asked, Is it required to be put it in a safe? Or can you just put it in your drawer in your [class]roomwhere a child could get access to it?

She emphasised just how easy it would be for a student to grab it from a teachers desk if the teachers attention was distracted by another student: I dont have eyes in the back of my head.

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

To further underscore the dangers of having no storage requirement, gun safety group Giffords Law Center tracked more than 100 incidents of accidents resulting from mishandled guns in schools over five years.

Mr Williamson clarified that even if the bill did mention that safety guard, Everytown wouldnt support it.

On top of this, the bill lacks transparency about an aspect that parents are desperate to know: which teachers would be armed.

This legislation provides confidentiality requirements regarding school employees who may carry a concealed handgun on school property.

Ms Barnett said that her daughter who lives in Tennessee told her that she would remove her kids from school if she didnt know which teachers were armed.

More responsibility, no immunity

Gun safety advocates have also raised eyebrows over the implicit liability that the bill suggests.

This bill would equip teachers with a dual responsibility of caring for children and being prepared to respond to an armed threat, Mr Williamson said.

Such a response would come without any immunity from lawsuits that could arise as a result of a reaction to a shooting  or an accident, the language of the bill states.

However, the bill explicitly carves out that law enforcement agencies are immune from claims for monetary damages that arise solely from, or that are related to, a faculty or staff members use of, or failure to use a handgun.

Ms Barnett similarly remarked on the mental shift that comes with the bill. Switching from being a nurturing teacher to being prepared to take on an active shooter, just doesn't work, the 74-year-old said.

A typical day as a teacher could require a variety of tasks, like trying to stop a nosebleed, breaking up a fight, or helping after a child falls on the playground, she said.

Theres so many things that go on all day that you have to deal with, Ms Barnett said. And then on top of that, you expect the teacher to be able to use a gun?

Ms Brown echoed this, saying, Americas educators are already overburdened and under-resourced, and adding the enormous responsibility of managing a firearm in a classroom would distract from their vital responsibility: educating our children.

The bill itself contains an immunity clause protecting local education agencies from liability for potential misuse of these firearms. Its as if the legislators anticipate the disaster this bill could cause but care more about protecting guns than children, she added.
CLEAR CREEK COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR)  Its been almost two years since Christian Glass was shot and killed by a Clear Creek County Sheriffs deputy.

Opening statements started Friday in the trial of Andrew Buen, the former deputy accused of firing the shots that killed the 22-year-old, who had called 911 for help after he got his car stuck on the night of his death.

FOX31 heard from both the prosecution and the defense. They spoke about what they saw, heard and observed from the body camera video captured in the late hours of June 10, 2022.

Upon arrival of responding to a motorist assist call, he was so focused on the wrong thing that nearly everything he did that evening escalated the situation, resulting in Christian Glass death, said Heidi McCollum, Fifth Judicial District attorney.

He reaches out the back window and stabs at the chief. That is the point my client fired shots, said Buens attorney, Carrie Slinkard. Not before that, but as soon as that driver turned around in the car and tries to stab through an open window in the back.

Man gets maximum sentence in shooting death of K-9 officer

Glass mother and father sat in the front row of the courtroom as they listened to prosecutors and defense attorneys argue about whether Glass was in fear for his life during a mental health crisis or if he was a deadly threat to deputies.

He spent the last hour and a half of his life in absolute fear. Keep in mind throughout this trial: Christian Glass was the one who called for help. He mistakenly thought when he needed assistance, the police would do just that, the prosecutor said.

Christian Glass

Prosecutors argued to the jury Friday that the actions of the former deputy, who shot Glass five times, were aggressive, and he was hostile from the moment he arrived on the scene.

Buens defense attorney argued Buen did the best he could do with someone who was not responding to commands and potentially under the influence of alcohol and drugs. The defense attorney suggested he had multiple weapons in the car at the time.

My clients reaction when he sees the knife sitting in his (Christans) lap was to pull his gun as they were trained to do, Buens defense attorney said. Now, the DAs office said its no need for this. Hes sitting in his car. Hes not a threat. He doesnt have a seatbelt on. He doesnt know if the door is opened or unlocked. Police get ambushed all the time.

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Two witnesses were also called on Friday: a 911 operator and an assistant director for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

The former deputy is charged with second-degree murder, first-degree official misconduct and reckless endangerment. The trial is scheduled to resume Monday starting at 8:30 a.m.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
Texas health officials issue warning after individual contracts virus following direct exposure to cattle: 'I wouldn't have predicted that'

Health officials are closely monitoring the H5N1 strain of avian influenza after a person in Texas contracted the virus after being in direct contact with dairy cattle.

What's happening?

As detailed by Inside Climate News, the H5N1 virus has ravaged the poultry industry, with farmers losing around $1 billion in revenue as their flocks were euthanized to prevent the spread of the virus.

Until Mar. 25, though, the U.S. Department of Agriculture hadn't confirmed the H5N1 strain in dairy cows. Cases have now been detected in herds in Texas, Kansas, and New Mexico, which surprised some scientists.

"The fact that they are susceptible  the virus can replicate, can make them sick  that is something I wouldn't have predicted," St. Jude Children's Research Hospital influenza virologist Richard Webby told the New York Times.

On Apr. 1, Texas Health and Human Services announced that a person who had been in contact with dairy cattle had been infected with a case of avian influenza, raising concerns about what it could mean for public health and the sector.

In their release, Texas officials noted this is the second known case of H5N1 in humans. However, it's the first infection linked to dairy cattle, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Why is this important?

In addition to causing heartbreak for farmers, as well as leading the cost of staples like eggs to skyrocket, the H5N1 flu has already been making devastating rounds in the animal world, including in the United Kingdom, where certain types of seabirds have been decimated.

Large numbers of southern elephant seals have also been catastrophically killed in Argentina, according to one study.

Researchers believe that changing global temperatures may be contributing to the spread of H5N1, as migration periods are happening at new intervals, as detailed by Inside Climate News.

Basically, per the outlet, species of birds that wouldn't typically interact are now coming into contact with one another, increasing the potential for viruses to spread to new animal populations  and, ultimately, humans.

"As animal outbreaks increase, the risk of spread to people can also increase, along with opportunities for viral reassortment that can enhance transmissibility of avian influenza viruses," the CDC explains.

What is being done about H5N1?

The Texas individual infected with the virus only had eye redness and will recover, according to the CDC, which noted the person was treated with flu antivirals and instructed to isolate. The agency called the risk to the public "low" in its latest assessment of the situation.

Researchers are working on a solution to limit the spread of H5N1 in animals, with virus-resistant gene-edited chickens among the potential developments. A vaccine has also been tested on select California condors with success, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Meanwhile, the exact connection between the spread of H5N1 and our warming planet is still being investigated, but the primary cause of rising temperatures is clear: dirty energy.

Unplugging appliances when they aren't in use and taking public transportation are two money-saving ways to work toward a healthier planet.

And if swapping your gas-powered vehicle for an electric model isn't immediately possible, making sure you're operating your gas-glugger more efficiently will still eliminate thousands of pounds of carbon pollution over 10 years.

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AUSTIN (Texas Tribune)  A costly new national certification exam for psychologists has convinced the professions licensing authority in Texas to consider crafting a cheaper alternative to help alleviate a persistent mental health provider shortage here.

On Thursday, the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists moved to begin researching the cost of a cheaper state exam instead of requiring applicants to take a new $450 skills test offered by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, known also as ASPPB.

Applicants already take a required $800 knowledge exam from the national board. The new skills exam was approved by the national board in 2016 but it notified states last October that it would now be required to complete certification by the national body.

Refusing to adopt this additional test would mean psychologists in Texas would be ineligible to use the existing exam, something the state licensing board has used to license psychologists here since 1965.

Lets call a spade a spade. This is a negotiation tactic. It was a deadline that was long enough in their minds to have agencies swallow this bitter pill, but not adequate time to craft a good solution to it, John Bielamowicz, the presiding member of the state psychologists licensing board, said Thursday.

Texas is the first licensing board in the nation to consider an alternative to the national exam. But the state board said it would back off its gambit if the national testing board considered making the new exam optional instead of required.

Currently, Texas licensed psychologists must have a doctoral degree and pass three exams: the $800 knowledge exam by the national testing board, a $210 jurisprudence test, and a $320 oral exam. This is an addition to the $340 a prospective psychologist must pay to do their required 3,500 hours of supervised work and now the national testing agency wants to add a $450 skills test on top of it.

Any failure of these tests requires a candidate to retake the exam and pay the same price. Multiple mental health providers testified to the board that they have spent thousands of dollars trying to pass the current knowledge exam, and adding anything else can be costly.

I spent close to $9,000 trying to pass the first (knowledge test), said Sarah Lorenz, a mental health counselor in Dallas. If the board feels held hostage to an authoritative mandate, imagine how we feel. Focus on our stateTexas only.

The Texas psychologists board is mindful of the fact that there is a critical shortage of mental health providers in this state. Some board members like Jamie Becker, saw this new requirement as one more barrier to getting providers licensed and into the workforce quickly.

I dont think this test is horrible nor do I think what you are asking of us is terrible, but this will impact a lot of providers we need. We have providers who practice in rural areas. People who come from different backgrounds and languages, and this is just making it harder for them to become licensed because of the cost, Becker said. I am trying to find a reason to justify, and I am struggling with it.

Today, 251 of Texas 254 counties are wholly or partially designated by the federal government as mental health professional shortage areas, and thats in a state where roughly 5 million people do not have health insurance.

Therapists, counselors, and psychologists are often interchangeable terms the public uses to describe a mental health provider. However, the pathways to these careers are very different. Counselors focus on specific issues that affect mental well-being instead of outright illness, and it only requires a license and a bachelors degree depending on the specialty. A therapist must have a masters degree in psychology to practice.

This additional skills test was designed to weed out applicants who might have barely passed the knowledge exam but lack the skills to work in a clinical setting.

We are the only health providers without a skills exam, Michelle Paul, president of ASPPB, told the board. This is a problem because we want psychologists to sit side by side with other health providers, but we dont have the same standards.

Paul told The Texas Tribune this new test is needed in a post-COVID-19 pandemic world where students had to learn under unusual circumstances.

We need providers everywhere, not just in Texas. That said, we need competent providers. We shouldnt let the idea of barriers disintegrate the value of psychology, she said.

However, the licensing board in Texas believes this is an unnecessary step since they have not heard any complaints about ethics or preparedness from mental health providers.

This is a solution looking for a problem that also doubles the expense of test takers, said board member Ryan Bridges.

So far, only Georgia, Nevada and Washington, D.C. have adopted this new skills test.

As the need for more mental health workers grows, Texas lawmakers and regulatory agencies are looking more closely at job requirements and ways to get more people licensed quickly to help bolster the mental health workforce. More families are opting to bypass waiting lists and heading straight to emergency rooms with loved ones who need treatment for example.

At Thursdays meeting, board members also raised concerns about whether the new test accurately measures clinical skills and whether it creates more barriers to entry for applicants, particularly people of color or those who speak a different language.

More than 50% of Texas residents are Hispanic, but the mental health provider population is overwhelmingly white, according to 2023 data. Also, less than 20% of the states 10,440 mental health providers that responded to that 2023 workforce survey offer mental health services in a language other than English.

Representatives for the national testing board insist their tests are designed to protect the public.

Paul, the president of the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, also said the mental health workforce issue will not get solved at the licensure level.

How many doctorates are graduating in psychology? Maybe eight to 10 a year. We need to invest in training programs for more students. That is how you solve this problem, she told the Texas Tribune.

Paul is hopeful a solution can be found between her agency and the state of Texas. Board members indicated that if Pauls group would make the skills test optional, it would consider abandoning its pursuit of a homegrown Texas test.

We are open to conversations about this exam. I hope the relationship is not too fractured and broken, she said.

However, to some in the boards meeting room, the new requirements seemed like an ultimatum.

Gloria Conseco, the presiding member of the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council, put it more succinctly while testifying in support of the psychologist boards action.

Dont mess with Texas. It looks like something you might see on a bumper sticker, but that is our state persona. We push back, and I suggest we push back here, she said.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at www.texastribune.org. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center has shut down its liver and kidney transplant programs and launched an investigation

Matt Patterson via AP Memorial Hermann Hospital

A Texas hospital has launched an investigation after learning that a doctor secretly manipulated patient files, making them ineligible to receive liver transplants.

On April 11, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center said in a statement that one of their doctors admitted to making inappropriate changes to patient medical records that effectively inactivated the candidates on the liver transplant waiting list, the Houston Chronicle reports.

"Subsequently, these patients did not/were not able to receive organ donation offers while inactive." the statement said.

The doctor has been identified as Dr. J. Steve Bynon Jr., a surgeon at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. The 64-year-old has had a contract to oversee Memorial Hermann's liver and kidney transplant programs since 2011, according to the medical centers bio.

Officials reportedly launched an investigation after noticing irregularities with donor acceptance criteria that were limited to the centers liver transplant program. Records also show a disproportionate number of patients who have died at the center while waiting for a liver.

In 2023, 14 patients at Memorial Hermann were taken off the centers liver transplant waiting list because they either died or became too sick, according to data from the Organ Procurement Transplantation Network. Additionally, five patients have either died or became too sick while on the waiting list for a liver transplant so far in 2024.

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Aaron M. Sprecher via AP Memorial Hermann Hospital

Related: Celebrity Doctor Gave Patient Free Botox in Exchange for Sex, Medical Tribunal Decides

A spokesperson for UTHealth Houston tells PEOPLE in a statement that Bynon is an exceptionally talented and caring physician, and a pioneer in abdominal organ transplantation.

Our faculty and staff members, including Dr. Bynon, are assisting with the inquiry into Memorial Hermanns liver transplant program and are committed to addressing and resolving any findings identified by this process, the statement added.

Bynon did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs request for comment.

Following the allegations, Memorial Hermann immediately shut down its liver transplant programs. The centers kidney transplant program was also halted as its run by Bynon.

Over the past two weeks, we have been actively working with all impacted patients, families and caregivers from the liver and the kidney transplant programs, following the difficult decision to voluntarily inactivate both programs, the hospital tells PEOPLE in a statement. Our primary priority is ensuring continuity of compassionate care for patients who were on the transplant program lists at the hospital. Each patient is being individually contacted by a transplant care coordinator to review ongoing care options, including a seamless transition to another transplant program, where necessary.

We are working with University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston to make the necessary changes that will allow for the quick reactivation of the kidney transplant program under a different physician leadership structure, the statement continued. All program transplant physicians are employed by the University of Health Science Center at Houston and contracted to Memorial Hermann to provide physician services. Our investigation is ongoing, and we continue to cooperate with all regulatory authorities.



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Read the original article on People.
ISLAMABAD, April 13 (Xinhua) -- One man was killed and four others were injured in a clash between security forces and militants in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province on Friday night, officials said.

The incident happened in the Nushki district of the province, where five to six armed militants with flags of the banned outfit Balochistan Liberation Army blocked a highway to check all the vehicles passing by, official sources told Xinhua.

Security forces reached the site upon getting information, engaging the terrorists into a gun battle, in which a civilian whose vehicle had been stopped by the terrorists was killed and four others got injured, the sources added.

After the exchange of fire, the terrorists fled the scene and the road had been cleared for traffic flow.

The sources added that apparently, the terrorists were tracking their target, possibly someone from the law enforcement agency, or some police informer in the vehicles they stopped after blocking the road.

The injured people had been shifted to a nearby hospital. 
The St. Johns County Sheriffs Office has released the names and mugshots of three of the five men they say were involved in a shooting and police pursuit on Friday.

Fitzroy Ellis, 18, is charged with resisting law enforcement without violence. He also has a homicide warrant out of Georgia.

Dovanni Small, 18, is charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle and resisting law enforcement without violence.

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

Travion Washington, 18, is charged with fleeing and eluding law enforcement and resisting without violence.

The charges stem from an incident that happened in the Cypress Links subdivision. Deputies responded to a shooting there, and when the suspect vehicle was seen leaving the neighborhood, they chased it.

A pursuit started southbound on I-95, then westbound on State Road 206. The chase stopped when the car crashed into another car at the intersection of State Road 206 and County Road 305.

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]

Related: 4 people hurt, 5 in custody after shooting, pursuit, and crash in St. Johns, authorities say

Deputies said the five suspects got out of the car and ran.

Southwoods Elementary School, which was nearby, was placed on a hard lockdown as deputies searched for them.

SJSO used its K9s, drones and aviation unit, and all suspects were found and taken into custody. One suspect had a run-in with a K9. Another was airlifted to a hospital after being hurt in the crash.

Read: Suspect in Southside standoff identified

Investigators learned the suspects were from Georgia. They said they were driving a car that had been reported stolen from there. They said three guns were in the car that may be tied to other crimes. One suspect, Ellis, is wanted for murder.

The victim of the shooting is expected to survive. Deputies said he is not cooperating with detectives.

If you come to St. Johns County to commit a crime, your journey will end here. We have advanced technology, state-of-the-art equipment and some of the most dedicated and highly skilled law enforcement personnel serving our community. Im humbled to be their Sheriff and Im proud of the actions of our men and women who immediately took action to protect our school children and citizens, Sheriff Rob Hardwick said in a Facebook post.

As soon as we get information about the other two suspects, well update this article.

Read: Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department mourns the loss of one of their own

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Mr Loughton (L), pictured last month with other members of the cross-party China group - Daniel Leal/AFP

Tim Loughton has become the latest Conservative MP to announce they are standing down at the next election.

The veteran Tory MP, who has represented East Worthing and Shoreham in West Sussex since 1997, said it was wiser to leave five minutes too soon than to continue for five years too long.

He said that he would continue supporting Rishi Sunak, who he said was underappreciated.

The announcement means that 64 Tories have now said they plan to quit Parliament rather than face re-election  the most before any general election since Labours landslide in 1997, when 72 decided not to stand again.

Mr Loughton is a former minister who currently serves as deputy chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee.

In a letter sent to the chairman of his local Conservative Association, he wrote: It has been a great honour to have served as the Member of Parliament for the newly created East Worthing and Shoreham constituency since 1997.

With the help of a fantastic local party association, we have fought seven general elections successfully.

By the time of the next one I will have spent more than 27 years in Parliament. After much reflection I have decided now is the right time for me to move on and hand over to someone new.

As former Cabinet Minister John Biffen appropriately put it: In politics I think it is wiser to leave five minutes too soon than to continue for five years too long.

Mr Loughton in the Commons. He has held the same seat since 1997 - UNPIXS

Mr Loughton said he had spent 47 years as a Conservative activist and would find it difficult to adjust to having my weekend and private life back again, but as I contemplate new challenges it is unlikely public service will be far away.

He said he took the greatest pride in his stint as childrens minister under David Cameron, and as a backbencher had continued to champion the cause of vulnerable children and giving a voice to young people at the top table.

A vocal critic of the Chinese government, Mr Loughton was sanctioned by the country in 2021.

In his letter, he said he had helped shine a spotlight on the industrial-scale human rights abuses by the Chinese regime resulting in being one of the five sanctioned MPs. He added: I hope you agree that my time on the backbenches has been far from uneventful.

Support for Rishi Sunak

In a show of support to Mr Sunak, he said: I have no intention of remaining anything other than totally focused on supporting our excellent and underappreciated Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and the interests of my East Worthing constituents in the House of Commons in my remaining months there.

Mr Loughton also paid tribute to his family, and the tremendous contribution of his wife, Liza: I know how much she had to sacrifice and only through her unwavering support have I been able to devote myself to the constituency to the extent I have.

The intensity of an MPs job is sadly not conducive to being the most present parent, and it remains a great irony that as childrens minister I was constantly promoting the importance of strong family attachment whilst not being able to be as attached as I would have ideally liked.

Whoever replaces Mr Loughton as the Conservative candidate will face a tough task to keep East Worthing and Shoreham blue. Mr Loughton achieved a majority of 7,424 in 2019 but some recent MRP polls have suggested that Labour is on track to take the seat.

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TOPEKA (KSNT)  Police say theyve found a person of interest in a recent shooting at a Topeka food plant.

The Topeka Police Department issued an update to the deadly shooting at Resers Fine Foods around 5:40 p.m. on April 13 reporting that Eddie Holmes, 65, of Topeka was taken into custody without incident. Police were looking for Holmes in connection the shooting and named him a person of interest.

Holmes was taken to the Shawnee County Department of Corrections on the following charges:

Murder in the 2nd degree

Criminal possession of a weapon by a felon



(Photo Courtesy/Drew Gill)

(Photo Courtesy/Drew Gill)

Police were called just after 4:30 p.m. on April 11 to 3167 SE 10th Street on a report of a shooting. Upon arrival, they found one person suffering from a life-threatening gunshot wound who was later pronounced dead.

This embedded content is not available in your region.

The shooting victim was later identified as 39-year-old Reginal D. Previtte of Topeka. Investigators said they thought the shooting was an isolated incident that occurred in the parking lot with no other injuries reported.

Man gets 8.5 years in DUI crash that killed Carbondale teen

If you have any information regarding this shooting, send an email to TPD at telltpd@topeka.org or call 785-368-9400. You can make anonymous tips to Shawnee County Crime Stoppers by calling 785-234-0007 or by clicking here.

For more crime news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News.
Transgender candidate files to become first transgender member of Florida Legislature

Democrat Ashley Brundage this week opened a campaign account to run for a Hillsborough County seat in the state House and to try to become the first transgender member of the Legislature.

 WATCH CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS

Brundage filed the paperwork to run in House District 65, which is held by Rep. Karen Gonzalez Pittman, R-Tampa, according to the state Division of Elections website.

Gonzalez Pittman is running for re-election in November and had raised $154,189 for her campaign as of March 31, according to a newly filed finance report.

Read: I miss her so much: Madeline Sotos biological father speaks out about death, disappearance

Democrat Nathan Albert Kuipers also has opened an account and had raised $11,527.

The Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis have approved a series of measures in recent years targeting transgender people.

Read: Woman missing after armed carjacking believed to be dead, Seminole County sheriff says

LPAC, a national organization that helps LGBTQ women and nonbinary candidates, issued a statement Friday supporting Brundages campaign.

In the face of relentless anti-LGBTQ legislation in Florida, Ashley Brundages voice is not just important  its essential, Janelle Perez, LPACs executive director, said in a prepared statement. We are witnessing an unprecedented wave of policies that undermine the rights and dignity of LGBTQ+ Floridians.

Read: Man found guilty of second-degree murder of his stepmother and her unborn child

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British travellers faced disruption following a decision by Israel and its neighbours to shut down their airspace in the wake of the major drone attack by Iran.

The impending threat of an Iranian drone strike led Israels airspace to be shut to all flights, according to the countrys aviation authorities.

It was originally anticipated that the drones would arrive in Israel at 2am local time.

Flight times are expected to be longer as airlines avoid Iranian airspace and air fares are also expected to increase.

Jordan also took the step on Saturday night to block incoming, departing and transit aircraft from travelling into its airspace, according to Al Mamlaka News, before declaring a state of emergency.

The measure came into force at 11pm and aviation authorities indicated that the situation would be continuously updated and reviewed according to developments.

All air traffic has been temporarily stopped in Iraq following a decision to shut down its airspace, according to the countrys transport ministry.

Israels El Al Airlines was reported to have cancelled 15 flights scheduled for Saturday and Sunday and Austrian Airlines was also reported to have cancelled all its flights to Iran until April 18.

United Airlines on Saturday said it had cancelled its service to Tel Aviv.

We have cancelled Saturdays planned flight from Newark to Tel Aviv and its associated return flight due to restrictions on Israeli airspace, a United spokesman said.

We are closely monitoring the situation and will make decisions on upcoming flights with a focus on the safety of our customers and crews.

A Lufthansa spokesman, on behalf of the firm including its subsidiary Austrian Airlines, said: We have temporarily stopped overflying Iranian airspace till April 18. Security is our number-one priority.

Qantas had already paused its non-stop flights from Perth to London in an attempt to avoid Iranian airspace due to fears of the impending attack on Israel.

The route has now been changed and has a stop in Singapore in place due to the situation.

A Qantas spokesman said: Were temporarily adjusting the flight paths for our flights between Perth and London due to the situation in parts of the Middle East. Well reach out to customers directly if theres any change to their booking.

Is it safe to travel to Israel?

The UK along with the US were among the countries issuing a travel warning to those looking to travel to the region, along with France, Canada and Australia.

Dutch airline KLM also said it would no longer fly over Iran or Israel, according to Dutch press agency ANP on Saturday.

KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM, said the move was a precaution, but it indicated it would continue flying to Tel Aviv.

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The maintenance-embattled USS Boxer is heading back to San Diego just 10 days after deploying due to an engineering issue, as first reported by USNI News and confirmed to Military.com by Navy officials.

Sailing as the big deck, or lead ship, of its amphibious ready group, the Boxer had already been delayed by months when it deployed April 1. Its return further comes on the heels of an announcement by the Navy's top leader earlier this week that the service, in conjunction with the Marine Corps, is conducting an inquiry into amphibious operations that will include problems with the ship.

"USS Boxer is returning to San Diego to undergo additional maintenance in support of its deployment in the Indo-Pacific region," Lt. Cmdr. Jesus Uranga, a spokesperson for the Navy's 3rd Fleet in the Pacific, told Military.com in an email.

Read Next: 'Restore Real Value': House Panel Wants to Give Junior Enlisted Troops 15% Pay Raise

The Boxer had departed for its "Indo-Pacific deployment and was conducting integration exercises with the MV-22 Osprey in the 3rd Fleet area of operations," when it was forced to return, Uranga said.

While further details were not provided regarding the nature of the malfunction, Uranga said the ship would return to its deployment "in the near future."

Marines and aircraft with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit were onboard the Boxer and have already been offloaded, officials told USNI News, although the ship had not yet made it back to port as of Thursday evening.

On April 8, the Navy's top leader, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, said that she had ordered a "deep dive" into numerous maintenance and readiness issues faced by the ship.

"I think there's some good lessons learned with Boxer," Franchetti told reporters at the Navy's annual Sea-Air-Space conference earlier this week.

Meanwhile, last month, the Boxer was given seven Navy-wide awards for "sustained superior performance," including the Battle Effectiveness Award and the Maritime Warfare Excellence Award, according to the service.

Franchetti's inquiry will be led by three-star admirals in the Navy's operations and plans and policy offices, she said, adding she anticipates they will come to her with initial recommendations on how to proceed "in the May timeframe, and that will start to outline the shape of the the deep dive going forward."

While the investigation's timing may seem coincidental, the four-star admiral said Monday that the branch was trying to be proactive and keep delays to just the Boxer.

"We're seeing some potential delays on [the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp]," Franchetti said. "We're trying to look ahead to make sure that we can, I want to say, nip this in the bud."

The Wasp, which is the same class of ship as the Boxer, departed Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, in early March only to return shortly afterward. A spokesperson for Surface Force Atlantic told Military.com following the incident that "during the underway, the ship discovered an engineering irregularity" and "returned to port to effect repairs."

The ship got underway again at the end of March without issue.

A defense official told Military.com in March that the Boxer had originally been slated to deploy late last year, but it was held up thanks to a series of delays and mechanical issues that were driven, at least partly, by poor leadership aboard the ship.

Two previous command investigations conducted on at least three different engineering breakdowns showed "a lack of procedural compliance, substandard supervisory oversight, and general complacency by the crew," according to the ship's strike group commander.

Those breakdowns, information on which was released to Military.com as part of a Freedom of Information Act request, revealed that the ship had experienced damage to two "forced draft blowers" on Nov. 8, 2022. A separate investigation into that incident, also provided to Military.com via FOIA request, faulted "poor quality craftsmanship, lack of industry repair skill set/capabilities" and a "lack of supervisory oversight" from the Navy offices overseeing the work.

Then on May 14, the ship had a "boiler safety" breakdown. That investigation "once again revealed a lack of procedural compliance and overall complacency of all personnel involved," documents from the strike group commander revealed.

The two other ships that the Boxer commands, the USS Somerset and USS Harpers Ferry, both have successfully deployed. The Somerset and its contingent of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit are currently in the waters off India, according to a Marine Corps press release from April 4.

The Somerset deployed in January, and the Harpers Ferry in mid-March.

Editors Note: After publication a Navy spokesperson contacted Military.com to clarify that the probe into the Boxer is part of a broader inquiry into amphibious operations that is being conducted in conjunction with the Marine Corps. The article has been updated accordingly.

-- Konstantin Toropin contributed to this story.

Related: Top Navy Leader Has Ordered 'Deep Dive' on Amphibious Ship Readiness After Delays with USS Boxer
This truly breaks my heart: Family reacts a week after NC boater vanishes during fishing trip

OAK ISLAND, N.C. (WNCN)  The family of a man who vanished off the North Carolina coast last weekend is mourning his loss.

Jeffrey Kale, 47, left a boat ramp exactly a week ago, Saturday afternoon, April 6, near Southport and was headed offshore for a fishing trip, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

His family reported him missing around 10:30 that night and a massive search was launched including the Blackjack and Steeples areas 30 miles off the North Carolina coast.

The large search was suspended Monday evening, the Coast Guard said.

Then, Tuesday morning, a Good Samaritan boater found Kales 32-foot Cape Horn center-console boat  floating empty with fishing lines extended into the water  about 83 miles east of Wrightsville Beach.

Jeffrey Kale (left) in a photo from the U.S. Coast Guard and his boat in a photo from the Oak Island Police Department

That discovery restarted the search by the U.S. Coast Guard, Oak Island Police and the U.S. Navy  along with many other Good Samaritan vessels along the North Carolina coast.

However, Wednesday night, the search for Kale, of Clover, South Carolina  just south of Charlotte  was suspended again.

Kales son wrote on Facebook about his father just after the second search effort was suspended Wednesday night

This truly breaks my heart, without my dad Id be nowhere close to the young man I am today and Im grateful for everything my dad taught me in life the past 15 years, Brandon Kale wrote along with the U.S. Coast Guard post that announced the suspended search.

Jeffrey Kale (left) in a photo from WJZY. Kales 32-foot Cape Horn center-console boat (right) when it was found empty about 83 miles east of Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, this week. Photo courtesy: U.S. Coast Guard.

I still have hope that he may turn up may the Lord decide. I love you daddy, Brandon Kale added.

Family friends meanwhile asked for many to remember Kales family.

Please pray for the family of Jeff Kale. He was a great guy. Loved fishing and loved his family! John Thompson Jr., of Albemarle, wrote on Facebook.

I fished with him a few times in fact, he invited me to fish with him the first day I met him! Praying for his wife, sons, and parents and all his family and friends, Thompson added.

Outdoor enthusiasts noted that the sea can be dangerous during a solo trip.

Jeffrey Kale, 47, was last seen around 4 p.m. Saturday departing the Southport Wildlife Boat Ramp in Brunswick County, officials said. Photo from Oak Island Police Department

Kale was an experienced angler and had spent hundreds of hours on the water. We all have to respect the ocean and realize that at any moment a routine trip can turn bad, Trilogy Outdoors, which focuses on South Carolina fishing, wrote.

The publication from Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, also asked people to pray for Kale and his family.

The entire search since Kale was reported missing Saturday night was about 100 combined hours and covered more than 11,690 square miles, which is an area greater than the size of Maryland, the U.S. Coast Guard reported.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS17.com.
Sino-German teen friendships grow fonder with exchanges

Xinhua) 10:16, April 13, 2024

Chinese and German students visit Youdao, a Beijing-based intelligent education subsidiary of China's internet giant NetEase, in Beijing, capital of China, April 9, 2024.(Xinhua/Zhao Xu)

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- "Hi, what would you like to talk about today?" an artificial intelligence (AI) English tutor named Echo asked Svenja Butzlaff, a German 10th-grade student who was visiting Youdao, a Beijing-based intelligent education subsidiary of China's internet giant NetEase.

Via a mobile app, she conversed with the avatar about the history of China's tea culture. "The development of AI technology in China is quite impressive," Butzlaff said.

Butzlaff is among over 20 students from Germany's CJD Elze who have visited China under the invitation of the Affiliated High School of Peking University (PKUHS), based on an exchange mechanism between the two schools.

Over a two-week stay in China, the Germans had classes together with their counterparts from Beijing. They visited tech companies as well as landmarks like the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace, fully immersed in the Chinese way of life and experiencing its culture.

"Before this trip to Beijing, I thought I would be surrounded by skyscrapers. I didn't expect to see hutong alleys or meet such an ancient city rich in historical spirit," a 14-year-old German student named Laura said.

She added that she was particularly fascinated by the delicate patterns on the buildings in the Forbidden City.

Education plays another critical role in connecting these adolescents. At PKUHS, German students took courses in art, sports, and crafts.

"German students are full of curiosity. We shared our learning experiences, hobbies, and favorite foods with one another. I found it rather interesting," said Wu Churan, a student from PKUHS.

Wu also recalled her visit to Germany under the same exchange program. "It benefited me a lot for it not only expanded my horizons but helped me make many good friends and gain a deeper understanding of cultural diversity," Wu added.

As for German student Adriano, who aspires to be a chef, Chinese cuisine is especially charismatic.

"I had dumplings for the very first time at my Beijing companion's. It was so delicious. Besides, his family took me to a Sichuan-style hot pot, which was equally amazing," Adriano said. The 14-year-old also joked that he seemed to have "gained weight" during his stay in China.

It is worth mentioning that he didn't forget to buy some Chinese chili sauce and seasonings before returning to Germany. "I'll try making Chinese dishes for my family," he said.

Upon wrapping up the trip, Laura jotted down her wish. "I hope to pursue my bachelor's degree in China in the future, make more Chinese friends, and have an extensive understanding of Chinese culture."

"Sino-German teen friendships will only grow fonder with more such face-to-face exchanges," said Carsten, the teacher who led the German student delegation. "We all expect more activities of this kind to come in the future."

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon plans to make a state visit to Azerbaijan in the third ten days of May 2024, the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Tajikistan said after a meeting between Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov on April 12, Azernews reports.

The ministerial meeting took place on the sidelines of the CIS Foreign Ministers Council meeting in Minsk. The ministers exchanged views on holding the days of culture of Tajikistan in Azerbaijan, the days of Tajik cinema and the Tajik-Azerbaijani business forum in the second ten days of May, the Foreign Ministry said, noting that issues of the regional and international agenda were also discussed.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made a state visit to Dushanbe last April. The result of negotiations with the President of Tajikistan was the signing of 14 documents on cooperation. Once again, Ilham Aliyev came to Dushanbe in September as a guest of honor at a consultative meeting of the heads of state of Central Asia.

Rahmon previously paid an official visit to Baku in August 2018.
MOSCOW, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Former Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) employee Vasily Prozorov, who had been injured in a car explosion in the north of Moscow, accused Kiev of plotting the attack, local media reported on Friday.

Kiev is behind the assassination attempt, Prozorov was quoted by Russia's TASS news agency as saying.

"But it didn't work out. I am alive and well and will continue to expose the crimes of the Ukrainian authorities," he said.

Prozorov was injured following the explosion of his vehicle, which occurred on Friday morning on Korovinskoye Highway. The blast did not result in a fire, but several nearby cars were also damaged.

From 1999 to 2018, Prozorov was an employee of the SBU, once working in the central office of the SBU at the headquarters of the anti-terrorist center. He gained fame in March 2019 on the eve of the presidential elections in Ukraine, when he gave a press conference in Russia exposing the activities of the SBU in Ukraine in 2014-2018. 
Trump ally says bill with aid to Ukraine may be considered next week

Marjorie Taylor Green, a pro-Trump congresswoman who earlier initiated the resignation of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, has announced that a bill containing aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan may be considered next week.

Source: Taylor Green on Twitter, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Green, who opposes aid to Kyiv, said that amid the threat of an Iranian attack on Israel, Speaker Johnson could bring a separate aid package to Israel for consideration this week but he seems to be following the logic of a single package.

"But instead [he] will likely tie Israel aid to $60 billion for Ukraine next week after Israel has already been attacked by Iran to pressure members of Congress to fund Ukraine in order to fund Israel," she believes.

Therefore, the congresswoman encouraged the Congress not to tie aid to Israel to financial support for Ukraine.

Background: On 13 April, Former US President Donald Trump, after meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, hinted that he does not oppose providing assistance to Ukraine but in the form of a loan.

On Friday, 12 April, House Speaker Mike Johnson and White House officials were discussing a package that would differ from the Senate's proposed US$95 billion security package and include several Republican demands. After that, he went to meet Trump.

Trump has been sceptical for months about further US assistance to Ukraine, arguing that it is not essential to vital US interests and that Europe should bear the primary responsibility in this matter. Trump's views have had a significant impact on Republicans in Congress, becoming one of the factors that made it challenging to pass additional funding to support Ukraine.

Democrats in both chambers of Congress have indicated that they would be willing to talk about loan assistance to Ukraine if it would help to finally resolve the issue, although this is not their preferred option.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently said that Ukraine would agree to receive aid in the form of a loan from the US in the absence of other options.

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As the curtain rises on Donald Trumps hush money trial, set to begin Monday, the former president says that he plans to testify in his own defense. Trump denies having a sexual encounter with adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2006, as well as the allegation that he later falsified business records while trying to buy her silence for $130,000 ahead of the 2016 election.

Trump took questions on Friday at Mar-a-Lago, from outlets including The New York Times and Politico. He called the trial a witch hunt thats very bad for the judicial system in New York. He also claimed that he will speak on his own behalfa promise hes made and reneged on before. As the Times notes, testifying during a criminal trial could be an even more dangerous move.

Nevertheless, he persisted.

Im testifying, Trump told reporters Friday. I tell the truth. All I can do is tell the truth, and the truth is that there is no case. They have no case.

Trump faces a maximum of four years in prison for 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, according to The Guardian. When reached by the Times, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorneys office declined to comment on the former presidents statements to reporters.

Trumps attorneys have tried and failed three times to delay his prosecution. He has also attacked Judge Juan Merchan multiple times, often citing the judges daughters political consulting work with Democratic candidates as proof that he is compromised in this case. On Monday, Trump sued Merchan over a gag order that barred him from denigrating witnesses in the case, as well as the judges family, prosecutors, and court staff.

Speaking with reporters on Friday, Trump once again took the opportunity to complain.

Its very unfair that we have this judge who hates Trump and has tremendous conflict, as you know, he said. Nobody can believe that this judge isnt recusing himself. The conflict is at a level that nobodys ever seen before.

This marks the first criminal trial ever brought against a former U.S. president. As made obvious by his comments, Trump has pleaded not guilty.

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Donald Trump has called the widespread turmoil inflicted on states in the aftermath of overturning Roe v. Wade a very, very beautiful harmony.

The former president made several statements on the issue during a press conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday, each more obscuring than the last.

Trump: You know, what we did was give it back to the states and now the states are working their way through it, and you are having some very, very beautiful harmony, to be honest with you. pic.twitter.com/tfdVixC5Nf  Acyn (@Acyn) April 12, 2024

The harmony Trump references seems at odds with his statement earlier this week that Arizonas state Supreme Court had made a mistake in not repealing a highly restrictive Civil War-era abortion ban. Even Trump agreed that the ban went too far.

But on Friday, the former president couldnt even give a straight answer when asked whether he is pro-choice or anti-abortion. You know exactly which one it is, he said, before launching into a rant thanking the Supreme Court for giving the issue of abortion back to the states.

Reporter: Pro-Choice of Pro-Life, which one is it?



Trump: You know exactly which one it is. When I was in New York and I was a Democrat, you know, Ronald Reagan was a Democrat but if you look at what weve done with Roe pic.twitter.com/EB6QxW9Wdw  Acyn (@Acyn) April 12, 2024

One reporter asked how voters are expected to believe he has softened on abortion. While in office, Trump threatened to sign a nationwide ban if one got sent to his desk. Trump replied, Because we dont need it any longer. Because we broke Roe v. Wade.

Trump is just one Republican desperately trying to change his position on abortion, ever since Republicans realized the Dobbs decision was a lightning rod summoning progressive voters, and a huge factor in the losses Republicans experienced in the 2022 midterm elections. The result is a Twilight Zone of flip-flopping Republicans.

Earlier this week, Kari Lake blasted a highly restrictive abortion ban in Arizona that she once celebrated. Sean Hannity also echoed Trumps call to repeal the statewide ban.

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Trumps extreme rhetoric is a mainstay of his 2024 campaign. Much of it could become a reality if he wins another term

In the more than 370 days between his first indictment and his first criminal trial, Donald Trump unleashed rhetorical warfare as predictable as it was extreme.

The familiar slash and burn playbook, sharpened over decades in business and eight years in politics, has shaped an overlapping public defense and political message at an unprecedented moment of legal peril.

But the volume and repetition  always repetition, longtime allies note  obscures a stark reality.

For a former president who has unapologetically shattered norms with an unrelenting message of grievance, vengeance and retribution targeting those who stand in the way of his policy and political ambitions, the rhetoric is far from empty.

Trump emerged from the Republican primary  where he bulldozed his opponents  supported by a policy and personnel infrastructure designed to turn his rhetoric into reality.

His pledge to direct Justice Department investigations is backed by allies who view his second term as driven by a maximalist theory of a presidents authority.

Threats to target political enemies across the government are underpinned by planned executive action.

The system and guardrails Trump spent his first term perpetually straining and thrashing against on Capitol Hill, in the courts and within his own White House, have tilted in his favor.

Democrats hit first, so were going to hit back harder, a Republican official in regular communication with Trumps inner circle told CNN in reference to the former presidents four criminal indictments, which include charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith for attempting to overturn the 2020 election and unlawfully retaining classified documents.

There is no proof that the special counsels indictments were tied to political motivations, and the allegation, made repeatedly by Trump, that Bidens White House directed the investigations is a lie.

Confronted with those facts, the official responded without hesitation.

Thats what he believes. Thats what his people believe, the official said. And unlike last time, this is his party now.

The concept of a former president set to be the Republican Partys nominee for a third consecutive election just now claiming the party is, on its face, nonsensical.

Yet its a critical element to why this moment for Trump and his supporters is so different than any prior.

If Trump manages to dodge or delay his legal troubles and win the presidential election in November, he and allies will enter to White House more personally emboldened, politically powerful and with a more expansive view of a presidents authority than any administration in recent memory.

That is an opportunity Trump and his allies have moved aggressively to ensure isnt wasted.

We are going to finish what we started, Trump pledged during a March 2023 rally. We will totally obliterate the deep state.

2024 rhetoric

Trump has framed the 2024 campaign as existing to save the nation from an apocalyptic implosion.

The rematch with Biden is the final battle. Trump is but a vessel for his supporters, he says. Hes their retribution. Hes their warrior. Hes their justice.

The debate over Trumps words has hung over US politics since his 2015 announcement. Should he be taken seriously or literally? Does he mean what he says or is he throwing red meat to his base? Is it getting darker? More autocratic? More extreme?

In the last year, Trump has threatened to appoint a special prosecutor to target President Joe Biden and his family if hes reelected.

Hes repeatedly attacked prosecutors and judges, their families and relationships, former officials and political opponents.

He called for former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney and the other members of the House panel that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol to be jailed.

He floated the execution of the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

And amid all these statements, Trump currently sits ahead of, or within the margin of error, Biden in national and key swing state polling. His rock-solid base of die-hard supporters certainly hasnt diminished.

On some level, either many voters dont seem to mind or, in the view of many Republican and Democratic strategists alike, have grown so accustomed to the extreme nature of his rhetoric that it has just been tuned out.

The guy accused the sitting president of being on cocaine last week and nobody even blinked, one senior Democratic campaign official said when asked about the effect. (That did actually happen, though it wasnt a new Trump tactic  he floated Biden being on drugs in 2020, too.)

When Trump talks about vengeance and retribution, there are plenty of examples that can be viewed through a similar lens.

After all, his 2016 campaign was animated by the explicit call to jail his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

But while Trumps Justice Department never pursued charges against Clinton, multiple former officials confirmed that Trump raised the idea of prosecuting Clinton while in the White House. The list of opponents  and former allies who became opponents  who Trump would raise to staff for potential prosecution was long, the officials said.

One of my favorite preoccupations as national security adviser was counting how many times Donald Trump said that John Kerry should be prosecuted, former Trump official John Bolton said of the former Democratic senator and secretary of state.

Bolton has said repeatedly he will not support Trump and views him as a danger to the country, as have more than a dozen of Trumps former Cabinet officials and senior White House aides.

Its a striking reality with no precedent.

But it also underscores why a second Trump term would be dramatically different.

Critics gone

Trump repeatedly ran headlong into advisers, lawmakers and judges loath to bend to his will in his first term.

His allies viewed these as unnecessary  or in some cases, unlawful  impediments to the agenda voters sent to the Oval Office in 2016.

Some in Washington saw them as guardrails for a White House intent on fracturing not one, but all three branches of government.

Yet Trump, should he secure a second term, would enter the White House with his most powerful Republican critics on Capitol Hill almost all gone.

If House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sought to quietly placate and pacify Trump in his first two years in office, Congressional Republicans nowadays more often seek to elevate and advance his wishes.

Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, retired and has called Trump a populist, authoritarian narcissist. McConnell, who has not spoken to Trump since the end of 2020 after condemning his actions during the January 6 attack on the Capitol, will depart his position as Senate GOP leader at the end of this Congress. He has endorsed Trump.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican who holds Ryans old job, traveled to Mar-a-Lago on Friday to hold a joint press event with Trump as he seeks to beat back efforts to remove him from the position.

Trump isnt one for detailing regrets, but one of the few hes acknowledged is the people he surrounded himself with when he entered the White House in 2017.

I made a mistake with some people I put in, Trump said during an interview last month with NEWSMAX. I now know people. I now know, I believe, Washington probably at the upper levels, better than anybody.

Theres a roster of Cabinet officials and senior White House advisers who saw their role as minimizing or ignoring what they viewed as Trumps worst instincts and ideas. Many candidly acknowledged that reality after their departures.

Trump is now surrounded in and around his campaign by advisers who arent just loyalists who espouse his America First approach, but also hardened by their own lessons learned from the first administration.

His campaign has released an expansive and far-reaching series of policy outlines that the former president regularly highlights in the scripted sections of his campaign rallies.

A constellation of outside groups filled with former top Trump administration officials and loyalists have dedicated millions of dollars and an expansive network to build out the policy and personnel resources that will almost certainly be drawn upon should Trump win a second term.

That infrastructure, while not in total alignment and at times in the position of getting crosswise with one another, puts Trumps words in a dramatically different context.

There is clear alignment on the embrace of a maximalist view of presidential authority that Trump could use to dispense with the long-standing concept of Justice Department independence.

That includes an explicit pledge, detailed in his campaign policy plans, to direct Justice Department civil rights investigations against district attorneys in Democratic cities.

Two of Trumps indictments were filed by Democratic district attorneys.

Trumps pledge to fire career government officials deemed insufficiently loyal is backed by an effort to build on, and utilize, an executive order drafted in the final months of his time in office.

National security and intelligence agencies, long the center of Trumps most deeply held frustration and grievance for his view of their role in undercutting his authority and leaking damaging information, would be audited, overhauled and subject to widespread terminations.

Seeking retribution

Trump and his campaign have publicly tried to massage his official position on personal retribution.

Trump has repeatedly suggested his indictments mean he has the right to target his political opponents  pandoras box, Trump has said several times.

But when asked directly about his plans for personal revenge, Trump has attempted several ways to deny what those around him say hes intent on pursuing in a second term.

No, I wouldnt do that because I want to bring our country forward, Trump said when asked last February on The Hugh Hewitt Show about punishing those who attacked him, a message his advisors have said he should stick to on the issue. No, I wouldnt do that.

I would be entitled to a revenge tour if you want to know the truth, but I wouldnt do that, he added.

That would be a position that isnt backed by his second term policy plans, or his private impulses during his first term in office  or, for that matter, in the decades prior.

Trumps affinity for retribution existed long before his first campaign.

He spoke at length, in a 1992 interview with Charlie Rose, about his desire to get even with those he viewed as disloyal when his business career sat on the verge of collapse.

If given the opportunity, I will get even with some people who were disloyal to me, Trump told Rose.

Trump called revenge very therapeutic in an interview on CNNs Larry King Live in 2007.

If you have a problem with someone, you have to go after them, Trump said in a CNBC interview with Erin Burnett that same year.

The topic was relevant in 2007 for one reason: Trumps newly released book spent an entire chapter detailing his view on the merits of retribution.

The chapter title: Revenge.

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Kamala Harris has blamed Donald Trump for Arizonas revival of a draconian abortion ban, describing the Republican presidential candidate as the architect of Americas reproductive healthcare crisis and accusing him of gaslighting the nation.

The US vice president travelled to Tucson, the states second-largest city and home to a large student population.

They have turned back the clock to the 1800s to take away a womans most fundamental right, the US vice president told a mostly female audience in Tucson.

And Ms Harris wanted to make sure they knew whom she held responsible. Former president Donald Trump did this, she said. Shame! came the response from the crowd.

Arizona has been left reeling this week after its highest court paved the way for one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country by upholding an 1864 law.

It is part of a wave of restrictions by states empowered by the US Supreme Courts shock decision to revoke the nationwide abortion access it enshrined with its 1973 Roe v Wade ruling.

The 2022 decision  by a Supreme Court shaped by Mr Trump during his first term  caused a political earthquake in America and jettisoned reproductive rights to the top of voters list of priorities.

Polls show abortion is one of the few issues on which Joe Biden polls better than Mr Trump and Democrats hope to energise otherwise apathetic voters by working to put reproductive rights on the ballot in swing states.

A New York Times/Siena College Poll on Saturday found the US president has erased much of his Republican opponents early lead as 2020 Biden voters coalesce behind him despite lingering doubts over the 81-year-olds frailty.

The poll found Mr Trump and Mr Biden virtually tied on 46 and 45 per cent respectively, a marked improvement from Mr Trumps five-point lead in February.

Ms Harris and her team see the abortion bans as an opportunity to give the Vice President a new lease after battling negative headlines and historically low polling for much of her time in office.

She has taken a lead role in spotlighting abortion rights following the White Houses recognition that she is a more effective messenger than Mr Biden, a practising Catholic uneasy with even voicing the term.

Ms Harris has expanded her profile with tours of battleground states and university campuses to energise young voters by highlighting the rollback of womens rights.

Women hold signs as they wait for Kamala Harris to speak on Friday - FREDERIC J BROWN/AFP

She made history last month when she became the first holder of high office to visit an abortion clinic. But it was her appearance in Tucson on Friday afternoon that marked a shift to a combative new strategy to take on Mr Trump, and, in the words of her inner circle, prosecute the case for abortion access.

Heres what a second Trump term looks like: more bans, more suffering and less freedom, she said. It came days after Mr Trump took credit for the overturning of Roe v Wade and said the question of abortion restrictions should be left to the states.

Arizonas 1864 law, though not yet in effect, would make abortions punishable with jail terms, including in cases involving rape or incest. The only exception is when a mothers life is at risk.

Trump has backpedalled

In the aftermath of the ruling, Mr Trump has backpedalled, saying the law went too far and calling on Arizonas lawmakers to act.

Enough with the gaslighting, Ms Harris told the crowd crammed into a hall in Tucson. We all know if Donald Trump gets the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban.

How do we know? Just look at his record, she said, joking: Yall know Im a former prosecutor, just look at the facts.

According to insiders, the pugnacious approach has been inspired by Ms Harris personal determination to ensure Mr Trump does not muddy the waters on his position to evade accountability for the end of Roe v Wade.

Ms Harris met a receptive audience in Tucson where she gave her speech - Rebecca Noble

I think this is an intentional effort to both intensify the critique against Trump, but also to hold him accountable for his own record, said Karen Finney, a seasoned Democratic strategist and close ally of Ms Harris.

Ms Finney added the vice president was an effective messenger as a longtime champion of these issues from her time as attorney general in California and in the Senate.

Ms Harris met a receptive audience in Tucson, where some wore t-shirts with 1973 emblazoned across them. Others came dressed in pink and green  the colours of her university sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Heart broken by court ruling

Sundi Williams, the president of the sororitys local chapter, said it was surreal to meet with Ms Harris privately ahead of the event.

Her speech was truthful, honest, empowering, inspirational. And just the type of talk to light a fire under not only Arizonans, but this nation, she said. So we would not be anywhere else but here today.

Elisabeth Tyndall, a 48-year-old educator, said she had been left heartbroken by the court ruling, but found Ms Harris speech really motivating.

I really love the call to action, she said. If we have to be taken back to 1864, then I hope that it does create a wave of voters that are sick and tired of Republicans stomping all over our rights. Arizonas decision this week has particular significance for Novembers general election.

The critical state, which Mr Biden carried by less than half a percentage point in 2020, could determine not just control of the White House, but the US Senate.

John Anzalone, a pollster for the Biden-Harris campaign, has said the ruling could be dynamic-changing for the Democrats in the state.

Their campaign has seized on the moment, launching a seven-figure advertising blitz targeting women, Latino and young voters in the state, and with Ms Harris announcing a trip to Arizona within hours of the court ruling.

Aides said the vice president personally ordered the trip be a campaign event, freeing her of the restraints of official travel to say whatever the heck she wants.

Standing on stage in a trademark trouser suit, Ms Harris said: The overturning of Roe was without any question a seismic event. And this ban here in Arizona is one of the biggest aftershocks yet.

The overturning of Roe was just the opening act of a larger strategy to take womens rights and freedoms, she said, And we all must understand who is to blame.

Thats right, the crowd replied, with accompanying jeers.

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PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP)  Donald Trump offered a political lifeline Friday to House Speaker Mike Johnson, saying the beleaguered GOP leader is doing a very good job, and tamping down the far-right forces led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene trying to oust him from office.

Trump and Johnson appeared side-by-side at the ex-presidents Mar-a-Lago club, a rite of passage for the new House leader as he positions himself, and his GOP majority, side-by-side with the indicted Republican Party leader ahead of of the November election.

I stand with the speaker, Trump said at an evening press conference at his gilded private club.

Trump said he thinks Johnson, of Louisiana, is doing a very good job  hes doing about as good as youre going to do.

Were getting along very well with the speaker  and I get along very well with Marjorie, Trump said. But he also the efforts to oust the speaker unfortunate, saying there are much bigger problems right now.

The two appeared for a joint announcement on new legislation to require proof of citizenship for voting, but the trip itself is significant for both. Johnson needed Trump to temper hard-line threats to evict him from office. And Trump benefits from the imprimatur of official Washington dashing to Florida to embrace his comeback bid for the White House and his tangled election lies.

It is the symbolism, said Charlie Sykes, a conservative commentator and frequent Trump critic.

There was a time when the Speaker of the House of Representatives was a dominant figure in American politics, he said. Look where we are now, where he comes hat in hand to Mar-a-Lago.

The trip shows the fragility of the speakers grip on the gavel, just six months on the job, but also his evolving grasp of the politics of the Trump era as the Republicans in Congress align with the Make America Great Again movement powering the former presidents r-election bid.

Trump and Johnson discussed a topic both have embraced as a priority campaign strategy  pummeling President Joe Biden with alarmist language over what Republicans claim is a migrant invasion.

By linking the surge of migrants coming to the U.S. with the upcoming election, Trump and Johnson want to prevent noncitizens from voting  even though its already a federal felony for a noncitizen to cast a ballot in a federal election.

In a background paper sent ahead of the meeting, they echoed language from the racist great replacement conspiracy theory to suggest that Biden and Democrats are engaging in what Trumps campaign called a willful and brazen attempt to import millions of new voters.

Johnson said the House Republicans would present new legislation requiring proof of citizenship for elections.

Having the House speaker and the presidential contender align for the campaign season is not in itself surprising or even unexpected.

But in the Trump era, the sojourns by Republican leaders to his private club in Palm Beach, Florida, have become defining moments, underscoring the lopsided partnership as the former president commandeers the party in sometimes humiliating displays of power.

Such was the case when Kevin McCarthy, then the House GOP leader, trekked to Mar-a-Lago after having been critical of the defeated president after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. A cheery photo was posted afterward, a sign of their mending relationship.

Johnson proposed the idea of coming to Mar-a-Lago weeks before Greene filed her motion to vacate him from the speakers office, just as another group of hardliners had ousted McCarthy. The visit comes just days before the former presidents criminal trial on hush money charges gets underway next week in New York City.

The speakers own political livelihood depends on support  or at least not opposition  from the Make America Great Again Republicans who are aligned with Trump but creating much of the House dysfunction that has ground work to a halt.

Johnson of Louisiana commands the narrowest majority in modern times and a single quip from the former president can derail legislation. He was once a Trump skeptic, but the two men now talk frequently, including earlier this week.

I think its an emerging relationship, said Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who served as interior secretary in the Trump administration.

Even still, Trump urged Republicans to kill a national security surveillance bill that Johnson had personally worked to pass, contributing to a sudden defeat that sent the House spiraling this week into crisis. The legislation was approved Friday in a do-over but only after Johnson provided his own vote  a rarity for speakers who rarely vote in the chamber  before the speaker departed for Florida.

I cant imagine President Trump being very happy about that, said Greene.

Johnson understands he needs Trumps backing to conduct almost any business in the House  including his next big priority, providing U.S. aid to Ukraine to fight Russias invasion.

In a daring move, the speaker is working both sides to help Ukraine, talking directly to the White House on the national security package that is at risk of collapse with Trumps opposition. Greene is warning of a snap vote to oust Johnson from leadership if he allows any U.S. assistance to flow to the overseas ally.

On the issue of election integrity, though, Johnson, who led one of the main legal challenges to the 2020 election won by Joe Biden, appears to be more aligned with Trump.

Trump continues to insist the 2020 election was marred by fraud, even though no evidence has emerged in the last four years to support his claims and every state in the nation certified their results as valid.

As he runs to reclaim the White House, Trump has essentially taken over the Republican National Committee, turning the campaign apparatus toward his priorities. He supported Michael Whatley to lead the RNC, which created a new Election Integrity Division and says it is working to hire thousands of lawyers across the country.

At Fridays event, they are expected to promote ideas to prevent noncitizens from voting, even though its already a federal felony and theres no evidence of significant numbers of immigrants violating that law by casting illegal ballots.

Some liberal cities like San Francisco have begun to allow noncitizens to vote in a few local elections, leading Republicans to argue there need to be even more laws forbidding it in federal elections.

With his majority shrinking due to early retirements and departures, Johnson is operating as a speaker in name only. But the more he depends on Democrats to provide the votes needed to pass substantial legislation, including last months bills to keep the government from shutting down, the deeper trouble he courts from the MAGA Republicans.

Tired of the infighting and wary of another dragged-out brawl like the monthlong slugfest to replace McCarthy, few Republicans are backing Greenes effort to remove Johnson, for now.

Marjories actions are horrific, said Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, a former Trump administration official. They are childish. They are petulant. They have no place here in this body.

But if Trump signals otherwise, that could all change.

Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker emeritus, said this week on The Axe Files podcast: The Republicans wanted Donald Trump for speaker. And they got him.

__

Associated Press reporters Stephen Groves, Kevin Freking and Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have endorsed a bill that would ban non-citizens from voting in federal elections  a thing that is already illegal.

If you havent already guessed, the legislation is a brazen stunt intended to gin up public support for a former president campaigning on an anti-immigration platform and a house speaker on the brink of being ousted by extremists in his caucus.

No state allows non-citizens to vote in federal or state elections, but there are limited instances in which residents who have not yet been naturalized are allowed to vote in local elections. But for years now, Republicans have been pushing conspiracy theories like the Great Replacement, which holds that Democrats and a cabal of shady unseen political forces are importing immigrants in mass to vastly shift the electoral makeup of the country and seize permanent control of the government.

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Trump and his allies have heavily promoted baseless claims of electoral fraud as well as false assertions that elections are vulnerable to interference by non-citizen voters.

On Friday, Johnson traveled to Florida to meet with Trump for a joint press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Johnson declared that House Republicans will be introducing a bill that will require proof of citizenship to vote.

What were gonna do is introduce legislation to require every single person who registers to vote in a federal election must prove that they are an American citizen first. You have to prove it, he continued, touting the bill under the rationale of election integrity.

Johnson: We will introduce legislation to require every single person who registers to vote in a federal election must prove that they are an American citizen first. You have to prove it pic.twitter.com/IR2oMchSe3  Acyn (@Acyn) April 12, 2024

The shameless posturing over the unnecessary legislation becomes even more egregious when one remembers that in February, House Republicans set aside their self-proclaimed commitment to locking down the border and reforming the nations immigration laws in favor of giving the legislative middle finger to the Biden administration. Johnson and his caucus killed a massive bipartisan immigration reform package because the political benefits of continuing to complain about the border outweighed their interest in actually passing laws.

Following the Mar-a-Lago meeting, even Fox News called out Johnsons redundancy, pointing out that in 1996 congress passed the illegal immigration reform and immigration responsibility act. That act makes it explicitly illegal for noncitizens to vote.

1996 congress passed the illegal immigration reform and immigration responsibility act. That act makes it explicitly illegal for noncitizens to vote according to The Heritage Foundation theres been fewer than 50 cases of noncitizens voting since 2002 pic.twitter.com/tonJFS9Gj1  Acyn (@Acyn) April 12, 2024

Johnson is facing significant internal pressure from House Republicans, who are all but screaming that their priority for the next seven months is ensuring that former president Trump defeats Biden in the general election  even if it means shutting down the government to avoid giving the president any sort of PR win. In March, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) filed a motion to vacate Johnsons speaker position, accusing him in an open letter of having not lived up to a single one of his self-imposed tenets.

We could have also taken out funding for abortion and the trans agenda on kids if our own Speaker would have allowed us to offer amendments. We could have achieved other worthy victories if we had only put up a fight against Democrats. Instead, Mike Johnson worked with Chuck Schumer rather than with us, and gave Joe Biden and the Democrats everything they wanted  no different from how a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries would have done, Greene wrote.

When asked during Fridays press conference if he backed Greenes motion to depose Johnson, Trump answered: Were getting along very well with the Speaker. And I get along very well with Marjorie. He continued, I think hes doing a very good job. Hes doing about as good as youre going to do. And Im sure that Marjorie understands that. Shes a very good friend of mine, and I know she has a lot of respect for the Speaker.

I stand with the Speaker, weve had a very good relationship, Trump later added.

In uniting with Trump, Johnson is attempting to tie himself to the man Republicans refuse to defy  and hopefully save his job. Unfortunately for Johnson, the House GOP has no problem crushing their leadership for sport.

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(Bloomberg) -- A rocky start for Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. shares has wiped out $4.5 billion in market value in just a couple of weeks. But it will have to lose a lot more than that to put at risk the massive special bonus due to the former president and his corporate insiders.

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As part of the startups blank-check deal, Trump Media insiders  Donald Trump himself is by far the largest holder  will divvy up 40 million new shares if the stock trades can stall their latest slide, regulatory filings show. The so-called earnouts, which can be a standard part of deals involving special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are designed to reward the original investors, but they also punish ordinary shareholders by diluting the value of their stakes through the issuance of millions of extra shares.

In the case of Trump Media, the stock needs to trade above $17.50 for 20 days out of a 30-day period  Friday marked its 13th session  over the next three years. With the company closing Friday at $32.59, those conditions could be met as soon as April 23, despite the stocks 59% tumble from a high of $79.38 on March 26. In fact, the shares would need to plunge another 46% for the now $1.3 billion paper payday for the former president and his co-founders to be in doubt.

That said, Trump Media is not a normal business or stock, so there are few sure things when it comes to its behavior in the market.

A representative for Trump Media didnt respond to requests for comment.

Value Spirals

So much about the stock price movements of this company are driven by non-rational factors that its hard to make particularly firm predictions, said Michael Ohlrogge, a New York University law professor who studies SPACs.

Of course, the value of the additional windfall has spiraled with shares tumbling. The earnout has shed some $1.3 billion in value from a debut peak through Fridays close, with Trumps current stake losing billions on paper in a matter of weeks.

The insiders are somewhat protected even if the shares keep falling and drop below $17.50, because the payout slides, but doesnt disappear, as the stock hits certain levels. So, as long as Trump Media trades above $15, the group will get 30 million shares to split. And if the shares fall toward $12.50 the payout drops to 15 million shares.

But the reality is trying to figure out what these stakes are worth is an ever-changing exercise because of the stocks swings, and in practical terms moot since the former president and the other insiders must wait until September before even trying to sell some of their holdings because of the SPAC deals six-month lockup period. So while the millions of shares would deliver Trump some $1 billion in additional stock, turning that paper profit into real cash is going to take some time.

The companys board  made up of Trump Media insiders and members of the former presidents administration  could expedite that lockup to open the door for him to start capitalizing on his current stake of 78.75 million shares. But before that happened US regulators would have to finalize some filings, and even if they did, selling any stock in the company wouldnt be as simple as cashing a lottery ticket.

Liquidation Risk

Its extremely unlikely that hed be able to liquidate any substantial portion of his holdings without seriously tanking the stock price, NYUs Ohlrogge said. However, he added that if Trump sold shares at a fraction of their current market price hed still do exceptionally well in the deal overall.

The actual value of Trump Media has been hotly debated given it lost more than $55 million last year while bringing just $4.1 million in revenue. As of Fridays close, it was worth roughly $4.5 billion after shedding nearly half its value in less than a month.

The shares have become an expensive way for speculators to treat the stock market as a casino, raising memories of 2021s meme stock mania.

Still, the big focus for investors is how quickly Trump can take advantage of his paper wealth and what that will do to the stock.

Trump is embroiled in a lawsuit with two Trump Media co-founders who claim he tried to dilute their stakes. A Delaware judge granted their request to amend the suit to include allegations that Trump retaliated against them by locking up their shares for six months, which they claim will cause irreparable harm to their finances. Trump himself is subject to the same restrictions.

Meanwhile, Trump is due to start his first criminal trial on Monday in Manhattan, where hes accused of falsifying business records to hide a hush-money payment to a porn star before the 2016 election. Its one of four criminal prosecutions Trump is facing as he campaigns to return to the White House.

--With assistance from Erik Larson.

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If you thought a trial could force Trump off the campaign trail, you thought wrong

Donald Trumps campaign trail will largely be confined to the corridors of a Manhattan courthouse for the next six weeks. But his advisers and allies are preparing ways to attempt to drive coverage on his own terms throughout the proceedings.

During the course of the trial, Trump will make use of his private plane and social media reach, a Trump campaign official said, while taking full advantage of having Wednesdays and weekends off from court. But even on some court days, Trump will hold both in-person and virtual events, said the official, who was granted anonymity to speak freely.

And with the trial being held in Trumps native New York City, the campaign is aiming to paint a contrast between problems affecting its residents, particularly a surge of immigrants there illegally, and the Democratic-controlled governments decision to pour resources into prosecuting Trump, the campaign official said.

Trumps campaign has sent talking points to surrogates, calling on them to label the proceedings as the Biden trial. His team expects conservative allies and elected officials to defend Trump on the airwaves even more frequently while he is tied up in court, while his fundraising machine will be ramped up to rake in donations.

An aide to one Trump surrogate, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, said theyre expecting to increase the number of television appearances in the coming weeks.

The Trump campaign has sought repeatedly to delay the trial, with a senior adviser last year describing the myriad cases against him as a scheduling nightmare. And the drumbeat coverage of the prosecution of him in New York is unlikely to be flattering.

But if the past week is a preview, it wont stop Trump, a master of generating coverage, from continuing to do so between stints sitting in a courtroom chair.



On Monday, competing with a solar eclipse, Trump upended the news cycle for days with an announcement on social media that he was not calling for a national abortion ban. On Wednesday  the only weekday that Trump will not be in court in each of the coming weeks, while that day is reserved by the judge for other business  he raised money in Atlanta and appeared there before a bank of television cameras. And Saturday, he will hold a rally in Pennsylvania.

Trump could follow a similar schedule while standing trial next week on charges that he falsified business records to conceal a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. And while in court each day, hell have at the ready a gaggle of cameras outside the chambers.

Dave Carney, a veteran Republican strategist, said the trial will give Trump a platform to talk about anything he wants when he goes outside the courthouse and every camera in the country is there carrying it live.

And on the weekends, Carney added, he gets to rally the troops.

One person close to the campaign and granted anonymity to speak freely said to expect impromptu stops on the sidelines of Trumps trial and when cameras are eager to get a shot of him outside the courtroom  with the caveat that Trump has a massive security footprint in a city that can be logistically difficult to maneuver.

The trial is forcing some operational adjustments by his campaign, including keeping his Boeing 757 on standby. But even before the trial, Trump had cut back on rallies to save money, and the ones he did hold were often on the weekends to maximize attendance.



It'll take a few days away here and there, but this coming Saturday, hes going to be in Pennsylvania. He will be in plenty of places, and hell be everywhere he needs to be in the next six weeks, said David Urban, who served as an adviser to Trumps 2016 campaign.

Nobody's out campaigning every day anyhow, regardless, and it's still early on, right? he added. We're not in September. I think it would have been a lot more deleterious at that point than it is now.

During weekdays, Republicans view the courtroom as a convenient backdrop for a key part of his grievance-filled 2024 campaign message  that Trump is the victim of politically motivated prosecutors. Trump has welcomed cameras and reporters to cover his entrance and departure from courthouses, where he rails against any number of topics, from the case at hand to President Joe Biden.

Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats failing election interference strategy is to try and keep President Trump away from campaigning by confining him to a courtroom, Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to POLITICO, calling it a Biden Trial and a Democrat-orchestrated witch hunt involving the least credible witnesses on the planet.

President Trump will continue to fight for truth in the courtroom and to share his winning message on the campaign trail, Leavitt said.

Trump is notoriously undisciplined, and for all the campaigns planning, there is a risk of him going off message and creating problems for himself  whether legally or for the campaign. Trump is already subject to a gag order from the judge overseeing the trial.

Steve Bannon, a former Trump White House adviser and the War Room host, said theres a thin line for Trump about being a victim  people want to see a leader.

But he said, "His trial can galvanize the nation if President Trump plays it smartly  it could be positive in ways we can't imagine.

He said, "This is going to be massive. Its going to be the centerpiece of his campaign.



Bannons War Room show will be airing from New York starting Monday, with guests that include Trump ally Mike Davis from the Article III Project, a judicial advocacy group.

Trump is doing an excellent job of staying on message and staying on the message that this is lawfare and election interference, Davis said. Let Trump be Trump and Susie [Wiles] and Chris [LaCivita] can control the rest.

Jason Osborne, a senior strategist for Ben Carsons 2016 presidential campaign, said the court proceedings offer free media for him to be able to say whatever he wants, and to continue to maintain his innocence no matter which trial it is.

Its unclear who at this point, Osborne mused, will change their mind about Trump based on the outcome of the Bragg trial  the salacious details of which were played out in the news media years ago.

He has been able to masterfully change the conversation, and I dont know if folks necessarily believe him as much as they are just tired of it, and dont want to deal with it, Osborne said of Trumps legal saga.

Everyones probably going to be sitting there thinking, Yeah, hes probably guilty of it, but does it change my mind when I go into the voting booth? Am I voting on that issue or my pocketbook? And thats the struggle, I think, Bidens going to have.



The Biden team also believes Trumps upcoming trial will serve as a helpful contrast in the race, according to a campaign official granted anonymity to speak freely, with the president in the coming weeks remaining focused on talking about issues that impact voters, while Trump will likely be frequently talking about himself and his criminal case.

And while Trump will face time and location constraints in the courtroom, Biden is expected to continue making weekday stops in battleground states throughout the trial.

But at this stage in the campaign, Osborne said, Trump likely wouldnt have been holding many weeknight rallies anyway  something that is usually reserved for the late stages of the race.

His focus will be on firing up his base  and his fundraising  in other ways, and Trump likely wont have a hard time doing that with all the news coverage hell be receiving during the trial.

Its a unique thing that most candidates dont have, Carney said of Trumps earned media abilities. Theyve got to go out and do something to generate coverage. Even the president has a hard time generating coverage when he goes somewhere  he doesnt get coverage as well as Trump does.
MOSCOW, April 13 (Xinhua) -- New U.S. sanctions against Russia sent a signal to Ukraine not to engage in negotiations, said Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov.

In response to questions from journalists, Antonov said that the new sanctions were a clear indication to Kiev not to engage in any negotiations, even if it leads to casualties on the front lines.

On Friday, U.S. authorities banned the import of aluminum, copper, and nickel from Russia. The United States and Britain also restricted the use of Russian-origin aluminum, copper, and nickel on global metal exchanges and over-the-counter derivative transactions.

As a result, the London Metal Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange will no longer be able to replenish their stocks of aluminum, copper, and nickel from Russian supplies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed readiness for dialogue with Ukraine and deem an aborted 2022 peace deal as the basis for resuming the negotiations, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday. 
Trump repeats attack on ex-lawyer on eve of trial despite gag order

By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) -Donald Trump once again attacked his former lawyer Michael Cohen on Saturday, potentially testing the limits of a gag order that bars him from making public statements about witnesses concerning their testimony in his upcoming criminal trial in New York.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, the former president wrote, "Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for LYING? Only TRUMP people get prosecuted by this Judge and these thugs!"

Cohen is expected to be a key witness for the prosecution at the trial, which is scheduled to begin with jury selection on Monday and will be the first criminal trial ever of a former American president.

Prosecutors have accused Trump of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to buy her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump.

Cohen has said Trump ordered him to make the payment and then arranged for him to be reimbursed.

Trump has pleaded not guilty, and has denied having sex with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the trial, imposed a gag order on Trump in March at prosecutors' request, blocking him from speaking about witnesses concerning their participation in the case.

He extended the order on April 1 to cover his own family members and those of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, though Merchan and Bragg themselves are not included.

The district attorney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump, the Republican presidential candidate in November's election, has claimed he is the victim of political persecution.

At a campaign rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, Trump called Merchan "highly conflicted and corrupt" and accused Bragg of trying to prevent him from defeating President Joe Biden.

Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges that he violated campaign finance law through the payment to Daniels. He separately pleaded guilty later that year to lying to Congress in 2017 about a real estate project in Moscow, though he says he did so to protect Trump.

Trump went after both Cohen and Daniels - another likely prosecution witness - on Truth Social earlier this week, calling them "sleaze bags."

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Jonathan Oatis and Chizu Nomiyama)
Trump reportedly thought Ukraine 'must be part of Russia' as president

As president of the U.S., Donald Trump made it very clear that he believed Ukraine must be part of Russia, his former advisor Fiona Hill said, The Guardian reported on April 12, citing an excerpt from a book by The New York Times reporter David Sanger.

In early April, media reported, citing undisclosed sources, that Trump had privately said he could end Russia's war by pressuring Ukraine to cede Crimea and Donbas to Moscow, which was denied by his advisor.

Trump, a presumptive nominee for the 2024 U.S. presidential run, has repeatedly said he could end Russias war within 24 hours if elected president, without specifying the steps for reaching a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow.

Hill reportedly alleged that Trump thought "Ukraine, and certainly Crimea, must be part of Russia.

He really could not get his head around the idea that Ukraine was an independent state, she said, according to the book "New Cold Wars."

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The book's author wrote that such a view of Trump regarding Ukraine actually coincided with that of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly denied Ukraine's statehood and independence, the Guardian reported.

Hard-line Republican lawmakers close to Trump oppose further assistance for Kyiv, reportedly pressuring House Speaker Mike Johnson not to call a vote on the $60 billion aid package for Ukraine in the House of Representatives.

While meeting with Johnson in Florida on April 12, Trump said that aid to Ukraine could be provided in the form of a loan, The Hill reported.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the idea of ceding the country's territories in exchange for peace. Zelensky nevertheless said that Ukraine is likely to lose the war unless Congress approves additional support.

Russia illegally annexed Crimea and invaded Donbas in 2014. In September 2022, Putin illegally declared the annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian oblasts: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.

Read also: Why some far-right Republicans are hell bent on ending further aid to Ukraine

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Former President Donald Trump is set to hold a rally in President Joe Biden's home state of Pennsylvania on Saturday, days before the former President is to sit for the start of his hush money trial in New York City.

The ex-president and 2024 White House presidential candidate is scheduled to speak at the Schnecksville Fire Hall in Lehigh County with plans to also attend a fundraiser in nearby Bucks County. This will be Trump's third visit to the state this year ahead of the 2024 elections in November.

Trump previously flipped Pennsylvania in 2016 but later lost the state to Biden in 2020, who was born in the northeast city of Scranton and often speaks about his Pennsylvania roots.

TRUMP DEFENSE CHALLENGES JURY SELECTION IN CRIMINAL HUSH MONEY TRIAL

Biden is set to deliver remarks in Scranton on Tuesday on taxes, his campaign announced on Friday. His speech is scheduled a day after Tax Day on April 15, in the hopes that it will "drive home a simple question: Do you think the tax code should work for rich people or for the middle class? The President has made it clear what he thinks the answer is, and so has Donald Trump."

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and the Trump campaign for additional comment.

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On Friday, Trump said he would be testifying at his upcoming hush money trial in New York City during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago. The former President appeared alongside Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Fla., who was in Palm Beach to roll out a legislative package aimed at bolstering election integrity.

TRUMP MEETS EVERYDAY AMERICANS AT CHICK-FIL-A WHILE BIDEN FINE DINES WITH CLINTONS, BILLIONAIRES IN DC

The announcement came on the same day the judge overseeing the case rejected a last-ditch attempt from Trump's legal team to delay the trial.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) held a press conference at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on April 12, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. On Friday, Trump said he would be testifying at his upcoming hush money trial in New York City during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago.

"I'm testifying. I tell the truth. I mean, all I can do is tell the truth," Trump told reporters. "And the truth is, that there's no case."

Trump also called his trial a "scam" and a "witch hunt" when asked if he planned to testify.

Former President Donald Trump listens as his attorney, Todd Blanche, speaks during a press conference at 40 Wall Street after a pre-trial hearing on March 25, 2024, in New York City. The trial is connected to allegations that the former President falsified business records to cover up a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. It is the first trial of the election year, with Trump previously pleading not guilty to all counts.

The trial is connected to allegations that the former President falsified business records to cover up a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. It is the first trial of the election year, with Trump previously pleading not guilty to all counts.

Fox News' Elizabeth Elkind, Brooke Singman, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.





Original article source: Trump set to host rally in Biden's home state ahead of hush money trial
Former US President Donald Trump, after meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, has hinted that he does not oppose providing assistance to Ukraine but in the form of a loan.

Source: The Hill; European Pravda

Details: Stepping out for comments alongside Johnson at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump stated that they are "thinking about making it in the form of a loan instead of just a gift".

Quote: "We keep handing out gifts of billions and billions of dollars, and well take a look at it," Trump continued. "But much more importantly to me is the fact that Europe has to step up, and they have to give money. They have to equalise. If they dont equalise Im very upset about it, because theyre affected much more than we are."

Background:

On Friday, 12 April, House Speaker Mike Johnson and White House officials were discussing a package that would differ from the Senate's proposed US$95 billion security package and include several Republican demands. After that, he went to meet Trump.

For months, Trump has been sceptical about further US assistance to Ukraine, arguing that it is not essential to vital US interests. He suggested that the primary responsibility in this matter should lie with Europe. Trump's views have had a significant influence on Republicans in Congress, complicating the approval of additional funding to support Ukraine.

Democrats in both chambers of Congress indicated that they are willing to consider providing assistance to Ukraine in the form of a loan if it helps finally resolve the issue. However, it is not the preferred option for them.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently said that Ukraine would accept a loan from the US in the absence of other options.

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Donald Trump on Saturday continued to test the boundaries of a New York judges gag order ahead of Mondays kickoff to the criminal hush money trial in New York.

Taking to Truth Social to rant about the upcoming trial, the former president criticized various people involved in the case, including his former fixer Michael Cohen, who is expected to be a key witness for the prosecution.

Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for LYING? Trump wrote.

Under the gag order issued last month by Justice Juan Merchan, the Manhattan judge presiding over the hush money trial, Trump is prohibited from making any public statements about potential witnesses concerning their potential participation in the case.



Trump also denigrated Merchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The terms of the gag order do not bar him from attacking them.

There is NO WAY I can be given a Fair (Biden) Trial on Monday with Judge Juan Merchan, who is totally conflicted and corrupt, presiding, Trump wrote.

And he accused Bragg of bringing the case against him for purposes of saving the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!

Judges in three of Trumps cases  two criminal and one civil  have imposed gag orders in recent months meant to constrain his inflammatory remarks about witnesses, court staff, prosecutors and others. In all four of his criminal cases, hes also under conditions of release that prohibit him from intimidating potential witnesses against him.

Justice Arthur Engoron, the judge who oversaw Trumps recent civil trial for business fraud, fined Trump twice for violating a gag order in that case. Engoron imposed the gag after Trump launched social media attacks on the judges clerk.

In his federal criminal case in Washington for attempting to overturn the 2020 election, Trump used a brief respite from his gag order there  while he appealed it in October  to mount an attack on his former chief of staff Mark Meadows. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said the comment would certainly have violated his gag order had it been in effect. A federal appeals court later reinstated the gag, which is still in force.

And Trump has previously flirted with violating Merchans gag order. He posted news articles and a video clip of a cable news segment that criticized Merchans daughter after the judge explicitly expanded the order to include family members.

When asked for comment on Trumps latest posts, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung called Merchans gag order unconstitutional, saying it prevents Trump from engaging in core political speech, which is entitled to the highest level of protection under the First Amendment.

Worst of all, the gag order violates the civil rights of over 100 million Americans who follow President Trump and have a First Amendment right to receive and listen to his speech, Cheung said. American voters have a fundamental right to hear the uncensored voice of the leading candidate for the highest office in the land.



Trumps latest tirade comes ahead of his rally in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, on Saturday evening, the last before jury selection in his New York trial begins on Monday. The trial, in which he is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal with a porn star, will hamper the former presidents ability to be on the campaign trail, though hes expected to incorporate the proceedings against him into his campaign, speaking to the media after court and continuing to fundraise off his indictments.

It will be the first time a former U.S. president has gone to criminal trial.

In a trial that could last two months, Trump will have to be in court for at least four days a week, placing into focus the clash of his legal perils with his effort to win back the White House. Hell have Wednesdays and weekends free, which hell likely use for campaign events outside of the courthouse in Lower Manhattan.

A New York Times/Siena poll published Saturday found that a majority of likely voters believe that Trump has committed serious federal crimes. When asked specifically about the New York case, 46 percent of these voters said the former president should be found guilty  a verdict that could damage his standing with a swath of the electorate, particularly independent voters.
Looking back, its clear that one of the more fateful moments in the evolution of todays Republican Party came when Kevin McCarthy made his abject pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago three weeks after January 6, 2021. This was, in essence, Donald Trumps public absolution, with thenGOP leader McCarthy affirming that the Republican Party would make the construction of a monumental historical lie about the insurrection central to its identity for the foreseeable future.*

The infernal plan was to recast what was the largest outbreak of stateside political violence in memory as a just causewhile transforming the insurrectionists into victims and martyrs. By doing so, McCarthy would keep Trump and his movement safely in the Republican Party fold, ensuring the GOP electoral victories that could not be conceived of without their participation.



Suffice it to say, the plan went awry: McCarthy was deposed by angry MAGA lawmakers regardless, the lionization of January 6 helped produce a historic GOP midterm underperformance in 2022, and Trump will be the partys presidential nominee while facing January 6related criminal charges that could help doom the partys 2024 hopes.

All of which set the stage for Mike Johnsons groveling meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday. Billed as an event about election integrity, their press conference confirmed that the GOP remains as committed as ever to its disturbing post-insurrection path.

It was a deeply weird affair. With Trump hovering watchfully over Johnson, the House speaker said that in campaigning, hes discovered that people across the country just happen to be thoroughly obsessed with precisely the same thing that preoccupies Trump. Everywhere we go, one of the first questions that people ask about is this issue of election integrity, Johnson said.

with Trump looming behind him, Mike Johnson claims that people talk about election integrity everywhere he goes pic.twitter.com/d6q28nt4dD  Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 12, 2024

Its notable that Johnson felt this would make Trump happy: The commentariat is often quick to judge Democrats for an obsession with January 6in the run-up to the midterms it was suggested that voters didnt share their pro-democracy focus; exit polls later revealed that along with abortion, it was indeed an animating issue. But as Johnson demonstrated, Trumps GOP is the party thats absolutely consumed with hallucinations, nightmares, and fantasies about January 6, in a way thats verifiably politically damaging to them.

Johnson and Trump also announced that the House will pursue a new bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Johnson even rattled off a convoluted theory in which noncitizens are threatening our elections by the design of President Bidena soft version of the great replacement theory that has been mainstreamed at the highest levels of Republican and MAGA establishment power.

Theres no greater threat to our elections than Trump and his movement, and regardless, its already illegal for noncitizens to vote. But this gesture has nothing to do with legislation: With it, Johnson publicly affirmedwith the same Mar-a-Lago shrine that McCarthy paid homage to as backdropthat the party remains fully committed to the myth that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, here demonstrated by propping up the lie that our elections remain menaced by the same forces (fraudulent voters, many immigrants) that supposedly robbed Trump last time.

Its worth noting why Johnson thinks this will help him. Johnson is, at the moment, in rather desperate need of Trumps support, because he hopes to bring military aid to Ukraine to the floor, which Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene may punish with a snap vote to oust Johnson. Appearing with Trump could strengthen Johnsons position, of course, but its notable that he saw a potent way to make common cause with Trump in renewing his commitment to falsifying January 6.

And heres another measure of how deeply in thrall to that cause the GOP remains: By my count, at least a dozen Republican incumbents or prominent candidates in competitive races are tainted with election denialism, some of it extremely serious or even deranged.

These include representatives like Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who was extensively involved in Trumps coup; Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, who co-wrote a childrens book falsely depicting the 2020 election as stolen; and Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, who attended the Capitol rally on January 6.

Meanwhile, GOP Representatives Mike Garcia and Ken Calvert of California, and David Schweikert of Arizona, all voted not to certify Bidens electors. Representative Jen Kiggans of Virginia repeatedly fed doubts about the 2020 outcome. Democrats view all these as key targets.

Then there are election-denying GOP candidates in other top-tier races, such as Scott Baugh in California, who refused to acknowledge Bidens victory; Joe Kent in Washington State, who called for the rioters to be pardoned; and Mayra Flores in Texas, who spread crackpot January 6 conspiracy theories. Thats only a partial list.

Could this factor help tip the balance of the House? Its not all that far-fetched a possibility.

Dave Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst at Cook Political Report, points to the Perry, Van Orden, and Kent contests as examples of races that might not be as competitive if those Republicans werent severe election deniers.

Wasserman also suggests keeping an eye on the GOP primary underway in the district of Representative Lauren Boebert (who is running in another district). That pits wild-eyed election denier Ron Hanks against a saner opponent. If Hanks wins, Democrats have a very good chance of winning Boeberts seat, Wasserman says.

The upshot? As Wasserman notes, election denialism might end up mattering in only a limited number of races. But, he adds, the margin in the House is so close right now that even things like that could affect the outcome.

Its easy to see how January 6 will become an issue in these contests. Reporters will surely ask these election deniers how theyll conduct themselves on January 6, 2025, which will come after the new Congress is sworn in. Would they vote to certify Bidens electors if he has defeated Trump and the latter has lost all efforts to litigate the outcome in court?

That might not be so easy for these candidates to answer in the affirmative, given todays MAGA-fied GOP, which treats election losses as illegitimate by definition. If Democrats are doing their jobs, theyll ensure that these Republicans are pressed to field this question.

Its the ultimate tell that Trump himself also wants House GOP candidates subjected to this sort of January 6related litmus test. Just before holding his presser with Johnson, Trump launched an attack on a sitting congressman, Dan Newhouse of Washington State, endorsing his MAGA primary opponent and slamming Newhouse as a weak and pathetic RINO.

What, in Trumps estimation, makes Newhouse a Republican in Name Only? You guessed it: He voted to impeach Trump for the insurrection. House Republicans appear set to go into this falls elections fully tethered to Trumpbut also to his definition of the party, which requires that its commitment to historical mythmaking about January 6 remain unquestioned and absolute.

*This post originally misidentified McCarthys position.
Two arrested after leading police on high-speed chase in stolen vehicle

RUSSELLVILLE, Ala. (WHNT)  Two people were arrested after leading officers on a high-speed chase in a stolen vehicle on Saturday morning.

According to the Russellville Police Department (RPD), officers found a stolen vehicle and tried to pull the vehicle over. However, the car did not stop and led officers on a chase.

RPD says that officers lost sight of the vehicle for a short time, found it again, and started to chase the car once again. The suspects vehicle also rammed a Law Enforcement vehicle from another agency while reaching speeds of 125 miles per hour.

7 arrested after Northwest Alabama agencies find large quantity of ecstasy

According to RPD, the chase ended on AL-13 near Knight Road in Haleyville, AL.

Erica Lawler is charged with the following:

Receiving Stolen Property First Degree

Felony Attempting to Elude a Law Enforcement Officer

Possession of a Controlled Substance  meth.

Possession of Drug Paraphernalia

Reckless Endangerment

Fugitive From Justice (wanted in Tennessee)

Paul Chartrand is charged with the following:

Receiving Stolen Property First Degree

Felony Attempting to Elude a Law Enforcement Officer

Possession of a Controlled Substance  meth.

Possession of Drug Paraphernalia

Reckless Endangerment

RPD says that Lawler and Chartrand will also receive charges from other agencies.

The Franklin County Sheriffs Office, Phil Campbell Police Department, Marion County Sheriffs Office, Bear Creek Police Department, Haleyville Police Department, and Alabama State Troopers all assisted during the chase.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com.
UK intelligence analyses laws adopted by Russia regarding Russian soldiers and their families

UK Defence Intelligence has outlined the reasons and implications for Russia of two laws passed by Moscow in support of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine and their families.

Source: UK Defence Intelligence review dated 13 April on Twitter, as reported by European Pravda

Details: UK intelligence noted that the first law exempted Russian military personnel engaged in combat in Ukraine from paying interest on consumer loans and credit holidays. At the same time, the second law prohibits employers from firing the widows of Russian military personnel within one year of their husband's death.

The review stated that the Kremlin likely passed these laws in the hope of reassuring its soldiers, financially attracting more recruits to Russias Armed Forces in exchange for state benefits, and limiting criticism from the wives of the soldiers killed in the war.

"Whilst any payment holidays may cost the Russian federal government little in the short term, they are likely to have longer term implications for the Russian economic situation and outlook," the review stressed.

Background:

On 10 April, UK Defence Intelligence revealed that Russia is seeking to recruit about 400,000 contract soldiers in 2024, necessary to support its forces in Ukraine, which have suffered huge losses.

Previously, UK Defence Intelligence noted that the average daily losses of Russian troops on the battlefield in Ukraine decreased during March.

Meanwhile, NATO's assessment is that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will try to delay the announcement of the next wave of mobilisation.

Earlier, UK Defence Intelligence suggested that the upsurge in attacks on military enlistment offices and similar institutions in Russia may indicate a lack of confidence in Russian leader Vladimir Putin's promise not to conduct a new wave of mobilisation.

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by Xinhua writer Li Chao

BERLIN, April 13 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will soon pay an official visit to China, his second since taking office. The upcoming visit is expected to inject new momentum into the positive trajectory of bilateral relations.

During Scholz's inaugural visit to China as German chancellor in 2022, amidst a hullabaloo of "decoupling," significant strides were made in bolstering mutual understanding and trust between the two nations. That diplomatic endeavor not only fortified bilateral relations, but also fostered global peace and development during a period marked by uncertainty and flux.

Back then, over 100 German companies applied to join the visit, with a dozen shortlisted. This time, enthusiasm also runs high, with prominent German companies vying to be included in the visiting delegation.

The keen interest from the business sector underscores the cooperative nature of China-Germany ties.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the China-Germany comprehensive strategic partnership. Practical cooperation between the two countries has always been a "ballast stone" for bilateral relations and is bringing benefits to the people in both countries.

With strong economic interdependence, China and Germany, as the world's second-largest economy and the EU's largest economy respectively, should continue to ride the irreversible tide of closer and mutually beneficial cooperation in the era of globalization, jointly injecting momentum into global economic recovery.

According to the German Economic Institute, direct investment from Germany to China reached a record high of 11.9 billion euros (12.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, a 4.3 percent increase compared to the previous year.

One prime example of successful collaboration between China and Germany is the automotive industry. German carmakers see cooperation with aspiring Chinese electric vehicle (EV) companies more as an opportunity than as a threat.

During an interview with Xinhua last year, Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume said cooperation with China upholds Volkswagen's business all around the world and "makes the company even stronger."

German carmakers recognize that market competition can yield positive outcomes for all involved. They view the achievements of Chinese EV companies, driven by technological innovation and a well-established production and supply chain infrastructure, as beneficial to the global new energy automotive ecosystem.

The rise of the Chinese EV industry helps German carmakers to "become faster," Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the Germany-based CAR Center Automotive Research Duisburg, told Xinhua during an earlier interview.

It is encouraging to witness German carmakers eschew "overcapacity" rhetoric that distorts the new energy technology market. Instead, they prioritize innovation and progress, striving to provide consumers with high-quality and affordable products amidst the worldwide drive for energy transition.

In an increasingly interconnected world, China and Germany's partnership stands out as a model of cooperation. By leveraging their respective strengths and fostering a spirit of openness and cooperation, these two nations can play a pivotal role in shaping a more prosperous and sustainable future for the global community. 
Institute for the Study of War has estimated that the development of a defence industrial base could eventually allow Ukraine to maintain its defence against Russia and meet long-term national security needs with a significant reduction in foreign military assistance. But for now, this requires Western air defence.

Source: Institute for the Study of War (ISW)

Details: Ukrainian officials have expressed their intentions to expand Ukraine's defence industry both within the country and abroad since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Matthew Miller, spokesman for the US Department of State, said that providing Ukraine with Western air defence equipment would be a critical element of Ukraine's ability to defend its defence industry, which in turn would reduce Ukraine's dependence on Western aid and especially US aid to Ukraine in the long term.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently stressed that Ukraine cannot mitigate the problem of not having enough air defence systems and that only air defence systems provided by the West, namely Patriot systems, will allow Ukraine to defend Ukraine against an increased Russian attack campaign.

ISW continues to assess that the United States will not need to send large security assistance packages to Ukraine indefinitely if Ukraine can sufficiently expand its defence industrial capabilities. But providing air defence systems and missiles to Ukraine is crucial to Ukraine's ability to defend its energy infrastructure and its defence industry from Russian attacks.

To quote the ISWs Key Takeaways on 12 April:

Russian leader Vladimir Putin acknowledged that Russias ongoing strike campaign against Ukrainian energy facilities aims in part to devastate the Ukrainian defence industry, confirming ISWs ongoing assessment that Russian strikes against Ukrainian energy facilities aim to degrade Ukrainian defence industrial capacity.

ISW continues to assess that the development of Ukraines defence industrial base (DIB) over time can allow Ukraine to sustain its defence against Russia and longer-term national security needs with significantly reduced foreign military assistance.

Russian forces are domestically producing and fielding a new air-to-surface subsonic cruise missile against Ukraine designated the Kh-69 as part of continued efforts to improve strike packages and penetrate Ukraines degraded air defence.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that it prevented a group of Central Asians from perpetrating a terrorist attack against a Russian military facility in occupied Ukraine with Ukraines help, likely as part of efforts to set information conditions to portray any future Ukrainian attack on legitimate Russian military targets in occupied Ukraine as "terrorist" attacks.

Russian forces recently made confirmed advances near Avdiivka and Donetsk City.

Russia is reportedly sending about 2,400 Eastern Military District (EMD) military personnel currently in Russia to fight in Ukraine to make up for personnel losses at the front.

Russian occupation officials continue to expand educational programs that aim to indoctrinate Ukrainian children and erase their Ukrainian identity.

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Ukraine's Defence Ministry states Bohdanivka is not seized, but fighting continues

Ukraines Ministry of Defence has denied information that the Russians have captured the village of Bohdanivka in the Bakhmut district of Donetsk Oblast, as fighting continues there.

Source: Ministry of Defence

Quote: "Intense fighting continues for Bohdanivka on the Bakhmut front.

At night, enemy assault groups broke through to the northern outskirts of the village. Bohdanivka is now under the control of the Defence Forces. There is a battle going on; the enemy does not stop attacking."

Background: Earlier, Deepstate analysts said that Russian troops had occupied Bohdanivka.



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The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has exposed 11 Russian intelligence networks since the beginning of 2024.

Source: SSU Chief Vasyl Maliuk speaking at the Congress of Local and Regional Councils under Ukraine's President; SSU press service

Quote from Maliuk: "Nowadays, the SSU can work proactively. First of all, it is due to systematic and new counterintelligence approaches. We do not detain a single traitor, but, as a rule, we uncover the entire chain. The SSU uncovered 47 intelligence networks in 2023, and all the perpetrators have been detained; 11 more [intelligence networks] have been exposed since the beginning of this year."

Details: The special service counteracts Russian infiltration into critical infrastructure, including through cyberspace. It also blocks attempts to reconnoitre the routes of international aid, locations of defence industry facilities, etc.

In addition, Maliuk reported that since the beginning of 2024, the SSU has opened 352 criminal proceedings on high treason charges (98 people have been convicted), 807 on collaboration (177 convicted), 108 on aiding Russia (7 convicted), and 66 on passing intelligence about Ukraines Armed Forces to the Russians (19 convicted).

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Vasyl Maliuk, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, has said that the Russians were preparing an assassination attempt on Oleksandr Prokudin, Head of Kherson Oblast Military Administration, recently.

Source: Maliuk at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, reported by Dzerkalo Tyzhnia

Quote from Maliuk: "A local resident of Kherson, a scoundrel, was detained on 10 April.

Together with the enemy secret services, he tried to organise an attempt on Mr Prokudin's life.

A new model of an enemy FPV drone was launched from a depth of 12 kilometres.

This scoundrel carried out visual surveillance directly at the scene and adjusted the fire at Prokudin's car.

All this was documented. He was detained at the stage of the completed attempt. The enemy drone was shot down by our electronic warfare systems in time."

Details: Maliuk said that the Security Service has worked on 12 more similar episodes in Kherson Oblast  preparation of attacks on the military, defence industry, etc.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also took part in the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.

He called on local authorities to contribute to the development of all defence industries, pay maximum attention to the military and communicate more at all levels.

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Ukrainian forces capture three Russian soldiers tasked with covering Russian assault group with smoke screen  video

Soldiers of Ukraine's State Border Guard Service (SBGS) have released a video showing three Russian troops captured in Donetsk Oblast.

Source: the SBGS

Details: The video features Ukrainian border guards talking to tied-up Russians lying on the ground. The latter revealed the details of their task.

Quote: "Volyn detachment soldiers captured the [Russian] invaders during an enemy assault on our positions near Novomykhailivka, Donetsk Oblast.

They turned out to be servicemen of the 10th Tank Regiment: a rifleman and two privates of [Russias] radiation, chemical and biological defence troops, who were tasked with covering an assault armoured group with a smoke screen."

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (R) takes part in a press conference alongside President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. Scholz has reaffirmed Germany's solidarity with Ukraine in a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Michael Kappeler/dpa

Following the decision by the government in Berlin to supply another Patriot air defence system to Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has underlined the importance of Germany in supporting his country as it fends off Russia's invasion.

"Germany's leadership role is really tangible, and thanks to this leadership role we will be able to save thousands of lives and offer Ukraine more protection against Russian terror," Zelensky said in his evening video address on Saturday.

At the same time, he addressed further words of thanks directly to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz: "Olaf, Mr Chancellor, thank you once again for the air defence."

Zelensky hinted that further arms deliveries had also been discussed during the phone call with Scholz. "We are also working with Germany on an additional IRIS-T system, which is also a powerful air defence system, and on missiles for our existing air defence systems."

So far, Germany has delivered two Patriot systems to Ukraine. The system has proven itself in the fight against Russian aggression, according to the Defence Ministry in Berlin.

Zelensky has recently repeatedly called for Patriot air defence systems to protect the airspace against Russian missile and drone attacks. Zelensky said at the beginning of April that 25 systems, each with six to eight batteries, would be needed to seal off the airspace.
MINSK, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Belarus celebrated the International Day of Human Space Flight on Friday, days after the country's first cosmonaut completed a journey into space.

Marina Vasilevskaya, the first cosmonaut in the history of sovereign Belarus, flew to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the prime crew of Visiting Expedition 21 on March 23, 2024, according to BelTA news agency.

The flight lasted 14 days, of which 12 days were on the Russian segment of the ISS.

Vasilyevskaya was awarded the title of "Hero of Belarus" by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko on Thursday.

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin carried out the first human space flight. The UN General Assembly passed a resolution in 2011, declaring April 12 as the International Day of Human Space Flight "to celebrate each year at the international level the beginning of the space era for mankind." 
A draft UN resolution that declares July 11 "The International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide" will be submitted to the UN Assembly for scrutiny on April 17 and is to be voted by the 193 member states of UN General Assembly on May 2.

Partially modelled on a similar resolution for the Rwandan Tutsi's genocide, the document is being developed by a group of countries including Rwanda, Germany, France, and the USA.

The United Nations General Assembly Hall - John Angelillo/AP

Although the full details of the proposed document are not available yet, it has provoked fierce Serbian reactions, both from the Bosnian Serbs of the Republika Srpska and the authorities in Belgrade.

The president of the Serbian entity of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, said on a visit to Belgrade that "Bosnia and Herzegovina may not survive" the UN resolution.

A Bosnian muslim man prays next to the grave of his relative, victim of the Srebrenica genocide - Armin Durgut/Copyright 2023 The AP. All rights reserved

The nationalist-conservative Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, took issue with the procedure of approving the resolution, which is to be voted by the UN Assembly and not by the UN Security Council. According to President Vucic the Security Council is more politically appropriate when it comes to the Bosnian affairs:

"It is an obligation that the United Nations Security Council deal with the issue of Bosnia and Herzegovina because it is still an unstable region. I am saying this because they want to shift the vote from the Security Council to the United Nations General Assembly" said the Serbian president concluding that "the preservation of peace is not just a memory's culture issue".

Unlike resolutions that pass through the General Assembly, a Security Council resolution can be vetoed by just one member. Serbia often relies on Russia as a vetoing force.

A Serbian charm offensive in Paris

On April 8 and 9, the Serbian Head of State met his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee, where he signed several contracts with the French arms industry.

Nevertheless, president Vucic didn't receive the support from Paris he expected on his position.

President Macron said "On July 11, 1995 and in the days that followed, one of the worst tragedies in modern history took place in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. France has not forgotten more than 8,000 victims, adults and children, who were killed. With deep emotions, I greet the surviving victims of the genocide and their families and express my sincere condolences"

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, welcomes Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic - Michel Euler/Copyright 2022 The AP. All rights reserved.

France is among the countries promoting the Resolution on the Srebrenica massacre.

According to the US state-owned news network Voice of America, the draft resolution condemns "any attempt to deny the genocide in Srebrenica and encourages any effort to bring the perpetrators of this massacre to the international courts".

Milorad Dodik's current rhetoric rejects the idea that in July 1995 the Bosnian Serbian troops, under the command of General Ratko Mladic (condemned by the ICTY Hague court as a war criminal) committed genocide in Srebrenica.

In this file image of July 12, 1995 taken from television Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic speaks to a young Muslim boy - Anonymous/AP2011

The impression of the international community is that Dodik is using the draft UN resolution as a pretext to carry out his separatist agenda.

In 2005 Dodik declared: "I know perfectly well what happened in Srebrenica. It was genocide. That was established by the court in The Hague. It is an indisputable legal fact".

The Head of the Republika Srpska, Dodik, threatened to announce officially unspecified "special measures" on May 5 if the UNGA will approve the Srebrenica Resolution.

It is not the first time that the "strongman" of Banja Luka has declared he does not agree with the Republika Srpksa being a part of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Belgrade's diplomatic embarrassment

The Serbian foreign minister, Ivica Dacic, said in response that "neither Serbia nor the Republika Srpska are mentioned here (in the resolution) but it says a crime against the Bosnian Muslims, so someone carried it out".

President Dodik has been in conflict with the Bosnian institutions and the High Representative of the International Community for more than two years.

He has opposed the electoral reform proposed by the High Representative, German diplomat Christian Schmidt, saying that Serbia doesn't recognize neither his authority nor that of the Constitutional Court of Sarajevo.

European Union flag flutters next to the flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina in front of the Council of Ministers building in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Armin Durgut/Copyright 2023 The AP. All rights reserved

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic had no negative reaction to the words of Milorad Dodik, despite saying he officially supports the territorial integrity and the sovereignty of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Christian Schmidt, the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, gave a warning in an interview to Euronews Serbia last week:

"Nobody should put the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Bosnia Herzegovina in question. By the way, President Vucic never does. He represents the signatory state of Dayton. This should never be put into question, this is the basis of a peaceful development there".

Christian Schmidt, High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina - Armin Durgut/Copyright 2022 The AP. All rights reserved.

Apart from Belgrade, Dodik does not have many allies.

Recently he welcomed the nationalist-conservative Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, awarding him the highest order of the Republica Srpska.

He counts Moscow among his allies. Russian state media also buzzed about probable consequences of the resolution, calling it "a Western attempt to eliminate Serbs".

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, gestures while speaking to Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik - Sergei Bobylev/Sputnik

The EU and NATO have deep concerns that the Kremlin has been using the Serbian nationalism as an attempt to destabilise Europe.

Even after the invasion of Ukraine, Milorad Dodik has displayed friendly meetings and a robust political convergence with Russian President Putin, and the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lavrov.

Both Serbia and Bosnia are candidates to join the European Union. Serbia started negotiations with the block more than a decade ago. The relations between Serbia and the Union haven't been at their best for two years since President Vucic's administration did not support the sanctions imposed by Brussels on Russia.

The US' warning

The US embassy to Bosnia and Herzegovina reacted on Friday to the separatist approach of Milorad Dodik.

"Any attempt to secede from the entity or any other sub-state unit is an anti-Dayton action that will not be tolerated. The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not give the entity or any other sub-state unit the right to secede," the embassy tweeted.
Union duo jailed on million-dollar bonds for drug trafficking, guns; had children in home

UNION COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  Union County Sheriff deputies said on Friday that two accused drug traffickers are in the Union County Detention Center on million-dollar bonds.

Deputies say 25-year-old Hateem Jaaber and 27-year-old Aleigha Pendry of Monroe face several charges as part of another extensive UCSO narcotics investigation. During the investigation, narcotics detectives and deputies conducted a search warrant at Pendrys home in the 1800 block of Ruben Road and seized trafficking quantities of various narcotics along with a stolen firearm and other stolen goods.

Monroe man charged with sexual abuse of own child

Jaaber and Pendry were both arrested and processed into the Union County Detention Center last month.

Jaaber, jailed with a $2.5 million bond, is facing eight felonies and two misdemeanors, including:

Felony trafficking in Opium/Heroin (four counts)

Felony trafficking in Cocaine

Felony possession of firearm by felon

Felony possession of stolen firearm

Felony possession of stolen goods

Felony alter or remove serial number

Felony maintaining a vehicle/dwelling/place for controlled substances

Felony possession of Schedule I controlled substance

Misdemeanor possession of Marijuana up to  ounce

Misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia

Pendry, jailed with a $1 million bond, is facing seven felonies and three misdemeanors:

Misdemeanor child abuse

Felony possession of stolen firearm

Felony possession of stolen goods

Felony maintaining a vehicle/dwelling/place for controlled substances

Felony trafficking in Opium/Heroin (two counts)

Felony trafficking in cocaine

Felony possession of Schedule I Controlled Substance

Misdemeanor possession of Marijuana up to  ounce

Misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia

Officials found a pill press, which indicated that Jaaber and Pendry were in the early stages of manufacturing street pressed pills containing illicit fentanyl.

Detectives also learned the operations took place in the presence of minor children at the home.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
For the third consecutive year, UnityPoint Health has been recognized as one of the top places to work in healthcare in the country by a national industry publication, according to a news release.

This week, Beckers Healthcare included UnityPoint Health on their 2024 list of 150 Top Places

to Work in Healthcare. The list highlights hospitals, health systems and healthcare companies

that prioritize workplace excellence and the happiness, satisfaction, well-being, and fulfillment of

their employees, the release says.

(unitypoint.org)

UnityPoint Health, which provides care across Iowa, western Illinois and southern Wisconsin, is

the only health system headquartered in Iowa to be named to this years list and is one of only a

handful of health systems in Illinois and Wisconsin to be included.

Its truly an honor to be recognized as a top place to work in healthcare for the third

consecutive year, said UnityPoint Health Chief Administrative Officer Jessica Meisner. We

continue to have a strong commitment to our culture and team members and this recognition is

affirmation of that ongoing effort across our organization.

In naming UnityPoint Health to this years list, Beckers Healthcare said, (UnityPoint Health)

utilizes engagement channels for team members to share information, network and explore

opportunities to improve overall team member experience. The feedback is then used to identify

improvement opportunities for all team members. Advancing talent and culture is at the center

of UnityPoints strategy, and it works to offer best-in-class career experiences by recruiting and

hiring diverse talent and supporting team member growth.

UnityPoint Health also has been named a top employer by Forbes (three times) and the West

Des Moines Chamber of Commerce since 2021.



For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com.
The US Army lacks the equipment and experience to successfully attack across a river.

These capabilities have atrophied and need an overhaul, an Army major argued.

River crossings are dangerous and only getting more difficult.

Assaulting across a river is among the most dangerous military operations. Yet if the US Army went to war tomorrow, it would lack the equipment, doctrine and experience to launch an attack across a defended river, according to one Army engineer.

"The Army has not conducted such an operation since World War II," wrote Maj. Aditya Iyer, an Army engineer, in an essay for the Association of the United States Army. For example, Army divisions don't have adequate bridging capabilities of their own to conduct what the Army calls "wet gap" attacks, and would need support from corps-level units that might not be available.

"The current wet-gap crossing doctrine, organization, materiel and leadership are ineffective for division-level wet-gap crossing operations independent from the corps," Iyer warned. River crossings are especially dangerous because the massed vehicles can be targeted as they funnel across or even become stranded on the far bank against a larger enemy.

As an example of neglecting river assaults, Iyer points to the fiasco of Russia's May 2022 attempt to cross the Siverskyi Donets River, which the 74th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade tried to storm using mobile pontoon bridges. The result was an estimated 500 casualties and dozens of tanks lost.

Iyer lists multiple mistakes by Russian commanders, including attacking at only one point on the river, lack of prior reconnaissance, and attacking in daytime instead of night. "In contrast, the Ukrainian forces had accurate intelligence that showed the Russian troops massing along the river," Iyer said. "The Ukrainian engineer reconnaissance teams had also identified potential river crossings and had pre-coordinated artillery targets on the crossing sites, and they were right; Russian forces did indeed use those sites."

To be fair, the US Army also has a checkered history with river assaults. At the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862, the Union Army made a foolish and bloody attempt to cross the Rappahannock River against entrenched Confederate defenders. In January 1944, the US 36th Infantry Division launched an ill-prepared and disastrous night assault across the Rapido River in Italy that cost almost 2,000 casualties (the furious survivors spurred a congressional investigation after the war).

Indeed, the Army was unprepared for river crossings at the start of World War II. Divisions lacked sufficient bridging equipment  including bridges robust enough to bear the weight of tanks  which made them dependent on corps-level assets. Nor was there a centralized authority to coordinate complex crossing operations. However, by the time of Operation Plunder  the massive assault across the Rhine River in 1945, involving a million men and nearly 6,000 artillery pieces  many of these problems had been rectified. The Rhine crossing even used US Navy landing craft normally used for amphibious assaults on the ocean.

If anything, river crossings are even harder nowadays. The ruses that commanders like Napoleon used  such as surprise descents on a weakly held point, or feints to mask the real crossing point  are much harder when drones are constantly overhead as in Ukraine. If the enemy can spot the crossing, they can blanket the bridgehead with long-range missile and artillery strikes.

This wasn't such a problem in counterinsurgency operations in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq. Major combat operations against Russia and China would be different, especially in regions like Eastern Europe, where there are plenty of rivers and canals. "The Russo-Ukrainian War has highlighted that military technologies have evolved in recent decades and that the U.S. military must be prepared to conduct wet-gap crossing operations against a well-organized and technologically advanced force," said Iyer.

A 3rd Infantry Division Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle drives off of a 497th Multi-Role Bridge Company, 92nd Engineer Battalion barge on Sept. 21, 2023. Kevin Larson/US Army

The Army's current wet gap deficiencies resemble those of World War II. Divisions, and the engineer battalions in brigade combat teams, don't have sufficient bridging capabilities of their own. The division is supposed to use at least four Multi-Role Bridge Companies to cross a 400-meter (1,312-foot) river. But those special bridging companies are controlled by corps headquarters.

"Divisions rely on the corps augmentation for wet-gap crossing operations, including other enablers, such as military police and smoke," Iyer noted. Nor does the Army have enough Multi-Role Bridge Companies to support all its divisions.

What's more, many of the Army's bridges, such as the Improved Ribbon Bridge, aren't strong enough to bear the weight of heavy vehicles such as the 70-ton M1 Abrams tank. "The current bridging equipment has the same capability shortfalls that we had in World War II," said Iyer.

The Army also needs a centralized doctrine for river crossing operations that goes beyond merely building the bridge itself, and not how to seize and secure a bridgehead. "Publications remain technically focused on engineer considerations and calculations to execute a crossing," Iyer said.

Simply having the engineering capability to quickly build a bridge across a mile-long river is no minor feat. The question is whether it can be done if the enemy objects.

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Read the original article on Business Insider
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican U.S. lawmakers on Friday criticized the Biden administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel AI chip.

The United States placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for violating Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing's technological advances. Placement on the list means the company's suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it.

One such license, issued by the Trump administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners had urged the Biden administration to revoke that license, but many grudgingly accepted that it would expire later this year and not be renewed.

Huawei's unveiling Thursday of its first AI-enabled laptop, the MateBook X Pro powered by Intel's new Core Ultra 9 processor, shocked and angered them, because it suggested to them that the Commerce Department had approved shipments of the new chip to Huawei.

One of the greatest mysteries in Washington, DC is why the Department of Commerce continues to allow U.S. technology to be shipped to Huawei" Republican Congressman Michael Gallagher, who chairs the House of Representatives select committee on China, said in a statement to Reuters.

A source familiar with the matter said the chips were shipped under a preexisting license. They are not covered by recent broad-cased restrictions on AI chip shipments to China, the source and another person said.

The Commerce Department and Intel declined to comment. Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The reaction is a sign of growing pressure on the Biden administration to do more to thwart Huawei's rise, nearly five years after it was added to a trade restriction list.

In August, it shocked the world with a new phone powered by a sophisticated chip manufactured by sanctioned Chinese chipmaker SMIC, becoming a symbol of China's technological resurgence despite Washington's ongoing efforts to cripple its capacity to produce advanced semiconductors.

At a Senate subcommittee hearing this week, Kevin Kurland, an export enforcement official, said Washington's restrictions on Huawei have had a "significant impact" on it access to U.S. technology. He also stressed that the goal was not necessarily to stop Huawei from growing but to keep it from misusing U.S. technology for "malign activities."

But the remarks did little to stem frustration among Republican China hawks following the news about Huawei's new laptop.

"These approvals must stop," Republican congressman Michael McCaul said in a statement to Reuters. "Two years ago, I was told licenses to Huawei would stop. Today, it doesnt seem as though the policy has changed."

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Leslie Adler and Stephen Coates)
EXCLUSIVE: U.S. nuclear-powered submarines are the crown jewel of American military might and key to deterring adversaries like China. The Biden administration signed a historic three-way partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom, known as AUKUS in 2021.



The agreement promotes deeper information and technology sharing between the three countries and the U.S. agreed to share nuclear submarine technology with Australia for the first time ever. Also a first; the U.S. will sell several nuclear-powered attack submarines to Australia.

But there is one problem. The U.S. does not have enough submarines for itself. Old subs are being retired faster than they can be replaced and the U.S. ship building industry is years behind schedule.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who serves as ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, supports AUKUS, but is concerned how the U.S. is going to live up to its commitments to Australia.



ISRAEL VOWS TO STRIKE BACK AFTER WARNINGS OF IRANIAN ATTACK, SAYS ENEMIES 'WILL BE MET WITH A STRONG DEFENSE'

"The intelligence couldn't be clearer... China is preparing for a war and specifically for a war with the United States," Wicker said on the Senate floor. "The AUKUS deal will help prevent that war from happening."

Wicker has been ringing the alarm for years on how the U.S. needs to build up its industrial base. Wicker inserted $3.4 billion into the national security supplemental to jumpstart the ship building base.

The Navy requires 66 attack submarines but right now only has 49. In total, the Pentagon is 17 nuclear attack submarines short of Navy requirements and needs to build 2.33 Virginia-class submarines per year to meet its AUKUS commitments on time.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffins sat down for an exclusive interview with Navy Under Secretary Erik Raven on the AUKUS agreement and submarine industrial base at the Pentagon on Friday April 12, 2024.

"The basic fact is this: Our defense industrial base is not where it needs to be," Wicker said.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News, U.S. Navy Under Secretary Erik Raven explained how the Navy is addressing the shortage. Asked why the submarine industry is so behind and backed up, Raven said demand for submarines has gone up five times in the last 15 years.

"While industry has been increasing its production, it's been challenging. And what we're seeing is they're not quite catching up to the demand signal, but we're doing something about it," Raven said.



NEW EVIDENCE SUGGESTS RUSSIA IS BEHIND THE SERIOUS HAVANA SYNDROME

Raven explained the U.S. Navy is partnering with private industry, state and local governments, community colleges and non-profits to recruit 100,000 Americans to work in the submarine industry.

"We're going through a generational change in the workforce at our shipyards and our suppliers. So we need to build new talent, bring in more Americans to work in the sector and also in supply chain. Covid was a significant interruption in our ability to do business," Raven said.

It is a modern day "Uncle Sam Wants You!" campaign.

Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffins sat down for an exclusive interview with Navy Under Secretary Erik Raven on the AUKUS agreement and submarine industrial base at the Pentagon on Friday April 12, 2024.

Non-profit BlueForge Alliance has been tasked with helping the Navy hire 100,000 Americans.

Kiley Wren, the co-founder and chief executive put this as an appeal to patriotism.

"There are literally tens of thousands of opportunities over the coming decade and more for long term, family-sustaining generational jobs that have a really important purpose," Wren told Fox News.

"We have, high-paying, good wage, family-sustaining jobs. But the number one thing that comes up is purpose and the ability to serve your country in a job that you go to every day is an enormous sense of pride," Wren said.

The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine USS Michigan is anchored at a port in Busan, South Korea, on June 16, 2023.

Earlier this month, Admiral John Aquilino, U.S. Pacific Commander, assessed China would be capable of invading Taiwan in 2027. One way the U.S. stays ahead of China as the dominant Navy power is its submarines.

"Submarines have a unique role in securing the peace all around the world. Their ability to move unchallenged, through, through the seas, all around the world is an incredible asymmetric advantage. And the United States builds and operates the world's most advanced submarines," Raven said.

Asked about reports China is building a "Great Underwater Wall," to monitor submarine activity in the waters around China, Raven said he is not concerned.

"We have an incredibly capable submarine force that's capable of tackling any challenge that her adversaries may pose our submarines are incredibly capable," Raven said.

"These are good, dependable jobs with a long future. No matter whether you are an engineer, a welder, an electrician or an accountant, there's some role for any American who has an interest in helping us build submarines," Raven said.





Original article source: US Navy Under Secretary Erik Raven on the AUKUS agreement
ALKMAAR, the Netherlands, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Gomes, a Dutch auto dealer boasting a nine-decade legacy, believes in the future of electrified mobility solutions. This conviction is exemplified by its recent venture into the electric vehicle market through a strategic partnership with the Chinese NEV brand, Voyah.

Established in 1934 as a family business, Gomes has been an official dealer of Mercedes-Benz for passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and trucks, Gomes, for decades.

Gomes Voyah Benelux CEO Kjeld Riegen, in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua, shared insights into the future of NEVs and intelligent mobility.

THAT IS THE FUTURE

"In the foreseeable future, we will have more autonomous mobility that enables us to maintain our current freedom of travel with minimal pollution," he said.

"Transportation is evolving rapidly, with vehicles becoming smarter and safer," he said. "When all vehicles communicate with each other, the likelihood of human error decreases significantly."

"This will greatly enhance safety for all of us," he noted. "Of course, I hope that all of this is achievable without sacrificing the enjoyment of driving."

The CEO recalled his trip to the city of Shanghai last year, "seeing such a busy city with that many inhabitants, but hearing the birds singing due to its almost completely electrified mobility solutions. That is the future."

STRATEGIC DECISION

The journey of cooperation between Gomes and Voyah began with a strategic decision by Gomes in 2020 to explore emerging brands entering the European market.

A visit to the Shanghai Auto Show in 2023 provided invaluable insights into the future of mobility. "Our trip to Shanghai was eye-opening," he recalled. "We witnessed firsthand the pace of technological advancements and the electrified mobility solutions shaping the industry."

Last October, Gomes send multiple technicians to Voyah's headquarters in Wuhan, to get the technical training of the Voyah Free and Voyah Dream. "Without any exception, they all were very, very impressed with the building quality of the vehicle and the mature organization of Voyah."

START OF THE JOURNEY

The CEO delved into Gomes Voyah Benelux's journey in the Netherlands and its vision for Voyah's expansion in Europe.

"We started Voyah Benelux in the summer of 2023, laying the groundwork for our operations and partnerships," he said. "We aim to open four to six showrooms in the Netherlands and three in Belgium this year."

Reflecting on Voyah's debut at the Formula 1 circuit of Zandvoort in September 2023, the CEO expressed satisfaction with the overwhelming response.

"The feedback on the Voyah Free was extremely positive," he noted. "Customers were impressed by the premium interior, distinctive design, and exceptional driving experience."

"A BEAUTIFUL CAR"

Speaking on the quality and appeal of Voyah vehicles, the CEO emphasized the brand's commitment to excellence.

"I have worked almost my entire professional life in the automotive industry and have driven nearly all car brands and many models within it," he said. "What impresses me about Voyah is the driving quality, the overall quality experience of the car, the intelligent driving assistance systems, and the build quality that exceeds the industry standard in many aspects."

All of this without compromising on the safety of the car, ranging from a strong chassis construction to the advanced attention and driving systems that the vehicles possess, he said.

For example, the comfort level of Voyah is exceptionally high, he explained. The air suspension system enables the car to anticipate and respond to upcoming road imperfections, providing an unparalleled sense of tranquility and smoothness in the vehicle.

"Voyah offers a beautiful car with cutting-edge technology and superior build quality," he said. "Customer feedback highlights the premium feel and exceptional driving experience of Voyah vehicles."

CHINESE NEV BRANDS

Looking ahead, the CEO expressed confidence in the potential of Voyah and Chinese NEV brands in general to capture a significant market share.

"I believe with the approach of the Chinese brands and pace of technological improvements on their products, they will gather an advantage on the current market," he said.

"Because of this, I believe the Chinese brands have the potential to gather a substantial market share," he explained. "With the right design philosophy, build quality and ongoing development pace, it is possible for brands to get their models in the top 5 in their segments." 
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks at the final press conference. Austin assured his counterpart Yoav Gallant of "unwavering US support" in a call due to "acute regional threats," according to US Defense Department spokesman Pat Ryder. Uwe Anspach/dpa

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin assured his counterpart Yoav Gallant of "unwavering US support" in a call due to "acute regional threats," according to US Defense Department spokesman Pat Ryder.

Austin said Israel can "count on full US support" against any attacks by Iran and its proxies.

Military tensions in the Middle East have increased significantly since the suspected Israeli airstrike on Iran's embassy compound in the Syrian capital Damascus in early April, killing two brigadier generals. The state leadership in Tehran has threatened to retaliate.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  The University of Texas at El Paso and El Paso Community College financial aid experts will be hosting a workshop on Saturday, April 20 to help students navigate the challenges with the rollout of the new FAFSA form.

The workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Region 19 Education Service Center, 6611 Boeing Dr.

It is open to all students across the Borderland including high-school students looking to fill out the form for the first time.

Expect presentations and one-on-one support. We have computer labs if you dont have a computer. Although if you do have one, we also encourage students to bring out their devices so that we can help them submit the FAFSA, said UTEP Vice President of Enrollment Management Dr. Amanda Vasquez-Vicario.

Vasquez-Vicario explained that when the federal government overhauled the FAFSA application in 2023 for the first time in decades, the changes created many complications for students trying to fill out the form.

The forms questions and technical structure were completely altered, Vasquez-Vicario said. But most the most notable change was that the FAFSA form now draws students information from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) database.

As a result of these changes, Vasquez-Vicario said the rollout of the new FAFSA had a very rough launch and was delayed three months. The FAFSA application was normally released on Oct. 1 of every year, but in 2023 it was not released until Dec. 31 through a soft launch.

It wasnt quite ready to go. There were still a lot of hiccups. The website itself didnt have the capacity for all of the students who were hitting the site. So students were sent into virtual waiting rooms. Some students were not able to submit, Vasquez-Vicario said.

Through a town hall meeting earlier this year in February, Vasquez-Vicario said they discovered that the most affected were students from mixed-status families.

The student is a U.S. citizen and has a Social Security number, but the parents maybe dont have Social Security numbers. Those families werent able to submit the FAFSA until very late March, early April. And some students have just had a lot of other issues with corrections. They have to go in and correct the FAFSA. So its been a really rough rollout, Vasquez-Vicario said.

But for students who have faced these obstacles, Vasquez-Vicario said they are now equipped to help them with their situation.

We finally have a solution for that. So if a student had been waiting, if a family had been hesitant, nows the right time to submit the FAFSA. Come out and we can help you, Vasquez-Vicario said.

Vasquez-Vicario said other students have also worried about the FAFSA timeline because of its delays, or have just had trouble completing the form. She encouraged students to come out next week to get the help they need.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
FILE - Pope Francis, left, listens to Cardinal Marc Ouellet's opening address as he attends the opening of a 3-day Symposium on Vocations in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. The Holy See has formally protested to France after a French court ruled that a former high-ranking Vatican official was liable for what the court determined to be the wrongful dismissal of a nun from a religious order. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

ROME (AP)  The Holy See said Saturday it formally protested to France after a court there ruled that a former high-ranking Vatican official was liable for what the court determined to be the wrongful dismissal of a nun from a religious order.

The Lorient tribunal on April 3 ruled in favor of the nun, Sabine de la Valette, known at the time as Mother Marie Ferreol. The court issued a scathing denunciation of the secretive process the Vatican used to kick her out of the order, the Dominicans of the Holy Spirit, after an internal investigation.

The case is highly unusual, because it represented a secular civilian court essentially determining that the Vaticans in-house canonical procedures grossly violated the nuns fundamental rights.

In a statement Saturday, the Vatican said it had formally protested to the French embassy that it had received no notification of any such verdict, but that the ruling nevertheless represented a grave violation of the right to religious freedom.

The Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis had tasked Cardinal Marc Ouellet, at the time the head of the Vaticans bishops office, with conducting an investigation that ended with the Holy See taking a series of canonical measures against Valette, including her 2020 expulsion after 34 years as a nun in the order.

The statement also cited potential diplomatic issues about the civil verdict against Ouellet, given his immunity as a cardinal and official of a foreign government. The Holy See is recognized internationally as a sovereign state.

The former nun's attorney, Adeline le Gouvello de la Porte, said the court found that the Vatican's canonical investigation had violated several of the woman's fundamental rights, including the right to a defense. It said she was never told what she was accused of, or why she was being kicked out of the order.

Gouvello de la Porte said the court also expressed surprise that Ouellet hadn't recused himself from the case. The court found Ouellet was friendly with another sister in the community whose positions were notoriously opposed to those of Mme Baudin de la Valette, the attorney said, citing the court verdict.

The Lorient court found the nun's expulsion was without merit, and ordered Ouellet, the religious order and the two Vatican-mandated envoys who conducted the investigation to pay over 200,000 euros ($213,000) in material and moral damages, as well as fines.

The defendants are appealing, according to French Catholic daily La Croix said.

The Vatican frequently conducts such internal investigations into religious orders or dioceses, which can be sparked by complaints of financial mismanagement, sexual or other types of abuses, or governance problems. It considers the measures it takes to be exclusively internal to the life of the Catholic Church.

As a result, the Lorient court decision represented an unusual intrusion of secular justice in internal church matters. The sentence laid bare how canonical procedures often run afoul of contemporary secular concepts about the right to defense and a fair, adversarial judicial procedure.

And yet the French justice system seems increasingly willing to take on even high-ranking church officials in secular courts, much more so than in neighboring Italy, and especially concerning allegations related to clergy sexual misconduct and cover-up.

In 2020, for example, a French appeals court threw out a lower court ruling that had convicted Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of covering up the sexual abuse of minors in his flock.

That same year, a Paris court convicted a retired Vatican ambassador to France of sexually assaulting five men in 2018 and 2019, and handed him a suspended 8-month prison sentence. The Vatican had lifted the immunity of the ambassador, Monsignor Luigi Ventura, allowing the trial to go ahead.

___

Associated Press writer Nicolas Vaux-Montagny contributed from Lyon, France.
(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela confirmed it met with US officials earlier this week and alleged that the Biden administration had breached a Qatar-brokered deal between the parties.

Most Read from Bloomberg

During the April 9 meeting in Mexico City, the parties reviewed their discussions of sanctions and migration last year in Doha, Venezuela said in a statement Friday. We pointed out the failure of the North American administration to comply with the agreed schedule for lifting sanctions, it said, without giving further details.

US officials met secretly with members of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduros administration to keep him engaged in negotiations over democratic reforms, Bloomberg reported earlier. The talks took place days before the scheduled April 18 expiration of a US license allowing the nations oil and gas industry to operate without the threat of sanctions.

During the encounter, Venezuela demanded the lifting of all sanctions, according to the statement. US representatives included Daniel Erikson of the US National Security Council and Francisco Palmieri, chief of mission of the Venezuelan Affairs Unit, Bloomberg reported.

Read more: US, Venezuela Secretly Meet in Mexico Before Sanctions Deadline

Maduro has been testing the limits of a US-backed electoral agreement with the opposition last year. Maria Corina Machado, who won an October opposition primary, and her little-known substitute, Corina Yoris, have been barred from running in this years presidential race.

The repeated offenses have put Washington in an increasingly uncomfortable situation: whether to reimpose oil and gas sanctions during an election year in which migration has emerged as a key issue for US voters.

If the suspension is lifted, Venezuela could lose a total of $2 billion in oil revenues by the end of 2024, according to Luis Barcenas, the head of Caracas-based economic firm Ecoanalitica. From October until March, the license has enabled Maduros government to earn an additional $740 million in oil sales, according to Eduardo Fortuny, head of Dinamica Venezuela, a Caracas-based consultancy firm.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2024 Bloomberg L.P.
Footage shared by multiple outlets in Australia shows a man waving a bollard at a man holding a knife

DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Paramedics respond to the Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney on April 13

Footage from the fatal stabbing attack at an Australia mall shows a bystander stepping in to confront the apparent attacker.

Seven people died and others  including a 9-month-old baby  were left in critical condition after a man attacked shoppers with a knife at the Westfield Shopping Center in Bondi Junction in Sydney on April 13. A video from the incident, shared by multiple Australian news outlets, shows a shopper confronting the alleged attacker.

The footage, reported by Australia's 9News and The Sydney Morning Herald, appears to show a man armed with a knife walking up an escalator at the shopping center. At the same time, another man in a white T-shirt and jeans can be seen walking toward the apparent attacker while carrying a shopping bollard, or post.

DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Police vehicle responds to the scene at the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall in Sydney on April 13

Related: Kate Middleton and Prince William React to Australia Stabbing Attack: 'We Are Shocked and Saddened'

The shopper can then be seen carrying the bollard above his head like a weapon while confronting the alleged attacker, before the video ends.

The alleged attacker in the clip seemingly matches a description that a witness previously gave to ABC News Australia of "a man in a green and yellow T-shirt."

The New South Wales Police Force confirmed in a press release on April 13 that the attacker fatally stabbed six people and injured several others. Emergency services responded to the scene at 3.30 p.m. local time, and the attacker was shot dead at the scene, per police.

"An officer attached to Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command attended and was allegedly confronted by a man with a knife," the statement read. "The man allegedly lunged at the officer, before he was fatally shot."

New South Wales Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters, per The Sydney Morning Herald, that "a single unit officer" found the attacker at the scene, before the attacker "raised a knife" at her. The officer "discharged the firearm and that person is now deceased," Cooke said.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said in a news conference, per 7News Australia, that authorities are "waiting to formally identify" the attacker and that they "became aware of who we believe the offender is," describing a "40-year-old man." Webb added that the man was acting alone.

She said police are confident that there is "no ongoing risk" and that the shopping center will remain closed on April 14.

A critical incident team comprised of State Crime Commands Homicide Squad and the Central Metropolitan Region will now investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident. The investigation will also be subject to an independent review," police said in their release.

After the fatal attack, Kate Middleton and Prince William expressed their condolences on Instagram Stories, writing that they are "shocked and saddened by the terrible events in Sydney earlier today."

"Our thoughts are with all those affected, including the loved ones of those lost and the heroic emergency responders who risked their own lives to save others," the royal couple added.

Related: 7 Dead and 9-Month-Old Baby Stabbed as Man Carries Out Knife Attack at a Mall in Australia

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that he was "briefed by the AFP on the devastating events at Bondi Junction."

"Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones," he added.

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Read the original article on People.
The Quaker Meadows Chapter of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution held a service in honor of veterans who served during the Vietnam War.

According to the Herald, the ceremony was held on March 29 at the KIA Monument at Burke County Courthouse Square.

ALSO READ: Nonprofit to establish Meck Countys first permanent veteran housing

Vietnam veterans, along with local leaders and other members of the community, attended the service.

Several speakers honored the veterans in attendance for their service and sacrifice for America, according to the Herald.

VIDEO: Housing project for homeless veterans underway in southeast Charlotte




(Bloomberg) -- Two steel-state Democrats in tough reelection fights are urging President Joe Biden to do more to stop the proposed acquisition of United States Steel Corp. by Japan-based Nippon Steel Corp.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Were pushing the White House on national security grounds and on trade enforcement, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio told Bloomberg Television. And fundamentally what this means for American workers and American jobs.

Biden has publicly opposed the takeover and said the company should be American-owned.

The Biden administration is putting the deal through a secretive national security review process, one that is typically reserved for businesses involving adversarial nations rather than allies like Japan. The decision by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States could be contested in court.

The US Justice Department also opened an extended antitrust investigation into the takeover, creating additional hurdles to closing the deal. As a result, the companies are now considering delaying the expected deal timeline.

Read more: Japans US Steel Takeover Creates Election-Year Firestorm

Browns Senate race is considered one of the most competitive contests this November, and appealing to industrial workers is key to his reelection hopes. US Steel went against the request of the steelworkers union, which would have preferred the Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. mining company to make the acquisition.

Democratic Senator Bob Casey, facing a competitive reelection in next-door Pennsylvania, where US Steel is headquartered in Pittsburgh, also is championing the cause.

My principal concern are those steelworker jobs and this deal gives me great concern about the threat to those jobs, Casey told Bloomberg Television. Casey says hes inquiring with the White House about how conflict over the acquisition was handled in Bidens discussions with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his state visit this week.

Im going to be asking the administration a lot of questions about what was raised in those bilateral meetings, he said. I want to know at what level and to what extent these issues were raised.

When asked about the takeover at a joint press conference with Kishida, Biden reiterated his promise to back the United Steelworkers Union in its opposition to the deal.

I stand by my commitment to American workers, said Biden, who was endorsed by the union last month.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also has said he would try to block the deal if elected.

Nippon Steel says the deal will make the American steel industry more competitive. Direct employment in steel manufacturing is actually dropping in the US, down 49% in the last three decades according to the Congressional Research Service.

The Japanese companys promise of new investment is a selling point for Republican Senator Todd Young, whose home state of Indiana produces more steel than any other.

Based on my reading of it, the Nippon Corporation desires to invest heavily in the workforce, in the plant, in research and development, all things that have not been occurring to a sufficient degree, Young told Bloomberg Television. So I think it could be beneficial to the community.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

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A statue of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks in downtown Montgomery, seen on January 24, 2023. The statue stands in the approximate location where Parks boarded a segregated city bus on December 1, 1955. Parks' subsequent arrest after refusing to give her seat to a white passenger sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the start of the modern civil rights movement. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

Quality Journalism for Critical Times

The Rosa Parks statue in Montgomerys Court Square is not what you expect from a monument. Thats why I love it.

Theres no pedestal. No stage. Nothing separating the viewer from Parks. Its a life-sized and human-scaled depiction of a civil rights hero.

This is no divinely ordained messenger walking in the sky above us. This is a woman going home after a day at work  a dignified, respected citizen with a long track record of activism. She has a plan for the bus ride ahead.

The Court Square statue went up in 2019, and its started a trend in Montgomery. The Equal Justice Initiative unveiled a Parks statue in February at the Legacy Museum. Next year, a statue of the activist could appear on the Alabama State Capitol steps.

Three sculptures of a brave woman. Three places to celebrate Montgomerys Black community confronting decades-old systems of oppression.

A statue of civil rights activist Rosa Parks is unveiled at the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, on Feb. 14, 2024. The statue of Parks is one of three that will honor civil rights icons. Statues of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis are also planned. (Ralph Chapoco/Alabama Reflector)

Three places where a teacher could take students to discuss that story, only to get fired by a school board. All thanks to the Alabama Legislature.

We now have a law that prevents our educators from discussing divisive concepts. I could go into the specific language, but that would imply that this is a good-faith effort to limit dehumanizing speech.

Its actually state-sanctioned intimidation. The law aims to discourage teachers from discussing anything that might give a white Alabamian a sense of guilt.

So, lets say a fourth-grade teacher leads his students up the steps of the State Capitol in 2027 and passes the new Rosa Parks statue. He stops and tells his class what living through the Montgomery Bus Boycott was like.

It wasnt 381 days of mild inconveniences. Carpool drivers got pulled over and ticketed for little or no reason. Homes were bombed, and Montgomerys white leaders shrugged, even suggesting the protesters did it to themselves.

Most children hearing this tale would focus on the courage of Parks, Martin Luther King, E.D. Nixon, and all those who joined them. But maybe theres a white kid who notices the skin color of those who shrugged at the bombing of a family home. More likely, theres a white chaperone who doesnt like this talk and assumes the students have the same thin skin.

Under the law, the chaperone could complain to the local school board. And the local school board could discipline or even fire the teacher over the feelings these facts stirred.

And suddenly the teacher finds himself fighting for his job. He has to justify objective fact to elected officials in a state where pandering to white fear is always a winning political strategy.

Academic freedom?

Yes, the statute has language protecting academic freedom and due process. But who wants to go through that? Its easier to walk by the statue, mutter something about freedom and move on.

Thats the goal of the legislation: to make it hard to talk about racism in Alabama, whether historic or contemporary.

And theres plenty of racism that remains. The median income for a white household in Alabama is a little over $68,000 a year. For a Black household, its less than $41,000 a year.

About three-quarters of white Alabamians own their own homes. For Black Alabamians, its a little over half.

White parents go through the hell of losing an infant far less than Black parents do.

If this pointless suffering bothers you, you need to trace it to the sources: slavery and Jim Crow. The thread back there passes white elites openly stating their desire to steal the vote from Black Alabamians. It runs through the Pratt Mines, where innocent Black men seized by law enforcement and handed over to private enterprise died dark, suffocating deaths. It loops a Montgomery hospital, where in 1919 a white mob broke in and murdered a Black man.

This was the violent system Parks confronted. This was the government that defied the U.S. Constitution and dared its victims to complain. You cant understand her courage without seeing the braying, bloodthirsty mob on the other side.

But Republican lawmakers dont want you to see that.

A comforting past

Their past is granite, marble and brass: smooth, pretty and still. Historical figures stand on columns and pedestals, away from daily life and skeptical eyes. Gods inscrutable plans, miraculously culminating in the government we have today, matter more than the documented choices of men. History is just a sacred and inevitable path to the present.

In this narrative, Parks simply does whats right. She doesnt confront politicians who sabotaged a voting rights drive. She doesnt battle smug and callous juries indifferent to the plight of Recy Taylor, a Black woman raped by six white men.

Parks walks on a frictionless path of righteousness. She is meek, mild, and so self-evidently correct that everyone falls in line without fuss. The white establishment that attacked her and got away with it  the one our current white establishment descends from  is nowhere to be seen, replaced by a handful of isolated, easily-dismissed bigots.

Told correctly, the Parks story is as much about a violent, nihilistic government as the woman herself. Our leaders cant have that.

So, they want silence around the statues of Parks. They want to trap the woman in stone and steel and make her as dull and mute as any mustached Confederate on a Doric column.

They certainly dont want anyone drawing parallels between the men Parks confronted and the leaders of today. The ones who make it hard to vote; who make it hard to teach; who make life hell for transgender youth and who say our public schools need purification.

You cant talk about Rosa Parks without talking about what she faced. If that makes you uncomfortable, its because the people who opposed her look an awful lot like the people running Alabama today.

The post They want silence around Rosa Parks appeared first on Florida Phoenix.
EXCLUSIVE: The Washington Post is facing a backlash after the media outlet quoted three experts to cast doubt on the validity of a bullet wound sustained in Afghanistan by a top Republican Senate candidate, but omitted the trio's ties to the Democratic Party.

Former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, who is running to unseat Democrat Sen. Jon Tester, went to the emergency room after a reported fall in Montana's Glacier National Park in 2015. Sheehy was asked about a bullet found in his arm during the visit and told a National Park ranger that he had accidentally shot himself with a Colt .45 revolver  but Sheehy recently revealed that he actually suffered the injury while serving in Afghanistan in 2012.

Sheehy told the Washington Post that he never reported it to his superiors to avoid an investigation, telling the outlet that he was unsure where the bullet came from. He said he did not report the incident in an effort to protect his former platoonmates.

The Post, which began the report by claiming Sheehy left the bullet in his arm "as evidence of his toughness," spoke with several individuals who called Sheehy's story into question. Public records reviewed by Fox News Digital reveal these same individuals combined have donated thousands of dollars to the Democratic Party.

FMR NAVY SEAL RIPS BIDEN'S AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL AFTER MARK MILLEY GRILLED ON CAPITOL HILL: ABJECT FAILURE

Sheehy served in Iraq, Afghanistan, South America, and the Pacific region, receiving the Bronze Star with Valor for Heroism in Combat and the Purple Heart Medal.

Upon looking at an X-ray of the wound, which was provided to the Post by Sheehy, Joseph V. Sakran, a Johns Hopkins trauma surgeon and longtime Democrat donor, raised questions about the Republican Senate candidate's story. Sakran told the Post that Sheehy's wound "probably depicts a bullet, but it is not possible to tell what type of weapon it came from nor the age of the wound."

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Sakran previously worked as a Democrat staffer, serving as a health policy fellow for Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. Filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) reveal the doctor has a long history of contributing to the campaigns of Democrat candidates up and down the ballot, including giving at least $21,000 to groups such as the Hillary Clinton Victory Fund, Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and Biden for President.

Sakran's website calls him a "nationally recognized activist coalition builder" and said his "activism first achieved national recognition when he founded Doctors for Hillary."

DONALD TRUMP ENDORSES AMERICAN HERO TIM SHEEHY IN BATTLEGROUND SENATE RACE

Sakran has also made public comments against former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Sheehy for the Montana Senate in 2024. Sakran wrote on Jan. 6, 2021 that the former GOP president "left an undeniably dark Stain on U.S. History." Additionally, White House visitor logs reveal that Sakran has made at least four visits to the Biden White House.

"We arent shocked the Washington Post chose to cite known Democrats for their smear piece against decorated combat veteran Tim Sheehy," a Sheehy for Montana spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement. "These are the same people that pushed the Democrats Russian hoax and pretend every day that President Biden is mentally fit and that our border isnt in crisis. Tim Sheehy will defeat Jon Tester this November and will join President Trump, so we can drain the swamp for good."

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Tim Sheehy for the Montana Senate in 2024.

The outlet spoke with another expert, former Air Force attorney Rachel VanLandingham, who questioned Sheehy's hesitancy to report the incident. She said she believes it to be "very unlikely a years-old potential ricochet injury would compel naval investigators to open any kind of investigation based on a park rangers report."

VanLandingham has made multiple donations to ActBlue and Hillary for America, records show. Additionally, she has referred to Trump as a "terrorist recruiting poster child."

VanLandingham, who said she is currently a registered Democrat but finds "both parties extremely problematic," told Fox News Digital in an email that her political views never came up in conversation while contributing to the piece.

"My political views did not, and have never, come up in conversation with this reporter during this particular interview, nor in any others; again, my expertise is viewed is neutral, I hope, and I want to keep it that way," VanLandingham said. "I have publicly criticized President Biden and certainly Secretary of Defense Austin in the past, and would doso [sic] again if my professional judgment deems it warranted."

She also added that she was appointed by President Trumps last Secretary of Defense to the Military Justice Review Panel as evidence that she is known as "an unbiased, straight-shooting military law expert unafraid to speak her mind."

Despite claiming she is "neutral" and that her "analyses are not based on politics, but on the law and facts," a Fox News Digital review found several examples of VanLandingham attacking Trump and his supporters.

"Trump is a terrorist recruiting poster child. Tx for making America less safe & w/ less real power!" she wrote in 2017.

In 2020, VanLandingham also wrote that "Trump's call to label Antifa 'domestic terrorists' is dangerous."

"Yeah welcome to the party I felt that way when racist thuggish Trump and his domestic & foreign enablers won the electoral college in 2016 - and that way during glorification of our deeply racist nation at Charlottesville the next year. Yesterday was not a surprise. Pathetic, yes" she wrote on January 7, 2021, the day after the January 6 Capitol riot.

After contributing to the Post report, VanLandingham painted Sheehy as a "deeply flawed hero whose fitness for office is highly questionable," in an April 6 post on X. The attorney has been a vocal supporter of Biden, calling his decision to select Vice President Kamala Harris as his running mate an "excellent" decision.

Vanlandingham shared a USA Today op-ed in 2021 from David Rothkopf, a vocal Biden supporter who has called Trump a "greater" threat to the United States than al-Qaeda. The op-ed was titled, "Trump and his supporters are dangerous enemies of American democracy."

The Post also spoke with the director of the Military, Veterans & Society program at the Center for New American Security, Katherine Kuzminski, who said she "believed it was highly unlikely that a civilian hospital would report a years-old bullet wound to the Navy or that anyone would fear such a report would result in an investigation," according to the report.

Kuzminski, who got a picture with Biden and the first lady in 2023 and has made multiple visits to the Biden White House, wrote in a 2016 post on X that Trump "is no Republican."

She also said it was "unfair" for Republicans to criticize the military's focus on diversity, telling the Hill in May 2023 that "if what were afraid of is Vladimir Putin thinking poorly of our military readiness because we enable pronouns, all we have to do is look at the outcomes on the battlefield that the Russian army is facing right now."

Sakran, Kuzminski, Tester's campaign, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the Navy did not respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.

The entrance to The Washington Post corporate building in Washington D.C.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., blasted the WaPo article as a "politically motivated smear."

"A ridiculous, politically motivated smear," Cotton wrote in a post on X. "Sheehy has a decorated record of service and hell fight Bidens disastrous policies. Thats why the Washington Post is attacking himthey know he can win."

After publication of this story, a Washington Post spokesperson told Fox News Digital: "The Washington Post sought a variety of perspectives for this story to ensure a balanced account. We stand by our reporting and reject any notion of unfairness in our approach."





Original article source: WaPo 'smear' of highly-decorated Iraq war veteran, Senate candidate omits critical info
(Bloomberg) -- Russia and Ukraine may have struggled to shift things significantly on the battlefield for more than 16 months, but a new phase of the war is moving the needle in a way thats having wider repercussions.

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Both sides are now targeting energy assets to hit their enemys economy, and the collateral damage is showing up in global markets.

The International Energy Agency warned on Friday that Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries risk disrupting trade in petroleum products like diesel. European gas prices jumped as much as 10% after Russia struck Ukraines gas and power infrastructure this week.

Ukraines army is facing ammunition shortages, while the US is stalling new funding and European allies are trying to figure out how to ship more weapons. The latest strategy is to systematically attack Russian energy facilities, despite Washington voicing concern about the effect on oil and gas prices.

So far this year, Ukraine targeted 14 major refineries and two smaller plants in Russia, with most of the attacks being successful in disrupting operations.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has launched three large-scale assaults on Ukraines electricity generation and directed drones and missiles at key gas infrastructure for the first time since its invasion more than two years ago. On Thursday, Russia destroyed the largest power plant in the Kyiv region in what President Vladimir Putin said was a tit-for-tat response for Ukraines attacks.

Whats changed is that targets that were previously off limits are now coming into play, according to Sergey Vakulenko, who spent a decade as an executive at a Russian oil producer and is now a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Both sides are probably realizing that the war on the front is turning into a stalemate and they cannot get any decisive outcome there, Vakulenko said. It also seems that initially there were certain explicit or implicit gentlemens agreements making some targets off-limits. After two years of brutal war, some if not most of these agreements are probably dead.

The escalation might also simply be down to new military capabilities. Russias bombardment of Ukrainian energy sites has been larger and better planned than the attacks in the previous two years, knocking out generating facilities and limiting power supplies.

For its part, Ukraine is at its most fragile moment since Russias invasion, according to Western officials with knowledge of the situation. Kyiv is using long-range drones to attack the oil refineries in an attempt to disrupt fuel supplies to the army, hit Russias finances and the Russian population psychologically. But Putins war machine remains formidable.

Ukraines recent strikes come amid a dire shortage of ammunition and manpower and gaps in its air defense following an unsuccessful counteroffensive last year. Russian forces have also had incremental gains in Ukraines east, though it remains to be seen whether the Kremlin will have enough resources to deliver a significant breakthrough.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin urged Ukraine to focus on military targets instead because of the impact on global markets. Ukraine has been warning, though, that it can lose the war if more than $60 billion of aid held up by Congress for months isnt approved.

Ukraine is in close contact with its allies and has listened to their concerns, people familiar with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. The lack of ammunition and Russian attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities means Kyiv has to do everything to hit the enemy, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Officials also questioned American statements that attacks may push gasoline prices up, arguing that if Russia is forced to reduce refining it will increase exports of crude oil to the countries not involved in sanctions.

Ukraine has targeted refineries with combined capacity of about 3.4 million barrels a day, Bloomberg calculations show. However, some of the affected facilities can deploy spare or underused processing units. Undamaged plants are also raising their throughput.

Drones have reached targets as far as 1,200 kilometers (746 miles) away. Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. said that puts 19 Russian refineries with a combined capacity of 3.8 million barrels a day  or more than half the nations capacity  in play. If the range increases to 1,500 kilometers, another 600,000 barrels would be at risk, they wrote.

Russia expects to have all the damaged refineries repaired by June, Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov told the nations media earlier this month. Officials including Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak have also reiterated that the domestic fuel market remains stable and demand is fully met.

In Kyiv, meanwhile, the Russian strike this week set ablaze the turbine hall of the coal-fired Trypilska plant some 45 kilometers south of the capital. The facility was hit by six missiles, a person familiar with the strike said on condition of anonymity.

For Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Moscow think tank Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, its a reminder of the war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s after an impasse on the battlefield. Cities and their infrastructure then became more embroiled in the conflict, he said.

The stalemate at the front is pushing both sides to try and pressure the civilian population and economy of their opponent, Pukhov said. This reminds one increasingly of the war of the cities. Russia has the most resources and ability to harm Ukraine.

--With assistance from Priscila Azevedo Rocha.

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MEXICO CITY, April 12 (Xinhua) -- MIKTA, a five-country consultative group, expressed their solidarity with Mexico in the aftermath of Ecuador's police raid on its embassy in Quito, Mexico's Foreign Ministry said Friday.

Foreign ministers from Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkiye, and Australia expressed their "deepest concern" over "the violence applied against Mexican diplomatic staff," the group said in a statement published by the ministry on social media.

"This event establishes a serious precedent undermining the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, in particular the principle of inviolability of diplomatic facilities and their personnel," said the statement.

Ecuadorian police stormed Mexico's embassy in Quito on April 5 to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, just hours after Mexico granted him political asylum, prompting Mexico to sever ties with Ecuador.

"As Ecuador, we are also going to defend our version of the events," Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld told reporters on Wednesday at the National Assembly, where she reported to lawmakers on the April 5 raid. 
A group of good Samaritans in Tennessee rescued a woman trapped inside her vehicle after it overturned during a crash near Nashville.

Carolina Carlos was driving off Exit 221 on Interstate 40 in Hermitage, when she saw a car flipped on its side, news outlet WKRN reported, with a woman trapped inside.

Carlos captured the moment on her cellphone as the good Samaritans worked together to push the vehicle back onto four wheels. It took at least six people to move the vehicle.

MINNESOTA DEPUTY AND GOOD SAMARITAN RESCUE BEAR CUB FROM HIGHWAY

A group of people helped rescue a woman trapped in her car in Hermitage, near Nashville, Tenn.

Carlos told WKRN that the woman inside the vehicle was reported to be OK. Carlos added that she wanted to highlight the group's act of care and compassion.

COAST GUARD, GOOD SAMARITAN RESCUE MARINERS 1,700 MILES FROM BERMUDA AFTER LIGHTNING STRIKE BLOWS HOLE IN BOAT

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A group of good Samaritans helped rescue a woman trapped inside her car after it overturned near Nashville, Tenn.

"I feel hope in the community because I see all the bad news around the world," Carlos told WKRN. "I saw some help from the people and good intentions."

The group also waited for first responders to arrive, and made sure the womans car was in a safe place.





Original article source: WATCH: Tennessee good Samaritans rescue woman trapped inside overturned car near Nashville
Water guns are in full blast to mark Thai New Year festivities despite worries about heat wave

A man reacts as a bucket of water is splashed on him during the Songkran water festival to celebrate the Thai New Year in Prachinburi Province, Thailand, Saturday April 13, 2024. It's the time of year when many Southeast Asian countries hold nationwide water festivals to beat the seasonal heat, as celebrants splash friends, family and strangers alike in often raucous celebration to mark the traditional Theravada Buddhist New Year. (AP Photo/Wason Wanichakorn)

It's water festival time in Thailand where many are marking the country's traditional New Year, splashing each other with colorful water guns and buckets in an often raucous celebration that draws thousands of people, even as this year the Southeast Asian nation marks record-high temperatures causing concern.

The festival, known as Songkran in Thailand, is a three-day shindig that starts Saturday and informally extends for a whole week, allowing people to travel for family celebrations. The holiday is also celebrated under different names in neighboring Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, which like Thailand have populations that are predominantly Theravada Buddhist.

Songkran is immensely popular  predicted this year to attract more than 500,000 foreign tourists and generate more than 24 billion baht ($655 million) in revenue, according to the state tourism agency. Past Thai governments have been reluctant to call for dialing down the fun even during crises such as droughts and the pandemic

Though the festival originated as a way to pray for a rainy season that helped crops and included activities such as cleansing images of the Buddha and washing the hands and feet of elders, Songkran these days is now often associated with public drunkenness, sexual assault in the guise of merrymaking, and a spike in traffic fatalities, noticeable to the point that the extended holiday has been dubbed the seven dangerous days.

The festival usually falls at the hottest time of the year when temperatures can creep above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

But this year, the unusual heat wave, with expected record temperatures for the next few months, has triggered apprehension. The United Nations Childrens Fund warned Thursday the sweltering weather could put millions of children's lives at risk, asking caregivers to take extra precautions.

The UNICEF statement said in the Asia-Pacific region, around 243 million children are exposed to hotter and longer heatwaves, putting them at risk of a multitude of heat-related illnesses, and even death.

Heat waves can be lethal as they affect the ability to breathe, making the old and young particularly vulnerable.

Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore where natural phenomena such as climate change are studied, said three factors determine heat waves; El Nino, a natural, temporary and occasional warming of part of the Pacific, an increase in global temperatures and human-induced climate change.

The poor are particularly vulnerable to heat waves, exacerbated in many Southeast Asian cities where concrete buildings make the weather more stifling and few trees provide shade, he said.

Horton added that the past year saw record-high global average temperatures and the heat waves in Southeast Asia were mirroring that trend, adding that it is only going to get worse.

The entirety of the Mekong Delta, which includes Vietnam as well as Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, saw extreme heat, with parts of Laos and Thailand seeing temperatures that were 5-7 degrees Celsius (41-44.6 degrees Fahrenheit) more than the average between April 3-9, according to the Mekong Dam Monitor program of the Stimson Center in Washington D.C.

This extreme heat also means less water for hydropower dams to produce energy.

Heat waves put a significant strain on power systems, from surging energy demand to compromising grid capacity. Hydropower generation is particularly impacted when heat results in drought over multiple years, according to Dimitri Pescia, director for Southeast Asia at the German-based thinktank Agora Energiewende

The cumulative effects, amplified by climate change, cause great distress to society and ecosystems, he said.

Singapore's Horton said earth-warming carbon emissions needed a drastic cutting down as people learned to adapt to the new climate which included learning the dangers of overly hot weather and for authorities to create an emergency response to warn people about high temperatures beforehand and provide them with areas to cool down when needed.

Last week, the Philippines suspended classes in more than 5,800 public schools and shifted to home-based and online learning to protect millions of students from the scorching heat.

Schools in several cities, including the congested capital Manila, shifted classes to early morning to avoid sweltering noontime and afternoon temperatures. Also, tens of thousands of students in grade and high schools were allowed to alternate between going to school and online classes every other day, officials said.

Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan, a medical doctor, said they have limited outdoor activities especially if the heat index rises to an extreme level. If people dont have urgent tasks outside, the best precaution really is to stay indoors.

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Associated Press writers Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines contributed to this report. Asia Business Climate correspondent Aniruddha Ghosal reported from Hanoi, Vietnam.
'We'd like to get her back': Parents of missing California woman desperate for help

The Los Angeles Police Department is still looking for 23-year-old Noelle Lynch, who last seen April 3 in Inglewood.

A 23-year-old California woman has been missing for more than a week, and her parents say they're desperate to find her.

Noelle Lynch of Sacramento was last seen leaving an apartment building in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood on Wednesday, April 3, according to a Los Angeles Police Department news release.

Police say she may or may not be able to identify herself, and left the area on foot and without any of her belongings.

Noelle Lynch's mom says she left Sacramento home without warning

Kellie Lynch, Noelles mother, told local station KXTV on Wednesday that her daughter left her home in Sacramento a couple days earlier, on April 1.

Next thing you know, shes calling to tell us shes somewhere in Los Angeles and has been in a car accident, Kellie Lynch said. Noelle did not suffer from any injuries, but her car was totaled as a result of the crash, according to her mom.

The behavior leading up to Noelles disappearance was completely unlike her, with Kellie Lynch stating that they had no idea why she was in Los Angeles.

She always calls. This is very out of character," Noelles father, March Lynch told SF Gate. "She has had a tough time but she has always called."

Noelle's parents, Mark and Kellie Lynch, said their daughter's recent behavior was unlike her. That, she always keeps in touch with them about where she is and who she's with.

Cellphone found at LAX, change in attitude weeks leading up to disappearance

Kellie Lynch made her way to Los Angeles early the next day to try and help" her daughter.

Her parents told KXTV that they booked a hotel room for Noelle near LAX, where the crash happened, but they said she didn't end up staying there. They also say her phone was found at the Southwest ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport.

Mark Lynch told SF Gate that his wife got a call from their daughter from a strange persons phone at noon on April 3. The conversation they had that day was brief and Noelle was mostly not making sense, he told the outlet. Thats the last time her parents heard from her.

Noelles parents also shared that they noticed a change in her emotions recently, saying she was upset, anxious and disoriented in recent weeks.

Noelle Lynch is student at the University of California, Sacramento

Noelle was starting to get her footing at University of California in Sacramento after facing a rough patch at another nearby state university, her parents said, attributing the tough times to the isolation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was just very difficult for her to get back on track," Mark Lynch said. "And we had several false starts  We were really happy for her because she had re-engaged and seemed like she was making progress."

Her parents are still hopeful that she will be found, safe and sound.

Shes a good person. Shes a good human, Kellie Lynch said. "Shes caring, kind  We want to know that shes okay. And then we'd like to get her back and get her help."

Noelle Lynch still missing, last seen in Inglewood

Lynch was last seen on April 3 at about 5 p.m. around the 900 block of East Redondo Boulevard in Inglewood, Los Angeles police says.

She has brown hair and blue eyes, was last seen wearing a dark T-shirt, green sweatpants with a military logo, and white sneakers. Lynch is 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs about 125 pounds.

Anyone with information are encouraged to contact LAPD's Missing Persons Unit at (213)-996-1800. Calls should be (877)-527-3247 during non-business hours or on weekends.

Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call the LA Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477) or go directly to www.lacrimestoppers.org.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Parents of missing California woman Noelle Lynch desperate for help
JERUSALEM (AP)  Iran launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles toward Israel late Saturday in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East even closer to a regionwide war.

U.S. forces shot down some Iran-launched attack drones flying toward Israel, according to a U.S. defense official and two other U.S. officials who spoke Saturday on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

The White House had said it would provide unspecified support for Israels defense against an ongoing airborne attack from Iran.

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a Saturday statement that Iran has begun an airborne attack against Israel. She added: The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defense against these threats from Iran.

The attack marked the first time Iran had ever launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the countrys 1979 Islamic Revolution. Condemnation was swift, with France saying that Iran has crossed a new threshold with regard to its destabilizing activities and is risking a potential military escalation.

Read more about the Israel/Gaza conflict here

Israels military said over 100 drones had been fired but that its air defenses were prepared. It didnt mention ballistic missiles, which are less easily shot down, but Iran said they were part of the attack. The U.S., with its large troop presence in the region, said it would provide unspecified support to Israel.

We are monitoring the threat, the Israeli militarys spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, announced in a nationwide television address, saying it would take several hours for the drones to reach Israel. The Israeli military said it could not confirm if it had intercepted anything or what their targets were.

Iranian state television announced that Tehran had launched an attack toward Israel. Iraqs state news agency quoted Transportation Minister Raqqa Saadawi as saying the countrys airspace was closed.

Before the attack was announced, a FlyDubai flight from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to Tel Aviv, Israel, turned around as it was over Saudi Arabia, flight-tracking data showed.

Iranian demonstrators wave a Palestinian flag during their anti-Israeli gathering at the Felestin (Palestine) Square in Tehran, Iran, early Sunday, April 14, 2024. Iran launched its first direct military attack against Israel Saturday. The Israeli military says Iran fired more than 100 bomb-carrying drones toward Israel. Hours later, Iran announced it had also launched much more destructive ballistic missiles. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

This is a locator map for Iran with its capital, Tehran. (AP Photo)

This image made from a video provided to The Associated Press by a Mideast defense official shows a helicopter raid targeting a vessel near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, April 13, 2024. A video seen by The Associated Press shows commandos raiding a ship near the Strait of Hormuz by helicopter Saturday, an attack a Mideast defense official attributed to Iran amid wider tensions between Tehran and the West. The Mideast defense official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. (AP Photo)

Previously Saturday, Israeli military said Iran has launched a number of drones toward Israel.

The armys spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said it would take several hours for the aircraft to arrive. He said Israel was prepared. He spoke Saturday evening.

Israel has been on heightened alert since an airstrike last week killed two Iranian generals in Syria. Iran accused Israel of being behind the attack and vowed revenge. Israel has not commented on that attack.

A U.S. official briefed on the attack said Iran had launched dozens of drones. The official could not publicly discuss details of the attack and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Earlier Saturday, the Israeli military said it was canceling school and limiting public gatherings to no more than 1,000 people as a safety precaution.

Briefing reporters, Hagari said Israel is prepared and ready with defensive and offensive actions. He also said there was tight cooperation with the U.S. and other partners in the region.

The head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. Erik Kurilla, has been in Israel in recent days to coordinate with Israel about the Iranian threats.

Israel has a number of layers of air defense capable of intercepting everything from long-range missiles to UAVs and short-range rockets. Hagari said Israel has an excellent air defense system but stressed it is not 100% effective and urged the public to listen to safety announcements.

President Joe Biden was set to convene a principals meeting of the National Security Council on Saturday to discuss the unfolding attack, the White House said. Biden cut short a weekend trip to his beach house in Delaware to return to the White House and monitor the situation.

For days, Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have threatened to slap Israel for its Syria strike.

Iran has largely avoided directly attacking Israel, despite its targeted killings of nuclear scientists and sabotage campaigns on Irans atomic sites. Iran has targeted Israeli or Jewish-linked sites through proxy forces.

Israels war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip has inflamed decade-old tensions in the Middle East, and any new attack threatens to escalate that conflict into a wider regional war.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW.
Athens, where I have spent much of my adult life, is home to a Byron Street, and a neighbourhood, Vyronas, also named after the poet. Unique among the philhellenes who aided in the struggle for Greek independence, Byron even has a public statue in Athens in his honour: a bare-chested female personification of Greece, crowning the poet with a palm branch. All are reminders of the unalloyed admiration in which he was and is held in Greece  where he died 200 years ago, in April 1824  in contrast to the Anglophone world, where his reception has ever been more uneven and complicated.

Scandals which dogged him in his lifetime  such as his incestuous relationship with his half-sister Augusta  still dominate many readers ideas about him today. The British Librarys online potted biography introduces him as the 19th-century bad boy, and his name tends to be followed by mad, bad, and dangerous to know, in Lady Caroline Lambs phrase (though one suspects she was at least partly projecting).

This Anglophone blind-spot is nothing new. Writing 60 years after Byrons death, Swinburne, attacking Byrons pretentious and restless egotism, found it curious that he nonetheless had so many significant admirers in foreign countries. The condescension sometimes extends even to his poetry. Imagine dismissing Byron to Russian speakers, for instance, when Pushkins Eugene Onegin would not exist without the model of Don Juan! Yet I recently read a review of Andrew Stauffers delightful new Byron: A Life in Ten Letters in which the reviewer rounds on Byron: The author probably makes too high a claim for the poetry  Byron surely was no more than a first-rate second-rater. Reading this, I gasped aloud, before taking to social media. (Byron will have the last laugh, I typed into the void, furiously.)

Nowhere, of course, is Byron more admired than in Greece. As is possibly an occupational hazard for an English-speaking expat poet living in the country, I have an ever-burgeoning shelf of books by or about Byron. But one of my most treasured remains a Greek childrens book I had bought as a joke: Lord Byron: The Supreme Philhellene (1999), by Petros Bikos, part of a series about the Greek War of Independence.

The Byron on the cover little resembles the figure we normally imagine  the glamorous Byron, say, of Thomas Phillipss 1813 portrait, arrayed in exotic Albanian dress. The illustration on the cover has rather something of the impish mirth of a middle-aged Roger Moore playing 007; perhaps most strikingly, he has reddish blond hair and light blue eyes. The thing is, though, Byron did have auburn hair, according to contemporary accounts. In effect, I realised, Byron was regularly depicted as darker (and maybe darker) than he was.

Hero's welcome: The Reception of Lord Byron at Missolonghi, 1861, by Theodoros Vryzakis - Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images

Ive learnt other things from the book, or it has changed my perspective. The reasons it gives, for instance, for his leaving England have less to do with scandal than being misunderstood. The book admits that he challenged the conservative society of his time with his ephemeral erotic adventures, but maintains that Englands puritanical mores were weaponised against him by his enemies. The book claims it was instead Byrons fiery maiden address to the House of Lords, invoking the human rights of the loom-breaking Luddites (an exhilarating and radical speech slightly to the left of Bernie Sanders) that made him a class traitor to the English aristocracy. It gives oppressive grey skies as an additional reason for Byron to leave England for good.

The book focuses on incidents that many English-language Byron biographies skim over, such as his terrifying voyage to Missolonghi from the United States of the Ionian islands, a British protectorate, and officially neutral. Byrons two ships carried papers and significant cash in Spanish dollars that would belie their neutral flag. Had Byron been captured by the Ottoman fleet, he might have been executed, or taken prisoner. In the end, Byrons ship evaded capture, as well as shipwreck during a violent storm, but the cargo ship carrying Byrons secretary, Pietro Gamba, was seized.

As Stephen Minta describes it in his On a Voiceless Shore (probably my favourite English-language book on Byron), She [Gambas ship] was taken into custody with all aboard, and her captain was on the point of being beheaded. Then, by one of those coincidences that are plausible only in life, the Turkish commander suddenly recognised the captain as the man who had once saved his life in the Black Sea. Its a scene that would not be out of place in a Pirates of the Caribbean film.

Byron's statue in Athens: a bare-chested female personification of Greece, crowning him with a palm branch - Ael / Alamy Stock Photo

No matter how pro-Byron an English-language writer is, they often cant resist a jibe about the helmet. Upon setting out for Greece from Italy, Byron had three Homeric-type helmets fashioned to his own design. The teasing starts with Mary Shelley, who wrote to Leigh Hunt: Helmets so fine were never made to hack. Even a Byronophile such as Roderick Beaton (in his enlightening book Byrons War) cant resist comment. Of Byrons reception in Missolonghi  where he was given a heros welcome by a crowd of perhaps 8,000  he writes, If one of the three helmets that he had had made in Genoa was upon his head, nobody present was ever so tactless afterwards as to mention it.

Two of these helmets are, I believe, lost. One, that somehow washed up in Boston, is now displayed at the National Historical Museum in Athens. In the rooms of the museum, Byrons black helmet, set alongside other moving personal effects such as the camp bed upon which he died, is among the most sombre and understated of fancy hats. Portraits of splendidly moustachioed warriors in turbans and crimson tasselled fezzes glower down from the walls, and General Theodoros Kolokotroniss own Homeric helmet, scarlet with gilded bronze decoration and plumed with horsehair, is larger and glitzier.

Another aspect of Byron that provokes a smirk among Anglophone writers is his death, not in battle but from illness, as if the whole expedition were a celebrity publicity stunt gone wrong. Even the redoubtable Dame Mary Beard cant resist some mild Byron-baiting. Writing of Byrons first visit to Athens, when he evidently divided his time between deploring the state of modern Athens and scribbling poetry, she adds that, Byron had not yet decided to parade himself as the champion of Greece and Greek freedom  a cause for which he would eventually die, from fever rather than cannon fire, at Missolonghi.

'I gasped at the critic who claimed "Byron was no more than a first-rate second-rater"' - Electa/MONDADORI PORTFOLIOvia Getty Images

Byron would have no doubt preferred death in action to being exsanguinated in the name of medicine. (If Death comes in the shape of a cannonball and takes off my head, he is welcome to it, he is reported to have said, dont let the blundering doctors bleed me.) No one in Greece doubts his genuine commitment to the cause. Byron raised morale in Missolonghis besieged revolutionary outpost, helped  with Alexandros Mavrokordatos (incidentally, Mary Shelleys Greek tutor)  tip the balance towards a legitimate government and away from civil-warring chieftains, and was pivotal in securing the loan from the London Philhellenic Committee that would bankroll the war; beyond this, he made his personal fortune available for the cause. Whether it was a 4,000 advance (perhaps 400,000 in todays money) to the Hydriot navy whose pay was in arrears, or providing for Greek refugee families on Ithaka out of his own pocket, or organising the release of two-dozen Turkish prisoners in an effort to avert atrocities on both sides, Byron consistently put his money where his mouth was.

Then, as now, the West tended to pay more attention to a foreign struggle after high-profile Western deaths. In 1824, it was hard to get more high-profile than Byron. His rousing funeral oration, delivered by Spiridon Trikoupis (later Greeces first prime minister) over Byrons coffin  upon which were set a laurel wreath, a sword and, yes, the notorious helmet  was widely disseminated in Europe. The poet Dionysios Solomos, upon learning of Byrons demise, is said to have started improvising his Ode on the Death of Lord Byron on the spot. Byron even entered the traditional songs of the klephts (the mountain brigands), something that no doubt would have tickled him. A hundred years after his death, the Greek poet Kostis Palamas would coin the word Byronolatry, and would address him in one of his poems: If you lived a Dionysus, you died a Messiah.

Lord Byron on His Deathbed c. 1826, by Joseph Denis Odevaere - GL Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

If that seems over the top  Byron would have thought so  consider the symbolic timing of his death, four months after his Christmas Eve arrival in Missolonghi. He died on April 19, the day after Orthodox Easter Sunday. In Greece, Easter, by far the most important holiday of the Church calendar, is celebrated with fireworks and raucous exuberance. All loud sounds (including celebratory gunfire) had been forbidden while Byron lay on his deathbed, with patrols enforcing the ban, though a thunderstorm shook the skies. But the festivities were suspended in Missolonghi even after his death; instead of exultation at the Resurrection, shops were shut, and an official mourning period of three weeks was proclaimed for Byron. This effective cancellation of Easter, in Greece, is mind-boggling to contemplate.

My Greek childrens book ends with head-shaking sorrow that Byrons body was refused burial in Westminster Abbey (his lungs and spleen were placed in an urn in Missolonghi, but lost during the fall of the city), and concludes on the note that, Lord Byron was honoured not only in England. He was honoured, and maybe more so, also in his second homeland, Greece. Its a book full of breathless hyperbole, but in this statement, anyway, it is arguably not wrong.

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A display showing slain Iranian military officials and allied Lebanese and Palestinians next to the al-Aqsa Mosque

On Saturday evening, Iran launched a series of drone, rocket and missile strikes against Israel.

The attack has been seen as an unprecedented escalation in a long-running Middle East conflict that has flared since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023.

Irans assault on Israel is the latest development in a long shadow war.

Why did Iran attack Israel?

Iranian officials had been threatening to retaliate to an unprecedented airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, which killed Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a top general in Irans Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), along with several other officers.

Israel never officially claimed responsibility for the April 1 attack but is widely believed to be behind it.

Zahedi was in charge of Irans operations in Syria and Lebanon and was reported to have been involved in the planning and execution of Hamass Oct 7 attack on Israel, when the terror group killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped more than 200. Iran has denied any involvement.

That makes him the highest-profile assassination since the 2020 US airstrike that killed Qasem Soleimani, who was head of Irans elite Quds Force.

Why did Israel attack the Iranian consulate?

Ever since Hamass Oct 7 attack, Israel has been fighting off near daily rocket attacks from Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah in the north of Israel.

The exchange of fire along the border has largely been limited, with both sides apparently keen to avoid a major escalation.

But in recent weeks Israel has started to up the ante, launching strikes against Hezbollah operatives far deeper into Lebanon and even hitting several Iranian targets in Syria.

But none were as significant as the April 1 attack  both in terms of where the strike took place and who it killed.

As the commander in charge of Irans operations in Lebanon, Zahedi regularly met with the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and played a crucial role in providing Iranian-made missiles to the militant group, sources told The Telegraph.

Zahedi was killed in an airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1 - ZUMAPRESS.com / Avalon

Also present at the Iranian consulate on April 1 was his deputy, Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, who oversaw the entire Middle East, including coordinating Yemeni Houthi rebel attacks against Western shipping targets in the Red Sea.

The gathering of IRGC officials was a very, very rare opportunity for Israel to wipe out some of its archrivals most senior commanders in one go, according to an Israeli source quoted by Reuters. Thats not something a country at war would pass up.

The attack served two purposes.

It was intended to disrupt Irans supplies and coordination with Hezbollah, and to serve as a warning: Israel could strike Iran wherever it was.

Some in Israeli media have questioned the rationale behind it, saying that the killing of a top Iranian commander does not fundamentally improve security for Israel in the region.

How will Israel retaliate?

Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini has long been considered to be a calculating leader, anxious to avoid a head-on confrontation with Israel that would be highly damaging for a regime that is already facing widespread public discontent.

Despite the long war in Gaza, the IDF still have an enviable stockpile of high-precision weapons that can reach Iran.

Israel could also easily launch airstrikes against key infrastructure in Iran, crippling the economy and embarrassing the countrys rulers.

Potential targets would include Irans controversial nuclear facilities, which have long been suspected by Israel of being used to make nuclear weapons.

Who are Irans allies?

Irans allies are few in numbers and in global clout.

Yemens Houthis, Syria and Russia are probably its staunchest backers.

Moscow is already mired in a prolonged war in Ukraine and is unlikely to have any spare funds or weapons to help Tehran defend itself against Israel. Russia has already bought hundreds of combat drones from Tehran.

Trade partners like China would likely stand on the sidelines if a major regional conflict were to break out.

Who are Israels allies?

Israel is backed by countries with some of the strongest armies in the world including the United States and Britain.

Washington has offered Israel ironclad guarantees that it will help defend it against Iranian attacks.

Israels relations with its other allies in the West including Britain have soured as the war in Gaza increasingly became a humanitarian disaster, with an estimated 30,000 people killed and famine under way in the territorys north.

But the same countries that criticised Israel for its war in Gaza have since pledged to stand behind Israel in case of an Iranian attack.

How many troops does each side have?

Iran is believed to have over 370,000 active military personnel, most of them ground forces.

Israel has 169,500 active military personnel, and 465,00 reservists  half of whom had already been called up to serve after the Hamas attack on Israel last year. Most of them have since been discharged.

Does either side have nuclear weapons?

Israel is widely accepted to have developed a nuclear bomb in the late 1960s and is now thought to have a stockpile of approximately 90 warheads  although it has never officially confirmed that.

Iran has been playing catch up ever since.

In the early 2000s, several Iranian dissident groups revealed the existence of an uranium enrichment plant and a heavy-water production facility.

While both can be used for nuclear power generation, they can also be repurposed to make weapons-grade uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, raising suspicions that Tehran was trying to make a nuclear bomb.

Iran has always maintained that it was only pursuing nuclear projects for civilian needs.

Iran signed an agreement with the West in 2015, committing to significant restrictions on its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. It also allowed international monitors to visit some  though not all  of its enrichment sites.

Donald Trump, while US president, withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018 and Iran began ignoring the restrictions shortly afterwards.

A recent report by the Washington Post suggested that Iran has a supply of highly enriched uranium that could be converted to make the fuel for at least three nuclear bombs within a few weeks.

It would take a few more months to make a crude nuclear device, while building a warhead that could be fitted onto a missile would take two years, according to unnamed US officials.

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Alerts Issued for Our Region

Wind Advisory continues to be in effect for Raleigh, Fayette and Nicholas counties until 7 AM, for western Greenbrier until 10 AM Saturday and for northwestern Pocahontas County until 6 PM. Sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph will be capable of downing a few trees and causing a few power outages.

Saturday provides our mountain counties the risk for an isolated snowflake early around sunrise but after morning clouds, well see clearing skies with high pressure taking control by late morning area wide. We will see our temperatures respond nicely as well, with highs right around 60. Itll still be breezy, with wind gusts in excess of 30 mph possible.

Sunday begins on a dry note but by the afternoon, a warm front will cross from southwest to northeast, which will give us the chance for a few late day showers and thunderstorms.

Though our risk is low overall, a strong wind gust or two cant be ruled out with a couple of those late day storms. If youre needing to mow the grass, you should be dry before the mid-afternoon. With most of the day being dry and a stout southerly breeze in place, we will see high temperatures jump into the mid 70s.

Monday provides the risk for an isolated shower or two with a weak stationary front stalled nearby but we should see plenty of dry time once again, especially during the afternoon with highs in the low 70s.

Tuesday will be VERY warm! Well see that stationary front lift back up to the north as a warm front  a stout southerly breeze will kick in out ahead of our next storm system. A few showers are possible with that warm front lifting up to the north during the afternoon  if we were to see sunshine, wed make a run at 80 but with the chance for a couple of showers around, well likely fall just short in the mid to upper 70s. The last time we reached 80 degrees in Beckley was all the way back on September 7th!

Wednesday features an increase in cloud cover, with a few showers and thunderstorms possible late in the day as our next system crosses  yet another strong cold front! We will monitor the risk for a strong storm or two with that front crossing. High temperatures will be in the mid 70s.

Only 1 type of tick carries Lyme disease in WV; what to look out for

Thursday will be cooler behind our front, with a few morning showers followed by much drier and sunnier conditions for the afternoon. Highs will be in the mid 60s. Clouds will be on the increase as our next storm system approaches late.

Friday looks wet, with an area of low pressure scooting through. At this point, a wet and dreary day looks likely, with high temperatures in the mid to upper 50s.

What should you do if you are bitten by a tick?

Looking ahead, we drop back below normal for this time of year behind a cold front, as highs on Saturday struggle to jump into the 50s with a couple of morning sprinkles, followed by afternoon clearing. Sunday looks great with high temperatures near 60 under mostly sunny skies. Well be in the low 60s by Monday under sunny skies with high pressure in control.

Help us with our growing community of weather photos with #weathertogether. Head to our website and search for the Weather together tab and upload your photos of weather going on around our region. Sunday also looks very nice with plenty of sun and highs in the 60s.

We are in spring forest fire season in West Virginia  this means dont burn between 7 AM and 5 PM through May 31st. Low humidity values during the daytime, along with breezier and warmer conditions will at times increase the fire threat, hence the burn ban during most of the daytime. Follow all regulations or be faced with potential consequences, such as fines! In Virginia, the spring fire season continues through April 30th  dont burn before 4 PM.

TONIGHT

Few showers, mainly below midnight. Windy. Lows around 40.

SATURDAY

Mostly cloudy early. Partly cloudy and breezy. Highs near 60.

SUNDAY

Partly sunny to begin with, showers and a few storms return for the afternoon. Very warm! Highs in the mid 70s.

MONDAY

Isolated showers. Partly cloudy. Highs in the low 70s.

TUESDAY

Partly sunny. Scattered afternoon showers. Highs in the mid 70s.

WEDNESDAY

Few late day showers and storms. Highs in the mid 70s.

THURSDAY

Isolated sprinkle or two early. Highs in the mid 60s.

FRIDAY

Rain likely. Highs in the mid 50s.

SATURDAY

Clearing skies. Cool! Highs in the 50s.

SUNDAY

Mostly sunny. Highs near 60.

MONDAY

Mostly sunny. Highs in the 60s.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS.
Woman arrested in hit-and-run after man found in Pinellas Park ditch

Woman arrested in hit-and-run after man found in Pinellas Park ditch

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  A woman was arrested on Friday in connection with a hit-and-run after a man was found dead last month in a Pinellas Park ditch, according to the Pinellas Park Police Department.

Nicole Carlson, 26, of St. Petersburg, was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death, police said.

2nd suspect arrested in shooting near Armature Works

Carlson allegedly hit and killed Michael Vilaysack on March 31 and then drove off, according to police.

Vilaysack was found in a ditch along 62nd Avenue North, police said.

Investigators said debris was found near the body, which had injuries that appeared to be from a vehicle.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM)  A woman was taken to the hospital with multiple non-life-threatening stab wounds Saturday morning in Harrisburg.

According to Harrisburg City Police, the incident happened in the 1200 block of Chestnut Street at around 9 a.m.

Police do not have anyone in custody at this time. They say the incident appears to be isolated.

The investigation is ongoing.

This is a developing story. Stay with abc27 News as more information becomes available

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.
Woman recalls being nearly beaten to death by Venice canal attacker

A woman recalls the terrifying moment she was nearly beaten to death by an attacker while walking along the canals of Venice, California.

On April 6, the victim, Mary Klein, 54, was walking near her home at around 10:30 p.m. when a man suddenly ambushed her from behind.

All of a sudden, I just get knocked out, Mary told KTLAs Chris Wolfe as she recovered in a hospital bed. My teeth got knocked out. My jaw is wired shut. He bashed my face in.

Mary said the brunt force knocked her into an instant daze. She only remembers falling to the ground and being bludgeoned as the suspect repeatedly punched her in the head and face.

I think he was trying to kill me, she said. It was like being hit by a truck.

The brutal attack left Mary with severe injuries including fractures to her jaw, broken teeth, a large gash on the back of her head and multiple contusions. Her face and chest are severely bruised and swollen and she faces a long road to recovery ahead.

Mary Klein, seen with severe injuries and bruising, speaks to KTLA from her hospital bed on April 12, 2024. (KTLA)

The suspect, Anthony Jones, 29, seen walking around the Venice canals area on April 6, 2024.

The suspect, Anthony Jones, 29, seen walking around the Venice canals area on April 6, 2024.

The Venice Canals are seen on April 9, 2024. (KTLA)

Blood stains seen on the back porch of a Venice residents home after a woman was violently assaulted. (KTLA)

Mary Klein, 54, is seen in a photo posted on GoFundMe.

The suspect in the Venice canal attacks is seen on a Ring security camera video on April 6, 2024. (Viewer video)

Mary Klein, 54, suffered fractures to her jaw, broken teeth, a large gash on the back of her head and multiple contusions in the April 6, 2024 attack. (GoFundMe)

Mary Klein, 54, is seen in a photo posted on a GoFundMe campaign. (GoFundMe)

Mary is a single mother, home healthcare nurse, a soon-to-be grandmother and a local artist.

Loved ones said she will require many surgeries and will need mental health support and guidance along with physical therapy. Because Mary works as a full-time caregiver to an elderly woman with ALS, she hopes to recover as soon as possible.

Mary was one of two women who were attacked along the Venice canals on April 6. A second woman, who was not yet identified, is currently in a coma.

On Friday, April 12, police confirmed the suspect, Anthony Jones, 29, was arrested late Thursday night in San Diego. Police described Jones as a Black man standing around 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighing about 200 pounds. He is also believed to be a transient.

In the first attack on April 6, police said the man approached a woman from behind in the 2700 block of Strongs Drive near the Grand Canal and struck her in the head with a hard object, knocking her unconscious.

In the second attack, which occurred about an hour later, police said the same man assaulted a woman who was walking near the Sherman Canal.

Police confirmed that both attacks had a sexual element to them. Jones was captured on surveillance footage walking near the canals that night.

Mary said she was relieved to hear of the suspects arrest and hopes it will prevent more innocent victims from being harmed.

I was crying because I was so worried about the other girl [victim] and I hope she makes it, Mary said tearfully. Im lucky I survived and I feel so sad for her and I hope shes okay.

Marys son, Robert Klein, said he is thankful his mother is alive and hopes the suspect will be punished severely.

I want predators and violent attackers to be held accountable, have longer sentences and just not be out on the streets with our family members, he said.

Mary said she is incredibly thankful to the Los Angeles Police Department for their work in this case, calling them warriors who are protecting the community. She said she is especially grateful to Lesley Perkins and Asia Hodge as the investigators who helped catch the attacker.

Although she has no hate in her soul for the suspect, she believes he should be sentenced to prison for life. Mary also wants local officials to prioritize tackling mental health issues, drug abuse and homelessness in Southern California.

The suspect was booked into the LAPD Metropolitan Detention Center on two counts of attempted murder. He is being held on $3.25 million.

A GoFundMe page created to help Mary with medical expenses can be found here.

Police said the case would soon be presented to the L.A. County District Attorneys Office.

Following the attacks, LAPD said it would be increasing patrols around the Venice canals.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
HOUSTON, April 12 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and 13 others were injured after a stolen semitrailer rammed into a Department of Public Safety office on Friday in Brenham, U.S. state of Texas, authorities said.

Eight of the injured were treated on the scene and released, while six others, including the fatality, were transported to local hospitals with serious injuries, officials of the Texas Department of Public Safety said at a news conference.

The driver, identified as 42-year-old Clenard Parker, was uninjured and was taken into custody, according to the officials. The charges against him are not immediately available.

Parker was denied the renewal of his commercial driver's license at the Department of Public Safety office in Brenham on Thursday. He stole the semitrailer later on the day, local media reported.

"This deliberate, heinous act is a reminder of the dangerous work done by our law enforcement and licensing agencies that work to provide public safety and services," Texas State Senator Lois Kolkhorst, who represents the area, said in the statement.

SkyEye video showed extensive damage to the front of the office and the 18-wheeler.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, part of the state government, is responsible for statewide law enforcement and driver license administration.

Brenham is a rural town about 75 miles (about 120 kilometers) away from Houston, the largest city of Texas. 
Woman seriously injured by XL bully in own home

Emergency services rushed to the address in the quaint market town of Holt, Norfolk - Denise Bradley / Newsquest, SWNS

A woman has been seriously injured after being savaged by an XL Bully dog in her home.

Emergency services rushed to the address after the woman was attacked by the crazed mutt in the quaint market town of Holt, Norfolk, on Tuesday.

It is believed she had been trying to break up a fight between two dogs at the property when the animals turned on her just before midnight.

The terrified victim, aged in her 20s, was able to barricade herself in the bathroom to escape the snarling hound before shouting for help from the window.

A neighbour heard the screams and dialled 999 before police and fire crews arrived at the scene on Pheasant Close, a quiet cul-de-sac on the edge of the town.

Residents said firefighters had to help the woman escape from the property through a window to avoid the dogs.

The victim was taken to Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, where she remains being treated for her injuries.

Norfolk Police confirmed one of the dogs, an XL Bully, has since been destroyed and the force has launched an investigation.

The other animal - which neighbours have described as a pitbull-type dog - has been seized by officers and experts are trying to determine its breed.

Restrictions on XL Bully ownership came into force on February 1, 2024, and it is an offence to own one without an exemption certificate.

The government introduced the changes after a series of attacks involving the breed.

Government officials say there have been 23 deaths caused by dog attacks since the start of 2021, with XL Bullies disproportionately involved.

It is illegal to own an XL Bully without a certificate and is also an offence to sell, abandon, give away, breed or walk one without a lead and muzzle.

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Almost four in 10 fit notes signed off people on mental health grounds between April 2021 and December 2023 - Westend61

More than 11 million sick notes were issued last year, according to new figures that underline the growing worklessness crisis.

The official statistics show a doubling in the number of fit notes doled out in just seven years, fuelled by a surge in mental health problems.

Forecasts suggest the benefits bill for sickness and disability could top 90 billion within five years, with think tanks urging the Government to radically reform the system.

The figures from NHS England show 11.01 million notes were issued in 2022-23, up from 5.2 million in 2015-16, equal to one for every four adults.

Many recipients received multiple sick notes, often for months on end.

Four in ten notes were issued for five weeks or longer and one in five of such cases will never return to work, the report warns.

The study by the Policy Exchange think tank highlights further evidence that suggests once people are signed off for six months, 80 per cent will never come back.

The figures do not include the millions of people who are sick for less than seven days, which does not require a doctors note.

The statistics show a steep rise in people being signed off work for mental health problems. Almost four in 10 fit notes signed off people on such grounds between April 2021 and December 2023.

In these instances, 41 per cent were signed off for between one and three months.

The figures show a 20 per cent rise in notes linked to mental health since 2015-16.

This includes a quadrupling in cases linked to stress and neurosis, and a near tripling in cases linked to mood disorders.

Gone too far

Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary said last month that Britains approach to mental health was in danger of having gone too far in labelling the normal anxieties of life as illness.

Setting out plans to reform welfare payments, he said: There is a real risk now that we are labelling the normal ups and downs of human life as medical conditions which then actually serve to hold people back and, ultimately, drive up the benefit bill.

Mr Stride set out plans to rewrite welfare guidance so that about150,000 people with mild mental health conditions are obliged to seek work.

The Policy Exchange highlighted estimates showing the cost of sickness absence and ill-health among those of working age has reached 150 billion, almost matching the NHS annual budget.

The UKs system of fit notes, introduced in 2010, is supposed to help people with health problems to stay in work, or return to it, with adjustments made to allow for sickness and disability.

Not fit for purpose

But Policy Exchange said the system was not fit for purpose as it highlighted evidence from last year that 93 per cent of notes sign people off work entirely.

Its authors said GPs had too little time, information or options to refer people to help, making the notes had become a de facto system of self-certification which is doing nothing to stop the swell in long-term sickness.

Sean Phillips, head of health and social care at Policy Exchange, and the reports lead author said: Our current approach to assessments of fitness for work are not effective in meeting the needs of individuals, employers, health professionals or the taxpayer.

The fit note should be reformed to direct people more effectively towards occupational health assessments which can monitor conditions where longer absences have been recommended. Too many people  particularly those with mental health conditions  are being signed off for periods of time which may be damaging to their prospects of a return to work.

A greater focus on how good work can in fact support people with their mental health is a necessity.

The report shows 186 million working days lost to sickness or injury last year, with estimates that businesses spend almost 1,000 per year on sickness absence.

Where a record was made, respiratory and parasitic complaints  such as flu and diarrhoea  accounted for 52 per cent of cases. Mental health problems made up the second largest category, at 38 per cent, while 17.5 per cent of cases involved musculoskeletal conditions, and some cases overlapped.

Economically inactive

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest there are 2.7 million people with long-term sickness who are economically inactive, an increase of a third since 2019. The Office for Budget Responsibility last month forecast that health and disability benefits will rise by a third  25.2 billion  to 90.9 billion by 2028-29.

The think tank is calling for reform of the system, with far more thorough assessments required for anyone seeking to be signed off work with a diagnosis of a mental or behavioural disorder for more than 14 days. It also called on the Government to disable the issuing of any repeat notes, unless an assessment had been made.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly pledged to reduce the benefits bill.

Rishi Sunak used his speech to the Tory party conference last autumn to vow to bring an end to the national scandal, where our benefits system declares that more than two million people of working age are incapable of doing any.

From next March, anyone getting talking therapy on the NHS will be offered the chance to get employment advice, under plans to get more people back to work.

A Government spokesman said: We have already committed to reform the fit note system to better support people to start, stay and succeed in work.

These reforms are part of our 2.5 billion back to work plan  backed by specialist employment support and record levels of mental health provision  to help over a million disabled people, including those with long-term health conditions, look for and stay in work.

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As world braces itself for war, Israelis head for the beach

Young Israelis play football on the beach near the Orot Rabin power station as fears grow of an attack from Iran - AMIR LEVY/GETTY IMAGES

Israel on high alert as world works to stop clash with Iran, reads the front page of the Jerusalem Post.

The headline on another Israeli paper, Maariv, just says Danger Zone, with a picture of an Iranian flag and a missile being launched.

But the papers laid out for customers at a local kiosk in the coastal town of Herzliya, central Israel, on Saturday morning stand in a stark contrast to the mood on the street.

Nothing will happen. They say it will but it wont. Its just talk. In Herzliya we dont talk so much about it, Itzik, a local supermarket owner, told The Telegraph.

He added that the media was deliberately trying to create drama: Thats what they do.

Iran has continued to threaten to punish Israel for killing its top commander in Damascus last week, and both Israel and the US have briefed that an attack is imminent.

In the coastal town of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, people seem calm about the possibility of an Iranian attack - JOTAM CONFINO

But Israelis are used to war and this time its no different. In Herzliya, an affluent city just north of Tel Aviv, people were heading to the beach to enjoy the sunny weather.

In Herzliya  one of Israels most luxurious neighbourhoods, known for its beautiful beaches, high-tech industry and embassies  people were heading to the sea to enjoy the sunny weather.

At a local cafe, people milled around chatting and drinking coffee. Sharon, from the city of Ramat Gan, not far from Herzliya, was sitting on a bench with his dog.

He said he was not worried: I trust my country. I am not afraid. It will be all right.

Israelis are as unsure as everyone else about whether Tehran will actually strike Israel as the US has been warning.

I dont know if Iran will attack. Even my uncle, who is a captain in the army, told us yesterday at Shabbat dinner that he also didnt know, Sharon said.

For Sharon, the focus should still be on Gaza and getting the 130 or so hostages out as soon as possible. If they [Hamas] want 100 prisoners in exchange for 100 hostages, we should give it to them. I dont care. Imagine if it was your sister, he said.

Photographs of the Israelis held hostage in Gaza greet beachgoers at Herzliya - JOTAM CONFINO

Two women going for a jog along the seaside were equally sanguine in the face of the Iranian threats.

We are concerned but not nervous. We are used to it. I think an attack might happen, but on a military target, not civilian, one of the women said.

One has a son in the army who is now stationed at the border with Lebanon after fighting in Gaza. She said she had faith that the IDF would protect them.

We have always lived like this

I trust the army and Im an optimistic person. This is our life. We have always lived like this, she said.

At the entrance to Herzliyas beach, Reba is in charge of opening the gate for vehicles with beachside permits. He also isnt worried. If a missile hits, what can you do? Seek shelter. Thats it.

Like many in Israel, Reba isnt a fan of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, who has become increasingly unpopular for his handling of the war.

He is dragging us to death, he said.

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Im writing from Israel where the country is tonight braced for a wave of drone attacks from Iran.

The Israel Defense Force (IDF) warned at around 11pm that at least 100 drones had been launched. This was followed by an announcement from Irans state-run news agency that ballistic missiles have also been launched.

Israel has been expecting Iranian strikes since conducting an air strike on April 1 that killed Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders in Damascus.

Since then there has been some apprehension on the streets, but daily life has continued pretty much as normal, although tonight the IDF updated instructions for the population on the precautions they need to take.

Meanwhile, the IDF has been stepping up its air defences over the last 10 days, including calling up specialist reservists. Israel has the best anti-missile defences in the world, and they will do their best to down most or all weapons before reaching Israeli airspace. However that will not be easy to achieve, with large swarms of drones either preceded or followed up by missiles.

The commander of US forces in the Middle East has been in Israel in the last few days, coordinating with the IDF, and US forces will assist Israel in intercepting the drones, including by providing airborne early-warning systems. Israels other allies may also provide support, and the Israeli prime minister specifically thanked Great Britain and France for their support.

There is also a significant threat from Lebanon, where the Iranian proxy Hezbollah has an estimated 150,000 rockets and missiles pointing at Israel. They have been firing rockets and drones into the Israeli border area almost daily since the Hamas attack on Oct 7. It is possible that Hezbollah might launch an intensive barrage to coincide with the arrival of the weapons from Iran, in an attempt to overwhelm air defences.

Demonstrators wave Iran's flag and Palestinian flags as they gather in front of the British Embassy in Tehran - ATTA KENARE/AFP

Israel has been preparing

Israel will have no choice other than to respond to this Iranian attack, as every country would. The IDF has of course been preparing for that as well, perhaps by striking military targets inside Iran and other countries from which any missiles or drones are launched.

As the US sought to prevent Iran from attacking Israel by intensive diplomatic efforts, the Biden administration will likely try to pressure Israel to limit its retaliation, in other words to de-escalate. However, even if limited damage is inflicted in this attack, Israel should strike back hard  perhaps with even greater strength  to deter further attacks.

While hostilities directly with Iran are unlikely to expand beyond air attacks and possibly naval conflict, a major attack by Hezbollah might well lead to an all-out war in Lebanon, which has been on the cards since October.

This latest development in the Middle East shows that this is not just a conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The war in Gaza was initiated by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both Iranian proxies, and has been joined since the start, in the form of attacks on Israel, by Tehrans proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and the West Bank.

The ayatollahs have been declaring their intention to eradicate the Jewish state for many years and have built a proxy ring of fire around Israel to achieve that, as well as working on a nuclear weapons programme.

However this conflict develops, Israels allies, including the US and UK, must do all that is needed to stand strongly by their main ally in the Middle East, if necessary with military action. Failure to do so will increase the prospects of escalating conflict in the region.

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Lori and George Schappell, the worlds oldest living conjoined twins, have died.

The twins passed away on April 7 of undisclosed causes, according to joint obituaries published by Leibensperger Funeral Homes in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.

The Schappell twins were born in Pennsylvania on Sept. 18, 1961. The pair, who were 62 years and 202 days old, held the record for the oldest living conjoined twins, according to the Guinness World Records website.

Prior to George Schappells coming out as transgender later in 2007, the twins also held the record for oldest female conjoined twins ever. After George Schappell came out, they became the first set of same-sex conjoined twins to identify as different genders, the site explained.

The Schappell twins were craniopagus twins, meaning they lived with partially fused skulls. The pair shared vital blood vessels and 30% of their brains, according to Guinness. They were the rarest form of conjoined twinning, representing only 2-6% of cases.

The twins were conjoined by the forehead facing in opposite directions and were unable to see each other, according to a 2005 profile about the Schappell siblings in New York.

Surgeries to separate conjoined twins like themselves were not possible when the Schappells were born, not that they ever wanted to be separated.

I dont believe in separation, Lori Schappell told the Los Angeles Times in 2002. I think you are messing with Gods work.

Despite their physical togetherness, the twins lived very different lives.

Lori Schappell was able to walk while her brother, who was four inches shorter, had been diagnosed with spina bifida and couldnt walk on his own, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2002. So, Lori Schappell pushed her sibling around on a movable stool wherever they went.

George Schappell worked for years as a professional country singer, even booking gigs overseas. Lori Schappell earned a college degree and worked in a hospital. While Lori Schappell packed medical instruments, George would sit quietly with a book, the pair told the Los Angeles Times.

Ripley's Believe It Or Not Odditorium Grand Opening - June 21, 2007 (Jason Kempin / FilmMagic)

As they grew up together, the pair figured out creative ways to accommodate each other. While Lori Schappell liked to shower in the evening, her brother preferred to shower at the start of each day. They came up with a technique that allowed one twin to bathe while the other stayed dry.

Normal is whatever you make of it, but were very happy, Lori Schappelltold the Los Angeles Times. It all comes down to compromise. If more people in life did that, the world would be a better place.

The twins lived the first 24 years of their lives in an institution for mentally disabled people after their frightened and confused parents placed them there, according to the New York magazine profile.

They were able to leave the institution only after the wife of former Pennsylvania governor Richard Thornburgh helped prove to state officials that they did not suffer intellectual disabilities, the magazine reported.

The twins later moved into a high-rise apartment designed for the elderly in Reading, Pennsylvania, where they lived on their own.

The Schappell twins were featured in several television documentaries and talk shows.

They also acted in a 2004 episode of Nip/Tuck, portraying fictional conjoined twins Rose and Raven Rosenberg, according to IMDB.com.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
Russian President Vladimir Putin told nuclear safety experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that he wants to restart the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), the Wall Street Journal reported on April 12.

The six reactors at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest nuclear facility, have been shut down since September 2022 due to safety concerns. The plant is located near the front lines and has been occupied by Russian forces since March 2022.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the IAEA received reports from inspectors stationed at the plant indicating that Russia wants to restart at least one of the ZNPP reactors sometime this year. One diplomat said Russia may aim to bring the plant online in time for the 40th anniversary of the facility's connection to the Soviet Union's electrical grid in December.

During IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi's meeting with Putin in Russia in March, Grossi asked the Russian president directly if the plant would be restarted, according to people familiar with the talks.

Putin told Grossi it would, but did not specify a timetable.

Multiple people who have worked at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant told the Wall Street Journal that Russia lacks the necessary personnel to restart the reactors safely. The move would also heighten the dangers at a nuclear facility that already faces severe risks in an active military zone.

Read also: Media: Ukrainian military intelligence denies involvement in drone explosion at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

These dangers recently led the IAEA to call an extraordinary meeting in Vienna on April 11 at the request of Ukraine and Russia following reports of drone attacks on the plant.

Grossi called the strikes a "major escalation" in nuclear danger in Ukraine.

Bringing even one reactor at the ZNPP back online would mean raising the core temperature at the plant by hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit, and experts doubt whether Russia has enough technicians and resources to manage the transition.

"You can't just recruit these people off the street and tell them how to go run a power plant," said U.S.-based nuclear oversight officer Morgan D. Libby, who worked at plants in the former Soviet Union, including the ZNPP.

"I think they're kidding themselves that they have sufficient numbers of people to run a unit."

Ukraine's nuclear energy agency Energoatom has said that the only way to prevent nuclear and radiation emergencies is to comply with the IAEA's demands for military restraint, withdraw Russian troops and their equipment from the plant, demine nearby territories, and return control over the plant to the agency.

Read also: Locals near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant brace for potential disaster: It would be the end of us

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Democratic voters in Wyoming are set to cast their votes in the states caucuses Saturday.

President Biden, who has already won enough delegates to clinch the partys nomination, is looking to add the states 13 pledged delegates to his total.

He is facing nominal opposition in the contest from author Marianne Williamson and entrepreneur Jason Palmer. Voters could also select an uncommitted option on the ballot, as some have done in other states.

Follow DDHQs live results here.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
YMCA at VT looking for Y-Toss volunteers during move out week

BLACKSBURG, Va. (WFXR) The YMCA at Virginia Tech is looking for volunteers for its annual Y-Toss program, which spans from May 3 to May 8.

The Y-Toss program is a leading sustainability initiative at Virginia Tech. Annually, the program gathers used dorm items during move-out week to be repurposed and later sold at the YMCA Lancaster House sale during move-in week during the start of the next academic year.

Get ready to stomp! Spotted lanternflies are about to reappear in Virginia

Volunteers play a crucial role in organizing and promoting Y-Toss to students and families during the move-out period. By promoting the program, students and families have the option to drop items in the Y-Toss rather than throwing it out at the dump.

Volunteer shifts last two hours and volunteers will be assigned to a specific POD and responsible for grouping donated items within it.

If you or a group you know of are interested in volunteering you can sign up using this link.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFXRtv.
At present, Ukraine has 500 defence industry companies employing almost 300,000 people.

Source: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the occasion of the Day of the Defence Industry Worker; the Ukrainian president's website

Details: Zelenskyy noted that there are currently 500 defence industry companies operating in Ukraine. Almost 300,000 people are involved in this priority production. In particular, they produce Ukrainian shells, guns, mortars, armoured vehicles, anti-tank systems, electronic warfare systems and much more.

Quote: "Other countries are already interested in our weapons and in cooperating with us. After all, without our strength there would be no full-fledged force of the EU and NATO. Ukraine will ensure security for itself and help others to maintain and preserve their security."

More details: Zelenskyy inspected the latest models of military equipment and weapons and listened to a report on their production volume and use at the front. The president and the manufacturers also discussed the issue of state orders for the presented samples and the opportunity of increasing production.

For reference: On 13 April 2022, two Neptune missiles developed and manufactured by Ukrainians destroyed the Russian missile cruiser Moskva. In honour of this event, a presidential decree last year established a professional holiday for employees of the Ukrainian defence industry.

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Zelenskyy after conversation with Scholz: Ukraine will also receive missiles for air defence systems

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged other leaders of Ukraine's partner states to follow suit following Germany's decision to urgently transfer one Patriot air defence system to Ukraine.

Source: Zelenskyy on Twitter; the Ukrainian president's website; European Pravda

Details: The Ukrainian president said he had a "productive" conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to the chancellor for Germanys decision to provide Ukraine with an additional Patriot air defence system and missiles to enhance its current air defence capabilities.

"Thank you, Olaf, for your leadership. This is a genuine show of support for Ukraine in a critical moment," Zelenskyy noted.

The president also urged all other leaders of Ukraine's partner countries to follow suit.

The Ukrainian President's Office said in a statement on its website that Zelenskyy also briefed Scholz on the current situation in the Ukrainian energy sector, especially in Kharkiv and other affected regions, the operational situation on the battlefield, and the current needs of Ukraine's defence forces.

In addition, Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to the chancellor for supporting the Czech-led initiative to find artillery shells for Ukraine and stressed that its effectiveness directly depends on its timely implementation.

The parties discussed preparations for the conference on Ukraine's recovery to be held in Germany this summer and the organisation of the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland, the statement said.

"They have coordinated efforts to ensure the widest possible attendance of the Global South countries," the President's Office stressed.

Background:

On 13 April, Germany announced the urgent transfer of one Patriot anti-aircraft missile system to Ukraine.

On 12 April, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that "active negotiations" were underway with allies to obtain two batteries for the Patriot air defence systems and one for the SAMP/T systems.

On Thursday, 11 April, Kuleba urged the French Foreign Minister to take immediate action to supply air defence to Ukraine, noting that it was the lack of modern air defence systems that allowed the Russians to destroy the Trypillia Thermal Power Plant (TPP) near Kyiv.

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The CNN Original Series Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight uncovers the events that ultimately led to disaster. The four-part documentary concludes at 9 p.m. ET/PT Sunday.

Perhaps more than any other moment in NASAs history, the Columbia shuttle disaster reshaped the US space agencys approach to innovation, forever altering how it balanced risk with the call to explore beyond Earth.

The tragedy killed seven astronauts as the Columbia shuttle disintegrated upon its return to Earth on February 1, 2003, due to damage the vehicle sustained during launch. More than 20 years later, the lessons learned continue to shape the space industry and NASAs approach to working with private-sector partners such as SpaceX.

Changes at NASA were necessary, according to a formal investigation about the Columbia disaster published six months after the accident. A culture of complacency and misplaced trust in the space shuttles experimental design spelled disaster, the report outlined.

Concerns about vehicle safety from staff engineers were also left unheeded by management, according to previous reporting and a new CNN docuseries, Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight.

The disaster led directly to the decision to end the broader NASA space shuttle program, forcing the US space agency to rely on Russia for rides to space  one of myriad ways Columbia altered history.

Cultural changes: Safety days, review boards and round tables

Columbia marked the second deadly mishap for the shuttle program after the space shuttle Challenger exploded during launch in January 1986.

Following the Columbia disaster, NASA grounded its remaining fleet of three shuttles as the space agency sought to parse what went wrong.

We spent the next year-plus  trying to encourage the (NASA) culture to put safety first and, most importantly, to ensure that people that had dissenting opinions or questions were heard, Wayne Hale, then deputy manager of the space shuttle program, told CNN. It was all in the name of trying to encourage people to speak up.

The wife of Columbia Commander Rick D. Husband, Evelyn Husband (left), and then NASA Associate Administrator Bill Readdy place a wreath October 28, 2003, at the Astronaut Memorial in Kennedy Space Center during a dedication adding the Columbia crew (top). - Bruce Weaver/AFP/Getty Images

Some changes were simple: An audio-conferencing system was replaced with video, Hale said. And in the shuttle missions management team meeting room, a round table replaced the rectangular table.

We were told by the sociologist that if you had this straight, long table with the father figure at the head  that might discourage people from speaking up, Hale said.

NASA also had safety days  time set aside for engineers to stop work and just contemplate how to better improve our organizations approach to safety, Hale added.

Shifting perspectives

The tragedy touched the entire NASA organization, leaving a legacy with which the remaining astronaut corps had to contend.

Obviously it affected us emotionally, said Garrett Reisman, a spacecraft engineer from California who in 2003 was member of the NASA astronaut corps waiting to make his first foray into space.

I remember being called into the office, volunteering to work with families, Reisman added.

For two years, he said his entire job at NASA was to check in on the family of Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut who had died on the Columbia mission. He went with Ramons kids to their guidance counselor to help them pick out classes. He and other astronauts helped find a house for Ramons wife. Reisman still visits the family in Israel once a year.

It helped me understand exactly what the consequences are, not just for you (the astronaut)  but for all the people you love, Reisman said. That stayed with me.

Reisman flew on two shuttle missions after the program resumed flight in 2005 as NASA put in numerous safety stopgaps, including a mandate that a spare shuttle was always prepared to rescue crew members in orbit if their vehicle was damaged during launch.

Despite any lingering anxieties, the changes provided a newfound sense of security, Reisman said.

We had all these inspection and repair techniques, he said. I felt like when I was flying on Endeavour and Atlantis and Discovery (the three remaining shuttles) that it was much more safe than what the crew on Columbia  and certainly Challenger  had taken on.

NASA forced to rely on Russia

The space shuttle Atlantis completed the final flight of the program in July 2011, leaving NASA without a means to fly its astronauts to the International Space Station.

The programs end forced the space agency to turn to Russia, which  as tensions eased in the post-Cold War era  was a primary US partner on the space station and had a reliable vehicle called Soyuz to ferry its cosmonauts to the orbiting outpost.

The arrangement kept NASA astronauts space-bound. But as US-Russia relations became strained once again in the mid-2010s, sharing those rides to space became increasingly politically unpopular.

Culture clashes in the commercial world

By the end of the shuttle program, a contingent of engineers within NASA already had ideas for the path ahead.

Rather than keeping the design and development of the next astronaut-worthy spacecraft in-house, NASA could turn to the burgeoning private space industry to take over the task.

Commercial companies had a bit more leeway to innovate in the post-Columbia era, Hale and Reisman acknowledged.

I think one of the big challenges was to find the right path between the really huge bureaucracy and paperwork requirements that NASA had  which in some cases were frankly over the top  and figure out how to accommodate the culture of a commercial (company), Hale said.

In 2014, NASA selected the Elon Musk-led SpaceX and its longtime partner Boeing to take up the task.

The prospect of moving faster and paving a new future for the astronaut corps excited Reisman, who left NASA in 2011 to work for SpaceX on its Crew Dragon vehicle.

Wary after the Columbia tragedy, NASA didnt always see eye to eye with its commercial partners. The result was a culture clash that played out behind the scenes.

I have an org chart that shows all the different (NASA) review boards that all engineers working on NASA programs had to go to approve any major design decision, Reisman said. What happened was, post-Columbia, they were listening to dissenting voices so strongly that all of those dissenting voices effectively became a veto.

Long, painful meetings characterized relations between SpaceX and NASA, according to records of the era that the space agency compiled.

But eventually, SpaceX got its Crew Dragon to the launchpad, and its inaugural crewed mission in 2020 returned astronaut launches to US soil for the first time in a decade.

Boeing is still working toward the first crewed mission of its Starliner spacecraft.

Redefining rocket design

The lessons learned from Columbia  and the Challenger explosion before it  have left an indelible mark on the design of modern US spacecraft.

Probably the biggest example is just by putting the crew on top of the rocket instead of on the side of the rocket, you eliminate the hazard of any debris coming off the vehicle and hitting the spacecraft, Reisman said.

SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft atop takes off from Kennedy Space Center on October 5, 2022. The spacecraft carried the Crew-5 mission's four-person team to the International Space Station and docked October 6. - Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

A lot of those things were baked into the requirements that NASA gave us, he said, referring to instructions given to SpaceX and Boeing.

Crew Dragon, Starliner and NASAs own Orion capsule  designed to return humans to the moon later this decade  all launch atop rockets rather than being strapped to the side of them.

In this new era of rocketry with commercial companies largely leading the way, Hale said the challenge is to ensure the space industry avoids being lulled into the same complacency that led to the Columbia disaster.

My only concern now, as an old retiree, is  all these years later  how well are those lessons still communicated? Hale said. After 20 years, are people starting to forget?

Vigilance, he added, has got to be maintained.

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The interior design of HALO Space's Aurora space capsule, which will take passengers to the stratosphere under a helium-filled balloon.

LONDON  Stratospheric balloon company HALO Space plans to offer aspiring space travelers the space tourism equivalent of glamping. Instead of tight space suits and stomach-churning G-forces typically attached to a rocket flight, the company's pressurized capsule, attached to a helium-filled balloon, will offer comfy swivel seats, giant windows and a selection of fine cuisine.

The Spanish-headquartered firm unveiled the design of the 3.9-ton (3.5 metric tonnes) Aurora capsule at an event in London on Wednesday, April 10, and said it hoped to begin commercial operations in 2026.

Unlike suborbital space tourism companies such as Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin , HALO Space won't be taking passengers high enough to experience weightlessness . The flight will be a rather leisurely affair lasting up to six hours, almost four of which will be spent hovering in the stratosphere some 22 miles (35 kilometers) above Earth's surface. There, high above the cloud tops, passengers will be able to admire the star-studded blackness of space above, as well as the curvature of the planet shrouded in the atmosphere beneath their feet.

Related: Space Perspective is nearly ready to fly tourists on luxury balloon rides near the edge of space (exclusive)

"When you talk to astronauts, they tell you that this experience of watching the planet from above is really something unique and extraordinary," HALO Space CEO Carlos Mira said in the press conference. "So far, only 650 humans have had the opportunity to experience this overview effect. But you dont need to go all the way to space to have it. We hope to offer this experience to 1,000 people by 2030."

HALO Space is one of two companies currently readying its balloon technology to begin commercial operations in the next two years. The other is Florida-based Space Perspective, which revealed a completed test model of their Spaceship Neptune in February. HALO Space said they have conducted five test flights with a mockup and plan to take off for the first crewed test in 2025 before commencing flights with paying passengers a year later.

The interior design of HALO Space's Aurora space capsule, which will take passengers to the stratosphere under a helium-filled balloon.

Both companies hope their propositions will attract a wider customer base than the jerky rocket rides of Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, which propel daredevil clients on short joy rides to the edge of space and back. Reaching an altitude nearly three times higher than stratospheric balloons, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin's spacecraft experience several-minute-long spells of microgravity before falling back to Earth .

At $164,000 per seat, a trip with HALO Space will cost about a third of the price of a Virgin Galactic flight and won't require any advanced medical certifications.

"The take-off will be like being in an elevator," said Mira. "The ascent is soft and gentle, climbing at 12 miles per hour."

The 16-foot-wide (5 meters) and 11.5-foot-tall (3.5 m) capsule will be made of aluminum alloy and composite materials. With an internal space of 30.4 square feet (2.8 square meters), the spaceship could host eight paying passengers, plus a pilot. The internal atmosphere will be maintained by a life-support system similar to that of an aircraft. Yet despite this crammed interior and the extreme environment outside the capsule, passengers should still feel perfectly comfortable and able to relax.

"It's meant to be a sort of a glamping experience," Frank Stephenson, creative director and founder of Frank Stephenson Design who led the design work said at the conference. "It's a high-level experience for these people who are used to flying first class rather than economy."

The interior design of HALO Spaces Aurora space capsule, which will take passengers to the stratosphere under a helium-filled balloon.

Stephenson, who had previously worked for high-end car makers including BMW, Ferrari, Maserati and McLaren, said the biggest challenge was keeping the capsule light enough so that it can be safely lifted by the balloon while still making sure every aspect of the interior lives up to the expectations of passengers.

It's very easy to add weight to things and make it super comfortable," Stephenson said. "It's more difficult to reduce weight, reduce material and still make it feel like a very unique experience."

When fully inflated, the stratospheric balloon will be 460 feet (140 meters) tall, towering over the gleaming space capsule. The balloon is designed to detach from the capsule during descent. The capsule will then be brought down to a landing under a steerable parachute. Mira said the balloon technology is inherently safer than rockets loaded with explosive fuels. It also produces no greenhouse gas emissions, making the experience 100 percent compliant with the most stringent environmental protection standards.

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"We are using mature technologies," said Mira. "Balloons in general have been around for more than 200 years. This type of balloon, stratospheric balloons, have been around for almost 100 years. The first human went to the stratosphere on a balloon in 1931."

HALO Space plans to fly from spaceports in the Mojave Desert in the U.S., Spain, Australia and Saudi Arabia. The company is currently working with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to receive a license before its first crewed flight next year.
An Ohio Senator has called for the most extreme protectionism against Chinese electric vehicles yet: A total ban. Regardless of whether the White House listens, the request marks a significant escalation against the Chinese car industry as Washington struggles to stave off the looming prospect of cheap, foreign-built cars.

"I implore you to take bold, aggressive action and to permanently ban EVs produced by Chinese companies or whatever subsidiaries they establish to conceal their origins," said Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, in a statement to President Biden quoted by Reuters . Brown called for "expeditious" action, echoing the sentiment of Tesla CEO Elon Musk by calling Chinese EVs "an existential threat to the American auto industry."

BYD Dolphin Mini. BYD

The threat of the Chinese auto industry and its cheap EVs seemed distant until recently, when Chinese automakers began expanding their manufacturing bases in Mexico . This would currently allow Chinese makes to sidestep regulatory barriers, and access the U.S. market via the same loopholes that our domestic industry uses. (They're how the Mexican-made Ford Maverick can be sold so cheaply.) While the U.S. fortified domestic automakers' positions with its reworked EV subsidy , it's now only the foundation for further protectionist measures.

One of the leading proposals is escalating import tariffs targeted at Chinese EVs , which could regulate the origins of connected cars' electronics. The Biden administration claims to be concerned with data security, and the potential for Americans' information to fall into China's hands.

The U.S. is no stranger to sheltering its auto industry from foreign competition, with the Chicken Tax being the most famous example. It kneecapped small, cheap imported trucks, directly contributing to the gigantism of modern American vehicles (along with poorly coded CAFE regulations ). The infamous 25-year import ban was also enacted on the auspices of upholding crash safety standards, though Dirt Legal says it was just to undermine the importation of cheap foreign cars.

BYD Yangwan U9 supercar. BYD

Not all of the auto industry is as worried about Chinese competition as U.S. regulators are, with Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius decrying targeted tariffs by the European Union. Such extreme measures on the U.S.'s part would almost certainly be met by retaliatory action by China, drastically escalating trade tensions, and leaving an important consumer base out to dry. Of course, we might just be seeing political stalling tactics until the U.S. industry finally gears up with cheap EVs of its own though whether they'll be cheap enough to keep China at bay is another matter entirely.

Got a tip or question for the author? You can reach them here: james@thedrive.com
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 Starlink satellites launches from Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Friday, April 12, 2024.

SpaceX has broken its rocket-reuse record yet again.

A Falcon 9 rocket launched 23 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites to orbit from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Friday (April 12) at 9:40 p.m. EDT (0140 GMT on April 13).

It was the 20th liftoff for this particular Falcon 9 first stage, according to a SpaceX mission description, setting a new reusability mark for the company. The mission lifted off on the 43rd anniversary of NASA's first launch of its reusable spacecraft, the space shuttle, which first flew this day in 1981.

Related: Starlink satellite train: How to see and track it in the night sky

The first stage from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lands on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas for a record 20th time on Friday, April 12, 2024.

To plan, the Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth for the 20th time, landing about 8.5 minutes after it launched on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast.

The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, continued hauling the 23 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO). The spacecraft were set to be deployed there about 65.5 minutes after liftoff.

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 SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket ties reuse record with 19th launch (video)

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 SpaceX Starlink satellites had to make 25,000 collision-avoidance maneuvers in just 6 months  and it will only get worse

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk wants to help humanity colonize Mars and achieve a variety of other ambitious exploration feats. Rocket reusability is a key part of this vision, helping to cut the cost of spaceflight and increase its cadence.

So SpaceX's reuse records don't tend to last long. The previous mark  19 flights for a Falcon 9 booster  was first set in December 2023 and then repeated in February and March 2024.

SpaceX has now launched 38 orbital missions so far in 2024. Most of them have been dedicated to building out its Starlink broadband megaconstellation, which currently consists of nearly 5,650 operational satellites.
From Stanley cups to Samsung phones, this duo launches almost anything into space. Heres why.

It began like many seemingly crazy ideas do: With two friends talking at a bar.

Or, in the case of U.K.-based Alex Baker and Chris Rose, at a pub.

One night in 2010, the two mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidates at the University of Sheffield met up for a pint or two to blow off the steam that comes with the rigors of pursuing a doctorate. At some point in the evening, Baker and Rose began idly discussing the idea of launching a balloon into space with a camera onboard to capture a sweeping panorama of Earth.

What began as a theoretical conversation over drinks took hold of the pair, who decided to put the idea to the test. Months of research and experimentation led Baker and Rose to the moment on a December day later that year of their inaugural launch.

Alex Baker, left and Chris Rose pose for a selfie in October 2020 during a launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on behalf of Space Florida, the state's aerospace economic development agency. The UK duo are the founder of Sent Into Space, the company they started in 2011 to send pretty much anything but humans into orbit.

Needless to say, the launch  which took place in the backyard of Rose's family home  would not be their last.

For 13 years, Rose and Baker have steadily made a name for themselves as the guys whose company, Sent Into Space, will happily launch pretty much anything into near-orbit  as long as it doesn't have a heartbeat. And their daunting launch schedule and prestigious list of clients  from Samsung to Adult Swim  are a testament to one thing: It's a good business to be in.

"If you condense it down to a few words, it's just launching things into space," Baker told USA TODAY. "But we try to make things happen that have never happened before."

Commercial space travel: Calif. man says Virgin Galactic spaceflight was 'dream of a lifetime'

Stanley Cups, chicken nuggets, among objects sent to space

When the image Rose and Baker captured in 2010 and the story behind their early flights went viral, it wasn't long until marketing executives and educational institutions took notice.

By the time Sent Into Space was officially incorporated in 2011 as a business, the pair had already received an influx of requests from prospective clients clamoring for their own launches. For Rose and Baker, the high demand for their services was confirmation that the hard work to make the launches feasible had paid off.

"We worked very well together and we were very hungry for it," said Baker, 39, who now serves as the company's chief technical officer.

Stanley is one of numerous brands and companies with which Sent Into Space has partnered since its founding in 2011. The company conducts up to eight launches per week, setting itself apart from other commercial space companies by launching not people, but anything else without a heartbeat, into orbit.

More than a decade later, Sent Into Space has partnered for marketing campaigns, music videos and scientific research on more than a thousand flights.

Some of these projects simply involve taking photos or footage from high above Earth for documentaries and other projects. But what Sent Into Space is perhaps best known for is, well, sending stuff to space.

Over the years, Sent Into Space has overseen launches of Stanley cups, chicken nuggets, Barbie dolls, Jameson whiskey, a 7-Eleven Slurpee and even artwork for a celestial exhibition. The company's clients then use the resulting cosmic imagery or videos in marketing campaigns that Rose and Baker boast often go viral on social media.

"Sometimes it's the absurdity of the product in space that lends itself to the viral success of that company," Rose, 38, the company's head of projects and business development, told USA TODAY.

How the launches work

Early on, Rose and Baker knew they'd have to develop a reliable method to get a camera to and from space if they had any hope of making the business profitable.

Before their first launch, they extensively looked into ways to track a helium balloon into space and how to make use of weather prediction software to model its path up and back down. They also made sure to insulate the camera system contained within a cargo attachment so it could survive the frigid conditions of outer space.

Communications technology allows a ground crew to track the vessel and send radio signal commands to the contraption to record or take photos before falling back to Earth.

To get their subjects into space, the team uses a stratospheric balloon filled with hydrogen gas. The gas inside the balloon is lighter than air, creating lift that carried the craft into low-Earth orbit.

The helium inside the balloon is lighter than air, creating lift that carries the craft into "near space," a region well below the 62 miles above Earth where it would enter orbit, according to NASA. Low-earth orbit, where many satellites reside, is no more than 1,200 miles high.

As the balloon rises, the pressure change causes it to expand until its about 82 feet in diameter, according to the company. When the balloon is unable to expand any further, it bursts, causing the spacecraft to parachute back to Earth at a calculated landing location.

On average, the whole journey take no more than three hours, during which time the craft reaches an altitude of about 20 miles  which is still plenty high enough for the thin blue line of Earth's atmosphere to be visible.

Amid the commercial space age, Sent Into Space has few competitors

The rising success of Rose and Baker's company comes at a time when the commercial space age is only just dawning.

Billionaire-owned companies like Rich Branson's Virgin Galactic have begun selling tickets for short rides to outer space to customers with deep pockets and adventurous spirits. Meanwhile, private aerospace companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX are increasingly partnering with NASA on missions that ultimately aim to return American astronauts to the moon.

The SpaceX Starship spacecraft can be seen on as jets fly by in the background ahead of the company's third test flight last month of the massive rocket that will one day ferry astronauts to the moon.

Just last week, the U.S. space agency announced the three companies it hired to compete to create viable designs for a lunar rover that could be used in missions as early as 2029. One of the companies chosen was Houston-based Astrobotic, which in February landed the first-ever privately-built uncrewed lander on the moon.

But Rose and Baker are happy to let their would-be competitors reap the profits from human space tourism and million-dollar NASA missions. After all, they've carved out quite a profitable little niche of their own.

"We don't really have anybody doing anything like we do," Rose said. "We're certainly the specialists."

Partnerships with Samsung, Adult Swim, among recent highlights

Sent Into Space now has about 30 employees to help conduct up to eight flights to the upper stratosphere per week.

The company recently wrapped up a project with Samsung for the release of the new Galaxy S24. The results of the partnership, which involved taking photos from space in January using mobile handsets from around the country, could be seen last month in Times Square in New York City.

As a result of the partnership, Samsung said it noticed a 20% increase in social media mentions regarding the new device.

Sent Into Space recently wrapped up a project with Samsung for the release of the new Galaxy S24. The results of the partnership, which involved taking photos from space using the mobile handsets from around the country, could recently be seen in Times Square in New York City.

"We wanted to take it another step or two to highlight the incredible zoom capabilities from even further away, to showcase the limitless possibilities on our device," Jacs Wyatt, Samsungs head of digital marketing and social commerce, told USA TODAY. "Extra bonus was the fact they were able to retrieve our devices without a scratch."

One of Rose's favorite partnerships was one from about three years ago with a betting company in which he said Sent Into Space helped execute the world's first bet in space.

The concept involved a simple coin flip, but taken to astronomic heights as the object fell all the way from near space to Earth. At the same time, a robot placed its bet on the outcome while hovering high above the ground, Rose explained.

Ahead of the 2021 season 5 premier date of popular AdultSwim animated series "Rick and Morty," Baker and Rose's team created a miniature replica of the title duo's spacecraft to launch into orbit. Figurines of the characters then watched the episode from space.

One of Sent Into Space's other more well-known projects involved a partnership with Adult Swim on its animated series, "Rick and Morty."

Ahead of the 2021 Season 5 premiere date of the popular show, Baker and Rose's team created a miniature replica of the title duo's spacecraft to launch into space from Nevada. Figurines of the characters then watched the episode above our planet.

Did Rose and Baker ever think such a mission would be conceivable when they hatched their wild scheme all those years ago at an England pub? Definitely not.

But it's just this sort of out-of-the-box thinking that excites Rose and Baker to keep pushing the limits with each subsequent launch.

"Every day it seems we're creating something that could be a world's first or a world record," Rose said, "which is amazing motivation."

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sent Into Space: How this company photographs products in near-orbit
In this article, we will look at the 20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024. If you want to see more of the Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024, go directly to the 5 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024.

Given several industrial and economic factors, the global precious metals market has seen considerable changes in recent years, mainly in 2023 and 2024. The value of the global market for precious metals was $275.4 billion in 2021, and it is expected to grow to $449.72 billion by 2030 from $290.82 billion in 2022. This growth refers to a 5.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the 20232030 projected period. With a noteworthy revenue share of 59.0% in 2022, the Asia Pacific market is seen as a leading force in the region, driven by booming domestic manufacturing sectors in economies such as China.

Several significant policies and regulations in 2023 have influenced the precious metals market, reflecting both investor sentiments and broader economic trends. Gold prices varied during the year, reaching record highs and then declining due to multiple global economic issues. For example, in November, the price of gold soared beyond $2,000 due to predictions about future Federal Reserve interest rate changes and a positive view of the U.S. economy.

With two market giants namely Coeur Mining (NYSE: CDE) and Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL), the US leads the world in the sector of precious metals. A key player in the precious metals market, Coeur Mining (NYSE: CDE) has a very diverse portfolio of mines located in Mexico and North America. Its not just limited to other by-products like zinc and lead, the firm is also well-known for producing gold and silver.

At its Rochester facility in Nevada, Coeur Mining (NYSE: CDE) gained record production levels in 2023 producing around 10.3 million ounces of silver and 317,671 ounces of gold., Driven by the new Stage 6 leach pad and Merrill-Crowe process plant, it represented notable gains from quarter to quarter and year to year. Expecting to complete it in the first half of 2024, the company has made progress on commissioning its new three-stage crushing circuit, which will majorly boost throughput levels.

In contrast, Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL), a well-known producer of silver, was founded in 1891 in the Coeur d'Alene mining zone in Idaho. Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL) has its network spread in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, with mention worthy mines like the Greens Creek mine in Alaska. Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL) recorded the second-highest figures in the company's history in the fourth quarter of 2023 when it produced 14.3 million ounces of silver, attained 238 million ounces of silver reserves, and reported $720.2 million in total sales.

Coming on to the country we are going to focus on, Australia, by 2024, will have a larger and more visible presence in the global precious metals and minerals industry, with a wide variety of top production and exploration businesses, such as BHP Group, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals - which are one of the biggest mining companies in the country. Australia, which is well-known for having an abundance of natural resources, with the Cannington underground mine located in north-west Queensland being the biggest silver mine in Australia, has made the most of its geological richness to maintain its leadership position in the supply of vital minerals to global markets. It is the largest global producer of lithium, while it enjoys the reputation of being one of the top 5 producers of gold and iron ore in the world. The industry in the country is made up of well-established titans and up-and-coming companies that concentrate on a range of commodities such as gold, silver, rare earth elements, and other vital minerals. Therefore, we will now be discussing 20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024.

20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024

A golden nugget illuminated under direct lighting, hinting at the value of precious metals.

Methodology

For our list of the 20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024, we have ranked the companies by market capitalization. Market capitalization data has been sourced from Yahoo Finance with the metric being extracted at the time of the writing. The market capitalization figures in Australian Dollars have been converted to US Dollars using the exchange rate provided by X-Rates, as of March 21, 2024. The exchange rate used for conversion is 1 AUD = 0.66 USD. With this, we present a list of the 20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024.

By the way, Insider Monkey is an investing website that tracks the movements of corporate insiders and hedge funds. By using a similar consensus approach, we identify the best stock picks of more than 900 hedge funds investing in US stocks. The top 10 consensus stock picks of hedge funds outperformed the S&P 500 Index by more than 140 percentage points over the last 10 years (see the details here). Whether you are a beginner investor or a professional one looking for the best stocks to buy, you can benefit from the wisdom of hedge funds and corporate insiders.

20. Sandfire Resources Limited (ASX:SFR)

Market Cap: $2.57 billion

We will begin our list of the 20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024 with the well-known mining and exploration company Sandfire Resources Limited (ASX: SFR). Australian mining industry player Sandfire Resources Limited (ASX: SFR) excels in high-grade copper and other precious metals. Over $217 million in unaudited preliminary sales revenue and approximately $84 million in underlying operations EBITDA were reported by Sandfire Resources Limited (ASX: SFR) for the December 2023 quarter.

19. CSR Limited (ASX:CSR)

Market Cap: $2.71 billion

Next on this list of 20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024 is CSR Limited (ASX:CSR), which is an Australian company that produces and supplies building products for residential as well as commercial construction. Net profit after tax (NPAT before significant items) for the year ended March 31, 2023, as reported by CSR Limited (ASX:CSR), increased 17% from the year before to $225 million. With trading revenue increasing 13% to $2.6 billion, CSR Limited's (ASX:CSR) statutory net profit after tax was $219 million.

18. IGO Limited (ASX:IGO)

Market Cap: $3.55 billion

IGO Limited (ASX:IGO) is an important player in the mining world and is the 18th company on our list of 20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024. IGO Limited (ASX:IGO) posted an impressive 13% increase in revenue from the previous year to a record-breaking $1,024 billion in revenue for the 2023 fiscal year. The successful initiatives of IGO Limited (ASX:IGO) were evident in its 66% increase in net profit after tax to $549 million. Notably, the Lithium Joint Venture made a major contribution to both the company's net profit and dividends.

17. Boral Limited (ASX:BLD)

Market Cap: $3.85 billion.

On number seventeen of our list of 20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024, we have Boral Limited (ASX:BLD). Boral Limited (ASX:BLD) which is based in Australia operates across a various sectors, with products ranging from concrete, cement, asphalt to plasterboard among many others. Boral Limited (ASX:BLD) made a commitment to sustainability and innovation which is reflected in its diverse product range, which caters to both residential and commercial construction markets.

16. Allkem Limited (ASX:AKE)

Market Cap: $4.11 billion

In August 2021, Orocobre Limited ("Orocobre") and Galaxy Resources Limited ("Galaxy") merged to form the prosperous specialist lithium firm Allkem Limited (ASX:AKE). Since lithium is essential for rechargeable batteries of electric cars and other gadgets, Allkem Limited (ASX:AKE) holds a prominent position in the technology and renewable energy industries. With Group Revenue of $1,207.8 million and Cash and Cash Equivalents of $821.4 million, Allkem Limited (ASX:AKE) maintained a strong financial position while reporting record financial results in its 2023 annual report, paving the way for future growth.

15. Lynas Rare Earths Limited (ASX:LYC)

Market Cap: $4.38 billion

The Australian company, Lynas Rare Earths Limited (ASX:LYC) specializes in the exploration, development, mining, and processing of rare earth minerals. In addition to its mining activities in Western Australia, Lynas Rare Earths Limited (ASX:LYC) is well-known for running one of the biggest and most integrated rare earth processing plants in the world, which is situated in Malaysia. At the ASEAN Summit on March 5, 2024, Lynas Rare Earths Limited (ASX:LYC) met with the Malaysian Prime Minister and reaffirmed their commitment to working with Malaysia.

14. Evolution Mining Limited (ASX:EVN)

Market Cap: $4.40 billion

At number fourteen of the 20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024 is Evolution Mining Limited (ASX:EVN). Evolution Mining Limited (ASX:EVN) reported $2.23 billion in sales in 2023, a 7.85% rise over the previous year. Nevertheless, Evolution Mining Limited's (ASX:EVN) net profits dropped to $163.51 million, a 49.43% decline in earnings.

13. Arcadium Lithium plc (ASX:LTM)

Market Cap: $5.07 billion

Next on the list of 20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024 is the pure-play lithium producer, Arcadium Lithium plc (ASX:LTM), which was formed in January 2024 by the merger of Allkem and Livent. Since lithium is essential for electric car batteries, Arcadium Lithium plc (ASX:LTM) is ideally positioned to profit from the rising demand for the metal. Other than producing spodumene in Australia, Arcadium Lithium plc (ASX:LTM) has low-cost lithium carbonate manufacturing facilities in Argentina as well.

12. Orica Limited (ASX:ORI)

Market Cap: $5.56 billion

A multinational company based in Australia, Orica Limited (ASX:ORI) is one of the biggest suppliers of blasting equipment and commercial explosives worldwide. Additionally, Orica Limited (ASX:ORI) provides ground support services for mining and tunneling as well as sodium cyanide for the extraction of gold. In its 2023 yearly report, Orica Limited (ASX:ORI) revealed a net profit of $296 million, a notable rise over the $60 million net profit of the prior period.

11. BlueScope Steel Limited (ASX:BSL)

Market Cap: $6.61 billion

BlueScope Steel Limited (ASX:BSL) is an Australian steel manufacturing company. BlueScope Steel Limited (ASX:BSL) is known for its high-quality steel products and solutions, serving in multiple sectors which includes construction, manufacturing, and automotive. BlueScope Steel Limited (ASX:BSL) has also been active in steel decarbonization efforts, partnering with Australia's major iron ore producers.

10. Pilbara Minerals Limited (ASX:PLS)

Market Cap: $7.67 billion

Pilbara Minerals Limited (ASX:PLS) is an Australian company focused on lithium mining. Pilbara Minerals Limited (ASX:PLS) operations are notable for their scale, longevity, and cost-efficiency, producing high-quality lithium products. Pilbara Minerals Limited (ASX:PLS) has a strong client base and a highly qualified workforce, which contribute to its strategic growth positioning.

9. South32 Limited (ASX:S32)

Market Cap: $8.59 billion

Ranking eighth on our list of 20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024 is South32 Limited (ASX:S32), a global mining and metals company that produces bauxite, alumina, and aluminum among many others. South32 Limited (ASX:S32) saw a drop in statutory profit after tax of $632 million to $53 million in the first half of Fiscal Year 2024, which concluded on December 31, 2023. Reduced volumes of metallurgical coal as well as commodity prices were the main causes of this decline.

8. Mineral Resources Limited (ASX:MIN)

Market Cap: $8.80 billion

The primary business areas of Mineral Resources Limited (ASX:MIN) include energy projects, iron ore, lithium, and mining services. As an active player in the Australian resources industry, Mineral Resources Limited (ASX:MIN) is well-known for its impressive project development and operational accomplishments. The development of a lithium processing hub in the southern Goldfields region was announced by Mineral Resources Limited (ASX:MIN) in 2024, emphasizing the company's strategic focus on lithium as a vital component of renewable energy technology.

7. Northern Star Resources Limited (ASX:NST)

Market Cap: $10.28 billion

An Australian gold company, Northern Star Resources Limited (ASX:NST), has projects in both Australia and North America. In order to provide greater returns for shareholders, Northern Star Resources Limited (ASX:NST) focuses on high-quality, high-margin open-pit and underground gold mines. In the quarterly report for December 2023, Northern Star Resources Limited (ASX:NST) sold 412,000 ounces of gold at an all-in-sustaining cost (AISC) of $1,186 per ounce which showed good business results.

6. Fortescue Ltd (ASX:FMG)

Market Cap: $10.34 billion

At number sixth on our list of 20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024, we have Fortescue Ltd (ASX:FMG). Being one of the biggest iron ore producers worldwide, Fortescue Ltd (ASX:FMG) has its deep roots in Western Australia's Pilbara region. Fortescue Ltd (ASX:FMG) reported iron ore shipments of 94.6 million tons (Mt) during the half-year period that concluded on December 31, 2023. This is the second-highest first-half shipments in the company's history.

Click to continue reading and find out the 5 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024.

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Disclosure: None. 20 Biggest Precious Metals and Minerals Companies in Australia in 2024 is originally published on Insider Monkey.
With the Q1 earnings season underway, there will be a microscope on companies that can continue to show improvements in their outlook amid an uptick in inflation.

That said, several top-rated Zacks stocks are standing out before their quarterly report next week, and here are three to consider.

Interactive Brokers IBKR

First quarter results from Interactive Brokers on Tuesday, April 16 are expected to reflect considerable growth in the global electronic security exchange providers' top and bottom lines. Quarterly sales are projected to rise 12% to $1.19 billion with Q1 EPS forecasted to pop 20% to $1.62 versus $1.35 a share in the comparative quarter.

Overall, Interactive Brokers' annual earnings are now expected to rise 8% in fiscal 2024 with total sales forecasted to be up 6% to $4.6 billion.

Zacks Investment Research



Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Abbott Laboratories ABT

Reporting Q1 results next Wednesday, April 17, Abbott Laboratories' expansion as a diversified healthcare products company has remained compelling. This is despite Q1 EPS forecasted to dip -7% to $0.96 a share although first quarter sales are expected to rise 1% to $9.85 billion.

Plus, annual earnings are still projected to edge up 4% this year and are expected to jump another 11% in FY25 to $5.13 per share. Estimates of 4% total sales growth in FY24 and another 7% leap in FY25 to $44.85 billion is more reassuring. Abbotts stock also has a 1.97% annual dividend yield that tops the S&P 500s 1.3% average and the broader Zacks Medical-Products Markets 1.59%.

Zacks Investment Research



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ASML Holding ASML

ASML Holdings Q1 report on Wednesday will be much anticipated as the world leader in advanced technology systems for the semiconductor industry. An intergraded portfolio for manufacturing complex integrated circuits has led to robust growth in recent years.

Following a very tough to-compete-against prior-year quarter, ASML Holdings Q1 EPS is expected to drop to $2.85 compared to $5.31 per share a year ago. However, the tech giant has exceeded EPS estimates for five consecutive quarters posting an average earnings surprise of 9.38% in its last four quarterly reports. Furthermore, annual earnings are expected to dip -5% in FY24 but are anticipated to rebound and soar 42% in FY25 to a whopping $29.00 per share.

Zacks Investment Research



Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Better still, the Zacks ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) indicates ASML could continue its streak of beating EPS estimates with the Most Accurate Estimate having Q1 earnings pegged at $2.95 per share and 3% above the Zacks Consensus.

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Takeaway

Interactive Brokers, Abbott Laboratories, and ASML Holding will certainly be three stocks to watch next week. At the moment they each sport a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and strong Q1 results could move these top-rated stocks higher.

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Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR) : Free Stock Analysis Report

ASML Holding N.V. (ASML) : Free Stock Analysis Report

To read this article on Zacks.com click here.

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British Airways has announced it will start using two new next-generation weather apps to help it plan flights optimally. The new technology will replace the airline's existing manually-produced weather report system, delivering instant weather data for better planning decisions.

BA to roll out new weather apps

The British carrier will implement two new weather apps into its operations ahead of the summer travel season, enhancing the quality of weather data for both pilots and flight planning teams. The first app - Guidor by French firm SkyConseil - will give pilots access to real-time weather data from The Weather Company, delivering accurate and instant weather data.

As for the second app, set to roll out in the future, BA's Integrated Operations Control Center will have access to WSI Fusion, which will coordinate with the first app pilots are using - this app draws on a wide range of data, including radar, satellite and meteorological sources, to better predict weather patterns on the flight path.

Rene de Groot, Chief Operating Officer at British Airways, said,

"Its exciting that well be the first UK airline to combine the technology of both apps, which will allow us to make even better operational decisions in the moment using real-time data. These applications represent a step-change in the quality of weather information we receive, and, in the future, will enable pilots to collaborate in real-time during a flight with operational colleagues on the ground, allowing faster decision-making for a variety of issues like diversion planning and recovery."

The airline says the apps were specifically curated to "meet the exact needs" of its network, which now comprises destinations in over 75 countries. British Airways is investing heavily in modernizing its operations, having announced a 7 billion ($8.8 billion) investment last month - one of its recent upgrades involved replacing a paper-based engineer log system with a new Electronic Aircraft Maintenance (eLog) system.




Key Insights

Institutions' substantial holdings in Fevertree Drinks implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price

50% of the business is held by the top 14 shareholders

Recent purchases by insiders

A look at the shareholders of Fevertree Drinks PLC (LON:FEVR) can tell us which group is most powerful. The group holding the most number of shares in the company, around 74% to be precise, is institutions. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Since institutional have access to huge amounts of capital, their market moves tend to receive a lot of scrutiny by retail or individual investors. As a result, a sizeable amount of institutional money invested in a firm is generally viewed as a positive attribute.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Fevertree Drinks.

View our latest analysis for Fevertree Drinks

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Fevertree Drinks?

Institutions typically measure themselves against a benchmark when reporting to their own investors, so they often become more enthusiastic about a stock once it's included in a major index. We would expect most companies to have some institutions on the register, especially if they are growing.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Fevertree Drinks. 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. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Fevertree Drinks' earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Institutional investors own over 50% of the company, so together than can probably strongly influence board decisions. Hedge funds don't have many shares in Fevertree Drinks. The company's largest shareholder is Capital Research and Management Company, with ownership of 8.4%. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 7.5% and 5.1%, of the shares outstanding, respectively. In addition, we found that Timothy Daniel Warrillow, the CEO has 4.8% of the shares allocated to their name.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 14 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

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Insider Ownership Of Fevertree Drinks

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. 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 most recent data indicates that insiders own some shares in Fevertree Drinks PLC. The insiders have a meaningful stake worth UK119m. Most would see this as a real positive. If you would like to explore the question of insider alignment, you can click here to see if insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 15% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Fevertree Drinks. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Fevertree Drinks .

If you would prefer discover what analysts are predicting in terms of future growth, do not miss this free report on analyst forecasts.

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.
New Delhi: The weekend is upon us and if you are planning on chilling with a good show, we have some recommendations for you. A bit of romance, a bit of comedy, and some thrills and chills in our list of 5 K- dramas to keep you company this weekend.

Crash Landing On You

Yoon Se Ri (Son Ye Jin) a South Korean heiress accidentally crash lands into North Korea after a freak paragliding accident. She is rescued by a handsome and compassionate army officer named Ri Jung Hyuk ( Hyun Bin). Captain Ri turns into a human shield for Se Ri, keeping her protected until he can safely transport her back home. Se Ri in turn finds herself warming up to the endearing officer who is a gentleman at heart. What develops is an intense and sweet love story between the two border-crossed lovers.

Where To Watch: Netflix

Wedding Impossible

Lee Do Han( Kim Do Wan) is a gay and rich mans grandson on the brink of inheriting the business. His grandfather wants him married. In his desperation Do Ha asks his best friend Na A-jeong(Jeong Jong Seo) a struggling actress, to get into a contract marriage with him. But, trouble comes in the form of Do Hans ambitious and cocksure brother Lee Ji Han( Moon Sang Min) who tries every trick in the book to derail the marriage. But, the unlikely twist is when Ji Han finds himself falling in love with A Jeong.

Where To Watch Prime Video

Vincenzo

Vincenzo Cassano is a suave, shrewd, and scheming consigliere, whose innocent boyish face masks the harsh reality of his crafty ways. He is a smooth operator who manipulates and turns anyone into a pawn in his game plans. But things dont always go as planned, and he turns into a vigilante for a ragtag bunch of tenants headed by lawyer Hong Cha Young (Jeon Yeo Been) bringing down a corrupt conglomerate headed by the dangerous and psychotic Jang Joon Woo (Taceyeon).

Where To Watch: Netflix

Welcome to Samdal-ri

Cho Sam Dal (Shin Hye Sun) is a hot-shot fashion photographer in Seoul. Her life comes crashing down when she is wrongly accused of bullying her assistant. Canceled by the very people who once celebrated her, she loses everything she has built over the years. She returns to her hometown Samdal-ri the very place she avoided for eight years and also does not want to see her ex-boyfriend Cho Yong Pil (Ji Chang Wook). Yong Pils is the anchor in Sam Dals so needs, can she accept it?

Where to watch Netflix

Encounter

Cha Soo Hyun (Song Hye Kyo) is the CEO of Dong Hwa Hotel, who has been divorced but is still manipulated by her mother-in-law as well as her mother. Soo Hyun meets a thoughtful young man named Kim Jin Hyuk (Park Bo Gum) on a business trip to Havana. Soo Hyun is surprised to find Jin Hyuk as the recruit in the PR department at her hotel. The two find themselves irresistibly drawn toward each other, and what develops is a forbidden romance.

Where to watch: Netflix
In a recent submission, Lakshmi Ramamurthy, Hon. Trustee, Centre for Public Policy Research pointed out that India, in its act of imposing a ban on e-cigarettes in 2019, failed to make the distinction between the different classes of products. While in the finance bill of 2021, the government acknowledged the distinction between traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes and HTP for taxation purposes, this distinction has not been applied in the context of the ban on e-cigarettes.

Panama hosted the Conference of the Parties tenth session (COP10) in February. COP10, under the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC), holds immense significance for the future of public health. The FCTC addressed three critical aspects of tobacco control  demand reduction, supply reduction, and harm reduction. The Conference this time focused on forward-looking measures, exploring cutting-edge technology beyond FCTC, and laying the groundwork for COP11.

As an alternative to combustible tobacco used in cigarettes with proven public health impact, various countries across the world have embraced electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), such as vapes, and other Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS).

A study conducted by Public Health England indicates that the risk of passive smoking associated with e-cigarettes is very low, as there is no combustible tobacco. Despite existing research and facts on e-cigarettes, the Finance Ministry of India announced a ban on e-cigarettes in 2019, following which manufacturing, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage, and advertising related to e-cigarettes are prohibited.

This prohibition instituted a comprehensive ban on e-cigarettes, encompassing all forms of ENDS, heated tobacco products (HTP), e-Hookahs, and similar devices. Although often grouped as a single product class, these items constitute a diverse array with potentially significant disparities in toxicant production and nicotine delivery mechanisms.

However, the Indian Government, in its Act failed to make the distinction between these distinct classes of products. While in the finance bill of 2021, the government acknowledged the distinction between traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes and HTP for taxation purposes, this distinction has not been applied in the context of the ban on e-cigarettes.

India, a key member of FCTC, grapples with the challenge of having the world's second-largest number of smokers, approximately 100 million (GATS 2017). ICMR in its Cancer Registry Programme found that tobacco-related cancers accounted for nearly half (48.7%) of the countrys cancer burden in 2021.

India, which has predominantly concentrated on supply and demand reduction, has made notable progress in implementing measures like taxation, content regulation, and awareness campaigns. However, the outcome of tobacco control has been only moderately successful.

Approximately 5.3% of Indias healthcare expenditure is allocated to treating tobacco-related diseases, resulting in an annual cost of 13,500 crore, and 2023, tobacco-related healthcare expenditure accounted for 1.04% of the GDP.

The widespread use, particularly in the form of smoking beedi and chewing tobacco, has raised significant concerns for public health in India. Over one million adults in India lose their lives annually due to tobacco use, representing 9.5% of the total mortality rate, making tobacco a leading preventable cause of death in the country. Despite the health risk, the quit rates in India, especially among men, remain low at just 20%.

Addressing these challenges necessitates strategies such as improving access to cessation support, addressing psychological barriers, and countering the influence of the tobacco industry to achieve a meaningful reduction in tobacco use.

Indias current framework for tobacco control has yet to fully introduce harm reduction strategies, which involve exploring safer alternatives to traditional cigarettes. Countries like the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Sweden, Japan, and Canada have embraced the concept of safer alternatives within their global tobacco control policies.

In the year 2022, the Annual Population Survey of UK reported the lowest smoking rates since 2011 with only 12.9% of the adult population smoking cigarettes. The latest headlines for Tobacco Duty statistics say that total tobacco receipts for the financial year, 2022-23 were 3% lower than the previous year. Interestingly, 5.2% of the survey respondents stated that they were current users of an e-cigarette, an increase from 4.9% in 2021.

For India, the key focus should be on scientific harm reduction strategies and further explore cutting-edge technology with policymakers across the world.
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre is working towards benefitting selected businessmen in the country adding that key public infrastructure in the country has been handed over to them to make profits.

Addressing an election rally in Bhandara, Rahul Gandhi said, "This BJP and PM Modi is running government for few businessmen in this country. One of them is Adani...go home and google what is the price of Adani shares. In this country, 22 people have as much wealth as 70 crore people. PM Modi's only job is to divert attention and Adani has only job to take money out of your pockets."

On the Congress manifesto for Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi said that a lot of consultation and feedback was taken from the public during the drafting process.

"We made our manifesto thoughtfully. It was not made in a closed room. It was made after talking to thousands of people. This is the people's manifesto," he said.

Earlier, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi highlighted the promises made by the Congress party in its poll manifesto and said that they would remove the poverty from the country by transferring Rs 1 lakh into the account of one female from a poverty-stricken household, which comes out to Rs 8,500 per month.

"The Congress Government will transfer Rs 1 lakh (in a year) to the bank account of one woman of every poor household in the country...If you are below the poverty line then every year, Rs 1 lakh (Rs 8,500 per month) khatakhat khatakhat aata rahega aur ek jhatke se hum Hindustan se gareebi ko mita denge," Rahul Gandhi said addressing a poll rally in Rajasthan.

The Congress party released its manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections in Delhi on April 5. Party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi were also present at the event.
China is helping Russia in its most substantial military expansion since the Soviet era, a US official said on Friday amid growing concerns about war in Ukraine. Based on a U.S. assessment, China has upped its sales of machinery, microelectronics, and other technology to Russia. The news agency AP reported that Russia is using these resources to make missiles, tanks, planes, and other weapons for the war in Ukraine.

The intelligence report came at a time when Chancellor Olaf Scholz is heading to Beijing this weekend, and the Group of Seven foreign ministers will meet in Italy next week. The aim is to urge European allies to put pressure on China. Two high-ranking officials from the Biden administration, speaking anonymously, revealed on Friday that in 2023, around 90% of Russia's microelectronics were supplied by China. Also, approximately 70% of Russia's machine tool imports, valued at about $900 million, in the last quarter of 2023 originated from China.

China is aiding Russia in various areas, such as jointly producing drones, space-based technologies, and exporting machine tools crucial for making ballistic missiles.

Meanwhile, President Biden has expressed his concerns directly to Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding China's indirect support for Russia's war efforts. Despite not offering direct lethal military aid, China has diplomatically supported Russia by attributing blame to the West for provoking President Putin's decision to initiate the conflict.

However, Beijing has avoided referring to the war as an invasion out of respect for the Kremlin. China maintains that it does not provide military assistance to Russia, but it continues to uphold strong economic ties with Moscow, despite sanctions from the U.S. and its allies.

Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, emphasised that normal trade between China and Russia should not face interference or restrictions. He urged the U.S. to refrain from denigrating the normal relationship between the two countries, as per AP.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's plea against his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on April 15. Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta will preside over the hearing.

AAP leader Kejriwal approached the Supreme Court after the Delhi High Court dismissed his plea against the ED's arrest and detention. Delhi CM argues that his arrest was maliciously conducted during the general election period and it was driven by ulterior motives.

The petition, while seeking the release of the Delhi Chief Minister from jail, said the ED has "allowed its process to be used and misused by vested interests" as an instrument of oppression to not only "invade the liberty of the political opponents" in the midst of general election, 2024 of such vested interests but also "to tarnish their reputation and self-esteem."

Kejriwal's arrest also constitutes an "unprecedented assault on the tenets of democracy" based on "free and fair elections" and "federalism," both of which form significant constituents of the basic structure of the Constitution, the appeal further stated.

"The petitioner's arrest, therefore, bears serious, irreversible ramifications for the future of electoral democracy in India, for if the petitioner is not released forthwith to participate in the upcoming elections, it will establish a precedence in law for ruling parties to arrest heads of political opposition on flimsy and vexatious charges before elections, thereby eroding the core principles of our Constitution," the petition stated.

Kejriwal stated while filing the appeal against the High Court ruling that the Enforcement Directorate lacks sufficient evidence to prove Delhi CM guilty under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Sanjay Singh Addresses Press Conference

Senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Saturday claimed that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was not being allowed in-person meetings with his family in Tihar jail. Addressing a press conference, Singh said, "There is an attempt to break the morale of CM Kejriwal.

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His family has not been allowed in-person meetings with him. They are only allowed to meet him through the jangla. This is inhuman. Even hardcore criminals are allowed in-person meetings," the AAP leader said.

AAP leader further emphasized that the 'mulakat jangla' is an iron mesh which separates the inmate from the visitor in a room inside the jail. A visitor and an inmate can talk to each other by sitting on different sides of the mesh.There was no immediate reaction from the Tihar administration.

Speaking at a press conference in the national capital, Sanjay Singh said, "Elected thrice with an overwhelming majority, the Chief Minister of 2 crore people in Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, is being 'tortured,' at the behest of the Government of India, at the behest of the Prime Minister of the country."

On Friday, the jail authorities scheduled Kejriwals meeting with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann for April 15, saying that he can meet the AAP convener, but as a normal visitor in the 'mulakat jangla'.

The chief minister met his wife Sunita Kejriwal and personal secretary Bibhav Kumar inside Tihar Jail on Tuesday.
New Delhi: With the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections approaching, political parties are intensifying their campaigns, sparking heated debates on various issues. India's diverse population encompasses people from various castes, creeds, and religions, leading to the phenomenon of vote bank politics. One prominent aspect is the Hindu-Muslim politics that often surfaces during elections, reflecting the complexities of the nation's social fabric. In Today's DNA, Zee News anchor Ram Mohan Sharma analysed the Hindu-Muslim politics amid the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.

Our country's political landscape often sees Hindus and Muslims divided along party lines. For instance, the BJP emphasizes Hindutva and consistently garners a substantial Hindu vote bank. The rhetoric of Hindutva resonates loudly in BJP rallies. Conversely, some parties vocally advocate for Muslims, condemning any perceived injustices against minorities. Additionally, some parties tailor their messaging to appeal to specific religious or societal groups, all in pursuit of securing votes.

The upcoming elections promise an intriguing showdown, particularly in the Hyderabad constituency. Here, BJP has nominated Madhavi Lata, a staunch proponent of Hindutva, to challenge Asaduddin Owaisi's longstanding grip on the seat. Owaisi, whose family has held sway over Hyderabad for four decades, faces an unprecedented challenge.

Madhavi Lata, representing the face of hardline Hindutva, poses a formidable challenge to Owaisi's dominance. Despite the perceived difficulty of unseating Owaisi, BJP has pinned its hopes on Madhavi's candidacy. A doctor by profession, she also runs her own hospital. Both candidates are vigorously courting Hindu and Muslim voters, each vying for their support.

The battle for the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat has never been fiercer, with Madhavi Lata and Owaisi both striving to alter the constituency's destiny. Their campaigns pivot on appealing to both Hindu and Muslim voters, each leveraging the narrative to their advantage. Owaisi remains a towering figure in the race, backed by a track record of electoral success.

Muslim voters wield significant influence in Indian politics, being the second-largest religious group in the country. Every political party recognizes the importance of securing their support, employing various strategies to win them over. However, when it comes to ticket distribution, parties often fall short of their rhetoric.

Here's a clearer breakdown of the ticket distribution among various political parties:

- In Uttar Pradesh, Congress has nominated only 2 Muslim candidates so far. Similarly, the Samajwadi Party has also fielded 2 Muslim candidates.

- The Bahujan Samaj Party has been relatively more inclusive, offering tickets to 7 Muslim candidates.

- In Bihar, Congress has selected 2 Muslim candidates, while the RJD has nominated 4.

- In the 2014 Uttar Pradesh elections, Congress nominated 11 Muslims, Samajwadi Party nominated 14, and Bahujan Samaj Party nominated 19.

- In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Congress nominated 8 Muslims. Additionally, in a joint effort, BSP and SP nominated a total of 10 Muslims in UP.

Looking ahead to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Bahujan Samaj Party has already nominated 7 Muslim candidates. This time, the SP and Congress, contesting together, have nominated 6 Muslims each.

The BJP has also lagged in offering tickets to Muslims. Historically, the party has not nominated Muslim candidates in UP or Bihar. This trend continues, with only 1 Muslim candidate nominated this time. This decision has drawn criticism from the opposition.

Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, TMC, and RJD all recognize the potential of Muslim votes to sway elections. Yet, their actions speak louder than words. Ticket allocations to Muslim candidates remain disproportionately low, despite the parties' professed commitment to minority representation.
New Delhi: The Indian Defence Ministry has issued a tender to the state-run aerospace major, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), for the procurement of 97 light combat aircraft (LCA Mk-1A) Tejas for the Indian Air Force (IAF), officials announced on Friday. The procurement of these fighter jets is expected to cost around Rs 67,000 crore. The Tejas aircraft is a potent platform for air combat and offensive air support missions. Its secondary roles include reconnaissance and anti-ship operations.

In November, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) had cleared the project to acquire 97 more Tejas jets for the IAF. This move is seen as a significant boost to the 'Make in India' initiative in the defence sector. In addition to this, the DAC also approved a proposal of the IAF to upgrade its Su-30 fighter fleet.

The last order for LCA Mark1A was for 83 aircraft and the first plane is poised to be delivered in a few weeks from now. LCA Mark 1A is the advanced version of Tejas aircraft.

The programme will help the IAF to replace its fleet of MiG-21s, MiG-23s and MiG-27s which have been either phased out or are set to be phased out in near future, government officials told ANI.

The indigenous fighter aircraft programme, fully backed by Defence Ministry and Air Headquarters is set to be a big boost for promoting indigenisation as well as give major business to the small and medium enterprises engaged in defence business across the country, they said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been pushing for the revival of the HAL which has bagged orders for building all types of indigenous fighter aircraft, helicopters along with the engines for them under his government.

The Prime Minister also undertook a sortie in the trainer variant of the indigenous fighter which was first ever sortie by the Prime Minister of India in any combat aircraft.

The plan to acquire 97 more LCA Mark 1A fighter jets was also announced first by the Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari on foreign soil in Spain when he told ANI about the mega plans to boost the indigenous fighter aircraft orders.
New Delhi: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) released its first list of candidates for Lok Sabha Elections on Saturday. The party unveils candidates for seven of the 13 Lok Sabha seats. Party leader and former minister Daljit Singh Cheema stated that SAD chief Sukhbir Badal had nominated seven senior leaders as candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Choosing the historic and pious occasion of Khalsa Sirjana Divas as the most suited day to sound the poll bugle, he released the first list of candidates, he wrote in a post on X.

According to the list, Daljit Singh Cheema will run in Gurdaspur, while Prem Singh Chandumajra will represent Anandpur Sahib. N.K. Sharma, a former Dera Bassi legislator, has been nominated for Patiala, and Anil Joshi, a former minister and BJP defector, will contest from Amritsar. For Fatehgarh Sahib, Bikramjit Singh Khalsa has been chosen, while Rajwinder Singh, grandson of Gurdev Singh Badal, will contest from the Faridkot seat. Iqbal Singh Jhoonda has been named as the party's candidate for Sangrur. Punjab is scheduled to hold elections on June 1st.

Recently, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh for violating the Model Code of Conduct by misusing government machinery and accommodation.

In a written complaint filed with the poll panel, the partys chief spokesman Arshdeep Singh Kler said Mann and Sanjay Singh have violated the model code by misusing the CM's official residence and the Punjab government media platform to propagate the political agenda of their AAP.

He also said the action of AAP leaders, by using the CMs residence to organise a political meeting of ministers to discuss the political strategy for the coming elections, is a total misuse of government machinery and other platforms with the sole purpose of propagating and advertising their political agenda at the cost of public exchequer of the state.
Moor Studio/Getty Images

The job market will see "massive" disruption as AI becomes more prominent, a professor warned.

Even more utopian forecasters have said AI could affect millions of jobs.

There's no safety net that can contain the fallout from AI's impact, Eric Posner argues.

Artificial intelligence will upend the job market even in the best-case scenario  and there's no social safety net for workers who are at risk of being put permanently out of work, according to University of Chicago professor Eric Posner.

In an op-ed for Project Syndicate, Posner pointed to growing concerns that the labor market will become increasingly dependent on AI, with some researchers warning a significant number of workers could be replaced by artificial intelligence technology in the coming decades. 90% of workers could have their jobs impacted by AI, and 9% of workers could be completely displaced by AI over the next 10 years, a 2024 study found.

Some tech commentators have said that those job losses could be supplemented by government aid, such as some form of universal basic income.

However, that kind of aid doesn't address a key problem stemming from an AI-fueled workforce: the possibility that many formerly employed people will suffer emotionally from the perception that they're not contributing to society, Posner warned.

"Loss of self-esteem and a sense of meaning and usefulness is inevitable in a society that valorizes work and scorns the unemployed and unemployable," Posner wrote. "Even if taxes or subsidies can keep alive jobs that produce less value than AI substitutes, they will merely be putting off the day of reckoning."

The "antiwork" movement has gained traction in recent years as Americans, especially Gen Zers, shun exploitation by their employers and the grind that's characterized other generations' working experience. But most employed Americans seem to like their jobs: 51% of US employees said they were satisfied with their jobs overall, according to a 2023 Pew Research study.

Higher rates of unemployment have also been linked to rising depression, alcoholism, anxiety, and other mental health ailments, even in studies that control for income, Posner noted.

He pointed to the "China shock" that hit the US in the early 2000s, when a flood of cheap imports from China led to job losses for around 2 million Americans, according to a study from the Cato Institute. That shock attributed to a rising number of "poor mental health" days in the US, another study found.

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"Even if humans are able to adjust to a life of leisure in the long term, the most optimistic projections of AI productivity portend massive short-run disruptions to labor markets, akin to the impact of the China shock," Posner said.

"That means substantial  and for many people, permanent  unemployment. There is no social safety net generous enough to protect people from the mental-health effects, and society from the political turmoil, that would follow from such widespread disappointment and alienation," he added.

Read the original article on Business Insider
New Delhi: National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Saturday said the Supreme Court upholding the abrogation of Article 370 does not close the issue and his party will keep it alive till a dispensation comes at the Centre that is willing to discuss the restoration of special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

"This government will not remain forever. There is no power on earth that can keep Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi in office in perpetuity, there is no power on earth that can keep the BJP in office forever. Every government has a finite term, some are longer, some are shorter. Why would you assume that no government will come in future that will be unwilling to talk to us on Article 370," Abdullah told PTI in an interview here.

Abdullah, who is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from north Kashmir Baramulla constituency, said the Supreme Court verdict on petitions challenging abrogation of the Article 370 was unfortunate.

"I would like to believe that there will be a government in the future that will be happy to engage with us on our core issues of the special status of J-K and until that comes, we will keep our struggle alive," he said.

"We will continue to fight for it and struggle for it. A stamp of the SC does not close the issue, because if a stamp closes the issue, then we had a stamp on Article 370 much before this one and the SC found in favour of Article 370. So, yes, the recent judgement is unfortunate, but that won't stop our political fight," the former J-K chief minister said.

He claimed that several opposition parties were also on the same page. "Even now we have friends who talk in favour of the restoration of 370, whether it is in Tamil Nadu or West Bengal or the Left. We have friends outside of J-K who see eye to eye with us on the issue of 370," he added.

The former chief minister said just like the BJP did not stop talking about the abrogation of Article 370 even when it had two Lok Sabha members in the 1984 elections, his party will continue to talk about the restoration of the special status.

"When the BJP was reduced to two members of Parliament after the victory of Rajiv Gandhi following the assassination of PM Indira Gandhi, did the BJP stop? It kept talking about 370 despite setbacks in court. So, our struggle (also) will not end," he said.

Asked about the "silence" of the Congress on the demand for restoration of Article 370, Abdullah said while he was disappointed, he would not blame his INDIA bloc ally.

"It is disappointing but I do not blame them. I have always maintained that J-K's special status is the legacy of the Congress party. It was not an individual who gave it, it was the government that gave it.

"It was a sovereign commitment of the Union of India with the people of J-K, but you cannot escape the fact that it was the legacy of India's first prime minister. Therefore, I would have been happier if the Congress had defended its legacy a bit more.

"But, I do understand the political compulsions that make it difficult for them to do it. What I find surprising is that when people, whose legacy is the map of J-K, actually celebrate its dismemberment, that I find surprising because J-K's map is not a product of August 15, 1947, J-K's map actually predates independence. So, I would like to have seen people whose legacy is the territorial boundary of J-K perhaps defend it a bit more," he added.

On the recent protests in the Ladakh region, Abdullah said the people of Ladakh cannot be blamed for it. "Can you blame them? Unfortunately, when this UT issue was raised, some people were fanning the flames... I used to go and tell people to be careful what you ask for because once you get it, you will regret it and you will not find a point of return.

"They felt that UT was the answer to all their problems and that somehow they have been mistreated by successive governments in J-K and the only way to escape this, is to get a UT status," he said.

Abdullah said when the Union Territory status was granted, the people of Ladakh realised that "we were not the villains".

"In fact if anything, Ladakh enjoyed a greater political say than it does now. Then you had members of the legislative council, assembly, ministers in the government here.

"Today, you are reduced to what? Just a hill council. Every time an election comes, you are lied to. How many times do the people of Ladakh want to be lied to? They were promised the Sixth Schedule. Where is that? I am not surprised that they are as unhappy as they are," he said.

A section of people in Ladakh are demanding that the Union territory be included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution that protects tribal populations, allowing for the creation of autonomous development councils which administer this areas with powers to make laws on land, forest management, agriculture, etc.

Abdullah said whatever solution is offered to the people of Ladakh, will have to be offered to the people of J-K also.

"Ultimately, we are born of the same womb. Until 2019, we were the same state, and therefore, if they have concerns, if they face a threat, that threat is faced by the people of J-K also.

"You may not see the visible expressions of it in Jammu or in Kashmir, but the sense of unease, it persists," he added.
New Delhi: Authorities in Himachal Pradesh's Kinnaur district have arrested a man suspected of firing upon three female relatives during a personal dispute on Saturday. This incident comes ahead of Lok Sabha polls and assembly by-elections. In the wake of which the public has been urged to surrender their firearms in compliance with the model code of conduct.

The incident unfolded on Friday within Purbani village, where Raj Chander purportedly discharged a firearm at his two sisters and a niece amid preparations for his nephew's wedding ceremony, law enforcement officials were quoted by news agency PTI.

Following the shooting, the injured victims were transported to the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital in Shimla. Later, they were relocated to the Reckong Peo District Hospital for further medical attention. Of the wounded, Krishan Leela and Sweety, the niece, sustained severe injuries, while the other sister, Bharti, is reportedly in stable condition, as per police.

Chander has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, with his arrest made on Friday evening, authorities confirmed.
New Delhi: Every year, the Union Public Service Examinations (UPSC) pose a formidable challenge to aspiring civil servants, requiring years of relentless dedication and perseverance to conquer. A shining embodiment of this arduous journey is Vijay Wardhan, whose unwavering determination saw him through 35 failed attempts before finally triumphing as a UPSC IAS officer.

Hailing from Sirsa, Haryana, Vijay's fervent desire to serve his nation ignited during his formative years. He completed his schooling in Sirda and pursued a degree in Electronics Engineering from Hisar. However, his path was strewn with setbacks, prompting him to relocate to Delhi in pursuit of his UPSC dreams. Despite taking on more than 30 competitive exams, including Haryana PSC, UPPSC, and CGL, success remained elusive.

Each failure, instead of deterring him, served as a stepping stone towards his ultimate goal. Vijay's resilience and ability to glean valuable lessons from defeat fueled his relentless pursuit of excellence.

The tide began to turn in 2018 when Vijay clinched success in the UPSC examination, securing an impressive All India Rank of 104 and fulfilling his ambition of becoming an IPS officer. Yet, his thirst for greater accomplishments persisted.

Driven by an insatiable hunger for success, Vijay embarked on another journey to scale new heights. His unwavering determination propelled him to reappear for the UPSC Examination, this time emerging victorious as an IAS officer, a lifelong aspiration realized.

Vijay's saga stands as a testament to the power of resilience and patience in the face of adversity. In sharing his wisdom with aspiring civil servants, he underscores the importance of self-belief and the invaluable lessons that failure imparts.

As the UPSC gears up to administer the exam on May 26, 2024, aspiring candidates are reminded that the window for applications opened on February 14 and will close on March 5. Eligibility criteria stipulate a minimum age of 21 years and a maximum of 32 years for candidates, with relaxations in the upper age limit for those from reserved categories.
New Delhi: In a picturesque capture shared on her Instagram, soon-to-be mom Deepika Padukone showcased her radiant glow in a sun-drenched snapshot clicked by her doting husband, Ranveer Singh.

The post shared by the 'Fighter' actor on Friday revealed her sporting a beach tan, her smile as luminous as the sunlight she basked in.

Draped in a casual grey tank top, Deepika exuded elegance with a white tote bag perched on her shoulder, her hair elegantly tied in a neat bun.

Deepika's effortless charm and maternal aura shone through as she posed for the camera, her gaze drifting away, seemingly lost in the tranquillity of the moment.

Captioning the post with a simple sun emoji and a nod to her partner, "@ranveersingh," Deepika's Instagram quickly became flooded with adoring comments from fans. A fan expressed delight in seeing the 'Piku' actor enjoying her tan, while another eagerly awaited glimpses of her growing baby bump, already envisioning her as the "best mommy."

Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh's journey to parenthood has been a source of immense joy for their fans. The couple, married for over five years, announced their pregnancy earlier this year through a heartwarming post adorned with hints of their impending bundle of joy, set to arrive in September 2024.

Their decision to embrace parenthood comes as no surprise, with Deepika having previously expressed her and Ranveer's shared excitement for starting a family.

Amidst her bliss, Deepika continues to grace the silver screen with her luminous presence. Following her recent appearance in 'Fighter' alongside Hrithik Roshan, she gears up for an exciting lineup of projects, including the highly anticipated 'Kalki 2989 AD' with Prabhas and the Hindi remake of 'The Intern' alongside veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan.

Moreover, she is also a part of Rohit Shetty's cop-verse titled 'Singham 3.'
New Delhi: A recent incident involving a Swiggy delivery boy in Gurugram has sparked debate on social media after a CCTV footage capturing him stealing a pair of Nike shoes from a customer's house went viral. While many condemned the delivery boy's actions and demanded strict action, Bollywood actor and philanthropist Sonu Sood came forward to defend him, advocating for kindness and empathy.

What Was The Incident?

The incident came to light when a customer reported the theft of his branded shoes after the delivery boy had dropped off his food order.

Despite lodging a complaint with the food delivery company, the customer received no response, prompting outrage among netizens who viewed the CCTV footage circulating on social media.

Sonu Sood's Response

In response to the incident, Sonu Sood took to his official social media account to express his opinion. He urged compassion towards the delivery boy, suggesting that instead of punitive measures, he should be gifted a new pair of shoes.

Sonu emphasized the importance of kindness, implying that the delivery boy might have been in dire need.

If Swiggys delivery boy stole a pair of shoes while delivering food at someones house. Dont take any action against him. In fact buy him a new pair of shoes. He might be really in need. Be kind  sonu sood (@SonuSood) April 12, 2024

Netizens' Reactions

While some of Sonu's followers echoed his sentiments, emphasizing the power of small acts of kindness, others disagreed, asserting that stealing is unacceptable under any circumstances.

The actor's post ignited a discussion among netizens, highlighting differing perspectives on the issue of empathy versus accountability.

This is exactly what redistribution of wealth looks likes  Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) April 13, 2024

Asking for no action is still okay, but don't justify it by giving nonsensical arguments.



Poverty/Need is no justification for stealing. There are millions of people, poorer than this delivery guy, who work hard and earn their livelihood. They don't steal. Justifying stealing is  THE SKIN DOCTOR (@theskindoctor13) April 12, 2024

They really needed that money Sonu bhai pic.twitter.com/ix9xPc5OQt  Sagar (@sagarcasm) April 13, 2024

If a chain snatcher steels your gold chain then don't take action against him in fact buy him a new gold chain .

He might be really in need . Be kind  Ansh (@Pvt_insaann) April 12, 2024
Amid concerns that the Gaza conflict could escalate into a broader Middle Eastern crisis, US President Joe Biden stated on Friday his anticipation of Iran launching an attack on Israel in the near future, reported CNN. "I don't want to get into secure information but my expectation is sooner than later," Biden informed reporters in response to a query about the timing of a potential Iranian attack on Israel.

After Israel attacked the Iranian embassy in Syria and eliminated three high-ranking military leaders, Tehran promised to retaliate. When asked about this, the US President straightforwardly advised Iran against acting, Biden said simply, "Don't." As per CNNs report, addressing concerns about the safety of American troops, Biden reassured that the US is fully committed to defending Israel. "We are devoted to the defence of Israel. We will support Israel we will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed," Biden said.

Biden, who cautioned earlier this week about Iran's potential for a 'significant attack' on Israel, has been regularly briefed on the situation by his national security team. In response to the looming Iranian threat, the US along with several other nations such as India, Britain, and France, issued updated travel advisories for their government employees in Israel.

The Ministry of External Affairs released an official statement advising all Indians against traveling to Iran or Israel until further notice due to the current situation in the region. It also urged Indian citizens residing in these countries to register themselves with the Indian Embassies there.

Israel didn't admit to the April 1 airstrike. However, Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stated that Israel must face consequences for what he viewed as an assault on Iranian territory. Earlier, White House spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged the credible threat of an imminent Iranian attack on Israel but didn't specify timing details. Kirby mentioned that the US was assessing its military presence in the area due to Iran's threat and was closely monitoring the situation.
Sydney was thrown into chaos on Saturday when a a stabbing rampage at the Westfield Bondi Junction mall resulted in the deaths of six individuals, including one suspect. Law enforcement authorities reportedly engaged in gunfire with one of the alleged assailants during the rescue efforts. The police, as per news agency AP, indicated that the individual who was shot acted independently, and they have assured the public that there is no ongoing danger. Nevertheless, authorities have not dismissed the possibility of terrorism being a motive behind the attack.

The incident led to the evacuation of hundreds of shoppers from the mall, according to news.com.au. However, state broadcaster ABC reported that some people remained trapped inside.

Witnesses at the scene reported hearing shots fired. One witness recounted seeing SWAT teams sweeping the surrounding streets even 20 minutes after the evacuation. Another witness reported seeing a woman lying on the ground and took shelter in a jewellery store.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed his readiness for dialogue with Ukraine, as Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the aborted 2022 peace deal could serve as the foundation for resuming negotiations.

In a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday, Putin expressed Moscow's inclination towards reinitiating talks. However, he stressed that any discussions must not be geared towards imposing unreal schemes. The future discussions must consider the "new realities." "Since then, numerous changes have occurred, with new entities incorporated into our constitution," remarked Peskov.

Peskov elaborated on Friday, stating that the "Istanbul agreements," a draft peace pact negotiated in March 2022 between Russia and Ukraine, could provide the framework for restarting discussions. Despite significant developments since then, he maintained that these agreements could still be relevant.

As reported by news agency IANS, Peskov highlighted the Kremlin's perception that the Ukrainian side is not adequately prepared for negotiations with Russia.

The agreement under consideration during the Istanbul discussions, which took place weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, purportedly outlined Ukraine's neutral status and imposed restrictions on its military capabilities. However, talks regarding the status of Russian-occupied territories were postponed. Despite efforts, no agreement was reached, leading to the collapse of negotiations shortly thereafter.




Image source: Getty Images

Credit card issuers mail out offers to millions of Americans, often without the person ever showing any interest in applying for that particular card. Sending these offers helps creditors drum up new business, but it can be annoying for you. All that paper goes to waste if you don't want the card, and you don't want an identity thief to get hold of it and try to open a card in your name.

It's possible to stop these credit card offers from coming, but there are a few hoops to jump through. Below, we'll look at how to do it and how credit card companies get your information in the first place.

Featured offer: save money while you pay off debt with one of these top-rated balance transfer credit cards

How do credit card companies get your information?

You can thank the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) for all the unwanted credit card spam you're getting. This law permits the credit bureaus -- Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion -- to share your information with credit card issuers looking for individuals who meet certain requirements to be pre-qualified for a card. Then, the card issuer sends you an offer to see if you're interested.

Credit card offers aren't always a bad thing. They can give you an idea of the types of cards you qualify for, even if you aren't interested in the specific card you're offered. Some pre-approvals also include exclusive rewards that the standard online application may not have.

But if you aren't shopping for new credit, getting those letters can be annoying, especially if you're receiving multiple offers at once. Fortunately, the FCRA also created a way for you to opt out of these offers if you no longer wish to receive them.

How do you opt out of credit card offers?

The easiest way to opt out of most credit card offers is to visit OptOutPrescreen.com. You can also call 1-888-5-OPTOUT.

You can do an electronic opt out online or over the phone. You'll need to provide your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth. Completing this form will take you off of mailing lists for five years.

If you want to halt credit card offers forever, you can choose to do a permanent opt out. But to do this, you'll need to print off a paper form from the website mentioned above and mail it in.

The credit bureaus will take action to remove you from their lists within five days of receiving your electronic or permanent opt out. But it might take longer for you to stop receiving offers altogether. Credit card companies that began preparing pre-qualifying offers before you filed your opt out request may still send you offers for a little while.

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Will this get rid of all your credit card offers?

Taking the above steps will likely reduce the credit card offers you receive, but it may not eliminate them. Credit card issuers that don't use lists compiled by the credit bureaus may continue to send you notices.

If you keep getting bombarded about a balance transfer card from a specific bank, for example,, your best bet is to contact that bank directly. Explain that you no longer wish to receive any offers from the bank and ask what you need to do to ensure you don't receive any more.

You can also opt out of mail and phone offers on the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) website. There is a $5 online registration for this, and a $6 registration if you choose to mail in your form. Once you sign up, the company will remember your marketing preferences for 10 years.

It only takes a few minutes, and it could significantly cut down the volume of mail you receive. You can always change your mind if you decide later you'd like to begin receiving credit card offers again.

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We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Bombarded by Unwanted Credit Card Offers? Here's How to Make Them Stop was originally published by The Motley Fool
ZURICH (Reuters) - The Swiss government's proposed tougher capital requirements for the banking industry will impact UBS's ability to grow, the country's finance minister said in an interview published on Saturday.

Switzerland's largest bank will have to hold more capital if the regulatory package, announced on Wednesday to prevent a repeat of the collapse of Credit Suisse, is implemented, Karin Keller-Sutter told Aargauer Zeitung.

"In short, growth will become more expensive," she said.

The proposed changes target the country's four largest banks with 22 measures and more than 200 pages of recommendations on how to police those deemed "too big to fail" (TBTF).

The government aims to put the measures into effect quickly and present two packages for implementation in the first half of 2025.

Of the measures, Keller-Sutter highlighted the proposal to change how Swiss parent companies of UBS and the country's other systemic banks must in future back their foreign holdings with up to 100% equity, up from 60% at present.

"If we adjust this regulation now, it will have consequences for the growth and size of UBS," she said.

The requirement would also make it easier to deal with authorities abroad in the event of a crisis, she added.

According to an analyst estimate UBS might need to retain $10 billion to $15 billion in excess capital, compared to what it currently holds.

In the interview, Keller-Sutter again criticized UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti's pay package, which last year amounted to 14.4 million Swiss francs ($15.75 million).

"UBS is harming itself in this way," she said.

($1 = 0.9140 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Noele Illien; editing by Clelia Oziel)
Maybe youve seen the trending stock tickers today and noticed that Coupang (NYSE:CPNG) stock was on a rocket ride higher. Theres nothing wrong with momentum, but investors should look into the reason for the move and make their own decisions. I am bearish on CPNG stock, and as we delve into whats actually going on with Coupang, you might decide to find better investment opportunities elsewhere.

The easiest way to describe Coupang is as South Koreas version of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). Its a popular e-commerce company with an order-fulfillment service called Rocket Delivery.

CPNG stock was on the move today, and you may be tempted to go all-in on the South Korean Amazon. However, be sure to learn all of the relevant facts before making any investment decisions. After all, a stock can be vulnerable to a pullback if a rally isnt really justified.

A Bigger Company Could Threaten Coupang

Before we get into the headline news, theres a development that prospective Coupang investors cant afford to ignore. Specifically, a huge company is reportedly taking steps to compete directly with Coupang.

This company is much bigger than Coupang  and no, its not Amazon. Rather, its China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), which has a $184.13 billion market cap, as opposed to Coupangs $38.16 billion market cap.

Heres the scoop, courtesy of Nikkeis Kotaro Hosokawa (via TheFly). Apparently, Alibaba plans to invest $1.1 billion over the next three years to create a logistics network in South Korea. With this move, Alibaba intends to take on Coupang by leveraging low prices and speedy deliveries.

For an e-commerce business, being threatened by Alibaba in Asia would be like being threatened by Amazon in the U.S. Its just bad news for Coupang.

Furthermore, Alibaba has the capital resources to cause problems for Coupang. Reportedly, Alibaba will build a logistics center in a 180,000-square-meter lot this year, as well as a call center with 300 employees. Plus, Alibaba plans to establish a purchasing department to sell local products overseas, aiming to boost exports for 50,000 small South Korean businesses over three years.

Today, the market is simply ignoring this news, as short-term traders are obsessing over a new development with Coupang. Still, big-picture thinkers shouldnt just dismiss the threat that Alibaba will pose to Coupang in the coming years.

Why Was Coupang Stock Up 11.5% Today?

So, heres the catalyst that caused CPNG stock to rally 11.5% today. As The Korea Times reported, Coupang plans to increase its monthly Wow service (which is similar to Amazons Prime service) membership fee from 4,990 South Korean won previously to a new price of 7,890 won (equivalent to approximately $5.74).

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If this doesnt seem like a big deal, bear in mind that $5.74 can be a lot of money for families in different regions of the world. Moreover, this is a 58% increase in the monthly Wow service fee.

Surely, Coupangs customers are now saying wow to the Wow service, but not in a good way. This probably should go without saying, but The Korea Times stated, Many consumers [are] displeased with [the] steep price hike.

Lets put this into perspective. Without a doubt, some customers havent been particularly happy about Amazons Prime membership price hikes throughout the years. However, at least Amazon had the sense to make those price increases somewhat gradual  not 58% all at once.

My point is that this could backfire in a big way. In the immediate term, stock traders are probably over-focused on the revenue-generating potential of Coupangs Wow service price hike. If the company loses angry customers, though, then there could be long-term damage to Coupangs bottom line. Thats the last thing Coupang needs as Alibaba makes major moves to steal some of the companys market share in South Korea.

Is Coupang Stock a Buy, According to Analysts?

On TipRanks, CPNG comes in as a Moderate Buy based on three Buys and two Hold ratings assigned by analysts in the past three months. The average CPNG stock price target is $21.75, implying 2.35% upside potential.

If youre wondering which analyst you should follow if you want to buy and sell CPNG stock, the most profitable analyst covering the stock (on a one-year timeframe) is Seyon Park of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), with an average return of 16.1% per rating and an 89% success rate. Click on the image below to learn more.

Conclusion: Should You Consider Coupang Stock?

Coupang is certainly an intriguing company that might be compared to Amazon. Yet, even the mammoth Amazon didnt have the audacity to raise its subscription service fee by 58% all at once. Truly, Coupangs huge price hike is either a brilliant move or just reckless and greedy.

Personally, I dont consider it to be a brilliant move. Coupang needs to keep its customers happy, especially with Alibaba threatening to make a move into Coupangs home turf. Consequently, even though CPNG stock is quickly moving higher, Im not considering owning it now.

Disclosure
M_a_y_a / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Theoretically, a higher minimum wage is a good thing that could ease the cost of living for more Americans. However, the practical application of raising the minimum wage is causing job loss and higher prices in states like California.

Read next: How I Make $5,000 a Month in Passive Income Doing Just 10 Hours of Work a Year

Discover more: 6 Genius Things All Wealthy People Do With Their Money

For instance, fast food workers in California have been getting laid off due to the states new $20 minimum wage law, which is specifically designed for fast food employees. In conjunction is the Fast Act, which expands the definition of fast food restaurant to any chain with 60 or more locations in the US. These companies must comply with the new laws, resulting in negative consequences for some employees.

Starbucks, known for its employee-friendly compensation and perks like healthcare, 401(k), tuition coverage, paid time off and more, closed several of its California locations. Pizza Hut and Excalibur Pizza eliminated numerous delivery jobs in California, citing rising operating costs as the reason. Chipotle has reported an upcoming increase in its food prices due to the new law, and some franchises have completely discontinued operations.

Employers are finding that, to comply with the new laws, they need to do one of two things: raise prices to offset the new salary requirements or lay them off and automate as many functions as possible. Neither option is ideal for workers or consumers. And for those who historically have worked in fast food, the higher salary requirements may lead to increased job market competition, leaving those with less experience or education out of contention for those positions.

While at first glance these new laws seem to benefit workers, underneath the surface is a different story. Workers are losing their jobs and businesses are shutting their doors. Additionally, business owners profits are taking a hit as customers rethink spending their money on fast food.

In the long run, these laws may prove to be effective, but in the short term, theyre not quite doing what they set out to do.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Fast Food Workers Are Getting Laid Off: How Minimum Wage Laws Affect You and Your Wallet
Thitima Uthaiburom / Getty Images

According to a 2023 World Economic Forum on the future of jobs, AI and Machine Learning Specialists topped their list of Fastest Growing Jobs. This means the careers kids need to prepare for, and how they plan financially, are vastly different from what previous generations expected. New jobs will exist and current careers will be forever changed.

Read next: 6 Best ChatGPT Prompts To Find Your High-Income Side Gig

Discover more: 7 Unusual Ways To Make Extra Money (That Actually Work)

So how do you and the education you provide prepare your children for the anticipated job market?

Sponsored: Credit card debt keeping you up at night? Find out if you can reduce your debt with these 3 steps

Embrace Technology-Based Careers

One of the most important things you can do is to encourage your kids to embrace technology. Have them learn to use it to elevate whatever they are passionate about. For instance, At The Core, a career advice site for parents and high school students, suggests that parents encourage their kids to think about the impact of technology when researching careers. In addition, students should see themselves as lifelong learners who emphasize critical thinking, the ability to adapt and to utilize data analysis rather than simply memorizing information.

And while technology will transform kids future jobs and the way they work, that does not mean it will eliminate their chances at a rewarding career. After all, the internet has evolved from something that allowed people to buy stuff in their pajamas to (yes, still doing that) something that has created new careers such as website designer, online marketer, social media manager and mobile app engineer. Beyond that, things like streaming services have created an entire niche of high-paying jobs including algorithm and machine-learning engineers.

Stay Positive

The key thing parents can do is to avoid passing on any anxiety about AI and other job-stealing technologies to their kids. Tech is here and advancing faster by the nanosecond.

Our tech-fueled future demands that our kids be more practical and creative in their career path and education. Parents cannot accurately imagine what new jobs will be available to their kids, but its easy to predict that technology will play a significant role. As such, the only way to future-proof your childrens education is to ensure they remain curious, agile and able to adapt intellectually to new problems, with and without technology; creative thinking might be as important as critical thinking.

In short, the ability to use technology to help foresee and solve unexpected problems, create new use cases and generate opportunities is not just key to their future. It is their future.

Story continues

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Financial Planning: How To Future-Proof Your Childs Education
In order to justify the effort of selecting individual stocks, it's worth striving to beat the returns from a market index fund. But the main game is to find enough winners to more than offset the losers At this point some shareholders may be questioning their investment in Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE:LVS), since the last five years saw the share price fall 26%.

After losing 5.2% this past week, it's worth investigating the company's fundamentals to see what we can infer from past performance.

See our latest analysis for Las Vegas Sands

In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.

During five years of share price growth, Las Vegas Sands moved from a loss to profitability. Most would consider that to be a good thing, so it's counter-intuitive to see the share price declining. Other metrics may better explain the share price move.

The modest 1.6% dividend yield is unlikely to be guiding the market view of the stock. Arguably, the revenue drop of 21% a year for half a decade suggests that the company can't grow in the long term. This has probably encouraged some shareholders to sell down the stock.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

Las Vegas Sands is well known by investors, and plenty of clever analysts have tried to predict the future profit levels. So we recommend checking out this free report showing consensus forecasts

What About Dividends?

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. So for companies that pay a generous dividend, the TSR is often a lot higher than the share price return. In the case of Las Vegas Sands, it has a TSR of -21% for the last 5 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

A Different Perspective

Las Vegas Sands shareholders are down 12% for the year (even including dividends), but the market itself is up 25%. However, keep in mind that even the best stocks will sometimes underperform the market over a twelve month period. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 4% per year over five years. We realise that Baron Rothschild has said investors should "buy when there is blood on the streets", but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Las Vegas Sands better, we need to consider many other factors. Consider risks, for instance. Every company has them, and we've spotted 3 warning signs for Las Vegas Sands you should know about.

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Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American exchanges.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.



This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
With its monumental initial public offering (IPO) in November 2021, Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) arrived on the electric vehicle (EV) scene with a bang. As the largest IPO for an American company since Meta in 2014, Rivian raised a whopping $12 billion.

But since its public debut, things have been a little rough. In an industry that is growing more competitive by the year, Rivian has been confronted with challenge after challenge and continues to struggle to gain its footing. For this reason, and a handful of others we will explore, investors are better off owning EV companies with a track record of success, such as Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).

With several distinct advantages over not only Rivian, but the entire industry, Tesla is positioned to continue to grow over the long term and gain market share. Here are two reasons why Tesla is a much better stock to own than Rivian.

Playing a game of serious catch-up

There is one obvious problem with Rivian: It has never turned a profit. Even though the company has made commendable progress increasing production, expenses continue to outpace revenue, forcing the EV maker to operate solely off of its cash reserves.

Fortunately for Rivian, its massive IPO provided some runway to keep the business up and running, but even this is beginning to dwindle. In just over two years, the company's cash and equivalents have plummeted more than 60%, currently sitting at just under $8 billion. If something doesn't change -- and change fast -- Rivian likely only has enough cash to last another two to three years before having to explore other financing options.

Then there's Tesla. While its profit margin slipped in 2023 after it implemented price cuts to stimulate demand, it still boasts one of the most impressive and profitable business models in the industry. As of last count, Tesla brings in roughly $8,200 per vehicle sold. The next-closest competitor is China-based BYD, with around $1,700.

Even as 2023 saw profit margin decline, Tesla still set new records in terms of income and production. In light of that slimmer profit margin, a new all-time high in net income is even more impressive and goes to show just how robust Tesla's business truly is.

While 2024 is shaping up to be lackluster for the entire EV industry as high interest rates dissuade would-be buyers, Tesla's financial strength gives it the unique ability to weather short-term challenges while continuing to build for a prosperous future. With a whopping $29.1 billion in cash and equivalents, Tesla has the funds to expand and invest in operations while competitors will be forced to scale back and focus on efficiency.

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Image source: Tesla.

The EV market enters a new era

Few other companies have rewarded investors like Tesla has over the last few years. Since 2019, its stock is up more than 800%. With expectations that the EV market will continue to grow in the future, perhaps this is why many investors may have flocked initially to Rivian, hoping that it will follow a similar trajectory to Tesla's monumental growth.

However, today's EV market landscape is much different compared to when Tesla was first getting started. Back then, Tesla was one of just a few companies trying to mass-produce EVs. With limited competition and wide open market for the taking, the margin of error was significantly larger.

Lack of profits in a capital-intensive industry like EV manufacturing isn't uncommon. In this regard, Rivian's lack of income is par for the course. Tesla went nearly a decade before posting a full year of profits.

However, unlike in Tesla's early days, the stakes were higher. Now, the industry is flooded with not only start-ups but a slew of legacy automakers with vast resources, some of which have been manufacturing cars for nearly a century. Add in the fact that the EV market isn't growing as rapidly as it was in the 2010s, and Rivian's future prospects become all the more dicey. A proven and profitable business model becomes a necessity in a maturing EV landscape, not just a luxury.

The final consensus

Is it all doom and gloom for Rivian? Probably not. The company is showing progress in terms of production and revenue and also recently unveiled a more affordable model that should hit the market in 2026. In addition, the decision to hold off on construction of its costly Georgia factory could be seen as a sign of prudence that the company needs to figure out how to scale at profit at its current factory in Illinois.

Yet, the type of turnaround Rivian needs is monumental, making it increasingly risky to own its stock. With a capital-intensive supply chain, scaling EV manufacturing often takes years, meaning there's no telling when (or if) Rivian will make it to a break-even point. For investors looking for the best of the EV industry, Tesla remains the ideal option.

Should you invest $1,000 in Rivian Automotive right now?

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Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. RJ Fulton has positions in Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends BYD, Meta Platforms, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Forget Rivian, Buy This Magnificent Electric Vehicle Stock Instead was originally published by The Motley Fool
The value of Uzbekneftegaz's (Uzbekistan's state oil and gas company) exports amounted to $158.5 million from January through March 2024.

The data from Uzbekneftegaz shows that this indicator exceeded the projected number by 123 percent, or $29.7 million, during this period.

The company's estimated export volume was $128.8 million.

Meanwhile, the volume of Uzbekistan's exports of goods and services (besides non-monetary gold) amounted to $2.31 billion from January through February 2024, which is more than 14.9 percent year-on-year.

The data from Uzbekistan's Statistics Agency shows that the main export partners of goods and services in the foreign trade turnover were Russia, China, Turkiye, Kazakhstan, France, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan from January through 2024. Their share in the total volume of exports reached 42.1 percent.

In the structure of exports, 79.9 percent are goods, of which industrial goods account for 16.8 percent, food products and live animals for 6.5 percent, and chemicals and similar products for 6.6 percent. Other types of goods amount to 36.4 percent.

Furthermore, the total volume of Uzbekistan's foreign trade turnover amounted to over $9.89 billion from January through February this year. Imports reached $6.28 billion (an increase of 8.7 percent).




(Bloomberg) -- Alphabet Inc.s Google will temporarily remove links to California news sites for an unspecified number of users in the state as it studies the impact of proposed legislation that would force the company to pay for serving up such content.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Jaffer Zaidi, Googles vice president of global news partnerships, said in a blog post Friday that the company would conduct a short-term test for a small percentage of California users to explore how the proposed legislation would affect the companys products. A Google spokesperson declined to specify how long the test would last, how many users would be affected and which news organizations would be included.

The bill, known as the California Journalism Preservation Act, would create a level of business uncertainty that no company could accept, Zaidi said. To avoid an outcome where all parties lose and the California news industry is left worse off, we urge lawmakers to take a different approach.

Zaidi also said the company would halt planned investments in news in the state until theres clarity on Californias regulatory environment.

Governments around the globe have taken steps aimed at compelling tech giants to pay for news. Last year, Alphabet said it would remove links to news from Canadian publishers on Google after Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government passed a law requiring digital platforms to compensate local news outlets. Meta Platforms Inc., meanwhile, has opted to wind down its news feature in Canada, along with the US and Australia.

Buffy Wicks, the California assembly member behind the bill, said in a statement that she would remain in dialogue with Google.

This is a bill about basic fairness  its about ensuring platforms pay for the content they repurpose, she said. We are committed to continuing negotiations with Google and all other stakeholders to secure a brighter future for California journalists and ensure that the lights of democracy stay on.

--With assistance from Eliyahu Kamisher.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

2024 Bloomberg L.P.
William Krueger, the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of The Americas at Greenbrier Companies Inc (NYSE:GBX), has sold 8,800 shares of the company on April 10, 2024, according to a recent SEC filing.

Greenbrier Companies Inc is a leading international supplier of equipment and services to the freight rail transportation markets. The company's manufacturing presence spans across North America, Europe, and South America, and it offers an array of freight railcar types. In addition to manufacturing, Greenbrier provides wheels and parts, leasing and management services, and railcar refurbishment.

Over the past year, the insider has sold a total of 8,800 shares and has not made any purchases of the company's stock. The recent transaction further aligns with the overall insider trend at Greenbrier Companies Inc, which has seen 1 insider buy and 8 insider sells over the past year.

On the day of the sale, shares of Greenbrier Companies Inc were trading at $52.87, giving the company a market capitalization of $1.625 billion. The stock's price-earnings ratio stands at 15.40, which is above both the industry median of 14.12 and the company's historical median price-earnings ratio.

The stock's current price relative to the GuruFocus Value (GF Value) indicates that Greenbrier Companies Inc is modestly overvalued. The GF Value, set at $45.88, suggests a price-to-GF-Value ratio of 1.15. The GF Value is calculated considering historical trading multiples, a GuruFocus adjustment factor based on past returns and growth, and future business performance estimates from Morningstar analysts.

Insider Sell: SVP, COO, The Americas William Krueger Sells 8,800 Shares of Greenbrier Companies Inc (GBX)

The insider's recent sell transaction may be of interest to investors monitoring insider behaviors as an indicator of company performance and valuation alignment.

Insider Sell: SVP, COO, The Americas William Krueger Sells 8,800 Shares of Greenbrier Companies Inc (GBX)

This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.


Key Insights

Institutions' substantial holdings in Citigroup implies that they have significant influence over the company's share price

A total of 25 investors have a majority stake in the company with 44% ownership

Using data from analyst forecasts alongside ownership research, one can better assess the future performance of a company

Every investor in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) should be aware of the most powerful shareholder groups. With 71% stake, institutions possess the maximum shares in the company. That is, the group stands to benefit the most if the stock rises (or lose the most if there is a downturn).

Institutional investors endured the highest losses after the company's market cap fell by US$3.7b last week. However, the 26% one-year return to shareholders might have softened the blow. But they would probably be wary of future losses.

In the chart below, we zoom in on the different ownership groups of Citigroup.

See our latest analysis for Citigroup

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Citigroup?

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.

We can see that Citigroup does have institutional investors; and they hold a good portion of the company's stock. This implies the analysts working for those institutions have looked at the stock and they like it. But just like anyone else, they could be wrong. If multiple institutions change their view on a stock at the same time, you could see the share price drop fast. It's therefore worth looking at Citigroup's earnings history below. Of course, the future is what really matters.

Investors should note that institutions actually own more than half the company, so they can collectively wield significant power. We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Citigroup. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 8.7% of shares outstanding. With 8.7% and 4.3% of the shares outstanding respectively, BlackRock, Inc. and State Street Global Advisors, Inc. are the second and third largest shareholders.

Our studies suggest that the top 25 shareholders collectively control less than half of the company's shares, meaning that the company's shares are widely disseminated and there is no dominant shareholder.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. Quite a few analysts cover the stock, so you could look into forecast growth quite easily.

Story continues

Insider Ownership Of Citigroup

The definition of an insider can differ slightly between different countries, but members of the board of directors always count. 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 information suggests that Citigroup Inc. insiders own under 1% of the company. Being so large, we would not expect insiders to own a large proportion of the stock. Collectively, they own US$238m of stock. In this sort of situation, it can be more interesting to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

With a 26% ownership, the general public, mostly comprising of individual investors, have some degree of sway over Citigroup. While this size of ownership may not be enough to sway a policy decision in their favour, they can still make a collective impact on company policies.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Citigroup .

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.
An Ivy League education really does pay off, it seems.

The eight Ivies have a better return on investment than many other nonprofit four-year colleges, Bloomberg reported on Friday. The elite institutions have a typical 10-year ROI of $265,500, an analysis by the outlet shows. Thats twice the return of 63 Hidden Iviesother top private collegesand almost three times the median of all other schools included in Bloombergs research.

More from Robb Report

To get these numbers, Bloomberg used data from Georgetown Universitys Center on Education and the Workforce. Notably, it doesnt include students who paid full price to attend school. Rather, the data encompass those who got some financial aid from their university. For that group, the average Ivy alum earns $90,500 a year, according to Bloomberg, while those who went to a Hidden Ivy earn $72,600 a year. Plus, Ivy grads paid 18 percent less than Hidden Ivy grads.

So, which Ivy gets you the most bang for your buck? Princeton tops the list when it comes to return on investment (which is measured here as the net present value of earnings 10 years after enrollment minus the average price paid after financial aid). At the New Jersey school, ROI comes in at an impressive $340,000. Moving down the list, you have the University of Pennsylvania with a $280,000 ROI and Harvard with a $275,000 ROI.

Closely following those top three schools are Yale with a $267,000 ROI and Columbia with $264,000. Cornell, Dartmouth, and Brown round out the list with slightly lower totals: $190,000 for Cornell, $183,000 for Dartmouth, and $172,000 for Brown.

Notably, Princeton also features the lowest net price per year, at just $9,836the only four-figure amount on the list. The next lowest is Harvard at $13,872, while most other institutions sit between $20,000 to $40,000. And if its highest median earnings youre after, look to Penn: At $103,246, its the only school with a six-figure salary. Princeton comes in second with $95,698 a year, while grads from the other Ivies earn salaries in the $80,000s and $90,000s.

The data give a little boost to those who believe that an Ivy League education sets students up for success. Given these numbers, they certainly seem like theyll do well in the financial realm.

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Click here to read the full article.
Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva speaks during a press conference at the European Convention Center in Luxembourg. -/European Council/dpa

Kristalina Georgieva will lead the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for another five years, the fund's headquarters in Washington announced on Saturday.

Georgieva, 70, who has been at the organization's helm since 2019, said in a statement that she was "honoured to continue to lead the IMF as managing director."

Her current term of office ends in the autumn. Georgieva, who hails from Bulgaria, was the only candidate in the selection process.

Traditionally, Europeans occupy the top post at the IMF, while the United States appoints the leadership of the World Bank.

Both organizations were set up in the last year of World War II to help establish a framework for global economic cooperation and stability after the conflict.

Georgieva is the second woman to head the IMF after her predecessor Christine Lagarde. Germany and the EU countries had supported a second term in office for Georgieva.

She previously worked for the World Bank and also the EU, responsible for humanitarian aid in Brussels from 2010 to 2014 as the vice-president of the Commission for Budget and Human Resources.
Archie Norman, M&S chairman, says the UK already has some of 'the best terms and practices in the world' - Adrian Brooks / Imagewise

The chairman of Marks & Spencer has warned that Britain risks being unable to attract investment if a Labour election victory results in an overhaul of worker rights.

Archie Norman said the UKs biggest problem was a lack of growth in productivity and investment going into a general election this year, with Labour predicted to win a landslide victory according to most polling.

Mr Norman said: Any incoming government should consider carefully whether a package that reduces flexibility, makes it more costly to hire people, and seeks to bring unions back into the workplace will help attract new investment.

The former Conservative MP said the country already has some of the best employers, terms and practices in the world.

He added: Of course there are exceptions but in a knowledge-based economy most businesses are very focused on building motivated engaged workforces.

Labour has pledged to strengthen workers rights and make Britain work for working for people if it comes into power. This would include scrapping qualifying periods for full employment rights, getting rid of the gig economy and giving staff the right to claim unfair dismissal on day one of a new job.

Labour is ramping up its charm offensive with business leaders amid fears that a lack of clarity on its employment reforms is preventing it from winning support from industry.

Mark Carney, the former Bank of England governor, and Barclays chief executive C S Venkatakrishnan are among the influential leaders now working with the party to unlock billions of pounds in investment.

One Labour insider admitted party officials had not done a great job of being super clear with business on its workers rights reforms.

They added: This is a core part of our economic offer, its not something we want to hide in a cupboard.

Investors are still ringing us every week, those looking at an IPO want to know what we think. The idea that Labour could damage investment is just for the birds.

Senior Labour officials plan to meet major business lobby groups including the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) over the coming weeks to discuss concerns about its workers rights. Feedback so far has been a mixed bag, the insider said.

Lobbyists have been urging Labour to tread carefully with their changes. Rupert Soames, the president of business group the CBI and Winston Churchills grandson, has cautioned against adopting a European model of employment and told CBI members to wake up, smell the coffee  this is a major thing thats coming up.

Sir Keir Starmer has said that Labour would overhaul the system on a scale which has not been attempted for decades.

Story continues

Business leaders have raised the alarm over whether day one rights could effectively mean the end of probation periods.

Alex Baldock, the boss of electrical retailer Currys, told The Telegraph last month that he would be very loath to see probationary periods axed. He warned that Labours plans risked making people inadvertently poorer, adding: The more restrictions that you put in place, the less flexibility you allow in businesses relationships with their colleagues, the less likely businesses are to hire and the less likely they are to invest.

Labour has sought to ward off concerns and insists that its changes will not end probation periods and are designed to make workplace rights fit for a modern economy.

Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, hit out at Mr Normans comments, criticising the Conservative government for presiding over a high tax, low growth economy.

He added: Business leaders arent asking for a watering down of workers rights. They want the policy certainty they need to make long-term investments, stable corporation tax, reform of business rates and action on late payments. That is what they will get with Labour.

The warning from Mr Norman comes after years of stagnating business investment in the UK. According to official figures, business investment has grown by around 6pc in real terms between the middle of 2016 and the end of 2023. This compares to growth of more than 25pc in the US.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) last year said that uncertainty surrounding the UKs future trading relationship with the EU, the pandemic, the energy crisis, and rises in the post-tax cost of capital [were] all weighing on investment decisions.

It added that under-investment has weighed on productivity, which has grown at less than half its pre-financial crisis rate since 2010. The UK lags France, Germany and the US for productivity.

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Sergey Nazarov / iStock.com

Unemployment is low and has been that way for months. Wages and salaries are up. Recent college graduates might be justified in feeling pretty good about their job prospects. But is the class of 2024 realistic about what they might earn right out of college?

Check out: How I Make $5,000 a Month in Passive Income Doing Just 10 Hours of Work a Year

Discover more: How To Get $340 Per Year in Cash Back on Gas and Other Things You Already Buy

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What College Students Expect to Earn After Graduation

In a 2023 study, Real Estate Witch found that college students expected to earn an average of $84,855 one year after graduation. In fact, students said they would not accept a job for less than $72,580 right out of college.

What College Students Actually Earn After Graduation

While the expectations of college students are enthusiastic, they are not realistic. According to ZipRecruiter, the average salary for a new graduate in 2024 is $47,479 nationwide. College students expect to make over $35,000 more than they likely will at their first job.

The average salary for a new college graduate varies by state and by industry, of course, but few salaries meet the average expectation. Washington state has the highest average annual salary for new graduates at $55,960, with New York coming in second at $52,293. Graduates in Louisiana and North Carolina fare the worst for starting salaries, at $35,340 and $33,577 respectively, about half of what students say is the minimum theyd work for.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, engineering students have the best salary prospects, with an average 2024 starting salary projection of $76,736. Its higher than average, but still less than what the average student thinks theyll be making. Computer sciences majors are close behind with a 2024 salary projection of $74,778. Business majors can expect to make $63,907 right out of school.

The ambition and enthusiasm of the class of 2024 are noteworthy, but they may need to lower their salary expectations if they expect to join the workforce.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How Much College Students Expect to Make at Their First Jobs  Are They Realistic?
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  An expensive housing market has forced many to go the renting route in the United States.

To show how pricey it is, San Diego was named as the most unaffordable metro area in the country to live in for 2023-2024, according to U.S. News & World Reports real estate rankings.

SmartAsset, a financial technology company, conducted a study on what a roommate can save you in 100 U.S. cities. Americas Finest City placed No. 9 spot on the list.

For a two-bedroom apartment in San Diego from March 2023 through March 2024, the average monthly rent is $3,130. However, for a one-bedroom apartment, the average monthly price for one person costs $2,330, meaning a renter can save $765 per month if they pay half of the two-bedroom places rent, according to the study.

Top 10 richest people in California, according to Forbes

One-bedroom prices in San Diego declined by 1.7% while two-bedroom prices increased by 1% over the past year, per SmartAsset.

Other California cities to rank in the top ten were San Francisco at No. 4 and San Jose at No. 7. The savings splitting a two-bedroom apartment with a roommate in San Francisco was $975, while in San Jose it would be $835.

SmartAssets methodology included examining data from 100 of the largest U.S. cities and comparing them across two metrics: average rent for a one-and-two-bedroom apartment from March 2023 through March 2024. That data was then measured by comparing the cost of a one-bedroom with half the cost of a two-bedroom for each city, only if each roommate paid equal rent.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
The expansion of the "Azconnexus" network continues in the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan.

According to Azernews, Dunay Badirkhanov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Space Agency ("Azerkosmos") under the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport, told media.

Within the framework of the "Azconnexus" platform presented by "Azerkosmos", it is possible to provide internet and data services anywhere in the coverage area of ??our satellite, especially in areas with complex terrain. As you know, we use it in the Garabagh region. According to the request, new systems are being installed," he said.

D. Badirkhanov added that more than 100 projects have been implemented by digitizing satellite services and using satellite solutions through the Geographical Information Systems Center, which started operating last year.

"30 of them were implemented only in territories freed from occupation. These were mainly related to agriculture, ecology and environmental issues. I would like to emphasize that our participation in these projects continues."




Shutterstock.com

In October, a federal jury found that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and some big real estate brokerages were guilty of using practices that amounted to price-fixing. The jury ordered the NAR to pay damages to home sellers who were affected. Additionally, going forward, the standard sales commission no longer applies.



Trending Now: 8 Places Where Houses Are Suddenly Major Bargains

Try This: How To Get $340 Per Year in Cash Back on Gas and Other Things You Already Buy

The penalty was originally set at $1.8 billion, but the NAR recently negotiated a lower settlement of $418 million. If you sold a home in the last four years, you might be able to get a share of this settlement. Plus, find out what big changes are in store for the industry.

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Are You Eligible?

The settlement covers any homeowner who sold a property listed in a multiple listing service (MLS) after October 31, 2019. Thats a pretty wide net, which includes over 21 million home sales nationwide.

$418 million may sound like a lot, but once legal fees are accounted for, the average payout will be just over $13 each.

If you meet the criteria, you should receive notification that youre entitled to a payment from the settlement funds. Keep an eye out for updates from the cases legal team, as they will provide instructions on the claims process.

But the real significance here may lie in the changes the settlement will force on the real estate industry.

Shaking Up Commissions

The case revolved around allegations that the NAR had conspired to artificially inflate the commissions paid to real estate agents, forcing home sellers to pay excessive fees.

Now, thats all changing. Going forward, buyers agents will have to enter into written contracts with their clients, specifying the exact rate or amount of compensation. Sellers can no longer make open-ended offers through the MLS  it has to be a concrete figure.

Without the standard commission rate of 5%-6% being guaranteed, agents will have to compete more aggressively for business. This may mean commissions could fall drastically, as much as 30%.

What About Homebuyers?

Of course, commissions involve both buyers and sellers. Its possible that the changes could place an added burden on homebuyers, especially first-time and low-income consumers. If buyers have to directly pay their agents fees, on top of saving for a down payment, it could make homeownership even more out of reach for some.

Story continues

The real estate industry is hoping federal rules will evolve to accommodate the new commission landscape. But in the meantime, the transition period could be a tricky one for home shoppers.

More From GOBankingRates

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Are You Owed Any of the $418 Million Settlement With Realtors as a Home Seller?
Key Insights

Significant control over Standard Bank Group by individual investors implies that the general public has more power to influence management and governance-related decisions

A total of 10 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership

Insiders have been buying lately

To get a sense of who is truly in control of Standard Bank Group Limited (JSE:SBK), it is important to understand the ownership structure of the business. And the group that holds the biggest piece of the pie are individual investors with 38% ownership. In other words, the group stands to gain the most (or lose the most) from their investment into the company.

While the holdings of individual investors took a hit after last weeks 3.8% price drop, institutions with their 27% holdings also suffered.

Let's take a closer look to see what the different types of shareholders can tell us about Standard Bank Group.

Check out our latest analysis for Standard Bank Group

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Standard Bank Group?

Institutional investors commonly compare their own returns to the returns of a commonly followed index. So they generally do consider buying larger companies that are included in the relevant benchmark index.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Standard Bank Group. 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. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Standard Bank Group, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

Standard Bank Group is not owned by hedge funds. Our data shows that Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited is the largest shareholder with 20% of shares outstanding. Public Investment Corporation Limited is the second largest shareholder owning 15% of common stock, and Coronation Fund Managers Limited holds about 5.1% of the company stock.

We did some more digging and found that 10 of the top shareholders account for roughly 50% of the register, implying that along with larger shareholders, there are a few smaller shareholders, thereby balancing out each others interests somewhat.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are a reasonable number of analysts covering the stock, so it might be useful to find out their aggregate view on the future.

Story continues

Insider Ownership Of Standard Bank Group

While the precise definition of an insider can be subjective, almost everyone considers board members to be insiders. The company management answer to the board and the latter should represent the interests of shareholders. Notably, sometimes top-level managers are on the board themselves.

Insider ownership is positive when it signals leadership are thinking like the true owners of the company. However, high insider ownership can also give immense power to a small group within the company. This can be negative in some circumstances.

Our data suggests that insiders own under 1% of Standard Bank Group Limited 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 R299m worth of shares (at current prices). In this sort of situation, it can be more interesting to see if those insiders have been buying or selling.

General Public Ownership

The general public, who are usually individual investors, hold a 38% stake in Standard Bank Group. While this group can't necessarily call the shots, it can certainly have a real influence on how the company is run.

Public Company Ownership

We can see that public companies hold 20% of the Standard Bank Group shares on issue. It's hard to say for sure but this suggests they have entwined business interests. This might be a strategic stake, so it's worth watching this space for changes in ownership.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign for Standard Bank Group that you should be aware of before investing here.

Ultimately the future is most important. You can access this free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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.
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 Jayride Group Limited (ASX:JAY), that sends out a positive message to the company's shareholders.

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.

Check out our latest analysis for Jayride Group

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Jayride Group

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider purchase was by Co-Founder & Non-Executive Director Rodney Bishop for AU$119k worth of shares, at about AU$0.065 per share. That means that even when the share price was higher than AU$0.013 (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. It is generally more encouraging if they paid above the current price, as it suggests they saw value, even at higher levels.

Jayride Group insiders may have bought shares in the last year, but they didn't sell any. The average buy price was around AU$0.057. This is nice to see since it implies that insiders might see value around current prices. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Have Jayride Group Insiders Traded Recently?

Over the last three months, we've seen a bit of insider buying at Jayride Group. Co-Founder & Non-Executive Director Rodney Bishop shelled out AU$12k for shares in that time. We like it when there are only buyers, and no sellers. But in this case the amount purchased means the recent transaction may not be very meaningful on its own.

Insider Ownership

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. A high insider ownership often makes company leadership more mindful of shareholder interests. It appears that Jayride Group insiders own 19% of the company, worth about AU$592k. 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

What Might The Insider Transactions At Jayride Group Tell Us?

We note a that there has been a bit of insider buying recently (but no selling). Overall the buying isn't worth writing home about. But insiders have shown more of an appetite for the stock, over the last year. Insiders do have a stake in Jayride Group and their transactions don't cause us concern. So while it's helpful to know what insiders are doing in terms of buying or selling, it's also helpful to know the risks that a particular company is facing. To help with this, we've discovered 7 warning signs (5 are significant!) that you ought to be aware of before buying any shares in Jayride Group.

But note: Jayride 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 of direct interests only, but not derivative transactions or indirect interests.

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.
The fact that multiple ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) insiders offloaded a considerable amount of shares over the past year could have raised some eyebrows amongst investors. Knowing whether insiders are buying is usually more helpful when evaluating insider transactions, as insider selling can have various explanations. However, shareholders should take a deeper look if several insiders are selling stock over a specific time period.

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.

See our latest analysis for ConocoPhillips

ConocoPhillips Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

The Director & Advisor, Timothy Leach, made the biggest insider sale in the last 12 months. That single transaction was for US$5.0m worth of shares at a price of US$115 each. That means that even when the share price was below the current price of US$131, an insider wanted to cash in some shares. We generally consider it a negative if insiders have been selling, especially if they did so below the current price, because it implies that they considered a lower price to be reasonable. However, while insider selling is sometimes discouraging, it's only a weak signal. It is worth noting that this sale was only 7.1% of Timothy Leach's holding.

Insiders in ConocoPhillips didn't buy any shares in the last year. You can see the insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

I will like ConocoPhillips better if I see some big insider buys. While we wait, check out this free list of growing companies with considerable, recent, insider buying.

ConocoPhillips Insiders Are Selling The Stock

Over the last three months, we've seen significant insider selling at ConocoPhillips. Specifically, insiders ditched US$4.1m worth of shares in that time, and we didn't record any purchases whatsoever. This may suggest that some insiders think that the shares are not cheap.

Insider Ownership

Many investors like to check how much of a company is owned by insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. ConocoPhillips insiders own 0.09% of the company, currently worth about US$133m based on the recent share price. I like to see this level of insider ownership, because it increases the chances that management are thinking about the best interests of shareholders.

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So What Do The ConocoPhillips Insider Transactions Indicate?

Insiders sold stock recently, but they haven't been buying. And even if we look at the last year, we didn't see any purchases. The company boasts high insider ownership, but we're a little hesitant, given the history of share sales. In addition to knowing about insider transactions going on, it's beneficial to identify the risks facing ConocoPhillips. While conducting our analysis, we found that ConocoPhillips has 2 warning signs and it would be unwise to ignore these.

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 of direct interests only, but not derivative transactions or indirect interests.

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.
Key Insights

Helvetia Holding's significant retail investors ownership suggests that the key decisions are influenced by shareholders from the larger public

A total of 15 investors have a majority stake in the company with 50% ownership

Institutions own 20% of Helvetia Holding

If you want to know who really controls Helvetia Holding AG (VTX:HELN), then you'll have to look at the makeup of its share registry. With 45% stake, retail investors possess the maximum shares in the company. Put another way, the group faces the maximum upside potential (or downside risk).

Private companies, on the other hand, account for 34% of the company's stockholders.

Let's delve deeper into each type of owner of Helvetia Holding, beginning with the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Helvetia Holding

What Does The Institutional Ownership Tell Us About Helvetia Holding?

Many institutions measure their performance against an index that approximates the local market. So they usually pay more attention to companies that are included in major indices.

As you can see, institutional investors have a fair amount of stake in Helvetia Holding. This can indicate that the company has a certain degree of credibility in the investment community. However, it is best to be wary of relying on the supposed validation that comes with institutional investors. They too, get it wrong sometimes. It is not uncommon to see a big share price drop if two large institutional investors try to sell out of a stock at the same time. So it is worth checking the past earnings trajectory of Helvetia Holding, (below). Of course, keep in mind that there are other factors to consider, too.

We note that hedge funds don't have a meaningful investment in Helvetia Holding. Looking at our data, we can see that the largest shareholder is Patria Societa cooperativa with 34% of shares outstanding. Meanwhile, the second and third largest shareholders, hold 3.6% and 2.8%, of the shares outstanding, respectively.

Looking at the shareholder registry, we can see that 50% of the ownership is controlled by the top 15 shareholders, meaning that no single shareholder has a majority interest in the ownership.

While studying institutional ownership for a company can add value to your research, it is also a good practice to research analyst recommendations to get a deeper understand of a stock's expected performance. There are plenty of analysts covering the stock, so it might be worth seeing what they are forecasting, too.

Insider Ownership Of Helvetia Holding

The definition of company insiders can be subjective and does vary between jurisdictions. Our data reflects individual insiders, capturing board members at the very least. Company management run the business, but the CEO will answer to the board, even if he or she is a member of it.

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I generally consider insider ownership to be a good thing. However, on some occasions it makes it more difficult for other shareholders to hold the board accountable for decisions.

Our most recent data indicates that insiders own less than 1% of Helvetia Holding AG. But they may have an indirect interest through a corporate structure that we haven't picked up on. It is a pretty big company, so it would be possible for board members to own a meaningful interest in the company, without owning much of a proportional interest. In this case, they own around CHF11m worth of shares (at current prices). It is good to see board members owning shares, but it might be worth checking if those insiders have been buying.

General Public Ownership

The general public-- including retail investors -- own 45% stake in the company, and hence can't easily be ignored. This size of ownership, while considerable, may not be enough to change company policy if the decision is not in sync with other large shareholders.

Private Company Ownership

We can see that Private Companies own 34%, of the shares on issue. Private companies may be related parties. Sometimes insiders have an interest in a public company through a holding in a private company, rather than in their own capacity as an individual. While it's hard to draw any broad stroke conclusions, it is worth noting as an area for further research.

Next Steps:

I find it very interesting to look at who exactly owns a company. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. For instance, we've identified 1 warning sign for Helvetia Holding that you should be aware of.

But ultimately it is the future, not the past, that will determine how well the owners of this business will do. Therefore we think it advisable to take a look at this free report showing whether analysts are predicting a brighter future.

NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.

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.
Packages of Quaker oats and oatmeal next to a can of Pepsi - Darren Mccollester/Getty Images

After 55 years of producing Quaker Oats products in Danville, Illinois, a company plant is closing, triggering layoffs for 510 employees. The City of Danville announced that PepsiCo will be officially closing the plant on June 8, 2024, though production has already ceased. This comes on the heels of two substantial recalls in December 2023 and January 2024 due to potential salmonella contamination, which can be spread via raw foods and contacted surfaces. The recall collectively targeted at least 60 products made at the plant.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posted a news release in January announcing an extension of the December recall, now covering not only select Quaker Chewy Granola Bars but an array of cereals, cereal bars, protein bars, snack boxes, and select snack mixes. In a statement to The News-Gazette in Illinois, Quaker tied the Danville production facility closure to the recalls.

"Following the Quaker recall in December 2023, we paused production at the (Danville) facility," the company said. "After a detailed review, we determined that meeting our future manufacturing needs would require an extended closure for enhancements and modernization. In order to continue the timely delivery of Quaker products trusted by consumers since 1877, we determined production would need to permanently shift to other facilities." Quaker reportedly operates at least three other North American baking plants at present.

Read more: 25 Most Popular Snacks In America Ranked Worst To Best

Quaker Oats' Revenues Were Affected By The Recalls

Closeup of boxes of Quaker oatmeal on a grocery shelf - Geri Lavrov/Getty Images

Modernizing the existing Quaker Oats Danville plant is even more unfeasible after revenue losses following the product recalls, according to PepsiCo. Its 2023 financial report indicated that Quaker Oats North America, which has been a staple since the late 1800s, had a drop in sales volume of 5% and an overall revenue reduction of 2% compared to 2022. In terms of operating profit, a reduction of 19% was attributed to fallout from the product recalls. Other factors include supply chain issues and manufacturing costs.

Danville employees had been on paid time off since the plant ceased operations, having been officially informed now that their jobs would no longer be available. They will continue to be paid until June 8, 2024, and county resources are available to assist with resume updates, unemployment applications, training classes, and information about potential job openings.

There's no word as yet about possible relocation opportunities at other Quaker facilities, according to employees, as reported by The News-Gazette. Employee Kimberly Ellison reflected on her nearly 25 years of working at the plant, stating that she doesn't know anything different from Quaker. "There's not a day that went by that I didn't enjoy going to work, and I didn't not want to go to work," she said. "I loved it. I can't say I have anything bad to even say about Quaker. But I am devastated."

Read the original article on Tasting Table
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  City of San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has unveiled his $5.64 billion budget plan, which includes more spending on homelessness and flood prevention, but cuts in other areas.

I look forward to the city councils consideration of my proposed budget and working with them to pass a budget that is balanced, fiscally responsible and reflects the desires of San Diegans, said Mayor Todd Gloria, City of San Diego.

From the Chollas Operations Yard  San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria revealed his $5.64 billion proposed budget for fiscal year 2025.

The budget is a half-billion dollars more than the previous year, while the city is looking at a nearly $137 million budget shortfall this year.

San Diego mayor unveils homeless shelter plan  the largest yet

The mayor calls it his protecting our progress budget, focusing on several key areas including more than $100 million for street repairs.

This budget increases the number of miles that well fully repave in the coming year from 60 miles to 75 miles, and were investing in design and planning needed to complete 105 miles in fiscal year 2026, said Mayor Gloria.

The mayor is also promising to spend more on stormwater infrastructure. Following the January flooding, theres a five-year backlog for maintenance projects.

This budget has just over $85 million in funds for flood resilience and green infrastructure projects. The city is using the U.S. EPAs special loan program to fund up to $733 million in storm water upgrades. These upgrades range from pipeline replacements to pump station repairs to comprehensive watershed restoration, said Mayor Gloria.

Port of San Diego declares emergency due to Tijuana River Valley sewage crisis

The mayor says his budget will do more to tackle the homelessness crisis by spending more than $26 million, with 1,000 additional shelter beds, and 200 new safe parking spots.

Gloria says another top priority is public safety.

We continue to fully fund our police and fire-rescue departments at the levels they require to respond when you call, said Mayor Gloria.

The mayor also noted the city is making funding cuts in other areas, scrapping plans to invest in certain programs and projects.

Biotech Beach: Whats behind San Diegos biotech gold rush

Theres no reasonable way to accommodate all of the capital needs that we have as a city without finding new ways to pay for it, said Mayor Gloria.

Talking about the need for more funding from additional sources and likely looking at that possible 1-cent sales tax increase to go before the voters in November.

Story continues

But first, an independent analyst will go over the budget later this month. The city council will review it, along with a public vetting, then a vote is expected in June.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
Colonial Terminals purchased land adjacent to its riverfront facility from Norfolk Southern to develop breakbulk infrastructure along the Savannah River.

A company that has been a fixture at the Port of Savannah for more than a century faces a $2.8 million federal fine and more for violations related to fuel it supplied to vessels serving the facility.

Colonial Oil Industries Inc., a subsidiary of Savannah-based Colonial Group, failed to use a blend of renewable and traditional diesel when fueling non-ocean-going vessels from 2013 to 2019, according to a settlement between the company, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency.

While the EPAs renewable fuel standards make an exception for seafaring craft, Our complaint alleges that Colonial violated the RFS regulations by excluding all fuel it supplied to marine vessels, not just ocean-going vessels, explained DOJ spokesman Matthew Nies in an email Friday.

Renewable fuel, which can be mixed with traditional diesel, still pollutes when burned but has a smaller carbon footprint over its lifecycle because it is produced from raw materials such as used cooking oil and animal fat waste rather than refined from extracted oil.

The creation and use of renewable fuels reduces overall greenhouse gas emissions, Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Departments Environment and Natural Resources Division said in the governments announcement of the agreement. This proposed settlement will hold Colonial to the same renewable fuel requirements that all importers and producers must adhere to.

In addition to the fine, Colonial Oil will be required to purchase and retire $12.2 million in credits through the RFS program.

Under RFS rules, refiners or importers of gasoline or diesel are required to either blend renewable fuels into transportation fuel or buy credits known as Renewable Identification Numbers to meet federal requirements.

Fueling debate: Expansion of Savannah natural gas export facility at crux of nation's climate discussion

Between 2013 and 2019, Colonial failed to purchase and retire enough RINs to account for the traditional fuel supplied to non-ocean-going vessels.

The RIN purchase and retirements is estimated to result in over 18,300 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent reductions which equates to powering 2,386 homes energy use or 4,355 gasoline cars for a year, the federal agencies said in their announcement.

Carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping pollutant, is the primary contributor to climate change.

This settlement once more puts gasoline and diesel refiners and importers on notice that they must meet their obligations to reduce climate- and health-harming pollution and that there will be consequences if they do not, said Assistant Administrator David M. Uhlmann of the EPAs Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.

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A company spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Federal officials will finalize the decree after a 30-day public comment period.

The agreement comes a little more than a month after the company announced a partnership with Neste, the nations leading supplier of renewable diesel, that Colonial said marked a significant stride towards a more sustainable future in the Southeast.

In addition to Colonial Oil Industries, Colonial Groups holdings include Enmarket, a chain of 130 fuel and convenience stores; Colonial Terminals; and the Savannah Yacht Center, among other companies.

Through its distribution services and pipeline network, Colonial Oil says it reaches customers in 34 states.

Comments on the consent decree can be submitted by visiting justice.gov/enrd/consent-decrees.

John Deem covers climate change and the environment on the Georgia coast. He can be reached at jdeem@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: EPA, Department of Justice enter consent agreement with Colonial Oil
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 Hostmore plc (LON:MORE), it sends a favourable message to the company's shareholders.

Although we don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether.

See our latest analysis for Hostmore

Hostmore Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when Senior Independent Non-Executive Director David Lis bought UK75k worth of shares at a price of UK0.18 per share. That means that an insider was happy to buy shares at around the current price of UK0.19. 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 do always like to see insider buying, but it is worth noting if those purchases were made at well below today's share price, as the discount to value may have narrowed with the rising price. In this case we're pleased to report that the insider purchases were made at close to current prices.

In the last twelve months Hostmore insiders were buying shares, but not selling. The chart below shows insider transactions (by companies and individuals) over the last year. If you want to know exactly who sold, for how much, and when, simply click on the graph below!

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Insiders At Hostmore Have Bought Stock Recently

We saw some Hostmore insider buying shares in the last three months. CEO & Director Julie McEwan shelled out UK10k for shares in that time. We like it when there are only buyers, and no sellers. But the amount invested in the last three months isn't enough for us too put much weight on it, as a single factor.

Insider Ownership Of Hostmore

For a common shareholder, it is worth checking how many shares are held by company insiders. We usually like to see fairly high levels of insider ownership. Insiders own 9.0% of Hostmore shares, worth about UK2.1m, according to our data. Whilst better than nothing, we're not overly impressed by these holdings.

So What Does This Data Suggest About Hostmore Insiders?

Insider purchases may have been minimal, in the last three months, but there was no selling at all. The net investment is not enough to encourage us much. However, our analysis of transactions over the last year is heartening. While we have no worries about the insider transactions, we'd be more comfortable if they owned more Hostmore stock. So these insider transactions can help us build a thesis about the stock, but it's also worthwhile knowing the risks facing this company. Our analysis shows 2 warning signs for Hostmore (1 shouldn't be ignored!) and we strongly recommend you look at these before investing.

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But note: Hostmore 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 of direct interests only, but not derivative transactions or indirect interests.

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.
In a retaliatory move, the Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday declared persona non grata an employee of the Slovenian Embassy in Moscow, Azernews reports, citing Anadolu Agency.

The ministry said in a statement it summoned Slovenian Ambassador Darja Bavdaz Kuret and conveyed to her a "strong protest" over the "groundless" expulsion of a Russian diplomat on March 21.

"We consider this another  unfriendly step in the context of the general course of Ljubljana towards the destruction of Russian-Slovenian ties," the ministry stressed.

The Russian diplomatic service emphasized that it holds Slovenia responsible "for the consequences of such a destructive policy."




SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  The federal recovery center in National City for businesses impacted by this years flooding will be closing down on Friday, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The recovery center, which is located at Southwestern College, closed temporarily at the end of last month for the campus spring break before resuming operations on April 2. It will close at the end of the day on Friday at 5 p.m.

The National City Business Recovery Center opened its doors in late February, shortly after the Biden Administration approved a major disaster declaration for San Diego County in the aftermath of the Jan. 22 flooding.

The center sought to aid businesses that sustained damage or experienced other losses. Small Business Administration representatives were available on-site to help walk owners through the different available resources and answer questions about the agencys disaster loan program.

Free Dump Day approaching, just in time for spring cleaning

When the National City Business Recovery Center closes, two other recovery centers operated by the Small Business Administration will remain open: one at the Mountain View Community Center and another at the Spring Valley Library.

The recovery center at the Mountain View Community Center, which is located at 641 S Boundary St., is open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Spring Valley Disaster Recovery Center, located at 836 Kempton St., is also open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

At all of the disaster recovery centers, businesses of all sizes and nonprofits are able to apply for loans up to $2 million to repair and replace damaged real estate, machinery and equipment, inventory and more. Additional funds may also be dispersed for costs associated with improvements to protect, prevent or minimize any future disaster damage, SBA officials said.

Businesses can apply online through SBAs website. Prospective applicants can also call SBAs Customer Service Center at 800-659-2955 or email disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.

Outside business support, the federal government also has low-interest disaster loans of up to $500,000 available for homeowners to repair their properties. Loans up to $100,000 are also available to repair or replace personal property, such as vehicles.

According to SBA, the deadline to apply for property damage loans is April 19, while the deadline to apply for economic injury loans is Nov. 19.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
Tennessee man sent $24K bill for overpaid benefits during pandemic  despite saying he did 'everything' right

Nothing stings quite like having to pay for something you didnt know you were on the hook for.

Thats the struggle Mike Cooper is currently facing as he fights the Tennessee Department of Labor over a $24,000 bill for overpaid unemployment benefits  which he claims he was eligible for  during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Im eligible. I did everything that was required of me, Cooper told WATE 6 On Your Side  explaining that he was self-employed and without work at the time, so he applied for benefits under the sttes Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program.

Cooper received $720 a week in state unemployment benefits and federal stimulus money during the pandemic, according to documents shared with WATE.

At the time, that money was a vital lifeline for the single dad of a teenage daughter  but in a twist of fate, hes since been told he has to repay all the money he received in unemployment benefits and cough up 10% of the $24,000 immediately.

How did this situation come about?

Eligibility debate

Cooper first knew something was amiss when he received a letter from the Tennessee Department of Labor in July 2021 stating he hadnt provided the proper information to prove his eligibility for unemployment benefits.

He was asked to submit photos of his drivers license, a photo of him holding his drivers license, a photo of his social security card, proof of address and tax documents  but after doing so the state continued to deny his eligibility.

Why am I disqualified when I was approved  when all the documents, everything they need was sent? I did exactly what they wanted me to do, Cooper said.

Read more: Baby boomers bust': Robert Kiyosaki warns that older Americans will get crushed in the 'biggest bubble in history'  3 shockproof assets for instant insurance now

He fought the states decision through a tribunal appeal authority, which reached the conclusion that: There is no evidence the claimant knowingly made false statements to obtain benefits.

However, the case went back to the Department of Labor, which once again demanded Cooper return the overpayment  stating he waited too long to appeal their first argument nearly two years ago. They sent an official notice to Cooper in March demanding he repay 10% of the $24,000 immediately.

Story continues

But Cooper  who is soon due to start receiving disability Social Security benefits of about $1,000 per month  claims he cant afford to and is not willing to make any payments. Its unclear whether the state will chase its debt by garnishing Coopers disability benefits  something that is allowed when a debt is owed to the government.

I wasnt fraudulent doing one thing, Cooper said. Everything I was supposed to do, I have done. Everything I received I was eligible for. And I have no intention of paying anything back.

Benefit overpayments

Coopers experience adds to a growing discourse in the U.S. around overpaid benefits  as well as shocking demands for Americans to pay back money that governments claim they never should have received.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office says states reported around $55.8 billion in overpayments of unemployment insurance benefits during the pandemic  $5.3 billion of which were fraudulent. About $6.8 billion has been recovered, including $1.2 billion in fraudulent payments.

Collecting overpayments can be a big problem for financially insecure people  such as retirees and disabled workers, their dependents and survivors of deceased workers  including those who receive Social Security benefits.

Americans such as Cooper can end up relying on these benefits, but the Social Security Administration (SSA) faces problems of its own. The agency has recently come under fire from lawmakers after news reports it has been aggressively trying to claw back money from those it says were overpaid.

In the fiscal year 2023 (Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023), the SSA reported over $4.9 billion in recovered overpayments, but says it ended the year with $23 billion of overpayments still uncollected.

The SSA has announced steps it is taking to make overpayment issues easier for beneficiaries  including extending repayment plans, removing the burden of proof of fault and making it easier for people to request a waiver  but many Americans will still have to dig deep to pay back what they owe.

What to read next

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
Natalie Gochnour, associate dean at the David Eccles School of Business and director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, unveils the 2024 Utah Economist magazine covers during the One Utah Summit at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Utah government and business leaders united at a Friday gathering to celebrate the states high-flying economy, including a plaudit earlier this week from The Wall Street Journal that named the Salt Lake metropolitan area the countrys top spot for jobs, but also cautioned that rising challenges must be addressed to keep the mojo rising.

At the One Utah Summit held in downtown Salt Lake City, the event formerly branded as the Governors Economic Summit, Natalie Gochnour, associate dean for the University of Utahs David Eccles School of Business and director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, gave her annual rundown of the states economic highs and lows for the past year and some things to keep an eye on in the days ahead.

A bumpy road ahead?

Gochnour noted that while Utahs economic growth has been following a yearslong trend outpacing the national average, the last few months have seen those tracking lines converge and Utah has been knocked from its perch as the nations growth leader, now finding itself trailing six other states on that metric. And two of the job sectors that once represented bragging points for Utah, high tech and financial services, have seen negative momentum in recent reports.

Gochnour said Utahs population growth, and a change in dynamics when it comes to how that growth is fueled, has put extra strain across a number of critical areas including congestion, air quality and, perhaps most significantly, housing prices. Utah, she said, has come out on the positive side of net migration in 32 of the past 33 years, adding 650,000 new residents. And the housing needs of those newcomers have helped tip the market into a supply deficit, and resultant price surges.

Gov. Spencer Cox shared his own concerns about the current state of the housing industry in Utah.

The single greatest threat to our people is the untenable price of attainable housing, he said. If you cant afford to live here, youre not going to start a business here.

The state of startups

There are also plenty of positives, including the states nation-leading job participation rate, healthy wage growth and an economic expansion that, while it may have cooled off, is still running well into positive territory.

The state is also tops in the nation when it comes to best places to start a business, according to Utahs entrepreneur-in-residence Brad Bonham.

Clint Betts, CEO and and co-founder of CEO.com and Silicon Slopes, joins a panel with Kelvyn Cullimore, president and CEO of BioUtah, Tulinda Larsen, president of Utah Advanced Materials and Manufacturing (UAMMI), Aaron Starks, CEO and president of 47G - Utah Aerospace and Defense, and Frank Pignanelli, executive director of the Utah Association of Financial Institutions during the One Utah Summit at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Kori Ann Edwards, managing director of GOEO, moderates a panel with Kelvyn Cullimore, president and CEO of BioUtah, Tulinda Larsen, president of Utah Advanced Materials and Manufacturing (UAMMI), Clint Betts, CEO and co-founder of CEO.com and Silicon Slopes, Aaron Starks, CEO and president of 47G - Utah Aerospace and Defense, and Frank Pignanelli, executive director of the Utah Association of Financial Institutions, during the One Utah Summit at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Frank Pignanelli, executive director of the Utah Association of Financial Institutions, answers a question during the One Utah Summit Returns at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Kelvyn Cullimore, president and CEO of BioUtah, Tulinda Larsen, president of Utah Advanced Materials and Manufacturing (UAMMI), Clint Betts, CEO and co-funder of CEO.com and Silicon Slopes, Aaron Starks, CEO and president of 47G - Utah Aerospace and Defense, and Frank Pignanelli, executive director of the Utah Association of Financial Institutions, take part in a panel talk during the One Utah Summit at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Aaron Starks, CEO and president of 47G-Utah Aerospace and Defense, talks as he joins a panel at the One Utah Summit at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Clint Betts, CEO and co-founder of CEO.com and Silicon Slopes, smiles during a panel talk at the One Utah Summit at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Clint Betts, CEO and co-founder of CEO.com and Silicon Slopes, speaks during a panel talk at the One Utah Summit at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Derek Miller, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber, speaks about Utahs economic future during the One Utah Summit at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Kelvyn Cullimore, president and CEO of BioUtah, and Tulinda Larsen, president of Utah Advanced Materials and Manufacturing (UAMMI), talk as they participate in a panel discussion at the One Utah Summit at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson speaks about promoting student service learning during the One Utah Summit at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Gov. Spencer Cox speaks about the Disagree Better Initiative at the One Utah Summit at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Derek Miller, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber, speaks about Utahs economic future during the One Utah Summit at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City on Friday, April 12, 2024.

Bonham, a veteran entrepreneur and business educator, said those who launch their business enterprises in Utah are 70% more likely to build those endeavors to the vaunted unicorn status, a term coined by the tech industry for companies that reach the $1 billion valuation level. He also touted the debut of the Startup State Initiative and associated website that provides a step-by-step guide, along with a slew of resources, for those looking to start a business in Utah.

Salt Lake Chamber president and CEO Derek Miller said the same formula that helped Utah achieve its current high performance economy will help it navigate the growing pains that have accompanied success: planning, foresight and ingenuity in the private sector.

Private sector innovation along with public sector support, that will unleash the power of free enterprise, he said.

Business Jeopardy

Virginia Pearce, director of the Utah Film Commission, touched on the states historic, and ongoing, success as a destination venue for filmmakers looking for unique landscapes and local talent while representatives of some of Utahs emerging industries gathered for a round of custom-themed Jeopardy.

Some answers, and subsequent correct questions, from the ad-lib competition:

Answer: This university had the first ARPANET node outside of California.

Question: What is the University of Utah?

Answer: These three states have the highest density of life sciences employees.

Question: What are Massachusetts, New Jersey and Utah?

Answer: At $780 million, this was the largest exit for a life science company in Utah.

Question: What is Tolero Pharmaceuticals?

Answer: This person became known as the father of computer graphics while at the University of Utah.

Question: Who is Evan Sutherland?

Answer: Over the next decade, more of Utahs economy will be shaped by these four industry segments at an accelerated pace.

Question: What are aerospace, defense, cybersecurity and space exploration?
West Des Moines-based Lola's Fine Hot Sauce will sell mini bottles at Walmart stores nationwide for $1.

Lola's Fine Hot Sauce, a West Des Moines-based business with nationwide sales, has added to its footprint by reaching a distribution agreement with Walmart.

Founded in 2015, Lola's sells hot sauce based on the recipe of a Filipino-Pakistani immigrant family who put down roots in Iowa in the 1980s. Mini bottles, sized 1.75 ounces, will now sell for $1 at every Walmart store in the country, more than 3,200 nationwide, said Lola's CEO Taufeek Shah.

Lola's filled more than 1.5 million bottles, and now are producing "several hundred thousand" to replenish Walmart stores, Shah said. This is the biggest production run in the company's nine-year history, he said.

West Des Moines-based Lola's Fine Hot Sauce will sell mini bottles at Walmart stores nationwide for $1.

In 2015 Shah convinced his mother, restaurateur Carmelita "Lola" Shah, to turn her family recipes into marketable products. The flavor-packed hot sauces, including a Carolina Reaper sauce and a Ghost Pepper sauce, quickly gained popularity. Today the company sells lines of hot sauces, salsas, seasonings and biscuits.

More: How Taufeek Shah turned his mom's sauce recipe into Lola's Fine Hot Sauce global brand

The company has steadily been gaining traction in grocers over the last four years. In 2021 Lola's secured its first national distribution agreement with Lowe's. Lolas products also are available at some Albertsons, Kroger, Hy-Vee and Kum & Go locations. In September, Walgreens announced that it would sell Lola's at more than one-third of its 9,000 stores.

This is the second distribution agreement Lola's reached with Walmart. In 2022, Walmart began selling four Lola's flavors  original, ghost pepper, Trinidad scorpion, and green jalapeno and serrano  in its flagship 5-ounce bottles. Those four products are now sold in 700 Walmart stores, Shah said.

Taufeek Shah, founder of Lola's Hot Sauce, stands for a portrait in his office on Tuesday, October 31, 2023 in West Des Moines.

In May, three signature salsas  cherry jalapeno, sweet roasted Carolina reaper, and sweet and spicy mango  will be sold at 400 Midwestern Walmart stores, Shah said. Walmart also will sell "Lola-Racha," a Sriracha-style sauce at 400 Walmart stores, he said. Hy-Vee will sell the company's new spicy ketchup at every store by the end of April, Shah said.

"It's an honor to share our family's passion for flavor with customers from coast to coast," Shah said.

Philip Joens covers retail, real estate and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-284-8184, pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Lola's Fine Hot Sauce to be sold at Walmart stores nationwide
As runners walked, ran or did a combination of both during a recent event on the Dahlgren Railroad Heritage Trail, a small but mighty voice resonated through the trees, cheering them on, said race director Chris Chalkley.

That voice belonged to 11-year-old Megan King, a sixth grader who took her pink-pajama clad self outside on Saturday, April 6, during the seventh annual Sheetz-to-Sheetz Trail Run in King George County.

Standing on the trampoline, because that put her closest to the trail that runs through her neighborhood in the Meadows, Megan spent the morning, waving a racing flag and encouraging participants with, Woohoo! You got this. Keep going!

From the first passing runner to the last walker, Megans enthusiasm never waned, Chalkley said.

Meggs, as shes called, lives with her parents, Tim and Virginia King, and big sister, Kelly, and is known to seize the moment.

Her spontaneous interest in things is what keeps us on our toes, her mother said.

On Facebook, she posted the quote about how we rise by lifting others and that her girl Meggs lives this wholeheartedly all day, every day. None of this was prompted by us, this is just her and her zeal for life and lifting others.

Chalkley said that lots of people who know Megan were moved to tears and Dahlgren trail officials relayed the details to The Free LanceStar.

Who knew it would become quite the story! her mother wrote in an email.

While anyone running 14 miles (from the Sheetz near King George Middle School to the one across from B gate in Dahlgren) could use a little encouragement, the Sheetz-to-Sheetz run is known for its fun times. Its a laid-back event, not even timed, but incredibly popular, probably because of pitstops like the Pie Stop where runners can get mini fruit pies or the Campsite where they can have Peeps, smores or hot chocolate and rest on one of two hammocks.

Race slots sell out within hours, Chalkley said. The 2024 event drew runners from ages 11 to 76 from 10 states, with the farthest away being Michigan. Another 70 people volunteered.

That included early morning biker John Lysher, who discovered a gigantic tree across the trail before the race started. A crew from the King George Fire Department helped clear the tree, which measured 30.5 inches around, so participants could hit the ground running  and a certain 11-year-old could jump on her trampoline, wave a pink-and-black flag and cheer to her hearts content.
Avelo Airlines returns next month to the Colorado Springs Airport.

The Houston-based, low-fare carrier will resume its twice-weekly, nonstop service May 23 from the Springs to the Hollywood-Burbank Airport, outside Los Angeles, Avelo said this week.

Flights will take place on Sundays and Thursdays via Boeing 737 aircraft, the carrier said. Introductory one-way fares will start at $90 and can be purchased at aveloair.com; flights can be booked through Sept. 1.

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Avelo, which launched its nonstop service in May 2023 at the Colorado Springs Airport, took a seasonal break starting Jan. 7; a spokeswoman said at the time that the pause reflected a not-surprising slowdown in demand during the winter, but that the carrier fully planned to resume service in the spring.

We are excited to kick off the summer travel season with the return of Avelo Airlines nonstop seasonal service to Los Angeles/Hollywood-Burbank, Greg Phillips, the Colorado Springs Airports aviation director, said in a news release. This route will provide Colorado Springs travelers easy and convenient access to sunny beaches and the greater Los Angeles area from COS.

Rich Laden, The Gazette
US commitments to defend Japan and the Philippines are "ironclad," President Joe Biden said Thursday as he hosted his regional counterparts amid increasing provocations from China, Azernews reports, citing Anadolu Agency.

"I want to be clear. The United States defense commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are ironclad. They are ironclad," the president said during brief remarks to reporters before a first-of-its-kind trilateral summit.

"Any attack on Philippine aircraft, vessels or armed forces in the South China Sea would invoke our mutual defense treaty," he added.

Biden's reassurances came as he hosted Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Chinese ships have grown increasingly assertive in the South China Sea, where they have repeatedly antagonized Philippine naval vessels amid conflicting maritime claims.

Marcos has vowed to respond to the incidents, which have included firing upon Philippine Coast Guard ships with water cannons and shining lasers at the vessels.

"Over the succeeding weeks, there shall be implemented by the relevant national government agencies and instrumentalities a response and countermeasure package that is proportionate, deliberate and reasonable in the face of the open, unabating and illegal, coercive, aggressive and dangerous attacks by agents of the China Coast Guard and the Chinese Maritime Militia," Marcos said on X.

The Chinese Coast Guard has repeatedly tried to block Manilas supplies to its grounded warship BRP Sierra Madre in disputed waters in the vast waterway. Manila has said the incidents have injured its personnel and damaged its vessels.

China and the Philippines have conflicting claims over the Second Thomas Shoal  also known as the Ayungin Shoal, Bai Co May and Ren'ai Jiao  which is a submerged reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

An international tribunal overwhelmingly ruled in favor of the Philippines maritime claims in 2016, rejecting much of China's claims, including its efforts to develop artificial islands to stake out naval claims in the South China Sea. Beijing has not recognize the ruling, declaring it "null and void."

The US and the Philippines signed a mutual defense treaty in 1951, just nine years before Washington and Tokyo signed a similar pact.

A readout of Biden and Marcos' meeting provided by the White House said the leaders "underscored their commitment to international law in the South China Sea and said Biden reinforced Washington's defense commitment, which it said "extends to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels or aircraftto include those of its Coast Guard in the Pacific, including anywhere in the South China Sea."

China has grown increasingly assertive in the Indo-Pacific in recent years as the US under successive administrations has sought to bolster its regional alliances in a bid to push back on Beijing.

Biden hosted Kishida for an official state visit Wednesday followed by a resplendent dinner at the White house replete with pomp and ceremony.

A joint leader statement released by the White House following the conclusion of Thursday's historic trilateral summit said Biden, Kishida and Marcos emphasized their nations' "unwavering commitment to freedom of navigation and overflight and the importance of respecting the sovereign rights of states within their exclusive economic zones consistent with international law, as reflected in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea."

"We express our serious concerns about the Peoples Republic of Chinas (PRC) dangerous and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea. We are also concerned by the militarization of reclaimed features and unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea," the leaders said.

"We steadfastly oppose the dangerous and coercive use of Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels in the South China Sea, as well as efforts to disrupt other countries offshore resource exploitation," they added.




Schools in Colorado Springs hosted Opal Lee, the woman known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," last week.

Lee is a retired educator and counselor who was instrumental in the process of making Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday in the United States.

Juneteenth is such a prominent day in U.S. history because it was the day that those enslaved in Texas were finally freed from their enslavement, nearly two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed.

Lee spoke at Pikes Peak State College on Thursday about the history and importance of the countrys newest official holiday. She was scheduled to visit Gibberson Elementary in Harrison District 2 on Friday.

Now 97 years old, Lee earned her informal title as the grandmother of Juneteenth eight years ago when she walked 1,600 miles from her home in Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C., collecting signatures and raising support for it to become a national holiday.

"I realized I'd raised four children, I taught school, but I still had an itch," Lee said. "There still was something I needed to do. It was Juneteenth, always."

In June 2021, Lee was on hand when President Joe Biden signed the Senate bill into law, making Juneteenth the 11th federal holiday.

"To be in the White House with the president and the vice president, I tell you, I could have done a holy dance," Lee said.

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Lee wrote "Juneteenth," a childrens book about the holiday commemorating June 19, 1865, the day when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, to announce slaves in the southernmost Confederate state were freed by executive decree.

Word of their freedom reached Texas two and half years after President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Emancipation Proclamation during the Civil War.

Lee told students at PPSC that she grew up celebrating the holiday in Marshall, Texas, where she grew up. After moving to Fort Worth and noticing there were smaller private celebrations, Lee sought to expand the celebration of the "Day of Freedom." Her vision grew from a single-day picnic at a local park to a citywide event.

"Youve got to remember this, the Fourth of July freed the land. The 19th of June freed the people," Lee said.

Dr. Lee is giving her land in Fort Worth to be the home to a Juneteenth Museum that will also meet the needs of her community including a food hall, theater, housing and space for small businesses to get their start.

"In Fort Worth, weve raised $33 million and were going to come to the nation to get the rest of it, and were going to open June 2026," Lee said.

This coming Juneteeth, Dr. Lee is hosting a Walk for Freedom in Fort Worth and virtually, asking everyone to share a photo of themselves walking 2.5 miles wherever they live. The distance is meant to recognize the two and half years it took for news of freedom to reach enslaved people in Texas.
(Reuters) -Streaming service provider Roku said on Friday it identified a second cyberattack that impacted about 576,000 additional accounts while investigating a breach that affected 15,000 user accounts earlier this year.

The company, which had more than 80 million active accounts, said the hackers did not gain access to any sensitive information such as full credit card numbers or other payment details.

Roku's shares were down about 2% in early trading.

However, the company said it identified less than 400 cases where the information was used to make unauthorized purchases of streaming service subscriptions and hardware products using the payment method stored in the accounts.

The company said it would refund or reverse charges for accounts where it has determined unauthorized purchases have been made as part of the attack.

Roku pinned the unauthorized access to "credential stuffing", where users may have used the same credentials across different platforms.

Meanwhile, the company has enabled a two-factor authentication for all the accounts to beef up security controls.

(Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
The man accused of killing two people at a University of Colorado Colorado Springs dorm room has been found incompetent, an El Paso County judge announced Friday.

Nicholas Jordan, 25, is accused of shooting and killing Celie Rain Montgomery, 26, of Pueblo, and Samuel Knopp, 24, of Parker, in the early morning hours of Feb. 16.

Jordan and Knopp were roommates and students at UCCS, according to previous reporting from The Gazette. Jordan's arrest affidavit states that Jordan had made a death threat against Knopp over taking out the trash, and that campus security and housing had recorded multiple complaints about Jordan prior to the shooting.

At Jordan's previous court appearance his attorney, Nick Rogers, requested for a competency evaluation to be conducted on his client, stalling the case indefinitely.

At Jordan's review hearing on Friday Judge David Shakes announced that the forensic psychologist at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo (CMHIP) who conducted Jordan's competency evaluation found him incompetent to proceed.

Jordan's incompetent status means that his homicide case could be on hold indefinitely until he is restored to competency through mental health services.

Prosecutor Andrew Vaughan filed a motion to request a second competency evaluation to be conducted on Jordan by an independent psychologist hired by the District Attorney's Office.

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Rogers objected to prosecutors hiring an independent psychologist and requested for the court to appoint the state hospital again for the second evaluation. Judge Shakes denied this request, stating that there would be a clear conflict of interest to allow the same agency to conduct both evaluations.

If the two evaluators come to conflicting conclusions regarding Jordan's competency a hearing could be scheduled where Shakes will hear from both psychologists and make a final determination on competency.

Jordan will return to court on May 31 for a second review hearing to discuss the findings of the second competency evaluation.

Judge Shakes also rejected a motion from the defense to allow Jordan to appear in civilian clothes in future proceedings, citing safety concerns with the process of getting a defendant in civilian clothes.

Additonally, Jordan faces a second criminal case where he is accused of assaulting an El Paso County sheriff's deputy in the jail.

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by The Gazette Jordan faces assault charges for allegedly punching a deputy in the El Paso County jail last week after the deputy refused to give him cleaning supplies to clean his cell.

The assault case also remains on hold until the issues with Jordan's competency are resolved.

Jordan remains in custody at the El Paso County jail on a $5 million bond for the double homicide case, and a $10,000 bond on the assault case.
The French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs called on its compatriots to refrain from visiting Iran, Israel and Lebanon due to the threat of escalation of the situation in the Middle East.

According to Azernews, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has posted information about this on the "X" social network.

"Due to the risk of military escalation in the Middle East, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs advises French citizens to avoid trips to Iran, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine in the coming days," the information said.

In addition, there is a ban on business trips by French officials to these countries.

The organization also said that the families of French diplomats in Iran will leave the country.




FILE - Firearms are displayed at a gun shop in Salem, Ore., on Feb. 19, 2021. An Oregon court decided Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, that local governments can't declare themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries and ban police from enforcing certain gun laws within their borders. The opinion was the first court test of the concept, which hundreds of U.S. counties have adopted in recent years.
Avelo Airlines returns next month to the Colorado Springs Airport.

The Houston-based, low-fare carrier will resume its twice-weekly, nonstop service May 23 from the Springs to the Hollywood-Burbank Airport, outside Los Angeles, Avelo said this week.

Flights will take place on Sundays and Thursdays via Boeing 737 aircraft, the carrier said. Introductory one-way fares will start at $90 and can be purchased at aveloair.com; flights can be booked through Sept. 1.

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Avelo, which launched its nonstop service in May 2023 at the Colorado Springs Airport, took a seasonal break starting Jan. 7; a spokeswoman said at the time that the pause reflected a not-surprising slowdown in demand during the winter, but that the carrier fully planned to resume service in the spring.

We are excited to kick off the summer travel season with the return of Avelo Airlines nonstop seasonal service to Los Angeles/Hollywood-Burbank, Greg Phillips, the Colorado Springs Airports aviation director, said in a news release. This route will provide Colorado Springs travelers easy and convenient access to sunny beaches and the greater Los Angeles area from COS.

Rich Laden, The Gazette
Pierre Levy, the ambassador of France to Moscow, was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia (MFA) due to the statements made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of this country, Stephane Sejourne, about Russia, Azernews reports, with reference to the Russian Foreign Mnistry.

It was stated that the recent statements of the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, S. Sejourne, regarding the French side's lack of interest in negotiations with Russian officials, as well as such statements to the French ambassador, which have nothing to do with reality, are unacceptable due to the claims that the Russian side's statements contain false information:

"We consider these statements of the French Foreign Minister as a conscious and deliberate action of the French side aimed at disrupting the possibility of any dialogue between the two countries."

It should be noted that S. Sejourne, who previously spoke on the "France 24" TV channel, said that it is not appropriate for France to negotiate with Russian representatives now, and he claims that the communiques issued by the Russian side based on the results contain unreliable information.




Colorado Springs will pay $10 million to settle a breach of contract dispute with the contractor it hired in 2018 to upgrade the city's oldest water treatment plant.

A notice filed in El Paso County district court on Tuesday states both parties entered into a settlement resolving claims contractor Myers and Sons Construction brought in late 2020, alleging the city breached the parties' construction contract to perform upgrades to the Phillip H. Tollefson Water Treatment Plant on Mesa Road. The agreement also settles a counterclaim Colorado Springs filed in 2021 alleging the contractor breached contract.

The Colorado Springs City Council approved the settlement amount on its consent agenda during the board's regular meeting Tuesday. Items on the consent agenda are considered as a whole and passed by the council with one vote and no discussion.

The settlement avoids a jury trial that was scheduled to begin April 24.

"The settlement amount will not impact Springs Utilities' ability to prioritize and accomplish needed work within our appropriated budget and financial objectives for 2024," Jennifer Jordan, a spokeswoman for the city enterprise, said in a written statement this week.

Myers and Sons' Colorado office in Brighton did not return The Gazette's call requesting comment. Attorneys for both the construction company and the city did not return emails seeking comment.

Myers and Sons sued Colorado Springs in El Paso County district court Oct. 2, 2020. The company claimed in an 11-page complaint Colorado Springs Utilities breached its March 26, 2018, agreement for work with the contractor in several ways.

The contractor alleged the city failed or refused to pay Myers and Sons its full amount under the contract  $30.9 million after change orders, according to court documents.

The lawsuit also claimed, among others, Colorado Springs Utilities failed to issue and approve change orders; "disregarded or disputed" most of Myers' requests for payment related to interruptions and changes to project work that increased contractor costs, such as city-caused delays and impacts from COVID-19; and "wrongfully suspend(ed), then terminat(ed)," Myers and Sons in September 2020, when its work to upgrade the water treatment plant was more than 90% complete.

The project was the first phase of planned upgrades to the plant that was commissioned in 1942 and expanded in the 1960s and 1980s. Jordan said work included building a new pre-treatment building and auxiliary buildings, reconfiguring drying beds that dewater sludge, and a new raw water vault.

Upgrades to the plant are part of a broader effort to optimize local water supplies and increase the redundancy of Colorado Springs' water system, she said.

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The city's action to terminate Myers and Sons in 2020 prevented the contractor from completing its work, the company said in its lawsuit.

"Myers has incurred additional charges, extra work, impacts and delays in an effort to complete its work on the project without any resolution by (Colorado Springs Utilities)," the lawsuit stated.

In a 45-page amended counterclaim Colorado Springs filed April 27, 2021, the city denied Myers and Sons' accusations.

The city alleged the contractor breached the contract because Myers and Sons failed to "substantially complete" its work on the water treatment plant by Nov. 2, 2020, and failed to complete the project by March 23, 2021, per the revised contract schedule.

The counterclaim states the contractor agreed to "perform all of the work within the contract times and within the contract price in accordance with the terms of the contract."

Myers and Sons failed to do that, Colorado Springs claimed.

The contractor's "continuous failures to provide resources necessary to meet the revised contract schedule delayed and protracted the work required by the contract and jeopardized milestone deadlines," the city said.

The city eventually hired a new contractor, MWH Constructors, that completed the first phase of work on the plant, Jordan said this week.

The Tollefson plant produces about 20% to 25% of Colorado Springs' drinking water, blending water from Pikes Peak with supplies transported from the Continental Divide, she said.
It was an eye-opening lesson in real-life emergency response last week for West Hancock students in grades nine through 12, a mock scenario made a severe car accident appear genuine.

After students gathered to watch, This is a drill, this is only a drill blared from loudspeakers before a parade of sirens approached two severely damaged cars containing occupants involved in a T-bone crash. In a prom-night car accident scenario, Darin Eckels and Darcy Eisenman of Britt portrayed a father and mother, along with about a half dozen West Hancock student council seniors who were also part of a large cast for the simulation.

First to arrive on the accident scene were Sgt. Jordan Williams and Police Chief Tyler Harmon of the Britt Police Department, followed by Fire Chief Jon Swenson of the Britt Fire Department and a large emergency response crew. The Kanawha police and fire departments assisted at the scene.

We try to do it every five to six years, as a whole new group of students have come into the school, West Hancock Ambulance Service Paramedic Jennifer Vaske said. Weve been doing this all 15 years (that) Ive been a paramedic here.

Calling it a cooperative effort in emergency response by Britt and surrounding communities, Vaske thanked the Flower Cart in Britt for floral arrangements and Ewing Funeral Homes for use of a casket that helped emphasize how quickly and unexpectedly life-changing circumstances can occur.

Two other partners in the emergency response exercise were Hancock County Emergency Response and the West Hancock Ambulance Service.

Im helping with our new communications today, said Hancock and Winnebago County Emergency Response Coordinator Andy Buffington, standing at the back of an open emergency response truck lined with hand-held radios. Now law enforcement, EMS, and fire and rescue can just stay on their own channels. We can make one super channel out of those, and they can all hear everyone else.

Buffington said the new digital functionality has been a big improvement over prior means of patching calls between responders at the dispatch center. He estimated the system has been in place for at least three years. The radio upgrades preceded the countys new communications tower near Duncan that has eliminated areas of communication drop outs near Britt and Garner.

Buffington noted that a similar exercise was held at Forest City High School last year, and his departments have been involved in a number of accident scenarios in Britt and Garner through the years. He added that a similar event is planned at North Iowa High School in Buffalo Center later this spring.

For us, its also just about helping everyone and allowing the responders to do what they need to do to have a good demonstration, Buffington said.

The Iowa State Patrol participated with a dramatization and potential lifesaving information for students on ways to avoid distracted driving, especially in an age of smart phones and other technologies. The danger of drinking and driving also was discussed. During the accident scenario, Britt police officers asked a West Hancock student playing the role of a driver who had been drinking to walk a straight line.

Hopefully, it hits home a little bit and makes them think, West Hancock High School Principal Dan Peterson. Even if it just makes a difference with one student, it makes it all worth it.

Peterson added that students hearing all the safety recommendations, and seeing firsthand what emergency personnel do in real scenarios, could help them be more proactive and more responsive in protecting themselves and others.

We have a whole large group helping with this, which is great, Vaske said. The various services donate their time and whatever they use for this. Its good practice for all of us as well. Its just about sending a message to students about risks, how to reduce them, and how to respond in certain situations.

While an open-casket scenario stemming from the events of the demonstration would have shock value, Vaske said they kept it closed. That casket alone sent a strong enough message, she added.
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On April 12, the opening ceremony of the III International Experience-Based Learning Conference was held in Baku, Azernews reports, citing Azertag.

The Deputy Minister of Science and Education Kanan Karimzade, who spoke at the event, in his presentation, in accordance with the "Socio-economic Development Strategy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2022-2026", discussed the tasks and goals facing education, as well as the Ministry of Science and Education in recent times.

The deputy minister talked about the work being done. He noted that improving the position of our country in international evaluations and achieving the representation of our 3 universities in the top 800 are among the main educational goals.

In his speech, the director general of the European Azerbaijan School, Francesco Bancini, said that the purpose of the conference is to learn the most modern approaches from educational leaders, discuss the field of education, and explore new ideas and strategies. The Director General also emphasized that representatives from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Turkey and other countries participated in the conference and pointed out that knowledge and experience will be exchanged at the international and local level within the framework of the event.

It should be noted that more than 60 seminars will be organized in 3 days at the conference held with the participation of educational specialists, as well as directors and teachers.




As the name implies, the French and Indian War raged on for seven years once it was officially declared. The tide turned when William Pitt, who served as secretary of state in the British government, took over wartime operations. Pitt recognized that the war played a crucial part in furthering Britain's global empire. He borrowed heavily to finance the war. He also stopped micromanaging the war from London and gave local control to the British forces in the colonies in matters of military leadership. As a result, British and colonial forces went on to defeat the French in North America and in territories throughout the world. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

The British were the clear winners in terms of territorial gains.

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"Britain retained control of much of the eastern half of North America, the port cities, which were critical, including Nova Scotia," says Giblin. "They also gained open trade with Native Americans, one of the key things they wanted, and the ability to trade, trap and hunt in the Midwest.

They also gained control of the western frontier, all the land east of the Mississippi River, all of Canada, and took over Florida from Spain (which had allied itself with France). Giblin says the French and Spanish still controlled much of the western half of North America, but that would soon change after the American Revolution and the Louisiana Purchase.

The clear losers in addition to the French were the indigenous people. Not only were they pushed farther out of their tribal lands, but in some places, smallpox was introduced to their tribes for the first time.

One of the unintended consequences of the French and Indian War was that it indirectly led to the American Revolution. "Britain emptied its coffers to pay for the war," Giblin says.

But it wasn't going to be enough. They raised taxes to ease the burden.

"The colonists were happy to pay their share of taxes for their portion of the war, but as early as the first half of the French and Indian War, colonists began to believe they were being unfairly taxed," Giblin says.

And we all know how that turned out.

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Now That's Interesting! Fort William Henry near Lake George, New York, was the site of a famous battle (Aug. 3-9, 1757), during which British Col. Monro finally surrendered to the commander of French forces, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm. Afterward a massacre occurred when retreating British troops, along with their camp followers including women and children, were attacked by Native American allies of the French troops. The events were dramatized in James Fenimore Cooper's novel, "The Last of the Mohicans."
Britain's climate change minister Graham Stuart resigned from the government after eight years on Friday, saying it was the right time to step down, Azernews reports.

Stuart said he would stand again for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives in an election expected later this year, with the opposition Labour Party leading in polls by a large margin.

"Having served as a minister for most of the last eight years I have decided that now is the time to stand down," he said in a letter to Sunak posted on social media platform X.

"I will continue to give you my full support from the backbenches."

Sunak's office said Justin Tomlinson, a former junior minister in the work and pensions department, would replace Stuart as climate minister.
CHICAGO  The city of Chicago and the state of Illinois are set to split more than $19 million in new congressionally approved funding released to assist cities and states in addressing the migrant crisis, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin announced Friday.

The Department of Homeland Security released the first installment of $300 million in grants to support communities providing services to migrants, federal officials said Friday. The funds come from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

An allocation of $275 million will be distributed first and the remaining $25 million will be allocated later in the year, officials said in the announcement.

The initial funding will be available to 55 grant recipients for temporary shelter and other eligible costs associated with migrants awaiting the outcome of their immigration proceedings.

Additionally, the department will provide $340.9 million through the shelter and services program-competitive grant program to be allocated before the end of this fiscal year, the announcement said.

Durbin, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, celebrated the move by President Joe Bidens administration. He said that the funding will ease the struggle Chicago is facing but added that he will continue to push for more.

Asylum-seekers have been subjected to cruel  and even unknowing  relocation at the whim of Gov. Greg Abbott and Republicans inhumane agenda. We need to uphold our countrys commitment as a welcoming nation for migrants, and that requires federal assistance, Durbin said in a statement. While I welcome this funding, its not enough to properly provide our city with the resources we need  and Ill keep pushing for more funding to help our city and state.

Nearly 39,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, have arrived in Chicago since August 2022, when the Texas governor began sending busloads of new migrants directly to sanctuary cities in part to protest Bidens border policies.

State and city leaders have pressed Biden to make additional resources available, including funding and expedited work permits for the new migrants.
German chancellor to visit China

Xinhua) 10:18, April 13, 2024

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Federal Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz will pay an official visit to China from April 14 to 16 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning announced on Friday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet with Scholz, Premier Li will hold talks with him and exchange views on bilateral relations and issues of common concern, Mao said at a regular press conference.

China always regards Germany as an important partner for win-win cooperation and supports Germany in playing a more important role in Europe and beyond, Mao said.

China and Germany have benefited from each other's development, and both countries have guided China-EU relations to develop in a steady and sustained manner and injected more stability into the world, Mao said.

As this year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of all-round strategic partnership between China and Germany, China is ready to work with Germany to deepen understanding, trust and cooperation to advance bilateral ties and make greater contributions to world peace and prosperity, Mao said.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
The family members of intelligence officers, who were martyred in "Khojavend operation" in 1997, have started to visit the Khojavend district.

On the 27th anniversary of "Khojavend operation" in 1997, they went to the area in Khojavend district, where the scouts rose to the peak of martyrdom, laid flowers on the place where the group was martyred, and commemorated their dear memories.

Later, it is planned to visit the families of the martyrs to Shusha and Khankendi.

It should be noted that in April 1997, two intelligence groups of the Azerbaijan Army infiltrated behind the enemy in the direction of Khojavand, which was occupied at that time, and performed their combat mission with honor. The first group returned without a loss. Another group of 8 people was surrounded on the way back. Azerbaijani scouts categorically rejected the enemy's demands to surrender, and a heavy battle began. Few groups have shown real heroism and strong resistance.

The other 7 people, who thought that Sergeant Agil Ahmadov, a member of the group, who was wounded during the heavy fighting, had already been killed, saw that their ammunition had run out and gathered in a group to avoid falling into the hands of the enemy.

They are the commander of the group, lieutenant Elkhan Agayev, members of the group - lieutenant Vugar Yarahmadov, sergeants - Anar Rzayev, Dinar Mustafayev, Agshin Hasanov, Nizami Alekbarov, Fariz Javadov.

The remains of the soldiers who died during the operation were recovered after 6 months as a result of the intense activity of Great Leader Heydar Aliyev. They were buried in the Second Alley of Honor in Baku, and each was posthumously awarded the "Flag of Azerbaijan" order. Ulu Ondar rescued the unconscious group member, sergeant Agil Ahmadov, whom Armenia had sentenced to death, from two years of captivity.




1. Yes. This is expected to be a high-turnout election. Its better to vote early and avoid the crowds.

2. Yes. The period is nearly two weeks long, so it should be easy to find a convenient time to vote.

3. No. Its better to wait until Election Day, just in case any last-minute information comes out.

4. No. Its more exciting to vote on Election Day, and its also more traditional.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say at this point. Ill make a decision as the election gets closer.

Vote

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Under the instruction of the Minister of Defense, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, events aimed at enlightening servicemen about national-spiritual values and patriotism continue, Azernews reports, citing the Defence Ministry of Azerbaijan.

As part of the events, representatives of the Ministry of Defense, Baku State University, the Ideological and Cultural Center of the Ganja Garrison visited military units and held meetings with personnel.

During the meetings with the servicemen, discussions on the statehood and military history of Azerbaijan, as well as on other topics were held, and servicemens questions were answered.
KEARNEY  Jeffrey Gold reminisced about boyhood games of stickball on the streets of New York City as he introduced himself to a crowd of about 150 Friday morning at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

I grew up in poverty, but I never knew it because I had everything I needed, Gold said. Later in his life, when college time arrived, Gold said his uncle advised, Just tell them you want to be an engineer.

It was good advice. Gold was admitted to Cornell University in 1974 and to Weill Cornell Medical College in 1978.

Much has happened since then. Among other things, he pioneered improvements in pediatric heart surgery. He also worked at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks. Later he shifted his focus to academic leadership.

On Friday, as the priority candidate to become the next president of the University of Nebraska spoke to students, faculty and administrators at UNK, Gold shared his vision for the future of higher education in Nebraska.

Golds appearance at UNK was among a variety of public events that are part of the vetting process to select NUs next leader.

After 30 days, the NU Board of Regents will be able to decide if Gold is offered the position.

Life can be very short, so if you want to make a difference you better do it when you can, he said. I have a lot of optimism about the future of higher education. If we treat our students like our children and give them what they need, well be OK.

Gold said the times demand that universities provide world-class educational opportunities. He said the University of Nebraska influences so much of what happens in Nebraska.

When the university gets a cold, the state of Nebraska gets pneumonia, he said.

As for UNK, he said hes familiar with the institution, especially because UNK and the University of Nebraska Medical Center collaborate on many health care efforts.

The UNMC Health Science Education Complex opened at UNK in 2015. Its success training students for health care professions in rural Nebraska supported the expansion of the rural-based training.

Today, the $93 million Rural Health Education Center is under construction next to the HSEC.

Gold shared a number of observations:

Keep education affordable, but make it quality.

Mental health is a real challenge, but also an opportunity. As a chancellor, I have called far too many parents to tell them their child was found hanging in their room.

An undergraduate education has to be about balance. Theres no question the arts and humanities bring out the best in people.

The question is, how well are we serving our students? If we do that well, well never have to cut the budget again.

The public is encouraged to share feedback about Gold during the vetting period by visiting nebraska.edu/president-search/feedback.
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If you decide to bring a pet to or adopt one in Korea, its important to be aware of essential etiquette and legal regulations regarding pet ownership. Some violations can result in fines. As the population of those raising a pet is increasing, the rules are getting a little stricter. Here are some things to know so you and your furry friend can enjoy your time on the Peninsula.

Things to know

All pets must be registered to a local office. SOFA status personnel are required to follow base rules.

When outside, you must use a leash or a pet carrier. Violation of this rule may result in a fine between 200,000 won to 500,000 won. The leash should not exceed 2 meters in length, and the pet carrier must have a lock to prevent escape.

When outside, be prepared with waste bags and tissues to clean up after your dog. A failure to follow the regulation can result in a 500,000 won fine.

In multi-unit housing, apartment houses, studio flat and dorms, pets must be on a leash or in a pet carrier.

Since local housing is mostly apartment-style living, youll notice there arent many large dogs around. Koreans are not accustomed to large breeds, so in order to avoid terrifying neighbors, use extra caution when taking your big furry buddy out.

Nopet zones

National parks dont allow pets to enter except service dogs.

Many beaches may have restrictions on pet entry. Certain coastal areas like Dadohae Sea, Hallyeo Sea, and Taean Coast are designated as national parks, where pet entry is legally prohibited. Even in non-national park beaches, there may be signs prohibiting pets during the summer vacation season (July to August). If you plan to swim with your dog during the summer, its recommended to check if the beach is pet-friendly. Some dog-friendly beaches include Ggotji Beach in Taean, Myeongsa Beach in Geoje Island, and Gwangjin Beach in Yangyang.

Most local parks are good places to take a pet for a walk, but some parks and playground have signs prohibiting pets.

Also, most restaurants, cafes, and many convenience facilities dont allow pet entry unless its a service dog. So its important to check before going to specific places with your pet.

Restrictions regarding dangerous dog breeds

American Pit Bull Terriers, Tosa, American Staffordshire Terriers, Rottweilers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers and mixed-breed dogs with these breeds are categorized as the five dangerous dog breeds in Korea.

For these breeds, you must use a muzzle as well as a leash when taking them outside. Violation can result in a 3,000,000 won fine.

The following areas restrict the entry of the dangerous dogs: kindergartens, nurseries, elementary schools, special schools for disabled children, facilities for the elderly, facilities for the disabled, childrens parks and childrens play facilities.

Offleash pet playgrounds near the base Check out these pet playgrounds near US bases where your pets can freely run and make some friends! Proof that your dog is registered is required. Please note that some of parks may restrict the entry of the five dangerous dog breeds.

- Modumaru in Agro-Ecological Park near Camp Humphreys  Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Nov.-Feb.), 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Mar.-Oct.)  Address: 1033, Sukseok-ri, Oseong-myeon, Naver Map

- Ichung Leports Park near Osan Airbase  Hours: 10 a.m.  8 p.m. (Closed on Mon. and holidays)  Address: 149 Janganut-gil, Pyeongtaek-si, Naver Map

- Dongnak Park near Daegu  Hours: 9 a.m.  6 p.m. (Closed on Mon.)  Address: 491 Jung-ri, Seokjeok-eup, Chilgok-gun, Naver Map
An asteroid the size of a car recently made a scarily close pass by Earth. Dubbed Asteroid 2024 GJ2, this space rock was only discovered on April 9, few days before its near-Earth encounter on April 12.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the 2024 GJ2 is around 3 metres in size and was discovered on Tuesday by the Pan-Starrs 2 telescope in Hawaii, US.

Astronomers have calculated that the space rock will graze by Earth at a mere-12,000-mile distance  that's just three percent the distance between the Earth and the moon. 2024 GJ2 measures between 2.5 and 5 metres (8.2 and 16 feet), stated ESA.


We present the short story "The Romance of a Busy Broker," by O. Henry. The story was originally adapted and recorded by the U.S. Department of State.

Pitcher, who worked in the office of Harvey Maxwell, broker, usually allowed his face to show no feeling. This morning he allowed his face to show interest and surprise when Mr. Maxwell entered. It was half past nine, and Mr. Maxwell was with his young lady secretary.

Good morning, Pitcher, said Maxwell. He rushed to his table as if he were going to jump over it, then began to look at the many, many letters and other papers waiting there for him.

The young lady had been Maxwells secretary for a year. She was very beautiful, and very different from most other secretaries. Her hair always looked plain and simple. She did not wear chains or jewels. Her dress was gray and plain, but it fitted her very well. On her small black- hat was the gold-green wing of a bird.

On this morning she seemed to shine softly. Her eyes were dreaming but bright. Her face was warmly colored, and her expression was happy.

Pitcher watched her. There was a question about her in his mind. She was different this morning. Instead of going straight to the room where she worked, she waited. She seemed not to know what to do. Once she went over to Maxwells table, near enough for him to see that she was there.

The machine sitting at that table was no longer a man. It was a busy New York broker.

What is it? Anything? asked Maxwell shortly. Papers lay like snow covering his table. His gray eyes looked at her as if she were another machine.

Nothing, answered the secretary, moving away with a little smile.

Mr. Pitcher, she said, did Mr. Maxwell talk to you yesterday about getting another secretary?

He did, Pitcher answered. He told me to get another one. Several are coming to talk to us this morning. But its now after nine and not one has appeared.

I will do the work as usual, said the young lady, until someone comes to fill the place. And she went to her table. She took off the black hat with the gold-green bird wing and put it away as usual.

If you have never seen a busy New York broker on a busy day, you know little about men at work. Every minute of a brokers hour is crowded.

And this day was Harvey Maxwells busy day.

Beside his table stood a machine. From this came a long, narrow, endless piece of paper, bringing him business news as soon as it happened.

Men began to come into the office and speak to him. Some were happy, some were not, some were in a hurry, some were full of anger.

Boys ran in and out with letters for him to read and answer at once.

Pitchers face now showed that he was alive. The other men who worked in the office jumped around like sailors during a storm.

And there were storms in the business world, fearful storms. Every storm was felt in the brokers office.

Maxwell moved his chair against the wall. Now he was like a dancer. He jumped from the machine to his table to the door and back again.

In the middle of all this, he slowly realized that something had come near him. There was golden hair; there was a very large amount of it, high on a head. On top of the hair was a big hat covered with birds wings. There was a long silver chain, hanging from a neck until it nearly touched the floor. And among all these things there was a young lady.

Pitcher was beside her to explain.

Lady for that job as secretary, said Pitcher.

Maxwell turned half around, with his hands full of letters and paper from the machine.

What job? he asked.

Job of secretary, Pitcher said again. You told me yesterday to have someone sent here this morning.

You are losing your mind, Pitcher, said Maxwell. Why should I tell you anything like that? Miss Leslie is a perfect secretary. She can keep the job as long as she wants it. To the young lady he said, There is no job here. And to Pitcher he added this order: Tell them not to send any more. And dont bring any more in here to see me.

The silver chain left the office, hitting against chairs and tables with anger, as it went. Pitcher said to another man in the office that Maxwell was more forgetful every day.

The rush of business grew wilder and faster. Maxwell was working like some fine, strong machine. He was working as fast as he could. He never had to stop to think. He was never wrong. He was always ready to decide and to act. He worked as a clock works. This was the world of business. It was not a human world, or the world of nature.

When the dinner hour was near, things grew quieter.

Maxwell stood by his table with his hands full of papers and his hair hanging over his face. His window was open, for it was the time of year when the weather was beginning to turn warm.

And through the window came a soft sweet smell of flowers. For a moment the broker was held there, without moving. For this smell of flowers belonged to Miss Leslie. It was hers and hers only.

The smell seemed almost to make her stand there before him. The world of business grew smaller and smaller. And she was in the next roomtwenty steps away.

Ill do it now, said Maxwell, half aloud. Ill ask her now. I wonder why I didnt do it long ago.

He rushed into the other room. He stopped beside the secretary.

She looked up at him with a smile. Warm color came into her face, and her eyes were soft and kind.

Maxwells hands were still full of papers. Miss Leslie, he began quickly, I have only a moment. I want to say something in that moment. Will you be my wife? I havent had time to make love to you in the usual way. But I really do love you. Talk quick, please. I have to get back to my work.

Oh, what are you talking about? cried the young lady. She rose to her feet and looked at him, round-eyed.

Dont you understand? said Maxwell. I want you to marry me. I love you, Miss Leslie. I wanted to tell you. So I took this moment when I wasnt too busy. But theyre calling me now. Tell them to wait a minute, Pitcher. Wont you, Miss Leslie?

The secretary acted very strangely. At first she seemed lost in surprise. Then tears began to run from her wondering eyes. And then she smiled through her tears, and one of her arms went around the brokers neck.

I know now, she said, softly. Its this business. It has put everything else out of your head. I was afraid at first. Dont you remember, Harvey? We were married last evening at eight, in the Little Church around the Corner.

Download activities to help you understand this story here.

Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. How do you organize your time? Is work the most important thing to spend your time on? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

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Quiz: The Romance of a Busy Broker Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

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For Teachers

The activities in the document linked below help students understand the story.



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Words in This Story

broker  n. a person who helps other people to reach agreements, to make deals, or to buy and sell property such as stocks or houses

secretary - n. a person whose job is to handle records or letters for another person in an office

rush(ed)  v. to move or do something very quickly or in a way that shows you are in a hurry

chain(s)  n. a series of usually metal links or rings that are connected to each other in a line and used for supporting heavy things, for holding things together or for decoration

rush  n. a situation in which a large number of people move to or toward one place at the same time usually to do a specific thing or to search for something
Students and teachers from Bryan Elementary School embarked Monday on a mission to give back to their community by volunteering in various locations. The school joined hands with various local businesses and organizations to undertake service projects aimed at enhancing the functionality of public spaces while fostering a spirit of volunteerism among the younger generation.

Students and teachers dispersed across different parks and businesses throughout Lexington, engaging in tasks ranging from cleaning parks to assisting businesses with various chores, all aimed at making a positive impact on their surroundings.

In the weeks leading up to the event, Bryan Elementary School had reached out to local businesses, inviting them to partner with individual classrooms for service projects.

Each business was given the opportunity to enlist the help of students in activities such as picking up trash, washing windows, greeting customers, and ensuring the cleanliness and safety of designated areas in the community.

Over 15 classrooms, kindergarten to fifth grade, helped Monday: Class KA/KB, Class 1A, Class, 1B, Class 1C, Class 2A, Class 2B, Class 2C, Class 3A, Class 3B, Class 3C, Class 4A, Class 4B, Class 4C, Class 5A and Class 5C.

The impact of volunteering experiences through community service projects can be an amazing opportunity, both for our students and our community, Bryan Principal Tiffany Denker said. We hope through these community service projects we are able to help instill important values such as generosity, kindness, responsibility and citizenship while providing valuable learning experiences outside of the classroom.

Furthermore, Denker highlighted how initiatives like these contribute to the overall educational experience at Bryan Elementary.

Community service projects can enrich a students educational experience by providing meaningful opportunities for learning, growth, and community engagement Denker said.

Participating businesses included Plum Creek Market Place, MRK Inc., U Save Pharmacy, Lexington YMCA, Family Dentistry, Canyon Lakes, C and M Denker Grain, Lexington Regional Health Center, Home Federal Bank, Dollar Fresh, Strike and Spare Bowling Alley, Macs ShortStop, First Interstate Bank, Bella Boutique, Trius, Hernandez Media and Medos.

Some businesses were unable to provide service projects but contributed with donations for Bryan Elementary School. Platte Valley Auto, Tyson Foods Inc., Kirks/NebraskaLand Tire and Walmart were among those who extended their support to the cause.

The event was further bolstered by the contribution of Keep Lexington Beautiful, which donated cleanup supplies for some of the service projects.
One apartment occupant was displaced after a fire started in her unit on Madison's East Side early Saturday morning.

Firefighters were on their way to 4016 Nakoosa Trail shortly after 5 a.m. for an activated fire alarm when a 911 call also came in. When they arrived, residents were evacuating, among them, a woman who said the fire was in her apartment.

The fire was taken down by the building's sprinkler system, which caused water to seep out of the building's main door, according to Madison Fire spokesperson Cynthia Schuster.

Firefighters shut off electricity to the unit and cleaned up the water from the sprinklers. The apartment where the fire was concentrated is uninhabitable, Schuster said, and, after being evaluated at a hospital, the woman was in touch with the Red Cross for housing assistance.

No other occupants were displaced and no injuries have been reported. Firefighters are working to determine the cause of the fire.
A driver whose excessive speed and driving behavior on a Beltline frontage road caused a crash in 2021 that killed the director of public broadcasting in Wisconsin was sentenced Friday to 2 years in prison.

Dane County Circuit Judge Mario White said after listening to Shawnicia N. Youmas, 33, in court Friday and hearing for the first time about some of her social media posts that followed the crash that killed Wisconsin Public Media director Gene Purcell, I do not believe you have truly internally accepted your role in this, which is 100%.

Only seconds before she attempted to pass Purcell on July 27, 2021, Youmas was driving just under 65 mph in a 30-mph zone. Hitting the brakes slowed her to 51 mph at the time of impact with Purcell, who was riding his motorcycle to work that day and had started to make a left turn into WPMs parking lot.

Purcell died a few days later from multiple injuries sustained in the crash. After striking his motorcycle, Youmas car crashed into a utility pole and knocked out power to the area.

Youmas pleaded guilty last year to homicide by negligent driving. But because she also pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, a two-day trial was held to determine whether Youmas was suffering from a mental illness at the time of the crash. White ruled on Feb. 2 that while Youmas does suffer from a mental illness, it did not affect her actions on the day of the crash.

Youmas will be on extended supervision for four years after her release from prison. During that time, she is banned from driving, among other conditions.

The maximum sentence Youmas could have received was five years in prison, followed by five years of extended supervision. That was the sentence sought by Assistant District Attorney Rebekah Rennicke and Purcells siblings and wife, who spoke during Fridays hearing.

Youmas attorney, Emily Bell, asked White to impose three years of probation.

White acknowledged that under the law, he was required to first consider probation, but said he could not grant it because it would depreciate the seriousness of what Youmas had done, and because he believes she has treatment needs that can only be met in a confined setting.

He also said that while Youmas was free on bail as the case was long pending, she showed she presented a danger to the public. One instance involved an incident with the father of two of her children, whom she was charged with threatening with a knife. Another involved a threat to workers at a shop, and another was an incident in which she was accused of breaking down a plexiglass barrier and brandishing scissors at a Stoughton motel to confront a staff person.

All of those charges were dismissed, but White was allowed to consider Youmas actions in deciding her sentence for Purcells death.

White also said he did not believe Youmas has truly acknowledged she did anything wrong in the crash with Purcell.

Fault deflected

Youmas spoke for about 15 minutes before she was sentenced, a statement that leaped from one topic to another, from a previously unmentioned brain tumor caused by medication to her struggles growing up.

As for the crash, she said, Nothing was found at the scene, and there isnt video of the crash.

I do not feel I was 100% at fault, she said, later explaining that Purcell was alive after the crash and that nobody has talked about medical malpractice at the hospital before he died.

She added later that she is not an evil person.

But members of Purcells family told of their alarm at Facebook posts written by Youmas after the crash in which she blamed the crash on Purcell, at one point writing that he may have been suicidal in turning his motorcycle in front of her car. Youmas also had lashed out in the posts at Purcells wife and at Madison police.

Ms. Youmas is seemingly devoid of a conscience, wrote Connie Purcell, Genes sister, in a statement read in court on her behalf.

Megaton bomb

David Purcell said the impact of his brothers loss on him has been truly incalculable and was a megaton bomb on our lives.

Nothing seems to be her fault, he said of Youmas.

Genes wife Ruth Purcell told of seeing video during Youmas insanity trial of Youmas in a police squad car after the crash, in which Youmas remarked, He could have killed me.

That froze my blood and made me want to turn inside out, Ruth Purcell said.

She closed by saying the sentence White issued today would not be the last time Youmas would be judged.

Our heavenly father has the last word, she said. Im guessing you will be very surprised when he renders his verdict.
Mastercard and Women Choice have expanded their partnership to launch two programmes  ImpactHer and EmpowerHer  to support women entrepreneurs grow their business and create jobs across the Middle East and Africa.

Women Choice  an international organisation dedicated to advancing womens personal and professional development  launched the pilot cohort in 2023. The next cohorts will be participating in the new programmes this year and will aim to impact 50,000 women.

Mastercard has been at the forefront of providing women with access to digital tools, training to help them start and grow their businesses, creating mentorship and networking platforms and working with employers to create more jobs for women.

The collaboration with Women Choice is a step further in reinforcing their joint commitment to empowering female-led businesses with resources and growth opportunities, with a goal of providing 1 million employment opportunities for women by 2030.

These programmes will offer comprehensive support via trainings and mentorship for women entrepreneurs and helps them create employment opportunities for other women in their chosen field.

At Mastercard, we are committed to creating a more inclusive and equitable world, where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Our expanded partnership with Women Choice will not only have a significant impact on women in the workplace across the region, but also provide women entrepreneurs with the right skills, resources and tools to succeed and drive economic growth in the region, said Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President, Market Development, EEMEA, Mastercard.

We are proud to see the successful results of the programme launched in 2023 in collaboration with Mastercard and are excited to see the partnership continuing to grow through 2024. We are now focusing on scaling the impact.

Bringing change and improving the situation of women in the workplace and providing support to women-led businesses is a key element to help economies in the Middle East and Africa region grow and further thrive, said Nezha Alaoui, Founder & CEO of Women Choice.

Globally, 15,000 women are already part of the Women Choice network and have participated in 100+ accelerator programmes and conferences organised in recent years.  TradeArabia News Service
Eden Turner Education/Politics Reporter Follow Eden Turner 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

In 2016, Brandon Connolly (he/him) came out to his family as transgender.

It was a difficult moment for Connolly because most of his family werent supportive of his transition  but his grandmother was his anchor as he began to step into his new identity.

Earlier the next year, in 2017, he vented to his grandmother and told her that he was scared and exhausted.

I want to pass as best as possible, Connolly remembers saying, I want people to leave me alone.

But thats not who you are, his grandmother told him.

He didnt want to have any more conversations about his identity and explain it to other people.

In response, his grandmother reminded him that this is who he is  an advocate, both for himself and for others.

Do the right thing, she said. Stand up for yourself and other people.

His grandmothers advice has always stuck with him, especially after her passing later that year. Since then, Connolly has embraced activism and has become a leader within the LGBTQ+ community in the Magic Valley and neighboring areas such as Boise and Utah.

Noting what he said is a lack of access to resources that he and his community need to thrive and feel at home in their bodies, Connolly works with the Southern Idaho Pride Alliance as board president to raise awareness about the issues the group faces.

In a rural and conservative state such as Idaho, trans-identifying residents struggle to access healthcare thats instrumental to their well-being.

Being transgender refers to someone whose gender identity doesnt match the body they were assigned at birth. As defined by GLAAD, gender identity refers to a persons internal, personal sense of being a man or a woman. For some people, their gender identity doesnt fit into either category, and, because of this, they prefer to identify as non-binary.

Typically, individuals who may be experiencing gender dysphoria  the discomfort that a person feels when they dont identify with the gender they were assigned at birth  can seek out various gender-affirming resources, such as surgery or puberty blockers.

As new anti-transgender bills are introduced in Idaho and across the nation, trans residents feel less affirmed and supported.

When it comes to Idaho legislature, 2022s House Bill (HB) 675 would have criminalized healthcare providers that offer gender-affirming care for trans youth, but the state Senate struck down the legislation.

Last year, HB 71 was proposed, which would ban trans youths access to puberty blockers. The original version of the bill equated gender-affirming care amongst youth to female genital mutilation.

After receiving a series of amendments, Gov. Brad Little signed the bill on April 6, 2023.

Most recently, HB 668 was introduced in the State House of Representatives, which would introduce a new section to the state code, 18-8901. The bill blocks the use of public funds, like Medicaid, from covering gender-affirming procedures  including surgeries, hormone therapy and puberty blockers. Healthcare workers employed by the state also cannot provide any of these procedures.

While there are some exceptions outlined in the bills text, unless a patient has a health concern that requires this type of procedure, trans residents employed by the state cannot use their insurance to seek the care they need.

After passing in the State House and Senate floors, Little signed the bill on March 22. The law will go into effect on July 1.

Ten states, including Idaho, Texas and Arizona, have a policy in which Medicaid explicitly excludes transgender-related health care for all ages, according to the Movement Advancement Project.

The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law reported in 2019 that out of 4 million adults who identify as transgender in the U.S., only 152,000 of them are enrolled in Medicaid.

Insurance coverage is uncertain for 51,000 beneficiaries, as they live in states where laws on coverage for gender-affirming care arent explicitly defined. On the other hand, 32,000 beneficiaries live in states with explicit bans that deny gender-affirming care.

People that weve elected to be a voice in government are turning against us in order to erase us, Connolly said, (but) you cant erase us. Were here, weve always been here, and we will continue to be here. The harm that comes from that, though, is the misinformation and the hate that comes from this kind of legislation.

On the local level, even though some anti-trans bills arent approved, these ideas trickle down and affect the community.

For instance, Connolly recalls sitting in on a school board meeting where officials were considering implementing an inclusive bathroom policy. During the meeting, he said he observed that a lot of the parents who were against the policy almost forgot that they were talking about children, as they used strong language to express their thoughts.

I dont think that people understand that the kids who need protection when it comes to bathroom bills are transgender children, he said. Our community is facing the harassment and growing potential for more harm.

Massachusetts native Shane Jones (he/they) moved to Idaho in 2017 with their mother for a change of pace. Moving to a conservative area was a culture shock for him, he told the Times-News.

In search of a community, he eventually found the Southern Idaho Pride Alliance. After volunteering with the organization for some time, Jones became a board member. In their position, they support the alliance in its mission to provide a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community and celebrate their identities.

In 2021, I moved to Twin, Jones said. and thats when I started to find out about Southern Idaho Pride. I was just like, Oh wow, my communitys here.

Jones partner Venice (she/they) traveled to a Walmart clinic in hopes of receiving physical care in 2020. After an hour of waiting in line, she was turned away by the healthcare provider, telling them that they couldnt give Venice the care she requested due to the doctors religious beliefs.

This was not only frustrating, but publicly outing, she said.

As reported by the U.S. Transgender Survey in 2015, 26% of trans-identifying Idaho residents experienced issues with their insurance that were related to their transgender identity. This includes their coverage being denied for gender-affirming care or routine healthcare.

Thirty-nine percent of residents stated that they had at least one negative experience when seeking healthcare due to their identity, which included verbal, physical or sexual harassment or having to teach the provider about transgender people in order to get appropriate care, the report read.

When I think about healthcare, I think about all forms of health. I think about mental health, physical health, you know  how safe the environment is around me, Jones said. It might help to be more accommodating and understanding of trans peoples issues in general (because) we require to be heard and listened to in order to progress as a community.

These issues create a passion amongst the trans and LGBTQ+ communities to provide helpful resources and organize spaces in which they can advocate for themselves and their peers.

Arya Walker (he/him) is the organizer of the upcoming Southern Idaho Transgender Affirming Care Resource Fair. On Saturday, April 20 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Herrett Center, attendees can access various resources, like transition attire, connect with local organizations, and learn more about how to be an ally.

Originally from Arizona, Walker was used to accessing readily available resources, but after moving to Idaho, he wasnt sure where to go. Because of this, he spent almost two years off testosterone because he couldnt find anything that worked for him.

That was kind of difficult because when I moved down here, everything was word-of-mouth, he said. It was like you had to know the people, and I didnt know them right away.

LGBTQ+ Resources If you or someone you know needs access to any type of resource, you can contact the local organizations listed below. Southern Idaho Pride Alliance sites.google.com/southernidahopride.org/sip/home?authuser=0 Trans Affirm: Southern Idaho www.transaffirm.org Mama Dragons www.mamadragons.org Add the Words https://www.addthewords.org/ Planned Parenthood https://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-center/idaho

Walker immersed himself into advocacy work and, not before long, found a community and resources. Understanding what he went through when he first moved to Idaho, Walker wanted to create an organization that would provide local resources for the people in smaller towns who need them, and thus, Trans Affirm was born.

As he reached out to other organizations for donations and assistance, Walkers list of supporters grew and grew.

Through his event, Walker wants to educate the general community and teach the value of allyship.

Its ultimately about education, and thats the hope, he said. This event is not only for trans people, but also for their families. For teachers and businesses to come in and ask, What can I do? How can I do these things? We have speakers and booths that will give the other side of the experience and say, This is how you can be more gender-affirming to those that are gender diverse in your community.

Above all, education is the pathway to acceptance and change, Connolly explains. The first step to allyship is understanding that transgender is an adjective, not a verb, he said.

Just like any other adjective, it describes who that person is, and thats only if they want to share that with you, Connolly told the Times-News. Its also an umbrella term. Theres lots of identities under it. Some of them are non-binary, a lot of them are gender expansive.

In many situations, Connolly has stepped in for his friends during a hospital visit or doctors appointment when they are in a crisis and cant advocate for themselves. When he walks into the room, he asks them on a scale from 1 to 5: How hard do you want me to advocate for you?

Im still several degrees away from privilege as a Black and Hispanic, transgender and disabled person, he said, but when I enter a space, especially in comparison with some transgender people who dont pass or are non-conforming, Im able to navigate those spaces a lot better and be an advocate for those people.

Connolly hopes that one day, asking this question will no longer be a necessity.

I want to eventually be in a place where I dont have to ask that question anymore... The next transgender person that comes into your hospital, you should treat them with respect and give them the same kind of care that you would give to somebody else.

Your news on your smartphone Your story lives in the Magic Valley, and our new mobile app is designed to make sure you dont miss breaking news, the latest scores, the weather forecast and more. From easy navigation with the swipe of a finger to personalized content based on your preferences to customized text sizes, the Times-News app is built for you and your life. Dont have the app? Download it today from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
A press release from April 11, reports that the Idaho Supreme Court upheld Idahos voter ID law in a 5-0 decision and affirmed in full the district courts decision from last October in Babe Vote and League of Women Voters of Idaho v. Phil McGrane.

Idahos challenged law states that student identification cards are not valid identification when it comes to registering to vote, citing a lack of uniformity and sophistication.

This is a strong victory for election security and the minimum standards that must be met in order to vote, said Attorney General Raul Labrador in the press release.

The Idaho legislature took steps to improve our election security, but rather than encouraging young people to obtain their free state voter IDs, advocacy groups took legal action against the State, alleging age discrimination. We are pleased with this victory, but acknowledge liberal advocacy groups are bringing similar claims in Federal court, and we will continue to defend these laws.

The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed in the ruling that, House Bills 124 and 340 are reasonable exercises of the legislatures authority to enact conditions on the right of suffrage under Article VI, section 4 of the Idaho Constitution.
Dont let Republicans legislate morality

The National Defense Authorization Act funds the annual budget for the Department of Defense. It usually passes on a bipartisan basis.

Recently, House Republicans broke that tradition and loaded the bill with amendments that eliminate all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the Defense Department. It blocked the Pentagon from putting in place President Bidens executive orders on climate change; ends reimbursement to military personnel who travel for abortion services, bars health care for gender transition, prevents schools associated with the Defense Department from teaching that the U.S. is racist, and blocks military schools from having certain books in their libraries. House Speaker McCarthy proudly tweeted that the bill ENDS wokism in the military and gives our troops their biggest pay raise.

Think about it. House Republicans are hijacking our national security for morality issues that have been a part of the planet since the dawn of humanity. You might not agree with gender transition, or abortion, or the color of someones skin, but are you willing to sacrifice our national security to keep people in power who are legislating health care when they have no training in health care? Would you go to your state representative to have bladder surgery, or to deliver a baby?

Rather than delivering solutions on climate change (just talk to insurance companies  yes, it is real), economic inequality, or cyber and racially motivated hate crimes that will eventually destroy us all, extremists are legislating whether someone can read a book.

President Trump pulverized the NATO alliance. Putin has been obliterating Ukraine ever since. Diplomacy has thankfully expanded the alliance with a grateful Sweden. Regrettably, were edging closer to confrontation with Russia or China. It wont be reading a book, getting transition care, or having an abortion that will determine the defense response.

Act. Vote the crazies out.

Kate Lopez

Twin Falls

Cockfighting is not animal agriculture

I grew up on a small ranch and embraced animal agriculture long before I graduated from veterinary school.

Animal agriculture is a noble enterprise, providing sustenance for billions of people and livelihoods for millions.

Cockfighting, on the other hand, is a disgrace and a crime, providing no benefit to anyone but the people who enjoy animal bloodletting.

The Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act, S. 1529, closes loopholes in the enforcement of animal fighting laws that allow criminals to sell fighting animals and generate vast sums of money from illegal gambling.

I have become more concerned lately about the future of agriculture in our country as Senior Veterinarian for Animal Wellness Action. There are powerful individuals, foundations, and organizations intent on smearing animal agriculture and not distinguishing between legitimate uses of animals and gratuitous abuses of them.

Cockfighting bears no resemblance to animal agriculture. If we in animal agriculture do not distinguish between this kind of evil, and the proper, acceptable uses of animals, we will see people turn away from animal agriculture.

Now its time to work to strengthen the federal law, so that the nation can better distinguish between proper animal use and the worst forms of malicious cruelty. It is past due that the cockfighters hang up their spurs and halt their criminal animal abuse. Support the FIGHT Act, S. 1529 and H.R. 2742, to oppose cruelty and support integrity of agriculture.

Thomas Pool

Norman, Oklahoma

Brainwashed? Think again







Solomon Asch performed some exceptional psychology experiments in the 1950s. His experiments showed the power of conformity when people sometimes agree with a groups opinion, even when shown evidence the group is wrong. But in the 1950s, Asch could not determine whether his subjects consciously changed their views or whether social cues unconsciously skewed their perception.

In 2005, Gregory Berns answered this question by repeating Aschs experiment with brain scans. Berns found the brains visual center changed what it perceived to fit with the group opinion before it passed this information to the reasoning part of the brain: So people see evidence that doesnt exist and do not know their perception is false. And as this process is common, it has crucial practical implications for all of us.

For instance, if self-deception is unconscious, we must choose our company carefully. We safeguard our thinking by mixing with skeptical people who make evidence-based decisions and only use reputable sources. We must avoid the company of the deceived. A radio or TV constantly blaring nonsense might be enough to poison a mind. It also means we must show compassion when talking to climate, vaccine, or election deniers because, unconsciously, their brains may have shown them evidence that does not exist.

Lets not assume people are brainwashed when all it takes for most of us is a light rinse.

Simon Smith

Pullman, Washington

Truth or fiction?







In the Times-News of July 15, Rep. Lauren Necochea, with the headline Democrats are building stronger, more resilient recovery, claims that real wages for the average American worker are now higher than they were before the pandemic. This is clearly wrong as inflation (caused in large part by President Joe Bidens super-sized giveaways) has easily outstripped wage gains.

Also, in the same July 15 edition, Dorothy Moon, with the headline, Kari Lakes Idaho visit will only fuel grassroots enthusiasm, claims that Lake has solidified her prominence as a leading figure in the fight for election integrity ..., when, in fact, she refused to concede the election and sued in an attempt to have the results overturned and that lawsuit was rejected by the courts and she was fined $33,000 in fees.

It would be nice to have just a little more truth in these opinions.

Ken Downs

Kimberly

Its not the job of government







Whats the role of government? Is it to dictate to the people what there morals are or what religion they should belong to?

During the territorial days of Idaho the Republican Party in 1884 passed the Idaho Test Othh. The purpose of this law was to keep members of the LDS faith from voting or holding public office. The Democratic Attorney General, Richard Z. Johnson, opposed the law to the Idaho Territorial Supreme Court in 1888, when they upheld the law. He appealed it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost again.

At the time this law was passed, it disenfranchised 25% of the voters in Idaho.

As a result of this law, the statehouse went from the control of the Democratic Party to the control of the Republican Party. In this case, a law was passed on the moral basis that plural marriage was bad, therefore members of the LDS faith could not vote or hold office.

It is not governments place to punish people because of their beliefs as long as those beliefs do no harm.

Edward Easterling

Kimberly

Ukraine in NATO isnt good for US







If Ukraine were to be included in NATO now, it would automatically require the U.S. to go to war with Russia. NATO-type defense treaties contain a common defense pledge that requires every member nation to defend an attack against any other treaty nation. (What is Article 5? magicvalley.com, July 13).

George Washington warned against getting involved in permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world. Democracies like Athens and Rome saw that group defense treaties were made by two or more kings wishing to protect their dynasties against another more aggressive king. Democracies have always believed it is best to stay on the sidelines regarding these kinds of petty personal squabbles and to avoid binding future generations to wars they might not agree with.

Washington also learned from the Bible, where prophets like Isaiah warned Israel against association with other nations. After several hundred years of democratic independence, northern Israel made a common defense treaty due to their fear of aggressive Assyria, and southern Judea made a common defense pledge out of fear of autocratic Babylon. Both treaties led to complacency, decline in the fortitude of the people, aggravation of the militancy of the aggressor nation, and Israels dark journey into Assyrian and Babylonian captivity.

Our current treaty obligations require us to get involved in virtually every war in Europe and Asia. Is that the future we want for our grandchildren?

Kimball Shinkoskey

Woods Cross, Utah
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Saturday (Manila time) questioned the existence of a secret agreement purportedly forged by his predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte, with China regarding the Ayungin Shoal.

During a media interview in Washington, D.C., Mr. Marcos raised three crucial questions regarding the alleged agreement: its existence, contents, and the rationale behind its secrecy.

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Ano ba ang pinangako ng Duterte administration sa China? Dahil hindi pa natin alam eh kung  ngayon lang pa lang natin talaga  ngayon lang tayo nakakatiyak na mayroon talagang, mayroon pala talagang agreement. Tawag nila is gentlemans agreement, tawag ko diyan, secret agreement, the President told reporters.

He asked why Duterte, a seasoned lawyer, chose not to document, record, or publicly disclose the agreement.

Now we need to know, what did you agree to? What did you compromise? What you gave out, why is our friend from China getting mad that were not following it, the President said.

Moreover, Mr. Marcos expressed readiness to engage in dialogue with Duterte to discuss foreign policy and government agreements concerning the South China Sea.

Send them to me and then well sit down. Send those documents to me. And then Ill sit down and discuss it. Ill do my homework for him. Just the way I work. I read all the materials first so when Im in the conference, I can ask intelligent questions, he added.

The President said that any deal involving another sovereign state should be known by the people, by the elected officials, and by the Senate, which ratifies treaties entered into by the government.

It should be known by the local officials. It should be known by everyone. Because in that way you can you are accountable. If its a bad decision, youre accountable. Tell me, you guys did something wrong. Right? What are you hiding, why didnt you say it? What are you hiding? Why was it secret? he asked.
Internet service giant Google has pledged to strengthen cybersecurity, help micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and promote the responsible use of digital technology in the Philippines.

The commitment was made when President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. met with Googles top executives on the sidelines of the Philippines trilateral summit with the US and Japan in Washington DC on Friday (Manila time), Communication Secretary Cheloy Garafil said in a statement on Saturday.

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Garafil said Marcos, during the meeting, called on Google to increase cybersecurity activities in the Philippines, particularly in the countrys regulatory efforts.

Marcos urged Google to come up with a system that will provide efficient digital services for all Filipinos across the country, as he emphasized his administrations bid to ensure continued connectivity off the sea.

I am trying to be concerned when were off the sea. So, as I said, will try to pick that up and go on your organization and help us with that, Marcos said, referring to the governments cybersecurity programs, as well as initiatives, tools and framework to strengthen cybersecurity defense and contribute to a safer digital ecosystem in the country.

Googles Global Vice President on Government Affairs and Public Policy Karan Bhatia said Google is willing to help the Philippines in strengthening its cybersecurity, saying the company would love to be part of the governments efforts on digital transformation.

Bhatia also expressed Googles intention to expand its business and operation in the Philippines, considering the Philippines impressive shift to digitalize its services.

Let me, first of all, say how impressed weve been with the leadership that you and your team have already shown on the digital transformation agenda. We know it is a very high priority for you, for the Philippines as a whole, but in particular for the government, he told Marcos.

He said Google is excited about expanding its businesses and operations in the Philippines where it has about 50,000 employees.

Upskilling of MSMEs

Bhatia likewise assured Marcos of Googles commitment to help MSMEs in the Philippines grow their businesses, citing its partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to upskill the sector in the digital landscape.

I would flag the work we do with small- and medium-sized businesses. So, this is with the DTI. Its to enable small businesses to get a presence online and figure out how do they connect with the rest of the world, he said.

Google has partnered with the DTI in rolling out Google Career Certificates (GCC) in the departments virtual campuses, covering more than 1,300 DTI Negosyo Centers in 16 regions nationwide.

This builds upon the 40,000 GCC scholarships Google previously distributed to equip Filipino youths, jobseekers, MSME entrepreneurs, and civil servants with in-demand skills in project management, cybersecurity, IT support, data analytics, UX design, and digital marketing.

Responsible use of digital technology

Google pledged to conduct training on the responsible use of digital technology for more than 100,000 children and their parents who are considered the most vulnerable sector in the society.

Because kids are often online for a long period of time and we need to make sure that they know how to use the technology. So, we thus far engage in training for 100,000 Filipino kids and are going to continue to grow that as well, he said.

Google Philippines, which began operations in 2013, supports the Internet giants global operations by providing customer and operational support services in the country.
Assistant principals appreciated

The Martinsville School Board recognized the school divisions assistant principals at its April board meeting.

This is assistant principals week and its a tough job, MCPS Superintendent Zeb Talley said. The main responsibility of the assistant principal is to make sure that your principal has everything that he or she needs.

You deal a lot with discipline, you deal a lot with students, you deal a lot with parents and of course teachers, Talley said. We certainly appreciate the hard work of our assistant principals.

Pre-opening workday

The Fieldale Heritage Committee is preparing to open the swimming pools for the 2024 summer season.

The committee is a nonprofit organization mainly run by a small group of retirees. They are looking for volunteers to help with manpower and raising money to restore and maintain the Fieldale Pools.

The Pre-opening Workday will entail cleaning, painting, mowing and more. The committee said the workday is a great opportunity for students who are looking to acquire some community service hours.

The workday will be on May 4 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the rain date is May 11 at the same time. Refreshments will be provided from 12:30-1 p.m.

They are also looking to hire paid summer lifeguards with rotating hours from Memorial Day weekend through the end of the summer.

For more information and signups, contact Michael Jarrett at 757-237-5644 or by email at mcjarrett4833@gmail.com.

Spencer Penn events

The Spencer Penn Centre announced a list of events for May.

On May 4 at 10 a.m., there will be storytime at the Centre. This monthly program will include special readers, crafts and other activities related to the book Watch Me Bloom. The program is free and fit for all ages. No registration is required.

Music night will be on May 10 starting at 5 p.m. with Travis Fyre and Blue Mountain. The event starts with an open information bluegrass and oldtime jam and the main band will start at 6:30 p.m. Admission is a $5 cash donation. Concession will be hot dogs, chicken salad, BBQ and homemade desserts.

Neighbors in the Know takes place on the first and third Monday of each month at the Hylton Library. Each week has a different hour- long presentation and activity. Activities for children are provided during the program. Admission is free but registration is required. All ages are welcome.

The Spencer Penn Thursday Farmers Market takes place every from 4-7 p.m. Any interested vendor should call 276-957-5757.

Uptown Martinsville Farmers Market

The Uptown Martinsville Farmers Market will be open rain or shine Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to noon from April 27 to Nov. 16. It will be open on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to noon from July 10 to Sept. 25.

The farmers market will be closed on Oct. 5 for Oktoberfest. For more information call 276-632-5688.
Retired Martinsville Police Officer Coretha Gravely will start as Clearview Early Learning Centers first ever school resource officer.

Gravelys appointment marks a significant milestone for Martinsville City Public Schools, a news release states, completing their goal of having an SRO present in every school.

Gravely was the first Black woman to join the Martinsville Police Department when she was hired in 1991. Gravely was the first member of the community policing unit started by the department in 1994.

She has also been active in multiple Neighborhood Watch groups, Special Olympics, Relay for Life, Boy & Girls Club, Martinsville City Public Schools, Seniors and Law Enforcement Together (SALT) and the Senior Citizens Academy.

She retired from full-time duty in December after 32 years of service and is now returning part-time to take on her new role as Clearviews first SRO.

Officer Gravely is already a very familiar face at Clearview through her extensive community involvement over the years, MCPS Director of School Safety and Emergency Management T.J. Slaughter said. She has participated in countless family events and other activities at Clearview and other schools in our district. We couldnt be happier to have her on board, completing our team of district SROs.

An active member of the Martinsville community, Gravely has dedicated her career to connecting with residents and working to make the city a better, safer place, the release states. In her new role as Clearviews SRO, she will help create a secure environment for the preschools students, faculty and staff as part of the districts multi-layered safety system.

School resource officers are a critical and highly visible part of the comprehensive security measures we have implemented to ensure students and staff can learn and work in a safe environment, Slaughter added. While many of our safety enhancements operate behind the scenes to avoid detracting from the learning environment, our SROs are on the front lines, building relationships with staff and students while keeping everyone safe.

Thanks to the districts partnership with the Martinsville City Police Department and the Martinsville Sheriffs Office, resource officers have been in place in every K-12 building in Martinsville for nearly a decade, the release states.

With the addition of Gravely, Martinsville City Public Schools has met its goal to successfully place a dedicated SRO in every school in the district, a major security achievement.
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:

Mailed at-home self-sampling for human papillomavirus (HPV) testing increases cervical cancer screening participation in underscreened populations by almost threefold, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, held from April 5 to 10 in San Diego.

Jane R. Montealegre, Ph.D., from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and colleagues evaluated the effectiveness of mailed at-home self-sampling for HPV testing in a safety-net health system setting. The analysis included data from 2,115 patients who were randomly assigned to one of the three following arms: telephone recall to provider-performed screening (usual care; arm 1); telephone recall + mailed self-sampling kit for HPV testing (arm 2); or telephone recall + mailed self-sampling kit + telephone-based patient navigation (arm 3).

The researchers found that among participants, the median time since last screening test was 9.5 years. Screening participation across arms 1, 2, and 3 was 15.3, 44.0, and 51.4 percent, respectively. Compared with usual care (arm 1), the relative incidence of screening in arms 2 and 3 was 2.90 and 3.36, respectively. For arm 3 versus arm 2, the relative incidence of screening was 1.16.

"After U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, self-sampling for high-risk-HPV testing has the potential to dramatically increase participation in cervical cancer screening in underserved populations," the authors write.

Copyright  2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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

Africa's most populous nation Nigeria has launched a "revolutionary" vaccine against meningitis, in what the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday said was a world first.

"Meningitis is an old and deadly foe, but this new vaccine holds the potential to change the trajectory of the disease, preventing future outbreaks and saving many lives," said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"Nigeria's rollout brings us one step closer to our goal to eliminate meningitis by 2030," he said.

The Men5CV vaccine shields against the five major strains of the meningococcal bacteria (A, C, W, Y and X) in a single shot.

The WHO said it offers broader protection than the current vaccine used in much of Africa, which is only effective against the A strain.

Last year the number of meningitis cases jumped 50 percent in Africa.

Nigeria, with a population of 220 million, is one of the continent's 26 meningitis hyper-endemic countries, an area known as the African Meningitis Belt.

WHO noted that 153 people died during an outbreak of meningitis in Nigeria between October 1 and March 11.

Gavi, the global Vaccine Alliance, funded the new campaign from March 25-28 to initially vaccinate more than one million people aged from one to 29 years.

"Northern Nigeria, particularly the states of Jigawa, Bauchi and Yobe were badly hit by the deadly outbreak of meningitis," said Professor Muhammad Ali Pate of Nigeria's Health Ministry.

"This vaccine provides health workers with a new tool to both stop this outbreak but also put the country on a path to elimination," he said in the WHO statement.

Meningitis infection leads to inflammation of the membranes or meninges that protect the brain and spinal cord.

It has multiple causes including viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic pathogens.

Symptoms often include headache, fever and stiff neck. Bacterial meningitis is the most serious and may result in septicaemia or blood poisoning that can seriously disable or kill within 24 hours.

 2024 AFP
Passover begins at sundown on Monday, April 22, lasting for a week. The most observed Jewish holiday by Jews and non-Jews alike, Passover places freedom and redemption at the center of our awareness.

The key observance of Passover is the Seder, an ordered set of practices surrounding a delicious festive meal. On the table is a Seder plate with a green vegetable symbolizing spring, a shank bone (or beet) symbolizing the Paschal sacrifice, bitter herbs reminding us of the Israelites suffering in servitude, an egg symbolizing life and the ancient temple sacrificial rite, and Charoset, a pasty fruit and nut mixture symbolizing the mortar used to build the ancient pyramids, reminding us that life has sweetness along with bitterness. Some include a small cup of salt water that when tasted reminds us of the tears of those who suffer. Another contemporary inclusion is an orange to encourage us to see new additions to ancient practices and be more inclusive of what we consider beyond our comfort zone.

At the Seder we sing songs, tell the Exodus tale and engage in dialogue about our lifes journeys from narrow places, from what confines us, restricts us and holds us back, to places of growth, expansiveness, liberation and potential. I recall sitting at many Seder tables listening to personal accounts of journeys from dark to light, the unknown to clarity and failures to successes.

When talking about the Exodus, conversation whirls around current events as well, and the possibilities of redemption from the brokenness to repair and wholeness.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes: "Passover is the oldest and most transformative story of hope ever told  It defines what it is to be a Jew: a living symbol of hope. Perhaps we might consider these Passover insights as we welcome the Spring and spread redemptive hopefulness.
Imagine you agree to help your neighbor remodel a deck on his house one weekend. You even bring your own power tools to get the job done quicker.

When done, your neighbor admires the improvements, then turns to you and says, "Leave your tools. They're on my property. They belong to me now."

Any Montanan would roll his eyes at such an asinine demand and likely laugh as he gathers his tools and walks away. And yet, similar illogical nonsense is being espoused right now by state bureaucrats who argue they have the authority to seize certain water rights temporarily lent to make improvements. We aren't laughing, nor can we just walk away.

The bureaucrats behind this are serious, and the ramifications, if left uncorrected by the Montana Land Board, will be a blow to private property rights and state revenues.

At issue is a practice that has been a norm in Montana for over a century. For a fee paid to the state, farmers and ranchers lease public lands to graze livestock or grow crops. Money from the leases generates revenue for the state whether through crop share agreements, agriculture, or grazing leases, all which generate revenue for schools.

To ensure success in either venture, some farmers and ranchers with water rights on private property will spend their money to improve the public land while they lease it. This can include providing water tanks for cattle or irrigation for crops. Whatever the improvement, the provided water might come from an established water right on the leaseholder's private property.

When a lease expires, the leaseholder stops using the land and providing water. In the past, the state policy aligned with this ideal: the lease is temporary, and the private owner retains the water right.

In 1986, an attorney for the then-Department of State Lands wrote a letter to the state Water Court making this quite clear: It is the state's general policy, he wrote, "not to assert ownership of water rights where the diversion point is on private land."

However, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, formerly the same Department of State Lands, has now decided otherwise.

Incorrectly citing a 1985 state Supreme Court ruling, the DNRC now asserts ownership of private property rights developed on private land that are used temporarily on a state lease.

Like the ridiculous, make-believe neighbor staking claim to your tools, the agency is telling farmers and ranchers: You can leave, but your property rights stay with us.

This is government bureaucracy gone insane. It would be laughable if not so absurd. The Supreme Court case these bureaucrats cite, the Department of State Lands vs. Pettibone, involved a leaseholder who developed water ON the state lease and used it there. That case never addressed a water right developed on private property.

Public land leases are mutually beneficial: Leaseholders get use of the land for a fee, which generates important revenue. If the DNRC continues to make this kind of claim to the water right, those mutual benefits will surely cease. No responsible owner of water rights will risk losing them by using them on leased state lands. Who would lend tools to a neighbor if he thought the tools would never be returned?

There is potential good news, though. The state Land Board has the authority to end this overreaching DNRC claim. The elected members of the board  the governor, the auditor, the attorney general, the secretary of the state, and the superintendent of public instruction  have the authority to reverse the DNRC's course.

We believe it is the Land Board's constitutional duty to do so. We urge all Montanans to ask the state Land Board to restore the policy that protects private property rights.
China's State Council has released a guideline on strengthening regulation, forestalling risks and promoting the high-quality development of the capital market.

This is the third guideline document on the capital market from the State Council in two decades. The first two were issued in 2004 and 2014, respectively.

The country should build a secure, regulated, transparent, open, dynamic and resilient capital market, the guideline noted.

In this regard, efforts should focus on strengthening regulation, preventing risks and pushing forward high-quality development to fully harness the functions and roles of the capital market, promote the building of a country with a strong financial sector and serve the goal of advancing Chinese modernization.

The guideline demanded strict regulation on the entry into the capital market through securities issuance and listing, urging higher standards for listing on the main boards and the start-up board ChiNext.

The oversight on issuance and underwriting should be intensified, and illegal activities such as fraudulent issuance should be investigated strictly, it said.

It urged rigorous sustained oversight on listed firms, noting that authorities should crack down on illegal shareholding reduction and tighten regulation on cash dividend payment by listed firms.

The country vowed to strengthen regulation on delisting, adopt stricter standards for compulsory delisting, smooth diverse channels for delisting, and optimize investor compensation remedy mechanisms, according to the guideline.

Efforts will also go to tightening regulation on institutions like securities and fund management companies, and strengthening shareholder and business access management.

Work should be done to tighten supervision over high-frequency trading and other types of trading, and investigate and punish illegal activities such as market manipulation and malicious short-selling, according to the guideline.

It also demanded strengthening the reserves of strategic forces and the development of stabilizing mechanisms. The impacts of both major economic and non-economic policies on the capital market will be factored into policy orientation consistency evaluation, as part of efforts to enhance the intrinsic stability of the capital market, it said.

China will vigorously guide the entry of medium and long-term capital into the market, it stated.

Work will be done to develop public equity funds and optimize the policy environment for insurance-fund investment. Encouragement will also be given for capital from banks' wealth management products and trust funds to actively participate in the capital market.

The country will advance the registration-based initial public offering system for solid progress and make the market more inclusive to new industries, new business patterns and new technologies to foster new quality productive forces.

It is also imperative to strengthen the rule of law in the capital market and make intensified efforts to jointly crack down on securities and futures malpractice.

The guideline also stressed the importance of upholding and enhancing the leadership of the Communist Party of China, ensuring that the financial sector must always serve the public, and strengthening regulation in all respects and effectively preventing and defusing risks, among others.

"The guideline reflected a goal-oriented and problem-oriented approach," China Securities Regulatory Commission Chairman Wu Qing told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

In particular, in view of the prominent problems such as those in institutions, mechanisms and regulations exposed by the stock market volatility since August last year, the guideline aimed to shore up weakness in response to investors' concerns and promote the resolution of deep-seated problems accumulated over the years, Wu added.

In the next five years, China expects to form a general framework to support the high-quality development of the capital market, according to the guideline.

By 2035, a capital market with high adaptability, competitiveness and inclusiveness will be basically established, it said. By the middle of the 21st century, the governance system and capabilities of the capital market will be further modernized, creating a high-quality capital market that matches China's status as a country with great financial strength.

Wu said the series of development goals is systematic, comprehensive and progressive, calling for adhering to market-oriented and law-based reform and turning the blueprint into reality.

"In the next step, we will study and formulate reform measures to promote the long-term development of the capital market on the basis of in-depth research," he said.
Following publication of an article in November 2023 that revealed that a Napa County Office of Education consultant helped write a Mayacamas Countywide Charter Middle School petition  a petition she would later recommend the county board approve  the consultant has since kept her distance, new records obtained by the Napa Valley Register show.

Recent emails and other messages obtained by the Register between the charter school petitioners, NCOE Superintendent Barbara Nemko and NCOE consultant Lynne Vaughan indicate far less direct involvement than in the months prior.

According to Vaughans contract, the county office hired her last May to provide oversight and support for Mayacamas Charter Middle School in relation to curriculum, instruction, and operations after the California State Board of Education approved a charter for the middle school within the Napa Valley Unified School District.

When NVUSD appealed the state boards ruling, Vaughans role transitioned into directly supporting Mayacamas founders in their quest for an alternative, countywide charter. Questions were raised about her objectivity since, at the same time, she was on a team tasked with reviewing the petition for the county board. Her contract with NCOE ends in June.

Mayacamas co-founders Jolene Yee and Lauren Daley said they definitely noticed a change since November.

Such requests are understandably unnerving to any recipient, and the natural reaction is to limit communication, the founders wrote in a statement. We still enjoy a collaborative and supportive relationship with our authorizer, but the request has heightened awareness and resulted, at least on our part, in more guardedness than is probably necessary, but due to an over-abundance of caution.

Nemko, for her part, denied that the requests have had any impact on communication among her, Vaughan and the charter school petitioners.

Vaughan agreed, saying in an email that she hasn't changed her approach to communications since the records requests were made.

The new records show Vaughan exchanged information with the Mayacamas founders and Nemko in regard to grant letters, different learning tools for teachers, and whether Mayacamas' head of school Catherine Adams was meeting compliance agreements set out by the county education office.

Compliance guidelines attached to a December email list those requirements, which range from Governance and Organizational Management to plans for Education Performance.

The additional emails obtained by the Register have very little mention of the petition the founders submitted to NCOE in January, which was conditionally approved by the board at its March 5 board meeting.

By contrast, emails between Vaughan, Nemko and the Mayacamas founders between June and August 2023 indicated Vaughans involvement in writing and editing sections of an initial charter petition that was later withdrawn.

In particular, those earlier communications stated that Vaughan wrote most of the sections proposing a partnership between the Mayacamas school and Pacific Union College in Angwin.

I just talked with Barbara  and she has arranged to get the letter from PUC  it is a done deal, Vaughan said in an email the Register reviewed.

The partnership was a cornerstone of the earlier petition that was intended to help justify the need for a countywide charter, but there was significant public pushback from opponents alleging anti-LGBTQ stances by PUC, a private college affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It does not appear in the petition approved in March.

At NCOE's February board meeting, superintendent Nemko and the board of trustees addressed the findings published by the Register. Board president Don Huffman asked Nemko if she knew of any potential bias on the part of Vaughan, which Nemko denied.

Did she answer questions they (petition writers) had? Certainly. Did she write their petition? Certainly not, Nemko said at that meeting. Conflict of interest generally involves money, and I promise you, nobody is making any money off this.

Vaughan's contract states she is being paid $1,000 a month for the work.

In a follow-up email, Nemko explained Vaughans role was that of an editor.

"Ms. Vaughan reviewed the petition before it was submitted to note possible problems with the Petition so that those could be corrected before the Petition was filed," Nemko said in reference to the first petition. "She did not 'draft' the Petition in the sense that it was her work-product or that she created it from the ground up."

Nemko continued that Vaughans help with petition issues prior to board review was a better use of the publics and staffs time as opposed to it being rejected midway through the proceedings on technical issues or because important information was omitted.

On Friday, Nemko said the Mayacamas founders submitted all their conditional requirements for approval to the board two weeks ago. Yee confirmed they provided the supplemental documents March 25.

Vaughan said during the next few months, she will be assisting the charter with oversight and finalizing a three-year plan, monitoring how they spend grant money and analyzing state and internal testing at the school.

At NCOE's April 2 board meeting, trustees voted to appoint Julie Herdell, who served 24 years as the principal of Napa's West Park Elementary School, to oversee the conditions laid out for approval, which include a school safety plan and a reading curriculum for underachieving students.

However, Nemko, also on Friday, said Herdell chose to decline the appointment due to an illness in her family.

Nemko said there will be a special meeting next Wednesday to figure out who will now take point on ensuring the Mayacamas school is meeting its requirements.

Photos: Mayacamas School prepping for first day of school
An aerial drone photo taken on Feb. 2, 2024 shows an international container terminal of Tianjin Port in north China's Tianjin. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's total import and export of goods expanded 5 percent year on year in yuan terms in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024, setting new records in both scale and growth rate, official data showed Friday.



From January to March, the country's foreign trade in goods stood at 10.17 trillion yuan (about 1.43 trillion U.S. dollars), according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

Exports from the world's second-biggest economy were 4.9 percent higher year on year to reach 5.74 trillion yuan, while imports rose 5 percent to 4.43 trillion yuan, the data showed.

Trade boom

Historically, for the first time, the country's foreign trade scale has exceeded 10 trillion yuan during the same period, while the growth rate has hit a six-quarter high, GAC deputy head Wang Lingjun told a press conference.



In the first quarter, China's trade with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and other BRICS nations has shown a growth rate that surpasses the overall growth rate.

Trade with BRI partner countries reached 4.82 trillion yuan, marking a 5.5 percent increase and accounting for 47.4 percent of China's total trade volume, the data showed. Trade with the European Union, the United States, the Republic of Korea, and Japan accounted for a combined share of 33.4 percent of the total.

Trade with Latin America and the five Central Asian countries has achieved double-digit growth. In the same period, the trade with traditional markets such as the United States and Japan has shown a positive recovery, with the decline in the first quarter imports and exports narrowing by 5.9 percentage points and 1.2 percentage points, respectively, compared to 2023.

Structurally, China's export portfolio has demonstrated strength in the machinery and electronics sector, as well as labor-intensive products, signaling the continued international competitiveness of these goods. Imports of bulk commodities and consumer goods have expanded steadily, indicating a healthy and growing domestic demand.

Wang said that Chinese products had garnered widespread acclaim globally, a testament to the country's focus on innovation and quality.

"The global popularity of Chinese engineering machinery is a direct result of their reliability, durability, and superior performance, along with comprehensive after-sales support," he said. "These machines are in high demand worldwide and are a common sight on major construction projects overseas."

Wang also underscored that China has consistently maintained its position as the world's second-largest import market for 15 consecutive years, with a cumulative import volume nearing 200 trillion yuan.

"In the first quarter of this year, we have seen a 'volume and price increase' in our imports, with import volume reaching a new high. This demonstrates that China's vast market presents significant opportunities for the world," Wang noted.

Growth to stay

Amid profound shifts in the international environment and numerous severe challenges facing global economic development, China's foreign trade sector is confronted with heightened tests, Wang said.



"However, amid these external pressures, the fundamental strength of China's economy remains on an upward trajectory, with a solid foundation underpinning the sustained improvement in its foreign trade," he noted.

It is expected that China's imports and exports will continue to show an upward trend in the second quarter of 2024, and the first half of the year is anticipated to register a growth trajectory, said Wang.

China has targeted its economic growth at around 5 percent for 2024, a goal that officials and experts believe is well within reach considering the country's sound economic fundamentals and supportive macroeconomic policy mix.

The latest trade figures have joined a series of positive economic data points emerging since March. The purchasing managers' index (PMI), a critical gauge of manufacturing and services sector health, has also reported improvements in March, with PMI for the manufacturing sector bouncing back to the expansion zone.

Looking ahead, Wang outlined customs initiatives, which include enhancing trade facilitation, improving port business environments, assisting enterprises with cost reduction and fee relief, and nurturing new drivers for foreign trade.

"We will introduce additional effective policy measures in a timely manner to fully support the qualitative and quantitative stability of China's foreign trade," he said.
Marc Morris chosen as dean of SIUs College of Business and Analytics

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Marc E. Morris, a triple alumnus of Southern Illinois University Carbondale has been selected as dean of the College of Business and Analytics. He has been serving as the interim dean since January 2023 and is a longtime SIU faculty member and administrator.

Sheryl A. Tucker, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, said faculty and staff who worked with Morris and people who met with him appreciated his long service to SIU.

Dr. Morris has extensive knowledge of SIU Carbondale and how it works, which will be an asset as he takes our College of Business and Analytics to the next level, she said.

I would like to thank the search committee, chaired by Bob Morgan, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences, and the campus and local communities for their active participation in the search process. Everyones time and effort are greatly appreciated.

Longstanding SIU connection

Morris, a Carbondale native, earned his bachelors degree in university studies with an emphasis on business administration at SIU as well as his Master of Business Administration in finance and a doctoral degree in accounting. He also holds a law degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

He joined the SIU faculty in 2004 as an instructor and by 2008 was an assistant professor of accounting with a cross appointment to Simmons Law School. Morris was promoted to associate professor in 2016 and was appointed interim director of the School of Accountancy in 2018. He became permanent director the following year and was promoted again in 2021 to professor. He served as interim associate provost for academic administration from 2021 to 2022 and co-acting provost in 2023.

Morris was the 2022 recipient of the SIU Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest honor presented by the SIU Alumni Association.

Growing up on the northeast side of Carbondale, I never dreamed of becoming dean of the College of Business and Analytics, Morris said. It is truly an honor and responsibility that I deeply cherish. I have always had a sincere desire to do the right thing and am moved by helping people be the most outstanding that they can be. As dean, I will continue to strive for ways to encourage, support and recognize excellence in others.

Morris has taught a diverse selection of courses at SIU, including undergraduate and graduate courses on corporate taxation; partnership taxation; governmental and nonprofit accounting; business associations; corporations, agency and partnership law; corporate finance, and law and accounting.

He has served on various committees and task forces, including graduate council chair, research task force chair and member of the Chancellors Diversity and Inclusion Task Force and Chancellors Leadership Council. Morris has been engaged in community service as well, including serving on the boards of the Boys and Girls Club of Southern Illinois and the Eurma C. Hayes Center.
The government is going to start an online portal from April 15 to monitor the availability of the stock of pulses. According to Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the importers and traders of pulses have been instructed to accurately declare their stocks of pulses, including imported Yellow Peas, every week. Secretary of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Nidhi Khare, conducted a series of meetings with stakeholders in the pulse industry to review the availability of pulses and discuss import-related issues. During the meeting, discussion was also held on inputs from market intelligence sources regarding the stock position held by various market players. The government ensures that strict action will be taken against the forward trading of pulses. This states that during the meeting issues regarding pulses imports from Myanmar were also discussed. The Indian Mission informed about the operationalization of the Rupee Kyat Settlement Mechanism, which aims to streamline trade transactions and enhance efficiency. Under this mechanism, traders are encouraged to utilize the Rupee/Kyat direct payment system through the Special Rupee Vostro Account (SRVA) via Punjab National Bank, thereby reducing costs associated with currency conversions and eliminating complexities related to exchange rates. During the meeting, the States and Union Territories have been urged to enforce weekly stock disclosure by all stockholding entities and verify the declared stocks accordingly. Earlier on Thursday also the States and UTs were apprised of the need for increased vigilance over the stock position and price trends in respect of pulses to prevent hoarding and market manipulation. India is a large consumer and grower of pulses and it meets a portion of its consumption needs through imports. India primarily consumes chana, Masur, urad, Kabuli chana, and tur. (ANI)
Known for his flamboyant style, veteran Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli has passed away. He was 83. The famous fashion designer had been ill for a long time, leaving and entering the hospital more and more often for ritual checkups, his family told The Hollywood Reporter. Cavalli's company also issued a statement on social media, announcing the demise of Cavalli. "Roberto succeeded in becoming a globally recognised name loved and respected by all. Naturally talented and creative, Roberto believed that everyone can discover and nurture the artist within themselves," the post read. In 1970s, Cavalli became popular in the early 1970s for his animal prints. He imagined the women who wore his clothes as wild creatures: lionesses, panthers, and tigers, charming and wild. In the mid-1990s, Cavalli revolutionised the world of denim with a number of innovations, among them stretch jeans, which he invented by adding Lycra to the fabric, and a process for sand-blasting denim pieces that gave them a lived-in effect. The designer opened his first boutique in St. Tropez, France, the most exclusive vacation destination for VIPs, in 1972. As per CNN, Cavalli retired from active duty at his label in 2015, picking designer Peter Dundas to succeed him as creative director. Dundas left the job after only three seasons and was succeeded by Paul Surridge, who remained until 2019. In the same year, after a period of financial difficulties that led to bankruptcy, the business was acquired by a Dubai-based private investment firm, which has since retained the designer Fausto Puglisi for its fashion collections and further branched out into Cavalli-branded real estate and hospitality ventures. Cavalli's survivors include his longtime partner Sandra Bergman Nilsonn and his six children, Tommaso, Cristiana, Robert, Rachele, Daniele, and Giorgio. With his demise, he has left a huge void in the fashion industry. (ANI)
The actor on Friday shared an unseen picture on her Instagram Stories, featuring her alongside Vijay from the 2002 release.

In the throwback image, the 'Barfi' actress is seen on stage with Vijay, composer D Imman, and others. Alongside the picture, she captioned it, "22 years of Thamizhan."

Thamizhan was Priyanka Chopra's first acting project after winning the Miss World title in 2000. Subsequently, she made her Bollywood debut with Andaaz in 2003, alongside Akshay Kumar and Lara Dutta.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Priyanka is gearing up for her next Hollywood film 'Heads Of State'.

Taking to Instagram, Priyanka gave a glimpse of the script. The page had the film's title and mentioned that Harrison Query wrote it.

It also had Priyanka's name watermarked on it.

Sharing the photo, she wrote, "And we're back."

She will be seen in 'Heads of State' alongside John Cena and Idris Elba.

Not only this, the actress lent her voice to Disneynature's upcoming film Tiger. The movie will be released on Disney+ Hotstar and it revolves around understanding the intricacies of the intriguing world of one of our planet's most loved creatures.

On the Bollywood front, she will be seen in Farhan Akhtar's next directorial 'Jee Le Zaraa' alongside Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt. However, no update has been provided on the film since the announcement was made a couple of years ago. (ANI)
On the sixth anniversary of the film 'October', actor Varun Dhawan walked down memory lane and shared a behind-the-scenes video to mark this day. Taking to Instagram stories, Varun treated fans with a video. The film stars Banita Sandhu and Gitanjali Rao. Varun in 'October' demonstrated how natural he could look while playing even the most straightforward roles. He gave a fantastic performance in this Shoojit Sircar film. The critics were unable to restrain themselves from praising Varun's legendary performance as Danish in this play. The flick hit the theatres on April 13, 2018. Meanwhile, Varun Dhawan is all set to team up once again with his father, acclaimed director David Dhawan, for their next big project. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh confirmed the news on his official Instagram handle. Backed by Tips Films and produced by Ramesh Taurani, the upcoming collaboration is poised to deliver a cinematic experience like no other. Scheduled for a nationwide release on October 2, 2025, the project is anticipated to be a celebration of family bonds, romance, and side-splitting comedy. This venture marks the fourth collaboration between Varun and David Dhawan, following the success of their previous projects like 'Main Tera Hero,' 'Judwaa 2,' and 'Coolie No 1. Varun recently resumed shooting for his upcoming action thriller film 'Baby John'.'Baby John' is the title of the film, which is directed by A. Kaleeswaran. Atlee is presenting the film in association with Jio Studios and Cine1 Studios. Keerthy Suresh, Wamiqa Gabbi, Jackie Shroff, and Rajpal Yadav are also a part of 'Baby John', which will hit the theatres on May 31, 2024. The film is produced by Murad Khetani, Priya Atlee and Jyoti Deshpande. In the coming months, Varun will be seen in the Indian adaptation of the Hollywood series 'Citadel' opposite actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu. It is an Indian adaptation of the Russo Brothers' series of the same name. Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden headlined the international version. The release date of the Indian version of Citadel is awaited. Raj and DK have created the Indian version. (ANI)
Amid the sound and fury from campaign trails, with the contesting leaders of the ruling and Opposition coalitions going at each other ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravishankar urged people on Friday to come out in record numbers and exercise their franchise. The spiritual guru, who heads the Art of Living Foundation, called on the people to enlist their participation in the elections in the spirit of celebration just as they would in a festival. Speaking to ANI on Friday, Sri Sri Ravishankar said, "I urge the people to come forward and be a part of the country's journey towards development. They should consider the upcoming elections as a festival. We should not always regret or lament the flaws (in the country's electoral system). It is often seen that people with a positive and progressive frame of mind don't even vote. I earnestly appeal to everyone out there to come out in large numbers and vote. It is a (democratic) responsibility. The people, alone, decide the outcome of elections." He added that while the people, in a democracy, reserve the right to decide whom to cast their vote for, the basic idea was for them to come out and enlist their participation and involvement in the elections. "We cannot ask people who to vote for, all we can do is ask them to vote...for the future and welfare of the country and decide on an able leader for the country," he added. The spiritual leader said 'freebies' and 'money' should not decide the outcome of elections. "Let money or freebies not influence your vote. If we continue to move at the pace with which we are moving forward, our country will definitely become the third-largest economy in the world. However, if there is a break in the process, then it will be difficult," Sri Sri Ravishankar added. The seven-phased general elections to 543 seats in the Lok Sabha are scheduled to take place from April 19 to June 1, this year. The polling across the country will be conducted over seven phases, with the counting of votes scheduled for June 4. About 970 million people, out of a total population of 1.44 billion, are eligible to enlist their participation in the elections this year. The legislative assembly elections for Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, and Sikkim will coincide with the general elections. Bye-elections to 35 assembly seats across 16 states will also be held at the same time. (ANI)
Balrampur district police authorities are running a special training camp for young aspirants of the police, armed forces, and paramilitary forces. This special camp aims to facilitate employment opportunities for youth in the region by providing free training. According to officials, the special camp, aimed at preparing candidates for the physical and written exams, has garnered significant participation, with over 400 youths from across the district registering for the training. Participating youths arrive at the Police Parade Ground as early as five in the morning. Many youths, undeterred by distance, travel 20 to 30 kilometres to attend the training sessions. The training sessions are organised under the supervision of SSP Dr Lal Umed Singh, who personally oversees the progress at the parade ground. Expressing their gratitude, female participants highlight the upcoming recruitment opportunities in the police department and other armed forces. They also lauded the initiative for providing free training, comparing it with the hefty fees often associated with similar programmes in big cities. "Many of the participants travel for 20 to 30 kilometres and reach the Police Parade Ground at 5 in the morning. Despite the rigorous four-hour training, their enthusiasm remains high, and they show up for the training the next morning. The faces of the youth reflect enthusiasm--not the tiredness of the training," Khusboo, one of the trainees, told ANI. "The training curriculum includes exercises, running, high jump, long jump, and general knowledge sessions, ensuring comprehensive preparation. We are also given tips on how to keep our bodies fit," Ramesh, another trainee, said. Trainers emphasise the allure of joining the uniformed forces for youth, underscoring the importance of physical fitness and knowledge enhancement. "The initiative aims to streamline the recruitment process and equip candidates with the necessary skills to excel in the exams. The initiative has been brought forward so that the youth do not have to wander for the preparation of the uniform force, and they are ready for the recruitment," Chandra Prakash Rajput, one of the trainers, said. Speaking to ANI, SSP Balrampur Dr Lal Umed Singh emphasised the importance of providing accessible training opportunities for youth aspiring to join the uniformed forces. "With duties assigned to five employees of the police department, the training incorporates a strategic approach to prepare candidates for the recruitment examinations," he said. The emphasis is on ensuring that candidates face no obstacles during the recruitment process, the SSP added. (ANI)
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China's securities regulator on Friday released a guideline on strict implementation of delisting regulation.

The guideline, released by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, focuses on improving the overall quality of listed companies, clearing out "zombie shell" companies and "black sheep" stocks, and reducing the value of "shell" resources through stricter delisting regulation, expanding diverse exit channels and strengthening investor protection.

Specifically, the guideline demands adopting stricter standards for compulsory delisting, forcing companies found guilty of serious falsification within a year or engaging in continuous falsification to delist. It also calls for a resolute crackdown on vicious and long-term systemic financial frauds.

It requires improving policies and regulations in areas such as mergers and acquisitions, encouraging and guiding leading companies to integrate industrial chains based on their main businesses.

The guideline also urged efforts to intensify delisting supervision, severely punish illegal activities such as financial fraud, insider trading and market manipulation, and optimize investor compensation remedy mechanisms.

The commission released the aforementioned set of measures after China's State Council released a guideline on strengthening regulation, forestalling risks and promoting the high-quality development of the capital market.

This is the third guideline document on the capital market from the State Council in two decades. The first two were issued in 2004 and 2014, respectively.

The country should build a secure, regulated, transparent, open, dynamic and resilient capital market, the State Council guideline noted.

The securities regulator has also started soliciting public opinions on six draft rules covering regulations on issuance, listed companies, securities companies and trading, starting on Friday.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray has hit back at the recent remark of Prime Minister Narendrea Modi labelling the party as "fake". Thackeray, in his response to PM Modi said that his party is not like "your degree". The Shiv Sena (UBT) chief said that his party was founded by Bal Thackeray to fight for the rights of the people. "The Shiv Sena, which was founded by Bal Thackeray to fight for the rights of sons of soil, is being called fake. They say that this is a fake Shiv Sena. It is not your degree to call it fake. Is this your degree which you are calling fake? After him (PM Modi), his other party member Amit Shah came and he also called it fake," Uddhav Thackeray said at a campaign rally on Friday. The PM on Monday while addressing a public rally in Maharashtra's Chandrapur said, "INDIA alliance partner DMK is talking about finishing Sanatan and linking Sanatana Dharma to malaria and dengue. And the Congress and the fake Shiv Sena are calling the same people for rallies in Maharashtra." Meanwhile, Amit Shah on Thursday said, "Three parties have united in Maharashtra under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. One fake Shiv Sena, one fake NCP, half Congress. We have a phrase in Gujarat, 'Teen Tighda Kaam Bigada'. Uddhav Ji's Shiv Sena is left half, Sharad Ji's NCP is left half and both of them reduced Congress to half." Speaking at a campaign rally at Boisar near Mumbai on Friday, Uddhav Thackeray said the INDIA bloc will win over 300 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. "I am saying this with pride and confidence, that the INDIA alliance will form the government and will win more than 300 seats," he said. In June 2022, Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, along with 40 other MLAs, revolted against the party's leadership and jumped ship to the BJP, leading to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. In 2023, the NCP also suffered a split when prominent leaders like Ajit Pawar and Chhagan Bhujbal joined hands with the ruling BJP in the state. The Shiv Sena (UBT) is now a part of the newly established INDIA bloc, formed to take on the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second-largest after Uttar Pradesh. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 23 out of 25 seats it contested in alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena .Elections to the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, and May 20. the counting of votes will be done on June 4. (ANI)
Delhi police on Saturday claimed to have busted an inter-state gang of vehicle lifters operating in and around the national capital region (NCR) and arrested five people, along with the recovery of 14 cars that were reported stolen in the past. The arrested accused include two vehicle lifters and three buyers of stolen vehicles. "14 cars and electronic devices used in the commission of crime were recovered from their possession," they said. According to police, following the incidents of vehicle thefts, a special team was constituted and a probe was initiated into the same. The team studied the pattern of the incidents of theft, the time of thefts, and CCTV footage of areas from which the vehicles were reported stolen. During the investigation, officials found that the accused mostly operated at midnight and targeted SUVs. They also revealed that it was only a few minutes' work for the accused to open and start the vehicle and flee with it. The accused thieves used electronic devices to bypass the security of the vehicles. The team gathered information about the various gangs operating in Delhi and tried to follow their movements through technical surveillance. The team also took the help of informers and zeroed in on a gang headed by Harpreet Singh, alias Smarty. On March 18, the team received secret information that Harpreet Singh, a permanent resident of Patiala, Punjab, and presently residing in Delhi, would be coming in a black-coloured stolen KIA Seltos with a fake number plate along with his associate, namely Akhlaq. Based on the details, the team laid a trap at Indraprastha Park and successfully intercepted the KIA car. The car had a fake registration plate and caught two people, including 34-year-old Harpreet Singh. The other accused was identified as Akhlaq Khan, a resident of Haridwar, Uttarakhand. On verifying the details of the engine number and chassis number, the car was found stolen at U/s 379 IPC, PS Rajender Nagar, New Delhi. On checking the vehicle, a forged RC, one tablet, a key, a drill machine, 10 screwdrivers, three torches, one cutter plier, hammers, an iron rod, a wire cutter, 61 blank remote keys, and eight mechanical keys were recovered, which were supposed to be used in stealing cars, the police said. On checking his criminal history, Harpreet Singh was found to be a habitual offender, having been involved in 40 similar cases. During interrogation, both accused persons disclosed that they had stolen a large number of luxury cars. They mostly stole Creta Hyundai and Seltos Kia cars and sold those to receivers based in Meerut and Punjab. This gang has stolen about 50-60 cars during the last four months. During sustained interrogation, they disclosed information about their associates as well. Several raids were conducted at different places, and three more accused persons, Sukhdev, Mandeep, and Amandeep (receivers of stolen vehicles), were arrested from Punjab with the recovery of 13 more stolen cars. Thus, 14 luxury cars have been recovered from the possession of the accused. Harpreet Singh is found to be a proclaimed offender in three cases. The accused revealed a unique modus operandi to steal the cars through OBD (on-board diagnostic). DCP Crime Sanjay Sain said that all modern cars have an onboard diagnostic port that authorises bona fide technicians to access the vehicle's main frame and check for errors in the vehicle's electronics, engine, and other systems. The prime accused, Harpreet Singh, a B-Tech graduate with good knowledge about vehicles, used this port to download the cars' original digital key onto a blank key, thereby stealing these cars through these Chinese scanners, namely X-tool. The tablet recovered from the possession of the accused persons is a Chinese-made "X-tool," the DCP pointed out. (ANI)
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh hit out at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday, alleging that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is being "tortured" inside the Tihar jail at the behest of the central government. The AAP leader also said that the jail administration carried out "inhuman" behaviour and refused to allow Kejriwal's wife, Sunita Kejriwal, to meet him in person. Speaking at a press conference in the national capital, Sanjay Singh said, "Elected thrice with an overwhelming majority, the Chief Minister of 2 crore people in Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, is being 'tortured,' at the behest of the Government of India, at the behest of the Prime Minister of the country." "Efforts are being made to break his morale and every now and then an attempt is being made to destroy even the minimum rights and facilities available to anyone and all this is being done openly," he said. Adding further, Sanjay Singh said, "The information I want to give you today may have come for the first time in the history of Tihar Jail. It is an obvious matter, the officials in any administration are pawns who work under the instructions of the higher-ups." "Now, let me tell you about the meeting permit for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at Tihar. According to the jail manual and rules of the jail, under 602 and 605, anyone can have a face-to-face meeting in the jail," he said. "However, when Arvind Kejriwal's wife, whom everybody knows is at the present time worried and tensed, and while his parents, both of whom are ill, came to meet him at the jail, she was told that she could not meet him face-to-face or in a room but rather through a window," he added. He further questioned and said, "Why was such inhuman behaviour meted out towards him? This inhuman act has been done just to humiliate and discourage Arvind Kejriwal," he claimed. "I am saying with full responsibility that even the dreaded criminals are allowed to meet in the barrack, but a three-time CM of Delhi is allowed to meet his wife through a window with a glass in between," said the AAP leader. Arvind Kejriwal is currently in Tihar Jail under judicial custody. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate last month in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case. Sanjay Singh, who was in jail in connection with the Delhi excise policy case since October last year, got out on bail earlier this month. Earlier this week, he claimed Tihar authorities threatened to block his family's visits after passing a message to AAP MLAs through his lawyers. The BJP has demanded Arvind Kejriwal's resignation as the Delhi chief minister on moral grounds. The AAP says he will continue to work for Delhi from inside jail because he hasn't been convicted in any case. (ANI)
According to YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) sources, an unidentified individual hurled a stone at the Chief Minister, injuring him on his left eyebrow.

The party sources said that he was immediately provided first-aid on the bus.

CM Jagan continued his bus journey after receiving first aid, they added.

More details awaited.(ANI)
As the five seats of Uttarakhand will go to polls during the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 19, the BJP is looking forward to continuing its winning spree in the Garhwal constituency. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a strong presence in Uttarakhand and the party had won all five seats in the hill state in both the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Garhwal constituency is currently being held by the senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat. However, the BJP has fielded Anil Baluni from the constituency. He is a national spokesperson of the BJP and has served as the Rajya Sabha MP from the state. The Congress, on the other hand, has fielded Ganesh Godiyal from the seat. He was appointed state party chief in 2021. He had earlier served as the MLA from the Srinagar constituency. While the BJP would be aiming to repeat its 2019 performance and sweep the state, the Congress would look to improve its tally and make a dent into the BJP's stronghold. Notably, the BJP is also in power in the state assembly in Uttarakhand since 2017. Earlier in the day, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, during a public meeting, said that there should be no "hooliganism" in the state. "We have implemented Anti-Cheating Law...Many such things have been done... We have also imposed an Anti-Riot Law in Uttarakhand," he said. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a public meeting in Uttarakhand's Rishikesh and said that the BJP government is creating new job opportunities by supporting tourism in Uttarakhand. "Our focus is on Uttarakhand's connectivity with the rest of India. We are continuously increasing rail, road, and air connectivity in Uttarakhand. Work is underway on the Rishikesh-Karanprayag railway line. The distance between Delhi and Dehradun is also reducing," he said. "Border villages, which were called 'last villages' under Congress, are now being developed under the BJP government. Air services have started for Adi Kailash and Om Parvat. A 900-kilometre-long highway is also being built to connect Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath, and Kedarnath," PM Modi added. On the other hand, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched a scathing attack on the BJP on Saturday. She asked the ruling government how long it would keep blaming the Congress, which has been out of power for the last decade. Addressing a public rally at Ramnagar in Uttarakhand's Nainital, Priyanka Gandhi said, "For how long will you (the BJP) keep blaming Congress? Congress has not been in power for the last 10 years. For the last 10 years, they (the BJP) have been in government with a full majority; now that they say '400 paar', they want more majority. They say nothing has been done in 75 years." Notably, Uttarakhand became the first state in the country to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). The Uniform Civil Code, Uttarakhand, Bill 2024, seeks to "govern and regulate the laws related to marriage and divorce, successions, live-in relationships, and matters related thereto," was passed in the Assembly in February this year following a two-day discussion. The 2024 general elections will be held in India in seven phases, from April 19 to June 1, to elect the 543 members of the 18th Lok Sabha. The results will be announced on June 4. (ANI)
Upon receiving a positive response from the public during campaigning ahead of the elections, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Saturday exuded confidence in BJP's victory in Chhattisgarh stating that the party will secure all 11 seats in the tribal state. Responding to the Congress party's accusation of "democracy being killed under BJP", Sai dismissed it as a lack of substantial arguments from the opposition. Addressing a Press conference in Raipur, CM Vishnu Deo Sai said, "Today, I went to two legislative assemblies. The atmosphere is in favor of the BJP in Marwahi and Bharatpur-Sonhat. We are winning 11 seats. The Congress has nothing, so they're saying anything. Emergency was imposed during their government and they talk about killing democracy. On Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar's remark of comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi with General Dyer and Ravana, Sai said that such remarks have already been made in the past and there is nothing new. He said, "the acceptance of Congress among the people of the country is lacking, and they will have to bear the consequences of such statements". Reacting to Rahul Gandhi's statement that there are 22 people in India who possess as much wealth as 70 crore Indians, Vishnu Deo Sai remarked that "it has been 75 years since independence, out of which Congress ruled for 50-55 years. If such disparities exist, then it is the misdeed of those who were in power during that time". The Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, earlier accused the Congress party of engaging in corruption during its 5-year term in Chhattisgarh and stated that was the reason why the people lost faith in it. "The public has lost faith in the Congress party. In Chhattisgarh, people have completely lost trust in the party because, for the last 5 years, it has been involved in corrupt activities. Whether they promise to give Rs 1 lakh or Rs 5 lakh, people will not trust them. The BJP will win all 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state," he said. Elections in the 11 parliamentary constituencies of Chhattisgarh will take place in two phases on April 26 and May 7. The counting of votes will be done on June 4. The BJP, which has a stronghold in Chhattisgarh, won 9 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha, while the Indian National Congress (INC) was limited to only 2 seats. In the 2014 election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 10 seats, while the INC only managed to win one seat. (ANI)
Sunetra Pawar, the wife of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, got emotional on Saturday when asked about Nationalist Congress Party (SCP faction) Chief Sharad Pawar's remarks on her, where he referred to her as "outsider Pawar". Sunetra Pawar has been declared the official candidate for the Baramati Lok Sabha seat by the Mahayuti Alliance on the NCP ticket against NCP SCP MP Supriya Sule. Sunetra, during her door-to-door campaigning in the Hinjewadi area of Baramati Loksabha constituency on Saturday, while speaking with ANI expressed her confidence to register a win on the most prestigious seat of Maharashtra, where there is a direct contest between Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar. "The excitement is high among people. Baramati constituency has witnessed work of development. My candidature was the demand of the public; seeing the Josh of people, the scenario is quite positive," Sunetra Pawar said. "People are very enthusiastic; wherever I go, people come in large numbers and welcome me. Ajit Dada has taken the role of walking on the path of development. If there is a government of the same ideology in the state and the centre, then public welfare schemes can reach the people and solve the problems of the people. Therefore, there has to be a government with full majority," She further added. Addressing her vision for the development of the Baramati constituency she said that a lot of development has taken place in Baramati, but there has been no development in other talukas of the Baramati constituency. Therefore, I want to take development work that has taken place in Baramati to the other talukas of this part constituency. "My candidature was because of the wish of the people. Wherever I go, there is a lot of enthusiasm and positive vibes, so I am very positive about my victory. I am sure under Modi's leadership, the number of seats is going to cross four hundred and we will also be part of it," Sunetra Pawar said. Meanwhile, after Sunetra got emotional the party workers of NCP extended their support to Sunetra Pawar and said they would take revenge for these tears by bringing the same tears into the eyes of the opposition on result day. Deepak Mankar, the Pune unit president of NCP said, "We respect Sharad Pawar but his statement is wrong. Sunetra Pawar has taken the Pawar dynasty forward. On the contrary, Supriya Sule should go to her in-laws' house." "People are standing with Ajit Pawar because of the development work done by him. The tears that have come in Sunetra Bhabhi's eyes today will be avenged by bringing tears in the eyes of the opponents on the day of the Lok Sabha election results," he added. (ANI)
Lakshadweep, the archipelago in the Arabian Sea, off the coast of Kerala, will go to polls in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on April 19. Voting will be held for the only seat the union territory sends to the Lok Sabha. The counting of votes will be done on June 4. Lakshadweep is the country's smallest Lok Sabha constituency, in terms of the number of voters. This time, Lakshadweep is going to witness a triangular fight between the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), Congress, and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP supported by the BJP. The seat is currently held by the incumbent MP from undivided NCP, PP Mohammed Faizal. Notably, Faizal contested from Lakshadweep under the NCP symbol of 'clock'. But, after the split in the party by his nephew Ajit Pawar, the symbol allotted to Sharad Pawar's faction (Sharadchandra Pawar) is a 'Man blowing turha' (trumpet). He is up against Congress leader and former MP Muhammed Hamdullah Sayeed. He was the MP from Lakshadweep in the 15th Lok Sabha (2014-19). Other than the two, the Ajit Pawar-led NCP has fielded Yusuf T P as its candidate from the UT. The candidate is being supported by the BJP, which is in alliance with Sharad Pawar's nephew in Maharashtra. In the 2019 elections, NCP's PP Mohammed Faizal emerged victorious by getting 22851 votes. Sayeed lost by a narrow margin of 823 votes and secured 22, 028 votes. Sayeed has claimed that there is "strong resentment" against the policies and inaction of incumbent MP Mohammed Faizal of the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. "Today the people of Lakshadweep are fed up with the present regime and with the present MP. There's a very strong resentment against the policies and against the inaction of the MP," he told ANI. He further pointed out that Lakshadweep has "one of the highest" unemployment rates in the country and that is one of the major issues for the island. "When it comes to unemployment, it's one of the highest in the country. Lakshadweep earlier ranked 43rd in terms of unemployment. But today, it has overtaken all of it and it has ranked as number one in unemployment. This is the inaction of the MP and the failure on the part of the MP to take it up with the present regime and with the present administration," the former MP said. On the other hand, NCP (SP) candidate Faizal has affirmed confidence that the anti-incumbency factor would not have an impact on the coral islands of Lakshwadeep." Anti-incumbency is always a fact but when it comes to an island -- it is a place that is very small. Nearly less than 50,000 people are enlisted for voting. From there, around 45,000 people may cast a vote...When we are connected to each other, the anti-incumbency doesn't come up here. So, anti-incumbency does not affect this coral island," he said. He also said that the change in the Nationalist Congress Party's symbol after the party got split into two factions, will not have any impact on the Lakshwadeep election as the public remembers his 'face'. "In Lakshadweep, the symbol on which I was contesting for the last two terms has now gone to another person. But that doesn't affect the electoral battle here. People remember my face," he said. Notably, Lakshadweep will go to polls not much later after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the archipelago to promote the site as a tourist destination, as well as a move to push for domestic tourism. In January, PM Modi visited Lakshadweep and shared a couple of pictures, showing the "stunning beauty of its islands". He said his visit to the islands was "an enriching journey of learning and growing." (ANI)
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in the country, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Pathanamthitta Anil K Antony lashed out at the Congress party saying that this area had a Congress MP for many years but this is one of the most underdeveloped constituencies across Kerala. Calling the manifesto released by the BJP in Pathanamthitta "a vision document", he said that it has what the BJP will be doing in this constituency in the next 5 years. "This is one of the few districts in Kerala that does not have any central government-backed PSU unit here. We do not have any central government-backed higher education unit here. It does not have any startup incubator. This constituency has a lot of potential. It has important religious places here. This can become a religious cultural hub. This constituency has the potential to be a tourism hub. He lauded the BJP saying, "We believe in development of all." Earlier in the day, Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi and BJP candidate from Pathanamthitta Anil K Antony released a manifesto for the Pathanamthitta constituency Meanwhile, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who is re-contesting Lok Sabha polls from Thiruvananthapuram on Friday said BJP's message is not well received in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh and the party has very little hope from southern India. On Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacking Congress over its manifesto by stating that it reflects the ideology of the Muslim League, Tharoor said such comments won't work in Kerala. Notably, voting for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the South Indian state of Kerala across all 20 seats is scheduled for April 26, while the counting of votes will take place on June 4. The general election for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases starting April 19, with counting to be held on June 4. (ANI)
A press statement issued by the office of the Chief Electoral officer stated that after proven guilty of dereliction of duty, West Tripura Police Superintendent Dr Kiran Kumar issued a suspension order to Sub Inspector Dipankar Debnath and police Constable Bipin Sen Chakma.

Both the cops have been placed under temporary suspension. It should be noted here that the total number of suspensions in the run-up to the General Elections of two parliamentary constituencies of Tripura now stood at 8.

Earlier, a couple of officials have been suspended after allegations of flouting the Model Code of Conduct and attending political rallies were proved.

The Chief Electoral Officer Puneet Agarwal had informed the media that his office had received as many as 15 complaints against officials posted at different levels. "All these allegations are properly verified through the Election Commission of India mandated investigation process and if the official is found guilty he or she is immediately put under temporary suspension."

"The office of Chief Electoral Officer is making all possible efforts to conduct free and fair elections in both the constituencies," said Agarwal. (ANI)
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China has arrested over 1,500 suspects for starting or spreading online rumors since the start of a crackdown campaign in December 2023, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Public security organs across China have handled over 10,000 relevant cases and punished more than 10,700 individuals since the campaign started.

Police have investigated over 80,000 suspected rumors spread on the internet and publicly clarified over 4,200 instances of fake information, said the ministry.

The ministry has maintained a strong stance on starting rumors related to hot issues for the purposes of gauging views, cooking up plots by operators of social media accounts, and fabricating information about epidemic situations, emergencies and disasters.

Focusing on key platforms such as social media, live streaming and short videos, public organs have removed 735,000 pieces of fake information and shut down 63,000 accounts involving illegal acts, said the ministry.
Police in Berlin interrupted and cancelled a pro-Palestine conference soon after it started, citing a risk of speech by a speaker banned from any political activity and imposed ban till Sunday, Al Jazeera reported. "At the 'Palestine Congress', a speaker was connected who is banned from political activity. There is a risk that a speaker, who has made anti-Semitic or violence-glorifying public statements in the past, will be called in repeatedly. Therefore, the meeting was terminated and a ban was also imposed for Saturday and Sunday," the police posted on X. In previous posts on X, the police shared their decision to ban the live streaming of the meeting and said that the stream would be temporarily blocked by switching off the power, granted permission of only 250 people at the event. "Due to legal reviews in connection with speeches, the live stream of the meeting will be temporarily blocked by switching off the power. We ask for your patience," it posted on X. "Entry to the building on Germaniastrasse is imminent. Due to the structural conditions, only 250 people can be granted access to the building on the first floor. Media protection areas have been set up in and opposite the building. These are visually recognizable and are supervised by colleagues," it added. Al Jazeera reported that on the Congress's website, the organisers denounce Israel's crimes in Gaza, saying, "Together, with the voices of the Palestinian movement and the international community, we will denounce Israeli apartheid and genocide. We accuse Germany of being complicit." Berlin police said they had dispatched 930 officers, including reinforcements from other regions of Germany, to secure the event. This comes amid mounting pressure on the German lawmakers to review weapons supplies to Israel amid the war in Gaza. DW News said in its report that over 20 years from 2003 to 2023, German governments approved nearly 3.3 billion Euros (USD 3.6 billion) in arms export licenses to Israel, according to Forensis, a Berlin-based investigatory nonprofit. More than half of that is listed as "war weapons," including big-ticket items such as submarines. Forensis is aligned with those filing the suit, but its report is based on open-source data from the German government and other public sources, such as SIPRI, a conflict research institute. In a recent SIPRI report, Germany was listed as Israel's second-biggest supplier of weapons, behind the United States, between 2019 and 2023. The two countries account for nearly all of Israel's weapons imports. In 2022 and 2023, the split between the two was almost 50-50. In the latest five-year period, the Forensis report shows that the value of 'actual exports' of war weapons to Israel is 'redacted' or 'undisclosed' to "avoid the identification of relevant companies" and to "protect trade and business secrets", DW News reported, quoting from a German government report from 2020. The German government approved almost all export licenses to Israel since 2003. In 2023, the total value of approved arms export licenses jumped about ten-fold over the previous year, exceeding the 20-year average. (ANI)
The decision was reached during a meeting convened by Balochistan National Party (BNP) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal.

Present at the gathering were Omar Ayub from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Sahibzada Hamid Raza representing Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), Mehmood Khan Achakzai of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Allama Nasir Abbas from Majlis-e-Wadhat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), and Liaquat Baloch from Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

Following deliberations, they finalised a schedule for nationwide protest meetings.

Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, Omar Ayub, speaking to the media post-meeting, highlighted the alliance's primary objective: to address alleged electoral malpractices during the 2024 general elections. He also announced the establishment of a coordination committee, with Mehmood Achakzai assuming the presidency, ARY News reported.

Furthermore, Ayub disclosed plans for two public gatherings in Balochistan scheduled for Saturday.

He criticised the current administration, denouncing it as a "form 47 government," emphasising the imperative of upholding constitutional principles for a sustainable future. Additionally, Ayub underscored the alliance's commitment to eliminate the perceived "dual legal system" prevalent in the country.

Initially referred to as the Grand Opposition Alliance, the coalition had previously announced intentions to launch an anti-government movement post-Eid-ul-Fitr. Plans include organising public gatherings nationwide to protest against alleged electoral irregularities. The schedule for these gatherings in other cities will be announced subsequently, in consultation with all participating parties.

Sources familiar with the matter revealed efforts to enlist the support of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), led by Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, in the opposition's movement against the government. BNP Chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal has been entrusted with the task of reaching out to Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman and Jiye Sindh Party.

The Grand Opposition Alliance aims to champion principles such as non-interference in politics, an independent judiciary, the rule of law, and the supremacy of the people in its pursuit of change, ARY News reported. (ANI)
The Deputy Commissioner of Pishin issued a notification stating, "Section 144 has been imposed to ensure public safety and maintain law and order."

Under this provision, gatherings of more than five individuals within the city are prohibited, and the obstruction of main highways and roads is strictly forbidden, ARY News reported.

This decision follows the announcement by the newly formed Tehreek Tahafuz-e-Aaeen (Constitution Protection Movement), a coalition of six opposition parties, to hold a public gathering in Pishin.

The alliance, chaired by Mahmood Khan Achakzai, named itself "Tehreek Tahafuz-e-Aaeen" against the government.

During a meeting hosted by Balochistan National Party (BNP) chief Sardar Akhtar Mengal, attended by Omar Ayub of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Sahibzada Hamid Raza of Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), Mahmood Khan Achakzai of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Allama Nasir Abbas of Majlis-e-Wadhat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), and Liaquat Baloch of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), it was decided that Mahmood Achakzai would lead the coordination committee.

Omar Ayub confirmed that two public gatherings would be held in Balochistan on Saturday, April 13, ARY News reported.

Meanwhile on Friday. the Baloch Yakjehti Committee continued its protests against the alleged enforced disappearances of Baloch people. The committee highlighted the case of Naeem Rehmat's case who was allegedly forcefully disappeared on March 17, 2022, from Aman Aatoz Turbat.

The committee said that despite continuous protests, including a recent demonstration on the day of Eid, aimed at securing his safe release, the administration's failure to provide a meaningful response only compounds the suffering and uncertainty for his family. The family has been protesting since the day of Eid, blocking CPEC Road in Shapuk. The BY Committee urged people in the surrounding areas to support them. (ANI)
The Punjab Police found themselves embroiled in a controversy as videos circulated on social media purportedly showing Pakistan Army officers engaged in altercations with cops in Bahawalnagar, Dawn reported. Responding to the uproar, the Punjab Police issued a statement on X denouncing what they termed as "fake propaganda." "This matter in Bahawalnagar, which went viral on social media, has been taken out of context and exaggerated," the police said in a statement on X. The videos, which surfaced a day earlier, depicted individuals clad in army uniforms allegedly assaulting police officials in Bahawalnagar. One clip showed a man with a bloody nose sitting on the ground, while another depicted army personnel forcing policemen to kneel in a queue. Reports suggested that the incident stemmed from police confiscating an illegal weapon from a soldier's relative. However, the authenticity of the clips could not be independently verified by Dawn.com. Politicians, including PTI leader Hammad Azhar and PTI spokesperson Raoof Hasan, expressed outrage over the incident. https://twitter.com/Hammad_Azhar/status/1778139472976109976 Azhar went as far as stating that the Punjab police chief should have resigned immediately following the episode, accusing the provincial government of trivialising the matter. Hasan called for a transparent and comprehensive inquiry, insisting that the report should be made public without any alterations. In response, the police clarified that the situation was being misrepresented to imply a conflict between the Pakistan Army and Punjab Police. They revealed that both institutions had launched a joint investigation upon the videos going viral, and after reviewing the facts, the matter was peacefully resolved. Emphasizing their cooperation in combating terrorism and crime in the province, the police urged social media users not to spread false propaganda, according to Dawn. A video shared on the Punjab Police's X account showed police and military officials chanting slogans in support of the Pakistan Army. However, the statement did not elaborate on the circumstances depicted in the video. Further details were sought from officials in the area by Dawn.com. It was disclosed that an FIR had been registered at Bahawalnagar's Madrasa police station on April 10, based on a complaint filed by Inspector Saifullah. The FIR cited violations of Section 342 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Section 155C of the Police Order 2002. Saifullah, the new Madrasa station house officer (SHO), alleged misconduct by former SHO Rizwan Abbas and other officers, accusing them of wrongful confinement and mishandling a case, Dawn reported. (ANI)
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari has asserted that Iran will "bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further," The Times of Israel reported. He made the remarks in an English-language video statement. Hagari's statement comes after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy seized an Israel-linked container ship near the Strait of Hormuz. Hagari did not speak about this incident, indicating that the video was captured before. However, he said, "Iran funds, trains and arms terror proxies across the Middle East and beyond." In the video statement, IDF spokesperson Hagari stated that Iran-backed Hezbollah expanded this war on October 8. He added that Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria and Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have expanded this into a global conflict, The Times of Israel reported. Daniel Hagari said, "Iran-backed Hamas started this war on October 7th; Iran-backed Hezbollah expanded this war on October 8th; and since then, Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, and Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, have expanded this into a global conflict." He accused Iran of being the biggest state sponsor of terror. Hagari said, "Iran is the world's biggest state sponsor of terror. Its network of terror doesn't just threaten the people of Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria; the regime in Iran fuels the war in Ukraine and beyond." He said that Israel has increased its readiness to protect itself from further Iranian aggression. He announced that the IDF is prepared for all scenarios and will take necessary measures to protect the people of Israel. He asserted, "Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further." He stated, "Israel is on high alert. We have increased our readiness to protect Israel from further Iranian aggression. We are also prepared to respond." "The Israel Defense Forces is prepared for all scenarios and will take the necessary steps together with our allies to protect the people of Israel," he added. Meanwhile, Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Tehran is carrying out piracy and called for sanctioning Iran. Katz made the remarks after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, The Times of Israel reported. Katz said, "The Ayatollah regime of Khamenei is a criminal regime that supports Hamas' crimes and is now conducting a pirate operation in violation of international law." He called on the European Union and the international community to declare IRGC a "terrorist organisation." Israel's Foreign Minister said, "I call on the European Union and the free world to immediately declare the Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization and to sanction Iran now." Earlier, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy seized the Israel-linked MSC ARIES container ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, The Times of Israel reported, citing an Iranian news agency. The ship in question was the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship owned by Zodiac Maritime, based in London. Zodiac Maritime is a division of Zodiac Group, owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. The MSC Aries was last seen on Friday, sailing towards the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Dubai, according to The Times of Israel. The ship is currently sailing through the Persian Gulf, according to ship tracking site, Marine Traffic. Tensions escalated between Iran and the West amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Amid fears of the ongoing hostilities in Gaza devolving into a larger Middle-Eastern conflict, US President Joe Biden said earlier today that he expects Iran to attack Israel 'sooner than later'. "I don't want to get into secure information but my expectation is sooner than later," Biden told reporters when asked how imminent an Iranian attack on Israel would be. Iran has vowed revenge after Israel launched airstrikes on the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus. The US has been on high alert for a significant Iranian retaliatory attack on Israel in recent days, as fears grow of a wider regional war. There remains a "real, credible and viable" threat of Iran launching strikes, the White House said on Friday, following Israel's attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria last week, killing three Iranian generals. Biden, who warned this week that Iran was threatening a 'significant attack' on Israel, has been receiving constant updates on the situation from his national security team. The US and several other countries, including India, Britain and France, issued new travel guidelines for government employees in Israel as the Iranian threat loomed. (ANI)
handout photo made available by the Iranian supreme leader office shows Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaking during the Eid al-Fitr ceremony in Tehran, Iran, 10 April 2024. According to the Iranian supreme leader's official website, Khamenei said that Israel 'should be punished and it will be punished' following the recent airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Syria which Iran blames on Israel.Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leads Eid al-Fitr ceremony, Tehran, Iran Islamic - Shutterstock/Shutterstock

In this episode of Battle Lines, we speak to Middle East Correspondent Nataliya Vasilyeva about Irans potential strike on Israel, then our Asia Correspondent Nicolas explains why the rebels are winning the war in Myanmar. Finally, Europe Editor James Crisp reflects on his interview with NATOs Deputy Secretary General.

Across the world, from Europe to Asia, from the Americas to the Middle East, tensions are rising between nation states as the traditional alliances and alignments evolve in the 21st century.

2024 sees war in Europe and Israel, and elections in major economies, from the US and the UK to Taiwan. Insurgencies flare in Yemen and Burma, tensions escalate in East Africa, and all around the world the international security architecture buckles under increasing pressure.

Battle Lines, a new podcast from The Telegraph, combines on-the-ground reporting with analytical expertise to help the listener to better understand the course of world politics, wars and tensions, as fault lines grind and slip in an increasingly dangerous and confusing multipolar world.

Listen to Battle Lines using the audio player in this article or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your favourite podcast app.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Centuries-old shipwreck  with trove of coins  unburied from dry land in Malaysia

In 2020, researchers stumbled upon something unusual on an island off the coast of Malaysia: a collection of rectangular pieces of wood sticking up from the ground.

Intrigued, scientists decided to excavate the site, revealing the remains of a centuries-old shipwreck filled with a trove of coins and ceramics, according to a preprint study posted to Research Square, an open access platform, on April 2.

Though it was found on an island, the landscape at the time of the ships sinking was undoubtedly different, researchers, who are affiliated with various Malaysian institutions, said.

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Four wooden fragments discovered

This is because the island, known as Pulau Melaka  located just off the coast of mainland Malaysia  is human-made. The sliver of land was reclaimed from the sea to make room for commercial construction projects.

The wrecks remains constitute the first discovery ever where the wood fragments were found in a reclaimed land in Malaysia, researchers said.

The wreck is believed to date to around the 15th or 16th centuries, making it about 500 years old, researchers said.

A collection of coins, including ones from China and Portugal, discovered at the site

Upon excavation of the site  guided by ground-penetrating radar  researchers uncovered a total of 306 artifacts.

Among the objects found were a trove of coins, originating from Malaysia, China and Portugal, revealing the interconnected world in which the ships occupants would have been part of.

At the time, the region served as a bustling maritime hub, connecting the east and west via the Strait of Malacca  a trade route that remains crucial for global trade today.

An intact porcelain bowl (a), fragments of Chinese porcelain (b) and stoneware fragments (c and d) discovered at the archaeological site

Also uncovered were a series of ceramic shards, most of which were in poor condition, researchers said.

Further analyses will be carried out to determine the exact origin and age of the artifacts.

In the meantime, the site needs to be monitored by Malaysian authorities to prevent unwanted incidents, researchers said.

Dozens of medieval burials  including some children  unearthed near lake in France

Divers remove ancient Roman cargo from shipwreck  and find unique carvings. See them

Its still 2016 in this country thanks to its unique calendar system. What to know
With the recent passing of Sue Cobb, on April 4, we thought we would share these photos that we found at the Twin Blends: Northwest Louisiana History Hunters awhile back.

Sue Cobb died at the age of 90 at home, surrounded by her family. Joe and Sue Cobb were loved by everyone in the area. They not only had the best BBQ around, but they touched so many people's lives around here as well.

"For a small Bar-B-Q restaurant in Bossier City, La., to have touched the many lives that my parents did is a legacy," said her daughter, Lisa Cobb. "Mom and Dad were goodwill ambassadors for northwest Louisiana and sold friendliness with some food to everyone along with saying "thank you" and "come back."

We met their nephew, Herschel Cobb, a few years ago when the old Cobbs BBQ building on McCormick Street in Bossier City was being torn down. We went there to take the last pictures of it before it was gone, and our buddy, John Cunningham, who is Herschels cousin, introduced us to him. What an honor.

The Cobb family has meant so much to this area, and we just wanted to say thank you to them for being such a strong pillar in the Shreveport Bossier community!

On a personal note, we both had the pleasure of eating there through the years, and once Mark stopped there for lunch. When he went to pay, he realized that he had forgotten his wallet at home. Mrs. Sue told him not to worry about it and to just pay them the next time he came in. Now THAT is true kindness.

Obviously kindness runs in the Cobb family. We Love the Cobb family.

Joe Cobb died in 2010. He served during WWII and the Korean War as a member of the U.S. Army and the Merchant Marines. Joe was the owner of Cobb's Bar-B-Que in Bossier City since 1952. He was a fixture at his restaurant, where he greeted his customers over the years, some for several generations, and knew them by name.

A file photo of Sue Cobb from Cobb's BBQ researched by Twin Blends: Northwest Louisiana History Hunters.

Sue Williams Cobb's Obituary

Sue Cobb passed away peacefully on April 4, 2024, at home surrounded by her entire family. Sue, fondly known as Mimi or Super Sue, was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on February 26, 1934. She was lovingly married to Joe K. Cobb until his death in 2010. They owned and operated Cobbs Bar-B-Q in Bossier City for over 67 years. For her, the Bar-B-Q was more than a job, it was a place of ministry. Every day she looked forward to meeting new people, visiting with old friends, and sharing the love of Jesus with all. Her kind and caring reputation was known throughout Shreveport/Bossier and will undoubtingly leave a lasting legacy.

Sue deeply loved her two daughters Vicki S. Cobb, MD and Lisa K. Cobb, CPA along with their husbands John Bundy, Jr., and Rodney Madden. She wholeheartedly supported them in all that they did. Her pride and joy were her three grandchildren Colton Madden, Garrison Bundy (Maggie) and Breanna Bundy (Adam Fletcher).

The only thing Sue loved more than her family and Cobbs Bar-B-Q, was her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She attended church faithfully and taught Sunday School for over 60 years. Due to vision impairment, she knew much of the Bible by heart and taught passages from memory. The joy Sue radiated to others did not stem from herself, rather it was the love of Christ shown through her.

The family would like to thank The Council for their many years of friendship to Sue. The family sincerely thanks the compassionate caregivers who dedicated themselves to her these past few years.

A celebration visitation will be held on Friday April 19th from 5:00-7:00 at Rose-Neath Funeral Home in Bossier City. There will be a funeral service on Saturday April 20th at 11:00 inside the Rose-Neath Chapel. Burial will be at Forest Park Cemetery.

Her final testimony will be Matthew 25:21 Well done, good and faithful servant.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Alzheimers Association or Foundation for Fighting Blindness.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Remembering Sue Cobb of Cobbs BBQ Bossier City
Instagram to blur nudity as part of new features to protect minors from 'sextortion'

Instagram to blur nudity as part of new features to protect minors from 'sextortion'

Instagram will begin testing new features that aim to "protect young people from sextortion and intimate image abuse".

Sexual extortion or "sextortion" is a form of blackmail that involves coercing someone into sharing sexually explicit photos or videos and using them to threaten or exploit someone.

One of the new tools will detect and blur images that contain nudity and notify people to think twice before sending them. For everyone under 18, that feature will be activated on Instagram.

When the "nudity protection" tool is on, users will receive a message urging them to "take care when sharing sensitive photos".

They can also withdraw photos they have already sent that contain nudity.

When someone receives a nude photo, it will be blurred with a warning that the picture "may contain nudity".

The tool uses machine learning to analyse whether the image contains nudity.

"Because the images are analysed on the device itself, nudity protection will work in end-to-end encrypted chats, where Meta wont have access to these images  unless someone chooses to report them to us," Instagram, owned by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, said in a blog post.

The other features include new notifications sent to people who may have interacted with an account removed for sextortion as well as hiding the message button on young people's profiles to possible accounts engaging in sextortion.

Susie Hargreaves, CEO of the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), said in a statement provided to Euronews Next that sexual extortion can have "horrendous repercussions" and that the non-profit organisation applauds "any efforts by tech companies to safeguard" children using social media.

"However, while the new tool is a welcome move by Meta, any potential benefits will be undermined by its decision to roll out end-to-end encryption on its messaging channels," Hargreaves added.

"By doing so, it is willfully turning a blind eye to child sexual abuse. More can, and should be done, to protect the millions of children who use Metas services".

Recent increases in sextortion

In a report released in January, the Network Contagion Research Institute said financial sextortion was growing at an alarming rate.

The report added that Instagram was the most common platform for targeting victims because blackmailers could get personal information about people quickly.

Snapchat, meanwhile, was the most frequently used platform to coerce people into sending compromising photos.

The European Commission sent requests to Meta and Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, in 2023 to provide more information on measures they have taken to protect minors, which is a requirement under the Digital Services Act.

Social media companies have been repeatedly criticised for failing to protect children online.

At a US Senate hearing earlier this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised to parents who said social media had harmed their children.

He said no one "should go through what you and your families have suffered".

EU institutions, meanwhile, are considering new laws on child sexual abuse content that would make it mandatory for companies to prevent the dissemination of this type of material. They have been subject to debate, however, over privacy concerns.

This week, EU lawmakers voted to extend a current exemption to privacy rules that allows platforms to detect child sexual abuse material until 2026.
China's first domestically made icebreaker Xuelong 2 has completed a five-day visit to the country's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and began its return journey to Shanghai on Friday afternoon.

Xuelong 2 or Snow Dragon 2 arrived on Monday for its first-ever visit to Hong Kong as part of its homebound voyage back from China's 40th Antarctic scientific expedition.

During its stay in Hong Kong, the icebreaker had been open for public visits, and researchers of the Antarctic expedition team were present at a two-day international conference on climate change at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Xuelong2's scientists also met with over 250 school students at the Hong Kong Science Museum where the Polar Research and Climate Change exhibition was held.

Chairman of the organizing committee of Xuelong 2's visit Ma Fung-kwok said that the public actively participated in the activities during the icebreaker's stay in Hong Kong, and "Xuelong 2" and "polar research" have become familiar words to Hong Kong people.

Wei Fuhai, deputy leader of the expedition team, said that Xuelong 2's visit to Hong Kong is an important part of commemorating the 40th anniversary of China's polar expedition.

Wei expressed hope that Xuelong 2's visit to Hong Kong will further enhance Hong Kong people's understanding of the country's polar expedition work, and arouse young people's interest and enthusiasm in exploring the mysteries of nature and in environmental protection.
FREMONT - Kin Hunters of Sandusky County, will meet on Sunday, April 14 at the Sandusky Township House, 2207 Oak Harbor Road. The officers will meet at 1:15 p.m. with the membership meeting following at 2 p.m.

News brief logo

At the membership meeting, Kathy Webb will present a slide presentation of Flood in Fremont, Ohio. March 25-28, 1913. Come and learn more about this historical event that our ancestors endured so long ago.

The News-Messenger/News Herald

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Kin Hunter program to cover 1913 flood
Dillon Cantrell, left, and Chelsea Lewis, stand before the Madison County Board of Commissioners after the commissioners adopted a resolution honoring 911 telecommunicators April 9.

MARSHALL - Madison County has been awarded 27 automated external defibrillators, as revealed in the Madison County Board of Commissioners April 9 meeting.

In that meeting, Dillon Cantrell, an assistant chief with Laurel Volunteer Fire Department, provided the Board of Commissioners with updates from emergency management and the 911 call center.

According to Cantrell, the AEDs were provided by Madison Medics in partnership with RACE-CARS, a seven-year trial led by a team of researchers at the Duke Clinical Research Institute in partnership with participating EMS agencies, hospitals, 911-dispatch, fire, rescue, law enforcement agencies, and communities throughout North Carolina.

Each of the county's nine fire departments was issued two AEDs to be placed in a strategic place throughout the county's fire districts: Big Pine Volunteer Fire Department, Country Volunteer Fire Department, Ebbs Chapel Volunteer Fire Department, Hot Springs Volunteer Fire Department, Laurel Volunteer Fire Department, Marshall Volunteer Fire Department, Mars Hill Volunteer Fire Department, Spring Creek Volunteer Fire Department and Walnut Volunteer Fire Department.

"These will be placed in common places in the fire district, so in the event of cardiac arrest, citizens within the county can go to these common places, retrieve this AED and put it into use before the fire departments get there to try to increase the survival rates of cardiac arrest," Cantrell said.

An additional four AEDs have also been placed in the Madison County Sheriff's Office, Cantrell said.

Madison Medics has also been working with community members to hold hands-only CPR classes.

Cantrell is vice chair of the county's Public Safety Advisory Board, which was formed in 2023.

According to Cantrell, the Public Safety Advisory Board held its first meeting in June 2023, when the board approved its bylaws and accepted nominations for a chair, vice chair and secretary.

Cantrell said the Public Safety Advisory Board's first meeting also featured a roundtable discussion in which the board established points of interest and laid out future goals.

The board's second meeting took place in December 2023, according to Cantrell. In that meeting, the board established Cantrell as vice chair.

On March 28, in the board's third meeting, Chelsea Lewis, who is also the current interim 911 emergency management director, was appointed secretary. Additionally in that meeting, board members were given a copy of the county's 911 standard operating procedure guidelines.

Cantrell said that in the next meeting, board members will assess the guidelines to determine if there are changes that should be made in order "to make the county safer."

In advance of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, the county also adopted a resolution honoring Madison County's 911 telecommunicators.

County Manager Rod Honeycutt presented the proclamation adopted by the Board of Commissioners in its April 9 meeting, adding that the proclamation was introduced in advance of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, which is celebrated April 14-20 and is recognized by the North Carolina 911 Board.

Lewis and Cantrell, two of the county's 13 911 Call Center telecommunicators, were recognized at the meeting.

"While most of us get to enjoy holidays and night times, whenever an emergency happens, we have to call 911," Honeycutt said. "In front of you are two of our 911 operators. It's nice to have a reassuring voice on the other end of that line when you call. This team in front of you represents 13 more individuals that are on the other end of that line when you call.

"Everybody can't sit in that office and do it. Can you imagine six screens in front of you, telephones blaring, fire and rescue talking to you, and there's a calming voice on the other end of that line. Tonight I'm asking the chairman to read a resolution recognizing this generation of young leaders for what they do for us."

Wechtel read the resolution aloud:

"Whereas, emergencies that require law enforcement, fire or emergency medical services can occur at any time, and whereas the initial first responder, public safety telecommunicators provide a continuous link from those in need to the emergency service providers who will respond to assist, and whereas telecommunicators provide critical, life-saving information to the public that saves lives, reduces property damage and also works to ensure scene safety for those in our police, EMS and fire department families, and whereas the safety of our law enforcement officers, firefighters and paramedics depends in part upon the quality and accuracy of information obtained by telecommunicators from people who contacted the emergency communications center, and whereas public safety telecommunicators are a lifeline for our law enforcement officers, firefighters and paramedics monitoring our activities by radio, and providing them information to help ensure their safety, and whereas each public safety telecommunicator exhibits compassion, understanding and professionalism of his or her duties, and whereas telecommunicators spend countless hours taking continuous education classes that keeps up each of their certifications and provides guidance in the ever-changing world around them, and whereas the county of Madison commends the many dedicated public safety telecommunicators whose ongoing contributions help keep our county and residents safe."

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Madison's 9 fire departments given automated emergency defibrillators
Nearly half the worlds population live in countries that will hold national elections this year, the largest such proportion in more than a century. But the big picture is complicated: Over half of the 60 countries holding national elections this year are experiencing a democratic decline, risking the integrity of the electoral process. The worsening election quality is concerning, given the pivotal role elections play, warns the V-Dem Institute in a press release announcing its 2024 report, titled Democracy Winning and Losing at the Ballot.

Elections are critical events, the report explains, that can either trigger democratization, enable autocratization, or aid stabilization of autocratic regimes:

Surprise victories for a democratic opposition in critical elections can lead to the ousting of an incumbent, even in autocratic settings. The Maldives and Zambia are two recent examples of this. Contrastingly, elections can also serve as powerful instruments of legitimation and spur further autocratization when challengers fail, such as in Hungary and Turkiye in recent times. The fact that a majority of elections during the record election-year 2024 take place in such contested spaces makes this year likely to be critical for the future of democracy in the world.

The extraordinary wave of 2024 elections, which encompasses seven of the worlds 10 largest countries  Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia and the U.S.  along with other prominent nations such as Iran, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea and the U.K., comes as the erosion of democracy, or autocratization, in V-Dems language, continues in many different places.

Strikingly, the report includes two contrasting perspectives: a commentary from four investigators in the larger V-Dem Project argues that the current erosion of democracy is fairly modest, and calls for a more measured tone, while a special boxed section points in the opposite direction, highlighting a growing threat that V-Dem isnt fully capable of measuring: the authoritarian-dominated BRICS bloc of nations, which allies the autocratic regimes of Russia, Iran and China with large Global South democracies such as Brazil and South Africa.

Other signs also hint at more troubling trends. Perhaps most notably, Israel has dropped from the ranks of liberal democracies for the first time in 50 years. That has nothing to do with the current war in Gaza or Israels treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, but primarily reflects substantial declines in the indicators measuring the transparency and predictability of the law, and government attacks on the judiciary.

Arguably, V-Dem has no measures that capture Israels deepest democratic flaws. We can only speak to issues [on] which V-Dem has data, hence not on topics such as toxic ethno-nationalism, V-Dem Institute director Staffan Lindberg, lead author of the report, said via email. While we provide the most comprehensive database on democracy in the world, there are indeed areas we do not cover.

While the U.S. persists in depicting itself as the global avatar of democracy, its support for Israels war in Gaza puts it at odds with the vast majority of the world, and undermines support for the war effort in Ukraine as well as the case for democracy more broadly. While our collective ability to make sense of autocratization and democratization continues to advance, the questions keep piling up even faster. As you may have noticed, we live in a time of chaotic flux.

Overall, according to V-Dems report, the share of world population living in autocratizing countries has overshadowed the share living in democratizing countries since 2009, with the starkest declines seen in Eastern Europe, South Asia and Central Asia. Latin America and the Caribbean go against the global trend, the report finds: Democracy levels increase, and large countries are more democratic than smaller ones. There are some indications that the autocratization wave is slowing down, but that is far from a clear verdict.

Deeper forces, longer patterns

This history-shaping year of elections could have significant effects  but in what direction? Only three of this years major elections are in democratizing countries, while 31 occur in more autocratic contexts. Furthermore, underlying forces that are difficult to define will play a significant role. In 2021, Max Fisher analyzed V-Dem data for a New York Times feature, and found that the U.S. and its allies were responsible for a large share of democratic backsliding that occurred in the 2010s (36%), while their contribution to democratization was a meager 5%.

The picture was very different after the end of the Cold War. There was a broad trend of democratization in the 1990s, largely resulting from relaxed great-power backing for autocratic allies, both in the former Soviet bloc and in regions where the U.S. had backed or installed dictators, encouraged violent repression of left-wing elements, and sponsored anti-democratic armed groups, as Fisher wrote. After 9/11, however, the U.S. revived its longtime support for autocratic allies, particularly in the Islamic world.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, Fisher found that U.S. policy had a stronger impact on autocratization than any policies enacted by the authoritarian governments in Russia and China, whose neighbors and partners have seen their scores change very little.

These contradictions of American policy are part of a larger pattern, as described in the recent book The Deep Roots of Modern Democracy (Salon interview here). While liberal democracies remain dominant in Western Europe, that dominance rests partly on ethnocentric foundations that are ultimately at odds with the values such democracies claim to support. History suggests, in fact, that Euro-American liberal democracies have played a significant role in retarding democratic progress elsewhere. Their interest in stability, free trade and military alliance have taken precedence over a rhetorical commitment to democracy.

Using its fourfold Regimes of the World categories  liberal and electoral democracies on one hand, electoral and closed autocracies on the other  V-Dem finds the world almost evenly divided between 91 democracies and 88 autocracies, with a severe population imbalance: More than 71% of the worlds population, or 5.7 billion people, live in autocracies, a dramatic increase from 48% 10 years ago. Only 29% of the global population (2.3 billion people) live in liberal or electoral democracies.

The level of democracy enjoyed by the average person in the world in 2023 is down to 1985 levels, V-Dem reports. ; by country-based averages, it is back to 1998, V-Dem reports. Nearly all of what the institute defines as components of democracy are getting worse in more places than theyre getting better, and three of those components stand out: freedom of expression has gotten worse in 35 countries; clean elections are deteriorating in 23 countries (but improving in 12); and freedom of association is more restricted in 20 countries (and expanded in just three).

Autocratization, V-Dem finds, is ongoing or accelerating in 42 countries that are home to 35% of the worlds population  but India, now the most populous country in the world, accounts for half of that 2.8 billion total. Of those 42 nations, 28 were previously considered democracies, illustrating that democratization processes are fragile and are often reverted, as the report notes. One common theme is that free and fair elections are increasingly being undermined around the world; the autonomy of election management boards is weakening in 22 of the 42 autocratizing countries.

Democratization trends are much weaker, the report finds: While that process is found in 18 countries, they account for just 5% of the world's population, and the majority of them, roughly 216 million people, live in Brazil. The nine nations V-Dem considers stand-alone democratizers (rather than autocratizing countries making U-turns) represent just 30 million people, less than 0.4 percent of the global population. Several are tiny island states, such as Fiji, the Seychelles, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste; the largest such country is the Dominican Republic, with 11 million citizens.

V-Dem also finds that 25 countries are near misses of autocratization, while nine are near misses of democratization. So both categories could increase once this history-shaping election year provides a clearer picture  or doesnt. Weve already seen various post-election chaos in countries both large and small, including Argentina, Pakistan and the Netherlands, where a far-right party won the most seats in a Nov. 22 election but has been unable to forge a coalition government.

But even the recent sham election in Russia  which took place after the death in prison of Alexei Navalny, the only plausible threat to Vladimir Putin  provided an opportunity for organized protest, which is normally impossible, via the noon against Putin initiative. That could be just a ripple without consequences, as Putin tried to portray it, but years from now it could also stand out as an unlikely turning point  a worldwide pro-democracy protest (since it included overseas Russian embassies) when no such thing seemed possible. V-Dem has no way to capture or measure such things.

As noted above, theres a tension in the report itself that heightens the uncertainty. The commentary from four investigators arguing that democratic decline is fairly modest focuses most heavily on V-Dems partial reliance on population-based measures. Indias disproportionate impact is their main concern. Yet the report also contains information pointing in the opposite direction  most notably the expanding influence of the so-called BRICS+ bloc of nations, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and a growing list of smaller allies.

The BRICS challenge

The boxed section entitled "BRICS Expansion and the Future of Global Democracy" notes that the growing power of these developing nations sends a message about a shifting balance of global power and an emergence of a multipolar world, and that the weakening relative power of democracies also poses questions about prospects for human rights and democratic freedoms around the world.

For generations, a comforting narrative has assured us that expanding global trade will lead inevitably to increasingly open and democratic societies and an era of international peace. That was Richard Nixons original rationale in going to China, and the impetus behind the free trade push of the 1990s. But the BRICS+ groups total share of global real GDP has more than tripled during the last 30 years, while the G7 nations share of world real GDP has shrunk from 68% in 1993 to 44% in 2023:

The relative success of BRICS is all the more remarkable when taking into account that ideologically different autocracies China and Russia and now electoral autocracy India managed to work pragmatically together with still democratic Brazil and South Africa for many years. Even the Sino-Indian border dispute, and Russias invasion of Ukraine and the following sanctions did not break up the block.

V-Dems liberal democracy index, or LDI, reveals stark differences between the G7 and BRICS+. (That index measures rule of law, checks and balances, civil liberties, free and fair elections and a free and independent media.) Within BRICS. Brazil and South Africa represent relatively democratic systems, while Russia and China are the worlds leading autocracies, which also describes recent additions such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. India, by the way, slipped from V-Dems electoral democracy category to electoral autocracy two years ago, and its LDI score has fallen by almost half in the last decade.

Brazil presents an opposed example, as the worlds largest democratizing country. It could have gone the other way, had former President Jair Bolsonaro won re-election. But Lulas 2022 victory and the unified rejection of Bolsonaros attempted insurrection  strikingly different from what happened in America  can be seen as a "critical event" that affected the countrys political system as a whole.

The reports boxed section on Brazil notes the importance of such events in halting or reversing autocratization, and highlights specific factors in that process. That began before the election, when Brazils electoral management body actively sought to counter disinformation and misinformation and to disavow fake news about the electoral process. The Brazilian courts investigated digital militias, meaning online criminal groups that work against democracy and the democratic state. There was a broad pro-democracy alliance of opposition parties; Lulas running mate was a political centrist who had been his political adversary for decades.

Brazils system successfully resisted Bolsonaros attempts to change the rules in his favor, aided by diplomatic support from the U.S., Britain, France and Germany. International observers agreed the election was free and fair and rapidly recognized Lulas victory. Legislators, law enforcement officials and the Brazilian Supreme Court all accepted the results and rejected Bolsonaros claims of fraud. And despite Bolsonaros leading comments in praise of Brazils former military dictatorship, the troops stayed in their barracks and made no moves toward a coup. More recently, Bolsonaro was convicted on charges of abusing his power as president, and is now ineligible to seek or hold public office until 2030.

That example suggests that the pathway to reversing autocratization and restoring democracy is clear, although having the will and capacity to follow that path is another matter altogether. Donald Trump, as we know, has not been barred from running again, even after Jan. 6. Indeed, the Supreme Court basically rewrote the 14th Amendment to make sure he could run. Beyond that, the U.S. lacks some of the central institutions that Brazil drew on, such as the electoral management body and a federal court system with investigative powers. But the criticial need to consolidate a broad pro-democracy alliance faces no such barrier. What stands in the way is mostly the perversity of our political system, which helped empower Trump in the first place.

Decoding the global state of democracy

The challenge on the world stage is considerably more difficult. As noted above, democratic decline has been the dominant trend since 2009, most starkly in Eastern Europe, South Asia and Central Asia, with Latin America and the Caribbean going the other way. A historical comparison between those regions is illuminating, as shown in this chart tracking changes from 1973 through 2023.

Democracy Report 2024: Democracy Winning and Losing at the Ballot figure 3

Both regions were strikingly similar in the early 90s, but by 2023, they had steadily diverged. Another chart in the report show each region by percentage of regime type, which makes their current condition strikingly distinct: Latin America and the Caribbean are largely democratic (gray zone or better), while Eastern Europe is 66% electoral autocracy. So the question is why and how that happened.

Democracy Report 2024: Democracy Winning and Losing at the Ballot

A partial answer is suggested by the argument laid out in The Deep Roots of Modern Democracy, which holds that port cities and access to global trade routes are crucial ingredients. Eastern Europe is largely landlocked, and therefore would logically have a harder time building strong modern democracies, compared to the oceanfront regions of Latin America and the Caribbean.

That also helps explain why Western Europe and North America are the only world regions almost entirely governed by liberal democracies, and why they havent spread as inevitably as ideologues of the End of History era once suggested. In effect, Europe and the U.S. have been a negative influence overall, due to economic imperialism and military intervention, which have done more to prop up elite rule in many places than to spread democratic values and practices.

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Representative democracy is primarily a means of national elite coordination and conflict, subject to broad popular constraints. Its organized influence varies considerably over time as well as between countries. In most of Western Europe that influence helped create robust welfare states, something that never quite happened in the U.S. The American and European elites who drive foreign policy have inherited deep assumptions and orientations drawn from the era of colonialism and imperialism, even as overtly racist or nationalist assumptions have been rejected.

While the U.S. generally claims to value democracy as an abstract goal, our government does not actually pursue that goal in any meaningful or consistent fashion. We have something like 750 military bases around the world as of 2020, but nothing remotely comparable devoted to spreading democracy. Most Americans take that for granted as our nations way of being in the world, which supposedly has something to do with spreading freedom and democracy. Thats not how most of the world sees America, or what our lopsided defense budget says. Over and over again, its not what Americas global actions actually produce.

V-Dems data cant cover everything, as Lindberg acknowledged. But it does provide a wealth of guidance about specific aspects of democracy that can be improved. If Americans were as seriously committed to democracy as we like to believe, perhaps we would restructure our national priorities accordingly.
More NH water systems need to treat for PFAS chemicals under new federal rules

Lawmakers, advocates, and local residents gathered to celebrate Saint-Gobain's announcement that it will close its Merrimack facility, which has been connected to PFAS contamination in the area.

Advocates in New Hampshire are celebrating new federal regulations to limit PFAS chemicals in drinking water, after years of fighting for stronger protections for communities that have suffered from contaminated water.

That group of man-made chemicals have been used for decades in consumer products  especially those that are waterproof, stain resistant, or non-stick. Theyre often called forever chemicals, because they persist and accumulate in the environment and in peoples bodies.

Studies show most people in the U.S. have some PFAS in their blood, and long-term exposure can cause cancer or other negative health effects.

New Hampshire was the first state to require local water systems, landfills, and wastewater plants to test for PFAS and treat water that had been contaminated on a regular basis. In 2019, the state adopted the strictest standards in the U.S. at the time.

But the federal regulations announced Wednesday limit certain kinds of PFAS to lower levels than New Hampshire does currently  limiting two main PFAS chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, to 4 parts per trillion, others to 10 parts per trillion, and implementing limits on mixtures of certain PFAS.

This certainly isn't the end of the road; there's a lot more work to be done, but this is a humongous step in the right direction and one that will benefit so many people, said Andrea Amico, a longtime advocate who started the group Testing for Pease after her family was exposed to PFAS on the former Pease Air Force Base on the Seacoast.

Next month, Amico said, it will have been a decade since she first learned about the contamination.

I was shocked 10 years ago when I first learned about PFAS contamination in our public drinking water and couldn't understand how these chemicals weren't regulated, how there were no laws to protect people from drinking this, she said. Ten years is a long time. But I'm just really grateful that we're at this point and that this is a huge milestone that we can continue to build off of.

Implementing new standards

Under the new federal rules, regulated water systems will have three years to monitor for chemicals and five years to treat the water to reduce levels. That treatment could include installing technologies like granular activated carbon or reverse osmosis in contaminated water systems, or shutting down contaminated wells and finding uncontaminated sources of water.

The EPA says $9 billion will be available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund PFAS remediation and another $12 billion is available for general drinking water improvements that could include PFAS.

In New Hampshire, state officials said the new regulations could double the number of water systems and private wells in New Hampshire that exceed legal standards.

New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Commissioner Bob Scott said the state anticipated the new federal standards  but, he said, there could be barriers to implementing them.

We expect that these lower federal drinking water standards will result in more water systems and private well owners needing financial assistance to be in compliance, which will require a greater commitment on behalf of the federal government than the funding mentioned in their announcement, he said in a written statement.

State officials said addressing PFAS contamination in New Hampshire has already cost more than $300 million, a cost they say has fallen on state and local governments. In the statement from the Department of Environmental Services, officials said the cost of complying with the new regulations would be more than what state and federal assistance could cover.

In their fact sheet on the new rules, the EPA said the benefits of addressing PFAS exposure would justify the costs.

Fewer people will get cancer or liver disease, pregnant women will have reduced risks, and more and children and infants will be stronger and grow healthier, the agency said.

Federal officials estimated that compliance with the new rules would cost $1.5 billion per year nationally  a cost they said was equal to the avoided expenses of medical bills, income lost to illness and death.

For communities whose PFAS contamination comes from a specific source  like the Department of Defense, at the former Pease Air Force Base  the party that created the contamination should be responsible for the cost of cleaning it up, said Amico with Testing for Pease.

New Hampshire lawmakers have tried to implement other measures to limit the amount of PFAS residents are exposed to, including an effort this year to place restrictions on products with intentionally added PFAS, and another to require notice of PFAS contamination prior to selling property.

Laurene Allen, a co-founder of Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water, said the news of federal regulations was welcome. She's hoping New Hampshires timeline for implementing them will be faster than other parts of the country.

Im really relieved and happy. And I also strongly urge the state of New Hampshire to adopt these standards as soon as possible, not to wait for the full phase in period, because we dont need to. We are ahead of the nation, we have done the testing, she said. We can lead the nation. We can do right by the people of New Hampshire.

She said the town of Merrimacks success in addressing PFAS contamination in public water and minimizing local financial impacts shows that it is realistic and attainable to remediate on a larger scale.

Lives are at stake here, she said. That's what we have to remember.

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: More NH water systems need to treat for PFAS chemicals under new federal rules
Russia is 'more dangerous' now than when it first invaded, former general reports after returning from Ukraine

Retired Australian Army Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan advocates for a change in Ukraine's war strategy.

Ryan suggests Ukraine needs to push its narrative in Western media to counter Russia's influence.

He highlighted the importance of Ukraine's drone development and Black Sea leverage.

A retired general and warfare strategist is pushing for a change in Ukraine's strategy after returning from a grim visit to the war-torn country.

"The most important insight from my visit was confirmation that Russia now has the strategic momentum in the war," explained Mick Ryan, a former Australian major general, in a Friday post for The Interpreter, a publication partnered with the Australia-based Lowy Institute.

Russia has gotten over the "shock of its early failures," he said, drawing his observations from recent conversations with government and military officials, think tanks, and journalists. The Russian military has changed its warfighting capabilities, and the defense industry has been kicked into gear.

"Now," Ryan said, "it appears capable of generating the human, materiel and informational resources to subjugate Ukraine in a way it was not capable of when it began its large-scale invasion in February 2022."

"Russia is now a more dangerous adversary than it was two years ago," he wrote. "This calls for change in how the war is fought."

Ukrainian troops on a BWP infantry fighting vehicle prepare for combat towards Lyman in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on March 17. Jose Colon/Getty Images

For starters, Ukraine's partners need to shift their thinking, and for Ukraine, that means coming up with a vision for victory that it can implement.

Another issue is strategic communications. Ryan has noticed a major shift in attention from Ukraine to other conflicts. Ukraine, he argued, must push its narrative to get through to Western media and dispute Russia's declarations of expected victory.

The Kremlin has made a continuous effort to influence Ukrainian partner nations with its narratives and in doing so, it has caused some in countries like the United States to believe the war is a distraction from "real" problems the country should be dealing with instead of helping Ukraine, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War reported last month.

"Ukraine needs to discover a new voice that explains the importance of its defence, why Western support is vital, and that Russian narratives about inevitable victory are wrong," Ryan said, adding that "while confronting Russian misinformation activities is the responsibility of all democracies, Ukraine's strategic messaging must evolve."

Russian Army soldiers ride their armoured vehicle to take positions and fire from flamethrowers toward Ukrainian positions at an undisclosed location in Ukraine in a photo released by Russia's military in April 2024. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP

He also detailed how during his trip, a Kyiv official told him how there was no clear plan as to how Ukraine would win the war.

A win for Ukraine is dependent on the aid it receives as well as its defense strategy. Ryan said NATO and other partner nations should consider switching their perception of providing support from "defend Ukraine" to "defeat Russia in Ukraine."

US officials have made it clear that Russia has the edge. It has rebuilt its wounded military and is cultivating clear battlefield advantages.

Earlier this month, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said that Russia has "almost completely reconstituted militarily " and US European Command's Gen. Chris Cavoli supported that assessment on Wednesday, adding that Russia's "overall capacity is very significant still, and they intend to make it go higher."

Cavoli also said that Russia's current artillery advantage compared to Ukraine is 5:1, but this could increase to 10:1 in a matter of weeks while Ukraine waits for US aid.

Troops with Ukraine's Da Vinci Wolves battalion train for assaults on April 8. Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images

Although Ukraine and its international partners have more work to do, Ryan said Kyiv has made immense progress over the course of the war especially in targeting Russian ships in the Black Sea and oil refineries at home.

Ukraine's ability to adapt to new threats and emerging challenges has allowed it focus on new research and manufacturing capabilities. Ryan noted in his article the importance of Ukraine's drone development and use.

"Ukraine now produces hundreds of thousands of small drones as well as thousands of large drones with increasing range and larger warheads," he said.

Commenting on the strategic strikes, Ryan said that "this capacity, which is improving in its reach and effectiveness, will be a key part of future Ukrainian operations."

Read the original article on Business Insider
Speaking to Congress, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida urges U.S. to overcome 'self-doubt' of world role

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House of Representatives on Thursday. The prime minister urged the United States to remember its global role during "unprecedented" challenges of Chinese military action. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

April 11 (UPI) -- Japanese Primer Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday urged the United States to uphold its role as a world leader during an address to a joint meeting of Congress.

Kishida recalled the theme of the 1964 World's Fair, "peace through understanding," while telling congressional leaders, "We also know peace requires more than understanding. It requires resolve."

"You believed that freedom is the oxygen of humanity," he said. "The world needs the United States to continue playing this pivotal role in the affairs of nations.

"And yet, as we meet here today, I detect an undercurrent of self-doubt among some Americans about what your role in the world should be."

Kishida said the international order the United States built now is facing new challenges in the modern era such as threats to democracy, climate change, natural disasters, poverty and displacement.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Thursday speech was the second time a Japanese leader addressed Congress. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the first in 2015. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

Japan, specifically, faces an "unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge" from China, Kishida said, noting North Korea's support of Russia's "brutal war of aggression" against Ukraine.

"As I often say, Ukraine of today may be East Asia of tomorrow," he said.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shakes hands with representatives before addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House of Representatives on Thursday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

The Japanese government has drawn a direct line between supporting Ukraine and defending Taiwan from aggression against China.

The prime minister's speech evoked a rare bipartisan agreement that China is a prominent threat to the United States-led international order, but his appeal was directed to a minority of House GOP leaders who have blocked efforts to send additional aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide (L) and American astronaut Dan Tani smile while being recognized by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as he addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House of Representatives. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

"I want to address those Americans who feel the loneliness and exhaustion of being the country that has upheld the international order almost single-handedly," Kishida said. "I am here to say that Japan is already standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States. You are not alone. We are with you."

Kishida is the second Japanese prime minister to formally deliver remarks to Congress. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the first in 2015, and Kishida was present as foreign minister in Abe's cabinet.

"I was deeply struck to witness the bond between our two countries," Kishida said of his first visit to Congress.

The United States is Japan's only mutual-defense treaty ally, meaning American military forces are the country's only defense against China and North Korea.

Japan, however, has begun investing more in its own military. President Joe Biden has approved of the efforts, and his administration is elevating the island nation as a priority partner in ensuring Indo-Pacific peace.

"We first became a regional partner of the United States, and now we have become your global partner," Kishida said. "Never has our relationship been so close, our vision and approach so united."

Biden and Kishida on Wednesday announced a package of agreements between the United States and Japan, which include a new military cooperative network and a shared project to put a Japanese astronaut on the moon.

The White House hosted Kishida for a state dinner that evening, during which the two leaders toasted to a continued strong alliance.

Biden on Thursday is hosting the first-ever trilateral summit with Kishida and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The three leaders are expected to discuss maritime security, emerging technologies an the United States' "ironclad" commitment to the two Asian countries.
Amherst County public schools officials plan to write Lynchburg-area legislators in the Virginia General Assembly in hopes of urging Gov. Glenn Youngkin to reconsider a recent veto of Senate Bill 14, which would allow any locality to levy a 1% surcharge on sales taxes to fund school construction if voters approve it in a local referendum.

Superintendent William Wells has expressed support for the bill he said could provide a much-needed revenue stream for school capital needs that are mounting. He said such a sales tax stream would alleviate pressure on the county to consider an increase to the real estate tax rate, a measure the Amherst County Board of Supervisors has steered clear of for the past eight years.

It will definitely give us the ability to raise funds without having to raise taxes on our property owners in Amherst County, Wells said.

Wells said he feels it is important to write local legislators on the matter because its important for school divisions, especially the size of Amherst, that dont have resources of larger divisions in raising revenue for school construction needs.

Youngkin said in a veto message of SB 14: This proposal would result in a nearly $1.5 billion a year tax increase to Virginians. Some localities would have a combined sales tax rate of eight percent, with no additional offsets, such as a reduced income tax or property tax.

The governor added the state should pursue a tax policy that unleashes economic development and prioritizes job and wage growth through innovative reforms. These reforms must allow hardworking Virginians to keep more of their money.

Amherst County School Board member Eric Orasi said he understands why Youngkin shot it down.

How about we get them to free up some money from the state for our community, so we dont have to raise our taxes? Orasi said. If he wants to stop us from raising money from within our community, then make those funds available from that state. I mean, theres a lot of lottery tickets being sold. So how about that money goes where its supposed to instead of chasing down other things?

Wells said in response the state lottery money, while intended for school divisions, is used in other ways.

Imposing more taxes on the citizens of Amherst County, I think, is not going to go well with the community, Orasi said.

The school board on April 11 gave consensus without a formal vote for Wells to write the letter, though District 1 representative Dawn Justice said she is uncomfortable supporting it and didnt do so. Wells said all board members would see it before it is sent to local legislators.

Wells noted the measure gives the community a chance to vote on a referendum and a tax increase is not automatic if the bill becomes law. Board Chair Chris Terry said it would allow citizens to have a direct say in whether to impose the tax or not.

Were just begging for the option to have it be proposed to our citizens, Terry said.

Vice Chair Abby Thompson said she supports sending the letter in the spirit of fighting for schools and students, and allowing the county to be more competitive in securing needed money.

It gives our community choice, Thompson said.

Board member Lori Saunders said the division has a slate of capital projects on the horizon, including a potential new elementary school in upcoming years if Madison Heights growth continues to pick up.

How are we going to do it? Saunders asked. This is a good way. Put it to the people.

Orasi said if the community supports a sales tax hike he would be surprised. He added he doesnt think it will happen and he is more receptive to other ways.

How about giving our money back instead of an extra tax? Orasi said. We pay enough to the state already.

Wells said Amherst schools get $52,000 per year from the county for schools capital needs, which isnt going to get it done when considering the division has $8 million worth of buildings to maintain, including two school buildings that are more than 60 years old.

One project in particular, the $32 million renovation and addition at Amherst County High School, is undergoing construction. The board of supervisors has financed a major portion of the projects price tag and Wells has said the sales tax measure could help pay for it in addition to a 2% meals tax measure recently passed to set money aside.

Wells explained that currently localities are not allowed to change the sales tax rate without explicit permission from the General Assembly and state law not only allows for fewer than 10 localities outside the Lynchburg area to impose a 1% sales tax to fund school construction projects. Area legislators representing Amherst County to date have not pushed forward a bill as those localities legislators have to impose the tax, Wells said.

Board member Priscilla Liggon said the letter is a a baby step in fighting for more resources.

Weve got to try something, Liggon said.
China opposes U.S. deployment of intermediate-range missiles in Asia-Pacific: spokesperson

Xinhua) 10:58, April 13, 2024

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- China firmly opposes the United States' planned move to deploy intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region, a Chinese military spokesperson said on Friday.

The U.S. push to deploy the missiles is a dangerous trend, and will seriously threaten the security of countries in the region and seriously undermine regional peace and stability, Wu Qian, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, told a regular press conference.

"China firmly opposes this and will take resolute countermeasures. We urge the United States to genuinely respect the security concerns of other countries and stop undermining regional peace and stability," he said.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
 Flash

Federal Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz will pay an official visit to China from April 14 to 16 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning announced on Friday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet with Scholz, Premier Li will hold talks with him and exchange views on bilateral relations and issues of common concern, Mao said at a regular press conference.

China always regards Germany as an important partner for win-win cooperation and supports Germany in playing a more important role in Europe and beyond, Mao said.

China and Germany have benefited from each other's development, and both countries have guided China-EU relations to develop in a steady and sustained manner and injected more stability into the world, Mao said.

As this year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of all-round strategic partnership between China and Germany, China is ready to work with Germany to deepen understanding, trust and cooperation to advance bilateral ties and make greater contributions to world peace and prosperity, Mao said.
Ishikawa, Apr 13 (News On Japan) - The Emperor and Empress visited a shelter in Ishikawa Prefecture on Friday to provide comfort to the victims of the disaster.

The aircraft designated for the royal couple experienced engine trouble, leading to a delayed departure on a replacement aircraft by over an hour.

In the central commercial district of Anamizu Town, most shops remain closed. At a local facility where 46 people still live as evacuees, the Emperor and Empress bent down to listen attentively to the victims' stories.

Yoshiro Yoneda (76), a resident at the shelter, was moved by the visit: "They are truly kind people. It brought me to tears. They genuinely cared about us."

At a site where a landslide claimed 16 lives, Their Majesties deeply bowed in respect.

Their visit to the disaster area is not yet over. In the Shiromaru district of Noto Town, where a tsunami swept away homes, the Emperor asked, "What has been the most challenging for you?"

Shiromaru Public Hall Director, Yukio Kanda, responded, "The biggest concern has been the health of the evacuees due to the unfamiliar communal living."

The Empress inquired about his personal situation to which Kanda replied, "Fortunately, my house only had minor damages like a broken wall and some cracked bowls."

Last month, the royal couple also visited the cities of Wajima and Suzu. This marks their second visit to the disaster-affected areas within three weeks.

A resident of Anamizu Town expressed hope: "We need to regain our spirits and rebuild our town. That's all there is to it. It's not just about me but about revitalizing the entire commercial district here."

Another resident added, "We just want our normal lives back."

Source: ANN
TOKYO, Apr 13 (News On Japan) - The Imperial Household Agency of Japan has recently launched an official Instagram account. What stands out is the single account it chooses to follow.

The account's sole follow is that of the Dutch Royal Family, signifying a unique and special relationship between the two royal houses. This connection underscores the deep bond shared by Empress Masako and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, which extends back to August 2006. At that time, Emperor Naruhito, then Crown Prince, and his family met with members of the Dutch Royal Family. The Netherlands was the first overseas destination visited by Princess Aiko, where she was warmly welcomed.

The Instagram account was inaugurated this month and has already documented these historic ties. It showcased their recent activities, including a second visit to disaster areas affected by an earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture. The Emperor and Empress expressed genuine concern for the victims, a sentiment that resonated deeply with those they visited.

As of 5 PM on Friday, April 12, the Instagram account has garnered 851,800 followers while maintaining its exclusive following of the Dutch Royal Household. This digital interaction is a modern reflection of the longstanding relationship, which includes Queen Maxima's visit to Japan in October 2014. This visit marked Princess Aiko's first attendance at a state banquet in 11 years, highlighting the ongoing personal and diplomatic ties.

Empress Masako and Queen Maxima, both of whom have had careers before their royal engagements -- Masako as a diplomat and Maxima in banking -- share this unique professional background that has perhaps fortified their bond over the years.

Source: ANN
TOKYO, Apr 13 (News On Japan) - Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike firmly denied allegations regarding her educational background during a regular press conference. She reaffirmed her graduation from Cairo University, supported by both her diploma and a certificate that she has made public.

The controversy surrounding Koike's credentials began with the publication of a book in May 2020, which questioned her claims of graduating from Cairo University. In response to these allegations, Koike's former close associate and the former Secretary-General of Tomin First no Kai, Toshiro Kojima, addressed the media on April 12th.

Kojima recalled a conversation from June 2020 where Governor Koike expressed concerns about her graduation certificates not putting an end to the scrutiny, suggesting that obtaining a statement from Cairo University could be beneficial. Shortly after this conversation, the Embassy of Egypt in Japan posted a statement on Facebook confirming Governor Koike's graduation.

Kojima criticized the timing and nature of this declaration, suggesting it was orchestrated by someone acquainted with the governor, thereby casting doubt on the authenticity of Koike's graduation.

During her press conference on Friday, Governor Koike countered the claims published in Bungei Shunju, insisting that she had graduated as acknowledged by the university and had previously disclosed her graduation documents. She lamented the timing of such allegations, which seemed to coincide with elections, implying political motives behind the repeated surfacing of these claims.

When questioned directly about her discussions with Kojima or if she was advised to issue a statement, Koike was non-committal, mentioning only her past deliberations on how to address ongoing suspicions and not recalling the specifics clearly.

Source: ANN
The UK has agreed to return some 32 gold and silver artefacts that have been stolen from the court of Ghanas Asante King in the 19th century.

The items will be returned on a loan to the current Asante King and they are planned to be displayed to the public at the Manhyia museum in Kumasi next month, the BBC reported.

The artefacts include a gold peace pipe, a sword of state and gold badges worn by officials charged with cleansing the soul of the king.

Dan Hicks, a professor of contemporary archaeology at Oxford University, told the Guardian the deal over the Asante gold is the very welcome beginning of a process that will hopefully lead to the rightful return of important items to their rightful owners.

The success of Ghana in negotiating the return of its centuries-old artefacts is watched closely by other African states.

Six decades on from independence, African governments are actively seeking the return of stolen artefacts.
The vassalization of Tunisia by Algeria continues to draw criticism among the Tunisian political class. Recently Neji Jelloul, a political party leader, called on Tunisian authorities to safeguard the countrys sovereignty by returning to positive neutrality in the Algeria-instigated conflict over the Sahara territory.

Tunisia, under President Kais Saied, has irked Morocco when it rolled the red carpet to the head of the Polisario self-proclaimed republic during a Japan-Africa summit in summer 2022. Morocco recalled its ambassador from Tunis, while the latter doubled down on its provocation by recalling its ambassador and aligning itself with the military regime in Algiers.

Tunisian authorities should at least adopt a position of positive neutrality because there is a possibility of resolving this conflict (Sahara issue) which has become more of a historic issue than a political or economic one, Jelloul, head of the National Coalition party told Hespress news website.

I see that Morocco has historic rights in the Sahara. Therefore, the solution is possible by sitting on the negotiation table and Tunisia should have been a mediator, he said, urging his country to restore good ties with Morocco.

He said Tunisia should not abide by Algerias dictates in undermining the Maghreb union. I believe in the Maghreb Union and complementarity. We are five independent states and no one should practice paternalism over the other, he said.

Algerias president Tebboune has announced that he works for the creation of a new Maghreb entity and had said that Tunisia and western Libya had agreed to that. Soon after, both eastern and western Libyan authorities denied they have agreed to a scheme that would replace the Maghreb union known as AMU.

Tunisia has not reacted to Tebbounes statement. Regional media, however, reported that Kais Saied has abandoned a trip to Nouakchott after Mauritania distanced itself from Tebbounes schemes to create an entity that would serve Algerias hegemonic agenda in the region.

Tunisian analysts have often deplored the fact that their country is now reduced to an Algerian vassal state where Algerian security services have acted with impunity arresting dissidents such as Slimane Bouhafs.

The Tunisian case also shows the mindset among the ruling elites in Algeria who conceive regional cooperation as only possible if the state becomes an Algerian proxy that subordinates its policy to the priorities of Algiers.
Trump and His Mini-Me. Photo: Wilfredo Lee/AP

In a joint press conference Friday at Mar-a-Lago that seemed designed to give some high-life MAGA protection to the embattled Speaker of the House, Donald Trump and Mike Johnson expressed their deep affection for each other before announcing support for legislation banning noncitizens from voting in federal elections.

Trump gave Johnson what he desperately needed by suggesting the Louisianan was doing about as good a job as possible as Speaker and implicitly promising to keep his acolyte Marjorie Taylor Greene from carrying through on her threats to take away Johnsons gavel if he keeps working with Democrats on issues like aid to Ukraine. Presumably, Johnson understands that loyalty is a one-way street in MAGA land and that the man he called the once and future president wont hesitate to toss him aside if it suits his purposes. But for now, Johnson can probably sleep a few nights with both eyes closed.

The Speaker reciprocated with his legislative plan to keep the 16 million illegals Biden has allegedly invited into the country from stealing the November presidential election. Theres only one problem with this idea: Its entirely redundant and unnecessary.

Johnsons proposal is redundant because since 1996 noncitizens have been banned from voting in federal elections and deterred with potential jail sentences and immediate deportation. Its unnecessary since repeated studies have yielded no evidence of significant levels of voting by noncitizens (even the one academic researcher who thinks it does happen more than once in a blue moon has dismissed Trumps claims that it robbed him of a popular-vote win in 2016 as completely unfounded).

But the proposal is a great messaging device linking Trumps two favorite subjects (election integrity and an alleged crisis of illegal immigration) and hinting not very subtly at the inflammatory great replacement theory whereby Democrats are opening the borders to drown white Christians in a demographic sea of bad, bad people who will be grateful to their left-wing liberators. Johnson and Trump tag-teamed aggressively on that idea in the Mar-a-Lago presser, with the Speaker emphasizing that the imminent danger of massive noncitizen voting is a by-product of Bidens design to encourage illegal immigration, and with Trump ranting about non-white countries emptying their prisons and insane asylums at the eager request of Uncle Sam.

What makes this gambit dangerous is that it sets a premise for whatever mischief Trump and his allies choose to undertake if he loses the 2024 presidential election. The Johnson election integrity bill is going nowhere (being, as noted, a waste of time), so by negative inference, Democrats will stand accused of planning to stuff the ballot box with noncitizen votes. Should Trump decide once again to contest a defeat, the phantom menace of noncitizen voting can be combined with equally groundless objections to voting by mail to justify a rejection of the elections legitimacy.

By participating in this dog and pony show involving phony-baloney conspiracy theories, Johnson is simply paying attention to his masters voice. But the country could pay a high price for the moment of comfort he has secured by running to Daddy to protect him from MAGA wrath in the House.
 Flash

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan pose for a group photo with President of the Republic of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi and his wife Mellisa Santokhi-Seenacherry prior to the talks between Xi and Santokhi in Beijing, capital of China, April 12, 2024. Xi held talks with Santokhi, who is on a state visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with President of the Republic of Suriname Chandrikapersad Santokhi in Beijing on Friday.

Noting that the China-Suriname friendship has a long history and has stood the test of time, Xi said Suriname was one of the first Caribbean countries to establish diplomatic ties with China, establish a strategic partnership with China and sign the Belt and Road cooperation plan with China.

The two countries have always respected each other and treated each other as equals, becoming a model of South-South cooperation, he said, adding that China is willing to work with Suriname to further consolidate political mutual trust, strengthen economic and trade cooperation, expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges, step up international coordination, and push for a closer China-Suriname strategic cooperative partnership to better benefit the two peoples.

Xi stressed that China highly appreciates Suriname's friendship and its firm support for China on issues concerning China's core interests and major concerns. He added that China also firmly supports Suriname in safeguarding its national sovereignty and independence and independently choosing a development path suited to its national conditions.

China is willing to continue to understand and support each other with Suriname, maintain high-level exchanges, increase friendly exchanges between various departments, legislative bodies and political parties, and enhance the exchange of experience in governance, according to Xi.

"China welcomes more high-quality and distinctive Surinamese products to enter the Chinese market, and stands ready to deepen cooperation with Suriname on joint Belt and Road construction, enhance synergy of development strategies, and expand cooperation on trade, investment, agriculture, energy, mining, infrastructure construction and digital economy to bring more tangible benefits to the two peoples," Xi said.

Noting that Suriname is one of the countries with the largest number of overseas Chinese in the Caribbean and the first country in the Western Hemisphere to mark the Chinese New Year as an official holiday, Xi said the two sides should continue to encourage cultural and people-to-people exchanges, facilitate personnel exchanges, and jointly build Confucius Institutes.

The two countries should strengthen sub-national cooperation and constantly enrich the content of bilateral exchanges and cooperation, he added.

Xi said China is ready to work with Suriname and other developing countries to strengthen multilateral coordination, solidarity and cooperation, safeguard common interests, achieve common development and promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.

China attaches importance to developing relations with Caribbean countries, supports Caribbean countries in seeking prosperity and development and improving people's well-being, and stands ready to continue to provide assistance within its capacity for the economic and social development of countries in the region, Xi said.

Noting that the friendly exchanges between the two countries enjoy a long history, Santokhi, for his part, complimented the important contributions made by the Chinese community in Suriname to the development of the country.

He said that since the two countries established diplomatic ties 48 years ago, the Surinamese side has always firmly adhered to the one-China principle, and will continue to support China unswervingly in its endeavor to achieve national reunification.

Santokhi expressed Suriname's appreciation for the assistance provided by the Chinese side to its economic and social development, saying that the fruitful cooperation between the two countries in agriculture, health, infrastructure and other fields reflects the high-level political mutual trust and brotherly friendship, improved Suriname's economy and people's livelihoods, setting a good example of South-South cooperation.

Suriname supports the important initiatives proposed by China, such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Global Development Initiative, which are of great significance in upholding multilateralism and promoting world peace and sustainable development, and stands ready to advance coordination with China to jointly promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, Santokhi said.

He said that Suriname expects to improve exchanges between the political parties of the two countries, expand cooperation in fields such as trade, economy and investment, green development and climate change, and advance the Suriname-China strategic cooperative partnership, and is willing to contribute to Caribbean-China relations.

The two heads of state witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents on economy, trade, investment, green development, digital economy, education and other fields. The two sides also issued a joint press communique.


Once a veep front-runner, Kristi Noems abortion extremism could eliminate her from contention. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

There has been much debate about whether Democrats can succeed in making abortion policy  where they have a big public-opinion advantage  a central issue in the 2024 election. One indicator of their progress on this front is that abortion positioning appears to be having a major effect on Donald Trumps choice of a running mate, one of the most consequential decisions he will have to make as Republican nominee.

Trump has sought to take the abortion issue off the table in the presidential contest by embracing a strict states rights position on the subject. Thats very likely to stick. After all, he easily got through a competitive Republican-nomination race without succumbing to pressure to support a national abortion ban, which multiple opponents were touting in an effort to outflank one another on the right. Now that the GOPs abortion extremism has emerged as one of the strongest cards Joe Biden can play in order to make the election comparative rather than a simple referendum on his presidency, Trump will do everything possible to claim its not his issue and not his problem.

Its not that easy, of course, for Trump and other national GOP figures to distance themselves from the atavistic efforts of their state-level allies to ban as many abortions as possible. For one thing, theres the inconvenient fact that the ongoing assault on reproductive rights was made possible by Trumps deliberate shaping of a U.S. Supreme Court willing to reverse Roe v. Wade (an accomplishment he continues to proudly proclaim). But the 2024 Republican nominee must also tread very carefully to avoid too much coziness with the Republicans whose extremism is helping Democrats make abortion an issue in every campaign from the presidential level to state legislative races. And thats where the veepstakes come into play.

According to reporting from Pucks Tara Palmeri, Trump is beginning to reassess his veep-prospect list to exclude, or at least downgrade, potential running mates closely associated with extreme state abortion bans:

[A] source close to Trump told me that since landing on the states rights position, he has explicitly changed his V.P. calculus, removing from his shortlist governors from states without exceptions for abortion in cases of rape or incest, or any state with a so-called heartbeat bill before 10 weeks.

Palmeri notes that this culling of the field could include Republican governors Kristi Noem of South Dakota  often considered the front-runner for the gig  Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, and Doug Burgum of North Dakota, who have helped enact total or near-total abortion bans in their states. You could add Greg Abbott of Texas to the list of excessively pro-life governors and perhaps Ron DeSantis of Florida, though he has probably never been seriously considered for VP thanks to his failed challenge to Trump in the primaries. So you have the irony that Trump going all states rights on abortion means taking a lot of state leaders off his veep list.

But the fear factor on abortion could go even further and taint the veepability of congressional Republicans who have either conspicuously favored highly restrictive policies or are from states with extreme abortion bans they did not oppose. That could be a double whammy for Tim Scott, who vocally favored a national abortion ban on the presidential campaign trail and whose home state, South Carolina, recently enacted a six-week abortion ban.

Which veep prospects could benefit from Trumps preoccupation with distancing himself from abortion extremism? Palmeri thinks J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio are moving up the list. Both have taken extreme positions on abortion in the past but havent really stood out lately on the subject; Ohio voters recently approved a pro-choice constitutional amendment that Vance opposed but didnt dwell on. Rubios Florida residence, meanwhile, is a dual problem: He may not be able to distance himself from his states own battle over a pro-choice ballot initiative, and, more important, he might have to give up his Senate seat and move elsewhere to run as veep given the 12th Amendments ban on a state giving its electoral votes to two of its own citizens.

Much like Vance, Elise Stefanik has talked up abortion restrictions but isnt personally identified with them; her recent practice of slavishly saying and doing whatever Trump wants will probably serve her well on this particular topic. Her state of New York is also voting on a pro-choice constitutional amendment in November, but its so certain to pass that it wont get the kind of national attention that ballot initiatives in Arizona, Florida, and possibly Nevada will secure.

Long-shot veep prospects Marjorie Taylor Greene and Katie Britt are from states with extreme abortion bans. At the other end of the spectrum is the even-longer-shot ex-Democrat prospect Tulsi Gabbard. Shes from the very pro-choice state of Hawaii but supported anti-abortion measures early in her career and has recently backed others as shes evolved toward MAGA-land.

Its entirely possible that Trump is simply using a strange new Goldilocks abortion litmus test (not too hot, not too cold) to eliminate potential running mates he has decided against for other reasons. But it also reflects his understanding that this fraught issue that is so closely associated with his own conquest of the Republican Party could be a game changer in 2024.
20 items in this article 20 items on sale! Photo-Illustration: The Strategist; Photos: Retailers

If this weeks sunnier days are a sneak peak of whats to come, it might be time to put our winter clothing back in storage. Luckily, I found plenty of on-sale spring-y clothing items and accessories, including some colorful Tevas, a gauzy top from J.Crew, and a few lightweight closet staples from Coss Friends and Family sale. For beauty lovers on a budget, Ive also included some of our readers favorite products (such as the very best cream blush) from Sephoras Savings Event, which is live until the end of the weekend. Then there are some outdoor essentials, such as a sip-anywhere personal water filter and a lively green towel. And as always, make sure to sign up for our email newsletter for even more sales coverage.

Studs Mini Chunky Huggie $24 $24 Studs is having a sitewide sale with 20 percent off all their earrings, cuffs, and chains. This cute chunky huggie is available in gold and silver (Im eyeing the former), single or as a pair, and is safe for sensitive ears. $24 at Studs Buy

LifeStraw Personal Water Filter $17 $20 now 15% off $17 Ive included this personal water filter for avid hikers and the folks (myself included) who realized their emergency preparedness was lackluster after New Yorks recent earthquake. To use, simply stick the straw in water and sip. $17 at Amazon Buy

Ezpz Mini Cup + Straw Training System $17 $17 For transitioning babies off the bottle, consider this straw-training cup, which is the perfect size for tiny hands and almost half off with our special code. You can use it with the lid and straw or with an open top, and the straw has sensory bumps that will help your kid know where to keep their lips while sipping. $17 at Amazon Buy

Cos The Clean Cut T-Shirt - Striped $45 $45 Strategist contributor Mya Gelber recently told us that the white version of this tee is one of the few white T-shirts you could get away with wearing in a corporate setting. But theres also this fun spring-y green striped option that is discounted as part of Coss sitewide Friends and Family sale (25 percent off everything, automatically applied at checkout). $45 at COS Buy

Cos Oversized Grandad-Collar Shirt Dress $120 $120 This crisp, breezy shirt dress will keep you cool and looking put-together no matter how warm it gets outside. On cooler days, it will go nicely layered with a sweater. $120 at COS Buy

Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm - Brown Sugar $24 $24 Sephoras Savings Event is still going strong but will end in just a few days. One of the items Strategist readers have been stocking up on is Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm. Its still in stock in a few colors, including this delicious deep-brown shade that smells like brown sugar. $24 at Sephora Buy

Crown Affair The Dry Shampoo $42 Finally, theres the dry shampoo that Strategist writer Arielle Avila told us is her new favorite. It allows her to go days after a wash without an oily or irritated scalp. Plus it smells fresh and expensive, she writes. $42 at Sephora Buy

J.Crew Seaboard Soft-Knit Shirt $98 $98 For cooler temps, this rugged and soft collared shirt feels like a cozy sweater but looks like a structured shirt. Customer reviews say it runs slightly large, which makes it ideal for layering. $98 at J.Crew Buy

Tekla Linen Napkin $30 $30 Whether youre looking to refresh your table linens or planning some dinner parties, these linen napkins will complement your place settings nicely. Along with this pale-orange option that Tekla is calling Apple Core I love the pastel-green and cobalt-blue options. $30 at Nordstrom Buy

West Elm Woven Coir Striped Doormat $29 $29 Last but not least, theres this welcoming woven doormat from West Elm. Its mold-resistant and can be vacuumed or hosed off if your shoes have tracked in anything from April showers. $29 at West Elm Buy

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The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best acne treatments, rolling luggage, pillows for side sleepers, natural anxiety remedies, and bath towels. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
Despite the continued reliance on fossil fuels by several Southeast Asian countries, many governments in the region are going full steam ahead on energy transition plans, as they invest heavily in renewables and clean tech. Thanks to funding from international donors, some countries in Southeast Asia are finally able to plan for a greener future, as they establish strategies to eventually decarbonise their economies in line with a global green transition.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with Paris Agreement aims, suggesting their commitment to a green transition. However, achieving this transition is not so simple. Countries across the region are facing the challenges of reducing their emissions while also expanding their energy supply to meet the growing demand. Many ASEAN countries are undergoing rapid industrialisation, as well as seeing energy demand expand in line with growing populations. In addition, shifting demand away from fossil fuels in favour of green alternatives will require a significant level of investment across a range of renewable energy and tech sectors.

While a transition to green is no easy feat, it is expected to bring a multitude of benefits to the region. A recent OECD report suggested that, in Indonesia, transitioning towards cleaner energy production could potentially create more than 1 million new jobs. The OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann stated of the report findings, The green transition will bring new opportunities to boost economic growth and lift living standards in Southeast Asia, a region that is both strongly dependent on nature for its economic activities and heavily impacted by climate change. Cormann added, Some sectors will create jobs, some will lose jobs, and others will disappear. Enhancing social safety nets, providing reskilling and upskilling opportunities, and planning for new territorial development models for regions dependent on fossil-fuel related activities will be essential for a smooth transition.

Despite the significant challenges most Southeast Asian countries face in developing their green energy industries, some are making strides in building their renewable energy capacity. In November, the government of Indonesia announced a new investment plan to develop the countrys renewable energy capacity. Indonesia will invest $20 billion in a green transition, with more private funding expected to follow.

The Comprehensive Investment and Policy Plan (CIPP), led by the United States and Japan, will provide $20 billion in funding for Indonesia's Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). The plan outlines the aim of cutting grid emissions to 250 million metric tonnes of CO2 by 2030, marking an improvement on the previous estimate of over 350 million. Indonesia aims to increase the contribution of renewable energy to the total energy mix to 44 percent by 2030, from just 12 percent in 2022.

Indonesia continues to rely heavily on coal, as the world's largest exporter of coal for electricity. As the highest energy-demand member state of ASEAN, Indonesia must change its ways to support the achievement of a global green transition. The high level of funding provided by CIPP is expected to encourage private domestic and foreign companies to invest more in Indonesias green energy and clean tech sector, helping it to gradually decrease its reliance on fossil fuels and decarbonise its economy.

In Vietnam, the government approved the Power Development Plan VIII (PDP8) last year, which sets ambitious renewable-energy goals for 2030. Under the plan, Vietnam pledged net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The government also aims to generate a minimum of 30.9 percent of the countrys energy from renewable resources by 2030, which will increase to 67.5 percent by 2050. Vietnam is highly suited to the development of wind and solar power, with the technical potential of 1,000 GW. Offshore wind is expected to contribute around 15 GW of energy by 2035, from none at present, providing around 18.5 percent of the countrys energy mix. However, developing Vietnams wind and solar power capacity will require a significant amount of funding.

Meanwhile, in 2023, the Malaysian Economy Minister, Rafizi Raml, stated aims for Malaysia to become a regional leader in renewable energy through the governments National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR). Raml said, As a nation, we are used to falling behind and lagging behind. And when others pace ahead, we rarely think about how we could be the ones leading others instead With NETR, however, there is a real opportunity for us to lead Southeast Asia as the regional powerhouse in renewable energy. The government aims to generate 31 percent (13 GW) of the countrys energy from renewable resources by 2025 and 40 percent (18 GW) by 2035.

The Southeast Asia region has a long way to go to develop its renewable energy and transition away from its reliance on fossil fuels. However, several countries in the region have committed to ambitious climate pledges and have established roadmaps to help them achieve their green energy goals. In some countries, this is being supported by funding from international donors, which is expected to attract higher levels of private investment in renewables and clean tech to the region to support a green transition.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Turkey is pressing ahead with a tripartite agreement with Georgia and Azerbaijan, aiming to speed freight rail traffic along a Middle Corridor trade route connecting China and Europe via the Caspian Sea.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a memorandum of understanding on April 7 that aims to simplify customs procedures along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, one of the rail routes that carry goods from Azerbaijani ports on the Caspian to markets in Europe. Erdogan did not release a statement about the signing, but speaking at the railroads opening ceremony in 2017, he said the route can promote political peace, security and stability, and social prosperity.

Turkey is seeking to solidify its role as a mainstay in the Middle Corridor web of trade routes. An alternate route traverses the Black Sea between Georgia and Romania, but it is unappealing at the moment due to the war in Ukraine. Georgia, for its part, is betting on a big increase in demand over both routes, signing onto initiatives like the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars customs agreement, while also building a deepwater port.

The goal for Erdogan is to maintain Turkeys historic role as a nexus of East-West trade. Last year, Erdogan felt he was snubbed by the Western leaders after a handful of countries signed plans for a trade corridor bypassing Turkey at the G20 meeting in September. Speaking to reporters after the summit on September 11, he insisted East-West trade needs Turkey to thrive. Turkiye is an important production and trade base, he said. The most convenient line for east-to-west traffic has to pass through Turkiye.

The MoU that Erdogan signed includes specifications to coordinate customs inspection across the three countries, implementation of which will be overseen by a new commission. If all goes according to plan, this streamlining will help Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan reap the benefits of an expected tripling in Middle Corridor trade volume by 2030.

Azerbaijan and Georgia recently completed upgrades on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars route to handle expanded traffic. By signing the MoU, Erdogan is putting the Middle Corridor on Turkeys front burner. The agreement plugs important gaps hindering the rail routes utility: the lack of standard customs procedures to date has hindered traffic. According to a World Bank report from 2023, the sheer number of state operating agencies among countries along the route constituted a source of friction, adding to costs and poor reliability.

By Eurasianet.org

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Preparing the broth mix (Photo by Luis Samayoa)

The very first time I tried shabu shabu was during a visit to Tottori in mainland Japan. My fiancee wanted to try eating it together during a recent trip to Okinawa, so we did some online research. We found Agu No Kakurega Chatan, a shabu shabu spot with great reviews.

First of all, Agu No Kakurega Chatan is easy to miss, even with GPS. And when it comes to parking, the restaurant only has two spots. Luckily one of them right outside the entrance was open when we arrived.

Ordering inside Agu No Kakurega Chatan (Photo by Luis Samayoa) Pork plate (Photo by Luis Samayoa) Sesame dipping sauce (Photo by Luis Samayoa)

The restaurant itself is small, so dont forget to make reservations ahead. The interior is simple and has enough tables that can be joined together for larger parties. The noise level may have been a little higher than some other restaurants, but it made for a great atmosphere.

As for the menu, it was all in Japanese. Thank goodness for Google Translate. We decided on sharing the Agus Hideout Seiro Set for 3,980 yen total for the both of us. The sukiyaki set consisted of neatly organized pork slices and minced meat served inside a bamboo pipe with plenty of veggies to cook in our broth. The menu also had alcohol, but we decided to stick with a glass of water.

During my shabu shabu experience in Tottori, I ordered mochi and quickly learned the hard way that if it stayed in the boiling broth for more than five seconds, it dissolved. Yes, I lost some tasty bites of mochi during that meal. But knowing meat cant dissolve like mochi, I was feeling confident Id get my fill at Agu No Kakurega.

They had 2 styles of sauces. One was standard soy sauce, and the other was a golden sesame creamy sauce. Generally, I prefer soy sauce, but the sesame sauce worked well with every piece of meat and vegetable. Eating the meat without dipping it into anything tasted very bland, so I stuck to dipping sauce to give it more flavor. Another thing to keep in mind is that shabu shabu restaurants usually offer different types of broth flavors to choose from.

Since my fiancee and I were sharing, the dinner was very light, but I was satisfied. This meal made me reminisce about Korean BBQ, but instead of a hot plate or grill, there was pot of hot broth. Though this meal was delicious, the delicate pork and minced meat didnt make me forget the melted mochi I lost in Tottori.

Menu (Photo by Luis Samayoa)

Address: 2-2-2 Mihama, Chatan-cho, Nakagami-gun

Hours: Mon-Sun 5 p.m.  10:30 p.m.

Phone: 050-5486-4957

URL
(Photo by Shoji Kudaka)

Its time again for the dragons to descend off the coast of Naha in Okinawa!

The 50th Naha Dragon Boat Race will bring colorful boats shaped like mythical creatures rowed by teams competing to be the best May 3-5.

This is one of Okinawas premier cultural events and happens during peak Golden Week holiday season. Golden Week is a set of holidays grouped together falling on April 29 to May 5 this year.

The three-day event at Naha Port usually draws around 200,000 people to cheer on the row teams, so expect a crowd again this year.

Local row teams compete and so do teams of U.S. servicemembers.

Though the race is the main event, there will also be live music, festival food, other vendors and more at the venue.

The Naha Dragon Boat Race is considered one of the three major festivals of Naha City along with Naha Tug of War in October and Ryukyu Dynasty Festival Shuri in late October or early November. So, make sure to check out this fun traditional Okinawan event!

(Photo by Shoji Kudaka) (Photo by Shoji Kudaka)

Did you know

The Dragon Boat Race, or Hari in Okinawa dialect, has a 600-year history and used to be a national event in the days of the Ryukyu Kingdom (1492-1879). After almost a century-long hiatus, it was brought back to life and has grown into an event that represents Okinawa, just like in the old days.

What makes the Naha City race unique is that each boat is big enough to require 32 rowers, two steerers, and two drummers. Normal dragon boats only take 10 rowers and 2 steerers.

Naha Dragon Boat Race

Date: May 3, 4, 5 (Fri, Sat, Sun)

Time: TBD

Venue: Naha Port and the New Naha Port Wharf (GPS Coordinates: N 26.230106, E 127.680786)

*Parking will not be available at the venue. It is advised to use coin-operated parking spaces in the neighboring area or use tours offered by on-base organizations.
KEARNEY, Neb.  Jeffrey Gold reminisced about boyhood games of stickball on the streets of New York City as he introduced himself to a crowd of about 150 Friday morning at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

I grew up in poverty, but I never knew it because I had everything I needed, Gold said. Later in his life, when college time arrived, Gold said his uncle advised, Just tell them you want to be an engineer.

It was good advice. Gold was admitted to Cornell University in 1974 and to Weill Cornell Medical College in 1978.

Much has happened since then. Among other things, he pioneered improvements in pediatric heart surgery. He also worked at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks. He later shifted his focus to academic leadership.

On Friday, as the priority candidate to become the next president of the University of Nebraska spoke to students, faculty and administrators at UNK, Gold shared his vision for the future of higher education in Nebraska.

Golds appearance at UNK was among a variety of public events that are part of the vetting process to select NUs next leader.

After 30 days, the NU Board of Regents will be able to decide whether Gold is offered the position.

Life can be very short, so if you want to make a difference, you better do it when you can, he said. I have a lot of optimism about the future of higher education. If we treat our students like our children and give them what they need, well be OK.

Gold said the times demand that universities provide world-class educational opportunities. He said the University of Nebraska influences so much of what happens in Nebraska.

When the university gets a cold, the state of Nebraska gets pneumonia, he said.

As for UNK, he said hes familiar with the institution, especially because UNK and the University of Nebraska Medical Center collaborate on many health care efforts.

The UNMC Health Science Education Complex opened at UNK in 2015. Its success training students for health care professions in rural Nebraska supported the expansion of the rural-based training.

Today, the $93 million Rural Health Education Center is under construction next to the complex.

Gold shared a number of observations:

Keep education affordable, but make it quality.

Mental health is a real challenge, but also an opportunity. As a chancellor, I have called far too many parents to tell them their child was found hanging in their room.

An undergraduate education has to be about balance. Theres no question the arts and humanities bring out the best in people.

The question is, how well are we serving our students? If we do that well, well never have to cut the budget again.

The public is encouraged to share feedback about Gold during the vetting period by visiting nebraska.edu/president-search/feedback.

Our best Omaha staff photos & videos of April 2024
 Flash

China has lodged solemn representations to Japan on Friday over its negative moves in Washington, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Liu Jinsong, director general of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, summoned Chief Minister of the Embassy of Japan in China Yokochi Akira to lodge solemn representations and express serious concerns and strong dissatisfaction over Japan's negative moves during the Japan-U.S. summit in Washington and the trilateral summit among the United States, Japan and the Philippines.

China has also lodged solemn representations to the Philippines on the same day over its remarks during the trilateral summit.

On April 11, the leaders of the United States, Japan and the Philippines held their first trilateral summit in Washington and issued a Joint Vision Statement after the summit.

Previously, the United States claimed that this summit and the U.S.-Japan-Philippines cooperation "is not aimed at" China. However, the Statement discusses the South China Sea issue at length, blames China on the East China Sea issue and contains irresponsible comments on the Taiwan question.

"China strongly opposes the practice of bloc politics by relevant countries. We firmly oppose any acts that stoke and drive up tensions, and harm other countries' strategic security and interests. We are seriously against forming exclusive groupings in this region," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks when asked to comment on a related query at a regular press briefing on Friday.

She said that Japan and the Philippines have every right to develop normal relations with other countries, but they should not introduce bloc confrontation into this region, still less engaging in trilateral cooperation at the expense of other countries' interests.

"To know whether the trilateral summit and cooperation is truly not aimed at China, the answer is right there in the trilateral statement. What else could it be if it's not a smear and attack against China?" Mao said.

On the Taiwan question, Mao said it is purely China's internal affair, adding that resolving the Taiwan question is a matter of the Chinese own and no one can interfere in it. The biggest threat to cross-Strait peace now is the separatist activities of "Taiwan independence" forces, and external connivance and support for them.

If relevant countries truly care about cross-Strait peace and stability, and want the world to be safe and prosperous, they should uphold the one-China principle, oppose "Taiwan independence" separatist activities unequivocally, and support China's reunification, she said.

"This is the right way to ensure peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. No one should underestimate the will and capability of the Chinese people to safeguard our sovereignty and territorial integrity," Mao said.

To respond to the South China Sea issue and the East China Sea issue, Mao said that China has indisputable sovereignty over Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands and Nanhai Zhudao.

"Our activities in the East China Sea and South China Sea are lawful, justified and beyond reproach," said Mao.

China does not accept relevant countries' groundless accusation and deliberate smears against China on the East China Sea and South China Sea, does not accept the illegal arbitral award on the South China Sea or any unilateral moves based on the award, Mao said.

The situation in the East China Sea and the South China Sea is generally stable, she noted, adding that certain countries keep seeking backing from non-regional countries as they infringe on China's sovereignty and rights, and make provocations at sea.

What they have done has escalated the tensions. Certain country outside the region keep fueling the flame and stoking confrontation. This is flagrant, said the spokesperson.

"Let me stress once again that China will firmly guard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and we remain committed to properly settling bilateral maritime issues through dialogue and consultation with countries directly concerned. And we resolutely oppose non-regional countries' meddling and sowing discords to escalate the situation," Mao said.


A 14 year- old victim of rape on Thursday told an FCT High Court Maitama District that a pastor, Emmanuel Matthew of the Winners Chapel, raped her when she was seven-years-old in 2012.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the defendant is also the Proprietor of Emmabeth Academy, Mpape, Abuja where the victim attended in 2012.

The girl, who said this while testifying as the fifth prosecution witness, further explained that Mr Mathew forcibly inserted his finger in her private part and also had carnal knowledge of her schoolmate who was also a minor.

She also alleged that the defendant sexually assaulted her elder sister who was nine years old then.

The police in 2012 charged Mr Matthew to court with six counts bordering on inducement and rape, which ran contrary to sections 283 and 285 of the Penal Code.

Ejike Orji, the Prosecuting Counsel averred that the victim had attended Emmabeth Academy, Mpape, ran by the defendant.

Mr Orji alleged that Mr Mathew took advantage of his closeness with the victim, her lost sister and a school mate who were all minors to have sex with them.

Sometimes in March 20, 2012 at Emmabeth Academy, Mpape, Abuja Matthew induced and raped the victim who was seven year, her elder sister and another pupil of the school, he said.

In her evidence in chief, the victim recalled the name of the school to be Emmabeth Academy Nursery/ Primary School, Mpape Abuja.

She said: I was in school and Pastor Emmanuel took me inside his office and put his fingers into my private part severally.

He did that to me and my senior sister and the other girl. He later gave my sister N10.

When interrogated further by the prosecutor, she said the defendant went ahead to remove his trousers and inserted his penis into the private part of the other girl.

She said she narrated the incident to her mother who immediately reported the matter her pastor.

According to her, the mother and her pastor only warned the defendant of the repercussion of his actions.

The victim further explained that the defendant invited policemen three days after the incident to arrest the mother and her pastor, adding that the police became abreast of the matter through her mothers statement.

She said the police immediately took over the matter by taking the three of them (children) to the hospital for examinations.

When asked to state the colour of the underwear the defendant wore during the alleged incident, the victim said she could not remember because the incident happened seven years ago.

The witness also said she could not remembered the name of the hospital they were taken to for examination, adding that she remembered that a doctor examined them.

Justice Hussein Baba- Yusuf then adjourned until May 30 for continuation.

(NAN)
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Mr Liman Ibrahim as the new Controller-General (CG) of the Federal Fire Service (FFS).

A statement signed by Al-Hassan Yakmut, Secretary, Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board (CDFIPB) on Thursday in Abuja said that the appointment took effect from March 29.

Read Also: Senate set to override Buharis veto on two bills

Yakmut said that Ibrahims appointment was made following the retirement of Mr Joseph Anebi, the former fire service boss.

The appointment is for an initial term of 4 years and subject to the extant rules and regulations governing retirement in the public service, he said.

NAN
There were 136 passengers on the military charter plane which ditched into the St Johns river in Jacksonville.



Boeing jetliner with 143 people aboard from the US outpost at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, slid off a runway into a shallow river in Jacksonville, Florida, on Friday while attempting to land at a military base there during a thunderstorm, injuring 21 people.

According to NDTV, there were no reports of fatalities or critical injuries, with the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office saying on Twitter that all 21 of the injured were taken to a hospital where they were listed in good condition.

The plane, a chartered Boeing 737-800 arrived from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba with 136 passengers and seven crew members, but it crashed into the St Johns river at the end of the runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville at about 9:40 pm local time, a spokesman for the Florida air base said.

The plane was not submerged. Every person is alive and accounted for, the sheriffs office said on Twitter.

The sheriffs tweet was accompanied by two photographs showing the plane, bearing the logo of Miami Air International, resting in shallow water and fully intact.

The head of Boeing used his first shareholder meeting after the fleet of 737 MAX was grounded to try to assure shareholders, airline passengers, and the media that the plane is safe.



No fatalities reported. We are all in this together, Curry said in a separate tweet.

A passenger on board the plane, attorney Cheryl Bormann, told CNN in an interview that the flight, which had been four hours late in departing, made a really hard landing in Jacksonville amid thunder and lightning.



We came down, the plane literally hit the ground and bounced. It was clear the pilot did not have total control of the plane. It bounced again, she said, adding that the experience was terrifying.

Bormann said she hit her head on a plastic tray on the seat in front of her as the plane veered sideways and off the runway. We were in the water, we couldnt tell where we were, whether it was a river or an ocean.

The military base is situated on the western bank of the St Johns River about 8 miles south of central Jacksonville, in the northeastern corner of Florida about 350 miles north of Miami.

Bormann described emerging from the plane onto the wing as oxygen masks deployed and smelling the jet fuel that she said was apparently leaking into the water.

Bormann, from Chicago, said that most of the passengers were connected to the military and helped each other out of their seats and onto a wing, where they were assisted after some time into a raft.

Miami Air International is a charter airline operating a fleet of the Boeing 737-800, different from the 737 MAX 8 aircraft that has been grounded following two fatal crashes involving that plane.

A Boeing spokesman said that the company was aware of the incident and was gathering information.
Nigerians will vote to choose who will represent them in the Senate and the Federal House of Representatives for the next four years, but all eyes are on the presidential poll, which many believe will be keenly contested.

So, whos ahead between Buhari and his main challenger Atiku?While Buhari is promising to strengthen the fight against corruption, Atiku has pledged to restructure the country and stimulate economic growth.

Although the two heavyweights are from the North which has the highest population, and have in the last 14 weeks engaged in heated political campaigns across the country, some factors might determine the direction the pendulum of votes will swing in the six geopolitical zones on Saturday (today).

NORTH-WEST

Jigawa

In the 2015 presidential election, the APC polled 885,988 votes as against the PDPs 142,904 votes, to win in Jigawa State; it also won the governorship election. The influence of Governor Abubakar Badaru and the partys support base could provide a huge advantage for Buhari in todays election. However, Atiku could make an inroad through the influence of the PDP leaders in the zone, including former governor Sule Lamido, who would prefer state returned to the PDP.

Kaduna

In this state Governor Nasir el-Rufai has not failed to demonstrate his loyalty to the President both in words and actions and will be expected to do all within his power to deliver the state to him. He is also seen as a controversial governor based on his recent utterances about the forthcoming poll. But el-Rufai has a former governor of the state, Ahmed Makarfi, to contend with. The governor has also been at loggerheads with the Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sanni. He is also not in thegood books of the Christian community and followers of the Shia Muslim cleric, El Zakzaky, who have vowed to use the weapon of their votes in todays elction. However, a win for Atiku in the state will be a major contest as both parties put their popularity to the test today.

Kano

With over 5.4 million voters, Kano is undoubtedly the powerhouse of votes in the North-West and will be a major determinant of the eventual winner of the election between the two major candidates.

In 2015, Buhari got 1,903,999 votes as against the 215,779 votes Jonathan polled. The President has always held sway in the Centre of Commerce since the 2003 presidential election, irrespective of the political platform. However, the bitter rivalry between Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and his predecessor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, may change the tide as both leaders are opposing forces whose influence cannot be underestimated. While Ganduje is regarded as the leader of the APC in the state, Kwankwaso leads the PDP. Expectedly, they demonstrated this during the recent presidential campaigns in the state.

With the governors incumbency factor and Buharis large following, the result of the presidential poll will, perhaps, confirm Kwankwasos true popularity, if Atiku puts up an impressive show.

Katsina

This state is the home state of President Buhari where he enjoys massive support as demonstrated in the last presidential election. With his cult-like following in the state and the influence of Governor Aminu Masari, the PDP may face a Herculean task in its attempt to split the votes.

However, the influence of the Sheu Musa YarAdua in the state may draw some support in favour of Atiku.

Kebbi

Being an APC-dominated state, the voting pattern in Kebbi State is largely going to be dependent on Buharis popularity, as recorded in 2015 when he scored 567,883 votes to defeat Jonathan of the PDP with a margin of 466,861 votes.

Sokoto

In this state, a repeat of the landslide victory Buhari recorded in the last presidential election is unlikely if the incumbency factor of Governor Aminu Tambuwal of the PDP is anything to go by. Sokoto has 1.9 million registered voters and each of the candidates is expected to have a fair share of the votes.

Like Kebbi, Zamfara is largely an APC-dominated state. But the crisis currently rocking the party and the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission not to recognise any of the partys candidates in the governorship and NASS elections could increase Atikus chances in the state, if the grievances among the disgruntled stakeholders in the APC are not addressed.

NORTH-EAST

Adamawa

The state is Atikus domain, where he wields a lot of influence. It has over 1.9 million registered voters. During his days in the APC, the party defeated the PDP in the 2015 presidential and governorship elections. Although the ruling party currently has a sitting governor to its advantage, that may do little, with the former vice presidents reported connection to the people at the grass roots.

Borno

This troubled state has an estimated 2.3 million registered voters and has never been under the leadership of the PDP since 1999. The two governors, the late Mala Kachalla and Ali Modu Sheriff, who preceded incumbent Governor Kashim Shettima of the APC won on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party.

Buharis cult-like following also extends to Borno, having run for President as the ANPP candidate in 2003. In the 2015 presidential election, he won overwhelmingly with 473,543 votes from the 510,920 valid votes cast. This, therefore, may make it difficult for Atiku to make a substantial breakthrough in Borno at the poll.

But the state has come under several attacks by insurgents, in spite of efforts by the Buhari administration to tackle the menace. However, it remains to be seen whether this will count for the PDP.

The President also enjoys massive support in Bauchi and Yobe states, where he won convincingly in the last presidential poll. With Governors Mohammed Abubakar and Ibrahim Gaidam, respectively, both of the APC on his side, chances are that he will prove a formidable force for the PDP to surmount.

Gombe

The state is believed to be one of the strongholds of the PDP. The state Governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo, had contested the presidential primary of the party but lost to Atiku. However, Dankwambo has backed the partys presidential candidate and assured him of his support. However, Buhari won in Gombe in the 2015 presidential poll, a record that will put Atikus popularity in the state to the test.

Taraba

Like Gombe, Taraba is under the leadership of the PDP. In fact, Buhari lost the last presidential poll to Jonathan in the state, polling 261,326 votes as against the former presidents 310,800. Again, Atikus chances of victory may receive a boost with the defection of a former Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Hassan, to the United Democratic Party. The influence of Governor Darius Ishaku and a former Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.) in favour of the PDP candidate cannot be underestimated.

NORTH-CENTRAL

Kwara

The election in Kwara State will definitely be a battle between the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, who are both struggling to gain political control of the state. Although the PDP lost Kwara to the APC in the 2015 presidential election, it regained power when Saraki and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed defected from the ruling party to the opposition.

The presidential poll will surely put to the test the reported popularity of the two leaders and their ability to deliver the state to their respective candidates.

Benue

In this state Buharis popularity may not have a significant effect on the voters, going by the criticisms against his administration over insecurity in the region. Governor Samuel Ortom, who won his first term in office under the APC, joined the opposition PDP last July. Analysts believe it will be easy for Atiku to ride on the alleged failure of the APC to protect the lives and property of the residents against attacks by bandits.

Plateau and Kogi

Both states have one thing in common  the two major political parties won one of the states by a narrow margin. While the PDP had 549,615 votes as against the APCs 429,140 votes, the latter won in Kogi by polling 264,851 votes as against PDPs 149,987. Both states are under the control of the ruling APC but they remain battles grounds with the possibility of the winner coming from any of the parties.

Nasarawa

The state had been under the PDP from 1999 till 2011 when the incumbent Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura emerged on the platform of the APC. Pundits are of the view that the PDP lost in the state in 2015 through protest votes and the Northern factor in favour of Buhari. Now that the major candidates are of the Northern extraction and are Muslims, a repeat of the 2015 win may not be easy to achieve.

Niger

The opposition PDP in Niger State believes it will have an edge over its rival in the election, hinging its strength on the alleged poor performance of the APC government in the area of physical infrastructure. But the ruling party maintains that Buhari remains the candidate to beat at the polls because he had endeared himself to the residents, especially farmers who benefitted from his administrations agricultural programmes. Although the APC has incumbency power on its side, the influence of the opposition cannot be wished away easily.

SOUTH-WEST

Lagos

As far as the South-West is concerned, Lagos will be the cynosure of all eyes when the results of the presidential election begin to trickle in. The state has over six million registered voters. But one thing that has always decided the outcome of elections in the nations commercial capital is the influence of a former governor of the state and national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Since the return of democracy in 1999, political power has never left his domain. Tinubu played a prominent role in the victory recorded by the party in five out of the six states in the zone in 2015 and has not failed to demonstrate his commitment towards ensuring that Buhari not only wins in the entire South-West but also across the country. Expectedly, the President will bank on that.

However, the growing overbearing influence of the former governor on governance in Lagos State has been a strong message in the campaign of the PDP, freedom being a major promise for the residents. Although the main opposition PDP lost in 2015, it did prove to be a strong contender. It got 632,327 votes while the APC got 792,460 votes. What is more, Atiku would be banking on the support base of the PDP in Lagos and the high population of the Igbo people who are resident in Lagos through his vice presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

Oyo

Unlike Lagos, Oyo State came under the government of the APC in 2015, after the merger of the Action Congress of Nigeria and a few other political parties to form the APC. In the last presidential election, the ruling party won massively. But the influence of the PDP cannot be underestimated. By and large, it is expected that the two parties will leave nothing to chance in the battle for the soul of the state.

Ogun

The Gateway State has been in the news for wrong political reasons. The APC presidential rally was on Monday temporarily marred by a restive crowd suspected to be supporters of the Allied Peoples Movement, a party whose governorship candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, reportedly has the backing of Governor Ibikunle Amosun. Although Amosun has repeatedly assured Buhari of his support at the polls, there is the speculation that division within the APC in the state might affect the fortunes of the party.

Besides, Atiku has the backing of an ex-governor of the state, Gbenga Daniel, and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has not hidden his opposition to Buharis re-election bid. Political watchers believe that pressure is on the incumbent governor to prove his loyalty by preventing the opposition from coasting to victory.

Osun

The outcome of the governorship election in Osun, where the APC struggled to defeat the PDP through the support of the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Senator Iyiola Omisore, has been seen by many as a sign of the strength of the major opposition and the threat it poses to the ruling party in the presidential poll. The election in Osun might prove to be a tight one as both parties boast of a considerable crop of political leaders who can mobilise support. For instance, while Buhari will bank on the influence of the former governor, Rauf Aregbesola, Governor Adegboyega Oyetola and Omisore, Atiku has the support of a former governor and Chairman of the Coalition of United Political Parties, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

Ondo

In the 2015 polls, only about 50,000 votes were between the APC and the PDP when Buhari won in Ondo. But the ruling party has reportedly been in an unending struggle against itself since the emergence of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu in 2016. While not much has been heard of the opposition party since the departure of ex-governor, Olusegun Mimiko, the PDP would be hoping to take advantage of the division within the APC to get the votes it needs to win in the state.

Ekiti

Of all the South-West states, Ekiti was for the PDP when the results of the 2015 poll were announced, largely due to the influence of the former governor, Ayodele Fayose. The candidate of the PDP, Goodluck Jonathan, polled 176,466 votes as against Buharis 120,331 votes. But the opposition lost to the APC in the 2018 governorship election, which returned ex-Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Kayode Fayemi, to the government house.

This development has, undoubtedly, increased the ruling partys power of incumbency that could work in its favour in todays election. However, Fayose would be willing to demonstrate that he still enjoys large following among the residents by mobilising support for Atiku to repeat the PDPs 2015 record.

SOUTH-SOUTH

Akwa Ibom

The presidential election in Akwa Ibom will surely be a strong test for Governor Emmanuel Udom and the PDP for one major reason  the exit of the strongman of Akwa Ibom politics and the former governor, Senator Godswill Akpabio. On August 8, 2018, Akpabio joined the APC along with his supporters, promising to deliver the oil-rich state to the President. While the APC saw his departure as a big blow to the PDP, Emmanuel has vowed to ensure that Akwa Ibom remains a PDP stronghold. It is, therefore, going to be a battle of supremacy between Akpabio and the incumbent governor.

Bayelsa

The PDP has held sway in Bayelsa since 1999 and attempts by other political parties to wrest power from it has always hit a brick wall. It is the home state of former President Jonathan, who has not left anyone in doubt about his preference for his partys candidate. Atiku is expected to win comfortably there as it might prove a difficult task for a former governor, Timipre Sylva and the Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri, to deliver the state to the APC.

Edo State

This state will surely be cynosure of all eyes because it is the home state of the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole, who will be looking to be the first national chairman of the party from Edo to win the presidential poll in the state. His predecessor, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, lost the state to the PDP in 2015.

Edo had remained a stronghold of the PDP largely due to the influence of a former Board of Trustees Chairman of the party, the late Chief Tony Anenih, until the emergence of Oshiomhole as Governor in 2008. Buhari does not only have the support of the former labour leader but also that of Governor Godwin Obaseki. But the PDP as an opposition cannot be wished away. In fact, the state chapter of the party is perceived as the strongest opposition in the South-South region. It currently has two senators and four members of the House of Representatives. For todays poll, therefore, the two presidential candidates stand a 50-50 chance of recording victory.

Delta, Rivers and Cross River

The PDP has never lost to an opposition party in the three states in the last 19 years. In the 2015 presidential election, it got 1,211,405 votes in Delta while the APC got 48,910 votes. In Cross River, the PDP got 414,863 as against the 28,368 votes polled by the APC.
President Bola Tinubu expressed his optimism for Nigerias economic resurgence, stating that Nigerians should anticipate the economy to roar back to glory by December 2024.

During a courtesy visit by state Governors and the National Assembly leadership in Lagos on Friday, Tinubu emphasized the need for unity among the Federal Government, state governors, and the National Assembly to achieve national development goals.

Vice-President Kashim Shettima echoed this sentiment, urging collective efforts to propel the nation forward. He highlighted the diverse assembly of 27 Governors, NASS leadership, and former Governors in Lagos as a testament to Tinubus role as a unifying leader transcending ethnic and religious lines. Shettima emphasized, What binds us together supersedes whatever it is that may divide us.

Our economy has turned the corner. In the coming months, the economy will roar back to glory. By December, I hope we will have cause to celebrate, Tinubu said during the meeting. The Presidents Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, disclosed details of Fridays talks in a statement titled President Tinubu to governors and national assembly leadership: let us unite to make Nigeria greater.

Shettimas words resonated with Tinubus call for unity, highlighting the significance of collaboration across ethnic, religious, and political divides. This gathering cuts across ethnic, religious, and political lines. Here, we have Pastor Eno of Akwa Ibom and Father Hyacinth of Benue, and as the President was seated, he was asking, Where is Wammako, where is Yari? That is the hallmark of true leadership, Shettima remarked.
The Police Command in Kano has initiated an inquiry into the alleged beheading of a minor, Mohammed Saidu, reportedly perpetrated by a 16-year-old almajiri named Abdullahi in Kanwa village, Madobi local government area.

Kano Police Commissioner Usaini Gumel disclosed on Friday that the six-year-old Saidu was allegedly killed by Abdullahi, who was found holding a blood-stained knife at the scene. Following the incident, the victims remains were recovered and transferred to the hospital for examination before being released to his relatives for burial.

During a search, the police discovered the headless body of Saidu in a nearby primary school. Gumel mentioned that the suspect, apprehended to prevent lynching, was later mobbed by enraged residents.

Upon confession by the suspect, who admitted to dumping the victims head in a pit toilet adjacent to the primary school, he was rushed to Kwankwaso Cottage Hospital for treatment but passed away during the process.
A Nigerian returnee from Cyprus, Rahmon Olamilekan Adekunle, was reportedly extorted N100,000 by plainclothes policemen at the tunnel in Berger, which connects to Magodo in Lagos State.

Adekunle, who contacted SaharaReporters shortly after the robbery by the Nigerian police officers, explained that incident happened while he was taking his girlfriend who had exam in the morning to school.

He said that the policemen who were on mufti accosted him around some minutes to 7am, at the tunnel in Berger linking Magodo.

They forcefully took my phone, after going through my phone, they discovered that I just returned to Nigeria; they forced me to transfer the sum of N100,000 to a Point of Sale (POS) operator.

My girlfriend has a examination to take this morning and already they have seized my phone and I dont have any means to reach out to any of my family members or even the police authorities. So I had to transfer the N100,000 to a POS Operator there, which I dont know whether they came with the person.

Because I dont want my girl to miss her exam, I had to pay the money and continue my journey. I have contacted the state Police Public Relations Officer SP Benjamin Hundeyin but he did not pick up his calls. I also sent him a text message but he is yet to respond.

As I speak to you I dont know which station they (policemen) came from.

Meanwhile, SaharaReporters efforts to speak with the State Police Public Relations Officer SP Benjamin Hundeyin, were unsuccessful as he simply said Please I am busy and cant talk now.

As at the time of filing this report he was yet respond to a text message inquiry on the incident.
During the court proceedings, Bobrisky clarified his gender status, affirming that he identifies as a man.

The safety of crossdresser Bobrisky has been assured by officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service.

Recall that the controversial socialite was today sentenced to six months in prison.

The decision came after Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court sentenced Bobrisky to jail following his guilty plea to a four-count charge of naira abuse.

During the court proceedings, Bobrisky clarified his gender status, affirming that he identifies as a man.

Prison officials, however, assured that adequate measures would be taken to protect Bobrisky from potential sexual violations from other inmates.

He shouldnt be afraid of s3xual assault from other male inmates because our men can give him protection, they assured.
A Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed a date to hear the lawsuit brought forth by Philip Shaibu, the recently impeached Deputy Governor of Edo State.

The court scheduled April 19 as hearing date.

The legal challenge targets the states house of assembly among other parties involved in his impeachment process.

Justice Inyang Ekwo presided over the preliminary discussions on Friday when Alex Ejesieme, SAN, along with other defense attorneys, appeared to request a hearing date.

Although the case, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/405/24, was not initially on the days cause list, the defense teams proactive approach led them to court to ensure their matter was attended to.

The hearing date comes after a slight delay caused by a public holiday which led to the court being closed on the originally scheduled date.

Addressing the court, one of the defense lawyers noted their presence was in compliance with previous court instructions, stating, So in obedience to court, we came today.

However, Justice Ekwo clarified that he could not proceed with a case not currently listed in the court files, instructing the lawyers to coordinate with the court registrar to secure the next available date, which was then set for April 19.

The lawsuit by Shaibu follows his contentious impeachment, sparking debates on legal and political grounds in Edo State.

In the suit dated March 26 but filed March 27, Shaibu sued the Inspector-General (I-G) of Police; State Security Service (SSS) as 1st and 2nd respondents.

He also joined Hon. Justice S.A. Omonua (rtd.), the Chairman representing himself and members of the Panel of Seven Appointed by the 4th Defendant; the Chief Judge of Edo; and Prof. Theresa Akpoghome as 3rd to 5th respondents.

Shaibu, in the suit filed by O.A. Gbadamosi, SAN, also listed Mr President Aigbokhian; Mr Oghogho Ayodele Oviasu and the Edo State House of Assembly as 6th to 8th respondents respectively.

In the originating motion on notice, a declaration that the threat and failure of the 3rd to 8th respondents to give him a fair hearing in the impeachment proceedings commenced by the 8th respondent is illegal, unconstitutional, and a gross violation of his fundamental right to fair hearing, pursuant to Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

He sought a declaration that the failure of the 8th respondent (assembly) to serve the purported impeachment notice on him personally and on each member of the House of Assembly, in line with Section 188(2) of the 1999 Constitution is a violation of his right to fair hearing.

He also sought a declaration that the inclusion of the 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th respondents as chairman and members of the seven-member Investigation panel to investigate allegations contained in a purported impeachment notice to the applicant is tainted by a reasonable likelihood of bias and will result in a violation of the applicants fundamental right to fair hearing, guaranteed by virtue of Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.

He sought an order directing the respondents not to take any further steps in violating his fundamental right to fair hearing, guaranteed by virtue of Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution.

He also sought an order directing the 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th respondents to recuse themselves from sitting as Chairman and members of the 7-Man Investigating Panel appointed by the 3rd respondent, on account of the likelihood of bias on their part against him, among other reliefs.

Giving seven grounds of argument, Shaibu averred that before now, he had never been confronted with any of such notice or allegations of misconduct or abuse of office or any allegations at all, whether as deputy governor or acting governor.

He said he had not been served with any letter/notice as required by Section 188(2) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended and no privilege had been accorded him by the assembly to provide answers to any purported allegations to warrant a process targeted at his removal from office as deputy governor.

The 3rd respondent via a letter dated 25th March, 2024 was appointed by the 4th respondent as the chairman of a panel of seven persons to investigate the allegations contained in a purported impeachment notice, which is yet to be personally served on the applicant.

The 3rd respondent is a retired judicial officer and community leader from Esan North East Local Government Area of Edo Central Senatorial District, where there is strong clamour against the gubernatorial ambition of the applicant.

The 3rd respondent appears to have been given the hatchet job of recommending the removal from office of the applicant, in order to weaken his political ambition of becoming governor of Edo State.

The 4th respondent being a protege of the 3rd respondent, appointed him as chairman of the Investigating Panel, when other persons he offered the same appointment rejected it, because it was a politically motivated job.
Jimoh Ibrahim, the lawmaker representing Ondo South Constituency in the National Assembly has mocked Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State.

Jimoh described him as a joker who has never won an election.

Recall that Aiyedatiwa took over as Governor in December 2023 following the death of his principal, Rotimi Akeredolu.

After pre-primary screening of the party at the APC National Secretariat on Friday, Aiyedatiwa said there is no vacancy at Government House, Akure.

Aiyedatiwa, who described himself as the best man for the job, asked his co-aspirants to work with him.

Ibrahim, reacting to the Governors statement, said, The governor is a huge joker; he is joking. Its a big joke. He is out of that place. At the end of the primary, he will be gone. What is the governor talking about? He has never won an election.

Similarly, Olusola Oke, another aspirant, said the governors comment was a ploy to undermine the democratic process.

He said, Its a statement of wish and desire by the governor, and its a statement that is intended to undermine a democratic exercise. If we are going to the primary and the people will have to determine, how would anybody have the gut to say there is no vacancy?

There is no vacancy between now and February next year, no doubt, but after February, his one year term will be exhausted and then there will be a vacancy.
 Flash

A Chinese envoy on Friday called for intensified diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine crisis through a political settlement.

The Ukraine crisis drags on, causing too many casualties. To continue the flow of weapons to the battlefield will only exacerbate the risk of worsening the crisis and will not help de-escalate the situation and end the fighting, said Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.

China once again calls on all parties concerned, in a responsible manner, to intensify diplomatic efforts for a cease-fire and put an end to the fighting, so as to promote an early political settlement of the crisis and bring about peace, he told a Security Council meeting on weapon supplies to Ukraine.

The Ukraine crisis has complex historical and practical causes. In essence, it is a major outbreak of security conflicts in Europe. China is not the manufacturer of the crisis nor a party to the conflict. China has not provided lethal weapons or equipment to any of the parties to the conflict, nor has it done or will do anything to profit from the crisis, said Geng.

"China's position on the Ukraine issue has always been consistent and clear. We are committed to being an advocate for peace and promoter of peace talks. China supports the timely convening of an international conference recognized by both Russia and Ukraine with equal participation of all parties to discuss all peace options in a fair manner," he said.

China is ready to provide the necessary conditions for Russia and Ukraine to conduct negotiations, thus making unremitting efforts to achieve an early political settlement of the crisis, said Geng.
Prof Francis Dike SAN, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Imo State, who, is the Counsel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has written to the Commissioner of Police in Imo State, Aboki Danjuma intimating him of the case of burglary and stealing at the unions secretariat located along Port Harcourt Road, Owerri, where the culprit Ifeanyi Nwanguma, was caught red handed while loading the stolen items into a car and almost lynched by members of the union and passersby before Police intervaned.

Recall, that the union had on several occasions in the past, accused Ifeanyi Nwanguma of being behind the several cases of stealing at its secretariat located along Port Harcourt Road, Owerri, but could not take legal action because it did not have enough evidence, until the recent incident when he was caught while loading the stolen items into a vehicle he brought for the ill-fated operation and was almost lynched by members of the union and passerby who were enraged by his criminal act.

This, has again confirmed that Ifeanyi Nwaguma, is indeed behind all the cases of theft at the secretariat, which he is believed to have perpetuated with the tacit support and encouragement of his close ally, Comrade Chris Isiguzo.

Legal fireworks in respect of the case of theft is expected to commence soon, as the Imo NUJ lawyer, Prof Dike in the aforementioned letter he addressed to the Commissioner of Police, Imo State Police Command, captioned, RE: NUJ PROPERTY SITUATE AT NEW OWERRI ALONG PORT HARCOURT ROAAD.

IN RE: BREAKING-IN AND STEALING OF PROPERTY THEREIN BELONGING TO NUJ AND OFFICIALS, reads,  The above property belongs to NUJ Imo State having been donated by Government of Imo State over 30 years ago for the exclusive use by the NUJ.

Our clients (the complainants) herein have the Original of Certificate of Occupancy and have been in possession and occupation over the years through their elected officials who in accordance with the applicable Law must be Journalist.

In Suit No: NICN/OW/01/2019 at the National Industrial Court Owerri, the competence of one Mr Akaraonye Christopher was challenged and there are evidence of fraud and forgery Certificates of the Imo State University against him.

Inspite of above, the said Mr Akaraonye Christopher conspired with some persons to sell the said property to persons under an alias of Enedo General Service Ltd, which our clients strongly believe involved persons in the erstwhile Governor Okorocha administration. Till today, there is evidence to any payment into the NUJ account which has been in operation for many years under the custody of Petitioner herein.

In Suit No: HOW/524/21, the Petitioners are in Court with said Akaraonye who claimed in the sale of NUJ House to the Chairman of NUJ Imo State when he is not a qualified Journalist and was not acceptable as a member after vetting for election.

We wish to report that, the Plaintiff on the date above stated dated hired vehicle went to the NUJ premises broke the gate under lock and key, entered the premises and broke the doors under lock and key ie Entrance and Offices therein and proceeded to steal electronic equipments worth millions.

People around raised alarm to some officials who immediately approached to lock the gate and invited the Police into the matter and hence this petition.

Sir, permit us to suggest the following points

i. If they had the keys why did they break in

ii. What necessitated him coming in a vehicle to carter electronic equipments belonging both NUJ and Officials which are not hi personal property?

Sir, it is our clients firm intention that the culprit be charged to Court and made accountable for his conduct.

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Zenith Bank has announced plans to raise an undisclosed amount in the international and Nigerian capital markets.

According to the company, the funds shall be raised through the issuance of ordinary shares, or preference shares, whether by way of private placement, rights issue or both.

In a notice on Friday, Zenith Bank said it will hold its 33rd annual general meeting (AGM) on May 8 for the purpose of establishing a capital raising programme and conducting other special businesses.

Zenith Bank said shareholders would decide whether the companys board of directors should be authorised to establish a capital raising programme in the Nigerian or International capital market of up to the authorised capital of the company, through the issuance of ordinary shares, or preference shares, whether by way of a public offering, private placement, rights issue or both, or any other method or combination of methods.

The company also said the board would propose increasing its issued share capital  from N15,698,246,893.50 to N31,396,493,787  at the AGM.

READ ALSO: Zenith Bank surpasses N2trn earnings milestone

Furthermore, Zenith Bank said the board would request at the meeting that in the event of a Rights issue, any shares not taken up by existing shareholders within the period stipulated under the Rights issue may be offered for sale to other interested shareholders of the bank on such terms and conditions as may be determined by the directors subject to the approvals of the relevant regulatory authorities.

Zenith Bank said the directors would be authorised to cancel any outstanding shares not required at the end of the capital raising programme.

Meanwhile, banks have been announcing plans to raise funds after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on March 28, directed commercial, merchant and non-interest banks to increase their minimum capital requirements.

CBN adjusted the capital base for commercial banks with international licences to N500 billion, while national and regional financial institutions capital bases were pegged at N200 billion and N50 billion, respectively.

On April 8, First Bank Nigeria (FBN) Holdings announced a plan to sell shares to private investors and existing shareholders to raise N300 billion.

Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) Plc, in a statement on Friday, disclosed the board has proposed to raise $750,000,000 by way of public offerings and private placements.
British Member of Parliament (MP) Andrew Bridgen has called for Bill Gates and the elite COVID cabal to face the death penalty for alleged crimes against humanity during the COVID pandemic.

Bridgen made the call during a sitting of parliament in Westminster recently, stating that he has always opposed capital punishment, however events have caused me to reconsider my position.

Can we have a debate on crimes against humanity, and the appropriate punishment for those who perpetuate, collude and cover up for these atrocities, continued Bridgen. Atrocities and crimes that are so severe, that the ultimate punishment may be required.

Heads of governments around the world and others below them have engaged in what is tantamount to treason against the public, declared Bridgen in response to the sanctimonious rebuttal by his colleague Penny Mordaunt (who is coincidentally a long-term WEF member).

Bridgen has also contacted the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Mark Rowley, to organise a three-hour meeting where experts and whistleblowers will lay out the evidence to prove criminal activity has been conducted by the most senior members of government and the civil service in the UK.

Also, Bridgen revealed a senior cabinet minister in the British government told him details of the plan to use turbo cancer to depopulate the world.

Bridgen explained the incident took place in the tea room at Westminster Houses of Parliament, where the unnamed senior Minister told him that he would be dead of cancer soon because he was misled into taking the vaccine during the pandemic.

You can speak out all you want, the minister told Bridgen. It doesnt matter. You are vaccinated. You will be dead of cancer soon.

Bridgen has served as Member of Parliament for North West Leicestershire since 2010.

He has become a prominent voice in the fight against globalist authoritarianism in the UK, railing against COVID vaccine mandates, lockdowns and mask mandates.
The Nigerian government has announced that Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who fled custody in Nigeria, has been located in Kenya.

A source within the presidency, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the development, stating, We know where he is. He is in Kenya, and were working with the authorities to bring him back to Nigeria.

EFCC chairman, Ola Olukuyede, reiterated last month that the commission is collaborating with INTERPOL, the US, UK, Northern Ireland, and Kenyan authorities to extradite Anjarwalla, who has been on the run.

Anjarwalla, along with Binance Holdings Limited and another executive, Tigran Gambaryan, faces five-count charges including tax evasion, currency speculation, and money laundering. They were arraigned by the EFCC on April 4, 2024.

Anjarwalla had escaped custody on March 22 and has remained at large since.

Moreover, the government confirmed that the EFCC had assumed full responsibility for the Binance case from the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

The Nigerian government has been actively pursuing actions against Binance for its alleged involvement in manipulating the countrys foreign exchange market. Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, disclosed during the 293rd meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in February that over $26 billion had been funneled through Binance without a trace.
Emeka Rollas, President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), has established a committee to bolster the safety and well-being of its members, in response to a tragic boat accident that claimed the lives of five film practitioners, including renowned actor Junior Pope.

The Guild announced this initiative in a statement shared on its Instagram page, signed by Director of Communications, Kate Henshaw, on Saturday.

Rollas emphasized the need for action, stating, Following the recent fatal boat mishap on the River Niger which claimed the lives of five film practitioners the National President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, Dr. Ejezie Emeka Rollas, has set up a special committee.

The statement outlined the committees objectives, including refining existing bye-laws to prioritize member welfare and safety, coordinating with relevant associations for implementation, and recommending disciplinary measures for misconduct.

The committee, led by veteran actor Emeka Ike with Jude Orhorha as secretary, comprises industry stalwarts like Joke Silva, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, and Francis Duru.

Tragically, Junior Pope and four crew members lost their lives when their boat capsized on the River Niger while returning from a film shoot.

In response, the AGN temporarily prohibited shooting in riverine areas and participating in boat rides to prevent future accidents.
Last week, Nigerian troops conducted extensive operations across various regions, resulting in the elimination of 188 terrorists and the rescue of 133 hostages.

The Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj-Gen. Edward Buba, revealed these achievements during a briefing in Abuja.

In total, 330 terrorists were apprehended nationwide, accompanied by the confiscation of significant weaponry, including 122 AK47 rifles, 47 locally-made guns, and various other arms and ammunition.

In the Northeast, under Operation Hadin Kai, 68 terrorists were eliminated, 182 suspects apprehended, and 53 hostages rescued. Noteworthy seizures included 58 AK47 rifles and explosives. Additionally, airstrikes targeted terrorist logistics hubs, resulting in neutralizing several terrorists.

In the North Central, troops of Operation Safe Haven eliminated 14 insurgents, while Operation Whirl Stroke neutralized 11 terrorists and rescued 11 hostages. The Northwest operations under Operation Hadarin Daji resulted in the elimination of 62 terrorists and the rescue of 45 hostages, with successful interdictions on terrorist hideouts.

In the South-South, Operation Delta Safe eradicated illegal refining sites and seized stolen crude oil. Nine insurgents were neutralized, and 67 individuals involved in illegal activities were apprehended, along with the recovery of weapons and ammunition.

In the Southeast, Operation UDO KA neutralized 15 terrorists, arrested 56 extremists, and rescued 17 hostages, seizing arms and ammunition.

All recovered items, suspects, and hostages were handed over for further action. These operations reflect the militarys commitment to combating terrorism and restoring peace across Nigerias regions.
The Lagos State Police Command has arrested eight members of a notorious criminal gang that specializes in subjecting their victims to several hours of an3l s3x after dispossessing them of their cash and belongings.

The arrest, said to be one of the biggest successes of detectives recently, under the watchful eyes of Commissioner of Police, Adegoke Fayoade so far, was made in the highbrow areas of Lekki, Ajah and Ikoyi areas of the state and efforts are in top gear to round up fleeing members of the dreaded gang made up of young men between the ages of 23 and 40.

Giving details of the operational strategies of the gang, police sources said the young men usually perpetrate their evil acts by renting living apartments in the highbrow areas of the city after which they embark on search for their victims.

It was learned that they normally place notices in strategic areas of the city, advertising job vacancies and acting as estate agents.

Sources said desperate job and accommodation seekers who respond to their adverts would be taken to their apartments usually situated in one of the booming estates where they are subjected to all kinds of torture with a view to forcing them release their account details after which they would be forced into several hours of an3l s3x by members of the gang.

According to sources, their operational method is to roam around with exotic cars including high flying SUVs. They place fake advertisements in strategic areas of Lekki, Ajah, Banana Island and even Ikoyi after which they also scout around, looking for fine and healthy-looking men.

As soon as they succeed in getting a victim, they drive the person to their apartment where they torture him for hours. While torturing their victim, they would extract all information about him including his financial status.

As soon as they are in possession of those personal facts, they swing into action by proceeding to his house or banks to empty his money and other valuables. The second round of their operation is to subject their victim to hours of an3l s3x which they take turns to have their fill. They usually record their exploits on video and later relax to view it while enjoying their loot.

It was gathered that their criminal exploits were blown open after they succeeded in cornering and maltreating a relation of a mobile police officer. The enraged officer was said to have gone to one of the police stations at Lekki to lodge the report.

Based on this development, the Commissioner of Police, Adegoke Fayoade gave marching orders to his special squad to round up the criminals without delay.

The Special Squad, it was learned, succeeded in penetrating the gang and rounded up seven of their members including their oldest member said to be a lawyer.

Crime Guard learned that during interrogations, members of the gang who were looking unruffled stated boldly that their victims were healthy looking young and old men that will satisfy their s3xual urge through the an*s.

They reportedly shocked detectives when they confessed that they had been operating for over three years and that they choose highbrow areas where they could easily track well nourished and endowed men.

Police sources said: They were boasting to us about how many healthy looking men they have abused through the an*s. They said they reject men that are not looking healthy, stating emphatically that they have no business with women. After their arrest, we confined them in separate cells so that they would not descend on our male suspects inside the cell.

However, few days later, one of them raised alarm that the oldest member of the gang who claimed to be a lawyer was having same affair with a member of the gang. When we accosted him, he said the relationship had been going on since they have been operating as a gang.

Our greatest problem now is that some members of the devilish gang have escaped and we strongly suspect that they must be carrying on with their devilish criminal acts wherever they are.

We are spreading our dragnets and we are sure that very soon, we will round all of them up. I must state that if not for the swiftness with which our Commissioner directed the operation, many men in Lagos state would have been endangered species by now.
The wife and househelp of Hon. Terwase Orbunde, the former Chief of Staff to the immediate past Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, were abducted by suspected herdsmen on Friday evening.

The attack occurred near the Genocide Cemetery along Mobile Barracks-Welfare Quarters Road in Makurdi, the state capital, around 6 pm.

The victims, identified as Mrs Abigail Kashimana Orbunde and her house help, Patience Ogute, were reportedly returning to their car after inspecting and paying workers on their farm when they were ambushed by five armed men.

During the assault, Hon. Orbunde was shot in the right arm but managed to escape, although he was seriously injured.

Eyewitness accounts reveal a chaotic scene, with villagers and passersby fleeing in various directions following the gunfire.

The attackers forcibly took Mrs. Orbunde and Ms. Ogute to an unknown location.

According to witnesses who spoke with The Nation, as the group marched away, the former Chief of Staff, bleeding profusely, was ordered to walk away from the scene while the women were taken captive.

Good Samaritans later rushed Hon. Orbunde to a nearby hospital, where he is currently receiving medical treatment for his gunshot wound.

Hon. Orbunde had served as Chief of Staff during former Governor Samuel Ortoms administration before resigning to contest in the PDP gubernatorial primary. He later joined the All Progressive Congress (APC) but was unsuccessful in securing a nomination.
By Polycarp Ifeanyi, Onitsha

It was indeed a hope-reviving charity outreach at Opi Agu in Nsukka Local Government Area and Agbani in Nkanu Local Government Area both in Enugu State, as Faithspiration Initiative celebrated Easter with rural dwellers and also donated food and cash supports to them to cushion the effects of the economic hardship in the country on them.

Founded by Onitsha Archdiocesan Catholic Priest, Rev. Fr. Dr. George Adimike, Faithspiration Initiative is a religious group comprising priests, seminarians, students, civil servants, traders, artisans, among other professionals, has, over the years, embarked on charity outreach to the less privileged and the needy in the society. It has, however, now targeted to feed over 500 families in different parts of the world.

Other place to soon receive food items and cash from the group include; Omor in Ayamelum Anambra State, Ogbaru Local Government in Anambra State, Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp Minna Niger State, Bamenda Republic of Cameron and Gambia.

However, Opi Agu and Agbani communities have been beneficiaries of Faithspiration Initiative Charity outreach and again lucky to received attention in this Easter Festival Charity Outreach.

Speaking at the event, the Leader of the Faithspiration Initiative, Fr. Adimike said the gesture was simply aimed at celebrating Easter with the needy, while also reminding them that they are brothers and sisters in Christ.

We have come to see you, stay with you and praise God together with you, because you are our brothers and sisters. It is not about what we will give to you, but for us to express our affection for you. Therefore, the first charity is charity of presence before the charity of present. So, the little we received from others, we share it with you, he said.

Fr. Adimike, who is also the Chief of Protocol to Archbishop Valerian Okeke, further praised the Parish Priest of the St. Patricks Catholic Church, Opi Agu, for his dedication, stating that the presence of the cleric has attracted huge blessings to the community.

He recalled that after building and equipping a house for a woman in the community, it prompted Chinwe Areh to give the same woman half a million naira and clothes after seeing the video of the dedication of the house by the Nsukka Diocesan Bishop, Most Rev. Prof. Godfrey Igwebuike Onah.

The Faithspiration Founder also attributed his philanthropic gestures to power of love and decision.

Endless is the possibility of what you can do. So, when I see the house, I see joy. I implore you to decide something and do it for someone, even if it is little he advises.

In his vote of thanks, the Parish Priest of St. Patricks Catholic Church Opi Agu, Rev. Fr. Dennis Alumona commended the kind gesture, while praying for more blessings on the donors.

Fr. George Adimike has been striving to ensure our betterments. Whatever he eats, he will make sure he brings to us. We him for his love for our Community. Fr. George, honestly, your caring to our parish is enormous. Infact, you have been inspiration to so many families here. You have been bringing succour and encouragements to so many persons here because so many are pagan but because of your benevolence, they have repented to Christianity. We love you and we have been praying for you. You will go higher and higher, he prayed.

On their own parts, Mr. Micheal Odobe and Catechist Enerst Abonyi who prayed on behalf of the community, invoked Gods blessings and guidance upon Fr. George and the Faithspiration Family; even as Rev. Fr. Kenneth Okonmah from the Isselle Ukwu Diocese, also extended blessings to the community and the Faithspiration through prayers.

The Faithspiration group, from there, transitioned to Pietan Caring Mission for the Poor, Ndibunagu Agbani community, for the same show of love.

Grateful for the gesture, Dr. Jude-Therese Nwodo conveyed her thanks, emphasizing the roles and importance of Pietan Caring Mission for the Poor (PCMP) in spiritually preparing the elderly for a fulfilling aging process and reconnecting them with God. She reminisced about her earlier encounter with Fr. George during his seminary days while she was serving in the Onitsha Archdiocese.

During the gathering, prayers for the progress of Faithspiration Initiative and safe travels were offered by Mr. Okoli Ogbu and Mrs. Martha Ojene, while Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Igboegbunam concluded with a blessing for all present.

The event was marked by joyous songs and heartfelt prayers, as well as the distribution of rice and cash sum of N5,000 to each family, symbolizing the shared spirit of charity and compassion.

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From Joshua Chibuzo Andrew

Dr. Ikedi Ohakim, former Governor of Imo State has joined millions of other Nigerians to mourn Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu who was Govenor of old Abia State, ex Nigeria Minister.

Ohakim, who expressed profound grief, revealed that the sudden news of former Nigeria Minister of technologys death came to him with a big shock.

Ochinanwata, described Late Academia as a fine gentleman, Calm, unassuming and lived Truly to the ambience of politics without bitterness.

Ohakim, made this known in a press release which he personally endorsed on Friday, 12 April and made available to Impartial Observers for publication.

The release partly read;

Nigeria Has lost a rare gem whose maturity, brilliance and wealth of experience in National service is highly needed in this most crucial period of our collective existence.

We shall miss him but we find solace in the knowledge that Dr. Onu lived a worthy and examplary life. We owe his memory nothing better than to strive to live up to those ideas which he cherished and lived for.

May God Almighty grant his soul eternal rest.

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 Flash

Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed his readiness for dialogue with Ukraine, and that an aborted 2022 peace deal could serve as the basis for resuming the negotiation, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

In a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday, Putin noted that Moscow is in favor of resuming negotiations, but such talks must not be aimed at "imposing any schemes that have nothing to do with reality."

Peskov said the "Istanbul agreements," a draft peace pact reached in March 2022 between Russia and Ukraine, could serve as the basis for resuming talks, despite that there have been many changes since then.

He said the Kremlin does not feel the Ukrainian side is ready for negotiations with Russia.


The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has issued a stern warning to Nigerians who abuse naira notes, hinting at potential legal consequences for offenders.

KanyiDaily recalls that Bobrisky was recently sentenced to six months in prison for abusing the naira, without the option of a fine.

Reacting on its Twitter page, the EFCC emphasized that if educational campaigns fail to convey the message, legal action will be taken.

In a thinly veiled reference to Bobriskys sentencing, the EFCC urged those who are in doubt to get update to use from convicted crossdresser.

The EFCC warned that people who persist in abusing the naira will face consequences when confronted by the agency.

The post reads, Say no to abuse of the Naira.

If preaching will not send the message, a conviction will.

Na our Naira you dey abuse. Change your ways, you refuse. When the EFCC comes to accuse, know say you no go get Excuse.

Ask Bob for the update to Use.

Say No To Abuse of the Naira If preaching will not send the message, conviction will.#EFCCNigeria #SayNoToAbuseoftheNaira pic.twitter.com/VJsxzaumdO  EFCC Nigeria (@officialEFCC) April 12, 2024

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS) has promised to protect Bobrisky from sexual predators during his six-month sentence in male prison.
By Izunna Okafor, Awka

As reactions and counter reactions continue to trail the fatal boat mishap that occured in Anambra State on Wednesday, involving a movie cast, the Producer of the movie Adanma Luke, has finally opened up on what she knows about the incident.

Recall that a boat that conveyed a movie crew to a film location in Anambra West L.G.A. of Anambra State, was returning to Asaba, where it took off from when a mishap befell it accident, leading to the death of some of the people in the boat, including famous Nollywood actor, John Paul Odonwodo (popularly known as Junior Pope), among others.

As Nigerians continue to share their thoughts on the unfortunate incident, many of them have slammed the driver of the boats and the Producer of the said movie for not providing life jackets for the people in the boat before the boat took off.

However, in a video currently trending on the social media, the Producer of the movie, Adanma Luke has clarified that she had provided life jackets for everybody in the boat, including those who died and those who survived the mishap; contrary to reports making rounds.

On that shooting day, I saw my director. I saw Emeka. They were outside. My director was wearing a life jacket. Emeka, the D.O.P. was on a life jacket. There was still one other jacket which I dont know who took it.

My production manager said they saw one life jacket hanging there. So, they took it. He even told the late Friday to send one (live jacket) to Junior Pope but Junior Pope said it was dirty and so, he didnt take it. These people with life jackets survived (the boat accident).

And they also told me that when they were in the water trying to survive, the Junior Pope was there asking if everybody was Okay. And that they even threw a gallon to him to use and hold himself which he was holding. But all of a sudden, they didnt see him again, Luke narrated in the video.

According to her, the unfortunate incident still feels like a dream to her, which she hopes she can wake up from.

Luke, in the video also revealed that she had been left traumatized over the incident, as she blamed herself for returning to Asaba as she was supposed to be on that boat with them and her brothers 2 kids.

It still feels like a dream to me. I wish I could wake up from this dream. Ive been traumatized. I blame myself for coming to Asaba. I was supposed to be on that boat with my brothers 2 kids, she lamented.

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The abductors of the Permanent Secretary, Adamawa State Ministry of Mineral Resources, Mr Emmanuel Piridimso, have demanded a ransom of N25m for his release.

The gunmen abducted the government official from his residence at the Clerk Quarters, Jimeta-Yola, in the early hours of Wednesday.

A family member, who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that the kidnappers allowed their captive speak to members of his family, but insisted that they would only negotiate the ransom with the state government.

The source said, The abductors have allowed the permanent secretary to speak to us intermittently as they said they will only talk to the government.

He told us that they were demanding the sum of N25m; that was why he asked us to sell off his car and any other property that could fetch money, and also appeal to friends and well-wishers.

We tried to collect his car, which the abductors took away with him, but it was dumped in Jambutu and later taken to the police headquarters, but the police have refused to release the car saying that they would conduct some investigations on it and as such, we could not take it away.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Sulaiman Nguroje, said the command was on the trail of the kidnappers and was doing all it could to secure the release of the victim and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Berates Presidency For Politicizing Security Issues

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) calls on the National Assembly to immediately open an inquest into the shocking report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) asserting the secret burial of 1,000 Nigerian soldiers, allegedly killed in the anti-insurgency war in the Northeast.

The party demands that the National Assembly should respond to the apprehensions of Nigerians by immediately setting up a special security committee to conduct a forensic investigation into the truth or otherwise of the report, with the tenor and mode as prescribed for security issues in the 1999 Constitution (as Amended.)

PDPs demand is predicated on the brazen attempt by the Buhari Presidency to politicize such huge security issue and making uncomplimentary allusions to the plight of our troops, in yet another unpatriotic and insensitive press release on the state of our nation.

It is unfortunate that at this time when patriotic Nigerians are distressed about the wellbeing of our gallant soldiers and seeking for solutions to the challenges they face in the front, the Buhari Presidency is rather issuing press statements, just like the one it released on Friday, August 2, 2019, wherein it leveraged on the plight of our soldiers to boast on how to retain a stolen presidential mandate.

Instead of showing concern over the fate of our troops, taking concrete steps on the issue at stake and reassuring an anxious nation, the Buhari Presidency is rather seeking to draw political capital from our security challenges by flaunting a despicable self-confidence on the Presidential election petition pending in the Court of Appeal, and how, in its own words, the judiciary would always come to conclusions.

It is imperative to state that such comments send very wrong signal against our judiciary and we urge the judiciary arm to insulate herself from the nocturnal shenenanigans of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the cabal at the Presidency, which have gone into frenzy following the apparent collapse of their defence at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal.

While the Buhari Presidency, has with its latest stance on such grave security issue, further exhibited that it has come short of appropriate solutions to the security challenges facing our nation, the PDP states that waving off of such without the least effort to unravel the issues and reassure Nigerians, shows total failure of leadership.

The PDP holds that President Buhari has again failed to demonstrate that he has the capacity and commitment to ensure the security of our nation.

Our party thus stands solidly behind the peoples candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in his patriotic concerns over the report. Only a leader, who lacks genuine concern for his people, will gloat over such a report, as being witnessed under the Buhari administration.

Signed:

Kola Ologbondiyan

National Publicity Secretary
A group under the aegis of Advocates for Freedom and Democracy (AFD) has warned Christian leaders in Nigeria to unite against the deliberate and systemic persecutions and political marginalization of Christians in the northern part of the country and other areas.

The group which is coalition of sixty-three Christian groups and associations bonded with a burden for virile interventions in the governance and social concerns of Nigeria, disclosed this at a press conference in Lagos.

Addressing journalists, Coordinator of the group, Pastor Bosun Emmanuel of the Christian Social Movement of Nigeria in a statement titled: The Nigeria Church: Time to reason together said Christianity is under attack in the country, and that unless Christian leaders unite to present a common front, Christians will continue to play second fiddle politically in the country.

It is no longer news that several towns and villages with Christian identities have been destroyed, looted, burnt down and taken over by people intent on redrawing the demographics of Nigeria through dispossession of ancestral homelands.

We mourn with the countless individuals and families that have lost loved ones in strategic orgies of death and kidnappings unleashed upon the country by religious extremists and other adherents of the doctrine of hate, he added.

Pastor Emmanuel said of particular concern to AFD is the fact that these atrocities are being committed in a country with vibrant and overflowing churches, the sad implication is that our Christianity is neither salt nor light enough to the society due to disunity among church leaders.

Reason why Nigeria is experiencing problems is because the Christian body is not organized at all. The only body that is ready is the Muslims. Right now Nigeria standing on one leg which is Islam, and this is the more reason why Christians in the country more present a single front, he said.

According to him, Christians in the country are not politically organized unlike the Muslims who have the Sultan of Sokoto as a rallying point when it comes to both political and religious matter in the country.

In her own comment, one of the leaders of the group, Pastor Obele Ibanga explained that the intention of the group is not to look down on other religion, but rather to ensure fairness and equity in the polity of the country.

She said the AFD is therefore calling all Church leaders to begin to tune their minds to the need for national repentance, and also reject doctrines that promote greed and covetousness.

There is need for a conference of Christian leaders to reason together to urgently point the way forward for all Christians, based on an evaluation of the revealed will of God at this critical time. Christian denominations and groups should collaborate with the National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) to quickly organize a conference to examine the phenomenon of One Nation, Two Systems. The crisis of Nigeria is constitutional, and only a united Christian stand can resolve it, she added.

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The suspected serial killer, David West who killed girls in different hotels, has appeared in court.

David West

According to Punch Metro, suspected serial killer, Gracious David West, appeared in a Rivers State High Court on Monday.

West, who had confessed to killing seven women in different hotels was brought into the court premises in Port Harcourt around 10.28 am by heavily armed personnel of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

The charges against the suspect were not read to him because no lawyer was representing him in court.

Details later
President Muhammadu Buhari, receiving the Chairman, MTN Group, Mcebisi Jonas, at State House, Abuja, on Tuesday, assured that he is committed to providing environment conducive to business in Nigeria.

The president maintained that the Federal Government is committed to providing an enabling environment for businesses to succeed, as partnerships between the public and private sectors remain the most viable means of bringing prosperity to the masses. He acknowledged the progress MTN has made in the country.

I am pleased to hear of the progress you are making in Nigeria, especially, in supporting our digital inclusion programs. Your proposed projects, such as the rural telephony project, will surely complement our economic diversification and financial inclusion programs by connecting the producers based in rural areas to consumers located in our major towns and cities, the President said.

He said government was looking at ways to increase the level of security across critical national infrastructure, noting that it would guarantee seamless service delivery and also facilitate investments across the country.

President Buhari said that Nigeria is Africas largest telecommunications market, and MTNs largest market, adding: Our hope is for operators like MTN to continue to focus on delivering quality service at reasonable prices. If we put our minds together, such win-win positions are achievable.

The MTN Group Chairman said he was visiting along with top executives of the telecoms company to show appreciation to President Buhari, because most of the issues we raised during your visit to South Africa have been addressed, and there is progress on the remaining ones.

He said the Group has utmost commitment to investing in Nigeria, and would commit the sum of $1.6 billion from its operations in the country to strengthen its network and systems.

We are fully aligned with the strategic agenda of government and are committed to strengthening the digital economy of the country, Mr Jonas said.




Ogbonnaya Onu

The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure has produced the first made in Nigeria ventilators, according to Punch.

The development is aimed at combating the COVID-19 disease in the country.

Ventilator is a vital equipment in the treatment of coronavirus patients.

NASENI has equally produced mobile sprayers, which are to be used to disinfect Nigerian cities and homes.

A notice by NASENI spokesman, Segun Ayeoyenikan, on Monday, disclosed that Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, would unveil the devices on Tuesday (today).

The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Finance, recently begged for ventilators from an American billionaire.

The government eventually withdrew the plea, which was widely seen as a national embarrassment.

Nigeria reportedly has just a few ventilators, a development which has been attributed to the neglect of the countrys health sector over the years.

Some of the countrys major health institutions, including the high profile State House Clinic, located in the Presidential Villa, the seat of power, lack basic equipment and drugs, even though they receive billions of naira in allocations annually.

The global nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and its severe impact in most of the advanced countries, has forced Nigerian leaders who contracted the disease to seek treatment in the country.
 Flash

Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, addresses the opening ceremony of the "China-DPRK Friendship Year" at the East Pyongyang Grand Theater in Pyongyang, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), April 12, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

Zhao Leji, chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, and Choe Ryong Hae, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), jointly attended the opening ceremony of the "China-DPRK Friendship Year" on Friday.

Zhao, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and Choe, a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), attended the event at the East Pyongyang Grand Theater.

China and the DPRK are socialist and friendly neighbors linked by mountains and rivers, and as close as lips and teeth, Zhao said.

Calling General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping and WPK General Secretary Kim Jong Un helmsmen steering the boat, drawing the blueprint and charting the course of the development of China-DPRK relations, Zhao said the top leaders set the fundamental guidance and inject inexhaustible impetus into bilateral ties.

China is ready to work with the DPRK to implement the important consensus reached by the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries, promote traditional friendship, deepen strategic mutual trust and enhance exchanges and cooperation, so as to jointly write a new chapter of the China-DPRK friendship, Zhao said.

Choe said that as the top leaders of both parties and both countries have put the DPRK-China relations of the new era on a new strategic height, the friendship bonds between the two countries have remained unshakable and become even firmer.

By taking the opportunity of the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties and the "DPRK-China Friendship Year," the DPRK is willing to join hands with China to strengthen and develop the DPRK-China friendly cooperation, thus embarking on a new journey of vigorous development of the friendship between the two countries, he said.

After the event, Zhao and Choe watched together a performance by art troupes from the two countries.

On Friday morning, Zhao presented a floral basket to the China-DPRK Friendship Tower in tribute to the tremendous feats of the martyrs of the Chinese People's Volunteers. He also paid a visit to the Kangdong General Greenhouse Farm.

During their talks on Thursday, Zhao told Choe that the China-DPRK traditional friendship was forged and cultivated by the elder generations of leaders of both parties and both countries.

General Secretary Xi has repeatedly said that the CPC and the Chinese government attach great importance to the traditional friendly cooperation between the two countries, and that it is China's unwavering strategy to safeguard, solidify and develop bilateral relations, Zhao said.

Noting that this year marks the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and the DPRK, he said General Secretary Xi and WPK General Secretary Kim have exchanged New Year congratulatory messages, and jointly designated 2024 as the "China-DPRK Friendship Year" and launched a series of activities.

China is ready to work with the DPRK to implement the important consensus reached by the top leaders of both parties and both countries, and take the "China-DPRK Friendship Year" as an opportunity to intensify high-level exchanges, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, promote people-to-people exchanges and strengthen strategic coordination, so as to move forward China-DPRK relations, Zhao said.

Exchanges between legislative bodies have been an important part of China-DPRK relations and long played a positive role in deepening bilateral ties, Zhao said.

China is ready to intensify legislative exchanges and cooperation with the DPRK to lift China-DPRK traditional friendly cooperation to a higher level, he said.

Choe said the blood-cemented friendship between the two countries has a long history and profound foundation, and is the common precious heritage and wealth of the two countries.

Under the strategic guidance of General Secretary Kim and General Secretary Xi, DPRK-China friendly relations have entered a new era, which strongly demonstrates the vitality and unbreakability of bilateral ties, he said.

The DPRK is willing to work with China to follow the guidance of the top leaders of the two parties and two countries, and take the opportunity of the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties and the "Friendship Year" to develop the DPRK-China traditional friendship, deepen exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and push for further development of DPRK-China friendly cooperation, he said.

After the talks, they witnessed the signing of cooperation documents in the fields including reciprocal exemption of diplomatic and service visas, translation and publication of classical literatures, customs quarantine, radio and television, and postal delivery.



Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, and Choe Ryong Hae, a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), pose for a group photo with artists of art troupes from both countries after watching their performance in Pyongyang, the DPRK, April 12, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, visits the Kangdong General Greenhouse Farm in Pyongyang, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), April 12, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

Zhao Leji, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, presents a floral basket to the China-DPRK Friendship Tower in Pyongyang, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), April 12, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]
SPRINGFIELD  Lead pipes in public water systems and drinking fixtures have been banned in new construction since 1986, when Congress amended the Safe Drinking Water Act, but they are still in use across the U.S. and in Illinois.

The presence of lead pipes has persisted due in part to a lack of a centralized federal or state removal strategy, as well as inadequate funding and insufficient inventories of where lead pipes are located.

In Illinois  which has the most lead pipes per capita of any state, according to a 2023 study by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency  water suppliers are in the process of inventorying their lead pipes to get a clearer picture of timelines for removal over the next several decades.

The health impacts of lead exposure are widely known. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no safe level of lead exposure for children. While not technically enforceable, the U.S. EPAs goal for maximum contaminant level of lead is zero.

Still, replacement efforts are slow, with environmental advocates, lawmakers and others citing lack of funding as a key barrier to progress.

One of the most urgent issues that we all could be facing in Illinois right now is removing lead from our lead pipes throughout the state, both residential, commercial and public pipeways, Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago, said at a news conference last month. I think it's been pretty well documented that there's a significant cost that will come with really doing justice to the task.

This fiscal year, Illinois received over $100 million in funding through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for lead service line replacement, and funding is expected to more than double in fiscal year 2025.

In 2021 the National Resources Defense Council estimated there to be 679,292 lead service lines in Illinois. In 2023, the U.S. EPA put the estimate at over 1 million lines in Illinois.

The NRDC puts the estimate for replacing every lead service line in Illinois at $2.2 billion, while the Illinois Environmental Council estimates it would cost between $10 billion and $12 billion.

Even as some funding has become available through that law and the federal Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, the allocations are not nearly enough to replace every service line in the state, regardless of who is estimating the cost.

While replacement is ongoing, a full inventory is crucial to develop a plan and budget for the complete removal of lead service lines in the state.

The IEPA is in the process of building a more conclusive inventory of lead service lines, requiring the states community water supplies to submit full inventories of their pipes by April 15. Even with accurate quantities, establishing adequate funding and feasible timelines is a struggle.

Replacement efforts in Illinois

While the state and federal governments have created regulations and funding programs, the responsibility of lead service line replacement falls on the community water supplies, such as municipalities or local water districts.

The state has been funding community water supplies replacement projects for years, although not at the multi-billion-dollar level needed to replace all lines. The IEPA provided funding through principal forgiveness loans from 2017 to 2023 under the wastewater category of the State Revolving Fund. IEPA awarded over $120 million in principal forgiveness funds during those six years and each applicant was eligible for a maximum award of $4 million annually.

Under the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, states are required to allocate 49% of state lead service line replacement funds as grants or principal forgiveness loans and 51% as traditional low-interest loans. IEPA spokesperson Kim Biggs said that in fiscal year 2024, there is a cap of about $2.8 million per principal forgiveness loan recipient.

But we're trying to figure out how we can get more and more from the federal government, Iyana Simba, Illinois Environmental Council city programs director, said. We need this funding to make sure that the cost of lead service line replacement isn't passed down to individual homeowners, and that it's also being done so in a more equitable manner.

Aside from increasing funding, Simba said developing community outreach, technical assistance and community planning could hasten replacement efforts.

The Illinois Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act took effect Jan. 1, 2022. The law requires community water supplies to create an inventory and replacement plan for their lead service lines. The report must be submitted to the IEPA by April 15. Yearly updates on replacement will be due every April 15 through 2027.

So even while Illinois has about 600,000 lead pipes throughout the state that are accounted for, Simba said. Im really hoping that through this inventory process we'll get a better picture because there's almost that same amount of service lines that are made of unknown material.

The IEPA created the Lead Service Line Inventory Grant program to provide funding to community water supplies to identify and inventory lead service lines. The first round of funding was announced in January 2023, since then two more rounds have been awarded and the IEPA is currently accepting applications for the fourth round. The grant provided 260 community water supplies between $20,000 and $50,000 each in 2023.

The current FY24 project list from the IEPA includes 47 projects, totaling over $100 million. Illinois received around $107 million in FY24 and will receive $230 million in FY25 from federal funding.

Gov. J.B. Pritzkers proposed FY25 budget would allocate $20 million to lead service line replacement planning grants. The capital infrastructure budget proposal also includes around $340 million in reappropriated funding along with almost $260 million in new appropriation for Lead Service Line Replacement loans.

Timelines for replacement

While the inventory reports must be submitted to the IEPA by April 15, it is not clear when line replacements will be completed, and state law lays out a decadeslong process.

The U.S. EPA has proposed changes to federal rules which would set the goal of replacing all lead pipes within 10 years, with certain exceptions allowed. The proposal follows decades of amending policies to tighten regulations on maximum contaminant levels. The most recent changes, however, have not been adopted, and the U.S. EPA has historically chosen not to strictly enforce its existing standards.

Advocacy groups, including the Illinois Environmental Council, support the shortening of timelines for replacement.

So while were happy to see that other smaller communities are going to be put on this 10-year timeline. Thats even more stringent than some of the things outlined in the state bill, Simba said. We do need to see a shorter timeline for Chicago.

Illinois Lead Service Line Replacement and Notification Act also establishes timelines for replacement based on the number of lead service lines within a community starting in 2027. Community water supplies with fewer than 1,200 lines have the shortest deadline of 2042, while supplies like Chicago, with more than 99,999 lines have until 2077.

Community water supplies can request extensions up to 20% of their timeframe, so Chicago could potentially have an additional 10 years, extending the deadline to 2087.

In February, state Rep. Anthony DeLuca, D-Chicago Heights, filed House Bill 4752, which would increase the maximum timeline extension the IEPA is allowed to grant community water supplies from 20 to 30%. If passed, the extension increase would mean Chicago could have up to 2092 to replace all their lead service lines.

DeLuca said municipalities do not have enough funding and a timeline extension is needed to make up for the lack of resources.

Advocates, meanwhile, have pointed to health care and economic incentives for replacing lead pipes. An October report from the NRDC, dubbed Getting the Lead Out, found removing lead pipes can reduce the risk of medical conditions in children, such as hearing impairments, short-term cognitive damage and behavioral problems. It would also help adults by reducing immunological and red blood cell damage.

The study found between $58 and $89 billion will be spent in Illinois over a 35-year period related to health effects of lead pipes, and removing them would save about $37 billion annually in health care costs nationwide.

Simmons said lawmakers need to work to secure more funding and stricter timelines.

I mean, there's not a lot of room to waffle on this, Simmons said. Already, our communities have waited decades to have access to safe drinking water and that includes zero lead pipes.

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SPRINGFIELD  Health care workers and advocates held a rally inside the Illinois State Capitol on Thursday to promote legislation aimed at enhancing the safety of hospital employees amid staffing shortages at some medical facilities.

This is something that impacts the workers, but then think about your loved ones when they are the patients, that theyre not getting the care that they need because there is no staff, Kim Smith, a patient care technician for Northwestern Medicine, said through a loudspeaker that blared throughout the Capitol rotunda. When I walk into a hospital and Im given 36 patients and Im the only tech on that floor, theres no way I can deliver good care.

A representative for Northwestern Medicine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Many of the demonstrators sported purple and gold shirts representing the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois, which organized the rally.

Legislators are considering at least two measures meant to improve working conditions in hospitals that have experienced lower-than-normal staffing levels in recent years, among them facilities that serve economically disadvantaged sections of the Chicago area and other parts of the state.

One bill would require hospitals to employ and schedule enough workers to provide quality patient care and ensure patient safety. Hospitals would have to annually publish staffing statistics to assess whether theyre at proper levels. The measure would also require the Illinois Department of Public Health to produce an annual report based on staffing disclosures.

The bill also would create a position of a hospital safety advocate within the department and codify that hospitals must conduct ongoing verification for each hospital worker employed in a given year to determine their competency.

Another bill would require hospitals to develop a written staffing plan and submit it to the Public Health Department. The department would also establish a Nurse Staffing Advisory Board under this legislation.

You shouldnt have to worry about being burdened because youre doing jobs that you shouldnt be doing, youre doing jobs that two or three people should be doing and that youre violating the training that you were given, state Sen. Christopher Belt, a Democrat from Swansea, a sponsor of one of the bills, said at the rally.

State Sen. Lakesia Collins, a Chicago Democrat who has worked in the health care industry, talked about how hard staffing shortages can be on workers.

Whether its in a nursing home, a hospital, wherever, staffing matters, said Collins, also a bill sponsor. I can tell you about the experience of having that wear and tear on your body and  the wear and tear on your mental (health) because youre left with the unthinkable but you still show up every single day and put in the work and yet we have to legislate something that is fundamental.

An SEIU survey of Chicago-area hospital workers from January 2023 found that 70% of respondents reported seeing or experiencing understaffing and over 25% of respondents reported an unsafe or unmanageable workload. It also highlighted racial disparities in health care access.

Patient lives are being lost, Black and brown lives in particular. Hospital workers are being injured, especially those working in Black and brown communities, said Anne Igoe, vice president of the Health Systems Division at SEIU Healthcare Illinois. Our hospitals need to be fully funded no matter where theyre located, and we need to ensure that our hospitals are properly staffed and workers are valued.

Citing statistics from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, SEIU Healthcare said that hospitals in the U.S. in 2019 recorded 221,400 work-related injuries and illnesses, a rate of 5.5 work-related injuries for every 100 full-time employees and almost twice the rate for private industry as a whole.

Ashley Bingham, a nursing assistant at Touchette Regional Hospital in Centreville, said she works at a behavioral health unit at the hospital and noted how she and her co-workers are put in danger by being physically attacked by patients because of being understaffed.

We are being put in dangerous situations we know based upon our training that (are) unsafe, Bingham said. Ive stayed because our patients are underserved and they need our help.

Brad Solberg, interim president at Touchette Regional Hospital, issued a statement in response saying that the hospital remains committed to ensuring a safe and secure working environment for our health care professionals.

Over the past four months, we have seen a substantial decrease in incidences of workplace violence injuries at our facility. It serves as testament to our dedication to workplace safety, Solberg said.

Photos: Pritzker Military Archives Center
EFFINGHAM  Some memories burn bright and hot, a scar on the collective soul even after the healing balm of time has been applied for 75 long years.

The blaze that torched the original St. Anthony Hospital in Effingham on April 4, 1949, is one such memory. The inferno claimed 77 lives, including a dozen infants and their 22-year-old nurse, Fern Riley, who was heard to cry, My babies, my babies, and was never seen alive again after she stayed at her post trying to save them while the building was being consumed by the flames raging all around her.

How best to mark a significant anniversary of something the Effingham community never allows itself to forget?

Effingham City Commissioner Libby Moeller and Jenn Alwardt, executive secretary to the Effingham Fire Department, had some ideas. Maybe T-shirts or commemorative stickers perhaps, notions they pitched at a meeting of the Effingham Retired Volunteer Firefighters Association back in September.

Well, the members all sat there and we went around the table and talked about it, said Nick Althoff, 76, a former fire chief and president of the ERVFA.

But T-shirts and stickers get thrown away and so we said, Why dont we do a statue instead?

The emotional result is to be unveiled Sunday outside what is now the shiny and modern face of HSHS St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital, the latest in a series of hospital buildings and remodelings to emerge from the ashes of the fire. The 75th anniversary statue will stand as a 6-foot granite sentinel looking out from the medical campus and depicting  what better?  the figure of a nurse cuddling a baby.

It all cost some $40,000, and yet a community-wide fundraising drive achieved that goal within just six months. And it's still coming, with more than $42,000 donated so far, but every extra penny counts: Excess funds will be used for the maintenance and upkeep of the statue, which sits amidst a landscaped area adorned with commemorative plaques.

The City of Effingham kicked off the fundraising with a $15,000 boost, but a lot more came from families. "What really surprised me was that most of the rest is all individual donations from across the region, said Moeller, 45, one of four city commissioners plus a mayor who run the city.

But I know there are still a lot of people who are emotionally tied to that tragedy through family connections, she added. And I guess they know its just important for us to remember this historical event and the wave of consequences that came from it.

Flames leave legacy of heartbreak, lessons

The official report into the horrific blaze by Illinois State Fire Marshal Pat Kelly was never able to pin down a precise cause, although its origin was tracked to the hospital basement.

Kellys report charted how the flames roared upward through an open laundry chute into the attic of the old hospital and exploded along stairways while fed by painted and varnished surfaces in the age-dried structure, the bulk of which dated to 1876. The hungry flames were exacerbated by the extensive use of flammable sound-proofing material throughout the buildings.

Doctors, nurses and nuns (the hospital was run by the Hospital Sisters of The Third Order of St. Francis) did their best to save as many patients as they could with the help of the Effingham Fire Department. Out of 128 patients, staff and visitors, only 54 escaped alive. The death toll included nurses, nuns, a priest and 12 babies along with nurse Riley, their faithful caregiver.

Had Riley lived, she would have been the great-great-aunt of Jenn Alwardts children. Thats on my husbands familys side and so Ive always known about what happened, said Alwardt, 40. But the family did not talk about it very openly because, well, it was very heartbreaking, as you can imagine.

The fire that killed so many and would inflame the emotions of so many more across generations to follow also forged changes destined to save countless future lives.

The state fire marshal's report recommended now universally adopted fire prevention policies, including the establishment of fire detection, alarm and protection devices in public and private institutions and the concept of regular fire prevention inspections for public buildings.

Then-Gov. Adlai Stevenson ordered the evaluation of all hospitals in the state to identify and deal with fire hazards. And enforcers of building codes across the United States would also learn the painful lessons of the Effingham conflagration and demand changes in construction design and materials to mitigate fire risk.

Alwardt said its a legacy to be grateful for and a ray of hope that continues to shine forth from tragedy: Firefighters see where we are and where weve come from, she added. Its about keeping everybody safe.

Memory of 'heroic' efforts remains close

The fire marshal praised what was then a 25-man, mostly volunteer Effingham Fire Department for doing its best to fight the hospital fire. But he also said the department had found itself outgunned and outmaneuvered by the scale and speed of the inferno.

Its equipment, manpower and water supply was, however, totally inadequate in the face of so great a fire involvement and its efforts, however heroic, were futile against the speed and intensity of combustion, Kelly concluded.

The report lists the scant resources the department had in its armory as three pumpers and one panel truck. Amazingly, one of those pumpers and that panel truck will be present at the hospital again for Sunday's big tribute to honored memory.

Both vehicles are lovingly preserved and looked after by Nick Althoff and the dedicated souls of the volunteer firefighters association, and are popular guests in parades and special events.

But Althoff said they will grace no occasion more special than the dedication of that poignant statue and all that it represents as it conveys the act of remembrance into posterity.

That fire all those years ago was like our own miniature 9/11 tragedy right here in Effingham, said Althoff. It affected everybody; and it still does.

Close 1949: April 9. Memorial Services for Hospital Victims. A solemn requiem high mass is sung April 6 at St. Anthonys Roman Catholic Church in Effingham, Ill., as memorial services are held for those who perished in the St. Anthonys hospital holocaust April 5. Catafalque (head of aisle) symbolizes victims. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: April 5. Sisters from St. Marys Hospital, Decatur, were called to duty at the Effingham fire early today. Feed, clothing and medicants were taken to the scene of the hospital fire. Sister Virginia tags one of the bodies as Sister Marciana, left, looks on. Father George Monarque, St. Marys chaplain is at the right. (H&R file photo) 18. 1949: April 5. Smoldering ruin of St. Anthonys Hospital in Effingham where nearly 50 persons died in a fire early today are shown in mid-morning. Brick walls of the three and one-half story structure are standing but the interior was gutted. (The Associated Press file photo) 17. 1949: Effingham, ILL. April 5. Fire Hero. Ben Biedenher (above), a male attendant at the St. Anthonys Hospital here, assisted many patients to safety. He administered his own first aid after he could assist no more. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: April 6. The still smoking ruins of St. Anthonys Hospital in Effingham where more than two score perished in an early morning fire Tuesday are shown in this aerial picture taken about 11 a.m. The brick walls of the three and one-half story structure remain standing, but the interior was gutted by the flames. Twelve infants perished in the blaze. Walls are being caved in to aid search for dead. (H&R file photo) 1949: April, 5. This air view of the ruins of St. Anthonys Hospital in Effingham, where nearly 50 persons perished in an early morning fire today, was taken by Bob Meadows, Herald and Review staff photographer, late this morning. The brick walls of the three and one-half story structure are standing, but the interior was destroyed by the blaze. (H&R file photo) 1949: April 5. This is a rear view of St. Anthonys Hospital in Effingham at the height of the fire in which nearly 50 persons perished early today. Fire gushed through the interior of the 60-year-old building all at once. Some victims were saved by leaping from upper story windows. 1949: Effingham, Ill., April 5. Height of Hospital Blaze. A burning inferno trapped many patients at the St. Anthonys Hospital here in an early morning fire this morning in which at least 50 persons lost their lives. The intensity of the heat kept rescuers away. (Seventy seven people died when fire swept through St. Anthonys Hospital in the early morning hours. Officials believed the fire started near midnight in a laundry chute. Flames spread to an elevator shaft and engulfed the 73-year-old hospital. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: Efforts to seek possible survivors and to find the dead inside the ruins of St. Anthonys started even before flames were brought under control at 3 a.m. Tuesday. Here a worker goes over a second floor room foot by foot to check for human remains. The charred head of a bed, on which a body was found earlier, is in foreground. (H&R file photo) 1949: Effingham, Ill., April 5. View of hospital fire. All through the morning and late into afternoon curious crowds gathered at the St. Anthonys Hospital watching bodies being lowered from the still smoldering building. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: Firemen go about the grim task of removing bodies of fire victims in St. Anthonys Hospital at Effingham Tuesday. In the picture victims are being removed from the third floor. (H&R file photo) 1949: April 6. Statue Escapes Fire. This statue of St. Anthony, patron saint of St. Anthonys Hospital where scores perished in fire yesterday, escaped damage in conflagration. Coping above window at right is discolored by smoke and roof is burned through at eaves. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: April 6. Anxious relatives, awaiting identification of their dead, crowd restraining ropes as volunteer workers Tuesday carry bodies into a barn on the St. Anthonys Hospital grounds. Headquarters were established in the barn. (H&R file photo) 1949: Effingham, IL, St. Anthonys Hospital fire. (H&R file photo) 1949: Effingham, Ill., April 5. Hospital fire survivors rest. S. Robards (left), and Howard Mullins (right), of Casey, Ill. rest two in a bed today after escaping from burning St. Anthonys Hospital. Mullins underwent an appendectomy last night and leaped from a hospital window. He was removed to a Terre Haute hospital in serious condition. (The Associated Press) 1949: Effingham, Ill., April 5. Fire victims identified. An unidentified nun and fireman inspect a body for identification after the fire at St. Anthonys Hospital here. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: Volunteer rescue workers huddle for instruction at midnight as flames begin their destruction of the 100-bed hospital, resulting in the greatest disaster in Effinghams history. It is a city of more than 6,000. Knotted bed sheets used by escaping patients are shown in the lower windows at the left. Many patients were seriously hurt in jumping from upper windows. The wall at left collapsed later. (H&R file photo) 1949: Effingham, Ill., April 5- Disaster Hospital. More than 50 persons were reported to have died in the fire which destroyed St. Anthonys Hospital here today. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: Effingham firemen and national guardsmen prepare to lower a blanket shrouded body Tuesday from the third floor of St. Anthonys Hospital. Work of recovering and tagging the dead was slow, with only 35 bodies recovered by 5 p.m. Tuesday. Parts of the structure continued to break out in flames during the morning. (H&R file photo) 1949: Effingham, Ill., April 6. Inspect damaged operating room. Monsignor J.J. Gatton of Springfield, Ill., steps through the window of the operating room of the fire damaged St. Anthonys Hospital, two armed National Guardsmen assist Sister Urbene who also inspected the room. (H&R file photo) Photos: Looking back at the St. Anthony's Hospital fire 1949: April 9. Memorial Services for Hospital Victims. A solemn requiem high mass is sung April 6 at St. Anthonys Roman Catholic Church in Effingham, Ill., as memorial services are held for those who perished in the St. Anthonys hospital holocaust April 5. Catafalque (head of aisle) symbolizes victims. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: April 5. Sisters from St. Marys Hospital, Decatur, were called to duty at the Effingham fire early today. Feed, clothing and medicants were taken to the scene of the hospital fire. Sister Virginia tags one of the bodies as Sister Marciana, left, looks on. Father George Monarque, St. Marys chaplain is at the right. (H&R file photo) 18. 1949: April 5. Smoldering ruin of St. Anthonys Hospital in Effingham where nearly 50 persons died in a fire early today are shown in mid-morning. Brick walls of the three and one-half story structure are standing but the interior was gutted. (The Associated Press file photo) 17. 1949: Effingham, ILL. April 5. Fire Hero. Ben Biedenher (above), a male attendant at the St. Anthonys Hospital here, assisted many patients to safety. He administered his own first aid after he could assist no more. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: April 6. The still smoking ruins of St. Anthonys Hospital in Effingham where more than two score perished in an early morning fire Tuesday are shown in this aerial picture taken about 11 a.m. The brick walls of the three and one-half story structure remain standing, but the interior was gutted by the flames. Twelve infants perished in the blaze. Walls are being caved in to aid search for dead. (H&R file photo) 1949: April, 5. This air view of the ruins of St. Anthonys Hospital in Effingham, where nearly 50 persons perished in an early morning fire today, was taken by Bob Meadows, Herald and Review staff photographer, late this morning. The brick walls of the three and one-half story structure are standing, but the interior was destroyed by the blaze. (H&R file photo) 1949: April 5. This is a rear view of St. Anthonys Hospital in Effingham at the height of the fire in which nearly 50 persons perished early today. Fire gushed through the interior of the 60-year-old building all at once. Some victims were saved by leaping from upper story windows. 1949: Effingham, Ill., April 5. Height of Hospital Blaze. A burning inferno trapped many patients at the St. Anthonys Hospital here in an early morning fire this morning in which at least 50 persons lost their lives. The intensity of the heat kept rescuers away. (Seventy seven people died when fire swept through St. Anthonys Hospital in the early morning hours. Officials believed the fire started near midnight in a laundry chute. Flames spread to an elevator shaft and engulfed the 73-year-old hospital. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: Efforts to seek possible survivors and to find the dead inside the ruins of St. Anthonys started even before flames were brought under control at 3 a.m. Tuesday. Here a worker goes over a second floor room foot by foot to check for human remains. The charred head of a bed, on which a body was found earlier, is in foreground. (H&R file photo) 1949: Effingham, Ill., April 5. View of hospital fire. All through the morning and late into afternoon curious crowds gathered at the St. Anthonys Hospital watching bodies being lowered from the still smoldering building. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: Firemen go about the grim task of removing bodies of fire victims in St. Anthonys Hospital at Effingham Tuesday. In the picture victims are being removed from the third floor. (H&R file photo) 1949: April 6. Statue Escapes Fire. This statue of St. Anthony, patron saint of St. Anthonys Hospital where scores perished in fire yesterday, escaped damage in conflagration. Coping above window at right is discolored by smoke and roof is burned through at eaves. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: April 6. Anxious relatives, awaiting identification of their dead, crowd restraining ropes as volunteer workers Tuesday carry bodies into a barn on the St. Anthonys Hospital grounds. Headquarters were established in the barn. (H&R file photo) 1949: Effingham, IL, St. Anthonys Hospital fire. (H&R file photo) 1949: Effingham, Ill., April 5. Hospital fire survivors rest. S. Robards (left), and Howard Mullins (right), of Casey, Ill. rest two in a bed today after escaping from burning St. Anthonys Hospital. Mullins underwent an appendectomy last night and leaped from a hospital window. He was removed to a Terre Haute hospital in serious condition. (The Associated Press) 1949: Effingham, Ill., April 5. Fire victims identified. An unidentified nun and fireman inspect a body for identification after the fire at St. Anthonys Hospital here. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: Volunteer rescue workers huddle for instruction at midnight as flames begin their destruction of the 100-bed hospital, resulting in the greatest disaster in Effinghams history. It is a city of more than 6,000. Knotted bed sheets used by escaping patients are shown in the lower windows at the left. Many patients were seriously hurt in jumping from upper windows. The wall at left collapsed later. (H&R file photo) 1949: Effingham, Ill., April 5- Disaster Hospital. More than 50 persons were reported to have died in the fire which destroyed St. Anthonys Hospital here today. (The Associated Press file photo) 1949: Effingham firemen and national guardsmen prepare to lower a blanket shrouded body Tuesday from the third floor of St. Anthonys Hospital. Work of recovering and tagging the dead was slow, with only 35 bodies recovered by 5 p.m. Tuesday. Parts of the structure continued to break out in flames during the morning. (H&R file photo) 1949: Effingham, Ill., April 6. Inspect damaged operating room. Monsignor J.J. Gatton of Springfield, Ill., steps through the window of the operating room of the fire damaged St. Anthonys Hospital, two armed National Guardsmen assist Sister Urbene who also inspected the room. (H&R file photo)

Close Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Read the State Fire Marshal Report for the St. Anthony's Hospital fire Read the details of the April 4, 1949, fire at St. Anthony's Hospital as they appear in the report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal from the the Illinois Digital Archives. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949. Report of the Illinois State Fire Marshal on the St. Anthony's Hospital fire at Effingham, Illinois, April 4, 1949.
Apostle Cephas Quarshie Founder of the Cephas Quarshie Ministries International, is the Spiritual son of Prophet Jeremiah Omoto Fufeyin, General Overseer of Christ Mercyland Deliverance Ministry Inc. with headquarters in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria



Known for his inspirational and prophetic preachings in various international platforms including Liberia, Nigeria and other African countries under the tutelage of his Father who is internationally acclaimed, he has always used every opportunity as a season of recovery to break curses and deliver persons with a special repartition.



Just like his mentor and father, Apostle Cephas Quarshie started his ministry career as a prayer warrior and deliverance minister healing the sick and engaging in charity projects that have won him the admiration of anyone he comes into contact with.



In 2022, he was a pivot in the visit of his father to Ghana for a five-day crusade dubbed Ghana Invasion 2022 that attracted thousands of people.



The five-day event commenced on November 3, 2022 and was held at the Independence Square in Accra where thousands of persons in spiritual bondage were set free with most attendees from many African countries and even Europe.



Many lives have been touched spiritually through his intercession and many lives have equally been changed through his physical intervention.



Who is Apostle Cephas Quarshie in the Business World



Apostle Dr. Cephas Quarshie is the Group Chairman of the CBS Group of Companies, a conglomerate of various establishments in the country. He is an award-winning businessman recognized by the Ghana Business Awards.



With over 600 persons directly employed by his companies, thousands are indirectly employed with Cereno Homes is set to redefine the Housing System in Ghana with a comprehensive construction of units to suit all sectors as one of his entities.



Cereno Homes currently boasts various facilities in Keta in the Volta Region Ring Road within Acraa Central in the Greater Accra Region and Capital Hill within the Greater Accra that best suit income holders of various backgrounds.



As a real estate developer Especially in affordable housing, it aims to reduce the housing deficit in the country



With state-of-the-art facilities in Accra, the CBS Tower has spaces for banks, offices, conference rooms with modern equipment, lodgings and many other ancillary facilities for persons who wish to reside in the Central Business District of Accra.



Low Price Master is another company that deals in oil and gas, electronics and many other branches across the country with competitive prices and quality for its clients.



His philanthropic gesture has earned him the admiration of various establishments in the country with people from diverse backgrounds reaching out to him for support in one way or the other.



Apostle Cephas Quarshie has indeed made a name for himself and is respected by both the business and Christian community.







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A witness in the ongoing legal tussle between Lighthouse Chapel International and investigative Journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni and three others has said the defendants have no evidence to support their defamatory publications against Lighthouse Chapel International and its founder.



The witness, Marcel Aboagye in a cross examination session at the High Court in Accra presided over by Justice Joseph Adu Owusu Agyemang testified that, Manasseh Azure Awuni, the Media Foundation for West Africa, its Director, Sulemana Briamah and Edwin Appiah (Co editor) had failed to present any evidence to the court in support of several defamatory allegations made against the church and its founder in their published article tiled "Darkness in a Lighthouse"



Marcel Aboagye told the court that the defendants falsely published in the articles that, Larry Odonkor, Edward Laryea, Seth Duncan and Faith Fiakojo who are former Pastors were exploited by the church to build worship centres and schools in Wa, Kade, Paga and Fumbisi with their resources after which the church took over those buildings.



He referred to a mail from 2008 that announced the policy and indicated that, the mail said as part of the Policy, Lighthouse Chapel would continue to buy and build church buildings.



He further stated that, defendants exhibits provided no evidence to substantiate the allegations that, the facilities depicted in the publications were built with the personal resources of those Pastors.



According to him, Lighthouse Chapel built those structures with its own resources. He further noted that, contrary to claims that, the Wa buildings were put up by Larry Odonkor, one of its former Pastors with his own resources, those structures were constructed by the church long after Larry Odonkor had left the Wa mission.



The witness in his testimony also denied the allegation that Lighthouse Chapel International owed several former Pastors over 42 years of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions.



While pointing to a SSNIT investigative report dated August 20, 2021, the witness stated that , SSNIT cleared the church of those allegations. According to him, the allegations were false and the defendants presented no evidence that Lighthouse Chapel owed the former Pastors SSNIT contributions.



The witness further stated that, it is also not true that, a former Pastor, Seth Duncan attempted suicide three times due to maltreatment by the church.



He explained that, Lighthouse never maltreated the said Pastor. According to him if the suicide attempts indeed happened they were not connected to the church and there is no evidence presented by the defendants to connect the church to it.



The witness added that the defendants in publishing the articles also maliciously omitted the date of the publication of a Handbook which forms the basis of the claims of the former pastors, since the defendants knew that the date of publication nullifies the claims being made by the former pastors.



He also infomed the court that, the defendants formed an "unholy alliance" with the former Pastors and published those pieces out of malice.



The case has been adjourned to May 13, 2024.

Source: Philipa Atanga/Court Reporter/Despite Media









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Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has been commended for his tough stance against the practice of homosexuality in Ghana.



Speaking at the observation of Eid-ul-Fitr prayers in Kumasi on Thursday, Dr. Bawumia said he's opposed to the LGBTQ+ community and their activities, stressing his Islamic faith as well as Christian faith and Ghanaian norms frown on it.



Responding to the issue at Jummah Prayers at the National mosque on today, April 12, the Imam who led the prayers, Imam Ustaz Muaz Ibn. Imam Abass was excited about the position of Dr. Bawumia and his public declaration on the issue.



"Yesterday, Dr. Bawumia spoke about the practice of homosexuality and he declared his stance against it. Muslims are happy with what Vice President Bawumia said because it reflects our teaching", the Imam said in the presence of the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu.



Below is Bawumia's full speech:



First of all, it is important to note that our cultural and societal norms and values as Ghanaians frowns on the practice of homosexuality



Furthermore, as a Muslim, my view on this matter aligns with the position of my religious faith. The Holy Quran is replete with verses frowning on LGBTQ acts, including same-sex marriages. My faith is therefore very strictly against the practice of homosexuality, no ifs or buts. No shades of grey.



Therefore, I personally cannot support that which my religion, and indeed, all the major religions in Ghana clearly and unequivocably forbid. All the major religious traditions in Ghana (Christianity and Islam) are opposed to this practice and I stand opposed to it now and I will stand opposed to it as President, Insha Allah.

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In a distressing turn of events, the Dormaa Ahenkro community is reeling from the tragic loss of 19-year-old Abigail Kyeremaa, a student of Dormaa Senior High School, who passed away under harrowing circumstances related to an alleged abortion.



Per information gathered by DGN Online, on the evening of April 9, 2024, Kyeremaa Matilda, 40, residing at Jericho, a suburb of Dormaa Ahenkro, accompanied by Nana Atuoni Gyabaah, reported to the Dormaa District Police station with a troubling account. Matilda conveyed that her daughter, Abigail Kyeremaa, had complained of severe abdominal pains earlier in the day. After questioning, Abigail revealed her pregnancy and disclosed that a certain Philip Addae had provided her with medication in an attempt to terminate the pregnancy.



Despite being rushed to Dormaa Presbyterian Hospital for urgent medical care, Abigail Kyeremaa tragically succumbed to her condition shortly after her arrival.



The suspect, Philip Addae, was apprehended, cautioned, and detained pending further legal proceedings.



An active investigation into the circumstances surrounding Abigail Kyeremaas untimely demise is currently underway.



The tragic incident has sent shockwaves through the community, prompting heightened scrutiny over matters of reproductive health, abortion practices, and the broader implications for the welfare and safety of young individuals.

Source: dailyguidenetwork.com









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Former President and Presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been criticized for saying government's free tablet distribution is a vote-buying tactic.



Mahama underscored the neglect of essential ongoing educational projects due to the governments focus on distributing tablets while stressing the importance of prioritizing.



You bring a new curriculum, the children have no textbooks in basic school for the last four years and you think that giving pre-tertiary students tablets is more important. Of course, everybody knows the political expediency. The pre-tertiary students are going to register in May because some of them will be turning 18 years and above, some are 18 already and they are going to be the ones voting. So this is a gift to entice them to vote for the current government" he indicated during a special public lecture at the Wisconsin International University College.



Otherwise, if you are using GH1.3 billion to give pre-tertiary students laptops, our priority would have been different. Other things are begging for funding in our educational system than those laptops. But it is a bribe for them to vote for this government he added.



STC CEO, Nana Akomea speaking in reaction denounced Mahama's statement saying it's not befitting of a former President.



"It can be difficult to understand politicians sometimes. The government has decided to distribute tablets to students to make learning easier for them, which is what kids of today use. However, John Mahama is claiming that this is a tactic to buy votes. It's beyond comprehension why politicians resort to such tactics. Interestingly, when Mahama was President, he had made a similar promise to distribute laptops. Does this mean that the government cannot do anything during an election year? Mahama's behavior is inappropriate and unbecoming of a former President" he said on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo'



Listen to him in the video below





Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has criticized the newly launched Performance Tracker by the Akufo-Addo-led government, describing it as a misplaced priority.



According to the main opposition party, the time and resources allocated to formulating and launching the Performance Tracker could have been better used to bring some relief to Ghanaians by investing the resources into the economy.



The government launched the Performance Tracker on Wednesday, April 10.This performance tracker is to enhance transparency and accountability in the implementation of infrastructure projects nationwide.



The Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Mustapha Gbande, in his opinion, questioned the trackers efficacy in improving the quality of lives of Ghanaians.



He further rebuked the government, insinuating that their priorities do not align with the genuine welfare concerns of ordinary Ghanaians.



How will the performance [tracker] impact the ordinary Ghanaian who has not eaten in the last 24 hours? How would that impact the life of an old lady who is helpless but cannot get health care and government intervention?



In an interview with Citinews monitored by Peacefmonline.com, Mustapha Gbande mentioned that a competent government does not need to list its achievements, as good deeds speak for themselves.



He expressed scepticism about the governments claims, stating, Today we are back to cash and carry in terms of infrastructure. They want to present what they have captured on a performance tracker that does not reflect what is on the ground.



So clearly, these are people who continue to lie. They continue to demonstrate that they dont care about the ordinary Ghanaian. Because if the government performs well, you dont need a tracker to showcase your performance, the people of Ghana will know.



According to Mr. Gbande, the tracker does not provide an accurate reflection of the nations development, echoing the NDCs concerns about the governments priorities.

Source: Kobina Darlington/peacefmonline.com









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Special Aide to former President John Dramani Mahama, Joyce Bawah Mogtari, has censured the Akufo-Addo-led government's newly launched Performance Tracker, dismissing it as a misplaced priority.



Bawah Mogtari argued that the tracker failed to address the increasing corruption within the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration, which has negatively impacted public finances.



She insisted that the tracker is a waste of limited state resources, as it does not provide transparency regarding the government's alleged extravagant spending.



Posting on her X platform on Thursday, April 11, the former Deputy Transport Minister highlights that 80% of government projects and contracts are single-sourced, alleging that the government favours nepotism by handpicking individuals and companies for lucrative contracts.



She emphasised that Ghanaians anticipated revelations about government performance from the tracker, specifically regarding nepotism and questionable contracts.



She said, "To my utter surprise and disappointment, the misleading GoG Performance Tracker failed to track the performance of Akufo Addo/Bawumias performance on corruption."



"What a waste of precious resources! Tell us how you and your boys and girls have perfected the art of corruption."



She added, "We are told that 80% of government projects and contracts are single-sourced, and individuals and companies are handpicked by this nepotistic government and awarded juicy contracts."



She further urged the government to prioritize policies aimed at improving the lives of struggling Ghanaians and to halt unnecessary expenditure of state funds.



"That is what this NPP government should be tracking down and paying back to the now miserably empty public purse," she added.



Her comment coincides with the government's launch of the Performance Tracker at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in Accra on Wednesday, April 10.



The platform's objective is to enhance transparency and accountability in the implementation of government infrastructure projects nationwide according to the government.





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 Flash

Israel's military chief Herzi Halevi said on Friday that the army was prepared, in close coordination with the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), for a possible Iranian retaliatory attack.

Israel was on high alert on Friday as warnings increased of Iranian retaliation following Israeli airstrikes on Iran's embassy in Damascus, in which seven senior Iranian officers were killed.

Photos released by the military showed CENTCOM Commander General Michael Erik Kurilla participating in a situational assessment meeting in Tel Aviv alongside Halevi and other senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commanders on Friday.

"The IDF is very strongly prepared, both offensively and defensively, against any threat," Halevi said, adding the military was "constantly preparing to deal with existing and potential threats in coordination with the United States Armed Forces."

Later in a press briefing, IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said the joint meeting was held to "ensure a close coordination between us."

Hagari said that Israel's official alert application Home Front Command had not released new instructions for the public but that the military was on high alert. "We are prepared for an attack with various capabilities and we will also know how to defend the citizens of Israel," said Hagari.
Member of Parliament for Buem in the Oti region, Hon Kofi Adams, has said that whether or not the government is performing well will be decided by the living conditions of Ghanaians, especially based on the weight they feel in their pockets.



According to the lawmaker, the launching of the performance tracker has no direct or indirect bearing on the living conditions of Ghanaians as far as job creations and general economic wellbeing is concerned.



Speaking further, he said that the Performance that the New Patriotic Party have been priding themselves with contains unpardonable errors and inaccurate information.



According to him, the tracker stated that work at the St Augustine House, House 1 at the Bishop Herman College in Kpando, Volta Region, is 100 percent complete.



However, he said a recent visit to the school showed that this information is false.



Speaking on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 on Wednesday, April 10, he said To come to my own school, Bishop Herman College where I attended, they are reporting that St Augustines House, House 1 that works in that house is 100 percent complete but I was in the school just on Tuesday 26 March 2024, nothing has happened to it.



For the government to spend our money to report that in Bishop Herman College, St Augustines House, House 1 has been completed 100 percent is another lie. The best way to measure our performance will be in our pockets. We will not spend money to go and follow a tracker or a performance tracker that is deceptive or will mention things that do not exist.



The Performance Tracker was launched in Accra on Wednesday, April 10 by the government to enhance accountability and transparency. However, the tracker has seen some fall shorts with some projects it describes as completed being nowhere near completion.



With over 13,000 projects across 261 districts, 28 ministries, and 16 regions, this Performance tracker platform monitors government performance nationwide.





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The Director of Legal Directorate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Godwin Edudzi Tameklo, has raised concerns over what he perceives as the Akufo Addo Bawumia administration's attempt to rename the Ameri Power Plant as Kumasi 1 Power Plant.



This move, according to Mr Tameklo, is seen as a tactic to mislead the people of the Ashanti Region.



According to him, the Ameri Power Plant, initially procured by former President John Dramani Mahama, was intended to address the country's enduring power challenges, boasting a capacity to generate 25 megawatts of electricity.



Mr Tameklo asserted that the renaming of the power plant is a deliberate ploy to deceive Ghanaians, particularly those residing in the Ashanti Region, where the plant is located.



He emphasised Mr Mahama's role in acquiring the power plant as part of efforts to alleviate the country's power crisis during his tenure.



Taking to Facebook on Saturday, April 13, Mr Tameklo urged vigilance among Ghanaians, urging them not to fall for what he views as a misleading tactic by the current administration.



BAWUMIA and Akufo Addo out of shame have decided to repackage and rename the AMERI plants as Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Plant.

This is what they are planning to go and commission.



This corrupt, incompetent ,useless and wasteful government are determined to hoodwink voters in Ashanti region with the renaming and repackaging.



This administration has failed to do anything meaningful in power generation, he posted.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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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:

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland described a new rule on oil and gas projects on public lands as the most significant reform to the program 'in decades'

Oil companies drilling on public lands must post larger bonds and pay higher royalties under a rule finalized Friday by the Biden administration.

The bonding requirements for development increased to $150,000 from $10,000, a level set in 1960 that no longer covers potential cleanup costs, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said in a press release.

In another shift, the Department of the Interior lifted royalty rates for leases to 16.67 percent from the previous level of 12.5 percent.

The changes were described by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland as the most significant reform to the leasing program "in decades" but were criticized by petroleum interests.

They come as President Biden emphasizes the environment in his reelection campaign against former president Donald Trump, who has mocked climate change as an issue.

Friday's action finalizes the department's preliminary step taken in July 2023 that the Biden administration described as part of a "transition to a clean energy economy."

"Our public lands are owned by all Americans, and the Bureau of Land Management remains committed to managing them in a balanced, responsible way," said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning.

"This rule will help protect critical wildlife habitat, cultural resources, and recreational values, and it will ensure a fair return for American taxpayers."

Petroleum industry officials are reviewing the rule "to ensure the Biden administration is upholding its responsibilities to the American taxpayers and promoting fair and consistent access to federal resources," said Holly Hopkins, vice president of upstream policy at the American Petroleum Institute.

API, which had raised objections to the proposal during a public comment period, released figures on the economic contribution of petroleum development on federal lands, citing some 170,000 jobs in five states.

"As energy demand continues to grow, oil and natural gas development on federal lands will be foundational for maintaining energy security, powering our economy and supporting state and local conservation efforts," Hopkins said.

"Overly burdensome land management regulations will put this critical energy supply at risk," Hopkins added.

The environmental group Evergreen Action characterized the change as a "long overdue" step to boost biodiversity and the climate.

"Let's be real: We need to get these oil companies off our public lands," said Evergreen Action's Mattea Mrkusic. "But for now, we're glad they won't get to stiff the public while they keep using public resources."

But Gladys Delgadillo, a climate campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, called on the Biden administration to go further.

"Updating oil and gas rules for federal lands without setting a timeline for phaseout is climate denial, pure and simple," said Delgadillo, who called for a complete shutdown of drilling on federal lands.

"Public lands should be places for people to enjoy nature and wildlife to roam free, not hotspots for toxic pollution," Delgadillo said.

 2024 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:

Photograph of the photonically networked trapped-ion quantum processor server at the University of Oxford, Credits: David Nadlinger.

Quantum computers, systems that process and store information leveraging quantum mechanical phenomena, could eventually outperform classical computers on numerous tasks. Among other things, these computers could allow researchers to tackle complex optimization problems, speed up drug discovery and better protect users against cyber-security threats.

Despite their advantages, most existing quantum computers are still only accessible to a limited number of people worldwide. Computer scientists have thus been trying to develop approaches that could facilitate their widespread use in the near term, for instance using cloud-based systems that allow remote access to quantum servers.

While cloud-based approaches could broaden people's access to quantum computing, they also pose significant privacy and security risks, as the information and activity of users could be maliciously accessed. In recent years, some studies introduced approaches that could overcome these limitations, allowing servers to conceal a client's algorithms, as well as the information fed or produced by a cloud-based quantum computing system.

Researchers at University of Oxford recently set out to experimentally test a proposed approach for realizing verifiable blind quantum computing. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, validates the promise of this approach for enhancing the safety of cloud-based quantum computing platforms.

"At the University of Oxford, we have been building one of the most sophisticated quantum networks in the world," Gabriel Araneda, co-author of the paper, told Phys.org.

"We have been able to demonstrate several milestones in the field of quantum networking, including the first complete realization of a device-independent quantum key distribution between remote systems, and the first quantum network of remotely entangled atomic clocks."

In their recent paper, Araneda, Peter Drmota and their collaborators specifically focused on the task of safely delegating quantum computations performed by a client to an untrusted quantum server via a network link.

"Blind quantum computing has been proposed as a solution to secure cloud computing, where clients can delegate computations to a quantum server without revealing the algorithm or the processed data," Drmota said. "Moreover, the client can verify whether the result obtained from the server is correcta significant challenge if a problem cannot be approached efficiently by any other means."

Until a few years ago, theoretical proposals for realizing secure cloud-based quantum computing did not take the imperfections of devices into account. As quantum computers are known to have numerous inherent imperfections, these proposals ultimately proved ineffective and vulnerable to noise.

Artistic rendering of blind quantum computing. Credits: Helene Hainzer.

A paper by Dominik Leichtle and his colleagues at Sorbonne University and Edinburgh University introduced an efficient blind verification protocol for delegating quantum computations. As part of their study, Drmota and his colleagues at Oxford University set out to apply this protocol in an experimental setting, using a system of trapped ions connected to a client-accessible photonic detection system via a quantum fiber link.

"The protocol for blind quantum computing is difficult to implement because every step incurs a correction to be applied to subsequent steps," David Nadlinger, co-author of the paper, explained. "It is therefore interactive and requires real-time feedforward of information to keep the computation in line with the intended algorithm."

Previous realizations of the blind quantum computing protocol utilized photons both for performing computations and for communicating with clients. These purely photonic implementations were unable to perform entangling gates deterministically and lacked real-time feedforward information.

This means that they required the post-selection of outcomes, which greatly reduces their effectiveness for real-world applications. Drmota and his colleagues realized the blind quantum computing protocol differently and were able to overcome these issues.

"We employ a robust memory qubit in our server, which can be entangled deterministically with a second qubit and allows us to store quantum information while the devices perform the real-time feedforward operations," Drmota said.

"The primary objective of this experiment was to eliminate the efficiency and security limitations of earlier implementations. We achieve deterministic protocol success by using fast, adaptive hardware at the client and a memory qubit at the server that can be entangled deterministically with the network qubit."

To perform their experiment, the researchers used a trapped-ion quantum processor that was networked to a client's device via a fiber-optic quantum link. Their developed system essentially relies on a network qubit entangled with single photons that are sent to clients via an optical fiber, as well as a memory qubit that stores the current state of a computation.

"The client operates a much simpler device: a photon detector, specifically built to measure the polarization of the incoming photons in an arbitrary switchable basis," Araneda said.

"The measurement of the photon collapses the wavefunction of the entangled state between the photon and the network qubit, thus 'steering' the state of the network qubit into a state known exclusively to the client."

The process through which the state of the quantum qubit is "steered" into a state only known to clients is referred to as "remote state preparation." This process is what ultimately leads to the server being 'blind' to the state of its own qubits.

Photograph of the ion trap inside the vacuum chamber as part of the quantum server", credits: David Nadlinger.

"The availability of a memory qubit in the server with coherence times exceeding 10 seconds enables the client to react in real-time to intermediate results obtained from the server by adjusting the basis of the polarization analyzer mid-computation," the researchers explained.

"Combined with the ability to deterministically entangle the qubits in the server, every attempt at a computation succeeds deterministically and no post-selection is required."

The researchers' demonstration of a blind verification protocol could soon open new possibilities for the implementation of cloud-based quantum computing services. As quantum computers are advanced technologies that are difficult to deploy on a large-scale, their reliable remote operation will most likely be the most viable route to enable their widespread use in the short-term.

"Our experiment shows how quantum computing costumers can access the processing power of remote quantum computers privately and securely," Drmota said. "Using a quantum link from home, by means of a simple measurement device, all the processed data and the algorithm itself can be protected by the laws of quantum mechanics. Furthermore, we show how the client can verify that the results obtained from the server are correct."

The recent work by Drmota and his collaborators is a significant contribution to the rapidly advancing field of quantum computing. Other research teams could soon draw inspiration from their proposed approach, which could lead to further proposals and developments.

"From the technical point of view, interfacing three different qubits, a photon, a calcium ion, and a strontium ion, is challenging and comes with significant experimental complexity," the researchers said.

"We managed to combine all the necessary tools to implement blind quantum computing in a realistic setting, where all the client's hardware is controlled independently from the server and the computations are executed with real-time feedforward of classical information while quantum information is stored on a memory qubit."

In their next studies, Drmota and his collaborators plan to continue building on their system. For instance, they could extend their approach to perform larger computations, using previously proposed systems that can be upscaled (i.e., increasing the number of memory qubits and the fidelity of local operations).

"The distance between the server and the client could also be extended to city-scale networks using proven techniques to convert the photons to telecommunication wavelengths," Araneda added.

"Moreover, the number of clients can also be increased by using optical switches, routing the photons emitted by the quantum processor to different clients. In collaboration with Prof. Elham Kashefi and the UK National Quantum Computing Centre, we are going to explore future avenues for verifying quantum computations on different experimental platforms that admit state-of-the-art levels of noise."

More information: P. Drmota et al, Verifiable Blind Quantum Computing with Trapped Ions and Single Photons, Physical Review Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.150604 Journal information: Physical Review Letters

 2024 Science X Network
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Dangerous concentrations of long-lingering "forever chemicals" have been found in surface and groundwater worldwide, according to a study released Tuesday that showed Australia, the United States and Europe as hotspots.

A paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience analyzed data from 45,000 water samples globally and found a "substantial fraction" had levels of PFASper- and polyfluoroalkyl substancesabove recommended levels.

Found in everyday products such as non-stick frying pans, food packaging and waterproof clothing, the substances have been linked to serious health conditions including cancer and birth defects.

They have been found everywhere from turtle eggs to Antarctic snow, but the latest study showed they were prevalent in surface water and groundwater used by humans for drinking.

"Many of our source waters are above PFAS regulatory limits," said Denis O'Carroll, one of the study's authors and a professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

O'Carroll said it was already known that the thousands of types of forever chemicals were "pervasive in the environment" but he expressed shock at how much higher the sampled levels were versus compared with recommended levels.

"We're talking above five percent, and it goes over 50 percent in some cases."

The research found that 69 percent of groundwater samples from around the world surpassed Canada's minimum standards and six percent of samples surpassed the EU's standard.

Australia, China, the United States and parts of Europe were shown to be global hotspots of high concentrations of PFAS.

However, the study acknowledged that these locations were also areas with the highest level of testing, and with more research, comparable results could be found across the globe.

PFAS is considered to be spread across the globe, but the extent of contamination on the earth's surface and in waterways and drinking supplies is not known.

Canada, the United States, the European Union and Australia have begun restricting the use of PFAS amid health and environmental concerns.

More information: Denis O'Carroll, Underestimated burden of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in global surface waters and groundwaters, Nature Geoscience (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01402-8. www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01402-8 Journal information: Nature Geoscience

 2024 AFP
Scott Community College held its inaugural Culinary Showcase on Friday featuring student chefs from 10 area high schools.

The showcase took place in the Culinary Arts Center on Scott Community College's main campus in Bettendorf.

Teams of four high schoolers  each in Eastern Iowa Community College's culinary arts Career Academy  were led by a Scott Community College culinary student and tasked with creating a series of tasty dishes, guided by chefs from EICC's culinary department.

Participants had to demonstrate skills in basic food preparation, cooking and baking techniques, sanitation and safety.

Friday's menu included a variety of small appetizer, entree and dessert items. Officials from EICC and participating school districts got to sample each, along with students' family members.

Through EICC's culinary arts Career Academy, high school students can earn up to 14 college credits before graduating. Students in the program also complete two internships and can continue toward their culinary arts certificate, diploma or associate's degree at EICC at little to no cost.

Program facilitator Diane Stanley said the Culinary Showcase aimed to get students interested in the Career Academy.

"It's just trying to build those connections for (culinary) students who maybe aren't sure where they want to go, to know that they have opportunities," she said.

North Scott junior Mya Bryce's first look into the culinary industry was a dishwashing job at 14. She's since added several other culinary roles to her resume, such as restaurant kitchen manager.

"When you're working in a kitchen, you're not really learning how to cook  you're learning how to get in that mindset of working fast," Bryce said. "Being in (SCC's) program helps me learn how to cook, how to do things correctly and safely (in the kitchen) and just how to put everything together overall."

She hopes to open up her own restaurant one day, much like Pleasant Valley junior Sam Munn.

"I've been cooking since I was very young," Munn said, adding he took "every single" culinary class Pleasant Valley had to offer before enrolling in Scott Community College's career academy.

"It was really cool to just come in this morning, get a random recipe thrown at us () and experience that alongside kids my own age," he said. "And, show our teachers what they've taught us throughout the year."

Each team contained students from different schools, which Munn notes as another "cool challenge" from Friday.

"It was our first time meeting for all of us, but I feel like everybody got along," he said. "We did a great job finishing our product (chocolate ice cream) in a timely manner."

This was an intentional move, Stanley said.

"We also wanted team-building to happen  In the kitchen, you don't get to choose who you get to work with, so we really wanted to kind of replicate that," she said. "That's (also) why we had our college students as a mentor for each team, so they had to take over that leadership role and guide the high school students in these skill sets."

Currently working as a line cook at the Davenport Country Club, Munn said he's graduating early from Pleasant Valley to finish his culinary diploma at Scott Community College. To help with future restaurant aspirations, he also plans to tack on an associate's degree in business at Scott Community College.

Karl Schnarel, a soon-to-be graduate of Scott Community College's culinary program, was impressed by his team.

They made smoked chicken drumsticks with homemade barbecue sauce and elote, Mexican street corn.

"They were very eager to learn, and they were excited," Schnarel said. "You could tell they really liked the industry and liked to cook."

Having trained new hires in various restaurant jobs in the past, he's "no stranger" to leading in the kitchen.

"It went a lot smoother than I expected," Schnarel said of Friday's showcase. "That's one of the nice things about food, it brings (people) together for something common they all share."

After graduation, he plans to continue working at Keller's American Grill  located at the Isle Casino Hotel in Bettendorf  for a while, but hopes to leave Iowa eventually.

Friday's event also coincides with QC Restaurant Week, which ran from April 8-14 this year.

"These are aspiring chefs that could be in the next (local) restaurant," Stanley said. "We thought (restaurant week) just really partnered well with what we wanted to do here."

"Students were smiling," Stanley said, flashing one herself. "They were happy with what they were doing and what they made  It all looked great. It's hard to pick (a favorite) when you have all those outstanding dishes students were able to put together and serve."
At just 24-years-old, Rapid City native Maya Anjali Buchanan has already carried her sound across three continents, bringing her unmistakable talent to the likes of the Sichuan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik and the Chicago Symphony.

The melodic orchestration of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major will echo through the Performing Arts Center when Anjali Buchanan returns to perform with the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, April 13.

While Tchaikovsky's only violin concerto suffered a troubled reception upon its composition in 1878, Anjali Buchanan's welcome home will be quite the opposite. Returning to Rapid City to play with the BHSO combines two of Anjali Buchanan's favorite things: performance and the community it creates.

The violinist began her string career at age three, when her mother enrolled her at the Black Hills Suzuki School. Her sister and brother both began on violin, her brother eventually switched to viola. There's perhaps no real reason why, Anjali Buchanan said, attributing their musical beginnings to her mother's hobby.

"I think she just really enjoyed it," Anjali Buchanan said. "She's just always really loved classical music and the violin."

Anjali Buchanan stayed with the Suzuki School for several years, eventually taking her teacher's advice to advance her playing by finding a more challenging school out of state. The family of five would pack up once a month and fly to Dallas, where they spent a week in lessons and theory classes.

The pressure eventually got to her, recalling how she almost quit around age 10 or 11.

"I was just having a bad practice day. I didn't really get much done, and I was kind of having an argument with my mom," Anjali Buchanan said. "We were just fighting and she was lecturing me, telling me to practice more and all this stuff, and I was just like, 'I don't want to do this anymore. Like I just want to quit.'"

Not easily swayed, her mother made her call the teacher to quit herself. Anjali Buchanan did so, but was convinced to come back to Dallas one last time to talk about it.

"Somehow just talking to [my teacher] made me feel better. And then I remember actually, her husband, who was my theory teacher, called me the next day and he was like, 'Oh, I heard you were having a really bad day yesterday, you want to talk about it?'" she said. "They were so sweet, and I just felt like...I don't know, both relationships with these people are really what kept me connected and kept me going with it."

She began traveling to attend The Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago, a highly selective, pre-conservatory training program for gifted string players and pianists. It was there Anjali Buchanan, then 12 or 13, began to seriously consider music as a career.

"That's where I really met all of my friends; some of them are my best friends still today," she said. "I started having orchestra and a lot of chamber music ... That's when I really started loving music a lot. That's kind of when I was like, 'Okay, this is something that I really want to do.'"

The years she spent living in Chicago were an important time, preparing her not only for the rigorous training required to become a professional musician, but also the experience of living and traveling in a big city.

Anjali Buchanan is now a master's student at the famed Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studies under the internationally recognized violinist Ida Kavafian. She has one year left to go, and no plans yet for what comes next.

But the young musician has an impressive resume.

She was named the Yamaha Young Performing Artist for Classical Music/Violin in 2020 and made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at only 16-years-old. Anjali Buchanan was a top medalist of the 2018 Washington International Competition, 2018 Stulberg International String Competition, 2016 Stradivarius International Violin Competition and 2015 Johansen International Competition.

This past summer, she spent two months traveling through Germany and France, spending some time studying and attending Fontainebleau Festival outside of Paris. The opportunity to work with French teachers, many who studied at the renowned Paris Conservatory, offered Anjali Buchanan first-hand expertise on classical music and may lead to studying there herself.

"It was just crazy, because they would be teaching me and then I, you know, I would be playing the Debussy Sonata for them or something, and they would be like, 'Oh, yeah, my father was at the premiere of the Debussy Sonata and he was there' and, 'One time I was playing in my lesson and Bernstein walked in and just started playing with me.' I was like, 'Oh, okay."

She's played the Harpa Music Festival in Iceland, remembering the two weeks she spent marveling at the magic of the concert hall, the near-24-hour daylight and the wild horses running across the landscape. Her performance of a difficult Sibelius Concerto at the Deluxe Music Hall in Chengdu, China, sticks out as another highlight of her time in the performance world.

Regardless of where she plays  or what  Anjali Buchanan's mastery of the violin results in enchanting lyrical performances. Among her favorite pieces is the Korngold Violin Concerto. It's less well-known than Tchaikovsky or Silbelius, something she resonates with.

"I just like playing pieces that are less-known, because it just makes me feel like there's less of an expectation of what it should sound like, so I feel more free," Anjali Buchanan said. "I like it because of that, and I also really just love it because it just sounds like a film music score."

At Curtis, she's currently working on the Enescu Octet, which she said is one of the hardest pieces she's ever played. Anjali Buchanan loves chamber music, and said she's really into the "crazy piece." When she's not playing classical music, she's a fan of John Denver, Billy Joel and The Beatles.

What sets Maya Anjali Buchanan apart is her affectionate blend of eastern and western cultures. The Indian-American violinist works to bridge eastern influence with classical western training  a dichotomy in both technique and practice highlighted during her performance at the Consulate General of India in New York. She recalled working over Zoom with traditional eastern musicians  who mostly improvise and play by ear  and how different it was from the structure of western classical.

"We're trained to just do what's written on the paper in front of us, and so to just not have anything mapped like that, and just to play whatever you want, it's pretty crazy," Anjali Buchanan said, reminiscing on the freedom offered to jazz musicians and the like.

One of the most notable collaborations of east and west was Anjali Buchanan's performance of Darshan. The piece, written by Indian-American composer Reena Esmail, was originally 11-minutes-long. The name, Darshan, means "to see" in Hindi. Anjali Buchanan wanted to play it for a music competition, but the requirements limited musicians to a five-minute audition, so she reached out to Esmail for permission to perform only a section.

Esmail did more than give her permission, she rewrote Anjali Buchanan a five-minute version, a collaboration which continued a year later.

"She ended up coming to Curtis and when she was there, I got to meet her and I played Darshan for her," Anjali Buchanan said. "We even kind of worked on it a little bit and changed a few things. It's cool now because the five-minute version that she kind of made for me is now like the main version of the piece."

Like many musicians in a post-coronavirus world, Anjali Buchanan is working through performance anxiety. Her pre-show tendency is to isolate, perhaps listening to her favorite (non-classical) songs or putting an episode of "Friends" on in the background.

Stepping on stage Saturday, however, isn't like other performances, with an audience  and stage  full of old teachers and supporters.

"I love turning around and seeing literally my old teachers," Anjali Buchanan said of concertmaster Amanda Swartz. "I spent so much time growing up with her; she is one of the most important people to me."

Anjali Buchanan and the Black Hills Symphony Orchestra will perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major.

It's a fun piece for Anjali Buchanan, who has spent years working on it.

"It's really in my fingers now. When I go back to it and play it for something, it comes back so quickly," she said. "It's like every time I play it, it's more fun to play, because I just feel like I know it better and better so I just feel more and more comfortable with it."

The music, the stage, the company  it's what it's all about for Anjali Buchanan.

"I think the thing that brings me the most joy in life is connecting with people, helping people and just having relationships with other people," she said. "I find that music is a really easy way to do that, because it's something that everyone can be moved by."
The South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation and the Custer County Sheriffs Office are investigating a homicide that took place Friday, April 12 in Custer County.

The Custer County Sheriffs Office responded to a report of a homicide just before 10 p.m. Friday at a home west of Custer on U.S. Highway 16, where officers found a deceased adult male. An adult female, who also was assaulted in the incident, had driven herself to the local hospital, according to a release from the Attorney General's Office.

DCI also identified a male suspect who had fled the scene. That suspect was eventually stopped after a pursuit in Larimer County, Colorado. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.

Names of those involved have not been released.

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said DCI and the Custer County Sheriffs Office are investigating the homicide. The South Dakota Highway Patrol is assisting with the investigation.

The Larimer County Sheriffs Office will investigate the Wyoming/Colorado incident in cooperation with local agencies and the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation. The Larimer County Coroners Office will release the mans identity at a later time.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that Louisiana-based drug and medical testing supply company American Screening will pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit filed against it based on alleged hairstyle discrimination which amounted to race discrimination in violation of federal law.

According to the case, a Black employee interviewed and was selected for a sales position. During the interview, she wore a wig with long, straight hair.

After her hire, she stopped wearing the wig and, according to the case, started to wear her hair in its naturally curly texture. The owner allegedly instructed human resources to counsel the employee about her hair and she was instructed to look more professional. She was told that when she started with the company she came in with beautiful hair. The owner actually directed the employee to wear her wig with straight hair again. When she continued to wear her natural hair, the company fired her and hired a White worker to replace her.

According to the EEOCs announcement, The employees hair  considered type 4-A on the Andre Walker Hair Typing System  is commonly associated with people who, like the employee, are Black.

Therefore, the EEOC alleged that the conduct and termination subjected the employee to disparate treatment based on her race, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act which prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, national origin, color and religion for all employers that employ 15 or more employees.

In addition to the payment, the employer will be subjected to a three-year consent decree prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race or any immutable characteristic of race, including hair texture, and policies that prohibit discrimination against an employee who chooses to display their natural hair texture or style it in a way that is protective of their natural hair or scalp.

The EEOC stated in its announcement, Just as an employer may not ask an employee to change or conceal their skin color, an employer may not ask an employee to change their natural hair texture. The Commissioner added, Unfortunately, this form of discrimination continues to limit employment opportunities for Black workers, even today.

The EEOC also stated: Professionalism standards rooted in prejudices associated with racial characteristics are unlawful. No one should be terminated or treated differently because of hair texture associated with their race, under the guise of what is supposedly professional or not.

Virginia employers that employ 6 or more employees also must comply with the Virginia Human Rights Act, which expressly prohibits hairstyle discrimination, commonly referred to as a crown act.

According to the Virginia law, The terms because of race or on the basis of race or terms of similar import when used in reference to discrimination in the Code and acts of the General Assembly include because of or on the basis of traits historically associated with race, including hair texture, hair type and protective hairstyles such as braids, locks and twists.

Recently during a training a participant asked about an employee who had hair that was so tall that the employee could not safely wear a construction helmet as required by their safety standards. Employers can mandate that employees meet safety requirements, such pulling hair back or wearing safety equipment, so long as the employer requires this of all employees.
Marina tows boat and crew to Costa Maya port after engine failure leaves them adrift

Costa Maya, Q. R.  The Secretary of the Navy reported the successful rescue of a vessel off the southern coast of Quintana Roo Friday. The Secretary of the Navy, acting as Coast Guard, carried out a rescue operation that involved a fishing boat and three tourists.

Boat Wanderlust was reported adrift after its engine failed Friday afternoon. Marina personnel set out in search of the drifting vessel. The boat was located approximately three nautical miles east of Punta Herrero.

The rescue was coordinated by the Ninth Naval Region and the Seventeenth Naval Zone after receiving an emergency call in the Command Room of the Seventeenth Naval Zone.

A call for assistance was made reporting three crew members on board boat Wanderlust who had lost propulsion. The boat was successfully towed to a port in Costa Maya.

In response to the emergency, a Defender-type vessel from the Maritime Search, Rescue and Surveillance Station (ENSAR) of Chetumal was deployed.

Fishing vessel Wanderlust was towed to a Coast Maya port by Marina personnel. Photo: Secretary of the Navy April 12, 2024.

The vessel managed to quickly locate the drifting boat and confirm that all the crew were in good health. The rescue team provided the necessary support, towing the boat to a safe port in Punta Pajaros, thus guaranteeing the safety of the tourists, the Secretary reported in a statement.
A 2002 Chevrolet Silverado was traveling north on the interstate and struck a 2021 Kenworth tractor trailer in the rear. The Chevrolet came to rest against the guardrail on the left side of the roadway. The driver of the Chevrolet exited the vehicle and was struck by a 2012 Mercedes Benz which was also traveling north, according to a state police news release.
Disciplinary charges brought by the Virginia State Bar accuse a Roanoke lawyer of failing to properly supervise his legal secretary, who this week admitted to embezzling more than $225,000 from the firm.

Gordon Shapiro is scheduled to appear April 26 before a disciplinary board of the bar, which licenses and regulates lawyers in Virginia.

In documents released Friday to The Roanoke Times, the bar alleges that Shapiro knew or should have known of financial wrongdoing by his secretary, Amy Padgett, who pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of embezzlement, credit card fraud and forgery.

A 23-page certification of the case against Shapiro states that he is responsible for Padgetts misconduct. The bar also alleges that the attorneys failure to take remedial action resulted in further loss of client funds due to Padgetts defalcations.

When the bar finds that misconduct occurred, it can issue a sanction ranging from a public reprimand to suspension or revocation of an attorneys license.

Shapiro, 81, has already retired in a decision made during extended absences from his office due to the pandemic, prior to any awareness of these issues, according to his attorney, John Lichtenstein.

Mr. Shapiro could not conceive that this person in whom he had real trust would have committed these crimes, Lichtenstein said in a statement Friday. Further, the employee took many steps to ensure that no one could identify her actions.

Shapiro cooperated fully with the criminal investigation that produced no charges against him, Lichtenstein said, and plans to do the same in the bars review.

Meanwhile, the Shapiro Law Firm has been placed in receivership as the bar works to untangle the financial disorder left by Padgett  who had unfettered control of the firms bank accounts  and to determine how many clients lost money, and how much.

During a hearing Thursday in Roanoke Circuit Court, prosecutors outlined how Padgett defrauded the firm in at least three ways from the start of 2020 to the end of 2022.

Padgett cashed more than $275,000 in checks written to herself from the firms operating account, which amounted to about $185,000 more than what she should have been paid as the firms only employee.

The 40-year-old used a business credit card to pay for about $30,000 in personal expenses that included her rent payments and money spent at a beauty and Botox spa.

And, prosecutors said, she took money from a trust account that held money designated for clients.

Padgett was allowed to remain free on bond Thursday to await a sentencing hearing scheduled for July 30. She faces a maximum punishment of 55 years in prison.

During an investigation that started when checks from the trust account were returned for insufficient funds, Padgett provided falsified bank statements to Roanoke police and state bar officials, prosecutors said in court.

According to a bar subcommittees certification of disciplinary charges against Shapiro, he was also involved in producing bank records that were altered in an attempt to conceal Padgetts actions.

Statements provided by the firm showed a balance of $57,649 in the trust account at the end of 2022. But records subpoenaed from the bank showed the balance to be just two cents at that time, according to state bar records.

The bar alleges that Shapiro first learned in October 2022 that Padgett was issuing checks from the account without his authorization.

However, he did not fire Padgett until March 7, 2023  just two days before a hearing in Roanoke Circuit Court that led to his law firm being placed in receivership.
Top Chinese diplomat meets with executive secretary of ESCAP

Xinhua) 10:59, April 13, 2024

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, executive secretary of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), in Beijing, capital of China, April 12, 2024. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Beijing on Friday.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that ESCAP is the most important regional cooperation mechanism of the United Nations in the Asia-Pacific region and has had fruitful cooperation with China over the years.

"What the Asia-Pacific needs is development, not turbulence. The emphasis should be on cooperation, not division," noted Wang, adding that China is ready to strengthen solidarity and coordination with ESCAP, jointly uphold genuine multilateralism, advance high-quality cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative, deepen regional economic integration, and enhance the synergy between the Global Development Initiative and ESCAP's implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

China is ready to advance cooperation with ESCAP in such areas as digitalization, intelligentization and green transformation, support inclusive and balanced development in the Asia-Pacific region, inject new impetus and enrich new content into Asia-Pacific cooperation, and make greater contributions to the building of an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future, Wang said.

Alisjahbana expressed great appreciation for China's contribution to promoting economic integration and regional connectivity in the Asia-Pacific region.

She said ESCAP is willing to further deepen cooperation with China to jointly promote the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and promote development and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
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DAKOTA CITY  Much like a bloodhound, Dennis Reinert has been on the trail, tracking down the lost Omadi Cemetery.

As he watched actual hounds sniffing through the cornstalks in the middle of a field between Dakota City and Homer on Thursday, Reinert was optimistic he's nearing the goal of discovering the location of Dakota County's oldest cemetery.

"We've got a lot of evidence that indicates this is the site," Reinert said of the 2.2-acre rectangular plot, where a red heeler, then a blue heeler and, finally, a German shepherd excitedly bounded about, seeking the scent of volatile organic compounds that indicate the presence of human remains below.

Omadi cemetery search Cadaver search dog Jetti leaps between corn rows as handler Jim Peters of Ames, Iowa, walks behind while searching a field Thursday for traces

After about an hour, the dogs' owner, Jim Peters, delivered hopeful news. Despite the challenge of detecting a scent in the gusty winds, all three dogs had alerted to 12-15 spots.

"They showed some interest predominantly in the southern half of the rectangle," Peters, owner of Samaritan Detection Dogs, in Ames, Iowa, said. "My inclination is there's some kind of odor that smells like human decomposition."

It doesn't prove the site is the missing cemetery, he said. There could have been some other forgotten or unknown death or event that occurred there long ago.

Reinert took it as a good sign searchers are on the right path.

"It's very encouraging. It's just another piece of evidence," said Reinert, president of the Dakota County Historical Society.

The Omadi Cemetery's location has been a mystery for decades, and Reinert began his search a few years ago after learning of it from another local historian. Dating back to 1855 or 1856, Omadi was one of the first settlements in the Nebraska Territory. The community reached a population of about 400 and was abandoned about 10 years later, when residents feared the encroaching Missouri River channel would swallow it up. Others left to seek their fortunes in Colorado after gold was discovered there.

Omadi cemetery search Dennis Reinert, Dakota County Historical Society president, holds a print of an aerial photo taken in the 1930s that indicates the possible lo

There's nothing left of Omadi, but its location east of U.S. Highway 77 is known. The site of the cemetery, where an estimated dozen or so residents were buried, was anyone's guess.

"It's a matter of record that it existed. The question is where," Reinert said.

In 2021, volunteers with ground penetrating radar scanned a suspected site west of U.S. 77. They detected nothing.

Then Mike Huber, a North Sioux City resident who pores over historical maps as a hobby, heard about the search and brought Reinert a copy of an aerial photo taken in the 1930s that he'd discovered. It showed a rectangular area bordered by what appeared to be large stones. In a photo taken 10 years later, the rectangle was no longer visible. All traces were gone.

"How you lose a cemetery, I don't know," Reinert said.

Possible Omadi Cemetery site overhead This overhead map of the Dakota County field, halfway between Dakota City and Homer, Nebraska, is from the 1930s and is believed to show evide

The photos helped zero in on a possible site. A year ago, half a mile from the site first searched, the ground penetrating radar was brought back, but results were inconclusive. Reinert continued to believe the cemetery had to be there. The aerial photos convinced him it was the right place.

"Unless somebody can tell me what that could be," he said, referring to the rectangle clearly seen in the '30s-era photo.

A few months ago, Nebraska State Archaeologist Dave Williams called Reinert, suggesting the use of cadaver dogs. Williams had worked with Peters before on locating lost burial sites.

"This is just another tool in the tool kit," Williams said Thursday while Peters' dogs worked.

Finding Omadi Cemetery is important, Williams said, because the state archaeologist's office is obligated to protect unmarked burial sites. It's also a piece of early Nebraska history.

"It continues the story of Nebraska's history. The town of Omadi was one of the earliest established in territorial history," Williams said, and locating the cemetery can help families piece together their family history.

Peters marked the GPS coordinates of each spot his dogs hit on and will forward them to Williams. The next step has yet to be determined.

"A positive hit by dogs isn't enough to say, yes, this is the cemetery," Williams said.

Omadi cemetery search Cadaver search dog handler Jim Peters of Ames, Iowa, left, talks with Dave Williams, Nebraska State Archeologist, while searching a field Thur

The only definitive way, he said, is to excavate the site.

Though it would be up to the landowner, Reinert isn't in favor of digging it up out of respect for descendants of people buried at Omadi he believes may still live in the area.

His end goal: a historical marker at or near the site to make people aware of the Dakota County's oldest cemetery.

"We need to iron this out," he said.

He's caught the scent, and won't leave the trail of evidence until the cemetery is found.
Ive never heard gunshots like the ones in Civil War. Or, rather, Ive never heard them in a movie. If youve ever been to a firing range, or just lived in a city for a while, you know the sound, a dry, brittle snap so unlike the seat-rattling boom when John Wick puts down a rival. You hear it a lot in Alex Garlands movie, as the Reuters photojournalist Lee, played by Kirsten Dunst, makes her way through the combat zone that is now the eastern United States, along with her colleague Joel (Wagner Moura), the novice photographer Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), and Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), a writer for whats left of the New York Times. Movie gunfire usually hits you in the chest, emphasizing the power of the person doing the shooting. But Civil Wars trebly pops lodge in your shoulders, building up tension with no hope of release. Cinema has this funny way of being reassuring, in subtle ways, whilst being very dramatic, Garland told the Globe and Mail this week. We took some of the reassuring subtleties out.

Civil War is characterized as much by whats not in it as what is. The movie, which Garland wrote and directed, opens with the president (Nick Offerman) rehearsing for a TV broadcast in which he claims to be on the cusp of victory over the Western Forces, an insurrectionist faction that includes the states of California and Texas. From the war correspondents chatter at their home base, a hotel in the loyalist stronghold of Manhattan, we learn that the president is currently serving his third term, that hes disbanded the FBI, and that he treats journalists as enemy combatants, which makes Lee and Joels plan to make their way through the front lines for a White House interview something between a thrill ride and a suicide mission. But is the insurrection in response to that authoritarian power grab, or the other way around? What, beyond the desire to hold power, do any of the factions stand for, or even claim to? Theres more detail in the map tweeted out last week by the movies distributor, A24, than in the movie itself, including the existence of a New Peoples Army occupying most of the northwestern states that doesnt even rate a mention during the films 109-minute run time.

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Garland is trying to avoid falling into a pat partisan allegory about The Times We Live Inor, in realizing paranoid fantasies about armed insurrection, to accidentally make Triumph of the Will, as he put it at a postscreening Q&A on Monday. Rather than feed the countrys polarization, hes tried to stay above the fray. Left and right are ideological arguments about how to run a state, he said at South by Southwest in March. Thats all they are. They are not a right or wrong, or good and bad. In an interview with the Guardian, he would discuss his own political beliefs only off the record, and when he appeared on The Daily Show to promote the film, his discomfort with even the mildest attempts to pin him down was so palpable it was difficult to watch. It is very vague about some stuff, and it is very, very specific about other stuff, he contended, without getting into what either kind of stuff might be.

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One thing Garland is upfront about is that he sees the movie as a tribute to the work of war correspondents. He might not tell us which states make up the Florida Alliance (beyond, presumably, Florida), but he wants to make sure we know that Dunsts character is named for the legendary photojournalist Lee Miller, to the extent that Spaenys character not only remarks on the eponym but goes on to explain who Lee Miller was to the woman named after her. In an interview with the Atlantic, he described Civil War as being inspired by the old-fashioned journalism of his youthwhich is to say the objective, unbiased kind. I wanted the film to function like that.

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Garlands father was a political cartoonistaccording to (whats left of) the New York Times, he grew up chatting with journalists at the dinner tableand, like George Clooneys Good Night, and Good Luck, Civil War feels more informed by filial nostalgia than adult understanding. Lee isnt a noble caricature; in fact, Dunst looks positively worn, less disinterested than simply numb. But Garland sets them so far apart from the fray that their objectivity starts to look like incuriosity. Journalists, at least the old-fashioned kind, are meant to separate their work from their feelings, but that doesnt mean they dont have any.

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Related From Slate Civil War Feels Like a Nightmare. You Should Still See It. Read More

Garland loves big, honking symbolismin his 2022 movie Men, the heroine comes upon a tree laden with apples and is warned not to touch the forbidden fruitso its not surprising that hes more interested in photojournalism as an act of icon-making than one of elucidation. Coming upon a downed helicopter in the parking lot of an abandoned shopping mall, Lee counsels Jessie to grab the shot because itll make a good image. But an image of what? Lee Miller sent photographs of Dachau and Buchenwald to an American audience that had not begun to grasp the true horror of the camps. Compared with that, an abandoned helicopter near a J.C. Penney just looks vaguely badass.

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Civil War is flush with images of the horrors of war, some of them, like the shot of a character climbing out of a mass grave piled with corpses, strong enough to rattle you. As they mingle with Lees memories of the brutalities shes witnessed abroad, the point is clear: This can happen here. But Garlands iconography is deracinated, disconnected. Theres more charge in Independence Day blowing up the White House than in Civil Wars shootout at the Lincoln Memorial, and when armed troops finally breach the Oval Office, you dont know whether youre witnessing a victory over tyranny, the beginning of a new one, or both. These are the moments journalism exists to contextualize, not record with the neutrality of a security camera. The only shock comes from witnessing what amounts to a replay of Jan. 6 and realizing you feel nothing at all.

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Purposeful though it may be, Garlands squishiness can read only as a failure of nerve. A more successfully political movie wouldnt be so wary of aiming at real targets, and a bolder allegory might do away with meaning altogether, suggesting logic itself as a casualty of war. In George Romeros The Crazies, a military pathogen turns small-town citizens into homicidal loons who cant be cured or reasoned with; they are the pure products of America, and theyve gone crazy. As an unnamed soldier who holds the journalists at gunpoint, Civil Wars Jesse Plemons ventures the closest to that register of impermeable madness, but when he starts quizzing them, one by one, about what kind of American they are, hes revealed as merely a smaller-than-life bigot. Offermans president remains a cipher, absent even the stature of his office (which, to be fair, has been awfully tarnished of late). Hes just a man in a house.

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In Anna Deavere Smiths play House Arrest, a veteran photojournalist reflects on the necessary drudgery of covering every presidential event, no matter how minor. When youre tromping through the 37th factory of the day, and hearing the same boilerplate speech, it does feel a little bit like youre just there to watch the body, he says, to protect (in the Washington lingo) your organization  just in case POTUS gets waxed. Even war has a balance of boredom and life-threatening action, with journalists and combatants alike on constant watch for the moment when one abruptly becomes the other. But in Civil War, we dont fear that shift, because we always know its coming. Garlands flair for the exceptional blinds him to the importance of the ordinary people who are both the perpetrators and the victims of this national calamity. Journalism is rooted in curiosity, but hes surprisingly incurious about the people his characters ought to be both covering and working for. Hes fixed on his images, and misses whats outside the frame.
A 6-year-old Palestinian American boy, murdered in his Chicago home for being Muslim. Three Palestinian American college students, shot at in Vermont while out for a walk. An Arab American student hit by a car, while wearing a T-shirt with Arabic writing on it at Stanford University in California.

Since Oct. 7, when Hamas led a violent attack against civilians in Israel, theres been a surge in reports of Islamophobic biasthe largest uptick since Donald Trump announced his Muslim ban in December 2015, according to Corey Saylor, director of research and advocacy at the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Islamophobia tends to spike when theres any media exposure to Muslim-related issues, according to one 2016 study by the University of Texas at Austinand thats been the case in the U.S. since the Israel-Hamas war began, leaving American Muslims afraid for their safety at home as theyre grieving the bloodshed abroad. (The war in Gaza has since killed upwards of 30,000 Palestinian civilians and left many more hungry as famine grips the enclave.)

This is the kind of time when you might expect Democratsthe party that has in recent decades identified themselves with equity and social justiceto recommit to fighting Islamophobia. Instead, theyre allowing Islamophobia to sabotage the judicial nomination of a highly qualified candidate: Adeel Mangi, an attorney from New Jersey, who, if confirmed, would become the first-ever Muslim attorney to sit on a federal appeals court.

In December, at Mangis confirmation hearing, GOP senators fired off leading questions laced with racism without a single reference to the nominees actual judicial experience. Adding insult to injury, Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, along with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, in recent weeks have all publicly said they would vote no on confirming Mangi, knowing full well their partys razor-thin Senate majority means any defections will surely sink his nomination.

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Confirming Mangi would add some sorely needed diversity to our nations courtsthe federal bench is currently 66 percent whiteand a check on biases. A study by the Center for American Progress found that judges belonging to different racial, ethnic, and religious groups use their unique backgrounds and life experiences to shape their rulings, and that it overall has a net positive impact on our judiciary. Women judges and judges of color have spoken out about gender and racial bias on the courts and led calls for reforms, said CAP, noting that judges of different backgrounds also enhance the courtroom experience for defendants and lawyers, regardless of their cases outcome.

And the seat Mangi has been nominated to, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is an especially important bench. It covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, states where banks and other corporations tend to have a big presence. (Over 50 percent of publicly traded companies are incorporated in Delaware.) Currently, the 3rd Circuit has a 76 conservative majority, and Mangis confirmation would bring some much needed balance.

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The Democrats who have vowed to vote no on Mangis confirmation are openly giving credence to Islamophobia, calling into question what the party actually stands for.

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At a dark time for American Muslims, Mangis historic nomination feels like a rare bright spot. He represents the best of the immigrant strugglecoming into a new country, seeking a better life while adapting to a new culture. Mangi became a civil servant here in the U.S., fighting for democracy on behalf of vulnerable Americans, and its made our country better. Mangi, born and raised in Pakistan, studied law at Oxford University, then immigrated to the U.S. at 22 years old to attend Harvard University. He began practicing law in the U.S. and became the youngest associate to make partner at the New York law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP. He worked on historic cases, including a landmark wrongful death lawsuit of a mentally ill Black man at a New York maximum security prison, which led to a $5 million payout to the victims family and required cameras and microphones to be installed throughout the prison.

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Mangi also successfully fought for mosques to be built in New Jersey after their permits were denied, a case that earned a $3.25 million settlement and involved Donald Trumps Justice Department. Mangi has also been a fierce advocate for immigrants, joining a coalition of different faith groups in advocating for keeping DACA, and the LQBTQ+ community, writing an amicus brief defending Title VII.

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But Republicans have made Mangi the target of a baseless smear campaign that accuses him of antisemitism over a Rutgers University event he was once tangentially involved with.

Mangi was an advisory board member for Rutgers Law Schools Center for Security, Race and Rights, from 2019 to 2023. In 2021 the center co-sponsored a panel discussion, which was hosted by the Peoples Forum, in honor of the 20th anniversary of 9/11.* Sami Al-Arian was a featured speaker, a Florida professor who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (a group the U.S. considers a terrorist organization) and was sentenced to prison. However, CSRR did not have a hand in picking Al-Arian has the events speaker.

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Mangi also testified that he served as an adviser to Rutgers Law School, meeting just once a year to offer advice on the universitys academic issues. He was not aware of that 9/11 anniversary event happening, let alone did he have a say in which speakers were selected. Yet, Republican Sen. John Kennedy challenged that assertion, asking Mangi, Is this the way you celebrate 9/11?

I dont know any of these people or that event, said Mangi. I certainly and unequivocally would condemn any terrorism.

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Other Republicans joined in, incessantly focusing on Mangis personal perspective on the Israel-Hamas war, while completely ignoring the experience and skills he would bring to the federal judiciary. Do you believe that Jews are colonial settlers in Israel?, asked Republican Sen. Tom Cotton. Do you condemn the atrocities of the Hamas terrorists?, asked Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

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Over and over again, Mangi explained that international policy matters were not something he could weigh in on. I have no basis as a judicial nominee to cast views on the Middle East, said Mangi, when responding to a question about whether he believes Israel is a violent settler colonial state from Republican Sen. Josh Hawley. However, Mangi made clear that he believes the events of Oct. 7 were a horror involving the deaths of innocent civilians, and that he had no patiencenonefor any attempts to justify or defend those events.

This kind of racism has become commonplace for the GOP. Consider when TikTok CEO Shou Chew was called to testify before Congress, and Republicans continuously insisted he was affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party, despite Chew confirming he is a citizen of Singaporewhich bans dual citizenship. And theres Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who, when calling to censure one of only three Muslim members of Congress, said Representative Ilhan Omar of SomaliaI mean Minnesota.

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Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president and the Republican Partys standard bearer of extremism, told a crowd of supporters in December that immigrants coming into the U.S. are poisoning the blood of our country. Democrats are well aware of these bigoted tactics and recognize that the GOP has concluded that racism might be bad morals but its good politics, as New York Rep. Ritchie Torres put it to the New York Times.

Nevertheless, Cortez Masto was the first Democrat to publicly announce she would not vote for Mangi because of his affiliation with the Alliance of Families for Justice, a criminal justice reform group. She was quickly joined by fellow Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, who said she could not vote for Mangi because of concerns Ive heard from law enforcement in Nevada, without offering more specific details. (Rosens decision ignores the other five law enforcement agencies that endorsed Mangi as someone who demonstrated commitment to upholding the highest ethics and fair administration of the law.)

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Unsurprisingly, Manchin, who is officially retiring from Congress after his current term ends this year, also said he wont vote for Mangi unless he can earn at least one vote from Republicans.

Since Rosen is up for reelection in a swing state this year, shes probably taking note of whats happening in other swing states, like Pennsylvania. The Judicial Crisis Network, an ultra-right-wing group focused on confirming conservative judges across the country, is funding ads smearing Mangi by declaring him antisemitic. The ads are also running in Montana in a pressure campaign to force the states sole Democratic lawmaker, Sen. Jon Tester, to vote no on Mangi.

Related From Slate How Did That Horribly Racist Wall Street Journal Op-Ed on Arab Americans Even Happen? Read More

In response to Republicans accusations of antisemitism, 15 Jewish advocacy groups that collectively represent more than 1 million Americans came together to offer a glowing endorsement of Mangi. And the American Jewish Committee not only endorsed him but went so far as to encourage senators to disregard the untoward implications underlying that unnecessary and unhelpful line of questioning. They were joined by the Anti-Defamation Leaguethe most prominent Jewish advocacy group in the worldwhich also fully endorsed Mangi and suggested the way in which senators questioned him appear to have been motivated by bias towards his religion.

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Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is responsible for confirming judicial nominees, defended Mangi and called out Republican Sen. John Kennedy, who asked the nominee how he celebrated 9/11. Think about that for a second. Because [Mangi] is Muslim, the senator thought it was appropriate to ask him if it was appropriate to celebrate 9/11 in his home, said Durbin. He of course said no. He was a resident of New York and thought it was a tragedy that occurred to our nation, and that he had friends and family who were affected by that tragedy. Durbin urged his colleagues to dismiss Republicans smear campaign and evaluate Mangi on his record.

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The White House has also tried damage control measures, demanding Cruz, Hawley, and Cotton apologize to Mangi. He represents the best of America, and when confirmed, Mr. Mangi will not only make historyhe will make an outstanding judge, White House spokesman Andrew Bates told NBC News.

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In this current climate, simply chiding the Republicans who harassed Mangi and urging Democrats to vote for him isnt enough. The White House must hold Cortez Masto, Rosen, and Manchin accountable for the partys vow to condemn the decades-long campaign to demonize and dehumanize the Muslim faith communitybecause if they dont stand against Islamophobia at a moment like this, what do they stand for in the first place?
Apart from some of Slovakia's best art galleries, Bratislava is also home to many museums. On just one street close to the Old Town, there are four of them right next to each other.

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This article was published in the latest edition of our Bratislava City Guide, which can be obtained from our online shop with Spectacular Slovakia travel guides.

If you are an incurable museumgoer or gallery lover, Bratislava, with plentiful such institutions and a busy event schedule, will suit you very well. Galleries in Bratislava are mostly situated in ex-palaces of noblemen, so the historical experience mixes with art, both old and modern. Since there are so many of these palaces here, there are many art galleries too, the best of which are the Slovak National Gallery, the Nedbalka Gallery, Danubiana and Bratislava City Gallery.

National gallery

The biggest and most important gallery is, unsurprisingly, the Slovak National Gallery in downtown Bratislava. In December 2022, it re-opened after a seven-year upgrade that has made it a gallery fit for the 21st century. Its second floor now houses permanent exhibitions, the first two of which, Sacred Art and Modern, opened in June 2023. A further four will open in the first half of 2024. In the meantime, the gallerys other premises will host temporary exhibitions. The SNGs Esterhazy Palace features experimental and interactive displays. Art books, book guides and souvenirs can be purchased in the Ex Libris bookshop located next to the main entrance in the Water Barracks.

City gallery

In the centre of the Old Town, the Bratislava City Gallery occupies Palffy Palace as well as Mirbach Palace. It hosts a rich collection of older works plus an array of contemporary pieces. A permanent exhibition entitled Stories and Phenomena: 20th Century Slovak Fine Art II offers a glimpse of modern art. It comprises two installations: Passage by Matej Kren and Villa of Mysteries by Alex Mlynarcik, both intriguing. Passage is essentially a pathway through an installation of mirrors and books, which create an illusion of an infinite space around the visitor, who is invited to walk along it. Villa of Mysteries is made also of mirrors and paintings that together create a maze, bathed in red. It is unlike anything else in the gallery. In addition to these installations, there are also permanent exhibitions showcasing Central European Painting and Sculpture 18001918, the Celtic mint in Bratislava, Tapestries from England, and a Picture Gallery. Combined they create an incredibly diverse collection  and they are not restricted only to the city centre.

Nedbalka

It reminds me of the Guggenheim gallery in New York, where I was sitting in front of Manets Before the Mirror for more than 30 minutes, said Jana Menusova, an enthusiastic traveller, sitting in the cafe of the Gallery Nedbalka, surrounded by books about Slovak painters. It is much smaller but also much cheaper.

The gallery opened in 2012, tucked away in an anonymous building on Nedbalova Street in the Old Town. Its riches only become apparent after paying a 6 entrance fee and proceeding to the first floor, when you are suddenly in a circular open-plan gallery surrounded by paintings and sculptures of Slovak artists mostly from the 20th century. The top floor is given over to the work of Ladislav Mednansky, from which you can peer over another three levels of galleries including the work of Jan Fulla, Ladislav Guderna or the Galanda group, among others. The entrance hall is used for temporary exhibitions. The gallery is fully accessible to disabled visitors via a lift to each floor.

Danubiana

On the northern corner of a windy, artificial island in the middle of the Danube, 15 km from downtown Bratislava, is the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum. This nest of modern art is accessible via car, bike or the No. 90 bus from the stop Nove SND near Eurovea.

The most popular part of Danubiana is the most remote end of the peninsula with the monumental 11-metre high glass mosaic Danube Wing. It is part of the sculpture park, where you can appreciate the artwork of world-renowned artists as well as Slovaks.The walk on the roof of the museum is another exceptional experience. At sunset, the panoramic view of Bratislava, the Small Carpathians and the majestic Danube River is simply unforgettable.

Museums

Numerous museums dotted across Slovakia are governed by the central Slovak National Museum organisation, and eight of them are in Bratislava.

These include the Natural History Museum, permanently exhibiting a huge number of objects of living and non-living nature, alongside other different temporary exhibitions. It is located on the embankment, close to the port and tiny park.

Zizkova Street, right under castle hill, is a home to four museums: the Archaeological Museum, the Music Museum and two others focused on the lives of Hungarian and Carpathian German minorities. There are also museums of Jewish and Croatian cultures in other parts of the city, also reflecting the life of ethnic minorities in Slovakia. Bratislava Castle is also part of the Slovak National Museum family, and houses temporary and permanent exhibitions that tell the story both of the fortress itself and the history of the territory known today as Slovakia. A tour inside concludes with a trip up the Crown Tower, which affords magnificent views over the city.

The Museum of Transport, next to the main railway station, hosts a variety of

vehicles and accessories, such as old steam locomotives, snowploughs and other railway machines. Old warehouses are also stocked with cars, both old and modern, classics and prototypes, as well as motorbikes and bicycles. In short, everything that a transport or engineering nut might desire.

The Town Hall museums in the Old Town Hall focus on the history of the city as well as offering exhibits of wine and furniture in the nearby Apponyi Palace, where in cellars several winetasting programme are available. Michaels Gate is another spot for history lovers. It is close to the Museum of Pharmacy located in the yellow building behind the gate. Closer to the castle is the picturesque House of the Good Shepherd which houses the Museum of Clocks. Two other museums in the historical centre are devoted to musician Johann Nepomuk Hummel and sculptor Arthur Fleischmann, both of whom were born in Bratislava. The city is also in charge of managing Devin Castle and the ruined foundations of a Roman military camp called Gerulata in Rusovce which was included on the UNESCO World Heritage Lists in 2021.

Music and theatre

Cultural life is also rich in Bratislava as far as concerts, festivals and exhibitions are concerned. During the summer months, a programme called Cultural Summer includes variety of concerts and happenings all over the Old Town. The highlight of every season is the re-enactment of coronations of Hungarian kings and queens. The Bratislava Jazz Days festival also draws the best jazzmen to Slovakia from all over the world.

Year round, the Slovak National Theatre is the jewel in Bratislavas theatrical crown. It is housed in two buildings: the ornate, historical one on Hviezdoslavovo namestie (square) and a modern, well-appointed new construction next to Eurovea; however, only the new one is used for regular performances. Opera and ballets admirers from abroad come to Bratislava to see unforgettable performances, such as Don Giovanni, Nabucco or Swan Lake. The home of the Slovak Philharmonic orchestra located in the historical centre is a good choice for lovers of clasical music. It offers a varied programme during a season that lasts from September to June.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240412/us-enemies-can-exploit-baltimore-bridge-collapse-supply-chain-disruptions---intel-report-1117903731.html

US Enemies Can Exploit Baltimore Bridge Collapse, Supply Chain Disruptions - Intel. Report

US Enemies Can Exploit Baltimore Bridge Collapse, Supply Chain Disruptions - Intel. Report

Sputnik International

Foreign adversaries of the US could exploit the recent collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore and ensuing supply chain disruptions, according to a report obtained by ABC News.

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The bridge collapse has "reduced the resiliency of US port and shipping operations" and created "opportunities for foreign adversary exploitation," the report quoted the document as saying. The intelligence report notes that in the aftermath of the bridge collapse in the port of Baltimore, any further supply chain disruptions will be unsurmountable. At the same time, the document said that there have been so far no indications that adversaries have made any attempts to exploit the situation. In the early hours of March 26, a commercial Singapore-flagged cargo ship hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore soon after it departed the port for Sri Lanka's Colombo. The bridge collapsed, sending at least eight people from a construction crew working on the bridge into the water. Ship traffic in the port of Baltimore was suspended until further notice following the bridge's collapse. US officials have yet to provide a timeline for the complete restoration of the bridge, which took five years to build in the 1970s.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/game-over-persian-gulf-powers-reportedly-refuse-to-give-us-access-to-bases-for-anti-iran-strikes-1117907501.html

Game Over? Persian Gulf Powers Reportedly Refuse to Give US Access to Bases for Anti-Iran Strikes

Game Over? Persian Gulf Powers Reportedly Refuse to Give US Access to Bases for Anti-Iran Strikes

Sputnik International

Persian Gulf countries have reportedly told the United States not to launch any attacks against Iran from their territory or airspace amid seething regional tensions.

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Persian Gulf countries have reportedly told the United States not to launch any attacks against Iran from their territory or airspace amid seething regional tensions.Sources, including a senior US official told the Middle East Eye that Gulf monarchies have been working overtime on the diplomatic track to shut down avenues that could link them to a US reprisal against Tehran or its proxies from bases inside their kingdoms.The countries include regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Kuwait, with their leaderships reportedly raising questions on the details of US basing agreements, and taking steps to prevent the use of their Iran-adjacent bases against the Islamic Republic.NATO member Turkiye has also reportedly barred the US from using its airspace for strikes against Iran, but Sputnik has not been able to independently verify this information.The Middle East Eye report follows a report by Axios on Friday citing US officials who said that Iran has privately warned the US that it will target American forces in the Middle East if Washington gets involved in a military confrontation between Iran and Israel.The US has an estimated 40,000+ military personnel at bases dotting the Middle East, including the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which hosts at least 10,000 troops, and serves as the forward headquarters of United States Central Command  the combatant command responsible for military operations across the Middle East. Nearby Bahrain hosts up to 7,000 troops and the US Fifth Fleet  which operates in the Persian Gulf, the Red and Arabian Seas, and part of the Indian Ocean. The US also has a 15,000-troop garrison in Kuwait, at least 5,000 troops in the UAE, and about 2,700 troops and fighter jets at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Oman hosts a few hundred US troops, and allows the US Air Force to conduct overflights and landings, and warships to make 80 port calls annually.The Gulf powers increasingly independent foreign policy is potentially a major setback for Washington, which for many decades after World War II (and especially after the Cold War) was able to rely on the Persian Gulf monarchies for its military operations in the oil-rich region.The Palestinian-Israeli crisis has driven Gulf state leaders and their populations further from the idea of the establishing relations with Israel, and chilled ties with the US thanks to the Biden administrations full-fledged support for Tel Aviv in the course of the Gaza War.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240412/us-moving-more-assets-to-mideast-to-bolster-deterrence-ahead-of-iran-retaliation-1117900439.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240412/iran-warns-it-will-attack-us-forces-in-mideast-if-it-helps-defend-israel---reports-1117896412.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/idf-destroys-3-rocket-launchers-in-gaza-strikes-hezbollahs-military-complex-1117908669.html

IDF Destroys 3 Rocket Launchers in Gaza, Strikes Hezbollahs Military Complex

IDF Destroys 3 Rocket Launchers in Gaza, Strikes Hezbollahs Military Complex

Sputnik International

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has destroyed three rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip that were ready to strike central Israel, and had struck Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollahs military complex in Lebanon.

2024-04-13T11:36+0000

2024-04-13T11:36+0000

2024-04-13T11:37+0000

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"IDF fighter jets struck and destroyed three launchers containing 20 rockets that were ready to fire toward central Israel. The 162nd Division continues precise operations against terrorist operatives and infrastructure in the central Gaza Strip," the IDF said in a statement on Telegram. Over the past day, the Israeli forces destroyed a number of Hamas infrastructure facilities, including a weapon storage site, and eliminated several members of the Palestinian movement, the statement said, adding that the IDF fighter jets had struck "over 30 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip." The IDF said in a separate statement that it had struck a military complex belonging to Hezbollah in Lebanon. "A short while ago, IDF fighter jets struck a large military complex belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization containing military compounds and a military post in the area of Rihan in Lebanon," the Israeli armed forces said. The Israeli strikes follow the latest attack by Hezbollah, which fired some 40 rockets at northern areas of Israel on Friday. The rocket fire from Lebanon caused no casualties, the IDF said later in the day. The rocket fire came amid reports that Tehran may be responding to Israel's recent airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, which killed several members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah has been exchanging airstrikes with Israel regularly since October 2023, as the situation in the region deteriorated dramatically after Israel announced a military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian movement launched a surprise attack and abducted hundreds.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240412/lebanese-hezbollah-fires-dozens-of-missiles-at-israeli-positions---statement-1117898465.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/khamenei-aide-iran-wearing-israel-down-in-psychological-war-as-panicky-tel-aviv-awaits-strikes-1117916795.html

Khamenei Aide: Iran Wearing Israel Down in Psychological War as Panicky Tel Aviv Awaits Strikes

Khamenei Aide: Iran Wearing Israel Down in Psychological War as Panicky Tel Aviv Awaits Strikes

Sputnik International

Five IRGC officers and two generals were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Iranian Embassy compound in Damascus, Syria on April 1. Israel and its US allies have gone on high alert in expectation of massive Iranian retaliation, but the Islamic Republic has so far limited its response to the seizure of an Israeli billionaire-linked ship.

2024-04-13T17:39+0000

2024-04-13T17:39+0000

2024-04-13T17:39+0000

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Israel is in a complete panic and growing weary of waiting for Irans response to the April 1 attack in Damascus, Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander and aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said.It has been a week that the Zionists are in complete panic and are on alert, the IRGC major general said, speaking at a memorial service to Quds Force commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who was killed in the Embassy strike, on Saturday. They dont know what Iran wants to do, so they and their supporters are terrified, Safavi said.The general suggested that the brazen nature of the Israeli act of aggression  the first of its kind in the decades-old shadow war between Israel and Iran, has intensified divisions among the Israeli political and military elite, because all of them know that a consulate is the territory of a country.Khamenei did not elaborate on the nature of the punishment Tehran plans to mete out, with Israel preparing by heightening the alert status of its military, cancelling leave for troops, and closing at least 28 embassies and consulates around the world. The US has changed its military force posture in the Middle East to deploy additional assets near Israel to protect it from a possible Iranian attack, and urged Tehran directly and through intermediaries not to target its ally. Tehran has warned Washington to stay away, saying US forces will end up in Iran's crosshairs in the event of aggression.US officials expect the Iranian retaliation to come in the form of large-scale missile and drone strikes targeting Israel proper, but some observers think Tehran may stick to an asymmetric strategy  with Saturdays seizure of an Israeli billionaire-linked cargo ship in the Hormuz Strait serving as an example of this indirect response.Tel Aviv accused Tehran of engaging in piracy Saturday over the ship seizure, and warned that Iran would face consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further, without elaborating on what actions it may take.The Hormuz Strait ship seizure is the second maritime blow Israel and its US allies have faced in the past six months, with Yemens Houthi militia effectively shutting down the Red Sea to Israeli, American and British commercial shipping in November by boarding and detaining some vessels and targeting others with missiles and drones. A US-UK campaign of air and missile strikes launched in January has been unable to dislodge the Houthis or stop their attacks.Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock on Thursday that legitimate defense with the aim of punishing the aggressor is Irans right under international law.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/live-updates-israel-accuses-iran-of-piracy-after-irgc-seizes-ship-in-hormuz-strait-1117909358.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240411/punishing-israel-for-consulate-attack-avoidable-had-unsc-condemned-it---iran-mission-to-un-1117873043.html

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Netanyahu Says Iran's Attack Repelled

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Irans massive drone and missile attack had been repelled, and promised victory through joint efforts.

"We intercepted, we stopped, together we will win," Netanyahu said on X.

On Saturday night, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a massive drone and missile attack on Israel in response to Israels airstrike on the consular annex building adjacent to the Iranian Embassy in Damascus on April 1. The attack then destroyed the building and killed seven members of IRGC, including two generals. Tehran pledged to retaliate.

On Sunday, The New York Times reported, citing two Israeli officials, that Iran launched 185 drones, 36 cruise missiles and 110 surface-to-surface missiles. Israeli media reported that Israel had intercepted 99% of the drones and missiles fired by Iran and was preparing a decisive response.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/new-order-from-ukraines-top-general-reveals-scale-of-sabotage-and-desertion-in-army-1117906138.html

New Order From Ukraine's Top General Reveals Scale of Sabotage and Desertion in Army

New Order From Ukraine's Top General Reveals Scale of Sabotage and Desertion in Army

Sputnik International

The Kiev regimes soldiers sabotage army orders, refuse to fire their weapons and desert, revealed an order on strengthening discipline signed by Commander-in-Chief of Ukraines Armed Forces of Ukraine Olexandr Syrsky.

2024-04-13T12:07+0000

2024-04-13T12:07+0000

2024-04-13T12:25+0000

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The Kiev regimes soldiers sabotage army orders, threaten their commanders, refuse to fire their weapons, leave the battlefield, and desert. This was revealed in a new order on strengthening discipline signed by Commander-in-Chief of Ukraines Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrsky and seen by Sputnik.The document notes that army commanders, law enforcement, and other government agencies have faced new challenges that require an immediate response.Among the military criminal offenses, the commander-in-chief listed insubordination, failure to comply with an order, threat or violence against a superior, unauthorized abandonment of a military unit or place of service, desertion, evasion of military service by inflicting self-harm or in any other way, and unauthorized abandonment of the battlefield or refusal to use weapons.Syrskys order outlines the urgent need for the Armed Forces and representatives of law enforcement agencies to identify and put a stop to these offenses. The document presupposes that Ukrainian soldiers could be offered a chance to return to combat duty even after the abovementioned offenses.The new order comes as the Ukrainian Armed Forces are struggling to replenish their ranks, with men increasingly unwilling to die for the Kiev regime and actively avoiding mobilization or deserting.Following last year's botched summer counteroffensive, which resulted in huge manpower losses, cases of desertion have soared. The Kiev regime's army units are rife with cases of insubordination and desertion. Sputnik earlier obtained footage appearing to show Ukrainian troops being shot at and having grenades thrown at them by their own comrades during a Russian advance.Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky recently deplored that such a case of desertion by a whole unit had resulted in Ukrainian forces being surrounded, and many soldiers being killed. He also spoke out against declaring a general amnesty for deserters in a video posted on his offices YouTube channel.On Wednesday, Verkhovna Rada lawmaker Irina Gerashchenko reported that the Ukrainian parliament had backed in the first reading a bill to tighten liability for military offenses, including desertion. The following day, the countrys parliament adopted a bill on mobilization aimed at replenishing Ukrainian forces depleted by two years of NATO's proxy war against Russia. Zelensky also signed new mobilization measures into law on April 2, lowering the conscription age and authorizing the creation of an electronic database of military-age men as the issue of draft dodgers continues to persist.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240410/disobedience-spree-azov-militants-refuse-to-defend-chasov-yar--report-1117850923.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231123/soldiers-going-crazy-ukraine-has-no-one-left-to-fight-because-of-desertion-1115159209.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/russia-shames-kishida-over-nuclear-threat-rhetoric-as-he-conveniently-forgets-who-nuked-japan-1117912123.html

Russia Shames Kishida Over Nuclear Threat Rhetoric as He Conveniently Forgets Who Nuked Japan

Russia Shames Kishida Over Nuclear Threat Rhetoric as He Conveniently Forgets Who Nuked Japan

Sputnik International

Japanese officials made a series of statements this week about the purported nuclear threat to the world posed by Russia amid the Ukrainian crisis, failing to mention that the United States is the first and only country in history to have ever used nukes  and doing so against Japan.

2024-04-13T12:57+0000

2024-04-13T12:57+0000

2024-04-13T13:40+0000

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nuclear posture review (npr)

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Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky has slammed Japans prime minister over a speech to the US Congress this week outlining the purported threats to the world presented by Americas adversaries.As I often say, Ukraine of today may be the East Asia of tomorrow, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said during his visit to Washington Thursday. Furthermore, Russia continues to threaten the use of nuclear weapons, which has contributed to worldwide concern that yet another catastrophe by nuclear weapon use is a real possibility. In this reality, close coordination between Japan and the US is required more than ever to ensure that the deterrence our alliance provides remains credible and resilient, Kishida added.What a shame and disgrace, Polyansky wrote, responding to an X post which pointed out that Kishida was talking about the danger of Russia repeating a nuclear weapons catastrophe while standing in the US Congress  the only country to use nukes  ON JAPAN. That this has got to be the highest level of gaslighting, self-deceit, and lackeyism all at once, the post suggested.Kishidas comments are all the more peculiar given the fact that the prime minister is a native of Hiroshima  which along with Nagasaki was one of two Japanese cities targeted for destruction in August 1945 during the closing days of World War II. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed 214,000 people, most of them civilians, with tens of thousands more dying early deaths in the years that followed due to leukemia, cancers, and other side effects from radiation.Japanese officials failed to see the irony of the prime ministers remarks, with Deputy UN rRepresentative from Japan Shino Mitsuko bringing up Japans clear position on the repeated nuclear rhetoric by Russia a second time on Friday.As the only country that has ever suffered atomic bombings during war, Japan will never accept Russias nuclear threats, let alone any use of nuclear weapons. The catastrophes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki must never be repeated, Mitsuko said, without mentioning who was responsible for these "catastrophes."Unlike the nuclear doctrine of the United States, outlined in the most recent Nuclear Posture Review from 2022, which allows Washington to use nukes on a preemptive basis, and even against non-nuclear weapon states, Russias nuclear doctrine allows for nuclear arms to be deployed only in the event of an enemy attack involving the use of weapons of mass destruction, or conventional aggression so severe that it threatens the states survival.The US and its allies have resorted to a traditional WMD gaslighting strategy in Ukraine, accusing Russia of dangerous nuclear rhetoric while themselves engaging in military bioweapons research at labs dotting Ukraine, and looking the other way when it comes to suspected Ukrainian chemical weapons use, and alleged research into a radioactive dirty bomb.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20231222/warning-for-china-us-reclaims-airfield-used-to-firebomb-and-nuke-japan-in-wwii-1115744171.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240412/iaea-says-informed-by-tepco-about-corrosion-found-on-treated-water-tanks-at-fukushima-npp-1117895574.html

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who nuked japan, why is japan accusing russia of a nuclear threat
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/russian-forces-liberate-pervomaiskoye-village-in-avdeyevka-vicinity-1117907889.html

Russian Forces Liberate Village of Pervomaiskoye in Avdeyevka Vicinity

Russian Forces Liberate Village of Pervomaiskoye in Avdeyevka Vicinity

Sputnik International

The Russian Armed Forces have liberated the village of Pervomaiskoye in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in the Avdeyevka vicinity, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Saturday.

2024-04-13T10:12+0000

2024-04-13T10:12+0000

2024-04-13T11:26+0000

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"Near Avdeyevka, units of Battlegroup Tsentr liberated the settlement of Pervomaiskoye in the Donetsk People's Republic through active and selfless actions," the ministry said.Additionally, the ministry noted that eight counterattacks by assault groups of the 25th Airborne, 59th Motorized Infantry, 68th Jaeger, as well as the 23rd, 24th, and 115th Mechanized Brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (UAF) were repelled in the areas of the settlements of Umanskoye, Pervomaiskoye, Krasnogorovka, Berdychi, and Leninskoye in the Donetsk People's Republic.On the Kupyansk area, units of Battlegroup Zapad improved their position along the front line, struck a formation of Ukraine's 54th Mechanized Brigade in the area of the city of Kupyansk in the Kharkov region, and repelled three attacks by assault groups of the Ukrainian 12th Special Purpose Brigade in the area of the settlement of Chervonaya Dibrova in the Lugansk People's Republic.In the Donestk region, Russian forces took more advantageous positions, repelled two attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, with Ukrainian losses in the past 24 hours amounting to over 500 servicemen and one tank, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported."Units of Battlegroup Yug took more advantageous positions, struck personnel and equipment of the 79th Airborne Assault and 46th Airmobile Brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the areas of the settlements of Krasnogorovka and Antonovka in the Donetsk People's Republic," the ministry said.According to the Defense Ministry, two attacks by enemy assault groups south of the settlement of Novomikhailovka in the DPR were also repelled."The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost over 500 servicemen, one tank, three armored combat vehicles, 23 cars, and a Strela-10 anti-aircraft missile system. During counter-battery combat, two US-made 155 mm M777 howitzers, a 152 mm D-20 howitzer, and a 122 mm D-30 howitzer were destroyed," the ministry reported.Units of Russia's Battlegroup Vostok struck formations of two Ukrainian brigades over the past day, with the enemy's losses exceeding 110 soldiers, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Saturday."In the southern Donetsk region, units of Battlegroup Vostok improved their tactical position and struck formations of the 58th Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the 128th Territorial Defense Brigade in the areas of the settlements of Staromayorsk and Urozhainoye in the Donetsk People's Republic," the Russian Defense Ministry said.In addition, Ukrainian forces lost four pickup trucks, a 155 mm Polish-made Krab self-propelled howitzer, a 155 mm US-made M777 howitzer, and a NOTA electronic warfare station.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240410/ukraine-loses-nearly-400-soldiers-around-avdeyevka-in-past-day---mod-1117846009.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240320/donetsk-avdeyevka-mariupol-on-the-road-in-electoral-donbass-1117443687.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/russias-lavrov-condemns-israeli-strike-on-iranian-consulate-in-talks-with-amirabdollahian-1117914496.html

Russias Lavrov Condemns Israeli Strike on Iranian Consulate in Talks With Amirabdollahian

Russias Lavrov Condemns Israeli Strike on Iranian Consulate in Talks With Amirabdollahian

Sputnik International

Top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov criticized the deadly Israeli strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria during a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

2024-04-13T15:14+0000

2024-04-13T15:14+0000

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"The focus was on the situation in the Middle East. Russia reiterated its strong condemnation of the April 1 Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. It emphasized that any attempt to violate the integrity of diplomatic or consular premises, which is enshrined in Vienna conventions, is absolutely unacceptable, as are politically motivated murders," the statement read. The ministers reaffirmed their commitment to continuing contacts in relation to international and regional issues and expressed interest in a stronger political, diplomatic, economic and trade cooperation between their countries. Tensions in the Middle East escalated last week after Israel struck the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, destroying the diplomatic building and killing seven members of Irans elite Revolutionary Guards, including two generals.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240411/moscow-says-in-contact-with-tehran-on-irans-possible-response-to-israeli-strike-1117870780.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/ten-people-killed-in-ukrainian-strike-on-tokmak-city-in-zaporizhia-region---governor-1117909256.html

Ten People Killed in Ukrainian Strike on Tokmak City in Zaporozhye Region - Governor

Ten People Killed in Ukrainian Strike on Tokmak City in Zaporozhye Region - Governor

Sputnik International

Ten people have been killed in the Ukrainian attack on the city of Tokmak in the Zaporozhye Region, while two people are missing, the region's governor, Yevgeny Balitsky, said on Saturday.

2024-04-13T11:55+0000

2024-04-13T11:55+0000

2024-04-13T19:13+0000

russia

ukraine

zaporozhye region

russia

shelling

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On Friday, the governor said the Ukrainian armed forces had opened fire against the residential area of Tokmak, killing eight people, including two children, and injuring 13 others. Earlier on Saturday, Balitsky said five more people had been pulled from under the rubble. All were said to have injuries of varying severity. Two other people remain missing, Balitsky said, adding that rescuers are continuing to search and clear the rubble.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/the-counter-intuitive-offensive-1117903497.html

The Counter-Intuitive-Offensive

The Counter-Intuitive-Offensive

Sputnik International

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told a German newspaper that he is planning a counteroffensive in 2025, if Ukraine can survive 2024.

2024-04-13T00:01+0000

2024-04-13T00:01+0000

2024-04-13T06:10+0000

volodymyr zelensky

olaf scholz

russia

main intelligence directorate

high mobility artillery rocket system (himars)

nato

ukraine

west

political cartoons

ted rall

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If this story sounds familiar, thats because it is. In February 2023, Ukraine started hyping its spring counteroffensive. High-budget commercials were produced for it. The NAFO online brigade, fresh off ignoring Zelenskys plea for them to leave their desks and join the fight in reality, were giddy with excitement to live vicariously through what was sure to be the Ukrainian armys unstoppable string of victories.To the Azov Sea! They proclaimed. And then Crimea and then Moscow! They would type out, often in all CAPS when feeling particularly worked up.The spring counteroffensive was continually delayed and after a few failed attacks that Ukraine assured us definitely were not the counteroffensive, the newly named summer counteroffensive launched in June.Hundreds of Western-made tanks and armored personnel carriers rushed to the front lines across the battlefield, opening multiple fronts, including outside of Rabotino, Staromlinovka and Artemovsk. It did not go how Zelensky or NATO envisioned.Months later, after only gaining a few small villages and fewer square miles of land than Russia did during the same period, even Western media had to admit that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had failed completely to meet its goals. Worse, Western countries were embarrassed. Their hyped modern weapons were destroyed in droves, with 789 tanks and 2,400 other armored vehicles left as flaming husks. Fields outside of Rabotino were nicknamed Bradley Square after the number of US-made Bradley Fighting Vehicles that were destroyed there, although it was also the final resting place of numerous German-made Leopard 1 and 2 tanks. Wrecked and twisted metal, they now serve as monuments to the Wests failure.Before it even ended, NATOs veneer of invincibility was wiped away, with its weapons and tactics completely defeated by Russian forces. Ultimately, 166,000 Ukrainian soldiers were dead or seriously injured, never to return to the battlefield. Since then, Russia has taken back most of the meager gains Ukrainian forces made and has taken the conflicts largest prize since Artemovsk: Avdeyevka.With Russia on the march and hitting targets across Ukraine with little to no resistance from what's left of Zelenskys air defenses, it is easy to dismiss the comedian-presidents ramblings as a desperate attempt to boost morale. He needs to present a plan for victory to justify his decision to sacrifice an even broader swath of Ukraines youth, already a precious commodity after a massive drop in Ukraines birthrate in the 1990s, by lowering the countrys conscription age. This 2025 counteroffensive is seemingly the best he could come up with.Already, videos are leaked on a near daily basis of Ukrainians attempting to avoid the meat grinder by running from or fighting conscription officers. Most of the time, they are pulled into vans and presumably sent to the new meat grinders in Chasov Yar, Netailovo, or The Russian romanized spelling for the town of Novomikhaylovka. A few lucky ones escape, typically when the Ukrainian townspeople turn on the conscription officers and defend their men from being sent to an almost certain death.That is only going to increase as Zelenskys goons start taking ever-younger Ukrainian sons off the streets. How many Ukrainian mothers, having just grieved the loss of her eldest son, will stand by as they take her second or third son in the same manner and for the same lost cause?Though it was only just announced, it is already apparent the hype around Zelenskys latest counteroffensive will not materialize. Not even the NAFO keyboard warriors seem able to get excited for it. No commercials have been made yet, but they are unlikely to be taken seriously if they are. If anything, they would come off as a brazen waste of resources. Ukraines cities are in darkness, who cares about a commercial?On Tuesday, Zelensky criticized German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for not handing over his countrys Taurus long-range missiles, seemingly pegging it as one of the more advanced Western weapons he says he needs. But even if Scholz acquiesces, the Taurus wont make the 2025 counteroffensive a success, just as the Bradley, Leopards, Abrams, HIMARS and ATACMs failed to turn the tide.What Zelensky really needs, and wants, is more men to put between himself and the advancing Russian army. He doesnt need Taurus missiles for that. He just needs more money to pay conscription officers and more transit vans to kidnap Ukrainian men with. And that, at least, is a price Western leaders are likely willing to pay.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240411/zelenskys-new-counteroffensive-will-spell-disaster-for-ukraine---russian-mod-senior-source-1117875614.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/uk-has-no-plans-to-join-us-navys-operations-off-israeli-coast---reports-1117908062.html

UK Has No Plans to Join US Navy's Operations Off Israeli Coast - Reports

UK Has No Plans to Join US Navy's Operations Off Israeli Coast - Reports

Sputnik International

The UK has no plans of joining the US Navy in military operations off the coast of Israel amid potential Iranian retaliatory strikes, although London has two warships deployed in the region, The Telegraph reported, citing a source in the country's navy.

2024-04-13T10:22+0000

2024-04-13T10:22+0000

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The UK's HMS Diamond, a Type 45 destroyer, is operating in the Red Sea off Yemens coast, while HMS Lancaster is deployed in the Arabian Sea, the source added. The United States is ready to help Israel intercept any strikes launched against the country in the coming days, CNN reported on Friday, adding that Washington expects Iran to strike multiple targets in Israel. Also, a US defense official told Sputnik the US military was moving additional assets to the Middle East to bolster deterrence and force protection ahead of an anticipated Iranian retaliatory strike against Israel. Earlier in the day, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US had redeployed at least two warships in order to reinforce protection for Israel.US President Joe Biden has warned Iran not to attack Israel, but noted that he expected Iran's retaliation to come "sooner rather than later." Biden stressed that the US was committed to Israel's defense and that Iran would not succeed. Tehran reportedly warned Washington that it would attack US forces in the Middle East if the United States got involved in a military confrontation between Iran and Israel. Earlier in the week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that his country was ready to defend itself against Iran's looming attack on the ground and in the air in close cooperation with partners. The statement came amid threats from Tehran to retaliate against Israel for the April 1 airstrike on the consular annex building adjacent to the Iranian Embassy in Damascus. The attack destroyed the building and killed seven members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, including two generals. Iran has said it reserves the right to retaliate against Israel. A US State Department spokesperson said on Thursday that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had called his Chinese, Turkish and Saudi counterparts asking them to urge Tehran "not to escalate."

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240412/iran-warns-it-will-attack-us-forces-in-mideast-if-it-helps-defend-israel---reports-1117896412.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/ukraine-prompting-poland-romania-spain-to-send-patriot-systems---reports-1117904214.html

Ukraine Prompting Poland, Romania, Spain to Send Patriot Systems - Reports

Ukraine Prompting Poland, Romania, Spain to Send Patriot Systems - Reports

Sputnik International

Ukraine is encouraging Poland, Romania and Spain to supply it with their own Patriot air defense systems, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

2024-04-13T03:35+0000

2024-04-13T03:35+0000

2024-04-13T12:09+0000

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dmytro kuleba

andrzej duda

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"They [the Ukrainian authorities] need seven [Patriot systems] ... But it's complicated," an unnamed source told the newspaper.Meanwhile, European leaders are reportedly unwilling to provide Ukraine with more Patriot batteries, as they need to maintain their own defense capabilities, the Financial Times reported.Polish President Andrzej Duda, in particular, ruled out further Patriot deliveries to Ukraine, saying that Warsaw could provide Kiev with more of its Soviet-era missiles, but without specifying any details, the report said. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba had recently asked him for seven Patriot systems to deliver to Kiev. On Wednesday, Kuleba told The Washington Post that his "nice and quiet diplomacy didn't work," and now he planned to harshly demand the Patriot air defense system from Ukraine's Western allies.Last week, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that Germany's reserves of air defense systems had been exhausted and that Berlin, together with its partners, was looking for opportunities to purchase these systems for Ukraine from third countries.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/zelensky-could-end-ukraines-viability-as-country-with-mobilization-law-1117903959.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/ukraines-anti-terrorist-operation-in-donbass-licensed-neo-nazis-bloodbath--1117908365.html

Ukraine's 'Anti-Terrorist Operation' in Donbass Licensed Neo-Nazis' Bloodbath

Ukraine's 'Anti-Terrorist Operation' in Donbass Licensed Neo-Nazis' Bloodbath

Sputnik International

10 years ago, the Kiev regime that rode to power in Ukraine as a result of an unconstitutional Western-sponsored coup unleashed a barbarous punitive operation against the residents of Donbass. Russia's special military operation launched in 2022 was intended to put an end to the impunity with which the Kiev junta waged war against its own people.

2024-04-13T16:32+0000

2024-04-13T16:32+0000

2024-04-13T17:20+0000

russia's special operation in ukraine

ukraine

donbass

ukrainian national security and defense council (nsdc)

viktor yanukovych

anti-terrorist operation

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The start of the so-called anti-terrorist operation (ATO) in the southeast of Ukraine was announced on April 13, 2014, by then-president of the country, Olexandr Turchinov.Turchinov had been acting as president since the Euromaidan coup against Viktor Yanukovych until Petro Poroshenko was sworn in as his successor.In a televised address to the people, he said that Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) had decided to launch a large-scale "anti-terrorist operation" by the armed forces. The purpose of the operation was to quell local counter-protests to the Euromaidan coup in Kiev that had toppled legitimately-elected then-President Viktor Yanukovich in February.The day after the coup, the new authorities repealed a law granting the Russian language official status in regions where it was native to at least 10 percent of the population. This was met with protests in the east of the country, where the Russian-speaking population predominated, especially in the Donbass.On April 6, 2014 two key events took place. Fledgling militia forces in Lugansk seized the Ukrainian Security Service building in the city, arming themselves with weapons from its large armory. The same day in neighbouring Donetsk, protesters at a rally took over Donetsk Regional Council building and the regional administration, formally proclaiming the Donetsk Peoples Republic.After residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions  who opposed Euromaidan and did not want to kowtow to the Ukrainian nationalists  held independence referendums, proclaiming the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, they were branded "enemies" and "terrorists" by the authorities in Kiev.By licensing the military operation, Kievs neo-Nazis began a bloodbath against the people of the country.Key Events of Donbass WarMay 2, 2014, is considered the start of the full-fledged war in Donbass. On that day, Ukrainian forces attempted to storm the city of Slavyansk in Donetsk region, advancing under cover of air support. However, militia members managed to shoot down several helicopters using MANPADs, killing five Ukrainian pilots. After that, Ukraines internal troops limited their offensive. The citys defenders reported that nationalist fighters from the Right Sector**, a neo-Nazi political party and paramilitary group, had taken part in fighting for the city.Also on May 2 that year, around 50 people were bludgeoned to death and burned alive in the Odessa Trade Union House massacre. Neo-Nazi paramilitary gangs attacked a peaceful rally in Odessa. After some protesters sough shelter in the nearby Trade Union House, pro-Maidan extremists set the building on fire and blocked the exits. People tried to escape the inferno by jumping out of windows, only to be killed by the thugs outside.On May 6, 2014, the first major confrontation between Donbass militia and Ukrainian nationalist battalions took place in the Azov Sea coast city of Mariupol. Several days later, on May 9, Ukrainian ultra-nationalists and the military killed and persecuted participants celebrating the anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War. Armed clashes broke out, with at least 13 people killed in fighting and many more wounded.On May 26, 2014, the battle began for the Donetsk airport  one of the most important milestones in the struggle of the militias of the newly created DPR against the Ukrainian Armed Forces and nationalists. The battle raged back and forth for 242 days and ultimately ended in victory for the Donetsk militias in January 2015. The DPR estimates that nearly 600 Ukrainian troops died in fighting for the airport. Kiev, for its part, claims that about 800 militiamen were killed, and that as many as 2,000 were wounded.On June 5, 2014, fighting broke out between Ukrainian security forces and the Donbass militias at Lugansk Airport. On the night of 1 September, Ukrainian forces which had held the airport for 146 days blew up its runway and retreated. The airport has been under the complete control of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) ever since.On July 5, 2014, after constant shelling that killed scores of civilians followed by months of fierce fighting between Ukrainian troops and the militias, the latter were forced to evacuate Slavyansk, with the city occupied by the Ukrainian army.By the summer of 2014, full-scale hostilities raged across the Donbass with the use of heavy armored vehicles and aircraft. During the so-called ATO, armed nationalist battalions took the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including the Azov** brigade, complicit in the torture of civilians and killing of children.The Ukrainian regime has shelled Donbass mercilessly. targeting civilian infrastructure. In addition to regular shelling, authorities imposed an economic blockade of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics.In the years of that war, until Russia launched its special military operation in order to protect residents of southeastern Ukraine, the conflict claimed the lives of around 14,000 people, including 3,500 civilians, according to the United Nations estimates. On September 5, 2014, the Minsk Protocol  a ceasefire agreement between Kiev and the Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republics  was signed in the Belarusian capital. The thirteen-point ceasefire and peace deal guaranteed by Russia, Germany and France would have allow Kiev to restore its control over the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, in exchange for constitutionally-mandated autonomy. However, the process reached a dead end due to Kiev's refusal to implement the political part of the agreements. Fighting temporarily subsided, but soon resumed with new intensity. Both Ukraine's ex-president Petro Poroshenko and former leaders of France and Germany, Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel, later openly confessed that the accords were a sham. They were only meant to grant Ukraines post-Maidan coup authorities time to rearm and for the West to forge an anti-Russia coalition. Merkel told reporters that the 2014 Minsk Agreement was an attempt to buy time for Ukraine, and that Kiev used this time to become stronger, as you can see today.Russia's President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the-then breakaway People's republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LNR) in February 2022 after a significant deterioration of the situation along the line of contact amid interference by the USs and its allies.The heads of the people's republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR) then asked for Putin's assistance in repelling "aggression by Ukrainian forces" to avoid civilian casualties among, triggering the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.Referenda on the reunification of the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions with the Russian Federation were held on September 23-27, 2022.*Extremist group banned in Russia.**Terrorist organization banned in Russia.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240219/how-euromaidan-triggered-ukraines-nine-year-war-on-donbass-1116864693.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240221/euromaidan-was-part-of-wests-proxy-war-against-russia--cia-veteran-1116894202.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20230131/minsk-agreements-were-a-ruse-that-gave-kiev-time-to-rearm-ukraines-ex-president-admits-1106856464.html

https://sputnikglobe.com/20220224/putin-says-feelings-and-pain-of-donbass-residents-prompted-russia-to-recognise-dpr-and-lpr-1093320854.html

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/us-border-patrols-centers-in-san-diego-hold-twice-as-many-migrants-as-they-can---report-1117904923.html

US Border Patrol's Centers in San Diego Hold Twice as Many Migrants as They Can - Report

US Border Patrol's Centers in San Diego Hold Twice as Many Migrants as They Can - Report

Sputnik International

The US Border Patrol's processing centers in the city of San Diego have more than twice as many migrants as they are normally meant to hold, the New York Post has reported, citing data it obtained.

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The agencys processing centers in San Diego have reached 245% capacity, the newspaper reported on Friday. There are over 1,800 detainees in the centers which are meant to hold only 750 people, according to the report. As the influx increases, more and more migrants are being released onto the streets of San Diego, the newspaper reported. Over 125,000 people have been allowed to leave processing centers since September 2023, according to the report. Close to 8 million migrants have illegally entered the United States via the southern border since Joe Biden became president in 2021.

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https://sputnikglobe.com/20240413/us-reportedly-asks-china-to-talk-iran-down-from-retaliatory-strikes-on-israel-1117913169.html

US Reportedly Asks China to Talk Iran Down From Retaliatory Strikes on Israel

US Reportedly Asks China to Talk Iran Down From Retaliatory Strikes on Israel

Sputnik International

In a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed Chinas strong condemnation of Israels attack on the Iranian Embassy in Syria, stressed the inviolability of the security of diplomatic missions and said that Iran and Syrias sovereignty must be respected.

2024-04-13T13:55+0000

2024-04-13T13:55+0000

2024-04-13T13:55+0000

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The United States has reportedly asked China for a favor  that Beijing speak to Tehran about not retaliating to the April 1 airstrike on the Iranian diplomatic consulate in Damascus with a direct attack against Israel.Officials and diplomats familiar with the discussions indicated to the Financial Times that the Biden administration has turned to China repeatedly in recent months to ask Beijing to use its leverage with Tehran to cool regional tensions, but reportedly privately believe there is no evidence that China has done anything to apply pressure on its BRICS+ and Shanghai Cooperation Organization partner.Washington has reportedly asked Saudi Arabia (with whom Iran recently restored diplomatic relations in a historic agreement facilitated by Beijing) and Turkiye to speak to Tehran on the same subject.State Department spokesman Matthew Miller confirmed this week that the US had engaged with European allies and partners over the past few days and urged them as well to send a clear message to Iran: that escalation is not in Irans interest, its not in the regions interest and its not in the worlds interest.Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian held a series of talks with European and Middle Eastern diplomats Wednesday and Thursday, with the consequences of Israels attack on Damascus Embassy compound reportedly at the top of the agenda. Iran has the right to legitimate defense against the Israeli aggressor, Amirabdollahian told his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, in a phone call Thursday.So far, Iran has held off on a direct retaliatory attack against Israel  which anonymous US officials claimed might involve the use of over 100 drones and dozens of missiles. Instead, the country has stuck to an asymmetric strategy, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seizing an Israeli billionaire-linked container ship in the Strait of Hormuz Saturday.The move marks the second major strategic artery paralyzed to Israeli-affiliated commercial shipping by anti-Israeli forces, with Yemens Houthi militia successfully closing the Red Sea to Israeli, American and British ships in November, causing tens of billions of dollars in losses as ships have to take the long way around Africa to move cargoes between Europe, the Middle East and Asia.If the IRGCs Saturday ship seizure is not a one off and becomes systematic, anti-Israeli forces will have closed off two of the worlds five major shipping arteries to Tel Aviv, and potentially its allies.

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The trotters and pacers returned for 2024 pari-mutuel racing on Friday, April 12 at Harrahs Philadelphia, with the track condition for the opener of Phillys 19th season going from sloppy to good to fast as the track dried out after a morning rainstorm.

The conditions never reached hurricane force, but the $16,892 pacing feature for distaffs had its own 'Hurrikane'  Hurrikane Lady Lou, a daughter of Sweet Lou who was sent to the lead by driver Dexter Dunn and won her second straight in 1:55.4, snapping off a :56.2 back half while the surface was still rated as good. John McDermott trains the headliners winner for Jonathan Klee Racing, Justin Bolasci, Hurrikane Racing and William Garofalo.

The standards for trotting and pacing at the infant meet were both set later in the card over a fast surface and both clockings came from horses who won by wide margins for driver Todd McCarthy. On the pace, the Western Ideal gelding Go West Go Fast went fast in the third quarter to the lead en route to a 1:52.2 success by 6-3/4 lengths for trainer Lou Pena and P T Stable; perhaps a trifle more impressive was the 1:54.3 trotting victory of the Chapter Seven gelding Seventier, who made the lead past the quarter then came home in :56.3 to win by 8-3/4 lengths for trainer Gareth Dowse and his Dowse Racing Inc.

U.S. Hall Of Famers David Miller and Tim Tetrick, 1-2 among active drivers in lifetime earnings, both posted triples on the first card of the meet.

Racing resumes at Philly on Sunday at 12:40 p.m., with a $13,000 USD handicap pace for fast-class horses highlighting the card. Free programs for the races at Harrahs Philly, racing on Thursday and Friday at 12:25 p.m. and Sunday at 12:40 p.m. to begin the meet, are available at phha.org; that site also features the popular Phillys Finest tip sheet, which made its return with six top winners, including a $12 pick.

(PHHA / Harrahs Philadelphia)
Blinded By Delight, a sparkling winner of last weeks Distaff Open at Cal Expo, attempts a curtain call in Sundays (April 14) $12,500 USD Kirk Breed Free For All for pacing fillies and mares, while Bin A Mystery looks to continue his winning ways in the $20,000 USD California Sires Stakes for four-year-old pacing males.

A 13-race program is on tap under the Watch and Wager LLC banner with first post set for 4:15 p.m.

Blinded By Delight is a five-year-old daughter of Bettors Delight who is owned and was bred by Kenneth Seastrom, is conditioned by Gordie Graham and will once again be guided by Jake Cutting.

She was sent off the 2-1 co-second choice in last weeks top dance for the distaff pacers, brushed to the front midway down the backstretch and went on to a two-length decision in a lifetime best 1:52.2 mile. The win was the ninth in just 15 starts for Blinded By Delight, who appears to have unlimited potential.

Looking at the Sire Stakes, Bin A Mystery is a son of Mystery Chase who races for Mark Anderson and is reined and trained by James Kennedy.

After a needed start in the first stakes clash for this group in early February, he has posted back-to-back big money wins, the most recent coming on March 24 when he made every pole a winning one in a romping score. He earned his fourth win in 10 starts for the Anderson colour-bearer and the 1:54 final clocking established a new lifetime mark.

Go Viral coming into his own

With his victory last week, Go Viral has now posed for pictures following four of his last seven starts for his owner/breeders Billie Schwartz, Ivan Axelrod and Junior Wilkinson.

Mooney Svendsen has guided the four-year-old Wilkinson trainee in the last three scores, getting it done from an up close and personal position with the son of Always A Virgin.

He was born during the pandemic, thus the name, Schwartz noted after the most recent tally. He showed talent early on and Junior thought hed be a good horse.

He was behind his peers when he went back to Indiana last year because of all the rain here at Cal Expo and he wasnt able to train as much.

Go Viral has delivered on the promise his conditioner saw early on and Schwartz added, Hes certainly growing into a nice horse.

The pacer will attempt to up his impressive seasonal batting average when he suits up in Sunday nights first race.

(With files from Cal Expo)
High earners and top performers Celebrity Bambino and Chase H Hanover won their respective qualifying races on Saturday morning, April 13 at Meadowlands Racetrack.

Celebrity Bambino and Yannick Gingras made their second 2024 qualifying start on Saturday, from post four in a field of six. Gingras and the Ron Burke student took the pocket trip behind Chaplind (Trond Smedshammer) through panels in :30.4, 1:01.3 and 1:30.3. In the final turn, Celebrity Bambino took over and kept going to win by 6-1/4 lengths in 1:57.4. Loxahatchee (Marcus Melander) completed the top three.

The four-year-old son of Muscle Hill out of the Archangel mare Celebrity Ruth is owned by Burke Racing Stable LLC, J&T Silva Stables LLC, Knox Services Inc., and Phillip Collura. Celebrity Bambino has made 28 career starts, yielding a record of 10-4-4 and $1,009,290 in earnings.

Chase H Hanover made his third 2024 appearance after finishing third in The Meadows' Open Handicap on Jan. 5 and then finishing fourth in his return qualifying session at The Meadows last week on April 6. On Saturday, the six-year-old gelded son of Captaintreacherous out of the Western Ideal mare Calgary Hanover won his qualifier from gate-to-wire in 1:52 for trainer Virgil Morgan Jr.

David Miller took the gelding to the gate on the rail. The pair left and the field remained single file throughout panels in :28.4, :57.3 and 1:25.3. El Rey (Dexter Dunn) posed a threat in the final steps towards the wire, but Chase H Hanover prevailed by a neck. Voukefalas (Jordan Stratton) finished third and Southwind Gendry (Yannick Gingras) completed the field in fourth.

Chase H Hanover is nearing the $1 million milestone, with $926,709 banked. His record stands at 22-15-10 in 77 career starts. Odds On Racing and Carl Howard own the gelding.

The card also featured winners Sambuca Hanover (2:01.1, David Miller), a winner of $276,467 for trainer Nifty Norman; Bugaboo Lou (1:51.2, Dexter Dunn), a winner of $178,770 for trainer Burke; Flawless (1:53, Andy McCarthy), a winner of $106,349 for trainer Nancy Takter; and Wish You Well (1:54.2, Dexter Dunn), a winner of $196,485 for trainer Norman.

(Standardbred Canada; photo of Celebrity Bambino from a previous win on July 29, 2023)
The bar for gun regulation is set so high that its centuries away  literally. Thats the thinking behind this weeks ruling on the states ban on high-capacity magazines.

On Monday, Cowlitz County Superior Judge Gary Bashor found the magazine ban violated the Second Amendment, pointing to prior U.S. Supreme Court rulings, including District of Columbia v. Keller from 2008 and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen from 2022.

In his opinion, Bashor defends the ruling by using the language of originalism, a theory that posits that laws can only be interpreted through the lens of the time.

He argues the Framers anticipated technological advances, and that if they had wanted to regulate modern weapons, they would have done so during their time. Since there were no restrictions similar to Washington states ban on higher capacity magazines in 1791  the year the Second Amendment was ratified  then Bashor says the law is unconstitutional.

We disagree. The writers of the Constitution could not have predicted the ability to shoot dozens of bullets in mere seconds. Restricting the sales of ammunition cartridges holding more than 10 rounds should be allowed, in the same way other technology  like cars and the internet  that didnt exist in 1791 is regulated today.

No clairvoyance needed

Its true that the Founding Fathers were, as a rule, educated men who were interested in science and technology. As Bashor pointed out, some were inventors. Thomas Jefferson is credited with the invention of the swivel chair, while Benjamin Franklin famously invented bifocals, among many other things. In his ruling, Bashor claims such abilities suggest the Framers would have written restricted gun legislation if they deemed it necessary.

We think this ascribes a level of foresight to the Framers almost like clairvoyance and assumes the reason there have never been regulations on high-capacity magazines is because the Framers anticipated the after-market accessory and believed they were acceptable. Isnt it more reasonable to believe these laws werent on the books in 1791 because the technology didnt exist?

The originalist framework also seems to be applied exclusively to guns. We dont expect the Framers to have well-informed stances on aviation safety or what constitutes fair public access to communication satellites. The value of a seat belt wouldnt be fully apparent to someone whose only travel options are a sailboat or a horse.

In light of advances in technology, we have set legal standards for many things that did not exist in the 18th century, regardless of the lack of regulation from the time of the Constitutions founding. Yet, we are expected to believe the Framers knew the direction firearms technology would progress in and make laws regarding it.

The Founding Fathers were far from technological prophets. While the idea that the cotton gin saved slavery as an institution is hotly debated, its explosive effect on the practices profitability is indisputable. Had the Framers been able to foresee the cotton gin as its suggested they could do with guns, abolitionists within the Continental Congress would likely have tried to ban the product rather than let slaveowners gain enormous economic power through King Cotton.

Changing with the times

Elevating the Framers view to be the only true lens through which we can analyze law also dismisses the wisdom of those who have come since. Our ability to rethink decisions of our predecessors is something we cant afford to forfeit.

Does 1954s Brown v. Board of Education (ruling public schools segregation as unconstitutional) hold less value than 1896s Plessy v. Ferguson (ruling racial segregation laws as constitutional) because Plessy was tried while people who ratified the Fourteenth Amendment were still alive? We certainly dont think so.

While it is very worthwhile to look back on the legal history of American jurisprudence for guidance, originalism would turn what should be a foundation for insight into handcuffs. We need the courage to admit that the Founding Fathers were just like us: people doing the best they could with the information they had at the time.

The original Constitution was written by people of the 18th century, from the perspective of people from the 18th century. The Framers knew that the world was always in flux, and government would need to change with the times. They gave us the ability to amend anything, even the Constitution itself, because they knew they werent perfect.

Were not saying this to diminish them. We just want to reiterate that predicting the future is hard. A half-century ago, people didnt imagine they would one day carry a computer in their pockets with more processing power than supercomputers that once filled entire rooms, and then mostly use that technology to wirelessly send cat videos to friends.

This is all to say that the future isnt always what you expect it to be. Asking dead people to have predicted it and written laws around it just isnt reasonable. The Founding Fathers were accomplished political thinkers, but they did not write their laws by predicting the future.
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 part of the US surveillance program known as Section 702 allows intelligence agencies to conduct warrantless electronic monitoring of foreigners outside the United States.

The US House of Representatives voted Friday to reauthorize an electronic surveillance program targeting foreigners, a practice officials say is critical to national security but criticized by opponents over concerns for American citizens' privacy.

The Republican-controlled House voted to reauthorize a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, widely known as FISA, by a bipartisan vote of 273-147.

A part of the program known as Section 702 allows US intelligence agencies to conduct warrantless electronic surveillance of foreigners outside the United States.

While it is meant to be used solely to spy on foreign citizensby monitoring email traffic and other communicationsAmericans' messages can get pulled in if they are in conversation with the foreigners being surveilled.

Concerns over possible abuses had drawn strong opposition from some privacy-minded Republicans and progressive Democrats.

Renewal still requires approval by the Senate, where its prospects are not clear. If it fails there, it could lapse next Friday.

The vote in the House came over the vigorous opposition of former president Donald Trump, who hopes to defeat Democrat Joe Biden in the November election and return to the White House.

In a post on his Truth Social platform this week he had urged lawmakers: "Kill FISA, it was illegally used against me, and many others. They spied on my campaign!!!"

He apparently was referring to wiretap orders against a former Trump campaign aide obtained by the FBI in 2016under a different section of FISAduring its investigation of Russian influence on US elections. The FBI later said it had mishandled that matter.

In any case, Trump's online message this week appeared to have its desired effect, as a vote for renewal fell short on Wednesday.

But House Speaker Mike Johnson changed the terms of the program extension from five years to two, gaining needed support from some far-right Republicans.

Supporters say the program is absolutely vital to national security, and that safeguards are in place to ensure it is used only as intended.

A senior White House official in December urged Congress to renew the program, saying that with wars continuing in Gaza and Ukraine, and amid high tensions with China and a persistent threat of cyberattacks, it would be a dangerous time for "unilateral" disarmament.

 2024 AFP
Starting June 1, the city of College Station is coming into your bedroom.

How many people do you live with? Four other roommates, you say? The law would like to have a word  well, actually, a misdemeanor and up to $2,000 fine. At least that will be the case once the city resurrects an 80-year-old ordinance this summer.

The no-more-than-four housing ordinance is set to be enforced with renewed effort this June, in response to complaints about the changing layout of College Stations neighborhoods and the density of student renters. To be sure, our community must decide what to do with the ever-growing population of A&M students living in College Station. The solution will be complex, but it cannot include criminalizing students for their living situations.

Think back to the good ol days, those best four years, or five for some. A common experience for many in college is to live in a dorm with a roommate who they may or may not have met before moving in. We spend a year or more living in something akin to a studio apartment with two or sometimes three people; we call it just part of the college experience.

Now look to the neighborhoods surrounding Texas A&M University, filled with the quaint, respectable homes of families, older residents, and students. In these neighborhoods, however, sharing rooms in this manner is not allowed. According to the city, students who share bedrooms often larger than their former dorm rooms are not simply students looking for cheap rent close to campus, but criminals.

College Stations rapid growth, spurred by the parallel growth of Texas A&M University over the last 20 years, created an affordable housing crisis in the Bryan-College Station area. According to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, College Station has a rental housing burden of 59% and a severe housing burden of 33.5%.

This means that 59% of renters pay more than 30% of their income toward housing, and over a third of renters pay more than half of their income towards housing.

For reference, these ratios are on par with the New York Metro area, and higher than the San Francisco Bay area. This problem is so extreme that a Bloomberg study labeled College Station as the most unaffordable city in the nation, and this high cost burden uniquely affects students.

By looking at expenditure data to analyze estimated income, we see approximately $6,018 spent by the average student in the Bryan-College Station area. According to Department of Housing and Urban Development data, median monthly rent for one bedroom in Bryan-College Station is $953, with Zillows October 12, 2023 update citing it as $1,000. This affects all students in some form or fashion, but it especially hurts minority students. A 2021 Department of Student Affairs study found that 50% or more of Black and Hispanic students cited concerns about the cost of housing and running out of money for food.

As students face pressing concerns about the security of their housing and general finances, they experience tangible effects on their lives, ranging from the academic to the practical. Roughly 72% of college students who face housing insecurity will consider dropping out of school, and are 11% less likely to have a GPA of 2.0 or higher. In addition, as affordable housing becomes harder and harder to find near campus, students are forced into longer commutes, which are associated with an uptick in traffic fatalities and longer emergency services response times. No-more-than-four, in reducing the supply of housing available to students in Bryan-College Station, will raise prices and exacerbate these problems.

Alternative solutions, such as those regulating occupancy like Dallas, Houston and San Antonio do through health and safety and, can quell some tensions felt by permanent residents without the extreme socioeconomic impacts from the enforcement of this ordinance.

The economics are clear. Dr. Jonathan Meer, Texas A&M economics professor, said in a social media exchange, Price per renter goes up, unequivocally. Even the head of the Occupancy Enforcement Alliance, Fred Dupriest, at the October 26, 2023, Student Senate meeting admitted as much: It is an argument that students can go into more debt, and Im making that argument.

So where does this leave us? How should the cities of Bryan and College Station respond to the concerns of both students and permanent residents in order to serve the community as a whole?

The first step is recognizing students as citizens of real value whose hardships and concerns are worth listening to and endeavoring to solve. If the problems of students are held with equal weight to those of their permanent resident neighbors, we can have a cooperative conversation about the future of the communities that we love.

However, if some permanent residents continue to mislead our governing bodies with false narratives about students and carry on ignoring their struggles under the guise of impermanence then we will not reach an equitable solution, and students will suffer in the years and even decades to come.

Texas local governments gave up snooping around peoples bedrooms a longtime ago. College Station shouldnt bring that practice back.
HASTINGS  Hastings College hosted an awards ceremony April 5 to recognize 52 outstanding young writers from across Nebraska as an affiliate of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

College faculty and Kiara Nicole Letcher, the author of Scream Queen and soon-to-be-released Oxblood, also hosted a workshop for recipients beginning.

Of all recipients this year, 12 students received 14 Gold Key awards, which allows their work to advance to the national competition where it will be judged by a panel of leading creative professionals. Three students also had work nominated for the American Voices Award, which recognizes students with an original, authentic voice. National jurors will select one nominee from each region for the national American Voices Award.

The 14 Gold Key and 42 Silver Key entries were also published by Hastings College Press in a book titled Best Nebraska Teen Writing 2024. Students received a copy of the book, as well as certificates, scholarships and other items during the awards ceremony.

Its such a joy to honor students who submitted such great work to the competition. Every year it gets harder to pick the top recipients, which shows just how much writing talent there is across the state. Writing, being creative and mastering the writing process are such valuable skills throughout ones life. Were glad to help shine a spotlight on that, said Dr. Cat Clifford, Hastings College assistant professor of English.

The 52 students receiving honors is the most since Hastings College began sponsoring the program in 2019. Last year, which also set a record for awards, saw 39 students receive honors.

Students from all 93 counties of Nebraska and age 13 and older were invited in the fall to submit original work in any of the awards writing categories. Works are then judged by a panel of Hastings College faculty, staff and students.

Central Nebraska students receiving awards include

ALBION: Taylor Beierman, Boone Central High School, Critical Essay, honorable mention

DONIPHAN: Ana Carson, Doniphan-Trumbull High School, Poetry, honorable mention

GRAND ISLAND: Katie Bough, Northwest High School, Poetry, Silver Key, honorable mention; Reagan Dearth, Northwest High School, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Silver Key; Marcus Luevano, Northwest High School, Short Story, honorable mention; Daniela Monzalvo Tolentino, Grand Island Senior High, Personal Essay & Memoir, Gold Key, American Voices Award Nominee; and Isabelle Swanson, Northwest High School, Short Story, Silver Key

HASTINGS: Claire Davis, Hastings Senior High School , Poetry, Silver Key, honorable mention; Kenna Pfeifer, Adams Central Junior/Senior High School, Science Fiction & Fantasy, honorable mention; and Sam Rogers, Hastings Senior High, Poetry, honorable mention

SHELTON: Olivia Cure, Shelton High School, Poetry, Silver Key

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program was established in 1923 and has supported the creative talent of millions of students, including distinguished alumni Tschabalala Self, Stephen King, Kay WalkingStick, Charles White, Joyce Carol Oates and Andy Warhol, all of whom received recognition in the Awards when they were teens.
Banning gender replacement hormones for minors, alcohol being delivered to your doorstep, hunting hogs by helicopter, restrictions on marketing vaping to young children and cracking down on Xylaine usage.

All of these have one thing in common: The South Carolina General Assembly made it a priority to ensure legislation on these topics and more made it through one chamber. Other items, such as the states energy needs, the merger of the states heath agencies and the ongoing search for where $1.8 billion belongs also consumed the lawmakers time. They also passed Constitutional Carry and Gov. Henry McMaster signed it into law March 7.

However, after 5 p.m. April 10, any bill that has not had a third reading in either chamber must have a 2/3 vote to debate after. Bills that havent had a third reading after April 10 are pretty much considered dead.

Heres a look at some of those measures that made the deadline, even though they still have to pass in the other chamber and be signed into law by the governor.

Why SC students could see college tuition rates rise for the first time in years Even though lawmakers have frozen college tuition rates for in-state students for the last six years, state senators are looking to give colleges and universities some flexibility to end that streak in the fall. A proposed budget provision in the Senate would allow state colleges and universities to increase their tuition rates by up to 2%, even if the schools take the tuition mitigation money ...

Energy bill

House lawmakers passed a bill that advocates championed as a way to keep the lights on for a wide range of South Carolinians, but critics warn the multifacted bill undoes protections put in for after VC Summer.

Among its many aspects of addressing the states longterm energy needs, the bill would allow Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper to build a natural gas fired power plant in the Lowcountry.

The bill passed in the House and Senate judiciary committee, where Sen. Wes Climer, R-York, called out the members for not understanding what they really voted on, The State reported Tuesday.

Were talking about a haphazard process on a bill that is ultimately going to touch, I would suspect, tens of billions of dollars in private investment and all five and half million South Carolinians, Climer said.

Medical Marijuana

The Senate again passed the bill that Sen. Tom Davis had pushed for more than 10 years. Its likelihood of passing in the House remains unclear.

Black lawmakers in South Carolina say they were left out of writing anti-discrimination bil COLUMBIA  The South Carolina House has passed a bill restricting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public colleges and universities. Black lawmakers objected, saying they weren't included in crafting the proposal. The House's most conservative wing celebrated the bill passing 84-30 on Wednesday after Republicans voted to limit debate. Democratic supporters say DEI efforts are needed to meet the needs of diverse student populations. Republicans said they try to solve problems caused by discrimination with more discrimination. Rep. Leon Howard, a Black Democrat, says it is absurd to write a bill saying everyone should be treated equally without including representation from the people it targets.

The Compassionate Care Act, S.423, would allow South Carolinians with certain conditions, such as cancer, multiple sclerosis or terminal illnesses to be prescribed certain forms of medicinal marijuana. In 2022, the Senate passed a similar version of the bill, but it failed in the House on a technicality. It also limits the delivery method to topical, oral or vaporized products only. Burning the plant and smoking are prohibited.

Staunch opposition awaits from multiple lawmakers in the House, including Rep. John McCravy. When the bill passed the Senate, McCravy said while hes not sure whether the House would pass the bill, he did expect there to be a number of amendments filed if the bill was brought up in the House.

This bill is recreational marijuana part one, McCravy said. If this bill were talking about was simply allowing somebody thats dying of cancer to use marijuana or something like that, I dont think anybody would oppose that. But a lot of people like me see this bill as the first step towards recreational marijuana. And there are a lot of things in the bill that indicate that.

Transgender care for minors

House lawmakers made a point to take up this bill in the first few days, sparking protests outside the state house and hours long debates inside the chamber.

The Help not Harm, bill would prohibit anyone under age 18 from receiving gender reassignment surgery in South Carolina. Any form of puberty-blocking drug or procedure also would be illegal for minors. There is no evidence such surgeries are being performed on minors in the state now.

The bill also includes language that asserts a school employee may not withhold information from the minor's parent or legal guardian if the minors perception of his or her gender is inconsistent with their sex. The bill passed in the House on Jan. 17.

Age verification for social media and pornography sites

Both of these bills passed in the House. The first would require companies to make commercially reasonable efforts confirming the social media account users are at least 18-years-old or get parental consent.

In a Senate committee in March, multiple people testifying urged lawmakers to change the bills language and take out the parental consent requirement, specifically citing First Amendment concerns.

The pornography law would make it illegal for anyone to make a pornographic website accessible to people under 18.

Both are in committees in the Senate.

Home alcohol delivery

Anyone 21-year-old and older would be able to order beer, liquor and wine from retailers such as DoorDash and UberEats and have it delivered to their home, as well as options for curbside delivery.

Concerns arose from irresponsible behavior with alcohol use, underage drinking and even robberies, but advocates for the bill insisted the accessibility and keeping up with a modern day economy.

The bill passed in the House and had a favorable committee report in the Senate.

Parental notification of teen medications

This bill passed the Senate after addressing concerns from doctors, parents and womens health advocates. who brought up conversations about birth control access, children without parents or who are homeless and teen mothers. It now includes exemptions for children considered homeless, children in protective custody and teens mothers. It also lowered the age from 18 to 16, allowing parents to view medical history and give consent for medication.

The bill passed the Senate and is in the House Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee.

Child neglect age raises

South Carolina law requires the victim must be under 11-years-old for charges of killing through child abuse or neglect. Lawmakers want to raise the age to 18-years-old. The bill passed the Senate and is now in the House judiciary committee.

Liquor Liability

Businesses that serves alcohol in South Carolina must have a million dollar liquor liability insurance policy, and includes places that only serve beer and wine. This has driven many businesses to take out loans or even be forced to close.

The bill would establish a program of affordable options for businesses seeking a liquor liability license.

Health agency merger

A bill that would merge six of the states public health agencies was met with internal Republican fighting between the House Republican Caucus and the Freedom Caucus. The debate about one powerful leader, irresponsible restructuring, improving the quality of care for South Carolinians lasted more than five hours.

Most of the bills no votes came from the Freedom Caucus. The bill passed in the House and was referred to the committee on Medical Affairs in the Senate.

What failed to crossover by Wednesday?

So what didnt make it through a third reading in either chamber, and is essentially considered dead?

Lawmakers pushed for legislation going after illegal cellphones in prison, which would add graduated penalties for prisoners found with electronics, but never got it to a vote. Judicial reform was also a key issue that saw movement in some ways, including passing a bill in the Senate which S. 1046, which aims to address concerns related to the fairness and transparency of how judges are elected and the influence lawyer-legislators hold over them.

Similarly, legislation on providing compensation to women who have abortions in S.C., reimbursing medical school debt for doctors who would work in rural South Carolina, requiring recess for elementary and middle school children and more were discussed in committees and some on the House or Senate floor, but never reached a successful vote.
(TBTCO) - Trong bai viet Chong lang phi viet thang 10/2024, Tong Bi thu, Chu tich nuoc To Lam khang inh: e nam bat co hoi, ay lui thach thuc, gia tang manh me nguon luc cham lo cho nhan dan, lam giau cho at nuoc trong giai oan cach mang moi, xay dung tuong lai tot ep, cong tac phong, chong lang phi can uoc trien khai quyet liet, ong bo voi nhung giai phap huu hieu, tao su lan toa manh me, tro thanh tu nguyen, tu giac cua moi can bo, ang vien va nguoi dan, van hoa ung xu trong thoi ai moi; chu trong mot so giai phap trong tam.
Russell was born in Lancaster, PA. He joined the U.S. Airforce after high school and served in the Korean War before being shipped back to the states. He was stationed in Denver, Colorado where he met his future wife, Doris Wilkinson, at a square-dancing event. The two married on September 4, 1954, in Pringle, South Dakota, the brides hometown. The couple moved to Victoria, Texas when Russell was transferred to the Foster Air Force Base. Once Russells four years of service to the Airforce ended, the young couple moved to Lancaster, PA, before settling in Casper, Wyoming in 1957. Russell joined the barbershop chorus, The Oil City Slickers in 1972, where he sang lead. He loved singing so much that he served as area counselor for the central states district and the Rocky Mountain District (RMD), Division V.P., Executive V.P., and District president for the RMD. He then went on to be an International Board Member. Did we say he loved singing? Fishing was another favorite hobby. Russell loved to take his kids and later grandkids fishing. He also treasured spending time with friends, acting as tour guide for the out of towners and having coffee with the locals. Russells favorite job was as a customs agent at Casper airport. He had stories of meeting celebrities that were down to earth, like Dolly Parton. And some that were full of themselves (we wont mention any names here).
MINSK, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov reaffirmed their commitment on Friday to further strengthening cooperation between the two countries.

During their talks, the two sides expressed their confidence that the roadmap signed in February 2024 will give a new impetus to the development of the entire range of bilateral relations, BelTA news agency reported.

The document envisages more than 60 specific measures aimed primarily at boosting economic cooperation and increasing mutual trade in goods and services.

An agreement was reached to continue mutual support within the framework of international organisations. Both countries share the principle of respect for the sovereign path of development of the state, and the inadmissibility of interference in internal affairs and the use of illegal methods of pressure in international relations.

Bayramov was in Minsk to attend a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States, according to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry. 
A 27-year-old Tucson man pleaded guilty this week to threatening to commit a mass shooting at the University of Arizona.

Michael Lee was charged with making interstate threats. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced July 3 by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Marquez, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona said in a news release.

In October 2023, Lee made threats to commit a mass shooting at the UA in a group chat on Snapchat, the release said. Lee who was not a UA student expressed a desire to get revenge on all the chads and stacies!!, terms used as part of incel ideology.

Incels are self-described involuntary celibates.

Students reported the threats to UA police and the FBI, the release said.
Former President Donald Trump is to blame for Arizonas near ban on abortion and is leading an effort to get similar restrictions passed across the county, Vice President Kamala Harris told a Tucson crowd in a politically-charged speech.

Donald Trump is the architect of this health care crisis. And thats not a fact he hides, Harris told a friendly audience during her speech Friday at El Rio Center on Tucsons west side.

In fact, its something he brags about  and as much harm as he has already caused, a second Trump term would be even worse, she said.

If Donald Trump gets the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban. How do we know? Look at his record  heres what a second Trump term looks like: more bans, more suffering, less freedom. Were not going to let that happen.

Harris announced her visit to Tucson hours after the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday morning that an 1864 law criminalizing nearly all abortions is enforceable in the state.

Meanwhile, Trump is declaring anew that the Arizona Supreme Court went too far with its ruling, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

Trumps comments came hours before Harriss Tucson stop.

President Joe Biden and his allies blame Trump for eroding abortion access, and the issue has become a major liability for the former president in one of the handful of swing states that could decide the November election.

The Governor and the Arizona Legislature must use HEART, COMMON SENSE, and ACT IMMEDIATELY, to remedy what has happened, Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform, the Associated Press reported. Remember, it is now up to the States and the Good Will of those that represent THE PEOPLE.

He did not call for a specific course of action, such as repealing or watering down the law. He did say that ideally abortion restrictions should include exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.

Arizona Legislature, please act as fast as possible! Trump wrote.

Arizona House Republican leaders used procedural maneuvers twice on Wednesday to block lawmakers from deciding  or even debating  whether to repeal the 1864 law.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Harris has held more than 80 speaking events in 20 states about the political fight over womens reproductive health. Trump has said often, the Associated Press reported, that hes proud the Supreme Court justices he nominated overturned Roe, the 1973 ruling declaring a constitutional right to abortion.

Here in Arizona, they have turned the clock back more than a century on womens rights and freedoms, Harris said in her Tucson speech to a crowd filled with many local politicians and abortion advocates.

Last month Harris visited Phoenix to say extremists in states across the country have proposed and enacted abortion bans that threaten womens heath, force them to travel out of the state to receive care, and criminalize doctors, said a news release put out by the Biden-Harris campaign.

The campaign also announced a new seven-figure media blitz in Arizona this month targeting voters whose priorities are focused on abortion rights.

The overturning of Roe was a seismic event, Harris said here. And this ban in Arizona is one of the biggest aftershocks yet.

State Sen. Priya Sundareshan, D-Tucson, spoke passionately on the issue. She pointed out the fact that the Arizona law was set before women could vote or own a home, and when the legal age of consent was 10 years old.

We deserve the right to have autonomy over our bodies, Sundareshan said.

Harris said the fight over womens health is about freedom.

Now our lives are in danger because of (Donald Trump), Harris told the audience. If Donald Trump is elected to the White House, what freedoms do we lose next?
City of Tucson employees could soon be able to take up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave under a proposed policy change.

Employees of the city currently get six weeks of paid leave. The City Council told Mike Rankin, the city attorney, last week to work on raising it to 12 weeks.

The amended time off could get in front of the council for a vote as soon as its next meeting on April 25, Rankin said.

Mayor Regina Romero and Council Member Lane Santa Cruz, who represents the west side, brought the matter to their colleagues for discussion at Tuesdays study session.

As a parent of four kids I know how critical it is to have this time, not only to bond with the baby but to heal and settle into this new normal for parents, Santa Cruz said at the meeting.

The paid parental leave will be for both partners, Romero said.

Employees already have benefits for the adoption of infants, said city spokesman Andy Squire.

In 2017, the council passed an ordinance which currently allows for six weeks of paid parental leave for city employees.

Prior to that the city did not pay for parental leave, Romero said. When Tucson passed the original ordinance it was leading in the state because it was not offered by other municipalities in Arizona.

Tucson no longer is a leader on the issue, Romero said.

In December 2021, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 in favor of paying employees their full salaries when taking parental leave. Less than a month later, the board doubled benefits, giving county employees a full 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

Local employers, such as the University of Arizona, also provide 12 weeks of parental leave.

Beginning in October 2022, the city of Phoenix began providing its employees with up to 12 weeks of paid leave for the birth, adoption or foster care placement of a child during a 12-month period.

Less than a year later, a pilot program was established to provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave to state employees.
A ban on nearly all abortions in Arizona doesnt sit well with the Republican former governor whose expansion of the state Supreme Court allowed him to appoint the four conservative justices whose ruling cleared the way for it.

Doug Ducey is among Republicans in several states who are wrestling with the consequences of their opposition to abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. He expanded the state court in 2016 but thinks its ruling this week went too far.

After the Arizona court ruled 4-2 on Monday to revive an 1864 law that criminalizes abortion throughout pregnancy unless a womans life is at risk, Ducey posted on the platform X that it was not the outcome I would have preferred. He said a law he signed in 2022 banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy was more in line with what voters want.

In Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio, where an abortion ban signed into law by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine got overturned in a referendum that enshrined the right to an abortion in the state constitution, the issue has helped Democrats win races and in some cases begin to reverse Republican-led bans.

More may be in store. In Florida, the states high court cleared the way for a six-week ban that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed while also allowing an abortion-rights referendum go before the states voters this November.

Abortion also is a major feature in the presidential race, potentially boosting turnout for Democrats and putting down-ballot Republicans on a back foot. Polls show most U.S. adults dont support tough restrictions.

Donald Trump, who recently opined that abortions legality should be left to individual states, has called DeSantis approval of Floridas ban a terrible mistake.  The former president who appointed three of the U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade also said the Arizona Supreme Court ruling went too far.

Ducey said in his post on X that the ban he signed was thoughtful conservative policy, and an approach to this very sensitive issue that Arizonans can actually agree on.

His comment followed the better part of two years of legal wrangling over the 1864 Arizona law.

The Supreme Court ruling took a fair amount of time, four months after arguments before the court and longer than some expected, said Barbara Atwood, professor emerita at the University of Arizona Law School.

Frankly, I think they struggled, she said of the justices.

Besides Duceys five appointees, one of whom abstained from the ruling, two are appointees of Jan Brewer, Arizonas Republican governor from 2009-15.

Ducey had defended his expansion of the court from five to seven justices. He said the state had outgrown the smaller court and an expansion was long expected. The justices at the time said their workload was manageable and opposed the move.

The crux of the abortion case was whether Arizonas 2022 or 1864 ban applied after Roe v. Wade was overturned. In late 2022, an appeals court rejected the argument of the states elected Republican attorney general, Mark Brnovich, that the 1864 law held sway.

Days later, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes took office, but the case remained alive through the efforts of an anti-abortion intervener.

The legal uncertainty was written into the law outlawing abortion after 15 weeks. It stated that the states much stricter 1864 law was not being repealed by implication or otherwise.

But even Republicans disagreed over which law would take precedent. In their ruling, the majority justices noted Ducey thought the ban he signed should take effect.
LUANDA, April 12 (Xinhua) -- A delegation with deputies from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the country's main opposition party, was attacked while working in Angola's eastern Cuando Cubango province, Friday morning, with at least eight people injured.

The attackers were alleged "a group of unidentified citizens," in an attempt to obstruct the UNITA cars from reaching the party's municipal headquarters of Cuito Cuanavale in Cuando Cubango, Angola Press Agency reported.

The Angolan National Assembly in a statement expressed regret over the incident and appealed to the population to respect peaceful coexistence, social peace, and the principles of a democratic and lawful state. It stated that this incident deserves the proper attention of the competent authorities, and the perpetrators should be held accountable.

UNITA holds 90 seats in the 220-seat Angolan National Assembly, second only to the ruling party's 124 seats. 
It's seldom that a church can't accommodate all the people who want to worship there at a Sunday service.

But that was the case March 25, 1979, when President Jimmy Carter worshipped at the First Baptist Church in Elk City after spending the night at the home of Larry Wade, publisher of the Elk City News and, at that time, the city's mayor.

Additional chairs were set up around the perimeter and in the aisles of the sanctuary and people were allowed in by lot.

Wade doesn't recall the exact number of people the church could seat but said it would have been several hundred. That building has since been torn down and replaced by a larger building.

It was Carter's second time to visit Elk City, and he was keeping a campaign promise. He first visited there in November 1975 when he was the Democratic nominee campaigning for president against Republican President Gerald Ford, who had assumed the office after President Richard Nixon resigned in August 1974. Most observers gave Carter little chance of winning.

"He was 'Jimmy who?' when he was here in 1975," Wade recalled. Carter had campaigned in several Oklahoma cities -- Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Lawton and maybe another city or two -- but he drew a larger crowd in Elk City, with a population of about 8,000, than in the other much larger cities.

"When you are president, I sure want you to come back," Wade said he told Carter, who promised that he would return.

And he did.

Carter's visit to Elk City as president was to hold one of his series of town meetings that were held primarily in small cities and towns -- the places one doesn't ordinarily expect a president to visit -- at which he discussed human rights, foreign policy and other issues.

The president told the cheering crowd that he had been to many important places recently such as Mexico City, Cairo, Jerusalem "and now Elk City."

"I promised to come back to Elk City. You helped me become president and here I am."

The town meeting in Elk City drew about 2,500 to the high school gymnasium, where Carter received a lengthy, sign-waving, standing ovation while the high school band played "Hail to the Chief." It was the seventh such trip to a small city for a town meeting.

Shortly after assuming office, Carter visited Clinton, Mass., an industrial town of about 15,000 for a town meeting. A few months later he visited Yazoo City, Miss., followed by town meetings in Bangor, Maine; Spokane, Wash.; Aliquippa, Pa.; and one in Berlin during an overseas trip.

Wade said he believes that Carter could relate to small communities because of his hometown of Plains, Ga., which has a population of about 600.

Air Force One carrying Carter landed at the former Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base 18 miles away, where he was met by Gov. George Nigh, Lt. Gov. Spencer Bernard, Wade and other state and city officials. As the motorcade drove through Elk City, American flags were displayed in front of every downtown business and "Elk City loves Jimmy Carter" signs were displayed throughout the city.

Elk City residents had swept sidewalks, edged lawns, raked leaves and picked up litter.

Wade recalled that he and Carter had a glass of orange juice about 6:30 a.m. Sunday before Carter did sit-ups and went out to run four miles at the city airstrip, riding in an ordinary car rather than his presidential limousine so as not to attract attention.

"When he came back, he showered and dressed and we had breakfast, at which he said grace," Wade told a reporter shortly after the visit. "We discussed some areas such as possible deregulation and decontrol of oil, the possibility of raising target prices on wheat, which are important issues in Oklahoma."

And then they went to church. Carter has taught Sunday school in a Baptist church in Plains for many years.

After church, Wade rode in the presidential limousine with Carter back to the Air Force Base, and the president flew to Dallas for another meeting.

It was the first visit ever of a president to Elk City.

It was an event that won't be forgotten soon.

Like this column? Read all the columns in the Only in Oklahoma series from the Tulsa World Archive.
Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton Tulsa World Staff Writer Follow Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton 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

Charity Hargrave, Brittany Miller and Kyleigh Brewer do not know yet whether they have made an impact on the test scores of 77 Skelly students over the last three weeks.

But they are hopeful.

Its exciting, but I do feel the pressure, Hargrave said.

The examination window for the Oklahoma State Testing Program opens Monday for students in grades 3-8 across the state.

Among the demands placed on Tulsa Public Schools to retain its accreditation is that at least half of its students score at least at a basic level on the English language arts portion of state tests this spring or increase the number of students meeting that threshold by at least 5%.

With the districts own projections earlier this semester indicating a need to accelerate academic progress for 700 students to reach the latter goal, Hargrave, Miller and Brewer are among the 45 TPS teachers who opted to participate in the Oklahoma Teacher Empowerment Program and work with about 1,100 additional students in small groups after Spring Break to review and prepare for the English Language Arts portion of the Oklahoma State Testing Program.

Packed learning sessions

Hargrave normally teaches fourth grade at Skelly. Since Spring Break, she has had six sessions each with groups of five to six fifth-grade students at a time who are pulled out of class for review time.

Each session is kind of packed, she said Tuesday after working with a group of multilingual learners on point of view and reviewing synonyms and antonyms. And I really hope to go over Greek and Latin root words with them. And I hope to be able to do it, but I dont know if theyre going to allow us to continue meeting with them or not.

We really need to. I would like to cover more with them.

Some of Hargraves charges are her former students, which helped her determine groupings a little faster and forge connections. However, she acknowledged that not every OTEP teacher had that luxury, including the pair of teachers working in the next room over with groups of third- and fourth-graders.

Additional challenges

Miller and Brewer are partner Montessori teachers at Eugene Field. Their classes are too young to sit for the Oklahoma State Testing Program and they initially applied for the program thinking that they would be able to work with older students at the westside school.

Instead, in order for the pair to stay together, they wound up across town at Skelly. Although they both enjoyed working with new students and appreciated getting to meet colleagues from another school, the location shift brought additional challenges that had to be addressed first, including figuring out sight unseen where their new charges were academically and how to connect with them.

For me, those first two days, there was no instruction, Brewer said. I had to maximize, especially that first meeting, just getting to know them. A child is not going to learn from you if they dont have a relationship with you.

Once they were able to build some semblance of rapport, Brewer and Miller said they did their best to go over some of the state standards, but without more time to properly dig in to the students needs and academic backgrounds beyond a handful of test scores, it was difficult to gauge how much ground they really covered.

Honestly, it felt like a big cram session to me, Miller said.

Handing off classes

In addition to coming up with lesson plans for their small groups, participating teachers also had to be prepared to hand their classes off to substitute teachers.

As part of the districts participation in the program, the Oklahoma State Department of Education pledged to send employees with teaching certificates to cover participating teachers classes while they were working with those small groups.

According to documents obtained via an open records request, 16 OSDE employees are substitute teaching in OTEP teachers classrooms around the district, including Hargraves.

Among the certification areas represented by those employees are early childhood education, grades 5-8 English language arts, elementary education and business education. Four have a special education certificate, and one has a speech language pathology certificate.

However, Miller and Brewer said their students had an OSDE substitute only one day while they were at Skelly. With coverage help from two teacher assistants, that substitute floated between their classes, they said.

The remaining classrooms across TPS were covered by long-term substitutes through Kelly Services, the staffing agency used by TPS to coordinate substitute teacher placements. Those substitutes, said TPS Chief Learning Officer Erin Armstrong, have been based at specific campuses all year and were moved over to cover the same classes each time they filled in for an OTEP teacher.

Armstrong also said that the district initially expected more substitutes to come over from OSDE and that number remained in flux after the program started, with one OSDE employee dropping out after the first week.

I had someone from my team step up and come in to cover at Central High School so those two teachers could continue to participate, Armstrong said, noting that another position was covered for a week through a staffing agency contracted by OSDE.

OSDE spokesman Dan Isett said via email Tuesday that the agency is not paying for substitute teachers to cover TPS teachers participation in OTEP. Isett did not respond to follow-up inquiries about why the agency did not cover the cost of the needed substitute teachers or send enough staff to cover all OTEP teachers classrooms as initially touted.

A TPS spokesman confirmed Friday night that the expenses associated with those substitute teachers are covered by the districts contract with Kelly Services, which is paid for with COVID-19 relief funds.

Evaluating program

In the interim, Armstrong said the district will be reviewing students test scores later this spring as part of its efforts to gauge whether TPS will participate in OTEP again or make modifications in the future.

With the testing window about to open, Hargrave said she does acknowledge that the exams are coming and that although shes feeling a little pressure, she does not want her students  either in her regular classroom or any of her small groups  to feel it.

What I tell them is that theyre ready for this, Hargrave said. Thats just kind of the way I approach it. I do bring it up. Hey, you got this test coming up and guess what? Youre going to be ready and this is why. This is why youre already going to be ready for it.

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March video: Tulsa Public Schools improvement efforts praised by state superintendent.
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The Tulsa Fire Department battled a two-alarm fire at the Village At Brookside apartments near 41st Street and Peoria Avenue late Friday.

TFP reported that fire crews were working the fire that involved three buildings just after 10 p.m. Eleven engines, four ladder trucks, two district chiefs, a rehab unit, an EMS officer, air unit and a large TPD presence as well as the Red Cross were on the scene.

TFD reported that a total of 33 apartment units were uninhabitable.

Andy Little of TFD said that the cause of the fire is still under investigation and no injuries have been reported.

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Melissa Jacques Tulsa World Capitol Bureau Staff Writer Follow Melissa Jacques 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

OKLAHOMA CITY  Recent rules adopted by the Oklahoma State Department of Education are void and unenforceable, Democratic lawmakers say.

Democrats from the House of Representatives and the Senate held a press conference Thursday to address their concerns about the way Superintendent Ryan Walters is running OSDE, particularly around the creation of rules that Democrats claimed go beyond the authority of the state superintendent.

Senate Minority Leader Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, said the attorney general has released an opinion making it clear that a state agency may only exercise power expressly granted to it under law and no agency can expand its own powers on its own, which is exactly what the State Board of Education is trying to do with the new rules.

Dan Isett, the OSDE communications director, responded to Democrats concerns, saying: There is broad constitutional authority vested in OSDE that grants it the ability to act in the best interest of Oklahoma students. Additionally, there is existing statutory authority underpinning the State Board of Educations rulemaking process, and that has been followed to the letter of the law. Oklahoma parents and Oklahoma voters have demanded better of our schools and of the agency, and that is what Superintendent Walters is delivering.

Rep. Melissa Provenzano said state agencies are directed not to make new laws through the rulemaking process.

That responsibility belongs to the Legislature, and we must reject any attempts by an agency to assume that role, Provenzano, D-Tulsa, said in a press release. Many of the rules submitted by the State Department of Education appear to cross that line, and the Legislature must push back on that effort. Leave the lawmaking to us.

Provenzano said the rules that concern her most redefine accreditation standards created by the Legislature.

Accreditation is the process by which the State Board of Education determines whether schools have met a whole host of minimum state standards and should be authorized or recognized by the state for another year.

In February, the Oklahoma State Board of Education approved an administrative rule change that would extend a demand to other districts and charter schools starting with this years test results similar to the one placed on Tulsa Public Schools: have at least half of all students test at a basic level or higher in both English and math or face an accreditation deficiency.

That change is still subject to approval by either the state Legislature or the Governors Office. If it had been in effect for the 2023-2024 school year, the accreditation status of more than 60 districts and charter schools statewide would have been impacted.

Along with Oklahoma City and four Tulsa-area charter schools, that list includes a mix of dependent and independent, suburban and rural districts across Oklahoma.

For example, an analysis of state report card data shows that five of the 12 school districts covering at least a portion of Adair County had at least half of their students test at a below basic level in 2023. A sixth had 49% score at a below basic level.

Its important to understand that stripping accreditation from a school can shut down that school and could have a devastating economic impact on our local communities. Staff lose their jobs. Kids need to find a new place to go to school. This is not a decision that must be made casually, Provenzano said.

During the press conference, the Democrats from the House and Senate were asked about the apparent loss of staff the OSDE is currently experiencing, including the resignation of the agencys general counsel, Bryan Cleaveland.

I think it should cause every Oklahoman to be concerned about whats happening within the department and whether or not Ryan Walters is actually doing the job that Oklahomans elected him to do, said Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City.

When House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, was asked about OSDE and Walters performance during his press availability Thursday, he said, If we have schools out there saying that theyre not receiving, you know, services and whatnot communication from the department, that would rise to the level of some legislative considerations and scrutiny.

When asked to clarify what it would take for the Legislature to investigate or impeach Walters, McCall said, its gonna have to be a high level of failure before lawmakers would consider taking action against an official elected in a statewide election.

House Democratic Leader Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City, released a statement calling for the Legislature to hold Walters accountable.

Under the state superintendents leadership, we have seen firsthand how his incendiary language has impacted students and teachers, not to mention the ongoing criminal investigations into the alleged financial mismanagement from the State Department of Education, Munson said. We need to stand together for the betterment of our public education system, students, teachers, staff, and all of Oklahoma in holding the State Superintendent responsible.

Staff writer Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton contributed to this story.

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February video: State Superintendent Ryan Walters on rule tying school accreditation to student test scores.
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About five months before Benjamin Franklin died, he wrote to French scientist Jean-Baptiste Le Roy in November 1789 with worries about his friend, since the French Revolution had sparked earlier that year.

Franklin was a star in France while securing its support and financing during the American Revolution. The letter, written in French, provided big news: the U.S. Constitution was ratified the previous year, and a new American government was operating.

Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes, Franklin said.

Ah, the famous quote about taxes. It was taxation without representation that gave the American cause momentum. The revolution didnt eliminate taxes, it only ensured that the new nation would have self-determination.

Its worth noting that taxes went up after the revolution in order to pay off debts. War is expensive.

Monday is Tax Day, when 160 million individual and business returns are expected to filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

Each year, I drop off our taxes with a preparer and feel like Im entering a lottery. After tinkering with paycheck withholdings with best estimates, the anxiety remains on whether Ill end up with money back or a bill to pay. Only once has my return broken even.

On the whole, I get a pretty good return on investment. My life has been enriched with taxpayer funded programs, from my public education to having food safety in stores and restaurants. My payments bring the protection of police and firefighters, clean and running water, paved roads, and recreation through parks, museums and performing arts centers.

Even the services I dont use  such as food assistance or veterans benefits  create a better community for everyone. Im fine with that.

As a colleague likes to say, I havent used the Tulsa County jail one time, and I still have to pay for it.

The Pew Research Center found some interesting thoughts and tidbits about U.S. taxes.

Unfair taxation: About six-in-10 U.S. adults say theyre bothered a lot by the feeling that some corporations (61%) and some wealthy people (60%) dont pay their fair share. Those feelings are heavier among Democrats than Republicans.

About two-thirds (65%) support raising tax rates on large businesses and corporations, and 61% back higher tax rates on households with annual incomes over $400,000. Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to say these tax rates should increase.

Fair share: About 56% of Americans say they are paying more than their fair share of taxes. Thats up from 49% in 2021. About one-third say they are paying about the right amount, and 8% say they are undertaxed.

Confusing system: About half (53%) of taxpayers express frustration about the tax code complexity. This was a top grievance among Republicans at 59%, compared to 49% of Democrats.

People paying up: Individual income taxes are the federal governments largest source of revenue, bringing in about $2.5 trillion annually (49% of total receipts). Social Security taxes (including disability and retirement programs) come in next at $1.2 trillion (24% of income). Corporate taxes bring in $612.8 billion (12% of the total), and excise taxes (transportation trust revenue and taxes on tobacco, alcohol and oil) remit $99.7 billion (2%).

Human costs: Most federal tax dollars fund an array of social programs that include Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, education, health and income security. Taken together, that costs about $4.6 trillion (66% of the budget). About 13% ($907.7 billion) will go to defense, 13% ($888.6 billion) will repay net interest on government debt, and 10% ($726.9 billion) will fund everything else, like energy, transportation and agriculture.

E-filing: At least 94% of individual filings are expected to be filed electronically. Thats up from 52% in 2005. For years, Americans rushed to post offices to beat the clock on the tax deadline. Now people do so from a computer, smartphone or tablet screen.

Unpopular: Slightly more than half of Americans (51%) have an unfavorable view of the IRS, while 42% have a favorable view. The partisan divide is stark, with only 29% of Republicans with favorable views, compared to 53% of Democrats.

Those perspectives are likely clouded by opinions on taxation itself, though the IRS  and the Oklahoma Tax Commission  doesnt determine the tax rates or how taxpayer dollars are spent.

This seems an unfair characterization. Tax agencies are the enforcement arms of what lawmakers decided, not unlike police agencies. If they are under-resourced, then it becomes easier for those with means to escape paying their fair share.

Oklahoma gets a good amount back from the U.S. government, ranking 23rd among federal dependency, according to WalletHubs analysis of federal taxes paid by state, share of federal jobs and federal funding as a share of state revenue. A Money Geek review puts the state at 20th.

Taxes fund our communities in public infrastructure and essential services. Americans fought for representation in taxation, so its a responsibility to pay our portion.

If you dont like the tax rate or spending choices, thats why we have elections. Never underestimate the power of a ballot. Plus, our taxes pay for those elections.

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The Horasis China Meeting 2024 will take place in Binh Duong Province, southern Vietnam between April 14 and 16, acting as a bridge for hundreds of Chinese companies and investors to sound out business and cooperation opportunities in the province.

The event, co-held by the provincial Peoples Committee, Horasis - an independent, international think tank, and the China Federation of Industrial Economics, will be attended by hundreds of local and international enterprises, an official from the provincial administration told a press conference to announce the organization of the meeting on Friday.

After the launch of a freight train service between Binh Duong Province and China last year, the door of exporting the provinces farm produce to the latter was deemed to be wider, Mai Hung Dung, vice-chairman of the provincial Peoples Committee, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

More cooperation activities are expected to boost two-way trade between the province and China, Dung said.

Binh Duong Province accounts for over 10 percent of the countrys total export revenue.

Besides, Song Than Station, located in Di An City under the province, is the first train station in the southern region to play a role in boosting farm produce transport to China.

Dung also revealed that a delegation of the provincial administration had previously paid a working visit to China.

The two sides will sign multiple memoranda of understanding to spur their partnership on customs issues and logistics, facilitating the cooperation of companies in the two nations, he underlined.

Attendees at a press briefing on April 12, 2024 to announce the launch of the Horasis China Meeting 2024 in Binh Duong Province, southern Vietnam. Photo: Ba Son / Tuoi Tre

Frank-Jurgen Richter, chairman of Horasis, said that amid the ongoing global uncertainties, Vietnams governance policies have smoothed the path for international firms to do business and expand their reach.

Richter assessed Binh Duong Province as a dynamic locality and a potential destination for investors.

Binh Duong was ranked among three largest recipients of foreign investment in Vietnam in 2023.

Over 4,000 foreign-invested projects are operating in the province.

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Many students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry (HCMUAF) were deeply moved by the thoughtful gesture of their lecturer, who brought soft drinks to class to offer relief from the sweltering weather earlier this week.

A series of photos and a short clip capturing the heartwarming moment of the lecturer at HCMUAF bringing drinks to class for his students has sparked a wave of praise and gone viral on social media since Thursday afternoon.

The images depict the male lecturer, identified as Dr. Le Quang Thong from the economics faculty, carrying an icebox along with plastic cups and soft drinks into the classroom, ensuring each student receives refreshment amidst the scorching weather.

Dr. Le Quang Thong from the economics faculty at Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry carries a bucket storing iced soft drinks that he prepared at home to his classroom to offer to students, April 11, 2024. Photo: Facebook

Many students expressed their gratitude for Thongs kind-hearted gesture, recalling instances where he had previously provided candies, books, and pens to the class.

Teacher Thong is so thoughtful; during lectures, he often presents pens to those who engage in classroom discussions, and at the end of class, he even treats the class to cakes, said Nhu Quynh, a student at HCMUAF.

Dr. Le Quang Thong from the economics faculty at Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry distributes iced soft drinks to his students, April 11, 2024. Photo: Facebook

Thong himself explained that the recent hot weather in Ho Chi Minh City prompted him to take action.

The soft drink distribution occurred during a class on Thursday that covered basic marketing concepts, catering to first-year students from various majors.

With temperatures soaring to 38-39 degrees Celsius, I couldnt bear to see my students suffer without access to drinking water in the stifling classroom, he said.

Students receive iced soft drinks distributed by Dr. Le Quang Thong from the economics faculty at Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry, April 11, 2024. Photo: Facebook

Many students were fatigued by the heat, and I felt sorry for them.

Thats why I brought an ice bucket from home and bought cups and soft drinks to distribute to the students in class.

The priority is for students to enjoy their learning experience.

Dr. Le Quang Thong from the economics faculty at Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry distributes iced soft drinks to his students, April 11, 2024. Photo: Facebook

School should be enjoyable for students to excel academically.

The drinks I provided were inexpensive, and each student only had one or two cups, but they were thrilled.

They mentioned feeling better and were more focused on their studies.

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Tourism improves villagers' life in SW China's Yunnan

Xinhua) 11:00, April 13, 2024

He Yuyue (L) takes photo of her father He Jielin and tourists at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin (R) poses for photo with his wife (L) and daughter at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Aug. 28, 2023. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin (R) shows the traditional skills of making tofu to a tourist at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 25, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin (L) introduces old items to tourists at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

He Yuyue (L) introduces Naxi ethnic group's Dongba paper to a tourist at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

An aerial drone photo taken on March 25, 2024 shows the Yulong Snow Mountain and Yuhu village in Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Yuyue (R) serves tea for tourists at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

He Jielin (front) shows tourists the layout of his yard in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

He Jielin puts on traditional costumes of Naxi ethnic group at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 25, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin writes in Dongba pictograph at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 25, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin (2nd R) guides tourists around Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Yuyue (R) helps a tourist put on traditional costume of Naxi ethnic group at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin (L) talks with a tourist wearing costumes of Naxi ethnic group in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 25, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin guides tourists to his home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Chen Xinbo)

He Jielin (2nd L), and his daughter He Yuyue (1st L) introduce Naxi ethnic culture to tourists at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

He Yuyue (L) introduces old items to a tourist at home in Yuhu village, Lijiang City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, March 27, 2024. Living in Yuhu village at the foot of the Yulong Snow Mountain, He Jielin has witnessed the changes in this ancient Naxi village.

From the 1980s to 1990s, He Jielin and his wife could only live off the land. Like other villagers, the couple made a living by cutting wood, picking medicinal materials and digging sand, which resulted in great damages to the forest and the environment. However, people in the village remained poor.

In 2004, as the village started to develop tourism, He Jielin began to raise horses and cattle, founded home inns, and gradually, his living condition was improved.

In June 2020, He Jielin renovated his old residence, turning it into the village's first museum on Naxi ethnic culture. Tourists were attracted to his museum to experience various activities related with local culture.

After studying in South Korea, He Jielin's daughter He Yuyue also joined the family business, running the museum together with his father.

"My father knows a lot about the Naxi ethnic culture, which attracted many tourists. I am also learning hard, so that I could spread the culture just like my father," said He Yuyue. Meanwhile, she also shares her daily life on social media in an effort to attract more young visitors.

Currently, the cultural museum of He's family has become a must-see attraction for tourists at Yuhu village. The father and the daughter hope they can earn 300,000 yuan (about 41,452 U.S. dollars) this year. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
A social worker denied a top job out of fear his Christian beliefs on marriage would result in him killing LGBT+ colleagues is seeking redress at an employment tribunal in a landmark case in the U.K.

When Felix Ngole, 46, applied as a mental health support worker at Wakefield Hospital in Leeds, recruitment firm Touchstone Support Leeds turned him down in May 2022 after discovering he had won an unrelated legal case over his right to freedom of speech.

Ngole had won on appeal in 2019 after the University of Sheffield banned him from a social worker training course for quoting Bible passages relevant to same-sex marriage in a Facebook debate. The court ruled that his Christian beliefs did not mean he would discriminate against anyone. Ngole returned to the university course and qualified as a social worker.

In the current case against Touchstone, the Christian Legal Centre said Ngole lost a second-round job interview for refusing to embrace and promote LGBTQ+ rights.

Dr. H. Eli Joubert, in support of Touchstone, told the tribunal that if LGBTQ+ service users discovered Ngoles Christian beliefs on gender and sexuality online, the result could be death to one or more of them, Christian Concern reported.

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Senior staff at Touchstone held a similar view about the supposed deadly consequences of Ngoles beliefs, according to Christian Concern. The Bible verse John 3:16 was said to be triggering to LGBTQ+ service users.

Touchstone lawyers emphasized Minority Stress Theory in their argument in court, which holds that minorities suffer stress from stigma and discrimination. The Christian Legal Centre argued that politely giving a different opinion about gender issues cannot be construed as causing psychological damage.

Ngole said that Touchstone had informed him he was the best candidate for the job before they suddenly found I was unemployable because they discovered that I am a Christian.

No one has ever told me that I have not treated them well in my professional experience, Ngole said. I have never been accused of forcing my beliefs on anyone.

Ngole said he had supported vulnerable people from all backgrounds, including LGBTQ+.

It was a brilliant interview; I was greeted warmly, and they were really kind to me, he said. I was offered the job, and they were already talking to me about my first day and who my line manager would be. When I received the email telling me that the job had been withdrawn, it was a shock. I was very confused and distraught, and I wanted to know why.

Christian Concern stated Touchstone bosses told him that his Christian beliefs did not align with the NHS recruitment firms inclusive employer status, and that employing him posed a risk to the companys reputation.

Touchstone also informed Ngole that as an employee, he would undergo compulsory LGBTQ+ training. He could not share biblical perspectives, although colleagues would be allowed to express LGBTQ+ affirming views.

Ngole tried to reassure Touchstone that he never forced his beliefs on or discriminated against anyone, but his job offer was withdrawn.

The reasons they gave for withdrawing the job offer were an attack on me and my faith, Ngole said. They made it seem that 100 percent of the people I would be helping would be LGBT, and that I had to pledge allegiance to the LGBT flag and forget about my Christian beliefs.

The social worker said employer discrimination against Christian beliefs was untenable, forcing people to promote an ideology that violates their conscience in the workplace.

There was no mutual respect, and no tolerance and inclusion of me and my beliefs whatsoever, Ngole recalled. If we get to the point where if you dont celebrate and support LGBT you cant have a job, then every Christian out there doesnt have a future. You can study as much as you like, but you will not have a chance.

Formerly an asylum seeker after fleeing Cameroon, Ngole said the U.K. was once a bastion of free speech and expression, but it has changed.

I was once an asylum seeker; I had no job, no home, but those in my community treated me with great kindness, he said. I have to show that kindness, not just because Im a Christian, but also because that is what I received.

Ngole gained the highest marks of any candidate in an equality and diversity assessment in a test in May 2022, according to Christian Concern.

I have no choice but to pursue justice again, because if this is happening to me, it will be happening to Christians and individuals from all beliefs and backgrounds across the country, Ngole said. I cannot deny my faith to get a job. One day I will leave this world, and I wont leave with anything other than my faith. I will be happy to be a cleaner, if need be, as long as I keep my faith and am right before God.

Ngole suffered direct discrimination, harassment and breaches of the U.K. Equality Act 2010, according to the Christian Legal Centre, which supports him in the case that began on April 2. Ngole seeks compensation and a recommendation that Touchstone alter its recruitment procedure to adhere to its objective as an inclusive employer and not exclude Christians from employment.

Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said that the case represented a dark and troubling precedent for Christians generally if employers were allowed to force employees to promote LGBTQ+ lifestyles.

If left unchallenged, it would see Christians who manifest their beliefs barred from working in the NHS [National Health Service] and other institutions, Williams said. Felix loves Jesus and the Bibles teaching, and you could not ask for a more compassionate mental health worker to support the most vulnerable in our communities.

The NHS and its providers need more social workers like Ngole, not fewer, she said.

The Court of Appeal judgment in Felixs case against the University of Sheffield was a major development of the law and must be upheld and respected in current and future Christian freedom cases, she said.

Williams suggested that Touchstone had been captured by prominent LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall, resulting in confident totalitarianism.

Viewpoint discrimination is escalating in the U.K. at an alarming rate, she said. We have seen in the recent cases of high street banks denying Christians and free speech advocates the right to a bank account how far organizations captured by Stonewall are prepared to go. Anyone who does not comply and celebrate LGBT ideology must become a non-person.
Check out the latest news in Vietnam today:

Politics

-- Acting State President Vo Thi Anh Xuan, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, law-making National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son have sent congratulatory messages to their counterparts in Laos and Cambodia on the occasion of the Bunpimay Festival of Laos and the Chol Chnam Thmay Festival of Cambodia.

Society

-- Prime Minister Chinh approved five consecutive days off for the upcoming Reunification Day (April 30) and International Workers Day (May 1) following the proposal of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs, according to an announcement released by the government office on Friday.

-- Quang Tri Province, north-central Vietnam will break ground for an airport project in June, and will put it into operation in late 2026, Vo Van Hung, chairman of the provincial administration announced on Friday.

-- Tien Giang and Long An Provinces are assessed as the most affected and exposed localities to salt intrusion in southern Vietnam this year, heard a conference held in An Giang Province on Friday.

Business

-- Tien Giang Province, southern Vietnam will hold a fruit festival in June in a bid to boost fruit sales and build fruit brands.

-- All fresh bananas displayed for sale at over 90 AEON stores in Chinas Hong Kong are imported from Vietnam, as they have replaced the fruit supplied by Taiwan, Singapore and the Philippines, heard a discussion Vietnam International Sourcing 2024 held in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday.

Education

-- A South Korean company had awarded scholarships worth US$1.08 million to over 3,250 university students in Vietnam as of 2023.

World News

-- Five years after a devastating fire, the restoration of Notre-Dame cathedral is nearing completion as the world's eyes turn to Paris for the Olympic Games. On the evening of April 15, 2019, the cathedral's roof burst into flames, reported Reuters.

-- Canada plans to ease a housing shortage by leasing public land to developers for construction of affordable houses under a plan unveiled by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday that aims to build nearly 3.9 million houses by 2031, according to Reuters.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
International tourists are showing high interest in tours to the countryside near Hoi An City, Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, during which they can experience life on local farms.

It's no longer uncommon to see groups of foreigners donning ao ba ba, a traditional garment of Vietnamese people, working on the rice fields in Cam Chau Ward, not far from the Hoi An Ancient Town in Hoi An City.

These tourists spend the day harvesting rice, bailing water, and riding buffalo.

Even tourists staying at high-end resorts, such as the ritzy Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai Hoi An, are taking part in such tours. Of course, travel companies are doing their best to launch VIP farm experiences for these wealthy groups.

Two foreign travelers experience farm life in Hoi An City, Quang Nam Province. Photo: B.D. / Tuoi Tre

During these tours, tourists can ride bicycles through rice fields, ride buffalos on canals, wear farmer clothes and non la (Vietnams conical leaf hats), bail water, plant rice seedlings, harvest rice, and screen rice.

I saw a buffalo in real life for the first time. It was a special feeling.

Everything I experienced in Hoi An was natural and ecological. I will return [to Hoi An] many more times, one French tourist exclaimed during a farm tour.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, green tourism and tourism in association with culture and environmental protection have become trends among international travelers to Vietnam.

Enterprises with long-standing brands and eco-friendly products and services have seen their customer bases surge.

Tours in which tourists can experience farm life have also seen their booking numbers rise.

A rice field on the outskirts of Hoi An City, Quang Nam Province. Photo: B.D. / Tuoi Tre

Tran Van Khoa, CEO of Jack Tran Tours, said the company serves tourist groups nearly ever day, the majority of which are from Europe, Australia, and the U.S.

Hoi An City welcomed over 1.1 million tourists and generated some VND1 trillion (US$ 39.7 million) in tourism revenue in the first quarter of this year.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Police in central Vietnams Quang Ngai Province have detained a local man who regularly distorted the countrys actual situations and incited opposition against the State of Vietnam through his livestreams on Facebook.

The man, 57-year-old Le Quoc Hung, was prosecuted on Friday on charges of making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam pursuant to Article 117 of the Penal Code, the provincial police department announced.

Along with the detention order, a house search warrant was also issued and executed for Hung on the same day.

The man had been found using many Facebook accounts to livestream contents against the State of Vietnam, deliberately misrepresented the nations situations, offended late President Ho Chi Minh, and incited people to claim for pluralism and a multi-party system in Vietnam.

In addition, Hung repeatedly received money from a number of overseas reactionaries who conducted sabotage against Vietnam, and let them regularly participate in his livestreams, speaking together opposing the Party and the State.

The provincial police department are expanding their investigation into the case.

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Border guards in Ha Tinh Province, north-central Vietnam have successfully dismantled a drug trafficking operation, apprehending two Lao suspects and seizing 44 bricks of heroin, 60,000 heroin pills, 10kg of crystal meth, and 10kg of ketamine destined for Vietnam from Laos.

At approximately 11:30 am on Thursday, officers intercepted and apprehended a vehicle with a Lao license plate, driven by 31-year-old Yia Song, and carrying 29-year-old Keo Song, both residents of Khamkeuth District, Borikhamxay Province, Laos, along National Highway 8A in Huong Son District.

Upon inspecting the vehicle, authorities seized 44 bricks of heroin, 60,000 heroin pills, 10kg of crystal meth, and 10kg of ketamine.

A Lao suspect (in red T-shirt) at the interrogation for testimony in Ha Tinh Province, north-central Vietnam, April 11, 2024. Photo: H.A. / Tuoi Tre

Initially, Yia Song claimed he was hired by a Lao individual to transport the drugs from Laos to Vinh City, located in the north-central Vietnamese province of Nghe An, for a fee of US$12,000.

Yia Song then enlisted Keo Songs help in exchange for a payment ranging from $2,000 to $3,000.

The case is currently under further investigation.

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This week Rafael Bonachela invites Virginia Trioli to see what a contemporary dance choreographer does.

Creative Types also features an interview with Kylie Minogue.

Rafael rehearses with his dancers at the Walsh Bay studios and feels the inspiration of Sydney Harbour under his feet. In his apartment, he shares the story of his early years: the eldest of four, he says he was born to dance, making up dances in the streets of his town La Garriga in Spain. His dancing caused tension in the home from the start. His brother, Ivan, says their father never understood Rafaels dancing and was very hard on him.

He left to study in Barcelona, and won an audition and a scholarship to Rambert Dance Company. He graduated to choreography but received cutting reviews. He gave choreography one more try and that show was seen by Kylie Minogue. She asked him to choreograph her now iconic 2002 performance at the BRIT Awards and then her entire Fever world tour. Kylie says she loved his work from the very start.

This was his first brush with Australia, but then Sydney Dance Company came calling seeking a new artistic director. His vision for the dancers was an energetic, youthful company that spoke to the expansive light and beauty of his new home.

His success has been immense: record crowds, a profitable company but his fathers approval always eluded him. His latest work, Somos, is the first that directly draws on his Spanish heritage. His brother Ivan says Rafael is the inspiration he shows his own boys in their quest to find their own path.

9pm Tuesday on ABC.




A doctor who was criticised by her bosses for poor communication skills blamed her lack of understanding of the 'British fascination with the weather'.

Dr Maryna Anatolyeva qualified in her native country of Belarus before moving to the UK and began working for the NHS in 2009. Between 2021 and 2022, as part of her training to become an ST3 grade doctor, she undertook placements at the Royal Preston Hospital and the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Training assessments highlighted Dr Anatolyeva's need to improve her communication skills and she subsequently brought an Employment Tribunal claim against St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and NHS England in which she argued that her neurodiversity should be treated as a disability.

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Documents published by the tribunal reveal that Dr Anatolyeva claimed that her career "is being jeopardised" and that she was being treated unfairly due to her "being different and having different thoughts, processes and perceptions".

The documents state: "In anonymised feedback from colleagues there are references to the claimants communication skills, and this is discussed. Reference is made to her communication being poor, but there is also discussion as to whether this may because of her nationality, in terms of her accent, or her 'thinking in Russian'."

In her impact statement Dr Anatolyeva, who is bringing claims of s claims of unfair dismissal, and age and race discrimination, said: "This is how it affects me, I am being religiously criticised and my career is being jeopardised, I am having unfair treatment at work for being different and having different thoughts, processes and perceptions."

The employment tribunal heard how "Maryna reported that her colleagues have commented on how Maryna does not maintain eye contact during conversation".

Following an assessment, a supervisor said: "Maryna told me that when she consciously tries to maintain eye contact, she feels like she is staring. Maryna added that she thought that maintaining eye contact during conversation was a British social norm.

"Growing up with her family in Belarus, this was not something she was taught was important.

"Maryna explained that she has found it challenging to adjust her communication style to fit in with the expectations of the British culture. This can include being overtly 'friendly' and 'making small talk'."

Following the hearing in October, Employment Judge Holmes found that Dr Anatolyeva had not proved that her neurodiversity amounts to a disability. The judge concluded that the difficulties were due to cultural or language difficulties after an occupational therapy assessment found she had no medical issues.

There will be a further preliminary hearing on May 17 at Manchester Employment Tribunal to decide if Dr Anatolyeva's claim should be struck out or if she should be required to pay a deposit in order to continue with her claim.
Northumberland man planning to sail the world in a boat he built from scratch with no experience





Sailing the world in a boat he built from scratch with no experience - that's how a North East skipper plans to spend 2025.

Adam Waugh, from Bolam, in Northumberland, has spent the last two years single handedly building a 19ft sailing boat from scratch, without ever previously constructing any part of a vessel. And in seven months he is due to sail the boat to Portugal before taking part in a race around the world.

He decided to take on the challenge after hearing about an event called the Mini Globe Race. The race sees up to 30 boat builders sail around the world in their creations, following the path of author John Guzwell who documented his international voyages aboard Trekka, a 21ft wooden sailing boat.

Adam, who heard about the race from a friend, said: "I thought I can't think of anything better to do so I thought I better have a go at it."

The 60-year-old added: "People either say you must be mad, you're insane. Or they say wow, that sounds amazing, can I come and have a look at it? It gets very strong reactions.

Adam Waugh on his boat 'Little Wren' -Credit:Iain Buist/Newcastle Chronicle

Adam started building the Class Globe 5.80 boat, named Little Wren, in his shed at home in February 2022. He said the most difficult part of the build was making sure that everything lined up properly at the beginning when the frames were made, because it is the main structure of the build and the boat would not be constructed correctly if the frame wasn't level and lined.

"That was probably the most diffIcult and stressful and at that point I was only a few months into it so I was still learning", said Adam.

He added: "The building was full of highs and lows. Some bits were fairly easy and very rewarding and quick wins and other bits took a long time. I was building in a shed at home and in the winter it was very cold."

Although Adam created the boat alone, he explained that a community of Class Globe 5.80 boat builders were always available online to offer help and advice when needed.

After months of hard work, the boat - which has been named after two wrens which lived in Adam's shed throughout the construction phase - was finally ready to be launched. He launched the self-funded 40,000 boat at Amble Marina last month, which he described as one of the most exciting moments of his life.

Adam Waugh on his boat 'Little Wren', which he built from scratch, at Amble Marina in Northumberland -Credit:Iain Buist/Newcastle Chronicle

Adam said: "I'm 60 years old and it has got to be up there as one of the most exciting things, mainly because it didn't sink! I had a few friends and family around to give me some moral support but it all went very well."

Now he plans to test the boat out at sea on a number of occasions before heading to Portugal in November for the qualifying passage of the Mini Globe Race, which Adam must raise around 3,000 to take part in.

The race itself will depart from Antigua in February 2025 and head to Panama. From there, it will take sailors to Fiji via a mystery island, Tahiti and Tonga.

The third leg of the race will venture to Cape Town via Darwin, Mauritius and Durban. Before the final leg of the race in December 2025 will return to Antigua via St Helena and Receife.

Adam said: "I haven't really thought much about the race because I've been concentrating so much on building the boat. There's still lots of preparation to do but I'm starting to get very excited about it. I've never sailed long distances like this before, so I am going into the unknown a little bit but I'm very much looking forward to it."

Updates on Adam's journey can be found via his Facebook page here.
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17 Indians onboard Israeli-linked cargo ship seized by Iran

At least 17 Indians are onboard the Portugal-flagged and Israeli-linked MSC Aries cargo ship seized by the Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) near Strait of Hormuz Saturday.

Saturday April 13, 2024 8:16 PM , Agencies

New Delhi/Tehran: At least 17 Indians are onboard the Portugal-flagged and Israeli-linked MSC Aries cargo ship seized by the Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) near Strait of Hormuz Saturday.

Confirming the presence of the Indians on the seized cargo ship, Indian officials in New Delhi said they are in touch with the Iranian authorities to ensure their safety and smooth release.

"We are aware that a cargo ship MSC Aries has been taken control of by Iran. We have learnt that there are 17 Indian nationals on-board. We are in touch with the Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and in Delhi, to ensure the security, welfare and early release of Indian nationals," news agency ANI quoted attributing to official sources.

MSC Aries departed from a port in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and was en route to Nhava Sheva Port in Mumbai, India.

MSC Aries is associated with the London-based Zodiac Maritime, a part of the Zodiac Group run by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer and his family, according to Al Jazeera.

The Moment MSC Aries is seized

Footage shows the moment Israeli-linked ship MSC ARIES was captured in the Strait of Hormuz pic.twitter.com/dWU71quIjY  Press TV (@PressTV) April 13, 2024

The seizure of the Israeli-linked cargo ship comes about ten days after seven Iranians, including two IRGC commanders, were killed in an Israeli airstrikes on Iranian consulate in Damascus. Earlier in the day, the United States had Iran will revenge the Israeli attack on its consulate in Syria.

Iran said MSC Aries was commandeered by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The ship has now been guided towards the territorial waters of our country, state-run IRNA news agency said.

Video clips from the deck of the vessel shared on social media showed soldiers rappelling down from a helicopter. The helicopter appeared to be a Soviet-designed Mil Mi-17, which is operated by the naval forces of the IRGC.

MSC confirmed there were 25 crew members on-board the ship. Besides the 17 Indians, other crew members include Filipinos, Pakistanis, one Russian and one Estonian.

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Last Thursday, April 11, rock 'n' roll legend Joe Grushecky announced the release dates of two new projects under Omnivore Recordings: his new studio album "Can't Outrun A Memory," out on July 12; and "Houserocker: A Joe Grushecky Anthology," out on May 24.

His upcoming studio album, for one, marks the first time Grushecky and his band released new material in over 7 years. It features 13 original tracks from the rock icon and an intense iteration of The Animals classic: "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place."

Along with the announcement, Grushecky shares an advance single off of his anthology: "Pumping Iron," saying in a statement: "Through all the years playing every type of gig imaginable, 'Pumping Iron' has become our signature song."

"We have never gotten tired of it, and it is a highlight of every show," he continued.

Joe Grushecky On 'Can't Outrun A Memory'

According to the veteran rock musician, his forthcoming new studio album "was a long time coming," adding, "But we worked through never losing sight that we were creating one of our best records."

"I believe we captured the band at its peak," he said, describing the 17-track pure rock and roll record that confirms Grushecky and his band's staying power despite decades of serving gritty and uncompromising music.

Available on double-LP, CD, and Digital, "Can't Outrun A Memory" is now open for pre-orders. For more information, click here.

In support of the release of this new project, Grushecky and The Houserockers will be hitting the road for a brief five dates across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia. In addition, the musical act will also hold a release show for their anthology on May 25 in Pittsburgh, PA.

Full list of upcoming Joe Grushceky tour dates:

May 25 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Bottlerocket *Anthology release show (sponsored by Iron City Beer and WDVE-FM)

May 31 - Connellsville, PA @ Yough River Rally

June 29 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe

July 20 - Asbury Park, NJ @ Wonder Bar

July 27 - Pittsburgh, PA @ City Winery *Can't Outrun A Memory album release show

August 3 - Vienna, VA @ Jammin' Java

A Rearview Sight With 'Houserocker: A Joe Grushecky Anthology'

Covering four decades of performances under many pseudonyms and bands, including Iron City Houserockers, Joey G., Joe Grushecky And The Houserockers, and under his own name, Grushecky's new anthology release is an intensive retrospect of the legend's best work.

His humble beginnings find him as a fan of The Beatles growing up in the bleak coal mining town of Biddle, Pittsburgh, the appearance of which at The Ed Sullivan Show spurred him to pursue his rocker dream with a guitar in hand.

By the late 1970s, Grushecky worked as a Special Education teacher during the day, only going out for gigs at night with his band at the time, the Iron City Houserockers. In 1979, however, the band hit big and was signed under Steve Popovich's Cleveland International.

Since then, Grushecky worked with a slew of iconic records, from his first album: "Love's So Tough" to his more recent projects with The Houserockers, which include productions and contributions from the likes of Mick Ronson, Bruce Springsteen, and Steve Vandt.

All of these and more are in the rock icon's expansive anthology, whose tracks are remastered by multiple Grammy-winner Michael Graves, and co-Produced by Joe's son and current Houserocker Johnny Grushecky, and multiple Grammy-winner Cheryl Pawelski.

This anthology, which includes comprehensive liner notes and Track-by-Track remarks from Grushecky himself, is now available for pre-order through this link. See what it offers by listening to the lead single, "Pumping Iron," right below.
2024 Polls: 6 Things to Consider Before Voting

The vote in your hands carries a tremendous responsibility, as it has the power to steer the country towards a safer future amidst the darkened horizons of our democracy.

Saturday April 13, 2024 9:19 AM , Rajkumar

This election will be critical in terms of its worldwide impact. The election of India, the worlds largest secular and socialist democracy, cannot be understood solely in terms of the countrys socioeconomic political framework. However, it has a significant and unique stake in shaping global events.

The world is witnessing a surge in nationalism across multiple nations, resulting in a downturn in the global economy and a loss of confidence in international organizations.

This decline in trust is impeding collaboration on critical issues, encompassing cross-border concerns like the emergence of neo-right-wing extremism, the incorporation of AI in nuclear proliferation, climate change, and disparities in development.

Presently, there is a significant absence of global leadership capable of collaboratively working out mechanisms for addressing both transnational and intergenerational challenges effectively.

While multiple countries go for election in 2024, the backdrop of the world situation is not something encouraging. The world is gridlocked in global dysfunction, in the word of UN Secretary General Guterres. When there is a greater demand for collective action among the global leaders for peace and justice, the scope of collective action is shrinking drastically.

Nationalism can be defined as an ideology where individuals strongly believe in the superiority of their nation over others, often based on shared ethnicity, language, religion, or culture. This belief in national superiority can lead to dangerous outcomes in the context of the increasing necessity for global sustainable development and collaborations.

Nationalism can hinder international cooperation by promoting a narrow focus on ones own nations interests at the expense of global unity. It may fuel conflicts, undermine trust in international institutions, and impede efforts to address transnational challenges like climate change and inequitable development that require collective action beyond national borders.

In a world where interconnectedness and collaboration are crucial for addressing global issues, excessive nationalism can hinder progress towards sustainable development goals and impede the formation of effective international partnerships.

A conventional election in a country is to select a strong and dedicated leadership to manage the country. However, the objective of the election24 has evolved into a new dimension as well.

Now, it is not only about selecting the best leaders for India, but also about electing visionary leaders who can collaboratively shape the worlds future with unwavering collective conviction, while demonstrating their ability to restore peace, harmony, and inclusive development in India.

Once recognized as a consistent contributor to global leadership, Indias legitimacy and image as a significant player have diminished. The global diplomatic discourse, which once eagerly awaited Indias stance and standpoint, now regards it with skepticism and scrutiny on various parameters.

This decline in Indias global influence and reputation is a cause for alarm, given the critical need for international cooperation and collaboration in addressing pressing global challenges.

Determining whether the situation arises from domestic governance shortcomings, a deficit in forward-thinking diplomacy on global matters, or a combination of both is a complex challenge. This juncture is where the Modi administration has positioned India.

The Modi regime has been persistently portraying a positive image of India to the world while at home, the federal democratic canvas is marred by the bloodstains of hatred and corruption that has gained institutional status, such as the electoral bond scheme.

The media, once bold, has been reduced to a subservient role, often referred to as Godi media. Indias role is not merely as a supply chain for the world but as a moderator of democracies, which is an inevitable responsibility.

To regain its status, India needs a strong government that can restore good governance, harmony, democracy, and freedom within its borders, as well as objectively and constructively influence the global decisions, towards peace and justice.

Dear voters of election 24, the democratic government in India holds great significance for the future of the world.

The vote in your hands carries a tremendous responsibility, as it has the power to steer the country towards a safer future amidst the darkened horizons of our democracy.

Your vote can also contribute to shaping the world into a more habitable place. To fulfil this responsibility, it is crucial to consider the following critical issues:

1. Human Resource

Indias youth population is a valuable asset, but the current government lacks a progressive and strategic approach to developing and nurturing it.

To harness the potential of this demographic dividend, it is essential to liberate the youth from the shackles of illiteracy, unemployment, casteism, communalism, religious fundamentalism, and misogyny.

It is our duty to vote for a political alliance that has a specific and time-bound plan for the youths development.

2. Natural Resource

The Indian subcontinent is known for its globally significant ecological hotspots and rich biodiversity. However, successive governments have failed to care for and sustain these resources in a scientific and strategic manner.

The current regime has further neglected this responsibility, allowing corporate houses to over-exploit natural resources in almost all river basins in India.

It is our duty to ensure that we vote for an alliance with clear and robust plans to regulate corporate exploitation, protect and conserve natural resources, and develop a long-term roadmap for making river basins climate resilient.

3. Equitable Development, Gender Justice, and Human Rights

These are the cornerstones of any democracy, and recent incidents in India have raised serious concerns about their status. Instances of violence against women, attacks on human rights, and a lack of inclusive development are on the rise.

It is our duty to support political parties and alliances that have well-articulated ideas and plans for gender-balanced macro planning, inclusive development, and upholding human rights.

4. Agriculture Sector

The agriculture sector in India is in crisis, not because of farmers or the landscape, but due to neglectful public policies and a lack of understanding of the sectors intricacies among policy-making elites.

Irrigated agriculture plays a vital role in ensuring food security, while rain-fed agriculture sustains the nutritional and livelihood security of a vast majority of the rural population.

It is essential to vote for an alliance that prioritizes the needs of these two critical sections of the agriculture system and respects farmers. The alliance should also have a vision for reconnecting agriculture with local ecosystems using AI and other emerging digital tools.

5. Majoritarianism

The current state of affairs in India is deeply concerning due to the growing acceptance of religious majoritarianism. This trend cultivates a political environment of discrimination, leading to a dangerous escalation of hatred, violence, and fatalities.

The perceived sense of superiority and coordinated attempts to assert dominance and significance have made majoritarianism a looming threat to the fundamental principles of a republic and democracy. In the words of a great philosopher Vivekananda who spoke in San Francisco on May 29, 1900:

If loving your own people means hating everybody else, it is the quintessence of selfishness and brutality, and the effect is that it will make you brutes.

Furthermore, the philosopher warned that organized religions were a hundred times more evil than good, because they stop the growth of each ones individual development.

To restore Indias legacy of harmony and solidarity, it is essential to support a political coalition that is committed to inclusive policies and initiatives.

6. The Constitution of India

The enduring commitment of successive Indian governments to the values and spirit of the Constitution of India has been instrumental in establishing Indias reputation among world nations and global institutions. However, this reputation appears to be on the decline. Consequently, Indias space for voicing concerns on crucial global issues has been strained and narrowed.

To regain its glorious reputation, it is crucial for the country to choose a political coalition that is dedicated to protecting the Constitution of the Indian Union. This alone can enable India to correct its democratic journey at home and play a historical role in influencing the global development process. Therefore, it is imperative to be resolute in choosing leaders who will protect the Indian Constitution.

The issues highlighted in these passages are critical for the vulnerable people of India and other vulnerable countries. While these are some of the fundamental factors, there may be other crucial factors that have been overlooked.

The time has come to end chaos and confusion. Failing to choose the right leaders is akin to self-destruction. This is the moment to make an informed choice, not to miss. This is the opportunity to bring about a safe and secure future for the younger generation. Let our kids and youths have a nation that guaranties joy and equitable development. Do not miss out, dear voters.

[The writer, Rajkumar is associated with South India Volunteers Alliance (SIVA) and Institute for Climate Justice Action (ICJA). He can be reached at raj2024siva@gmail.com.]

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Indonesia cites Gaza to refute reports on ties with Israel

Amid the widely circulated reports that Indonesia has decided to normalise ties with Israel, the countrys Foreign Ministry refuted citing the situation in Gaza.

Saturday April 13, 2024 11:45 AM , ummid.com with inputs from Agencies

[A Muslim woman holds up a poster during a rally against Israel outside the US Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia. (File Photo: AP/Dita Alangkara)]

Jakarta: Amid the widely circulated reports that Indonesia has decided to normalise ties with Israel, the countrys Foreign Ministry refuted citing the situation in Gaza.

Israeli media a day ago reported that Indonesia has decided to normalise ties with Israel in its bid to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

'No relation with Israel'

The Foreign Ministry of Indonesia however refuted all such reports citing the grave situation in Gaza.

"I affirm that, as of now, there are no plans to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, particularly given Israel's actions in Gaza, Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Lalu Muhamad Iqbal said in a statement to Antara news agency.

The reports that Indonesia is planning to normalise relation with Israel came amid widespread anger against the far-roght Zionist regime in Israel over its actions against the civilians  mainly women and children, in Gaza, West Bank and other occupied Palestinian territories.

A number of countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) , have either suspended or revoked the diplomatic and trade relations with Israel following its genocidal military campaign in Gaza.

Against this backdrop, Israel media was over enthusiastic to report that Indonesia  a Muslim majority country, has decided to normalise ties with Israel. The Indonesian Foreign Ministry however has put to rest all such reports.

'Unwavering support for Palestine'

Iqbal also reiterated Indonesia's unwavering support for Palestinian independence within a framework of a two-state solution.

He emphasised that Indonesia remains consistent in defending the rights of the Palestinian people.

Indonesia which aims to become an advanced economy by 2045 started the OECD accession bid in February. It is the first country in Southeast Asia to do so, according to CAN.

Iqbal noted it typically takes 3 to 5 years for countries to become a member.

"The timing of Indonesia's full membership in the OECD is yet to be determined," he said.

Latest Gaza Updates

Meanwhile, reports coming from Gaza and West Bank Saturday April 13, 2024, said the Israeli Occupation Forces have continued with its brutal aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank.

According to the Ministry of Health in Palestine, Israeli forces escalated aerial bombings on Gaza on Eid al Fitr (April 10) killing over 100 Palestinians, majority of them women and children, in the last two days.

Israeli settlers have carried out multiple attacks across the occupied West Bank, killing one and wounding several Palestinians, burning cars and homes and shooting at Red Crescent ambulances.

The situation in Gaza has also worsened due to the Israeli blockade. The United Nations has warned that cases of waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea are increasing because people in Gaza cannot access clean water and the weather is getting warmer.

In a related development, protesters have marched through the streets of New York in a demonstration calling for an end to the war in Gaza on Saturday April 13, 2024.

New York, Washington and other parts of the United States and the world including London and Berlin, are witnessing strong protests against the Zionists regime in Israel since Oct 7, 2023.

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HA NOI  The State Bank of Vietnam will increase the supply of gold bullion to handle the existing huge difference in domestic and world gold prices, Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha told the press on Friday.

This is one of the bold solutions raised by the SBV after the Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh asked for prompt efforts to be taken to stabilise the domestic gold market, ensuring its transparent, healthy and efficient operation.

For the gold jewellery segment, the SBV will strive to ensure raw materials for production and export.

In addition, the SBV will increase cooperation with relevant ministries and agencies to ask enterprises to issue e-invoices for every transaction which will help improve transparency of the domestic gold market as well as the management efficiency, Ha said.

The supervision will also be enhanced to prevent smuggling of gold, speculation and gold price manipulation.

Inspection on the gold business of enterprises and credit institutions will be carried out this month, he stressed.

The SBV has proposed amendments to the Decree 24 on gold business management towards ensuring on-track development of the domestic gold market and efficiency in management.

The domestic gold prices have increased strongly recently to set new records, widening the gap with the global prices.

SJC gold prices were listed at VN82.8 million (US$3,310) for buying and VN84.8 million for selling per tael at 3pm yesterday to set new records, an increase VN900,000 per tael compared to Thursday trading session.

SJC gold buying prices have increased by 17.5 per cent and selling prices by 15.4 per cent from the beginning of this year.

At Bao Tin Minh Chau, plain gold rings are listed at VN75.78 for buying and VN77.68 per for selling per tael, an increase by VN1.3 million per tael over Thursday closing.

On Kitco.com, gold spot price increased 1.17 per cent to $2,399.20 per tael as of 3.05pm (local time). The bullion hit an all-time high for an eighth straight session on Tuesday

Bullion prices hit an all-time high for an eighth straight session on Tuesday after softer-than-expected US producer prices data boosted hope for US rate cuts this year. Year on year, gold is up around 16 per cent as central banks are stocking gold, seeing gold as a safe haven during time of economic and international turmoil.

At a recent meeting about gold market, the PM asked the State Bank to promptly implement solutions effectively manage the gold market, especially handling the existing huge gaps between SJC gold prices with the world prices.

The focus will be on ensuring supply of raw materials for the production and gold bullion and jewellery and increasing the export of gold jewellery.

The PM also asked inspections to be enhanced on gold business to prevent smuggling, speculation and price manipulation. Violations must be strictly handled.  VNS
HCM CITY  A survey of various generations and demographic groups in Viet Nam revealed a tapestry and variety of priorities and desires for their holiday homes, reported the Holiday Homes Outlook Report for Asia Pacific by Booking.com.

The report which surveyed 11,000 homeowners and holiday seekers across APAC, uncovered evolving trends in the short-term rental sector from seven countries across the Asia-Pacific including Viet Nam, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, and China.

In particular, the report offers valuable insights into the preferences and unique home features that attract different generations of holiday home seekers from over 1,000 respondents aged 18 and above in Viet Nam.

In Viet Nam, for Gen X, who were born from 1965 to 1980, the allure of fair pricing and immaculate spaces is prioritised, with about half of those surveyed favouring cost-effectiveness and cleanliness in their accommodation.

Millennials, on the other hand, crave a holistic vacation experience, with about half saying they balance affordability, safety and the convenience of local attractions. With an eye for aesthetics and personal touches, they are drawn to homes that promise a unique stay - be it by the beach or nestled in the hills.

Meanwhile, Gen Z has a penchant for safety and unique homes which dictate their choices, with a notable inclination towards pet-friendly options, the novelty of tiny homes, and glamping adventures.

Across the board, all generations agree on the need for transparency and reliability in their holiday havens, with each seeking a sanctuary that resonates with their individual expectations and wanderlust.

Varun Grover, Country Head, Vietnam at Booking.com said: In recent years, we have witnessed a growing trend and desire to stay in holiday homes, driven by the unique features that appeal to travelers. Today's travelers seek more than just a place to stay; they crave personalised experiences tailored to their individual preferences.

In another report, Booking reveals that in an era where stress and sleep disorders are on the rise, sleep tourism has emerged as a transformative solution that fuses the allure of travel with the essential need for quality sleep.

The Booking.coms Travel Predictions 2024 revealed that nearly two-thirds of APAC-based travellers want to travel in 2024 to solely focus on uninterrupted shut-eye. This trend is particularly strong in China where 83 per cent of travellers seek vacations focused solely on uninterrupted sleep.

Viet Nam ranked seventh out of ten with 67 per cent of travellers wanting to seek sleep-focused retreats in 2024.

In an ever-hectic world, sleep is fast becoming a precious commodity, with sleep tourism a major trend as forecasted in our Travel Predictions 2024 report. With nearly 67 per cent of Vietnamese travellers surveyed seeking sleep-focused retreats in 2024, a shift towards prioritising rest is evident. In response, resorts and hotels in Viet Nam and around the world are offering amenities and services to help guests get a healthy dose of rest, Grover said.

a Lat, a Nang, Tam ao are three destinations that Booking.com has suggested to travellers to foster relaxation and to feel relaxed and rejuvenated.  VNS
HCM CITY  A conference held in HCM City on April 12 discussed the advantages digital transformation and adoption of innovative technological solutions confer on the textile and garment industry.

The Superior Choice of Vietnam's Textile and Garment Enterprises for Sustainable Development conference was held as part of the SaigonTex and SaigonFabric 2024 exhibition organised by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) and others.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai, deputy general secretary and head of the VITAS representative office in HCM City, told the conference that the Government recently approved a "Vietnam textile and garment industry development strategy to 2030, vision to 2035."

Its objectives include enhancing the production of high-quality items, building competitiveness in the international market and meeting domestic demand, she said.

VITAS representatives said one of the major solutions is digital transformation across the entire textile industry.

This requires enterprises to strategically shift their business and innovate their technology if they want to ensure competitiveness and sustainability, they said.

Tran Thi Ha, CEO of Pro-sports Trading Company, said though her company has used various software and digital transformation solutions, it has failed to meet customer requirements, especially in terms of transparency and integration with customer software systems.

Moreover, company management requires strategic decisions based on synchronised data sources rather than waiting for aggregation from multiple sources, she said.

Nguyen Thi Hong Phuong, deputy general director of Phong Phu International Joint Stock Company, said as her company grows and aims for sustainable development, it needs to standardise management and production operations based on synchronised databases.

When deploying digital transformation solutions, the company could easily manage the flow of goods from raw material imports to selling finished products, she said.

The company has been successful in digital transformation in the textile sector, and next plans it in other areas such as yarn, dyeing and fabric, she added.

Jatin Paul, CEO of WFX, said textile enterprises using various standalone software and so lack cohesion.

But WFX's solution offers comprehensive integration and could integrate with existing software, he said.

WFX is a global company operating in over 50 countries and territories that provide integrated software solutions for the textile industry.

The event was held at the Saigon Exhibition & Convention Centre (SECC) in HCM City.  VNS
SOC TRANG The Khmer people in Soc Trang Province are preparing to celebrate the traditional Chol Chnam Thmay, an important festival for the ethnic minority group in Viet Nam.

Soc Trang has a large number of Khmer ethnics, accounting for more than 30 per cent of its population. In mid-April every year, the Khmers here celebrate Chol Chnam Thmay, which falls on April 13 to April 16 this year.

In the days leading up to festival, Khmer Buddhist followers clean and decorate their houses, while monks at pagodas clean and hang banners, flags, flowers, and other decorations, and prepare rituals for the festival.

The joy of welcoming this year's Chol Chnam Thmay has been accentuated by successful harvests in the province.

Lam Van Nam said his family cultivated a 13-hectare rice field during the recent Winter-Spring season. They successfully harvested the crop, yielding nine tonnes of rice per hectare.

After deducting expenses, his family earned nearly VN700 million (US$27,900) in profit, an increase of VN200 million compared to the previous season.

He also said that the recent Winter-Spring season brought joy not only to his family but also to many Khmer households in the village. With successful harvests and favorable prices, the lives of the villagers have become more prosperous, enabling them to celebrate the event with greater abundance than before.

Over the years, the lives of the Khmer ethnics in Soc Trang have seen great improvements, thanks to the efforts of the local authorities and the State.

Ho Thi Cam ao, deputy secretary of the Provincial Communist Party Committee of Soc Trang, said that the number of impoverished households among the Khmer community has decreased to 3,937 households, accounting for 3.86 per cent of the total.

Local authorities have effectively implemented social security policies, ensuring timely provision of both material and spiritual support to the Khmer community.

Khmer households in the area have access to electricity, communes and towns have roads accessible by vehicles, and all hamlets have rural roads constructed with concrete.

The Chol Chnam Thmay, also known as the Khmer New Year, is the biggest festival of the year for over 1.3 million Khmer people in Viet Nam.

The origin of the festival is explained by a legend related to the transition of religion from Brahmanism to Buddhism, revolving around a contest of wits between the Great Brahma (Kabul Maha Prum) and Thom Ma Bal, a previous incarnation of the Buddha.

It is also celebrated in other countries such as Laos, Cambodia, Brunei and Thailand.

In Can Tho City local officials visited the Khmer residents on April 12 and offered best wishes, as well as giving gifts to monks.

Meanwhile, Bac Lieu Province officials visited several pagodas, giving monks their best wishes and gifts on April 11.

These regions have been creating favourable conditions for the local Khmer people to develop, improve their livelihoods, practice their religion, as well as preserving their traditional culture. VNS
QUANG NINH  A photo competition on Vietnamese Buddhism has been launched, inviting all photographers in Viet Nam and abroad to send their entries.

Entitled Buddhism in Life" with the theme Tinh Hoa Phat Giao Truc Lam Nhap The (The Essence of Truc Lam Zen Buddhism Participates in Life's Affairs), the contest has been organised by the Quang Ninh chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) in collaboration with the Vietnamese Association of Artistic Photographers, and the Ngoa Van Yen Tu Cultural Tourism Company.

The event is to commemorate the passing of Zen master Phap Loa  the second founder of the Viet Nam Truc Lam Zen Buddism, and in anticipation of the 716th anniversary of nirvana attainment of of King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong (13082024).

The contest aims to honour the invaluable heritage left by King Tran Nhan Tong at the sacred complex of Am-Ngoa Van Pagoda. It also celebrates the unique values of the Vietnamese Buddhism and the concept of Truc Lam Zen Buddhism in the nation's unity and development.

The event also promotes the distinctive values of the ideological and cultural heritage, passing on the teachings of kindness and the connection between the religious belief and daily life of King Tran Nhan Tong and the Truc Lam Zen Buddhism to different generations.

Venerable Thich ao Hien, Deputy Head of the Management Board and Chief Secretary of Quang Ninh chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) said that alongside the photos depicting moments of daily life and charity activities of Truc Lam Zen Buddhism, the competition also welcomes the entries showcasing the natural beauty of the Am-Ngoa Van Pagoda, as well as images that convey the ideology of Truc Lam Zen Buddhism to the young generation today.

According to representatives from the Ngoa Van Yen Tu Cultural Tourism Company, any photographer who wishes take pictures at Am-Ngoa Van Pagoda will receive free cable car tickets to various locations within the complex, tickets to sightseeing tours and free accommodation during their stay.

Entries must be sent to the website http://thianhphatgiao2024.com from now until October 15. The organises will select the best photos to grant one first, two second and three third prizes.

An awards ceremony and exhibition displaying prize-winning photos will be held at the end of November at the sightseeing complex of Am-Ngoa Van Pagoda in ong Trieu Town, Quang Ninh Province.

The Buddhism in Life photo contest was first held in 2020, attracting more than 670 photographers from 59 cities and provinces nationwide to compete. A total of more than 3,570 photos were entered.

Truc Lam Zen Buddhism  a line of Buddhist meditation imbued with Vietnamese culture, was founded by King Tran Nhan Tong in the 13th century. The King-Monk chose Ngoa Van Pagoda as the place to attain nirvana, thats why the place has been considered the holy land of the Tran Dynasty and Truc Lam Zen Buddhism ever since.  VNS
Dr. Phan Huu Thang, Chairman of the Vietnam Industrial Park Finance Association spoke to Hai Quan (Customs) online newspaper reiterating that the success of developing an industrial zone largely depends on the enterprises and entrepreneurs as well as the investors of the industrial zone

How do you evaluate the current status of investment attraction for the development of industrial zones?

Reflecting on the evolution of Viet Nam's industrial zone system and recent efforts to attract foreign investment, it's evident that a significant portion of foreign capital is directed towards these zones.

Annually, industrial and economic zones receive 60-70 per cent of the nation's total FDI, a figure that continues to climb. This underscores the pivotal role these zones play in Viet Nam's economic landscape.

Despite a 32-year development journey since the establishment of Viet Nam's first NOMURA industrial zone in Hai Phong City in 1992, progress has been marked by fluctuations influenced by external factors like capital sources, market conditions, and political factors.

While Viet Nam's industrial zones have been instrumental in driving economic growth, there remain persistent challenges that demand swift attention and resolution.

What specific challenges exist in this issue?

These challenges include several facets, starting with the underutilisation of industrial zones, as evidenced by the 121 out of 414 zones currently undergoing land clearance compensation processes, resulting in a significant underutilisation of valuable economic land resources.

While strides have been made in enhancing the technical infrastructure of industrial zones, they still lack the modern amenities necessary to compete effectively on regional and international stages.

The prevailing development model of industrial zones remains multifaceted, primarily relying on land potential rather than embracing innovative models like high-tech or eco-industrial zones. This oversight hinders the fulfilment of international investors' demands for sustainable, environmentally friendly development, in spite of the path of Viet Nam's green economic initiatives.

Despite the Government's efforts to address housing shortages for industrial workers and the broader social housing dilemma, resolving these issues requires sustained, long-term strategies.

Although Decree 35/2022 N-CP has been enacted to streamline the management of economic and industrial zones, delineating clear definitions for various zone types, the establishment of green industrial zones geared towards waste reduction and environmental preservation remains encumbered by numerous challenges.

While regulatory frameworks and development guidelines for industrial zones have been outlined, they are dispersed across a multitude of legal documents, complicating administrative procedures and necessitating further streamlining.

Could you please explain the factors influencing the development of industrial zones? Which factor plays the primary role?

The essential factors for the complete and modern development of industrial zones include the State management mechanism. This encompasses development orientation, legal frameworks, and administrative regulations for procedures. Financial resources are also crucial for investment and business activities.

In addition to business interests, individuals and enterprises must fulfil obligations to the State, employees, and uphold high social responsibilities.

Lastly, leadership's vision is pivotal in evaluating trends comprehensively and finding the most appropriate and effective approaches.

The success of industrial zone development largely rests on the shoulders of enterprises, entrepreneurs, and investors themselves. While the State's role primarily involves refining the management and developmental mechanisms of industrial zones, with regulatory aspects serving as a cornerstone for the entire system, the remaining factors predominantly lie within the purview of enterprises and are contingent on the leadership's capabilities.

However, in the midst of the rapidly evolving scientific and technological revolution, companies must adapt to become digital enterprises. Digital transformation is no longer merely a distant vision but an imperative reality. Enterprises must equip themselves with the requisite knowledge and technical capabilities to participate in Vietnam's economy and the global digital transformation process, thereby avoiding stagnation.

Thus, the development of Viet Nam's industrial zone system is fundamentally driven by enterprise development and contributions, which are bolstered by the judicious leveraging of external capital to ensure investment quality and enhance national defence and security.  VNS
HA NOI  In celebration of Thailands Songkran Festival, Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong inh Hue has sent greetings letters to Thailands Speaker of the House of Representatives Wan Muhamad Noor Matha and President of the Senate Pornpetch Wichitcholchai on the occasion of the countrys traditional New Year festival.

In his letters, the top legislator commended significant achievements Thailand has obtained recently, wishing the nation even greater success and an enhanced regional and international role and status.

Hue also expressed his hopes for further development of the Viet Nam-Thailand enhanced strategic partnership, particularly the cooperation between their legislative bodies, serving the benefit of their people as well as peace, stability, and development of the ASEAN Community, the Asia-Pacific and the world.  VNS
TEL AVIV  The Vietnamese Embassy in Israel on April 12 recommended Vietnamese nationals residing, studying, and working in the Middle East country to proactively take security measures amid the escalating tension between Israel and Iran.

The escalating tension followed an April 1 attack on the Iranian embassy compound in Syria, which has raised concerns among international media and governments about the potential for direct confrontations between Iran and Israel. Israel's national emergency portal issued safety guidelines effective from 6pm on April 11 to 6pm on April 14.

The Vietnamese Embassy has advised the Vietnamese community to stay updated on the situation through reliable local media sources and safety-related apps, implement necessary safety measures, comply strictly with local regulations and guidelines, avoid crowded places, and maintain regular contact with the embassy.

For emergencies or further information on citizen protection plans, the embassy has provided direct contacts and hotlines for the community, as well as links to relevant websites of the host administration.  VNS
Word-famous electronic violinist and all-rounder Lindsey Stirling presented last Friday, April 12, the latest advance offering from her upcoming album: "Duality," a single featuring alternative artist Royal & The Serpent: "Inner Gold."

Lindsey Stirling's 'Inner Gold' Featuring Royal & The Serpent

The transcendent new single boasts strutting rhythms, luminous textures, and the gorgeously strange vocals of Royal in its telling of a triumphant tale exploring themes of deception and the indomitable spirit and sense of self-reliance gained in trumping it.

Alongside the arrival of the new song, Stirling also shared its official music video, which showcases the multi-talented artist's proficiency in dancing and non-verbal storytelling, urging viewers to follow their "inner gold."

Royal can also be seen starring alongside Stirling, basking in the radiance of the video's incredibly shot and processed visuals, courtesy of production company Green Glow Films, with direction from the artist herself and frequent collaborator Stephen Wayne Mallett (Furious 7).

The new single follows the release of "Eye Of The Untold Her" last month, the instrumentalist's whimsical approach to adventure and self-doubt. Both these recent tracks come off of "Duality,"

Stirling's collection of 12 songs showcases her refined musicality and gift for crafting "ear-worm" melodies." While both songs champion the notion of listening to the inner voice, "Eye Of The Untold Her" explores intuition, while "Inner Gold" traverses knowledge.

In commemoration of her upcoming record, Stirling also announced last month the North American leg of her 2024 Duality Tour, hitting up over 40 cities this summer.

This includes iconic venues like New York City's Radio City Music Hall, Red Rocks, Boston's MGM Music Hall at Fenway Park, Philadelphia's The Met, and Washington D.C.'s The Anthem. For more information visit: https://www.lindseystirling.com/tour.

As for "Inner Gold," you can now stream the track by clicking here or by watching the official music video right below.
HA NOI  The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development held a conference in Ha Noi on Friday to popularise the contents of new regulations on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing prevention and combat.

According to the Directorate of Fisheries, the Prime Minister has recently issued new regulations under the Fisheries Law which detail sanctions on administrative violations in fisheries.

Director of the directorate Tran inh Luan said that major new regulatory contents include more flexible administrative procedures in case of natural disasters or epidemics where it is impossible to organise on-site inspections and assessments serving the issuance of licences, certificates and approval of documents, reality assessments and supervision. In those cases, evaluation activities will be conducted online, along with the procedures for registration of aquaculture farming, and the announcement of the closure and opening of fishing ports, he said.

Regarding fishing boat monitoring, the decree clarifies the responsibility of central and local agencies in managing and use of the vessel monitoring system (VMS), as well as the responsibility of VMS suppliers.

The decree has an additional regulation on observers on Vietnamese fishing vessels operating in Viet Nam's territorial waters to create a legal framework to maintain and promote Viet Nam's seafood exports to the US.

It adjusts and supplements a number of regulations on controlling foreign vessels activities exploiting and transporting aquatic products originating from Vietnamese ports, and controlling seafood and aquatic products imported into Viet Nam.

Luan said the new regulations increase the prescription for sanctioning administrative violations in the fisheries sector to two years, along with stricter punishments on repeated violations, and the power of rangers on imposing punishments on violations of regulations on the protection of aquatic resources in national parks and conservation areas.

Heads of the Departments of Fisheries, Chairpersons of People's Committees of provinces, districts and communes, police, border guards, coast guards, customs, market management, fisheries inspection forces, forestry rangers, inspection and agencies assigned to perform specialised inspections are also permitted to handle such violations, according to the decree.

Addressing the conference, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung uc Tien said that with increasingly effective legal tools, all localities should work hard to join hands with central agencies in seeking the European Commission (EC)s removal of the yellow card against Viet Nams seafood exports.

The official noted that progress has been seen in IUU fishing prevention and combat, but there is still much work to do.

Localities should continue to focus on supervising their fleets, trace the origin of seafood products and strictly handle violations according to the new regulations, he underlined. VNS
Speaking at the AGM, Chung Ji Kwang, chairman of the boarda Traphaco, said, "Even though our performance did not meet 100 per cent of the 2023 plan, we were able to see some meaningful achievements for the future development of the company. In terms of business, the ETC business posted significant growth of more than 23 per cent against last year. Despite the current ETC business volume not accounting for a large proportion of Traphaco's total size yet, it is one of the most important functions that will lead to strong growth."

In addition, non-herbal products grew by 6 per cent against last year. The company also earned good revenue from pharmacy chains Pharma City and Long Chau. Meanwhile, business development products with Traphaco's main partners also exceeded the target and showed double-digit growth from 2023, including the first phase of technology transfer for its products.

"As a result of the restructuring that began in 2021, I believe that Traphaco families and major shareholders and external investors will acknowledge the performance of our innovative moves and strategies," the chairman said. "In addition to these business aspects, Trapahco has successfully implemented its digital transformation project to make our internal operations more transparent and effective."

Chung pointed out the core tasks Traphaco needs to accomplish. First is the EU-GMP upgrade project. In such a rapidly changing pharma market where continuous innovation and self-growth are inevitable, the highest level of GMP standard in the industry is not optional any more. Other competitors in Vietnam have already shown remarkable competitiveness in the field by upgrading EU-GMP for their facilities, and Traphaco cannot delay this project any longer.

Next, Traphaco will enhance its research and development (R&D) capabilities, including technology transfer. In the oriental medicine segment, the company has researched and launched high-end product lines. Last year, sales of premium oriental medicine grew five times compared to 2020, when Boganic Premium was first launched, proving that high-quality product lines have a firm place in the market.

Regarding the modern medicine segment, Traphaco is focusing on new technology products, bioequivalence, and its first generic drugs. These products are identified as high-quality western medicines, providing treatment for diseases with a large market and high demand, such as, cardiovascular, stomach, hepatobiliary, diabetes, and infections.

"The competitiveness of a pharmaceutical company is based on its R&D abilities. Traphaco has to demonstrate its excellent competitiveness in the R&D field through more technology transfer, and the development of generic and combination drugs. To facilitate this goal, we are ecruiting outstanding external R&D experts, investing more in internal departments, and enhancing our workforce," the chairman added.

In addition, Traphaco will focus on exporting products to the Southeast Asian market through Daewoong's global network.

Cha Jun Woo, a Daewoong director, said, "The performances that Trapaco has shown so far in Vietnam are truly amazing. Despite the sometimes stagnant economic situation in Vietnam, Traphaco's continued and steady growth shows its great strengths and capabilities.

I will do my best to accelerate technology transfer from Daewoong to Traphaco, expand the western pharmaceutical business, and increase Traphaco's global presence."

"With all my experience and knowledge in business development in the Southeast Asian market, especially in Vietnam, I will contribute to setting up a new path for a better future in terms of TRAs domestic/overseas brand awareness and value. Through this, I hope Traphaco will be not only the No.1 company in Vietnam in herbal medicine, but also gradually affirm its position in the ETC market with innovative western medicine products," he added.

At the AGM, shareholders approved a 40 per cent cash dividend payment for 2023 and set a minimum cash dividend plan of 30 per cent for 2024. They also greenlighted a growth target with consolidated revenue of VND2.5 trillion ($99.8 million), and consolidated after-tax profit of VND303 billion ($12 million), up 7 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively, from a year earlier.

Traphaco leverages sustainable values Traphaco has unveiled its new strategy to produce high-class products for traditional and modern medicines, reaffirming the quality and effectiveness of treatments in the Vietnamese market.

Traphaco: Sustainable development via a green value chain To realise its goal of sustainable development, Traphaco aims to establish a green value chain with an extensive distribution system to provide good quality, effective, and safe medicinal products.
CEDAR FALLS  Members of the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowas youth philanthropy program, Teen Trust, recently awarded $16,500 to nine local nonprofits.

The group is made up of 19 trustees from Black Hawk County high schools.

The nonprofits that received a grant include:

$3,000 to the Jesup Community School District for its Hope Squad Curriculum: school-based, peer-to-peer suicide prevention.

$2,500 to the Little Knights Learning Center for its capital building fund.

$2,400 to Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity for its student home building opportunity.

$2,100 to the Riverview Center for its LGBTQIA+ sexual assault/abuse survivors outreach and intervention.

$2,000 to Friends of the Family for care kits for street outreach by its Persons Experience Homelessness program.

$2,000 to The Job Foundation for its financial mentoring stewardship.

$1,500 to Bringing Your Families to Christ Ministries for its general operations.

$1,000 to the city of Janesville for its Free Books for Summer Readers program.

The trustees work as a team to decide which organizations to assist through financial aid and/or volunteerism by using a grant application system, site visits and training seminars.

The 2023-2024 trustees include Addy Breddin, Jade Brimm, Addie Carlson, Cameryn Davis, Leila Dizdarevic, Mary Flikkema, Annalise Gilbert, Sydney Grant, Laila Harris, Eliza Kirschenmann, Pranav Kota, Kaylee McSweeney, Sejla Mehmedovic, Carter Moses, Nadia Patel, Diya Pradeep, Sophie Showalter, Rachyl Stuelke and Daisy Williams. Grace Gerleman, a University of Northern Iowa student, is the student director.

The Teen Trust program is currently accepting applications through April 26 for high school students to serve on Teen Trust for the 2024-2025 season. More information and the online applications can be found at cfneia.org/teentrust.
By Grainne Ni Aodha, PA

The Tanaiste has rejected as absurd the suggestion that Irelands plan to recognise the Palestinian state would be akin to rewarding terrorism.

The Israeli ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, was asked about Ireland beginning discussions on recognising the state of Palestine on Newstalk radio on Friday morning, to which she replied: We ask  why reward terrorism?

Responding, Tanaiste and foreign affairs minister Micheal Martin said it was an absurd and unacceptable assertion to make.

There are many, many countries around the world over the years that have recognised the Palestinian state, he said, speaking at a party event on Friday

There was a time that Israel committed to its two-state solution, I think under (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu what we have witnessed from Israel is deliberate attempts to undermine the prospects of a two-state solution.

The failure to rein in settlers and settlements is evidence of that.

It is just wrong to make that assertion, I also want to make the assertion to the ambassador as well, I think the ambassador was very incorrect in saying that the Irish Government had not condemned Hamas as an organisation, we have, we have consistently condemned Hamas, the objectives of Hamas.

He said the ambassador had accepted that Mr Martin had condemned the heinous October 7 attack.

Israels Ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich at the Israeli Embassy in Dublin. Photo: Niall Carson/PA.

When asked when Ireland planned to recognise Palestine, Mr Martin did not give a timeline.

He said Ireland is working with other states with the aim of getting a group of countries together that would collectively and in a co-ordinated way together recognise the Palestinian state.

That work is continuing and I dont want to impose any timelines on other countries, he said, adding that he spoke to the Spanish, Norwegian and Slovenian foreign affairs ministers this week.

Asked about the partys decision not to invite the Israeli ambassador to the partys annual conference in Dublin this weekend, he said it was a party rather than a Government event.

This is a party Ard Fheis, not a Government Ard Fheis, the Fianna Fail leader said on Friday.

I met with the ambassador recently in my office, I had a lengthy meeting with the ambassador where I communicated the Irish Governments views in respect of our perspective in terms of whats happening in Gaza.

And it was a lengthy, respectful discussion.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin ahead of the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis, at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre. Photo: PA.

He added: I believe in diplomacy and I dont believe in expelling ambassadors.

I was asked over 12 months ago to expel the Russian ambassador, I was asked to expel the Iranian ambassador. If you take that to a logical conclusion, one could be expelling a lot of ambassadors in a given year.

But the importance of diplomacy is you keep the channel of communications open between governments through their diplomats, he said, adding that diplomats in Tel Aviv, Cairo and Jordan had been useful in getting citizens out of Gaza.

Thats what surprises me about political parties come forward calling for expulsions of diplomats, I think its a simplistic, shallow way, I think, of developing policy.
Speaking with Die Tageszeitung, Scholz:

Its about defending Europes peace order. Russia is waging an imperialist war and must not win, he told the outlet. Second: Russia stopped its gas deliveries, not us.  Scholz

Hmm

Really Scholz? So many lies in one statement. Yet the biggest there is  ??? Russia stopped its gas deliveries, not us. ???

Could the Western people actually believe what he says? Thus then we have

We all expect the hordes of barbarians from the USA, NATO and EU to finally attack sooner than later. Starving, degraded and driven barbarians by their own system. May God help us!  kKEETON

WtR
US-born war correspondent and Sputnik regular contributor Russell Bentley, working in the Donbass, has gone missing in Donetsk on April 8, the DPR Ministry of Internal Affairs reported on Friday.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the republic has issued Bentleys missing alert. Sputniks editorial office is collaborating with law enforcement agencies in his search.

Bentley looks about 60-65 years old, is 180-185 cm tall, of thick build, with gray eyes, and short gray hair. He was seen wearing a black T-shirt, moss camouflage pants, camouflage boots, and had a green bag with him, the ministry added.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240412/us-war-correspondent-and-sputnik-contributor-russell-bentley-missing-in-donetsk-1117883587.html
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Its time to call a spade a spade and assert that the Western Anglo-Saxons are under the sway of petty thieves, scam artists and Satan ideologies all who and claim to be protecting the entire world in order to obtain free financial and material resources

This is the reason that a criminal organization like NATO is kept in place, with military warfare and racketeering serving as its actual core source for energy

Without these means above to coerce humans, NATOs continued existence would be untenable

Thus, immoral and unfeasible activities, violent conflicts, death and theft are a necessity, not a luxury. This parasitic NATO would cease to have any purpose and no one would donate money to keep it running. So mafia style tactics must prevail. Except, I actually insulted the mafia, for they have honor within its ranks and NATO is honorless

I dont comprehend a basic concept: how can Russia interact with diplomatic delegates of any NATO Nations when you are aware beforehand that they are con artists, liars and immoral, muchless state out loud that they want you dead and take your country?

There is a point that you cross and you have to look in the mirror and say, Shame on me!

Time to completely wake up

WtR
Congratulations! Marriage isnt always a piece of cake, so significant anniversaries are worth celebrating with a getaway to fan the flames or rekindle the spark.

Here are eight destinations in the U.S. and abroad to consider for your 20-, 30-, 40- and 50-year anniversary, inspired by the traditional gifts of milestone years.

Members only

True love is priceless, but the cost of a trip depends on when you go, which property you choose and how long you stay.

Plan now to fall in love again at one of these romantic spots around the world.

20th wedding anniversary trip ideas

Anniversary gift: China

Visitors can see colorful architecture and art around Chinatown in Los Angeles. Jorge Villalba/Getty Images

U.S. destination: Los Angeles

Travel to downtown L.A.s Chinatown, home to pagoda-like temples and dim sum eateries where you can enjoy soup dumplings with your sweetie. Serenade each other under hanging red lanterns on karaoke night at the intimate Melody Lounge. Or enjoy a blissful foot reflexology session at one of Chinatowns affordable day spas. Take a self-guided walking tour past the landmarks, herb shops and discount outlets that dot the alleyways and courtyards of this fascinating quarter. For a range of romantic accommodations, stay in Beverly Hills. Splurge on the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel (rates start around $1,100). Or consider the more affordable Mosaic Hotel near the shops of Rodeo Drive (rates start around $260) and the Beverly Hills Plaza Hotel (rates start at $260). To see and be seen, sip cocktails and dine at celeb haunts such as the terrace of The Ivy or the candlelit garden of The Little Door.

Couples can walk hand in hand through the Trentham Gardens in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, England. Ray Orton/Getty Images

Abroad: Stoke-on-Trent, England

The self-titled World Capital of Ceramics is about a 40-minute drive south of Manchester Airport (MAN). Wedgwood, Halcyon Days and other renowned lines of china and other ceramics have been produced here since the 17th century. Tour the Wedgwood Factory and update your wedding china by hunting for deals at multiple factory stores. Steal a kiss on a bench amid the 725 cultivated acres at award-winning Trentham Gardens. You can also renew your vows there in a columned Italian-style loggia or by the lake. The Stoke area boasts a range of accommodations including The Tawny, a deconstructed hotel with tree houses, huts and other accommodations in the middle of the English countryside (rates start at $330). Also consider the Victorian-style Upper House (rates start at $130) and Manor House Hotel & Spa (starting at $154).
News18 Tamil Nadu has successfully concluded its 'My Vote My Right' campaign with record participation from over 5 lakh first-time voters. The initiative was aimed to empower and encourage first-time voters to actively engage in the democratic process. Spanning 40 days, the campaign covered 40 Lok Sabha constituencies across Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.

The primary objective of the 'My Vote My Right' campaign was to educate and inspire individuals about the significance of voting, encouraging them to pledge their commitment to exercising their democratic rights. Surpassing all expectations, the campaign received an overwhelming response, with a total of 5,30,440 students taking a pledge to vote. The signatories belonged to 160 colleges along the length and breadth of the state.

S. Karthigaichelvan, Editor of News18 Tamil Nadu, handed over the documents signed by students to the Election Commission, symbolizing the dedication of first-time voters to actively participate in shaping the future of their nation.

The grand finale of the campaign, held on April 12 was graced by esteemed guests including Satyabrata Sahoo, Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu, J. Radhakrishnan IAS, Commissioner of Greater Chennai Corporation, and acclaimed actor Vishal.

Speaking at the event, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo commended News18 Tamil Nadu for its efforts. He said, "I am delighted to announce that, for the first time in the 2024 General Elections, we have witnessed 11 lakh first-time voters in the 18 to 19 age category. News18 Tamil Nadu's achievement of garnering more than 5 lakh signatures from first-time voters is truly monumental."

Youth icon and popular actor Vishal complimented News18 team for their efforts and urged the students to actively participate in the electoral process on April 19th, emphasizing the importance of their voices in shaping the future of Tamil Nadu.
Niyo, Indias leading travel banking fintech has unveiled its new brand positioning, "The Niyo Way to Travel," marking a significant step towards revolutionizing the travel-banking ecosystem in India. This strategic move reflects Niyo's commitment to providing innovative financial solutions tailored to modern travellers, ensuring a seamless and hassle-free banking experience.

Niyos flagship offerings are international cards with zero forex markup for international transactions, free ATM cash withdrawals worldwide and exclusive global lounge access across 1300 plus locations outside India. With acceptance in 180 countries, these cards, which are issued by partner banks available on the Niyo app, are highly versatile for global usage. Additionally, the Niyo app provides efficient visa application assistance, ensuring travellers obtain visas promptly and efficiently.

In addition to these flagship offerings, Niyo aims to enhance the travel experience with a new visa booking feature that ensures on-time visa delivery for customers. Together with a complete suite of travel services such as comprehensive travel insurance for added peace of mind, doorstep forex services for convenient currency exchange, and upcoming UPI services (domestic active, international shortly) to facilitate seamless transactions, Niyo aims to provide a best in class and seamless experience for travellers.

Vinay Bagri, Co-founder and CEO, Niyo expressed his enthusiasm about the brand's evolution, emphasizing, 'The Niyo Way to Travel encapsulates our new vision of making travel easy, affordable, and hassle-free for new-age travellers. It represents a paradigm shift in the way we perceive travel banking. Our new positioning stems from the realization that travel as a category has not evolved with the changing needs of customers. We want to challenge the status quo by providing a full suite of products and services that redefine the codes of travel. To establish this, we have brought in a refreshing approach to our brand through a new visual world known as Dreamscapes which is centered around bringing alive limitless travel experiences. This is supported by a 360 integrated brand campaign centered around IPL with new TVCs that bring alive the key benefits that Niyo offers together with a strong social and creator content.

Bagri believes that 'The Niyo Way to Travel' will redefine the current landscape of tech-enabled travel solutions, transforming Niyo into the quintessential one-stop travel partner.

Most of the travellers start as first-time international travellers and have continued to stay with us for their subsequent travel. Our target audience includes international and domestic leisure travellers aged 24-40 years, seeking a modern and elevated travel experience. With a strong focus on different traveller personas such as solo travellers, independent group travellers, families and experience-led travel enthusiasts, we aim to cater to the diverse needs of today's experienced travellers and early intenders, Bagri added.

With the new brand positioning, Niyo aims to drive the next stage of growth and encourage the adoption of its complete suite of travel solutions.
The San Antonio Express-News offices at 420 Broadway. Patrick Danner/Staff photo The Light Building, former home to the San Antonio Light newspaper, is seen Nov. 17, 2020. The modern sign, put on the building by the current owners GreyStreet Partners, replaces the iconic original Light sign which was larger and protruded from the corner of the building. The San Antonio Express-News announced it would be leaving the building one block away it has occupied since 1929 and moving into the Light building in early 2021. William Luther

A unionizing effort by newsroom employees of the San Antonio Express-News and MYSA has failed.

Staffers voted 36-31 against becoming a unit of the Media Guild of the West, according to results tallied Friday by the National Labor Relations Board in Fort Worth. Seventy-four people were eligible to vote.

It marks a rare defeat for the Media Guild of the West, which has organized hundreds of journalists in newsrooms in Texas, California and Arizona.

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The San Antonio NewsGuild didnt immediately indicate whether it will challenge the results by, for example, claiming unfair labor practices by management of Hearst Newspapers, which owns the Express-News. The NewsGuild said it will meet as a group soon to decide its next course of action.

In the face of strong union-busting tactics from Hearst, the San Antonio NewsGuild lost by a slim margin, the group said in a statement, without elaborating on the alleged tactics. While this result was not what we hoped for, our resolve remains unshaken. We stand strong, committed to advocating for the rights and well-being of our colleagues. Together, well continue to strive for a brighter future for journalism and the communities we serve.

Express-News Publisher Mark Medici declined to comment on the election outcome.

Independent of todays vote, my focus is on the journalism we produce and, with the support of Hearst, providing the best workplace I can for our journalists and all of our employees, he said.

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Employees who work in the papers San Antonio newsroom cast secret ballots March 20 and 21, while those who work in Austin and elsewhere voted by mail-in ballot.

The union would have been certified as the employees exclusive representative in bargaining over wages, benefits and working conditions if it had won a simple majority of the votes cast. Newsroom managers and supervisors werent eligible to vote.

In February, a group of employees sent a letter to Hearst Newspapers asking the company to voluntarily recognize the union and start negotiations toward a contract. The San Antonio NewsGuild said it had collected signed authorization cards from 46 of what it estimated were 68 eligible employees.

Hearst declined to recognize the union based on the authorization cards, leading organizers to petition the NLRB for a representation election.

After the petitions submission, union representatives and Hearst management presented their sides to employees during a campaign period.

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Union organizers said in a mission statement their aim was to safeguard our future as a news provider. They said employees were seeking fair and competitive compensation, stable benefits, career development opportunities and a workplace that celebrates differences in race, gender, age, sexual orientation and background.

Medici countered that the newspapers journalists enjoy some of the most generous benefits in the news industry, including top-of-the-line health coverage, generous paid time off including 12 paid holidays, an enhanced child care allowance and a 401(k) with an industry leading company match that is significantly better than Guild-negotiated agreements.

During the campaign period, Medici told staffers that if they voted for a union and a contract was later signed, 15 longtime employees covered by a Hearst defined-benefit pension plan would no longer be able to accrue benefits under the terms of the plan. That may have swayed some votes against the union.

Fridays vote bucks the recent trend of newsroom unionizing.

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Earlier this year, the nonprofit Texas Tribune and the nonprofit San Antonio Report both organized as units of Media Guild of the West. Last month, the nonprofit Houston Landing voluntarily recognized its newsroom union.
A teen has been formally charged in the killing of 16-year-old Jaylin Jenkins who was gunned down earlier this week after running to the store to get a soda.

Birmingham police on Friday announced a capital murder charge against a 17-year-old boy. His name is not being released because of his age.

Sgt. LaQuitta Wade said the suspect surrendered at police headquarters on Wednesday. He is being held without bond in the Jefferson County Jail.

Jaylin was killed Tuesday when he drove to a neighborhood store near Inglenook Tuesday night to buy a Coke to go with the tacos his mother, Amanda Jenkins, was making for dinner.

He does it all the time, there and back, Amanda told AL.com in an interview.

Four minutes went by, and his dad said, Somethings not right,' Amanda said.

His father, Jessie Jenkins, called Jaylins cell phone.

Jaylin answered the phone and said, Someones chasing me and shooting me, Amanda said.

Jessie ran out of the house and made it to his son, whose car had come to a stop in someones front yard on Jackson Street in Birminghams Inglenook community.

He (Jessie) held the wound on his neck, Amanda said. He called me and said, Get here now, please.'

Amanda didnt have a car, so she ran five blocks to get to Jaylin.

I got to him before the police or the ambulance or anyone got to him, she said. And he was gone.

I just held him and prayed, she said.

Birmingham police officers responded to Jackson Street shortly before 8:30 p.m. Jaylin was pronounced dead on the scene at 8:40 p.m.

A teen boy was shot to death Tuesday, April 9, 2024, following an altercation at a neighborhood store.(Carol Robinson)

Wade said a verbal altercation took place at the store.

The victim did get back inside his vehicle and attempted to leave the location, she said.

Jaylin was shot as he drove away, becoming Birminghams 37th homicide this year.

Jaylins death has devastated and shocked those who knew and loved him. A GoFundMe to help with Jaylins funeral has already raised more than $14,000. Donations can be made here.

Jaylin was the oldest of Amanda and Jessies children. He doted on his younger siblings  an 11-year-old sister and two brothers, ages 6 and 5  and they adored him.

The siblings were homeschooled but planning to return to public school next year.

Jaylin has been described as quiet, respectful, hardworking, sweet, and genuine.

He loved to play Fortnite, go to the skating rink, take apart and reassemble machinery, and spend time with his family.

Last night, I didnt sleep. I just waited for him to come home, and he didnt, Amanda said. This morning, I woke up and I looked, and he wasnt here and now Im understanding its not a dream.

He was, she said, just too good for this earth.

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to call homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
The first drug shown to slow Alzheimers disease hit the U.S. market over a year ago, but sales have lagged, major hospital systems have taken months to start using it and some insurers have rejected coverage.

Doctors also expect some patients will hesitate to take Leqembi due to its limited impact and potential side effects. They say it will take years to learn how best to deploy the drug and that work must be done to improve diagnosis.

This is the start of a very exciting journey, said Dr. Ambar Kulshreshtha, a suburban Atlanta family physician focused on dementia patients.

More than 6 million Americans, and millions more worldwide, have Alzheimers disease, the most common cause of dementia. Theres no cure, but Leqembi clears a sticky brain protein called amyloid thats a key indicator of Alzheimers.

Studies showed that it can delay the progression of the disease by a few months when given to people with mild symptoms. Some experts say the delay may be too subtle for patients to notice.

Charles Bum Clegg recently finished his 13th Leqembi infusion. The Salem, Alabama, resident visits a treatment center only 15 minutes from his home.

Clegg and his wife, Carol, say he has had no side effects, and his short-term memory has improved.

This drug gives you hope, Carol said.

The drug also can cause brain swelling and bleeding. Patients need regular brain scans to monitor for that.

The Food and Drug Administration gave Leqembi full approval last summer for patients with early stages of the disease. The federal Medicare program for people ages 65 and over covers Leqembi and the cost of scans needed to diagnose patients.

The drugs maker, Japans Eisai, initially expected to have 10,000 patients taking the IV drug by the end of March. Company executives have since backed off that projection, though they say sales are growing.

Hospitals and health systems have needed more time than expected to set up their systems for delivering Leqembi, said Alexander Scott, an Eisai executive vice president.

Its not like we are adding a drug to an existing system, he said. They are building the system for the drug.

The Cedars-Sinai health system in Los Angeles started administering the drug in early March. Getting there required months of meetings to iron out a plan to coordinate diagnosis, treatment and then monitoring for problems.

We were very careful about it, said Dr. Sarah Kremen, a behavioral neurologist.

Banner Health in Arizona also recently started using Leqembi at a couple specialty clinics in Phoenix, a spokeswoman said.

This is a very phased and staged approach, said Dr. Alireza Atri, a neurologist who has worked as a paid consultant for Eisai. As we learn more, well expand and extend it.

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, started using Leqembi in October but only for patients who live within a 100-mile radius so it can reach them quickly if they develop side effect symptoms. Doctors evaluate three to five patients every week for potential treatment, said Alzheimers expert Dr. Ron Petersen.

Health systems are still trying to understand how coverage for the drug, its infusions and the needed scans works so patients dont get stuck with bills. Thats a significant variable for a drug that can cost more than $26,000 a year.

An Eisai spokeswoman said nearly three-quarters of commercial plans in the U.S. cover the drug outside Medicare.

But doctors are concerned that coverage still may be tough for some patients, especially those too young to qualify for Medicare.

Insurance denials delayed Scott Berkheisers first Leqembi infusion a few months until last December. The 57-year-old Venice, Florida, resident said the drugmaker eventually agreed to give it to him for free while he makes co-payments for the infusions.

It was a little crazy, he said. It seemed like it was kind of a game that must make sense for some monetary reason.

Getting treatments started on time remains another challenge.

Texas Neurology had 60 patients screened as possible candidates for Leqembi and on a waitlist when the drug launched last year. Only eight eventually started treatment. The rest either declined to take it or had advanced beyond the mild phase of the disease when they were rescreened, CEO David Evans said.

That window gets very short very quick, he said.

Doctors say more must be done to quickly identify patients and get treatment started before the disease advances. But thats a murky process.

If people mention memory trouble, doctors must rule out reversible causes like thyroid problems, vitamin deficiencies, medication issues or depression, Kulshreshtha said. Then memory tests for dementia can take a few visits.

Some patients may be ineligible for Leqembi because it would conflict with medication they already take to prevent strokes.

And then getting in to see a neurologist who prescribes the drug can take months.

Those who make it to the first infusion say the treatment process is manageable. Berkheiser says infusions have gone like clockwork since his delayed start.

He fits them in between his work as an engineer and training six days a week to compete in an Ironman triathlon.

Treatment access may improve over time. The FDA is reviewing another potential treatment that targets amyloid protein, Eli Lilly and Co.s donanemab. Eisai is planning to seek approval for an injectable version of Leqembi that would be easier to use. Blood tests may eventually speed up amyloid detection.

But researchers say theres still a long road ahead. Its not clear what causes Alzheimers disease, and many think combination treatments will be needed to stop it.

We still have a lot to learn about Alzheimers, said Dr. Eric Widera a geriatric specialist with the University of California San Francisco. Its complex, and its much more than amyloid.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
State law enforcement is investigating after shots were fired at the home of an Elba City School Board member Thursday night.

The Coffee County District Attorneys Office asked the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to investigate the incident, the agency said Friday.

No one was injured by the shooting, according to ALEA.

The agency did not immediately say whether law enforcement believes the shots fired were related to the board members position, but WTVY reported that the gunfire erupted at the home of Johnny Senn right after the board chose not to renew the superintendents contract.

ALEA asked anyone with information on the incident to contact the agency at 334-983-4587.

Further information was not released; the investigation was ongoing.










English News China strives to build world-class business environment

Alwihda Info | Par People's Daily - 11 Avril 2024



A 2023 survey on business environment conducted by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, which covered 10,000 private enterprises, indicated improving satisfaction of private enterprises with the improvement in China's business environment. These enterprises also showed expectations for further optimization of the business climate in China.

By Li Haoran, People's Daily What can a sound business environment create ? As the first large chemical production base in China operated solely by a foreign company, BASF's Verbund site in Zhanjiang, south China's Guangdong province has experienced rapid development.



Its first batch of production facilities were set up in 2020, and this January, its thermoplastic polyurethane plant was put into operation.



Such a rapid progress is attributed to the government's efforts to improve market access and provide solid policy support, said an executive of BASF.



"We had a global project that required certifications from over 10 departments, which would normally take at least a month to complete. However, thanks to the efforts made by the local government, we obtained these documents in three days," said an executive of a private enterprise in east China's Zhejiang province, expressing appreciation for the government's responsiveness and assistance in solving the enterprise's problems.



A sound business environment is a prerequisite for unleashing the potential for economic growth and stimulating market vitality; optimizing business environment is key to boosting the confidence of entities and expanding opening-up.



China has continuously strengthened the construction of a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment, to enhance its attractiveness to domestic and foreign factors of production.



In recent years, China has attached great importance to optimizing its business environment, and it has seen a significant rise in its global ranking in this regard.



For instance, the country implemented a regulation on optimizing the business environment; the Communist party of China Central Committee and the State Council issued the Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a Unified National Market; China released an action plan to steadily promote high-level opening up and make greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment.



Recently, a series of measures have been implemented, sending a clear signal that China remains firmly committed to expanding high-level opening-up and continuously fostering a world-class business environment. These efforts include launching five new measures to facilitate entries of foreigners, revising the national negative list for foreign investment, and accelerating the implementation of 24 measures to stabilize foreign investment.



Optimizing business environment is not just about offering "favors," but more importantly, building "trust." Stable expectations come from a convenient, efficient, stable and transparent business environment featuring fair competition, as well as credible policy measures.



That's why some companies would rather bear higher land and labor costs than accept subsidies and incentives to operate in regions with relatively backward business environments.



A 2023 survey on business environment conducted by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, which covered 10,000 private enterprises, indicated improving satisfaction of private enterprises with the improvement in China's business environment. These enterprises also showed expectations for further optimization of the business climate in China.



Currently, various regions in China are taking concrete measures to provide fertile ground for the growth and development of all kinds of business entities, promptly addressing their urgent concerns and expectations, and maintaining the stability and continuity of pro-business policies.



Beijing proposed to make optimizing business environment a top priority, with an aim to build better the brand of "Beijing Service." Striving to learn businesses' experiences and feedback, Shanghai has revised its action plan for improving business climate for 7 times. Wuhan, central China's Hubei province, held a citywide conference on optimizing business environment, proposing to resolutely eliminate implicit barriers to market access.



Facts have proved that a favorable business environment can provide solid support for the development of all kinds of business entities.



China is resolutely committed to comprehensively deepening reform, implementing practical measures, and making every effort to optimize the business environment, so as to continuously boost market confidence and stimulate market vitality.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > China-Africa cooperation fosters Africa's regional economic integration Progress made in desertification control along Yellow River Basalt rocks made into national flag carried by Chang'e-6 probe Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)










English News Upcoming Canton Fair to feature record number of trade promotion events

Alwihda Info | Par People's Daily - 9 Avril 2024



At the same time, there has been a notable rise in the participation of Top 250 Global Retailers and major businesses from different countries and regions. A total of 129 leading enterprises have confirmed their group attendance, an 87 percent increase compared to the previous session.

By Ouyang Jie, People's Daily The 135th session of the China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, will be hosted in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong province, from April 15 to May 5. The online platform of the fair will continue to be operational throughout the year.



The information was released at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office recently.



Wang Shouwen, China international trade representative and vice minister of commerce, told the press conference that the exhibition area of this session will be 1.55 million square meters, with about 28,600 firms participating in the export section, including more than 4,300 new exhibitors. In addition, 680 companies will attend the import section.



According to Wang, some 93,000 purchasers from 215 countries and regions have completed pre-registration, and more than 220 large multinationals and business institutions have confirmed that they will organize delegations to attend the event. "All these figures have exceeded the scale of previous sessions for the same period," said Wang.



Over 5,500 national-level high-tech enterprises, individual champion enterprises in the manufacturing sector, and specialized and sophisticated SMEs that produce novel and unique products will participate in this session, up 20 percent from the previous one.



More than 1 million new products are expected to be exhibited, including over 450,000 green products and over 250,000 products with independent intellectual property. Among the exhibitors, over 4,000 have won international awards for their innovative designs, and more than 10,000 have invested over 10 percent of their total revenue in R&D.



The upcoming Canton Fair will further enrich the exhibition topics of digital technology and intelligent manufacturing. Over 50 percent of the participating companies actively apply digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data analysis to upgrade their production and operations.



Since its inception, the Canton Fair has attracted over 9.3 million overseas merchants, with 195 partners vigorously promoting trade between China and other countries.



To facilitate overseas buyers, this year's Canton Fair provides a "green channel" for visa applications. The visa processing and issuance time for 90 percent of the embassies and consulates abroad has been shortened to just four working days. Besides, by streamlining the processing of exhibition certificates, waiting time during peak periods will be reduced from 1.5 hours to 30 minutes.



Moreover, foreign currency exchange machines and mobile POS machines will be installed to meet the needs of both exhibitors and buyers, including currency exchange, digital payments, card payments, mobile payments, and cash payments.



Recently, China has introduced a new version of the visa application forms, with 34 percent of the items simplified and optimized, significantly reducing the time required for filling out the form.



The requirements for visa invitation letters have also been simplified. Foreign businesspeople can now apply for a visa at any Chinese embassy or consulate abroad with only the electronic invitation letter from the Canton Fair.



Yan Fang, an official with the People's Bank of China, told People's Daily that foreign travelers can make QR code payments in China with Alipay, WeChat Pay and other platforms after binding overseas bank cards. Travelers from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, and Mongolia can directly use their e-wallets.



In January and February, over 900,000 inbound travelers used mobile payments in China, completing more than 20 million transactions worth over 3 billion yuan ($414.72 million). All major banks in China now support cash withdrawals using overseas bank cards at their ATMs. Over 60,000 bank branches and nearly 2,300 foreign exchange facilities across the country offer foreign currency exchange services. In some major cities, key areas, and large commercial districts, overseas cards can also be used for payments.



"To ensure smooth travel, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport has increased its flight options for popular domestic and international destinations, with an average weekly flight volume rising to 10,597 and a 71.6 percent increase in international flights. The airport now operates flights to 217 destinations," said Tan Ping, vice mayor of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government.



She added that consultation counters will be set up at the airport to provide around-the-clock services for overseas travelers to enable electronic payment.



"The number of pre-registrations from overseas buyers, applications for Canton Fair invitation letters, and hotel bookings in Guangzhou have all shown significant increases compared to the previous session," said Chu Shijia, director general of the China Foreign Trade Center.



At the same time, there has been a notable rise in the participation of Top 250 Global Retailers and major businesses from different countries and regions. A total of 129 leading enterprises have confirmed their group attendance, an 87 percent increase compared to the previous session.



Ninety-eight overseas organizations, including the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the China General Chamber of Commerce - U.S.A., and the 48 Group Club, will join the session in groups, representing a 25.6 percent increase from the previous session.



"Over 600 market-oriented trade promotion events will be hosted during this session, setting a new record in terms of quantity and variety," said Chu.



He added that more than 200 global sourcing and procurement matchmaking events and 315 new product launches and debut exhibitions will also be held. For the first time, there will be dedicated display areas for cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehousing, Chu said.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > China-Africa cooperation fosters Africa's regional economic integration Progress made in desertification control along Yellow River Basalt rocks made into national flag carried by Chang'e-6 probe Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)
In February, a Fairfax County high school student read the news on his school-issued computer as Congress considered a bill authorizing $95 billion in foreign aid. Coming from a military family and having interest in serving our nation in the military himself, the student clicked on a Wikipedia link to the AK-47, a weapon mentioned in one of the articles he had been reading. An avalanche of harassment and prejudice against the student followed. This particular case provides a clear insight into the problem with public school districts Orwellian digital policies. These vague policies lack accountability mechanisms for administrators and teachers, and are vulnerable to implementation biases, particularly against ideologically conservative students.

The student, who had been excused from taking a math test that day, instead spent his time in class catching up on current events. As he clicked his way through the weapons used in the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the ones Americans are helping to buy, the schools safety and security specialist arrived at the classroom. The student had no idea why he was there, and was surprised when the man called his name to escort him to the principals office.

There, one of the assistant principals informed the student that the teacher had been concerned because he was reading about the AK-47 and beckoned the security specialist to remove him from class. The teacher had not asked the student any questions, or redirected him to subject-based instructional material before the security specialist had arrived. Strangely, she had not even been in a position where she could physically view his personal screen.

Many of the districts students and parents are unaware that Fairfax County Public Schools offers administrators, counselors, and teachers a program called Lightspeed Systems. It is essentially an unrestricted power for multiple school employees to surveille students computer screens in real time. While his classmates were taking their test, the teacher was spending her time figuratively watching over the students shoulder to see what he was reading.

Lightspeed is a new program in Fairfax County Public Schools and its use has not been codified into the districts Acceptable Use Policy. An Acceptable Use Policy in a K12 educational setting outlines guidelines and expectations for the appropriate use of technology resources within the school community. It serves as a framework to ensure that students, teachers, staff, and other stakeholders understand their rights and responsibilities when using digital devices, networks, and online services.

Fairfax Countys public school district follows what is known as a permissive Acceptable Use Policy that encourages students innovation, autonomy, and flexibility, allowing them to explore new technologies and methods to accomplish their tasks.

A students access to Wikipedia and the ability to research weapons used in the Ukraine-Russia conflict within the districts permissive Acceptable Use Policy environment is neither blocked nor punishable under the code of conduct. A permissive Acceptable Use Policy approach recognizes the importance of digital literacy and the need for students to navigate and utilize the internet and various online platforms as part of their learning process. Access to Wikipedia, a comprehensive and widely used online resource, aligns with this goal. It is therefore unclear why the teacher would have called the schools security specialist to remove the student from class.

After the student explained to the assistant principal why he had been reading about the AK-47, the student claims that the administrator understood his perspective and said, Do your thing. Go to class. So, the student did. He left the office and returned for the remaining minutes of his math class.

At the end of the class period when his classmates were leaving, he calmly asked the teacher why she did not speak to him before calling the security officer. The teacher responded that his search for the AK47 was flagged and she had to report it, making it seem as if she were forced to call the front office. Clearly, she did not wish to take responsibility for her surveillance and misunderstanding. Worse yet, she blamed the student for daring to question her and reported their conversation to the front office.

The assistant principal subsequently confronted the student for returning to that class after their meeting, claiming that was not his instruction. There was an obvious miscommunication between the administrator and the student about which class he should have walked to after his first time in the office. But then, the conversation shifted to the students questioning of the teacher.

The administrator explained to the students mother that in an effort to deescalate the situation, the student would be forced to sit out of class for a couple days, and proposed a restorative conference circle. The school administrators also informed the students mother that the circle was voluntary.

By the time the student, who notably has an Individual Education Program (IEP) and struggles with math, was permitted to rejoin his class, he had already missed three periods of class, equating to multiple hours of instruction.

For the missed classes, the student was required to sit in the schools designated space for in-school suspensions. During one of the missed periods, his classmates took a quiz, for which the teacher discontinued the students internet capabilities.

Sitting far away from the class in an entirely different room and having no knowledge of the quiz, the student believed that the teacher was singularly restricting his access to the internet. It was not an unwarranted suspicion. After all, she had targeted his computer in class and assumed the absolute worst about him. When the internet began working again, he entered test Google searches such as Ms. [teachers name] stop blocking my access, and If I was in class taking the quiz it wouldnt matter.

Unsurprisingly, the teacher immediately reported his Google searches to the school administrators, who then emailed the searched terms to his mother. In their communications, the administrators included the counselor, who is responsible for writing students letters of recommendation for college admissions. Students waive their right to review these letters, and such instances might very well be shared with college admissions officers.

Here again, the focus of the communication shared with the counselor was not on the students unjust exclusion from class, the inappropriate level of the teachers digital scrutiny on the students Google searches, or on her original mistake under the districts digital policies. Instead, school administrators took issue with the students questioning of the teacher while he was being denied in-person instruction.

In the end, the student was never approached to participate in mediation or a restorative conference. The school did try, however, to persuade his mother to switch him into a different math class online, likely because the teacher demanded it. After she refused, the class had three different substitutes over the course of three weeks until they retained a permanent sub for the remainder of the school year. The teacher never returned to the students class, but she continues to teach her other classes and is in the school.

Public schools are at a fork in the road. Following pandemic policys prolonged closures, school districts are relying heavily on laptops for instructional material, even in primary schools.

There must be balance. Students should not always be learning on screens. And when they are, we ought to pose questions about how children are monitored. The increasing reliance on surveillance technology in public schools also raises questions about how long information will be stored, who has access to the data, and what its purpose will be  especially given Fairfax County Public Schools history with data breaches concerning students private information.

Considering the left-leaning inclinations of our public schools, we are subjecting students, especially those who are conservative, to unjust and unfounded targeting and persecution for their thought crimes with digital monitoring. Public school districts must be more transparent about their surveillance policies with students and parents.

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for The Federalist and The Washington Examiner, a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author, and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Womens Network.

Harry Jackson is a former school board candidate, president of Education Matters Virginia, member of the Coalition for TJ, and a cybersecurity specialist.

Image generated by AI.
In June 2022, the California Community College Curriculum Committee published a set of guidelines entitled: DEI in Curriculum: Model Principles and Practices. This document is representative of the flurry of equity activity in the academic world and beyond after the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, and the subsequent nationwide protesting and rioting. Driven by emotion, sometimes idealistic and well-meaning programs can morph into nightmarish draconian doctrine and dogma with its requisite enforcement and punitive mechanisms. DEI has indeed become such a nightmare.

Having taught college history and enjoyed academic freedom since 1991, I was shocked to see some of the guidance in the curriculum document that employs incendiary language and precepts. I resisted earlier pressure for antiracism at the beginning of my career when an administrator told me to focus on George Washington Carver instead of George Washington. I was puzzled and asked: Why cant we talk about both of them?

Back to my problem with the California Community College Curriculum Committee document. For example, this passage

Take care not to weaponize academic freedom and academic integrity as tools to impede equity in an academic discipline or inflict curricular trauma on our students, especially historically marginalized students.

I want to point out the phrase inflict curricular trauma as being particularly strange and a bit dramatic, almost sounding like Orwellian thought crime. Also, using the word weaponize in conjunction with academic freedom and academic integrity employs conflict language into the mix and raises a few red flags.

Let us begin by defining academic freedom. According to Merriam-Webster, academic freedom is the freedom to teach or to learn without interference (as by government officials). When we are hired by our colleges and universities, we are trusted as subject matter experts in our chosen fields. For a DEI administrative committee to step in and determine what is and what is not appropriate to teach is a clear violation of our sacred freedom of speech enshrined in the Bill of Rights. As a community, if we are not allowed to express ourselves, we would quickly fall victim to groupthink and could be easily pushed into a totalitarian structure of government.

The aforementioned document goes on to push for low-cost or free textbooks (commonly known as OER or open education resource). Every semester, the screws have been tightening and pressure building to use these textbooks. Of course, OER textbooks would need to be run through the DEI filter and scrubbed of any non-equity minded colonizer language. In other words, the author would be censored. How can we learn if we are too afraid to be heard? I am probably heading straight into the DEI buzzsaw by writing this, but I am at the end of my career, and I am worried about what will happen to my profession and to the students. We can never lose sight of the fact that academic freedom cultivates an environment where intellectual exploration thrives, benefiting both individuals and society. I suspect, although I could be wrong, that DEI gurus are using the OER no-cost/low-cost textbook push as a trojan horse to fully mandate DEI into our curriculum. If so, it is quite a clever tactic. If you fail to comply and resist, you could be branded as a racist who stands in the way of progress and does not care about the financial plight of young students.

In my decades long teaching career, I have never met fellow teachers who were racist or ignored ethnic minorities or marginalized students. Most of my career has been at Citrus College in Glendora, California, where 65% of our students are Hispanic. Opportunistic and insidious authors, politicians, and journalists have convinced many people that little to no progress has been made since the early days of the modern civil rights movement. In other words, a solution in search of a problem. An example of this is the 1619 Project developed by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. The purpose of the project was to reframe U.S. history by placing slavery and the contributions of African Americans at the center of the national narrative. The project became known when it was published by The New York Times in August 2019 in commemoration of the arrival of the first African slaves to the Jamestown colony. An educational curriculum was produced with the help of the Pulitzer Center and in 2020 Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer Prize for her creation of the project.

Three forces came together in the year 2020 in America: a contentious presidential election, the death of George Floyd, and the COVID-19 pandemic. These forces combined in their effects during the end of a political cycle where approximately every forty years, the center of American politics shifts. This powerful mixture of forces in 2020 led to a dramatic shift in how people see their place in society. Many historians took issue with the 1619 Project citing factual errors (some historians believe that African slaves were present much earlier) and an ideological and political motivation by the creator. Despite such criticism, some states adopted the project into their K12 curriculum. This reorientation toward race along with the emergence of critical race theory and books like How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi and White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo stirred a controversy that continues today. The resulting singular emphasis on race excludes all other contributing perspectives, narratives, and analyses.

Presentism has become a problem in understanding history. It is important to note that it does not help to hold people in the past to our version of reality. They lived much different lives than us. What we need to do is understand how they acted within the context of their times.

We do not have to fix the founding of the nation to 1776 or 1619; the significance of one does not exclude the other. The Hegelian dialectic is in full effect here. We have the generally accepted national historical narrative as the thesis and now the 1619 Project as the antithesis. To complete this dialectical process, we now need a synthesis. By examining many of the contested claims in the 1619 Project and the new antiracist and critical race theory books, we can hammer out such a synthesis. To do this, we need to leave ideology and politics behind and keep cool heads as we continue to build a more perfect union. That is obviously not easy in a divisive time. As political scientist Samuel Huntington wrote: Critics say that America is a lie because its reality falls so short of its ideals They are wrong. America is not a lie; it is a disappointment. But it can be a disappointment only because it is also a hope. A new historical synthesis and generally recognized historical narrative will bind us together. If civil discourse is abandoned, then a second civil war could emerge to violently resolve the divisive issues.

When we look at the culture wars, political conflicts, and the wedge issues that divide us, it is easy to take a cynical view. It appears that there are only strongly entrenched and polarized positions being hashed out in the trenches of social media in America and that the middle ground or the center has disappeared. Trying to be conciliatory is like venturing into no mans land in World War I, where you could be attacked by both sides. I acknowledge the difficulties and challenges we are having, but I think we will pass through those troubles and enter a new age of transformative equality and put the us back in USA.

Image: Free image, Pixabay license, no attribution required.
Alesia Garlock holds photos from scenes at Brackenridge Park prior to the City Council voting to approve a capital improvements project for Phase 1 of the Brackenridge Park project despite a small vocal group of citizens like Garlock who opposed the plan on Thursday, August 3, 2023. Much of the opposition centered on the removal of trees and with the lack of communication between the city and residents. Kin Man Hui/Staff photographer View of Brackenridge Park where work is being done on a retaining wall. Since early this year, a group of wildlife advocates has been protesting the city's plans to take down heritage trees in Brackenridge Park as part of upgrades to historic structures funded through the voter-approved 2017 bond. Now, some protestors are saying they will vote against the city's 2022 bond on the ballot Saturday. Their no vote stems from a mistrust of city officials to use the bond money in a transparent way. Kin Man Hui/Staff photographer Alesia Garlock (second from right) addresses City Council as others hold up photos of Brackenridge Park prior to City Council voting to approve a capital improvements project for Phase 1 of the Brackenridge Park project on Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. Garlock along with a small vocal group of citizens opposed the plan. Much of the opposition centered on the removal of trees and with the lack of communication between the city and residents. Kin Man Hui/Staff photographer Activist Alesia Garlock (right) holds a sound level meter as she and Daniel Armstrong wander about Brackenridge Park in an attempt to witness and record Parks and Recreation employees clapping boards to make egrets and herons move away from a section of the park. Since early this year, a group of wildlife advocates has been protesting the city's plans to take down heritage trees in Brackenridge Park as part of upgrades to historic structures funded through the voter-approved 2017 bond. Now, some protestors are saying they will vote against the city's 2022 bond on the ballot Saturday. Their no vote stems from a mistrust of city officials to use the bond money in a transparent way. Kin Man Hui/Staff photographer A pedestrian bridge next to the zoo train bridge is one of the idea's during a Friday morning tour of Brackenridge Park to explain what projects are next for the 125 year old park north of downtown. Robin Jerstad Renovations are planned for the park Pump House during a Friday morning tour of Brackenridge Park to explain what projects are next for the 125 year old park north of downtown. Robin Jerstad A federal appeals court on April 11, 2024, rejected an emergency request to block the city of San Antonio from removing trees at Brackenridge Park and initiating efforts to drive birds from the area. Scott Huddleston

A federal appeals court has rejected an emergency request to block the city of San Antonio from removing trees at Brackenridge Park and initiating efforts to drive birds out of the area.

Two members of the Native American Church sought an emergency injunction or an order invalidating last fall's ruling by U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, who allowed the city to continue bird-deterrent operations related to its renovation project at the park.

The San Antonio federal judge's ruling did not block the city from carrying out its proposed improvement plans, which includes removing or relocating several trees. But it did instruct the city to grant access to a fenced-off area in the park to Native American Church members to conduct religious ceremonies on certain dates.

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In a majority 2-1 ruling Thursday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans affirmed Biery's ruling and denied the church members' request for an injunction that would have blocked the city from continuing its tree removal and relocation program and bird management activities.

The ruling noted that the removal of old decaying trees was necessary for the safety of park visitors.

City spokeswoman Laura Mayes said in a statement that officials were pleased with the ruling.

"The court specifically acknowledged that safety measures, such as the deterrence of birds and removal of decaying, dangerous trees are critical for the protection of all who use Brackenridge Park," she said.

Justice Stephen A. Higginson dissented, saying he believed the city should have done more to accommodate the plaintiffs' religious beliefs.

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Higginson said in his dissent it appeared the city was bent on forging ahead with its current renovation plan instead of considering other options that would not result in removing as many trees or disturbing nesting birds, because those proposals would cost more money.

Plaintiffs' lawyer John Greil, a professor at the University of Texas Law and Religion Clinic, expressed disappointment with the decision.

"We think the evidence Judge Higginson cites in his dissent cuts to the heart of the issue," Greil said by email. "We are currently evaluating our next steps."

Legal observers said one option could be asking for an "en banc" hearing, with all 17 of the 5th Circuit's judges reconsidering the matter.

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The civil rights suit was filed in August, a week after the City Council voted 6-4 to OK a $3.5 million construction contract for the first phase of a bond-funded project that voters approved in 2017. Work to repair crumbling 1920s-era river walls and stabilize the foundation of an 1870s pump house was set to begin at that time.

The suit said the citys planned tree removals and bird management in the historic parks north end would unconstitutionally deny them access to a sacred area along a bend in the San Antonio River called Lambert Beach.

The plaintiffs are Gary Perez and Matilde Torres, San Antonians and members of the Lipan-Apache Native American Church and the Pakahua/Coahuiltecan Peoples of Mexico and Texas.

Their suit is one of the latest shows of opposition to the planned removal of trees at Brackenridge  the number of which the city reduced in the face of the ongoing controversy. As of October, the city's plan called for crews to take out 40 native trees, six of them with trunk diameters exceeding 24 inches, relocate nearly 20 others and plant new saplings.

The plaintiffs had asked Biery to prevent excessive tree removals and bird deterrence and restore access for Native American worship in the project area, which has been fenced off since early 2022 because of safety concerns. The plaintiffs argue the city has alternatives, such as repairing the retaining walls in place or using a pier-and-spandrel system that would avoid the removal of trees that birds, such as the double-crested cormorant, nest in.

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After holding a four-day preliminary injunction hearing in October, Biery found that the citys plans did not stymie the plaintiffs' constitutionally protected religious rights.

However, Biery said the plaintiffs had proven their case for an injunction order that allowed them access for religious services in the sacred area. Specifically, Biery granted access for religious services involving 15 to 20 people for approximately an hour on specified dates.

On the other hand, the city had demonstrated a compelling government interest for public health and safety" to continue with its plans, the judge said.
In ancient Japanese mythology the Golden Kite, one of the highest decorative orders of the Japanese military, was a messenger bird which enabled the Emperor Jimmu to defeat his enemies. The order was abolished in 1947 after American occupation. Yet now the spirit of the Golden Kite is back, all at the behest of the U.S. However, the Japanese will be wary of the myth of Icarus, of flying too near the sun and having its wings burnt.

The 'Entente Cordiale' began in 2023 with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin preparing the way for the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding for Research, Development, Test, Evaluation Projects). This will develop cooperation in ballistic missile intercept systems (GPI -- Glide Phase Interceptor). Japan will now reexport Patriot missiles, having a license from the U.S. Japan is seeking to nurture new technology knowhow in the defence industry. However, some are not so bullish about U.S.-Japan military ties. The Diplomat mentioned that:

'Concerns remain, however, about the barriers to harness this momentum. On the part of Japan, for example, while many Japanese see this period as the most severe post-war security environment, and there is a call for greater support to enhance security and stability in the region, there is an internal cultural barrier that resists Japan's increasing organic defence capability, slowing Tokyo's ability to implement tangible outcomes.'

There are deep historical divisions between the U.S. and Japan. Yet in today's geopolitical world of flux and realpolitik the cold-war divisions of ideological foes is redundant. No more the clear-cut 'Capitalism-Communism' division. In the new epoch of resource and global realignment the most unlikely of bedfellows operate. However, with World War II a not-too-distant memory, there are echoes of Hamlet's disgust at his mother's remarriage after his father's death: 'The funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.'

The U.S.-Japan alliance illustrates the convergence of strategic interests, despite past differences. It appears huge ideological and culture differences can be overcome when the alternative is the Russian bear and Chinese 'Tianxia.' ('All under Heaven' -- China at the centre of their cultural world). The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) stated that, in military parlance, Japan is moving from a 'Spear and Shield' capability (U.S. the spear, Japan the shield) to one of 'Spear and Sword, a more independent strategy. Therefore, Biden and Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in August discussed the purchase of hypersonic missile interceptors. From December 2022, under the NSS (National Security Strategy) the Japanese ascertained the need to spend the 2% of GDP and build a counterstrike offensive capability to destroy enemy launch sites. The theatre of grossraum geopolitics is shifting to the Asia Pacific region. Japan sees multiple threats from China, North Korea, and Russia. In a remark of clarity and prescience Kishida stated that 'the line between contingency and peacetime is increasingly becoming blurred.' This was a tacit acknowledgement that war, over the long term, is fought in economic and technical realms.

There is also good reason for the U.S. to have an economic partner in the region. It can replace the deglobalisation problems with Chinese supply chains. There are growing Japanese investments into U.S. shipbuilding, possibly into U.S. steel. This past week Kishida visited Washington, with the main topic strategic and economic alliances. The Chinese Navy is now a burgeoning Leviathan that dwarfs the U.S. Navy. No surprise then that in March Navy Secretary Carlos del Toro visited Japan to drum up investment in a U.S. sector contracting in comparison to Chinese growth.

Cause for concern, however, would be the global militarisation of the world. More and more the industrial-economic epoch of the 21st century becomes Keynesian -- yet more dangerous in conception. From Russia to the UK military stocks are booming. All aspects of economies -- industry, technology, and human resources -- become tied to a period of 'total mobilisation'. Conversations about conscription become normalised, for the professional land army is seen as inadequate. As in Japan, civil companies, such as Mitsubishi, turn to the military realm. The Golden Kite is flying again.

This alliance is all about 'realpolitik.' Imperial Japan, existing from 1868 to 1947, exhibited a remarkable industrial and military resurgence culminating in the extreme nationalistic and military hegemony of Asia pre-World War II. Yet this period of modern history, labelled as the democratic West versus the Axis powers, exhibits the usual division of Occident and Orient into simplistic blocks. Whilst Carl Schmitt had described the world in the 1920s as divided between 'grossraums' -- one bloc of 'Mercantile' nations (ostensibly the U.S. and Britain) and the others as 'Land' based (i.e., the 'culture' states of Germany, Russia), it underpinned a more ideological divide typical of the twentieth century. Schmitt believed the liberal democratic mercantile nations were 'unrooted, globalised, losing cultural ties. The land-based states were more 'catholic, blood and soil, with a cultural solidity. Although Schmitt, later to join the Nazi party, fell out of favour post World War II, his geopolitical thinking was extremely influential. The world is splintering into 'grossraums' due to resource scarcity and assertion by culture states. However, whilst Japan straddled the divide during the early twentieth century, needing both a solid land-based culture of nationalism plus an aggressive mercantile one for 'lebensraum, it now sits uncomfortable between the moving plates of Russia and China.

Yet the U.S.-Japan axis is crucial leverage in a region of contagion. Chinese-supported Myanmar (Burma) is another hotspot with the military government losing ground to ethnic groups in Rakhin province. This goes against Chinese 'Tianxia' (peace under heaven), for its satellite states need stability. Soft Chinese loans and indebtment of the satellites is more of the Chinese colonial style. Taiwan likewise is another possible flashpoint as the geopolitical realm returns to haunt Asia. The U.S. will have painful memories of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan and a cultural, visceral aversity to boots on the ground. Deterrence through proxies is the new watchword of the twenty-first century.

The dilemma of the blurring of the economic and political also overrides potential partnerships. The meeting between Biden and Kishida this week is also likely to discuss AUKUS membership. The pact between the U.S., Britain, and Australia is meant to counter China's position in the Indo-Pacific region. This pact will see Australia receiving nuclear-powered submarines. Seeing the economic woes of the U.S. $32 trillion national debt, Japan becomes a convenient manufacturer to take up the slack. Yet Australia will be hypercautious of upsetting its trade partner China. There is also a history of Japan 'losing' secrets in various scandals, usually involving a beautiful Chinese courtesan. In today's multilayered world there are a kaleidoscope of aspects and alliances. Australia will be reluctant to expand the highly sensitive cutting-edge tech research with Japan on board. Japan won't be on the AUKUS team as yet, but they are moving closer.

Wherever you look, there is a coalescence of pacts and alliances. There is a process of rearmament, GDP spending promises. The economic and political is so blurred that ancient conceptions of the abhorrence of war have been discarded. Civilian war is tolerated. Economists see growth in arms spending. Nations such as Japan, for historic reasons demilitarised, are joining the maelstrom of 'total mobilisation'. Finland's ultraliberal female PM touts the virtues of manly reserve soldiers. In many ways the epoch of materialism, whether capitalist or communist, has led to what Augusto Del Noce, the Italian philosopher called in the post-World War II realm, the 'age of secularisation.' It is a world without a Political Theology.

In the age of the 'Golden Kite' there is no profit in touting turtledoves.

Brian Patrick Bolger LSE, University of Liverpool. He has taught political philosophy and applied linguistics in Universities across Europe. His articles have appeared in the US, the UK, Italy, Canada, and Germany in magazines such as 'The American Spectator, 'Asian Affairs, 'Deliberatio,' 'L'Indro Quotidiano Indipendente di Geopolitica, The National Interest, GeoPolitical Monitor, Merion West, Voegelin View, 'The Montreal Review, The European Conservative, Visegrad Insight, The Hungarian Review,'The Salisbury Review, The Village, New English Review, The Burkean,  The Daily Globe, American Thinker, The Internationalist, Philosophy News. His new book -- Nowhere Fast: Democracy and Identity in the Twenty First Century' is published now by Ethics International Press.

Image: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service
U.S. healthcare is failing (obviously). Over the years, Washington and their complicit media have identified many different groups as blame-worthy, including wealthy insurance companies, greedy doctors, Big Pharma, and over-charging hospitals. Their newest target and designated bad boy is private equity. The true guilty party remains in shadow and protected.

The Biden administrations latest healthcare culprits are private equity firms, who have invested more than $1 trillion purchasing healthcare facilities such as hospitals and nursing homes as well as medical practices. Private equity acquisitions of U.S. physician practices rose sixfold over a decade, from 75 deals in 2012 to 484 in 2021. Currently, approximately 8 percent of U.S. hospitals are owned by for-profit, private equity companies.

Washington has begun a federal probe into private equity in healthcare citing a single government-funded study reporting substandard outcomes. Their investigation sends a clear message: Our failing healthcare system is their fault!

A recent study instigated by the NIH, performed by Harvard, and published in JAMA shows higher post-operative infection rates and more frequent patient falls in privately owned hospitals. With the COVID scam fresh in American minds, the reliability of such reports, especially coming from those particular sources, is dubious. The COVID experience has taught the public that censorship, including once prestigious Harvard and JAMA, is very real in healthcare. Many ostensibly reliable scientific studies are in fact written for ideological advocacy and political gain rather than revealing objective, reliable medical facts.

Interestingly, the study noted above, while emphasizing the adverse impacts in private equity hospitals, also mentioned, then explained away, a slightly lower death rate.

Washington downplays Americans major complaints about healthcare, which are unaffordability and inaccessibility. Low quality is rarely if ever mentioned. Federal politicos point to purported low quality in the eight percent of healthcare facilities that places where care is unavailable and too expensive. They say, look at increased complications in a small number of patients. They say, dont look at death-by-queue in many Americans, especially in Medicaid or Tricare, where 47,000 veterans may have died waiting for care.

Washington focuses our attention on profit motive that may, rarely, cause low quality of medical care. Washington doesnt want us to notice that enrollment in Medicaid and ACA insurance goes up, Americans access to care goes down. They hail the reduction in the uninsured rate while ignoring the seesaw effect. As more people have government insurance, it becomes harder to get care, of any quality! Federal politicos say, dont think about why your government insurance doesnt get you care, look at what those money-grubbing for-profit places are doing to you.

Washingtons diversionary use of private equity as whipping boy is not limited to healthcare, although healthcare attacks get more airtime than other targets, such as housing. A recent study infers that the high cost of rent is driven by private equity acquisition of rental properties.

U.S. healthcare system failures cannot be attributed to private equity, venal insurance companies, or high-priced doctors. The reason healthcare is dying and taking Americans with it is...Washingtons control. The federal government diverts attention away from its own culpability. For example, Washington points to whatever profit private equity generates so we wont notice that 31 percent to more than 50 percent of all U.S. healthcare spending goes to...drumroll, please...the federal bureaucracy.

The people doing the whipping are the ones who should be whipped.

Federal politicians and bureaucrats are making medical as well as financial decisions in healthcare. The people who should be making these decisions are We the People, or as I prefer, We the Patients. After all, it is their money and their lives.

If people could shop for their own care and decide how to spend their own money (out of a large, unlimited family HSA), profit-motive would work to improve quality as well as access while simultaneously reducing costs. Two trillion dollars (!) of healthcare spending  on interfering and unnecessary government regulation  could be saved. The infusion of free market forces, glaringly absent from healthcare today, could achieve timely, quality, affordable, compassionate health care. All we need to do is put We the People in charge instead of Them those Bureaucrats.

Deane Waldman, M.D., MBA is professor emeritus of pediatrics, pathology, and decision science; former director of the Center for Healthcare Policy at Texas Public Policy Foundation; former director, New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange; and author of 12 books including the multi-award winning Curing the Cancer in U.S. Healthcare: StatesCare and Market-Based Medicine.

Image: Pkd2016 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Last month, Aaron Bushnell, a member of the United States Air Force, decided to show his support for Hamas by setting himself ablaze. It was, perhaps, an appropriate form of suicide given that Hamas burned alive and otherwise tortured in medieval ways hundreds of Israelis prior to executing them, along with those whom they simply shot to death.

Bushnell was obviously a deeply sick man, whether because he was mentally ill or just plain evil, I do not know. However, at the UCLA Medical School, in the psychiatry department, he was celebrated as a mentally healthy man making a reasonable protest against America, a sick society. This isnt just creepy; its also how you create a society of future suicide bombers.

Psychiatry residents Ragda Izar and Afaf Moustafa (whose names indicate but do not prove that they are Muslim) gave a joint presentation that the schools diversity office and Health Ethics Center sponsored. In their talk, the two women offered a mind-numbing combination of woke-speak and psychiatric-speak (aka gibberish) to argue that theres nothing mentally ill about setting yourself ablaze, one of the more painful ways to die. (And again, something Hamas freely used against Israelis, including babies, many of whom theyd tortured in other ways first.)

Image: A world where Satan is your psychiatrist by Andrea Widburg using AI.

For Izar and Moustafa, the suicide was a reasonable form of resistancenot that Bushnell, an American citizen and resident, actually had anything against which he was resisting. If one takes what these radical women are saying to its logical conclusion, they are preparing the students to whom theyre speaking to accept suicide as a normal and even admirable form of protest, an idea that can easily morph into suicide bombings. After all, thats what children in Gaza and the West Bank are raised to believe: Killing yourself while killing others is a good thing.

I cant adequately summarize the insanity of these two fast-talking women whose pressed speech itself seems deeply off if were talking about pathology. Ill just embed Aaron Sibariums thread for your review. Its notable because its not just these women who are spreading the madness. The thread also incorporates other ways in which the institution teaches students to hate America and Israel and, along the way, trains them not to recognize as a problem personally and societally harmful thoughts and behavior (including encouraging failed transgender affirmations to end in suicide).

This woke madness also infects UCSF Medical School, which was long considered the premier school in the UC franchise. At this point, a wise person avoids any recent medical school graduates. Even if they learned some medicine, they are also learning truly evil ideas along with that hard knowledge.

One more thing before you read the thread: Whether you live in California or not, youre paying for this garbage. The University of California system gets enormous amounts of federal funds both directly and indirectly (and the link doesnt even talk about the grants for research projects).

The talk, "Depathologizing Resistance," was delivered on April 2 by two psychiatry residents at UCLA, Drs. Ragda Izar and Afaf Moustafa, under the auspices of the departments diversity office and UCLAs Health Ethics Center.  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

Bushnell was widely seen as a casualty of mental illness. The presentation argued he could also be considered a "martyr," a man in full control of his mental faculties who had responded rationally to a "genocide" unfolding thousands of miles away. pic.twitter.com/y1WDotUEWk  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

By "perpetuating the stigma of self-immolation," Izar and Moustafa said, psychiatrists "discredit" resistance to "power structures" like "colonization," "homophobia," and "white supremacy," framing legitimate acts of protest as signs of psychiatric dysfunction. pic.twitter.com/s8zvRHjtkR  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

Their contentions undercut official guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which warns that "bestowing honor and admiration" on suicide victims can inspire others to take their own lives. https://t.co/tPJULT8aTp  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

"For mental health professionals to encourage removing the stigma is reckless" and could "lead to an increase in the number of individuals who protest in this tragic and horrifyingly painful fashion," Kaminetzky said.  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

Izar and Moustafas talk is the latest lecture to rock UCLA medical school, which hosted Lisa "Tiny" Gray-Garcia, a self-described "poverty scholar," as a guest speaker in its mandatory "structural racism" course in March. https://t.co/pd5cF4Lawt  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

The spectacle followed news that UCLA had divided its medical students into race-based discussion groups and assigned them readings on "indigenous resistance," "decolonization," and "settler colonialism."  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

Another told psychiatrists to "embed your practice with an anti-colonial lens" and "recognize that mental health is intimately tied to liberation." pic.twitter.com/0GVilUGrcI  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

hat remark drew blowback from Vivian Burt, an emeritus psychiatry professor at UCLA, who testified about the lecture at a meeting of the University of California Board of Regents on Wednesday. https://t.co/rBhrGpFcqF  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

The talk argued that concerns about copycat suicide are selective and politically loaded, using former president Barack Obamas praise of Mohamed Bouazizithe Tunisian street vendor who helped jumpstart the Arab Spring when he self-immolated in 2010as an example.  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

Its true that self-immolation is more acceptable outside the West, Kaminetzky said. And its true that Americans have greeted certain acts of self-immolation, including Bouazizis, with more fanfare than Bushnells. BUT...  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

"Given that self-immolation is not part of Western culture, individuals in the West who choose to protest by ending their life likely have multiple mental health and other challenges," Kaminetzky told the Free Beacon.  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

Toward the end of their talk, Izar and Moustafa brought up the Goldwater Rule, which states that psychiatrists should not comment on the mental health of people they havent evaluated. pic.twitter.com/myhALsIe9J  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

"In the same way that we shouldnt be commenting on political candidates running for president," Izar said, it's unclear "what authority do we have as psychiatrists to publicly comment upon instances of revolutionary suicide and other acts of resistance." pic.twitter.com/u3JVLNs0LH  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024

Pediatricians got a vivid taste of the brave new world in 2022 when Morissa Ladinsky, in an address at the American Academy of Pediatricss annual conference, praised a transgender teenager, Leelah Alcorn, for "boldly  ending her life." https://t.co/YmtelOb4bs  Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 12, 2024
Chants of Death to America broke out at an Al Quds Day Rally in Dearborn, Michigan recently, as can be heard in a social media video.

At International Al-Quds Day Rally in Dearborn, Michigan Protesters Chant Death to America!; Speakers at the Rally: America Is One of the Rottenest Countries on Earth; Israel Is ISIS, Nazis, a Cancer pic.twitter.com/B6hMlaKfi5  MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) April 7, 2024

An activist named Tarek Bazzi spoke to the crowd, inciting it by repeating Malcolm Xs claim that America is one of the rottenest countries that has ever existed on this Earth."

A local imam named Usama Abdhulagani also spoke, telling the gathering that Israel is ISIS, they are Nazis, they are fascists. As if averring that Israelis are Nazis isnt insane enough, they are also ISIS, too?

The Daily Caller, which has been following the story, noted that it contacted Michigan Democrats to ask if they condemned the chant, with a number of them replying in the affirmative. However, despite repeated requests for a statement of condemnation, The Daily Caller said that others, including Rep. Debbie Dingell, Rep. Haley Stevens, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Sen. Gary Peters, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib refused to share their stance on the matter, while Gov. Whitmer did not respond to a request for comment.

If Death to America isnt hate speech, what would be? Is it not verbal violence? It certainly could be seen as inciting violence. And multiple Democrat state representatives  and the governor  declined to condemn it?!

If the Democrat party keeps moving in the same direction and with the same speed that it has in the past several years -- and the countrys demographics keep changing apace -- by 2032 or 2036, Democrat candidates themselves may be chanting Death to America on the campaign trail.

Whether even that would be enough to rouse a sleeping  and ever-changing  populace to throw them out is, as they say, problematic.

Image: Screen shot from MEMRI video posted on 'X.'
During World War II, the Nazis envisioned enslaving and eventually exterminating the Jewish race. Muslims in the Middle East and Central Europe were happy to make common cause with the Nazis as Nazi goals aligned with Mohameds mandateIt turns out that Hamas has the exact same plans this time around. In the 1940s, the civilized world stopped the Muslim and Nazi plans; this time, the world is no longer civilized and is abetting this great evil.

Im going to lead with a personal anecdote here. From December 1941 through August 1945, my mother was a civilian prisoner of the Japanese in Java. She weighed 75 pounds at wars end. Whats interesting for the purposes of this essay is how she ended up in that situation.

Mom was born in Java, which was then a Dutch colony. In 1935, when she was 12, her father, a Zionist who was concerned about Hitlers rise (the family was in Austria by then), relocated to British Mandate Palestine (BMP).

Life in Tel Aviv was hard in the 1930s but got easier once World War II started. That was because the British started pouring resources into BMP. Troops flooded in, many with money to spend, and the military built up an infrastructure. My grandfather, an architect, got work with a British government paycheck attached.

Image: Hitler and the Mufti of Jerusalem. Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1987-004-09A / Heinrich Hoffmann / CC-BY-SA 3.0

To a man, in the early years of the war, the British officers told my grandfather that they were dubious about their chances against Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. If Rommels forces prevailed, they said, the Nazis would give the local Arab population permission and weapons with which to slaughter every Jewish man and boy while either slaughtering or sexually enslaving the Jewish women and girls. (Think: ISIS on a grander scale.)

My grandfather, therefore, had the bright idea to send my mom to Java, far from the war. He never could have predicted the Japanese entry into the war.

My point with this family history is that it shows that the Arabs have long dreamed of slaughtering and enslaving the Jews who live on the land that is now Israel. Thats why I was completely unsurprised to learn that Hamas really believes that it can prevail in this war and that, when it wins, it can slaughter and enslave the Jews.

According to a cadre of connected Gazans who escaped Gaza early in the war and headed to Cairo, Hamas has never abandoned the dream that local Arabs had in the 1930s:

We have a registry of the numbers of Israeli apartments and institutions, educational institutions and schools, gas stations, power stations and sewage systems, and we have no choice but to get ready to manage them, Obeid told the conference. One issue was how to treat the Israelis. In dealing with the Jewish settlers on Palestinian land, there must be a distinction in attitudes toward [the following]: a fighter, who must be killed; a [Jew] who is fleeing and can be left alone or be prosecuted for his crimes in the judicial arena; and a peaceful individual who gives himself up and can be [either] integrated or given time to leave. They agreed that, This is an issue that requires deep deliberation and a display of the humanism that has always characterized Islam. More specifically, the issue of a brain drain was discussed. Educated Jews and experts in the areas of medicine, engineering, technology and civilian and military industry should be retained [in Palestine] for some time and should not be allowed to leave and take with them the knowledge and experience that they acquired while living in our land and enjoying its bounty, while we paid the price for all this in humiliation, poverty, sickness, deprivation, killing and arrests, the conferences concluding statement asserted.

Thankfully, in the 1940s, the civilized world banded together to fight back against the Nazis. By doing so, they prevented the Arabs in and around BMP from fulfilling Mohameds mandate to slaughter and/or enslave all the Jews. However, were not a civilized world in 2024. This time, while the Muslim dreams remain unchanged, the surrounding world, including Democrats in America, is happy to work with Hamas to make that dream a reality.

For Israelis, of course, October 7 was a preview of Hamass planned coming attractions. Thats why they are fighting back with every fiber of their collective beings.
It's a been tough week for the guys who gave us "All Things Considered."

It turns out that all things are not considered over at the woke palace. Yes, diversity at NPR means bring me a liberal and well figure out what victim group he belongs to.

As expected, all of this exposure has created turmoil according to this story at the New York Times

Mr. Berliners essay has ignited a firestorm of criticism of NPR on social media, especially among conservatives who have long accused the network of political bias in its reporting. Former President Donald J. Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to argue that NPRs government funding should be rescinded, an argument he has made in the past.

Mr. Berliner, a Peabody Award-winning journalist, castigated NPR for what he said was a litany of journalistic missteps around coverage of several major news events, including the origins of Covid-19 and the war in Gaza. He also said the internal culture at NPR had placed race and identity as paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace.

As a result of that expose, NPR is fighting back.

Yes, the guys over there want you to believe that the criticism is unwarranted. Like a good monopoly, and that's what it is, it does not listen to its critics. It views people like Mr. Berliner, a self-admitted liberal, as one of those who ran away from the plantation to seek fame and fortune.

In the meantime, anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that NPR is out of touch. The woke destroyed what used to be a decent network and the old "News Hour" at PBS that we used to watch every night.

For years, I've felt that NPR and PBS are about as relevant as public education. They need to be privatized so that they fight for viewers or listeners like everyone else does.

According to the aforementioned article, NPR's audience has fallen off. I was not aware of that, but it's not surprising. NPR, like CNN, got bit by Trump Derangement Syndrome, and both have learned that the country is not as obsessed with #45 as they are.

It also points out that some NPR correspondents are concerned that some Republicans may not want to appear on the air because they fear bias. Really?

Finally, one thing is missing. How about an apology for promoting lies like the Russia hoax or the laptop story? It would help a lot if they apologized and promised to do better. Don't hold your breath but it's nice to be optimistic on a pretty spring day.
Was the garbage prosecution of President Trump in Georgia something Kamala Harris cooked up with her best bud Fani Willis?

That's what congressional investigators are seeing.

According to Raw Story, citing Newsweek:

Embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis met with Vice President Kamala Harris before she indicted Donald Trump in his election interference case, according to a lawyer who shared White House records during a Georgia Senate hearing. The meeting, according to Attorney Ashley Merchant's testimony, took place on February 28, 2023, just months before Willis indicted Trump in August of that year, Newsweek reported.

Well what a coincidence. Since when does the vice president of the United States meet with a lowly district attorney over anything, really, given the separation local, state and federal jurisdictions? It sounds like the pair giggled their way into it together.

But it's just like Harris to be involved in something of this sort.

Back in California when she was state attorney general, she plotted with everyone from the Los Angeles Police Department to get free police protection even when she went out partying, to the governor's office, conspiring to keep prisoners in prison past their terms in order to ensure that they served as firefighters for the coming fire season.

She wiped out critical evidence in a death penalty case and threw dozens of petty drug offenders in prison in order to get the Democrat governor's soft-on-crime polling numbers up.

After that, she gave many indications of being in on the Jussie Smollett racial hoax in a bid to smear MAGA and Get Trump.

Seems she's always in on some colorful plot, and who better for the purpose this time than Fani Willis herself, a running joke as a prosecutor in her own right.

One wonders what the depth of the friendship was, given how much the pair had in common, mixing business with pleasure.

Harris slept her way to the top with political kingmaker Willie Brown and partied with the Pacific Heights set in San Francisco, apparently selling her 'wares' for power, while Willis slept around with traffic attorney Nathan Wade as a sort of toyboy tool, taking cruises, and then promoted him to chief prosecutor of President Trump to Get Trump, mixing business with pleasure again.

Both have viewed the law as something to be abused, Harris with pot smokers thrown into prison for long terms and others, Willis with her complete garbage prosecution of President Trump.

Both had communist fathers active in the intellectual and radical activist communities of their times. Both have zero scruples and flexible morals.

Willis, though, seems stupider than even Harris, though that's arguable, raising questions as to whether this was a girl's night out affair, or Harris finding and directing someone even more stupid than she is? We don't know. We do know they should be answering some questions about this.

How about it, Congress and mainstream media?

Image: Screen shot from Roland S. Martin video, via YouTube, and cropped Picryl public domain image.
Should I buy an AR-15? Yes. Next question?

But why? There are many good reasons, including the Mummified Meat Puppet Administration doesnt want you to have one and theyre willing to lie about it and threaten to bomb, even nuke, you to get them. Also, it has been scientifically proved there is no such thing as too many guns or too much ammunition. Trust the science. President Biden doesnt:

Graphic: X Screenshot

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (TX, D) doesnt either. She claims to have handled an AR:

"I've held an AR-15 in my hand," she said. "I wish I hadnt. It is as heavy as 10 boxes that you might be moving. And the bullet that is utilized, a .50 caliber, these kinds of bullets need to be licensed and do not need to be on the streets."

Recently, Senator John Kennedy (LA, R) quizzed one of Bidens judicial nominees. She signed on to an assault weapon ban, which in Democrat/socialist/communist (D/s/c) parlance means an AR-15 or anything that resembles one, but had no idea what an assault weapon, is:

Graphic: X Screenshot

Thats surely, in part, because there is no such thing.

D/s/cs also want to ban high-capacity magazines, which they define as any magazine holding more than 10 rounds, though theyd surely like to ban them entirely. The M16, the automatic, military version of the semiautomatic civilian legal AR-15, was originally issued with 20 round magazines, but during the Vietnam era, 30 round magazines quickly became, and remain, the standard.

An in-depth AR primer may be found here.

Among the more common D/S/C lies about ARs is if the Founders knew about AR-15s, they would have never written the Second Amendment. The Founders would have been delighted to have ARs, and they were content to allow citizens the most effective military arms of their time, including, unlike what Joe Biden keeps saying, cannon. One can hardly trust people who ignore and want to abolish the Second Amendment to tell the truth about such things. Its interesting that the very people who claim semiautomatic AR-15s would be useless against them, are so desperate to take them away from Americans.

Graphic: Author. L to R: .22LR, 9mm, .223, .308

Another common lie is the AR-15 is a high-powered rifle. Nonsense. It fires a .223/5.56mm cartridge, which is intermediate in power, designed for Coyote-sized game.

Yet another common lie is the AR-15 is a military assault weapon. This particular lie is based on a decades-old D/s/c tactic of trying to trick Americans into thinking anything that remotely resembles a machinegun must be a machinegun. Military M4 versions are automatic, civilian AR-15s are semiautomatic only, no different than any other semiautomatic firearm. Its safe to assume any AR-15 one sees is a semiauto. Citizens may theoretically own a machinegun, but the process is expensive and lengthy. So few are on the market, and are so expensive, its practically impossible.

Best estimates indicate Americans own around 30 million ARs, which makes it the most popular and common sporting rifle in circulation. This is hardly a surprise as Americans have bought more than a million firearms a month for more than 50 months, and there is no sign of that number diminishing.

Graphic: Author. Colt AR-15.

The AR platform is so popular because it is brilliantly ergonomically designed. All the controls fall easily to hand, and the rifle weighs relativelyby rifle terms--little. Men, woman, even little girls can easily handle it. For most, it just feels right. Ive yet to teach a woman or girl to shoot the AR-15 without witnessing wide grins of surprise and delight.

The recoil is light indeed, and the muzzle flash and report are also easily manageable. Its design is rugged, its finish needs only minimal attention and is far less prone to rust than blued steel. The very qualities that make it an outstanding military arm also make it suitable for hunting. Its design and ergonomics also make the rifle highly accurate, and its lack of recoil makes follow-up shots fast and easy.

One reason the AR platform is so popular is the amazing profusion of accessories easily installed by the userno gunsmithing is required. Everything from lighter triggers, lasers, flashlights, scopes, red dot and other electronic sights and magnifiers are readily available. Little is required to make an already ergonomic, accurate rifle even better suited to anyone.

Its original military design also makes taking down the rifle for cleaning fast and easy, as is reassembly. There are few parts involved, and for normal cleaning, there are no tiny springs or other parts that rocket off into the gun parts black hole, never to be seen again. Ammunition, in comparison with most rifle ammo, is inexpensive, and ARs may be had for as little as $500.00.

Perhaps the best reason to buy an AR is youre an American, and you want one.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
Kaitlin Hernandez, 17, was found dead Tuesday on the Northeast Side after going for a walk. Courtesy Kaitlins mom Angie Hernandez, center, speaks at a vigil for 17-year-old Kaitlin Hernandez at the bridge where she was found in the 7600 block of Dell Oak Drive on Friday, March 15, in San Antonio. Salgu Wissmath/San Antonio Express-News

The family of Kaitlin Hernandez will host a neighborhood march to honor the slain teen on Sunday.

Last month, Kaitlins body was found miles away from her Northeast home after the 17-year-old went for a walk with a neighbor and never returned. The killer is still on the run.

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The Bexar County Medical Examiners Office concluded that Kaitlin died from strangulation.

Since her death, the family has continued to ask for justice for Kaitlin.

According to the flyer posted to Facebook, Hernandezs family, friends and supporters will march at 6 p.m. on Sunday at the intersection of Dell Oak and Ashland Drive, near Walzem and Eisenhauer Road.

The family asked those to attend to bring your signs and bring your voices.
Google is now threatening to hold back news from California news publishers on its digital platforms. The search giant claims it is forced to take this drastic step in response to the pending California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA).

Content from California news publishers may have restricted reach and visibility

Googles VP of global news partnerships, Jaffer Zaidi, mentioned in a detailed blog post, the company could severely curtail content from California,

If passed, CJPA may result in significant changes to the services we can offer Californians and the traffic we can provide to California publishers.

He indicated that during the testing phase, Google may start eliminating links from California news websites on its online platforms,

The testing process involves removing links to California news websites, potentially covered by CJPA, to measure the impact of the legislation on our product experience.

Interesting : Google to Test Removal of California News Links Amid Legislative Debate** In a significant response to the proposed California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), Google has announced a plan to temporarily remove links to California news websites for a select group  Jake (@mediachecker) April 12, 2024

If thats not threatening enough, Zaidi even reportedly indicated that Google will, pause further investments in the California news ecosystem. He may have been referring to multiple Google News programs involving product and licensing agreements for news organizations. Needless to say, he implied Google would cease to offer such programs to news outlets and publishers based in California.

Google is upset due to the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA). Supporters of the act claim big tech and social media companies, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and others, pocket a much bigger chunk of revenue from online advertising. In other words, proponents argue tech giants are shortchanging publishers.

According to a report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF), tech giants earn 50 cents from every dollar generated through fees. Meanwhile, subscriptions are subject to app store commissions, commonly called the Google Tax and Apple Tax. This leaves very little to the actual content creators, some experts claim.

Why is Google threatening to boycott content from California?

It is interesting to note that Google does not host ads on Google News. However, it is possible that collating links to news and related content, and curating the content, may be benefitting the big tech platform on a much larger scale than the actual publishers.

Several proponents of the CJPA argue the act is more of a leveraging tool. If not definitive, it could at least be a bargaining chip for publishers against behemoths like Google and Meta.

Google is currently threatening California-based news publishers. Needless to say, this is not the companys first time. Moreover, this is not the first group of journalists and publishers that Google has threatened to either play ball or risk losing their audience.

Google threatened to pull out of Spain back in 2014 but had to return in 2022. Even Australian publishers had to fight the search giant using the News Media Bargaining Code. Google has regular tussles with mass-media publishing houses and journalists from multiple countries including, the USA, Canada, Germany, France, and more. It is important to see how resilient Californians respond.
Ever since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine began, there has been a growing animosity between foreign technology companies and Russia. Most of this negativity stems from disputes about the shared information on platforms like Google and Facebook. Russia is trying to get rid of all the information it deems false and even went as far as to build a Google Play Store alternative.

Failure by the companies to remove the information results in fines and, in extreme cases, bans. While companies try to get the penalties reversed the courts side with the State and it is almost impossible to reverse them. Something similar happened with Google when the Russian court rejected its appeal over content related to Ukraine.

Googles third rejected appeal by Russian court

Alphabets Google was recently fined for failing to delete information about the war in Ukraine that Russia considers false. This type of fine is not new as Russia has fined Google and other companies in the past. While the companies claim to protect freedom of speech this issue is becoming more serious.

Google was fined 4.6 billion roubles ($49.4 million) in December 2023 and they tried to appeal the fine but a court in Moscow rejected the appeal on April 10. According to Russian news agencies, Googles failure to remove extremist content and the distribution of what Russia calls LGBT propaganda is another cause of the fine.

The fine was calculated as a share of Googles annual turnover in Russia. Whats more, is that the company was fined similar turnover-based penalties of 7.2 billion roubles in late 2021. A fine of 21.1 billion roubles followed in 2022. Google tried to appeal both of the fines but were rejected.

Other platforms suffering similar fates

Google isnt the only tech giant to be affected by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. Popular and widely used social media platforms like Twitter and the Meta-owned platforms Facebook and Instagram are banned in Russia.

YouTube has been a particular target of Russias ire, especially considering how much content about the ongoing conflict it has. However, it hasnt been banned yet and is only restricted. This decision by Russia is fairly odd, as YouTube is owned by Alphabet, just like Google.

A Russian court found Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, guilty of extremist activity last year. The reason for the conclusion was their refusal to delete messages inciting harm towards Russia due to the Ukraine conflict.
Ms Florez and Mr Milei pictures in Buenos Aires last year - Ramiro Souto/AP

Argentinas firebrand president Javier Milei has announced he has ended his relationship with his glamorous actress and comedian girlfriend due to their conflicting work schedules.

The 53-year-old Right-wing leader said he and Fatima Florez, who called herself his lioness, would remain just friends.

As a result of the overwhelming professional success that Fatima, of whom I am extremely proud, is experiencing, she has received numerous job offers to work both in the United States and in Europe, wrote Mr Milei on social media.

This, added to the complex task that I am facing today and that the Argentines have entrusted me with, has led us to live apart, making it impossible for us to have the relationship as a couple that we would like to have, despite how much we love each other.

That is why we decided to end our relationship and maintain a bond of friendship given how much we feel for each other and how much we love, respect and admire each other.

Married for 22 years

Mr Milei started dating the 43-year-old daughter of an architect in July last year, after they met on a chat show the previous December while she was still married to her husband of 22 years.

Ms Florez, who boasts 1.4 million followers on Instagram, said in January that she was hooked on Javier.

The charismatic comedian said in an interview with The Times at the start of the year: Even when we are far apart, we are very close. And when we are close, we are close, we are explosive, explosive, you know what I mean?

But speculation the couple had been drifting apart had been growing in their homeland.

Ms Florez has yet to offer any reaction to her exs announcement of their split. The couple were last photographed together in Miami on Wednesday at an event organised by the local Jewish community.

Roadmap to take over Falklands

At the start of this month, Mr Milei vowed to establish a diplomatic roadmap towards the United Kingdom handing over sovereignty of the Falkland Islands to South America.

He reiterated his nations unwavering claim for the islands and took a swipe at his predecessors for mere words [spoken in] international forums with no impact on reality.

Mr Milei spoke during a ceremony in Buenos Aires to mark the 42nd anniversary of the start of the conflict between Argentina and the UK over the territory.
Joe Biden meets with members of his national security team regarding the Iranian attack on Israel on 14 April 2024. Photograph: Adam Schultz/WHITE HOUSE/AFP/Getty Images

Iran said it launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles towards Israel on Saturday in a major attack following days of acute tension building up in the region and warnings from the US and elsewhere about a wider conflict erupting.

Air attack warning sirens began wailing over Jerusalem just before 2am local time on Sunday after the weapons were fired a few hours earlier from Iran with US and Jordanian military assisting Israels air defenses in intercepting the first incoming barrage.

With weapons believed to be still in the air en route to Israel, Irans mission to the United Nations posted on X: Irans military action was in response to the Zionist regimes aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus. The matter can be deemed concluded.

Related: US and UK forces help shoot down Iranian drones over Jordan, Syria and Iraq

However, it threatened more severe action in the face of further Israeli aggression and warned the US and Jordan specifically not to assist Israel.

Nevertheless, the United States military and Jordanian fighter jets shot down some Iranian drone aircraft, officials said.

And the US embassy in Jerusalem told all US government employees to shelter in place until further notice, according to a security alert posted on Saturday.

R Adm Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesperson, had earlier said that Iran launched the new offensive late on Saturday.

It was the Islamic Republics first-ever direct attack on the Jewish state, a development that brings the two countries to the brink of all-out conflict after more than a decade of shadow war and soaring stress six months into Israels war in Gaza following the Hamas attack last October.

It was reported on Israeli television that Iran had launched more than 100 drones as well as cruise missiles towards Israel, and Iran later said it had fired a first wave of ballistic missiles.

Joe Biden rushed back to Washington on Saturday afternoon from a weekend trip to Delaware as it became clear from leadership signals that some sort of an attack by Iran was imminent.

The Iranian weapons were launched just a few hours after the White House had first announced the US president was returning to Washington from a planned weekend at the beach in Delaware, to consult with his national security team about events in the Middle East.

There had been nearly two weeks of speculation about when, where and how Tehran or its proxy forces in Syria, Iraq and Yemen would respond to a 1 April Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic building in the Syrian capital of Damascus, which killed Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior figure in Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards, and eight other officers.

Biden soon after made public that Israel had not shared its intentions with the US and said he had not had prior knowledge of the strike in Syria, signaling that, in addition to Israels blockade on Gaza provoking famine, US influence over Israel has limits.

In addition, Bidens hasty return to the White House on Saturday followed his saying on Friday that he expected an Iranian attack on Israel sooner rather than later and issued a last-ditch message to Tehran, saying, Dont, which clearly was not heeded.

Earlier on Saturday, Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps in the strait of Hormuz, 50 nautical miles off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, seized an Israeli-affiliated container ship.

The ships operator, the Italian-Swiss group MSC, later confirmed that Iranian authorities had boarded it, rappelling from a helicopter. The White House condemned the seizure of the British-owned vessel.

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the US strongly condemned the seizure and urged Iran to release the ship and crew immediately, calling the incursion a violation of international law and an act of piracy.

Upon returning to the White House, Biden walked into the Oval Office and then convened a top-level meeting in the Situation Room.

According to the White House, the president was joined by Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary; Antony Blinken, the secretary of state; Gen Charles Brown, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff; William Burns, the CIA director; Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence; and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser.

Austin spoke with Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, earlier on Saturday to discuss the urgent regional threats in the Middle East and reiterated unwavering US support for Israels defense, according to the Pentagon.

After the attacks began, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said: Israel has been preparing for a direct attack by Iran. Our defensive systems are deployed  We appreciate the US standing alongside Israel, as well as the support of Britain, France and many other countries.

The US House of Representatives will make a change in its schedule to consider legislation that supports Israel and holds Iran accountable, the House majority leader, Steve Scalise, said in a statement on Saturday.

It was unclear whether Scalise was referring to a stand-alone bill to aid Israel, or the $95bn supplemental spending bill that includes $14bn for Israel, in addition to $60bn for Ukraine, support for Taiwan and billions of dollars in humanitarian assistance, which has been held back from a vote by House Republicans.

Reuters, Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press contributed reporting
Brompton's director supports plans for all e-bike batteries to be independently inspected before being approved for sale

The boss of bicycle maker Brompton is backing a crackdown on poor quality electric bike batteries that have been blamed for a number of fatal fires.

Will Butler-Adams, managing director of Brompton Bicycles, is backing a charitys campaign to introduce stricter rules on e-bike batteries and stop dangerous products from entering the UK.

Batteries and chargers used with e-bikes and e-scooters have caused a number of fatal fires in recent years.

They have been linked to the deaths of 11 people within the last year alone.

Under current rules battery and charger suppliers can self-certify that their products meet safety standards required for them to be put on sale.

The folding bicycle companys director said he supported Electrical Safety Firsts plans for all e-bike batteries to be independently inspected before being approved for sale.

Mr Butler-Adams said: Weve got poor quality stuff coming into the UK and if were not careful, that will affect the whole momentum of light electric vehicle transport, which would be an absolute chronic shame.

Comparing public perception of e-bikes with electric vehicles, he continued: We trust that an electric car is well made, the standards are well adhered to.

And we did have some fires in the very early days of electric cars, but theyve gone because the standards, the controls, the regulation is such that now we trust them.

There are too many examples of e-bikes, e-scooters and light electric vehicles hurting people and scaring people.

Then suddenly you cant carry them on public transport, you cant store them in buildings, and it all snowballs into a world of fear.

World of fear

Mr Butler-Adams is backing plans by the Electrical Safety First charity for a new law to crack down on dangerous lithium-ion batteries.

A Ten Minute Rule bill backed by the charity is due to be tabled by Labour MP Yvonne Fovargue later in the spring.

It would weed out bad operators producing dangerous batteries that put peoples lives at risk.

The bill is backed by 46 organisations including the College of Paramedics, the National Residential Landlords Association and major insurance companies Axa and Zurich.

Lesley Rudd, chief executive of Electrical Safety First, said: The support for our bill by Brompton Bicycle demonstrates how reputable manufacturers want to protect shoppers and their industry from the bad operators in this space who may be producing substandard batteries.

Our bill will better protect the public, protect good businesses and weed out bad operators producing dangerous batteries that put peoples lives at risk

E-bike and battery fires caused by sub-standard products are a growing problem.

This week alone has seen two e-bike explosions; one in a bicycle rack at a London train station and the other, a pedicab, outside Buckingham Palace. Neither fire is thought by police to have been set deliberately.

The Government announced plans in March to let e-bike makers double the power of their devices motors from current permitted levels.

Officials hope that more powerful e-bikes being available legally will encourage more couriers and people with mobility issues to use bicycles instead of vans or cars.

Brompton is the UKs biggest bike manufacturer, building 100,000 a year at its factory in west London.

Prices start from 950 for a basic folding push-bike through to 3,895 for its top-end folding e-bike models.
The relaxed lifestyle of Chiang Mai is attracting Chinese emigrants who want to leave behind the iron-fisted rule of Xi Jinping Photograph: Christopher Cherry/The Guardian

Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on.

Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square metre farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailands Chiang Mai province. Xiong has chronicled her journey from Beijing cryptocurrency marketing executive to farm girl in Thailand on social media; shes particularly popular on Xiaohongshu, a female-focused app similar to Instagram, where she has more than 38,000 followers. Her account shows people that switching to a slower pace of life is not just some illusion or idealistic thing, but is very actionable, she says.

Moving to Thailand has allowed her to have a multiverse version of herself, where she can be a farmer, an influencer, a businesswoman and a single, child-free woman, away from the pressures of Chinese society.

Xiong is part of a burgeoning trend of Chinese people  particularly millennials  who feel that the country that was supposed to be the powerhouse of the 21st century has little to offer them personally in social, intellectual and spiritual terms. In recent years, an economic downturn and lingering trauma from the isolation of Chinas draconian zero-Covid regime has pushed people who would otherwise be seen as the countrys success stories to emigrate.

It felt like the end of the world, says Linda Xu, of the Shanghai lockdown. Until March 2022, she was the general manager of a successful skateboarding start-up in Shanghai, but now she spends much of her time in Chiang Mai, figuring out what the next chapter might be.

Art, books, free speech

Chiang Mai, a tourist hotspot popular with backpackers and nature-lovers, has become an unlikely second home for thousands of new Chinese emigres. More than 110,000 Chinese nationals applied for long-term visas in Thailand between January and September in 2022, nearly the total number for 2019. Nearly half of the members of Thailands elite card visa scheme, which offers long term residency rights for a fee starting at 900,000 Thai Baht (19,400) are Chinese. Thousands of them are settling in Chiang Mai, attracted by the citys laid back atmosphere and permissive social environment  with or without the legalised marijuana.

Cannabis has never been freely available in the Peoples Republic of China. But it was not so long ago that Chinas big cities were replete with independent bookstores, cinemas and social spaces where like-minded people could meet openly to discuss topics such as feminism, LGBT issues, philosophy and anything else that might interest them. While certain topics were always forbidden, the countrys intelligentsia navigated these red lines with relative ease. But after more than a decade of increasingly iron-fisted rule by Xi Jinping, few, if any, of these spaces remain.

So it is that Nowhere Bookstore opened in Chiang Mai in November 2023, after the launch of its sister shop in Taipei the previous year. Founded by Zhang Jieping, a mainland-born journalist who is now based at Harvard University, the small space stocks material on topics that would be impossible to discuss openly in China, such as the 2022 white paper protests and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. There are many books that you cant see or buy in mainland China, says a young designer from Guangzhou who seized the opportunity to visit the shop while on holiday in Thailand, saying that she otherwise has to rely on the fragmented information of the Chinese internet.

As well as selling books, Nowhere also hosts Chinese-language events on wide-ranging topics for the growing Chinese community in Chiang Mai. At a recent event, the 62-year-old writer Zheng Shiping spoke about spending his retirement years in exile. Zheng started his career as a policeman in the 1980s but quit the force after Tiananmen Square massacre, and went on to become a renowned poet and writer, working under the pen name Ye Fu. He arrived in Thailand at the end of 2019, having heard from doctors in Wuhan, the capital of his home province of Hubei, about a virus that was spreading dangerously fast in the city.

Thailand is certainly not as safe as the US, Europe or Japan, he says, acutely aware of the fate of Gui Minhai, a Swedish bookseller who was kidnapped from Thailand in 2015, reappearing months later in Chinese custody, an incident which spooked dissidents in Thailand. But its still basically a country with free speech. It basically protects human rights.

Zheng is part of an older cabal of expats who have established a retirement village-meets-arts community in a suburb of Chiang Mai. Unlike the millennial transplants, this older generation was forged in Chinas more liberal era of the 1980s, and have a more political perspective about the countrys trajectory. We were hopeful, a generation of people who made great sacrifices and efforts, but ultimately failed, says Zheng. Young Chinese today are more desperate than we were then. In the next few years, they will be unemployed, their lives will be in crisis, and their rights as human beings will diminish little by little.

For Du Yinghong, an artist, part of the reason he emigrated was because he believes that art is dead in his home country. Its spiritually unsatisfying, materially unsatisfying, he says. As well as the low cost of living in Thailand, Du was attracted to the countrys Buddhism. Thailand is thought to be home to the second-largest number of Buddhists in the world after China, and as a share of the population, it is far more prevalent in Thailand, with 90% of adults claiming adherence to the faith, according to Pew Research Centre. Chinese Buddhism is Buddhism in quotation marks, says Du, aged 48. There is no real Buddhism in China, there is no real Christianity, there is no real Islam  its all fake. Of course, there are a lot of really devout people in China, good people, but what they do, or believe in, its in a specific kind of political environment, it doesnt allow you to have real faith.

Many of the Chinese in Thailand say that they are attracted to the idea of a less consumerist, more peaceful lifestyle, informed by Thailands Buddhist principles. With the highest rate of inequality in east and south-east Asia, Thailands appeal may be informed more by the fact that the low cost of living allows relatively wealthy Chinese to have a slower pace of life in Chiang Mai than they could afford in Chongqing. Nonetheless, the space Thailand offers for people looking for a more spiritual life is another draw for Chinese who feel increasingly suffocated at home.

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Founded in 2010, Panyaden International School is a school made nearly entirely out of bamboo that offers an education based on Buddhist principles, known as bhavana. Staff participate in an annual silent meditation retreat and the students harvest their own rice from a nearby paddy field, to learn about the effort that goes into feeding the planet. More than 10% of the students are from China, and although fees reach up to 549,000 Thai baht (11,900) a year, that is still only around a third of the cost of top international schools in Beijing. Chinese parents are drawn to the fact that the school offers an international, diverse education for their children, while also being rooted in Asian values, says Gloria Niu, a Chinese lecturer at Chiang Mai University who sends her own daughter to Panyaden. One of the schools 12 wise habits, which teachers emphasise to children, is the value of knowing the right amount, a reference to the idea of not consuming too much, or too little.There is also an in-house spiritual adviser. It is an approach to education that is unimaginable in mainstream, hyper-competitive Chinese schools.

Xiong says her parents feel that the money they spent on her education has been flushed down the toilet. But living in Thailand is the only way I have the freedom to do whatever I want, she reflects. Without actually actively choosing it, I am having this kind of feminist lifestyle.
Community Clothing founder Patrick Grant began his career in textiles at Norton & Sons on Savile Row. Photo: Community Clothing

Patrick Grant adheres to the slogan coined by the founder of Molson Canadian, who once said an honest beer makes its own friends. Grant, who set up Community Clothing in 2016, says: Thats our philosophy too.

Blackburn-based Community Clothing is a fast-growing business, eschewing fast fashion for quality manufacturing and keeping the British textile industry firmly alive. Word of mouth is key too, with their marketing spend (200 or so on Google ads in the week that we speak) next to nothing.

Not so long ago, says Grant, the textile industry in the UK supported 1.6 million jobs, today its less than 100,000. In setting up Community Clothing, Grants company vision was two-fold: to create and sustain jobs and make high quality, affordable, long-lasting clothes.

Read More: 'We turned down Dragons' Den offers - our eyecare company is worth 7m now'

If you are an ordinary Joe today and you go to the British high street to buy clothing ... its garbage," says Grant, who is also a judge on BBCs The Great British Sewing Bee. The socks, pants and jumpers are abysmal quality and made out of the thinnest material in the cheapest possible way.

Everybody else has chipped away at the quality of clothing over a 50-year period. We are against that philosophy. Our product is the same, we dont waste anything and try to standardise as much as possible.

The seeds have been sown from Grants near 30-year professional career, which started in engineering, in 1995, at a blue-chip British manufacturing business called BICC. Back then there were five factories across the North West, with BICC employing 35,000 staff, most of them in manufacturing roles.

With Community Clothing, textiles are woven into the fabric of communities across the UK.

In 2005, a move into the textiles industry saw Grant, a former under-19 Scotland rugby player, revive the 200-year-old tailoring house Norton & Sons on Savile Row, where he sourced fine cloths from some of Britains mills who he now works with today. It was here that Grant understood the value of creating a story and actually meeting the tailors. Those connections make those suits feel special to the customers, he says.

Four years later he relaunched British designer brand E. Tautz and was awarded Menswear Designer of the Year at the 2010 British Fashion Awards. In 2015 he then took over 160-year-old clothing manufacturer Cookson & Clegg and saved it from closure.

The move came after an email he received one Sunday. The following day he wrote to the CEO and took on the business. Looking at the books you understand how so many manufacturing businesses in the UK are failing, he recalls. They dont have big enough orders, its seasonal business. They were making a painstakingly good product but it was expensive.

"A British made raincoat might start at 600 but a raincoat at Debenhams was selling for 120. That was a big jump which people werent prepared to make, even with the knowledge that they would be supporting local jobs.

Patrick Grant is also well known as a judge on BBC Ones The Great British Sewing Bee

First launched on eBay eight years ago, Community Clothing  we are a clothing, not a fashion business, says Grant  ensures that 65% is paid to the skilled manufacturers, as opposed to the normal model of around 22% of consumer spend.

Waste is clearly key for Grant. Indeed, there is no seasonal fashion when it comes to Community Clothings output. Why are we changing the pockets and collar on this raincoat when everybody likes it as it is, was Grants argument to retailers.

While Grant writes the emails and copy for the website, the social enterprise firms marketing budget (five percent) pales in comparison with other social media heavy fashion outlets.

Read More: Meet vertical farm GrowUp, the UKs fastest-growing salad brand

What they shoot will normally be in Blackburn. A sunny Lancashire day for content creation is clearly a blessing. The product speaks for itself," admits Grant, "and once people try our product they will keep buying it."

Grant read with interest how fast fashion behemoth Shein turned over $1 billion in the UK last year and forecast to become one of the top 10 apparel firms in the country. Meanwhile UK factories were, says Grant, being hollowed out by offshoring.

He adds: Our view is to encourage people to buy more carefully, buy products which will last. The great irony is that the cheaper the clothes the more likely the money will end up in the pockets of a billionaire sitting on a yacht.

I grew up with good clothes, leather shoes which took five years to get comfortable in or wool overcoats that took time to mold to your body and once you got it right you wouldnt want to be parted from it. It meant something.

Community Clothing is having a profound affect ensuring full factories and more jobs. Photo: Community Clothing

Now you can buy a top for less than a cup of coffee. People are being paid peanuts for making these clothes. Its everything thats wrong with the system and so we are offering a different way forward. Have fewer and better things and make them in a way that does good for a community.

Community Clothing works with nearly 50 factories (14 within an hour of Grants base), predominantly in the old textile heartlands of Yorkshire, Lancashire, East Midlands and southern Scotland. There are also factories in Wales, north London and Sussex.

Grant regularly sees yarn spinners, dyers, weavers, jersey knitters or manufacturers at the home of the trainer, in Bolton, while during our interview at Grant's company headquarters, the factory bell goes off for morning break.

We know how many people we work with who are employed (under 2,000), we know how many hours we have created (354,000 hours). We have thrown these factories a lifeline, says Grant, who is decked out in Communitys socks, pants, trousers, T-shirt and a jumper.

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Comfortable in his brand, he's enthusiastic about the future. With 12 staff, half of whom are part-time, Community Clothing has a near 3m turnover, with 60,000 customers and fast growth.

We have reached only a small number of people in the UK, he adds. But if we can get more switched on to good versus bad quality, it will be better for the planet and the customers.

Our ambition is to create 5,000 permanent skilled jobs in our sector. What weve done is just redistributed the money and youve got to think differently. It all boils down to making something good and almost everybody else has forgotten about that. It feels like an opportunity to me.

Watch: Woman creates new fashion trend for celebs following life changing car crash

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A British tasting menu experience for dinner, and shorter set menu for lunch. Photograph: PR

A meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant is a chance to savour some of the finest cooking in the country, often over many hours, with several courses and wine pairings.

But high-end restaurants are now turning to speedy set menus to entice customers through the door for weekday lunches, promising diners they can be in and out within an hour.

Pavyllon at the Four Seasons on Londons Park Lane, which has one Michelin star, offers a 55.50, five courses in 55 minutes menu during the week, featuring braised beef cheeks with bone marrow crust and a steamed comte souffle.

Restaurant St Barts near Smithfield meat market, which has a green sustainability star as well as a regular star, launched its business lunch hour menu last month, promising three courses for 55 and a swift return to the office. Murano, Angela Hartnetts one-star British-Italian restaurant in Mayfair, offers two or three courses for lunch, which they can serve in under an hour.

The death of the long business lunch has long been prophesied, even before Covid made working from home widespread. But even with the return of office workers, restaurants have not seen their lunch customers returning in the same way.

We realised over the last year that a lot of our lunch traders from the City were asking for a tasting menu in under an hour, said St Barts co-founder Toby Neill. Its pretty tough to do six courses in an hour, so the three-course menu works really well.

Since introducing the option, around a quarter of guests have opted for the quick lunch which, although cheaper, gives the restaurant an opportunity to turn over more tables. It helps the diners, too, said Neill: They dont want to spend four hours, or even two, with a client they dont really know that well.

The hospitality industry is under more pressure than ever to bring in customers as the cost of living crisis continues and energy and food prices remain high. According to UKHospitality data, about 40% of Britains restaurants are struggling to break even.

Despite the often-wealthy clientele, Michelin-starred restaurants are not immune to these challenges. A cheaper tasting menu can bring in a new customer who may not otherwise book a table. Just three months after opening in October, Brooklands on Hyde Park Corner was awarded two Michelin stars, putting it alongside only 18 other restaurants in the capital with the double honour. The 195 tasting menu takes around three hours, but those in a rush can choose the three-course Concorde menu at 58.

For chef director Claude Bosi, the goal was to offer a more affordable experience, aided by using cheaper products such as mussels or cheeks, without skimping on the Michelin flourish. Bosi said around half of lunch guests now opt for the speedy option. Its very important to give an opportunity to people whove never been to a Michelin-star restaurant to have a first contact, he said.

It fits in to the way people work, he added: People want to get back to the office and get home earlier. So we need this lunch menu, its very important. People dont have the time to be in a restaurant.

Opheem, a two-star restaurant in Birmingham, was ahead of the curve, offering quick options since opening in 2018. Based near the main business district, it allows for a brisk  and more affordable  lunch, at 65 for two courses, as opposed to 115 for the tasting menu.

The cooking is the same, said chef-owner Aktar Islam, but portions are bigger and there are more carbohydrates. There are dishes such as roast aged beef sirloin with bhuna and charred greens, or soft shell crab with caraway tempura. The lunch menu makes it more accessible and appropriate for various occasions, as opposed to just celebrations and indulgence, said Islam. You can still come and have a really good meal, and that be in your lunch break.

Stefan Chomka, editor of Restaurant magazine, said: In this climate, restaurants are doing everything they possibly can to get customers. Express lunches are one option.

For a lot of these high-end restaurants, the perception is that lunch is two, three, four hours. It puts people off  they dont have time these days. To compete with the more casual offers, theyre saying: come, have a really good meal, and well get you in and out in an hour. And its often very good value.
General Sir Tim Radford served in the British Army for almost four decades before his retirement - HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY

A former British Army general has been banned from lobbying the defence sector after leaving the Armed Forces.

General Sir Tim Radford, who left the Army in January after rising to become Natos deputy supreme allied commander Europe, has been hired as an adviser by Hypori, an American tech company, and the Cohen Group, the strategy consultancy.

But a ministerial watchdog has placed restrictions on his employment with the two firms because of his privileged insight into defence matters.

The advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba), which assesses roles taken up by former ministers, civil servants and military chiefs, ruled that Gen Sir Tim should not advise the defence sector on behalf of the two firms.

The committee considered Gen Sir Tims role within Nato and his access to information presents real and perceived risks, it said in its advice on the Hypori role.

Though the committee recognised the opportunity to offer an unfair advantage is limited given the views from Nato and the MoD, it is hard to argue he would not have developed privileged insight into defence matters.

The committee has therefore imposed a ban on him advising on the defence sector in this role.

It imposed the same restriction on his employment with the Cohen Group.

Privileged information

Acoba also warned Gen Sir Tim not to use any privileged information available to him in both roles and prohibited him from lobbying the Government, Armed Forces and Nato for two years.

Hypori is a provider of secure data access for mobile devices and currently is a contractor for the US Army.

Gen Sir Tim served in the British Army for almost four decades before his retirement, deploying to Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan.

He was knighted in 2021, having previously been made an MBE in 1994, OBE in 2007, given a Distinguished Service Order in 2010 and the US Legion of Merit in 2018.

In June last year, he told The Telegraph that Britain is only just holding on to its influence in Nato because its Army is too small.

I think we are too small, he said. We do need to grow.

He added: Were in danger of not holding on. It would be wrong to say [were] living off the past, but weve got to be really careful that we dont slip too low.

Were in a fortunate position here. Weve got a position of influence right across Nato. I worry that if we dont invest and we dont build up our industrial base and we dont lead as we should, we might lose that position.
China will never allow Philippines to act willfully on South China Sea issue: military spokesperson

Xinhua) 11:01, April 13, 2024

BEIJING, April 12 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese military spokesperson on Friday said that China will never allow the Philippines to act willfully on the South China Sea issue.

Wu Qian, a spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to a media inquiry regarding the recent joint maritime exercise in the South China Sea held by the United States, Japan, Australia and the Philippines for the first time.

China upholds that defense cooperation between countries should not target any specific country or undermine regional peace and stability, Wu said.

China's relevant activities in the South China Sea are justified, lawful and beyond reproach, he said, while rebuking "certain non-regional country" for frequently sending military vessels and aircraft to the South China Sea to flex muscles, gathering its allies to build up "small cliques" against China, and threatening and coercing China with the so-called mutual defense treaty. "These acts are irresponsible and extremely dangerous."

Noting that the South China Sea is a shared home for countries in the region, Wu said China stays committed to resolving differences properly through dialogue and consultation and is firmly opposed to external interference and provocations that create regional tensions.

Criticizing the Philippines for getting external forces on board to interfere in the South China Sea issue, Wu said China is strongly opposed to this move and the settlement of the South China Sea issue should be based on reasons, not sizes.

"China never bullies other countries, nor will it allow the Philippine side to act willfully," Wu said, stressing that the Chinese military is unwaveringly committed to safeguarding national sovereignty and security.

(Web editor: Peng Yukai, Sheng Chuyi)
Miranda Casarez, on trial Friday, talks with legal assistant Hannah Taylor. Casarez is charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission in the 2021 starvation death of her stepson, Benjamin Cervera, 4. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Dr. Kimberley Molina, the Bexar County Chief Medical Examiner, testifies in the trial of Miranda Casarez on Friday. Casarez is charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission in the 2021 starvation death of her stepson, Benjamin Cervera, 4. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Bruises on the head of Benjamin Cervera are shown in a photograph displayed during testimony in the trial of Miranda Casarez on Friday. Casarez is charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission in the 2021 starvation death of her stepson, Benjamin Cervera, 4. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Dr. Kimberley Molina, the Bexar County Chief Medical Examiner, points out bruising on the legs of Benjamin Cervera to prosecutor Michael Villarreal, center, while testifying in the trial of Miranda Casarez on Friday. Casarez is charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission in the 2021 starvation death of Benjamin, 4, her stepson. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Miranda Casarez appears in court for her trial on Friday. Casarez is charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission in the 2021 starvation death of her stepson, Benjamin Cervera, 4. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Defense attorney Anthony B. Cantrell questions Candace Sanchez, the aunt of Benjamin Cervera, while she testifies in the trial of Miranda Casarez on Friday. Casarez is charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission in the 2021 starvation death of Benjamin Cervera, 4, her stepson. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News State District Judge Kristina Escalona listens to defense attorney Anthony B. Cantrell, right, and prosecutor Thomas Damico, left, as they speak at the bench at the trial of Miranda Casarez on Friday. Casarez is charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission in the 2021 starvation death of her stepson, Benjamin Cervera, 4. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News State District Judge Kristina Escalona stands as she recesses court for lunch during the trial of Miranda Casarez on Friday. Casarez is charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission in the 2021 starvation death of her stepson, Benjamin Cervera, 4. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Miranda Casarez appears at her trial on Friday. Casarez is charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission in the 2021 starvation death of her stepson, Benjamin Cervera, 4. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News Miranda Casarez leaves court for lunch during her trial on Friday. Casarez is charged with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission in the 2021 starvation death of her stepson, Benjamin Cervera, 4. Josie Norris/San Antonio Express-News

Benjamin Cervera died of starvation by homicide, Bexar County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kimberley Molina told jurors who will decide whether the childs stepmother will be convicted in his death.

Miranda Casarez, 25, is charged along with Benjamins father, Brandon Lee Cervera, 30, with injury to a child causing serious bodily injury by omission.

Each is accused of witholding food and water and failing to seek proper medical care for Benjamin, whom family members called Benji, and each faces up to life in prison if convicted of the first-degree felony offense. Cervera is awaiting trial.

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Testimony established that the child was unresponsive when Casarez took him to CHRISTUS San Antonio Childrens Hospital, where he died Aug. 17, 2021.

Molina was the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy on the boy the day after his death. She made her ruling months later.

Benjamin was markedly underweight and had no body fat, Molina told the jury. She testified that she used previous medical reports, documents provided by forensic investigators, police reports, and photos and videos that San Antonio police had taken that showed a steady deterioration of the child over about four and a half months.

Defense attorney Anthony B. Cantrell challenged nearly every conclusion that Molina presented from the autopsy, including the cause of death and Molina's finding that Benjamin did not have any underlying diseases or issues.

Benjamin weighed 28 pounds on the day he died, about a month before his fifth birthday.

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Cantrell pointed to at least four earlier doctor visits that did not indicate Benji was being starved, and he pointed out that some of the doctors reports had information that Casarez provided of the child not eating, throwing temper tantrums and self-harming.

Defense attorneys asked why doctors would not have had him hospitalized if he was being deprived of food.

Autopsy photos shown to the jury Friday depicted bruising over the majority of Benjis body, on his scalp and on the back of his head.

Casarez told San Antonio police Detective Lawrence Saiz after Benji died that she never hit the child and that he was always hungry but wouldnt eat. She said he was self-harming and that she had wanted to have him tested for behavioral problems.

But the boy's brother testified that their stepmother would play a game called flip flop, where she would throw Benji up in the air, not catch him and let him fall to the floor.

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Cantrell tried to challenge Molina on the possibility that Benji had Type 1 diabetes, which he said runs in his family on the paternal side. He cited high glucose levels at the time of death and said the child had all the symptoms  excessive thirst, hunger and weight loss.

Molina countered that glucose testing is done routinely in autopsies and that the child did not have diabetes.

The state rested its case after Molinas testimony. The defense is expected to provide an opening statement Monday morning and present witnesses.

The case is being heard in the 186th District Court, Judge Kristina Escalona presiding.
Liz Truss making her resignation speech outside 10 Downing Street after spending just 49 days in power. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Liz Truss ran for Conservative leader and prime minister despite her husbands prediction that it would all end in tears, according to her book, Ten Years to Save the West, which will be published in the UK and US next week.

She agreed with an ally that the mini-budget she planned to introduce once elected would prompt brutal turbulence, then resigned after just 49 days in power, seeing herself as the Brian Clough of prime ministers. The Guardian has obtained a copy of the book.

Related: Liz Truss says in book queen told her to pace yourself, admits she didnt listen

Truss became prime minister on 6 September 2022 after Boris Johnson was forced to resign. In her book, she describes learning of Johnsons exit while in Bali as foreign secretary.

As I walked along the beach in Indonesia I started crying, Truss writes, in one of a number of frank admissions of human frailties under pressure, including descriptions of struggling to cope after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, just two days after their meeting confirmed Truss as prime minister.

The possibility of further tears was raised, she writes, when she asked her husband, Hugh OLeary, if he thought she should run.

Even Hugh, who predicted it would all end in tears, accepted that this was the moment I was expected to run and that if I didnt, people would say I had bottled it, Truss writes.

She says her political agent in her Norfolk constituency said I should run  but he thought it would be best if I came second.

In the event, Truss did finish second in voting by Conservative MPs, behind Rishi Sunak. But Trusss popularity with Conservative party members, the decisive electorate, was enough to see her become prime minister.

In partnership with her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, a long-term ally, Truss sought to implement drastic economic action that she thought  and still thinks, according to her book  was needed to save the UK economy.

Though she divined an environment deeply hostile to the economic policies we were advancing: tax cuts, supply-side reform and public spending restraint, and indeed thought her government not ready for this level of [media] onslaught, Truss ploughed on with plans for a mini-budget.

Describing a walk through the woods at Chevening, the foreign secretarys country residence, she says Simon Clarke, then chief secretary to the Treasury and another close ally, with typical understatement suggested we were in for a bracing time.

I  said it would be a brutal six months of turbulence and we would have to batten down the hatches, Truss writes.

In the event, the mini-budget produced a full-blown hurricane: a pensions crisis that Truss now insists she did not see coming amid predictions of economic disaster. Kwarteng was replaced by Jeremy Hunt but Truss had lost control. On 20 October she resigned.

Analysing her failed premiership, Truss admits faults but also apportions blame, particularly to what she calls the administrative, leftist or deep state: bureaucrats and officials, particularly at the Treasury and the Bank of England.

She also delivers a remarkable allusion to another polarising figure: the former Leeds United and Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough.

Noting that the first leadership hustings against Sunak was held at Elland Road, home of Leeds United, in the city where she grew up, Truss writes: In my speech there, I made reference to Don Revie, the legendary manager of the 1970s Leeds team that had won the league who then went on to manage England.

Clough, Truss writes, took over from Revie at the club in 1974. As dramatised in the film The Damned United, Clough tried to shake up the team and get them to play better  the players rebelled and Clough was sacked after just 44 days.

In the final days of my premiership, I had said to my private secretary, Nick Catsaras: If the Conservative party bin me after six weeks and Im the Brian Clough of prime ministers, then so be it. I lasted 49 days.

Truss is not the first writer to compare herself to Clough at Leeds. Writing in the Guardian last month, the Cambridge politics professor David Runciman considered Trusss brief and calamitous premiership, the shortest in UK history, and her attempts to remain on the global stage, of which the book is a key part.

Stepping back from the fray is not the Liz Truss way, Runciman wrote. Instead, she seems to be modelling herself on another public figure who crashed and burned shortly after reaching the pinnacle of his profession.

Cloughs precipitate failure was a humiliation for such a strident and self-confident man, Runciman wrote. What saved him was that it was over so quickly. He was able to say  that he hadnt been given enough time to tackle the deep-seated problems he had inherited. That the people who fired him were cowards, and he was the victim of vested interests who never wanted him to succeed in the first place. Being kicked out after barely a month was evidence that he never stood a chance.

Related: She still carries an aura of spectacular failure: why hasnt Liz Truss gone away?

Clough took Nottingham Forest to the English league title and two European Cups. Like Clough, Runciman wrote, Truss now appears to believe that lasting little more than a month in a job she had aspired to all her adult life is evidence not of her profound incompetence but of her virtue.

Rather than manage Nottingham Forest, Truss formed Popular Conservatism, a group to promote libertarian rightwing policies.

On the page, Truss repeatedly says Ten Years to Save the West is less a memoir than a prescription for her global political vision. Accordingly, the book is being heavily promoted in the US. Next Monday, Truss will appear at the Heritage Foundation, a hard-right Washington thinktank behind Project 2025, a vast plan to institute radical and discriminatory policies should Donald Trump be re-elected.

Attenders at Heritage HQ, on Massachusetts Avenue, are promised a conversation between Truss and Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, about fighting the global left. A light lunch will be available afterwards.
Police and paramedics outside the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney. Six people have been killed and the injured include a nine-month-old baby. Photograph: Steve Markham/AAP

Six people have been killed and numerous others injured, including some in critical condition, after a man went on a stabbing spree at a Westfield shopping centre in the Sydney suburb of Bondi Junction.

The attacker was shot dead after being chased by a lone police officer who was on duty on an unrelated matter.

The injured include a nine-month-old baby. The babys mother, killed by the attacker, has been widely named by Australian media as Ash Good, aged 38.

The New South Wales police commissioner, Karen Webb, said in a press conference on Saturday evening the attacker was a 40-year-old man but he was yet to be formally identified. Police did not believe his motive was related to terrorism, she said.

If it is the person we believe it is, we dont have fear for that person holding an ideation, Webb said. In other words, that its not a terrorism incident.

We believe that this person acted alone and theres no ongoing threat to the community.

A major incident was declared at the shopping centre on Saturday afternoon after the man, who had earlier left the complex, returned with what witnesses have described as a large blade just before 3.30pm.

One witness reported seeing the man, dressed in an Australian rugby league jersey and shorts, moving calmly through the shopping centre.

He was walking like he was having an ice-cream in the park, the witness told ABC News.

He began stabbing shoppers in a fashion that seemed random, police said.

Four women and one man died at the scene, Webb said, while others were taken to hospital.

Several witnesses recalled seeing a mother holding her baby in need of help. One man told 9 News he had held the baby as he and others tried to compress its wounds with any clothing they could find, while the mother was suffering more significant bleeding.

The mother, Good, died later on Saturday night after being taken to hospital.

The nine-month-old had surgery and was among eight injured being treated in hospitals across Sydney on Saturday night.

Sky News Australia reporter Laura Jayes, who was reporting on the incident from Bondi Junction, said on air that she knew the mother who had been killed.

She was so excited to be a new mother and all of that was ripped away in seconds, she said.

Another witness reported seeing a woman lying on the floor of the Chanel shop covered in blood.

Mobile phone footage from inside the six-storey shopping centre showed one shopper confronting the attacker on an escalator with a bollard.

Panicked shoppers alerted police to the attack, including one officer who had been on duty for an unrelated reason.

She chased the attacker to the fifth floor of the centre.

He turned, faced her, raised a knife. She discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased, the assistant police commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters. Three shots were fired.

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, condemned what he called a horrific act of violence but said the officer was a hero and praised first responders and bystanders who rushed into danger to help victims.

There is no doubt that she saved lives through her action, Albanese said in Canberra on Saturday evening. And it is a reminder that those people who wear uniform are people who rush to danger, not away from it.

This was a horrific act of violence indiscriminately targeted at the innocent people going about an ordinary Saturday, doing their shopping.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, who was on holiday, announced he would return to Sydney immediately.

As the alarm was raised and the centre went into lockdown, shoppers hid inside stores. Santiago, an employee at the Harris Farm supermarket, said his instincts had kicked in and he ushered people inside and shut the shop. Others hid in the Apple Store, which was at street level, for about an hour.

Related: At Bondi Westfield someone said: Theres been a stabbing, we have to go. I could see in her face it was real

Shoppers in the multi-level David Jones department store said they were hiding in changing rooms, and were receiving conflicting messages about when to evacuate the centre.

Thousands spilled on to the streets around the centre as they were evacuated, as multiple TV crews arrived.

Teams of heavily armed tactical response police units combed the shopping centre in search of a rumoured further attacker but ultimately ruled out that possibility.

Some shoppers hid in various levels of the complex, waiting to be evacuated.

One woman from the nearby suburb of Clovelly, who asked not to be named, told Guardian Australia: We had to run and hide in a location on the floor, which turned out to be a storeroom.

There would have been about 70 or 80 of us in there. We were told to keep our phones on silent and stay quiet. It was very hot in there.

There was quite a bit of confusion throughout the hour that we were in there, with some orders being to evacuate and other orders to stay put.

At one stage we were evacuated and then told to run back inside. Staff did their best they could in the circumstances. Then we were told to evacuate and ran out of the centre.

Jason, a shopper evacuated from the centre, told 9 News he had seen the alleged attacker with a nice big blade.

Related: Bondi Junction stabbing attack  what we know so far

Everyone started running toward the end of the building, he said.

Jason said he had later witnessed police shoot the alleged attacker.

She shot him, he said. When the copper shot him, she was giving him CPR.

Roy Huberman was in a clothes shop changing room when he heard two shots, followed by fire alarms. Staff moved customers to the back of the shop and out of a back door, where he saw a huge emergency response. We saw ambulances, about eight police cars, riot police, helicopters hovering from above, Huberman said.

Some young women were crying and they were saying that they spoke to a little girl who saw a dead body. I saw people running across Oxford Street and the police came and cordoned it off.

Webb said the shopping centre would be closed on Sunday.
Marines and Navy sailors pose for a photograph of their haul on the deck of the Lancaster - PA

The Royal Navy has seized more than 33 million worth of illegal drugs in the Middle East after two busts inside 24 hours.

HMS Lancaster intercepted smugglers in the Indian Ocean who were trying to move 3.7 tonnes of heroin, hashish and crystal meth.

The crew of the Lancaster, aided by the Royal Marines, captured two suspect vessels during an undated operation as part of a Canadian-led task force aimed at stopping criminal activity in the Middle East.

More than two tonnes of the drugs have now been destroyed after Marines and Navy sailors posed for a photograph of their haul on the deck of the Lancaster.

It comes a few weeks after the HMS Trent seized about 17 million worth of illegal drugs on an operation in the Caribbean.

Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, paid tribute to the fantastic achievements of the crew of HMS Lancaster and the Royal Marines.

The Royal Navy continue to lead the UKs commitment to disrupting drug smugglers across the globe, he said.

The drugs weighed about 3.7 tonnes and are worth 33 million, the Navy said - PA

HMS Lancaster, a Duke-class Type 23 frigate, was on its first security patrol following a training period when its Wildcat helicopter spotted a suspicious vessel.

Over the next eight hours, Royal Marines from 42 Commando secured the vessel, allowing Lancasters crew to board the vessel. After a search, the team recovered nearly 100 packages containing heroin and crystal meth, the Ministry of Defence said.

A few hours later the ships Wildcat helicopter, from 815 Naval Air Squadron, was carrying out a dusk patrol of the Indian Ocean when crew encountered another suspicious vessel.

After tracking the vessel throughout the night, Royal Marine commandos boarded in the morning before the sailors joined them in another search.

The HMS Lancaster was on its first patrol as part of an international task force - ROYAL NAVY

In this second raid, 2.4 tonnes of hashish was recovered  bringing the total haul to 3.7 tonnes.

According to the National Crime Agency, the collective street value of the bust is about 33 million.

The British forces were operating as part of the Canadian-led Combined Task Force 150, which works to disrupt criminal activity across more than million square miles of ocean in the Middle East.

Commander Chris Sharp, the HMS Lancasters commanding officer, said: I am exceptionally proud of the entire team in Lancaster executing these two interdictions on the first two days of our deployment.

Complex interceptions like these in such a challenging environment require true teamwork across the entire ships company.

This success is shared with our partners in CTF 150 who provided essential support to the operation.
Stock picture of prison cell

One in five criminals jailed for drug offences in English and Welsh prisons is a foreign offender, according to figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

Some 2,600 foreign criminals  a quarter of the total of 10,400 overseas offenders  are being held in jails for drug offences, the data show.

They account for 18 per cent of all 14,500 drug offenders held in jail, as well as 12 per cent of the entire prison population in England and Wales.

After drugs, weapons possession is the most common offence for which foreign offenders have been jailed. They account for 11 per cent or 280 prisoners.

Foreign nationals account for 10 per cent or 2,200 of all criminals jailed for violence against the person, 10 per cent of those imprisoned for sex offences and 7 per cent of those convicted of robbery.

The figures have been published as ministers consider plans for league tables that would identify the migrant nationalities with the highest rates of crime.

Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, has proposed migrant offender league tables - UK PARLIAMENT/MARIA UNGER/PA WIRE

The proposal, put forward by Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, and backed by more than a dozen Tory MPs, would require the crime rates of each nations migrants to be published annually.

Ministers would present a report to Parliament each year detailing the nationality, visa status and asylum status of every offender convicted in English and Welsh courts in the previous 12 months.

Such a move would mirror an approach by some US states and Denmark, where the crime rates of those from Kuwait, Tunisia, Lebanon and Somalia are far higher than those of Danish nationals.

According to the MoJ data, the most common foreign criminals in prisons are Albanian representing 13 per cent, or 1,475, followed by Polish (nine per cent or 856), Romanian (seven per cent), Irish (six per cent) and Jamaican (four per cent).

Releasing the data, taken from a prison database, Edward Argar, the prisons minister, said: The removal of foreign national offenders (FNOs) is a Government priority, with all FNOs sentenced to custody being referred to the Home Office for consideration of deportation.

Both departments [Home Office and Ministry of Justice] are working closely to maximise removals from prison.

Nearly 4,000 foreign offenders were returned to their homelands last year, of whom 1,800 were sent directly from prison at the end of their sentence, and the rest from the community.

Last month, Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, set out proposals to increase removals of foreign offenders as part of his efforts to ease the capacity crisis in prisons.

He expressed intense frustration at the cost of detaining foreign criminals in UK jails, which amounts to 50,000 per prisoner per year, and said: These are people who should be removed back to their own countries of origin wherever possible.

Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, has been shocked at the resurgence in drug use behind bars - ANDREW CROWLEY FOR THE TELEGRAPH

Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, has warned of a resurgence of drugs in prison, saying even drug-free wings have become a target for dealers operating behind bars.

Over the past year, I have been increasingly concerned about the levels of illicit drugs finding their way into prisons, he said.

Mr Taylor added that he was shocked to discover more than half the prisoners at one jail, HMP Bedford, tested positive for illicit drug use.

For the first time in my experience as chief inspector, more people in a jail were under the influence of drugs than sober. We could smell cannabis on the wings and its effects on prisoners were evident, he said.

He said sophisticated gangs were recruiting people to get jobs as prison officers so they could sneak in drugs after their planted people had scouted out the security flaws in jails.

The gangs are also spending thousands of pounds on the most advanced drones to smuggle in drugs in drops to prisoners that take no more than 20 seconds to achieve.

Drug-free wings had also become a magnet for dealers who saw heavy users attempting to kick their habit as a target, said Mr Taylor.
The drones are fitted with warheads of up to 50kg and with a range of up to 2,000 kilometres - AP

When Tehran launched dozens of explosives-laden drones to attack Israel, it wasnt long before they were heard and spotted over the skies of Iran.

Videos posted online tracked them above the Iranian cities of Kermanshah, Khozestan and Andimeshk.

And before long they were filmed over the border in Iraqs Sulaymaniyah and the city of Karbala.

Dozens of drones were spotted flying from Iran in the direction of Israel over Iraqi airspace, two Iraqi security sources told Reuters.

The drones launched from Iran were seen flying low as they passed over Iraq, with social media awash with clips of the weapons making a loud buzzing noise.

The unmanned aerial vehicles are believed to be Shaheds  Witness in Farsi.

The deadly long-range drone has become known as the AK-47 of Tehran: cheap, mass produced and ready to be exported worldwide to conflict zones where the regime has a vested interest.

Their lawnmower-like whirr is already very familiar for Ukrainians who are constantly under attack from Iranian-made drones launched by Russia.

There, the sound of a Shahed grumbling through the skies signals an imminent explosion and, frequently, civilian casualties. Fitted with warheads of up to 50kg and with a range of up to 2,000 kilometres, the Russians have mainly been relying on Shaheds to attack energy grids and grain storehouses.

The Shahed has already been used many times by Iranian proxies in the Middle East, notably by Houthi militia groups who relied on it against the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, and more recently in a string of attacks on Western commercial ships in the Red Sea. The Syrian regimes drone fleet is also reported to include Shaheds.

A Shahed-136 drone was, according to US officials, used in the notorious July 2021 drone attack by Iran on the Mercer Street vessel in the Red Sea, which killed a Romanian sailor and a British security guard.

By launching the drones from Iran, well over 1,000km away from Israel, Tehran seemed to have deliberately avoided the element of surprise.

The drones passing over Iraq appeared to be flying very low, in an apparent effort to avoid local radar.

It was unclear on Saturday night whether the drone salvoes would be followed by further launches of cruise or ballistic missiles.

If Irans goal is to overwhelm Israeli air defences, it may have launched the comparatively slow drones well in advance of the missiles, in an attempt to ensure the weapons reach Israel at around the same time.

The Shahed 136 is not exactly the most advanced drone in the world, said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, earlier this year.

But thats the point, you can accomplish very significant things on the battlefield with low technology, low-cost systems, especially if you can employ them in large quantities.

Iranian drones are not just a problem for Ukrainians. They are a problem for Israel, the United States, and its Arab partners, too.
Owen McGee who is in the first year of an arts degree says students can make their own decisions and were not going to allow our lives to be dictated. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian

Owen Magee knew how high his student loan would be if he enrolled in an arts degree  he saw the headlines in 2020, when he was still in early adolescence.

But measures introduced by the former Morrison government that doubled the price of some degrees to incentivise students into other courses didnt dissuade him, nor did recent cost-of-living increases.

I decided Id prefer doing something Im interested in, the 18-year-old says of his decision to study a media and arts degree at the University of New South Wales.

A lot of young people are moving away from conventional ideas of education and the workforce to pursuing things we genuinely enjoy in life.

We know whats best for us  were willing to stand up and say this is our future, were not going to allow our lives to be dictated.

Data provided to Guardian Australia shows Magee is not alone. Students are flocking to arts degrees in record numbers despite a 113% rise in student contributions for communications, humanities and society and culture degrees, implemented as part of the widely condemned Job-ready Graduates (JRG) scheme.

Its equivalent to $16,323 a year, or about $50,000 for a three-year degree.

Despite the spike, Australias largest universities including UNSW, the University of Melbourne, the University of Sydney and Monash have all experienced a jump in applications for arts degrees, leading to higher enrolments.

Related: Australian students struggling to put food on the table in unpaid training, but this could be a thing of the past

At the University of Melbourne, demand for its Bachelor of Arts degree is higher in 2024 than any time in the past five years.

Its had a 14% surge in the number of first preferences for the bachelor program since 2022, while enrolments have also jumped since 2021, rising from 1,597 to 1,641 this year.

Monash University has seen first preferences for arts degrees rise by 11% since 2021. Enrolments jumped almost 2% this year, at the same rate as the University of Sydney, which has consistently grown its arts enrolments since the JRG reforms were introduced.

Prof Claire Annesley, dean of arts, design and architecture at UNSW, says there has been a massive swell of students choosing degrees in her faculty.

First preferences for arts degrees surged by 14% at UNSW this year, while the student course load was also up.

I think they can see the future better than we can, she says. This generation of young people will be creating jobs you and I cant imagine  and industry knows that as well.

The latest graduate outcomes survey reported the largest increase in employment rates in the field of humanities (up from 81.7% in 2021 to 86.6% in 2022).

Median graduate salaries also jumped, sitting at $66,700 compared with sciences and mathematics at $66,000 and business and management $65,000.

Related: An exciting advance or poor public policy? Australian universities divided over new $10bn fund

In the unknown future of AI, Annesley says humanities offer skillsets that cant be replaced by emerging technology. Complex societal problems  from the climate emergency to the pandemic  need effective communicators and policymakers.

AI can reproduce what we already know, but creativity is an innately human skill, she says.

Right now were penalising people we need to be part of the business of innovation and core solutions. Theres an urgency here.

The CEO of Universities Australia, Luke Sheehy, says JRG failed to encourage students into certain disciplines and instead shifted additional costs on to students and universities.

According to the University Admissions Centre (UAC), which manages applications for New South Wales universities, 21% of first preferences were directed to society and culture degrees in the most recent intake, with roughly the same number of offers provided.

The most popular courses were a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Double Law at UNSW.

The figures are nearly identical to 2021. Yet in the same period, first preferences to health, historically the most popular study area, have reduced (28% to 25%), as year 12 applicants have turned to arts degrees in higher numbers.

Weve already called and will continue to call on government to prioritise student support measures in the forthcoming budget, he says.

The Universities Accord final report recommended JRG needed urgent remediation, adding it had significantly and unfairly increased what students repay.

The education minister, Jason Clare, told Guardian Australia the government would respond to the recommendations in the accord shortly.

But to Magee, the further into his course he gets, the more concerned about his economic future he becomes.

Down the road, my student debt will take a lot of my income  it worries me, he says.

The government should be encouraging students to find paths they enjoy, not restricting it.
Rishi Sunak has found it impossibly hard to turn around a sea change in public opinion. Photograph: Daniel Leal/PA

If Rishi Sunak was able to set aside four hours to see the 84-year-old Sir Ian McKellen playing Falstaff in Londons West End, he would have a powerful reminder not just of the longevity of some careers but also how uneasily some wear the crown.

By many accounts, Sunak is struggling with the prospect that his brief stint wearing the Conservative crown will come to a shuddering halt this autumn.

It has led to another rash of stories of a foul mood in Downing Street, including outbursts of Sunak peevishness and petulance, sometimes reflected in interviews in which he expresses exasperation at the stupidity of his interviewer.

He would not be the first to suffer the impatience of office.

It was Roy Jenkins who once wisely observed that the first attribute of a successful prime minister is not a first-class mind, but a first-class temperament. Too many prime ministers have eaten themselves up, railing at the publics inability to see how their government is self-evidently achieving what it had set out to do. Sunak wanting others to see his leadership as he believes it deserves is debilitating, but not uncommon.

One of the great exceptions is James Callaghan, Sunny Jim, who, in the 1979 election campaign  fought in the shadow of the winter of discontent  hoped the polls might turn around but admitted ruefully to Bernard Donoughue, his policy adviser, there may have been one of those sea changes in public opinion. If people have really decided they want a change in government there is nothing you can do.

But such phlegmatism is rare, partly due to the way the job distances the PM from the electorate. Lord Tebbit, the great Thatcherite, recalls the door closing behind his hero as she entered No 10 for the first time, and immediately the windows which look rather large from the outside begin to get smaller, showing those inside less of the outside world as the famous red boxes grow around the prime minister.

Tony Blair, when interviewed during Covid, admitted how losing self-awareness is one of the greatest risks of high office. For instance, he said the Covid pandemic meant it was the first time in 30 years he stayed in the same place: The reality is that the last time I drove a car was the day before the 1997 election. I always thought being in power was a conspiracy to make you as abnormal as possible because of the life you lead.

Two temperamental attributes Blair possessed as prime minister were an ability to appear normal to the outside world and, in his inner world, he had a knack for compartmentalising issues. He rarely took one crisis with him into the next meeting, one of his aides says.

And although he wanted the best media coverage possible for his government, he did not after three election victories become consumed by the issue.

By contrast, John Major admitted that, against all his instincts and plans, he became much too sensitive about what the press wrote. He told the Leveson inquiry: God knows why I was, but I was. It is a basic human emotion to get a bit ratty about it. My overreaction was principally a human overreaction. Above all, he did not recognise himself in what he read.

Prime ministers also often find that once they are in office they are less powerful than they imagined, pulling levers and pushing buttons to no effect. Sir Douglas Jay, for instance, likened Clement Attlee as less to a general ordering his troops across the landscape, and more to a cornered animal or a climber on a rock face unable to go up or down.

What is worse is that a single defining event transforms and solidifies a public mood, leaving the occupant in No 10 doomed and ever more frustrated as they lurch from one strategy to another to re-engage a public that has seemingly closed its mind to reappraisal.

Major, in his second term, never recovered from the ejection from the exchange rate mechanism in September 1992, and in retrospect should have acted on the resignation letter he drafted. He would not disagree with Tebbits description about the irreversible damage of the ERM episode: For some 30 years prior to Black Wednesday, Gallups monthly tracking polls had asked respondents which party they saw as the more competent to manage the economy. Only once in all those years was the answer Labour. In the 12 years since Black Wednesday, only once has the answer been the Conservatives.

But it left Major, like Sunak, more and more enraged at the bastards in his cabinet that he thought were dragging him down. One of his aides recalls: At the time you think there are tricks to pull off, or if only someone in the party would behave, and it is only afterwards, on reflection, you realise it was all pointless. But that is in retrospect. At the time, it was human instinct to think it is salvageable or to blame someone else.

No one was better at blaming someone else, at least for her demise, than Lady Thatcher. The diarist and MP Alan Clark recalls seeing her on the equivalent of Elba soon after her ejection from office. Her sense of betrayal is absolute; overrides everything. [Norman] Lamont had been scheming, [Chris] Patten plotted the whole thing. Kenneth Clarke had led the rout from the cabinet room. [Malcolm] Rifkind was a weasel. Even John Major is by no means cloud free.

I remembered a remark Tebbit once addressed to her in private: Prime Minister it is you who chooses the cabinet.

Theresa May had her own problems with her cabinet, especially with the undisciplined Boris Johnson, and the hard Brexit supporting press, but at least in the final two years with Gavin Barwell as chief of staff, Downing Street dealt with them with equanimity. She also had the self-wisdom to recognise when her time was up.

The only true argument she had with Barwell was when she blamed herself for welling up in her resignation speech.

But if there is one recent prime minister with whom Sunak most resembles it is Gordon Brown. Both are decent, fiercely intelligent, policy wonk-ish and work all the hours God provides, plus overtime.

Of course Brown visibly struggled with the demands of office. Friends say he was harder on himself than anyone, and suffered from congenital disorganisation. Wardrobes in hotels were moved to cover marks on the wall caused by projectiles of office equipment hurled by the frustrated premier.

Sunaks irritation with the world by contrast seems mild; a low, weak whine set against a brooding volcano. But Brown nearly fought himself back into government holed up in Downing Street for five days after the election seeking a coalition. For Sunak it appears there is that sea change in opinion, and there is nothing he  or any Tory  can do to reverse it.
Suella Braverman speaks in the House of Commons in December 2023. Photograph: Maria Unger/UK PARLIAMENT/AFP/Getty Images

Rishi Sunak is being urged to stop his former home secretary from attending a rightwing convention featuring figures who have been under investigation for extremism, in the latest sign of his waning control of his party.

Suella Braverman, who has been a central plotter against the prime minister since she left the cabinet, is set to be one of the keynote speakers at the National Conservatism (NatCon) conference in Brussels this week.

Also appearing at the gathering will be controversial figures from the populist right from across the globe. They include Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister and a key ally of Russian president, Vladimir Putin. In 2020, Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski was reprimanded during Boris Johnsons Conservative leadership for attending the NatCon event in Rome, where Orban was also a speaker.

Others expected to take to the stage this year include Hans-Georg Maaen, the former German spy chief who last year revealed he was under investigation by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for suspected rightwing extremism. Maaen was forced from office in 2018 after he appeared to question the authenticity of a video showing far-right violence at a festival. He has since written an article comparing migrants with cancer.

Also on the speakers list are Rod Dreher, an American writer who argued that the Christchurch mosque shooter who killed 51 people in 2019 did have legitimate, realistic concerns about declining numbers of ethnic Europeans; Ryszard Legutko, a Polish politician who has said he does not understand why anyone should want to be proud of being a homosexual; and Uzay Bulut, a Turkish political analyst who said that London appears to be a striking case of the Islamisation of a major western capital through mass migration.

No action is yet being taken against Braverman over her attendance. She left the government in November after clashes with No 10, following her suggestion that being homeless was a lifestyle choice and writing an article that was critical of the police, without first having it cleared by Downing Street.

When Kawczynski attended a similar event, the party did not remove the whip but did give him a formal warning that his attendance was not acceptable, particularly in light of the views of some of those in attendance, which we utterly condemn, and that he is expected to hold himself to higher standards.

In a letter to Sunak, Labours shadow paymaster general, Jonathan Ashworth, called on the prime minister to take action before a UK politician takes to the stage alongside figures with damaging, divisive and offensive views.

Britains former home secretary, someone you appointed, plans to stand side by side with the global far-right in Brussels, he writes. The prospect of a senior Tory politician demeaning the great office she held, and the country she represents, shows just how far the once-great party of Churchill has fallen on your watch.

Last month, you recognised that extremist groups were trying to tear us [the UK] apart in an unprecedented address outside Downing Street, accusing both Islamist and far right groups of spreading a poison, that poison is extremism.

Now, by giving oxygen to these divisive and dangerous individuals, Suella Braverman is legitimising fringe far-right elements that threaten our cohesion and democracy. You must have the courage of your convictions and block her from attending.

Organisers of the conference say it is under threat after it came under political pressure from a Belgian anti-fascist group, which has called on the venue to reverse its decision to provide them with a platform. We deeply regret that Edificio  which operates the Concert Noble where the conference is supposed to take place  tolerates such an event on their premises, Camille, an activist at the Belgian Anti-Fascist Coordination (CAB) who did not give their surname, said in an interview with the Brussels Times.

They claim to abide by the values of respect and sustainability and making this precious cultural heritage accessible to the public, while also receiving more than 100,000 in public money. Then they allow a dictator like Viktor Orban to gain influence.

Frank Furedi, executive director of the thinktank MCC Brussels, an arm of the Orban-backed Mathias Corvinus Collegium college in Budapest and partner of the event, warned Brussels authorities not to succumb to pressure from intolerant and prejudiced  leftwing extremists.
Author Salman Rushdie, who was blinded in one eye during a knife attack in August 2022. Photograph: Arne Dedert/AP

Salman Rushdie has revealed an abiding sense that his survival after a brutal knife attack two years ago was a miracle, in spite of his lack of spiritual faith. I do feel that something happened that was not supposed to happen and I have no explanation for it, Rushdie said this weekend before the publication of Knife, his account of the incident.

I certainly dont feel that some hand reached down from the sky and guarded me, but it still presents a contradiction, he admits, for one who doesnt believe.

Reading from his new memoir during an American television interview for the 60 Minutes show, Rushdie, 76, describes his assailant as a squat missile coming in at him hard and low in black, the last thing my right eye would ever see.

In August 2022 the Indian-born author, who won the Booker prize in 1981 for his novel Midnights Children, was on stage ready to give a talk at the Chautauqua Institution in New York State when a knife-wielding man rushed from the audience and managed to quickly inflict several stab wounds. The assault came 33 years after a fatwa had called for Rushdies death. Issued by Irans then leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, it was a response to the publication of The Satanic Verses, a novel deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.

Sitting alongside Rushdie on the stage that day was Henry Reese, the co-founder of City of Asylum, a not-for-profit organisation that protects writers exiled as a result of their work. Reese, who was to be the moderator of the talk, was also injured and has spent much time since trying to understand what he witnessed.

When something as terrible as this happens, the question of the importance of writing becomes very real. The violence that day reminded everybody just what it really means to be at risk because of your words, Reese told the Observer from his home in Pittsburgh. Its very brave of him to be prepared to be exposed again and to write about something that happened that is at once so public and at the same time very private.

Reeses professional mission, he said, was to protect writers. He could not have had a more dramatic demonstration of the need for this work. As it was happening I felt what I was witnessing was a very physical and real reminder. It was beyond metaphor. It made it very clear what some writers are dealing with, although perhaps it was even more vivid for those who were watching it than it was for me, who was beside it. I didnt see most of it, after all.

He is considering making his own response to the attack: Ive been thinking about writing, but it hasnt got any coherence yet, he said. Im really looking forward to see what Salman has to say.

Reese does not compare his injuries to those suffered by Rushdie, who has lost movement in an arm and is unable to see in his right eye. But Reese was in the midst of the struggle and came out of it badly. He had been encouraged however, he said, to see that writers continue to tackle dangerous subjects.

In the aftermath Reese did detect fear among writers: There was a moment when they felt in peril because of what had happened here in the USA; a time when people wondered, Can you be safe anywhere? But it reverted to normal afterwards, leaving just a heightened awareness.

What troubles Reese is the response of literary foundations and the publishing industry, as well as western governments.

I would have hoped they would have stepped up, he said. Instead, I am not aware of any meaningful change. We can proudly sell a book from a writer who may be imprisoned or killed. But what are we doing to make them safe? It is not enough to protect a banned book. We need to protect endangered writers.

Rushdies new memoir is subtitled Meditations After an Attempted Murder and sets out the events from the victims perspective for the first time. It also looks at the traumatic aftermath, including his 18 days in hospital and three weeks of rehabilitation.

The trial of the man arrested immediately after the attack, Hadi Matar, was due to start in January but was postponed because of the memoir. Matar has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault.
Witnesses have told of their panic as they tried to escape a lone attacker who moved through a shopping centre in Bondi Junction, killing six people and seriously injuring others, including a small child.

Sydney residents Huma Hussainy and Mohamad Naveed were at the Westfield shopping centre when they saw a man with a massive knife and ran into a nearby Lululemon store. They saw two women lying in pools of blood outside Cotton On before taking shelter.

Naveed said: We saw the guy with the massive knife and I saw all those people yelling. There were two dead bodies on the floor with all the blood. He guessed the knife was maybe 50cm.

Hussainy said they were inside the store when they heard a gunshot. She said: I was really scared but one of the Lululemon workers came in and told me it was the police. Then after 45 minutes to one hour, the police came inside.

A young woman who had been at a gym inside the shopping centre told broadcaster ABC news from the street outside: I saw a woman lying on the floor in Chanel. It was insanity, I wasnt expecting it. I thought I was going to die.

Its just like everything, every moment playing through my head, she added. I was so scared.

Related: Bondi Junction stabbing attack  what we know so far

Authorities are working to identify the male who attacked nine people with a knife in the Sydney mall before being shot dead by a lone police officer who happened to be nearby. Several people are in hospital with injuries ranging from serious to critical. A motive for the attack is not yet clear but police have said there is no ongoing active threat.

Jason, a shopper evacuated from the six-storey centre, told 9 News he saw the lone attacker carrying a big blade and then everyone started running toward the end of the building. Jason said he later witnessed police shoot the man before the same officer administered first aid.

Roy Huberman was in a clothes shop changing room when he heard two shots, followed by fire alarms. Staff moved customers to the back of the shop and out of a back door, where he saw a huge emergency response. We saw ambulances, about eight police cars, riot police, helicopters hovering from above, said Huberman.

Some young women were crying and they were saying that they spoke to a little girl who saw a dead body. I saw people running across Oxford Street and the police came and cordoned it off.

He praised the composure of shop staff after the alarm went off. This was a young person and she was just amazing. She calmed us all. She told us where to go when we heard the fire alarm and she said it looks like it is serious.

A woman in her 50s who did not wish to be named was in the Myer department store when she heard a code brown issued. I heard a scream somewhere outside  We were then told by staff that something very serious had happened in the centre and that we had to run and hide, she said.

She was among about 70 or 80 people were guided to a storeroom. We were told to keep our phones on silent and stay quiet .. There was quite a bit of confusion throughout the hour that we were in there with some orders being to evacuate and other orders to stay put. At one stage we were evacuated and then told to run back inside. She eventually was told to evacuate and ran out of the centre.



Asked how her fellow shoppers handled the emergency, she said: Some people totally panicked and some people were calm. One woman had claustrophobia in the store room so was very distressed. The consistent theme was confusion.

Centre worker Josh was in one of the food courts on a break when he heard people screaming and running. He said: All of a sudden, people started running. There were a lot of people crying. I ran with them.

Nikki Marshall was inside David Jones department story on level four of the shopping centre when she said she became aware of the incident at about 3.35pm. Suddenly a woman said theres a stabbing, weve got to go.
Antonio Fernandez, Catholic Charities president and CEO, talks about how the center has adapted to shifting numbers of asylum-seekers in May 2023. Carlos Javier Sanchez / pixelref

Catholic Charities of San Antonio will receive $10.8 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to keep the Migrant Resource Center open, while the city will get $3 million.

Just how long these dollars will last is unknown  and will depend on how many asylum-seekers pass through the city in the coming months.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, announced the much-awaited federal funding allocation Friday, and it came as a relief to city officials, who just a few weeks ago were staring down the possibility of running out of money by early fall.

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The FEMA funds should cover the citys costs of leasing the Migrant Resource Center on San Pedro Avenue through December. The city also pays for janitorial and private security services, in addition to the costs of transporting asylum-seekers to San Antonio International Airport to catch flights to their final destinations.

Catholic Charities has operated the facility under a city contract since September 2022.

This is only the first tranche of dollars, Cuellar told reporters.

So far, less than half of the $650 million that Congress approved last month for FEMAs Shelter and Services Program, which reimburses cities, counties and states for the costs of providing migrant services, has been released. The grants to the city and Catholic Charities came out of the initial allocation.

It's unclear how soon the rest of the money will be released.

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A lot of it depends on what happens at the border, Cuellar said of the timing of future disbursements. Illegal crossings have fallen since Decembers record high level.

So far this month, 1,804 asylum-seekers have come through San Antonio after being released from Border Patrol custody, according to city figures. From last August through December, the city averaged more than 24,500 arrivals.

Catholic Charities said last month that it had enough federal dollars on hand to last only through December. Mayor Ron Nirenberg told Cuellar in a letter late last year that the religious nonprofit needed $54.5 million through the remainder of the year to avoid cutting services.

Catholic Charities did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

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Catholic Charities recently told CNN that if it didnt get more FEMA funding, it would have to close the Migrant Resource Center at night, forcing asylum-seekers to sleep outside.

Since 2021, more than 608,000 asylum-seekers have passed through San Antonio. The majority have spent some time at the Migrant Resource Center, which provides meals, showers, clean clothes and a place to spend a few nights. Counselors and legal services are also available, and in the past, Catholic Charities has purchased bus and airline tickets for those without the funds to do so.

The status of that travel assistance is unclear, as the organization has not responded to questions about it. Asylum-seekers told the San Antonio Express-News last month that the organization was not offering travel help.

In addition to Catholic Charities, the San Antonio Food Bank will receive $2.4 million from FEMAs Shelter and Services Program, while the San Antonio-based Episcopal Diocese of West Texas will get $1 million and Interfaith Welcome Coalition will see $500,000, according to Cuellars office.
Joe Biden meets with members of his national security team regarding the Iranian attack on Israel on 14 April 2024. Photograph: Adam Schultz/WHITE HOUSE/AFP/Getty Images

Iran said it launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles towards Israel on Saturday in a major attack following days of acute tension building up in the region and warnings from the US and elsewhere about a wider conflict erupting.

Air attack warning sirens began wailing over Jerusalem just before 2am local time on Sunday after the weapons were fired a few hours earlier from Iran with US and Jordanian military assisting Israels air defenses in intercepting the first incoming barrage.

With weapons believed to be still in the air en route to Israel, Irans mission to the United Nations posted on X: Irans military action was in response to the Zionist regimes aggression against our diplomatic premises in Damascus. The matter can be deemed concluded.

Related: US and UK forces help shoot down Iranian drones over Jordan, Syria and Iraq

However, it threatened more severe action in the face of further Israeli aggression and warned the US and Jordan specifically not to assist Israel.

Nevertheless, the United States military and Jordanian fighter jets shot down some Iranian drone aircraft, officials said.

And the US embassy in Jerusalem told all US government employees to shelter in place until further notice, according to a security alert posted on Saturday.

R Adm Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesperson, had earlier said that Iran launched the new offensive late on Saturday.

It was the Islamic Republics first-ever direct attack on the Jewish state, a development that brings the two countries to the brink of all-out conflict after more than a decade of shadow war and soaring stress six months into Israels war in Gaza following the Hamas attack last October.

It was reported on Israeli television that Iran had launched more than 100 drones as well as cruise missiles towards Israel, and Iran later said it had fired a first wave of ballistic missiles.

Joe Biden rushed back to Washington DC on Saturday afternoon from a weekend trip to Delaware as it became clear from leadership signals that some sort of an attack by Iran was imminent.

The Iranian weapons were launched just a few hours after the White House had first announced the US president was returning to Washington from a planned weekend at the beach in Delaware, to consult with his national security team about events in the Middle East.

There had been nearly two weeks of speculation about when, where and how Tehran or its proxy forces in Syria, Iraq and Yemen would respond to a 1 April Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic building in the Syrian capital of Damascus, which killed Gen Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior figure in Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards, and eight other officers.

Biden soon after made public that Israel had not shared its intentions with the US and said he had not had prior knowledge of the strike in Syria, signaling that, in addition to Israels blockade on Gaza provoking famine, US influence over Israel has limits.

In addition, Bidens hasty return to the White House on Saturday followed his saying on Friday that he expected an Iranian attack on Israel sooner rather than later and issued a last-ditch message to Tehran, saying, Dont, which clearly was not heeded.

Earlier on Saturday, Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps in the strait of Hormuz, 50 nautical miles off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, seized an Israeli-affiliated container ship.

The ships operator, the Italian-Swiss group MSC, later confirmed that Iranian authorities had boarded it, rappelling from a helicopter. The White House condemned the seizure of the British-owned vessel.

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the US strongly condemned the seizure and urged Iran to release the ship and crew immediately, calling the incursion a violation of international law and an act of piracy.

Upon returning to the White House, Biden walked into the Oval Office and then convened a top-level meeting in the Situation Room.

According to the White House, the president was joined by Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary; Antony Blinken, the secretary of state; Gen Charles Brown, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff; William Burns, the CIA director; Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence; and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser.

Austin spoke with Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, earlier on Saturday to discuss the urgent regional threats in the Middle East and reiterated unwavering US support for Israels defense, according to the Pentagon.

After the attacks began, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said: Israel has been preparing for a direct attack by Iran. Our defensive systems are deployed  We appreciate the US standing alongside Israel, as well as the support of Britain, France and many other countries.

The US House of Representatives will make a change in its schedule to consider legislation that supports Israel and holds Iran accountable, the House majority leader, Steve Scalise, said in a statement on Saturday.

It was unclear whether Scalise was referring to a standalone bill to aid Israel, or the $95bn supplemental spending bill that includes $14bn for Israel, in addition to $60bn for Ukraine, support for Taiwan and billions of dollars in humanitarian assistance, which has been held back from a vote by House Republicans.

Reuters, Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press contributed reporting
With the Capital City Public Market set to open for its 30th year Saturday in downtown Boise, local vendors are scurrying to prepare for opening day.

In between making batches of their Berryhot Jam, Mark and Cindy McClaskey had to repair a broken-down tractor at their Caldwell-based farm this week.

Its all part of the madness leading up to the first market of the year.

We enjoy it, Cindy McClaskey told the Idaho Statesman by phone Thursday. Mark and I see people that weve known for 20, 25 years. Theyre kind of like family almost.

The Capital City Public Market will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. every Saturday from April 13 through Dec. 21, rain or shine. The market is located on the Grove Plaza and on 8th Street between Main and Idaho.

The Statesman caught up with a few of the markets longest-tenured vendors this week to see what goes on behind the scenes in preparation for the big day.

Mark and Cindy McClaskey have been selling gladiolas at the Capital City Public Market since it opened in downtown Boise in 1994. Even their dog, Princess, helps as they prepare bouquets from their own garden for the market.

Idaho goods from Idaho vendors

McClaskeys is a family owned and operated, sustainable, green farm in Canyon County that was started in 1944 by Charles and Ethel McClaskey.

Mark McClaskey is their grandson, and he runs the farm along with his wife, Cindy. They are one of the Capital City Public Markets 150 vendors, all of whom sell products crafted in Idaho by Idahoans.

The McClaskeys have been selling their goods at the market since its inception in 1994. They are known for their gladiolus and Berryhot Jam, and also sell a variety of flowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, cacti and succulents grown entirely on their farm, depending on the time of year.

Over the years we have seen it grow from when Marks nieces would come down with a bucket of glads and sit and make maybe $40, Cindy said. Weve gone way beyond that now.

Mark and Cindy McClaskey have been selling gladiolas at the Capital City Public Market since it opened in downtown Boise in 1994.

During peak season, Cindy estimates they bring as many as 60 bouquets, 20 five-gallon buckets of gladiolas and 100 jars of jam. She usually cuts the flowers Thursday and assembles the bouquets Friday in order to be ready bright and early Saturday morning.

The McClaskeys then head out from their Caldwell farm to Boise around 7 a.m. with a van chock-full of goods.

They have annual and perennial flowers on the McClaskey farm as well as a greenhouse. The gladiolas cover three acres, and Mark and Cindy hand-plant between 300,000 and 500,000 bulbs each year. That task will start Monday and takes about two weeks, Cindy said.

The McClaskeys began selling their Berryhot Jam about five years ago. Cindy had tried the spicy compote at a farmers market in Portland and decided to make her own version. It took about a year of experimenting before she perfected her recipe.

It started out as a fun thing, and now its one of those things I sell so much that I have to be continually making jam, Cindy said. Every week I have to make jam because I sell a lot of it and I have a lot of repeat customers.

This Saturday, the McClaskeys will be selling bouquets comprised of tulips and daffodils, Berryhot Jam and cacti.

Meaghan Goulder shapes a spoon at her home workshop Thursday in Boise. Meagan and Mike Goulder sell their wooden spoons, spatulas and more at the Capital City Public Market.

Arborist to artisan

Before Meaghan Goulder met her husband, Mark, she was a zookeeper at Zoo Boise, helping care for animals like zebras and giraffes.

Now she spends her days hand-crafting wooden utensils alongside Mark in the shop behind their Boise home.

The Goulders were hard at work Thursday afternoon with the Capital City Public Market only two days away. They must be in constant production to keep up with the demand.

Mike had no idea what he was in for when he made his first wooden spoon in 1996.

I wanted to make some jam that you have to stir for like 10 minutes prior to its boiling. And I was like, I dont have anything to even stir this with,  Mike said. So I went out and made this very rude utensil. And then I thought I should start making these. Then I made a few more and other people saw them and said: Oh, thats cool. I want one of those.

From there, I just kept making them. At the beginning I was like, Well, if people keep buying them, Ill keep making them. And here it is 28 years later.

Meaghan Goulder sands a cutting board and Mike Goulder uses a band saw to cut out spatulas at their home workshop Thursday in Boise.

Mike began working with wood as an arborist, pruning and removing trees around the Treasure Valley. He wanted to find a way to reuse the wood he harvested, and after making his first spoon on a whim, Treeworks was born. Every utensil the Goulders make comes from trees grown locally.

As far as the actual product that we put out, everything is from trees in peoples yards that were gonna end up at the dump or become firewood, Mike said.

Mike brought about 25 spoons and a hand-carved chair to the Capital City Public Market in 1996 and sold nearly every one that first day. He has been going ever since.

His first spoons were chopped with a hatchet, but as the business has grown, the Goulders have invested in a bandsaw and sanders. Each utensil undergoes a 19-step process from start to finish.

In addition to a variety of spoons, the Goulders also make spatulas, forks, butter knives, salad sets, tongs, cutting boards, spoon rests, hairsticks and even some pendants and earrings.

Mike and Meaghan Goulder of Boise make wooden spoons and other utensils at their home workshop to sell at the Capital City Public Market.

Meaghan quit her job at the zoo in 2010 to join Mike as a spoon maker, and she was recently voted the markets president of the board of directors.

The market is pretty much our single source of income, Meaghan said. So we love it. We respect it. We want to give back to it. Its super important to us.
Jason Koerner/Getty Images for Sentebale

Prince Harry reflected on the fun and meaningful experience of playing in the Royal Salute Polo Challenge on behalf of his Sentebale nonprofit.

Bringing together the polo community that has long supported the work of Sentebale is always a great experience, Harry, 39, said in a statement after the Friday, April 12, polo match. Today, we raised funds to support our local teams on the ground deliver life-changing programs.

He continued, The Sentebale teams commitment plays an essential role in the lives of children and young people across Lesotho and Botswana, offering them hope, education and the means to combat the complex social challenges they face including high unemployment, poverty and the impact of HIV/AIDS. We are grateful to all of the guests, sponsors and partners who came together today to support this important work, and of course a huge thank you to all the players for making todays game possible.

The Duke of Sussex, who cofounded Sentebale in 2006 alongside Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, participated in the match at the Grand Champions Polo Club in Wellington, Florida. Harry played for the Royal Salute Sentebale team, winning 3-1 over the Grand Champions squad.

Where and Why Did Prince Harry Travel for Charity Polo Match?

Harrys crew even beat the dukes longtime friend, and professional polo athlete, Nacho Figueras on Friday.

Jason Koerner/Getty Images for Sentebale

Playing alongside my friend Prince Harry in support of Sentebale continues to be a profound honor, Figueras, an ambassador for the nonprofit, said in his own statement. In this case, its more than just a game; its a shared commitment to making a positive impact in the lives of those in need. Through our partnership on the field, our mission is to raise awareness and support for Sentebales vital work.

After Harrys victory, his team was presented with a trophy by his wife, Meghan Markle. The Duchess of Sussex, 42, stunned in a white Heidi Merrick halter dress that complemented her Aquazarra heels, vintage Chanel earrings, a Valentino clutch and oversized sunglasses. When Meghan presented Harry with the award, she also gave him a sweet kiss.

Prince Harry Through the Years: His Military Career, Fatherhood and More

In addition to participating in a polo match, Harry moderated a fireside chat with Dr. Sophie Chandauka, the chair of Sentebales board, and Ntoli Moletsane, the country director of Sentebale. The trio discussed the organizations future goals and the ongoing challenges facing children in Africa.

We are two years away from celebrating this extraordinary organizations 20th Anniversary, and the welcoming support we get from every community we hold our fundraising events in continues to showcase that the work were doing matters to people and to our partners like Royal Salute, Chandauka added in a statement. There is no one this support matters more to than the children and young people who benefit from our programs, and whos potential is turned into the possibility of a future that means successfully navigating the challenges of poverty and inequity.
The CEO of a California biotech company, Decision Diagnostics, claimed to have a finger-prick test that could detect Covid-19 and used multiple fake identities to pump up the companys stock price, authorities said. The CEO, Keith Berman, was sentenced on Friday to seven years in prison for the fraud that led to $28 million in investor losses, according to the Department of Justice.

He pleaded guilty in December to securities fraud, wire fraud, and obstruction of an official proceeding.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Keith Berman gave people false hope that his biotech company had developed a rapid blood test to detect COVID-19. But there was no such test. Berman defrauded investors to profit from the pandemic, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri, head of the Justice Departments Criminal Division, said in a statement on Friday.

Authorities said Berman, 70, made numerous false statements to investors, even claiming that he didnt pay himself as the CEO of Decision Diagnostics, despite using $360,000 of company funds to pay for live chats on webcams with people in foreign countries. He did this as the companys faced serious financial difficulties, according to the indictment.

In the scheme detailed in the complaint, Berman hatched a plan in March 2020 to use the pandemic to solve the Westlake Village, Calif.-biotechs financial problems. He adopted a fake name, Matthew Steinmann, to pose as a friend of his to pretend to talk with investors. Using the alias, Berman also posted fake messages about the biotech firm to investors on message boards to gin up enthusiasm and artificially pump up the companys stock price.

He used other aliases, such as plutonium and plutoniumimplosion, to refute allegations on the online message boards Investors Hub (iHUB) and Investors Hangout that it was Berman himself was making misleading claims about the biotech company. He even denied in one post that he was Berman, the indictment says. And while using the plutoniumimposion name, he said he was a Decision Diagnostic investor of 20 years. Regulators said Berman posted over 1,000 messages on the iHUB message board to pump up the stock price.

Officials said Berman claimed in March 2020 to have a Korean vendor who could develop a Covid-19 test to detect the virus in blood or saliva and published press releases touting the break-through and new screening methodology. Berman said his test would shorten the schedule for development of Covid tests and that they would be ready to go to market in summer 2020. In reality, the company didnt have a test and hadnt taken any steps to get government approval or waivers that would be required before a test could be offered to human beings, the indictment states. All the while, the vendor Berman claimed to be working with kept telling him that his test method was unlikely to be scientifically viable.

The case has a similar theme to the $10 billion fraud involving Theranos and its founder Elizabeth Holmes, who was sentenced in 2022 to 11 years in prison. Holmes claimed to investors to be making progress on a blood-sugar test that only needed a drop of blood to work.

In Bermans case, authorities said he heard from a vendor that his method of testing for coronavirus wasnt possible, but days later Berman published a press release saying that the vendor had successfully validated a test that could detect the virus in a blood sample. Berman kept it up throughout March and April in 2020, and the companys stock price soared 1500% before the SEC suspended trading.

Berman then lied to the SEC and federal law enforcement about using the fake names and posting messages, the indictment states. He continued using the plutoniumimplosion alias to threaten people who may have complained about the biotech company to the SEC, warning them about knock knock day. He said officials would show up at the homes of those who complained about the company to arrest them. Berman later used the Matthew Steinmann alias to recruit another person on a message board to write a letter to the SEC on his behalf, calling an SEC attorney Fredo, the ne'er-do-well brother of the Michael Corleone character in The Godfather films, the indictment says.

Bermans lawyer, Kevin Collins, wrote in court papers that Berman had put in a genuine effort toward making a Covid blood test, "but he made mistakes," acknowledging that Berman misstated the status of his project to raise funds.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
A golden retriever in Britain, nicknamed the "The Dogfather," is retiring after fathering more than 300 puppies.

Trigger, the 9-year-old golden retriever, was the "star stud dog" of Guide Dogs', a charity that helps pair dogs with people with vision impairment in the United Kingdom. He has fathered 39 litters since December 2016, including a record-breaking one with 16 puppies in 2021, according to the charity.

Guide Dogs, in a news release, said that 294 of Trigger's puppies were bred by the charity itself, while another 29 pups were born "of his valuable collaborations with other assistance dog charities and guide dog schools," bringing his total to 323.

Triglets

Trigger's final litter had 6 puppies, including five daughters named Jenny, Rita, Hermione, Sandy, and Indy, and one son, Billy.

Trigger's puppies have been affectionately nicknamed "Triglets," by volunteers and guide dog owners. The Triglets have been helping visually impaired and partially sighted people all across Britain, including "London, Glasgow and Cardiff. Meanwhile, two of Trigger's litters were even born at guide organizations in France and the Netherlands.

"Triggers legacy can be seen in the independence and confidence his progeny has brought to the lives of blind and partially sighted people all over Britain," Guide Dogs said.

The Dogfather's final litter had 6 puppies, including five daughters named Jenny, Rita, Hermione, Sandy, and Indy, and one son, Billy.

'Perfect asset'

The Dogfather!

Triggers wonderful, gentle nature and excellent health have made him the perfect asset to our breeding program," Janine Dixon, Head of Breeding Operations at Guide Dogs said in a statement. "We cant overstate the impact that Trigger has in helping us to provide so many guide dogs for people with sight loss."

Dixon said the charity hopes Trigger's son Billy joins the breeding program and continues his father's legacy.

"In the meantime, nine of his daughters, as well as his half-French son Pierre, are helping us to bring forward a new generation of guide dogs with Triggers fantastic genes," Guide Dogs said.

As for Trigger's future? Guide Dogs said that he will stay in Banbury with his Breeding Dog Volunteer Sarah Byrne, who has looked after him for past seven years and will now officially adopt him.

See more pictures of Trigger below:

Trigger will remain in Banbury with his Breeding Dog Volunteer Sarah Byrne, who has looked after him for past seven years and will now officially adopt him.

Trigger, a 9-year-old golden retriever, at Guide Dogs, a charity that helps pair dogs with people with vision impairment in the United Kingdom, has fathered more than 300 puppies.

We hope that in a few years his son Billy may join the breeding program to continue Triggers legacy," Janine Dixon, Head of Breeding Operations at Guide Dogs said in a statement.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Star stud' guide dog Trigger retiring after fathering 300 pups
Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday placed the blame squarely on Donald Trump as she went on the offensive over abortion rights in Arizona and across the country.

In the wake of an Arizona Supreme Court ruling this week banning abortions in almost all cases, Harris headed to Arizona to mobilize voters who see Novembers election as a referendum on womens rights, one of the Biden campaigns key issues in the upcoming election. The vice president has become a go-to voice for the campaign on abortion rights and quickly announced a trip to Tucson after Tuesdays ruling.

The decision, which revived a 160-year-old law barring all abortions except in cases when it is necessary to save a pregnant womans life, demonstrated once and for all that overturning Roe was just the opening act of a larger strategy to restrict abortion access in the United States, Harris said. The ruling, she said, marked an inflection point in the fight over abortion rights.

And we all must understand who all is to blame, she said. Former President Donald Trump did this.

The vice presidents remarks came moments after Trump held a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort with House Speaker Mike Johnson, during which the former president touted having broke Roe v. Wade and said that state control of abortion bans is working the way its supposed to.

In Tucson, Harris laid out the stakes of the upcoming election in blunt terms: This fight is about freedom.

Harris has been crisscrossing the country as part of her reproductive rights tour since January, arguing that abortion rights hang in the balance with the results of the election. Last month, Harris visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota becoming the first sitting vice president or president to visit an abortion provider.

Calling Roes overturning in 2022 a seismic event, Harris described the Arizona ban as one of the biggest aftershocks.

Democrats have seized on abortion ahead of November, seeing it as a salient political issue that could spur moderate voters  particularly women  to turn out in droves against Trump by tying the abortion bans directly to him.

Both Biden and Harris have repeatedly campaigned on Trumps bragging that he crafted the conservative supermajority on the US Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade  which had federally protected the right to an abortion for almost half a century  in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision.

A second Trump term, Harris said, would entail more bans, more suffering and less freedom.

Just like he did in Arizona, he basically wants to take America back to the 1800s, Harris said. But, she added, we are not going to let that happen.

We are not going back, she said.

The Biden campaign is seeking to galvanize momentum in battleground Arizona following a Tuesdays ruling, launching a seven-figure ad buy on the issue as it argues Republicans are out of step.

In a new 30-second ad, Power Back, President Joe Biden blames his predecessor. The campaign will spend seven figures on that ad and another ad introduced earlier this week with the story of a woman affected by Texas abortion ban.

The Harris team has focused on reproductive rights as an issue that it believes the vice president is uniquely positioned to lead on. The issue has been top-of-mind for the vice president, dating back to 2021, when she held a reproductive rights roundtable.

About half of registered voters in the United States say this years elections will have a major impact on access to abortion, and about 1 in 8 voters says that abortion is the most important issue driving their vote, according to a KFF survey.

The issue mobilized moderate and liberal voters in the midterm elections  drawing Democratic victories up and down ballots across the country.

Its going to be a driving issue, one Democratic strategist told CNN, arguing that the Arizona court ruling served as another data point to bolster the partys argument. It offers a salient data point to counter Republican talking points that were the extreme ones.

The Biden campaign is repeatedly working to drive the message that Trump is responsible for the state of reproductive freedom in Arizona today. As Trump works to thread a political needle on the issue, the campaign will continue to tie him directly to the policies.

Both Trump and GOP Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake released statements opposing the Arizona Supreme Court ruling. And Trump said on Wednesday he would not sign a national abortion ban into law if he were to become president  though his stance on abortion has been wishy-washy for decades.

Harris said Friday that she doubted Trumps sincerity after he claimed at Mar-a-Lago that he wouldnt sign a national abortion ban into law if reelected in November.

Enough with the gaslighting, she said.

This headline and story have been updated with additional developments on Friday.

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There are so many ways to celebrate your mom on Mother's Day.

You could make her a playlist of Mother's Day songs, craft a homemade card with a thoughtful message, plan a fun day out, post a cute throwback photo on Instagram, or send her a sweet text.

Besides gifts and flowers, your mom probably just wants to spend some quality time with her kids  and what better way to do that than a Mother's Day-themed family movie night?

If your mom is a fan of classic films, she'll leap at the opportunity to show you some golden oldies like The Sound of Music or Terms of Endearment.

Hilarious mother-daughter comedies like Freaky Friday and Mean Girls will have you all in stitches (plus, both movies are getting modern reboots). If the kids are all grown up, it might finally be time to break out the R-rated flicks like Bad Moms and Fun Mom Dinner.

Mother's Day can evoke a range of feelings, and sometimes you just need a good emotional outlet.

The touching Slipping Through My Fingers scene in Mamma Mia! will have the whole family reaching for the tissue box, and the story of the March family in Little Women has been a guaranteed tearjerker since it was first turned into a silent film back in 1917.

Whatever your mood, these Mother's Day movies will warm your mom's heart as you celebrate her special day.

The Sound Of Music (1965)

Set in Salzburg, Austria, in the 1930s, Maria moves in with the von Trapp family to care for seven children of a widowed naval officer, Captain von Trapp, as she considers whether to be a nun. This Julie Andrews-Christopher Plummer musical won five Oscars, including for best picture.

Little Women (2019)

"Barbie" director Greta Gerwig helmed this adaptation of the classic Louisa May Alcott novel. The cast includes Florence Pugh, Timothee Chalamet, Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan and Meryl Streep.

Julie & Julia (2009)

Based on two true stories, "Julie & Julia" shows what doors the power of cooking can open for two women making career pivots. Julie is looking for a more fulfilling job like her friends have, so she decides to blog her experience of cooking all of the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook for a year. Meanwhile, viewers see Child's ascension to becoming one of the most respected chefs in flashbacks of her in cooking school. Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci and Jane Lynch star.

Cheaper By The Dozen (2003)

With 12 kids, there are a dozen different personalities for parents Tom and Kate to manage in the Baker house. Coupled with Tom getting a promotion and Kate going on a book tour, all of the Bakers' various priorities rise to Olympic levels of competition in this fun family comedy. Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt and Hilary Duff star. A new version of this classic was released in 2022 starring Gabrielle Union and Zach Braff.

This is 40 (2012)

As Debbie and Pete both turn 40, she's constantly reminded of how she's entering a new life stage, how much her kids have grown up and how much she and her husband should be living a life that's more than running damage control for their failing marriage and both of their businesses. Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann star in this comedy.

Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023)

Empty nesters may see themselves in "Book Club: The Next Chapter." The film is a sequel to the 2018 movie and also stars Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen reprising their roles from the original, this time in Italy.

A Thousand And One (2023)

Mothers may not always get it right, but they at least try and that's certainly the case in the film "A Thousand And One," in which a mother is recently released from incarceration and resumes taking care of her son, who'd been in foster care.

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Award-winning film "Everything Everywhere All At Once" shows an estranged mother and daughter slowly finding their way back to each other as they try to deal with dispiriting experiences.

Lady Bird (2017)

Directed and written by Greta Gerwig, "Lady Bird" shows how a mother and daughter negotiate their changing relationship as she craves more independence and prepares to leave the nest.

Mom's Day Away (2014)

It's Mother's Day weekend in "Mom's Day Away" and no one remembered, except for the mother in the house, of course. Already overworked and underappreciated, Laura Miller, played by Bonnie Somerville, decides to pack up and leave for the weekend in a last-minute trip with her best friend. She has a great time, and suddenly her family is more grateful for her when she returns.

20th Century Women (2017)

It's 1979 in Santa Barbara, and Dorothea (Annette Bening) is a single mom who enlists the help of two younger women, played by Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning, to give her son (Lucas Jade Zuman) an education in life. Director and screenwriter Mike Mills based the movie off of his own childhood and relationship with his mom. Prepare for one-liners that will stay with you: Having your heart broken is a tremendous way to learn about the world.

Miss Virginia (2019)

Uzo Aduba plays real-life figure Virginia Walden Ford, an education activist who fought to create a federally funded scholarship program for low-income students. In the biopic, Ford is inspired to take on the fight for her own son, a 15-year-old on the verge of dropping out of school.

Mothers Day (2016)

"Mother's Day" sees four mothers celebrate the day their own way. This movie is perfect for moms who have foregone traditional ways of celebrating Mothers Day and instead have made their own traditions with the simplest things.

Yes Day (2021)

It's so easy to say "no" when kids, filled with energy, ask for yet another thing. Jennifer Garner plays a mom in "Yes Day" who is in that exact position. But she decides to  just once  only say "yes" to her three kids for 24 hours. After making that decision, she and her husband (Edgar Ramirez) set forth on a day they'll always remember.

Tully (2018)

Not feeling bright and cheery? For a dark Mother's Day pick, look no further than the intense depiction of the postpartum experience seen in "Tully." Marlo (Charlize Theron), an already overworked mom, gives birth to her third child with a husband who remains clueless about the demands motherhood puts on her work and life. For some much-needed additional help, Marlo begrudgingly agrees to hire a nighttime nanny, Tully (Mackenzie Davis), and their close relationship causes Marlo to make some unexpected revelations about herself.

Freaky Friday (2003)

In this remake of the 1976 film, Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis play a mother and daughter who simply cannot understand each other  until a sci-fi twist allows them to. After an argument, they switch bodies and literally have to walk in each other's shoes.

The Guilt Trip (2012)

Written by "This Is Is" creator Dan Fogelman, Barbara Streisand and Seth Rogen play a helicopter mom and a son who would like a bit more space. He gets the opposite when sitting next to his mom on a cross-country road trip to Las Vegas. Bonding, unsurprisingly, ensues.

Miss Juneteenth (2020)

In this 2020 drama, a former beauty pageant winner and single mom prepares her rebellious daughter for her first pageant. "Miss Juneteenth" shows the joys and sorrows of Black motherhood and girlhood in a new and refreshing way.

Brave (2012)

This Scotland-set animated film tells the story of Merida, a teenager content on defying a patriarchal tradition her village follows, and Queen Elinor, her mother who tries at all cost to prevent Merida from achieving her goal. Even though it's a kids movie, the mother and daughter's rocky relationship is likely to resonate with adults, too.

Stepmom (1998)

Watch "Stepmom" with a box of tissues. After a divorced man (Ed Harrison) remarries a significantly younger woman (Julia Roberts), his ex-wife (Susan Sarandon) and kids adjust to the change. But there's something about the situation none of them know.

Mothers and Daughters (2016)

Peer into multiple mother-daughter relationships with this 2016 drama, about a pregnant photographer capturing different scenes of motherhood while working through her own relationship with her mom. The movie's many layers are portrayed by Selma Blair, Sharon Stone, Susan Sarandon and more.

Otherhood (2019)

"Otherhood" was written with empty nesters in mind. Angela Bassett, Felicity Huffman and Patricia Arquette play women whose adult children are too busy living their lives to call, visit or plan gifts for special occasions. In response, they fly across the country to make their sons  who are best friends  spend time with them. But the mothers end up enjoying a vacation of their own.

Dumplin (2018)

Pageant stereotypes are challenged in "Dumplin'" when Willowdean (Danielle Macdonald), a plus-sized teenager, enters the pageant her former beauty queen mom (Jennifer Aniston) is spearheading in protest of the unrealistic standards pageants set. Others follow suit and together they revolutionize what pageantry means in their small town.

The Joy Luck Club (1993)

"The Joy Luck Club" is an exercise in empathy, as four Chinese American women grow to understand their mothers, born in China, by learning about their pasts. The movie may prompt you to have your own conversations.

Real Women Have Curves (2002)

Starring America Ferrera in her feature film debut, "Real Women Have Curves" is the story of Ana, a young Mexican American woman who's up against the family norms that say she can't go to college like she wants to. As a summer job, she ends up working with her mother (Lupe Ontiveros), where they clash over Ana's future  and her present.

Bird Box (2018)

This horror movie shows the lengths a guardian is willing to go to protect those she must. The Netflix hit is set in a world invaded by mysterious creatures that kill people on sight. In search of better circumstances, a mother (Sandra Bullock) and her children blindfold themselves to avoid seeing the deadly forces and make the long, difficult journey through woods to a promised sanctuary.

Because I Said So (2007)

Daphne Wilder (Diane Keaton) is tired of her youngest daughter's (Mandy Moore) poor dating decisions  so she decides to pick someone for her. Naturally, chaos ensues.

Serial Mom (1994)

This black comedy, written and directed by John Waters, puts a twist on suburban life. When the movie starts, Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) is a married homemaker with two teenage boys. Her life is as normal as can be  until she runs a teacher over with her car for speaking poorly about one of her sons. The jolt of adrenaline awakens something in her, and she begins to seek out more violent acts.

Stella Dallas (1937)

And now, for a classic. Premiering in 1937, "Stella Dallas" explores topics that remain relevant: divorce and single motherhood. Barbara Stanwyck's character, Stella Dallas, is a working-class woman who marries a wealthy socialite. But after having a child, the couple's value differences become too big to ignore. Following her divorce, Stella's daughter becomes the center of her life and the focus of her decisions.

Baby Boom (1987)

One day, J.C. Wiatt (Diane Keaton) is a high-profile executive. The next day, she's saddled with the child of a relative following an accident. The baby's arrival upends her life and her expectations, causing her to lose her job and her boyfriend. She decides to start over in a ramshackle house in Vermont.

Terms of Endearment (1983)

"Terms of Endearment" characterizes the mother-daughter relationship as a long-term relationship. Playing a mother and daughter, Deborah Winger and Shirley MacLaine deal with divorces, cancer diagnoses, and everything else life throws at them. This makes for a good double feature with "Postcards From the Edge," as MacLaine plays the mom in both.

Bad Moms (2016)

Starring Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn and Kristen Bell, "Bad Moms" is an ode to moms not being perfect but doing the very best they can. So instead of striving to be "good moms," they settle for being "bad moms," and decide to commit to the part.

Postcards From The Edge (1990)

Starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine, "Postcards from the Edge" is adapted from Carrie Fisher's autobiographical novel of the same name. In the film, Streep plays an actress who moves in with her mom after getting back from rehab. It's a journey through the complexities of addiction and mother-daughter relationships.

Troop Beverly Hills (1989)

In this classic comedy, a pampered housewife (Shelley Long) becomes a Wilderness Girls troop leader to boost her confidence amid a rocky marriage that's falling apart. Phyllis' bougie mothering style helps her bond with the girls in the troop. Their bond is tested when the group is at risk of being disbanded.

Fun Mom Dinner (2017)

Four moms bond in their kids' preschool class. During a night out, though, things quickly go from PG to R-rated. The women  played by Katie Aselton, Toni Collette, Bridget Everett and Molly Shannon  have way more in common than motherhood.

Instant Family (2018)

Rose Byrne and Mark Wahlberg play Ellie and Pete, a couple who decide to adopt. When they take in three siblings from foster care, they quickly get a crash course in parenting.

Mamma Mia! (2008)

Free-spirited Donna Sheridan, played by Meryl Streep, and daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) are inseparable  except that Sophie yearns to leave their little Greek island and explore the world. Luckily, they work out their differences through a series of iconic ABBA tunes in this incredibly feel-good film. Fair warning: you might ugly-cry during Slipping Through My Fingers.

The Incredibles (2004)

All of our moms are superheroes, but Elastigirl takes her role very seriously. The iconic mom manages to beat up the bad guys and wrangle her rowdy, super-powered family while making it all look easy.

The Addams Family (1991)

Morticia Addams may not be the epitome of a PTA mom, but shes the perfect parent for her spooky brood. Anjelica Huston was nominated for a Golden Globe for both of her performances as Morticia in The Addams Family and it's follow-up film, Addams Family Values.

Mean Girls (2004)

Get ready to meet the original cool mom. Amy Poehler shines as queen bee Regina Georges mother in this hilarious, insightful 2004 comedy. Prepare to hear iconic quotable lines from Poehler throughout, including, Im not a regular mom, Im a cool mom!

What to Expect When Youre Expecting (2012)

This 2012 film follows five couples on their journeys to becoming parents. Inspired by the classic parenting book, What to Expect When You're Expecting provides an honest  and often hilarious  view into the challenges of parenthood.

The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)

It's hard to imagine a more classic family comedy than The Brady Bunch Movie, based on the popular 70s show about a blended family comprised of three girls and three boys. The Bradys sweet and silly antics will definitely charm the whole family this Mother's Day.

Barbie (2023)

Barbie might be the main character of this movie, but the mother-daughter duo at the center of the story definitely stole your heart. Played by America Ferrera and Ariana Greenblatt, Gloria and Sasha anchored the film with their complex yet deeply close relationship.

Steel Magnolias (1989)

Warning: don't watch Steel Magnolias without a box of tissues within easy reach. This certified tearjerker is a classic for good reason: It demonstrates the depth of love between mothers and their children (plus it stars Dolly Parton).

Hope Floats (1998)

Sandra Bullock stars as Birdie, a newly-single mom with a young daughter who is forced to move in with her own mother after her husband leaves her. The resulting movie is a heartwarming story about three generations of women who try to support each other during difficult circumstances.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com
When Murphy first arrived at a Pennsylvania shelter, he appeared to be friendly and curious.

As time went on, shelter life took a toll on the 5-year-old cat. He went from constantly seeking attention from people to a cautious and nervous cat, the Humane Society of Cambria County said in an April 11 Facebook post.

Murphys personality is not thriving as well as others do here at the shelter, according to the post. Unfortunately, it has taken a toll on his emotions and is causing Murphy to not be the cat he once was.

The shelter says Murphy needs a home where he can roam free as soon as possible.

Though hes become more shy, the shelter believes Murphy will warm up to a new family once hes in a home.

When he knows that youre here to give him love and affection, he warms up quick and will be purring his way into your heart, the shelter said.

Murphy seems to be curious of other cats at the shelter and doesnt seem to mind other cats, according to the shelter.

Cambria County is about an 80-mile drive east from Pittsburgh.

40 dogs rescued from property after multiple animal cruelty calls, Ohio cops say

Polly the duck is missing her bill  but students with a 3D printer will change that

Dog with an adventurous past needs a home  but this escape artist needs a fence
An American soldier rests during a night raid in Rawa, Iraq in 2006 (Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos)

Hundreds of pictures daily fly across the news wires from battlefields around the world, inviting their audience to engage from a distance with the horrors that warring parties inflict on each other.

Does the source of these images, the war photographer, throw themselves into harrowing and deadly environments for a sense of duty? A thrill? A paycheque?

Peter van Agtmael, who spent many years on the ground with his camera in Iraq and Afghanistan, offers a nuanced answer in his new book, Look at the USA: A Diary of War and Home, published this month by Thames & Hudson.

Buried bomb in Miam Poshteh, Helmand, Afghanistan, 2009 (Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos)

Fleet Week, Arms Fair in Washington DC, 2018 (Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos)

As the title suggests Van Agtmael, a Magnum photographer born in Washington DC, had America on his mind while at work. He was not a dispassionate recorder of events but someone deeply concerned with the state of his country and how it was being affected by the waging of war down generations.

Why does war persist? Its who we are ... Enough of us, anyhow, to make a mess of things, he writes.

War had been an obsession of his from childhood, when the US first took up arms against Saddam Husseins Iraq in the Gulf War. In the introduction to his latest book he details how his nine-year-old self was spellbound by the patriotic maelstrom that followed Desert Storm and the reams of what might these days be called content published alongside it.

By 2005, Van Agtmael was 24 and still fixated on war. The US was two years into its invasion of Iraq, so he signed up to join American troops as an embedded photographer, later going on to Afghanistan.

Before an ambush in Miam Poshteh, Helmand, Afghanistan in 2009 (Peter van Agtmael/Thames & Hudson)

Bobby Henline, a veteran of four tours in Iraq, in Houston, Texas, 2013 (Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos)

Look at the USA brings together pictures from these tours with domestic photography to build a wider view of the American experience in the wake of 9/11, featuring also the imprints of nationalism, the election of Donald Trump, militarism, and race and class in American society.

Now 43 and living in Paris, Van Agtmael reflects on his years spent in war zones. In a recent interview with The Guardian, he said he had, for a time, been experiencing moral confusion.

Jennie Taylor chooses a headstone for her husband, Brent  killed by an Afghan soldier in an insider attack  in North Ogden, Utah in 2019 (Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos)

Trump rally in Montoursville, Pennsylvania, 2019 (Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos)

Traditionally, photographers are meant to operate from a position of authority and clear-headed detachment, but I never related to that, he said. For me, the professional and the personal are all tied together. In this book, I wanted to be clear that I was always an uncertain and confused observer.

Van Agtmaels earlier books Disco Night Sept 11 (2014), Buzzing at the Sill (2017) and Sorry for the War (2021) all dwell on post-9/11 America in some respect. With Look at the USA, he gathers images from these books  along with dozens of unseen photos  and guides the reader through them with his memories and thoughts on the meaning of the events and his work.

Raymond Hubbard, who lost his leg to a rocket attack in Iraq on 4 July 2006, plays Star Wars with his sons Brady and Riley in Darien, Wisconsin in 2007. (Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos)

Adnan Thanon Younis was blinded by an exploding shell in Mosul (Peter van Agtmael/Magnum Photos)

Van Agtmael is a mentor in the Arab Documentary Photography Program and has been a full member of the prestigious Magnum Photos collective since 2013.

He is the recipient of numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the W Eugene Smith Grant, several World Press Photo awards and an ICP Infinity Award.

Look at the USA: A Diary of War and Home is available from Thames & Hudson here
Marian Keyes: Im 60 now but my emotions are still very [close] to the surface  Im still hurtable (Dean Chalkley)

Marian Keyes and I are having a cup of tea. Were sharing a squishy sofa at a chic London hotel, a place where everything is pretty  even the teacups. God, its all so beautiful, the Irish author says, agog. It is. I wouldnt mind stealing one of the teacups... but I wont. No, I will! Keyes insists, not even joking. Ill steal them for you. You see, I have poor impulse control. And I like to be liked. And I probably would do it. If you dared me. OK, OK: Marian, I dare you. Please dont, no, please dont, she squirms, as though shes being held down and tickled. God!

I dont actually believe Keyes is a thief  but I do believe shes generous. In a career spanning three decades and 16 novels  as well as short stories, novellas and non-fiction  the Limerick-born writer has given readers hours of pleasure, writing chunky, chatty books that you can sink right into. Warm, funny and wise, theyre also roadmaps for how to overcome lifes inevitable hard times, bustling with worlds in which lightness dances gently with the dark.

In Watermelon, her 1995 debut and the first in her long-running Walsh sisters series, Claire Walshs husband leaves her for another woman just as shes given birth to their first child. The Mystery of Mercy Close (2012), written amid Keyess crippling depression, was a story partly about mental health, while Rachels Holiday (1998) was about a woman going to rehab to confront her addiction issues  something Keyes did herself in 1995, for alcoholism. This Charming Man (2008) tackled themes of domestic violence, 2009s The Brightest Star in the Sky had a storyline about sexual assault, and 2017s The Break dealt with abortion.

Lest this make them sound bleak, know that this is Keyess gift: she broaches bold, political subjects, all while making her readers laugh. Her books arent as cosy as theyre sometimes sold, but boy, they sell  35 million copies and counting, in fact. Her latest, My Favourite Mistake, picks up the story of Anna Walsh, first introduced to readers in Watermelon but given her own novel in 2006, Anybody Out There? That was a book about grief and rebuilding, as Anna fought to salvage her hotshot New York PR life while struggling to accept the death of her husband.

The follow-up, published this week, sees Anna return to Ireland feeling burnt out by her shiny but brutal job in beauty PR. Its a novel that strikes me as a challenge to our censorious age; if theres a message, its that we must forgive one another for past mistakes and be less brutal towards our lost, scatty younger selves. But Keyes originally had a different plan  she had been about to do something distinctly off-brand. Id been all set to write a book about horrible people, she confides. And then I decided  look, what do I want to read?

At her home in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Keyes had been feeling like she had nothing left in terms of resilience or endurance. Russia had just invaded Ukraine, the pandemic had ravaged all of our lives. So, she decided: time to write a love story. I liked the idea of a love story for people in midlife. You know, Im not even midlife anymore, Im 60 now. But I still feel very alive. My emotions are still very [close] to the surface. I can handle things better, but Im still hurtable. I can still surprise myself. So I thought, why shouldnt they have a bit of fun?

When we meet, theres no fanfare or fuss  Keyess husband Tony Baines (or Himself to her social media followers) quietly drops her off and picks her up. Lets sit on the sofa together, she suggests, taking off her boots and settling in. In a bright pink top, her hair jet black, she is striking  especially her eyes, which widen as she talks. Her lilting Irish voice is quieter than youd expect; shes garrulous, but with a delicate, bird-like energy. Things she likes are emphatically described as gorgeous. Cautious of being presumptuous  Again, I am not speaking for everybody, she says, more than once  she shows the keen awareness for human foibles that makes her novels so rich. I dont want to do your milk, she tells me, because you might have your own special way.

The writing of My Favourite Mistake began in February 2022. Fast, I think, for a 600-plus-page novel, considering Keyess joyously received Rachel Walsh sequel, Again, Rachel, had only just been published. Oh my God, its so slow! I take forever, Keyes frets. Anna is aware that her sense of existential malaise is a problem because, as she tells readers, Unfortunately I was paid to be manically enthusiastic. A breakup is looming, and so is burnout. She knows something must change, but feels guilty about it: I wasnt a nurse working in ER, I wasnt a shelf-stacker on a zero-hours contract, I had the best job, with unlimited access to liquid exfoliators.

When she returns to Ireland, she finds herself doing PR for a local wellness retreat, mediating a community dispute, and having weird meetings with handsome Joey, a face from the past who has a notorious history with women. I wanted to write about a man who was toxic, who was a f***boy, and who had changed. I have changed so much. I think everyone should be given a chance to redeem themselves, says Keyes.

Back when she wrote Watermelon, Keyes was spurred on by the fact that she never saw women like her depicted in books. Theres something quietly radical about the way she has continued to write about womens real lives as they age. Anna, going through the menopause, practically has to go to the black market for HRT patches (It made a difference for me, Keyes says), and women in the novel talk openly about Botox, which Keyes does too.

Keyess 16th novel My Favourite Mistake picks up the story of Anna Walsh (Dean Chalkley)

If I wasnt doing the Botox, theyd go, Oh God, shes let herself go. Oh Lord save us. The minute you dont, people say, A little bit of Botox wouldnt do you any harm... Although Keyes chooses to be open about it  people were saying how well she looked and she didnt want to be misleading  she hopes one day not to care at all. Im really living for the day when I dont get my roots done. When I stop getting the Botox. And I just think, This is me now. When Ive managed to extricate myself a bit more from that patriarchal template that all women are given from the day they were born.

One scene made me punch the air: Anna, back on HRT and back in touch with her desires, thinks about a man she fancies and gives herself a moment of self-pleasure. I really dont like the myth that women dont want sex, Keyes says, frankly. Even writing about the self-pleasure, it just felt like... no big deal. Vibrators arent even comic anymore. Not speaking for everybody, but there are plenty of us who arent mortified... She stops to correct herself. Well, I suppose mildly... I suppose I dont want me mother reading this, you know...

Hang on  has her mother read it? She has, Keyes replies, like a schoolgirl caught out. In fact, Old Vummun, as Keyes calls her on social media, loved the book. I was just so grateful  she really withholds praise, its been a lifelong thing. So yeah, sex scenes  no big deal. Until I come to voice the audiobook, then its Oh for Gods sake, why did I... But yeah, women in their forties and older, having sex. It happens.

It has been gorgeous to have  I dont know  become respectable

These days, Keyes is celebrated as much for being herself as for her books. She has a BBC podcast with the Irish comedian Tara Flynn, Now Youre Asking, in which they sensibly answer listeners problems. Her thousands of social media followers love her book recommendations and endearingly unfiltered annual tweets about Strictly Come Dancing. In 2022, Alan Yentob even made one of his Imagine documentaries about her. A new Keyes novel is a major publishing event. But for many years, she was belittled and patronised, her books marketed as chick lit and given pink, sparkly covers.

It was a jarring experience for readers; one of my first encounters with Keyess work, as a young woman trying to work out what my tastes should be, was formative. Why did this muscular book about serious topics have a sparkly cover? And why was there an unspoken sense that I shouldnt bring it up in a uni seminar?

The misrepresentation and underestimation of Keyess work was an awkward, embarrassing blemish on the literary world for years, until a recent sea change in opinion began to see her recognised as an important writer. The way her work was packaged and treated certainly affected my relationship with her books  did it affect hers? I feel privileged to have had a long enough career that perceptions did change, she says. It was frustrating in the beginning, because I felt what I was doing had worth. I wanted to entertain people and tell stories and make people laugh, but I wanted to show that women are more than prosecco and high heels and hot men.

Keyes signs copies of her books at the Althorp Literary Festival, 2015 (PA)

One critic labelled Rachels Holiday forgettable froth (a reminder: this was a book about addiction and recovery). I knew that wasnt right. But it made me very lacking in confidence. She no longer cares whether or not men read her books, but she used to take issue with them dismissing her as a writer without reading her work. There was a man who once described my books as saccharine. Saccharine is the last thing they were back then! They were quite raunchy, a lot of swearing. If youre going to insult me, she jokes, could you please get the adjective right! Vulgar, Id take. Crude. Uncouth!

She will admit, It has been gorgeous to have  I dont know  become respectable, the shadow of air-quotes floating around that last word. Overall, though, Keyes remains very humble about all that stuff. She had made her peace with not being taken seriously. There were women out there with bigger problems than their bestselling books being packaged incorrectly. Her publishers never stopped her from writing what she wanted to write. She felt lucky. She was grateful. I keep using the word lucky. Im lucky and grateful that this was what I was given.

Ill never feel that I have nothing to prove; Im not that kind of person. But it did feel like, You can stop being anxious about it. Youve done your best. Continue to do your best. Thats all you have to do

But she had more power than she thought. At the 2018 Hay Festival, she condemned the sexist imbalance of the Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, which had been awarded to only three female writers in 18 years. Say what you like about me, but my books are funny. What more can I do to qualify? she said at the time.

That caused a right stir, she says now, lowering her voice. I hadnt intended to. Then the next year, Nina Stibbe won. Nina says she wouldnt have won if I hadnt complained  she would totally have won. But I think it gave them a bit of a fright. Or just made them think, Lets do better. (Keyes was finally shortlisted for the prize in 2022, for Again, Rachel. It went to Percival Everett.)

Its true that popular things often dont win prizes  as we know, Barbie made millions and couldnt get a Best Picture nomination. Surprisingly, Keyes has never even been longlisted for the Womens Prize for Fiction, despite being one of our leading female authors and even having been a member of the judges panel (when it was the Orange Prize) in 2007. But in 2022, Keyes was named Author of the Year at the British Book Awards, a title whose previous holders have included Hilary Mantel, Bernardine Evaristo, Richard Osman and Kate Atkinson.

That mattered. It felt like everything. It felt... I dont have the words to describe that feeling of... I could exhale. She speaks of it with a sense of wonder, still, her sentences speeding up and slowing down. Its kind of like, my work here is done, you know? That its okay. What I did, all along, it was good enough. There was warmth in the room for me. It was gorgeous, she smiles. It was the pinnacle, really, of my career. Ill never feel that I have nothing to prove; Im not that kind of person. But it did feel like, You can stop being anxious about it. Youve done your best. Continue to do your best. Thats all you have to do.

Keyes with her husband Tony Baines, whom she married in 1995 (Dean Chalkley)

The stats for Keyess career are impressive  shes been published in 36 languages, spent more than 150 weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list, and, according to her website, the combined weight of her books amounts to 905 Percy Pigs. But her life changed quickly: Watermelon, her mid-Nineties debut, was published in the same year that she left a treatment centre for alcoholism, and the same year that she married her husband.

She recalls going to buy a sofa with Baines when they were moving in together, something she was able to pay for outright with a royalty cheque. On the way home in the car, I had to roll down the window. Because I thought I was going to puke. I had never spent so much money before. Id never had anything like that. I had always been so skint. And I was so afraid that I was overreaching  that I had squandered all of this.

Perhaps this vigilance around taking things for granted comes from the fact that Keyess past struggles are always in her rear-view mirror. After recovering from alcoholism and finding herself with a successful career as an author, in 2009 she had a period of depression so extreme that she could no longer eat, sleep or speak, and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. It was an illness and it ran its course, she said on Desert Island Discs in 2017.

Her novels are profoundly in touch with sadness and vulnerability, emotions she can still access easily. Although shes at one with the fact that, even when life is good, things are always in flux in some way, she struggles not to absorb the sadness of others, making it hard for her to watch the news. Whatever is going on, for me  maybe its a post-pandemic thing... the sorrow will destroy me. Im always going to be porous, thin-skinned, over-emotional, and Im constantly trying to manage that. That makes me sound precious, but this is who I am  I take on other peoples sorrow. I can be very joyous  but I just wish I could protect everyone. Its a killer of a thing to have.

I think it just never stops, does it? she ponders. Her reservoir of sorrow and shame, something she can still connect with, is one she used to drink in order to numb. Today we have the language to understand that depression and alcoholism are illnesses  but Keyes experienced them at a time when the social stigma was greater. Gen-Zers  like her emotionally literate 23-year-old niece  are changing that. I just wish I had known that you can say, Im feeling anxious, overwhelmed, burnt out. We need these conversations. I love Gen Z. I just love their defiance.

Gen Z may soon be loving her, too: Keyess 2020 novel Grown Ups, an ambitious family saga, is being made into a Netflix show by See-Saw, the company behind Heartstopper and Slow Horses. Like the recent smash One Day, it could open her work to a whole new generation. The funny thing is, apparently Im an executive producer. I have no idea what that is, Keyes jokes. She wont have lots of input, but would love the actors to be Irish, for no one to say shall or naughty (Irish people dont say that), and for Sharon Horgan to play the lead role of Jessie.

Keyess book covers are no longer pink and sparkly, and feature playful illustrations by Gemma Correll (Penguin Michael Joseph)

This year, Keyes turned 60 and marked 30 years of sobriety. All these things conquered, all these books sold, the literary worlds respect won, Netflix at her door... what is she proudest of, I wonder? The answer comes without hesitation. Getting sober. I mean, nothing good would have happened. And I just want to say this, she says, with some urgency, for anyone who thinks they will never be able to stop. I was that person. It was the love of my life. It was the centre of my life. I was willing to die for it. I was prepared to go wherever it took me. It didnt turn out like that.

Speaking with no jokes, no frills, she wants people to know that help is there, telling me that dead is the best option for me if the drinking had continued. The thought of still being alive [and drinking] is just too horrible to contemplate.

The tea has run out, but we chat for a little bit longer, about the light and the dark of life. A world without Keyes  thats too horrible to contemplate. Storyteller, survivor, literary titan. Id steal a teacup for her. Wouldnt you?

My Favourite Mistake is out now, published by Penguin Michael Joseph. Marian Keyes will be appearing at this years Hay Festival, in conversation with Kirsty Lang on 26 May, and for a live recording of her podcast Now Youre Asking with Tara Flynn on 25 May
Jorge Gorrzegz-Flores, 50, was charged with terroristic threats causing public fear. Bexar County Sheriff's Office

A San Antonio businessman is accused of threatening to kill his business partners and doctors at a San Antonio doctors office.

Jorge Gorrzegz-Flores was arrested and charged with terroristic threats causing public fear. His bail was $150,000, but he has been released on bond.

Gorrzegz-Flores is accused of threatening to kill his business partners and three other doctors associated with San Antonio Eye Center at 800 McCullough Ave. According to a witness, Gorrzegz-Flores threatened her and another partner when telling them to work harder and do more research.

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According to an arrest affidavit, Gorrzegz-Flores business partner originally thought he was threatening them as manipulation, but Gorrzegz-Flores went as far as hiring a private investigator to do background checks and obtain their home addresses.

The affidavit cites that Gorrzegz-Flores had a falling out with his business partners, resulting in litigation in 2019.

READ MORE: Canyon Lake woman gets life in prison for role in 2017 murder

At the same time, Gorrzegz-Flores bought multiple firearms and a suppressor and got trained in tactical shooting, according to the affidavit.

His business partner was prompted to contact police after they found multiple firearms, cash and burner phones in his home.

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The doctors office had to pay for security at its location and the residence of one of the business partners, according to the affidavit.
Donald Trump on Friday endorsed a primary challenger to Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington, one of two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach the former president over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.

In a Truth Social post, Trump threw his support behind Jerrod Sessler, a former petty officer in the Navy who has gone after Newhouse for his impeachment vote.

Jerrod Sessler is a fantastic candidate and will be a GREAT Congressman for Washington States 4th Congressional District, Trump wrote, while also citing Newhouses impeachment vote.

Newhouses campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night.

Ten House Republicans voted to impeach Trump in 2021. Most of them, including former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, either decided not to seek another term or lost their re-election bids.

Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., is the only other remaining House Republican who backed the impeachment of Trump. The former president did not endorse a primary challenger against Valadao.

This is the second time Trump has tried to oust Newhouse, who has served in Congress since 2015. In 2022, Trump backed Loren Culp. Newhouse was helped in part by Washington states top-two all-party primary system, in which Culp came in third behind Democrat Doug White, who was later defeated in the general election.

According to his campaign website, Sessler has been endorsed by former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn and GOP campaign adviser Roger Stone, as well as former Arizona Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem, an election denier who repeatedly cast doubt on Joe Bidens presidential victory and falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

Sessler himself has accused Newhouse of having betrayed his voters by joining Democrats to impeach President Trump in 2021, according to materials posted on his campaign website.

In a January post on X, Sessler wrote, The whole thing was a set up, referring to the Capitol riot.

CORRECTION (April 13, 2024, 12:40 p.m.): A previous version of this article included an incorrect title for Mark Finchem. He was a candidate for Arizona secretary of state, but never served in the role.
QUITO, Ecuador (AP)  Pope Francis on Saturday sided with a group of Peruvian villagers who have complained that companies linked to a powerful South American church group have tried to evict them from their land using lawsuits and obscure land titling schemes.

In a video recorded at his residence in the Vatican, the Pope sent a message of support to members of the San Juan Bautista de Catacaos farmers community in northern Peru, who have been fending off lawsuits from companies associated with the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae since 2014.

I know what happened to you, the Pope said in Spanish. Defend your land and dont let them steal it.

The Sodalitium is a lay group that runs schools and spiritual retirement centers in several South American countries, but is also involved in real estate, agriculture and construction companies.

The conservative group was founded in Peru in 1971 and gained thousands of members in South America, where it also ran homes housing consecrated members.

But the Sodalitium has come under increased scrutiny in recent years after its founder and some of its main leaders were accused of committing sexual abuses against children.

Peruvian prosecutors have also launched investigations into the Sodalitiums finances and have accused the group of hiding money in offshore bank accounts.

Last July, the Vatican sent a high level commission to Peru to investigate the Sodalitiums actions and determine whether the group should be dissolved. The commission was led by one of the Vaticans top prosecutors for sexual abuse cases and members spoke with journalists, Sodalitium leaders and survivors of abuse.

During the visit, the Vaticans investigators also met with members of the Catacaos farmers community.

The villagers accused the Sodalitium of trying to take over 1900 hectares (4,000 acres) of land farmed by their community for centuries, through forged documents that claim the land has been purchased by a group of local companies.

The villagers also claimed they have been harassed with dozens of lawsuits.

A Peruvian court is still reviewing the land dispute.

On Saturday, Francis urged the Catacaos villagers to persist in their efforts to defend the land, where they raise cattle and produce honey.

Thanks for doing what you do the Pope said. I give you my blessing and dont forget to pray for me.

The Popes message was shared on Saturday as the Catacaos community celebrates its 466th anniversary. Its current leader, Marcelino Ynga, thanked the Pope for his message and said he hoped the Vatican will soon make a decision about the groups future.

The communitys lawyer, Carlos Rodriguez, said the Popes message provides some reparation to the villagers and recognizes their struggle.

These farmers are not delinquents he said. They are defenders of their land.
Russia has delivered military equipment to Niger that will provide the African country with the latest generation of anti-aircraft defense systems, Nigerien state broadcaster RTN said Thursday.

The equipment arrived in Niamey on Wednesday along with 100 Russian military instructors who will install the system and train Nigerien soldiers to use it, RTN added.

Russian state media RIA Novosti said early Friday that Russian military instructors arrived in Niger to train local forces in the fight against terrorism.

This means that Russia is returning to Africa, an RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the scene, adding that NATO troops have also been arriving in Niamey to further catch a transfer flight to Agadez where right now about 1,100 American soldiers are located.

Supporters of Niger's National Council for Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) hold up Niger's national flag and the national flag of Russia at the General Seyni Kountche stadium in Niamey on Agust 26, 2023. - AFP/Getty Images

The arrival of Russian instructors followed a recent phone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Nigerien General Abdourahamane Tiani on March 26 when the two leaders discussed ensuring security and combating terrorism.

Since seizing power in a coup last year, Nigers junta has been strengthening military ties with Russia while turning away from the US and France.

Last month, the junta said it was ending an accord with the US that allowed military personnel and civilian staff from the US Department of Defense to operate in Niger.

France, Nigers former colonial ruler, withdrew its troops from the African nation at the end of 2023.

Nigers junta-controlled neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso have also turned to Russia for military support, deepening Western concerns about Russias expanding influence in Africas troubled Sahel region that has battled a spate of coups and Islamist insurgents for years.

Outpace the US

Political analyst Mamadou Thior said former French colonies in the Sahel were reconsidering their military strategies.

What we are witnessing with Mali, Burkina Faso, and now Niger is a renewal in their military strategy because they no longer want to have Western militaries on their territories, he told CNN.

Russia is trying to show that it can outpace the US in Africa. The Russians see countries that are in crisis, and they come in to help. Once its done, they have a stronghold there and they try to have a base and try to get out the former forces, whether the US or European forces or even those who are under the flag of the United Nations.

Hundreds of Wagner contractors, a private Russian military group, are in Mali, at the invitation of the countrys military junta, to assist in its fight against insurgents.

Earlier this year, a group of Russian soldiers arrived in Burkina Faso months after the junta-led nation expelled French troops from its soil.

Wagner mercenaries had previously operated in the Central African Republic (another former French colony) since at least 2018, training the local army and combating rebels in the nations civil conflict.

Security consultant Mamadou Adje told CNN that Russias support for Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso will be more profitable to their junta leaders who will not be pressured by the Russians into ensuring a swift return to democracy.

The fact that they will have the support and the protection of the Russians who will not question the democratic setting of their military governments  made them decide to be with the Russians and not the Americans, said Adje, a retired Senegalese colonel who previously served in Mali and Burkina Faso under West African regional bloc ECOWAS.

Supporters of Nigers junta have mobilized for protests on Saturday to rail against the presence of US military personnel still stationed in the country. There are approximately 648 US military personnel still deployed in Niger, according to the White House.

Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso are already in the pocket of the Russians, Adje said.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
A Milwaukee, Wisconsin man was charged on Friday in connection to the death of 19-year-old Sade Robinson who went missing on April 1.

Maxwell Anderson, 33, was arrested on April 4 after a traffic stop. Anderson was then identified as a person of interest in the missing person case that involved Robinson.

Anderson is being charged with the following:

first-degree intentional homicide

mutilating a corpse

arson property other than a building

Around 5:29 p.m. on April 3 Milwaukee County 911 dispatch received a call from Cudahy Police Department regarding a report of a severed leg. It was located near the golf course at Warnimont Park and the leg was amputated from the hip down. The leg was of a female who was African-American, Milwaukee Police Department said during a press conference on Friday.

The Milwaukee Police Department said that there has been additional human remains found in the area, but they have not yet been identified as belonging to Robinson.

Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita R. Ball, left, and Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey B. Norman brief the media on April 12, 2024 on the death of Sade Robinson. Maxwell S. Anderson was charged Friday in the Milwaukee woman's killing.

At a joint press conference Friday morning with the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office and the Milwaukee Police Department, officials said a search for remains continues and an investigation into a motive remain active.

The police department does not know the relationship between Anderson and Robinson but does believe that the two met at Anderson's place of employment. A criminal complaint states that Anderson and Robinson met April 1 to go on a first date with each other.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Robinson family, friends and the Milwaukee community who have embraced this family, Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball said during the conference. We are sorry for your loss, its such a tragic incident.

Sade Robinson: Family fears body parts, burned car belong to the missing Wisconsin woman

Remembering Sade Robinson

Sade Carleena Robinson

Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Sade Carleena Robinson moved to Milwaukee with her mother, Sheena Scarbrough, before she turned 2. She then split her time between here and Florida, where her father Carlos Robinson lives. Scarbrough told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network, she and Robinson's father never married, but tried their best to co-parent.

After splitting her time between both parents, in 2019 Robinson decided to return to Milwaukee to live with her mother again.

Scarbrough was always impressed by her daughters determination, like when she graduated from high school a semester early after moving from Florida. She recalled her surprise when Robinson asked to be driven to a job interview, something Scarbrough didn't know was even in the works.

Robinson worked at Pizza Shuttle on Milwaukees east side as a cashier, where she was a favorite among coworkers and customers alike, a manager told the newspaper.

Robinson was only a month away from finishing her associate degree in criminal justice at Milwaukee Area Technical College. Scarbrough said her daughter was still figuring out her next steps, but was looking at joining the U.S. Air Force. The family has other veterans, with Robinson's grandfather a retired U.S. Navy veteran and her uncle a U.S. Army veteran, she said.

Robinson recently had gotten a passport and planned well with her money, self-funding recent trips to Jamaica and Atlanta.

The family is tight-knit, Scarbrough said, texting frequently and having groups on the family tracking app Life360. Robinson's last location on the app has been a source for searches, she said.

Scarbrough said she was a standout older sister, even getting her little sister Adrianna a job at the Wisconsin Club, where Robinson worked a second job, and often picked her sister up for work.

She lived in a small "bachelorette" apartment and her grandmother Linda would often visit her, where Robinson loved to cook seafood for her, Scarbrough said.

"Her whole life was so ahead of her, she was so, so amazing. So beautiful, such a beautiful angel. Everywhere she went, people just admired my baby," Scarbrough said.

A timeline of the day Sade Robinson disappeared

Robinson met with Anderson the evening of April 1 for a date at Anderson's former job.

From a complaint obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the following events occurred:

4:15 p.m.: Robinson sends text messages to a phone number later determined to belong to Anderson. The two arranged to meet at Twisted Fisherman restaurant for dinner. Anderson mentions he also needs to pick up a W2 form there since he used to work there.

5:20 p.m.: Robinson meets Anderson at the restaurant and the two have food and drinks at the bar. Anderson arrived first and told a bartender he was there for a first date. Staff later repeat this to investigators and confirm that Anderson used to work there.

6:30 p.m.: The two leave the restaurant and arrive in Robinsons car. While there, Robinson sends a Snapchat message to a friend. The two leave the bar at 9:06 p.m.

9:24 p.m.: Robinsons phone is located in the area of Andersons home. Surveillance video shows two human figures arriving at the house in the night.

Ahjane Forbes is a reporter on the National Trending Team at USA TODAY. Ahjane covers breaking news, car recalls, crime, health, lottery and public policy stories. Email her at aforbes@gannett.com . Follow her on Instagram, Threads and X @forbesfineest.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Maxwell Anderson charged in connection to the death of Sade Robinson
Tesla employees are concerned layoffs are imminent. Justin Sullivan

Tesla employees fear potential layoffs may begin as early as this weekend.

This follows earlier rumors in February when Tesla temporarily delayed performance reviews.

Tesla's deliveries dropped below Wall Street expectations during its first quarter.

Some Tesla employees are concerned that layoffs are imminent, possibly as soon as this weekend.

Rumors are circling at Tesla's offices that cuts are on the horizon, seven engineers  including from the Austin gigafactory and the Fremont factory  told Business Insider. While there has not been any official communication to teams, some workers said they'd heard cuts could begin as soon as Sunday.

Two other workers said they hadn't heard the chatter about layoffs, while others said they weren't taking them too seriously.

"There've been some whispers and some people are concerned, but you know how fast false rumors can spread at a company this big," one engineer said.

A spokesperson for Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This is the second time in a matter of months that anxiety over possible layoffs has set in at Tesla. In February, the carmaker reportedly called for managers to begin identifying the most vital roles for the company. At the same time, Tesla also delayed some workers' performance reviews, Bloomberg reported. The reviews were later rescheduled, three sources told Business Insider.

Workers across the tech industry are likely on high alert for any sign of a potential layoff. Several Big Tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, have already made cuts this year. EV rivals like Rivian and Fisker have also laid off staff in 2024.

And Tesla has faced some strong headwinds recently.

Tesla's first-quarter delivery numbers revealed a slump in sales , for instance. The carmaker's deliveries fell 20% from the previous quarter and over 8% from the same time the previous year, marking the company's first year-on-year sales decline since 2020.

Do you work for Tesla or a tip? Reach out to the reporter via a non-work email and device at gkay@businessinsider.com

Read the original article on Business Insider
A natural gas (NG=F) glut in the US has sent prices for the commodity tumbling to multi-decade lows, down 43% over the past year.

At West Texas's key trading spot, the Waha Hub, prices have been negative for the majority of March and into April, according to government data released this week. That means producers have essentially paid someone to take it off their hands.

The phenomenon highlights a multiyear challenge plaguing the Permian Basin in West Texas: a lot of natural gas and not enough capacity to transport the commodity out of the area.

"The US domestic natural gas market has plenty of supply capacity and not enough takeaway capacity, Ed Hirs, senior fellow at the University of Houston, told Yahoo Finance.

In recent years, prices at the Waha Hub have dipped into negative territory numerous times, falling below the US benchmark, the Henry Hub level.

Most natural gas production in the Permian Basin is a byproduct of crude oil production, often referred to as associated gas. As US oil output hit record highs last year, so did the supply of natural gas.

On Thursday, futures fell to trade below $1.80 per million British Thermal Units (BTUs) after Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed stockpiles last week were about 38% above five-year averages.

A mild winter has exacerbated downward pressure on prices this year. The EIA expects natural gas inventories will "remain relatively high and natural gas spot prices to remain relatively low through 2025."

Waha Hub location, a major gathering point for natural gas from the Permian region. (Source: Energy Information Administration)

The oversupply has already prompted producers to curtail output. Some energy analysts point to the risk of less oil production growth at a time when West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) has climbed 20% year to date.

The lack of this pipeline takeaway capacity may limit Permian Basin oil production in 2024 since companies cannot simply burn off the associated gas into the atmosphere, Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told Yahoo Finance.

On Thursday, Goldman Sachs analysts said a drop in US oil output in January was due to extreme weather and shale producers' inability to transport byproduct natural gas, among other factors.

The transportation constraints sharply reduce the marginal price of natural gas in the Permian, which can reduce the incentives to produce oil and associated gas," Yulia Zhestkova Grigsby and her team wrote.

The analysts estimate marginal revenues from associated gas per barrel of oil produced in the Permian have dropped to less than $2 per barrel in the first quarter of 2024, down from almost $20 per barrel in 2022.

This week, APA (APA), the holding company for hydrocarbon explorer Apache, revealed it curtailed natural gas production in the first quarter, mostly during the month of March in response to weak or negative Waha hub prices.

Several projects have been implemented to expand takeaway capacity in the Permian Basin, including the new Matterhorn Express Pipeline connecting West Texas and Southern New Mexico to Houston, which is slated to be completed by the end of 2024.

"They [the projects] will help, but they are not large enough to solve the problem by themselves," said University of Houston's Hirs.

"As the Permian field continues forward, the gas-oil ratio is increasing," he said. "More takeaway capacity needs to be added."

Analysts expect demand for natural gas to increase as energy consumption rises due to AI and the industrialization of green energy.

"The demand is much harder to change in the long term," Vijay Marolia, chief investment officer at RP Capital, told Yahoo Finance. "Supply is going to go down in the future, and that will cause the price to go up."

Ines Ferre is a senior business reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X at @ines_ferre.

Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices.

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Reenactor Franklin Guidone, left, in character as William Barrett Travis, recreates a historical scene writing the victory or death letter asking for reinforcements as re-enactor Joshua Obadiah, right, portrays Joe, an enslaved servant of Travis, standing guard. The scene was photographed in January to prepare bronze statues for the Alamo Visitor Center and Museum, set to open in 2027. Salgu Wissmath/San Antonio Express-News

Officials of the Alamo Trust said theyll ask a planning committee to review a controversial decision to depict an enslaved Black man holding a firearm during the 1836 siege as part of a series of bronze statues at a future visitor center.

The Alamo Museum Planning Committee will discuss the objections raised by two African American members of the panel and concerns from others who voted against a portrayal of Joe holding a musket and standing guard over the man who owned him, Alamo commander William B. Travis.

That leaves open the possibility that the bronze statue of Joe, one of several that will greet arrivals at the visitor center, might be cast to tell a different story than the one that upset the committees consensus approach to history when it voted to approve it March 7.

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Although members are bound by a confidentiality agreement, sources within the diverse 27-member committee have said 10 of them voted in support of the vignette, five voted to depict Joe in the scene without a gun and five voted to remove him from the scene entirely.

The controversy became public when Deborah Omowale Jarmon, a committee member and CEO/director of the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum voiced her concerns in a March 25 letter to the Express-News.

Reenactor Joshua Obadiah, in character as Joe. The scene was photographed in January to prepare bronze statues for the Alamo Visitor Center and Museum, set to open in 2027. Some members of an Alamo planning committee have objected to the portrayal of Joe. Salgu Wissmath/San Antonio Express-News

Jarmon told the newspapers editorial board this week that she didnt want her museums name to be a part of something that is inaccurate and have people asking 50 years later, How did the African American museum let that slide?

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Kate Rogers, the Alamo Trust executive director, said she and other leaders of a $550 million, public-private makeover project are taking the concerns seriously. Planners will raise the issue with the committee May 9.

Its important to us on this particular topic to be very respectful of the African American voices on the committee, Rogers told the editorial board in a separate interview Friday. Obviously, theres concern with this portrayal. So because the vote was split that way, and because theres still concern within a very critical group, were going to bring it back.

Aaronetta Pierce, a member of the Alamo Museum Planning Committee, has asked for a vignette depicting Joe, an enslaved servant of Alamo commander William B. Travis, telling his account of the battle. Marvin Pfeiffer/Staff Photographer

Aaronetta Pierce, a longtime civil rights advocate and leader in San Antonios Black community, wrote an email to the panel in January, calling the depiction difficult to justify, an enslaved man holding a gun and guarding his master.

San Antonio is too intelligent to produce such an illogical, historically incorrect scene, she wrote.

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About a week later, the next thing I saw was the picture in the newspaper of reenactors portraying Joe holding a musket and Travis sitting behind him at a desk, writing the famous victory or death letter during the 13-day Alamo siege.

Committee members justified the scene, saying firsthand accounts, including by Joe himself, provide evidence Joe had a gun and fired it during the battle. But Pierce said theres nothing to substantiate Joes presence when the letter was written 11 days earlier.

Deborah Omowale Jarmon, CEO/director of San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum, voted against a proposed statue depicting Travis, the garrison commander, guarded by his enslaved servant Joe. She favors one of Joe telling his account of the 1836 battle. Kin Man Hui/Staff photographer

She and Jarmon have asked the Alamo to consider a vignette showing Joe after the battle, providing an important early account as one of the few survivors who were inside the mission-fort. His recollections in the immediate aftermath became the foundation for the traditional story of the battle.

I want him separate, telling the story, Pierce told the editorial board.

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If Travis gets a vignette for writing a letter, then doesnt Joe deserve a vignette for telling the story? Jarmon said.

Accurately portraying slavery in early Texas is a key goal for the Alamo makeover that the Alamo Trust is carrying out with state, local and private funding. And nearly everyone has known it was going to be difficult.

Pierce and Jarmon said some of the resistance to their objections has come from Alamo traditionalists who passionately adhere to a heroic narrative of 200 soldiers and volunteers who died for Texas independence from Mexico. Jarmon said shes sometimes told, when discussing the role of slavery in the Texas Revolution, Well, that was then, and we should kind of get over it.

Texans today, especially young people, should be told the truth, she said.

Alamo Executive Director Kate Rogers said museum planners will ask the 27-member Alamo Museum Planning Committee to review its decision that a statue of Joe, an enslaved servant of Alamo commander William Barret Travis, should be depicted with a musket guarding Travis. Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer

When you talk about chattel slavery, especially at a time when you have so many young people that are trying to find themselves  it shows that were resilient people, Jarmon said.

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Rogers said the committee, formed in 2021, has discussed the vignettes at three meetings since July, and will have an opportunity to weigh those concerns and ideas and might vote again. But the panel, four of whose members are Black, will continue operating under a nondisclosure pact.

These topics can be tough. They can be emotional. Were trying to create a safe space where people feel free to express their opinions across the gamut of opinions and sometimes disagree with each other without it spilling out into the media, Rogers said.

This issue of this particular vignette is the first time weve taken a vote, she said. It would be great if there was just consensus. On this particular topic, we werent able to get there.

Hope Andrade, one of the leaders of the Alamo project, said the input of the museum planning committee needs to be respected. Tom Reel /Staff photographer

Hope Andrade, an Alamo Trust board member and chair of the Alamo projects Management Committee, said the confidentiality structure of the museum committee provides an environment where members feel free in sharing their thoughts, and isnt intended to shroud the process in secrecy. The groups voices need to be respected, she said.

If the committee invests this much time and their efforts on it, and then we dont respect the outcome, eventually people start saying, Well, why spend all my time there?  Andrade said.

Regardless of the decision on the vignette, the Alamo will include perspectives on slavery in its museum galleries in the visitor center, which is set to open in 2027.

Itll appear in multiple times and multiple different galleries. As will Joe, because he was important to the story, Rogers said. Were committed to the (projects) vision and guiding principles and telling all the stories. And particularly to bring forward stories of lesser-known people associated with the Alamo. That would include women, children, the enslaved population.

Alamo Senior Curator and Historian Ernesto Rodriguez said the portrayal of Joe is a touchy subject. Josie Norris / San Antonio Express-News

Ernesto Rodriguez, the Alamos senior curator and historian, said the portrayal of Joe is a very touchy subject because he wasnt at the Alamo of his own free will. During the battle, he was a man fighting for his life.
YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Mnatsakan Safaryan on April 12 participated in the regular meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CIS member states, the foreign ministry said.

Within the framework of the meeting, the heads of the delegations exchanged ideas on regional agenda issues and discussed the cooperation within the framework of the CIS. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia presented the position of the Armenian side regarding the agenda issues of the session.

In the context of realizing the potential of economic cooperation between the CIS member states, Mnatsakan Safaryan mentioned the importance of the "Crossroad of Peace" project presented by the Government of Armenia, which involves unblocking transport and communication routes and creating a network based on the sovereignty and jurisdiction of states, as well as the principles of equality and reciprocity.

Regarding the current regional processes, the importance of adhering to the cornerstone documents of the CIS has been underscored. These include the Agreement on the Establishment of the CIS and the provisions of the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991, which outline the parties' commitments to peaceful dispute resolution, mutual recognition of territorial integrity, indivisibility, and respect for borders.

Among other documents adopted at the session, the statement 'On Ensuring Safe Conditions for the Professional Activities of Journalists and the Inadmissibility of Violations of their Rights' was adopted. In particular, it emphasized the provision of necessary conditions for the free and independent work of journalists in accordance with the national legislation of the state of accreditation, as well as the inadmissibility of publications with offensive content about people and national values of the CIS member states.
If youve ever heard Marian Anderson sing Deep River, youve heard an immortal concert spiritual by Harry Burleigh. His name wont appear on the youtube captions  and yet Burleighs Deep River isnt a mere arrangement.

I unpack the genesis of Deep River  its surprising origins as an obscure church militant spiritual, its indebtedness to Antonin Dvorak, its subsidiary theme composed by Burleigh himself  on the most recent More than Music feature on NPR: Deep River: The Art of Harry Burleigh. The performances (other than Marian Andersons) were recorded in concert by the exceptional African-American baritone Sidney Outlaw. It was my pleasure to be the pianist.

The show argues that Burleigh was a major creative force  more than the pivotal transcriber of spirituals as concert songs. In particular, we present his final art song  Lovely, Dark, and Lonely One(1935)  as his valedictory: not merely one of the supreme concert songs by an American, but an encapsulation of Burleighs life philosophy. It takes an eloquently impatient Langston Hughes poem, and turns it into an expression of hope and faith. Burleigh consistently refused to participate in movements he considered separatist or chauvinistic, writes Jean Snyder in her Burleigh biography. He believed that artists, not politicians, would most effect progressive change. They are the true physicians who heal the ills of mankind, he wrote. They are the trailblazers. They find new worlds. Our performance of this song, at Princeton University last year, is a little slower than other versions; its interior life (the climax is a pregnant silence) felt deep and true.

Burleighs own life story is a parable of faith: his patience was rewarded. As I remark on NPR: When Harry Burleigh arrived in New York, its leading classical music institutions were segregated. Eight years later, in 1900, a race riot erupted in the Tenderloin District. But New York was at the same time a city of opportunity for Harry Burleigh. And the opportunities did not merely arise in spite of his skin color; sometimes, they materialized because  dignified and composed  he was self-evidently a young Black American unusual in talent, character, and promise.

In New York, Antonin Dvorak made 26-year-old Harry Burleigh his assistant. Jeannette Thurber, the visionary music educator who invited Dvorak to lead her National Conservatory, was part of a community of cultural leaders who  like Dvorak and W. E. B. Du Bois  looked to Black America for direction. Not long after Dvorak arrived, she added a department for the instruction of colored pupils of merit with free tuition. The conservatory soon acquired 150 Black students  out of a student body totaling 750. Meanwhile, Henry Krehbiel, the most influential New York music critic, turned himself into what would later be called an ethnomusicologist, studying vernacular music from all over the world  including the music of Native America, and of Africa. In the New York Tribune, Krehbiel wrote: That which is most characteristic, most beautiful and most vital in our folk-song has come from the negro slaves of the South. Krehbiel and Burleigh would become friends and allies.

When we observe that, beginning with Deep River in 1913, Burleighs spirituals were instantaneously popular among vocal recitalists  that means they were being sung by famous white recitalists. But over the course of the 1920s, Burleigh himself became an immensely popular black recitalist.

In the long view, Burleigh commences a high lineage of Black vocalists whose renderings of the songs of Black America are buoyed by a courageous optimism. His first two great successors, both of whom he knew and admired, were Roland Hayes and Marian Anderson. Closing the NPR show, I ask: Is Burleighs deep river of common humanity a thing of the past? Lets hope not. Heres a Dutch student chorus singing Harry Burleigh.

LISTENING GUIDE:

Performances by Sidney Outlaw and JH recorded in concert at the Newark School of the Arts (with thanks to Larry Tamburri), and at Princeton University (presented by the James Madison Program, with thanks to Allen Guelzo):

6:00: Deep River

10:10: Sometimes I Feel like a Lonely Child

22:45: Lovely, Dark, and Lonely One

25:31: Steal Away 
Kolkata: Two suspected ISIS members, who had directly carried out the Rameshwaram Cafe blast in Bengaluru on March 1 and were on the run since then with a Rs 10 lakh cash bounty on them, were arrested by the National Investigation Agency in a joint operation with the West Bengal police from a hotel at popular beach town Digha in East Midnapore district early Friday.

They are Mussavir Hussain Shazib, 30, and Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taha, 30. The duo stayed at least in four hotels in the state, including two in Kolkata, while hiding for the past one month using fake identities and documents. The arrests of the two terror accused from West Bengal prior to the Lok Sabha elections instantly triggered a political slugfest between the ruling and Opposition parties in the state.

The BJP accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of turning West Bengal into a safe haven for terrorists. In retaliation, the Trinamul Congress supremo however claimed the two accused took shelter in the state for only two hours and were nabbed by the state police within two hours of getting the tip-off.

The NIA said: The absconders in the Rameswaram Cafe blast case, Abdul Matheen Taha and Mussavir Hussain Shazib, were traced to their hideout near Kolkata and apprehended by an NIA team. In the early morning hours of April 12, the NIA successfully traced the absconding accused near Kolkata, where they were hiding under false identities.

It added: Mussavir Hussain Shazib is the accused who placed the IED at the cafe, and Abdul Matheen Taha is the mastermind behind the planning, execution of the blast, and subsequent evasion from the clutches of the law. This pursuit, successfully accomplished by NIA, was ably supported by cooperation between the NIA, Central intelligence agencies, and state police of West Bengal, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala.

The state BJP also alleged: NIA's crackdown on Rameswaram Cafe blast suspects in Kolkata unveils the stark reality: West Bengal has morphed into a sanctuary for terrorists. Bobby Hakim's chilling comparison to mini-Pakistan finds validation as Mamata Banerjees leniency emboldens criminals. The time for decisive action against this culture of impunity is now!

Ms Banerjee told a TMC poll campaign rally in Cooch Behar: Someone often passes comments. He said a bomb blast occurred in Bengaluru. The accused are also from Karnataka and not here. They were hiding here for two hours. We ensured their arrest within two hours. Look at the promptness of the Bengal police. Are your states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar safe?

During the day, Mussavir and Abdul were produced by the NIA at the Bankshall court in the city. The Central agency sought their transit remand, which was granted by the judge for three days.
New Delhi: India commemorates 40 years since the launch of Operation Meghdoot, a critical mission to secure the strategic heights of the Siachen glacier, acknowledged as the highest battlefield in the world.

The Siachen glacier at the height of around 20,000 feet is located in the Karakoram mountain range, where soldiers have to battle frostbite and high winds.

It is stated that Pakistani control of Siachen would have allowed them to monitor Indian military activity in Ladakh. It would also unite the Chinese and Pakistani fronts and allow them to launch a combined attack on India in case of a conflict.

The Indian Army's control over the Siachen glacier has not only been a story of unparalleled valour and determination but also an incredible journey of technological advancements and logistical improvements that transformed it from one of the most formidable terrains into a symbol of indomitable spirit and innovation, said an Army official.

Alongside the Indian Army's efforts, the Indian Air Force (IAF) played a crucial role in this operation, beginning April 13, 1984. The operation involved the IAF airlifting Indian Army soldiers to the glacial peaks.

The induction of heavy-lift helicopters and logistic drones, deployment of all-terrain vehicles and laying of an extensive network of tracks are among a host of measures that have enhanced India's combat prowess in Siachen, officials said.

Another official said innovations like the DRDO-developed ATV bridges have enabled the Army to overcome natural obstacles, while high-quality Dyneema ropes in aerial cableways ensure seamless supply lines to even the most-remote outposts.

The availability of special clothing, mountaineering equipment and advanced rations has enhanced the ability of the soldiers to withstand the harsh conditions of the world's coldest battlefield, the official added.

He said gadgets, such as pocket weather trackers, with each soldier provides timely weather updates and warn them about possible avalanches.

Recent initiatives concerning the improvement of connectivity have ensured that the personnel in forward posts in the northern and central glacier regions have access to fresh ration and vegetables instead of tinned ration, an aspect that could not have been imagined a few years ago, the official said.

Initially, operating Chetak helicopters since 1978, the IAF's involvement intensified with Operation Meghdoot. In response to Pakistan's aggressive manouvres in the Ladakh region, India acted swiftly to secure Siachen's peaks and passes. The IAF's tactical and strategic airlifters transported troops and supplies, defying altitude and temperature constraints.

Helicopters ferried personnel and materials to dizzying heights, exceeding manufacturer limits.

As Pakistan reacted, the Indian Army maintained strategic positions, gaining a tactical edge. Over the years, the IAF's role expanded, with fighter aircraft deployed for air superiority. Fighter sweeps and simulated strikes bolstered troop morale and deterred adversaries. In 2013, a C-130J Super Hercules landed at Daulat Beg Oldie, the world's highest airstrip.

Today, a diverse fleet including Chinook, Apache, and ALH Mk III operates in support of Operation Meghdoot, serving as a lifeline, ensuring troop connectivity and facilitating logistics and medical evacuations. Amidst harsh conditions, the IAF continues to demonstrate exceptional endurance, flying, and technical prowess, sustaining this four-decade-long military operation.

In January last year, Captain Shiva Chauhan from the Army's Corps of Engineers was posted at a frontline post in the Siachen glacier, in the first such operational deployment of a woman Army officer at a key battlefield.
Though he usually keeps a low profile, businessman Robert Vadra, husband of Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, has been unusually vocal these days. He has given a spate of interviews pitching himself as the perfect candidate for the Amethi Lok Sabha constituency, once a Gandhi stronghold but now lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Robert Vadra maintains that the current MP Smriti Irani has failed to live up to expectations and that the people of Amethi want him to represent them in Parliament. Mr Vadras statements have predictably confused and intrigued the party. In fact, a few Congress leaders went into a huddle the day Mr Vadra gave his first interview to decode what he meant and to figure out their response to it. One senior spokesperson was ready to give a media bite on this issue but was asked to step back just as he was about to go on air. With the Congress top brass failing to clarify matters, party leaders are left wondering if Mr Vadra has been asked by the Gandhi family to project himself through his public pronouncements, or is he doing so on his own accord? This will remain a subject of animated discussion and speculation in the Congress till the party announces its candidates for the Amethi and Rae Bareli seats.

Ram Madhav, India Foundation president and member of the RSS national executive, was left searching for an appropriate answer when asked at the launch of senior journalist Priya Sahgals book, The Contenders. Who Will Lead India Tomorrow, who among the current crop of young leaders have the potential to occupy the countrys top post. Tying himself in knots, Mr Madhav refused to pick any names, insisting it was an irrelevant discussion since there is no vacancy at the top and unlikely to be one for many years to come. Mr Madhavs evasive answers and the mandatory high praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi drew a sharp response from the two other panellists, Abhishek Singhvi of the Congress and former diplomat Pavan Varma, who came down on him like a ton of bricks on issues ranging from the Modi governments misuse of investigative agencies against Opposition leaders and the promotion of a personality cult in the Bharatiya Janata Party. Given Mr Modis dominating persona, Mr Varma remarked no one understands more than Mr Madhav the consequences of getting into a discussion on future leaders. Mr Varma was obviously referring to Mr Madhavs abrupt fall from grace four years ago when he was removed as BJP national general secretary and sent back to the RSS.

Former foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla may have lost out on a Lok Sabha ticket from Darjeeling but it appears he is still hoping that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pick him up for a plum assignment or even a Rajya Sabha seat when he returns to power. This is the current buzz in the Indian diplomatic community which is aghast at how a seasoned and respected diplomat who had such a stellar career is bending over backwards to please the ruling dispensation. For instance, Mr Shringla recently posted on X about how he was honoured to call on the external affairs minister and receive the benefit of his advice and guidance. He then went on to say that as an added bonus, he got an autographed copy of the ministers latest book" which he had already started reading. Mr Shringlas former colleagues maintain that his latest actions have robbed him of the credibility he enjoyed as a diplomat.

There is clearly a lack of coordination between the respective teams handling the election programmes of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi. This was clearly on display when Mr Kharge launched the partys Ghar Ghar Guarantee Initiative in Delhi North-East parliamentary constituency recently where he distributed pamphlets on the partys Paanch Nyay Pachees Guarantee schemes. However, the Congress presidents effort and message was virtually lost as the timing coincided with Rahul Gandhis speech after he filed his nomination papers from Wayanad. Naturally, this event hogged the limelight while Mr Kharge got no play in the media. Rahul Gandhi does not hold any office but it does not appear so as the Congress communications department continues to publicise his programmes and speeches as they did when he was party chief.

Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan was initially tipped to be fielded by the Congress from the Satara Lok Sabha constituency. He is currently the MLA from Karad, an Assembly constituency in Satara. There were tough behind-the-scenes negotiations between the three partners in the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance. Nationalist Congress Party (SP) leader Sharad Pawar apparently even agreed to concede the seat to Mr Chavan provided he contested on his partys ticket. Mr Chavan was unwilling to do so though he fell foul of the Congress leadership as he was among the 23 Congress leaders who had written to former party president Sonia Gandhi to press for internal elections and organisational reforms. In the end, Mr Chavan lost out as the Satara seat has gone to Sharad Pawars party which has given the ticket to Shashikant Shinde.
Dubai: India stepped up talks with Iranian authorities to ensure the security and swift release of 17 Indians aboard a cargo ship, "MSC Aries," that was captured by Iran on Saturday. The vessel, reportedly Israeli-owned, was seized in the Gulf of Oman by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, escalating tensions between Iran and Israel.

Indian diplomatic channels in New Delhi and Tehran are in contact with Iranian authorities to safeguard the welfare of the Indian nationals. This development follows India's advisory on Friday advising against travel to Iran or Israel due to heightened tensions, particularly after an attack on an Iranian diplomatic mission in Syria, attributed to Israel.

The MSC Aries, owned by Zodiac Maritime, was seized close to the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime chokepoint. The vessel, operating from the UAE port of Khalifa to Mumbai's Nhava Sheva, had 25 crew members onboard. The Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world's largest container shipping line, confirmed the seizure and stated its commitment to ensuring the crew's safety and the vessel's return.

Reports indicate previous encounters between Iranian forces and Israeli-owned ships due to their ownership, prompting warnings for such vessels to reconsider transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is vital for oil tanker traffic, carrying oil from Gulf producers to the world and serving as a crucial route for container ships.
An Evangelical NGO, ChinaAid, reports that a Chinese Christian who tried to use an automatic online translator to read information about the Protestant Reformation was flashed an ominous warning from Chinas Internet agency that every religion must adapt to Chinese socialist society. Chinas repression against house churches not compliant to the patriotic movement face digital scrutiny.

Beijing (AsiaNews)  Online machine translation systems are becoming the new frontier for Chinas nationalist policy of sinicisation of religions imposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, this according to the China Aid Association (ChinaAid), an evangelical group that advocates for religious freedom in China, especially house churches, i.e. Protestant communities that refuse to submit to the Three-Self Movement, the "official" patriotic Protestant organisation controlled by the Communist Party of China.

ChinaAid recently reported the story of a Chinese Christian who tried to use an online search service to translate content related to the Protestant Reformation, in particular Martin Luther and Calvin. When they tried to translate content, that set off a warning from Chinas Internet watchdog to abide by the core values of socialism.

According to CNNIC, When translating any content, Chinese people must strictly abide by national laws and regulations, adhere to the core socialist values, actively spread positive energy, and safeguard the countrys cultural security and ideological security. Regarding religious content, we should uphold a scientific spirit and attitude, respect history, and respect the freedom of belief under different cultural backgrounds.

The message went further: At the same time, we must also recognize soberly that any religion must adapt to Chinese socialist society. In China, we encourage religious groups and believers to love their country and religion, actively guide religions to adapt to socialist society, and contribute to promoting social harmony, national unity, and cultural prosperity.

It should be stressed that the content the Christian sought to translate did not concern national security. It was simply a text about Martin Luther (1483-1546), focused on his personal doubts and the spiritual struggles that led him to call for the reform of the Catholic Church, and to his famous theses.

It seems that the mere use of words such as "challenge", "struggle", "reform" and "autonomy" in a relatively short passage triggered a warning against sensitive words in Chinese translation tools.

What is more, the Christian quoted by ChinaAid, whose name was withheld for obvious security reasons, said that three chapters related to Calvin [. . .] cannot be translated, with a warning of content risk.

In this case, the system completely stopped the translation, showing a message that read: Error: Unable to retrieve data from the translation engine API. Again, the content of the translation in question was related only to the introduction to Calvin's life.

In China, several house church pastors who adhere to the Reformed faith are currently in detention. The most famous is Rev Wang Yi of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, who was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to nine years in prison.
by Shafique Khokhar

In the village of Gujranwala, a family row became the pretext for a video accusing a pastor of burning the Qur'an. The authorities and the local community acted quickly to quell religious tensions. Fr Rashid Asi hopes this case will set a precedent for the entire nation to properly investigate any allegations brought against anyone.

Gujranwala (AsiaNews)  In Pakistan a sad case of personal vendetta, this time between Christians, came close to sparking fresh sectarian clashes after a false accusation of blasphemy was made. But at least this time, the wise behaviour of the police and the ulama protected the peace.

The story began on 12 April when a Christian man, Paras Saleem, a resident of Chaileki, a village in Sialkot district, accused his father-in-law, Rev Asif Masih, of burning a copy of the Qur'an. To this end, he created a fake TikTok account and posted a 15-second video in which he is heard making the blasphemy charge.

In fact, like most other such accusations, the story was invented, part of a personal vendetta. Paras quarrelled with his wife, and she left him and went back to her father's house.

For this reason, the jilted husband and a friend decided to implicate Rev Asif Masih in a fake blasphemy case and posted the short video on TikTok that went viral.

After some time, Paras deleted the video and fake account. But by then the video had already ignited tensions in Gujranwala, where Muslims were angered and Christians frightened.

Fortunately, when Rev Asif Masih filed a complaint, the police acted immediately, arresting his son-in-law, and seizing his mobile phone; eventually, the latter admitted that he had made up the whole story, and had posted the short video as an act of revenge against his in-laws.

The police also called in the Ulema Peace Committee, which, in turn, released a video message stating that the blasphemous video was false propaganda, explaining that Gujranwala is a city of peaceful people, where residents of all religions have been living in peace for decades.

The Committee added that the man responsible for this act had been arrested and that they would do their best to have him punished according to the law for his misdeed, so that in the future no one will dare implicate others in false blasphemy cases.

I feel immense pain that a Christian tried to use blasphemy laws out of a personal grudge, said Fr Khalid Rashid Asi, director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace of the Diocese of Faisalabad, speaking to AsiaNews.

We have seen irreparable losses and paid heavy prices for false blasphemy cases. But I am delighted, however, by the immediate action and positive role of the police and the Ulema Committee in this incident, Fr Khalid explained.

The police and the Committee have saved many lives and property in Gujranwala, and have set a precedent for the entire nation to properly investigate any allegations brought against anyone.
Anthony Franze is a native Texan and very passionate about covering any weather that is thrown at him. He can be reached at anthony.franze@express-news.net.

Anthony earned a degree in Meteorology from Valparaiso University in 2017. He has worked as a broadcast meteorologist for six years, one at NBC Montana and the next five at NewsWest 9 in Midland before joining the Express-News in July 2023.

In his free time, Anthony enjoys watching sports, checking out local restaurants and breweries, and getting outside whenever the heat allows for it. If you have any story ideas, questions about the weather or restaurant suggestions, drop him a line.
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James Crumbley, the father of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, vowed to "go on a rampage" against the prosecutor in his case following his at least 10-year prison stint, according to jailhouse phone calls.

Earlier this week, James and his wife Jenner Crumbley were both sentenced to 10-15 years behind bars after they were convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the 2021 Oxford High School shooting perpetrated by their then-15-year-old son, Ethan Crumbley, HNGN previously reported.

They were the first parents to be convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting in the case prosecuted by Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney Karen McDonald.

"You know, I kind of feel like a martyr," James said in a recorded jailhouse phone call in January, WDIV-TV reported, citing court documents. "It's (expletive) if they allow this stupid (expletive) to do to us. What she's trying to do, based on nothing. Here's the thing: she never did any type of investigation before they charged us."

"They're trying to blame it all on us," he continued. "They're trying to say none of it should have happened because of you. It's just too (expletive) ridiculous. It wasn't us, it was the (expletive) school."

"I am f****** on a rampage, Karen. Yes, Karen McDonald. Your a** is going down and you better be f****** scared," James said, CBS News reported, according to the documents.

"Go ahead and report this call," he threatened. "Send it to Karen McDonald, tell her how James Crumbley is going to (expletive) take her down; she will not have a law license when I'm done with her."

It's unclear who James was speaking to, however James' defense attorney Mariell Lehman said her client was just "venting" in those calls.

"In reviewing the phone calls which are alleged to contain threats of physical harm, it is clear that Mr. Crumbley is venting to loved ones about his frustrations related to the lack of investigation done by the prosecution prior to authorizing charges against him and his wife which resulted in his more than two-year incarceration up to this point. He does not threaten physical harm to Karen McDonald, instead, the calls are clear that he wants to ensure that she does not do to other people what she had done in this case  authorizing charges before an investigation could be conducted," Lehman said in court documents, according to the outlet.

Ethan, now 17, previously pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of 16-year-old Tate Myre, 16-year-old Justin Shilling, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, and 17-year-old Madsyn Baldwin. He is currently serving a life sentence.
13 April 2024 12:55 (UTC+04:00)

Fatima Latifova Read more

As mysterious questions are revealed about the terror attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, which resulted in numerous casualties, the hidden aspects of the incident are clarified. According to the Deputy Head of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, France and Macron are behind the terrorist attack in Moscow.

As Dimitri Medvedev emphasized, the relevant structures of Russia have more accurate information about the terrorist incident and investigations are ongoing. It was no coincidence that the French special services committed this terror in the Crocus concert hall owned by businessmen of Azerbaijani origin. This was to harm the relations between Azerbaijan and Russia and to create discord on religious and ethnic grounds in Russia.

France's connection with terrorist organizations is a proven fact

There is nothing surprising here. It is a proven fact that French President Emmanuel Macron, who continues the policy of neo-colonialism based on human death in the 21st century, has ties with international terrorism. The facts related to the cement plant belonging to the French company Lafarge and operating in Syria and its connections with ISIS and its financing have been confirmed. Recently, Turkish intelligence destroyed this cement factory, which provides services to terrorism. The main indicator of France's support for Armenian terrorism and being one of the main foci of ASALA is that France prepared a legion of Garabagh Armenians and sent them to the Ukrainian front.

The physical destruction of politicians who do not obey the will of France is also confirmation of Macron's support for terrorism. It is also clear from the comments of Russian experts about terrorism in Moscow that the main goal is to create tension between Azerbaijan and Russia. Although the perpetrators of the terrorist attack, in which hundreds of people lost their lives and were injured, have been detained, although who ordered it is still a matter of debate. Investigations by Russian special services revealed some traces of the attack on Crocus. The traces extend to France, the supporter of Armenia and the arming of the occupier, Macron, who supports terrorism at the state level...

On the other hand, the fact that the center where the incident took place belongs to Azerbaijanis also increases the possibility that France is involved in this case. Macron, who continues his hostile position against Azerbaijan in various directions, wants to officially express his hostile position to Moscow and Azerbaijan. Macron, who expressed his helplessness in the face of the political and economic power of Azerbaijan, which failed the policy of the Elysee Palace in the South Caucasus, clearly understood that the dirty deeds of Macron will not bring any results, the goal of Macron is to increase the tension in the South Caucasus and prepare Armenia for a new war. Macron, who is one of the main organizers of the Brussels meeting organized between the USA-EU-Armenia, who targets Azerbaijan and plays even the ugliest games to increase tension in the region, aimed at disrupting Azerbaijan-Russia relations, will not be successful. The discovery of the network of agencies formed by the official Paris, one of the main supporters of ISIS, in different countries by the security organization of Azerbaijan, and the discovery of the inner face of Macron's government creates the effect of a Monsieur Jordan explosion in the official Paris.

Considering all these facts and the fact that ISIS claimed responsibility for the Crocus attack, it is clear how realistic Medvedev's views are. Macron's true face becomes clear by recalling the terrorist acts and genocides carried out by France at the state level in Africa. The true face of Macron, who wants to repeat the African policy with the South Caucasus, will become clear in a wider sense after the investigations.

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13 April 2024 16:16 (UTC+04:00)

On April 13, 2024, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Jeyhun Bayramov, received the Egyptian candidate Khaled El-Enany for the post of Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Azernews reports.

During the meeting, the current issues on the agenda of cooperation between Azerbaijan and UNESCO and the position of Azerbaijan, the initiatives put forward by Azerbaijan, as well as regional issues were exchanged.

Minister Jeyhun Bayramov also informed the other party in detail about the history of the past Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, the fact of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, and the current situation in the region in the post-conflict period.

The meeting also discussed other issues of mutual interest.

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13 April 2024 13:31 (UTC+04:00)

"Kazakhstan is interested in the soon signing of the peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan,", Azernews reports, citing the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev as he telling at the interview with Armenpress.

"Kazakhstan cannot be indifferent to this issue. Thus, our country is interested in signing a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia as soon as possible. Because there are friendly relations between both of these states and our country. Ensuring stable and long-term peace between Yerevan and Baku also meets the interests of Kazakhstan. "Kazakhstan, a supporter of peaceful initiatives, supports any efforts aimed at the stability and development of the region," he said.

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13 April 2024 09:55 (UTC+04:00)

The representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on special assignments, Elchin Amirbayov, has completed a visit to Slovenia, Azernews reports.

During the visit meetings were held with the Advisor to the President of the Republic of Slovenia on International Relations, Zlatko Sabic, , the Vice President of the National Assembly, Daniel Krivets, and the Director-General Directorate for Political Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Mateja Norcic Stamcar.

During the meetings, the Slovenian side once again congratulated President Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of victory in the election held in Azerbaijan on February 7.

The sides expressed their satisfaction with the current level of bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Slovenia. Referring to the fact that the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries would be marked in 2026, the sides emphasized the importance of further developing cooperation in a number of potential fields, including economic and energy sectors, strengthening political dialogue, and exchanging visits. In this regard, the sides recalled with pleasure the visit of the Minister of Environment, Climate and Energy of Slovenia to Azerbaijan to participate in the 10th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 2nd Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting held in Baku in March this year.

Touching upon the parliamentary dimension of cooperation, it was noted that the stepped up contacts between friendship groups of both parliaments and reciprocal visits would contribute to the strengthening of bilateral relations. At the same time, the sides stressed the importance of demonstrating mutual support within multilateral international parliamentary platforms.

The Slovenian side was congratulated on the occasion of its election as a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council and the beginning of the exercise of its powers. The parties exchanged views on the cooperation between the two countries within the framework of international organizations.

During the meetings, they also discussed the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29), which will be hosted by Azerbaijan, Azerbaijans relations with the European Union, and issues on the regional and international agenda.

The Slovenian side conveyed its congratulations to Azerbaijan on the occasion of hosting COP29, emphasized that the climate conference was of great importance due to the changes observed in the world, and noted that it was ready to cooperate closely with the Azerbaijani side in preparation for the COP29.

A letter of invitation from the President of Azerbaijan to the President of Slovenia regarding the mentioned event was delivered during the visit.

The special envoy of the President of Azerbaijan informed the Slovenian side in detail about the progress of negotiations on the normalization and peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the current situation, and the efforts Azerbaijan was making to advance the peace process. Noting that this was a historic opportunity for the establishment of lasting peace and stability in the region, he said that Armenia should refrain from contradictory statements and provocative steps and respect the norms and principles of international law in order to prove that it was serious about the peace process. At the same time, it was stated that the creation of military infrastructure in borderline territories with Azerbaijan, the promotion of militarism in the region, the trilateral meeting in Brussels on April 5, 2024, the arming of Armenia through the European peace facility at the expense of the US budget, which may lead to the creation of dividing lines and further tensions in the region, as well as the provocative, non-transparent and non-inclusive initiatives and steps, were unacceptable as they did not contribute to the achievement of sustainable peace in the region.

During the meetings, the sides touched upon the legacy of Mehdi Huseynzade's Mikhaylo, which plays the role of a special bond between the two peoples and acts a symbol of friendship. The Azerbaijani side expressed its gratitude to Slovenia for the great respect for the memory of the hero, the kind and friendly attitude, as well as state-level events organized on an annual basis.

Within the framework of the visit, Elchin Amirbayov gave an interview to the Dnevik news show on RTV SLO (TV Slovenija 1), the leading channel of Slovenian television, and the Delo newspaper, one of the most influential companies of the Slovenian media market.

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13 April 2024 10:45 (UTC+04:00)

President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon plans to make a state visit to Azerbaijan in the third ten days of May 2024, the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Tajikistan said after a meeting between Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov on April 12, Azernews reports.

The ministerial meeting took place on the sidelines of the CIS Foreign Ministers Council meeting in Minsk. The ministers exchanged views on holding the days of culture of Tajikistan in Azerbaijan, the days of Tajik cinema and the Tajik-Azerbaijani business forum in the second ten days of May, the Foreign Ministry said, noting that issues of the regional and international agenda were also discussed.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made a state visit to Dushanbe last April. The result of negotiations with the President of Tajikistan was the signing of 14 documents on cooperation. Once again, Ilham Aliyev came to Dushanbe in September as a guest of honor at a consultative meeting of the heads of state of Central Asia.

Rahmon previously paid an official visit to Baku in August 2018.

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13 April 2024 20:11 (UTC+04:00)

The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan continues to accept students at the Military College of the National Defense University for the 2024-2025 academic year, Azernews reports.

The Ministry's National Defense University has established military colleges and relevant educational infrastructure in order to train professional military specialists and expand the secondary level of the military education system.

The college offers an in-depth and up-to-date educational program to provide education and training for military professionals. The new training center also offers detailed training opportunities to provide military professionals with hands-on training in their fields. As a result of effective organization of training processes, advanced technology is ensured to be used at a high level during training, with the maximum use of new generation weapons and military equipment models, simulators, educational complexes that meet modern standards, laboratories, and training centers.

The following monthly payments are provided to cadets of the Military College during the period of study:

Scholarship in the amount of 100 manats;

Financial assistance to family members in the amount of 200 manats;

Payment collected in the account in the amount of 150 manats.

Admission Information: The Military College opens its doors to all potential young people who want to become professionals. To get detailed information about the admission rules and the educational process, visit the website mmu.edu.az or call the short number 0811.

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13 April 2024 08:00 (UTC+04:00)

The EU Green Homes Directive cleared its final hurdle on Friday when it was approved by ministers at the Ecofin Council despite Italy and Hungary voting against and the Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden abstaining, Azernews reports, citing ANSA.

The Directive sets new emissions-reduction targets for residential and non-residential buildings in order to progressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption in the EU building sector and make it climate neutral by 2050.

"We voted against the Green Homes Directive," said Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti in Luxembourg.

"The question is - who pays? "Unfortunately we have experiences in Italy that are well known".

That remark was a reference to the Superbonus scheme to incentivize energy-efficient building renovations, which was approved by a previous administration in 2020 and has cost the State so far around 122 billion euros, seriously limiting the current government's room for manoeuvre.

"It is a beautiful, ambitious directive, but who pays in the end?" Giorgetti added.

"We have had experiences in Italy in which the lucky few rebuilt their houses thanks to the money put in by the State, that is, all the other Italians.

"We say that this is an experience that could teach us something".

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
13 April 2024 16:30 (UTC+04:00)

Iran's ambassador to Azerbaijan, Seyyed Abbas Mousavi, responded to US President Joe Biden's warning to Iran, Azernews reports, citing the post shared by Seyyed Abbas Mousavi on his official "X" account.

"Israel will definitely be punished, under any circumstances !" he added.

- Don't !

- Chashm Abbas Agha; But ISIS.ra.ILL will definitely be punished, under any circumstances !



00:00 pic.twitter.com/Js12WK3Mtu  Seyed Abbas Mousavi (@SAMOUSAVI9) April 12, 2024

It should be recalled that yesterday US President Joe Biden emphasized that he will support Israel, while answering journalists' questions. Recent events related to Israel proved once again that Iran's war is waged only through mass media and social networks. The regime carries out cheap threat campaigns with exaggerated statements, especially on social networks.

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13 April 2024 22:35 (UTC+04:00)

Turkish security forces "neutralized" four PKK terrorists in northern Iraq, the National Defense Ministry said on Saturday, Azernews reports, citing Anadolu Agency.

"Our heroic Turkish Armed Forces neutralized 3 PKK terrorists in the Operation Claw-Lock area and 1 PKK terrorist in the Hakurk region in northern Iraq, the ministry said on X.

"Our fight against terrorism continues effectively and decisively," it added.

Turkish authorities use the term "neutralize" to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.

In its nearly 40-year terror campaign against Turkiye, the PKK  listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the US, and the EU  has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

PKK terrorists often hide out in northern Iraq to plot cross-border attacks in Turkiye.

Turkiye launched Operation Claw-Lock in April 2022 to target the PKK terror organization's hideouts in Iraq's northern Metina, Zap, and Avasin-Basyan regions near the Turkish border.

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The California Highway Patrol this week arrested four suspects and recovered some $300,000 worth of stolen Lego sets connected to an organized retail theft operation, authorities said.

The California Highway Patrol's Organized Retail Crime Taskforce executed search warrants at four locations on Tuesday as part of their investigation into an illegal fencing operation, in which thieves resell stolen goods. A fence is an individual or group who buys stolen goods, then passes them off as legitimate at other retailers or online marketplaces.

Four people were arrested across Los Angeles and Orange counties: 44-year-old Jeremy Johnson, 39-year-old Marta Hardt, 47-year-old Chung-Pei Yu and 35-year-old Shen Li. All four were charged with organized retail theft, grand theft and conspiracy to commit a crime, the CHP said in a news release.

The suspects allegedly stole goods from retailers throughout Southern California, including Target, Lowe's and Home Depot, and sold them to fences. The most abundant item law enforcement found during the raids were Lego sets, particularly those based on movies and video games, or featuring classic cars.

The victim retailers estimate their losses from the thefts at around $300,000, CHP said. Some Lego sets can retail for nearly $1,000.

A Lego Titanic retails for $679.99, while a Lego Millennium Falcon from the "Star Wars" movies goes for nearly $900.

Buyers of the stolen Lego sets "may or may not be aware that the products they are purchasing were stolen as part of an organized retail crime operation," CHP said

-With reporting from TMX
University of Glasgow distances itself from Dr Ghassan Abu Sittas comments

The new rector of a Scottish university has sparked anger after praising Bobby Sands in his maiden speech.

In a controversial address, Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta quoted the immortal IRA hunger striker.

Dr Abu Sitta, a British-Palestinian surgeon who volunteered in Gaza's hospitals during the first weeks of the Israel-Hamas war, won a landslide election for the post at the University of Glasgow.

The rector is a position nominated and elected by university students.

Dr Abu Sitta is a controversial figure and claimed this week he was denied entry to Germany for a pro-Palestinian conference.

Addressing students at his installation at the universitys Bute Hall on Thursday, he dedicated his appointment to his friends and former colleagues executed by the Israeli army.

Dr Abu Sitta also criticised Israels genocide in Gaza.

He then referred to Sands - who died on hunger strike in 1981 - in his closing remarks.

With a raised fist, he said: And so I want to end with hope, and in the words of the immortal Bobby Sands, our revenge will be the laughter of our children. Hasta la victoria siempre (ever onwards to victory).

Dr Abu Sitta, who will serve as rector for three years, has previously said he opposes terrorism and anti-Semitism.

The University of Glasgow distanced itself from his comments, telling this newspaper that his comments are not those of the university and we strongly rebut them.

His speech was, however, praised by Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald, who said it was a powerful expression of global solidarity with Palestinian freedom.

Read more Distraught Belfast-based brothers wait every day to hear if family in Gaza is still alive

Victims campaigner Kenny Donaldson said his comments on Sands were a deep insult to the innocent victims and survivors of Provisional IRA terrorism and did little to advance the cause of the Palestinian people.

"Bobby Sands was no freedom fighter and he was no patriot, Mr Donaldson, from victims group SEFF, said.

He was a convicted terrorist.

Mr Donaldson added: "We take no glee in his death, and the leaders of the provisional republican movement should hang their heads in shame each and every day for, not alone, the offensive acts of terror they committed, but that they were prepared to sacrifice the very lives of their own personnel in order to create martyrs and advance their own warped ideology.

Read more Sinn Feins boycott of Westminster is starting to look silly

The University of Glasgow said: The rector is nominated and elected by students and represents them at the university court, the institutions governing body.

The rectors views do not represent those of the university.

Dr Abu Sitta has also been contacted for further comment.

Sands was the first of 10 republican prisoners to die after hunger strikes.

The Fermanagh/South Tyrone MP, who had led IRA prisoners in the Maze prison, died on May 5 1981

On Friday, Dr Abu Sitta said he was denied entry to Germany to take part in a pro-Palestinian conference.

He posted on social media that he arrived at Berlin airport before being stopped at passport control, where he was held for several hours and then told he had to return to the UK.

Airport police said he was refused entry due to the safety of the people at the conference and public order, Dr Abu Sitta told The Associated Press.
Suspect is being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder

Police forensics officers examine the area around a taxi as they investigate the shooting incident.

A man is being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder after a shooting near Banbridge.

The victim, aged in his 40s, remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital, police said this afternoon.

The shooting happened shortly after 8pm last night in a car park on the Rathfriland Road.

The victim, who was shot in the abdomen, is believed to have been targeted while sitting in a taxi.

Today police forensics officers in white clothing could be seen carrying out searches of the scene.

A grey-coloured car, with its passenger window shattered, remained at the scene.

Detectives are also probing a link between the shooting and a vehicle found on fire nearby.

The getaway car burning on Friday night. Photo: Kevin Scott.

Detective Inspector Foley from the PSNIs Serious Crime Branch said: A man, aged in his 40s, who was shot in his abdomen by a masked man while in the car park on Rathfriland Road around 8pm, remains in a critical, but stable condition in hospital.

Due to new evidence, we now believe the suspect made off from the scene in a silver-coloured Peugeot vehicle, rather than a Citroen car, as previously reported.

A silver Peugeot vehicle was found burnt out a short time later in the Drone Hill Road area of Corbet.

A 46-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and conspiracy to murder remains in custody at this time, assisting detectives with their enquiries.

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie urged anyone with information to come forward, saying the shooting was a shocking incident.

Guns do not belong on our streets. If you have any information regarding this incident please get in touch with the PSNI, he added.

DUP MP Carla Lockhart said: Please allow the PSNI time and space to investigate this serious incident.

Local Alliance MLA Eoin Tennyson said those behind the shooting do not represent the wider community in Upper Bann.

I utterly condemn this sickening attack, as will any right-thinking individual, he said.

My thoughts are with the victim of this terrible incident, who I hope makes a full recovery from his injuries.

The local community in Banbridge has been left shocked by this shooting. Those behind it certainly do not represent anyone in the town or indeed further afield. There is no place for guns on our streets and the culprits need taken off our streets.

I appeal to anyone with information on this incident to contact police with it immediately.

Sinn Fein councillor Kevin Savage said: There is no place for guns on our streets, those responsible need to desist.

Anyone with information on this attack should bring it forward to the PSNI.

A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Ambulance confirmed one person was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

"The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service received a 999 call at 8.06pm following reports of an incident in the Tullyear Close area of Banbridge, they said.

NIAS despatched a Rapid Response Paramedic and an emergency crew to the incident.

Following assessment and initial treatment at the scene, one patient was taken by ambulance to RVH in Belfast.

Police said the Drone Hill Road and Rathfriland Road, including its off-slip and on-slip to the A1 dual carriageway, remain closed on Saturday afternoon.

DI Foley added: Cordons are also in place as enquiries continue and we would advise road users to avoid these areas at this time. Local diversions are currently signposted.

The detective added: We are keen to hear from anyone who witnessed what happened or noticed anything suspicious, to make contact with police on 101, quoting reference number 1683 12/04/24.

We would especially like to hear from anyone who may have any CCTV, dash-cam or mobile footage of what happened. This information could greatly help with our enquiries.

Information can also be given anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
A 23-year-old Sacramento State University student has gone missing in the Los Angeles area after some puzzling phone calls were made to her family.

Noelle Lynch, who lives in Northern California with her family, went to Southern California on April 1, and then vanished without a trace. A search effort is now underway with the support of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Mark Lynch, Noelle's father, said in an interview that he last saw Noelle that same day in what he described as a 'difficult state of mind'.

"All that matters is trying to get her back," he told SFGATE, urging the community to join in the search efforts.

"We didn't know where she was going," Mark said, "and the next thing we knew, she was in an accident in Los Angeles at 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. on Tuesday, April 2."

There were no known injuries, but Noelle's vehicle sustained significant damage. Her mother, upon learning of the car crash, arranged a hotel room, according to teh dad, near LAX airport, hoping to meet her daughter.

However, Noelle's mom received a call from her daughter from "a strange person's phone" around noon on April 3. Mark disclosed that the call was quite short and that Noelle was "mostly not making sense."

Later that same day, Noelle was reported to have walked away from an apartment building on the 900 block of East Redondo Boulevard in Inglewood later that day, according to the LAPD

Noelle's phone was then discovered at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter at LAX, but, Mark Lynch said, there is no definitive evidence suggesting she boarded a flight.

"She always calls," he said. "This is very out of character. She has had a tough time but she has always called."

Lynch said that he has not ruled out foul play as he doesn't think that she is "sitting in a coffee shop in Marina del Rey."

Noelle is 5-foot-8, approximately 125 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes, according to the LAPD.

She was last seen wearing a dark-colored T-shirt, green sweatpants adorned with a military logo, and white sneakers.

Anyone with any information is urged to call LAPD's missing persons department at 213-996-1800.
Dundonald beauty technician Lauren Ralph joined national movement to nail down rising salon costs

For many, there is no greater luxury than sitting in a salon, getting a fresh set of nails, being pampered and having a good gossip. But behind the scenes, the lives of many nail technicians are far from lucrative.

The cost of living crisis has meant nail techs are seeing a rise in prices and a drop in customers.

Many have found themselves earning less than the minimum wage in an attempt to keep their business afloat.

To combat this the Nail Tech Org launched a National Nail Tech Price Increase Day which was held on April 8.

Some of Lauren Ralph's colourful work

The company urged nail techs across the UK to up their prices to give themselves a fair wage.

One award-winning nail tech in Northern Ireland who joined the campaign was Lauren Ralph, from Dundonald.

I am very proud of my work, Ive invested a lot of time into learning new skills and invested in hundreds of colours so my clients have as many options as possible, she said.

I know my nails last four or more weeks and that my clients are always very happy with their nails, so I decided to join the movement and finally charge what my nails are worth.

Lauren said the cost of living crisis has played a huge role in the recent difficulties within the beauty industry.

The costs of products, electricity and heating are up and we were charging the same amount per client therefore making less money, she explained.

Lauren said, despite rising costs, many nail techs dont feel comfortable raising their prices.

Nail techs are massively undercharging, but most are nervous about raising prices as this means losing clients, she said.

Gel nail prices have never really risen, I believe the Nail Tech Org did a study to show the cost of nails around 10 years ago compared to now and there is not a lot of difference.

Lauren thinks the idea of a collective price rise has made many nail techs feel more comfortable to increase their prices.

The Nail Tech Org created the Nail Tech Price Increase Day so that we could all stand together and raise our prices as a collective.

Doing it together means most nail techs will be (and should be) charging more. Its not as scary if we do it together, she said.

Nails by award-winning Lauren Ralph

Lauren said the Nail Tech Org helped her understand what she should be charging her customers.

The Nail Tech Org provided us with a calculator to help us work out costs and how much we really should be charging per set, this was based on all of our outgoings and how many clients we take in per week etc, she said.

Lauren quickly realised she hadnt been earning the minimum wage.

Doing through the calculator made me realise how many things I wasnt even thinking of when pricing my sets. After using the calculator I realised I was only making around just under 9 an hour which is below minimum wage for my age, she said.

Lauren believes many customers dont fully understand the hidden costs that can come with running a salon.

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Lauren said her outgoings arent as high as some nail techs but she admits they still cause a strain on her finances.

Im lucky to have a home salon so my outgoings are definitely less than a full working beauty salon, but there is still a massive list of costs people do not see.

The obvious costs are heat, electricity, tools & products. I dont think people realise how much our tools and products actually cost. On top of this you have training, insurance, accountant bills, cleaning products, PPE, uniforms, salon decor, sick and holiday pay, she said.

Lauren Ralph's work gets a bark of approval

Lauren has lost some clients since raising her prices but is standing by her decision.

I am very lucky to have had a very loyal client base for years now. I lost around five clients which is totally understandable, nail enhancements are a luxury and I understand that my new prices may not be in line with some peoples budgets.

Most of my clients are happy to see me finally charging my worth, which is the best outcome I could have hoped for, she said.

I love what I do and with this increase it allows me to continue to give my clients the best possible service I can, she said.

Laurens prices
Gavin Robinson says DUP will never allow history to be rewritten after inquest into horrific Kingsmill massacre

Interim DUP leader also says party has a plan for Northern Ireland

DUP interim leader Gavin Robinson.

Adrian Rutherford Sat 13 Apr 2024 at 15:00







Gavin Robinson has said he will never allow a rewriting of history as he criticised nationalists inconsistent messages on legacy.
Tanaiste Micheal Martin said the damage caused to young people by social media is the public health challenge of our time (PA)

Micheal Martin said the damage caused to young people by social media is the public health challenge of our time.

The Fianna Fail leader said there is a need for a serious public debate around the issue, saying that the Government needs to engage with social media companies.

He also said he didnt agree with the decision by social media giant Meta to lower the minimum age to use WhatsApp

The change, which reduces the age limit from 16 to 13, came into force in the EU and UK on Thursday.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin speaks to the media.

I dont agree with that. I think this is the serious stuff weve got to engage with and we will engage with the technology companies, Mr Martin said on Saturday as the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis got under way.

I think the elephant in the room today, and there is maybe a few elephants in the room, but one crucial one is the damage social media is doing to young people and to children.

We need a real serious public debate.

The research is there and emerging in terms of the damage thats been done to children and young kids.

I think that is the big elephant in the room.

I think that is the public health challenge of our time.

He said he believes that weve all backed off the issues cause by social media.

People are very concerned about AI. This is huge industry, he added.

I also feel that we were all brought along on the tide of it, that this is wonderful new technology, that is fantastic.

And theres huge positives in online and social media  huge positives.

But in terms of education, in terms of connectivity of young people, in terms of bullying, in terms of psychological impacts and the manipulation of algorithms, the apps that underage children are on.

There are huge issues. I think weve come late to that side of the story around the internet, social media and so forth.

Its interesting, (there is) a lot of that focus on AI, there was a greater preparation around that. But there wasnt the same sort of alarm bells ringing.

Mr Martin said he does not use TikTok on government phones but was aware the Taoiseach Simon Harris had been posting on the social media giant in his government office, despite warnings.

I dont use TikTok on government phones and we have far increased security around our government phones and government email systems, he told Newstalk.

In December, Mr Martin took legal action against Google over ads that were linked to him in the public interest.

He launched the court action against the tech giant over ads that were linked to him, with the High Court issuing a court order to force the multinational to hand over information about the adverts.

Mr Martin said the ads suggested he was endorsing cryptocurrency companies.

He said he believes that there was cooperation from the company because of his position in government.

But wheres the citizen? What opportunity has a citizen? he added.

Im not finished with that job, because a lot of material has come in and whats interesting is this could be part of the model.

A similar thing happened just two or three weeks before the referendum.

I was kind of plastered all over X (formerly Twitter), as endorsing (a fake ad).

Im encouraging people, apparently, to invest and that I found this ingenious way  this is all fixed.

Then X says it is taking it down but then it reappears again.

Now the problem for us is in politics is what happens in the middle of a general election if more refined methodology emerges?

We still have to go to court to get a court order.

So I think the technology companies have to get to grips with their model, and really understand that theyre part of a society.

Minister for Education Norma Foley said that social media could face fines amounting to millions of euro if they failed to comply with safety regulations.

She said that Coimisiun na Mean, the newly established regulator for broadcasters, on-demand services, and online media, will have considerable power and force.

She also appealed to parents of primary-school children not to buy smart phones for their youngsters.

Ms Foley added: I have met with a wide variety of the social media platforms and I am very, very keen in this space, that we would do all that we can, in particular to protect young people.

Im very keen, for example, around the area of age verification.

I have consistently asked that would be a priority for them.

I am very, very pleased that Coimisiun na Mean is up and running in terms of the regulation that they would have.

The considerable power and force that they would have in terms of regulation.

If various platforms are not complying as they should, in terms of health and safety aspect, particularly for young people, that there will be considerable fines there, whether it would be 20% of their overall profits.

Were actually talking millions of euro here and I think thats right and proper.

For our part in education, were doing all that we can to inform parents, to inform young people.

Its a growing area of incredible concern. I think its quite appalling to see that there are children as young as six and seven, who not only do they have a smartphone, but we are told that there are children being groomed online.

Theres exchange of very inappropriate images, extortion, and content also that no young people really should be exposed to and no family, no parents or guardians want them to be exposed to.

It is a minefield and I think people have to be very cognizant of the decisions that they make, particularly for our younger people and to safeguards need to be there.
Tanaiste Micheal Martin speaks to the media at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis, at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre (Brian Lawless/PA)

Irelands deputy premier has appealed to Iran to step back from an escalation, after it pledged to retaliate against Israel over the attack on its consulate in Damascus.

Micheal Martin said there have been very worrying developments between Iran and Israel in recent days.

Iran has vowed to retaliate after two of its top generals were killed in an air strike on its consulate in Syria earlier this month, which the US military believes was carried out by Israel.

Mr Martin used his keynote address to Fianna Fails conference to appeal for calm.

Speaking in Dublin on Saturday, Mr Martin said: This weekend there are very worrying developments in tensions between Iran and Israel.

We join with others in appealing to Iran to step back from an escalation which threatens millions more people in the region with conflict.

And events internationally remind us again of the urgency of working for lasting peace and reconciliation on this island.

Turning to events in Gaza, he said that tireless work has been carried out over the past six months to try to bring an end to the war.

Let there be no doubt, the brutal savagery of Hamas on October 7th should be condemned by anyone with basic decency. Nothing could ever justify their objectives and actions, Mr Martin added.

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They should release all hostages and stop their activities, which have brought great misery to the Palestinian people.

But as I have said repeatedly, including in direct discussions with the Israeli government, its war in Gaza is causing a shocking humanitarian catastrophe and cannot be justified.

The evidence shows that war crimes have been committed and the bombardment of the population must be utterly condemned.

He called for a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages and a mass humanitarian relief.

The only possible route to peace is for a stable, democratic state for the Palestinian people, Mr Martin added.

I will soon bring to Government a formal proposal, in coordination with other governments we have worked with throughout this conflict to recognise a Palestinian state.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern meets current Fianna Fail leader and Tanaiste Micheal Martin as he arrives at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis (Damien Storan/PA)

He also pledged to clamp down on social media companies, who fail to comply with safety regulations.

Mr Martin said that every school in Ireland will receive funding to support the banning of smartphones during school time.

Wherever I go in the country I meet parents who are worried about what is becoming the new public health crisis of our time  the impact on children of social media and being constantly online, he added.

And to the social media companies our message is clear. Take concrete steps to get underage children off your apps or we will impose those steps on you.

Online safety  getting children off their screens and back talking to each other  these are objectives we should all share.

He said there is also a need to tackle the rising cost of living, which he said is being experienced by every family.

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The Fianna Fail leader said that Irelands largest reserve funds will guarantee investments.

Called the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund, they will mean that the needs of our citizens are provided for, today and well into the future, he added.

He said the Infrastructure Fund will see that new school buildings, new hospitals facilities, roads and public transport will have secured funding.

Mr Martin also used the speech to address climate issues, saying the extreme weather changes are the direct impact of climate change.

No community is being hit harder by climate change than our farmers and the wider agri-food industry, he said.

They are not only our largest indigenous industry, they are also custodians of our nature and our food security.

Tanaiste Micheal Martin speaks to the media at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis, at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre (Brian Lawless/PA)

We need our farming community. We need sustainable food production.

Fianna Fail understands that reconciling both food security and action on climate change is a defining challenge of our time  and we have to support farmers in this.

We are putting in place urgent assistance, but more importantly we will deliver longer-term support.

New technologies, direct aid to farmers and real partnership for change  this is Fianna Fails commitment to secure the future for Irish farming and food production.

He also said that childcare fees will reduce by 50% from September, pledging to increase funding to create affordable childcare places nationwide.

And when it comes to changes in personal taxes the priority must be families on low and average incomes who are feeling the most pressure from rising prices, he added.

Thats what weve done this year, and this is our priority for future budgets.

Every cost adds up, and thats why we are also cutting charges for many public services.

Free schoolbooks have been introduced up to the Junior Certificate and will be expanded to all remaining years  permanently lifting a major cost from parents.

On housing, Mr Martin said the Government is reforming planning laws to stop delays of housing projects.

He added: In the last four years more houses have been built than in the previous nine years combined. There is more to be done, but that is real momentum.

Last year alone saw the delivery of 12,000 social homes. And we will go much further. Thousands more are already in the pipeline.

He said the Government will also increase and expand the 750 euro tax credit for renters.

At a time of real crisis for renters, an unacceptable number of homes have been diverted to short-term letting and lie idle through much of the year, he added.

This year we are going to take much stronger action to return homes to the rental market.

And well fund a major expansion in dedicated student housing.
Lisa Chambers said that asylum seekers and people granted refugee status in Ireland who commit a crime should be deported (Damien Storan/PA)

Asylum seekers and people granted refugee status in Ireland who commit a crime should be deported, a Fianna Fail senator has said.

Lisa Chambers said there is nothing stopping us from deporting a person who commits a crime in the state.

It comes following reports that an internal Fianna Fail document on immigration called for asylum seekers who commit a serious crime while awaiting a decision on their international protection application to be deported.

Senator Lisa Chambers and Billy Kelleher MEP during the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis at the Dublin Royal Convention Centre (Damien Storan/PA)

However, Ms Chambers, who is part of Fianna Fails ticket for the Midlands-North-West European Parliament elections, went further and said that it should also apply to those who have been granted asylum.

Speaking at the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis in Dublin, Ms Chambers said: My view is that theres nothing stopping us from deporting somebody that commits a crime in this state.

If a blockage arises, we need to address it. Anybody that comes into this country, whether theyre seeking asylum or have been granted refugee status, if you break the law, you need to be sent back.

Thats what the public are asking us for. If its an indictable offence, I think if its a serious offence, that needs to be looked at, thats what were hearing on the ground, people want this taken seriously.

If somebody comes in and commits a very serious crime that needs to be dealt with.

Ms Chambers said she doesnt believe the proposed policy could be challenged at EU-level, adding that other countries would be very much along the same lines.

It was also reported by the Irish Independent that there will be calls for legislation to be introduced to make it a criminal offence to destroy a passport when entering the country.

It comes after the European Parliament voted to approve the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum earlier this week.

The new rules include controversial measures  facial images and fingerprints could be taken from children from the age of six, and people may be detained during screening.

Fianna Fail MEP Barry Andrews said: I think the overall Pact requires us to update the International Protection Act and if it has any implications for criminal law, that will also have to be dealt with in legislation. So itll be a matter for the Dail, the Seanad and the European Parliament.

We know for example, that there was a report just last week as well about an applicant who appeared without documents and he was jailed for a period of time.

So this happens already. Its already provision in law and I think the overall message here is that we have to get the balance right between protecting the human rights of people who are fleeing a well-founded fear of persecution, while also restoring public trust in migration management, not just in Ireland, but across the European Union.

We have to take the issue away from the far right, they want it to remain an issue on the table to sow social division.

Senator Niall Blaney, who represents the Donegal area and is a candidate for the Midlands-North-West European Parliament elections, said there are parts of his constituency that are overcrowded with migration.

I think we also need to look at those areas that are really feeling the weight of migration, because there are some rural parts of my constituency that are really overcrowded with migration, he said.

There needs to be a greater effort at local level by those in charge to ensure that local people get access to services, particularly when it comes to health care.

There are areas where people on the ground are really feeling the impact on the health service.
Rishi Sunak is being called on to block Suella Braverman from attending the conference (PA)

Rishi Sunak is being called on to block former home secretary Suella Braverman from speaking at a right-wing conference alongside figures who have been investigated for extremism and allied with Vladimir Putin.

Shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth has written to the Prime Minister demanding he intervene over the Tory MP for Farehams planned attendance at the National Conservatism event in Brussels.

Among those set to join Ms Braverman at the convention are Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a key supporter of Mr Putin, and former German spy chief Hans-Georg Maassen, who recently revealed he had been placed under observation for suspected hard-right links.

Reform UK honorary president Nigel Farage is also expected to take to the stage at the event next week.

In a letter to the PM, Mr Ashworth invoked the memory of Tory wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill in urging him to take action to stop Ms Braverman giving oxygen to these divisive and dangerous individuals.

Britains former home secretary, someone you appointed, plans to stand side-by-side with the global far-right in Brussels, he said.

The prospect of a senior Tory politician demeaning the great office she held, and the country she represents, shows just how far the once-great party of Churchill has fallen on your watch.

Nigel Farage is also expected to speak at the event (Victoria Jones/PA)

Ms Braverman has long been a thorn in the Prime Ministers side, with critics accusing her of having run a leadership campaign while in Cabinet and pointing to speeches at events such as the National Conservatism conference last May.

She was finally sacked as home secretary last November after writing an unauthorised article criticising the polices handling of pro-Palestinian protests.

Under Boris Johnsons government in 2020, Conservative backbencher Daniel Kawczynski was reprimanded for attending a National Conservatism conference in Rome, with a Tory spokesman condemning the views of some other speakers.

Number 10, the Conservative Party and Ms Braverman have been contacted for comment.
A nine-month-old baby has undergone surgery after being attacked during a stabbing spree by a knifeman in a Sydney shopping centre.

It has been reported that the babys mother died in hospital after the attack by a lone knifeman.

Australian website News.com.au reported that the baby was stabbed in the stomach and the mother had subsequently died in hospital.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb told a press conference: The last update I had was that it (the baby) had been in surgery and its too early to say really. But its awful.

Asked about reports that the babys mother had died in hospital, Ms Webb said: Ive heard that same rumour but I cant confirm that.

A witness to the stabbings said he helped the baby and mother after they were attacked.

The man told 9News Sydney: The baby got stabbed. The mum got stabbed and came over with a baby and threw it at me  I was holding the baby, it looked pretty bad.

There was a lot of blood on the floor. I hope the baby is all right.

The mans brother said: He helped with holding the baby and trying to compress the baby and same with the mother.

We just kept yelling out to get some clothes, get some shirts and just help us to compress and stop the baby from bleeding.

With my brother holding the baby so well and really compressing, I think the babys fine.

(PA Graphics)

The mother, unfortunately, started to have a lot of blood come out of her mouth.

The man added: We were just shopping and saw the man run up to the woman with the baby and then we were both ready to go and help out.

But I just said to my brother, weve got to run in  ran in, told the guys to lock up the doors and then the mother came with the baby bleeding, stabbed. We got them into the store and just got them safe and then rang for help.
Iran has launched a number drones towards Israel, officials in Jerusalem have announced, as Tehrans state-run media reported that dozens had been fired.

The Israeli armys spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said it would take several hours for the more than 100 aircraft to arrive and that the country was prepared.

Iran had been threatening to attack Israel since an airstrike last week killed two Iranian generals in Syria. Israel has not commented on that attack, but Iran accused it of being behind it.

Israeli aviation authorities said they were closing the countrys airspace to all flights as of 12.30am local time.

The drone attack marked the first time Iran had ever launched a full-scale military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the countrys 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In a statement carried by Irans state-run IRNA news agency, the countrys paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged launching dozens of drones and missiles towards the occupied territories and positions of the Zionist regime. The statement did not elaborate.

The White House said it would provide unspecified support for Israels defence against the ongoing attack.

The United States will stand with the people of Israel and support their defence against these threats from Iran, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

President Joe Biden was set to convene a principals meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the unfolding attack, the White House said.

Mr Biden had cut short a weekend trip to his beach house in Delaware to return to the White House and monitor the situation.

Earlier on Saturday, the Israeli military said it was cancelling school and limiting public gatherings to no more than 1,000 people as a precaution.

Mr Hagari said Israel is prepared and ready with defensive and offensive actions. He also said there was tight co-operation with the US and other partners in the region.

The head of the US Central Command, General Erik Kurilla, has been in Israel in recent days to co-ordinate with Israel about the Iranian threats.

Israel has a number of layers of air defence capable of intercepting everything from long-range missiles to UAVs and short-range rockets.

Mr Hagari said Israel has an excellent air defence system, but stressed it is not 100% effective and urged the public to listen to safety announcements.

For days, Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have threatened to slap Israel for its Syria strike.

Workers clear the rubble at a destroyed building struck by Israeli jets in Damascus (SANA via AP)

Iran has largely avoided directly attacking Israel, despite its targeted killings of nuclear scientists and sabotage campaigns on Irans atomic sites. Iran has targeted Israeli or Jewish-linked sites through proxy forces.

Israels war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip has inflamed decade-old tensions in the Middle East, and any new attack threatens to escalate that conflict into a wider regional war.

Flight-tracking data showed the airspace over Jordan empty, while few flights continued on their north-south routes over Iraq. A sole Middle East Airlines flight from Dubai to Beirut remained airborne over Syria.

Lebanons state-run National News Agency reported heavy Israeli airstrikes and shelling on multiple locations in south Lebanon following the launch of drones from Iran.

The Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has been clashing with Israeli forces in the border area for more than six months.

A helicopter raid targeting a vessel near the Strait of Hormuz (AP Photo)

Earlier on Saturday, commandos from Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard rappelled from a helicopter onto an Israeli-affiliated container ship near the Strait of Hormuz and seized the vessel.

Irans state-run IRNA said a special forces unit of the Guards navy carried out the attack on the Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries, a container ship associated with London-based Zodiac Maritime.

Zodiac Maritime is part of Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofers Zodiac Group. Zodiac declined to comment and referred questions to MSC. Geneva-based MSC acknowledged the seizure and said 25 crew members were on the ship.

We are working closely with the relevant authorities to ensure their wellbeing, and safe return of the vessel, MSC said.
Council set to escape blame for costly floods in Co Down

Department for Infrastructure official tells Assembly committee damage caused by combination of high-flowing river and tide

Flooding in Newry city centre last year (Picture by Jonathan Porter/Press Eye)

Noel McAdam Sat 13 Apr 2024 at 15:35







A council looks set to be cleared of contributing to the massive floods in Newry and Downpatrick last winter.
As the world is roiled by war in Ukraine and Gaza, Britain's Royal Navy announced Friday the development of a powerful new laser weapon right out of "Star Wars" that will shoot down missiles, drones and other enemy aircraft from ships.

The futuristic DragonFire laser will be installed on British warships by 2027, said a statement from the Navy. The date originally planned had been 2032.

The announcment comes as the need for such weapons grows "to counter drone and missile threats like those by the Houthi rebels," who have been firing on commercial ships in the Red Sea in response to Israel's war on Gaza.

A burst of a high-intensity beam from DragonFire costs no more than 10 pounds, the equivalent of $12.50, "yet can engage targets  drones, missiles, aircraft  at the speed of light by concentrating it on a target," the Navy noted.

A powerful laser weapon will be added to the #RoyalNavys arsenal...



The cutting-edge DragonFire laser will be installed on a warship by 2027, adding to an already potent array of air defence weapons countering growing drone and missile threats.



 https://t.co/I29Q1mjX4G pic.twitter.com/101DcgTsYw  Royal Navy (@RoyalNavy) April 12, 2024

Captain Matt Ryder, who's in charge of new weapons as head of Above Water Battlespace in the Royal Navy's Develop Directorate, called the laser system "cutting edge" and highly "relevant," adding that there's a need to "accelerate it into service on board our ships at the earliest opportunity."
Ex-professional boxer to stand trial over armed robbery plot

Case against Dubai property developer Conal Hall adjourned until the autumn

Conal Hall

Sunday Life Reporter Sat 13 Apr 2024 at 19:03

A former boxer accused of involvement in an armed robbery plot is to stand trial.
Hundreds attend Enniskillen rally as union urges BT to negotiate over 300 jobs at risk

Crowds gather in solidarity with workers at Enniskillen call centre

A rally yesterday opposing the closure of the Enniskillen EE/BT site

John Toner Sat 13 Apr 2024 at 18:28







Demonstrators have taken to the streets in solidarity with 300 workers whose jobs are at risk at a BT/EE call centre in Enniskillen.
Is NI Tayto really better than the Republic version? Our foodies have their say...
At least 16 people were injured when a driver intentionally crashed a stolen 18-wheeler into a Texas Department of Public Safety office in Brenham, Texas, Friday.

At least three victims were transported to the hospital in critical condition, the DPS said, KRIV-TV reported.

No workers were seriously injured, however one staffer was "trapped for a period of time inside the office," Senator Lois Kolkhorst wrote on X.

"This deliberate, heinous act is a reminder of the dangerous work done by our law enforcement and licensing agencies that work to provide public safety and services. Please join me in praying for the innocent victims and their families at this time," she added.

The unidentified suspect refused treatment, police said. It's unclear what charges he may face.

Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough called the crash in east central Texas a "mass casualty incident" that "was intentional and done by the suspect who was denied a CDL yesterday. He returned today with intent to harm," according to a Facebook post.

Brenham Texas DPS Office crash: 18-wheeler chase ends with injuries https://t.co/ph9DISwLlc pic.twitter.com/3zvFrNJTMW  Chris Walker (@WalkerATX) April 12, 2024

The Texas Rangers are investigating.
This Story in History is selected from the archives by Jeannie Maschino, The Berkshire Eagle.
Benjamin Franklin said there are two things we can be certain of: death and taxes. As the deadline for filing taxes is fast approaching, Americans are filing their returns and hoping they dont have to pay any more tax than theyve already paid. Many more will hope for any kind of refund based on their deductions.

The majority of Americans pay income taxes, both federal and state, although nine states do not levy a state income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. But living in a state without an income tax doesnt necessarily make it more beneficial, and those residents likely pay more in property or sales taxes.

In Americas progressive federal income tax system, the more income you make the higher your tax rate. But if that is the case, how is it that a teacher, nurse, police officer or firefighter can pay a larger percentage of their income in taxes than a wealthy billionaire? How does our system shield the rich from their fair share? Everyday Americans complain about giving handouts to the poor and universal health care as socialist ideals. But how ironic is it that hard-working Americans subsidize the super wealthy?

In the United States, there is a distinction between how we tax working income and how we tax investments. Investment income like long-term capital gains and dividends are taxed at lower rates, and that is one of the reasons why billionaires often pay a smaller percentage of their total income in taxes than those with considerably less money. The wealthy often utilize loopholes, too, such as stashing their profits in tax havens.

Amazon billionaire MacKenzie Scott gives $2 million to Great Barrington arts nonprofit CATA Scott received a 4 percent stake in Amazon.com when she and Jeff Bezos divorced. She's already given away more than $14 billion of her $36 billion fortune.

The wealthy also can ower their tax bill via deductions  for example, by making charitable contributions. The news that Amazon Billionaire Mackenzie Scott is giving away billions of dollars to charity is an example of philanthropy that every billionaire should aspire to, and not just because of the tax benefit. Since 2019, a year after her divorce from Jeff Bezos, Scott has given away more than $16.5 billion. Through her Yield Giving initiative, Scott recently gave $2 million to Community Access to the Arts, a nonprofit based in Great Barrington that serves those with disabilities through its art programs and workshops. Scott is giving $640 million to 361 nonprofits that responded to an open call for applications.

While giving money to charities is a choice many Americans embrace, including billionaires who enjoy big tax breaks, perhaps some of these charitable causes wouldnt need as much help if targeted with adequate public funding (through taxation) to begin with.

Wouldnt it be great if our tax dollars went toward causes like finding cures for all the various types of cancer, funding the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Special Olympics? Tax dollars pay for our public schools and infrastructure as well as police, fire, ambulance and other vital services. But these publicly funded organizations often struggle when funding is limited and lacking, which impacts us all.

The constitutional rights of corporations have been expanding since the beginning of our nations government. The expanding interpretation of corporate personhood has given power to corporations beyond what our forefathers could have imagined. Corporations hire workers, many of whom were educated in public schools funded by taxpayer dollars. Their trucks drive on roads and highways that are maintained by taxpayer dollars. They sell their goods for whatever price the market bears to everyday Americans. If the government is going to shield corporations, these individuals should be required to do far more to invest in their employees and give concessions to the consumers and communities upon which they rely for their profits.

According to Oxfam America, the United States government lost out on around $135 billion in revenue because of corporate tax avoidance in 2017 alone. Meanwhile, corporate philanthropy has amounted to less than $20 billion a year.

Imagine how the world could be a better place if corporations paid their fair share in taxes. We could fight climate change, lift children out of poverty, give fair wages to workers who struggle to make ends meet, improve our crumbling infrastructure and make the world a better place for everyone.

In January 2022, Pope Francis said that everyone should pay their fair share of taxes, particularly the wealthy, so that the weakest members of society are not crushed by the most powerful.

In reality, taxation is a sign of legality and justice, he said.

Economic inequality is a centuries-long problem in our world. But as Americans we have to ask the question: Is having the majority of wealth concentrated in the hands of a few truly a democracy?
Stewart Edelstein, a Stockbridge resident, is author of several books, including Dubious Doublets: A Delightful Compendium of Unlikely Word Pairs of Common Origin, from Aardvark/Porcelain to Zodiac/Whiskey, The Covid-19 Zeitgeist: Fifty Essays, and An Alphabetical Romp Through the Flora of Berkshire Botanical Garden from Agave to Zinnia.
The steady stream of rain and snowstorms has state and county environmental advocacy groups keeping a wary eye on potential flooding threats.

More stormwater infiltration, or the process of stormwater seeping into the ground rather than becoming runoff, is a major step in the right direction for Jane Winn, executive director of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team. Winn said her team is part of the Berkshire Clean, Cold, and Connected Partnership and takes steps to prevent flooding.

Were very focused on trying to get people, but generally municipalities, to really work on infiltrating stormwater, she said, noting that stormwater runoff is one of the biggest risks with flooding.

The flooding and water getting into our waterways without going into the ground tends to be more polluted, she said.

Infiltration, done through redesigning structures like parking lots to allow water to seep into the ground rather than become runoff, is a key step to preventing high-risk flooding.

Dira Johanif, Charles River Watershed Association senior climate resilience associate, said cities or towns with high amounts of impervious surfaces, or surfaces where water cannot seep into the ground, are more prone to major flooding and flash flooding risks.

If you have a city thats 75 to 100 percent impervious, which a lot of our urban cities are, youre actually having more than 50 percent of that water coming from the sky resulting as stormwater runoff pollution. Or if its like a flash flood storm event, youre also getting flash floods because water now has nowhere to go and nowhere to be absorbed, she said.

According to Risk Factor, an online tool from First Street that allows users to calculate different environmental risks, 20 percent of all properties in Berkshire County have a major risk of flooding in the next 30 years.

One of the biggest requests from Massachusetts environmentalists is for the state to upgrade its regulations.

Ali Hiple, Conservation Law Foundation senior policy analyst, said state regulations are fundamentally flawed since they are based on FEMA flood maps that use historical information rather than accurately predict which areas are prone to flooding in the future.

Theyre not based on our changing climate and how rapidly precipitation patterns and stuff are changing, Hiple said.

As important as state regulations are, local municipalities also have a lot of control over improving how stormwater is dealt with on the ground, said Martin Pillsbury, environmental director at Metropolitan Area Planning Council.

The challenge at the local level is you cant pass one state law and wave the magic wand, Pillsbury said. If we can do something that creates a better floor at the state level ... that would maybe give more tools at the local level.

Winn said the state regulates new parking lots, requiring them to infiltrate stormwater, but she said all the parking lots should be held liable to the new regulations since a lot of the risks lie in the older lots.

She also wants more help from the state government on guidance for towns upgrading washed out bridges and culvert pipes, structures often found under bridges for water to flow into waterways, or replacing the pipes with infiltration.

She said new grant applications recently opened up to fund municipalities replacing washed out bridges and undersized culverts and the state could do more to help towns meet stream crossing standards.

Really, the state needs to step up and make this an easier process for towns. And as the federal funding is coming, more money is coming to towns because even putting in a new stream crossing is outrageously expensive, Winn said. This administration is doing a better job of it coming out to the Berkshires and saying theyll do good things for the rural areas. Well wait and see if that really pans out.

Winn said she wanted Bel Air Dam, a flood hazard in Pittsfield, to be checked out and removed since an engineer had said there were toxic chemicals coming in from the storm water.

Winn said she looked to either the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection or the Department of Conservation and Recreation to test the Bel Air Dam water further.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation is the one thats in charge of the dam removal, Winn said. One of the two of them needs to do that testing and it isnt that hard to do.

A spokeswoman at the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation said they do not conduct water testing at Bel Air.

With flooding risks, local groups like Berkshire Environmental Action team are focusing on preventative measures, from advocating for the Bel Air Dams testing and removal to building more environmentally sound infrastructures across the community.

[The states] regulations are getting better, they just need to be even stronger and force areas that have large impervious areas to take action, even if theyre not rebuilding there, Winn said.

Pillsbury said the flooding risks have been under-the-radar but will only continue to impact more and more people.

As the climate warms and these precipitation trends probably will not only continue but become more severe, this will only increasingly become a widespread problem, he said.